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diff --git a/2017/bbs_early_internet-34c3/bbs_early_internet.adoc b/2017/bbs_early_internet-34c3/bbs_early_internet.adoc
index 9a027eb..a7463ee 100644
--- a/2017/bbs_early_internet-34c3/bbs_early_internet.adoc
+++ b/2017/bbs_early_internet-34c3/bbs_early_internet.adoc
@@ -5,6 +5,19 @@ BBSs and Early Internet Access in Germany
:backend: slidy
:max-width: 45em
+== Introduction
+
+[role="incremental"]
+* this is not a high-tech talk
+* way fewer acronyms than in mots of my other talks
+* I didn't invent any of the technologies covered
+* I didn't write any of the software covered
+* Just a mere user and operator/sysadming
+* .. this is the world I grew up in (age 11 onwards)
+
+[role="incremental"]
+* very limited information available in literature and on the WWW
+* lots of younger members of our community lack this history
== Circuit Switched Telephony
@@ -17,10 +30,21 @@ BBSs and Early Internet Access in Germany
== Hardware
* Telephone
-* Copper wire
-* Telephone Exchange
+* Copper wire[s]
+* Telephone Exchange[s]
+
+image:images/pots_fig10.2.png[width="80%"]
+
+== Phone Charges
-== Accoustic Coupler
+In Germany during the 80ies and 90ies
+
+* even local calls were metered / charged
+* flat rates didn't exist
+* various zones between local and long distance
+* not many people could afford long distance BBSing
+
+== Acoustic Coupler
* First devices to transmit bits as audible tones over telephone
* User manually dialled phone number like voice call
@@ -30,12 +54,16 @@ image:images/accoustic_coupler.jpg[width="50%"]
== Modems
-Automatization of the accoustic coupler
+Automation of the acoustic coupler
-* Avoid speaker/micrphone path
+* Avoid _air gap_ speaker/microphone path
* directly generate/receive tones on phone line
* directly dial the phone number / answer the line
+image:images/analogm.png[width="80%"]
+
+== Modems
+
image:images/Modems.jpg[width="50%",float="right"]
== Modem Speeds / Standards
@@ -62,6 +90,18 @@ What's a BBS?
* Computer with Modem accepting incoming calls
* offering interactive service to users who dial in
+To operate a BBS, you had to have
+
+* a separate/dedicated computer
+** most BBS software predated/predates multi-tasking OSs
+* running 24/7
+* attached to separate / dedicated phone line
+
+To use a BBS, you
+
+* power your computer when using it
+* can share your regular phone line with the modem
+
== Content
* bulletin boards / message boards
@@ -75,14 +115,20 @@ image:images/dosbox-telemate-login.png[width="50%"]
== Technology/Software
* Both sides: Computer + Modem
-* BBS Side
+* BBS Side Software
** BBS Software
-** often extended by "doors" (external programs, think of CGI for web)
-* User Side
+** often extended by "doors" (external programs, think of CGI in Web)
+* User Side Software
** Terminal Program (e.g. TELIX, Telemate for DOS)
image:images/telemate.jpg[width="50%"]
+== Demo
+
+Time for a demo
+
+NOTE: I'm using telnet instead of modem/dialup (POTS lines hard to find these days)
+
== The "BBS Protocol Stack"
@@ -125,6 +171,8 @@ image:images/xpmenu.gif[width="60%"]
== BBS networks (store + forward)
+As opposed to individual BBSs with isolated communities...
