carroll@ssc-vax (Jeff Carroll) (04/05/91)
I will be meeting in a couple of weeks with the principal of a small German firm with whom we do business. He is investigating email as a way of better serving his customers, and I, as one of his customers, would like to be able to knowledgeably advise him which of his options would be most convenient to us. I know that there are some German businesses on Usenet, and I also know that TCP/IP has made considerable penetration into German universities. The number of German businesses on Usenet is small enough that I'm sure most of them are doing something else. What is that something else? Does that something else have a reliable gateway to the IP Internet? I know this is rather strangely crossposted. Please feel free to refer me to any newsgroup you feel is more suitable than the one in which you read this. Thanks for any help. -- Jeff Carroll carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com
jrobie@netmbx.UUCP (Jonathan Robie) (04/09/91)
In article <3801@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com (Jeff Carroll) writes: > > I will be meeting in a couple of weeks with the principal of a > I know that there are some German businesses on Usenet, and I also >know that TCP/IP has made considerable penetration into German universities. >The number of German businesses on Usenet is small enough that I'm sure >most of them are doing something else. What is that something else? False assumption. The Deutsche Bundespost makes a policy of discouraging effective telecommunication by using certification as a means of keeping modems expensive, charging outrageous rates for its packet switching network, promoting BTX systems as the One Solution for Everything, and ensuring that there is enough line noise on common lines to make telecom generally irrita- ting. OK, Berlin has a big fast wide area ISDN network called Berkom, but the normal business is not on this. For perspective, realize that Germany is several years behind the States in most things related to computers, especially for the normal end user. The last two years were the time in which the average office first got a computer, and my bank still can't look up transactions on line past the current month! > My suggestion: get him on Usenet, or BIX if you need immediate turn-around. For BIX there is a Tymnet node in Frankfurt. Usenet is cheaper. Check the world map or the postmaster at "unido" for connections. The Universitz of Dortmund seems to be a big hub for Usenet access in Germany. Jonathan =========================================================================== Jonathan Robie jrobie@netmbx.UUCP Boothstr. 23a jrobie@in-berlin.de D-1000 Berlin 45 +49 (30) 772 82 35 Deutschland