# The Online World

## Chapter 9 for more information. Single-user (individual) prices

Book page: https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/the-online-world-80/index.md

available. Clarinet Communications Corp., 124 King St. North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2X8, Canada. Email: info@clarinet.com .

Commercial Mail Relay Service (CMR) ----------------------------------- This service is not available anymore. They used to be available on this address: Intermail-Request@Intermail.ISI.EDU

CompuServe ---------- has about 1.3 million users (August 93) all over the world, over 1,500 databases, 200 forums, 500 newspapers, online shopping from more than 100 shops and entertainment. It's like a large electronic supermarket. You can access the service though local access numbers in over 100 countries, through Packet Switching Services, and outdial services. The international NUA address is 0313299999997. A list of available forums can be retrieved from the IBM Communication Forum. Participation in forums is normally free (no extra charge). The IQuest database service gives access to more than 800 publications, databases, and indexes within business, public affairs, research, news, etc. Bibliographic and full-text searches. Some IQuest databases are physically residing on other online services, like NewsNet, Dialog, BRS, and Vu/Text (U.S.A.), Data- Star (Switzerland), DataSolve (England. It has TASS in the World Reporter database), and Questel (France). Sometimes, it is cheaper to use these services on CompuServe, than by a call to these services directly. The connect charge for CompuServe's Alternative Pricing Plan is US$12.80/hour at 1200 and 2400 bps. 9600 bps costs US$22.80/hour. Monthly subscription US$2.50. Using the Executive News Service (clipping service) costs an extra US$15/hour. An optional flat-rate pricing plan (the Standard Pricing plan) is available for US$8.95 per month. It gives unlimited access to over 30 basic services, including CompuServe mail, The Electronic Mall, news, weather and sports, member support services, reference and travel services. Hourly rates for Standard Pricing Plan members using extended services go from US$6/hour for 300 bits/s to US$16/hour for 9600 bits/s access. (Feb. 93) In addition, there are network charges. These differ a lot by country. For example, access through European CompuServe nodes has no communication surcharges during non-prime time (19:00-8:00 local time). CompuServe can be accessed by telnet to hermes.merit.edu, or 35.1.48.150. Host: CompuServe. CompuServe Information Services Inc., POB 20212, 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43220, U.S.A. In Europe, call voice: +49-89-66550-111, fax: +49-89-66 550-255 or write to CompuServe, Jahnstrasse 2, D-8025 Unterhaching b., Munich, Germany. To contact CompuServe Africa, call (012) 841-2530 in South Africa, or (+27)(12) 841-2530 for everywhere else.

Cosine ------ COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe) is a European Common Market "Eureka" project. It works to establish a communications network infrastructure for scientific and industrial research institutes all over Europe. IXI is the international packet data network on which the COSINE project is based. It is available Europe-wide providing links of up to 64 Kbit/s, carries non commercial traffic for the research communities, and provides links to several public data networks. The CONCISE online information service is a focal point for information of interest to European researchers. It has lists of sources of information. Internet users can access CONCISE through Telnet. Connect either to concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi (128.214.6.181). Login: concise, password: concise. For help, send email to helpdesk@concise.level-7.co.uk with the following command in the body of the text:

start help cug-email

This will give you the `CONCISE User Guide - Email Access'.

DASnet ------ forwards mail between systems that do not have any email exchange agreements. See description in Chapter 13. Contact: DA Systems, Inc., 1503 E. Campbell Ave., Campbell, CA 95008, U.S.A.

DataArkiv --------- Major Scandinavian online service based in Sweden. Contact: DataArkiv, Box 1502, 171 29 Solna, Sweden. Fax: +46 8 828 296. Tel.: +46 8 705 13 11.

Data-Star --------- Formerly owned by Radio-Suisse in Switzerland, Data-Star is now owned by Knight-Ridder (U.S.A.). It offers over 200 databases within business, science and medicine. SciSearch is a database with references to over nine million stories from 4500 newspapers and magazines. Other databases: Current Patents Fast Alert, Flightline (with stories about air transport), The Turing Institute Database on artificial intelligence, Information Access (international market data), parts of SovData, Who Owns Whom, etc.. Access through Internet: telnet to rserve.rs.ch [192.82.124.4] and login as rserve , and follow standard login procedure. Contact in North America: D-S Marketing, Inc., Suite 110, 485 Devon Park Drive, Wayne, PA 19087, Tel.: +1-215-687-6777. Contact in Scandinavia: Data-Star marketing AB, Maessans gt. 18, Box 5278, S-402 25 Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel.: +46 31 83 59 75.

Delphi ------ has full access to Internet. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

Dialcom ------- is owned by British Telecom and is a network of data centers in many countries. Dialcom is selling its services through many agents (like EsiStreet for the music industry, and CGNet for agricultural research). Some selected services: The Official Airline Guide, news (Financial Times Profile, Newsbytes, AP, UPI, and Reuters), mail (Dialcom400), fax services and several conference type offerings (like Campus 2000 for the education market). Today, most Dialcom users are unable to exchange mail with the Internet (DASnet is a commercial alternative), but mail can be sent to users of SprintMail, IBM Mail, AT&Ts Easylink, MCI Mail, Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana, and other X.400 systems. Contact: Dialcom, 6120 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, U.S.A. The British service Telecom-Gold is a subsidiary of Dialcom UK. In North America, contact BT North America at tel.: +1-408-922- 7543. In Europe, contact British Telecom. CGNET can be reached through the Internet. Send a message to postmaster@cgnet.com for more information.

Dialog Information Services --------------------------- is owned by Knight Ridder and has more than 400 databases online. They offer a long list of newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle in full-text, Newsbytes, Information Access, the Japan Technology database, most major global news wires, Trademarkscan, USA Today, Teikoku Databank from Japan. Knowledge Index offers evening and weekend reduced-rate access to more than 100 popular full-text and bibliographic databases and 50,000 journals (1993). Dialog has gateways to other services, like CompuServe and iNet, making the databases available to a larger market. Many databases are also available on CD-ROM. In Europe, contact DIALOG Europe, P O Box 188, Oxford OX1 5AX, England. You can telnet to DIALOG.COM (192.132.3.254, US$ 3/hour in 1992).

Down Jones News/Retrieval ------------------------- focuses on news for finance and business. DJN/R is the sole online distributor of The Wall Street Journal (with articles from the international editions), Barron's, Dow Jones and Telerate's newswires in full-text. Further, it has PR Newswire, many other newspapers in full- text, clipping service, online charting for investors, and gateways to other services like Info Globe (Globe and Mail in Canada). Address: P.O. Box 300, Princeton, N.J. 08543-9963. DJN/R is also accessible through a gateway from MCI Mail. You can telnet to djnr.dowjones.com . At the WHAT SERVICE PLEASE prompt, enter DJNR and press Enter. An ENTER PASSWORD prompt will appear. Here, enter your normal DJNS account password.

ECHO ---- European Commission Host Organization is accessible via CONCISE. Telnet either to concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi (128.214.6.181). Login: concise, password: concise. The NUA address is 0270448112. You can also telnet to echo.lu . Login as echotest or echo. ECHO's I'M GUIDE is a free database providing information about online services within the European Common Market. It includes CD- ROMs, databases and databanks, database producers, gateways, host organizations, PTT contact points, and information brokers in Europe. ECHO's other databases are classified under the headings Research and development, Language industry, Industry and economy. For information contact: ECHO Customer Service, BP 2373, L-1023 Luxembourg. Tel.: +352 34 98 1200. Fax: +352 34 98 1234.

Exec-PC Network BBS ------------------- is based in Milwaukee (Wisconsin, U.S.A.). In August 1991, it had 238 incoming phone lines, 9 gigabytes of disk capacity, more than 100 new programs/day, 300,000 programs available for downloading (including the complete selection from PC-SIG California) and more than 130,000 active messages in its conferences. More than 3,300 persons called EXEC-PC each day. The service focuses on owners of IBM compatible computers (MS/PC-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Windows, Unix), Apple Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST through over 200 conferences. You can access EXEC-PC through i-Com's outdial service, Global Access, PC-Pursuit, Connect-USA, and by direct dialing. Annual subscription costs US$60.00. You can sign on while online. Unregistered users get thirty minutes per day free.

FidoNet ------- was founded in 1984 for automatic transfers of files from one place to the other at night, when the telephone rates are low. FidoNet is one of the most widespread networks in the world. It consists mainly of personal computers (IBM/Amiga/Macintosh...). FidoNet systems exchange documents by using a modem and calling another FidoNet system. Communication can be either direct to the destination system (calling long distance) or by routing a message to a local system. Each computer connected to FidoNet is called a node. There are nodes in around 70 countries. In June 1993, the net had 24,800 nodes throughout the world (source: FidoNet nodelist). The number of nodes is growing at about 40 percent per year. Most nodes are operated by volunteers, and access is free. FidoNet is believed to have over 1.56 million users (1992). Conferences (called ECHOs or Echomail) are exchanged between interested nodes, and may thus have thousands of readers. A typical FidoNet Echomail conference gets 50 to 100 messages each day. Any connected BBS may carry 50, 100, or more echomail conferences. Net Mail is the term for storing and delivering mail. FidoNet users can send and receive mail through the Internet. The list of member bulletin boards is called the Nodelist. It can be retrieved from most boards. Each node has one line on this list, like in this example:

,10,Home_of_PCQ,Warszawa,Jan_Stozek,48-22-410374,9600,V32,MNP,XA

The commas are field separators. The first field (empty in this example) starts a zone, region, local net, Host, or denotes a private space (with the keyword Pvt). The second field (10) is the node number, and the third field (Home_of_PCQ) is the name for the node. The fourth field (Warszawa) is a geographical notation, and the fifth field (Jan_Stozek) is the name of the owner. The sixth field is a telephone contact number, and the other fields contain various technical information used in making connections. FidoNet has six major geographical zones: (1) North America, (2) Europe, etc., (3) Oceania, (4) America Latina, (5) Africa, (6) Asia. For information, contact the International FidoNet Association (IFNA), P.O. Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141, U.S.A. You can also write to postmaster@fidonet.fidonet.org . The FIDO subdirectory in the MSDOS directory on SIMTEL20 (on the Internet) contains extensive information, including explanation of FidoNet, guide for its nodes, gateways between FidoNet and Internet, and various programs and utilities. (See TRICKLE in