>
> On Mar 17, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Ed Barry wrote:
>
>> I think it may have been the first "social network" in our area...
>> referred to back then as an electronic Bulletin Board. I think it may
>> have been hosted at CVU (Craig??) and later maybe at Champlain
>> College... or was it the other way around?
>
> CVU ran the Vermont EdNet … the crew there included Craig, Christopher
> Blaise, Jim Lawson, Stephanie Ploof, and others I never met. Chris, Jim,
> and soon Stephanie were graduating from CVU and enrolling at UVM. Craig,
> maybe Frank, wondered if there was a way to snag UVM into this.
>
> I remember[*] the meeting with Frank, Craig, Roger Lawson, maybe others
>
> … Frank would provide an incoming 800 number
> … Craig would provide skilled systems engineers
> … someone, I can't remember who, provided a DELL 486
> … someone also provided the eSoft software and the serial ports for the
> Dell
> … UVM would provide 8 or 16 lines and … TA DA .. a terminal server !!!
>
> "
wintermute.uvm.edu" was initially the terminal server … which had a
> command
>
> "c winter mute" (connect to wintermute) … which took you to the eSoft
> system login prompt
>
> someone quirky found, and the news quickly (but silently spread), that you
> could type
>
> "c
somewhere.else.edu" ... and, if you went to the right host, you would
> also get a login prompt
>
> Voila! Free internet access for all.
>
> Except that someone (who operated a company called "Long Distance North")
> was paying for all of those 1-800 calls. The monthly bills soon soared to
> the neighborhood of $100,000 a month.
>
> That experiment ended at the end of the school year.[**]
>
> Things slowly evolved from there … with wintermute eventually being an
> ultrix system and then a linux system.
>
>
> Steve
>
> [*] current memory. if you do a google on
wintermute.uvm.edu, you will
> find a slightly different memory … post BBS world.
>
> [**] I believe, but can't remember the details, but now have the
> impression that the person who funded the experiment knew his business …
> realized that the $100,000 a month in Vermont was an indicator of
> "untapped demand" for something that eventually became "internet access."
> This was just a bit before Together.Net and Sover.Net came on board …
> 1992, 1993 ???
>
>
>
>