• BBS Pranks

    From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to All on Thursday, October 17, 2019 23:30:15
    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAME) @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me if everything was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Denn on Friday, October 18, 2019 05:23:26
    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAME) @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me if everything was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS


    My favourite Sysop prank was the NO CARRIER. Then there'd be some line noise. That would really **** a lot of users off.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Denn on Friday, October 18, 2019 09:48:41
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to All on Thu Oct 17 2019 11:30 pm

    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAME) @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me if everything was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.

    I don't recall sysops doing pranks like that in my area, but I used to use IceChat on my BBS for chatting with users, and IceChat had a feature where it could simulate line noise by putting some random characters at a random location on the screen.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From DaiTengu@VERT/ENSEMBLE to Denn on Friday, October 18, 2019 10:56:53
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to All on Thu Oct 17 2019 11:30 pm

    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAME) @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me if everything was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.


    For awhile around my area, they introduced a new series for phone numbers "991-XXXX"
    The ISP I worked for part-time had a dial-in number that started with 991, but it was even worse than that. the number was "991-1XXX".

    I also worked at Circuit City at the time, selling computers. We used my dialup account at the store to connect some of our PCs to the internet.

    Most companies with an internal phone system require you to dial a "9" to get an outside line.

    See where I'm going with this?

    If you didn't explicitly put a "9" in front of the number, you wound up calling "911" with the modem.

    It happened on more than one occasion. The phone company stopped assigning 991 numbers shortly there-after.

    DaiTengu

    ... California is a fine place to live -- if you happen to be an orange.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ War Ensemble BBS - The sport is war, total war - warensemble.com
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to DaiTengu on Friday, October 18, 2019 11:29:36
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to All on Thu Oct 17 2019 11:30 pm

    For awhile around my area, they introduced a new series for phone numbers "991-XXXX"
    The ISP I worked for part-time had a dial-in number that started with 991, but it was even worse than that. the number was "991-1XXX".

    I also worked at Circuit City at the time, selling computers. We used my dialup account at the store to connect some of our PCs to the internet.

    Most companies with an internal phone system require you to dial a "9" to get an outside line.

    See where I'm going with this?

    If you didn't explicitly put a "9" in front of the number, you wound up calling "911" with the modem.

    It happened on more than one occasion. The phone company stopped assigning 991 numbers shortly there-after.

    DaiTengu

    ... California is a fine place to live -- if you happen to be an orange.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ War Ensemble BBS - The sport is war, total war - warensemble.com



    I remember back in the olden days, in the 70's to find out your telephone number was 1191 then they changed it to 911 for emergency. So we couldn't use that number anymore and ended up changing it to 211 by the 80's.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Hemo@VERT/UJOINT to The Millionaire on Friday, October 18, 2019 12:40:53
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 05:23 am

    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAME) @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me everything was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.

    My favourite Sysop prank was the NO CARRIER. Then there'd be some line noise That would really **** a lot of users off.



    Used to run Frontdoor mail tosser, changed it from saying 'Press Escape or wait for BBS' ( or whatever the exact text was ) to say 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del for the BBS'

    So many calls... so many disconnects. lol

    --
    H

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ - Running madly into the wind and screaming - bbs.ujoint.org
  • From Moondog@VERT/CAVEBBS to Denn on Friday, October 18, 2019 14:50:00
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to All on Thu Oct 17 2019 11:30 pm

    back in the 90's there were a few BBS pranks sysop's would pull on their callers.
    one that got me was at the logoff screen it would say call this BBS (BBSNAM @ 911-**** I fell for it and got a call back from 911 asking me if everythin was ok, I embarassingly explained that I had been duped.


    One year the local BBS set their rate to 300 baud half duplex for April Fools Day. It was painful getting past the initial sign in news. i was ready to call the phone company and tell them their phone lines suck.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ The Cave BBS - Since 1992 - cavebbs.homeip.net
  • From Alterego@VERT/ALTERANT to DaiTengu on Saturday, October 19, 2019 10:19:53
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: DaiTengu to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 10:56 am

    If you didn't explicitly put a "9" in front of the number, you wound up calling "911" with the modem.

    Well, we used to have a similar problem many years ago.

    Its pretty "normal" to get an outside line on a PABX, you dial "0".

    Australia went through a number change around 95 if I recall, and before that we used to have are codes that start with "00" - in fact toll free calls used to be "008...."

    Our emergency services is "000", so it wasnt uncommon if you were in an office, on a phone attached to a pabx (or a hotel) - that you dialled one too many 0's and would get a quick answer with "Policy, Fire or Ambulance?", with the response "Oops sorry..."

    It was worse, if you went home (ie: no pabx) - your brain was still in "office mode", and you picked up your home phone and dialled a phone number starting with 0-00... :)
    ...ëîå*

    ... Miss Stove seems to be going off the boil.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Alterant | an SBBS in Docker on Pi!
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Hemo on Friday, October 18, 2019 17:38:21
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 05:23 am

    Used to run Frontdoor mail tosser, changed it from saying 'Press Escape or wait for BBS' ( or whatever the exact text was ) to say 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del for the BBS'

    So many calls... so many disconnects. lol

    --
    H

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ - Running madly into the wind and screaming -
    bbs.ujoint.org



    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back then. IREX is very similar I find but bloated.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Nightfox on Friday, October 18, 2019 22:02:41
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Nightfox to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 09:48 am

    I don't recall sysops doing pranks like that in my area, but I used to use IceChat on my BBS for chatting with users, and IceChat had a feature where i could simulate line noise by putting some random characters at a random location on the screen.


    me and my friend were both sysops and we both used banana com. we would send a large ansi music file over and we would have to reboot the damn computer to get it to respond again.

    he learned the trick from me but used it against me a few times.
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Denn on Friday, October 18, 2019 20:31:42
    Does anyone remember ansi-bombs in messages would destroy the whole bbs like a virus and had to be reconfigured from scratch again? A few Sysops I knew went through that. Those were the worst times ever of being a Sysop of a BBS.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to The Millionaire on Friday, October 18, 2019 22:23:23
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Hemo on Fri Oct 18 2019 05:38 pm

    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back then. IREX is very similar I find but bloated.

    I thought IRex looked similar. I used IRex for a while, but I stopped using it and went to Radius for a while. Now I'm using BinkIt, since BinkIt is more a part of Synchronet (and since BinkIt is written in JavaScript, it should still work if I decide to move my BBS from Windows to Linux).

    I don't remember exactly why I moved away from IRex, but I seem to remember other people saying IRex has some bugs.. I believe IRex was also shareware, and the author wanted registration to support more than 1 or 2 FTN networks or something. I don't remember if IRex is still registerable.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to Hemo on Friday, October 18, 2019 23:26:45
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Hemo to The Millionaire on Fri Oct 18 2019 12:40 pm

    My favourite Sysop prank was the NO CARRIER. Then there'd be some line
    noise That would really **** a lot of users off.



    Used to run Frontdoor mail tosser, changed it from saying 'Press Escape or wait for BBS' ( or whatever the exact text was ) to say 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del for the BBS'

    Yes the cntrl+alt+del was another good one.

    ... Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to The Millionaire on Friday, October 18, 2019 23:38:46
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 08:31 pm

    Does anyone remember ansi-bombs in messages would destroy the whole bbs like a virus and had to be reconfigured from scratch again? A few Sysops I knew went through that. Those were the worst times ever of being a Sysop of a BBS.


    I remember ansi-bombs but don't remember any taking out a BBS.

    ... How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to Hemo on Friday, October 18, 2019 23:47:44
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to Hemo on Fri Oct 18 2019 11:26 pm

    My favourite Sysop prank was the NO CARRIER. Then there'd be some
    line noise That would really **** a lot of users off.

    a Prank I pulled back in the dial up internet day's was a radio show would have a webpage vote they would promote on air and you would go to the webpage to vote on a topic, I would set my keystroke repeat rate goto the website to vote opposite what others were voting, I would place a weight on my enter key so it would rack up the votes, I would then goto work :)
    Once when I got home I had racked up over 1,000,000 votes of coarse voting opposite what everyone else was voting for.

