Hi there.

More persistent than your kids asking 'what time is it?' please say hello to the latest update to history.txt :)

[snip]

2023-01-02
Happy New Year and best wishes to you for the year ahead. Thanks for taking part in fsxNet and I hope you continue to enjoy the BBSing hobby throughout 2023. Just a note that NET 1 will shortly undergo a tidy-up/prune of inactive nodes. I am also looking to remove/add a few echomail areas in the coming
days and weeks.

Added Node 1/159 Bad Poetry Blues BBS (CAN) welcome back to sysop Mick
Manning aka Mickey who is running his Synchronet powered BBS

from Campbellford. You can reach his system by heading to
centralontarioremote.com welcome back to fsxNet Mickey it's
great to have you back on the scene :)

[snip]

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 02 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

Happy New Year and best wishes to you for the year ahead. Thanks for

Thanks Avon, and a Happy New Year to you, too!

tidy-up/prune of inactive nodes. I am also looking to remove/add a few echomail areas in the coming days and weeks.

Noted! :)

Added Node 1/159 Bad Poetry Blues BBS (CAN) welcome back to sysop Mick
Manning aka Mickey who is running his Synchronet
powered BBS

Welcome back, Mick!

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

I love fsxNet. Thank you for setting it up for us. And thanks for all of the work you did to get ME online. I am really enjoying it and I enjoy running a BBS again after all of these years. Onward and upward in 2023! Good luck, everyone.

... Condense soup, not books!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van (21:1/130)

On 02 Jan 2023 at 06:03p, Alonzo pondered and said...

I love fsxNet. Thank you for setting it up for us. And thanks for all of the work you did to get ME online. I am really enjoying it and I enjoy running a BBS again after all of these years. Onward and upward in 2023! Good luck, everyone.

You're most welcome Alonzo and thanks for being part of this online community too :)

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Seems that history.txt has morphed again.

Here's what I spotted..

[snip]

2023-01-05
Added Node 1/162 Midnight Coffee BBS (USA) welcome aboard Jim McBride aka
Spaceman who hails from St. Louis. Spaceman is running an
Enigma 1/2 BBS and you can reach it via SSH by heading to
ssh.midnightcoffee.org:31323

Removed Node 1/177 Nephilim BBS has been delisted.

[snip]

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 05 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

2023-01-05
Added Node 1/162 Midnight Coffee BBS (USA) welcome aboard Jim McBride aka
Spaceman who hails from St. Louis. Spaceman is running

Welcome to fsxNet, Jim! Nice to have you here.

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

Avon wrote to All <=-

Added Node 1/162 Midnight Coffee BBS (USA) welcome aboard Jim McBride
aka
Spaceman who hails from St. Louis. Spaceman is running
an
Enigma 1/2 BBS and you can reach it via SSH by heading
to
ssh.midnightcoffee.org:31323

Welcome to FSXnet!




... Spelling is a sober man's game
--- MultiMail/DOS
* Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * SSH:2122/telnet:24/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)

Twas Friday, January 6th when Avon said...

2023-01-05 Added Node 1/162 Midnight Coffee BBS (USA) welcome aboard Jim McBride aka Spaceman who hails from St. Louis. Spaceman is running an Enigma 1/2 BBS and you can reach it via SSH by heading to ssh.midnightcoffee.org:31323

Welcome to our madness & hope you're enjoying enig!


--
|08 ■ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
|08 ■ |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
|08 ■ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)

Egads.... history.txt morphed again.

[snip]

2023-01-09
Removed 1/233 Paranor BBS (CAN) has been inactive 60+ days, no contact
from sysop, the node has been delisted.

2023-01-06
Updated Node 1/124 apernevan.tk BBS (ROU) has been marked as 'Down' in the
nodelist. Sysop advises he is rebuilding his system with a
new domain name to follow soon.

Updated Node 1/221 The FBO BBS is no longer marked as 'Down' in the nodelist.


[snip]

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Hi all.

[snip]

2023-01-11
Removed Node 1/156 Insomnia City BBS has closed while sysop works to relocate
his system to a new hardware platform.

2023-01-10
NET 4 housekeeping. A number of nodes have been inactive for 80+ days so it's time for a tidy up of the nodelist:

Removed Node 4/107 Carnage! BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/129 Hive 32 BBS inactive and has been delisted. Removed Node 4/132 Black Flag OBV/2 inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/133 sbbs.dynu.net inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/135 PiBBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/140 Redshift BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/143 Eggy BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/146 GGNET BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/166 Black Lodge Research inactive and has been delisted. Removed Node 4/115 TCS Online BBS sysop has shutdown their BBS.
Removed Node 4/123 SpaceX Starship BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/160 Brotherhood of Groovynes inactive and has been delisted. Removed Node 4/179 Moon Base Camp BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/104 Herbies BBS II inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/111 HotDogEd inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/127 The Oasis BBS inactive and has been delisted.
Removed Node 4/142 Off the Wall inactive and has been delisted.

