From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

Hi everyone!
I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.

sbbsctrl.exe - application error
the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the application?

any ideas?

Ive tried reinstalling several times.
many thanks
matt
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 2:27:17�AM UTC, Matthew C E Bamber wrote:
> Hi everyone!
> I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
>
> sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the application?
>
> any ideas?
>
> Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> many thanks
> matt
forgot to add im running windows 10 :)
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
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Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:27 pm

> From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
>
> Hi everyone!
> I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time
> on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it
> say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
>
> sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> application?
>
> any ideas?
>
> Ive tried reinstalling several times.

Things to check:
- does running sbbs.exe instead of sbbsctrl.exe make any difference?
- do you have any "security software" installed that might be killing Synchronet because it's opening and listening on TCP/UDP ports?
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #59:
He's got a force field and a flexible plan, got a date w/fate in a black sedan
Norco, CA WX: 52.1°F, 90.0% humidity, 0 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:34 pm

> From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
>
> On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 2:27:17¿AM UTC, Matthew C E Bamber wrote:
> > Hi everyone!
> > I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst
> > time on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end
> > when it say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
>
> > sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> > the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> > application?
>
> > any ideas?
>
> > Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> > many thanks
> > matt
> forgot to add im running windows 10 :)

And which version of Synchronet did you install?
--
digital man (rob)

Steven Wright quote #30:
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
Norco, CA WX: 51.8°F, 91.0% humidity, 0 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:27 pm

> From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
>
> Hi everyone!
> I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time
> on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it
> say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
>
> sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> application?
>
> any ideas?
>
> Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> many thanks
> matt

we need more information than 'windows'

what OS version windows. what version synchronet.
what did you do to install. did you encounter any problems during install.
---
■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 5:10:53�AM UTC, Digital Man wrote:
> To: Matthew C E Bamber
> Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
> By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:27 pm
>
> > From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
> >
> > Hi everyone!
> > I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time
> > on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it
> > say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
> >
> > sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> > the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> > application?
> >
> > any ideas?
> >
> > Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> Things to check:
> - does running sbbs.exe instead of sbbsctrl.exe make any difference?
> - do you have any "security software" installed that might be killing Synchronet because it's opening and listening on TCP/UDP ports?
> --
> digital man (rob)
>
> Rush quote #59:
> He's got a force field and a flexible plan, got a date w/fate in a black sedan
> Norco, CA WX: 52.1�F, 90.0% humidity, 0 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
> --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
> * Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net
Thanks for coming back to me, i really appreciate your help.
i am running Microsoft Windows 10 Home
version 10.0.19045 build 19045
I have turned off (as best I can) windows defender, thats the only security software I have installed its a pretty bare bones install. although I do have the net frameworks installed.
This is the Synchronet version i am using
Installer: sbbs319b.zip [ftp] [mirror] (11MB) (January 2022)
CRC32: cef7558f
MD5: 3c5e28d62aea3c437f4cc4f9e6080f76
SHA1: e38f973ebbc816942588adfcb044c1a644c26a94
I tried running the sbbs.exe (in sbbs exec folder) i get "sbbs.exe - application error the application was unable to start correctly, although this time a black window pops up, black window goes when i click the OK box.
I had no issues during install, only at the end when its finished installing and try and run the software.
When i uninstall i get error sbbsNTsvcs.exe application error
Hope this information helps.
Thank you for your time
Matt
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
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From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 11:08:36�AM UTC, Matthew C E Bamber wrote:
> On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 5:10:53�AM UTC, Digital Man wrote:
> > To: Matthew C E Bamber
> > Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
> > By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:27 pm
> >
> > > From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
> > >
> > > Hi everyone!
> > > I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the forst time
> > > on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end when it
> > > say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
> > >
> > > sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> > > the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> > > application?
> > >
> > > any ideas?
> > >
> > > Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> > Things to check:
> > - does running sbbs.exe instead of sbbsctrl.exe make any difference?
> > - do you have any "security software" installed that might be killing Synchronet because it's opening and listening on TCP/UDP ports?
> > --
> > digital man (rob)
> >
> > Rush quote #59:
> > He's got a force field and a flexible plan, got a date w/fate in a black sedan
> > Norco, CA WX: 52.1�F, 90.0% humidity, 0 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
> > --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
> > * Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net
> Thanks for coming back to me, i really appreciate your help.
>
> i am running Microsoft Windows 10 Home
> version 10.0.19045 build 19045
>
> I have turned off (as best I can) windows defender, thats the only security software I have installed its a pretty bare bones install. although I do have the net frameworks installed.
>
> This is the Synchronet version i am using
> Installer: sbbs319b.zip [ftp] [mirror] (11MB) (January 2022)
> CRC32: cef7558f
> MD5: 3c5e28d62aea3c437f4cc4f9e6080f76
> SHA1: e38f973ebbc816942588adfcb044c1a644c26a94
>
> I tried running the sbbs.exe (in sbbs exec folder) i get "sbbs.exe - application error the application was unable to start correctly, although this time a black window pops up, black window goes when i click the OK box.
>
> I had no issues during install, only at the end when its finished installing and try and run the software.
>
> When i uninstall i get error sbbsNTsvcs.exe application error
>
> Hope this information helps.
> Thank you for your time
> Matt
update....
I tried it on another machine and it works perfectly so did a complete fresh install on the machine i want to run it on and installed c++ 2010 and C++2015 and tried installing and now get
scfg.exe system error
the code execution cannot proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found.
Any ideas?
Appreciate all your help :)
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
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Re: Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Mon Jan 01 2024 04:24 am

