Atari 8-bit related BBS(s)

[Xebec]

 

I would. Faster drive access, many new features, bug fixes, etc. It's also one of the easier upgrades

to do. Just determine whether you've got the 6 chip or 2 chip version and away you go.

 

The Mega STe's are the top of the line for the ST's. I still have a soft spot for the original 520 with no

drive (nostalgia) and the Mega ST (workhorse).

 

Will do - I guess 1.04 is the version to get?

 

Yes - my favorite is definitely the 520 with no floppy... it's a lot cleaner looking and a very striking design. The Mega STE purchase was.. well.. I always wanted one, the TT looks awesome, and oh yeah it's finally a ST with a built in accelerator!

[Tillek]

 

You have no idea how much I wish I still had my original BBS HDD . Unfortunately it was one of those weird combos where the mechanism died (ST277N?), and I put it on a shelf for a while.. Tried a few years later to stick a 85MB Seagate in there but could never get it working.. If I had the drives today (both of them) I'd actually pay someone to do the full data restoration but stuff happened and.. they're gone. Anything I had on floppy left when a "friend" borrowed by 1040ST and a box or two of disks and then.. disappeared.

 

The only thing I have from my ST BBS left software-wise is the serial # file to Space Empire Elite..

 

I do have my floppy for BBS Express 850 1.0 though.. (and PCBoard 14.2, 14.5.. )

 

Very nice on the TT! The TT would have been excellent (albeit $$) for a multi line BBS.. Do you run standard TOS on these machines?

Not to get too far off topic....

 

I do run standard TOS on the BBS machine and so far I only ran tos on the others (I have a pair of Falcons, a STacy and a whole stack of Mega ST's among others). I just got the Thunder/Storm for the TT, so I'll be installing that soon and I got a ton of 1gb CF cards, so I'll be doing multiple OS's. When I got the TT, he already had Geneva and Magic on it, so I played with that. I also have a sealed original copy of Minix... So basically, I plan to install a different OS on each of the CF cards and have a big data card.

 

But for the BBS's, it's all vintage all the way. Mine is still running the original HD from back in the 90's. I'm thinking of getting a bigger one (and making it internal). I just have to see if I can do the mod for the MSTE SCSI controller to run a drive that big.

[+bf2k+]

Thanks for the update. I meant to ask you, since the Carina one isn't really permanent, do you even want it appearing in a BBS list? (Your call)

 

Sure... leave it on there with the disclaimer that it isn't always online.

[Tillek]

 

Sure... leave it on there with the disclaimer that it isn't always online.

Roger that.

[Kyle22]

My keyboard is installed, and I have already improved the appearance of several things.

 

broadway1.lorexddns.net/23

[Tillek]

My keyboard is installed, and I have already improved the appearance of several things.

 

broadway1.lorexddns.net/23

Schweet..... I look forward to calling later.

[+DarkLord]

 

Will do - I guess 1.04 is the version to get?

 

Yes - my favorite is definitely the 520 with no floppy... it's a lot cleaner looking and a very striking design. The Mega STE purchase was.. well.. I always wanted one, the TT looks awesome, and oh yeah it's finally a ST with a built in accelerator!

 

Yes, when you take your machine apart, see if it has the 6 chip or 2 chip TOS version and buy accordingly.

 

It's usually just a matter of switching the old TOS chips out for the new ones. Just make sure you keep your

pins straight and chip orientation correct.

 

Piece of cake usually.

[Kyle22]

I have added message bases for every topic we can't discuss here.

 

Security is relaxed FOR NOW.

 

Let's get some good discussion going.

 

I will end up having all possible message bases (1-30) Plus E-Mail in use. Stay tuned for updates.

 

Edit: Press Z at the main command prompt for "News you won't see on TV". Capture the text with BobTerm ( or whatever) and load it into a fine Word Processor such as The Last Word. That will properly format it, creating the word wraps and all.

 

Suggestions?

Edited July 28, 2017 by Kyle22

[Kyle22]

I just found a major security hole in the BBS. It is fixed now. Please make sure you can still access everything you want to.

