Some Rick project highlights

DCP UUCP

1985
Hey - this email thing is cool. Wrote this PC DOS version of UUCP (reverse engineering sliding window "g" protocol and its checksum) and gave it away. Sent 5.25 inch floppies of it to many international interests.
Back when email was fun:

Eventually ported DCP to MHS2UUCP MCI2UUCP VMS2UUCP ATT2UUCP (X.25, TCP) ..and on a separate branch it became
UUPC.
C code headers for various versions of dcpgpkt.c (the tough part) staring with original:
ORIGINAL
/* "DCP" a uucp clone. Copyright Richard H. Lamb 1985,1986,1987 */
/* 3-window "g" ptotocol */
/* Thanks got to John Gilmore for sending me a copy of Greg Chesson's 
UUCP protocol description-- Obviously invaluable
Thanks also go to Andrew Tannenbaum for the section on Siding window
protocols with a program example in his "Computer Networks" book 
*/

IN MY VARIOUS PORTS FOR RESELLERS
/* 
 * 
 * Copyright XtcN Ltd. 1991, Copyright (c) Richard H. Lamb 1988,89,90
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * "DCP" a uucp clone. Copyright Richard H. Lamb 1985,1986,1987 
char gpktxx[]="DCP1t2a3l4l5i6n";
 */

UUPC VERSION
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/*       d c p g p k t . c                                            */
/*                                                                    */
/*       UUCP 'g' protocol module for UUPC/extended.  Supports 7      */
/*       window variable length packets of up to MAXPACK bytes in     */
/*       length.                                                      */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/*       Stuart Lynne May/87                                          */
/*                                                                    */
/*       Copyright (c) Richard H. Lamb 1985, 1986, 1987               */
/*       Changes Copyright (c) Stuart Lynne 1987                      */
/*                                                                    */
/*    Changes Copyright (c) 1989-2002 by Kendra Electronic            */
/*    Wonderworks.                                                    */
/*                                                                    */
/*    All rights reserved except those explicitly granted by the      */
/*    UUPC/extended license agreement.                                */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

Notework MHS-UUCP gateway and here

ATT Easylink X.25 and TCP. Yes - ATT licensed UUCP back from me in the mid 90's. Funny how life works. whois

VMS Mail-UUCP
In article <1991Sep24.125827.26550@xtcn.com> lamb@xtcn.com (Richard Lamb) writes: >

Jammie is absolutely right !! The g proto is a complete link level proto.
If you think youll be dealing with smart modems (TB,V.42,MNP) maybe adding
the "e" proto would be nice. Or for a X.25 (7-bit error-free) link the
"f" proto works real well (I run it on VMS between Cambridge and Dublin,IRE).
--
############################################################################
#  _ /|      | XtcN Ltd                                                    #
# \'o.O'     | xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  #
# =(___)=    | Natick MA 01760                  Washington D.C. 20016      #
#    U       | Tel:508-655-2960                 Tel:202-363-3661           #
# Ack! Phht! | E-mail: Internet: la...@xtcn.com Telex: 6504829720          #
#            | X.400: C=US; A=MCI; S=Lamb; D.ID=4829720                    #
############################################################################

MCI-UUCP Mail
TELECOM Digest     Thu, 20 Feb 92 01:53:17 CST    Volume 12 : Issue 151
Index To This Issue:                      Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1992 22:55:39 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator 
Message-Id: <199202260455.AA10105@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu
Subject: Telex from Internet
                  ---------------------------
We use a product called MGATE that is a MCI-to-UNIX gateway.  This
would alow you to send tellexes (as well as FAXen,paper mail,....etc)
from you Unix nodes with a To: filed like "c=0%tlx=232123@telex".
Gotta buy MCI though. (think its 1.50/telex msg).


