Millennium Time Capsule/AC2000.BIN/disks/swiftcix.dsk/swiftcix.txt

Text File | 1997-06-01 | 30.2 KB | 965 lines

WELCOME

Welcome to my first effort at having a go at producing something that
I hope will be useful to the Members of the Atari Wrinklies Club. I am
attempting to assist those members who would like to go 'on-line', but
are being put off at the complexity of the programs involved.

I am no expert in the field of communications, in fact I still
consider myself a novice to computing. What I have written in this
guide is the knowledge that I have picked up over the past year. I
know I am still learning and have quite a long way to go, but if
everybody would be completely honest, even the 'experts' learn
something every day. This booklet can therefore be considered as
written by a novice for novices. To those who are reasonably
experienced and consider this booklet too basic - "Remember when you
were trying to set-up?"

I must pass on my thanks to Peter Wood, for his help, and putting
up with my ear-bending over the past few months.

Jimbo - April 1997


CONTENTS


Welcome

Introduction

What you are going to need

Hard Drive

Floppy Disk System

Modem

BBS (CiX)

Costs

Preparing your drive

Configuring the programs

Setting up your CiX Account

Blinking

Conferences

Email

Specimen History Recording

Using CixComm and CixRead with floppy disks

What CiX provides


INTRODUCTION

This book is intended as an aid for Atarians to getting on-line.

Communications is a very complex subject, and it can be very
frustrating when one does not understand all the parts of the
programs that one is using.

My aim is to provide a Novice's Guide to getting on-line, explaining
what you are going to need, and how to use the various programs. For
those who have not yet managed to acquire a Hard Drive, advice is
given on how to set up with floppy disks.

I am using CiX as a Bulletin Board Service, and CixComm/CixRead
as a comms program/off line reader.

If you follow the instructions in this guide you will

1. Be able to send and receive email.

2. Join Conferences, read what other Cixen are saying, and make
 your own comments.

Once you have opened your account with CiX, and registered the
programs CixComm and CixRead, you will have all the manuals necessary
to take full advantage of all the facilities available. Of course it
is possible to use both programs without registering them, but to be
fair after the usual "Try before you buy" periods it is advisable to
register - this not only allows you full use of the programs, but also
encourages the authors to upgrade the programs. A lot of work has gone
into both programs.



WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO NEED

Let us consider what you are going to need to get set up and use the
system economically. Communications (comms) can be very expensive, but
if set up correctly and used sensibly then the running costs can be
cut to a minimum.

HARD DRIVE

You can run comms from floppy disks, see Appendix 2, but it is rather
restrictive. A Hard drive can make life a lot easier.

MODEM

Before buying a modem, consider a few facts. You should buy the
fastest modem that can afford. A 14,000 bps should do you quite well,
although if you can afford a faster one then by all means do so
(Without the modem port modification that is available your STe/FM
will not use a faster modem to its full potential). Remember the
faster the modem the less time you will be on-line and the lower the
costs.

Buy your modem from A REPUTABLE DEALER, at least he will know what you
need - remember all modems are not made the same. Do not buy your
modem from the local Boot Sale, unless you are so technically minded
that you will know exactly what you are buying. Would you go and buy a
car from a stranger in the Pub without a good look over it and a test
drive?

A CONNECTION TO A COMMERCIAL BULLETIN BOARD SERVICE (BBS)

There are quite a few Commercial BBS's, but for this exercise I am
using CiX (pronounced 'kicks'). CiX stands for "Compulink Information
eXchange, and is a large commercial BBS situated in London.

Yes - it is going to cost you to use the system, but it is well worth
the money. This is what you will be paying.

A one-time Registration Fee of £25 (NB: See magazine for free password
offer)

On-line charges of

4 pence per minute (or part thereof) cheap rate
6 pence per minute (or part thereof) peak rate

Peak rate runs from 08.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday.

Cheap rate at all other times.

There is a monthly minimum of £6.25 (including VAT this will be
£7.34) but for this you will be able to be on-line for over 3
hours which will be quite sufficient for your initial purposes.


A COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM AND AN OFFLINE READER

Two excellent programmers have produced a package that contains both
of these, designed and tailored for use with CiX (see Acknowledgements
page).

CixComm is the comms program that allows you to connect to CiX, it
logs you on with with a password and your nickname, picks up any
Electronic Mail (email) that has been sent to you, and also any
Conference Messages that will interest you, (more about these two
later), it then logs off and causes your modem to go off-
line. The package will then pass on everything over to the
other program - CixRead, where it will be sorted out for you to
read at your leisure. All this can be done automatically and
should cost you 4p (less than one minute on-line).

