Hotline

Release: 1997

History:  Australian programmer Adam Hinckley created the Hotline software at age 17.  He relocated to Canada where he and cofounder Jason Roks formed Hotline Communications, Ltd.  Later, Hinckley left the company after major disagreements with colleagues.  He encrypted the source before leaving which spurred a lawsuit and he eventually lost copyright to the AppWarrior applicaton.   A company, Hotsprings, Inc acquired the assets  of Hotline in 2002.  They abandoned development in 2003.  The network is no longer officially in use.

Function & Technologies:  Hotline functions as a chat, message board and file transfer utility.  It operates on the client-server model.    The Hotline software had three subsets:

• Hotline Client – method of accessing Hotline servers through IP entry
• Hotline Server – server configuration application
• Hotline Tracker – a name server

Types of Files Exchanged:

Availability: Although, development of the Hotline application has ceased years ago,  a few loyal community members have kept the network alive through maintaining Hotline servers.  Below, you’ll find downloads for Hotline clients that are still functional: