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Intellicomm (TM) v2.01 Copyright (C) 1991-1994 Liberation Enterprises. All rights reserved. THIS DOCUMENT MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN PART OR IN WHOLE (OUTSIDE THE REGULAR INTELLICOMM DISTRIBUTION LICENSE) WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM LIBERATION ENTERPRISES --------------------------------------------------------------------- AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BBS WORLD --------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the wonderful world of computer telecommunications! You have in your hands (or more likely on your monitor) an online primer and survival guide which will take you, the uninitiated user "who has a modem and is ready to use it" (but knows little else) and transform you into an educated, confident, on-liner. No... not an ocean liner, an ON-liner. You'll discover the difference between the two here in this tutorial. Most of the information in this document can eventually be learned through trial and error, or through various smaller tutorials scattered around in various online corners -- but here in this text you will learn everything you need to know rapidly, and you have everything together in one place. Further, this tutorial was written from a BBS USER'S point-of-view, and not from a Sysop or BBS developer's point-of-view. There's a major difference between those who program and operate the BBS's, and those who simply use them from the other end of the line. BBS developers often skip the basics and simply document how a particular command is used (even though you have no idea what the command even DOES and care not how it's used until you know what it does), and Sysops understandably explain BBS rules, how not to abuse the BBS, what NOT to do, and so forth. This leaves a large gap where new users who don't understand the general principles of BBS's are left in the dark. This tutorial was written to help you bridge that gap. WHAT WE WON'T BE COVERING This is not a computer tutorial. If you're new to computers you do have my sympathies for what you're going through to learn everything... but here in this text we're only covering only from communications (comm.) programs and modems onward/outward. We're also not covering automation of BBS calls. You can find all that in the Icom online help and other manuals. The purpose of this tutorial is to give you the basics about BBS's, comm. programs, to give you some tricks to use that'll make your online life easier, and to familiarize you with the concepts and terms you'll have to know to make good use of any comm. program and BBS. While Intellicomm is mentioned below here and there, the material presented has little to do with Intellicomm specifically and is focused more on the BBS end of things. We also won't be covering the large online services such as Compuserve, Prodigy, GEnie, etc. Those services each come with their own kits to help new users get started. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 2 WHAT WE WILL BE COVERING We're covering the smaller online services here (small meaning both single- and large multi-line bulletin board services or "BBS's") in this tutorial, and that's because you're usually on your own on the smaller systems to figure everything out yourself. Though help IS available at most online services, many new users don't know where or how to look for it. When I first got into BBS's it took me weeks to get everything sorted out, gleaning tidbits of information from here there and everywhere. This text was produced so you wouldn't have to go through the same ordeal. The tutorial is organized into sections with headings and a table of contents to enable you to find information quickly when you need it, and to allow you to skip over something if you're already comfortable with the material. Here's what we'll be covering: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION TO BBS'S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1 Mystic Communications Terms De-mystified . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Who Runs BBS's and WHY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 How to Find a Good BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3.1 Factors for Downloaders To Consider (5); 1.3.2 Factors for Online Gamers to Consider (6); 1.3.3 Factors for E-Mail Users to Consider (6) 1.4 Where to find BBS Phone Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.5 Dialing a BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.6 Once You're Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.7 Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.8 The Scrollback Buffer/Capture File . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1.9 Getting Help from the BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.10 Who is Sysop? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.11 What are DOORS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2. INTRODUCTION TO FILE TRANSFERS (UPLOADS AND DOWNLOADS) . . . . 14 2.1 Where do the Files/Programs Come From? . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2 Who creates the programs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.3 Locating Files You're Interested In . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.4 Archives/File Compression (.ZIP, .ARJ, .LHA files, etc) . 17 2.5 .GIF, .JPG and .MAC Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.6 Transfer Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.7 External Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.8 Viruses/Bombs/Trojans and Protection . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3. BBS MESSAGES/MESSAGE NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.1 Getting Started with Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.2 Message Conferences/Forums/Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.3 The MAIN/GENERAL Message Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3.4 Proper Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 3.5 Comments to Sysop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.6 BBS Message Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.7 How do Networks Work, and Who Pays? . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.8 What is "Echo"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3.9 Private Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.10 Finding the Source of a Message (TAGLINES) . . . . . . . 32 Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 3 3.11 Message "Threads" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.12 Addressing A Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.13 Message "Lingo" and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3.14 "Capturing" Messages/Reading Offline . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.15 ASCII Uploading Message Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.16 Spelling and Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 4. OFFLINE MAIL SYSTEMS/OFFLINE MAIL READERS . . . . . . . . . . . 37 4.1 Finding the Offline Mail System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 4.2 Finding an Offline Mail Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 4.3 Setting Up Offline Mail for Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 I. GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 A. Common Modem Problems/Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 4 1. INTRODUCTION TO BBS'S 1.1 Mystic Communications Terms De-mystified If you're new to computer communications, you might want to browse the GLOSSARY at the end of this tutorial before you continue. It tells you what CR/LF are, what ANSI/ASCII is, what your data bits, stop bits, duplex and parity are ... and other such fascinating topics. 1.2 Who Runs BBS's and WHY? BBS's are most often run as a hobby by interested individuals out of the basement of a house, or even in a spare room of an apartment. Almost all are run on a standard IBM PC machine such as you have yourself: sometimes even on old XT's with 30MB hard disks. Most BBS's can be set up by a semi-knowledgeable person in a few evenings, with similar expenses to any other equipment-oriented hobby (photography, etc). Some subscription-only BBS's are serious businesses with more expensive equipment for higher capacity, and more phone lines. But even the largest ones are usually run on IBM PC's, connected via a local network, or even on a single computer with multiple COM ports/modems, and software that can handle several online users at the same time. Many people think the larger multi-line BBS are run on huge mainframe computers, but I know of none that run anything more extravagent than several (or several dozen) 386/486 PC's. Why would anyone want to run a BBS? The reasons are as varied as the people who do it, so you'd have to ask your local BBS operator that... Television isn't very exciting these days for those who aren't interested with the latest in Transsexual-Sumo-Wrestling-Axe-Murderers, on the tabloid TV shows... It's too expensive to go out every night, so we have to have something to do. Why not set up a BBS? It beats playing tiddly winks. 