What is a shell account?
A shell account allows you to log in to a machine. Originally, almost everyone on the Internet had a shell account. Now people almost always have graphical software running on PPP accounts instead. Many ISPs no longer provide shell access because of the security risks it can pose. You must have a shell account on your site to run Rom.
A so-called ‘shell’ account is a terminal-type account on our UNIX servers at the office. A shell is basically a program that is interactive and accepts commands from the user. By using telnet, rlogin, or by dialing our modems with your plain user name, you can gain access to your shell account at Cyberstation. When you are in a shell session, your computer acts as a remote terminal on our UNIX machine. The UNIX machine writes on your terminal screen and accepts input from your keyboard. The UNIX shell environment is an extremely powerful internet tool. It is highly programmable and customizable. With your shell account you have internet access at full T1 speeds (the server is directly on the internet). You have access to extensive programming tools, and cron, the system clock daemon.
