EIES^®/Virtual Classroom^®
Frequently Asked Questions

1:   What is VC/EIES?

The Virtual Classroom® is an ongoing effort by NJIT to apply new technologies to education. One component of the VC effort is the use of EIES as a teaching environment. 1.1:   What is EIES?      The Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) was first created by Dr. Murry Turoff and Dr. Roxanne Hiltz and others in 1975. Two complete rewrites have occured since then to follow the evolution of host hardware, programming languages, and functionality.

2:   How do I get an account?

Instructions for creating an account are available at http://www.njit.edu/CCCC/Docs/CreateAcct.html.

3:   Connecting to VC-EIES

You must have an Internet connection to use VC/EIES. 3.1:   Can NJIT give me an Internet connection?      Refer to the Telecom & Networks homepage at http://telecom.njit.edu for information on connecting via NJIT's modems or from an NJIT dormitory. Also see Connecting to the NJIT Campus Network for instructions. 3.2:   What is an "ISP"?      An "Internet Service Provider" or an "ISP" is used to make a connection to the Internet, usually via modem. You use the modem in your PC to call the ISP's modem bank(s), and the PC and the modem negotate a connection for Internet access. The connection can then be used to send or receive e-mail, browse the internet, and of course connect to VC/EIES. Popular ISPs include AOL®, AT&T World Net®, Erols®, MSN®, Prodigy®, Sprint®, and numerious other commercial providers, both large and small. (NJIT does not make endorsments or recommendations on these or any other commercial provicers.) NJIT also provides ISP connections for faculty and staff, as do most other academic organizations. Other types of ISP are ISDN from your local telephone carrier and cable-modem from your local cable-tv provider. 3.3:   NJIT is a toll call! Can I use an Internet Service Provider (ISP)?      Typical ISP services can be used to connect to VC/EIES. If you can use a Web browser from your home PC's ISP connection, then you can use VC/EIES. 3.4:   Can I use my Internet connection at work?      Given that your employer doesn't mind, yes. Some employers use have their Internet connection protected by software and hardware (aka "a firewall") with the intention of limiting use from within or without their private network. Check the Troubleshooting section appearing later if you encounter errors connecting to VC/EIES. 3.5:   Okay, I'm on the internet, what now? 3.6:   What's the URL? 3.7:   Where do I connect?      Use http://vc.njit.edu to get a signon screen to VC/EIES. Then click the link entitled "VC/EIES Signon". Bookmark this page for later signon instead of the "VC/EIES Signon" screen. 3.8:   Why NOT bookmark the "VC/EIES Signon" screen?      The HTTP address and port used by VC/EIES can be changed without notice. These can change with the status of hardware and/or software. VC/EIES is distributed across several computer systems; we automatically select the fastest running system when you signon.

4:   Troubleshooting

Please attempt to rectify problems yourself before contacting NJIT's Computing Services Helpdesk. 4.1:   Firewall and proxy server settings 4.2:   ERROR 510 / Service not available to you 4.3:   Proxy Server Error(s)      Some employers limit access into and out of the corporate network with "firewall" or proxy servers. Only the network administrator of the corporate network can remedy this situation by permitting connections to the following host/port combinations.   IP HOST NAME (IP ADDRESS) PORT NUMBER INITIAL CONNECTION ==> vc.njit.edu (128.235.251.45) 80 SUBSEQUENT CONNECTIONS ==> Once connected, users will be automatically be routed to one of the following. vc.njit.edu (128.235.251.45) eies.njit.edu (128.235.251.164) blue.eies.njit.edu (128.235.251.70) forum.njit.edu (128.235.251.82) helios.njit.edu (128.235.251.42) argus.njit.edu (128.235.242.100) mule.njit.edu (128.235.251.85) hardin.njit.edu (128.235.251.88) arkady.njit.edu (128.235.251.86) bayta.njit.edu (128.235.251.87) 81 5000-5009 51022 51023 EASY SOLUTION ==> Shortcut proxy/firewall configuration 128.235.251.* (Currently all main NJIT/CSD systems are within this subnetwork.) Allow all IP ports. NOTES ==> IP address numbers can change without notice. Please use the IP host name whenever possible, as these do not change. Any or all of these ports are used by the systems listed on the left. If you continue to have difficulty connecting via your office you can use a modem to directly connect to NJIT. See Connecting to the NJIT Campus Network at http://www.njit.edu/CSD/Docs/current.html for instructions. Alternately you may telnet to EIES/VC, as described in Connecting to EIES/VC via Telnet From a Remote Host at http://www.njit.edu/CCCC/Docs/telnet.html. 4.4:   Is there any way to connect without PPP?      An obsolete but functional interface to VC/EIES exists, using telnet with VT-100 terminal emulation. As of this writing it can still be used to connect to VC/EIES, but is subject to discontinuance without notice. See The EIES Starting Guide, (VT100 version) at http://www.njit.edu/CCCC/Docs/vt100man/Intro.htm for instructions.

