$ffb|1-Dr.Dick's $af0|2-Surgery $ff5 The surgery is hosted by Dr.Dick, questions are only accepted via E-Mail and answers are posted here as well as immediately sent back to the patient, plus we'll occasionally make some up too. Got a question? Mail it to: Dr.Dick@LineOne.net ---------------- * ---------------- Q: What's the best all-round Net Access deal, Dr.Dick? A: After months of research and participation from my landlord, and my mates BootBlock and Aladdin Sane, we have found two ways to get on the net extremely cheaply, depending on what you want. Option 1 - minimum cost, minimum features - from 15/year ========================================================= Telephone FreeDotNet on (0181)5683377 and ask for an application form for their Internet Access. When it arrives, apply for Access Only (30 for 2 years) or Access and Newsgroups (40 for 2 years). When you get it working (Amiga owners need a dialup TCP that will support MS-CHAP, I think AmiTCP2 does), go to www.hotmail.com and create a free mail account for yourself. Next go to www.GeoCities.com and create a free mail account a 3Mb website for yourself. Give your Hotmail address as the e-mail address (you need somewhere to send your password), check your hotmail account for your password and create your GeoCities website. Set your mail program up to use the Geo mail server, and away you go. Option 2 - minimum cost, maximum features - from 75/year ========================================================= Arrange net access with FreeDotNet as before, but for Webspace and E-Mail go to reg.LineOne.net and aply for the 3-hours a month account. This will give you 10Mb of web space and 5 mail addresses (4 of which you can give to your family) for the sum of 4.95 a month. You also get 3 hours connection a month for that amount before the price rockets up, which is why we have recommended getting the FreeDotNet access instead. Using either of these you will now have Access, Webspace, EMail and (if you pick it) Newsgroups at minimal cost. If you pick the LineOne account you'll also have masses of online services. ---------------- * ---------------- Q: Why don't BT give Free Local Calls? A: Because OFTEL are a bunch of pillocks, although the other reason may be that the BT Network probably couldn't handle the increased load. Diamond Cable already give free local calls on a weekend if they are over it's own network (IE to another Cable phone in your area) and an insider there tells me they are planning free local *daytime* calls once they can afford it. Presumeably this is because OFTEL do not have justification over an independant network. ---------------- * ---------------- Q: Should I buy a Pentium 2? A: Oooh. It would be nice, because the P2 is quite a bit more powerful that it's nearest rival, the AMD K6. You should be aware, however, that the P2 is not compatible with standard Socket7 motherboards, so you'll probably have to buy an ATX board instead, which means you'll ALSO have to buy an ATX case, because the card positions have all changed. If you're actually buying a completely new machine (and so don't have to worry about all that), then yes, go for it. If you plan on running WindowsNT on it, then you should spend a couple of grand on the 666Mhz model (2x333Mhz P2), it's awesome, although it will still take ages to boot. :-) ---------------- * ---------------- Q: Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg? A: The Egg of course. A Chicken *must* come from an egg, but the egg came from whatever the chicken was before it looked like a chicken. ---------------- * ---------------- Q: What can you tell me about Voodoo2/3DFX2? A: Creative Labs have a Voodoo2 (Also called 3DFX2) chipset card out, as have Diamond, although - apparently - theirs was recalled at the last moment when a fault was found. Because of the increased number of drawing chips on the card, it can be up to 6 times faster than the normal 3DFX. ---------------- * ---------------- end