[Sussex] Help with linux

Mark Harrison Mark at ascentium.co.uk
Wed Apr 21 15:53:08 UTC 2004


Az,

Welcome to the list.

I'm afraid that I cringed as soon as I saw "AOL".

AOL is NOT a conventional ISP. It does not offer "standard internet
connectivity" in the way that the vast majority of others do. Instead, it
offers a slightly bizzarre communications service, that includes SOME (but
not all) of the features of "real" Internet access.

Their offering is based around using THEIR access software, which is only
available for Windows and the Mac. Their access software manages a lot of
things that, with a normal ISP, you'd be in control of, such as DNS, POP3
and SMTP addresses.


Now, a brief primer:

DNS: Domain Name Server

... answers the question "what is the number (IP address) of this name."
... eg, you ask a DNS server "what is www.ascentium.co.uk?" and it answers
216.66.19.100

... also answers the question "where do I deliver mail for this domain"
... eg, you ask a DNS server "where do I deliver mail for ascentium.co.uk",
and it answers "ascentium.co.uk"
... you then ask a DNS server "what is ascentium.co.uk", and it answers
216.66.19.100
(Note - in this particular case, the names ascentium.co.uk and
www.ascentium.co.uk are the same machine - that's not always the case.)

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

... protocol used for sending mail over the Internet
... you talk to the SMTP server on 216.66.19.100, and say "here's mail for
Mark at ascentium.co.uk"
... the SMTP server says "OK, go on then" and accepts delivery of the mail.

There's then some software that runs on my mail server that takes that
message, works out that it's specfically for me, and puts it somewhere
appropriate on the server.

Finally, there's another bit of software that answers the question "any mail
for Mark at ascentium.co.uk", with the answer "yes, here you are" and sends it
down to my laptop / web browser / whatever.

This final bit of software runs either POP3 or IMAP.

POP3 is an older standard. Still widely used though.

IMAP is a somewhat newer, more powerful standard. Use it for preference if
your ISP supports it.

Hope this helps...

Regards,

Mark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Azhar Khan" <azharkhan599 at hotmail.com>
To: <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 4:33 PM
Subject: [Sussex] Help with linux


> Hello
>
> my name is azhar khan and have recently started with linux but am having
> problems concerning connecting to the internet , i have a book here by
> marcel gagneabout moving to linux and he makes the move to linuxsound so
> easy but i am having problems regarding getting the right info from aol
i.e.
> phone number i am dialling to connect the problem is that i am using
> broadband.  Also ip address of the dns (name servers), ip address of my
smtp
> and pop3 email hosts and also ip address of a news server.  Please can you
> help i really want to make linux work and please forgive me for my
stupidity
> if you can also explain to me the smtp is it simplie mail
> transfer protocol that all i know if that is correct.
>
>
> Az
>
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