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Welcome to Victoria Free-Net! - This is a FAQ on Victoria Free-Net. |
It is a list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. This FAQ is a good place for new users to start finding out about Victoria Free-Net. Before you post a question, first look through the most recent FAQ posted to see if it contains an answer to your question.
What is a FAQ?
Note for users with graphical browsers:
Commands or words that you type in are bold throughout this document.
Responses from the system are in italic.If you find any errors in this FAQ please point them out (if you can include a copy of the text where the error is found that would be great) by sending an e-mail to VIFA admin
(vifa@freenet.victoria.bc.ca).
If you have a question that is not answered by this FAQ, please post your question to the Admin Q&A (see answer 36 of this FAQ for how to get there). Remember if you have a question on a subject it is likely other users have the same question - so don't e-mail your questions but post them where everyone can assist you in both finding and benefiting from the answerInformation in this FAQ is derived from posted questions and their respective answers. We don't have an exact list of everyone who has contributed to this FAQ, but we thank anyone who has posted and participated in Free-Net. Posting is a great way to get involved on Free- Net and meet other Free-Net users. Victoria Free-Net users have made this FAQ possible.
Read, learn and have fun!
Table of Contents Where is the Freenet FAQ available?
How can I move to a specific question?
FTP questions
Telnet questions
MUDís - Multi-UserDimensions
Bandwidth considerations
Other ways to access Freenet
Why is the connection so slow?
All about editors
Usenet and local Newsgroups
Finding Internet Addresses
Full Internet Access
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
How do I stop the messages from scrolling off the screen
SIGS - 2 meanings. Answers to both
Setting up aliases in email
Reporting problems
Changing your password
Changing to a personalized ID
The For Sale area
Coredumps
Chain letters
1. Where is the Free-Net FAQ available?
The FAQ is periodically posted in Douglas and Yates and the Administration Question and Answer SIG's. It is also always available in Free-Net's Gopher. At the ==> prompt type:
go Gopher
and press enter.
Select "Victoria Free-Net", then "Frequently Asked Questions". All the questions and answers are available there plus some additional information that is too long to include in the posted FAQ.
2. How can I move to a specific question in this FAQ?
If you want to jump to a specific question without having to scroll through everything else just type / and enter the question. For example, if you want to go to question 19. Type:
/
(no need to press enter), and the prompt "Pattern to search for:" is displayed. Type:
19
and press enter.
Note that it is possible that the number you have typed may occur somewhere else in the text. If this happens your cursor may not jump to the spot you were interested in. You can either repeat the pattern search or type in more information in your original pattern search. For example instead of just typing "19" type "19. How".
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3. Can I access an FTP site from Free-Net?
No. There is no direct FTP access from the Free-Net.
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4. Why can't we get FTP access?
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) requires an Internet connection (bandwidth) and disk space. There is limited disk space available on Free-Net. FTP can lead to very large files being saved by many. Because of these reasons there is neither FTP access nor a shared file area available on Victoria Free-Net. (see also question about ftpmail).
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5. Will more disk space allow FTP access?
More disk space would make more room for saving files but there are areas of higher priority. Therefore the answer is 'NO' - more disk space will not allow FTP access.
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6. Can I use "ftpmail" to obtain some files via FTP?
This is not encouraged on Free-Net as this kind of transfer consumes network bandwidth and disk space. Uudecoding will have to be dealt with by yourself too. The Victoria Free-Net is not in the files downloading business and there are local BBS's that deal with this specifically.
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7. Hey! I found a way to FTP through Gopher!?
Users have found ways to get around the Free-Net menus and access FTP and telnet. As previously discussed there are specific reasons why access is not given for FTP and telnet. Whether you announce your discovery or not, *any* abuse of privileges will be noticed by the sysops and that channel of access will be disabled.
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8. Can I telnet to another place?
Yes and No. Free-Net was set up for local information and interaction. The only external connections from Free-Net are other Free-Nets (Canadian and International) and public Internet sites listed in the menus, the Gopher and the Web servers. Telnet and other forms of Internet connections via the Web server are disabled.
