* Get the information and disconnect. It is expensive - and
usually unnecessary - to read captured text while online.
Log off to read. Call back for more to read, disconnect, and
then call back again.
* Learn how to write your mail offline, and send the letters
"in a batch" to your mailbox. Your messages will often have
fewer typing errors, be better thought out, and the cost
will be considerably lower.
* Consider automating your communication (see Chapter 16). I use Bergen By Byte this way. A while ago, it gave me the following progress report: "Time on: 17 hrs 43 min, today 0 hrs 0 min, total 827 times." In average, I spend around 1.3 minutes per call. Yesterday, I was connected for 2:48 minutes. The result was 106 kilobytes' worth of conference mail.
Modem speed and cost —————————— 2400 bps is a sensible modem speed for some applications, and used to be a good starting point for new onliners. The benefits of using a faster modem may be marginal under the following conditions:
* When navigating the online service considerably reduces the
effective speed, and you access the service manually.
* When you pay considerably more for access at higher speed.
(CompuServe charges extra for 9600 bps access, but not much.)
* When your networks do not offer higher speeds.
* When the relative price of a faster modem in your country
is prohibitive.
On the other hand, a modem doing 9600 bps or more, does give you considerably faster communication. If doing things faster is more important than keeping costs down, then it is a wise investment. This is the case for me. Besides, often it is definitely cheaper. Your applications have a considerable impact on your costs. If you mainly use your modem for retrieval of programs and large data files from bulletin boards - and don't have to pay extra for volume - then higher modem speeds will immediately give reduced costs. A slower speed modem may also stop you from getting what you want. For example, there are several shareware programs on my board that users of 2400 bps modems are unable to download within their allotted 30 minutes per day.
When you pay for volume ———————————- Some network services, like Datapak in Norway, have high rates for volume, and very low rates for connect time. When using such services, automatic communication becomes less useful. Rather than connecting, getting a piece of information, disconnecting, and then going back for more, you may find it cost efficient to review menus and results while online. When paying for volume, the online service's menus become luxury items. Using quick commands for navigating is cheaper. Your comparisons will never be accurate when comparing with services charging for connect time. It is particularly difficult when the measure of volume is 'packets' rather than 'number of characters transferred'. Datapak and many other PDN services reports your sessions like this:
CLR PAD (00) 00:00:14:55 537 75
These numbers say that you have been connected to a service for 14 minutes and 55 seconds, that 537 data 'packets' have been received, and that 75 have been sent. Use these figures to calculate the cost of the call.
| One data 'packet' or segment contains up to 64 characters. | | Think of it as a measure of the number of lines. Each line can | | have a maximum of 64 characters. If you send the character A | | and a carriage return, then this also counts as a segment. | | | | Consequently, it is hard to use the Datapak record to estimate | | the real number of characters transferred. All we know is that | | 537 + 75 segments were transferred, and that 612 segments may | | contain up to 39,168 characters. |