Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 by Alex Brown, Richard Gordon, Shawn Harvell, and the University of Delaware. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to make and distribute not-for-profit copies of this guide provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved. The authors of this document have tailored it to the needs of certain classes at the University of Delaware. Therefore, permission to modify this guide for non-profit use is also granted as long as the above credits are included and the authors are notified, for their interest, of your use of the document. Any comments and suggestions, please Email alex@udel.edu.

Acknowledgments

The History section of this guide was the work of Adam Gaffin, author of the Big Dummies Guide to the Internet, and was copied with the permission of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.

Barry Johnson at Clemson University was very helpful in the development of this guide, as were the following: Bill McDonald, Jacob Andersen (Denmark), Daryl Kottek, Joseph Dougherty (University of North Florida), John Critchley (United Kingdom), Karen Fox (scu.edu), Joel Shurkin, Steve Lambert, Richard Keeves (Australia), Debra Gordon (Virginia Pilot/The Ledger Star), John Pena, Jason Noble (Australia), Eric Snyder, Michael Herron (University of Illinois at Champagne), Steven Garman (University Maryland, Baltimore), Ed Gregory, Chuck Winstead (University of Tennessee at Knoxville), Melinda Pfeiffer (North Carolina State University), Peggy Bottorff (University of Delaware) and V. Carter Broach (University of Delaware).

Preface

You will have heard many reports discussing the future of the information superhighway, but what does all this mean??

The purpose of this guide is to introduce you to the Internet and make your initial Internet experiences as pleasant as possible so as to encourage you to explore the Internet in more detail at a later time.

This guide will cover many facets of the Internet, certainly enough to make you a competent user, but it does not pretend to be an all inclusive document making you aware of everything that the Internet has to offer. Since the Internet is developing at an exponential rate and new Internet tools are being developed continuously, no printed document could achieve this. To illustrate this, the first edition of this guide (August 1994) did not include sections covering WWW, now a very popular Internet tool. Any attempt to be an all inclusive guide would create a case of information overload, thus defeating its purpose.

This guide introduces you to the Internet and takes a look at its short history. Section 2 discusses some of the tools that you will need to be familiar with to use the Internet. These discussions include examples that demonstrate the abilities of these tools as far as a business person is concerned, as well as their benefits to the classroom learning environment. Section 3 covers tutorials for each of the Internet tools discussed in Section 2. These tutorials give you a hands-on opportunity to perform tasks on the Internet and realize its benefits as quickly as possible.

• About Demystifying the Internet

  • Title Page
  • Bibliography
  • How to Contact the Authors

• Introduction

  • What is the Internet?
  • Internet History

• Internet Tools

  • About Internet Tools
  • Electronic Mail
  • UseNet
  • FTP
  • Telnet
  • Gopher
  • World Wide Web

• Tutorials

  • About the Tutorials
  • Getting Started
  • Electronic Mail--Pine
  • UseNet--TRN
  • FTP
  • Telnet
  • Gopher
  • World Wide Web
  • Remote Login
  • Getting Help

• Gaffin, Adam (1994). EFF's Guide to the Internet, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.
• Hauben, Michael (1993). The Impact the Net has on People's Lives.
• Kehoe, Brenda P. (1992). Zen and the Art of the Internet.
• Noonan, Dana (1992). A Guide to Internet/Bitnet.
• Rinaldi, Arlene H. (1992). The Net User Guidelines and Netiquette.

Richard Gordon
User Services, University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716 USA
302-831-1717
richard@udel.edu

Shawn Harvell
Inet Communications
shawn@inet.net

The Internet is a network of networks that, together, create one large world-wide network. The University of Delaware's campus network is just one small part of the whole Internet. By virtue of having an account on one of the University's central UNIX systems, a Delaware student has access to not just the campus network, but the entire Internet. The Internet is by far the largest computer network in the world. Many networks such as CompuServe, BITNET, America Online, Delphi, GEnie, and others allow members of those networks to communicate with Internet users. These networks are not generally considered to be part of the Internet since users of those networks may only be able to send and receive Email messages and not necessarily access the full range of Internet tools. However they are seeing the benefit (need perhaps to compete) of increasing their members' connectivity to the Internet and are therefore becoming more integrated with the Internet.

The Internet is truly an organic network: it is always growing, new networks are being added and new computers are being added to existing networks. No one really knows how many people use the Internet--nor how many computers are connected to networks that form the Internet. John Naisbett, in his book Global Paradox, estimates that there were 25 million Internet users in the summer 1993, he estimates this number will grow to 350 million users by 1999, 750 million users by 2000 and 1.5 billion users by 2001. Current growth is being fueled by the popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW). A survey conducted by the Commerce Net/Nielson Internet Demographic Survey (April 1996) (http://www.commerce.net/work/pilot/nielsen_96/exec.html) indicated there were 37 million people over the age of 16 with access to the Internet in the US and Canada alone, in August 1995.

Because so many people share so much information over the Internet, you will often hear it referred to as the main component of the Information Superhighway. Imagine several small cities that have paved roads within their city limits. Each city has its own network of boulevards, avenues, main streets and back alleys, but it is an isolated system. At the edge of the city there is nothing. One day, the cityfolk decide to get together and build highways between their cities. As more cities join the highway system, more commerce can take place between the different cities, stimulating further growth in the cities and the road system itself. The Internet has evolved in a fashion similar to the development of a nation's infrastructure! As more and more people share their knowledge over the Internet, its value, population, and resources all increase, therefore its usefulness to each user increases. Unlike a country's road system, the Information Superhighway is not limited by place or time. That is, it is just as easy to communicate with a student in Australia as it is to communicate with another student at the University of Delaware. You can send Email to each other, share your ideas in a Usenet news group, find research data, find detailed product information on WWW and even keep up with current events.

The 60's

In the 1960s, researchers began experimenting with linking computers to each other and to people through telephone hook- ups, using funds from the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA wanted to see if computers in different locations could be linked using a new technology known as packet switching, which had the promise of letting several users share just one communications line. Previous computer networking efforts had required a line between each computer on the network, sort of like a train track on which only one train can travel at a time. The packet system allowed for creation of a data highway, in which large numbers of vehicles could essentially share the same lane. Each packet was given the computer equivalent of a map and a time stamp, so that it could be sent to the right destination, where it would then be reassembled into a message the computer or a human could use.

This system allowed computers to share data and the researchers to exchange electronic mail, or Email. In itself, Email was something of a revolution, offering the ability to send detailed letters at the speed of a phone call. As this system, known as ARPANet, grew, some enterprising college students (and one in high school) developed a way to use it to conduct online conferences. These started as science-oriented discussions, but they soon branched out into virtually every other field, as people realized the power of being able to "talk" to hundreds, or even thousands, of people around the country.

