BBS's

From: Seth <sethm_at_loomcom.com>
Date: Fri Nov 17 01:37:42 2000

On Thu, Nov 16, 2000 at 10:40:31PM -0800, Mike Ford wrote:
> >Anyway, just a thought. And to make it real, I'd need a bunch of
> >people who wanted to be RetroNET nodes, and some convenient way to
> >allow people to dial up. Tymnet sprang instantly to mind (primarily
> >because they're still EVERYWHERE, and still allow 300bps dial up!
> >My portable Silent 700 works! Yeah baby!)
> >
> >I'll bet they're expensive, though.
> >
> >Still... anyone want to be a RetroNET node? :)
>
> Why pay twice for dialup access? I already pay $40/month for a nice fast
> connection to the NET, everything else is easily connnected to the NET, why
> duplicate the dialup access?

My mind drifted to Tymnet primarily because they're no cost to the
caller -- their cost is only to the parties who talk to Tymnet's X.25
network, the people you dial up to. In the Olden Days, you could
call Tymnet to get access to your AOL or Delphi account. In fact I
can still dial up Tymnet all I want for free -- I just have nowhere
to connect after that!

It's a moot point though, it's almost certainly too expensive for
me to actually sign up for an X.25 account with Tymnet. Just a wild
fantasy of what to do if I were filthy rich.

> Make a VPN, virtual private network, then concentrate on front end and back
> end tools to make it fun.

No no no... it just doesn't feel right. There's something missing.
I mean, why not just have a bunch of hosts all connected to the
public Internet? Boooring! That's so 1995! We're talking 1982 here.

I'm not opposed _a priori_ to the idea of a RetroNET<->Internet
gateway, though, something to allow email to be exchanged between
the two. But really, the idea is "If you don't have a RetroNET node
near you, either (1) Become a RetroNET node and exchange UUCP with
other RetroNET nodes at 2:00 AM local time, or (2) Call long distance
to log in, or (3) Convince someone local to you to be a RetroNET node."

I mean, it's just all in fun. It's not like we'd be denying people
their rights if they couldn't afford the long distance charges. Tough.

I suppose we _could_ have one bastion host be a RetroNET<->Internet
gateway that offers public telnet accounts. But... but... UUCP is
half the fun!!

-Seth
Received on Fri Nov 17 2000 - 01:37:42 GMT