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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!news.mathworks.com!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!EU.net!usenet2.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!zhochaka.demon.co.uk From: "David G. Bell" <dbell@zhochaka.demon.co.uk> Newsgroups: demon.ip.support,demon.tech.unix,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Batch FTP and Web Pages Date: Tue, 02 Jul 96 17:43:21 GMT Organization: C. Bell & Sons Lines: 49 Message-ID: <836329401snz@zhochaka.demon.co.uk> References: <31D4AA3A.BC0@www.play-hookey.com> <836073421snz@dsl.co.uk> <31D87436.7C7F@www.play-hookey.com> <836289820snz@mynx.demon.co.uk> Reply-To: dbell@zhochaka.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: zhochaka.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.30 X-Mail2News-Path: zhochaka.demon.co.uk In article <836289820snz@mynx.demon.co.uk> david@mynx.demon.co.uk writes: > > Also, what are the chances of establishing a flat fee for local telephone > > usage? I have a sneaking hunch that that one factor is *the* primary > > limitation in your system, and that you folks in the UK will be held back > > until some sort of flat rate becomes possible. > > Probably right, except here in Hull we do have flat rate local calls and > always have had - unfortunately Demon no longer offer truly local calls > in this area (which means we're stuck with the timed local calls > everyone else has inflicted on them). > The local phone company had no problems with this. > Demon had few problems with it, other than people were getting the > equivalent of expenisive leased lines. > Quite a lot of Demon customers in this group seemed to have quite a big > problem with the fact that others were getting something cheaper than them... > The problem was the National Carrier, Energis, who carried the traffic from > the local number to Demon - they seemed unable to deal with it (at least at > whatever rates they have negotiated with Demon to carry national calls at > local rates). The Hull problem was with a totally different system to the current Energis-supplied dial-ups. As I recall, Yorkshire Electricity was running their own leased-line network, with a connection to Demon for the Internet, and Demon were piggy-backing on that. The trouble was that the YE link between Hull and their HQ, and their system at their Hull site, got overloaded, apparently because of a few particularly enthusiastic Demon customers. ISTR that local call areas in the USA are far, far, smaller than those in the UK, which also makes a difference. Isn't _all_ of London a single area, with the 081 and 071 charging areas adjacent and thus 'local' to each other? Historically, the Internet has tended to use permanent connections, which allow the use of relatively connect-time inefficient approaches. As a for instance, look at news reading with Netscape. Bulletin Boards have, even in the USA, developed around connect-time efficient methods, such as off-line mail-reader programs, since minimising connect time allows more people to _use_ a BBS. Are there any ISPs in the USA which can be accessed without some sort of time-related charge? -- David G. Bell -- Farmer, SF Fan, Filker, Furry, and Punslinger..