Cypherpunks in Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, (and if someone wants to forward this to the Extropians list, which I am temporarily taking a break from, I'm sure some of them would be interested) The Internet service I use, NETCOM, is expanding into these cities, offering flat-rate service for $17.50 a month (if paid by credit card). I have no connection with them except for being a satisfied user. Many hacker friends of mine have NETCOM accounts, even if they have ordinary corporate addresses as well (at a Bay Area Extropians lunch, about 8 out of the dozen folks had NETCOM accounts). After all, NETCOM can't lay you off, can't complain about what you say, and essentially can't be leaned on by the Feds (not yet tested, but likely). A useful service. Some people use it mostly for their mail, and then just telnet to NETCOM to grab it. (NETCOM provides 5 MB for your files, but charges beyond that.) NETCOM also carries every newsgroup I've ever heard of, 4560 of them at last count, and even carried the controversial group "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children," about which I wrote a while back (I mention this mainly to show how much of a hands-off policy NETCOM takes). So far as I know, NETCOM has only kicked people out for advertising competing Internet services blatantly, in the netcom.* locall groups. Everything else seems to be fair game. (Some of the most notorious Net bozos are NETCOM folks, indicating further the freedom we have....I can't imagine any user on NETCOM being "disciplined" for racist, sexist, homophobic, or speciesist remarks.) And a full range of editors, newsreaders, mailreaders, ftp access, telnet, etc...all the usual stuff, managed well. There are usually enough modems to allow me to get on anytime I want to. And, to repeat, there are no connect charges and no time limits. If you're within the local call range of the nearest POP, you can stay logged-on as long as you like with no charges. It changed my life, no kidding. Here's the announcement: Xref: netcom.com netcom.announce:86 netcom.internet:1191 netcom.general:10006 Newsgroups: netcom.announce,netcom.internet,netcom.general Path: netcom.com!info From: info@netcom.com (Netcom Information Account) Subject: NETCOM expands coverage Message-ID: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Distribution: netcom Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 04:29:29 GMT Approved: Info Lines: 86 FYI: NETCOM On-line Communication Services, Incorporated is pleased to announce the expansion of the NETCOM backbone into Seattle, WA, Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC, and Boston, MA. Each of the new Points of Presence (POPs) will support a full range of network services including: o Internet Connections (T1 & 56kb dedicated and dialup) o News/Mail feeds with Domain service o Business Dial-up access (news/mail/ftp/telnet/shell) o Host dial-up (stock reports, US News, news/mail/ftp/telnet/shell) o Personal Network (SLIP/PPP) Connections (PNC) o FrameConnect Internet Services NETCOM can be your gateway to economical communications world wide. A connection to the NETCOM state-of-the-art network will deliver connectivity at very affordable prices. NETCOM offers Internet connections, news feeds, electronic mail, local access points throughout California, source archives, large discounts on communication equipment, consulting, and everything you would ex- pect from a leading communications service provider. To access the guest account, make sure that your communication settings are 8-1-N and use vt100 for a terminal emulator. After you connect, log in as "guest". Remember, you must use lower case letters. You can also log in via telnet by using netcom.netcom.com or an IP address of 192.100.81.100. The fol- lowing are a few of the local access 1200/2400/9600 V.32/V.42 numbers: o Atlanta and greater Metro area (Aug 31) ........ (404) 303-9765 o Boston and greater Metro area (Aug 31) ........ (617) 237-8600 o Washington DC, Falls Church, Arlington, Vienna, Reston, Alexandria, Fairfax, McLean (Aug 31)..... (703) 255-5951 o Dallas, TX ...................................... (214) 753-0045 o Seattle, Bellevue, Bothell, Bothell-Duval Des Moines, Halls Lake, Issaquaah, Kent, Kirkland, Renton, Richmond Beach, Maple Valley ............. (206) 547-5992 o Portland, Beaverton, Burlington, Forest Grove, Corbett, Gresham, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Sandy, Redland, Scholls, Stafford, Sunnyside, Tigard .... (503) 626-6833 o San Francisco, Sausalito, San Mateo, Foster City (415) 985-5650 o Sacramento, Folsom, Orangevale, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Carmichael ...................... (916) 965-1371 o Los Angeles, Inglewood, Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Van Nuys, Culver . (310) 842-8835 o Irvine, Anaheim, Fullerton, Laguna Beach, Orange, Santa Ana, Westminster ........................... (714) 708-3800 o San Diego, El Cajon, La Jolla, La Mesa, Linda Mesa, and Mira Visa ................................... (619) 234-0524 o Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Bolder Creek ......... (408) 459-9851 o San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Albany Richmond, Alameda, Piedmont, Belvedere, Orinda, Moraga, San Pablo, Lafayette, Emeryville, & Brisbane ...................................... (510) 865-9004 o San Jose, Campbell, Almaden, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, & Milpitas .... (408) 241-9760 o Stanford, Mt View, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City .................................... (415) 328-9940 o Pleasanton, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Bishop, San Ramon, Dublin, Newark, Danville, Sunol, and Bishop Ranch .................................... (510) 426-6610 VOICE: (408) 554-8649 FAX: (408) 241-9145 Local Access Numbers: (800) 488-2558 _____________________________________________________________________________ info@netcom.com (408)554-8649 NETCOM On-line Communication Services, Inc. --