GEnieLamp Vol 1/Num 5 August 1, 1992
Part 4 of 5
This article first appeared on GEnie and I was asked to post it on the
Internet. My GE-Mail address is J.Penner1 and my internet address is
jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca if you need to discuss something regarding this
posting. I don't work for GEnie or anything to do with the Internet.
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THE ONLINE LIBRARY /
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Running Your Own BBS!
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>>> RUNNING YOUR OWN BBS! <<<
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BBS SHARE/FREEWARE MAKES IT EASY! Have you ever wished that you could
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" run your own mini telecommunications
service? Wouldn't it be interesting to control passwords, monitor
discussions, and maintain a file download library? Well Apple II users are
lucky to have quite a large selection of BBS options available to them.
And some of these BBS's are even freeware or shareware.
A search under the keyword "BBS" in the Apple II Roundtable library
turns up several dozen files relating to running your own BBS. Some of
these files are actual BBS programs.
Some of the BBS options for the Apple II include the public domain
"Prime BBS," the shareware "AppleNET BBS," and the shareware "Office BBS"
system. Most of these BBS's use ModemWorks, a special set of modem
ampersand routines develop by the Morgan Davis Group.
To help you learn what GEnie has to offer in terms of Apple II BBS's,
a new AppleWorks file titled "BBS.Files.bxy" has been prepared. This file
lists all the BBS files available for downloading from the A2 Roundtable
library, along with file descriptions of some of the more interesting
sounding files.
WHY A BBS? "Why would someone want to set up and maintain his or her own
"""""""""" BBS?" you might ask. Many user groups find that a BBS
facilitates user group communications. But the BBS you set up need not be
computer related. You could set up a BBS for your local school or PTA; you
could set up a BBS for a boy scout or girl scout troop; you could set up a
crime prevention BBS; you could set up a BBS to offer editing or desktop
publishing services; you could set up a BBS just to learn about what it
takes to run a BBS.
Learning about bulletin boards need not even require a modem. Dean
Esmay, chief Apple II Roundtable system operator (sysop) recommends KidMail
BBS, a bulletin board simulator. (File number 8723: KidMail.bxy). This
program simulates an actual BBS allowing multiple 'users' to 'sign on,' get
a password, and leave electronic mail for other users.
With the price of second hand Apple IIe's dropping down to the $200 to
$300 range, the cost of setting up a BBS has likewise fallen dramatically.
You don't even need a hard drive with some Apple II BBS systems. (Although
almost all of them recommend at least two 5.25 inch, or one 3.5 inch disk
drive.)
The following information about the popular public domain Prime
bulletin board system (BBS) was collected from Category 10, Topic 6, in the
Apple II Roundtable message area.
Prime BBS A while ago one of you asked us to step back and explain what
""""""""" the Prime BBS was and what it had going for it. I was so
busy uploading files and getting some beginner downloaders going that I
neglected to respond to that posted message. Hopefully, I can rectify that
here in a question and answer format. By doing a few of these, I hope I
can answer the most frequently asked questions. Here we go....
Q: What is Prime? Is it new? Why haven't I heard of it before?
A: The Prime BBS system has been around the Apple II world for 7-8 years
now. It began as Alfa III and was supported right here on GEnie by Bob
Garth and Vince Cooper. The program was advertised in classifieds of
major magazines but most of its customers (including me) got in
contact with the authors by way of the Demo/Ad called Alfa/EZ. The
most recent support for the program was in the Smoke Signal Software
area on America Online.
Prime is a great BBS and now that its in the Public Domain, is the
potential new sysop's _best_ option possible. I've seen a lot of
shareware and p.d. BBS's over the years and nothing compares to Prime.
This software is PERFECT for smaller BBS systems of the 10-200 user
variety...great for user group boards, local Apple II support groups
etc. It can handle much larger user numbers, but I find it perfectly
suited for smaller groups.
Q: What do I need to run it?
