0:00:00.000,0:00:13.270
34C3 preroll music
0:00:13.270,0:00:17.939
Herald: Back in time, back to the 1990's[br]where the internet actually made sounds,
0:00:17.939,0:00:22.922
and you could annoy the whole family while[br]blocking the phone line. He was actually
0:00:22.922,0:00:28.230
heavily involved in these early days of[br]the internet. He operated and participated
0:00:28.230,0:00:33.713
in these early structures, namely Bulletin[br]Board Systems and the UseNet. And he now
0:00:33.713,0:00:38.965
takes us back in time, to tell us all[br]about the time when the internet made
0:00:38.965,0:00:40.951
sounds. Thank you very much LaForge.
0:00:40.951,0:00:47.985
applause
0:00:47.985,0:00:53.437
LaForge: Thank you very much for the[br]introduction.This is a quite unusual
0:00:53.437,0:01:01.405
setting for me. Typically I give talks[br]about deeply technical topics. Protocoll
0:01:01.405,0:01:06.739
level details and telecom specs and so on.[br]Now the first time I speak in the Art and
0:01:06.739,0:01:11.484
Culture track. That is definitely[br]something new for me. So, why am I here
0:01:11.484,0:01:17.559
and why am I talking about this topic.[br]First of all, I was involved to some
0:01:17.559,0:01:25.343
extent yes, but for sure I was not[br]somebody who had any significant role in
0:01:25.343,0:01:31.524
that universe. Neither in the BBS scene or[br]in the early internet days. I was just
0:01:31.524,0:01:38.360
basically a youngster, a teenager, who had[br]fun playing with technology and was
0:01:38.360,0:01:43.309
helping others to communicate using[br]technology. There are many more people who
0:01:43.309,0:01:47.428
have, who are much more qualified than me[br]to talk about that subject but I ... and
0:01:47.428,0:01:51.920
that's the reason why I'm here and why I[br]submitted this talk is, you don't really
0:01:51.920,0:01:56.346
see many people speaking about these days[br]or about those topics anymore. And even if
0:01:56.346,0:02:00.490
you want to research it, I think there's[br]like one or two books in German on that
0:02:00.490,0:02:07.559
subject, they're very hard to get and also[br]not very complete. So, I think we have to
0:02:07.559,0:02:15.490
sort of document the history of it for[br]those people, who have not been around at
0:02:15.490,0:02:19.598
the time. So, this talk will not have as[br]many acronyms as you are used to from
0:02:19.598,0:02:24.720
talks that I usually give. Still you have[br]typos in the slides, as you can see in the
0:02:24.720,0:02:28.450
second line already, so that didn't[br]change. I didn't invent any of the
0:02:28.450,0:02:32.279
technologies covered here. I didn't write[br]any of the software covered. I was just a
0:02:32.279,0:02:40.390
user and operator or sysadmin. And that's[br]the world I grew up in from 11 onwards.
0:02:40.390,0:02:46.194
As I said many people lack that history and[br]to start with that, maybe a quick poll in
0:02:46.194,0:02:51.718
the audience. Who has ever dialed into a[br]BBS using a modem? Raise your hands. Okay.
0:02:51.718,0:02:58.890
So, I'm preaching to the converted. Okay,[br]maybe I should invite all of you up to the
0:02:58.890,0:03:05.800
stage and we should make a discussion-[br]round instead. Anyway. So, circuit switch
0:03:05.800,0:03:10.900
telephony. Well, this is the telephony[br]from 1876 until about 1988 with
0:03:10.900,0:03:15.416
analog voice circuits over copper wires[br]and dial-up connections between A and B.
0:03:15.416,0:03:19.185
I guess everybody still remembers these.[br]Even if you're young, you should have seen
0:03:19.185,0:03:26.780
a classic telephone, I think. And yeah,[br]you have analog amplifiers possibly in the
0:03:26.780,0:03:31.404
path, but actually the copper wires are[br]physically switched at telephone
0:03:31.404,0:03:36.486
exchanges. So, this structure looks a bit[br]like this: We have a telephone at one end,
0:03:36.486,0:03:41.133
we have a telephone at another end, and we[br]have telephone exchanges or switches,
0:03:41.133,0:03:45.377
which actually switch the circuit - hence[br]the term circuit switched telephony -
0:03:45.377,0:03:52.260
between A and B. So, you have a copper[br]wire from your phone to the office, the
0:03:52.260,0:03:56.747
exchange, to which you are connected and[br]then that exchange again has copper wires
0:03:56.747,0:04:02.735
to other exchanges and so on. And based on[br]the phone number you dial the call is
0:04:02.735,0:04:08.316
switched to the destination subscriber.[br]That's sort of the foundation in terms of
0:04:08.316,0:04:13.914
technology that we're using here. Also[br]something to document for the
0:04:13.914,0:04:19.000
international audience in Germany at that[br]time even local calls were metered and
0:04:19.000,0:04:24.942
charged by the minute, flat rates didn't[br]exist and we had multiple zones so there's
0:04:24.942,0:04:29.219
not just local calls and long-distance[br]calls but different depending on your
0:04:29.219,0:04:34.780
distance so like up to 50 kilometers or[br]more than 50 kilometers and so on. And
0:04:34.780,0:04:39.400
given on that and the steep pricing and[br]not so many people could afford long-
0:04:39.400,0:04:45.308
distance BBSing at least not for a long[br]time. All of this started with a device
0:04:45.308,0:04:51.156
called the acoustic coupler. It's actually[br]also how I started even though I'm young
0:04:51.156,0:04:57.946
and I only started in I think about 90 or[br]91. At 10 or 11 years of age you don't
0:04:57.946,0:05:01.490
have the latest and greatest in[br]technology. I got a used second hand or
0:05:01.490,0:05:07.331
third hand Olivetti acoustic coupler from[br]my uncle it had even a battery it could be
0:05:07.331,0:05:12.090
operated mobile it had a battery[br]compartment with eight Mignon (AA) cells.
0:05:12.090,0:05:15.840
Actually I still own it and I still own[br]related telephone I just thought: yeah
0:05:15.840,0:05:21.311
don't have to bring it here. But it[br]still exists. So anyway, here you have to
0:05:21.311,0:05:25.616
dial using your normal phone. You dial the[br]digits of the phone number and once the
0:05:25.616,0:05:30.859
other side picks up the phone and they put[br]their receiver onto the acoustic coupler
0:05:30.859,0:05:35.328
and you put your receiver onto the[br]acoustic coupler, then data can be
0:05:35.328,0:05:40.010
transmitted over the telephone line as[br]said with manual, dial manual pickup and
0:05:40.010,0:05:49.416
rather extremely low speed. This all looks[br]like this and the next step in the logical
0:05:49.416,0:05:55.402
progression then was modems, which is sort of you can[br]think of an automatized method of acoustic
0:05:55.402,0:06:01.109
couplers, where you don't have an air gap[br]anymore. So in the acoustic coupler you
0:06:01.109,0:06:05.541
literally have a couple of centimeters of[br]air between the speaker and the microphone
0:06:05.541,0:06:10.016
in the receiver of your phone, versus the[br]acoustic coupler. So with the modem
0:06:10.016,0:06:16.411
there's a direct connection and also you[br]have automatic facilities to dial the
0:06:16.411,0:06:20.282
telephone number and to answer the line[br]and so on. So you don't need a manual
0:06:20.282,0:06:26.540
operator anymore to pick up a phone or[br]dial numbers. And this thing gets
0:06:26.540,0:06:31.251
transmitted over the telephone[br]line. This is a stack of various different
0:06:31.251,0:06:35.804
modems – we will see some others here,[br]some of you will remember the brands or
0:06:35.804,0:06:41.672
the shapes or even the specific models of[br]those modems. But that's too much level of
0:06:41.672,0:06:50.199
detail for the moment. So let's look a bit[br]at the speed, or lack of speed, that was
0:06:50.199,0:06:57.999
available. It started with 300 bps. I[br]actually used 300 bps a couple of times.