    ... YouTube, Twitter, & FaceBook will combine to form YouTwitFace.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Denn on Saturday, October 19, 2019 04:18:11
    Well a Sysop I knew where I lived lost his whole bbs. Took him 3 days to get it back up again.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Lupine Furmen@VERT/FURFOL to All on Saturday, October 19, 2019 04:29:53
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 05:23:26

    One of friends ran a BBS in Athens, AL. He got a LOT of users by setting his PAUSE string to "Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Continue". Had a user call him all pissed off because his computer rebooted. We were like "You've been using a PC for how long now and you didn't know that that key combo would initiate a reboot?" :P
    -+-

    -Dallas Vinson
    Furmens Folly - telnet: loybbs.net:23
    SSH: loybbs.net:23222
    Before the Web - telnet: loybbs.net:23232
    Legends of Yesteryear - telnet: loybbs.net:23322

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Furmen's Folly - furmenservices.net:22
  • From Lupine Furmen@VERT/FURFOL to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 04:45:54
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 20:31:42

    Does anyone remember ansi-bombs in messages would destroy the whole bbs like a virus and had to be reconfigured from scratch again? A few Sysops I knew went through that. Those were the worst times ever of being a Sysop of a BBS.

    Most of the ANSI-Bombs we got his with around here just remapped the users keyboard. Nothing really distructive, just annoying. Easily fixed with a reboot.
    -+-

    -Dallas Vinson
    Furmens Folly - telnet: loybbs.net:23
    SSH: loybbs.net:23222
    Before the Web - telnet: loybbs.net:23232
    Legends of Yesteryear - telnet: loybbs.net:23322

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Furmen's Folly - furmenservices.net:22
  • From Gamgee@VERT/PALANT to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 08:33:00
    The Millionaire wrote to Hemo <=-

    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back
    then.

    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.


    ... Internal Error: The system has been taken over by sheep at line 19960
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Gamgee on Saturday, October 19, 2019 08:28:47
    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.

    ... Internal Error: The system has been taken over by sheep at line 19960
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL


    Denn called it a mail tosser as well.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Hemo on Saturday, October 19, 2019 08:18:00
    Hemo wrote to The Millionaire <=-

    Used to run Frontdoor mail tosser, changed it from saying 'Press Escape
    or wait for BBS' ( or whatever the exact text was ) to say 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del for the BBS'

    So many calls... so many disconnects. lol

    You, Magnificent Bastard!

    Why didn't I think of that?

    ... Do you believe in fate, Lawrence?
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Nightfox on Saturday, October 19, 2019 08:22:00
    Nightfox wrote to The Millionaire <=-

    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back then. IREX is very similar I find but bloated.

    I thought IRex looked similar. I used IRex for a while, but I stopped using it and went to Radius for a while. Now I'm using BinkIt, since BinkIt is more a part of Synchronet (and since BinkIt is written in JavaScript, it should still work if I decide to move my BBS from
    Windows to Linux).

    Yeah, I went from FrontDoor to BinkleyTerm (moved the BBS to OS/2, had all native OS/2 apps), then back to FrontDoor under Windows95, and added Irex
    when I got my first internet Fido feed. I paid for Irex and brought it back alongside Radius when I took over region10, because I had a couple of downlinks that used Transx.

    Frontdoor was the first incarnation where I got *everything* automated
    through the batch file and it'd run on auto-pilot (unless the modem hung)




    ... Listen to the quiet voice
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Lupine Furmen on Saturday, October 19, 2019 08:24:00
    Lupine Furmen wrote to All <=-

    One of friends ran a BBS in Athens, AL. He got a LOT of users by
    setting his PAUSE string to "Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Continue". Had a
    user call him all pissed off because his computer rebooted. We were
    like "You've been using a PC for how long now and you didn't know that that key combo would initiate a reboot?" :P

    I have always made it clear that you have full access to my BBS from the
    first call. I'd still have people asking for 3l337 access to the board, so I put a menu option called "3l337 FileZ" and bound it to the hangup command.


