Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 16:06:41 +0100 (BST) From: grahame@demon.co.uk DEMON INTERNET LIMITED ====================== 42 Hendon Lane Finchley London N3 1TT 0181-349 0063 (London) 0131-552 0344 (Edinburgh) 0181-343 3881 (HelpLine) email internet@demon.net SERVICES.TXT - DETAILS OF SERVICES AND PRODUCTS OFFERED. Last updated 5th September 1994 The latest version of this document is available from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/Services.txt * Internet Connections * Consultancy and Programming Services * Modems, Serial Chips and Serial Cards * Books Please note that all prices exclude VAT. All products and services are subject to VAT at the prevailing standard rate. Contents ======== 1. Internet Connections 2. Points of Presence 3. Standard Dialup 4. Mail Forwarding 5. Network Connections 6. Reserved Line 7. 14.4K Leased Line 8. 64K Leased Line 9. Other Demon Internet Services 10. Software for your computer 11. Downloading software 12. Joining Info 13. Support 14. Consultancy and Programming Services 15. Modems, Serial Chips and Serial Boards 16. Books 17. Demon Internet v. The Rest 1. Internet Connections ======================= Demon Internet are the UK pioneers in low cost direct Internet connectivity having started our service in June 1992 and maintained the same powerful service and low price since. All services provide a true direct connection to the Internet, multiple mailboxes and Usenet news. Your computer will need to run PPP or SLIP - there is software available for most machines on our ftp server or downloadable through our guest download account and we can offer plenty of advice. The minimum subscription period is just one month apart from the Mail Forwarding option which is an annual contract. All payments are due in advance of using any service. We have leased lines to the States (256K and a permanent backup of 64K), our Points of Presence (PoPs), other Internet providers in this country inlcuding the JANET/JIPS Academic network, the Department of Computing Imperial College (major ftp and archie site) as well as to our leased line customers. We have a PoP in Central London to provide cheap leased lines to the 071 dialling code community. All our dial up modems are V.32bis 14,400bps and we drive them at 38,400 baud. The minimum speed at which you may connect is 2,400. 2. Points of Presence ===================== We have the following PoPs: London, Warrington (local call from Manchester and Liverpool), Edinburgh, Cambridge, Saffron Walden, Reading, Birmingham, Sunderland (local from Durham and Newcastle), Yorkshire: (Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Bradford) and the Isle of Wight (local call from Southampton and Portsmouth). We have over 300 lines. A PoP for Bristol is on order and will follow soon. Watch the demon.announce newsgroup for details or get ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/Press.txt for more details and details of future expansion. 3. Standard Dialup ================== Your computer on the Internet with your own Internet address. Use all of the standard Internet Protocols such as file transfer (ftp) directly to and from your computer. Run advanced searching and retrieval Clients such as gopher or WWW - Mosaic. Multiple sessions - download/upload mail and news, telnet and ftp etc. all at the same time. Full read/write Usenet news feed - the world-wide conferencing system with over 10,000 groups. Multiple mail addresses. Examples: grahame@yourmc.demon.co.uk cliff@yourmc.demon.co.uk postmaster@yourmc.demon.co.uk You choose the yourmc part (4 - 8 characters) when you join and you set up the users on your software. There is no need to tell us the usernames. This is possible as we use the Internet standard or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for transferring mail. We also have a different service (see POP3 in the Other Demon Internet Services section in this document) which may interest you. Mail must only be processed on the computer connected to us and not passed on to other computers for composing or reading. Primarily this means that if you have a network of computers and you are putting mail in mailboxes on workstations on the network, then we would request you take our Mail Forwarding option. Setup fee #12.50. Fixed price #10 per month. No on-line charges or usage/volume charges for mail etc. You have to pay your telephone service provider (BT or Mercury) their normal charges. However, once you have connected to your nearest Demon Point of Presence (PoP) you pay no extra - even if you connect to international sites. As a concession, payment for home users can be made monthly in advance by Access or Visa credit cards. No VAT invoices or receipts for monthly payments are issued for this type of account. You may pay for an annual account by cash, cheque or credit card and will receive a VAT invoice for this. Companies are requested to pay annually in advance and will receive a formal VAT invoice. Should you cancel your Annual standard dial-up subscription, any whole months outstanding will be refunded. This is calculated from the date of receipt by us of a request in writing and is valid only during the trading life of Demon Internet Ltd.. This does not apply to any other services. All notification of cancellation of accounts must be sent to us in writing or emailed to us. In the latter case you can assume we have actioned your request only on receipt of a reply. Please note that we are not responsible for what users at any of customers' hosts say or do. 4. Mail Forwarding ================== A supplementary annual charge to the Standard Dialup Service allowing you to use your own domain (e.g. yourco.com or yourco.co.uk) and allowing mail to be forwarded around an internal network. You do not need to take this option if you wish to send and receive mail as all Demon Internet accounts have this ability. Other domains such as .org and .org.uk can be arranged. We can take the delegation of an existing mail domain over from another provider which in turn means that the reverse is true. This means that if you already have a mail domain in use elsewhere then you can transfer that to be used with a Demon Internet account. Note that you will still keep your standard demon.co.uk mail address in addition to your own mail domain if taking this option. The cost is #200 per annum. 