Introduction
In today's lab, we will explore two unrelated topics in the time allowed. We will customize our account on frank and we will learn how to send and receive electronic mail.

Logging On to the Server
The computer system you will use for CSCI 1170 is an HP9000. Its name is frank. Frank runs the UNIX operating system, an extremely powerful and popular system. (There are different "dialects" of UNIX, such as Linux and Mac OS X. The UNIX dialect running on frank is called HP-UX.) It is not our goal to teach you everything about UNIX in this course. However, you will learn enough to do your work in C++ including how to create/edit, print, list, copy, compile, delete, and execute (run) files. Today, you will learn how to log on to frank and you will customize your account for future labs.

Read the following section completely before doing Exercise 1. To connect to frank from a PC in the computer lab, double-click the mouse on the PuTTY frank icon which looks like this:

(This one is NOT active.)

When you double-click on the icon, you should see a new window open on the desk top. (You might get a PuTTY Security Alert screen after double-clicking; that's okay, just click the "Yes" box to continue the connection.) In this window will be displayed the UNIX login prompt.

login as:

The computer should wait at the login prompt for you to enter your user name. Type your account number such as c0155913 and press enter. If you do not see the login as: prompt after a few seconds something is wrong. Most likely the network is down or your PC is not properly connected to it. A lab assistant may be able to help. After entering your user name at the login prompt, UNIX will prompt you for your password.

password:

Your password is a secret key that allows only you to access your account on the computer. Your password should have been assigned when your account was created. You must remember it. No one else knows it. Type your password at the password prompt; it will be invisible as you type it. If you make an error you will be asked to start over at the "login:" prompt. If you are unsuccessful after several attempts, check to be sure the Caps Lock key is not locked on the keyboard. If it is, unlock it and try again. Otherwise, ask the lab assistant for help. As part of the login messages the screen may stop at

TERM = (vt100)

and wait for you to enter something. If it does and you are in the computer lab, please press the enter key.

Once you are successfully logged on, you will be greeted by the system prompt (this will not always be your prompt)

csh>

which means you can enter UNIX commands. Happy UNIXing!

Once you are logged in, you need to arrange the windows for the browser and PuTTY so that one is not completely over the other. Click the left mouse button on the blue title bar of the PuTTY window, hold it down and drag the window until at least part of it is outside the browser window. You can make either window active by clicking the mouse on it. Try that now and leave the browser window active.

Customizing Your Account
Next, you should customize your account. The Computer Science department has created software which will customize your account so that it is easier to use and will allow your teacher to interact with you more easily. The following customization should only be done once. You will never have to customize this account again. The customization of your account depends on your teacher. Don't type anything until you understand what to do and get to Exercise 2. The general form for customization is as follows:

With the mouse, click on the arrow next to "Select teacher's userid." With the mouse, highlight the appropriate userid (your lab instructor will tell you which one). The command above should now have your teacher's userid on the end of the line.

At the "csh>" prompt in the PuTTY window, type in the customize line exactly as shown above. The customization will ask you for your first (personal) name and last (family) name. Use mixed-case in entering your name; for example, enter "John" and not "john" or "JOHN".

If there are any errors, please raise your hand for the lab assistant to take a look at it. Otherwise, log out by typing exit.

Log on again as you did before and your customization should now be active. If your prompt is of the form:

frank%

then everything is OK. If not, please raise your hand for the lab assistant to take a look at it.

If your customization was OK, you will no longer be using frank in this closed lab, so log off of frank by typing "exit".

Introduction to the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is like a giant electronic scrapbook. Using a program known as a Web Browser, you can read the pages in this scrapbook. There are four very popular web browsers -- Netscape Communicator, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mozilla. You may use either Firefox (sometimes, somewhat confusingly, identified as Mozilla Firefox) or Microsoft's Internet Explorer in CSCI 1170. (Why not at least try Firefox if you have never used it?) Double-click on the "browser" icon on the desktop to open a second browser window. Arrange the two browser windows so you can see both windows side by side. If you are unfamiliar with using Microsoft Windows or have problems using a browser, please ask the lab assistant for help.

A URL is the name of a page--think of it as a unique identifier. URLs are case-sensitive. (Actually only part of a URL is case-sensitive, but it is better to be careful in specifying the whole thing for now.) Take a quick look at the following URLs:

      
http://www.mtsu.edu/~csdept/Academics/academicIntegrity.htm

http://www.mtsu.edu/~csdept

http://www.mtsu.edu/~oit/student/account.html

http://www.mtsu.edu/~advising/student/index.htm

Exercise 3:
Use the Print tool icon on Internet Explorer (or the Print menu item in Firefox) to print a copy of the first Web page in the list above (the one about "Policy on Academic Integrity"). When you pick up your printout, label your output with your name and course-section number (e.g. CSCI 1170-00s) and Web Exercise in the upper right-hand corner of the front page and hand it in along with the other requested items. (Web pages will print on a laser printer in the lab.)

