I phoned every CAN/USA BBS in the Fidonet nodelist. reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ScootyPuff-Sr · 2015-10-31 21:24 Inspired by /u/Paco_Smithereens' survey of telnet boards from the Fidonet nodelist, today I dialed every BBS in Canada & the USA that had a *telephone number* in the Oct.30 Fidonet nodelist. **THE GOOD:** 13 systems seem to be working BBSes inviting user calls! * Mysteria, Sierra Madre CA, (626)355-5347 * Darkrealms, Toronto ON, (647)847-2083 * Lion's Den, Trenton ON, (613)392-8896 * Prism BBS, Slaterville Springs NY, (607)200-4076 * The Realm of Darkness BBS, Phoenix AZ, (623)907-2858 * The Pan-American, Frankfort KY, (502)875-8938. It's listed in the nodelist as The Pan-American, but it answers as Capitol City Online. * Bits & Bytes BBS, N.Stonington CT, (860)503-8857 * Maria & Derek's, Tsawwassen BC, (604)948-2580 * Brazos Valley Hub, College Station TX, (979)696-6352 * Ziplog Support Port, College Station TX, (979)696-3600... yeah, one guy running two boards on two separate telephone lines?! * Christian Fellowship, Mt.Ephraim NJ, (856)933-7096 * Xanadu BBS, Edmonton AB, (780)439-8364. It connected and gave a welcome message, but wasn't responsive after that. * The Black Knights BBS, Midland TX, (432)694-8047 **THE BAD:** There's a machine there, but it's not for you. * BandMaster (Vancouver BC), The Looking Glass (Tacoma WA) and wabusa (Cameron NC)'s phone numbers are for network mail only, not user dial- ins. (BandMaster is actually local to me. It had another number for user dial-ins as recently as two years ago, and that user number still shows on screen when dialing the mail-only number, but it is not in service) * Ye Olde Coffee House, Athens GA. A modem answers, but it's some sort of utility or process monitoring machine, datalogger, or similar embedded system, not a BBS. * The Prison Board, Mesquite TX. It answers and connects but then I just get line noise until, eventually, the call drops. * I get a modem answering on the following, but the handshake doesn't complete and the call gets dropped: Swiss Bull (Monroe WI), WABUSA VADV BBS (Cameron NC), Docsplace BBS (Clearwater FL), The Positronium BBS (Lafayette LA), Sursum Corda (Huntsville AL). * There's a fax machine, not a modem, answering at the South Santa Clara County BBS (San Martin CA). **THE UGLY:** Voices (7), Disconnected / Not in service / Cannot be completed as dialed (17), No answer (9), Voicemail services (2), Number cannot receive incoming calls (1), Fast busy signal (2) **EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS:** Generic Pentium 4 laptop with internal modem, WinXP, Syncterm. Cable television VOIP home phone line in the 604 area code. Two bottles of Dr. Pepper because it was the closest I could get to Jolt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PhotoJim99 · 2015-10-31 23:54 I think there was a time when my little city of 225,000 had 13 FidoNet nodes all to itself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nonex · 2015-11-01 00:40 Cheers, hope you have free long distance! Do old school modems work over VOIP? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ScootyPuff-Sr · 2015-11-01 01:13 Not free, but certainly cheap. At 5 cents/minute I figure I spent under five bucks. It is possible that my inability to connect to the 6 systems I had issues with could be related to the VOIP thing. Might try them again tomorrow forcing a lower speed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nonex · 2015-11-01 01:20 Good job, let us know how it goes! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PublicEnemaNumberTwo · 2015-11-02 16:40 The Lion's Den is my local Fido hub, and he has been around forever. I wonder if it could be the longest continuously running BBS, at least in North America? It's been up since the early 90's (1993 I think) at the same phone number. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BstMnFail · 2016-01-03 03:50 Tried Darkrealms (a very old BBS I had no idea was still running!). It connects, but is noted in the application screen as now being private (unless you can "prove your awesomeness"). Thanks for this, though! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ThomasTheFourth · 2016-02-25 05:28 I know this thread is old, but thought I'd chime in. I used to do this locally back in the day! There would be these mystery boards that weren't advertised anywhere, but they were on the Fidonet list. I found some interesting stuff doing that back on the day.