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Boardwatch Magazine Volume VII Issue 6
$3.95
B O A R D W A T C H M A G A Z I N E
Guide to the World of Online Services
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Editor: Jack Rickard Volume VII: Issue 6 ISSN:1054-2760 June 1993
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Copyright 1993 Jack Rickard - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Boardwatch Magazine is published monthly in printed form at an annual
subscription rate of $36. In most cases, the operator of the local system
carrying Boardwatch Online Edition can process your subscription order.
Editorial comment may be addressed to Editor, BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE, 7586 West
Jewell, Suite 200, Lakewood, CO 80232. (303)973-6038 voice, (303)973-4222
data, (303)986-8754 fax. This file may not be posted on electronic bulletin
board systems without written permission of the publisher.
SUBSCRIPTION VOICE ORDER LINE - 1-800-933-6038
EDITOR'S NOTES
==============
1 From the Rose Garden to the Dinner Table
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
=====================
2 Amiga BBS'
3 Hungary BBS'
4 Thanks for a Job Well Done
5 I Was Looking to Start a BBS
6 Afra-Span Netowrk
7 Amiga Sysop 2
8 Looking for a BBS FodoNet Ready
9 Looking for a Terminal Program
10 I Need More Internet
11 Two Requests
12 Telegard or Renegade
13 Amiga Numer 3
14 My Saturday Plans
15 More About Boardwatch
16 Bring Me Internet
TELE-BITS
=========
17 Rumors and Factoids
18 ONE BBSCON Boardwatch 100 Reader's Choice Contest
19 US Robotics New McKinley Architecture Modems Shake Up Modem Market
SOFTWARE NOTES
==============
20 Telegrafix and the remote Imaging Protocol
21 Steve Jackson Games Wins Lawsuit
22 New 128Kbps ISDN Service Unit for Personal Computers
COMMERCIAL SERVICES
===================
23 Prodigy - In Search of Life
24 WinCIM - Compuserve Puts on a New Face
INTERNET NEWS
=============
25 Netnews (Almost) Live via Satellite
26 White House Mailing List
27 Liberty Netlink - 2584 Internet Services from a Single Menu
28 Natinal Information Infrastructure - Dr. Cerf Goes to Washington
29 Internet Growth
30 TCP/IP on the IBM PC - An Introduction
LEGALLY ONLINE
==============
31 E-Mail From Hell, Postmarked Phoenix
32 Feds Want to Outlaw Hate Crime BBS'
MACINTOSH BBS NEWS
==================
33 FirstClass: The Review
34 What's Up, Doc?
35 MAC BBS of the Month
DIRECT COMMECT
==============
36 Online Resources for the Deaf
BBS LISTS
=========
37 This Month's List: Worcester Massachusettes
38 111 Federal Government Bulletin Boards
39 BBS Software Vendor Product Support Bulletin Boards
40 Sysop Modem Discount Programs
41 BOARDWATCH List of BBS List Keepers
42 BOARDWATCH National List
43 Reader's Choice 100, 1993 Contest
==============
EDITOR'S NOTES
==============
FROM THE ROSE GARDEN TO THE DINNER TABLE
----------------------------------------
In this issue we note some fairly dramatic changes in the way the world
online works, and the way the world works, online.
The story on the Clinton White House's new connectivity may seem innocent
enough. But I suspect it's actually one of thoe things we'll all look back
on, dig through our back issues, and try to figre out when it really started.
The Clinton White House is literally pumping every public statement uttered
by anyone who is anybody in the administration onto the wires - usually with
a same day time proximity fuse. This has been the mantra of the online
community for nearly a dozen years. "Put it online - full text." We wanted
it. And we're getting it.
If you combine this new transmission medium with the concept of the National
Information Infrastructure - a data highway reaching into every home in the
country, every business, every school, and anywhere else we can find to run
two copper wires or a strand of fiber, something very different emerges.
Consider that right now, the quote- news media - unquote delivers the
pronouncements of the government to us with an immediate and endless litany
of criticism, counterpoint, and analysis. I have a love/hate relationship
with the wider news media. They can be petty, self-serving, biased,
patronizing, and too often cater to the least common denominator among their
audience. But they are quite separate from our government and many have noted
the "fourth" branch of our government that offers some check and balance to
the power of the Presidency. However imperfect, to some degree they serve as
the concentrated voice of "us."
I think most of the Presidents who have served, certainly during my lifetime,
have also expressed some level of frustration with the national television
networks, newspapers, and other media in descending order of effectiveness
and reach. It can be difficult to get away with much under the eyes of a
couple of hundred ambitious journalists crawling all over Washington with
dreams of a Watergate dancing in their heads.
Now picture a world where the President can utter what words he likes, and
the full text is delivered to 50 million e-mail boxes thirty minutes later.
Who is going to "scoop" that? In fact, who is going to get a chance to
comment on it - in context? We are facing an imminent devaluation of the
talking head. And perhaps we are facing a Presidency that has found a way to
circumvent, at least to some degree, the badgering of the press.
It features an attractive good that I am emotionally attuned to. Instead of
30 second sound bites, for those who care, they can instantly receive pages
and pages of full text of what was really said. Every step, every word, every
"photo opportunity" can be on the wires in moments. But as growing numbers
online are learning, no matter how hard you suck on the fire hose of e-mail,
more bytes does not equal more usable information. You don't even get that
"full" feeling - just frustration. And the concept of the President going
"directly to the people" is really a scant step from a government controlled
news medium. Certainly there will be online discussions, and certainly this
will not work in a vacuum. I have to believe that news will continue.
On the other hand, I'm reminded of the London stock exchange. They installed
a totally computerized exchange system, and they spent millions on some very
deluxe monitors to display activity of all types visible from virtually
anyplace on the trading floor. Beautiful color monitors to read out every
tick and waver of thousands of stock prices for the hundreds of traders who
crowded that floor each day. The problem was, since they could access all
that information from their own offices by personal computer, the traders
abandoned the floor ENTIRELY within a WEEK. While there still is a London
Stock Exchange, and it is more active than ever, the floor itself looks like
a ghost town. Change can happen very quickly.
And revolutionary change in our national news organizations has been
happening over the past few years anyway. The television audience has grown
more dilute and the big three networks have cut back expenditures on the
national evening news dramatically, shutting down overseas bureaus. Now the
cable companies, Tele-Communications, Inc., particularly, are talking about
expanding the current 100 or so cable channels to over 500 channels. TCI is
investing $1.9 billion over the next four years to put fiber in the home.
They want to be part of the National Information Infrastructure. The feeding
frenzy in Washington to be part of the National Data Highway is just getting
started. But in all of this, the channels become more numerous, and more
dilute. The concentration of power and trust in Dan Rather to keep the
President honest is undergoing structural change of untold proportions. When
each of us can transmit and receive with the same dispatch as CBS news,
receiving the "word" from a symbolic central site of the stature of the White
House takes on a new meaning. Reality is what they say it is. And without
anyone with a similar concentration of horsepower to question it, a
fundamental shift in political power will have occurred.
How far to take this? Well, I don't know. Nature abhors a vacuum. It may be
that alt.george.will and alt.rush.limbaugh may become the equivalent of their
television counterparts. It may be that with full motion video over the
Internet, we will "subscribe" to actual video mailing lists of a variety to
make TCI's 500 channels look like Alexander Bell's dream of using telephones
to transmit musical concerts to distant cities. But I have no sense at this
point how these journalists will be rewarded online - there is little in the
way of current mechanism to do this. And I have in my lifetime seen a
President personally and politically ruined largely by concentrated power of
the big three networks and a couple of newspapers. And while I thought it was
unfair and undeserved at the time, I took a certain satisfaction that they
could in fact do it. If those channels are diluted and reduced to simply
relaying the contents of alt.prez.sez to the remaining few who have no
connection to the net, I'm a little hazy on the what was lost for what was
gained. And that's the way it is,...June, 1993.
Jack Rickard
Editor
Boardwatch Magazine
=====================
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
=====================
Jack
I am sure that this is probably one of hundreds of messages that you are
gonna get on this subject, but I just had to have my say. I run a single line
BBS on my Amiga 3000 with an 68040 accelerator, which just happen to be
several times faster than a DOS machine running a 66 mhz 486.
The main reason I run my BBS on the Amiga instead of getting a clone to run a
BBS on is because of the excellent multitasking that the Amiga does, I don't
have to use something like desqveiw, OS2 or Windoze. Unfortunately I don't
have Internet capabilities on my bbs not because it can't be done with my
software but because I can't locate a reliable and cheap feed. The BBS I am
sending you this message from is hooked into the Internet using DLG, which
sells for around $150.00 the programs to hook DLG into the internet are,
either Shareware, or Freeware, most of em written by Matt Dillon. Can you
tell me of an DOS bbs program that will allow you to hook up to the internet
for that price?
OOPS almost forgot to mention with DLG and most other Amiga BBS packages you
don't have to pay extra for multiline versions. The BBS I am sending this
message from Amiga Gateway is currently running 2 lines and it would be real
easy for him to add more lines - all he needs is a multiport serial card and
the modems to do it.
My own BBS DMZII is currently running 1.25 Gigs of hard drive space. I carry
a large collection of Amiga and Adult software the adult stuff is online as
Amiga and DOS compatible graphics(IFF and GIF). I read your magazine on a
regular basis and most of the time I enjoy it, although I do not like the
lack of Amiga coverage, I do see a lot of DOS and MAC stuff. I realize that
the Amiga is treated by most everyone as a redheaded, left handed, stepchild
but given the advances being made with Amiga BBS software maybe you should
take a look at whats going on. I have a friend who has written A BBS and term
program that will allow you to upload, download, and either read messages, or
play online games all at the same time, now I know you can do this on the DOS
machines, but Parabit is a shareware program with a registration fee of about
$50.00, Does the DOS world have one for that price ?
Well I guess you get the point anyway if you need someone to write some
articles on the Amiga and Telecomm let me know I would be glad to give it a
try. You can either reach me here through Internet or send a message to DMZII
BBS FIDO 1:2612/1011 301-863-6410
Glenn Carey
glenn_carey@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US
FidoNet: 1:2612/111
Glenn:
Nope. Your's was the only letter Glenn.
Really, you needn't defend the honor of your machine. I thought the KIM-1 was
a neat computer, and have loved every model since then - Amiga's included.
One of my favorites was the Victor 9000, but it didn't make it either. Your
view of the DOS world is slightly inaccurate. They can do all of that for
free or at low cost. $50 term programs, BBS software, and Internet utilities
abound. But that's not the point. We all live in "ponds" of activity online
and there are precious few frogs carrying the message between ponds. My
comment was of course tongue in cheek. But not by much.
I used to write software for Commodore computers. I'm actually a little more
familiar with them than I pretend, though not the later models. Had a little
falling out with Jack Tramiel a number of years ago - over the Amiga
actually. It was coming, and coming, and coming... for years. And we started
a pretty big article on them a year or so ago. Found a guy in California who
had the world's LARGEST Amiga BBS list. We dialed a few to spot check
accuracy and found 34 disconnects in the first 40 numbers. That was the end
of that project.
But while I'm not opposed to covering anything that strikes me as
interesting, the Amiga on its own merits faces a losing numbers game.
Actually, about 7% of the online world is Macintosh and it makes no economic
sense for me to devote a word to it. But I rather fancy Bill Gram-Reefer's
writing style, and the occasional oddity spills out of that community that I
personally find interesting, and assume our readers do. And I guess I rather
hope they'll get a little more online than they are, and if they do, we'll
have been there. The whimsey of an aging hack if you will. Statistically, the
Mac is almost invisible. And if the Macintosh is numerically invisible, the
Amiga doesn't quiet reach the status of myth - statistically speaking.
That doesn't mean it isn't an interesting machine, a capable machine, in some
aspects, a superior machine. My impression is that it has found some home in
video production ala Video Toaster. But Boardwatch - the Amiga Edition isn't
likely to happen soon. It would be more likely we'll cover some special topic
BBS that happens to run on one.
All that said, I've run some odd lists in these pages over the past six
years. The list of Amiga BBSs is not really out of the question.
Jack Rickard
hi jack.
I wrote you a few weeks ago asking if you knew any bbs's in hungary. well, i
also wrote to a few sysops in europe, and got in touch with marcel, a sysop
in zurich (if you want more details, i can get them to you, i just don't have
them at my fingertips at this moment). he sent me a list for hungary:
NETputer, Szekesfehervar_HUN, Bela_Mucs, 36-22-318-039 (9600)
Turul, Tatabanya_HUN, Miklos_Kiss, 36-34-17-116 (9600)
PTBBS, Pecs_HUN, Otto_Farkas, 36-72-13-048 (2400)
Savaria, Szombathely_HUN, Laszlo_Toth, 36-94-27-878 (9600)
HumanSoft_BBS, Varpalota_HUN, Istvan_Tanczos, 36-88-71-956 (9600)
Mordor_BBS, Veszprem_HUN, Zsolt_Szoboszlay, 36-88-24-432 (9600)
Region,38, AdriaNet,SLO_HR, Gregor_Rudolf, 38-66-34986 (9600)
if you found any additions to this list please let me know. my friend and I
will attempt to contact some of bbs's listed above in a few days.
Michael Muller
michael.muller@boardwatch.com
Michael:
It's a start, but I'm going to guess Hungary sports a few more than that.
Let's see if one of our reader's squirts a larger list?
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
As a faithful subscriber to Boardwatch for about a year now, I felt it high
time to jot down a little note of thanks for your contribution to the BBS
community! A job well done...keep it up.
I find your Internet connect articles quite interesting, though until I
understand it all a bit better I'll continue to use my FidoNet/UUCP gateway
(I have looked over some of the software available for this sort of thing and
find it all a bit baffling -I am NOT a programmer!).
Also of interest are the theme BBSs you showcase... Now quite frequently that
tends to be an environment issue BBS. Fine. I like that. Just thumb back
through a few issues and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.
However, there is ANOTHER side to all this environmental concern... Many
Americans view the environmental community as a bunch of doom and gloom
sayers. Quite often they expound panic and hysteria, and quite loudly I might
add. They nearly put an entire apple industry out of business with their alar
scare. Global warming, the ozone "hole" being eaten by CFCs -- it's all
merely theory at this point.
But we're sure crippling industry, recreation, and almost all walks of life
based on said theory... The very same "scientists" that started the spewing
forth these global warming chunks not too long ago were the proponents of
another impending ice-age about 15 years ago... Funny.
That's where Sahara Club comes into play... A bastion for conservatism. We've
been in existence since November '89. Now, with over 5,000 members, a regular
newsletter, a free support BBS (run out of my own pocket, NOT funded!) open
to all... Supporting Off-Roading, Timber, Guns and More! The BBS has been
online continuously since November '90, a FidoNet node since June '91,
carrying a wide variety of FidoNet echomail conferences - some technical,
some environmental issues, some just fun, and home of the SAHARA echo
(currently only privately distributed).
The Sahara Club BBS also carries a decent selection of software and has a
wide variety of text articles from some of America's greatest conservative
thinkers - we have a pretty good working relationship with others in what's
called the Wise Use Movement and a variety of conservative think tanks...
Please take this opportunity to consider listing us in your regular List of
Online Information Services - I'm sure there are many out there in the
electronic community who are like thinking and do not even know we exist.
If you need more information, please feel free to email me at the above
address.
Thank you,
Patrick Martin
Sahara Club BBS
(818) 893-1899
FidoNet 1:102/825
PS.Please do not print this letter in your Letters to the Editor column
unless you're ready for a LOT of flack from the environmental-activist types
out there in BBSland - in three years time we have become a rather heavy
force to deal with when it comes to public land-use issues affecting the
western United States and they have nothing nice to say about us... I love
it! (Yes, unlike the sayers of environmental doom and gloom, I ENJOY what I
do).
Patrick:
With your permission, I'd rather publish it. Sure, it would be a shame for me
to get any flack from anyone. But I enjoy what I do too.
The BBS/Internet connection is a bit baffling, but I think it is an important
direction for a number of reasons. The FidoGate works well enough, but it is
painful to hand key Internet addresses with every reply. That was the reason
for our development of the Personal Internet Mail Processor for TBBS - so our
callers could use the BBS interface they were accustomed to for Internet
mail. And we're not alone, a lot of people are working on software to make it
easier - for all the BBS platforms.
I think this connection is important in ways that I'm almost hesitant to go
into at this point - they are a bit grandiose. But I will say that the
Internet is not only not going away, but it is quite likely to subsume
everything in its path in a lot of ways. But the heart of the Internet is
really a group of technoids suffering from cranial-UNIX-bellicosus who also
can't count. They want to bring the Internet to K-12 schools for example. But
there are 16,000 school districts in the United States and over 85,000
schools - we're not down to classrooms yet, much less to students and
teachers, which all common knowledge in government aside, are the heart of
why we HAVE schools. Our local regional host provider, Colorado Supernet,
wanted nothing so much as to develop self sufficiency by providing Internet
ports to the world. With almost nothing but word of mouth, they are now in a
position where they can't add ports fast enough to have a prayer of
connecting all the technoids in Denver who have already called and ordered
ports, much less school systems, or the general public. I'm not exaggerating.
Call them. If you can get something within six months, you know somebody.
And that brings us to the topic of Interface for this grand national data
highway. We'll just wire America, and 50 million people or so will just sign
on and happily begin exploring the joys of the Unix command line, right? I'll
guess not. The interface to existing bulletin boards, and the use of Sparky's
QWK offline mail readers, is less than optimal. But it's about the best we've
got. I'm going to hear some guffaws, but mark where you read it first, (note
that I actually said it about three years ago), the ordinary electronic
bulletin board as operated now, will BE the interface to the Internet - and
the only Internet most people will see for some time to come. If they can
carry basic e-mail, globally, and Usenet News Groups, that covers about 90%
of what people want and need from the Internet now. And there is actually a
lot more a BBS can do pretty quickly. We are already seeing bulletin boards
actually tying into the Internet for access via Internet, menu items that
connect callers via Telnet to specific Internet information resources, and
more. It actually IS quite feasible for every school to have their own 16
line BBS, and it IS feasible for those BBSs to connect to the Internet for
e-mail and news groups, right now.
With regards to our propensity to cover environmental issues, actually we
don't. We cover BULLETIN BOARDS that cover environmental issues.
Environmental activist groups have been quite progressive in employing BBS
technology for their own organizational and communications purposes - that's
what we're interested in as a publication, and our readers can apply the same
technologies to organize barbed wire societies if they like.
My personal views? Since you asked. I believe that environmentalism is a
pagan earth worship religion differing not even in the details from several
popular about 2500 years ago. Many people have lost faith in the organized
religious entities in the United States, and it is not in the nature of
mankind to live without religion. We are genetically predisposed at the
cellular level to have one. So they have created one from pop-science and
earth worship and called it green and good. If you do a little hysterical
research, you'll find that the reason pagan earth worship religions kept
dying out was that the heart of them always boils down to MAN IS BAD and THE
EARTH GODESS IS GOOD. And ultimately self-destruction is the only solution to
save the earth. If you look into the eyes of eco-activists today, they're
glazed with the same fervor/fever as any other extremist religious sect. If
you disagree with them, they howl in outrage in the same way. Avoid close
contact, they can be dangerous if aroused or defending their young.
All that said, there is some legitimacy in the old scout edict to leave your
campsite at least as clean as you found it. Good luck with your BBS.
Jack Rickard
Jack:
I was looking into starting a BBS. I have set up a small one line BBS using
Wildcat. But, after reading about all the raids from the FBI. Secret Service
and all the other law enforcements, I am having second thoughts. I am
presently in the home satellite business and am using the BBS for my
customers. The BBS # is 1-314-655-2263. I guess no matter what business you
want to get into there is Big Brother watching and waiting.
Your magazine is very good and very informative.
JERRY BRANDT
jerry.brandt@boardwatch.com
Jerry:
Well I would shut her down then if I were you Jerry. If a few individuals in
our land want to control the masses, that WOULD be news. And to be safe, we
should all go along, right? I mean, why ruin their day with our silly
concerns over freedom, personal privacy, or right to get from birth to death
75.6 years later as best we can? You should probably pull the plug before
they arrive.
Jack Rickard
Hotep ! ! Hola ! Hi Jack,
My name is Walter Findlator and I am the Network Administrator for The
Afra-Span Network ! While reading your April 1993 edition of BW, I read pg 13
Aaron Laramore's letter about African American information services. Well I'd
like to tell you a little about our network here and what we do.
Afra-Span is North America's only information service geared towards the
development of African & Latin descendants. That means that we teach how to
survive economically, spiritually, socially, as well as technologically. Many
boards, Latin/African related all teach about history of a people but we here
at Afra-Span teach about the future.
I am blessed with the ability to not only speak Spanish, but also to be a
member (Site ambassador) for the Alliance of Black Telecommunications
Employees and The Hispanic Alliance of AT&T. As an Afro-Cuban, I teach those
who desire to know new things happening today to be competitive. It seems as
if the company that employs me has this same vision because the managers in
AT&T have a DIVERSITY & CULTURAL POINT in their checks that gets evaluated.
In other words, part of their salary goes to show how and what they did
within a multi-cultural environment.
We respect AT&T and back them wholly as the only Fortune 500 company to do
this in the broadest of fashions. They also support both Alliances and pay
for them to have professional networking in various cities around the US.
This year it is New Orleans for the ABTE and Fort Lauderdale for Hispa.
Afra-Span Network is growing quite rapidly and we intend on being leaders in
many communities and countries. We have recently celebrated at AT&T a holiday
we created called ACA Day. ACA is short for African-Caribbean-American Day.
We approached AT&T about this and they gave us $1000 to support business in
our communities. Afra-Span brought in vendors that the corporate climate had
never heard of and everyone had enjoyed themselves immensely. It helped the
small businesses within these communities also since it is hard to get a
break from corporate America.
I appreciate sharing this information with you as well as speaking with you
at last years' convention. We are sure to keep you informed of the 3 holidays
left that we have "discovered" for these two respected communities. We have
thus far targeted May 12th, Aug 13, and Oct. 8th. We will think of clever
acronyms for those dates as well.
When you need more information from us, we will be glad to offer all the
information you will need. We will see you at ONE BBSCON so look for us. We
are hardly ever missed (smile).
! Que le vaya bien !
De sus amigos aqui de
Afra-Span Network !
Walter Findlator
voice (404)270-5016
data (404)270-5522
wfindlator@attmail.com
afraspan@attmail.com
Walter:
Well, there's nothing like some new holidays with clever acronyms, and a good
dose of getting a cash break from corporate America, to teach people
self-sufficiency, economic self-reliance, and a way to a better life. If
you're happy, I'm happy. And just between us, I'm hardly ever missed either
<??>.
Jack Rickard
Hey Jack!
Oh, but you knew you were going to be getting letters from Amiga sysops,
didn't you? :)
I'm just one of a number of sysops that runs a BBS named DLG Pro from TelePro
Technologies and runs on the Commodore Amiga. This software has just as much
power and ease of use as any of the MS-DOS based BBS'. And since the Amiga
has always been a true multitasking machine (unlike others that have to
kludge or fake their way through doing multiple tasks at one time) it's just
as easy to have a number of users on-line, message tossing and actually
*using* the machine for a person's own uses. No need to dedicate a machine to
a task when it can be used along side your on-line crowd. Both command line
and GUI based BBS' can be used. Freeware and shareware packages can be found
on major BBS' and Internet sites that are classy enough to carry Amiga
software. Commercial packages can be purchased for less than the equivalent
cheapest multi-line programs from the MS-DOS world. I'm by no means the best
representative of Amiga based bulletin boards but I certainly exist!
I, like Bob Anderson from the April 1993 issue, have noticed that you only
seem to cover the MS-DOS and an expanding Macintosh worlds of BBSing. This is
something I've noticed with some magazines that say their covering the
computer world, as long as its MS-DOS or Macintosh based. Yeesh. I imagine
that one big reason for you not having more information on the Amiga world of
BBSing is that you've gotten no articles concerning it.
But this isn't a note complaining about the reality of the world. I do look
forward to each issue of "Boardwatch" because of the content and writing
style of the articles and editorials. Thanks for the humor and insight into
the strange yet enjoyable world of communications!
Regards always,
Greg Gerke,
Sysop of BeaverNet BBS
Greg.Gerke@beavnet.omahug.org
Well, you're welcome Greg. We try, but seriously there is more happening in
the online world than ten magazines can cover. Some days, I feel like we're
chipping paint chips off the side of a ship, and carrying it around showing
it to people to try to demonstrate what a Navy looks like. Somehow, we give
the unintended impression that Boardwatch defines what is happening online.
We don't. At this point, I'm going to guess we're failing at even being
representative of what's going on online. At one time, we did a passable job
of it. But I would venture a guess that the total number of bulletin boards
in existence when we started this publication was not many more than exist in
the Amiga community alone today. And the Amiga community just isn't that big
in the online world we face today. I received four written letters and six
e-mail replies, each noting the "hundreds" and in a couple of cases
"thousands" of angry replies they were "sure" I would be receiving.
And some days I do feel a bit inadequate to the task. The pile of stories I
SHOULD have done is now bigger than I can ever do. WWIVnet, , Amiga, Black
BBS, Religious BBS, Occult BBS, more lists, more editorial, and more
technical stories. We'll try Greg. Jack Rickard
Hi Jack;
I will like to start a small bbs with fidonet connection and I will like to
ask you, if you know of a bbs program that already has all the stuff that I
need to get up and running ???.
What I am trying to say is a bbs thats already set to send and receive
netmail, I will be using it for personal use as for sending my netmail to
friends and stuff.
Thanks.
Richard Velez - via FidoNet node 1:107/930
Richard:
Well, I know this sounds a little trite. But have you considered FIDO BBS?
That's like, what it was designed for, and what started it all. It's not
young, and it lacks some of the newer features, but it does a pretty good job
with FidoNet mail. Another old faithful package that is very inexpensive and
still does a pretty good job of netmail is a package titled OPUS. Wynn Wagner
III had FidoNet pretty much in mind when he wrote that one.
But actually, I don't know of anything that has "all the stuff you need to
get up and running." Installing FidoNet is a bit of a treasure hunt - a
utility here, a config file there, another utility over here. I use a package
titled TBBS that requires an associated "add-on" titled The Integrated Mail
System (TIMS). This package can handle up to 64 simultaneous high-speed
FidoNet mail sessions, each on a different telephone line, with some inbound
calls from other systems, some outbound calls TO other systems, and a few
lines just dialing lost numbers in space, all at the same time. If you need
to move a LOT of mail fast, this is the heavy over-the-road semi truck of
FidoNet mail. But even then, we use some ancillary netmail utilities,
unpacking/unarchiving utilities, and so forth. FidoNet would have taken over
the world by now, but for the fact that a lot of the people involved in it
LIKE puzzles and brain teasers.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
Do you know of a communications package for PCs that can place calls at
predetermined times and then execute scripts to, say, automatically download
mail off services like CompuServe?
Peter Klein
74007.765@COMPUSERVE.COM
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Peter:
I'm going to guess the closest thing to that I've found in satisfactory form
is the new QmodemPro from Mustang Software, Inc. in Bakersfield California.
Ostensibly a terminal program, it has really evolved into a mail manager. You
can very easily script sessions on CompuServe and a number of other
commercial services, QWK sessions on local bulletin boards, and nearly
everything else in one "group". When you pull the trigger, it goes and gets
ALL your mail from ALL sources in that group and puts it into a single mail
database. It has a built in reader that allows you to read and respond to all
this mail without giving much thought to what particular service it will
ultimately be delivered to. It features spelling checkers, and cut and paste
and a lot of nice mail features. Pull the trigger again, and it goes and
uploads your replies - each to the appropriate service without a lot of
supervision. It also deals with fax numbers as if THEY were e-mail addresses.
If you deal with a lot of mail from several different sources, as some of us
do, this is probably the best kept secret in the online world. They still
think its a terminal program, and while I'll admit it does well enough on
that count, it's really the e-mail tool that a few of us use to survive the
fire hose.
Jack Rickard
Jack:
Since I am an air traffic controller, we don't use the term "Hi Jack", so
it's just Jack. I enjoy your magazine, especially "Internet News". As a
novice to Internet, I am trying to absorb as much information I can from all
available sources about Internet.
For a future article(s), perhaps you could do a simple step-by-step
walkthrough of Internet session on one of the services. Since CompuServe has
more than a million members now, that could be your target audience. Some
specific examples would be helpful. I use the Information Manager on
CompuServe, and think I know how to correctly create mail off line and then
send it later. I am sure I still have a lot to learn about the various
commands and protocol expected.
I have acquired some interest group lists, but still do not know exactly what
is available to me. Some articles directed at the Internet Novice would be
appreciated.
By the way, a suggestion that many of your readers might appreciate, would be
for you to select one or two key words as to the contents of letters to the
editor, and start each letter with those words in bold or underlined as a
separation point between letters (for readability sake). i.e. April issue,
1st letter: DELPHI COMMENTS, 2nd letter: DELPHI FEES, 3rd letter: DELPHI
OMISSION, 4th letter: AMIGA BBS'S. etc.
Thank you, Ron Fandrick
76667.01377@compuserve.com
Ron:
A couple of anecdotes if you don't mind. I picked up a copy of a publication
titled BYTE Magazine in the late seventies off a co-workers desk. I was a
pretty hard core hardware guy in those days, and I was fascinated by this
publication because after turning every single page in it, I found that not
at ANY one spot did I have a CLUE what they were talking about. They seemed
to know. But I certainly didn't. I don't mean I didn't catch every nuance of
every story. What I'm saying is that the pages might have as well been
printed in cyrillic. It was the leading edge publication of a new field
called PERSONAL computing. I just got their latest issue on the Pentium
microprocessor the other day. I've taken that magazine for OVER 15 years.
It's not even owned by the same people. I don't even think it's owned by the
people who bought it from the same people. I still get it. I still even read
their "good" issues.
Second anecdote. We did some careful looking at the process people go THROUGH
to get online. Most of them really get bogged down by the 8 data bits, 1 stop
bit, No parity functions in their terminal programs. And ALL of them
struggled with the modem initialization string required to get their software
to talk to their modem well enough to dial the telephone at all. And
uniformly, their response after going through it was, "if it takes THIS much
effort to just get it to dial the telephone, THIS is just not for me."
The curious thing is, they thought they were 5% into it and it had already
taken LOTS of effort. In reality, if you can get the modem to dial the
telephone, you already know 90% of everything you'll ever need to know to
LIVE online. I STILL get caught with the wrong initialization string with
embarrassing regularity. They had already gotten through all the hard parts.
And now to tie them together. You sent your letter to the editor from
CompuServe via Internet mail. That really IS all there is to it. Everything
from here on out is finding neat places to send it to, and signing up for
mailing lists to have them send it to you. There's a little bit of mailing
list etiquette perhaps, and maybe you could learn about FTP e-mail servers.
But you're there guy. >INTERNET:address is all there is to the Internet from
CompuServe.
Now if I publish an article on that in this June issue, do you want to read
about it again in July? August? September? We get new readers every month.
Lots of them from CompuServe. At what point will you pale on the topic of
"how to send Internet mail from CompuServe?"
By reading BYTE Magazine every month, I eventually got to the point where I
understood it in places. Then in more places. Pretty soon, as I absorbed more
of the material each month, I was finding some very INTERESTING information
in it. And it held my interest for fifteen years.
I don't doubt for a minute that Boardwatch could be a bigger magazine, make
more money, and have more readers if we would just take care of the new
callers better. But they aren't NEW very long. And it isn't what I want. I
want YOU reading Boardwatch 15 years from now Ron. Stay with us. You're
through the hard part. And fifteen years from now, you may be the guy writing
the software to connect my Intel 90996 computer to a vending machine in Omaha
somewhere.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
I've got two requests for your circulation departments: 1) seal "Boardwatch"
in recyclable plastic before delivery and 2) use recycled paper and soy-based
ink. The additional plastic may "cross out" some of the ecological benefit of
using recycled paper and soy-based ink. However, the benefit of not having a
soggy issue of "Boardwatch" is more important! Maybe they don't make
mailboxes like they use too. :) I don't know about the rest of your followers
(this is beginning to sound a little Waco) but I would be willing to pay a
little more for a dry, ecologically friendly magazine.
=|-) Steve
Stephen M. Durfee
71155.2711@compuserve.com
Steve:
This one is pretty simple. I DETEST plastic stuff wrapped around magazines.
It's a nuisance. Wrap some plastic around your mailbox. If you get a copy
damaged in transit, call Rob in our business office and he'll happily and in
fact too cheerfully for that early in the morning mail you a handsome new
replacement copy at no additional charge just because you're a Boardwatch
subscriber and ipso facto one of our favorite people.
I don't buy into the enviro/pop-science currently in vogue in some quarters.
I'm convinced at this point that recycled paper actually consumes more energy
and resource than it saves. This is a perfect example of the clash between
political correctness and science and it makes most of the environmental
movement look comically foolish to me. And besides, I love to slay trees.
Their agonized final whimper is music to my ears.
Ink is another matter. Some inks leave a chemical residue in the trash that
is dirty. It won't likely "kill the planet" but it is slightly toxic and so
constitutes filth and nast. We do use 100% soy inks in the printing of
Boardwatch Magazine at this point. I doubt we actually have to pay much, if
anything, more for it. Soybeans are pretty organic. I don't know for a fact
that soy ink is entirely non-toxic, but it sounds right.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack,
I used to run a BBS in Arvada Colorado, on the topic of environmental
information. I was not sure what software to use at first I had finally
landed on Telegard or Renegade. I had looked at many many different kinds of
systems commercial and shareware. Things like Major BBS amazed me and I would
love to run a system using that, but I wasn't sure how long it would last,
and spending $250 or something like that for BBS software wasn't worth it. I
had looked at RemoteAccess, Searchlight, TBBS, etc. But I never found one
that had ALL the features I wanted. You may think of Telegard or Renegade as
a little tiny and lousy BBS package but I found it was excellent. It had
options for all of what I may have wanted to change ANSI, text blocks,
security levels etc. My real question is out of all the systems you have used
and/or seen what do you think?
