Atari 8-bit related BBS(s)

[+doctorclu]

I love that service (and I put in for Boot Factory and Dark Forces to be added.)

 

Will give amis86 a try soon.

[+Amis]

14 hours ago, doctorclu said:

I love that service (and I put in for Boot Factory and Dark Forces to be added.)

 

Will give amis86 a try soon.

Thanks Doc for checking it out. Curious, did Atascii on the dial up work for you or did you have to use Ascii?

 

Going to See if I can get an XM301 working today to test as well - 300 Baud should be the most authentic of dial up

[+DarkLord]

22 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

where I am intending to move, dial up may be all I have... on good days!

 

Ouch!

 

[+DarkLord]

14 hours ago, doctorclu said:

I love that service (and I put in for Boot Factory and Dark Forces to be added.)

 

Will give amis86 a try soon.

 

Well, thanks Doc. If you told me about it I just forgot. Sorry.

 

[+DarkLord]

22 hours ago, JohnPolka said:

 

Yeah, I'm not sure the motivation behind the individual who set this up. Maybe this is just a free service he set up on the side of a commercial venture of his. Not sure. Then again, there are guys who love telephony so much, they will set up private phone networks for the fun of it. See the youtube videos made the SysOp of DJ's Place BBS as an example. When you connect to DJ's Place through the Internet, a server will then dial-up one of the modems in his internal phone network which then connects you to his BBS.

 

-JP

 

 

Sounds rather convoluted. 

 

[JohnPolka]

20 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

 

Sounds rather convoluted. 

 

Not really. It's quite cool if you have a passion for old telephone equipment.  But of course it isn't for everyone. Not only do you need a passion for old telephone equipment, you need the space for the equipment as well as some ability for getting it working again.  Here's the youtube video where he explains his setup:

 

https://youtu.be/miFyfEpKa-o

 

-JP

 

 

[JohnPolka]

1 hour ago, Amis said:

Thanks Doc for checking it out. Curious, did Atascii on the dial up work for you or did you have to use Ascii?

 

Going to See if I can get an XM301 working today to test as well - 300 Baud should be the most authentic of dial up

 

I too am curious if he got ATASCII to work. You need to use ASCII to enter the login name and password. After you do that, I think you can switch to ATASCII if your term program allows you to change the translation after you connected. You can't do that with Syncterm. Also, Syncterm translates both the Enter key and Control M to the ATASCII EOL when it's in Atari Mode. So, I think one needs real hardware with a real dial-up modem to get ATASCII to work on this dial-up service. Native Atari term programs such as Express and Bobterm will allow you to switch translation after you connected. I will try it with real hardware/modem soon.

 

-JP
 

Edited April 25, 2021 by JohnPolka

[+doctorclu]

11 minutes ago, JohnPolka said:

Not really. It's quite cool if you have a passion for old telephone equipment.  But of course it isn't for everyone. Not only do you need a passion for old telephone equipment, you need the space for the equipment as well as some ability for getting it working again.  Here's the youtube video where he explains his setup:

 

https://youtu.be/miFyfEpKa-o

 

That was a fun watch.  Been using the dial-in setup for calling non-dial BBSs for a a few months now.   Love seeing how it works.

[+Amis]

2 hours ago, JohnPolka said:

 

I too am curious if he got ATASCII to work. You need to use ASCII to enter the login name and password. After you do that, I think you can switch to ATASCII if your term program allows you to change the translation after you connected. You can't do that with Syncterm. Also, Syncterm translates both the Enter key and Control M to the ATASCII EOL when it's in Atari Mode. So, I think one needs real hardware with a real dial-up modem to get ATASCII to work on this dial-up service. Native Atari term programs such as Express and Bobterm will allow you to switch translation after you connected. I will try it with real hardware/modem soon.

 

-JP
 

I added a two layer connect - Standard first to confirm enter without setting the translation, second Enter or Return is for the Translation. This was put into place specific to address this term program change of emulation. Pretty standard for BBS Express and FoReM but not really AMIS in the connect. Should provide enough flex to change emulation or change the emulation from ascii to Atascii at the main menu.

[JohnPolka]

4 hours ago, Amis said:

I added a two layer connect - Standard first to confirm enter without setting the translation, second Enter or Return is for the Translation. This was put into place specific to address this term program change of emulation. Pretty standard for BBS Express and FoReM but not really AMIS in the connect. Should provide enough flex to change emulation or change the emulation from ascii to Atascii at the main menu.

 

Assuming we are still talking about the dial-up service... That works for any term program that allows you to change translation while you're connected such as Express and Bobterm. You can't do that with Syncterm (and Syncterm in Atari mode converts control M to Atascii EOL, so that trick won't work either).  One will probably need to call with an A8 and a real dial-up modem to get ATASCII through this service. That's because the service requires a standard ASCII carriage return when you enter the login and password.

 

I wonder if we could talk the provider into supporting an ATASCII EOL when one enters the login and password.  

