The first IT works or the history of the sysadmin computer club

This post mentions Windows 98, a Zyxel DSL modem that is configurable via a COM port, IIS running on Windows NT 4.0, as well as many other modern technologies that people used to build a successful IT business in the Russian outback ten years ago, and I participated in all this. The rest is just the story of my first real IT job.

Ten years ago.
The computer was not yet the present obligatory furniture, and the fast Internet, although it existed in theory, was in practice almost unaffordable for the price. Computer clubs bloomed on this basis, they are also gaming halls, they are also centers of cybernetic pleasures of Internet cafes. Rather, they continued to bloom in the provinces, and in megalopolises they were mercilessly crushed by the cheapening of components and, most importantly, by the decrease in the cost of communication.
I have rarely been a visitor to such establishments. The house had its own machine, old, but reliable, and I liked network games a little. Sometimes, of course, they brought in the company of the same sophomore students who rented a basement with computers for the night - and then the beer flowed like a river, shotgun sprinkled with shot, and the corpses of the opponents crawled under their feet. Fun!

Joining the Fourier Series

The other side of this fun I had to learn exactly in 2003. Then I really wanted to change something in my life, and this resulted in the fact that I took the documents from the university, bought a newspaper with ads in the first kiosk, and began to look for more or less “IT” vacancies. One ad interested most of all - a new “Computer Center” opened in the city (in the provinces it is always like that, the pathos of the name never corresponds to the wretchedness of the contents), and a system administrator was required there.

An uncle of strange appearance met me, something I did not immediately like. Well, I think, do not leave immediately, the options of others may not be. Stayed for an interview.
The uncle, who introduced himself as Edward (the name is even stranger than his master) asked me about the hardware stuff of the computers of that time, I was otbryvatsya with varying success. Even with some kind of internal relief, I heard that the interview was inundated - according to Edik (no one had ever called him otherwise) rather weakly, I knew the glands.
I was not very worried about failure, and I was about to leave - but I noticed an open directory with porn movies on one of the monitors and offered to make a barter. Edik, having heard that I have a couple of films he was looking for, approved the exchange, and I went home for the hard drive. Eh, no torrents can replace the pleasant warmth of my first ten-fugitsu ...
After the exchange, Edward invited me to play a quack at the expense of the institution, along with a bald, gangster-looking man who had pulled up by that time, a peasant whose name I don’t remember. Huge CRT monitors, dirty ball mice, the lack of headphones and inconvenient places without partitions didn’t impress me, just like 98 Windows, whose logo lit up recognizably at boot (the year, I remind you, was 2003, and people somehow switched to XP). Following the operating system, some program was loaded that performed the function of a launcher with blocking from freeloaders. Unblocked the whole thing with the admin company.
Having looked at this case, and having gathered all my audacity into a ball, I declared: give me half an hour to sit at one computer, and I will break your defense. If I can handle it, you take me to work, if not, I will pay the time and leave in disgrace.
Edik and the bald owner looked at each other, said “okay”, and sat down at the neighboring computers to play, spying to me from time to time.
When the time was out, and a blocking signal was sent from the admin “console”, I continued to play Starcraft as if nothing had happened. Surprised, Edik lowered himself under the bald gaze of Lysy (he, I suppose, the defense was indestructible, but here some shack of them was “hacked”), and gloomily congratulated me on being hired.
')
Oldfags will surely remember the not so glorious times of the domination of the mastday, and estimate at least a couple of ways to circumvent any “protection”. But the generation who did not deal with the family of 9x, it is worth explaining what I did. The fact is that the outdated 98 even at that time Windows, which in the bydlyatsky clubs were put for mythical reasons, had little need for system resources, had very many, unimaginably many, unrealistically many holes, about which my curious person knew perfectly well (and so far remembers something). It was logical to use them to study the system, and it is even more logical to assume that the protection uses some of these holes, because this is the easiest option.
So, firstly, 98 Windows could not be password protected in principle. Of course, it was possible to create some similarity of accounts there - but they didn’t give protection, but only the possibility of separate storage of some user settings. But FAT, with which only the masts worked, does not support either access rights or encryption - in short, take it and do what you want.
Secondly, I was almost sure that the secure login was not disabled, and the output to DOS was not disabled (it did not turn off in the standard way, EMNIP). It is in NT without a login even in the recovery console does not enter, but in 9x there was nothing like that.
Thirdly, every schoolboy at that time knew that the path to the “explorer” in Windows 9x was registered in the system.ini config by the shell parameter. With a 99% probability, the protective sheath was spelled out in the same way.
Accordingly, I just had to reboot into the command prompt (hold Ctrl or F8 when loading), run edit.com, and edit the config. The executable file of the explorer was not even deleted, but even if it were, you can also register iexplorer, either from file 3.0 since win 3.0, inside the Windows fileman, or in general any program that has a file selection dialog.
And hurray - after the reboot, the normal shell was launched (as far as this expression is applicable to Windows Explorer 98), through which anything could be launched.

