Redirect telnet to a serial port
Dan C
out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he garotted another passing Liberal.
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
pk
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
http://ser2net.sourceforge.net/
maybe that could help. Remember that (AFAIK) only one user at a time can use
the serial port.
Dan C
Thanks, I'll be checking that out.
Ron Gibson
wrote:
>I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
>out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
>box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
>box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
>running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
>internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
>that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
Try this page...
http://users.telenet.be/mydotcom/library/network/dostcpip.htm
--
Email - rsgi...@tampabay.rr.borg
Replace borg with com
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
Dan C
> On 10 Oct 2009 21:20:36 GMT, Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
>
>>I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
>>out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a
>>Slack box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another
>>(DOS) box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box
>>is running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over
>>the internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
>>that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Try this page...
>
> http://users.telenet.be/mydotcom/library/network/dostcpip.htm
That looks promising... thanks.
Old Man
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>
>
Telnet into box A. Run minicom on box A to communicate with box B. What am
I missing?
--
Old Man
Aragorn
as Dan C wrote...
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to
> go out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a
> Slack box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to
> another (DOS) box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That
> DOS box is running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make
> reachable over the internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS
> doesn't do TCP/IP, so that's why this approach is being tried... Any
> ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
Hmm... I'm not exactly the expert here, but I'm just going to give you
some of my logical thoughts on this. I will be going over this step by
step and typing as the thoughts enter my mind, so bear with me. ;-)
(1) Telnet is a way of sending clear text messages to a device, in this
case a computer reachable via TCP/IP. The telnet server would -
unless specified differently - be listening on port 23.
(2) You have a DOS BBS machine that accepts telnet instructions over its
serial port, and this machine is connected to the computer that
receives the incoming telnet connection.
(3) You want to forward the incoming telnet connection to the nullmodem
connection of the BBS machine.
Now, as I said, I'm not an expert on this, but I suppose the serial port
with the nullmodem cable on the GNU/Linux box could be reached from
within GNU/Linux as */dev/ttS01* (or whatever serial port it may be).
So we need to forward whatever is coming in on TCP port 23 on the
TCP/IP side to */dev/ttS01.*
That which is listening on that port 23 will be the /telnetd/ daemon on
your GNU/Linux box. Now, again with my understanding of
things, /telnetd/ can be used as an unencrypted remote login to the
system, which will then spawn off a shell, and send whatever you type
in the client's telnet session to that shell on the remote host.
It should therefore be possible, to instead of having the telnetd daemon
forward its incoming text strings to a shell, send those text strings
into a named pipe, with */dev/ttyS01* - or whatever serial port it is -
at its other end.
Now, I don't have telnetd installed on this machine here so I can't view
the /man/ page to it, but as I understand it, it should be possible to
configure it to route its output to whatever you want, and thus also to
a pipe. You could then even use /tee/ to log the whole session.
The caveat however would be that you'd have to know in advance which TTY
device is assigned to the incoming telnet connection on the UNIX box
itself; possibly this could be one of the /devpts/ devices, but you'd
have to know which one. So you'd basically be piping - say -
*/dev/pts/1* (or something like that) to */dev/ttyS01,* and the
difficulty would be to reserve a pre-set pseudo-terminal slave device
exclusively for the incoming telnet session. Considering that device
special files these days are given their name by the /udev/ system,
you'd have to set up a persistent rule that always assigns the
same /devpts/ device number to the telnet session, regardless of how
many other pseudo-terminal slaves you have open on the same machine - a
couple of terminal windows in X for instance.
I know the above is not much to go on, and that it's all pretty
abstract, but it might get you in the proper direction of doing what
you intend to do, so I hope it was useful. ;-) It is either way an
interesting project. ;-)
--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)
Andy
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>
>
I can think of a few solutions off the top of my head:
1. Run the DOS in a VM and link the serial port to a socket.
2. Get a hardware serial server.
3. I recall using TCP/IP in DOS way back when, but I don't remember who's
stack it was. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Hummingbird maybe?
4. Run the DOS app in DOS mode W95 or W98, which has TCP/IP available.
Andy
Aragorn
identifying as Andy wrote...
> [...]
> 3. I recall using TCP/IP in DOS way back when, but I don't remember
> who's stack it was. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Hummingbird
> maybe?
> 4. Run the DOS app in DOS mode W95 or W98, which has TCP/IP available.
If I recall correctly, then FreeDOS - or at least the most recent
version of it - does support TCP/IP.
YYMV. ;-)
Dan C
You're missing the fact that I'd like this to be "unattended". The
incoming telnet connection needs to be automatically redirected out the
box's serial port, with no human interaction. I don't think minicom can
do that. Thanks, though.
