Virtual Modem for connecting to BBS over VoIP reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Infinade · 2016-07-02 05:01 So, I love old tech and find it fascinating and want to work out a way to be able to dial into a BBS over VoIP and have some sort of software act as a modem and output to a terminal. I know VoIP compression will lessen the experience and is certain to break at some point, but it is simply as a novelty for me to use for fun from time to time. P.S. I'm on Windows, not Linux, and sorry if this is the wrong sub for this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- erazmus · 2016-07-02 14:34 This is something that I've looked for, but haven't found anything. I've tried real modems over a POTS to VoIP gateway, but I can't get a reliable connection. 1200 baud maximum. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FozzTexx · 2016-07-02 14:53 VoIP compression isn't the issue as long as you use the same codec as a T1, G.711. [I run my BBS](http://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/230/using-modems-without-phone- lines) over VoIP and people are able to connect at up to 33.6kbit. The issue with VoIP is latency and packet loss. On a T1 line each packet gets a guaranteed time slice and so there will never be a problem with a packet getting delayed or dropped. Over the Internet though it's possible that packets may take too long to arrive, may get dropped, and if using a UDP VoIP protocol they could even arrive out of order. There *is* a program out there called [minimodem](http://www.whence.com/minimodem/) which can act as a soft- modem. Perhaps someone ambitious could hack a VoIP protocol on top of it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- splaspood · 2016-07-02 15:22 I used to use iaxmodem with asterisk to handle faxing, it worked reasonably well at low baud rates. Not sure if that would be applicable for this... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L1th0 · 2016-07-02 15:53 I've not tried using a BBS with VOIP, but if it worked it would be nice to offer dial-up in my local area. If anyone knows a reliable solution to offer dial-up over VOIP it would be good to know. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FozzTexx · 2016-07-02 16:16 I'm going to have to find some time to mess with that on my BBS! I'm already running an Asterisk PBX with my USR Sportster 56k. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FozzTexx · 2016-07-02 16:17 [I run my BBS](http://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/230/using-modems- without-phone-lines) over VoIP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PhotoJim99 · 2016-07-02 18:00 Using a good hardware modem will be best, especially since hardware modems are so inexpensive. I'd suggest getting the best of the best - a US Robotics Courier of some sorts. I'm most partial to the v.Everything modems. As a fun bonus, v.Everythings support the USR proprietary protocol called HST, and in my experience, HST seems to tolerate the weirdness of VoIP remarkably well, even better than v.32/v.32bis/v.34/v.90/v.92. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PhotoJim99 · 2016-07-02 18:05 Make sure you're using one of the G711u codecs, otherwise it won't work well. And use wire, rather than WiFi, wherever possible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2016-07-12 18:45 Fax and data are not quite the same thing. iaxmodem does introduce a lot of noise into the signal. But it is on a good route for implementing a dial in RAS. One would need to get the compression codecs setup correctly to ensure good quality signals. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2016-07-12 18:58 minimodem(1) looks interesting and I may have to look into hacking it for my board. I do wonder, did you go direct into the asterisks extension with the modem or modem to pots to sip/asterisk? what did it take to get syncro to talk with asterisk? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FozzTexx · 2016-07-12 19:34 Syncronet talks to the modem, not asterisk. The modem just sees an ordinary POTS line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2016-07-13 06:57 ah.. makes sense. Personally I would have used TrySystem(sbbs) in the dial plan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- recourse7 · 2016-10-23 04:01 Why do you need to connect over using voip? Just telnet or ssh if you want to connect ot bbs' if you have a voip line then you can just use that. I've used hardware modems attached to ATA's to call modem lines for quality testing (I'm a network engineer for a voip provider). So to test modem trouble tickets I hooked a us robotics modem to a server so I could use minicom to dial the modem. The modem is attached to an ATA which sends all its traffic over SIP using G711 to an asterisk PBX which we use for testing. It works well.