[6128] in APO-L
E-Mail Access After School
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Scott Begin)
Thu Apr 29 00:05:20 1993
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 04:01:00 GMT
Reply-To: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
From: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@PURCCVM.BITNET>
On 4/28/93, Meryl Fox <BQAFQDB@IUP.BITNET> said:
> Sorry to take up reader space with non-business but this is really
> important. I know that there is a big Freenet out of Cleveland. Does anyone
> know if there is anything like that out of Philly. I need some way to get
> e-mail without having to dial a long-distance number. So if anyone has any
> info, I'd really, really appreciate it!! Thanks!
Actually this is a perfectly valid concern for a net junkie. I have spent
the better part of the 1.5 years since I graduated (and lost cushy, free,
full blown internet account) researching the subject.
If there is a Freenet accessable via a local telephone call (either
directly or via a local call to a free access network such as MichNet /
Merit), by all means use it. There are also public access Unix sites
around the country offering free internet services for a local phone call.
Again, if it is available, feel free to use them.
Now, for the 99.9% of us who don't meet the conditions in the above
paragraph, look closely at some of the commercial services. The following
was written by me in private mail to a brother who was having the same
problems staying connected. Good, cheap, reliable net access isn't that
expensive.
I currently have three accounts on commercial services, all with internet
access. I am known as 70334,376 on CompuServe, SBEGIN (or 555-5440) on
MCI Mail, and SBEGIN on Delphi. This account is the main one I have mail
sent to (for reasons which will become apparent).
I use this account for mail due to economics: it is the cheapest for that.
Yes, CompuServe offers a monthly $8.95 (or similar charge), but you have to
read the fine print. That covers unlimited time in the mall (free anyway),
customer support forums, and a few other non interesting areas. Reading and
sending mail is "free" with the exception that reading mail from the internet
is charged at the regular rates ($8/hr @2400bps $16/hr @9600bps) which is kind
of steep. That basic fee doesn't pay for you to visit most of the non CIS
customer support and other discussion forums or to download most files. Just
reading one internet mail list cost me $30 / month: the traffic on that list
has increased since then and I was capturing all mail to read off line. I
keep this account for accessing Customer Support forums maintained by various
software and hardware companies.
The Delphi account is my newest account. It costs $10/month including 4 hours
of free access, additional time is $4/hr. The have a plan for $20/month
giving you 20 free hours (non weekday 7am-7pm) with additional time for
$1.80/hr. If you want to use the internet gateway, it costs an additional
$3/month. They offer more Internet services than just mail exchange, such as
FTP (retreiving files from "public" archive sites on the net), Telnet
(terminal session on other computers on the net, some public, other require an
account), IRC (internet relay chat -- interactive conferanceing), and many
others. These services are what attracted me to Delphi, and most of what I
use it for. This would become my primary account except for one little
gotcha. If you have more than 10MB cross the gateway in a month, they start
charging you $1/100kb. Seeing that I receive almost 5mb as incomming mail a
month, it can get expensive very fast if a mailing list gets out of control
and sends you lots of stuff you don't want. They have some other services,
such as discussion groups (I wasn't impressed), electronic mall, etc... but I
have this account for Internet access only.
MCI Mail: You can read any mail sent to you for no additional charge.
Normal sending mail charges are .50 for the first 500 characters in a message,
.10 for each 1000 characters thereafter. They also have a $35 annual mailbox
fee. However, they have a preferred customer plan where you pay $10/month
and can send up to 40 messages for no additional charge (a message is 5000
characters or each 5000 character section of a message) and do not pay the
annual fee after the first year. I signed up for this plan since if I sent at
least 10 mail messages, I saved money. The internet gateway is quirky, but it
hasn't done anything really hideous to my mail yet. The do have some
"bulletin" boards, but I've never used them. If you are still a college
student, they have a student plan with no annual fee, 100 messages a
month, and a $5 monthly fee. (I had to reread this a couple of times; it
sounds like non- email messages, such as faxes, are charged regular rates
regardless of number of messages used).
Now, before you make a decison, you need to consider other costs: telephone
calls. CompuServe has several choices, depending on what is the closest to
you (and not necessarily a local call). If you dial one of their numbers, it
costs 30 cents /hr regardless of what you do on their service. If you use
Tymnet or Sprintnet, cost is $2/hr off peak, $6-9/hr peak. CompuServe has an
800 access available at $9/hr. (which is sometimes cheaper to direct dial).
Delphi lets you use their direct dial numbers free anytime, but they are only
in Kansas City, MO or Boston, MA. If you use Tymnet or Sprintnet, off peak
usage is free; peak is $9/hr. You can also Telnet from the Internet for free.
MCI has 800 access, period. You still can use Tymnet or such, at $2/hr, why
would you? (unless you travel outside the US). MCI has a separate 800
number for 9600bps access; Compuserve has some 9600bps numbers, mostly in
major cities. Tymnet / Sprintnet have 9600bps numbers, again mostly in
major cities. Many of these are still 1200bps though. Officially, Delphi
doesn't support 9600bps access, but if you use a 9600bps access
(sprintnet/bttymnet), you will get better throughput than 2400bps.
One last consideration: Software. All three services can be reached via modem
and a simple terminal emulator. There are several packages for Compuserve to
make access easier and cheaper. MCI sells its own Desktop Express package,
but I haven't tried it. I use a Norton Commander 3.0 MCI interface (with
modifications), although the Norton Desktop for DOS (not the one for Windows)
has an improved MCI interface (fortunately, it is too slow to run on my XT
clone). MCI has a separate number (max speed 2400bps) for these interfaces,
so I use my own procomm script and a program I wrote to download mail at
9600bps, put it into the Commander mail reader and use it to read/write mail.
To my knowlege, Delphi doesn't have any programs to speed it's access (but
then, why should they...)
There are other ways to access the network, such as a DryCas account (or
similar account at another site, or through PSI, but they are much more
expensive than what I have listed here.
These are what I consider to be the most important points in choosing a
service expressly for Internet access, and probably will take a while to
digest. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.
YiLFS,
Scott A. Begin Epsilon Beta Alumni, Central Michigan University
SBEGIN@mcimail.com