If you publish this letter I would ask readers to please send there feedback
to me via InterNet mail at the address below I am interested in what you
think.
Thank you,
Chris Reed
ab607@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu
Chris:
I think it's fine. I havent' found the BBS software that has all the features
I want either. If I do, my list of features I want will be immediately
upgraded, along with my software. I think it is important for the BBS to be
the creative expression of the BBS operator, rather than of the BBS software
author. I favor packages that allow that expression with the maximum
flexibility - fully realizing that the power to create is the power to make
ugly. But it also becomes a tool, rather than an appliance, and someone may
do something beautiful with it. I've seen excellent bulletin boards done with
meagerly endowed software, and some online horrors done with some of the top
end packages. I doubt software selection is nearly as important as some
believe. And I have watched the agony of the congenitally confused who change
packages each calendar quarter in search of the perfect program that will
finally make their BBS work and the world dial into their system. I would
urge you to focus on substance, not symbolism, and Telegard or Renegade will
probably do fine. I would note that we have had some difficulty locating the
author/current owner of Telegard. If you find him, have him call home. We'd
like his contact information.
Jack Rickard
Jack:
All IBM and no Amiga make Jack a dull boy... or at least a very sheltered
one. I refer to the letters column of your April issue where your reply to
Bob Anderson was "Amiga BBSs? There are bulletin boards for Amigas?" Jack,
tell me that your comment was given tounge-in-cheek. I can personally provide
you with the numbers of over 200 Amiga Specific BBS systems around the world
and I know that I have not even scratched the surface of the complete list.
With regard to the USENET access and offering the Amiga no recognition in
your magazine, I agree fully with Mr. Anderson! We are being insulted through
omission. I am the Sysop for the Tampa Bay Amiga Group and our BBS 'T-BAG'
has been online continuously since early 1988 (6 years). That may not be a
long time in the scheme of things, but, when you realize that the Amiga was
released in 1986, I feel that we have something to brag about. We have
supported USENET and UUCP for the past 3 years (YES, THREE YEARS) and carry
approximately 85 newsgroups, we offer anonymous FTPing from our database, and
also have the capabilities to carry FIDOnet ECHOs if we wanted them. Our BBS
software "C-Net Amiga V2.63+" offers QWK packets for offline reading and
replies, realtime interuser conferencing on up to 24 nodes per CPU, online
games, File and Message Bases, CD ROM singles & the new 6-Pack support, and
much much more.
To summarize:
1. Amiga is a strong force in the personal BBS world.
2. USENET & FIDONET are nothing new, or difficult, to our platform.
3. If you think President Clinton's Compu-Serve mail box is full, wait till
you hear from the Amiga community
Best Regards;
Pete Baker
SysOp and Net Administrator for the
Tampa Bay Amiga Group
pbaker@tbag.tscs.com
Peter:
No I was serious as a heart attack. And you're right, we've had over a half
dozen e-mail messages on this one topic alone. By all means, personally send
me the list of 200 Amiga systems, to whatever degree of scratching it is.
Given my sheltered life, perhaps you can explain to me how can you be
"insulted by omission." Sounds like a lot of hard work to get there to me.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
Once again, you messed up my Saturday. I had all kinds of plans for things to
do today...rooms to clean up, garage to sweep, computer junk to attend
to...and then your magazine came in the mail. Now here I sit at 4:00 in the
afternoon...having once again read Boardwatch from cover to cover. The rooms,
garage, and computers still untouched. May all of my problems be so big.
I just wanted to thank you for the outstanding quality of your magazine --
again. In every issue, I have little post-it notes sticking out of one page
or another. This time, the notes include an outstanding article from Lance
Rose in the Legally Online column.
I'm one of the "kids" playing in the world of the "big boys." That is, I run
a single-line BBS, using Wildcat, and do not charge for access...I guess this
qualifies as the "hobbyists" setup. Bit by bit (ugh! Sorry!) I have added
elements to this board as I am able...mostly from donated and/or repaired
parts, and the like. The latest addition is access to the world of Internet
email and Usenet. Because I'm such a small system, the costs are still
manageable, but I could not operate this thing as well without the
information, ideas, and motivation that I get from your magazine. In fact,
without the information and motivation I have gleaned from your "Internet"
columns, I would never have persevered in working through the hassles of
connecting something like a Wildcat based BBS to the Internet and Usenet. I
am a high-school teacher, and the greatest benefit I have seen has come from
some of my students, who have connected to a much wider world than they ever
knew existed...and who have learned things from others online, people from
other parts of the country, and the world, things that I could never have
taught them in the classroom.
In light of that particular benefit, I would especially like to thank you for
the articles about BBS and Internet connections to other countries. The notes
from Arcady Khotin, the resources in your "Former Soviet Union" BBS guide,
the Eastern European connections...all have provided avenues of communication
to my students (and myself) which have been invaluable. That kind of
information is not available in any other publication, and you are providing
an invaluable service for people that you will probably never know.
Thanks again,
Glenn Snow
"Snow's Dorm"
glenn.snow@sdorm.org
Mundelein, IL USA
Glenn:
Thank you so much for the very kind note. Sorry about the Saturday, but as
you pointed out, it's not lung cancer. Many people don't quite "get" the
Internet part yet, as it sounds like a confusing form of X.25 or some other
"networking" technology. What it really is is the end of the e-mail island
problem with struggled with for so long - suddenly over. And with it comes
the ability to REALLY correspond easily, cheaply, and almost immediately,
with virtually anyone on the globe, in any country, about anything. Not
through television or other controlled news - but directly - individual
humanoid type person to person. That is so broad, such a macro change in
communications, it becomes vague until we bring it to earth with examples.
And it sounds like you're doing that with your school protege's in pretty
expert fashion. Don't apologize for the "hobbyist" single-line aspect of your
BBS. Most of the significant developments both technologically and socially
have come from just that garden. And I suspect you don't really realize your
role in an information future. I can tell you that at the highest levels of
government, there is a dawning realization that the way to hook up schools to
this proposed National Data Highway or National Information Infrastructure is
through fairly plebeian BBS technology, and by enlisting the aid of the
teachers that have really struggled with this thing with little support from
any quarter - some, perhaps most of them, out of their own pockets.
But it's been a good exercise. We KNOW we can do a thing, at least badly, by
throwing lots of money at it. The challenge is to do something effectively,
and at minimum cost. Anyone who hasn't faced funding next month's phone bill
and the next $50 software acquisition out of thin air, as you have, isn't
qualified to build a national network for education - in my estimation.
Jack Rickard
Greetings from India!
I am the SysOp of Live Wire! BBS. The first BBS in the Indian subcontinent
and the only FidoNet node. I am interested in knowing more about Boardwatch
as well as how I can subscribe to it from here in India.
I also believe that there is a conference called ONE BBSCON coming up in
August. I would request you to kindly send me the details of form, fee, and
itinerary if possible. Since I am a one man operation and India is very far
from the US, could you also tell me if it is possible to get some funding
support for my trip. I could possibly arrange to do the travelling on my
expense but would be very grateful if some waiver could be made on the stay
and fee for the seminar.
Warm regards,
Suchit Nanda
SysOp Live Wire! BBS
FidoNet: 6:606/1
Internet: Suchit.Nanda@ f1.n606.z6. fidonet.org
Add: C-503, Eden-4, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai Lake, Bombay-4000076. INDIA.
BBS: 91-22-5787812 24hrs. 14.4K
Mr. Nanda:
Pleased to hear from FidoNet India. Actually, yes, there is a conference of
bulletin board operators, Internauts, and those interested in those topics
scheduled for August 25-29th, at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs,
Colorado. It's titled the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention,
ONE BBSCON. Last year's event drew over 1000 participants from 14 countries.
We expect to slightly more than double that figure on both counts this year.
I don't expect we'll be offering any financial assistance to overseas
visitors, but I will have all forms and information forwarded to you
immediately.
I don't suppose there are any Amiga BBS there in India are there?
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack,
Thank you for bringing the Internet into my computer. Had I not picked up
your magazine in February '93 off the newsstand I may have never learned how
fascinating the net can be. One thing I have found an abundance of is Special
Interest Groups ( SIGS ) and News Groups. Is there a listing or a way to find
out about such groups on a global scale. Thank you and your staff for
providing an excellent source of news and information.
Sincerely,
Kevin Donoghue
donoghue@donoghue.win.net
Donoghue International
2437 Grand Ave. Suite 273
Ventura CA 93003
Kevin:
Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of the Internet is the development
of topical communities via the mailing list function. Mailing lists are
bulletin boards without the software. Deceptively simple in operation, anyone
can send a message to a single mailing list address, and the message is
"reflected" to everyone on a list of addresses. And the members of that list
can of course respond, and the responses are of course reflected, basically
forming a discussion group. Even better, if you have an Internet e-mail
address ANYWHERE, you can participate. List members might be on CompuServe,
Delphi, Boardwatch BBS, or anywhere else on the planet reachable through the
domain name system.
The concept of these mailing lists is so popular, that there are literally
thousands of them. SRI International does actually make an attempt at
cataloging them with descriptions and so forth, and it is fascinating
reading. It is called the List of Lists, and there are several ways to obtain
the list.
If you have ftp access to the Internet, enter ftp ftp.nisc.sri.com (this
corresponds to a numeric IP address of 192.33.33.22. You will be connected to
the system and receive a login prompt. Enter ANONYMOUS at the prompt. It then
asks for a password. Enter YOUR e-mail address as the password. Once on the
system change to the appropriate directory by entering cd /netinfo. Then you
can retrieve the file with a get interest-groups command. Finally, enter quit
to logoff.
For e-mail access, you can send an e-mail message to mail-server@
nisc.sri.com. On the first line of the message, enter the command send
netinfo/interest-groups. Note that as of mid-April, the file was 1,121,268
bytes in size. If you are on a system that charges for e-mail by the byte
(aside from changing services) you might want to be aware of this. The file
lists fairly detailed information on literally hundreds of mailing lists.
SRI has actually had the list of lists printed in book form, authored by
Edward T.L. Hardie and Vivian Neou and Prentice Hall is the publisher. The
book is titled Internet Mailing Lists ISBN 0-13-327941-3. Contact PTR
Prentice Hall, 113 Sylvan Ave., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632; (201)592-2863
voice or (201)592-2249 fax.
Basically, if you can't find a mailing list topic on this list that interests
you, you aren't interested in much. There is a list for everything. Enjoy.
Jack Rickard
========
TELEBITS
========
RUMORS AND FACTOIDS
-------------------
Microsoft has proclaimed that there are now some 25 million Microsoft Windows
installations and some 60% of new PCs purchased come with Windows.
Cable TV giant Tele-Communications, Inc. has announced a $1.9 billion
four-year investment to run fiber to the homes. The plan ostensibly will
bring over 500 cable channels to the television, but many speculate it may
also be a ploy to be a player in the National Information Infrastructure.
Fiber is fiber, and many claim it's good for you. TCI thinks so too.
eSoft, Inc has put a new option module into beta test titled InterChange. It
allows sysops to script OUTBOUND calls to fetch other files, connect to other
services, or port out to other machines. Ostensibly, it could be used to link
systems nationally, or allow operators to develop menu items that really
ported out to other systems. Rumors abound regarding other "secret stuff."
The Clinton administration has caused a bit of a furor by coming out in favor
of government control of encryption. The theory is it is ok to have secrets,
as long as it's not really secret from the government. The first charge is a
chipset termed CLIPPER used to scramble telephone conversations. AT&T will
make telephones using the chips, and the federal government will supply the
first big order. The system calls for a two-part digital key with each part
deposited with an "escrow" agent, probably within the government. On
appropriate court order, the escrow agents would each surrender their piece
of the encryption key, and the FBI or other law enforcement could then
perform wiretaps. The plan is to extend this concept to data communications
as well. The concept originated with Silvio Micali, professor of computer
science at MIT in Cambridge. He calls them "fair crypto systems." Both the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility have come out strongly against the proposal.
Also in Washington, Congress is holding hearings on who should build the
NREN/Internet/National Information Infrastructure/National Data Superhighway.
Predictably enough, a strong move is on for the building of the network to be
done by private interests, rather than government. And past weeks have
witnessed a parade of regional Bell operating companies, cable companies,
cellular companies, all snuffling up to the trough. While all have spent the
past ten years noting there was no market for such services, this year they
all seem to have invented the concept, and their particular approach (cable,
cellular, telephone, whatever) is actually the way to do it.
What is really being debated is not who will build it. The government doesn't
build anything. Private companies will of course build it. The debate is over
who will fund it, who will control it, who will own it, and who will decide
who gets charged what to use it. Industry already has the EFF and other
groups singing the "private" song pretty loudly. If they can somehow persuade
the government to go along with the usual devils trade, they will fund it,
the government will bless it, and they can charge you whatever they like for
access to it. This is how every good idea out of Washington gets sold into
prostitution.
ONE BBSCON BOARDWATCH 100 READER'S CHOICE CONTEST
-------------------------------------------------
The Boardwatch 100 Reader's Choice Contest had received 9042 votes as of
April 16th, with two and a half months yet to go before the contest ends June
30th. Boardwatch reader's are not shy about casting a ballot for their
favorite BBS, and while we are very nearly running the front range office
supply stores out of fax paper, we're confident that the pool of respondents
will make this year's contest more representative than ever.
The survey results haven't changed much as the ballot numbers have climbed.
The male/female breakdown has crept a bit to 88.29% male participation. Some
55% of respondents do use Microsoft Windows. Callers claim an average of 67
calls monthly and further claim to have been online some 52.08 months. Some
33.57% of them have installed a second telephone line to dial BBSs. As to
age, 76.49% are age 20 to 49 with 30-39 still comprising the most popular age
to be with almost exactly 30% of the total.
Ballots received will be entered into a drawing for one of six high speed
modems to be announced at the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention
August 25-29th, 1993 at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. ZyXEL USA,
U.S. Robotics, and Hayes Microcomputer Products have each contributed two of
their top of the line high-speed modems to the contest.
As to modem use, callers are using more Hayes modems than anything else, but
not by much. Top five models were:
Hayes 994 10.99%
U.S. Robotics 930 10.29%
Zoom Telephonics 705 7.80%
Practical Peripheral 504 5.57%
Supra 433 4.79%
Nearly 40% of voters used one of these five brands. But our survey indicates
that among this group some 209 different brands are in use. With regards to
speed:
300 bps 6 a bit
1200 bps 232 2.57%
2400 bps 4847 53.60%
9600 bps 1081 11.96%
14400 bps 2635 29.14%
19200 bps 269 2.97%
Some 44% of the caller base has gone to 9600 and above with some 238
balloteers incredibly still dialing at 300 or 1200 bps.
With regards to terminal software packages, things are a bit more focused.
Procomm remains the market leader with 2746 of those voting claiming this is
their window on the world or 30.37% of those swinging a modem. Telix is next
with 1944 balloteers claiming this as their software for a 21.50% market
share. And Qmodem was the program of choice for some 1447 faithful for a
15.95% share of the online world. These three programs account for 67.82% of
the market for terminal programs.
Response to the ONE BBSCON seems to be better than expected as well. The
convention is designed for a maximum 2000 attendees at the August gathering
of BBS operators, Internauts, and networking aficionados. In last year's
period leading up to the show, almost exactly 10% of the final registration
was signed up by April 1st. This year, as of April first, some 278 paid
registrations had been received. If the registration curve holds true, this
would seem to indicate a final turnout of some 2750 attendees. If so, some
will be riding on the shoulders of others in the Broadmoor Hotel.
And the reception to the ONE BBSCON concept has been very good among vendors.
The activity at the vendor exhibit area was surprising last year with many
vendors offering show specials and discounts that tempted the attendees to
break into a buying frenzy. Modem vendors have been particularly early in
signing on with Hayes, U.S. Robotics, ZyXEL, and Supra returning for another
round and Practical Peripherals, and AT&T Paradyne signing up for a first
appearance - all toeing in for an early shot at a booth space. Galacticomm,
eSoft, Mustang Software, and Clark Development anchor the four corners of the
main exhibit area again this year. MMB Development and Coconut Computing will
both return to represent UNIX BBS. But Remote Access, Telix, Celerity,
Robo-Board, and D'Bridge will be making a first appearance. Online Access, a
magazine that has introduced a BBS edition this year, will also be appearing
on the main floor. And a whole bevy of vendors are planning new product
introductions this year - mucho discussion of the Remote Imaging Protocol. As
of mid-April, 67 of the 81 available spaces were taken on the exhibit area in
International Center. But plenty of space remains in Colorado Hall, which
features the smaller 6 X 8 foot table top displays.
With regards to speakers and tracks, the Internet track is shaping up
beautifully, with Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, who actually pioneered the TCP/IP
development while a graduate student at UCLA, will be the featured speaker
there. Approximately 15-18 Internet sessions are planned. Bernard Aboba,
author of the BMUG guide to Bulletin Boards and Beyond is serving as den
mother superior for the Internet track. Our own Bill Gram-Reefer has put
together a series of Macintosh sessions. The How to Profit with a BBS, the
Jack and Phil track promises to run end to end as well with better sessions
on business plans, credit card accounts, and so forth. John Coates and Cliff
Figallo will talk a bit about the
community building aspects of an online
service. They shepherded the Whole Earth Lectronic Link from startup until
last year. Phil Katz will do a session on data compression. Norman Gillespie
will cover Satellite Communications. A number of "success roundtables" will
be presenting tips on how to get there with luminaries from some of the
largest bulletin boards in the country coming to explain how it happened.
Ward Christensen, author of the first BBS software package and the XMODEM
file transfer protocol, has volunteered to do a session. Columnist John C.
Dvorak will be returning to present his popular Dvorak Awards for Excellence
in Telecommunications.
In any event, ONE BBSCON shapes up pretty safely as the most exciting
gathering of BBS operators we'll attend this year. Registration is priced at
$250 until August 1 and $325 afterwords. For more information, contact the
ONE, Inc. office at 4255 South Buckley Road, Suite 308, Aurora, CO 80013;
(303)693-5253 voice; (303)693-5518 fax; (303)693-5432 BBS.
US ROBOTICS NEW MCKINLEY ARCHITECTURE MODEMS SHAKE UP MODEM MARKET
------------------------------------------------------------------
As modem prices have dropped over the past year, U.S. Robotics has held its
position as one of the premium modem manufacturers, but a number of companies
have beaten their time on price - to the point where many BBS operators and
callers alike were asking "is it worth the extra price" with negative
results.
In March, U.S. Robotics moved to quash the debate with a new modem
architecture for their Sportster line they call McKinley. This is a new low
chip count modem that we found a surprising performance power house.
The top of the Sportster line is now the Sportster 14,400 Fax. This external
modem features CCITT v.32 bis connections at up to 14,400 bits per second, as
well as V.17 fax at 14,400 bps. The new architecture features USR's
proprietary Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology using Texas
Instruments chips. The result is a modem package that is physically much
smaller than the previous Sportster model, with better performance. The list
price of this modem is $299, but we are already seeing it on the street for
as little as $229 - essentially going head to head with the discount modems.
We found the external model worked flawlessly at the highest 14.4 kbps speed.
Fax operation was predictable and smooth. The smaller package made it an
attractive desktop addition - rather than something you have to find a
"place" for. It is almost small enough to function as a portable.
But the internal circuit card for IBM compatible PCs was what caught our eye. While we normally have a bias for external modems, where we can see the lights, flash, sizzle, and in some cases smoke, that accompanies modem testing, this internal model has some interesting features. It is essentially the same architecture and features as the external model. But the lowered chip count make this one of the smallest half-card modems we've ever tested.
And the modem had some conveniences we found irresistible. Most internal circuit cards have jumpers allowing you to set various configuration options. They tend to be marked plainly as WB3-7IRQDEVOI with settings for A B 5 9 and &. And there will be another J-11 jumper bank with a similarly evident series of options. It's all explained in the book.
The USR modem has two jumper banks, plainly marked COM (1,2,3, or 4) and IRQ (2, 3, 4, 5, or 7) offering a very flexible configuration most anyone can figure out in a couple of minutes. There is the usual USR bank of dip switches that do require you to refer to the book, but if they are all right with USR, they're ok with us. We didn't change the factory defaults, and the modem didn't seem to mind.
The biggest advantage to the internal modem is that you don't need to deal with serial ports. It has the 16550 Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) built in, and allows you to lock the port at an impressive 57,600 bits-per-second. The other big advantage is this model features a list price of $259 and should be available for less than $200 on the street. Although the model we tested was clearly marked a beta unit, we found no anomalies and enjoyed excellent performance. For budget-minded BBS callers - USR is back. U.S. Robotics, 8100 North McCormick Blvd., Skokie, IL 60076; (800)-DIALUSR voice; (708)982-5092 BBS.
========
SOFTWARE
========
TELEGRAFIX AND THE REMOTE IMAGING PROTOCOL
------------------------------------------
The year 1993 will likely be viewed as an extremely exciting time of almost
violent technological development in the BBS community. The various BBS
platforms are making sudden gains at reaching out across the planet in ways
previously difficult, via the Internet, LANS, expansion of existing BBS
networks, and interoperability with messaging software on many fronts. And
with higher modem speeds offered by the modem vendors in recent years,
attention has turned to developing some sort of graphics presentation format
beyond the simple ANSI graphics of the past.
More importantly, and we like to think partly as a result of the Online
Networking Exposition and BBS Convention, we're seeing a level of cooperative
development between communication software vendors beyond anything previously
achieved. The area where this shows up this year is in developing a more
graphic interface for the BBS community. It has happened with amazing
rapidity, and for callers to online services in the future, it augurs for a
much easier world to navigate.
As we enter the summer of 1993, a number of pretenders to the throne of the
graphics interface for the IBM compatible online world appear to be vying for
dominance - all a little bit broken at this early stage. But they each offer
some attractive features, and some promise for the future. And each has
gathered it's apostleship of advocates - some of which have gone beyond
reason in heralding the wonders of their own favorite and the poor showing of
the brand X model. It's all terribly American, and quite in keeping with the
history of the online community.
The oldest of the formats is the North American Presentation Level Protocol
Syntax or NAPLPS. NAPLPS is a mature, published international standard
available from ANSI (American National Standards Institute) as document #
X3.110-1983. We covered NAPLPS in an introductory fashion in our December
1992 issue.
The newer entry in the graphics sweepstakes was developed by a company in
Huntington Beach California titled TeleGrafix Communications, Inc. It is
termed the Remote Imaging Protocol, or RIP. While actually a proprietary
protocol, the authors are aggressively seeking a defacto standard status by
widely describing the RIPscript protocol itself, and have contributed a
significant terminal program to the public domain.
TeleGrafix is a group made up of mostly ex-AST employees. Jeff Reeder, Mark
Hayton, and Jim Bergman formed the company. The titular CEO is Jeff Reeder.
Reeder has quite a bit of experience in graphics for personal computers - his
first programming effort was a graphics Rubick's Cube program for the Apple
II. He also wrote a 3D CAD package for the Amiga 1000. He acted as sysop for
AST Research's Major BBS support system and assisted Stephen Grande with the
MEDCOM BBS, a very popular California BBS.
RIP is a protocol to convey graphic and to some degree operational
information in an efficient script language between the caller's computer and
the host or BBS system. In many ways it takes a very different approach in
that its strong element seems to be the use of a type of icon-based
communication "object". These icons are actually drawn on the screen of the
caller as a button, action bar, or a Windows-like icon. Callers can click on
an icon and cause it to transmit a text string command to the BBS. While this
sounds pretty magical, it's actually quite simple. Place an icon of picture
of a file cabinet on the screen. If the user clicks on this icon, it
transmits the string FILES out the serial port or F/carriage return or
whatever this particular BBS uses in ordinary keystrokes to access its file
area. To the caller, it looks like they clicked on the file cabinet and moved
to the file area. To the BBS, it looks like it receiving pretty normal
keystrokes.
But these iconic objects can also RECEIVE commands from the BBS directing
them to new positions, and even reprogram them to emit different string
commands when clicked. In this way, they act as communication agents
interacting with the BBS. And the BBS can further define "mouse regions" that
the user can click on to select NON-iconic options - a bulletin number for
instance.
The products that implement this include RIPaint, a $200 paint program,
RIPterm, the freeware terminal program, RIPDraw, a $50 drawing program, and a
text file describing the RIPscrip protocol. Two $50 toolkits, RIP2C and
RIP2PAS, provide aids to development in C and Pascal respectively.
The battle between NAPLPS and RIP will be won or lost on the caller end of
the communications transaction - the terminal program. One of the advantages
RIP has over NAPLPS is this RIPterm terminal program. RIPterm is first and
foremost free. No shareware registration or payment is required and BBS
operators adopting RIP can make it available to callers. Unlike many of the
special purpose terminal programs used by Prodigy and other NAPLPS based
systems, RIPterm is reasonably full featured. Actually, it's quite full
featured with XMODEM, YMODEM, and ZMODEM file transfer protocols, scroll back
buffer, the usual assortment of modem and communications port parameters,
keyboard macros, dialing directory, and so forth. They use Borland's BGI
graphics tools for the display elements, and Greenleaf's COMMLib for most of
the communications functions. We found version 1.50.9 to have a few rough
edges and we found ourselves quite suddenly disconnected from Cyberspace a
couple of times. ZMODEM uploads are a bit quirky yet. And the screen would
clear, or partially clear, as it's own internal mood struck. But the program
was really pretty charming and we repeatedly found old ALT key combinations
we were accustomed to from using Procomm, QmodemPro, or Telix work as
expected in RIPterm. It is NOT simply a one-dimensional graphics interface
program as we've seen quite a bit of lately. It really does fill the bill as
a full featured terminal program.
TeleGrafix first introduced RIP at the Online Networking Exposition and BBS
Convention held in Denver last August. They used the opportunity to begin
campaigning among other software vendors to incorporate RIP in communications
products and they've very professionally stayed in contact with these people
since then. The list of software vendors signing on for a trip on the RIP
ship is growing rapidly, and with this attention to the political end of
launching a new standard, success looms close.
The changes required at the BBS end are reasonably trivial to achieve some
RIP capability - more difficult to truly take advantage of the protocol. The
RIPscrip files are composed of 7-bit ASCII text that is transmitted out the
communications port to the caller - not terribly different from displaying
ASCII text or ANSI graphics. But beyond a crude level, it becomes more
difficult. Although we dialed a number of systems, we found none that wasn't
riddled with little "goofs" in the implementation at various points in the
BBS. This type of interface does actually complicate the design function of
the BBS operator. But the results are generally pretty good.
Searchlight Software was among the first of the IBM world to incorporated a
form of RIP support in version 3.0 of their Searchlight BBS software that
they released at the Northern Lights Conference in Toronto in March. Their
demo system at (516)689-2566 is showing the RIP flag pretty strongly.
Interestingly, the Searchlight implementation did not really require you to
select RIP as an option. It appeared to auto-detect the RIP capability in our
RIPterm program and launched right into RIP. As in all the bulletin boards we
reviewed, in some places we could click our way around quite well with the
mouse on various icon buttons, and at others, inexplicably we would be back
at the keyboard. The transition was rarely smooth. But the novelty of dealing
with a BBS by mouse was endearing. And the Searchlight main menu is really
quite something to see. Further, they've created some userlog maintenance
tools for the sysops eyes only that use RIP - again to good effect. The
company plans an even more integrated version 3.5 for release at ONE BBSCON
this year that promises to make a RIP board as easy to run as ASCII or ANSI.
Searchlight Software, PO Box 640, Stony Brook, NY 11790; (516)751-2966 voice.
Galacticomm Inc. is currently beta testing a version 6.1 of the Major BBS
with RIP capability, and campaigning pretty hard for RIP as an online
standard interface. And the level of integration here is pretty impressive.
Galacticomm's configuration program actually allows the BBS operator to
define a function as RIP compatible and shells them out to the RIPaint
program to design it. We dialed TeleGrafix's own ARENA BBS at (714)840-3520.
It uses Galacticomm's The Major BBS and features what had to be the most
ambitious display of RIP graphics we've yet seen. But it was here we began to
run into some of the drawbacks of RIP. First, each BBS can design their own
icons using the RIPaint program. And since they can, they do. And since they
do, you have to have a copy of THEIR icons for the system to work properly.
After dialing about four RIP bulletin boards, we had nearly 2 MB of icons on
our hard disk, and several had been overwritten twice in the process with one
BBS using the same icon titles as another.
The ARENA BBS is a multiline system with games and chat. We dutifully
downloaded their 90 KB of icons, and began to browse about. An unsettling
number of icons on the system allowed us to click on them, and dropped us
into SOMETHING, but nothing happened but a dark blank screen. If we chopped
the carriage return key a few times, it would generally get us back to the
menu. But you never knew when an icon was going to do something dazzling, or
when it was going to do nothing at all. Their games menu featured dozens of
Windows like icons with titles of various games available on the system. The
ARENA BBS's main menu features two amazingly lifelike Greek columns making it
look a bit like a Greek temple - a good effect.
Large scale graphics do NOT seem to be the strong suit of RIP, though it can
do them in a painful fashion. The RIPaint program seems ideally suited for
bit-level paint operations, but ONLY on icons. If you want to do a full
screen background for one of your menus, the options for creating them are
limited. Basically, you have to draw a BIG icon to get into much detail.
In addition to Searchlight and The Major BBS, ResNova is incorporating RIP
into their Macintosh BBS package, Novalink Professional. They were probably
the first BBS software package to take an interest in the product, and
largely responsible for the RIP appearance at ONE BBSCON '92. Their efforts
can be viewed on the Nova Central BBS at (714)840-8641. A relatively new IBM
BBS package titled Synchronet has also announced support and they have a demo
system at (714)529-9525.
Even BBS vendors who have NOT actually taken the RIP pledge, are finding
themselves with a user base that includes some of the apostleship. Bernal
Schooley runs the RIP Demo Midwest BBS in Aurora, Illinois at (708)978-2777.
This is a two-line TBBS system that Schooley has fairly artfully incorporated
RIP screens onto the system using The Bread Board System's ordinary
propensity for displaying files of any type. He has extensively modified the
system prompts using TBBS's language editor and the result is really quite
usable - right down into individual message system options presented as
buttons. Schooley, a 23 year-old IBM AS-400 operator, intends to make a bit
of a business by helping TBBS, Major BBS, and Wildcat! BBS operators
incorporate RIP onto their systems. Bernal Schooley, 246 Pepper Tree Lane,
Aurora, IL 60504; (708)820-8875 voice; Internet: bernal.schooley@
designs.oneworld.wa.com.
The big guns in the graphics battle are other terminal program developers.
The BBS software really isn't that difficult at this stage. But no one wants
to run a system that none of their callers can access. So the terminal
software developers really have the hammer when it comes to determining the
future BBS graphics interface. RIP gained a big boost when deltaComm
Development of Cary North Carolina announced they would support RIP in the
next release of their TELIX terminal program. Telix is quite likely the
second most widely used terminal program in the world after Procomm. And
according to Jeff Woods, president of deltaComm, they will be previewing a
new Telix release with built-in RIP capability at the Online Networking
Exposition and BBS Convention in Colorado Springs this August. deltaComm
Development, PO Box 1185, Cary, NC 27512; (919)460-4556 voice; (919)481-9399
BBS; (919)460-4531 fax.
DataStorm Technologies, developer of the market leader, Procomm, invited a
number of developers out to their offices in Missouri this past March to try
to brainstorm what the graphics standard of the future might look like. They
did a pretty thorough roundup of what was available online now, and what
features future products should perhaps include. But a number of the
attendees weren't nearly so open minded and were openly, and at times
somewhat over-aggressively pushing for adoption of RIP. DataStorm did little
to detail their own future plans.
But Mustang Software, Inc., developers of the QmodemPro terminal program, in
practice neck and neck with Telix for market share in the BBS community,
demonstrated an updated release of the program at the Spring COMDEX in
Atlanta on May 24th. The QmodemPro Version 1.5 features full RIP emulation,
and Mustang has also incorporated RIP into the new Version 3.90 of their
Wildcat! BBS product. As such, Mustang is the only company to offer both the
BBS package AND the terminal program with RIP graphics support. And they are
technically the first terminal program, aside from TeleGrafix's own RIPterm,
to offer RIP capability in a shipping product.
The Wildcat! HQ BBS has RIP up and running now, and demonstrates some of the
power of this interface. When you first logon, a full screen yellow on black
WILDCAT! logo is the first thing you'll see. A smaller version accompanies
the main menu. Buttons (a bit largish for our tastes) allow you to jump right
to file areas, message areas, join conferences, and so forth. Mustang has
added insertion parameters the BBS operator can put in ANY text display file
to define mouse regions that allow you to click on normal text options as
well as iconic buttons.
Mustang, incidentally, just announced it's largest BBS application ever with
a 128 line system to be operated by the U.S. Postal Service at their National
Support Center. The NCSC will use the BBS primarily to update and post its
"Delivery Activity Report," a service to high-volume mailers who need to
track distribution of time-sensitive material. More than 1,000 post office
across the country are now logging their mailing activities directly onto the
BBS, and eventually some 6000 post offices will use the service. The system
uses Mustang's Intelligent Multi-Port (IM) version that uses DigiBoard serial
cards to host up to eight lines per PC. Mustang claims some 20,000 registered
Wildcat! users. Mustang Software, Inc., PO Box 2264, Bakersfield, CA 93303;
(805)395-0223 voice; (805)395-0650 BBS; (805)395-0713 Fax.
