From emoryu1!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!nancyamm  Thu Feb  3 23:33:45 1994 remote from awwe
Received: by awwe.UUCP (1.65/waf)
	via UUCP; Fri, 04 Feb 94 05:16:17 EST
	for root
Received: from emory.mathcs.emory.edu by
	emoryu1.cc.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_cc.3.4.16) via SMTP
	id AA23928 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:33:40 -0500
Received: from Princeton.EDU by
	emory.mathcs.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_mathcs.3.4.18) via SMTP
	id AA08319 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:33:30 -0500
Return-Path: nancyamm@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Received: from ponyexpress.Princeton.EDU by Princeton.EDU (5.65b/2.104/princeton)
	id AA01348; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:14:20 -0500
Received: from flagstaff.Princeton.EDU by ponyexpress.princeton.edu (5.65c/1.113/newPE)
	id AA11608; Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:14:18 -0500
Received: by flagstaff.Princeton.EDU (4.1/Phoenix_Cluster_Client)
	id AA07493; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:14:17 EST
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:14:16 -0500 (EST)
From: Nancy Ammerman <emoryu1!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!nancyamm>
To: Jackie Ammerman <emory!emoryu1!awwe!root@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9402032354.C3501-0100000@flagstaff.Princeton.EDU>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Chapter 2: E-MAIL

 
 

2.1  THE BASICS


     Electronic mail, or e-mail, is your personal connection to the 
world of the Net. 
     All of the millions of people around the world who use the 
Net have their own e-mail addresses.  A growing number of "gateways" tie 
more and more people to the Net every day.  When you logged onto the host 
system you are now using, it automatically generated an address for you, 
as well. 
    The basic concepts behind e-mail parallel those of regular mail.  
You send mail to people at their particular addresses.  In turn, they 
write to you at your e-mail address.  You can subscribe to the 
electronic equivalent of magazines and newspapers. You might even get 
electronic junk mail.
    E-mail has two distinct advantages over regular mail.  The 
most obvious is speed. Instead of several days, your message can reach 
the other side of the world in hours, minutes or even seconds (depending 
on where you drop off your mail and the state of the connections between 
there and your recipient).  The other advantage is that once you master 
the basics, you'll be able to use e-mail to access databases and file 
libraries.  You'll see how to do this later, along with learning how to 
transfer program and data files through e-mail. 
    E-mail also has advantages over the telephone.  You send your 
message when it's convenient for you.  Your recipient responds at his 
convenience.  No more telephone tag.  And while a phone call across 
the country or around the world can quickly result in huge phone 
bills, e-mail lets you exchange vast amounts of mail for only a few 
pennies -- even if the other person is in New Zealand. 
    E-mail is your connection to help -- your Net lifeline.  The 
Net can sometimes seem a frustrating place!  No matter how hard you 
try, no matter where you look, you just might not be able to find the 
answer to whatever is causing you problems. But when you know how to 
use e-mail, help is often just a few keystrokes away: ask your system 
administrator or a friend for help in an e-mail message. 
    The quickest way to start learning e-mail is to send yourself a 
message.  Most public-access sites actually have several different types 
of mail systems, all of which let you both send and receive mail. We'll 
start with the simplest one, known, appropriately enough, as "mail," and 
then look at a couple of other interfaces. At your host system's command 
prompt, type this: 
 
             mail username 
 
where username is the name you gave yourself when you first logged on.  
Hit enter.  The computer might respond with 
    
             subject: 
 
     Type 
 
             test 
 
or, actually, anything at all (but you'll have to hit enter before 
you get to the end of the screen). Hit enter. 
     The cursor will drop down a line. You can now begin writing the 
actual message. Type a sentence, again, anything at all.  And here's 
where you hit your first Unix frustration, one that will bug you 
repeatedly: you have to hit enter before you get to the very end of the 
line.  Just like typewriters, many Unix programs have no word-wrapping 
(although there are ways to get some Unix text processors, such as emacs, 
to word-wrap). 
     When done with your message, hit return. Now hit control-D (the 
control and the D keys at the same time).  This is a Unix command that 
tells the computer you're done writing and that it should close your 
"envelope" and mail it off (you could also hit enter once and then, on 
a blank line, type a period at the beginning of the line and hit enter 
again). 
     You've just sent your first e-mail message.  And because you're 
sending mail to yourself, rather than to someone somewhere else on the 
Net, your message has already arrived, as we'll see in a moment.
     If you had wanted, you could have even written your message on 
your own computer and then uploaded it into this electronic 
"envelope."  There are a couple of good reasons to do this with long 
or involved messages.  One is that once you hit enter at the end of a 
line in "mail" you can't readily fix any mistakes on that line (unless 
you use some special commands to call up a Unix text processor).  Also, 
if you are paying for access by the hour, uploading a prepared 
message can save you money.  Remember to save the document in ASCII or 
text format.  Uploading a document you've created in a word processor 
that uses special formatting commands (which these days means many 
programs) will cause strange effects.
     When you get that blank line after the subject line, upload the 
message using the ASCII protocol.  Or you can copy and paste the text, 
if your software allows that. When done, hit control-D as above. 
     Now you have mail waiting for you.  Normally, when you log on, 
your public-access site will tell you whether you have new mail 
waiting.  To open your mailbox and see your waiting mail, type 
                 
