network capability in Terminal

Hello, all. Bought a Macbook Pro in late 09, starting to use it more and more lately.

Curious about the network capabilities in Terminal. The shell seems to know all the commands (finger, talk, etc.) but they don't appear to work. I can go into mailx and type a message and send it, all with no errors, but the message doesn't get anywhere.

I was under the impression that this thing should operate just like a UNIX terminal does. I realize some of it has to do with my ISP. I searched on a couple of things and found that most ISPs have certain ports blocked because of spammers and other filth.

Any tips appreciated.

Also, what's the bash command for reading the news? Seems to have changed from rn - I'm probably showing my age here. ;-)

As a test, I would attempt to send your messages to other locally connected computers, rather than going out to the Internet.

Wow, finger. I haven't seen that used now in a long time. Still works locally, might not work when sent to another system. May well be blocked, same with talk. Mail, as I recall utilizes local MTA.. which well.. that WILL be blocked.

Even if these weren't blocked, the only one that would likely be useful anymore is mail. It's been a long time since anyone's actively used talk across systems. There are simply far more reliable and user friendly client/server model instant messaging applications out there.


see what I mean?