• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Anyone ever set up a BBS?

N

NoiseBox

Joined
Feb 1, 2022
Messages
87 (0.07/day)
So I've been considering using a spare PC and set up an old-school BBS. Unsure why the idea entered my head, but it seems there is still a thriving BBS culture and hey why not?
Doing some brief looking about for software, Synchronet seems to be a popular choice, but I"m really out of my depth here.
To paraphrase someone way more famous than I am, "I don't know what I don't know."

In other words, I"m not even sure where to start in my learning, so I'm reaching out to you guys in hopes someone has been down this path before, and can help me out.
 
Wow, that takes me back.
I did actually set up a BBS once, but it was to play VGA Planets with a few friends. It's been almost 30 years now...

Sorry, that's not helpful, but you did offer me a trip down memory lane.
 
bug said:
Sorry, that's not helpful, but you did offer me a trip down memory lane.
Click to expand...
Never under-estimate the power of nostalgia!
I've been in IT all my life, and frankly, I'm bored by it. I'm not a gamer so having the latest and greatest isn't important to me (hell, my workstation is an Ivy bridge dual Xeon setup) and my day job is in the gov't, so Lord knows we don't do anything there, which eaves me with plenty of time to think about what to do with the spare systems we IT people seem to accumulate.

I've worked with some pretty obscure systems in my time (BeOS anyone?) and setting up a BBS seems like it might at least be an interesting diversion from the daily ho-hum.
 
I've had the same idea a few years back, but it's still sitting somewhere on the backburner along with my tech blog and tons of other unfinished projects )))
Synchronet is probably the best option, since it's one of the very few still supported projects, and has good documentation.
Though, I would suggest making it a bit more secure (telnet is plaintext, definitely a no-go if it's going to be online). In theory it does support SSH connections, but I've also heard it has issues. Not sure if you can tunnel it over SSH or reverse proxy, but I guess it's doable. I can run some tests on the weekend.
 
Heh good old times, I ran a couple of BBS's as teenager .. using PCBoard .. on OS/2 .. even wrote my own plugins in their PPL/PPE language..
 
silentbogo said:
(telnet is plaintext, definitely a no-go if it's going to be online)
Click to expand...
I did see some documentation about locking down Synchronet and was somewhat surprised it was so...."lax" with security out of the box.
W1zzard said:
on OS/2
Click to expand...
A lifetime ago I was a building inspector and we were working on a bank while a guy was there to work on the ATM, which ran OS/2 Warp, as the fun days when there seemed to be real options for OSes...but that's a story for another time.
 
NoiseBox said:
A lifetime ago I was a building inspector and we were working on a bank while a guy was there to work on the ATM, which ran OS/2 Warp, as the fun days when there seemed to be real options for OSes...but that's a story for another time.
Click to expand...
OS/2 was really awesome and reminds me a bit of how we're using hardware today with VMs and Docker ..
 
Why won't you build a website that looks like a BBS? So people will not have to use telnet clients and such.
 
NoiseBox said:
An interesting idea, but I'm simply not very good with HTML and webdesign.
Click to expand...
There are website that can load DOS games and such. Would be awesome to have something like that just for BBS. With text input and all.
 
It has another benefit of filtering out riff-raff. An unintended sanity check, even if you run an open bullet-in board. E.g. a person must at least know what a BBS is and how to use it.
Kinda like thematic semi-open forums on electronics repair or other nerdy topics, where you have to pass a short quiz before they let you in.
My idea was a closed board for my friends and colleagues, along with working on an old-school MUD. But as usual - work gets on the way.
 
wow, what a throwback!

I ran a BBS in the 90s called "Cybernetic Meltdown" in the Houston area.

I mainly ran renegade BBS software, also used iniquity for a while.

This was obviously all dialup based, I wouldn't really know how to do it or access it today.. telnet possibly?
 
Oh man, for the longest time I got all my IT jobs via the DICE BBS. I recall playing around with a Tomcat server.
 
skates said:
I recall playing around with a Tomcat server.
Click to expand...
The powah of nostalgia compels you to help me out! :peace:
I think if I manage to get this going, I shall do a limited closed-beta run with my new friends here from this thread, work out all the bugs etc.
 
