

  INTERNET NEWS

  ACCESS TO THE INTERNET - PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL

  One of the big issues regarding Internet is access - who gets it and why.
  According to Performance Systems International (PSI), a Reston Virginia
  based networking firm, over 25,000 organizations use the Internet in 35
  countries. Internet sports an e-mail universe now of 25 million individuals
  with over two million users access the network each day. About 25% of this
  use is by commercial companies while 75% is by Research and Education
  entities. Internet traffic is reported growing at a 20% per month rate. As
  best we can calculate, this indicates it will encompass all life in the
  known Universe within another 40 months or so. Clearly, it's no longer
  really a select club, yet gaining access can be a problem for individuals
  and small companies.

  The Internet, with a federally funded National Science Foundation backbone,
  is ostensibly closed to commercial traffic. But as a practical matter,
  Internet is increasingly offering the kind of connectivity attractive to
  companies and individuals for a variety of purposes connected to "research"
  by only the most strained definition. The Transmission Control
  Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is virtually swamping all other LAN
  interconnection schemes by virtue of its historical origins in Internet and
  the increasing number of networks adopting TCP/IP to connect to Internet.
  Internet has reached a critical mass in scope and participation that no
  other network can approach. IBM now offers TCP/IP on virtually every
  platform. Novell recently announced TCP/IP for Novell Netware. Microsoft
  just announced TCP/IP for LAN manager. Work groups all over the world are
  rapidly seeking to connect their local LANs to this burgeoning network of
  networks. The "critical mass" needed for connectivity on a global scale has
  been reached.

  One company charging directly into the horns of these issues is Performance
  Systems International, Inc. of Reston Virginia. To address the issue of
  commercial use of the NSF backbone, they've joined with two other entities,
  UUNET and CERFNet to form the Commercial Internet Exchange or CIX. CIX
  offers an alternative backbone network for commercial connections - in
  theory addressing the issue of commercial use of a publicly funded backbone
  by bypassing it. Since it still connects to the remainder of Internet that
  does use the backbone, this theory is dubious at best. The thing keeping it
  afloat is that no one seems to have any better ideas on how to address the
  issue - leading to a dearth of objection.

  As to commercialization in general, PSI basically IS commercially marketing
  access to the Internet. And with the exception of some marginally grandiose,
  or at the least, dubiously optimistic pricing issues, they're doing a pretty
  good job of it. The company has set up local telephone ports in 25 U.S.
  cities and plan on 40 cities by early next year.  They market a variety of
  access level services from an ala carte menu. They are virtually the only
  entity we have found making a serious effort at providing Internet access to
  individuals on a national scale.

  The most recent offering is one of the most basic, and at the same time
  interesting. In October, the company announced PSILink. This is basically
  Internet access at it's most rudimentary - personal e-mail - at a price of
  $19 per month - a bit proud frankly for what it is, but still affordable for
  those who need Internet e-mail access and can't get it elsewhere.

  PSILink works quite well. The only drawback we could find was that the
  company assigns a logon name and password and there is no easy way to change
  either of them. Most people on Internet try to create a domain address that
  is marginally mnemonic - jrickard@boardwatch.com for example. With PSILink,
  you'll likely have something like Pl0102@mail.psi.net - not so easy to
  remember and you can't change it.

  The most interesting thing about PSILink is the software you must use to
  access it. Most Internet e-mail services operate from the Unix command line.
  The Unix programs used to create, read, and write mail are not intuitive to
  use and it takes some study for most people to learn the esoterica of
  Internet mail. PSI has released a $35 shareware program titled PSILink that
  automates the access to Internet e-mail. Rather than dialing into a host and
  using Unix mail programs to create, read, or reply to messages, you deal
  with mail on your own desktop machine using a windowed, mouse-driven
  interface that we have to admit is pretty capable. You can read messages,
  write messages, create a directory of e-mail addresses, and save messages to
  named "folders" for later review. Once you have "done your mail", you simply
  click on CONNECT and the system dials the PSI host, swaps mail, and
  disconnects. A complete list of all 25 hosts with telephone numbers is
  included and you can dial into ANY of them to do mail. As a result, you can
  often log into a PSI host locally - even while traveling.

