Getting Started Using BOL
This section contains the features and services offered by Bruin OnLine. It explains how to get started, how to use your clients, and provides a short introduction to the Internet.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction to Bruin OnLine
II. Getting Started: Creating a UCLA Logon ID
III. Beginner's Guide to the Internet
IV. What is the Internet?
V. How Does E-Mail Work?
VI. What is the 'Web'?
Introduction to Bruin OnLine
Bruin OnLine is a collection of services offered to UCLA students, staff members, and faculty. Users with a UCLA Logon ID provisioned for Bruin OnLine acquire:
- an email address with a 75MB quota
- 50MB of webspace on the Bruin OnLine webserver
- the ability to dial-up to the Bruin OnLine modem pools
- access to the UCLA Listserv mailing list
- access to the UCLA News Server
- other services that require the use of a UCLA Logon ID/password, (i.e., wireless, VPN, proxy, software downloads, etc.)
Bruin OnLine is often interpreted to mean 'Internet Access', as users who dial-up to the BOL modem pools using BOL software have access to the Internet. In this respect, it is similar to the access that commercial ISPs offer. However, there is a difference - when connected through a BOL modem pool, your machine is temporarily assigned a UCLA IP address. This allows you to access any UCLA restricted resources, (i.e., download UCLA software or view UCLA-subscribed websites). These would not normally be available through a commercial ISP.
Getting Started
If you don't have one already, you must first establish a UCLA Logon ID by going to https://logon.ucla.edu.
When creating your UCLA Logon ID, you will be asked to choose a username. This will be the first part of your email address. For example, if your username is jbruin, your Bruin OnLine email address would be jbruin@ucla.edu. You will also be prompted to select a password. Remember this username/password combination as you will need it to access all BOL services and any other UCLA services that ask you for your UCLA Logon ID.
Now that you have a UCLA Logon ID, you have a Bruin OnLine email address. You can start receiving email once your account is up and running. Mail will sit on the Bruin OnLine mail server until you read it with an email client, such as Thunderbird or Outlook Express. You'll need access to a machine with a connection to the Internet. You can use a lab on campus, a friend's computer, or your own machine. Take a look at the Accessing Bruin OnLine page for a short list of labs available to BOL users.
If you have your own computer and modem, you may be able to dial-up to one of the Bruin OnLine modem pools and connect to the Internet from home. For information on manually configuring your machine, see the Dial-up configuration page appropriate for your Operating System.
Dialing into Bruin OnLine is not enough - you must have software on your computer in order to actually use the Internet. Most systems include e-mail clients and internet browsers pre-installed with the operating system. If you do not have your own software, you can use software that you can download from the Bruin OnLine Software page. Installation and configuration instructions are available.
A Beginner's Guide to the Internet
The following is meant to provide users a very brief overview about the Internet. For a more detailed explanation on how the Internet works, read one of the many beginner's guides online. For a partial list, click on Yahoo! Beginner's Guides.
What is the Internet?
Picture a small group of people with their own network of machines. Each user can access data on any other computer in the network. Now imagine another group with their own network. The two groups get together and decide to link their two networks together. All of these computers are connected. Now imagine thousands of networks connecting to each other, and thousands more connecting to those - and you have the 'network of networks' - the Internet.
How does email work?
Email works much like the U.S. Postal System, except that all addresses are P.O. Boxes, and delivery is much faster. The following example compares the two, where Joe Bruin sends mail/email to Josephine.
| Postal Mail | |
| Joe starts his email client (Eudora, Outlook Express, etc.) | Joe sits down and gets an envelope and some paper |
| Joe addresses a message to jbruin@ucla.edu (Josephine's email address) | Joe fills out the envelope with Josephine's postal address |
| Joe types up his message and pushes the Send button | Joe writes his letter and drops it in a mailbox |
| Joe's computer contacts the 'ucla.edu' machine (mail server) and transfers the message | The U.S. Postal Service gets the envelope and routes it to the correct post office |
| Our mail server saves the email in jbruin's mail file | Postal workers place the letter in Josephine's P.O. Box |
| Joesphine starts her email client and pushes the Check Mail button | Josephine goes down to the post office and checks her P.O. Box |
| Josephine's computer copies the message from our mail server and deletes it from the server | Josephine picks up her letter |
| Josephine's computer saves the message on her own computer so she can read it later | Josephine takes her letter home |
There is a difference - while the letter can take days to be delivered, email is usually sent within seconds. Like a regular P.O. Box, your mail file on the server can only hold so much mail. If you don't regularly check your mail, you can reach your quota and the mail server will start rejecting messages addressed to you. This can also happen if you regularly check your mail, but your email program is set to leave your mail on the server (instead of deleting it).
The only time the program contacts the mail server is when you are actually sending or checking mail. So you can read your own mail, write a few messages, and save them. The next time you are online, you can send them and check for new mail.
What is the 'Web'?
You may have already heard of the term 'surfing the web'. Let's use this page as an example. The URL should be http://www.bol.ucla.edu/help/faq/starting.html. This means that the page you are viewing was on a machine called 'www.bol.ucla.edu', and the specific file, with its path, was '/help/faq/starting.html'. When you first loaded this page, your computer contacted the 'www.bol.ucla.edu' machine and asked for the '/help/faq/starting.html' file. It downloaded it and closed the connection. Then your web browser displayed the page according to the instructions in that file. The way it interprets the file is really up to the web browser - so you may find that certain pages look differently when using Netscape as opposed to Internet Explorer.
Like email, your web browser downloads the entire page and then closes the connection with the remote server (with some exceptions). When you click on a link, your computer opens another connection and tries to download that page. If you find that some pages don't work but others do, you can double check the URL - misspellings are a common cause for errors. It is also possible that the web server on which the page resides is simply down. Just try again later.