Live Link Up

Okay, you've got a deck and some programs. What else are you gonna need?

The last thing you're going to need is a place to plug in. This means a phone number.

If you're running a stationary cyberdeck, this is as simple as contacting your local office of Internet Phone Corporation and arranging for a phone number. The office checks your background and credit record, then issues you a Net Access code (equiva-lent to a 20th century phone number).

If you have a cellular phone or cellular cybermodem, the process is equally simple; call up Internet, tell them your cyberdeck's serial number, get a credit check and your Net Access code is issued to you right then and there.

The Net Access code is billed a flat rate (30eb per month), plus additional costs for long distance Netruns (or calls). The bill is sent to your home on the 1st of the month. If you don't have a permanent residence, Internet will arrange to have the funds deleted out of your credit account automatically, sending a statement to wherever you get your mail.

Didn't pay your bill this month? Internet gives you thirty days to pay up, with polite reminders at the end of the thirty. Past sixty days, Internet automatically deletes your Net Access code. From then on, the code is invalid and you just don't make calls. Period. For a 1,000eb deposit, you can get a new Net Access Code.

Maybe.

Past 120 days, Internet scrambles a Solo team and starts looking for you. Collections in the 21st Century is a rapidly expanding field, with exciting new developments in man portable weapons, brainwipe and behavior adjustment through selective use of adversive pain therapy.

Just so you know.

You don't have to have a Net Access code. You can jack a deck into someone else's line (making yourself really popular with your cube mate), or even jack into a street Data Term. However, at 1eb per minute plus long distance charges, this can be an expensive proposition. You also have to put the euro right up front to log on.

This may be one reason why a favorite tactic of Netrunners is to sneak into a big corporate office building where they can log on using the corporation's phones to make their runs. This is illegal and dangerous (corporate guards aren't known for a sense of humor), but it a free. And that's a powerful incentive for some people.

Got a Net Access code? Let's get busy.