          mail 
 
and hit enter. 
     When the host system sees "mail" without a name after it, it 
knows you want to look in your mailbox rather than send a message. 
Your screen, on a plain-vanilla Unix system will display:
 
         Mail version SMI 4.0 Mon Apr 24 18:34:15 PDT 1989  Type ? for help. 
         "/usr/spool/mail/adamg": 1 message 1 new 1 unread 
  
         >N 1 adamg              Sat Jan 15 20:04   12/290   test 
   
     Ignore the first line; it's just computerese of value only to the 
people who run your system. You can type a question mark and hit 
return, but unless you're familiar with Unix, most of what you'll see 
won't make much sense at this point.  
     The second line tells you the directory on the host system where 
your mail messages are put, which again, is not something you'll likely 
need to know.  The second line also tells you how many messages are in your 
mailbox, how many have come in since the last time you looked and how 
many messages you haven't read yet. 
     It's the third line that is of real interest -- it tells you who 
the message is from, when it arrived, how many lines and characters 
it takes up, and what the subject is.  The "N" means it is a new 
message -- it arrived after the last time you looked in your mailbox.  
Hit enter. And there's your message -- only now it's a lot 
longer than what you wrote! 
 
        Message 1: 
        From adamg Jan 15 20:04:55 1994
        Received: by eff.org id AA28949 
        (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/pen-ident for adamg); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:04:55 -0400  
        (ident-sender: adamg@eff.org) 
        Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 21:34:55 -0400 
        From: Adam Gaffin <adamg> 
        Message-Id: <199204270134.AA28949@eff.org> 
        To: adamg 
        Subject: test 
        Status: R 
 
        This is only a test! 
 
     Whoa! What is all that stuff? It's your message with a postmark 
gone mad.  Just as the postal service puts its marks on every piece of 
mail it handles, so do Net postal systems.  Only it's called a 
"header" instead of a postmark. Each system that handles or routes 
your mail puts its stamp on it.  Since many messages go through a 
number of systems on their way to you, you will often get messages 
with headers that seem to go on forever.  Among other things, a header 
will tell you exactly when a message was sent and received (even the 
difference between your local time and GMT -- as at the end of line 4 
above). 
     If this had been a long message, it would just keep scrolling 
across and down your screen -- unless the people who run your public-
access site have set it up to pause every 24 lines.  One way to deal 
with a message that doesn't stop is to use your telecommunication 
software's logging or text-buffer function.  Start it before you hit 
the number of the message you want to see.  Your computer will ask you 
what you want to call the file you're about to create. After you name 
the file and hit enter, type the number of the message you want to see 
and hit enter.  When the message finishes scrolling, turn off the 
text-buffer function, and the message is now saved in your computer.  
This way, you can read the message while not connected to the Net 
(which can save you money if you're paying by the hour) and write a 
reply offline. 
     But in the meantime, now what?  You can respond to the message, 
delete it or save it.  To respond, type a lower-case "r" and hit 
enter.  You'll get something like this: 
 
          To: adamg 
          Subject: Re:  test 
 
     Note that this time, you don't have to enter a username.  The 
computer takes it from the message you're replying to and 
automatically addresses your message to its sender. The computer also 
automatically inserts a subject line, by adding "Re:" to the original 
subject.  From here, it's just like writing a new message. But say you 
change your mind and decide not to reply after all. How do you get out 
of the message? Hit control-C once. You'll get this: 
 
          (Interrupt -- one more to kill letter) 
 
