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Index of Subjects On Sun, 18 May 1997, Neale Partington wrote: > There has been some lively discussion in the can-freenet listserv lately > about various Free-Nets offering text-only, and graphics-only access. > The Great Plains Free-Net has stated in our mission statement that we > will provide graphical access. I don't see that happening in the short > term, but perhaps in 1 - 2 years. We are also strong believers in > continuing to offer text access. Does Chebucto have any plans for giving > users or administrators a choice at some point in the future? Here's one opinion: The issue for Chebucto Suite is not graphics, per se, as almost all functions except origination of messages (mail and news) are done through a browser anyway, and mail and news could as well be. Rather, the two separate issues are: (1) security/identification of users for access to personal mail and files, as well as IP (information provider) areas, and administrative functions. For some functions we use lynx-cgi scripts, which rely on the trusted binaries on our host, to enhance security. (2) dial-in access service. There has been some discussion of these matters here, but it has not been a priority to us at CCN, because we have been able to achieve such great deals with our various ISP's on the basis of exclusion of graphical dial-ins. We see no big advantage in our local situation with a multitude (upwards of a half-dozen, even after the hookup consolidation) of commercial services offering ppp, to get in competition with them, rather we suggest that those who wish to access CCN via graphics use the commercial providers to to so. We would recognize, however, that the same would not likely be the case in more rural settings. Nonetheless, consideration has been given to making ppp available on a restricted basis, which is that offsite access would be blocked. This would be useful to Information Providers to view, and perhaps upload pages, and maybe for "off-line" mail access. Such a restricted service might allow for development of "enhanced graphical interfaces" to some of the administrative functions, although security would become a greater concern. (Not that we don't have full graphic support now, its just that text is our primary mode and first consideration.) Our administration is done partly through a separate office host, optionally running X, but can as well be done through Lynx, there is no big advantage, except in the ability to have multiple windows / processes running, a real advantage for postmaster and office (and development), but not such a big deal for others. There is nothing very difficult about doing it, the matter has been for us mainly a policy and financial issue. [Just my opinion, this is not a formal statement of CCN's or CSuite's.] Personally, I use a mixture of text (telnet and lynx) and graphics (Netscape etc.) depending on what is available at the location where I am at the time. The biggest advantage for me (when working with ppp or direct net connection) is having a browser (graphical and/or text) and e-mail open simultaneously, and a network utility to do NS lookups, whois, etc, and an ftp client. Sure speeds up resolving those mail problems. But at home I just have a straight text dial-in to CCN's Lynx-based interface, and use copy/paste to a workpage in "Notepad" to keep track when I go from mail to lynx to... and back. Ed Dyer aa146@chebucto.ns.ca (902) H 826-7496 CCN Assistant Postmaster http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~aa146/ W 426-4894 CSuite Technical Workshop Religion Page Editor, Chebucto Community Network http://www.chebucto.ns.ca
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