Let’s Make a DOS BBS in a offensively modern way
Let’s Make a DOS BBS in a offensively modern way
#Lets #DOS #BBS #offensively #modern
“RetroBytes”
They said it could not be done, or was that should not be done. Its time to build a MSDOS based BBS, but instead of just slapping DOS on an old PC, and connecting a modem or two. Lets do this in the most offensively modern way possible.
To others Kubernetes DevOps type who thing you can’t use Kuberenetes for legacy work loads, you’re going to be annoyed at the very least.
This video is sponsored by www.pcbway.com
The 2nd channel can be found at
Here is a link the to github page for the renegade docker image I used
00:00 – Intro
00:15 – A Word from our sponsors
00:39 – What is a BBS
05:16 – How does a BBS work
13:15 – Lets get modern (containers)
23:51 – Kubernetes
26:56 – Build a server install Kubernetes
31:30 – Ceph, lets store some files
38:09 – Doors
42:38 – Lets make a helm chart
49:03 – Dial in and modems
53:17 – fTelnet
55:28 – Fidonet
58:13 – Thanks
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This makes me happy 😉 Instant subscription!
Kubernetes – for when you really want your tech stack to be a rube-goldberg machine that just shoots itself for fun every once in a while.
56k views!
you're easily in my top three favorite computer youtube channels. you're a great storyteller!
I ran a BBS called "Boondocks" back in the day. It had an Amiga, Console, and an AscII section. IF I'm not mistaking, the board had a C64 section also. It ran on 6 nodes eventually. It started with a USR 14K4 HST and eventually each node ran on a USRobotics Dual Standard v34 56k.
I had the time of my life back then running the BBS. People from all over the world called constantly and within no time it became (one of) the fastest board(s) in the world. Poeple called with Calling Cards, Credit Cards, PBXs, BlueBoxing and/or hacked lines, and many foreigners even called normally because they wanted to download/upload a release as fast as possible. Man, those days were the best days in my life. I miss it so very much.
offensively modern? LOL. this is obnoxiously modern.
Is the telnet address for the BBS going to be posted? I've been checking the second channel and haven't seen the video yet showing the address. Thanks!
FIDONet was for communication, BBSes were for WAREZ.
Who wants to spend connection time to read messages with a bad user interface and busy phone line, if you can download the same messages packed quickly and read them in the best mail client of them all (even today) GoldEd!
One of my mates (sadly passed 30 years ago) was very smart. He ran Beerhunter II bbs on 050/059 not Fido. He bought a C++ bible, and a copy of C++, and started writing Fido<–>Qwk mail conversion.
I was on Demon dial up. Shame they got screwed over by the big boys.
I was around when bbs's were a thing. Used a 300 baud modem and upgraded to a 1200 baud (4x faster) soon after. Yes I even ran a BBS Used a software called RAbbs, and was also a Fido Net hub as well.
had way too long a nap after work so its 3am and I'm watching this and as someone who made their first working dockerfile literally days ago i feel like i have been given a glimpse into the highest echelons of the dark arts i am just starting to dabble in
Sitting on the Docker the Bay….
superb work, John!
Was it Ymodem or Zmodem that introduced the ability for the remote machine to initiate the transfer? I know for sure Xmodem would always pause before transmission, and I had to then use an option in the terminal to tell it that it was about receive Xmodem data.
I didn't use bulletin boards much–and never directly dialed into one–but I did have a Unix shell as my first form of Internet access. I even at one point had a local web browser that used a Unix Shell and lynx/links to download the files.
Honestly wasn't expecting a video about creating a BBS to include one of the most comprehensive explanations of containers I've ever seen on youtube
I didnt know what any of this stuff was before the start of the video and honestly? in the end? i still don't. Great video though!!
Obnoxious amount of knowledge. My head hurts now…
This is a wonderful video.
Almost all BBSs for me were long distance in rural America. So I could only connect after 10 PM when rates were low and the parents were in bed. Good old Z-Capture to pull down some "Demos" 🙂🏴☠
Awww DOS dude? Amiga has the ultimate software. /X. I have mine in the cupboard ready to rise from all the junk that I put on top of it last year. Has both modem and telnet access and is smoking fast with the bliz 1260 that's cooking inside it (literally). 😉
I remember going to the public library with a mate and using the connected BBC computers and going on Prestelnet al. The librarians were clueless as we downloaded all manner of illicit software and ran them up a bill on the oay per page sites. 🤣
everyone always asks "y modem" but never "how modem" and i'm glad you're here to teach them.
Back in the 80's my favorite BBS software was called Red Ryder by Scott Watson for the Mac. I think I still have a hard copy of the manual laying around here somewhere.
This was an awesome overload of information. Really enjoyed the retro application to modern overlap. Back in the day (early 90’s) I ran a mustang bbs.
Always wanted to “revive” the old style feel of it with modern stacks.
"in an"
I literally never comment, but I just want to say that I'm in the U.S. and firmly believe that pronouncing it "Kooberneets" (or "Cuberneets") is horrible.
Never thought about a "cloud native dialup BBS"! Great video as always
I do have a question about how "this even works". As a BBS probably worked on a system that was 16 bit so it could only run a very minimal system.
I really would like to know how you figured out a way to scale it up?
I guess I'm one of those people who think Docker/containers and Kubernetes has a place in modern HA computing. Like anything not everything works well in containers, nor can be deployed via Kubernetes….
…I still enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work!
The only BBS that I used was by fish wildlife and parks. I actually did manually type out ATDT+ and the number each time to log in
Came for DOS BBS, stayed for devops 101 and then some
Oh my god I'd forgotten about doors and you had to to bury that bit behind ten hours of Kubernetes and Ceph
What are you gonna do next, UUCP email on WASM
I don't exactly know how this ended up in my recommended since I'm a tad too young to have experienced BBS (I was born in 1990 and didn't become aware that computers could comunicate to each other until my dad introduced me to the internet around 97 or 98) and most of the Kubernetes stuff went right over my head but I'm glad I watched this whole thing since it was quite interesting and I learned a number of things, for example I think I finally grasped what containers and docker are.
This project does seem to be some serious overkill for the scope of what it's supposed to do but I can see why you go with this approach, it just seems fun to mess around with these many layers and have it all work exactly how you want it to do so, specially if you already had all that hardware and didn't have to buy anything.
Happy to be part of a very small overlap.
Bravo! BBS users put on the best picnics.
it could be used in these times as a medieval electronic punishment machine, – unruly spoilt brats could be made to use That alone with a DOS ONLY machine… – also, they could be forced to use GWBASIC to devise All solutions from word processing to spreadsheets ……. – they could also be made to create batch files as well as machine code programming…..
I am in the overlap.
I’m much more a Kubernetes type. This was a fascinating look into the history of internetwork computing. Thank you. Would love to learn more about Fido net. And gopher
One thing not mentioned is that zmodem included something that even some flipping ftp servers, at one time, refused to even support – "Resume download from point of failure." The only thing more freaking annoying than not having this back when you were downloading several files, up to a few hundred K, over a slow connection was having a crap connection to an ftp server, trying to download or update a multi-MB game and having the flipping server start over at the first data block every single bloody time, because the company/individual that created/hosted it set their ftp server as, "do not allow resumable downloads."
Nobody:
Retrobytes: let's make a BBS
Great video!
If only the Doom reboot had a shareware demo we could host on this thing! Though if it did, the filesize might be unreasonably large.
Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer
FOSSIL driver FTW!
Fabulous video, BBSes were a thing I could never afford to get into, but looked at enviously from outside with my nose pressed against the glass of the window. These days spend a lot of my time in the trenches with docker. Overlap is almost certainly larger than you think.
Thank you , just finished watching hoping for a part two
Very interesting!
This was an awesome breakdown and description of how to get things working.
I think the only thing I would add is a hypervisor under your k3s layer so that you can run all of this on multiple "nodes" (VMs) on the same box, allowing you to scale up the physical hardware count later with minimal configuration.