Back in the late 80's, I had a subscription to Prodigy. When it expired, I did some
research and purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software and ran 4 phone
lines into my house.

My wife loved to write in Prodigy's Cross-Stitch echo, so I decided to make my own
Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

I lived in Broward county Florida and found various other dialup systems that were
willing to
carry my feeds. The feed went as far as south Dade county and as far north as Palm
Beach county.

I even included a conference area devoted to Business Advertisers because I found that
I could charge the Businesses to advertise, knowing that their ad would touch 3 nearby
counties.

I also found that I could charge my dial up users and give the paid ones a card that
would give them a discount at any of the paid advertisers that I had on my system. I
called it the HobbyNet Discount Card.

Back then, BBS users expected everything to be free, and it was. But the paid members
got the discount bonus feature with my business advertisers.

That's my trip down memory lane. I'm sure everyone has a great story that you could
share.

Mike Dippel

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS - hobbylinebbs.com (954:895/1)

Re: The Birth of HobbyNet
By: Mike Dippel to All on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:29:58

...purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software

That would be Wildcat.

...I decided to make my own Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

I assume you mean "Prodigy-inspired" since Wildcat didn't support Prodigy's graphic UI, and I doubt IBM or Sears (Prodigy's owners) would approve the use of the name.

I was with Prodigy for awhile, but since I only had a 1200-baud connection, the UE was on the sluggish side, plus AIR, they had a lot nit-picky rules that I didn't care for so I bailed after about three-four months. I did like the look, however. I'd love to have access to that style of graphics for my own.
--- SBBSecho 3.31-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (954:200/53)

Re: The Birth of HobbyNet
By: Mike Dippel to All on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:29 am

Back in the late 80's, I had a subscription to Prodigy. When it expired, I research and purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software and ran 4 p lines into my house.

My wife loved to write in Prodigy's Cross-Stitch echo, so I decided to make Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

I lived in Broward county Florida and found various other dialup systems tha willing to
carry my feeds. The feed went as far as south Dade county and as far north Beach county.

Thanks for sharing. Great story. Wish we could see more traffic in the echoes. But I guess we are all overwhelmed with stuff on the web. I love reading the echoes and usenet. Hate the spammers messed up usenet, but same has happened on the web.
===
Amessyroom
toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (telnet)





...Every cloud has a silver lining. - English
--- SBBSecho 3.33-Linux
* Origin: Too Lazy BBS - toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (954:100/66)

On 1/11/2026 10:28 AM, Amessyroom wrote to Mike Dippel:

Re: The Birth of HobbyNet
By: Mike Dippel to All on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:29 am

Back in the late 80's, I had a subscription to Prodigy. When it expired, I
research and purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software and ran 4 p
lines into my house.

My wife loved to write in Prodigy's Cross-Stitch echo, so I decided to make
Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

I lived in Broward county Florida and found various other dialup systems tha
willing to
carry my feeds. The feed went as far as south Dade county and as far north
Beach county.

Thanks for sharing. Great story. Wish we could see more traffic in the echoes.
But I guess we are all overwhelmed with stuff on the web. I love reading the echoes and UseNet. Hate the spammers messed up UseNet, but same has happened

on

the web.
===
Amessyroom
toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (telnet)

So how did you get your start in BBS'ing?

Mike Dippel

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS - hobbylinebbs.com (954:895/1)

Re: Re: The Birth of HobbyNet
By: Mike Dippel to Amessyroom on Mon Jan 12 2026 06:55 pm

On 1/11/2026 10:28 AM, Amessyroom wrote to Mike Dippel:

Re: The Birth of HobbyNet
By: Mike Dippel to All on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:29 am

Back in the late 80's, I had a subscription to Prodigy. When it expir research and purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software and r lines into my house.

My wife loved to write in Prodigy's Cross-Stitch echo, so I decided to Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

How did I get into BBSing?

