Dial up and a BBS

[squirmelia]

I actually dialled up to a BBS yesterday! For the first time in decades! From a Mac.

Here is how I did it:

1. Christmas 1994, I was given a very awesome present of a 14.4k modem.
2. I bought a serial to USB connector, as I no longer have serial ports on my computers. Installed drivers - The one from Prolific turned out to be the one that worked for me: https://plugable.com/drivers/prolific
3. Other > System Information > USB showed me USB-Serial Controller was present.
4. ls /dev/cu.* showed me /dev/cu.Plser
5. Then I downloaded ZTerm (the OSX Universal Binary one, as I was using a Mac) and changed the settings for my modem - selecting the port (/dev/cu.Plser) and the baud rate (19200).
6. I used the cable that goes from my landline phone into the phone socket to use in the modem.
7. I put in the phone number of the BBS that I found - Nostromo BBS.
8. Then I actually connected to it! I heard the sounds of a modem for the first time in years!

There is apparently another BBS in the UK that exists and runs on an Amiga that I want to try, but it seems to only be available at night, so I might try that one sometime.

Comments

[iguana]

Ooh, that's awesome! The last time I heard a modem was around 2006 when I moved into my first home. There was some fault on the line that prevented broadband being activated on it, so I was using a 56k dial-up modem for at least a month before it was fixed. I've never dialled straight into a BBS though, rather than a general purpose ISP.

[squirmelia]

I'd even forgotten the how to dial into a BBS bit, but luckily found ZTerm was the answer!

[damerell]

The only time I hear it now is the one at the end of Gloryhammer _Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex_, which means the word "modem" gives me an earworm which sounds nothing like a modem.

[braisedbywolves]

Oh that is pretty awesome - that's definitely a sound that will stick with me, I think I heard it used in an indie song last year.