Here is a simple BBS backed by standard POP and SMTP email servers. This could be useful in an intranet, for example an AREDN network. If there are standard email servers in the intranet, this BBS enables users to access them via VARA and/or AX.25 packet radio. BBS users can exchange email with other users of the mail servers, who may use email clients like Microsoft Mail or Outlook.

Outpost works with this BBS. Users connect to the BBS via AX.25 or VARA. The user interface is a small subset of JNOS version 2. Unlike JNOS, this BBS uses a POP server to download messages, an SMTP server to send messages, an LDAP server to identify users, an AGWPE-compatible server to handle AX.25 connections and a VARA-compatible TNC to handle VARA connections.

To run the BBS:

1. Clone this repository.
2. Start a command interpreter (e.g. bash or Windows cmd) in your clone.
3. Check whether node.js is installed, by running the command npm --version . If not, install node.js.
4. Download node modules, by running the command npm install . Ignore output about "gyp ERR! find Python"; it seems to be harmless.
5. Copy config-example.ini to config.ini.
6. Edit config.ini to identify:
   • your POP, SMTP, LDAP, AGWPE and VARA servers
   • an LDAP user authorized to read users' passwords (bindDN and password)
   • how to find a user's password in the LDAP directory (URL, userIdAttribute and passwordAttribute)
7. Run the command node ./bbs.js

A user's email address is their call sign plus the POP emailDomain in config.ini.

A user may read other mailboxes using the BBS 'AREA' command, but may not delete mail from them. This is useful for publishing bulletins to be read by all users. Outpost can be configured to automatically download these bulletins, and not download a bulletin repeatedly.

The output from bbs.js is generated using Bunyan and bunyan-format.

This software works on Windows and Linux, with node.js versions 8.17.0, 10.18.1 and 12.22.12, Direwolf version 1.7a, and UZ7HO SoundModem version 1.13. It might work with other versions or on Mac, but I haven't tried it.