The 70's

In the 1970s, ARPA helped support the development of rules, or protocols, for transferring data between different types of computer networks. These "Internet" (from "internetworking") protocols made it possible to develop the worldwide Internet we have today.

By the close of the 1970s, links developed between ARPANet and counterparts in other countries. The world was now tied together in a computer web.

The 80's

In the 1980s, this network of networks, which became known collectively as the Internet, expanded at a phenomenal rate. Hundreds, then thousands, of colleges, research companies and government agencies began to connect their computers to this worldwide Net. Some enterprising hobbyists and companies unwilling to pay the high costs of Internet access (or unable to meet stringent government regulations for access) learned how to link their own systems to the Internet, even if "only" for Email and conferences. Some of these systems began offering access to the public. Now anybody with a computer and modem and persistence could tap into the world.

The 90's

In the 1990s, the Net still grows at exponential rates. Some estimates are that the volume of messages transferred through the Net grows 20 percent a month. In response, government and other users have tried in recent years to expand the Net itself. Once, the main Net "backbone" in the US moved data at 1.5 million bits per second. That proved too slow for the ever increasing amounts of data being sent over it, and in recent years the maximum speed was increased to 45 million bits per second. Even before the Net was able to reach that speed, however, Net experts were already figuring out ways to pump data at speeds of up to 2 billion bits per second fast enough to send the entire Encyclopedia Britannica across the country in just one or two seconds. Other major changes have been the development of commercial services that provide Internetworking services at speeds comparable to those of the government system and the rapid evolution of WWW.

Acknowledgments

The above history section was adapted from work written by Adam Gaffin (adamg@world.std.com) Senior Reporter, Middlesex News, Farmingham, Mass. and was reproduced with his permission.

When you drive down the Highway, you are not really "using" the road in the sense that you are not physically "doing" anything with the road. Instead you are using your car, which happens to work the best on a road. Your car actually uses the road to perform its duty of getting you somewhere. This analogy illustrates that you don't really use the Internet (Highway); instead, you use tools (cars/trucks/tractor-trailers) that use the Internet.

• Electronic Mail
• UseNet
• Telnet
• FTP
• Gopher
• World Wide Web

About Electronic Mail

An electronic "letter" is a computer file sent from one Email address to another using a special program that attaches an envelope to the file. This envelope contains all the address and return address information that is needed to complete the transaction.

Email Address

alex@strauss.udel.edu

alex is the userid. People who use the same system that you do can send you an Email message using only your standard userid. For example, other Strauss users can send Email to alex by sending mail to:

alex

If another user on campus wishes to send you an Email message, but that user uses a different computer system, e.g., EMC2, then s/he will need to send your Email to the following address:

alex@strauss

The vast majority of Email users do not have a computer account at the University of Delaware. If you want to send an Email outside the University you will need to use the full address:

alex@strauss.udel.edu

NOTE: This is true even for users outside the US. Although there is an international code that needs to be appended to computer addresses outside the US, i.e., .au for Australia. Computer addresses within the US do not need an additional country code when a user outside the US is sending mail.

Each computer address on the Internet has a unique numeric address that, for network purposes, is usually translated into a string of "words" separated by periods (strauss.udel.edu). Internet addresses are hierarchical: the general form for Email addresses is:

userid@computer.net.branch

or

The following examples illustrate this concept:

josie@chopin.udel.edu

"Josie" reads mail on her account at chopin, a computer at the University of Delaware, an educational institution.

smythe@chemvax.eng.syr.edu

"Smythe" reads mail on his/her account at chemvax, a computer on the eng network at Syracuse University, an educational institution.

reg3g@acadvm2.uottawa.edu

"Reg3g" read his/her mail at acadvm2, a computer at the University of Ottawa, a Canadian institution.

• chopin
• strauss
• brahms
• copland

• chopin.udel.edu
• strauss.udel.edu
• brahms.udel.edu
• copland.udel.edu (actually the address udel.edu will default to copland.udel.edu, creating five usable addresses).

Email Software

In the Internet world, it doesn't matter what kind of Email software you have on what computer. If the Email software understands Internet Email addresses, you can send mail to and get mail from anyone on the Internet.

Email Uses and Benefits

TIME

EXPENSE

There are three reasons why Internet communication is very inexpensive:

1. An Internet Access provider, whether it is the University of Delaware or a commercial provider, usually leases a very high-speed telephone line from a regional Internet provider. Because of the amount of traffic that these lines can handle, the Internet access provider is usually able to lease the line at a "volume discount."
2. When you send an electronic message or computer file over the Internet, the network hardware and software allow your message or file and other people's messages or files to travel at the same time. That is, since more than one message can be transmitted over the same link at the same time, the overhead cost is dramatically reduced.
3. If you call someone on the telephone and chat with her for twelve minutes, both of your telephones and telephone lines are tied up for those twelve minutes. However, if you spend twelve minutes composing an Email message to someone, your system and hers are both able to send and receive other messages while you compose your message. Further, when you send the message, it is delivered in seconds, it actually "ties up the line" for a fraction of a second, allowing the free flow of messages to continue since many files are traveling over the network.

PLACE

An Email address is specific to a person, and not to a location. Therefore you can send an Email message to someone knowing that even if she is not at her place of work, or residence, she can still get that message, assuming she has a lap-top and a modem. This is very beneficial for business people who can send and receive documents after working hours and on weekends. Businesses do not need to come to a standstill outside of office hours especially if office hours among businesses do not coincide, an issue for global organizations. This may be true to a certain extent for the telephone with new voice messaging services, but is certainly not true with the fax machine or regular mail.

FORM

AVOID THE GATEKEEPER!!

A second disadvantage of communicating with the gatekeeper is that the gatekeeper becomes a link in your communication channel and therefore increases the chances that the message will be altered before it reaches its intended recipient. This does not happen when the Email message is sent directly to the boss.

COMMUNICATION PROCESSING

Communication Processing is also important from the sender's perspective. You can send an Email message and not worry about intruding on the time of the recipient, knowing they will read it when they wish. This is especially advantageous with upward communication, communicating with someone at a higher level in the organization. This type of communication can be intimidating when using the telephone, that is, if the gatekeeper ever lets you through ;-). If you find it intimidating to communicate with someone, the chances are your message will not be very effective. CAVEAT: Although Email does facilitate "upward communication," and many organizations are becoming less hierarchical, you must be careful if you do operate within a hierarchical organization. For example, just because you can send an Email message to the CEO, should you? It may not be appropriate without getting your message funneled through the regular channels. Failure to remember your organization's communication hierarchy may upset your peers or intermediate supervisors, or the CEO herself, who may feel threatened by such liberal access!!