If you hit control-C once more, the message will disappear and you'll 
get back to your mail's command line. 
     Now, if you type a lower-case d and then hit enter, you'll 
delete the original message.  Type a lower-case q to exit your 
mailbox.  
     If you type a "q" without first hitting "d", your message is 
transferred to a file called mbox.  This file is where all read, but 
un-deleted messages go.  If you want to leave it in your mailbox for 
now, type a lower-case x and hit enter.  This gets you out of mail 
without making any changes. 
     The mbox file works a lot like your mailbox.  To access it, 
type 
   
           mail -f mbox 
 
at your host system's command line and hit enter.  
     You'll get a menu identical to the one in your mailbox from which 
you can read these old messages, delete them or respond to them.  It's 
probably a good idea to clear out your mailbox and mbox file from 
time to time, if only to keep them uncluttered. 
    Are there any drawbacks to e-mail?  There are a few.  One is that 
people seem more willing to fly off the handle electronically than in 
person, or over the phone.  Maybe it's because it's so easy to hit R 
and reply to a message without pausing and reflecting a moment.  
That's why we have smileys (see section 2.4)!  There's no online 
equivalent yet of a return receipt: chances are your message got to where 
it's going, but there's no absolute way for you to know for sure unless 
you get a reply from the other person.  Also, because computers are quite 
literal, you have to be very careful when addressing a message. Misplace 
a period or a single letter in the address, and your message could come 
back to you, undelivered. 
     So now you're ready to send e-mail to other people on the Net.  
Of course, you need somebody's address to send them mail.  How do you 
get it?  
     Alas, the simplest answer is not what you'd call the most 
elegant: you call them up on the phone or write them a letter on paper 
and ask them.  Residents of the electronic frontier are only beginning 
to develop the equivalent of phone books, and the ones that exist 
today are far from complete (still, later on, in Chapter 6, we'll show 
you how to use some of these directories). 
     Eventually, you'll start corresponding with people, which means 
you'll want to know how to address mail to them.  It's vital to know 
how to do this, because the smallest mistake -- using a comma when you 
should have used a period, for instance, can bounce the message back 
to you, undelivered.  In this sense, Net addresses are like phone 
numbers: one wrong digit and you get the wrong person.  Fortunately, 
most net addresses now adhere to a relatively easy-to-understand 
system. 
     Earlier, you sent yourself a mail message using just your user-
name.  This was sort of like making a local phone call -- you didn't 
have to dial a 1 or an area code.  This also works for mail to anybody 
else who has an account on the same system as you. 
     Sending mail outside of your system, though, will require the use 
of the Net equivalent of area codes, called "domains." A basic Net 
address will look something like this: 
 
              tomg@world.std.com 
 
     Tomg is somebody's user ID, and he is at (hence the @ sign) a site 
(or in Internetese, a "domain") known as std.com.  Large organizations 
often have more than one computer linked to the Internet; in this case, 
the name of the particular machine is world (you will quickly notice 
that, like boat owners, Internet computer owners always name their 
machines). 
     Domains tell you the name of the organization that runs a given 
e-mail site and what kind of site it is or, if it's not in the U.S., 
what country it's located in.  Large organizations may have more than 
one computer or gateway tied to the Internet, so you'll often see a 
two-part domain name; and sometimes even three- or four-part domain 
names. 
     In general, American addresses end in an organizational suffix, 
such as ".edu," which means the site is at a college or university. 
Other American suffixes include: 
          
          .com for businesses 
          .org for non-profit organizations 
          .gov and .mil for government and military agencies 
          .net for companies or organizations that run large networks.  
 