Dan C
Yes, this is the direction I'm trying to go. Thanks for the input. I've
got a lot of reading/links to look at. Hopefully I'll report back with a
success story... Appreciate the reply.
Dan C
> Dan C wrote:
>
>> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to
>> go out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a
>> Slack box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to
>> another (DOS) box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That
>> DOS box is running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make
>> reachable over the internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS
>> doesn't do TCP/IP, so that's why this approach is being tried... Any
>> ideas? Thanks.
>>
>> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>>
>>
> I can think of a few solutions off the top of my head:
> 1. Run the DOS in a VM and link the serial port to a socket.
Some of the BBS utils and doors don't like the VM. Tried that and they
lock up unless running in "pure" DOS. Not sure why, but it's true.
> 2. Get a hardware serial server.
Not sure what that is. Does it get around the fact that DOS doesn't know
anything about TCP/IP?
> 3. I recall using TCP/IP in DOS way back when, but I don't remember
> who's stack it was. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Hummingbird maybe?
My initial searching shows that this may be possible. Trumpet was one
that made such a stack.
> 4. Run the DOS app in DOS mode W95 or W98, which has TCP/IP available.
Trying to avoid using any Windows, and have already found that some of
the utils/doors don't like that any more than a VM.
Thanks for the input.
Henrik Carlqvist
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port.
I haven't tried anything like this myself, but I think something like this
might work:
nc -l -p 23 < /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/ttyS0
regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc3(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost
Mark Hobley
> As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP
BTW: If you have an old network card with DOS drivers, you can get a TCP/IP
stack. I think there are some free ones.
FWIW, I have used one in the past and it worked well. I remember telnetting
to the DOS box and selecting an option from the bbs to get a command
prompt. Unfortunately, I can't remember specifically what packages were
being used.
Mark.
--
Mark Hobley
Linux User: #370818 http://markhobley.yi.org/
Allen Kistler
> Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
>> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
>> out a serial port.
>
> I haven't tried anything like this myself, but I think something like this
> might work:
>
> nc -l -p 23 < /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/ttyS0
I think
nc -lk 23 < /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/ttyS0
is closer to what you want.
Depending on how finicky the serial app is on the DOS machine, nc may or
may not work. Note that nc provides no authentication whatsoever.
Anybody who telnets to nc in listener mode is automatically connected to
the serial port.
The idea is really called a "terminal server" or a "console server." It
can be confusing since MS (at a much later time) decided to call their
remote desktop sharing services "terminal server," and others who
produce Linux/X look-alikes call their software "terminal server" as
well. But it's not the same thing. Usually after connecting to the
terminal server, you get a "command line" on which you tell it what
serial port you want to use, then you're dumped into that serial connection.
conserver is a package distributed with Fedora that may do what you want
better than nc. I don't know if it's distributed with Slack.
www.conserver.com, if Slack doesn't include it.
Disclaimer: I've never used it.
Robby Workman
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.0/system/conserver/
-RW
jjg
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>
>
I have an old DOS box running TCP/IP using the KA9Q package.
Dan C
> Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
>> As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP
>
> BTW: If you have an old network card with DOS drivers, you can get a
> TCP/IP stack. I think there are some free ones.
>
> FWIW, I have used one in the past and it worked well. I remember
> telnetting to the DOS box and selecting an option from the bbs to get a
> command prompt. Unfortunately, I can't remember specifically what
> packages were being used.
>
> Mark.
Yes, thanks, I have been hearing about this and am looking in to it.
Appreciate the reply.
Dan C
Thanks, I will look into that. Appreciate the help.
Douglas Mayne
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS doesn't do TCP/IP, so
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>
TCP/IP is available for MS-DOS, but only for a limited set of
network adapters. The drivers are available for the most popular network
cards from that time period. This page includes the information and a
warning that the download links may be out of date:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750214.aspx
A few years ago, I got this working with VMWare workstation. IIRC, the AMD
Lance network interface as provided by the virtual machine was/is
supported by the Microsoft (WFW 3.11) networking. IIRC, there is a
detailed example in the SAMS book, "Teach Yourself Samba in 24 Hours." The
setup requires that the correct parameters are entered in config.sys and
autoexec.bat. Then, the overhead of using MS-DOSs limited address space
(roughly 1MB) may come into play. You can "hope" that whatever was
adequate in the past will still work, even when extra resources are
consumed by adding the TCP/IP stack, etc.
