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Any BBS sysops around?

My BBS was called nibbelbox. Operated early 90's and pretty big. 25 lines and some GB of software, pictures etc.
It was the time most people got maybe 20-40 MB hard disks. My uncompressed file list was 20+ MB long.
I used my own fossil driver and wrote my own graphic interface for a BBS.
With Novell and several server my software was able to mount drives as soon as a user requested a file.
Unfortunately I can't find ANY backup. Even no screenshot.
Some thousand users used it but it was too much work and very costly.
fido node 2:241/5302
 
achimhb said:
My BBS was called nibbelbox. Operated early 90's and pretty big. 25 lines and some GB of software, pictures etc.
It was the time most people got maybe 20-40 MB hard disks. My uncompressed file list was 20+ MB long.
I used my own fossil driver and wrote my own graphic interface for a BBS.
With Novell and several server my software was able to mount drives as soon as a user requested a file.
Unfortunately I can't find ANY backup. Even no screenshot.
Some thousand users used it but it was too much work and very costly.
fido node 2:241/5302
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Attached are a couple of screenshots of mine as it was online in 1988/1989. It was nowhere near as impressive as others mentioned here. In fact it seems I've misremembered when it went offline. I thought it was due to the hard disk crash but an announcement I found said that the crash happened in February and I've copies of Mike Focke's BBS list that show it was online still into the fall. So obviously it stayed online until I moved again.
 

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I ran a tiny BBS in my mid teens. A dedicated phone line was expensive in the UK and beyond my means so it used ringback - don't know if anyone remembers this concept?
A BBS caller would let the phone ring once or twice, hang up and call back whereupon the modem would take the call.
Setting the whole thing up and tinkering with it was a lot of fun.
 
Hello to all you sysops,

After all that is said and done.......I have a question from you all:

Is there any practical use for a BBS today?


ziloo :mrgreen:
 
Yup, I ran a Multi-Player Gaming / Shareware BBS running MajorBBS / WorldGroup with a DMA Server and (24) 56K Modems and an ISDN Line - 36 CD-ROM's - MADM Gaming Server - Sirius Software Game Connection - MajorMUD - T-LORD and more, more, more.
 
I think for a practical purpose, not just for nostalgia or as a display, the main reason would be if a group didn't want the message traffic and files to be out on the 'net. Whether it be something like a camp where it allowed the exchange of things without the connection to the outside world or whatever. If the BBS supported download the QWK offline message packets users didn't even need to stay online to go thru new messages.
 
cchaven said:
I think for a practical purpose, not just for nostalgia or as a display, the main reason would be if a group didn't want the message traffic and files to be out on the 'net. Whether it be something like a camp where it allowed the exchange of things without the connection to the outside world or whatever. If the BBS supported download the QWK offline message packets users didn't even need to stay online to go thru new messages.
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While that does make sense there's always encryption, e.g., PGP, etc., to ensure complete security of online conversations and the like. And this is while still availing all the inherent speed and convenience we're so used to.
 
Stone said:
While that does make sense there's always encryption, e.g., PGP, etc., to ensure complete security of online conversations and the like. And this is while still availing all the inherent speed and convenience we're so used to.
Click to expand...

It was meant more as just an example of what such a setup might be used for, answering the question, not necessarily something that would be a widespread use.

As has been shown by the successful hacker attacks on banks and online services such as Yahoo. encryption doesn't always keep malicious hackers out. Data connected to the 'net isn't secure. So the most secure systems would be ones not connected to it. Add that a great many people in the US at least no longer have landlines nor have use for a modem. A small network of modem based BBS systems then look rather secure for exchanging things.

As an aside, you should see the antique telephone guys go on about VoIP and lack of landlines.
 
ziloo said:
This is what Google found about "Intertube":

View attachment 42302

Chuck......is that your pooch....
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Aw, c'mon, it wasn't that long ago (2006) that the then-senator Ted Stevens said:

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
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Tubes, man, get with the times! (Although, the "big truck" analogy escapes me at the moment...) ;)
 
cchaven said:
As has been shown by the successful hacker attacks on banks and online services such as Yahoo. encryption doesn't always keep malicious hackers out..
Click to expand...
Ahemmm... please, don't take statements out of context. I did not say 'encryption' as a stand alone descriptor. I specifically said... 'PGP' which is something that is way beyond the capabilities of the average hacker.

I really doubt any geared-up professional hackers would be the least bit interested in gathering up something as non-profitable or uninteresting as some camp info or anything even remotely similar'. :) :) :)
 
Stone said:
I really doubt any geared-up professional hackers would be the least bit interested in gathering up something as non-profitable or uninteresting as some camp info or anything even remotely similar'.
Click to expand...

One might think that, but we live in the age of Really Big Data, so there are probably outfits who want to suck up every bit of data available and use it for profiling you. The net result may be that they know more about you than you do.

O brave new world
That has such people in't!

--"The Tempest", Act 5, Scene 1
 
Chuck(G) said:
One might think that, but we live in the age of Really Big Data, so there are probably outfits who want to suck up every bit of data available and use it for profiling you.
Click to expand...
For someone to be able to conflate user dribble on a BBS with CC data or anything else of real value is certainly a stretch, at the least. IMO, it would be way more work to do this than to just extract and cash in on the actual CC data itself! :)
 
I was a BBS user for far longer than I was a sysop...and in fact met my wife of 30 years on a local board...but as much as I enjoyed the scene in the 80's and early 90's I'll admit that it's another of those things that is quickly fading into the past. As I mentioned in a previous post, even it's infrastructure of landlines and modems is quickly disappearing. While collections such as Aminet have replaced the local BBS as a file depository, forums such as this have replaced Usenet and the local BBS message bases for discussion and interaction. This forum is the direct descendant and heir to the old dialup BBS. It was a fun ride though!
 
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