[Coco] BBS Supporting The Trs-80 Color Computer

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 18 June 2017 20:44:55 Mathieu Bouchard wrote:

> If you can, please migrate this to a SSH server. I'm almost surprised
> that my OS still comes with a Telnet client installed by default...
> I've almost only been using SSH since 1998.
>
ssh, and sshfs are how I talk to, and move data about my 8 machine home 
network.  nfs, cifs and samba aren't even running here. No windows or 
Mac machines allowed.

> BTW, I didn't register yet, but I wonder, how are we supposed to be
> downloading files in there ? I don't recall that Telnet clients ever
> supported something like ZModem, though technically it would have made
> sense to support it, at least for phoneline BBSes ported to Telnet.
>
FWIW, the vt220 terminal emulator available on my site, runs on a stock 
coco-3 with an rs232 pack and a modem, supports the autotriggers for 
zmodem going both ways, and SuperComm-2.3 does also in at least one 
direction, perhaps both.

===

My views on net exposure are that anyone can click on the address in the 
sig, and wander around in the sandbox it runs in.  I don't think you can 
get out of that sandbox, but anything in that sandbox can be downloaded 
and enjoyed at your leasure. If I want to keep something private, I 
simply don't put it, or a link to it, in that sandbox.  The bare apache2 
server is pretty tight, and it seems to be the fawncy stuff, that 
because its more complex, has the larger hacker exposure.

I analyze my logs from time to time, and am somewhat amused when I 
correlate whats downloaded, with where it goes.  That says a lot about 
the political climate vis-a-vis personal freedom of the folks who live 
in that particular political entity.  One subject in particular that I 
won't relate since I had an argument with one of you who disagreed with 
my views, is in fact the most frequently downloaded file on my site by a 
fairly wide margin compared to the #2 choice, which is subject related 
to #1, and neither has a thing to do with our beloved CoCo's.

To get back on the subject of the bbs, the questions asked for a login 
account on that bbs are exactly the questions someone on a phishing 
expedition would be asking because they intend to sell that data to the 
identity thieves.

That sets off mental alarm bells so loud I cannot concentrate, and its 
best if I kill the session ( there is no way to exit gracefully, another 
alarm bell ringer itself,) so I sent a kill -9 to the telnet agent, 
before I'd sold the farm and my bank balance is zero 5 minutes later.

I don't think Phillip intended for that to be the impression we get.  And 
my reply is always, then don't act like it. You do not have to go thru 
any of that to look at, and pull something from my web page.  And it may 
well be more secure from my viewpoint than any telnet session is.  The 
web page is of course one way. If you have something you want made 
available, send it to me in a PM, and I'll post it if its appropriate.

====

I had a moneygram to pickup last week, two places I could go to do that 
locally, CVS and Walmart.  The counter help at CVS had me pick up the 
red phone, which presumably autodialed an answering service Moneygram 
contracts with.  What he needed was the tracking number and some ID.  
But this guy was a full blown phishing artist, so I hung up. Three hours 
later I was going to warn Moneygram that their answering service was 
collecting 2 paychecks, the 2nd one from a data collector.  I got the 
same jerk, and hung up again.  Next evening I took the paper out to 
Walmart, the girl entered the tracking number, looked at my drivers 
license and handed me the cash.  So if you need to deal with MoneyGram, 
and you get a hard to understand 300 WPM British Indian accent on the 
phone, don't even give him the time of day.  Find another agent.  Or you 
might regret it.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>