Guides
Accessing the Internet
lynx is the plainest web browser in the world. Type g to enter a webpage to go to. It's useful if you're on a slow connection and you wnat to read text without having to wait for large pictures on a site to download. Type ? for help.
links is another text-only browser which handles tables a bit better.
bitchx is a program that lets you use IRC, Internet Relay Chat. If you've use a program like mIRC for the PC before, you're familiar with IRC and bitchx is just a text version of that.
Type bitchx [nickname] [server]. For example, bitchx foxybitch irc.isdnet.fr. (I advise against using that nickname. The server's good though.)
You can also connect to matrix's local IRC server and talk to other matrix users. This server is also connected to the intersocs IRC peer group, so you can talk to users in other Irish Internet societies. Use bitchx -c#intersocs irc.netsoc.tcd.ie to connect.
See http://www.irchelp.org for more info on what IRC is and how to use it. bitchx is cranky and compliated. I've been using it for years and I can still only get it to do the basics, which I present for you below.
Once you're logged onto a server, type
/list *thingie* to get all channels
with the string 'thingie' in their titles
/join #[channel] to join a
channel.
/msg nickname to privately message a user,
/me waves to convey actions, eg. foxybitch waves
/server [newserver] to change servers
/nick [newnickname] to change nicknames.
/help for help.
/quit to, eh, quit.
irssi is another popular IRC client.
Use gaim to connect to AOL Instant Messager. This is a graphical program, so requires an xserver to be running on your local machine (eg Mac OSX).
micq is, you guessed it, a text-based version of ICQ. Type /help for help and you should be able to figure it out. Again, this is the only way you'll be able to use ICQ on college computers.
We also have jabber and msn clients installed.
If you would like access to a MUD, then we recommend Redbrick's MUD, which they have opened to all Internet societies in Ireland.
To play this MUD, just type this command: telnet mud.redbrick.dcu.ie 4000.
Use ftp, or better still, ncftp to transfer files out of Matrix. You'll probably have to set your ftp proxy to the ISS or netsoc proxy for this to work.
Note, for security reasons, we don't allow incoming FTP connections - use SCP or map your user-space instead.
Use telnet or ssh to connect to another computer. Again, we don't allow incoming telnet connections for security reasons.