Gopher / Port 70 on FutureQuest?

[Syneryder]

I'm sure I know the answer to this, but I'll try asking anyway

Is there a way to add Gopher support (yes, I mean Port 70!) to a domain?

Gophernicus seems to be a still-maintained Gopher daemon, but I know that the FQ Terms Of Service disallows unauthorized daemons. I can't imagine the FQ staff are keen on adding an obscure daemon to the support mix!

Failing that, could I create a subdomain that redirects to another Gopher hosting service? It looks like I'd have to add the subdomain at my domain registrar & add the IP address as an A Record there? (I think I found some instructions for that here if so.)

Obviously not a big deal, just something I'm curious to play with. Apparently Gopher is still active, and I found a Gopher Browser for Windows that is actually really fast & fun. As more of the web moves to HTTPS and locks out my old computer hardware, I'm looking for widely accessible long-lived protocols that will work on everything... got to think of the C64s and Apple II's!

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Syneryder

Gophernicus seems to be a still-maintained Gopher daemon, but I know that the FQ Terms Of Service disallows unauthorized daemons. I can't imagine the FQ staff are keen on adding an obscure daemon to the support mix!

That would be a good bet

Originally Posted by Syneryder

Failing that, could I create a subdomain that redirects to another Gopher hosting service? It looks like I'd have to add the subdomain at my domain registrar & add the IP address as an A Record there? (I think I found some instructions for that here if so.)

Subdomain's are controlled from your Domain's Name Servers. If using FutureQuest as your Name Server provider then you could add a subdomain that pointed to an external provider from your CNC DNS Manager.

-Bob

[Kevin]

I actually looked into this a bit as it is a blast from the past. I remember the transition from gopher to http back in the mid 90s. The first big problem is that anything that runs on a port number under 1024 must be run by root. That is why Gophernicus mentions running under inetd, xinetd, systemd, and I would add tcpserver. So, we would have to install it, and run it, and ensure it is limited to your account and your IP since there is no telling what a PCI compliance scan would think about it.

The other problem is that it isn't in Gentoo's portage repository so we would have to either write a custom ebuild script or manually compile and install it. The only gopher daemon in portage is:
* net-misc/sgopherd
Available versions: ~17.09 ~18.08
Homepage: https://www.uninformativ.de/git/sgopherd
Description: Small Gopher Server written in GNU Bash

The ~ means that those two versions are still in "testing" even though they are from 2017 and 2018. Also, a daemon written in bash is a little scary.

If you can find a gopher service you can point a DNS A record at that seems to be the way to go.

wow thats great

[Syneryder]

Oh wow, thanks for looking even that far into it, Kevin! I did wonder if PCI compliance would be a factor, and I certainly didn't expect daemons written in bash (!) running as root would ever come into this!

Originally Posted by Kevin

If you can find a gopher service you can point a DNS A record at that seems to be the way to go.

Yep, and I think this is where I'm currently stuck. I've found some places that do Gopher hosting, but as far as I can tell I need a Static IP to work with the DNS A record (sounds like virtual hosting isn't possible with Gopher). The only host I can see offering a static IP charges $60/yr, per site, which I can't justify spending on this. And if I could justify it, the money would be better spent at FutureQuest anyway!

I suppose installing a Gopher daemon myself on a free AWS instance might be another option, but I've never used AWS before. Lots of learning ahead! This would all be much easier if I wasn't so attached to having it on my own subdomain!