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Jim, I apologize for not responding to your Email sooner. InfoServ had a few problems as a result of a power failure. Everything is OK now. We would love to work with you. I spoke with Rich and he said InfoServ will recommend your package to our customers as an Email only package. Are you aware if a stand-alone news reader package is available for the macintosh? I've heard that Tim Pozar has developed some type of news reader for the mac. Do know any details ? I've enclosed a document explaining our services. Hope to hear from you soon. Overcasted in silicon valley, matt postmaster@infoserv.com InfoServ Connections (tm) ==================== InfoServ Connections provides network services for professionals. This document explains the available services, and how to start using them. If you have any additional questions, call our office, send Email, or dial our network number and leave a message. NOTE: this is a draft document - archive services still being developed. Our Address: InfoServ Connections P.O. Box 2132 Los Gatos, CA. 95031-2132 Email: postmaster@infoserv.com { uunet | ...apple}!infoserv!postmaster Office Phone: (408) 724-3446 (for Fax, pause 10 seconds, enter 77) Network: (408) 243-2102, 2400/MNP/V.42 (408) 243-2104, 2400/MNP/V.42,9600/V.32.V.42,19200/PEP Most of the contents of this document are taken from the on-line tour when you dial-up our system. For the on-line tour, dial a network number and type 'begin' at the login prompt. To subscribe to the service, follow the on-line instructions after starting the begin login. Table of Contents ----------------- INFOSERV CONNECTIONS 1. Service Introduction 1.0.1 Available Software 1.1 Special Features 1.2 Connected Networks 1.3 Available Services and Description 1.3.1 Email 1.3.2 Discussion Groups 1.3.2.1 News Group Browser 1.3.3 Archives 1.3.3.1 Email Archives 1.3.3.2 On-line 1.3.3.3 Remote Archive Site Access (FTP) 2. How to Get Started 2.1 About Subscribing 2.2 Your Interactive Account 2.3 Communications Software Setup 2.4 Staying Connected 3. Service Costs 4. License Terms 5. Required Equipment/Software 5.1 Important Modem Setup Information 6. Phone Costs 7. DOS Support 8. Macintosh Support 9. UNIX Support INFOSERV CONNECTIONS ==================== InfoServ provides complete/quality network connections to professionals of all disciplines. We specialize in providing this service to users of small machines: DOS, MAC, and Intel x86 UNIX. In general, an InfoServ connection will give you world-wide Email, discussion/conference groups, and archive access, all for one low monthly payment without connect-time charges! 1. Service Introduction ==================== We provide an off-line network connection to your machine; your machine is treated as a real node in some of the world's largest networks. Unlike on-line systems, you enjoy the security and convenience of working on your machine, and the automated data transfers are immune to busy phone lines. Additionally, off-line connections are very efficient, making use of data- compression techniques and therefore most cost effective if you are calling long distance. To enjoy the benefits of an off-line connection, you need the proper software on your machine. If your machine runs UNIX, you already have most of what is needed. If you are a DOS user, you can download the required software after you sign-up (the required DOS software is free). If you are a MAC user, we can recommend an excellent commercial product. 1.0.1 Available Software ------------------ Off-line communications software packages are available for the following systems: o DOS o MACINTOSH o UNIX All the packages provide communications facilities, Email interface, and newsgroup reader interface. See Sections, 2.3, 7, 8, and 9 for details. 1.1 Special Features ================ The network connection provided by InfoServ is comprehensive and complex, yet for our customers the connection interface is extraordinarily simple. This is because the InfoServ system handles the complexities of the network connection; you are left only to enjoy the benefits. An InfoServ Connection has a number of unique technical features. The following is a description of some of these features. You DO NOT have to understand any of the following to get connected or use our service: o Our unique domain support means your Email address is valid world-wide as soon as you sign-up. You do not need special node registration. o An easy to use, menu driven interface for selecting/changing your newsgroups subscription list as often as you wish! o Special support for small system news feeds: 12-bit compression and filtering out of cross postings. Saves a bundle in transfer time. o Hybrid-FTP of archvies to DOS machines. You do not have to transfer archives first to our machine and then to yours. A real cost/time saver. o Comprehensive modem setup documents. o Netnews feed administration of selected news groups (active, sys, newsgroups file administration) o Your choice of communications software: either public-domain /shareware or commercially