Door Hub

What it is

A busy door game needs players, and most BBSes today have only a few callers each. Door Hub puts the callers of many boards into the same games. Each BBS keeps its own look and menus; when a caller picks a hub game, they play on the hub and come back to their own board when they quit.

Both run on Linux (64-bit PC and 64-bit ARM such as a Raspberry Pi) and Windows (64-bit, as Windows services). Door Hub is free software under the GNU GPL.

How it works

caller --> member BBS --RLogin--> connector ==SSH tunnel==> hub --RLogin--> door BBS
           (any BBS)              (member's PC)              (doorhub)    (Synchronet + games)

1. A caller picks a hub game on their own BBS. The BBS opens an RLogin connection to the connector on the same machine, with the caller's name, a password made for that caller, and the game's code.
2. The connector puts the BBS's system tag in front of the name, for example [KAL]Heisenberg, and passes the connection to the hub through an encrypted SSH tunnel. Each member BBS has its own hub account.
3. The hub checks the account and the tag. The first time it sees a player, it makes them a user on its own Synchronet, called Heisenberg (KAL).
4. The hub logs that user in and starts the game straight away. When the game ends, the caller is back on their own BBS, or back at the hub menu if they came through it.

Callers never log on to the hub and never see a password. The setting names in the connector are the same as DoorParty's, so sysops who use DoorParty will feel at home, and both can run on the same BBS.

Games on our hub

The Kalgoorlie Door Hub has five games. The code is what a member BBS uses to go straight into a game.

Players appear in the games with their BBS's tag, so everyone can see which board a rival comes from.

Join our hub

1. Ask for an account. Email slaterm@theiguru.au with your BBS name and the system tag you'd like (2 to 8 letters or digits). You get back a filled-in doorhub-connector.ini and the hub's address.
2. Install the connector from the downloads in a folder on your BBS machine, with the ini beside it, and run it as a service (systemd on Linux, doorhub-connector.exe service install on Windows).
3. Add a door on your BBS: for Synchronet, doorhub.js (below); for Mystic and others, an outbound RLogin item (below).
4. Test it as sysop, then open it to your callers.

The full steps, every setting, and what to do when something goes wrong: Joining a hub and The connector in the documentation, or SYSOP.TXT in the zip.

Synchronet set-up

Copy doorhub.js into your mods folder. Like doorparty.js, it makes a password for each caller, keeps it in their user properties and opens an RLogin connection to the connector. In SCFG, under External Programs, Online Programs (Doors), add a program:

Name                       Door Hub Games
Internal Code              DOORHUB
Command Line               ?doorhub.js          ; the hub menu
Multiple Concurrent Users  Yes
BBS Drop File Type         None
Native Executable/Script   No

For a door that goes straight into one game, put the game's code after the script name: ?doorhub.js lord. If the connector isn't on localhost:9998, set tunnel_host and tunnel_port in a [doorhub] section of ctrl/modopts.ini. More in Synchronet set-up.

Mystic and others

Any BBS that can make an outgoing RLogin connection can use the connector. In Mystic, add a menu item with the IR command and data like this (not yet tested with Door Hub; reports welcome):

/addr=127.0.0.1 /port=9998 /user=@USER@ /pass=hubpass /term=lord

A BBS that can run a Linux command can use rlogin -p 9998 -l "Name" localhost, as DoorParty's Mystic script does. Details in Mystic and other BBS programs.

Run your own hub

You can host your own games for other boards. You need Linux or Windows with Synchronet on the same machine, the doors installed there, and one TCP port open to the internet.

doorhub init
doorhub set public_host hub.example.com
doorhub door add lord LORD "Legend of the Red Dragon"
doorhub bbs add EXB "The Example BBS"      ; prints their connector ini
doorhub serve                              ; or: doorhub service install (Windows)

On Synchronet, turn on RLogin and set rlogin_auto_xtrn = true in the [logon] section of modopts.ini, so the hub can send players straight into a door. The admin commands work while the hub runs: add and block member BBSes, open and close games, list players and play counts.

Step by step: Running a hub, Hub on Linux, Hub on Windows, or HUB.TXT in the zip.

Security

• Member BBSes can only open RLogin tunnels to the hub's own games: no shell, no files, no other forwarding.
• Each BBS has its own long random password, stored on the hub only as a hash, and can only send players with its own tag.
• The connector remembers the hub's key the first time and refuses to connect if it ever changes.
• The hub remembers each player's password from their BBS, so a new caller who takes an old name can't play as the old caller.
• A hub sysop can block a BBS at once, and limit how many players each BBS has on at a time.

Downloads

Version 0.1.0, 9 November 2026: the first release. Each zip has both programs, so sysops only need the one for their system.

Check a download against SHA256SUMS. Also on the BBS in the file area Heisenbergs Files, and on our FTP server.

Documentation

The Door Hub documentation in our wiki has a page for every part: joining a hub, the connector on Linux and Windows, Synchronet and Mystic set-up, running a hub on Linux and Windows, settings, games, member BBSes, players, internet and security, logs and backups, a command reference and troubleshooting.

The same guides as text files, as they come in the zip: README.TXT, SYSOP.TXT (joining a hub), HUB.TXT (running a hub) and WHATSNEW.TXT.

Licence and source

Door Hub is Copyright © 2026 Michael Slater. It is free software: you may copy, change and share it under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version. It comes with no warranty. It is written in Go and uses the golang.org/x/crypto and golang.org/x/sys libraries (BSD licence, The Go Authors). The source is in the downloads.

Door Hub is not connected with DoorParty; it follows the same idea so that sysops can use what they already know.

Contact

Questions, bug reports and requests for a hub account are welcome. Email slaterm@theiguru.au, or leave a message for the sysop on the Kalgoorlie Retro BBS (telnet bbs.theiguru.au).