ECR6
Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)

This page, by its very nature, is under constant reconstruction. If you feel a topic is worthy of discussion here, please send an E-mail message to This page was last modified Sun Oct 21 14:58:27 2007.

Sections

Abbreviations

Accounts

File and disk issues

Printing

File transfer

Mail

Usenet newsgroups

Networking

Installing software

Programming

OpenVMS

Topics

Common abbreviations

Computer accounts and lab access

What are the policies regarding computer accounts?

What are the policies regarding computer lab access?

How do I get a computer account?

Why did my account suddenly stop working?

What do I need to do to permit my use of the computing facility's Windows XP systems?

After I login to a Windows XP system, it seems to take forever for my desktop to display.

How do I access my account?

How do I change my password?

What happens to my account and E-mail address when I leave the department?

File and disk issues

How do I fix floppy disk read/write errors?

What is the User area?

What is the computing facility's disk space policy?

Printing

What is the computing facility's printing policy?

What printers are available?

How do I check the status of a print job or control where my jobs will print?

How do I use Apple's LaserWriter Bridge control panel?

File transfer

How do I transfer a file from/to an ECR6 Macintosh to/from the OpenVMS server?

How do I transfer a file from/to an ECR6 PC-Compatible to/from the OpenVMS server?

Is there a local archive of freeware or shareware programs?

Mail

What is my E-mail address?

Which E-mail address do I use?

How do I send an Internet E-mail message from an OpenVMS system?

What are all these files with a .MAI suffix in my directory and why can't I delete them?

Mail informs me I have one (1) new mail message, but when I try to read it, there's no new messages available. What's wrong?

Is there any way to reduce the amount of disk space my MAIL.MAI file uses?

Can I move mail files to a subdirectory?

Is there a way to define "mail aliases" for E-mail addresses I commonly use?

How do I access my "postbox" mail, as well as my mail from ECR6?
Can I have my WHOIS directory entry point to my ECR6 account?

I used to receive almost regular postings from my department, but these recently stopped. What's wrong?

I would like to migrate from Pathworks Mail (or Mail for Macintosh) to Eudora. How should I procede?

I received a message with an attachment which Pathworks Mail for DOS (or Mail for Macintosh) can't decode. Is there any way to decode the attachment?

Is there a way for me to send an E-mail message to a group within my department (e.g. graduate students, faculty, etc.)?

What should I do if I receive spam, a fraudulent solicitation (e.g. "Nigerian scam"), a request to verify my account ("phishing"), etc. sent to my departmental account?

What is a "remote instance" of Eudora?

Why can't I send E-mail when I'm connected to the Internet from outside of OSU (e.g. using AOL, CompuServe, etc.)?

Why are people who are trying to send me E-mail calling me to complain that our server is blocking their messages?

Can I acsess my ECR6 E-mail account from the Web?

Can I set up an auto-responding mail message to let people know I'm out of the office?

How do I forward my E-mail to a different account?

Usenet newsgroups

Can I access Usenet newsgroups from here?

Networking

What are the policies regarding computer networking?

How do I set up network clients (E-mail, FTP, Web browser, etc.) to operate with ECR6 networking resources?

How do I connect more than one computer/printer in a room to the network?

Which AppleTalk zone should my office Macintosh be in?

How do I uniquely identify a Macintosh on the network?

Which Windows network workgroup should my office PC be in?

How do I uniquely identify a Windows PC on the network?

I have a computer in my office/lab which I'd like to have connected to the network. What do I need to do?

What is a "network username"?

Where can I get the newest version of HomeNet/OfficeNet/ResNet software?

How do I map my Z: drive from a PC in my office?

I'm running Windows XP and I know that a Web site I normally visit was down earlier, but now it's supposed to be up, but I can't access it. What might be the problem?

Are there any alternatives to using HomeNet to connect to OSU's network?

Can I attach my personally-owned computer to the local network?

Is wireless network access available?

How do I view X Window graphics locally that are generated by a program running on a remote system?

Is there a way for a guest (someone not officially affiliated with OSU) to acquire network access?

Installing software

Where should I install this software package I just received?

Given ECR6 Management's software installation policy, can I arrange to have a software package installed on the facility's computers by ECR6 Management?

Programming

How do I direct input/output to/from a FORTRAN program?

How do I direct output both to the screen, and to a file?

When I run a program on an OpenVMS server, after it runs for a while, I see a message indicating that my process priority has been reduced. Sometime thereafter, my process is killed. How can I avoid this?

OpenVMS

What is an "interactive login"?

Is VMS a variant of UNIX?

How do I delete a directory under OpenVMS?

Is there a "beginner's guide" for using VMS?