From: randy@psg.com (Randy Bush)
Subject: Re: Techbooks
Keywords: Techbooks, Intercom
Organization: Pacific Systems Group, Portland Oregon, US
Distribution: pdx
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 06:49:58 GMT

rogerc@ssd.intel.com (Roger Christal) writes:
> Ok, now that it appears techbooks will never return, is there a good 
> alternative in the area?  If so, how do I sign up?

I generally recommend agora, aka agora.rain.com.

======

To get an account on agora, call 293-1772 and login as "apply".

Agora consists of the following hardware:

    Intel 302 (25Mhz 386 w/387, 8Meg RAM)
    1.44 Meg 3 1/2" floppy
    1.2 Meg 5 1/4" floppy
    150Meg QIC SCSI tape drive
    HP 35480 DAT drive
    CDC 150 Meg SCSI hard disk
    Maxtor 318 Meg SCSI hard disk (4380S)
    2 x Fujitsu 318 Meg SCSI hard disks (2249SA)
    Intel Ace board (8 intelligent serial ports)
    DigiBoard DigiChannel PC8e (8 intelligent serial ports)
    Intel EtherExpress 16 Ethernet controller

Modems:
    Intel 14.4EX	(293-1772) [300/1200/2400/V.32/V.32bis]
    Intel 14.4EX	(293-1898)
    Intel 14.4EX	(293-2059)
    Intel 14.4EX	(293-5471)
    Telebit T1000	(dialout only)

Agora is running Intel Unix V/386 R4.0 V4.0, which is a merge of System V,
Xenix and BSD Unix.  It is connected to RAINet, a local SLIP-based Metro
Area Network which, in turn, is connected to Alternet and thus the Internet.
Agora does not have direct access to the Internet, however there is a
mechanism for accessing ftp archives on the Internet indirectly.  Also,
once an account is obtained on Agora, a restricted account can be gotten on
percival, which does have full Internet access.  The restriction is that
you must login to percival over the network from agora, as percival has
limited modem capacity.

Agora is connected to RAINet via a router (dasroutr) consisting of:

    Piecemeal clone, 286 12Mhz, 512K RAM
    3.5" 1.44M floppy
    Intel EtherExpress 16 Ethernet board
    2 x 16550 serial ports
    KA9Q software, modified for RAINet by Michael Galassi

    Intel 14.4EX	(SLIP to rtr1.psg.com)
    Intel 9600EX	(SLIP to parsely.rain.com)

-----

The fee structure is as follows:

    Disk Space Fees:

	All users will be subject to a *one time* initiation fee for disk
	and tape (backup) space of $5/megabyte.  Quotas will be set so that
	you can only use up to what you've paid for, plus a 512K grace.

    Dialin Fees:

	Low volume: $2/month    15 minutes/day

	Basic rate: $6/month    1 hour/day

	Power User: $12/month   Unlimited usage

	Hard Core: No Charge    A Hard Core user has installed their own
				phone line and modem here, and thus have
				unlimited access.

	You may pay in bulk for a discount:

	    6 months =  5 * monthly rate
	    1 year   = 10 * monthly rate

	These rates are based on the $55/month that each phone line is
	going to cost sometime this summer when they are converted to
	business lines.
-- 
Alan Batie                             \      Some people believe they have
batie@agora.rain.com                    \     never met a gay person.
+1 503 452-0960                        / \    That's what we get for hiding.
45 28 59 N / 122 43 20 W / 440' MSL   /   \

-- 
randy@psg.com   ...!uunet!m2xenix!randy
Newsgroups: pdx.computing