Public Unix Systems....what?

[wetwarev7]

Ok, so after about 20 years in the electronics and computer industries (or as I like to call it, the geek fields), I have finally gotten around to 'discovering' public Unix system accounts. It's geeky, it's cool, it's a lot of fun learning stuff most people have never even heard of. And the best part is, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Ok, so I've figured out how to browse the internet through one. Well, it's kinda the internet, except theres no pictures, just words. Kinda like a MUD, only I can't seem to level up. But no pictures means no advertisements either, so, yay for me!

I even figured out how to post a message on this forum using my free public unix account. And I think I've got an email account set up through it, but I don't know what my Unix email address is, so I can't check to see if it's as empty as my normal email account. (It's a tradeoff - more technical knowhow = less people emailing you, cause when they do, you tell them all about techie things such as public Unix and they think you are talking about Publix hiring unichs, which seems only slightly less strange......long story)

Anyways, for those of you who allready know all about this stuff, is there anything I need to know? Any tips or tricks? Anything I need to watch out for?

How secure is it? With a free account, I can only seem to access it via telnet, am I just creating a connection for some hacker to come right in and pilfer through my files? Are there any systems that are better to be a member of than others? Are there any systems I should stay away from?

Even more importantly, can my IT department tell I'm logging on to one of these instead of working? Could they, perhaps, tell I'm browsing the competitions' websites looking to see how much they are paying their employees? Hypothetically speaking of course.

Any little tidbits would be appreciated. If nothing else, it'll make me feel less like I'm the only one geeky enough to be playing around with this stuff! :rotfl: