
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995                   TAG: 9508150086
SECTION: DISCOVER ROANOKE VALLEY                    PAGE: 24   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEWCOMERS CAN CRUISE VALLEY VIA COMPUTER

If you're new to the area, or would like to get re-acquainted in a high-tech way, grab your virtual surfboard and let's hit the Internet! The waves are good and getting better every day.

Surfing the Internet - a huge network of networks linked by computers - is the latest virtual sport and can be a newcomer's introduction to the Roanoke and New River valleys. And, literally, the world.

There is so much information available via the Internet it would be impossible to cover it completely. In fact, there is so much offered just about the area that any listing would be considered incomplete at best.

However, I have used my home computer, a modem and a host account to find out what's there that may be of interest to a newcomer. The really exciting aspect is that all the information can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

If you're new to cybersurfing, addresses and search facilities will not mean much. They are, however, exactly what they sound like. The address tells your computer where to look for information and the search facility goes and gets it.

There are also several companies that offer host accounts, one of which is InfiNet. InfiNet is owned by Landmark Communications, the parent company of The Roanoke Times. Accounts are also available from America Online and Prodigy.

But let's get down to what we started out to do: find information.

No listing of area Internet sites would be complete without a mention of The Roanoke Times Online, of course. It includes the latest news, weather, business and sports as well as listings of weekly columns, calendars of local events and a complete guide to the community. A visitor to our "home page" can even send a letter to the editor through the computer. Articles and calendar information from the New River Current - The Roanoke Times' six-day-a-week tabloid insert for the New River Valley - is also there.

So, come visit and click an icon or two at The Roanoke Times Online. The address is:

http://www.infi.net/roatimes/.

What about the area's higher education offerings? Course listings, maps, e-mail access to professors, photographs and virtual libraries of resources are accessible through several college and university homepages. Some addresses of interest are:

Virginia Western Community College, Roanoke

http://164.106.230.301

Roanoke College, Salem

http://www.roanoke.edu/

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg

http://www.vt.edu/

Hollins College, Roanoke

http://www.tinker.hollins.edu

The University of Virginia, Charlottesville

http://www.virginia.edu/

Radford University, Radford

http://www.runet.edu/

Education is one thing, but there are regular folks on the Internet with interests that may interest you. There are several local people with home pages and their numbers are growing as is their diversity.

Roanoke's own Dolores Farmer uses her home page to sell real estate, but the real draw for newcomers is the wealth of information she has compiled about Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County, Vinton, and area attractions. Her address is:

http://www.infi.net/~dolores.

Tom and Beth Wilson of Roanoke have also used their home page to sell real estate, but they have added information and links to fun Internet sites. Their address is:

http://www.infi.net/~twilson/.

The C. Orring web page offers a link to the Southwest Virginia Internet Society where area surfers can gather to chat about the Internet. It also contains links to area colleges and the Blacksburg Electronic Village. The address is:

http://www.infi.net/~swvis/.

The Blacksburg Electronic Village is its own community on the Internet and is an experimental research project begun about three years ago in Blacksburg. The idea was to see how businesses, local government and citizens could benefit with access to the Internet and links to each other. The village offers newsgroups where people discuss issues relevant to the community in a cyber-town hall format. The whole project is linked to Virginia Tech and community information about Blacksburg and the New River Valley is at the computer user's fingertips at:

http://www.bev.net.

Another home page of interest is for the law firm of Osterhoudt, Ferguson, Natt, Aheron & Agee P.C. Again, the main objective for the business is advertising, but this page offers a virtual law library with links to legal resources from around the nation. The address is:

http://www.infi.net/~ofnaa/.

by CNB