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~*
/\_-\
<((_))>
\- \/
/\_-\(:::::::::)/\_-\
<((_)) MindVox ((_))>
\- \/(:::::::::)\- \/
/\_-\
<((_))>
\- \/
___________________________________________________
| |
| =/> [F]requently [A]sked [Q]uestions <\= |
| |
| Revision Level: 2.43 / Valid: 05/01/94 |
|___________________________________________________|
(c) Copyright 1994, Phantom Access Technologies, Inc.
"A beautifully designed venue, the best 4-Star accommodations in CyberSpace!"
-- Mondo 2000, Users's Guide to the New Edge
This document contains a abbreviated overview of the MindVox system. It is
relatively brief and touches upon some of the basic features that can be
found online, as well as answering the more common questions that we're
asked on a regular basis through the use of FEEDBACK.
If you find that what we're doing is of interest to you, then we en-
courage you to login to Vox using the GUEST account and take a look around.
There are many additional texts available giving much greater detail about
what MindVox has to offer; ranging from background information about how it
all began, to plans for future expansion and where we're heading.
If you prefer to do your browsing offline, there are also compressed
files that can be downloaded, and unpacked using any one of a number of com-
mon archiver and de-archiver programs that exist on MSDOS, Macintosh, Amiga,
and Unix-based platforms.
- - - - - - - - -
VOX ON VOX
----------
The original impetus that spurred us to work towards creating MindVox
has been written and re-written some three dozen times during the last year.
And every person doing the writing comes away with a perspective upon us,
that ties in with whatever publication or station that the story is destined
for. Since we seem to be hitting our stride and making the journey from the
ethereal and electronic to the tangible and touchable, where you can pick up
a magazine and have someone tell you what Mindvox is; with somewhat surpris-
ing regularity -- it's become difficult to set up the delineating points
where what we are begins and ends.
At first glance it may seem likely, even obvious, that a person who
finds their way here after hearing about us in FORBES, THE NEW YORKER or the
WALL ST. JOURNAL, is looking for something completely different than what
might bring a reader of ROLLING STONE, WIRED, or MONDO to our gates . . .
except, it never really works out that way. As we've discovered, some of
the most authoritarian curmudgeons with opinions set-in-stone, come packaged
in 20 year old bodies, while at the same time a lot of very open minded in-
dividuals are coming to the realization that life isn't over at 40 or
50something, and there are a limitless variety of experiences to be explored
if you have an opportunity to take off the mask you wear out there, in phy-
sical reality . . . because ultimately none of it has much of anything to do
with whatever role you have chosen to play; or fallen into. Because here,
you become your thoughts, your dreams, even upon occasion, your ideals.
To answer the question as well as possible. . . MindVox is a PLACE, a
community that thrives at the crossroads of the pervasive everywhere that is
CyberSpace. The residents who make their home here come from all walks of
life, a multitude of backgrounds, ages, cities, states, and continents.
What motivates them to come here is as varied as the individuals themselves,
and as common as the simple human need for companionship.
- - - - - - - - -
Okay, that's nice; before we get too far into this document let me take
a moment to point out that we're very aware that some of the grumpier people
reading these words are thinking "What the hell are you talking about??? I
thought this was an Internet site -- I just want to read alt.pets.chia,
write angry letters to @whitehouse.gov and download the latest revision lev-
el of every piece of software ever written to run under MSDOS. Can I do
that or what?!?!?!!?" So moving right along we'll go for a spin through
some of the features available online, a short tour of the hardware, and
finish it up with the price structure and answer some of the most common
questions we receive from people who aren't quite sure what's going on.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ MindVox - Overview of System Features ]/=-
A partial listing of the services and options available to Members follows:
ACCESSING MINDVOX
-----------------
MindVox is reachable through a variety of access points; the one you select
will most likely depend upon your geographic location and the availability
of network access points near you.
From a system perspective, it makes no difference how you connect with us,
and you may switch options as often as you desire. The only limitation is
that you can only be logged in ONCE; regardless of your point of origin, no
multiple logins using the same account are permitted.
The simplest method of connecting to Vox is if you are within our immediate
calling area. MindVox is physically situated in New York City, and a local
call from both the 212 and 718 area codes. At present we have 96 local dial
in lines and expand these as needed.
Our local hunt group in New York City (212/718) can be reached at:
300/1200/2400-bps +1 212 989-4141
96/14.4/16.8/19.2 +1 212 989-1550
Hayes V.FC 28,800 +1 212 645-8065
We are also "live" on the Internet, making MindVox available from over one
million (1,000,000) machines situated around the world, simply by typing:
telnet phantom.com
If your nameserver cannot locate us for any reason, you can connect directly
to our IP number by typing:
telnet 198.67.3.2
Finally, if you are making a long-distance call to access MindVox through
our local dial-up numbers, you have various options available that allow you
to save money on your long distance phone bills. The simplest of these that
we recommend is a service called PC-Pursuit which provides low-cost, flat-
rate DATA connections from almost any area code.
To obtain further information about opening an account with them, call +1
800/736-1130 and ask to speak with a PC Pursuit representative.
Phantom Access Technologies, Inc., is in no way associated with PC Pursuit
and whatever arrangements or billing methods you make use of will be handled
separately from MindVox
- - - - - - - - -
SYSTEM DESIGN
-------------
MindVox is comprised of a number of machines or "servers" as they're called.
Each part of our network is tuned to a specific series of tasks that its
been configured to perform best. Our flexible network architecture enables
us to easily upgrade and expand the system as faster technology becomes
available and our needs increase. This design also provides a high degree
of fault-tolerance and system stability, enabling MindVox to continue opera-
tion even when there is a hardware failure or system problem on individual
or multiple component(s) of our network.
While highly useful -- and surely, incredibly exciting to read about -- all
of this is transparent from a Member's point of view. From a client per-
spective you are presented with a single congruous whole, featuring our
powerful, yet simple-to-use Unix "wrapper" called VOICES. Voices is a con-
tinuously evolving user environment that presents you with a tremendous
amount of flexibility and control, while providing a comfortable layer over
the native operating system that Vox runs on. This allows you to make use
of Unix functionality without needing to master shell programming, command
line syntax, or a variety of confusing and often conflicting query formats
for obscure programs.
Although Voices is extremely configurable and full-featured -- to the extent
that persons who are familiar with Unix, may launch Unix applications from
within its shell -- the main priority is to provide a very simple-to-use and
intuitive overlay, that allows even novices to make full use of MindVox al-
most immediately, without reading any help files or syntax guidelines.
- - - - - - - - -
THE FORUMS
----------
Vox features an extended and constantly growing list of its own Forums.
These are not echoed, or available on any other system; they span a wide
range of subjects, including many sensitive topics that are not openly dis-
cussed or supported anywhere else. We neither allow, nor encourage illegal,
disruptive, or unethical conduct on the system, however anything up to that
point is welcome.
The conferences are designed to promote and facilitate easily accessible in-
formation and idea interchange, and to provide a unique gathering place for
a variety of individuals and experts in a sizeable cross-section of their
fields. The moderators of the various conferences, come from all over the
world, and have backgrounds as diverse as rock musicians, actors, politi-
cians, agents of various law-enforcement branches of the US government,
journalists, writers, film-makers, research-scientists, academics, sociolo-
gists, criminologists, past and present-day hackers, and of course; 3Jane.
Cyberspace and Cyberpunk oriented publications such as WIRED and MONDO 2000
also host their own conferences online and allow direct interaction with the
people involved with putting together the magazines, giving you the oppor-
tunity to let your views and opinions be heard in print. Vox is one of the
few places on earth where there are very direct ties from the ethereal all-
ness of the electronic, to the more tangible present-day realities of print
and television media.
In addition to all this, Forums will also occasionally contain people talk-
ing to one another and having fun; although this practice is strongly
discouraged.
- - - - - - - - -
INTERNET CONNECTION
-------------------
Mindvox has a direct-wired high-speed link into the commercial Internet
backbone called CIX. This means that our professional members are permitted
to make use of their network connections for business purposes, a possibili-
ty not available on most Internet sites; since many of them obtain their
network links through the strictly NON-COMMERCIAL NFSnet -- however, please
note that when you or your data, travels through the NFSnet backbone, you
MUST comply with its fair use regulations.
- - - - - - - - -
ELECTRONIC MAIL
---------------
All MindVox accounts come with a secure, personal mail address that provides
only as much information about your name and location, as you choose to dis-
close. You will receive a mailbox in the format of:
member@phantom.com
Since Vox is "live" mail is not batched in any way, or queued via uucp; in-
stead it is directly and instantly transmitted using the SMTP protocol.
This means that barring network difficulties along the way -- such as the
temporary un- availability of a host used for routing -- your mail will ar-
rive within a few seconds, from anywhere in the world. Conversely you may
send mail to any Internet or uucp (!bang path) addressible destination on
earth, as well as the following networks which are not a part of the Inter-
net, but provide "gateways" to their clients:
America Online Applelink ATTMail BitNet
Bix Compu$erve Delphi EasyNet
EuNet FidoNet GEnie Janet
Junet MCIMail PeaceNet Prodigy (any minute)
Additional gateways are opened as they become available.
Finally, in addition to individual mail, all members of MindVox are given
the ability to create and maintain personal mailing lists and alias files,
as well as being able to subscribe to a tremendous variety of public and
private mailing lists that are available on an increasingly large numbers of
topics.
- - - - - - - - -
USENET NEWS
-----------
We carry a complete Usenet Newsfeed, containing a selection of over 6,500
active newsgroups. The Usenet is the world's largest and most densely con-
nected network, reaching an audience of over twelve million (12,000,000)
people and an average of 6 million daily readers. Over 75 megabytes of News
comes into MindVox every 24 hours, at the rate of approximately 6 new mes-
sages per second. From the time it arrives, news is kept online and ar-
chived for a period of two weeks (14 days earth time).
