[LINK] RFC: The Web in Oz, 1992-94

Ash Nallawalla ash at melbpc.org.au
Thu Dec 15 22:45:51 AEDT 2011


I don't think there was a "Web" in Australia in 1992 - it was more like
disconnected computers that might talk to one another via dial-up. In 1989,
Unisys operated mlacus.oz.au and syacus.oz.au and we exchanged email and
Usenet with bruce.oz (Monash) and Macquarie four times a day. 

In April 1994, I launched the Melb PC Internet Service from my living room
and a single line into a PC that ran the Waffle BBS. It was
testbox.apana.org.au.
http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/9406/9406article2.htm 

Testbox was later replaced by a Unix machine in the bedroom of Andrew
Herbert, the then president of APANA and a PhD student. Melb PC chipped in
half the cost of an ISDN connection and my then employer Hayes donated
around 12 modems.

Somewhere in there should be merged the history of APANA, which inspired
several hobby sites to become major ISPs such as iiNet, Internode, Netspace,
Mira and others.

Ash

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au [mailto:link-
> bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of stephen at melbpc.org.au
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2011 21:23
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] RFC: The Web in Oz, 1992-94
> 
> Roger, Scott and Steven write,
> 
> > Was 0.8 one of the rapid patch releases that addressed a flaw picked
> > up as/once the previous version was released into the wild? I seem to
> > recall one or two, particularly for the Windows version of mosaic.
> > IIRC there was a broken Windows TCP/IP stack around at about that time
> 
> 
> Yes, Monash EdFac offered a few Victorian teachers (maybe half a dozen)
> home-dial-up VAX accounts, net-enabled, which was fine for DOS machines
> after one got ports and modem commands sorted, around 1992. Then, early
> in 1993, MelbPC offered Mosaic v0.8 as a bulletin board download, which to
> my great surprize, when installed, promptly resolved the Mosaic page!
> via the VAX account. As you say S & S, V0.8 was rapidly updated several
times
> until V1.0 arrived shortly (3 months) after Win V3.1 was released IIRC.
Haha,
> at that time there was nothing much to see on the web, so I much preferred
> dial-up bulletin boards, and so set two up at the school, one as a
computer
> club activity, the other, Fidonet, on our ICT network.
> 
> Though, i do recall logging into Monash the LONG way, telnetting around
the
> world, rather than the six kilometers from home to Monash. In doing that,
at
> that time, commands took 16 secs per round trip. Anyway hahaha, enough of
> my tripping down internet's memory lane, fun though it may be.
> 
> 
> >
> > On 14/12/2011, at 17:32, Scott Howard <scott at doc.net.au> wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:36 PM, Roger Clarke
> <Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au>wrote:
> > >
> > >> But the (unreliable!) document at
> > >> ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Windows/Archive/MosaicHistory.html
> > >> doesn't even mention v0.8.
> > >>
> > >
> > > Those numbers/dates appear to apply only to the Windows version.
> > >
> > >
> > >> mid-1993?
> > >>
> > >
> > > http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0159.html
> shows
> that
> > > Mosaic 0.8 was released on/around Feb 14, 1993 - which appears to be
> all of
> > > 3 days after 0.7 was released...  (And I thought the new Firefox
> release
> > > schedule was short!)
> > >
> > >  Scott
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Link mailing list
> > > Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> > > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Link mailing list
> > Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> 
> 
> Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
> 
> 
> 
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