Back in the 1990’s it was all about the dial ups. ( CompuServe, AOL, EarthLink, AT&T, WebTV, etc. ).
Are there any dialups still around ?
If so what are they and how can one login ?
I want to experience a true dialup BBS server from the 1990’s
There are still a very few dial-up BBS in existence, but don't expect them to last much longer for practical reasons: First of all you need to have one locally because of the calling cost (and I doubt there are more than 20 worldwide as we speak), then telephony is switching to voip all over the world and in many countries POTS is already history. So there's really no point maintaining a dial up BBS that receives 5 calls per year at best (yes, those are the numbers).
Most SysOps who still run their BBS (including myself) adapted to modern era, which means adding a telnet -> FOSSIL layer and made their BBS available over the internet through telnet or a web page plugin. Although a BBS nowadays is of no practical use, at least a much larger audience can be addressed so there is a meaning in keeping it running as an exhibit.
Just to make something clear for people who have no prior experience with BBS, accessing one over the internet doesn't ruin the experience. You just skip the dialing part, but after that the experience is authentic. Even proper modem speeds are emulated, you'll be seeing ansis loading at dial-up speed. So if you're not mostly interested in the actual dialing-up but in seeing the real thing, https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/ has a list of BBS you can connect to. Start with mine 🤣
(btw, Wildcat is just one BBS software, there are many more the BBS scene used)
wrote:Back in the 1990’s it was all about the dial ups. ( CompuServe, AOL, EarthLink, AT&T, WebTV, etc. ). Are there any dialups still […]
Back in the 1990’s it was all about the dial ups. ( CompuServe, AOL, EarthLink, AT&T, WebTV, etc. ).
Are there any dialups still around ?
If so what are they and how can one login ?I want to experience a true dialup BBS server from the 1990’s
Funny you should mention this. Ran across a sealed vintage copy of Wildcat here:
What is required to setup a wildcat BBS server on a computer ?
Besides a modem obviously.
What CPU and Ram and disk space minimum requirements are required ?
wrote:What is required to setup a wildcat BBS server on a computer ?
Besides a modem obviously.
What CPU and Ram and disk space minimum requirements are required ?
Which version? Wildact spans from late 80s until today, where not even the demo is free...
Also a modem is definitely not a requirement.
wrote:Most SysOps who still run their BBS (including myself) adapted to modern era, which means adding a telnet -> FOSSIL layer and made their BBS available over the internet through telnet or a web page plugin. Although a BBS nowadays is of no practical use, at least a much larger audience can be addressed so there is a meaning in keeping it running as an exhibit.
Could a BBS be piped through a set of virtual serial ports and converted to telnet via standard serial tools? I wonder if such a solution (using DOSEMU or something similar) wouldn't provide a safer alternative to a fully exposed Windows machine.
All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder
wrote:Could a BBS be piped through a set of virtual serial ports and converted to telnet via standard serial tools? I wonder if such a solution (using DOSEMU or something similar) wouldn't provide a safer alternative to a fully exposed Windows machine.
It doesn't need to be "a fully exposed Windows machine", all of these ancient BBS software have known holes that are far more worrying than that. Running in a VM is the way to go mainly because
-you can easily isolate it from the rest of your network
-makes backup and restore super easy when some idiot pretends to be a hacker by googling 30 years old software holes
-most important: you need, you really need modern solutions to cut off bots and malware (remember Mirai?) trying to connect. You can't imaging the amount of connection attempts you'll get as soon as you expose a telnet connection, it's 1000s per day
So yeah, it may not be DOSEMU but you are correct, it helps virtualizing it.
wrote:It doesn't need to be "a fully exposed Windows machine", all of these ancient BBS software have known holes that are far more wo […]
It doesn't need to be "a fully exposed Windows machine", all of these ancient BBS software have known holes that are far more worrying than that. Running in a VM is the way to go mainly because
-you can easily isolate it from the rest of your network
-makes backup and restore super easy when some idiot pretends to be a hacker by googling 30 years old software holes
-most important: you need, you really need modern solutions to cut off bots and malware (remember Mirai?) trying to connect. You can't imaging the amount of connection attempts you'll get as soon as you expose a telnet connection, it's 1000s per day
So yeah, it may not be DOSEMU but you are correct, it helps virtualizing it.
My thinking was specifically how to avoid a compatibility layer in the OS and provide a virtualized serial connection pool instead. That way you have compatibility at the platform level and can apply the solution much more universally. But, yes, snapshots would certainly be the rule.
I would believe the number of connection attempts. My permanent blacklist for fail2ban is over 34000 entries.
All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder
wrote:Back in the 1990’s it was all about the dial ups. ( CompuServe, AOL, EarthLink, AT&T, WebTV, etc. ). Are there any dialups still […]
Back in the 1990’s it was all about the dial ups. ( CompuServe, AOL, EarthLink, AT&T, WebTV, etc. ).
Are there any dialups still around ?
If so what are they and how can one login ?I want to experience a true dialup BBS server from the 1990’s
A few years back I wanted a true BBS experiencing through Dial-Up, since although I am from the age of Dial-Up Internet, we never got our first modem until around 96so I missed the BBS age and went straight to the internet days. I was able to Dial Up to a number of BBS's still offering Dial-up, and connected over both 300 baud! yes 300 Baud! and 2400 baud. 300 Baud is very tricky to get going today, because most land lines are over VoIP these days, and it just doesn't work properly for various reasons. You'll encounter lots of corruption, if you can connect at all. Luckily for me, my Phone Provider is still over good old Copper Wire, no voip, so 300 baud worked for the most part. A few occasional drops. 2400 baud however worked without any issues. It's definitely something everyone who's into old equipment should experience, seeing the screen refresh one line at a time, 30 characters a second. The PC I used was a 486sx 33, 4mb, running Dos 5.0 and the terminal software Telix.
I wish somebody would invent the home BBS for people who collect multiple pre ethernet era machines but still need to have access to files from a central location.
Collector of old computers, hardware, and software
You can use a linux box as a go between to internet BBSs using serial or parallel ports. You can set them up a terminals as well. This link is old but it'll give you an idea of how it works. http://www.sorgonet.com/8086/8088_linux_dumb_terminal/
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
