Long distance may still be preferred for some applications. One example: A local Internet provider has a very lousy connection to the rest of the Norwegian network. Anything but reading Web pages on their server goes far too slowly for my taste. In contrast, I normally receive the Web pages two to three times faster by calling long distance to an Internet provider in Oslo. Therefore, this is my favorite choice when working under time-pressure.
Where long-distance communication is unreliable, the ability to link a local call with an international online network may also be liberating.
Others investigate alternative routings for their data. One option is the packet data networks. Most countries have Public Data Networks (PDNs) operated by local telecommunications authorities. These services are usually cheaper than direct calls for some applications, but often more expensive than using the other options mentioned in this chapter.
Another option is to use networks having special deals with your online service. For example, CompuServe has deals with networks like WORLD- Connect, SprintNet, and VNZ-Connect, to name a few.
"CompuServe!" you protest. "I just want Internet." The interesting thing is that CompuServe lets you connect to the Internet. You can even use your Netscape and Eudora mail program through them. In some countries, it may even be cheaper to use CompuServe as your Internet provider.
For retrieving Web pages from the United States, CompuServe's home country, this service excels. So far, no local Norwegian Internet providers have been able to provide me with http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/presno/bok/ at the same blitzing speed. The situation may be the same in your country.
There are also other global networks worthy of investigation. Include The IBM Global Network, The Microsoft Network (MSN), and America Online on your list. (See Appendix 1 for links.)
In Scandinavia, the local PDNs are called Datapak. In China, it is called CNPAC (or CHINAPAC). PDNs can be accessed by direct local calls or through leased lines. To personal users, direct calls are least expensive. A leased line may be cost efficient when the daily volume is high, like in a company.
When you communicate with online services through a PDN, the latter will split your data and bundle it in standard envelopes or 'packets'.
Each packet is marked with a code and sent out into the data stream. Based on this code, the packet is routed from computer center to computer center until it reaches its final destination. There, the information will be reassembled into its original form before being handed over to a user or online service.
It is almost like traveling by train. The price per packet or traveler is lower than what it costs to rent the whole train for your trip.
National telecommunications monopolies were the first to offer packet data services. Their rates were moderately lower than for long distance calls, but it was hard to find the relationship between real costs and prices. This is still the situation in several countries.
Throughout the world, efforts to privatize nationwide phone networks continue. In many countries, this has given us some interesting competitors offering attractive rates for similar services.
Rates differ considerably from country to country, as does the quality of transmissions. The advantage of using packet data also varies considerably, by application and by country. The best routing for retrieval of online news may be impossibly expensive for chats or complex online jobs.
We can offer no hard rules of thumb, except this:
Compare rates regularly!
A reasonable fixed rate per year is always your best option, but you may not be able to find such offerings in your area.
When your transmitted volume of data is low, as is the case with chats, your best bet is to use services with a low price per minute and high prices for volume. However, it usually makes a lot of sense to avoid services charging for volume!
When volume is high, your best bet is to use services charging by the minute.
To estimate costs reliably, you need statistics. Since your usage is likely to differ from what others do, start gather experience data now. Like this:
Long streams of data without stops are cheaper through services that only charge by the minute. Retrieving software is a typical high volume application.
Trips that include navigation from conference to conference, with a little bit of up- and downloading here and there, make the average transfer speed fall dramatically. Surfing the World Wide Web is usually in the same class. It's like driving through a big city at 150 kilometers per hour. Red lights will considerably reduce your average speed.
The actual transferred volume of text per minute will differ from place to place (geographically), and often also from call to call. It depends on factors like:
* How fast you can enter commands and how much time you spend
staring at the display before pressing keys,
* How long it takes for an online service to react to your
commands. For example, the response time on CompuServe at
04:00 GMT on a Friday morning (it is evening in the U.S.)
is much worse than at 10:30 GMT on a Sunday morning. By now,
most North American users are asleep.
