Medina. Medina Free-Net, (216) 723-6732, 225-6732 or 335-6732.

Users can "link" to the larger Cleveland Free-Net for additional services. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a written application. Free.

Youngstown. Youngstown Free-Net, (216) 742-3072. Users can "link" to the Cleveland system for services not found locally. Full access (including access to e-mail) requires completion of a written application. Free.

ONTARIO

Ottawa. National Capital FreeNet, (613) 780-3733 or (613) 564-3600.

Free, but requires completion of a written form for access to all services.

Toronto. UUNorth. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers. $20 startup fee; $25 for 20 hours a month of offpeak use. Voice: (416) 225-8649.

Toronto. Internex Online, (416) 363-3783. Both Unix and menus. $40 a year for one hour a day. Voice: (416) 363-8676.

OREGON

Portland. Agora, (503) 293-1772 (2400 bps), (503) 293-2059 (9600 bps or higher). Log on as: apply. $6 a month for one hour per day.

Portland. Teleport, (503) 220-0636 (2400 bps); (503) 220-1016 (9600 and higher). Log on as: new. $10 a month for one hour per day.

Voice: (503) 223-4245.

PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh. Telerama, (412) 481-5302. $6 for 10 hours a month, 60 cents for each additional hour. Voice: (412) 481-3505.

QUEBEC

Montreal. Communications Accessibles Montreal, (514) 931-7178 (9600 bps); (514) 931-2333 (2400 bps). $25 a month. Voice: (514) 931-0749.

RHODE ISLAND

East Greenwich. IDS World Network, (401) 884-9002. In addition to Usenet, has conferences from the Fidonet and RIME networks. $10 a month; $50 for six months; $100 for a year.

Providence/Seekonk. Anomaly, (401) 331-3706. $125 for six months or $200 a year. Educational rate of $75 for six months or $125 a year.

Voice: (401) 273-4669.

TEXAS

Austin. RealTime Communications, (512) 459-4391. Log on as: new.

$75 a year. Voice: (512) 451-0046.

Dallas. Texas Metronet, (214) 705-2901; (817) 261-1127. Log on as: info or signup. $10 to $35 setup fee, depending on service; $10 to $45 a month, depending on service. Voice: (214) 705-2900 or (817) 543-8756.

Houston. The Black Box, (713) 480-2686. $21.65 a month. Voice: (713) 480-2684.

VIRGINIA

Norfolk/Peninsula. Wyvern Technologies, (804) 627-1828 (Norfolk); (804) 886-0662 (Peninsula). $10 startup fee; $15 a month or $144 a year.

Voice: (804) 622-4289.

WASHINGTON, DC

The Meta Network. Call voice number below for local dial-in numbers. Caucus conferencing, menus. $15 setup fee; $20 a month. Voice: (703) 243-6622.

CapAccess, (202), 784-1523. Log on as guest with a pa.s.sword of visitor. A Free-Net system (see under Cleveland, Ohio, for information).

Free. Voice: (202) 994-4245.

See also: listing under Baltimore, MD for Express Access and Clarknet.

WASHINGTON STATE

Seattle. Halcyon, (206) 382-6245. Users can choose between menus and Unix. Log on as: new. $10 setup fee; $60 a quarter or $200 a year.

Voice: (206) 955-1050.

Seattle. Eskimo North, (206) 367-3837 (all speeds), (206) 362-6731 (9600/14.4K bps). $10 a month or $96 a year. Voice: (206) 367-7457.

UNITED KINGDOM

London. Demon Internet Systems, 44 (0)81 343 4848. 12.50 setup fee; 10 a month or 132.50 a year. Voice: 44 (0)81 349 0063

1.4 IF YOUR TOWN HAS NO DIRECT ACCESS

If you don"t live in an area with a public-access site, you"ll still be able to connect to the Net. Several services offer access through national data networks such as the CompuServe Packet Network and SprintNet, which have dozens, even hundreds of local dial-in numbers across the country. These include Holonet in Berkeley, Calf., Portal in Cupertino, Calf., the WELL in Sausalito, Calf., Dial "N CERF in San Diego, Calf., the World in Brookline, Ma.s.s., and Michnet in Ann Arbor, Mich. Dial "N CERF offers access through an 800 number. Expect to pay from $2 to $12 an hour to use these networks, above each provider"s basic charges. The exact amount depends on the network, time of day and type of modem you use.

For more information, contact the above services.

