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Who You Gonna Call?

Once your modem is out of the box and connected to your computer, what services and other options are available to you?

Aug 95

Vendors: Compuserve, MCI, Dow Jones, Sprint, AT&T;, NewsNet, America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, Prodigy, DataStorm Technologies, Hayes, Microsoft, Avalan Technology, Ocean Isle



By Kimberly Maxwell

Contributing Writer

A personal computer equipped with a modem can dramatically change the way you live your life, do business and communicate with others. It lets you shop and make travel reservations conveniently; it allows you to perform research online and lets you work at home; and it provides you with a whole new way of communicating with people.

To begin, you must have three necessary components - a personal computer, a modem and communications software. When you have your computer working with your modem properly, you can use communications software or special software provided by online services to link you and the individual or service you are calling.

The largest and most famous network of computers is the Internet. The Internet is actually a "network of networks" that exchange information. No one really knows how big the Internet is because it is a collection of separately run smaller computer networks without a single place where all the connections are registered.

You can reach out to the Internet with several online services. There are also Internet service providers that can set up a user account for you. The Internet is similar to online services because it provides you with various services such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, information retrieval, Hypertext and Hypermedia (World Wide Web) and online conversation.



WHAT'S AVAILABLE?

Online services come in four flavors: e-mail specialty services, consumer online services, database and information-retrieval services, and private networks. These services are offered by companies individually or as a combination. For example, Compuserve offers e-mail services, consumer online services and database and informational-retrieval services. On the other hand, MCI Mail categorically is used for e-mail services but does offer the ability to obtain Dow Jones News/Retrieval.

Today, e-mail is becoming one of the more popular ways for people to communicate. Whether you are using it for business or as a consumer, it provides all users with the same ability to send mail to one or many persons, fax a message, send a message through the Postal Service, or send mail to other online services. Some of the popular and highly used online mail services include MCI Mail, SprintMail and AT&T; Mail.

Specialized data in large database banks are available with some online services, wheter the latest news or medical journal reports. These services are usually laid out so that you can query topics of interest. A couple of the well-known information data retrieval services include NewsNet services and Dow Jones News/Retrieval.

Consumer online services are some of the better-known services that provide communications, entertainment, information, education and sometimes shopping online. With these services, you can access BBSs, access online conferences and forums, shop, perform file transfers and get the latest in news and magazine articles. Some of the popular consumer services include America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, and Prodigy.



COSTS

Most online services bill by the minute. Some bill you a yearly service charge, then bill you additionally for time used. Some of the services provide you with a toll-free line to dial, while others require you to find a local access number to dial. Those living in rural areas may have to pay more for the long-distance time while online. Most services require a credit card or electronic debiting of bank accounts rather than Postal Service billing and payment.

Usage fees can be incurred as hourly rates, for the length of a message or message type, or by using specific "pay for" areas on the online service.



BBS

A Bulletin Board Service (BBS) is a computer that someone has set up with a modem, phone line and special software that takes calls from other modem users. BBS software provides five main areas: file downloads/uploads, forums, chatting, online games and e-mail.

You can find BBSs anywhere in the country. Some BBSs are made public while others are created by companies so field workers can call in to the office and communicate and collect data.

To access a BBS, you simply need your modem-equipped computer and communications software to interact with the host BBS software. When you dial up a BBS, you'll find that it is usually quite simple to navigate, with menus of options.



OTHER WAYS TO USE YOUR MODEM

Today, more people are working at home, making it necessary to find solutions that free us from being tied to the office. This is another area where your modem comes in handy.

You can used your modem-equipped notebook or desktop computer when you are away from the office to connect to your office network. But first you should decide what it is you need to do once you connect your remote PC to the LAN (local area network). For example, you may need to exchange mail with co-workers or transfer files to and from the network or even update a file using an application on the network.

For just sending messages, you should use the simplest and most common way to reach co-workers on the network - your LAN's electronic mail service. An electronic mail system gives you the ability to send messages to and receive messages from co-workers and - in some cases - people using dissimilar electronic mail services like MCI or Compuserve. If your network has a machine dedicated to electronic mail tasks, you can call into this dedicated machine or "mail hub" to exchange messages using your computer's special remote electronic mail software and modem.

Sometimes e-mail isn't enough. For example, you go on a business trip but left an important file on the network back home. You're not really sure where it is located in the network's directories. So, the best way to look for a file is to search the network files and subdirectories yourself. To do this you need to browse your network drives to locate the file then download it to your laptop machine at your leisure. Standard communications software such as Procomm Plus from DataStorm Technologies or Smartcom from Hayes can perform these functions for you. Or, you can just use the terminal utility found within Microsoft Windows.

If you need more than just the ability to transfer files, there are products available that allow you to browse through network files and directories as well as use applications as if your laptop or notebook were a workstation on the network. There are products, using the standard telephone system, that make it possible to access the network and use a program "online" so you can do your work.

Some software products, commonly known as remote LAN access software, allow remote PCs to dial into a LAN and actually become a workstation on the network. Once you are on the network, you can search and transfer files from the network and use applications on the network using the remote PC. Each remote PC is seen by the LAN as merely an extension of the network.

Most remote LAN access products include two separate programs. One program is for the machine on the network, which can be any workstation on the network, and the other program is for your laptop. Typically, you load the software and a modem on a host machine back at the office and on the remote machine. Once you dial in and connect to the network, it is as though your laptop or notebook takes over the PC it is connected to so you can login to the network and use network applications as well as what's on the local hard drive. Some products that give you this capability are Avalan Technology's Remotely Possible/Dial and Ocean Isle's Reachout.

Kimberly Maxwell has written hundreds of articles and several books relating to connectivity and communications. She is the author of "The Modem Coach." She lives in Tucson, Ariz.