5. Network Connections ====================== Put your whole network, up to 253 computers, onto the Internet via dial up reserved line, 14.4K leased line or 64K leased line. All network connections include use of your own domain name and thus are not subject to the Mail Forwarding charge. If you already have your own Class C internet address we can route to that or we will register one on your behalf. You may connect to our nearest Point of Presence (PoP). We can recommend and supply suitable routers and advise on software. We will arrange the installation of leased lines on your behalf, however all BT installation and line costs must be met by you. 6. Reserved Line ================ A reserved V.32bis/V42bis modem and telephone line at your nearest Point of Presence (PoP). At no extra cost you can take the bi-directional option so that we can dial you when there is incoming mail and/or ftp and telnet sessions - any BT rental and line charges will be invoiced on. Setup #750. Monthly charge #100. *** Leased line options carry a 24 hour support contract *** 7. 14.4K Leased Line ==================== A leased line with a V.32bis/V.42bis modem at each end - the modem at your end is supplied on a free rental basis by us. Setup #1,000. Monthly charge #200. 8. 64K Leased Line ================== A 64K leased line for maximum throughput. Setup #1,000. Monthly charge #400. **** SPECIAL OFFER **** Instead of this monthly charge, pay an annual charge of #2,500. Offer closes 31st August 1994. Please ask for our comprehensive leased line information pack to be sent to you. A text version is also available from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/Llinfo.txt which we can also mail you. 9. Other Demon Internet Services ================================ POP3 - Post Office Protocol. Handy for the World traveller who needs to receive his mail whereever he can get internet access. More details are available from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/POP3.txt. #25 start up fee and #180 per annum. Mail Rewriting - mail that comes to one account can be sent to another mail account. This could be any mail address. Useful for companies with multiple accounts wanting to have only one domain and also for those people who want their mail temporarily redirected. #50 per annum per demon account. Unlimited number of mail rewrites allowed but on average only one change to the details per month allowed. World Wide Web - rent space on our server from #25 per 5mb per month. Discounts for large space. Design and conversion services also available as well as use of your own domain such as http://yourco.co.uk/yourco/. More details are available from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/WWW.txt. 10. Software for your computer ============================== We are providing a connection service and not software. However we have a very good supply of software and advice for a variety of computers. IBMPC/MSDOS - We have a set of public domain and shareware software which has been and is actively developed. It consists of communications (#10 shareware), offline news, offline mail, a front end to hang it all together and documentation. You may download this from our guest account when you join - see below. You need a hard disk machine with about 3Mb of disk space and about 520K of conventional DOS ram free. IBMPC/MICROSOFT WINDOWS - The public domain software is still not really suitable for the first time user for mail and news purposes although all other aspects are very well covered. Log on using our MSDOS software first and then join the newsgroup demon.ip.winsock and try out the WINSOCK software. The Winsock software is not difficult to setup and applications such as Mosaic just sit on top of it. Full instructions for doing this are available. Alternatively buy a commercial package such as NetManage Chameleon which is #295 and is a true Windows DLL application. Other applications such as Mosaic can be downloaded and simply sit "on top" of Windows software and run. Some books such as The Internet Starter Kit for Windows have a disk containing a Chameleon Sampler. This is easy to setup and provides more than sufficient connectivity. We don't sell such a book at the moment. For details on how to set up public domain/shareware windows software get ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/os/win*.txt and there is an installer which installs winsock, mosaic, win32s, gopher, ftp, archie etc. (but not news or mail currently) in ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/ibmpc/DIS/beta/diswin.exe - it's over 3Mb though and is not available by disk from us yet. APPLE MACINTOSH - You need MacTCP and various utilities. MacTCP is a commercial product costing about US$60. The best way is to buy Adam Engst's The Internet Starter Kit for the Macinstosh from us. This excellent book comes with a disk containing MacTCP as well as other utilities. With it, we supply a disk containing documentation and extra utilities at no extra charge. The book costs #27.98 and we ask #4 towards postage. You need System 7 and 4Mb of RAM. If you already have the book or MacTCP 2.0.2 or later we can supply our installer disk - we charge #7.50 + vat for copying and sending out a disk. Alternatively you can buy commercial products such as the VersaTerm range which provide a very neat environment. AMIGA - We have an comms, mail, news and some documentation supplied with an installer script (AMIGANOS). Not as highly tuned as our PC offering but still very powerful. A hard disk is virtually essential. Alternatively you can get a complete AmiTCP installer from our server which installs AmiTCP, mail, news etc. And you can run Mosaic on top of it. This is not available for download from our guest download account yet. ATARI and ARCHIMEDES - There are ports of the KA9Q software available form our server as well as mail and news along with active support news groups. A lot of our Archimedes users frequent the Arcade BBS and are always willing to answer questions. Arcade is on 0181-654 2212. SUN - There is some Public Domain software for Sun O/S 4.1 Patch Level 6 on our FTP server which provides adequate connectivity. Commercial packages include MorningStar PPP which we use and sell and Sun's own PPP which we don't. Please ask for advice for your particular setup if not mentioned above. 