response 2 of 78:

Aug 31 21:04 UTC 1995

  My priority list: reliable system, faster CPU, faster net connection,
more lines (9600s pref.), and lastly News.  News just seems like such
a commodity, you can buy it anywhere, while there's only one Grex!  :)
Out of curiosity, what would be the next logical step up from the Sun
4/260?  I might prioritize "faster CPU" more than once in that list if
there's a cheap next step (e.g. 4/330 boards are under $500, but I doubt
you can just replace the 4/260 board with that).

response 4 of 78:

Sep 1 02:05 UTC 1995

        It seems to me that a faster internet connection is going to be
neccessary if Grex is going to continue to grow.  It is also neccessary
if we are going to have usenet at any kind of usable speed.  Does anyone
know how much an ISDN modem is & the monthly rate for the connection?

response 6 of 78:

Sep 1 04:48 UTC 1995

Could I get the briefest of rundowns on the "Internet policy" to be 
implemented, with particular emphasis on the deifferences between said
policy and current practice?  (re: #0)

response 8 of 78:

Sep 1 06:04 UTC 1995

The Digi DataFire is intended for single-user use.  As such, it includes
features irrelevant to us, which offering potentially formidable
obstacles for integration into our environment.  Features irrelevant to
us:
 * ability to "connect to many different sites on an as-needed basis"
 * reduce communcations charges by up to 60% by recognizing "LAN
        administration chatter" and disconnecting.
 * easy administration.  network administration can be handled over the
        ISDN link from any PC on the network.  A central LAN
        administrator can monitor, setup, & remove connections remotely.
 * supported products:
        MicroSoft Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, Windows for Workgroups 3.11
        Novel ODI (client)

These are irrelevant or obstacles to us, because:
 * we'll only be connecting to one site.
 * our one site will keep us busy 7/24
 * we don't need or want the ability for remote users to
        reconfigure the ISDN link.  Indeed, quite the
        reverse, we *don't* want this ability!
 * we want it to work under freebsd or a suitable
        low-cost high performance alternative (netbsd,linux,bsdi),
        not under an an expensive fancy gui single-user OS
        such as windows. (or netware, which is $$$ and
        functionality [IPX] we don't need.)

The key thing to look for here with ISDN cards is drivers or support
for:
        freebsd
        netbsd
        linux
        bsdi
(and, of course, US telcom support.) If it works for any of these 4,
chances are we can make it work for us, that it will fit well into our
environment, and that the maker will be on "our wavelength".  A maker
who has an integrated package for windows is much less likely to be
interested in us; they've invested a lot in windows,they've signed all
sorts of proprietary non-disclosure agreements, and they need to make
their investment up with high volume low overhead sales.  It's still
worth asking them, of course -- but, for instance, in the case of Digi,
the product to inquire about would not be "DataFire", but instead, the
"Digi PC IMAC".  It may actually be the same card, but it's marketed
just a bit differently - whether it's "different enough" depends on how
hungry the company is.

response 10 of 78:

Sep 1 20:30 UTC 1995

Y'all are flying way over my head, so I'll just say that UseNet would be very
nice.

response 12 of 78:

Sep 2 05:41 UTC 1995

        I think USEnet is the last item on the list, IMNSHO. Why bother?
Those who are members can already access it, anyway, and the faster
CPU/more memory/faster link will benefit everyone, even those who
link out for their USEnet.

response 14 of 78:

Sep 2 13:22 UTC 1995

I'd like to see Usenet back, but in some limited form that prevents it from
eating up regular Grex performance.  Maybe a Usenet host you have to explicity
connect to?

response 16 of 78:

Sep 2 16:35 UTC 1995

It's not so much based on key-words.  There are several thousand
different "newsgroups", each of which focusses on a particular
topics.  You can select the newsgroups for the various topics
you're interested in, and read some or all of the articles
in those newsgroups.

response 18 of 78:

Sep 2 19:21 UTC 1995

When pricing internet connections, figure on the cost per kilobit of
throughput.

response 20 of 78:

Sep 3 01:15 UTC 1995

  You can't, Drew.  No one prices net connections that way, and I
hope they never do.  Forunately, all the commercial backbone
entities charge flat-rate pricing.  I don't think any one, or
even a group of net providers could get away with it--everyone
would flock to the others who don't.
  And since the net is inherently hard to kill, the "nasty" providers
could be routed around. 

response 22 of 78:

Sep 3 02:46 UTC 1995

Or run "screen" and read your mail, run PicoSpan, browse the Web,
chat in party, program, etc.  Trust me, I know.  >8)

response 24 of 78:

Sep 3 19:30 UTC 1995

Re #9 & #11:  Thanks, guys!!  :-)