> From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
>
> On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 11:08:36¿AM UTC, Matthew C E Bamber wrote:
> > On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 5:10:53¿AM UTC, Digital Man wrote:
> > > To: Matthew C E Bamber
> > > Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
> > > By: Matthew C E Bamber to alt.bbs.synchronet on Sun Dec 31 2023 06:27 pm
>
> > > > From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet
>
> > > > Hi everyone!
> > > > I am brand new to aynchronet BBS and trying to install it for the
> > > > forst time
> > > > on windows, i go though the setup windows installer but at the end
> > > > when it
> > > > say launch synchronet i get a window popup saying.
>
> > > > sbbsctrl.exe - application error
> > > > the application was unable to start correctly click ok to close the
> > > > application?
>
> > > > any ideas?
>
> > > > Ive tried reinstalling several times.
> > > Things to check:
> > > - does running sbbs.exe instead of sbbsctrl.exe make any difference?
> > > - do you have any "security software" installed that might be killing
> > > Synchronet because it's opening and listening on TCP/UDP ports?
> > > --
> > > digital man (rob)
>
> > > Rush quote #59:
> > > He's got a force field and a flexible plan, got a date w/fate in a black
> > > sedan
> > > Norco, CA WX: 52.1¿F, 90.0% humidity, 0 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches
> > > rain/24hrs
> > > --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
> > > * Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net
> > Thanks for coming back to me, i really appreciate your help.
>
> > i am running Microsoft Windows 10 Home
> > version 10.0.19045 build 19045
>
> > I have turned off (as best I can) windows defender, thats the only
> > security software I have installed its a pretty bare bones install.
> > although I do have the net frameworks installed.
>
> > This is the Synchronet version i am using
> > Installer: sbbs319b.zip [ftp] [mirror] (11MB) (January 2022)
> > CRC32: cef7558f
> > MD5: 3c5e28d62aea3c437f4cc4f9e6080f76
> > SHA1: e38f973ebbc816942588adfcb044c1a644c26a94
>
> > I tried running the sbbs.exe (in sbbs exec folder) i get "sbbs.exe -
> > application error the application was unable to start correctly, although
> > this time a black window pops up, black window goes when i click the OK
> > box.
>
> > I had no issues during install, only at the end when its finished
> > installing and try and run the software.
>
> > When i uninstall i get error sbbsNTsvcs.exe application error
>
> > Hope this information helps.
> > Thank you for your time
> > Matt
> update....
> I tried it on another machine and it works perfectly so did a complete fresh
> install on the machine i want to run it on and installed c++ 2010 and
> C++2015 and tried installing and now get
> scfg.exe system error
> the code execution cannot proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found.
> Any ideas?
> Appreciate all your help :)

It sounds like maybe you didn't install the x86 version of the Visual C++ 2015 runtime package. The links are on this page:
https://wiki.synchro.net/install:win
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet "Real Fact" #122:
Synchronet v2.30a (DOS & OS/2) was released on 5-30-97, 20 months after v2.20b
Norco, CA WX: 64.6°F, 38.0% humidity, 0 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
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Re: Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
By: Digital Man to Matthew C E Bamber on Mon Jan 01 2024 03:48 pm

So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it gets this large there is a very long delay before a user can connect because I believe the bbs is working on parsing each line and seeing if the ip matches. I would assume I would have the same issue with host.can and other .can files.

