Technical Support Frequently Asked Questions

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FAQ's about Unix Gopher

Using gopher ?
Saving files ?
Mailing files ?
What are Bookmarks ?
What is Veronica ?
What are libs, PORTALS, Weather, and Space ?

Q. Using gopher ?

A. To use Gopher

  1. Choose "Gopher" from the Internet Menu. The top level gopher menu appears.
  2. To open a menu or a file, type the menu number or use the arrow keys to select an item, then press return.
  3. Use these commands to navigate in the gopher structure. 
       left arrow or u        - go up a level in the hierarchy
   right arrow or return  - open the selected menu item
   up arrow               - move up one line
   down arrow             - move down one line
   + (plus) or space bar  - page down
   - (minus) or b         - page up
   m                      - return to main (top level) menu
   ?                      - help
   /                      - search by keyword within a given menu
   p                      - print
   v                      - view bookmarks
Note: The lower right corner of each page tells you what page you are on, out of what number of total pages for that menu.

When you open a file, you can read it online, save it, or mail it to yourself or someone else.

Q. Saving files ?

A. To save a file

  1. Type "s".
  2. Name the file.
  3. Press return.

The file is saved in your home directory on Access.

Q. Mailing files ?

A. To mail a file

  1. Type "m".
  2. Type the recipient's email address.
  3. Press return.

The file us mailed to the recipient.

Q. What are Bookmarks ?

A. Bookmarks let you mark a menu item so you can go to it directly instead of starting at the main menu and wading through the menus in between. For example, to "bookmark" the weather forecast for Portland

  1. Open the "Portland Info" menu.
  2. Open the "Oregon Weather menu.
  3. Move down to menu item 24, "Metro Area Zone Fcst (Portland)"
  4. Type "a"
  5. Type a name for the bookmark.
  6. Press return to return to the menu.
  7. Type "v" and press return to view the bookmarks.

Q. What is Veronica ?

A. Veronica lets you search a database of gopher sites by keyword.

To use Veronica

  1. Open the "Other Gopher and Information Servers" menu.
  2. Open the "Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica" menu.
  3. Use the menus to make keyword searches of different gopher servers.

Note: Veronica is very popular. This means you may have to try several times before you get a connection. If you get a message telling you the connection was refused, it is probably because that site was overloaded. You can try another Veronica host that might not be as busy.

Q. What are libs, PORTALS, Weather, and Space ?

A. libs, PORTALS, Weather, and Space are all gopher sites, or "holes".

libs provides access to library catalogs around the world, from the University of Oregon to the Finnish National Bibliography Database. An assortment of various databases is also available.

PORTALS is The Portland Area Library System. It serves a similar function to libs, but on a local level. It contains public and private university and college library catalogs and some databases. PORTALS also provides continuing education to library staff and users.

Weather gives you information on weather and other natural phenomena. Would you like a tropical storm forecast for the Atlantic? How about some insight into what the sun has been up to lately? Or maybe you just prefer to look at the forecast for the local area for the weekend.

Space can tell you all about the latest developments in the NASA program, connect you via telnet to the National Space Science Data Center, or provide you with an array of other information.