Advice On A New-School Old-School BBS

An anonymous reader asks I am thinking about setting up a local "community" network over WiFi minus internet connection. In other words, I would like to run a small server isolated from the web as an experiment in small scale networks (e.g., serving a café-heavy one-block radius.) I have plenty of clever ideas -- discussion/gripe boards, weird artistic projects -- anything to bring back the old-school BBS memories where online users were drawn from a single geographic location. But everything I've learned so far is how to act as a small node on someone else's network. How can I make my own -- and make it wireless? Google doesn't pull much up that I can find: it is mostly targeted towards those building a (free or profit) Internet access point." (Read on for more.)

" Does anybody have sources of information for how to learn about setting up the network I have in mind? Basic tutorials and those covering more advanced issues such as security would be very helpful. Finally, is there anyone out there with real world experience? Beyond imparting technical help, do you have suggestions for implementation? What worked, and what didn't? Did the lack of internet access make the project unpopular? (And if you did provide internet access as a teaser, how did you handle liability and financial issues?)"

(This reminds me of the Community Memory Project; can anyone point to some modern equivalents?)

Comments

Hell yeah!

[Apiakun]

Whatever software you use, make sure it supports the old online games like tradewars, pimpwars, global war, etc! I miss those old games and waiting to have to play my turn. I know there are alternatives on some telnet BBSs, but it's just not the same as waiting to dial in on Terminate or PCPlus and getting that busy signal. If I could be sitting at the local coffee shop, I would happily log in to whatever was available and check recent message boards and games, even though it'll never be the same as it was 15 years ago.

Re:Hell yeah!

[ArsSineArtificio]

Whatever software you use, make sure it supports the old online games like tradewars, pimpwars, global war, etc! I miss those old games and waiting to have to play my turn.

Greetings, HOOMAN!

I got an idea

[Anonymous Coward]

&$&#*&*@(#&@#*()&!#(*@!#&@#()@ !#
NO CARRIER

if you have lots of warez and no RIAA

[Anonymous Coward]

then I'll be sure to pop by and connect.

Re:My advice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Peek.
Moving a mountain there is left as exercise for the reader.

Ask a better question.

[psb777]

"Google doesn't pull much up that I can find: it is mostly targeted towards those building a (free or profit) Internet access point."

Follow those instructions and then disconnect from the Internet.

This is a great way to tease wardrivers!

[Anonymous Coward]

I did this once. Set up a wireless access point, with no WEP, and generate lots of fake traffic on it, but don't connect the access point to the internet!. Attackers go nuts trying to figure out how you're blocking them from surfing the web or checking their email. Is it MAC filtering? VPN? Something strange they haven't seen before?

Lots of fun!

Re:My advice.

[kfg]

dude, you'd be amazed how small some projects start out.

I decided to play around with robotics a bit, just play mind you, so I decided to build a robot mouse. I call him Algernon, of course. I'm a geek. Sue me.

At the moment he's about 15 feet tall and weighs about 5 tons. Tomorrow I hope to fit the Krup L/56 88mm cannon onto his nose.

I might have let the project get a bit out of hand.

KFG