iSchool Accounts & Services
How do I access Dialog from home?
Dialog is a commercial database service. Several iSchool courses heavily utilize Dialog and many students would like to be able to access the service from the comfort of their own home.
The iSchool supports this type of access if you are currently enrolled in a class that utilizes Dialog. Each user is required to sign a ‘user agreement’ form before receiving their userid. Dialog userid’s are valid for the duration of the quarter. At the completion of the quarter, passwords are changed. If you are take another class that uses Dialog you will receive a new userid and sign another ‘user agreement’ form.
Your class instructor will setup a username and password for you. Students can share IDs, but only DialogWeb allows simultaneous logon on a single ID (not DialogLink or DialogClassic). Students will get an error message if they try to log on when someone else is already using the ID.
Dialog has many interfaces. Information professionals prefer DialogLink, a software application that is downloaded to individual or lab computers. Browser-based interfaces include www.dialogclassic.com and www.dialogweb.com for command language and www.dialogselect.com and www.dialog1.com for form-based searching. You can also use telnet and connect to ‘dialog.com’.
To gain access follow this procedure:
Once you have your userid/password, you can connect to Dialog using a browser pointing to http://www.dialog.com, or you can use any telnet program to connect to dialog.com.
For instance if you have Windows 95/98/NT/ME/00/XP on your machine you could use the built in telnet program in Windows by selecting:
Start menu -> Run...
and then type:
telnet dialog.com
If you use Dialog frequently, you could create a shortcut on your home desktop. Using Windows XP right-click on an open space in the Desktop area and select New -> Create Shortcut. Type telnet dialog.com into the shortcut bar and you can give it any name you want.
Last update: 2006-09-07 11:16
Author: Joshua Ayson
Revision: 1.0
