The Z-Netz was a German

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

network applying

store and forward Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in ...

mechanisms to provide their users with e-mail and discussion groups. It can be compared to the U.S. based

WWIV WWIV was a popular brand of bulletin board system software from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. The modifiable source code allowed a sysop to customize the main BBS program for their particular needs and aesthetics. WWIV also allowed tens ...

network or the international FidoNet. The technical base for the Z-Netz was the software "Zerberus". Initially the network was called "Zerberus Netz" or just "Zerberus". When other software applying the "ZConnect" data transfer method became available, the network was renamed to "Z-Netz" to reflect that. "Zerberus" was developed since 1984. It was later maintained by the "Zerberus GmbH", which was founded in 1992 and dissolved in 1999. Several Z-Netz operators maintained gateways into other networks, most notably the

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...

, and even forwarded Z-Netz

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

to the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

and vice versa. With internet access becoming easily available in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the late 90s the Z-Netz began to vanish.

References

*''Based in part on the German Wikipedia article for Z-Netz''

External links

Unofficial Z-Netz Homepage
(German)
Homepage of the former "Zerberus GmbH"
(German) Bulletin board systems {{compu-network-stub