Hello everyone - I ran my BBS with Mystic software for a couple of years and then for some reason I got bored with it and switched to Synchronet. After using Synchronet for a while, I began to appreciate Mystic more and more. For me, Synchronet has way too much crap on it and it is difficult to customize. With Mystic, it's easy t create new menus, put any command you want on them, and just customize the heck out of your BBS.

I am going to be sticking with Mystic now. The only thing I don't like is the difficulty I have finding doors that will work with a 64-bit computer, I want to have lots of fun games to play, so to solve this problem, I joined Doorparty. If you're not familiar with it, Doorparty is a free gaming network put together at Throwback BBS. With just a little bit of effort, you can connect your BBS to Doorparty and instantly have access to dozens of cool games. It's great and I highly recommend it. For info and instructions, go to:
http://throwbackbbs.com

... Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: The Unmarked Van - 21:1/130 - Mt. Healthy, Ohio (21:1/130)

Hi Alonzo,

You can install NTVDMx64 to get some 16bit applications running.

... Error, no Keyboard - Press F1 to Continue.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Wicked Garden BBS (21:1/999)

Hello everyone - I ran my BBS with Mystic software for a couple of years and then for some reason I got bored with it and switched to Synchronet. After using Synchronet for a while, I began to appreciate Mystic more and more. For me, Synchronet has way too much crap on it and it is difficult to customize. With Mystic, it's easy t create new menus, put any command you want on them, and just customize the heck out of your BBS.

I am going to be sticking with Mystic now. The only thing I don't like is the difficulty I have finding doors that will work with a 64-bit computer, I want to have lots of fun games to play, so to solve this problem, I joined Doorparty. If you're not familiar with it, Doorparty is a free gaming network put together at Throwback BBS. With just a little bit of effort, you can connect your BBS to Doorparty and instantly have access to dozens of cool games. It's great and I highly recommend it. For info and instructions, go to: http://throwbackbbs.com

32 bit vm or nt64vdm will allow you to run DOS doors. There are many 32 bit doors thst will work as well. BBSLink has ways of running specific doors,
too.

---
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp)
(ports 22, 23, 110, 21, 119) (ssh: login bbs password shsbbs)


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Hello everyone - I ran my BBS with Mystic software for a couple of years and then for some reason I got bored with it and switched to Synchronet. After using Synchronet for a while, I began to appreciate Mystic more
and more. For me, Synchronet has way too much crap on it and it is difficult to customize. With Mystic, it's easy t create new menus, put
any command you want on them, and just customize the heck out of your
BBS.

I quite enjoy Synchronet, but I too found it to be just a bit much more than it necessarily needed to be. Granted one could just not use features they don't want to but it felt weird to me just artifically crippling the experience. Like, I get having a ton of different server options, but I personally feel a BBS should be a bit more low-key. also, a few features aren't fully fleshed out (like Hotline support) and little quirks grew to annoy me to where I decided to give Mystic a go.

It still doesn't "feel" the same, having moved my board to Mystic over the past month, but I'm learning and taking advantage of some of the things that just seem easier in Mystic, to great success.

Still, I genuinely miss running my board on SBBS but, well, that's just how things go sometimes. Gotta pick my battles. The focus now is getting around to making those custom menu's and then promoting this place. Maybe I'll move back to SBBS in the future -- who knows. For now I'm just going with where the mystic winds take me...

______________
www.xadara.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Final Zone BBS - Memphis, TN - final-zone.net (21:3/122)

On 11 Mar 2024, Alonzo said the following...

Hello everyone - I ran my BBS with Mystic software for a couple of years and then for some reason I got bored with it and switched to Synchronet. After using Synchronet for a while, I began to appreciate Mystic more
and more. For me, Synchronet has way too much crap on it and it is difficult to customize. With Mystic, it's easy t create new menus, put
any command you want on them, and just customize the heck out of your
BBS.

What I tell anyone who runs a BBS and is trying different softwares is: You run what you want to run, IMO there is no software better then others, a BBS program does what the sysOp wants it to do. Mystic's menu system is extremely simple and adding new things to it and customizing it is outstanding. Synchronet on the other hand isn't really that hard to change menu's and customize them also. You just need to learn and understand the menu'ing system for that software. I have run both and both have served very good purposes for me. Let me say it this way. Both have a list of Pro's and Con's, in my eyes, neither Cons list is large. They both have great Pro's..

I am going to be sticking with Mystic now. The only thing I don't like
is the difficulty I have finding doors that will work with a 64-bit computer, I want to have lots of fun games to play, so to solve this problem, I joined Doorparty. If you're not familiar with it, Doorparty
is a free gaming network put together at Throwback BBS. With just a
little bit of effort, you can connect your BBS to Doorparty and
instantly have access to dozens of cool games. It's great and I highly recommend it. For info and instructions, go to: http://throwbackbbs.com

You can grab the NTVDM for 64bit machines to be able to run 16 bit doors on a 64 bit system. My board I had brain freeze on installing doors on Mystic (I just couldn't grasp the setup of them), so I took the easy way out, I built my own Game Server like Doorparty on a Synchronet Base because Synchronet Door setup is so simple even I could do it!! Another option is downgrading your Windows to a 32bit version, I run a Win 10 32bit version in a Virtual Machine for my Door Server, runs great and like I said super simple to add doors to..

Al

... Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

On 11 Mar 2024, Kurisu said the following...

Still, I genuinely miss running my board on SBBS but, well, that's just how things go sometimes. Gotta pick my battles. The focus now is getting around to making those custom menu's and then promoting this place.
Maybe I'll move back to SBBS in the future -- who knows. For now I'm
just going with where the mystic winds take me...

Nothing says you can't run 2 boards, 1 on SBBS and one on Mystic. I did that for a couple of years, and also had an Enigma board too... All done in VM's.. SBBS allows for a lot of stuff that can be brought over to the Mystic board. I have been considering modifying a SBBS to have a main menu of IRC, InterBBS chat, and whatever else fancies me at the time, and just RLOGIN into the BBS and literally make that menu part of my Mystic board. There is so much you can do..

Al

... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

Nothing says you can't run 2 boards, 1 on SBBS and

one on Mystic. I didI've heavily consi
dered that too, honestly. Really no harm
in doing such.Just more to manage but it isn
't like I can't pace myself in setting
thingsup on the new board.A
ctually for a short time I was planning on doing 2
boards, using Citadel formy other one
. Liked Citadel quite a bit but decided agai
nst it in the grandscheme.I mi
ght really look into going ahead and making a SBBS based boar
d on a *nixbased VPS while I cont
inue to hose Final Zone locally. Cou
ld VM it all locallyas well of course but I
dunno, something off site may prove useful....
Huh.. you may have helped inspire yet another cr
azy idea. Like I need anymore of tho
se :D
______________
www.xadara.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Final Zone BBS - Memphis, TN - final-zone.net (21:3/122)

Bucko wrote to Kurisu <=-

Nothing says you can't run 2 boards, 1 on SBBS and one on Mystic. I did that for a couple of years, and also had an Enigma board too... All
done in VM's.. SBBS allows for a lot of stuff that can be brought over
to the Mystic board. I have been considering modifying a SBBS to have a main menu of IRC, InterBBS chat, and whatever else fancies me at the

I did the reverse. I run SBBS as the main board, have Mystic running on the same machine (different ports). Opicron wrote a fantastic IRC client for Mystic...and I wanted to use it for my board. So, I did a little magic in the email validation script that, once validated, will create the user on Mystic via CLI command. I also use a CLI command to update the Mystic user just before they RLogin (in case they've changed their password on SBBS) so that
I'm passing their current password to Mystic. Mystic also allows you to change a users start menu via CLI, which is nice because if I decide to open the Mystic board up for regular 'callers', I can still use Opicron's IRC client
for SBBS.

It's your vision as the Sysop that ultimately determines how your board looks and feels. If having to use another BBS as a doorway to offer users a better experience, go for it!

CJ


... So easy, a child could do it. Child sold separately.
=== MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)

On 11 Mar 2024, Kurisu said the following...

Huh.. you may have helped inspire yet another crazy idea. Like I need any more of those :D

I'm good for that!!

... No honey, I can't eat with the family. My computer gets lonely!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

On 11 Mar 2024, CJ said the following...

It's your vision as the Sysop that ultimately determines how your board looks and feels. If having to use another BBS as a doorway to offer
users a better experience, go for it!

BINGO!!!! Beautifully said.. It's the sysOp's vision on all of this. I get bugs here and there, I wanted full cursor menus everywhere. I got the bug for it and did it. A lot of my vision back in the mid 90's went into Image BBS for the Commodore 64 when I was programming it. It's funny you mention using another BBS as a doorway, I do that with my website, I have a connection to a matrix menu on a Mystic base, you choose the BBS and it connects you to it.. I even went as far as using Mystic as a Front end to my C64 board I was using the bot checker to help with a bot issue I was having. That is until I figured out the C64 doesn't have a esc key!! LOL It sure worked though...

... If you can't make it good, make it LOOK good. -Bill Gates.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

I even went as far as using Mystic as a Front end
to my C64 board I was using the bot checker to help with
a bot issue I was having. That is until I figured out
the C64 doesn't have a esc key!! LOL It sure worked
though...

I bet that did a heck of a job of quieting things down! :)

Have you tried other solutions for bot connections? I have been running a 'telnet ringdown server' that I wrote to accept connections on one port and pass them off to any open port from a list (each node of my BBS listens on a different port). Immediately it was apparent that some protection against portscanning bots was needed, so I have implemented a check for malicious login attempts that triggers a temporary IP ban, and it has helped.

I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and what has worked and what hasn't worked. If I understand the Mystic bot checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc) within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login prompt - is this correct?


Chris/akacastor

--- Maximus 3.01
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and what has worked and what hasn't worked. If I understand the Mystic bot checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc)
within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login
prompt - is this correct?

So I'm relatively new to the construction and maintenance of a BBS system. I've been up and down a few times with my mystic setup and I to see the gate crashers getting banned too. I ended up setting the auto IP to some lower numbers and definitely use the human check via button sequence if you pass that gate.

99% of the actual traffic on my system is me... But remove SYSOP tinkering and it quickly becomes the ravenous bot army.

N2QFD

-------------
][ bst 73 ][
][ de N2QFD][
-------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)

On 13 Mar 2024, n2qfd said the following...

I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and w has worked and what hasn't worked. If I understand the Mystic bot checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc) within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login prompt - is this correct?

So I'm relatively new to the construction and maintenance of a BBS
system. I've been up and down a few times with my mystic setup and I to see the gate crashers getting banned too. I ended up setting the auto IP to some lower numbers and definitely use the human check via button sequence if you pass that gate.

i have a script that runs for prompt 000.. i replaced it with "!ascii" and
then created a mps script in my theme's script folder that's basically like:

Begin
DispFile('answer') // greeting screen.. this will show either the ansi one
// or ascii, so you could probably put the next message
// there if you wanted to
If Graphics = 0 then Begin // no ansi support detected
Write('|CR <spaces to center> ANSI REQUIRED USE SOMETHING ELSE');
HangUp;
Exit;
End;

Write('|PA'); // pause for people who have ansi support before:
DispFile('preuser'); // display ansi with input boxes or whatever
End;

the mystic line editor is so bad i don't think i'd even use mystic if i
wanted to run a board that supported ascii-only (i.e. absolutely no ansi codes).. but i'd implement the 'press <key> to continue' thing only for them.

not only does this catch absolutely everything, but they get banned in less time than the inactivity timeout they'd normally have to hit however many times in a row.. maybe 5 or 10 seconds.

unintentionally that big research database of internet hosts picks up that first screen and it shows cleanly on their website. not that normal people
go looking around on there for .. anything really. still kinda neat.

99% of the actual traffic on my system is me... But remove SYSOP
tinkering and it quickly becomes the ravenous bot army.

yeah i made it so i log in silently .. kinda feel bad for my one daily caller because my last callers screen is usually just a wall of his nickname :)

Alex

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

On 12 Mar 2024, AKAcastor said the following...

I bet that did a heck of a job of quieting things down! :)

Have you tried other solutions for bot connections? I have been running
a 'telnet ringdown server' that I wrote to accept connections on one
port and pass them off to any open port from a list (each node of my BBS listens on a different port). Immediately it was apparent that some protection against portscanning bots was needed, so I have implemented a check for malicious login attempts that triggers a temporary IP ban, and it has helped.

Actually, a friend of mine wrote a bot checker for me. Currently it is very rudementary, where all you do is hit // to get past it, but the final version will allow a LOT of different things to go on with the Image BBS for the 64.. InterBBS chatting is one thing, live weather updates, this all on a 1 line/modem computer. It is a full "modem"/front end for the C64. It's gonna be really hot for the Image BBS..

I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and what has worked and what hasn't worked. If I understand the Mystic bot checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc)
within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login
prompt - is this correct?

As I said in a previous post, the Mystic bot checker works great. About 2 years ago just about all of the C-Net Amiga BBS sysOp's were being attacked non stop (why I have no idea!) I got connected to over 1500 times in a 10 hour period, all 10 lines of my board were non stop answering and hanging up. One of the sysOp's wrote a mpl to allow Mystic to connect, run the bot check and immediately transfer to the C-Net (this was the set up I used for my Image board) and it helped tremendously. Then we got the offending IP address and found out it was the same IP attacking 3 different boards at the same time, we all blocked it and the issue went away..

