Reminiscing our first internet connections (WAS) Re: akamai yesterday - what in the world was that

nanog08 at mulligan.org nanog08 at mulligan.org
Mon Feb 17 19:34:17 UTC 2020


Back in 1973 I was hired by Tymshare to "hack" Tymnet and some of the 
various systems (XDS 940, PDP-10s) - I was 15.  Tymshare provided me 
with a Teletype ASR-33 (with the built in tape punch and reader).  I had 
an AJ 300 baud acoustic coupler.  We had a second phone line installed, 
'cause my dad was tired of picking up the phone and hearing tones.  I 
ended up rewiring the house phones so I could put the terminal in my room.

When I went to the Pentagon in '79 I was in charge of PENT-TIP and got 
to take home and travel with a TI Silent700 with a built in acoustic 
coupler.  We had a bank of 300/1200 baud modems on PENT-TIP.  Our IMP 
was connected to the Arpanet via a 56K modem that was the size of 5 foot 
tall 19" rack!  Back in those days it seems TIP phone numbers were 
closely guarded treasure.

I still remember when I got an LS ADM-3A (no more finding rolls of 
thermal paper). I still have it, though I don't know why...

Geoff

On 2/17/20 11:20 AM, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. wrote:
>
>> On Feb 17, 2020, at 10:38 AM, Gene LeDuc <gleduc at sdsu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I was a student worker at a computer lab at USC in the 70s and a buddy had a system operator job at ISI in Marina Del Rey.  One day he connected to his office from my lab via a 300baud acoustic modem and then got on the ARPA-NET.  From there he connected to a system called ATLAS in the UK.  I had no idea what to do at the prompt so I typed
>>
>>> ?
>> to get list of commands.  My global eyes were opened when the response was
>>
>> Pardon?
>>
>> instead of the usual rude or cryptic error message that I was used to. There was a big world out there and we were definitely not in Kansas anymore!
> It was about 1980.  My C-128 came with one of those CIS snap packs to let you test connecting to the 'net via Compuserve.  So I connected with my 300baud modem and..whoa!!!
>
> When I got my next computer (and first portable) shortly thereafter (a TRS Model 100) I got acoustic cups for it, and suddenly I was connected from anywhere and everywhere there was a phone - including from my job at a Fotomat booth (remember those?) :-)
>
> Anne
>
> --
> Anne P. Mitchell, Attorney at Law, Dean of Cyberlaw & Cybersecurity, Lincoln Law School
> CEO/President, SuretyMail Email Reputation Certification
> Author: Section 6 of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (the Federal anti-spam law)
> Legislative Consultant, GDPR, CCPA (CA) & CCDPA (CO) Compliance Consultant
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>
>




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