Syncterm is a BBS terminal program which uses Telnet/SSH.
Is it possible to torify this program? If telnet would receive no support, would SSH work?
WOW did not know BBS still existed .
I can’t possible see how Syncterm could be TORified. I searched the docs and see no mention of proxy anywhere.
Maybe if you described what you want to do with it someone could suggest some way to do it via Tor. Obviously you want to hide your IP or you would not be here.
Putty does have SOCKS 5 capability which could go through the Tor proxy which starts when you open the Tor browser. In the connection section I see SSH and Telnet.
You would have to try this. The port is 9150 when the Tor browser is started.
Yup, there’s a lot of them. here’s probably the best BBS List around:
“The Telnet BBS Guide focuses Bulletin Board Systems - the original Social Network, serving the BBS community for over 28 years! We list both Dial-Up and Telnet accessible Bulletin Board Systems all over the world. We currently list 1042 BBS and related systems with brief and detailed descriptions and a downloadable text-version listing suitable for listing on your BBS or for as a download for others to view and use.”
And there are some with the option of using SSH.
I’m looking to connect to BBSes while using SSH and wondering if I could do this with Tor. Telnet is the most supported connection method of the majority of the boards, I don’t know how you’d successfully torify that! So, just SSH.
The program I mentioned, “Syncterm”, is but one of a few programs which offer basically the same thing, but with different features. Perhaps another one would work, I don’t know, I just chose Syncterm because it seems to be the most popular one around.
Thank you. I will try this sometime in the near future.
BBSes will no doubt make a return, in some form or another, when age verification (and more) poison drips from every motherboard and software/service.
Those new and old can check YouTube for videos, just search for syncterm, bbs, among others and you’ll find a lot of them.
According to various AI, it is possible!
That is, if the AI information is correct. I didn’t want to copy/paste it here.
Now I’ll have to play a little bit and see how well it works.
Ha, it’s strange that this BBS topic came up. I recently read that some people are starting to use older tech. Not that they are safer but because no one is programming hacks for them since they are old. Eudora was one which was mentioned. So if 3000 people use it who will invest time for that.
I’ll give this a try since I now have a list of BBSs. Had not idea where they lived.
Edited later:
I was able to connect to a BBS using Putty via a Tor proxy. I had to use telnet because that is what it specified the connection should be. Was it encrypted from the exit node. Don’t know. Telnet does do TLS/SSL but did it do it on this occasion.
Anything else I should/could try to validate all this?
PuTTY log 2026.09.23
Synchronet BBS for Linux Version 3.22
Telnet connection from: 107.189.1.175
.
.
.
tor.likogan.dev [107.189.1.175]
Synchronet BBS for Linux Version 3.22 Copyright 2026 Rob Swindell
============================================================
TAILS1154 BBS
Welcome to the system!
============================================================
Forums ¦ Files ¦ Games ¦ Messages ¦ Chat
============================================================
Hmm.. I’m not sure how the display will look when compared to SyncTerm. A lot of ANSI Art and stuff will probably be excluded w/ PuTTY.
Try with SyncTerm if you want to connect to a BBS and have it display the enivornment as it should.
Thanks for reporting back, I haven’t had a chance yet to try torifying SyncTerm but I look forward to it! 
About the SSH thing. This seems only possible if the BBS offers that connection. Most seems to be only telnet.
My question is does it use SSL/TLS when using telnet. I am guessing yes but would have to test. I can’t see anyone doing it in clear text especially logins.
Like I said above, I doubt you can do it with SyncTerm. I does not have an option for using a proxy (that I can see).
It looked OK to me but I never did a login. I only went as far as being a guest and only tried 1 BBS.
Check this out. It still needs some polishing but provides a similar type bbs feel and is already torified.
Hmm.. had to redo my post since my previous reply was not approved after 20 some hours… I don’t know why..
So true.
Agreed, I wish more of the boards had SSH as an option.
Thanks. Perhaps I’ll contact SyncTerm’s author and see if he wants to add capability to it.
Noted, thanks. Well, darn it, AI said it SyncTerm could be torified, I guess it was wrong. One AI said use torsocks and mentioned a port, another said to use torify and mentioned another port, so IDK…
Using telnet I tried another BBS along with the one above while capturing the traffic. Both were in clear text. In the Synchronet BBS for Linux docs I saw a parameter for an optional cryptolib which I assumed was for SSL/TLS so my assumption above about telnet and SSL/TLS was wrong.
AI says telnet cannot do SSL/TLS and you need to wrap it inside a SSL tunnel with a SSL program. Too weird, too complicated!
With a Putty SSH connection proxied through Tor I could contact a BBS but am stuck at a login which I presume is a SSH login. I don’t have that so no way to see how the actual BBS looks on the screen.
I found that a lot of these BBSs are available with an internet connection via a browser. I connected via Tor Browser but again am stuck but now at a BBS login just as my tests using telnet proxied through Tor. Is this not an option?