From: doug@uuisis.isis.org (Doug Thompson)
Subject: Re: PC/MS-DOS access to INTERNET/USENET/EMAIL
Organization: International Shared Information Service (Ottawa)
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 03:31:58 GMT

mholden@bnr.ca (Mark Holden) writes:

> Is there anyone here who can tell me how to get access to the services
> mentioned in the SUBJECT line from my IBM PC at home? I would like some
> starting point before killing my brain with all the info on the topic
> in USENET.

There are lots of 'amateur' BBS systems in town which can provide manual
or uucp logins for varying costs. The 'amateurishness' varies, and some are
extremely well run and reliable. Perhaps some will offer you an account!

If you're prepared to pay $99 per year for manual login or uucp access,
there is also uuisis.  It's a commercial Unix public access system.  The
disadvantage is that it costs money.  The advantage is that because it
costs money, you can expect and demand a high level of service.  You can
sample it for free by dialing 7980980 with a modem.  (PEP/V32/2400MNP)

Unix shell logins with access to 'real' mail and Usenet interfaces such
as elm and trn, etc., are also available.

UUCP Software for DOS and Mac computers which enable you to set up your
own uucp node (e-mail and batch ftp access to Internet) is also
available from UUISIS.

> Are there any good books which describe the above, bulletin boards, etc...

For Using USENET:

*Using UUCP and Usenet, Todino/Dougherty, O'Reilly & Associates
Order from: 

Nutshell Handbooks,
632 Petaluma Ave.,
Sebastapol, CA, USA
95472
e-mail: uunet!ora!nuts

For International Networking with emphasis on Internet in general, there
is a great resource:

*The Matrix:
Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide, John S.
Quarterman, Digital Press

You can get it from Digital Equipment Corporation.

For the technical details of Internet

*Internetworking with TCP/IP (volumes I and II), Douglas Comer, Prentice
Hall

This is an Engineering Text Book, and very thorough. But if you want to
know how the beast functions, it's great.

For General stuff about what you can do with a modem:

*How to Look it up Online, Alfred Glossbrenner, St. Martin's Press, NY

This book is about on-line services and their use in general with very
little on Usenet and the Internet per se.

Those are the only ones that come to my mind (and hand). It occurs to me
that there is a real use for a bibliography on this topic. I for one
would welcome any suggestions of books on the topic which anyone has
found to be useful.

The very best way to get familiar with the net is to simply use it and
take advantage of such newsgroups as news.announce.newusers, news.lists
(and indeed the whole 'news' heirarchy). There is also the alt.bbs
heirarchy in which you will find a lot of information.

Each of these books can provide rather extensive background on some of
the more static topics. But the net is changing and growing so fast that
only through Usenet can you really keep up with it.

Caveat: I work for the company that runs UUISIS and am therefore
hopelessly biased. Indeed, I'm the system administrator! 

=Doug

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