Sorry, I was not being clear.  Since I have 7 IBM computers in my office,
I obviously chose "DOS" boxes for most of my tasks.  The take home
message from the Internet/BBS conference was that 2-way communications
between the Internet and desktop PCs seems to be more "off-the-shelf" for
Mac.  Only 1 commercial software package for an incoming and outgoing
interface exits for DOS at this time and it must be used with a specific
BBS system.  All others will either be released later this year - or -
require running unix on a dos box - or - involve yet another computer
between the desktop computer and the Internet server (something one
company calls a "nanny computer".  The other approach is a Cisco router
at $5,000.
 
Just uploading from a Mac or DOS machine to a unix server that can be
used for ftp or telnet is not difficult and there are many ways of doing
this.  The difficult trick is to allow an Internet user to telnet or ftp
directly to and from the desktop computer.  This is not a problem if you
simply want to pass files along - why not just send it up to a unix box.
It is a problem if you have programs on the desktop that you want your
Internet people to access (such as many of the DOS or Mac-based BBS systems).
 
You can use a unix based BBS and put it on a unix workstation, but then
the system manager has to mess with unix and may not have the box on her
or his desk.
 
So far, the only people who have managed full 2-way communication to the
desktop unit have been government (city, state, federal, academic)
groups. They report a long and frustrating effort.  The answer is not
simple or easy or cheap.  One of these Boards is running several 90 MHz
Pentiums - so these are not "seat of the pants" efforts.
 
The commercial software firms have focused on links to upload to the
Internet because they think people will pay money to be able to do this.
However, uplink software has been available for a long time, in
commercial, shareware, and public domain forms.  Putting ftp, telnet,
etc. on the PC without having to run unix or involve more hardware is the
sticker.  Also, the commercial folks are just now releasing "Internet
Connectivity" software for modem and serial port (thin wire)
applications.  Most have not written the software to support ethernet
cards and fiber.  One told me to tear out the fiber and go back to serial
and wire!
 
Cheers
 
Jerry J. Bromenshenk
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