available packages for DOS, MAC, and Intel x86 UNIX o DOS window Email/News interface package. o World's easiest to install Bnews package for UNIX users. o Optimized/minimized phone/disk space costs by selecting only the newsgroups you want to receive o Smart mailer service (address resolution and domain support) You do not have to worry about Email database administration. o Comprehensive modem connections: 2400/MNP/V.42, 9600/V.32/V.42, 19200/PEP. There's more. 1.2 Connected Networks ================== An InfoServ connection is comprehensive. You get connections to Internet, Usenet, Fidonet, Bitnet, MCImail, AT&Tmail, CompuServe, AppleLink and more. Best of all, the connections are totally transparent to you. For example, to send Email, all you need is the recipient's domain style Email address; you do not have to care which network the recipient is on. When you receive Email, all you have to do is a reply; the reply is sent automatically to the correct network. And the Email is fast - within the USA, delivery is usually within hours and often within minutes. International Email takes longer due to time differences, but often you'll get a response within 24 hours. In summary, your InfoServ Connection reaches over 10 million network users world wide (and that number is growing daily). 1.3 Available Services and Description ================================== Your InfoServ Connection provides you with the following services: o Email (Electronic mail) o Discussion Groups o Software Archives 1.3.1 Email ----- The most important feature of InfoServ Email is ease of use. It's easy to use in two respects: your Email address, and the Email address you use to reach others. When you sign-up, you will be asked to select a network name. This is the name others will use to send you Email. If your real name is Mark Crisp, a reasonable network name is mcrisp (network names are not case sensitive). In this case, your Email address is mcrisp@infoserv.com . This type of Email address is called a domain-style address. To send Email to your friends and contacts, all you need is their domain style address; it's that simple. Email is also very versatile - you can send binary data (graphics, CAD, word processor files, etc.). Special utilities to do this are available. Additionally, your Email address is valid world-wide as soon as you sign-up. No other comparable service provides this. 1.3.2 Discussion Groups ----------------- The discussion groups available from InfoServ are collectively called Netnews. The discussion groups are organized by topic. Discussion groups are also called newsgroups. Netnews is no doubt one of the largest and most comprehensive public forum discussion systems in the world with over 4 million readers and contributors worldwide. Netnews articles cover over 1500 topics organized under roughly 50 major groups. Some of the major groups are as follows: o alt (alternate specialty topics from activism to tv shows) o comp (computer science topics) o rec (recreation - from autos to wines) o soc (timely social issues) o sci (science - from astronomy to zoology) o misc (includes the popular jobs and resumes groups) o talk (politics, and so forth). There are also many regional groups: ba, bay area; ca, California. These groups cover topics such as forsale items, wanted items, local politics, and so forth. On a daily basis, Netnews produces about 50 megabytes of information; an active group such as comp typically has over 20,000 articles posted per week. InfoServ provides you with a special newsgroup browser interface called Needer (tm). The Needer interface is menu driven and lets you find topics of interest within a few keystrokes. Additionally, the Needer display shows you the average weekly activity in both individual groups and group hierarchies. 1.3.2.1 News Group Browser. Netnews has well over 1500 individual discussion forums called newsgroups. To navigate these newsgroups efficiently, InfoServ provides you with a newsgroup browser called Needer (tm). Needer is an efficient interface in several respects: o newsgroups hierarchies are readily apparent o topics are displayed alphabetically for easy perusal o simple but powerful commands When you sign-up, you use Needer to select the newsgroups you want to receive. You can change your subscription list as often as you want. In the 'begin' on-line tour session, you can use Needer just to look around and see what is available. Needer is easy to use. Simply enter information that is presented on the screen. For example, typical newsgroup information is displayed as follows: [ 12] fidonet - (95) The number in parenthesis, (95), is the number of individual articles submitted to the fidonet newsgroup during the previous week. The number in square brackets, [ 12], is the newsgroup ID number. It is used as input to the Needer prompt to display newsgroups under the fidonet topic. Needer accepts only three types of input: 1) a number shown in square brackets to display group hiearchies, 2) the group name to add it to your subscription list, 3) a few, simple 1 character Needer commands. 