+
Idea: Replicate bulletin / message boards between independent BBSs, for
* scalability in number of users
@@ -146,10 +194,10 @@ Idea: Replicate bulletin / message boards between independent BBSs, for
== Example: FIDOnet
* Starts in 1984 with two BBSs
-* Initial limit of 250 nodes reached in 1985
-* Hierarchic, Regoinal routing/Adressing introduced in 1986
-** Nodelist defines all nodes of the network + hierarchy
-* Addresses like "Harald Welte @ 2:2490/1343"
+* Initial technological limit of 250 nodes reached in 1985
+* Hierarchic, Regional routing/Addressing introduced in 1986
+** _Nodelist_ defines all nodes of the network + hierarchy
+* Addresses like *Harald Welte @ 2:2490/1343*
* Up to 39,000 nodes in 1996, estimated 2 Million users world-wide
== Example: Z-Netz
@@ -158,22 +206,25 @@ Idea: Replicate bulletin / message boards between independent BBSs, for
* Later renamed to Z-Netz as the ZConnect protocol was implemented in other software
** Standards defined based on perceived complexity of RFCs and Usenet/UUCP
* CrossPoint (DOS) most popular point software for ZConnect
-* Addresses like H.WELTE@SILVER, later H.WELTE@SILVER.zer
+* Addresses like *H.WELTE@SILVER*, later *H.WELTE@SILVER.zer*
== Example: UseNet
* Established in 1980 in the US
-* Uses UUCP (Unix-to-Unix-Copy) as transport mechanism over Modmes
-** UUCP was created in the 1970ies and used to copy files, including Internet Mal
+* Uses UUCP (Unix-to-Unix-Copy) as transport mechanism over Modems
+** UUCP was created in the 1970ies and used to copy files, including Internet Mail
* Usenet News format (RFC850) designed very similar to Internet Mail (RFC822)
-* Hierarchy of News Groups that gets replicated / flooded accross the network
+* Hierarchy of News Groups that gets replicated / flooded across the network, e.g.
+** comp.* — Discussion of computer-related topics like ``comp.lang.c++''
+** sci.* — Discussion of scientific subjects
* Routing defined in route maps
== Curiosity: Floppy Poll/Point
+[role="incremental"]
* Not everyone had a phone line in the 1990ies
** particularly Eastern Germany had big lack of phone lines
-* Some people thus exchanged daily floppies in evenlopes and mailed them as postal letters
+* Some people thus exchanged daily floppies in envelopes and mailed them as postal letters
* Messages arrived about one day later, but with 1-2 days latency even inside the dial-up store-and-forward network, it hardly matters
image:images/floppy-disk-1219954_640.png[width="30%"]
@@ -196,7 +247,24 @@ Early ways to access Internet:
* if you had dial-up access to a Unix box
* you could run SLIP on both sides, transporting IP over the modem line
-** IP. At home. In your apartment !!1!
+** Result: IP. At home. In your apartment !!1!
+* later superseded by PPP (auto-configuration, authentication, compression, ...)
+
+Popular software stack looked like:
+
+* Windows 3.11 + Trumpet Winsock (Windows didn't have TCP/IP!)
+* NCSA Mosaic as web-1.0 browser (1993 onwards)
+
+image:images/mosaic.jpg[]
+
+== Internet on PCs before Linux
+
+* if you didn't have a 386 or if Linux didn't exist yet
+* there was KA9Q NOS
+** Implementation of TCP/IP, SLIP, PPP for CP/M and DOS
+** POP3 + SMTP server + client, IP routing, telnet, ARP, etc.
+* you could run SLIP on both sides, transporting IP over the modem line
+** Result: IP. At home. In your apartment !!1!
* later superseded by PPP (auto-configuration, authentication, compression, ...)
@@ -225,7 +293,7 @@ image:images/isdn.jpg[width="50%"]
* Hard to access in early/mid 1990ies outside of academia
* Almost no commercial ISPs (XLink, EUnet) - and very expensive
* Grass-Roots groups of enthusiasts established themselves
-* Kommunikationsnetz Franken e.V. (KNF, franken.de) one of them
+* Kommunikationsnetz Franken e.V. (KNF, ``franken.de'') one of them
** dial-up UUCP and shortly later IP for personal, non-commercial users
** POPs in Nürnberg, Fürth, Erlangen, Forchheim, Würzburg, Regensburg, ...
** Every user got 6 static IP addresses routed to wherever he dialed in (OSPF!)
@@ -240,7 +308,7 @@ image:images/isdn.jpg[width="50%"]
** IN members served more than 300,000 users at one point
** Dissolved in 2000, when
*** commercial ISPs were widespread, and
-*** remaining IN member organizations could get decend connectivity with IN e.V.
