Your UNIX shell account is one of the most powerful Internet tools available to you, allowing you to access, filter, process and publish information and files on the Internet. Its not always as friendly or intuitive as a Macintosh or Windows95 system, though. If you have no experience with UNIX, the UNIXhelp web page is a good place to start learning about it.
If you use a terminal emulation program (HyperTerminal, ProComm Plus, Microphone, Zterm, etc.) to connect to VISI, you're already logging directly into your shell account. Otherwise, you'll need a telnet client. Users who wish to connect via ssh clients may do so.
To run the telnet program, open a new connection to "shell.visi.com" and login using your username and password. You should get a window with a command prompt wish looks something like this:
Hello 20-29.dynamic.visi.com!
You are connected to isis.visi.com.
Welcome to Vector Internet Services, Inc.
SunOS 5.6
login: username
Password:
Last login: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 from mindvox.phantom.com
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.6 Generic August 1997
You have mail.
isis% _
Depending on how your account is setup, you may see VISI's Main Menu instead of the shell prompt. To access the UNIX shell select "7. Special Utilities" then "3. Shell Access".
For more information on how to use your UNIX shell account, please see our UNIX Support Web page.