Subj : RE: Weekly nodelist report on noteworthy changes (238) To : Michiel van der Vlist From : Marc Lewis Date : Sat Aug 27 2022 13:49:45 Hello Michiel. ML> I utilised IRex up until roughly February, MvdV> That long? Irex has not been maitained for, I didn't keep track MvdV> but it must be some two decades... I was on the beta team for Charles. Hence I was running an advanced beta (again under OS/2). It had some features the others had not implemented yet, though not without a few notable bugs from time-to-time. But overall, it was stable. Still running its SMTP server and, for what its worth, the FTP section for at one time, FidoNet transfers (no longer utilised.) It's behind a brute of a firewall (the OS/2 port of the IBM firewall) who's block list is huge as is the IRex internal disallow list. It works fairly well. ML> but its BinkP is so out of date that it cannot adequately handle ML> connects from binkd-like systems like the one in Synchronet. MvdV> Well, synchronet is not free of problems too.. I'm sure that Rob would agree as well. :-) ML> Those problems disappeared completely when I switched over to a ML> binkd server (OS/2 version). IRex didn't provide any dial-up ML> services for my system. MvdV> Of course. Irex is an IP mailer. I used it in conjunction MvdV> withIntermail. It worked fine as a combination for POTS/IP. MvdV> The main reason I dropped Irex is that it did not support IPv6 MvdV> and it was never going to be updated. Add to tat that I did not MvdV> need POTS any more and so I made the jump from AMA to BSO. I MvdV> ditched Irex and I ditched InterMail. I never regretted it. My system is still (and probably will always be IPv4) [regrettably, I think.] Thus far it hasn't presented a problem in that respect. ML> Binkley did (and still does.) The VOIP connections aren't as good as ML> the genuine copper pair over the Courier, where I could routinely do ML> 28.8 and 33.2kbps connections w/ no problem... MvdV> I switched from ADSL to cable around the turn of the century. At MvdV> the same time I switched my voice line from the copper pair to MvdV> VOIP over cable. I did not notice any degradation in quality when MvdV> using it for what it was intended: voice telephony. Analog modem MvdV> over VOIP still worked, but I never got more than 1*K or so. No MvdV> problem, I only used the analog modem for an occasional test MvdV> after I got Fido over IP. Of course, when I first got ADSL back in 1997 or so, it was over a genuine copper pair (needless to say) along with my 4 Courier modems for the 4 nodes of the BBS with the moderately involved comm port unit... All of which got pared-down to 2 incoming lines as modem calls decreased, then finally down to 1 (like now). I finally had to give up on the copper pair, as I mentioned previously, when the phone company's pricing went through the ceiling. I then switched over to a cable voice line, but the contract with my cable company for a fixed IP plus a voice line got to be a bit much to deal with. After the 1 year contract expired on the voice line I gave it up and switched over to MagicJack at about US$35/year. I've stuck with that ever since. With only 1 non-ip Node in R19 and the once or twice a day dial-up caller (one from Germany!) I'll continue with that set-up. Works okay - I'm not going to mess with it until I absolutely have to. ML> But those days are indeed gone short of having a very high dollar VOIP ML> system - ain't 'gonna happen; I'll stick with the cheapie which can ML> double as an additional voice connection should my cell phone go on ML> the blitz. MvdV> Let's face it, Analog Modem over VOIP is a technical nonsicality. Yes, I will certainly grant you that. MvdV> Anyway, here in R28 both analog modem and ISDN are history. I remember at work, many years back, just before ADSL actually became available, each of certain work stations had a dial-up connection to the various company BBSes at the time (like Sony, Phillips, etc.) where the technicians could download manuals and other data. LONG before them having www addresses. Our company e-mail was through America OnLine dial-up! Then came our first bonded-pair ISDN cable into the main office and a radical/total overhaul of the entire server system from Novell to Microsoft. Our speed was, of course 128k when the bonded pair was working right or 64k when one of the lines had a problem. Pain in the neck to keep that ISDN modem running right. TCP/IP over DOS was a trip in and of itself... but that's a different story. :-) Then everything switched over to Win 98SE; things got easier. Best regards, Marc .... BOMBECK'S RULE: Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. --- timEd/2 1.10.y2k+ * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS-Huntsville,AL-bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45) .