Comparing BBS Host Software and other newbie questions
reddit / bbs

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mjkerpan · 2017-09-19 17:33

I'm toying with starting a BBS and I'm interested in hearing what
folks think of the various server packages that are out there.
Synchronet and Mystic appear to be the main active projects at the
moment: how do they compare and which would be better for a new sysop?
Also, are there any other BBS servers that are still active and worth
taking a look at? Finally, what kind of door games will run on Linux?
I'm hoping to run my BBS on an Amazon Lightsail VPS, so Linux without
any sort of DOS emulation is what I've got.

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luvjOi · 2017-09-19 19:27

I don't know about the other stuff but I think Bit Sunrise and
Alcoholiday  BBS are BBSes worth looking at

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Tiny_Little_Arms · 2017-09-19 19:45

You are correct as far as major packages, a few others exist. I don't
know too much about it yet though what's popular in the open source
community is WWIV v.5 http://www.wwivbbs.org/

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Tiny_Little_Arms · 2017-09-19 19:47

Think he was looking for packages though these are among the best. I'd
include Electronic Chicken, especially for customized Synchronet.
Almost forgot Capitol Shrill, a fine bbs as well.

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Dobesov · 2017-09-19 20:01

whatever you use for your server... use syncterm as your client for
that authentic text mode look and feel!

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shrodingercat5 · 2017-09-19 20:23

I like this: https://github.com/jquast/x84 but i might be biased
because i enjoy python.

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mjkerpan · 2017-09-19 20:38

Best of breed examples of what can be done with the various systems
are useful too. Not to mention fun.

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L1th0 · 2017-09-20 00:06

There's a good amount of development going on with WWIV.  It's a
smaller BBS package which makes it easy to customize. Also, it has
it's own network and supports newer door drop files.

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Tiny_Little_Arms · 2017-09-20 00:36

Very true. It's a small pool these days though. Only a handful of
great bbses left.

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WhippingStar · 2017-09-20 16:23

Lightsail supports Ubuntu,Debian and a bunch of others, so why no
dosbox?

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Tiny_Little_Arms · 2017-09-20 17:30

Spectacular program, nothing comes close.

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NuSkooler · 2017-09-20 19:55

Check out ENiGMA½ at https://github.com/NuSkooler/enigma-bbs

It's written in Node.js and very actively developed. You can see it in
action at Xibalba - xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (or online at
https://l33t.codes/vtx/xibalba.html)

Runs in Linux, BSD, Windows, OS X, etc.

(Disclaimer: I'm the owner)

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NuSkooler · 2017-09-20 19:59

Also take a look at NetRunner (from g00r00 of Mystic) and VTX Client
for web based access over WebSockets.

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mjkerpan · 2017-09-21 17:40

Thanks for the tip. I logged into the HQ BBS and was very impressed.
How is ENiGMA in terms of resource usage. My VPS only has 512 MB of
RAM and 20 GB of storage. Back during the golden age of BBSing that
would a monster, but I know nothing about node.js and the sort of
resources it needs.

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ShooterJennings · 2017-09-21 23:18

This is a wicked new software

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NuSkooler · 2017-09-22 00:10

You should have plenty. People are running enig on RPi's.

To give you an idea, my board is using 20 MB of RAM and has a total
install footprint of 197 MB, which is mostly made up of message.sqlite
and file.sqlite which contain a ton of messages (9,153) and files
(17,705) and all of their descriptions/etc.

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flecom · 2017-10-14 00:38

I see it supports SSH/Telnet, does it also support physical modems
hanging off serial ports?

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NuSkooler · 2017-10-14 03:56

No native modem support, but there are plenty of modem to Telnet
bridge/proxies you can put in place