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BBS software specific to DEC hardware?

tradde

tradde

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Apr 30, 2003
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Was there ever any BBS software written to run on DEC hardware? I have been trying to find something, but it seems the best I can find is something that was developed for UNIX and might run on BSD 2.9. I have a DEC Pro-350 that has RT-11M on it. Was wondering if there might be something that would run there. Kinda doubt it unless I convert something else. I'd like to use that box for something fun. I have been toying with BBS software recently as I ran a BBS back in 93-96. I really enjoyed it too, and then the Internet pretty much killed off BBS's. Not all of em, but most. Yeah, I can run someone under Linux. That's no problem. But it would be much more fun to run something on real DEC hardware. TIA.
Tim
 
Yes, I had heard about that too. Didn't know anything about it back then. Never knew there was code for an 8 to run a BBS. Which to me is really cool. I am more looking for pdp-11 code. I have no pdp-8 here any more. I suppose I could try it on the Decmate but don't know if it would work or not.
 
It doesn't likely matter as I doubt I could get the Pro 350 onto the Internet anyway. It has a serial port limited to 9600 but it seems for a modem only. I don't think it came with anything that would support a TCP/IP stack.
 
I believe there was something for PDP-11s as well. But I can't remember any details right now.
I think Bruce Mitchell might have been involved/managing it, but he's extremely hostile to some people/things, so I doubt I can ever access any information from him. But maybe other people have better luck.
 
tradde said:
... Never knew there was code for an 8 to run a BBS. Which to me is really cool. I am more looking for pdp-11 code. I have no pdp-8 here any more. I suppose I could try it on the Decmate but don't know if it would work or not.
Click to expand...
A DECmate II should be able to run a variant of the 8BBS code since the DECmate com port has modem control signals. We'd want at least a RD52 or RD53 HD (or SD emulator) instead of just RX50's. The 8BBS code runs under OS/8 and is mostly BASIC with some PAL8 subroutine calls to do clever stuff with the modem control signals. It was modeled on CBBS from the early '80's. Unfortunately I don't have a good copy of the source code to work with.
 
ftcnet said:
The 8BBS code runs under OS/8 and is mostly BASIC with some PAL8 subroutine calls to do clever stuff with the modem control signals. It was modeled on CBBS from the early '80's. Unfortunately I don't have a good copy of the source code to work with.
Click to expand...

I'd be interested to see any source code at all for that. How much survives?

Vince
 
Curious, can't you just plug a modem in to the serial port and "tada" connectivity? The modem does most of the work, and to the computer, it just needs to ignore RING RING CONNECT 1200, right?

At that point you could, in theory, give them a system login prompt and then have that "autorun" the BBS software, right? I know on our RSTS box in school we had "locked" accounts that you could log in to and never get to the command prompt, it was just running software.
 
I have no modems any more. I want connections to come over Telnet. Who actually uses modems any more? I am sure there are some out there.
 
whartung said:
Curious, can't you just plug a modem in to the serial port and "tada" connectivity? The modem does most of the work, and to the computer, it just needs to ignore RING RING CONNECT 1200, right?

At that point you could, in theory, give them a system login prompt and then have that "autorun" the BBS software, right? I know on our RSTS box in school we had "locked" accounts that you could log in to and never get to the command prompt, it was just running software.
Click to expand...

The "problem" is that if you disconnect, you don't want whoever connects next to just take over your session. So you want to detect if you have a disconnect and at that point logout the user. That's a reason why you want to know about the modem signalling. "RING RING CONNECT 1200" would be a text message some modems might print out, but that would be pretty worthless as a controlling mechanism for anything. What you actually look for the the RI signal in RS-232, followed by DCD and CD. And (especially if it's half duplex) CTS and RTS.
 
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