To use these programs to their full advantage you will need to
register with the authors. The cost of Registration is normally £20
for each program. (See special reduced cost registration offer in
main magazine)


BRITISH TELECOM CHARGES

You will obviously have to pay your own BT charges, but as you should
be using the service at cheap rate time this should not add up to
much.


SUMMARY OF COSTS

Normal Initial Outlay

Modem - around               £ 45
CiX Registration Fee         £ 25
CixComm Registration Fee     £ 20
CixRead Registration Fee     £ 20

Total Normal Initial Outlay  £110


Atari Computer Offer Initial Outlay

Modem - around               £ 45
CiX Registration Fee         £ 00
CixComm/CixRead Reg Fee      £ 30

Total Normal Initial Outlay  £ 75


Running Costs Monthly

CiX - Over 3 hours connection - £7.34
BT - over 180 blinks - £7.20

Monthly Costs £14.54

NB: All figures are approx and include VAT.


LETS GET STARTED

Preparing your Drive

Decide which Drive you are going to run your comms from, pick a Drive
with plenty of spare space. If you are running from a floppies setup
your disks will be shown in Appendix 2, Figure 1A and will be already
set up.

Copy the file "atariolr.tos" to the partition that you want to use,
and put the disk away somewhere safe. Double click on "atariolr.tos",
it is a self extracting file, so you only need to click on it and it
will do the rest. Everything that you need to get on-line to CiX is
now on your chosen partition, in a folder named 'atariolr'. Floppy
users will not have the 'atariolr' folder. Delete the "atariolr.tos"
file.

Configuring the Programs

Open up the 'atariolr' folder and click on 'CixComm Program'. You will
be asked by the program to supply your 'cixname' (Figure 1). Type in
"new", click on OK and you will then be asked to supply a 'password'.
This should be between 4 and 8 characters long. Make sure that you
make a note of this password as it will be encrypted in your
configuration file so that no-one, not even you, can read it again.
Both cixname and password should be in lower case. Click on OK.

 *** (Figure 1) ***

You will then be asked if you want to save the information that
you have just entered, "With or Without Password",

It is better to save "With Password" otherwise you will always
have to enter it manually. (Figure 2)

 *** (Figure 2) ***

You will now be asked to save the configurations to the
"default.ccd" file. (Figure 3)

 *** (Figure 3) ***

For floppy drives your "default.ccd" file will be on Drive B.
(see Appendix 2, Figure 2A).

Click on OK

CixComms Main Screen will now appear with a superimposed box
asking you what you want to do next. (Figure 4)

 *** (Figure 4) ***

Click on "Terminal" and the superimposed box will disappear
leaving you with with the CixComm Main Screen. (Figure 5)

 *** (Figure 5) ***

Take a few moments to look through the Drop Down Menus. By
familiarising yourself with the options you will understand the
program better.

The Main Screen is divided into three parts

1. The TERMINAL WINDOW - where all the details of the session are
 displayed.

2. The STATUS WINDOW - tells you what the program is doing.

3. The MESSAGE WINDOW - the use of this window will soon become
 obvious.

We will only be using some of the options from the Drop Down
Menus at this stage, but do not worry, once you are set up and
connected to CiX the use of the other options will become clear.

Go to the "Setup" Drop Down Menu and select

Select online tasks (Figure 6)

 *** (Figure 6) ***

You should now be presented with the following screen (Figure 7). All
these options tell CixComm what tasks you want it to do when you are
on-line. Follow the settings given, any selections will be shown in
reverse video (in black). On colour systems choose RED to select. For
floppy disk system see Appendix 2, Figure 3A.

 *** (Figure 7) ***

Click on OK to return to the Main Screen.

From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Cix settings/phone numbers - (Figure 8)

 *** (Figure 8) ***

Make sure that your settings agree with the above taking into
account the following notes.

1. Telephone Numbers - Delete the telephone numbers that are
   given in the program on this screen and insert

   0181 255 5252

   if you are phoning from within the London 0181 area you
   will not need the 0181.

2. Note that the login mode should read qix rather than cix. This will
   stop the CiX Banner appearing everytime.


Click on OK.


