Subj : Re: computers
To   : Spectre
From : deon
Date : Sun Jul 21 2024 11:42:55

  Re: Re: computers
  By: Spectre to tenser on Fri Jul 19 2024 07:09 pm

Howdy,

 > SLIP was still a common option here into the early 90s... until WinSock and whatever PPP implementation arrived, I'm a bit hazy on that timing
 > though.
 > SLIP was usually easier to get working for the dialup crowd. SLIP didn't
 > last to long once things got going though.

Yeah, I was an ISP in the early-mid 90s with a mate. We joined APANA, and had a modem in the city that gave us a 33K link to the internet. I think at some point we updated that to 56K.

At my mates place, we had 10 phone lines, 1 was permanent call to the city using PPP on answering, 1 was used by me, which also was PPP to my place, and the other 8 lines (on a line hunt) went to a shell account where users could use shell/text if they wanted, or SLiRP to setup a SLIP/PPP connection.

We had an 8 port digiboard from memory, and the 2 onboard serial ports on, I'm guessing, a 386 (or 486) running linux. Those were the days that I would compile an updated kernel, which took hours to complete. I think I used to kick it off at night, and it would be finished sometime early morning if there were no issues.

We used to charge $100/year (rules of APANA meant we couldnt be profitable), so it was a hobby with me any mate. It was hard to not be profitable, as most of the 8 lines were busy most of the day. I think we gave everybody 2 hrs max per day. I cant remember how many users we had, but I think it was well over 200 at the time.

I found a recent APANA report that showed that we were their 3rd biggest user (in terms of traffic - I didnt know that at the time), which is what they charged us by.

It was kinda cool logging in, and seeing all 8 lines busy. The good ol days :)


....лоеп
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
 * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

.