Related:

• CI$ // n. Hackerism for `CIS', CompuServe Information Service.
  The dollar sign refers to CompuServe's rather steep line charges....
• etwork, the: n. 1. The union of all the major noncommercial
  academic, and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet, the old ARPANET, NSFnet, {BITNET}, and the virtual UUCP and {USENET} `networks', plus the corporate in-house networks and commercial time-sharing services (such as CompuServe) that gateway to them....
• ISP /I-S-P/ Common abbreviation for Internet Service Provider, a kind of company that barely existed before 1993.
  ISPs sell Internet access to the mass market. While the big nationwide commercial BBSs with Internet access (like America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, Netcom, etc....
• PPN: /P-P-N/, /pip'n/ [from `Project-Programmer Number'] n.
  A user-ID under {{TOPS-10}} and its various mutant progeny at SAIL, BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere....
• paper-net: n. Hackish way of referring to the postal service, analogizing it to a very slow, low-reliability network.
  USENET {sig block}s sometimes include a "Paper-Ne...
• Compu$erve n. See CI$. Synonyms CompuSpend and Compu$pend are also reported.
• ig block: /sig blok/ [UNIX; often written `.sig' there] n.
  Short for `signature', used specifically to refer to the electronic signature block that most UNIX mail- and news-posting software will {automagically} append to outgoing mail and news....
• he network n. 1. Historicaslly, the union of all the major noncommercial
  academic, and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet, the pre-1990 ARPANET, NSFnet, BITNET, and the virtual UUCP and Usenet `networks', plus the corporate in-house networks and commercial time-sharing services (such as CompuServe, GEnie and AOL) that gateway to them....
• ICBM address: n. (Also `missile address') The form used to register a site with the USENET mapping project includes a blank for longitude and latitude, preferably to seconds-of-arc accuracy.
  This is actually used for generating geographically-correct maps of USENET links on a plotte...