Atari 8-bit related BBS(s)

[Tillek]

14 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Yeah, I love that idea! I might even make a shirt with

some old style BBS stuff on it.

 

Go /s  !!!  

 

The /s has to be the last thing or it just looks silly.

 

/s

[Bikerbob]

         /s

    SEND IT

 

what do you think???
 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Bikerbob

[Tillek]

The attack continues.  Plan is to go with a hardware firewall next paycheck that will detect the attacks and kill them.

/s

Edited October 28, 2019 by Tillek

[Bikerbob]

Anyone interested the ST GUILD is back up.

 

addresses are the same.. and if you had an account its still good.. I know because mine is

 

James

[JohnPolka]

What's going on with The Resistance BBS? Looks like it's been down for a few days.

 

-JP

 

[JohnPolka]

On 1/4/2020 at 5:27 PM, JohnPolka said:

What's going on with The Resistance BBS? Looks like it's been down for a few days.

 

-JP

 

FYI: The Resistance BBS returned online a few days ago...

 

-JP

 

[luckybuck]

The number form the OSS BBS is found:

 

+1 (408) 438 -6775

 

Somewhere inside was once upon a time:

Graphics Utilities Library program

and

Shape Editor

when loaded from the ACTION! cartridge...

 

So, the remaining question is: Who is first?

 

Let us know, in the comments below...

[+Allan]

First for what? To find the Delorean and time travel back to 1986, find an Atari computer with a modem and disk drive, sign in, download the two programs and race back to 2020? Find me that Delorean and I will do it. I might have to back a few stops on the way back though.

 

Allan

 

[YSG2020]

I'm new to this board but have my working original 800XL and both a 1030 and an XM301 modem.  I live in the Vancouver, BC, Canada area and am wondering if there are any links to an updated 2019 or 2020 directory for local dial up Atari 8-bit worthy BBS' still operational in my metro area?  Or, do I need to connect my XL to a PC and telnet into them, or, just use my PC emulated over the internet to get into distant operational BBS.  Whats my best bet.  Id like to use the XL on its own with the modem dialing in if possible to have an authentic experience like back in the day.  Thanks for any advice. 

[JohnPolka]

13 hours ago, YSG2020 said:

I'm new to this board but have my working original 800XL and both a 1030 and an XM301 modem.  I live in the Vancouver, BC, Canada area and am wondering if there are any links to an updated 2019 or 2020 directory for local dial up Atari 8-bit worthy BBS' still operational in my metro area?  Or, do I need to connect my XL to a PC and telnet into them, or, just use my PC emulated over the internet to get into distant operational BBS.  Whats my best bet.  Id like to use the XL on its own with the modem dialing in if possible to have an authentic experience like back in the day.  Thanks for any advice. 

 

I believe there are no longer any Atari dial-up BBSs. However, you can still find some dial-up BBSs running on different computers. https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/ has some dial-up BBS listings (as well as several that are connected through Internet). 

 

You can find a list of Atari BBSs that are accessible through the Internet at http://sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

 

You can log on to these using a term program, such as Syncterm, that supports telnet (although when accessing Atari 8 bit BBSs in ATASCII mode, setting the term program to "raw mode" works best). Some of these BBSs have web browser gateways, although ATASCII is not supported through the web gateways.

 

There are a number of methods for connecting an Atari computer to the Internet. The link below provides some information:

http://atariprojects.org/2018/09/30/connect-your-atari-computer-to-the-internet/

 

Some of us use Lantronix boxes connected to an Atari 850/P:R: Connection/MIO/etc. Others use a Wifi modem. There are a few different WiFi modems available. The ones that are currently available connect to a serial device, so again, you will need an Atari 850/P:R: Connection/MIO/etc. There are a couple devices in development that will provide Internet connectivity through the SIO port. These are #FujiNet and the Atari WiFi modem project. You can find separate message threads on these projects.

 

You can also find some information in the "Atari BBS Gurus" club (located in https://atariage.com/forums/clubs/). 

 

-JP

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by JohnPolka

[YSG2020]

Thank you. That is helpful. I’ll try that. I hope someone can publish a working dial up number here to an Atari 8-bit BBS, as I am sure there are many of us with modems that would like to dial in over the phone lines for a really authentic old-school experience without the need for a PC and the Internet. 

[rcamp48]

Spy Visits Spy BBS will be going back online on an old P233 computer running Wildcat 5.0, the advantage of that is that I can network both f my PCs, and run 16 (count em!) 16 nodes at once, I am using Windows 2000 server, and already have the entire Atari Portfolio library up and downloadable. I will b customizing the heck out of it, and working real hard to make it work and stay online, but only time will tell. One thing though , is the Doc still around , I need help with the router , its a new 1 GIG Ignite router, real fancy..... internal IP addresses on it are in the range of 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.254, really fast I often get 500 BPS !

