First of all, it would help if the virtual modem actually worked in 0.63 (the port opens up, but that's about it)...

I've checked the current builds and I can't seem to replicate the error everyone is having with the virtual modem stuff. I'll keep trying though.

But yes, when its operating normally the virtual modem should produce a RING on receipt of a connection and autoconnect if the modem was setup that way with the AT command set.

There is still BBS software around that has been updated to run BBSes via Telnet though. Synchronet (aka SBBS), the software I used to run my own dialup BBS back in the day, is among these and can be found here:
http://www.synchro.net

It's got everything and it's FREE and open source! I'm pretty sure it even lets you run door games on telnet (probably by providing a fossil driver). There's a Linux port too.

I know this is an old topic, but I was wondering if it were possible to use Synchronet (on WinXP) normally and start up just the old DOS doors under DOSBox? I'm not home now, so I'll have to experiment later.

I played with TAME for a little while, but I run a 10 node BBS and the licenses for TAME cost $150. I'm not sure if I want to invest that kind of cash at this time. (Especially since I never have 10 users at one time) Also, I haven't experimented enough with it to be sure its worth buying. 😮

Oh well, I'll report back any results I get trying DOSbox in this manner. (if it works this way at all).

Thanks

-Mindless Automaton

I've wondered about that too. If it's possible, it would be even more useful under all modern OSes with DOSBox ports.

Are you looking for this?

No, we're looking to run the Telnet flavor of SBBS and have it use DOSBox to run old DOS door games that don't know anything about Telnet but instead directly talk to the COM ports.

That is what actually happens here: The terminal client (SBBS) talks to the virtual modem via COM port, the virtual modem connects to an Internet server by Telnet.

Yes, but what I'm saying is that Synchronet itself doesn't need to run inside of DOSBox if the host OS is Windows or Linux, as it has telnet and other Internet-aware features built-in. Therefore, the optimal solution would be to run SBBS natively in Windows/Linux and just use DOSBox for running door games and whatnot.

Still, it is good to know that it can be done the way you suggested, as it means that old BBS software without built-in Telnet support can be used for running Telnet BBSes 😀

Exactly. From the Win32/Synchronet, I'd just want to be able to do something like:

dosbox.exe c:\sbbs\xtrn\melee.exe /N%# /P%f

I actually got Melee & Ultimate Universe to fire off independent of the bbs.. (unfortunately Melee locked up in the logo screen) No luck starting from the bbs however.

-Mindless Automaton

Note that you can set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=none, to prevent any window from appearing. Might be useful to you... 😉

Alright, just for an update to my search..

Our guy Deuce who ports a ton of doors to *nix and does some heavy work on Synchronet BBS has provided a patch to support socket inheritance with Dosbox!

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func … 551&atid=467234

I have yet to compile myself a dosbox with this patch, but it sounds like what I've been looking for.. woo hoo!

If I get something worked out (Deuce says he uses it, so it must work) I'll drop another note here to let everyone know.

Thanks,

-Mindless Automaton

That's great news. This means that BBS door games designed for running over a modem on DOS can instead run over telnet on any OS supported by DOSBox.

I really need to sort through all of my door games.....I wonder what the best Door software for DosBox would be? I was pretty much just a user back in those days just playing the actual door games so I have no experience with the server side of it......

Well Synchronet is what I used when I ran a dialup BBS in the late 90s. It's free and is still being developed - it is now a fully functional Telnet and dialup BBS for Windows, DOS, OS/2 and Linux. What's great about this new DOSBox patch is that you can run a telnet-based Synchronet BBS on, say, Linux, and then have it pass off the telnet connection to DOSBox for running DOS-based door games that were designed to run over a modem.

Most door games will let you run them directly in local/sysop mode though, so you don't really need to set up a BBS to launch them.

Hi all,

I have managed to get Iniquity (yes DOS version) to work in CVS dosbox with quite a few doors. The only 2 I had problem with are Usurper (crashes dosbox) and LORE (doesn't see the modem).

Darklands crashes dosbox in real mode with the tppatch enabled which is quite unusual. DPMI mode works fine.

For multinode I have to mount the directory for the bbs as floppy, else the hard drive cache is getting in the way. It would be nice to disable that feature. There are a few hiccups here and there, however I can't be sure if it is a bug in the program or dosbox.

A bug that I have in Dosbox however is that the date never increases, only the time. So instead of moving forward, hours just keep adding on. I left it alone for a few days and it went to 56h before I stopped it. I have to restart dosbox for it to reset.

Is it possible to get it to synchronise the time with the host too ?
It lags by a few minutes in dosbox every day.

shameless plug: telnet://bbs.nuitari.net

nuitari: You might try using a FOSSIL driver to create a compatibility layer between door software and the virtual modem.

I should mention in case any DOSBox devs are reading that "multinode" means running multiple copies of the BBS software to listen to multiple modems on the same system to allow more than one user to connect to the BBS at the same time. Most DOS-based BBS software uses semaphore files to handle multinode operations, which is probably stressing DOSBox's disk code.

Also, it would be really great if someone were to build a FOSSIL interface into DOSBox's modem-over-telnet emulation, if that would even be possible.

I am using ADF which is working quite well for all doors and the actual bbs. Lore is just the only one having a problem seeing it for some obscure reason. An internal fossil implementation would be great of course 😀

Multinode is ok as long as I leave the emulation as the floppy type, but it can create problems with programs which helpfully detects the free hard drive space.

Is there a way to have dosbox use small caps file names when creating new files on the Linux system ?

Does anyone know in which place the date and time of dosbox is internally kept ?

I can give it a shot to fix that bug, but I have clue where in the code sets it up.