A Handbook for Bulletin Board System (ab)Use -------------------------------------------- By : Thomas Arnold Sysop of : The Sysabend Dump and BBS Refuse Center This pamphlet is meant to be a simple tutorial, maybe even a beacon or "guiding light" for the novice Bulletin Board System (BBS) user. It probably fails horribly in the attempt, but maybe it will at least entertain you. Just What Is a BBS? ------------------- First, we should give away the secret as to what a BBS is. Well, a BBS is just a computer running some fancy or not so fancy software that allows you to "call" it and do things. What kind of things? Well, the most common is Communications by various means. At the simplest level communications on a BBS is by leaving messages. Leaving messages is best described as "electronically" sending a letter to someone. You type the letter in, the BBS stores it, the next time the recipient calls, they get the message. The second most common use of a BBS is for Uploading and Downloading files. Uploading and Downloading are terms carried over from the days of people using huge mainframes. When something such as a file went from your "small" personal computer "Up To" the huge mainframe, it was uploading, or when the huge mainframe graciously sent something Down to you, it was Downloading. The nice men in white coats who fed and cared for the huge mainframes really liked the idea that their machines were on a Pinnacle away from the "common computers". These men were called Super Users or System Operators, which is commonly shortened to "Sysops". People who run BBSes also call themselves Sysops, but fortunatly are not nearly as egotistical as the "Founding Sysops", well maybe some Sysops still are... In any case, it is possible to Upload and Download files such as Games, Wordprocessors, Text files, in fact ANY file can be sent from a Computer to a BBS and back. Note : Some people are convinced that you can't send a, for example, Commodore File to an IBM BBS. In some cases, people have said that the two computers COULDN'T EVEN CONNECT. Well, *ANY* two brands of computers can connect as long as you have the correct software. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, find a baseball bat and hit them until they understand. There are far to many different types of machines to possibly discuss all the various possible combinations of Calling Machine ( hereafter referred to as Terminal ) to BBS machine. I'd highly suggest you find someone who is EXPERIENCED with the connection you wish to achieve, and ask them. Its easy, really. Other things you may see on BBSes are Games, which are just that... games. They may be called Doors ( the term Door refers to the analogy of a "doorway" to another program from the BBS ) or the may be called something else, but they are entertainment for when you get tired of Communicating and UP/DOWNloading. ( but you haven't even GOTTEN to up/downloading yet? We're getting there... ). Other things you may find online are stories to read, things to buy, weather forecasters, who knows... A BBS is a reflection of the Sysop that runs it and can express or do WHATEVER the Sysop can think of and kind find a way to implement. Never be surprised at what you might find. A Brief Incomplete History of BBSing ------------------------------------ Okay, this is a VERY brief history. BBSes were offically born when a gentleman named Ward Christianson wrote the program CBBS ( Computer Bulletin Board System ) in 1978. The original CBBS was little more then an electronic corkboard that notes could be stuck on. Ward expanded his system and wrote the first file transfer protocol called X-Modem that allowed files to be UP and DOWN loaded from his BBS without errors caused by telephone line noise ( more on this topic later ). After Ward's first system, the idea started to catch on. By 1982 there were more then a dozen different BBS programs in common use including programs like TBBS, Forum-80, RCP/M, CBBS, and RBBS-PC. Beyond these commonly used ones, there were hundreds of custom programs being written. BBSing's biggest boost came when IBM released the IBM-PC. Within 2 years of its introduction, IBM-PC BBSes outnumbered others by a HUGE margin. The main reason is that it was relativly inexpensive to add drive space and upgrade an IBM based BBS, whereas other systems were usually proprietary, ( ie - you MUST by Brand-X harddrive for Brand-X computer at what Brand-X wants to sell it for, unstead of letting competition lower the pricing for everyone concerned ). In 1984 a gentleman named Tom Jennings released a program called Fido BBS. Fido was neat because it contained FidoNet. ( uh-oh, another term ). Whats FidoNet? Glad you asked! The neat thing about Fido BBSes is they could Talk to each other. If you were on a Fido BBS in Virginia, and your friend was on one in California, you could send messages between the two systems. This was the start of a monstrosity that now encompasses over 14 thousand BBSes around the world, but more other this later. That is about as far as we need carry this ( brief, remember ). Needless to say, there are now over 30 THOUSAND BBSes around the world running on every computer imaginable. Its a whole world available for you to explore, and Ma-Bell can hardly wait. Lets see how its done. Lets Call an Imaginary BBS -------------------------- Okay, were gonna make some assumptions. First, you have a computer. Second, you have a modem. Third, you have terminal software installed properly. Fourth, you have the phone number for "The Generic BBS", you have called using your modem, and you have connected. All this ( except the phone number ) you need to learn from someone who knows YOUR computer setup. For this sample Logon, we will show sample screens, such as this: +--------------------------------+ : This is a Sample Screen : : : : : : A BORING sample screen : +--------------------------------+ This will be what you see on your imaginary computer. Okay, so now we have called the "Generic BBS", heres what we see +--------------------------------+ : CONNECT : : : : Welcome to the : : GENERIC BBS!!! : : : : Please Enter your Name> : +--------------------------------+ The first line ( CONNECT ) is a response from a typical Modem for connecting to a System. Some modems do it, some don't. Our imaginary one did. The next two lines are just a welcome message for that BBS. The last line is the only one you really need to pay attention to. Most BBSes want to know who calls them, they ask for a name or an alias. Depending on the software, some may ask for a User Number, or some might just ask for a Password. As usual, there are ALOT of variations, but asking for a Name is the most common. What happens if you have never called here before? Well, enter your name and follow the instructions. In most cases, the BBS will want to know Where you are calling from, what your phone number is, and any number of other questions. Just answer them. Sooner or later the BBS will ask you for a Password or Passcode. A password is something random that you or the BBS generates that NO ONE ELSE CAN GUESS. This is so another person can't try to log on to the same BBS with your name and possibly impersonate you. PICK A GOOD PASSWORD, CompuServe ( a large information service ) recommends two unrelated words seperated by a random puncuation mark, for example PUPPY%BRICK. You can use anything, but it needs to be good. Your name, your social security number, you phone number ARE NOT GOOD PASSWORDS cause they can be found out and tried easily. SECRET and PASSWORD are also bad passwords. Some Sysops do evil things to people who use passwords like that. Anyway, pick a password. For our imaginary system, we'll use the name BOB and the password XYLOPHONE, so our login will look like this : +--------------------------------+ : Please Enter your Name> BOB : : : : Password? ######### : : : : You have logged on! : : Welcome BOB! : +--------------------------------+ Okay, you entered your name BOB, and you entered your password XYLOPHONE, but WAIT, you typed your password but you got #'s... Well, thats so someone watching won't see your password. Next you will usually see some kind of bulletin or other logon screen. +--------------------------------+ : Nothing new is happening here : : at the Generic BBS. : +--------------------------------+ I guess nothing is going on at the Generic BBS. Well, the next thing we'll see is the MAIN MENU +--------------------------------+ : MAIN MENU : : --------- : : [M] Message Menu : : [F] File Menu : : [C] Chat With The Sysop : : [G] Goodbye : +--------------------------------+ Look like a standard program? Well, it should! I never said this would be hard! As should be obvious, for messages hit 'M' for files hit 'F', but what is Chat and what is Goodbye? Well, Chat will make the BBS beep alot so that if the sysop hears he/she can type to you live one on one. ( sounds like a 900 number? LIVE UNINHIBATED SYSOPS! 1-900-COMP-NERDS ) you would use this command if you were having problems and needed the sysop RIGHT NOW, otherwise a message works just as well, and waking a sysop is like poking a VERY mean bear with a short stick, so save this for emergancies or something. Some BBSes don't even have the command anymore. The Goodbye command is simply the way to leave the BBS. When you are finished with Messages and Files, you hit Goodbye and POOF you are gone. For now we will hit 'M' for messages : +--------------------------------+ : MESSAGE MENU : : ------------ : : [E] Enter Message : : [R] Read Messages : : [S] Scan Messages : : [M] Main Menu : +--------------------------------+ Another simple menu that should be fairly self-explainatory. 'E' allows you to enter a message for people to read, 'R' allows you to read the messages people have Entered. 'S' scans the messages that are available. Normally when you enter a message, you'll enter who its addressed to ( such as 'Doug' ) and what its about, its subject ( such as 'The ApplePie Computer'). So, if someone did a Scan they would see: +--------------------------------+ : Scan Messages : : Message #1 : : From : Bob : : To : Doug : : Subject : The ApplePie Computer: +--------------------------------+ And so-on for every message in the message area. Scanning is a good way to see what messages are interesting without having to read them all.