 

Has anyone had any experience with one of these routers, they have TV built in and are super fast, picture enclosed., by the way the IP for the new BBS wil be 99.250.143.185 probably port 1989 again, Wildcat does have the advantage of 1000s of online games and if I can network both computers I will have it made.

 

[rcamp48]

I now have port forwarding information for this router , I will post a link to the site that talks about it, for all who may be using this type of router.

 

Port forwarding on the Arris Ignite Router From The Rogers Community Website

 

Russ

 

[rcamp48]

Spy Visits Spy BBS is online and running on Wildcat 5.0 with 16 nodes at spyvisitsspybbs.ddns.net for Telnet, and spyvisitsspybbs.com fot HTTPS.  from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 AM dialup is available at 1-226-647-0710, 28800 baud, the rest of the time all 16 nodes will be Telnet port 23 and HTTP port 80. Supporting Atari, Commodore, DOS , and online games, starting at 8:00 AM EST time this morning I will be adding games and utilities first for the Atari 8 Bit then for the Atari ST, then for the Atari Portfolio.  I am  planning 25 sub groups for each volume, the volume will be Atari first, then under the volume names will be groups , and finally file sections. Since I no longer have Atari equipment, I will be running on a PC with 3 TBs of hard drive storage, planning on putting 12 hours per day work into the BBS. 

 

Since I have the ICP pacckage and WcCode I may be able to integrate Mega.nz into the web part of my BBS. I now have HTTPS I just paid for it, I just have to implement it. 

 

Russ

 

PS: I solved all of my port forwarding problems with a piece of software called Port Forward Network Utilities, highly recommended by myself for routers like the Rogers Arris XB6 Ignite Internet and TV routers, very difficult to port forward to the outside world without this package. Well worth the price.

Edited February 11, 2020 by rcamp48
typos

[DNA128k]

Hi all, I've got a telnet related question, though not strictly BBS related so I hope this is an alright place to post it.  I can BBS very reliably with my A8 and now I'm trying to telnet into a small Linux box I set up.  I got telnetd running on it, and I can connect to it from another machine no problem, but when I try and connect from the Atari (using Bobterm or Ice-T), I get a successful connection, but it spits out some weird characters and just sits there and won't take any input.  I've attached an image.  I'm sure there's something I'm missing, and I may not be able to do it at all, but does anyone have any advice?

[+Stephen]

Cool "fish bowl" screen - what is that TV/monitor you are using?

[Sugarland]

3 hours ago, DNA128k said:

Hi all, I've got a telnet related question, though not strictly BBS related so I hope this is an alright place to post it.  I can BBS very reliably with my A8 and now I'm trying to telnet into a small Linux box I set up.  I got telnetd running on it, and I can connect to it from another machine no problem, but when I try and connect from the Atari (using Bobterm or Ice-T), I get a successful connection, but it spits out some weird characters and just sits there and won't take any input.  I've attached an image.  I'm sure there's something I'm missing, and I may not be able to do it at all, but does anyone have any advice?

 

It could be one of several things here.  It could be SSH or encryption is required by your host but not enabled on your ip modem. It could be a TTY issue. Are you sure your telnetd works over plain unencrypted ASCII?

 

Edit: I agree that your fishbowl display is a thing of retro beauty!

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by Sugarland

[DNA128k]

2 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

 

It could be one of several things here.  It could be SSH or encryption is required by your host but not enabled on your ip modem. It could be a TTY issue. Are you sure your telnetd works over plain unencrypted ASCII?

 

Edit: I agree that your fishbowl display is a thing of retro beauty!

 

I've enabled plain old telnet on the Linux box and verified that it appears to be working from a modern machine, so I don't think it's the former, but it is probably it the latter... I'm not at all sure it's actually capable of working with ASCII from the Atari terminal emulators.  And thanks!  It's a Panasonic portable TV/Radio I'm rather fond of; I have it running over RF in tandem with the composite out to a Retrotink2X to my LCD (which works great for 80 column Ice-T).  http://www.wheredidiputthatremote.com/ebay/panasonic-1454270771-23941.jpg Not exactly this one, but a very similar model.  Appreciate the help!

[DNA128k]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

Cool "fish bowl" screen - what is that TV/monitor you are using?

Thansk!  Sorry I missed this reply, to be specific, the TV is a Panasonic TRG-513T.

