Accessing Your Account

A computer account at the Geometry Center has been created for each student in the class. This account is hosted on the UNIX network of Sun and Silicon Graphics workstations. Each of you also has an account on the Windows NT network with the same login name and the same initial password. Even if you plan to primarily use the Windows or Macintosh computers, you will need to access the UNIX network quite often, as the instructors will occasionally send e-mail to your UNIX accout, and your personal web pages are hosted in this account.

To use this account from the Mac's and PC's, you will need to use two different types of programs. First, to read and post e-mail, you will need to "telnet" to a machine at the center. Most net browsers will set up a connection for you when you click on a link like telnet://abel.geom.umn.edu, where abel is the name of one particular machine. Names of other computers at the center are

Connecting to one of these computers will open up a separate window which will prompt you for your username (usually either your last name, or your first initial and your last name) and password. We will tell you your initial password, but the first thing you may want to do is change it. In this page, we will need to talk about your username several times. When we do, we will always pretend it is xyzzy. This is probably not really your name, so whenever you see that word, substitute your own name for it.

In the telnet session, you're communicating with the remote computer via the keyboard. Every time the computer is waiting for you to type a new command you'll see a prompt like abel%. From here, you can change your password, edit text files, or perform a number of other tasks.

One other thing you'll want to do from telnet is read your email. We recommend the program Pine, which has extensive documentation on the web. To get into Pine, simply type "pine". If you already have a campus email account (e.g. xyzzy@gold.tc.umn.edu), email can be forwarded to that account. If you already have another email account, and you'd rather just have your email for the course forwarded to the email you already use, please talk to us, and we can set up this forwarding.

Mail can be sent to you from anywhere using the internet address xyzzy@geom.umn.edu and you can send email to anyone using their internet address. Email to instructors5337 will go to us, and email to students5337 will go to all the students in the course. We will use this method to communicate with you between class meetings.

This Geometry Center account is also where your Web home page will be stored for the duration of the term. We have installed a skeleton page for you already, which you will modify as part of your homework. To look at it, go up to the top of the Netscape window, where it displays the current URL. Use the mouse to select all the text after http://www.geom.umn.edu/~ and replace it by your username xyzzy. Hit return, and netscape will display your home page. You can give this URL http://www.geom.umn.edu/~xyzzy to your friends, and they can see your page from anywhere in the world.

[HOME] The Geometry Center Home Page

Author: John Sullivan and Edited by John McDonald
Comments to: webmaster@geom.umn.edu
Created: Apr 01 1997 --- Last modified: Apr 01 1997