I just was playing around with the Docker options on a Synology NAS (an x86 model - a DS720+) and trying to get Synchronet installed on it. Seems that there's a whole whackload of common service ports that are reserved in Synology's DSM NAS OS that require a lot of workarounds, even when you're not using those services on the NAS. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with that kind of deployment and what kind of problems you ran into and the conclusions you got to at the end of it all. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, but I did try rerouting some of the web ports, although I ended up getting the built-in nginx web server giving remote application errors. I just found that using a full VM is a whole lot easier. Anyway, if anybody has any tips from their own experience, I'd welcome them, otherwise I'll just continue on with the VM that I'm working with.

Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS via Docker?
By: Waethorn to All on Wed Sep 14 2022 17:34:03

I just was playing around with the Docker options on a Synology NAS (an x86 model - a DS720+) and trying to get Synchronet
installed on it. Seems that there's a whole whackload of common service ports that are reserved in Synology's DSM NAS OS

i seem to remember seeing a disussion a few days ago about docker . it may have been on the sysop channel but they were working on something.

installed on it. Seems that there's a whole whackload of common service ports that are reserved in Synology's DSM NAS OS
that require a lot of workarounds, even when you're not using those services on the NAS. I'm just wondering if anyone has

that's why i built my own nas. to be honest, only thing that's actually good on the synologies are the UX, but freenas is just as good.

easier. Anyway, if anybody has any tips from their own experience, I'd welcome them, otherwise I'll just continue on with
the VM that I'm working with.

personally, i wouls go with a VM or even an LXC container. an LXC container might work well. I know it runs in one as that's what I started running mine on while i was sourcing hardware. but that's also probably because i have no idea about docker and have never used it lol

regards
Charles Blackburn
SYSOP - The F.B.O BBS
Aviation related fun @ bbs.thefbo.us IPV4 and IPV6
DOVE-Net
Coming soon: FSX-Net, FIDO-Net

---
■ Synchronet ■ The FBO BBS - bbs.thefbo.us - A place for aviation fun....

On 9/14/22 17:34, Waethorn wrote:

I just was playing around with the Docker options on a Synology NAS
(an x86 model - a DS720+) and trying to get Synchronet installed on
it.

Should be able to use the bbs-io images without issue (assuming it's an
x86 model) otherwise, you'd have to do your own build.

Seems that there's a whole whackload of common service ports that are reserved in Synology's DSM NAS OS that require a lot of workarounds,

You *should* be able to run all the BBS services with redirects from non-standard ports...

ex: router:23 -> nas:50080 -> docker-instance:80

even when you're not using those services on the NAS. I'm just
wondering if anyone has any experience with that kind of deployment
and what kind of problems you ran into

Not many... worth noting, that if your ISP blocks common service ports,
most do for residential connections... you'll need to accept incoming on
those non-standard ports. Also, won't be able to use the secure certs
via Let's Encrypt as it is... I hadn't looked into it enough to try to
import the certs from a different system that used DNS to do the let's encrypt.

and the conclusions you got to at the end of it all. I didn't spend
a whole lot of time on it, but I did try rerouting some of the web
ports, although I ended up getting the built-in nginx web server
giving remote application errors. I just found that using a full VM
is a whole lot easier.

Yeah, the default web ports are *DEFINITELY* captured by the NAS box...
mine does have the option to reverse-proxy certain hostnames though, you
might consider that.

Anyway, if anybody has any tips from their own experience, I'd welcome
them, otherwise I'll just continue on with the VM that I'm working
with.

Not much more than mentioned above... the main thing would be listening
on non-standard ports, and having your router NAT the inbound to the
listening ports.

You also may want to look at Caddy as a reverse-web proxy if you want to
have more sites running that aren't synchronet for web usage... NginX
works too, just caddy is slightly easier imo.
--
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1@roughneckbbs.com
---
￭ Synchronet ￭ Roughneck BBS - roughneckbbs.com

On 9/15/22 03:53, Charles Blackburn wrote:

personally, i wouls go with a VM or even an LXC container. an LXC
container might work well. I know it runs in one as that's what I
started running mine on while i was sourcing hardware. but that's
also probably because i have no idea about docker and have never
used it lol

Docker is mostly some really nice tooling around LXC and a few other pieces.
--
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1@roughneckbbs.com
---
￭ Synchronet ￭ Roughneck BBS - roughneckbbs.com

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocker
By: Tracker1 to Charles Blackburn on Wed Sep 21 2022 21:35:33

started running mine on while i was sourcing hardware. but that's
also probably because i have no idea about docker and have never
used it lol

Docker is mostly some really nice tooling around LXC and a few other pieces.

to be honest. as i say, never used it.. I just run lxc containers in my proxmox node for most my little things (torrent, apt mirror etc) the others i run full vms.

regards
---

Charles Blackburn
The F.B.O BBS 21:1/221 618:250/36
bbs.thefbo.us IPV4/V6
DOVE-Net FSX-Net MicroNET USENET
---
■ Synchronet ■ The FBO BBS - bbs.thefbo.us - A place for aviation fun....

