• Quo vadis, FD?

    From Conrad J. Koehler@2:292/854.200 to All on Sun Sep 24 00:47:48 2017
    Hi everyone!

    Thanks to Ward and JoHo ( hi there! :-) ) I was finally able to enter this eluded place!
    Been a FD sysop only for a short time until I went multi-line. Still being at school in those old days, happily collecting all old hardware friends' parents threw away, I bought myself a used (!) MainDoor key and enjoyed the 'Pulse ESC dos veces para entrar...' for quite a while (2 to 5 years, I do'nt remember). But I swapped that with McMail when it became clear that it would probably cease to work properly in the year 19100 and not get fixed. So, what am I doing
    here!? Secretly, I kept FrontDoor as my favourite terminal program. It was incredibly fast on slow machines, kept screen line #25 free for payload and had
    a mostly error-free interpretation of AVATAR codes. Ward now brought me back into Fido, and I'm (slowly.. very slowly) going towards using a classical POTS EMSI mailer via Telnet. Specifically, in a DOSBox.
    JoHo seems to work on the same thing, but I'm not so sure whether or not this means FD is in development again.
    I'd like to stay in touch to try out mutual connectivity of different mailers in different environments over Telnet, preferring to start out with McMail for
    myself, but of course also to see whether a classical DOS FD in an emulation can still be used - or adaptions would need to be made in either FD or the emulator.

    So, let's see what is possible.
    Using FD term in DOSBox gets me disconnected on most Telnet BBSs because they 'detect a port scanner', which I'm certainly not using. In a BBS that doesn't use such a detection, I can move around as I used to, but there's no way to get
    anything via ZModem. The ZModem transfer screen pops up, but it's unable to transfer a single block. There was no other protocol choice, so I don't yet know whether this is only ZModem specific. Has anyone more experience? Anyone know a bunch of good Telnet BBSs that are not so picky? Anyone know a setting in DOSBox/DOS (env. variable??) that might hold off ZModem from working?

    Cheers! :-)

    ius
    --- AfterShock/Android 1.6.5
    * Origin: .-==o[# R o B O t S - B B S #]o==-. (2:292/854.200)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.73 to Conrad J. Koehler on Sat Sep 23 22:02:00 2017
    On 2017 Sep 24 00:47:48, you wrote to All:

    So, let's see what is possible. Using FD term in DOSBox gets me disconnected on most Telnet BBSs because they 'detect a port scanner', which I'm certainly not using. In a BBS that doesn't use such a
    detection, I can move around as I used to, but there's no way to get anything via ZModem. The ZModem transfer screen pops up, but it's
    unable to transfer a single block. There was no other protocol choice,
    so I don't yet know whether this is only ZModem specific. Has anyone
    more experience? Anyone know a bunch of good Telnet BBSs that are not
    so picky? Anyone know a setting in DOSBox/DOS (env. variable??) that might hold off ZModem from working?

    you can give my system a try... i do have IDS/IPS monitoring so you may be blocked if your setup does initiate several connection attempts at once... while we're talking about frontdoor and file transfers in the terminal, the problam may very well be on the BBS side with whatever zmodem engine they are using... IIRC, my BBS offers more than one zmodem implementation... see how one
    works and change to another if needed...

    telnet://bbs.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com

    )\/(ark

    Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
    Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
    ... Empathy is the most revolutionary emotion. - Gloria Steinem
    ---
    * Origin: (1:3634/12.73)
  • From Joaquim Homrighausen@2:20/4609 to Conrad J. Koehler on Sun Sep 24 07:01:20 2017
    Hello Conrad :)

    machines, kept screen line #25 free for payload and had a mostly error-free interpretation of AVATAR codes.

    Hmmm ... which part did I miss? I worked closely with Stanislav to get this stuff properly implemented, but maybe I forgot something?

    Ward now brought me
    back into Fido, and I'm (slowly.. very slowly) going towards
    using a classical POTS EMSI mailer via Telnet. Specifically, in a
    DOSBox.

    Cool!

    JoHo seems to work on the same thing, but I'm not so sure whether
    or not this means FD is in development again.

    Actually, it does mean that. There's a lot of stuff to port, before I can begin
    adding features. But that time will come.

