Hi All,

I was just mulling over stizzed's proposal of the BBSINFO spec & it got me to thinking.

Has there ever been discussion about using DNS to store/distribute nodelist data? It's already there, it's super reliable & accessible from everywhere.

If we stored BBSINFO data in DNS, this would make it easy to distribute & possibly even manage on-the-fly if we were to utilize existing dynamic dns technologies.

We could use a DNS TXT field to store each record. You can have as many entries with the same name as you like, so it would just be a matter of entering all of the data (which can be automated) into the same hostname and then you can poll one hostname to retrieve the whole list.

I've created two records using stizzed's proposed spec on my dns which you
can poll from bbsinfo.nrbbs.net.

Here's the current output:


Server: dns.google
Address: 8.8.4.4

Non-authoritative answer:
bbsinfo.nrbbs.net text =

"3,110,Northern_Realms,Binbrook_ON,Jay_Harris,,telnet://bbs.nrbbs.net:23,https: //www.nrbbs.net,,3,Mystic_BBS_v1.12_a45,0,20200602,3,2,NUL"

bbsinfo.nrbbs.net text =

",156,The_ROCK_BBS_III,Goshen_IN,Michael_Batts,,therockbbs.net:10023,www.theroc kbbs.net,,3,Mystic_BBS_v1.12_a45,0,20200602,2,NUL"


A BBS List application could be configured to poll DNS for the latest info
each time it's run. If DNS is unreachable for whatever reason it could use
the current cached data.

A couple of notes: The TXT record has a maximum length of 255 characters.
It *can* be longer, but the result would just be split into two returned records, the first being 255 characters and the 2nd being the remainder.

Thoughts?

Jay

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)

On 02 Jun 2020 at 03:44p, Warpslide pondered and said...

I was just mulling over stizzed's proposal of the BBSINFO spec & it got
me to thinking.

Has there ever been discussion about using DNS to store/distribute nodelist data? It's already there, it's super reliable & accessible
from everywhere.

I posted about this a few hours ago.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/04/20 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 03 Jun 2020, tenser said the following...

I posted about this a few hours ago.

Oh! Now I need to scroll back and look!


Jay

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)

On 06-02-20 15:44, Warpslide wrote to All <=-

Has there ever been discussion about using DNS to store/distribute nodelist data? It's already there, it's super reliable & accessible
from everywhere.

I think the DNS idea has a lot of merit. DNS has some useful properties, like its naturally distributed nature and ability to specify all sorts of information - the TXT record is quite versatile, and SRV records can cover all the services a BBS uses - might need some updated terminals and clients to fully take advantage of.

If we stored BBSINFO data in DNS, this would make it easy to distribute
& possibly even manage on-the-fly if we were to utilize existing
dynamic dns technologies.

All good points.


... I understand your concerns. Request denied. - Data
=== MultiMail/Win v0.51
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)