tomc@oakhill.UUCP (Tom Cunningham) (09/24/88)
Does anyone have a synopsis of BBS software that is available for either
Unix systems or IBM PCs? We would like information on commercial products
as well as public domain offerings. The software must support multiple
simultaneous callers and should be easily configurable by the sysop.
Thanks for any help; email appreciated. Please email responses to:
John Fisher Motorola Inc. Austin TX
{sun,uunet!mnetor,cs.utexas.edu}!oakhill!otis!johnf
--
Tom Cunningham Motorola Inc. Austin TX
{sun,uunet!mnetor,cs.utexas.edu}!oakhill!tomcpglask@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Peter Glaskowsky) (09/24/88)
in article <1519@bouwsma.oakhill.UUCP>, tomc@oakhill.UUCP (Tom Cunningham) says: > > Does anyone have a synopsis of BBS software that is available for either > Unix systems or IBM PCs? We would like information on commercial products > as well as public domain offerings. The software must support multiple > simultaneous callers and should be easily configurable by the sysop. The only two quality commercial multi-user BBS packages for the IBM PC are TBBS (from eSoft in Denver, CO) and The Chairman (dunno who sells it). I've been a TBBS sysop for three and a half years now, but I don't know much about The Chairman except it's fairly well regarded by users; I think the "PC Magazine" Interactive Reader Service system runs The Chairman. (In the disclaimer department, I used to work for a TBBS distributor, but that was back in early '85.) There are quite a few multi-user BBS packages for Unix, of course, but I'm not particularly familiar with any of them. TBBS is a really fine package. It allows you to run up to 16 users on a PC-AT class machine (the next version, due out within the next month, will allow 32 users), and it does this without any noticeable delays, even with 2400 bps modems. 9600 modems put a much greater load on the system, but a fast AT clone can still run 8 9600's at full speed; a 386 machine should be able to handle even more. It does this without intelligent serial port boards, too, just normal Digiboards, about $600 for the 8-port version. Even though multi-user TBBS costs $895 (16-user version; the 32-user version should be $1495, I think), this helps to keep the cost of the whole system down-- all you need is an AT clone, a couple Digiboards, 16 modems, and 16 phone lines. TBBS isn't overwhelmingly sophisticated, to be honest; it's just good, basic, reliable software. The development/test cycle for new versions is quite long, close to two years; this has generally left TBBS behind other packages in terms of handling the latest download protocols, or gosh-wow stuff like ANSI graphics, but most of us who run TBBS are more than happy to sacrifice today's technology for tomorrow's reliability. TBBS just doesn't crash. It just can't be broken into. With ten thousand single-line systems out there ($295), some for over five years, plus probably about a thousand multi-user systems, some for more than two years, TBBS has well over a hundred million user- hours of experience, and _no_ case where anyone has ever managed to get around the security features. In terms of specific features, I'll have to limit myself to the current version, v2.0; I've used beta-test 2.1 systems, but I just don't know how close they've been to what's coming out next month. One particularly useful feature which isn't available with any other multi-user BBS on the market is Fidonet compatibility. You may not want to participate in Fidonet, per se, but this same feature (well, option, really, it's another $100 or so) lets you exchange mail or share public message boards with any other TBBS, Fido, Opus, or QuickBBS system. This can be a great help if you need more than one BBS to be connected together somehow. The message base supports up to 52 message boards, and up to 30,000 messages total. On an AT, the whole message base can be searched for a specific string in the from, to, or subject fields in about 30 seconds. Messages to each user are announced instantly when they log on, though, since TBBS keeps track of what's waiting for whom. Messages can have up to 9,999 characters each (if entered locally) or anything up to 50,000 characters if they're received via Fidonet echomail, or inserted into the message base manually by the sysop. Messages are linked together by subject, are automatically word- wrapped to the line length of the reader (unless this feature is disabled), can be made private, or password-protected; files can be "enclosed" in messages, uploaded via XMODEM or YMODEM (plus several more protocols in 2.1). There's a line editor, but unfortunately no full-screen editor (in 2.0, at least, and I haven't heard anything about a screen editor in 2.1); there is a global search/replace function which works pretty well, though. A particularly nice aspect about TBBS is that the entire message base goes into two files-- one for the headers, and one for the text. As long as your system doesn't have any hardware problems, these files will never get out of sync, and they don't waste any space at all. Some packages put each message in a different file, and under MSDOS, this wastes a _lot_ of space. I usually have about 14,000 to 16,000 messages in my system, and they take up less than half of a 32 meg DOS partition. File uploading and downloading is pretty good in 2.0, and gets much, much better in 2.1 (I have seen this part). 2.1 has examine-only support for ARC files, plus seven or eight file transfer protocols (the only major protocol missing is ZMODEM). You can have as many file areas as you have room for on your disk drive(s). There's a fairly comprehensive Question & Answer (QA) function, which allows you to ask questions and record answers, plus a voting function which anonymously tallies up answers to multiple- choice questions. All of this is tied together by sysop-designed menus; you can have as many menus as you want, and they can have whatever functions you want to put on them, in any order. There are about 50 different functions, any of which can be assigned to any keystroke. Menus can be nested deeply (30 levels? I don't recall off-hand), and access to each function is controlled by 32 authorization flags and privilege levels from 0 to 255. The flags can be set or reset by QA files, too, although not by distinguishing between different answers. TBBS comes with a whole raft of special utilities to edit the various configuration / userlog / message base / QA files, plus another set of Fidonet utilities if you get that option. While this is not as convenient as having these utilities built into the BBS program itself, since (especially in the multi-user version) it's necessary to take the BBS down to use these utilities, at least it keeps the size of the BBS down (I'd really prefer to have real-time access to the userlog editor, at least, but that's life. Maybe in 2.1...). Sorry for running on so, but this question does come up every so often, and I figured I might as well answer it once. There are more features in TBBS than I've mentioned here, and the people at eSoft might describe these differently than I do, but what the heck. At least this'll give you something to start with. If you have any questions, the right people to ask are eSoft, Inc. in Denver; however, if you want to give my system a call, or send me mail, or whatever, feel free to do so. I'm moving on Oct. 3rd, though, so don't waste time trying to reach me after that. -- . png | Sysop, the John Galt Line TBBS: 305-235-1645. | ARPA: pglask%umbio.miami.edu@umigw.miami.edu | uucp: uunet!gould!umbio!pglask
bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) (09/26/88)
In article <1519@bouwsma.oakhill.UUCP> tomc@oakhill.UUCP (Tom Cunningham) writes: >Does anyone have a synopsis of BBS software that is available for either >Unix systems or IBM PCs? We would like information on commercial products >as well as public domain offerings. [....] > > John Fisher Motorola Inc. Austin TX > {sun,uunet!mnetor,cs.utexas.edu}!oakhill!otis!johnf I also have interest in BBS software - in specific, I'm interested in Fidonet software for Unix - I'd like to gateway some Fidonet Echomail groups into my usenet hierarchy, & vice versa. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks, -- Bruce Becker Toronto, Ont. Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, becker@humvax.UUCP, becker@ziebmef.UUCP BitNet: BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET "When in Rome, do as the Icelandic do" - Hrulf Sigurdsson
fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (09/29/88)
alt.bbs is a new newsgroup that probably has the info you need/want.
--
Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155 (206)FOR-UNIX
uw-beaver!tikal!ssc!fyl or uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl or attmail!ssc!fyl