2. Access Services
 
The major services discussed here are electronic mail, news, Gopher,
World Wide Web, phone directories, and dialup access.
 
 
2.1  Electronic Mail
 
Electronic mail (email) is information that is sent electronically
from one computer user to another. Email is a fast, convenient way to
handle correspondence.  Once you learn the basics, you'll find it an
easy and fun way to communicate with friends and colleagues at Penn
State and around the world.
 
The CAC provides a POP (Post Office Protocol) server that holds your
email until you ask for it. When you connect with a POP client your
mail files are moved to your own computer where you can read them,
send replies, or store them.
 
The CAC also provides a mail forwarding service in conjunction with an
electronic phone directory. A single email address can be given to
your correspondents (e.g.  userid@psu.edu) and you can have mail
forwarded from there to whatever system you are currently using.
 
 
2.2  News
 
Usenet, also called Netnews, is a world-wide electronic bulletin board
and conferencing system that is accessible through the Internet. This
system contains thousands of newsgroups from which you can select
topics of interest and read articles that have been posted by others.
You can save, print, and reply to articles, or post your own news. The
interactive nature of Usenet has made it extremely popular with
students and faculty, who use it as a forum to discuss topics of
interest.
 
The CAC provides a news server that is used with "news reader" client
software that understands NNTP (NetNews Transfer Protocol). Articles
from chosen newsgroups are copied to your personal computer where you
can read them, send replies by email, or post follow-up articles.
 
 
2.3  Gopher
 
Internet Gopher helps you easily access public information stored on
Internet-connected computers all over the world. Combining features of
electronic bulletin board services and searchable databases, Gopher
can help you locate information on a wide variety of topics.
 
There are several Gopher servers at Penn State that can be found
through the "main" one maintained by the CAC. Again, a client program
connects to the servers and displays choices to you. Files are either
viewed on or copied to your personal computer.
 
 
2.4  World Wide Web (WWW)
 
Similar to Gopher, WWW servers provide a network of information
delivered with "hypertext" and "hypermedia." Instead of picking items
from a menu, you click on highlighted phrases or icons that are linked
to other objects which can be text, graphics, sound or video. WWW is
developing rapidly because of the advent of a client program called
Mosaic that supports WWW, Gopher, FTP, and Netnews.
 
As of this writing, versions of Mosaic for the Macintosh, MS Windows,
and X-Windows are available and working, but we haven't repackaged
them in a complete easy-to-install form. Find the Macintosh and
Windows versions on the FTP server ftp.cac.psu.edu in pub/access/test.
 
 
2.5  Phone Directories
 
The CAC maintains an on-line telephone directory system called PH
(short for phone).  This directory contains information for Penn State
students, faculty and staff. The PH server is updated weekly to
provide more current and complete information than the printed
directories. PH can display a person's email address, home and work
address, phone numbers, campus, department, title, and other
information.
 
The directory is accessible by everyone on the Internet, and people
may use it to find your email address. The procedure for changing your
email address in the directory is explained in the next section.
 
 
2.6  Dialup Access
 
Dialup service allows an individual with a computer, modem, and phone
to connect to the Penn State network and the global Internet. This
connection has all the capabilities of a "hardwire" connection such
as Ethernet, but is not as fast. The dialup access phone number
(814) 863-7777 connects you to the CAC information access server.