From my archives... this is what the command center of a mid-1990s dialup ISP looked like.

Later iterations would be more advanced, but this is how it started. A natural progression and leap of faith from the multi-line BBS it replaced.

#retrocomputing

@autumn@tech.lgbt my local Austin ISP, inetport, looked just like that in the mid 90s. One big beige box was my colocated P90 Slackware server that I let them use for some hosting duties in exchange for my own 28.8k line. I wish I had pictures from those days.

@autumn @blog oh wow. That would have been impressive to see. I remember how difficult it was to find proper hardware that the kernel could understand but to then run Slackware is a whole other thing.

You are a Demi-god, at least, amongst us mortals.

@atomicangel@infosec.exchange @autumn@tech.lgbt Nah, just a big ol nerd with access to a lot of different hardware -- I worked in a PC store in 94-95 -- and a lot of patience
@autumn @blog well back then I was a young human and the best I had was a PII 166Mhz with a WinModem, so no internet inside Linux for me…
@atomicangel @blog Oh the winmodems were the bane of our support crew. Sold a lot of Sportsters to replace them with.