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: Charles Blackburn to Tracker1 on Thu Sep 22 2022 07:36 am

used it lol

Docker is mostly some really nice tooling around LXC and a few other pieces.

to be honest. as i say, never used it.. I just run lxc containers in my proxmox node for most my little things (torrent, apt mirror etc) the others i run full vms.

some people are really into docker and some arent. I am fine with just running vms when i need to do something.

some guy made a linux docker vm out of a windows rengade bbs i setup with a bunch of windows shit and made a big mess so that spoiled it for me in the beginning. it just seems overcomplicated to do a docker container than setup something in a vm.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Thu Sep 22 2022 15:57:55

to be honest. as i say, never used it.. I just run lxc containers in my proxmox node for most my little things (torrent,
apt mirror etc) the others i run full vms.

some people are really into docker and some arent. I am fine with just running vms when i need to do something.

yea. i know a couple of people that are like that... oh docker for this, docker for that blah blah... spin a vm up it's just as easy.

some guy made a linux docker vm out of a windows rengade bbs i setup with a bunch of windows shit and made a big mess so
that spoiled it for me in the beginning. it just seems overcomplicated to do a docker container than setup something in a
vm.

lol that's irony. I was just playing around with renegade last night in a DOS VM LOL I found my old ezycom stuff and my key, but started off playing around with renegade when i couldn't get ezy going because apparently my 1st gen key is no good for the last gen s/w lol

regards
---

Charles Blackburn
The F.B.O BBS 21:1/221 618:250/36
bbs.thefbo.us IPV4/V6
DOVE-Net FSX-Net MicroNET USENET
---
■ Synchronet ■ The FBO BBS - bbs.thefbo.us - A place for aviation fun....

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: Charles Blackburn to MRO on Fri Sep 23 2022 07:11 am

lol that's irony. I was just playing around with renegade last night in a DOS VM LOL I found my old ezycom stuff and my key, but started off playing around with renegade when i couldn't get ezy going because apparently my 1st gen key is no good for the last gen s/w lol

you don't really have to use renegade in a dos vm unless you are just playing around. you can make one that works in windows xp [don't do that] windows 7 or windows 10 32bit.

if you want a ezycom reg code you can use the one i have for
ezycomBBSv2.15g2

okay i just looked and now my reg code no longer works. so he did some weird stuff where my free code i requested only worked for a short time or something else is up. the guy who took over was a do-nothing and he was very weird about registrations so he probably did some funny business.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Fri Sep 23 2022 05:52 pm

if you want a ezycom reg code you can use the one i have for ezycomBBSv2.15g2

okay i just looked and now my reg code no longer works. so he did some weird stuff where my free code i requested only worked for a short time or something else is up. the guy who took over was a do-nothing and he was very weird about registrations so he probably did some funny business.

okay i just looked again and i needed to type in the fake sysop name i registered with. somehow it cleared out.

i talked to T1ny and he is going to ask the guy for a free code for everyone
to use. the author had the ole harddrive crash no backup thing.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

On 9/22/22 13:57, MRO wrote:

some people are really into docker and some arent. I am fine with just running vms when i need to do something.

some guy made a linux docker vm out of a windows rengade bbs i setup
with a bunch of windows shit and made a big mess so that spoiled it
for me in the beginning. it just seems overcomplicated to do a docker container than setup something in a vm.

Might be easier to think of it as really lightweight
application-specific VMs. In general it becomes a lot less complicated
in practice.

If I want to use a database, I can just spin up a container, I don't
need to worry about dependencies, or what they might do for my host
OS... and for more esoteric apps even more so.

Upgrades become easier too... since my data is outside the container, I
just stop, update to a newer image, and start with the same data
directory... not separate OS upgrades, dependencies or application
updates all of which can effect one another and break in unexpected
ways. The application, database, server all have software that they
need and works together. Yeah it can take more storage overall, but with
a layered file system, containers with the same base image don't take up
extra room.

Biggest headaches come from software that isn't designed to separate
data, configuration and application binaries/scripts. This becomes a
bit more difficult to byzantine under the covers... in the end it's
about presenting a more seamless experience overall though.

Other niceties, you can run some services that don't need direct
read/write access to running read-only container instances, so entire
classes of security breaches become so much less likely. You can also
more easily isolate backing storage from the services as well. This
means you're more likely to use something like an rdbms over direct file
based data stores.

