Technical Support Frequently Asked Questions

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FAQ's about MacTalk

What is talk ?
Starting a Talk session
Necessary information
Is the person online ?
What is the person's exact address ?
Starting a Talk session
Receiving a Talk request

Q. What is talk ?

A. Talk is an application that lets you "talk" with another person via computer in a real-time conversational manner. It is like having a telephone conversation, except you are typing to one another instead of speaking.

Q. Starting a talk session ?

A.

Necessary information

You use Talk to make the connection to another person, but before you connect you need to find out two things. First, is the person online? Second, what is the exact address needed to make contact?

Is the person online ?

To find out if a UNIX user is online, use "finger." Eudora also has a finger feature.

Sometimes fingering a UNIX user does not show if they are online. You cannot finger an IP user to find out if they are online. When you cannot find out if they are online using finger, try sending email, or arrange in advance a time you will both be online.

What's the exact address ?

For Talk to make a connection, it has to know the other person's exact location on the Internet. Sometimes their user name and site are enough information. Sometimes, however, you have to provide a machine name or a numeric IP address. Access is like this. To "talk" with someone on Access, you must have a machine name or IP address. If the other person is using another system, what you need depends on their system.

The exact address for a UNIX user on Access is one of the following:

jdoe@kelly.accesscom.com
jdoe@linda.accesscom.com
jdoe@julie.accesscom.com

Where "jdoe" is the person's username. For example, my username is "docs" so if I were connected to "kelly", I would be "docs@kelly.accesscom.com". (The references to kelly, linda and julie are to servers with those names here at Access.)

The exact address for a UNIX user on another system may be their email address (jdoe@somewhere.far) and it may contain a machine name (jdoe@machine.somewhere.far). If you are contacting a user on another system, ask them what, if any, machine name(s) to try.

For an IP user on any system, use a numeric IP address. This is different every time an IP user connects. You can find and email them your IP address, or they can find and email you theirs. A numeric IP address looks like this: "64.240.198.xxx".

To find out a numeric IP address:

Starting a Talk session

  1. Open Talk.
  2. Choose Talk from the File menu.
  3. For "User" type the person's user name.
  4. For "machine" type the user's exact address.

    a) For a UNIX account, type the machine they are connected to.

    For example, for someone using the machine "amanda" at the site "dorsai.org", you would type "amanda.dorsai.org".

    b) For an IP account, type the person's numeric IP address.

  5. Click on Talk.
  6. The "Status" window shows the status of your connection.

    Note: Some sites allow talk connections. Others do not. If an "X" appears next to the address in the "Status" window, the site has refused the connection. Talk also tells you if the machine name is wrong.

  7. When you are connected, a session window opens.

    Everything you type appears in the upper part of the window; the other person's typing appears in the lower part.

    Remember, talk is not like email--it is more like a telephone call, since everything you type appears immediately on the other person's screen. They will see every typo, and every comment you begin to type and then think better of.

  8. To close the session, choose Close from the File menu.

Q. Receiving a Talk request ?

A. For someone to be able to contact you for a talk session, you must:

To set Talk to accept a talk request

  1. Choose Preferences from the File menu.
  2. Under "Allow requests" click next to "when Talk is running".
  3. Click Save.

To find out your numeric IP address, look in the MacTCP control panel.

When Talk receives a request, it opens a talk window. You can begin typing immediately.