 

Existing users have access to (almost) all areas. New users will be limited to the first two message bases (General and Atari Stuff) until they request access to the "other" areas.

 

broadway1.lorexddns.net/23

 

Edit: If you are offended in any way by an area that you have access to, please ask me to hide that area from you.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Kyle22

[Kyle22]

OK, one last addition for tonight. New message base called Phreaking Phonez! There is a message in there that tells you how to get FREE PREMIUM CABLE CHANNELS on your Android device. Fire Stick included.

 

It even works on my cheap LG phone.

 

Sorry, not for iOS.

[+Stephen]

I'll check it out when I get home tonight.

[Tillek]

Just FYI....

 

Last night I was re-arranging the furniture to re-do the "Command Center".

 

When I tried to bring SFHQ back up... White screen on the MSTE.

 

When I tried to bring my main machine back up... "Windows Update".

 

So as of tonight, the Windows update stuff is done (so the proxy server for fTelnet is back up again for the BBS's that use it).

 

But SFHQ is still down...... It was my intention to return it to the original Mega STE (that was my main machine that ran the BBS in the 90's!) that was in storage that ran it in the 90's (and that is booting!!!!!!!)... but it's filthy and needs a good cleaning and battery replacement.

 

So the proxy is back up, but SFHQ is still down until I give its new home a good scrub down (and replace the battery - which I have). (Then I'll figure out what's up with the other MSTE4).

 

I haven't put The Adventurer's Guild (A8 Carina) back up since I've been doing the "focus on one thing at a time" principle..... Hopefully that will be back up tomorrow.

[JohnPolka]

Tillek: Hope your BBS returns soon. I am really enjoying both of them (SFHQ and TVAG).

 

All: There's a heat wave happening in Portland Oregon through Friday evening. So the Basement will have periods of downtime through Friday evening. The BBS is in a non-air conditioned room. I will do my best to have it up in the evenings through mid-morning during this time.

 

-JP

[Tillek]

Tillek: Hope your BBS returns soon. I am really enjoying both of them (SFHQ and TVAG).

 

All: There's a heat wave happening in Portland Oregon through Friday evening. So the Basement will have periods of downtime through Friday evening. The BBS is in a non-air conditioned room. I will do my best to have it up in the evenings through mid-morning during this time.

 

-JP

It will probably be down until the weekend. The Mega STE that was running the BBS only has a white screen on bootup (not sure why but re-seating the chips didn't help). The ethernec had fallen on the floor and when I opened it up today it looked like it came a little loose... I'm hoping that's not the problem).... I might play around with it this weekend.

 

The Mega STE that originally ran the BBS back in the day (that I had been planning to swap out so it was running the BBS again) works! I plugged it in and fired it up and all was good. However, it's totally filthy. I started taking it completely apart tonight but it's going to really require some good cleaning inside and out. That probably isn't happening until the weekend. On the good side though, I do have the replacement batteries for that so I can set the BBS to reboot at night which should make it even more stable (though it's been running pretty great since putting it back on the Mega STE).

 

I just hope I didn't trash the other Mega STE.

 

TVAG is fine as far as I know but I kept it disassembled until I get SFHQ back up so I have some room to work.

 

How hot is the heat wave getting? When my AC was out it was getting pretty oven like in here and I had the BBS and my PC running fine.

[JohnPolka]

How hot is the heat wave getting? When my AC was out it was getting pretty oven like in here and I had the BBS and my PC running fine.

 

It got up to 103 yesterday and it's expected to get up to 106 today. It was in the low 90s in the room where the BBS is located yesterday.

[+bf2k+]

 

It got up to 103 yesterday and it's expected to get up to 106 today. It was in the low 90s in the room where the BBS is located yesterday.

 

I have the same problem here. No AC in the room where the BBS runs. I am planning to remedy that before next year.

[JohnPolka]

 

I have the same problem here. No AC in the room where the BBS runs. I am planning to remedy that before next year.

 

In the Pacific NW, many houses do not have AC because you really only need it a few times each year. But I may have to remedy it too. Although we are talking about moving, so we probably will just hold off and find a new house with AC.

 

I was a lot more gung-ho back in the day when it came to running the BBS in hot conditions. I ran it in a Basement (hence the name) of a non-air conditioned house. However, the Basement could still get warm during a heat wave. I would run the MIO with its cover off and with a small box fan blowing on it. Since getting a job in the computer industry, I've seen lots of machines die due to excessive heat. It's amazing how hot a computer lab can get when the AC fails. So, I don't fool around with the heat anymore.

[moonlight_mile]

 

In the Pacific NW, many houses do not have AC because you really only need it a few times each year. But I may have to remedy it too. Although we are talking about moving, so we probably will just hold off and find a new house with AC.

 

I was a lot more gung-ho back in the day when it came to running the BBS in hot conditions. I ran it in a Basement (hence the name) of a non-air conditioned house. However, the Basement could still get warm during a heat wave. I would run the MIO with its cover off and with a small box fan blowing on it. Since getting a job in the computer industry, I've seen lots of machines die due to excessive heat. It's amazing how hot a computer lab can get when the AC fails. So, I don't fool around with the heat anymore.

Many of the late 2000s and early 201x MacBooks all died due to heat problems. (Of course I had two of the models but I just had my current one fixed instead of dropping 3k on an underpowered computer).

 

Now, I baby my laptops and all my other computers. (Not that I didn't before).

[JohnPolka]

If you're in Portland, Oregon, stop by the Rose City Atari Club meeting tonight at the Stadium Fred Meyer (100 NW 20th Pl, Portland, OR 97209). Around 7pm, I'll be demo'ing my BBS running on native hardware (which is cool since the real BBS runs on an emulator). We will be in the Overlook Room, 2nd floor, above the Deli.

 

With any luck, I'll recruit a few more BBS users for our community. We need more locals (not locos) on the Basement BBS.

 

-JP

[JohnPolka]

The hottest part of the heat wave is over so The Basement (basementbbs.ddns.net:9000) is back up without interruption until further notice.

[Kyle22]

The hottest part of the heat wave is over so The Basement (basementbbs.ddns.net:9000) is back up without interruption until further notice.

I was just on it a few minutes ago. It's fast.

 

There seems to be something with the message editor dropping characters (or something). I sent you feedback about it.

 

Edit: That's why my BBS was down for the last half-hour or so.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Kyle22

[JohnPolka]

I was just on it a few minutes ago. It's fast.

 

There seems to be something with the message editor dropping characters (or something). I sent you feedback about it.

 

Edit: That's why my BBS was down for the last half-hour or so.

 

I am running on an emulator with hardware acceleration enabled. That's why it's fast. Although I did demo it on native hardware last night and the speed was pretty good too. I was running a stock Atari 800XL, 1 Meg MIO, and SIO2SD for the storage. Most of the command modules were on the 1 meg Ramdisk. The SIO2SD's high speed setting needed to be dialed down to the slowest setting for SpartaDos to behave. After doing all of that, It was still as fast as I remembered it back in the day.

 

Thanks for the feedback about the message editor. I just tried it and it was fine for me. Perhaps I need more information from you. Were you logged in under ATASCII or ANSI? 40 or 80 columns?

 

Feel free to PM me.

 

-JP

[Kyle22]

ANSI 80 using ICE-T.

[JohnPolka]

ANSI 80 using ICE-T.

 

Try it again at your convenience. There may have been a background task on the host or something that affected the network connection.

[Tillek]

SFHQ is back up-ish.

 

I got it moved to the original Mega STE (the one it had been on suffered from some issues after I turned it back on)... This is where I wanted it to be anyway.

 

I'm still a little wary of it because it was giving me some issues after I cleaned it (not finding the hard drive) and it's been sitting in storage for awhile, so I'll be taking it offline when I leave for work in the morning and leave it up during the evening and overnight.

 

On the other hand, when I opened the power supply, it looked pristine... all the caps looked good and and was amazingly clean except for a little dust.