The Online World Part 5

Some services emphasize colors, graphics and sound. They may require that users have certain hardware or special add-on cards in their communications computer. Often, a special communications program is also needed.

Other services use methods for presenting colors and graphics already built into their users' computers (and programs).

Colors, graphics and sound are highly desirable in some applications, like online games and weather forecasts. But even where it is not important, there will always be many wanting it.

To the professional on a fact-gathering mission, these features may give slower data transfer and problems when saving text to disk for later use. Therefore, many prefer ASCII text with no extras.

Sports cars are nice, but for delivering furniture they're seldom any good. The same applies to the user interfaces. No one is perfect for all applications.

Level 6: The data transporters ------------------------------ When the online service's host computer is far away, the user often faces the challenges of:

1. Noise on the line, which may result in unreadable text or errors in the received material.

2. Expensive long distance calls

There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some offers better quality data transfers and lower costs.

The regional packet data services used to be a popular option.

In Scandinavia, the offerings of the local PTTs are called Datapak.

Similar services are offered in most countries, often by a national telephone monopoly.

Compet.i.tively priced alternatives are appearing in many countries as national telecom monopolies are brought to an end. For example, Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com compete successfully with former monopolies for transport of data to and from North America.

The Internet is a global network serving millions of mailboxes.

It provides very cost-efficient mail exchange with private and public networks throughout the world.

IXI is a packet data network operated by European Research centers. DASnet offers transport of mail between mail systems that have no direct connection with each others. (More about this in Chapter 13.)

Level 7: The user ----------------- This is you and me. Turn the page to the next chapter and read about how to use the online services.

Chapter 3: How to use the online services =========================================

The user interface refers to what you get on your computer screen and how, when you call an online service. It includes menus and help screens, and various options to tailor the service to your personal preferences.

Navigating by menus is simpler ------------------------------ Most online services have menus to make them easier for novices to use. A typical menu looks like this:

R)ead messages Q)uick search available messages W)rite messages C)omments to Sysop D)ownload programs ?) for help G)oodbye. This is enough!

Enter a letter (or ?) to select a function. Enter R to read messages. There is hardly any need to read the doc.u.mentation to use this service.

CompuServe greets European users with this menu:

CompuServe Europe EUROPE

COMPUSERVE EUROPE MAIN MENU

1 About CompuServe 2 What's New 3 Member a.s.sistance 4 Electronic Mail 5 Personal Computer Support 6 Company Information 7 Logon Instructions (Europe) 8 CompuServe Information Service (U.S.)

Enter '8' to get another menu:

CompuServe TOP

1 Member a.s.sistance (FREE) 2 Find a Topic (FREE) 3 Communications/Bulletin Bds.

4 News/Weather/Sports 5 Travel 6 The Electronic MALL/Shopping 7 Money Matters/Markets 8 Entertainment/Games 9 Hobbies/Lifestyles/Education 10 Reference 11 Computers/Technology 12 Business/Other Interests

You can "go" to a.s.sociated Press' newswires or the section for home-schooling in the Education Forum by entering numbers listed in menus. The service is like a tree with menus by every set of branches.

A code in the upper right-hand corner of each screen tells you exactly where you are. The last menu has the code 'TOP' meaning that this menu is at the 'top of the tree'.

By each CompuServe system prompt, the command GO followed by a destination code will take you directly to a desired location.

Enter GO IBMHW to go directly to the IBM Hardware Forum.

The GO command will save you time and money. Similar codes and commands are used on several other online services.

On many systems, the first menu encountered when logging on is a list of announcements and new offerings. The following is from GEnie, General Electric's Consumer Information Service (U.S.A.):

GEnie Announcements (FREE)

1. July 1991 GEnie Billing Completed. To review yours, type:....*BILL 2. Hot Summer Nights continues to SIZZLE.........................*HSN 3. NEW...Quality Product and Amazing Value in....................SOFTCLUB 4. LAST CHANCE---Blue GEnie Sweats.h.i.+rts..........................*ORDER 5. Color hypermedia in Apple II world. HyperStudio RTC in........A2 6. Meet the Product Manager, FREE RTC............................SFRT 7. "Future of Online Gaming" RTC with GEnie Game Designers in....MPGRT 8. A Revolutionary Credit Service - TRW CREDENTIALS..............TRWCREDIT 9. 900 Numbers: Ripoff or Good Business Sense - RTC 8/11 9PM.....RADIO 10. Air Warrior Convention set for Sept.26-29. in Was.h.i.+ngton......AIR 11. SEARS Fall/Winter Catalog On-line NOW.........................SEARS 12. How to Sell your CRAFTS for Profit............................HOSB 13. Stellar Warrior Campaign starts with a FREE weekend...........WARRIOR 14. Followup Investment RTC with Mickey Friedman in...............REAL ESTATE 15. Federation II, the adult s.p.a.ce fantasy........................FED

Enter #, elp, or to continue?

