Saturday, March 21, 2009

The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 2/2)

(Continued from The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 1/2) )


...this kaand brought us and our LAN to national publicity for the first time ever.

The RaviRaj kaand [More popularly referred to as the DPS MMS case outside Kgp]. Kgp became notoriously famous overnight as a giant Hub of unlimited porn. It was an extremely embarrassing situation for every Kgpian. Most of them were at their homes when this news broke out. Everyone was asked by some parent or a nosy aunt or a distant friend, "Raviraj tera dost tha kya ??"

After this huge turmoil, when KGPians returned to college in January, explicit notices were put up everywhere and for a couple of days, DC++ was off too. Even uttering the word 'porn' was serious sacrilege. There was a rumor that someone somewhere is monitoring your computer. It was during this period that vast amounts of 'resources' were destroyed and people had turned into puritans, temporarily of course.

Then after a few days, no one knows how or from where, a term was coined, a term that would become as popular in the KGP lingo as ‘Bhaat’, 'peace' or even 'makhana'. This was the term 'Bhajan'. Slowly with time, people started sharing more bhajans on DC and soon life was happy as ever for the KGPian. This was the time when SERVER™, mkd, Nukem and MrMast ruled the Kingdom of LAN.

Later in this semester came along another craze. Google started Gmail. Gmail was then on a purely invitational basis and it was a privilege to have a Gmail account. It was the first e-mail service to offer 1GB of storage (to store all the junk fwds in the world).


The Google Age:
(2005-2006)

As soon as people returned from the summers they were introduced to Gtalk which eventually changed the way KGPians chatted with each other. Gtalk was small, fast and people could use it as a phone too. Yahoo messenger was becoming a pain with every passing day. I remember I read a status message on a friend's YM, "Yahoo is History.. My Gtalk ID is ***"

Soon Gtalk became the norm. People started blogging quite often. All the hidden poets and journalists started off with a simple blog.

Soon Orkut and Blogger were integrated with the gmail account and the Kgpian had one password for all.

Nukem, Frosty, Nefilim, nullchar and ReligiousMonk ruled the Kingdom..


The New Age:
(2006-07)

KGP's LAN had evolved at a tremendous pace and had reached saturation. Soon the LAN became bigger and better. DC++ had taught people to share more, so much so, that people had bought more hard disks to share stuff on LAN. There was a race to share more stuff on LAN. For the first time the total size shared stuff on DC++ had became more than 1 TB in Spring 2005.Today it has around 15-20 TB of stuff at any point of time.

Yahoo had INFACT become History.

-- Funda by Anish Thanatil on his blog. I take the baton from here.

The Current Age
(2007 - Present day)

The evolution has continued to the present day, and faster than ever. Very soon, people started bringing over external hard disks to increase their share size, which resulted in some of them sharing over 1 TB individually (Yo garrett !!) A minimum sharesize of 8 GB was fixed, and DC++ saw over 50 TB being shared for the first time in Spring 2008, during the inaugral IPL session. The min.sharesize went from 8 GB to 16 GB, to 24 GB as of now. The average total share is around 60-70 TB nowadays, and over 97 TB has been touched, during the last India/NZ T-20 series. DC++ pundits expect to cross the magic figure of 100 TB during the oncoming IPL season.
 ]-[ELLFRAGGER, Garrett, ak_rulz and THE_DON are emperors of the LAN. DC++ also got its first ever female "VIP" recently.

LAN has started showing new colours, with useful stuff like eBooks, video lectures, good documentaries, funda files etc. So now we have LAN for the froost, LAN for the maggu, LAN for the nerd, LAN for the geek, LAN for the dude, and for pretty much everyone there is... If it exists, it's there on DC++.

