2 West Coast Firms to Market Software to Connect PCs With Internet : Computing: Home users would not need commercial on-line services to access the largest public network.

Two companies today plan to announce new software that allows personal computer users to connect directly to the Internet, the world’s largest public computer network.

Originally funded by the National Science Foundation to connect universities and government agencies, the Internet is now used by an estimated 20 million people. Many go through commercial on-line computer services such as Compuserve, America Online and other “gateway” providers.

Most people have only limited access to much of the information available on the Internet, such as databases and libraries. The network is most widely used for electronic mail and to access computer bulletin boards.

The new software, “Internet in a Box,” is being developed by O’Reilly & Associates, of Sebastopol, Calif., a publisher of books to help Internet users, and software maker Spry Inc., of Seattle.

It will include a program that can be loaded onto a personal computer hard drive. The software allows users with high-speed modems to link directly to the Internet, company officials said.

“The traditional services being offered now are kind of archaic and not for the common person,” said Dave Pool, president of Spry. Internet was developed with a computer operating system known as Unix, which is difficult to manage and uses complicated textual commands.

Internet in a Box, which is expected to be on sale for under $100 by next spring, uses a point-and-click graphical system similar to the Apple Macintosh or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.

It includes a version of O’Reilly’s popular book “The Whole Internet User’s Guide and Catalogue” and a free subscription to O’Reilly’s Global Network Navigator, an Internet guide.

But there are other charges.

Spry subsidiary NovX Interserv will be the access provider via a U.S. Sprint toll-free line. NovX Interserv will bill users for time spent on the Internet.

Jeff Payne, director of the NovX Interserv project, said the cost of full-service support would be $24.95 a month, with an additional charge of $10.95 to $12.50 per hour for Internet time.