We brought back the internet's first search engine

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  • Опубліковано 10 тра 2024
  • We continue our quest to find and bring back Archie, the internet's first search engine.
    PART 1: • How the internet becam...
    Visit and search our Archie server: archie.serialport.org
    The original Archie documentation: files.serialport.org/archie/a...
    Want more content like this? Support our mission! Send us a Super Thanks and check out our Patreon + Discord community: / serialport
    Got some retro gear you want to donate? Get in touch with us at serialport.org.
    Our second channel: ‪@TheParallelPort‬
    Huge thanks to:
    Kinissue for the incredible "The Realization"
    Watch: • Kinissue - The Realiza...
    Listen: open.spotify.com/intl-fr/albu...
    Above music provided by Lofi Girl.
    References:
    Emtage, Alan. (2024). Interview conducted by Serial Port.
    Landweber, L. H. & ISOC. Archie Servers Map. web.archive.org/web/199904270...
    Friedlander, David & NASA/GSFC. (1996). Photo of Sun tape.
    Smith, R. J. & Gibbs, M. (1993). Navigating the Internet. Sams.
    NapoliRoma (2011). Sun SPARCstation 20 workstation, with plenty of stickers. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
  • Наука та технологія

КОМЕНТАРІ • 259

  • @theserialport
    @theserialport  Місяць тому +138

    The Archie 3.5 source code and binaries can be accessed at files.serialport.org/archie/archie-3.5-beta/. Thank you everyone for your patience while we got that sorted out. Please feel free to distribute and modify.. we can't wait to see what the community comes up with!

    • @sonicSnap
      @sonicSnap Місяць тому +9

      no internet archive download? i appreciate the source code but i'd prefer multiple sources of download for ultimate archival

    • @ZacharyClaretScott
      @ZacharyClaretScott 29 днів тому +6

      I think internet archive and a github link would be a great idea

    • @-_._._-
      @-_._._- 29 днів тому

      Github would be amazing, could lead to the addition of new stuff like sftp support via community contributions

    • @sonicSnap
      @sonicSnap 29 днів тому

      @@ZacharyClaretScott github too, you're right! i'd absolutely love to see some modern forks of this with sftp

    • @FLECOM
      @FLECOM 26 днів тому +2

      thank you for both finding and sharing this! I have a bunch of FTP archives I've saved over the years, a while back was thinking of putting up an FTP server with them and having an Archie front end again would be fantastic since I actually recall using Archie a couple times back in the day...

  • @TAK-YON_
    @TAK-YON_ Місяць тому +596

    even in the 1990s people couldn't resist letting us know they're an archuser

    • @GeekIWG
      @GeekIWG Місяць тому +65

      "I use Archie BTW." 😂

    • @digitaleswerken
      @digitaleswerken Місяць тому +14

      yay -S archie

    • @bcredeur97
      @bcredeur97 Місяць тому +1

      LOL

    • @rockpie
      @rockpie Місяць тому +7

      neofetch when someone runs it on arch(ie): how the hell-

    • @Dumb_Killjoy
      @Dumb_Killjoy Місяць тому +3

      ​@@rockpieRIP Neofetch

  • @krazownik3139
    @krazownik3139 Місяць тому +143

    As a Pole I am not at all surprised that you found a copy of archie exactly here. I worked for a local government so I can guarantee that government offices (including educational institutions) here very often rely on a truly ancient software. Even during my work I was destroying old floppies containing sensitive data (EU regulations) and I stumbled upon many 5.25" floppies including one brand new sealed pack.

    • @pawepiat6170
      @pawepiat6170 Місяць тому +11

      Decommissioned in 2023 aswell!

    • @SomeMorganSomewhere
      @SomeMorganSomewhere Місяць тому +15

      Undoubtedly there's some of that in the bowels of the former monopoly telco here too, I recall being at one of their sites in the 2010's and seeing old Sun workstations in the back room still powered on and doing *something*

    • @Reichstaubenminister
      @Reichstaubenminister Місяць тому +15

      As a German, I was not even a little surprised that they still had the files. Eastern Europe is known to have an incredibly strong sense for preservation (and piracy).

    • @DanielixKlimax
      @DanielixKlimax 29 днів тому +8

      @@Reichstaubenminister Just little clarification, Poland like Czech Republic is in Central Europe. (Sidenote: I wonder how many files in my archives are last copies in existence... that reminds me, I should finally sort out Simtel. Several mirrors were a mess so many files are misplaced)

  • @LarenOz
    @LarenOz Місяць тому +47

    As an archivist this is a great demonstration of how easily digital history can be lost. Well done for the hard work of bringing it back.

  • @Space_Reptile
    @Space_Reptile Місяць тому +291

    I hope you put those files you got for archie also on the Internet archive, it would be a shame to lose it again in the future

    • @iamwisdomsky
      @iamwisdomsky Місяць тому +35

      right? would be good it it's uploaded on every popular public git hosting platforms.

    • @krozareq
      @krozareq Місяць тому +10

      No doubt. And builds for modern Linux systems as well as with MinGW.

    • @NickAc
      @NickAc Місяць тому +2

      I haven't seen anything mentioned regarding that

    • @jirehla-ab1671
      @jirehla-ab1671 Місяць тому +4

      is it possible to implement sftp support for archie?

    • @krozareq
      @krozareq Місяць тому +5

      @@jirehla-ab1671 I don't see why not. The connection and download of the files are handled by the user anyways, so they would provide their own sftp support. It would just need the support for the backend binary that does the scraping and indexing.
      Archie is proprietary anyways. Would be better to just write an open license implementation from scratch with modern security, databasing, dependencies, Arch/OS support, etc.

  • @mysterious_czrs
    @mysterious_czrs Місяць тому +26

    My country never disappoints with keeping old stuff for ages. I was an it admin for a brief period at another university in Poland and they still had (in 2023) some itanium machines in storage just in case.

  • @Zizzily
    @Zizzily Місяць тому +106

    This is really amazing. Glad enough people came together that you were able to find Archie. This channel has gone from really interesting tech retrospectives to actually preserving, and even reviving, some of the ancient Internet and past technologies.

  • @VauxhaIIOpel
    @VauxhaIIOpel Місяць тому +51

    As a Pole I am _very_ proud that we could help out in restoring a significant piece of history back to working order like this. Great video as always! Do you think that now the source code is available anyone's going to make homebrew updates to archie?

  • @juanstdio
    @juanstdio Місяць тому +54

    This is one of the videos that I truly like.. I was a volunteer of the Argentina's Computer museum ( Museo de informática de la República Argentina) and I truly understand the frustation and challenges to get back old data and binaries. Nothing more satisfactory to see it working again ... Amazing work folks!!

  • @Leftylove22
    @Leftylove22 Місяць тому +64

    You Guys are shining the light on such interesting history of the early internet! I truly appreciate the work you put into it.

  • @inrit
    @inrit Місяць тому +82

    This kind of Internet history preservation is critical, thank you! And I'm delighted to see the Archie inventor, Alan Emtage, who I didn't know anything about but have enjoyed learning more about.

  • @kborak
    @kborak Місяць тому +33

    So are you going to share the source so this can take off again? This is what some of us have been dying for.

    • @theserialport
      @theserialport  Місяць тому +5

      Yes, they're now available! Check the pinned comment.

  • @Frebergguru
    @Frebergguru Місяць тому +104

    Are you going to release the source and install files for Archie too? 🙂

    • @rdmclark
      @rdmclark Місяць тому +20

      Would be fun to spin up more archie servers

    • @oldgrizzlygamer1669
      @oldgrizzlygamer1669 Місяць тому +8

      Please do this? Would love to spin up a server.

    • @bounceysteve
      @bounceysteve Місяць тому +9

      Can they respond to this? I'd really hope these files don't become lost again.

    • @oscarcharliezulu
      @oscarcharliezulu Місяць тому +3

      Yeah let’s get onto this!

    • @Alexvideosama
      @Alexvideosama Місяць тому +1

      Would be great! Please publish the Source code so everyone can bring back to life Archie!

  • @fendant123
    @fendant123 Місяць тому +4

    Another former Bunyip person here. So great that you got this found and an instance up and running!!

  • @NCommander
    @NCommander Місяць тому +22

    I actually used archie back int he day, its' good to see put back online!
    EDIT: It would be quite nice if we could get those source/binaries archived

    • @codenamemakaveli
      @codenamemakaveli Місяць тому

      A man who likes to make himself hurt. Greetings NCommander!

    • @renerpho
      @renerpho Місяць тому +1

      You're going to like the pinned comment ;-)

    • @kostis2849
      @kostis2849 Місяць тому

      You are not nearly that old. Or are you???

  • @toslaw9615
    @toslaw9615 9 днів тому +1

    Great to know the last copy came from my country. Good luck with your projects, I love your channel!

  • @Zenas521
    @Zenas521 17 днів тому +1

    To understate just what you were able to do, cool, that is swell. I really hope you are able to go forward with the project and Archie becomes more than one server.

  • @rwdplz1
    @rwdplz1 Місяць тому +36

    Can you bring back Google search from 10 years ago? I miss being able to find stuff, now the results go to the highest bidder.

    • @mpf1947
      @mpf1947 Місяць тому +13

      Ten years might not be enough to get functional boolean operators, better make it twenty.

  • @davidew98
    @davidew98 Місяць тому +24

    please put on internet archive!

  • @MitchellWilsonII
    @MitchellWilsonII Місяць тому +4

    Oh wow! This is so nostalgic. I love the work you guys are doing! We need to get the community to spin up some more servers and get them talking!

  • @MyAmazingUsername
    @MyAmazingUsername Місяць тому +4

    This is such a cool piece of digital archaeology! Thanks for doing this! 😊

  • @defaultroute
    @defaultroute Місяць тому +2

    I love this, the feels hit hard. I connected to the Patreon until I couldn’t afford it. But I’m grateful you share your work freely. It really is amazing. Thank you.

  • @seekingagreatperhaps6391
    @seekingagreatperhaps6391 Місяць тому +1

    This is fantastic. I have wanted to do this for years. Only one of these old services is left in the dust -- WAIS. Everything else I remember from my first shell in 1991, is up and running in some form now, thanks to your work on this. Serious hats off.

  • @Badutspringer
    @Badutspringer Місяць тому +1

    'Tis a pleasure to follow you on your quest for this, and taking us along for the ride... Lovely work and lovely production. Thank you for your time. No really!

  • @mrsna
    @mrsna Місяць тому

    Thank you for these high quality videos! Keep on the great work!

  • @alexiekola
    @alexiekola Місяць тому +1

    What a journey!!! keep up the amazing work you guys do.

  • @yeeterextra6831
    @yeeterextra6831 Місяць тому +2

    really cool of y'all bringing back some old internet history

  • @MatteoFogli-is-pecus
    @MatteoFogli-is-pecus 29 днів тому

    Great work and great video! Thank you for preserving this bit of history and documenting it so well

  • @sardaukar99
    @sardaukar99 Місяць тому

    This channel is great. You guys are doing amazing work!

  • @georgegrubbs2966
    @georgegrubbs2966 Місяць тому

    Amazing determination and creative searching!! This software old timer appreciates the effort you guys invested in this project. Good job.

  • @apl175
    @apl175 Місяць тому +2

    In the mid 90s, when I first had the realization that the Internet might be a "big thing" - the three tools I remember were: Archie, Veronica and Gopher. None of them were "insanely great" - so it was inevitable that other tools and search algorithms took their place.

  • @ziran80
    @ziran80 Місяць тому +8

    I think it's great they used the term ANZAC to refer to the AU and NZ domains instead of the boring Oceania

    • @Juttutin
      @Juttutin Місяць тому +4

      It's kinda weird tho, because the NZ to US links were so much bigger and better than the NZ to AU connections. It wasn't too unusual to see pings from NZ to AU sometimes take the scenic route.
      Something to do with support for the US research in Antarctica being provided out of Christchurch, and Victoria university in Wellington doing something collaboratively with some US colleges I think.
      Regardless, the US govt basically provided an undersea cable from NZ to Hawaii, and because of that, data bandwidth to Australia remained a low priority for a long long time.
      This is all according to ancient memories, so possibly quite wrong.

    • @TAK-YON_
      @TAK-YON_ Місяць тому

      Oce encompasses the islands to the north of Australia as well, Anzac is just au/nz

    • @LarenOz
      @LarenOz Місяць тому

      I noticed that too!!

    • @drewmitchell9554
      @drewmitchell9554 25 днів тому

      ​@@Juttutin That tracks. Reuters recently released an investigation where they found the US DoD paid for one third of the cost of an Oman to Australia cable, so they could piggy back on to it for a connection to the naval base at Diego Garcia.

  • @jts64083
    @jts64083 29 днів тому

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Amazing work.

  • @ultraswank
    @ultraswank Місяць тому +2

    Amazing work! We salute you!

  • @christopherbartleson8918
    @christopherbartleson8918 Місяць тому

    Great work fellas!!! I look forward to whatever you put out in the future.

  • @goo3r
    @goo3r Місяць тому

    This is so great. Great work!

  • @maxvideodrome4215
    @maxvideodrome4215 Місяць тому +10

    Veronica next?

    • @hg-sx5nk
      @hg-sx5nk Місяць тому +2

      Yes, please!

  • @Daniel15au
    @Daniel15au Місяць тому

    What an amazing video. Really fantastic work.

  • @jomoho3919
    @jomoho3919 Місяць тому

    Seeing the believed to be lost code found and compiled gave me a special feeling. Thanks for the great work.

  • @RacerX-
    @RacerX- Місяць тому

    Wow that is so amazing. What an awesome thing you have done.

  • @joeschneider1994
    @joeschneider1994 29 днів тому

    Thank you for all your hard work. I miss the old internet and happy to see effort to keep it alive.

  • @urufusan
    @urufusan Місяць тому +26

    Is the source code available?

  • @ronsmith4325
    @ronsmith4325 Місяць тому

    You guys are bringing back childhood memories, one video at a time!

  • @TeslaTales59
    @TeslaTales59 Місяць тому

    Nice work. This is a very cool channel. Brings back lots of memories.

  • @CoffeeOnRails
    @CoffeeOnRails Місяць тому +1

    Not at all surprised that it was an old university back up that had this archived.
    So much weird old software hides in university archives that’s probably lost everywhere else.

  • @JK-mo2ov
    @JK-mo2ov Місяць тому

    Incredible work

  • @markmonroe7330
    @markmonroe7330 Місяць тому

    This is great. Thank you. I’m going to try some search’s tomorrow.

  • @OneOfThePetes
    @OneOfThePetes Місяць тому

    Awesome work!

  • @szymontoda3155
    @szymontoda3155 Місяць тому +5

    Poland moment 🎉

  • @nono1271
    @nono1271 Місяць тому +3

    So when are the release and beta sources going on the Internet Archive?

  • @c.n.crowther438
    @c.n.crowther438 Місяць тому

    This is mad interesting. thanks for sharing.

  • @alexitanguay
    @alexitanguay Місяць тому

    incredible work!

  • @KrishnaDraws
    @KrishnaDraws Місяць тому +1

    I really enjoyed this video. I remember Archie from back in the day...

  • @whophd
    @whophd Місяць тому

    Really well done. I went online when I started university - there must have been a brief period where that was "the way to do it" - and 1996 was still being told about Archie and that it was useful to learn. With a side-helping of disclaimer that the WWW was, obviously, the new hotness and also worth spending time on. Altavista was already a thing, and wasn't the first search engine - but these were "just" for the web. You had to know about the other protocols, FTP particularly, and Archie was a part of that. And in my course you had to learn about TCP and IP of course, while we were still all learning off each other about DNS (it seems, even now).

  • @koysdo
    @koysdo Місяць тому

    amazeballs… love the VFS implementation

  • @supersat
    @supersat Місяць тому +2

    Will archie be archived somewhere so it doesn't get lost again?
    Those CVS directories might be interesting too...

  • @Bluebed
    @Bluebed Місяць тому

    This is so amazing!

  • @MrDeekaph
    @MrDeekaph Місяць тому +1

    Great work guys! It’s amazing to me that it almost disappeared. It’s just a few megs.

  • @bentyler
    @bentyler Місяць тому +5

    Would it be possible to get a copy of Archie?

  • @Kwpolska
    @Kwpolska 29 днів тому

    An amazing effort.

  • @der.Schtefan
    @der.Schtefan 29 днів тому

    I think I just blanked out and had an out of body experience when I saw CuteFTP flashing by

  • @bigMax1337
    @bigMax1337 Місяць тому

    Thank for reviving Internet history, crazy that all this was still around til last year an i never knew about it

  • @paullee107
    @paullee107 25 днів тому +1

    Awesome!! Can I add my FTP server with a HUGE vintage archive??

  • @LuneLovehearn
    @LuneLovehearn 29 днів тому

    I didn't knew about this, but ...
    the preservation and conservation of the old internet is a must, you don't want all the progress to turn into lost media. history must be preserved.

  • @scooter4196
    @scooter4196 Місяць тому

    This is really awesome! Thanks for the content. That pages loads really quick. Are you hosting it locally?

  • @bunkermatty
    @bunkermatty Місяць тому +2

    Will you make the source public?

  • @TSteffi
    @TSteffi 29 днів тому

    This is really awesome.
    It seems like archie would be rather easy to access. I wonder if this could be tied in with the recent developments towards a sort of retro-web. Since the NABU wave hit the scene, there have been great developments towards hooking up 8-bit micros to the internet, especially with the NHACP protocol.
    That already allows retro systems to download files via http, and ftp could probably be implemented as well.
    It would be really awesome to have a search engine that would allow users to easily search for the software they want directly from their NABU or AgonLight or RC2014 running CP/M.

  • @frederickontour1478
    @frederickontour1478 27 днів тому

    Sick goodjob!

  • @m4rt_
    @m4rt_ Місяць тому +2

    12:22 even the creators of Archie didn't know the difference between Scandinavia and the Nordic.
    Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark
    Nordic: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Greenland.

    • @gus473
      @gus473 Місяць тому

      🇦🇽 😎✌️

  • @HansdeBruin
    @HansdeBruin 27 днів тому

    Wauw, thanks a lot for this

  • @PhaizKannon
    @PhaizKannon 24 дні тому

    When I saw the video title I guessed wrong and thought this would be about Gopher.

  • @dzheliezniak
    @dzheliezniak Місяць тому

    I like the editing.

  • @stavoxnetworks9757
    @stavoxnetworks9757 Місяць тому

    Way too cool. I remember Archie well from the 90s.

  • @breezie1337
    @breezie1337 Місяць тому

    Haven't ever heard of Archie but have fond memories of napalm ftp indexer. That one's still around.

  • @HappyQuailsLC
    @HappyQuailsLC 9 днів тому

    I don't remember Archie. I remember guessing at newsgroup subsets and printing massive lists of servers.

  • @srobak
    @srobak Місяць тому

    very cool... thanks for doing this. bringing back the golden age of the internet - one system & protocol at a time :)

  • @nixielee
    @nixielee 14 днів тому

    Good work, can't lose stuff like this to history. It sounds really strange using "we" when it's you doing the work, nothing wrong with "I"

  • @drewpaschal9294
    @drewpaschal9294 Місяць тому +3

    Very cool. You could do gopher and WAIS next.

  • @enricoligia.
    @enricoligia. 29 днів тому

    Complimenti!

  • @andresbravo2003
    @andresbravo2003 29 днів тому

    This brings it back to the modern age.

  • @philippegeneva1
    @philippegeneva1 Місяць тому

    and another ex-bunyiper here, really awesome to see Archive come back to life!

  • @Povilaz
    @Povilaz 14 днів тому

    Very interesting!

  • @Drkmirror
    @Drkmirror Місяць тому

    This is cool, I remember using archie a little but but it was dying off at the time along with Gopher and Veronica.

  • @SeverityOne
    @SeverityOne Місяць тому +1

    Funny. I'm old enough that I should remember Archie, but I don't. Or perhaps I'm so old that I no longer remember it...
    Gopher, yes. I've used that, although I never found it very useful.

  • @diobrando1882
    @diobrando1882 18 днів тому

    Just imagine some prof. dr. hab. inż. preserving a vital piece of internet history simply because he forgot to throw out the old server

  • @themaestro7922
    @themaestro7922 28 днів тому

    Anything that was copyrighted might well be on file at the library of Congress.

  • @chaseiscekcy
    @chaseiscekcy 16 днів тому

    I use ftp all the time to transfer files to my server but I didn’t realize it was common for the average user to use it

  • @bichela
    @bichela 29 днів тому

    I used to use archia quite a lot in the early 90s

  • @breadmoth6443
    @breadmoth6443 Місяць тому +7

    when is the serial port going to do a video on ISDN? I loved the video on T-1, so I am interested how they talk about ISDN , and some of its variants, particularly how similar it is with DSL in some way as you can use the line for voice and data at the same time, as well as you even had an ISDN DSL at one point .... for some reason.

    • @James_Knott
      @James_Knott Місяць тому +1

      Primary rate ISDN uses a T-1 (DS1), using 23 of the 64 Kbit channels for user data (bearer channels) and 1 for the "data" channel, which is the status and control channel. a Basic rate ISDN has 2 64 Kb bearer channels and 1 16 Kb data channel. With both, the channels can be bonded to support a higher data rate. For example I'd often bond both bearer channels on a basic rate ISDN to provide a 128 Kb channel. The bear channels can be used for any type of data, including voice. I have set up some for video conferencing, where 3 basic rate connections were bonded. I have also set up primary rate ISDN to provide some channels for voice to a PBX and the rest for data. ISDN circuits can either be permanently connected or dial up.

    • @jfbeam
      @jfbeam Місяць тому +1

      Yeap. IDSL was ISDN with the signalling removed. (raw 144kbps, no channels) I have boxes of that stuff sitting around. (no DSLAM 'tho)

    • @jfbeam
      @jfbeam Місяць тому +1

      @@James_Knott PRI also had an "NFAS" mode that allowed 24B operations by sharing the D channels from other PRI's. In Kitty Hawk NC we ran "every PRI Sprint/Carolina Telephone could provide" for our pop in some computer store. As I recall, that was 14 PRI's with only 2 D-channels.

    • @James_Knott
      @James_Knott Місяць тому

      @@jfbeam Yep. I remember that too and IIRC, the limit was 7 PRIs for that, though I never worked with that sort of configuration. I do recall having to fix someone else's work, as they had the D channel on the wrong channel. There is a lot that even techs working with the stuff aren't aware of, for example the facilities signalling bit, which provided some info end to end. I also had to explain to another tech the difference between AMI & B8ZS and the reason for B8ZS.

  • @gdp3rd
    @gdp3rd Місяць тому

    I remember using Anarchie (later Interarchy) on an almost daily basis.

  • @win7best
    @win7best Місяць тому

    Cant wait to try to host my own archie server

  • @RealEngineer
    @RealEngineer Місяць тому

    What a great adventure🎉

  • @curtismenzies428
    @curtismenzies428 Місяць тому +1

    How long was it from start to finish to get everything running in the terminal? I think what amazes me was how similar some of the config was for a modern setup.

  • @DonaldTubbs
    @DonaldTubbs Місяць тому

    Onward to Veronica and Gopher!

  • @AviDrissman
    @AviDrissman Місяць тому

    Straight to the Computer History Museum.

  • @EnigPartyhaus
    @EnigPartyhaus Місяць тому +2

    Trying to deprecate FTP is one of the dumbest moves ever thought possible seeing as FTP clients are still the fastest method for drop-and-forget file adding for servers

    • @nickwallette6201
      @nickwallette6201 22 дні тому

      That intro montage was insane to me. What kind of idiot would deprecate and remove FTP support?? It's a solved problem, a useful protocol, and there's nothing else quite like it.

  • @bichela
    @bichela 29 днів тому

    I also loved webcrawler and altavista

  • @veryrandom08
    @veryrandom08 Місяць тому

    Amazing

  • @AK-vx4dy
    @AK-vx4dy Місяць тому

    I used once about 1990 on university mainframe green terminal, probably some DEC...in my country Poland :)
    More fun, i was awarded about 1994 with book "Internet for Dummies", where WWW was on last page as a new curiosity and whole book was about archie and other old tools ;)

  • @kxdsh
    @kxdsh 19 днів тому

    I just had a feeling the Polish Uni would still have it since i saw they hosted a server. We're just like that yk