Brief Tutorial on Pine

This is a very basic introduction to the email reader we recommend and have available on our unix server. These programs can only be used when you use Telnet to connect to our server and read your mail there, rather than downloading copies of it to your computer locally (which is what Eudora, Outlook, Pegasus Mail, and other such programs do).

This is also useful to know because sometimes someone will send you a large attachment that will cause your mail reader to choke and be unable to download the message to your local machine. When you log into the unix server and check your mail from there, there's no downloading so no possibility of choking the mail read. You can view the list of mail you have, find out which one has the largest size (this will most likely be the one causing you the problem) and delete it, or save the attachment and download it manually using FTP instead of your email program.

Using Telnet to login to our server

If you have a basic account with us, or a full shell account, you can login directly to our server duracef.shout.net and read your email (and other activities). If you have an "email only" or "POP" account with us, then you will only get a prompt to change your password when you log in using this method. This allows you to change your password an that's all. If this is your case, you will be unable to use pine.
Windows: if you have Windows 95 or 98 installed and are able to connect to Shouting Ground, then Telnet is very likely already installed. Windows installs it for you when installing internet protocols.
To start telnet and connect to our server, go to your Start Menu, and go to Run... and in the box that appears, type in telnet duracef.shout.net This will connect you to our server, Duracef. A window will then appear and it will ask you for a login. Enter your username. It will then ask for a password. Enter your email password. Then it will give you a prompt, which means you've logged in and Duracef is waiting for you to enter a command.

Macintosh: Macintoshes do not come with Telnet automatically, but you can install a free copy of it off of our EZ Internet CD that you received from us when you signed up. It's called Better Telnet. Or you can download a version of telnet off of our ftp site. ftp://ftp.shout.net/mac/net/Telnet2.6.sit.hqx
After you've installed a version of telnet, double-click its icon to launch it. Under the File menu, choose Open Connection. In the Host/Session Name box enter duracef.shout.net This tells telnet to connect to that "host" or server.
A window will then appear and Duracef will ask you for a login. Enter your username. It will then ask you for a password. Enter your email password. Then it will give you a prompt, which means you've logged in and Duracef is waiting for you to enter a command. Image Here

Using Pine

At the prompt type in pine and hit enter. This will fire up the unix mail reader by the name of Pine.
If you've never run Pine before Pine will display a welcome message and will tell you that you can get more information about Pine emailed to you if you wish. You'll be presented with "Yes, I want a document emailed to me" or "No, I don't want a document emailed to me." You can go ahead and choose "No" here.
Then you will be presented with a screen of choices, and the commands you can use are listed for you at the bottom of your screen the whole time you're in Pine. It's very user friendly that way.
In Pine, a "folder" refers to a mailbox that contains email. From this menu, you'll want to choose "I" which will show you the list of email in your Inbox.
From here you can read, respond to, or delete various email messages you have.
Some of the commands at the bottom of the screen are preceded by a ^ symbol. This stands for the control key. It means hold down the control key while pressing the following letter.
In Telnet you cannot use the mouse to make selections from the Pine menus. Telnet is all keystrokes. Use the arrow keys to navigate up and down the list of email you have. Use control-y (in other words, hold down the control key while pressing "Y") to jump up the list one page, and use control-v to jump down the list one page. To read a letter, use the arrow keys to highlight the letter of your choice and hit enter. The message will then be displayed on your screen so you can read it. To return to the index of your Inbox, hit "I" and you'll be back where you started.
To mark a message for deletion, use the arrow keys to highlight it, then press "d" and a the letter "D" will appear to the left of the message. This tells you that when you quit Pine, this letter will be deleted.
To quit Pine, type "q" and it will ask you, "Really quit pine?" If you don't want to quit, type "n" if you do want to quit type "y"

Updated 12/22/98