Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and creator of QModem, has died

I worked with John for a few years in the 1990s. This was during the heyday of BBSes, when he joined our small team at Mustang Software after Mustang bought Qmodem. John moved to Bakersfield California (with his family, including OP!) to be with us. John left a few years later due to I think business differences with management.

John was personable and full of joy. He always loved a good joke. I remember the parties (not wild, we were pretty tame back then) we would have around the pool at his place. He was generous with his time.

The story of Qmodem itself was a bit different. Qmodem for DOS was a one-man shareware business and was John's pride and joy. It was clear that he poured everything into that program. It was finely tuned and just worked. Times were changing though, and people were calling for a Windows version. Unfortunately, John was not interested in learning Windows programming, so Scott Hunter (now at Microsoft), Dan Horn, and I built Qmodem for Windows. It was good, but it really never had the same level of polish that John's work did. It was "Qmodem" in name only.

After John left Mustang he also left Bakersfield and I lost touch with him. I'm sure he continued to make the people around him smile. Thank you for your time and contributions, John.

John helped get me and my college roommate started with Linux system administration and web development three decades ago. We both grew up in in the town in Iowa where John lived, and my roommate had met him around the time we went to college in the mid nineties. We were both nerdy engineering majors who had gotten exposed to Unix through our college dial-up shell accounts, and we had managed to scavenge together enough computer parts — an old 386 motherboard, a discarded hard drive that just needed a molex connector soldered back onto it, a spare floppy drive — to assemble a computer just barely capable of running Linux.

I remember lugging it all over to John’s basement where he helped us install Slackware Linux from a giant stack of 5 1/4 floppies he had.

Later, when John was running up a dial-up ISP in town, he let us park that server at his ISP, so we had a full Linux server of our own connected to a T1 with its own public IP address, and where we had root access and could experiment with running our own web and email servers and other such things. Back then in dial-up days, having a Linux server of our own on the Internet seemed unbelievable, and I will always be deeply appreciative to John for that opportunity.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Your father's contributions are immeasurable. Just reading the word "QModem" gave me an instant flashback to my youth. QModem was my gateway to the outside world.

I grew up way out in the country. I was the 80s and I was pretty isolated from technology and didn't even know anyone who cared about it at first. I started tinkering with our home PC, and I finally purchased a modem and figured out how to connect to BBSs. This changed my life. I had many sleepless nights as teenager, connecting everywhere I could. QModem was like a fancy car that drove me anywhere I wanted to go.

I became obsessed with learning and tweaking things. AT commands, autoexec.bat, QModem scripting. Whatever I could figure out to get maximum performance and fast download speeds. Because of Qmodem, I could download games, text files, and even talk with other people. This moment in time defined my future. I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life.

I owe thanks to your father and what he built for my wonderful career, and 40 years of enjoying technology. Without something as easy to learn and reliable as QModem, who knows what path my life would have taken.

Qmodem was my favorite comm program during the BBS days, and it still is today when working with vintage computers. It was just nice to use. Its scripting language was the first I used and I find myself wishing there was a Linux comm program with scripting that worked that well. Long distance calls were expensive so I used a Qmodem script to call BBSs each morning to download my email before school.

Just the last several months I've been using Qmodem scripting to make thousands of modem calls over VoIP to test downloads to see which models and ATAs work best.

After I jumped back into the vintage BBS world I've been keeping an eye out for anything Qmodem. I recently just picked up a Qmodem manual on ebay that I wanted to scan and archive, because it's pretty rare to see.

Not too long ago I saw where John had posted to a FB group he was working on a new DOS version of Qmodem, my first interaction with him. I was excited to see it be worked on again and hoped to see the new version. Sad to see him go.

QModem and then Telix were a window through which I explored another world as a young teenager with a budget modem with shaky MNP compatibility. In that world I eventually found friends, a wealth of knowledge, and a career. So thanks JF. RIP.

ATH0.

John and I met each other in the early days of BBSes and he put me in touch with the developer of a BBS called Colossus which was written in Turbo Pascal. This got me started as a developer and I met Jim Harrer through these interactions as we were trying to port BBSes to run on the IBM PCjr. Years later Jim started Mustang Software where we developed a commercial BBS called Wildcat. Jim and I stayed in touch with John the whole time which led to Mustang buying Qmodem. After John left Mustang he and I continued to stay in touch. I ran into him and his son at many of the conferences I spoke at for Microsoft. And most recently he and I were in touch trying to find all the components so we could compile Qmodem again.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

In the early 1990s, QModem's workflow for offline inter-BBS email (in the QWK file format) allowed me to communicate several times weekly, much faster than physical mailed letters, to people all over the world that I would not have been able to do otherwise. It helped me curb depression, build my technical skills, and join a community whose members I am still in contact with over a third of a century later.

