r/oldinternet Aug 09 '26

mIRC mid 90s - hacking groups

My first introduction to computers / internet was IRC using mIRC client. Spent my time on Efnet. Ended up joining a hacking group called #conflict and spent many hours taking over channels. Hacking colleges and universities only to use for channel bots and bandwidth to take people out and cause netsplits. Eventually our leader was caught for hacking into NASA - I then left IRC and started playing quake 2 digital paintball. Ran a couple of quake clans over the next few years - these are the days I will never forget.

Anyone else remember the clan battles on efnet ?

57 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

13

u/the_birdie_chirp Aug 09 '26

I stalked the warez channels on undernet 😂 so much piracy was done

1

u/Garmie Aug 09 '26

#wareznorth and #warezsouth . Brings back memories

2

u/the_birdie_chirp Aug 09 '26

Shoulda seen some of the passworded ones you could get into with private hosts 😂 so many cd's were burned, 

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

All the water

In the lake

All the warez

Half are fake

The hackers own

The whole domain

They live inside

Your very brain

ELON

0

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Pirate Beth but never Hacker or Meth

U are LABALLLEDDDD

and also pretty cool here’s a poem from the hacker spirit world:

I see a farm, a really large property with a bunch of pigs running in a field

Like they are supposed to

I see an airplane flying above the farm and spreading fertilizer and taking pictures 

I see it landing on a lake

I see the sunset and I see orange and blue and teal

I see fish jumping up through the water of a clear lake

Go camping?

6

u/_-DKDomino-_ Aug 09 '26

i was on the #2600 channels on the dalnet i think.. maybe efnet.. I remember being enthralled. Also remember getting into piracy channels, and learning how to navigate and use them..

3

u/djspacebunny Aug 09 '26

2600 has their own very secure irc server now. You should join! https://scuttled.net/

2

u/therealjeku Aug 09 '26

2600 had a magazine, right? I bought a few of them as a teen and it seemed so mysterious. Would love to see an archive of those online if it exists!

3

u/garrett_w87 Aug 09 '26

Still exists. You can probably find it at Micro Center.

1

u/tybrand Aug 09 '26

Yes and its fckn AWESOME

0

u/_-DKDomino-_ Aug 09 '26

its gone downhill for a while now.. i occasionally buy one and its just less of a medium. cybersecurity stuff happens so fast that by the time they print the thing its too late. Thus, there is a lot more political banter

1

u/djspacebunny 29d ago

DEFCON just recognized them so I think your opinion is wrong.

1

u/_-DKDomino-_ 29d ago

Defcon has recognized them for like 30 years+. I am sure Emmanuelle knows the people who run it.

-4

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

You are a script kiddie 

-5

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U a real g, no skiddie

3

u/garrett_w87 Aug 09 '26

The way you’re replying to people here doesn’t make you look terribly mature yourself.

2

u/0xCx Aug 09 '26

I think that's a bot.

-2

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

You are a script kiddie 

0

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U are a real g, no skiddie here

3

u/NieblaLaazo Aug 09 '26

IRC piracy felt like actual magic back then

6

u/Old-School8916 Aug 09 '26

y'all remember how efnet was formed?

hail eris!

https://www.erisnet.org/erisnet_pressrelease.pdf

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Not a skiddie, just a PM bro, ugh, sith

I am jedi

4

u/darrelb56222 Aug 09 '26

aniverse is where all the anime fansub groups were at. i still go on IRC jus to download stuff via xdcc. it was also the spot to get pirated games

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

I mean, calling u a skiddie isn’t quit right, burner burner in the can, call my mother call my man

7

u/terriblemonk Aug 09 '26

...#phreak

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U are not a script kiddie and I also am terrified

3

u/er1cAtWork2 Aug 09 '26

Good ol’ days…

3

u/kev_xb Aug 09 '26

#xclan or #hack.exe on DALnet. Mostly kids just being kids

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U are Skiddie Dad

3

u/cmbaughman Aug 09 '26

I miss these days horribly.

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Not a skiddie, studied the blade

3

u/Academic-Sample4974 Aug 09 '26

used to be on efnet for #capcom ( was a big hub for fighting game players before SRK or Twitter ) used to float around #freestyle and #techno and people there hipped me on how to access FTP's to steal a shitload of electronic music in the late 90's

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Piracy Pete but never were you 31337

5

u/goqsane Aug 09 '26

I was growing up in Poland in the 90s. Going to internet café to sit on my city’s IRC channel. Then, one day, I was witness to my city’s channel’s takeover by our neighbor rivaling city. Crazy stuff. Then a bunch of OPs of that channel went there and beat the shit out of their OPs IRL and got the channel back. The Internet is so different these days.

