MDK-12

Getting Graphical Internet Access with an MDEDU Account

Contents

Background -- What you must know before addressing this problem The tools -- for Macs and IBMs Alternatives -- College Park PPP

This remarkable area is the home for information about how to obtain and set up the software necessary to run Netscape and other Internet "client" programs (such as telnet and ftp) on your own machine, without the help of a SLIP/PPP account.

The University of Maryland MDEDU accounts come without SLIP/PPP access, so this is information is vital to MDEDU account holders who want to "get on the Web". Tremendous thanks are due to Drs. Joe Campbell and Sandy Steingart for gathering and organizing the information presented here.

The two "need-to-know" links mentioned below are essential reading material if you want to be able to use Netscape or other Internet-access programs on your own computer with an MDEDU account. Perhaps the four most important things to keep in mind while reading these are:

1. If you are using a Mac and are using Sailor to dial-in, this process will not work for you, unless you're willing to spend the long-distance charges needed to call either Baltimore or College Park.
2. This is a matter of setting up software on, and making changes to, YOUR COMPUTER -- not to your account at the University.
3. This process is NOT trivial; however, the instructions are all present, and this has been successfully done by hundreds of teachers, many of whom were not "tecchies".
4. The University help desk does NOT support this set-up process. Generous members of the MDK-12 community support it through the MDK-12 Listserv discussion list. Please do not ask for help unless you have followed the instructions and can tell the person helping you exactly what you did and what did or didn't happen.

This, then, is what you need to know:

• Why can't I just run Netscape without any further fuss?

  This file explains the basics of why your phone line is different from the network, and what you have to do to run programs like Netscape or Telnet or FTP or Eudora, given that all of these can only "live" on the network.

• How to download the software in this section

  How to use lynx to download the various files you'll need in order to succeed. (However, in recent years school access has grown so widespread that it may be easier simply to download the files at school with the normal browsing tools and take them home on disk.)

• On PCs

• On MACs

UM's Campus-Only Public Dialup PPP services

You can dial in to a UM public-access modem pool in College Park or Baltimore and get direct PPP service. However, this is a CAMPUS ONLY service.

This means that you can only access UM College Park campus resources when you are using it as a PPP service. You will be able to receive and send mail to/from anywhere using a mail client program -- if you have the program configured to use UM mail servers. You will be able to browse UM resources such as our inforM web server and the University Libraries site. But you will not be able to use any links that point to resources outside the University.

On the other hand, if you use this dialup with SLiRP on an MDEDU account, as described here on this site, you can "go" anywhere in the world. The campus-only limitation applies only to setting up a standard PPP connection through the dialup, not to using SLiRP.

Updated: 9 August 2002