MAILING LISTS

INTERACTIVITY

OFFICE MANAGEMENT

A copy of all messages that you send via Email can be stored in your sent-mail folder, making it much easier to track your outbound correspondence. Many people find that stored Email messages make an excellent journal.

CRITICAL MASS

About Usenet News

These news groups allow users to correspond with other Internet users with similar interests. Although Usenet News is not a part of the Internet per se, Internet connectivity does give the user access. It is considered by many to be part of the Internet, and for the purposes of this guide it will be considered a part of the Internet.

Accessing Usenet News is much like walking down a long hallway lined with thousands of bulletin boards, each bristling with messages about a specific topic. You are free to read and reply to messages, or post new messages relevant to the particular news group. The big difference is that messages posted to an electronic news group can be read and responded to by people all over the world, rather than just those who happen to pass along that hallway.

News Groups

News group names are arranged in a particular hierarchy that indicates the topic of the news group. The names start with one of a series of broad topic names. These broad topic names are followed by more specific topic names. The greater the number of segments the news group name has, the more focused the topic of that news group.

The main hierarchies of news groups are:

bionet                  Research Biology
bit.listserv            BITNET originated news groups
biz                     Business
comp                    Computers and related subjects
misc                    Discussions that do not fit under other hierarchies
news                    News about Usenet
rec                     Recreational
sci                     Science (not including biology)
soc                     Social groups
talk                    Politics and related subjects
alt                     Controversial or unusual topics

udel                    Specific to the University of Delaware

rec.music.marketplace   A news group that is a forum for buying and
                        selling music.
soc.culture.europe      A news group that covers European cultural
                        issues.
udel.priv.buad301-014   A news group that is private, that was set up
                        for the University of Delaware's BUAD301
                        classes to discuss class issues and
                        disseminate class information.

Accessing Usenet News

To access Usenet News from your Unix account, you need to log-in as you needed to do for Email. Once logged-in, you need to access your "newsreader" program. At the University of Delaware you have the option of using rn ("read news") or trn ("threaded read news"). The Internet Tutorial on Usenet News gives you a hands-on tutorial for trn, including searching for appropriate news groups, reading a news group and posting a message to a news group.
You may also be able to use your web browser to access Usenet News. This is covered in the Tutorial on WWW and Netscape.

Netiquette (Network Etiquette)

Since Usenet News is not governed by a central censoring body, its governance is controlled by its participants through two mechanisms. If someone violates netiquette, that person may be flamed by other Usenet News users. Flaming involves sending sometimes exceedingly rude and threatening messages to the violator (or posting these messages to the news group for all to see). It seems that people feel capable of being more aggressive using this form of communication than when using any other written or verbal form of communication. I hope you don't have to experience it! The second mechanism for controlling netiquette violators is to send a message to the violator's systems administrator, alerting him/her of the violation. The violator may then lose his/her account.

Uses and Benefits of Usenet

VIRTUAL REALITY, A MEETING PLACE IN CYBERSPACE

People who initially meet on Usenet News often pursue their communication through Email as their professional/private relationship develops.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

VIRTUAL OFFICE

SUPPLEMENTING YOUR NEWS SOURCE

Usenet News has the ability to target its news to a specific audience, i.e., the subscribers to a particular news group. Traditional media cannot service the news requirements of all special interests and hobbyists as Usenet News can. Usenet News also has the ability to convey news in real time; print deadlines are not an issue.

Usenet News offers the subscribers of the news groups the power of the media, i.e., you can now be the reporter while concurrently being the recipient. Usenet News gives the power of the media to the experts of even the most remote/obscure subject, assuming there is a news group that covers that particular topic. Often, if a traditional form of media has to cover a particular news item about a subject about which they know little, they may just assign someone to the task without special concern for the accuracy of the news item.

Usenet News' ability to disseminate news to its subscribers can be seen in the following two examples.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

HOBBYISTS' NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS BASED ON CONTENT (ANONYMITY)

SOCIAL

Usenet news groups are also a socializing option for people at work. It is easy to take a 2-3 minute "social break" by catching up on your news groups, and it is less intrusive to coworkers than making personal telephone calls (which are often not allowed anyway.) It is important, however, to be cautious of using Usenet news groups for social interaction, some users have become addicted (authors not included ;-)).

COOPERATIVE CULTURE

CLASSROOM LEARNING TOOL

If you had a question concerning class material you would traditionally attend your instructor's office hour(s) (maybe an obscure time of the week, but certainly not a time that you chose), and ask your instructor the question, assuming you remember the question that had occurred when it is time to go to your instructor's office hour(s). With a Usenet news group, you can simply post the question to the news group as it occurs to you. It is also likely that if you have a question regarding class material, then other students will have a similar question. One question posted to the news group may save twenty students from coming to the instructor's office hour(s), and another 20 students forgetting to come to the office hour(s). Other students now have the opportunity to answer your question (cooperative learning!!), or your instructor can answer the question. The answers are posted to the news group for all your fellow students to review. This question and answer session may develop into a discussion that evolves into other related topics; this would never occur outside of this environment.

You may know about a real life/time example of something relevant to the material that is being discussed in class. You can post this information to the news group. This is very beneficial given limited classroom time to cover all materials. Many students do not wish to raise issues in class for a variety of reasons. A news group allows you to relate materials to real life at your leisure. This may evolve into a long discussion that cannot occur in classroom time.

A class Usenet news group can be used for a number of other learning activities. At the beginning of the semester it can be used as an "ice-breaker." You and all your fellow students can each post a note to the news group that includes a brief bio about yourself. You also read the bios of all your fellow students. This will shorten the time needed for all students to meet each other. It is very useful for a part-time graduate program where networking is one of perceived benefits of the program and students are generally only at the University in the evenings during class time.

The instructor may also require you to write a paper. If the instructor required you to post that paper to the news group when completed this would give your fellow students the opportunity to learn from your own research (cooperative learning!); this will of course be reciprocated when your fellow students post their papers. You may also be able to post the paper in draft form, before the assignment due date, and ask your fellow students for their comments in order to improve the quality of your paper.

Email and Usenet News are tools that facilitate electronic communication among the users. The remaining Internet tools that this guide looks at are used for information retrieval.

About FTP

FTP has two main applications.
The first is obtaining publicly accessible files from other systems on the Internet. This application is becoming less relevant as most files are now accessible through WWW which is more user friendly and becoming widely available.

Second, you can use FTP to transfer files between a desktop system connected to a network and other systems connected to the Internet. For example, FTP provides a fast way to transfer files from a computer in a University computing site to your UNIX account (and vice versa). If you live in a University residence hall and have arranged to have your personal microcomputer connected to the campus network, you can also use FTP to transfer files.

