Issue 146 September 2002
Internet Enabling Made Easy

GETTING ONLINE

Now that you know how to send data-laden e-mail messages with the 2124 modem, it’s time to find an ISP. I can save you some time here by telling you what you will find before you begin your ISP search.

Plan on spending from $9 to $23 per month for each device if you get your Internet appliance service from one of your local ISPs. If that’s a bit too much, strike a deal with the local ISP to buy a few thousand connections. Make sure those connections will work in California if you’re on the East Coast. On the other hand, if you live on the West Coast, be sure the connections work in New York. If your local ISP can’t cover both California and New York, at least you have some of the local clients covered.

Now, move on and perform the same quantity buy in every state of the union and little county seat you plan on operating in. If you succeed, the only problem left to solve is how to get all those different phone numbers into a manageable database at the central site. You had better talk to the Gulfstream aircraft folks about a private jet as well, because if you call this a solution, you’re going to be a travelin’ man. I know guys who like the converted 737s, but the Gulfstream V-SP would be my choice.

Or, you can log onto the Cermetek web site and sign up for Cermetek’s Press4Service ISP service at $2 per device for each month. Cermetek’s Press4Service is supported nationwide and provides local phone access from hundreds of locations.

I can tell you from experience that my nationwide-enabled cell phone does not work in Shelbyville, Tennessee (I’m from Fayetteville, Tennessee, which is 30 miles down the road), but your Internet device can access Press4Service locally from Shelbyville. By the way, there’s a jetport in Shelbyville just in case you want to go fishing with me at Tims Ford Lake. If you choose Cermetek’s Press4Service, you won’t be flying there on a trouble call, so bring your fishing gear because I don’t do golf.

For the management and project leaders, if you’re wondering how much staff you’ll have to take on to enter all of the necessary data to send e-mails from your remote 2124 modems, you’re only going to need the services of your new jet’s pilot and copilot. That’s because all of the information needed to run out-of-the-box is configured for free by Cermetek when you place your modem and Press4Service orders.

You can also forget about staffing that new data center. Press4Service uses a secure database server that allows you to easily administer all of your 2124 modems connected to the Press4Service network with a standard web browser and Internet connection.

Press4Service provides each 2124 modem with the capability to send an e-mail or fax to the destination of your choice. You can sign up for ftp and web page update capabilities as well.

When you sign on for Press4Service, you’re assigned a common e-mail address. All of your Cermetek modem nodes are pointed toward this address. After an e-mail comes into the Cermetek central Press4Service site, it’s compared against the database entries for the sending 2124 modem. Then, it’s redirected to an address specified in the sending 2124 modem’s database record.

As the owner of the account, you have database authority to change the redirection address at any time. By simply specifying e-mail, fax, ftp, or web site in the 2124 modem’s destination address, the e-mail can become a fax or get routed to an ftp recipient or web page on a HTML server. The bottom line is that you don’t have to change e-mail address information in C2124 modems to route their data to a different e-mail address. If you find it necessary to change the e-mail-related data in a remote 2124 modem, iNetWizard provides the capability to dial up the remote 2124 modem and update its flash memory with your new information. This is achieved just as if you were directly attached.