Every board here answered a call recently.

That's the whole idea. 2,268 BBSes, MUDs and door-game servers you can still reach by telnet, SSH, rlogin or modem, listed by 2600.network and checked every day.

How we check

• Three rounds a day. A board that answers is done for the day. One that doesn't gets up to two more tries, eight hours apart.
• Telnet: we connect like an ANSI terminal, read the welcome screen and hang up at the login prompt. We press Enter or Backspace only when a screen asks for it to work out your terminal.
• SSH: we read the server's greeting and hang up before logging in.
• rlogin: we only check that the port answers. The rlogin handshake sends a user name, and some boards create an account from it.
• No logins, no accounts. We stop at “are you human?” screens instead of trying to get past them.
• Software: most welcome screens name the BBS package and version. When we read it there, the listing says “identified by our checker”.
• Online means a board answered its latest check. Health covers the last 30 days: full marks for answering on the first try, less for needing a retry, none for no answer.

Where the calls come from

Checks go out through a VPN, so they reach your board from Private Internet Access addresses, not 2600.network's, and those addresses change. If your board blocks VPNs or filters by address and you'd like to let us through, email us and we'll work something out.

Intro screens

The screens in the gallery are captured by a person, connecting the way any caller would.

Sysops

Run a board that's listed here? Create an account, claim it, and keep the listing right yourself: write its description, fix its addresses, or hide it. To claim it, put a code on your login screen, open a link from the board's own machine, or add a DNS record, whichever suits your setup.

Know a board that isn't listed? Submit it. Anything else: [email protected].