By Graham K. Rogers

Ever since the first Macs appeared, they have been known for the graphical user interface (GUI): icons instead of command line work which before the mid-1980s was the norm. Paradoxically, the arrival of OS X brought with it easy access to the command line should users ever want this, although it is possible to use the computer without ever needing to work at the command line at all.

The history of Unix which was developed at Bell Labs is, in part, the story of modern computing. Without this, there would have been no internet in the form that we now know it, although the OS was not originally developed for this purpose. Its "unusual simplicity, power, and elegance" (About.com) intended for networking, was easy to scale up and fitted the bill perfectly.

As such there are many commands that we can use in Terminal that work directly with the Internet, although with the reduced number if installations of Unix- or Linux-based servers these days, some of the functions may not work as well as before. Microsoft Server may have certain functions (see below) but these are usually turned off by default and would need to be made active by the administrator.

Mail

Nonetheless, a purpose of these articles is to introduce users to command line work in Terminal, so the basic command used is mail, followed by a space, then the email address of the recipient:

mail graham@myaccount.host.com

After the Enter key is pressed a line appears that allows the Subject to be typed in. When done, the Enter key is pressed again and the screen is available for the message to be written. I was able to use Copy & Paste to put those last two sentences into a message.

When done, the user presses the Control + D keys. The message is sent. The letters EOT appear on the screen and the user is returned to the command line.

In my case, when the mail arrives at its destination, the sender is shown as the user name on my computer: graham@Office-iMac.local which is not a proper address for a reply. In reality these days a mail program (such as Apple's Mail or Eudora or many other such clients) have a far more accessible set of options.

Telnet

To use the command, the name of the remote server must be used after a space, for example

telnet name.server.ac.th (depending on the name of the connection)

Alternatively, the IP number can be used (if it is available), for example,

telnet 203.113.122.130

[That is for Kasetsart University, Bangkok and that connection will be refused.]

Using the IP number has less chance of a successful connection than a name server it seems.

I was surprised to find that my own university that has moved to the Microsoft Server does still have the telnet feature available. Using this I am able to login remotely and work in my account using some of the older utilities and commands that were staples when the Internet first arrived here and long before the Graphical User Interface became the norm.

To be continued. . . .

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