Access to USENET for non-comp sci majors at undergrad institutions
the gibster
In examining several colleges and universities for a friend of mine,
the question of USENET and internet access has come up.
Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
This friend is looking seriously at the following institutions of higher
learning, and a response from faculty, current students, or administrators
from said schools would be greatly appreciated:
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Hampshire College
New York University
Princeton Univeristy
Pomona College
Wesleyan University
Yale University
Also, any information regarding the transfer of electronic mail from the
outside world to campus residents without computers is welcome.
..rutgers!unirot!gib
..unirot!g...@rutgers.edu
Don W. Saklad
Greetings,
Does anyone know how to arrange access at ucscc
so a prospective student there might exchange mail
electronically with me here or read network news
?
Best wishes,
Don, tel. (617) 661-9650
John Ockerbloom
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:
In article <5...@unirot.UUCP> g...@unirot.UUCP (the gibster) writes:
>
>In examining several colleges and universities for a friend of mine,
>the question of USENET and internet access has come up.
>
>Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
>if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
>
>This friend is looking seriously at the following institutions of higher
>learning, and a response from faculty, current students, or administrators
>from said schools would be greatly appreciated:
[...]
> Yale University
Here is the situation at Yale:
CS majors (and people taking classes on CS department machines) have access
to Usenet, and the major mail networks (ARPA, UUCP, and BITNET). Undergraduates
have only recently gotten limited ARPA access, though gatewaying has always
been possible. I'm not sure if we can use ftp - I haven't had much success
with it outside Yale.
Non-majors have accounts on a general machine (YALEVM) which is connected to
BITNET only, but the machine also knows how to use gateways to get to the
other networks. They do not get the Usenet.
Here are the addresses of Yalies if you want to reach them:
CS majors only:
databa...@yale.EDU
databa...@yalecs.BITNET
databa...@yale.UUCP ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!database-name
in all three cases, the database name is <lastname>-<firstname>, as in
smith-joan. If the person has a unique last name (like mine) the last name
by itself will do.
All students (majors and non-majors):
user...@yalevm.BITNET
in this case, username is usually the first 3 letters of the last name, plus
the first three letters of the first name, plus the middle initial. There
are some exceptions.
I hope this helps.
John Ockerbloom
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ocker...@yale.EDU ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!ockerbloom
ocker...@yalecs.BITNET Box 5323 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520
ma...@vsedev.uucp
>
>if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
I love it! I wonder how many colleges/universities which currently
do not allow students access to electronic networks (BITNET, USENET)
will reconsider if a large portion of recruits include that in their
criteria in choosing a college....Queens College, CUNY: Are you listening?!
-marvin
--
Marvin Raab Arlington, VA 22202 703-521-5449 (h)
...!uunet!vsedev!marv +--------------------------------------+
...!rutgers!mimsy!cvl!vsedev!marv | (BITNET: marv%vse...@UUNET.UU.NET) |
...!ihnp4!verdix!vrdxhq!vsedev!marv | (formerly MF...@CUNYVM.BITNET) |
Max Hauser
>In article <5...@unirot.UUCP> g...@unirot.UUCP (the gibster) writes:
>>Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
>>if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
> I love it! I wonder how many colleges/universities which currently
>do not allow students access to electronic networks (BITNET, USENET)
>will reconsider if a large portion of recruits include that in their
>criteria in choosing a college....Queens College, CUNY: Are you listening?!
But of course usually it has nothing at all to do with "allowing students
access to Usenet"; the problem is that most schools are strapped for
computers, disk space and terminals. I'm sure that most schools with
some Usenet activity would love to give access to anyone who comes
prepared with, say, their own workstation and disks, and also is
willing to share say 80% of these with others on the campus (which is
what often happens to scarce resources in a university when someone
brings them in -- it would be a good early introduction to the academic
world, a side of it that most undergrads are gloriously ignorant of).
Since none of the postings so far have mentioned giving students
computer resources, which I think is the real key issue here, and a
very complex one, the posters must have implicitly assumed that
incoming students would supply all of their own -- and in that case
I'm confident that most if not all schools would oblige with Usenet
access. End of query.
Oh, don't forget to budget for your modem phone bill for UUCP traffic,
unless you can finagle a hard-wired access to a backbone site...
In any event, the colleges "in demand" routinely turn away several
applicants for each position they have, a process that is very clumsy
and that few faculty or admissions officers are really happy with.
