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From: bwebster@crash.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: BIX (BYTE Information Exchange)
Message-ID: <151@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 13:47:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: caip.151
Posted: Mon Oct 21 13:47:47 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Oct-85 07:53:15 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: crash!bwebster@SDCSVAX.ARPA

It is with some trepidation that I do this, but the following set of
instructions tells all of you how to log onto BIX, McGraw-Hill's new
conferencing system.  BIX is still in beta test, so there is no charge
for connect time, etc.  I'm doing this out of self-defense; there is a
lot of technical info here that I may have to miss, since my net node
is now a long-distance call (Utah to CA) for me [I moved a month or
two ago].  The Amiga conference on BIX is quite active and includes
as participants several people from Amiga (including RJ Mical, author
of Intuition).  When you get onto BIX, please don't abuse the system
(or the participants).  And if you want to get into some heavy Amiga
vs. ST debating, join 'ask.webster/m68000' [an unabashed plug].
							..bruce..


(0)  Put your term software into half-duplex.  Yes, it's a pain,
     but you'll get better response.
(1)  Call Tymnet.  If you're calling at 1200 baud, you'll get
     a lot of garbage (Tymnet trying to talk at 300).  When the garbage
     (or prompt) is done, type an "a".
(2)  You will now get a user name prompt.  Type "^Hbyteneti" (yes, that's
     a Ctrl-H followed by "byteneti" followed by <CR>).
(3)  You will now get a bizarre password prompt.  Type "mgh<CR>".
(4)  After some rumination, you will get a message says something like
     "LDS LEXINGTON DATA SERVICES UP" followed by "login:".  Type "bix<CR>".
(5)  It will then ask you "Name?".  Reply with "new<CR>".  Bix will then sign
     you up, asking you for an ID and password.  Ignore questions/comments about
     money and connect time; this is a preliminary version of the sign-up
     software.
(6)  Once you are on the system, you can join the Amiga conference by saying
     (surprise!) 'join amiga'.  If you don't really feel like reading all
     the messages waiting for you there, the "skip to last" command will
     skip over them all.
(7)  After you've been on bix once, you can log in directly by giving your
     ID the "Name?" prompt.
(8)  The four commands you need to know on bix are "show", "join", "?", and
     <CR>.  Bix is set up to take you through just about everything via
     repeated carriage returns.  "?" will show you your current command
     choices.  "join" lets you join a particular conference/topic.  "show"
     shows you information; e.g., "show all" shows you all the conferences.
(9)  You will undoubtedly find a number of things about bix that you don't
     like; you may even find some honest-to-goodness bugs.  The conference
     "bix.talk" has topics for those purposes; the man (yes, just one) to talk
     to is "al" (Alastair Meyer).  Be aware that Al has written bix almost
     single-handedly, and that he has a long list of corrections/features
     to implement, so be kind and courteous in any comments you might make
     to him.
(10) Have at it and have fun!

Bruce F. Webster, Consulting Editor, BYTE Magazine
ARPA:  crash!bwebster@ucsd
uucp:  {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!bwebster
BIX:   bwebster
CIS:   75166,1717
MCI:   Bruce F. Webster
USPS:  P.O. Box 1910, Orem, UT  84057