Found my old Remote Access BBS files - is there any way to run the BBS these days? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-21 02:06 I used to run a BBS back in the 90s and thought I had lost the files, but just found a cd backup of most or all of it. I was thinking it would be awesome to "boot it up" and poke around but I dont recall too much, its been a minute... Can i install a windows VM and somehow reasonably run it? Its a file backup of the drives with the BBS, not a full image backup with the OS unfortunately. I think it. was RA 2.02 and the files are dated around 93/94... Even better would be if there was a way to run it over telnet or something and reconnect, but that might be a bigger project.. Any help much appreciated!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- digitlman · 2023-11-21 02:14 Yes: [Synchronet Virtual DOS Modem \[Synchronet\]](https://wiki.synchro.net/util:svdm) should work with Remote Access to make it Telnet-accessible. You'll need to either run a 32-bit editions of (older) Windows or use NTVDMx64 to run 16-bit DOS software on 64-bit Windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Android8675 · 2023-11-21 02:20 Rob (/u/digitlman)is the guy. Very helpful if you reach out to him directly as well. Dovenet is a great resource. Not to mention wiki.synchro.net and all the synchro.net sites. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-21 02:49 Thanks for quick reply! Im very very rusty, but its coming back slowly. I suddenly miss the FidoNet days! Im pretty sure it ran in DOS of some kind back then? https://mendelson.org/ntvdmx64.html? Looks promising - TY. I'm on Mac mainly these days, but I can spin up a x86 vm. What would the easiest be you think? For the actual OS, I seem to recall a lot of env variables and such to get it running, are there any guides around for setup? I dont have the original autoexec.bat and config sys anymore, but I do have the RA2.02 binaries ---------------------------------------------------------------------- digitlman · 2023-11-21 02:58 I don't know about running on a Mac. If you're going to run Windows in a VM, then just use a 32-bit Windows edition as the guest OS and you won't need to fuss with NTVDMx64. 32-bit editions of Windows already run 16-bit DOS software just fine and fast. As for environment variables or any other requirements to run RA, download a copy of RA and read its docs. Also, there's EleBBS which is an RA clone that's modern (e.g. 32-bit already, Telnet ready) you may want to check out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- opicron · 2023-11-21 13:02 I ported my remote access board to mystic bbs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2023-11-21 15:53 You can still run it dialup if you have a landline or even use a VoIP service like Magicjack (although the speeds will probably be about 2400 bps). I have a free landline (actual honest to goodness copper pots line) for local calls that was given to me by my telco, an old computer running Fedora Linux, and a pair of USR Sportsters, so I'm in "challenge accepted" mode right now. 😁 Also a licensed ham, so I'd like to make it accessible by packet radio as well. No telnet, dialup and packet only. I'm old-school AF and think that we need more communication modalities separate from the internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-21 17:33 Glorious.. I used to have 14 supra modems in my closet. Those were the days lol. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-21 17:35 > mystic bbs Never heard of it, looks fantastic! Was it migrated by hand or some tool? I dont really remember much at all to be honest, but I'm sure it'll come back to me. Right now I think I need an info/ANS/ASC viewer, ideally also for macos, just to look at old file slol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scrutinizer80 · 2023-11-21 17:53 You can run RemoteAccess on DosBox-X with the modem emulation for telnet connectivity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-21 18:11 And it supports Apple Silicon Macs? What is this wizardry.. Will check out for sure, thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- opicron · 2023-11-21 19:20 The config tool is RA alike, i recreated the whole board by hand, using the ansi files from RA. For an example my board is running at telnet bbs.theforze.eu If you need help with mystic feel free to ask on the board. Have fun and good luck setting it all up again! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shurato99 · 2023-11-22 01:33 net2bbs (google it, I dont' have a link hand) would work perfectly for this. You'll need a 32bit winVM. Check out: [https://bbs.dsbbs.ca](https://bbs.dsbbs.ca) or telnet to telnet://bbs.bsbbs.ca . He runs remote access. If for some reason that link doesn't work (He might not have an SSL certificate, but I think he does) try [http://bbs.dsbbs.ca](http://bbs.dsbbs.ca) . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shurato99 · 2023-11-22 01:35 You'll just need to set RA=c:\\ra or whatever. Everything else shouldn't be much of a hassle. I run an EleBBS, which is an RA clone. Doors are extremely easy to set up, but you'll probably want to use netfoss as a fossil driver. Many of us would be glad to help. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2023-11-22 03:45 This is piquing my interest. Back in the day, I ran an RA BBS (previously QuickBBS) fronted by FrontDoor. While I've lost all the files, I've kinda wanted to get it back online again using original software, and maybe do dial-up only. It's good to know that it'll run under emulation well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shurato99 · 2023-11-22 22:41 Sorry, it's [https://www.dsbbs.ca](https://www.dsbbs.ca) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-11-23 21:31 Totally feel the same way! I set aside a few days in December to mess around with getting the old files back. Can’t even view the ASC and ANS files properly right now lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pvre2001 · 2023-12-21 00:56 How did it go? Last BBS I ran was Sys/x on a WinXP laptop up until 2017 or so, and I didn't have to use Dosbox or anything. Can't remember exactly how did I do to leave it stable because using a virtual modem only was a PITA due to constant brute force hacking attempts, so I had to use GameSrv as front door, and from there users could log in to the board. I think that besides the BBS soft proper (System/x) I also had GameSrv and NETFOSS, and a DNS service IIRC. If I didn't use GameSrv the attacks always crashed (actually froze) System/x call waiting screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ravan · 2023-12-22 05:50 So got it running sorta under dosbox with local login - there is a bunch of config I will need to update as the copy I have is from a 'this BBS was shut down' state. Have not quite sorted telnet to virtual modem part yet - mainly because it seems to require an older version of windows. Started setting up a VM but thats as far as I am..All the old BBS config is slooowly coming back... But its 25 years ago and I have barely used windows in the last 15 of those.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pvre2001 · 2023-12-29 02:20 It's all quite esoteric until you either A) Remember how things were done back in the day and interpolate it to fresher tech skills or B) Learn it from the first time. All the adventure of waiting connections with the virtual modem directly connected to the BBS soft and getting the BBS soft to freeze due to the attacks, and finding a solution (using GameSrv as a concierge software of sorts) was maybe the hardest part for me, and another that was very confusing was setting up multiple nodes. The problem was that if a user was navigating the BBS, any other users that logged to any other of the other free four nodes broke the experience for both him/herself and the one that was already logged in to the board. The menus didn't display correctly, and the functionality also suffered. It's not going to be hard for you to set up multinodes without errors since when you are running the bbs on a simulated DOS environment you can ran share.exe that makes the multinode experience seamless. But mine's was running on Windows XP's command.com which is not really DOS, and share.exe was out of the question, (it didn't work) so I had to find a solution to it, it felt ugly when I was implementing it, but it worked. Basically I created copies of all the BBS display files for each node and that allowed Sys/x to run correctly. Which virtual modem are you using? DOSBox's own network functionality?