Chebucto Community Net Training
Introductory Tutorial Exercises

Introduction

This is the first in the Tutorial Exercise series by Chebucto Community Net Training. It is meant to introduce you to the basics of getting around Chebucto Community Net (CCN) and gives some pointers on how to find out more information using the resources on CCN.

Getting to the Login prompt

There are many ways to access CCN to log in. You may be using a computer which is already connected to the Internet, and use something called "telnet" to log into CCN, or you may be using a computer and modem and dialing in from home. In either case, there are many different kinds of computers, communication software, and modems. Since it would be impossible to give detailed instructions for every possible combination, this tutorial assumes that you have figured out how to get to the Chebucto Community Net login prompt (where it says "login:" and then waits for you to type something). If you haven't got to that stage yet, try getting some help from a technically knowledgeable friend.

Logging in as guest

At the "login:" prompt, type guest and press the RETURN key.
Read the messages; press [RETURN] when requested. When it asks you for your name, type in your name and press [RETURN].
Read the messages; then, when it says "Enter your terminal type [vt100]:", press [RETURN].
Note: instead of "vt100", it may say "vt220" or "vt102". That's okay; you can still just press RETURN.
You should see the Welcome Screen for Guest Users.
NOTE: if at any point, you get lost in Chebucto Community Net, you can get back to this screen by typing g guest and pressing [RETURN].

Module 1: Basic Navigation

Exercise 1a: Using the Arrow Keys

If you look at the screen, you will see some of the phrases in the text are bolded and preceded with a number in square brackets, like this: [1]the basics of using our system. These bolded, numbered phrases are called "links" because they indicate a link to more information.

Press the down-arrow key a few times, and watch how the highlight moves to the next link on the page each time you press the key.
Press the up-arrow key a few times, and watch how your highlight moves to the previous link on the page each time you press the key.
Use the up and down arrows to move your highlight to the phrase [2]Home Page.
Press the right-arrow key. This is called "following a link".
You should see the Chebucto Community Net Home Page.
NOTE: You can also follow a link by pressing [RETURN] instead of using the right-arrow key.
Using the arrow keys, try choosing a link (any one) and follow it.
This will bring up a new screen of information. The content of the screen depends on which link you chose.
Now press the left-arrow key. This will take you back to the previous screen, which was the Chebucto Community Net Home Page.
Press the left-arrow key again to take you back to the Welcome Screen for Guest Users.

Exercise 1b: Following Links Using Numbers

You can also follow a link by typing the number which is in square brackets.

From the Welcome Screen for Guest Users, type 2 and press [RETURN]. This should take you to the Chebucto Community Net Home Page.

The Status Bar

Look at the bottom of your screen for the line third from the bottom. It should be in highlighted or in reverse video, and should say
```
Commands: Use arrow keys to move, '?' for help, 'q' to quit, '<-' to go back
```
This is the status bar. When you are not sure what to do, this is a good line to check for instructions.

Exercise 1c: The Lynx Menu Bar

Look at the bottom of your screen, at the two lines below the status bar. They should look like this:
```
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
O)ther cmds  G)o to  P)rint  B)ack  H)ome page  C)omment  R)efresh  Q)uit
```
This is the Lynx menu bar. It gives instructions on the arrow keys, and also shows the other commands available. For each command, the upper-case letter followed by ")" is the one you type to do the command.

Press O (for "Other commands") and watch how the bottom line changes:

O)ther cmds  E)dit  S)et options  W)hereis  D)ownload  U)pload  L)ast doc

Press O again and watch the bottom line:

O)ther cmds  histor(Y)  K)eymap  Bookmarks: V)iew, A)dd, <delete>

Press O again and you're back to the original version of the bottom line:

O)ther cmds  G)o to  P)rint  B)ack  H)ome page  C)omment  R)efresh  Q)uit

Exercise 1d: Paging forward and backward in a long document

From the Chebucto Community Net Home Page, follow the link labelled [1]Help Desk.
Look at the status bar (remember, that's the line third from the bottom). It should say:
-- press space for next page --
This means that the information in this section doesn't all fit on one screen and you can press the space bar to go to the next page.
Press the space bar to go to the next page.
To go to the previous page, press b.

Exercise 1e: The Go command

A useful command for getting around Chebucto Community Net is the Go command.