From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Locate programs (Figure 9)


 *** (Figure 9) ***


Please note that the drive specification should indicate the drive
that you are using to hold your CixComm and CixRead files.
The program recognises the drive it is on, but there is no harm
in checking.

ie. If you are using Drive 'D' on your hard drive then all paths
should commence with D:\ATARIOLR\

If you are using floppy disks you should refer to Appendix 2
Figure 4A.

Click on OK.

From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Set directory paths (Figure 10)


 *** (Figure 10) ***

Again the drive specification should indicate the drive that you
are using to hold your CixComm and CixRead files.

ie. If you are using drive 'D' on your hard drive then all paths
should commence with D:\ATARIOLR\

If you are using floppy disks you should refer to Appendix 2
Figure 5A

Click on OK.

From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Configure modem (Figure 11)


 *** (Figure 11) ***

Enter "ATZ" on the 'Initialise modem command line.

BAUD RATE

This sets the speed of the connection between your computer and
the CiX computer, if your modem is a data-compressing modem (ie.
it supports MNP5 or V42bis) then you should set a greater speed
between your modem and computer than the fastest speed your modem
supports. For example if your modem supports 14400bps, then you
should set a modem to computer speed of 19200bps.

Click on OK.

From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Window Options (Figure 12)

 *** (Figure 12) ***

Settings may be changed to suit your particular set up.

For hi-res monitors colours should be

Ink:1 Paper:0

This gives black text on a white background.

For colour monitors you can alter the settings to suit yourself.

Font size should be set to your preference. The sample window
shows how the font will look on screen.

Click on OK

From the "Setup" Drop Down Menu select

Save preferences (Figure 13)

 *** (Figure 13) ***


IMPORTANT

When you have completed the configuration you must select "Save
preferences" from the "Setup" Drop Down Menu (Figure 2) and then
save the configuration as "DEFAULT.CCD" as shown in Figure 13
above. If you are using a floppy disk set up then your
"DEFAULT.CCD" file will be on Drive B. (See Appendix 2 Figure
6A).

Once you have saved your DEFAULT.CCD file you will be presented
with the CixComm Main Screen as for Figure 5.


*** HS Modem ***
NB."Serial Fix" - This was provided because a problem existed
with some of the older TOS computers, this is now not needed for
the majority these days.

REGISTERING WITH CiX

Now you have configured your programs and re-saved your
DEFAULT.CCD configuration file you are ready for lift off.

In this session you are going to contact CiX on-line, and register
with them. The easiest way to do it is with a Credit Card, it is
possible to arrange payment by cheque, but this has to be arranged
separately - ring them (voice) on 0181 255 5000 to discuss it.

If you are going ahead by Credit Card then have the following details
ready to enter as they ask for it.

Your real name
Your address
Your phone number
Your Credit Card Number and Expiry Date

Now open your CixComm Program and you will be entered into the
CixComm main screen (Figure 4).

Click on "Terminal" this will clear the superimposed box.

Go to the 'File' drop down menu and click on 'Logon to Cix' (or press
F1). Cixcomm will now log on to cix for you automatically.

Follow the instructions on the screen to set up your details.
You will be offered a cixname based on your own real name.

Be careful passwords and cixnames are case sensitive, so JHORNBY
is not the same as jhornby, you will find it easier if you always
use lower case letters.

Once you have completed all the formalities just enter 'bye' to log
off. This whole procedure should take around 5 minutes and is likely
to be one of the longest calls you ever have to make to CiX.

Your entire online session will have been saved as a textfile
called HISTORY.CiX in your CixComm directory. You may read this
from the desktop and it is a good idea to do so as this will help
familiarise yourself with the workings of the programs. I have
included a sample History.CiX file at Appendix 1.

I suggest now you go and have a drink of tea/beer/scotch or whatever.
Then you can logon to CiX and start to enjoy yourself.


PROVING TIME
Now you are all setup and raring to go. Later on once you are
accustomed to the programs you will be able to customise CixRead to
your own preferences, but first let us have a go at our first "Blink".

What is Blinking?
Blinking is an automated session whereby CixComm and CixRead work
together to dial the telephone number of CiX, logs on under your
Cixname, enters your password, looks into all the conferences that you
have been joined to, files all the messages that are available, and
then downloads them to a file named "SCRATCHP" in your directory and
then logs off.

Depending on how many messages there are you will find that you have
only actually been online for seconds. Have a look at the example
History File that is at Appendix 1, you will see that on that blink I
had 55 conference messages and one email letter - and the whole
session took only 46 seconds.

It doesn't end there!!!

