Subj : Re: Back to Mystic
To   : AKAcastor
From : Bucko
Date : Wed Mar 13 2024 07:03 pm

On 12 Mar 2024, AKAcastor said the following...
 AK> 
 AK> I bet that did a heck of a job of quieting things down! :)
 AK> 
 AK> Have you tried other solutions for bot connections?  I have been running
 AK> a 'telnet ringdown server' that I wrote to accept connections on one
 AK> port and pass them off to any open port from a list (each node of my BBS
 AK> listens on a different port).  Immediately it was apparent that some
 AK> protection against portscanning bots was needed, so I have implemented a
 AK> check for malicious login attempts that triggers a temporary IP ban, and
 AK> it has helped.
 AK> 

Actually, a friend of mine wrote a bot checker for me. Currently it is very rudementary, where all you do is hit // to get past it, but the final version will allow a LOT of different things to go on with the Image BBS for the 64.. InterBBS chatting is one thing, live weather updates, this all on a 1 line/modem computer. It is a full "modem"/front end for the C64. It's gonna be really hot for the Image BBS..

 AK> I am curious about other peoples' experiences dealing with bots and what
 AK> has worked and what hasn't worked.  If I understand the Mystic bot
 AK> checker, it requires callers to press a specific key (usually Esc)
 AK> within some time after connecting, and before presenting the login
 AK> prompt - is this correct?
 AK> 

As I said in a previous post, the Mystic bot checker works great. About 2 years ago just about all of the C-Net Amiga BBS sysOp's were being attacked non stop (why I have no idea!) I got connected to over 1500 times in a 10 hour period, all 10 lines of my board were non stop answering and hanging up. One of the sysOp's wrote a mpl to allow Mystic to connect, run the bot check and immediately transfer to the C-Net (this was the set up I used for my Image board) and it helped tremendously. Then we got the offending IP address and found out it was the same IP attacking 3 different boards at the same time, we all blocked it and the issue went away.. 

Al

.... Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your trip in kilometers

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

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