I just upgraded my internet connection from an AT&T DSL connection to AT&T Cellular wireless. It bumped me up from about 7 MBPS up, 0.7 down to 30+ up/25-30 down.

Here's the problem. With DSL, I had port forwarding. With Cellular Wireless, AT&T has not enabled the ability to port forward.

Is there a solution around this issue? If it is VPN, is there a suggestion
for a service?

Thanks for any feedback.

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

Hello Beery,

I just upgraded my internet connection from an AT&T DSL connection to
AT&T Cellular wireless. It bumped me up from about 7 MBPS up, 0.7
down to 30+ up/25-30 down.

Nice.

Here's the problem. With DSL, I had port forwarding. With Cellular Wireless, AT&T has not enabled the ability to port forward.

What kind of modem does this service come with?

Is there a solution around this issue? If it is VPN, is there a suggestion for a service?

Hopefully you can access the router as usual from a website on your lan like 192.168.0.0 or something like that.

If there isn't such a thing with your service you might be able to use a router with that modem.

Call them and tell them you want to telnet or ssh into your own computer when you are away and see what they have to say. Don't tell them you are running any servers (aside from a telnet/ssh server), they don't need to know that.

Ttyl :-),
Al

--- GoldED+/LNX
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)

I've been down that route with AT&T with that approach. They don't open any ports to allow port forwarding for anything including Telnet, etc.

I can access the modem, but they have blocked features to allow the
opportunity to port forward in the router.

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

I've been down that route with AT&T with that approach. They don't open any ports to allow port forwarding for anything including Telnet, etc.

I was afraid you might say that.

I can access the modem, but they have blocked features to allow the opportunity to port forward in the router.

The only option I can thnk of in a case like that is to use an external router if you can make that work with your modem. If these ports are blocked (I don't know why they would do that) you might not be able to make it work anyway.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)

Re: Re: VPN??
By: Beery to Al on Mon Jun 22 2020 02:07 pm

I've been down that route with AT&T with that approach. They don't open any ports to allow port forwarding for anything including Telnet, etc.

I can access the modem, but they have blocked features to allow the opportunity to port forward in the router.

Your best bet might be to then run a $5 VPS (somewhere in the cloud) and either host your BBS there, or have a VPN connection to inside your network.

If the latter, then you can port forward anything that hits the VPS to a specific host/port inside your network (at home)...

...δεσ∩

... The only good government.is a bad one in a hell of a fright.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

Your best bet might be to then run a $5 VPS (somewhere in the cloud) and either host your BBS there, or have a VPN connection to inside your network.

Are you aware of any reputable VPS's?

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

Re: Re: VPN??
By: Beery to alterego on Mon Jun 22 2020 09:18 pm

Are you aware of any reputable VPS's?

I'm not, but I often see messages from folks talking about who they use.

...δεσ∩

... He is all fault who has no fault at all.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

Are you aware of any reputable VPS's?

Are you planning to run your BBS in windows or linux?

If the latter, give digital ocean a look. I've been using them happily for years. You won't find better howto guides anywhere.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

On 22 Jun 2020, Beery said the following...

Are you aware of any reputable VPS's?

I use Lunanode (lunanode.com) as they have a $3.50 /mo option. I've also
used Digital Ocean who has a $5 /mo option.

Here's a link for a 60-day $100 credit with Digital Ocean:

https://try.digitalocean.com/performance/

Jay

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)

I've got two BBS's I run. One is on a Windows platform (Mystic BBS) and another one that has a Retro computer accessing a Raspberry PI through the
GPIO pins with a hard and software interface to give TCP socket access. That software (on the Retro) is constantly polling the PI looking for an inbound connection.

I saw your message about Digital Ocean, and another message after yours. I'm going to look at both and see if either fits my needs to what I want to do.

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

If the latter, give digital ocean a look. I've been using them happily
for years. You won't find better howto guides anywhere.

I can vouch for vultr.com, as my BBS is on a $6/month plan. I know there are Windows options, too, but the licensing makes it cost at least twice as much.

But having said that, I can also vouch for the Digital Ocean guides, since I used some of them when setting stuff up on Vultr. Had I realized it before I signed up, I probably would've considered Digital Ocean more strongly.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

I saw your message about Digital Ocean, and another message after yours. I'm going to look at both and see if either fits my needs to what I want to do.

It will only work if you plan to run an x86 linux BBS...though Windows is
sort of an option if you do a little hack and pay for an external service.
It's also not worth it :) I'm personally terrified of the idea of exposing a Windows server to the internet. :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

I suspect that these wireless operators might also use carrier grade NAT so you are sharing a public IP with other users.

My bbs is hosted locally but exposed to the rest of the world through a tunnel to a digital ocean droplet. Actually I have a few tunnels so I can run my own mail server locally too. If you have a spare raspberry pi lying around I wrote up a quick tutorial on how to use OpenVPN to build a tunnel between a local network and a cloud VPS and then use that raspberry pi as the gateway for a third machine (e.g. running a bbs, mail/web server) so that it is accessible. Works pretty much under any scenario including carrier grade NAT since as far as your bbs/web/mail server is concerned its egress/ingress to the wider internet is the VPS not your ISP.

https://bit.ly/2Vh4V3c

--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.12-beta (linux; arm; 12.16.1)
* Origin: sbb systems ~ https://bbs.sbbsystems.com (21:2/159)

alterego wrote to Beery <=-

Your best bet might be to then run a $5 VPS (somewhere in the cloud)
and either host your BBS there, or have a VPN connection to inside your network.

Yeah, I have a Giganews account with includes their VyprVPN offering and
that gives me a public IP address that I run my BBS on (I use
afraid.org's dyndns service to keep my winserver.org IP address updated
via a wget script.)

... When I was a little kid, we had a quicksand box. I was an only child
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: Lean Angle BBS * Southaven MS * winserver.org (21:2/136)

I have two BBS's; one is not able to be hosted on any system as it is a Retro computer and that is the one more important to me.

I really just need AT&T to open up port forwarding on their wireless cellular internet, however that looks like it is going to be next to
impossible.........

Beery

Your best bet might be to then run a $5 VPS (somewhere in the cloud) and either host your BBS there, or have a VPN connection to inside yo network.

Yeah, I have a Giganews account with includes their VyprVPN offering and that gives me a public IP address that I run my BBS on (I use
afraid.org's dyndns service to keep my winserver.org IP address updated via a wget script.)

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

I have two BBS's; one is not able to be hosted on any system as it is a Retr
computer and that is the one more important to me.

I really just need AT&T to open up port forwarding on their wireless cellula
internet, however that looks like it is going to be next to impossible.........

Beery

Your best bet might be to then run a $5 VPS (somewhere in the clou
and either host your BBS there, or have a VPN connection to inside
network.

Yeah, I have a Giganews account with includes their VyprVPN offering an
that gives me a public IP address that I run my BBS on (I use afraid.org's dyndns service to keep my winserver.org IP address updated
via a wget script.)

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

Well, I doubt that will happen on a cellular network. Which is why I
use VyprVPN that comes with my GigaNews Diamond account. I get a
routable public IP that users can telnto into regardless of the
firewall between the host and the Internet.

... Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your taglines!
--- Wildcat! v10.0.454.10 (May 26 2020), Editor Mod v2.1
* Origin: Lean Angle BBS * Southaven MS * winserver.org (21:2/136)

Is there a solution around this issue? If it is VPN, is there a suggestion for a service?

Beery,

One thing that *might* work, but I haven't tried it is to get a VPS (if you don't go the VPN route). Setup an AWS t2.micro for like $5/month. You can use this for a VPN too, but for a VPS (virtual private server) you can do
something like:

On BBS create reverse SSH tunnel to AWS VPS for port 23:
ssh -R 23:localhost:23 aws_user@<AWSIP>

On the AWS server:
Ensure /etc/ssh/sshd_config or /etc/default/sshd_config has the following
line:
GatewayPorts yes
Also, ensure your AWS firewall rules allow port 23 open

You might need to play with the ssh tunnel syntax a little. If this does not work, you can try it with the reverse ssh tunnel and xinet.d

Using Xinet.d, you can listen on port 23 (AWS) for any connection, then run a script to "telnet localhost:23" which will pop over to your BBS with the reverse tunnel you created. I use reverse and forward tunneling all the time and they are fantastic. And encrypted.

Cheers,
Analog

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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/09 (Linux/64)
* Origin: deadbeatz.org (21:2/123)

Using Xinet.d, you can listen on port 23 (AWS) for any connection, then run a script to "telnet localhost:23" which will pop over to your BBS

Just for clarity, you would use a different port than I posted for Xinet. Something like 2323 between BBS and VPS so as not to block 23 that Xinet listens on.

Also, if you're interested in some Xinet help, I've set it up a lot and have
an AWS instance I could play around with to see if this will work. I might
have to just for fun.

Cheers,
Analog

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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/09 (Linux/64)
* Origin: deadbeatz.org (21:2/123)

Analog,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Between Mystic BBS, a separate Retro BBS, and a test system, I have about 6 ports I need to redirect to three different PC's. Only one of which is a Windows PC, and the other two have Raspberry PI's as a TCP interface to the Retro systems. Three ports are used for Telnet, one HTML server for Mystic, a BinkP interface, and a FTP interface.

Not sure how all of that would work out.

If there is a solution, I don't think it is going to be simple.

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

I did find a perfect example of what I was thinking for running a revers SSH tunnel and exposing it on to the internet on the remote server. Also, in the included page, you can run it with systemd to auto connect when you start up your bbs machine (VM/Docker/Bare metal). If you're running your BBS in Docker on Windows Subsytem for Linux (WSL 2) like I am, you can run it with systemd "genie".

https://medium.com/gowombat/tutorial-how-to-use-ssh-tunnel-to-expose-a-local-se rver-to-the-internet-4e975e1965e5

Cheers,
Analog

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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/09 (Linux/64)
* Origin: deadbeatz.org (21:2/123)

Between Mystic BBS, a separate Retro BBS, and a test system, I have
about 6 ports I need to redirect to three different PC's. Only one of

Well, if you're redirecting to an off-site VPS, you can forward any and all ports you need with SSH.

I would start with one, primarily TELNET, and see if it works. Then just do
the same for your web server and other BBS'.

All you're doing is using the outside-the-wifi-route system as a gateway into your network with the setup I provided.

I do a lot of complicated stuff so I feel your pain. I just got Windows 10
2004 WSL2 using a static IP and briding an external network interface to run Docker. Why? Docker with WSL 2 does not forward IP addresses from external connections in so all connections hitting my BBS were from the Host machine regardless where they originated. Now it all works right. Took me 3 days of beating on Windows virtual switches, Windows WSL Ubuntu to get this up.

But who doesn't enjoy a challenge? I mean the pure fact that you're running 80's/90's software still on any modern non-DOS/OS2 system is a challenge for most people.

Cheers,
Analog

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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/09 (Linux/64)
* Origin: deadbeatz.org (21:2/123)

Thanks for the link.

Looks pretty complicated, but at least it details instructions.

Gotta think on this one as it sounds like it has what I need to get my Raspberry PI's up and connected.

Beery

--Beery Miller -- 9640 News BBS -- 9640news.ddns.net:9640 --

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/16 (Windows/64)
* Origin: 9640 News BBS (21:4/109)

Looks pretty complicated, but at least it details instructions.

Gotta think on this one as it sounds like it has what I need to get my Raspberry PI's up and connected.

Let me know if you need help. It's not that bad unless you haven't touched
that stuff before. Easy is relative right?

:)

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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/09 (Linux/64)
* Origin: deadbeatz.org (21:2/123)