Grex Helpers Conference

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Grex Helpers Item 20: help with Pine and term types? Please?
Entered by jshafer on Sat Nov 12 20:15:09 UTC 1994:

In the past two weeks I have helped two newusers log on.  They both told
newuser they were using vt100, and both had their com programs set to use
vt100.  Yet neither one of them could use pine.  It said something about
their connection type being 'network' and gave them back to the Menu
prompt asking which mailer they wanted to use.  I attempted to check their
.login files, and the string looked right to me, but I don't speak UNIX
that well...  Can anyone help me?  (The users were 'mahardy' and 'kjs'.)
Thanks a bunch!

14 responses total.

#1 of 14 by robh on Sat Nov 12 20:55:19 1994:

Easy to understand, but difficult to fix.  Their files, etc. on
Grex are set up just fine.  The problem is, the system they're
using to telnet here is telling grex that they're on dumb
terminals.  I'm not sure if this is Grex' fault or the other
system's, I expect it's the latter.  Make sure they have their
terminal set correctly over there.

Anyone else?

#2 of 14 by jshafer on Sun Nov 13 06:01:09 1994:

I don't get it.  I'm using the same system.  (Michnet dialup.)
Pine works just fine for me, but not for them. 
<jshafer is confused.>

#3 of 14 by popcorn on Sun Nov 13 09:38:43 1994:

This response has been erased.

#4 of 14 by jshafer on Thu Nov 24 02:40:59 1994:

Cool, thanks.  BTW, I don't think I've ever gotten a "%terminal=" prompt
from Michnet.  I used to get some sort of prompt for term type, but it
wasn't "%terminal=".  Now I don't get any, I just get the new "Host:"
prompt.  Now that I think of it, though, both of the gopher hosts prompt
for terminal type so that isn't the problem.  I'm pretty sure it's the
problem Valerie mentioned about the first time people log on.

#5 of 14 by rcurl on Fri Nov 25 05:35:01 1994:

The "host:" prompt is the NAS. The SCP ("Which Host?) asks for term
type. I've just converted from using the 19.2K SCP to the 57.6K NAS,
and find the increased speed (and fewer busy signals) exhilerating.
Those logging into the SCP are being urged to move to the NAS. However,
I do not know how term specification is handled on the two servers.

#6 of 14 by carl on Sun Nov 27 20:54:31 1994:

Merit is using vt100 as the standard for NAS.  In other words, Merit
expects people to have vt100 in they are going to use NAS.  I was
surprized to see that it also supports anonymous ppp.  If I remember
correctly, the host is "ppp", the login is "anonymous" and the
password is "guest".  An anonymous login can only access a few sites,
but it is good for testing software.

#7 of 14 by brenda on Wed Dec 14 16:55:05 1994:

another thing is this:  I used to log onto merit directly, and always
got a %terminal= prompt.  I got an Ameritech packet switching account,
which connects me to merit.  It never prompts me for a term type, and
I've found out by connecting to msu-gopher that my terminal is set to
dumb.  I haven't found any way to set my term type through my ameritech
account.  This could be a problem with other people too, I don't know.

#8 of 14 by kentn on Wed Dec 14 17:05:50 1994:

You can issue the %terminal=  command directly to Merit to set your
terminal (vt100 or vt220 are available options, I think).  I usually
leave that question blank (i.e. enter just a "Return") and let my
communications software and the host on the other end determine my
term type.

#9 of 14 by rcurl on Wed Dec 14 18:35:53 1994:

Are you using 8N1? I suggest it. I presume your comm software is set
to vt100 or 220. Incidentally, your .login set your term to ansi. Is
that a problem?

#10 of 14 by brenda on Wed Dec 14 23:09:09 1994:

myparity is set to 8n1.  My software is set to ansi, which merit
doesn't have on its list of valid term types.  I didn't know oyou could
set the term type after you get into merit- i'll start doing that.

btw- what *is* the difference between ansi and vt100 or vt(anything)?
I picked ansi so i could see colors, but i'm not sure that was necessary.

#11 of 14 by rcurl on Thu Dec 15 16:19:27 1994:

I don't think you get very colorful in this medium, except when there
is some intention fiddling with ansi, like _u_n_d_e_r_l_i_n_i_n_g.

#12 of 14 by rcurl on Thu Dec 15 16:21:09 1994:

This response has been erased.

#13 of 14 by rcurl on Thu Dec 15 16:23:19 1994:

Drat. You have to do it right, however:
_^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg!

#14 of 14 by jhudson on Mon Jan 26 16:55:03 2004:

Hmm, when I have that problem about term being missent,
I have inserted things such as this into my .profile:
(never needed it on grex).

[ -z "$TERM" ] && TERM=vt100
[ "$TERM" = ansi ] && TERM=vt100
[ "$TERM" = network ] && TERM=vt100
export TERM

Once I even needed this line
UNAME=`uname`
[ "$UNAME" = SunOs -a $TERM = linux ] && TERM=vt100

I found that vt100 works on everything I use.

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