Press G and look at the status bar (remember, it's the highlighted line, third from the bottom of the screen). It'll say
Go to:
Press [RETURN]. You should see the Shortcut List.
The list of words on the left are the names of the shortcuts. To use a shortcut, you type G, then the shortcut name. Shortcuts are sometimes written this way: "[go ShortcutName]".
Have a quick look through the shortcut list. Use the space bar and b to page forward and back through the list.
Try the [go home] shortcut now. Type ghome and press [RETURN]. This will take you to the Chebucto Community Net Home Page.

Module 2: Learning to use the Chebucto Community Net Help Desk.

The CCN Help Desk is a valuable source of online help. These exercises will help you discover how to use it. To get to the Help Desk, follow link [1]Help Desk from the Chebucto Community Net Home Page. Take a minute to read the first paragraph. It gives a couple of hints on how to use the Help Desk.

Exercise 2a: About Help

Follow link [2]About CCN's Help Desk and read the document "About CCN's Help Desk". When you are finished, type ghelp to go back to the first page of the Help Desk.
Take a quick look at how the Help Desk is organized. Notice that there are different headings such as
- Learning to use Chebucto Community Net
- Managing Your Account
- Help for Information Providers
- Other Means of Finding Help
Browse through the list of items beneath each heading to get an idea of what is available. Press the space bar to get to the next page as necessary.

Exercise 2b: Searching the CCN Help Desk

There is another way to find information if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. You can search the CCN Help Desk by specifying word(s) to search for. Try the following exercise:

If you are not at the Help Desk already, type ghelp.
Go to the last page of the Help Desk (press the space bar to page forward). Look at the bottom of your screen for:
```
[17]Search Help Desk [18]CCN's Home Page [19]Contact User Support
```
Follow link [17]Search Help Desk. We are going to search for the word "quota".
Type in quota and press [RETURN].
Press the right-arrow key to start the search. In a few moments, a list of documents containing the word "quota" should be displayed. Take a moment to browse through some of them.
When you are finished, type ghelp to return you to the Top Drawer of the Help Desk.

Exercise 2c: Learning about help menus

Many Help Desk documents have a menu at the end of the document. Try this exercise to learn more about it.

Follow link [6]Using News. This will bring you to help for netnews. Look at the bottom of the page for this menu :
```
[6]Help Desk Top Drawer [7]Search the Help Desk [8]CCN's Home Page
After consulting the online help materials, if you have further
questions please [9]Contact User Support.
```
If you're stuck, and not sure what to do, you may find this menu helpful. The "Help Desk Top Drawer" is the first page of the Help Desk. You can also search the Help Desk (previous exercise), go back to the Home Page, or contact User Support. Follow link [6]Help Desk Top Drawer to go back to the Top Drawer.

Logging Out

The last thing you should do before leaving is log out.

Type q for quit.
The computer will prompt:
Are you sure you want to disconnect? [Y]
Type y or press [RETURN].

This will properly close your connection to Chebucto Community Net. If you are dialing up, then this will also hang up your modem.

Following is a list of exercises to try later on.

Further exercises for Module 1

Read through the Navigation Tutorial.
From the Help Desk, follow link [1]Navigating Chebucto Community Net, then follow link [1]Other ways of moving about the system. This should get you to the Navigation Tutorial.
Try some more shortcuts.
Go to the shortcut list again and try some out. Here are some suggestions: [go who], [go ip]

Further exercises for Module 2

Explore the Chebucto Community Net Frequently Asked Questions.
Type gfaq. The FAQ answers the most frequently asked questions from users.
On the Help Desk Top Drawer, have a look at "Contact User Support". Discover other ways of getting help.
Type ghelp and follow link [19]Contact User Support.
Learn how to use a fill-in form. These forms are used on CCN to obtain information from the user. Registration and searching use fill-in forms.
Type ghelp and follow link [6]Filling In Forms.
Explore on your own.
Follow any links you desire, whatever may interest you.
Remember, that if you type ghelp from almost anywhere in CCN Community Net, you can get to the HelpDesk. If you type ghome, you can get back to the Chebucto Community Net Home Page.

Originally written by Carol Sin and Bonny Lee for CCN Community
Net Training. Last modified 1995/07/12 18:16:34 by helpdoc

Chebucto Community Net Training Introductory Tutorial Exercises