    ... What is the simplest solution?
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Nightfox on Saturday, October 19, 2019 12:55:52
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Nightfox to The Millionaire on Fri Oct 18 2019 10:23 pm

    I thought IRex looked similar. I used IRex for a while, but I stopped using and went to Radius for a while. Now I'm using BinkIt, since BinkIt is more part of Synchronet (and since BinkIt is written in JavaScript, it should sti work if I decide to move my BBS from Windows to Linux).

    I don't remember exactly why I moved away from IRex, but I seem to remember other people saying IRex has some bugs.. I believe IRex was also shareware, and the author wanted registration to support more than 1 or 2 FTN networks something. I don't remember if IRex is still registerable.


    irex works fine, never had an issue with any bugs. i'm pretty sure i used it for more than one msg net in the past.

    you can use it if it's not registered but you get a delay. since you run it as an event you dont see said delay probably.
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Denn on Saturday, October 19, 2019 13:01:58
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to The Millionaire on Fri Oct 18 2019 11:38 pm

    I remember ansi-bombs but don't remember any taking out a BBS.


    they could remap keys on the host system. so if you hit a key you could delete files with the yes confirmation or format your drive.

    you just needed to use ansi.com or a different ansi.sys
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Rampage@VERT/SESTAR to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 14:08:47
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Gamgee on Sat Oct 19 2019 08:28:47

    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.

    Denn called it a mail tosser as well.

    you're both mistaken, then... frontdoor had no way to toss mail at all... the only thing it could do with PKTs was netmail... it had no idea what was inside the bundles so it could not pull netmail out of them...


    )\/(ark

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ The SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 12:32:33
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Sat Oct 19 2019 04:18 am

    Well a Sysop I knew where I lived lost his whole bbs. Took him 3 days to get it back up again.

    Only 3 days? When I started setting up Synchronet, it took me about a month (working on it after I got home from work and on the weekends) to get it set up and working mostly like my old BBS I ran in the 90s.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Nightfox on Saturday, October 19, 2019 15:14:00
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Nightfox to The Millionaire on Sat Oct 19 2019 12:32 pm

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Sat Oct 19 2019 04:18 am

    Well a Sysop I knew where I lived lost his whole bbs. Took him 3 days t get it back up again.

    Only 3 days? When I started setting up Synchronet, it took me about a month (working on it after I got home from work and on the weekends) to get it set and working mostly like my old BBS I ran in the 90s.


    took me 3 hrs.
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Zoohouse@VERT to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 16:32:00
    The Millionaire wrote to Denn <=-

    @TZ: c1e0
    Does anyone remember ansi-bombs in messages would destroy the whole bbs like a virus and had to be reconfigured from scratch again? A few
    Sysops I knew went through that. Those were the worst times ever of
    being a Sysop of a BBS.

    $ The Millionaire $

    I had no idea that it was possible to create a trojan with ANSI. Wikipedia
    has a paragraph on the topic.

    WIKI> An interesting feature of ANSI.SYS is the ability to remap any key on
    WIKI> the keyboard in order to perform shortcuts or macros for complex
    WIKI> instructions. Using special escape sequences, the user can define
    WIKI> any keystroke that has a character-code mapping to simulate an
    WIKI> arbitrary sequence of such keystrokes.[6] This feature was also used by
    WIKI> evildoers to create simple trojans out of text files laced with nefarious
    WIKI> keyboard remaps, known as "ANSI bombs".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI.SYS#Keyboard_remapping

    Glad you mentioned it Millionaire.

    -Zoo

    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Nodoka Hanamura@VERT/NEOCINCI to Denn on Saturday, October 19, 2019 18:29:00
    On 18 Oct 2019, Denn said the following...

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Denn on Fri Oct 18 2019 08:31 pm

    Does anyone remember ansi-bombs in messages would destroy the whole b like a virus and had to be reconfigured from scratch again? A few Sys knew went through that. Those were the worst times ever of being a Sy of a BBS.


    I remember ansi-bombs but don't remember any taking out a BBS.


