KOCHI, May 2: Here is some great news for Indian Net-surfers. Two Kochi-based computer whiz-kids, K Jayakrishnan and Kurian Thomas, today launched a revolutionary software called `Shellsock ver 1.00.' on the Internet.

The path-breaking software, offered absolutely free, as against its less advanced lone competitor `Blue Laser' which comes with a price-tag, for information beyond 100 KB allows subscribers of the text-based Shell account to view the graphics on the Web, a facility otherwise available only on the expensive TCP/IP account option.

``If you cannot experience the graphics on the Web, you are missing more than good scenery. Anyone who has surfed the Net will tell you that Internet without graphics is like watching `Independence Day' through sub-titles,'' the beaming innovators told The Indian Express. `Shellsock' is intended to get you the maximum out of the World Wide Web; see it as it was meant to be seen. It allows you to run IP client software like Netscape, Explorer and mIRC,'' Jayakrishnan (24) and Kurian (25), directors of Xtend Technologies Private Limited, explained.

Whereas the subscriber's computer is connected to the Net through the service provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited's (VSNL) server, in the case of Shell account, the Net link is direct for TCP/IP. In the Shell format, only those programmes provided by VSNL could be run. With the Web increasingly going graphic, coping with this format would be sheer suffocation for Net-buffs. In contrast, the TCP/IP account provides direct connection to the Net, opening up an infinite horizon of possibilities. The attraction of the new software increases manifold with a comparison of the subscription charges for Shell and TCP/IP accounts. While it costs Rs 5,000 for the former for an year or 500 hours, whichever is earlier, the cost is Rs 15,000 or 500 hours for the latter.

No doubt that `Shellsock' would prove to be a major hit with the student subscribers to Shell account, when this category, expected to cost only Rs 500, is launched in the country later.

Although foreign softwares like TIA or SLIRP are out there in the segment of `Shellsock,' they are of no use in India as VSNL does not permit the operation of the same.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.