1.3.3 Archives -------- Software archives are desirable resources in many respects. Archives are the source of many useful utilities. Additionally, if your business is software programming, the wealth of source-level archives is something you can definitely take advantage of. InfoServ provides you with three techniques for getting archives: 1) Email archive server, 2) on-line, 3) hybrid-file transfer (Direct FTP). Complete archive service and information is provided when you sign-up. 1.3.3.1 Email Archives. Email archive servers are a way of getting archives through Email. You Email a simple request message to the server, and it replies by sending you the requested archive. Note that Email cannot transfer binary data. If an archive is binary, it will be Emailed to you in a special encoded form. Utilities are available to decode binary archives. Complete Email archive data and usage documents are available on-line when you sign-up, or you can always send Email to the postmaster to request the usage directions and other related information. 1.3.3.2 On-line. InfoServ's on-line archives are available when you sign-up. The archives are presented through a friendly menu-driven screen system, and you can download selected files using a number of popular protocols (Kermit, Xmodem, UUCP). Note: current collection of on-line archives is limited, but plans are in the works to greatly increase what's available. 1.3.3.3 Remote Archive Site Access (FTP). FTP is a special File Transfer Protocol that is used to access remote archive sites. With FTP, you can download any archive file to the InfoServ machine and then transfer the file to your system. FTP is used to access the world's greatest archives sites such as simtel20 and uunet. Literally, 100's of gigabytes are available and within your reach by using FTP. If you have a DOS machine, we have a special FTP that will download files directly to your machine - there's no intermediate step. This will save you a great deal of time (and money, if you call long distance). Complete FTP usage and guidelines are available when you sign-up. 2. How to Get Started ================== If you wish to subscribe, please read this section completely. To subscribe call the system, type 'begin' at the login prompt and subscribe on-line. The basic steps to establish/maintain a connection are: o Subscribe (do so on-line) o Login to your interactive account o Setup the communications software on your machine o Make regular connections to InfoServ The regular connections will transfer Email and Netnews to your machine. The following sections provide some more details. 2.1 About Subscribing ----------------- The first step is to select your network name. Instructions on how to do this are provided on-line (select NAME topic from INDEX menu). After deciding on a network name, start the subscription process by selecting the SUBSCRIBER topic. Enter all of the required information. The results from subscribing are as follows: 1. Based on the network name you selected, you will be assigned two InfoServ login accounts. If your network name is martin, the two accounts will be called: o martin o imartin NOTE: always spell/enter/use your network name in all lower-case letters. 2. The first account is for use by your communications software - do not login to this account! If you do, you will see the prompt 'shere=infoserv', and no further input will be accepted. Simply hangup the phone connection and.... 3. The second account (imartin, the leading 'i' means interactive account) is your interactive login account. Section 2,2 tells you what to do there. 2.2 Your Interactive Account ------------------------ After you have subscribed, your interactive login account will be ready within 30 minutes. Login to this account to do the following: o Describe your environment (type of machine, etc.). We need to know this information so that data transfers to your machine are properly processed. o Download to your machine the required software and/or documents. Details provided in your interactive account's menu system. o Select which newsgroups you want to receive. Your interactive account is menu-driven and very friendly. Simply follow the on-line instructions. Also, remember your interactive login account is your network name prefixed with 'i'. 2.3 Communications Software Setup ----------------------------- DOS user simply follow the instructions provided with the downloaded software and documents. MAC users follow Uaccess instructions, and download addendum information from your interactive login. UNIX users follow standard UUCP setup procedures. Note that we can provide technical assistance in all cases. 2.4 Staying Connected ----------------- After you setup your communications software, you must make regular calls to InfoServ. At a minimum, you must call at least once a week since we keep only one week of download backlog for your machine. The communications software will download Email and Netnews articles. Typically, you would setup your machine to call InfoServ during the night; if phone lines were busy, your communications software would automatically try again later. By morning your machine will have downloaded all of your Netnews and Email. If you're active with Netnews postings, and routinely correspond with others with Email, you should call InfoServ either daily or every other day so that your Email is current, and your responses are delivered in a timely fashion. 