 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group A Net beginner's tale: Part 2 Ron Wilby |
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What's happened to the faltering footsteps of our beginner this month? Well, they faltered into more health problems and this column wasn't being written, so I had to cheat a little. A call brought Stan Johnstone to the phone.
The message from Stan was "What name do you want to use? - What password do you want to use? - OK, download the SLIPKIT software from the BBS and off you go!"
Before I could do that, the first thing, of course, was to feed the ever-hungry maw of PC Update. Material for the June edition, containing the first part of this series, was due. Also, I was behind the field already, only putting out about half my usual-sized contribution. I always do this work right at the very deadline, and here I am doing it again for the July issue.
Getting started
So, after I'd uploaded my quota of files for PC Update's June pages, I rushed to the BBS to follow Stan's instructions and "Get on the Net."
How will I find the SLIPKIT file(s)? I don't want everybody to think I'm too stupid, but I haven't much experience with the BBS, let alone the mighty Net. Get on to the File area first, Ron, then there's a Locate Function on the menu. So, I stumbled around the Files area of the BBS, used Locate to find something with "SLIP" in its name.
This brought to light a file, SLIPKIT.ZIP, in area 4D. It's 2 MB plus! Can we successfully download a file that big? It will be the biggest file on my hard disk (Of course, the files will be unzipped into smaller files) and the download time is estimated to be 25 minutes. To my surprise, the download presented no problems, the actual time being about 20 minutes. Now I needed PKUNZIP (I supposed) so back to the Files area and Locate, and a file called PKUNZIP2 was downloaded. Enter Murphy. When I tried to unzip SLIPKIT, the screen announced that my PKUNZIP would not run in a DOS environment. Seemed to me that SLIPKIT was for a Windows environment, so what now?
Rescue arrives
With that deadline drawing ever closer, I cheated a little once more and rang Stan Johnstone. With howling tyres, Stan arrived on my doorstep. He opened his bag, and out fell floppy disks, sheets of instructions and other aids to getting Ron going. This took most of an afternoon, after which I was still pretty confused. But Stan said you're now OK and took off again, leaving me to sort out the minor(?) details. Next day, trying to use my new-found knowledge, I ran into a plethora of error messages.
I perhaps got special treatment, but you too may receive this sort of help. If you're using Melb PC Internet as your Service Provider and you're stuck, try ringing Stan. But, as Ash said editorially, please don't wear him out. Make sure you read the instructions and BBS messages before you ring him. He's a great guy, and you may need help with some first-time problems. For example, don't install through Windows, he told me. Anyway, next attempt was successful and there I was, "On the Net." I soon found that peak traffic times apply just as they do on the BBS. If you're able to get on while others are at work it's much easier and gives the workers a better go too.
Ron's first look at the Net
First thing I found was Program Manager with lots of those little Group Icons at the bottom. One of these said "Melb PC Internet Service," so that looked like the way to go. A double click produced a window labelled Melb PC Internet Service. This contains 18 icons with weird names which I don't yet understand. I'll tell you about these as we go along.
The icons are numbered, so guess what, you start with number 1, which is labelled Trumpet Dialler. Clicking here will connect you, but only if you have your modem and phone connected and switched on. I fell into a trap here. The result was countless error messages which I didn't understand. I thought you could set everything up before dialling in, thus minimising the time you're using a line. Not so, you have to dial in first (I should have realised that, but I'm very green in this area). However, a few unsuccessful attempts taught me what I was doing wrong and then I was on.
Mail arrives
Following the numbers on the icons, I moved to number 2. Behold, a message for me via Ash's address. Beverley Allen, in Utah USA saying how much she enjoyed the Beginners articles. What a great start to my career on the Net. The joy of this was somewhat dulled the next day when I tried to reply. A half hour's work failed to get one reply through. You've got a lot to learn here, Ron.
Browsing
Trying to learn more about the Net, I moved to the Netscape icon. Menus offered a vast amount of information with a great variety of subjects. Being very interested in space vehicles, satellites and the like, I managed to get into the NASA section. There I found the work schedules for the day, and right up to date too. There were details of progress or lack of it, what they plan to do next and when. Our (local) TV news tells me that they have woodpeckers (birds) making holes in the outer surface of their launchers. Well, now I don't have to wait for the TV, it's all there on the Net. Also, I can get into a huge number of other areas and my wife can send mail to her relatives in NZ.
There's lot's of excitement and interest on the Net. Well, that's the story for this month. More excitement in the next issue of PC Update. Till then . . .
Reprinted from the July 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