Streaming TV from the common room is quite popular nowadays, with everyone enjoying the broadcast in their rooms. Even during key cricket matches, the common rooms can be seen empty except for the occasional fachcha waiting for his lappy to arrive. The number of TV series available and watched has exploded as well, which now include, besides Friends; How I Met Your Mother, Roadies, Prison break, The Big Bang Theory, Boston Legal, Coupling, Heroes, 24, Two-and-half Men, House, 8-Simple-Ways... etc. to name a few. Animés, and other cartoon series (I have surely managed to offend some people by comparing Animes to cartoons) are largely popular as well, with Naruto and Dragonball Z being the favorites, though I wonder why. A HUGE number of movies, from Mackenna's Gold to Mithun's Gunda, are available and watched with fervour.

A very recent development would be the new campus "radio", kNUTS, started by a handful of enthusiasts, which is streamed using an internal proxy, and slowly gaining listnership.

CS still remains the most popular timepass (Again, some people may be offended by me calling it a timepass), while AOE, NFS and FIFA are popular as well. Gaming freaks have come up with their own battle grounds by forming Cyber Leagues to find out the most HuHaa player of all.

Blackberries, iPhones, iPods have begun showing up (and disappearing as well)!!

Orkut looks ready to give way to facebook as the ultimate social networking website. Yahoo is completely out of the picture now, with most fests and societies switching over to Google Groups. Blogging is the rage, with more and more Kgpians joining the Blogosphere every day. Even fests and societies are realizing the importance of Blogs and consequently, of Bloggers, with some of them outsourcing the Chronicler's job to makeshift "Official" bloggers. Some students even maintain 2 or more blogs, and some go in for niche subjects like litt, tech, quizzing, art etc. Microblogging is also catching up, though most people wouldn't know what I'm talking about unless I actually mention twitter.

And how can I close on DC++ without mentioning the part everyone loves to hate, the MainChat. It is used as a platform to express opinions and vent frustaapa, while maintaining anonimity under nicks like toofan and jaanam_samjha_karo. I would have loved mentioning some of the topics discussed, but this is a family blog afterall... :)

The response to my previous entry has been overwhelming, and I've been flooded with "eagerly awaiting the next post..." messages, which goes on to show the kind-of "sento" people have for their beloved LAN. Recent rumours about the insti "taking control" of the LAN have especially heightened the sentiment. One only needs to read the History of Kgp's LAN once, all that it has went through in so few years, yet only growing stronger, to realize that it has become something more than just a network, something bigger than all of us, cause afterall, HiT Hi FiT Hai!! For us, it is as much of a "symbol" of the insti, as the insti tower or its Halls, the difference being that these remain static don't grow with time. We shall come and go, and LAN will continue to evolve and influence the lives of whole generations of Kgpians.

Yo Kgp... Yo LAN!!!

If you liked the posts, please don't forget to leave a comment. Kgpians could, as well, discuss the post on Mainchat... :)

Peace...

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

A well written record of the growth of kgp's lan.
Life wouldn't be the same without it..
Someone pls do a survey about how much time the average kgpian spends on dc++ searching for arbit stuff...

Phoenix said...

"If it exists, it's there on DC++."

this blog represents a big chunk of kgp life....

Aditya Mani Jha said...

The magic melting pot, the genie of all genies..No matter how big they are... they bow down to the LAN's might... everyone wants a chunk of it... whether it is Satyajit Chhetri(quizmaster extraordinaire) or Rimi Chatterjee(remember the author who conducted the SF creative writing workshop? )

This is quite some tribute to one of the quintessential aspects life in the quaint village that is Kgp.

Prateep Misra said...

This is indeed a very interesting post - especially for a person like me who was in his 3rd year, 2nd sem exactly 20 years back. We are from the pre STD booth days - the only way you could call home was from the phone at the insti security gate. Social Networking for us was the bhaat sessions at the hall canteens. Good stuff - Shreyas ( and Ashish)!

Anonymous said...

Totally rocking...
I could associate myself with the time that I was in campus...And how a girls comp was identified from the IP (SN hall) or the absence of bhajan movies ...if the ip belonged to SAM hall :-)

kiff said...

great post indeed shrey . !! keep it up ... enjoyable for passouts as well as for current students .. !!

