TNFS active host list

[Gunstar]

Hey all, I searched the sub-forum and didn't see any list for TNFS host list, so I thought I'd start a thread with a list of known public TNFS hosts. I've noticed some come and go, sometimes they work, sometimes not, so maybe if you host a TNFS that is not always available maybe some days/times it is up and running would be cool too. Below is my current list of hosts I have on my Fujinet, there were several I deleted as nearly every time I try to use the there is an error and my Fujinet restarts, which bugs the hell out of me, so I just deleted them instead of keep trying and resetting. What I have listed are hosts that have been working reliably since I got Fujinet up and running a month or two ago.

 

TNFS Host List:

 

fujinet.online

atari-apps.irata.online

fujinet.pl

Atari8.us

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Gunstar

[Atari8guy]

I'm guessing some of these are not Atari, but what about PHP-TNFS (cacaculopedopis.net)

 

 

[Gunstar]

6 minutes ago, 8bitguy1 said:

I'm guessing some of these are not Atari, but what about PHP-TNFS (cacaculopedopis.net)

 

 

Thank you.  

So, what part of that would you type in as the actual host? I'm guessing the part in parenthesis? But then why the PHP-TNFS? Just actual addresses please, so there is no confusion about what to enter on a host entry. Other names or I.D.'s or whatever don't matter here and can probably be seen once the user goes to the server anyway.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Gunstar

[Atari8guy]

11 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

Thank you.  

So, what part of that would you type in as the actual host? I'm guessing the part in parenthesis? But then why the PHP-TNFS? Just actual addresses please, so there is no confusion about what to enter on a host entry. Other names or I.D.'s or whatever don't matter here and can probably be seen once the user goes to the server anyway.

Sorry as I wasn't clear.  It's a website that lists TNFS servers and lets you pull down files from them.  The dropdown contains a list of server addresses, some of which you already have.  I do not know how up to date it is...

[Gunstar]

40 minutes ago, 8bitguy1 said:

Sorry as I wasn't clear.  It's a website that lists TNFS servers and lets you pull down files from them.  The dropdown contains a list of server addresses, some of which you already have.  I do not know how up to date it is...

Oh, Ok.

Of course the point of this thread is I wanted to start a full list of servers for Atari 8-bits right here, so no one needs to follow other links to other sites and lists of unknown hosts. I've been through all that and it is exactly why I decided to start this thread. I wanted people to post host servers that are known active servers for Atari 8-bits and if they aren't always available, when they are working, right here. I guess I wasn't clear enough in the thread title or first post, it's too late for me to edit now.

 

Please, people, just known, working, servers that ATARI USERS can use with their Atari's and Fujinet, posted in this thread. And if you provide a host server that is not always working, possibly a schedule of when it is available? I've already entered and deleted half-a-dozen host servers from my Fujinet menu that worked when I entered them, but then I go back a day or week later and they are no longer available when I try them again, instead I get an error. I hate that as it forces Fujinet to reset completely which is quite annoying. Honestly I don't know why some offer publicly accessible servers if they aren't going to be working all the time. It's a waste of the user's time and host-list space. The mere four I listed are the ONLY RELIABLE servers I've found out of a list longer than the 8 slots available that I started with.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Gunstar

[mozzwald]

fujinet.atari8bit.net hosted by @Mr Robot appears to be back up now (https://atari8bit.net/fujinet-server/)

 

2 hours ago, Gunstar said:

there were several I deleted as nearly every time I try to use the there is an error and my Fujinet restarts

The fujinet shouldn't 'restart' when it fails to connect to a host, after 3 failed attempts to connect (visible in the serial debug output) it should display an error on the bottom line then it verifies wifi connection before returning to the main slots screen. If something else is happening, your firmware may be out of date. (current version: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313303-fujinet-firmware-update-information/?do=findComment&comment=4765383)

 

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, mozzwald said:

fujinet.atari8bit.net hosted by @Mr Robot appears to be back up now (https://atari8bit.net/fujinet-server/)

 

The fujinet shouldn't 'restart' when it fails to connect to a host, after 3 failed attempts to connect (visible in the serial debug output) it should display an error on the bottom line then it verifies wifi connection before returning to the main slots screen. If something else is happening, your firmware may be out of date. (current version: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313303-fujinet-firmware-update-information/?do=findComment&comment=4765383)

 

