Econ 120A                                             Ramu Ramanathan


         INSTRUCTIONS FOR BASIC OPERATIONS ON THE COMPUTER


For those of you who pre-enrolled, computer accounts will be
distributed on the first day of class.  Copy your login name (e.g. 
ec120wzz).  If your name is not on that list, you need to fill out a
special form that can be obtained from me.

There are three ways to access the campus computers; (1) from a
computer in the ECON 100 PC Lab or SOLIS 105 (behind Solis Lecture
halls), (2) from your computer at home, and (3) from a room with
computer terminals.


1.  Access from ECON 100 or SOLIS 105 PC Labs

The best way to obtain class bulletins, assignments, etc. when
you are on campus is to use the World Wide Web (WWW).  First identify
the icon that says COMMUNICATIONS and double click that.  If you see
the generic page or a scrolling message across, press ALT TAB
repeatedly until you see the "Program Manager" icon and click that. 
Then double click the COMMUNICATIONS icon, followed by the WWW browser
Netscape's folder and the Netscape icon, which is the default on this
campus.  In the "Location" type in the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
address
     http://sdcc4.ucsd.edu/~ec120w
to access the Web page for this course.  Click the item that you are
interested in looking at.  To print an item, select "File" at the top
left hand corner of the page and then "Print." You can go "back" and
"forward" by clicking the appropriate buttons.  When you are done, be
sure to double click the small rectangular bar in the top left hand
corner.


2.  Access from your home computer

If you have a personal computer with a modem, you can connect to the
campus machines from home and retrieve the messages.  To do most things
from home, you would need (1) a subscription to an Internet Service
Provider such as AOL or UCSD, (2) a Web browser such as Netscape or
Internet Explorer, and (3) the EXCEL program.  Be sure to learn how to
capture a file from the mainframe to your PC (this is called
"downloading").  Your communication software should have the
instructions.

For subscribing to the UCSD Network, the first step is to use Netscape
as described in Section 1 above and check out all the details of their
dialinservice via the WWW address
     http://www-no.ucsd.edu

Low-use and general service plans are available.  Low-use costs
$3/month base fee and provides five total hours of dialinservice for
this rate.  Each additional hour beyond the five each month is charged
at $1.00/hour.

General service costs $10/month base fee and provides 25 hours of prime
time and unlimited non prime time for this rate.  Prime time is defined
as from 5:00 p.m.  to 10:00 p.m.  seven days a week.  Each additional
prime time hour beyond the 25 monthly is charged at $.30/hour.

If you are logged on exactly 12 hours a month, both plans are the same
(and would cost you $10/month).  If you are logged on less than 12
hours a month, the low-use plan is the most cost-effective for you.  If
you are logged on for more than 12 hours a month, the general use plan
is the most cost-effective.

The best way to establish service is to go to the Network Operations
office in person, so that they can make sure that you have a network
username and password, discuss software options with you (they also
sell network software), and answer any questions you might have about
connecting to UCSD from off-campus.  Details about them are given
below.
**************************************************************
Network Operations                   phone: 534-1857
Dialin Service                dialinservice@ucsd.edu
2113 AP&M                             fax:  534-1746
UCSD 0110
La Jolla, CA  92093-0124      http://www-no.ucsd.edu

Open hours: 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
Phone support 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.
		Monday through Friday
**************************************************************


3.  Access from a room with terminals

This method is not recommended because you cannot download data files
and run any analyses on them.