Re: Telnet to serial port

[Ryan Underwood <nemesis-lists@icequake.net>]

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On Fri, Jul 09, 2004 at 02:13:04PM +0300, Juhani Pirttilahti wrote:
> I've got to run PCBoard under dosemu, works like a charm in local mode.
> There is still a problem. Lets say I want to run 5 instances of dosemu + pcboard, I need then
> a telnet server, which maintains connections to these 5 instances.

Sure.  standard telnet/ssh will do this.  Unless you are trying to
multiplex all these connections onto one listening telnet port.  Then you will
have to write your own "hub" program to direct the user to the right
node.

To me, it makes more sense to have each listening node associated
with a particular listening IP port (:2323, :2324, :2325, :2326 ... ).
Then it is simple.  Create a sh script which starts dosemu and the BBS
in the "already connected" mode, like if a frontend mailer such as
FrontDoor was used to pass control to the BBS.  Then have that script 
file executed as a login script when a user telnets in.  You can use
exactly the same virtual com port for each node, then you only need one
port configured as virtual (COM1).  Every time you run a new dosemu,
COM1 is corresponding to the telnet connection for _that_ dosemu.  So
you can have e.g. 16 dosemus running at once for all your 16 nodes, all
configured to run on COM1, and each COM1 a particular node is using,
corresponds to the telnet connection which initiated the DOS session
that the BBS instance runs in.

If that is confusing, just ask for clarification.  I use this method to
run DOS doors through Synchronet (for Unix).  The idea is the same.  One
thing that may confuse you is that there is no modem emulator (like
vmodem for OS/2), only a COM/FOSSIL emulator, which takes
console/terminal I/O on the outside and redirects it to appear as if it
was received on a COM port (or from FOSSIL driver) on the inside of the
DOS box.  The virtual COM port on the DOS box corresponds to no physical
COM port, only to the I/O from the outside.  It also has nothing in
common with any other virtual COM ports in any other concurrently
running DOS boxes.  This is why you can just set COM1 for every PCBoard
node and it will work fine if executed as if the COM port has a modem on
it that is already connected.  What you _cannot_ do is run PCBoard and
have it "answer the phone".  That would require a modem emulator which
we do not have (and don't really need).

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis@icequake.net>

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