How to Use Telnet to Submit Homework Answers

One of the ways to submit homework answers to the CAPA system, and get feedback, is to use Telnet. (The other method, which uses a Web browser, is fine too, and I think it's a little friendlier, but some students prefer this method.) Telnet has the advantage that you can access CAPA from anywhere in the world to answer your homework problems. One of the most convenient places to access from is the help room in B&L304, which has several terminals you can use for this. (I have some tips written up on how to access Uhura accounts from those terminals.)

So I'll assume you have logged in to Uhura from wherever (yes, I know that you can telnet to CAPA directly, but for technical reasons the CAPA administrators would rather you login to your Uhura account first...); now you need to connect to the CAPA Telnet server. To do this, at the Uhura command prompt, enter "telnet phobos.nsrl.rochester.edu".

This will bring up a login prompt. The login name you should use is "phy121s8" (yes, all in lower case), and the password is "rajeev" (yes, all in lower case). Once you enter these, the opening CAPA screen will come up, with a prompt for you to enter your 9-digit student number and 4-digit PIN for the homework set you're currently working on (go ahead and do so). Once you've logged in, that screen will clear and you'll see a main menu.

The main menu is a screen offering (very rudimentary) help, a term summary of all the homework sets so far, or for you to "try (the current) set". If you're ready to answer any of the questions on the current set, select that choice by pressing "t" (upper or lower case).

CAPA will then ask which problem you want to start with; this is mostly for convenience in case you've already answered some of them and are logging back in to answer others. Just respond with whichever one you'd like to answer first; you can do them in any order, and can work on any number of them in a single CAPA session.

The text of each problem is displayed, just as in your printed copy of the homework set. There's a space for you to type the answer, and a list of possible commands at the bottom of the screen. To enter an answer, type it and hit Enter; the system will immediately tell you whether you were right or not. To go to another problem, type ":" followed the problem number, and Enter; to return to the Main Menu (for instance, to get a summary), type ":M", and to quickly exit, type ":X".

Note that the system only records your answers when you either exit, using the ":X" command, or request a summary (using "S" from the Main Menu screen)! I have written up some tips on using the CAPA system to submit homework answers; if you have any further questions after looking at those, let me know.

Oh, don't forget to exit after you're done... otherwise you tie up the terminals, and your answers are not recorded in the system! And finally, you can freely alternate between using this access method and the Web method.

Good luck!