0:06:57.999,0:07:05.405
In fact, in like around 1990 of course it[br]was extremely slow but still it was what I
0:07:05.405,0:07:12.464
could start with at the time. Then the[br]1200 bps; so this is still rather slow and
0:07:12.464,0:07:16.366
you can slowly read and follow the[br]text as it's being printed. Unfortunately
0:07:16.366,0:07:20.930
I don't have an animation or something[br]like that. I'm not such a multimedia savvy
0:07:20.930,0:07:27.411
guy. So yes, then the speeds progressed,[br]you see the years in which they were
0:07:27.411,0:07:34.769
created. The lines with the asterisk mark[br]years that I found some secondary sources
0:07:34.769,0:07:38.349
that originally it had been specified[br]then. But actually the oldest spec
0:07:38.349,0:07:42.464
document for all these earlier ones was[br]from 1988. So if you go to the ITU
0:07:42.464,0:07:46.676
website, the earliest documents you can[br]find are from 1988 and none of those
0:07:46.676,0:07:50.163
earlier documents could – at least on the[br]internet – be found anywhere. Maybe you
0:07:50.163,0:07:55.449
can go to a library or something like[br]that. Yeah so speeds progressed, different
0:07:55.449,0:08:00.140
modulation schemes were introduced to[br]squeeze ever more bits into these
0:08:00.140,0:08:07.899
3 kilohertz analog circuit over the[br]telephone line. And every couple of years
0:08:07.899,0:08:14.460
a new, especially in the 90s, if you[br]follow this 91 14.400 bps, 93 19.200
0:08:14.460,0:08:21.201
to 1994 28.000 bits per second. And there[br]were of course also proprietary protocols,
0:08:21.201,0:08:26.861
then you had to have the same manufacturer[br]of modem that the other side whom you're
0:08:26.861,0:08:32.134
calling and so on, but these are the[br]official standardized protocols and speeds
0:08:32.134,0:08:38.268
that were used. Which brings us... so okay[br]we have a telephone system; we can dial
0:08:38.268,0:08:43.287
numbers; we have a modem that can dial[br]numbers; we have modems that can send bits
0:08:43.287,0:08:50.483
in exceptionally fast speed. What do we do[br]with this? And this brings us to be BBSs:
0:08:50.483,0:08:55.445
where could you actually dial, and what[br]could you do there? So what's the BBS?
0:08:55.445,0:09:01.257
Fundamentally, it's some computer – any[br]hardware, any operating system, any
0:09:01.257,0:09:06.570
software. Some computer that accepts[br]incoming calls attached to a modem and
0:09:06.570,0:09:11.334
offers some kind of interactive service to[br]the people who dial into that BBS. And if
0:09:11.334,0:09:16.165
you wanted to operate a BBS, you had to[br]have a separate dedicated computer for
0:09:16.165,0:09:21.369
that. Because, at the time, most of the[br]BBS software – and most of the software
0:09:21.369,0:09:25.998
that people used in general – predated[br]multitasking operating systems. So when
0:09:25.998,0:09:30.209
you ran the BBS, the computer was busy[br]running the BBS; you couldn't do anything
0:09:30.209,0:09:35.659
else at the same time. So you had to[br]invest quite a bit into a separate second
0:09:35.659,0:09:40.850
computer, or third or fourth, to actually[br]operate that BBS. You had to have a
0:09:40.850,0:09:45.505
separate telephone line. Because if you[br]operate the BBS into which people dial
0:09:45.505,0:09:49.997
into, of course any time of the day or[br]night people will dial in there, so you
0:09:49.997,0:09:53.304
cannot use your normal phone line that you[br]use to make phone calls but you had to
0:09:53.304,0:09:58.654
have a separate dedicated phone line. And[br]of course the system had to run more or
0:09:58.654,0:10:03.772
less 24/7 so people could dial in and[br]reach it. Luckily, on the user side there
0:10:03.772,0:10:10.649
was not so many requirements in terms of[br]technology that you needed. Your computer
0:10:10.649,0:10:15.734
of course you only power when you use it,[br]and you can share the regular phone line –
0:10:15.734,0:10:20.186
with the side effect, as in the[br]introduction has been mentioned, that your
0:10:20.186,0:10:26.511
family might have gone angry if you[br]occupied it too long – but otherwise no
0:10:26.511,0:10:31.754
additional infrastructure other than a[br]modem required. Now you dial into the BBS
0:10:31.754,0:10:39.249
– what kind of content do you get? What do[br]you do in that BBS? And the name BBS in
0:10:39.249,0:10:45.560
English is a Bulletin Board Service,[br]that's actually the acronym expansion. So
0:10:45.560,0:10:49.869
there were Bulletin Boards, message boards[br]where you could exchange messages and
0:10:49.869,0:10:55.352
texts with other people, other users of[br]that BBS or the so-called sysop, the
0:10:55.352,0:11:01.007
system operator, the guy running that BBS.[br]You could also chat with the system
0:11:01.007,0:11:07.106
operator, which, well, didn't exist before[br]– the ability to chat with somebody else
0:11:07.106,0:11:14.174
remotely over a text-based terminal. There[br]were also multi-user games, text-based, as
0:11:14.174,0:11:19.021
well as so called file areas where you[br]could download files. And downloading
0:11:19.021,0:11:26.053
files, given the speeds back then and so[br]on and so on, of course it was primarily
0:11:26.053,0:11:31.375
text documents or small programs or[br]something like that. Mp3 didn't exist of
0:11:31.375,0:11:37.200
course, at least until 95 or whenever it[br]came out, so maybe some mod files for your
0:11:37.200,0:11:42.386
module tracker, something like that. And[br]of course, last but not least, ASCII and
0:11:42.386,0:11:48.237
ANSI artwork, which basically is an entire[br]subculture and scene and community in
0:11:48.237,0:11:56.618
itself, creating artworks and drawings[br]using the character set that was used by
0:11:56.618,0:12:04.386
ANSI.sys, which was the DOS, you could say[br]display driver, in quotes, in a certain
0:12:04.386,0:12:09.796
character set and you could draw graphics[br]like this. We will see some more. And
0:12:09.796,0:12:15.722
people were putting a lot of effort into[br]this, and sort of competing who could who
0:12:15.722,0:12:21.589
could make the best representation or the[br]most expressive artwork given the limited
0:12:21.589,0:12:29.521
resolution and the limited characters and[br]colors available in this domain. So, what
0:12:29.521,0:12:33.825
kind of software did one use? Or what kind[br]of technology was used? Well, we already
0:12:33.825,0:12:39.573
had the computer and modem, you needed[br]some software. So on the BBS side, BBS
0:12:39.573,0:12:46.024
software, there's an unlimited number of[br]different BBS software programmes, and
0:12:46.024,0:12:50.663
extensions, and modifications thereof, a[br]lot of them are freeware or shareware.
0:12:50.663,0:12:55.785
Some of them are public domain, some[br]actual free software, some are
0:12:55.785,0:13:00.741
proprietary. For any operating system, for[br]any computer architecture, people were
0:13:00.741,0:13:09.143
writing BBS software. Whether you had an[br]Amiga or Atari or you had Apple or DOS PCs
0:13:09.143,0:13:16.883
or you name it, software was written, by[br]hobbyists primarily. One concept that you
0:13:16.883,0:13:21.861
will find in BBSs is the concept of so-[br]called doors. You can think of it as
0:13:21.861,0:13:27.713
similar to CGIs in web. So basically, the[br]BBS software could call an external
0:13:27.713,0:13:32.639
programme, which would then take over the[br]input and output to and from the user. So
0:13:32.639,0:13:36.668
you could have sort of plugins to your BBS[br]software which would add additional new
0:13:36.668,0:13:44.865
games or add chat software or messaging or[br]whatever. On the user side you had a
0:13:44.865,0:13:50.897
primarily so-called terminal program. It's[br]called terminal program because actually
0:13:50.897,0:13:57.399
it emulates a serial terminal, which is a[br]dedicated hardware device with a keyboard
0:13:57.399,0:14:02.397
and a screen and a serial line, but not a[br]general-purpose computer and in order to
0:14:02.397,0:14:07.448
make a general-purpose computer behave[br]like a terminal you had a terminal program
0:14:07.448,0:14:12.982
on dos which I was using at the time. It's[br]primarily telex and telemate I think were
0:14:12.982,0:14:20.668
the favorite ones at least on this side of[br]the planet and you started that program,
0:14:20.668,0:14:25.333
you had a serial port, the serial port[br]attached to your modem and from there you
0:14:25.333,0:14:29.350
dialed and the terminal program then was[br]responsible for displaying the texts and
0:14:29.350,0:14:34.932
the ANSI graphics and so on and exchanging[br]files of a variety of different protocols,
0:14:34.932,0:14:42.419
which we will also cover later but before[br]we go on let's do a quick demo of how this
0:14:42.419,0:14:48.809
looks like. Now as a note I don't have a[br]modem here I'm not emulating a modem I'm
0:14:48.809,0:14:54.507
not emulating a serial port, these days[br]you can get the same experience by using
0:14:54.507,0:14:59.466
telnet over the internet but you can[br]actually telnet into BBSs, I just want to
0:14:59.466,0:15:10.488
basically show how it looks like. So this[br]is the terminal program and we have now
0:15:10.488,0:15:15.758
connected to the BBS this is sort of a[br]introductory graphic that we see before
0:15:15.758,0:15:22.465
even logging into the the box yeah some...[br]of course the scrolling was much slower
0:15:22.465,0:15:29.655
back then, so now we can scroll back up to[br]actually see what was there. Yes, some
0:15:29.655,0:15:33.893
more graphics. You still haven't seen the[br]login prompt yet, as you can see a fairly
0:15:33.893,0:15:39.919
graphics heavy BBS. Then you can choose[br]the theme of the BBS, a user interface,
0:15:39.919,0:15:48.617
I'm going to go for the classic ANSI here.[br]Finally, I come to a login screen and I
0:15:48.617,0:15:57.915
can log into the system where I have to[br]enter my handle and the password which is
0:15:57.915,0:16:03.774
now in clear-text over telnet. For those[br]of you interested in this, not that
0:16:03.774,0:16:07.380
there's anything useful I just registered[br]this morning at the BBS so there's nothing
0:16:07.380,0:16:13.637
associated with this account. Yeah some[br]more graphics. Finally, we are at a
0:16:13.637,0:16:19.862
message board and we see as I said I just[br]logged in or registered this BBS today. We
0:16:19.862,0:16:26.504
see there is a message number one from[br]Hawk Hubbard, "Welcome", so if I want to
0:16:26.504,0:16:31.176
look at that message I could basically say[br]"I want to read it now". This is the
0:16:31.176,0:16:36.284
message reader I go in here, then here,[br]"Welcome to forge" and so on.. So he
0:16:36.284,0:16:45.242
welcomes me to the BBS now let's go to the[br]main menu of the BBS, which in this case
0:16:45.242,0:16:53.704
looks like that and you have different...[br]the file areas, where you can download
0:16:53.704,0:16:57.760
files, you have the door games that I[br]mentioned, you have an ANSI gallery, a BBS
0:16:57.760,0:17:02.878
list, you can look at the last callers who[br]has called this mailbox and you can see
0:17:02.878,0:17:08.443
this... Well, yeah three test calls from[br]me this morning, but you can see actually
0:17:08.443,0:17:14.429
other people are still logging into this[br]BBS and it's 2017, so it's not... to me
0:17:14.429,0:17:18.491
this is mostly history but during the[br]preparation of this talk I discovered that
0:17:18.491,0:17:22.502
some people, for some people it is still[br]the present and I'm very happy to see
0:17:22.502,0:17:28.076
there's still such an active community[br]around BBSs and which enables me to show
0:17:28.076,0:17:33.963
all of this without firing up some[br]emulators and so on. So yeah, we also can
0:17:33.963,0:17:40.095
look at one-liners, here's some messages[br]that people can leave to other people,
0:17:40.095,0:17:46.314
other users in the BBS, again with some[br]quite a graphical... We don't want to
0:17:46.314,0:17:52.265
leave any additional words here, but what for[br]example we can look at the ANSI gallery
0:17:52.265,0:17:58.325
just very quickly, can try to select[br]something here, I have no idea what I'm
0:17:58.325,0:18:06.980
looking at so... Ok... so here you have a[br]sort of a viewer that, yeah... So it will
0:18:06.980,0:18:17.140
show you the sections of a sort of longer[br]artwork in this particular case... Yeah...