2023-01-09
Removed Node 1/233 Paranor BBS (CAN) has been inactive 60+ days, no contact
from sysop, the node has been delisted.

[snip]

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 12 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

Hi all.
2023-01-11
Removed Node 1/156 Insomnia City BBS has closed while sysop works to

No pink slip in my locker, made the cut. sweet!!

|11·|03-|09─|01─╖ |15K|07í|08dd |01╓──|09·-|03· |11·
|01╙ |15W|07íck|08ed |01╙

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Sinner's Haven 2.0 (21:1/169)

Hi all

[snip]

2023-01-12
Added Node 1/177 Goosenet BBS (GER) welcome back to sysop Michael Geller
aka Goose who is based in Nuremberg, Germany. Goose is
running a Mystic BBS you can reach his system (just getting
set up now) by heading to bbs.nifty5fty.com ports 22 and 23
Welcome back Goose to the scene. :)

[snip]

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Re: Housekeeping
By: Kidd Wicked to Avon on Wed Jan 11 2023 08:03 pm

Hi all.
2023-01-11
Removed Node 1/156 Insomnia City BBS has closed while sysop works to

No pink slip in my locker, made the cut. sweet!!

Apparently I got back in, in the nick of time. LOL :-)


.
.

Mick Manning
Bad Poetry Blues (badpoet.synchro.net:2300) gopher://centralontarioremote.com:70
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: Bad Poetry Blues = badpoet.synchro.net (21:1/159)

2023-01-12
Added Node 1/177 Goosenet BBS (GER) welcome back to sysop Michael Geller
aka Goose who is based in Nuremberg, Germany. Goose is
running a Mystic BBS you can reach his system (just getting set up now) by heading to bbs.nifty5fty.com
ports 22 and 23 Welcome back Goose to the scene. :)

Hi Paul,

thanks. SSH Port is 2222.
Telnet:23
RLogin:513

Greetings
Goose

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Goosenet BBS (21:1/177)

On 11 Jan 2023, Mickey said the following...

Apparently I got back in, in the nick of time. LOL :-)

Mick Manning

Are people actually being removed because the BBS itself stops responding or is it due to low activity from that BBS?

|23|04Dr|16|12Claw
|16|14Sysop |12Noverdu |14BBS |04(|14Noverdu.com|04)
|10Standard Ports for SSH/Telnet Web/HTTP://|14Noverdu.com:808
|20|15fsxNet/MRC Chat/Registered Doors!/50Nodes/No Time Use! Stay On!|16|07

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Noverdu BBS (21:1/210)

Hello Goose!

On 12 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

Added Node 1/177 Goosenet BBS (GER) welcome back to sysop Michael Geller
aka Goose who is based in Nuremberg, Germany. Goose is

Welcome back to fsxNet! =)

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

On 12 Jan 2023, Zip said the following...

Hello Goose!
Welcome back to fsxNet! =)

Best regards
Zip

Hey Zip,

thanks, after rejoining fsxnet, i feel better :)

Now its time, to get things done, around my BBS and make it unique :)

Greetings
Goose

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Goosenet BBS (21:1/177)

Hello Goose!

On 12 Jan 2023, Goose said the following...

thanks, after rejoining fsxnet, i feel better :)

Sounds good! =)

Now its time, to get things done, around my BBS and make it unique :)

Yes, that's always a good thing to strive for!

I'm still in the phase of getting everything to run correctly (and to work somewhat like RemoteAccess used to do in the 90s), but slowly getting there. Takes some time, but one step at a time... =)

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

Yes, that's always a good thing to strive for!

Yes, its not as easy for me but i think i get this done.
Reading and learning, thats what i doing at the moment. I think, a BBS must be unique, so its intressting for people who only know browser like apps.

Most of the people dont know what a modem is :) it was a special time... a adventure and all was magic :D

I'm still in the phase of getting everything to run correctly (and to
work somewhat like RemoteAccess used to do in the 90s), but slowly
getting there. Takes some time, but one

step at a time... =)

Sounds intressting for me. Keep me in mind.

Greetings
Goose

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Goosenet BBS (21:1/177)

Hello Goose!

On 12 Jan 2023, Goose said the following...

