For publication in Herald Sun, February 2, 1994

By Jason Romney

Once you get addicted to the Internet you may become dissatisfied with having to dial into another person's Internet gateway for access.

Technologic has recently described how you can now access the Internet with a ``live" connection for only $78 per year. This kind of membership works very well - however, you still need to compete with a growing number of users for a finite number of modem connections.

In the evening, when many people are trying to log in, you may find a frequent, and intensely frustrating, engaged signal.

However, for the cost of joining APANA ($50 per year and a $20 initial joining fee), your own computer can become a fully-fledged Internet node, freeing you from the need to dial into other people's Internet gateways.

All you need is a standard 386 PC equipped with an operating system that makes it Internet protocol capable eg Unix, two modems and two dedicated phone lines from Telecom.

The first requirement is to install eg Unix on your computer. The Melbourne Unix user's group gives free assistance to people who want to install Unix on their computer. On-line Unix support can be obtained through a 2400 baud BBS, tel: (03) 739 7145.

The Unix operating system comes in different variants such as Linux or NetBSD (similar to the difference between say, MS-DOS and PC-DOS) but any one of these can be downloaded free from various bulletin boards.

It is worth noting that if your hardware is sufficiently muscular, the same ultimate results (a tcp/ip protocol connection to the Internet) can be achieved through Windows NT and OS/2.1 - both these may also be easier to learn, however they are not free. There is also a program, Ka9q, for DOS and Amiga systems, but this is not in the same league.

Anyway, if you install Unix, you don't need to get rid of your existing DOS operating system because, eg NetBSD, will work in tandem with MS-DOS on the same hard disk (as well as exclusively on its own).

The only requirement is a big enough hard disk - Unix on its own requires about 150MB of hard disk space for comfortable operation. But remember that if you intend to run Unix alone, you will no longer have DOS's DoubleSpace utility giving you added hard disk space via compression.

Once you have installed Unix, you will likely have the standard mail readers and news group programs ready to use. There is also a Unix help system built in.

One of the modems you keep at home with your computer. The other modem you give for safe-keeping to someone such as Andrew Herbert at the Werple Internet node. He will ensure you enjoy on-going, ``live" Internet access.

What does that mean? The first advantage is that you will not need to compete with other users for dial-up lines into Werple, and similar Internet gateways around Melbourne. Whenever you want to use the Internet's resources, you will be ``straight on".

Secondly, if you are a serious researcher or service provider, it is more prestigious to have your own Internet address. As electronic mail becomes increasingly important to domestic and international commerce, a personalised Internet address distinguishes you clearly from the general pack.

Thirdly, if you are on-line for good, you can save a lot on modems because your two modems need only be 2400 baud (rather than say, the much more expensive 14,400 baud-style of modem) and you can still acquire more than 20MB of information per day - plenty by anyone's standards - and quite adequately negotiate real-time services such as the Internet Relay Chat facility (IRC).

Finally, the Internet and associated electronic services are poised to become a key tool for anyone involved in education. Both teachers and students who acquire navigation skills will enjoy a sharply defined advantage over others that will last throughout their lives.

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If you have composed a file on your home computer ie off-line, after you log on, type the command ``rz" (without the speech marks) at the Unix prompt, then unload the file from your home computer using the appropriate command to initiate a Z-modem upload, for your particular communications software.

If you wish to transfer a file from the Unix computer to your home computer, remember that if you are working with a DOS environment, the long filename your file may enjoy on the Unix system must be first converted to a filename that complies with the DOS standard ie an 8-character prefix followed by a period and a 3-letter suffix eg heraldsu.n01

Once you have uploaded a file to a Unix computer, you can mail the file directly on most systems by typing ``elm -s subjectname emailaddress < filename" (without the speech marks), where subjectname is what the message is about, emailaddress is the destination eg jromney@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au and filename is the name of the file you wish to send.

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After using a mail reader such as Elm on a Unix computer to read your e-mail for quite a while, you will accumulate a long list of received mail.

After putting the cursor on a given piece of e-mail, you may wish to type ``d" to delete it (if you change your mind, type the number which corresponds to that e-mail and then type ``u" for undelete).

After marking mail for deletion, it will be automatically deleted when you exit Elm, or can be manually dumped by typing the $ key.

Alternatively, you can type ``s" to save the e-mail to a file on the hard disk of the remote Unix computer. If you opt to save the e-mail, typing a tilde followed by a forward leaning slash before the name of the file you wish to save the mail in, will put the saved mail in your home directory.

This may make subsequently downloading the saved mail to your home computer easier.

Some Unix systems support a command called ``inc" which transfers e-mail from the inbox of a mail reader such as elm to a special Unix folder and numbers each letter.

Once this process has been initiated, typing the command ``scan" at the Unix prompt will give a one line summary of each received e-mail. The command ``show" will printout the full text of the e-mail on your computer screen.

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If you have a whole lot of files in your Unix directory that you want to retrieve to your computer at home, type ``cat filename filename > newsinglefile" to join them all together.

In the example above, cat stands for concatenate, filename stands for each of the single files you want to join and newsinglefile stands for the one file name that you can then download to your home computer.

Remember to make the newsinglefile compatible with your home computer's operating system eg if you use DOS, 8 characters followed by a period then a 3 character suffix.

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Navigating around Unix subdirectories can be a chore, but it helps to remember that if you type ``cd" (without the speech marks) at any Unix prompt, you will be transported to your home directory.

Also, if you type ``cd .." (without the speech marks) you will be moved one subdirectory UP in the tree.

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MBUG Computer Club president, Russell Coker , distributes copies of a Unix system called Linux - and provides support.

The club provides Linux for 50 cents per disk (if copied onto your own disks).

MBUG meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at the Mt. Waverley Civic Center, corner of Miller and Stephensons Roads (Melways 70E1).

Its mail address is: MBUG, PO Box 157, Nunawading, 3131.

The MBUG BBS: (03)739-5238 (all speeds to 2400bps). Mr Coker provides Linux support through his own BBS, tel: (03) 739 7145 (up to 2400 baud).

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