* The load on your packet data network while you use the
service (or the amount of noise and retransmission, when
calling direct),
* The type of modem you are using (speed, compression level),
* The number of commands you (or your scripts) have to enter
during your online visit. An increase in the number of
commands reduces the average transfer speed.
* The amount of transfer overhead for color and screen handling
(like, VT-100 or html codes) that is transferred with your text.
* Your use of menus and help texts while online, or whether
you come as "expert" with a minimum of prompts.
* Whether your browser is set to capture all pictures and sound
files that it comes across, or just the text.
It is impossible to calculate the practical effects of these items. You
will just have to bear them in mind when estimating typical jobs, measuring
speeds, calculating costs, and comparing networks.
Finding the optimal network for your needs will take time, but it is well worth the effort. Expect the figures to surprise you.
The network services in this chapter will often give you better quality transfers than a direct call. On the other hand, calling direct may give more characters transferred per minute. The average speed may drop dramatically when using packet data services.
The Norwegian PDN, Datapak, used to be my only alternative for access to foreign online services. At the time, I thought the cost was acceptable. Not so any more.
My applications require that data be pumped back and forth at maximum speed. On network services charging by a combination of volume and time, 80 percent of my costs are typically for volume, while 20 percent is for connect time.
When I logged out after a successful visit to CompuServe through Datapak, the two services gave similar reports:
Thank you for using CompuServe! Off at 10:11 EST 24-Nov-87 Connect time = 0:15 CLR PAD (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75The last line were from Datapak. It tells that I had received 537 segments and sent 75.
The "Segment" is Datapak's volume measure. Their segments contained up to sixty-four characters and/or carriage returns. The price is calculated accordingly.
At today's prices, Datapak is no longer my cheapest alternative even when calling CompuServe for chats. It is much cheaper to use the Internet telnet command through a local access provider. Then, the lack of speed matters less as I do not have to pay for volume.
The slower your modem speed, the more attractive is Datapak compared with direct calls.
To get access to a national PDN, you must have a user identification and a password. Getting temporary access to PDN services while traveling abroad is often hard and expensive. You're better off using some of the other global networks as your "roaming" service.
Note: If you have access to a national PDN, but need
information about PDNs in other countries, try Hostess, the
Global Network Service's information service from British
Telecom in England. The NUA is 02342 1920101013 (02342 is
the Data Network Identifier Code section of the address.)
User name or password is not required to use this service.
Once connected to the outdial modem, they could enter dialing commands and have it call any local number. They could use PC Pursuit to call an online service in the area, or the private modem of a friend.
We call such services for Outdial service. They normally offer lower rates for access to remote bulletin boards than what it costs to call by long distance. Besides, they reduce the chances for noise on the line.
With the start of the Internet, outdial services have lost most of their appeals. PC Pursuit is no longer available.
If you have access to Internet's telnet command, then this is an option well worth checking out.
CompuServe has special deals with a list of network services, like InfoNet, Istel, FALNET, FENICS, CompuPass, LATA Networks, Tymnet/Sprintnet. Enter the command GO PHONES on CompuServe for access information, and GO RATES for rates.
I have used CompuPass from Japan, CompuServe's own network in Brazil, Europe and the United States, Istel, InfoNet, and PDN services throughout Europe. Most of the time my application is Internet mail.
You can forward your Internet mail to CompuServe by entering
the following command at your access provider's Unix prompt:
echo "70000.0000@compuserve.com" >~/.forward
Make sure you're in your home directory when entering the
command, and replace the fake CompuServe address above with
your own.
When you return home, use this command to cancel the forward
instruction:
rm ~/.forward).
You can also use this trick to forward your mail to other
Internet hosts.
When at home, I usually use CompuServe's 28,800 bps node in Oslo, Norway.
Datapak is never considered. It is too expensive. CompuServe's nodes in
Stockholm and Copenhagen are my backups.
