Are there any non-standard/undocumented things to try (setting up BBS)

[admin]

Are using a raw or Telnet connection?  I have been using a raw connection in my testing.  Works perfectly for me, but clearly AmiExpress (which also works perfectly) or any other BBS is far superior to Paragon.

Here is it working for me:

https://www.cbmstuff.com/data/paragon.mov


There is one difference in our setups.  I am using a different init string:

ATH0S0=1X1V0

I also have the config set to NOT answer the modem with ATA.