Oh the memories. I had a Hayes modem and an IBM PC..ATDT1234567. I was dialing into York U's bank of modems, but they were usually all busy, so I wrote a little program to auto-dial, and then call me with an alarm once I connected. Memories. On Sun, 20 Sept 2026 at 20:27, Colin McGregor via Talk < talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Blasts from the past. Back in the day (think 30-40 years ago), if you wanted to connect to another computer over the phone lines you would get a Hayes (or Hayes compatible) modem (yes, okay there were some non-Hayes compatible modem out there, but), then connect that to your IBM, Commodore, Atari, Apple, or .... computer, run a terminal program, type a command along the lines of ATDP5551212 (or whatever) to get your computer to connect to a local electronic BBS (Bulletin Board System) (likely NOT Internet connected). In its own way, back in the day it was all good (legal) fun.
I was reminded of the above due to another blast from the past recently. I ran across the current issue of "2600" magazine for sale at an Indigo Bookstore. Back in the day "2600" carried articles about things you could do of ...questionable legality... with the telephone network. You get the impression that phone ...tricks.... are still an area that would be happy to write about. What drew my attention in the current issue of "2600" was an article titled "Bulletin Board Systems Are Back!". In summary, it went into using an ESP8266 (think an earlier/cheaper version of an ESP32, semi-Arduino compatible module with built-in WiFi) as what would appear to your computer as a Hayes compatible modem. You do need to assemble an ESP8266 module and an RS232 to TTL module total cost if ordered from one of the usual suspects (like AliExpress in China) under $10. Assemble the parts, install the appropriate software (which they identify in the article) and you can connect to any computer on the internet that supports telnet connections (these days, most don't).
Still this does mean even machines like the Commodore 64, Atari 800 or other machines of that vintage can (with an RS232 adapter) can (conditionally) connect to the Internet or they can host a BBS. Neat stuff... ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/SDLZNAU...