Well if I recall, I had a TRS-80 Model III. 1st a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem. Then a direct connect phone line modem, still 300 baud. Got this while in middle school. Took it to college and tried to beileve it was good as the
PCs. To me anyway it was, and all I had.

I eventually got a PC XT and got higher speed modems. I remember calling BBSes during college. I didn't get into the games but enjoyed taking to sysops and
message bases.

About the time I graduated, OS/2 was being pushed and I got interested in it as a computer geek and computer science graduate. I got into Amateur Radio and decided to merge the two and created "The Backdoor BBS" in Morrisville, NC.
I later moved to Cary, NC. Had two lines, one for BBS and other for house use and when I needed to go get files.

I provided amateur radio call sign lookup, os/2 cd roms, and various shareware.

I got in some trouble indirectly with the BBS at work. Don't know if someone was trying to trash me or what; but worked through it. Don't know if I took it down then or a little later when things decilned.

For a year or two,I keep and pubished a list of ISPs and BBSes that had internet in the Research Triangle Area in NC.

I proceeded to concentrate on career, and didn't think about BBSes until I saw some activity in 2024. I downloaded synchronet and have had it up since.

HobbyNet was one of the first FTNs I added and appreciate all your help Mike.

Love reading about your camping, BBS, and music adventures as well as your newer healthnet.
===
Amessyroom
toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (telnet)





..."He who stands for nothing will fall for anything." - Malcolm X
--- SBBSecho 3.33-Linux
* Origin: Too Lazy BBS - toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (954:100/66)

On 1/12/2026 10:03 PM, Amessyroom wrote to Mike Dippel:

How did I get into BBSing?

Well if I recall, I had a TRS-80 Model III. 1st a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem. Then a direct connect phone line modem, still 300 baud. Got this while
in middle school. Took it to college and tried to believe it was good as the PCs. To me anyway it was, and all I had.

My first computer was a Texas Instrument (forgot the model # maybe 99-4a)) and I was
very happy with it. I figured I didn't need a real computer, until I purchased one. I saw
the difference then.

I eventually got a PC XT and got higher speed modems. I remember calling BBSes
during college. I didn't get into the games but enjoyed taking to sysops and message bases.

Compuserve and Prodigy opened you up to the whole world.

About the time I graduated, OS/2 was being pushed and I got interested in it as
a computer geek and computer science graduate. I got into Amateur Radio and decided to merge the two and created "The Backdoor BBS" in Morrisville, NC. I later moved to Cary, NC. Had two lines, one for BBS and other for house use
and when I needed to go get files.

It sounds like were an educated Geek <g>

I provided amateur radio call sign lookup, os/2 cd roms, and various shareware.

I got in some trouble indirectly with the BBS at work. Don't know if someone was trying to trash me or what; but worked through it. Don't know if I took it
down then or a little later when things declined.

For a year or two, I keep and published a list of ISPs and BBSes that had internet in the Research Triangle Area in NC.

I was actually an ISP with my first BBS since callers could use my internet connection
when they dialed in. It was then that I created my ISP Directory at https://isp-list.biz/

I proceeded to concentrate on career, and didn't think about BBSes until I saw
some activity in 2024. I downloaded synchronet and have had it up since.

HobbyNet was one of the first FTNs I added and appreciate all your help Mike.

Love reading about your camping, BBS, and music adventures as well as your newer healthnet.
===
Amessyroom
toolazy.synchro.net:2323 (telnet)

Thanks for being a part of both nets.

Mike Dippel

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS - hobbylinebbs.com (954:895/1)

My first computer was a Texas Instrument (forgot the model # maybe 99-4a)) and

That was my first one also. I never had a modem or coupler to use with it.

I remember spending many hours typing in programs that I found in the TI magazines and books.

Mike P

* SLMR 2.1a * OS/2 2.0: Taking the wind out of Windows.
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: Capitol City Online (954:895/54)