dialup.worldJul 19, 2023

#introductions We cobbled together a free-to-use dialup ISP out of trash and spare parts. dialup.world is composed of four modems for simultaneous connections delivering speeds up to 33.6K.

This is currently a bunch of USR Sportsters hooked into Linux, but we are currently working on setups with Cisco gear, as well as some musings in 56K, other weird dialup appliances, and retro networking.

Check our website http://dialup.world for more information about the setup and how to access! In addition to the PSTN, you can also connect through PhreakNet (https://portal.phreaknet.org), a sort of telephone hobbyist/phreaker/collector darknet.

We also supply dialup access to the WebTV Redialed project (http://webtv.zone) which means if you dig your WebTV out of storage and hook it into a phone line, it *just works* with the original toll-free number and no modification needed on your part!

I invite you to watch our bad ideas become reality.

#modems #dialup #retronetworking #webtv

Show threadvga256Jul 19, 2023
@dialupworld ooooo i adore this. do you possibly have a writeup somewhere of how the specific equipment you're using is glued together? are you running the sportsters off the linux box's serial ports, or have something else set up?
Show threadChartreuseJul 19, 2023

@vga256 @dialupworld

It doesn't look quite as chaotic, but an "all in one" option for doing much the same is a USRobotics NetServer/16 or similar, which are dial in modem banks that can do PPP natively. Then just hook them up to a multi-port voip adapter, or if you get a later type one straight into a T1 card.

Show threadvga256
@ChartreuseK @dialupworld you just saved me *so* much work. i had been considering buying a Livingston Portmaster 2e/3e, and ingesting serial port connections from physical external modems. This was the setup we had at the ISP I worked at as a kid.
Jul 20, 2023 at 12:17amWeb
Show threadChartreuseJul 20, 2023
@vga256 @dialupworld My original "home" setup was a pair of 16-port modem banks, but picked up the netserver and that was so much less hassle for simple PPP.
Show threadChartreuseJul 20, 2023
@vga256 @dialupworld It also can do SLIP and AppleTalk Dialup (IIRC). As well you have have an account that you can log into then telnet to other systems from it.
Show threadvga256Jul 20, 2023
@ChartreuseK @dialupworld now to find one 😅
Show threadChartreuseJul 20, 2023

@vga256 @dialupworld Watch out for the ISDN ones (I-Modems) unless you have the stuff to do a home ISDN setup.

There's also a smaller NetServer/8. and unders in the TotalControl lineup.

Show threadvga256Jul 20, 2023
@ChartreuseK @dialupworld yes - I noticed those were out there too. sadly was never familiar with ISDN stuff.
Show threadMark EichinJul 20, 2023
@vga256 @ChartreuseK @dialupworld Hah, at the Cygnus Boston office we had one of those with one or maybe two modems on it - because the real reason we had it was to hang a bunch of embedded boards on for our local "small" cross-compiler test suite, so a bunch of networked physical serial ports in one place was perfect
Show threadvga256Jul 20, 2023
@eichin 😅 two out of 32 serial ports leaves plenty of room for expansion