3. Service Costs ============= All rates are for full, personal Email/Netnews/Archive services for leaf nodes. All rate are flat - no connect-time charges. The rates are as follows: [ TERMS** ] | +------------------------ Pay for 12 months in advance. | | +--------------- Pay for 6 months in advance, or OPTION | | | pay monthly by charge card. | | | +------ Pay monthly (check or money-order). ---------+- V --+-- V ---+-- V ---+---------------------------------- 2500 | $11.95 | $13.95 | $15.95 | per month for 2500 netnews articles | | | | per week (600 pages)* ---------+--------+--------+--------+--------------------------------- 1000 | $8.95 | $10.95 | $12.95 | per month for 1000 netnews articles | | | | per week (250 pages)* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Note the savings if you pay monthly by charge card. Either VISA or MasterCharge accepted. * Page counts are estimates and will vary week to week. ** These rates apply only when billed by Email/charge card. Both options are for leaf nodes only. All options incur an account activation fee of $15.95. As long as your account stays active, you never have to pay this fee again. Email/Netnews available as soon as you sign-up. Archive access available upon receipt of payment (which is very fast when using your charge card). Accounts over 1 month delinquent will have their news/archive access disabled until the account is made current. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for bad checks, cancellations, and other situations that burden us with non-ordinary bookkeeping activities. If you do not mail your payment in response to Email notification, postal or telephone notification billing incurs an additional $15.95 administration charge for that month. An account will be automatically canceled if there is no activity for three months, or if payment is past due by three months; you will have to pay the activation fee to restart your account in this case. Contact us for other special rates, commercial accounts, and/or contract situations. Custom on-line systems are available. Advance payment for options 1000 & 2500 is NOT refundable. 4. License Terms ============= InfoServ License terms are in effect after you sign-up. 1. Acceptance of Terms The use of InfoServ facilities indicates that you acknowledge and accept all of the license terms and stipulations as detailed in the following sections. 2. Release from Liability Just as you can't hold the mailman responsible for the delivery of junk/ unwanted/dangerous mail, you agree to treat InfoServ in the same manner. That is, you will not hold InfoServ responsible for any damages incurred from the use of data that is delivered to you (in effect, you grant InfoServ Common Carrier status even if it is not granted explicitly by legislative edict). Also, you will not hold InfoServ liable for any damages either directly or indirectly caused by electronic data exchange through InfoServ. 3. Prohibited Activities Since its unlawful to enter other people's mail, or interfere in mail delivery, or use mail systems for fraudulent reasons, or send dangerous items, you agree to act in a lawful manner with respect to the electronic media you send and/or receive. In particular, you must respect privacy laws, copyright laws, and all other laws governing proprietary information, both State and Federal Statutes. And remember, ignorance of the law IS NOT A VALID defense; if in doubt, find out. Especially prohibited is certain types of commercial advertisement: unsolicited bulk Email is not allowed, and inappropriate Netnews advertisement is not allowed. Commercial activity is allowed in certain Netnews groups. 4. Service Warranty We DO NOT guarantee continuous, uninterrupted service. InfoServ is periodically shutdown for short periods for maintenance, and other times due to acts of God and/or gremlins. We will make every effort to provide as high as possible ratio of uptime, and will try to contact our subscribers if a downtime situation warrants that action. 