XtcN Ltd                                                
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Natick MA 01760     Washington D.C. 20016 
Tel:508-655-2960    Tel:202-363-3661      
E-mail: Internet: lamb@xtcn.com   Telex: 6504829720 
X.400: C=US; A=MCI; S=Lamb; D.ID=4829720                

BiDec

1988

BiSync (multi-drop), SDLC/SNA, Decnet Phase 4, LAT, TCP/IP. How does a DEC shop sell into the banking ecosystem? Get some kid to write system that rev-engineers, write drivers, protocol stacks to translate between DEC and banking (IBM) protocols and use DOS as a loader for his mini-os. Put it all on a floppy and run ATMs and teller terminals through a PS/2 hidden in a cabinet between old "mainframe" (Honeywell, etc) and VAXen. Wrote protos all from scratch including 8530 sync driver. Even rev-engineered DEC CTERM protocol for fun.

SPNK'R

1994
SPNK'R Proxy Slip Server. Lets share this internet thing.

Internet for my friends: spnkr - a serial line NAT (so many modems, only one IP). Morphed into Novell IPX to Internet "winsock" for LANs and then into IP to IP plain NAT for NT and Win98.
Early version Late version What they were saying
Tim Riker                                     Jan 9, 1995, 5:42:26 PM
to
Please see:
http://www.xtcn.com/spnkr/pslipsrvr.html

For information on a multi-port msdos packet driver based SLIP server.

We set up a system for employees to dial into from home for Netscape access.

Have tried:

Trumpet 2.0
OS/2 Warp Internet Access
Windows NT Remote Access

No hassles, beats ISPs! (free!) 

ISDN IPX/IP Router

1992
128kbps! Oooooo... No modem could do that. Hit a carriage return and a remote drive letter shows up (Novell).
isdyne isdn ipx/ip router
Wrote q921 q931 (D-channel) protocols from scratch and had them homologated with the free help from NYNEX (Framingham) and Northern Telecom (RTP). I have many people to thank for this including a friend that found me a cheap dive/scary space in Boston Chinatown that was across the street from an ISDN-U capable NYNEX office so that I could get a connection. Even ATT Corporate forgave my oops when an ISDN call stayed nailed up for a month.
Supported Novell IPX routing, tcp/ip, channel bonding, ethernet driver under my own real-time multi-threaded O/S (a follow on to the MIT PC/IP source).
Got FCC approvals working with a lab in Epsom NH. Very quiet place.
Extruded aluminum cases directly from plugs of metal from a place in Randolph, MA. PCB assembly in Southboro, MA. Shipping boxes from the back of a trunk in South Boston. Sold thru resellers.
Frame relay version used for my own 56kbps leased line link ($600/mo) and IP class-C block (free back then) to a friendly corporation providing transit. Of course gave friends dialup internet via SPNK'R.
Presented early design and HowTo at InterOp. Lot of similar devices showed up after this...until the DSL and Cable writing on the wall was obvious. It was a fun ride.

NAT1000 and Road-Mail

1997

NAT1000

More sharing Internet for the masses: an IPX NAT --> a regular NAT --> a firewall --> one for Windows (Microsoft bought it and called Internet Connection Sharing). Ed Guzovsky and I created Nevod Inc (an old Pushkin tale I am told) to make this all work.
misc.

For NT/95/98

old DOS
No one but us supported all the multi-player games (eg Starcraft) we reverse-engineered native support for or the full H.323,T.120, etc algorithmic support for Netmeeting. Also added firewall support and patented captive portal (hotspot) support. Started to add patented IPSEC support toward end. Microsoft acquired product by then.

Road-Mail

Email from anywhere and nowhere. Pre-hotmail web email cgi that cleared caches as you went along.

Even handed out t-shirts at trade shows
road-mail t-shirt
and PanAm Clipper wrote a nice article

full article: 1 2 3 4

Misc

Nevod Home Page
Developed and wrote from scratch web based customer support, sales, and other customer communications software and systems as well as backend merchant bank/credit card processing software since no such s/w was available at the time. Dunno why companies feel they must outsource this today. You still need to have an expert on staff to oversee such a contract if you truly care about customers.

Internet Advertizing

1998
Who needs a banner ad when I can catch typos and DNS queries. This was the original DNS Redirection
patent that so many companies were built on (eg sitefinder, nominum, opendns ...). Last incarnation (w/ Ed G):

GeoIP Database

2001
Data fusion of ISP dialup numbers, IP addresses, WHOIS data, domain names into a geo location database.

US Department of State

2003
From my perspective this was yet another project and one of the most difficult, educational and satisfying at the same time. The stress almost killed me (like my dad who had also worked there until his death). Openned my eyes to how the world really works and, thankfully, how people are mostly good and well meaning.

Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)

2005
Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)

A post-911/DHS request to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to build a system to track large ships (IMO number registered size). Who (or what country) would you trust to know where your LNG ship was? I'd say no one. So I proposed a
PKI style approach. PKI concept too hard for "politics" or "Im just a humble sailor" to understand. Besides, like in most ecosystems, their idea of "trust" is not in the form of cryptographic algorithms. It is more about who you have worked with for many years. So the final result (after I left) was much lower tech. It was very educational and eye opening to learn how sausage is really made. This among other work for State Dept in effort to pay back.

Netwitness

2006
Patented document witnessing service.
Them:You never sent that email. I never saw it. 
You:Yes I did. Here is proof from netwitness.

DNSSEC Root Key Operation

2010
Architect, political and technical cat herder, system and facilities to meet systrust/soc3, chose gsa class 5 safes and
HSM, wrote and led key ceremonies, designed procedures to include 21 engineers from every part of the world to oversee and build trust in operations. Oh yeah. and wrote software (tar.gz file) to drive HSM and root key generation. Helped a few ccTLD operators do all the above too. After it took, traveled the globe trying to get businesses and governments to take advantage of this global free PKI. DNSSEC status. Lots of press. Some ok and some ridiculous like TV series picking it up and distorting reality. Dont click unless you really want to see. Big files. TV series Elementary and TV series Blacklist.

In the end its all about this (yes the good die young):

and this
.

Hardware Security Modules (HSM)

2018
1U version w/ my HSM and CPU Been running DNSSEC key management for all my domains for >5 years straight:

Potted w/ gamma and light detectors:

Next revision. ARM w/ crypto accelerators and chip level (not the coil) tamper circuitry:

After spending so much time studying these devices and how they are made and certified, I thought I would try my hand at building a few and participating in that ecosystem (eg, NIST/FIPS,
ICMC Ottawa ). Resulted in a deep bench of various tamper detection sensors including a low power gamma ray detector and bit flipping. Support for ed25519 and some patented (US9306751) features. Maybe give away code and gerber at some point.

SDR

2020

Alternate high-side mixer approach to LO:

Actually been designing various custom microprocessor assisted xceiver hardware since 2003 with the idea of a long range, low power "1-bit" xciever. Here is my latest incantation using cheap ARM and stereo (eg, I/Q) A/D D/A audio chips. Multi threaded O/S and all drivers and interface software and hardware from scratch. Made the display look like an old Heathkit GR-54 from youth. Too many spurs in LO (built si5351a and ad9951 LOs but not quiet enough. even gps disciplined one.) so still searching for the holy grail. Yeah. Made the PCB into the front panel. BUD box behind. Having my own ARM tool chest is good though. Sometimes its the journey and not the destination.

SMS4IoT

2019

Signals everywhere. So use them to bootstrap-configure IoT devices and/or provide low rate (e.g., door open/close) communication and/or control. Tested
patented method world round. Some working examples of no-config, no-login, secure devices:

S/MIME fo All

2021

S/MIME has been around forever. Why are we not all sending encrypted email? Certificate management difficulties and islands of control? Dont we want the end-to-end promise of the original Internet? If so, I think I can help. If not, why not just say so? Maybe cyber/corporate "p"oltics (CAB.vs.IETF.vs.FANGS.vs.legal?) is the problem.
Here are a few global solutions to this. Here is a free service
for outlook clients (pat 11671453). And a more comprehensive global one here.

My Internet

Since circa 1995
Continuing to do as we were told by Postel and IETF luminaries: keep the Internet distributed. My own DNS, email, web, routers, etc on own IP address blocks and AS numbers.

Next?

Stuff is brewing.



iy3xk ftc9ky Davenport, Wilbur B., Jr.: I. "An Inroduction to the Theory of Random Signals and Noise," McGraw-Hill, New York, 1958.
Last updated Aug 2023. Copyright © 1985-2023 Richard Lamb