QModem was written in Turbo Pascal, and was noticeably faster than other terminal ("modem") programs on my aging 8086 hardware at the time. And knowing it was written in TP, and being a TP programmer myself, gave me hope for the possibility of writing fast code in a high-level language myself, which I eventually did.

I would not be as successful in my life today without the positive experiences made possible by QModem.

PS: Your father's choice of name for his shareware company, "The Forbin Project", was quite the hax0r flex at the time.

The amount of engineers your father directly or indirectly created are innumerable. Myself included.

I would’ve never discovered UNIX or the pre-web internet without software like and including QModem.

The Qmodem program, brought home on some random 3.5 inch floppy, allowed me to connect to local BBSes and started my journey into networking computers. Now I have a PhD in CS and I spent more than a decade deeply caring about the Internet, networks, and network research. Without the start given by those BBSes, my path could have been very different! I am very sorry for your loss, and I hope the fact that he made a random teen's life better is some comfort.

I knew him personally. We worked on a few projects together in the late 90s/early 00s. He was a good man and I remember him trying to be a good father to you. I will miss him and his infectious laugh.

My condolences to you and your family.

Only today, I told my colleague that the first BBS connection was one of the most extraordinary experiences I've had in my life. Of course, it wasn't possible without QModem software.

Thank you so much to your father for the happiest moments of my childhood!

I used QModemPro (after it was bought by Wildcat) and it was the best. It integrated with OLR (offline reader) which meant I could login to the BBS, download my messages via Zmodem as a compressed QWK file, and logoff.

It was so much more efficient than downloading plain text messages. Of course these days we no longer have bandwidth constraints like that but back in the day it enabled long discussions like the sort we’re having on HN today.

Qmodem wasn’t the only terminal emulator but it was the most professional one.

I want to comment on something that seems important to me. In the third world, in countries where the internet arrived much later and where money was much scarcer, the effect of qmodem was quite long lasting and profitable for the tech savvy community. A PC and a modem were the support for many of the adventures and beginnings in computer science and in general to satisfy that insatiable curiosity for the computer revolution. Engineers working in big companies and using the resources of these and local volunteers installed BBS with Walnut Creek cds and other shareware CDs and gave access for the first time to that universe that we now take as evident and accessible from our phones. Without qmodem I would still be waiting for my copy of unarc!.

In my personal case, I want to also thank your father for pointing us thru it's company name to the book and movie "the forbin project" :-). In our present of promises of supercomputing AIs, maybe we should all read the book or watch the movie.

I was a middle schooler in the 1990s when I first used QModem. My dad found a list of BBSs from the local newspaper and I dialed them up with my trusty 14.4 modem. It felt like unlocking a secret world.

Sorry for your loss Aaron. My father passed away just before Thanksgiving and it hit me harder than I expected (long illness, failing health, so I felt I was prepared but alas).

Qmodem was for me the tool that IT gave everyone so they could "dial in" to the office when on business trips. And because it was installed by IT on every fresh laptop it was always in the top left corner of the screen. Even after my company had moved on to other products, my wife continued to use it for years sending faxes when folks needed a fax sent.

My condolences. May he rest in peace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qmodem

Sorry to hear it. I used QModem (as well as any other package I could get my hands on) in the mid 1980's quite a lot. Was active in the BBS scene for my area, (and Compuserve, and GEnie, and others), and have many fond memories of those days. They were MY "golden years of computing" where every month something revolutionary seemed to come out.

5 1/4's; 300-1200 baud modems, x/y/z modem transfer protocols, programming in BASIC mostly at home, Pascal in high school, reading Byte magazine, typing in endless rows of DATA statements, "+++" attacks, "ATDT" vs "ATTD" arguments... I miss all of it.

Accept my condolence for your family in this time of sorrow. The QMODEM program was transformative in my life. Through USR robotics HST modem and QMODEM I was able to access a world far beyond the rural life in which I lived. The generousity of his shareware program probably touched more people than you will know.

Hey Friel Family, I just wanted to reach out and say how sorry I am to hear about John’s passing. I didn’t know him or his work, but it’s clear he made a significant impact on many lives. Losing someone who has touched so many people is never easy. Even though I’m a stranger, I hope you find some comfort in the memories you shared and the love that surrounds you during this tough time. Sending you all my best wishes and support.

QModem changed my life, and gave me an outlet and window to a whole new world as a young teen. My condolences. And my eternal gratitude to you, your father, and your family!

Glad to see all my Qmodem peeps in here again! If anyone has any pointers on how to get back into the BBS world, my interest is piqued.

I didn’t personally know your dad, but like many others here depended on his work with QModem during the late 80s and early 90s. The fact we are all on Hacker News is evidence of how it impacted our lives - and the relevance of the community here.