    Using FD term in DOSBox gets me disconnected on most Telnet BBSs
    because they 'detect a port scanner', which I'm certainly not
    using. In a BBS that doesn't use such a detection, I can move
    around as I used to, but there's no way to get anything via
    ZModem. The ZModem transfer screen pops up, but it's unable to
    transfer a single block.

    Have you tried Janis Kracht's system(s)? Or Mark Lewis?

    Have you tried other FOSSILs?


    -joho

    ---
    * Origin: reboot.defsol.com (2:20/4609)
  • From Conrad J. Koehler@2:292/854.200 to mark lewis on Sun Sep 24 11:55:11 2017
    Hi Mark!

    you can give my system a try... i do have IDS/IPS monitoring so you may be blocked if your setup does initiate several connection attempts at once... while we're talking about frontdoor and file transfers in the terminal, the problam may very well be on the BBS side with whatever zmodem engine they are using... IIRC, my BBS offers more than one zmodem implementation... see how one works and change to another if needed...

    That's what I need! :-) Thanks!
    Will talk back to you if I should fail to connect.

    Before I put everything together, I better check the general feesibility.
    Had 3 or 4 ZModem implementations in the old days as well, in some aspects behaving wildly different, especially concerning error correction on bad lines and high cps counts.

    Cheers,

    ius
    --- AfterShock/Android 1.6.5
    * Origin: .-==o[# R o B O t S - B B S #]o==-. (2:292/854.200)
  • From Conrad J. Koehler@2:292/854.200 to Conrad J. Koehler on Sun Sep 24 11:45:54 2017
    Hi JoHo! :)

    machines, kept screen line #25 free for payload and had a mostly error-free interpretation of AVATAR codes.

    Hmmm ... which part did I miss? I worked closely with Stanislav to get this stuff properly implemented, but maybe I forgot something?

    Aw, I really don't remember fully.
    But we were excessively doing ANSIs, converted them to .AVTs, and what I remember is that it got it better than Terminate and other AVT capable terminals. Terminate and other programs (ZOC? Telemate?....?) sometimes failed when there were cursor relocation commands, e.g. to force the cursor to a specific location in a login screen and change parts of the screen without redrawing.

    And, it is always related to the ANSI painting program that needs a proper implementation, too. We sysops usually used TheDraw while our ANSI artist used something newer that allowed multi-page-ANSIs.. don't remember that tool's name
    right now either.. anyway, we had to test all those more complicated screens/parts of screens/animations with multiple terminals.

    Actually, it does mean that. There's a lot of stuff to port, before I can begin adding features. But that time will come.

    No need to hurry, I think.
    Regarding FD Term, I can only think of one thing anyway, and that is... running
    it without a config. FD TERM 1 should do. :-D

    Have you tried Janis Kracht's system(s)? Or Mark Lewis?

    No, not yet, but I certainly will.
    But today, we have general elections, probably the most important elections since 1998. So.. later. :-)

    Have you tried other FOSSILs?

    Not yet either. Strangely, I'm not getting any display errors, only shortly before I enter a BBS I always see a couple of unusual characters. I'll try something else, but I remember with certainty that there was no other FOSSIL as
    smooth and compatible as ADF. I was running it in DOS windows in OS/2 and Win98
    and that worked just fine, very unlike X00 which seemed to invoke a lot of magic with little effect... but I'll try! :)

    Cheers,

    ius
    --- AfterShock/Android 1.6.5
    * Origin: .-==o[# R o B O t S - B B S #]o==-. (2:292/854.200)
  • From Joaquim Homrighausen@2:20/4609 to Conrad J. Koehler on Mon Sep 25 17:38:04 2017
    Hmmm ... which part did I miss? I worked closely with Stanislav to get
    this stuff properly implemented, but maybe I forgot something?

    Aw, I really don't remember fully.
    But we were excessively doing ANSIs, converted them to .AVTs, and
    what I remember is that it got it better than Terminate and other
    AVT capable terminals.

    Hmm ... OK. Well, it's not a the top of the list ATM, but I don't want to leave
    things undone! :)

    No need to hurry, I think.
    Regarding FD Term, I can only think of one thing anyway, and that
    is... running it without a config. FD TERM 1 should do. :-D

    There is actually a minor Terminal program called FDTT, it's nowhere near FD's terminal, but it does carry a lot less luggage too :)


    -joho

    ---
    * Origin: reboot.defsol.com (2:20/4609)