Diversi-Dial
Encyclopedia
Diversi-Dial, or DDial was an online chat
server that was popular during the mid-1980s. It was a specialized type of bulletin board system
that allowed all callers to send lines of text to each other in real-time, operating at 300 baud
. In some ways, it was a sociological forerunner to IRC
, and was a cheap, local alternative to CompuServe
chat, which was expensive and billed by the minute. At its peak, at least 35 major DDial systems existed across the United States
, many of them in large cities. During the evening when telephone rates were low, the biggest DDial systems would link together using Telenet
or PC Pursuit connections, forming regional chat networks.
Diversi-Dial was written by Bill Basham, a computer hobbyist who ran a company known as Diversified Software Research in Farmington Hills
, Michigan
. The software was written while he was a resident of Rockford, Illinois. Bill Basham ran a copy of the system himself in Rockford at the time. Kim Kirkpatrick, "Hubcap" also in Rockford, ran DDial#2 and a lot of early testing was done between Bill and Kim. Later came Rockford #(3or7) with Spender/Megabucks site as well as Dale's site (God). All of Bill's software followed the same naming scheme as "Diversi-[something]".
Customers typically paid the local DDial owner a flat rate of about $5 to $20 per month. Open access to anonymous visitors (called nons, r0s or m0es) was an effective hook to draw in paid registrations. Nons typically had a five-minute connect time limit unless they were "validated" by an assistant sysop
, and were shut out of the system during peak usage hours.
A typical DDial system ran on a small cluster of Apple II
computers, with seven connections per computer. In 1989, a DDial-like clone, Synergy Teleconferencing System
AKA STS
was developed for the IBM PC
, but by this time it was outpaced by alternatives like GEnie
. By the mid-1990s, DDials had been bypassed by the Internet
and IRC, although Chicago
's God's Country, kept an incredibly loyal following between 1985–87 and 1989-1998. Many of its users are still close to this day.
Many DDial users and owners contributed significantly in areas of IT/Software/Podcasting and are considered pioneers of social media.
Many client software programs existed for BBS connections back then, but one in particular for C64 or Commodore64 was optimized just for DDial, call Eagleterm 6a. Written by Jungle Jim (Jj), aka Jim Sanders, and released as freeware and saw widespread use among Ddialers.
EagleTerm6a took full advantage of Commodore 64 pulse dial modem technology, heavily optimized to find the max pulse speed of the user's local phone connection, and rapid fire re-dial back in to beat the other callers when reconnecting, easily beating the newer tone dial modems just coming to market. During peak times, the DDial system was jam packed with callers far exceeding the number of available lines, and a super fast dialer was a plus. Later versions of Eagleterm6a were protected against reverse engineering (not de-compilable using unBlitz.)
One DDial owner went on to become the founder and CEO of Honesty.com, the first web-based third-party Internet application corporation, focused on E-Commerce sites such as Ebay, Amazon.com, and Yahoo! Auctions, by utilizing the knowledge gleaned from having run a social and community based computer system for a decade prior to initial popularity of the Web.
Point Zer0 was the other long-term Chicagoland Ddial, along with Jokertown. Other Chicago-area Ddials of Note included Kaleidoscope, General Modem (DDial #13), Tangled Web, The Bunker (DDial #4) and others. At one period of time, the Chicago area hosted over 10 DDial or clone systems, possibly due to its relative proximity to the Rockford origins of Basham's DD #1.
ENTchat, an Internet-based DDial look-alike, was somewhat active in the mid- to late 1990s but also went offline.
In 2006, The Late Night BBS
went online, utilizing the original DDial software running on an Apple //e, but was accessible from the Internet via telnet
. The system provided an authentic 1980s ddial experience, including the traditional 300 bit/s connection speed. Late Night BBS has since gone offline.
As of 2008, there is only one known DDial in operation. The Savage Frontier, DDial Station #28, has been modified to run under emulation and is therefore Internet accessible. This system served the Philadelphia metropolitan area in the 1980s and 1990s, at times under other names. Today, the system uses the same, authentic DDial software with TASC mods, and can be reached via telnet at thesavagefrontier.com. A DDial-like clone, Digital Dial, also exists and can be reached via telnet at digitaldial.homeunix.com.
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
server that was popular during the mid-1980s. It was a specialized type of bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
that allowed all callers to send lines of text to each other in real-time, operating at 300 baud
Baud
In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a...
