Virginia Coast Reserve 
Long-Term Ecological Research 
Electronic Services Guide

The purpose of this guide is to provide easy access to electronic
communication services available to VCR/LTER researchers. It is not
designed to be a comprehensive introduction, but rather to provide an
overview and the "keys" needed to get additional information.

Finding Electronic Mail Addresses 

The easy way: Use the standard LTER e-mail-address format. Combine the
first initial and last name of the person you wish to send mail to, then
append @lternet.edu. Thus, Bruce Hayden becomes BHayden@lternet.edu
(capitalization is ignored) and Hank Shugart becomes
HShugart@lternet.edu. This works for everyone in the LTER network, not
just those at the VCR/LTER. If there is a problem locating the
individual, you will receive back an informative message and a copy of
your original message for reposting.

The harder ways: Use the address searching capabilities of the LTERNET
computer. Send a message to ADDRESS@lternet.edu. Ignore the "subject:"
line and put as the first line of the message "NAME: Hayden" where
 Hayden  is the name you wish to search for. You will receive a return
message from the LTERNET computer giving you the name, address, phone
and e-mail address of every name that matches. Alternatively you can
connect to either the VCR Information Server or the LTERNET Bulletin
Board (see  VCR/LTER Information Server  on page2 and  LTERNET
Electronic Services  on page3). Both systems have menu items for
searching LTER-wide personnel directories, including name,  normal  mail
and phone numbers.

VCR/LTER E-mail Calendars

The VCR/LTER calendars distribute information about activities (meeting,
field trips etc.). A daily calendar lists events to take place today and
tomorrow. A weekly calendar lists all future events. Calendars for past
events are available on the VCR/LTER Information Server (see page 2). To
be added to the calendar mailing list(s) or to add information to the
calendars send a request to jporter@lternet.edu.

PI Meeting Notes

Informal notes from weekly VCR/LTER PI meetings are distributed via
e-mail. This list is restricted to principal investigators on the
project who are not able to attend the meeting. To be added to the list,
contact jporter@lternet.edu.

VCR/LTER Information Server

The VCR/LTER operates a dedicated information server, called VCRIS,
which is based on the  Gopher  software package from the University of
Minnesota. The server provides menu-driven access to calendars,
personnel, data, current weather forecasts, research and job
opportunities and publication and bibliographic listings, along with
many other features. 

The  Gopher  software is relatively easy to operate. Available commands
are listed on the bottom line of each screen. A ? will get you
additional help. Menu options are selected either by moving an arrow
with cursor keys and hitting return, or by specifying the line number
followed by two carriage returns. Text is displayed a page at a time by
hitting the space-bar. Searches on the text can be performed using the
/search-string during the text-display mode. At the end of each text
item, you have the option of having it mailed to you via electronic
mail. Gopher is also able to automatically make connections to external
computers via TELNET or FTP links. 

There are several different options for accessing the server depending
on the capabilities of the computer you are using. On computers that
have the  Gopher  software already installed, you need only use the
command  gopher atlantic.evsc.Virginia.EDU.  If you are using a remote
computer without  Gopher  software, you can TELNET to
atlantic.evsc.Virginia.EDU, use the login name  vcrinfo  the password
 vcrlter1  and the type of terminal you are using (vt100 is a popular
choice). Finally, you can use a modem to connect to (804) 924-0577, then
hit a couple of carriage returns until the >> prompt appears. At it
type: connect atlantic.evsc and then follow the instructions given above
for the TELNET program

E-mail on the Eastern Shore

A dedicated UNIX computer named VCRLTER provides e-mail service to the
VCR/LTER Laboratory in Oyster VA. The system is not directly connected
to the Internet, but queries the network several times per day for
messages. Several services are provided to facilitate communication
with researchers at the lab. These include:  

A general account for receiving mail: E-mail messages sent to
vcrlter@Virginia.EDU will go to a general delivery account on the
shore.  