0:18:17.140,0:18:25.454
well... And the artwork... to me there[br]always was a lot of similarity between the
0:18:25.454,0:18:36.604
sort of, between the ANSI art artists and[br]the people doing... Now I'm lacking the
0:18:36.604,0:18:42.829
word, street art basically I think there's[br]a lot of similarity between that. Okay
0:18:42.829,0:18:46.479
good, that was just a very quick demo of[br]course I could now look at more messages
0:18:46.479,0:18:52.618
and write messages and play blackjack and[br]do whatever I want, which I don't in this
0:18:52.618,0:18:58.512
case, so we will log off. And again some[br]more graphics and you can leave a comment
0:18:58.512,0:19:05.112
to the sysop if you want or you can just[br]basically... Log of... Ok, that for a very
0:19:05.112,0:19:10.240
quick demo of the look and feel. Now since[br]I'm such a technical person and looking at
0:19:10.240,0:19:15.288
protocol stacks, I tried to draw a[br]protocol stack diagram for BBSs, which
0:19:15.288,0:19:20.036
ended up at this. So basically at the[br]lower layers we have the pots, the plain
0:19:20.036,0:19:25.525
old telephony system or ISDN, which we[br]will get to in a few slides. We had modems
0:19:25.525,0:19:30.440
on the analogue telephone system, we had[br]other things on ISDN. In the end at some
0:19:30.440,0:19:35.800
point you always have rs-232, a serial[br]port, either emulated or real, and then
0:19:35.800,0:19:40.670
either you had a terminal program directly[br]on top of that or, for example to transfer
0:19:40.670,0:19:46.689
files, you have used X modem or Y modem or[br]Z modem, which added error correction and
0:19:46.689,0:19:50.408
retransmission and block transmission so[br]you could safely transfer files without,
0:19:50.408,0:19:58.365
or at least with less, corruption. The[br]checksum algorithms were not so scientific
0:19:58.365,0:20:05.554
in many cases. Here we then have well some[br]other things, FTN, Point what does that,
0:20:05.554,0:20:10.030
UUCP we will cover that later. Basically[br]you could run different protocols and
0:20:10.030,0:20:14.500
different systems on top of that. One[br]curiosity that I still want to mention is
0:20:14.500,0:20:20.200
that, which I actually I forgot until on[br]Twitter somebody reminded me a couple of
0:20:20.200,0:20:25.599
days ago that this existed, and I went "oh[br]yes, RIPterm, I used that quite some time
0:20:25.599,0:20:32.000
ago", so instead of having these text-[br]based user interfaces some people, company
0:20:32.000,0:20:38.147
called TeleGrafix came up with a language[br]called RIPscript which was a fairly
0:20:38.147,0:20:45.080
compact language of textual commands, by[br]which the BTS could control a vector
0:20:45.080,0:20:49.142
graphic renderer on the client side in[br]your terminal program, and you could
0:20:49.142,0:20:54.502
actually draw VGA resolution graphics like[br]the one that's presented here on the slide
0:20:54.502,0:21:00.770
from the VBS on the screen of the user,[br]which was quite a big change compared to
0:21:00.770,0:21:08.522
the ASCII art or ANSI art that you've seen[br]before. Yeah, so we're still at BBSs and
0:21:08.522,0:21:12.599
BBSs that are isolated, so you can[br]participate in those bulletin boards and
0:21:12.599,0:21:16.880
you can read and write messages and[br]exchange ideas and recipes and thoughts
0:21:16.880,0:21:22.161
and cheat codes and whatever you want to[br]exchange. Users log in at different times,
0:21:22.161,0:21:27.991
the BBS is busy if it has only a single[br]line while it's being used by some other
0:21:27.991,0:21:32.314
user. Of course you can add as a BBS[br]operator, as the sysop, you can add more
0:21:32.314,0:21:37.473
modems and more phone lines, which is of[br]course expensive, together with the multi-
0:21:37.473,0:21:43.134
port serial cards and and everything that[br]was required. You can have time limits for
0:21:43.134,0:21:49.140
each user, but in the end it's sort of,[br]there's a limit to how far you can scale a
0:21:49.140,0:21:57.879
single BTS sort of - not a BTS, a BBS,[br]jeez, a single BBS... Well also there's a
0:21:57.879,0:22:04.235
scalability limit for BTSs, but that's[br]another talk, so, yeah. Which brings us to
0:22:04.235,0:22:11.750
one method of more efficiently engaging[br]with BBSs for exchanging messages which is
0:22:11.750,0:22:18.040
a concept of points or offline message[br]reading. So as we have just seen in this
0:22:18.040,0:22:26.416
example we log in to the VP... the BBS and we[br]have an online interactive session with
0:22:26.416,0:22:29.904
the BBS while we read and write the[br]messages and of course it means we occupy
0:22:29.904,0:22:36.477
the telephone line for an extended period[br]of time and it's not used very efficiently
0:22:36.477,0:22:41.154
because humans typically read slower than[br]at least a fourteen point four or twenty
0:22:41.154,0:22:48.372
eight kilobits per second. So people[br]invented something called points or
0:22:48.372,0:22:52.198
offline message reading and different[br]concepts different systems different
0:22:52.198,0:22:57.142
standards different technologies. What[br]they did in the end is they compressed and
0:22:57.142,0:23:04.890
batched all the messages for you into[br]files and you on your client-side you were
0:23:04.890,0:23:08.596
writing your messages offline and also[br]compressing and batching the messages that
0:23:08.596,0:23:12.662
you've written and then you make a call,[br]you quickly exchange those files in both
0:23:12.662,0:23:18.603
directions even in full duplex if the[br]system supports it and then you terminate
0:23:18.603,0:23:23.185
the connection again. So during a very[br]short call you can exchange much more, many
0:23:23.185,0:23:27.500
more messages and you have all the time to[br]read through those messages without having
0:23:27.500,0:23:33.030
to look at the phone meter or your phone[br]bill all the time. So, more scalability,
0:23:33.030,0:23:37.829
more users, shorter connection time, lower[br]cost for everyone involved. Definitely an
0:23:37.829,0:23:45.314
interesting technology, but still sort of[br]scalability is limited of a single BTS
0:23:45.314,0:23:52.334
which, eh, BBS which brings us to BBS[br]networks, store-and-forward networks which
0:23:52.334,0:24:00.437
basically extended the ability to exchange[br]messages beyond a single BBS, but so
0:24:00.437,0:24:04.890
basically the bulletin boards or the[br]message groups that you had at a BBS were
0:24:04.890,0:24:09.578
replicated over different protocols that[br]were invented by various different people
0:24:09.578,0:24:16.281
over time, so not only one BBS had all the[br]messages of a given bulletin board but all
0:24:16.281,0:24:21.526
the other BBSs participating also were[br]receiving these messages and replicating
0:24:21.526,0:24:28.884
them all over the network. Also for[br]personal mail, which is like email, right,
0:24:28.884,0:24:35.444
between two participants, you could route[br]those messages across the network. The two
0:24:35.444,0:24:40.276
users exchanging messages didn't have to[br]connect to the same BBS anymore. So much
0:24:40.276,0:24:45.440
more scalability and also you could use it[br]efficiently for message routing to reduce
0:24:45.440,0:24:51.660
the need for long distance calls and so[br]on. So let's look at a couple of these BBS
0:24:51.660,0:24:58.776
networks and the technologies they used.[br]One large and very popular example of
0:24:58.776,0:25:05.302
course is the Fido Network which consists[br]of two parts, net mail and echo mail.