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MUD stands for multi-user dimension/dungeon. This is where several people can interact together. They are mostly role playing games (RPG). You need telnet access to get at MUDs. Free-net does not allow unlimited telnet access to external areas and attempting to access a MUD will result in an error message.
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10. Why doesn't Free-Net get it's own Internet line/satellite Usenet feed?
Freenet is now no longer dependent on Camosun College for our Internet feed. We are now going directly through a local Internet Service Provider with a high speed direct connect. With this connection, the expense of a satellite connection is not feasible or required. We are grateful to Camosun College for sharing their connection with us during our first two years of operation.
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11. Should we use Gopher instead of Usenet to save disk space?
Reading Usenet news locally is preferred since Gopher does use bandwidth. Reading news here does not use more disk space since articles are going to be on the hard disk whether you read them or not.
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"Bandwidth" (the size of the connection to the Internet - a good analogy is a pipe containing water, if you want to put more water through you must either increase the size of the pipe or speed up the flow of the water) is used for any external connections coming into or going from Free-Net. These connections are created when-ever users use the gopher functions, select external options from the menus, and are also created by users who telnet in, including anyone from other Freenets, Camosun College, and UVic just to name a few.
Our pipeline' is a fixed size. We must determine which services can be handles within this pipe and exclude those services which would place an undue burden on its capacity.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Is there any other way to access the Free-Net here other than calling in from home?
There are a few ways to get to Free-Net, but not all are available to everyone. The obvious is calling in from home. There are three Free-Net terminals located at the Central library at 735 Broughton. In the near future, all GVPL branches plan to have public terminals.
If you have an Internet account you can telnet to Free-Net. This is done by typing:
telnet freenet.victoria.bc.ca
and logging in as usual. Please note the other questions dealing with connecting to Free-Net in this section.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Where are the library's Free-Net terminals?
As of this date, there are three terminals located at the Greater Victoria Public Library, main branch downtown at 735 Broughton. One is on the main floor near the online catalogue terminals. More are located upstairs near the administration offices at the east end of the building. There are also terminals at Camosun College and UVIC libraries.
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15. What are the phone numbers for the new Free-Net phone lines?
There is only one phone number for the Free-Net. That is 479-6500. This is connected to overlines, which automatically select the next available line. There are no direct numbers for the individual lines.
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16. Why is the connection to Free-Net so slow?
This depends on what you mean by slow, and what type of connections you are using.
If you are telnetting to the Free-Net, you may be competing with many others who are also telnetting in. This includes users from other Free-Nets, Educational Institutions, Government Offices, and Businesses. There used to be considerable delays when a user telnetted to Free-Net. This line has since been upgraded and the delays have almost disappeared.
If you are dialling directly into the Free-net via modem, our modems are all 14,400 baud US Robotics Sportsters. Since we do not support graphical information, the need for higher speeds isn't there. If you are accessing external connections through Free-Net, delays may be caused by peak usage times, system failures, etc...
Peak times are currently 4pm to 11pm.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. Can I FTP to Free-Net?
No. Standard user accounts do not have shell access. They run on Freeport software that does not allow FTP.
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18. How do you get the >'s in reply posts?
This is done automatically when you have selected an editor. See next question to find out how to do that.
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19. How do you select an editor?
At the ==> type:
go config
and press enter.
After reaching the screen where you set your environment parameters (by either the long or short method)
Select #2. Set your default editor.
The two online editors currently are Pico and Chet.
No editor is the default. If you want to keep the changes you make to your Free-Net environment go back one menu (type p) and select "6 Save your Environment". Each time you have to use an editor (e.g. for mail or posting to news groups) after you have set this parameter the editor you have chosen should be invoked.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Why isn't the editor I chose working?
There are a couple reasons why the editor you have chosen may not work. First, check your Free-Net environment settings by typing printenv. This will cause a display of the settings that Free-Net has saved for you.
