Statistics

Data collected 2026-04-10

  • BBSes responding: 1161

  • Unique protocol fingerprints: 103

  • BBS software detected: 1235 (101 unique packages)

  • FidoNet (EMSI) detected: 71

These statistics reflect the most recent scan of all servers in the bbslist.txt input list. Each server is probed using telnetlib3, which connects to each address, performs Telnet option negotiation, and captures the login banner.

The charts below summarize data from all responding servers.

BBS Software

Pie chart showing the distribution of detected BBS software packages across all responding servers.

BBS software detected from login banners.

Port Distribution

Pie chart showing the most popular ports used by BBS servers.

Most popular ports across all BBS servers.

Encoding Distribution

Pie chart showing the distribution of character encodings across all servers.

Character encoding distribution (default: CP437).

CHARSET

The default encoding of Telnet is the system locale, usually UTF-8. By strict compliance, without negotiation of BINARY transmission all protocol text should be limited to 7-bit ASCII. The encoding used should be negotiated by CHARSET.

Any server capable of negotiating CHARSET or LANG through NEW_ENVIRON is also presumed to support BINARY, regardless of its response to the BINARY telnet option. In practice, many servers transmit 8-bit data without negotiating either mode.

Pie chart showing the proportion of servers that negotiate the CHARSET telnet option.

69 of 1439 servers negotiate CHARSET (4.8%).

BINARY

Pie chart showing the proportion of servers that negotiate the BINARY telnet option.

646 of 1439 servers negotiate BINARY (44.9%).

Telnet Option Negotiation

Grouped bar chart comparing how many servers offer versus request each Telnet option during negotiation.

Telnet options offered vs requested by servers during negotiation.

Server Locations

Pie chart showing the geographic distribution of servers by country.

Server locations by country.

Common Escape Sequences

Top 100 escape sequences by number of unique banners (of 1,439 total).

Common Escape Sequences

%

Banners

Sequence

Name

68.0%

979

'\x1b[0m'

SGR Reset

63.3%

911

'\x1b[2J'

Erase Display

57.9%

833

'\x1b[6n'

DSR (cursor pos)

43.7%

629

'\x1b[s'

Save Cursor

43.7%

629

'\x1b[u'

Restore Cursor

41.0%

590

'\x1b[H'

Cursor Home

40.7%

585

'\x1b[255B'

Cursor Down 255

40.7%

585

'\x1b[255C'

Cursor Right 255

35.0%

504

'\x1b[1m'

SGR Bold

32.2%

463

'\x1b[36m'

SGR Cyan FG

29.9%

430

'\x1b[!_'

Synchronet terminal query

29.6%

426

'\x1b[0c'

DA (device attributes)

29.3%

422

'\x1b[34m'

SGR Blue FG

28.6%

411

'\x1b[37m'

SGR White FG

24.4%

351

'\x1b[33m'

SGR Yellow FG

22.4%

323

'\x1b[32m'

SGR Green FG

21.2%

305

'\x1b[30m'

SGR Black FG

19.3%

278

'\x1b[31m'

SGR Red FG

18.5%

266

'\x1b[40m'

SGR Black BG

18.3%

263

'\x1b[1;1H'

Cursor Home (1,1)

16.5%

238

'\x1b[1;30m'

SGR Bold, Black FG

15.1%

218

'\x1b[?1000h'

Set: Send Mouse X & Y on button press

14.5%

208

'\x1b[1;37m'

SGR Bold, White FG

14.0%

202

'\x1b[1;33m'

SGR Bold, Yellow FG

13.8%

199

'\x1b[0;34m'

SGR Reset, Blue FG

13.8%

199

'\x1b[30;40m'

SGR Black FG, Black BG

13.7%

197

'\x1b[0;1m'

SGR Reset, Bold

13.1%

189

'\x1b[1;31m'

SGR Bold, Red FG

13.1%

188

'\x1b[1;32m'

SGR Bold, Green FG

12.9%

186

'\x1b[0;36m'

SGR Reset, Cyan FG

12.9%

185

'\x1b[1;36m'

SGR Bold, Cyan FG

12.0%

173

'\x1b[0;1;32m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Green FG

11.6%

167

'\x1b[6;1H'

Cursor Position (6,1)

11.5%

166

'\x1b[47m'

SGR White BG

11.5%

165

'\x1b[1;34m'

SGR Bold, Blue FG

11.2%

161

'\x1b[35m'

SGR Magenta FG

11.2%

161

'\x1b[6C'

Cursor Right 6

11.2%

161

'\x1b[7;1H'

Cursor Position (7,1)

11.2%

161

'\x1b[3;1H'