0:25:05.302,0:25:12.750
Net mail is the private personal mail and echo[br]mail are public message boards or message
0:25:12.750,0:25:19.651
groups. Fido had some, the technology used[br]by Fido called FTN Fido technology
0:25:19.651,0:25:24.062
networks were used also by other networks.[br]They were using the same protocols, but
0:25:24.062,0:25:30.110
they were not the same group of BBSs or[br]the same content and so on. Treknet for
0:25:30.110,0:25:35.880
Star Trek fans was one, Gernet in Germany[br]was an example for that. And there also
0:25:35.880,0:25:42.368
were other technologies and other networks[br]such as Z-Netz, where they called it
0:25:42.368,0:25:49.190
"Bretter" actually, so boards, the[br]individual message groups. And again they
0:25:49.190,0:25:53.929
had other offsprings that used the same[br]technology but have different groups and
0:25:53.929,0:25:59.460
different policies and different[br]structures such as T-Netz or CL-Netz. And
0:25:59.460,0:26:08.328
then there was the big faction of people[br]who did UUCP, the UNIX to UNIX copy, which
0:26:08.328,0:26:13.180
we will look at a little bit. And MausNet[br]is another german example here originating
0:26:13.180,0:26:21.363
from the city of Muenster, which was used[br]to up to 120 BBSs here. Let's look at Fido
0:26:21.363,0:26:28.717
a little bit more. Started allegedly in[br]1984. Of course I was not involved at that
0:26:28.717,0:26:37.644
time at the age of 5. It reached a limit[br]of 250 nodes in 1985 because apparently, I
0:26:37.644,0:26:41.911
suppose probably, a single integer UINT8[br]was used for the node number or something
0:26:41.911,0:26:45.992
like that and then about 250 should be[br]sufficient for everyone. I don't know what
0:26:45.992,0:26:51.239
the other 5 are for. And then they[br]introduced in '86 hierarchic regional
0:26:51.239,0:26:57.984
routing and addressing that was more[br]scalable and in the end at the peak of the
0:26:57.984,0:27:06.384
Fido net propagation it was 39,000 nodes;[br]that's BBSs not individual users but
0:27:06.384,0:27:12.199
39,000 BBSs were interconnected with an[br]estimated 2 million users worldwide and
0:27:12.199,0:27:18.882
that's for a you know hobbyist amateur[br]network is I think quite impressive.
0:27:18.882,0:27:23.862
The addresses looked like this. That's[br]actually a node number that I used around
0:27:23.862,0:27:33.019
'95 in Nuremberg at the time. Z-Netz[br]started as Zerberus-Netz - and I'm not
0:27:33.019,0:27:37.340
sure if padeluun or Rena or any of the[br]people involved in the audience if then I
0:27:37.340,0:27:45.608
hope I represent the history correctly -[br]which is a network technology created in
0:27:45.608,0:27:50.827
Germany. The standards are inspired but[br]different than the Usenet and UUCP
0:27:50.827,0:27:54.785
protocols and there were all kinds of[br]flame war about who understood the specs
0:27:54.785,0:27:59.567
wrong and whether there's an improvement[br]between ZConnect compared to the Usenet
0:27:59.567,0:28:05.855
standards or not. But anyway it was[br]different and there was one program called
0:28:05.855,0:28:09.980
CrossPoint which was the most popular[br]point software at the time I think at
0:28:09.980,0:28:15.739
least on DOS for Z-Netz and also for other[br]technologies. The screenshot here at the
0:28:15.739,0:28:21.138
bottom actually is a cross point[br]screenshot. And cross point in the early
0:28:21.138,0:28:28.015
90s already had features that I'm still[br]missing today in any email client that I
0:28:28.015,0:28:35.824
have found. Right? Imagine you have a[br]thread that crosses multiple folders,
0:28:35.824,0:28:42.204
multiple news groups, multiple whatever[br]and you have threading like the tree of
0:28:42.204,0:28:46.038
the thread across folders and news groups[br]and so on. I mean that's something that
0:28:46.038,0:28:50.397
you cannot do with any of the[br]software still today. Maybe you have you
0:28:50.397,0:28:54.600
have an answer which software today[br]supports this but for sure nothing I have
0:28:54.600,0:29:00.143
found has the kind of features and[br]functionality. Unfortunately it was
0:29:00.143,0:29:06.540
written in Pascal and it had a line length[br]limit of 255 characters per line which
0:29:06.540,0:29:10.687
made it not very compatible to Usenet[br]standards where lines could have different
0:29:10.687,0:29:17.883
lengths so one couldn't continue to use it[br]in today's time and age at least not
0:29:17.883,0:29:29.633
easily. Usenet is another network of these[br]BBS days where messages were exchanged by
0:29:29.633,0:29:35.379
a system called UNIX to UNIX copy. UNIX to[br]UNIX copy predates the Usenet it was used,
0:29:35.379,0:29:39.341
well as the name implies, to copy[br]something between UNIX machines - file
0:29:39.341,0:29:44.016
copying - and some of those files that[br]people were copying were internet mail at
0:29:44.016,0:29:51.123
the time. And then the Usenet news format[br]was invented. The format is quite similar
0:29:51.123,0:29:55.730
to internet mail, which we still know[br]today, but it's not a personal mail
0:29:55.730,0:30:00.805
between person A and person B, but it, you[br]could post it to a so-called news group
0:30:00.805,0:30:06.099
and there was a hierarchy of news groups[br]which replicated and flooded messages
0:30:06.099,0:30:11.412
across the entire network, across the[br]globe. And it was a flooding mechanism
0:30:11.412,0:30:17.199
involve to make sure that the messages get[br]replicated and the duplicates get detected
0:30:17.199,0:30:23.432
and duplicates are not basically[br]transmitted again or rather shown again
0:30:23.432,0:30:32.660
and so on. The routing was originally[br]defined in route maps in UUCP which is a
0:30:32.660,0:30:39.777
quite a bit odd over time because it's[br]basically a static source based routing
0:30:39.777,0:30:46.174
for the UUCP mails. News as I said[br]they were flooding anyway. Usenet was
0:30:46.174,0:30:53.119
quite popular until well into the 90s. I[br]was news master of two news servers for
0:30:53.119,0:30:58.411
some time basically doing system[br]administration of those boxes. And just to
0:30:58.411,0:31:02.869
give you an anecdote again; into this[br]context we will get to Kommunikationsnetz
0:31:02.869,0:31:07.833
Franken, which is a nonprofit organization[br]in the area of Franconia in southern
0:31:07.833,0:31:14.713
Germany, where I was active. And at the[br]time internet - like when we actually got
0:31:14.713,0:31:21.233
to IP, at some point, IP traffic was so[br]expensive that it was rather difficult to
0:31:21.233,0:31:25.729
get a full newsfeed over IP because you've[br]wasted a lot of your expensive bandwidth -
0:31:25.729,0:31:30.928
wasted in quotes - but you used it for[br]news and so what we did actually is, we
0:31:30.928,0:31:36.051
put up a satellite dish at a building in[br]Nuremberg and we had satellite feeds from
0:31:36.051,0:31:42.287
the US. So there were US companies that[br]were streaming compressed Usenet batches
0:31:42.287,0:31:48.175
up to a geostationary satellite which has[br]a downlink over Europe and then we got two
0:31:48.175,0:31:54.790
megabits of compressed batched news net[br]news in, I would say, let's say 95ish or
0:31:54.790,0:32:00.350
something like that, so that was[br]definitely a big improvement. So we we had
0:32:00.350,0:32:07.581
a full news feed coming directly from the[br]US without having to pay for all the
0:32:07.581,0:32:12.475
International data transfer. Another[br]curiosity is the Floppy Poll/Point. Now
0:32:12.475,0:32:19.157
nobody is laughing yet. Well not everyone[br]had phone lines in the 90s, particularly
0:32:19.157,0:32:23.910
in eastern Germany. Phone lines were still[br]a rare commodity after reunification
0:32:23.910,0:32:28.976
happened in 90. It took some time until[br]people could get connected to the
0:32:28.976,0:32:33.159
telephone network. And so what people did[br]is actually they exchanged daily floppies
0:32:33.159,0:32:38.560
by postal mail. So basically rather than[br]sending your compressed batches of
0:32:38.560,0:32:46.429
messages over modems, because well for a[br]modem you need phone lines, you put a
0:32:46.429,0:32:53.147
floppy - I would assume 3.5 inch at the[br]time, not so much four and a quarter inch
0:32:53.147,0:33:01.333
- but you put a floppy in an envelope you[br]send it to your BBS and the guy
0:33:01.333,0:33:05.927
opens the envelope and puts it in the BBS[br]and he sends you a floppy in return. So
0:33:05.927,0:33:09.060
you add one day or something to your[br]transmission but then well the
0:33:09.060,0:33:13.708
transmission speed of messages in those[br]networks at the time was sort of one to
0:33:13.708,0:33:17.685
two days or maybe even three days anyway[br]so if you add another day what does it
0:33:17.685,0:33:23.750
matter? It was such a big advantage that[br]you could get messages like worldwide
0:33:23.750,0:33:30.895
messages at all in such a short time and[br]for basically no cost whatsoever. Okay
0:33:30.895,0:33:37.639
getting to the internet, yeah. How did I[br]start to access Internet, how did people
0:33:37.639,0:33:41.939
start to access the Internet at the time?[br]Well mail and news was sort of the
0:33:41.939,0:33:52.571
Internet in the beginning via UUCP, which[br]is nice and fine, but it's not IP, yet. So
0:33:52.571,0:33:56.880
what you could do is you could, instead of[br]dialing into a BBS, you could of course
0:33:56.880,0:34:02.554
use your modem to dial to the serial port[br]of the TTY of any UNIX machine that's
0:34:02.554,0:34:06.151
somewhere else. If you have a UNIX[br]workstation somewhere, that's connected to
0:34:06.151,0:34:12.482
an IP network using 10base2 or whatever[br]was the network technology at the time or
0:34:12.482,0:34:20.775
FDDI or whatever, x21... then you could[br]attach a modem to a serial part of such a
0:34:20.775,0:34:26.105
UNIX box and you just get the login prompt[br]when you connect with the modem to that
0:34:26.105,0:34:30.451
box. Like you sit in front of your Linux[br]system today, you have your login prompt.