    I've never heard of a ANSI Bomb. What's all that about?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/32)
    * Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Zoohouse on Saturday, October 19, 2019 16:17:40
    I had no idea that it was possible to create a trojan with ANSI. Wikipedia has a paragraph on the topic.

    WIKI> An interesting feature of ANSI.SYS is the ability to remap any key on
    WIKI> the keyboard in order to perform shortcuts or macros for complex
    WIKI> instructions. Using special escape sequences, the user can define
    WIKI> any keystroke that has a character-code mapping to simulate an
    WIKI> arbitrary sequence of such keystrokes.[6] This feature was also used by
    WIKI> evildoers to create simple trojans out of text files laced with nefarious
    WIKI> keyboard remaps, known as "ANSI bombs".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI.SYS#Keyboard_remapping

    Glad you mentioned it Millionaire.

    -Zoo

    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49


    Thank you and you're very welcome. :-)

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Gamgee on Saturday, October 19, 2019 20:20:00
    Gamgee wrote to The Millionaire <=-

    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back
    then.

    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.

    You are correct, sir - I ran Telegard at first, then Maximus with Squish as
    a tosser.


    ... You can only make one dot at a time
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to The Millionaire on Saturday, October 19, 2019 23:24:55
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: The Millionaire to Gamgee on Sat Oct 19 2019 08:28 am

    Denn called it a mail tosser as well.

    Really? when did I do that?

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to Rampage on Saturday, October 19, 2019 23:39:58
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Rampage to The Millionaire on Sat Oct 19 2019 02:08 pm

    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.

    Denn called it a mail tosser as well.

    He's mixing me up with Hemo, I never called it a mail tosser.

    you're both mistaken, then... frontdoor had no way to toss mail at all... the only thing it could do with PKTs was netmail... it had no idea what was inside the bundles so it could not pull netmail out of them...

    I had Beehivenet setup back in the day but can't remember now what I used as a mailer.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From Denn@VERT/OUTWEST to MRO on Saturday, October 19, 2019 23:44:13
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: MRO to Nightfox on Sat Oct 19 2019 03:14 pm

    Well a Sysop I knew where I lived lost his whole bbs. Took him 3
    days t get it back up again.

    Only 3 days? When I started setting up Synchronet, it took me about a
    month (working on it after I got home from work and on the weekends)
    to get it set and working mostly like my old BBS I ran in the 90s.


    took me 3 hrs.

    I backed up my BBS every sunday night and had userfiles printed so worst case I would restore backup and enter a few user accounts by hand.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ outwestbbs.com - the Outwest BBS
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Denn on Sunday, October 20, 2019 22:50:04
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to MRO on Sat Oct 19 2019 11:44 pm

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: MRO to Nightfox on Sat Oct 19 2019 03:14 pm

    Well a Sysop I knew where I lived lost his whole bbs. Took him 3 TM>> days t get it back up again.

    Only 3 days? When I started setting up Synchronet, it took me about a
    month (working on it after I got home from work and on the weekends)
    to get it set and working mostly like my old BBS I ran in the 90s.


    took me 3 hrs.

    I backed up my BBS every sunday night and had userfiles printed so worst cas would restore backup and enter a few user accounts by hand.


    to restore backups it just takes minutes.
    my systems have not been active so i'm not backing up much anymore.
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Lupine Furmen@VERT/FURFOL to poindexter FORTRAN on Monday, October 21, 2019 00:21:39
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Lupine Furmen on Sat Oct 19 2019 08:24:00

    I have always made it clear that you have full access to my BBS from the first call. I'd still have people asking for 3l337 access to the board, so I put a menu option called "3l337 FileZ" and bound it to the hangup command.

    I bow down before your evil masterfullness!!!
    -+-

    -Dallas Vinson
    Furmens Folly - telnet: loybbs.net:23
    SSH: loybbs.net:23222
    Before the Web - telnet: loybbs.net:23232
    Legends of Yesteryear - telnet: loybbs.net:23322

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Furmen's Folly - furmenservices.net:22
  • From Gamgee@VERT/PALANT to poindexter FORTRAN on Monday, October 21, 2019 07:37:00
    poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Gamgee <=-

    I loved Frontdoor. Was my favourite mailer/tosser software back
    then.

