Re: Put your BBS back online with MagicJack?

["Don" <numberfiveplusone@gmail.com>]

"Steven Lichter" <diespammers@ikillspammers.com> wrote in message 
news:QLiUl.34311$ZP4.5146@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com...
> Terry Olsen wrote:
>> Has anyone ever thought of running their old BBS just like they did in 
>> the heyday???  With actual Apple hardware, an analog modem, and a phone 
>> line? Now that MagicJack has come into existence, $40 to purchase, and 
>> $20 per year of service with free long distance, seems to me it would be 
>> entirely possible to have a bunch of Apple II bbs's to call once again.
>>
>> Sysops would not have to shell out a monthly payment for a 2nd phone line 
>> and users wouldn't have to worry about long distance phone charges to 
>> call. No-brainer, eh?
>>
>> So would there be any interest?  Are there any sysops who would consider 
>> running a BBS like this?  In the next month or so, I'll probably go buy a 
>> MagicJack, put mine online, and see what happens.  Anyone else?
>
>
> You would need to run the Magic Jack with a PC or Intel Mac, I would guess 
> from there you could plug a modem into the phone jack then to your Apple. 
> I have a Magic Jack, but I have never tried a modem on it. There might be 
> problems since the system requires compression.  I know years ago when 
> Sprint has PC Pursuit it required special drivers to allow the Apple BBS 
> software t o run on it.
>
> -- 
> The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 
> 2009  I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.

If you're going to end up using a PC in any case, there are a number of 
freeware TELNET-to-RS232 programs around that will let users TELNET to your 
BBS using your existing internet connection. This assumes, of course, that 
you've got some sort of "always-on" connection.

I tired a couple of them several years back, but ended up going a different 
route using software specific to the system I was/am running (TBBS system on 
PC-DOS).  The only other issue you might have is your ISP blocking inbound 
port 23 connections, but the software that I tried allowed you to select 
other ports so you can work around that one.

I've just looked through my HD and I can't find any links to the stuff I 
tried, but some enterprising Google-ing may come up with something.  I seem 
to recall that the guy who had written it was using it to run a BBS on a 
C64, but it worked fine with other modem-based BBS's.

-- 
be seeing you ... Don
Don Melton, Sr. Consultant, Vatic Technologies Limited