Bo Holt wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

I have always said I was born 10-15 years too late. I'm 45 and wish I
had been old enough to catch that wave and work in an environment like that... when the industry was filled with real computer people and not
so mainstream. Good times!

It was pretty much what you'd imagine it was. I was on the other coast (north-east US) working for a networking company. We played games during
lunch and took packet captures of game play, just to test devices. (This
was back when Novell servers were still popular. We found that some games, like Doom, caused broadcast storms that would cause devices to reboot.)

Of course, camping had its problems... one guy was the target of a camper
so often that he found out who it was, went over to his lab where he was playing, and literally cut his ethernet cable, just to make him stop. It worked, but only long enough for that guy to replace the cable. lol


... A squeegee by any other name wouldn't sound as funny
___ MultiMail/Linux v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Northern Lights BBS (2:250/19)

Re: Re: Large Computer/Tech H
By: Timex to Bo Holt on Wed Nov 11 2026 03:05 am

Bo Holt wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

I have always said I was born 10-15 years too late. I'm 45 and wish I had been old enough to catch that wave and work in an environment like that... when the industry was filled with real computer people and not so mainstream. Good times!

It was pretty much what you'd imagine it was. I was on the other coast (north-east US) working for a networking company. We played games during lunch and took packet captures of game play, just to test devices. (This was back when Novell servers were still popular. We found that some games, like Doom, caused broadcast storms that would cause devices to reboot.)

Of course, camping had its problems... one guy was the target of a camper so often that he found out who it was, went over to his lab where he was playing, and literally cut his ethernet cable, just to make him stop. It worked, but only long enough for that guy to replace the cable. lol

... A squeegee by any other name wouldn't sound as funny
___ MultiMail/Linux v0.52

Doom was notorious for ruining an IPX network. Happened at my University a bit when we played Doom on occasion in the Computer lab. Would cause other machines to crash. I think they banned it? Can't remember but it was taken off.
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Win32
* Origin: MS & RD BBS bbsweb.mozysswamp.org (3:633/384)

Re: Re: Large Computer/Tech H
By: Dennis Katsonis to Timex on Wed Nov 11 2026 23:32:50

Doom was notorious for ruining an IPX network. Happened at my University a bit when we played Doom on occasion in the Computer lab. Would cause other machines to crash. I think they banned it?

It was DOOMed to fail. Imagine what Quake would've done.
--- SBBSecho 3.38-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (1:124/5016)

Timex wrote to Bo Holt <=-

It was pretty much what you'd imagine it was. I was on the other coast (north-east US) working for a networking company. We played games
during lunch and took packet captures of game play, just to test
devices. (This was back when Novell servers were still popular. We
found that some games, like Doom, caused broadcast storms that would
cause devices to reboot.)

I was a Novell admin at the time, remember going to the user group
meetings at their San Jose campus. I was amazed - a full cafeteria,
hair salon, day care, dry cleaning and more onsite, a reflecting pool,
koi pond, grassy areas, and 5 or 6 buildings.

Novell came and went, and 15 years later I went to work for a large
internet auction company. (3 guesses). I started working in their San
Jose office and had the weirdest sense of Deja Vu. Turned out it was
the same office.

One job earlier, I worked for a tech company with a horrible network
admin. We had all shared ethernet segments with an ethernet switch
sharing segments. Cat 5 cabling, cat 5 jacks, but the wiring closet
wired all of the ports with cross-connect wire like you'd use for
voice pairs, so every port was wired and only capable of 10 mbps.

He wired the IT user space into the server subnet, so when we played
DOOM after 5pm, the servers went offline.

Of course, camping had its problems... one guy was the target of a
camper so often that he found out who it was, went over to his lab
where he was playing, and literally cut his ethernet cable, just to
make him stop. It worked, but only long enough for that guy to replace the cable. lol

... A squeegee by any other name wouldn't sound as funny
___ MultiMail/Linux v0.52

--- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Northern Lights BBS (2:250/19)

... BIRDS AREN'T REAL
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Dennis Katsonis wrote to Timex <=-

Doom was notorious for ruining an IPX network. Happened at my
University a bit when we played Doom on occasion in the Computer lab. Would cause other machines to crash. I think they banned it? Can't remember but it was taken off.

Co-operative DOOM at high difficulty, 6 player, running over IPX in the
office, in 1994 or so. We placed a 6 person conference call for voice
comms. I still haven't matched that experience online.


... BIRDS AREN'T REAL
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Kurt Weiske wrote to Dennis Katsonis <=-

@MSGID: <6AF4B157.1037.fidoclassicc@bbs.mozysswamp.org>
@REPLY: <6AF46072.1034.fidoclassicc@bbs.mozysswamp.org>

Dennis Katsonis wrote to Timex <=-

Doom was notorious for ruining an IPX network. Happened at my
University a bit when we played Doom on occasion in the Computer lab. Would cause other machines to crash. I think they banned it? Can't remember but it was taken off.

Co-operative DOOM at high difficulty, 6 player, running over IPX in
the
office, in 1994 or so. We placed a 6 person conference call for voice
comms. I still haven't matched that experience online.

Six player? I though Doom originally supported a maximum of four. Maybe you were using a different port or something that enabled it?

I played Doom with friends over IPX network in the 2000s. I had some old computers and network cards, and would like them up, load the IPX, LSL drivers and get them going.


--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
* Origin: MS & RD BBS bbsweb.mozysswamp.org (3:633/384)

It was pretty much what you'd imagine it was. I was on the other coast (north-east US) working for a networking company. We played games during lunch and took packet captures of game play, just to test devices. (This was back when Novell servers were still popular. We found that some games, like Doom, caused broadcast storms that would cause devices to reboot.)

Of course, camping had its problems... one guy was the target of a camper so often that he found out who it was, went over to his lab where he was playing, and literally cut his ethernet cable, just to make him stop. It worked, but only long enough for that guy to replace the cable. lol

The most fun job I had was when I managed the Sciences Computing Center at Auburn University at Montgomery. Part of my responsibilities included two computer labs. During breaks and down time we'd play LAN games sometimes. The whole job was fun. Biggest career mistake I ever made was leaving that job. It was the last time I truly LOVED my job, and that was back in late 2007 when I left. Been a long time. Hindsight!

... I will not squeak chalk. (with appropriate squeaks)

--- Renegade v1.44/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (1:129/305)

Co-operative DOOM at high difficulty, 6 player, running over IPX in the
office, in 1994 or so. We placed a 6 person conference call for voice
comms. I still haven't matched that experience online.

Six player? I thought it could only do four! How did you do that?

I was 13 in Summer 1994 and stayed up all NIGHT playing deathmatch Doom
over the modem with friends. Later in high school, we got a hub and played it that way way... after we used up all our gas money was out for the night LOL

... Forget patience! I'm gonna kill something...

--- Renegade v1.44/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (1:129/305)