MIT Athena Computing Environment: What Runs Where: Communication Detail
Keywords: athena, what runs where, athena help, communication

What Runs Where
| Major Applications |
### Full Table:
| Help/Information Screen Accessories Communication Text Software Graphics Software Audio Software Numerical/Math Soft Languages/Debuggers Programming Libraries Simulation & Modeling Courseware Miscellaneous Utilities |
Help
| What's new? Tips for Using Athena Software Academic Computing locker configuration Web browser Java plugin issues Note on changing window managers |
| # What Runs Where on Athena: Communication
| Electronic Email |
Title and description: alpine Description: text-based mail client featuring automatic incorporation of users' mail, IMAP support and basic rendering of message bodies that are in HTML format. alpine is the successor to pine and is largely compatible with it To run: athena% alpine There is documentation on the Web See also: gpg, pine Note: ez-pine-gpg is also available. Documentation is here. This is a set of scripts that allows users to use gpg with alpine. To use it, type athena% add outland and append /mit/outland/share/ez-pine-gpg/pine-config to your .pinerc file. When verifying messages, you'll need to import the sender's public key outside of alpine
Title and description: chpobox Description: allows mail sent to one address to be forwarded or copied to a different address To run: athena% chpobox -s user@host (to forward your mail to address user@host) athena% chpobox -S user@host (to send an additional copy of your mail to address user@host) athena% chpobox -p (to restore your mail service to its original Athena default) See also: exmh, from, lastupd, Mh, xmh, rblanche
Title and description: dist Description: allows forwarding mail while preserving mime enclosures To run: athena% dist message See also: metamail, Mh, xmh
Title and description: evolution Description: GUI-based, IMAP aware mail reader that can interpret multiple formats including HTML. Incorporates a built-in calendar/task list and address book. This is the currently recommended multimedia-enabled mail reader on Athena To run: athena% evolution & (or click on Mail button on Gnome applet bar if evolution is configured as your mail application) There is a user guide, local information about MIME attachments See also: mailusage, Mh, xmh, mitmail utilities, pine
Title and description: exmh Description: graphical interface to the standard Athena MH mail system, with many customizable features and built-in MIME support. Helper-applications can be invoked to read MIME enclosures at the click of a button To run: athena% add sipb athena% exmh & There is information on the Web, local information about MIME attachments See also: chpobox, metamail, Mh, xmh
Title and description: from Description: utility that tells where mail was sent from, without actually retrieving it from a Post Office server To run: athena% from See also: chpobox, mailusage, Mh, xmh, mitmail utilities
Title and description: mailquota, mailusage Description: utilities that tell your mail storage quota (mailquota), how much disk space your mail is using (mailusage) on your Post Office server To run: athena% mailquota athena% mailusage See also: evolution, from, mitmail utilities, pine
Title and description: metamail Description: mail reading program with the capability of decoding multiple enclosure formats To run: athena% add mime athena% metamail mailfile There is information about Athena MIME resources and local information about MIME attachments See also: dist, exmh, mutt, pine, Mh, xmh, ytnef
Title and description: MH (nmh), xmh Description: MH is a modular mail handling program, allowing users to send, receive and organize messages. The individual MH commands below use a command-line text interface. xmh combines the commands within an X interface To run: athena% comp (opens editor window for composing a message) athena% folder +path_to_mail_group (switches from current mail group to another) athena% inc (incorporates incoming mail from P.O. server) athena% mhstore (extracts and saves attachments from current mail message) athena% next (displays next message in current group) athena% prev (displays previous message in current group) athena% refile + path_to_mail_group (refiles current message in another group) athena% repl (send a reply to the current message) athena% rmm message (deletes message in current group) athena% scan (displays message headers for current group) athena% show (displays current message) athena% xmh & (for an X interface) There is local information about MIME attachments See also: chpobox, dist, evolution, exmh, from, metamail, MH-e, mitmail utilities, mutt, pine, pmail, RMAIL, WebMail Note: to decode non-ASCII mail enclosures, a method that frequently works is to pipe the mail message to metamail in the mime locker. to do this, do: add -f mime; show xx | metamail -w, where xx is the number of the mail message. metamail will attempt to decode enclosures, and if successful, will output them as files whose name is encoded as part of the message Note: MH on Athena has been upgraded to nmh, which works in the same way but adds capabilities for decoding MIME attachments; some information is here
