WYNTK: UNIX System Admininistrator

If you still can’t get the terminal to respond, let your system administrator know.

Before you report your own problem to a system administrator, check other terminals like yours to see if they are also having problems. It’s possible that the host computer went down and no one can log in. It’s also possible that something went wrong with the network software, with your gateway to the rest of the network, or that the physical network was a casualty of the construction on the fourth floor of your office building.

None of these are things you can do anything about, but at least it identifies the problem as the administrator’s and not yours. Make sure that someone’s notified the administrator that something’s gone wrong, and then be patient until it’s fixed.

When you tell your administrator about your problem, be sure to tell her what kind of equipment you have, and what solutions you have already tried. For example, if you can’t log in at a character-based terminal, then the administrator would go through a different series of steps than she would for an X terminal. Your administrator may also know about special issues for particular terminal models. For example, she may know that the Num Lock key on some terminals prevents mouse clicks from registering, etc.