# Anyone ever set up a BBS?



## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## bug (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

bug said:


> Sorry, that's not helpful, but you did offer me a trip down memory lane.


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.


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## silentbogo (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## W1zzard (Feb 1, 2022)

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..


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

silentbogo said:


> (telnet is plaintext, definitely a no-go if it's going to be online)


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


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.


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## W1zzard (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


OS/2 was really awesome and reminds me a bit of how we're using hardware today with VMs and Docker ..


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## Regeneration (Feb 1, 2022)

Why won't you build a website that looks like a BBS? So people will not have to use telnet clients and such.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

Regeneration said:


> Why won't you build a website that looks like a BBS? So people will not have to use telnet clients and such.


An interesting idea, but I'm simply not very good with HTML and webdesign.


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## Regeneration (Feb 1, 2022)

NoiseBox said:


> An interesting idea, but I'm simply not very good with HTML and webdesign.


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.


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## silentbogo (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## Psychoholic (Feb 1, 2022)

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?


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

Psychoholic said:


> telnet possibly?


Telnet seems to be the current option, I was testing under a VM using Putty, but there is still much to learn.


silentbogo said:


> It has another benefit of filtering out riff-raff.


Exactly. Which such a niche site, it should hopefully filter out those who wish to be malicious or troll....
...hopefully.


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## skates (Feb 1, 2022)

Oh man, for the longest time I got all my IT jobs via the DICE BBS.  I recall playing around with a Tomcat server.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

skates said:


> I recall playing around with a Tomcat server.


The powah of nostalgia compels you to help me out! 
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.


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## skates (Feb 1, 2022)

NoiseBox said:


> The powah of nostalgia compels you to help me out!
> 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.


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?


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

skates said:


> What's the content of the BBS you are looking to bring to life?


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.


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## Psychoholic (Feb 1, 2022)

more nostalgia is coming out...  I remember "door games" on some BBS's..  good times.


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## R-T-B (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


Let me learn to crawl, before I try to fly, but the thought is very appreciated!


R-T-B said:


> ecomstation


Wasn't that (at one point in time) an "internet appliance" before the days of Android tablets?



Psychoholic said:


> I remember "door games"


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.


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## silentbogo (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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...


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## R-T-B (Feb 1, 2022)

NoiseBox said:


> Wasn't that (at one point in time) an "internet appliance" before the days of Android tablets?


Nah.  Just an attempt (and an old one) to update OS/2 to modern hardware.  It was a losing battle.  Eventually they gave up.


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## 1freedude (Feb 1, 2022)

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.


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## silentbogo (Feb 1, 2022)

1freedude said:


> Packet radio. Another way is direwolf.


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.


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## 1freedude (Feb 1, 2022)

And its unlicensed spectrum...very doable


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## bug (Feb 1, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> OS/2 was really awesome and reminds me a bit of how we're using hardware today with VMs and Docker ..


Oh yes, OS/2, the most stable platform to run Windows software!


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## NoiseBox (Feb 1, 2022)

1freedude said:


> 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.


Ha, this is getting waaaaay out of hand, I'll stick with the "modern" way of telnet, but it's a fascinating lesson in options, thanks!


silentbogo said:


> 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...


I speak Debian, but I've not decided yet what I want to SysOp on. The system is a Haswell quad core i5 with 16GB RAM (DDR3 IIRC) with an m.2 for boot and SSD for data.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 2, 2022)

NoiseBox said:


> 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.



The bbs is 1 progenitor of the World Wide Web as we know it.


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## johnspack (Feb 2, 2022)

OS/2?  man.  I did bbses when we only had dos.   Started with 1200 baud...  not sure how fast we got until the internet.  By 14k to 56k we were on the internet.
I do remember blowing $400 in long distance calls using bbses all over north america  in one month.  That was 30+ years ago.  That's like 1k today heh....


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## NoiseBox (Feb 2, 2022)

johnspack said:


> Started with 1200 baud.


I recall proto-internet/quasi BBS places like Compuserv charging you more if you had a faster modem.
I had a friend who had created a script to dial up, log in and download all his main and newsgroup posts, so he could read them offline and not get charged a ton of cash.
My BBS will not have a charge associated with it


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## silentbogo (Feb 2, 2022)

NoiseBox said:


> I speak Debian, but I've not decided yet what I want to SysOp on.