I was wondering if there's anything I can do on my end to keep these large .can files and speed things up, or if synchronet needs some internal changes.

Thanks,
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: MRO to Digital Man on Tue Jan 02 2024 07:37 am

MR> So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it gets
MR> this large there is a very long delay before a user can connect because I
MR> believe the bbs is working on parsing each line and seeing if the ip
MR> matches. I would assume I would have the same issue with host.can and
MR> other .can files.

MR> I was wondering if there's anything I can do on my end to keep these large
MR> .can files and speed things up, or if synchronet needs some internal
MR> changes.

Do you have some kind of automated system that dumps IPs in there?

It might be worth passing that task off to something that will block those via firewall, like fail2ban or csf/lfd (for Linux). I guess there's something similar for windows (wail2ban? It hasn't been updated in forever but there are forks on github and people claim it still works)

I use csf/lfd on my linux box, much like fail2ban it can watch log files and look for specific lines/words/etc. It also catches portscans and will block an IP if there are too many connections in a certain time period.

One of these days I should sit down and clean up my scripts for it, then create a wiki page about it.

DaiTengu

....Cross-country skiing is great if you live in a small country.
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: DaiTengu to MRO on Tue Jan 02 2024 11:00 am

MR>> So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it gets

Da> Do you have some kind of automated system that dumps IPs in there?

Synchronet itself seems to automatically put IPs in there when it detects clients trying to reconnect too often? I have a lot of entries in my ip.can with comments that start with "; SMTP - TOO MANY CONSECUTIVE FAILED LOGIN ATTEMPTS". Same with SSH.

Nightfox

---
■ Synchronet ■ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: DaiTengu to MRO on Tue Jan 02 2024 11:00 am

> MR> internal changes.
>
> Do you have some kind of automated system that dumps IPs in there?
>

well i have ip.can and i have a capacha thing and sometimes i move those ips into ip.can

> It might be worth passing that task off to something that will block those
> via firewall, like fail2ban or csf/lfd (for Linux). I guess there's
> something similar for windows (wail2ban? It hasn't been updated in forever
> but there are forks on github and people claim it still works)
>

yeah i was scripting stuff to be blocked in windows firewall
and also i use peerblock.

but lots of ips being blocked seems to slow everything down.
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: MRO to Digital Man on Tue Jan 02 2024 07:37 am

> Re: Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
> By: Digital Man to Matthew C E Bamber on Mon Jan 01 2024 03:48 pm
>
> So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it gets this
> large there is a very long delay before a user can connect because I believe
> the bbs is working on parsing each line and seeing if the ip matches. I
> would assume I would have the same issue with host.can and other .can files.
>
> I was wondering if there's anything I can do on my end to keep these large
> .can files and speed things up, or if synchronet needs some internal
> changes.

1.3 gigs is pretty massive. How'd that happen?

A couple of my servers were under SMTP botnet attack since early December (or earlier) and I started aggressively persistent filtering them (3 failed SMTP logins as a threshold, which is very low) - since then I have over 5000 IPs blocked in my ip.can file which is at the moment 730189 bytes in size - and that's with all the extra metadata (e.g. expiration date) that's now added with auto-filtered IP addresses. Anyway, you're saying that your ip.can file is over a thousand times larger. I wonder if you have a lot of duplicates or perhaps every IP of a subnet listed, when instead you could be using CIDR notation to make the file much smaller. Or just expiring/removing old entries would eliminate much of that file size. Making the expiration of old entries easier was one of my main motivations for the recent overhaul of how auto-added .can file entries are formatted.

All that said, the Synchronet servers *could* (they don't) cache the ip.can file contents in memory (making it much faster to search through) - but 1.3 gigs is a lot of RAM to dedicate to that purpose. And each server would have its own cache of the file contents, so you'd be using several gigabytes of memory for all of SBBS to have that massive ip.can file cached. It can be done and would likely have a significant performance improvement, but at the cost of a lot of memory used (in your case).
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #74:
A modern-day warrior mean, mean stride, today's Tom Sawyer, mean, mean pride
Norco, CA WX: 56.2°F, 63.0% humidity, 0 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: Nightfox to DaiTengu on Tue Jan 02 2024 09:37 am

> Re: large *.can files make things slow
> By: DaiTengu to MRO on Tue Jan 02 2024 11:00 am
>
> MR>> So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it
> gets
>
> Da> Do you have some kind of automated system that dumps IPs in there?
>
> Synchronet itself seems to automatically put IPs in there when it detects
> clients trying to reconnect too often? I have a lot of entries in my ip.can
> with comments that start with "; SMTP - TOO MANY CONSECUTIVE FAILED LOGIN
> ATTEMPTS". Same with SSH.

