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Comment by ex-aws-dude | Hacker News Reader

For "single-line" ones did you have to stay connected to the server while browsing?

Or would your PC just download a local copy?

Other than the few boards that supported downloading "packets" of message board data ("QWK packets") you were connected to the remote board the whole time. I got started at 1,200 baud (approx 120 characters / second), and moved up to 9,600 and eventually 28,800 baud at the end. At those speeds you're not downloading much very quickly. You're basically interacting with a TUI-based application as a very slow serial dumb terminal.

Interesting, and was there any sort of time limit or measures to avoid one person tying up the line for too long?

Yes. You had time quotas, typically.

Downloading files might also be limited by an upload/download ratio restriction, too.

A friend of mine wrote an external program for a particular BBS (what were colloquially known as "door" programs-- software adjunct to the BBS that remote callers could interact with) that allowed you to "bank" your quota time.

Time banks were fairly common. For those with slower modems, it was sometimes the only way you would be able to download an entire program. File downloads were not always resumable back then, depending on the transfer protocols supported by your terminal software and/or the BBS.

Zmodem and resumable transfers was so cool.

Heh - QWK was such a god send for those of us paying long distance charges to access boards. I think I used 'Bluemail' ? 'Bluereader' ? and really liked it.

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