Anyone with experience setting up an SSH BBS in Debian? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kirktotes · 2016-03-12 15:40 I want to experiment with a BBS that people can connect to over SSH. I'd like it to function as something similar to Amazon Mechanical Turk, but that's not important at the moment. The most important thing is, how in gods name do I set it up? Woudl anyone be willing to show me and set it up on a VPS of mine for some bitcoin? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sardaukar_siet · 2016-03-12 18:15 Are you thinking of a particular BBS system? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2016-03-12 18:17 you can use any bbs software that supports ssh or create a front end for one that doesnt. that mechanical turk idea sounds weird. dont think a bbs is best suited for that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2016-03-12 22:20 Synchronet supports SSH, and it runs fine under Debian. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kirktotes · 2016-03-13 02:04 I was looking for installation files but couldn't find any for Debian. I'm a bit new to Debian, is it just as simple as downloading the source and running "make"? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2016-03-13 02:52 There aren't really instructions specific to Debian. When I installed a couple years ago, I followed the [*nix installation](http://wiki.synchro.net/install:nix) instructions on the wiki. They're still good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kirktotes · 2016-03-13 02:59 Thank you. I'll give it a shot! Were there any specific issues you had in setting it up that a newbie might need to be aware of? Any setup or configuration pitfalls? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2016-03-13 03:10 Generally the main area where people run into problems is running old DOS [door games](http://breakintochat.com/wiki/BBS_door_game). It's not too hard, but it can take some finessing to get particular games to work right. However, it doesn't sound like you're going to need to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kirktotes · 2016-03-13 03:32 Nothing in particular, just anything that runs in Debian, anything that works over SSH, and anythign that lets me use custom ASCII art, design neat menus, and optionally program some additional functionality into it or at least let it work with some kind of API to another application (so users can trigger certain events with their posts, like PGP key signature verification as an example). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sardaukar_siet · 2016-03-13 04:34 What programming language do you know? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kirktotes · 2016-03-13 13:06 I was able to get Synchronet up and running, (despite giving a port binding error which I'll need to figure out later) but once I went to configuration I was absolutely lost. I don't see anything anywhere about internet connectivity, only what seems to be settings for dialup or email. Should I be using a different BBS system if the *only* connectivity I will be offering is over SSH socket connections? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2016-03-13 13:46 I'm sure it can be done. Probably in sbbs.ini. Take a look here: http://wiki.synchro.net/config:sbbs.ini ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2016-03-17 17:22 First off, I've authored a few bbs systems for linux back in the day and even ran Wildcat for a 50 node board which got migrated over to Renegade then synchronet then ported to a stack of linux servers so I say all this with welcoming intention to ensure your understanding the endeavor one would take in such a project. One should remember that BBS's no matter if its dialup, telnet, or ssh are open forums and message relay systems(ie message boards, usenet, fidonet/echonet/netmail[aka email]) with file download load capabilities, live chat, and when configured to support doors.sys standards can "fork" into a single task application such as tradewars or other software that supports doors.sys. All packaged up behind a nice menu system. Effectively, they are the facebook of the 70's, 80's and pre-yahoo 90's. Ultimately a mturk clone inside ssh/ascii board is the worst idea for a board and one should invest time into setting up a phpbb/reddit/Kareha-chanboard clone for that sort of thing after reading http://www.bbscorner.com/startabbs. Now with that out of the way; If one still is interested in running a board then more power to you for doing so and let me be the first to offer a signup for your echomail area. Running a board over ssh is easy and I suggest either using ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume13/sbbs/ or http://www.ordig.org/Linux/#MiniBBS for your menu system then installing leafnode and slrn (used as your message boards system, configure this with an uplink to either eternial-septemeber.org or aioe.org as your BIG 8 usenet provider plus your own board's message areas). After that is setup install and configure mutt+sendmail for netmail and blinkd for fidomail/echomail. If you want to provide file areas then setup uucp/rsync over ssh (http://www.bortzmeyer.org/uucp-over-ssh.html) and/or install lrzsz to provide a files area in your menu. As for live chat then install ytalk or turn on writes to a user's tty(http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/135108/sending-message- from-one-terminal-user-to-another-user). Time banking is a little hard to implement and redundant in modern environments, but can be done with pam_time(http://www.linux- pam.org/Linux-PAM-html/sag-pam_time.html) and any sort of user authentication should be handled by pam. Best of luck, denzuko, SYSOP - Software Systems Online and defcon//norad-BBS, CO- SYSOP frostmud. Active on sdf lonestar, nyx, and kiabbs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2016-05-05 23:20 Been playing around with options and lately been using mysticbbs with stunnel. Example server config: [bbs-serv] accept = 8443 connect = 22 ciphers = PSK PSKsecrets = secrets.txt ; format IDENTITY:KEY pairs, one per line [bbs-client] client = yes accept = 127.0.0.1:2222 connect = bbs.mydomain.example:8443 PSKsecrets = bbs-login.txt After starting stunnel just telnet to localhost on port 2323, also works for any telnet enabled bbs.