CixComm automatically detects that there is a 'scratchp file',
runs a program called the 'Splitter.Prg that sets up folders for
the different conferences and then starts up CixRead Program to
enable you to read everything off-line.

Blinking good (and quick) ain't it!!!

So let us go ahead and do it.

From your CixComm directory click on CixComm Prg and you will be
presented with the CixComm Main Screen, with a box superimposed on
it. ( Figure 14)


 *** (Figure 14) ***



Making sure that your modem is switched on, select "Logon To CiX",
either by mouse or "Return". A New User Warning will appear - select
the "1 per topic" option for now, you will be able to reset this
later once you have nominated the conferences that you wish to join.

You should now hear your modem dialing the number, the ringing tone,
and then a hissing noise, and eventually your screen will show

"Connect 14400/V42BIS"

This shows that the connection has been made.

Now sit back and let the program do its work, you do not have to do a
thing.

Once CixComm has done its job it will automatically pass everything
on to CixRead for you to read at your leisure.

Once you are in the CixRead Program you can switch your modem off.


In the CixRead screen your cursor will be blinking next to a
"Main" or "M" prompt.

Just press return and you will get the message

"Checking for Conference activity" and a line of dots

 ...................................

Once the program has found the first message it will display it on the
screen. Read it and press return again for the next message... and
so on until you get the message:

 "No unread messages"

You should not at this stage have any email messages.

Type in "Bye" (NO quotes), and you will be returned to the CixComm
main screen.

Go to "Quit" in the File Drop Down Menu and you will be returned
to the desktop.

You now have completed your first "blink" and proved that you can
receive "Conference messages".


ELECTRONIC MAIL - (email)

Email is fast, amazingly fast. It isn't at all unusual for a message
to land in someone's mailbox just seconds after you have sent it, and
that goes for international mail too - an email sent from London can
arrive in New York, Tokyo or Sidney (maybe even all three) in well
under a minute. Try doing that with your standard envelope and stamp
combo.

Once you have set up your account with CiX you will be given an
email address, you may even have chosen your own, everybody who
is on-line has an email address.

Email addresses are easy to understand when you know what all the
parts mean. Let us take my email address and split it down into parts.

[e-mail]

Jhornby - my user name
@ - at
cix.compulink - domain name
co - means that the domain belongs to a company*
uk - means that the domain is in the UK

* alternatives are

ac - academic institutes
gov - governmental domain
org - organisations such as charities
 Greenpeace [e-mail] for example

There may be slight differences from country to country, ie.
companies in the USA use "com" instead of "co.us".

If you are sending an email to anybody who is on CiX then there is no
need to put the full address, just the username will suffice.

When you are sending an email, make sure that you enter the address
correctly. If you get it wrong, the mail will "bounce back" with a
message from the 'Postmaster' telling you that the address wasn't
recognised.


YOUR FIRST EMAIL
Shall we now have a go at sending an email message?

Click on CixComm Program again and bring up the CixComm main
screen (you know what this looks like now don't you?)

This time we will go straight into CixRead when asked what we
would like to do first.

At the Main or M prompt type in "mail" (NO quotes) and press return

You should then have a Mail or ml prompt.

Type "to jhornby" and press return.

You will be asked for a subject type in "First Test" (NO quotes)

You will now be passed into the editor. This editor is just like any
other simple editor, and is quite sufficient for entering messages.

Now type in the following, just as if you were typing a normal letter.

Hi Jimbo,

Just testing to see if everything is working okay.

Please reply.

(your name)

Now press the 'Escape' key and you will be returned to the
CixRead screen, with a selection of options as follows.

to <username>: To send mail to <username>. You can also specify a
number of usernames and have the message sent to them all at the same
time.

subject: - this allows you to change the subject if you so wish.

cc <username>: Tells CiX that you would like that user to receive a
carbon copy of the message. Like "to" you can give it a list of
usernames. You can also cc a message to yourself, possibly to remind
you what you have written or just for the record.
0
edit: Call up the editor to let you change the text that you have
written. When you leave the editor you will return to the send/action
prompt.

continue: Continue typing the message with the word wrapping message
entry system. The text that you enter will be appended to the end of
your message so far.

clear: Throw away what you have written and return to the Mail:
prompt.

quit: Return to the Mail: prompt without losing the message
(which will be held in your scratchpad.)

send: Send the message to the recipients that you have told CiX to
send it to. (This is the default if you just press return)

Type in "s" for send.

