Larry's modem history

April 21, 1995

I have been playing with computers and modems since the late 70s. The first modem I used was an acoustic coupler. When I moved to Staten Island, NY in 1982, from Brooklyn, I officially entered the modem community. With my Vic 20 and super fast 300 baud modem I joined SISTER BBS and entered the world of TBBS. After upgrading to a C=64 and 1200 BPS I found HAL, in April of 1985. It was great, 2 floppy drives and a single message area with a 100 message capacity. My electronic friends and I discussed what a TBBS system of mine could look like. Radio Shack had a special on the TRS80 Model IV (close-out, that is) and TBBS needed a TRS80 Model III. After a few days familiarizing myself with NEWDOS/80, The Grand Central TBBS was born. On August 30, 1985 at 00:30 the modem picked up its first call and the rest is history. The Grand Central went through many hardware and software upgrades and was finally retired on August 30, 1993. I found Panix in July of 1993 and realized it was time to move on. Larry's Home replaced The Grand Central with a much smaller and more personal layout and nothing in comparison. Single line BBS systems have become like the old corner grocery. Most of the time people go to the big Super Centers and Malls to do their shopping.

Other than hosting my own system since 1985, DDIAL was also a big part of my modem activities. CoLa #074 was my handle on ENCHAT, The Great Beyond, Out of the Blue and IsleChat back in the late 80s. You can also find me on ENTchat, the Internet DDIAL.

October 7, 1995

Much has happened since I started Web Surfing in April. In May, I finally decided my 286/12 with an 80 Meg hard drive had served me well and I ordered a Pentium 100 with a 1280 from Quantex. It arrived on June 5th. In August, I gave up being a BBS SysOp after 10 years. In October, I upgraded to SLIP and Netscape. So now I spend my time updating Web pages instead of BBS menus.

January 10, 1997

What a fiasco! Upgrading to Windows 95 was NOT easy! Especially when the hardware IRQs are incorrect! What a week this has been. But I'm finally using PPP and Windows 95.

July 30, 1997

My neice's computer crashed this week and she insisted I load AOL on my computer so she could check her email. I cried UNCLE and joined! LarryGC was taken, so on AOL I'm LarryGC12.

August 24, 1997

Just got back from spending the weekend in London, Ontario during our last vacation and was told it was time to get ICQ. You can visit my ICQ Personal Web Communication Center. Even if you don't have ICQ, you can send me an ICQ Message that I'll receive while online.

March 20, 1998

It's been a while, but I finally had some time to update my history. I have been able to resist the urge to fancy up my pages. I still edit my pages in PICO and manually code the html source. My Quantum 1.2 crashed for the 2nd time in less than a year, so I'm back down to my original 1.2 and have ordered a 233 with a 4.3. Sure has become expensive to be on the net! I hope you've enjoyed my bit of modem history. The saga continues... visit again soon.

September 6, 2000

My how time flies! I just downloaded Arachnophilia 4.0 and am using it to update this page. Still using my P233 that I bought shortly after my last update in 1998, now running W98SE which I call W98CE, the Crash Edition, since I have been having more crashes and reboots than fun. So it's time to consider upgrading again. I can't decide between a Gateway 1000 or a Dell. 1 Gig clock speed already? How FAST can they go? I was, and probably will be again, playing with the stock market. That's how I was going to upgrade my computer. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out too well. I now own a Sony FD83 digital camera, so making .jpg's is easy. Time is the hard part! I have pictures from our family vacation in Florida, last July, that the family is still waiting to see, and also pictures from Bluegrass Festivals I've attended this year. All I need is time to fix up the .jpgs, ftp them to Webscope, and then create some pages and links for viewing. My Hobbies page needs to be updated also. I have searched eBay, but can't seem to find any auctions to buy me some more time and energy. So until then, enjoy my pages, check back every so often, and I'll update this page as I add some picture links.

January 11, 2001

Happy New Year! On December 15 I went to Gateway and ordered the Gateway Select 1200 AMD, 256 RAM, 19" VX920 monitor, the works. 0% for 12 months, and "guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas." Christmas came and went. January 4th my order showed "shipping 01/03/01, 2-3 business days." YAY! January 8 shows arrival at UPS on Staten Island. 2 boxes arrived that evening. No MONITOR! Took a ride to UPS, we were told the monitor must have been put on an overflow truck, a "split truck". We should get it shortly. The web page said Delivery January 9th... the next morning, I checked the web page and see a note "Missing/Illegible Label. Will be Returned to Sender". Went back to UPS. There's nothing they can do. Called Gateway, was told they would have to send out a different monitor. I told them if I don't get it by Friday, and a refund of my shipping/handling, I would return the computer. Today is Thursday, the monitor still hasn't shipped! Will make my decision tomorrow...

January 26, 2001

I waited. Gateway had some problems finding a replacement monitor. On Saturday, January 13, I was told there were 223 other orders on hold waiting for this monitor. I was indeed going to get this monitor "overnight" via FedEx, just as soon as they could find one for me. They did, on January 16. It shipped "overnight" on the 17th and I did get it, first attempt, on the 18th. YAY. I sent an email to UPS via their web page, got my first reply on the 12th. Theresa was very nice in email, after a few emails back and forth, she promised on the 17th at 1426 that someone would contact me by the end of business on the 18th. The 18th came and went. I had my monitor. I sent another email and didn't hear back. Finally UPS called me this Monday, the 22nd, they apologized and gave good lip service. We'll use FedEx when we can if the cost difference isn't too much. Gateway refunded my shipping and handling as promised. Even got a nice "price drop" on their 30 day price protection policy. This is my first update using the new computer. It's FAST! It's NICE! I experienced my first few crashes already. Damn KERNEL! And so it goes ....

February 02, 2001 - February 03, 2001

It's Groundhog Day! The crashes are getting worse. I ran Norton Diagnostics and it says the memory module is defective! My keyboard space bar makes noise too! So I call Gateway, they don't trust Norton Diagnostics. I checked everything they wanted me to, and they are sending me out a new memory module. I called back later that night to complain about my keyboard and Amanda very rudely told me that they won't send me a new keyboard. I got online to Gateway Chat with a Tech , he couldn't help me, he said he would refer me to someone. 02/03/01: I got an email, explained the situation, and then decided to just call the 8008462301 customer service number again. I was transfered to Tech Support, and after explaining the events of this week, a replacement keyboard is now on it's way too.

I decided to run the Norton Security Check and I didn't like the results at all! Went right out to Best Buy and bought Black Ice Defender. Now I'm all ready for a cable modem!

February 28, 2001

What a month! I received the replacement memory module but the Norton Diagnostics fails the same way! I was told to go into MSCONFIG and turn off everything that's not needed. The memory tests pass. I tried to isolate the problem to the program causing it, but was unable. The keyboard replacement arrived the following day with NO paperwork to return the old one! I used the memory return labels on the keyboard box and stuffed the old memory module in with it and sent them back. After spending some time onl the phone with Tech Support, this computer still has problems. How could I expect any less? It's pretty much down to just rebooting when I connect with Netscape and every so often when I open too many programs at the same time.

March 10, 2001

Well, I did it! I ordered Road Runner. The first time I ran the Bandwidth Speed Test it said my line speed was 4080 Kbps! The best I ever saw with my modem was 45 Kbps. Just now it said 2550, though when I'm running a lot of windows, it can be as low as the 1250 range. Even the slowest response time is more than 27 times faster than my best modem speed! THIS IS FAST! What's next? I guess a hub to connect my old computer and maybe even the one upstairs.

July 4, 2002

Wow, has it been over a year? Let's see... after a few days of thinking about it last March, I bought an SMC7004BR 4 port router/switch for my computers downstairs. Then in September, instead of running 2 50' cables upstairs for the 2 computers, I also bought a Linksys 5 port switch. So now the whole house is wired and online. Last month the hard drive in the P233 upstairs went, so I moved my P233 upstairs and bought a new Compaq Presario 6026CL. It's my first exposure to Windows XP. I think I like Windows ME better. With all the computers online and networked, when you go into Windows Explorer, all the drives wake up! Loads of fun getting IM's from upstairs too.

May 11, 2003

Time sure does fly. The P233 didn't make it. We replaced it with a Custom Build from Comp USA a few months ago. My Compaq Presario monitor was defective. Compaq said my warrantee expired and I had to prove I got this computer last June. I couldn't find the receipt so I went back to Costco to get a copy. They couldn't get me a copy so they offered to take back the computer! I returned it and bought the Compaq Presario S3500CL. It has a 17" flat panel monitor which is nice, but it can't do 1600X1200! I would need a 20" flat panel. Maybe some day.

August 2, 2003

July was an awesome month! I went on 3 camping trips, bought a new Canon A70 and retired my Sony Mavica. No more using floppies as 'film'. I also now have my own domain so it's easier to direct people to my site.

September 19, 2005

Two years later I can say the same thing, July was an Awesome month! I camped from 7/3 through 7/18, straight through.

Wow, has it been that long since I updated this page? So much has happened. My Gateway finally lived out it's short WinME life. I replaced it with an HP Pavilion A844N, so we're all XP now. I also upgraded to Arachnophilia 5.2 It's Java based and a good upgrade.

I also have many pics to get online in my Bluegrass pages, they're the most up to date.

I just recently found this page that creates a States Visit map, wasn't sure where to use it, so I'll put it here along with the update.

These are the States I have ever been in, via car, plane, or other mode of transportation. Illinois and Texas were only Airport visits, O'Hare going to Las Vegas and Dallas-Fort Worth coming home. I flew to the West Coast and rented cars in Cal and Nevada. All the East Coast States I have pretty much driven to and through.

create your own visited states map

Back to Larry's Home or my other Hobbies & Interests