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From: drc@claris.UUCP (Dennis Cohen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Genie?
Message-ID: <5631@claris.UUCP>
Date: 27 Sep 88 15:15:14 GMT
References: <4788@saturn.ucsc.edu> <861@viscous> <2279@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> <881@viscous> <2340@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
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Reply-To: drc@claris.UUCP (Dennis Cohen)
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Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA
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If you're talking about the differential at 1200 baud, then I think that GEnie
is a definite price-performance winner; however, if you're running at 2400,
then CI$ becomes the big win.  There are far more 2400 baud CI$ nodes, they
are still 12.50/hr, and you can get there at that rate 24 hr/day.  GEnie, on
the other hand has a paucity of 2400 baud nodes, they cost more per hour, and
every one I have been able to find has a $10 or $12/hr "surcharge" added.  As
a matter of fact, when I lived in Glendale (4 miles from downtown LA), the
only 1200 baud number that wasn't a toll call had a surcharge on it.  This is
all in addition to the limitation on the hours when the system is available.

Additionally, if your main activity is uploading and downloading, then CI$ is
a lot less frustrating on throughput (so long as your comm program supports
their QuickB protocol).  I have never gotten less than 110 bytes/sec at 1200
on CI$ using QuickB and I've never gotten better than 75 bytes/sec on GEnie.

Just my personal opinions, but I think that the old saw "you get what you
pay for" has some credibility here.

Dennis Cohen
Claris Corp.
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Disclaimer:  Any opinions expressed above are _MINE_!