Now try it again. Try sending a message to Atari Computing's email
address - [e-mail] - and say hello.

Now type in "bye" and you will be taken back to the CixComm main
screen.

You will now notice that in the "messages" box there is a message
telling you that there are replies to be sent on your next blink.

The letter that you have typed is held within the program until
you 'blink' again, and it will then be sent off automatically.

Now try your second blink on your own.

Watch the screen and you will see that the message has been sent.
Eventually CixComm will pass you back to CixRead, and you can
read any messages that have arrived since you last blinked.

Type 'bye' and quit the program.

I will reply to your letter as soon as I have picked it up. I usually
blink twice a day, early am and sometime during the evening.

Once you have received my reply you will have proved that you can send
and receive email.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



 APPENDIX 1
 **********

CixComm history recording at 02:27:22 on 22/02/97

ATZ

OK
ATDT 255 5252
CONNECT 14400/V42BIS


Annex Command Line Interpreter * Copyright 1991 Xylogics, Inc.

Type 'cix' at the 'login' prompt to get started.

Port 6, TS1.

login: qix
UNIX System V Release 3.2.0 i386
gonzales
Copyright (c) 1984 AT&T
All Rights Reserved
CiX Version 2.27 30/11/95
Copyright (c) CoSy Conferencing System, University of Guelph, 1984
Portions copyright (c) Compulink Information eXchange Ltd, 1985-1995
You are on line: AG/AFGD Nickname? (Enter 'new' for new user) jhornby
Password: Checking your conferences
You have 17 mail message(s) in your in-basket.
There are 1 unread mail message(s).
You are a member of 9 conference(s).
Conf/Topic New Messages
awc/general 1
atari.user.gps/general 3
ukaaug.org/general 2
ataricomputing/general 22
lotto/stats 2
atari.st/4questions 25

TOTAL NEW 55
Main:OPT TERS,COM N,UP Z,DO Z,SCRATCHN SCRATCHP,TERM WID 200,TERM PA 0,Q
M:STORE
Message pointers stored
M:FILE READ ALL
................

Scratchpad is 52469 bytes.
M:MAIL
egray 689214 . Fri Feb 21 21:28 1997. hi Ml:OUT
To Memo * Date
chrisblowers@ms 558520 X Tue Feb 18 21:01 1997.Cordless Phone rlynn 530890 R Tue Feb 18 07:58 1997.Re: The Test
egray 478080 R Sun Feb 16 20:20 1997.back home rlynn 477368 R Sun Feb 16 19:51 1997.Testing
petewood 319870 R Wed Feb 12 00:01 1997.Annoyance egray 319870 R Wed Feb 12 00:01 1997.Annoyance
[e-mail] 209080 X Sat Feb 8 20:28 1997.Help nolly 208577 R Sat Feb 8 19:57 1997.'Who's who'
GStott@allatsea 190207 X Fri Feb 7 23:26 1997.Re: Testing. petewood 187300 R Fri Feb 7 21:37 1997.Zip File Transfer
egray 81288 R Wed Feb 5 12:07 1997.Resigning from conferences egray 59372 R Tue Feb 4 21:22 1997.Wrinklies Conference
egray 15665 R Mon Feb 3 21:17 1997.You have binmail: ancient.zip egray 987429 R Mon Feb 3 07:06 1997.Binmail
egray 931894 R Fri Jan 31 21:35 1997.testing egray 914672 R Fri Jan 31 13:53 1997.Lesson
egray 891319 R Thu Jan 30 21:29 1997.Testing Ml:FILE ALL
.
No new messages waiting.
Scratchpad is 53698 bytes.
Ml:QUIT
M:ARCSCRATCH
Arcing... (to abort ^X^X^X)
.............................
Archived Scratchpad is 29861 characters
Your scratchpad has been deleted
M:DOWNLOAD
Zmodem download started... (to abort ^X^X^X^X^X)
Filesize 29861 bytes, estimated time at 240 cps : 2 min 5 sec
**B00000000000000


Download succeeded
Actual time 25 sec, speed 1194 cps
OK to delete the downloaded scratchpad-file? (y/n)? NYes
M:BYE
jhornby, you have been online 0:46 on AG/AFGD
Goodbye from CiX !!!HANGUP NOW!!!
CLI: Connection closed.

*** Annex Po
NO CARRIER
+++AT H
OK

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


 APPENDIX 2
 **********


USING CiXCOMM AND CiXREAD WITH FLOPPY DISKS

Although it is desirable to use CixComm and CixRead with a Hard Drive
it is possible to get by with floppy disks.

