FIT 100: Fluency with Information Technology
Lab 1: UW NetID, Email, Activating
Student Web Pages
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
This
is the first lab for “Fluency with Information Technology” or CSE/INFO 100 as
you know it. The goals are simple: to
assure that every student entering the course has a certain comfort level with
two of the tools used for communication and lab work: Email and Personal Web Page
accessibility.
Objectives:
To
get all students up to speed on:
- Activating a UW Net
ID (basic services and other)
- Email with the UW WebPine and the PINE email system
- An initial
understanding of email server space
- Enabling student
web pages
To Do:
Obtain a UW Net ID (your
email / web page identity):
The
first priority is to make sure that you have created a UserID from the UW.
- Your User ID, or UW Net ID, is the way that the
University computer system identifies you.
- Your password,
created by you, is the way the system makes sure that you are who you say
you are.
- This allows you
to save files in the memory space of a computer that is not physically
located in front of you. [See Diagram on last page] At the
In order
to insure that you and only you have access to your account space, your
password should be something easy to remember, but not easily
guessed. You should never give your
password out to others. The UW
requires that passwords be 8 to 20 characters long and include both upper and lowercase letters as well as
numbers. The password cannot be a
common dictionary term. The
University of Washington Department of Computing and Communication
(C&C) has provided a series of help pages to establish and manage your
UW account.
1.
Setting Up An Account
If
you do not have an account, or you just aren’t sure, open up Internet Explorer
or Netscape Navigator to the following URL:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/
This will be the page that links to all other resource pages regarding your account.
- Click the Get your UW NetID
link:
This will let you enter your student information and find out if you have an ID.
If you don’t have one, and are a registered student, you can create one at that time.
Follow the directions and fill in the needed information. You will need to know your STAR access code for class registration.
A UW NetID is not optional!
You must have one in order to proceed in
this course.
Once your account is established, go to your UW
portal.
A major example of a portal that you may have used is UW Libraries Information
Gateway. Another is Yahoo!
Portal:
- Enter this URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) in the address bar of a Web Browser to go to
your portal:
http://myuw.washington.edu/
and login with your UW Net ID and password.
- Explore the MyUW
portal. Look at the text called Web Pine
Email for students (on the right side, midway down the page).
For more help using the WWW, go to:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/web/
For working at home, you
will need specific software from the (UWICK) UW Internet Connectivity Kit
Information package:
Downloading the
Starter Set if you have an Internet connection at home
http://www.washington.edu/computing/software/uwick/starter/
This
text acts as a hyperlink [a direct jump to a particular web page,
image or other file on the web] and will take you to the login to access
your email account through a web page.
What
is Email?
Email is the exchange of electronic messages through
telecommunication. Email was one of
the first uses of the Internet.
Originally all messages sent by email were encoded in simple ASCII
text. Now it is possible to send
non-text files, such as images, as attachments. These non-text files are sent in binary
streams across the Internet. (We’ll learn about binary soon!)
Email has become a fast and easy way to communicate with others
regardless of their physical location.
It can be faster than a telephone at times. Email, however, is considered
asynchronous communication. This
means that you are not communicating with the person “live”, the way you do
when you talk to someone in person, on the phone, or even in a chat room.
There are many ways to send email.
This lab focuses on ways to send mail to and from your UW Account.
What
is Email?
|
For more help using UW Email, go to:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/
UW Email: WebPine
2. Send Email Using WebPine
There
are many different forms of web email you can use. To send mail from your UW Account using a web
browser, you can use WebPine. This email interface is graphical and works
slightly different from other graphical email applications such as
Hotmail.
Many
of you have used web email before (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo Mail). For your account at the UW, one of the easier
ways to access your email from a browser is through WebPine.
- Go to WebPine from the MyUW portal, or simply go to the following link and log on (remember why you have a user id AND a
password):
http://webpine.washington.edu/
If you have your mail forwarded to another account from this one, you will have to go check that account OR turn off mail forwarding for the purpose of this lab.
- To send a message to someone, click on Compose.
