Supply Drop BBS process transport
Telnet access for Supply Drop BBS.
A standalone process transport plugin that lets classic Telnet clients connect to your Supply Drop instance. Install the package on the BBS host, let it register itself with Supply Drop, then connect on port 2323.
$ telnet bbs.example.net 2323
Connected to Supply Drop BBS.
Welcome, telnet-bob.
Type 'H' for commands.
> N
Quickstart
Get a sysop online in a few minutes.
This is the shortest path from an existing Supply Drop instance to a working Telnet listener on port 2323.
Read the full quickstart- Install the package on the computer that runs Supply Drop.
- Confirm Telnet appears in
supply-drop-bbs plugin list. - Check that port
2323is listening. - Connect with PuTTY or
telnet <bbs-host> 2323.
Install
Install the Debian package on Linux.
Choose the .deb that matches the computer running
Supply Drop. Raspberry Pi hosts usually use ARM64. Intel and AMD
Linux hosts use AMD64. The package installs the plugin, registers
it with Supply Drop, and restarts the BBS if it is already running.
curl -fsSL -o supply-drop-telnet.deb \
https://github.com/Mesh-America/supply-drop-telnet-transport-plugin/releases/latest/download/supply-drop-telnet-transport-plugin_arm64.deb
sudo dpkg -i supply-drop-telnet.debcurl -fsSL -o supply-drop-telnet.deb \
https://github.com/Mesh-America/supply-drop-telnet-transport-plugin/releases/latest/download/supply-drop-telnet-transport-plugin_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i supply-drop-telnet.deb- Requires Supply Drop BBS v0.6.0 or newer.
- Installs
/usr/bin/supply-drop-telnet. - Creates
/etc/supply-drop-bbs/plugins.d/telnet.toml. - Does not edit
config.toml.
Supply Drop v0.6.0+
Registration goes through plugins.d.
The Debian package calls Supply Drop's plugin CLI, which creates
/etc/supply-drop-bbs/plugins.d/telnet.toml. It never
edits config.toml. On startup, the plugin also reports
its version in the ready frame so the admin Plugins
table can display it.
supply-drop-bbs plugin add telnet /usr/bin/supply-drop-telnetUpgrade-safe
The drop-in config survives BBS upgrades.
The plugin add command is safe to run on every upgrade. If Telnet is already registered, Supply Drop prints that no changes were made and exits successfully.
/etc/supply-drop-bbs/plugins.d/telnet.toml
already configured — no changes madeOperator note
Expose Telnet deliberately.
Telnet is plaintext. Keep it on trusted networks, behind a VPN, or
behind SSH forwarding unless public plaintext access is intentional.
The Linux package uses the plugin default,
0.0.0.0:2323; use the drop-in file for a local-only
bind.
--bind 127.0.0.1:2323
--bind 0.0.0.0:2323
PuTTY setup
Select Other, then Telnet.
In PuTTY, setting port 2323 is not enough. The SSH radio button must be off. Select the Other radio button and choose Telnet in the dropdown before opening the session.
<bbs-host-or-ip>
2323
Other -> Telnet
Troubleshooting
Connection refused means no listener answered.
If the Pi rejects port 2323, check the listener on the Pi first. No listener means Supply Drop did not start the plugin, or the plugin exited during startup.
sudo ss -ltnp | grep ':2323'
sudo supply-drop-bbs plugin list
sudo journalctl -u supply-drop-bbs -n 100 --no-pagerDownloads
Packages are for the computer running Supply Drop.
Most Linux sysops should use the Debian package commands above. These direct downloads are for offline installs, manual inspection, or hosts where you already know the operating system and CPU type.