Anyone running GameSRV as a telnet server? I can get it to load itself just fine, but as soon as I get it to try to call the BBS, it just loads and hangs up (never spawning the bbs).

TelSRV works great, but doesn't pass IPs unless someone know different. Net2BBS is still screwing with me and closing my port at random and I have no idea why. It just randomly started like 7 or so days ago. I use my hostname from my website, so nothing has changed in 5+ years, including IP).

Trying out different options. TelSRV is lightweight, but I can't seem to get it to pass the IP to the bbs, I assume *I or *IPADDRESS wasn't implemented on it, but was on GameSRV.

... Jesus Saves --at First National Bank

--- Renegade v1.35à/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

Trying out different options. TelSRV is lightweight, but I can't seem to get it to pass the IP to the bbs, I assume *I or *IPADDRESS wasn't implemented on it, but was on GameSRV.

I haven't used TelSrv or GameSrv myself, I am using DOSBox-X (in a Linux host) to handle the telnet<>serial port softmodem interface. So I don't know how much information I can offer to you, but I do have questions of my own!

Is there any kind of 'standard' way to pass IP address from a telnet server to BBS software?

I added "caller ID" to the DOSBox-X softmodem so that the caller's IP address is sent after the first RING in a compatible format to telephone caller ID. This worked well for me, BUT - I updated my configuration so now I am running a proxy server that passes connections to the DOSBox instances, and now DOSBox only sees the IP of my own proxy server.

My proxy server runs "Telnet Ringdown" software that I wrote, it's pretty basic and listens on port 23 then makes a connection to the BBS server from a list of ports that have DOSBox instances listening. I also do some bot detection in the ringdown server.
https://github.com/akacastor/ringdown

So now as a way to retrieve the caller's IP from the Ringdown server, I implemented an escape code similar to the Hayes modem '+++' sequence. This works alright, I can retrieve the IP address from a script on the BBS, but there is a couple seconds pause for guard time before the sequence which is mildly annoying. But I didn't come up with a cleaner way to do it in-band.

I'm curious what other solutions / hacks for these problems people are using.


Chris/akacastor


--- Maximus 3.01
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

On 20 Apr 2024, AKAcastor said the following...

Is there any kind of 'standard' way to pass IP address from a telnet server to BBS software?

SIO/VMODEM seems to include the ip as part of the modem CONNECT string.

i duno what's handling the telnet protocol itself, but you could also maybe pass the ip address that way if the bbs is doing it. that's already how they pass stuff like window size changes in *nix (SIGWINCH) so you could make up your own and it wouldn't be the most hacky thing around ;)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

Anyone running GameSRV as a telnet server? I can get it to load itself
just fine, but as soon as I get it to try to call the BBS, it just loads
and
hangs up (never spawning the bbs).

TelSRV works great, but doesn't pass IPs unless someone know
different.
Net2BBS is still screwing with me and closing my port at random and I have
no
idea why. It just randomly started like 7 or so days ago. I use my
hostname
from my website, so nothing has changed in 5+ years, including IP).

I use net2bbs, mine stopped working a few days ago. I tracked it down to Windows Defender on Win10 thinking it was a trojan and blocking, so I added netfoss.com and netcom.exe to exclusion list and happy days.

Nick

--- SLMAIL v5.1 (#SLO409KEDG15G098)
* Origin: The Trashcan - The BEST Rubbish * bbs.thenet.gen.nz (21:1/142)

I use net2bbs, mine stopped working a few days ago. I tracked it down to Windows Defender on Win10 thinking it was a trojan and blocking, so I adde netfoss.com and netcom.exe to exclusion list and happy days.

Hmm ... I don't think I have anything running for that, but good idea. I'm on Win7 since about 6 months ago when Win10 NTVDM started getting updates that broke my DOS doors.

... Failure: The path of least persistence.

--- Renegade v1.35à/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

I use net2bbs, mine stopped working a few days ago. I tracked it down to

Thats so odd. I just tried your suggestions, and actually did my whole bbs drive as well as exceptions. Rebooted, net2bbs started. Tried to connect to the bbs, just "rang" and rang ... never showed a connection. Shut it down, loaded up TelSrv, answered like net2bbs USED too ... maybe I'll shoot pcmike an email and see what he thinks. Weird. I'm happy with Telsrv, just wish it would transfer ip as an command line parameter. It logs it, just doesn't pass it .. weird.

... Cry "ribbit" and let slip the frogs of war!

--- Renegade v1.35à/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)