I received theLINQ in my computer lab just before the Christmas Holidays.
Up to this point I have been working hard to set it up but there have
been a few bugs in the system (which they are currently working on). What
I have seen so far is very nice and will be worth the money and trouble
once it gets going without all the bugs.
The reason we chose theLINQ was because it was least expensive way for us
to get our computer lab connected onto the net. We have 50 LC II
computers networked together and run by 2 Quadra 700 file servers (we are
using an old Industrial Arts room which is Huge!). The cost to connect
all 50 machines would have been extremely expensive if you consider the
cost of installing a T1 or PPP line directly to the lab and then had to
pay for 50 memberships at $19.95 per month (in addition to the monthly
fees for rental of the line). We calculated that it would cost many
thousands of dollars per year to have this access. TheLINQ charges a one
time fee to purchase the system and then you only pay .20 per user per
month (that comes out to $40.00 per month for 200 users)
If you use First Class BBS, you can set up a mini server for your campus
which can allow email and other services to the entire school for free,
but you would still have to pay a considerable amount of money to give
everyone access to the Internet if you had to purchase a T1 line or got
connected to a provider (@ $20 per month per person).
I probably raised more questions than I answered, but I've been there and
have tried both. Good luck and let me know how it goes for you in
whatever your school decides to do. We can all learn from each other's
experiences.
Sincerely,
Rene Corbeil
jcorbeil@tenet.edu