5:   What about WWW home pages?

The VC system is provides web page hosting for faculty, staff, and students, but in its role as Virtual Classroom faculty and staff are given priority for teaching material. 5.1:   How do I set up my WWW homepages?      Your VC/EIES account has a VC/UNIX account assocated with it. See Connecting with Telnet for instructions on connecting to the VC/UNIX side, including setting up your UNIX password. Your VC/UNIX account will also have a blank Web page already setup for you if your account was created on or after August 24, 1998. You can check to see if the page exists with a browser (Netscape or MS Internet Explorer): Just enter http://eies.njit.edu/~login and you should get a blank page. See "What is My UNIX Login Name?" to determine your UNIX login. [Please note that http://vc.njit.edu/~login will also work starting in November 1998, and will be the preferred address.] If you don't have a working Web page as described, then just telnet to vc.njit.edu and enter these commands: mkdir public_html chmod 711 public_html cd public_html touch index.html chmod 644 index.html At this point you should be able to get a blank homepage on your Web browser. You can edit your page using Netscape Page Composer or similar software. Or you could make your Web page the old-fashoned way, by hand. This is a great way to something up quickly, but you will have to study the HTML language to have any more than the basics. To edit by had, continue the telnet session shown above with this: pico index.html In this "pico" is a simple editor. You can use "vi" or "emacs" if you know those editors. Here is an example of the minumum web page; you can copy-n-paste this into Pico: <html> <head> <title> My web page </title> </head> <body> Welcome to my web page! </body> </html> For more information on HTML coding please see The HTML Writers Guild (http://www.hwg.org); their homepage has a pretty complete list of links to other resources. 5.2:   Notes about "telnet"      Telnet is used for logging into the VC/UNIX system. You will have to already have a connection to VC as described in Connecting to VC/EIES. You must also have telnet software, which might be included with your Web browser. Enter this as the URL to goto: telnet://vc.njit.edu If your browser does not support telnet in this fashion then try to run "telnet vc.njit.edu" under Win95/Win98/WinNT. Upon connecting you will receive a prompt something like this: UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 login: Enter your VC/UNIX login name (see "What is My UNIX Login Name?" if you don't know it.) The system will then prompt: Password: Your VC/UNIX password can be different than your VC/EIES account; and at the present time changing one does not change the other. After you enter the password the follwing menu is displayed: Please select from the following interfaces: V -- Virtual Classroom(tm) with VT-100 terminal interface; U -- Run UNIX shell; Your choice: Select "U" for UNIX at this menu. The "bash$" prompt shows that you are at UNIX shell. Please refer to a UNIX primer if you are unfamilar with UNIX--almost any such book will do. 5.3:   VC/UNIX password 5.4:   I didn't get a UNIX "passwd" prompt! 5.5:   It said "UNIX password not set"      You can set your UNIX password through the VC/EIES menu. Telnet to VC/UNIX as shown above in Notes about "telnet" and select "V" (Virtual Classroom) at the menu. This starts the character cell interface to VC/EIES. It will ask you Terminal (vt100) > and just RETURN should do, and then asks: Password > Enter the VC/EIES password you use to log in when accessing VC/EIES via the web (at http://vc.njit.edu). It then prompts: ACTION CHOICE> Enter this command to change your VC/UNIX password: !passwd (Including the exclamation symbol.) You will then be prompted twice to enter your password: New password: Re-enter new password: The password will not show as you type it in. The system might ask you use a more complicated password if it thinks the one you put in is too simple. Please note that you might also be asked this: Enter login password: New password: Re-enter new password: This indicates that you already have a VC/UNIX password set. You must know what the current password is to change it. You must contact us as shown below if you do not know the password. 5.6:   How do I move my Megahertz pages to VC/UNIX? 5.7:   How do I move any Web pages to VC/UNIX?      First you must have a VC/UNIX password as described in "Unix password". Second you must have your VC/UNIX account set up for Web pages as discussed in "How do I set up my WWW homepages". Then you either use FTP to copy your pages to VC/UNIX, or you can use an editor as discussed in "HTML Authoring Tools". The FTP route can get pretty quick results: Log onto Megahertz or other system, then type these commands cd public_html ftp vc.njit.edu FTP will ask for your VC/EIES username and password Then it prompts you with "ftp> " Just answer as shown here: ftp> cd public_html ftp> prompt ftp> binary ftp> mput * ftp> quit If your pages contain references to megahertz.njit.edu or another system, you must edit them to remove these references. You can edit them using "pico" as described in "How do I set up my WWW homepages" or as with one of the products mentioned in "HTML Authoring Tools". 5.8:   HTML Authoring Tools      Answer forthcoming! 5.9:   Can I put a CGI executable on my web page?      We regretfully do not support CGI hosting on the system at this time. This is an unfortunately necessity because it is quite difficult to protect the system from attack anywhere on the Internet vi CGI executables. We certainly do want to support CGI and are examining several methods of doing so at a reduced risk. 5.10:   What is disk quota? How much space do I get?      Faculty and staff have a default quota of 5MB; students recieve 3MB. You can ask for more space via email to help@vc.njit.edu or via one of the contacts mentioned in http://www.njit.edu/CSD/Help/csdhelp.html