A: You need any 64K Apple ][. I've run it or helped run it on ][+'s,
//e's, Franklin Ace's, and IIGS's. You need two or more disk drives.
A hard drive is not necessary...but recommended. I've run this software
on everything from 4 Disk II's up to 200+ megs of hard drive all chained
together off a RamFast and a TransWarp GS. In addition, you need a
Novation AppleCat, Hayes Micromodem, Datalink 2400, or a Super Serial
Card with an auto-answer 300, 1200, or 2400 external modem. Others may
work, but may take some playing around... A Prodos compatible clock is
nice but not mandatory.
Q: What are the limitations of Prime and why did it go public domain?
A: The most recent owner of Prime (Danny Haynes) found that he and the
others responsible for maintaining Prime simply did not have time to
update the system. They concluded that Prime would have the best
chance of growing in the hands of a new generation of Prime
Sysops....so, they decided to offer it to potential Prime sysops for
FREE! Prime is currently a full featured BBS. We'll talk about all
those features a bit later, but we might as well get the limitations
out in the open first because these are the things that we hope new
Prime sysops will help to rectify.
1. Prime requires a Super Serial Card (SSC) (even in a GS). Bob Garth
found that the Apple modem port didn't do things quite the same way
as the SSC and never supported the port. Paul Parkhurst has this
problem 'almost' fixed but we all need to call him and encourage
him to finish that goodie.
2. Prime's transer (Xfer) system is GREAT. However, support for newer
protocols is lacking. It does handle normal Xmodem, Xmodem CRC,
Prodos Xmodem, Standard Xmodem, (with Binary II for Apple users).
Ymodem and Zmodem would be nice if someone has the ability to take
it on. Andy Nicholas posted once that he had written a Zmodem
driver for Prime but we've not tracked that down yet.
3. While Prime sysops across the country once had a networking scheme
set up, this never became an official part of Prime. Prime's strong
point are its elegance and simplicity. I'm sure future sysops will
be writing schemes to network but they don't currently exist.
4. I've never heard of Prime's compatibility with newer 9600 baud
modems. New drivers or empirical set-ups may need to be developed
for these.
That's about it! Not really too limited is it? Frankly, I've never
found any of these detrimental to my BBS.
Q: What features does Prime offer?
A: Prime is a full-featured BBS. I'll summarize only a few here....
1. Hot key menus of either the autoformatting internal type
or fancy ones made from external text files of your design.
2. Multiple Boards, Email, full line editors for all posts
and mail. New message scans. Autosignature capability.
Private posts can be set. Autodelete old messages at sysop
controllable levels to minimize sysop interaction required.
Many more options.
3. Feedback commands, sysop page and chat mode.
4. User can set configuration from normal to expert turning
menus on and off.
5. User search and listing built in.
6. G(iant) file reader to allow readers to read any text
files the sysop chooses to put online.
7. Complete transfer system capable of tracking up to 215,622
files and 10 line description of each in up to 99 libraries
of 99 files each in each of 22 prefixes! New file scans can
be set up in multiple combinations for your users convenience.
8. BASIC programs and Games can easily be modified to run with
the Prime BBS system. Many examples have been uploaded here
to GEnie. The modifications are pretty easy and lots of fun.
These include user Voting Booths, BBS databases, Adventure
games, etc.
Q: What does the Sysop have to work with?
A: A lot! There is a completely menu driven maintenance system. The
sysop simply keys up a Control-C from the keyboard and can then menu
his/her way to anything in Prime that needs attention. Among these are:
1. Board and Menu editors.
2. Prefixes (you can put any part of Prime on any prefix
on your system).
3. User time restrictions can be set by time limits (if you
have clock) or number of bytes transmitted if you don't.
4. You can create and toggle on or off Pre and Post new user
messages and Pre and Post login in messages.
5. You can create Theme messages at the beginning of each board
to keep things going in a reasonable thread.
6. Email and transfer have their own complete set of utilities...
all accessible with the Control-C when you've entered their
area.
7. Remote sysoping available on ALL features so you can take
care of the system from a remote location or have a co-sysop
care for the system while you're on vacation.