If any of these settings are incorrect, typego config
and select the options to properly set your environment parameters. Then, make sure you save the settings by either selecting the option for this on the menu, or by typing 'save' at a command prompt.
If after this it still isn't working try another editor. If neither of these changes solves your problem, post a message to the "Admin Q&A" SIG found in the Free-Net head quarters. Give as many details as possible about the problem so that we can help you clear it up quickly and easily.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Can you delete lines in Chet without refreshing the screen?
In Chet you can delete more than one line at a time and the screen only refreshes once. To change the number of lines to delete press
and a number, then CTRL-K.
The method for deleting a block of text in PICO is:
Go to the beginning of the text you wish to delete.
Press CTRL-^
^ is a shifted 6 on the top row of your keyboard
Move to the end of the text you want deleted
Press CTRL-K---------------------------------------------------------------------------
22. Is there a vi type editor available on Free-Net?
No, but there are other easy to use editors available. Select one and try it out.
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23. Why isn't there (can't there be) a vi type editor on Free-Net?
There once was vi available on Free-Net but, like other Unix applications it is possible to get shell access from within the editor (shell access means that you have the ability to look into other peoples directories and other system admin tasks). Free-Net cannot provide the full Internet access that shell accounts permit and people who have found ways to circumvent the Freeport (Free-Net software) menus and obtain shell access have tended to abuse these 'illegally' procured privileges. For this reason VIFA has had to make several restrictions including not having the vi editor.
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24. Can the news groups retain their messages longer?
The length of time that news groups are retained depends on disk space, the number of news groups currently being carried, and the individual news groups characteristics. Message may be deleted sooner than for others because of the sheer volume of mail coming in.. VIFA currently supports over 4000 news groups.
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25. I can't connect to Usenet News, what's wrong?
All news feeds come from a major Internet Service Provider, when they have problems Free-Net has problems. Sometimes a link down the road may be down for repairs, maintenance, or other reasons.
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26. Is there a faster way to move around Usenet News?
To get to specific news groups type:
go news.group
where news.group is replaced with the name of the group you want.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
27. Does anybody know if either North Island College or BCIT have Internet addresses?
Yes. They both do. To get the exact domain names, go into Gopher and select CANet info and search for 'nic' and 'bcit'.
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28. Is there a way that I can find someone's e-mail address?
This question comes up frequently not only on Free-Net but in news groups as well. There are many search areas through Gopher and mail help and other servers not available to Free-Net. However, the best solution is to ask the person you want to send e-mail to directly. This does ruin a surprise, but the alternatives usually take much longer with little chance of finding the information you want.
If the person you are looking for has an e-mail address on Victoria Freenet, you can find their user id number by:The system will then scan the user database and list all users who have the same last name as you entered. Hopefully, you will be able to identify your friend from the list.
- At the ===> prompt
- Type f
- When the system asks for pattern to match:
- Enter the persons last name.
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29. Where can I get full Internet access?
A number of Victoria companies now offer full Internet Access for a fee. An up-to-date list of these companies may be found in the "Internet Information Station (IIS)" on the "Library and Information Services" menu as well as a good listing in the Tech section of the Times Colonist each Tuesday. There is also a copy of the TECH Page listing in the IBM SIG GO IBM
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30. Where is Internet Relay Chat?
IRC will be available from midnight to 7am as soon as the administration have it reactivated.
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31. How do I keep messages from scrolling up and off my screen?
Make sure that your system settings are correct. Both Free-Net and your home computer should be set to vt100 emulation. (type go config) Also make sure you are using the right command for viewing articles. 'n' will write out the next unread article and break for each screenful. 'N' on the other hand scrolls the next article *without* pausing at each screenful. Also you may want to check the screen size setting under your environment parameters. (type "go config" to get there). Move to the smallest, 20 lines, and then try a larger setting if your screen can handle more lines than that.
