BBSes with cursor navigation menus not working
#21
Ok, I will get a couple of other people to test this out. I can't duplicate your setup currently, or at least I get different results than you do with my setups here, with exception of NetRunner which does work - everything else fails on non-WiModem232 hardware exactly the same as you describe. Again, I think that this is a Telnet issue. I have no idea what Zimodem supports for Telnet commands. In order to turn off Telnet with Zimodem you have to disable it using the S-register command AND then use ATD, not ATDT. At least that is the what documentation states.
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#22
So... I finally figured out where to get the Mystic BBS, and as I thought Telnet is not an option. In fact, modern terminals like NetRunner do not even offer support for serial based communications so you are stuck going through a direct TCP/IP connection using your PC and router.

There is a whole section on Telnet specific functionality in the Mystic BBS documentation. It is used extensively for things like the cursor movement.

I received one of the generic WiFi modems and the Zimodem firmware has the exact same result with the cursor keys adding ESC to them. So, I am not sure what to think.

I did chat with the SYSOP of ONYX BBS and found out that he is actually sending cursor functions as part of scripts. I have never checked to see what Telnet commands (if any) are being sent after the initial connection screen (before the lock screen, which has now been removed). It could be that there are many Telnet commands that are being sent. I literally support 4 commands, out of hundreds that are documented. So, I will see what else might be called.
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#23
The reason I reported this to you is mainly because there are over 200+ BBSes that run Mystic so I felt it was important to let you know. :-)

Thanks for the assistance and for looking into it as far as you have thus far.
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#24
Well, 200 is not very many in the grand scheme of things (there are tens of thousands of BBS's world-wide) and clearly over the last 7 years this has never been an issue as this is the first I am hearing about it.

After reading the documentation for the Mystic BBS it is pretty obvious that it was designed around the Telnet system and makes use of numerous Telnet commands. There are literally hundreds of possible Telnet commands, so if this is something simple that can be added then I can look at it. Otherwise, I can't justify the time adding support for a particular BBS where they have actually abandoned serial support themselves and require a PC w/internet (like NetRunner does). Since the Zimodem firmware does not appear to work either, I am guessing this must be a lot of various Telnet commands. I went and located the Zimodem source code and see that it supports the exact same set of Telnet commands that I do, so it is not surprising the results are the same as anything (WiModem232, other terminal programs, etc.) that does not have whatever Telnet support is missing.
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#25
After a lot of experimenting I ended up adding support for 4 more Telnet commands and I got the cursor to work, but there are some issues overall that is going to require re-writing the entire Telnet parser to handle varying length Telnet commands. So, this is going to take a bit of time.
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#26
(11-25-2022, 12:59 PM)admin Wrote: After a lot of experimenting I ended up adding support for 4 more Telnet commands and I got the cursor to work, but there are some issues overall that is going to require re-writing the entire Telnet parser to handle varying length Telnet commands.  So, this is going to take a bit of time.

I too look forward to any possible fix your able to do Jim.  As I am having all the exact issues as Chaniyth described, I contacted you by email a couple months ago about this as you might remember. I do run a Mystic BBS and also call out to many other Mystic BBSes and the wimodem 232 v2 I bought from you works great on everything except the menus on Mystic that require arrow keys and such.  For myself that is a big deal as Mystic is very arrow key driven on the backend system alone.  I have not used the WiModem 232 since early Nov but will try playing with it again as I really prefer it over my other options.  

Thanks for all the great work your doing!
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#27
It's on my "to-do" list, but because this literally affects maybe just a handful of people it's not a priority at the moment.
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#28
So, I solved this mystery and it had nothing to do with the Telnet support - but there will now be support for many different Telnet functions because of me integrating more Telnet functionality, thinking that this was a Telnet issue! A brand new update is coming shortly.
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#29
(01-27-2023, 03:30 PM)admin Wrote: So, I solved this mystery and it had nothing to do with the Telnet support - but there will now be support for many different Telnet functions because of me integrating more Telnet functionality, thinking that this was a Telnet issue!  A brand new update is coming shortly.


Hey Jim,

That's wonderful news and I'm very thankful that you figured it out! What was causing the issue?

Additional telnet funtionality may fix other issues that havn't been discovered yet so in the long run it may actually be a blessing in disguise.  Shy

I'm looking forward to the upcoming firmware update!
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#30
I sent you a PM with details about the problem, which turned out to be the WiModem232 responds too fast to the incoming data and the router/ISP ping times causing the issue.
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