AFAIK, FreeDOS continues to be developed and may also provide a near
native platform to move your application. The added benefit is having
the y2k bug fixed, etc. In any case, I think the way to access from the
internet may be to use ssh to access a gateway on your local network, and
then allow telnet traversing to the BBS box (behind the firewall, and
behind NAT, etc.)
--
Douglas Mayne
Dan C
Thanks for all that information. More stuff to read! Appreciate the
reply.
buck
@moria.lan:
> Thanks for all that information. More stuff to read! Appreciate the
> reply.
You might want to check out these 2 sites:
http://www.chsoft.com/dv
http://www.californiasoftwaresystems.com/TCP4DOS.htm
Then agian, maybe not...
Henrik Carlqvist
> Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
>> I haven't tried anything like this myself, but I think something like this
>> might work:
>>
>> nc -l -p 23 < /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/ttyS0
>
> I think
> nc -lk 23 < /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/ttyS0
> is closer to what you want.
There are different implementations of nc. I know that in RedHat it is not
allowed to combine the options -l and -p, instead you are supposed to only
use "nc -l 23". In Slackware 12.2 which ships with version 1.10 of nc your
example instead gives the error:
nc: invalid option -- k
nc -h for help
However, as you said, a real console server is probably better than a
custom hack with nc.
Dan C
Nice. Thanks a lot for the info!
+Alan Hicks+
Hash: SHA1
On 2009-10-10, Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> internet via telnet.
Well, perhaps the simplest solution is to setup a dedicated user for
this task, and set it's shell to run something like minicom or cu on
the serial port. Anytime the user logs in, rather than running bash or
what-not, minicom will fire up and contact the DOS box on that serial
port.
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Dan C
>> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to
>> go out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a
>> Slack box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to
>> another (DOS) box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That
>> DOS box is running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make
>> reachable over the internet via telnet.
> Well, perhaps the simplest solution is to setup a dedicated user for
> this task, and set it's shell to run something like minicom or cu on the
> serial port. Anytime the user logs in, rather than running bash or
> what-not, minicom will fire up and contact the DOS box on that serial
> port.
Not a bad idea, but won't work as far as making a BBS accessible to the
public (many different users, names unknown).
I'm exploring the world of networking on MSDOS, when I have some free
time. It's an ugly thing, to be sure.
Henrik Carlqvist
>> Well, perhaps the simplest solution is to setup a dedicated user for
>> this task, and set it's shell to run something like minicom
>> or cu on the serial port. Anytime the user logs in, rather than running
>> bash or what-not, minicom will fire up and contact the DOS box on that
>> serial port.
>
> Not a bad idea, but won't work as far as making a BBS accessible to the
> public (many different users, names unknown).
I understand that is why you want to redirect telnet to the serial port.
That way the BBS software will take care of user login. However, there is
a big difference when it comes to security if you compare telnet and a
modem. It is rather easy to listen on the traffic of an unencrypted telnet
connection. Somehow you would be better off with an encrypted ssh
connection, but I don't know how to let the BBS software handle the
username and password with ssh.
Jasen Betts
> Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
>>> Well, perhaps the simplest solution is to setup a dedicated user for
>>> this task, and set it's shell to run something like minicom
>>> or cu on the serial port. Anytime the user logs in, rather than running
>>> bash or what-not, minicom will fire up and contact the DOS box on that
>>> serial port.
>>
>> Not a bad idea, but won't work as far as making a BBS accessible to the
>> public (many different users, names unknown).
>
> I understand that is why you want to redirect telnet to the serial port.
> That way the BBS software will take care of user login. However, there is
> a big difference when it comes to security if you compare telnet and a
> modem. It is rather easy to listen on the traffic of an unencrypted telnet
> connection. Somehow you would be better off with an encrypted ssh
> connection, but I don't know how to let the BBS software handle the
> username and password with ssh.
hmm interesting idea. perhaps theres a way to point PAM at the BBSs
user database, OTOH you could set up a user 'bbs' with no password and
just connect them the BBS.
using SSH forces the users to use something better than windows'
rubbish telent client, something like "putty" for instance. but then
raises the issue that you'll need something to convert BBS-ANSI to
VT220, perhaps there's a way to do that using minicom?
klaus zerwes
> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to go
> out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a Slack
> box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to another (DOS)
> box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That DOS box is
> running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make reachable over the
> that's why this approach is being tried... Any ideas? Thanks.