     Sites in the rest of the world tend to use a two-letter code that 
represents their country.  Most make sense, such as .ca for Canadian 
sites, but there are a couple of seemingly odd ones.  Swiss sites end 
in .ch, while South African ones end in .za.  Some U.S. sites have 
followed this international convention (such as well.sf.ca.us).
    You'll notice that the above addresses are all in lower-case.  
Unlike almost everything else having anything at all to do with Unix, 
most Net mailing systems don't care about case, so you generally don't 
have to worry about capitalizing e-mail addresses.  Alas, there are a few 
exceptions -- some public-access sites do allow for capital letters in 
user names.  When in doubt, ask the person you want to write to, or let 
her send you a message first (recall how a person's e-mail address is 
usually found on the top of her message). 
   The domain name, the part of the address after the @ sign, never 
has to be capitalized.               
     It's all a fairly simple system that works very well, except, 
again, it's vital to get the address exactly right -- just as you have 
to dial a phone number exactly right.  Send a message to tomg@unm.edu 
(which is the University of New Mexico) when you meant to send it to 
tomg@umn.edu (the University of Minnesota), and your letter will either 
bounce back to you undelivered, or go to the wrong person.
     If your message is bounced back to you as undeliverable, you'll 
get an ominous looking-message from MAILER-DAEMON (actually a rather 
benign Unix program that exists to handle mail), with an evil-looking 
header followed by the text of your message. Sometimes, you can tell 
what went wrong by looking at the first few lines of the bounced 
message.  Besides an incorrect address, it's possible your host system 
does not have the other site in the "map" it maintains of other host 
systems. Or you could be trying to send mail to another network, such 
as Bitnet or CompuServe, that has special addressing requirements.
    Sometimes, figuring all this out can prove highly frustrating.  
But remember the prime Net commandment: Ask.  Send a message to your 
system administrator.  He or she might be able to help decipher the 
problem. 
    There is one kind of address that may give your host system 
particular problems.  There are two main ways that Unix systems 
exchange mail.  One is known as UUCP and started out with a different 
addressing system than the rest of the Net.  Most UUCP systems have 
since switched over to the standard Net addressing system, but a few 
traditional sites still cling to their original type, which tends to 
have lots of exclamation points in it, like this: 
 
               uunet!somesite!othersite!mybuddy 
 
     The problem for many host sites is that exclamation points (also 
known as "bangs") now mean something special in the more common systems 
or "shells" used to operate many Unix computers. This means that 
addressing mail to such a site (or even responding to a message you 
received from one) could confuse the poor computer to no end and your 
message never gets sent out. If that happens, try putting backslashes in 
front of each exclamation point, so that you get an address that looks 
like this: 
          
               uunet\!somesite\!othersite\!mybuddy 
 
Note that this means you may not be able to respond to such a message 
by typing a lower-case "r"  -- you may get an error message and you'll 
have to create a brand-new message. 
    If you want to get a taste of what's possible through e-mail,
start an e-mail message to
 
              almanac@oes.orst.edu
 
Leave the "subject:" line blank.  As a message, write this:
 
              send quote
 
Or, if you're feeling a little down, write this instead:
 
              send moral-support
 
     In either case, you will get back a message within a few seconds to 
a few hours (depending on the state of your host system's Internet 
connection).  If you simply asked for a quote, you'll get back a 
fortune-cookie-like saying.  If you asked for moral support, you'll also 
get back a fortune-cookie-like saying, only supposedly more uplifting.
      This particular "mail server" is run by Oregon State University. 
Its main purpose is actually to provide a way to distribute agricultural 
information via e-mail.  If you'd like to find out how to use the 
server's full range of services, send a message to the above address 
with this line in it:
 
              send help
 
You'll quickly get back a lengthy document detailing just what's 
available and how to get it.
     Feeling opinionated?  Want to give the President of the United 
States a piece of your mind?  Send a message to president@whitehouse.gov.  
Or if the vice president will do, write vice-president@whitehouse.gov. 
     The "mail" program is actually a very powerful one and a Netwide 
standard, at least on Unix computers.  But it can be hard to figure 
out -- you can type a question mark to get a list of commands, but 
these may be of limited use unless you're already familiar with Unix. 
Fortunately, there are a couple of other mail programs that are easier 
to use. 


2.2  ELM -- A BETTER WAY 

 
     Elm is a combination mailbox and letter-writing system that uses 
menus to help you navigate through mail.  Most Unix-based host systems 
now have it online. To use it, type 
  
                elm 
 
and hit enter.  You'll get a menu of your waiting mail, along with a 
list of commands you can execute, that will look something like this:
 
 
       Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/adamg' with 38 messages [ELM 2.3 PL11]      
                                                                               
                                                                               
     1   Sep 1  Christopher Davis  (13)   here's another message.              
     2   Sep 1  Christopher Davis  (91)   This is a message from Eudora        
     3   Aug 31 Rita Marie Rouvali (161)  First Internet Hunt !!! (fwd)        
     4   Aug 31 Peter Scott/Manage (69)   New File <UK077> University of Londo 
     5   Aug 30 Peter Scott/Manage (64)   New File <DIR020> X.500 service at A 
     6   Aug 30 Peter Scott/Manage (39)   New File <NET016> DATAPAC Informatio 
     7   Aug 28 Peter Scott/Manage (67)   Proposed Usenet group for HYTELNET n 
     8   Aug 28 Peter Scott/Manage (56)   New File <DIR019> JANET Public Acces 
     9   Aug 26 Helen Trillian Ros (15)   Tuesday                              
     10  Aug 26 Peter Scott/Manage (151)  Update <CWK004> Oxford University OU 
                                                                               
