Well due to Internet monitoring and governments censoring communication, I think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

Everyone got forced into Internet usage and forgot about Arpanet the Internet came from was developed in part by governments. It was designed to be a way of communication after a nuclear war or some other disaster. It had much better commercial uses and became the Internet. BBSes had to die because governments could not control or censor them. So they made the Internet as cheap as possible to access to shut out the BBS systems.

But the mistake they made was that some BBS systems still existed and they converted to Telnet access and other Internet protocols. Netmail may be a more secure method to send an email that Internet email. It may be better to use Fidonet or Dove-Net than to use the Internet.

If I had the money I'd buy a new modem and get a second phone line for dial-up for my BBS. I could have people using it for free to get access to the Netmail and other parts of the Internet. I want to connect to other 314/636/618 area code BBS systems. We used to have a list of them, but I am not sure how many are left. Some people still use the old systems with MODEMS and are looking
for BBS systems to dial into.

I just finished installing my BBS here, but I have even more work to do on it. It is Linux based, Ubuntu 11.10 and I just got it on Dove-Net and will figure out how to put it on Fidonet next and then maybe use DOSEMU for DOS based BBS Games.

But yeah, the BBS scene and technology is an alternative to the Internet and
it is always good to have alternatives. The documentation for configuring Scynchonet for example is not user friendly and not always easy to find. They talk about libraries to use but don't go into detail how to install them or even configure them. Try to add in more user friendly detail to the Wiki, and someone removes it and then makes it more cryptic and tries to make the document as short as possible. If you have a HOWTO guide you need details of steps to take and then make it user friendly so even a novice can set up a BBS and get going. But sadly we don't have that yet. It is what scares everyone away from BBSes and Linux and alternative technology, the lack of user friendliness in the HOWTO guides, getting angry at novices/noobs who don't
read the documentation (well they cannot find it or it is too cryptic for them to read), and of course being different from the WWW and Windows means there
is a learning curve for them.

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■ Synchronet ■ Normad BBS Telnet bbs.normad.com port 23 for Retrocomputing talk

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Generalram to Madcat on Sun Apr 01 2012 06:25 pm

think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

Everyone got forced into Internet usage and forgot about Arpanet the Internet came from was developed in part by governments. It was designed to be a way of communication after a nuclear war or some other disaster. It
had much better commercial uses and became the Internet. BBSes had to die because governments could not control or censor them. So they made the

i dont buy into this conspiracy theory about bbses. bbses went to hell because bbses couldnt provide what people wanted. also bbs operators had the mentality that it was bbses vs the internet. most of them didnt consider adopting or merging with the internet.

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave his house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Mro to Generalram on Mon Apr 02 2012 12:03 am

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Generalram to Madcat on Sun Apr 01 2012 06:25 pm

think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

Everyone got forced into Internet usage and forgot about Arpanet the Internet came from was developed in part by governments. It was designed be a way of communication after a nuclear war or some other disaster. It had much better commercial uses and became the Internet. BBSes had to die because governments could not control or censor them. So they made the

i dont buy into this conspiracy theory about bbses. bbses went to hell beca bbses couldnt provide what people wanted. also bbs operators had the mentali that it was bbses vs the internet. most of them didnt consider adopting or merging with the internet.

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

More like MS-DOS verses Windows 95. BBSes were like a primative system and the Internet was designed to be user friendly and easier to use.

Or maybe like Linux verses the Macintosh, take your pick.

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■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Orion Blastar to Mro on Mon Apr 02 2012 01:34 pm

More like MS-DOS verses Windows 95. BBSes were like a primative system and the Internet was designed to be user friendly and easier to use.

the internet wasnt so user friendly back when it started. and it wasnt so user friendly when the web started.
it took time to polish things out.

regarding ms dos, there were windows bbses and bbses that had windows gui clients.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Generalram to Madcat on Sun Apr 01 2012 06:25 pm

Well due to Internet monitoring and governments censoring communication, I think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

I wonder how hard it would be to come up with a standard for encrypting mailer/BBS traffic? I'd love to set up a mesh VPN between me, my uplinks and downinks...

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■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Mro to Orion Blastar on Mon Apr 02 2012 04:35 pm




Why ats with this new message editor?