Whenever CompuServe opens a new node in your vicinity, or
upgrades the modem speed on one of their nodes, look at the
effects on your total costs.
Use software for automatic access and navigation (like TAPCIS,
OzCIS, or ATO). They give higher volume per minute and make
your accesses even more cost efficient.
Before leaving for a business trip, visit CompuServe to find local access
numbers in your destination cities. The list of countries includes
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Holland, Peru, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, England, and many more.
All over the world, grassroots networks keep popping up with names like ILINK, AmNet, Suedd MB-Verbund, Starmail, MagicNet, A-NET, MausNet, Zerberus-Netz, SMBX-NET, BASA-NETZ, you name it.
Many boards offer access to more than one grassroots network, and also to the Internet. Thus, the ability to send global email is extended to new users every day.
RelayNet is one of these global network of bulletin boards. It offers exchange of email between systems. Messages and conference items entered on one system will automatically be copied to other participating boards. Your costs for "talking" with others in other parts of the world are very small.
* Retrieve Web pages by electronic mail (see "The World Wide Web by
email" in Chapter 12).
* Leave the graphics behind and travel the Web at much higher speeds.
To set it: In Netscape, click on Options, Autoload Image, and Save
Options. In Mosaic, select Options, Display Inline, and Images. Then
save your setup by clicking on File, and Save Preferences.
* Use Lynx from your provider's Unix prompt to read Web pages where
graphics don't matter. (See Appendix 6.)
Then there's the issue of offline preparation. What else would you expect
here than a plug for having the handbook on your hard disk? Registered
readers can retrieve the html version after each update as one compressed
file. Information at http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/mirrors.html.
Decompress the transportation file, and store it in a directory of choice on your hard disk. Netscape users can click on File, and then Open File... Open the location of the handbook's index file (index.html), and add it to your browser's Bookmarks for easy access.
Retrieve a copy of the Lookfor shareware program from the page referenced above, and use it to locate interesting Web pages.
Whatever files are received from the Internet are stored in this cache. They will probably remain there until specifically removed (deleted), -- even after leaving Windows. Therefore, unless you use the "Clear Disk Cache now" option on the Setup menu regularly, you can read them offline.
Everything is there. This means that you can go online, get the pages, log out, and read the pages as local files off your cache directory.
The cumbersome method is to use your browser for the job. There are many shareware programs out there that will help you do it better. Cache Master is my current favorite. You may find it on Simtel.Net and it's mirrors. My version was retrieved as cm213.zip from the /win3/inet directory, as in http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/inet/. However, expect the file to have a different file name now.
Cache Master will convert your cache files so you can use them easily offline with browsers like Netscape. It even lets you string search the contents of your files.
Newer versions of the the LISTSERV software provide commands that solve this problem:
SET <list name> DIGEST
----------------------
This command is sent to a LISTSERV to make all daily messages
come to you in one, single message. Example: Say you've joined
KIDLEADER@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU, which usually has many messages each
day. Send the following command to the LISTSERV:
SET KIDLEADER DIGEST
It will typically reduce the number of lines received from this
mailing list by around 50 percent.
SET <list name> INDEX
---------------------
This command is sent to a LISTSERV to get a daily list of
messages, like in this example from KIDLEADER:
Index Date Size Poster and subject
----- ---- ---- ------------------
22839 06/22 26 From: David Chalmers
<David.Chalmers@p3.f155.n633.z3.fidonet.org>
Subject: Conor Dublin Ireland
Based on this list, you can use the LISTSERV's search commands
to retrieve individual messages of interest. These commands are
similar to those used for searching in Chapter 7.
For more about searching mailing lists' message bases, send a
message to listserv@listserv.nodak.edu with the following
command in the text of your mail:
GET KIDLINK.TIPS
Some LISTSERVs offers simplified search commands and macros
to make retrieval of individual messages simpler.
To The Online World home page.
Updated by Odd de Presno at 2301:59 03-16-1998