  The program is shareware - but barely. Without the PSILink service, it
  doesn't do anything, and registration is required before you can use
  PSILink, but you can download it and get an idea of how it works. It is
  available for ftp on Internet at ftp.psi.COM in the psilink directory. We
  will also have it available for download on the Boardwatch BBS at (303)973-
  4222 for our online subscribers.

  The program is designed to install from floppy and oddly, we found you
  couldn't. After entering some basic information, we were supplied with the
  startling error message that we had a sharing violation on drive A: Since we
  weren't sharing anything to our knowledge, we must assume this was simply a
  humorous tip of the hat to the usual Unix strategy of emitting dozens of
  nonsensical error messages that almost never have any relationship to the
  real problem - if there is one. We simply copied all the files to our hard
  drive and ran INSTALL.EXE there without any further mishap.

  Interestingly, PSILink is already drawing support from other vendors. One of
  the problems with Internet access is that there has been very few commercial
  offerings of the service large enough to warrant support from anyone else.
  Anterior Technology of Menlo Park California is intent on providing two-way
  radio links for e-mail using PSILink as the first service. Basically, they
  will forward all your PSILink e-mail to your laptop via Motorola's ARDIS
  radio service. They will also receive your radio transmissions and gateway
  that back into PSILink. The service is titled RadioMail and should be ready
  in the first quarter of next year. By November 1 they will offer a one-way
  version that works with paging services. Internet inquiries to
  info@radiomail.net. Anterior Technology, PO Box 1206, Menlo Park CA 94026;
  (415)328-5615.

  Poqet Computers plays an initial role in this as well. They've received some
  attention over the last year with their tiny palm top PC. Roughly the size
  of a videocassette, the Poqet is one of the most portable PCs in existence
  and you can actually touch type on it - barely. Recent rumors indicate the
  company is releasing a new model with a built in cellular modem and
  packaging it with a Motorola ARDIS radio interface unit allowing two-way
  radio data communications in a very portable package.

  Future enhancements for PSILink include Usenet News Groups and ftp access.
  Usenet News Groups is a set of shared topical message conferences - as many
  as 2000 of them, on different topics. This is the Internet equivalent of
  "bulletin boards" with users from around the globe posting public messages
  on various topics. The ftp (file transfer protocol) access will allow you to
  download files from directories on various archive machines scattered over
  the Internet. According to Julie Sprinkel of PSI, the addition of these two
  functions will incur additional costs, but pricing had not been set yet.

  The company provides numerous other Internet access options from PSILink
  ($19 monthly) up through their turn-key Standard Connection Service (SCS)
  offering direct integration of your LAN into the Internet at 3.0 Mbps
  ($85,000 annually PLUS dedicated line costs). One level of access of
  considerable interest to BBS operators is their UUPSI service. This provides
  dial up access to systems using the normal Unix-to-Unix Copy Program (UUCP)
  mail session via high-speed 9600 bps connections. Simple UUCP e-mail is
  priced at a flat $25 monthly while e-mail and Usenet News Groups together go
  for $75 per month. There is an initial $75 setup fee, but PSI registers your
  system for its own unique domain name in the Internet. Your system can then
  be EXEC-PC.COM or whatever and your callers would be JOE.BLOW@EXEC-PC.COM
  for example.

  For many, connection to Internet means the ability to actually logon to
  databases, university libraries, and many bulletin board type systems
  interactively. This is normally done using the programs telnet or for Unix
  systems - rlogin. PSI has two services to provide such access: PSI Global
  Dialup Service (GDS) and PSI After Dark Service (ADS).

  The PSI GDS service is limited to 300-2400 bps connections but is available
  24 hours daily. With any PC, modem, and terminal program, you dial a PSI
  host, logon giving your account information, and connect to anything on
  Internet allowing such connections by entering CONNECT {hostname}. PSI GDS
  requires a $39 setup fee and $39 monthly.