0:34:30.451,0:34:35.851
And then on that workstation you basically[br]you could remotely use that workstation
0:34:35.851,0:34:41.160
and then you could run FTP clients or IRC[br]clients or telnet, gopher, whatever on the
0:34:41.160,0:34:48.862
text console. That was mostly available to[br]people in the academic sector of course
0:34:48.862,0:34:53.700
because they had some UNIX machines at[br]universities. I was too young to be at
0:34:53.700,0:34:59.860
university, so I had to use FTP mailers[br]for quite some time. So what's an FTP
0:34:59.860,0:35:03.802
mailer? Well it's basically some FTP[br]client that runs on a remote machine
0:35:03.802,0:35:07.747
somewhere that's connected to the Internet[br]and that has email access and you can use
0:35:07.747,0:35:13.345
input/output over email. So if you want to[br]FTP to some FTP server you send an email.
0:35:13.345,0:35:19.847
It says "ftp ftp." and an "ls" and[br]then some hours later you get a response
0:35:19.847,0:35:25.649
with the list of the files, yeah? And then[br]after you've got the list of the files you
0:35:25.649,0:35:30.394
do the first CD to change into a directory[br]and then you get again the response. And
0:35:30.394,0:35:34.556
then finally you know which file you want[br]so you issue a get command over the file
0:35:34.556,0:35:41.516
and then you get this long series of[br]UUencoded mails. UUencode is a method of
0:35:41.516,0:35:50.271
sending binary 8-bit messages over mails[br]before MIME existed. The MIME format which
0:35:50.271,0:35:54.245
we use today for email attachments and so[br]on. That didn't exist at the time, so it
0:35:54.245,0:35:58.366
was UUencode before, so yeah. So hours or[br]days later you got that and it
0:35:58.366,0:36:04.460
worked perfectly fine, I mean, I was quite[br]happy to be able to use that at the time.
0:36:04.460,0:36:09.783
Now, then, if you had dial-up access to[br]UNIX boxes, you could also do something
0:36:09.783,0:36:19.216
called SLIP, which is a serial line IP. So[br]you could transport IP over the modem line
0:36:19.216,0:36:26.662
and as a result you have IP at home in[br]your apartment! Unbelievable! it was later
0:36:26.662,0:36:30.518
superseded by PPP which introduced[br]features such as auto-configuration,
0:36:30.518,0:36:34.554
authentication, compression and so on -[br]well there was a compressed SLIP, but yeah
0:36:34.554,0:36:39.811
not quite as compressed as PPP - and[br]popular software stack at the time - and
0:36:39.811,0:36:47.412
I'm talking about early 90s, mid-90s - is[br]basically Trumpet Winsock on Windows with
0:36:47.412,0:36:52.441
NCSA Mosaic as a browser, because Windows[br]back then didn't have TCP/IP, so you had
0:36:52.441,0:36:59.356
to install another package to actually[br]have TCP/IP on Windows at the time. If
0:36:59.356,0:37:03.506
you didn't have Windows, I will get to[br]that, and I'm talking about the pre-Linux
0:37:03.506,0:37:09.120
days here. So what did you do if you[br]wanted to do internet on a PC before Linux
0:37:09.120,0:37:14.257
was around? I didn't have a 386 initially,[br]I had a 286. And on a 286 of course you
0:37:14.257,0:37:18.396
couldn't run any multitasking operating[br]system because it doesn't have a real
0:37:18.396,0:37:24.444
protected mode. So no Linux, no BSD, but[br]there was something called KA9Q NOS. And
0:37:24.444,0:37:29.525
now I want to see hands: who has ever[br]heard of or used KA9Q NOS? Yeah! Ok...
0:37:29.525,0:37:34.169
laughs[br]Audience member shouts: It is a person's
0:37:34.169,0:37:36.799
callsign.[br]LaForge: Yes, "It's a person's callsign"
0:37:36.799,0:37:41.966
was the comment from the audience, this is[br]correct. KA9Q is Phil Karn in the US and
0:37:41.966,0:37:47.135
he wrote a network operating system the[br]KA9Q NOS, the network operating system.
0:37:47.135,0:37:51.683
And it is an implementation of - he[br]started actually in the 80s with this on
0:37:51.683,0:37:56.645
CPM and then later ported it to DOS - and[br]it implements TCP/IP, SLIP, PPP including
0:37:56.645,0:38:02.368
POP3 server, SMTP server + client, IP[br]routing, telnet, ARP and so on. And you
0:38:02.368,0:38:08.150
could do all this on DOS. I used it quite[br]a lot at my home. You could do routing and
0:38:08.150,0:38:13.336
you had multiple applications at the same[br]time all on top of DOS. It was a fantastic
0:38:13.336,0:38:20.132
piece of software. And then you could[br]build a router to ethernet and you could
0:38:20.132,0:38:24.290
have multiple other machines in your home[br]and you have more and more cable in your
0:38:24.290,0:38:30.101
home. And more and more connected machines, [br]yeah, actually, yeah we will get to that, ok.
0:38:30.101,0:38:37.088
PPP superseded that. At some point ISDN[br]came around, particularly in Germany. ISDN
0:38:37.088,0:38:41.072
is the digital version of telephony[br]system, so instead of having analog
0:38:41.072,0:38:48.154
circuits you now transfer digital bits.[br]That could be audio, digitized audio, but
0:38:48.154,0:38:53.351
of course it could be any other[br]transparent digital data. In Germany ISDN
0:38:53.351,0:39:00.509
was first put in operation in 1989. Until[br]'93 it used a German protocol standard
0:39:00.509,0:39:06.141
called 1TR6, and from '94 onwards the[br]European E-DSS1 protocol standard was
0:39:06.141,0:39:13.347
available. It was hugely popularized from[br]1995 onwards by subsidies. So at the time
0:39:13.347,0:39:20.161
if you actually ordered an ISDN connection[br]and at the same time you bought a, let's
0:39:20.161,0:39:26.271
say a small PBX or a phone or a modem or[br]something like that, you could [get]
0:39:26.271,0:39:33.531
subsidies from Deutsche Telekom. So, I[br]think it went up to 700 marks - not sure
0:39:33.531,0:39:39.562
if somebody remembers the exact figures -[br]and so you've got quite a bit of money to
0:39:39.562,0:39:44.448
buy equipment to switch to this new[br]technology. So when ISDN you don't have a
0:39:44.448,0:39:48.815
modem because there's nothing to modulate[br]or demodulate, it's digital, so it's
0:39:48.815,0:39:56.548
called a terminal adapter, and it adapts[br]the bitstream, the synchronous serial
0:39:56.548,0:40:04.582
bitstream of the ISDN to your operating[br]system or your computer and there was
0:40:04.582,0:40:09.060
something called V.110 as a rate[br]adaptation to do asynchronous serial like
0:40:09.060,0:40:17.130
RS-232, sort of, over a synchronous ISDN.[br]Okay and how did we get internet access?
