Subj : Future-proofing DOS BBSs
To   : All
From : j0HNNY a1PHA
Date : Wed Feb 14 2024 19:45:21

I've got a thing for DOS-based BBSs. And they are becoming more rare to
enounter in the wild as it's becoming more difficult to run them,
particuarly since Windows has stopped suppoerting 32-bit/x86 OSs -- not to
mention the risk of running outdated Windows OSs connected to the
internet - sure, you can firewall them off. But more difficult. Here's
what I've experimented with:

WINDOWS - PURE x86
I recently spun up a Windows 7 x86 box on proxmox (Renegade, PCBoard) and
it was a pretty big PitA. Do-able, and probably the most reliable way
given built-in 16-bit support, but still ponderous just getting the
thing updated with the latest patches. Win 10 32-bit is also an option,
but high overhead. Net2BBS works well.

WINDOWS 10 & 11 - x64 w/NTVDMX64
If you have a machine that can run Windows 11, I've found NTVDMX64 a
decent option, but it has its hiccups and sometimes just doesn't work
reliably. Again -- high overhead for a dedicated machine or VM. Has some
issues with the NTVDMx64 version of Net2BBS, but probably user error. 

OS/2
OS/2 w/ArcaOS is def. an option given SIO's telnet ability, but
Arca is expensive and doesn't install on a lot of hardware (not to
mention Warp4 - ugh). But I think Arca is probably a path of least
resistance if you are familar with OS/2. It screams on even old Thinkpads.

DOS
Most complicated option for multinode capable BBSs. Multiple machines, or
DESQVIEW, null modems, etc. But it's definitely the "purist" approach
when combined with something like NET2BBS.

LINUX
There's a perl script package (https://github.com/Geryon/TelnetBBS) that
I've had luck with, but it's not pretty. But it's functional! Don't know
if DOSBOX or DOSBOX-X or DOSBOX-STAGING resolve some of the SHARE type
issues I've seen in the past, but this might be the most future-proof
method out there. But pretty hard to run headless without X.

You could also run GAMESRV (older ubuntu only, fails on modern versions)
or something like Mystic BBS as a Telnet server that immediately loads a
DOS BBS, but I couldn't get downloads or doors to work with this method.

If you made it this far...

I'd love to have a 'modern' telnet app for linux that has a WFC screen
and handles comms -- like Net2BBS for linux -- and uses Dosemu2 (which
may have the best chance of longer term support for DOS console apps)?

Is such a thing possible? Other ways I'm missing?

Thanks retro folks :)


|08.|05j|13A|08.


--- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/x86_64)
 * Origin: R3tr0/X BBS :: retrox.us:1992 (21:4/158)

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