6:   Email issues

6.1:   What is my Email address?      Your VC/EIES account can receive mail in three different ways: With your login number, or your nickname, or your fullname. For example, suppose that VC/EIES shows your name as: John Q. Public (JQP, 12345) Then any of the following will work: "John Q. Public"@vc.njit.edu JQP@vc.njit.edu 12345@vc.njit.edu Caution! You can change your nickname or your fullname in the VC/EIES directory menu, but after you change it you can no longer recieve email with the old name. So in the example above, if the nickname is changed to "Public@vc.njit.edu" then "JQP@vc.njit.edu" will not work anymore! For this reason we usually suggest that you use just the 12345@vc.njit.edu version of your email address. 6.2:   Why are messages sent with "Reply-to: M9876.1@vc.njit.edu"? 6.3:   I replied to a message and it went to extra people!      One of the unique features of VC/EIES is that it can maintain the relationship between messages sent in an ongoing discussion. Within VC/EIES itself this is easy to do, but some tricks are used when mail goes out to the Internet in general. In particular, your messages show a "From:" header with your name it it, but also a "Reply-To:" header containing the VC/EIES message number. No matter what email client the receipents of your message use to reply, their response will be connected to your message so you can easily track and look back at discusions you've had using VC/EIES. No solution to any problem is perfect: In this case, people will accidentally record "M9876.1@vc.njit.edu" as your email address instead of "12345@vc.njit.edu" or "JQP@vc.njit.edu". VC/EIES also tracks who a message was sent to within or without VC/EIES, and sends a copy of all responses to the other recipients of the origional message. This insures that all the people in a particular message discussion are completely up to date on the discussion. The messages sent to people outside VC/EIES do indicate who the entire message is sent to, but there is unfortunately no way to agressively alert the receiver that a response will go to these other people listed in the origional message.

7:   What is this about a "new database" for Fall 1998 semester?

All items in VC/EIES reside in a very large database. This database had become badly damaged during the years in which it was in use due to persistant bugs in the EIES application. Now that those bugs have been corrected it was decided that the database portion of EIES should be started fresh to prevent problems left behind by earlier troubles from intefering with our current version. 7.1:   Regarding switch to new database for Fall 1998 semester.      The user database was literally restarted from scratch, and old messages and conferences were not be copied over. Any login that was used between Sept 1997 and Sept 1998 was automatically copied over. The switch over was necessary because the previous EIES VC database was in very bad shape and could be trusted to run another semester. The database files were too large (5.7GB) and too badly damaged to allow a logical rebuild. The old database was taken off-line in April 1999 as had been announced in 1998.

8:   Who can I contact for more help?

8.1:   Contacts      As mentioned earlier, please try to resolve the problem yourself before calling the NJIT Computing Services Help Desk. A complete list of telephone and e-mail contacts for all our systems is available at http://www.njit.edu/CSD/Help/csdhelp.html. 8.2:   Errata contacts      Please email comments regarding this document to webmaster@eies.njit.edu. We are particularily interested in your suggestions for additions to this document.