Fast Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions

• Question 1 : How do I get a GLUE computer account?
• Question 2 : How do I activate a GLUE printing account?
• Question 3 : How can I dial into the University from Home?
• Question 4 : What WWW browsers are available at UMCP?
• Question 5 : Where can I find the Home Page for ENCE 202?
• Question 6 : I want to save a WWW page -- What's the difference between txt, html and postcript?
• Question 7 : How do I send a WWW page to the printer?
• Question 8 : What editors are available for file creation?
• Question 9 : What are the key steps in writing a Computer Program?
• Question 10 : What is a compiler?
• Question 11 : How do I compile and run a small Fortran Program?
• Question 12 : How do I compile and run a small C Program?
• Question 13 : Will a computer program compiled on a SUN workstation also run on a PC?
• Question 14 : Where should I put my Home Page?
• Question 15 : How can I get started with my Home Page?
• Question 16 : Where can I find a scanner?
• Question 17 : What content will I need to include on my Home Page?
• Question 18 : I'm on an IBM PC machine...how do I use the FTP program?
• Question 19 : Where can I find a selection of background patterns?
• Question 20 : How can I download a background pattern from someone's page?
• Question 21 : How can I put a counter on my home page?
• Question 22 : I can't send E-mail from my Netscape Browser. What's the problem?
• Question 23 : How do I get an Internet domain name for my new company?
• Question 24 : What is a script file? How do I create one?
• Question 25 : How to I access the Java 1.0 and Java 1.1 compilers?
• Question 26 : What colors can I use English names for in HTML?
• Question 27 : From where can I download NetTerm?
• Question 28 : Where can I download ftp and terminal emulator software?
• Question 29 : How do I forward wam account e-mail to my glue account?

Question 1 : How do I get a GLUE computer account ?

Answer : All Students in ENCE 202 will be expected to have a GLUE (or WAM)
         computer account. To activate your account, go to Rm 1400 in the
         Computer Science Services (CSS) building ... and follow the signs.

Question 2 : How do I activate a GLUE printing account ?

    The Glue system operates under a "Pay-for-Print" policy.

    To print from a open glue lab, you will need a print account. This 
    account can be used not only for the Glue Open labs, but also all over 
    campus (WAM labs: PG2, Hornbake...). 

    Each page costs $0.10. Users must obtain a Terrapin Express card in
    Room 1109 South Campus Dining Hall, in the hours 08:00 - 16:00.
    After doing this, they must get their print account activated in the
    Laser Print Cost Recovery (LPCR) office, Room 3326 Computer Science
    Center. The minimum deposit for the Terrapin Express Account is $25. 

    Users can check their print account by telnetting to the address: 

          bank.umd.edu 

    The login id is "teller". The bank will then ask for the print account 
    number and the password. The user can then move funds from the Terrapin 
    Express account to the print account. 

    For further help, please consult the first-aider on duty.

Question 3 : How can I dial into the University computers from Home ?

Answer : Dial-up access to the College of Engineering's network of UNIX
         computers is provided through the Computer Science Center's (CSC)
         annex service. All dialup lines are set for 8 bits, 1 stop bit,
         and no parity.

         The modem pools that you can access are:

            (a)  (301) 209-0700  -- X2 56kbps modems, 3hr session limit.
                                    40 hrs per 14 days quota limit.

            (b)  (301) 864-2087  -- 33 kbps modems.
                                    15 min express service session limit.
                                    40 hrs per 14 days quota limit.

         Access from Baltimore

            (c)  (410) 962-8865  -- 28.8 kbps modems, 3hr session limit.
            (d)  (410) 962-8867  -- 28.8 kbps modems, 15 min express
                                    session limit.

         WAM (Workstation at Maryland) accounts are available to all
         University of Maryland students from the Computer Science Center
         Consulting Lab (CSS 1400). Bring your University ID and current
         registration card.

         To dial in, you will need to connect to the computer or terminal
         you are using. Run your favorite communications program and set
         your communications port parameters to 8 bits, 1 stop bit, and
         no parity.  vt100 is a good choice for the terminal type if you
         are not sure what to use.

         When the connection to the annex service is established, you will
         see the annex prompt. Issue the following command to initiate a
         login session:

               telnet <machine>.eng.umd.edu

         where <machine> should be replaced by the name of the workstation 
         that you would like to log into.

Question 4 : What WWW browsers are available at UMCP?

Answer : Both Netscape 4.7 and MS Internet Explorer 5 should work. You
         can access them from the "Internet" menu bar at the top of
         the glue system screen layout.

Question 5 : Where can I find the Home Page for ENCE 202?