Most RIP installations tend to look like pearl gray buttons and chrome plated
option bars against fairly dark, even blackish backgrounds. It is difficult
to tell if this is the technology or the artistic culture of the adherents to
this package. But the effect is chromium and steel against the backdrop of
space, and it is pretty fetching.
RIP has three clear advantages over NAPLPS and perhaps a fourth in the wings.
First, it makes good, if inconsistent, use of the mouse. Secondly, they have
a capable, and freely available terminal program. Third, they are amassing a
good following of people who can write code and make things happen with
support products and BBS implementations. Finally, the obvious missing
element of both the NAPLPS and RIP technologies is the ability to reproduce
photo-realistic images online.
According to TeleGrafix CEO Jeff Reeder, this is definitely in the works for
the 2.0 release of RIP - expected in about two months. In fact, they may
include two different methods of dealing with it - one involving fractal
compression, and the other using the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
standard for still image compression. JPEG has gained a lot of ground in the
Unix community as a still-image standard and produces very small images while
retaining good viewing resolution.
The most attractive thing about RIP is ongoing and active development. The
TeleGrafix team that developed this have some undeniable talents for the task
and seem to be getting encouragement from the rest of the community. New
releases of RIPterm seem to be coming out weekly. And while a discouragingly
high number of "bugs/features" seem to be getting worked off, the product is
clearly both immature, and causing a good deal of excitement. The group seems
amenable to adding most anything, and the protocol itself is quite
extensible.
The RIPscrip deals entirely with 7-bit printable ASCII characters, and this
may be an advantage over Internet connections. The current version does NOT
support JPEG photo-realistic images, and there is no real support for various
fonts, although both are planned for future releases. The protocol lacks the
device independence of NAPLPS, and in fact seems mired in the clearly
obsolete EGA standard - it does not entirely take advantage of VGA at this
point, and seems further limited to a mere 16 colors. We found the paint
program incomprehensible in all ways, which could be either us or the
program, actually. There were a couple of fascinating utilities to convert
ordinary PCX and TIF images to icons. In general, we simply couldn't get them
to work on most PCX or TIF files. But these are precisely the type of tools
that will allow people using their favorite drawing program to port into RIP,
and they show a lot of promise.
NAPLPS on the other hand suffers from its heritage. It is an international
standard, but it has been around for some time to little effect. MicroStar
Development made one huge kill in signing up Prodigy to use a customized
version of their NAPLPS technology for the Prodigy online service. And the
company has suffered from an inability to work up any enthusiasm for anything
that doesn't generate their SECOND multi-million dollar deal. The PPP3
terminal program they did release as shareware, largely to make Dave Hughes
go away, is not terribly impressive as a terminal program. It will display
NAPLPS frames and several people have managed to wed it to Procomm or Telix
by tricking these terminal programs into believing PPP3 was an add-on file
transfer protocol - basically shelling out to PPP3 to display NAPLPS graphics
and dropping back into the main terminal program to do file transfers and
ANSI graphics. It can be done fairly smoothly, but is not something the
novice caller is likely to tackle with regards to installation.
The good news with NAPLPS is that it is more adroit at sweeping graphics
screens. And there has been some progress. Dave Hughes has contracted with
some Russian programmers to produce a fairly remarkable terminal program he
calls TeleDraw. He recently demonstrated the program for several groups in
Hawaii to rave reviews. But oddly, after talking Microstar into releasing
PPP3 as a shareware program, Hughes intends to sell TeleDraw to schools and
government entities as commercial software at $150 per copy. The program is
specifically designed to work over 7-bit Internet paths and includes an on
the fly UUENCODE/UUDECODE algorithm as well.
Michael Dillon is doing some of the most exciting work on NAPLPS up in
Armstrong British Columbia. Under the auspices of his Memra Software Inc.
company, he is developing some tools to port other graphics formats into
NAPLPS. Most notably, he did a program titled NAPICO that allows you to embed
Windows icons into NAPLPS frames. He's currently working on a program to
convert Windows Metafiles created in Corel Draw into NAPLPS frames. But
perhaps most useful, he has authored a 127KB document titled, appropriately
enough, NAPLPS, that actually translates the ANSI X3.110-1983 from the
obscurely indecipherable into something merely a bit technical. It may be the
first explanation of how it all works understandable to most of the people
capable of coding products. It is really pretty good documentation. Dillon
operates the Star Valley BBS at (604)546-2705 as Fidonet 1:353/350. The files
are available for file request under the names NAPLPS, NAPICO, and NAPWMF.
Memra Software, Inc., C-4 Powerhouse, RR#2, Armstrong, BC V0E 1B0, Canada;
(604)546-8022 voice; Internet: mpdillon@halcyon .halcyon. com.
There are some other contenders out there. Canadian Seth Hamilton now offers
a BBS/terminal package titled ROBO-BOARD that is generating some excitement
among BBS operators. Their 1.00 release is slated for June 21st and some beta
testers are nearly falling swoon to this interface, based on what they term
the TEL-FX protocol. They likewise are offering a toolkit so other developers
can join the party. Hamilton Telegraphics, Inc., PO Box 633, Aylmer, Quebec
Canada J9H-5V8; (819)682-6670 voice; (819)685-0994 fax; (819)685-0957 BBS.
Imagen's Fracterm product continues as the ONLY current interface supporting
photo-realistic images and they do have a new Windows terminal program. Many
of those who want a better interface want it to display photo-realistic
images and don't HAVE a second reason for wanting it. There are some
applications where not only is a picture worth a thousand words, but if you
don't have a picture, you can save your breath. Describing online the marvels
of a $1200 painting by an unknown artist is an exercise better left to those
with little to do, and less to do it with. Fracterm uses a fractal
compression technology that to our eye, is not as flexible or offer as good a
resolution as JPEG might. But they are the only vendor with a viable
photo-realistic product available now. They have a demo system up at
(604)687-1030; (604)687-7511 voice.
But with the RIPterm program offering a reasonably complete and totally free
terminal program, and TWO major names in terminal programs, QmodemPro already
on the street and Telix promising demos in August, RIP has an overwhelming
advantage over NAPLPS or any other technology. Major BBS software vendors
including Galacticomm, Searchlight, and Mustang Software have already voted
for RIP and several lesser known names such as Synchronet and Novalink are
aboard as well. While eSoft has made no announcements, the flexibility their
TBBS software already has with regards to prompt languages and display files
have allowed a pretty strong contingent of TBBS operators to put RIP online
anyway. There's not a lot for eSoft to add beyond larger language file
capacity (currently limited to 32K).
What is amazing about RIP is how quickly it happened. Last August, they
appeared for the first time in public with an entirely new protocol that
required rework on both ends of the link to make it happen. Barely nine
months later, the bulk of the communications software vendors in BBSland have
it up and running. It looks like a pretty good birth and a bright future for
the boys at TeleGrafix Communications, Inc. Should they accomplish the
promised addition of JPEG photo-realistic graphics in time for the ONE BBSCON
THIS August, and perhaps do some work on the paint program to make full
screen image creation as easy as the iconic graphics, the online world will
have everything needed to move to a new level of communication. TeleGrafix
Communications, Inc., 16458 Bolsa Chica #15, Huntington Beach, CA 92649;
(714)379-2131 voice; (714)379-2133 BBS; (714)379-2132 FAX.
STEVE JACKSON GAMES WINS LAWSUIT
--------------------------------
In our April issue, we described the Steve Jackson Games lawsuit against the
U.S. Secret Service seeking damages for their seizure of the Illuminati BBS.
On March 12, Judge Sam Sparks of the federal district court for the Western
District of Texas announced awards on behalf of the fantasy game publisher.
Ruling that the Secret Service had violated the publisher's rights under the
Privacy Protection Act of 1980, the judge awarded the company more than
$50,000 in lost profits and expenses, as well as legal expenses that had been
sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Notably, three of the BBS callers were also awarded $1000 each because their
statutory rights to electronic mail privacy protected under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act were also violated. This may be the most important
aspect of the case. If law enforcement authorities ignore electronic mail
privacy considerations during BBS investigations, the potential liability
from callers could be substantial on large systems with significant caller
bases. Perhaps this will serve as sufficient deterrent to law enforcement to
more rigorously observe appropriate procedures when investigating bulletin
boards.
NEW 128KBPS ISDN SERVICE UNIT FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS
----------------------------------------------------
Adtran, a Huntsville Alabama hardware manufacturer has announced a very
interesting adapter to link personal computers to the Integrated Services
Digital Network.
There has been some confusion in the past as to just what is needed to
connect a PC to ISDN. Hayes and others have offered terminal adapters, and
some bulletin boards have used them to make the connection. But they were
usually surprised to learn that AFTER purchasing an adapter, they had to buy
ANOTHER adapter, termed an NT-1 adapter, that can run as high as $350, to use
the service.
The Adtran adapter is priced at less than $1000 and offers two fairly unique
features. First, it contains the NT-1 adapter internally. Second, it can
aggregate the two 64 kbps B or "bearer" channels provided in basic rate ISDN
service into a 128kbps data channel (115.2 kbps asynchronous). It is
compatible with both the AT&T 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS-100 telephone
switches. The adapter supports dedicated leased 2B1Q services and provides
flexible full-service basic rate dial back-up capabilities. Adtran, 901
Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL 35806; (205)971-8000 voice; (205)971-8699 fax.
===================
COMMERCIAL SERVICES
===================
PRODIGY - IN SEARCH OF LIFE
---------------------------
Prodigy Services Company, the online service subsidiary/partnership of IBM
and Sears, has done an impressive job of developing the two largest
communities online. Their online service now boasts over 2.1 million users on
1.2 million paying accounts. And the other community they have formed is
probably even larger - those users who were introduced to the online world on
Prodigy, and are now online everywhere else BUT Prodigy.
The Prodigy Service began life as an idea in the mid-80s under the name
Trintex - a partnership between CBS, IBM, and Sears Roebuck and Co. CBS
dropped out before introduction and the service was renamed Prodigy.
The original concept was to gather some 10 million people who were NOT part
of the online world, bring them online, and form a channel that could be sold
to advertisers. And the original concept called for investing a LOT of money
in the service over a period of time to get there - they were in for the long
term and the big service.
And the concept pretty much HAS worked to the plan. The problem is, plans
change. The once invincible IBM has shed nearly 100,000 workers and is itself
searching for a reason to live. And Sears, at one time unassailable in the
retailing market, is ALSO in financial and market share trouble and THEY are
planning to promote nearly 50,000 workers to the street. As a result, Prodigy
lives at the behest of "The Partners".
One number Prodigy has never bragged about is the cost of acquiring new
customers. Estimated at over $430 each in advertising, trial kits, in-package
promos, etc., their customer acquisition costs are the highest in the
industry. And Prodigy held to the original "videotext" concept. You take
news, weather, financial data, "Information", cast it into screens, have your
lawyers bless it, and then "present" it to an anxiously awaiting public.
The problem is, that after the original novelty of seeing weather, news, and
financial information, none of that is what the online public wants to do.
There are just enough news junkies who go into anxiety attack without a news
fix, and just enough financial investors who live by the ticker tape, to make
it look promising. But throughout the rest of the online world, what people
seem to do most pervasively, boils down to two things. They want to acquire
software - in unlimited amounts. And they want to communicate with each other
- forming communities.
Take for example The Whole Earth Lectronic Link. This service has survived
for years on very little initial investment, and even operated profitably in
recent years, with NO interface at all - Picospan is the next baby step up
from the Unix command line. They have no particular services, and for that
matter, even the file download function is pretty slim and performs poorly.
It is an example of a very nearly pure community function without ANY of the
other elements that might make a service attractive. Yet it's widely regarded
as THE online place to be - certainly by the 7000 participants on the
service.
So Prodigy has introduced huge numbers of people to the concept of online
communication, at an impressively horrendous cost. Part of the growth in
bulletin boards has come directly from people who leave Prodigy. In a sense,
Prodigy has served as a one billion dollar marketing campaign for local
bulletin board systems. The problem is, Prodigy itself has finally reached
the point where it either has to turn a profit or shut out the lights.
That task has fallen to Prodigy President Ross Glatzer, a former Sears
executive that some Prodigy insiders refer to as "the tire and battery man".
But Glatzer is determined to turn the service around and there aren't any
holy cows in Prodigy's White Plains office building these days. As a result,
the initial spark of innovation is taking root despite the corporate culture.
The immediate outcome is there are some changes for Prodigy users. Some
positive, some negative, and some confusion. In April, the service announced
institution of connect time charges of $3.60 to $.4.80 per hour for the
bulletin board areas, airline reservations, stock quotes, and DowJones News
services. Actually, there will be two service levels. The Prodigy Value Plan
is $14.95 per month and includes 30 private messages and two hours connect
time on "Plus" services which include most bulletin boards, QUOTE CHECK,
QUOTE TRACE, DowJones Company News, and Eaasy Sabre airline reservations.
Additional time is available at $4.80 per hour if you use 0-3 hours, $4.20
per hour if you use 3-6 hours, and $3.60 per hour if you use over 6 hours.
Services defined as "Core" services continue to be flat rate (no connect time
charges) for the value plan.
Prodigy is also offering an Alternate Plan at $7.95 per month. Though the
monthly fee is smaller, ALL services (both the core services and the plus
services) are charged at the connect rates, and no free messages are
provided. E-mail is priced at $0.25 per message.
While the hourly rates would be enormously attractive to CompuServe or GEnie
subscribers, or even BBS callers dialing long distance, Prodigy users are
outraged. Most of Prodigy remains flat rate, but the BBS users, who now post
some 180,000 messages per day, are incensed. The flat rate nature of the
service is apparently considered sacred and a number of Prodigy users noted
online that they and their families spend in excess of 100 hours per month
online. Inexplicably, noting that they could not afford it, they threatened
to go to CompuServe.
Which is precious. Prodigy is currently revamping their service to provide
9600 connect rates nationally, and is DROPPING a $2 per month 9600 surcharge.
CompuServe, by contrast, charges $8.95 per month PLUS $16.00 per hour for
9600 service.
The reasons for the increased charges revolve around the fact that Prodigy
has to change in order to keep subscribers and gain profitability. Badly
needed items include an Internet connection, file areas, and perhaps even a
nationwide chatlink. Without these functions, subscribers inevitably will
continue to "graduate" to services that offer these functions.
The company IS making an unusual move concurrent with the connect charges -
they are introducing their own version of offline mail readers. Taking a cue
from the BBS world, and offline mail developed by CALLERS to CompuServe and
GEnie, Prodigy is working on an enhancement to their terminal software that
would allow callers to make the connection, download mail, reply offline, and
upload later, much as BBS callers routinely do with .QWK mail readers, and
CompuServe users routinely do with TAPCIS, or OZCIS. Prodigy is also working
on a Windows version of the terminal software.
A close look at Prodigy's architecture shows part of problem they face. We
were allowed a tour of both their White Plains offices AND their Yorktown
Heights New York system facility - ostensibly the only publication ever to be
allowed behind the doors so to speak.
The original Prodigy architecture was a distributed information concept.
Prodigy Local Sites (PLSs) would be built in various cities around the
country. The system would gather information from Reuters, UPI, stock
services, and so forth into an editorial news office. This operates much like
any major newspaper or television network news department, and has a full
staff of journalists headed by Carol Kopp. This center runs 24 hours daily
gathering news from dozens of services, and formatting and entering it on
editorial workstations, using coincidentally enough, the XyWrite word
processor, into a Producer LAN. This is a fairly gargantuan Novell LAN with
some 35 file servers that functions as what they term their Producer LAN.
One the items that causes Prodigy endless headaches is their early position
in censoring BBS message traffic. Originally, the service considered itself a
"publication". The BBS function was spliced on as pretty much an afterthought
and is not even particularly easy to FIND on Prodigy. Barely 20% of Prodigy
subscribers use it at all, but they are currently generating some 180,000
messages per day on 400 bulletin boards, and generally cause MOST of
Prodigy's problems. Prodigy wanted to be considered a "family" service, and
so they wanted to review and approve message traffic. Virtually every
imbroglio they've been involved with since has circled this one wagon. And it
continues to be a very real problem. Half their callers are unhappy that
their messages are censored. The other half are unhappy over the messages
that AREN'T being censored and demand that "that guy over there" be censored.
If you want a case for why NOT to regulate message conferences with a heavy
hand, Prodigy is a prime example of how to get a tiger by the tail with no
option to let go.
Indeed the problem flared again this year when a member posted derogatory
information about a company titled MEDGEN - a small biomedical company that
the member had lost money on in the stock market. Apparently, enough Prodigy
members read the "advice" and acted on it that MEDGEN's stock took a dive.
Actually, the company hadn't been doing that well and it is questionable
whether the Prodigy post had anything to do with it, but the company filed
suit against the member and was threatening to file suit against Prodigy.
Prodigy, naturally enough, wants the member to bear legal responsibility for
his comments, but is a little tangled in their "publisher" analogy and past
propensity to censor messages.
Despite some highly automated screening, some 40 people work full time at
terminals on the Producer LAN reviewing messages that get kicked out as
"maybes" by the system. Additionally, each BBS area has its own "sysop" more
or less who run that particular bulletin board. Steve Larsen is pretty much
the man in charge of bulletin boards, and he's bent on making them a larger
part of Prodigy to keep callers onboard the service.
The news, weather, bulletin board postings, etc. move to the Yorktown Heights
facility by wire. This is the hardware room of the world's largest BBS,
presided over by the closest thing Prodigy has to a sysop. Edgar Hartmann is
Site Operations Director at the Yorktown Heights facility.
The actual Prodigy BBS hardware, as best as we can tell, is what they refer
to as the Delivery System. This is a series of water-cooled IBM ES 9000 Model
720 mainframes housed on the traditional raised floor. It's not particularly
handsome to look at as mainframes have lost most of the whizzing tape,
flashing console look. In fact, the computers are in a very large whitish
room where for most of the time, no one goes and they don't even keep the
lights on. A control room that doesn't differ a lot from the bridge of the
starship enterprise sports a number of monitors. The "BBS software" is
actually an IBM operating system called TPF - Transaction Processing
Facility. IBM sells this to airlines, credit card companies, and others who
need to enter large numbers of transactions online. The actual "console" most
BBS operators would recognize is about a 17-inch screen displaying system
activity in red on black characters. We actually were appropriately wowed -
it showed about 20,000 people on the system when we looked. According to
Hartmann, their peak period is 9-10 PM EST and 20,000-23,000 users is about
normal, although after the Presidential elections they went well over 25,000.
Prodigy callers dial in about 800,000 times daily on some 40,000 telephone
lines.
The Delivery system probably represents some $30 million in hardware. And
Hartmann takes reliability quite seriously. The service requires three things
to operate, electricity to power the system, telephone service, and cooling
water. They run off of city water, but actually have their own on-site well
and pumping system to deliver water in the event the water is disrupted for
any reason. Electrical power normally comes from the public grid as well, but
they have on-site diesel generators with a huge underground fuel tank and a
battery system that can power the thing for several days if power is lost.
Finally, telephone service is provided by TWO telephone companies from two
different central switching offices. If one fails, they can switch to the
other in a matter of minutes. Finally, if the whole place goes up in smoke,
in theory they have offsite backup tapes and can be up and running from a
"hot backup" system maintained by IBM in Franklin Lakes New York within 24
hours. Hartmann estimates the current hardware could handle a subscriber base
of 6 to 8 million users.
The Yorktown facility is also gatewayed into several other services -
including the Eaasy Sabre airline reservation center, and DowJones News
Service, for the various services Prodigy users can access from DowJones.
The delivery system is linked by Prodigy's own T1/T3 national network to some
280 Prodigy Local Sites (PLS) around the country. It would appear that the
Prodigy backbone is considerably larger than the National Science Foundation
backbone that serves as the heart of the Internet. The PLS's are being
upgraded from older mini hardware to IBM Model 90s and each services about
100-200 modems which are connected to local telephone systems. The service is
in the process of upgrading to 9600 service nationally and should complete
this by the end of 1993. This is what callers actually dial into with a local
call. Seven of these PLSs are tied into Tymnet. Some cities without PLSs can
dial local Tymnet nodes to access Prodigy that way. The PLSs service some
32,000 telephone lines while Tymnet offers an additional 8000 lines for a
40,000 line total.
The original theory was that information would be assembled in New York, and
distributed as many times as necessary to the Prodigy Local Sites. Callers
would be dialing a local computer, and with this efficiency Prodigy could
handle most transactions locally, while maintaining a national network. There
were a few things callers could do that would have to go through the national
center at Yorktown, but it was thought that most of it would be "consumed"
locally.
One of the things that has to go through the Yorktown facility is the
bulletin boards. Another is electronic mail. In one of the early imbroglio's,
Prodigy shut down one of the more controversial bulletin boards. When
participants complained, an alert Prodigy employee told them to "take it to
private e-mail." So they did. The participants set up what is known in the
Internet as a "mailing list" and one of them acted as a reflector. Any
message to the "list" was resent to everyone on it using software to
automatically do the resend. Prodigy officials, apparently having never
encountered a mailing list before, complained publicly that one user was
sending 1200 messages per month. Mailing lists are inherently inefficient,
but Prodigy had told them to take it to private e-mail, and so they had.
Shortly after, Prodigy imposed a 30 message per month limit on the free mail,
which served to enrage everyone on the system - not just those running mail
servers.
But the BBSs did generate traffic - far more than foreseen. While only about
20% of Prodigy members use bulletin boards, they account for 50% of the
system traffic. And the Dow Jones and Eaasy Sabre gateways generate a bit as
well - and THEY have to go through Yorktown. In effect, much of the
"distributed information" theory the system had been setup for was coming
down around Prodigy's ears.
They raised their monthly rate from $9.95 to $12.95, then to $14.95. To no
avail. Today, the system generates $15 each from 1.2 million accounts, and it
costs them about $20 per month to service each account - an estimated $6
million per month operating drain - never mind whatever is spent to acquire
new callers to replace those "graduating." While system membership grew some
40% in 1992, system usage and associated costs went up nearly 300%.
And the distribution of use and expense is not precisely matched. And from
some of the wails of anguish posted on the Prodigy Exchange BBS decrying the
change in pricing, some of these BBS users are spending over 200 hours per
month in the BBS area. According to Prodigy President Ross Glatzer's letter
to members, there is an issue of fairness. The company can't raise the
flat-rate fee on everyone, when the increased expense actually comes from
taking care of 20% of the member base.
The company did have a staff of some 240 service representatives handling
nearly 15,000 "help" voice calls/e-mail daily. Early this year, they moved
that out of house to Sears Payment Services to reduce their overhead. But
with both of "The Partners" in difficulties themselves, the prospects for
them allowing Prodigy to eat $70 million or more losses per year indefinitely
are pretty grim.
So the company is looking at a number of things - offline mail, Windows
terminal programs, Internet connectivity, shareware file areas, chat service,
we got the impression that nothing was ruled out on principle, though Glatzer
does seem intent on the "family service" orientation. And apparently clock
charges are in at $3.60 per hour as of July 1. This undoubtedly will enrage
some of the current user base. One of the bulletin boards devoted to
discussion of the Prodigy service is generating hundreds of messages daily
from the disgruntled. And Marty Babicz of Bristol Connecticut has been trying
to organize a "boycott Prodigy" movement - using the Prodigy bulletin boards.
He's also claimed that Prodigy has censored/deleted his messages regarding
this, a claim Prodigy has denied. I confess, I don't quite get this one. If
you organize a boycott by e-mail, and what you are boycotting IS e-mail, how
do you stay in touch?
But it appears to be down to the point that if they did lose half or more of
their users, but stemmed the red ink and moved into the black, they could
move forward with new and better services for members. If not, there is a
very real possibility that the largest BBS in the world, will drop carrier
for the final time. Prodigy Services Company, 445 Hamilton Ave., White
Plains, NY 10601; (914)993-8789 voice; (914)684-0278 fax.
WINCIM - COMPUSERVE PUTS ON A NEW FACE
--------------------------------------
by Alan D. Bryant
CompuServe Information Service (CIS) is among the oldest and arguably is the
largest of the major commercial online services. The service, owned by tax
prep giant H&R Block, has prospered despite what is widely viewed to be
virtually unusable interface. Hundreds of thousands of modem owners have
suffered through the rigors of trying to find things from amongst its vast
collection of features. And at up to $22.80 an hour, you can spend the GNP of
a third-world country just finding something you're looking for (to speak
nothing of actually using it once you've found it).
Third parties have been developing solutions for CIS's "information overload"
for years now. One of the most popular of them is TAPCIS, a DOS-based
front-end navigator released as shareware. Despite a rather rough and klunky
interface, it's a nice way to automate access to CIS's forums and download
areas (libraries). (TAPCIS, $79.00. Support Group, Inc., Lake Technology
Park, McHenry, MD 31541. 301-387-4500 Voice.)
A similar program, OZCIS, is another DOS-based, text mode solution to the CIS
hurdle. It too automates access to CIS and its major features, using an
elaborate (and somewhat confusing) array of menus. One advantage to OZCIS is
that it's free for personal use. (OZCIS. Ozarks West Software, 14150
Gleneagle Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921.)
Access programs for CompuServe not only help you to find and participate in
the system's enormous array of features, they save you money too. CIS is the
most expensive of the major public online services, running $6.30 an hour for
even 300 baud access, $12.80 an hour for 1200 or 2400 bps, and a whopping
$22.80 an hour for 9600 bps. In addition, you pay $2.50 a month for the
privilege of maintaining an account (which also entitles you to your monthly
copy of the system's not surprisingly self-serving magazine). CIS calls this
type of account the "alternate pricing plan," although it represents CIS's
traditional membership structure.
CIS has been making moves toward becoming more competitive in their pricing.
With what is titled "standard membership" you pay $8.95 a month for unlimited
access to a subset of the system's features, then you pay an hourly
speed-dependent rate for enhanced services (like real-time chat). The hourly
rate on standard memberships is slightly less than the alternate pricing
plan, but is still steep: $8.00 per hour for 1200/2400 bps access, and $16.00
per hour for 9600 bps.
These new hourly rates for a standard membership have been in effect for just
a couple of months at this writing, making it an attractive option for those
that don't mind the minimum monthly charge. Even with these more competitive
charges, CIS is no bargain, and regardless of which membership type you have,
an access program will reduce your online time and reduce your costs as well.
CompuServe itself is no stranger to the access program game. The CompuServe
Information Manager (CIM) has been available for years. DOS users can use it
to automate at least some of the functions available online, and make it
significantly easier to find one's way around. But the newly introduced
WinCIM (CIM for Microsoft Windows) has all the features of an access program,
along with a snappy, clean and easy-to-use Windows interface.
WinCIM, which has been in development and testing for months, is the
culmination of a tremendous effort on the part of CompuServe to make their
service more approachable. Originally promised for 1992, WinCIM finally made
its belated appearance in February of this year. With the program, CIS
becomes downright inviting.
Like TAPCIS, OZCIS and CIM, WinCIM is basically a slick interface on top of a
klunky foundation. Unlike Prodigy and America Online, WinCIM does not make
CIS into a totally graphical online environment. Rather, it almost totally
masks the rude and harsh world of CIS from you, handling all that "icky
stuff" itself instead of forcing you to do it. The result, however, is more
seamless than you might expect.
The key word here is "almost." There are still parts of the service you're
forced to reckon with, such as the Grollier Encyclopedia and American
Airlines' Eaasy Sabre. Think of WinCIM as two programs in one: a snazzy
graphical overlay for many features, and a Windows terminal program for the
rest. Which mode it's operating in varies, and the program switches
automatically to terminal mode when necessary. Its native graphical mode is
used for the most popular services on CIS, including forums, electronic mail
and chat.
The installation of WinCIM takes mere minutes. We were somewhat disappointed
that the installation program did not step us through the modem or telephone
number configuration process. Instead, it simply copied the files, then
created a program group. We were left to our own devices to run the program,
and figure out how and where to tell it about our modem and what number it
might want to dial to connect with the service. Inexperienced users won't be
anywhere near as tolerant about this as we were.
Once we installed the software, ran it, and configured our modem, telephone
number, user ID and password, we were ready to go. When you run the program,
you're welcomed with an icon bar, as well as a window with several major
category selections called the "Services" window. In addition, a standard
Windows menu bar offers several additional choices. Notably absent is some
sort of icon or menu selection to connect with CIS. Instead, the program will
automatically dial in and logon when you select a function which requires a
connection. For example, selecting mail features while offline invokes its
e-mail interface which can be used without being connected to the service,
while picking "News" from the Services window causes WinCIM to dial and
connect, then access the news selections. Requests that can be processed
offline will be; those that cannot cause it to dial in.
Don't expect WinCIM to hang-up the phone when you access a feature which
could be accomplished offline more economically; it'll happily keep you
connected while you compose an e-mail novella or review your filing cabinet
(WinCIM's general purpose capture mechanism).
The WinCIM interface changes depending on what section of the system you're
in. While in a forum, for example, the menu bar has additional selections,
and the icon bar changes its selections as well. Many major areas (including
the forums) also cause a window to pop-up with additional, contextual icons.
In the forums, these additional icons include direct access to entering a
message, scanning file areas (libraries), seeing who is online in the forum,
etc. None of the icon-accessed functions are unique; all of the functions are
also available in text form from the menu bar and pull-down menus if you
prefer a text description instead of a clicking a pretty picture.
The e-mail interface of WinCIM is among its strongest features. Using it
online or offline, you can easily compose, edit and send a message via the
service. All of CIS' mail features are available, including their Internet
gateway. In fact, the online help system offers complete assistance on
entering all the pertinent information, including a detailed explanation of
Internet addressing. This level of assistance is ready for all of CIS' mail
features, although many of the help screens we accessed had typographical and
spelling errors.
When a message is entered offline, you place it in your "out basket." The
next time you're online, you simple instruct WinCIM to send and receive all
mail, and it'll cheerfully comply. Anytime before sending, you can access the
out basket to make changes to your outbound messages, including adding or
changing recipients.
WinCIM allows you to easily maintain an address book for your e-mail. Almost
any type of addressee supported by CIS can be put there, including Internet
and fax machine recipients. When you enter a message to someone, you can add
them to your address book, or people in your address book can easily be used
as recipients. The interface will be familiar to seasoned Windows users; it
uses a dual list mechanism -- address book entries on the left, recipients
for the message on the right -- and you can freely copy them from one list to
the other. This makes adding new entries to the address book, or recipients
for your message, as simple as clicking the mouse button.
WinCIM users will be disappointed with the program on at least one front:
access to forums. Like its DOS cousin, WinCIM doesn't exactly go to any great
effort to prevent you from spending hoards of money online in forums.
(Needless to say, CIS doesn't really have much of an interest in having you
spend less money with them.) Unlike TAPCIS and OZCIS, WinCIM's forum
automation is about "half there." In the ideal world, WinCIM would integrate
the equivalent of a QWK offline reader for CIS. But this isn't the ideal
world.
Just the same, once you're used to WinCIM's interface, you can relatively
quickly download a pile of messages from a forum for later reading and
replying offline. You can mark particular messages, sub-sections, or entire
forums of messages. When you're ready, the messages are downloaded into
WinCIM's "filing cabinet," which you can access later while offline. Replies
you compose offline are saved to the filing cabinet as well, as you can send
them the next time you're online. The sending of messages from the filing
cabinet is not as intuitive or automatic as it should be, however.
One flaw with the processing of forum messages is that WinCIM allows you to
compose messages larger than CIS actually allows. There is no indication of
maximum length within WinCIM, and no warning is given by the program when you
submit over-length posts to the forum. Rather, the message is simply
truncated when it's posted. When evaluating WinCIM, at least two of my forum
posts were truncated in this fashion, leading to some degree of confusion
over what I was trying to say among readers.
CIS' libraries (or download areas) are one of the service's most popular
resources. WinCIM makes accessing and using libraries as easy as it should
have been in the first place. When you're in a forum, you can browse
available files, which are presented to you in a window as a scrolling list
of files. The list is "buffered" during the connection; as you scroll down
the list with your mouse, the file list is actually being sent in "chunks" to
avoid wasting too much time sending the entire (and enormous) full list.
When you see a file on the list you'd like to know more about, a mouse click
will cause a window to pop-up with complete details. You can mark files
you're interested in, then when you're ready another click of the mouse
starts the download. WinCIM selects the protocol automatically.
One of WinCIM's novel features is its ability to display weather maps and
weather radar images in real-time. When you access the weather section of the
service, you can download the latest electronic satellite images or radar
which display right to your screen as they downloaded. Larger weather images
are "interlaced" (meaning the image paints in multiple layers) so you can get
some idea of the finished product almost immediately even though the complete
image takes longer to display fully. The files are merely GIF images, and can
be viewed offline after downloading using any popular image viewing software.
The same "view during download" capability can be used when downloading any
GIF image from CIS. While in the library, you simply click the "View" button
instead of the "Retrieve" button, and the image will be downloaded and
displayed to your screen at the same time.
Finding things online with WinCIM is fairly straightforward -- the program
has a complete system services directory built-in, utilizing the standard
Windows hyper-text help system. When you find the service you need, you can
click a highlighted keyword on the help screen and WinCIM will issue a "go"
command online to take you directly to that service. The only downside is
that the services aren't indexed and cross-referenced as well as they could
be; we had some amount of difficulty locating some of the subjects we were
looking for. It's also not clear how CIS plans to keep WinCIM users updated
with the most current directory information.
WinCIM is definitely not perfect; its forum support could be vastly better.
For Windows users, however, it makes an otherwise hostile service usable and
just plain fun. For those that use CompuServe as a post office, it makes
e-mail handling powerful and simple. WinCIM costs $15 (plus shipping) when
ordered from the CompuServe Store online. If you're in a hurry and don't mind
a lengthy file transfer (totaling over 1.5 Meg) the product can be downloaded
online for $10, connect time free (communications surcharges still apply). GO
WINCIM from any prompt. The $10 is actually rebated in the form of $10 worth
of connect time. The product consists of two files, DISK1.EXE and DISK2.EXE.
Either purchase method includes a $10 usage credit you can apply against your
bill. Maintenance upgrades (of which there have been two at this writing) are
made available for download free of charge. WinCIM Version 1.0.2, CompuServe
Incorporated, 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, OH 43220; (614)457-8600.
========
INTERNET
========
NETNEWS (ALMOST) LIVE VIA SATELLITE
-----------------------------------
by Jack Powers and Lynn Wheeler
Much of the BBS world is struggling toward connectivity with the Internet.
And the
features most requested by callers are electronic mail and Usenet
News Groups. The the caller population wants these groups and they don't want
to face a UNIX command line to get them. They want them on a familiar BBS
face or via the .QWK offline mail readers they are accustomed to using. While
many systems are using the UUCP g protocol to connect to hosts for basic
electronic mail, the 50 MB daily feed of Usenet News Groups are a bit hard to
swallow at the 600-700 cps common with this protocol via a 14.4 kbps modem.
The expense of having a machine and modem connected, often long distance, for
14 hours per day getting news groups is daunting even to the larger boards.
And the transfer of these news groups is very asymmetrical. The news groups
are compiled from input of thousands of systems around the world. While the
feed IN to a BBS may run 45-50MB daily to carry all the various topical
conferences available, the output FROM even larger bulletin boards tends to
be under a megabyte per day.
Several months ago, an article appeared in a local news group on a
public-access Unix system announcing a satellite broadcast of Usenet news.
Talking it over at one of our Friday evening beer busts, we decided that we
couldn't resist finding out more. At least two attempts have been made to do
a broadcast service like this, both failing for various reasons. We were
curious how this one differed from the others, and wondered about the
following questions:
How does it work?
Would it include all the news groups, or would it be edited according to
someone's whim?
How much does it cost, and what kind of arrangements support the transmission
service?
A "telephone-less" way to receive Usenet news would be a real boon to BBS and
public access Unix sysops. Instead of tying up a phone line (and running up a
bill if on a toll call) to download news, one could point an antenna at the
sky and soak it up like a sponge, 24 hours a day. (Outbound postings would
still go by phone, but the volume would be a tiny fraction of that received.)
We contacted the poster, Norm Gillaspie, and he explained how the system was
put together- it looked promising for people like us, for whom any phone call
in the direction of increased civilization is a toll call. One of us
suggested that Norm and programmer Len Rose show the system and talk about it
the 1992 Hackers Conference, which they did. Following that, we took one to
Lynn's home and hooked it up. Here's what we found out.
THE COMPANY
PageSat Inc. of Palo Alto, CA operates a multichannel data broadcast system
on the Ku-band satellite K2, used mostly by paging services in need of
wide-area coverage. The paging services rent a (voice-grade audio) channel
and pipe their data to PageSat's uplink site in Mountain View, California.
From there, PageSat multiplexes it with other channels and bounces it off
satellite K2, which is about 22,000 miles over the equator. Customers can
then receive the signal anywhere in the continental US with a small,
inexpensive receiver. Gillaspie, PageSat's President, explains that the
channel used for news is only one of a block of them on which he has a
long-term lease. In addition, his uplink costs are shared by the paging
service business; this permits PageSat to include the first two years of
transmission service in the $1800 price of the receiver (after that it is $30
per month).
According to Len Rose, architect and programmer of the system that feeds
PageSat's uplink, they transmit all the news from 8 different sources,
currently running between 40 and 55 megabytes per day. Feeding the uplink is
a trio of three Sun 4/380s linked via NFS, with automatic recovery software
that can restore service in under 30 seconds. Incoming news arrives via
multiple T1 (1.5 Mbits/second) internet links, and is broadcast at 9600 bits
per second. As volume increases, PageSat may go to data compression (text is
100% clear ASCII now).
There is no censorship or editorial action of any kind, according to
Gillaspie. "We're a common carrier, not a publisher", he says, "and we don't
get into content issues at all. It's just bits, from our viewpoint."
RECEIVER HARDWARE
The receiver system consists of three pieces, connected by cables:
Model 4518 Antenna System
PCSAT (tm) 300 Satellite Receiver
UDI 200 Universal Data Interface
The entire system sells for about $1800 (subject to change), and several
payment plans are available. Service is free for the first two years, and
approximately $30 per month thereafter.
ANTENNA
PageSat's antenna looks like one of those little TV dishes seen in areas
without cable. It is solid (i.e., not mesh), oval in shape and only about 18
inches across its longer axis, and quite light- the whole kit, mounting
hardware included, weighs about 14 pounds. The signals reflected by the
Fiberglass-reinforced plastic dish are collected by a feedhorn and low-noise
block amplifier (LNB) about the size of a soda pop can. The output of the LNB
goes to the receiver via RG-6/U coaxial cable (we used 150 and 100 foot
lengths with equally good results). The power for the LNB is supplied by the
receiver over the same cable, so there is no need for an electrical outlet
near the antenna once installation is complete.
Adjusting the antenna consists of simply pointing it at the satellite (K2),
which is South from anywhere in the US and East from our California location.
A metric wrench supplied with the mounting kit is used to tighten nuts after
you set azimuth (left-right) and elevation (up-down) angles.
We were surprised how easy it was to find the satellite-- with a little
practice, we could get a useful signal holding the dish by hand! Instructions
include a chart which gives approximate angles for major cities, so if you
have a compass, you're already half way there. A small loudspeaker on the
receiver is used to "find" the signal and make fine adjustments - simply move
the dish on the mount until you find the loudest tone, and then tighten the
nuts. (There is a place to connect a meter to measure signal strength, but we
found the tone method more useful.) At antenna-pointing time, the job is much
easier if you bring the receiver to the antenna location with temporary power
via an extension cord, so you can hear the tone and move the antenna at the
same time.
The antenna can be assembled only one way, and the mounting kit is simple and
very solid. The simplicity was important, because the assembly instructions
are printed in Japanese! There are 3 variations of the mounting kit - wall,
corner, and clamp. We installed the wall-mount kit on a redwood fence post
planted with a bag of pre-mixed concrete. Not counting preparation of the
post, assembly and installation of the antenna took about 30 minutes.
An "offset feed" design is used with this antenna, which works well but makes
it hard to estimate the effective elevation (the antenna is really pointing
higher than it appears).
RECEIVER
The receiver is a black metal box 8"x12"x2.5" in size. It accepts the
950-1750 MHz signal from the LNB and demodulates a single audio channel,
which is selected via switches on the front panel. During installation, the
switches are used to select the channel with the setup tone; they are changed
to the data channel once setup is complete. The output of the receiver is an
audio signal carried on a phone cord to the UDI.
UNIVERSAL DATA INTERFACE
This box looks like a modem, which it is, among other things. It detects a
synchronous 9600 bit/sec. data stream from the audio input (V.29 standard-
same as with Group 3 fax), adds framing bits to convert it to asynchronous
format, and makes it available on a standard RS-232 connector. The UDI is
housed in a black plastic box about 2" high with a 6.33"x9.5" footprint. The
RS-232 connector is female, and wired as you would expect a modem to be-- you
can move the serial cable from your phone modem to the UDI and you are ready
to receive.
FIRST EXPOSURE
Our first exposure to the PageSat system was at Hacker's VIII in November
'92. Early Friday afternoon we stopped by PageSat in Palo Alto and picked up
Len Rose along with the PageSat demonstration system for Hacker's. This
included a 1.2 meter satellite dish mounted on wedge shaped frame along with
receiver, UDI, and an ASCII terminal. Promising to show the system at Hackers
was a bit of a long shot, since without a site survey in advance we didn't
know for sure that we would be able to place the antenna in a spot where it
would have a clear view of K2.
Arriving at the Hackers site (a resort near Lake Tahoe) in the early
afternoon, we began carting all the equipment to the equipment demonstration
room (located on the 2nd floor). After setting up the display terminal, we
decided that the best location for the satellite dish was on the roof of the
building accessible via an interior 15' ladder immediately outside the
demonstration room. We lifted the satellite dish with a rope and carried the
other equipment, (along with an empty flower box and several large rocks) up
the ladder. (Climbing a ladder while carrying something is a real trick.).
After several trips up the ladder, all necessary equipment was on the roof.
An extension cord and coax cable were dropped over the side of the building
and pulled into the window of the demonstration room. We connected the dish
to the receiver and approximately "sighted" in on the satellite location,
(about 109 degrees compass bearing, according to the charts in the
instructions).
By this time, things were starting to get very dark (and cold) on the roof.
We proceeded to fine-tune the satellite reception. Using the receiver's
speaker and listening for the pilot tone, we moved the dish from left to
right and up and down. After a few minutes of fiddling, the tone was coming
through loud and clear. The point where the signal was lost in the left and
right pivoting was marked and then the dish was approximately positioned
half-way between the two pivot points. A similar procedure was use pivoting
the dish along the dish in the up/down direction. The satellite dish's frame
was then "locked" in place using the flower box and rocks to weight it down.
At that point we disconnected the dish from the spare test modem on the roof
and reconnected it to the coax running over the side of the building into the
second floor window of the demonstration room. During the course of the
evening we observed that the ASCII terminal with a continuous scrolling
display of the incoming news group text was occasionally indicating loss of
signal. After several trips to the roof in an attempt to fine-tune the
satellite dish position, we finally realized that satellite line-of-sight
passed through numerous tall trees on the other side of the resort parking
lot. It turned out that the downlink signal reception strength was marginal
and the wind in the trees would occasionally cause the signal to drop below a
useful level. In general, however, the system seemed to make a good
impression on the attendees, some of whom seemed surprised that it worked at
all, under the circumstances.
A MORE PERMANENT INSTALLATION
Since Lynn had a good-sized Unix system (AIX on an RS/6000 with 2 GB of disk)
at home and I could reach it with a local phone call, we decided to try
installing it there first. There were some doubts, as a hill in the general
direction of K2 might block the signal. We were able to receive the PageSat
test tone standing next to his house, but data reception didn't work. We
looked around up the hill adjacent to the house, and found a cable TV
connection box about 20 feet up the hill which had a plastic cable duct
connecting to the house... if we could place the antenna there, getting the
signal into the house would be very convenient. We carried the antenna and
receiver to that spot and tested reception with a laptop computer, and it
worked well. Confident about signal quality, we pulled 100 feet of RG-6
coaxial cable into the duct and the connection box on the side of the house.
The next step was "planting" a leftover 6' fence post in the ground at the
far end of the cable TV conduit and mounting the antenna at the top. We dug a
hole and filled it with rocks and ready-mix concrete, and adjusted the
antenna angle using the test tone as the concrete started to set. The
procedure used was the same as on the roof at Hackers- see where the signal
fades out in each direction, (left-right, then up-down) then aim at the
midpoint between them. Checking the antenna pointing the next day, we were
unable to improve on the original setting.
It was very convenient that the cables and connectors used with the PageSat
system are compatible with those used for cable TV. We were able to bring the
PageSat signal into Lynn's home office on an RG-6/U cable already installed
for TV, after joining it to the one we pulled using an "F-barrel" connector
in the box on the outside wall. A short "modular" telephone cord joined the
satellite receiver to the UDI.
SOFTWARE SETUP
Source for PageSat Unix news receiver (receive.c) was provided by Len Rose.
Only minor modifications were needed to get it running on AIX 3.1.5 on the
IBM RISC/6000.
The RISC/6000 is installed with cnews and nntp version 1.5.11. cnews was
slightly modiifed with files being placed in /usr/local/lib/news and
/usr/local/lib/newsbin (instead of /usr/lib/news and /usr/lib/newsbin,
respectively). Corresponding change was required to the PageSat program
receive.c to specify a news path of "/usr/local/lib/newsbin/input/rnews".
This program was also compiled with syslog logging turned on.
The full compliment of crontab definitions, /etc/services, and
/etc/inetd.conf were made for cnews and nntp. Definitions for both cnews
newsboot and the PageSat receive program were added to the AIX /etc/inittab
so that they would automatically be invoked whenever the system is booted.
After a few days of operation, we noticed that when data was being read from
the UDI, AIX seemed to crawl, and AIX was giving a lot of CPU time to
receive. Lynn modified it to add POSIX min/time specification to the TCSETA
ioctl. min was set to 240 characters and time was set to 0.3 seconds. Now,
rather than the read command completing as soon as any character was
available, the system would not return until either:
a) 240 characters accumulated in the system input queue or
b) 0.3 seconds had elapsed.
The modified version uses considerably less CPU time on an AIX system. Other
systems may not need or may not benefit from this type of input processing.
Configuration
The current configuration consists of PageSat modem connected to the first
async interface on the IBM RISC/6000 model 520 running AIX 3.1.5. The machine
has 64 megabytes of real memory and 2 gigabytes of disk storage.
cnews and nntp 1.5.11 is installed on the machine (as well as trn and xrn).
"Managing UUCP and Usenet" from O'Reilly and Associates is highly recommended
when setting up a usenet news configuration, especially chapters eight, nine
and ten. Usenet news is setup in a 400 MB /usr/spool/news filesystem.
At PageSat's news group feed rate of 50+ megabytes per day, news file
expirations are set between six to ten days to keep from filling up the file
system. There are currently over 80 major news group categories (currently
from alt. to uwo.).
The RISC/6000 is connected via thin-net Ethernet to a 486/50mhz EISA-bus
machine running Windows 3.1. The 486 machine has 16 megabytes of real memory,
and a 600 MB SCSI disk, AVT 21" 1024x768 display screen, AVT display adapter,
SMC Elite16 Ethercard PLUS, multi-function I/O adapter card with two 16550AFN
FIFO chips, and an external Intel SatisFaction 400e modem. Under Windows 3.1,
the nntp version of Waffle 1.65 BBS software is used to provide external news
access. Waffle nntp interfaces to the SMC Ethernet packet driver to access
usenet news on the 520.
Windows is configured with the Intel asynchronous interface COM port driver
downloaded from the Intel support BBS. Waffle has the COM port locked at 56k
bits/sec.
ANOTHER USER'S EXPERIENCE
Another user of the PageSat System is BBS pioneer Randy Seuss
(randy@chinet.chi.il.us) in Chicago. On being called "out of the blue" and
asked how he likes the system he purchased, he replied "I love it." High on
his list of benefits are these:
Completeness- he gets all the news groups, including new ones, without having
to beg anyone to feed them to him;
Cost- Randy claims that the system has paid for itself in the five months he
has used it, saving measured local phone costs over the 8 mile distance to
his former news feed;
Reliability- it runs 24 hours per day, weekends, holidays, the Windy City's
"snow days", and school vacations included. His former feed at a university
had little or no support for extended periods.
Randy was able to talk his landlord into permission to mount his dish on the
building's roof, partly because of its small size. He would like to see
"semi-interactive" use of the link during slack times, such as being able to
call to request news transmitted while his own system was down; otherwise, he
is "more than satisfied" with it.
CONCLUSION
While it can't possibly work everywhere, PageSat's system is surprisingly
easy to install, and does well even in locations that are less than optimal.
It is a boon for people who are not within local calling distance of a news
feed, or can't find a source for the desired news groups, and the small dish
size let it fit into many locations for which satellite transmission would
otherwise not be practical.
For more information on PageSat, contact Len Rose at PageSat Inc., 992 San
Antonio Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303; (800)227-6288 voice; (415)424-0384
international; (415)424-0405 fax; Internet: pagesat@pagesat.com or
len@netsys.com (Len Rose)
[Lynn Wheeler (bli!lynn@netcom.com) is an independent consultant with over 25
years experience in the computing industry. During the early 80s, he was
responsible for the IBM High Speed Data Transport project. This included both
high-speed terrestrial and satellite links. The High Speed Data Transport
project included two satellite pilot projects, one involving a six megabit
dynamic bandwidth multi-cast TDMA backbone system and a second involving an
outbound 1.5mbit T1 satellite broadcast system with low-speed terrestrial
return links. Jack Powers (jackp@well.sf.ca.us) is a telecommunications
engineert in Morgan Hill, California, where he started his own business after
over 22 years with IBM. He now designs telecom hardware and software for
multimedia and other applications. He is co-author of Megabit Data
Communications (Prentice-Hall, 1990) and has written for PC and PC WORLD
magazines. - Editor]
WHITE HOUSE MAILING LIST
------------------------
The new administration in the White House, if nothing else, is promising to
be a more "electronic" administration. The speculation over what will become
of what is variously referred to as the National Data Highway or the National
Information Infrastructure is pretty much all over the map. But on more
mundane communications topics, the White House is definitely becoming more
"connected," in large part due to the efforts of Jock Gill of the Office of
Media Affairs. Mr. Gill has been tasked with the electronic presence of the
White House online and I suppose you would call him the White House Sysop.
Currently, the communication is less than perfect. There are discussion areas
or forums where you can discuss the current administration. There are
"broadcasts" of information from the administration via mailing list. There
are archives offering a treasure trove of policy documents, past speeches,
etc. And there are mailboxes where you can direct e-mail to the
administration. All are operational, but some work better than others. The
result is that you have electronic access to more information, and more
current information, about the government than ever before in history. The
full text of the AM press briefing at the White House can literally be in
your own e-mail box shortly after 2:00 PM of the same day.
FORUMS:
The White House has a presence on a number of online services. On CompuServe,
you can GO WHITE HOUSE to find a forum with some 17 discussion topics
regarding the current administration. On America Online, they similarly have
a WHITE HOUSE Forum under the News & Finance section of the service,
accessible via keywords white house or clinton. MCI Mail offers a series of
White House bulletin boards including WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC, WHITE HOUSE
FOREIGN, WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL, WHITE HOUSE SPEECHES, and WHITE HOUSE NEWS you
can access by entering VIEW WHITE HOUSE. FidoNet now has an echomail
conference titled WHITEHOUSE. On the WELL, type whitehouse. And the following
Usenet Newsgroups are under direct distribution from the administration:
alt.politics.clinton
alt.politics.org.misc
alt.politics.reform
alt.politics.usa.misc
alt.news-media
alt.activism
talk.politics.misc
MAILING LIST
The information tends to be similar on each service, and the source of all of
it is a mailing list on an experimental mail server set up by the MIT
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory during the campaign. It is still in
operation and the White House Communications Office is distributing press
releases and other information to this mailing list.
The service offers information in five categories including:
Economic Policy
Foreign Policy
Social Policy
Speeches
News
You can select these categories and sign up for this news group by sending
e-mail to Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org with RECEIVE ECONOMY, RECEIVE FOREIGN,
RECEIVE SOCIAL, RECEIVE SPEECHES or RECEIVE NEW in the subject field. If you
want all of these releases, enter RECEIVE ALL in the subject field.
Similarly, you can cut off any distribution by sending e-mail to the same
address with REMOVE ECONOMY or REMOVE ALL in the subject field. You can also
receive detailed instructions by sending e-mail with a RECEIVE HELP subject
field.
The service really does send a wealth of detailed information, including the
full text of speeches by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. We
received the full text of VP Gore's opening comments at the Forest Conference
at the Oregon Convention Center and also the full text of the President's
closing comments at this affair. In fact, we found the text of press
conferences, and questions and answers from less formal photo opportunities
with Egyptian President Mubarek, the President's remarks on a trip to
Baltimore, a disaster declaration for Nebraska and New York, Clinton's
remarks in Vancouver, and more. Virtually anything the President says in
public is transmitted in full text format. Additionally, you'll find
background briefings by senior administration officials, position papers, and
even AM and PM press briefings by George Stephanopoulos and Dee Dee Myers.
All in all, this is the richest fount of text information ever to be this
widely distributed from our government. The daily output is realistically
more than you can read.
ARCHIVES
If that's not enough, there are several Internet archive sites that save ALL
of them in historical files accessible by ftp.
Additionally, the information is archived on the FedWorld BBS at
(703)321-8020.
The sunsite.unc.edu archive is particularly interesting. As of April 8, they
had the entire U.S. Budget in a single file (over a megabyte actually). To
access the file, ftp sunsite.unc.edu (152.2.22.81) and change directories to
/pub/academic/political-science. The file is US-Budget-1993.
DIRECT E-MAIL:
If you expect to send an e-mail message to the President and get a personal
reply 10 minutes later, we think NOT. In fact, generally, the procedure is to
send e-mail to the White House, and include your STREET mailing address.
Some months, years, or longer later, they will mail you back a reply on
paper. But a relatively committed staff is working to improve this situation.
The following addresses seem to be actively monitored:
CompuServe: 75300.3115
America Online: clinton-pz
MCI Mail: 589-5485
Internet: clinton-hq@campaign92.org
LIBERTY NETLINK - 2584 INTERNET SERVICES FROM A SINGLE MENU
-----------------------------------------------------------
I still recall with some awe the feeling of excitement I had when a slickly
dressed gentleman at a St. Louis home show demonstrated a new service titled
CompuServe in 1979. They had the St. Louis Post Dispatch classified ads on
the system at that time. "You want a car? What kind of car? What year? Well,
here are three - how about a yellow one?" He would ask people in the crowd
what they wanted and magically make it appear on his little terminal. He had
us all convinced that EVERYTHING known in the world was on this service. You
could find ANYTHING.
I quickly got over the fascination with CompuServe once I learned they didn't
QUITE have everything, and they DID fancy a bit of my pin money for the
crawling 300 baud connection, and perennially stalled menus. But I do
remember the excitement. And I've got it again.
It is stated and restated that there are thousands of hosts and thousands of
services on the Internet. But what does that mean? Every time I ever made the
connection to my dialup account, all I saw was the prompt TEAL%. It didn't
even blink. It just sits there with the endless patience of UNIX, waiting for
ME to make the next move. The thousands of services available aren't readily
obvious.
But I did recently stumble across one service titled LIBERTY operated on an
HP 9000 at the Washington and Lee University Law School. John Doyle runs this
system, and they have put together one of the most awesome knots of
information available on the planet. On their MAIN menu alone, the system
offers direct gateways to some 2,584 other Internet services, including
bulletin boards, game systems, Internet Real-time Chat services, Wide Area
Information Servers (WAIS), Gophers, Archies, FTP sites, libraries, online
databases, information text files, World Wide Webs, and other services. Over
1000 OTHER gophers merit their own submenu, some 170 FTP sites get another.
And we have fallen in love with this service. It is with some pain that we
splash the pages of Boardwatch with this news, because the service is SO
good, we can't picture it remaining open to the public with the loading it
will undoubtedly receive once the word gets out on this service. This is THE
BIGGEST BBS IN THE WORLD.
To access the system, telnet to liberty.uc.wlu.edu. The IP address is
137.113.10.35 for the numerically inclined. You will face a login prompt.
Simply enter LAWLIB. No password is required.
And there you will find the longest main menu structure in the free world. On
our first visit there were over 1100 entries. Two weeks later we checked
back, and they listed 2584 entries of awesome breadth and variety. Virtually
every FREENET on the planet. Most of the Library card catalogs, not only in
the United States, but around the world - in Heidleburg, Sogang, Crete, Lyon,
etc. And lots of text files. A list of astronomer's e-mail addresses,
observations and status reports from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space
Shuttle Earth Observation's Project Photo Database, the Holocost and Fascism
Archives, the Federal Register, the Swiss Electronic Phonebook, dozens of
Multi-User Dungeons games, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, sports schedules,
weather forecasts, a database of all known gene sequences, census
information, information on livestock production - it was very nearly
endless.
The effect was that this man has created at least a text window to the
Internet he calls Netlink. And while it undoubtedly doesn't link you to ALL
the services available for telnet on the Internet, it is a significant
sampling. A menu for the global world. And we literally spent all night
browsing through this treasure trove of "stuff."
Note that MOST of these menu entries take you back out over the net to other
services via gopher, telnet, or WAIS logons - you are actually traveling the
globe from one menu entry to another. And we were both surprised and
delighted at how ubiquitous one function is becoming on the Internet - if you
see something you like, point to it and the system, whatever system you might
be on, will offer to send it to you. You don't need to deal with the vagaries
of download protocols. Just note that you would like to have it e-mailed -
they deliver. It just shows up in your e-mail box later. The ultimate
convenience in shopping, and it is now showing up on MOST services we tried.
It's a common feature on gopher software.
One file you should grab before they close the doors on this system is the
NETLINK.SCRIPTS file. This shows the connection to make to ANY of the
services listed on the Liberty Netlink menus. And you are encouraged to make
them directly yourself, to avoid loading the system. But our fascination with
accessing the entire planet, and of course everything there was to know on
it, knew no bounds. This is the most fascinating online service we've ever
seen. We brainstormed for hours as to how to put the entire menu in the pages
of Boardwatch - but it was not to be. It would take 30 pages in any format
you could read just for the main menu. For more information, e-mail to
doylej@liberty.uc.wlu.edu.
NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - DR. CERF GOES TO WASHINGTON
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The following is the written testimony of Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President
Corporation for National Research Initiatives and President of the Internet
Society, to the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and
Technology, Subcommittee on Technology, Environment and Aviation. Dr. Cerf
delivered this testimony March 23, 1993. As one of the most respected
proponents of the Internet, virtually from birth to present IP, Dr. Cerf's
recommendations to congress over the final form of what a National
Information Infrastructure should look like will carry a great deal of weight
and we thought it appropriate to carry the entire text of his testimony in
this issue. Dr. Cerf can be reached at vcerf@CNRI.Reston.VA.US, Corporation
for National Research Initiatives, 1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100,
Reston, VA 22091; (703)620-8990; (703)620-0913
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the subcommittee and guests, my name
is Vinton G. Cerf and I am Vice President of the non-profit Corporation for
National Research Initiatives (CNRI). I also have the honor to serve as
President of the Internet Society (ISOC), which is a professional society of
individuals who are users, developers or operators of the Internet. My
remarks today are personal in nature, but they are colored by my past and
present professional experiences which form the backdrop against which my
opinions and observations have evolved.
I worked on the ARPANET project while a graduate student at UCLA in the early
1970s, helping to develop the protocols used to support communication between
the computers (hosts) on the network. The highly successful ARPANET
experience with packet switching technology led to additional satellite,
mobile radio and local area packet networks, developed under Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA) sponsorship and, in the case of Ethernet, at
the Palo Alto Research Center of the Xerox Corporation. Dr. Robert Kahn, now
the president of CNRI, initiated an ARPA internetting research program to
explore techniques to connect different packet networks in such a way that
the host computers did not have to know anything about the intermediate
networks linking them together. Dr. Kahn and I developed the idea of gateways
and wrote the first specification for the basic TCP/IP protocols now used in
the Internet.
The idea behind Internet was the seamless linking of many different kinds of
packet switched networks. I came to ARPA in 1976 to manage the Internetting
research program and by the time I left ARPA in 1982, the TCP/IP protocols
were widely used and the Department of Defense had declared them standards
for military use. The Internet has blossomed in the subsequent 10 years,
particularly after the National Science Foundation (NSF) introduced the
NSFNet as part of the Internet in the mid-1980s. In 1982, there were about
100 computers on the ARPANET and a few score others were part of the
NSF-sponsored CSNET which also used the Telenet public data network. In 1993
there are over 1.5 million of them. The system links over 10,000 networks in
roughly 50 countries. Although it is not known for certain how many users
there are, we believe there are well over 5 million. The system is tied into
most public and many private electronic messaging services and this expands
the population able to exchange email to some 15 million. They include
business people, academics, government workers, scientists, engineers,
librarians, schoolteachers, astronomers, oceanographers, biologists,
historians, reporters, attorneys, homemakers, and secondary school students.
The system is doubling annually in users, networks, hosts and traffic. In
some parts of the Internet, such as the NSFNet backbone, traffic growth rates
as high as 15% per month have been measured. Internet is growing faster than
any other telecommunications systems ever built, including the telephone
network. Today, over half of the networks registered are associated with
business users. Of course, these rates of growth cannot continue
indefinitely, but there is reason to expect that the user population will
exceed 100M by 1998.
Perhaps even more important, this federal investment in research has created
new industries revolving at first around the hardware and software of
Internet technology, and more recently, around network and information
services supported by the Internet. The new businesses (such as Sun
Microsystems, 3COM and Cisco Systems) have highly positive international
trade balances and phenomenal growth, commensurate with the rapid growth of
the Internet itself. The growth rate is extremely strong in Europe, South
America and the Pacific Rim creating major export markets for the US firms
offering Internet products and services.
In 1975, operational management of the ARPANET was transferred to the Defense
Communication Agency (now the Defense Information Systems Agency - DISA). In
the mid-80s, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy
(DOE), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) joined in
supporting the evolution of the Internet and developing and applying its
technologies. In addition to developing their own networks (that became
integral components of the Internet), these agencies participated in the
development and standardization of the Internet protocols (TCP/IP Protocol
Suite) and provided support to the secretariats of the Internet Architecture
Board (IAB) and Internet Engineering and Research Task Forces (IETF and
IRTF). This included support for the Internet Assigned Number Authority
(IANA), document editor (RFC Editor), and Network Information Centers which
provide information and assistance to users and deal with Internet network
address assignments. ARPA, NSF, DISA, DOE and NASA now make up part of the
Federal Networking Council which continues to oversee the development of
networks used in government-sponsored research and education.
Formed at the beginning of 1992, the non-profit, professional membership
Internet Society provides an institutional framework for carrying out a
variety of activities intended to foster the continued growth, evolution and
application of the Internet. Included in this undertaking is the
responsibility for the technical standards used in the Internet. Along with
members of the Federal Networking Council, the Internet Society supports the
IETF Secretariat. It sponsors conferences and workshops on the Internet and
its technology, is establishing liaison relationships with the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Organization for International
Standardization (ISO), works with various United Nations agencies (e.g. UN
Development Program) to encourage the acquisition and use of Internet
facilities in technologically-emerging countries, and participates in efforts
to extend Internet services from university and research library communities
to secondary school systems.
The Internet Society does not operate any of the thousands of networks that
make up the Internet, but it assists service providers by providing
information to prospective users and involves product developers and
researchers in the evolution of Internet technical standards. Corporate and
individual, professional support for this organization is widespread and
international in scope.
HIGH PERFORMANCE
COMPUTING AND
COMMUNICATION
The High Performance Computing Act was signed into law late in 1991. The
original impetus for this legislation came from then-Senator and now-Vice
President Gore whose vision of information superhighways limned the potential
of a computing and communications infrastructure which would permeate and
stimulate the government, business and private sectors of the US economy. The
promise of a vast new economic engine equal to or larger than the engine
sparked by the National Highway Act of 1956 was a powerful incentive for this
bill and lies at the heart of the motivation for creating a new National
Information Infrastructure.
One of the key elements of the HPC initiative is its National Research and
Education Network (NREN) program. Designed to extend the performance envelope
of networking into billion bit per second (gigabit) territory and to extend
the scope of access to a larger segment of the research and education
communities, the effort spawned a major research program on gigabit
networking. ARPA and NSF jointly funded an effort, organized by the
Corporation for National Research Initiatives, to establish multiple gigabit
testbeds across the United States.
The program is highly leveraged, involving major contributions from the
computing and communications industries as well as several of the national
laboratories and major research universities .
An important focus of the gigabit testbed program is to discover by
experimentation which technologies and applications are likely to form the
core of the high performance communication systems of the future. The deep
involvement of industry is intended, in part, to assure that the results take
into account the plans and capabilities of the private sector. Such
partnerships among government, industry and academic institutions form a
bedrock upon which new national infrastructure can be founded.
The vision of the NREN component of the HPC effort begins with the existing
US component of the global Internet. Under the NREN program, key parts of the
US Internet have been extended to operate at 45 million bits per second (in
particular the NSFNet) and procurement of higher speed services by DOE and
NASA is in progress. The gigabit testbed program is enabling the early
availability of very high speed network technology and the results of the
program will help to determine the architecture and technology of even higher
capacity services.
The NSFNet initiative, which began in 1986, has also led to the creation of
dozens of new Internet service providers, including a number of for-profit
networks offering unrestricted Internet service to all who desire it.
Another fundamental motivation for the high performance networking component
of HPC is the intense investment by the principal interexchange and local
exchange telecommunications carriers in the US in the use of optical fiber in
their networks. Capable of supporting operation in the billions of bits per
second, the optical networks form the strands from which a national gigabit
fabric can be woven. Investments by local exchange carriers and cable
companies to increase the capacity of the lines reaching business and
residential customers make it possible to envision a time when very high
capacity services can be supported on an end-to-end basis.
The far-sighted vision of the HPC effort, together with the explosive growth
of the Internet and basic communications facilities resulting from private
sector initiatives, have set the stage for a dramatic new step in the
evolution and convergence of computing and communication: the creation of a
National Information Infrastructure.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Information Infrastructure is the Rcommon groundS on which computer-based
products and services depend to achieve commonality and interoperability.
Included in infrastructure are technical standards and the organizations and
procedures through which they are developed; communication services and the
physical, human and organizational resources needed to deploy, maintain and
operate them; legal and regulatory frameworks which encourage cooperative
development of precompetitive technology, foster the protection of
computer-accessible intellectual property, the protection of privacy, and
support the conduct of electronic commerce; widely available computer
software for many hardware and operating system platforms establishing
ubiquitous and interoperable computing environments in which applications can
be embedded. Infrastructure supplies the raw material out of which limitless
applications may be constructed.
Some of the characteristics which mark elements of infrastructure include:
ubiquity, expandable capacity, simplicity of use, applicability to many uses
and broad affordability. A functioning information infrastructure will lower
technical and economic barriers to the introduction of computer-based
products and services. It will simplify the discovery and ordering of
products and services as well as billing for their use or acquisition. It
will also facilitate the day-to-day operation of businesses, government,
education, health care and all the myriad activities that rely increasingly
on the use of computer and communication technology to accomplish their
objectives.