Obtaining Publicly Accessible Files

Anonymous FTP

The Internet Tutorial on FTP has an illustration of anonymous FTP. CAVEAT: Anonymous FTP sites are often available to a limited number of users at any one time. This can prove frustrating if you try to access popular FTP sites during rush hour (e.g., during the business day at that site).

Archie

Since Archie is a data base of file names, you will see full "UNIX-style" pathnames for the files. That is, you will see the name of the computer that has the file, the name of the file, and the directory in which that file is stored.

Downloading/Uploading Files With FTP

This is particularly useful if you have a document that you have prepared in WordPerfect (or another word processor) that you want to send to someone in an Email message or to post to a news group. For example, if you have completed your section of a group project and wish to share it with your fellow group members, you can upload the file and Email it to your group members for their comments.

Why would you want to log in to a library system when you cannot physically check out or read the books/magazines in that library? It is very helpful as a preliminary search technique when you are preparing to write a paper. Also, if the University of Delaware's library does not have a book that you locate in another library, you can request that our library get the book via inter-library loan.

CAVEAT: Systems that allow public access via telnet often allow only a limited number of users at any one time. This can prove frustrating if you try to access popular sites during rush hour (e.g., during the business day at that site).

The Internet Tutorial on telnet has an illustration of using telnet to access DELCAT.

About Gopher

Veronica

Veronica allows you to search all of gopherspace for a particular topic, allowing gopher to display those items wherever they may be. Veronica allows keyword searches as it scans the titles of all the files stored on the gopher servers throughout the world. Once the search has been executed, you will be presented with a list of all the files that are appropriate for the keyword you selected.

CAVEAT: Veronica is a popular tool. There are a limited number of "veronica servers" around the world, each of which allows a limited number of users at any one time. This can prove frustrating if you try to access popular servers during rush hour (e.g., during the business day at that site). Since all veronica servers can access the same information, keep trying!

Bookmarks

The Internet Tutorials section of this guide contains illustrations of using gopher to access Internet resources, using veronica to search gopherspace, and using bookmarks.

WWW and the browser?

Your browser is a tool for viewing information on WWW. There are many types of browsers used for viewing WWW. Currently the most popular are Netscape, Mosaic and Internet Explorer. Although Internet Explorer is relatively new in the marketplace, it is bundled with Microsoft's Windows 95 and therefore could challenge Netscape for market dominance. Different browsers display WWW content in similar formats; however there are small differences. This reduces the overall control of information display from the content provider. As browsers evolve and standards become universal these differences should disappear (assuming standards do become universal and do not diverge into two distinct formats, Internet Explorer vs. Netscape).

The WWW project, started by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics), seeks to build a distributed hypermedia system. Hypermedia takes the form of HyperText and multimedia. HyperText is seen in a document as text that is highlighted or of a different color than other text. HyperText is used for key terms for which there is more information available. The advantage of a HyperText document is that if you want more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can "click on it" to read further detail. In fact, documents can be and often are linked to other documents by completely different authors, much like footnoting, but you can get the referenced document instantly and from the other side of the world! In addition to linking to other documents, authors will often link in pictures, movies, and sounds! Your browser will display all of these on your screen so that you can take full advantage of all that hypermedia has to offer.

Why browse WWW?

WWW can be of great use to new Internet users because of its ease and the way that it standardizes many of the Internet offerings. Instead of needing to learn about many different programs, how to use them, where to find them, etc., you can learn the basic interface of your browser and have almost all of the Internet open to you immediately.

How can I use WWW?

Once I know how, then what do I do?

After you have explored for a while, you may begin to come across other sources for home pages. One example is the magazine Newsweek. In their regular column Cyberscope, Newsweek reporters will often have short articles about offerings on the Internet, including WWW pages. More companies are also including their WWW addresses in their traditional media advertising to encourage consumers to access their sites. The tutorial will show you how to recognize these "addresses" and what to do with them.

Uses and benefits of the WWW for the Corporate Community

WWW AUDIENCE

It is important that your target market (or segment of your target market) has access to WWW. As the medium is still in the introductory/growth stage of its life cycle the number of consumers that have access to WWW is still relatively small. Various studies, including the recent GVUs WWW User Survey , http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-04-1996, indicate the current level of use. It is important to note, however, the steep growth curve of the number of consumers with WWW access essentially makes published studies dated.

North America is more advanced along the life cycle of WWW, but other countries, particularly western european countries, are advancing rapidly. This rate of growth is going to be somewhat dependent on the changes in the existing telephone systems in countries outside of North America. Telephone charges directly effect the cost of the browsers' access to WWW and hence effect the level and type of use. The deregulation of the telephone systems in Europe in 1998 will accelerate this process.

The demographics of "typical" WWW users is most attractive. While the population may be relatively small, a review of the above surveys will reveal the high levels of discretionary income users have as well as their high level of education. They are also "innovators" in product purchasing; WWW users are therefore a very a ttractive target audience when marketing new products and technologically advanced products.

UNOBTRUSIVE ADVERTISING

Advertising on WWW is unobtrusive; that is, the user (browser) can choose what information s/he wishes to see. This is not the case with Email (junk mail sent to your Email in-basket), and Usenet News (broadcast advertisements posted to your news group cluttering up valuable discussions and waisting everybody's time).

Because advernets on WWW are unobtrusive, marketers need to develop new means to encourage their potential target market to access their information. Marketers must be sure that users are aware that they have a "Net Presence", that the latest information about their products is available over the Internet. Without an advernet plan, a marketer can only expect potential customers to find product information accidentally.

A solid advernet plan must:

• determine ways to promulgate pointers to the marketer's URLs where the potential customers will be exposed to them, both on WWW (via search engines, online catalogs and banner advertising) and in traditional media.
• employ graphics, sound, and video to enhance the potential customer's experience without inhibiting information access with "heavy" files. This encourages him/her to return to the site and Email the URL to all his/her friends!
• exploit the novelty of this medium by making a potential customer feel that s/he is getting the latest product information while using the latest technology.

INTERACTIVE MEDIA

WWW allows the potential customer either to browse or to make a focussed query for specific product information. With each query, the customer creates more information for her/himself, truly an interactive medium. The message the customer has received has been tailored precisely to his/her own needs.

Furthermore, with each query, the customer provides the marketer with direct and immediate feedback about the effectiveness of his/her advernet. A net-savvy marketer can learn where queries are coming from and get an immediate count of the number of people accessing their information. And, if the marketer is advertising a product that customers feel comfortable purchasing with credit cards, the number of purchases generated by the advernet is immediately apparent.

Since WWW facilitates a two-way flow of communication, the browser can communicate directly with the website. This is proving very effective with regard to customer service issues.

ELECTRONIC SHOPPING

Using a catalog on WWW to market and sell products is much more efficient than a regular mail order catalog. The catalog can be updated continuously, hence the marketer can, for example, be certain that a customer sees information about only items that are in stock. Because of the interactive nature of this medium, customers can request more detailed information of the products offered in the catalog, and ignore detailed information of other products offered that are of no interest to the customer. Once the customer is satisfied with his/her selection, s/he can make the purchase through this medium.

Issues regarding methods of payment need to be resolved before WWW becomes a significant channel of distribution. The issues revolve around developing methods to verify buyers as well as sellers and the safe transfer of money. These concerns should be resolved very shortly, but the perception that WWW is a secure environment for commerce will still take time to develop. To avoid these concerns, companies are closing the sale off-line, encouraging customers to use the fax or telephone to transfer credit card numbers or set up a customer account.

The customer's ability to create her/his own "electronic catalog" from a marketer's advernet and the marketer's ability to reach precise "niche" markets relatively inexpensively combine to allow WWW advernets to be a powerful marketing tool for larger purchases as well. For example, Volvo USA does not expect someone to purchase a station wagon over the net; however, their advernets allow them to provide customers with the precise information they need before they go for a test drive.

TIME AND PLACE UTILITY

Although the customer has control over when s/he reads the information, the marketer retains more control over the currency of the product information. Changes can be made immediately no excuses about holding up the Spring Catalog for that last bit of information.

WWW allows the marketer to display the information throughout the known universe, it is not limited by geographic boundaries as are other media. The limitation is access to WWW, which although at this time is problematic, it is attractive to marketers whose target market is the newly defined "Techno- Savvy". But the audience for a marketer's WWW advernets is expanding exponentially. More and more homes have personal computers. More and more of those households are subscribing to commercial services such as America On-Line. Microsoft is now in the marketplace as are major telephone companies such as AT&T. This competition can only help grow the size of the browser market.

PUBLISHING

Because the barriers to entry for WWW publishing are significantly less than traditional publishing, a number of small publishers are able to publish "webzines" that focus on very specific topics. The growth of these special interest webzines are a real benefit of WWW, but the reader must be very careful to qualify the source of information.

BEYOND BUSINESS

File formats

HTML

GIF

JPEG

MPEG

Sound files

PostScript Files

Useful Terms

Client or Browser

These terms mean the same thing. They refer to the program that you use to view documents on WWW. Generally this will mean Netscape, Mosaic or Internet Explorer.

Server

A server distributes documents requested by your browser (Netscape).

URL

This stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is the Internet standard for addresses. It has the general form protocol://hostname/dir/filename. The major protocols are:

• HTTP://... This stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This is the form used for documents used by WWW, that is, documents which are formatted for display by your browser.
• GOPHER://... This stands for documents on a gopher server. Although these documents are available through gopher, your browser can also read them.
• FTP:// ... These are documents or files on an FTP server. Like gopher, these are available by other means, including WWW.

Double Click

This is a term referring to mouse operation. To double click something, you position the mouse pointer on it and then rapidly press the left button twice. If nothing happens, just try again.

Dialog Box

When using programs like Netscape, the programmers often put features into separate parts of the program to make them easier to work with. Dialog boxes are an example. Dialog boxes are the boxes which appear on the screen when you choose to execute certain commands. They are called dialog boxes because they request more information from the user, therefore starting a "dialog".

Extension

Filenames are quite often composed of two or more parts separated by a period or dot. The last part of the filename is usually a code for what the file contains, this is called the extension.

Home Page

A home page is a page where you start from. It will usually be the first page that loads when you start Netscape. It can also refer to the primary page of a website, i.e. the University of Delaware home page.

1. All commands in []s represent keys on the keyboard. For example [Ctrl] represent the control key, and [RET] represents the return (or enter) key.
2. All commands in ""s indicate that you should replace the information in ""s with your own. For instance, if you see the command "filename", you replace this with the filename you created.

How to Activate Your Computer Account

Where to Log on to the System

Monday-Thursday   9:00 AM   12:00 AM
Friday            9:00 AM   6:00 PM
Saturday          2:00 PM   6:00 PM
Sunday            12:00 PM  12:00 AM

• Smith Hall, room 002
• Morris Library Basement
• Harrington Commons Computer Site
• Christiana Commons Computer Site

How to Log on from the B&E Lab

Logging on from Windows

1. Find the icon for the Windows logon program. It will have a title like "Wtnvt".
2. Double Click on the icon to start the program.
3. A list of the composers will appear. Click on, "Strauss."
4. Choose the "OK" button.
5. You will see the prompt: "strauss.udel.edu login:" (assuming you are using Strauss), type in your "user number", then press the [RET] key.
6. You will be asked for your password, type in your "password", then press [RET].

How to Join a Group Project

1. At the % prompt type: chdgrp 0001 [RET]
2. Now type: "password" [RET]

How to Change Your Password

1. After logging on to the system, at the % prompt type: passwd [RET]
2. You will be asked once for your old password, and twice for your new password. You must press [RET] between each password. Your new password should be between 6-8 characters, include letters, numbers and symbols, and not contain any spaces.

How to Change Your User ID to a Recognizable Username

1. After logging on to the system type: username [RET]
2. The computer will prompt you through the remainder of the procedure.

How to Find the User ID of a Classmate, Professor, or Friend

1. At the % prompt type: finger "user's firstname.lastname"@udel.edu [RET]

1. At the % prompt type: finger "user's name"@"computer address" |more [RET], press [SPACE BAR] to move through the text.

How to create your signature file

1. At the % prompt type: pico .signature [RET]
   You are creating a .signature file using pico as your text editor.
2. In the text area, include the information you want to appear at the end of your correspondence, for example, name, address, Email address etc.
3. Press [CONTROL] x, you will be asked if you want to save your changes, press y, you will be prompted with the file name (.signature), press [RET]
   You have now created your signature file.

How to Access Email Using Pine

1. At the % prompt type: pine [RET] to access the Pine software. You will be sent to the Main Menu screen. All options are displayed vertically on the left of the screen, and across the bottom. All other menus have the options displayed across the bottom. To select an option press the letter next to the option you wish to use.

How to Send a Mail Message

1. From the Main Menu, press c to select the Compose Menu.
2. At the To: field, type the user's Email address that you wish to send the message. For the purposes of this tutorial, send a message to yourself. Do this by typing your own user ID number, and then pressing the [TAB] key.
3. Press [TAB] to the appropriate fields and complete as you wish. If you do not want to complete the field just [TAB] to the next one. It is important to complete the subject field as this message will appear in the in-basket of the recipient (in this case, your own in-basket). After the subject field press [TAB] to the text area to type in your text.
4. After completing your message press ^x ([Ctrl] x) to send the message. You will be asked "Send message?" [y] press y to confirm that you want to send the message.