Thank you for posting - I’ve enjoyed reading the outpouring of history and stories and hope it brings you the same sense of wonder it has me. Godspeed to you and your family.

Similar to all the rest of you HN lurkers, especially the grey beards - thanks for being here and thank for keeping the “hacker” in “hacker news” alive.

My condolences. Between QModem, Telix, ProComm, and all the rest, I'd put QModem at the top (but all were good). I didn't get online until I was away from home, but wasted no time getting there once I had the opportunity. At that time, Champaign-Urbana had a hopping BBS scene, aside from all that was going on in school.

I've considered revisiting old-school BBS systems (or at least, BBS-via-SSH, it is the 21st Century after all) but there just never seems to be enough time.

In the early 1990's, I purchased a "Telepath" modem from a company then known as Gateway 2000 along with a computer and other gear. Qmodem for DOS was included with the Telepath.

I had used a number of different terminal programs on a handful of machines of the era, but I never found one as robust and as easy to use as Qmodem. I used Qmodem for several years. I quit using it when the local BBS scene wilted away.

Thank you for your father's contributions to communications tech and BBSing. My condolences to you and your family.

QModem allowed me to explore the wonderful world of BBSs before the Internet was a thing. Having access to BBSs gave me a leg up when I got to University and got access to the Internet. BBSs are what got me seriously interested in computers and helped me launch a career in software development.

Your Dad's legacy will be writing the software that opened doors for many of us when computers used to be a walled garden and talking to another person on a computer was still a foreign concept for the general population. Condolences on the loss of of your father but hopefully you can take comfort in the fact his legacy made the world a better place for PC users.

Just wanted to add, found this YouTube video of your father launching QModem on an old PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs7XZs6jOhc

Look just north of DC.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/464313713...

My condolences on your loss. I used QModem in the early 90s downloading shareware and the like. I just looked through my floppy disk holder and found a 3 1/2 inch floppy from 1992 with QModem on it :) Your dad’s contribution to the BBS scene was huge and it was an important part of my own journey into computing.

I only used QModem after it was purchased by Mustang Software but still have great memories! I was actually blown away by ZModem as a protocol when I first used it. How far we've come! This was a really interesting and innovative time period for computing and communications in general.

I too was one of the Many who used Qmodem back in the day, and still do now on vintage stuff like bwann mentioned.

I had opportunity to work with John on a small consulting thing when I started and ISP back in the mid 90s, and I recall him being an incredibly bright and affable guy.

My deepest condolences to the family.

Condolences on your loss, Aaron & family. Few of us will ever write software with as much impact as QModem, I hope that your father found satisfaction in that reach.

Thanks to your father for his contribution to my childhood, I used QModem every single day until my parents screamed, and it changed my life. I made friends on some local BBSes that I still have 30+ years later.

Sending condolences and gratitude.

Back in the very early 90s, when I got my first modem I only had the number to one BBS. It was running on outdated hardware and I don't even remember what BBS system it ran. What I will never forget though, is the first file I ever downloaded from another computer. It was a lo-res image of a girl in a bathing suit and I downloaded it using the Qmodem protocol. Zmodem became the faster defacto, but the memory of Qmodem sits deeper. Rest in peace and thanks for introducing me. Kind regards, Stian (Norway)

Sorry for your loss. Like so many others here, I was a heavy QModem user. My memory is for crap, but I think without it (and Ymodem-G and Zmodem protocols) BBS/warez life would have been unbearable.

It was like a doorway on a floppy disk.

QModem got passed around to the CS freshman by an older student when I started college in ‘89. It was my gateway to the local BBS scene where I made a lot of friendships, both online and at monthly “swap, meet the sysops” meetings we had at a local sub shop.

Just the other week I dug out my old Qmodem floppies, and I installed it on my retro Tandy 1000 TL. I used it with a null modem cable and USB serial to my Mac, where using something simple like picocom let me send files back and forth with Zmodem.

The built-in serial on this machine is too slow to be seriously useful (max sustained speed is 9600), but it was enough to send different network drivers to try without having to play with disk images and plug/unplug USB sticks from my floppy emulator to my Mac.

Qmodem was as familiar and useful as ever.

I was a happy customer of The Forbin Project. QModem was a great product. It's probably hard for younger people to appreciate how important terminal software once was.

I’m very sorry for your loss, and wish him and yourself the best in this next phase.

I have a very early memory related to QModemPro (too young to remember the original).

Sorry for your loss, and grateful to your dad for his contributions.

QModem was great software. I remember meeting many new friends from BBS days using that program. My condolences to you and your family.

The loss of a father is a big loss. This one in particular is like a world pillar just collapsed.

Another software engineer chiming with QModem being one of his childhood core memories. Sorry for your loss.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I remember buying licenses for Qmodem and later on Qmodem for Windows. I think I spent more time tweaking scripts to log me into various BBSs than I would have spent just typing in the username and password. But where's the fun in that?

