From toaster-owner@m2xenix.psg.com Fri Mar 26 00:54:47 1993 Received: from m2xenix.psg.com by fido.wps.com (5.67/1.34) id AA03308; Fri, 26 Mar 93 00:54:40 -0800 Received: by m2xenix.psg.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.25.1 #25.4) id ; Thu, 25 Mar 93 23:12 PST Return-Path: Received: by m2xenix.psg.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.25.1 #25.4) id ; Thu, 25 Mar 93 23:12 PST Received: by garnet.msen.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.25.1 #25.5) id ; Fri, 26 Mar 93 02:12 WET Message-Id: To: toaster@psg.com Subject: toast.nl Date: Fri, 26 Mar 93 02:12:17 EST From: Edward Vielmetti Status: OR do we have a hacktic rep in our midst? this sounds like another useful model tho they are apparently not as yet at the IP stage. --Ed ------- Forwarded Message From: Frans Hoffman Subject: Re: $60 p.a. for Inet nodes...? To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET > can you tell me more about how you are able to provide this service? > is it over voice grade lines, how fast, what equipment, software, > etc etc.? Hacktic is a UUCP domain, registered through the Dutch Unix Users Group (NLUUG). Its Internet neighbour is sun4nl. Connections are made by dialling into SUN4NL several times a day. The Hacktic computer runs under the Unix operating system. Normal phone lines are used in the process. Speed depends on the modem you use (most people use 14.400 Bd. modems - usually Zyxel; there are exceptions, like me, who still use 2400 Bd.) Within the Hacktic domain there are dozens of subdomains. Per town, village etc. there is a main node which will serve its local neighbours. Each of these neighbours can be a host for several other nodes. This way we're creating a web of quite a lot of nodes each supporting a small number (say 8 or 10) of users/nodes. The end result is that for a local phonecall (and the Dfl. 120 / US$ 60 per year) you have unlimited Internet e-mail access (no extra charges), be it with a delay of appr. 4 hours, because some of the intermediate hosts only dial into their hosts at certain times. I've done that. 'Owlsoft.Hacktic.Nl' is my personal domain/node. All nodes 'rent out' mailboxes to individual users at not more than Dfl. 1 / US$ 0.50 per month. Again no extra charges. (I provide mailboxes for free to my friends and pay Hacktic the Dfl. 1 a month myself.) Hacktic is an all volunteer foundation. The main activists are systems operators in real life, so we have a lot of expertise. At the moment we're working on ftp and telnet options, which we hope to have in place before the summer. The experimental set up works fine, I am told. We've installed extra phone lines and a new switchboard for the Hacktic computer... Most of our nodes run a program called Waffle, which is available for both Unix and MS-Dos. Waffle is a BBS-type system (my host actually is also a Fidonet node) that can use the UUCP protocols to transfer packets. On a PC there are no special demands as far as the processor is concerned (in other words it will run on a good old 8088). I started by running Wafle on an old Compaq, then ran it under Soft PC on my Mac LC. Now I use a number of Mac shareware programs (UUPC, Fernmail, rnMac, Toadnems) that do the same as Waffle. For PCs and Macs there are alternative programs. I haven't worked with them, so can't tell you how good they are. Some of these however use TCP/IP. This suggests that they could be used to hook up to the Net directly, but - again - I haven't tried (yet)... The drawback of this system is dependence on other people's hard and software. If somewhere in the chain someone has a problem, everyone has that problem. At the moment, this means that on average once a week mail doesn't come through for appr. 24 hrs, afther which you'll get a double helping... I'm now looking into a dial-in service into an Internet host. That will come close to the $60 a month mentioned in other messages (Dfl. 200, 25 Mb mail per month maximum). - --- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frans Hoffman - fhoffman@owlsoft.hacktic.nl changing the world, one piece of lifeware at the time - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- End of Forwarded Message