o^3 Cubic Circle

FAQ


  1. What does FAQ mean anyway?

    It's the abbreviation of Frequently Asked Questions. Many newsgroups on USENET have a periodic posting (usually once a month) that contains all of the frequently asked questions on the newsgroup. It is assumed that anyone posting messages to the newsgroup has at least read the FAQ first. Posting a question to the newsgroup which is in the existing FAQ tends to be not well received.

  2. How do I find out how much time I've spent online?

    From the Cubic Circle home page, pick Administrivia, then personal data and statistics.

  3. How do I change my password?

    This can be done on the very same personal data and statistics page. Password changes will not take effect until the next full hour.

  4. When do I need to make the next payment?

    Simply wait until you have received the next invoice. It is normally sent to you by E-mail at the start of the next month and will contain all the necessary information. If you want to find out when the start of the next month is, check your (you guessed it :-) personal data and statistics page.

  5. I'd like to change my subscription type.

    If you want to upgrade or downgrade your subscription type (or, god forbid, cancel your account :-) simply send an E-mail notice stating your request to account@cuci.nl. The change will take effect after the next invoice has been received (i.e. at the next monthly boundary).

  6. Can others see when I am logged in?

    A limited amount of data about you can be retrieved through finger. You can influence part of this information by filling out the pseudonym field on your personal data and statistics page. If so desired, you can even make yourself unfingerable. The changes you make will not take effect until the next full hour.

  7. I would like to check how my E-mail messages look to others.

    You can address E-mail to yourself. This will have the effect that the message will go out to the mailserver at Cubic Circle, where it can be fetched immediately by your mail program again. The message will arrive in your mailbox exactly the way it would have looked, had you sent it to someone else. To address E-mail to yourself, simply fill out your own E-mail address in the To: field of the mail.

  8. When I compose a letter I see Cc:, what is it for?

    Cc: is an E-mail header field that is the abbreviation of Carbon Copy. This field is optional and does not need to be filled out when sending mail. If you want to send copies of this message to several other addresses, list them here (separated by commas).

  9. When I compose a letter I see Bcc:, what is it for?

    Bcc: is an E-mail header field that is the abbreviation of Blind Carbon Copy. Like Cc: this field is optional and does not need to be filled out when sending mail. If you want to send copies of this message to several other addresses but do not want the other recipients to know to whom these copies have been sent, list them here (separated by commas).

  10. When I compose a letter I see Attachment:, what is it for?

    Attachment: displays the files that are going to be attached to this E-mail message. By default, there are no files attached to a message. The actual message usually is what you type in the body below. If you want to attach one or more files to a message in Eudora, click on the menu option Attach File. It will prompt you for a filename and will automatically display this in the Attachment: field.

  11. Composing letters off-line, how is it done?

    If you're using Eudora, there are two settings that you'll have to change in the menu Special and Settings: Once you've changed these settings, mail, by default, will be queued instead of sent; and Eudora will omit the periodic check for new mail. You do have to remember now to check on your mail manually, now and then, and to empty the mailqueue upon connecting.

  12. How do I find out someone's E-mail address?

    There is no global E-mail directory. Still the best way to find out someone's E-mail address is simply by asking them on the phone. If that is impossible somehow, then there still are a few databases that can be queried (but chances are the person you're looking for is not in them). If you know at what organisation he or she has the E-mail account, there might be some educated guesses that could help you find the address; but making these usually requires several years of experience on the Internet.

  13. I've received some strange undecipherable mail, how do I decode it?

    If the mail starts with something like begin 0644, chances are that it has been uuencoded. In order to decode such a mail you have to save the content of the mail into a separate file, and then use an uudecoder (e.g. uuexe) to extract the contents.

  14. It's tedious to type these mailaddresses over and over...

    You can create nicknames for (entire groups of) mailaddresses. Simply look in the Window menu and select Nicknames.

  15. The message I posted in this newsgroup has vanished!

    I just posted a message in this newsgroup, I waited a few seconds for it to appear, and then I immediately checked if it looked all right. It looked just fine. But, now, some time later, I checked again if the message was still there. But it's gone!

    That's perfectly normal. Your newsreader keeps a score of which articles you've already read in a newsgroup. Whenever it knows that you've already read an article, it will hide the article from your display the next time you enter the newsgroup. Since you read your own article immediately after posting it, it has disappeared from your view after that.

    If someone replies to your article, you'll immediately notice the reply because it will be a new article (which will be shown by your newsreader).

  16. How do I create my own home page?

    You're in luck, there is a document that describes it in detail :-).

  17. I'm using the W95 dial-up adapter, but it doesn't work right.

    Press the Start button, select Settings, then Control Panel. Proceed to Network, TCP/IP, Properties, DNS Configuration. Enable DNS, for the Host use your loginname, for the Domain, enter cm.cuci.nl. Add 193.67.239.1 to the DNS Server Search Order, and add cuci.nl to the Domain Suffix Search Order.

  18. I can't seem to access WWW pages outside of Cubic Circle.

    Check the proxy server settings in your WWW browser. If it's Netscape, click on Options, then Network and Proxies. If your Netscape browser allows you to select autoconfiguration for the proxy server, select that and enter the following parameter there: http://www/proxy.nspc

    If you have an older Netscape, make sure that all proxy server entries (except the News proxy, leave that one empty) are set to proxy, port number 80. No proxy for: cuci.nl www ftp. Leave the SOCKS Host empty.

    If you are using Microsoft's Internet explorer, enable proxy settings and set the proxy server to: http://proxy/

  19. Telnet does not seem to work.

    That's because, by default, firewall security protection is on. If you want to use telnet, either use the telnet proxy server at proxy, port number 1081, or turn off the firewall security protection though your personal data and statistics page.

  20. FTP does not seem to work.

    That's because, by default, firewall security protection is on. If you want to use FTP, either use your WWW browser (e.g. Netscape) to do so (highly recommended, since this often is faster and reduces the strain on the net), or configure your FTP client to utilise the firewall with hostname set to proxy.cuci.nl, port number 1082 and firewall type "USER with no logon", or turn off the firewall security protection though your personal data and statistics page.

  21. Viruses by E-mail?

    Every now and then, stories circulate that there are some viruses disguised as E-mail messages which can infect your computer. One particularly well known hoax is the so-called Good Times virus. Let me make it clear, once and for all, that it is not possible for a virus to infect your computer if you simply read the E-mail message it was wrapped in.

    The only way viruses can infect your computer is if you allow a piece of (virus)program to be executed on your computer. By simply looking at a message, this cannot happen. This can only happen if you run a program that was sent as an attachment (like an exe, com, PostScript or macro file).

  22. Working off-line (with Trumpet Winsock).

    You need to obtain a file called mozock.dll. Copy this file to your \windows\system directory. In order to use Internet programs off-line, you first have to make sure that all programs that typically make Internet connections, have been terminated. Then, rename mozock.dll to winsock.dll. Now you can start any and all Internet programs without making an actual connection to the net.

    By the time you want to work online again, you reverse the procedure. I.e. first terminate all Internet programs, then rename the winsock.dll back to mozock.dll, now log in and start the Internet programs again.

    The procedure as describe should be fail-safe. Depending on actual configurations and programs used, some steps might be skipped.