Subj : Re: Future-proofing DOS BBSs
To   : J0hnny A1pha
From : AKAcastor
Date : Sat Feb 17 2024 11:28:46

 ja> So it sounds like etherdfs doesn't support SHARE file locking, that's
 ja> good to know. I was hoping to use FDNET (instead of MSCLIENT), but
 ja> based on file locking needs, going to adjust my plans! 

The SHARE locking is for sure a deal breaker, I am still curious about EtherDFS - it wasn't abandoned decades ago, so may be our best hope for better network file sharing in DOS over the longer term. I've never implemented network file sharing drivers etc, so I am not sure how complex it will be to add file locking. Definitely gotta keep it on the radar!

 ja> 1. Want to test your Ringdown to handle incomoing connections on a
 ja> dedicated linux machine to handle incoming (and SMB file share). I was
 ja> thinking about HAPROXY approach but I love what you are doing with bot
 ja> detection! 

There could be a lot more directions to go with bot detection, it's an interesting problem. The detection currently is pretty simple but seems to have mostly solved the annoyances for me. I'd like to keep false positives to a minimum, I know in the past when I've unknowingly triggered an IP ban while testing different clients it has been frustrating as a caller. But man oh man are there are alot of bot connections if you do nothing at all!

 ja> 2. 4x FreeDOS v1.3 VMs, each with own IP under MSCLIENT, etc.

I haven't run the MSCLIENT inside FreeDOS but otherwise that is similar to my setup.  (and a bunch of networked DOS machines is accurate to 90s BBSes - if only I could afford a network at the time. or more than one computer.)

 ja> 3. Multi-node capable DOS BBS running on each FreeDOS machine (Renegade or
 ja> Iniquity or PCBOARD)

Inquity I am not familiar with, but based on the other two you have fine taste in DOS BBS software.

 ja> 4. RLFOSSIL - a shim program to allow each BBS node to accept incoming
 ja> telnet connections.

Since I am running the BBS inside DOSBox and using the telnet modem emulation built into DOSBox, I am running a 'regular' FOSSIL driver (X00 or BNU) to access "COM1" which DOSBox transparently manages as a telnet modem.

On my system I don't have a packet driver installed in DOS because it would conflict with the MSCLIENT networking.

 ja> I had a similar setup earlier this year, but I was using SOCAT to do
 ja> null-modem stuff and it was very brittle, as I had written my own telnet
 ja> server to handle incoming connections and manage routing (in Go) which
 ja> just wasn't very good :(

My Telnet Ringdown server project has an amateur sheen to it too. I have only minimally dabbled in sockets and pthreads so I am learning on the job here. :)


akacastor

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

.