Xref: utzoo comp.society.development:62 news.misc:6600 soc.culture.nepal:294
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ysub!doug
From: DOUG@ysub.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell)
Newsgroups: comp.society.development,news.misc,soc.culture.nepal
Subject: Low-cost Usenet (Re: usenet in Nepal)
Message-ID: <91156.085853DOUG@ysub.ysu.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 91 12:58:52 GMT
References: <1991Jun3.141524.1@cc.helsinki.fi>
 <1991Jun4.170923.1@cc.helsinki.fi>
Organization: Youngstown State University VM system (YSUB)
Lines: 35
Followups-to: comp.society.development,news.misc

In article <1991Jun4.170923.1@cc.helsinki.fi>, harmo@cc.helsinki.fi says:
>
>Upon further reflection I came upon quite a bad mistake in the scheme.
>I believe that there are very few unix-machines (not to speak of mainframes
>that could run newsreader) in Nepal, so there probably would not be much
>demand, unless NTC set up a modem-based newsreading service. That would
>require
>quite a lot more than a simple feeding system (many incoming modems,
>complicated billing, customer support, ....... a new computer culture, in a
>word). Is there really no newsreaders for ms-dos -machines?

If you have a 8088 MSDOS machine with 640K and an adequate hard disk,
you can run Waffle to read e-mail and Usenet news.  Waffle talks UUCP
to Unix, and other Waffle systems as well.

Waffle can be used for local news-reading or as a dial-in BBS system.
It's limited to one user at a time, although I've heard rumors of run-
ning two waffle sessions under Desqview.  Each user has their own
signon.  DOS Waffle is shareware - $35/copy registration - source
is available.

There's also a Unix version of Waffle.  By making Waffle the login
shell, users have the same interface for news and mail reading as DOS
Waffle.  Multiple users are supported, and the host system's facilities
are used for uucp, news and mail transport.  Some public-access Unix
systems use Waffle now.  This is a commercial product, provided in
source, and quite reasonable (about $120 or so).

Coming back to the original point, these are some inexpensive, easy
to use (from user's point of view, not necessarily the sysop's) ways
to make news and e-mail access more widely available.  soc.culture.nepal
dropped in followups to this article, since we're getting far afield.
For more information about either waffle, see alt.bbs.waffle.

Doug