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Newsgroup service for vintage Mac SE?

Posted by: frankc64 on 2024-02-24 02:57:43 I have recently succeeded in connecting my trusty old Mac SE running OS6 to the internet, using a modem connection to a RPi running DreamPi. I also installed a newsgroup client - InterNews - and now I am looking for a newsgroup service I can connect to. Preferably hosting groups about vintage computers 🙂 Does anyone have any suggestions for services that will allow such old software to connect? Best

Posted by: obsolete on 2024-02-24 13:22:18 DreamPi, huh? I had to look that up; pretty cool solution, thanks for the tip. Maybe I won't get rid of my old Global Village modem after all. Unfortunately I'm not into newsgroups, but I know there are others here who are and hopefully will see this thread and give you some help.

Posted by: frankc64 on 2024-02-25 06:40:30 Yeah, DreamPi is a pretty cool solution. It was developed by Kazade for the Sega Dreamcast community, but is in fact a cool general purpose ISP-emulator that you can dial up from any vintage computer with an old Hayes modem. I love the idea of a general-purpose retro-proxy for any old device. DreamPi If you'd like to support my work on the DreamPi software image, donate via Paypal.me ! Thank you! DreamPi is a piece of software ... blog.kazade.co.uk And BTW, I found a list of free newsgroups. But I run into trouble with InterNews. If I try to connect to freenews, there are just too many groups to load for InterNews. Then I connected to news.grc.com which has way fewer groups, but they are tech-related. Even have a retrocomputing group. It loads, but then InterNews crashes due to the lack of a coprocessor in the Mac SE :-(. So I guess InterNews is not going to work at all.

Posted by: robin-fo on 2024-02-25 06:51:09 Does the modem make the funny noises when dialling? If yes, I almost need to have one 😉

Posted by: frankc64 on 2024-02-25 06:59:03 Yes! You get the full experience of dialing up. The DreamPi is just a phone line/ISP emulator. The modem isn't even aware that it is not dialing up on a proper phone line. To make it work I had to install MacPPP and MacTCP. My init string for the modem was ATX0, but I suppose that varies with the model.

Posted by: robin-fo on 2024-02-25 07:17:46 Cool! So bad they‘re out of stock!

Posted by: frankc64 on 2024-02-25 07:57:16 Perhaps for a pre-build one. But its very easy to build your own. The RPi-image can be downloaded, and the Voltage Line Inducer is very simple to put together. Only requires two simple components and 1 (or 2 if you live in Europe) 9V batteries. The hardest bit is to find a compatible USB/phone modem that works with the RPi. I can send a link to the one I bought (good for European use).

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