Some of them literally lose sleep over it, because of course they are
rarely certain that they chose the right ones. If lack of "free" CPU
cycles and Megabytes causes some students to self-select themselves
out of the applicant pool, it will make life just a bit easier for
those who have to choose among the remaining hordes. Besides, it will
also keep down the gibberish on the Usenet, already pandemic.
Max Hauser / m...@eros.berkeley.edu / ...{!decvax}!ucbvax!eros!max
Mark Sirota
>In article <10...@duke.cs.duke.edu>, bec...@duke.cs.duke.edu (Jonathan D. Becher) writes:
>
>>>Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
>>>if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
>
>limiting access to grads and faculty types is rediculous! I had USENET
>access during my undergraduate work (University of Minnesota, Duluth) ,
>and felt that a good part of my CS education came from exchanging mail
>and news with the rest of the world.
I think Jeff may have been a touch strong, but his point is good. Although
it costs time, space, and money to provide worldwide network access to
everyone, I still think it's a good idea.
Part of what makes today's world great is communication. The media is fine,
but it can't provide one-on-one or large group discussions. NetNews and
electronic mail provide opportunities for people to communicate with an
amazingly large group of people, in a personal, relevant atmosphere.
One of the important points about college is social growth, and that's
exactly what nationwide networks provide. Seems to me that colleges and
universities wouldn't really want to deny their students this opportunity.
--
Mark Sirota
msir%tut.cc.roc...@cs.rochester.edu (rochester!ur-tut!msir)
Marvin Raab
I love it! I wonder how many colleges/universities which currently
do not allow students access to electronic networks (BITNET, USENET)
will reconsider if a large portion of recruits include that in their
criteria in choosing a college....Queens College, CUNY: Are you listening?!
In article <19...@ucbcad.berkeley.edu> Max Hauser replies:
I'm sure that most schools with
some Usenet activity would love to give access to anyone who comes
prepared with, say, their own workstation and disks, and also is
willing to share say 80% of these with others on the campus (which is
what often happens to scarce resources in a university when someone
brings them in -- it would be a good early introduction to the academic
world, a side of it that most undergrads are gloriously ignorant of).
My comments:
I wouldn't be so sure...I know of many schools which prohibit their
students from any use of computers for non-classwork activities. In fact,
there is a list somewhere on BITNET for sites to post who can and who
cannot use BITNET at their respective schools. The list informs (warns?)
the net against contacting "unauthorized" users.
One story I remember from my first year on BITNET (1982) occurred when a
friend of mine sent a message to a friend at another school. The receiving
school sent a nasty mail file to my site administrator threatening
legal action if it should ever happen again.
Patt Haring
> In article <5...@unirot.UUCP> g...@unirot.UUCP (the gibster) writes:
> >
> >Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
> >if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
>
> I love it! I wonder how many colleges/universities which currently
> do not allow students access to electronic networks (BITNET, USENET)
> will reconsider if a large portion of recruits include that in their
> criteria in choosing a college....Queens College, CUNY: Are you listeni
When one of the universities in NYC delayed giving students
their BITNET accounts, many of them started using Public Access
UNIX systems; for those of you who might be interested, here's
the current list:
nixpub--> PUBLIC ACCESS UNIX (*NIX) SYSTEMS [10-09-87]
(Please send additions, corrections, and feedback to warble)
Last d=wkdays
Contact k=wkends
Date Telephone # Sys-name Location Baud Hours
----- ------------ -------- ----------- ------- -----
Systems listed:
[ alphacm, chariot, cguild, chinet, conexch, dasys1, ddsw1, dhw68k ]
[ eskimo, igloo, killer, m-net, marob, ncoast, netsys, nuchat, nucleus ]
[ pallas, pinn, pnet01, pnet02, portal, sir-alan, stb, turnkey, unirot ]
[ vpnet, warble, well, xenlink ]
10/09 812-334-8453 cguild Bloomington IN 12 24
