Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993) (fidonet.org)
74 points by BruceEel 3 hours ago
sedatk an hour ago
There was a FidoNet clone in Turkey called HitNet (short for “Hi Türkiye Net”). Its node addresses were like “8:103/119”.
İ developed a Netmail server for Hitnet called HitBase in 1995 or so. It allowed people to discover others around their city to meet. Possibly the earliest thing that resembles Facebook. Similarly, it was a privacy nightmare too, luckily short-lived.
HitNet introduced me to great people some of whom I still see today. It was such a tight-knit friendly community.
The advent of Internet killed it but some communities are still active on other platforms.
yummybear 27 minutes ago
I have very fond memories of fidonet: discussions, friends made, parties held. I wish i was back there :)
reconnecting 25 minutes ago
FidoNet was my first network. I still remember the SysOps and the parties.
An interesting aspect is that it was impossible to obtain an address without providing some service or newsletter on a specific subject to the SysOp in return, so it was a privilege to have your own FidoNet address.
NuSkooler 2 hours ago
For those interested, FidoNet and "Alt nets" such as fsxNet are still going and active!
egorfine an hour ago
2:463/1161 here. Nostalgia is strong with this one.
influx 9 minutes ago
4:920/35 here :)
reconnecting 5 minutes ago
Wow, Zone 4! Back in time never saw anything except 2: (Europe).
vzaliva 10 minutes ago
2:463/80
egorfine 6 minutes ago
Ого! Обнял-поднял!:)
reconnecting 25 minutes ago
Sysop?
pgrote 2 hours ago
Respected the process for getting on Fidonet. You had to figure it out, configure it properly and prove you were ready to go before you got a node number. No hand holding. Frontdoor and national mail hour.
nandomrumber 2 hours ago
You didn’t need to be a node to be on Fidonet.
drillsteps5 an hour ago
Even if you were a "point" (an endpoint assigned to the node) you still had to set up the software and (in the mid-to-late 90s at least) set up a modem to call your node to upload/download. And sometimes you had to set up repeated dialing until you got through because the node could be busy (some nodes doubled as BBSs), or connection could be bad and it'd had to retry etc. Wasn't an easy task, so it served as a sort of a filter so that most people on there were geeks.
Later on of course some nodes started distributing over the Internet so setting up a node became much easier (and I think there was a way for the node to allow multiple users read/write without even setting up a node/point at all).
drob518 12 minutes ago
Blast from the past.
dsrtslnd23 an hour ago
I feel like polling mail 30+ years ago on ISDN + zipped mail file from my fido net node was faster than IMAP on my 1 gbit connection now.
numbsafari 2 hours ago
This is how I grew up. Using fidonet via my local RPGA group.
t43562 33 minutes ago
5:7211/1.27 here - though I think this address is long long gone. I'm gobsmacked that I can remember it. :-)
We got fidonet in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. It was utterly revolutionary for us - more than the internet that came later really. For the first time we could communicate with my two brothers overseas without paying for extremely exorbitant international telephone calls that lasted a couple of minutes at best.
Our modem was 2400bps (8-N-1 IIRC). We used the zmodem protocol. It was after I learned about computers but I learned a HUGE amount from this about protocols etc. Our phone system was terrible so error correction etc were of great importance. Working out how to dial slowly was also important for our terrible phone exchanges.
It let me keep in touch with my pal, K, who emigrated to South Africa and as a result he ended up sending me 21 1.2MB floppy disks with SLS Linux on them and kernel 0.99 (I think). The journey began! :-)
ck2 28 minutes ago
one thing I distinctly remember is that when simultaneous two-way Zmodem transfers came out replacing Ymodem, it absolutely blew my mind
(previously all transfers, Xmodem/Ymodem, were one-way with CRC checks on each block slowing things down)
bluGill 21 minutes ago
Ymodem-g (I think I remember that correctly) was faster than Zmodem - but if the CRC failed it aborted the whole send. Often I was willing to take the risk. (at 300 baud that adds up)
specialist 2 hours ago
Appreciate this share.
Whenever I hear about this new fangled AT protocol all the kids are jazzed about, I get all wistful for the BBS era.
FidoNet & PC-Relay were pretty fanfastic. For the time, obv.
Source: Was sysadmin for a hub.
icedchai an hour ago
I loved that era. I was a BBSer from about 1988 through 1994 or so, on several systems with FidoNet and RelayNet / RIME. I also ran my own BBS for a while, eventually it had some Usenet newsgroups and Internet email through UUCP (anyone remember bang paths?)
What I miss most is the local community aspect. In my teens and early 20's I met several friends through BBSes.
BruceEel 2 hours ago
Aye, they were. I also liked listening to this [1] (Jason Scott's) interview with Mark Herring.
[1] https://archive.org/details/20021102-bbs-herring/Mark+Herrin...
tycoon666 44 minutes ago
Best social network in history!
mcc1ane 2 hours ago
(1993)