sses increasingly rely on the e-mail capabilities of the Internet to keep in touch with their employees and customers around the world without worrying about time zones.
In addition to e-mail, users of the Internet can review publications that are appropriate to their interests, have "conversations" with other users in various forums (using real-time communication rather than e-mail), and gain access to press releases and other information that may be important to their business or personal interests.
On-line services offer the most direct route to the Internet. The other ways to connect are to log onto a local area network (LAN) whose server is an Internet host, or to log directly into an Internet host. These two methods are direct connections; the first option (using an on-line service) is an indirect connection.
The indirect connection requires a modem, standard communications software and an on-line service account (for example, with CompuServe, America On-Line or Prodigy). This provides access to the Internet services which the on-line service offers. There may be other Internet features available that are not open to the on-line service subscriber. Costs associated with this option include an on-line service fee, a per-hour connect charge (beyond a minimum provided by the service fee), and e-mail message charges in some cases.
Connecting to the Internet using a network connection requires that the user have a network adapter card and ODI or NDIS packet drivers. The computer also needs to be able to run TCP/IP, and if Windows is in use, the computer must have Winsock support, as well. In return for these high hardware requirements, users have access to the entire Internet spectrum of options, including news and other servers. Costs associated with this option (which is generally used by commercial or government entities) include the cost of the connection, including data lines, and the connection-related softwar...