- - - - - - - - -
FILE TRANSFERS
--------------
We feature a cross-section of software for the PC, Amiga, Mac, Unix, Apple,
and NeXT platforms, as well as a sizeable collection of buffers, articles,
and text from the computer underground, dating all the way back to the late
70's and the very first online computer bulletin boards ever to exist. Our
local Archives are housed on dual 1.7gigabyte disks and provide most of the
current utilities and programs that are USEFUL and regularly requested or
used. We do not attempt to archive every program ever created for every
platform under the sun; if you're arriving here from a PCboard or similar
background, the way things work on Vox is a little different.
Instead of physically mounting gigabytes of junk, Vox provides a direct
gateway through the use of "mirrors" which reflect links to other sites, who
in turn mirror still more sites, allowing any member of MindVox to access
hundreds of thousands of gigabytes of software that can be found on servers
all over the planet. The Archives are in fact the largest distributed col-
lection of programs, files, articles, and papers that exist on earth.
When a program is not physically present or directly mirrored in the Ar-
chives, you can still make use of the FTP or FSP protocols to download the
programs you desire from any one of several hundred thousand publicly-
accessible hosts worldwide.
To facilitate uploads and downloads from your system to ours, Vox provides
all the usual protocols that are supported by any modern terminal or commun-
ications program, including Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, and Kermit, as well as
Trans; although, honestly, to our knowledge maybe one person ever, using a
C64 and hiding in a bomb shelter in Idaho, has ever used -- much less heard
of -- Trans. Yet, there it is . . .
Since we fully realize that a day doesn't pass where a remarkably gifted
person with a questionable hold on reality, somewhere in Kansas or Tokyo or
someplace that isn't HERE, doesn't spend hours hunched over a compiler in
some dimly lit room, drinking too much Jolt and PLOTTING to CHANGE EVERY-
THING by creating *THE* best-ever, most incredible transfer protocol ESPE-
CIALLY FOR transferring JPG's and any game that is at least 4 years old; we
here at Vox just want to let you know that if you want to spend vast amounts
of time trying to complicate things that work, we're right behind you, after
all where would Unix be without people who thought this way.
- - - - - - - - -
NETWORK TRAVEL
--------------
Vox supports the telnet protocol, as well as offshoots such as tn3270, and a
lightbar driven, hypertext edition of the standard telnet program, called
HYTELNET. This allows you to travel to any other node that is connected to
the Internet. There are of course additional methods of contacting machines
such as rlogin, ftp, fsp, etc, telnet is simply the most common and flexible
application developed and used for this purpose.
- - - - - - - - -
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
-------------------
MindVox supports all the latest information gathering tools that are avail-
able on the net, including such applications as Gopher, Archie, Whois, World
Wide Web, and WAIS. Features of this nature are constantly added as they
become available and the applications themselves enhanced as new revisions
are created and made accessible.
If you do not understand how to use these packages, or the concepts behind
them, there are a variety of texts, papers and guides available online in
the Archives, including the full text of the first edition of Zen and the
Art of the Internet. To obtain even greater information, any bookstore with
a reasonable computer section will contain several books on the topic, such
as Ed Krol's excellent book, titled: WHOLE EARTH GUIDE TO THE INTERNET.
- - - - - - - - -
REAL-TIME CONFERENCES
---------------------
Vox hosts a variety of its own internal real-time "chat" areas, as well as
providing gateways into a several international distributed chat networks.
Most of these networks are not controlled by any single governing body or
situated on any specific machine or group of machines. The sections, or
channels can range from very tame, to complete anarchy. Since it is not
possible to consistently exert control over any particular area of the net
for a perceptible length of time, what you find in any given place can vary
tremendously from hour to hour -- with massive upheavals and changes some-
times taking place over the course of a few days.
Some of the networks which are accessible include:
IRC / (International Relay Chat)
--------------------------------
The IRC network is presently the single largest distributed chat network on
earth. It dwarfs such commercial nets as Compu$erve and spans the world
over a series of "servers" which pass traffic back and forth. At any given
time there are an average of 1,500+ people online, and several hundred chan-
nels to choose from.
IRC is also home to a great deal of experimentation with "doorways" into
other services, roving Robots and Cyborgs which can range from simple guides
and providers of information, to full-fledged experiments in AI.
MindVox provides access to several different CLIENTS (or "front-ends") for
IRC, as well as supporting our own Server and a plethora of Robots and Auto-
matons and Twilight-Zone Operators.
ICB / (International CB)
------------------------
ICB is a smaller more experimental network which is hosted on a series of
machines that has not yet been echoed around the world. It averages several
hundred people online at once and features a limited-by-design, more con-
trolled environment, which is much less prone to anarchy than the sweeping
mass of IRC.
DDIAL / (Diversi Dial)
----------------------
Diversi-Dial was one of the first distributed networks to ever exist. Hav-
ing its origins in 1984 as a multi-user program to connect multiple phone
lines into a single Apple ][ computer and many Novation Apple-Cat modems, it
was the first functioning microcomputer multi-user chat system.
At its peak DDIAL's stretched across the world and had the ability to LINK
to each other, creating a very simple example of the paradigm that IRC would
adopt many years later.
DDIAL was eventually ported to the IBM PC family of machines which resulted
in several thousand such systems in the late 80's.
As of this writing there are roughly a dozen remaining DDIAL's running on
Apple computers, Novation has long since gone Chapter 11, Bill Basham (the
author of DDIAL) has gone back to being a full-time doctor, and one slightly
disturbed person in the Phantom Access Group has written the world's only
version of DDIAL that will run on Unix based machines and allow T1 connect-
ed, distributed sites with gigabytes of disk and thousands of users, to hook
into Pig's Knuckle Idaho's very own 7 line DDIAL running at a blazing fast
300 baud. Why this was done is a question best left to mental health pro-
fessionals.
It serves no useful purpose whatsoever, except providing people with a very
strange rush to realize that you can use one phone line to dock the
equivalent of a starship to a tiny, obsolete machine -- that many of us grew
up with and spent thousands of hours sitting in front of -- running at 1mHz
somewhere out there in the middle of nowhere. Cool mahn . . .
Talk (nTalk, yTalk)
-------------------
Talk and all its variants provide one-to-one access to conference with other
people either locally on Vox, or across the networks at the other end of the
world.
Phone
-----
Phone is an extension of the Talk protocol that allows multiple people to
take part in a localized or distributed mini-conference wherein many parties
can all chat with each other at the same time and set up a sort of "personal
conference."
- - - - - - - - -
Additionally, experimental networks such as CLOVER and 4M are available at
various times for testing purposes. As these systems and others, evolve and
become more stable they will be made available on a more permanent basis
from within MindVox.
- - - - - - - - -
ONLINE SIMULATIONS
------------------
Vox has a variety of games and simulations available online. These range
from rather simple single-players games with one or two hour playtimes, all
the way to extremely detailed and realistic multi-player simulations that
present ongoing campaigns and universes with evolving storylines, political
systems, and landscapes being imagined into existence as play progresses.
- - - - - - - - -
CUSTOM FEATURES
---------------
Inasmuch as we like to think of ourselves as absolutely spiffy and the epi-
tomy of full-bodied robustness, we realize that perhaps someone out there
reading these words right now is shaking their head in sadness and thinking,
"...it all sounded so promising, how could they leave out the Fun with Silly
Putty forum, and the BARBIE DOLLS THROUGHOUT THE AGES Archive area." Well,
it's probably because we forgot -- or you're just really weird and into
stuff nobody else cares about. Be that as it may, we tend to be a shining
beacon calling out to people JUST LIKE YOU, only different; so if you want
something that you don't see online, well TELL US, TALK TO US, turn off the
TV and communicate. Chances are that our relationship will be much better
and you'll find the best kind of true happiness and joy that money can buy
without a drug dealer.
- - - - - - - - -
THE HARDWARE
------------
The MindVox system operates within the Phantom domain, a sub-net comprised
of various RISC and CISC based hardware. Whatever their individual archi-
tecture happens to be, all the machines are Unix-based and set up as a dis-
tributed network, wherein each machine is tuned to a specific purpose it has
been configured to handle best.
If the none of the following makes a great deal of sense to you -- don't
worry about it too much. There's no quiz later and the information is only
provided for the benefit of those few propeller-heads who spend their days
living in the land of Xinu and are curious about what toys are available in
the virtual kingdom.
-=/[ Humming away behind the Magical Curtain we have: ]/=-
A collection of SUN SparcStation and SparcSERVER machines, spanning the
gamut from a thoroughly obsolete SS1+; to three SparcStation2's, two of them
making use of the POWER uP clock-doubler chips by Weitek; moving up to an
SS10/51 which is the main MindVox machine; and ending with a SparcSERVER
which looks like a big metal tower roughly the size of a refrigerator and
draws about as much power as everything else in the office combined. It
also makes a remarkably un-musical, loud humming sound that makes any furni-
ture, equipment, or people, within a radius of about 10 feet, vibrate along
with it. On the positive side, it's really zippy.
All the toys that come from SUN are running SunOS 4.1.3 with various
patches, kernel modifications, and bandages, supplied and applied as needed.
The low-end machines have 32mb RAM, the mid-range 64MB, and the Servers have
256MB available. All machines on the network can be booted in a stand-alone
mode, to allow for hot-swapping, and emergency cut-overs in the event of
media failure.
A NeXT Turbo, equipped with 64MB of RAM, and running version 3.1 of the
NeXTSTEP OS over Mach. It's black, sleek, and very easy on the eyes. It's
also the major focal point of every reporter, media dude, and stray
passerby's awareness; when any of these people happen to wander through our
offices in search of fame, fortune, or something interesting to do for a few
hours. It really is too bad that NeXT's hardware division fall down and go
boom; it's an extremely cool machine and far more interesting to sit down in
front of than just about anything short of an SGI Indigo^2.
