MAP@lcs.mit.edu (Michael A. Patton) (11/18/89)
There have recently been several questions about getting electronic mail to/from somewhere or getting network connections. As a general suggestion for anyone who deals with this on a frequent basis, let me suggest a book by John S. Quarterman entitled "The Matrix" and subtitled "Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide" (published by Digital Press, ISBN 1-55558-033-5, it can be ordered direct from DEC, order # EY-C176E-DP). The book is a fairly recent (it's copyrighted 1990) and very comprehensive discussion of the various networks around the world with many details on how to get mail between them. It also includes an overview of the general topics of networking and Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC). For most of the specific networks it also has contacts for info or setting up connections. Since my copy arrived about 10 hours ago, I haven't had time to really look it over (it's over 700 pages) I have glanced through it and it lives up to John's reputation. It is an expansion of several articles he wrote in 1986/1987 for CACM and UNIX Review (possibly others). As to the specific question that triggered this about connections in Rome (and specifically the Vatican), the book lists four "Continental European Networks" all of which reach Italy as well as INFNET and a BITNET node under the specific "Italy" heading. Which of these you want to look into would depend on the specific services you wanted and what level of support (money) you could provide. If you require specifically Internet access (as specified in the message) you are out of luck, these are all based on protocols other than TCP/IP. __ /| /| /| \ Michael A. Patton, Network Manager / | / | /_|__/ Laboratory for Computer Science / |/ |/ |atton Massachusetts Institute of Technology Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are a figment of the phosphor on your screen and do not represent the views of MIT, LCS, or MAP. :-)