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From: pr...@suburbia.apana.org.au (Julian Assange)
Newsgroups: aus.net.access,alt.internet.access.wanted,aus.net.aarnet
Subject: Suburbia, Melbourne, non-profit $50 PA FLAT fee FULL internet,
4 hours a month FREE.
Date: 28 Feb 95 23:21:50 GMT
Organization: werple public-access unix, Melbourne
Lines: 456
Message-ID: <proff.794013710@suburbia.apana.org.au>
NNTP-Posting-Host: suburbia.apana.org.au
Keywords: suburbia
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4
With all these people trying to make a fast buck, let me remind people that there are
alternatives. Suburbia's link is 28.8k to the internet, so don't expect lightening
speed transfers. But if you can live with that, then read on...
*> Suburbia - your home away from home <*
[Proff]
SUBURBIA GLOBAL NETWORK SERVICES: SYSTEM INFORMATION
.---------------------.
l Suburbia GNS l
l P.O. Box 75 l
l Gardenvale Vic 3185 l
`---------------------'
Suburbia has a real-time, 24 hour per day link to the Internet through
APANA and caters for individuals, is fully non-profit, governmentally
independent and not a business in any way (being a member of APANA
also means that we can not offer services for commercial use). Our
loyalty is to our members and our focus is to provide an affordable
yet high-quality private & secure entry point into the worlds largest
and most sophisticated data network - The InterNet.
Our link to APANA is currently running at a line speed of 56k bps
(V.FAST+v42+v42bis modem) and APANAs link to the Internet is 64k ISDN.
Suburbia runs under a very powerful networking operating system called
Unix (Linux). Unix isn't exactly the most friendly OS in the world; so
the programmers at Suburbia have developed a moderately friendly, yet
powerful menu system based around a customized version of the World
Wide Web reader "Lynx".
Suburbia has over 1000 users, 10 dialin modem lines, 20Mb of main
memory, 6.5 Giga-bytes of drive space, including 7 on-line CD-ROMs
with 4500 Mb of MSDOS/Windows/Unix/Mac programs and GIF images
(pictures) available for downloading to your PC.
Who runs Suburbia and why?
Suburbia is a fully non-profit and is run by a several volunteers who
have been very generous with both their time and money. The time
donated by these people to program, administratate and maintain the
system hardware & software and generally keep Suburbia at state of the
art runs into well over $200k. It is for this reason alone that our
fees are so low. Suburbia's volunteers all have other lives to lead -
if you want glossy mailouts, a chic voice on the phone, or instant
"service", then Suburbia is probably not the place for you. If on the
other hand you want to be part of a real, friendly and developing
community of people whith a common interest in the free flow of
information and ideas and and not just $$ then welcome.
All volunteers have unlimited, free access to Suburbia. If you believe
you have something significant to contribute, be it programming,
hardware or anything else the system needs then shoot - we can always
use more help. Volunteers are expected to spend on average 1/3rd of
their time on-line preforming work beneficial to Suburbia. Hardware
lent/donated should have a value greater than that required to obtain
a time-unlimited account.
Features of Suburbia Global Network Services
* Telnet
The ability to connect INTERACTIVELY to any other live Internet system
in the world - such as Microsoft, or any other machine in the US or
Australia or anywhere else in the world connected to the Net. (e.g
check out if the Library of Congress in the US has a book that you are
after - search their catalog!)
This also means that if you connected to another machine on the
Internet - then you can connect into Suburbia in real time!
With telnet, you can also use the Australian X.25 gateway to connect
to any Austpac address for free! No need to pay telecom $12 per hour
plus volume charges plus NUI rental. You can also connect via telnet
directly to Compuserv and other metered services and typically reduce
your connection fees by 50% (because compuserv et al normally have to
pay Telecom a small fortune in packet fees, but they they don't pay us
a cent ;-\)
* FTP & FSP
Transfer Files or Browse through the file archives of systems such as
Simtel/Oak, Archie, Funet or Wuarchive interactively; if you see a
file that you want, no need to call international to get it, just
transfer it through the Internet to here and then download it.
* IRC
Talk interactively (like a data party line) to groups of people on the
Internet located all around the world (in whatever language you can
think of!). Specialized discussion groups about topics like cars,
unix, computers, politics, security, the web, sex, you name it, you
can find it!
* MUD
Play interactive games against people located all about the place on
the Net. Multi-User Dimensions are a favorite!
You can also connect to the International Chess, Backgammon and
Othello servers - which typically have 10-60 people playing at anyone
time from all over the world. The chess server is VERY good, if you
like chess you will be in heaven.
* UseNet News
Suburbia has a full 2000+ group news feed! - News is updated every
minute of the day. Great for answering your questions. (Usually
500000+ messages are available at any one time!). To give you a sense
of scale, if the messages were printed on paper, it would add up to a
whopping 44 metric tones of messages a week!
* WWW (World Wide Web) & Gopher
WWW is the fastest growing area of the 'Net, it will literally blow
your mind to see the depth, breadth and types of information available
through WWW. It can range from the complete works of Shakespeare or
Dante Aligori, not even hour old images of sunspot activity (depending
on time of day of course ;-) , computer underground and other
subversive literature, to the US constitution! If you have heard the
term "Net Surfing" it was almost certainly referring to the
information waves of the WWW.
Suburbia runs a WWW server of its own (with a 100Mb cache), so not
only can you use Suburbia to rifle through the rest of the world's Web
data, but you individually can become part of the Web itself i.e put
up your own information and links to other parts of the Web for the
rest of the Internet to view and peruse. This is true self publishing
at its best! Create a story? A paper? A program? A picture or
animation? A musical piece? A review? Run a non-profit club,
organization or political lobby group that produces a newsletter or
other information? All this and more can be put into your very own
Suburbia Web entry at no cost.
* E-Mail
INSTANT mail to the Internet - (well nearly instant) - it may take 45
seconds if its acting slowly!. That also means that mail to AppleLink,
Compuserv, America Online, Tymline, Keylink etc etc is also all
instant.
* Talk
If you have a friend located on another machine elsewhere in the
Internet - it may even be in Germany or America for example, you can
talk to them (via the keyboard) in real time!
* UNIX Shell
For the more adventurous, we offer full shell access from which you
can of course directly execute all the menu functions and over 1000
other Unix programs including C, C++, Perl, Fortran and Pascal
compilers, debuggers & assemblers, networking, mathematical, document
processing/editing utilities and more.
Borrowed Time
Donation levels for access to Suburbia are based on time - although it
seems somewhat silly to 'kick people off' if they have run out of
time, and some lines are still free for other callers to connect to!
Therefore, if there are free lines (as there often are between 12am
and 6pm) you can stay on and "borrow" time until the lines fill up -
at no extra cost!
Connection Methods
* Dial-Up
Suburbia has 10 dialups modem lines (10 x 14.4k/V42bis) which you can
connect to by calling the main Suburbia number (03)596-8366
(+61-3-596-8366 for overseas callers).
For interstate/std callers we also have all our modems on the
Australia wide number 190-0-224-0103 which is charged at only $0.35c
p/m (nb. due to telecom stupidity, the number rings out when all the
modems are busy).
* InterNet
If you have access to the InterNet, you can telnet to suburbia using
the address "suburbia.apana.org.au". Suburbia also supports WWW (World
Wide Web) and FTP as well as most other standard InterNet protocols.
* X.25
If you have access to Austpac (and an NUI) or another X.25 packet
service, you can connect to the X.121 NUA 262452036, login as
"austpac" and route to "suburbia.apana.org.au" from the X.25
gateway.
Suburbia features a easy to use yet powerful web menu system for the
beginners or non unix literate users that is fast, efficient and easy
to get the hang of.
Alternatively, if you are a unix guru, or just want to learn unix then
you can have access to a unix shell from the menus - or the menu's
from the shell; thus you have the ability to use the menus or the unix
shell whenever you wish!
_________________________________________________________________
Costs of access to Suburbia GNS
Access Level : Unpaid Level 30
Time Limit : 4 hours a month, 30 minutes per call
Exclude time between calls : 10 minutes
Borrowed Time: Yes
Donation required : $FREE!
Period covered : Until we become capitalists ;-)
Services - Telnet : No
- FTP : No
- FSP : No
- IRC : Yes
- Mail : Yes
- News : Yes
- Talk : Yes
- MUD : Yes
- Screen : No
- Term : No
- PPP : No
- SLIP : NO
- WWW : Yes (restricted)
- Menus : Yes
- Shell : No
_________________________________________________________________
Access Level : Donater Level 2-90
Time Limit : 90 minutes a day, 45 minutes per call
Exclude time between calls : 4 minutes
Borrowed Time: Yes
Donation required: $70 (employed), $50 (concession)
Period covered: 12 months
Services - Telnet : Yes
- FTP : Yes
- FSP : Yes
- IRC : Yes
- Mail : Yes
- News : Yes
- Talk : Yes
- MUD : Yes
- Screen : Yes
- Term : Yes
- PPP : Yes
- SLIP : Yes
- WWW : Yes
- Menus : Yes
- Shell : Yes
_________________________________________________________________
Access Level : Donater Level 2-180
Time Limit : 3 hours a day, 90 minutes per call
Exclude time between calls : 4 minutes
Borrowed Time: Yes
Donation required : $95 (employed), $75 (concession)
Period covered: 12 months
Services - Telnet : Yes
- FTP : Yes
- FSP : Yes
- IRC : Yes
- Mail : Yes
- News : Yes
- Talk : Yes
- MUD : Yes
- Screen : Yes
- Term : Yes
- PPP : Yes
- SLIP : Yes
- WWW : Yes
- Menus : Yes
- Shell : Yes
_________________________________________________________________
Access Level : Donater Level 2-300
Time Limit : 5 hours a day, 150 minutes per call
Exclude time between calls : 4 minutes
Borrowed Time: Yes
Donation required : $140 (employed), $100 (concession)
Period covered: 12 months
Services - Telnet : Yes
- FTP : Yes
- FSP : Yes
- IRC : Yes
- Mail : Yes
- News : Yes
- Talk : Yes
- MUD : Yes
- Screen : Yes
- Term : Yes
- PPP : Yes
- SLIP : Yes
- WWW : Yes
- Menus : Yes
- Shell : Yes
_________________________________________________________________
Access Level : Donater Level Unlimited!
