Freenets Getting a New Lease on Life Ask Doris Dell of Woodland Hills what she can't live without and she answers without hesitation: "I'm retired, and the Internet is my whole life."

Dell's hobby is genealogy and she uses the Net to help track down family trees.

But it's not just a hobby for her. For Dell, and many others, the Internet is a connection to humanity, a way of reaching out to people who would otherwise be inaccessible. "The contacts I've made on the Internet have become very important to me. Like I said, it's a major part of my life." But Dell never would have made the connection without the Los Angeles Free-Net, which offers Internet access at a very low cost at www.lafn.org. "When I got started doing this, I couldn't have afforded anything more than $40 a year for Internet access. The people behind this are doing a wonderful thing."

For many Americans, an Internet connection has become a lifeline to the world, rivaling the telephone in importance. Roberta D. Godfrey of Culver City, who's also an LAFN user, said, "I do a tremendous amount of research on the Internet. The Internet is my comfort and a critical source of information. I wouldn't buy a thing without comparing specifications and prices online. Information obtained from the Internet improves life and the poor deserve the same access as the rich."