Title and description: MH-e Description: emacs-based interface to MH To run: M-x mh-rmail (from within emacs) or, to start a new emacs buffer running only mh: athena% emacs -f mh-rmail & There is local information about MIME attachments See also: MH, RMAIL, WebMail
Title and description: mitmail utilities Description: set of utilities that allow users to manipulate and display mail messages on IMAP servers. Unless otherwise specified in command line options, the default folder the commands act on is the user's INBOX. See man pages for option details To run: athena% mitmailscan options (lists mail message sequence numbers, date, from and subject fields) athena% mitmailshow options msg(s) (prints message with sequence number msg - at least one must be specified) athena% mitmaildel options msg(s) (marks message with sequence number msg for deletion- at least one must be specified) athena% mitmailundel options msg(s) (removes deletion mark from message msg previously marked for deletion) athena% mitmailexp options (expunges all messages previously marked for deletion from the IMAP server) Note: mitmaildel does not actually delete messages, but just marks them for future deletion (which is reversible with mitmailundel). mitmailexp actually deletes them from the server. These commands do not incorporate your mail, and it stays on the server in the folder it was in, except for the action of mitmailexp (which deletes the specified messages) See also: evolution, mailusage, MH, xmh, pine
Title and description: mutt Description: text-mode Mail User agent, descended from elm To run: athena% add sipb athena% mutt There is documentation on the Web See also: metamail, MH, xmh, pine, pmail
Title and description: pine Description: text-based mail client featuring automatic incorporation of users' mail, IMAP support and basic rendering of message bodies that are in HTML format. Currently the recommended text-only mail client on Athena To run: athena% pine There is documentation on the Web, Pine on Athena See also: alpine, evolution, gpg, mailusage, metamail, mitmail utilities, mozilla, mutt, MH, xmh, pmail,RMAIL, WebMail Note: ez-pine-gpg is also available. Documentation is here. This is a set of scripts that allows users to use gpg with pine. To use it, type athena% add outland and append /mit/outland/share/ez-pine-gpg/pine-config to your .pinerc file. When verifying messages, you'll need to import the sender's public key outside of pine an older version of pine has been available in the sipb locker
Title and description: pmail Description: POP version of UCB mail, the interface familiar to many BSD-style UNIX users To run: athena% add sipb athena% pmail See also: mutt, pine, RMAIL, MH, WebMail
Title and description: RMAIL Description: emacs-based mail system, compatible with pmail To run: athena% M-x rmail (from within emacs) See also: MH, MH-e, pine, pmail
Title and description: thunderbird Description: fast, efficient mail and newsgroup reader based on those in Mozilla To run: athena% add thunderbird athena% thunderbird & See also: firefox, mozilla
Title and description: WebMail Description: Web-based mail system that can securely access your email through almost any Web browser, anywhere in the world To run: See instructions See also: MH, MH-e, pine, pmail
Title and description: ytnef Description: decodes MS winmail winmail.dat files; can optionally output message text in rtf files, but those are most likely unreadable on UNIX systems- most useful for its ability to decode attachments in various formats To run: athena% add outland athena% ytnef -f . winmail.dat See also: metamail Note: metamail can be used to extract the winmail.dat file from the original message
| Conferencing / NetNews |
Title and description: discuss, xdsc Description: Athena-specific networked online conferencing system where users can post transactions to "meetings" about various subjects. Similar to computer BBS "conferences" To run: athena% discuss (for a text interface) followed by an appropriate keyword at the discuss: prompt (typing help gives useful information) athena% xdsc & (for an X interface) There is online documentation; also a Web gateway See also: DISCUSS-e, dsgrep
Title and description: DISCUSS-e Description: emacs-based interface to discuss To run: M-x discuss (from within emacs) See also: discuss
Title and description: GNUS-e Description: emacs-based interface to Net newsgroups To run: M-x gnus (from within emacs) There is local online documentation. There are also newsgroup lists on the Web that have active links that will directly invoke newsreaders in Web browers. Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here See also: Mozilla Newsgroups, thunderbird, tin, trn
Title and description: Google Groups Description: hyperlinked newsgroup listings on the Web Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here See also: Mozilla Newsgroups, thunderbird, tin, trn
Title and description: Mozilla Newsgroups Description: Newsgroup reader incorporated in mozilla Web browser To run: athena% mozilla & followed by Window -> Mail & Newsgroups See also: GNUS-e, Google Groups, thunderbird, tin, trn
Title and description: thunderbird Description: fast, efficient mail and newsgroup reader based on those in Mozilla To run: athena% add thunderbird athena% thunderbird & See also: Mozilla Newsgroups, GNUS-e, Google Groups, tin, trn
Title and description: tin Description: full-featured newsgroup browser with an intuitive interface To run: athena% add sipb athena% tin There is local online documentation. There are also newsgroup lists on the Web that have active links that will directly invoke newsreaders in Web browers. Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here See also: GNUS-e, Google Groups, Mozilla Newsgroups, netscape, thunderbird, trn
Title and description: trn, xrn Description: newsgroup reader To run: athena% add sipb athena% trn (for a text interface, Lnx, Sun) athena% xrn & (for an X interface) There is local online documentation. There are also newsgroup lists on the Web that have active links that will directly invoke newsreaders in Web browers. Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here See also: GNUS-e, Google Groups, Mozilla Newsgroups, tin, netscape, thunderbird
| Dialup / File Transfer |
Title and description: ftp Description: UNIX standard file transfer protocol. Used to transfer files between hosts Please be aware of security concerns: standard ftp will send your password and data in clear across the network. Consider secure file transfer methods such as kerberized ftp, and scp (part of the ssh package) instead of the standard ftp program. Additional information about secure file transfer is here To run: athena% ftp hostname athena% ftp IP_address (for internal commands, type ftp, followed by ? at the ftp> prompt) See also: kermit, MindTerm applet, rlogin, ssh, uuencode, Zmodem Note: Athena machines are now configured to use secure kerberized ftp by default. This only applies to machines where both ends of the connection are running a kerberized ftp. To be sure you have an encrypted connection, look for words like: GSSAPI authentication succeeded and 200 Data channel protection level set to private when the connection is made
Title and description: kermit Description: commonly used file transfer program that allows file transfer between machines of many different types and architectures To run: athena% kermit There is a Kermit home page See also: Zmodem, ftp, uuencode
Title and description: MindTerm applet (remote Athena login via Web) Description: Java applet that allows secure remote non-GUI login to Athena dialups via ssh on Web browsers To run: Start from here, which will get you to an Athena login screen on one of the Athena dialup hosts. These machines are currently all Suns so the software you wish to run must be available on Suns See also: ftp, ssh, telnet, x3270
Title and description: rlogin, telnet Description: standard UNIX applications allowing a user to log into a remote host Please be aware of security concerns: standard rlogin and telnet will send your password and data in clear across the network. Consider kerberized telnet or ssh instead of the standard versions of these programs To run: athena% rlogin hostname athena% telnet hostname athena% telnet IP_address See also: ftp, MindTerm applet, ssh, x3270 Note: Athena machines are now configured to use secure kerberized telnet by default. This only applies to machines where both ends of the connection are running a kerberized telnet. To be sure you have an encrypted connection, look for the words: What you type is protected by encryption when the connection is made
Title and description: ssh Description: allows secure remote logins and file transfer using a variety of authentication and encryption methods, including RSA, DES and others. Can act as a replacement for rlogin, telnet, ftp and rcp. ssh will automatically secure and encrypt an X session. Many command-line parameters and configuration settings exist. Read the man page (man ssh) and see the OpenSSH home page for more information; there is also a local Web page and ssh on Athena dialups To run: athena% ssh options hostname (for secure shell) athena% scp options sourcehost:source file desthost:destination file (for secure file copy) See also: ftp, gpg, pgp, MindTerm applet, rlogin, telnet
Title and description: uuencode, uudecode Description: converts a binary file into an ASCII encoded representation that can be sent via mail. It encodes the contents of source_file into an ASCII file encoded_file which can be inserted in a text mail message. The file_label argument is required, and is included in encoded_file 's header as the name into which uudecode places the binary decoded data To run: athena% uuencode source_file file_label >encoded_file athena% uudecode encoded_file (some versions can work with encoded_file embedded in mail; others may require separating it out) See also: ftp, kermit, Zmodem
Title and description: x3270 Description: IBM 3270 terminal emulator, used to access remote IBM mainframes To run: athena% x3270 hostname See also: MindTerm applet, telnet
Title and description: Zmodem (rz, sz) Description: error-correcting protocol for serial port data transfer between machines of various architectures To run: athena% add sipb athena% rz file (to receive a file from a remote host) athena% sz file (to send a file to a remote host) See also: kermit, ftp, Mtools, uuencode
| Real-Time Communication |
Title and description: BarnOwl Description: customizable curses-based instant messaging client that supports a variety of built-in tools; supports Zephyr, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Jabber protocols To run: athena% add barnowl athena% barnowl Type h after starting BarnOwl to see available commands; see also the BarnOwl home page See also: gaim, jwrite, owl, Zephyr Note: BarnOwl was derived from owl and there are many similarities; the former is newer and preferred
Title and description: gaim Description: multi-protocol messaging client allowing communication with users of MSN Messenger, Yahoo messenger, AIM, ICQ, Jabber and others To run: athena% gaim & There is information on the Web, information on configuring gaim to access MIT's Jabber server See also: BarnOwl, jwrite, owl, write, xlite, Zephyr Note: on Athena, many users use Zephyr. gaim has recently been renamed pidgin but the version on Athena still goes by the former name
Title and description: jwrite Description: command-line instant messaging client for users with Jabber accounts To run: athena% jwrite user (sends a message to a given user) See also: BarnOwl, gaim, owl, write, xlite, Zephyr Note: to use jwrite, you need to have jwgc running first. To start it if it's not already running, type jwgc at the athena% prompt gaim is the preferred Jabber client on Athena
Title and description: owl Description: text-based instant messaging client that supports a variety of built-in message editing and handling tools; supports both Zephyr and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) protocols To run: athena% add ktools athena% owl Type h after starting owl to see available commands; see also the ktools home page See also: BarnOwl, gaim, jwrite, Zephyr Note: BarnOwl was derived from owl and there are many similarities; the former is newer and preferred
Title and description: talk Description: UNIX communication program which copies lines typed in at your terminal to another terminal. When you make a talk request, the other user must respond to establish a link. Then the parties may type simultaneously, with their respective output appearing in separate halves of the window. The alert to the other user usually appears in the console window To run: athena% talk user@hostname See also: write, xlite, Zephyr Note: on Athena, many users use Zephyr
Title and description: write Description: UNIX communication program which copies lines typed in at your terminal to another terminal. On Athena, the text usually appears in the recipient's console window To run: athena% write user@hostname See also: gaim, jwrite, talk, Zephyr Note: on Athena, many users use Zephyr
Title and description: xlite Description: VoIP phone client recommended for use with MIT VoIP (SIP) accounts. Information about getting a SIP account is here (MIT only) To run: athena% add outland athena% xlite & See also: jwrite, gaim, talk, Zephyr Note: on first use, xlite may offer you audio tuning parameters and will require information about your account and network connectivity. Please make the following entries: display name: anything authuser: your Athena username outbound proxy: outgoing-sip-proxy.mit.edu domain/realm: mit.edu currently, connectivity is limited to the MIT campus. The computer you are using will need to have a microphone and speakers or headphones
Title and description: xzewd, xzul Description: xzewd puts a GUI wrapper around Zephyr, allowing various message attributes to be set easily. It also allows users to keep track of "buddy lists" of selected other users who are online and Zephyrable.To do the latter, the usernames of the "buddies" should be entered in a text file .anyone in the user's home directory, one per line. xzul is simpler, and only performs the "buddy list" tracking function, using the same .anyone file To run: athena% add outland athena% xzewd & athena% xzul & See also: Zephyr
Title and description: Zephyr (zwrite, zlocate, zctl) Description: Athena-specific messaging system allowing users to send near real-time messages to each other. Allows creation of groups, called "instances", to which messages can be sent To run: athena% zwrite user (sends a message to a given user) athena% zwrite -i instance (sends a message to members of instance) athena% zctl (set instance lists and other Zephyr attributes) athena% zlocate user (finds out where user is logged in (if not hidden)) There is online documentation, also a Web interface; also Inessential Zephyr and Zephyr Answers See also: BarnOwl, jwrite, gaim, owl, tac, talk, tik, write , xlite, xzewd, xzul

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