Infrastructure has an enabling character. The highway system enabled the
suburban housing boom and convenient, door to door delivery of goods. Of
course, it also stimulated the automobile industry and travel. The power
generation and distribution system enabled the facile application of
fractional horsepower motors and a vast array of other electrical appliances
wherever they were needed.
Infrastructure development is almost always preceded by critical inventions
which motivate the need for the infrastructure. The light bulb preceded and
motivated the need for power generation and distribution. The invention of
the internal combustion engine and its application in automobiles motivated
the need for better roads, service stations, gasoline refining and
distribution. Once the roads were in place, their ubiquity and easy
accessibility stimulated the production of a vast array of different
vehicles, all designed to conform to certain common constraints (size,
height, weight) so as to be usable on most of the roads in the system.
The computer is the automobile of the information infrastructure. Laptops are
the sports cars; desktops are the sedans; supercomputers are the formula 1
racing engines; and gigantic mainframe data storage systems are the 18
wheelers. The local access networks form the neighborhood streets; high
capacity computer networks are the superhighways; and circuit, cell and
packet switching systems form the complex interchanges.
Just as vehicles on the road can be filled with an endless variety of people
and products performing a multitude of services, software applications fill
the empty computing vessels to create the new products and services of the
information infrastructure. Communication protocols and standards form the
rules of the road. When traffic jams and accidents occur, we call on
emergency services to assist. The same may prove true for the information
infrastructure when viruses infect the system or other software and/or
hardware failures occur; we will need comparable emergency assistance to
restore critical services and functions.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation speaks of computers and computer
networking as a frontier in cyberspace. This is an interesting and apt
analogy, given the relative immaturity of both technologies. Despite the
apparent sophistication of today's computers, networks and software, their
application has barely scratched the surface of the latent possibilities. The
notion of frontier raises images of boundaries and limits. But cyberspace is
a virtual place. It is created out of software, making cyberspace an
endlessly expandable environment.
Information is, itself, an infinitely renewable resource to be harvested,
shaped, applied and recycled. The products and services which can be built
atop the computer and communication infrastructure simply have no logical
limits. It is this ceaselessly changing, growing, transmuting information
resource which will fuel the economic engine of the information
infrastructure.
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FORMATION
The technical challenges to be overcome in creating a national information
infrastructure may only be overshadowed by some of the legal and policy
problems. Taking the easier ones, first, it should be apparent that standards
for the exchange of a variety of types of information (data) are essential.
The value of infrastructure is that providers of two services which must
interwork do not have to make bilateral agreements with every partner if
appropriate technical standards are developed which enable such interworking.
In the case of program (software) interworking, common representations of
shared information must be agreed upon so that software developers can be
reasonably assured that, if they follow the protocols, their application
programs will interwork with each other.
A variety of high and low-level standards are needed for representation of
digital documents; information retrieval queries and responses;remote program
interactions; financial or other commercial transactions; privacy, integrity
and authenticity preservation; and a plethora of application-specific
standards for information interchange. These representations need to include
the capability for a wide range of media, including sound and pictures. There
are a number of representations available for encoding these various media,
but there is not yet widespread agreement on a common set. Consequently, we
are still some distance away from a workable information infrastructure.
The applications that can be supported on a suitable information
infrastructure are limited only by imagination and creativity. Examples
include health care support (e.g., patient information, prescription
databases, digitized X-Rays and MRI scans), remote consultation); education
(classrooms without walls, using the information infrastructure to receive
instruction, explore digital libraries and work with distant partners),
manufacturing, provision of government information, and support for
electronic commerce (e.g., order entry, electronic or physical delivery of
products, electronic payments, product specifications).
An important element of Internet growth is the typical pricing strategy of
service providers: flat rates based on the bandwidth of the lines used to
access the Internet. Unlike some commercial email and other public data
network service providers, Internet service providers have not charged by the
packet. Many believe that this policy has had a major, positive effect on the
growth of the network because users had little uncertainty with respect to
annual costs for use of the system.
ANECDOTES FROM THE 21ST CENTURY
Those of us who have lived with the Internet since its inception have been
living in what will be common in the next century. In preparation for this
testimony, I sent a brief message out on the Internet to hundreds of
thousands of people who make daily use of the network. I asked them to offer
their thoughts on points they considered important to make. Within hours, I
had thousands of responses, not just from domestic sources but from all over
the world. Without the infrastructure of the Internet, such a question would
not have been worth asking since the answers would have taken far too long to
receive, and I could not have applied available computer cycles to sort and
sift the resulting responses. My correspondents were almost uniformly
enthusiastic about the prospects for national and global information
infrastructure. The following were some of the points they made:
The Internet Society newsletter is created by correspondents all over the
globe who email their stories to the editors in Los Angeles, California and
Reston, Virginia. The whole process takes places over a few days, with all
the editing taking place on-line. Each issue is available on-line within
minutes of completion through a variety of information services on the
Internet.
A professor at the University of Southern Louisiana offered to teach a class
on Internet use through email on the Internet. 15,000 people applied to take
the class! This is distance-learning with clout!!
A blind student of Shakespeare asked on the net, where can I get on-line
copies of the plays, it's the only convenient way for me to read them. He
uses a text-to-speech and text-to-Braille device. He got back many pointers
to on-line archives around the world.
When President Clinton and Vice President Gore were visiting Silicon Graphics
in California's Silicon Valley, the audio and video of the speeches were
packetized and multicast on the Internet to hundreds of participating sites.
This is an example of the nascent potential in combining all forms of
communication in computer-mediated form.
Internet Talk Radio recently made the front page of the New York Times - it
is another example of the convergence of digital computer communications and
mass media.
When I needed information about the Spratley Islands, I just turned to the
CIA World Fact Book made available on the Internet by the University of
Minnesota.
A technical problem arose with an application running on an Apple Macintosh.
The user sent an email message to several distribution lists and news groups
and got back helpful responses, some in minutes, from France, Germany, Italy,
Australia, India, Singapore, Canada, England, Norway, United States, Finland,
... well, you get the idea. Cyberspace has common interest groups that
transcend national boundaries.
The city of Wellington, New Zealand, has a computer on the Internet. It has
placed there a wide range of information of interest to potential visitors
and tourists, local residents, and Internet explorers. There is strong
historical evidence that the rich personal interactions that take place on
the Internet contribute to a marked increase in face-to-face meetings
requiring travel, so the local government is to be commended for its
foresight.
IMPORTANT THINGS THE US GOVERNMENT CAN DO
Offered below is a representative set of comments and suggestions received
over the course of a few days from the Internet community. Because of its
source, it has an obvious Internet bias to it, but despite that, I think
these ideas are worthy of serious consideration.
1. Invest in the development of pre-competitive software and technology which
is made available to industry for competitive productizing. Historically,
universities have developed sample implementations of new Internet software
which is then used as the basis for product and service development in
industry. Occasionally, industry will sponsor development of freely available
software which can be readily distributed throughout the network, creating a
kind of mini-infrastructure on which more elaborate, for-profit products and
services may be based. In both cases, new businesses are often created to
service the market created.
2. Foster and facilitate the development of technical information standards
through cooperative efforts among industry, academia and government. The
procedures of the Internet Engineering Task Force are a model for expeditious
and effective development because the standards must be implemented by
multiple parties and shown to interoperate before they are eligible for
standardization.
3. Revisit COCOM and US-specific policy on the application, use, and export
of the RSA and DES cryptographic technology. Present policies inhibit the
creation of particular aspects of global information infrastructure and, in
some cases, U.S. companies are placed at a severe disadvantage relative to
competitors. These technologies are key elements [no pun intended] in solving
problems of intellectual property protection and management and electronic
commerce in an on-line environment.
4. Adopt the TCP/IP protocols as coequal with the OSI protocols in the US
GOSIP specifications (which describe the profile of protocols that are
recommended for use in Government procurements). The TCP/IP protocols are
already in wide-spread use within the government, so this change would merely
acknowledge reality.
5. Move aggressively to support library access to Internet services, with
particular attention to rural community access.
6. Institute training programs to educate the nation's secondary school
teachers and support staff on the use of computer and communication
technology in the classroom. Subsidize access where this is necessary.
Involve state educational infrastructure in this effort. Review highly
successful state-level programs as input to national policy development.
7. Stimulate the development of quality software for use in curricula at all
levels. Consider programs to develop pre-production software and make it
available at no charge, leveraging the creativity of national laboratories,
universities and individuals.
8. Mandate public, on-line availability of government-produced or sponsored
information and allow the private sector to add value and resell it. For
example, the White House is providing on-line access to unclassified
executive orders and text of speeches by senior administration officials
within hours (and sometimes minutes) of their release.
9. Foster programs to explore and experiment with the use of information
infrastructure to support telecommuting. Not only as an energy-saving,
pollution-reducing step, but a major tool for implementing the Americans with
Disabilities Act provisions. It was noted that home-employment and suburban
satellite offices illustrate that electronic communication infrastructure is
approaching the importance of the more concrete (pun intended) traffic
highways.
10. Make use of the Internet to harvest information from its tens of
thousands of public databases as an adjunct to intelligence gathering and
analysis by various agencies of the federal government. Make available
government unclassified information and analysis via the Internet as a
contribution to the community (e.g. CIA World Fact Book).
11. Get all branches of the government on electronic mail and support the
ability to exchange email with the public.
12. Encourage the deployment of ISDN services.
13 Foster the development of shared scientific databases and collaboration
tools which can be used to enhance the utility of research results and
provide access to raw as well as analyzed data to support corroborating
research.
14. Make use of the Internet to build bridges among the scientific, research,
academic and educational communities.
15. Link the museums of the world on the Internet.
16. Avoid the unintentional creation of a gap between information rich and
poor. The concern here is that private sector entrepreneurship may conflict
with freedom of access to public information. Note that the potential gap
problem applies equally as well to individuals and to large and small
corporations!
17. Position national policy so that the government need not subsidize
network service providers. Rather, subsidize users, where this is
appropriate. By this means, remove most of the Appropriate Use Policy
dilemmas from consideration at the network level. It is not technically
possible today, using existing capabilities, to distinguish different classes
of traffic at the network level. [There were a few people who thought the
government should build the National Information Infrastructure but the vast
majority who commented on this preferred private sector service provision,
albeit under government policies which assure ubiquity of service, full
interconnection of all service providers and reasonable costs].
18. Find a way to make advertising permissible and useful in the National
Information Infrastructure.
INTERNET GROWTH
---------------
According to SRI International, the Internet added some 586,000 IP hosts
during 1992 to a current total of 1,313,000 hosts. A "host" is defined as a
computer or workstation with direct Internet Protocol (IP) connetivity. This
could be a mainframe computer, or a single user workstation. The IP network
began in August of 1981 with some 213 hosts.
TCP/IP ON THE IBM PC - AN INTRODUCTION
--------------------------------------
Bernard Aboba aboba@netcom.com
Why do I care?
The Internet is a pretty hot topic among BBS operators these days, and since
most BBSes run on PCs, it is natural that interest in TCP/IP on the PC is
heating up as well. Most bulletin boards use Unix-to-Unix-Copy-Program (UUCP)
dialup connections to pass mail and newsgroups. But the next step toward
Internet connectivity requires a connection to the network using the common
network protocol of the Internet - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP). This is the "standard" networking tool for Unix systems.
To gain the advantages of internet connectivity from a PC, you normally will
want to use a TCP/IP implementation for DOS or Windows.
As it turns out, TCP/IP software is abundant on the PC, so abundant as to be
a bit confusing. Between software for Windows and DOS, virtually every TCP/IP
application has been implemented on the PC in one form or other. There are
dozens of programs available in dozens of Internet archives.
In order to put together a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for the
readers of comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmc, as well as to develop material for the
TCP/IP chapters in the second edition of Bulletin Boards and Beyond, I've
been keeping track of TCP/IP software for the PC. We'll cover some of the
basic issues involved in implementing TCP/IP on the PC in this article, but
there is no way to even begin to cover all the software that is out there in
this limited space. Therefore for further information, please download the
full FAQ listing, which is available on the Boardwatch BBS, or the
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc newsgroup.
Components of a TCP/IP solution
Appropriate hardware
The first thing you will need to run TCP/IP on your PC will be hardware to
connect you to the network, such as an:
Ethernet card
Token Ring card
AppleTalk card
Serial Port
Any other network card with a packet driver or NDIS or ODI driver, (such as
Arcnet), will also work.
If you are using Ethernet, remember that even connecting two machines
requires use of tees and terminators, and that if you break the continuity on
the network, you not only disconnect the machine you are working on, but all
the other machines as well.
Hardware drivers
Network cards typically come with one or more of the following drivers:
Network Driver Interface Standard (NDIS) [MS Lan Manager]
ODI [Novell]
Packet drivers [TCP/IP]
Most of the popular software such as FTP Software's PC/TCP, KA9Q, and
SLIPDISK require packet drivers. If your network card did not come with a
packet driver, you can try one of the drivers from the Crynwr collection
(formerly called the Clarkson Drivers).These drivers are available for
downloading over the Internet.
However other packages such as NetManage's Chameleon, require NDIS drivers.
This can be something of a problem if you want to run software requiring both
NDIS drivers and packet drivers at the same time.
A shim is software that runs on top of one set of drivers to emulate another
set. This is useful if you are looking to simultaneously support two
different programs, each requiring a different driver interface. For example,
if you are running software requiring an NDIS driver (such as Chameleon NFS)
alongside software requiring a packet driver interface (such as KA9Q, Gopher,
Popmail, NCSA Telnet, etc.) you will need a Packet Driver over NDIS shim.
If your card supports netbios, and you need to run packet driver software,
you can run a packet-driver-over-netbios shim.
TCP/IP Protocol Stack
The TCP/IP protocol stack runs on top of the driver software, and uses it to
access your hardware. If you are running a TCP/IP protocol stack that
requires drivers that aren't available for your hardware, you're in trouble.
Check into this before purchasing!
Also be aware that if you are running applications using multiple TCP/IP
stacks the stacks are likely to conflict. Therefore you will need to load and
unload protocol stacks in order to switch between the two applications.
Winsock
If your application requires it, you may also need a copy of Winsock. Winsock
is a Berkeley sockets interface which was created as a Windows DLL. For a
given version of Windows, Winsock provides an Application Binary Interface
(ABI) that will work both under Windows and Windows NT. Each TCP/IP
implementation requires its own version of Winsock.
Applications
Although many of us running TCP/IP software under DOS seem to spend our time
looking for working combinations of applications, Winsocks, TCP/IP protocol
stacks, shims, drivers, and hardware, ultimately your goal is to eventually
run an application successfully. Lots of us are doing this, so don't despair!
There are now dozens of publicly distributable TCP/IP applications running
under DOS. The situation is not as good under Windows, although things are
changing quickly.
Connecting with TCP/IP over a modem
To connect your PC to the Internet using a modem, you will need to use either
Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). In my
experience, both protocols work well, although PPP is easier to administer
from the host point of view. Since SLIP is older than PPP, it is currently
more widely implemented, although PPP is catching up quickly. SLIP accounts
are
available from providers such as Netcom (all Bay Area POPs,$2/hour),
Holonet ($2/hr off-peak), Colorado SuperNet ($2/hr), MSEN, RISCNet, and
others. Some of these providers also offer PPP.
What is SLIP and PPP?
SLIP is a "non-standard" which utilizes very simple framing in order to
transport TCP/IP over serial lines and modems. It wasn't designed to be The
Solution to this problem, merely a convenient method for doing things until
"something better" came along. The "something better" turned out to be PPP.
What is CSLIP? Well, without CSLIP, every character you type in a telnet
session will be sent along with 40 bytes of TCP and IP headers. Since these
headers don't change often (being composed of things like the source and
destination addresses), it is not necessary to transit the information with
every packet. CSLIP allows compression of these 40 bytes down to 5 bytes.
This markedly increases the responsiveness of interactive sessions.
PPP is an Internet standard that addresses things like negotiation of session
parameters, framing, multiple protocols, and data compression (as well as
header compression). It is preferred to CSLIP and SLIP where it is available.
For SLIP, I recommend the SLIPDISK distribution since this supports a suite
of applications.However, this does not support Van Jacobsen header
compression, also known as Compressed SLIP or CSLIP.
SLIP/PPP Software
KA9Q is a very complete TCP/IP implementation that supports SLIP/CSLIP/PPP.
Unfortunately it can not be used as a TCP/IP protocol stack to run other
applications.
There is a special version of NCSA Telnet for PPP, available via ftp
merit.edu, cd /pub/ppp.
IBM is reportedly shipping to developers an OS/2 CD-ROM with beta versions of
their TCP/IP package, for a very good price. The CD includes their TCP/IP
stack, X-Windows implementation, and TCP/IP developer's kit.
Setting up SLIP or PPP
Before setting up your SLIP or PPP connection, you should have the following
information:
The domain name and TCP/IP address of your host.
Whether your TCP/IP address will be assigned statically, dynamically, or from
the server.
The domain name and TCP/IP address of your machine (if you are not
configuring the address dynamically or from the server).
The domain name and TCP/IP address of the primary and secondary Domain Name
Server.
The subnet mask.
The domain name and TCP/IP address of a Net News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
server.
Whether your host supports Post Office Protocol (POP), and if so, what
version.
Whether the host supports compressed or uncompressed SLIP, or PPP.
Do not attempt to connect to your host before you have this information,
since it will just waste your time and money, and may cause problems for the
network. In particular, do not attempt to initiate a connection using a made
up TCP/IP address, since your made-up address may conflict with an existing
address. This is probably the quickest way to get people very angry at you.
Static addressing means that your TCP/IP address will always be the same.
This makes it easy to configure your setup files. Dynamic addressing means
that the host will send you a message containing your TCP/IP address when you
log on. This can be problematic if your software doesn't support grabbing the
addressing and inserting it into the setup files. If not, then you have to
edit your setup files every time you log on. Yuck! Chameleon NFS includes a
version of SLIP which can handle dynamic addressing.
If your software supports Boostrap Protocol (BOOTP), then you can also
determine your address by retrieving it from the BOOTP server.
Configuring SLIPDISK
SLIPDIAL is part of the SLIPDISK package for the PC, available via ftp
boombox.micro.umn.edu. It supports uncompressed SLIP at speeds of up to 9600
bps, and is compatible with versions of telnet, gopher, popmail, and ftp
included in the package. To set up SLIPDIAL, you will need to:
Install the X00.SYS driver in your CONFIG.SYS file. X00.SYS is a commonly
used driver for FidoNet software such as BinkleyTerm and OPUS, so if you
don't have it, you can obtain it from a nearby FidoNet system, or look for it
via Archie. The following CONFIG.SYS entry will set up X00.SYS for two ports,
both running at 9600 bps, with transmit and receive buffers of 2K:
device=X00.SYS e 2 b,1,9600 t=2048 r=2048
Have your host set up for uncompressed SLIP. SLIPDIAL does not support
compression, a significant drawback, in my opinion.
Write a login script stored in file DEFAULT.SLP. An example login script for
Netcom is given the FAQ for comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc. This script must
specify the same port that the X00.SYS driver was installed on. It assumes
that the login banner netcom login: comes up upon connection.
KA9Q
KA9Q is a DOS-based router that can handle LocalTalk, X.25, Ethernet, and up
to 4 serial lines all at the same time. It's an amazing piece of software,
and the most amazing thing about it is that it is free for non-commercial use
(contact Phil Karn for info on commercial use).
I have tried the latest version of KA9Q (January 1993), but found that it
locked up, so I am now back to using v2.1.
KA9Q is usually run from a startup script, such as STARTNOS.BAT:
\nos\drivers\8003pkdr
\nos\net -d \nos
Here you first load the packet drivers for your Ethernet card, then run KA9Q
(known as NET.EXE). The KA9Q package then reads commands from a configuration
file, called AUTOEXEC.NOS.
Configuring KA9Q with CSLIP and as a router
The comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc FAQ contains configuration files for KA9Q
used as a standalone CSLIP site, as well as a router with an Ethernet and
CSLIP interface.
Chameleon NFS
Chameleon NFS is a Windows-based TCP/IP package implemented as a DLL. In
addition to the standard FTP, Telnet, Finger, SLIP, Mail, etc. it does a
number of advanced things, including routing of mail, multiple interfaces,
BOOTP client, BIND/DNS, SNMP, and static IP routing. It requires cards with
NDIS drivers (Lan Manager).
In order to help with debugging, Chameleon offers ping, as well as the NEWT
program which gives offers information on the status of ARP tables,
interfaces, routing tables, sockets, and gateways/DNS, as well as providing
statistics on IP, ICMP, UDP, and TCP. About the only thing that is missing is
traceroute.
To get your network card to be recognized, you will have to invoke the
NETBIND.EXE application early in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You will also need
to edit the PROTMAN.INI file to load an NDIS driver for your hardware. I got
lost here, but NetManage's tech support guided me through it. It is possible
to run Chameleon alongside packet-driver using software such as KA9Q, or
FTP's PC/TCP. However, you will have to watch off for conflicting TCP/IP
stacks. Chameleon's stack runs as a DLL, so it is unloaded when you leave
Windows; however, if you also load another stack as a TSR, you will have to
unload it before running Chameleon.
In order to set up SLIP under Chameleon, you need to create a scripting file
to call out. The scripting language is in the familiar expect-send-expect
format. Chameleon is capable of handling static, dynamic, and server
addressing. Below, the DEFAULT script uses dynamic addressing (-i parameter)
and the SLIP0 script uses static addressing. The $u variable stands for the
user name, and $p is for password; both are input in a dialog box.
[DEFAULT] SCRIPT=ogin: $u$r word: $p$r -n $6$c$r -i TYPE=SLIP
[SLIP0] SCRIPT=ogin: $u$r word: $p$r TYPE=SLIP
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
To get more information on TCP/IP software for the PC, please consult the FAQ
posting for comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc. This is available on the Boardwatch
BBS, or in the newsgroup.
[Bernard Aboba is author of "Bulletin Boards and Beyond", a second edition of
which will be published this summer by Addison-Wesley. Internet:
aboba@world.std.com; FidoNet: 1:161/445; MailCom, 5337 College Ave., Suite
326, Oakland, CA 94618; Fax: (510)540-1057 - Editor]
==============
LEGALLY ONLINE
==============
E-MAIL FROM HELL, POSTMARKED PHOENIX
by Lance Rose
Most people in this country have never visited a BBS. Their first real brush
with BBS', their crucial first impression, will often be the introduction
they get in their favorite TV news show. And what do they get? BBS' presented
as dens of sin, lurking places of pedophiles, drug dealers, computer vandals,
and murderers. This approach is entirely retrograde. It discourages people
from trying the online experience, unless they're looking to get mixed up in
some twisted adventure. It derails the entire project of educating the
public, especially law enforcement, that BBS' are far more than just a new
way to make trouble. Yet as far as most newspapers and TV stations are
concerned, the "BBS threat" is the real news about BBS', since it sells the
most ads.
The parade of BBS horribles up to now has consisted mostly of sex-related
stories: obscenity, child pornography, pedophilia, the odd snuff movie.
That's not rich enough fare for the papers of Phoenix, AZ, though. They found
something far better: satanism. A sordid affair linking a murder and an
abduction with a satanic BBS network has given the Phoenix newspapers and TV
stations, and consequently the people of Phoenix, a new, more lively view of
BBS' as the brimstone-scented playthings of Lucifer himself.
According to those same Phoenix newspapers, it all began innocently enough.
Billy Walker was an introverted 16 year old high school dropout with little
ambition and a love of heavy metal music. His concerned mother bought him a
computer last August, thinking he might find something fascinating to do with
it. Well he sure did, coming into contact with a supposed 30 year old
Satanist named Earl "Dave" Johnson within a couple of months. Dave showed
Billy the ways of BBS' and the ways of Satan. Soon Billy was running his own
BBS called "South of Heaven", and hanging out in BBS networks under the
handles "Master Lucifer" and "Satan". He fell in most deeply with Dave and a
teenager named Daniel Shipley.
Things took a bad turn. Daniel's mother was found murdered in the desert on
the outskirts of Phoenix, and the same day Daniel made an unsuccessful
attempt to withdraw $60,000 from her bank account. Immediately afterwards,
all three of the networked Satanist disappeared. There is disagreement over
whether Billy was abducted by the other two, or freely went into hiding with
them. Billy's distraught mother could not believe what her gift of the
computer had led to, "I thought a computer would give him meaning in life,
not turn him into a kid who would get mixed up in devil worshipers and
murder."
After Billy disappeared, his mother went through his computer files. She
apparently uncovered a number of messages from others in the satanic crowd
Billy was running with. She said, "We had talked, and I told him he needs to
follow God, not Satan, but he didn't listen. His data base was full of
hundreds of calls from others in this satanic network." She turned Billy's
computer records over to the police, who are studying the files for clues to
Billy's whereabouts.
According to locals in the Phoenix BBS scene, the police did not stop at
studying computer records. Sysops in Phoenix are convinced that the state
police have been using Billy's own comm program scripts to log on to local
BBS' with "evil sounding names" and snoop around. They're also not so sure
it's all about the investigation of Ms. Shipley's murder and Billy's
disappearance, either. Some are convinced that the police are saving the
information they're obtaining from the various BBS' now, and will use it
later to bust sysops of whom they're not too fond.
The sysop of one Phoenix BBS called "Symphony of Destruction" received a lot
of attention. First, he got a telephone call from the police, asking
questions about the Shipley murder and supposed abduction of Billy (hint - if
you don't want to be the first guy the police call, don't call your BBS
"Symphony of Destruction).
Then, he found out that the login screen of his BBS was shown to the public
in a local TV news segment. This was enough to make him shut down the BBS.
His users included a couple of hackers and possible software pirates. With
the local BBS/Satanism hysteria now in full flower, the risk that he might
become the focal point of some of that hysteria, whether or not deserved, was
far too great.
Is "hysteria" the proper word? Judge for yourself. If you never before saw
your computer as the mechanized version of Rosemary's Baby, then consider
this line from one of the newspaper stories: "Walker says her son became
involved in Satanism through an electronic network made accessible by the
computer in his bedroom." Certain of the more colorful aspects of computer
networks were explored in the newscasts and linked to the satanism angle,
such as Usenet's alt.sex newsgroups. There were stories about BBS addiction,
and advice to worried parents on how to tell if their kids were going down
the wrong path with their computers.
One photograph that made the rounds showed a woman burning a candle next to
her computer to chase away the evil spirits within.
Far be it from the police to miss out on the lunacy inspired by the press.
The standard questions (it's sad to note they're so standard) must be raised
about what the heck they're doing with Billy's computer files. Did the police
obtain a proper warrant to review the messages from Billy's acquaintances on
the computer networks? If Billy was running a BBS, there were almost surely
many scores or hundreds of messages stored on the system, making the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act applicable, with its special safeguards
against police viewing private messages. Just as disturbing is the
possibility that they used Billy's own login scripts to gain access to BBS'
he had gone to before. This would not be a mere review of Billy's property,
but a search of those other BBS'. We can only hope that the police, if they
indeed did use those scripts, obtained proper warrants authorizing every such
search.
Perhaps more pieces of the story of Billy's whereabouts and his involvement
in the murder will be turned up by the time this story is published. However
this drama is resolved, the significance of the BBS/Satanism linkage will
remain. It perfectly illustrates the ongoing vilification of BBS' by
mainstream media, through their association of BBS' with the perfect villain
- Satan himself.
FEDS WANT TO OUTLAW HATE CRIME BBS'
-----------------------------------
The anti-BBS legal drumbeat is unceasing, and the media are not the only
little drummer boys. Now the feds want in on the fun.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an Executive
Branch agency formed in 1992 to develop presidential policy positions and
recommend them to Congress and the FCC, is looking into "the role of
telecommunications in crimes of hate and violent acts against ethnic,
religious and racial minorities."
That looks pretty ominous already. In a recent request for comments, the
agency made it clear that BBS' are one of their main targets of study.
Various statements scattered through the NTIA's announcement ominously imply
that the NTIA is considering BBS regulation. One is, "Messages claiming the
Holocaust was a hoax, and other anti- Semitic messages, created a controversy
in 1991 over the use of computer bulletin boards." That's not exactly true.
There were such messages on the Prodigy system, and they did create
controversy. But the controversy was over Prodigy's handling of the matter,
not over the legality of using computer bulletin boards for such messages.
Bulletin boards can be used for all kinds of speech under the 1st Amendment,
including exceptionally ugly Holocaust-was-a-hoax speech. If the private
sysop, such as Prodigy's managers, wants to delete the message, or leave it
on the system, that's up to him. The government had nothing to do with the
whole affair, and it still doesn't.
Here's a passage that knocked me out of my seat: "[B]roadcasters are subject
to certain "public interest" obligations . . . Most point-to-point voice and
data service is provided by common carriers subject to the authority of state
and federal regulatory agencies . . . Computer bulletin boards are private,
unregulated communications systems. To what degree do such legal and
regulatory distinctions affect the commission and prevention of hate crimes
using telecommunications?" In other words, they're saying if it turns out
BBS' are more involved in so-called "hate crimes" than, for instance,
television or radio broadcasters, then maybe it's time to regulate BBS'.
Another passage shows the NTIA is talking directly about the possibility of
government censorship of BBS': "New Developments in telecommunications
technologies may offer a means of preventing .. . hate crimes . . [W]ith
respect to computer bulletin boards, computer software can allow computer
bulletin board operators to eliminate unwanted messages from their systems."
It's unclear whether they're talking about a sysop manually removing messages
deemed "unwanted" by the government, or setting up some kind of automatic
filter program to remove messages with bad words or themes. Either way, it
stinks. Finally, the NTIA bluntly suggests that the sysop should be
monitoring all messages for hate crime speech, and even barging into private
mail to make sure such speech is not taken private by users.
This is a stunning piece of work. It shows our government has not grown any
more enlightened since the last Presidential election. The NTIA's whole
thrust on hate crimes is to regulate them out of existence, 1st Amendment be
damned. And they have BBS firmly fixed in their sights as a major initial
target of investigation.
Well, at least the NTIA faces some pretty hefty legal hurdles if it actually
proposes any regulation of so-called hate speech. Laws regulating such things
as the "hate crime" intimidation of people or groups by others might make
sense, but they lose steam fast when they cross over to regulate expressions
of opinion in a public forum. All regulations directed at controlling speech
must undergo the strictest scrutiny to survive a 1st Amendment challenge, and
any workable alternatives with less impact on speech must be pursued. If any
regulation singles out speech and leaves other aspects of hate crimes less
regulated or unregulated, then again it must be tossed out.
Hate crimes are nothing to sneeze at, and it seems that hate groups such as
the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan are healthier than ever. Reasonable
regulations to keep these groups from hurting others are welcome. But speech,
hurtful as it might be, must be spared from all regulation. Public discussion
of hate speech is probably some of the most important public discussion we
can have, and the 1st Amendment exists to make sure we can keep on discussing
it. And if BBS' end up being one of the main places where hate speech is made
and discussed, then that's why we have the 1st Amendment: to protect the
right to make and discuss hate speech on BBS'.
[Lance Rose is an attorney practicing high-tech, computer and intellectual
property law in Montclair New Jersey, and is available on the Internet at
elrose@well.sf.ca.us and on CompuServe at 72230,2044. He works with shareware
publishers, software authors, system operators, technology buyers,
interactive media developers, on-line database services and others in the
high technology area. He is also author of the book SYSLAW, a legal guide for
bulletin board system operators, available from PC Information Group
(800)321-8285. - Editor]
==================
MACINTOSH BBS NEWS
==================
by Bill Gram-Reefer
The best way to review software, I think, is to have an expert do it. Who
better to review a Mac BBS product than a sysop who uses it everyday, a
person who knows the strengths and weaknesses of the package and can talk
about it sanely without sounding like some hyped-out techno dweeb that
couldn't write their way past a C prompt. Thanks to Scott Mandell, sysop of
the Autobahn BBS, of Ithaca, NY, for his hard work in preparing these
thoughtful comments.
FIRSTCLASS: THE REVIEW
----------------------
by Scott Mandell
Since about 1986, I've run bulletin board systems (BBS) on the Macintosh
platform with software packages ranging from WWIV, to Hermes, to NovaLink.
Last September I discovered SoftArc, Inc.'s FirstClass, and immediately
wanted to be a FirstClass Administrator.
FirstClass, a telecommunications server for networks, modems, or both,
provides an easy-to-use interface for both users and the System Administrator
(the name given a Sysop in FirstClass-land). FirstClass offers a graphical
user interface (GUI) for callers using special Client software which makes
using a BBS similar to using the Macintosh Finder.
Setting up the FirstClass server is extremely easy, though it does take some
getting used to. Although it may seem as simple to use as the Finder, some
commands and functions in FirstClass behave differently. I recommend that
anyone setting up a FirstClass Server read the manual first -- it will save
you a lot of time, and perhaps trouble, down the road.
SoftArc recommends that you run a dedicated CPU as your server, but for most
hobbyist Administrators, this is not realistic. If you're going to run your
server from a single CPU, you'll need to be able to logon using LocalTalk. If
you plan to have a printer connected to your server CPU's printer port, be
sure it is AppleTalk-capable; otherwise you'll have to deactivate AppleTalk
every time you want to print something. Currently, a single FirstClass server
can only support incoming lines on one CPU. According to Maury Markowitz of
SoftArc, a summer release "will allow multiple servers to share information
locally, making the number of incoming lines almost limitless." Despite this
current limitation in CPUs, FirstClass can share files on multiple volumes,
making storage possibilities endless.
After setting up the FirstClass server, the Administrator may want to
customize a "Settings File." This lets users take advantage of custom icons,
sounds, and background pictures unique to your system. Settings files are
easy to create and edit, though a working knowledge of ResEdit is essential.
When creating the settings file, you can use your own icons, sounds, and
pictures, or use some of the many available in the public domain. Icons and
pictures in the settings file can contain as many as 256 colors.