That makes it easier: just go with Ubuntu server.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 3, 2022)

Well, some progress. I was using Putty and it defaulted to SSH, I was just unfamiliar with the UI and thought it was going through Telnet. So one concern down (and a million more to go)
I figured out how to upload files to the file directory structure. It's kind of a PITA as it's a two part process and it's not a simple as throwing the files into the right directory via Windows File Explorer (I'm running Synchronet under a Win10 VM right now as I struggle to understand it)

Got some users created to test with, but the file download section asks for a download protocol, as if I was still using a modem (X,Y or Z or Q {I think} Modem protocol) and I need to figure out how to change that to recognize network download speeds/protocol.

Speaking of such things, does anyone know of a real manual I can buy/download for Synchronet? I'm much more used to reading books offline, than trying wiki pages or pages full of hyperlinks to other pages.


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## R-T-B (Feb 3, 2022)

johnspack said:


> I did bbses when we only had dos.


The server you logged into was probably running OS/2, not DOS.  Just sayin'


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## bug (Feb 3, 2022)

R-T-B said:


> The server you logged into was probably running OS/2, not DOS.  Just sayin'


That became the de facto standard setup eventually, yes, but BBS predates OS/2 by 10 years or so.


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## TheLostSwede (Feb 3, 2022)

Taiwan has a huge, vibrant BBS community, where a lot of rumours are spread...





						PTT Bulletin Board System - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## R-T-B (Feb 3, 2022)

bug said:


> That became the de facto standard setup eventually, yes, but BBS predates OS/2 by 10 years or so.


How old is BBS?  People often forget the first release of OS/2 was in 1987.

Still, I am sure DOS based solutions existed.


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## NoiseBox (Feb 3, 2022)

R-T-B said:


> How old is BBS?  People often forget the first release of OS/2 was in 1987.
> 
> Still, I am sure DOS based solutions existed.


A full list (that I know of) is here


			Synchronet BBS List
		


Some of them list the OS they host on, and some even still support dial-up connections.


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## bug (Feb 3, 2022)

R-T-B said:


> How old is BBS?  People often forget the first release of OS/2 was in 1987.
> 
> Still, I am sure DOS based solutions existed.


Made me look. First BBS software was released in 1978. That makes it older than MS-DOS even.


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## johnspack (Feb 4, 2022)

Here's a list of dos compatible.  There are more,  because the one I used isnt even on the list...  this is older stuff...





						List of BBS software - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## NoiseBox (Feb 7, 2022)

I'm trying to set up an old-school BBS on a spare PC I have (haswell core i-5, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 LTSC)
Since this is going on my TP-Link AX-1500 router (where the rest of my network PCs reside) I decided for security sake, I'd enable the Guest network and place the PC on there.
So far, so good.
Set a static IP for the usual 192.168.1.2xx
Made sure it can't see my other PCs or NAS.
So far, so good.
Can surf the internet with the PC.
So far, so good.
Installed the Synchro.net BBS software and configured it. (I followed this page here: https://famicoman.com/HackInACan/BBS.html)
In the router, opened telnet ports (TCP and UDP) of 23 for that PC only (192.168.1.2xx)

Here's where the problems go:
I cannot telnet from my main systems to this PC, using Putty or SyncTERM
I thought perhaps firewall issues with Telnet, so I followed this page here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...curity-administration-with-windows-powershell

The funny thing is, my BBS software tracks .ru IPs trying to root their way in via telnet, so something seems to be working.

I'm not very good at the fine grained security configs, so I'd dearly like some help.


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## crUshed420 (Feb 25, 2022)

bug said:


> 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.



Thanks to your message, this is exactly how I found this thread - I was searching for VGA Planets mods for Synchronet and Google took me here   VGA Planets is still alive and well in 2022, you and your friends from back in the day should join a game 




NoiseBox said:


> Here's where the problems go:
> I cannot telnet from my main systems to this PC, using Putty or SyncTERM
> I thought perhaps firewall issues with Telnet, so I followed this page here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...curity-administration-with-windows-powershell
> 
> ...



This is a few weeks old now - did you sort out your local telnet issues?  If this was put on the back-burner and you still haven't figured it out, start by trying to telnet into your static IP to see if that works ok.

There are a LOT of Synchronet BBS's running these days, and lots of helpful guys to assist in setting it up, hope you get your BBS off the ground!

Cheers!

-crUshed420  (sysop t0kerZ hUt BBS - telnet://t0kerZ.ddns.net )


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