About Critical Path Internet Services

Critical Path AIDS Project has developed a community-based model for building an information infrastructure that can be reproduced in other cities and countries, and used for a wide range of purposes particularly appropriate to rapid dissemination of AIDS information. We have demonstrated from April 1995 to the present that World Wide Web technology on the Internet provides a cost-effective means of reaching otherwise hard-to-reach populations and front-line AIDS service providers and AIDS researchers worldwide. And provides them with an efficient means of disseminating information community-wide, nation-wide or world-wide that is updateable on a daily basis.

Project Description

A nationally distributed AIDS treatment newsletter, Critical Path AIDS Project, by and for persons with AIDS expanded its suite of electronic service to include a comprehensive AIDS Web site. At the same time, this grass-roots organization offered free dial-up Internet access (SLIP and PPP accounts and a suite of applications programs) to individuals and organizations locally, as well as hosted Web pages for both regional and national organizations. We offer dial-up Internet access to the following area codes: 215, 302, 609, 610, and 856.

There are several ways to access the Internet. Most academic, governmental, research, and medical institutions have direct connections to the Internet. Individuals and small organizations can most conveniently access the Internet though a personal computer and a modem connected to standard telephone lines. What is required for the latter dial-up access is:

• Access through an Internet Service Provider who has a direct connection to the Internet;
• Networking (TCP/IP) software to connect to the Internet;
• Applications programs for accessing resources on remote computers

Critical Path Project decided that in order to reach individuals and organizations in underserved communities it would have to offer all three as an Internet Service Provider and not just an Internet user.

Unlike commercial services, Critical Path does not charge fees for registration or monthly line-time charges. Neither does it charge for Internet dial-up access, networking software, or applications programs (Netscape 3.0, Eudora e-mail manager, etc.). Critical Path produces and distributes self-installing Windows and Macintosh TCP/IP software.

Based on 6 years of AIDS newsletter publishing and BBS experience and operating a 24-hour AIDS treatment hotline, the organization leased a T-1 data line, upgraded its Unix-based host server, and purchased equipment such as 24 state-of-the-art U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything 33.6 kbps modems.

The goal of this grassroots project was to reduce costs and labor in providing constantly updated treatment and resource information on-line and providing organizational, staff, and client access to the full Internet locally for AIDS service organizations and individuals with no subscription fees or line-time charges.

Critical Path's main objective was not solely however to set up the infrastructure for accessing the Internet. The organization continues primarily to be a content provider on the Internet. The group wrote its own HTML code and programmed specialized search engines, as well as maintained on-line databases otherwise unavailable to the community:

• full-text ACTG and CPCRA clinical trial protocols;
• searchable databases of sci.med.aids newsgroup posts;
• resource directories used locally by case managers;
• community-based documents, glossaries, white papers, guides as well as links to hundreds of organizations;
• alternative treatment information and links;
• information in 10 Asian languages (under construction)

Service Offerings

SLIP/PPP Accounts

A SLIP/PPP account puts your PC or other system directly on the Internet. With the correct software on your system, this allows you use the interface to which you are acustomed, Windows, Mac, O/S2, or Unix to do the following tasks:

• Remote Login Access
  Telnet to other Internet hosts as well as to CompuServe, Delphi, and Internet-accessible BBSes

• File Transfer
  Upload and download files to/from anywhere on the Internet via FTP directly to your PC.

• Electronic Mail
  From your Internet PC, send and receive electronic mail to/from anyone on any Internet connected host or BBS, as well as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, Delphi and others.

• Usenet News
  Access thousands of world-wide discussion groups on almost any conceivable topic.

• Conferencing
  Participate in live, interactive conferencing via Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or "talk" to someone you know in a simultaneous split-screen display.

• World Wide Web
  Access the WWW hypertext system via any standard Web browser, or create your own Web page.

• Resource Location
  Find out all you ever wanted to know about anything via WAIS, Gopher, Archie.

The following is included with each SLIP/PPP Account.

• Internet connection via phone line
  A SLIP/PPP connection at speeds up to 56 KBS.

• Unix Shell Account
  A Unix Shell Account is provided to receive technical support.

• News Service
  Access to Usenet News via our NNTP news server

• Server Mailbox
  A POP2, POP3 or IMAP mailbox on our server so mail will be saved when you are not connected.

• Server Space for your Personal Web Pages
  Space is provided for your personal World Wide Web pages on our servers.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists feature the following.

• Many people can share information on a particular subject.
• You can administrate your own list after it is set up.
• Users can subscribe and unsubscribe to the list without bothering you.
• List owner may restrict who subscribes (closed list) or may choose not to restrict subscribers (open list.)
• Messages can be archived for future reference
• You can choose either Majordomo, Listserv or Listproc mailing list software.

World Wide Web Hosting

Two Categories of Web Pages are available.

• User Pages
  These are stored in your personal home directory on one of our servers. The URL to access user pages is http://www.critpath.org/~your_username

• Commercial or Organizational Pages
  These allow the use of CGI scripts, may contain multiple pages, and may make use of complicated images. We allow you up to 20 Mb of disk storage. The URL to access commerical pages is http://www.critpath.org/your_organization_name

Note: No Web pages may contain illegal, copyrighted or pornographic material.

Virtual Domains

Virtual domains allow email and Web page access via your own domain name. This gives you the impression of having your own dedicated Web server on the Internet. For example, your Web address, (URL, Uniform Resource Locator) would resemble: http://yourname.com/ rather then http://www.critpath.org/acme/ for regular Commercial Pages. Similarly, your e-mail would be addressed to username@yourname.com rather than user@critpath.org

Please note that if you do not already have a domain name, you need to register your domain name with the a domain name registration service such as Go Daddy or Network Solutions. There is a yearly fee for registering a domain name.

High Speed Access

Critical Path can offer direct high speed connections to our network via T1, Fractional T1, frame relay, ISDN and SMDS. For more information, please contact rich@critpath.org

Technical Services

Custom HTML authoring, (Hyper-Text Markup Language, the language used for programming Web sites) is available at $25/hour. We use full color high resolution scanners to scan artwork, pictures, or text and we use state-of-the-art tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw for graphics art design work.

Custom CGI and JAVA programing is available at $25/hour For more information, please contact rich@critpath.org

Technical Support: rich@critpath.org

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