Internet Users' Guide for Safety and Health Professionals Updates and Errata

Last updated 3/1/97 Copyright 1996 and 1997 by Michael Blotzer The internet grows and changes at a breakneck pace with new software and new resources arriving on a daily basis. This page provides updated information and errata for my Internet Users' Guide as a service to the readers between editions. Internet Service Pricing It's amazing what competition has done to the pricing of internet connection services. Competition between local internet service providers, national service providers, and the large online services has reduced internet costs accross the board. For example, while America Online charged $113.20 for 40 hours of service in September 1995, by July 1996 the price for the same 40 hours fell to $78.95. Meanwhile, $20 for unlimited internet access has become a standard price for most national and local internet service providers. The table below updates Table 2 on page 22 of the Internet Users' Guide to July 1, 1996. Since recent polls indicate that the average internet user spends approximately 6 hours per week online I've added a column for 25 hours per month to represent an average user's monthly bill. Service 5 hr 10 hr 20 hr 25 hr 30 hr 40 hr American OnLine 9.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 Compuserve 9.95 24.70 24.95 34.70 44.45 63.95 Prodigy 9.95 24.70 29.95 29.95 29.95 59.45 ExchangeNet (LSP) 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 Internet MCI 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 Netcom 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 PSI 29.00 29.00 29.00 29.00 30.50 45.50 Microsoft Network 4.00 9.00 15.00 19.00 24.00 30.00 Service Providers In face of stiff competition by internet service providers the big three online services -- America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy -- have been hard at work improving user access software and services. Competition was too stiff for Apple Computer's eWorld service which closed down this spring, transferring customer accounts to America Online. My major criticisms of America Online, it's poor email software and high price have been corrected since publication of the Internet Users' Guide. In addition, support for Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsers has eliminated the need to put up with the limitations of AOL's former bowser of a browser. Readers should be cautioned that I've heard many complaints about network connection quality from AOL members so I recommend you evaluate connection quality in your area before making a long term commitment. Compuserve has also corrected problems mentioned in the Guide. Network performance is consistently excellent and the PPP dialer is now fully integrated with WinCIM and CIS's Spry Mosaic Web browser. CIS has also reduced the cost of connecting for frequent internet flyers by offering an additional 15 hours per month online time for $15. CIS is in the process of writing new access software based on internet standard protocols. Unfortunately, the CIS move to new servers and software will eliminate support for DOS users. I'm sorry to see this happen, as it means that soon I may not be able to use my Hewlett Packard 100LX palmtop computer for CIS mail. The price of progress. Sears and IBM sold Prodigy to Internet Wireless Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts company. Word has it that Prodigy will be moving to a total internet service by fall. Prodigy still has poor content as compared to CIS and AOL. The changes mentioned above forces me to reevaluate my ranking of online services in Table 3, page 25 of the Guide. While all of the Big Three are decent values now I've rated them all as "good" in the cost category because they are all significantly more expensive than basic internet service providers. Rank Service E-Mail Internet Service Other Services Cost Comments 1 Compuserve Excellent Excellent Excellent Good Overall great performance. Edges out AOL due to better network performance and CIS's Safetynet Forum 2 America Online Excellent Good Excellent Excellent Difficult to connect to since they went to flat rate pricing. 3 Prodigy Excellent Excellent Good Good Ranked third due to poor content in comparison with CIS and AOL. Usenet Newsgroup Exercise Exercise 7 on page 50 contains instructions for subscribing to Usenet newsgroups using Netscape Navigator version 1.x. Netscape implemented major changes to it's newsgroup module with the release of Netscape 2.0. If you're using Navigator version 2.0 or greater follow the instructions below. Log onto the internet. Select Netscape News under the Window menu. A new window will open with three panes. Open your news server in the upper left hand pane by clicking on the + sign next to the folder icon representing the server or by double clicking on the folder. If there is no server listed you will have to provide the proper news server address in the Mail and News Preferences... dialog under the Options menu. Select Show All Newsgroups under the Options menu. Unfortunately, Navigator versions 2.0 and greater do not have a search function. You must open each individual newsgroup section folder to find the groups that interest you. To subscribe to the sci.engr.safety newsgroup scroll down the list of folders, locate the sci.* folder and open it. Now scroll to the sci.engr.* folder and open that. Finally, locate the sci.engr.safety news group and click on the checkbox to the right of the group's name to subscribe. Click on the sci.engr.safety name to select it and display a list of messages in the upper right hand window pane. Select a message in the right hand pane to read the message text in the lowermost window pane. The button bar beneath the Newsgroup window menu contains a list of buttons for posting messages to the list, the message creator, or both, posting and mailing new messages, and other newsgroup management functions. By the way, iIf you know the name of the newsgroup you want to subscribe to you can subscribe by entering snews://news.server/group.name in the location field of the Netscape Navigator browser. For example, if your server is news.en.com to subscribe to sci.environment enter snews://news.en.com/sci.environment in the browser location field. To read the news at sci.environment enter news://news.en.com/sci.environment in the browser location field.