If you add seemless Internet access, the benefit becomes even more compelling. Once upon a time, wiring a company to the Internet required expensive telephone company leased lines, expensive wide area network staff, and expensive accounts with national service providers. A company couldn't normally justify the cost until email became so essential to business. The invention of the HTML browser and the HTTP server in 1993 brought conversations about the Internet from the Information Systems department to the water cooler. Many companies had Internet access, but the utility of the web brought it home to everyone how valuable it could be.
Many people are unaware that the cost Internet access has dropped as low as it has.
These people are not all propeller heads like me. They are regular people with kids who happen to have more than one computer. And the desire to access the Internet on more than one computer at one time. The consumer demand for this kind of service has driven the market to produce software like WinGate or hardware like the Intel Internet Station . The device could be a 56K modem or a 128K ISDN connection.