This computer (among many others) is not only connected to the Maine state net, but also to the Internet.
Members of the University System community (students, faculty and staff) may be given a mainframe account if it is required for some special purpose (normal UNET accounts do not use the mainframe). An account gives the user an electronic mail address. The mainframe can act as a "post office" for sending and receiving mail. The user can use the mainframe's own MAIL commands to read and write mail. However, the preferred method of doing mail with any UNET account does not involve the mainframe (please see the document accounts.html for more information.
This "Quick Guide" describes how to use the mainframe MAIL commands to send and receive files and electronic mail over these network connections, and how to take advantage of other features of the Internet. In this document, we assume a basic familiarity with CMS (the mainframe operating system). If you need help with this, please consult the UNET document "Using CMS". In that manual, it is especially important to read the chapter on working with files.
The CMS commands discussed in this writeup are:
MAIL, SENDFILE, RDRLIST, RECEIVE, TELL, NAMES
You need a minimum knowledge of how to use a terminal and CMS.
To get complete information
on the MAIL command, LOGON to CMS and type:
HELP MAIL or HELP MAIL MENU
From the CMS menus, first select "Working with mail" from the MAIL FOLDER menu, then select the task "Help with mail."
To send a letter using MAIL, you must know the userid (logonid) of the addressee and his/her Internet "node" (the name of the computer he or she uses). If your correspondent uses the UNET mainframe you may omit the node from the address. For MAIL, an address looks like:
userid@node
To create a letter while using the CMS menus, select the folder "Working with mail" from the MAIN FOLDER, then select "Create and send a mail file." Type in the e-mail address or nickname in the on-screen box and press enter or return. For an explanation of nicknames, see the section on your addressbook below.
To create a letter if you don't use the mainframe menus, type:
MAIL userid@node
or
MAIL nickname
The MAIL command will generate a skeleton letter with the address and other header information in place. Here is a picture of the mainframe's display at this point in mail creation.
If you use a nickname that refers to a group of people, all their addresses will appear in the header (see below for info on nicknames).
At the top of your mainframe window, there is a message asking you to type in a one-line subject or "tickler". This subject line becomes part of the mail header (look at the screen image).
After MAIL inserts the subject line in the letter, it asks you to type in the body of the letter. It uses XEDIT for this, so you have all the XEDIT commands available to you for fixing typos, copying material from external files, etc. You are in "input" mode in XEDIT which means that everything you type will go into the letter.
By default, XEDIT will not "wrap" the lines you type in, so you must press the return key at the end of each line. (This default can be changed to a word wrap mode called "POWERINP" by using the MAIL DEFAULTS command or menu item.) Everytime you press return you get some more space for your letter.
You have to get used to working in this mode - remember it is not really a word processor. You can use your arrow keys to move about the screen while you are entering your message. This way you can do primitive page layout, correct typos, etc., but you don't have "real" word processing tools. For example, if you want a blank line to separate paragraphs, don't just hit an extra return. Instead use your down arrow key to move down one line on the screen. Click here for a picture of the mainframe's screen while you are typing a letter.
When you are finished typing in your letter, press the
return key an extra time (once to end the current line, then again)
to exit "Input" mode, then type the XEDIT
command:
SEND
The SEND command completes the letter and sends it.
After your extra return but before you type SEND, you can edit your letter. There are a number of XEDIT commands to spell check (SPELLME), bring in material from other files (GET), do simple cut and paste (prefix commands MM and F), insert, delete, etc. Please see the XEDIT Quick Guide for more.
After you finish the letter and before you send it, you can make certain changes to the header. Press the RETURN key to move the cursor to the command line if necessary.
To add names for more recipients, type:
TO address1 address2....
To send a 'carbon copy' to one or more people, type:
CC address1 address2...
If for some reason
you have to stop working on your letter before you finish it, make sure you are out of input mode and that your cursor is down on the command line. Then type:SUSPEND
When you are able to continue working on the letter, you can type
MAIL RESUME
To continue adding material to a resumed letter, move yourself to the bottom of the letter by typing the command BOTTOM . Reenter "input" mode by then typing INPUT . Proceed normally.
Once you have sent your letter, MAIL asks how to dispose of your copy of the letter. You have a number of "disposal" choices, most of which are assigned to "F" keys and listed at the bottom of the screen.
When electronic mail arrives for you, it is temporarily stored in a "mail box" for you. In CMS terms, this is your "mail queue". Unread mail will stay in the queue for at least a week.
If there is mail in your queue when you log on, you will get
a message telling you how many letters are waiting.
If a letter arrives while you are working at your terminal, a message
will appear on your screen. To see a list of the letters in your
mail queue, you can use the command:
MAIL BROWSE
From the menus, first select the folder "Working with Mail," then the task "Read your Mail." This does exactly the same thing as the MAIL BROWSE command. Here is a picture of the screen you get when you browse your mail.