                                                                               
   You can use any of the following commands by pressing the first character;  
 d)elete or u)ndelete mail,  m)ail a message,  r)eply or f)orward mail,  q)uit 
    To read a message, press <return>.  j = move down, k = move up, ? = help   
 
     Each line shows the date you received the message, who sent it, 
how many lines long the message is, and the message's subject.
     If you are using VT100 emulation, you can move up and down the 
menu with your up and down arrow keys.  Otherwise, type the line number 
of the message you want to read or delete and hit enter.
     When you read a message, it pauses every 24 lines, instead of 
scrolling until it's done.  Hit the space bar to read the next page.  
You can type a lower-case "r" to reply or a lower-case "q" or "i" 
to get back to the menu (the I stands for "index").  
     At the main menu, hitting a lower-case "m" followed by enter 
will let you start a message.  To delete a message, type a lower-case 
"d".  You can do this while reading the message.  Or, if you are in 
the menu, move the cursor to the message's line and then hit D. 
     When you're done with Elm, type a lower-case "q".  The program 
will ask if you really want to delete the messages you marked. Then, 
it will ask you if you want to move any messages you've read but 
haven't marked for deletion to a "received" file.  For now, hit your n
key.  
     Elm has a major disadvantage for the beginner. The default text 
editor it generally calls up when you hit your "r" or "m" key is 
often a program called emacs. Unixoids swear by emacs, but everybody 
else almost always finds it impossible.  Unfortunately, you can't 
always get away from it (or vi, another text editor often found on 
Unix systems), so later on we'll talk about some basic commands that 
will keep you from going totally nuts. 

 
2.3  PINE -- AN EVEN BETTER WAY

 
     Pine is based on elm but includes a number of improvements that 
make it an ideal mail system for beginners.   Like elm, pine starts 
you with a menu.  It also has an "address book" feature that is handy 
for people with long or complex e-mail addresses. Hitting A at the 
main menu puts you in the address book, where you can type in the 
person's first name (or nickname) followed by her address. Then, when 
you want to send that person a message, you only have to type in her 
first name or nickname, and pine automatically inserts her actual 
address. The address book also lets you set up a mailing list.  This 
feature allows you to send the same message to a number of people at 
once. 
     What really sets pine apart is its built-in text editor, 
which looks and feels a lot more like word-processing programs 
available for MS-DOS and Macintosh users.  Not only does it have 
word wrap (a revolutionary concept if ever there was one), it also has a 
spell-checker and a search command. Best of all, all of the commands 
you need are listed in a two-line mini-menu at the bottom of each 
screen.  The commands look like this: 
 
               ^W Where is 
 
The little caret is a synonym for the key marked "control" on your 
keyboard.  To find where a particular word is in your document, you'd 
hit your control key and your W key at the same time, which would bring 
up a prompt asking you for the word to look for. 
     Some of pine's commands are a tad peculiar (control-V for "page 
down" for example), which comes from being based on a variant of 
emacs (which is utterly peculiar).  But again, all of the commands you 
need are listed on that two-line mini-menu, so it shouldn't take you 
more than a couple of seconds to find the right one. 
     To use pine, type 
 
               pine 
 
at the command line and hit enter.  It's a relatively new program, so 
some systems may not yet have it online.  But it's so easy to use, you 
should probably send e-mail to your system administrator urging him to 
get it! 
 
 
2.4  SMILEYS
 
 
    When you're involved in an online discussion, you can't see the 
smiles or shrugs that the other person might make in a live 
conversation to show he's only kidding.  But online, there's no body 
language. So what you might think is funny, somebody else might take as 
an insult.  To try to keep such misunderstandings from erupting into 
bitter disputes, we have smileys.  Tilt your head to the left and look at 
the following sideways. :-).  Or simply :).  This is your basic "smiley."
Use it to indicate people should not take that comment you just made as 
seriously as they might otherwise.  You make a smiley by typing a colon, 
a hyphen and a right parenthetical bracket. Some people prefer using the 
word "grin," usually in this form: 
 
          <grin>   
 
Sometimes, though, you'll see it as *grin* or even just <g> for short. 
 