Follow the instructions given on the preceding pages and where
necessary you will be directed back to this Appendix to clarify any
differences that are relevant to floppy disk users.

Probably the minimum requirements, that have been tried and tested
for some time without too many problems are:-

1mb of Ram
An external second floppy drive
A monitor or TV
A modem
A printer

NVDI 2.5 (this makes a distinct improvement, but is not essential)

A High Resolution Emulator, such as 'Zebra', can be used, but Med Res
can be seen in colour and is much clearer.

As 'atariolr.tos' file is too large to expand onto one disk the
programs have been split between two disks, with an extra one for the
text files.

You will have the programs on two disks. The disk containing CixRead
should be marked 'A' for Drive A, and the disk containing the CixComm
Program etc. should be marked 'B' for Drive B.

Place the appropriate disks in each drive, open up both drives to
show the contents (Figure 1A)


 *** (Figure 1A) ***


Return to page ??????????



 *** (Figure 2A) ****


Return to page ???????????


 *** (Figure 3A) ***

NOTE - The options 'Clear read mail from incoming and outgoing
mailboxes' are selected so that space on your disks is used
economically. If you wish to keep copies you can print or file once
you have read the message in CixRead. If and when you set up a Hard
Drive then these two options can be set to NO.

Return to page ???????????


 *** (Figure 4A) ***

Return to page ????????????????


 *** (Figure 5A) ***

CixRead and Downloads should be changed to drive A as shown.

Return to page ?????????????????


 *** (Figure 6A) ***


Return to page ????????????????


You are now ready to log-on to CiX and Register with them as
explained in the main text.

Once you have registered with CiX and logged off, you will be
ready to do your first blink. Just go to the 'Auto' drop Down
Menu and click on "Full Auto Sequence".

A New User warning will appear - select the "1 per topic" option (more
if you wish more messages), this will mean that on your first blink
you will get only one message from each topic (there are quite a few
topics on each conference and some of them contain quite a lot of
messages). If you did not restrict the number of incoming messages you
would probably overload your disks and cause the system to crash. Once
you have settled down into the system you can increase the number of
messages that you will receive at each blink.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 APPENDIX 3
 **********

WHAT CiX PROVIDES

Conferencing
CiX discussion areas (conferences) are truly wide ranging,
encompassing a tremendous range of subjects. Most conferences have sub
topics, and files for download. Formal and informal product and dealer
support is provided via CiX by a growing number of suppliers. The
conferences become valuable databases, and can grow to many thousands
of messages. Any user can start a conference on CiX. Conferences are
usually open to any user, but closed conferences may be run where
entry may be permitted after application to the moderator. Completely
private conferences may also be set up. The latter category is of
particular interest to groups wishing to restrict access to and
knowledge of the conference to a particular group of users.


Mail
Sending and receiving mail messages on CiX is easy. You have an in and
out basket into which mail for you, and sent by you is recorded. The
mail facility is not only a way of sending private messages to other
CiX users. Everyone on CiX is able to exchange mail with other
Internet sites. CiX is on a fixed link to the Internet and mail will
take seconds to arrive at another site. There are literally millions
of people on the Internet worldwide.

Binary Mail
CiX users can send binary mail messages to each other. This means
programs, spreadsheets, word processor files and the like can be
exchanged in the security of the CiX mail service without having to
convert the files to ASCII first. In fact ths facility ius used
everyday to produce Atari Computing.


Fax
CiX allows you to send a FAX just as easily as sending a mail message.
Faxmail allows you to send faxes anywhere in the world even if you
haven't got a fax machine to hand.

Files for Download
CiX has over 80 gigabytes of disk storage for files, this is growing
all the time.

On-line Storage Facilities
CiX allows users to store data on-line. There is no charge for storage
in the file list within open conferences, or within a user's storage
area.

Megabytes of Up to Date Software
CiX has many gigabytes of files on-line with more uploaded daily. If
there is an Atari related file that you want, CiX is the place to get
it.

Real Time Chat
CiX users can chat to each other in real time, and using Internet
Relay Chat, you can chat to people all over the world!

Usenet
This is a worldwide system of news distribution. There are many
interesting news groups covering subjects such as: Films, Sports,
Computers, Science, News, Jokes, Social, Leisure and many more. CiX
allows you to both read and write to this global service.

Newsbytes
The on-line weekly computer industry newsletter which covers
worldwide as well as home news.


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