From: meg@netmeg.ann-arbor.mi.us (Meg Geddes)
Newsgroups: mi.misc
Subject: Re: Just One Provider ?
Date: 27 Jan 93 23:02:04 GMT
Organization: netmeg.ann-arbor.mi.us

In article <1k5bdnINN9sl@garnet.msen.com> josephs@msen.com (Joseph Stroup) writes:
>ATTACK ---- Boy what a deal... The article that Meg Geddes wrote
>on Jan 26, 1993. Stated that FREE feeds were necessary because
>Msen was the only provider in this area. I have a fast and simple
>reply to that remark - Meg. You are wrong.

Uh.  I don't think you read what I said.  I didn't say that there was only
one provider, I said that nobody should have to rely on just one or two
providers, be they the U or MSEN or your group or me or Marc or Ivars or
Dave Parks.  The more the merrier.

>support...we just asked Msen to hear us out. And Meg, they did. They have
>NEVER once acted like they were the only game in town, not once. Just the
>opposite. Msen understands that as our requests for accounts grow , so will
>the need for extra bandwidth. Since we are non profit and running no traffic
>over the NSF net of a business nature, that solved another problem. I explained
>to Ed and Owen that we all knew that there are people out there who can't ever
>afford to pay high access fee's. By buying not only Msen services but, others
>as well, and in bulk. We at Network Users Group, Ltd. can offer our people
>a shell account for $15 a month, basic e-mail for $5.00 a month! That's right
>a whole $5.00. Since we are connected to the net, regular users can FTP and
>Telnet as well. In 1993 as well develop , grow and continue...Network Users
>Group , Ltd. expects to give out some network accounts to secondary and some
>private schools on a GRANT basis. After all these are the minds of the future.

Well, that's wonderful for you.  As I stated in an earlier article, I wasn't
attacking MSEN by any means.  If I could afford an MSEN account, I'd probly
sign up myself.  I simply stated that I could understand why MSEN would not
necessarily like to see the U giving away what it was charging for.
(As far as network accounts, well, down here anyway, anyone with a modem 
can get a shell account and email to burn on M-Net or Grex - for free.  A
contribution is nice, and they'll probably hound you on disk storage if you
don't contribute, but the basic service is in place, has been for quite some
time, and will be for quite some time.  Of course, neither has ftp, and one
can only telnet into M-Net, not out of it, but all things considered, it's
not a bad deal for most people)

>In short Meg, I look forward to meeting you and hearing your ideas. People 
>can obtain stable news and mail as well as other services from more than
>one source. I see things as only getting better.

Well, I can often be seen slinking around the semislug meetings.

>Not only the University of Michigan but many many other sites as well have
>done an excellent job, and Meg - they use public dollars to do it. We all
>need to work together.

No argument here.  In fact, I am so bold as to consider netmeg as one of
them.  (No public dollars though, except for the fund drive that M-Net held
to help me buy a hard drive when one of mine bit the dust)

-- 
Meg Geddes     <No admitted affiliation with anything>     Ann Arbor, MI
meg@netmeg.ann-arbor.mi.us

<I have PMS and root password.  Don't mess with me.>