Anonymous said...

Ah, that's quite a recent post ;)

Anonymous said...

u r right dood.. kgp's lan rox like hell... i even enjoy bragging about it with my frnds back home. it's one of the best parts of life at kgp. it's always been thr for u. u are sad and emotional, download songs. happy and want to spend time with frnds, an unseen movie is always available. serves every purpose and emotion of a kgpian. yooo DC++

Anonymous said...

after passing from kgp, the one thing which i miss most in life is hit hi fit hai .... thr were times when i actively considered taking up a room sumwhr in azad and not leaving for the rest of my life :D :D

meeta said...

gone thru ur blog
"evolution of KGP's LAN"
congrats
very well xpressed

Anonymous said...

awesome ra.. i loved this post...!!!

shadowsapphire said...

This was one amazingly awesome post ... and hopefully it will help non kgp-ians to understand teh importance of LAN in the life of an average kgpian

Anish said...

Hi Shrey,

Thanks for continuing the story of KGP's LAN. I too was interested to know how far it has reached.

Its a good post. Just one thing. Can you please correct my name in both places in your post. Its Anish Thanatil. not Ashish Thanatil.

Cheers
Anish Thanatil (Kadir Bhai)
(2007 ECE PH)

gtb said...

great jo man.............without dc++ a kgpian would starve......just like a fish out of water

Subhamoy said...

Great job dude...u made history look so much more attractive...I remember we coined our own name for DC too...Dream Club! It truly was and is stuff dreams are "made" of! ;)
Cheers...Yo Kgp...Yo DC++!

sharan said...

ur blog was an eye-opener for me!!!...the value of Kgp lan in a kgpian's heart goes skywards in the summer hols

sharan said...

this article was an eye-opener for me...even sweet home feels like a desert in the hols without Kgp Lan

Anonymous said...

I really loved your blog .It was fabulous and informative. Waiting for your next blog.

ma`-geois said...

DC++ will rule till the day is dark and night is bright.
\m/

Cyr|x said...

Good stuff kid...or should I say good stuff Thanatill...!!

Unknown said...

Well this post made me nostalgic...I miss KGP Lan :|
Anyway nice post...Keep it up :)

-Konquerror

braindead said...

I passed out this year itself.. awesome blog man.. i just loved kgp lan, kgp hostel, kgp life as a whole.. i miss kgp man..
ur blog making me miss kgp even more..

braindead said...

BTW.... i mite copy ur blog some time soon... (cant say when as i dnt hv much enthu left afta offc...).. i hope u got no probs wid tht..i wil refer to ur blog no doubt..

Anonymous said...

Well written ..
2002 to 2006 - I have seen everything you wrote in your blog.
Just few minor corrections - HCL started distributing P3 comps in 2001 at half of its price as the other half was taken care of by alumni funds. PCS also joined the party in 2002 with P4 comps. Goyal Infotech played an important role also. In those days we first years used to stay in JCB & HJB.

During non-lan days, the favourite past time of students was "Ganja".

I guess when you talked abt CS, CaRnal, Lola, Veeru, Subh, Killme, OHH GOD, DIP, TKB and those great CS tournies deserved mentioning. AOE was always ruled by PAPI, GB, SUSU.

Indeed students will come and go but KGP and everything inside it will remain forever like a magic tree trancing everyone.

In my time, I could peacefully roam around on my bike or go out to Chedis anytime in night. Heard things are no more same there. Shame it is to bind brilliances and creativities under hard and fast rules.

Anonymous said...

A small insight ...

PPL always felt extremely happy when they got their desired things in DC++. But none of them bothered to know how those things came to DC++. How we slogged out asses, searched like a dog over internet and downloaded them through torrents, Kaaza, Limeware etc and most of the time busted our comps and CGPA.

