SerialPort

Multitech ModemRack intro

EARLY ACCESS! How to start an ISP: Episode 3 - The Need For Speed

This one has been in the works for awhile, but we're (almost) ready to release our next episode in the ISP series. The video still needs some finishing touches, and the fully polished version will be on YouTube tomorrow.

MultiTech ModemRack

We were fortunate to receive this MultiTech ModemRack as a donation recently.  It is an aluminum rackmount chassis that can hold 12 modems.  Our unit came with two 28.8K modems, but the modem form factor is pretty common, we found more modems that are on our way to us including a 56k unit.

This will be useful as we soon start trying out a few terminal servers to handle our inbound modem connections!

T1 Smart Jack

We just received an Adtran T-1 SmartJack, this is the card that would be installed at a customer premise for delivering a T-1 circuit.  We're using this as we work on our next chapter of the ISP series where we'll be bringing a T-1 circuit online.

A little update on the RaQ

Earlier this year, we did a 3-part video series where we brought our Cobalt RaQ 3 web server back to life.  That video series is really where our Youtube channel broke out and started to get lots of views and attention.

It has now been 4 months since our RaQ 3 has been online, and it continues to serve web traffic 24x7.  Despite a HUGE initial shockwave of hacking, spamming, and DDoS attacks, we have managed to keep it running and operating well.  In addition to hosting t...

Sparcclassic Online

It has been a busy week wrapping up the final last steps of the Sparcclassic restoration, and bringing it back to life with a directly connected modem for inbound dialing! 

The modem was a bit more frustrating than expected, there were way too many "garbled text" messages we got.  So, looking forward to moving on to terminal servers later for modem testing and retro connections.

We want to make the Sparcclassic usable for shell users, it looks like we'll need to re-in...

EARLY ACCESS: How to start an ISP: Episode 2: Reigniting the SPARC

We're back this week with episode 2 of our new ISP series. We may have left on a cliffhanger in episode 1, but this might be our most in-depth video yet. The SPARCclassic gets a full makeover, and we get one step closer to fulfilling our goal.

EARLY ACCESS: How to start an ISP... like it's 1993!

Catch an early premiere of the first episode in our new series! This will be premiering on YouTube tomorrow night (7/21) at 6pm US eastern / 22:00 UTC, and we'll be on live chat to watch it along with everyone. Hope to see you there!

Youtube Premiere

Our next video, the first episode of the ISP series, we will be launching as a Premiere on Youtube.  This means that our subscribers should see the video advertised in advance, with a countdown.

Once the Premiere starts, we should be able to watch it simultaneously with a live chat.

We're looking forward to trying this out, we hope you can tune in if you're available.

Friday June 21 / 6pm US eastern / 22:00 UTC

SNEAK PEEK! How to start an ISP like it's 1993

Hi everyone! We're back with our next video series where we will be building and running our very own internet service provider... retro style. Our first video will be exploring the history of a typical early 90s ISP, and looking at what it took to start something that had only been done a handful of times. And don't worry, we are still planning our BBS series and have lots of content for it already. That will be coming later down the road!

We'll also get our first look at the hardware ...

RaQ Collection Growing!

Recently someone watched our Cobalt RaQ restoration videos, and decided he was ready to unload his own collection of RaQ servers.  

This person was kind enough to donate 6x RaQ4 servers to us, which seem to be in great shape.  Compared to the RaQ3, the main differences are that the RaQ4 has 1) external SCSI port  2) 2x network interfaces instead of 1, and 3) PCI riser on the motherboard.

We're not sure yet what to do with them, but open to ideas!

W...

Upcoming projects

Hi everyone! The Serial Port had an exciting weekend with the release of our latest YouTube video covering the PIX Firewall and NAT.  We didn't expect NAT to be such a .. controversial topic but we're glad that so many people have watched it so far, and it's been great to see all the different viewpoints and opinions.

Big welcome to our new Patrons who signed up in the last few days!

We wanted to give the community a quick update on what we've been working on. We've been da...

EARLY ACCESS! The PIX Firewall: The Untold Story of how NAT SAVED the Internet

This has been in the works for awhile now, but we're finally ready to release our next video.

We take a look at an internet technology and a revolutionary device that ended up redefining how we access the internet, and whose legacies continue today.

And we hear it first hand. We interview the pioneers that were actually there making it happen, and get a fascinating inside look at this technology that solved a looming crisis.

Sneak peek!

Hey everyone! We wanted to give you a sneak peek of our upcoming video, where we'll be exploring the technology of network address translation (NAT) and the fascinating history of the Cisco PIX.

In the video, we'll have the unique opportunity to speak with the inventor of NAT and gain some valuable insights into its creation and the historical context around its development. Additionally, we'll be sharing the story of the development of the PIX with key takeaways from the original inven...

Behind the scenes: accessing legacy FTP servers

A few weeks ago when we officially unveiled the Cobalt RaQ 3 server being online on The Real Internet, we knew security would be a real concern.  After all, what made the Cobalt servers so useful is that they integrated a full stack of open source software together with a primitive but friendly web UI.  Anyone who has been working in IT can tell you that a legacy server with a bunch of legacy software is a security problem waiting to happen.

So, we deployed the RaQ on a privat...

EARLY ACCESS! AMBRA: The Epic Restoration of the Forgotten Child of IBM

We're back at it with the Ambra T466I/VL. We go from a pile of dusty parts to a functional, restored system -- complete with the original Ambra restore diskettes! We get to check out Windows 3.1 run at a ridiculous resolution, and share our plans for upcoming BBS content, which will include a Serial Port BBS.

Thanks again for your support, and we'll be back very soon with a new video series. This time looking at a game-changing piece of networking gear that helped usher in one of the mo...

RaQ News / Updates

The RaQ server has had a busy week!  After nearly getting hacked and DoS'd off the planet last weekend, a plethora of early Internet fans around the globe have paid their respects in the guestbook.

In the last few days, the RaQ and its hosted demo website have gotten some notable mentions and press coverage on Slashdot, Hackernews, and golem.de (a popular German tech site).

We just noticed a post from Hackaday went out today as well:

2023-04-09 02:13:32 +0000 UTC View Post

RaQ status report

It has been just under a week since our Cobalt RaQ 3 server appliance went live on the Internet! We wanted to post an update just for our Patreon members to give you  all a behind-the-scenes peek into how the RaQ has handled the modern internet.

Once the Part 3 video went live, the RaQ handled the traffic well. The RaQ was never designed for the challenges of the modern internet as the threat landscape was very different in the Y2K days. We opted to employ the protection services o...

Welcome to our Patreon

Welcome to The Serial Port on Patreon!  

24 hours ago, we launched the Cobalt RaQ part 3 video on Youtube and also announced our Patreon/Discord community.  It was tumultous - we got TONS of guestbook entries submitted.  Mostly positive, but some trolls and spammers couldn't resist trying to exploit our guestbook.pl script from the 1990s.

This morning we changed the guestbook to a moderated mode which handled the spam issue.

Here's a current screens...