5. Appropriate Use You agree to use the InfoServ subscription for lawful and professional reasons. The direct or indirect exchange of illegal/proprietary/commercial copyright material is forbidden. Though we cannot forbid the exchange of legal but distasteful material, a preoccupation with such material can result in cancellation of your subscription. Such material includes but is not limited to obscene material, or threat of violence to a person/s or thing/s. 6. InfoServ Rights InfoServ reserves the right to cancel, without notice, subscription services for reasons that conflict with the preceding paragraphs, and for non-payment of bills. We also reserve the right to audit and control data transfer quantity. Our service is for leaf-nodes. That means your site is not an intermediate node to other machines. However, there are NO redistribution restrictions, and you are free to be an intermediate node but the following applies: o Our service and technical support is for leaf nodes only o Leaf node volume restrictions apply. Leaf Node Service ----------------- A leaf node is a terminal point in a network. That is, you do not route Email/Netnews/Archives to other sites/machines. Though our license terms do not restrict you from providing routing to other sites/machines, our service and support policies, rates, and default product configurations, are for leaf nodes only. To be eligible for leaf-node rates, all network traffic must be consistent with average leaf site traffic pursuant to InfoServ License Terms. The terms are 10 to 1 download/upload ratio with respect to the selected payment option volume. For example, the 2500 option subscription equals about 2.5 Mbytes download, which means you can upload about 250 Kbytes upload weekly. If you occasionally exceed these limits it is no problem, but if you consistently exceed the limits, you will have to arrange for a commercial account. 7. Privacy In accordance with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (18 U.S.C. 2510, et seq.) you are notified that Email/Netnews do not provide truly private mail (even when encrypted). 5. Required Equipment/Software =========================== To subscribe to InfoServ, you need either a DOS or Macintosh computer with a hard disk and modem, and a communications program that supports either Xmodem or Kermit protocol (some popular programs in this area are Procomm or CrossTalk for DOS, and Red Ryder or Versa Term for the Mac). You'll need at least 10 Mbytes of hard disk space for the support programs and downloaded information. If you can spare more disk space, the more flexible you can be in downloading information to your machine. If you have a UNIX system, we can support you by providing our better Bnews package which contains configured and ready to run news programs (available for ESIX, Interactive, and SCO, Intel x86/SVR3.2 UNIX Systems). In addition, if you subscribe, we'll gladly share our UNIX expertise to help setup your connection. Modem requirements: Your modem must operate at a minimum of 2400 baud. Supported modem connections: 2400, 2400/MNP/V.42, 9600/V.32/V.42, 19200/PEP The individual who wants ultimate communications performance (and can afford it) should consider using a Telebit T2500. This modem can deliver an average of 14000 baud. If phone costs are important, the Telebit T2500 modem can be considered an investment because it will pay back for itself in phone bill savings. We can support a Telebit PEP connection. An alternate and slightly less expensive fast connection (9600 baud) can be made with a V.32/V.42 modem. We support this protocol as the standard high-speed connection (9600 baud). Select the PHONE topic from the INDEX menu for phone cost examples. You also need special software for your machine. This is the software that automates your connection, downloads your Netnews articles, and handles your Email/Netnews interface. In this respect, you have the following choices: o For DOS, you can use InfoServ's Waffle, a package available free of charge from us, or you can use UULINK, a commercial package that costs about $300. o For Mac, you can use uAccess, a commercial package that costs about $300. o For UNIX (ESIX, Interactive & SCO), configured packages of public domain news software are available. 5.1 Important Modem Setup Information --------------------------------- Networks connections can at times be sensitive to modem setup. Though your modem may work fine for interactive logins, network protocol connections have special requirements that may cause trouble even though your modem works fine with the rest of the world. For network protocol communications, your modem MUST operate in pure binary mode as follows: o No XON/XOFF flow control o No sync characters (vis-a-vis some MNP modems) o 8 bit characters (no parity) o No CR/LF mappings o No escape sequence interpretation o Should use hardware flow control o No interrupt conflicts These requirements are mentioned in a most frequent trouble order. Modem generated XON/XOFF is by far the most troublesome (95%). If during a network connection your modem attempts XON/XOFF, the connection will either be totally broken or you will get numerous 'bad header' error messages. If you plan on using an MNP modem, be sure to set it up with hardware flow control; not sync characters (special attn. Everex Evercom users). All PC/AT machines can support this and work great provided your cabling is correct (no null-modems or loopbacks: just plain, 1-to-1, minimum 9 signal connection). Note that a MNP with sync chars will work somewhat and you might think that the connection is OK, but do check whatever low-level logging information your system has to be sure that bad packets are less than 2%. The rest of the problems are quite infrequent. The 8 bit char is an almost universal login requirement for all BBS