Once you have logged into RCI, you will see:

To access your email, enter the following command at the prompt:

niflheim> pine

Pine is a menu-driven program; each screen displays commands that are relevant and the key or keystroke combinations that can be used to activate each command. You can type upper or lower case letters when issuing Pine commands. Some commands in Pine need keystroke combinations. For example ^X means press "x" or "X" while holding down the "Ctrl" key.

Pine will then prepare itself to be run for the first time. Choose Y or N when Pine prompts you to get the help document. You will then see the Pine MAIN MENU.
 

How to Send Mail:

To compose a new message, press C at the Pine MAIN MENU. This will bring you to the COMPOSE MESSAGE screen.

 

Send a test message to yourself. Type your own email address (lower case) in the "To:" field (ie: your_username@rci.rutgers.edu) and type in a test message under the "Message Text" field. You can use the arrow keys to move among fields. When you are ready, use ^X to send the email. Pine will ask you to confirm the "Send message?" command. Type Y to send the message. Pine will then send the message and keep a copy of the message in the "sent-mail" folder, as described later in this document, for your future reference. You will then be returned to the MAIN MENU.

Note: default options are in square brackets, [yes] and can be activated by pressing Enter or Return.

How to Quit Pine:

From the MAIN MENU, type Q to exit Pine. Press Y to confirm the "Quit" command.

How to Read Mail:

Now let's try to read the mail you sent to yourself. Restart Pine. From the Pine MAIN MENU, type L to display the folder list. "[Select Here to See Expanded List]" should be highlighted. Press Enter or Return to view the expanded folder list. Typically you will see three folders: INBOX, sent-mail, and saved-messages.

All new messages are kept in the "INBOX" folder. By default, copies of your outgoing messages are saved in the "sent-mail" folder and messages you choose to save are kept in the "saved-messages" folder. If "INBOX" is not highlighted, use the arrow keys to highlight "INBOX", then press Enter or Return. You will see a list of all new messages. You can use the arrow keys to move between messages. To read the highlighted message, press Enter or Return. You should see the test message you sent yourself.

How to Save Messages:

After you have read the test message, save it by pressing S. Pine will prompt you for the name of the folder. By default, the "saved-messages" folder will be selected and can be confirmed by pressing Enter or Return. You can also elect to save the message to a different folder by specifying another folder name. If the folder does not exist, Pine will prompt you to create a new folder. Pine will save your message to the specified folder and mark the message for deletion from "INBOX."

How to Delete Messages:

First highlight the message you wish to delete. For our example, you saved the test message in the "saved-messages" folder. To delete the test message, press L to display the folder list and then press Enter or Return to see a list of all the folders. Highlight "saved-messages" by using the arrow keys. Press Enter or Return to view the contents of the folder. You should see the test message you saved in the last exercise. To delete it, press D. Pine will mark the message for deletion. When you quit, Pine will ask you if you want to expunge deleted messages. Press Y to confirm deletion. Since the test message was marked for deletion in the "INBOX" folder, Pine will also ask you to confirm its deletion from "INBOX." Press Y to confirm deletion.

Printing from Pine:

Pine allows a user to print to a locally attached printer or a network printer. By default, printing is setup for a local printer. After you have read a message, press Y to print the message. Pine will prompt you to print the message using the "attached-to-ansi" printer. Press Enter or Return to confirm printing. In order to print a message to a network printer, you need to setup a printer in Pine. Please refer to our "Getting Started With Email Using Pine" document, described below.

Note: Local printing will not work if you use the Microsoft Telnet program to connect to rci. Other Telnet programs may work.

Mail Quota:

Since RCI is a multi-user system, all users have limited disk space for their mail. By default, accounts have a quota of 100 Megabytes (about 100,000 characters) which is shared among saved files and incoming mail. For example, if you have 80 Mb worth of saved files (all files on your account, not just mail files), you can have a maximum of 20 Mb of new messages at any time before you go over quota. Once you reach the 100 Mb quota, you will stop getting new mail. You will have to delete existing files (or messages within a folder), or move messages/files to your desktop computer, before you can receive any new mail. When you bring your usage back under the quota, your mail starts arriving again.

Once you reach the quota, all your new mail will be held by the system for 5 days from the time it received each message. If those 5 days pass without your bringing youself under quota again, each affected message is returned to the sender with an "undeliverable" error. (If you bring your usage under the quota within those 5 days, the messages will be delivered as usual.) The best way to prevent this from happening is to either delete new messages after you read them or to save them to a folder on your desktop computer. Remember that it is not only the number of messages that you have but also the size of the messages that puts you over quota.

Additional Help:

Extensive help is available within Pine and can be accessed by pressing the ? key. For additional help on Pine, please read the detailed Pine document, "Getting Started With Email Using Pine," available at the NBCS web-site: http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/newdocs

The Pine document is also available from the OIT/NBCS Help Desk. The Help Desk is located in Hill Center, Room 005, Busch Campus. Questions can also be addressed by sending email to help@rci.rutgers.edu.

For further questions related to computing at Rutgers University, or when having problems with email, contact the OIT/NBCS Help Desk at (732)445-HELP.