1.3 How to Find a Good BBS What's "good" for one person isn't necessarily good for another, and finding a good BBS depends solely on what you're interested in. BBS's allow you to do basically three things: 1) Download programs/information for use on your own computer. 2) Use programs ONLINE at the BBS such as online games, or an online information service such as an electronic encyclopedia. 3) Use electronic mail to communicate with other people (for fun, or for information, or both). Some BBS's also allow you to do some sort of "shopping", for software or computer hardware, etc., but they seem to be few and far between at present. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 5 1.3.1 Factors for Downloaders To Consider If you're interested in BBS bonus number 1, obtaining programs for use on your computer you should consider the following before you lay your subscription money down at a BBS: o It takes about half an hour to transfer an average program at 2400 baud. The average VGA picture (adult-oriented pictures are popular at many BBS's) was about 200-250K when this was written, but was on its way up to 500K and beyond for Super VGA resolution. Games, business software and other programs can be anywhere from 50K to several megabytes. So you'll need computer, modem, and telephone time (and will pay long-distance fees where applicable) AND disk space exponentially the more interested you are in files. Unless you have a large hard drive (and even if you do... they fill up fast once you start downloading), you soon won't be able to download to your heart's content. o Most BBS's limit your connect time per day, and limit the number of bytes you can download (transfer from the BBS to your computer) per day. So make sure you understand what you'll be able to do each day before you spend too much time/effort getting comfortable with a BBS. Some BBS's allow less than one hour/500K per day online, and for an avid file downloader this is just a tease. If you're into the VGA pictures, you should attempt to find a BBS with NO limit on download bytes (or a very high limit), at least an hour per day online... then perhaps get a high speed modem, and a 500 megabyte hard drive. o The faster your modem is, the faster you'll be able to get files ... and thus you'll need less time online to get the job done. But if the BBS limits your download bytes per day, you're still limited in the number of files/pictures/whatever you can obtain per day. "Download bytes" means that the BBS keeps track of the size of each file you download in a day, and the BBS operator limits you so that once you have downloaded a given number of bytes (all downloads combined), you cannot download anything else that day. o The bigger and better the BBS, and the more online time/download bytes you get per day, usually means higher subscription fees, which you might not be willing to pay. All of the above are factors to juggle when looking for a good BBS to download files from. The BBS itself isn't your only consideration: your equipment (particularly modem speed/free disk space), budget, and available time are equally important factors. Another factor that you might not consider initially, is that everything you download from the BBS probably has a purpose of some sort and will take up your time to set up and use. If you're interested in VGA pictures, you can view many in just a few minutes... But if you're interested in software, you might only be able to review one program per evening (or perhaps one a week, if you plan to get into involved programs). The more you download, the more time it's going to take you to sort through everything after you disconnect. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 6 Most newcomers will download like mad, having a field day with all the new software and archiving it to floppy disk for "later inspection". But unless this "later inspection" is done within a month or two (if even that far into the future), chances are that something better will be available at that time, and you'll have to re-download a newer version, or a better program, before you ever get to your archived floppies. In my experiences, you're better off letting the BBS store the programs FOR you. Download what you NEED and will use. Why store programs on floppy disks, if you can download them at will, when you have the time to actually inspect the file? Only download what you'll actually use this week. There's no need to download like a madman (or madwoman? ... madperson?). Case in point: I paid $20 a month for access to a large BBS, which included all the "extras". The fee gave me access to stuff that sounded great, but that I never got around to using due to lack of time. I got the "double online time and download bytes" option for $5 more per month... and that gave me 4 hours, and 4 megabytes per day. With all this online time, I started downloading to justify it ... Then I ran out of disk space. Then I realized that I'd lost track of what I HAD obtained, and didn't have the time or energy to sort it all out. Then I realized that if I archived all the programs to floppies, aside from the time and disks I'd waste, the whole mess of software would probably be obsolete by the time I got around to looking at it. I kept the one or two programs I was truly interested in and could use immediately (within the next couple of weeks), and deleted the rest... and I've rarely used the 4 hours/4 megabytes per day since. Instead of wasting my own disk space, I let the BBS provide the storage for me, and I download stuff only as I need it ... and this also ensures that I have the latest VERSIONS of the products when I do get them. 1.3.2 Factors for Online Gamers to Consider If you're interested in facilities such as online games, online publications/information, or what have you, there really isn't much to consider. If you find what you're interested in, you're all set. Intellicomm has what is called a "doorway mode", which many online programs require (doorway mode allows you to use ALT/CTRL keycodes and your Function keys with the BBS). Hold down the [Alt] key and tap the [=] key to turn doorway mode on in Icom's terminal, when accessing a BBS that supports it. The same key-combo turns doorway mode off. If you forget the key just press [Alt-Z] to pop up Icom's menu, open the "Keyboard" menu, and select Doorway Mode from the menu. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it for now. If you run across a BBS that supports "doorway mode" (which most all comm. programs have, and which is almost always turned on/off with [Alt-=]), Intellicomm supports it and you can make use of it. If not, you don't have to worry about it. 1.3.3 Factors for E-Mail Users to Consider For those interested in electronic mail, there are also different factors to consider when looking for a good BBS. Some of it will be confusing Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 7 until you read the section on messages below, but basically there are three considerations: 1) "Network" messages vs. local messages. 2) Online Mail (you read/reply to messages while connected) vs. Offline Mail (you read/reply messages while OFFLINE or not connected). 3) Whether the BBS carries the message topics you're interested in. "Network" messages are available on BBS's that belong to one or more organized message networks. Depending on the network, you may be able to communicate with other people in your city, or (more often than not) with people from all over the world ... most times for free, or for a small yearly subscription fee. If no networks are available on the BBS, you're "limited" to communicating only with people who call the same BBS; though sometimes this really isn't a serious limitation depending on the BBS. For example, if the BBS's purpose is to discuss local activities and entertainment, there would be little need for those outside the local area to participate, and lack of message networks wouldn't be a handicap. Online messaging/e-mail vs. offline messaging, however, is something for everyone to consider. If a BBS doesn't have an "Offline Message System" available (discussed in more detail below), you'll have to spend a great deal of your online time each day, and possibly spend money on long- distance fees, reading mail and entering your messages/replies ONLINE. Handling mail online is slow, tedious and is much more difficult than handling it offline. If you're handling your mail online because you think it's harder to use offline mail, you're quite mistaken. To me, even just READING mail online is like a trip to the dentist.... let alone entering replies online in a slow, cryptic online editor. If an Offline Message System is available (such as Qmail, Tomcat, MegaMail, and many others ... Icom supports many of them) you can enter one or two commands (or have Icom do it for you) and have the mail system collect all the new messages on the subjects you're interested in, COMPRESS the results for the fastest transfer time, and send it all for you to read and reply to OFFLINE using an Offline Message Reader program. And the offline reader program does not operate at the speed of your modem ... since you're not connected when you use it. While browsing the new mail, you can use your mouse, you get real color, you get fast screen updates ... you can re-sort messages instantly, and save useful information in folders for future reference, and you can even use your favorite editor or word processor with spell checker and/or grammar checker to enter your own messages and replies! Not only that, but you also usually have context-sensitive help available at the press of a key, AND you can relax and take your time both reading the mail and entering your replies... since you're offline and not tieing up the BBS or your own telephone line. If you're planning to get into messages to any extent (one message per month would still be worth it) offline mail is really the only way to go, and you should seek out a BBS that has an offline mail system: Most do, and BBS software that doesn't have offline mail BUILT-IN is becoming few and far between these days. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 8 Messages are discussed in more detail below. 1.4 Where to find BBS Phone Numbers It is assumed you already know of at least one BBS, or you probably wouldn't have this tutorial. But if you're still looking for a "home" and want to find more numbers, it is recommended that you first check the bulletins of the BBS you currently call. Many times BBS operators will list the phone numbers of other BBS's in the bulletins, as a service to their users and to other BBS operators. Sometimes you'll also get some useful phone numbers in a "bye bye, thanks for calling" screen when you log off. As well there are often one or more people or organizations in a city who maintain full listings for all the BBS's in the city, and these lists are normally available for downloading from dozens of BBS's in the area. (For more information on locating files and downloading, see section 2.) There are also "world-wide" lists of assorted BBS types, and world-wide lists all of the same BBS type (all PCBoard BBS's, etc). The best way to find these lists is to perform a file search/scan on your BBS, using the keyword "list" (or "BBS & List" if '&' [and] is allowed in the search criteria). If the bulletin/file search fails, try leaving a message to ALL in the 'Main' or 'Chit-chat' message area online asking for a few good numbers. Often times there is also a message area called "BBS Ads" where Sysops advertise their BBS's. If all that fails, the operator of the BBS you're calling may be able to help you out. 1.5 Dialing a BBS No rocket science is required here. But as a general guideline, it is recommended that you use the "Manual" menu selection in Intellicomm's BBS Directory when attempting to connect to a BBS for the first time. This way, if the number is out of service or if the BBS just isn't what you're looking for, you won't have to worry about deleting the entry in your Icom BBS Directory. Alternatively, "Edit" the @Temporary BIF and add the BBS phone number(s) (do NOT enter a "Password Answr" on the Logon screen or Intellicomm will attempt an auto logon). This is the route you must go if the BBS/online service you're calling requires special comm. paramters (baud, parity, etc), since you can't change the comm. port parameters using the "Manual" dial option. 1.6 Once You're Connected The first mistake people make is to get uptight and rush around as if someone had a gun to their head. The very first thing you must do after you connect is RELAX. Take your time and read the screens all the way through. Nobody's going to get mad at you for taking the time to do things right; but Sysops DO get frustrated sometimes when people rush around and make needless mistakes. BBS operators spend a great deal of Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 9 time setting things up for you, and they APPRECIATE it when you actually take your time, relax, and read the information they've provided. Most times you'll be given very clear information as to what the BBS's purpose is in life, how to get full access and pay any necessary fees, and what's expected of you if there are any specific rules (or many times you'll be pointed to a special 'bulletin' to read once you get to the main menu: make sure you read it). Many BBS's also have a system that is capable of phoning you back to verify your phone number, after which you usually gain further access to the BBS (downloading priviledges for example). NOTE: If you use one of these call-back systems, the BBS will disconnect at one point (it'll tell you it's about to do so) and at this point Intellicomm will assume you have logged off and will automatically switch back to the BBS Directory. Don't panic when this happens... you do have a few seconds before the BBS calls back. Simply select "Terminal" from the BBS Directory menu, then wait there for the the BBS to call back. When you see the word "RING" on the screen (and/or hear the phone ring), just type ATA and press [Enter] (a standard modem command to get it to pick up the phone) and WAIT. Within a few seconds the BBS will connect and you'll probably then be asked to enter your password again. Make sure you keep track of your passwords; if you enter a password in an Icom BIF you can send it to the BBS by holding down the [Alt] key then tapping [2]. 1.7 Privacy One thing that concerns many people when they first get into BBSing is the fact that we are usually required to enter a fair amount of personal information (address, computer type, phone number, age, sex, etc) before we even reach the BBS's main menu. And you often have no idea who the information is going to at the time... and that can be a little unnerving. I've entered my real name and address at probably five hundred BBS's all around the world and it doesn't concern me to do so in the slightest anymore... but I tend to deal with reputable BBS's and Sysops who have been around for a while. At the smaller BBS's you truly have NO idea who you're giving the information to in most cases, so use your discretion when entering personal information at any BBS that doesn't have an established reputation. And you should obviously be very careful before passing out your credit card number to anyone, until you know who you're dealing with. Credit card number lists have also been stolen from BBS's in the past (by hackers) so feel free to ask your Sysop what s/he's doing to protect your personal information. You have every right to be concerned about it and preferably personal information should be stored on-disk scrambled (encrypted) by the BBS software. If a BBS is well-known and has been around for years and has a reputation to protect, I usually don't mind entering my credit card number to renew my subscription; but if you'd rather not, then don't. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 10 Aside from the above, if you end up calling many dozens of BBS's while looking for a good one, you may (as I have) grow very weary of entering this information over, and over, and over, and over.... But Intellicomm can help you with this if you define your personal information on the main setup "User Settings" screen. This screen holds your name, address, phone numbers, birth date, and so forth. Once you enter the information, you can then have Icom type the responses for you when logging on to a BBS for the first time, by pressing [Alt-1] through [Alt-0]. By the by, the main reason Sysops want to know all this stuff is to give you some incentive NOT to be a "bad" person online. When your name, address and phone number is known, you're less likely to make a pain of yourself, or to do illegal things such as uploading retail programs, or organizing a bank heist through the message base, etc. 1.8 The Scrollback Buffer/Capture File Two things that can contribute to your relaxation when connected are Intellicomm's "Scrollback Buffer" and "Capture" features. If something scrolls off the screen before you can read it -- relax. Just press [Alt- Z] to call up Intellicomm's menu, then select "Scrollback Buffer" from the menu (or press [Alt-B] to select the Scrollback Buffer without using the [Alt-Z] menu). Once in the scrollback buffer, use [Ctrl-PgUp] to go to the very top (it defaults to holding 10 Kbytes of previous BBS screen information) use [Ctrl-PgDn] to go to the very bottom, and [PgUp], [PgDn] and the other cursor keys to move around as you would expect. As in the Terminal, [Alt-Z] calls up the Scrollback Buffer's menu when you're in it. The Scrollback Buffer menu allows you to save information to disk, send info to your printer, and 'block' portions of text to save/print (hold down a [Shift] key while using a cursor key to block text), and other useful things. [Esc] exits