[594] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
At What Price Will TCP/IP Connections Gain Wide Market Appeal?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian Lloyd)
Mon Apr 15 23:51:54 1991
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 20:47:24 PDT
From: Brian Lloyd <brian@napa.telebit.COM>
To: francis%zaphod@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
Cc: Will@cup.portal.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: francis%zaphod@gargoyle.uchicago.edu's message of Mon, 15 Apr 91 17:44:40 CDT <9104152244.AA13706@daisy.uchicago.edu>
Reply-To: brian@napa.telebit.COM
>hardware startup costs
There are a couple of answers to this one. I will address it from two
points of view. The basic slip approach assumes that you have SLIP
running on something and all you need is a modem. A good V.32 modem
will set you back $500-$1000 (street prices) so that is all you need
assuming that the service provider has everything on their end.
Now there is another approach: the Telebit NetBlazer. The NetBlazer
plugs into your Ethernet and does all the dial-up stuff for you. You
do not need to make any changes to your network to use it. It is much
simpler but it costs about $3700 including modem. In many cases this
is less expensive than the software approach because it eliminates the
days or even weeks of hacking that accompanies trying to get the
software approach to work. This is not intended to be an
advertisement so much as to point out that the time saved offsets the
cost of the hardware solution.
I am not sure that I can answer why someone would want inexpensive IP
service to their home so much as I just know that they do. I started
working years ago toward a NetBlazer-like product simply because I
wanted to have access to the network. I receive mail and news at home
via NetBlazer. I often work at home because I can have full access to
all of the resources that the network offers. I have operated a unix
system at home for as long as unix has been affordable. I guess that
it is like having a telephone or any other communications or access
tool: once you have it you are loathe to be without it.
Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN Telebit Corporation
Network Systems Architect 1315 Chesapeake Terrace
brian@napa.telebit.com Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1100
voice (408) 745-3103 FAX (408) 734-3333