A perpetually growing assortment of SCSI and SCSI-2 disks, which form a com-
mon "pool" that various machines make use of via NFS and lots of little
pointers scattered all over the place, providing MindVox with a little over
15 gigabytes of storage at this time.
A Datawheel that makes use of HP 8 gigabyte DAT tapes, and provides a simple
means of automated network backup, which requires no system downtime, and
gives us easy access to any given piece of data that may need restoration or
reconstruction due to system, or client error.
Two CDroms; a QICtape device; lots of monitors all over the place, some of
them really big and color and pretty to look at, and a few sorta fuzzy, ugly
greyish ones that emit high levels of radiation and are connected to servers
which nobody ever sits in front of anyway; rounding it all out are a whole
bunch of disk drives of various shapes, sizes, weights, colors and origins.
About half a dozen machines of various makes (Mac, 386, 486, Amiga), which
are hooked up through our ethernet so that we can send junk back and forth
without having to format stacks of disks and actually make use of any of the
afore-mentioned disk drives.
Roughly half a dozen additional machines are SLIPed into the PAN network.
These are usually private sites belonging to staff members or MindVox
clients who have made arrangements to set them up.
Connecting all of this to the outside world is a Leased-line T1 connection,
going through a Cisco router, and some kind of csu/dsu which is sitting on
top of the router but I don't think anybody has ever bothered to examine the
not-so-fine print on it and figure out who made it.
We are currently wired for up to 256 local access dial-in lines; at present
96 of these are active, with about 4-6 new lines going live every month on
average. At present there are 16 low speed dial-ups available, as well as
80 high speed modems capable of speeds ranging from 9600-28,800bps.
With our current set-up we are capable of comfortably supporting approxi-
mately 250 simultaneous users, and if everybody is well behaved and doesn't
push, shove or have a need to spawn 20 copies of Emacs, we can tweak that
figure up to around 350 users (although by then the load average is hitting
5.0 on all machines). Remember what we said about incomprehensible gibber-
ish at the start of this information file and don't worry about it too much.
Basically we're one of the largest publicly accessible Internet sites on the
planet and can support a whole buncha people all at once.
- - - - - - - - -
BILLING POLICIES & PAYMENT PLANS
--------------------------------
As MindVox has made the journey from some 200 Members during our very early
Alpha and Beta testing stage, where a normal day might consist of the VOICES
layer crashing 5 times, followed by the newsfeed dying, and our terminal
server deciding that it didn't like 9600 bps modems; to its present incarna-
tion as a stable and reliable distributed network with a T1 connection to
the Internet, banks of high speed (9600-19.2K) modems, and a userbase that
hovers around the 4,000+ mark as this text is written. It's become increas-
ingly apparent to us that our membership is comprised of an extremely
diverse group of individuals.
Over this gradual process of change and expansion the membership of Vox
has basically fallen into two main groups: the original core group of
Members that made their home on MindVox out of a desire to play a more cen-
tral role in guiding and shaping the evolution of our experiment. This is a
long way of saying that they're here because Vox means something to them;
having invested hundreds or thousands of hours of their time online here,
during phases when many of the current features either did not exist at all,
or if present, their functionality was -- at best -- highly irregular
(ahem), and realistically there was nothing much here EXCEPT for our commun-
ity. They came here to witness the birth of a nexus point in Cyberspace
and establish their presence within its domain, and remain through our con-
tinual metamorphosis because it has become home. They are also the single
reason that MindVox was able to exist in the first place, and grow to the
level we have reached so quickly.
While this was -- and realistically still IS -- the reason that we
started MindVox and continue to devote a sizeable portion of our personal
time to it; this first group has been joined by an increasingly large con-
tingent of individuals who may enjoy partaking in the Forums and exploring
the benefits of Vox, but whose more immediate concern is making use of the
plethora of Internet tools and services that are available online. Vox or
no Vox, they want to use telnet to travel to other sites, download files
through ftp, cruise online libraries through archie, wais, or www, and in
general make use of the tremendous flexibility of online communications to
enhance their professional or personal goals.
The current PLANS have evolved in response to the demands and comments
of our membership and are designed to encourage active participation within
MindVox, allowing those who would like to make use of the services avail-
able, to do so at an extremely reasonable price, while at the same time not
penalizing the individuals who comprise the core of our community, and are
more than just patrons. If you cannot find a PLAN type that seems to suit
your individual desires, feel free to leave FEEDBACK and let us know how we
may better accommodate you.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ MindVox / [ACCOUNT TYPES] / Overview ]/=-
______ _____________ _________________ ___________________________ _________
| | | | | |
| Plan | Price/Month | Start-Up Fee(s) | Access Type | Storage |
|______|_____________|_________________|___________________________|_________|
| | | | | |
| 1. | [$ 10.00] | *** No Fees *** | Non-Interactive / MindVox | 2[MB] |
|______|_____________|_________________|___________________________|_________|
| | | | | |
| 2. | [$ 10.00] | *** No Fees *** | Non-Interactive / Usenet | 2[MB] |
|______|_____________|_________________|___________________________|_________|
| | | | | |
| 3. | [$ 17.50] | *** No Fees *** | FULL ACCESS Vox/Internet | 2[MB] |
|______|_____________|_________________|___________________________|_________|
| | | | | |
| 4. | [$ 17.50] | One Time: [$40] | *UNLIMITED* Full Access | 5[MB] |
|______|_____________|_________________|___________________________|_________|
- - - - - - - - -
THE PLANS - DETAILED SUMMARIES
------------------------------
-=/[ PLAN 1 -- MindVox ONLY Membership / ($10.00 Per Month) ]/=-
=/> Accounts may also be Pre-Paid for ONE (1) Year at a rate of: $100 <\=
Plan 1 accounts are usually utilized by people who telnet into MindVox from
other sites throughout the world. The individuals who make use of this op-
tion already have access to Internet services such as mail, FTP, IRC, the
ability to read News, and various other options. With this in mind Plan 1
is designed to give you access to all of MindVox's SITE-SPECIFIC features,
without making you pay for redundant services that you already have access
to elsewhere.