11. Downloading software ======================== When you join, you may download software using our "guest" account with a standard communications package. You may use X, Y or Z modem or even kermit. If you are unable to download you can pop in to our Finchley office with a disk and we will copy the software for you. If you would like us to send you the software we will do so but make a small copying charge of #7.50 + vat for this service. 12. Joining Info ================ We need to know: Your Name (Full name please) Company Name (if applicable) Address Credit Card No & Expiry Date if paying by Access or Visa Credit Card address (if different) Monthly or Annual account? Telephone No. Machine name 1st choice ________.demon.co.uk 4 to 8 characters Machine name 2nd choice ________.demon.co.uk 4 to 8 characters OR Domain name _________________ for Mail forwarding/networks (any length) 13. Support =========== Support for Internet customers is available as follows: * email: internet@demon.net * Newsgroups: demon.ip.support.* * Telephone 0181-343 3881 * Monday-Friday (not Bank holidays) 09:00-12:30, 14:00-21:00 * Saturdays 10:00 - 17:00 Emergencies only at all other times - this gets put through to an answering machine with details of our pager service. Please note that we cannot accept support queries by other methods (fax, posted mail etc.). 14. Consultancy and Programming Services ======================================== We have considerable experience in communications as well as producing high quality custom software, written in C, for a wide range of applications. We can perform Internet installations, configuration and training. Please contact us to see if we can help. Charges: #500 per day or #70 per hour including travelling. 15. Modems, Serial Chips and Serial Boards ========================================== We are dealers for the US Robotics/Miracom range of modems. Please mail orders@demon.net for details or use anonymous ftp from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/modems/modem.prices.txt 16. Books ========= We keep a number of Internet and Computing books in stock. Please email orders@demon.net for a list or use anonymous ftp from ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/books/... These include the O'Reilly range and Ed Krol's The Whole Internet. 17. Demon Internet v. The Rest ============================== Demon Internet are the leading provider of Direct IP connectivity in the UK for single host dial up services. We enjoy over 90% of the current user base. The reasons for this include: We started our service in June 1992 - years ahead of the competition; we offer a very low cost but very powerful service; we built our service largely on reputation and recommendation and, apart from doing the occasional computer show (which is expected of us), we avoid advertising. There are an increasing number of providers entering the market now. It would be impossible to compare our services precisely against each of these and indeed the details may get out of date too quickly. A summary of the important differences between us and the competition includes: Low cost a lot of our competitors charge 40 to 50% more. Flexible payment if you are a home user and have no need for a VAT invoice then you may pay monthly instead of annually. SMTP mail. Your own domain and unique IP address . allows maximum flexibility for the non- technical user to receive mail to multiple users e.g. by subscribing to a food mailing list as food@ all your mail is neatly sorted into the correct folder on receipt. Most other providers provide POP3 mailboxes reasoning that there is more software available for POP3 than SMTP - this is a rather short-sighted attitude based on their perhaps limited experience. All common platforms have SMTP mail clients available. The more technically advanced will appreciate the advantage of your IP address as opposed to a dynamically allocated one which changes every time you log on. Local call access more local call access points then any other provider and more being added. Full range our range of services extend from Standard Dialup to Leased lines - we are the only UK provider to provide these from the same company. Our own connectivity most other providers take a connection from another UK provider. One can build a powerful argument for and against this. Trying to be (a little bit) impartial the argument against this is that your costs and expansion are controlled by that third party leaving you with little flexibility in expanding your network. Your connectivity is only as good as that provider's. Indeed Demon Internet took service from such a provider when we started but found it impossibly restricting and expensive and so became independent and thus have our own lines to the Internet including two to the USA one of which is a permanent backup. The argument for taking Internet connectivity from a third party UK company is that they can concentrate on the big bandwidth issues whilst the end user provider can concentrate on his service only. Software we offer a connection not software. Having said that we have a very good collection of software for a lot of platforms and we do not restrict you to just the package (or computer) you start with. Indeed our servers and the Internet itself are bulging with the latest offerings and you can ask advice and disuss the merits of various packages with other users through our Usenet news groups. Please see the section earlier in this document `'Software for your computer'' for further details.