The Internet is a collection of computer networks that interacts as a whole on a direct basis, i.e. the computers are directly linked to each other all the time. On the net there is lots and lots of information to collect, and lots and lots of people to meet. The following is the first part of a guide for the anarchist to this collection of networks. In it you will find information on how to get access to the net, what you can do when you're on and where to find the information you want.
This guide also includes information concerning Fidonet, a hobbyist computer network for electronic mail, and how you can reach Internet from Fidonet.
If you're reading this on the net you might as well skip the entire article. In coming parts there might be some useful information for you, but this is for the netless persons out there.
There's lots and lots of information on the net that can be useful to us in different situations. If we want legal advice in a sensetive matter, there's the online library catalogs to give us the help we need by recommending books and written material. If we need more practical advice to make certain things go *BOOM* we can easily find that too.
Perhaps you just need to get in touch with the right people. Well, that can be arranged over this marvellous net as well. There's chatting capabilities, either individual person-to-person (talk), or group chats (IRC). There's also public forums called newsgroups that discusses various topics, e.g. drugs, anarchy, activism etc. You can also find information, or at least references, through huge public databases. There's even more -- stay tuned.
If you find errors or incomplete information please send me corrections or more information so I can update this file for future re-publication. Write to:
Internet: cardell@lysator.liu.se
Fidonet: Mikael Cardell, 2:205/223
Snailnet: Mikael Cardell
Gustav Adolfsgatan 3
S-582 20 LINKOPING
Sweden
Voicenet: + 46 13 12 31 01
Get a computer or a terminal. Got that? Great, now get a modem (modulator/demodulator), a neat little thing that translates the bits of information from the computer into tones that can be sent over telephone lines. Connect it to the computer, fire up your communications program, and you're on. Well, not quite, you must have somewhere to call too.
The most important thing, of course, is to have access to the Internet. There are several ways to go:
* Call a Bulletin Board System (BBS) near you that has a connection to Fidonet (a hobbyist computer network). These BBSes are usually free of charge or very cheap to use. Ask around among friends with computers to get the numbers.
* If you're on a university or a college, be sure to get access to the computers. You'll need an account, ask the people in charge of the computers.
* Join a computer club that has access to Internet or to Fidonet. Again, ask around among friends with computers for more information.
You might also contact some big corporation that want your monetarian units, but that's a different matter completely, so I won't even go into examples. Furthermore these corporations usually just offer you their proprieraty electronic mail service that leaves you out in the cold since you cant get out from their system.
If you're allready on Fidonet you can reach the Internet through gateways like Chalmers Datorforening (2:203/125) here in Sweden. Write to UUCP at the node specified above and put the Internet address, usually in the form user@site.country (as in my address cardell@lysator.liu.se), on the first row in your message. Take a look in the nodelist for gateways closer to you.
On the other hand, if you haven't heard of either Fidonet nor Internet and your wondering what I'm babbling about you can ask around among friends and I'm sure you will get the information you need to get on. Ask for bulletin board systems and if they have access to Fidonet.
In Sweden at least there's lots of computer clubs with different degrees of access to the Internet. The academic computer clubs at the universities, e.g. Lysator at Linkoping university, Stacken at the Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm and Solace at the University of Harnosand/Sundsvall, usually has full access, but you need to be a student at the university to become a member. But then again, there's a lot of other clubs, e.g. ABC, proxxi and AUGS in Stockholm, that would be glad to have you as a member for a small fee. I'm sure Sweden isn't the only country to have a lot of computer clubs like these.
Come on -- get online!