Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

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.

Re: Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

#6

Post by nandomrumber » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

pgrote wrote: post #5

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.

You didn’t need to be a node to be on Fidonet.

Re: Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

#7

Post by BruceEel » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #2

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.

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...

Re: Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

#8

Post by NuSkooler » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

For those interested, FidoNet and "Alt nets" such as fsxNet are still going and active!

Re: Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

#9

Post by sedatk » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

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.

Re: Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

#10

Post by icedchai » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #2

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.

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.