The Michigan Review

Survive the Summer With Email

by Benjamin Rousch

Are you going home to Mom and Dad for the summer? Have you become an email addict? Do you wonder how you will ever make it though four months without the internet? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this is the article for you. Within you will find out how to connect to your email and even the rest of the internet from your hometown. It really is easier than you may have thought, and you may even pick up some useful Internet jargon. The only things you need are a computer running Windows95, WindowsNT (Mac users are on their own, and Windows 3.1 users should realize it's almost the 21st century) with a modem, and parents willing to let you tie up the phone line while you surf the web.

The Internet Connection

The simplest way to connect to the internet is if your parents already use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as America On­Line, Compuserv, or a local ISP. If your parents can write email to you from home (not from work), then they already have an internet connection. The most difficult part of checking email in this case is convincing your parents to let you use their internet account. After you have explained how email is essential to your life and vitality, you just log onto your parents' Internet account (per their instructions). You can then skip to the section below called "The Essential Software."

If your parents do not already have an ISP, or they are unconvinced by your arguments, there is still a way to access the World Wide Web (WWW) courtesy of the University of Michigan. There is a network of servers and phone lines across the State of Michigan which allow you to connect to a local server and from there access your University of Michigan account just as if you were in Angell Hall (well, almost). By accessing this Michnet, you use some of the 80 free hours of Dial­In time ITD is providing for returning students this Summer. The only thing you have to do is find the phone number which will allow you to connect to the local Michnet server in or near your hometown. A list of these numbers can be found at http://www.merit.michnet/phonenos/michnet­nos.html. Be sure you check this list before you leave the U­M for the summer, or you will have a hard time trying to access the list without an internet connection. After you have found the local number appropriate for your home, you can skip to the section below called "Just Email or the WWW?."

There are also similar services provided by the U­M which stretch across the country. These services charge more than just the 80 hours of Dial­In time allocated to you by ITD, and can vary from region to region. A description of these services can be found at http://www.com.itd.umich.edu/dialin/natdial.html. After you have signed up for one of the services, you should follow their instructions for connecting to the Internet, which are probably similar to (but not exactly the same as) those in this article.

Just Email or the WWW?

You must now make a decision whether you want to just check your email, or whether you want to access the whole WWW (using Netscape, FTP, Gopher, etc.). If all you need to do is send and receive email, you will have no problems. If you want to experience the WWW in all its multimedia glory, you will have to do a few things at U­M before you leave for the summer. If you are only going to use email, see the section below called "The Modest Hyperterminal." If you are gunning for the whole WWW, jump to the section below called "Connecting, U­M Style."

The Modest Hyperterminal

Hyperterminal or an equivalent program can be found pretty much every computer running a Microsoft operating system. It is most likely found in the Start menu under Accessories/Hyperterminal. If Hyperterminal or its equivalent is not already installed on your computer, you can install it by opening the Control Panel, choosing Add/Remove Programs. Click on the tab called Windows95 or NT Setup, highlight Communications and press the Details button. Put a check in the box by Hyperterminal, press the OK button and follow the directions which will pop up. Once Hyperterminal is installed, continue to the next paragraph.

Open Hyperterminal, follow the instructions, and type in the phone number you looked up on the web. Press the connect button and wait for the Host prompt to come up. Type in "login.itd.umich.edu" at this prompt and hit Return. It will ask for your login name, at which point you should type in your full unique name along with the @umich.edu (for example: brousch@umich.edu, not just brousch), and then enter your password. The familiar U­M welcome screen should then appear, and you all know what to from there. This is the end of the email only instructions.

Connecting, U­M Style

To connect to the WWW through your U­M Dial­In connection using windows95 you should get the U­M Connectivity Kit. You can either get this by downloading if through FTP from the site login.itd.umich.edu/~swdist/bundles, or you can take a trip to the Angell Hall or the School of Education computing sites and download it from one of the Dell workstations. The way you download it from a computing site seems to change from time to time, so ask one of the ITD Sites Consultants if it is not immediately obvious. Whichever way you download the Connectivity Kit, you will need to have five blank 3­1/2 inch floppy disks (1.44 Megs, not 700k). When you have an hour or so to spare, pop in the first disk, open A:\setup.exe, and follow the directions which should appear. If you are using NT, I assume you or someone in your family is somewhat familiar computers, and I will provide the proper network settings on the Michigan Review's web site. Access the following page and print it out: http://www.umich.edu/~mrev/exclusives/NTsettings.htm. After the Connectivity Kit is installed (or, with NT, the network settings are correct) continue to the section below called "The Essential Software."

The Essential Software

After you have opened an internet connection with the U­M Connectivity Kit or some other ISP, the easiest way to check email is to create a shortcut to a program called "telnet." Right click on the desktop and choose New/Shortcut. When it asks for the Command Prompt, type "telnet login.itd.umich.edu" and hit Next. Name the shortcut something like "ITD Login" and press finish. You should now be able to double­click on the new icon and connect to the familiar login screen. The U­M Connectivity Kit comes with a program called "Host Presenter" which can also be used like telnet, however you may have to spend some time adjusting the font sizes and types to get it to look right.

Most computers running Windows95 or NT4 have Internet Explorer 3 pre­installed on them. You can use this to surf the WWW, or you can download a different browser from Microsoft's (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/) or Netscape's (http://www.netscape.com/download/index.html) web sites. The U­M Connectivity Kit comes with Netscape Navigator 2, but you will want something newer than that to view web pages.

If there is a problem with anything in this article, please let me know. I will fix all errors and post them to the Review's web site at http://www.umich.edu/~exclusives/connection_errors.htm. MR

Ben, Campus Affairs Editor and technology czar of the Review, is sick of farting around with Host Presenter and Netscape Navigator, and has erected a small shrine to Bill Gates in his bedroom.

This article was published in the 22 April 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 16, Number 10).
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