Welcome back, TranceDude... Hope you will be more friendly under your new handle.

The BBS software is the "Server" side software, the "Client" software is called "Terminal". You'll be using a Terminal programm to call a BBS. Sorry, i didn't try that with DOSBox yet - it's on my "To-Do-With-DOSBox"-List.

And how do that "still existing BBS" communicate with the outside world?

The technology is quite obsolete today, but i believe there are still "Old-School" BBS's online today. BBS's were a major part of the "scene culture" (both the demo and the... other scene), and for that reason alone, many people like them and are interested in the technology.

Most of the still active BBS's can be connected to via Telnet, and there still should be some that are connectable via Modem/ISDN.

See the WikiPedia entry for more information.

so nobody hasn't actually tried to run a BBS terminal in DOSBox to see if it works and/or can give me some tips on how to configure DOSBox to make the connection with the BSS server work?

thx

DOSBOX usage on a BBS
BBS Software under DOSBox?
FOSSIL support

I downloaded Procomm Plus for DOS a few days ago and tried to connect to some telnet BBS' myself. I couldn't make it work correctly using a dial entry and simply had to manually key the ATDT command with the ip/domain : port as follows:

ATDTonline.bbsnet.com:23

That would get me connected and all the color would be enabled. Trying to replicate the same thing using a dial entry in PCPlus always resulted in a one color display for the BBS. The only thing that I haven't gotten working is file transfers. That's not really a big deal though.

When using a dial entry, the program would begin to dial and though it would immediately connect, the program would think it was still dialing until it hits your time limit to try again. The trick is start it dialing for a few seconds and then hit ESC to go back to the "console" and you will see you have been connected to the BBS.

Of course dial entries don't work 100% so manually keying in the ATDT command on the console, while less convienent, seems to work better. There may be a better solution however as this information is the result of only a few hours of messing around.

One more thing: Be sure to have the line serial1=modem in your dosbox.conf file. As that is what allows you to telnet using the COM port from within DOSBox.

EDIT: Oh and one more thing: When DOSBox has trouble with the connection, the app appears to lock up and not be responsive until the issue can be resolved. I've seen DOSBox crash as a result of this. This is worth keeping in mind. However I'm using a custom build of DOSBox under OS X, so this problem may be limited to just my build. I haven't tried this on any official compliations yet.

Did you read about the nullmodem in the dosbox readme?

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Did you read about the nullmodem in the dosbox readme?

yes but I have no experience at all using old modems, so maybe somebody knows what setting I have to choose there to try a BBS terminal in DOSBox?

thx

Read my post man. It tells you everything you need to know to at least get started. I've even made a screenshot proving it to you. This was a connection I made to online.bbsnets.com:23 through Procomm Plus. Please take note: This didn't require an old modem or any modem at all.

Yes they use telnet. Here is a good listing of active telnet BBSes:

http://www.dmine.com/telnet/

You can even use telnet at the Windows command prompt to connect to one of these directly from within Windows. I use Procomm Plus for the nostalgia aspect as that is what I used when I originally got my first 2400 baud modem.

Ahhhhh... the memories.

*** This topic has been cleansed from insane comments that really belonged in Milliways ***

darkgamorck wrote:

You can even use telnet at the Windows command prompt to connect to one of these directly from within Windows. .

are you sure this works? I tried to connect to the BBS you have connected to, using windows telnet and I got:

Microsoft Telnet> o online.bbsnets.com:23
Connecting To online.bbsnets.com:23...Could not open connection to the host, on port 23: Connect failed

Do your own tech support please. What you describe could be any number of issues, firewall, router, user error, site down, site rejecting you, site firewalled etc. etc.

Try another one from http://www.dmine.com/telnet/bbslist.asp

dh4rm4 wrote:

Do your own tech support please. What you describe could be any number of issues, firewall, router, user error, site down, site rejecting you, site firewalled etc. etc.

To be fair, while the address did work a few days ago... the name resolution for the domain I gave him has been changed. The name online.bbsnets.com now resolves to 255.255.255.255. So yeah, that example will no longer work.

Just try another one off the list. At least one of 400 will work.

Unless you haven't worked it out, he/she has a penchant for wasting people's time. He already is well aware of BBS techniques, telnet (note that he already uses the o shorthand in one command string, without being shown how) and how it all works. He just loves creating discussions were people seemingly 'help out' but really it's all just <attention grabbing and self gratification> a 'cute' way of trying to make friends over the internet. 😀

Still try to be nice 😀