[Sugarland]

29 minutes ago, DNA128k said:

I've enabled plain old telnet on the Linux box and verified that it appears to be working from a modern machine, so I don't think it's the former, but it is probably it the latter... I'm not at all sure it's actually capable of working with ASCII from the Atari terminal emulators.  And thanks!  It's a Panasonic portable TV/Radio I'm rather fond of; I have it running over RF in tandem with the composite out to a Retrotink2X to my LCD (which works great for 80 column Ice-T).  http://www.wheredidiputthatremote.com/ebay/panasonic-1454270771-23941.jpg Not exactly this one, but a very similar model.  Appreciate the help!

There should be an easy way to configure ASCII tty. Unix/Linux do a good job of carrying forward old standards for just this sort of application. I'm sure it's possible one way or another.

 

[rcamp48]

4 hours ago, Sugarland said:

There should be an easy way to configure ASCII tty. Unix/Linux do a good job of carrying forward old standards for just this sort of application. I'm sure it's possible one way or another.

 

19200 on an Atari 8 bit machine was way too fast for me when I had my 8 bit Atari, try 9600 and see what happens... Russ

 

[Sugarland]

True. He said "I can BBS very reliably with my A8" so I thought he had 19,200 working but yes 9600 works with the 850 interface, while 19,200 does not. DNA128k what is your RS232 interface?

[DNA128k]

2 hours ago, Sugarland said:

True. He said "I can BBS very reliably with my A8" so I thought he had 19,200 working but yes 9600 works with the 850 interface, while 19,200 does not. DNA128k what is your RS232 interface?

It's Sio2OSX emulating an 850 on an older Mac running 10.7 (seems to be the latest version that will work reliably with the software).  I've tried at a number of different speeds, I don't actually use 19.2 I just happened to take the picture at that point in the testing, I usually use 1200 for BBSing.  The connect and garbled text situation seems to happen regardless of baud. 

 

I'm currently giving this a shot in a VM, and then might get a Pi if I can get it running, this seems like a perfect solution: https://github.com/pjones1063/Atari-usbModem

[DNA128k]

Good news!  After much trial and error, I've ended up with a totally different, but completely functional way to get my Atari to be a dumb terminal for my Mac mini.  I boot up a terminal emulator, and then use the 'screen' program to pass the shell to the Atari.  This way I can take advantage of any UNIX programs I have on the Mac, which makes the Atari great for reading RSS feeds, etc.  Currently using Flickerterm since Ice-T doesn't like running without an actual 850 attached, even if you load in the R: handler without it.

 

#Run a terminal emulator on your Atari or other vintage hardware
#Launch screen to open a serial connection between the shell host and the dumb terminal
#Use whatever your serial device is after the screen command, then the baud rate you'd like to use
#The serial device name can be found via cd /dev/ && ls tty.*

screen tty.usbserial-XXX 19200

#Once screen is launched, you can verify connectivity between the modern machine and the Atari by typing on either.
#Press Control+A then Control+: and paste the line below to mirror a shell to the Atari (or anything else!) make sure your baud setting matches after the std.XXX portion

exec ::: /usr/libexec/getty std.19200

#text input will be ddoouubblleedd on the host terminal output, but everything works normally on the Atari
#Obviously an 80 column terminal emulator is better for this

Obviously my iPhone camera doesn't like Flickerterm, the missing text is indeed present on the CRT, and surprisingly, completely readable on my LCD with the Retrotink2X!  I just set it for "component" mode so the composite signal is black and white, otherwise the NTSC artifacts are a nightmare.  I figured this all out from 

 and https://www.weinstein.org/blog/index.php/2007/06/apple-hacking-for-fun-and-profit.html

[JohnPolka]

On 2/14/2020 at 4:17 PM, DNA128k said:

Hi all, I've got a telnet related question, though not strictly BBS related so I hope this is an alright place to post it.  I can BBS very reliably with my A8 and now I'm trying to telnet into a small Linux box I set up.  I got telnetd running on it, and I can connect to it from another machine no problem, but when I try and connect from the Atari (using Bobterm or Ice-T), I get a successful connection, but it spits out some weird characters and just sits there and won't take any input.  I've attached an image.  I'm sure there's something I'm missing, and I may not be able to do it at all, but does anyone have any advice?

Those weird characters are probably part of a telnet handshake. Since you're seeing them, your Atari's Internet device is probably operating in raw mode. If your Internet device were in telnet mode, you wouldn't have seen those characters (and I suspect the connection would have worked since the Atari side would have responded to the handshake).

 

Raw mode is the preferred mode for the Atari 8 bit since ATASCII doesn't always display correctly under telnet mode. I usually use a raw connection when I connect to BBSs. When I connect to a BBS that's using telnet mode, I'll see weird characters like that when I first connect.

 

-JP

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by JohnPolka