If you have mail waiting for you or if mail arrives during a session, that information will be displayed in a box visible on all menu screens.
The MAIL BROWSE command (or "Read your Mail" menu item) displays a list of all your letters - old and new - in your mainframe "mail box." This "mail box" is actually a file called NEW LOG stored in your mainframe disk space. When you browse your mail, the mainframe collects all letters that have come in since the last time you browsed and adds them to any old letters that remain in the NEW LOG file. It then displays the list of letters in cronological order.
Each letter is listed with the address of the sender and the subject line or "tickler". To "open" or "read" any letter on the list, move your cursor opposite the list entry and press F11 (see Reading Letters below) or type "open". While you are reading a letter (the letter is open or displayed on screen) you can move up and down through the text by pressing F8 (forward) and F7 (backward). To "close" a letter and return to the browse list, press F3, and to quit out of the MAIL BROWSE display, press F3 again.
Letters stay in your "mail box" or NEW LOG until you dispose of them in some way. You will need to eventually discard letters so that your "mail box" does not grow larger than your available disk space (remember this is disk space on the mainframe, not on your microcomputer).
When MAIL opens a letter, it displays the contents on your screen. You will note a list of numbers associated with commands at the bottom of your screen. This tells you that certain commands are assigned to F keys. Notice that F8 is assigned to the command FORWARD. This means that pressing F8 will move you forward one screen's worth in your letter (assuming the letter is too long to fit on the screen). F7 moves you back one screen. PF3 quits reading this letter, without disposing of it, and returns you to the MAIL B display.
When you have read a letter,
MAIL asks you for a "disposition". Your choices are similar to those
when you have created and sent a letter, and had to dispose of your
copy (see "Disposing of Your Copy" above), except there are a few
more. In addition to LOG, printing, QUIT and DISCARD, you have:
Just as described before,
the LOG disposal option adds the letter
to a mail log.
To review mail saved in mail logs, either type the CMS
command:
mail browse namewhere "name" is the name of the mail log, or use the menu item "Browse your Old Mail Logs." In the latter case, you will be presented with a list of logs (here is a picture), you select the one you want, and you then see the browse list of letters in the log. You can use all the ordinary mail facilities on these logged letters.
When you have a letter open you can perform several disposal operations: reply, fwd, log, print, etc., until you finally discard the letter. Once the letter is discarded it is removed from your mail box or mail log. Eventually you will discard all letters, if only to free up disk space!
You may find that working with e-mail addresses is inconvenient. If desired, you can use the command NAMES (or select "Editing your Names File" from the Mail menu) to set up a small address book of "nicknames." The NAMES command presents you with an on-screen form to fill in. You may enter a nickname and the userid and node plus other information on one of your correspondents. Once the information is entered, you press F2 (ADD) to add this new record to your NAMES database.
Note that NAMES was designed to work with BITNET where nodenames are not more than eight characters long so the "node" field is too small for most Internet addresses. To set up a nickname for an Internet address, don't fill in the "userid" and "node" fields (leave them blank) but tab down to the "tag" and "value" fields. Put the word LOCAL in the first tag field and your correspondent's userid in the corresponding value field. Put the word DOMAIN in the next tag and the Internet nodename in its corresponding value field. Don't include the "at" symbol in either part because the mail system will insert it.
You can set up a nickname for a group of people (a mailing list) by establishing a nickname for each individual and then a collective nickname where you list the component nicknames in the long field called "list of names." Refer to the online help for the NAMES command for more details. If you fill in the phone number field, the NAMES database entry will also show up when you use the PHONE command, providing a rolodex-type facility for you.
You can "converse" with someone logged on at the same time as you
(does not work over the Internet).
The command is:
TELL userid message
Sending Files
Files can be sent through the network in several ways.
SF fn ft fm TO useridwhere "fn ft fm" is the file to be sent and "userid" is the recipient's CMS logonid.
Receiving Files
Files which are sent to you via the SF command as detailed above, are stored in your "reader queue". This is distinct from your incoming mail. Files remain in your reader only about 3 working days before they are purged by UNET.
If you have any files in your reader when you logon, you will receive a message similar to the one displayed when you have mail waiting. If a file arrives while you are logged on, a message is displayed on your screen. In case you have missed the messages you can check your reader queue using the command RL or use the "Readerlist of Files" menu item in "Working with Files." You will see a list of the files that have been sent to you.
To copy a file from your reader to your disk, put your cursor next to the file in the list and type the command RECEIVE or press the F-key that corresponds to RECEIVE (look at the bottom of the Readerlist screen).