Condolences, and thanks John Friel for the QModem memories.

Sorry for your loss. I was an avid Qmodem user back in the day.

Your father's software directly led to a lifetime passion for me. Dialing into a local BBS and being able to reach people around the world was, to me as a kid in the 80s, the single most magical thing imaginable.

My condolences. I wasn't a QModem user (my older friends used Terminate/Telemate so that's what I learned from them), but I was a heavy BBS user in the later scene which greatly benefitted from the ecosystem that grew thanks to QModem.

Qmodem is what got me into BBSes. I later switched to Terminat. Sorry for your loss, he contributed a lot to early communications that eventually led to the internet. I'll always have fond memories of the BBS era.

I knew nothing about him, but here's his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnnyMarauder

I ran a BBS for several years in the late 80s, early 90s as a teen and dialed out to countless others with the help of Focke’s BBS List and Qmodem - thank you so much John for your contributions. RIP.

My local bbs scene had a ton of qmodem fans; mostly older guys who had been around a while. It was the late 286 and early 386 days for us, and I was in late middle school and early high school.

is this his youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/@JohnnyMarauder , the last video is : "Getting an old copy of Qmodem running on a restored IBM 5150 PC." with

description: "I wrote Qmodem originally on an IBM PC Clone, the Tava PC. I've restored an actual IBM 5150 with the same cards and software from back in the day, and here it is running Qmodem V3.1"

I used QModem in the late 80s, accessing files on local BBSs on my 8086.

QModem, redialing, carrier connect speaker audio, ASCII art and BBSes were a huge part of my teen years. Big thanks to John, and a heartfelt RIP.

Wow, QModem! I wish a had a screenshot of my main QModem page with the top BBSs & dialups in my list. I never met John Friel, but his software changed my life.

Sometime around 1994, when I was 14, I remember using QModem to connect to my best friend's computer down the street. We spent all day sending text messages back and forth. Then I discovered BBSs and eventually an early version of the internet offered by my towns local library BBS. A whole world opened up from that moment.

Your father's work had a big impact on my life. I'm sorry for your loss.

I used qmodem as late as the 90s for transferring files from an SDF-like remote UNIX shell account to a home PC. Great program. RIP.

Qmodem was frickin awesome.

Myself and several friends used it exclusively back in the BBS days. Rest in peace.

QModem changed my life, and gave me an outlet and window to a whole new world as a young teen. My condolences. And my eternal gratitude to you, your father, and your family!

Glad to see all my Qmodem peeps in here again! If anyone has any pointers on how to get back into the BBS world, my interest is piqued.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I don't have anything super-personal to contribute except what has been said many times already: QModem was my first window on the digital world and a delightfully crafted tool. Developers of today (like me) could learn a lot from your dad.

I am sorry for your loss, OP.

QModem was my window to the world of BBS:es and FidoNet back before we got Internet.

This brings back so many memories. QModem was my go-to for online life back in my BBS days. Your father had an immeasurable impact in enabling the online world, which in turn fostered countless people like me who went on to careers in development / IT.

Used QModem as a young teen, and it was my gateway to connecting with people in my community via a very cheap laptop that only had a floppy drive (no HD). This experience shaped my future and my trajectory in tech, thanks to your dad.

Qmodem still runs on Linux. I’ve had to use it a few times to talk to serial devices.

Hello, is there an obituary?

QModem was my first modem program and I can still hear the sound of that little DOS-based 2400 BPS modem ringing in my ears. My best to you and your family and I'm so sorry for your lost.

I am so sorry for your loss. I used QMODEM a lot on my BBS years.

Could you please provide a link(s) to an obituary if/when it gets published?

Sorry to hear of you loss, and my condolences to you. Thanks in advance.

how many hours did i stare at the ZMODEM BATCH download screen waiting for my warez to finish at 4800 baud? innumerable! RIP.

Aaron, This is before my time but I want to send my condolences and also acknowledge the great title as it's rare here.

My condolences Aaron. Reading through these comments, it sounds like your dad left a great impression on the world.

Sorry for your loss OP. From reading the comments, your dad was pretty awesome. Hope the memories keep you company.

My condolences to you and your family.

I am sad for for your loss but glad he had such a large impact on my life and so many others.

I miss the BBS days and the good folk like John that were part of that community.

Sorry for your loss Aaron.

May he forever live in your heart.

So sorry for your loss

+++ATH

QModem was the best (until everyone started pushing zmodem).

Your father opened doors to other worlds and helped us humans reach one another.

I am so sorry for your loss.

+++ATH

So sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss. Like many others QModem was a huge part of me getting into computers. I loved the shit out of QModem, ATH0 ride or die.

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my condolences

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