#272 Can't pass MagicBBS Bot Blocker

[Andy Alt]

Hitting Escape twice does nothing when connecting to bbs.magicbbs.eu 6323 (MagicBBS Bot Blocker) I'm at commit f3752a6 (sbbs git repo). I don't really know if this is a syncterm bug or not, just tracking it for now. ESC works with the same BBS when using icy_term and waystone-comm. Other terms I've tried in which pressing ESC doesn't register are minicom (with modemu2k) and syncterm 1.8.

After setting the log config to debug level (telnet commands) the MagicBBS syncterm log only shows

Jul 23 18:14:43 Log opened
Jul 23 18:14:58 Log closed

I don't encounter this problem with many BBSes, although I only visit a few. The only other case like this: shsbbs.net the ESC doesn't register in minicom, but it does with syncterm 1.8 and 1.10a.

I'm on Manjaro Linux.

[Andy Alt]

Maybe something useful for you here: I asked Claude to look over the minicom and modemu2k code (I'm the maintainer of modemu2k). It suggested I use AT%R1 before dialing. That worked for me in minicom w/modemu2k. I was able to pass the MagicBBS bot blocker.

[Stephen James Hurd]

AT%R1 appears to do the same thing as selecting "Raw" mode in SyncTERM... suggesting that the BBS does not actually support telnet and that telnet is the wrong protocol to choose. However, I assume that after you pass the "MagicBBS Bot Blocker" telnet works correctly. For systems like this, SyncTERM has a "Defer Negotiate" option that will hold off using the telnet protocol until the remote initiates it.

It's an ugly hack the to a fundamentally broken telnet server, but I bet it will work.

[Andy Alt]

Tried. Toggling Defer Negotiate doesn't work for the MagicBBS bot blocker in syncterm 1.10a or 1.8.

[Stephen James Hurd]

Ok, the next thing I would suggest is using raw mode instead of telnet mode.

[Stephen James Hurd]

Confirmed that MagicBBS does not support telnet and the correct connection type is raw.
I've also updated Defer Negotiate to work better, so you would likely not see an issue using that until you attempted a file transfer.

[Andy Alt]

Built from the latest git, I'm able to pass the bot check now when Defer Negotiate is ON. Thank you!

[Andy Alt]

@deuce A few seconds after I posted the above, and about 10 minutes after I logged in with 1.10a, t received an email from the sysop of MagicBBS: "... I have made a few adjustments and now syncterm works correctly on connection type RAW and TELNET." I've confirmed I can now pass the bot blocker with syncterm 1.8. So... it's nice that things are working now; unfortunately, I can't confirm with you that your fix would have worked.