Some other smileys include: 
 
          ;-)      Wink; 
          :-(      Frown; 
          :-O      Surprise; 
          8-)      Wearing glasses; 
          =|:-)=   Abe Lincoln. 
    
         OK, so maybe the last two are a little bogus :-).
 

2.5  SENDING E-MAIL TO OTHER NETWORKS
 
 
     There are a number of computer networks that are not directly 
part of the Net, but which are now connected through "gateways" that 
allow the passing of e-mail.  Here's a list of some of the larger 
networks, how to send mail to them and how their users can send mail to 
you: 
 
America Online 
 
     Remove any spaces from a user's name and append "aol.com," to get 
 
               user@aol.com 
 
     America Online users who want to send mail to you need only put 
your Net address in the "to:" field before composing a message. 
 
 
ATTMail 
 
     Address your message to user@attmail.com. 
   
     From ATTMail, a user would send mail to you in this form: 
 
               internet!domain!user 
 
     So if your address were nancy@world.std.com, your correspondent 
would send a message to you at 
 
               internet!world.std.com!nancy 
 
 
Bitnet 
     
     Users of Bitnet (and NetNorth in Canada and EARN in Europe) often 
have addresses in this form: IZZY@INDVMS.  If you're lucky, all you'll 
have to do to mail to that address is add "bitnet" at the end, to get 
izzy@indvms.bitnet.  Sometimes, however, mail to such an address will 
bounce back to you, because Bitnet addresses do not always translate 
well into an Internet form.  If this happens, you can send mail 
through one of two Internet/Bitnet gateways. First, change the @ in 
the address to a %, so that you get username%site.bitnet.  Then add 
either @vm.marist.edu or @cunyvm.cuny.edu, so that, with the above 
example, you would get izzy%indyvms.bitnet@vm.marist.edu or 
izzy%indvyvms.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu 
      Bitnet users have it a little easier: They can usually send mail 
directly to your e-mail address without fooling around with it at all.  
So send them your address and they should be OK. 
 
 
CompuServe 
 
     CompuServe users have numerical addresses in this form: 
73727,545. To send mail to a CompuServe user, change the comma to a 
period and add "@compuserve.com"; for example: 
73727.545@compuserve.com. 
 
     If you know CompuServe users who want to send you mail, tell them 
to GO MAIL and create a mail message. In the address area, instead of 
typing in a CompuServe number, have them type your address in this 
form: 
 
               >INTERNET:YourID@YourAddress. 
 
     For example, >INTERNET:adamg@world.std.com.  Note that both the 
">" and the ":" are required. 
 
 
Delphi
 
     To send mail to a Delphi user, the form is username@delphi.com.
 
     
Fidonet 
 
    To send mail to somebody who uses a Fidonet BBS, you need the name 
they use to log onto that system and its "node number.''  Fidonet node 
numbers or addresses consist of three numbers, in this form: 
1:322/190.  The first number tells which of several broad geographic 
zones the BBS is in (1 represents the U.S. and Canada, 2 Europe and 
Israel, 3 Pacific Asia, 4 South America).  The second number 
represents the BBS's network, while the final number is the BBS's 
"FidoNode'' number in that network. If your correspondent only gives 
you two numbers (for example, 322/190), it means the system is in zone 
1.   
     Now comes the tricky part. You have to reverse the numbers and 
add to them the letters f, n and z (which stand for 
"FidoNode,''"network,'' and "zone'). For example, the address above 
would become 
 
               f190.n322.z1. 
 
     Now add "fidonet.org'' at the end, to get 
f190.n322.z1.fidonet.org. Then add "FirstName.LastName@', to get 
 
               FirstName.LastName@f190.n322.z1.fidonet.org. 
 
Note the period between the first and last names. Also, some countries 
now have their own Fidonet "backbone" systems, which might affect 
addressing.  For example, were the above address in Germany, you would 
end it with "fido.de" instead of "fidonet.org."
     Whew! 
     The reverse process is totally different. First, the person has 
to have access to his or her BBS's "net mail" area and know the 
Fidonet address of his or her local Fidonet/UUCP gateway (often their 
system operator will know it).  Your Fidonet correspondent should 
address a net-mail message to UUCP (not your name) in the "to:" field.  
In the node-number field, they should type in the node number of the 
Fidonet/UUCP gateway (if the gateway system is in the same regional 
network as their system, they need only type the last number, for 
example, 390 instead of 322/390).  Then, the first line of the message 
has to be your Internet address, followed by a blank line.  After 
that, the person can write the message and send it.  
     Because of the way Fidonet moves mail, it could take a day or two 
for a message to be delivered in either direction.  Also, because many 
Fidonet systems are run as hobbies, it is considered good form to ask 
the gateway sysop's permission if you intend to pass large amounts of 
mail back and forth. Messages of a commercial nature are strictly 
forbidden (even if it's something the other person asked for). Also, 
consider it very likely that somebody other than the recipient will 
read your messages. 
 