the Scrollback Buffer and returns you to Terminal Mode, with the screen exactly as it was before you entered the Scrollback Buffer. TIP: When you press [Alt-Z] to call up Intellicomm's menu, or otherwise enter another terminal command (enter the Scrollback Buffer, etc.), you don't have to worry about losing text from the BBS, if it sends anything while the menu is active. Intellicomm will still be processing characters in the background and placing them in its internal "Receive Buffer" (size is configurable in the main setup; it defaults to 4 Kbytes). Once the Receive Buffer fills up, Icom will activate "flow control" which tells the BBS to stop sending. Once you exit the Scrollback Buffer/Alt-Z menu or whatever it was you were doing, everything the BBS had sent while you were away will be displayed to the screen, and Intellicomm will automatically then de-activate flow control (if necessary) and the BBS will start sending again. So you really have NO need to panic or rush while you're connected. Take your time and relax. If you miss something the BBS sends but don't want to bother entering the Scrollback Buffer while connected (or even if you do enter it and see something you'd like to review later when not connected) you can always simply read the "Capture File" once disconnected. "Capture" means that Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 11 Intellicomm is writing each line of text from the BBS into a file on- disk, so you can review the entire session later if necessary. By default (configurable in the main setup), Intellicomm automatically turns the capture file (\ICOM\CAP\ICOM.CAP) ON every time you connect. To view the .CAP file when disconnected, press [Alt-M] to access the Main Menu, then select "Review Session Captures" from the menu. Then hilight ICOM.CAP (several older .CAP files should also be available from previous connections), and select "View" to look at the file. 1.9 Getting Help from the BBS When you reach the BBS main menu, if it's not a BBS type you're familiar with, it's a good idea to access the BBS Help facility and capture the help screens for later persusal when disconnected. Help with the BBS interface is normally available by typing 'H' for [H]elp or by entering a question mark [?]. Lots of useful little tips and tricks can be discovered through the BBS help facility. Often Sysops will also post ALL the help screens in a compressed file for downloading. Another helpful facility that should not be missed is the online "bulletin" or news menu. Typically the Sysop will post answers to commonly asked questions there, and will make available all sorts of interesting information about the BBS. You may even find a good deal on a new modem or some software. They're worth a look on every BBS. If all else fails, and you simply can't find the answer to a burning question, you can always go to the top and ask the Sysop. 1.10 Who is Sysop? Sysop, pronounced sis-op, refers to the BBS operator (SYStem OPerator). On a smaller BBS this is probably also the owner, and the person who installed the BBS software and set it up. On larger systems the Sysop may not actually be the owner, but will be an experienced employee who is trained to help solve system-related problems and answer questions related to the operation of the BBS. The more experience a Sysop has, the more times s/he's been asked the same question over and over and over... and the better the chance is that the ANSWER to that question is posted in the online news for users to read. So always check the bulletins before you go to the Sysop. If you run into a system-related problem (if something goes haywire at the BBS, and looks as if it needs repair) this should always be reported to the Sysop, with as many details as possible to put the problem into context. If you simply say "it blew up" ... it won't be of much use. And while on the topic: there is NO way you can damage a BBS from your end of the connection. If a Sysop tells you that you damaged something, don't believe it... S/he's either a rookie or is just plain misinformed, and has almost surely made a mistake in the BBS setup (or computer setup) that he's inadvertently blaming on you. Nothing your modem does and nothing that you do has a 'direct' path into the BBS's computer: Everything has to go through the BBS software before Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 12 it can get at the computer, and if the BBS software is bug-free, written properly, and set up properly, you simply cannot do ANYTHING to damage the BBS, or the computer the BBS is running on. If it's not bug-free, or hasn't been set up properly, it's not your fault if the BBS stops working while you happened to be online. Of course, expect to be kicked off the BBS if you intentionally go around trying to *cause* malfunctions. That's a different story, and I'm referring only to those who are trying NOT to make mistakes. Sysops understandably don't appreciate people who *try* to get the BBS to malfunction. Asking the Sysop questions and reporting problems you run into online also requires some knowledge ... But normally you will be able to do this by either leaving a COMMENT TO SYSOP (most times it's a Main Menu option, but sometimes comments are left from the [M]essage menu). It works basically like this on most BBS's: 1. Select [C]omment to Sysop from the Main or Message Menu. 2. Answer NO if asked whether to use a "full screen editor". 3. Enter your comment to the Sysop, ending with a BLANK line. It may look something like this: 1: Hi. I'm a new user so please bear with me, but I just tried 2: to access the [B]ulletin menu and I ended up at the [F]ile 3: menu instead. Just thought I'd let you know. 4: ^ Press ENTER at the beginning of a line to end the message. To leave a BLANK line, enter one space then press ENTER. 4. You'll then usually receive a very cryptic menu of options, perhaps just showing you some letters. [S]ave (the letter S) is almost ALWAYS used to save the comment and return to the BBS. The Sysop may respond to your comment by simply fixing the problem (give it a couple of days), or s/he may leave a reply for you to read. The BBS itself *should* tell you exactly how to read the reply if there's one there for you to read, but unfortunately many don't... and there are no standards for such things, so it's done differently from one BBS type to the next. So while you're waiting for a reply/fix, the best bet is to capture the online help screens (make sure you access the Message Menu and access the help from there as well) and read the help ahead of time so you'll know how to read your reply if/when it gets there. "Paging" the Sysop or "Chat" with Sysop is another option on some BBS's, but not all BBS operators allow paging. If Page/Chat isn't enabled you'll receive a message to that effect when you try. Otherwise, when you select "Page the Operator", the BBS's computer starts beeping (you won't hear it at your end) to let the Sysop know that someone wants to chat. If the Sysop is around and isn't busy, s/he'll press a key and the chat will begin automatically. You can then turn on Icom's "Chat Mode" by pressing [Alt-T]. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 13 You may also be asked for a reason when you Page the Sysop (i.e. "why do you want to chat?"). If so, you'd enter something like "Just want to chat" ... or "Question about messages" ... or "Had a problem downloading" ... or whatever. If the Sysop IS around but is very busy s/he'll be able to see WHY you're paging and you may then receive a message that the operator is unavailable, if your reason for chatting wasn't urgent (and what the Sysop was in the middle of at the time was more urgent). 1.11 What are DOORS? Most BBS's have a menu option to access or open "doors". These are simply external programs that aren't part of the main BBS software (and normally aren't even developed by the same company that programmed the BBS). If you've used any external protocols with Intellicomm or other comm. programs, "doors" basically work on the same principle. They're external programs used to give BBS's abilities that they don't have built-in ... such as online games, time banking (storing your unused online time to be used on another day), information services, offline message systems*, and any other useful things people can dream up that aren't built into the main BBS software directly. Sometimes "doors" can take a long time to load and unload, so after you do access/leave a door, be patient. It may take a few seconds to load. * OFFLINE MESSAGE SYSTEMS are available in "doors" on some BBS's, and these types of mail systems are the best way to go if you're planning to get into electronic mail. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 14 2. INTRODUCTION TO FILE TRANSFERS (UPLOADS AND DOWNLOADS) This section discusses various types of files you'll find on BBS's, how to find what you need quickly, and why you shouldn't feel guilty about downloading files. I'm covering file transfers before messages, simply because there is very little you can do on a BBS (including reading and entering messages properly) without first transferring a few files, and learning how to scan the file listings for various tools you need. BBS operators who frown on people "running immediately to the file area" before using the mail system are not only doing software developers a disservice (we WANT people to run immediately to the file area... and in many cases it's the software online that causes people to buy a modem and start using BBS's in the first place), but they're also imposing a rule that make little sense in many cases. Until people become comfortable with the BBS's file system and download some programs or other files to play around with -- there may be very little need to USE the message system, unless you have no other way to "socialize". Typing text to one another over a computer isn't everyone's idea of a good time. If files are available for download, don't feel guilty for downloading them. If your Sysop tries to make you feel guilty (as many do), find another BBS to call. You get what you pay for ... and on a pay BBS you'll be able to download to your heart's content, or preferably get Icom to do it for you while you do something more interesting. 2.1 Where do the Files/Programs Come From? On many BBS's, the files come from people like yourself. If the version of Intellicomm you have isn't on a BBS you call as yet, you can send it (upload the complete and unmodified distribution archives) to the BBS over the telephone. Many times, the Sysop will also collect files from other BBS's. A caution though: Unless a program specifically states in its license that you're allowed to copy/re-distribute the work, you can get into trouble by uploading the file. Your distribution criteria should be that unless a license accompanying the work DOES state that you're free to re- distribute, you shouldn't. Not the other way around. A copyrighted work need not specifically state that it cannot be re-distributed: protection is automatically built in when you see the word "copyright" attached to the work. Unless re-distribution permission/conditions are given in a license, if it has a copyright, you shouldn't re-distribute it. Also be careful about PICTURES you upload. If you scan a picture in Better Homes & Gardens (or more likely Playboy) and upload it to a BBS, again, "someone" is in violation of copyright laws. Playboy did issue warnings to BBS's some time ago, and many Sysops have since deleted all copyrighted pictures they could find, and posted warnings to users... and a lawsuit was avoided. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 15 2.2 Who creates the programs? As to where the programs and files originated in the first place... again many of them came from people just like yourself. Someone got tired of doing something a certain way, or needed a certain tool or utility to get something done... it wasn't available anywhere so they developed it themselves. Rather than just keeping it for their own use, many people will then upload the program for others to make use of. A few programs such as Intellicomm, are developed for a specific market as a business endeavour/for profit (or more properly for 'compensation' since profit is difficult to guage when it comes to software development), and released under the user-supported software concept. Without the possibility of financial compensation for work it took to produce Intellicomm version 2, it simply would not have been produced. No one would (or could) work 60-80 hour weeks, over a span of four years for nothing. And even if someone would do that, they'd have a difficult time doing it it for any length of time, unless their landlord, grocer, doctor and everyone else they ran into in their life was of a like mind and offered free service. Shareware developers aren't looking to get rich at your expense... they're simply forced to ask for reasonable compensation, to pay their bills... just like everyone else. It's either retail software (middle-men and expenses everywhere which YOU pay for when you purchase the product), write the programs you need yourself, free software (you get what you pay for often holds true here), or user-supported software. User supported software strikes a balance between expensive retail software and free software. It's inexpensive due to lack of middle-men/expenses, it's fairer than retail software since you get to try before you buy, it's easier to get since you can simply have Icom download it for you, and it's high quality because it's funded (assuming you participate). 2.3 Locating Files You're Interested In The good news about the files available on BBS's is that over the years, just about EVERYTHING has been produced. The selection on the larger BBS's is absolutely staggering. Whether you need business software/utilities/add-ons (word processing, spreadsheet, database, communications, mailing lists, financial, statistical, scheduling), or a graphics program or converter, or CAD-related software, or Desktop Publishing utilities and add-ons, or games, or more games, or still MORE games, or database utilities/add-ons, or software to set up your own BBS, or communications programs scripts and utilities, ... <take a breath> ... or e-mail/network utilities, or something to keep track of your investments, disks, video tapes, recipies, appointments ... or DOS, Windows, OS/2 utilities/add-ons, or memory managers, or scientific/math programs or utilities, programming tools/libraries, or TUTORIALS on all of the above ... <pant ... pant> or something that you can't even dream up yet but will certainly be delighted to find someday -- no matter WHAT you need, it's probably on a BBS somewhere! The bad news is that FINDING specifically what you need can sometimes be a job in itself. But many BBS's are quite well organized and if you Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 16 learn HOW to effectively look for what you need, you'll shorten your search time significantly. Unfortunately, there no standards on BBS's as far as organization and searching techniques go, since Sysops organize their boards in many different ways. Thus, it's difficult to give you information here that will work on your favorite BBS. However, there are some "basics" to learn. The first step in finding a file is to access the BBS's "File" system, if it has one: You may have to enter a specific command from the main menu before you can access any files ([F]ile Menu is usually the command, but if you don't see any way to access a file menu, you can probably accomplish everything right from the main menu). The next step in finding a file on a BBS is to make sure you understand how the BBS organizes its files (as usual, see the bulletins/help screens, and ask the Sysop if all else fails). Some BBS's are split up into what basically amounts to several BBS's. I.e. you may have an "Apple" area, and a separate "IBM" area, and a "General" area that contains neither IBM files nor Apple-related files. So make sure you're in the proper area/conference/forum/whatever before you attempt to locate a file. In the semi-chaotic tradition of BBS's though, sometimes you must NOT be in a specific area to find what you're looking for... If your BBS has a "WordPerfect" conference/forum, the WordPerfect-oriented files may not actually be posted there but may be instead available in a general "Word Processing" area or just in the "Main" BBS area. To further confuse the issue, there are often different ways of performing searches. Most BBS's allow you to perform both FILENAME searches (only filenames are searched for) and TEXT searches (where the DESCRIPTION of the file is also searched). And there are often file sub- categories or "file areas" to help narrow things down. On PCBoard BBS's, for example, files can be split up into CONFERENCES (IBM files in one conference, Apple files in another), and each conference can also have several file areas (WordPerfect files in one area, Windows files in another, new uploads in another). Normally the "file areas" are simply used to help you to NARROW DOWN a search though, and you needn't actually specify the file area when you download the file. If you were looking for a Windows utility on a PCBoard BBS, and the BBS's Windows area was file area #12 in conference #1, you would: J 1 (Join conference 1) Z ([Z]ippy Scan searches the file descriptions and FILENAME.EXT) text (enter whatever you want to search for 12 (tell PCBoard to ONLY look in file area #12, if you know that this is where all the Windows files are stored on the BBS. There's no point in searching a 'recipes' file area when you're looking for Windows utilities) Organization methods (the ways we THINK that things would be organized) vary from person to person though... so you can't always count on the fact that your Sysop will have organized the BBS in the way that YOU would organize it yourself. Another strategy I use when looking for Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 