Linking a BBS

A BBS links to LORD Server with an rlogin door that connects to the server's rlogin port. The BBS user's name becomes their account on the server, with no password asked for: the server trusts the BBS to have logged the player in. So the server has to know which BBSes to trust, in one of two ways:

Way	For	Players' accounts
`RLoginAllow`	Your own BBS, or a few BBSes whose addresses you know.	Their BBS names: `Bob`
A BBS key (1.4)	Any other BBS, from anywhere, without asking you first.	Their BBS names and the BBS's tag: `Bob@EXB`

Your own BBS: RLoginAllow

List the BBS's address in RLoginAllow and its door needs nothing more:

RLoginAllow=10.0.0.46

Several BBSes can be listed, comma separated. RLoginAllow=none lets no BBS in without a key. Blank lets anyone rlogin in as any name, so leave it blank only on a private network.

The address is the one the server sees. If a BBS is refused, the log says rlogin from <address> refused.

Other BBSes: keys

A BBS with a key can link from anywhere and doesn't have to ask you first. Its door sends the key as the rlogin server user name, and its players' accounts are their names with the BBS's tag added (Bob@EXB). A Bob on one BBS and a Bob on another are two players. The tag shows in who's on and the accounts list; in the game each player picks a character name as usual, and the game won't let two characters have the same name.

Signing up

A BBS signs itself up once. Its sysop makes a door with the server user name register and runs it:

?rlogin bbs.example.com:5130 -s register -P

The server asks for the BBS's name (3 to 40 characters) and a tag (2 to 8 letters or digits), then shows the key, once, and the door command line to use:

  Signed up.  Your BBS key is:

      7KQ2-M9XD-4TPW-H3NC

  Write it down now: it isn't shown again.  Your door sends it as the
  rlogin server user name (on some BBS software, the password).  On
  Synchronet the door's command line is:

    ?rlogin bbs.example.com:5130 -s 7KQ2-M9XD-4TPW-H3NC -t xtrn=A -P

The sysop then changes the door to that command line, and their players can play. The sign-up door can be deleted.

Set PublicAddress (for example bbs.example.com:5130) so the sign-up screen shows the right address. The xtrn= letter is the first open game.
Keys are 16 characters from the letters and digits that can't be mistaken for each other (no 0, O, 1 or I). They work in upper or lower case, with or without the dashes.
Each address can sign up 3 BBSes a day, and 20 BBSes can sign up a day in all.
BBSSignup=0 turns sign-ups off; you can still make keys at the console with bbs add.

Looking after BBSes

Command	What it does
`bbs`	The BBSes with keys: tag, name, when and where they signed up, last call, calls.
`bbs add <tag> <name>`	Give a BBS a key yourself, for example for a BBS that can't run the sign-up door.
`bbs newkey <tag>`	A new key for a BBS whose key got out. The old one stops working at once.
`bbs disable <tag>`	Stop its players logging in. `bbs enable <tag>` undoes it.
`bbs remove <tag>`	Delete it. Its players' accounts (`name@TAG`) are kept.

Keys are kept in bbses.dat as hashes, so a lost key can't be looked up, only replaced with bbs newkey. Anyone who has a BBS's key can play as its players: it should stay between you and that BBS's sysop.

The door

The rlogin connection carries three names: the client user (the player), the server user and the terminal type.

The client user name is the player's account name.
The server user name is the BBS's key, or register. A BBS in RLoginAllow can send anything there (or xtrn=A).
The terminal type xtrn=A takes the player straight into game A, and back to the BBS when they quit. Without it they get the game menu.

Synchronet

SCFG > External Programs > Online Programs (Doors) > a section such as Games > add a program:

Field	Value
Name	LORD - Windows Server (or what callers should see)
Internal Code	LORDWIN
Command Line	`?rlogin <server>:<port> -s <key> -t xtrn=A -P` (a BBS with a key) `?rlogin <server>:<port> -t xtrn=A -P` (a BBS in `RLoginAllow`)
Multiple Concurrent Users	Yes
Native Executable/Script	No (`?` runs Synchronet's own rlogin.js)
BBS Drop File Type	None

Synchronet's ?rlogin sends the user's alias as the client user name. Its options: -s the server user name, -t the terminal type, -P don't pause before connecting, -q no banner, -T <seconds> the connect time-out.

Kalgoorlie Retro BBS has: ?rlogin 10.0.0.8:5130 -t xtrn=A -P

Mystic

A menu item with the command IR (outbound rlogin) and the data:

/addr=<server> /port=<port> /user=@USER@ /pass=<key> /term=xtrn=A

Mystic may send the user and password fields the other way round from Synchronet's ?rlogin; from 1.4.1 the server takes the key (or register) from either field. See the step-by-step.

EleBBS and others

Use the BBS software's rlogin door or menu command, with:

the user's name or alias as the client user name;
the key as the server user name (some software calls it the password);
xtrn=A as the terminal type, to open a game directly.

Linking to Kalgoorlie Retro's server

Sysops are welcome to link their BBS to the LORD Server at Kalgoorlie Retro: see For sysops: link your BBS, step by step for Synchronet and Mystic.

Security

The server trusts the user name a BBS sends. Keys and RLoginAllow are what stop a stranger with an rlogin program logging in as any player.
A key is a shared secret, sent in clear text like everything else in rlogin. Replace it with bbs newkey if it gets out.
Don't leave RLoginAllow blank on a server the internet can reach.
Sysop rights go to account names. Don't make a name a sysop if a BBS could send it.

Kalgoorlie Retro Docs

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