Answer : Move the cursor to the location bar on your browser and enter
         the URL:

         http://www.isr.umd.edu/~austin/ence202.html

Question 6 : I want to save a WWW page. What's the difference between txt, html and postcript ?

Answer : Unfortunatly, this procedure is browser dependent.

         To save a file on Netscape 4.7, click on the "File"
         item located in the top left-hand corner of the
         Netscape Browser.

         Then select the pull-down menu item that has a title

             "Save As..."

         A small window should pop-up requesting information on the
         location and format for the file containing the saved page.
         The three file formats are:

         Text       -- Save the the text within the page.

         Source     -- Save the html code for the page, including the text,
                       tags etc..

         Postscript -- This saves the file in Postscript format.
                       Postscript is a special computer language understood
                       by many printers, and is used to send text and graphics
                       of all varieties to the printer.  You can use this
                       option to save an image of a web page as a Postscript
                       file, which can then be sent to a Postscript printer to
                       reproduce the file on paper. 

         To save a file under Netscape 6.2, use the "print" option.

Question 7 : How do I send a WWW page to the printer?

Answer : The answer to this question will depend on the local configuration
         of your computer. Generally speaking you will need to give a command
         like

              qpr -q name-of-printer name-of-postscript-file.ps

         See the lab attendant for specific details.

Question 8 : What editors are available for file creation?

Answer : "vi" and "pico". A summary of basic vi commands is located in the
         appendix to the class notes. For more information on vi, follow
         the links to Online Computer Documentation at Berkeley.

Question 9 : What are the key steps in writing a Computer Program?

Answer : See the Introduction to Computing Tutorial.

Question 10 : What is a compiler?

Answer : See the Introduction to Computing Tutorial.

Question 11 : How do I compile and run a small Fortran Program?

Answer : Fortran! Are you kidding, Fortran's dead! Why would anyone need to
         compile and run a Fortan program.

Question 12 : How do I compile and run a small C program?

Answer : There is an example of a small C program and the step-by-step
         procedure needed to compile and run the program at the end of
         the computing tuturial.

Question 13 : Will a computer program compiled on a SUN workstation also run on a PC?

Answer : No.

Question 14 : Where should I put my Home Page?

Answer : When you log into your Glue account, you are initially
         in your home directory.  Typing:

           cd ../pub

         put you in your public directory.  This is a
         directory that the general public has access to, and
         therefore this is where your home page should be stored.

         You should put your home page in a file

            Welcome.html
         
         located inside the pub directory. So if your login
         name is let's say "georgewbush", then the location of your
         home page will be something like

            /afs/ ... /georgewbush/pub/Welcome.html

         (The row of dots indicates that the file system will change from
         machine to machine) Folks from outside the University of Maryland
         will be able to view your home page using the URL

            http://www.glue.umd.edu/~georgewbush/

         More Information : Follow the link to "Instructions for
         Creating a Personal Home Page" from the Internet Resources
         section of the ENCE 202 home page.

Question 15 : How can I get started with my Home Page?

Answer : You will need to write your Home Page in the Hypertext Markup
         Language (HTML). An easy-to-read introduction to HTML is

         "A Beginners Guide to HTML,"  

         located in section two of the Class Notes.

Question 16 : Where can I find a scanner?

Answer : ???????

Question 17 : What content will I need to include on my Home Page?

Answer : Here is a list of required and optional content for your home
         page.

         Required Content
         ================

         * Images of yourself (...or something similar ....).
         * A resume, containing career objective, educational background,
           (including schools attended), work experience, and a summary
           of your computer skills -- hey, you can list HTML as one of
           your Web skills.
         * A summary of classes taken at University of Maryland.
         * An e-mail link to your computer account.
         * Signposts that help a visitor navigate the layout of pages
           in your public_html directory -- one way of doing this is
           to add an index page to your home page.
         * Somewhere on your page, you should use a <table> tag.

         Where appropriate, your page should contain hypertext links to
         schools, places of of employment etc ....

         Also, because the purpose of your page is for self promotion, the
         page layout should tidy and "visually appealing."  Learn how to
         create tables in html, and how to create pages with a good balance
         of "hot" and "cold" colors.

         Optional Content
         ================

         * Links to school projects presented in an html format.
         * Information on your hobbies, country of origin, sports, musical,
           political interests etc .....
         * Links to interesting things on the Internet, such as search
           engines, tools for WWW development, Java applets .....

Question 18 : I'm on an IBM PC machine...how do I use the FTP program?

Answer : The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program works on the same
         concept as the file manager as in Windows 3.1.

         To transfer files:

      1. Save the file onto disk.  Hard or floppy.

      2. Click on the window icon FTP.  This icon is usually pink letters
         on a white background. This icon will open up the "File Transfer
         Protocol" program.

      3. Click on the space that says profile name.  You will want to be
         able to get into glue with your login and password.
         One of the set ups in the drop list will allow you to do this.

      4. Fill in your login where it says user id and password where it
         asks.

      5. Click on OK

      6. You will now see a split window.  on the left hand side is the
         computer you are on, and on the right is your computer account.
         In order for you to put stuff(files, etc.) into your pub account
         you have to open up that part of your account.  Look at the right
         part of the screen.  In the upper right you will see something
         that looks like   ..  Click on the two dots.  This will take you
         up a level in your account.

      7. Now you should see another list of things. One should be pub.
         This is you pub account. Click on pub.  If you have started your
         web site you should at least see Welcome.html here.
         You are now in the pub part ofyour account.

      8. To transfer things there you now must look at the upper left of
         the window.

         Here you will see things that resemble the computer you are on.
         For instance [-a-], [-c-], are both drives.  [-a-] is your floppy
         drive and [-c-] is your hard drive.  If you have things saved on a
         floppy click on [-a-] and then you will see all the files that are
         on your disk.

      9. Now highlight the thing you want to transfer by clicking on it.

     10. Now that it is highlighted click on the right arrow and the
         program will transfer that file to your school account.

     11. Your done.  The file should now be on the right side bottom.  If it
         is there, then it is in your pub account.

Question 19 : Where can I find a selection of background patterns?

Answer : A good starting point is:

         http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/bg/backgrounds.html

         For more sites, go to a search engine and do a search on
         "background pattern"

Question 20 : How can I download a background pattern from someone's page?

Answer : If you are running netscape on a PC, then you can simply move the
         cursor to the background, and click on the right button. A small
         window will appear asking where you want the background image to
         be saved.

         Otherwise, you can retrieve a background color pattern directly
         from the Netscape cache (the cache stores images and patterns
         locally on your computer, thereby enhancing performance).

         The cache can be accessed by typing

         about:cache

         in the "Location" window of Netscape.

Answer : Information on the University of Maryland's WWW counter service
         can be found at:

         http://death.cs.umd.edu:8080/counter/

         Read the section on "usage policy," "registration" and look at the
         examples for required html.

         Also see

         http://www.digits.com

Answer : First, check your html code to make sure you haven't made a
         silly typo. The html should look something like:

         E-mail : <a href="mailto:your-login-name@glue.umd.edu"><b>
                                  your-login-name@glue.umd.edu </b></a>

         If your E-mail still doesn't work then perhaps
         your Netscape browser settings are incorrect.

         To check your mail preferences go to the Netscape Options
         menu and button on "Mail and News Preferences". Then select
         the services page. The SMTP (simple main transfer protocol)
         setting for outgoing mail should be

             smtp.glue.umd.edu

         for glue users, and 
         
             smtp.isr.umd.edu

         for users at ISR.

Answer : You can register a domain name for your company by contacting
         Network Solutions Inc. See

              www.internic.net.

         I believe the fee is $100/yr.

         Nothing happens physically? All this means is that some nameserver
         in the Internet world will contain an entry for your domain and
         point it to some IP address. If there is a machine on the Internet
         with that IP address, then all packets will be forwarded there.
         Otherwise, nothing will happen.

         Do I need to purchase a server and have it on for 24 hours/day?

         No. There are several companies out there that can house your
         domain for you for a fee. However, you are free to do so if you
         wish. 

         For more information, see the internic web site

         www.internic.net

         and the FAQ at

         http://rs.internic.net/domain-info/registration-FAQ.html

Answer : A script file contains a copy of all of the commands
         given at the keyboard and all of the output sent to 
         the computer screen.

         The syntax for starting a script file is:

             prompt >> script name-of-script-file

             ..... now go ahead and run your programs. A copy
                   of the commands and program output will be
                   echoed to file "name-of-script-file"
         
         The script file is terminated by typing

             prompt >> exit

         Now send the "name-of-script-file" file to the printer.

Answer : To access the Java 2 compiler on the Glue system type

         >> tap oldjava

         To access the Java 1.3 compiler type

         >> tap java

Answer : Try ......

         http://www.netterm.com/html/downloads.html

Answer : 30 day trial copies of file transfer programs (ftp) and
         "terminal emulator" software can be downloaded from:

                http:www.download.com
         and
                http:www.tucows.com

         Note. At home I use the CRT terminal emulator and
         bullet proof ftp program. Both are available from
         "download" and "tocows".....

Answer : Log into your wam account and create a file called
         .forward that contains the line
 
             loginname@glue.umd.edu

         Of course, you should put your "loginname" here ...