Here's the problem with BBS's! I'm typing a mesageh here and its asking me tpo press CTRXL-Z to save, when ZTRL-ZC is the command to background a progeraram.

Seriously though, the WEeb was ieasier. I have wireless at the moment, due to living in a third world city called Melbourne, butand it drops out all the time. What tha mt means is that if I'm typing a message in a BBS and it drops out, which it does every SECOND message, I lost it, Ie it, I have to re log in again, gro through all the menus etc and type it in again. With e-mail, I just or usernet, its not matter at all. Just annoying.

The Internet though is peer to peer. What I liked, was that your saccess wasn't determined by a systop or limited. I can use modern internet technology and ADSL (when I move womerewhere where I can get it) to transfer stuff to people IU know. The BBS, great as it was back in the saday is quite aone directional.

Perhaps for the BBS to survive, it needs to be ccome more peer to peer. It needs to be able to allow people to log into onto my computer and see the files I've shared. Maybe a standard could be created where each person can be a host, a peer in a distributed BBS. So I can


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■ Synchronet ■ MS & RD BBs - bbs.mozysswamp.org

Poindexter Fortran wrote to Generalram <=-

Well due to Internet monitoring and governments censoring communication, I think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

I wonder how hard it would be to come up with a standard for encrypting mailer/BBS traffic? I'd love to set up a mesh VPN between me, my
uplinks and downinks...

Such as BinkP + SSL?

... Fried catfish is the other white meat.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
■ Synchronet ■ Inland Utopia - inlandutopia.etowns.org

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Poindexter Fortran to Generalram on Thu Apr 05 2012 06:03 pm

I wonder how hard it would be to come up with a standard for encrypting mailer/BBS traffic? I'd love to set up a mesh VPN between me, my uplinks
and downinks...

It would be trivial. We could simply run the files through PGP or whatever before they are transfered. A teeny hook after the packet is assembled and onother before it is imported is all that would be needed.

A mesh VPN would be overkill for the stated goal.

---
http://DuckDuckGo.com/ a better search engine that respects your privacy.
■ Synchronet ■ My Brand-New BBS (All the cool SysOps run STOCK!)

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Boraxman to Mro on Fri Apr 06 2012 12:23 pm

Whats with this new message editor?

Here's the problem with BBS's! I'm typing a mesage here and its asking me to press CTRL-Z to save, when C[C[C[C[C[C[C is the command to
background a program.

i perfer to use a msg editor that takes /s to save

Perhaps for the BBS to survive, it needs to become more peer to peer. It needs to be able to allow people to log onto my computer and see the files I've shared. Maybe a standard could be created where each person can be a host, a peer in a distributed BBS. So I c[C[C[D[D[D[D

take a look at template shares. it's sort of like what a bbs was but updated for today's age. they have files [torrent site] shoutbox, forums, email, shoutcast support, games.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Mro to Generalram on Mon Apr 02 2012 00:03:16

i dont buy into this conspiracy theory about bbses. bbses went to hell because bbses couldnt provide what people wanted. also bbs operators had
the mentality that it was bbses vs the internet. most of them didnt
consider adopting or merging with the internet.

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave his house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

HyperText killed BBSs.



echto

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■ Synchronet ■ -=-= echto bbs =-=-

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: echto to Mro on Sat May 12 2012 08:59 pm

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave his house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

HyperText killed BBSs.

no they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what people wanted at that time.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: echto to Mro on Sat May 12 2012 08:59 pm

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave his house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

HyperText killed BBSs.

no they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what people wanted at that time.

Many BBS systems that were multiline became Internet Service Providers.

People got AOL, MSN, ect forced on them by the $500 Internet Rebate and $25/month access rates for three years for a new PC bought. They got scammed into it.

In order to get on a BBS you needed to have the phone number, which normally was not in a phone book and could only be gotten from another BBS or BBS user. The Internet was able to use search engines to find web sites and made it easier to locate information.

It is not poor foresight, the BBS did not have the ability to compete with the Internet and WWW as it was not easy to find a BBS or know what to do as different BBSes had different menu systems. Then getting the right terminal program for a BBS, if you had Ripscript support you had graphics on a BBS but not all BBSes supported it. It was that Internet services were better marketed and bundled with new PC sales.

