The online world is divided into two camps: the haves - SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) account holders who are directly connected to the Net - and the have-nots - dial-up shell account users who are connected to the Internet only through their service's host machine. While the SLIP-pers and the rest of cyberspace wax lyrical about Web graphics, the unfortunates tied to user-unfriendly Unix command lines poke around the Web with text-based browsers.
The door to the multicolored, multimedia online world is finally open, thanks to The Internet Adapter (TIA), an inventive piece of software developed by the boffins at Cyberspace Development Inc. The digital equivalent of an electrical adapter, TIA is as close to magic as a graphically deprived net.user can get.
TIA installs easily into the shell account's root directory, where it lives quietly, working invisibly every time the account is accessed. It tricks the host computer into thinking that a humble dial-up account is a SLIP connection, capable of running top-notch software like Netscape and Eudora.
This hitherto impossible transformation from dial-up to SLIP is also remarkably cheap. TIA for Mac or PC can be downloaded from Cyberspace Development with a minimum of fuss, and a single-user license is available for a mere US$25. Die-hard Unix skeptics can even get a free evaluation license, good for 14 days, just by asking nicely.
The only catch is the sometimes tricky configuration of the TCP application (usually Trumpet Winsock for the PC, or MacTCP for the Mac), which acts as a translator between the desktop machine and the host connection. But help is always at hand in the alt.trumpet.winsock and alt.dcom.slip.emulators Usenet newsgroups.
TIA opens up the virtual universe, but not the software required to cruise it. So, once configuration is complete, savvy cyberjocks usually download their choice of freeware and shareware applications and hit the virtual highway running.
And then they roll on the floor laughing, because they now have the best of both worlds: access to a slammin' pseudo-SLIP account for the low price of a shell account.
Best of all, they need never look at a Unix command line again.
The Internet Adapter: US$25 for a single-user license. Cyberspace Development Inc.: ftp and gopher at marketplace.com; via the Web at http://marketplace.com.
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