Bulletin Board for PCJr

[Chuckphd53]

Has anyone, currently, thought of or has running a bulletin board on the Jr.

It is strictly nostalgic of course, but I wonder if having one running could offer the Jr users a vehicle to grab some specific software.

I cant think of any reason to do this seeing most files are on the net somewhere, but just seems like this 'should' be in place to have a showcase Jr BBS.

I ran a BBS in Houston back in '86 on my New JR $499, this is when they where discounting them to shut down the failed peanut.

Would you install Qmodem et al, and dial into a Jr BBS if there was one running ?

(I and looking at some Hayes modems to get this going Yes the wife thinks I am nuts... maybe so....

[jmetal88]

I wouldn't be able to dial in because I don't have home phone service, but I'd be interested in a telnet BBS if that's something that's doable.

[Chuckphd53]

ok good idear !

[jscrow]

I bought an external IBM 2400bps modem last year and have it setup on one my jrs ... it works great! There are still a few dial-ups out there to call into. I've been thinking about getting the RBBS software I purchased in the 80's up and running, but I have no idea if it will work.

[Chuckphd53]

my thought exactly, I just wanted a depository, where the Jr folks could upload and download software, so many times one of the folks has, 'that' software pkg and it is such a pain to burn to floppy, then mail....

But then I keep coming back to the "net', why use the Jr.... because it's fun.....pie int the sky ? maybe...

[Brutman]

I wrote BBS software that ran on the PCjr back in the mid 1980s. I never ran the BBS myself, but it did run for at least a year full time on a friend's machine.

Fast forward to 2007 or so. I started the mTCP project so that I could do a modern BBS on the PCjr, but over Telnet and TCP/IP instead of using dial-up. I wanted to be able to handle multiple concurrent connections via Ethernet and Telnet because putting together a modem bank is a pain, and quite frankly, very obsolete. Dial tones are rapidly disappearing, but TCP/IP networking is ubiquitous.

In 2010 I demonstrated a primitive Telnet BBS running on the PCjr. It handled concurrent connections and it had a message board, but it did not have a files area. After that I started on an FTP server. Now I have an FTP server, HTTP server, and a few other goodies that I can eventually combine together to make a Telnet BBS with file uploading and downloading capability.

It's stalled at the moment though. An FTP server or an HTTP server are complex. Combining all three functions together is not trivial.

Another thing that bothered me at the time was the hard drive requirement; I didn't want to leave a hard drive spinning all of the time. I think that problem is solved now; FLASH devices can cover that requirement. (I had been investigating the commands to spin down IDE devices when the machine was idle. It was just another problem to solve.)

So yes, a BBS would be cool. But not over dial-up ... that's going to be available to a very limited audience. Some day I'll have the time to dust off the telnet server code and add the FTP function to it, but that's going to take a lot of work. If I do that though it'll be a great showcase.

If you want something simpler now, my HTTP server runs fine on the Jr, and I've hosted most of the brutman.com static pages on it. I did not host the larger, multi-megabyte files because of disk space but for the usual software and drivers it would be fine.


Mike

[Chuckphd53]

Good insight Mike, I am offering to host the hardware, as I think after the holidays I need a new project, and this may be the right one.
Seems a lot of the Jr folks have some nice collections of software that others would like to try out, as well as Cartridges that I would like to start a library of the ROM images and get some Boards made, along with 3D printed cases, this gives the Jr group a real chance experience these software releases and also it helps the group interact and share knowledge again.
Maybe an aggressive task, but I think it will be an asset for sure...
chuck

[OldComputerGuy]

Would any version of Wildcat! run on the Jr?

[Chuckphd53]

I was also thinking RBBS might.....I have a copy and will test when time allows..

but I did get my original BBS I wrote in Pascal up and running 1200 baud
I could bump it up to 2400 , but will need to write the routines to monitor the Hayes modem response, not a big deal
time of course..

if anyone is interested in debugging the BBS, as I am sure there could be some issues as a USER goes thru
the menus etc.... let me know I can leave it running over the weekend.

I have it set up for UPLOADS and DOWNLOADS, using old style XMODEM protocol...
I think XTALK, QMODEM, and others would work fine....
but for now it is only 1200 baud, so this is a real Blast to the Past '(written in 1986, just for the JR)
the menu's are original and I have not changed very much so you would see the BBS as it actually ran in Houston, Tx in 1986...

anyone interested send me an email pcjr@terradock.com and I will be sure to get it up and running this weekend...

Chuck

[Brutman]

One of the problems with dial-up is modems ...

I don't have a single modern system with a modem; I'd have to buy a modern USB attached modem, or find an old one and use a USB to serial adapter. Definitely do-able, but not zero effort. (My original modems are all non-functional - they probably all need new capacitors now because they have not been powered on in 20 years, and the last time I tested them it was all bad.)

The bigger problem is my phone line. I have a voice over IP line which should work because it supports a FAX mode, but I've never been able to get a modem to work across it. It might be a problem with my modems but it's hard to believe that all of them were bad. (I wish I still had my copper line.)

Dial-up is fun. But Telnet is the way to go for most people.


Mike