1.2 The What, Where, Who of ICE

This seciton should answer a few of the questions that you are likely to have when you first come to realise the existence of ICE.

What is ICE?

ICE is a PC server. It probably looks much like the PC you have on your desktop, but without the permenantly attached keyboard or monitor, and with a bit more capacity. What makes ice powerful is the operating system it runs and the permanent Internet connectivity it enjoys. These are its launch specifications, but we're always upgrading (donations welcome but certainly not mandatory!) so keep a watch:

• Intel Pentium II 233 microprocessor
• 128 megabytes of SDRAM
• 512kb cache
• 9 gigabyte ultra IDE hard-disk
• 10/100 ethernet card to connect to the Internet
• £15 videocard from dodgy bloke in Kingston (has only been used when setting up the machine)

The machine was bought in bits and built by the Dairynet founders in a Richmond playroom in February 1998 and smuggled into ClaraNet headquarters in the City of London in a midnight stealth mission. A Citroen 2CV provided the hard-disk crippling suspension.

Where is ICE?

ICE lives in a snug corner of ClaraNet Ltd's high capacity, air-conditioned server-room, where it is connected to the ISP's Internet backbone, giving it worldwide connectivity. It is independently monitored for stability and accessibility 24 hours a day. The map below gives you some idea of where ICE is geographically.

We must emphasise ClaraNet's generosity in providing a home for ICE, and recommend them as a service provider with The Right Idea about the Internet. If you join them, mention us :-) Of course, a dialup account with ClaraNet gives you blazingly fast access to ICE, as it is on their local network.

Who is ICE?

The server was purchased and supervised by Jake Jellinek and Nick Mailer. Tim Berry helps with the site's web-pages and so on. The server's users include friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances of Nick and Jake. It also contains some rescuees - people who ran worthy sites, but who had to leave their ISPs for whatever reason, or were inflicted with advertising. The users are a diverse bunch: 15 year old schooboys, industry professionals, teachers, novelists, journalists, musicians and more. There is no criterea or surefire method which will guarantee your getting an ICE account - it's a pretty arbitrary endowment.

Because the Dairynet offers much online freedom, we have to be selective about who we allow to use our services, and expect people to behave responsilbly and maturely in accordance with the priveleges offered. Needless to say, if a user abuses their account, it will be taken away..

Why ICE?

A question best left existential.

But both Nick and Jake were keen to set up a server upon which people could feel at home and comfortable, where they could learn about exploring and running services on the Internet, and build a community to help others to do the same. This, in part, was because of experiences Nick and Jake had on other servers - system operators would set up petty and frustrating rules, and the whole exploratory ethos was spoiled by this. Therefore, if you feel we are sometimes being petty and authoritarian, please tell us!

These pages were assembled by Nick and Jake (constituting the owners, managers, system administrators and support staff of Dairynet) and HTMLed by Tim (who is Dairynet's web design department). Links preceeded by a will take you off this site. Copyright©1998 Dairynet. All Rights Reserved.