Subj : I would like to introduce myself as a new node in Switzerland.
To   : alisha
From : Tinman
Date : Wed Jan 15 2025 12:50 am

  Re: I would like to introduce myself as a new node in Switzerland.
  By: alisha to All on Sun May 09 2021 11:13 pm

 > Hello all
 >
 > First of all, I would like to apologise for my bad English, unfortunately it
 > is not my mother tongue.
 >
 > My name is Alisha I am transgender MtF (male to female) I was born on 13
 > December 1972 in Zurich, Switzerland. I worked for several years in the
 > carrier business at ISP's and Telcos until I got tired of the hire and fire
 > mentality in the private sector and the non-stop shareholder value thinking.
 > That's why I decided to apply for a job at the Swiss Federal Railways, where
 > I now work in the Rail IP Network division. I work there in a small team of
 > specialists and we are responsible for the entire backbone of the Swiss
 > Federal Railways. In addition to office hours, I'm also on standby duty if
 > something goes wrong or another anomaly occurs outside of office hours.
 >
 > My hobbies include IT, Cypriot history and myths, and of course my model
 > railway in H0 1:87 and G 1:22.5 scale. I am also a passionate DXer for
 > satellite reception, but unfortunately, I never had enough time to get my
 > amateur radio licence (HB9).
 >
 > Why open a mailbox again in this day and age? I think the following words
 > under the motto Back to the roots explain it. If anyone has any questions,
 > please feel free to ask at any time.
 >
 > Back to the roots
 >
 > CoVid-19 has brought a lot of negative things upon us, however in this
 > respect it has also brought something positive. As the title says, "back to
 > the roots". Very few people know that swissIRC started as a small mailbox
 > system called "Only you" in the mid 1980s, so let m enlighten you.
 >
 > It all started with a Commodore 64 (breadbox) with 2 floppy drives (1541)
 > and
 > a Commodore Modem 1660 that could do 300 baud on the parental phone line.
 > Which I was only allowed to use from 21:00 to 06:00 in the early stages. The
 > Commodore 64 became a Commodore 128D with 3 external floppy drives (1 x 1571
 > and 2 x 1581) and the Commodore Modem 1670 which could do 300 and 1200 baud.
 > Sharing the phone line became more and more a problem. My parents were
 > torpedoed with calls during the day, while the mailbox was not allowed to
 > run.
 >
 > So another solution was needed. My parents ordered a SwissNet (ISDN) line
 > for me and I now had my own numbers (which would have been the best solution
 > from the beginning). With the reboot, the name of the mailbox changed to
 > MicroVax BBS. By working (newspaper distribution) in the spare time and
 > working in the school vacations, I was then able to afford a Commodore Amiga
 > 2000B. Slowly
 > the accessories grew. Second internal floppy drive, as well as external
 > floppy drive and an incredibly huge hard disk with 40 Megabyte. Of course,
 > this also included a Zyxel 1496E modem.
 >
 > The next jump was then to a Compaq Deskpro 486 DX50 with 2 x 80 Mbyte hard
 > disks, as well as an external SyQest 88 Mbyte removable disk. At the
 > beginning with the Zyxel 1496E later with two Zyxel Elite 2864i. The SyQest
 > was a bad buy. The part howled so loudly, it was impossible to sleep with it
 > in the same room. In the following years there were several updates to the
 > system. More hard disk space and integration of external networks
 > (Proprietary no FidoNet or so) increased the costs for the maintenance of
 > the mailbox. Because of my mailbox software, which I used in Amiga times and
 > PC times, my hub was equipped to exchange messages in Cologne Germany. This
 > meant I had to call Cologne every 2 hours to exchange messages. In other
 > words I was investing a large part of my apprentice wages in telephone
 > costs. Sometime in 1995 or 1996 the defect witch caught up with me. In the
 > beginning, I was still fixing things. However, at some point, the cost and
 > benefit was no longer right. I pulled the plug from this chapter also
 > because of professional dependencies.
 >
 > At the end of 1999 a new chapter started. With a few friends I brought an
 > IRC server into the internet, which was part of a network. As it is,
 > friendships fall apart. So I decided to build up my own IRC network and
 > swissIRC.net was born which still exists today. Currently it consists of 3
 > servers and a hub with services.
 >
 > CoVid-19 is, or was, the trigger to go over the books again. A lot has
 > changed in the years. Modem connections are a thing of the past, today IP
 > rules the world. Therefore back to the roots with a mailbox BBS but IP based
 > to the existing IRC network as a supplement. With the connection to the
 > FidoNet and fsxNET to start in the past but under the name swissIRC BBS.
 >
 > Best regards
 >
 > Alisha



This , friend I've never met but through words,

.... actually made my heart flutter.

Through many trees we can finally see home again =)

-Tinman

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