How to Read, Reply to, and Delete Your Mail

1. From the Main Menu press i for the Mail Index menu. If you sent a message to yourself, you should see it appear in your in- basket, but don't worry if there is a short time delay.
2. You can use the arrow keys to highlight the message you wish to read (if you have more than one), press v (or [RET]) to view the message.
3. After reading the message press i to return to the Mail Index menu.
4. If you wish to delete a message press d to delete it. You can do this while you are in the Mail Index menu, using the arrow keys, or when you are reading the message. If you delete the message while you are reading it, type i to return to the Mail Index menu.
5. Now press u, this will undelete the message.
6. You can reply to a message from the Mail Index menu by highlighting the message you wish to reply to and typing r. You will be asked if you want to reply to all recipients, type y or n. You will be given the option to add to the text of the original message to the reply. You will then only need to add your text and press ^x ([Ctrl] x) to send. You will be asked if you want to send the message, type: y. You may want to wait and try this part after you receive a message from someone other than yourself. Perhaps you could use the finger command to find the user number of a class mate and Email each other to practice sending messages and replying.

How to File Your Mail

1. From the Mail Index menu use the arrow key to highlight the message you wish to file. Type s to save the message. You will be asked for a folder name. If you just press [RET], the message will be saved in the file folder saved-messages. Alternatively you can create a new file folder by just typing in a name and then pressing [RET]. The message will be automatically deleted from the in-basket when you quit the pine software, and it will be added to the file-folder you designate.
2. To read an old message in an existing file-folder type: l for the folder list.
3. Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate file-folder. Press: [RET] to open the folder.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate message, press v (or [RET]) to view the message.
5. Press i to return to the Mail Index menu for the folder you have just viewed. To return to the in-basket folder, you will need to press l again, and select the in-basket folder.

How to Create a Mailing List

1. From the Main Mail menu type: a You are accessing the address option.
2. Press s to create a new address list.
3. You will be asked to give a description of the new list. Type: "an appropriate description of the group members" [RET]
4. You will be asked to give your list a nickname. Type: group [RET]
   This is the nickname you will use to send mail to the entire mailing list.
5. You will be asked to enter the first address, you need to know your group members ID user #s (or usernames). Type: "first ID" [RET], keep doing this until you have entered all your group members' IDs, after the last one, press [RET] twice.
6. Press: m to return to the main pine menu.
7. To send a note to group members, do as you would to an individual, but replace the individual's ID with the group nickname you specified (group).

How to Print a Message

1. From the main menu press: s for other commands.
2. Press: p to print.
3. Press: 2
4. Type: lpr [RET]
5. In the future, when you want to print, press: y (to print) when you are in the body of the message that you want to print. The computer will ask if you want to print the printer you previously identified, which is the laser printer in Smith Hall. Press: y, the note will print to the online printer.

How to Log Out of Pine

1. From the Main Mail menu type: q to quit the pine mail program.
2. You will be asked if you want to quit pine, type: y.
3. If you have deleted messages during your current work session you will be asked if you want to expunge the deleted messages from the in-basket, type: y.
4. Last, you will be asked if you want to save read messages to the folder "read mail". If you wish to do this, then press: y, else press: n. This moves messages from your In-basket folder to your Read-mail folder.
5. You will be returned to the % prompt.

About Usenet News

Accessing Usenet News

1. Type: g udel.mba-news [RET]

1. After logging in to brahms, chopin, strauss or copland, at the % prompt, type: ~alex/mba [RET].
2. Press: [RET] again
3. Press: 2 [RET]
4. Press: y [RET]
5. Press: 5 [RET] to exit. You will be asked if you want to keep changes as made? Type y [RET]
6. Type: trn [RET]

How to Read Unread Articles on udel.general

1. At the % prompt, type: trn [RET]
2. You will be asked if you want to subscribe to any new news groups, type N [RET] ([SHIFT] plus the n key). You can resubscribe to them if you wish at a later date. The computer will scroll through all the new news groups that have been created since you last accessed trn. If you haven't accessed trn for a long period, you may consider repeating the steps in the previous section.
3. You have two options for reading unread news from your subscribed news group(s). Option 1 sends you directly to the news group you wish to read and lets you read all the unread articles. Option 2 allows you to read the unread articles that you select, assuming that you do not wish to read all articles.

Option 1

You will be prompted with the number of unread articles in the news group. If there are no unread articles you may quit by typing the letter q, returning you to the % prompt.

If there are unread articles press the [SPACE BAR], you will see a menu that lists the unread articles. Make sure you press the [SPACE BAR] key and not the [RET] key, this is a common mistake. Press the [SPACE BAR] again to read the first unread article in the news group. Press the [SPACE BAR] until all the articles are read. When finished you will be prompted "End of news group udel.mba-news" with information on the next news group with unread articles, if any. Type: q to quit, you will be returned to the % prompt. If you do not wish to read all the unread articles, you may quit at any time by typing q twice.

Option 2

Save Articles From Your News Group for Future Reference

1. At the end of the article you wish to save (you can actually do this while in the middle of reading the article if you wish), type: | mail "your user ID" [RET] Note that the "|" symbol used above is not the letter ell "l' or the numeral one "1", but the vertical bar character that appears on only computer keyboards. This symbol is often the shift key of the backslash character "\".

How to Read Old Articles

Option 1

1. When you are in the article selection menu, the menu that gives you the articles to read, the title and author, press: U ([SHIFT] u). This will bring back all the previous articles in the news group.
2. Press: < ([SHIFT] , ) to move to the first article selection menu (you may have to do this more than once or not at all if you are already on the first page of the article selection menu).
3. Press the letter that appears in the row of the article you are looking for, as you did in a previous section.
4. Press: [SPACE BAR] to move to the next menu, repeat this until the article appears.
5. At the end of the article, press: | mail "your user ID" [RET] You did this in a previous sections.

Option 2

1. At the article selection menu, type: /"KEYWORD"/r:m:+ [RET]
   This will create a search of all read articles with the keyword in the subject header. Replace KEYWORD with a word that appeared in the subject header of the article you are looking for. If the article(s) you searched for does not appear in the article selection menu, press: < ([Shift] ,) to move to the previous page of articles, keep doing this until the article appears in the selection menu. You will see a + by all the articles that your search discovered. If there are no articles, then you may consider using a different keyword!!