+*** remaining IN member organizations could get decent connectivity with IN e.V.
== Internet
@@ -254,10 +322,10 @@ This brought new purpose to leased lines
== Analog Leased Lines
* Telephone operator permanently interconnects wires at exchange
-* No signaling (dialtone/ringtone etc)
+* No signaling (dial tone, ring tone etc)
* Requires modems with special capabilities
** ATA without an incoming ring first
-** ATD without a dialtone first
+** ATD without a dial tone first
* In Germany: "Analog G" of Post/Telekom
** I finally could afford one in 1998
** 900 DM installation cost
@@ -267,12 +335,16 @@ This brought new purpose to leased lines
image:images/pict3_Lg.jpg[]
+== hub-nbg.franken.de, 1998
+
+image:images/pict4_Lg.jpg[]
== ISDN Leased Lines "SPV"
* Not really a leased line
* Basically only "flat rate calls" to one specific (fixed) destination
* Available in national 1TR6 only
+** some of them operated until 2006
== Abusing Analog Lines, Part 1
@@ -287,7 +359,7 @@ Easy upgrade to get performance of a leased ISDN line out of an Analog-G
[graphviz]
----
-include::images/knf-leased_lines.dot[]
+include::images/knf-leased_lines.dot[width="100%"]
----
== hub-fue.franken.de, undated
@@ -300,10 +372,10 @@ image:images/hub-fue-04_Lg.jpg[]
== Abusing Analog Lines, Part 2
-When the first DSL modems became availale in the US
+When the first DSL modems became available in the US
* we imported some Ascend DSLpipe
-* with some fimrwares, they could be used back-to-back (without DSLAM)
+* with some firmwares, they could be used back-to-back (without DSLAM)
* suddenly we could get speeds of 2.3 MBps over analog lines
** if they were not too long
** if they didn't have in-line inductors
@@ -324,11 +396,25 @@ image:images/ascend.jpg[width="50%"]
** ISDN SPV was used as Internet uplink
+== Summary
+
+* The first decade[s] of wide-area electronics communications
+** were powered by a community of enthusiasts
+** largely motivated by non-commercial motives
+** without much corporate or government influence
+* BBS community / culture is a distinct sub-culture.
+** different norms than HAM radio, Hackers, Free Software, but some of overlap
+
== Conclusions
-* The first decade[s] of wide-area electronics communications was powered by a community of enthusiasts
-* BBS community / culture is a distinct sub-culture. Different norms than HAM radio, Hackers, Free Software, but lots of overlap
+In the BBS days
+* networks were distributed, without single point of failure
+* infrastructure **owned and operated by its users**
+* connection speeds were largely symmetric
+* no data center vs. consumer separation with asymmetric speeds
+
+This autonomy and de-centralization has been lost in the Internet age
== Further Reading
@@ -338,9 +424,22 @@ image:images/ascend.jpg[width="50%"]
** FOSS multi-platform terminal program
* http://artscene.textfiles.com/ansi/
** Archive of ANSI Artwork
+* https://artpacks.org/
+** Another Archive of ANSI Artwork
* http://www.filegate.net/nodelist/
** FIDO nodelist of 2017
+* http://www.ka9q.net/code/ka9qnos/
+** Phil Karn's page on KA9Q NOS
+
+== Thanks
+
+* my uncle for giving me his old Olivetti acoustic coupler in 1990
+* Josef Groll, SysOp of SILVER.zer / SILVER.nbg.sub.org
+* Max Riegel, Martin Bokaemper, Joerg Kinzebach and KNF crew
+* Reinhold "unhold" Pretscher for Falken's Maze
+* All sotware developers of BBS related software
+* All SysOps that made the BBS community possible
== EOF
-End of File
+NO CARRIER
personal git repositories of Harald Welte. Your mileage may vary