Tom Hula asks:

> So, my question is this.  Starting (in many ways) completely from
>  scratch, is there a primer that exists that would take me step by step
>  through what needs to be done to access the internet and do email via
>  the 3000?

Although the process may seem daunting when looking at it from the
front-side, it's easier to do than you many currently be giving it credit.
There's not one giant step that you take to do all of this. Rather, it's a
lot of small steps.

We went through the same process a year and a half ago, and I was equally
confused before we started. The trick is to do it slowly, in appropriate
steps. The first step is to create a local LAN, moving all of your DTC-based
terminals to network connected PCs. Step 2 is to then to move all of your
printers over to network printing, both from the PCs and the HP3000. You can
now do all of this without a network operating system. Simply do everything
in TCP/IP. In creating your LAN, you'll want to set all of your IP addresses
to private address space addresses (e.g., 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255).

After you've had this much up and working flawlessly for a few months, it
will now be time to talk to your telecommunications provider/ISP. Adding a
router with NAT (network address translation) capabilities to your LAN will
be the next necessary step to get you a gateway to the internet. Your telecom
provider/ISP will be able to help you with all of this.

Once this is working, you're now ready to talk to Chris Bartram. And load
Apache.

If you take it slowly, it's a surprisingly simple and logical task.

Wirt Atmar