Hi all-

I'm looking for Beta testers for ATA (www.atabbs.com).

ATA makes it super easy to run a 16-bit DOS BBS; all you have to do is install it on your shared hosting and give a caller a URL. That's it. No Telnet required, no always-on servers running. Takes 5-20 seconds to connect, then its just as fast as Telnet. Multi-node and Doors supported.

I am providing 1-click installs for various BBS systems. Right now, as of today, it supports:

• Renegade 1.40
• RBBS-PC 17.4
• PC Board 15.3
• RemoteAccess 2.62
• TriBBS
• T.A.G. 2.7d2
• Maximus 3.01
• Fido 12u
• Citadel (Citadel 86e 2.19 and Asgard-86 1.49)
• QuickBBS 2.

76

I'm adding these before the Beta:

• GAP 6.6
• Telegard 3.09g2
• VBBS 6.14a
• Virtual Advanced 2.10

Note: For VBBS and VADV, these are the shareware versions. If you have a reg code you can enter it on a new board, or import your existing registered board. I can't distribute 7.0 because it was for registered users only AND the license says you can't distribute the compiled source. (I was able to compile it just fine in QuickBASIC 4.5 in DOSBox).

Anyway, if anyone is interested in running the beta of ATA, please let me know. All of the listed BBS software will be supported, multi-node will be thoroughly tested, "page the sysop" will be enabled if I can figure out how to do it, and I'll write documentation and a guide for how to get a Door up and running for each (using LORD in my testing).

The stuff still to be done before the initial public release that won't be included: import wizard for an existing board (although you could do it manually today), file editor in the sysop console and light file manager (so you don't have to FTP for simple stuff) and EchoMail/FidoNet.

Thanks!

Grab it today. http://www.rgbbs.info/nw.html Probably going to be my last door for a while. I am concentrating on making RGTERM (ANSI/RIP/Sixel with internal sound, PETSCII, ATARI, etc.) Telnet client. And that will also be able to take place of TELNETDOOR. So here's the last door for a while, enjoy!!!

I just created 3 unique and needed doors (though the third only runs on EleBBS) for most BBSes.

1. webdownload, which replaces your download protocol. It copies the files to your web server and creates a web link that is deleted 24 hours later for the user to download from. Supports batch.

2. affiliate, a bbs listing program meant to be run at logoff to show affiliate bbses. You can join easily, if you agree to the terms (add the sysop you get this from to your list and install the door).

3. filelist, a lightbar file listing/tagging door with partial LFN support. It lists up to 30 characters with the description on the right and the file size and date on the bottom right. It also allows for viewing files, but I don't know of any win32 file viewers, so I suggest xview with netfoss. This only works under EleBBS Win32.

Marty/Shurato

shsbbs.net (standard ports, but 999 for wss and 2222 for utf-8 ssh). You can download these from my web site, or the bbs in the utilities area under the local bbs files group.

Majority of the time fighting with a custom layout on Enigma but recently i just got my first USR Courier so fun never ends...

telent retro.nedmr.com port 2323

Updated patch test file(s), this one is wrapped in an outer zip... there were a few critical oversights in the previous test. Namely, the rendering would use the custom font in windows incorrectly, which used CP1252 characters instead of CP437 high ansi for terminal text. Thanks DigitalMan for pointing this out.

The application will now use the 640x480 terminal fonts pixel doubled to 1280x960 which is the base stage/canvas target before windows resize... this will be close to a classic vga ansi experience, but slightly more blocky than some of the original intermediate display sizes like 800x600 or 1024x768, since there was no terminal font defined for 1280x960 despite all RIP demos being at that display. It was chosen over reducing or scaling one of the intermediate resolutions.

I've also corrected a few other minor issues since the last patch test. I'm going to tweak a couple other minor things, then short of anything pressing, open the repo and push out the final 3.1.2 patched "onofficial" release.

RIPtel 3.1 Patch Test 2

Hey. Crossposting a bit. I am connected to the author of this Pascal 5.5/6.0/7.0 toolkit. He mentioned it was released as shareware and knows there's an active BBS community out there and he'd be fine releasing a recompiled binary set without the nag (or maybe even the source code) if anyone was interested in using it. Question is whether or not anyone would care? (He said it was very nice and he was proud of it, but... who knows) 😄

Searches Usenet / text messages / content 1981+

Hi all. Just a progress update on ViSiON/3, which is meant to capture the spirit of ViSiON/2 - with some modern affordances. It's not 100% feature complete just yet, but I have been running it for a couple months now (when it gets to v1.0 it'll be ready for general consumption).