Q: What about SECURITY? Can I closely control what users see what on
my BBS?
A: Yes, more than you will ever need. There are 9 user class codes for
gross set ups. In addition, each user has a 19 byte index string that
determines what he can do on your BBS. Each of these bytes can be set
from A to Z. You can then tie EVERY MENU KEY to one of these bytes and
levels and therefore control who can execute (or even SEE) these
commands. In addition, the sysop can give users ability to post
private messages, make entire boards restricted, record phone numbers
that the system will not accept for a user, allow or disallow login of
new users, offer a side door entry with proper password.... and allow
or disallow the use of alias's for users. All these things are handled
with ease by way of the comprehensive menu and user data editors.
Q: Who is this Goose fellow?
A: Nobody special.. I've been using and enjoying Prime (and its
predecessors) for nearly 8 years. Its been so much fun that I've
learned just enough about it to be dangerous. I hate to see such a
strong BBS die just because nobody knows about it. I'll help anyone
who tries to use it. No guarantees, but hopefully this is a GREAT way
to start small inexpensive pockets of Apple II users. My old trusty
II+ sits in the corner with a castoff 30 megabyte Seagate hanging there
serving as our user group communication port. How about it? Can you
use your old hardware to create your own private user group? Go for
it! <Grin>.... (W.GOOSEY, CAT10, TOP6, MSG:121)
These are the minimum necessary files to run the Prime BBS:
[*][*][*]
Number: 18837 Name: PRIME.DOCS.BXY
Address: W.GOOSEY Date: 920613
Approximate # of bytes: 142720
Number of Accesses: 102 Library: 39
Description:
This file is the documentation for the Prime BBS system for the Apple ][.
This is a very mature BBS that has been around for several years. The
entire BBS comes in 7 packed files. This file is the entire documentation
as published by Smoke Signal software when the BBS was commercial. The BBS
has all the desirable features for the Apple ][ sysop. Boards, Games, Vote
modules, Quote system, Other BBS databases, etc. Written in Basic (using
included powerful amper set) so you can modify it or modify other Basic
programs for use as external programs.
Keywords: BBS,Public Domain,PD,Prime,Manual,Documentation,ProTree,Smoke
Signal
[*][*][*]
Number: 18894 Name: SYSTEM.BXY
Address: W.GOOSEY Date: 920617
Approximate # of bytes: 75136
Number of Accesses: 46 Library: 39
Description:
This archive contains all the needed system files for the Prime BBS package
recently released to the Public Domain by Danny Haynes. Originally written
by Bob Garth. Excellent BBS for any Apple ][. In addition to this file
you will also need PrimeManual.shk, Install.shk, Xfer1.shk, Xfer2.shk, and
the optional Source1.shk and Source2.shk. Great BBS. Best I've ever seen
for simple, but powerful operation.
Keywords: Prime, BBS, modem, SmokeSignal,PD, Public Domain
[*][*][*]
Number: 18896 Name: XFER1.BXY
Address: W.GOOSEY Date: 920617
Approximate # of bytes: 48128
Number of Accesses: 42 Library: 39
Description:
This archive comprises the first of two Xfer system disks for the Prime BBS
system. Other files needed for this BBS are PrimeManual.shk, System.shk,
Install.shk, xfer2.shk and the optional Source1.shk and Source2.shk. Great
Apple II BBS!
Keywords: Prime, BBS, Modem, SmokeSignal,Public Domain
[*][*][*]
Number: 18897 Name: XFER2.BXY
Address: W.GOOSEY Date: 920617
Approximate # of bytes: 77696
Number of Accesses: 48 Library: 39
Description:
This archive is the second part of the Prime BBS xfer system. This is a
great Apple ][ BBS. Other files you need are the Primemanual.shk,
Install.shk, System.shk, Xfer1.shk, and the optional Source1.shk and
Source2.shk.
Keywords: Prime, BBS, modem, SmokeSignal,Public Domain