In addition to Macintosh callers, a FirstClass system can accommodate callers
from most any computer platform. Anyone with a VT100 or TTY compatible
terminal program can log in to FirstClass via its command line user interface
(CLUI). The CLUI leaves a lot to be desired as far as a BBS interface, but it
will allow those not fortunate enough to own a Macintosh to access a
FirstClass system. Users of Windows should have a their own version of
FirstClass Client by this summer, and a DOS version is also in the works.
FirstClass is fully networkable, and messages can be sent and received in
several ways. A proprietary gateway system makes message and mail transfer
between two or more FirstClass systems extremely easy. Currently, private
e-mail can only be sent between two directly-connected systems, however by
the summer, multi-hop e-mail will be available. When this method of e-mail
distribution is available, any user on a network of FirstClass systems will
be able to send private e-mail to any other user on that network. One such
FirstClass-based network is the OneNet Member Network, located in Los Altos,
California (415-948-5086 voice). OneNet is a network of about 100 FirstClass
systems around the world. In addition to FirstClass gateways, FidoNet is
accessible using Michael Connick's Tabby, which includes a free
FirstClass/Tabby interface. SoftArc and Information Electronics (607-868-3331
voice) offer many gateway options for FirstClass systems including Internet,
Quickmail, MS-Mail, CompuServe, AppleLink, MHS, and even a Fax and Pager
link.
The messaging and private e-mail system in FirstClass is very well thought
out. Messages can be posted anywhere in the system as long as the "To:" field
is addressed to a proper user or conference. FirstClass even helps the user
if they enter a bad name or conference by providing a list of possible
recipients. When a message is posted, a copy of that message is left in the
sender's mailbox. In addition to allowing users to refer to old messages they
posted, it also lets them get a "history" of that message; a complete
run-down of who's read, replied to, or in any way interacted with the
message. It is also possible to tell whether or not the intended recipient of
e-mail has received it.
Offline mail reading can be accomplished using a shareware program called
BulkRate. Although BulkRate does the job, it does so clumsily, and SoftArc
plans an off-line mail-reader to be built into the Client in a future
release.
One of FirstClass' strong-points is its file transfer system. Using the
Client software, callers can upload and download simultaneously, as well as
read and post messages while transferring files. Transfers, which are
accomplished using a proprietary protocol, are not quite as fast as a
straight ZMODEM transfer (which is one of the several transfer protocols
offered in the CLUI). This speed decrease is due to the multi-tasking
capabilities of FirstClass, a tradeoff that allows you to get more done
during each call, so that in the long run you may actually spend less time
online.
FirstClass offers special Chat 'rooms' where two or more users can privately
chat. On a single-node system, this can be used for the Administrator to chat
with a user. On multi-node systems, a public chat room can be set up so that
anyone can join a single conference, or individual users can open their own
chat room and invite whoever they want. The chat window is easy to use,
although with a large number of participants, the window becomes too small
very quickly.
Things I'd Like to See:
As Administrator of a single CPU system, I'm forced to logon to my BBS using
LocalTalk. For general use and maintenance, this is fine, but for file
maintenance, it's very slow. At about 4K/second, uploading and downloading
files as the administrator is very tedious, especially since an upload could
simply be locally copied at about 100 times the speed.
FirstClass' multi-tasking environment is beneficial in most cases, however I
would like to have a "fast-transfer" option. Such an option would maximize
transfer throughput and disable multi-tasking for those times when I simply
need to upload or download a file, usually on a long-distance phone bill!
Finally, a feature I'd like to see added to FirstClass, and other BBS systems
for that matter, is the ability for a single-node system to receive incoming
faxes. Many Sysops run their BBS using fax-modems because it is such an
inexpensive option, and it would be nice if BBS software would be able to
recognize an incoming fax call and route it to the Administrator's mailbox.
SoftArc's current Fax gateway requires a CPU and modem dedicated to receive
incoming faxes.
To run a FirstClass system, you'll need at least a Mac Plus with 500K of free
RAM and System 6.03. A faster CPU is preferable (especially if you are not
going to use a dedicated Server CPU), a fast hard drive is essential for
optimum performance, and FirstClass is System 7.1 compatible.
Prices for the software start at $395 (there is special pricing for public
BBS operators, call SoftArc for details), and upgrades are also available.
Support is excellent: if you can't get an answer from fellow FirstClass
Administrators (who always seem more than willing to help), you can call the
support BBS, SoftArc Online, at 416/609-2250, or call SoftArc voice at
416/299-4723.
WHAT'S UP, DOC?
---------------
"So waddya think, Doc...am I crazy?" The shrink twisted and turned toward the
open window while sitting in the plush leather chair. Crossing her legs she
looked back to me, frowned, and chewed on a pencil. Then, with a twinkle in
her eye, she pointed a mouse at my nose. "Tell me more about this disturbing
dream of yours," she demanded.
"Well...like I said. There I was. I had just bought a brand new Jeep Centras
900; jet black; super stereo system, too, the one with the CD player; cost me
a fortune, sheesh! I get behind the wheel, but it won't start. I get out and
open the hood and find a box. I look at the box, Doc, and damned if it
doesn't say in big red letters, 'WARNING: 68040-liter, turbo-charged engine;
install with ResEdit 3.9.'
"'What's this,' I ask myself indignantly? Geez, I spent all of that money
only to find out that the engine wasn't installed, and it's sitting in pieces
in my trunk...how am I going to get anywhere? And the only way to get it
installed is to use something called ResEdit 3.9...'what's ResEdit, and why
should I have to learn how to use it to make what I thought was an
off-the-showroom-floor product work the way I want it to?'
"Then, a salesman, who looks a little like Guy Kawasaki, appears over my
shoulder, and says: 'Got a problem there, Bill? Hmmm. You know you'll find
the answer online...call a BBS that provides local Jeep Centras support;
that'll fix you up. Why, they have all of the files you'll need to get going
in no time.'
"'But don't I need to have the motor installed before I can call a BBS?'
"'You're right about that, Bill,' nods the salesman. That means you'll need
to join a user group first. Come on down to Rod's Pizza with me, the Devil's
Valley Jeep/Centras Users' Group is meeting there tonight. They run a local
BBS that you'll be able to logon to later.'
"So, Doc, after what seemed like a week of politically-correct techno-babble,
gallons of Jolt Cola, and some gawd-awful pepperoni pizza, I find myself
sitting in my Jeep, crying, holding a dozen diskettes. The salesman is
sitting next to me; he smiles knowingly, and here's what he said:
"'Bill, I see it all the time. People buy their fancy off-road vehicles
thinking they'll be motoring down Al Gore's data highway in no time, flat.
Why they even think they'll be able to get from point A to point B, or
actually get some real work done. But you know what, Bill? It's all a big
lie. See it works like this: Centras were never meant to go anywhere, off
road, or on road. User groups and BBSs, why, they're like Grand Auto parts
stores; they sure do have lots of chrome to make your 4WD look hot, but
that's all. They're only there to help you detail your Jeep, not to help you
get anywhere, except maybe to a networked Star Trek or Grateful Dead Usenet
conference. That's what user groups and BBSs are for, don't you know?'
"'You mean driving for driving's sake?'
"'That's right, Bill...you got it!'
"'And BBSing?'
"'Roger, wilco and out. It helps the economy, and keeps the kids off the
streets, too. Just like Rickard claims! Why there's a whole industry that
creates jobs for people who support people who support people who just putz
with their Jeeps, from the mightiest corporate IS mogul to the fattest and
ugliest Fidonet sysop."
After a long silence, the shrink shuddered and went pale. Then, after
throwing her head back, she looked back at me grinning wickedly and snickered
in a high-pitched voice: "you think that's crazy, just wait until you catch
wind of the senseless 'content' industry that's going to spring up to
'support' Apple's Newton and all of its sibling PDAs. You'll really be
shaking your head in disbelief, then."
And with a "poof," my shrink turned into a naked miniature of Andy Hertzfield
with tiny fluttering wings protruding from its back, the cherub laughing
devilishly as it disappeared out the window.
MAC BBS OF THE MONTH
--------------------
Want to earn your wings? Then call the Ultraflight BBS, it deserves your
help, if you dare. Based in Somerset, NJ, Ultraflight's chief claim to fame
is its focus on flying...of all sorts. Its Hangar One conference is a
potentially networkable special interest haven for anyone even mildly amused
by or interested in aviation of any kind. There you'll find associated
shoptalk concerning F.A.A. regulations, windsheer capacities of the new line
of Cessnas, aileron fibrillation, and, most likely (considering the wide
selection of other-worldly conferences found on this board), a place to share
tall tales of harrowing escapes from UFOs while flying your Piper Cub home
from the Super Bowl.
A member of the MacUnion and OneNet FirstClass-based networks, Ultraflight
offers an interesting online look with many customized icons and sounds, and
news alerts that followed the Blizzard of '93 (remember?); which shows much
care and interest from administrators Douglas Vetter and Michael Kuenne.
Serving the New Jersey metro area, the board supports Macintosh hardware,
software, programming, and the Skyline Systems MUG of Holmdel, NJ.
As of this writing, Doug and Michael are struggling along with an LC 6/40
with an external Maxtor 340-Mb hard drive, and V.32bis Supra faxmodem. But
because of the LC's serial port, the command line interface has been
disabled, so you need FirstClass Client 2.0 or higher to logon. The
administrators plan to upgrade soon to more robust equipment. Hopefully, by
the time you read this, Ultraflight will be zipping along on a Centris 650 or
Quadra 800, with a 195-ms access time Toshiba XM-3401 CD-ROM drive. Hey! Go
big or stay home.
A young board that went online mid-December 1992, it already has many regular
callers and some interesting visitors, to say the least. File sections are
well stocked with communications, MIDI, and multimedia files, including a
good, up-to-date selection of Internet applications and utilities. The
telecom icon, though, looks more like a 50-megaton nuke on the loose more
than radio waves emanating from a signal tower.
Which fits in with the overall, eery feeling I got on my recent visits. There
seems to be more there than meets the eye. Okay, I'll say it. The place felt
empty, almost haunted, but in a benign sort of way; for the scariest item I
found was only an argument of debaters busily imitating, by bringing up their
own putrid bile for all to see, the banal political radio personality,
Limbaugh, in the RUSH conference.
Ultraflight, indeed! And aptly named at that. We're talking lots more than
the usual Star Trek conference fare. In addition to Aviation and Hangar One,
there are also lively discussions concerning UFOs, Paranormal phenomena,
Weird Science, time machine patents, and true-life Communion stories. It's a
wonder there isn't a chop shop or cold fusion SIG. Yet?
Empty...like you could hear the echoes as you walked down the marble-tiled
hall while a cool breeze plays upon the back of your neck. Brrr. But, I bet
by summer, the place will really be hopping and it won't seem spooky at all.
So give Ultraflight a ring. Say "hi" to E.T. for me, too. Ultraflight, P.O.
Box 244 Somerset, NJ 08873-1810; (908) 545-5255 bbs; (908) 247-6358 voice.
[Scott Mandell is the sysop of the Autobahn BBS (see review in Boardwatch,
2/93). The Autobahn BBS can be reached by modem at (607) 256-7595 (24 hrs).
Scott can also be reached via E-mail at: gggj@cornella.cit.cornell.edu
Bill Gram-Reefer, based in Concord, CA, is president of WORLDVIEW, a public
relations firm specializing in connectivity and communications. Bill has been
writing about Macintosh computers since 1984. E-mail Bill at:
wk05156@worldlink.com - Editor]
===========
DIRECT DIAL
===========
ONLINE RESOURCES FOR THE DEAF
-----------------------------
by Kevin McLeod
Back to the Future - with Fulltalk and Futura
Watch carefully, and you may find a TTY lurking in your modem someday.
Proprietary formats and incompatible standards are facts of life for
telecommunications consumers. The international Deaf community is currently
navigating the treacherous waters of transition to widespread use of ASCII.
Amid the large current base of TTYs, many of them electronic models, the
ancient baudot standard still thrives.
Dick Brandt of New Jersey has submitted a draft form proposal dubbed "V.tty"
to the CCITT (Consultative Committee on International Telephony and
Telegraphy) suggesting that baudot capability be included in all newly
manufactured modems.
Baudot got a foothold in the deaf community decades ago when Deaf
organizations adapted surplus Teletype Corp. machines. Outfitted with
acoustic modems, they were hoarded and kept in good repair for use on the
public telephone network. In time, companies like Krown, Phone-TTY and
Ultratec emerged and began producing extremely reliable electronic models
that apparently refuse to die.
They do not come cheap - prices range from $200 to $800, which gives Deaf
consumers the equivalent capability that a $40 voice phone provides to
hearing consumers. Before the recent advent of relay services, they were only
useful if you could call someone else that also had a TTY. Professional, 24
hour relay services provided by phone service vendors now interpret calls
between hearing and Deaf customers.
Newer TTY models provide limited ASCII compatibility, but many older devices
will not talk ASCII at all. Leading Deaf organizations, including Gallaudet
University and the National Association of the Deaf, have recognized the
value of moving to the ASCII communication standard, so the Deaf community
can enjoy the same connectivity to E-mail, BBSs and information services that
are growing worldwide.
Toward that end, the V.tty proposal will provide a way for Deaf consumers to
attain complete ASCII accessibility and not lose touch with their friends,
neighbors and co-workers that have not yet made the change. Because adding
baudot capability in the design stages is not costly, knowledgeable sources
in the Deaf community predict that even if the V.tty proposal is not formally
accepted by CCITT, chipset manufacturers will build it in anyway.
Modems equipped with a V.tty design will be able to re-negotiate carrier -
but only in "TTY" mode - to re-establish the connection when carrier is lost.
The design also borrows a page from European standards and adds calling tones
with menus. These tones poll the other modem during handshaking to establish
protocols and assist switching devices, such as those used by 911 emergency
services, in identifying the calling device.
The identification provision is especially important to Deaf users. Several
incidents in the past few years involving TTY calls to emergency services
resulted in slowed and confused responses that may have caused otherwise
preventable deaths.
The current generation of hybrid ASCII/baudot modems, available from
Microflip, Ultratec and Phone TTY, can send and receive in ASCII or baudot.
but they are only intended for basic communications and are therefore limited
to 300 baud for ASCII connections.
Most such devices are similar in size and appearance to standard external
modems, but Ultratec features an innovative Compact model that is slightly
larger than a paperback novel and not much heavier. Essentially a miniature
TTY with 300 baud ASCII, it includes a built-in keyboard and 2-line 80
character LCD screen, providing truly portable ASCII/baudot capability. The
rechargeable AA battery pack is rated for 7-10 hours.
In anticipation of widespread ASCII/baudot access, there are exciting
developments appearing in products for dual ASCII/baudot communications. Two
rival firms, Microflip and Futura Wave Communications, are expanding the
capabilities of their respective communications programs at a furious pace.
Futura Wave Communications' Futura package is crafted to meet the needs of
working with two different technologies, but sports a user interface
comparable to any mainstream communication program. Written by Deaf
programmer Norman Williams, Futura 2.10 works with several ASCII/TTY and
Hayes compatible modems, but TTY calls are only possible with the hybrid
ASCII/TTY modems. Futura offers the usual list of amenities, such as a 500
number dialing directory already stocked with dozens of numbers that can be
reviewed and revised while online, auto-redial, online help, Caller ID
support, remote message retrieval, a scroll-back buffer, user-selectable
"wallpaper" designs, and a screen saver.
Callers placed on hold can invoke a waiting mode that will flash the screen
to alert the caller that the hold period is over and text is again coming in.
Consumers on a tight budget will appreciate the clever toll-saver scheme that
alerts remote retrieval callers when no new messages are waiting. Basic
E-mail capability is also built-in.
Relay customers must keep two numbers handy when calling out - the number to
dial into the relay service and the number the communication assistant must
have to reach the other party. Futura gets around this by adding a voice
setup mode that will automatically supply a text string with the name of the
party and the number to call to the relay service after the connection is
established.
A file folder metaphor is used to save and organize the text of discussions
and messages left when Futura is in auto-answer mode. Different folders can
be created for multiple users in an office or household where more than one
person uses the program, and can also be used to leave notes to each other.
Auto-answer supports password protected remote retrieval of messages.
A new release, Futura 2.20, is anticipated in April and includes an original
feature: pager support. When Futura is left in Auto-answer mode, it will take
the message, then dial a preset pager number and dump a numeric message that
notes the number of new messages, the Caller-ID number, whether the call was
by TTY or ASCII, the length of the message, and whether the caller is also
using Futura. This arrangement makes distributing pager numbers and teaching
others how to access the pager unnecessary.
All features of Futura will also become accessible as a TSR, taking up just
7k of base RAM, and can be swapped out to disk, extended or expanded memory.
Support for ASCII speeds to 2400 baud and Hayes command strings will also be
added.
Phone-TTY, in Hackensack, New Jersey, now includes Futura with their CM-4
ASCII/TTY modem.
Microflip also bundles their proprietary modem and comm program together.
Dillip Emmanuel, a Deaf engineer and developer of Microflip's Fulltalk
program and Mic300i internal modem, has been featured in an earlier issue of
Boardwatch. Dillip and Microflip will soon introduce a new external modem for
the Macintosh family called the MIC9600e.
The original MIC300i with Fulltalk is, like Futura, a veritable Swiss Army
knife of features. It too includes a dialing directory with many numbers
included, autodialing and call progress reports, E-mail capability, save &
send text files, remote retrieval of messages, screen capture, time elapsed
indicator, a TSR popup mode, auto-answer mode, and compatibility with
domestic and international TTY models.
The new MIC9600e adds 110-9600 baud capability, MNP 1-5, V.42 and V.42bis
compression and error correction, and send/receive FAX at 4800-9600 baud. A
unique feature (also available in the MIC300i model) is a built-in signaler,
which can activate wireless modules connected to other devices such as a
lamp. This is typically set up to alert users to incoming calls. An extended
and enhanced Hayes AT command set and Caller ID support is also included.
Optional add-ons include 128k RAM for message storage, a synthesized voice
message that alerts emergency services to incoming TTY call - another
approach to the emergency services problem - and a voice digitizer for
recording and storing voice messages.
Relay services, which translate voice calls to TTY and vice versa, serve a
broad spectrum of users. Some relay consumers prefer to use their own voice
during relay calls and have the relay communication assistants send them the
text of the voice callers' message. This communication method is called
"voice over". Alternately, hearing consumers with speech difficulties can
choose to "hear through", which allows them to listen to the voice caller and
respond through the communication assistant with a TTY.
Both Futura (when coupled with an appropriate modem) and the MIC products are
compatible with these services. Both also report call progress tones. Windows
versions of Futura and Fulltalk are under development.
If you would like more in-depth information about standards in TTYs and ASCII
products, information is available from:
Technology Assessment Program
Gallaudet University
800 Florida Avenue NE
Room MSSD-200
Washington, DC 20002.
Please enclose a check for $8 to cover the costs of duplicating and
mailing. The packet includes extensive technical information on previous
a previous effort to standardize Baudot, summaries of the three meetings held
to date, the V.tty proposal, and research reports on ASCII TTY products on
the market.
TTY or TDD?
Tale of an Uproar
The Deaf community first gained access to the telephone network via
teletypewriters, which was quickly abbreviated to TTY in discussions. As
electronic versions of the TTY emerged, a broader term that covered both the
original TTY and the new version was needed, so the acronym TDD, for
Telecommunications Device for the Deaf, was adopted. There was considerable
ambivalence toward the term TDD in the Deaf community, as you don't have to
be Deaf to use a TDD, which contradicts the label. Many hearing family
members, friends and so on also used TDDs to remain in touch, and hard of
hearing or late-deafened people would sometimes reject a "Deaf" tool that
could provide a real benefit.
As the Federal Communications Commission began working with the Deaf
community to implement provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, new
communication technologies serving Deaf consumers continued to proliferate.
The FCC suggested an even more generic term, Text Telephone, to replace TDD.
That might have worked out, except that when TT is expressed in American Sign
Language, it can easily be mistaken as the sign for toilet!
Soon the topic became a subject of debate throughout the Deaf community, and
other proposals sprang forth - TTD, for Text Telephone Device; TTP, another
acronym for Text TelePhone. TTP was quickly shot down when it was pointed out
that verbal pronunciation of" TTP" might come to resemble (ahem) "titty-pee".
Throughout the uproar, a groundswell of opinion began to build in favor of
returning to the original TTY. Although it didn't serve as the catch-all term
that some wanted, it was still dearly loved and widely used, a historical
favorite that had earned its place in Deaf vernacular.
Last Spring, Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc., published a survey form
in the GA-SK Newsletter asking readers to choose their preferred acronym. The
results were overwhelming - Deaf readers across the country voted to return
to TTY, and this is the term now used in Deaf publications throughout
America.
CONTACT & PRICING INFORMATION:
------------------------------
MIC300i/Fulltalk - $349.00
MIC9600e/Fulltalk - Availability
targeted for July '93. Pricing not
yet determined.
Microflip Corporate Office
11211 Petworth Lane
Glen Dale, MD 20769
Voice/TTY 301-262-6020
FAX 301-262-4978
Futura 2.10 $49.95
CM-4 Modem & Futura 2.10 $349.00
Futura 2.20
Release expected in early April.
Price to be $59.95 or less.
Futura Sales
202 Lexington Avenue
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Voice (201) 489-7889
TTY (201) 489-7890
BBS (201) 489-3323
FAX (201) 489-7891
Intelemodem $329.00
Compact $299.00
Ultratec
450 Science Drive
Madison, WI 53711
Voice/TTY (608) 238-5400.
DEAF-RELATED BULLETIN BOARDS
----------------------------
Tennessee Deafness Information
Network, Inc.
A non-profit organization.
Knoxville, TN
(615) 690-8489
FIDO 1:3615/27
Sysops: Ben & Susan Harold
Carries the American Sign
Language Echo (ASL)
and SilentTalk on a Wildcat
system.
Technology Assessment
Program (TAP)
Gallaudet University,
Washington, D.C.
(202) 544-3613
Running Searchlight
Telecommunications Exchange
f/t Deaf (TEDI)
Great Falls, VA
(703) 242-8117
Sysop: Esther Williams
Running Searchlight
Bitstream Bar & Grill, Texas
(512) 255-0423
FIDO 1:382/71.0
Sysop: Tom Lear
Phone TTY PC/DAN,
Hackensack,NJ
(201) 489-3323
VCD PC/DAN,
Phoenix AZ
(602) 275-7320
[Kevin McLeod is a Deaf freelance writer. - Editor]
==========================================
THIS MONTH'S LIST:WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTES
==========================================
Our list this month is a bit smaller than normal, but we think illustrates a
key element - all bulletin boards are not necessarily located in major
metropolitan areas. Worcester Massachusetts is located nearly enough in the
center of the state, and with it's immediate suburbs hosts a population of
some 169,759 across some 37.6 square miles.
Jim Metzler relocated to this city from his home in the Washington DC area. A
fan of Mike Focke's excellent Washington DC BBS list, he immediately setup
his Miwok Village BBS at (508)754-6512 using Wildcat! software. He also
decided to publish a BBS list as detailed and verified as the one he was
accustomed to in Washington. His list currently sports some 66 systems with
title, telephone, speed, software, sysop name, location, and detailed notes
on what is on each board. The list is verified every other month. He
graciously allowed us to publish the list in this issue.
The BBS per population works out to some 2572 residents per BBS, which is a
higher percentage of bulletin boards per population than more metropolitan
areas - or perhaps demonstrates an ability to more accurately census bulletin
boards in a smaller locale. If this density held nationwide, and we suspect
it doesn't, it would indicate a national population of some 97,200 public
bulletin boards. Clearly Worcester has more bulletin boards per capita than
most areas.
The choice in BBS software is likewise varied. Wildcat! leads the charge with
12 systems, while PCBoard is essentially right with them with 11. WWIV is the
third most popular choice with 10 systems. No other software had more than
three local boards.
BBS TITLE NUMBER SPEED SOFTWARE LOCATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alphaville 798-3679 2400 Tag Worcester
Auburn Stop 832-6887 14400 Gap Auburn
Back Woods 892-1186 14400 RA Leicester
Basement BBS 832-6536 2400 TriBBS Worcester
Bear's Cave 795-7672 14400 WWIV Worcester
Belly of the Beast 797-5112 2400 Wildcat Worcester
Bit Bucket 755-4682 14400 WWIV Worcester
Black Dragon Inn 870-5794 14400 WWIV Westborough
Blue Box BBS 829-3475 14400 QBBS Holden
Broom Closet 799-3650 1200 Major Worcester
Brotherhood of Rose 793-2820 14400 Wildcat Worcester
Call Again Soon 791-8456 16800 TriBBS Worcester
Cam's Stop 829-6347 14400 TriBBS Holden
Compiler Net 829-3724 14400 Cnet Holden
CompuSmart BBS 865-4474 9600 PC Board Millbury
Cool World 885-3167 2400 WWIV Spencer
The Crystal Dagger 842-3127 2400 WWIV Shrewsbury
Cyberscape 368-7781 14400 TBBS Lancaster
DataCore 832-0935 14400 PC Board Auburn
Davy Jones Locker 865-3290 16800 PC Board Millbury
Dead Angels Society 885-7342 2400 WWIV
Draconian Empire 854-1737 14400 Wildcat Worcester
The Dragon's Lair 842-2665 14400 Renegade Shrewsbury
East of the Moon 393-1362 2400 FoReM Northboro
Enchanter's Temple 476-1437 14400 WWIV East Dougla
Excalibur 754-6469 2400 Wildcat Worcester
The F Stop 757-5568 14400 Wildcat Worcester
GameMasters Sanctum 852-4641 16800 VBBS Worcester
Gamer's World 422-8904 14400 Wildcat Sterling
Good News BBS 754-6132 2400 Telegard Worcester
GweepNet III 791-6722 2400 UNaXcess Worcester
Hobby Shop 752-2632 16800 PC Board Worcester
Ideal Studies 757-1806 14400 PC Board Worcester
Infinity BBS 853-2481 2400 Renegadr Worcester
Information Society 832-7542 14400 VBBS Auburn
King David's Spaceship 756-1442 14400 Phoenix Worcester
Klingon Empire 791-4576 9600 Wildcat Worcester
LBD Consultants 987-6182 14400 Wildcat Oxford
Leading Edge Info Line 836-3967 2400 Chairman Westborough
Lighthouse 892-8857 9600 Wildcat Leicester
Lightning Strike 842-6216 14400 Renegade Shrewsbury
Link BBS 756-0735 14400 PC Board Worcester
Link II BBS 798-0029 14400 PC Board Worcester
Littlest BBS 839-7203 14400 RyBBS Grafton
Minority BBS 791-3303 2400 FoReM Worcester
Mithril Hall 852-4807 2400 Major Worcester
Miwok Village 754-6512 14400 Wildcat Worcester
Quinsigamond Comm 852-4798 2400 FoReM Worcester
The Repair Shop 856-0924 9600 Maximus Worcester
Rocket Town BBS 756-2227 14400 PC Board Worcester
Sanctuary 892-8529 2400 WWIV Worcester
Schunix 752-8305 14400 Sun OS Worcester
Skeletons of Society 435-7884 2400 Tag Hopkinton
Smorgasboard! 987-6305 16800 Wildcat Oxford
Software Creations 368-4137 16800 PC Board Clinton
StormBlade BBS 368-7971 14400 WWIV Lancaster
Total Eclipse 865-3140 1200 Maximus Millbury
Totallyboard 422-9730 14400 Hermes Sterling
Vampyre Bar! 755-9716 16800 PC Board Worcester
VWIS Linux 793-9568 9600 Worcester
Waystar 481-7147 14400 Maximus Marlborough
White Knight 842-2201 2400 WWIV Shrewsbury
Woodland Walk 757-9035 2400 RyBBS Worcester
Worcester Mac Users 832-5844 14400 Telefinder Worcester
World of Burgers 845-6969 16800 Wildcat Shrewsbury
Zabriskie Point 248-3901 14400 PC Board Charlton
Federal Government BBS
======================
System Telephone Subject
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABLE INFORM (301)589-3563 Nat Rehab Center & Data of Asist. Tech
ADA ALS/Navy (202)342-4568 Ada Language Sys/Navy Bulletin Board
ADA Tech Supp. BBS (804)444-7841 Assist interested in ADA
ADAIC (703)614-0215 ADA Information
ALF (301)504-6510 National Agricultural Library BBS
ALIX (202)707-4888 Automated Library Info eXchange
ASN (703)746-2645
ATTIC (EPA) (301)670-3813 Alternative Treatment Tech Info Cent.
Applied Modeling (919)541-325 EPA Atmospheric Models
BOM-BBN (202)501-0373 Bureau of Mines-Bulletin Board Net
BRX Info Corner (703)756-6109 BBS for IRS Employees
BULLDOG WEST (805)985-9527 Harpoon support
BUPERS Access (703)614-8059 Navy Personnel Information
CABB (202)647-9225 Passport Info/ Travel Alerts
CASUCOM (GSA) (202)653-7516 Interagency Shared Serv/Resources
CERCNET (DARPA) (800)331-3808 Concurrent Engineering Research Net
CIC-BBS (GSA) (202)208-7679 Consumer Information Center
CLU-IN (EPA) (301)589-8366 Superfund Data and Information
CPO-BBS (Census) (301)763-4574 Jobs at the Census Dept
CRS-BBS (202)514-6193 Amer. With Disabilities Act Info
Census-BEA (Census) (301)763-7554 Census BEA Electronic Forum
Computer Sec. (NIST) (301)948-5140 Nat Comp Sys Lab Comp Sec BBS
DASC-ZE (703)274-5863 PC Info and files
DCBBS (DC Govt) (202)727-6668 DC Government Information
DMIE (NIST/NCSL) (301)948-2048 NIST/NCSL Data Manage Info
DRIPSS (EPA) (800)229-3737 Drinking Water Info Process Support
EBB (202)482-3870 Economic data and info
ELISA System (703)697-6109 DoD Export License Tracking Sys
EOUSA-BBS (202)501-7521 BBS for U.S. Attorneys
EPUB (202)586-2557 Energy information and data
Energy Information (202)586-8658 Petrol, Coal, Electric, Energy Stats
FAA Safety Exchange (800)462-3814 Small Plane Safety Reports & info
FCC Public Access (301)725-1072 Equip. authorization status advisory
FCC-State Link (202)632-1361 FCC daily digest & carrier stats/report
FDA's BBS (800)222-0185 FDA info and policies
FDA/DMMS (301)443-7496 PMA, IDE, 510k & guidance documents
FEDERAL BBS (202)512-1397 GPO and Govt Data (Fee Based)
FEDIX (800)783-3349 Links Fed Data to Higher Education
FERC-CIPS BBS (202)208-1781 Fed Energy Regulatory Commission
FHA BBS (202)366-3764 FHA staff and interested public
FMS-BBS (202)874-6817 Inventory management data & programs
FRBBS (NIST) (301)921-6302 FRBBS - Info on Fire Research
FREND #1 (Natl Arch.) (202)275-0920 Fed. Reg Elect. News Delivery
Fed Whistleblower (202)225-5527 Report fraud, abuse, waste in US Govt
Fort Benning (717)686-3037
Fort Drum ((315)772-7836
Fort Leavenworth (913)684-7675
Fort Meyer (703)524-4149 Officers' Club
Fort Richie (301)878-4573
GPSIC (703)866-3894 GPS & Loran Info, Status & Data
GPSIC (703)866-3890 Information on Global Positioning Sys
Gulfline (EPA&NOAA) (800)235-4662 Gulf Coast Pollution Info
HSOL-BBS (HHS & UMd) (301)985-7936 Head Start BBS (Region III)
HUD-N&E BB (HUD) (202)708-3563 HUD News & Events BB. P R
IHS-BBS (HHS) (301)443-9517 Indian Health Service BBS
IRSC BBS (GSA) (202)501-2014 GSA information and lists
JAG-NET (703)325-0748 Navy Judge Advocate General
Kelly AFB (512)925-9096
LC News Service (202)707-3854 Library of Congress News Service
Labor News (202)219-4784 Dept of Labor information and files
Langley AFB (804)764-3995
Malstrom AFB (406)731-2503
Megawatt 1 (202)586-0739 Information on energy and DoE
Metro-Net (202)475-7543 Army Morale, Welfare, and Rec.
NADAP (703)693-3831 Navy Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prev.
NASA Spacelink (205)895-0028 Education affairs, flight data
NAVTASC (301)238-2131 NAVCOMTELSTA Washington DC
NCJRS-BBS (301)738-8895 National Crimmial Justice Refer. Sys
NCTS BBS (202)475-7885 Navy Computer & Telecom Station
NDB-BBS (301)436-5078 Human Nutrition Information Service
NGWS BBS (703)602-1916 Naval Gun Weapon System BBS
NIDR Online (NIH) (301)492-2221 Nat. Institute of Dental Research
NIST ACTS (303)494-4775 Auto Comp Tele. Service, PC to NBS Time
NOAA Space Lab (303)497-5042 Solar flare and geomagnetic data
NOAA-ESDD (NOAA) (202)606-4662 NOAA Earth Sys Data Direct
NPS-BBS (EPA) (301)589-0205 Nonpoint Source Program BBS
NRRC (518)370-0118 Naval Reserve Readiness Center
NSSDC\NASA\Gd (301)286-9000 The NASA NODIS Locator Sys.
NUPERS ACC BBS (703)614-8059
Naval Justice School (401)841-3990
OASH-BBS (NAPO) (202)690-5423 AIDS Information & Reports
OEA BBS (202)208-7119 Interior's Off of Environment. Affairs
OERI BBS (202)219-2011 Educational Research and Improvement
OIS (202)514-6102 US Bureau of Prison employees
OPBO-BBS (202)482-1423 Internal comm. for DOC employees
Offshore-BBS (703)787-1181 Off Shore Oil & Gas Data
PIM BBS (EPA) (703)305-5919 Pesticide Information Network
PPIC-BBS (EPA) (703)506-1025 Pollu. Preven, Clean Product, Ozone
Patent Lic. BBS(NTIS) (703)487-4061 Speeds acc. to Fed lab research
PayPerNet #1 (OPM) (202)606-2675 Fed. Pay & Per. Management BBS
Port O'Call (504)947-8253 Navy Computer & Telecomm. Command
QED-BBS (USGS) (800)358-2663 Qk Epicenter Determ and EQ data
SALEMDUG-BBS (202)646-2887 State and local FEMA user groups
SBA On Line (SBA) (800)859-4636 SBA Information and data
SBAI-BBS (SBA) (202)205-6269 Small Bus. Admin internal BBS
SESD-EBB (703)285-9637 PC software & contract Info
SRS (202)634-1764 Fed. R&D budget, Tech labor market
STIS (NSF) (202)357-0359 Science & Tech Information Sys.
SWICH BBS (301)585-0204 EPA_Solid Waste Management
S. Weath. Data (NWS) (301)899-1173 Sample data from Fee Based Sys.
Shaw AFB (803)668-4316
TEBBS (OGE) (202)523-1186 Office of Government Ethics BBS
TELENEWS (202)586-6496 Data and info on Fossil fuels
USA-GPCS BBS (703)285-9637 Army Info System Software
USCS-BBS (Customs) (202)376-7100 Cust.
and Exchange Rate Data & Info
USGS QED (303)273-8672 Earthquake epicenter data, geomagnetism
USGS-BBS (USGS) (703)648-4168 Geological Survey BBS/CD-ROM Info
USNO ADS (202)653-1079 GPS data, sunrise/set/surveying data
USNO Time of Day (202)653-0351 USNO Atomic clock, trans. ASCII time
VA-BBS (202)523-7399 VA info and PC programs
WSCA-BBS (800)735-7396 Board of Wage & Service Contract Appeal
IBM/DOS/WINDOWS
===============
Product: Darkstar Operating System: DOS
J. Thomas Hunter
2409 W Dogwood
Rogers AR 72756
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Darkstar Interware (501)631-9131
Many features
Product: DCI Operating System: DOS
Nordevald Software
POB 280138
Tampa FL 33682
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: DCI BBS 1:377/3 (813)961-0788
DOS
Product: DLX Operating System: DOS
Inner Loop Software c/o Baudtown
17939 Chatsworth St. #192
Granada Hills CA 91344
Voice Telephone: (818)894-4150
BBS: Inner Loop Software Tech Support (818)893-7600
Multiline - 32 lines - excellent chat/social system.
Product: Falken Operating System: DOS
Info*Share
PO Box 1501
Woodbridge VA 22193
Voice Telephone: (703)491-5823
BBS: Falken Support BBS (703)803-8000
DOS/Multiline-16 lines-runs ext programs
Product: FSUUCP Operating System: DOS
Chris Ambler, Fubar Systems
1742 Lima Drive
San Luis Obispo CA 93405
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Fubar Systems FSBBS Support (805)543-8227
Internet/UNIX Communications for DOS machines
Product: GAP Operating System: DOS
GAP Development Co.
24242 Porto Fino
Monarch Beach CA 92629
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: The Crow's Nest (714)493-3819
DOS/LAN 99 Nodes - Fast ISAM Searches
Product: Haromny BBS Operating System: DOS
Jasen Fici/Alex Bloom
917 Main St
Vestal NY 13850
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Harmoney BBS 1:260/445 (607)748-5276
Flexable software, many features
Product: Kitten Operating System: DOS
System Enhancement Assoc.
PO Box 949
Nassawadox VA 23413
Voice Telephone: (804)442-5865
BBS: The Funhouse (804)442-5867
DOS, OS/2, Multi-line - also SEAmail Fidonet mailer
Product: Major BBS Operating System: DOS
Galacticomm, Inc.
4101 SW 47th Ave #101
Ft Lauderdale FL 33314
Voice Telephone: (305)583-5990
BBS: Galacticomm (305)583-7808
DOS/Multiline - 255 lines-chat-multiuser games
Product: Megahost Operating System: DOS
ASCII Computer Interprises
231 Market Place # 353
San Ramon CA 94583
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: MegaHost Support BBS (209)836-2402
DOS/Single Line - Small, Easy to Run
Product: Opus-CBCS Operating System: DOS
Opus-CBCS Development
8024 Crest Road
Pittsburgh PA 15237
Voice Telephone: (412)364-4017
BBS: Opus Support BBS (412)366-5208
FidoNet compatible BBS - multi-node.
Product: Oracomm Operating System: DOS
Surf Computer Services
1103 E Cliff Rd
Burnsville MN 55337
Voice Telephone: (612)894-5580
BBS: Oracomm Support BBS (612)894-5878
DOS/Multiline - 32 lines - social chat
Product: PCBoard Operating System: DOS
Clark Development Company
PO Box 571365
Murray UT 84157
Voice Telephone: (801)261-1686
BBS: Salt Air BBS (801)261-8976
DOS/LAN-99 Nodes-Popular BBS for shareware BBS
Product: PowerBBS Operating System: DOS
Russel Frey.
35 Fox Ct.
Hicksville NY 11801
Voice Telephone: (516)938-0506
BBS: PowerBBS Support Board (516)822-7396
Runs under Windows 3.0-Up to 8 tel lines. Doors
Product: Powerboard BBS Operating System: DOS
Scott Brown / nuIQ Software
415-A Richbell Road
Larchmont NY 10538
Voice Telephone: (914)833-3479
BBS: Powerboard BBS (914)833-1479
LAN and DESQview compatible up to 999 lines
Product: QuickBBS Operating System: DOS
Steve Gabrilowitz
POB 678255
Orlando FL 32867
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: QuickBBS Support BBS 1:363/1701 (407)380-1701
DOS/Single Line - Shareware clone of TBBS
Product: RBBS Operating System: DOS
Ken Goosens
5020 Portsmouth Rd.
Fairfax VA 22032
Voice Telephone: (703)978-4339
BBS: Your Board (703)978-6360
DOS/LAN Multinode - Free - BASIC Source Avail
Product: Remote Access Operating System: DOS
Continental Software
4 bd d'Avranches
Belair, Luxembourg -0- L-1160
Voice Telephone: 352-25-1619
BBS: Remote Access HQ 2:270/18 352-25-1621
DOS/LAN 99 nodes - TBBS/QuickBBS clone - flex menus
Product: RyBBS Operating System: DOS
Gregory Ryan
PO Box 11134
Shorewood WI 53211
Voice Telephone: (414)962-5967
BBS: RyBBS Support (414)962-1097
Easy to setup and configure
Product: Sapphire Operating System: DOS
Tim Campbell/Pinnacle Software
Box 714 Airport Road
Swanton VT 05488
Voice Telephone: (514)345-9578
BBS: Pinnacle Software BBS (514)345-8654
Easy Installation and Setup - Single Line Package
Product: Searchlight Operating System: DOS
Searchlight Software
PO Box 640
StonyBrook NY 11790
Voice Telephone: (516)751-2966
BBS: Searchlight BBS (516)689-2566
DOS/LAN - Multinode - Visual and easy to use
Product: Spitfire Operating System: DOS
Mike Woltz
913 39th St.
W.DesMoines IA 50265
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Buffalo Creek BBS (515)225-8496
DOS Single Line
Product: Synchronet Operating System: DOS
Digital Dynamics
PO Box 501
Yorba Linda CA 92686
Voice Telephone: (714)529-6328
BBS: Synchronet BBS (714)529-9547
Multiline up to 250 nodes, fully configurable
Product: TAG Operating System: DOS
Paul Williams
Dearborn MI
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Crimp BBS (313)582-6671
Support for TAG BBS Software
Product: TBBS Operating System: DOS
eSoft Inc.
15200 E Girard Ave # 3000
Aurora CO 80014
Voice Telephone: (303)699-6565
BBS: eSoft Product Support BBS (303)699-8222
DOS/Multiline - 64 lines per machine - good database
Product: TriBBS Operating System: DOS
Mark Goodman
366 14 St
Bangor ME 04401
Voice Telephone:
BBS: The Lobster Bouy (207)941-0805
DOS Multi-Node - Fido capable - offline mail
Product: TurBoard Operating System: DOS
Software@Work
PO Box 566491
Atlanta GA 31156
Voice Telephone: (404)395-6525
BBS: TurBoard Support (404)395-6327
World's First NAPLPS BBS
Product: UFGATE Operating System: DOS
Tim Pozar
674 Vermont St
San Francisco CA 94107
Voice Telephone: (415)695-7727
BBS: Late Night Software 1:125/555 (415)695-0759
Utility to import/export Usenet News from Unix Systems
Product: Wildcat! Operating System: DOS
Mustang Software
PO Box 2264
Bakersfield CA 93303
Voice Telephone: (805)395-0223
BBS: Mustang Software, Inc (805)395-0650
DOS/LAN/250 Nodes - Very good on LAN installations
APPLE/MACINTOSH
===============
Product: First Class Operating System: MAC
SoftArc, Inc.
805 Middlefield Road, Ste. 102
Scarborough Ontario M1V 2T9
Voice Telephone: (416)299-4723
BBS: SoftArc Online BBS (416)609-2250
Multiline Macintosh BBS Package
Product: Hermes Operating System: MAC
Lloyd Woodall/Computer Classifieds
12819 SE 38 St # 101
Bellevue WA 98006
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: Olympus BBS (206)643-2874
MAC - Multiline BBS for Macintosh - Very good
Product: Mansion Operating System: MAC
Michael Pester, Software Design
PO Box 12016
Des Moines IA 50312
Voice Telephone: (515)276-9650
BBS: The Mole Hole BBS (515)279-6769
Macintosh BBS package
Product: Novalink Pro Operating System: MAC
Len Anderson - ResNova Software Inc.
5011 Argosy # 13
Hungtington Bch CA 92649
Voice Telephone: (714)379-9000
BBS: NovaCentral (714)379-9004
24-Line Mac BBS Package - Graphics/VT-100
Product: Proline Operating System: MAC
pro-sol/Morgan Davis
10079 Nuerto Ln
Rancho San Diego CA 92078
Voice Telephone: (619)670-0563
BBS: pro-sol (619)670-5379
Apple II/GS - Unix lookalike BBS - Usenet News
Product: Second Sight Operating System: MAC
Scott Watson, FreeSoft Co.
105 McKinley Road
Beaver Falls PA 15010
Voice Telephone: (412)846-2700
BBS: Macalot Bulletin Board (412)846-5312
Single Line BBS Software for Macintosh (prev Red Ryder)
Product: Tabby Operating System: MAC
Michael E. Connick
PO Box 307
Bradley Beach NJ 07720
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: Castle Tabby 1:107/412 (908)988-0706
MAC - Fidonet Mail Interface for Macintosh
Product: Telefinder Operating System: MAC
Rusty Tucker, Spider Island Software
4790 Irvine Blvd. Ste.105-347
Irvine CA 92720
Voice Telephone: (714)669-9260
BBS: Telefinder Support BBS (714)730-5785
Multiline Macintosh BBS - up to 20 lines
OS/2
====
Product: Magnum BBS Operating System: OS/2
Chuck Gilmore
1285 Falling Star Ave.
Thousand Oaks CA 91362
Voice Telephone: (805)379-3210
BBS: Gilmore Systems BBS (805)379-3450
OS/2/LAN-8 Lines per computer - looks like PCBoard
Product: Maximus-CBCS Operating System: OS/2
Scott Dudley
777 Downing Street
Kingston Ontario Canada K7M 5N3
Voice Telephone:
BBS: Maximus Support BBS (613)389-8315
FidoNet compatible BBS - multi-node
Product: Multi-Net Operating System: OS/2
Multi-Net Communications
15702 Black Bear Ct.
Klamath Falls OR 97601
Voice Telephone: (503)883-8099
BBS: Compu-Plane (503)883-8197
Multi-Line OS/2 BBS Package
UNIX
====
Product: CocoNet Operating System: UNIX
Coconut Computing, Inc.
7946 Ivanhoe Ave Ste 303
La Jolla CA 92037
Voice Telephone: (619)456-2002
BBS: CocoNet (619)456-0815
Unix - Hires Graphics like Prodigy - term program
Product: Magpie Operating System: Unix
Steve Manes
648 Broadway,Ste 300
New York NY 10012
Voice Telephone: (212)533-1692
BBS: Magpie BBS (212)420-0527
DOS/UNIX Conferencing Software with unique threading
Product: TEAMate Operating System: UNIX
MMB Development Corp.
904 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Beach CA 90266
Voice Telephone: (310)318-1322
BBS: TEAMate Unix Bulletin Board (310)318-5302
Unix/Multiline - VT100 ANSI Graphics
Product: XChange Operating System: Unix
Z/Max Computer Solutions Inc.
8287 Loop Road
Baldwinsville NY 13027
Voice Telephone: (315)635-1882
BBS: Z/Max XChange (315)635-1947
Unix - Pull Down Menus/Pop-up Windows
Product: WAFFLE Operating System: Unix/DOS
Darkside International
PO Box 4436
Mountain View CA 94040
Voice Telephone: -0-
BBS: Dark Side of the Moon (408)245-7726
DOS/UNIX - Provides UUCP function for DOS machines
AT&T Paradyne Dataport 14.4/Fax $555 $222 813-532-5254
ATI Technologies 9600 ETC-E $499 $275 416-756-4591
Cardinal Technologies 9600V42 V.32 $349 $219 717-293-3074
Cardinal Technologies 14400V32bis $449 $249 717-293-3074
Computer Peripherals Viva 9624e V.32 $349 $249 805-499-9646
Digicom Systems ScoutPlus V.32bis $389 $210 408-262-1412
Digicom Systems Scout V.32 $299 $195 408-262-1412
Galaxy Networks UFO V.32bis $999 $299 No BBS
GVC Technologies FM-9696/144V V.32bis $689 $413 201-579-2380
GVC Technologies SM-96V V.32 $599 $329 201-579-2380
Hayes Microcomputer Ultra 144 V.32bis $999 $499 404-446-6336
Hayes Microcomputer Optima 144+Fax $519 $299 404-446-6336
Hayes Microcomputer ISDN System Adapter $1199 $650 404-446-6336
Image Communications Twincomm 9600 V.32 $299 $279 No BBS
Intel Corporation 14.4EX V.32bis $549 $269 503-645-6275
Intel Corporation 9600EX V.32 $599 $299 503-645-6275
Multi-Tech Systems MT932BA V.32 $869 $435 612-785-9875
Multi-Tech Systems MT1432BA V.32bis $899 $450 612-785-9875
Practical Peripherals PM14400FXSA V.32bis $549 $250 805-496-4445
Practical Peripherals PM14400FXMTV.32bis $399 $200 805-496-4445
Quadralink Technologies 1496V+ $360 $320 416-538-9999
QuickComm Sprit II V.32bis $249 $220 408-956-1358
Supra Corporation SupraFAX V.32bis $399 $249 503-967-2444
Supra Corporation SupraFAX V.32 $299 $199 503-967-2444
Telebit Corporation T3000 V.32bis $949 $399 408-745-3229
Telebit Corporation WorldBlaze $1049 $429 408-745-3229
Telebit Corporation QBlaze $549 $299 408-745-3229
U.S. Robotics Courier DS V.32bis/Fax $1295 $449 708-982-5092
U.S. Robotics Courier V.32bis/Fax $695 $299 708-982-5092
U.S. Robotics Courier HST V.32bis/Fax $995 $349 708-982-5092
Ven-Tel EC96 V.32 $699 $439 408-922-0988
ZyXEL U-1496 +V.32bis $989 $549 714-693-0762
ZyXEL U-1496E+V.32bis $649 $399 714-693-0762
ZyXEL U-1496E V.32bis $469 $299 714-693-0762
Republic of South Africa Catalyst BBS (041)34-1122
BBS With Handicapped Focus Handicap News BBS (203)337-1607
Connecticut AC 203 Creative Edge BBS (203)743-4044
Seattle AC 206/West Washington Eskimo North (206)367-3837
Tacoma Washington AC 206 AmoCat BBS (206)566-1155
Autocad Related BBS SAUG BBS (206)644-7115
Kitsap County Washington Quicksilver BBS (206)780-2011
Astronomy/Space BBS Starbase III BBS (209)432-2487
Central California AC 209 Zen Den Systems (209)675-8436
Graphical User Interface BBS The Gooey (GUI) BBS (212)876-5885
Southern California SOCAL Corner (213)422-7942
96 List - 9600+bps BBS Downtown BBS (213)484-0260
Open Access UNIX Site List LGNP1 (login:BBS) (215)348-9727
Pennsylvania AC 215/609/302 DSC/VOICENET (215)443-9434
Cleveland Area 216 Wine Cellar (216)382-2558
Conservation/Nature BBS List Coin of the Realm (301)585-6697
Ham/Amateur Radio BBS 3WINKs BBS (301)590-9629
Handicapped Issues BBS HEX BBS (301)593-7357
Desktop Publishing BBS Infinite Perspective (301)924-0398
Medical Issues BBS Black Bag (302)731-1998
South Florida Area 305/407 Silicon Beach BBS (305)474-6512
California AC 310 Illusions BBS (310)804-3324
Detroit Area 313 Tony's Corner (313)754-1131
St. Louis AC 314 Fire Escape's Dir (314)741-9505
ASP BBS Member List PBS-BBS (317)856-2087
Engineering Related BBS Computer Plumber (319)337-6723
Rhode Island Area 401 Eagle's Nest (401)732-5292
Atlanta Area 404 OASIS (404)627-2662
Atlanta Area 404 INDEX System (404)924-8472
Orlando Florida AC 407 London BBS (407)895-1335
Baltimore Area 410 Network BBS (410)247-3797
Pittsburgh AC 412 Quad-Tech Systems (412)262-4794
National BBS List Ameriboard (412)349-6862
Milwaukee Area 414 Priplanus (414)442-0170
Arkansas Area 501 The Gaslight BBS (501)444-8420
Louisville KY AC 502 Old Soldier's Home (502)942-2848
Kentucky AC (502) National Data Exchg (502)942-2848
Portland Oregon BBS DawGone Disgusted (503)297-9145
New Orleans BBS List Southern Star BBS (504)885-5928
Worcester MA AC (508) Miwok Village BBS (508)754-6512
San Francisco Area 408/415/510 Bay List BBS (510)339-1045
Austin Area BBS List AC 512 -=ACE*BBS=- (512)258-9553
Selected BBS J&J's BBS (513)236-1229
List of Gay/Lesbian BBS S-TEK BBS (514)597-2409
AC 516 Free Shareware BBS Long Island Exchange (516)385-7882
Area Code 517 - Mid-Michigan Wolverine BBS (517)695-9952
Business/Professional BBS Delight The Customer (517)797-3740
Phoenix AC (602) Majestic Royalty BBS (602)278-1651
Phoenix AC (602) Cheese Whiz BBS (602)279-0793
Wisconsin 608 JW-PC Dataflex.HST (608)837-1923
New Jersey AC 609 The Casino PCBoard (609)561-3377
New Jersey Area 201/609/908 Praedo BBS (609)953-0769
Minnesota Twin Cities AC 612 Abiogenetic BBS (612)489-7983
San Diego, CA AC 619 ComputorEdge (619)573-1675
San Diego AC 619 General Alarm (619)669-0385
Apple II BBS with Internet con pro-sol (619)670-5379
Virginia AC 703/804 TOSOR BBS (703)366-4620
OS/2 BBS Systems OS2/Shareware BBS (703)385-4325
Washington DC BBS List Interconnect (703)425-2505
Geneology Related BBS NGS-CIG (703)528-2612
Ontario Area 705 Cottage Country BBS (705)835-6192
Black Run/Oriented BBS BDPA BAC BBS (707)552-3314
Chicago Stillwaters (708)403-2826
Chicago HURK BBS (708)801-0823
Airline Pilot/JUMPSEAT BBSs ChicAAgo Hangar (708)980-1613
Houston Area 713 Atomic Cafe BBS (713)530-8875
Rochester NY AC 716 Logan's Run (716)256-2659
National 800 Number BBS List Hayes Online (800)874-2937
CompuCom Modem BBS List Referral Market BBS (803)297-4395
Macintosh BBS Fort Mill Tabby (803)548-0900
Ecology/Conservation BBS EarthArt BBS (803)552-4389
Wildcat! BBS Wildcat! HQ (805)395-0650
Central California Area 805 His Board (805)652-1478
Technical Support BBS List Digicom BBS (812)479-1310
Pinellas/Tampa Florida AC 813 Mercury Opus (813)321-0734
Kansas City Area 816/913 Sound Advice (816)436-4516
Dallas/Ft Worth Area 214/817 Second Sanctum (817)784-1178
Occult BBS Mysteria (818)353-8891
Commodore 64/128/Amiga BBS Night Gallery (818)448-8529
National Adult BBS List Titan BBS 1:3612/140 (904)476-1270
Alaska AC 907 Alaska Pirate Soc. (907)562-1854
Darwin National USBBS List Bob's BBS (916)929-7511
OS/2 Related BBS LiveNet 1:170/110 (918)481-5715
Tulsa Oklahoman Area BBS List Access America (918)747-2542
Raleigh NC Area Code 919 Micro Message Svc. (919)779-6674
U.S.S.R. BBS List Court Crimson King 7-3832-356722
Copyright 1990 Jack Rickard. All rights reserved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| O |================================================================| O |
| |*-*-*-*-* B O A R D W A T C H M A G A Z I N E *-*-*-*-*-*-*| |
| O |================================================================| O |
| | National Listing of Selected Electronic Bulletin Boards | |
| O | and Online Information Services | O |
| | June 1993 | |
| O |================================================================| O |
| | | |
| O | ADA 9X Project Bulletin Board, (800)232-9925 | O |
| | ADA Programming Language Revisions and News | |
| O | Chris Anderson/Susan Carlson, Eglin AFB, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | ADA Information Clearinghouse, (703)614-0215 | O |
| | Information on ADA Programming Language/Military Specs | |
| O | Department of Defense, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | Advanced Data Services Inc., (301)695-9116 | O |
| | 22 line PCBoard with 5.5 GB of Files | |
| O | Blaine Brodka, Frederick, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Albuquerque ROS, (505)299-5974 | O |
| | 36000 files/USA Today/Tradewars/Online Games | |
| O | Steven Fox, Albuquerque, NM | O |
| | | |
| O | America's Suggestion Box, (516)471-8625 | O |
| | BBS Devoted to Collecting and Distributing Consumer Feedba | |
| O | Joseph G. Jerszynski, Ronkonkoma, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | American Cybernetics BBS, (602)968-1082 | O |
| | Multi-Edit Product Support BBS | |
| O | American Cybernetics, Tempe, AZ | O |
| | | |
| O | ANARC BBS, (913)345-1978 | O |
| | World Radio/TV Handbook - Short Wave Freq Lists/Scheds. | |
| O | Assoc. of North American Radio Clubs, , KS | O |
| | | |
| O | APCUG - GlobalNet, (408)439-9367 | O |
| | Association of PC User Groups - Over 2000 UG officers | |
| O | Paul Curtis/APCUG, Scotts Valley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Applied Modeling Research RBBS, (919)541-1325 | O |
| | Environmental Protection Agency Atmospheric Models | |
| O | William Peterson/EPA, Hurdle Mills, NC | O |
| | | |
| O | Aquila BBS, (708)820-8344 | O |
| | 6 GB 25 Nodes Fidonet/Interlink/Metronet MCe IL/CHI Graphi | |
| O | Kevin Behrens/Steve Williams/Doug Bell, Aurora, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | Argus Computerized Exchange, (617)674-2345 | O |
| | Multiline Community Chat Service - Restuarant Review dbase | |
| O | Pam Morrison, Lexington, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | AST Technical Services BBS, (714)727-4723 | O |
| | Superb support system for AST Computer Products | |
| O | AST Research Inc., Irvine, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | AT&T Support BBS, (908)769-6397 | O |
| | Support for PC 6300 and Other AT&T PC Models | |
| O | American Telephone/Telegraph PC Division, Plainfield, NJ | O |
| | | |
| O | ATI Support BBS, (416)756-4591 | O |
| | Support for ATI Modems and Video Cards | |
| O | ATI Technologies, Scarborough, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | Atomic Cafe BBS, (713)530-8875 | O |
| | Houston Area BBS list and Connect! Magazine | |
| O | David Wachenschwanz, Houston, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Attention to Details, (714)681-6221 | O |
| | Utilities/ASP/Patriquin Utils/Protocols | |
| O | Clint Bradford, Mira Loma, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Audiophile Network, (818)988-0452 | O |
| | High-end Audio Components, Music, Video Reviews | |
| O | Guy Hickey/Quatre Speakers, Van Nuys, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Automobile Consumer Services, (513)624-0552 | O |
| | New Car Pricing Reports - Used Car Value Reports | |
| O | Automobile Consumer Services Inc., Cincinnati, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | AviTechnic 1:261/662, (301)252-0717 | O |
| | Software Distribution System - BBS Utilities | |
| O | Tom Hendricks, Lutherville, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | BBS America, (214)680-3406 | O |
| | Home of DFW Online Electronic Newsletter | |
| O | Jay Gaines, Richardson, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | BCS BBS, (213)962-2902 | O |
| | Los Angeles' First Super BBS Under Development | |
| O | Jim Lee, Los Angeles, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | BCS IBM BBS, (617)964-2540 | O |
| | IBM PC Topics - TBBS Software (Internet) | |
| O | Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan, Boston, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | BCS Info Center BBS, (617)621-0882 | O |
| | General Topics - TBBS - Internet Mail | |
| O | Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan, Boston, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | BCS Mac BBS, (617)864-0712 | O |
| | Macintosh Topics - Firstclass BBS Software | |
| O | Boston Computer Society/Martin Hannigan, Boston, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | Beyond Eternity, (310)371-3734 | O |
| | Home of EEEK! Bits - Weekly Electronic Trivia Magazine | |
| O | J. Black/K. Taghadossi, Torrance, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Bird Info Network, (303)423-9775 | O |
| | Breeding, Raising, Taming, Exotic Birds | |
| O | Terry Rune/Dave McClauggage, Arvada, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | BMUG BBS, (510)849-2684 | O |
| | Support for Macintosh owners - files - conferences. | |
| O | Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, Berkeley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Boardwatch Magazine Online Info, (303)973-4222 | O |
| | Distribution Service for USA Today/Boardwatch/Newsbytes | |
| O | Boardwatch Magazine, Littleton, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Book BBS, (215)657-6130 | O |
| | Information on 2000 Computer Books - 800 order number | |
| O | Business & Computer Book Store, Willow Grove, PA | O |
| | | |
| O | Book Stacks Unlimited, (216)694-5732 | O |
| | 200,000 Book Titles Database - Online Ordering | |
| O | Charles Stack, Cleveland, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | Borland Download BBS, (408)439-9096 | O |
| | Utilities, Macros, Programming Examples for Borland Produc | |
| O | Borland International/Mike Fitz-Enz, Scotts Valley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Botnay Bay EIS, (603)431-7229 | O |
| | 20 GB of Files - Adult areas - BBS Lists | |
| O | Myles Bratter, Portsmouth, NH | O |
| | | |
| O | Boundary Waters BBS, (218)365-6907 | O |
| | Canoe Trips/Resorts/Fishing/Wilderness in Minnesota | |
| O | Gary Knopp/InfoNorth, Ely, MN | O |
| | | |
| O | Bruce's Bar & Grill, (203)236-3761 | O |
| | 24-line Social System - Chat - Games - Downloads | |
| O | Bruce Lomasky, West Hartford, CT | O |
| | | |
| O | C.A.R.L Library Service, (303)758-1551 | O |
| | Citations to 4 Million Texts in Colorado Library System FR | |
| O | Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, Denver, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | CAD/Engineering Service, (615)824-4938 | O |
| | Computer Aided Design File Distribution Network 1:116/32 | |
| O | Stan Bimson, Hendersonville, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | Canada Remote Systems, (416)798-4713 | O |
| | 23GB/400000+ files, 3500 Conf's,USENET, IBM/Amiga/Mac | |
| O | Neil Fleming/Jud Newell, Mississauga, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | Capital PC User's Group BBS, (301)738-9060 | O |
| | One of the oldest PC User's Groups - 5500 members | |
| O | Capital PC Users Group/Roger Fajman, Rockville, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Castle Tabby 107/412, (908)988-0706 | O |
| | Home of TABBY Fidonet Interface Program for Apple Macintos | |
| O | Michael E. Connick, Bradley Beach, NJ | O |
| | | |
| O | CBBS/Chicago, (312)545-8086 | O |
| | First Electronic Bulletin Board - Since 2/16/78 | |
| O | Ward Christensen/Randy Suess, Chicago, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | Celebration Station, (207)374-5161 | O |
| | Adventure Games, Chat, and Sigs - Children | |
| O | Noel Stookey (Paul of Peter,Paul & Mary), Blue Hill Falls, | O |
| | | |
| O | Central Point Software, (503)690-6650 | O |
| | PC Tools - Central Point Anti-virus support board | |
| O | Central Point Software Inc., Beaverton, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Channel 1, (617)354-8873 | O |
| | 70-line PCBoard - 8 GB Files - Internet - 1000's msg. conf | |
| O | Brian Miller/Tess Heder, Cambridge, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | Chicago SysLink, (708)795-4442 | O |
| | Special Interest Areas for Ferret/Pet Owners.TRS80/Aviatio | |
| O | George Matyaszek, Berwyn, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | chinet, (312)283-0559 | O |
| | UNIX System offering Internet Mail | |
| O | Randy Suess, Chicago, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | Classi Computer Fieds, (317)359-5199 | O |
| | Online System for Classified Advertisements | |
| O | Steve Edsall/Trader Newspaper, Indiannapolis, IN | O |
| | | |
| O | Classified Connection BBS, (619)566-7347 | O |
| | Giffy Girls - Nude GIF Images of the Girl Next Door | |
| O | Bill Kennon, San Diego, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Cleveland Freenet, (216)368-3888 | O |
| | Cleveland City Info/Public Library - Free Internet Mail Bo | |
| O | Case Western University/AT&T/Ohio Bell, Cleveland, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | Community News Service (CNS), (719)520-5000 | O |
| | News and Entertainment - 17 Lines Community Focus | |
| O | Klaus Dimmler, Colorado Springs, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | CommunityLink @DCWAS, (703)765-0501 | O |
| | DC Tour Info. & Help,Online Publications,Treknet,Fidonet | |
| O | Wayne Rutledge/Bob Burnett, Alexandria, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Compact Audio Disk Exchange, (415)824-7603 | O |
| | Buy/Sell/Trade Compact Audio Disks Online | |
| O | Wayne Gregori, San Francisco, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Computer Business Services, (714)396-0014 | O |
| | Book/Publishing Consultant Nick Anis' BBS | |
| O | Nick Anis Jr., Diamond Bar, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Computer Garden, (301)546-1508 | O |
| | Treasure Hunting - Metal Detectors - Online Catalog | |
| O | Milford P. Webster, Salisbury, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Computing Canada Online, (416)497-5263 | O |
| | Adjunct to Excellent Canadian PC Newspaper | |
| O | Computing Canada Newspaper, Willowdale, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | Corporate Data Exchange (CDX), (609)683-4422 | O |
| | PR Newswire/ Business Wire. Logon: hello user.cdx | |
| O | LaFountain Research Corp/Tad LaFountain, Princeton, NJ | O |
| | | |
| O | Crosstalk Communications BBS, (404)740-8428 | O |
| | Product Support for Crosstalk for Windows/MK4/XVI | |
| O | Digital Communications Associates, Roswell, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Cul-de-Sac Bar & Grill, (508)429-1784 | O |
| | Multiline Service - Ham Radio - Humor - TDBS Applications | |
| O | Pete White, Holliston, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | CyberStore - a COCONET BBS, (604)526-3676 | O |
| | All lines to v.32bis/v.42/v.42bis. CyberTools for BBS'es | |
| O | CyberStore Online Info. Systems Inc., New Westminster, BC | O |
| | | |
| O | DAK Online Resource Center, (818)715-7153 | O |
| | DAK Mail Order Catalog - Breakmakers - CD ROMS - Computers | |
| O | DAK Industries/Tom Krogh, Canoga Park, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Dark Side of the Moon, (408)245-7726 | O |
| | Home of WAFFLE, Unix UUCP BBS Software for DOS and UNIX | |
| O | Thomes E. Dell/Darkside International, Mountain View, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Data Core BBS, (310)842-6880 | O |
| | 25 line Major BBS | |
| O | Matthew Schoen/Delta Enterprises, Los Angeles, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | DataLink RBBS System, (214)394-7438 | O |
| | Weather Satellite Imaging, NOAA Satellite Tracking-AMSAT-N | |
| O | Dallas Remote Imaging Group/Jeff Wallach, Carrollton, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Dawg Byte, (615)385-4268 | O |
| | ANSI Art Club 1:116/29 | |
| O | Kevin Snively, Nashville, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | Deep Cove BBS, (604)536-5885 | O |
| | 16 line TBBS, 3500 MBytes files for IBM, MAC, Amiga | |
| O | Wayne Duval, White Rock, BC | O |
| | | |
| O | Denver Exchange, The 104/909, (303)623-4965 | O |
| | Denver's Most Diverse Gay/Lesbian Info Service | |
| O | James Craig, Denver, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Denver Free-Net, (303)270-4865 | O |
| | Free Community Online Service - Health Info | |
| O | University of Colorado Health Science, Denver, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | DragonNet 386/451, (409)765-5459 | O |
| | Multiline MAJOR BBS with 4 GB - 64 lines Interactive Games | |
| O | Robert Michael/Dragon Profit Systems, Galveston Island, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | EarthArt BBS, (803)552-4389 | O |
| | Wildlife/Conservation Art Gallery GIF Images | |
| O | Ambassador Wildlife Gallery/Bob Chapman, North Charleston, | O |
| | | |
| O | East Bay X-Change 372/888, (803)556-7485 | O |
| | Home of XRS Offline Mail Reader | |
| O | Mike Ratledge, McClellanville, SC | O |
| | | |
| O | Ed-Net, (604)732-8877 | O |
| | Vancouver School Board Multi-Line Educational Network | |
| O | Barry Macdonald/Vancouver Board of Ed, Vancouver, BC | O |
| | | |
| O | Electric Ideas Clearinghouse, (206)586-6854 | O |
| | Energy Efficiency Efforts In Pacific Northwest-HydroElec | |
| O | Bonneville Power Administration WSE, Olympia, WA | O |
| | | |
| O | Electronic Publishers BBS, (503)624-4966 | O |
| | News-Finance-Sports-Games-2GB File Library | |
| O | Brian Cash, Portland, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Electronic Zone, The, (412)349-3504 | O |
| | Specializing in Hypertext | |
| O | William R. Forbes, Indiana, PA | O |
| | | |
| O | Energy Info Admin E-Publications, (202)586-8658 | O |
| | Variety of Petroleum/Coal/Electricity Energy Statistics | |
| O | US Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | eSoft Product Support BBS, (303)699-8222 | O |
| | Home of The Bread Board System (TBBS) BBS Software | |
| O | Phil Becker/eSoft Inc., Aurora, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Event Horizons, (503)697-5100 | O |
| | 64 Line Digitized Graphics Image Library - Adult .GIF file | |