Four other providers deliver Net access to users across the country: Delphi, based in Cambridge, Ma.s.s., is a consumer-oriented network much like CompuServe or America Online -- only it now offers subscribers access to Internet services. Delphi charges: $3 a month for Internet access, in addition to standard charges. These are $10 a month for four hours of off-peak (non-working hours) access a month and $4 an hour for each additional hour or $20 for 20 hours of access a month and $1.80 an hour for each additional hour. For more information, call (800) 695-4005.

BIX (the Byte Information Exchange) offers FTP, Telnet and e-mail access to the Internet as part of their basic service. Owned by the same company as Delphi, it also offers 20 hours of access a month for $20.

For more information, call (800) 695-4775.

PSI, based in Reston, Va., provides nationwide access to Internet services through scores of local dial-in numbers to owners of IBM and compatible computers. PSILink. which includes access to e-mail, Usenet and ftp, costs $29 a month, plus a one-time $19 registration fee. Special software is required, but is available free from PSI.

PSI"s Global Dialup Service provides access to telnet for $39 a month plus a one-time $39 set-up fee. For more information, call (800) 82PSI82 or (703) 620-6651.

NovX Systems Integration, based in Seattle, Washington, offers full Internet access through an 800 number reachable across the United States.

There is a $24.95 setup fee, in addition to a monthly fee of $19.95 and a $10.5 hourly charge. For more information, call (206) 447-0800.

1.5 NET ORIGINS

In the 1960s, researchers began experimenting with linking computers to each other and to people through telephone hook-ups, using funds from the U.S Defense Department"s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).

ARPA wanted to see if computers in different locations could be linked using a new technology known as packet switching. This technology, in which data meant for another location is broken up into little pieces, each with its own "forwarding address" had the promise of letting several users share just one communications line. Just as important, from ARPA"s viewpoint, was that this allowed for creation of networks that could automatically route data around downed circuits or computers. ARPA"s goal was not the creation of today"s international computer-using community, but development of a data network that could survive a nuclear attack.

Previous computer networking efforts had required a line between each computer on the network, sort of like a one-track train route. The packet system allowed for creation of a data highway, in which large numbers of vehicles could essentially share the same lane. Each packet was given the computer equivalent of a map and a time stamp, so that it could be sent to the right destination, where it would then be rea.s.sembled into a message the computer or a human could use.

This system allowed computers to share data and the researchers to exchange electronic mail, or e-mail. In itself, e-mail was something of a revolution, offering the ability to send detailed letters at the speed of a phone call.

As this system, known as ARPANet, grew, some enterprising college students (and one in high school) developed a way to use it to conduct online conferences. These started as science-oriented discussions, but they soon branched out into virtually every other field, as people recognized the power of being able to "talk" to hundreds, or even thousands, of people around the country.

In the 1970s, ARPA helped support the development of rules, or protocols, for transferring data between different types of computer networks. These "internet" (from "internetworking") protocols made it possible to develop the worldwide Net we have today that links all sorts of computers across national boundaries. By the close of the 1970s, links developed between ARPANet and counterparts in other countries. The world was now tied together in a computer web.

In the 1980s, this network of networks, which became known collectively as the Internet, expanded at a phenomenal rate. Hundreds, then thousands, of colleges, research companies and government agencies began to connect their computers to this worldwide Net. Some enterprising hobbyists and companies unwilling to pay the high costs of Internet access (or unable to meet stringent government regulations for access) learned how to link their own systems to the Internet, even if "only" for e-mail and conferences. Some of these systems began offering access to the public. Now anybody with a computer and modem -- and persistence -- could tap into the world.

In the 1990s, the Net continues to grow at exponential rates. Some estimates are that the volume of messages transferred through the Net grows 20 percent a month. In response, government and other users have tried in recent years to expand the Net itself. Once, the main Net "backbone" in the U.S. moved data at 56,000 bits per second. That proved too slow for the ever increasing amounts of data being sent over it, and in recent years the maximum speed was increased to 1.5 million and then 45 million bits per second. Even before the Net was able to reach that latter speed, however, Net experts were already figuring out ways to pump data at speeds of up to 2 billion bits per second -- fast enough to send the entire Encyclopedia Britannica across the country in just one or two seconds. Another major change has been the development of commercial services that provide internetworking services at speeds comparable to those of the government system. In fact, by mid-1994, the U.S.

government will remove itself from any day-to-day control over the workings of the Net, as regional and national providers continue to expand.