Introduction to email
In order to send electronic mail over the Internet, we must be able to connect to a computer that has access to the Internet. We will send/read mail using MTSU's email server. Every registered student at MTSU is issued a student account on MTSU's email server. What you learn in this closed lab will also work with your permanent student account; if you have questions about your permanent student account, contact the Information Technology Division (ITD) in Cope 003 (898-5345). We will not be using your permanent student account for this lab (or for any work in this course). Instead, during this lab you will be using the account id and password given to you for 1170. (We will usually refer to the account id as your username.) This course account is temporary and only lasts until the end of this class term.

Your electronic mail address is simply your username (account id) when you are sending mail to someone else at MTSU. When you are sending mail to someone outside MTSU, your address is your username followed by "@mtsu.edu". Thus, if your username is c0155913, then your e-mail address is c0155913@mtsu.edu.

You can send email messages to anyone who has access to the Internet. This means that you can send messages to users at MTSU and to users on other networks. To send email to another user at MTSU, you only need to know the username of the other user. To send email to a person who is not on MTSU’s network, you must know their complete email address.  

Our objective in this section of Lab 1 is to practice e-mail applications. We will practice these applications by:

• reading e-mail messages
• replying to an e-mail message from your instructor, and
• sending an e-mail message to your lab partner.

Let's begin! BE CAREFUL! Read all instructions carefully!

Launching the WebMail Mail facility

After logging into WebMail, you should see a screen similar to the following:

This screen shows a column of choices (a menu) to the left of the window that allow us to use the mail tool to create messages (Compose), to view our Inbox (incoming messages), to seek help, etc.  Also in this window you will see a list of messages that you have received.  In the window above, this person has received one message from Dr. Judy Hankins.  The message was received on Jan 16, 2007 14.11.
 

Exercise 5:
Before we start to work with the mail tool, we need to set some of our preferences so click on the Preferences link now. You should see a screen similar to that below. First fill your complete name (your first name and last name) in the Full Name: box. Next place your e-mail address in the E-mail Address: box and in the Reply To: box. These changes are necessary to make it possible for others to see details about you when you send them e-mail. Next, fill in the Compose Width: box with 80.

Now scroll down to near the bottom of the page. You should see the window below:

You should use your mouse to make the selection to "include original inline" for reply. Your screen should now have a check mark in that box (as the one above has).  That is the last change we need to make. Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the OK button at the bottom of the screen.  You should now be back to the window showing a list of the messages that you have received.

Exercise 6:
Next we need to change one of the Options on our e-mail account. Click on the Options link now. You should see a screen similar to that below. Next, click on the Forwarding link. This link is used to forward mail from this account to another account that you use more often.

You should see the window below after clicking on the Forwarding Link. You will need to do three things in this window. First, in the Forward To: box, type in the e-mail address that you prefer to use to read your e-mail (that is, the one you use most often.) Second, click on the option "Keep a copy of each forwarded message"; you want that box to be checked. Finally, click on the Start button to activate .

Reading Your Mail and Replying
Now, let's read your email messages.

Read the message from your instructor using the scroll bars at the side of the window to read the entire message.  (NOTE: In some sections of CSCI 1170, this message may have been sent on the instructor's behalf by the graduate teaching assistant who is working as the lab assistant. Either way, respond to the username shown in the "From:" field of the message.) If you had several messages, you can use the Prev and Next buttons to move through your messages.  Anytime you wish to go back to the screen containing a list of the messages that you have received, you can click on the Inbox link at the top (or in the frame to the left) of the mail message window

If your instructor's message is not showing in a window at this time, use the previous buttons to move to that message. 

Exercise 8:
Click on the Reply link at the top of the message screen. 

You should see a screen similar to that above.

Notice that a copy of your instructor's message has been placed in the message box and that the To: dialog box has already been filled with the address of the account from which the instructor's message originated. and the Subject: dialog box has also been filled in.  All you need to do is click the mouse in the message box at the location that you would like to begin typing and type the answers to your instructor's questions.  When you are finished typing your message, click on the Send button to send the message.

1. Click on the Compose link in the left frame of the WebMail window. You should now see a screen similar to the screen that follows.  If you do not see a screen with this appearance, contact your lab instructor.



2. Type in your partner's username (e-mail address) in the To:box.
3. Type in your username in the Cc: box. This will send a copy of the message that you send to yourself. (This "Carbon copy" will be printed in a later exercise).
4. In the Subject: field, type in the subject of this message. Type in "Hello" as the subject and hit ENTER.
5. You can now proceed to type in your mail message in the Message: field. Type a short message to your partner telling your name, your major, and your classification (freshman, sophomore, etc.) at MTSU.
6. When you are finished, press the Send button to send the message. Click on the Continue button on the dialog box that appears.
7. Practice sending a message one more time by sending your partner and the lab assistant (using an address the lab assistant will furnish, probably by having it written on the board) a second message. In this message tell them your favorite hobby (or hobbies).
   

Printing Mail
Read the following procedure to print a WebMail message and then do Exercise 9. Select the message that you wish to print and then use your Web browser's print tool to print the message. (If the printed message is not legible, in your Web browser, set the background color to white and turn off any image files. Then print the message again.

Turn in your printouts to the lab assistant before you leave lab today.

Congratulations! You have finished Lab 1a.