Msg: 2957 *Conference*
08-02-92 22:19:34
From: HARVEY CHRISLEY
To : LEX JENKINS
Subj: COMPUSERVE
If you don't mind may I throw in my 2 cents worth about CIS. I'm a heavy user, I'm on CIS at lease every couple of days or so visiting at lease a dozen different forums. I've downloaded hundreds of programs from them, I can almost always find a program that does something like what I want. I always download to my PC and then swap it over to my M200 though, the M200 would take too long. I use CIS for information, information on just about any subject you care to name, whatever I happen to want at the time. Just recently I thought I had a major problem with my truck when it started making what I thought I thought was a valve noise when I got up to highway speeds. I logged onto CIS and went to the cars forum and left a message detailing my troubles. Within a day or so I had several answers diagnosting my problems and even giving me directions on fixing it. The problem turned out to be a $10 part that I change myself. I've gotten advice on my computer when it acted up. The insurance company that insures my PC is on CIS and I can communicate with them easily, anytime of the day or night. I go to the Mall on CIS and wander around often, I sometimes buy things and have always had good service. I just yesterday brought airlines tickets to the east coast from Eaasy Sabre reservation system on CIS. I got a great deal ($198 round trip) and was able to do this at 1am in the morning. There was no extra charge for using CIS to get my tickets because Eaasy Sabre is part of CompuServe's basic service which is only $8 a month. So is about everything else I use except the forums. The big trick to using CompuServe is two commands, "FIND" and "GO". Everything on CIS is indexed. Say you want to find what's available on CIS related to Tandy, then just enter from any "!" prompt "Find tandy". CIS will list all sections having anything to do with Tandy. I tried it and got the following: ------------------------- Enter choice !find tandy CompuServe 1 Color Computer Forum + [ COCO ] 2 Computer Database Plus($) [ COMPDB ] 3 Computer Directory($) [ COMPDIR ] 4 LDOS/TRSDOS6 Users Forum + [ LDOS ] 5 OS9 Forum + [ OS9 ] 6 SOFTEX (sm) Software Cat. + [ SOFTEX ] 7 Tandy Model 100 Forum + [ M100SIG ] 8 Tandy Newsletter + [ TANDY ] 9 Tandy Professional Forum + [ TRS80PRO ] 10 The Tandy Users Network + [ TANDYNET ] Last page, enter choice ! At this point you can type the number at the left to find out more about each item or you can type "GO" and the name in the brackets at right to go directly there. The plus after the names indicate that that section is in CompuServe's Plus section and therefore not part of Basic Service. When you leave Basic Service you start incurring an hourly connect charge that is prorated to the minute. The dollar sign after items 2 and 3 indicate that there's an added surcharge for using that section over and above the hourly fee. If you wanted to go to the Tandy Model 100 Forum (and who wouldn't) all you have to do is type "go m100sig" from any compuserve prompt that ends with a exclamation point "!". You can go anywhere to anywhere on CompuServe. I keep a list of all the forums I want to keep up on next to my computer. I can go directly from one forum to another forum without seeing any of the intervening menus. If I want to return to the basic section all I have to do is enter "go basic" at any ! prompt and I'm there. I'm never lost on CIS because I never care where I'm at. Find and GO work anywhere. Hope all of this is of some help to somebody. Harv