I'm still in the phase of getting everything to run correctly (and to work somewhat like RemoteAccess used to do in the 90s), but slowly

Sounds intressting for me. Keep me in mind.

Will do!

So far it has mostly been to edit prompts and to adjust the prelogin/personalscan menus, e.g. to adjust the mail scan parameters to skip messages that have already been read.

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

Hello claw,

Are people actually being removed because the BBS itself stops
responding or is it due to low activity from that BBS?

Nodes are only removed after long periods of no polling or being able to poll the node and the sysop doesn't respond.

If the nodes get interested again after a time they are welcome back.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Shhh! Be vewwy, vewwy quiet! I'm hunting tag-wines!
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20220504
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.2)

On 12 Jan 2023 at 12:02p, Goose pondered and said...

thanks. SSH Port is 2222.
Telnet:23

will amend history.txt now, thanks!

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 12 Jan 2023 at 07:27a, claw pondered and said...

Are people actually being removed because the BBS itself stops
responding or is it due to low activity from that BBS?

The BBS is no longer polling to collect held packets or is unreachable, when you get 45+ worth of stuff and in the case of NET 4 there we're systems 200+ days inactive, then it's time to prune.

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 13 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

The BBS is no longer polling to collect held packets or is unreachable, when you get 45+ worth of stuff and in the case of NET 4 there we're systems 200+ days inactive, then it's time to prune.

Thats good to know. I'm on here reading daily but don't always post. I was a bit worried there :D

|23|04Dr|16|12Claw
|16|14Sysop |12Noverdu |14BBS |04(|14Noverdu.com|04)
|10Standard Ports for SSH/Telnet Web/HTTP://|14Noverdu.com:808
|20|15fsxNet/MRC Chat/Registered Doors!/50Nodes/No Time Use! Stay On!|16|07

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Noverdu BBS (21:1/210)

On 13 Jan 2023 at 07:32a, claw pondered and said...

Thats good to know. I'm on here reading daily but don't always post. I was a bit worried there :D

It's all good, it's just when a HUB ends up with weeks and weeks of held files that it can't deliver and/or the BBS node is not polling to collect them, you end up drawing a line around the 45+ day mark to opt to delete the node from a HUB / nodelist and recover the HDD space.

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Thats good to know. I'm on here reading daily but don't always post. I was a bit worried there :D

Now I'm just wondering how many of our BBSs would be pruned if we were required to have a significant amount of messages coming out of each BBS.

I'm... imagining it would not be a large number left, since even active people tend to take a bit of a break, occasionally.

Heck, this is my first message that's responding to a _recent_ message (that wasn't sent to me directly) in _months_.

Regardless, always nice to see people posting, when they _do_ have time.

...and now I just realized that, thinking of things that are kinda active, but not compared to the number of BBSs, I'm posting this when I could be at the weekly Meatup...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

On 14 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...

It's all good, it's just when a HUB ends up with weeks and weeks of held files that it can't deliver and/or the BBS node is not polling to
collect them, you end up drawing a line around the 45+ day mark to opt
to delete the node from a HUB / nodelist and recover the HDD space.

I love the network so if that happens to Noverdu I'm probably dead. So When that happens some day. Have a Pint of good beer and a glass of scotch for me.

|23|04Dr|16|12Claw
|16|14Sysop |12Noverdu |14BBS |04(|14Noverdu.com|04)
|10Standard Ports for SSH/Telnet Web/HTTP://|14Noverdu.com:808
|20|15fsxNet/MRC Chat/Registered Doors!/50Nodes/No Time Use! Stay On!|16|07

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Noverdu BBS (21:1/210)

On 13 Jan 2023, Adept said the following...

...and now I just realized that, thinking of things that are kinda
active, but not compared to the number of BBSs, I'm posting this when I could be at the weekly Meatup...

I've never seen you at the meet up, and I try to be there every week if I can. I tend to also be working so I miss a lot but throw in what I can. Being the Pillar of the community you are it would be like having a celebrity show up.

|23|04Dr|16|12Claw
|16|14Sysop |12Noverdu |14BBS |04(|14Noverdu.com|04)
|10Standard Ports for SSH/Telnet Web/HTTP://|14Noverdu.com:808
|20|15fsxNet/MRC Chat/Registered Doors!/50Nodes/No Time Use! Stay On!|16|07

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Noverdu BBS (21:1/210)

I've never seen you at the meet up, and I try to be there every week if
I can. I tend to also be working so I miss a lot but throw in what I
can. Being the Pillar of the community you are it would be like having a celebrity show up.

And then we saw each other at the Meatup!

