freelan.bereg.ru was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod building-based local network "Freedom Lan," described in the nn.ru directory as "a free Nizhny Novgorod local network with high-speed Internet access"[1]. The network covered an area of Nizhny Novgorod "from the 'avtovokzal' (bus station) stop to the start of the student campus on Gagarin Avenue"[2] and was created on April 22, 2001[1].

What the site looked like and what it offered

The home page rested on a minimalist list of sections: "Latest network news," "For network users," "About the network (History)," "Network map," "Network capabilities," "Connecting to the network," "Network rules (Charter)," "Dial-up access to the network," "Twisted-pair wiring," "Photo gallery," "Flea market," and "Guest book"[1]. As the home page stated, connecting to the network was "FREE": "we're simply a group of people with shared interests who've pooled their computers"[2]. The only paid component was Internet traffic itself — "100 Mbit internet, 2 rubles 96 kopecks per incoming megabyte" — while every participant received a free external real IP address with no port restrictions and no subscription fee[2]. Within the network, participants maintained a shared pool of films and music totaling "about 500 GB"[2]. On May 3, 2002, the network, by its own account, carried out a "global satellite project": it installed a satellite dish and took out a subscription to Europe Online, and on June 20, 2002 it launched a "satellite portal" into test operation, offering satellite television and data downloads via Europe Online Networks (Astra 19.2)[1]. By the end of 2004 the page noted that the satellite portal was "temporarily not working"[2]. Technical support for the network rested on two contacts: Pavel (ICQ 116651196, freeinet2@mail.ru) and Leha (ICQ 513340, leha33@mail.ru); the site design was credited to Pavel Lotovich[1]. Visitors could also send pager messages through the operators "VessoLink-NN," "Raduga-Poisk," and "Mobil Telecom" (all Nizhny Novgorod) and "Radio-Poisk" (Sarov), though the pager number itself was left blank in the page's captures[1]. In the "Tips for beginner surfers" section, the page explained how to configure the network (IP, DNS), email, ICQ, a proxy server, IRC, and the Vypress Chat program[1]. By 2006 the set of sections on the home page had barely changed, except that the news section had gained an item dated May 20, 2003 explaining the terms of connection and warning that the network was a "NON-COMMERCIAL LOCAL HOME NETWORK"[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site was recorded in the nn.ru directory (the "/rub/" section)[1]. No votes for it are recorded in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day 2004 data, nor any positions in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating in our sources — this is not evidence of zero traffic, but a gap in the available sample; for more on the measurement method, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. The site itself counted itself among the family of Nizhny Novgorod building-based networks, and on its home page listed its neighbors in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet: Lightnet (Shcherbinki), "Yarmarka Net," NewNet, NestNet, and the general "Site of Nizhny Novgorod home networks"[1].

How it closed

The census record card lists the domain's status as "domain does not exist" and contains no information about a move to another address[3]. The last known web-archive capture of the home page is dated September 26, 2006; its text almost verbatim repeats the May 20, 2003 item about connection rules and free access[3], which suggests the page had been abandoned rather than that the network was actively developing in its final years.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2006 (archive)