Re: Where's the junk coming from?

2018-06-27 Thread Avon
On 06/27/18, Cameron Simpson pondered and said...
 
 CS> On 25Jun2018 18:37, Mark Lawrence  wrote:
 CS> >More of the flaming things, this time name@1261/38.remove-ij1-this.  Any 
 CS> >as I don't understand this stuff?
 CS> 
 CS> Looks like a FIDONET gateway leaking somehow. I've made an enquiry to a
 CS> possible source for the message, we'll see what transpires.
 CS> 
 CS> Cheers,
 CS> Cameron Simpson 

Hey Cameron,

Apologies for this. I have contacted the Fido system connected to the gateway
I run into news.bbs.nz and have asked them to urgently sort / check what's
up. If I don't get any joy from them within the next 24 hours I will delink
them so as to negate further probs.

My hunch is a BBS (yes they still exist :)) is taking a gated feed of this
newsgroup and is linked to more than one gateway so stuff is looping... not
good.

Stand by caller... we're working on this now.

Best, Paul
newsmaster [at] news dot bbs dot nz

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Re: Where's the junk coming from?

2018-06-28 Thread Avon
On 06/28/18, Tim Golden pondered and said...
 
 TG> (Wearing my List Moderator hat)
 TG> 
 TG> Thanks very much for addressing this for us, and to Cameron and others
 TG> who did the detective work. I admit I assumed at first it was some kind
 TG> of odd attack perhaps related to a dissatisfied poster so I'm glad it
 TG> was a misconfiguration issue.

Hi Tim.

You're most welcome. I try to jump on anything amiss as soon as I know about
it. At the time of posting this reply I have not re-linked the node with the
issue to my NNTP server but will likely do so in a few more days time. I just
want to give him some time to sort his end out first :)

Best wishes from New Zealand

Cheers, Paul.

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Re: [OT] Why are BBSes? [was Where's the junk coming from?]

2018-06-28 Thread Avon
On 06/28/18, Grant Edwards pondered and said...
 
 GE> OK, I've got to ask...
 GE> Why are there still BBSes?
 GE> 
 GE> Who even has a modem these days?  [OK, I'll admit my 11 year old
 GE> Thinkpad T500 has a built-in POTS modem, but it's never been used.]

Hi Grant.

How long do you have? :)

Most BBS are connected using the internet these days and mostly run for fun,
nostalgic and curiosity reasons by former and new sysops. Most systems don't
enjoy the caller numbers of the heyday 1990s but rather are largely used by
the sysop to engage in message networks and the BBS community that exists in
2018.

I was a former sysop in my 20s in the 1990s and got back in to it around
2013. What I have found is that the scene is again growing, mostly due to
nostalgia, but also out of a desire to escape big-brother social media e.g
Facebook.

People also like the simple UI for reading messages etc.

As to the how... well, messages / files etc. are now largely sent via the
internet not POTS (plain old telephone) and BinkP is a popular protocol using
port 24554.

BBS software is still under active development by a few authors who have kept
their offerings in step with 2018. So I use Mystic BBS (mysticbbs.com) and
you will see it offers a bunch of services and runs on Linux, Windows,
Raspberry Pi. I also run a message network called fsxNet (fun, simple,
experimental network) that has nodes in USA, New Zealand, Europe, Asia etc.
you can find out more by heading to bbs.nz or download an infopack at
bbs.nz/fsxnet.zip. Lastly info about setting up Mystic can be found on a
YouTube channel I set up called Mystic Guy (there ends the sales pitch :))

Other developers of BBS software active in 2018 include Synchronet BBS, now
offerings including Magicka BBS, Enigma1/2 BBS... and WWIV is still about too.

Hope that helps, perhaps intrigues you further. I'm happy to answer any
questions and/or offer support to folks interested in this stuff. Python is
being added to Mystic as a scripting tool by the author at the moment so this
newsgroup / mail list is of interest to a bunch of folks :)

Best, Paul

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Re: Where's the junk coming from?

2018-06-29 Thread Avon
On 06/29/18, Mark Lawrence pondered and said...
 
 ML> As the person who started this thread I'll add my thanks for trying to
 ML> sort things.  Nothing last night is a good start :-)

Thanks Mark... you're welcome :)

Best, Paul

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Python BBS (and more)

2017-03-20 Thread Avon
Hi all.

Just a FYI that a new Wiki has been started at wiki.bbs.geek.nz which aims to
provide helpful information to bulletin board system (BBS) developers and
users.

It's a work in progress with a growing number of contributors that include
tutorials related to coding a BBS using Python and another using Crystal.

There are also links to other open source and closed source BBS platforms
under active development in 2017

The FTN style network that is sponsoring these efforts and being used as a
place for online discussions (echoarea FSX_BBS) is called fsxNet. If you
would like to know more visit bbs.geek.nz or grab an infopack at
bbs.geek.nz/fsxnet.zip

Best, Paul

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Re: Where's the junk coming from?

2018-06-28 Thread Kerr Avon
On Wed, 27 Jun 2018 21:43:12 +1200, Avon wrote:

> Hey Cameron,
> 
> Apologies for this. I have contacted the Fido system connected to the
> gateway I run into news.bbs.nz and have asked them to urgently sort /
> check what's up. If I don't get any joy from them within the next 24
> hours I will delink them so as to negate further probs.
> 
> My hunch is a BBS (yes they still exist :)) is taking a gated feed of
> this newsgroup and is linked to more than one gateway so stuff is
> looping... not good.
> 
> Stand by caller... we're working on this now.
> 
> Best, Paul newsmaster [at] news dot bbs dot nz

Yep confirming I found the issue lay with the sysop of a BBS that connects 
to the gateway linked to news.bbs.nz

I have delinked him while he addresses the issue (which he has found) and 
we will leave him delinked for a few more days to be sure.

If anyone spots anything amiss that looks like it's coming in from 
news.bbs.nz please feel free to contact me again and I'll get right on to 
it.

Apologies for the hassles.

Best, Paul



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