The challenge is to determine how to implement each alternative and then ask “Can I do it?”.

To begin, let’s explore the second alternative, namely to use my Mac IIfx just as a storage depot, but otherwise use an existing ISP for linkage to the outside INTERnet WORLD.

Okay, I’m just an extension of the local ISP, right? Right! Say you’re in Africa and you dial up your ISP searching for “Marquette Area Public Schools” using WebCrawler® for example. You get lots of potential matches, including an item listed as ‘John Loves to Teach!’. This beauty is my Home Page, stored on my Mac IIfx which has a Web Site Address of “www.lovetoteach.com” for example.

Note that anyone can apply to a Virginia-based company called ‘InterNIC’ for their own Web Site Address such as “www.lovetoteach.com”, assuming of course that such an address is not already taken ... first come first serve (bad! pun). You can register ‘on line’ at the following Web Site:

You click on ‘John Loves to Teach!’ and WebCrawler® goes prowling for the address “www.lovetoteach.com”. [Actually this alphabet is simply a synonym for a 32-bit long numeric address, but I think I covered this transposition in my earlier interview about the INTRAnet.]

You’re in Africa and your ISP’s humongous hard drive does not have this as an address, so your ISP passes on the search for “www.lovetoteach.com” to another ISP and so forth and so on. Well finally this inquiry eventually gets to my local ISP and success! because its extension is my hard drive which is “www.lovetoteach.com”.

What about my Mac IIfx’s ability to handle reasonable traffic. Well we have two parameters, one is my trusty Mac and the other is the analog MaBell telephone wire currently connected to my house and dedicated solely to my 28,800 baud modem. The ability of even my ole IIfx to handle loads of ‘hits’ per day far, far exceeds the ability of that analog telephone line in this regard. I don’t wish to get deep into the arithmetic here, but here‘s a short rendition ...

Frankly, each of us should be SO LUCKY! that 600 or 1200 people are ‘surfing’ our Home Page EVERY DAY! -- that ‘ole modem isn’t too shabby after all!

Just for the record, the figures for a 56K leased line and a T-1 leased line are 2000 and 62,000 hits per day, respectively.

So what’s the problem ... read on!

Okay, my Mac IIfx is on around the clock and my external ISP is also ... so what’s the problem? PLENTY!!! My connection to the external ISP is permanent, sucking up the bandwidth of my local ISP, that is to say, no matter what zillion chores my ISP is accomplishing for lots and lots of other users, I am ALWAYS there needing attention.

Bottom line ... NO RESPECTABLE ISP WOULD BE CAUGHT DEAD DOING THAT. To put this time frame into perspective, most ISPs will allow up to a 4-hour continuous connection before they summarily drop you ... I’m sorry, but they have other cash-paying customers that deserve their attention too ... sorry about that!

Now, let’s explore the first alternative, namely to make my Mac IIfx into a autonomous, independent ISP.

Why so blasted pricey?

First, that analog line to your house ... kiss it good by and replace it with say a 64 kilobaud hi-tech line. Remember that in this scenario your computer is the ISP. This special line is ultimately a direct connect to the local phone company’s ISP. Your Mac, your ISP Server, allows users to dial your modem up, ‘surf’ the World-Wide-Web and send E-mail via their E-mail accounts stored on your computer. That 64 kilobaud line will nicely accommodate about 25-30 users SIMULTANEOUSLY connected.

If you were a K-12 school district and had, say, $1400 per month available, you could rent a T-1 hi-tech line which can handle 1,544 kilobaud which is equivalent to 24 64 kilobaud lines. The T-1 line could nicely handle about 600-700 computers SIMULTANEOUSLY connected.

Don’t get hung-up on the numbers 25-to-30 and 600-to-700. You’re thinking "Good Grief! That’s all?". Now what did I say ... I said SIMULTANEOUSLY and I do! mean at once! Bottom line ... the 64 kilobaud option could more-than-handle the Middle School where I was doing all that INTRAnet work for a year. The T-1 hi-tech line could more-than-handle the ENTIRE school district here in Marquette (10 schools and the district offices).

I said ‘rent’ the hi-tech line ... yup, you rent these lines from your local phone company, for example, Ameritech which services the local Marquette area. BUT you get a heck of a lot more for your money than just a hi-tech phone line.

You also get:

• a Network Router box containing a high speed Network Modem or Modems
• complete on-site setup and maintenance of your Network
• your own Domain Name

InterNIC’s service is wrapped into your cost to the local MaBell

Note that this is a hardware ROUTER. This beast ‘routes’ the communication from your Mac to the actual INTERnet outside the school. Picture this ... someone in Africa is surfing the Web and ultimately asks your computer ‘Do you have information about bureaucracies?’ ... you respond ‘We don’t like bureaucrats here, so please go elsewhere!’. Then your computer hands-off this request to your connection to Ameritech. Your Network Router hardware is the hardware that physically re-transmits the user’s inquiry to the outside INTERnet world.

Third alternative?

I choose to call this approach ‘Web Space Client Rental’ because your Mac remains a Client and the Remote Site remains a Server.

Granted ... there are many of these Web Space Renters out there that will rent you space and assign you a unique address such as “www.lovetoteach.com”, for an extra fee of course! This sub-category of ‘Web Space Client Rental’ is called by others ‘Virtual Server’. BUT, again!, your Mac still remains a Client!

The cost for ‘Web Space Client Rental’ ... shop around ... I’ve found reputable ones in the neighborhood of $10-15 per month. The surcharge for a ‘Virtual Server’ ... bump the ante by another $20 per month and this latter figure does not include InterNIC’s fee of $50 per year. PLUS ... add $20 per month or so for your actual Internet connection. Remember ... the Web Site whose storage space you’re renting is a Remote Site that is not within your local calling area ... so you still need a ISP that is a local call away ... in short, you’ve got to get to the Remote Site!

Before I give the ‘bottom line’, I mentioned during my last interview Ameritech’s program, called “TEAMDATA”, a cost-sharing program for K-12 schools. There is another very good ISP in my local area, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ... and that’s UPNET, a division of Baraga Telephone Company.

Now ... the ‘bottom line’: