• Re: Best UNIX/LINUX BBS for F

    From Nicholas Boel@1:154/10 to Daryl Stout on Thu Apr 14 16:10:57 2016
    Hello Daryl,

    On 13 Apr 16 20:07, Daryl Stout wrote to Alan Ianson:

    That's a hard question to answer. I like Mystic myself but I may be
    biased!

    I'm still working on converting from GT Power to Mystic. Of all the software I've set up (GT Power, Synchronet, Virtual Advanced, and
    Mystic), Mystic has been the most difficult.

    Guaranteed Mystic is one of the easiest softwares to setup. James, as well as the Synchronet devs have most likely went out of their way to help you with your transition. But when you hose your own message and/or file bases by making
    a mistake that documentation clearly states NOT to do in the first place, what can they really do to help you?

    All I'm saying is that you shouldn't badly about a software when it's self made
    mistakes.

    I still need to get the doors and auto posts set up, but for now, everything else is in place. I'm hoping to make the software switch on
    May 1, the BBS's 24th birthday.

    Can't wait! Good luck and hope the rest is smooth sailing for you.

    Regards,
    Nick

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160322
    * Origin: thePharcyde_ telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (1:154/10)
  • From James Coyle@1:129/215 to Daryl Stout on Thu Apr 14 17:59:25 2016
    I'm still working on converting from GT Power to Mystic. Of all the software I've set up (GT Power, Synchronet, Virtual Advanced, and
    Mystic), Mystic has been the most difficult.

    In order to install and have a fully working telnet BBS in Windows, you have to run literally two commands in Windows:

    install
    mis

    How you managed to make that so difficult is beyond me, but you can't blame Mystic for the wild ideas that you seem to come up with. If you do the same things you did with *any BBS software* you'll get a same or similar outcome.

    I think its time to switch to one of those "easy" to use packages that you keep mentioning! You've gone out of your way to make a post dumping on Mystic many times now, and I can assure you that I'm no longer going to bother wasting my breath trying to help you as a result.

    Just note that if you install over top of your BBS with a new installation, you're still going to lose your configuration even with other software. If you edit FILES.BBS into an unknown format, its still not going to import with other software. If you don't understand how to execute doors now, you won't with other software either. The list goes on and on...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A11 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)
  • From Robert Wolfe@1:261/20 to James Coyle on Fri Apr 15 01:11:00 2016
    * In a message originally to Daryl Stout, James Coyle said:

    In order to install and have a fully working telnet BBS in Windows, you have to
    run literally two commands in Windows:

    install
    mis

    How you managed to make that so difficult is beyond me, but you can't
    blame
    Mystic for the wild ideas that you seem to come up with. If you do the same
    things you did with *any BBS software* you'll get a same or similar outcome.

    I think its time to switch to one of those "easy" to use packages that you keep
    mentioning! You've gone out of your way to make a post dumping on Mystic many
    times now, and I can assure you that I'm no longer going to bother wasting my
    breath trying to help you as a result.

    Just note that if you install over top of your BBS with a new
    installation,
    you're still going to lose your configuration even with other software.
    If you
    edit FILES.BBS into an unknown format, its still not going to import with other
    software. If you don't understand how to execute doors now, you won't
    with
    other software either. The list goes on and on...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A11 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)

    I would have to agree with you here -- installing Mystic is basically
    a "two and done" prospect as far as getting a basic installation up
    an running -- on any of the supported operating systems. My problem
    is getting up the gumption to sit down on my ass and learn MPL :)

    ---
    * Origin: Neptune's Lair EleBBS | Memphis, TN USA (1:261/20)
  • From Daryl Stout@1:19/33 to James Coyle on Fri Apr 15 11:46:00 2016

    In order to install and have a fully working telnet BBS in Windows, you have JC>to run literally two commands in Windows:

    install

    I saw that when I ran the installation out of the RAR archive.

    mis

    How you managed to make that so difficult is beyond me, but you can't blame JC>Mystic for the wild ideas that you seem to come up with. If you do the same JC>things you did with *any BBS software* you'll get a same or similar outcome.

    I do NOT recall anything in the documentation that said anything about MIS to
    start it up. What I saw in the documentation was under "Starting Mystic BBS" --
    with options of -CFG, -HOST$ , -IP$, -N#, -T#, -TID#, -U$, and -X$.

    I think its time to switch to one of those "easy" to use packages that you

    If there was stuff out there in the docs or on the Wiki page (lots of links there are empty), I wouldn't have had to constantly be a pest in this echo. It's as if I was given the software with no instructions.

    So, I will ABANDON the idea of switching packages...and just stick with what I have.

    Daryl

    ---
    * OLX 1.53 * How long should we practice sex before it's safe??

    * PDQWK 2.53 #5


    --- GTMail 1.26
    * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org - GT Power 20 (1:19/33.0)
  • From Nicholas Boel@1:154/10 to Daryl Stout on Sat Apr 16 06:47:52 2016
    Hello Daryl,

    On 15 Apr 16 11:58, Daryl Stout wrote to Nicholas Boel:

    Hello Daryl,

    Hi, Nicholas...

    All I'm saying is that you shouldn't badly about a software when
    it's self made mistakes.

    I would've felt better had there been things like examples, screen shots, or even documentation on such. I know there's an unwritten rule with Sysops that if someone else does the work, it's THEIR setup, and
    not mine. But, I feel like I'm being a pest asking all these
    questions, because I couldn't find the information I was looking for.

    There is a wiki being worked on as we speak (wiki.mysticbbs.com).

    And asking questions is exactly what echos like MYSTIC and this one are for. So
    there's no reason for you to feel like a pest whatsoever. Just don't get so frustrated that you start taking it out on the developer and/or his software. We have very limited amounts of programmers that actually take the time to do something for our community these days. All insulting them or their software will do is drive them away.

    Can't wait! Good luck and hope the rest is smooth sailing for you.

    I got help on the autoposts setup, but the last thing is the doors.
    I am confused by the documentation on how to call Mystic up on the
    telnet side, instead of just in local mode. I already am running
    Net2BBS and NetFoss as a frontend for GT Power, and it won't let me
    run more than one copy of NetFoss/Net2BBS at a time.

    I don't think there's a difference in the door execution whether you're logged on via telnet or in local mode. Just do it the way it's documented and have a friend test it for you via telnet.

    I was wanting to test things on a non-standard port, before I open
    it up to users. No point in having the system online if nothing is
    working correctly.

    That's fine. Just make sure you have the non-standard port open on your router and you can do whatever you like with it. Run it on port 2323 for a bit, and when it's up to your own standards, move it over to port 23.

    But, since I have been too much of a pest, I am ABANDONING the idea
    of changing software.

    This is like the 2nd or 3rd time you've said you were going to abandon the idea. You obviously want to change software as you keep going back to it. People are here to help you. And you are not being a pest - up until you start spreading rumors and/or talking down the software or developer of said software
    because something didn't just start working perfectly for you the first time - which makes the #1 person (the developer) with the best knowledge of the software not want to help you.

    Regards,
    Nick

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160322
    * Origin: thePharcyde_ telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (1:154/10)
  • From Leslie Given@1:275/91 to Daryl Stout on Sat Apr 16 12:42:12 2016
    15 Apr 16 11:46, you wrote to James Coyle:

    I do NOT recall anything in the documentation that said anything
    about MIS to start it up. What I saw in the documentation was under "Starting Mystic BBS" -- with options of -CFG, -HOST$ , -IP$, -N#,
    -T#, -TID#, -U$, and -X$.

    Mystic has very detailed Documentation if you look, search, FIND key word MIS that your looking for in a text file WHATSNEW.TXT 06/09/2014. You may need to find and download older verions in order to catch up with all the changes with a BBS packages that is supported, one that moves very fast with their upgades/releases. A glance at the history.txt explains quite a bit of info.

    + MIS in Linux now has the ability to Snoop telnet nodes if you use the
    MIS console as a telnet server.
    + MIS Linux can now accept telnet connections and properly redirect STDIO
    while spawning Mystic. This means it can entirely replace a Linux
    telnet daemon if desired such as ddTelnet or xinetd, etc.
    + MIS now passes both the IP and HOST command lines when creating a telnet
    session.
    + Mystic Internet Server (MIS) can now be started in daemon mode by
    executing MIS with the -d command line option for Unix platforms.
    + MIS and MYSTIC now switch ownership to the group/user who owns each
    binary upon startup on Unix-based systems. MIS waits until after it
    binds the ports, so if it is SUDO started, it can listen on ports less
    than 1024 while not running as a root application/daemon.
    + MIS telnet in Windows now has an option to hide node windows.
    + Mystic now sends IAC_DO_BINARY as part of the starting telnet negotiations
    done by MIS. This will help fix some weird issues with Linux/OSX default
    telnet command line client.
    + Complete rewrote the MIS telnet server for Unix platforms. It should be
    much faster now. There is no reason not to use MIS now at all and you
    should switch to it as soon as possible - at least if you want to take
    advantage of future features that will require MIS (new event system, FTN
    mailer and tosser, etc).
    + MIS FTP server now will display 'ftpbanner.txt' from the DATA directory
    if it exists when a user connects via FTP.
    + New MIS event system is active. This event system has four event types
    which can be used to fully automate your BBS including echomail and QWK
    networking transmission, among other things.
    ** IF YOU ARE UPGRADING YOU MUST DELETE "EVENT.DAT" IN YOUR DATA FOLDER
    ** DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP OR YOU WILL HAVE ISSUES THE EVENT FILE FORMAT HAS
    ** CHANGED NOW THAT WE HAVE ACTUAL EVENTS!
    Here is a description of each Event type:
    TYPE1: Semaphore
    ================
    This event type listens for one or more "semaphore" files, and will execute
    a command line if one or more of the semaphore files are found. Prior to
    executing the command line, MIS will also delete the detected semaphores.
    The following options are used for Semaphore type events. Any other options
    not mentioned here can be ignored for this type:
    Active - If yes this event will be active. Set to No to disable.
    Description - This can be any description you want.
    Exec Type - This is one of BBS, Shell, or Semaphore
    Semaphore - This defines the semaphore filename to "look" for. If
    there is no path included, Mystic will automatically look
    in the configured semaphore directory. In addition, more
    than one semaphore file can be monitored by using a pipe
    symbol to separate them (|). For example:
    Semaphore: echomail.out|netmail.out
    The above example will look for the existance of EITHER
    echomail.out or netmail.out in the configured semaphore
    directory. If either file is found, the event will remove
    the semaphore files and then execute the event.
    Semaphore: c:\mybbs\somefile.txt
    The above will list for the c:\mybbs\somefile.txt and
    trigger the event if it is found.
    Shell - This is the command line which will be executed when the
    event is triggered. Similar to the Semaphore detection,
    this can have one *or more* executions per event each
    separated by a pipe. If no path is supplied, MIS will
    default to the root Mystic BBS directory. For example:
    Shell: domail.bat
    The above example will execute domail.bat in the root
    Mystic BBS directory.
    Shell: mutil export.ini|fidopoll send|mutil import.ini
    The above will execute 3 command lines in a row:
    mutil export.ini
    fidopoll send
    mutil import.ini
    If we put it all together we can get something like this:
    Active: Yes
    Description: Send outgoing echomail
    Exec Type: Semaphore
    Semaphore: echomail.out|netmail.out
    Shell: mutil export.ini|fidopoll send|mutil import.ini
    The above example wait for echomail or netmail.out, and
    execute mutil to export, then fidopoll to send, then
    mutil to import any new packets. Completely automated!
    TYPE2: Shell
    ============
    This event type executes on a defined time, defined on a weekly schedule.
    When the event executes, it will execute the Shell command line. Like the
    Semaphore event type, this Shell command can also execute multiple command
    lines by separating them with a pipe character (|).
    The different between this type and Semaphore is that instead of waiting
    for a file, the event is defined by a specific execution time. This is
    defined by picking which days of the week the event should execute, and
    what time per day it should be ran (in 24-hour format). For example:
    Active: Yes
    Description: Pack message bases
    Exec Type: Shell
    Shell: mutil msgpack.ini
    Exec Hour: 01
    Exec Min: 30
    Sun: No Mon: Yes Tue: No Wed: No Thu: No Fri: No Sat: No
    The above event would execute once per week, at 1:30am on Monday morning
    and execute the command line "mutil msgpack.ini" from the root Mystic BBS directory.
    TYPE3: Interval
    ===============
    This event type is similar to the shell event type, except that the hour
    and minute define a time interval. For example, if you want to execute
    the event every 15 minutes you would set:
    Exec Hour: 00
    Exec Mins: 15
    If you wanted to run the event every 3 hours and 30 minutes, you set:
    Exec Hour: 3
    Exec Mins: 30
    When the time interval expires, the shell command line is executed with
    the same possiblities as the other events (using the pipe character, etc).
    This event is commonly used to polling for mail.
    TYPE4: BBS
    ==========
    This event type is not actually executed by MIS itself, and is similar to
    what you might have found in old DOS-based BBS software. The purpose for
    this event is to provide an option to force users to log off the BBS if
    you want them to.
    Like the scheduled Shell event, a BBS type event can be scheduled at a
    certain hour/min and one or more days of the week. In addition to the
    time/day scheduling there are some other options:
    Node: This defines the node number for which the event will execute. If you keep the node number at 0, it will be applied to all users on all nodes. Warning: This determins the time before the event to notify the user of the upcoming event. This can be set to 0 to never warn them, or (for example) 10 to

    give them a message that they will be required to logoff in 10 minutes.
    When this event time hits, the user will be logged off of the BBS if they
    have not already logged off on their own.

    Point people in to right direction, then letting them learn on their own, seem to work the best for me when I was first starting to use a new software.

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20160201
    * Origin: flupH * fluph.zapto.org (1:275/91)
  • From James Coyle@1:129/215 to Nicholas Boel on Mon Apr 18 02:39:48 2016
    telnet side, instead of just in local mode. I already am running Net2BBS and NetFoss as a frontend for GT Power, and it won't let me run more than one copy of NetFoss/Net2BBS at a time.

    I don't think there's a difference in the door execution whether you're logged on via telnet or in local mode. Just do it the way it's

    He's not talking about doors. I believe he is trying to run Net2BBS and NetFoss before calling Mystic because he thinks he needs to in order to use Mystic with telnet.

    I've already mentioned to type "MIS" and everything works right out of the box without anything else. I think hes trying to set it up like its an old DOS BBS software that requires a bunch of third party stuff and a complicated setup.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A11 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)