What's your history with BBSs and why are you still interested? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5oio5 · 2021-03-02 20:55 I'm trying to see what the loose demographic is of people who like BBSs these days. I'm starting a website that is styled with ANSI and BBS-type menus and graphics...and want to cater to the right group. I personally come from running a BBS back in the day. Operated from 1992-1997 or so? I'm now in the tech industry, working as a designer. I just really enjoy the constraints of the technology and design. It feels futuristic and modern while at the same time nostalgic. What industry do you work in (or maybe you're retired now)? What do you like most about running or calling a BBS? Why are you still interested in BBSs and what keeps you motivated? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scatter82 · 2021-03-02 21:34 Industry: web developer, fake musician What I like about BBSs: The underground feel of them. Text files. Why I am still interested: The fact that they aren't infested with tracking cookies etc. Also, nostalgia. BBSs were a big part of my life in the 80s. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- izzo34 · 2021-03-02 22:00 It was part of my childhood man. Born in 81. Found out about bbs in like 93. By 95 I ran my own bbs. Wildcat 4.20 multi-line 10, with 4 phone lines. Legend of the red dragon was the top game pretty much. There were a few others that got popular too of course. I made some good friends locally on there. I miss those times. Miss messing around with dos, desqview, setting up the bbs, config files, doors and so on. Then playing it after. One guy I met on there. We were supposed to go see starship troopers when it came out in the theaters. Sadly he killed himself the night before we were to go. There is a lot of history with a bbs. Am thinking about building a 486 just to do these things again. I have dos, windows nt 4.0, os/2 warp 4 on a virtual machine but its not the same. I read the actual Microsoft dos 5.0 manual cover to cover and knew every command and had it setup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dmine45 · 2021-03-02 22:00 BBS History: Started calling them when working for a power utility when they had Telix installed on my office computer, primarily to call a contractor's BBS where he released updated custom written software for Foxpro databases for the project I was working on at the time. Industry: Integrated computing systems lead for combat systems development for the US Navy. Running a BBS: Because I can be free to customize my system the way I want to. Been running a BBS since 1993. Other fun facts: I also run the BBS Corner and The Telnet BBS Guide (since 1996 and 1997 respectively). Fun fact #2: I met my first wife through my BBS. Fun fact #3: I met my best friend through my BBS (still friends 26 years later) and was my Best Man at my second marriage. Didn't meet my current wife directly though a BBS, though. I met her at the local computer club! :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dangolhuh · 2021-03-02 22:40 Ran a board in the late 80s. Still interested because the games are solid. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ebojager · 2021-03-02 22:43 I got my start with some local BBS's in my home town in the early 80s, when I got my first PC, the IBM PS/2. It was cool to login and see if someone answered your message, haha. I eventually started my own BBS part time with only one line lol. I still like some of the door games and have a local version of my Telegard BBS on my PC to keep me upto date on how to edit the menus and play one of my favorite games of all time, Operation Overkill II. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- macroidtoe · 2021-03-02 23:05 I was 11 or 12 when my friends showed me how to get on the local BBSes in the early/mid 90s. Mostly was just interested in the games - L.O.R.D... Usurper... Barney Splat was a weird favorite. My favorite BBS was called Superunknown, a single line BBS run by some dude who was 15 (whoa, he's old!). Somewhere I've got an old notebook with the ideas for a L.O.R.D. module I had come up with. I'm not really actively involved in anything right now but every now and then just have the urge to search for/read up on old BBS topics for nostalgia's sake. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- King-Coin · 2021-03-02 23:15 I forgot about using BBSs for work. I worked at a market research company for a little while where we had to transfer files to a subcontractor's private BBS using Zmodem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lebowskipei · 2021-03-03 00:00 My History: Born in 81, got into BBSs after a mentor / friend set me up with a couple local BBSs in late 1993.. Had some good times, played lots of L.O.R.D. as far as door games went.. I ran a little BBS just open for a few hours in the evening for my friends for a short period. We had just about 5 or 6 BBSs that I knew about in my area, which was Northern Nova Scotia.. Great times, even when some guy on a BBS known for an inflammatory message board told me he was going to run me over with his car LOL, it was funny because we went to the same high school but we had no idea who each other were in real life.. All in all that got squashed on the same BBS shortly after.. I'm still interested because it partially represented my early teens, it was extremely fun and exciting to me.. it is something I fondly remember and cherish to this day 👍 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ykkl · 2021-03-03 01:51 Dabbled a bit in the late 80s, but really got into them around 90-91. I was big into Microsoft FS4 and BBS' were a way to distribute and get aircraft and scenery. I probably was one of the biggest creators of FS4 addons, among other things. I wasn't big into games and doors but also tinkered a lot with freeware and shareware. I guess that was the start of my datahoarding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HerpieMcDerpie · 2021-03-03 03:48 Born in 80. Got my first computer in 1993. A kid at school said his older brother was running a local BBS - PCBoard. Quickly found others and found multinode chat. Chat was where it was at. And Legend of the Red Dragon. I currently run a BBS/Chat system over the radio (AX.25 1200bd) in my area on 145.010Mhz for local amateur radio operators. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- codefenix · 2021-03-03 03:49 I was originally drawn to BBSes for the ability to download games. Must have downloaded many megabytes' worth (which was quite a lot for a 2400 baud modem at the time) of shareware and other types of files. Soon after that I discovered door games, and was constantly playing LoRD and Usurper with friends. Occasionally I would post in the message boards, and next thing I knew I was chatting with sysops and eventually I was co-sysoping one of the local boards. I always wanted to run one myself, but I was just a teen without the resources. I grew up near Youngstown, OH, and remember quite well when Rusty n Edie's BBS famously got raided by the FBI. Wild. The last board I called regularly before the internet took over didn't even have shareware or doors; it was purely chatting and messaging. I remember going to a meetup they hosted once at an area pizza place. Fun time. I started getting back into BBSing some years ago when a coworker made me aware of a couple boards accessible via telnet. Soon realized that BBSing was alive and well. So I finally decided to get my board up and running at the end of 2019, mainly so my buddy and I could play LoRD and Usurper again. I've been keeping it up and adding to it ever since, and I'll keep it going as long as I can. Edited to add: Almost forgot, as for career, I work in IT, doing ETL development for healthcare data. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-03-03 08:53 [L.o.R.D.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LoRD/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thaurin · 2021-03-03 11:23 Yeah. So my parents never let me have my own phone line to run a BBS, so I secretly stole the normal one for one hour a day for a time. I mean, yours just went like, "Oh hey, I have no idea what this nerdy BBS crap is about, but here are four phone lines that you can use, whatever!" Haha. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-03 12:57 So here's something different for you. I am 16. As in born in 2004. And yet I still BBS, even on modems whenever possible. I have always had a strange interest in collecting vintage tech (he says, typing this comment on a IBM Model M keyboard) and I liked vintage computers. I have always wanted to get into home microcomputers (Commodore 64, Amiga, Tandy CoCo, etc.) but a lot of them are kind of expensive for what they are, and I was lucky to come into a bunch of old PCs suitable for running DOS and Windows 9x. When I found out about dial- up internet, I was fascinated by it and wanted to try it. I have always been interested in audio and sound recording, and the fact that data could be sent to another computer over a phone line had me hooked. So I got my Juno account (yes, they still exist) with a whopping *10 hours per month* of dial-up internet access, and was surfing the web like it was 1997. Then I found out about these things called bulletin boards and I was like "forums but... DOS text???" Of course, now I understand them a little better, but back when I first logged on to a BBS, I saw the ANSI graphics, the retro file libraries, the online games and the discussions about computers and other topics and I was thinking "WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE???" And I know you may think that I am just trying to be a retro hipster, but no. That is often the response I get when I try to tell people about my interests, but I really love this stuff. I am dedicated to trying to preserve this niche form of history. I do analog media conversion and restoration in my spare time. I listen to records almost on a daily basis. I collect CRTs. I am all in on this. Anyway, just wanted to throw a little bit of an outlier in your demographic data and let everyone know that there are at least a couple Gen Z members out there supporting the hobby. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lervatti · 2021-03-03 14:41 Born 1974, grew up with home computers and the pre-WWW era Internet. Mostly used and ran BBS’s to be able to communicate with other nerds like myself, ended up building UUCP networks with friends and some of those friends eventually started their own commercial ISP among the first ones in my country. I became a sysadmin working for Internet companies, which is what I’m still doing. You could say the BBS gave me a career. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- beencaughtbuttering · 2021-03-03 14:43 I ran a BBS as a teenager from 1991-1993. I got into it by calling local boards, then learning about phreaking and warez... Became a "courier" for a while (using a blue box) for the free warez and K-rad cred... started my own distro site, running Renegade, then OBV/2. Had a scare where someone called claiming to be from the FBI and threatened me with a bunch of legal action so I took my board down. In retrospect it was probably the sysop of a competing board. I was 17 and didn't want to go to prison so I took down the board. I follow this sub for the fun of it. I also keep a google drive of ANSI art I love. Such a hit of nostalgia. I don't work in tech. Sometime in the late 90's, computer literacy started to get away from me, now I'm just a "regular user". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vga256 · 2021-03-03 15:28 This is just awesome. So glad to see younger folks getting into retrocomputing for the same reasons I did all those years ago. When *I* was 16 (that would be 1995), I was collecting retrocomputers as well - which was easier of course, because they were practically given away back then. My own story: Born 79, got on my first board in 94. BBSing was already over a decade old by the time I got into it, and I loved every minute of searching my area for pirate boards on our IBM PS/1 and no-name 2400 baud modem. After a year, I got my own copy of Iniquity with the plan of running my own board at home. That got nixed quickly, because our family only had a "party [telephone] line" which was shared with two other neighbours. I eventually moved on to a USR Sportster 14.4k modem, got a private line, and accessed online services like Compuserve, Prodigy and the Internet (prior to there being a graphical world wide web)... but nothing can replace the slow-moving world of ANSI and analog lines. Nowadays, I noodle around with my old computing hardware and (like many) have fun figuring out how to connect them to BBSes via VOIP service on my trusty Linksys PAP2T. Heck, a few years ago I wrote a mini-port of LoRD for the TI-84 calculator in TI-BASIC just for kicks. I've got a few different modems these days, and while I don't spend a ton of time actually *online* chatting on boards, the thrill is still in the hunt :) FWIW, I have not seen anything better written on the subject of BBSing than [The Incredible Doom](https://www.incredibledoom.com) web/print comic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SpitfireTN · 2021-03-03 15:47 I run by boards on computers that are 30 years old. This still today makes for BBSing fun. Popping up a PC BBS on your computer or a web based BBS is not the same. Doing what I did back in 1990 and still doing it today! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 13_0_0_0_0 · 2021-03-03 15:51 My father worked for the phone company and in the early 80s brought home a 300 baud modem that a client was throwing out. It was a weird bell one that plugged in between a regular pots desk phone and the handset, so no autodial/autoanswer, but it was better than nothing. There were only 1-2 bbs’s in my local calling area that the time. Within a few years that number jumped to dozens. I co-sysopped several boards, including one of the first hundred Fidonet nodes, and ran my own Apple board (gbbs) and later vbbs (virtual advanced) on a pc. I was obsessed with inter-networking of bbs’s using Fido or VIrtualNet, as well as any kind of multi-process multi-user operating systems. That led to an obsession with Unix, Xenix, and eventually Linux when it came out. I was also really into