Here we'll be listing some general tips for using ShellTown resources. We'll also be keeping a separate section for former Inter.net / PSInet / TIAC customers.

General Tips & Tricks

For now there aren't too many tips, but here are a few to get everyone started:

How do I get help using UNIX?

While this question is generally beyond the scope of this help page, the key is the UNIX man command. It's a general way to get help on various commands; try typing "man man" (without the quotes) for help on using man. Other helpful commands include apropos and info. Man pages are available for both of these commands (and most of the commands listed in other questions below).

What does such-and-such computer term mean?

You can probably look it up on the Computer Terms Glossary.

How do I view the contents of a directory?

Try the UNIX ls command.

How do I tell what sort of stuff is in a file?

Try the file command.

How do I read a text file?

Try either the more or less (no, really -- UNIX is full of weird little bits of humor) commands.

How do I read a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files?

Both pdfinfo and pdftotext can be used to get different bits of information out of a PDF file.

How do I view interactive fiction files?

It depends on the specific type of file: .zx files (where x is 2-9) can be viewed with frotz, .ulx files can be viewed with glulxe or glulxe-tty, and perhaps other viewers will be added as needs dictate. We have a small public library of (to the best of our knowledge, freely useable by the general public) interactive fiction titles in the /usr/local/share/IF/ directory.

What does such-and-such filename extension mean?

You can probably look it up on the Filename Extensions List.

How do I edit a text file?

There are a handful of text editors available; people tend to get attached to particular ones. A few examples include vi, emacs, elvis, and vile.

How do I check spelling?

Spot-checking a word can be done with spellchk and checking a text file can be done with ispell. The look and dict commands are also often helpful.

How do I surf the web?

Try lynx or links.

How do I view secure sites on the web (https)?

Try lynx-ssl (although note that if you're not connected in securely it'll all be for naught; connect via ssh rather than telnet).

How do I use e-mail?

Try mh, pine, elm, mutt, mmr, or even emacs (it's not just a text editor). Each has different strengths and weaknesses, and different people like different ones.

Can I get my e-mail when not logged into ShellTown?

Yes, we support POP3 for offsite e-mail access, and we have both APOP and SSL support to keep such exchanges secure. Since in such a circumstance you're connected to the Internet through another provider, you would use their SMTP server. We also offer both IMAP and web mail access, but these are currently in beta and only for the adventurous.

How do I extract MIME attachments from e-mail?

The ripmime program can do that for you.

What can I do to reduce the amount of spam I receive?

ShellTown does a few things globally to reduce spam; the biggest of these include the automatic rejection of e-mail from spam-producing open relays, and the filtering / tagging by SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, Pyzor, the DCC, and the Spam URI Realtime Blocklist. In addition to these automatic spam processing facilities, other tools including JunkFilter, ifile, TMDA, and of course procmail are provided that can be used to filter / process spam at the user level, and adcomplain and ricochet can be used for reporting (in addition to spamassassin -r). See the individual web pages for each tool for documentation.

How do I do spreadsheet work?

Try oleo.

Are there any games?

Quite a few actually. The entire /usr/games directory is filled with the traditional UNIX games (card games, backgammon, hangman, rogue, Hunt the Wumpus, battlestar, adventure, etc.) but there are several others kicking around here and there including things like gnugo, gnuchess, gnushogi, cconq, and nethack. Many can be played against other ShellTown users and even other people on the Internet-at-large.

Can I make a personal web site?

Just make a directory in your home directory called public_html and place a file in there called index.html (or index.shtml if you need SSI) with regular XHTML in it. Ensure that the world has read permission to it (if you want people to be able to see it). Note that we currently do allow SSI; we'll continue to do so as long as this policy isn't abused.

We'll be adding more tips here as time permits. If you think you know of an important one we forgot please let us know.

Billing Questions

Here are a few answers to frequent questions about billing.

I haven't been billed in a long time. What's up?

Check your e-mail; all invoices have been sent by e-mail to your ShellTown account (or possibly a different account listed in our database if you had submitted one). We've had some difficulty both in ironing out who's real and who's not and getting the credit card system streamlined but everything is in fairly good shape now.

I want to pay by check; to whom do I make it out?

Checks for ShellTown services should be made out to Saugus.net.

To where do I send checks?

You can send checks to:

Saugus.net (ShellTown)
110 Golden Hills Road
Saugus, MA 01906-4004
I want to pay by credit card. How do I do so?

During normal business hours you may call us at 781-231-2621 and make credit card payments by phone. We'll need the name of your account, the name on your card, the type of your card, the card number & expiration date, and your address (used for authentication purposes). You can also pay online anytime via our secure webserver. This can be done safely from your ShellTown account provided you: 1) use lynx-ssl to make the connection, and 2) connect into ShellTown via ssh rather than telnet. Note #2 here -- if you connect in via telnet, nothing you do will be secure. We have (at this time) a self-signed certificate; this will be okay with lynx-ssl, but not all other browsers (in particular, Microsoft Internet Explorer) will adequately support such a setup.