Features
--------
-=]) Access to all public MindVox Forums.
-=]) Internet accessible Mailbox
-=]) Partial access to online Games and Simulations.
-=]) Access to local, non-distributed CHAT areas.
Limitations
-----------
NO Interactive or "live" Services are available, including ftp, irc, telnet.
NO access to the MindVox Archives section.
No Usenet access.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ Plan 2 -- Usenet ONLY Membership / ($10.00 Per Month) ]/=-
=/> Accounts may also be Pre-Paid for ONE (1) Year at a rate of: $100 <\=
Plan 2 accounts are designed for some of our local clientele whose primary
interest in the MindVox system is as an easy-to-use gateway to the global
connectivity of the Usenet. Our VOICES software provides you with a
simple-to-use, yet powerful interface that sits on top of Unix and allows
you to make use of services without enduring the sharp learning curve and
frustration of attempting to figure out arcane and incompatible Unix pro-
grams.
Our more advanced users are given the opportunity make use of the full spec-
trum of Unix tools and applications from within the VOICES layer; allowing
easy customization of your individual environment to suit your experience
level.
Features
--------
-=]) Full Usenet newsfeed with over 6,000 active groups (55-60MB a day of
News)
-=]) Internet accessible Mailbox
-=]) Partial access to online Games and Simulations.
-=]) Access to local, non-distributed CHAT areas.
Limitations
-----------
NO Interactive or "live" Services are available, including ftp, irc, telnet.
NO access to the MindVox Archives section.
No access to the MindVox Forums.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ Plan 3 -- ACCESS ALL AREAS / ($17.50 Per Month) ]/=-
=/> Accounts may also be Pre-Paid for ONE (1) Year at a rate of: $150 <\=
Overview
--------
You want it all, everything! Combines all the features of MindVox in one
easy to digest, low-calorie, fat-free package that gives you complete access
to everything that exists on MindVox.
You get the mystique of Vox, where you can cavort in a beautiful virtual en-
vironment populated by a stellar collection of people who get thrown off of
every other system in Cyberspace; those in attendance include some of the
luminaries of Cyberpunk literature; the dregs of the art world; out of work
movie people who will offer you glamorous jobs for no pay; ex-hackers from
LOD, KOS, and a dozen other affiliations, who played as major role in shap-
ing the development of Cyberspace over the last decade; government people
from all kinds of neat three-letter acronyms who have put quite a few of the
afore-mentioned crowd through the processes of our delightful legal system;
lawyers and legislators who want to discuss the deep inner meaning and truth
behind what the hackers did, what the government does, and what it all real-
ly means anyway; people who take too many drugs and then write about it;
people who can't stand people who take drugs; a bunch of reporters, journal-
ists, and media people, all gathered here to watch what all the other groups
are doing; if all this wasn't enough there's also Elvis & Wired -- together
again, almost, for the first time.
Features
--------
-=]) Access to all public MindVox Forums.
-=]) Full Usenet newsfeed with over 6,000 active groups (55-60MB a day of
News)
-=]) Full Access to the MindVox Archives.
-=]) Internet addressible Mailbox.
-=]) Complete access to single and multi-player online Games and Simula-
tions.
-=]) Full access to local non-distributed CHAT areas.
-=]) Access to global and international, fully-distributed chat networks
such as IRC and ICB.
-=]) The full spectrum of live, interactive services such as:
=/> FTP
=/> FSP
=/> Telnet
=/> Hytelnet
=/> TN3270
=/> Gopher
=/> Talk and nTalk
=/> Archie
=/> WAIS
=/> WWW
Limitations
-----------
The sole limitation that exists on Plan 3 accounts, pertains to Members who
login to MindVox through the local dialups in NYC. You are given UNLIMITED
use of the MindVox Forums, Usenet News message bases, Mail for personal use,
and NON-INTERACTIVE services. However, you are limited to 60 hours per
month (2 hours per day) of INTERACTIVE service; after a cumulative 60 hours
have passed, your account begins to accrue charges at a rate of $1 per hour
connect time.
