Slow But Unlimited BBSing Over Cell Phone Data
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This is kind of cool so I thought that I'd share it. There are some cellular service providers that offer something like 25 or 50 gigs of data, but also include "unlimited" slower tier service once your main data has been used up. The good thing about BBSing is that it takes practically zero data traffic as its all text-based, and even at the highest download and upload speeds of BBSes using zModem is capped by the protocol itself at 1.4 MB/s, but that's not so bad considering its BBS technology. So you will get to have unlimited BBSing with one of these "mostly unlimited" cell phone service plans. Now hosting of a BBS over cellphone data service is probably not the best of ideas, but being a client to a BBS system would work out quite well.

As its communications over a non-trusted network (the radio waves in communication over cellular data), it is advised to connect to your BBS of choice using the SSH protocol. The cellular data service providers use trivial encryption sometimes, but its not enough to rely on for actual data security.

If you run an Air B'n'B at a cottage somewhere you could buy a 4G LTE or 5G Cell Data Modem to provide slow Internet service there, which would allow your clients access to slow Internet, however slow is better than nothing. You can buy these such 4G LTE modems on Amazon for around $100 USD. Just put the SIM card in them, connect them to a power wall outlet, setup the password for your WiFi, connect with any arbitrary device that supports WiFi, and you're good to go. This setup would be better than using a WiFi Hot Spot, as Hot Spots generally support one user at a time, whereas a Dedicated Cellular WiFi Router can have ten or more users simultaneously...

Unlimited BBSing? Sounds like a lot of fun 'eh? Well this can be put into practice if you choose to make it so. So I've seen 4G LTE modems on Amazon before for a decent price, but am uncertain about 5G modems. I'm sure that they will be made and sold eventually. Have some fun times with this...

Cheers!
-warmfuzzy

P.S. I'd like to relate a story to you. I was in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was wanting to get a taxi ride at the main terminal and there was a line up of a half dozen taxis, so I picked the first one and inquired of whether they accept VISA or MasterCard and the taxi driver said that its up to me, however there had been a lot of people who got their credit cards compromised in transit over the airwaves and that he wouldn't take responsibility for by card information getting stolen, but he'd give me a ride if I really wanted one and I was accepting of those terms. So I took the taxi, and had no problems, but it is a serious point to consider: your data is not secure if it goes over cellular data services, so watch out, you could be a victim of carding. The take away from all this? Use cellular data service that is encrypted through a VPN (virtual private network), which secures your data across untrusted networks and bounces your communications through a secure portal on the Internet and obfuscates your location and encrypts your data from prying eyes.

Cheers once more!
-warmfuzzy

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (700:100/37)

BBS over cellphone data service is probably not the best of ideas, but being a client to a BBS system would work out quite well.

The thing that I don't like about it is that big tech can still shut it down.

The phone company CEOs are part of the world elite. They conspire to reach common goals. If Zuckerberg wants your BBS to be offline "to stop misinformation," then one of his slaves can just press a button and your BBS will be offline.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: SPOT BBS / k9zw (700:100/69)

The thing that I don't like about it is that big tech can still shut it down.
The phone company CEOs are part of the world elite. They conspire to
reach common goals. If Zuckerberg wants your BBS to be offline "to stop misinformation," then one of his slaves can just press a button and your BBS will be offline.

Old post I'm replying to, just did a rescan and started getting some messages back (confused ..)

This topic always concerns me: The best way to communicate with family and close friends during a time when the internet is down, cell phones are not working, for any reason. I feel like I should know this but, I don't. What happened to all of the dial up lines such as the wire and original tech to utilize them? What would it take to utilize them even on a local level? Or are they compost by now? I'm sure I've cut mine with a shovel 100's of times. I just remember not that long ago being on ATT DSL which utilized the analog wires by simply converting it to digital for transmission then back to analog on the send and receive end. It wasn't new wire, to my knowledge.

I just feel that depending on any form of internet or cell tech would be a complete waste of time and that there would have to be an alterative that is simple for an 8 year old to use (literally, I have kids). Curious of ones thoughts here.

|15-|12t|04G
|15www|08.|15theun|07dergrou|08nd|07.|08us|15:|0810023

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Underground (700:100/55)

Hello TG!

** On Sunday 29.12.24 - 11:34, The.Godfather wrote to shitty:

The thing that I don't like about it is that big tech can still shut it sh>> down.
The phone company CEOs are part of the world elite. They conspire to
reach common goals. If Zuckerberg wants your BBS to be offline "to stop sh>> misinformation," then one of his slaves can just press a button and your sh>> BBS will be offline.

Oh boy.. I don't even have that original one on my system. How
old is it?

Old post I'm replying to, just did a rescan and started getting some
messages back (confused ..)

This topic always concerns me: The best way to communicate with family and close friends during a time when the internet is down, cell phones are not working, for any reason. I feel like I should know this but, I don't. What happened to all of the dial up lines such as the wire and original tech to utilize them? What would it take to utilize them even on a local level? Or are they compost by now? I'm sure I've cut mine with a shovel 100's of times. I just remember not that long ago being on ATT DSL which utilized
the analog wires by simply converting it to digital for transmission then back to analog on the send and receive end. It wasn't new wire, to my knowledge.

I just feel that depending on any form of internet or cell tech would be a complete waste of time and that there would have to be an alterative that is simple for an 8 year old to use (literally, I have kids). Curious of ones thoughts here.

Check out the Briar app. It facilitates comms between units
via cell, wifi, and Bluetooth. It "networks" all users using
Briar, and sends messages with whatever radio tech is in use.

So.. technically, even if everyone were to use BT, the messages
would traverse the distance required as long as there was
another Briar user online in between and within range.

If you are inclined to try Briar for the sake of having a
contact with it, I can send you my creds.

Briar has forum and blog features too.

I have retired land-line for my phone at home. I got tired of
the constant recurring grounding noises at certain times of
year. I use a ZTE mf279t. It's cellular, but the sim fits
inside of it and allows me to simply feed the existing standard
phone-line system to the entire house.
--- SBBSecho 3.23-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (700:100/16)

Check out the Briar app. It facilitates comms between units
via cell, wifi, and Bluetooth. It "networks" all users using
Briar, and sends messages with whatever radio tech is in use.

I read all of your explanation and I will take your advice and find some ytube videos and or telegram channels/internet pages to check out. So basically it could be low voltage battery operated radio tech even, without need of immediate power .. and or for a PC I could use a solar battery generator & laptop in most cases? If so sounds pretty slick. Thanks for pointing me in that direction

|15-|12t|04G
|15www|08.|15theun|07dergrou|08nd|07.|08us|15:|0810023

... Press any key to continue or any other key to quit...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Underground (700:100/55)