So is there any tried and true VoIP alternative for BBSing? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- samalex01 · 2019-03-04 16:33 I know of the technical limitations of VoIP and BBSes, but are there any VoIP providers that have proven to work better than others? Even at lower speeds? I'd be SO game to invest alittle each month in a VoIP solution that would let me dial into BBSes even if it was at 9600 BPS though I'd love to get 14.4 or better. Just not sure 56K is obtainable, though please correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah Telnet works great, and it's probably the way to go now'days, but this would make dialing out with some of my old computers so much easier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HotCharlie · 2019-03-04 19:19 /u/FozzTexx mentioned a “patched version of tcpsr” in his [his announcement of BBS Week](https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations /comments/ar9liu/contest_bbs_week_iv_until_feb_24/) that allows one computer to act as a modem (effectively bridging a telnet connection, if I follow correctly). That might be an option for you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- samalex01 · 2019-03-04 20:58 This is an option, but isn't it just translating a dial-up number to a telnet address? I'd love to keep it as old-school as possible. My area isn't giving out new POTS lines from what I've seen, instead it's all VoIP. Just hoped to find a simple VoIP provider that would let me just pull out the old Amiga or Coco, connect the modem and phone line, and that's it. Plenty of dial-up BBSes still out there to call-up. ​ So that begs another question, as the copper lines start to get phased out and everyone is forced to move to VoIP will this be the end of true dial-up BBSes? It's still years off, but it's coming -- just like when analog cell services died. Used to actually use a cellular modem to dial into the RAS server at work \~15 years ago, but that's no longer an option now either. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HotCharlie · 2019-03-04 21:25 I *think* it’s translating a telnet address in to a telephone # (of sorts). You’d hafta ask Mr. Texx tho. Anecdotal personal experience with VOIP: I’ve got an Obihai device that’s connected to my Google Voice #. I can, miraculously, fax over it with an old IntelliFax 4100e. Never had a problem. I tried it with a modem a while back, however, with limited luck. So maybe not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dalml · 2019-03-04 22:11 You're correct, tcpser emulates a modem to make connections to Telnet BBS's, or for accepting incoming Telnet connections when your software only supports a classic serial Hayes compatible modem. ​ I played around briefly with my Callcentric account and a Linksys PAP2T adapter but was never able to get a connection better than 9600 baud and I had to force the connection rate lower to get a connection. Supposedly jitter is what makes modems not work well over VOIP lines, and I've read about disabling jitter buffer adjustment to get a better connection. It just never worked for me. ​ There may be hope though. There's a [blog post](https://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/230/using-modems-without- phone-lines) from a few years ago where someone set up an Asterisk server to handle VOIP responsibilities and got 31.2k connections out of it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flecom · 2019-03-05 00:51 I think it would depend on how far you want to take it, you could get a T1 channel bank and a T1 card for a voip machine and probably get decent speeds out locally, but unless you are making a private voip network using high-bandwidth protocols going to other enthusiasts (i've considered this) I doubt you could get good speeds out to the world once it goes to a voip provider -> PSTN