[bbs-revival] Why I started this list

historical

Hi all,

as there are now 15 subscribes to the list, I though it might make some
sense to send and introductory post to it why I started it.

I think there's a lot of stories to be told about the good old days of
BBSs and BBS networks.  I would like to see if a group of people can get
together to revive some of the related technology, and

a) document it in a way, soemthing like an "online museum", and

b) create running setups (preferably as ready-made VM images, containers, etc.)
   that one can use to operate BBS software X, Y or Z - or even multiple of
   them as part of a FTN, or ZConnect network.

I've also started to collect some hardware to create a physical setup,
like a set of analog modems and ISDN TAs, connected to a PBX of some
sort.  That physical setup could be operated at vintage computing
festivals (VCFB in Berlin e.g.) and particularly at the 35C3 conference
in December 2018.

The point there would be to be able to show (primarily) the interested
parts of the younger generation how this all worked.

I'm quite unorthodox in terms of the hardware.  To me, the "experience"
part is the important part.  So if we can run the old software on modern
hardware using emulation, and/or even emulate the modem connection using
a bit-rate limited TCP/telnet connection, then that's already pretty
sufficient for most purposes.  Such a "virtualized" approach of course
means that people can try this at their home, without any access to
hardware such as analog modems or even a telephone line.

Still, of course, for the demo at festivals, the physical setup is much
better to have.

As part of the research, I've also stumbled on the fact that for some
reaso, no FOSS implementation of a softmodem exists.  I'm not referring
to the Winmodems (sound card with phone attachment), but an even more
"modern" implenetation:  A SIP softphone that uses SIP + RTP with G.711
aLaw/uLaw to run a modem to a SIP operator.  I guess with telephony
systems switching to all-IP / all-VoIP this is the only way how we can
contonue to use modem technology in the mid to long term.  Fabrice
Bellard's old "linmodem" is the best next thing to what I have in mind,
so I'd love to spend some of my non-existing time on bringing that
forward, e.g. adding the SIP/RTP support to it - see
http://projects.osmocom.org/projects/linmodem/issues for details

In case anyone wants to help on any of the related topics, feel free to
reach out.  I'm happy to give write/editing permissions on the redmine
project[s] I've created at (and underneath) of
https://projects.osmocom.org/projects/retro-bbs

Of course we can use different tools if the redmine feels no longer
suitable for a given task.  I just used something that's running and
maintained anyway...

Regards,
	Harald (former h.welte at SILVER.zer and 2:2490/1501.3, later 2:2490/1343)
-- 
- Harald Welte <laforge at gnumonks.org>           http://laforge.gnumonks.org/
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