Interactive services are defined as Ftp, Telnet, IRC, ICB, Archie, Gopher,
Multi-Player Simulations, and Archive Downloads. You will be notified once
you have reached the 60 hour limit and your account has begun accumulating
hourly charges.
- - - - - - - - -
THIS LIMITATION DOES NOT APPLY TO MEMBERS WHO TELNET INTO MINDVOX AND DO NOT
TAKE UP PHONE LINES. IF YOU ARE PHYSICALLY LOCAL TO VOX, BUT TELNET TO US
THROUGH A UNIVERSITY, OR OTHER SITE, THESE CHARGES ALSO DO NOT APPLY TO YOU.
- - - - - - - - -
The time limits and subsequent hourly charges will effect only a very small
percentage of Members, and exist solely to deter people from logging in,
entering IRC or telnetting to some site, and then leaving processes idled,
sometimes for DAYS at a time. This is extremely rude, and when enough peo-
ple do this, all the local dial-ups get continuously clogged by individuals
who are doing NOTHING except leaving their inactive sessions online.
ONCE AGAIN, THIS *DOES NOT* EFFECT YOU IF YOU ARE TELNETTING INTO VOX, since
you are not using any phone lines, and when you idle a process from a telnet
session, you do nothing more than take up an infinitesimal amount of
bandwidth and CPU time, which is not really applicable to system performance
or response time. Since we have no particular desire to penalize people for
problems that they do not create, telnet sessions are not subject to the 60
hour time limit.
Local Callers, please remember: this time limit pertains ONLY to "live"
services, you still have unlimited use of all Forums (MindVox only and
Usenet) and Mail, and you are welcome to take part as often as you desire;
the clock is not "ticking" when you're reading or writing messages, it only
applies to INTERACTIVE sessions such as Ftp, IRC, Telnet, etc . . .
- - - - - - - - -
Disk Storage Charges
--------------------
Each account -- irrespective of plan type -- is allotted two megabytes (2MB)
of disk space. Additional online storage is billed at a rate of $2 per
megabyte, per month, pro-rated. What this means is that we really DO NOT
want you to use MindVox as an online storage chest where you leave a lot of
junk laying around. On average, 2 megabytes is eight times the storage that
most of our Members make us of. If you need to temporarily keep additional
material online, as long as it does exceed 5MB for a period longer than 48
hours, you will NOT be charged.
This means that if you need to store up to 5MB of files in your home direc-
tory, you may do so at no additional cost for a period of 2 days, after
which time you will be billed in full. If you need to download a very large
source code distribution -- such as the MIT X Windows release, or Linux;
then you should first check to make sure that it is not in the Archives al-
ready, and then you might want to place it into the publicly accessible
/temp(orary) file area. You are not responsible for materials that are
stored in this section, however any files or programs that are left here may
be removed without notice at any time that an automated daemon -- or
overly-alert system administrator on too much caffeine -- decides that a
partition is running low on disk space.
This is a lengthy way of saying that in the past when we did not enforce
disk quota limits we had a few too many people who thought it was all right
to store the BSDI distribution online, along with personal reference copies
of every mailing list on the planet that they were ever on. When anywhere
from 20-50 people are keeping HOME directories that hover between 40-65
megabytes, it becomes impossible for us to allocate disk storage partitions,
or make automated tape backups.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ Plan 4 -- Gold Membership / ($17.50 Per Month) [One Time $40 Startup ]/=-
=/> Accounts may also be Pre-Paid for ONE (1) Year at a rate of: $150 <\=
Plan 4 accounts -- the MindVox Gold Membership -- are functionally identical
to the previously detailed Plan 3's. Which is to say, these accounts pro-
vide you with full access to everything online. The main difference is that
after paying a one time $40.00 fee, you are provided with UNLIMITED online
time from a local dial-up, and given a personal file space of 5 megabytes.
It is STRONGLY suggested that prospective members DO NOT start their journey
on Vox with a Plan 4. If you feel this type of account would suit your
needs the best, its probably a very good idea to login as a Plan 3 account,
which provides you with IDENTICAL access and gives you the opportunity to
look around, and see if you are going to be spending a sufficient amount of
your online existence here to warrant the initiation fee.
The usual 2 hours per day allocated to members, is 400% more time then most
people will make use of on a daily basis. The only people who benefit from
a Plan 4, are the minority (currently scaled at roughly 4-5% of our member-
ship) who spend an average of 5 hours or more, online every day. The ini-
tiation fees are used to purchase additional lines and capacity as the si-
tuation warrants, so that we may continue providing all our members with
whatever level of service they need, at a flat rate, without encountering
busy signals or experiencing degradation of service due to excessive system
load or line congestion.
You may upgrade a Plan 3 account to Plan 4, at any time, simply by leaving
FEEDBACK and stating your desire to do so.
- - - - - - - - -
-=/[ Paying for an Account ]/=-
Credit Cards
------------
The easiest way to become a Member is by using your Visa or MasterCard to
make your payment. There is no processing fee, no deposit required, and
your account is activated within one business day.
