Work in progress

As gathering e-mails for past 9 years is going to take some time, this is going to take some time. As well as covering 9 years of constant struggle and unrest.

Target here is to summarize 9 years of TurnovFree.net. Well, actually it is 2-3 years prior official existence of TurnovFree.net and 6 years after.

I'm up for some long run here.

Hmm … the beginning, let me see, let me think a bit.

TurnovFree.net had its roots in our LAN parties when we were still at Primary school. We've used to spend weekends by endless playing of computer games in my room. My class mates brought computers, we've hooked them up(at the time by magic, what else; coax cables at first, UTPs some time later on) and played till exhaustion. Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Starcraft and so on.

Twice a year, or so, we had a bigger LAN party, not at my parents place though. We've used other place or Boy Scout's clubhouse on the “island”(note: next to power station, Konsky trh 201, Turnov). It was a beautiful place and we were using it for playing computer games. Silly us. Could you believe we've played through the new years eve as well? No? Oh yes, we did.

So many memories. The cold during the winter and myself in sleeping bags nicknamed “rakoncajaky” after Josef Rakoncaj. I had two of them and still they fell short to fend of the cold. I remember as well we were there that morning when mother called to tell me grandfather died in hit-and-run by drunken driver. Well, that's a hard reality for you.

As we were growing up, it became more difficult for us to get together. We still had big LAN parties, but weekends weren't what they've used to be. Some of us got comfy and this led to some cabling.

At the time(2000-2004), I was attending Secondary school in Dvur Kralove nad Labem with people from Trutnov. No, not Turnov, Trutnov. But don't worry, even Russians got it wrong during occupation. Anyway, where was I? Ah, people from Trutnov. And they told me about Humlnet.

Humlnet was presented to me as network between neighbors in blocks of flats with access to internet. I don't remember what connection they've had at the time, but anything else was better than time limited dial-up. Right, you got gracious 10 hours per month for free. Wow. The speed of 56kpbs. Wow. Extra pricy and already old ISDN which not too many people could or would afford. I was really impressed. I was really possessed by this idea, by this vision. Vision of building community network and getting unlimited and cheap internet connection. Not free, but cheap. Cheaper than my modem.

I knew nothing, I mean really nothing. I haven't done one RJ-45 connector in my life, yet here we are crossing the parking lot with UTP cable bound to fence wire. Thousand of things could go wrong, yet we did it right. Except it took me couple times to get the connector right, the other side was done by my, then, teacher at school. This was in October 2002, I think.

Network expanded couple months later. I remember it was in winter and most likely prior to Christmas 2002, so we could play over the Christmas. Connected were Tomas Laurin and Petr Malik. I'm not sure if somebody else got connected as well.

From e-mails I've found, search for an ISP begun in October 2002. This was not easy because Turnov is just a small town(14k people), so searching for ISP? In 2002? Cheap? You're just mad.

Literally none of big ISPs I got recommended had fiber cables in Turnov area. Everything was possible only through SPT Telecom back then, which was overpriced and heavily corporate oriented. I mean, internet connection at home? Who would want that? Unlimited modem connection? Nevah!

Yeah, it was really hard. We've ended up with Contactel and symmetric 64kbit/s line which maxed out itself up to 128kbit/s. Some pricing I was lucky to find out:

• Installation of WiFi device: 7990 CZK
• Rental of Wifi device per month: 990 CZK
• Monthly payment for 64kbit line: 3490 CZK

all prices without taxes, of course. It was just a lot of money.

We got connected to the internet sometime in the end of February 2003, but I will have to find out as well as how many members and how much we paid initially and per month.

Estimates of payments per member:

• Initial: 750 CZK
• Monthly: 600 CZK

So, after 9 years, after great and long 9 years, TurnovFree.net is finally grinding to its inevitable stop. Its own members chose path I don't want to and refuse to follow.

TurnovFree.net is supposed to be taken over by its ISP, IJC. All its property given away to members or scrapped. If there is something worthy, it is subdued to “Czech larceny”. Undignifying end I don't want to be part of. Not like this.

But everything that has a beginning has an end. And every end is a new beginning.

End credits given to people no matter what the end was, is or going to be. They've done some work. They've done something extraordinary and unseen in this country and in these times. They sure deserve some sort of respect.

• Absolon J., former member
• Hnatek P., member
• Halama J., member
• Laurin T., member
• Legath T., former member
• Malik P., member
• Navratil D., Atlantis/Alternetivo
• Navratil M., Contactel
• Sadilek M, member
• Suchoparek M., member
• Tuma J., member