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Title: BBS Bot-gate: Human verification system

Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:52:35 GMT
Link: https://github.com/xbit44/botgate

A TCP-level bot gate for BBS systems. BotGate sits in front of your BBS's
real telnet port and requires each caller to press ESC twice within a
configurable timeout before your actual BBS software ever sees the
connection. Callers who don't respond - or who are obviously automated rather
than human - are disconnected without ever reaching the BBS. Originally built
to protect a Spitfire BBS node running behind a NetSerial virtual-modem
bridge, but should work with any BBS reachable over telnet since it operates
purely at the TCP/telnet level with no dependency on, or awareness of, what's
actually running behind it. Features: Custom ansi/ascii prompt screens -
Synchronet-style .can blocklist support - Geo-blocking via IP2Location-format
.htaccess lists - Reverse-DNS hostname matching - Per-IP simultaneous
connection cap - Automatic rate-limiting with a self-managed, human-readable
temporary ban file -For Sync sysops optional proxy protocol support, so Sync
(with HAPROXY_PROTO enabled) can still see the real caller's IP for their own
filtering and logs - Pure Python 3 standard library, no third-party
dependencies, runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
[https://github.com/xbit44/botgate]

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