  PSI ADS service, by contrast, allows 9600 bps V.32 connections but is
  limited to the hours between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM Eastern Standard time and
  24-hours on weekends. It's priced at $35 per month with a $35 setup charge.

  Numerous regional entities are currently providing Internet access and many
  are doing so at much lower cost than PSI. Most however, have geographic
  restrictions on who they serve and many are tied to state or university
  agencies. Here in Colorado, Colorado SuperNet offers virtually unlimited
  access to Internet at $2 per hour - allowing e-mail, UUCP connections, ftp,
  telnet, and your own file space - but only to Colorado residents. Many
  universities across the nation provide Internet access by request at no
  charge. For basic Internet e-mail service, Heartland FreeNet in Peoria
  Illinois provides an Internet e-mail box at no cost at all other than the
  call to their service (309)674-1100.

  PSI is notable primarily because it IS commercial, available to anyone, and
  has terminal hosts in 25 cities nationwide. It's also notable that they are
  packaging access with software in PSILink to make access to Internet
  available to those who don't wish to take a course in UNIXology to be able
  to send a simple e-mail message. They are among the first of what we see as
  a coming wave of groups aggressively marketing Internet access to the
  masses.

  Performance Systems International, Inc., 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Ste.
  1100, Reston, VA 22091; 800-827-7482 voice; (703)620-4586 fax; e-mail:
  info@psi.com.

  PSILink Local Access Numbers

  213.623.3677     CA Los Angeles
  415.967.6561     CA Mt. View
  415.777.0252     CA San Francisco
  408.986.1151     CA Santa Clara
  203.278.8110     CT Hartford
  202.408.5297     DC Washington
  404.659.6634     GA Atlanta
  312.408.0675     IL Chicago
  617.262.0688     MA Boston
  201.645.1644     NJ Newark
  609.890.6640     NJ Trenton
  518.283.5090     NY Albany
  716.883.6743     NY Buffalo
  516.588.1170     NY Islip
  607.277.8094     NY Ithaca
  212.608.7800     NY New York
  716.262.5670     NY Rochester
  315.478.3191     NY Syracuse
  315.797.1403     NY Utica
  914.686.0075     NY White Plains
  503.228.5660     OR Portland
  215.563.1069     PA Philadelphia
  214.744.2416     TX Dallas
  713.652.9624     TX Houston
  703.620.8971     VA Reston


  LIST OF FTP SITES AVAILABLE.

  Probably the most popular use of electronic bulletin boards is downloading
  shareware or public domain software programs. The Internet too has a
  corresponding function - also quite popular - known as ftp. The File
  Transfer Program (ftp) is used to download a program from an archive host to
  your machine.

  To use the program, simply enter ftp {host name}. The ftp program will
  connect to the service and you will be asked for your user name and password
  on that host system. Typically, a number of systems on the Internet allow
  what is termed ANONYMOUS FTP. This is a method where anyone can logon to a
  system where they don't have an account, by using the generic account
  ANONYMOUS. In response to the user prompt, simply enter the word ANONYMOUS.
  It will then ask you for a password and it is customary to enter your user
  ID from the system you are on as your password.

  Once logged on, you can change and list directories using the CD and DIR
  commands. Once you find a file you want to download, enter the command GET
  {file name}. The transfer usually takes just a few seconds and the file is
  copied from the archive host to your local Internet host directory. You can
  then download it to your PC using ZMODEM or KERMIT protocols.

  There are literally thousands of systems on the Internet and a modest
  fraction of them allow anonymous ftp. This still winds up being several
  hundred popular library systems. Generally, it is considered good form to
  only use anonymous ftp during non-prime hours.