It was not a poor handle on what people wanted at the time, people didn't know what they wanted. But this Internet and World Wide Web was forced on them and they paid their monthly fees even if most BBSes were free and didn't charge fees. Most BBSes were run out of someone's house or basement or in some cases by a company that charged for access.

The Internet and WWW was better marketed, was easier to find information, was easier to use, and was bundled with new PC sales. Once Microsoft bundled IE with Windows they bundled an ISP finder software as well.

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■ Synchronet ■ Normad BBS Telnet bbs.normad.com port 23 for Retrocomputing talk

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Generalram to Madcat on Sun Apr 01 2012 06:25 pm

Well due to Internet monitoring and governments censoring
communication, I think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

I wonder how hard it would be to come up with a standard for encrypting mailer/BBS traffic? I'd love to set up a mesh VPN between me, my uplinks
and downinks...

It shouldn't be so hard to modify the software to encrypt data packets to use gpg and then on the other side use gpg to decrypt the packets. Just keep a public key on the other side to encrypt to and the private key on the side
that decrypts the packets.

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■ Synchronet ■ Normad BBS Telnet bbs.normad.com port 23 for Retrocomputing talk

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Mro to Generalram on Mon Apr 02 2012 12:03 am

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Generalram to Madcat on Sun Apr 01 2012 06:25 pm

think BBSes like Fax Machines are a technology they cannot control.

Everyone got forced into Internet usage and forgot about Arpanet the Internet came from was developed in part by governments. It was designed be a way of communication after a nuclear war or some other disaster. It had much better commercial uses and became the Internet. BBSes had to die because governments could not control or censor them. So they made the

i dont buy into this conspiracy theory about bbses. bbses went to hell beca bbses couldnt provide what people wanted. also bbs operators had the mentali that it was bbses vs the internet. most of them didnt consider adopting or merging with the internet.

they had poor foresight and a poor handle on what
people wanted at that time. they were like an old man who refused to leave house even though a horrible hurricane was coming.

I have to say that BBSes were so great back in the day and yes the goverment
in my opinion could not control them. I also believe one of the down falls of BBSes were that some BBSes well actually alot in my area in St.Louis was ran
by immature kids and Adults. I had the bad expereince that when I would call
a BBS and yes there was so many great ones but then you had the controling,
no lifes people that keep ruining the expereince. I think the internet was going to happen no matter what as through time we all grow. Getting from Dos black screens to actual pictures and such is a great improvement. Now this
is just my opinion about some of these issues and how I feel that a part of BBSes down fall was the sysops that ran them and gave the great sysops a bad name. Long Live BBSes!!


The Phantom Lord - The Outer Limit's - limits.darktech.org


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■ Synchronet ■ The Outer Limit's (Alpha Site) limits.darktech.org

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: The Phantom Lord to Mro on Tue Oct 09 2012 09:29 pm

I have to say that BBSes were so great back in the day and yes the
goverment in my opinion could not control them. I also believe one of the

hi, guy that is running my telegard bbs, didnt change anything and says it's his!

you are replying to a msg from last april.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: The Phantom Lord to Mro on Tue Oct 09 2012 09:29 pm

I have to say that BBSes were so great back in the day and yes the goverment in my opinion could not control them.

They did try - look up Operation Sundevil if you didn't live it.

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■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

--- POINDEXTER FORTRAN wrote --
They did try - look up Operation Sundevil if you didn't live it.

I remember that. The headquarters for it was about 2 miles from my parents house.

---
"I'd like to hold off judgement on a thing like that, sir, until all
the facts are in. "

-- General "Buck" Turgidson


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* TARDIS BBS - Home of QUARKware * telnet bbs.cortex-media.info

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: the doctor to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Thu Oct 11 2012 03:04 pm

They did try - look up Operation Sundevil if you didn't live it.

I remember that. The headquarters for it was about 2 miles from my parents house.

Anyone who hasn't heard of this should read "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling. I hadn't read it in years, found a .mobi copy that downloaded into my Kindle from Project Gutenberg.

