TELECOMPUTING-^? - Bombjack.org

TELECOMPUTING continued...
The real action, however, takes place latenight on an
information service (a commercial network). Join one
and you'll never have to be alone again: hundreds of
personal computers - from anywhere in the world - can
be hosted at the same time by these mainframes. But
watch out: it's easy to get hooked and can quickly
became expensive; I have the bills to prove it.
There's a fee to join and you're charged for the time
you're "on-line" or actually connected to the
network. You don't incur long distance telephone
charges to reach a network if you live in a
fair-sized city since a local access number (Telenet
or Tymnet) connects you directly to the mainframe.
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Redlly, I'm gonna take a
screen shot for the INFO 64
article. OK?
sure
why not?
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ELECTRONIC RAPPIH' TRANSCENDS
A6E, SEX, £ RACE BARRIERS.
ARE YOUR ONLY LIMITATIONS.
YOUR 5Y5TEF1 CONFIGURATION
Along with a computer and monitor or TV, you'll
probably want a disk drive; tape is severely
limiting. Besides a modem (which we'll get to in a
moment) you must have a modular telephone with a hand
set that unplugs from the dialing mechanism: an old
desk model.
A modem is an R5-232C device which PDOulates computer
digital bit streams into audible pulses (that
telephone lines can carry) and DEPbdulates pulses
when they're received. There are three types for the
'64: 1) a manual modem like the 1600 Uicmodem
requires that you dial the number and plug the line
from the phone base into the modem; 2) the
programmable or automatic type like the 1650 l/icmodem
that dial for you (some programs make the modem
redial periodically on a busy signal, or answer
incoming calls); and 3) the intelligent or "smart"
kind which house ROM chips and do everything an auto
modem can and then some.
The modem determines the speed at which data are
transmitted, measured in bits per second or Baud
rate, the standard today being 300 bps. Transmitting
data faster can reduce your connect time (although
commercial networks know it and charge more for
transmissions over 300 bps). Dnly a smart modem can
handle mare than 300 bps on the '64. Carnnodare
announced a 1200 bps modem for the C-128 in January
but it won't work with the '64.
Buy a modem before joining a commercial network; free
time and/or discounts sometimes come with them. If
you already have a modem, consider a network "starter
kit."
PROTOCOLS
Terminal software determines what you can - or can't
- do on-line. It shuts out BASIC and makes your
computer emulate a terminal. Using it is like using
a word processor except for the fact that there's a
telephone line within the system. Stray noises on
the phone line will corrupt data in transit. This
isn't important when you're "talking" with another
computer user who can overlook an error here or there
but conversation isn't the only thing sent over phone
lines. Programs can get messed up and, as you
probably know all too well, one error is all it
takes.
Several ways of making sure precisely what was sent
got there, called "error checking protocols," are in
use and each method was designed for a particular
host computer. The error checking protocol in the
program running on your ' 64 must match that used by
the host system you want to access. Three protocols
predominate: 1) CBW-Punter, developed by Steve
Punter, used on BBS's hosted by Conmootare computers;
2) Xmodera, developed by Ward Christianson, used on
non-Conraodore host systems and sometimes used with
Xon/Xoff protocol (also called GO/HALT) to pause and
restart transmission; and 3) the "B" protocols used
on CompuServe.
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