Chapter 1: Setting Up (3 of 4) -- DIALING IN

DIALING IN

     When you have your communications program dial one of these host
systems, one of two things will happen when you connect.  You'll either
see a lot of gibberish on your screen, or you'll be asked to  log in .  If
you see gibberish, chances are you have to change your software's
parameters (to 7-1-E or 8-1-N as the case may be).  Hang up, make the
change and then dial in again.
     When you've connected, chances are you'll see something like this:

               Welcome to THE WORLD
               Public Access UNIX for the '90s
               Login as 'new' if you do not have an account

               login:

     That last line is a  prompt  asking you to do something.  Since this
is your first call, type

                new

and hit enter.  Often, when you're asked to type something by a host
system, you'll be told what to type in quotation marks (for example, the
'new' above).  Don't include the quotation marks.  Repeat: Don't include
the quotation marks.
     What you see next depends on the system, but will generally consist
of information about its costs and services (you might want to turn on
your communication software's logging function, to save this
information).  You'll likely be asked if you want to establish an account
now or just look around the system.
     You'll also likely be asked for your "user name."  This is not your
full name, but a one-word name you want to use while  online .  It can be
any combination of letters or numbers, all in lower case.  Many people
use their first initial and last name (for example, "jdoe"); their first
name and the first letter of their last name (for example, "johnd"); or
their initials ("jxd").  Others use a nickname.  You might want to think
about this for a second, because this user name will become part of your
electronic-mail address (see  chapter 3  for more on that).  The one
exception are the various Free-Net systems, all of which assign you a
user name consisting of an arbitrary sequence of letters and numbers.
     You are now on the Net.  Look around the system.  See if there are
any help files for you to read.  If it's a menu-based host system, chose
different options just to see what happens.  Remember: you can't break
anything.  The more you play, the more comfortable you'll be.