By signing up with your credit card, you agree to be billed automatically
every month, until you choose to terminate your membership.
Direct Billing
--------------
If you wish to be billed directly, there is a $15 dollar processing fee re-
quired to open your account. This fee serves as a non-interest bearing
deposit, which your total outstanding charges cannot exceed, until you have
either made payment, or selected to have your deposit increased.
You can choose to pre-pay any amount you desire, for as much online time you
wish to purchase in advance. At any time that your account is within $5
dollars of reaching your maximum deposit level, MindVox will automatically
notify you that you need to make a payment soon.
Your account will be validated as soon as we receive your money order or
when your check clears our bank. We will not active your account until pay-
ment is received, and we will NOT send you a reminder.
If your account is ever terminated, your deposit will be applied against any
outstanding balance, and the remainder refunded to you within 15 business
days.
Direct Billing - Outside of United States
-----------------------------------------
We realize that many of our Members are connecting to MindVox from other
countries and it's our desire to make things as simple as possible for you.
If you reside in a country that has convertible currency, we will accept
checks or money orders in your native currency, with an added $5 surcharge
for any orders under $50 US dollars.
People with EuroChecks or checks with a "wahrung" section, please use your
native currency.
You will receive an invoice detailing the translation from your currency >
to US Dollars > to your final timeslice on MindVox.
Make checks and money orders, payable to:
Phantom Access Technologies, Inc.
Payments must be mailed to:
Phantom Access Technologies, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue, Suite: 2614
New York, NY 10010
Payments must also include:
[ Your Login ID ]
[ Your Full Name ]
[ Your Telephone # ]
- - - - - - - - -
PROFESSIONAL & BUSINESS CLIENTS - INTERNET SERVICES
---------------------------------------------------
Although our primary focus is the MindVox system, we are also equipped to
offer a full range of services that allow those who need them to connect
their individual, corporate, hobby, or commercial systems into the Internet.
These options have many gradations in speed and flexibility, limited only by
what you desire, and the type of operating system you are using on the
machine in question.
As a rule of thumb *MOST* MSDOS based systems have "doors" or programs, that
enable you to receive Internet style mail, and Usenet news; however you are
limited to batched services such as UUCP, and CANNOT make use of real-time
options like NNTP, SMTP, and most TCP/IP services like telnet, ftp, and the
like. These are limitations created by MSDOS, and partially overcome
through the evolution of stable and reliable programs that allow a basic
level of connectivity for DOS bases BBS and personal Mail systems -- howev-
er, if you need a "full" or "live" Internet site, we would STRONGLY recom-
mend obtaining a Unix based system for this connection.
If you require help in selecting and purchasing hardware, software, routers,
bridges, terminal servers, or need general assistance in setting up your
site, we have varying degrees of help available depending on what services
you need from us; and the amount of free-time we happen to have. Basically
we'll be happy to hold your hand to the point where your system is up and
running, and can direct you to any one of half a dozen very reliable consul-
tants who can assist you in keeping your site online and running smoothly if
you need help with this. We can provide any level of connectivity you may
need, but CANNOT administer or service your system for you.
-=/[ Some of the Internet/Usenet Services Available, Include: ]/=-
-=]) Personal and Corporate UUCP feeds for Mail and News.
-=]) MX'ing for your Mail System.
-=]) Running DNS and helping you set up your own Domain.
-=]) SLIP and PPP Feeds.
-=]) 56kbit and Fractional-T1 Leased-Line direct connections.
-=]) Private, Corporate or Organizational Online Conference and Mail
Systems which we service for you, while you select who receives what
type of access to the information you desire to distribute on an open
or closed basis.
-=]) BBS Services for MSDOS-Based Systems, providing Mail, News, and
FTPMail.
<-]) In the very near future we will also be offering POPmail, and Offline Mail
and News Readers to our clients.
- - - - - - - - -
We could go on at this point and list off 500 different combinations, but
its probably more reasonable to say that we are extremely flexible in this
regard, and happy to work with you towards whatever specific goal you or
your corporation have in mind.
To pursue any of this further, you can call our office during normal busi-
ness hours (Noon to Midnight on weekdays), leave us a message on our
voicemail system, or if you already have access to email you can send an
electronic message to postmaster@phantom.com.
- - - - - - - - -
For additional information consult the other entries in the online INFO sec-
tion; send mail to: system@phantom.com, or feel free to make contact with us
at:
Phantom Access Technologies, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue, Suite: 2614
New York, NY 10010
(+1 800 - MindVox)
Voice: +1 212 / 989-2418
(Fax): +1 212 / 989-8648
Our local hunt group in New York City (212/718) can be reached at:
300/1200/2400-bps +1 212 989-4141
96/14.4/16.8/19.2 +1 212 989-1550
Hayes V.FC 28,800 +1 212 645-8065
- - - - - - - - -
MindVox operates on a principle similar to RADAR, but is stable, like a PC-
type set-up, it doesn't FLY out of anything. Do not be alarmed. -- A.D.
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