Copyright © 1996 * No Starch Press * ISBN 1-886411-09-3
There are many ways to gain access to the Internet. If you are at a university, chances are your school has an Internet connection. Contact the office of computer services or the computer science department which should be able to point you in the right direction.
Many large corporations and even some medium- and small- sized businesses have Internet access these days. If you work for a large company, contact your information systems department or MIS (management information systems) person, or call the computer help desk, if one exists. If you work at a smaller company, ask the local computer guru.
If you don't have access through work or school and you're just getting started, the easiest thing to do is tap into one of the major commercial online services. Buy any computer magazine and shake it until the America Online (AOL) disk falls out. Take AOL up on its free trial offer, then buy another magazine or two and look for a free Prodigy or CompuServe disk. The online services make it very easy to get started and also offer a trained staff to help when you have questions.
You need not limit yourself to the big three commercial services, however. Internet service providers in your area (often called local service providers) can offer attractive rates and good service, and are worth investigating. Chances are you will save yourself a wad of money by going with a smaller company, especially if you plan to spend more than 10 or 15 minutes a day online. Since many of these companies can't afford to advertise in the big dailies, look for their ads in the free local newspapers or computer magazines.
Another way to start exploring the Internet is paying a visit to your public library, which may offer FreeNet (a free connection to the Internet, only available in some areas) access to your community. If you're still stumped, check the back pages of free computer newspapers, like Computer Currents or MicroTimes for listings of service providers, or ask a software store salesperson for some advice.
Once you pick a place to hang your virtual hat, you might be faced with the decision of whether to get a SLIP/PPP (Serial Line Internet Protocol/Point-To-Point Protocol) connection or a Shell account. (The major online services like AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy have their own special built-in Internet access software, so this discussion doesn't apply.) Here are some comparisons between the two types of accounts to help you decide which one suits your needs.
SLIP/PPP accounts give you access to all the glitzy online graphics, but you pay the penalty of slower access. They can be hard to set up too, since you need to download, install, and configure a bunch of programs before the fun starts. At the same time, since the SLIP/PPP software runs on your local computer, rather than a remote one, the Windows- or Macintosh-based software you'll use to access the Internet through your account should be familiar to you because it will look like your other Windows or Macintosh applications. (See Appendix A for a list of free SLIP/PPP software sources.)
Shell accounts (see Figure 1), on the other hand, give you a text-only (no pictures) view of the online world, but they let you get around much faster than SLIP/PPP accounts. Why?
Because when using a Shell account, you're directly accessing the Internet via your provider's high-speed link, instead of piping the data through your (slower) modem. And you've also got less data to move, because the graphics don't have to be transferred.
SunOS UNIX (netcom)
login: jsmith <-- userid entered here
Password: ######## <-- password entered here
Last login: Fri Feb 9 22:33:19 from netcom.com
You have new mail.
% pine <-- start PINE e-mail reader
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PINE 3.91 FOLDER INDEX Folder: INBOX Message 1 of 3
+ 1 Feb 7 Joe Kramer (1,116) Let's do lunch
+ 2 Feb 8 Gloria Harper (1,128) Amalgamated contracts
+ 3 Feb 9 davey@surfer.com (1,220) My new Toyota...
[Folder "INBOX" opened with 3 messages]
? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply
O OTHER CMDS V [ViewMsg] N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Figure 1 - Logging on to a typical Shell account, starting e-mail reader
Shell accounts are also much simpler to set up than SLIP/PPP accounts, because you don't need to install a bunch of software. When you use them you're dialing into a remote computer where everything you need to access the Internet is already installed, configured, and ready to run. Still, although they're simpler to set up than SLIP/PPP accounts, shell accounts require you to learn a few UNIX commands before you can navigate the Internet. (See Appendix XX for a list of Shell account providers.)
If you want full Internet accessthe ability to interact by pointing and clicking and to view pretty picturesand aren't overwhelmingly concerned with the speed of your connection, SLIP/PPP is the way to go. It should be easy for you to get SLIP/PPP software that runs pretty much right out of the box from service providers like Netcom or The Well.
On the other hand, if you don't care to get any special
software, you don't mind the command line, text-only, DOS-
like approach, and you prefer speed to pretty pictures, a
Shell account is your best bet. And, if you've got a slower
modem (9600 baud or less), you should seriously consider a
Shell account because your access to the Internet will be
much faster than with a SLIP/PPP connection.