CompuServe Thread

It would seem that you could save money. I try it both ways but get frustrated at CIS when on at the 9600 rates and it just sits there waiting on my $. On the average I would say you can save a little. I figure 9600 B. is really 7000 baud on CIS$ counting the costly waiting time at 9600. Then there are those nasty "timed out " where CIS$ gets you for 2 minutes $ just because it can't respond. The real advantage of 9600 baud is in downloading large zip files, not messages. With CIS$ pauses I average about 8000baud on zips. I never have this problem with other BBS. So, if you use mfg. BBS for tech support as I do you will find it pays on ATT$. But you won't get rich with any savings on CIS$. Probably FTC should investigate this as a possible false advertising.

Dennis, Log in time and time spent going from forum to forum are not billed by CIS. Only the time you spend within a forum itself is billed so the trick is to minimize that time and get the most out of it. Going to 9600 baud will only help if you are downloading messages to be read off line. If you're reading messages online then you really should be here at 300 baud to minimize the online charges. So with this in mind, the cheapest use of CIS is with a fast command line comm program like TAP, ATO or OzCIS and 9600 baud. You get in, get what you want and get out. Also if you read most of the forum, just read it all in thread order. The time spent in gathering message headers and downloading specific threads (when you wind up downloading over 50% of the available) is going to be more than just doing a READ THREAD NEW on the entire forum. REASON???? Doing a REA THD NEW automatically gathers all the new messages on the forum and you get them pumped straight through. Reading message headers and then downloading specific threads means that you have to find the thread, download it, find the next one and download it, find the next one and download it……..ad infinitum….<g>.

Dennis, CIS Magazine, I think two issues ago, had an article about connecting to CIS. In this article they mentioned several programs, TAPCIS and WIGWAM are two, that make it easier to download the forum messages and read them off line. You might want to check into one of these. Also mentioned in the article was lowering your speed to 300 for interactive activities such as CB and forum discussions, the reason being you can't type or read as fast as 9600 or 2400 and you save alot of money. Those were their suggestions. Someone else might know the exact article and issue. Fred