What you describe is what is happening and what I call a "restart." It may not be completely rebooting, but if it has to check my w-fi connection each time, it's still quite annoying to have to go through this process when a TNFS site doesn't connect, so I drop those hosts that aren't reliably up all the time from my slots to avoid it in the future. I understand problems can occur at the host server that may cause them to go down once in a while, but the servers that seem to have on-going issues, for what ever reason, maybe the hosts just can't or don't have them running all the time for personal reasons, and can't be working most of the time, I don't want to bother with anymore. Especially since many are host servers just have redundant files on them anyway. (including my own SD card slot) which is why I asked, if someone has a public server, but for whatever reason, isn't regularly up day after day and week after week, that a schedule might be posted here, then I can add them back to my slots and just not try and connect when I know they won't work according to a schedule. The ones I have removed from my slots, including Mr Robot's, have been completely hit or miss as to their working, more often NOT working, unless I just have incredibly bad timing nearly every time I've tried them.

 

I wish Fujinet would instead check all the host slots when it first boots and if any aren't connecting then turn those slots red then all the "wifi connect checks" can be gotten out of the way at the beginning and then those non-working servers could be avoided and not have to check the wi-fi every time I try to connect to a server that isn't running. It's quite the pain to go down a list of servers and have it do this three or four times when it can't connect to a server. So, I've started just deleting servers that aren't reliably up and running and I just don't bother with them anymore.

 

I am hoping that this thread will provide more host servers I don't already know about, and maybe from a larger list I can find 7 host servers for my 7 slots besides SD, that are more reliably up and running and these annoying "wi-fi checks" can become a lot less often. If not, it is what it is and I'll live with what works reliably and forget those that don't. Or at least have a time-table post-it on my monitor to refer too for those that aren't suppose to be running 24/7.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Gunstar

[_The Doctor__]

I can't fathom why a wifi check would happen if a server connection fails... you would think it would know if the wifi connection failed independent of server connections... in any case it's taking a while for whatever the process to resolve... so many moving parts and changes... hard to follow in my 'maturing' state of life...

Edited March 10, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Mr Robot]

12 hours ago, mozzwald said:

fujinet.atari8bit.net hosted by @Mr Robot appears to be back up now (https://atari8bit.net/fujinet-server/)

 

I have a status page here https://atari8bit.net/projects/software/fujinet-server-status/ on it I list all the servers I've ever heard of and I ping them every hour and list the status of the ping. This isn't a great way to tell if a tnfs server is up (FujiNet.pl doesn't respond to pings even though it's up, vintageisshenewold is a website so it will respond even if the tnfs server is down) but it's something. If there were a simple way to query the tnfs servers availability I'd use that.

 

I had a power outage at the weekend, forgot that the raspberry pi doesn't auto restart when the power comes back and my server was offline for a couple of days. I need to move the ping test to my web server so it can ping my tnfs as well, I should also add a timestamp I guess.

 

11 hours ago, Gunstar said:

I am hoping that this thread will provide more host servers I don't already know about, and maybe from a larger list I can find 7 host servers for my 7 slots besides SD

I would suggest you get your own tnfs server running (private if you like) so that you have a simple way to make stuff available to any machine you have with a FujiNet in it. Then you only have 6 slots left to fill. 

 

FujiNet.online, atari-apps.irata.online, Fujinet.Atari8bit.net, FujiNet.pl should be up almost all the time. 

That only leaves two slots to fill which can be for new ones that come along (rumor is that Abbuc are working on one for instance) it would be nice if homesoft would host one, that would cut down on the number of servers with just the homesoft collection on it!

 

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, Mr Robot said:

I would suggest you get your own tnfs server running (private if you like) so that you have a simple way to make stuff available to any machine you have with a FujiNet in it. Then you only have 6 slots left to fill. 

 

FujiNet.online, atari-apps.irata.online, Fujinet.Atari8bit.net, FujiNet.pl should be up almost all the time. 

That only leaves two slots to fill which can be for new ones that come along (rumor is that Abbuc are working on one for instance) it would be nice if homesoft would host one, that would cut down on the number of servers with just the homesoft collection on it!