  Jon Granrose actually maintains a list of ftp sites where you can download
  files. The list itself is available at pilot.njin.net (128.6.7.38) in the
  directory /pub/ftp-list. The file name is ftp.list and it contains hundreds
  of systems where you can download files. To get the list then using the ftp
  program:

  ftp pilot.njin.net
  logon name: anonymous
  password: jrickard
  cd /pub/ftp-list
  get ftp.list

  The list is then copied to your home directory on your Internet host.
  Subsequently, you can use the ZMODEM file transfer protocol to download the
  file to your desktop by entering sz ftp-list.


  DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION

  One of the factors causing Internet to be an overnight success story -
  twenty years after it started - was adoption of the domain name system of
  electronic mail addressing. Previously, to send e-mail, you were required to
  describe the path the e-mail must take to actually travel to a particular
  network and individual - including all intermediary systems in the path.

  With the advent of domain name registration and smart mailers, this was
  reduced to simply specifying a user name and destination host (domain) name
  in most cases such as jrickard@boardwatch.com where jrickard is the user
  name and boardwatch.com is the domain name.

  The question comes up, where do domain names come from? Actually, there is a
  registration process where you apply for a domain name and on approval, your
  domain name is added to the map files used by the smart mailers to route
  mail to your destination. This registration process is handled by the
  Network Information Center (NIC).

  Until October 1 of this year, this domain registration was handled by a
  company titled SRI International of Menlo Park California who acted as the
  NIC for Internet. They maintained a host on the network that not only
  handled domain registration issues, but provided a full array of help files,
  information files, and RFC (Request For Comment - the closest thing to
  documentation of the Internet that exists).

  As of October 1, 1991, the NIC was moved to Chantilly Virginia and is now
  administered by:

  Government Systems, Inc.
  Attn: Network Information Center
  14200 Park Meadow Drive, Suite 200
  Chantilly, VA 22021

  Help Desk Telephone Numbers:
  800-365-3642
  703-802-4535
  Fax Number:703-802-8376
  Network Address: 192.112.36.5 (NIC.DDN.MIL)
  Root Domain Server: 192.112.36.4 (NS.NIC.DDN.MIL)


  FSUUCP - UNIX MAIL FOR DOS SYSTEMS

  Most of the discussion of the future of online services seems to revolve
  around bigger systems, more services, and more callers - what does the
  system offer as an attractant to get callers ON to it. But the real future
  of online services - and particularly electronic mail - revolve around how
  to get them back OFF again. The ultimate paradigm is true desktop-to-desktop
  communications - where I draft a message on MY machine and it shows up on
  YOURS or versa vice with as much transparency of process through the
  intermediary networks and online services as is possible.

  There has been some progress - most of it NOT from the online services
  themselves. Users of large commercial services such as CompuServe and GEnie
  have developed shareware programs such as TAPCIS and ALLADIN to allow them
  to deal with mail OFFLINE - minimizing their connect charges. In the BBS
  world, we're seeing an enormous surge in popularity in offline mail readers
  such as QMail Deluxe, EZ-Reader, XRS, and Silly Little Mail Reader -
  programs generally developed to minimize long distance toll charges.
  Basically, you pull the trigger and they go get your mail - both personal e-
  mail and any new messages from conference areas that you may be monitoring.
  You can then read and respond offline.

  For systems that charge flat-rate pricing - increasingly the model for
  online economics - these offline mail readers are also a boon. They
  dramatically reduce the load on the system.

  Internet has grown to the point where it offers a reach and scope for e-mail
  no other entity can match. The Soviet Union, Japan, Asia, and the Middle
  East as well as the majority of commercial e-mail services are just a few
  minutes, or at most an hour or so, away. This will most probably have a
  snowball effect. The more people connected to Internet, the more attractive
  the connection becomes to anyone who isn't.

  Most of the host systems on Internet that offer public access use the UNIX
  operating system. UNIX comes with a suite of programs to deal with
  electronic mail and specifically to port mail in an automated fashion to
  other UNIX systems. The Unix-to-Unix Copy Program (UUCP) is actually a suite
  of communications programs used to pass mail between UNIX systems - often by
  modem. So, if you happen to run the UNIX operating system, it is quite
  possible to use UUCP to connect to another UNIX system that is connected to
  the Internet.

