Re: I have a problem

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Wed, 07 Feb 2001 18:02:16 GMT, "Paul Grammens" <grammens@svn.net>
wrote:

>Congratulations on that.  However, Rubywand's advice is sound for the
>newbie. I personally enjoy connecting to the net using my toys, just for fun
>and the technical challenge, but like Rubywand, I wouldn't advise it for the
>beginner.

I agree wth you here to a point.  Joe is speaking from the perspective
of a IIgs user and not an 8 bit Apple II user.  Making use of the
internet from a IIgs is far easier than it is for an 8 bit Apple II
user.

Besides, the original poster was talking about accessing the internet
with a IIgs.

>There is also the chicken-egg problem that most newbies face of
>needing to get a comm program onto their Apple II before they have any
>possibility of getting their A2 on the net.

This isn't a problem as the best telecommunication program for the
IIgs is Spectrum and can only be obtained by purchasing it.  You get
floppies or a CD-ROM to install from and you can even get Marinetti
and a number of other internet related programs from the same place
and have them all arrive at your home at the same time.  See Joe
Kohn's site at:

     http://users.foxvalley.net/~joko

>Another major factor is finding
>an ISP that supports shell, and then you need to learn how to use the shell.
>That's just not practical for someone starting out.

I've been using my IIgs on the internet for over two years now and
have never used a shell account.

>Finally, you can
>download a lot more stuff a lot faster, and archive it, if you use a PC.

That may be true but what good does having a ton of Apple II ShrinkIt
files on your PC do you?  You still need to get it to your Apple II.

I find it much quicker and more convenient to download files directly
to my IIgs rather than having to download them to my PC and then
either null modem them to the IIgs or hook up a SCSI drive to my PC,
copy the files onto it, move it to my IIgs and copy them off.

Besides, most Apple II related files aren't that big.

>Besides, you are using a IIgs, so you have choices that people with the
>other models don't have. Even the IIgs is pretty limited unless you have at
>least a couple of megs of ram and a hard disk, and few newbies start out
>with a machine like that.

I'm pretty sure you can create 800K boot disks that would contain
Marinetti and an internet program (other than Spectrum as I know it
needs more space than a floppy provides) and still be able to use the
internet with just a single 3.5" floppy drive and 1.5 -2 MB of RAM.

And I think everyone has missed a big point here.  The original poster
came and asked how to use the internet with his IIgs.  If he was
content using the internet with a PC or Mac and didn't want to use the
internet from his IIgs, he wouldn't have asked.  But since he has
asked, he should be entitled to a better answer than:

Rubywand wrote:
>     In general, connecting to the internet via any Apple II computer is too much
>bother.

I'm sure he would be happier determining that for himself rather than
having someone tell him their opinion.  :-)

(By the way, my apologies if the original poster is female.  :-)

 Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II Unversity on A2Central.com