Phil Karn said:

This idea of setting up your own independent network isn't as far fetched as it sounds, at least in a relatively local area with critical mass.

A little while ago I mentioned an SF Bay Area grass roots internet connection project. When I talked to Qarin about it almost 1.5 years ago, I'd thought that she was proposing an actual independent network beginning in Santa Cruz, which is why I brought it up. However apparently it is simply a connection to existing sub-Inets. After chasing down some leads, Tom Jennings' .vacation notice says to contact John Gilmore regarding SF area Little Garden business while Tom is away. This naturally leads me to suspect that everyone here except me is already well acquainted with all this...I've no idea what's going on with Little Garden myself. I like Phil's ideas, just for the record. :-) Anyway, here's what I found on the Santa Cruz project, as long as I've got it lying around. P.S. The following does not include some rumors I heard some months ago, that this project ran into opposition from commercial Internet providers around here. It also says nothing about Qarin's radio wave internet link ideas, so maybe that fell through. ---------------------- Item 1 of 2 ---------------------------

From netcomsv!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!injectnews 20 Sep 93 23: 11 PDT Wed Sep 22 18:55:52 PDT 1993 From: matthew kaufman <matthew@klinzhai.echo.com> Newsgroups: scruz.sysops Subject: Santa Cruz Community Internet (scruz-net) STATUS UPDATE Date: 20 Sep 1993 23:18:03 -0700 Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Community Internet (scruz-net) 903 Pacific Ave. #203-A Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (408) 426-6771 [for now...until new line is installed] matthew@echo.com, queue@echo.com, garlick@echo.com SEPTEMBER 20, 1993 STATUS UPDATE Summary: Full speed ahead. Full Service Begins November 1st. - We now have an office leased for the hub. Address is above. This is also our new mailing address. - We have ordered the 56kbps digital line to Mtn. View. - RGNet (formerly TLG, The Little Garden) has signed their agreement with Sprint for a new Internet feed. They will switch to Sprint on or about November 1st, coincident with our beginning of full service. - scruz-net has a registered domain name for our hub equipment and FTP/name servers (scruz.net) - scruz-net has a Class B IP address space to be used to provide IP addresses to sites that haven't already obtained an IP address (165.227.x.x) (initial sites... your IP address will be assigned this week) - Santa Cruz Community Internet (scruz-net) is now a registered fictitous business name. We also have a City of Santa Cruz business license. We are a partnership. - We have a checking account, so all the founding connection checks have been deposited. - We have some of the equipment required (donated and/or loaned), and we will be purchasing the rest over the next few weeks. - We will be obtaining a pager so that we can be contacted 24hrs in case of network problems. Latest timeline: October 1 - we move equipment into office space and begin wiring everything up. October 13 - 56kbps line installation should be complete. October 15 - Testing begins. We bring up 56kbps connection to Mountain View, begin software configuration of routers and terminal servers. Sites which want to participate in initial testing can start dropping off their modems and we'll assign phone lines. Full IP routing will NOT be in effect, but you (and we) will be able to test SLIP/PPP software, failure recovery, local routing. Initial sites: before connecting, you'll need to sign an actual agreement, which we're writing up. November 1 - Sprint begins routing our addresses to RGnet, who then routes them to us. Full operation begins. Any sites which have paid initial fees can begin full operation. (Note that this item depends upon the Sprint-RGnet arrangement) December 1 - First monthly payment due for connected sites. Thanks to the 9 people who've already gotten us checks for their initial connection, and the 3 whose checks we'll have soon. Without your commitment we wouldn't have been able to get started. Anyone else who wants to be included in the initial startup, you're welcome to join... a check for $406 to "scruz-net" will sign you up for a 14.4kbps connection. (That's $250 startup, $70 for the first month, $70 for the phone line at our end, and $16 for the first month of phone service at our end... you provide both modems, phone line at your end, and all equipment at your end needed for a SLIP/PPP connection). After this, fees are $86/month ($70 for IP, $16 for phone at our end. Faster connections (56kbps leased line, 128kbps over ISDN) are available... just ask. -Matthew Kaufman Qarin Van Brink Tim Garlick matthew@echo.com queue@echo.com garlick@echo.com ---------------------- Item 2 of 2 ---------------------------

From matthew@klinzhai.echo.com Wed Sep 22 23:11:09 1993 Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 23:14:34 PDT From: matthew@klinzhai.echo.com (matthew kaufman) To: doug@netcom.com Subject: Re: Santa Cruz Community Internet (scruz-net) STATUS UPDATE

well, the best source of information is to just ask us questions. The most interesting piece of information that someone who wants to start something similar should know is that there's a group like us in the Bay Area (San Francisco, Palo Alto and Mountain View) called The Little Garden, and they're in fact who we're working with to get IP connectivity to Santa Cruz. The contact person for that is Tom Jennings (tomj@wps.com) If they want to do something substantially south of Mountain View, it might be cheaper to connect to us, or perhaps we could work out an arrangement to reduce the digital line charges somehow, so definitely they should keep in touch with us as well. -matthew