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  • Error 98 - Telnet Port 23 Locking

    From Waveyuk@1:103/705 to All on Sat Jan 31 17:43:16 2026
    Hi!

    Yup, me again. I swear you're all going to get sick of me posting haha!

    Just a very strange one. So, running the BBS (V3.20d) on Linux and Telnet port 23. Every now and again, for no reason at all it seems when someone logs off all the nodes go down and I get the message:

    !Error 98 binding Telnet server socket to port 23: Address already in use

    I've checked and the server isn't running anything like an inetd service. Synchronet is the only service bound to port 23. Yet it seems to get it's knickers in a right twist and for about 60 seconds, nobody can log into the BBS as port 23 is locked.

    Any ideas, pointers, something obvious I might have missed?

    Thanks
    Dave

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Frontier BBS UK
    * Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)
  • From Digital Man@1:103/705 to Waveyuk on Sat Jan 31 19:34:47 2026
    Re: Error 98 - Telnet Port 23 Locking
    By: Waveyuk to All on Sat Jan 31 2026 05:43 pm

    Hi!

    Yup, me again. I swear you're all going to get sick of me posting haha!

    Just a very strange one. So, running the BBS (V3.20d) on Linux and Telnet port 23. Every now and again, for no reason at all it seems when someone logs off all the nodes go down

    It wouldn't be "for no reason at all", most likely there was a configuration file change made and the server is recycling to bring in those configuration changes. The log output would tell you why.

    and I get the message:

    !Error 98 binding Telnet server socket to port 23: Address already in use

    I've checked and the server isn't running anything like an inetd service. Synchronet is the only service bound to port 23. Yet it seems to get it's knickers in a right twist and for about 60 seconds, nobody can log into the BBS as port 23 is locked.

    Any ideas, pointers, something obvious I might have missed?

    Covered in this FAQ (with solution):
    https://wiki.synchro.net/faq:tcpip#rebind
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Synchronet "Real Fact" #22:
    The second ever Synchronet BBS was the Mid-Nite Hacker BBS (sysop: The Zapper) Norco, CA WX: 70.3øF, 29.0% humidity, 1 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
    --- SBBSecho 3.35-Linux
    * Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)