Stops to stop talking about push

Enough push. Time to go out and pull in a little data to help you make your own decisions.

First stop: Surf over to Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/, where you will find discussions of Microsoft push initiatives, plus lots of toys to download and try out.

Here's a suggestion: If you are thinking about playing with push technology, load Windows NT on a machine and get started. You can set up a pretty fair push or pull site with the free stuff available from the Softies.

And hey -- this won't go on forever. Now that the Mac OS and OS/2 are pretty much dead issues, you'll notice that copies of Windows NT ain't cheap, never mind free.

Next, surf over to http://www.netscape.com/escapes/ibd/program_info.html for the skinny on Netscape's In-Box Direct. This section is meant for developers; it explains in tedious detail everything you could possibly want to know.

No downloadable server to try out here, just this message: "Currently, there is no charge for participation in In-Box Direct. However, space is limited. Web sites are reviewed by Netscape for inclusion in the program on a case-by-case basis. Netscape shall determine, in its sole discretion, whether a service shall be included in the program."

Groovy. Now head over to http://pioneer.pointcast.com/products/iserver/ and download a 60-day trial of the PointCast I-Server. Set up a channel, and start pushing some data across your intranet.

Other places to check out include Downtown, at http://www.incommon.com/; BackWeb, at http://www.backweb.com/dev/dev_svs.html, and Yahoo's Push Programming site at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Programming/Server_Push_Client_Pull/.

The latter includes links to Macintosh push products.

For more Mac push stuff, point your browser to http://applenet.apple.com/index.html and take a look at Apple's WebWhacker offering.

-- CJF

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1997, Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved.