We brought back the internet's first search engine

Рет қаралды 38,041

13 күн бұрын

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...

Пікірлер: 220

@theserialport 10 күн бұрын

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 8 күн бұрын

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

@ZacharyClaretScott 6 күн бұрын

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

@-_._._- 5 күн бұрын

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

@sonicSnap 5 күн бұрын

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

@FLECOM 2 күн бұрын

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_ 11 күн бұрын

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

@GeekIWG 11 күн бұрын

"I use Archie BTW." 😂

@digitaleswerken 11 күн бұрын

yay -S archie

@bcredeur97 10 күн бұрын

LOL

@rockpie 9 күн бұрын

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

@Dumb_Killjoy 9 күн бұрын

@@rockpieRIP Neofetch

@Space_Reptile 11 күн бұрын

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 11 күн бұрын

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

@krozareq 11 күн бұрын

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

@NickAc 11 күн бұрын

I haven't seen anything mentioned regarding that

@jirehla-ab1671 11 күн бұрын

is it possible to implement sftp support for archie?

@krozareq 10 күн бұрын

@@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.

@inrit 11 күн бұрын

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.

@Zizzily 12 күн бұрын

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.

@krazownik3139 11 күн бұрын

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 11 күн бұрын

Decommissioned in 2023 aswell!

@SomeMorganSomewhere 10 күн бұрын

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 10 күн бұрын

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 6 күн бұрын

@@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 10 күн бұрын

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.

@Zoeylindaringo 11 күн бұрын

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

@VauxhaIIOpel 11 күн бұрын

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?

@rwdplz1 10 күн бұрын

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 8 күн бұрын

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

@juanstdio 11 күн бұрын

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!!

@Frebergguru 11 күн бұрын

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

@rdmclark 11 күн бұрын

Would be fun to spin up more archie servers

@oldgrizzlygamer1669 11 күн бұрын

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

@bounceysteve 11 күн бұрын

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

@oscarcharliezulu 11 күн бұрын

Yeah let’s get onto this!

@Alexvideosama 11 күн бұрын

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

@kborak 11 күн бұрын

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 10 күн бұрын

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

@cezarywieczorkowski5642 10 күн бұрын

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.

@NCommander 11 күн бұрын

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 11 күн бұрын

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

@renerpho 9 күн бұрын

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

@kostis2849 7 күн бұрын

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

@davidew98 11 күн бұрын

please put on internet archive!

@clamhammer2463 8 күн бұрын

Or torrent it

@johhnyknoxville3948 4 күн бұрын

@@clamhammer2463 internet archive automatically creates a torrent of the file

@urufusan 11 күн бұрын

Is the source code available?

@lukasmuller4820 8 күн бұрын

Check the pinned comment :)

@joeschneider1994 5 күн бұрын

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

@MyAmazingUsername 11 күн бұрын

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

@ultraswank 11 күн бұрын

Amazing work! We salute you!

@Daniel15au 11 күн бұрын

What an amazing video. Really fantastic work.

@sardaukar99 11 күн бұрын

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

@mrsna 9 күн бұрын

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

@goo3r 11 күн бұрын

This is so great. Great work!

@jts64083 6 күн бұрын

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Amazing work.

@alexiekola 11 күн бұрын

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

@MitchellWilsonII 11 күн бұрын

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!

@christopherbartleson8918 10 күн бұрын

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

@realsharpninja 5 күн бұрын

Absolutely fantastic job, guys!

@defaultroute 11 күн бұрын

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.

@stavoxnetworks9757 6 күн бұрын

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

@Badutspringer 11 күн бұрын

'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!

@MatteoFogli-is-pecus 6 күн бұрын

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

@georgegrubbs2966 10 күн бұрын

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

@TeslaTales59 11 күн бұрын

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

@yeeterextra6831 11 күн бұрын

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

@seekingagreatperhaps6391 10 күн бұрын

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.

@RacerX- 11 күн бұрын

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

@ronsmith4325 11 күн бұрын

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

@markmonroe7330 11 күн бұрын

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

@OneOfThePetes 11 күн бұрын

Awesome work!

@alexitanguay 11 күн бұрын

incredible work!

@jomoho3919 7 күн бұрын

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

@KrishnaDraws 11 күн бұрын

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

@JK-mo2ov 11 күн бұрын

Incredible work

@nono1271 11 күн бұрын

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

@whophd 10 күн бұрын

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).

@c.n.crowther438 10 күн бұрын

This is mad interesting. thanks for sharing.

@koysdo 10 күн бұрын

amazeballs… love the VFS implementation

@Kwpolska 6 күн бұрын

An amazing effort.

@apl175 10 күн бұрын

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.

@TSteffi 5 күн бұрын

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.

@bigMax1337 11 күн бұрын

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

@dzheliezniak 9 күн бұрын

I like the editing.

@Bluebed 11 күн бұрын

This is so amazing!

@scooter4196 11 күн бұрын

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

@CoffeeOnRails 11 күн бұрын

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.

@supersat 11 күн бұрын

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

@srobak 9 күн бұрын

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

@frederickontour1478 4 күн бұрын

Sick goodjob!

@maxvideodrome4215 11 күн бұрын

Veronica next?

@hg-sx5nk 11 күн бұрын

Yes, please!

@LuneLovehearn 6 күн бұрын

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.

@enricoligia9450 5 күн бұрын

Complimenti!

@bentyler 11 күн бұрын

Would it be possible to get a copy of Archie?

@PhaizKannon 23 сағат бұрын

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

@MrDeekaph 9 күн бұрын

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

@ziran80 11 күн бұрын

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

@Juttutin 11 күн бұрын

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_ 10 күн бұрын

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

@LarenOz 10 күн бұрын

I noticed that too!!

@drewmitchell9554 Күн бұрын

@@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.

@HansdeBruin 4 күн бұрын

Wauw, thanks a lot for this

@breezie1337 10 күн бұрын

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

@der.Schtefan 5 күн бұрын

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

@Scriven42 7 күн бұрын

Archie was _AWESOME_. So were Veronica and Jughead.

@Drkmirror 7 күн бұрын

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

@m4rt_ 11 күн бұрын

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 10 күн бұрын

🇦🇽 😎✌️

@dylanwinn3 11 күн бұрын

please upload the archie source code to the internet archive

@drewpaschal9294 11 күн бұрын

Very cool. You could do gopher and WAIS next.

@glynnetolar4423 11 күн бұрын

And Veronica too? Yes, that existed.

@philippegeneva1 10 күн бұрын

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

@gdp3rd 8 күн бұрын

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

@SeverityOne 10 күн бұрын

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.

@szymontoda3155 11 күн бұрын

Poland moment 🎉

@andresbravo2003 5 күн бұрын

This brings it back to the modern age.

@fendant123 10 күн бұрын

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

@veryrandom08 10 күн бұрын

Amazing

@win7best 11 күн бұрын

Cant wait to try to host my own archie server

@AK-vx4dy 11 күн бұрын

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 ;)

@bichela 6 күн бұрын

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

@paullee107 Күн бұрын

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

@RealEngineer 10 күн бұрын

What a great adventure🎉

@themaestro7922 5 күн бұрын

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

@AviDrissman 10 күн бұрын

Straight to the Computer History Museum.

@bichela 6 күн бұрын

I also loved webcrawler and altavista

@alextirrellRI 10 күн бұрын

Would be cool if you can get more than 4 FTP servers indexed (is there a way people can help?) This seems like it would be a really good way to find things from the depths of the internet if it can crawl what FTP servers are left.

@klausschmidt982 10 күн бұрын

Just a question: have you guys are been working on this video for over three years at this point? Because the Wikipedia page mentions the legacy deployment of Archie at the Warsaw university since January 2021 and I assume it was you guys who added that. Anyways, I have big respect for your dedication to preserve computing history.

@breadmoth6443 11 күн бұрын

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 11 күн бұрын

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 11 күн бұрын

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

@jfbeam 11 күн бұрын

@@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 11 күн бұрын

@@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.

@DonaldTubbs 9 күн бұрын

Onward to Veronica and Gopher!

@fus132 11 күн бұрын

So the 3.5 beta was the final version then, with no full release as I understand it?

@Daniel15au 11 күн бұрын

My interpretation is that they found both a beta 3.5 build (around 8:06) and the final 3.5 build (around 9:00) in separate archives.

@fus132 11 күн бұрын

@@Daniel15au I think that's it, just noticed that on the 9:05 mark readme says "Release of Archie" so the beta was just a bonus.

@bunkermatty 11 күн бұрын

Will you make the source public?

@EnigPartyhaus 9 күн бұрын

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

@curtismenzies428 11 күн бұрын

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.

@paulwratt 11 күн бұрын

awesome

@lachlanlau 11 күн бұрын

Not smart enough to know what the computer magic you are doing but i love that people are archiving the magic of the old internet. not having been there I only dream of how wonderful it might have been..