  The problem with this is, of course, that most of us do NOT use  UNIX. UNIX
  has been the operating system of the future for over two decades and God
  willing and the creek don't rise it will remain the operating system of the
  future for at least another decade or two - with an option for extension.
  Most of us use personal computers based on IBM's PC-DOS or Microsoft's MS-
  DOS - nearly enough the same for the purposes of this discussion.

  But UUCP remains the most effective commonly available dialup port to UNIX
  hosts on the Internet. There are some better methods involving the Serial
  Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) that
  we'll be dealing with in future issues of Boardwatch, but they are not yet
  commonly offered at this time. So the obvious "way in" to deal with Internet
  e-mail from an offline platform is through the UUCP port.

  Chris Ambler, a student at CalPoly University, has done something that would
  have previously been considered bizarre - he's duplicated the esoteric UNIX
  UUCP and mail programs on a DOS machine. He calls the resulting product
  FSUUCP and is marketing it as shareware at a $35 registration price. It
  allows you to setup UNIX communications on a laptop computer and "fetch"
  your mail at your convenience to read and respond to offline - the Internet
  version of QMail Deluxe or EZ-READER. And if anything, he's done too good a
  job of it. It uses precisely the same suite of little programs, blindingly
  complicated directory structures, and the programs even issue many of the
  same grossly misinformative error messages if you have a problem. Perhaps
  it's our own unfamiliarity with UNIX, but every UNIX error message we've
  ever seen was always the result of a problem that had no possible connection
  to anything you would think the error message was referring to. When you get
  an error message from a UNIX system, you only know one thing - you have a
  problem - maybe.

  In any event, FSUUCP not only allows you to gate your personal e-mail from
  your laptop or desktop system to your Unix host, but it also allows you to
  download Usenet News Groups. Usenet News Groups are like BBS message areas,
  FidoNet echomail conferences, etc. And just like QMail Deluxe, EZ-Reader,
  and SLMR, FSUUCP allows you to participate in precisely the message areas
  you select. The difference is that News Groups are global, have a much wider
  readership, and there are more of them.

  FSUUCP consists of a series of programs that handle mail, including:

  ACTMAKE
  BATCHER
  EXPIRE
  FIXACTIV
  MAIL
  POSTNEWS
  READNEWS
  RMAIL
  RNEWS
  UUCICO
  UULOG
  UUQ
  UUSNAP
  UUXQT

  The most notable of these are MAIL, which allows you to read and write e-
  mail messages, UUCICO (Unix-Unix Copy In Copy Out) which actually handles
  the mail swapping session with the host, and READNEWS and POSTNEWS, which
  allow you to read and write to the Usenet News Groups.

  Installation of FSUUCP is not trivial. This is actually a flaw shared by
  almost all offline mail programs we've looked at. The installation of most
  offline mail programs for commercial services or electronic bulletin boards
  is just too techie and this is about the ONLY reason everybody isn't using
  these programs. But FSUUCP installation is truly miserable - partly because
  of the complex directory structure exacerbated by the blindly idiotic error
  messages that give no hint as to why you're really having a problem. It's
  also partly due to abysmal documentation - another UNIX tradition.

  We can say this is improving. In the most recent release we looked at,
  Version 1.2 Release 3, an INSTALL.EXE does attempt to set up your
  directories for you. And we are assured that release 4 will be even better.
  One of the problems Ambler faces is that he lives in a UNIX world and most
  of his friends and beta testers are likewise comfortable with UNIX. It makes
  sense to them. It won't to anyone else.

  The first step in installation is actually to contact your Host system
  administrator to get a UUCP account set up. You will need some basic items
  of information from them.

  Your SYSTEM NAME
  Your UUCP LOGON
  Your PASSWORD
  System Telephone Number
  The HOST system name.
  A sample logon script.

