# USR Total Control Mailing List Archive

## What This Is

Monthly archives of the `usr-tc` mailing list (hosted at `lists.xmission.com` via Majordomo). The list served ISP operators and network engineers running USR/3Com Total Control dial-up chassis equipment. This is a primary source for researching 1990s dialup ISP operations.

## Archive Data

- **Coverage:** February 1995 through November 2001 (~6.5 years)
- **Volume:** ~19,243 messages from ~1,201 unique senders
- **Size:** ~19 MB raw text
- **Format:** Concatenated mbox-style monthly digests. Messages separated by lines of dashes (`---...---`). Each message has `From:`, `Subject:`, `Date:` headers followed by body text.
- **File naming:** `usr-tc.YYMM` for 1995-1997, `usr-tc.YYYYMM` for 1999-2001
- **Some months are missing** (no 9503, 9509, 9711, etc.)
- **Hosted on a CIFS/SMB network mount** — SQLite databases cannot be created here (file locking doesn't work). The search index lives at `~/.local/share/usr-tc-archive/usr-tc-archive.db`.

## Tools Created

### parse_archive.py
Parses all `usr-tc.*` archive files and loads them into a SQLite FTS5 database at `~/.local/share/usr-tc-archive/usr-tc-archive.db`. Run this to rebuild the index if archives change.

### search.py
CLI search tool. Queries the SQLite FTS5 index. Supports:
- Full-text search with FTS5 syntax (AND, OR, NOT, phrases)
- Filter by sender (`--from`), year (`--year`), subject only (`--subject-only`)
- Thread grouping (`--list-threads`)
- Stats (`--stats`) and top posters (`--top-posters`)
- Pagination (`--offset`, `-n`)
- Single message view (`--id`)

### generate_site.py
Generates a complete static HTML website in `site/` from the SQLite database. No external dependencies. Output is ~50 MB across 81 files (77 monthly pages + index + stats + CSS + search JSON). Can be deployed to any static web host.

### web.py
Self-contained dynamic web interface (Python standard library only). Serves HTML + JSON API on port 8888. Alternative to the static site if Python is available on the server.

## Key Topics in the Archive

- Modem pool management (V.34, V.90, K56flex, HiperDSP cards)
- RADIUS authentication and accounting
- ISDN PRI/BRI configuration and interop
- Firmware versions, bugs, and upgrades
- UDP/Quake/RealAudio performance issues
- Competitor comparisons (Ascend MAX, Livingston PortMaster, Cisco)
- 3Com support quality and contract complaints
- The USR-to-3Com corporate transition
- ISP business operations (pricing, scaling)

## Activity Profile

- **1995-1996:** Sparse (1-19 msgs/month). University early adopters.
- **1997:** Growing (54-490 msgs/month). ISP operator community forming.
- **1998:** Peak (471-878 msgs/month). 3Com acquisition, V.90/K56flex wars.
- **1999:** Still high (310-673 msgs/month).
- **2000:** Declining (69-646 msgs/month). DSL/cable era.
- **2001:** Winding down (19-201 msgs/month). Equipment end-of-life.

## Other Files

- `robots.txt` — Original robots.txt from xmission.com where archives were hosted
- `i` — Separator line artifact from original archive
- `readme.txt` — Human-readable summary of the archive and tool usage