- Send yourself an
email. Make sure you enter in your email address, a subject (“TEST
EMAIL”), and some text in the body of the message. Remember that your email is Your_UW_NETID@u.washington.edu.
- Click Send.
3.
Creating
directories (folders) using WebPine
A.
Go
to your inbox
B.
Save
the test message sent earlier by placing your mouse over the Action Envelope
and clicking on “Save” from the menu that pops up
C.
Type
in a name for the folder in the place of the one listed
Other functions of WebPine:
Helpful
links:
WebPine
http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/webpine/
UW Email: Pine
Pine was created by the Department of Computing and
Communications here at the UW. WebPine is the web browser based version of Pine, also
developed by the Department of Computing and Communications. To access your Pine account when Web browsers are not
available, you will need to establish a secure connection to the
system. SSH is a protocol that allows you to
access your UW email account and file space. SSH is the replacement protocol now used
instead of FTP and telnet. These
original protocols allowed access to any host computer that you have been given permission to enter. [A host
computer is a computer that
has an account for you and space for your information in its memory]. SSH will do the same thing, but adds more
encryption protection as you pass your user name and passwords back and
forth across the Networks. Through this protocol you can login to your account from any
computer that has an Internet connection.
You log on as a regular user with all the same permissions
regardless of where you are located. Pine is the text version of WebPine. It is known as a command line
environment. One of the pieces of software used on the UW campus to connect
to the host computer, read email and work with remote files is called TeraTerm and
is usually an option on the desktop or in the start menu. The location of
this program depends on the lab. Ask
your TA for the location of the Dante
login [Dante is the name of the group
of host computers for student email and file accounts here at the UW].
Why Pine?
4.
Log on to
Pine and send email
A.
Go
to the Student Email (Dante) icon on the Start Menu.
Start>Student Mail (Dante)
[Your TA will let you know if it is located elsewhere on the machines in
this lab]
Student email (Dante)
The
login screen below will appear. Enter
your UW ID and password.
Once you
log on you will be shown a menu with options to enter your email space,
your file or web space. This
environment doesn’t allow use of a mouse for most selections. This is a
command line interface; so in order to move from screen to screen, press
the correct command key.
B.
In the screen shown below, press “e” for email. You do not need to press the return button.
Often Pine
does not require you to hit the Return/Enter button after pressing the
letter that corresponds to a menu selection. However,
you can use the arrows to move up and down the menu selections. Press <Enter> when you have
highlighted your menu choice.
Main Menu for Email
5.
Send A Test Email
[See:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/pinedoc/ for detailed information on using Pine to send
mail]
Your email address is yourUWNetID@u.washington.edu
where yourUWNetID is the name
you use when you log in.
A.
Press C (Compose) to
see the Compose Message screen.
B.
In the To: field, type your UWNetID and press <Enter>.
Note that the rest of the address is filled in for you. The assumption is that you are sending email
to someone whose address ends with “@u.washington.edu”.
C.
Use the arrow buttons or the tab button to move through the other
fields to the body of the message
D.
Type “This is a test” in the body of the message.
E.
Send the message: Type <Control>X
(Send).
NOTE: The control button is indicated by the ^ character in the commands, so ^X is the send command.
You are asked: Send message?
F.
Press y (yes) or press < Enter >.
The message is sent and a copy is saved to your sent-mail folder. (If you press
n (no) the message is not sent, and
you can continue to work on it.)
What is a directory? A
directory, or folder, is a container for files. Just like the folders in an office file
cabinet holds documents, a directory on your computer or any other, can
hold files of all types. A directory
is a way to organize related files in a manner that allows for quick retrieval. If you have your work divided into the
various areas they pertain to, you can use folders to hold them in a
logical manner. A directory
can also be a collection of users, their passwords and information about
what they have the right to use on a particular computer system. It is still a container holding related
files. You will make directories in
this lab to hold your work this quarter, but you are also part of a directory
of the users of email and web pages at the UW.
Directories (Folders)
6.
Create a
Directory for Email:
- Press L (List folders) to see the
Folders Collection.
B.
There are two main folders.
