9.8 MORE ON SLIP

Computers tied directly to the Internet communicate with each other using 
a standard known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol 
(TCP/IP).  This standard allows for direct interaction between these 
computers -- so that, for example, you can tap into a database halfway 
around the world over the Net (it also deals with such issues as routing 
information from A to B). 

This is NOT what you are doing when you dial into a public-access site 
with, say, Procomm.  Once your computer and your host establish a link, 
your computer basically goes to sleep and you interact with the network 
via programs on your host. That terminal emulation you always have to 
remember to set is merely a way to tell the host system what kind of 
keyboard to pretend you'd be using if you were actually at the host 
computer sitting at one of its terminals. All of the programs you need to 
run to interact with the Net, from mail and Usenet readers to Gopher and 
Lynx, are actually running on your provider's computer (or network); the 
only time your computer wakes up is when you do something like download a 
file (and even then, you're not using any particular Internet program). 

SLIP makes your computer an active participant on the network (PPP 
essentially does the same thing).  With a SLIP account, it's essentially 
your host that goes to sleep, acting only as a sort of doorway to the 
rest of the Internet for you and your computer. Now your computer has 
direct access to TCP/IP message packets (which can be anything from e-
mail to World-Wide Web images).  Of course, this also means you'll need 
all the software to do things sitting on your hard drive.  Think of it as 
the difference between renting an apartment, where the landlord takes 
care of the maintenance, and owning your own house, where you gain the 
freedom to do things the way you want.