That's how I got into a hell of a place proudly called "Stealth Computer Center".

Fear and Loathing in Computer Heaven

As it turned out, the computer center Sharaga was called not just like that. The plans of Edik and Lysy were truly global: they were going to raise not only a gaming / internet club with a bar, but also a computer shop, a flea market, a service center, a video rental ... and this is just the beginning. The admin, as it turned out, was needed not to sit at the control computer, as is usually the case, but in order to tinker with the software and hardware, which then was the ultimate dream for me. And the very idea of ​​creating a certain center around which it was possible to unite the few geeks of the city was also very to my liking, although it was clear to common sense that they would not succeed.
And that's why.

Bald, as it turned out, the computers understood a little less than nothing. In fact, despite his skinhead gangster appearance, he turned out to be quite a reasonable person, but he simply did not understand much, and, in fact, Edik made all the decisions related to IT. And this plump little freak acted solely in his own interests, lied without embarrassment, and generally showed himself only from the bad side. As I learned later, he did not disdain petty fraud, and was even known in some circles under the nickname “Edward the Counterfeiter” for having once tried to pay with banknotes printed on a color printer. And he loved to indulge in ganžubas, and he didn’t hesitate at all.
In addition to Edik, other extremely colorful personalities worked in the “center”, the story about which, alas, does not fit into the computer-aided thread of the story.

But at first, the future seemed bright, the difficulties were temporary, and the salary was not so small. Although she was not that small - she was just no, and even the authorities liked to use the system of fines (penalties for being late, leaving the workplace, etc.). These fines were used recklessly, this is still going to be discussed.
There was no lunch break, and it took ten hours to be in place - gastritis around then caught up with me. But there was little real work: I set up computers, watched the work, fixed minor breakdowns, worked on network support. The noodles were thrown before me (the network topology I could not understand, it was something like a half-half-half-ring, but it somehow worked), and I was tasked with raising the file and print server, and of the domain as well . I didn’t deal with either one or the other before, but I enthusiastically set to work, and I did everything using a spear method, which strengthened my faith in my usefulness.

Edik did not trust me with the assembly of computers - yes, and to be honest, there were very few orders, almost always - for some Edik friends and, accordingly, for "their" prices. This income almost did not bring.
By the way, the iron got this way: after collecting a sufficient number of orders, a car was sent to Samara. There, in “Pragma”, everything ordered was purchased (Edik proudly called himself an official dealer), brought and delivered. The prepayment was 100%, and sometimes I had to wait for the order for a couple of weeks - well, no wonder that such homozin did not enjoy popularity.
Another department of the store was the most genuine flea market. Edik, to all, was also a terrible skopidomschik, and the flea market was created solely for the sake of his mania. He bought up all the wired computer junk — semi-hard drives, old SIMM bars, PCI cards, ISA modems, 14 ’monitors ... didn’t even disdain to buy music CDs. In this case all the shelves were forced, because very few people wanted to buy back such a crape. The profit of a flea market did not bring at all, for all the time I worked there, nothing was sold.
Once I saw an old two-hundred-megabyte laptop hard drive with an ATA-interface on the shelf and decided to buy it as a removable medium, since the price tag was given to him for one hundred rubles (then the flash drives had comparable volumes and prices were exorbitant). When I turned to Edik, he grumbled, thought about it and said that he would give a piece of iron for only 500. Well, you understand.

