He has spent the last six weeks holed up in his Dallas townhouse, using the Internet for everything: food, clothing and furniture.

That leaves nearly 11 months to go in cyberspace for Mitch Maddox, who has officially changed his name to "DotComGuy" and pledged to rely on the Web for all his earthly needs for the year. After making the plunge Jan. 1 with only the clothes on his back and a laptop computer, the first two weeks of life in cyberspace were spent shopping for furniture, clothes, food and supplies. He did have some $98,000 from sponsors, as well as phone lines, heat, electricity and water. But he is not alone. A team of technicians in the next house keeps a battery of video cameras trained on him day and night and a support team handles his business affairs. Online fans all over the world are logging on to his Web site, www.dotcomguy.com, tuning in to his daily life with messages, suggestions and comments. "The big question people have is, 'How do you make your money?'" DotComGuy says. "The answer is to provide quality programming, but that_s just a small portion of it. This is a forum for e-commerce. This is the Internet. We want to go crazy with it, show what all it can do." If he needs a doctor, DotComGuy will e-mail his family physician and arrange a house call. He also arranges for thrice-weekly visits from a personal trainer and can arrange visits for a haircut. DotComGuy, 26, was fed up with traditional shopping, especially with his parents who had no idea about shopping online. A business plan soon followed, and sponsorship came in from Internet firms who saw the potential for publicity. They built a corporation around the venture -- christened DotComGuy Inc., and sell DotComGuy merchandise, including T-shirts, mouse pads, baseball hats, bumper stickers and other items.