response 100 of 142:

Jan 27 19:59 UTC 1995

By "you" do you mean everyone?  I'm staff and student at UM...  While
the SCPs are going away to be replaced by NASs, I hadn't realized they
were going away that soon.

response 102 of 142:

Jan 27 23:41 UTC 1995

 Re: 90,  If you are complaining about having to support you & your wife on
$16,000 a year & thus not being able to afford to pay for Merit access or
an AOL, etc. account, I would suggest to you that you spend less time
playing on-line & more time attempting to increase your household income!

response 104 of 142:

Jan 28 21:39 UTC 1995

That is pretty low tnt.  I'm sure if any more money was earned there would
be many other things which would compete for extra $$$.  Wtihout medical
and dental insurance one could be just ahead of the bill collectors at 
the $8.00/hr the $16000/year take home (if that).  The point is that
some folks can't afford an online service and those will be cut even though
this is one of the few places one can have an intelligent conversation after
working at jobs loaded with folks not interested in anything but the latest
gosip.  Those are the breaks.

response 106 of 142:

Jan 29 04:09 UTC 1995

        Ah, a constructive idea! Now, how much would that run?

        Tnt, I really see no need to be harsh, here. If you don't under-
stand what I was trying to convey, that is fine, but don't go assuming
things based on non-factual judgements, all right?
        Indeed, I *do* have a trying time with things, financially,
and whether or not you believe that I have tried my best <and am still 
trying> to correct this situation does not concern me overly, except
to say that, despite the misunderstanding, I'd still like to be friendly with
you, as I'm sure you were probably frustrated by numerous things beyond
what I wrote when you decided to speak as you did. <Ooh, nasty run-on,
that!>
        So, what say you? Shall we ignore all that and try to take this
all civilly? I'd like to.

response 108 of 142:

Jan 29 22:51 UTC 1995

Intra-state Michigan calls are actually more expensive than interstate calls.
I can call Seattle for less than to call Dearborn.  Ameritech and whoever in
Lansing is supposed to be regulating them suck to the max.
An 800 number is out of the question: You'd be looking at a $1000./month bill.
Our real need is to get lots more phone lines before Merit shuts out non
"members."  Earlier on this Item, someone posted the load of the various 
logins to grex for a typical day or week.  The number of local people who 
cannot get in by phone was high, possibly the largest single category (correct
me if I'm wrong, perhaps all other telnetters combined was the largest).  At
any rate, it's going to be crunchville February 1, 1995.  That's three days
away folks.  No one w/o another internet account is going to be able to get in
except 6 souls who've had their redialers on for an hour and a half.  I'll
be logging in at 3am,  because I have asthema and wake up in the middle of the
night to use my inhalers.  Better set your alarm clocks, you dedicated grexers
w/o moneybags to pay America On Line.

response 110 of 142:

Jan 30 02:11 UTC 1995

I wouldn't pay AOL even if I had the money...

response 112 of 142:

Jan 30 03:58 UTC 1995

        That's Feb 15th, and you'll see it if you telnet INTO hermes,merit.edu,
as stated above. It is the cutoff date for being able to telnet into it,
and then from it, telnetting elsewhere. Oh! That's right! You only see
the message if you try to telnet elsewhere from there!
        In any case, what was said was that THIS cutoff was the first step to
        getting control of their net, so they COULD start the charging of their
        users.

response 114 of 142:

Jan 30 07:00 UTC 1995

Yes... I just checked that out too.
That telnet message has nothing to do
with getting to Grex fromn the Which Host?
prompt.

response 116 of 142:

Feb 1 03:25 UTC 1995

Danr, srw, and I were at a meeting with Jeff Ogden from Merit today (about
something else), and I asked him about the rumor that Merit would be
shutting down free access tomorrow (Feb 1st).  The rumor is *not* true. 
There will be some changes over the summer, which Grex will have to figure
out what to do about, but we do have several months left.

response 118 of 142:

Feb 1 03:54 UTC 1995

GoMLink may be doing something independent from Michnet, but there are
plenty of other ways to get from Michnet to Grex.  msu-gopher and
metronet.lib.mi.us are two of them.

I've entered Item 95 to talk about the changes Merit really is making.

response 120 of 142:

Feb 1 08:51 UTC 1995

   Well, yes, but that doesn't mean that the UM, which uses tax dollars
lets anyone take classes for free, does it?
   Susan, I think its fair to say that perhaps no one at Merit really
and truely knows what is going to happen in the next year.  I've gotten
responses myself, that have ranged from the "free and open" that you
heard, to just about completely closing off Merit from all but "educational"
uses.
   Things are cloudy.

response 122 of 142:

Feb 1 13:17 UTC 1995

A bit off the subject, but on the subject of internet access via AOL, Prodigy 
now has for the same price, a Netscape/Mosaic type WWW browser.  Just
started last week I believe.  ($10 for 5 hrs)  It's great.

response 124 of 142:

Feb 1 16:42 UTC 1995

Things are not as cloudy as they used to be, although still not fully formed.
Merit will allow organizations like MetroNet to continue to use Merit.
Use of the Merit modem pools throughout the state will be controlled
and limited to a fixed number at any given instant for each organization.
Passwords will be required to use it, but they may be available through
the Metronet. Use of such a password would count toward the number of
simultaneous sessions permitted to that organization, and access to
features of the net may be limited by the password-granting organization.