How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe to Other News Groups

1. To generate a list of the names of news groups that cover a topic, at the news group selection level, type: l (for list) "topic name" [RET] (one space between l and topic name). If this search does not bring up a news group, don't despair, use a different keyword for your search, don't forget, there are more than 8,000 news groups!
2. You will be given a list of all news groups that cover that topic. To subscribe to a news group, type: g "news group name" [RET]
   You will be asked if you want to subscribe to the news group, type: y, press: [RET]. You will now be subscribed to the news group.
3. To unsubscribe to a news group, type: g "news group name" [RET]. You will be prompted with the status of unread news articles, type: u. You are now unsubscribed to that news group. To return to the % prompt, type: q.

Printing From the News Group

Option 1

1. At the end of the article you wish to print (or while you are reading it), type: | qpr -q smips [RET] The article will be printed by Smith Hall's laser printer.

Option 2

1. At the end of the article you wish to print (or while you are reading it), type: | kpr [RET]
   The article will be printed by your local printer attached to your computer. (This will not work in the B&E lab.)

Option 3

1. Mail the article to your Email address, as you did in the previous section, and print it as you would normally print your Email messages.

Option 4

1. While reading the article, press the print screen button on your computer, if you are in the B&E lab, make sure the printer is "pointing" to your computer.

Post an Article to Your News Group

Option 1 Posting a follow-up article (Replying to an article)

1. If you want to reply to a note on the news group, when reading the note type: f (if you type F ([Shift] f), you will include the original article in your reply).
2. You will be asked if you are starting an unrelated topic, type: n [RET]
3. You will be asked if you are absolutely sure you want to do this, type: y [RET]
4. You will be asked prepared to include [none], type: [RET]
5. You will be prompted for a text editor. Type: pico [RET]
6. Use the [DOWN ARROW] key to get to the text area of the message (below the Cc: field). Leave an extra line after the Cc: field. This is very important. You will now be able to type your response.
7. When finished type ^x ([Ctrl] x).
8. You will then be asked if you wish to save the file, type: y.
9. Pico will then prompt you with a file name. Do not change the file name, just type: [RET]
10. You will be asked if you want to send the message, type: s [RET]

Option 2 Creating an article

1. At the % prompt type: pico "filename" [RET]
   This will send you to the pico text editor where you can create your document.
2. After creating the document type: ^x ([Ctrl] x). You will be asked if you wish to save your work, type: y. You will be prompted with the name of the file, press: [RET] (to keep the same filename) or, if you want to change the filename, type: "filename" [RET].
3. You will be returned to the % prompt, type: Pnews [RET]
4. You will be prompted "news group(s):" type: udel.mba-news [RET] (or the name(s) of the news group(s) that you wish to post the note to).
5. You will be prompted "distribution :", type: udel [RET]
6. You will be prompted "Title/Subject:", type: "title" [RET].
7. You will be prompted "... to do this? [ny]", type: y [RET]
8. You will be prompted "prepared file to include [none]:", type: "filename" [RET], the filename of the file you created in the pico text editor. Press s [RET] to send the file. You will be returned the % prompt.

Transfer a Publicly Accessible File to Your Own Account

1. At the % prompt type: ftp zebra.us.udel.edu [RET]
2. At the Name prompt type: anonymous [RET]
3. You will be asked for a password, type: "your Email address" [RET]
4. To see a list of directories, type: ls [RET]
5. One of the directories listed is pub (this is the directory that stores publicly available files). That is the directory we are looking for. Type: cd pub [RET]
6. To find the file we are looking for, type: cd Univ_of_Delaware_Responsible_Computing_Policy [RET] (cd is a unix command for changing directory)
7. To list the files in this directory type: ls [RET]
8. One of the files listed, UDpolicy.asc is the file we want to transfer. To do that type: get UDpolicy.asc [RET]
9. At the ftp prompt type: quit [RET]
10. To check the file was transferred successfully, try to access it as follows: at the % prompt type: pico UDpolicy.asc [RET]. It should now appear on your screen. Press: ^v (CONTROL v) a few times to scroll down to the bottom of the document.
    Note the last update date given. This is not a reflection of the currency of UD computing policy, but of using ftp (as opposed to WWW) to distribute information! When done viewing the file, press: ^x (CONTROL x) to exit the file.

1. At the % prompt type: telnet delcat [RET], press [RET] a second time.
2. You will be asked for a terminal type, type: vt100 [RET] (or the appropriate terminal type, perhaps z29 or gp29)
3. Press: [RET] again. You now have access to the on-line catalog system at the Morris library, continue as if you were in the library. When you have finished type: quit [RET] to return to the % prompt.

About Gopher

Using Veronica to Search Gopherspace

1. To access gopher from the % prompt type: gopher [RET]

1. Move the cursor down to "Off-Campus Information Services/", press [RET]
2. Move the cursor down to "Search Gopherspace using veronica/", press [RET]
3. You are now at the menu that gives you your veronica options, i.e., which veronica server to use. You should select one of the "Search Gopherspace by Title word(s)......" options. If you cannot access the one you select, try another one, they all search the same information. If you are still having problems, you should try at another time.
4. Now enter the keyword that you want to use to search. For example, if you were looking for MBA programs, type mba [RET]. You are now presented with a list (could be more than one page) of entries that fit your search.
5. To find Delaware's MBA program entry, you can use the / search command. Type: / delaware [RET]. The arrow should now be pointing at the Delaware entry. Alternatively, you can use the arrow keys to browse through the entries.
6. Press: [RET] to access the entry that interests you.

Using Bookmarks to Manage Your Gopher Queries

1. At the % prompt type: gopher [RET]
2. Move the cursor down to "Off-Campus Information Services/", press: [RET]
3. Move the cursor down to "Online Career Center (Indianapolis, IN)/", press: [RET]
4. You now have several choices. If you want to search for a job, move the cursor down to "* Search Jobs/" [RET]
5. Again, you have many options, chose the one appropriate to you. The purpose for us at this time is to make this information easily accessible for you in the future. When you have finished, press: u (this moves you up one menu level), repeat this until the menu appears with the "Online Career Center.../", when you are at this menu press: a (the letter a), [RET].
6. Now quit gopher, press: q [RET]
7. You have two options to access your bookmark(s). At the % prompt type: gopher -b [RET] This will take you straight to your bookmark menu. Alternatively you can access your bookmark menu in gopher, press: v

Note: The instructions in this tutorial are designed for users who are using Netscape. Other browsers may use different commands to perform similar tasks.

Where to access WWW

Starting Netscape

First steps

Navigating Netscape with the Buttons

The final button is labeled "Stop". This is useful when you are trying to load a document that is taking too long to load. Press the Stop button and the document will stop loading. You will either have access to the partial document or the previous document. To try to reload the document you may want to use the "Reload" button (assuming you had the partial document).