| O | Jim Maxey, Lake Oswego, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Exchange BBS, The, (713)521-2191 | O |
| | Largest Gay/Bi/Lesbian Multiline BBS in Houston | |
| O | James Craig/John Fields, Houston, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | EXEC-PC, (414)789-4210 | O |
| | Largest BBS in US - 280 Lines -650,000 files - 35 Gigabyte | |
| O | Bob and Tracey Mahoney, Elm Grove, WI | O |
| | | |
| O | Executive Network, (914)667-4567 | O |
| | Interlink Netmail National Host - Multiline PCBoard System | |
| O | Andy Keeves, Mt. Vernon, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Eye Contact BBS, (415)255-5972 | O |
| | 22 line Oracomm - Gay Issues - Popular Chat System | |
| O | Bill Montgomery, Mill Valley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Falken Support BBS, (703)803-8000 | O |
| | Support for FALKEN software - 16 lines - doors - chat | |
| O | Herb Rose, Woodbridge, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Farwest BBS, (604)381-3934 | O |
| | Large Western Canada Galacticomm Info System | |
| O | Ren L'Ecuyer, Victoria, BC | O |
| | | |
| O | FAX/Satellite Services BBS, (619)224-3853 | O |
| | NOAA Weather Satellite Images - Russian/Japanese Sat Pics | |
| O | Scotty Olson, San Diego, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | FCC Public Access Link, (301)725-1072 | O |
| | Equipment Authorization Status Advisory Service | |
| O | Federal Communications Commission, Columbia, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | FEDLINK ALIX II, (202)707-4888 | O |
| | Info on Federal Libraries -Excerpts Library of Congress Ne | |
| O | Federal Library Information Network, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | Fido Software BBS 1:125/111, (415)863-2739 | O |
| | The First Fido BBS and home of Fido BBS 12s | |
| O | Tom Jennings, San Francisco, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Fido Tech Stand, 31-30-735900 | O |
| | Fidonet Technical Information for Holland | |
| O | J.J. van der Maas, Utrecht, Holland | O |
| | | |
| O | FOG City BBS 125/10, (415)863-9697 | O |
| | Gay Community BBS - AIDS Info - Desktop Publishing - MACs | |
| O | Bill Essex, San Francisco, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Fred the Computer, (508)872-8461 | O |
| | Newspaper BBS. Wierdnet Newswire. List of MA Libraries | |
| O | Middlesex News-Adam Gaffin, Framingham, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | FreeBoard BBS, The, (804)744-0797 | O |
| | Desktop Publishing File Distribution Network 1:264/212 | |
| O | Bill Hunter, Midlothian, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | FSBBS Prototype System, (805)543-8227 | O |
| | Home of FSUUCP and FSBBS - Unix Communications for DOS | |
| O | Chris Ambler, Fubar Systems, San Luis Obispo, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Fun Connection, (503)753-8431 | O |
| | Multiline Entertainment - 8 Lines Games/Chat/News | |
| O | Vincent Reece, Corvallis, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Galacticomm Demo System, (305)583-7808 | O |
| | Customer support for Major BBS | |
| O | Galacticomm,, | O |
| | | |
| O | Garbage Dump, The, (505)294-5675 | O |
| | Online Chat Service - Adventure Games - National Chatlink | |
| O | Dean Kerl/Datasafe, Albuquerque, NM | O |
| | | |
| O | Gateway Communications BBS, (714)863-7097 | O |
| | Novell Netware/TCP-IP Shareware Utilities | |
| O | Gary Gabrick, Irvine, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Gateway On-Line, (313)291-5571 | O |
| | Interactive Chat,MulitiplayerGames,Usenet/Internet,E-mail | |
| O | Jeff Breitner/Bill Mullen, Rockwood, MI | O |
| | | |
| O | GDP Technologies, (303)673-9470 | O |
| | Outstanding IBM Shareware on a small system | |
| O | Tom Getty's, Lafayette, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | General, The, (619)281-8616 | O |
| | Popular File Library - GIF Images | |
| O | Marc Teitler, San Diego, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | GISnet BBS, (303)447-0927 | O |
| | Graphics Information Systems/Mapping topics | |
| O | Bill Thoen, Boulder, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | GLIB, (703)578-4542 | O |
| | Gay and Lesbian Information Bureau - 11 Lines - 9600 bps | |
| O | Community Educational Svcs. Foundation, Arlington, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | GPO WINDO Online Service, (202)512-1387 | O |
| | Fed Information from EPA, DOE, State Department - others. | |
| O | US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC | O |
| | | |
| O | Greenpeace Environet, (415)512-9108 | O |
| | Ecological and Peace Issues - Disarmament/Toxics/Wildlife | |
| O | Dick Dillman/Greenpeace,, | O |
| | | |
| O | Hayes Advanced Systems Support, (800)874-2937 | O |
| | Customer Support Line for Hayes Customers. V-series/Ultra | |
| O | Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Heartland Free-net, (309)674-1100 | O |
| | Community Online Service - Free Internet E-Mail Boxes | |
| O | Peoria County Board/Bradley University, Peoria, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | Herpnet/Satronics TBBS, (215)698-1905 | O |
| | Reptile and Amphibian Studies - Poison Snakes/Toads/Fish | |
| O | Mark Miller, Philadelphia, PA | O |
| | | |
| O | HH Info-Net BBS, (203)246-3747 | O |
| | MS Windows and OS/2 Files our specialty | |
| O | Lee Winsor, New Hartford, CT | O |
| | | |
| O | HoloNet, (510)704-1058 | O |
| | National Access,INTERNET,USENET,CHAT,GIFS,FILES | |
| O | Information Access Technologies, Inc., Berkeley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Home Power Renewable Energy BBS, (707)822-8640 | O |
| | Photovoltaics/Micro-hydro/Generators - Home Power Magazine | |
| O | Don Kulha/Redwood Alliance, Arcata, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | HouseNet BBS, (410)745-2037 | O |
| | Home Fixup/Repair/Renovation Tips, Advice, and Articles | |
| O | Gene and Katie Hamilton, St. Michaels, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Howard's Notebook 1:280/25, (816)331-5868 | O |
| | Environmental, Peace, Justice since 1982 - 4 nodes | |
| O | Jim Howard, Kansas City, MO | O |
| | | |
| O | Hysterics, (613)231-7144 | O |
| | Amiga File Distribution Network 1:163/109 | |
| O | Russell McOrmond, Ottawa, Ontario, | O |
| | | |
| O | IBM National Support Center BBS, (404)835-5300 | O |
| | IBM PC User Groups Database - Newsletter Exchange | |
| O | IBM National Support Center, Atlanta, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Inbound/Outbound/Teleconnect, (212)989-4675 | O |
| | Telephone Sales Trade Magazine Online Service | |
| O | Harry Newton Publications, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Index Systems, (404)924-8414 | O |
| | Excellent list of Atlanta BBS systems online | |
| O | Rodney Aloia, Marietta, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Infinity World, (606)278-2002 | O |
| | 8 line Galacticomm System - Many good text publications | |
| O | Daniel Diachun, Lexington, KY | O |
| | | |
| O | InfoHost Demo BBS, (201)335-2253 | O |
| | Demo BBS for InfoHost BBS Software - Multiline - Database | |
| O | A-Comm Electronics Inc., Hasbrouch Heights, NJ | O |
| | | |
| O | Infolink for Upper East Tenn., (615)434-2551 | O |
| | Space Database - Online Store - Chat | |
| O | John Williams, Johnson City, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | Inns of Court, The, (214)458-2620 | O |
| | LAN Related Files and Utilities 1:124/6101 | |
| O | Arthur Geffen, Dallas, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Intel PCEO Support BBS, (503)645-6275 | O |
| | Support for Intel PC Products - Inboard 386/AboveBoard 286 | |
| O | Intel Corporation PCEO Division, Hillsborough, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Invention Factory, (212)274-8110 | O |
| | 46 Lines - 100 Directories - Full Usenet Feed - 8.2 GB | |
| O | Mike Sussell, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Investor's Online Data, (206)285-5359 | O |
| | Online Investment/Stock Market Information/Tech Analysis | |
| O | Don Shepherdson, Bellevue, WA | O |
| | | |
| O | JDR Microdevices BBS, (408)559-0253 | O |
| | Online Hardware Order - Catalog - 1.1 GB Files - Quizzes | |
| O | JDR Microdevices, San Jose, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | JOBBS, (404)992-8937 | O |
| | Online Job Listings - 2186 Technical Pos. - 10,000 Corps. | |
| O | Alpha Systems Inc./Bill Griffin, Roswell, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Keith Graham Shareware Support, (914)623-0039 | O |
| | OPTIK, TEXT2COM, CBOOT, very good shareware utilities | |
| O | Keith P. Graham, Nyack, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | KIMBERELY BBS, (612)340-2489 | O |
| | Prime Rate-Fed Funds-T-Bill-Discount Rate-Economic Data | |
| O | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN | O |
| | | |
| O | King's Market BBS 104/115, (303)665-6091 | O |
| | 400 MB Books, Writers Area - TRS 80 Support | |
| O | Jim and Karen Burt, Boulder, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | LANtastic BBS, (602)293-8065 | O |
| | Support for LANtastic local area network | |
| O | Artisoft Inc., Tucson, AZ | O |
| | | |
| O | Late Night Software 125/555, (415)695-0759 | O |
| | Home of UFGATE - Software to connect PCs to UUCP/Usenet | |
| O | Tim Pozar, San Francisco, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | LegalEase, (509)326-3238 | O |
| | Legal issues/Forms - Law BBS List | |
| O | Bill Sorcinelli, Spokane, WA | O |
| | | |
| O | MAC-LINK, (514)486-8959 | O |
| | Macintosh Oriented Support BBS - 6 Lines - Infomat/BIX | |
| O | Mark Smith, Montreal, Quebec | O |
| | | |
| O | Macalot Bulletin Board, (412)846-5312 | O |
| | Support for Second Sight BBS Software for Macintosh | |
| O | Jeff Dripps/FreeSoft Company, Beaver Falls, PA | O |
| | | |
| O | MacCircles, (303)526-2219 | O |
| | Mac System Software distributor, mail, sigs, files | |
| O | Patricia O'Connor, Golden, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | MacInternational, (803)798-3755 | O |
| | Largest MAC BBS on East Coast | |
| O | Ralph Yount, Columbia, SC | O |
| | | |
| O | Magpie BBS, (212)420-0527 | O |
| | Support/Demo System for Magpie BBS/Conferencing Software | |
| O | Steve Manes, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | MaxiHost Support BBS, (209)836-2402 | O |
| | MaxiHost BBS - small, very easy to run BBS | |
| O | Don Mankin, San Ramon, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | McAfee Associates BBS, (408)988-4004 | O |
| | Computer Virus Information - VIRUSCAN and CLEANUP | |
| O | John McAfee/CVIA, Santa Clara, CA | O |
| | |
|
| O | Meeting Works, The, (212)737-6932 | O |
| | Meeting/seminar/convention planning information. | |
| O | John Mackenzie, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | METRO Online Entertainment, (212)831-9280 | O |
| | 32 line DLX with City Guide/Ski Database - Matchmaker - Ch | |
| O | Bruce Kamm/Metro Online Services, New York City, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Micro Foundry, The, (415)598-0398 | O |
| | 2.2 GB Downloads - Your Online Software Source - Boardwatc | |
| O | Thomas Nelson/Clockwork Software, San Jose, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Micro Message Service, (919)779-6674 | O |
| | USA Today/Boxoffice Magazine - Large Download Area | |
| O | Mike Stroud, Raleigh, NC | O |
| | | |
| O | Micro Tech BBS, (314)334-6359 | O |
| | Support for OSIRIS Multiline BBS Software - IRIS Mail | |
| O | Micro Tech, Cape Girardeau, MO | O |
| | | |
| O | Microrim Technical Support BBS, (206)649-9836 | O |
| | Support for Popular R:Base Relational Data Base System | |
| O | Microrim Corporation, Redmond, WA | O |
| | | |
| O | Microsoft Download BBS, (206)936-6735 | O |
| | Windows Technical Notes and Support Information | |
| O | Microsoft Corp/Scott J. Honaker, Bellevue, WA | O |
| | | |
| O | Microsystems Software Inc., (508)875-8009 | O |
| | HandiWare Software for Handicapped - CodeRunner C Utilitie | |
| O | MSI - Reed Lewis, Framingham, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | MindVox, (212)988-5030 | O |
| | Internet Access, E-Mail, Newsgroups, ftp/telnet | |
| O | Phantom Access Technologies, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Minnesota Spacenet, (612)920-5566 | O |
| | Minnesota Space Frontier Society - NASA News | |
| O | Ben Husset, Minneapolis, MN | O |
| | | |
| O | MOG-UR'S EMS, The, (818)366-1238 | O |
| | 5 Lines - 8 Networks CD-ROMS - 2.8 GB Hub Services HST/V.3 | |
| O | Tom Tcimpidis, Granada Hills, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Mountain Air BBS, (703)427-0226 | O |
| | Adult Based BBS | |
| O | Edward Lee Wood, Jr., Roanoke, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Movie BBS, (718)939-5462 | O |
| | Movie Reviews and Information - Television | |
| O | Clarke Ulmer, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | N.A.C.D. BBS, (912)246-3280 | O |
| | Cave Scuba Diving - Superb Special Topic System | |
| O | National Assoc. of Cave Divers, Gainsville, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | N8EMR Ham BBS, (614)895-2553 | O |
| | login:hbbs HAM Radio/AMSAT Unix System - Satellite/Packet | |
| O | Gary Sanders, Westerville, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | NAPLPS Graphics BBS, (613)727-5272 | O |
| | NAPLPS Graphics Terminal and Editor Software | |
| O | MicroStar Corp., Nepean, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | NASA Spacelink, (205)895-0028 | O |
| | NASA Educational Affairs Div. - Flight Data/Space History | |
| O | Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL | O |
| | | |
| O | Nashville Exchange, (615)383-0727 | O |
| | 12 line TBBS - Games/TDBS Software Development 1.8 GB | |
| O | Ben Cunningham, Nashville, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | National Genealogical BBS, (703)528-2612 | O |
| | Family History - Genealogical Research - Gravestone Haunti | |
| O | National Genealogical Society, Arlington, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Netcom Internet Guest System, (408)241-9760 | O |
| | Internet Access System - type "guest" at login for info. | |
| O | Netcom Online Communications Services, San Jose, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Network World Bulletin Board, (508)620-1178 | O |
| | LAN and WAN Issues and Technology | |
| O | Network World Magazine/CW Communications, Framingham, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | NIST ACTS, (303)494-4775 | O |
| | Automated Computer Telephone Service - Sync PC to NBS Time | |
| O | Nat. Institute for Standards/Technology, Boulder, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Nixpix, (303)920-1263 | O |
| | Large Library of Adult GIF Graphics Images | |
| O | Nick De Wolf, Aspen, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | NOAA Space Environment Lab, (303)497-5042 | O |
| | Solar Flare/Geomagnetic Data Online | |
| O | National Oceanographic/Atmospheric Admin, Boulder, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | NoGate Consulting, (616)530-3392 | O |
| | Home of PAK archive utility | |
| O | Mike Neuhaus Gus Smedstad, Grand Rapids, MI | O |
| | | |
| O | Numisnet, (301)498-8205 | O |
| | Collecting of Coins, Medals, and Exonumia | |
| O | The Mitchell Group, Laurel, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | OAQPSTTN, (919)541-5742 | O |
| | Air Quality Planning and Standards Technology Transfer Net | |
| O | Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, N | O |
| | | |
| O | OASIS BBS, (404)627-2662 | O |
| | Home of Atlanta Bulletin Board List - ABBL | |
| O | Robert Orr/Online Atlanta Society, Decatur, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Occupational Health/Safety BBS, (212)385-2034 | O |
| | Job Safety Issues for Artists, Musicians, Entertainers | |
| O | Mike McCann/Center for Safety in Arts, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Odyssey, (818)358-6968 | O |
| | Adult Multiline Chat System - Games - Magazines - Download | |
| O | Michael Allen, Monrovia, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | OERI BBS, (800)222-4922 | O |
| | Educational Statistics and Data - Performance Stats - | |
| O | US Department of Education, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | Old Colorado City Communications, (719)632-4111 | O |
| | Political Discussions - Unix UUCP Public Access - Multilin | |
| O | Dave Hughes, Colorado Springs, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Online Now, (807)345-5522 | O |
| | Canada's shareware house is online now | |
| O | Gary Walsh/Tom Haavisto, Thunder Bay, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | Online With Hayes, (404)446-6336 | O |
| | Hayes Public Bulletin Board - Conferences/SIGS/Support | |
| O | Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | Oracle PC, 6108 260-6222 | O |
| | South Australian TBBS Multiline System | |
| O | Don Crago, Pooraka South Australia, | O |
| | | |
| O | Oracomm Support BBS, (619)346-1608 | O |
| | Sales and Support for Oracomm Multiline BBS Software | |
| O | Surf Computer Services, Rancho Mirage, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Osprey's Nest, (301)989-9036 | O |
| | Birdwatching, Bird feeding, Naturalist/Ecology Issues | |
| O | Fran and Norm Saunders, Colesville, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Ozone Hole, The, (504)891-3142 | O |
| | Boardwatch-USA Today-Internet-Usenet-RIME | |
| O | Mike Mathews, New Orleans, LA | O |
| | | |
| O | P.D.S.L.O. BBS, (516)938-6722 | O |
| | Home of THE LIST National BBS List | |
| O | James Toro, Hicksville, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | PacComm BBS, (813)874-3078 | O |
| | Packet Radio Equipment Supplier - TNC/PSK Modems | |
| O | Gwyn Reedy/PacCom Inc., Tampa, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | PC Ohio, (216)381-3320 | O |
| | Shareware library with 100% USR HST access - 24 lines | |
| O | Norm Henke, Cleveland, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | Pennywise, (800)752-3012 | O |
| | Online Office Supply Sales Service | |
| O | Pennywise, Edmonston, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | PHYSICS Forum BBS, (413)545-1959 | O |
| | Physics and Astronomical Sciences | |
| O | Univ.of Mass. Dept. of Physics/Astronomy, Amherst, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | Pinecliffe BBS 104/28, (303)642-7463 | O |
| | Large Shareware Library/Echomail Conferences since 1985 | |
| O | Craig Baker, Pinecliffe, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | Pinnacle Software BBS, (514)345-8654 | O |
| | Support for Sapphire BBS Software | |
| O | Timothy Campbell/Pinnacle Software, Montreal, Quebec | O |
| | | |
| O | PKWare BBS, (414)354-8670 | O |
| | Home of PKZIP 1.10 Compression Utility | |
| O | Phil Katz/PKWare Incorporated, Glendale, WI | O |
| | | |
| O | Pleasure Dome, (804)490-5878 | O |
| | Sexually Explicit Fantasy Chat System - Adults only | |
| O | Tom Terrific, Tidewater, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Practical Peripherals BBS, (805)496-4445 | O |
| | Support BBS for Practical Peripherals Modems | |
| O | Practical Peripherals, West Lake Village, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | ProComm Support BBS, (314)875-0503 | O |
| | Home of ProComm 2.4.3 and ProComm Plus Comm Prgrms | |
| O | Thomas Smith/DataStorm Technologies Inc., Columbia, MO | O |
| | | |
| O | Promised Land, The, (715)387-1339 | O |
| | 16-Line/2.5GB/11,000+ Files/ WINDOWS, Chat & More | |
| O | Tim Brown/Computer Solutions, Marshfield, WI | O |
| | | |
| O | Public Brand Software BBS, (317)856-2087 | O |
| | Commercial Shareware Vendor | |
| O | Public Brand Software, Indianapolis, IN | O |
| | | |
| O | Public Data Network, (503)474-6662 | O |
| | 64-line System with $2.50/hour Local Access | |
| O | Tony Javoric/Public Data Network, Grants Pass, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | QMail Deluxe Support BBS, (615)230-8822 | O |
| | Support for QMail Deluxe and 1stReader offline mail utils | |
| O | Mark (Sparky) Herring, Germantown, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | Qualitas, Inc. BBS, (301)907-8030 | O |
| | 386MAX and BlueMAX Memory Management Software Support | |
| O | Qualitas Inc., Bethesda, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Quarterdeck BBS, (310)314-3227 | O |
| | Technical Support for QEMM, DESQview, all Quarterdeck Prod | |
| O | Quarterdeck Office Systems, Santa Monica, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | QuickBBS Support BBS 363/34, (407)896-0494 | O |
| | Product Support for QuickBBS Software | |
| O | Richard Creighton/Steve Gabrilowitz, Orlando, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | Random Access Information Svc., (503)695-3250 | O |
| | 11,000 GIF Images - 20,000 DOS/Windows Shareware Files | |
| O | Janice Stevens, Corbett, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Ronin BBS, (214)938-2840 | O |
| | Traditional File and Message BBS | |
| O | Chuck Mattern, Red Oak, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Rose Media, (416)733-2780 | O |
| | 19 GB - Home of Rosemail - Publications/Conferences | |
| O | Vic Kass, Willowdale, Ontario | O |
| | | |
| O | Rusty & Edies, (216)726-0737 | O |
| | Large ML PCBoard run by Husband and Wife - NFL/Tradewars | |
| O | Rusty and Edwina Hardenburgh, Boardman, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | Sahara Club BBS, (818)893-1899 | O |
| | Land-Use issues, Off-Road, Timber, Conservation | |
| O | Patrick Martin/Sahara Club, North Hills, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Sailing IC BBS, (301)643-1466 | O |
| | National sailing system, yacht racing and clubs, tall ship | |
| O | Darren Albert,, MD- | O |
| | | |
| O | Salt Air BBS, (801)261-8976 | O |
| | Home of PCBoard BBS Software - National List of PCB Sys | |
| O | Clark Development Company/David Terry, Murray, UT | O |
| | | |
| O | San Diego NeXT User's Group BBS, (619)456-2522 | O |
| | Support for NeXT Computers | |
| O | Brian Dear/San Diego NeXT User's Group, San Diego, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | SBA Online, (800)697-4636 | O |
| | Advice for Small Business Owners on Financing/Management | |
| O | Small Business Administration, Washington, DC | O |
| | | |
| O | Science Resource Studies BBS, (202)634-1764 | O |
| | Federal R&D Budget - Technical Labor Market Statistics | |
| O | National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | SDN Project, The 1:141/840, (203)634-0370 | O |
| | The Original Software Distribution Network | |
| O | Ray Kaliss, Meriden, CT | O |
| | | |
| O | SEAboard!, (804)442-6047 | O |
| | Support system for ARC, SEADOG, and AXE software. | |
| O | System Enhancement Associates, Nassawadox, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Seagate Technical Support BBS, (408)438-8771 | O |
| | Installation and Specifications for Hard Drive Models | |
| O | Seagate/Bill Rudok, Scotts Valley, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Searchlight BBS, (516)689-2566 | O |
| | Support system for Searchlight BBS Software | |
| O | Searchlight Software, StonyBrook, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | SemWare Support BBS, (404)641-8968 | O |
| | Home of QEdit - A Superb Shareware Text Editor | |
| O | Sammy Mitchell/SemWare Software Products, Marietta, GA | O |
| | | |
| O | SENDIT, (701)237-3283 | O |
| | North Dakota K-12 Educational Net-telnet sendit.nodak.edu | |
| O | Gleason Sackman/NDU, Fargo, ND | O |
| | | |
| O | SIGCAT BBS, (703)648-4168 | O |
| | CD-ROM /Optical Publishing Info - Lists of Gov. CD Data | |
| O | SIG on CD-ROM Applications and Technol., Gathersburg, MD | O |
| | | |
| O | Sistema Profesional Informacion, 525 590-5988 | O |
| | Largest BBS in Mexico - Spanish Language TBBS | |
| O | Tecnologia Uno Cero S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, | O |
| | | |
| O | Skeleton Closet, The, (804)671-8547 | O |
| | Geneology Programs File Distribution Net 1:271/23 | |
| O | Debbi McKay, Virginia Beach, VA | O |
| | | |
| O | Society for Technical Comm. BBS, (703)522-3299 | O |
| | STC Job Service, Freelance Registry - Technical Writers | |
| O | Society for Technical Communication, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | Software Creations BBS, (508)368-4137 | O |
| | Home of Apogee Software/Commander Keen Series | |
| O | Dan Linton, Clinton, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | Sonshine Express BBS, (510)651-2440 | O |
| | Family Oriented Christian BBS | |
| O | Anton Johnson, Fremont, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Sound Advice BBS, (816)436-4516 | O |
| | Twenty Line PCBoard with 2 Gigabytes Storage - HST Modems | |
| O | Roy Timberman, Gladstone, MO | O |
| | | |
| O | Source for Source, The, (516)968-7824 | O |
| | Clipper/XBase/General Programming File Distribution 107/23 | |
| O | Erik VanRiper, Bay Shore, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Spare Parts 1:130/38, (817)540-3527 | O |
| | Windows Distribution Network - Windows utilities/files | |
| O | Larry Mundy, Bedford, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Star-Link Network BBS, (718)972-6099 | O |
| | 9-nodes, 2.1GB, Ilink, 75,000 programs | |
| O | Michael Keylin, Brooklyn, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Starlink BBS, (915)235-4818 | O |
| | Technical Support for Predictive Maint Customers | |
| O | John Land, Sweetwater, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | State and Local Emergency Mgmt., (202)646-2887 | O |
| | Hazardous Materials/National Dam Watch/Emergency Info | |
| O | Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | Superdemocracy Foundation BBS, (305)370-9376 | O |
| | Online Democracy/Political Culture for the Future | |
| O | Tim Stryker, Davie, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | TAXACOM, (716)896-7581 | O |
| | Botany, Herbaria, FLORA ONLINE Newsletter, Latin Translati | |
| O | Clinton Herbarium, Buffalo Museum, Buffalo, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | TEAMate Unix Bulletin Board, (310)318-5302 | O |
| | Demo/Support for TEAMate BBS Software for Unix | |
| O | Bob Baskerville/MMB Development Corp., Manhattan Beach, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Telebit Support BBS, (408)745-3229 | O |
| | Support for Telebit Modems | |
| O | Telebit Corp., Sunnyvale, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Telegodzilla, (503)621-3746 | O |
| | Home of ZModem File Transfer Protocol/YModem/YAM | |
| O | Chuck Forsberg/Omen Technology Incorp., Portland, OR | O |
| | | |
| O | Telepath, (415)358-8641 | O |
| | DBMS/Dr. Dobbs Journal Magazine Online Service | |
| O | M&T Publishing, Redwood City, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Telix Support BBS, (919)481-9399 | O |
| | Support Service for Telix Communications Software | |
| O | Jeff Woods/deltaComm Development, Cary, NC | O |
| | | |
| O | The Back Room, (718)849-1614 | O |
| | America's Largest Exclusively Gay DB - Home of Gaycomm | |
| O | Fred Kohn, Richmond Hill, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | The Business BBS, (310)477-0408 | O |
| | Utilities/Support for Microsoft Windows | |
| O | Jim Appleby, Los Angeles, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | The File Bank, (303)534-4646 | O |
| | 16 Line File Library - Radio Comm/Astronomy - USA Today | |
| O | Girard Westerberg/Brian Bartee, Littleton, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | The Ledge PCBoard, (818)896-4015 | O |
| | Home of Textview Door for PCBoard Systems | |
| O | Joseph Sheppard, Tujunga, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | The Opowd Crowd, (708)885-8865 | O |
| | Specializing in outdoor activities and sports | |
| O | , Hoffman Estates, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | The Other BBS 1:1/0, (717)657-2223 | O |
| | Fidonet Zone Coordinator for North America 1:1/0 | |
| O | George Peace, Harrisburg, PA | O |
| | | |
| O | The Well, (415)332-7190 | O |
| | Unix Conferencing System - $10 monthly plus $2.50 Hourly | |
| O | Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Titan BBS, (904)476-1270 | O |
| | Adult BBS - Online Games - GIF Images | |
| O | Clayton Manson, Pensacola, FL | O |
| | | |
| O | Tool Shop BBS, (818)891-6780 | O |
| | Home of HS-Link and other tools for PCBoard Systems | |
| O | Sam Smith,, | O |
| | | |
| O | Town Hall, (800)648-6964 | O |
| | Conservative Political Conference and Debate | |
| O | National Review Magazine, New York, NY | O |
| | | |
| O | Trinity 1 BBS, 44 392 410210 | O |
| | United Kingdom Distributor of Boardwatch Magazine | |
| O | John Burden, Exeter Devon, U.K. | O |
| | | |
| O | TurBoard, (615)756-7810 | O |
| | NAPLPS Graphics BBS System | |
| O | Software@work, Chattanooga, TN | O |
| | | |
| O | U.S. Robotics - Sit UBU Sit, (708)982-5092 | O |
| | Support for US Robotics HST 9600 bps Modems | |
| O | U.S. Robotics Corporation, Skokie, IL | O |
| | | |
| O | US Naval Observatory BBS, (202)653-1079 | O |
| | Time - Date - Sunrise - Sunset - Enter @TCO for Commands | |
| O | US Department of Commerce US Naval Obser, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | USGS Quick Epicenter Determin., (303)273-8672 | O |
| | Earthquake Epicenter Data - Geomagnetism7E2 800-358-2663 | |
| O | US Geological Survey Earthquake Info Cnt, Denver, CO | O |
| | | |
| O | USNO Time of Day for Clocks, (202)653-0351 | O |
| | Xmits ASCII Time String - Sync Your PC to USNO Atomic Cloc | |
| O | US Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. | O |
| | | |
| O | UT Library Online Catalog, (512)471-9420 | O |
| | Online Library Card Catalog Listing 3.5 million entries | |
| O | University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | Ventura Professional Forum, (408)227-4818 | O |
| | Ventura Publisher User's Group BBS | |
| O | Gene Rodrigues - Ventura Professional, San Jose, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | WeatherBank, (800)827-2727 | O |
| | Online Weather Forecasts for Any City - Download Radar Dat | |
| O | Steve Root/WeatherBrief Data Services, Salt Lake City, UT | O |
| | | |
| O | Western Digital Tech Support, (714)753-1068 | O |
| | Hard Drive/Controller Installation and Config Data | |
| O | Western Digital Corporation,, | O |
| | | |
| O | Westside, The, (213)933-4050 | O |
| | Area's Largest/Most Active Adult System-Chat,E-mail,Games, | |
| O | Dave Harrison, Los Angeles, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Wildcat HQ BBS 210/12, (805)395-0650 | O |
| | Multiline Support System for Wildcat BBS Software | |
| O | MSI - Mustang Software, Inc., Bakersfield, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | Windsor Manor, (203)688-4973 | O |
| | Over 27 Online Adventure Games | |
| O | Jim Taylor, Windsor, CT | O |
| | | |
| O | Wizard's Gate,The, (614)224-1635 | O |
| | Multi-Line Totally Free BBS-Multi Player Games,Files,Messa | |
| O | Joseph G. Balshone, Columbus, OH | O |
| | | |
| O | Word Perfect Customer Support, (801)225-4444 | O |
| | Word Perfect 4.2/5.0/5.1 Support/Printer Drivers | |
| O | Word Perfect Corporation, Orem, UT | O |
| | | |
| O | Worldview BBS, (510)676-2919 | O |
| | Reformed Protestant Topics; Telefinder Host | |
| O | Bill Gram-Reefer, Concord, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | WWIV Support BBS, (310)208-6689 | O |
| | Support for WWIV BBS Software | |
| O | Wayne Bell, Rolling Hills Estates, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | XTree BBS, (805)546-9150 | O |
| | Support for XTree Pro Gold DOS Shell Program | |
| O | XTree Company, San Luis Obispo, CA | O |
| | | |
| O | XyQuest Support BBS, (508)667-5669 | O |
| | Support for XyWrite Word Processor - Custom Keyboard Files | |
| O | XyQuest Inc. - Christine Madsen, Bellerica, MA | O |
| | | |
| O | Yellow Dream Machine BBS, (512)451-3222 | O |
| | Disability Rights Issues - Variety of Disability Newslette | |
| O | Bill Scarborough/Cyanosis Rex, Austin, TX | O |
| | | |
| O | | O |
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