Compuserve, exploring public x.25 networks (tymenet?), Ham Radio x.25 packet network bbs’s, and anything else I could get my phreak hands on. Fast forward a couple of decades and I’m up to my ears in network coding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NuSkooler · 2021-03-03 17:48 This is my favorite /r/bbs thread in a while. I really like reading through these stories! As for myself, I was born in '78. Got into BBSing sometime in the early 90's when a childhood friends dad discarded his modem (no idea why). I had used them before but never from my own home. We plugged that thing into my computer and never looked back. A few months later I started my own BBS running WWIV I believe it was. Jumped around between various softwares a few times and landed on Obv/2 for a number of years. In high school some friends and I ran a HPAVC newsletter which landed us in a lot of heat including unwelcomed visitors to my then "scene" board still running Obv/2. I ended up creating a "elite" user sub board running System/X. Fast forward and I'm a software engineer. I ended up writing my own BBS software as a side hobby and actually used a name of a half baked attempt in Pascal from many years ago. The BBS "scene" isn't just nostalgic to me, it's a reaction to the modern web. The early web was a much nicer community before corporations got their paws all over it. Now we're left with not much else than corporate interests in which we're a cog in the machine. BBSing doesn't have that. It has community, no monetary interests, etc. which is insanely refreshing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 09:33 I’m pretty much exactly the same as you - I was born in 2001 and I started BBSing in 2014 when I found out about modems. I was also fascinated by Telehack and the fact that you could call another modem for internet access. 7 years later, I run a Synchronet BBS and also an Asterisk server which is a part of CNET. If you’re interested in BBSs and modems, take a look at phreaking (project MF), blue boxes and apply for CNET (ckts.info). Do you host a BBS? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 10:39 I've taken a few stabs at it, but I never kept a board running as I never had the free time to be a good SysOp and really get the board to where I felt it should be. But thanks for the phreaking recommendation. I've looked at it some and it does seem neat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 12:13 Phreaking is very fun. Project MF allows you to see what it was like and I spoke with the guy who made it for about an hour. With CNET, it’s just a directory of probably 1000-2000 people. It emulates the telephone network as it was back in the 80/90s. For instance, my area code now is 0208 but on CNET it’s 01, because that’s what it was back in the 80s. It’s just a VoIP network but the people on it are quite interesting. IIRC, there are some dialup modems listening on a few numbers on CNET so dialling into them would be cool. If you really wanna host your own BBS, I suggest either a Raspberry Pi (which you should have anyway :) ) or have a look on Hetzner VPSs. They charge like €3 a month for 1GB RAM/1 vCPU/20GB of SSD storage. Very affordable. If you wanna help me do up my BBS, let me know :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 12:17 I already have a Raspberry Pi, but I also have a dedicated Linux server with more than enough spare resources to host one. I do want to give it another go, I just have to find the spare time. Maybe I'll try again this summer! And I will have to look at CNET. It looks fascinating! I have an ATA, but it's mostly designed for Google Voice, so I will have to see if I can either reconfigure it to get on the network, or maybe I will see if I can get asterix going. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 12:30 Yeah the ATA is what you want if you just want a number off another exchange. If you wanna be an exchange then apply for a block of numbers and you should get some help on how to setup asterisk. I think they actually generate an extensions.conf for you. What BBS software would you use? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 12:33 Probably Mystic, but I might look more into Synchronet. It always annoyed me that you have to convert ANSI just to edit it, and it seems very Windows-focused, whereas I run Linux even on my main PC. I can use Wine or run a Windows 10 VM if necessary, I just would prefer not to. TL;DR: Probably Mystic ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 12:45 Also, quick question, I was looking at the website and looking more at the ATA connection method. I am considering starting a PBX, but I might want to go the ATA route first. Will any old Cisco ATA work? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 14:50 Fair enough - each to his own. Honestly, it seems Synchronet is more Windows-based and I only found out about the ANSI thing yesterday. I don’t even know how to make ANSI graphics but I’m learning! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 14:52 Yeah should do. I have a Linksys PAP2T. That works great. I’d definitely suggest going down the ATA method first before starting your own PBX. What country are you based in? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 14:57 I'm in the US, so hopefully can find a host before setting up a PBX. I think I'll wait on that as I have some old machines that will do the job fine, but the cards are a bit pricey for me right now, and I want to learn a bit more about it first. I'll probably be looking around for my ATA and then doing the sign up for C*NET. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 14:58 When you say cards, what do you mean? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 14:59 If I'm correct (newbie to this) you need FXS and FXO modules on PCI/PCIe cards to setup Asterix properly. Please do correct me if I'm wrong. I've done very little research on this so far. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 15:04 Nope, just an Ethernet port! Mine runs off my raspberry pi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 15:06 Oh sweet! I might have to grab another Pi (Im using mine for amateur radio stuff) or run it on my Linux server, but I might be hosting an exchange in the near future! I suppose I could try it on a Pi 1 that I have, but that's probably a stretch. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 15:10 I assume you’re just talking about the pi 1b? I reckon that’ll run Asterisk just fine, I would’ve used that but mine broke so I bought a 3b one ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CharlieBrown197 · 2021-03-04 15:12 I'll try it. I'll see if I can dig up some info, and I'll test it on my current ATA (want to get a dedicated ATA for C*NET). If it works, I will try to register a new exchange! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nicnic2001 · 2021-03-04 15:14 The guy who does all the UK CNET stuff (Ian Jolly) is great. He’s a great help and he actually sent me a telephone and an ATA. All the traffic in the UK pretty much is routed through his exchange. I couldn’t tell you about a thing for the US but all I know is that Ian set it up so UK CNET users can call the US ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wipeuntilitbleeds · 2021-03-07 05:12 Would you mind sharing your hardware and software setup? I'm in fn00 near pittsburgh. I'm guessing I'm to far from you to hear your station 😟 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HerpieMcDerpie · 2021-03-07 05:50 Getting from FN00 to me in FN10 isn't impossible, but will certainly be a fun challenge. Are there some digipeaters in your area that you can hit? If so, what frequency are they on? For hardware, I'm running a mid-2000s Windows laptop running BPQ32 for the BBS. I also have the Winlink Gateway software running for folks to use. The radio being used is a Kenwood TK-790 which has 45w out. An MFJ-1207c TNC connects the radio to the laptop via a serial connection. The antenna is a cube slot antenna. I'm on mobile and there appears to be an option to attach a pic. We'll see how this goes. The whole packet radio project is something new to me and I'm still actively working on it. Currently, I'm working on a watered down Legend of the Red Dragon-like game for the system. Hopefully, the locals will enjoy it. https://imgur.com/1BJn03L.jpg ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Arieitis · 2021-03-07 10:56 Found bbs in 91, used computers a lot. Actually met my current hubby online this way. 25 years happy this year. In the 70’s got hooked up with the “beep line” very similar to bbs. Great times. Frequently I have insomnia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wipeuntilitbleeds · 2021-03-07 15:37 This is awesome. I have a ham friend a bit north of me who is installing a 2m beam @100ft. I'll have to see if he can hear your station at all. If he can't then I'll never hear you! I really want to do something like this around Pittsburgh. I had to exact same thought as you; run a MUDD of some kind over the air. Thanks for the tip on bpq32. I was looking at all the classical bbs software I remember from my youth like renegade. Unfortunately it's all bit rotting. My plan is to try and go software tnc with direwolf on a raspberry pi. I have no clue if or when I'll ever get this project of the ground. I'll have to remember to ping you in a few months to see how it's going. Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HerpieMcDerpie · 2021-03-07 15:38 Please do! And it's beyond doubtful you'll hear me directly, but with the aid of a few digipeaters between you and me, it's possible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2021-03-08 14:34 Like a lot of folks, I got into BBS'es way too late in the game, but yet plenty early enough for it to have had a profound effect on me. I was born in '77 and didn't get my first computer until '91 or' 92 maybe. It was a Gateway 2000 486DX-33 for the low, low price of $2500. 5.25" and a 3.5" drive; no CD-ROM, no sound card, and no modem. Eventually, I borrowed a 1200 baud external modem from a friend and somehow acquired the phone number to a local BBS. I was hooked! That prompted me to upgrade to a 14.4k modem and run new phone lines all over my house to support my new addiction. Eventually I got my own phone line and started hosting my own BBS, running Synchronet on OS/2, and signing up as a FidoNet node. It was amazing to be able to talk to people from around the world. Looking back on it now, the most appealing aspect was without a doubt was the exclusivity. Sure, it was cool as can be, and was like living the War Games movie, but it was a club that had a very high bar for admission. Not only did you need a computer, and a modem, and sometimes the ability to pay for long distance charges, but you also had to know how to use them; setting up the hardware properly, using a terminal to dial numbers, with special codes for disabling call waiting (*67 I believe it was). It took a relatively high level of intelligence to get "on-line" compared to today, and, as such, everyone that you met through BBS'es naturally had a similar baseline level of intelligence. While there were bad actors, they were generally few and far between, unlike today's internet, where 99.9% of everybody online is an idiot who couldn't find they own rear ends with both hands and a search party. It was very much like living through the 80's hair bands era or the 90's rave scene. It could only truly be experienced first hand during a very limited timeframe, and any attempt to recreate the original magic was pale in comparison to being present at that time and place. "We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave... ... and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." -Hunter S. Thompson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- General-RADIX · 2021-04-02 01:58 Born in '92; by the time I was old enough to navigate the Internet without tripping over every single porn site (just some of them), BBS was beyond Stone Age. However, I do have an interest in old software, hardware, and Internet/proto-Internet, which eventually led me to things like BBS and Usenet. So far, though, my hands-on BBS experience has mostly amounted to flailing about with proxies. And the BBSes I'm most interested in checking out, such as MindVox, are long-deactivated (MindVox's site is preserved on the Wayback Machine, at least). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UncleShiro · 2021-05-11 00:31 Sixty-something, general media geek. Mainly, just a fan. I have scads of online friendships that date from the BBS era, mostly late 1980s onward, which are still alive and well today. The BBSing topic comes up every now and then in places where I hang out, like the Facebook Groups for [Fidonet](https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391042936) or [Tales from SYL Ranch](https://www.facebook.com/groups/sylranch) ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- doctorfastin · 2021-05-12 16:28 Retired from an ISP/Datacenter. Worked there from 1996-2017 as a network engineer. Ran a 2 line ISDN line FrontDoor/RA BBS on a OS/2 box from mid 80's to 1997. First BBS machine was a AT&T PC6300 with a 1200 baud modem. I liked the camaraderie and the collaboration of the Sysops back in the day. We were on the bleeding edge of technology. I had a Ku band satellite dish connected to my network that was a 19200 baud download of various files and the Fidonet backbone from a company called Planet Connect. It was very fast for its day. We later used the feed to pull USENET for the ISP news server. When I retired I decided to put up my old OS/2 board and connected to FSXNet. I like the BBS messaging feed better than anything I can get off the interweb. I run Mystic on a RPI, Synchronet on a windows machine, and DBridge/Lora on my OS/2 warp vm. Keeps me off the streets and off Xhamster.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jimmyinwisconsin · 2021-08-10 19:45 Born in '68... got a Commodore 64 when they first came out, got a modem, 300 BAUD. Logged into 608 area code BBSs and CompuServe (which charged by the minute), and while BBSs were free, it did tie up the family phone line, so I tried to be brief. Used fido mail, which was really cool. I currently do network forensics and respond to computer breaches in govt/higher-ed.