www.visiontm.com

What it is

A Telnet program allows you to log in to a server and perform functions just as if you are sitting right next to the server. You will be presented with a UNIX login that requires you to enter your Username and Password. Our UNIX operating software is FreeBSD. More detailed information on FreeBSD can be found HERE.

Where to get it

You can obtain a Telnet program from various shareware sites. I happen to like the small, fast and simple program called EWAN. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that other versions have, but it works and it is FREE.

Fancier versions allow you to set more options such as keyboard macros. But, EWAN has all the basics including logging your session to disk for later review and printing of screens and sessions.

Common Uses

Each of the software tools in this section allow you to perform many of the same functions, however, each has it's own advantages and features that no other program has. The most common uses of TELNET are:

• Log in to server - When you start a TELNET session you will be asked for your user name and password. After logging in the default directory will be /usr/home/username with username being your log in name.

• Change UNIX Password - Type "passwd" (without the quotes) and your will be asked for your new password. Keep in mind this is only your UNIX password and not your Front Page password.

• Copy log files - Your log files are kept in /var/log and are named as follows:
  domain-access_log
  domain-error_log
  The word domain should be replaced with your domain name without the www such as visiontm.com-access_log. Three months of logs are kept for your domain and are stored in a zipped format for space reasons. The names of prior months add an extension such as .0.gz. The 0 is the most recent prior month and the .gz stands for gzipped. Copy these files to your /usr/home/username/logs directory if you want to keep them. Remember that these count against your quota so you may want to FTP them to your home computer and delete them from your directory. To use them in analog simply add the name to your drop down menu of log names.

• Zip and unzip files - The most common format of zipped files in UNIX are Gzipped. Type "gzip filename" (without the quotes) and change filename to the name of the file you want to zip. This will add a .gz at the end of the file name and replace the current name with the new (filename.gz) name. To unzip them simply type "gunzip filename" (without the quotes) and the .gz will be removed and the file will be unzipped. Keep in mind the format is not standard PKZIP format, but most PC based zip programs can read these files anyway.

• Other UNIX commands - you can perform many other UNIX functions using common commands. A short list of commands can be found HERE.