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■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

On 10/11/2012 11:58 AM, Poindexter Fortran wrote:

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: the doctor to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Thu Oct 11 2012 03:04 pm

> > They did try - look up Operation Sundevil if you didn't live it.

> I remember that. The headquarters for it was about 2 miles from my parents
> house.

Anyone who hasn't heard of this should read "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling. I hadn't read it in years, found a .mobi copy that downloaded into my
Kindle from Project Gutenberg.

All of the stories from those days are extremely fascinating reads. I
was just getting into BBSing around 92, and while I was extremely active
in the local networks, I never bothered with Fidonet, and didn't "waste"
my money on magazines. When I started looking back at what all was
happening in those years, it's astounding.

I can still remember where I was when I heard about Rusty & Edie's,
though. That was huge news for us back then... it kinda brought home
the fact that we knew half of us had pirated software and could have the government knocking on our doors at anytime.

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■ Synchronet ■ Southeast Texas Chat

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Dreamer to Poindexter Fortran on Thu Oct 11 2012 05:15 pm

I can still remember where I was when I heard about Rusty & Edie's,
though. That was huge news for us back then... it kinda brought home
the fact that we knew half of us had pirated software and could have the government knocking on our doors at anytime.

i think most of that shit with rusty & edie was just made up.

http://i.imgur.com/uzE0i.jpg

those old farts dont look like they could hurt a fly.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Dreamer to Poindexter Fortran on Thu Oct 11 2012 05:15 pm

All of the stories from those days are extremely fascinating reads. I
was just getting into BBSing around 92, and while I was extremely active
in the local networks, I never bothered with Fidonet, and didn't "waste"
my money on magazines. When I started looking back at what all was happening in those years, it's astounding.

My BBS and a local othernet got coverage in a regional newspaper, an article written about us and published in the National Enquirer, and phone calls from the Secret Service after one of our callers skipped the country after the
local PD had confiscated his passport. As a 20-something running a BBS out of his house before most people had even heard of the internet, it was pretty exciting.

Looking back, I wish I saved the Enquirer article. If anyone has the Enquirer with the photoshopped photo of Fabio and Rosanne Barr in bed together, please let me know. :)

--pF

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■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Poindexter Fortran to Dreamer on Fri Oct 12 2012 06:37 pm

Re: Re: Internet and FTN
By: Dreamer to Poindexter Fortran on Thu Oct 11 2012 05:15 pm

All of the stories from those days are extremely fascinating reads. I was just getting into BBSing around 92, and while I was extremely active in the local networks, I never bothered with Fidonet, and didn't "waste" my money on magazines. When I started looking back at what all was happening in those years, it's astounding.

My BBS and a local othernet got coverage in a regional newspaper, an article written about us and published in the National Enquirer, and phone calls fro the Secret Service after one of our callers skipped the country after the local PD had confiscated his passport. As a 20-something running a BBS out o his house before most people had even heard of the internet, it was pretty exciting.

Looking back, I wish I saved the Enquirer article. If anyone has the Enquire with the photoshopped photo of Fabio and Rosanne Barr in bed together, pleas let me know. :)

--pF

and r&e's bbs brought porn and wares into the bbs scene first.

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"


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■ Synchronet ■ Three Stooges Gentlemens Club - Las Vegas, Nv - tsgc.dyndns.org

On 10/12/2012 08:37 PM, Poindexter Fortran wrote:

My BBS and a local othernet got coverage in a regional newspaper, an article written about us and published in the National Enquirer, and phone calls from the Secret Service after one of our callers skipped the country after the local PD had confiscated his passport. As a 20-something running a BBS out of his house before most people had even heard of the internet, it was pretty exciting.

Looking back, I wish I saved the Enquirer article. If anyone has the Enquirer with the photoshopped photo of Fabio and Rosanne Barr in bed together, please let me know. :)

I dug around the net for a few minutes earlier, and while I haven't
found the National Enquirer issue, I did find a copy of the article by
Michael Liedtke, and it includes responses by you and fellow NIRVANAnet
sysops of the time. I couldn't stomach reading the entire article
(egads, people were SO naive then), but it sure was interesting.

http://www.zoklet.net/totse/en/hack/legalities_of_hacking/cctimes.html

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■ Synchronet ■ Southeast Texas Chat