286 - SCO-XENIX V2.2.1, xbbs, also 812-334-8465
10/09 713-334-1204 nuchat Houston TX 3/12/24 24
286 - Mport USENET, mail, shell access available 120 meg
10/06 714-662-7450 turnkey Southern CA 12/24 24
286 - Xenix SYSV, XBBS
10/04 312-833-8126 vpnet Villa Park IL 3/12 24
3B1 UNIX Sys ?, no fee, shell access, AKCS/ERACS BBS
09/26 212-675-7059 marob NYC NY 12/24 24
286 SCO-XENIX 2.2, XBBS
09/25 814-333-6728 sir-alan Meadville PA 3/12/24 24
Tandy XENIX/68000 03.01.02, Allegheny College, UNaXcess BBS, anon ftp
09/24 313-623-6309 nucleus Clarkston MI 12/24 24
286 - UNIX SYS V, donation requested, AKCS/ERACS BBS
09/03 216-781-6201 ncoast Cleveland OH 3/12/24 24
PLEXSUS, no fee, donation requested -> $2.00/hr prime, $1.00/hr non-prime
08/31 206-367-3837 eskimo Seattle WA 3/12 24
Tandy-6000 XENIX, 8 lines, fee $1/mo, 1st 2 weeks free
08/30 217-529-3223 pallas Springfield IL 3/12/24 24
Convrgnt Minifrme, multiple lines, 200 meg Minnie bbs $25 donation
08/30 312-283-0559 chinet Chicago IL 3/12/24 24
3b2/300 - SYS V 3.1, multiple lines, Picospan BBS, fee $50/yr for usenet
access and other than public lines
08/30 403-295-2541 xenlink Calgary AB 3/12/24 24
286 - SCO -XENIX, no fee, Term BBS, shell access, login bbs
08/30 408-725-0561 portal Cupertino CA 3/12 24
Networked Suns (SunOS), multiple lines (some at 2400 bps), Telenet access
fees: $4/hour direct, telenet $4/hour + tnet charges various rates/times
conferencing, multi user chats, usenet, no shell access
08/29 415-332-6106 well Sausalito CA 3/12 24
VAX 750 - BSD 4.2, multiple lines, Telenet access, Picospan bbs
fees: $8/month, $3/hour direct, Telenet $20/$4 hour (peak/off peak)
08/28 214-824-7881 killer Dallas TX 3/12/24 24
3b2/400 - UNIX, no fee, various time limits, 4 lines 860 meg online
08/28 312-566-8909 ddsw1 Mundelein IL 3/12 24
286 - Mport guest usr 1 hr daily, fee extends use, ERACS/UX bbs
2400 bps for contributors($) on 312-566-8911/12 Authors of ERACS/UX bbs
08/26 312-272-5912 igloo ?? IL 12 unknown
PC7300 - UNIX limits unstated PicoSpan conference system
08/23 201-752-2820 unirot ?? NJ 12 unknown
Heurikon - Unisoft SYS V, fee status unknown AKA Soup Kitchen
08/23 714-635-2863 dhw68k Anaheim CA 3/12/24 24
Unistride 2.1, fee status unknown, avoid 0200-0700 hrs local time
10/23 212-879-9031 dasys1 NYC NY 12 24
Unistride - SYS V, multiple lines, fee $5/mo AKA Big Electric Cat
08/22 714-842-5851 conexch Santa Anna CA 3/12/24 24
XENIX 714-842-6348 (bbs) - 3/12 various limits fee $25/quarter XBBS
08/06 714-828-0288 alphacm Southern CA 12/24 24
286 - SCO-XENIX no fee, 60 minute per login, 4 lines, XBBS
08/02 301-540-3656-9 netsys Germantown MD 12 unknown
ALTOS 986(2) - Xenix, networked 240 meg, fee $5/mo
10/06 619-444-7006 pnet01 El Cajon CA 3/12/24 24
BSD Unix, 3 lines, contributions requested, login: pnet id: new
some USENET, net email, multi-thread conferencing. Home of
P-Net software, mail to crash!bblue or pnet01!bblue for info.
07/22 213-376-5714 pnet02 Redondo Bch CA 3/12/24 24
XENIX (also 213-374-7404) no fee, 90 min limit, login: pnet id: new
some USENET, net-work e-mail, multi-threaded conferencing
07/16 213-459-7231 stb Sta Monica CA 3/12/24 24
Tandy 16 no limits, no fee, Serial Tree bbs (home made), shell access
09/11 305-584-4440 pinn Ft. Laud. FL 3/12/24 24
IBM AT - Microport SYS V, multiple lines, fee $12/yr MAGIC BBS
07/12 303-632-4111 chariot Colo Sprgs CO 3/12 24
Convrgnt Minifrme - SYS V, multiple lines, fee $12/mo Picospan
07/11 313-994-6333 m-net Ann Arbor MI 3/12 24
Altos 68020 - SYS III, limits unstated, fee for extended service
Picospan conference system, multiple lines, 160 meg
===========================================================================
List originated and maintained on:
09/15 214-250-1764 warble Plano TX 12/24 d 5pm-5am k 24
286 - SCO-XENIX, no fee, XBBS
uucp: ...!killer!warble!wayne CIS: 73205,1172
===========================================================================
--
Patt Haring UUCP: ..cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth
Big Electric Cat Compu$erve: 76566,2510
New York, NY, USA MCI Mail: 306-1255; GEnie: PHaring
(212) 879-9031 FidoNet Mail: 1:107/132 or 107/222
Kevin Hobson
In article <5...@unirot.UUCP> g...@unirot.UUCP (the gibster) writes:
> In examining several colleges and universities for a friend of mine,
> the question of USENET and internet access has come up.
