Mystic BBS...

Posted by: @bucko

Anyone else running Mystic?? Contrary to what some say, that is a great piece of software. I use it on my Wrong Number ][ BBS and it acts as a HUB/BBS/Website(for a few weeks it did) File Library Server, Login Menu Server. It's amazing the things you can do with it!!

I remember years ago evaluating the offerings of "current" bbs software to run and for me Mystic won. It is SOO customizable and still has that DOS BBS days feel to it. But the ability to customize it so much is what go me!  Guess you could say I am team Mystic (for a windows bbs). 😉 

I did the same thing, I loaded and configured about 10 BBS programs. Mystic by far to me was the easiest to get going. THen as I learned more about it the customizing that can be done with it is unreal! Case in point, I have a File Server which I RLOGIN into from the Mystic or any BBS that supports RLOGIN and can share the files with no issues!

@bucko My only wish for Mystic is I wish it had a better WFC screen. I guess running C-Net and Image for soo many years back in the day I expect to have a good WFC screen with all my stats and quick functions.  I have seen some folks create custom WFC for Mystic but I never looking into that much at all.

@palkat Actually it has a pretty decent one.. Just run Nodespy, I have it set up as a shortcut on my desktop and if I want any info on the BBS I just double click it and bang I can tell you who is online and how many calls etc..

@bucko yeah I always have Node Spy running right above my Mystic Server.  It does work out pretty good that is for sure!

I downloaded it with the intention of setting it up on my Linux Laptop, but that has since been commandeered as a reference laptop on my workbench when repairing Commodore's. It's nice to be able to pull up data sheets and blow them up to a readable version lol. Who were these schematic guys and why where they printing so small? lol

Besides, my first love is my Commodore BBS and I barely have time for that, but I'll always have it up because it's a work in progress.

I did do a lot of research in choosing the PC BBS software, and Mystic seemed to be the best, easiest choice I recall.

@mr-micro a few years back when I was looking for a PC BBS, of all the ones I tried Mystic had the old Commodore Image/CNet feel in the fact that I could customize the business out of it! That is what made me go with Mystic, in fact I changed the default main menu commands to be more Image BBS like. LOL

LOL we are a lot alike Palkat, back in 2018 when I decided to get back into BBS'n I downloaded Synchronet (I remember it from back in the day being a really feature rich BBS), WWIV, Renegade, Mystic, and I even played with my old Wildcat! WinServer, and a copy of Wilcat! Dos v4.1 that I also owned. The first board I setup was WildCat! Only allowed 2 nodes, when I contacted Hector from Santronics to see about getting a 16 line upgrade he told me it would cost me now get this, $200 to upgrade my old WC5 to the latest and greatest WinServer, then another $500 or so to upgrade to 16 nodes! I said hell no! I then moved on to WWIV, to basic for me plus at the time it was more DOS then windows.Renegade was the same thing to DOS and to hard to get setup with the fossil drivers and front end etc. Next was Mystic, set it up in 10 minutes and had it answering calls! But it was really plain! I then tried SynchroNet, wow talk about features! but it was not as easy to set up as Mystic.. I went online with Mystic and posted an add in the BBS 2.0 group on Facebook, and was immediately met with "Typical new Mystic SysOp" "can't even set his bbs up correctly" only person who stood up for me was the sysOp of the group. (I will leave that as it is) over the next 3 months I modified that board to do just about anything. Here we are 3 years later, and I have created an Image Theme for it, I have cursor driven menus, a door server made from SynchroNet BBS, a file server and a LOGIN server made from Mystic.. If you want to start your own BBS grab Mystic and use that! It's easy and you can pretty much do anything with it!

Wanted to add on to this post.. I wanted to explain a couple of things that I was mentioning before. I have a File Server which is available to anyone who has a BBS which supports RLOGIN it currently holds about 13 CD's of PD files, along with some other things. I intend to put about 49 Amiga Telecom floppy disks (Some of the GEnie Telecom Roundtable File Library from when I was the SysOp of the RT) also on it. If you are interested in hooking up to it, send me a private message or an email at wrgnbr2@gmail.com and I will send you a ID and password. I also mention a Door Server based on SynchroNet, this is a dupe of DoorParty if you know DoorParty you will know it is very easy to hook up to any BBS which also Supports RLOGIN, same as the FileServer email me and I can give you a ID and PW to get your BBS hooked up to it.. I also have a Login Server, what is a Login Server? I use it as a Front end for access to all of my BBS' I have it set up through fTelnet on my website (wnbbs.duckdns.org) instead of having 5 different fTelnet links on my website, you just click connect on one and the Login Server pops up.. I also have a BBS Phonebook server which is not online.. All of these things are done with Mystic BBS (The door server is all Synchronet), that is how easily configurable it is.. Special thanks goes out to Todd Solaris from Error 404 for the ideas and me copying his ideas for the login server and file server, I learned more about Mystic just by copying his ideas then anything.. So that is my spiel....

@bucko So can you explain why Syncronet is used for doorservers over Mystic? I have wondered this but never looked into it.

Synchro makes a great door server because there are routines in it that allow you to do it. You can have the BBS go straight to the doors menu from login. Mystic as configurable as it is can do the same thing but will not allow annoymous logins via RLOGIN, and from what I understand g00r00 will not write it in. Getting back to Synchro, it too is sort of like that, if you rlogin in it will allow you in but you will need to setup a username and password, after that you will be good to go, only problem is for a regular user that is fine as they can set their term program up to send the info upon login automatically. BUT what about a BBS? RLOGIN is setup on most BBS' to send USERHANDLE and PASSWORD (Password is usually just garbage). eChicken wrote a routine (java file) that allows BBS' to RLOGIN in by passing the @USER@ and @PASS@ automatically. Thus Doorparty login method, I use the same routine in my door server except I don't have the extra tunneling that DoorParty does (at least I have no installed it as of yet). My FileServer though is built on Mystic, because it's not user info that I need for someone to log in, so when someone wants to join their BBS to it, I just send them a username and password and setup an account on the system it runs on and they can tie in via RLOGIN. I have come pretty much full circle now so I will be working on my FileServer again soon, I intend to add in a cursor menu and more CD's and more Commodore and Amiga files I have here. If anyone here runs a BBS that supports RLOGIN (Mystic, SynchroNet, Enigma, I know for sure do) and you want to hook up to a ready made file library with currently about 13 CD's and tons of Commodore and Amiga files, send me a message at wrgnbr2@gmail.com and I will send you a username and password with instructions on hooking up...