 

I may just get my own TNFS server running, once I have a second and third Fujinet, right now I only have one. But of course I already have all my software (which itself is pretty similar to what's out there on the TNFS servers) on CF or SD cards (including Fujinet) for both my currently working Atari 8-bits, and my Incognito 800 with Fujinet has CF and SD, but that is ok since I can only use either Side loader or Fujinet SD at one time. So a personal, private TNFS server is sort of pointless since it's all on the Fujinet SD card already, so for all intents and purposes it is my own private server in that slot, and will be the same for every Fujinet I eventually have; but I may eventually do a public one. The only reason I use any TNFS server atm is because they are more organized than my CF/SD cards...I'm working on getting them organized, at which time a public TNFS would be practical, but probably also pretty redundant like the rest. I may end up with just a lot of empty server slots in the long run, since the vast majority of software archives will be on my Fujinet SD. There's not much point in 8 slots that are pretty much redundant, now is there?

 

Atari8.us has also been working every time I tried it. Though I'll add your server to the list again since in your case it was a power-outage but otherwise it'll be up most of the time. As already stated, that's the issue with many of the current TNFS servers, they are redundant with homesoft collections and most other things, though they all tend to have a couple folders with different stuff than other servers, but mostly redundant. I'm hoping to find one or two servers to swap out with one or two of the current ones I use, in hopes of less redundancy.

 

But I suppose in this day and age when pretty much all Atari software is available on-line for download, like the homesoft collection, this is unavoidable really since by now most of us have built up quite a similar library from downloads over the years, and mostly what I don't already have is because I'm not interested in bothering with software I'll never use. But that's why I started the thread and want to compile a list of all TNFS Atari servers, then I can check them all out and only keep those with more diversity permanently in slots. Maybe there isn't enough diversity for this though, but a full list of servers to check out might reveal some with files others don't have.

 

I actually, even though I have the full archive myself too, don't even care for the homesoft collection because it's all multiple random games on hundreds of ATR's and finding the piece of software one wants is then a major pain in the ass, having to have a list to look through to find out what's on what disk/.atr. If it were more organized alphabetically or by genre I'd probably like it. I prefer to download individual software on their own .ATR's or .XEX files for my HDD partitions. Multi-load .ATR's were great back when floppy disk storage was at a premium, but with FAT loaders and APT partitions it's just a pain in the ass to find anything that way these days; I prefer having things in alphabetical order in folders by genre, which is what I'm working on sorting with my own archives right now.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Gunstar

[Mr Robot]

34 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

I actually, even though I have the full archive myself too, don't even care for the homesoft collection because it's all multiple random games on hundreds of ATR's and finding the piece of software one wants is then a major pain in the ass, having to have a list to look through to find out what's on what disk/.atr. If it were more organized alphabetically or by genre I'd probably like it. I prefer to download individual software on their own .ATR's or .XEX files for my HDD partitions. Multi-load .ATR's were great back when floppy disk storage was at a premium, but with FAT loaders and APT partitions it's just a pain in the ass to find anything that way these days; I prefer having things in alphabetical order in folders by genre, which is what I'm working on sorting with my own archives right now.

Homesoft's collection is available in two forms, as pack disks just like they were back in the day or as individual xex files alphabetically in folders.

 

For the XEX's go here http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?idx=0

 

Click this to download them all as a zip file.

 

 

[manterola]

Mine is down because I am not sure I am in the free tier of Google cloud platform. It was running for about 3 months and then just stopped. When click restart I get a message that I will be billed. Not sure if that is a standard message when restarting a machine or I will be really billed..   Any experience with Google cloud computing platform.?

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, Mr Robot said:

Homesoft's collection is available in two forms, as pack disks just like they were back in the day or as individual xex files alphabetically in folders.

 

For the XEX's go here http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?idx=0

 

Click this to download them all as a zip file.

 

 

Thank you, I did not know this... I knew that you could get the list shown there in alphabetical order and find software on-line that way, but I assumed any downloads were still multi-title .ATR's or "download all" was just a .zip of all the .ATR's. I already have that .zip in my archives, I just never bothered to open it and see it was .xex's. I merely downloaded it to go through and sort out "some day," but have the archive on hand for posterity as you never know when a web site will just disappear like some other Atari software archive sites that have gone away over the years.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Gunstar

[moonlight_mile]

You can put mine out there. As long as my nas is running it is usually up. It currently is kind of a mish mash of stuff but it’s there.

Alcatrazbbs.ddns.net

[+x=usr(1536)]

Something that might be worth thinking about for the future: a lightweight directory service for TNFS servers.  My initial thoughts are something along the lines of DNS, but with a P2P capability in case the root servers ever crap out.  Even something like an official equivalent to a hosts file that could be downloaded manually or automatically retrieved and applied to the server list would work.

 

Don't really want to get into the minutiae of that idea here since this isn't really the place to do so, but can start a new thread if there's enough interest.