At the 'Enter #' prompt, enter '7' to go directly to the "Future of Online Gaming" conference (RTC=Round Table Conference). Enter H for Help, or press Return to get to the systems' main menu.

You can "go" to selected services by entering a videotext page number code or a number (selected from the menu). Type 'mail' to get to your mailbox, 'backgammon' to play, or 'SEARS' to visit the online version of this North American shoppers' paradise.

'Mail' has page number 200. Enter 'm 200' to go there directly.

To go to NewsBytes' technical news reports by subject, select "5"

from menu page number 316.

GEnie even has a faster way. Like some other services, it let you stack commands. Instead of issuing one command, and then wait for the system to respond before issuing the next command, stacking allows you to put all commands on one line. The command "m 316;5"

will take you directly to choice 5 from the menu on page 316 without displaying intermediate menus.

Many online services use the same template. They have commands like GO SERVICE-NAME, JOIN SERVICE-NAME (or just J), DELTA SERVICE- NAME, or just the code or name of the offering as in 'mail' and 'sears' above.

Entering H or ? (for help) usually give you a.s.sistance. Few services are fussy about whether you use lower or capital letters in commands.

On some services, and especially if a selection requires just a letter or a number, you don't even have to press return to make it happen. This method is used on many bulletin boards.

Some codes are standard. This is particularly the case with "?", H, or Help for more information.

Test drive ---------- Several commercial systems let you try the service for free or at lower rates. You can check what's out there without paying for the exploratory connect time, and get some free training in how to use the service.

CompuServe's Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) does not carry any connect charges, but applicable communication surcharges are still in effect. They also have a free 'Guided Tour'.

Free trials are particularly useful before a search in an expensive database. Use DialIndex on Dialog. Orbit has DBIN (The database Index), and Data-Star has CROS. They are master indexes to the databases on the system. First, select a general subject area, then enter your search terms. The systems will respond with lists of databases and hit counts.

Note: You must go to the 'real' databases for results. You cannot retrieve actual information during a test drive.

Selecting an expert level ------------------------- Most services regard all new users as novices. The software designers a.s.sume that users don't want (or are unable) to read lengthy explanations. They think that most users prefer navigation by going from menu to menu.

Commercial services may support this view for financial reasons, and especially when charging for access by the minute.

(Some of them let you read their help screens for free, though.) Menus are important when browsing new offerings, or accessing services that we seldom use. Frequent users of a service, however, quickly learn how to do things. Menus may soon begin to annoy rather than please. Reading them costs money, and it slows our communications down.

We do not need menus when accessing online services in fully automated mode. Your communications program remembers exactly what to do, and does all the typing for you.

There is no point in paying extra for having menus. You'll not read them anyway. The objective is to access the service at maximum speed and the lowest possible cost.

Most online services can be tailored to your personal needs and preferences. Many let you choose between:

* Full menus * Short menus * A prompt line with a list of the most often used commands, * a prompt character or word (see "prompt" in appendix 4 for examples). Prompts can be used by automatic communication script files to trigger the next action.

If concerned about costs, note that you can use expert mode without being a true expert. Just print the menus, and keep them by your keyboard while moving around.

Some users draw 'road maps' of the services to navigate more quickly. Others automate the process using automatic communications scripts.

Tailoring your services ----------------------- The need to tailor the online service's prompts and menus differs considerably from user to user, as they use all kinds of computers for communication.

Some screens are large. Other screens can only display a few lines of text at a time. One user of my BBS even used a Hewlett Packard pocket calculator with a tiny, tiny screen.

Many online services allow you to tailor the way information is sent to you.

If you are satisfied with how things are, skip the next couple of pages and read from "Connecting the first time." If curious of your options, read on for a somewhat brief and technical overview.

Besides a selection of various types of menus, you can usually also set the following preferences:

* What menu is to be the first, when you access the service?

* The first menu is to be a tailored menu containing your favorite offerings, and nothing else.

* Colors, graphics, or no colors/graphics.

* Preferred file transfer protocol (to avoid a question each time you want to transfer a file).