NNTP Access
------------

Ripco Communications offers NNTP access both as an optional service to shell
account subscribers and as a stand alone service.

If you currently are a subscriber, either regular shell or via a business or
commercial account, we will provide at no charge an entry into the nntp
access file of our news server. This will allow you to both read and post
via nntp through another account or service provider.

If you are not a subscriber of Ripco but have internet access through
school, work or another provider and do not require a shell account with us,
we can provide NNTP service for the rate of $35 for 4 months.

In either case, access is based on that it will be used by a sole person on
a fixed IP address. We cannot make exceptions, if your IP is dynamically
assigned, it simply isn't going to work. 

Ripco currently carries over 11,000 groups with most on a 5-7 day expire
depending on current news flow trends. We have multiple primary full feeds
exchanged with several US ISPs, along with local/foreign secondary feeds.
Most foreign hierarchies not currently carried are available by request,
binary groups are not currently carried due to disk space concerns, they
are available to paying dialup customers on a secondary server.

We reserve the right to terminate or refuse access to the service for any
reason, and to change the list of groups available at any time.

Non-subscribers can start the service by sending check or money order to:

Ripco Communications Inc.
3163 N. Clybourn
Chicago, IL 60618-6424

Please include a note stating this is for the NNTP service and print your IP
address or machine name to be entered along with an email address we can
reach you at.


UUCP Services
-------------

Although at one time UUCP was the primary method of transporting usenet and
email from system to system this method is slowly dying out in our opinion
with the availability of direct connections. Full news feeds are basically
impossible through dial-up, let alone becoming difficult to do over a
dedicated 56k line. Generally BBS operators who wish to offer their users
internet news and mail are better off in the long run going with a satellite
service like Planet Connect.

For those who cannot find other means, Ripco can provide UUCP but only as an
expensive customized service.

Details are handled on a case by case basis but the overview is as follows:

The start up fee is around $100 depending on speed of modem required (14.4k
or 28.8k) and if you need a domain registered or have one that needs to be
transferred. You can save a few bucks here if you want to work out of the
ripco.com domain meaning your system being known to the world as something
like stargate.ripco.com rather than a stand alone of stargate.com.

The monthly fees would be around $75 to $100. The reason for this is you
will be given a dedicated dial in which somewhat guarantees a no-busy signal
policy along with unlimited time to stay on. Thus this can be considered
flat-rate pricing, you don't have to worry about billing by hours used.

We will provide the modem to your specifications (v32bis, v.fast, v.34) or
you can supply us with the modem to use on this end. Naturally how this
works out effects the startup and monthly costs.

You can elect to omit the dedicated service and use the primary modem pool
but this will only reduce the monthly charges to around $50-$75 and run the
risk of busy signals. This method is only available based on current number
of uucp clients and other system considerations. We don't encourage it.

We will provide as much attention as needed to make sure your feed is
running and operating properly. We will offer as much support and
customization needed to make you satisfied but we simply cannot take you by
the hand if this is a first time crack at UUCP. We STRONGLY recommend if you
are just starting out to seek a cheaper feed at another provider to get the
basics down. Operating a usenet newsfeed is a world unto itself and
integration into some dos or window based bbs programs is a nightmare.

For more information or if you have other questions, please email
bje@ripco.com or call voice at 477-6210.

*** END OF FILE ***