NoiseBox said:
The powah of nostalgia compels you to help me out! :peace:
I think if I manage to get this going, I shall do a limited closed-beta run with my new friends here from this thread, work out all the bugs etc.
Click to expand...
Ha, ha. Yes, as you stated, try synchro.net They just released 3.19 it seems straightforward enough. What's the content of the BBS you are looking to bring to life?
 
skates said:
What's the content of the BBS you are looking to bring to life?
Click to expand...
Well I suppose that's a little more challenging...
I actually have, somewhere on one of my many NAS devices, my old collection of DOS games, Nuclear War, Command Keen series, Bolo, and so forth. Also, being a...errr...fetish photographer, I thought putting up a collection of my work, resampled to era-appropriate EGA/256 colour VGA, might be amusing.
Synchro.net seems to also offer internal e.mail, and possibly an FTP site, but I need to investigate that further as I just skimmed over the notes.

This will be a technical/learning exercise for me and I certainly don't expect to have something available that hasn't been done before, but I am certainly open to suggestions for content.
 
more nostalgia is coming out... I remember "door games" on some BBS's.. good times.
 
If you want to run a bbs under original OS/2 via vm, I actually have a licensed copy of Warp 4 and ecomstation (a patched up Warp 4) around here somewhere.

I don't know how I'd get them to you though.
 
R-T-B said:
If you want to run a bbs under original OS/2 via vm, I actually have a licensed copy of Warp 4 and ecomstation (a patched up Warp 4) around here somewhere.

I don't know how I'd get them to you though.
Click to expand...
Let me learn to crawl, before I try to fly, but the thought is very appreciated!
R-T-B said:
ecomstation
Click to expand...
Wasn't that (at one point in time) an "internet appliance" before the days of Android tablets?

Psychoholic said:
I remember "door games"
Click to expand...
I've also been looking into that, Legend of the Red Dragon, Mafia Wars, etc. Unsure if I want to implement those right now. While I am no longer a programmer (Assembly and COBOL was as far as I went) an ASCII Minecraft would be amusing to create, heck the graphics are nearly that anyway.
 
NoiseBox said:
Synchro.net seems to also offer internal e.mail, and possibly an FTP site, but I need to investigate that further as I just skimmed over the notes.
Click to expand...
I suggest also avoid that. You can do FTP and e-mail via other common linux packages, which is going to be much better, safer, and easier.
If you are planning on running any debian-based distro, the best option is to simply run Webmin, and use it to set up postfix, webmail, addresses, and sftp.
It may require a bit more resources, but it all depends on how old your machine is.
Our old work server used to handle mail and other stuff on a puny Celeron J4005, but before that it was still feeling comfortable on an old Atom D525. I'm currently in the process of rebuilding the whole thing and replacing current 3 servers with a "brand new" and shiny Supermicro X11. Should be able to run it all in VMs on ESXi and then some... :rockout:
 
NoiseBox said:
Wasn't that (at one point in time) an "internet appliance" before the days of Android tablets?
Click to expand...
Nah. Just an attempt (and an old one) to update OS/2 to modern hardware. It was a losing battle. Eventually they gave up.
 
Hold on a second...look up BPQ32. If you are gonna do a BBS, it needs to be accessed by a modem. Remember X.25? Well, how about AX.25 over radio waves, or plain sounds. I have used modems over the air to send/receive messages and do keyboard chat with radios. A whopping 1200 baud with 5 watts RF in VHF. Low UHF allows 56k, but you need some good equipment.

Packet radio. Another way is direwolf.

Of course, you need a FCC license to transmit, but not to listen.
 
1freedude said:
Packet radio. Another way is direwolf.
Click to expand...
There's another cool and accessible option: LoRaWAN. Between many community networks, few global commercial networks, and even crypto-based Helium network it already has a worldwide coverage.
Speeds and latency may not be so great, especially comparing to the good-ole 14.4k, but it should work in theory.
 
And its unlicensed spectrum...very doable
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top