PLEDGE DRIVE: Buying Grex a Much Faster Internet Connection

Jul 24 04:26 UTC 1997

It looks like Grex has a really good opportunity to speed up our net
connectivity.  A fellow named Dorian Kim has a very, very impressively
connected home (I think there were T1's to multiple places on the Internet,
but I don't remember the details).  Through Jared Mauch, he has offered to
provide Grex with a 128K ISDN connection, if we pay Ameritech for the ISDN
lines both at our end and at his house, and if we provide the ISDN routers
for both ends of the connection.  This would give us a much better Internet
connection than we have now (currently we have a 28.8K link and the actual
speed up is more than what the numbers alone would suggest, because there
wouldn't be the same compression delays you get with modems).

So this would be a great improvement for Grex, making our net connection for
both incoming and outgoing use much, much faster.

To get the ball rolling, the board authorized the staff to start the work to
get the ISDN line from the Pumpkin to Dorian's place.  Several people present
at the board meeting (Misti Anslin, Steve Gibbard, and Jared Mauch) each
tossed in $40 to cover the phone line installation fees.  It will likely be
three or four weeks before the line can be installed, due to Ameritech delays
and Dorian's vacation plans.

The new connection will also cost us about $50 a month in additional phone
charges.  We think we can cover this, though a few more memberships would
make it a lot easier.

But the line itself won't do us a bit of good without an ISDN router on each
end of it.  These are kind of like the modems on either end of a regular
connection, but they do much more much faster, and, of course, cost more too.
The device of choice in our price range is the Ascend Pipeline P50, so we want
to buy two of these.  (Jared offered us the temporary loan of one, but we
really need to have ones we can keep.)  We expect them to cost under $600 a
piece, not including sales tax and what not.

The board, after much debate, authorized purchase of two ISDN routers on the
condition that we can raise at least $800 of the cost in pledges from users.

Note that if you pledge, you will only be asked to pay if we actually reach
the goal and buy the ISDN routers.  If the deal for the connection falls
through, the you aren't required to pay up on your pledge (though we're
always willing to take money).  But please only pledge if you expect to
be able to pay.  We really expect this deal to finally work (we even have
a backup -- if Dorian changes his mind, Jared has made us the same offer).

So whadya think?  Can we find $800 to buy Grex a faster net connection?
If you can't afford much, please pledge what you can afford.  It adds up.

response 2 of 203:

Jul 24 04:35 UTC 1997

I'll pledge $40.

response 4 of 203:

Jul 24 11:30 UTC 1997

Who is Dorian Kim and why is he offering this?  What are the risks in this
deal?  What if he pulls the plug after we sink hundreds of dollars into
equipment we won't be able to sell or put to any other use?  Will he be
able to listen in on our traffic?  Something that sounds too good to be
true ...

response 6 of 203:

Jul 24 14:18 UTC 1997

I'm in for $20.

response 8 of 203:

Jul 24 16:46 UTC 1997

        What's the difference between an ISDN modem and a T1 modem?
Where I used to work, at Zantop Airlines has some T1 thingies they
will not be needing RealSoonNow.

response 10 of 203:

Jul 24 17:56 UTC 1997

re #4 and #5
those have been adressed in the coop conf, please look in there.

As I pledged last night athe Bod meeting, I pedge $40

response 12 of 203:

Jul 24 18:37 UTC 1997

   $40.

response 14 of 203:

Jul 24 23:26 UTC 1997

A real ISP might, maybe, just barely be within our reach if we could find one
to cut us a special deal.  We'd have to scramble hard every month to come up
with the monthly cost.  This deal is no big strain on our monthly costs.  The
up front cost is a bit higher, but the monthly cost is something we can pretty
easily handle.  We are poor.  We have to take what's cheap.  This deal may
not work for Grex forever, but it will work for a while, and the costs of
connectivity are only coming down.

Total pledges so far:
                         $240

response 16 of 203:

Jul 24 23:42 UTC 1997

(I get $360, Jan.)

response 18 of 203:

Jul 25 01:05 UTC 1997

I will toss in $20.00

response 20 of 203:

Jul 25 02:45 UTC 1997

The delays we'll be recieving from Ameritech was one of the reasons it was
decided to go ahead and install the phone lines now, rather than later.  We
won't be able to install until after Dorian returns from vacation anyway, but
if we wait until then to order we'll be behind the 30,000 new students
requesting phone line installations.  

response 22 of 203:

Jul 25 04:14 UTC 1997

Since folks won't read the other item, here's the deal about the connection
1) It's not going away anytime soon, the soonest time it'd go away is when
dorian moves in about a year, and that will just be a line
move, and that's if he moves.

2) as for network security, dorian and I have full access to all your packets
already, grex's internet provider uses cicnet as their provider,
we both work there right now (as in this very second), so I could
if I had the time to waste go post everyones passwords, sure, so could mci,
so could any inbetween network provider?  I don't have the time, and the
time to bring up that discusson has long passed, so take your medication
and settle down.

response 24 of 203:

Jul 25 05:19 UTC 1997

   Heh...  Jared knows we know where he lives. ;-)

   All right, that last pledge gets us past the $300 mark.  Not
bad for 24 hours of begging...