  In our case, we applied for a domain name of BOARDWATCH.COM. This involved
  filling out a simple form and paying a registration fee of $20 to register
  the name with the Network Information Center. This becomes our system name.
  Our logon name is the first eight characters of our system name - boardwat.
  Our password is confidential. Our host is Colorado SuperNet - known as CSN.

  After you have this information and your Host system administrator has setup
  your UUCP account, install FSUUCP using the provided install program. When
  it's completed, you'll have to alter two basic files - FSUUCP.CFG and
  SYSTEM.

  FSUUCP.CFG contains your system name, logon name, host name, your user name
  (i.e. JRICKARD), along with the usual modem initialization strings. The
  SYSTEM file, which is buried a convenient half dozen directory levels down,
  actually contains the logon script for your host system. These are like no
  scripts you've ever seen before. All script functions are basically stored
  on a single line and look something like:
  rjgumby Any Hayes 2400 ATDT5413958 "" ogin: fsuucp ssword: lumberjack

  This is the script for the rjgumby system. It dials the telephone, swaps
  some carriage returns, at the Unix login: prompt it replies with fsuucp and
  at the password: prompt replies with lumberjack. This is the initial logon
  process the UUCICO program uses to dial and logon to your host system. All
  processes required thereafter to swap mail are performed by UUCICO quite
  automagically. Your host system administrator can usually provide a sample
  logon script string to use.

  Some of this installation agony is probably necessary given that you are
  installing software meant to interact with someone else's software. But we'd
  like to see FSUUCP get a little more aggressive in allowing you to enter
  some of this information in response to simple questions where possible.

  In use, Unix aficionados are going to love this program. The individual
  programs work much as they would on a Unix system. The result for DOS users
  is a program that may appear a little daunting to use as well. Ambler is
  very much a fan of a Nutshell book titled Managing UUCP and the Usenet,
  available from O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103 Morris Street, Sebastapol, CA
  95472; 800-338-6887 voice. We would like to see a better effort at
  documentation within FSUUCP itself.

  MAIL works much like MAIL on any UNIX system.  MAIL JRICKARD@BOARDWATCH.COM
  would create a message for me on the Boardwatch domain. A full-screen editor
  is called to actually create the message and the editor in FSUUCP is quite
  adequate. You can specify another editor if you would prefer.

  Product support will likely be a big issue with FSUUCP. Ambler actually has
  a mailing list devoted to FSUUCP. You can join the list by sending a request
  to fsuucp-request@zeus.calpoly.edu. Mail to fsuucp@zeus.calpoly.edu goes to
  the entire list.

  FSUUCP occupies a little over 1.1 MB on your hard drive. In fairness, most
  of our criticisms of FSUUCP come directly from its UNIX heritage, and that
  is actually the point of the program. The philosophy was to duplicate the
  UNIX utilities on a DOS platform and Ambler has done a pretty sound job. We
  were actually VERY excited when we first learned of this program and it is
  very much still in development. Rather than logon to CSN and camp there to
  read and reply to e-mail, we now enter a single command at the DOS command
  line and our computer calls their computer and does an electronic e-mail
  lunch. We can then read and respond to our e-mail at our leisure and pull
  the trigger again later to send out the replies. It's actually made life
  around here much easier with the computer doing a bit more work and the
  little fat editor doing a bit less. It also reduces the load on CSN.

  FSUUCP is currently available in the file FSUU12R3.ZIP. It's available for
  ftp from polyslo.calpoly.edu in the /pub directory. Alternatively,
  Boardwatch BBS subscribers can download it from our system at (303)973-4222.
  The program carries a $35 registration fee. Ambler is also working on a BBS
  software program incorporating Internet access with a December 1991 release
  date. A commercial version of FSUUCP with a slicker interface will be
  released in early 1992 under the name UUPlus. Christopher J. Ambler, Fubar
  Systems, 1742 Lima Drive, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405; (805)543-8491  voice;
  Internet: chris@zeus.calpoly.edu.


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