One is your account space, called “Mail on your_UW_NetID.deskmail” and
the other holds newsgroup information.
Your mail folder is highlighted by default. Press <Enter>
to view the contents.
C. Press A to Add (create) a folder, give it a useful name (like FIT100). Press Enter to add the folder to your collection.
Three
folders will be provided automatically by Pine:
7.
Move
Messages to other Folders
A. If you aren’t in the Main Menu, press M (Main Menu) to return to it.
B. Press I (Message Index) to go to your current folder. The current folder is your Inbox.
C. Using the arrows, move to the test message you sent to yourself.
D. Type O (Other Commands). The bottom menu will change slightly. You now have other commands to select from.
E. Press S (Save). The prompt at the bottom of the screen now asks for the folder you want to save the message in.
F. Press ^T (To Folders). A list of the folders in your account will come up. Use the arrow buttons to highlight the folder you created today.
G. Press S (Select). The folder you highlighted now appears as the selected folder to save your message to. Press <Enter> to move the message from your Inbox to the folder you created.
Be aware that the same keys you press in one screen may refer to
different commands in another screen.
Always read the command menu at the bottom of the screen to be sure.
Spend
time outside of the Workshop getting to know the commands available and
familiarize yourself with the environment.
- Go to the Main Menu
(M)
- Press Q to quit
Pine
You
are asked: “Really quit Pine?”
Press
y for “Yes”
You
will be taken to the main screen for Dante.
Press
(L) to “Logout”
Helpful links:
Pine tutorial
http://www.washington.edu/pine/tutorial.4/index.html
Starting Pine
http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/pinedoc/pstarting.html
8. Enabling
Student Web Pages
What is a web page?
A web page is simply
a glorified text file that includes Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) tags
for formatting and display. These
pages are placed on computers called web servers that allow people to view
the content of those pages. The
World Wide Web consists of all the web servers that deliver web pages when
requested. The Internet is a huge
network of millions of computers that hold web pages, files, email, etc. It
includes the WWW as part of that network.
A web site is a
collection of web pages usually under the care of a single person or
company. The pages may have a
purpose related to a business or might just be the self-published interests
of a college student.
Every
student at the University of Washington
|
What is a web page? A web page is simply
a glorified text file that includes Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) tags
for formatting and display. These
pages are placed on computers called web servers that allow people to view
the content of those pages. The
World Wide Web consists of all the web servers that deliver web pages when
requested. The Internet is a huge
network of millions of computers that hold web pages, files, email, etc. It
includes the WWW as part of that network. A web site is a
collection of web pages usually under the care of a single person or
company. The pages may have a
purpose related to a business or might just be the self-published interests
of a college student. Every
student at the |
A. Using a browser (IE or Netscape), go to the following URL:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/
B. Click on the “Manage Your UW NetID Resources”
link.
C. You will be required to log in with your UW NetID and password.
D. Click on the link “Change your Services”
E. If you do not yet have the Basic Services activated, check each box with the Basic Services phrase next to it.
F. Check on Student Web Publishing under
“Services that are off”
G. Click Continue when you are done.
H. Ask your TA for help if you are unsure of any of the directions.
I. When you are finished, you are shown the URL for your web page.
http://students.washington.edu/yourUWNetid/
This
lab will not go into the details of public_html. The folder is created in your Dante account
when Student Web Publishing is activated.
The details of public_html will be covered in
upcoming labs. For today, verify that
your page is activated by visiting your web page address. Your URL address
depends on your UW NetID:
Example:
If your UWNetId
is boogyman,
then your email address is:
boogyman@u.washington.edu
and your web page is at:
http://students.washington.edu/boogyman
Your web page will probably look similar to the figure below:
For further help Creating
and publishing web pages, go to:
http://www.washington.edu/computing/web/publishing/
We’re at the end. All of you now have:
·
A UWNetID and an account on Dante
·
Accessed the email portion of your Dante account in two different
ways:
o
WebPine
o
Pine
·
Activated your web page so that you are now able to start
construction of a personal web page.
The next labs will go forward with the assumption that you have accomplished all three of this lab’s objectives.