 
GEnie  
 
      To send mail to a GEnie user, add "@genie.com" to the end
of their GEnie user name, for example: walt@genie.com. 
 
MCIMail 
 
      To send mail to somebody with an MCIMail account, add 
"@mcimail.com to the end of their name or numerical address. For 
example: 
       
                555-1212@mcimail.com 
 
      or 
     
                jsmith@mcimail.com 
 
     Note that if there is more than one MCIMail subscriber with that 
name, you will get a mail message back from MCI giving you their names 
and numerical addresses. You'll then have to figure out which one you 
want and re-send the message. 
 
     From MCI, a user would type 
 
                Your Name (EMS) 
 
at the "To:" prompt.  At the EMS prompt, he or she would type 
 
                internet 
 
followed by your Net address at the "Mbx:" prompt. 
 
 
Peacenet 
 
     To send mail to a Peacenet user, use this form: 
 
                username@igc.org 
 
     Peacenet subscribers can use your regular address to send you 
mail. 
 
 
Prodigy 
 
     UserID@prodigy.com.  Note that Prodigy users must pay extra for 
Internet e-mail.


2.6  SEVEN UNIX COMMANDS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT:

 
     If you connect to the Net through a Unix system, eventually you'll 
have to come to terms with Unix.  For better or worse, most Unix systems do 
NOT shield you from their inner workings -- if you want to copy a Usenet 
posting to a file, for example, you'll have to use some Unix commands if 
you ever want to do anything with that file.
     Like MS-DOS, Unix is an operating system - it tells the computer how 
to do things.  Now while Unix may have a reputation as being even more 
complex than MS-DOS, in most cases, a few basic, and simple, commands 
should be all you'll ever need. 
     If your own computer uses MS-DOS or PC-DOS, the basic concepts will 
seem very familiar -- but watch out for the cd command, which works 
differently enough from the similarly named DOS command that it will drive 
you crazy.  Also, unlike MS-DOS, Unix is case sensitive -- if you type 
commands or directory names in the wrong case, you'll get an error message. 
     If you're used to working on a Mac, you'll have to remember that Unix 
stores files in "directories" rather than "folders."  Unix directories are 
organized like branches on a tree. At the bottom is the "root" directory, 
with sub-directories branching off that (and sub-directories in turn can 
have sub-directories). The Mac equivalent of a Unix sub-directory is a 
folder within another folder. 
 
cat           Equivalent to the MS-DOS "type" command.  To pause a file 
              every screen, type
 
                        cat file |more
 
              where "file" is the name of the file you want to see.  
              Hitting control-C will stop the display.  Alternately,
              you could type
                     
                        more file
              
              to achieve the same result. You can also use cat for 
              writing or uploading text files to your name or home 
              directory (similar to the MS-DOS "copy con" command).  If 
              you type
 
                        cat>test
 
              you start a file called "test."  You can either write 
              something simple (no editing once you've finished a line and
              you have to hit return at the end of each line) or upload
              something into that file using your communications software's
              ASCII protocol).  To close the file, hit control-D.
 
cd            The "change directory" command.  To change from your present 
              directory to another, type
 
                        cd directory
 
              and hit enter. Unlike MS-DOS, which uses a \ to denote sub-
              directories (for example: \stuff\text), Unix uses a / (for 
              example: /stuff/text).  So to change from your present 
              directory to the stuff/text sub-directory,  you would type 
                
                        cd stuff/text
 
              and then hit enter. As in MS-DOS, you do not need the first 
              backslash if the subdirectory comes off the directory you're 
              already in.  To move back up a directory tree, you would type
                
                        cd ..
 
              followed by enter. Note the space between the cd and the two 
              periods -- this is where MS-DOS users will really go nuts.
 
cp            Copies a file. The syntax is
 
                        cp file1 file2
 
              which would copy file1 to file2 (or overwrite file2 with 
              file1).
 
ls            This command, when followed by enter, tells you what's in the 
              directory, similar to the DOS dir command, except in 
              alphabetical order.
       
