Very curious if others have memories of a service in the 80's called Portal. I recall using it in a few ways, one of which was UseNet and UUCP access. The host in this context was cup.portal.com (Cupertino, perhaps?) and appears in historical posts as "sun!portal!cup.portal.com!"
I'm also seeking history on "tronsbox", a host I used to relay for my Amiga-based, dial-up UUCP node: "uunet!tronsbox!alpine!"
Please relay to more relevant hashtags, too!
#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing
Well, I pulled on a few threads and churned up one of the most specific mentions of Portal that I've managed thus far in an archival copy of an amateur radio magazine:
https://microship.com/portal-system-73/
It cost $10/month (which I now remember) and confirms use of Telenet to reach it.
There is also a Wikipedia entry, but it mostly focuses on Portal's evolution into telecom software and later purchase by, of all things, Oracle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_Software
@halfpress I go my ham radio license* solely to get access to the internet by packet radio. I wasn’t sure how that would work, but I figured I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
* I never got the license! I passsed the codeless test, days before moving to Virginia, and the paperwork got lost. But I got dial-up internet access months later, so ham radio was forgotten.
Wired: Starting an ISP
Tired: Getting dialup access
Expired: Packet radio
A double score search result just now. I was doing some searches about Telenet's PC-Pursuit (which opened up my online childhood in a massive way pre-Internet and set me on my ultimate career path... but I digress): https://books.google.com/books?id=nDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT10&dq=pc+pursuit&hl=en#v=onepage&q=pc%20pursuit&f=false
This InfoWorld article from Jan 1989 mentions PC-Pursuit raising rates and dropping unlimited service due to over-popularity / campers. I recall that making me furious as a kid. It also has quotes from someone at Portal.
Stumbled on another Portal document while exploring PC-Pursuit search results. This one is Amiga-specific and rings some bells in my memory as well (having been an Amiga addict through much of my childhood and into my 20s):
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONCEPTS/SERVICES/PCPURSUIT/ar212.guide.htm
@AndyHat Yes! UseNet and email were my uses and I, too, was relying on Telenet. I'm trying to recall how I originally came to find it, what else I was doing with it and how much it cost on a monthly basis. I was probably ~12-14 years old.
I wish I could recall when I stopped using it (and why), but I know I was using it in the late 1980s (further confirmed finding UseNet archival posts of mine citing a portal address).
As to the "cup" part, I'm just speculating on it representing Cupertino.
@halfpress https://www.krsaborio.net/internet/research/1988/1204.htm has it as $10/month in 1988. I feel like it was $12 by the time I started using it. I definitely would have found it on a list like that, though.
I started college in 1992 which meant free Usenet starting that summer. I remember one of the last things I did with my Portal email was emailing the college IT department at the beginning of summer to ask if I could get my account early, and it worked!
@AndyHat Odds are good I found my way there from a similar list. This list also appears to confirm the Cupertino assumption from cup.portal.com.
Thanks for finding and sharing this! Portal is one part of a number of historical threads I'm following back through my childhood. :)
I graduated high school in 1992, so we appear to be about the same age with similar experiences in this regard.
Portal was very popular here in the Bay Area as well because they would give you a 'shell' account which meant you could run services and what not.
Portal and Software Tool & Die!
i had a shell account on the latter for quite a while.
good times.
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