A guest account for sending and receiving e-mail: Researchers at the
shore can login as guest to send and receive e-mail without having to
specify a password. The e-mail address for the guest account is
guest@vcrlter.evsc.Virginia.EDU 

Individual e-mail accounts: Researchers who need private mail
resources on the shore can request a personal e-mail account. Send
requests to jporter@lternet.edu 

Mail forwarding to the lab: E-mail can be forwarded from an individual
researcher s home e-mail account to an account on the laboratory mail
server. This is done in different ways on different types of
computers. On UNIX systems, creation of a file called .forward (don t
forget the leading period!) containing the address
guest@vcrlter.evsc.Virginia.EDU will cause all incoming mail to be
forwarded to the guest account on the shore computer. Forwarding
remains in effect until the .forward file is deleted or renamed. Users
using PC-MAIL on the UVA system can select a forwarding option from the
 more  menu.  

Local phone access to the lab: The e-mail server in the laboratory can
be used via modem. To use it, set your favorite communications program
to 2400-baud, even parity, 7 data-bits and 1 stop-bit. Dialing is
unusually complex because the phone line is used for both voice and
data. Use the dialing command:  ATDT3314323,,,,,,,,,,,,44,44,44,44.
This dials the lab, waits for the phone to be answered (either by a
person or the answering machine) then sends the dialing code 44 which
tells an automatic switch to disconnect the voice line and connect to
the modem. It may be necessary to vary the number of commas to make
the modem delay until the phone is answered.  You can then login and
use the mail program normally.

LTERNET Electronic Services

The LTER Network Office in Seattle operates a number of useful services.
These include electronic mail forwarding, personnel directories, mail
forwarding groups, files to download and a bulletin board. Two types of
service are available. For Bulletin Board service, you connect to a
menu-based bulletin board running on LTERNET. For Return Mail service,
you send messages to special e-mail addresses and information is
returned to you via return e-mail. An overview of services provided can
be obtained by sending an electronic mail message to HELP@lternet.edu.

Electronic Mail Forwarding: handles translation of the  standard  LTER
addressing (consisting of the first initial followed by the last name
and followed by @lternet.edu) into the e-mail address used by the
individual at their particular institution. For example, e-mail sent to
BHayden@lternet.edu will be automatically forwarded to bph@virginia.edu.
For information send any e-mail message to: HELP@lternet.edu.

Personnel directories: Available via both Bulletin Board or Return
E-mail. Instructions for using the Bulletin Board are below. Send a
blank message to ADDRESS@lternet.edu to get instructions on using the
return mail service.

Mail Forwarding Groups: These are topic-based mailing groups. Any
message sent to group_name@lternet.edu will automatically be sent to
each member of the group. Examples of groups are PI (for the head PI s
of each LTER), DMAN (for the data managers at each site), ROOTS (for
people studying roots) and CLIMATE (for people studying weather and
climate). There are additional groups being added all the time. For a
list of the current groups and instructions on being added to a group,
send an e-mail message to: GROUPS@lternet.edu.

LTERNET Bulletin Board: The LTERNET Bulletin Board provides for general
distribution of LTER-related information in an easy-to-use menu system.
To access it you either need access to a computer running the  gopher 
software (as all the UNIX computers at UVA do), or have an account on
the LTERNET computer. To use the Bulletin Board using the gopher
program, use the command:  gopher lternet.edu . If you do not have a
local computer running gopher, contact HELPER@lternet.edu to request an
account on the LTERNET computer. 

Remote E-mail Access: The LTERNET computer is hooked to SPRINTNET, a
commercial communications network with dial-in nodes in most major US
cities. By using a modem connection to the local SPRINTNET node, you can
connect to the LTERNET computer, and then use TELNET to connect to your
 home  computer. To use this service you need to request an account on
the LTERNET computer and a list of the SPRINTNET phone numbers from
HELPER@lternet.edu. Additional information on the system can be obtained
from the LTER Bulletin Board or via Anonymous FTP to lternet.edu by
getting the ~/doc/sprintnet