                        ls | more 
 
              will stop the listing every 24 lines -- handy if there are a 
              lot of things in the directory. The basic ls command does not 
              list "hidden" files, such as the .login file that controls 
              how your system interacts with Unix. To see these files, type 
 
                        ls -a      or    ls -a | more
 
              ls -l will tell you the size of each file in bytes and tell 
              you when each was created or modified. 
 
mv            Similar to the MS-DOS rename command.
 
                        mv file1 file2
 
              will rename file1 as file2, The command can 
              also be used to move files between directories.
 
                        mv file1 News
 
              would move file1 to your News directory.
 
rm            Deletes a file.  Type
 
                        rm filename
 
              and hit enter (but beware: when you hit enter, it's gone for
              good).
               
     WILDCARDS:  When searching for, copying or deleting files, you can 
use "wildcards" if you are not sure of the file's exact name. 
 
              ls man*
 
 
would find the following files:
 
              manual, manual.txt, man-o-man.
 
Use a question mark when you're sure about all but one or two characters.  
For example, 
 
              ls man?
 
would find a file called mane, but not one called manual.
 

2.7  WHEN THINGS GO WRONG                  
 

     * You send a message but get back an ominous looking message from 
MAILER-DAEMON containing up to several dozen lines of computerese 
followed by your message.  Somewhere in those lines you can often find a 
clue to what went wrong.  You might have made a mistake in spelling the 
e-mail address.  The site to which you're sending mail might have been 
down for maintenance or a problem. You may have used the wrong 
"translation" for mail to a non-Internet network.
     * You call up your host system's text editor to write a message or 
reply to one and can't seem to get out.  If it's emacs, try control-X, 
control-C (in other words, hit your control key and your X key at the 
same time, followed by control and C).  If worse comes to worse, you can 
hang up. 
     * In Elm, you accidentally hit the D key for a message you want to 
save.  Type the number of the message, hit enter and then U, which will 
"un-delete" the message.  This works only before you exit Elm; once you 
quit, the message is gone.
     * You try to upload an ASCII message you've written on your own
computer into a message you're preparing in Elm or Pine and you get a
lot of left brackets, capital Ms, Ks and Ls and some funny-looking
characters.  Believe it or not, your message will actually wind up looking
fine; all that garbage is temporary and reflects the problems some Unix
text processors have with ASCII uploads.  But it will take much longer
for your upload to finish.  One way to deal with this is to call up the
simple mail program, which will not produce any weird characters when you
upload a text file into a message.  Another way (which is better if your
prepared message is a response to somebody's mail), is to create a text
file on your host system with cat, for example, 
 
          cat>file
 
and then upload your text into that.  Then, in Elm or Pine, you can insert
the message with a simple command (control-r in Pine, for example); only
this time you won't see all that extraneous stuff.
     *  You haven't cleared out your Elm mailbox in awhile, and you 
accidentally hit "y" when you meant to hit "n" (or vice-versa) when 
exiting and now all your messages have disappeared.  Look in your News 
directory (at the command line, type: cd News) for a file called 
recieved.  Those are all your messages.  Unfortunately, there's no way to 
get them back into your Elm mailbox -- you'll have to download the file 
or read it online.



From emoryu1!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!nancyamm  Thu Feb  3 23:33:56 1994 remote from awwe
Received: by awwe.UUCP (1.65/waf)
	via UUCP; Fri, 04 Feb 94 05:16:28 EST
	for root
Received: from emory.mathcs.emory.edu by
	emoryu1.cc.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_cc.3.4.16) via SMTP
	id AA23959 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:33:50 -0500
Received: from Princeton.EDU by
	emory.mathcs.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_mathcs.3.4.18) via SMTP
	id AA08335 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:33:41 -0500
Return-Path: nancyamm@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Received: from ponyexpress.Princeton.EDU by Princeton.EDU (5.65b/2.104/princeton)
	id AA01609; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:16:38 -0500
Received: from flagstaff.Princeton.EDU by ponyexpress.princeton.edu (5.65c/1.113/newPE)
	id AA11747; Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:16:36 -0500
Received: by flagstaff.Princeton.EDU (4.1/Phoenix_Cluster_Client)
	id AA09929; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:16:35 EST
Da
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
