1¾ « ^J – ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ™ WebTown.Central©WebTown Central© Community Access Network Capital
You are visitor number 
What is a Community Access Network | What is WebTown Central©? | Where is it located? | Can I see How a Community Online might appear? | CAN I REALLY SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE? | How Can We Get Our Hometown Online? | System Requirements and Personal Contacts
An Explanation of a Community Access Network System
The best and most thorough scholarly explanation of the various types of Community Access Network Systems is a Master's Thesis by Anne Beamish of MIT. Her in-depth research study Communities On-line is an excellent overview of the entire range of community online systems. If you are a student of Community Networking you might also be interested in another resource hosted by Paul M.A. Baker Community Networks:an On-line Guide to Resources. We are mentioning these resources as we want you to be informed as you view our system. We think it is unlike anything else on the WWW or anywhere else and we are willing to give you the background links to convince yourself that Hometown.Net© is something special. Our dream is that many communities might adopt this system and then connect together as a Community Intranet. This is not a difficult technological undertaking. We do not believe that the resources of the WWW and Internet (they are not the same, you know) are the sole province of the large software corporations or server and browser resource supplier firms. We need and will use their fine products, but we think something like our system is an excellent application and utilization of resources both they and we have developed. Our objective is to bring organized, useable, and appropriate information directly into your home in a friendly and accessible format. The information resource must be convenient to use, regionalized, timely, in-depth, and as family oriented as we can control. Certainly within our system we exercise a philosophy of family orientation.
If you want to see an entire State of Communities click
What is WebTown Central©?
WebTownCentral© is a Focal Point and a hub for the development of an Intranet for a national community access network in progress. We are putting all the tools on this page that we think are needed to create a local system with world class capabilities. The basic platform we have chosen from which to work is the Galacticomm WorldGroup© NT system. This newest generation of the Interactive Information Services promises to let modestly financed efforts compete in a world market if you have an informational database of significant interest to users. We believe information about our hometowns represents such a database. Everyone lives somewhere and what is happening locally is vital to each of us. Now we are competing with radio, telephone, TV, print, and cable. It could not be tougher nor more exciting at the same time. This is one of those opportunities looking for genius level creativity in implementation and presentation. We do not profess to possess those talents, but we can provide WebTown Central© to bring them together in a spirit of cooperation and commerce. You may see a very good example of an Interactive Information Service if you will click Flight Simulator Online. This is a fully interactive website devoted to flight simulation in many forms. We are trying to do the same with the Community Access Network System (CANS).
Where is it located?
The actual HomeTown.Net© server is located in Terre Haute, Indiana. The system is a sophisticated bulletin board system based upon the Galacticomm WorldGroup© platform. HomeTown.Net© has been in development for nearly two years. This DOS system will soon be upgraded to an NT server. The BBS Intranet system is a fully featured interactive communications network capable of supporting teleconferencing, audio and video links, online billing (in a secure encrypted format), online faxing, dialout, and all features required of a sophisticated community access system. It is fully supported and offers an outstanding graphical user interface able to operate transparently with the World Wide Web using a Netscape plugin. Using the plugin you may telnet to the actual bulletin board system to experience all the graphics and user interactive features. You are able to launch onto the web from the BBS and using either Netscape or Internet Explorer surf to your heart's content. We are in the process of moving a parallel version of the intranet to the Web. It does not currently have many of the interactive features of the Intranet system, but is expected to in the NT version. This may sound a bit confusing and we apologize if it does. The simplest explanation is that we are developing both Internet and Intranet versions of this Community Access Network System. This allows us to utilize the advantages of a local or regionalized system (Intranet) as well as have connectivity with the world (Internet).
How can I Look at What a WWW Community Online might appear?
We are beginning to develop a modest WWW version of the system. It is not like our WG Intranet system at this time simply because we have so much more flexibility and capability with the Interactive Information Service configuration and the NT version is not ready yet. However, if you click on Terre Hautehere or above, you will be linked to our real Hometown (where we live) which is a launch point to take you to a few online links that parallel (in a Web sort of way) our real intranet system. We would like for you to check it out. You will see that it isn't exactly like anything else you might have seen, even in this format. Obviously we plan to do much more. You can also get to the links from the table on this page!
CAN I REALLY LOOK AT HOMETOWN.NET©?
YES YOU CAN! This takes a little more effort but is well worth the time. You may learn to use a feature of the Internet called Telnet in the process. If you follow this procedure you can go to the actual HomeTown.Net © intranet site and see everything we have been talking about and experience all the outstanding interactive features and possibilities yourself. If you are a sysop you may want to examine the many options for new business opportunities for yourself as well as your online clients. So here is what you do. First you will need to download a Netscape Plugin called WGClient special graphics interface. There will be directions at that site to tell you how to install the software in Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Then you may telnet to hometown.net from that site or just configure your just downloaded WGClient to telnet to hometown.net, start up Netscape or Internet Explorer in the background and come on in. Register as "new" and use the password "guest". Leave us an email to let us know what you think. Like we said. It takes a little effort but if you are interested in the Premier Community Access Network.....this is it!
System Requirements and Personal Contacts
The system requirements differ if you are a client just want to use the system or if you are a System Operator wanting to consider purchasing the system and affiliating with the network. So we will tell you both. Bigger and faster is always better on the Internet. We recommend a Pentium 60 (90 to 166 is better) with 4 to 8 meg (16 to 32 is better) of RAM, a hard drive with a GIG of memory is good, a 56 K Internet connection (a T1 is better), and a bunch of 28.8 modems (33.6 is better) are the types of hardware necessary to host this system (along with the WorldGroup Platform and the HomeTown.Net© software. We have developed manuals, a complete line of advertising materials, and have a system online on the Internet (you are looking at it) and a complete system running on our Intranet. We would love to talk with you about becoming another HomeTown.Net© connected community. We can present the complete picture of costs and revenue streams for you and have a number of options including outright purchase of your own server with license, licensing of software alone, or a member of the Hometown Network Group. Brian Miller, President of Miller and White Advertising would be happy to speak with you regarding our system. You may also contact Jan Eglen, Ph.D., President of APBHN, Inc., the other partnering firm who has developed this incredible system.
Hoosiers Online!
Click here to
start.
Best experienced with
Click here
to start.
For more information, email Brian Miller or call Miller & White at 1-812-232-2875 between 8 am-5 pm CDT. FAX comments to 1-812-234-4598.
You may also email Jan Eglen, Ph.D. or call him at 1-812-232-2144 from 8 am till 5 pm CDT.
This site last updated November 8, 1996.
This button logo will be seen at the bottom of each site and is your link back to WebTown Central©![]()
HomeTown.Net and WebTown Central are Copyright, 1996, APBHN, Inc.me. You may learn to use a featur€ ^J w ^J B € G ÿÿŒ ÿÿƒ ÿÿ² ÿÿ´ ÿÿ9 ÿÿ; ÿÿs ÿÿ¡ ÿÿ¾ ÿÿÇ ÿÿÉ ÿÿÏ ÿÿçE ÿÿF ÿÿ]F ÿÿF ÿÿG ÿÿ_G ÿÿ¶G ÿÿ ¶G ×G ÿÿ`J ÿÿƒ ÿÿ² ÿÿ´ ÿÿ9 ÿÿ; ÿÿs ÿÿ¡ ÿÿ¾ ÿÿÇ ÿÿÉ ÿÿÏ ÿÿçE ÿÿF ÿÿ]F ÿÿF ÿÿG ÿÿ_G ÿÿ¶G ÿÿ Arial ients. So here is what you do. First you will need to download a Netscape Plugin called