🚀 go-pugleaf

Forwarded from comp.internet.net-happenings:

> From: owner-wwwedu@ready.cpb.org [mailto:owner-wwwedu@ready.cpb.org] On
> Behalf Of Andy Carvin
> Sent: Thursday, October 01, 1998 2:40 PM
> To: wwwedu discussion
> Subject: move over web, here's hotline! (fwd)
> 
>>From Wired News, reposted with permission. May be reposted only with
> copyright notice attached. -ac
> 
> Copyright � 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights
> reserved.
> 
> Hotline Reinvents the BBS by Leander Kahney
> http://www.hotlinesw.com/
> 
> 8:52�a.m.��1.Oct.98.PDT
> A new PC version of an obscure Mac program, one
> that turns any networked computer into an
> Internet server and downloads files and data at
> unprecedented speeds, is reviving the pre-Web
> concept of the bulletin-board system.
> 
> Hotline delivers news, live chat, and a speedy
> file-transfer system that promises to lessen
> download times between 30 and 40 percent.
> 
> While the program's Windows version is still in
> testing, the new port already accounts for between
> 60 and 70 percent of the downloads from the
> company's Web site.
> 
> "The idea of turning every connected workstation
> into a ubiquitous member of a distributed data
> warehouse is not new, but though it has been
> described in books of fiction, it has never been
> done on [this] scale," said Paul Vixie, chairman of
> the Internet Software Consortium and the creator
> of BIND, one of the protocols underlying today's Internet.
> 
> The product is generating considerable buzz, and
> spawning a rash of communities trading in
> material as diverse as porn, Christian Youth
> literature, MP3 music files, games, wrestling info,
> and investor tips.
> 
> "It's all word of mouth," said Jason Roks,
> Hotline's vice president of business development.
> "We haven't done any advertising. When the
> [final] Windows version is released, it'll really blow
> the roof off."
> 
> Hotline turns any Interent-connected PC into a
> server, which can be online around the clock or
> part time. Users identify a live server by clicking a
> host's name or number. The software connects to
> the machine's Internet protocol (IP) address via a
> local Internet service provider.
> 
> Servers drop on and off the Net constantly, so
> Hotline Communications, the software's
> developer, monitors the active machines with
> tracking servers, or "trackers," each of which
> follows 100 to 400 servers.
> 
> Busy trackers can monitor between 400 and 600
> servers, and log up to 100,000 users a day, the
> company said. The majority of trackers are
> private, but public trackers are run by a variety of
> people -- some private, some public, and some "underground".
> 
> Hotline Software runs a public tracker with "legit"
> servers, but most of the other public trackers are
> run by schools, or individuals at schools, ISPs,
> magazines, and Mac sites such as Mac Addict and
> Mac OS Rumors).
> 
> One tracker site, Troutmask, lists 57 trackers
> operating out of 32 IP addresses; another is at
> Hotline Tracker-Tracker, and lists 29 trackers at
> 20 IP addresses.
> 
> Roks said that his company's software can
> download multimedia files 30 to 40 percent faster
> than using FTP, and a big download can be
> interrupted and resumed where the user left off.
> 
> Hotline is well-suited for the distribution of music
> and software. It has fewer drawbacks than
> existing distribution options, including File
> Transfer Protocol, Internet Relay Chat, Usenet,
> and the Web. The TCP/IP-based system
> demands no networking knowledge, and the
> number of packets sent can be dynamically
> adjusted to fill the available bandwidth at any
> given time.
> 
> That's a downloaders dream -- and the system
> has spawned a cult following among software
> pirates, pornographers, and members of the
> hacker underground.
> 
> Users can find the latest software, games, music,
> movies, porn, hacks, and cracks. The latest John
> Woo movie can be downloaded in its entirety, as
> can clips, drawings, and other "secret" materials
> from the forthcoming Star Wars movie. The
> Beastie Boys' new album was available 10 days
> before its official release.
> 
> Chris Alan, president of ElectriCiti Inc., a San
> Diego-based ISP that has run a BBS system
> called Dynamo for the past six years, said that
> Hotline is easier to set up than most FTP server
> software on the Mac or PC, "but many people
> would want to move on pretty quickly to
> something a bit more sophisticated."
> 
> "I'm sure it will continue to grow in popularity; it
> does a few things well -- chat board, messaging,
> and file upload and download," Alan said. "But
> right now it's a pretty simplistic utility. The barrier
> to entry has been lowered a bit by this product,
> but I don't think it's revolutionary."
> 
> The concept of one-person operations built on file
> downloads, evokes the age of the bulletin-board
> systems of old -- private dial-up communities
> that predated the Web and are still used by porn
> traders and nonprofits.
> 
> One 19-year-old pre-med student at an
> East-coast university, who identifies himself only
> as "Prospero," runs Caliban's Dungeon -- a
> Hotline server specializing in utilities and games.
> 
> Prospero's server sits on his dorm's T1 line, and
> in an 18-hour period last week, he logged 1,000
> connections and 137 downloads. Downloading
> requires a password, which users learn through a
> single click-through banner on his Web page. He
> makes 10 cents a click, or about $10 a day.
> 
> "I do it mostly for the prestige and to have a
> community thing going on," he said. "It's
> prestigious, to have people on and say you1ve
> got a kick-ass server. The money is pocket
> change, money on the side."
> 
> Because many Hotline networks are private, the
> company can only guess how many users there
> are. Hotline has logged more than two million
> downloads from its Web site and distributed
> about 1 million installers on demo CDs, said Roks.
> 
> The company acknowledges the software piracy
> problem and has set up a server, called Room
> 22, to provide publishers with legal information,
> case studies, and forms. The service will go live in
> the next couple of weeks.
> 
> "Our responsibility as a company is to educate
> people, not enforce copyright laws," Roks said.
> "We don't want to be the police of the Internet."
> 
> Copyright � 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights
> reserved.
> 
> Andy Carvin
> WWWEDU Coordinator and Moderator
> andy@gsn.org
> 


--
####    |\^/|     Colin R. Leech     ag414 or crleech@freenet.carleton.ca
#### _|\|   |/|_  Civil engineer by training, transport planner by choice.
#### >         <  Opinions are my own. You may consider them shareware.
####  >_./|\._<   "If you can't return a favour, pass it on." - A.L. Brown