Editing Direct Connect (protocol) (section)

==History==
NeoModus was started as a company funded by the [[adware]] "Direct Connect" by Jon Hess in November, 1999 while he was in high school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.12.01/work-0128.html|title=Sharing the Data|access-date=2006-10-16|author=Annalee Newitz|date=July 2001|work=Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper|publisher=Metro Publishing Inc|archive-date=2021-01-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121092449/http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.12.01/work-0128.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first third-party client was called "DClite", which never fully supported the file sharing aspects of the protocol. Hess released a new version of Direct Connect, requiring a simple [[encryption key]] to initiate a connection, locking out third-party clients. The encryption key was cracked, and the author of DClite released a new version of DClite compatible with the new software from NeoModus. Some time after, DClite was rewritten as Open Direct Connect with the purpose of having an MDI user interface and using plug-ins for file sharing protocols (similar to [[MLDonkey]]). Open Direct Connect also did not have complete support for the full file sharing aspects of the protocol, but a port to [[Java (software platform)|Java]], however, did. Later on, other clients such as DCTC (Direct Connect Text Client) and [[DC++]] became popular.

The DCDev archive<ref>[https://archive.dcbase.org/dcdev_mail/ The DCDev archive] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220045744/https://archive.dcbase.org/dcdev_mail/ |date=2016-12-20 }}</ref> contains discussions of protocol changes for development of DC in the years 2003–2005.