0:40:17.130,0:40:22.699
Well, it was, if you were not in academia[br]or something like that, there were a few
0:40:22.699,0:40:27.986
commercial ISPs like XLink or EUnet. They[br]were very expensive and of course you
0:40:27.986,0:40:34.235
didn't have local dial-in in all the[br]different cities around Germany, but you
0:40:34.235,0:40:38.954
had grassroot groups of enthusiasts that[br]established themselves in some
0:40:38.954,0:40:46.592
associations to make sure the members can[br]get internet access. In my region in
0:40:46.592,0:40:52.440
Nuremberg Kommunikationsnetz Franken was[br]particularly active. They started with
0:40:52.440,0:40:57.664
dial-up UUCP services and later IP for[br]non-commercial users - and I have to say
0:40:57.664,0:41:04.045
with an extremely high technical standard[br]which I'm still fascinated by today.
0:41:04.045,0:41:08.126
Kommunikationsnetz Franken had points of[br]presence in various different cities in
0:41:08.126,0:41:12.390
the region because not everybody could[br]call to Nuremberg as a local call and
0:41:12.390,0:41:18.080
every user got six static IP addresses,[br]routed to wherever he dialed in. The use of
0:41:18.080,0:41:23.238
OSPF in the mid-1990s to make sure you[br]have static IP addresses wherever you dial
0:41:23.238,0:41:28.746
in. Some people still don't have that in[br]2017 and I'm not even talking about the
0:41:28.746,0:41:35.354
static IP addresses, but anyway. So about[br]800 users peak at that association at the
0:41:35.354,0:41:41.624
time. And there was an umbrella[br]organization called "Individual Network
0:41:41.624,0:41:49.148
e.V." (IN). This was established.[br]Individuals could not become members in
0:41:49.148,0:41:52.380
that association so it's - the name is a[br]bit interesting - it's called Individual
0:41:52.380,0:41:56.498
Network, because it's about networking for[br]individuals, but the members were the
0:41:56.498,0:42:00.970
regional associations such as[br]Kommunikationsnetz Franken, who then
0:42:00.970,0:42:07.480
basically used this umbrella entity to[br]negotiate decent rates to get internet
0:42:07.480,0:42:12.904
connectivity and so on. And apparently the[br]IN members served more than three hundred
0:42:12.904,0:42:17.660
thousand users at some point - so it[br]scaled quite a bit - was dissolved in 2000
0:42:17.660,0:42:22.170
when lots of commercialized ISPs were[br]around and also when the remaining member
0:42:22.170,0:42:26.740
entities, which many of which still exist[br]today such as Kommunikationsnetz Franken,
0:42:26.740,0:42:31.640
they didn't need this umbrella entity to[br]get decent internet rates or tariffs
0:42:31.640,0:42:37.740
again. So, with packets which TCP/IP we[br]just need one number that we call at some
0:42:37.740,0:42:41.580
point We're not dialing into hundreds of[br]different BBS's anymore but we're actually
0:42:41.580,0:42:47.347
connecting always to the same number which[br]is our ISP, and then when we have that
0:42:47.347,0:42:52.349
connection we exchange packet data with[br]systems worldwide which brought new
0:42:52.349,0:42:57.634
purpose to lease lines. Analog leased[br]lines were basically telephone lines that
0:42:57.634,0:43:02.810
were permanently switched, or actually[br]permanently wired at the exchange. So you
0:43:02.810,0:43:06.963
had two wires of copper between one[br]location and another location and they
0:43:06.963,0:43:10.514
were physically connected you could apply[br]a DC voltage and the DC voltage would come
0:43:10.514,0:43:16.617
out at the other end. You could get this[br]from Deutsche Post or Telekom at the time.
0:43:16.617,0:43:23.626
When I could finally afford one in '98 for[br]900 marks installation cost and in my case
0:43:23.626,0:43:31.000
180 marks per month, was sixty marks[br]per hop. Hop means: telephone exchange. So
0:43:31.000,0:43:35.105
if between the other end where you want to[br]connect to and where you are, are three
0:43:35.105,0:43:40.000
telephone exchanges, you had three times[br]sixty marks or 180 marks per month. And
0:43:40.000,0:43:43.929
then I connected to a system that looked[br]like this, which is called the Hub
0:43:43.929,0:43:48.532
Nuremburg of this Kommunikationsnetz[br]Franken, which is in the basement of one
0:43:48.532,0:43:55.391
of the members. You have basically a PC[br]running Linux of FreeBSD, no it was BSD
0:43:55.391,0:44:01.240
actually, with like a 16-port serial card[br]and various modems stacked on various
0:44:01.240,0:44:05.955
shelves to interconnect all these[br]different leased lines and which then had
0:44:05.955,0:44:11.987
one ISDN leased line with 128 kilobits to[br]some internet uplink. Yeah that's the
0:44:11.987,0:44:20.324
obligatory ISDN network termination and[br]telephone sockets, which brings us to ISDN
0:44:20.324,0:44:27.990
leased lines. There was a product called[br]SPV "Semi-Permanente Festverbindung",
0:44:27.990,0:44:32.770
which is not really a leased line - it's[br]semi-permanent - and it's basically a
0:44:32.770,0:44:37.630
flat-rate call to one specific destination[br]telephone number, which you could get in
0:44:37.630,0:44:42.433
national 1TR6 ISDN and which was rather[br]inexpensive and what many people used who
0:44:42.433,0:44:47.910
wanted more than the ISDN speeds. Okay I[br]have to speed up a bit, time is running
0:44:47.910,0:44:52.505
out! The first step of abusing analog[br]lines, which we did, is by deploying a
0:44:52.505,0:44:58.122
device called an ICU-T, which is the[br]inverse of an ISDN NTBA. So in ISDN you
0:44:58.122,0:45:01.621
still have the telephone exchange and you[br]have a network termination, the NTBA, on
0:45:01.621,0:45:09.290
your line. And basically the the ICU-T was[br]a single line telephone exchange side of
0:45:09.290,0:45:13.040
this protocol. So you could use an analog[br]line which you normally used for analog
0:45:13.040,0:45:17.222
modems but you remove the two analog[br]modems you put an NTBA on one end, you put
0:45:17.222,0:45:21.629
the ICU-T on the other end and suddenly we[br]can get 128 kilobits over that line which
0:45:21.629,0:45:26.438
previously you could only do 33.6 without[br]having to pay any additional cents or
0:45:26.438,0:45:31.435
money to Deutsche Telekom, of course. And[br]then there was some special ISDN routers
0:45:31.435,0:45:35.953
which could use the signaling channel, the[br]16 kbps signaling D-channel on ISDN also
0:45:35.953,0:45:41.944
for data, so you get 128 + 16 kilobytes of[br]data, because well, there's no signaling,
0:45:41.944,0:45:46.024
you're not dialling anyone so you can as[br]well use that. Now this is sort of the
0:45:46.024,0:45:50.480
hierarchy of the leased line[br]infrastructure at this entity. I'm not
0:45:50.480,0:45:54.632
showing every leased line here, but[br]basically I was at the upper left corner
0:45:54.632,0:46:00.560
here connecting with 33.6 kbps to this hub[br]Nuremburg, which connects to 128K to a
0:46:00.560,0:46:04.949
machine in a Nuremberg building of the[br]University of Erlangen, which then
0:46:04.949,0:46:09.250
connects over X21 to the University of[br]Erlangen, where then all kinds of other
0:46:09.250,0:46:14.003
leased lines come together. That was the[br]the architecture of what we deployed
0:46:14.003,0:46:18.330
there. Some more pictures: this is in[br]Fürth, a neighbor city of Nuremberg. The
0:46:18.330,0:46:24.680
collection of telephone outlets and the[br]collection of modems and the machine - oh
0:46:24.680,0:46:29.488
there was, I'm missing one picture sorry[br]for that - anyway you can see a pile of
0:46:29.488,0:46:34.220
modems here and some more modems here and[br]the machine over there. And then we went
0:46:34.220,0:46:38.840
into phase two of abusing analog telephone[br]lines, when the first DSL modems came out.
0:46:38.840,0:46:45.809
So we imported some Ascend DSLpipes in '99[br]from the US and with some firmwares you
0:46:45.809,0:46:49.602
could operate them back to back without[br]the DSLAM so basically you operate one DSL
0:46:49.602,0:46:54.370
modem at one end of the leased line and[br]another DSL modem at the other end, and if
0:46:54.370,0:46:58.260
you are close enough like with a single[br]hop at the single telephone exchange you
0:46:58.260,0:47:04.300
could get up to 2.3 megabits symmetric[br]over your analog line. And that in 1999
0:47:04.300,0:47:09.701
was quite a lot of speed, especially if[br]you're not paying for traffic or anything
0:47:09.701,0:47:14.274
like that. Some less alternative, less[br]expensive one alternatives came out. Okay!
0:47:14.274,0:47:24.500
Before I wrap up, a short detour or one[br]thing still to mention. Another phenomenon
0:47:24.500,0:47:29.730
back then - I'm not sure if this happened[br]in other cities too - and in my area in
0:47:29.730,0:47:35.041
Fürth we had an entity called Falcons[br]Maze, which was called an online bistro.
0:47:35.041,0:47:41.726
I became a regular there around '94. They[br]initially had four DOS PCs, each of them
0:47:41.726,0:47:46.884
with a modem and with a dedicated call-[br]charge meter. And you could basically go
0:47:46.884,0:47:50.564
there, it's a cafe, you can have, you know[br]you can eat and drink and so on, and you
0:47:50.564,0:47:55.614
can sit at the PC and you can then from[br]there dial into BBSs and basically do
0:47:55.614,0:47:59.250
things if you didn't have a modem or a PC[br]at home. But the interesting part of
0:47:59.250,0:48:02.862
course was that there all the other peoples [br]were hanging out, the other BBS users,
0:48:02.862,0:48:08.810
sysops and so on. At some point the PCs[br]were networked with 10base2, so people
0:48:08.810,0:48:14.457
could play doom when it came out, I think[br]in - not sure when it reached us in
0:48:14.457,0:48:20.473
Germany - '94 maybe or so, and yeah. The[br]internet became more popular. It started
0:48:20.473,0:48:26.320
subsidiaries and we set up ISDN SPVs, the[br]"semi-permanente Verbindung" as an
0:48:26.320,0:48:33.278
internet uplink from there, so that also,[br]I mean, you can find some sources that
0:48:33.278,0:48:36.976
this apparently, allegedly was the first[br]internet cafe. I'm not sure if anyone else
0:48:36.976,0:48:41.350
has contested that. Something like that.[br]Anyway, after lots of anecdotes I want to
0:48:41.350,0:48:46.720
give you some time for Q&A. To summarize:[br]the first decades of wide area
0:48:46.720,0:48:51.510
communications were powered by a community[br]of enthusiasts or rather communities that
0:48:51.510,0:48:56.359
were disjunct and not connected, largely[br]motivated by non-commercial motives. Of
0:48:56.359,0:49:02.120
course there were commercial BBSs but by[br]far not without much corporate or
0:49:02.120,0:49:06.914
government influence, right? There was no[br]Google and there was no ministry that was
0:49:06.914,0:49:12.583
putting censorship or something like that.[br]And the BBS community is a distinct
0:49:12.583,0:49:18.370
subculture so it has different norms and[br]it has different values, different from
0:49:18.370,0:49:22.557
the ham radio guys, different from free[br]software guys, of course some overlap, but
0:49:22.557,0:49:28.337
still a separate community with separate[br]norms. What I personally think is the big
0:49:28.337,0:49:37.124
loss, other than the loss of picture on[br]the screen, is that back then the networks
0:49:37.124,0:49:40.500
were distributed. There was no single[br]point of failure. The infrastructure was
0:49:40.500,0:49:45.286
owned and operated by its users, by[br]individuals. The connection speeds were
0:49:45.286,0:49:50.493
symmetric and there was no, like, data[br]center versus consumer separation that we
0:49:50.493,0:49:55.440
have in the internet day and age of today.[br]And that's, yes, I really think this
0:49:55.440,0:50:02.590
autonomy and decentralization is a big[br]loss to society or the community as a
0:50:02.590,0:50:07.854
whole. Ok, some pointers: if you want to[br]read up more or look at some ANSI artwork
0:50:07.854,0:50:12.940
or log into BBSs, the telnet BBS guide I[br]can highly recommend that. You can also
0:50:12.940,0:50:19.891
find the BBS I looked into. Ok, good.[br]Which brings us to the point where we can
0:50:19.891,0:50:24.000
have some questions.
0:50:24.000,0:50:34.659
Applause
0:50:34.659,0:50:40.930
Herald: The microphones here in, 3, 1, 2[br]and 4, but first we have questions from
0:50:40.930,0:50:43.800
the signal angel. So what's the question for?
0:50:43.800,0:50:47.022
Signal Angel: The internet wants to know,[br]"What was the highest phone bill you ever
0:50:47.022,0:50:51.978
got back then?"[br]LaForge: To be honest, I don't remember
0:50:51.978,0:51:00.758
but for sure it was four digits. I'm quite[br]sure it was. It was quite devastating,
0:51:00.758,0:51:04.590
yes.[br]Hearld: There is another question from the
0:51:04.590,0:51:06.246
internet.[br]Signal Angel: And there's another
0:51:06.246,0:51:12.924
question, "You mentioned that there are[br]very few books around those topics. Which
0:51:12.924,0:51:16.774
ones would you recommend regarding BBS,[br]Usenet and so on?"
0:51:16.774,0:51:22.263
LaForge: I cannot respond to this directly[br]I don't remember that. I can put it
0:51:22.263,0:51:26.736
together and people can reach out to me[br]or I put it in the slides when I submit
0:51:26.736,0:51:33.067
them into the frap system, sorry for that.[br]Herald: So we have a question from the
0:51:33.067,0:51:38.019
microphone number two please.[br]Mic 2: Yes, back in the 90s most of the
0:51:38.019,0:51:43.367
voice was uncompressed and actually[br]direct. Modern technologies usually, I
0:51:43.367,0:51:48.054
think, voice always compressed transferred[br]over IP. Do you know for any modern
0:51:48.054,0:51:53.390
modulation formats the text can survive[br]several codecs voice codecs or data
0:51:53.390,0:51:57.199
transmission?[br]LaForge: I'm not the expert on that
0:51:57.199,0:52:03.148
subject. I know there are some codecs,[br]yes, but they are extremely slow. So you
0:52:03.148,0:52:10.442
are happy if you get something like 1200[br]or maybe 2400 bps of data through a modem
0:52:10.442,0:52:14.687
that survives multiple codecs and then of[br]course always the question of which
0:52:14.687,0:52:20.242
codecs.[br]Herald: Okay microphone number four
0:52:20.242,0:52:22.570
please.[br]Mic 4: Okay I don't have a question to
0:52:22.570,0:52:26.319
Herald actually, but thanks for the talk.[br]I would like to ask the audience because
0:52:26.319,0:52:30.490
many, I think, users and operators of BBSs[br]are here. Who wants to meet this evening,
0:52:30.490,0:52:34.944
at I would say nine o'clock, in one of the[br]seminar rooms for talk about the back old
0:52:34.944,0:52:41.619
times? Yeah, so I will try to lock a self-[br]organized session at the seminar room
0:52:41.619,0:52:46.333
1415, I think it's called, at 9 o'clock.[br]LaForge: Ok, thank you very much.
0:52:46.333,0:52:49.472
Mic 4: So, see you there and talk about[br]the good days of and some more stories I
0:52:49.472,0:52:52.228
think.[br]Herald: There are still more people
0:52:52.228,0:52:59.525
queuing up. Microphone number 4, please.[br]Mic 4: I've got a question about the
0:52:59.525,0:53:05.187
political bulletin board systems. Could[br]you tell us a bit about the CL-Net and the
0:53:05.187,0:53:11.116
fascist clone the Thule-Net? What was the[br]dynamics back then and the fights? What
0:53:11.116,0:53:16.682
were the conflicts in those boxes?[br]LaForge: I have to admit I cannot say too
0:53:16.682,0:53:22.189
much about it. I know, of course, CL-Netz[br]was a network mainly for left-wing
0:53:22.189,0:53:26.590
political activists and groups and yes[br]there was Thule-Netz, a right-wing
0:53:26.590,0:53:29.780
Network, and I knew there was discussions[br]and so on and there were people trying to
0:53:29.780,0:53:36.462
hack each other's mailboxes and so on,[br]but I was not participating or involved
0:53:36.462,0:53:43.094
in these discussions to an extent that I[br]can really comment on it sorry.