>
> Do most colleges and universities give access to USETNET and the Internet
> if they have it? Are there any special restrictions that usually apply?
>
At Rutgers, anyone taking a higher level computer science (>
300 level course) automatically get access to Usenet, Internet
(combination of all interconnected networks), CSnet, NSFnet, FIDOnet
and BITNET. The problem is that most students do not know this! We
use usenet as internal electronic bboard. Each class has its own
bboard for questions/answers. Next, we have ru.qa (rutgers questions
and answer) bboard for user questions (How to send mail to so in so?
How do you use this function on a sun?) from any machine using netnews
software (most of unix machines here). Center for Computer
Information Systems (CCIS) is a organization that helps let
non-computer science departments get access to the computers. But each
individual department is in its own little world and do not know these
services exist (macintosh and ibm-pc will do just fine).
> This friend is looking seriously at the following institutions of higher
> learning, and a response from faculty, current students, or administrators
> from said schools would be greatly appreciated:
> Brown University
> Carnegie Mellon
> Dartmouth College
> Duke University
> Hampshire College
> New York University
> Princeton Univeristy
> Pomona College
> Wesleyan University
> Yale University
Is Rutgers University that bad?
> Also, any information regarding the transfer of electronic mail from the
> outside world to campus residents without computers is welcome.
If you have a computer and modem, you can dialup to the
systems. Each campus have just be revised so high speed lines (T1) go
to Newark, Piscataway, Camden and New Brunswick campus. So each campus
has access to ANY of the computer systems on any campus (Piscataway is
the main hub). Sorry, dormitory and/or mail delivery of electronic
mail is not possible :-)
> ..rutgers!unirot!gib
> ..unirot!g...@rutgers.edu
Public access unix machine with news feed from rutgers.
--
- Kevin Hobson
- ARPA: hob...@rutgers.edu
- UUCP: {ames, harvard, ucla-cs, cbosgd, moss}!rutgers.edu!hobson
- BITNET: hob...@cancer.bitnet
- Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903 (201) 932-2260
(201) 932-5027
(201) 932-2492
Jan Harrington
> some Usenet activity would love to give access to anyone who comes
> prepared with, say, their own workstation and disks, and also is
> willing to share say 80% of these with others on the campus (which is
> what often happens to scarce resources in a university when someone
> brings them in -- it would be a good early introduction to the academic
> world, a side of it that most undergrads are gloriously ignorant of).
>
> My comments:
>
> I wouldn't be so sure...I know of many schools which prohibit their
> students from any use of computers for non-classwork activities. In fact,
> there is a list somewhere on BITNET for sites to post who can and who
> cannot use BITNET at their respective schools. The list informs (warns?)
> the net against contacting "unauthorized" users.
>
discussions that we're having at Bentley College. Just exactly what can a
student do with Bentley-owned computing resources? Those resources include
stand-alone micros rented to students as well as minis and mainframes
accessible through the school's broadband network. The network also includes
access to dial-out modems (i.e., access to external networks).
For a long time, we felt that students shouldn't use computers for anything
other than assigned class work. However, that has changed considerably since
every freshman and sophmore has his or her own micro. Our philosophy is now
that the computer is a tool to be used for whatever the student deems
appropriate - within the limits of our ethics code (which is still under
development). At the moment, we operate under a "no harm" rule (strictly
unwritten), which means that so long as no other person or resource is harmed,
the use is OK.
As for external network access, we would have no problem with any student
who paid the computer use fee accessing the dial-out modems to interact with
either BITNET (a hookup is currently being arranged) or USENET (I have to
convince the people who run the VAX that USENET would be useful) so long as
the amount of traffic from that individual isn't excessive (i.e., it doesn't
prevent others from getting their news in or out).
I think it's a sign of Bentley's maturity in computing that we realize that
the computer is no longer an end in itself. It's really a tool for managing
information and our goal is to aid students in doing so.
Jan Harrington, sysop
Scholastech Telecommunications
ihnp4!husc6!amcad!stech!sysop or allegra!stech!sysop
********************************************************************************
Miscellaneous profundity:
"No matter where you go, there you are."
Buckaroo Banzai
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