Al

... Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your trip in kilometers

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

Actually, a friend of mine wrote a bot checker for me.
Currently it is very rudementary, where all you do is
hit // to get past it, but the final version will allow
a LOT of different things to go on with the Image BBS
for the 64.. InterBBS chatting is one thing, live
weather updates, this all on a 1 line/modem computer. It
is a full "modem"/front end for the C64. It's gonna be
really hot for the Image BBS..

Sounds very interesting, the extra features sound awesome. Looking forward to hearing more!

As I said in a previous post, the Mystic bot checker works great. About 2 years ago just about all of the C-Net Amiga BBS sysOp's
were being attacked non stop (why I have no idea!) I got connected to over 1500 times in a 10 hour period, all 10 lines of my board
were non stop answering and hanging up. One of the
sysOp's wrote a mpl to allow Mystic to connect, run the
bot check and immediately transfer to the C-Net (this
was the set up I used for my Image board) and it helped
tremendously. Then we got the offending IP address and
found out it was the same IP attacking 3 different
boards at the same time, we all blocked it and the issue went away..

The bots sure are tenacious! I have been logging attempts to connect, to see the default credentials being tested, and use these as keywords to identify bots - for example, if someone connects and the first thing they type is 'root' - that's a bot. That triggers a temporary IP ban (which extends in duration each time it is triggered), which has worked well.

In the past couple weeks, 42 different times the IP 190.211.255.106 connected to me and was banned. The same IP connected another 141 times while banned.

5 different times the IP 153.0.123.152 connected to me and was banned. The same IP connected another 1248 times while banned!

I've had 2345 unique IPs trigger bans in the past month or so. It's at least kinda interesting to study. :)


Chris/akacastor

--- Maximus 3.01
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

yeah i made it so i log in silently .. kinda feel bad for my one daily caller because my last callers screen is usually just a wall of his nickname :)

Using Mystic ACS codes, you can also set it up for you that only your first connection of the day is logged. :P

I used something similar to only allow my invisble-capable users to use invisible mode after their 1st call of the day. :P



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

Using Mystic ACS codes, you can also set it up for you that only your first connection of the day is logged. :P

Oh, I'll have to look into that.

______________
www.xadara.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Final Zone BBS - Memphis, TN - final-zone.net (21:3/122)

Using Mystic ACS codes, you can also set it up for you that only your first connection of the day is logged. :P

Oh, I'll have to look into that.

I didn't know it off hand, but I could find the ACS code if needed. :P However, you can do a lot with Mystic's ACS - and/or/if/NOT/etc.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and w has worked and what hasn't worked. If I understand the Mystic bot checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc) within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login

What I did was I set up the "Matrix login" so that the first
thing people see is a prompt that says, "If you are human, press
1 now." Bots don't get through, so far. The Matrix login then
loads my main login screen. Slapping any key but 1 does nothing.

Another thing you can do is use a port other than 23 for your
BBS. I use 8888. Most bots and crashers go for port 23. And I
guess you know you can block IP addresses.

Just using an alternate port will help a lot. Good luck.

... My reality check just bounced

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: From the depths of Bunker 3 (21:1/130)

Thanks Alonzo,
I was wondering about the port assignment and had considered shifting my port number.
I use the same strike esc key x2 if you're human pre long in here also and have my screening set to just flag the crashing attempts. I think I might shift that port assignment.

N2

-------------
][ bst 73 ][
][ de N2QFD][
-------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)

On 14 Mar 2024, AKAcastor said the following...

Sounds very interesting, the extra features sound awesome. Looking forward to hearing more!

Yes I and those of us who run Image BBS also are looking forward to it, the ML parts of it are basically done and being tested. The Basic code portion of it is still a ways away. Shouldn't be too hard to write that code so hopefully soon...

The bots sure are tenacious! I have been logging attempts to connect,
to see the default credentials being tested, and use these as keywords
to identify bots - for example, if someone connects and the first thing they type is 'root' - that's a bot. That triggers a temporary IP ban (which extends in duration each time it is triggered), which has worked well.

They are pitiful, I have my router blocking 9 different countries right now, I will most likely be adding a couple of more soon. After that Mystic has a 1.2 meg file of blocked IP's over the past 6 years... Unreal..

In the past couple weeks, 42 different times the IP 190.211.255.106 connected to me and was banned. The same IP connected another 141 times while banned.

5 different times the IP 153.0.123.152 connected to me and was banned. The same IP connected another 1248 times while banned!

I've had 2345 unique IPs trigger bans in the past month or so. It's at least kinda interesting to study. :)

Chris/akacastor

It's just gonna keep getting worse.. BTW sorry for taking so long to respond to this, for some reason this Echo got shut off on my scan list.. Jeez...

Al

... Youth is glorious, but it isn't a career

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)