systems, and the rest of the issues are typically not default modem conditions so novice users don't stumble into those pitfalls very often. However, be aware that if you use an internal modem, and your system also has a COM port, be sure the COM port is disabled. The communications software uses interrupts and modem-status registers that will not work if both an internal modem and COM port use the same settings. In setting up your modem, keep in mind that the simplest and most certain way to make it do what it should is to put all necessary commands in the dial string definition (there are more elegant ways usually, but these require greater skill and experience). For example, if you plan on using Waffle, and you have an Everex Evercom modem, the dial string would look as follows: AT\\n0\\q0DT7731517 The two special commands, \n0 and \q0, put the modem in normal mode (no sync chars) and turn off XON/XOFF (note that for documentation accuracy, double backslashes are shown and are required by Waffle software). Though the default is XON/XOFF off, it's best to be sure (can't always trust the documentation). 6. Phone Costs =========== Even if your phone call to InfoServ is long distance, you'll be surprised to learn how small this additional expense really is. For example, a subscription that includes about 1000 articles per week is roughly equivalent to 250 pages of dense text. On average, the download at standard 2400 baud will take 45 minutes total, per week (and that's a very conservative estimate). Using 12 cents/minute as the average long distance, off-peak rate, your cost is only about $5.50 per week! Now, if you use a 2400 baud MNP class 5 modem, you can half the cost to just $2.25 a week. And if you want to invest in a Telebit modem, the per week cost is a mere 50 cents! Even if your subscription was fairly full at about 2500 articles per week, the monthly cost could be only $5.00. Also, be sure to contact the phone company for special rates. Rates as low as 6 cents per minute are available. 7. DOS Support =========== DOS machines have two support packages to select from: o Waffle, a public domain shareware package which we have greatly enhanced to simplify its installation, use, and administration o UULINK, a commercial package If you subscribe, you download the InfoServ enhanced Waffle version from your interactive login. Our version includes a vastly simplified and improved installation procedure, and your subscription includes special support files that greatly ease Waffle administration. Even if you've been terrified by Waffle documentation/installation in the past, please give InfoServ's Waffle version a try; you'll be pleased with the results (and naturally, we provide support for our version). UULINK is available from: Vortex Technology P.O. Box 1323 Topanga, CA. 90290-1323 Tel. # (213) 455-9300 UULINK has all the required functions for handling all Email/Netnews communications. However, we have not evaluated this package, and do not provide specific support of any type. If you do want to use UULINK with your InfoServ subscription, please call and we'll try to provide as much help as possible. If there's enough of a demand, we will integrate UULINK specific support as part of the normal InfoServ system. 8. MAC Support =========== For the Macintosh, we recommend using the uAccess software package. You can purchase this product from: ICE Engineering 8840 Main Street Whitmore Lake, MI. 48189 Tel. # (313) 449-8288 We have used this package and your subscription includes specific Netnews support for this package. We can also provide technical support related to your InfoServ service needs. We are not currently aware of a satisfactory public domain package. If you know of one that you would like us to evaluate, please let us know. 9 UNIX Support ============ For UNIX systems, we can provide either ready to run binaries or, ready to compile source of Bnews, a public domain package for handling Netnews. Additionally, your subscription includes access to all related Netnews administration files. In short, between our better Bnews package and the related Netnews administration files, an InfoServ subscription is the easiest and most efficient way to run Netnews on your UNIX machine. All distribution is on 1.2MB cpio floppy. Supported UNIX version is System V, R3.2, and R4. Supported UNIX OS systems are: o ESIX/V (available now) o 386/ix Interactive (available as soon as requested) o SCO-ODT (available soon) Call or send Email for availability and pricing information. Trademark Acknowledgements * ============================ UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. PC-DOS is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. SCO is a trademark of the Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. ESIX/V is a trademark of Everex Systems, Inc. Waffle is created/produced by Darkside International, Mountain View, CA. * InfoServ makes no claim to any acronym/name other than InfoServ Connections, ICIS, NEEDER, and PUNS (Personal UUCP Node Service); our apologies to any trademarks we have not acknowledged.