0:53:43.094,0:53:46.150
Herald: Microphone number one, please.[br]Mic 1: Hi Harald. I still remember when I
0:53:46.150,0:53:50.750
started with an acoustic coupler. I did[br]that because there was a severe threat of
0:53:50.750,0:53:55.486
punishment if you used an illegal modem at[br]the time from the Deutsche Bundespost. So
0:53:55.486,0:54:00.010
I was actually never aware that a little[br]bit later you could actually do an end,
0:54:00.010,0:54:05.552
back to back DSL modem connection over an[br]analogue exchange. So at that time you did
0:54:05.552,0:54:09.950
that, what was the the punishment[br]situation from the Bundespost or whatever
0:54:09.950,0:54:14.271
it was called at the time if they would[br]have ever caught you doing that? Do you
0:54:14.271,0:54:17.010
remember?[br]LaForge: I have no clue. Yes, it sort of,
0:54:17.010,0:54:25.363
and I mean the... How can I say? The the[br]criminal offense, I think, stopped in '92
0:54:25.363,0:54:30.331
when Deutsche Post was privatized. So[br]until '92 it was a criminal offence to
0:54:30.331,0:54:34.730
operate a non-approved modem at the German[br]telephone network, because was government
0:54:34.730,0:54:39.825
owned. It was a crime, not a minor[br]offence. But afterwards I don't really
0:54:39.825,0:54:44.850
know to be honest. I don't think anyone[br]bothered at the time and nobody, I mean
0:54:44.850,0:54:49.994
the, we never had any trouble with these[br]DSL things and so on, that we did over
0:54:49.994,0:54:53.823
analog circuits.[br]Herald: Microphone number two, please.
0:54:53.823,0:54:58.725
Mic 2: Okay, hello I'm from Taiwan and I[br]just want to share something interesting
0:54:58.725,0:55:05.200
for everyone. In Taiwan is a small country[br]in Asia. We are still using BBS. The
0:55:05.200,0:55:12.090
largest is named PTT and exported to use[br]SSH or WebSocket you can edit, and the
0:55:12.090,0:55:16.580
source code is open available on GitHub.[br]Everybody can search it. Thank you.
0:55:16.580,0:55:23.593
LaForge: Thank you very much. It's[br]actually not just for Taiwan, but you can
0:55:23.593,0:55:27.870
find many, I mean maybe it's more popular[br]there still, but you can find many BBSs
0:55:27.870,0:55:33.049
that are still in operation today in many[br]different countries even also with BBS
0:55:33.049,0:55:38.240
software that's free software that's[br]maintained now on GitHub or on other
0:55:38.240,0:55:43.240
repositories with contributors and so on.[br]So the community still lives, but I think
0:55:43.240,0:55:48.230
at least internationally it's very small[br]and I'm happy to hear if it's larger in
0:55:48.230,0:55:52.480
some countries.[br]Herald: You have still time for questions.
0:55:52.480,0:55:57.820
Microphone number four, please.[br]Mic 4: So you talked about restoring
0:55:57.820,0:56:05.181
decentralization. So, what old systems[br]would you like to see coming back?
0:56:05.181,0:56:09.030
Something like the Usenet? I mean it's[br]still there, but you can't access it
0:56:09.030,0:56:13.290
without paying a lot of money to some big[br]gateway. So, which technologies would you
0:56:13.290,0:56:17.374
like to revive or do you think are[br]realistic to revive to have
0:56:17.374,0:56:21.640
decentralization again?[br]LaForge: I don't think the technologies
0:56:21.640,0:56:26.248
necessarily need to be revived because[br]they are, to a large extent, old and
0:56:26.248,0:56:32.902
people are smarter and the, how can I say,[br]the capacity and the computational
0:56:32.902,0:56:37.141
complexity of what you can do today and so[br]on is much better. So we can have much
0:56:37.141,0:56:42.576
better technology. But the thing that I[br]would like to see revived is more
0:56:42.576,0:56:47.855
decentralization and more people operating[br]their own technology and that's just, I
0:56:47.855,0:56:53.529
think, I don't really have a plan and I'm[br]not saying I have a vision I'm just saying
0:56:53.529,0:56:58.620
it has a problem, this development, that[br]basically it's a consumer / producer model
0:56:58.620,0:57:03.510
and especially with content delivery[br]networks and with attacks on network
0:57:03.510,0:57:08.356
neutrality and and all these topics, it's[br]always moving in one direction. It's
0:57:08.356,0:57:12.796
basically turning the user into a stupid[br]consumer and and making sure all the
0:57:12.796,0:57:20.214
control and all the content, and so on, is[br]in the hand of large corporations.
0:57:20.214,0:57:28.543
Applause[br]By the way, one interesting anecdote about
0:57:28.543,0:57:33.644
the... I talked about the asymmetry of the[br]speed, right? And with DSL at this ADSL
0:57:33.644,0:57:38.207
and the popular technology is always the[br]downlink is bigger than the uplink. I know
0:57:38.207,0:57:45.110
in Brazil a lot of people, basically in[br]small, like small size ISPs, they did it
0:57:45.110,0:57:50.290
the opposite way around! So they did one[br]modem with basically a large downstream
0:57:50.290,0:57:55.380
and small upstream and then they, on[br]another line next to it, they inverted it
0:57:55.380,0:57:59.130
by using a master modem on one side and a[br]slave modem on the other so then again he
0:57:59.130,0:58:04.289
had symmetric speed. So, some people had[br]creative ideas to work around some of the
0:58:04.289,0:58:09.902
technological restrictions.[br]Herald: So microphone number two, please.
0:58:09.902,0:58:16.090
Mic 2: I also from Taiwan and I want to[br]add something for my friend. Like, there
0:58:16.090,0:58:25.636
are still like half million people come[br]here to BBS called PTT, yeah, today. And
0:58:25.636,0:58:34.345
like, there's a, there are 100,000 people[br]online now, yeah. So, I think the
0:58:34.345,0:58:39.255
community is now like...[br]Herald: What ist your question? Can you
0:58:39.255,0:58:42.302
please phrase the question?[br]Mic 2: I just want to add something for my
0:58:42.302,0:58:46.642
friend, yeah.[br]LaForge: Okay, thank you.
0:58:46.642,0:58:54.641
Herald: Microphone number one, please.[br]Mic 1: cough You talked about content of
0:58:54.641,0:59:01.551
these mailboxes. Isn't it that the[br]Freifunk community today is a possible way
0:59:01.551,0:59:11.900
to get this freedom back from what you had[br]in your mailboxes? The services they were
0:59:11.900,0:59:19.290
offered there, the Freifunk could do the[br]same today with user own structures and so
0:59:19.290,0:59:21.571
on.[br]LaForge: That's very correct yes. Freifunk
0:59:21.571,0:59:26.267
definitely is much more in the spirit of[br]the community owned and community run
0:59:26.267,0:59:31.440
systems, and I see lots of similarities[br]between the BBS community and what
0:59:31.440,0:59:34.690
Freifunk is doing today. It's correct.[br]Mic 1: Are you are you doing something
0:59:34.690,0:59:37.630
with Freifunk?[br]LaForge: Me personally? No, I'm not
0:59:37.630,0:59:40.480
involved.[br]Mic 1: Okay.
0:59:40.480,0:59:47.203
Herald: I think microphone number two is[br]waiting way too long.
0:59:47.203,0:59:53.270
Mic 2: Hello, thanks for the talk. You[br]mentioned that most people didn't have a
0:59:53.270,0:59:59.668
TCP/IP capable operating system at this[br]time and I started to read recently about
0:59:59.668,1:00:06.313
an operating system called Xenix, X-E-N-[br]I-X, that was actually developed by
1:00:06.313,1:00:14.609
Microsoft and published in 1983 that could[br]run on IBM PC compatible machines on the
1:00:14.609,1:00:20.854
x86 processors, and I hear that in the[br]Russian BBS systems at least it was very
1:00:20.854,1:00:26.480
popular. Did you encounter any Xenix[br]operating systems at that time?
1:00:26.480,1:00:30.886
LaForge: No I personally did not encounter[br]Xenix. I read about it, yes, and I know it
1:00:30.886,1:00:35.860
I could have possibly run it on my 286[br]machine, but I mean, I don't think it was
1:00:35.860,1:00:40.097
something that was readily available for[br]affordable price to individuals, but maybe
1:00:40.097,1:00:44.280
I'm wrong. No, certainly not, okay, some[br]people are heavily shaking their heads.
1:00:44.280,1:00:46.580
Mic 2: I think this is why it was popular[br]in Russia...
1:00:46.580,1:00:49.150
Laughs[br]LaForge: Possibly. I do not want to
1:00:49.150,1:00:52.440
comment on that...[br]Herald: We have time for one more
1:00:52.440,1:00:56.596
question. Microphone number 4.[br]Mic 4: I just wanted to note, in the wiki
1:00:56.596,1:01:00.976
the meeting is up. Search for BBS and this[br]evening at 9 o'clock I think we can talk
1:01:00.976,1:01:05.482
about all the details of running DSL on[br]modem lines. I've also got some more
1:01:05.482,1:01:10.284
details on that and a lot of these modems[br]left if you need some. But I think, so see
1:01:10.284,1:01:13.710
you Harold at 9 o'clock[br]LaForge: Yeah definitely! Thanks!
1:01:13.710,1:01:16.090
Mic 4: Ok, everybody welcome.[br]LaForge: Thank you!
1:01:16.090,1:01:17.480
Applause
1:01:17.480,1:01:20.222
Herald: Thank you very much for the talk.
1:01:20.222,1:01:25.425
34C3 Music
1:01:25.425,1:01:43.000
subtitles created by c3subtitles.de[br]in the year 2020. Join, and help us!