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A SIG can be either of two things:
It can be a Signature file. This refers to the paragraph of text that you can automatically include at the bottom of your e-mail messages or newsgroup postings. To create your own signature file, go to the post office and select the option entitled "Edit your Signature File." You can type in four lines of text and it will automatically be added to the end of all you correspondence. To see what your .sig looks like you need to either send mail to yourself or post an introduction in the "Introductions and Interests" area then read your own article. *Everything* you send/post will have those added 4 lines so don't make it something you don't always want to say, it's easy to forget that it's there.
It is also a Special Interest Group. These are discussion areas, like the hangout. Creating one of these is a little more difficult. You have to write a proposal in order to get your own discussion area. If you are interested in doing this, there is information in the Victoria Free-Net Headquarters under "Submitting a Proposal." You can check out all the other SIGs by typing 'go sigs' at the 'Your choice' prompt or by accessing the "Special Interest Groups (SIGs)" from the main menu.
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An alias is a "name" you give to represent something else. Aliases are of greatest use when you have a list of several people that you wish to send the same message to. Rather than having to enter each persons id in the TO: or CC: field, simply using an alias in the TO: field will do this for you.
Example. You want to send a common message to the following 5 ids: zz999, zz998, zz997, zz996, zz995. You decide to give them the alias 'friends'.
From the main menu select "Post Office."
Then select "Edit your personal aliases file."
To set up an alias type ëfriends:' followed by at least 1 space, and then the list of id's you wish to include under this alias, separated by a comma,
Eg: friends: zz999,zz998,zz997,zz996,zz995
If one of your friends has an address external to Victoria Free-Net, you would have to include their full e-mail address. When you later send a message to your ëfriends', you would type in the code ëfriends' when the system asks you who to send the message to. The system will then verify the id codes:
Verifying address....
Friends-aliased to zz999, zz998, zz997, zz996, zz995
Is this correct?(y/n)Answer yes if it is and send like normal. This can also be used for addresses outside of Victoria Free-Net.
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34. Where do I post problems with Free-Net?
At the ==> prompt type:
go hq
Select "Administration Q&A." Here is where most problems should be posted and where to look for replies on your problem. You may find that you are not the only one having trouble or that the solution has already been posted from previous discussion.
You can also send e-mail directly to hq which is the office e-mail address and is checked on a regular basis.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
35. How do you change your password?
Type 'go user' and select the option to change your password.
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36. What if I forget my password?
Freenet HQ may be able to help, if you haven't changed your original password before. Phone HQ at 727-7057 and be prepared to give the following information:
a. Your user ID, b. Your full name, c. Your address and phone number, d. Your date of birth, and e. Your mother's maiden name. This information is necessary to confirm your identity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
37. Can I change my user id to something else?
Yes you can. For an annual fee, you may have a Personalized Account just like those personalized license plates on cars. Go to the HQ area on Freenet, and select the option on Fundraising.
Victoria Free-Net id's are automatically generated. They become your ID for signing onto the system. Your full name appears with your ID and when you send e-mail.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
38. Can I post a "For Sale" ad here?
"For Sale" ad posts are allowed only in the Classified Ads area on Freenet. Type 'go 4sale' to get there.
Personal Ads only are permitted. Currently, a ceiling of $1000 is placed on ads. NO commercial advertising is allowed.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A core dump is something Unix performs to help programmers determine what's wrong when a process undergoes a catastrophe. It's generally considered A Very Bad Thing. If you can, please note the error message received just prior to the core dump and pass it along to ëhq' with your message.
Please report all occurrences of core dumps to Admin Q&A in the headquarters if you get this so they know what's going on. (please also note questions on this in the news section).---------------------------------------------------------------------------
40. What about sending Chain letters?
Chain letters shall not be e-mailed or posted to SIGs on the Victoria Freenet because:
If you receive a chain letter, please contact Freenet HQ so that appropriate action can be taken.
- a. They are illegal,
- b. They overburden the system with superfluous mail. When this happens everyone is locked out until the system can recover, and
- c. You may find access to your account denied should you choose to send a chain letter.
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41. Who are
Douglas and Yates
?We think they were explorers, they liked to find cool places and hang out. Some think they are still alive. If you come to the hangout and ask where they are these days, you just may get a reply from one of them.