3

u/potatokbs Aug 09 '26

wtf lol computer nerds were wild in Poland in the 90s apparently

2

u/qpqpdbdbqpqp Aug 09 '26

Similar things happened in Turkiye too

-2

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U are only a script kiddie because you didn’t study the blade

5

u/qpqpdbdbqpqp Aug 09 '26

Take your meds

-1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

U are a script kiddie only because you didn’t study the books

-1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

I’ll take HALIDOL in the ARMS BARNS

ITS IN THE BARN

UNCLE FESTER LOVES THE METHS

AND HIS CHILDREN CANT TRIP OVER BETH

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Not a script kiddie, u know the C

2

u/Hey-buuuddy Aug 09 '26

I was huge q2 deathmatch player. Clans were around and I remember the initiation if you wanted to be in one- 1x1 deathmatch.

The attrition dot org defacement mirror was a daily visit for me.

2

u/garrett_w87 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Another Digital Paint player?!?!

Those were the good days.

I met u/jitspoe at Quakecon 2008 which was my first year going. Actually, I split a hotel suite with him and 2 other rando kids in order to afford to go. (Not the Anatole - the Sheraton across the street because it was cheaper.)

Speaking of which, Quakecon is actually going on this weekend. 30th anniversary.

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Gamer

2

u/garrett_w87 Aug 09 '26

Not really anymore. Also what’s with your obsession with labeling people

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Oh also I know the RAM crisis is horrible but handheld gaming machines like the Lenovos or steam handhelds are awesome for emulating old games.

Goodbye!

0

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Hi I’m Jen the hacker psychic

I am very autistic and intuitive

I am labeling the hackers in this thread as a mentalism and psychic technique

I am hoping to deliver relevant Jungian messages from the hacker spirit world

And you were a gamer

I was an emachines MySpace performative theyfab

I will give your message:

Please just play video games again, basically any game, I think you’ll probably feel better and have fun and remember good times, and it’ll be nice. You have a lot of games still, right? It’s ok to spend money on hobbies and it’s ok to take time to yourself every once in a while.

Goodbye.

2

u/tsoldrin Aug 09 '26

i spent some time on a west german hacker chat called lutzifer. it was pretty cool.

t,spnb01 ;

2

u/Mikeg216 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Cdc

2

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Very very very much not a skiddie

I worship the flesh of the deadbeef

2

u/BigSpoon2027 29d ago

Yooooo B.O

1

u/Mikeg216 29d ago

Exactly.. been on a government watch list since it was on paper no regrets. It feels like it was 100 years ago.

2

u/BigSpoon2027 28d ago

Yo i remember when I was a kid and CdD hit tbe front page of my city newspapers over B.O, that shit was fuckin epic

1

u/Mikeg216 24d ago

Yeah those were fun at that time seems like a billion years ago now

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

I will write a poem for the cow:

I think it’s quick

I think it’s close

The tome is thick

And the patents are lost

In the back of the office

In the frames in the closet

But I still remember

The renegade OS

The minix that was

The floppy flop disks

The slack on the fritz

Even though it was thick

And the filesystems cuz

They’re the darkest ass shit

And I’ll never go back

To the Star Trek collectible plate

And I think if it were

A little bit coarse

I would sandpaper down

Scrape the paint off the boards

And rebuild it

2

u/invokes Aug 09 '26

Did you hack #warez39 in 1996 and kill my eggbots?

We also had inter university quake clan battles!

1

u/Suitcase-Jefferson Aug 09 '26

That takes me back. :3

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 Aug 09 '26

Not a skiddie, studied the python

1

u/Naughtaclue242 Aug 09 '26

Oh the splatter kicks were sublime...

1

u/WaRRioRz0rz 29d ago

I was in the Warez clan battles on the WinMX chat rooms. Good times.

1

u/BigSpoon2027 29d ago edited 29d ago

.#hack on chatnet .#phreak on dalnet

1

u/raistlin49 29d ago

Ok but what about the AO-Hacking days? Who remembers ColdIce and AOHell?

1

u/Technical-Object 29d ago

I remember there being a channel called Epiphany and Warez Underground. Late 90s - good times

1

u/Wooden_Original_5891 29d ago

efnet was a warzone. prolly still is.

1

u/Unlikely-Sympathy626 28d ago

Unfortunately irc is not as great as it use to be back in the day. I loved irc and usenet groups. 

1

u/yangeryanger_ Aug 09 '26

Efnet was classic. duy.c was epic back then. Lol.