And I hardly feel like I'm an FSXnet celebrity, especially given that Paulie420 is oftentimes there, and Hyjinx, too. Along with Meatlotion, of course. But it's a nice crowd, when I do happen to have time. I hope others get a chance to check it out.

8p UTC on Fridays, if people weren't already aware. It tends to run 3 or 4 hours, though, so showing up late still works.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

I don't get any new messages on my own BBS, but I check the fsxNet messages almost daily. All I get on my BBS is bots and losers trying to log on as "system" or "root." About 100% of my traffic is people who are trying to crash my board.

... They say there's always one weirdo on the bus, but I couldn't find them!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van (21:1/130)

I don't get any new messages on my own BBS, but I check the fsxNet messages almost daily. All I get on my BBS is bots and losers trying to log on as "system" or "root." About 100% of my traffic is people who are trying to crash my board.

I think that's probably true for almost all of us -- at the very least anyone running on port 23.

Since these bots are looking for servers to exploit, and don't at all care about BBSs. I'm wondering what level of bot makers even _think_ about BBS servers. Talk about a niche market, and a niche market where, "Yeah, the computer should probably be _at least_ as powerful as a low-end-ish computer from 25 years ago." is a reasonable level of power.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Since these bots are looking for servers to exploit, and don't at all
care about BBSs. I'm wondering what level of bot makers even _think_
about BBS servers. Talk about a niche market, and a niche market where,

I wrote a "poor man's honeypot" in some Python awhile back which simulated a Login and Password prompt.

If the intruder entered "root" as the user, I gave them a # prompt, and then I gave anything else a $ prompt. As far as I can tell, all of these bum connections were scripts, not human beings manually entering data.

The effect, obviously, is to give the script the impression they'd made it in and were sitting at a shell prompt.

These scripts then used busybox - busybox is central to nearly all of these port 23 attacks - to issue a few commands, and then download and run scripts from remote locations. In other cases - most of them, actually, it appeared to count on an already-compromised busybox executable to do what it wanted. I don't know why there was an expectation of a compromised busybox there, but I suspect some cheap SOHO routers, or possibly security cameras, got out with a compromised busybox. These scripts were written to exploit these compromised devices. There were multiple IPs over broad time periods using the same credentials.

Of course, since it was just a Python script, it logged whatever the script "typed" and didn't run anything.

Those Port 23 attackers are:

* Automated scripts which appear to be looking for anything with Port 23 open, possibly by doing wide-range IP portscans

* Specifically looking to run busybox, in almost all cases

* Annoying but ultimately impotent

From the period between December 2 and January 1, the counts of unique IPs for "ports no one should be ever connecting to" on my home Internet connection (i.e., not where I ran this honeypot) are:

Telnet [23] - 13258 unique IPs (!)
ssh [22] - 3461 unique IPs
http [80] - 2747 unique IPs

These are the top (most frequently hit) ports; telnet is routinely hit (or scanned) more than any other. I would note that I do not run my BBS on my home connection, nor have I ever run anything with ingress on port 23. My firewall is configured to DROP every kind of new connection; there are no ports responding with OPEN, CLOSED, or FILTERED. The takeaway here is there is no reason (other than being in the known IP range of a large ISP) anyone should be hitting these ports. If you run a server on port 23 (like a BBS), the only thing that could possibly do is amplify the number of hits, especially if someone is downloading a report from, say, shodan.io on port 23 and is feeding that into their scripts.

These are a few of the credential pairs my "poor man's honeypot" detected on port 23. These are presumably the credentials of known backdoored systems. I expect exactly zero of these should work on any BBS. And since these scripts are almost always looking for a shell prompt, should someone create an account on your system with these pairs, the script would fail. It would either never execute (no $ or # prompt), or the badly written ones would try to run their payload at the first "press key to continue" prompt. There are a lot of bad scripts. Scripts that are stymied by an unexpected prompt (e.g., ! rather than # or $). Most scripts do not try to detect if busybox is even installed. I forget how, but I even trapped one in a kind of quicksand; it kept retrying its payload over and over again.

root password
root 123456
root jvbzd
root ROOT500
root aquario
root qazxsw
admin pass
Admin 5up
admin 12345
root ttnet
root anko
root admin
root gpon
admin admin
root 1234
root founder88
,|J=y=1j`cnws[k?/+ /5�
admin admin1234
root juantech
guest 12345
root 123123
root ttnet
root admin
root 12345
root ivdev
root xc3511
admin admin1234
root dreambox
root alpine
root root
admin 1111111
root pon521
Admin 5up
service service
root xmhdipc
root 54321
ubnt ubnt
admin meinsm
service service
default antslq
root xmhdipc
admin smc

Port 23 is a cesspool of a port. That so many hits occur on that port suggest a lot of garbage hardware is still connectable there.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Shipwrecks & Shibboleths [San Francisco, CA - USA] (21:1/227)

Re: Re: Housekeeping
By: DustCouncil to Adept on Sat Jan 21 2023 19:39:08

Since these bots are looking for servers to exploit, and don't at all care about BBSs. I'm wondering what level of bot makers even _think_ about BBS servers. Talk about a niche market, and a niche market where,

Thanks for this. Very interesting. I'd like to do the same thing with SMTP 25


.

