Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!husc6!m2c!applix!scott
From: scott@applix.UUCP (Scott Evernden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Networks Charges (was Re: Death to Portal)
Message-ID: <953@applix.UUCP>
Date: 10 Apr 89 15:20:18 GMT
References: <14428@gryphon.COM> <16409@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: scott@applix.UUCP (Scott Evernden)
Distribution: na
Organization: APPLiX Inc., Westboro MA
Lines: 40

In article <16409@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
>In article <14428@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
>>
>>I'd agree that for Joe Q. Averageuser PLINK is the best value for money
>                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Is it, really?  I just switched to the new BIX rates: $156/year FLAT for BIX
>and $15/month FLAT for Tymnet.  That makes it $28/month for UNLIMITED usage.
>And there are no additional charges because Tymnet is a local call away.
>How does that compare with the other nets in terms of price per month of
>UNLIMITED usage?
>
>Note also that BIX supports YMODEM Batch and ZMODEM.  None of the other nets
>(expect CIS) supports either one.
>
>-- Marco Papa 'Doc'

Not a "war of the nets", but I tend to agree with Richard.

For the ->average person<- who probably isn't a computer scientist, or
aleph-class hacker, PLink has more to offer.  The rate of uploads to
Plink simply is not matched elsewhere (I don't know about GEnie).  The
upload rate to BIX is but a dribble compared to Plink's.  The hourly
rate can be brought to well under $3/hr via PC-Pursuit.  And PLink
offers WXModem, which is about the fastest transfer protocol I've
seen.  None of the other nets support this.

You can log in almost any evening, and there are folks in conference
who'll be anxious to discuss anything you can imagine.  Sysop Harv
Laser is perpetually on-line, and has inordinate patience in helping
tyros figure out how to de-arc files, rename floppies, etc.

I'm not knocking BIX- the CATS gang is all there, JToebes and Lattice
provide _excellent_ compiler support (excellently), and JPournelle is
right there waiting to be flamed.  There are also a wide array of
interesting conferences on some pretty esoteric topics.

Most of the people reading this would probably prefer BIX, but then
you all realise you ain't Joe Q. Averageuser.

-scott