A little better than a flea market was organized and a computer room. Twenty computer places completely unsuitable for the game. Awful landing, constantly scored and breaking ball mice, lack of headphones (this was argued by savings) and some kind of slop video cards ... And next to that, in the same room, there was a bar with soft sofas and a TV.
And one, as you might guess, hindered the other. If the bar still brought a normal visitor, he was hampered by the playing school, swearing. And the school was afraid of visitors to the bar - because, for unknown reasons, it was chosen by the gopovat type boys, almost not interested in computers. In the end, these personalities in tracksuits and became almost the only visitors "Stealth".
The bar, by the way, was poor and expensive. This is almost all I can say about him.

Often had to stay overnight. When the owner was waiting for the “guests” (usually this was a little lads who came to relax at night in beerhouses and pose porn) I was assigned night duty, during which I had to quickly change and repair the mouse and keyboard. Sometimes I paid for a taxi ride home — but there was neither overtime nor payable. However, this was compensated by a low workload during the day - in my closet you could sleep freely, there were almost no visitors at all.
One day, when I had just laid down to sleep on shifted chairs, Bald ran into my closet, screaming something about hackers (he had real paranoia on that score). From screams, I could not understand anything, and climbed into the computer room.
As it turned out, the two guys had something wrong, and the control program flew out completely, after which the session did not end on time. The administrator saw a red signal, and instead of approaching and asking what was the matter, or letting me know, Lysyu immediately complained, he shouted at them, then at me, so much so that the boys looked utterly frightened. I said that I will understand, took the poor fellow aside, and asked. Their answers only confirmed my suspicion - they did nothing, well, the program crashed and flew out, considering that it was some kind of cracked crap, there was nothing strange in that.
I released the guys and reported on the investigation. Bald with Edik arranged a symposium, after 15 minutes, after delivering a verdict - to punish me with 30% of my salary (don’t look for any sense in this, you could have tried anything else). I began to resent (I had never been fined before, they were afraid that I would quit, and they would not find another idiot in my place), Edik threw up his hands, and the owner screamed that I was razpyu # dyai and around hackers who only want to play at his expense ... but the penalty was reduced to 10%, bitched. Even this is indicative, and the attitude towards customers - the owners didn’t care about them absolutely.

No irreplaceable

The great values ​​of the club were guarded by the guard, which was a creepy, unimaginable pipets. The guards were recruited by the usual gopot, which bykoval with normal visitors, took away money from the school (calling it a fee for admission), and fawned before the sportswear suits described above - those who, if anything, could easily put it in their faces. When they were bored - and they were always bored - they got to the bottom of the rest of the staff, for example me, or the girls sitting on the control computer.
I, who did not know such a treatment before, rather quickly adapted to their manner of communication. In addition, after all the deeds in the field of fighting computers, I still looked like a modest genius in the eyes of Bald, he patronized me, so the gopokhran did not hurt me much. But the girls administrator was sorry.

Ah, beautiful girls were. But stupid. And they were treated like dirt, firing strictly once a month, without paying wages. I mentioned the system of fines above, and although it was not consolidated anywhere on paper, it was announced on payday (when it happened, but it did not always happen) who was fined. The amount of the fine could turn out to be more than the salary, then they demanded money from the “debtor”.
The girls from the ticket office always had to, I don’t know why. And, of course, fired from the scandal. The next day, new ones arrived, with which everything was repeated a month later. Sly scheme, yes? Moreover, there were a lot of people who wanted to work, and Edik (this was within his competence) chose the really stupid ones, who, by eternal natural law, turned out to be the most beautiful. How do I know that the selection went on the first sign, and not on the second? Well, once I took part in the next symposium.
All candidates were ordered to pass an IQ test, and Edward chose those who passed him the worst. To my question, why didn’t they take a girl who scored 150 points in the region, Edik answered with surprise, “You oh @ ate something? Nah @ I’m smart, we need fools. ”

And once ... once I saw her ... And instantly fell in love.
A slim, leggy brunette with huge naive eyes, a third breast size and a white-toothed smile. It was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen before, and even after, perhaps. Words describe her useless, but she was one of those girls in whose presence the men turn off the upper brain. Olga, perfection and ideal itself.
And yes, this was another “administrator”, the first time appeared at work. I thanked the Universe for my duties to introduce Olga to the admin software - oh, yes, baby, I will be polite and slow.
Olga, oddly enough, grasped everything on the fly, and in general was surprisingly clever. I suspect that this was the only case when Edward broke his own rule - however, you would have violated anything. For several hours, under the greedy glances of the security guard, who was forbidden to disturb us, we sat together, sorting out the features of managing the samopisny billing system ... Damn, this is, in fact, the happiest memory of that year ...
In the evening I even dared to spend Olga to the bus. We stood at the bus stop, she clapped her eyelashes with unreal huge eyes, and trembled, despite the summer stuffiness. “Pasha,” she told me in such a voice that I understood: the most frank recognition in her life awaits me — Pasha, thank you so much for your help! I saw the computer for the first time today! ”

Testing of eight-bit Internet and other bundles

It became much more interesting when the Internet appeared in Stealth.
For a start, they brought us an aDSL modem, which at the time and in that city was new. DSL was provided by only one provider, and provided not to all, but only to subscribers of its own telephone network - roughly speaking, a couple of districts of the city (in the rest of the districts, BT dominated). Having received the modem and instructions, Edik and I locked ourselves in a closet and began to connect it to the server.
The modem was scary and incomprehensible (then similar devices were new). On the one hand, the telephone network was stuck into it, on the other, Ethernet and inside it had neonka , and the modem was controlled via the terminal via a COM port, for which it also had its own connector. No web interface, enter commands and pray for it to work.
Naturally, it did not work for us, and the next day a mechanic came in for modems, registered the settings and said "test". Edik wheezed like a cat guarding sausage, kicked me out of the closet and started testing.
As it was then heard from behind the door of Lysyi’s office, the bill for “testing” exceeded the institution’s monthly income several dozen times. Edik pumped service packs for Windows, movies and all kinds of software - he justified himself by thinking that testing was free.

After that, the policy of using the Internet became truly fascist - three rubles per megabyte for its own, at a cost price of one ruble. Provide accounting commanded me.
I picked up WinGate on the server, and at the end of each month I showed who printed how many logs. Naturally, I was rewriting traffic from myself to Edik, as without it? There, everyone deceived everyone, and it was silly to show nobility. I learned almost everything bad in Stealth, only I learned to drink vodka at school.

From that time, visitors were also offered fast, as much as eight megabit Internet access. Naturally, eight megabits - it was the maximum speed to DSLAM, and the actual was much less: the provider had an external channel for only a few dozen megabits. I no longer remember the tariffs for which the Internet was sold to customers, but both time and traffic were considered, which greatly embarrassed customers. Many then had no idea that the Internet was measured at all, and it was hard for some girl who came to download the essay to explain that the ten megabytes bought for her ten megabytes were hard to fit. Especially about “about” - well, you know, they say “I paid for ten essays, but I got on the mail and didn’t download any, give me the money” were constant.

About the essay leap is generally a separate topic. Naturally, on all computers, in order to avoid hacking, USB and floppy were disabled. Recording on disks (for money, of course) could only be organized by me (the girl in the hall did not know how to do it, and they didn’t allow her to keep working to the left). And for this I had to go to the admin's room, climb the network there to the right computer, and merge the file from there, go up to the hall, give the floppy disk.
Everything was very efficiently organized.

