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Pick Your ISP With NIC Web Appliance

The stripped-down, New Internet Computer ships with support from Oracle's founder.

Lincoln Spector, special to PCWorld.com

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The New Internet Computer became available Monday, on sale directly from the company's site. Backed by Oracle's Larry Ellison, this Internet appliance promises to give you Web and e-mail access without the expense or hassle of owning a PC. And unlike other Internet appliances, the NIC doesn't tie you to a particular Internet service provider.

Basically, the NIC Company is selling a $199.99 Linux box with a 266-MHz "Pentium class" processor, 64MB of memory, and Netscape Navigator. Although the NIC offers easy access to NetZero, a free, advertiser-supported ISP, it doesn't require you to join up. The device will work with any ISP that gives you standard POP Internet access, which means almost every ISP except America Online. You can access e-mail either via the Web or Navigator's Communicator program.

You can also pick your connection. The NIC comes with a 56-kilobits-per-second modem and an Ethernet connection, supporting your phone line, cable, or digital subscriber line.

The Missing Pieces

One thing the NIC doesn't come with is a monitor--at least not at the basic price. You can add one for an extra $129.99 if you don't have a spare monitor available.

The system also lacks a hard drive, a defect that the NIC Company treats as a virtue. There's some sense to that. Just about every headache your PC gives you, from corrupted files to bad drivers to viruses, is in some way connected to a hard drive.

Of course, hard drives are also part of having a PC. Without a hard drive, you can't download interesting files, run programs that didn't come with the OS, or add drivers for new hardware.

The NIC offers solutions for some of these shortcomings. For instance, it stores cookies, bookmarks, and other surfing necessities in 4MB of flash RAM. But the system's two Universal Serial Bus ports are severely limited by your inability to add a driver. Unless you're able to burn a new CD-ROM (which the NIC doesn't support), you're limited to the drivers that come on the bundled CD-ROM.

Currently, that disc offers only one driver, which is for the Epson Color Stylus 740 printer. The CD-ROM, which is the heart of the NIC, also includes Linux and Netscape, and the Real Player, Java, Flash, and Shockwave plug-ins. NIC promises more drivers will come with a free upgrade in September.

And when that upgrade arrives, all you'll have to do is put the new CD-ROM into the drive--no installation necessary. Now that's a novel way to upgrade your operating system.

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