Mick Manning
Bad Poetry Blues (badpoet.synchro.net:2300) gopher://centralontarioremote.com:70
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: Bad Poetry Blues = badpoet.synchro.net:2300 (21:1/159)

I wrote a "poor man's honeypot" in some Python awhile back which
simulated a Login and Password prompt.

That was a fascinating read.

In the end, I've left my BBS on port 23 because that's the standard telnet port, and Mystic getting hit by a non-DDOS-level of attacks looking for something else just hasn't mattered to me to try and go for security-by-obscurity.

(Not that I'm actually dismissing security-by-obscurity. It generally means fewer attacks, even if your security isn't good. And, even if it's not about security, it _does_ mean getting fewer terrible connection attempts.)

Regardless, not that my decision is forever set in stone, and, regardless, that was a neat post to read. Thanks for summarizing the work.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

On 21 Jan 2023, Adept said the following...

I don't get any new messages on my own BBS, but I check the fsxNet messages almost daily. All I get on my BBS is bots and losers trying log on as "system" or "root." About 100% of my traffic is people who trying to crash my board.

I think that's probably true for almost all of us -- at the very least anyone running on port 23.

Since these bots are looking for servers to exploit, and don't at all
care about BBSs. I'm wondering what level of bot makers even _think_
about BBS servers. Talk about a niche market, and a niche market where, "Yeah, the computer should probably be _at least_ as powerful as a low-end-ish computer from 25 years ago." is a reasonable level of power.

PFSense and setup PFBlockerNG and you will see that drop off dramatically! It has an automated black list of IPS that is well maintained that will clean up that Mess. We have more sysops than users. I'm My boards Most active user by far. I do have a few that pop in and say hi and check mails and so one every few days. It always brings a smile to my face when I see Paulie was on. He always make a neat little message waiting for me at the Blerbs Sections of the board.

Make your board what you like as you will be its most active user.

|23|04Dr|16|12Claw
|16|14Sysop |12Noverdu |14BBS |04(|14Noverdu.com|04)
|10Standard Ports for SSH/Telnet Web/HTTP://|14Noverdu.com:808
|20|15fsxNet/MRC Chat/Registered Doors!/50Nodes/No Time Use! Stay On!|16|07

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Noverdu BBS (21:1/210)

Make your board what you like as you will be its most active user.

I do think that's what most of us have ended up doing. Our BBS is our gateway to the BBSing world. Additional users are just added flavor.

I find it interesting, too, that I login to my BBS most days, and do something like, "Oh, huh, today is Peanut Butter day. And that was _not_ my best ANSI.".

And sometimes someone says, "Today is (x) day!", and I immediately want to login to my BBS to see if I chose that day and have an ANSI for it.

But I mostly use my BBS to check out FSXnet messages. And even _that_ I tend to be far behind on (e.g., I know there are other message bases than general, but I'm so far behind on them that I'd have to actively check them / skip all the messages, etc., and generally I'm just checking in for a few minutes.)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

How do you change the incoming port for your BBS from 23 to something else? I would be interested in doing that.

... Shortcut: longest distance between two points

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van (21:1/130)

Make your board what you like as you will be its most active user.

Man, that is the truth!

... The dog ate my .REP packet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van (21:1/130)

How do you change the incoming port for your BBS from 23 to something else? I would be interested in doing that.

Usually just change the open port on your router and forward it to port23 on the BBS system..

ST

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Hello Alonzo,

How do you change the incoming port for your BBS from 23 to something else? I would be interested in doing that.

Go into Servers -> Configure Servers -> Terminal (TELNET), and then set the port to the desired port to use.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Landru! Guide us!
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20220504
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.2)

How do you change the incoming port for your BBS from 23 to something else? I would be interested in doing that.

Go into Servers -> Configure Servers -> Terminal (TELNET), and then set the port to the desired port to use.

OK, thanks.

... If you can't make it good, make it LOOK good. -Bill Gates.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van (21:1/130)

I've removed a number of NET 1 nodes due to inactivity... have posted an update into fsx_net

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

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