Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    For those in Boston, there is a public access Unix system on which you
    can buy time.  This can be used by anyone with a modem and a terminal
    or computer.
    
    Software Tool and Die is the name of the company, and the internet
    address is world.std.com.  I'm not sure how to get an account, but I
    know it is fairly reasonable rates - try writing to
    [email protected] or [email protected] and that might do it.
    
    Being on an internet-connected unix machine means that you can:
    
    - send and recieve e-mail to all your friends at DEC (yay!)
    - read usenet news, which is kinda-sorta like NOTES, except bigger and
      without rules (anarchy!).  There are numerous newsgroups which might
      be of interest to =wn=ers, including soc.women and soc.feminisism,
      not to mention hundreds or thousands of special interest news groups.
    - be on mailing lists 
    
    I believe there is something similar out in the Bay Area in California
    called the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), but don't know how to
    get on it.
    
    D!

    And if you already have a non-DEC account somewhere, and you want to
    send mail to your DEC friends, it is quite easy.
    
    If someone's address is SYSTEM::NAME, their internet address would be
    [email protected].  If their node is "hidden", their address
    would be of the form SYSTEM1::SYSTEM2::NAME, their address would be
    name%[email protected].
    
    Didja follow that?
    
    (Correspondingly, to send mail *from* DEC to the Internet, the address
    is DECWRL::"internet-mailing-address-goes-here".)
    
    For those note in Boston or San Francisco, some universities allow
    non-students to have/buy accounts on their systems...if you find
    yourself suddenly without net access, contact your local universities
    computer department and ask them.
    
    Oh, you can also send mail to and from such commercial systems as
    *Compuserve* and (I believe) Prodigy.  Not sure of the details on how
    to do that, though.
    
    D!

    There's information about this in DECWRL::"gateway.doc" (if you
    copy it to a VMS system, you'll need to do it like

	$ copy decwrl::"gateway.doc" gateway.doc

    since DECWRL is one o' them U**x systems with blind faith in case.
    It covers sending mail *to* Compuserve. I seem to recall that
    mailing *from* Compuserve requires an address like

	>INTERNET:"[email protected]"

    but I'm not sure about the quotes.

>      not to mention hundreds or thousands of special interest news groups.

 ;^)

    G'Day,
    
    	There are also thousands of public Bulletin Board Systems that you
    can generally access for free or a one time registration fee.  Only
    some of these have direct Internet links but most can use a hub system
    to route to the Internet.  The main advantage of these systems is that
    there are so many of them and you can generally find one close to home
    to keep the 'phone bill down.  Some take news feed as well but
    generally they would only be useful for mail and there own style of
    notes call 'echo-conferences'.
    
    David.
    

    Oh God, yes, how could I have forgotten local BBS's?  They saved my
    life, literally, hundreds of times.  Got me through my childhood...
    
    Boston is graced with *hundreds* of the damn things - every body and
    her brother runs one!
    
    D!

    
    Is there a central register of the largest/most "official" of these
    resources? A sort of source-book?
    
    Also, any recommended books for non-techno-weenies on how to get
    up and running?

    Hey, people; what about Britain?
    
    Alice T.

    
    With a majority USA readership, Alice, I wasn't particularly
    expecting UK info - but if anyone has any it would, of course,
    be most welcome!
    
    I hope some of the info will be usful whichever country we're in.
    
    'gail

    I doubt there is some compendium of this stuff.  The nature of computer
    networks, etc, is anarchic; and the nature of the types who surf the
    net is sort of cliquish - if you don't know, then you don't have a need
    to know.  Most computer net types I know don't see any need to help the
    world at large get on the net (although they will go to great lengths
    to get their friends on the net.)
    
    Besides, such a collection would constitute a net manual, and *real*
    computer weenies NEVER READ THE MANUAL!!  
    
    :-)
    
    D!

    
  > Most computer net types I know don't see any need to help the
  >  world at large get on the net (although they will go to great lengths
  >  to get their friends on the net.)
   
    So I'd heard - that's why I hoped that =wn=, being a sorta "friend-net",
    would be a good place to ask....                                       
             

    Wow!  This is a great note!!  Thanks to the basenoter for starting it!
    
    -Janice
    

    Great Note,  This was a question I've been trying to solve also. 
   	
   I know there is a Compuserve link but I've never tried it, maybe I
   should...

   Allison

Well, I tested out the CompuServe link last night, and it works!  Ha!

Of course, I cheated!  I sent mail from my VAX acocunt to my compuserve 
account as described previously (DECWRL::"[email protected]")
and then just replied from CompuServe! Saved me having to figure out all 
that evil ">INTERNET:[email protected]"  stuff!!!

					Nigel
					[71530,3300]

    
    Some things that I've observed:
    
    - Prodigy is VERY expensive, and eats a great deal of your PC's disk
      space for it's temp files.  It doesn't have nearly the range or
      depth of info access that CompuServ buys you.
    
    - CompuServ gets you lots of neat stuff, but is also pricey.  CompuServ
      bills for all connect time.  They want a credit card or an EFT
      authorization upfront.  It is VERY easy to run up a HUUUGE bill
      before you even know what is happening, and very easy to get a BIG
      suprise at the end of the month.  Connect time adds up QUICKLY.  I
      have known folks who have literally experienced financial ruin via
      excessive CompuServ use.  Good stuff here, but be careful.
    
