BMUG Revelations/BMUG Revelations.toast/Telecom/InterNet/Internet Lives

Text File | 1992-06-03 | 5.9 KB | 56 lines | [TEXT/SNTE]

(Editor's note: Quotes from Steve Case and Allan Weiss, and some of the details on the structure and size of the Internet took time and effort by Stephen Howard, Technical Editor, MacWEEK; also, a major contributing source for the story below was an article from MacWEEK entitled: "What's Happening to the Internet?" by Bruce Schneier, April 27, 1992, page 24)


The Internet Granted Stay, Will Live on as Everyman's Net:

What was once considered a closed network devoted solely to the needs of the military, industrial contractors, and academic advisors is now becoming a wide ranging e-mail and conferencing net. Universities, governmental subdivisions and firms like Lockheed remain plugged in, but more and more it's for Everyman. (Oh, yes, and every woman!)

How many people use AOL? Upwards of 250,000 in US and Canada. How many use Internet? Upwards of 25 million users in 33 nations. How so many? Internet is a network of networks. Thus the University of California network, for instance, bridges into the overall Internet system. These bridges extend 'round the globe making Internet the most far flung "net" of any. For instance Internet connects to GlasNet in the Commonwealth of Independent States, formerly the USSR.

Formerly the National Science Foundation administered Internet and access was free. Now the cost have risen out of sight and while it is still possible to get a free account if you are associated with a university, this may change.  Who manages Internet now?

IBM, MCI, and Merit jointly provide network management under the name Advanced Network and Services, Inc. or "ANS." Allan Weiss, President of ANS notes that the number of NETWORKS connecting to the Internet backbone tripled in 1991 and this in turn resulted in a quintupling of backbone traffic to 40 Gbytes a day.

The US Government has authorized funding for a gigabit-per-second network to replace the existing backbone. Regional networks connecting to this backbone will be made up of 1.5-Mbps or 45-Mbps digital trunk lines, with a large number of 19.2-Kbps dial-up links.  It's sort of like a state highway system freeway with entrances and exits leading to a hodge podge of roads some already in place and some newly made.

Some fear that this super highway plan cannot accommodate the flood tide of connecting on ramps. To make matters more complicated, the government wants to limit the use of the super highway for certain educational, governmental and research purposes.  Sculley and others have begged White House staff and Congress to loosen those restrictions and expand the super highway backbone even more.

Currently the major online services, AOL, ComuServe, GEnie, and AppleLink, to name but four, are linking users up to Internet for e-mail purposes. Steve Case, President of AOL was quoted: "We consider the Internet to be the default national standard, and we will embrace it to the fullest extend we can.  A gateway (for e-mail) is only the beginning."

Watch for Internet to become another network for pay, albeit a very large network, and one that increasingly operates with greater ease and at high speed. The TCP/IP backboned Unix environment is likely to give way to friendly user interfaces designed to accommodate. most brands of personal computers. Of course, it will cost you.

Jumping on the band wagon to make access to Internet available to Everyman are firms like Performance Systems International (PSI) of Reston, Virginia. Kimberly Brown of PSI was quoted in April '92 "We have over 1000 customers in 40 cities nationwide.  See also The World, run by Software Tool and Die Inc. of Brookline, Mass and Netcom Online Communications Services of San Jose, Calif.

For the most part you need to know the Unix or VMS command system. Mac people can obtain Eudora which author Steven Dorner of the University of Illinois at Urbana has placed in the public domain. It puts a Mac front end on Enternet e-mail system at least. (Check in the Macintosh Communications Forum Library for Eudora. Use keyword MCM and browse the libraries or use the File Search Command from the Go To menu.)

Internet provides four basic services:
     1. E-mail
     2. News Groups (public areas where messages posted according
         to topics for discussion)
     3. Download from on-line libraries
     4. Remote terminal access to other systems

Front ends or pretty faces for Mac users are presently limited to e-mail service.

Pretty faces for Internet may also be obtained with TCP/Connect II from InterCon Systems Corp. of Herndon, Va., and uAccess and uAccessLite from Griffin Software Systems Technologies Inc. of Florence, Mass. Internet mail gateways for e-mail are available from InterCon (above), Information Electronics of Hammondsport, N.Y., and StarNine Technologies, Inc. of Berkeley, Calif.

Hot resources for Internet:

  "The BMUG Guide to Bulletin Boards and Beyond" by Bernard Aboba, who introduces newers to hobbyist systems and Internet mail. Aboba teaches an introductory course to BMUG members and you will find BMUG manuals comprehensive yet easy to read. At $20 from BMUG, Inc., 1441A Walnut St., #62, Berklley, CA 94709 or phone [phone]; fax [phone]

"The New User's Guide to Useful and Unique Resources on the Internet" for $25 from NYSERNet, 111 College Place, Syracuse, N.Y. 13244 or phone [phone]; fax [phone]

"Tour of the Internet," a HyperCard stack from BBN Systems and Technology Corp., phone [phone]; fax [phone] This may also be downloaded from Internet available via anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on nnsc.nsf.net

"!%@:: A Dictionary of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks," 2nd Ed., at $27.95 from O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 103 Morris St., Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 or phone [phone] or 800 338-6887; fax [phone]

"The Matrix, Computer Networks, and Conferencing Systems Worldwide" by John Quaterman, at $49.95 (Order No. EY-C176E-DP) from Digital Press, PO Box CS 2008, Nashua, NH 03061 or phone [phone] or 800 344-4825; fax [phone].