    Just as a technical point - FD is a mailer only. Not a tosser.

    You are correct, sir - I ran Telegard at first, then Maximus with
    Squish as a tosser.

    Nice. Always liked calling a Maximus board. Long ago I ran
    PCBoard with Intermail (FD clone) as my mailer, and it's companion
    tosser called Interecho. Really worked well.

    I still marvel at how we were able to get all that stuff working
    under something as primitive as DOS - all tied together by fairly
    complicated batch files. I still have my 'run.bat' file archived
    with the rest of that era's BBS stuff. Looked at it recently and
    surprisingly to me it all kinda made sense still... ;-)



    ... Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to Gamgee on Monday, October 21, 2019 09:27:21
    Nice. Always liked calling a Maximus board. Long ago I ran
    PCBoard with Intermail (FD clone) as my mailer, and it's companion
    tosser called Interecho. Really worked well.

    I still marvel at how we were able to get all that stuff working
    under something as primitive as DOS - all tied together by fairly
    complicated batch files. I still have my 'run.bat' file archived
    with the rest of that era's BBS stuff. Looked at it recently and surprisingly to me it all kinda made sense still... ;-)

    ... Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL


    The batch file were like glue to the bbs system to keep it from falling through the cracks.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Gamgee on Monday, October 21, 2019 10:12:01
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Oct 21 2019 07:37 am

    I still marvel at how we were able to get all that stuff working
    under something as primitive as DOS - all tied together by fairly complicated batch files. I still have my 'run.bat' file archived
    with the rest of that era's BBS stuff. Looked at it recently and surprisingly to me it all kinda made sense still... ;-)

    I've had the same thought. Back in the day, I felt great that I had accomplished something after getting my BBS working, particularly the batch file I used for running my BBS and doing the proper things according to errorlevels, etc..

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Gamgee@VERT/PALANT to Nightfox on Monday, October 21, 2019 13:45:00
    Nightfox wrote to Gamgee <=-

    I still marvel at how we were able to get all that stuff working
    under something as primitive as DOS - all tied together by fairly complicated batch files. I still have my 'run.bat' file archived
    with the rest of that era's BBS stuff. Looked at it recently and surprisingly to me it all kinda made sense still... ;-)

    I've had the same thought. Back in the day, I felt great that I
    had accomplished something after getting my BBS working,
    particularly the batch file I used for running my BBS and doing
    the proper things according to errorlevels, etc..

    Yes, it really was a great feeling of accomplishment to get all
    those pieces talking and connected, and held together by the big
    'master' batch file. Errorlevels, loops, goto's. All the
    different (modem) connect strings/speeds, error correction
    detection, init strings. All your nightly/weekly maintenance
    actions based on mailer exit errorlevels. Upload processors that
    might insert a custom BBS comment into ZIP files, etc... Being
    careful to observe Zone Mail Hour if you were in Fidonet...

    It's still an enjoyable thing to run a BBS today, but in many ways
    it seems..... easier now. A lot of things are self-contained.



    ... AAcckk!! II''mm iinn hhaallff dduupplleexx
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Gamgee on Monday, October 21, 2019 12:16:16
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Oct 21 2019 07:37 am

    Nice. Always liked calling a Maximus board. Long ago I ran
    PCBoard with Intermail (FD clone) as my mailer, and it's companion
    tosser called Interecho. Really worked well.

    My first experience calling a Fido board was an Opus CBCS BBS in San Francisco; I loved the streamlined interface, and it just felt right.

    I tried running an Opus BBS at first, but one file per message was a bit much on a 8 mhz AT with 32 MB drives.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Gamgee@VERT/PALANT to poindexter FORTRAN on Monday, October 21, 2019 21:04:00
    poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Gamgee <=-

    Nice. Always liked calling a Maximus board. Long ago I ran
    PCBoard with Intermail (FD clone) as my mailer, and it's companion
    tosser called Interecho. Really worked well.

    My first experience calling a Fido board was an Opus CBCS BBS in
    San Francisco; I loved the streamlined interface, and it just
    felt right.

    I tried running an Opus BBS at first, but one file per message
    was a bit much on a 8 mhz AT with 32 MB drives.

    Yeah that seems like a pretty inefficient method of storing
    messages. I never ran/tried Opus as a sysop, and although I
    probably called a few of them as a user, I can't really remember
    much about how it looked/felt. I certainly remember the name of
    the software, it was one of the "founding members" of the BBS
    world back then as I recall.



    ... If it weren't for Edison we'd be using computers by candlelight
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Gamgee on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 06:05:00
    Gamgee wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    much about how it looked/felt. I certainly remember the name of
    the software, it was one of the "founding members" of the BBS
    world back then as I recall.

    I discovered the scene at an opportune time and place. One of the first Fido BBSes I called was Tom Jennings' BBS.


    ... Repetition is a form of change
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Gamgee on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 06:13:00
    Gamgee wrote to Nightfox <=-

    It's still an enjoyable thing to run a BBS today, but in many ways
    it seems..... easier now. A lot of things are self-contained.

    I took my Maximus BBS down in 2000 when my callers dropped down to 1-2 a
    day. I was consulting and needed the phone line.

    2 years later, I'd built up a test lab and had a box sitting idle. Ran into Synchronet on the web and realized I could have a telnet BBS, web server,
    IRC server, SMTP and POP3 email, and NNTP all in the same package. I'm still here now.




    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From The Millionaire@VERT to poindexter FORTRAN on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 09:33:34
    I discovered the scene at an opportune time and place. One of the first Fido BBSes I called was Tom Jennings' BBS.

    ... Repetition is a form of change
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org



    I knew Tom Jennings quite well when I was on Fidonet. The shape that it was in was in shambles after he left. It became very political and he decided to pass the torch to Janis Kracht. Now Nick Andre runs it and I remember him from dbridge. Great piece of free software.

    $ The Millionaire $

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From Dumas Walker@VERT/CAPCITY2 to GAMGEE on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 19:03:00
    Yeah that seems like a pretty inefficient method of storing
    messages. I never ran/tried Opus as a sysop, and although I
    probably called a few of them as a user, I can't really remember
    much about how it looked/felt. I certainly remember the name of
    the software, it was one of the "founding members" of the BBS
    world back then as I recall.

    IIRC, a lot of the early BBS packages did that. GT Power initially did
    that. Later, it stored them in files of 10 messages each.

    ---
    þ SLMR 2.1a þ ADVENTURE: The land between entertainment and panic.
    þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Gamgee on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 12:17:00
    On 10-21-19 07:37, Gamgee wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I still marvel at how we were able to get all that stuff working
    under something as primitive as DOS - all tied together by fairly complicated batch files. I still have my 'run.bat' file archived
    with the rest of that era's BBS stuff. Looked at it recently and surprisingly to me it all kinda made sense still... ;-)

    I have a pretty meaty "bbs.bat" file from my RA days kicking around. Those .bat files were a work of art.


    ... Tagline stolen while sipping coffee.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.51
    þ Synchronet þ Freeway BBS, Bendigo Australia. freeway.apana.org.au
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Gamgee on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 12:48:00
    On 10-21-19 13:45, Gamgee wrote to Nightfox <=-

    Yes, it really was a great feeling of accomplishment to get all
    those pieces talking and connected, and held together by the big
    'master' batch file. Errorlevels, loops, goto's. All the
    different (modem) connect strings/speeds, error correction
    detection, init strings. All your nightly/weekly maintenance
    actions based on mailer exit errorlevels. Upload processors that
    might insert a custom BBS comment into ZIP files, etc... Being
    careful to observe Zone Mail Hour if you were in Fidonet...

    Yes, getting each piece working was an achievement, and a lot of fun as well. :) The mailer called the shots and the batch file has to interpret the different errorlevels and work out what to do.

    It's still an enjoyable thing to run a BBS today, but in many ways
    it seems..... easier now. A lot of things are self-contained.

    It almost seems too easy these days. :) However, my nodelist processing is getting back to that sort of thing, using multiple cron jobs (as different users!) and a bunch of scripts that I wrote to provess the raw data into a full nodelist file (MakeNL), create the new infopack, hatch the new nodelist and infopack (have to keep track of the last hatched nodelist), build and install the DNS zone file, and publish the infopack on the backup website.

    All I have to do is edit the data as needed, and the publishing happens automatically every Friday morning. :)


    ... Screams? WHAT screams? Oh, those? Ignore them...
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.51
    þ Synchronet þ Freeway BBS, Bendigo Australia. freeway.apana.org.au
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Vk3jed on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 09:19:16
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Vk3jed to Gamgee on Wed Oct 23 2019 12:17 pm

    I have a pretty meaty "bbs.bat" file from my RA days kicking around. Those .bat files were a work of art.

    Yep, I still have mine on a backup. When I took my RA BBS down in 2000, I zipped it up and burned it to a CD-R (and contrary to what some might believe, that CD has not degraded and I can still read it). I unzipped my RA backup not too long ago, and I've considered setting up my old RA BBS as a door on my current BBS.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Nightfox on Thursday, October 24, 2019 15:16:00
    On 10-23-19 09:19, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    @VIA: VERT/DIGDIST
    Re: Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Vk3jed to Gamgee on Wed Oct 23 2019 12:17 pm

    I have a pretty meaty "bbs.bat" file from my RA days kicking around. Those .bat files were a work of art.

    Yep, I still have mine on a backup. When I took my RA BBS down in
    2000, I zipped it up and burned it to a CD-R (and contrary to what some might believe, that CD has not degraded and I can still read it). I unzipped my RA backup not too long ago, and I've considered setting up
    my old RA BBS as a door on my current BBS.

    Yes, I successfully copied some old backups from CD-R to HDD a couple of years ago, and it worked fine from the 20 year old CD-R. :)


    ... Don't say during sex: "Now I know why he dumped you..."
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.51
    þ Synchronet þ Freeway BBS, Bendigo Australia. freeway.apana.org.au
  • From Digital Man@VERT to MRO on Saturday, October 26, 2019 17:36:11
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: MRO to Denn on Sat Oct 19 2019 01:01 pm

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to The Millionaire on Fri Oct 18 2019 11:38 pm

    I remember ansi-bombs but don't remember any taking out a BBS.


    they could remap keys on the host system. so if you hit a key you could delete files with the yes confirmation or format your drive.

    you just needed to use ansi.com or a different ansi.sys

    And not a single MS-DOS terminal program that I used (e.g. Procomm Plus, Telix, etc.) or BBS software I ran *ever* sent received data to stdout (where ansi.sys could see/process it and remap keys). Unless you're "type"ing ANSI files from a command.com prompt, they're harmless.

    digital man

    Synchronet "Real Fact" #65:
    Synchronet can dynamically compress and uncompress message bases (using LZH). Norco, CA WX: 82.4øF, 16.0% humidity, 7 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net
  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Digital Man on Sunday, October 27, 2019 01:46:58
    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Digital Man to MRO on Sat Oct 26 2019 05:36 pm

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: MRO to Denn on Sat Oct 19 2019 01:01 pm

    Re: BBS Pranks
    By: Denn to The Millionaire on Fri Oct 18 2019 11:38 pm

    I remember ansi-bombs but don't remember any taking out a BBS.


    they could remap keys on the host system. so if you hit a key you could delete files with the yes confirmation or format your drive.

    you just needed to use ansi.com or a different ansi.sys

    And not a single MS-DOS terminal program that I used (e.g. Procomm Plus, Tel etc.) or BBS software I ran *ever* sent received data to stdout (where ansi. could see/process it and remap keys). Unless you're "type"ing ANSI files fro command.com prompt, they're harmless.

    yeah it was safe when bbsing. banana com users could have been subject to automatic downloads ith file overwrites, but i dont know if that ever happened.

    there's no way to work an ansi bomb other than typing it manually\
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::