Talk:Internet in Serbia

Lead section

I want to write a lead section for this, but i don't know what to put in it. RocketMaster (talk) 06:19, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

2024 Question because my memory is failing me

Hello fellow Wikipedians and especially old school nerds from the times pre-Beotel. Internet in Serbia is not entirely accurate...

As far as I can recall - ac.yu had email and telnet (EDIT: I mean "towards" outside of our little embargo jail, not in ac.yu network only).. and I think that was pre-Dayton...

If I recall correctly, the whole academic network had _some_ internet access (email, gopher, maybe finger, and definitely telnet services) from the academic network - it all went "outside" through a post office server located in the town of "Mali Zvornik." I recall this because my late friend who shall remain unnamed - I will just drop his two aliases: TodorP and KillerLoop - gained root access to the server in Mali Zvornik Post Office, which had a "direct" link to the internet - I think through Greece, if memory serves. We, err I mean he, created a callback script we could initiate - so he, not me, would get a - you guessed it - a callback from the server so he wouldn't get an insane phone bill, and we were surfing the web in full glory of 2400 Baud through Lynx...

Later - possibly after Dayton but I really can't recall - we, err I mean he, figured another way - using JUPAK as his personal dial-in line available 24/7. The whole university network, or at least most of the servers, were connected to JUPAK, and by gaining JUPAK credentials from several organizations/companies which basically never used it, we had "dedicated" dial-in lines from where we could initiate sessions on servers such as fon.fon.bg.ac.yu, galeb.rcub.bg.ac.yu, and of course our love - afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu.

Anyhow, since only gopher, finger, email (POP3/SMTP), and telnet (maybe I'm missing something, but that's the gist of it) were available, the point is that when it came to accessing the internet, HTTP and FTP were strictly prohibited because the whole network was 256 kbps (again, if memory serves - which it doesn't, or else I wouldn't be asking someone in the know to remind me...). I am writing a kind of semi-memoirs, and in a section dedicated to my late friend, I want to talk about those times...

How we...he accessed the internet besides exploiting server(s) at Mali Zvornik:

1. Obtain an account on a large foreign BBS which had internet access.

2. Connect to said BBS through, say, fon.fon.bg.ac.yu, to which we connected through JUPAK (fon.fon had only two dial-in phone lines, and pretty early, a limit of 1 or 2 hours per session was introduced). It wasn't rare to call the number for days before getting some time to check your mail, etc.

3. Since the foreign BBS, which I can't recall the name of, allowed both surfing through Lynx and FTP service, surf and more importantly, download warez to said BBS.

4. Either initiate transfer directly to our machines via a script that simply sent the archive via Z-modem protocol,

or if it was really big or a bunch of stuff,

He would go to FON University on specific days when he knew it was possible to get some time in the "computer classroom" unsupervised.

The process looked something like this:

1. After downloading stuff and accumulating enough "warez" to warrant a rare visit to the University, run a prepared script beforehand, which would UUENCODE all the archives of files we wanted on the aforementioned BBS, which would split the text into chunks of 256 kb, which was the limit for email attachments (IIRC, it's entirely possible that the limit was 128 kb).

2. The script would then send them via mail to a bogus student account created thanks to having root access to fon.fon.bg.ac.yu (so-called "FTP by Mail" technique :P).

3. Once the email arrives, a script would trigger, which would extract all attachments and UUDECODE them into original archives, and erase relevant logs.

4. Visit the "computer classroom" at FON University during a time slot when HE knew there'd be enough time unsupervised, so it was possible to pull out a screwdriver, plug in an HDD or two, and copy all the stuff to his HDDs...

5. ????

6. Profit

BTW, can anyone remember what machines were running galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu and afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu (IIRC afrodita was an AlphaServer, I can recall VMS/UNIX but as I said, my memory is failing me...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers! Speaker for the Dead 19:23, 20 May 2024 (UTC)