Call into our front desk, someone having trouble getting into their account on the web server
Conversation between me and the front desk.

Shawn (12:50): Login name: xxxxxxxx                    In real life:
Directory: /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx         Shell: /bin/ksh
Never logged in.
No unread mail
No Plan.

yyyyyyy (12:57): does he key in that whole thong
thing
Shawn (12:57): key in where?
when he logs into the server, that should be the directory he's dropped into
if he's using an FTP client that requrires a full server path, then yes, he needs to put in: /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx
probably /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx/public_html, actually
since that's where web pages live
yyyyyyy (12:58): on the address line on the web site
?
Shawn (12:59): address line in his browser?
yyyyyyy (1:00): I have no idea what he is doing
he is getting upset with me for not understanding  I think
Shawn (1:00): if he's typing the address into a browser window, it's http://www.---.edu/~xxxxxxxx
yyyyyyy (1:00): I am asking where he is typin this in at
Shawn (1:00): ask him what the name of the program he is using is
yyyyyyy (1:01): front page
Shawn (1:05): is he on campus?
cause FTP is blocked from off campus
yyyyyyy (1:09): He is at Ashburn
Shawn (1:09): ok that should be ok to get in
ftp://www.---.edu/home/prov3/xxxxxxxx/public_html
yyyyyyy (1:16): he got to the site
Shawn (1:16): cool
yyyyyyy (1:16): now his user name and pasword are not working
ahhhh
Shawn (1:16): what?
how did he get to the site, if his name and password didn't work?
yyyyyyy (1:17): not sure
he is using his email user name and password
is that the right one?
Shawn (1:18): NO
xist

this is totally separate
from email
from netid
from acad
ldap
portal
cmail
webmail
research2
any other system
completely independent
user name is that xxxx crap
this is what he requested when he set up the account
zzzzzzzz
for a password
tell him to try that
yyyyyyy (1:22): The username is that long ass name from the beginning?
still nothing
he does not want to come all the way down here to change this
wants to do it over the phone
kill me
Shawn (1:24): i JUST logged into the server with that username and password
yyyyyyy (1:24): is the password that long title spelled out completely
Shawn (1:24): what?
yyyyyyy (1:24): sorry not pswrd username
Shawn (1:24): spelled out?
no
xxxxxxxx is the username
you understand the relationship between the username and the account's address, right?
yyyyyyy (1:25): yep
the username and accoutn name are the same right?
Shawn (1:27): yes
and = what comes after the ~ in the URL
yyyyyyy (1:28): the password is zzzzzzzzzz
Shawn (1:28): yes
yyyyyyy (1:28): got it
does not seem to be working for him
shaould he come in and change it
Shawn (1:29): why?
that IS the password
i logged into the server with it
yyyyyyy (1:32): the message he is getting : an error occured opening the folder on the FTPserver make sure you have permisson to access the server , there is no such file or directory
I need a drink
Shawn (1:33): amen
yyyyyyy (1:33): a gun
somethong
something
Shawn (1:34): sigh
ok
we've given him the account's login
password
path
protocol
i don't know what else to tell you
i don't even have front page to look at it
the public_html dir is there
it has the proper permissions
ok

[ at this point she walked over to ask if he should come in and reset his password]

yyyyyyy (1:40): he just wants to be able to get into the site he says he is not even in front page at this moment
Shawn (1:40): what is he using
yyyyyyy (1:41): he is at the logon page at the site
and user name and password are not working
Shawn (1:42): in what application
yyyyyyy (1:42): he has not used any application he just wants to get into the site
so he says
on the old server he got in ok
Shawn (1:43): what program, yyyyyyy
think about it
how can he be at a login screen
if there's no program he;s using
yyyyyyy (1:54): i got to the loginscreen just by typing the path name, I got him off the phone
you gave me
h not sure how but I did
Shawn (1:54): typing the path name where
yyyyyyy (1:55): in the address box on MyGw
Shawn (1:55): what?
yyyyyyy (1:56): when you key in the link you gave me starting w ftp://
it takes you there
Shawn (1:56): on mygw
yyyyyyy (1:57): yep I am there now
I cut and pasted the url you gave me to give to him and got to the login page where he is and can go no further
wanna see
that is where he canot get past


This conversation ended with me, at her desk, saying, "That's not FrontPage, that's a web browser"