Dale Shipp (1:261/1466) wrote to Steven Horn at 13:38 on 03 Dec 2002:

 DS>    Good point, although almost all of that is via fully secured
 DS> point to    point communications.

It's certainly fully secured but is it point to point?  My traceroute
program does not tell me as my bank's secure site is not a recognizable
host.  I suppose I should take some comfort from that.:-)

 DS>    You might add that the relative security of voice telephone   
 DS> communications and of electronic communications such as email is   
 DS> primarily a matter of law, not technology.  I believe that both
 DS> forms    of communications travel over the same or at least similar
 DS> trunk    lines run by various telco organizations.

The trunk lines are not necessarily the same but they are for the most part
run by telcos.  When I did a traceroute for my bank's unsecured site in
Ontario, the signal passed through lines run by Northwestel (our local
telco), Telus (B.C.), Sprint and then to Bellnexia (Bell Canada).

 DS>    Very true.  The past five years have seen most feeds go to being
 DS> free    versus CRPs.  For most people, the marginal cost of getting
 DS> fidomail    is now free (at least in zone 1) no matter where they
 DS> get their mail    (true for both users and sysops).

Between 1993 and 1995, my long distance bills were between $100 to $200 per
month for Fidonet mail.  In late 1995, I acquired an Internet feed and the
bill was basically reduced to $0.  One cannot beat that price.:=)

Take care,

Steven Horn (steven_a_horn{at}yahoo.ca)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+