>
> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
Maybe conserver (http://www.conserver.com) can be used for this (or
search sf.net for serial to network)
Anyhow - I think that only one user can use the serial connection at one
time
Klaus
--
Klaus Zerwes
http://www.zero-sys.net
Dan C
> Dan C schrieb:
>> I'm looking in to how I can redirect an incoming telnet connection to
>> go out a serial port. What I'm trying to do is be able to telnet to a
>> Slack box, have the connection go out the serial port, and go to
>> another (DOS) box's serial port (via a null modem serial cable). That
>> DOS box is running a BBS program (PCBoard) which I'd like to make
>> reachable over the internet via telnet. As you may remember, DOS
>> doesn't do TCP/IP, so that's why this approach is being tried... Any
>> ideas? Thanks.
>>
>> Followups set to comp.os.linux.networking
>
> Maybe conserver (http://www.conserver.com) can be used for this (or
> search sf.net for serial to network)
Yes, thanks. Looking in to that one.
> Anyhow - I think that only one user can use the serial connection at one
> time
True, and that wouldn't be a problem.
Sylvain Robitaille
> ... Somehow you would be better off with an encrypted ssh connection,
> but I don't know how to let the BBS software handle the username and
> password with ssh.
The BBS doesn't. All it sees is the serial connection to the networked
host. The Ssh connection is between the client and the network facing
"gateway" to the BBS. It could work, of course. Login as user "bbs"
(or whatever), with no password; that user's "shell" fires up a
connection via the serial port to the actual BBS (complain and exit if
such a connection is already in place?); the BBS does the actual user
authentication according to its own user data. The traffic encryption
stops at the Linux box.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille s...@encs.concordia.ca
Systems analyst / AITS Concordia University
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan C
> On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:14:37 +0200, Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
>
>> ... Somehow you would be better off with an encrypted ssh connection,
>> but I don't know how to let the BBS software handle the username and
>> password with ssh.
>
> The BBS doesn't. All it sees is the serial connection to the networked
> host. The Ssh connection is between the client and the network facing
> "gateway" to the BBS. It could work, of course. Login as user "bbs"
> (or whatever), with no password; that user's "shell" fires up a
> connection via the serial port to the actual BBS (complain and exit if
> such a connection is already in place?); the BBS does the actual user
> authentication according to its own user data. The traffic encryption
> stops at the Linux box.
This sounds like it could work, and would serve my needs just fine. The
tricky part is getting the communication from the Linux gateway to the
DOS computer running the BBS. How to connect the "bbs" user to the
outbound serial port of the Linux box? After that, a null modem serial
cable over to the BBS box should work. I'd surely like some specifics on
how to make this shell/serial port connection on the Linux box, if anyone
has any insights.
Thanks.
Aragorn
as Dan C wrote...
> On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:43:26 +0000, Sylvain Robitaille wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:14:37 +0200, Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
>>
>>> ... Somehow you would be better off with an encrypted ssh
>>> connection, but I don't know how to let the BBS software handle the
>>> username and password with ssh.
>>
>> The BBS doesn't. All it sees is the serial connection to the
>> networked host. The Ssh connection is between the client and the
>> network facing "gateway" to the BBS. It could work, of course.
>> Login as user "bbs" (or whatever), with no password; that
>> user's "shell" fires up a connection via the serial port to the
>> actual BBS (complain and exit if such a connection is already in
>> place?); the BBS does the actual user authentication according to its
>> own user data. The traffic encryption stops at the Linux box.
>
> This sounds like it could work, and would serve my needs just fine.
> The tricky part is getting the communication from the Linux gateway to
> the DOS computer running the BBS. How to connect the "bbs" user to
> the outbound serial port of the Linux box? After that, a null modem
> serial cable over to the BBS box should work. I'd surely like some
> specifics on how to make this shell/serial port connection on the
> Linux box, if anyone has any insights.
Well, a couple of posters have suggested using /netcat/ for that
purpose, and from reading the /man/ page on it, I believe that this
should work just as you want it to.
The other option, which I would not rule out just yet, would be to
implement TCP/IP on the DOS box. Now I don't know what DOS version
you're running on that machine, but if possible, I would recommend
FreeDOS. It's more modern than a MICROS~1, IBM or DR DOS, it's free -
as in GPL'ed, and thus with the source code available - and by looking
at the FreeDOS website, it should be easier to implement TCP/IP on it
than on any of the aforementioned proprietary DOS versions.
There's also a far greater chance of finding a NIC that's supported
natively in FreeDOS, although the ubiquitous Realtek 8139 and some of
the more popular 10/100 3Coms do come with DOS-native drivers supplied
by the vendor on either a floppy disk or on a CD-ROM, of course. But
just in the event that you don't have such a driver disk, given that
those popular NICs are supported by default in the Linux kernel and
that FreeDOS is GPL'ed, I suspect that it has those drivers already "in
it" (as loadable device drivers via CONFIG.SYS) out of the box.