By default, Synchronet doesn't do that (stock sbbs.ini contains LoginAttemptFilterThreshold = 0). But yeah, it can do that, though the latest code using a different format for the metadata (not a comment, like you pasted here).
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #46:
If I ever get anal polyps, at least I know what to name them. - Saul Goodman
Norco, CA WX: 56.2°F, 63.0% humidity, 0 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: Digital Man to MRO on Tue Jan 02 2024 10:44 am

> > I was wondering if there's anything I can do on my end to keep these
> > large .can files and speed things up, or if synchronet needs some
> > internal changes.
>
> 1.3 gigs is pretty massive. How'd that happen?

time and lots of attempts and i'm a hot target.
if something logs in and fails the capcha they get added. if it's a real person
and they pass they get added to a whitelist and dont get challenged again.

> ip.can file is over a thousand times larger. I wonder if you have a lot of
> duplicates or perhaps every IP of a subnet listed, when instead you could be
> using CIDR notation to make the file much smaller. Or just expiring/removing
> old entries would eliminate much of that file size. Making the expiration of

yeah i could use a different format to make it smaller. this was
just a quick and dirty approach to blocking ips without spending a ton of time.

removing old entries doesnt seem to help. i just nuked the file and the old attackers are back.

> memory for all of SBBS to have that massive ip.can file cached. It can be
> done and would likely have a significant performance improvement, but at the
> cost of a lot of memory used (in your case).

i guess i'll just trim it down every month.

---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: MRO to Digital Man on Tue Jan 02 2024 01:37 pm

> > memory for all of SBBS to have that massive ip.can file cached. It can be
> > done and would likely have a significant performance improvement, but at
> > the cost of a lot of memory used (in your case).
>
> i guess i'll just trim it down every month.

If you have the available RAM, it wouldn't be a bad option to have. In fact, when importing QWK packets, the ip.can file *is* cached (since the source IP address of each message is compared, and that'd be really slow to re-read the file each time) - so there's already some cases where your SBBS instance is allocating that much RAM for the ip.can file, but for a shorter period of time since that memory is freed after QWK packet import is complete. For a server that's listening for incoming TCP/UDP connections, the memory (for the ip.can cache) wouldn't be freed until the server was terminated.
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet "Real Fact" #35:
The irc.synchro.net network has more servers than users
Norco, CA WX: 60.9°F, 57.0% humidity, 0 mph NE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
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Re: large *.can files make things slow
By: Digital Man to MRO on Tue Jan 02 2024 01:01 pm

> If you have the available RAM, it wouldn't be a bad option to have. In fact,
> when importing QWK packets, the ip.can file *is* cached (since the source IP
> address of each message is compared, and that'd be really slow to re-read
> the file each time) - so there's already some cases where your SBBS instance
> is allocating that much RAM for the ip.can file, but for a shorter period of
> time since that memory is freed after QWK packet import is complete. For a
> server that's listening for incoming TCP/UDP connections, the memory (for
> the ip.can cache) wouldn't be freed until the server was terminated.

well i'm running 32bit windows 10 for this specific bbs, so I can only use 4 gigs of ram. I'll just go back to blocking certain countries and some bad domains instead of blocking a million ip addresses.
---
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El 2/1/24 a las 10:37, MRO escribi�:
> Re: Re: Really struggling with windows install pls help :)
> By: Digital Man to Matthew C E Bamber on Mon Jan 01 2024 03:48 pm
>
> So I have an ip.can file that is about 1.3 gigs large, and when it gets this large there is a very long delay before a user can connect because I believe the bbs is working on parsing each line and seeing if the ip matches. I would assume I would have the same issue with host.can and other .can files.
>
> I was wondering if there's anything I can do on my end to keep these large .can files and speed things up, or if synchronet needs some internal changes.
>
> Thanks,
> ---
> � Synchronet � ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

convert you gigas of ip's to subnets:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50472999/python-convert-a-list-of-ips-into-a-list-of-networks
---
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