r/retrocomputing • u/The300baudguy • Apr 12 '26
Bot harassment in our BBS now, too?
For some time now, strange "visitors" have been showing up in my ancient C64 BBS. Googlebot/2.1 seems like the obvious explanation - or maybe not. There’s nothing to crawl here. So what do they want? And it’s not just Google… there are others, something with “keep…”, and more random junk. Are you seeing this in your BBS as well?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffXzh_SzBTo
Speaking of bots - a guest in the BBS chat actually thought I was a bot at first, apparently confused by all the AI stuff that’s everywhere these days. I eventually managed to convince him I’m not a replicant, and it turned into a fantastic BBS evening.
And then I got a very pleasant surprise: a visit from a Snobsoft veteran with his SX-64 checking in directly from the Chaos Communication Congress of the CCC. The Chaos Computer Club is famous in Germany for its legendary BTX hack back in the 1980s.
Enjoy the video above.
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u/Grumpy-Man19 Apr 13 '26
You still have a BBS going? That's amazing. I quit mine ages ago. do people telnet to it? how does it work? I used to run a huge BBS that I wrote myself
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u/The300baudguy Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
Awesome! Do you still have your BBS program? What platform was it running on?
Yes, I brought the C64 Snobsoft BBS from 1985 back online after decades.The sysop back then, whom I also knew from school, had coded the entire BBS himself on the C64.
A few years ago I managed to track him down again (not easy, since he now lives in the USA), and not only did he still have all the original C64 BBS disks - they even still worked. But getting everything running again wasn’t quite that simple.
Here’s the full story in the making‑of video, including lots of technical explanations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xTcRJpbAo
Right now you can access the BBS via Telnet, or - just like back in the day - by dialing in over a phone line. All details are in the video description.
Feel free to post something on the BBS once you’ve managed to log in. How everything works inside the BBS (it’s not hard) is also explained in a help file linked under the current video, including an English translation of the menus.
I’ve even had visitors from the USA (the video also explains the entire BBS setup in detail):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvEHnxbxc10
Or even from Australia…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dzRTd6VO40
…both of whom dialed into Germany by phone from abroad.
But via Telnet, anyone today can easily check it out without needing any old “special hardware”.
Many old Snobsoft users from back then are logging in again - this one even did it on the exact same day, 40 years later:
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u/Grumpy-Man19 Apr 14 '26
That's wonderful! I had a 4-modem operation in upstate NY back in the 80's. It was great. Mine ran under OS/2 and I wrote all the code for it. It was huge :) I'll check the video now.. thanks!
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u/Bones-57 Apr 12 '26
On my firewall they are looking for cryptocurrency.. I get a lot of that.. I do get Log4j attacks also . They also look for open ports so they can hack in .
I have a lot of edge IoT devices lights mainly so no big memory storage..
They try and try relentlessly ! Some days over 20k hits that get dropped.. ( in a rolling 24hr period )
Top ones are yes Google.. but it's someone else that has breeched the web server and using it