Internet Update - June 1999

The $5 fee per additional family member will be dropped from 1 July. It means that existing Melb PC family members will not have to pay the additional $5 for Internet use. Initially this was introduced for legal reasons but the Committee now feels that family members can share the one Internet account. However, they still must have a family account with Melb PC User Group and they must have signed as family members on the Internet Access form, see Rule 21.

This can only be achieved using Telnet. Telnet comes as part of your normal Windows 95/98 installation, and for Windows 3.1 users there are a number of Telnet programs available from the Internet as well as the BBS.

For Windows 95/98 users, when connected online use Start | Run. In the box, type
Telnet popa.melbpc.org.au (Figure 1 - note the preferred use of "popa" instead of "emu" as shown).
This will make a second connection to the Internet system, and so you will again be prompted for your username, and then your current password (see Figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 2

The short menu that appears will permit you to select "p" to change your password, or "e" to exit. When prompted, enter your existing password, then you will be asked for a new password, and then a second time to double-check.

Note: The first six characters of the new password must contain at least two alphabetic characters and at least one numeric or special character. The new password must also differ by more than three characters from the previous password, and your password cannot be a variation of your username. This is for increased security, and to make passwords harder to crack.

Immediately after entering your new password, you will be disconnected from this second connection, but your new password will be used for connecting to the Internet thereafter, and will be needed to obtain your mail. Your previous password can no longer be used.

Remember at all times that your password is case-sensitive and must always be typed the same way. It may include letters, numbers and other characters, and should be between six and ten characters long. Also remember that any passwords stored on your machine, such as in your mail program, will need to be changed.

Please Note: Our service's "working" password file is copied from the master password file once each hour, and so your new password may not be in operation for until the next regular copy is made from the master file.

MailCall program

At the first Internet meeting, in April, a program (ScanMail was mentioned that enables you to scan mail without downloading it first. Such a program has advantages over a mail reader, such as Eudora or Outlook. Suppose you have, say, 100 items of mail in your mailbox after returning from leave and you wish to look at the last few. This is not possible with a normal mail reader.

If, in the middle of your mail, you have been sent a few megabytes of pictures or music, you will take a long time to get to the last messages. The ScanMail program helps to overcome this problem. However, since that meeting I have heard of the existence of MailCall, which does everything that ScanMail does, and more. It is only ten percent of ScanMail's size. A typical screen is shown in Figure 3. You can sort the output in any way you wish and view your mail from that screen.

This program can be downloaded from our Intranet site. From the MOTD look for the link to Melb PC files - it is the first file listed in the latest 200 section. Note that by dialling on the Intranet number (9690 5644) the connect time does not count to your two hours/day, irrespective of the time you ring.

When you install MailCall you must enter our POP (Post Office Protocol) server, which is popa.melbpc.org.au. Please change the checking for mail from 5 minutes to 30 minutes or more. (Our mail server will suffer from the additional load, if everyone polls it every five minutes.) A typical installation is shown in Figure 4. Any user who has already installed ScanMail need not install this program.

Figure 3

< Figure 4

Modem and line drop out survey

As a follow up to the Internet meetings a survey was set up to find out what factors affect users whose the lines drop out and also at what speed they can connect to our Internet service.

So far I can only give very preliminary results. When we receive more data it may be possible to give more details.

Out of the 160 answers received 55 have make and model numbers and due to the diversity of modems and locations not much statistically significant data can be derived.

The only data so far is that the USR Sportster and KTX modems stand out as not producing many line drops. The USR Sportsters are statistically significantly better in this regard. Out of the seven Sportster modems six reported no line drops and one reported them as occurring once a week. All were in different exchanges. With the three 56 kbps KTX modems two users have reported no line drops at all and one stated the frequency as rarely.

Finally one easy course of action to try if you are getting line drops. Try dialling into another group of modems. Even if you have a 33.6 kbps modem, you will be able to dial into the V90 lines. Many users have reported that this has given them a very substantial improvement.

Updated Melb PC configuration program

To make the configuration of the Internet much easier for Melb PC Users a program, MPCISM, is provided.
The current version of the Melb PC post-configuration kit MPCISM is not suitable for configuring after the installation of MSIE v5. However, there is no need to run MPCISM when upgrading normally from MSIE v4 to MSIE v5 - all settings should be carried through successfully.

There have been some reports of users losing their existing mailboxes from Outlook Express when upgrading from v4 to v5. It is always worth keeping a copy of mailboxes and favourites prior to upgrading--just in case. To copy your favourites just right click on the folder c:\Windows\favourites and select Send To.. the floppy.

A new version of MPCISM is available for download from the Intranet and from the BBS. This version will be also suitable for users with Windows NT4, in addition to those with Windows 9x as before.

The later version of MPCISM configures:

Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.x, 4.x, 5.0
Microsoft Mail and News 3.x, Outlook Express
Microsoft Exchange/Messaging (Inbox)
Outlook 97, Outlook 98
Netscape Navigator 3.x, 4.x
Netscape Communicator 3.x, 4.x
Eudora Lite and Eudora Pro
The Dial-up Network dialler for all lines.

Reprinted from the June 1999 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia