The Internet on every corner.

So you want to surf the Net but don't have a computer. Now, thanks to the growth of the Internet, various alternative Internet access points are readily available to people who don't have access at home, work or school or who simply need access on the run. Browsing the World Wide Web, exchanging electronic mail or entering a chat room doesn't have to mean shelling out $2,000 for a PC. Onramps to the Net can be found in libraries, hotels, business centers and even cybercafes. Libraries believe offering Internet access is good public policy; hotels want to give their visitors added value; and retail outlets, such as the business centers and cybercafes, see entrepreneurial opportunities.

What's the best public Internet space for you? If it's mood you're seeking, start with the cybercafe, a sort of high-tech coffee shop that has popped up in every corner of the world. These cyber-shops offer you a place to work and socialize while sipping coffee and juices or munching on baked goods and sandwiches.

"What we've done is create an environment that's very social, where it promotes communications among everyone," says Ricardo Nichols, owner of NetCafe, in Brooklyn, New York, a 1,000-sq.-ft. shop with a distinctly modern, jazzy feel. "That transcends into what the Internet is all about, the ability to communicate and exchange information," says Nichols.

Communication in the form of e-mail is the most common reason why people are using the Internet. Since you typically don't need to access e-mail for more than a few minutes at a time, having your own computer isn't always necessary. According to Fabrik Communications Inc., a San Francisco business messaging service provider, e-mail users will grow from about 100 million people globally at the end of 1996 to more than 300 million in 2000.

NetCafe, which opened in February, caters to students and professionals and is strategically located within walking distance of five colleges. As well as offering a selection of natural fruit juices, biscuits and coffee cakes, the shop has a stable of 10 Pentium computers with high-speed connection to the Internet, color scanners, printers and high-end software. Nichols' NetCafe charges a rate of $10 an hour for computer use (Cybercafe services typically are charged on an hourly basis.)

Along famed Route 66 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sits the Webolution Cafe, established in April. At Webolution, you can open an e-mail account, which includes a personal e-mail address, for about $10 per month.

The cafe attracts travelers, business people, professionals and others who do Web research, play Internet games or join chat rooms. "We're pretty relaxed," says Web master M[ark Simenson. "We have computers spread around along the walls. You can look around and talk to people who are here." There is no pattern to how people use Webolution Cafe, since they come in at their convenience. There is even a happy hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the week when the normal $7 an hour rate is cut in half. To find a cybercafe in your corner of the world, go to www.clearlight.com/-kireau/cafe.

Business centers and hotels also supply onramps to the Net. Kinko's, the 24-hour business center chain headquartered in Ventura, California, offers Internet access at the majority of its 850 locations, says spokeswoman Laura McCormick. The hourly rate is about $12, the same as for computer rentals at Kinko's stores.

Travelers are starting to find that Internet access in major hotels is becoming as important as other services that we take for granted, such as voice mail and faxing. The Renaissance Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C., has placed computer terminals with Internet access in 13 of its guest rooms and two kiosks in hotel lobby areas. The hotel charges 33 cents a minute for access to its terminals.

While retail outlets and hotels do charge for public access, libraries offer the service for free and see access as part of their mission to serve the public. According to the American Library Association in Chicago, nearly 45% of U.S. public libraries were connected to the Internet at the end of 1996, and 70% of those not connected have plans to put their facility on-line within 12 months.

Many libraries, like the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, have terminals where students and others can come in and search the Web. "It's a very important part of what we do," says Pratt Library spokeswoman Averil Kadis. "We feel strongly that equity of access is something that libraries stand for. There's a growing gap between people who can afford these resources in their homes and those people who cannot. The library can bridge that gap."

Pratt Library also sponsors training programs to teach students how to use the Internet. It plans to set up information kiosks at public shopping centers around Baltimore where people can access the Internet and the library's electronic resources, Kadis says. In the coming years, access to the Net will become as ubiquitous as telephone service. But for the time being, the next time you feel left off the information highway, remember, you don't need to own a computer to be connected. --Marvin V. Greene