Hello everybody!

After 25 years I decided to get back into Fidonet. Of course, only via TCP/IP and with more up-to-date hardware and software. Binkd, Husky and Golded I have already successfully set up and as Point I am already online again :-)

Next I will set up a Fidonet Node, with the same software components under Debian Linux.

And because it just has to be, I now want to get a BBS up and running as well. Criteria would be connection to Fidonet, as simple and as text oriented as possible (so no ANSI gimmicks) and of course it should run on the same Debian system as Binkley & Co.

Do you have any tips what I should look at best here?

Michael


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* Origin: ----> Fidian > kuehlbox.wtf/fidian (2:310/31.4)

On 01 Feb 2021, Michael Mrak said the following...

And because it just has to be, I now want to get a BBS up and running as well. Criteria would be connection to Fidonet, as simple and as text oriented as possible (so no ANSI gimmicks) and of course it should run
on the same Debian system as Binkley & Co.

I'm running Mystic BBS on a Raspberry Pi & quite like it. There are also x86 Linux builds available. It's easy to setup and since you're already running a tosser & mailer you could just point Mystic to your existing JAM bases (assuming you're using JAM) and skip setting up Mystic's built in tosser & mailer. The default theme is mostly text based with few ansi graphics. You could further customize it to remove all ansi if you chose to do so.

Synchronet is also a great choice, though I don't have as much experience with it. It can also run on Linux.


Jay

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* Origin: Northern Realms (1:229/664)

Re: Looking for a simple BBS with fidonet connectivity
By: Michael Mrak to All on Mon Feb 01 2021 08:29 pm

And because it just has to be, I now want to get a BBS up and running as well. Criteria would be connection to Fidonet, as simple and as text oriented as possible (so no ANSI gimmicks) and of course it should run on the same Debian system as Binkley & Co.

Do you have any tips what I should look at best here?

It's a choice you make, maybe not the simplest choice you'll ever make. ;)

Go with what does you want it to do in a way you can work with.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Baroque: When you are out of Monet.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

And because it just has to be, I now want to get a BBS up and running as well. Criteria would be connection to Fidonet, as simple and as text oriented as possib le (so no ANSI gimmicks) and of course it should run
on the same Debian system a s Binkley & Co.

There aren't too many options that check every box, and as someone else mentioned Mystic might be the only one? Synchronet is a fantastic option too, but it uses a proprietary message base so it won't work with Husky, etc.

Mystic does have lots of ANSI bells and whistles, but you can also force it to run in pure ASCII no-color mode with traditional BBS functions that you'd find in the 90s era. Or you can run in color modes and configure it to look/behave however you want. Its 100% visually configurable so it'd be up to you to decide how you want it to look.

It uses JAM and Binkley and has its own tosser and mailer but you can also Husky and binkd, or any combination of Mystic's tools and other third party tools that use JAM and Binkley-style mailing. It also exports GoldEd configurations for you so you don't have to maintain a tedius GoldEd configuration after the initial setup. Compatibility with Husky and GoldEd have been well tested over the years with many people using them with Mystic.

You can download Mystic at www.mysticbbs.com the latest "cutting edge" versions are specifically found here: http://www.mysticbbs.com/downloads/prealpha/

I would highly recommend Synchronet too if you're willing to pass up on the third party tools. You can download that at: synchro.net

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/01/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

Michael wrote (2021-02-01):

And because it just has to be, I now want to get a BBS up and running as well. Criteria would be connection to Fidonet, as simple and as text oriented as possible (so no ANSI gimmicks) and of course it should run on the same Debian system as Binkley & Co.

Do you have any tips what I should look at best here?

I sounds Maximus would be the perfect fit, unfortunately it is unmaintained for a long time. I wasn't able to compile it on a recent Linux distro. It was ported to gcc 3.x a long time ago, but after that nobody touched the sources anymore. I loved Maximus for being very simple in the default install, but also very extensible.

Besides the closed sourced Mystic there is Enigma½ and Synchronet. All three are bigger packages and have everything included (only Enigma doesn't inlcude a mailer).

A very new project is Talisman BBS. It uses a Squish message base.

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* Origin: . (2:280/464.47)

On 02 Feb 2021, Oli said the following...

I sounds Maximus would be the perfect fit, unfortunately it is

Besides the closed sourced Mystic there is Enigma½ and Synchronet. All

A very new project is Talisman BBS. It uses a Squish message base.

Thanks for listing out all of these. One other new project I'm really interested in is a rewrite of the old Oblivion2 BBS software.

https://github.com/M-griffin/Oblivion2-XRM

He's got some other BBS-related projects if you go up a level.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/02 (Windows/32)
* Origin: 8-Bit Boyz BBS! -=[ bbs.8bitboyz.com port:6502 ]=- (1:305/3)

On 01 Feb 2021, Michael Mrak said the following...

Hello everybody!

Hey Michael!

Do you have any tips what I should look at best here?

I use mystic on Linux (Ubuntu 20.04), I manage it via ssh with (mostly) no issues. And I connect to it using a telnet client called Netrunner (made by
the same people that make mystic bbs).

It is quite easy, I run three ftn networks (micronet, fsxnet and fidonet), no problems. Let me know if you need help or anything. buanzo@4:900/107

Cheers

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: DaRK Game BBS (4:900/107)