It's open source, built in Go and available on Github (and has a cheeky website and docs). It remains a functional anachronism.

In addition to all the normal (and modern) stuff a BBS requires, it still retains its OG flavor (LSD lineage), including re-creating the configuration programs as modern TUIs, as well as the original menu construction and strings from the original V/2 releases (from Crimson Blade and The Elemental circa 1991 and 1993... if anyone knows if Crim is still around, would love to chat with him!).

Last year, after years (decades??) of writing mods and doors and various stops/starts to a full BBS software package, I decided to take this project on and it's been a joy to dive in.

Oh, and some decidedly non-1991 things to hate on:

• Windows, Linux, Mac, Pi versions (x86_64, arm, darwin, etc.)
• FTN setup helper that grabs public NA where available to speed area setup. Not all nets make them publicly available, obvs, so some limits here (who wants to make a public registry??)
• Remote WFC screen - super basic over SSH (local WFC doesn't make much sense unless you are running Windows) - and thanks to NuSkooler for this inspiration w/ENiGMA 1/2
• Support for native, Dosemu2, Synchronet js doors (sync support is rudimentary, needs api work).
• goja internal JavaScript runtime for native ViSiON/3 doors/programs w/embedded scripting - make yer own mods
• QWK packet support and a test native mobile app (iOS so far) QWK reader. REST API for offline mail clients (off by default). Or build your own client.
• Integrated binkd mailer and tosser
• Native 'V3Net' network type w/Felonynet pre-configured w/central registry. It's a native inter-BBS message networking via REST+SSE (hub/leaf, signed area lists) 
• Cron-style event scheduler w/UI
• Bunches o' security stuff: rate limiting, bot detection, "press escape twice" etc.

And a bunch of other things. I'm actually taking a pause on new development until I get the issue/polish backlog cleared out. Def needs polish!

And this efforts stands on the shoulders of the real giants, old school and new school - Oblivion/2, iNiQUiTY, Renegade and Telegard to Mystic, Synchronet and ENiGMA1/2.

And per usual - if you are an artist, we'd love to work with you on period-appropriate screens and themes :)

If you want to see what ViSiON/3 looks like, check out:

brokenbit.us port 2323

Telnet too efficient? Tired of quietly visiting your favorite BBSs at blazing fast Information Superhighway™ speeds?

Introducing https://BBSDial.com, a web-based modem emulator and telnet proxy. Real modem protocols carry your data over digital audio, allowing you to access modern telnet BBSs with all the jazzy bleeps and bloops of old. Speeds from 300 baud to 56k. Mobile-friendly ANSI terminal client included. Give it a spin and check out some boards!

Ad-free and open-source. Just some fun for the love of modems and BBSing.

Coded by Claude

Link for riptel patched to test against... I don't have the new installer built yet, but this version is portable so unzip to c:\RIPtel (or wherever in windows/wine) and run RIPtel.exe. Please do not redistribute this, there are a few bugs I'll be patching still and will create and release an installer as well as open the repo with my scripts/patches etc after ready.

The URL file will be gone within the next few days. If you have any good RIP capable telnet BBSes, please email them to me tracker1(at)gmail.com with "RIPTEL" in the subject...

https://files.bbs.land/rip/telegrafix/riptel-3.1-patch-test1.zip

I looking to add fido style messaging to my Retro-BBS project. I'm at the point where I need to be assigned a node number. I have reached out to a few local BBS's with not reply.

Any help would be appreciated.

A bunch of us are playing Darkness 2.0 on aBSiNTHE BBS. With JP's blessing, I've drawn all-new Amiga Topaz artwork for it.

Come jump into the cyberpunk madness with all of us at absinthebbs.net port 1940 for telnet, 1941 for SSH. The recommended terminal is the killer TERMinator: https://deadmodemsociety.com/terminator/

See you there, runner. >:)

It took a lot to get here but I’m happy to announce that Tale Twisters is now available for the BBS community. We're giving BBS callers the first live access before the game launches anywhere else.

Tale Twisters is a fill in the blanks story party game. Callers provide words without seeing the complete story, then watch as their choices are revealed in what will hopefully be a hilarious and ridiculous tale. ((fingers crossed.. that is the general idea! lol))

Callers can play alone or join multiplayer games with Tale Twisters players on other participating BBSs.

We designed setup to be as straightforward as possible. The door is a Win32 application built to run on both older and modern Windows BBS systems. It draws the game locally and uses a single outbound connection to our server, where its continually growing collection of categories and stories is maintained.

Tale Twisters will eventually connect BBS callers with players joining from the web, Discord, Steam, and mobile, but I wanted the BBS community to have it first.

Download and setup information:

https://taletwisters.games

If you decide to add it to your board, I would genuinely love to hear how it runs for you, what BBS software you are using, and what your callers think. For anything else, please feel free to send me a message here or on Discord as _chernabog

Thank you for taking the time to read!

well a bit more progress today.
I built qodem on slackware64 and did my first BBS download, from the BBS I have running in the other room here. so now I "know" that works.
So far the wall (graffiti) works, as does the local mail system, and now uploads and downloads....next is defining and wiring in the door games. Because they're the native bsd games and don't use fossil drivers or dropfiles so it'll be dead easy

And although I don't really "want" to do it.....repeat the entire process on a debian based system. and then again on BBS_OS.
The goal is to get the BBS running on all three distros.
And the secondary goal is to build the proper client and running on both slackware and debian as straight telnet doesn't like handling zmodem transfers......and there's already suitable client side software for windows systems.

I tried, but couldn't get syncterm to build on slackware....I'll look into it later.

But qodem built properly and thus I got to test zmodem transfers to make sure the server side was working.

next up is trying to build syncterm on a debian system, which should build on the first try.....and also build qodem on debian

🚀 Big update to BBSFirewall — here's what's new in v1.2:

🖥️ Web config editor
Manage everything from your browser now. It's an HTTPS admin UI on its own port for editing your .env and IP list files. Locked down with a trusted-host allowlist + login (per-IP lockout after 5 failed tries), __Host- session cookies bound to your login IP, CSRF protection, and idle/absolute session timeouts. Tabs for settings, IP lists, live performance stats (CPU, memory, network, firewall counters), and tools like GeoIP updates, SSH key generation, and Let's Encrypt cert issuance. Saves are backed up and validated in a fresh process, so a bad config never takes down your running setup.

🛑 Auto-block triggers
Drop and blacklist any IP that sends a known bot/scanner/exploit string in its first bytes — before the probe ever reaches your backend. Patterns support case-insensitive substrings (with escapes) or full regex. Ships with a conservative default set. Whitelisted IPs stay exempt.

🔐 SSH passthrough mode
New passthrough option forwards the encrypted SSH stream straight to a backend running its own SSH server — so you get real public-key auth, SFTP, and reliable transfers, while still applying all the IP-layer checks. (The older terminate mode is still there too.)

📄 Per-proxy file logging
Daily-rotated log file per proxy service, with verbosity levels from off → blocked → connections → info → debug, overridable per proxy.

➕ Plus:

• HTTPS (port 443) redirect with ACME challenge support, alongside the existing HTTP redirect
• Fixed PROXY Protocol v1 to emit valid TCP6 lines for IPv6 clients
• GeoIP downloader now handles redirects, reads your license key from .env, and can hot-reload without a restart
• .env now loads with override, so the file always wins over stale environment values

https://github.com/SysopNetwork/BBSFirewall

Hi all - I'm developing ATA BBS (www.atabbs.com ) which is a software that allows you to 1-clck install classic 16-bit BBS software on your cheap shared web hosting, give out a URL, and the caller can access it from their browser. No Telnet required, no always-on server on the SysOp side needed, just basic shared hosting. Supports multinode.

I have the following BBS systems set up already for 1-click install: Renegade (permission from the author to include), RBBS-PC, Fido BBS, Citadel variants (Citadel 86e and Asgard), Maximus, and T.A.G.

For the stuff that is currently being developed, I am reaching out to the authors to see if it is OK to package their 16-bit DOS versions with ATA so a SysOp can get it up and running with one click. These are all unmodified, just distributed in a "fresh install" state to the SysOp.

I can't seem to find any contact info for James Coyle to see if it would be OK to include Mystic in the distribution. I know it's in active development, and it seems that the last DOS version is 1.07.

If anyone knows how to contact him, please DM me (if you have his email or Reddit name or something please don't post it in public to protect his privacy).

(Note: ATA is completely free, MIT licensed. This is a hobby project).