Synergy Teleconferencing System

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Synergy Teleconferencing System (STS) was a PC-based online chat server popular in the early 90s. It arose as a replacement for the outdated Diversi-Dial system. Like DDial, it was a multi-line modem system that originally could handle 8 simultaneous connections (later updated to handle 16). While DDial was limited to 300 baud, STS was capable of 2400 baud speeds (later hacks upped this to 14.4). Using internal software, one of these lines could be used to establish a link to another STS, effectively making the number of simultaneous users dependent on how many STS's were involved.

The interface and design was similar to DDial in that users logged into the system with a three digit number that served as a username. Once logged in, the user could change his name to whatever he wished, while his user number served as his identifier. Each user was assigned a user level. 0 was for non-members. Callers without a user number could log in for only a limited time. Usually 10 minutes, but this could be decreased to 5 when call volume was high. The numbered levels were for registered users, usually paying members. The upper levels, 50-99 were for various levels of moderators. The sysop could assign a moderator level to any user, effectively giving them power to do various tasks such as kick out people who were being a nuisance, (a hack was used for banning callers who kept returning after they were kicked, using the recently emerging technology of caller ID), making links to other STS's, creating channels or terrorizing lower-level users.

Due to how the system worked, all input was done on a single string of text, limited to 255 bytes (255 characters). All system commands were preceded by a slash, followed by the command, followed by any variables. For instance, to send an email to user #130, your command might be:

/e130 We meeting at the diner tonight?

The recipient would read his mail by simply entering:

/e

To send a private message to another user, the command would be:

/p130 Whats Up?

Because of its simple design, STS was thought to be unhackable. Successful attempts have been made in crashing an STS using line flooding (only for it to reboot), but there are no known successful attempts at hacking one without directly accessing the main console.