[TriLUG] Article on old style BBS systems

[Matt Flyer via TriLUG]

This morning I came across an interesting article on the old, pre-
Internet BBS systems.  Apparently there is a little bit of a
renaissance going on with them as folks have been resurrecting old
Apple 2 systems and bringing the bulletin boards back on line.  To get
around the dial up problem, which is exacerbated by virtue of VOIP
incorporating filtering that can make it difficult or impossible to use
modems (I ran into this with my home alarm system) they're using
Internet telnet bridges, sometimes to the old Hayes modems. A couple of
examples include particlesbbs.dyndns.org:6400, which is a revival of an
old Commodore BBS and the  dura-bbs.net:6359 which is the subject of
the article.

I am sure that the article will bring back some fond memories for many
of our list subscribers.  

Here is where I tie this to the Linux focus. The article talks about
using a terminal program that supports the old ANSI graphics.
 Initially I tried launching Telnet and connecting that way, only to
get various forms of errors, such as telnet: 

particlesbbs.dyndns.org:6400: Name or service not known
particlesbbs.dyndns.org:6400: Unknown host

It's note a DNS issue as the name resolves just fine to: 75.13.160.10
and trying to telnet to the IP gives the same error message.

Apparently there are several of them out there, such as Qodem,
syncterm, Mystic BBS, etc.  I tried downloading a few of them and had
nothing but trouble, getting sig-seg violations, and assorted errors
when trying to use them.  Obviously I am doing something wrong.

Has anyone experimented with these old BBS systems and the terminal
programs?  Have you encountered one(s) that you find work?  I am
curious to check a few of these outs and reminisce the days of my
childhood.