 

I will try to login with my A8 + dial-up modem tonight. 

 

-JP

 

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by JohnPolka

[+Tillek]

TVAG is back up.. Thanks to Simius and his IDE 2+.

 

Even with Zenobia this time!

 

bbs.tvagbbs.net:3523 (the bbs.sfhqbbs.org:3523 works too).

 

I'll post more later.. this is all I got left in me after today.

[_The Doctor__]

1 hour ago, JohnPolka said:

 

Assuming we are still talking about the dial-up service... That works for any term program that allows you to change translation while you're connected such as Express and Bobterm. You can't do that with Syncterm (and Syncterm in Atari mode converts control M to Atascii EOL, so that trick won't work either).  One will probably need to call with an A8 and a real dial-up modem to get ATASCII through this service. That's because the service requires a standard ASCII carriage return when you enter the login and password.

 

I wonder if we could talk the provider into supporting an ATASCII EOL when one enters the login and password.  

 

I will try to login with my A8 + dial-up modem tonight. 

 

-JP

 

 

Yes syncterm needs work that's for sure.

[JohnPolka]

13 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Yes syncterm needs work that's for sure.

 

Yeah, they fixed the ATASCII bug that I reported to them (it's in version 1.2a which is in an alpha state right now). I sould file a feature request that asks that they send the expected ASCII 13 (carriage return) instead of ATASCII EOL when one presses control-M in Atari mode. That may help with using ATASCII in the dial-up service mentioned above. Syncterm Version 1.1 fixed the control-S/control-Q keys for pausing/unpausing text and control-C/control-X for canceling text. These keys were not working prior to version 1.1.

 

-JP
 

Edited April 26, 2021 by JohnPolka

[JohnPolka]

I filed the Syncterm ticket:

 

https://sourceforge.net/p/syncterm/tickets/52/

 

-JP
 

[+Amis]

FYI - dialed up amis86 yesterday with Obi200 VOIP using US Robotics. BobTerm on AtariMac800. Dialed through the modem pool in ascii with a connect and switch to atascii with 100% success - video 

 

 

ip address:amis86.ddns.net port 9000

dial up modem pool number used: 949-325-9040 user id and password amis86

 

[Mazzspeed]

I loved this when I logged out this evening @JohnPolka

 

Definitely made me laugh. All I can say is the BBS community is awesome.

 

[+DarkLord]

Yes, but did you find it? 

 

[+doctorclu]

On 4/26/2021 at 8:25 PM, JohnPolka said:

I filed the Syncterm ticket:

 

Hey John, I'm at the weekend at want to dial some Basement BBS!   Is the modem up today?  (I tried calling).

 

Backyard BBS -no luck getting my usual two minute dial in yet. 

 

Need to call all the other Atari BBSs this weekend (me or a certain Buster Bobtail). 

[JohnPolka]

7 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:

I loved this when I logged out this evening @JohnPolka

 

Definitely made me laugh. All I can say is the BBS community is awesome.

 

 

Glad you liked it...it took you long enough to see it! hahahahaha. By the way, there's one other encounter that mentions you. hint hint.

 

-JP
 

[JohnPolka]

1 hour ago, doctorclu said:

 

Hey John, I'm at the weekend at want to dial some Basement BBS!   Is the modem up today?  (I tried calling).

 

Backyard BBS -no luck getting my usual two minute dial in yet. 

 

Need to call all the other Atari BBSs this weekend (me or a certain Buster Bobtail). 

 

Yeah, the Basement and Part-Time BBSs are temporarily down due to a system problem. I'm trying to recover now. I hope to be back soon. It will probably take longer to have the main dial-in number available again. The modem pool number will be available when we're back up on the Internet.

I have been able to get onto the Backyard BBS lately, however, I don't always stay on very long. I may get disconnected 1-3 times per session since I'm using VOIP when I dial in. And 300 baud does not have any error correction.

 

-JP

 

[+Tillek]

Seems like we're all having our techno challenges at the same time.

 

 

[Mazzspeed]

3 hours ago, JohnPolka said:

Glad you liked it...it took you long enough to see it! hahahahaha. By the way, there's one other encounter that mentions you. hint hint.

 

-JP
 

Ohh, more little secrets! I'll keep an eye out.

[Mazzspeed]

8 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Yes, but did you find it? 

 

Sadly that 600XL's long gone my friend. That was during the very late 90's when you couldn't give the things away.

[+doctorclu]

3 hours ago, JohnPolka said:

 

Yeah, the Basement and Part-Time BBSs are temporarily down due to a system problem. I'm trying to recover now.

 

 

Well those are two I won't call this weekend.   Hopefully you get the BBSs up again in the near future.

 

I tried to call MouseNet for the first time in ages.   It gave me a password that was ... not usable.   Left message for Ralf-Markus, hopefully he is able to sort it out and get back to me.

[+Amis]

2 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

Ohh, more little secrets! I'll keep an eye out.

and a bunch on the other boards as well.. lots or MazzSpeed easter eggs...