17 files is to first search the new files area (to first check for the latest releases), so that I don't download an old version of something. If nothing shows up in the new files area (which is the [U]ploads area on PCBoard), I may then go and search the Windows file area or the like ... and if that comes up empty, I search all areas. Until you're comfortable with a new BBS, you might just want to search ALL file areas right off the bat, until you get a good feel for how the Sysop organizes the files. Intellicomm can do that for you using this Job task: | 11 Search BBS for file[s] | Find: Intellicomm | Instead of worrying about all of the above, you would enter "11" in the Intellicomm Job Editor to select "Search BBS for files[s]". Icom then prompts you for what to look for and when you Run the job it logs on and searches all file areas for you. Any files found are then imported into the Icom file catalog you use for the BBS (see the Icom online help for more information on all of that when you're ready). If you're not sure how to search for files on the BBS, you may actually save time by setting Intellicomm up for automation. Of course, this relies on the fact that Intellicomm "knows" the type of BBS you call (PCBoard, Wildcat, RBBS, Maximus, Opus, etc. Use Learn Modes/BIF Learn from the Icom main menu, and Icom will watch for the BBS software type when it connects. If it recognizes the BBS software type, and it likely will, you'll be all set). TIP: the next time you logon your favorite BBS, try to download a file called ICOMAUTO.ZIP. If it's available, someone else has already set Icom up for the particular BBS and you'll be ready for automation -- file searches included -- in seconds. 2.4 Archives/File Compression (.ZIP, .ARJ, .LHA files, etc) Once you do find a file, it will almost surely be compressed. Files are compressed to reduce the transfer time, and also to keep several files (all the files in a given software package) together under the same filename. The most common type of compressed file used on BBS's at the time of this writing (and for many years previously) is the .ZIP format, created by Phil Katz. To access the files in a .ZIP archive you need the programs PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE (also produced by Phil Katz) and both programs are free unless you use them commercially in your business. The programs are normally available on BBS's in a "self-extracting" archive called PKZ???.EXE where ??? is the PKZIP version number. E.g. PKZ200.EXE would contain v2.00 of PKZIP/UNZIP. Once downloaded you simply 'run' the PKZ???.EXE archive and all the files within (PKZIP.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE and the documentation) will then be uncompressed into the current directory. TIP: On BBS's that support "batch" downloads (where you can enter more than one filename before starting the transfer; and can use wildcards * and ? in filenames) if you simply attempt to download PKZ*.EXE, using an asterisk in place of the numbers, you'll be shown all the files on the BBS that start with PKZ and have an extension of .EXE (i.e. all versions of PKZIP). Then abort the download or you'll get ALL of the files, and re-start it, this time entering just the filename with the highest numbers in it (i.e. choose PKZ200.EXE over PKZ110.EXE). This little trick can be used to quickly obtain filenames, when you know the general Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 18 format of the filename. It locates files much faster than the regular method of scanning the BBS file listings. Sometimes you'll find other types of archives, and each archive type requires its own special program to manipulate it. .ARC uses PKPAK.EXE / PKUNPAK.EXE, .LHA uses LHA.EXE, .ARJ uses ARJ.EXE, etc. If your Sysop is using a compression format other than ZIP s/he will have the proper "unarchiver program" available where you can easily find it. 2.5 .GIF, .JPG and .MAC Files These files can be confusing for the newcomer, as they are not compressed files such as the ZIP files mentioned above are. Rather these are actually pictures that you can view with a special viewer program. The viewer programs are abundant and any BBS that makes these pictures available should have an ample number of shareware picture viewers available for you to download. CSHOW is a good one that supports many video monitor and display adaptor types, and CSHOW also supports many different picture TYPES (.GIF, .JPG, .MAC, .BMP, .PIC, .PCX and others), which is handy. Other types of "picture" files you may run may actually be several pictures which simulate an animated "movie" rather than a single frame picture. To view these files you need the proper viewer program as usual. .GL files are common and a program called GRASP.EXE (also available on BBS's), is used to view them. 2.6 Transfer Protocols Transfer protocols (Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, etc.) are used when transferring important data from one computer to another via the comm. port (by modem or null modem cable between two computers). They use a technique similar to that discussed in the "Error-correcting modem" section of the GLOSSARY, in that they perform extra checking on the data once it's received to make sure it's all there and in one piece. If an error is detected, the receiving computer "tells" the sending computer there's an error, and the sending computer re-sends the portion of data that had the error. Of course, it would be silly to transfer the entire file and then report that there was an error and to have to re-send the entire file again; so the protocols split the files up into "blocks" or packets, and send them one piece at a time, check that one piece, then either re-transmit that one piece (if an error was detected) or continue on with the next piece. This way, if an error is detected, only a small amount of data has to be re-transmitted instead of the entire file. IMPORTANT: If/when you see a message on Intellicomm's protocol screen, such as "Bad CRC at byte 4096", it means that the protocol has found and is CORRECTING an error. A second or so later Icom should report that the error has been corrected. You never have to "do" anything about these messages; they're printed only to let you know that an error occurred and that the file transfer may take a little longer due to the correction (re-sending of the same block) of the error. If you get tons of protocol errors (a running total is kept beside 'Error count' in the protocol Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 19 window), you may want to abort the transfer and call the BBS back to get a better telephone connection. While all protocols basically perform this same function (error detection and correction), the difference between the protocols is how they go about it. There are many good documents available on BBS's explaining the technical aspects of the protocols for those who are interested, so here we'll just explain which protocols are best to use. Intellicomm lists its internal protocols (excluding the -G protocols) on the protocol menu from worst to best. So you can make your decision easily based on that... Xmodem is the worst, Zmodem is the best. But one thing you must understand is that all the protocols "speak a different language" so you must use the SAME protocol on the BBS that you use with Icom. The main reason Icom has a number of protocols available is to ensure that the BBS you call will have at least one of them available for use. X/Ymodem are always available at BBS's (they've been out for years, and most BBS software has X/Ymodem built in), but neither is overly effecient or reliable. Zmodem is flexible, extremely reliable, fast, and it has "bonus" features you won't find in other protocols such as crash recovery and batch statistics. "Crash recovery" can automatically re- start an aborted transfer exactly where it left off before the abort. So, if you transferred 9/10'ths of a file, then the connection was lost for some reason (or you just had to use the phone for an emergency and aborted manually yourself), you could call back, re-start the download, and Zmodem would only transfer only the 1/10'th it didn't get. You don't have to "do" anything unusual to take advantage of this feature: Zmodem does it for you automatically. This feature definitely saves a lot of time and frustration, since transfers do abort for various reasons from time to time. BUT unless the BBS also supports Zmodem you can't use it. Both ends must use the same protocol. The "-G" protocols (Xmodem-1K-G and Ymodem-g) are only of use you when (a) you have an error-correcting modem yourself, and (b) you are connected to ANOTHER error-correcting modem at the BBS. If the modems are doing the error-correcting themselves, then you can use the -G protocols and gain some speed. But Zmodem does basically the same thing as the -G protocols do (it doesn't wait for an acknowledgement after each block), and doesn't suffer from a rather serious limitation that the -G protocols suffer from: errors still can creep through when error- correcting modems are in use, from the time data leaves your modem until such time as the data is written to disk. Your modem cable or COM port or other computer circuits could have small defects... and the -G protocols have NO WAY of correcting a detected error; so they will simply abort the transfer if an error is detected -- and this is really not an ideal situation for unattended/automated transfers (Icom will recover and re-start the download... but it will have to tranfer the whole file again). For automated transfers, even though Zmodem is slightly slower, you're still better off using it for unattended sessions, where reliability is as much of a concern as speed is. Another limitation that the -G protocols have, and regular X/Ymodem as well, is that they don't incorporate "crash recovery" (by protocol specification/design... there's nothing Icom can do about it). So if a Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 20 file transfer is aborted three seconds before the end of an hour-long transfer, the entire file will have to be transferred again unless you switch to Zmodem to get the rest of the file (you may use Zmodem to resume an aborted transfer no matter which protocol you originally transferred the file with). Again, during automated transfers Intellicomm will not switch to Zmodem (it uses the protocol you tell it to use), and while it will notice an aborted transfer and re-transfer the file, if you're using anything but Zmodem (or an external protocol that supports crash recovery) the entire file will have to be re-transferred if the transfer aborts or the connection is lost. If you're using Zmodem, only the portion of the file Icom didn't get will be transferred. Moral: USE ZMODEM WHEN YOU CAN. NOTE: Zmodem's "crash recovery" mode is defined in the Icom main setup, on the "Protocols" screen. If you turn Zmodem crash recovery OFF, then you'll lose the benefit and Zmodem will be forced to re-transfer the entire file when a transfer aborts. Moral: don't turn it off. <grin> 2.7 External Protocols External Protocols are protocols that are not built directly into Intellicomm, but can be "integrated" with Intellicomm through the use of an external program (the protocol itself) and a couple of .BAT files. Where to find external protocols? On the BBS's, as usual. Why to use them? There's really no "need" to use them, other than to gain enhanced benefits that you might not get through Intellicomm's internal protocols. External protocol developers can concentrate much more effort on the protocol itself and may enhance/add things that we don't have time for at present. Unique and experimental new protocol ideas are often released first as external protocols. BBS's support external protocols... and so do most comm. programs, so they're a good way to introduce new protocol ideas to a wide group of people. HS/Link is a fantastic external protocol which works well with Intellicomm -- and it allows you to perform bi-directional file transfers. That is, you can upload and download files at the same time. Intellicomm *automates* only HS/Link bi-directional message transfers (to send your replies/receive mail at the same time). Automating bi- directional uploads/downloads is too complicated to handle at present, given the current BBS situation and lack of standards. However you can perform bi-directional HS/Link transfers manually with Icom as you can with any other comm. program. Intellicomm DOES support uni-directional HS/Link automated transfers (uploads separate from downloads) and even in single direction transfers HS/Link often attains speeds as fast as a "-G" protocol, it has crash recovery as Zmodem does, and it's capable of correcting errors unlike the -G protocols. I've been using HS/Link with Icom for a few months and frequently receive higher transfer speeds than with Zmodem on regular file uploads/downloads (uni-directionally), I've gained the ability to transfer mail bi-directionally, and have given up nothing as far as reliability goes. You certainly don't 'have' to use HS/Link, or any external protocol for that matter, but it may be worth a look in the future, when you're ready for experimentation. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 21 At this writing, HS/Link was still fairly new and updates/fixes were being released frequently, so to locate the latest release your best bet is to search the BBS or ask someone. External protocol programs are not as mysterious/confusing as they may seem at first ... They are totally self-contained programs and rely on NOTHING from the communications program that runs them, save for perhaps the proper COM port number and baud rate (i.e. you could run them from the DOS command line without ever using a comm. program -- if you could connect to a BBS and start a download without using a comm. program). Many external protocols actually have mini terminals (comm. programs) built into them... since they are totally self-contained and all of them use their own communications routines. They know nothing about the comm. program that called them; and since they have everything they need right in their own .EXE, they don't have to. And all Icom has to know about an external protocol the DOS command to start the program (via a .BAT file normally), and whether the external protocol program needs to have the FILENAME.EXT of the file we're transferring or not. That's it... it's very simple to use these external protocols. The most common problem people run into with external protocols is in getting the comm. program to run the external protocol properly. They either don't copy the external protocol .EXE or .COM file into a directory on their DOS PATH (which simply causes a "Bad command or filename" error from DOS when Icom tries to run the protocol program), or they don't set the .BAT files up properly to get Icom to pass the proper port/speed/filenames to the external protocol program. It's all outlined in the online help in the "External Protocols" link though, and is very rudimentary, so if you have problems be sure to read the online help. 2.8 Viruses/Bombs/Trojans and Protection Viruses/Trojans are a touchy area with some people, and there are those who would have you believe that these things run rampant on BBS's. But I've downloaded thousands of programs and other files from BBS's all over North America, and in nearly five years I have never run into even one of these things. It would be irresponsible to say that they don't exist -- they do. It's just not quite the huge problem that it's made out to be by the media, and the virus "enthusiasts". Some time ago we had the Michaelangelo "virus" scare ... where a virus was supposed do nasty things to everyone's computer on Michaelangelo's birthday. It made most every news program, and was on CNN, and the sales of the people who develop virus checking programs likely went through the roof. But as is the case with most of these things, it turned out to be more hype than it was a real threat. A few people got hit by it, but more people were probably hit by lightening on the same day. BBS's are actually the *last* place you'll run into viruses due to the checking that is done by BBS Operators -- that ISN'T done elsewhere. Every major virus to date has been released either through RETAIL software (a release of Lotus 1-2-3 contained a virus) or was limited to the networks such as those at universities, where virus checking wasn't done. BBS's do so much cross-checking, and word spreads so fast when a problem DOES show Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 22 up, that you're far less likely to run into a problem with files you download from a BBS. If you don't virus check the disks you get when you purchase retail software, you're going overboard by virus checking BBS files... since in most cases you'll simply be duplicating the same virus check that your SYSOP has already done, and that the Sysop before him has already done, and the Sysop before, and the Sysop before him, and so forth. The more files spread around BBS's, the more they're checked... since most all BBS's run virus checks, and most all BBS's get the files from OTHER BBS's which have already performed their own virus checks. The same cannot be said of retail software. It might be checked once... or it might not be checked at all. When I first got into BBSing, I enthusiastically went around collecting various "bomb checker" and virus checking programs and whatnot, but it quickly grew boring as I checked and checked and checked and never ran into a thing (and at that time, I was calling questionable single-line BBS's that were much less likely to have virus checked [or even looked at] their uploads). Now, I instead spend my time at something that gives me much more protection: I back up my hard disk regularly and that leaves me more or less unconcerned about the "bombs" and "trojan" programs. Bombs and Trojans are simply programs