JHUniverse: System Accessible to Home Computers with Modem Perhaps this has happened to you. Excited by the wide world of Internet information you've discovered on JHUniverse, you tell a friend who belongs to a commercial dial-up service such as Compuserve to try connecting via the commands you use at work. Later, you learn that your friend tried, but failed to get through. You wonder if JHUniverse is only available to members of the university community or through certain machines. "Theoretically, JHUniverse is accessible to anyone whose computer has a modem or some means of connecting to the Internet," said Lee Watkins, assistant director of the Homewood Computing Information Center. "The part that some find confusing is finding the correct and most efficient route to log on to the system." Currently, the great majority of JHUniverse visitors come in via gopher--a type of Internet software that enables your computer (the display or "client" computer) to talk with a remote source of information (the host or "server" computer). "Gopher is a software program that retrieves files without forcing the user to know the file names," Watkins said. "If your PC is wired to the network through ethernet or a similar system, and you have gopher software loaded on your computer, you can connect to JHUniverse just by typing 'gopher' at the C: prompt. "Of course, these directions are only appropriate for users with an IBM-based PC," Watkins said. "Many users of JHUniverse never see a C: prompt, but get there by clicking on a gopher icon in Windows or on a Macintosh computer." A less desirable method of accessing JHUniverse available to those who already have the basic range of Internet capabilities is Telnet. "Telneting is not preferred because when you telnet in it's just a remote login that does not allow you to print or save documents," Watkins said. "However, for some it's the only way to connect. People connected to the Internet with Telnet software loaded on their computers can reach JHUniverse by typing "telnet jhuniverse. jhu.edu" (without the quotation marks) at the prompt. Users with home computers that have a modem can dial directly in to JHUniverse. "Again, this is a less desirable method since a dial-in visit is treated in much the same way as Telnet," Watkins said. "But by dialing (410) 516-6666 via modem any computer user anywhere in the world should be able to connect with JHUniverse."