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BBS: The Documentary (2005)

bbsdocumentary.com

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Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#41

Post by tjohns »

nullc wrote: post #39
divbzero wrote: post #8

Are there places where BBS is still in active use?

A few years back I realized I had a non-used landline due to DSL and I thought it would be fun to try to log into every BBS remaining in the country. I picked up a nice external courier modem from weird stuff for a couple dollars and started dialing. I was thwarted by two factors, one is that the vast majority of the numbers I could find were now answered by humans who I felt bad for bothering. The other was the appa…

Now I'm wondering:

1) Can you get a digital line to support 56k BBS hosting anymore?

2) Can you even get an analog copper line from AT&T for outbound calling? (I know the FCC recently said carriers aren't required to offer it anymore.)

3) Absent either of the above, what's the best speed you can reliably do over VoIP, assuming G.711 / no compression?

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#42

Post by brianstorms »

epcoa wrote: post #34
brianstorms wrote: post #33

I still have the DVDs in shrink-wrap. Have never watched. The documentary has a glaring omission, not covering COCONET from Coconut Computing.

I was gonna say take it up with Jason. Looks like that has been done http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3415

It's a shame when a documentary series like this is made by someone with . . . issues.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#43

Post by nullc »

tjohns wrote: post #41
nullc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years back I realized I had a non-used landline due to DSL and I thought it would be fun to try to log into every BBS remaining in the country. I picked up a nice external courier modem from weird stuff for a couple dollars and started dialing. I was thwarted by two factors, one is that the vast majority of the numbers I could find were now answered by humans who I felt bad for bothering. The other was the appa…

Now I'm wondering: 1) Can you get a digital line to support 56k BBS hosting anymore? 2) Can you even get an analog copper line from AT&T for outbound calling? (I know the FCC recently said carriers aren't required to offer it anymore.) 3) Absent either of the above, what's the best speed you can reliably do over VoIP, assuming G.711 / no compression?

So I found the modem unreliable even with it constrained to lower speeds. I don't recall what I used, but I'd WAG it was V.32 (9600 bps) as that's the lowest speed that still has forward error correction (and also happens to be fast enough to be reasonable to use).

Maybe I also tried 1200? Not sure, as mentioned I also had the issue of accidentally harassing people.

I think in general the issue is that there is a jitter buffer and async clocking that causes timing slips that upset the modem. A sufficiently advanced(tm) demodulator could presumably handle it, but I can't control the remote side... There is a lot of text out there on getting fax to work right, but there are options for fax that don't apply to the general case of modems.

Very very few BBSes were _ever_ 56k. V.90 eliminates the extra low resolution A->D stage from the provider to the user by having the provider connect digitally (via ISDN PRI or T1). So in the downstream direction the only A->D stage is in the users modem and can be higher resolution, so all codewords are reachable.

33.6k BBSes and 28.8k (including in the async HST form) were certainly a thing.

By the time technology for 56k was available (1998?) we were well into the internet access age, and the monthly cost for a PRI or T1 was well out of budget for all except the largest BBSes (many of which were transitioning or had transitioned to be ISPs by that point in any case).

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#45

Post by Bayaz »

DonHopkins wrote: post #22
themew wrote: post #6

The day I was able to upgrade my 'shoebox' 110 baud modem to a 300 baud modem was the day I thought "I'll never need this kind of speed, but it's nice to have." Thanks for posting about this documentary. I ran a BBS from 1983-1986 on a Commodore 64, a 1200 baud modem and 5 1541 floppy drives. An amazing time for this technology.

Modems used to cost about a dollar per baud.

Rich folks with their 56k.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#46

Post by CWuestefeld »

Bayaz wrote: post #25

It’s surprising how much of this era has just disappeared. I recently searched around to see if I could find a few of the door games from my youth (Legends and Virtual SysOp) and there really isn’t much out there. Some games like Tradewars live on, but software for TBBS/TDBS is basically forgotten.

To relive a little nostalgia, check out "The Last Call BBS" game [1]. This is a collection of games framed as BBS online games, and very well done.

[1] https://zachtronics.com/last-call-bbs/

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#47

Post by leptons »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #31
leptons wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which BBS? I was on a lot of C64 BBSs. I actually built my own 300 baud modem for my C64 from electronic components I got at Radio Shack. I was kind of a nerdy kid.

Cool. Did you ever do a write up on how to do it, or know of one. I'm just curiuos, I assumed it was pretty involved.

A 300 baud modem was pretty simple actually, it was just a tone generator/decoder with digital controls. I think I used a simple PLL chip to decode the tones and probably 555 timers to generate tones. Anything faster than 300 baud was far more complex. I built it as a final project for an electronics class I was taking in like 1989 or something.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#48

Post by tbyehl »

epcoa wrote: post #34
brianstorms wrote: post #33

I still have the DVDs in shrink-wrap. Have never watched. The documentary has a glaring omission, not covering COCONET from Coconut Computing.

I was gonna say take it up with Jason. Looks like that has been done http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3415

They are that Brian. I went to work for a BBS software company straight out of high school and can't recall ever hearing of COCONET outside of this beef with Jason.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#49

Post by hollywood_court »

Bayaz wrote: post #25

It’s surprising how much of this era has just disappeared. I recently searched around to see if I could find a few of the door games from my youth (Legends and Virtual SysOp) and there really isn’t much out there. Some games like Tradewars live on, but software for TBBS/TDBS is basically forgotten.

I spent hundreds of hours playing Tradewars as a kid.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#50

Post by nickdothutton »

My USR HST 14.4 model was a gateway to another world, and as it turned out, a career. The SysOp discount encouraged me to start my own BBS. Somehow I don't think this marketing ploy is given enough significance. It was partly responsible for the explosion in BBS numbers.
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