Dial-up Users

dale@ora.com (Dale Dougherty)
From: dale@ora.com (Dale Dougherty)
Message-id: <9310270012.ZM21727@rock.west.ora.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 00:12:41 -0700
X-Mailer: Z-Mail (2.1.0 10/27/92)
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: Dial-up Users
I'd like to know of any efforts to expand the Web's reach by
providing greater support for serial dial-up Internet users?  More specifically, 
MacMosaic and Mosaic for Windows ought to be able to function
on systems that are not directly connected to the network.  Right
now, a SLIP/PPP connection is required to use a graphical browser; these
connections are more expensive to obtain and more difficult to install.

What can we do to enable communication over a serial line?  
It seems to me you need two things: a browser that can establish
a connection over a serial line with a net host and a process that
runs on the net host to listen for the browser's requests and act
as a gateway to the network.

This capability would allow the Web to grow enormously. 

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who is thinking about or actually
working on this problem.

Dale

-- 
Dale Dougherty (dale@ora.com) 
Publisher, Global Network Navigator, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
103A Morris Street, Sebastopol, California 95472 
(707) 829-3762 (home office); 1-800-998-9938