. In some ways, it was a sociological forerunner to IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
, and was a cheap, local alternative to CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
chat, which was expensive and billed by the minute. At its peak, at least 35 major DDial systems existed across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, many of them in large cities. During the evening when telephone rates were low, the biggest DDial systems would link together using Telenet
Telenet
Telenet was a commercial packet switched network which went into service in 1974. It was the first packet-switched network service that was available to the general public. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines connecting their computers and local...
or PC Pursuit connections, forming regional chat networks.
Diversi-Dial was written by Bill Basham, a computer hobbyist who ran a company known as Diversified Software Research in Farmington Hills
Farmington Hills, Michigan
Farmington Hills is a community in southeastern Michigan. It is the largest city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Its population was 79,740 at the 2010 census...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The software was written while he was a resident of Rockford, Illinois. Bill Basham ran a copy of the system himself in Rockford at the time. Kim Kirkpatrick, "Hubcap" also in Rockford, ran DDial#2 and a lot of early testing was done between Bill and Kim. Later came Rockford #(3or7) with Spender/Megabucks site as well as Dale's site (God). All of Bill's software followed the same naming scheme as "Diversi-[something]".
Customers typically paid the local DDial owner a flat rate of about $5 to $20 per month. Open access to anonymous visitors (called nons, r0s or m0es) was an effective hook to draw in paid registrations. Nons typically had a five-minute connect time limit unless they were "validated" by an assistant sysop
SysOp
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system or an online service virtual community. It may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services....
, and were shut out of the system during peak usage hours.
A typical DDial system ran on a small cluster of Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computers, with seven connections per computer. In 1989, a DDial-like clone, Synergy Teleconferencing System
Synergy Teleconferencing System
Synergy Teleconferencing System was a PC-based online chat server popular in the 80's and 90s.It arose as a replacement for the outdated Diversi-Dial system . Like DDial, it was a multi-line modem system that originally could handle 8 simultaneous connections...
AKA STS
STS
-Science, medicine, meteorology and technology:*Science and technology studies*Superior temporal sulcus*Socio-technical systems*Severe tropical storm*Scanning tunneling spectroscopy, a spectroscopy technique based on Scanning Tunneling Microscopy...
was developed for the IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
, but by this time it was outpaced by alternatives like GEnie
GEnie
GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
. By the mid-1990s, DDials had been bypassed by the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and IRC, although Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's God's Country, kept an incredibly loyal following between 1985–87 and 1989-1998. Many of its users are still close to this day.
Many DDial users and owners contributed significantly in areas of IT/Software/Podcasting and are considered pioneers of social media.
Many client software programs existed for BBS connections back then, but one in particular for C64 or Commodore64 was optimized just for DDial, call Eagleterm 6a. Written by Jungle Jim (Jj), aka Jim Sanders, and released as freeware and saw widespread use among Ddialers.
EagleTerm6a took full advantage of Commodore 64 pulse dial modem technology, heavily optimized to find the max pulse speed of the user's local phone connection, and rapid fire re-dial back in to beat the other callers when reconnecting, easily beating the newer tone dial modems just coming to market. During peak times, the DDial system was jam packed with callers far exceeding the number of available lines, and a super fast dialer was a plus. Later versions of Eagleterm6a were protected against reverse engineering (not de-compilable using unBlitz.)
One DDial owner went on to become the founder and CEO of Honesty.com, the first web-based third-party Internet application corporation, focused on E-Commerce sites such as Ebay, Amazon.com, and Yahoo! Auctions, by utilizing the knowledge gleaned from having run a social and community based computer system for a decade prior to initial popularity of the Web.
Point Zer0 was the other long-term Chicagoland Ddial, along with Jokertown. Other Chicago-area Ddials of Note included Kaleidoscope, General Modem (DDial #13), Tangled Web, The Bunker (DDial #4) and others. At one period of time, the Chicago area hosted over 10 DDial or clone systems, possibly due to its relative proximity to the Rockford origins of Basham's DD #1.
ENTchat, an Internet-based DDial look-alike, was somewhat active in the mid- to late 1990s but also went offline.
In 2006, The Late Night BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
went online, utilizing the original DDial software running on an Apple //e, but was accessible from the Internet via telnet
TELNET
Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
. The system provided an authentic 1980s ddial experience, including the traditional 300 bit/s connection speed. Late Night BBS has since gone offline.
As of 2008, there is only one known DDial in operation. The Savage Frontier, DDial Station #28, has been modified to run under emulation and is therefore Internet accessible. This system served the Philadelphia metropolitan area in the 1980s and 1990s, at times under other names. Today, the system uses the same, authentic DDial software with TASC mods, and can be reached via telnet at thesavagefrontier.com. A DDial-like clone, Digital Dial, also exists and can be reached via telnet at digitaldial.homeunix.com.