Frequently Asked Q's

Frequently Asked Q's

My computer is really slow

The most frequent cause of a slow computer is having too many programs running at the same time. In Windows, each program tab at the bottom of your screen means a running program. Try quitting a few and see if things speed up. On a Macintosh, the running programs are listed under the icon at the top right of your screen. The Finder is the operating system, and you need it, but do you need the others? Select the program name, and then type "command-q". All Mac programs can be quit the same way, so you can just run down the list zapping extra programs. Note that closing the last window in a Mac program does not terminate that program. When you're done, type command-q and that will get rid of all windows for you.

Eudora is really slow

First, see how many message windows you have open. There is a Windows menu at the top of the screen. Having a large number of open message windows will slow your machine down.

The other common slowness reported for Eudora is in downloading new messages. This happens if you have left too many messages on the server in your incoming mail box. If you always read your email from the same place, then in your Eudora settings, under Checking Mail, be sure that "leave on server" is NOT checked. Or, if you like the security of having a copy kept on the server, at least check "Delete from server when emptied from trash" so that the messages that are not of interest to you are removed from the server. To remove a buildup of messages from the server, "ssh" to zoology.ubc.ca, run the mail reader "pine", and use it to delete your unwanted INBOX messages.

I'm going away. How do I read my Zoology e-mail?

There are several ways. If you use pine or another server-based e-mail reader, you just need to reach "zoology.ubc.ca" using a ssh program. Don't know how to do that? Use the web trick described below.

If you use Eudora or some other client-based e-mail reader, ask the locals how to connect to the internet, and change your SMTP (or "outgoing") mail server to be the SMTP server of the internet service provider (whatever way you connected to the 'net) or see Secure SMTP Server Setup for accessing our outgoing mail server from anywhere in the world.

This way might be easiest. Grab a web browser on an already-connected machine. Point it at the Zoology WebMail Server and enter your user id (without the @zoology.ubc.ca) and password in the appropriate places and click on the Login button and after a moment you'll be looking at your inbox on the Zoology server! If you choose to delete a message it will be deleted from the server. Otherwise, all of your messages will stay in your inbox.

How do I change my password?

You will need to connect to the zoology server as described in this page.

Once you are connected, use the passwd command to do the password change.

% passwd (return)

First of all, we need to know what a bad password consists of. Passwords like "12345", "john", or "admin" are obviously horrible passwords because they are the first things anyone can guess.

To protect your data and account, you need to choose a password that is easy for you to remember, but is hard for someone else to guess. An example of a good password is one that uses both uppercase and lowercase, numbers and letters, and strange symbols between words, or includes spaces at weird intervals. A password like "WorD *m@sterr85" is a good one because it includes all of the above data, and is virtually impossible to guess. Brute force attackers, people who use computers to try every conceivable password until the correct one is found, find it difficult when they have to check for these symbols, spaces, numbers, letters (upper and lowercase), and the password is a long one. It could take much longer than a year to crack a difficult password using brute force!

This short guide should get you started. Try and think of something that represents you, and then add the above characteristics to it to make yourself a password. An added security measure is to change your password frequently, in case some one had your old password, the new one will ensure your security.