ACNews #64 06 января 2017

History - SPbZXNet - part 2

                        SPbZXNet - part 2
                           by AmoNik

I learned about a net for Spectrum computers from ZX Format
electronic magazine. The information was like rumors, like "we
planned a net". My group mate convinced me that the net in fact
exists. This was in 1997. He told me a modem is nothing to do if
I provide him a phone transformer. I disassembled a spare phone
and gave him a transformer. But I received no modem from this
guy. And no transformer.

There was 1998. I frequently walked to Lorgos store, where once
a week (if I remember correctly) the Spectrum elite gathered and
discussed the news. I heard something about the net, and that
there's no use to make anything because anything you do would
instantly go into the net for free. I remembered this and
decided to join the net.

Once I saw the needed device at a showcase, XTR modem. And 29th
of December, 1998, I bought it for 150 roubles. I connected it
no earlier than 1Oth of January, 1999, and it appeared that the
thing didn't work. 19th, I returned the modem to Logros.

So my first try to obtain free software failed.

2бth of October, 2000, I bought a Hayes compatible modem from
another group mate of mine, for 100 roubles. This caused a queue
of events.

2бth of November, I added a phone socket in my room.

27th of November, I went to Scorpion to solder an ISA slot in my
SMUC. But Zerov said he was busy and just gave me the socket
that I must solder by myself. The same day I attached the modem
and tried to call with it. The modem said it doesn't hear the
line and refused to dial. I thought that this was because of
high-frequency phone coupling that I had at my phone, so I
needed an adapter.

ЗOth of December, I went to Yunona (radio market) and bought an
adapter for 370 roubles. But the modem still didn't hear the
line.

02nd of January, 2001, I understood the modem settings, so it
could dial. I called Eugene Buder of Welcome corp and asked him
for a modem connect. I used Melon as a terminal program, where
Com1 was instead of Com2 and vice versa.

The first connect was OK, and we chatted in terminal. The speed
was 2400.

I asked Buder for a phone number of a Spectrum BBS. In the night
I called there and asked if the BBS still works. They answered
me that the BBS if offline for 3 years, and gave me a couple of
other numbers.

The first number used XTR modem, and the second one wrote me
that BBS is offline and hanged up.

OЗrd of February, 2001, Buder gave me the number of Alexander
Mayorov (MAS) ("our head", said Buder, and my future uplink in
SPbZXNet), to consult why my modem transmits files so slow.
MAS asked me to dial by modem and send him some files. Then he
said by voice that my modem lacks error correction and I must
change it.

OЧth of February, 2001, I went to Yunona. I bought USR
Sportster 14400 for 410 roubles. The same day I tried it. The 
modem picks up the phone (relay is heard) but fails to connect
the line (frequency coupling adapter doesn't light a LED for
line busy). The modem it broken.

O5th of February, 2001, I went to Peters+ (where Ivan Mak
worked). They had a modem repair service. I looked into the
price and decided that I'd better return the modem to the seller
at Yunona than to pay almost the modem's price for its repair.

1Oth of February, I went to Yunona and gave the modem to the
seller for check. It promised to return the money in a week. But
I had money, and I bought the same modem in another shop, even 2
dollars cheaper.

That modem worked, so I called Alexander Mayorov again to test
the connect. We sent files to each other, and the files are
received faster than uploaded. MAS said this was something about
software settings.

Later I sent disks to Buder with this modem, and that was
delightful, because I spent three hours by road before, to take
disks for cracking and return him older disks.

OЗrd of March, 2001, I went to Alexey Leontyev (iS-DOS creator).
He was sleeping when I came. He copied me a disk with a terminal
program for iS-DOS. There were two programs - new one and old
one. This costed me 25 roubles. It appeared that one program was
in fact a terminal (by Mikhail Kondratyev ), and the another was
Dickie Mailer. In a ZIP archive there was an example of config 
file but there was no manual. Not a simple keylist. How to work
with such a program? There also was an archive of GENERAL.ZX
echo conference on the disk. I read it and enjoyed it. I decided
to join SPbZXNet.

1Чth of May, 2001, I became a point of SPbZXNet. This is the
date of my first letter to Alexander Mayorov. And I received a
point number by chance. I went to MAS asking for help to connect
GMX to Scorpion board. The connection described in the manual 
didn't work, and I told Buder I can't work for Welcome any more.
He sent me to MAS because MAS was "a hardware guy". So I came to
MAS, gave him the board with the manual, and asked if I could
copy archines of Spectrum echo conferences from him. He said "no
problem" but didn't completely understand me. All I wanted was
a floppy disk with ZIP files. But he (when he returned me the
repaired board of my Scorpion) told me to call him by mailer at
night. He added the address and the password. So I became his
point instead of getting the archives.

I must add that 22th of August, 2000, when I went to Alexey
Leontyev for changing an iS-DOS disk I bought at Chaos 
Constructions, he copied me few archives with messages from 
Spectrum oriented echo conferences (both Fido and ZXNET).
So since this I knew how Spectrum people live in the net. These
archives might remain there.

Alone> In Ryazan the net thing was totally different - we got 
modems from PC users, and only two people could attach them to 
Spectrum... 

I'll try to obtain archives from iS-DOS disks. Yesterday I tried
to read them with plug-ins for FAR MANAGER. But the plug-in
broke several times then refused to read these disks at all.
I must move to another PC and open them there. If I don't
succeed, I'll copy the files from floppies.

Alone> I'd like to download the archives... All I've read was 
http://zxnet-archive.ru/ - but I can't download from there. 
And the old modem software would be nice to find, because I 
failed to download it from fkO that time... Now I don't know if
he still keeps it - it is said that he was married. 

Well, CODE.ZX there is more complete than in my copy. It's a
pity that there is only online access. I couldn't find any
archives at mine. I even attached my old HDD, and there are no
archives with echoes. I don't understand, how it cound be. I
remember I read them recently. Maybe I deleted them after that.
But I couldn't delete them on all the disks!

Alone> What about your old papers? 

I usually keep all the notes with any information. I keep all
the notebooks and copybooks where I recorded all the games I
cracked for Welcome. All the scrool copybooks since 7th grade
survived. Only a book of cartoons that I drew in higher grades
disappeared.