Navigating Netscape with the menus

Across the very top (above the buttons) of the Netscape window you will notice a series of words, "File", "Edit", etc. These words are the titles of menus in Netscape. You can access these menus by clicking on the word with the mouse button and continuing to hold the mouse button down. When you do this, a list appears with all the choices that you have from that menu. You select a choice by dragging the mouse pointer over the name and then releasing the button. Many of the menu choices will do the same thing as the buttons below, but there are few important features which can only be accessed with the menus.

Saving files

You can save files to your hard drive for further review. To do this:

1. When you are on a page you wish to save, use the mouse to select the menu called "File".
2. Drag the mouse over the selection "Save As:".
3. You will then be prompted with a file name to save it as...complete as appropriate. The file is now on your hard drive (disk). You can use Netscape to view it as a local file by accessing the same "File" menu, drag the mouse over the selection "Open File", type in the file name. This allows Netscape to view a local file.
4. The "Open Location" option, under the "File" menu, allows you to access other documents on WWW much like the "Open" button as discussed previously.

View Source

As you become familiar with WWW you may want to see the html programming that created the documents that you view. This is particularly useful if you design WWW pages. Simply:

1. When you are on a page you wish to view, use the mouse to select the menu called "View".
2. Drag the mouse over "Document Source".
3. You should now be able to view the document as it was written, with its html coding etc.
4. When finished, press the x in the top right hand corner to return to the page.

Bookmarks

One useful feature of Netscape is the Bookmark. This gives you the ability to remember where you have been so that you can quickly return there if you ever want to view the information again. To do this:

1. When you are on the page you wish to bookmark, use the mouse to select the menu called "Bookmark".
2. Drag the mouse over the selection "Add to Bookmark" and release the button.
3. The URL is then added to your bookmark list.

Later, to return to the page you added, you can do so by doing the following:

1. Use the mouse to select the menu "Bookmark".
2. Drag the mouse over the selected page you are looking for (from the list of all bookmarked pages) and release the button.
3. You will see the page loading.

Searching WWW

There are many search engines that you can access if you want to explore WWW and look for certain information without knowing a specific web address. Popular search engines include Alta Vista, http://altavista. digital.com, Excite http://www.excite.com, HotBot http://www.hotbot.com, Infoseek http://infoseek.com:80/Home/, Open Text http://www.opentext.com:8000, Webcrawler http://webcrawler.com and the Yahoo Directory http://www.yahoo.com.

If you give your search engine a list of keywords, it will search its database of all the WWW pages for documents with those words appearing in them. These databases are updated frequently and attempt to include a significant portion of WWW world. Try the above search engines looking for MBA programs. Perhaps use the keyword mba (Did the University of Delaware MBA Program appear at all?!)

Accessing useful corporate sites

As an example of the marketing capabilities of WWW and Netscape, you will now visit a site that includes a collection of marketing sites:

1. Start Netscape as you normally would.
2. Press the "Open" button to call up the "Open URL" box.
3. In the space for the address, enter http://www.udel.edu/alex/wwwlinks.html
4. Press the "Open" button on the dialog box. The address will begin to load.
5. Various links from this page will take you to sites such as Coca Cola, Federal Express, Saturn, The CD Store, Hall of Malls, Fallon McElligott etc. Enjoy.

Accessing Usenet News Groups

You can access Usenet news groups from Netscape (as an alternative to using trn). You must first check that your preferences on Netscape are enabled to read news.

1. From the menu at the top of your Netscape window, select "Options", then select "Mail and News Preferences".
2. Under News preferences check that your News server reads news.udel.edu (assuming you are accessing the University of Delaware's news server). If it doesn't, type: news.udel.edu in the box and press: "OK".

You can access Usenet News groups by double-clicking on a link to a news group, or by accessing a selected news group of your choice.

Accessing a "linked" news group.

Many news groups are linked from WWW. If you have an appropriate browser (Netscape 2.0 for example) you can read the news group and correspond as you would in trn (if you are familiar with WWW and not trn then this may be a more "user friendly" option.)

1. Click on the news group link. For example, from the Delaware MBA page focusing on current full-time job postings, (http://www.udel.edu/alex/mba/main/full.html), click on udel.mba-news. You now have access to the Delaware MBA news group.
2. Three boxes will appear. The top left box lists the different news groups you have access to, with the Delaware MBA news group highlighted. The top right box lists articles in the news group. The bottom box shows the article that is highlighted from the top right box.
3. You can use the scroll option on the right of the screen to read the highlighted message, or use the up/down arrow keys to select other articles. Buttons across the top of the window allow you to:
   • Post a new message
   • Reply to the author of the current message
   • Post a reply to the news group
   • Post a reply and send a message to the author
   • Forward the message
   • Move to the previous message
   • Move to the next message
   • Mark the thread as read
   • Mark all messages as read
   • Print the message

Accessing a selected news group.

To access a news group of your choice:

1. Click on the "window" option from the menu across the top of your browser (netscape).
2. Scroll down to the Netscape News option.
3. You will see a display similar to the previous example. Click on "file" and scroll down to the Add Newsgroup option. A dialogue box will appear. Type in the name of the newsgroup you wish to access and press: "OK".
4. Continue as you did in the previous example.

Remote Login

To be able to access Netscape from home you will need to create an ethernet connection. For details on how to do this, access the University of Delaware PPP Center, http://www.udel.edu/richard/subject/PPP/.

You can use remote login to access the UNIX system from your work- place or from home. This will allow text use only. To do this, you must have a modem with your computer, and terminal emulation software. If you already have terminal emulation software, then you only need set it to the parameters required by the composers:

1. Set your terminal emulation parameter to one of the following: vt100, vt102, or vt220.
2. Set your system to 8 data bits.
3. Set your parity to "None."
4. Set your stop bits to 1.

How you set the above will be dependent on the software that you use. You will need to consult your manual in order to determine what you need to do in order to set your software.

If you do not have any modem software, you can go to the basement of Smith Hall to obtain a copy of Kermit for IBM compatible PCs or MacKermit for the Macintosh. You will need to bring one high density diskette or two low density diskettes in order to get a copy. Kermit comes with documentation on its installation and use. Kermit is also supported by the University, so you will be able to receive assistance from the Helpdesk.

After you have the software setup properly, all you need do is dial the proper number. If you live in New Castle county, you may dial 831-3220. If you live in Kent county, you may dial 734- 1472, and if you live in Sussex county, then you may dial 645- 4052.

Getting Help

The University of Delaware has many knowledgeable consultants on duty at the many University sites on campus. You may go to one of these sites to get help from these consultants. If you feel that you need more than the usual attention, then you may want to go to the basement of Smith Hall site. The consultants there are particularly experienced and can help you with any of the topics covered in this guide. If you cannot come in to the University sites, then you may call the Information Technologies Helpdesk at 831-6000 or you can Email for help at consult@udel.edu.

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The University of Delaware
August, 1996