At scale, it also means you can upgrade/downgrade services and
fail-overs en-masse... This, frankly becomes a lot less necessary at
small scale, where you may not have redundant hardware... that said, inter-process communication and services becomes easier to manage with
docker.

Docker-compose in particular is really useful at smaller scales, and for
local development with various connected services... kind of like an in between for managing by hand and going full kubernetes.

If you pink me on FB Messenger, I'd be happy to do a screen share, where
I can show you how I can connect/manage update etc my BBS in practice.
It's actually really slick.
--
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1@roughneckbbs.com
---
￭ Synchronet ￭ Roughneck BBS - roughneckbbs.com

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Fri Sep 23 2022 17:52:34

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke By: Charles Blackburn to MRO on Fri Sep 23 2022 07:11 am

lol that's irony. I was just playing around with renegade last night in a DOS VM LOL I found my old ezycom stuff and my
key, but started off playing around with renegade when i couldn't get ezy going because apparently my 1st gen key is no
good for the last gen s/w lol

you don't really have to use renegade in a dos vm unless you are just playing around. you can make one that works in windows
xp [don't do that] windows 7 or windows 10 32bit.

yea that's all i was doing just screwing around. reminiscing as they say lol

if you want a ezycom reg code you can use the one i have for ezycomBBSv2.15g2
okay i just looked and now my reg code no longer works. so he did some weird stuff where my free code i requested only
worked for a short time or something else is up. the guy who took over was a do-nothing and he was very weird about
registrations so he probably did some funny business.

yea, my legit one i've had since V1 doesnt work either. I pulled it out of my emails "Stephen Gibbs" sent it back to me after i'd lost it back in 2011 and was working then.

I was one of the original beta testers back in the 1.2 days around 95 before peter gave it up and then i moved back to the uk.

I loved it cus it was sooo easy to use and maintain.

regards
---

Charles Blackburn
The F.B.O BBS 21:1/221 618:250/36
bbs.thefbo.us IPV4/V6
DOVE-Net FSX-Net MicroNET USENET
---
■ Synchronet ■ The FBO BBS - bbs.thefbo.us - A place for aviation fun....

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Fri Sep 23 2022 18:23:37

if you want a ezycom reg code you can use the one i have for ezycomBBSv2.15g2

<CUT>

okay i just looked again and i needed to type in the fake sysop name i registered with. somehow it cleared out.
i talked to T1ny and he is going to ask the guy for a free code for everyone
to use. the author had the ole harddrive crash no backup thing.

ooh.. stephens still around? i might pop him an email if he is still at his amnet address...

charlie
---

Charles Blackburn
The F.B.O BBS 21:1/221 618:250/36
bbs.thefbo.us IPV4/V6
DOVE-Net FSX-Net MicroNET USENET
---
■ Synchronet ■ The FBO BBS - bbs.thefbo.us - A place for aviation fun....

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: Tracker1 to MRO on Fri Sep 23 2022 08:43 pm

Might be easier to think of it as really lightweight
application-specific VMs. In general it becomes a lot less complicated
in practice.

If I want to use a database, I can just spin up a container, I don't
need to worry about dependencies, or what they might do for my host
OS... and for more esoteric apps even more so.

Upgrades become easier too... since my data is outside the container, I
just stop, update to a newer image, and start with the same data directory... not separate OS upgrades, dependencies or application
updates all of which can effect one another and break in unexpected
ways. The application, database, server all have software that they
need and works together. Yeah it can take more storage overall, but with
a layered file system, containers with the same base image don't take up extra room.

Biggest headaches come from software that isn't designed to separate
data, configuration and application binaries/scripts. This becomes a
bit more difficult to byzantine under the covers... in the end it's
about presenting a more seamless experience overall though.

yeah i what how it is and how it works pretty much. i've played with it.
i've used some docker containers when playing around.

If you pink me on FB Messenger, I'd be happy to do a screen share, where
I can show you how I can connect/manage update etc my BBS in practice.

i dont know what you mean by pink. i dont really use facebook or fb msger that much.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

On 9/24/22 02:17, MRO wrote:

yeah i what how it is and how it works pretty much. i've played with
it. i've used some docker containers when playing around.

It's definitely useful in ways.

If you pink me on FB Messenger, I'd be happy to do a screen share,
where I can show you how I can connect/manage update etc my BBS in
practice.

i dont know what you mean by pink. i dont really use facebook or fb
msger that much.

I meant "ping"
--
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1@roughneckbbs.com
---
￭ Synchronet ￭ Roughneck BBS - roughneckbbs.com

Re: Re: Anybody ever try installing Synchronet on a prebuilt NAS viaDocke
By: Tracker1 to MRO on Mon Sep 26 2022 04:24 pm

i dont know what you mean by pink. i dont really use facebook or fb msger that much.

I meant "ping"

you could say talk to you on fb messenger.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::