
The Wonderful WiFi232: BBSing Has Never Been Easier - ingve
http://www.bytecellar.com/2017/05/30/the-wonderful-wifi232-bbsing-has-literally-never-been-easier/
======
codazoda
It's only slightly related, but I had this thought about setting up a wireless
alternative to old BBS systems using only WiFi hotspots without an Internet
connection.

[https://www.joeldare.com/blog/post/wireless-
bbs/](https://www.joeldare.com/blog/post/wireless-bbs/)

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mostlyskeptical
I'm pretty excited about starting up my ham radio BBS soon.

~~~
RUG3Y
That's awesome! I've been kicking around some ideas in this space, but it's
just a pipe dream at this point. Alternative means of communication are
interesting.

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kickscondor
I love seeing the ESP8266 at the heart of this project. This little chip is
the sweet spot - if you are new to the chip I would check out the videos by
CNLohr on YouTube.

But this device is out of stock. Anyone hunted down schematics or firmware
source for this device?

~~~
mmjaa
I've used the ESP8266 for a few things, and honestly its just such a lovely
little device with great support, I don't know why it doesn't just get used
everywhere.

Except it does. :)

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bluesign
Or you can use raspberry pi and tcpser

[http://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/215/putting-your-retro-
comp...](http://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/215/putting-your-retro-computer-on-
the-line)

~~~
rasz
10x the price, 5x the size, thats what makes ESP8266 so great

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jim_lawless
Some of the emulators for older computers provide similar functionality.

The VICE Commodore computer emulator can use an external program called TCPSer
to provide an emulated Commodore PC with a virtual modem. The command ATDT ip-
address:port can be used to connect to telnet-ready or vanilla-TCP BBS's with
vintage terminal software.

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aw3c2
Archive as the site is dead at the moment:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20170604130327/http://www.bytecel...](http://web.archive.org/web/20170604130327/http://www.bytecellar.com/2017/05/30/the-
wonderful-wifi232-bbsing-has-literally-never-been-easier/)

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JKCalhoun
Tried finding the spec for modulating/demodulating recently and came up empty.
I wanted to write a useless phone app that sends and receives data by way of
the old audio, two-tones, (modem) format.

Anyone have any pointers?

[Edit: reading other comments, probably I want to look into "v.32bis", etc.]

~~~
rasz
[https://www.araneus.fi/audsl/](https://www.araneus.fi/audsl/)

[https://github.com/romanz/amodem](https://github.com/romanz/amodem)

[http://aaronscher.com/GNU_Radio_Companion_Collection/Audio_M...](http://aaronscher.com/GNU_Radio_Companion_Collection/Audio_Modem_loop_back_test_FSK.html)

[http://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-
pictured...](http://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-
pictured.html)

negotiation protocol:
[https://www.itu.int/rec/dologin_pub.asp?lang=e&id=T-REC-V.8b...](https://www.itu.int/rec/dologin_pub.asp?lang=e&id=T-REC-V.8bis-200011-I!!PDF-E&type=items)

[http://goughlui.com/2017/05/30/project-the-large-
collection-...](http://goughlui.com/2017/05/30/project-the-large-collection-
of-v-34-modem-sounds/)

edit: you and me both :) I,v been semi obsessed with writing my own soft modem
ever since I saw Oonas sound of dialup writeup.

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chrissnell
"[...] the way it was meant to be done"

For me, calling a BBS will always be a modem and modem tones. I would like
this more if there was a way to open a TCP connection directly to the BBS and
somehow do v.32bis tones over IP. This would constrain the connection to
actual modem speeds and wouldn't require a PSTN line or a VoIP provider. It
would be similar to VoIP except using a codec that was specifically designed
to make those legacy modulation schemes work. Ideally, this wouldn't require a
real modem but if you could use a real modem and a FXS device, that would be
sweet, too.

~~~
geocar
Have you seen quiet.js?

[https://github.com/quiet/quiet-js](https://github.com/quiet/quiet-js)

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camgunz
I like how BBS over modem and telnet on an ancient machine loads faster than
like 50% of websites.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
In a similar vein, years ago I designed a "digital extension cable" that
communicated by modem. The point of the device was to replicate the state of 4
inputs at a water pump station to a remote monitoring site a few miles away.
The box I built scanned the inputs about once per second, and if there was a
state change, called the remote site over a leased phone line where an
identical box had 4 outputs that replicated the state.

It turned out to be much faster to make the call at 1,200 bps than at the
57.6kbps max speed of the modem.

At the high baud rates, the time the modems took just to negotiate the
connection and agree on a speed (about 5-10 seconds) was far longer than it
took to transmit the few bytes of data at 1,200 bps and disconnect (well under
1 second). At 1200 bps, there was no negotiation: the communication is based
on FSK at fixed frequencies.

One of those weird things I mentally filed away a long time ago :-)

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RandomInteger4
This site could do with a responsive redesign.

EDIT: Redesign is the wrong term, as that implies that it would take any
effort at all.

~~~
wcummings
I prefer pinch and zoom tbh