PPL feel nostalgic abt lan because some of us screwed their CGPA and almost the career to bring in stuffs to enrich and fulfill the existence of LAN in KGP.

ShreyGoyal.com said...

@braindead

Sure man, you can copy all you like, though I'd appreciate if you link the original post as well....

Vishal Gupta said...

Hey dude
This was one hell of a blog
loved it
one of the best things ever
keep it up yaar
ulti

Unknown said...

Just awesom nd accurate description !!

Dipanjan said...

there was initial phase of direct connection....then there was the age of proxy.....the after Kaand there was linited internet connectivity. We were like hungry dogs seraching for any possible working proxy for surfing net...... aah!! those wonderfull days....RP DTM (2002-2006)

Nukem said...

Aah...nostalgia
Those were the days of Mutter on 10.108.5.5 then 10.108.3.3 afaik

IITB lan is nowhere as fun as kgp's
Noone even uses the mainchat here...only leeching

I wonder if the old 10...202/203 proxys still work :P

Anonymous said...

A very nice post. Sometime back my colleague from other college gave me a Asterisk series and it was surprising to see that the same was in DC++ in the year 2003. The origin was LLR Hall. :)

Anonymous said...

Great !!!!.....
WE use to call DC++ as a "Bhagwan".
Although Kgp Days are over now ..DC++ will remain in memories for life long :) ...Hit Hi Fit Hai !!

Shantanu said...

Thanks a lot , after reading ur post I went back to my insti days, two most valuable years of my life.Thanks a lot again.................
Shantanu(2004-2006,JCB Room C-224)

]-[ELLFRAGGER said...

hmmm you forgot to mention Iluvatar and zizou, without them 100TB would not have been possible. we had grand plans, but few took form. I had pressed to increase the share size and DC++ had crossed 107TB when i was there.
you also forgot to mention mithuntnt, VanishingNerd & SkullDugger.

Also the Mutter Forum !

Anonymous said...

hey!what happened to 'MUTTER'.Is it still active?

Subrat said...

Well documented and brilliantly narrated. Brings back so many memories.

Yashwanth said...

@]-[ELLFRAGGER/[NpoWeR]

Please do post a follow-up post; history from 2007 is not well drafted.. hu else can do that better than you people :)

Anonymous said...

During my time in early 80s - the word to describe porn was "pondy". There was one senior perpetual student from wealthy family who brought 8 mm projector and a whole bunch of 8 mm films which were screened in every hall's double rooms.

LAN and its sharing - needless to say - did not exist then.

Pundan Singh said...

It was an amazing read...i could relate to the sentiments of each and every word. Superbly crafted for non-kgpian as well to understand the beings and belongings of the crowd at kgp.
Pundan Singh
2006-08/Aero
MS Hall

JohnyDas said...

We call it second Google

vipul said...

well written post ... I could easily connect to iit lan life (04-08 era) .. though i am not from kgp but bombay ..

sai said...

i would like to read many more of such historys than a textbook of histroy...............

sai said...

well as of now i am much more cared for one such dc++ in my hostel room at amrita college......

Anonymous said...

Docus, e-books & even lectures from MIT's OCW were available in DC.. But the best was Admin Radio.. his collection of Jagjit singh's ghazals.. awesome.. One user from SN also had a good collection of songs.. forgot the nick..
Learnt that too many restrictions these days in Kgp.. I wonder how the F junta accepted these restrictions.. Kgp always prided itself for its 'free spirit'.. guess this new Diro is a 'control freak'..

CyberCoolie

Rajesh P Barnwal said...

Gr8 story of evolution of a community network and its users, hope time will show much more unimagined colors of KGP LAN in near future and may be DC++ and Facebook era will be only a talk of past...

Unknown said...

Being a 1 st Year M.Tech student i didn't knew the history behind the LAN in the IIT kgp .Before coming here i did had a few friends doing B.Tech here telling me about what is DC++ while i used to listen to them dumbstruck but now i also can make some one feel dumbstruck by telling him stories of dc

Anonymous said...

well before the era of LAN came...there was the era of CIC in 2000 to 2001 end. and it was diff fun.like a cafe.machines running on UNIX.u cud visit at anytime of day or night.guys used to spend nights on them with open pondies and lonng chat or mail sessions.u wud run to it to book a compu for urself during small breaks between lectures or any thing. keyboards wud be highjacked so wud be eth cables. no yahoo messenger running on them. era of netscape,and free open chat systems.ppl knowing simple UNIX commands were STUDS...so many things..then the buzz started of LAN and we saw wires getting laid.P3 costed 40k we paid 20k..P4 was put in demo at first tech fest.eventually CIC met its death with every machine torned to its last piece.

Anonymous said...

Now the average share is around 90-100 TB and the highest ever I remember is 152 TB... Really gonna miss this thing when I pass out from here...

Anonymous said...

All things aside, the main chat FTW~ \m/.

Unknown said...

refreshed that golden period of my life .. Yo KGP ..

ishan said...

Delhi does not have insti lan hub, every hostel has indiviual lan hub,:(

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled upon this, its awesome specially the part where you tell how the term "bhajan" originated !
I am in IIT delhi currently and having seen the insti lan at iitb and you mentioning it here , delhi surely sucks.
Good article man !

vamsi said...

To all those great admins and huha users of KGP LAN.
Now(Autumn 2011) the Hub (Hit Hi Fit Hai) has been enhanced with a few more features , and the present sharesize is almost 150 TB avg ,with some peaks like 220TB reached.The present Gods of DC++ are abu, [5.0_Sinister],Shubhendu_A_D,etc adding lots of new stuff daily.
the MUTTER forum which was talked about was closed maybe in 2009 but was re-opened with coding by [hjpotter92] and Brick introducing it as "BHAAT ONLINE"
Mainchat is still existant and relieving the trollers. and yeah spamming still continues ;).
The Hub admin is KGBRULES,the predecessors being yeban and [NPower].


The gaming community formed as a group and goes by the name KCL- Kharagpur Cyber League organizing gaming tourneys during Springfest and Kshitij.

hjpotter92 said...

Hey Shrey(and Anish),

Nicely written. Some time you guys had in your era. These days, DC++ is going to the leechers again.

All those 'info' about insti monitoring the LAN activity etc. are still going on.

6th February, 2012 -> http://i.imgur.com/LnzmC.jpg

The minimum share has now been raised to 32 GiB, and will be 40 GiB from next semester.

It'd have been great to have met you people. :) Your legend continues. New machine has been purchased ^_^ (Faster processing).

I had no idea how the mutter boards were maintained, but I've hosted phpBB based boards on the machine now. The response isn't what I expected to be(from the currently existing random placed posts of HiT Hi FiT Hai).

Once again, :respect: to all of you guys(/girls?). Oh! One last thing, LAN have been upgraded to 1Gbps connections, so speeds like 60-70 MiBps are common. :D

-hjpotter92
Currently, 2nd year in 5 year M.Sc. course.
(I think my last comment wasn't submitted because of time negotiation)

feby said...

===================================
[FEBY]@DC++
IITKGP (2004 - 2009)
MODERATOR for 3 years and core member for KCL
===================================

Really miss DC, especially when I format my computer. I feel these days, even starring at the main chat was so much fun. It has been over 2 years I left KGP, still in a process of getting over it but yet to be fully successfull. Really feel lucky to be a part of that age that saw the evolution. I joined KGP with 80 GB HDD and ended with a 2.5 TB one. Along which I witnessed LAN min sharesize to increase from 5 GB to 25 GB while the total sharesize zoomed from 4-5 TB(s) to an amazing 150TB plus sometimes.
Cheers to HIT HI FIT HAIN.

Barun Saha said...

A well written and interesting anecdote!

Geetanjali Yadav said...

Loved it!!!
Yo Kgp!! :)