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This section of our website is devoted to helping you use the technology resources offered by the library.
Click the link below for the information you need.
The previous section dealt with making the basic connection between your machine and the Internet. This section is concerned with how to make use of the various resources available once connected.
Parents should note that UseNet and IRC are the most troublesome areas of the Internet in regards to objectionable content and that some supervision is usually required if children are to be allowed to use these resources.
E-mail is by far the most common and widely available of all Internet resources. You can send and recieve e-mail from almost anyone else with an e-mail account, regardless of the type of system they are connected to; all you need is their internet style address and the Internet will figure out the details of routing the message between your computers.
There are a variety of different programs which are capable of processing e-mail through our system. Two will be discussed here, Pine and Trumpet News/Mail.
Pine is the e-mail program we have installed for your use from a UNIX shell account. It is completely preconfigured when your account is created and has pretty good online help. Other than recommending reading the online help and perhaps the ``man'' page, not much more need be said here. (Like all UNIX software, Pine can be customized, but this is something you will need to discover on your own.)
Trumpet News/Mail will be included on the disks we supply and will run under both Windows 3.1x and Windows 95. Most settings will be preconfigured to talk to our system, except those related to your identity. To configure it, connect to our system, launch it and select File-Setup. Then fill in the following blanks:
E-Mail Address: [username] @ [beau.lib.la.us]
Full Name: [Your real name]
POP Username: [username]
POP Password: [the same password you login with]
NNTP Username: [ ] Leave it blank
NNTP Password: [ ] Leave it blank
Click
One easy way to confirm that you have everything set up and working is to send yourself mail. If you successfully compose, send and fetch your own mail, it is all but certain to work when anyone else sends mail to you. (As illogical as this may sound.)
Once you have been online for awhile, your e-mail needs will likely outgrow Trumpet News/Mail. At that time you will need to obtain several of the other mail programs available (most of them free for the downloading via the Internet) and try them to find one which can both handle your increasing demands and is still easy enough for you to use. At the time of this writing, Eudora and Pegasus Mail appear to be the two most popular Windows based programs, although several others are also in use.
A basic news feed is coming soon. If you need access to a larger news feed, you may check with a provider carrying a complete feed (such as DataExchange). A shell account which allows you to access news should be inexpensive.
Netscape Communications makes their Web Browser available from their Internet site, as does Microsoft . Both are freely available for downloading by individuals. (Microsoft's Internet Explorer is currently being given away totally free for promotional reasons, while Netscape's Navigator is only free for non-commercial users. Purchasing Netscape from their online store entitles you to printed documentation and support, however.) This section will document how to obtain and install Netscape Navigator. Space does not permit a similar section for Internet Explorer, but the procedure is quite similar.
The first problem is the unfortunate fact that most of the time Netscape's homepage will have so much of their proprietary (meaning non-standard) HTML code on it that neither Cello (the browser we provide on our startup disks) nor Internet Explorer 1.0 (provided with many copies of Windows 95) can view it.
The easiest way around the problem is to simply bypass their web pages entirely and obtain it directly via FTP. Since new versions are released on a regular basis, the exact file and it's location can't be put into a document such as this, however we will try to get you pretty close.
HINT: This document is also on our web site and all of the locations mentioned in it are linked so that you may just click on the words! Cello should automatically load our title page, so just select the Frequently Asked Questions link. If you are using another browser, enter the following URL:
http://www.beau.lib.la.us/support/faq.html
Step by step checklist:
(Using Cello, select Jump/Open via URL and enter it in exactly as shown.)
pub then navigator. (Assuming the directories on
Netscape's server have not changed since this was written, these
steps could be shortened by simply adding the directories onto the
initial URL, thus:
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/navigator
)windows at this point.DOS (Double click Command Prompt or select
File-Run-command from Program Manager.) and type the following
commands exactly as shown:
Type this What it should do
========================== ====================================
MD \DTXTMP (make a scratch directory)
CD \DTXTMP (select it as your working directory)
C:\NET\CELLO\N16Exxx.EXE (uncompress Netscape into it)
EXIT (return to Windows)
--back in Program Manager now
Pick File (pull down the file menu)
Pick Run (pick Run)
Type: \DTXTMP\SETUP (begin Netscape's installation)
After exploring the Internet for even a short time, you will see many other services and programs being mentioned. Obtaining these various programs and keeping up to date with new versions can often be a chore, considering current rapid rate of development.
However, most of the vital tools are collected together at various archive sites for your convience. One such site is Tucows .
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