I am interested in this project of yours because I have an old Pentium
MMX 200 MHz box with 32 MB of EDO RAM and a 1.3 GB Seagate IDE hard
disk sitting here idle in which I have stuffed a Realtek 8139 NIC and
of which I have been contemplating putting it to use with FreeDOS in
some way. As old as that box may be - and I even got it for free! -
its hardware still seems to be in perfect shape, and that is more than
I can say of some very dearly paid newer machines I've purchased all
over the years. So if the hardware is reliable, then it would be a
shame not to use it, and given the low specs of the machine, FreeDOS
would be a perfect choice.
Now I don't have any experience whatsoever with a BBS - never used them
and never set one up - but that in itself might also already seem like
a nice implementation, just for the heck of it. ;-)
(Follow-ups set to alt.os.linux and comp.os.linux.networking because I'm
not in the Slackware group and KNode won't let me post to three groups
without setting a follow-up. Feel free to change as desired if need
be, but please keep the thread crossposted to the non-Slack groups so I
can keep monitoring the thread. :p)
Dan C
Thanks for the reply. I'm quite interested in the 'netcat' approach and
am going to give that a try. Also have been scouring and collecting old
files for attempting to get TCP/IP on the DOS box. It has an old SMC
(8614) NIC in it that seems to be supported by some of the packet driver
software I've found.
Problem right now is being busy with work and Real Life, and won't have
any time for this until the weekend (if then). I will report on any
progress I make as I go along.
BTW, the DOS box I'm using has a 486DX4/100 CPU and a 420MB HD. Can't
recall how much RAM, but I think it's 4MB... ;) Runs DOS like a dream.
Currently have MSDOS 6.22 on there, and may pursue the FreeDOS avenue if
things don't play nice.
Thanks again for the input, and stay tuned...
Sylvain Robitaille
> ... The tricky part is getting the communication from the Linux
> gateway to the DOS computer running the BBS. How to connect the "bbs"
> user to the outbound serial port of the Linux box? ...
Look at the "cu" command from the UUCP package that ships with Slackware.
I think you *should* be able to set that up, with appropriate options
as your "bbs" user's shell, to have anyone logging into your system with
that be immediately captive to the serial connection to the BBS system.
I hope this helps ...
Dan C
> On 13 Oct 2009 23:04:28 GMT, Dan C wrote:
>
>> ... The tricky part is getting the communication from the Linux gateway
>> to the DOS computer running the BBS. How to connect the "bbs" user to
>> the outbound serial port of the Linux box? ...
>
> Look at the "cu" command from the UUCP package that ships with
> Slackware. I think you *should* be able to set that up, with appropriate
> options as your "bbs" user's shell, to have anyone logging into your
> system with that be immediately captive to the serial connection to the
> BBS system.
>
> I hope this helps ...
Excellent! That looks very promising. Now to just find some time for
all this... Hopefully on the weekend. Thanks a lot for the info.
CF
TP. Most old DOS versions support these cards. I am running a PS/2
486SLC-2 with PC-DOS and an SMC 8303/A at 10mbps.
Theodore Heise
Dan C <youmust...@lan.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:33:05 +0200, Aragorn wrote:
>> The other option, which I would not rule out just yet, would be
>> to implement TCP/IP on the DOS box.
> ...have been scouring and collecting old files for
> attempting to get TCP/IP on the DOS box.
Dan, this approach might be possible. Back around the turn of the
millenium I used an HP 200LX as my sole travel computer. It ran
DOS 5.0, and with lots of niggling I was able to get it connected
to the internet with TCP/IP over an ethernet PCMCIA card as well
as with a modem. Some of my old notes from those activities (not
all of which is relevant to your request) are here:
The starting point would probably be WATTCP. There is at least
one caveat, this was all done using the 200LX as a client, but it
seems if you could get a TCP/IP connection established, it might
be possible to use the box to serve up services. I do have some
dim memory of using ssh to login to the 200LX over the network.
--
Theodore (Ted) Heise <th...@heise.nu> Bloomington, IN, USA
Dan C
Good stuff. Really appreciate the input.
Grant Taylor
> The other option, which I would not rule out just yet, would be to
> implement TCP/IP on the DOS box.
Go take a look at FreeDOS and their networking documentation. They have
quite a bit of good information on networking in DOS. Further, FreeDOS
its self, is using a lot of open source programs that have been compiled
for DOS.
Link - FreeDOS Networking
- http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/technote/157.html
Grant. . . .