I’ve been wanting to get back into old computing again (back when it was exciting, for me).
I was wondering - is there any sort of network where us nerds can connect (all I can think of is gopher, and maybe the archive, that work on old pc’s).
I’d imagine I’d have to set something up in my network to only allow certain sites through to that PC so I don’t get hacked (if running win98 on actual hardware etc).
Yes I know, I can use a VM. But I enjoy original hardware too.
Checkout sdf.org there’s some good aspects of that sorta community there, they even sort of support dial up (I couldn’t find a working number though and it wasn’t worth paying the crazy prices for a proper landline)
There’s also some kinda clunky projects like wrp and txtdot that can enable old browsers (plus FrogFind) but yeah, you’ll need to be careful about your network/firewall setup.
They also are part of/ have gopher network. Gopher is still a thing if you want to use it
I was going to say SDF as well.
Want to log into a TOPS-20 system or a PDP-11? Well, you can. Poke around, make some C programs. I haven’t mucked around with anything all that much but they have a 100% real deal old school nerd society going there.
Who’s ever heard of that, though? /s
I use protoweb.org on my Win98 machine all the time. It has access to the Internet Archive, as well as restored sites, and even an old YouTube clone that can play videos on 98 machines. It has a proxy that you can setup. It is fun playing RuneScape Classic on there as well. Also HomestarRunner
This sounds great!
Glad you like it! Seems like the perfect solution to your problem. Really gives new life to an old 95/98 machine again, even if it has a bunch of programs on it already
Plenty of BBSs around: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
Or for an old school web experience there is neocities: https://neocities.org/
You could check with Jill Bryant, she has 100s of old (still being used) hardware boxes, so she’d probably know good communities to join.
https://tuxdigital.com/people/jill-bryant/
Also if you like retro computing, give HaikuOS a try, its a modern version of BeOS from the 90s?
Beyond what has already been mentioned, there’s the gopher protocol for entirely text based sites.
Or its newer, hipper cousin, gemini (no, not that gemini)
Usenet and IRC still exist. There’s probably servers/groups for this kinda thing on the actual old tech. I know there’s at least 1 group of popular youtubers that definitely do things using original hardware. LGR is one of 'em.
http://textfiles.com/ for a lot of old BBS stuff
There’s still BBS’s around, and I think the Amiga has a network that old amigas can connect to to share software and such.
Usenet is having a small revival now that Google got out. The spam is gone.
I don’t have anything specific to share but, you could also checkout IRC and see if there are any retro groups hanging out there. Plenty of servers still active (Snoonet, Libera, etc.), there could be something to fit your use case.