    - The best deal for my money is MCI mail.  Base cost for an account is
      on the order of $35/year.  Connect is via an 800 number, so reading
      incoming messages is a freebie.  You could literally have every
      newsgroup on the usenet puring into your incoming mail and pay
      nothing for it.  No credit card or EFT authorization is required
      upfront.  You are billed monthly (just like a phone bill) only for
      the messages you send.  Message charges are based on size of message,
      with a brief one costing about 45 cents.  If you send out frequent 
      messages or large messages, you can sign up for discount programs,
      much like an electronic-mail version of ATT's Reach-Out-America 
      program.  It's pretty straightforward to send/receive mail from the
      usenet, other MCI accounts, CompuServ accounts, etc.  Call MCI for more
      detail.  (Sorry, I don't remember the number offhand.) 
    
    - Another thing I'm still looking into: some phone companies offer
      discount data services, very cost effective if you're going to be
      dialing bbs's outside of your local calling area.  Essentially, for
      datalink use only, during very late night/early morning hours, you're
      charged on the order of 2 or 3 cents per minute, as opposed to the
      usual 45 cents or so...
    
    I'll add more info as I get it, I'm still researching...
    
    
    
    						/Rita
    
    

   Thankyou Nigel,

   I'll have to give it a try.

   Allison
   [72017,2662]

    
    I think the WORLD (world.std.com) charges $5 per month and $3 per
    connect hour, but I'm not sure.  If you have any local telnet access,
    the free software foundation has given out many free accounts, but they
    are by no means secure, and obnoxious people sometimes come in and
    trash the disks.  They're cool for just mail, from what I've heard.
    
    -Jody
    

    Do you need to have other MCI service, i.e. MCI long distance, to use
    MCI mail?
    
    NT

    
    >Do you need to have other MCI service, i.e. MCI long distance, to use
    >MCI mail?
    
    My understanding is that you do not need to have any other MCI service
    in order to subscribe to MCI mail.  (Just a WAG, but there may be
    benefits to having both, for example, you'd probably get a single bill
    for mail and long distance phone...)
    
    I'll see if I can dig up the MCI 800 number and get some real
    answers...
    
    						/Rita
    
    

    G'Day,
    
    	To answer the second part of the question (ie how do you do it
    assuming you know who to connect to):-
    
    	You will require either a PC or a terminal and a modem.  Using a
    terminal is the cheapest method but a PC is more practical as it will
    allow you to save a messages etc (some dial-up systems don't allow you
    any storage space).  So once you've decided whether to use a PC or a
    terminal you connect it to your modem which is also connected to the
    phone line and away you go.  If you are running on a PC you will need
    some sort of communications program.  There are MANY of these
    available, some for free while other cost hundreds of dollars.  If
    using a terminal you just have to send a command to the modem to dial
    the required number and that's about it.  Most modems these days are
    'Hayes Compatible' which means that they use the same command set. 
    Even the most 'technically challenged' person should be able to work it
    out from reading the manual (sorry D!) or by just asking around friends
    work etc.  There are so many people into computer comms these days that
    it would not be too hard to find somebody who would be able to help. 
    Before you know it you'll be one of the experts too.
    
    	As for books on how it all works, just go to a library and have a
    look.  There are a few basic books on computer comms and BBS's etc. 
    There are even books that try to explain the Internet (Digital Press
    has one that is very good) but they are out of date before you even get
    to read it and are generally never complete due to the ad-hoc ways that
    systems get connected to the net.
    
    	I (and others in this file) know a lot (probably too much - ask my
    wife) about this and I would be happy to write a 'How To' guide if
    interest is high enough.
    
    David.
    

    
    I don't think this has been asked... although I could swear that some of
    the notes in this this strng are speaking Sanskrit  (or maybe bettter
    alpha-centuarian!) 
    
    I have a VT.  I want to speak to a VT on a non-Digital-owned system. 
    The organization is a college.
    
    I want to send A1 files to a VMS mail account on this foreign system.
    I know I can do this within Digital, but outside.
    
    Jamd

    G'Day,
    
    	As long as the college is on the Internet (most, if not all are)
    then it's really quite simple.  You will need to find out the internet
    address of the person that you want to send to and then it's a simple
    matter of sending the mail via one of DEC's Easynet/Internet gateways
    (DECWRL:: is preferred).  The destination address will therefore be:-
    DECWRL::"[email protected]"   Note that the quotation marks are
    required and that the .domain part may have many parts.  Should the
    other person want to reply to you your Internet address is
    [email protected]
    
    	Hope that helps,
    
    David.
    

    OK, I need some more help here.
    
    I want to send something  to my sister at HP.  No, it isn't work
    related, just lots of postage and copying costs that I'm trying to
    avoid. :-)  Both of us are non-technical types.  What does she need to
    find out from her tech folks so that I can send it to her?
    
    So far, I know that I will put in the TO:  portion of the mail address
    DECWRL::"sis's name HP5800/01".  The stuff in quotes is what people not
    at her site have to use to get mail to her internal to HP.
    
    Many thanks.
    
    Alison

    DECWRL::"sis's name HP5800/01" won't work.  What she needs to do is
    find out her username (that's what she types at the login prompt) and
    the machine internet name.  I don't know what sort of machine she's on,
    so I don't know how to know what her *full* machine name is (that is,
    node name plus the ".domain" stuff.)
    
    If nothing else, just try decwrl::"sis's-login-name@node_name.hp.com".
    I've seen people post to the net from [email protected].
    
    D!
    

    
    see also:
    
    GATEWAYS  (press KP7 to add the conference to your notebook)
    91 - hewlett packard (HP)
    
    -Jody
    

    While you're waiting for a response from your sister, might at well
    give this a shot:
    
    decwrl::"[email protected]"
    
    D!

    Thanks for the help, guys.  
    
    Alison