Subj : Re: hackers
To   : Exodus
From : tenser
Date : Sat Jan 21 2023 03:50 am


On 19 Jan 2023 at 09:11p, Exodus pondered and said...
 
 Ex> T> For that matter, node limits and timeouts are an anachronism.
 Ex> T> I suspect they survive in the "modern" BBS era simply because
 Ex> T> that's how things have always been done.
 Ex> 
 Ex> Timeout on my board is 3 minutes ... has been since 1993.  Why would I
 Ex> want  someone to just tie up one of my 4 telnet nodes just sitting there
 Ex> all day.   Are all 4 nodes going to be filled at one time in 2023,
 Ex> probably not.  But  still, I don't want to come home to see some fool
 Ex> that has respect for other  people's stuff to just "sit there and
 Ex> leave".  If that was the case, there  would be no /G goodbye cmds.  

What kind of computer do you run your BBS on?  Why not 40,
or 400 nodes?  Why have a baked-in limit at all?

 Ex> Not like it's hard to telnet back in within seconds and get back on. 
 Ex> Not like you'll have to wait for a modem to negoiate or get a busy
 Ex> signal anymore.

I dunno. Someone might be in the middle of typing a
message, get up to use the restroom, make a quick snack,
and find themselves disconnected with a timeout that
short.  Since most BBS packages suck at saving drafts,
they'd have to start over.  Or more likely just not
bother.

 Ex> I just don't understand people.  You're not only wasting MY resources by 
 Ex> idling there, but also yours.  Granted it's a tiny amount, but still a
 Ex> waste  on resources and bandwidth.

This is what I'm talking about.

What bandwidth do you think an established but
otherwise idle TCP connection consumes?  Compare
that to the resources used in tearing-down and
re-establishing a TCP connection.  (Hint: an
"idle" TCP connection, aside from _maybe_ the
occasional TCP keepalive, IF you turned that on,
uses no bandwidth.  The threeway handshake to set
one up and the _four_ packets to tear it down do.
All of that is independent of the option negotiation
that the TELNET protocol does, not to mention the
bandwidth of actually logging in, etc.)

It is, of course, your prerogative how you use
your own resources.  But if you care so much
about those tiny amounts, it begs the question:
why run a BBS in the first place?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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