A 1986 bulletin board system has brought the old Web back to life in 2017 It's 2017, but you can still experience the Internet of 1986 thanks to BBS enthusiasts. Today, many can be forgiven for thinking that the digital communications revolution kicked off during the mid-1990s, when there was simply an explosion of media and consumer interest in the World Wide Web. Just a decade earlier, however, the future was now for the hundreds of thousands of users already using home computers to communicate with others over the telephone network. The online culture of the 1980s was defined by the pervasiveness of bulletin board systems (BBS), expensive telephone bills, and the dulcet tones of a 1200 baud connection (or 2400, if you were very lucky). While many Ars readers certainly recall bulletin board systems with pixelated reverence, just as many are likely left scratching their heads in confusion ("what exactly is a BBS, anyway?"). I remember still connecting to a BBS situated in Claremont in Cape Town called iLink. This was around mid-1980's to end of 1980's. Sometimes you were on 300 baud and later on 1200 baud. Install files of course were in kB. You can read more at the article at http://ift.tt/2oPXf8W or you can open your DOS prompt and try starting a telnet session with telnet dura-bbs.net:6359 or there is also a web rendered version at http://ift.tt/2oQKTgJ which will work in a browser.
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