[kwlug-disc] a present for the older guys here...

Wed Nov 30 10:13:13 EST 2022

Oh wow! Man I miss the BBS days.

Started BBSing autumn 87 with a QuantumLink starter kit (later AOL) and 300bps Commodore 1660 modem on my C64. I lived way out in Wingham which sucked because EVERYTHING (including Datapac/Tymnet “local access numbers”) were long distance.

Tried a tonne of different BBS programs for C64 (Vision was my fav as it had “doors”) and Amiga (BBS-PC I think I ran the most).

Got a PC (seemed better for BBSs and wanted to multiline) tried a bunch ran rOverboard for a while (the BBS itself ran as a TSR; supported up to 4 modems, and allowed 1 user to run a standard DOS door (door.sys etc)). Once I went multiline I ran a null modem cable to my brother’s room and my Amiga, so had two phone lines and two computers directly connected. rOverboard ended up being buggy and so I tried some others… I think I tried some “standard” BBSs that supported multinode (eg the way CRS did things; one computer per phone line on a LAN) but using DESQview.  Didn’t seem real resource efficient.

I tried running a BBS on Xenix (Magpie) and later Linux early on (SLS distro, I think maybe Waffle or Citadel was the BBS program I tried) because obviously *nix was awesome for multiline modem based stuff. But it was not popular with users.

Switched back to DOS and tried Falken (Herb Rose out of Tysons Corners VA) which was amazing, had its own multitasker, you could run dos doors, supported dozens of lines (ran 4 phone lines + null modems). Had a chat and an API to add games to the chat (eg poker etc.) Eventually supported.  IIRC it even had echo mail support (~91-92).

Eventually settled on MajorBBS because a guy out of Montreal (Sylvain Durocher/Vircom) was adding TCP/IP support to MajorBBS and ponied up for it ($$ but I had a part time job so… all the money went to the BBS).  I think at one point I had 8 phone lines on ringdown in my bedroom at my parents.

Of course the Internet came and pretty much killed BBSs but that’s another story.  I recently got my amateur radio certificate hoping to do packet BBS stuff but it doesn’t look like there is much out there anymore, it’s all APRS (which itself is certainly interesting).  Always thought that amateur packet would be great for a “BBS” revival; using long range HF for “echo mail / net mail” and then connecting to the local BBS via VHF/UHF at tolerable (for text/ANSI) speeds of up to 9600bps.  I think though, that restrictions on encryption and content might make amateur packet “less fun” than the original BBS days (easy snooping when playing online games for example, and one would have to be careful bridging echo mail onto amateur radio from “land line” due to unpredictable content).

Mark

> On Nov 30, 2022, at 9:14 AM, Charles M <chaslinux at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I also ran a couple of BBS's, one in Toronto, and one in Barrie. Initially, I ran Renegade BBS software. I liked Renegade BBS software for its more tree branch approach (PCBoard put almost everything on one screen). At one point I had 183 working door games on the Toronto BBS along with Fidonet file/ news feeds. I changed to Synchronet BBS software. It was great software until the day after I installed it and discovered the 20 user limit. Back then Synchronet was paid software. It cost $100USD. I bought the software and was back running the board normally. I was initially a little worried that I'd written a cheque to a scammer. Rob Swindell developed Synchronet. But my registration reached me about a week after. I had a lot more issues with Microsoft and my MS-DOS 6.22 registration than I ever did with Synchronet.
> 
> The BBS was initially started on my 10MHz NEC V20 CPU, with 1MB of RAM and a 300 baud modem. I had a 386 motherboard, but couldn't afford RAM. I think it was the sysop of The Cat's Meow BBS in Toronto that met me in the subway and gave me 2MB of RAM. The RAM was all wrapped up and I kept thinking we looked like we were doing another kind of deal on the subway.
> 
> With 2MB of RAM and a 386 I thought about running 2 lines/nodes. I bought a copy of DesqView for task switching. DesqView could run on 2MB of RAM, but when one person called in on one line, it would kick the person on the other line off. I discovered that while 2MB was enough to run DesqView, it wasn't enough for both nodes to run. I needed 4MB, so the BBS went back to 1 node.
> 
> The BBS I ran in Barrie was run under OS/2 warp. It was getting pretty late in the BBS days back then. The BBS was being run for a computer club, back then known as the Barrie User's Group (BUG). The group had started as a Commodore computer club in 1983, and I'd previously been a member when I lived in Barrie before. It ran the same Synchronet BBS software. By then the world wide web was really starting to take hold (95-96) so fewer people called the BBS. This coupled with the fact that an electrical storm fried the modem meant the death of the BBS. The club eventually approved funds for a new modem, but by then it was pretty much dead to the web.
> 
> Ironically, it was really looking at all the BBS software on the Slackware '96 CD that convinced me to give Linux a try. It looked like there was a lot of interesting BBS-related software on the CD-ROM. I even ended up writing a few Linux articles for the club's newsletter on Linux (without really knowing anything about Linux back then).
> 
> Good times,
> 
> Charles
> 
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2022, 9:52 PM Ron Singh, <ronsingh149 at gmail.com <mailto:ronsingh149 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Back in 1980-81, I ran a CP/M BBS originally on an Apple ][ Plus clone with clone Z80 MS Softcard. In time, between '81-83, I graduated to a Xerox 820-II Z80 motherboard that a Xerox employee was magically able to get for me. 
>> Lovely board, just 2 flywires on the bottom on my rev. Check it, ain't it a real beaut?
>> https://oldcomputers.net/pics/xerox-820-ii-motherboard.jpg
>> 
>> I do wish I had kelp it along with all the various system board from back in the day, Ferguson Bigboard II, Ampro Littleboard/Z80, my large Apple ][ Plus hardware collection, my Steve Ciarcia's Z180 SBC(actually I think I still have that).
>> 
>> Mostly I wish I kept the Ampro SBC which was attached to a Soroc IQ-120 terminal. 
>> 
>> Nice find Cranky!
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Ron S.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Nov 29, 2022 at 9:20 PM CrankyOldBugger <crankyoldbugger at gmail.com <mailto:crankyoldbugger at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/
>>> 
>>> 
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