From: jgreco@solaria.mil.wi.us (Joe Greco)
Subject: Re: Milwaukee Internet connection options
Organization: Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI
Distribution: wi
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 07:47:45 GMT

In milw.general article <1992Dec16.195703.3561@mixcom.com>, Dean.Roth <Dean.Roth@mixcom.mixcom.com> wrote:
:A connection through Marquette or UWM (or the Medical College or MATC
:or any other WI school) is a connection to WiscNet.
:Anyone making such a connection must pay WiscNet's fee. WiscNet's
:literature says $10,000/year. However, I think this has changed
:(under some circumstances) to the range of $2500-$2700, prepaid.
:The lower price may only apply where another organization is providing
:a low bandwidth connection, but I do not know for sure.  WiscNet
:only provides 56K and T1 links

Yes, this is so.  But since the only local IP networks connected to the
Internet seem to run through WiscNet, that was the only appropriate answer.

:Also, WiscNet's charter is to support education and research. 
:My opinion is that WiscNet/state-of-Wisconsin should also
:support (small) businesses who have low bandwidth, non-proprietary
:networking needs, like other states are doing because (affordable) 
:commercial options are (or have been) lacking.
:
:I know of a few small businesses that have a need for occassional "instant" 
:data transfer (file or mail) to another company, either in the U.S. 
:or elsewhere in the world, to remain competitive. These businesses 
:cannot afford $1000 - $2000/month fee for a simple 14.4K SLIP link
:that most commercial providers want (usually $250/month plus a long
:distance telephone call) however, and would prefer to acquire the 
:service locally. (Or do not want to manage a computer and networking
:software themselves but want to pay someone else a fee to do that,
:and to use a BBS type of service.) There are probably several businesses.

I did notice that in the document "Services and Fees for External Use of UWM
Computers and Networks", UWM offers apparently unrestricted use of telnet
and ftp on the Convex, for paying users.  I was considering whether or not
this was appropriate on WiscNet, since most paying Convex users would be (I
would assume) businesses.

If WiscNet is truly for "education and research", then UWM is currently
engaged in questionable activities, namely selling network access for a
profit while going against the idea and charter of WiscNet.  Not to mention
that they are violating their own rules for use of CSD computers (they
inflict that "academic/educational use only" stuff on users).

How ironic.

I better watch it before they label me a radical.  :-)

:One option would be for interested parties to form an organzation
:that gets a 56K or T1 line and then divides that up into dedicated
:and on-demand dial-up IP service at 14.4K or 56K. Startup cost would
:be $50-$100K, with monthly operating costs probably near $1500-$2000,
:which does not consider any salaries or taxes that come with employees.
:Anyone interested? Anyone win the lottery recently?

Speaking of that, has anybody heard rumors that a WiscNet site is
considering pulling out of WiscNet and pulling such a stunt?

And no, I haven't won the lottery recently.  Or ever.  ;-)

... Joe

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Greco - System Administrator		       jgreco@solaria.mil.wi.us
Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI			   414/321-9287
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