Time Limit : None. (idle timeouts still apply)
Exclude time between calls : 0 minutes
Borrowed Time: Irrelevant ;-)
Donation required : $200 (employed), $150 (concession)
Period covered: 12 months
Services - Telnet : Yes
- FTP : Yes
- FSP : Yes
- IRC : Yes
- Mail : Yes
- News : Yes
- Talk : Yes
- MUD : Yes
- Screen : Yes
- Term : Yes
- PPP : Yes
- SLIP : Yes
- WWW : Yes
- Menus : Yes
- Shell : Yes
_________________________________________________________________
Access Level : Permanent Connection
Please email zerohour, or proff if you wish to discuss getting a permanent conn
ection to suburbia
_________________________________________________________________
How to apply for an account
To apply for an account, call (03)596-8366 (modem) or telnet to
suburbia.apana.org.au and login as "register".
_________________________________________________________________
How to donate to Suburbia GNS and upgrade your access
You can pay by credit card (while on-line!), 1900 calls (while
on-line!) or cheque or money order!
To Donate by credit card (bankcard, visa, mastercard only):
Suburbia's on-line credit system provides an way of instantly
upgrading your existing account to superior access levels entirely
without human intervention. The basic steps follow below (its easier
than it looks).
1. Decide on what sort of access you need (e.g $35/$50
(student/employed)) is the basic rate.
2. Have ready your VISA, Bankcard or Mastercard.
3. Connect to Suburbia and choose `Credit Transactions' from the
menu, or login as the user "credit" or type "nipopin -I" from the
shell prompt.
4. Choose "(c)redit account with credit card".
5. Enter in the card type, card number, name on card and expiry date.
6. Enter the number of Suburbia credits you would like to purchase.
7. Goto the Nipopin "(p)urchasing" menu and choose your desired
access level (you can `trade in' the full value of an old access
level towards a new one).
8. Your account has now been upgraded! Your enhanced status will kick
in on your next call (unless you logged in as "credit" - then the
changes will take effect immediately).
To Donate by cheque or money order (ask your post office/bank how get one
if you don't know):
Make the Check/M.O payable to 'Mark Dorset' and post it to:
.---------------------.
l Suburbia GNS l
l P.O. Box 75 l
l Gardenvale Vic 3185 l
`---------------------'
Remember to include your login and real name if you want your access
upgraded.
As soon as the donation is received your access will be upgraded. If
you would like your photograph (or something else) added to your WWW
home page for other users to see, just post it in, and we will scan it
for you.
To Donate by 1-900 number and instatly upgrade access anytime of the day or
night:
Simply dial a combination of the 1-900 numbers below to reach the
amount you want to donate to Suburbia GNS. You will receive a short
message of welcome, and then will be asked to press '0' to donate. A
secret PIN number will be read at which point you can call suburbia
back (if you only have one phone line), type the PIN number in on the
credit menu, and instantly have your account upgraded. The amount you
donate will be charged to you on your next phone bill. Note that the
below are recorded message voice numbers, not a modem/data numbers.
* 190-114-7503 = $10 credit on Suburbia
* 190-114-9002 = $30 credit on Suburbia
Remeber, you may need to call these numbers a few times to gain the
correct amount of credit to donate. Once you have the PIN numbers
written down, log back in and enter the credit menu to 'pay' for your
upgrade.
nb. Suburbia looses 30% of 1900 payments to telecom, so if you can pay
by one of the other payments methods depicted we would really
appreciate it.
_________________________________________________________________
If you have any general questions, please forward them to:
help...@suburbia.apana.org.au
Or to the administrators individually:
Mark Dorset (zero...@suburbia.apana.org.au)
New user inquiries, donations & finance, policy and hardware.
Julian Assange (pr...@suburbia.apana.org.au)
Technical consultant and programmer of timer system, WWW,
ftp/file server, guest accounts, menu system, security, kernel
patches, (unix) SLIP/PPP, NIPOPIN credit system, news, and
sundry other things.
Frank Scott (fsc...@suburbia.apana.org.au)
All PPP, SLIP, Winsock, CUCME, iphone, WWW home pages & HTML,
helpdesk.
Justin Evans (jev...@suburbia.apana.org.au)
General internet/unix quries, helpdesk, networked Doom.