But I continue.
Internet traffic, as I said, was considered WinGate. From my point of view, it was easy to open the log and see the data on the session, but the administrator girls did not think so. Bald told Edik to figure it out. Edik came to me and ordered me to write billing.
I, by that time, had already begun to grow wild, and I was not afraid even of the guards from the guard. So Edik and said directly - raise, bitch, salary, otherwise you pipitun, not billing. Or pay immediately in cash.
He hesitated for decency, and offered: the salary, they say, I can not raise you, I will not give you money either, but I will make it as a bonus. Reduce the current amount, otherwise I will write in assembly language myself.
Yeah, I think you will write an Internet cracker. And I do not agree to another amount. Write, they say, even on Algol, I am indifferent.
Edik still broke, but agreed to my terms.
A couple of days later, the billing was already showing funny tricks of user traffic. I wasn’t given any money for him - Edik persuaded me to take the “premium” by the ordered but not picked up combo-drive (oh, and then I suffered with this piece of iron!).

That's how it all worked. The fame about “Stealth” was not the best, the gopotnya got drunk, broke the computers, people quit, the salary was delayed, Bald began to appear on the site less and less, Eddie in the closet began to gather some obdolbyshi, and discuss how they smoke in next time ... At the end of my govnoadmin’s career, it turned out that Edik was also an anime artist, and would organize a club for Chinese pornographic cartoons at the center. Local animesmen rushed to their new Valhalla, began to arrange group views of evangelions and change Pokemon through our server, bringing the Apocalypse closer.

One day Edik got into the idea of ​​raising a BBS with advertising and FTP. Here, finally, all the rubbish that was lying on the shelves of the flea market, from which he collected something working, came in handy. The ISA modem at 33.6 kb / s was responsible for communication with the outside world in this computer Quasimodo, and he was supposed to work under Windows NT 4.0 and some old version of IIS. Edik could not cope with the ancient NT and gave me the pieces of iron. I somehow set everything up, you could dial in, type stels.ru (you shouldn't check the link) and get on the page with the price list.
Naturally, the server was disconnected from the telephone network. Because during the day it was impossible to connect it, the telephone was used for conversations, and they were forgotten to connect it at night. Yes, and knew about the existence of such a server for three and a half people, because there was no point in the idea.

In general, energy and ideas flowed from Edik with an elastic jet - but if they brought some benefit, it was only to him personally, and more often - moral.

But the last straw was the following case.

My best friend had his ancient as old Izergil pentium dead. During the summer, the latter accumulated denezhek and decided to buy not just anyhow that, but the real Athlon64, which had just appeared by that moment. Everyone was excited about the appearance of real 64-bit technologies, a hundred-fold increase in speed and a shameful defeat of Intel.
In our town, suitable pieces of iron could not be obtained for any money, and my friend, seduced by my arguments, turned to Stealth. Edik took the money, ordered to wait and ... disappeared.
He did not appear at work, did not take the phone, and of course did not bring any computer. Bald just made a helpless gesture - they say, ask Edik, I’m a soul for you, but I have no money.
How ashamed I was in front of a friend — I couldn't convey in words. He, of course, also worried, but did not blame me for anything, for which he was grateful.
A month later, Edward appeared. And handed Seryoga ... processor.
And the rest was not stupid. Edik explained in the spirit that the car had an accident, and there was nothing to carry the glands with. Whether he lied or not, the devil knows, but a month later he brought the piece of iron, and as a compensation he presented a cool wireless mouse to his friend.
Much later, I learned that Edward, having received the largest order in his life, decided to cheat, and waited two months for the top-end glands to fall in price. Fucking cheater.

After this unpleasant story, I dumped out of the "Stealth", and in my place took some kind of disabled person. But the story does not end there.

A couple of months after my departure, I was awakened by a phone, helpfully slipped under my ear by a good father (he has a personality of amazing tact and understanding). Edik called, who needed passwords - the disabled person escaped from the local order without warning and without a salary, leaving no information about himself.
Oh, how I regret that when I woke up I did not understand the situation, and did not send them all to a known address along with their stealth, passwords and disabled people who had run away. Oh, and Eddie would have fucked, dropping the BIOS from two dozen computers ...
In general, I then thought that it was easier to remember and name the passwords and go to bed. A very, very big omission.

And a year later, after the leadership of the completely ruined club changed, Edik was kicked out, a new owner called me and asked me to return. This is what I sent him, although he, in principle, was not at fault.

PS Do you like these mummy stories? Well into my tg channel , it is 37% of them.