Cursor Position (3,1)

11.0%

158

'\x1b[5;1H'

Cursor Position (5,1)

10.8%

155

'\x1b[0;31m'

SGR Reset, Red FG

10.8%

155

'\x1b[8;1H'

Cursor Position (8,1)

10.6%

153

'\x1b[44m'

SGR Blue BG

10.6%

152

'\x1b[24;1H'

Cursor Position (24,1)

10.6%

152

'\x1b[5C'

Cursor Right 5

10.5%

151

'\x1b[10;1H'

Cursor Position (10,1)

10.1%

146

'\x1b[0;1;36m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Cyan FG

10.1%

146

'\x1b[12;1H'

Cursor Position (12,1)

10.1%

146

'\x1b[9;1H'

Cursor Position (9,1)

10.1%

145

'\x1b['

CSI (truncated)

10.0%

144

'\x1b[0;1;30m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Black FG

10.0%

144

'\x1b[11;1H'

Cursor Position (11,1)

9.7%

140

'\x1b[14;1H'

Cursor Position (14,1)

9.6%

138

'\x1b[0;32m'

SGR Reset, Green FG

9.6%

138

'\x1b[7C'

Cursor Right 7

9.5%

137

'\x1b[15;1H'

Cursor Position (15,1)

9.5%

136

'\x1b[0;1;31m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Red FG

9.5%

136

'\x1b[13;1H'

Cursor Position (13,1)

9.1%

131

'\x1b[0;1;34m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Blue FG

9.1%

131

'\x1b[16;1H'

Cursor Position (16,1)

9.0%

130

'\x1b[0;33m'

SGR Reset, Yellow FG

8.8%

126

'\x1b[0;37;40m'

SGR Reset, White FG, Black BG

8.6%

124

'\x1b[22;1H'

Cursor Position (22,1)

8.6%

124

'\x1b[8C'

Cursor Right 8

8.2%

118

'\x1b[2;1H'

Cursor Position (2,1)

8.0%

115

'\x1b[37;40m'

SGR White FG, Black BG

8.0%

115

'\x1b[4;1H'

Cursor Position (4,1)

7.9%

114

'\x1b[18;1H'

Cursor Position (18,1)

7.8%

112

'\x1b[0;30m'

SGR Reset, Black FG

7.8%

112

'\x1b[0;1;34;44m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Blue FG, Blue BG

7.8%

112

'\x1b[23;1H'

Cursor Position (23,1)

7.5%

108

'\x1b[17;1H'

Cursor Position (17,1)

7.4%

107

'\x1b[20;1H'

Cursor Position (20,1)

7.4%

107

'\x1b[0;1;44m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Blue BG

7.4%

106

'\x1b[19;1H'

Cursor Position (19,1)

7.4%

106

'\x1b[21;1H'

Cursor Position (21,1)

7.4%

106

'\x1b[0;1;33m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Yellow FG

7.2%

103

'\x1b[41m'

SGR Red BG

7.2%

103

'\x1b[9C'

Cursor Right 9

6.8%

98

'\x1b[10C'

Cursor Right 10

6.4%

92

'\x1b[11C'

Cursor Right 11

6.1%

88

'\x1b[0;30;47m'

SGR Reset, Black FG, White BG

6.1%

88

'\x1b[12C'

Cursor Right 12

5.9%

85

'\x1b[43m'

SGR Yellow BG

5.7%

82

'\x1b[1;47m'

SGR Bold, White BG

5.7%

82

'\x1b[0;35m'

SGR Reset, Magenta FG

5.6%

81

'\x1b[46m'

SGR Cyan BG

5.6%

81

'\x1b[?7h'

Set: Auto Wrap Mode

5.6%

80

'\x1b[3C'

Cursor Right 3

5.4%

78

'\x1b[13C'

Cursor Right 13

5.4%

77

'\x1b[15C'

Cursor Right 15

5.3%

76

'\x1b[42m'

SGR Green BG

5.2%

75

'\x1b[0;44m'

SGR Reset, Blue BG

5.1%

74

'\x1b[1;35m'

SGR Bold, Magenta FG

4.9%

70

'\x1b[0;1;47m'

SGR Reset, Bold, White BG

4.9%

70

'\x1b[0;1;30;47m'

SGR Reset, Bold, Black FG, White BG

4.7%

67

'\x1b[0;34;44m'

SGR Reset, Blue FG, Blue BG

4.4%

64

'\x1b[14C'

Cursor Right 14

4.4%

64

'\x1b[24;27H'

Cursor Position (24,27)

4.4%

63

'\x1b[0;40;37m'

SGR Reset, Black BG, White FG