Adding More User Accounts
With your single terminal, you can have up to 5 additional accounts, beyond the
one primary created when you registered for WebTV service. Each user has their
own separate Home page, e-mail address, Favorites, and newsgroup and chat access.
Creating a New User
The primary user is the only one with the power to create and delete other user
accounts on the terminal. This is done by clicking on the Setup (or Using WebTV)
link on the WebTV Home page of the primary, then selecting the appropriate link.
The new user is created by adding an "Internet name" (the prefix of the e-mail
address) and a name to go along with it (although secondary users don't have
to have this additional name, the primary has to have at least one character
in each of the first and last name fields).
The primary user also has the option at this point to place restrictions on
the new secondary account, allowing or disallowing chat and e-mail/newsgroup
access, and/or restricting Web surfing with Surf Watch (which filters sites
based on content and certain words) or Kid Friendly (which allows access only
to a preselected group of websites).
Passwords
Any or all of the primary or secondary users can have their user account access
password protected, to prevent other users from getting into their "stuff." The
primary user should definitely have a password on the primary account because
all creation and deletion of secondary users, as well as restriction settings,
are done through the primary account's Home page (unless one individual uses the
box by themselves, using multiple accounts for other reasons).
Why Have Additional Users?
If you don't use all six of your available users for different people,
you have some added flexibility in using your terminal.
Many people use their primary address for writing to family, signing up for
e-mail newsletters, communicating with work and other things that are "public,"
while using other users for things more "private."
For writing to Usenet newsgroups, chatting on IRC, signing guestbooks, and
other more "open" interactions (which many, many other people will be a party
to), using a secondary user can be a very good idea. It lets you give out your
e-mail address without worrying about negative or undesired "feedback" to your
mailbox. In these situations it's also a very good idea not to give out your
real name, for the same reason.
The User "Firewall"
Even if there's only one user on a terminal, the users are completely separate
for operational purposes. It's not possible to "share" functions or Favorites
between users; if an e-mail comes in to another user's mailbox, the light won't
blink and there won't be a chirp. Because of the system's design, you have to
go to the Home page of the current user and click Switch Users to see if there
are messages in the other mailboxes. And Favs can't be moved from one to the other
either; the only method of communication from one user to the other is through
e-mail.
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