that re-format or otherwise trash the data on your hard disk, instead of doing what they're supposed to do -- at which point you pull out your backup, restore your drive, delete the program and simply don't run it again. THEN warn others at your BBS, if you're positive that it was the program and not user error that caused the problem (as is often the case; lack of knowledge about your computer will likely cause you more grief than any virus you'll ever run into). Viruses are more of a problem since they attach themselves to other .EXE files and often to DOS, and when the .EXE is executed, they take the opportunity to then copy themselves into other files (to conjur up more exciting images, the media will say they "infect" other files). But with the virus checking that goes on at the BBS's I call (and probably the ones you call too... they all seem to do it), I don't feel it's necessary to repeat the exact same check, on the exact same files, once downloaded to my system. I virus check Intellicomm before I upload it, but am largely unconcerned about the files I download from my BBS ... since I know that they've already virus checked the files themselves. Note that virus checking programs are NOT a bullet-proof answer to the virus problem, since new versions ("strains" to the media) of viruses are released from time to time. If you rely on a virus checking program, you're only safe from the viruses that had been produced as of the date that the virus checker itself was written. Backing up your important data regularly is a much better defense, not only against viruses, but also against other things such as hard drive failures and user error. Scenario: you back up your entire hard drive once a month, and you perform incremental backups whenever you realize that you'd lose quite a lot of stuff if distaster struck (that might be hourly if you do nothing by type all day at your computer; or weekly if you rarely add new data to your hard drive). Then, a virus hits one day and wipes out your hard drive. You then pull out your backups (which also contain the virus), you restore the last full backup you did, and all the incremental backups from least-recent to most-recent -- and you run CLEAN (the virus cleaner- Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 23 upper that accompanies McAffee's SCAN) from a write-protected floppy disk to wipe out the virus from all files on your hard drive. Back up your hard drive again (which is now virus free) and you're back in business. You'll have lost only what you hadn't backed up from the time of your last backup until the virus hit. The above scenario (minus the virus) happens to EVERYONE who owns a hard drive, sooner or later. Your hard drive will fail on you one day: you can count on that. It might happen in 10 minutes, or in a year, or in two years, but it's definitely going to happen. Make your backups and you can rest easy: viruses, hard drive failures, bombs, trojan horse programs, and user error will be someone else's concern -- not yours. The above is a "commentary" and you can take it or leave it. You CAN be victimized by a virus/trojan, just as you CAN be hit by lightning, and it does depend on the quality of the BBS you call as to whether you have a good/remote chance of running into problems. If you have a responsible Sysop who checks files that are posted, and VALIDATES the people who call the BBS so their real names and phone numbers are known, your chances of running into problems are much less. If your Sysop never checks anything and lets anyone access the BBS without knowing their real names, then you're standing in the middle of a golf course during a thunderstorm... and virus checking would be prudent. So protecting yourself from viruses/trojan programs can be done by (a) calling a BBS with a responsible Sysop, (b) backing up your important data often, (c) learning enough about your computer that you don't create your OWN problems and lose things, then blame it on a virus inadvertently (item b will protect you against your own mistakes too though), (d) ask a virus "enthusiast" on your BBS for the latest in virus and trojan protection. The most popular virus checking program used by BBSers is the SCAN program, produced by McAffee. The latest version of SCAN is available for download at most all BBS's ... since the latest versions of SCAN are almost always used by BBS Sysops (most BBS software has the ability to use an external virus checker to AUTOMATICALLY check all newly uploaded files) to check the files BEFORE you get them. And contrary to what some people might tell you, a virus cannot be "added" to a previously virus checked file, during a file transfer. If the Sysop has already checked the files you're transferring, the modem hardware/telephone line will not be able to add a virus on the way to your computer. Also realize that until you execute a program, it cannot do ANYTHING to your computer. A compressed .ZIP file is completely harmless and it's not until you uncompress it, and EXECUTE the .COM or .EXE inside that you risk the possibility of something nasty happening. Intellicomm also has the ability to automatically uncompress and virus check all new downloads, via POSTFILE.SCR and McAffee's SCAN.EXE (or any external virus checking program that return a DOS 'errorlevel' to signify a virus: I know of none that don't). Since Icom can do this automatically while you sleep, and the POSTFILE.SCR setup is painless, you might as well download SCAN and take advantage of the feature... But unless you keep on top of the situation, and religiously download every new version of SCAN that is released, you'll quickly have obsolete virus checking abilities, since new viruses are produced from time to time. An Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 24 April 1994 release of SCAN won't be capable of finding any viruses that are produced from April 1994 onwards. I hate to mention this, because I don't feel that it's really an issue. But someone will probably tell you to watch out for it someday so you should know the facts. ANSI codes have the ability to re-map your keyboard, mainly to allow you to have your function keys do something useful from the DOS prompt (you can use ANSI.SYS to assign various commands to your functions keys, to run programs at the press of a key, etc). And as usual some loser took advantage of this and released a text file (supposedly... as the story goes) that re-mapped a key so that it entered something like DEL *.* ... or FORMAT C:, etc. You later press the key, and instead of the key doing what it usually does, it instead enters "DEL *.* [Enter]". First off, DEL *.* is ridiculously easy to recover from if you use any sort of UNDELETE utility on your machine. Second, to FORMAT a hard drive, the hard disk volume label must be entered... and it's not possible to build enough smarts into ANSI codes to do this automatically. Third, the only way ANSI codes can remap your keyboard is if you send the codes (the text file itself) to a program that is designed to watch for ANSI codes -- and allows re-mapping of the keyboard. ANSI.SYS does allow keyboard re-mapping via ANSI codes, but unless you still use the TYPE command to read text files... ANSI.SYS will never see a request to re-map the keyboard. If you use Icom's internal File Viewer to read text files (or an equivalent external utility such as Buerg's LIST utility), the ANSI codes will simply be displayed on the screen and won't be able to re-map anything. ANSI.SYS *only* sees ANSI codes if a certain (and very slow) DOS "display line" routine is used by a program (as with the TYPE command). Most file viewers, including Icom's File Viewer, write directly to video memory, bypassing DOS and ANSI.SYS entirely. As well, when online Intellicomm does process ANSI codes that are sent by the BBS, but Icom IGNORES any requests to re-map the keyboard. And again, since Icom doesn't use the DOS "display line" routine to display anything on your screen, ANSI.SYS, with its ANSI keyboard re-mapping feature, is completely bypassed. Taking all of this into consideration you really have no need to worry about these so-called "ANSI bombs". In the old days when the TYPE command was the usual way to display a README.1ST file, it may have been an issue... but today, most people use LIST or something else, where "ANSI bombs" are as harmless as the text in this sentence. But someone who doesn't know any better will probably tell you to watch out for ANSI bombs, someday. File the information under "G" (for Garbage) unless you still use the TYPE command to read text files. [There are several ANSI.SYS replacements available on BBS's, such as NANSI.SYS, that ignore requests to re-map the keyboard... so that even if you DO still use the TYPE command to read text files, even that couldn't re-map your keyboard.] Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 25 3. BBS MESSAGES/MESSAGE NETWORKS According to the Sysops I've chatted with over the years, about 70% of the people who call BBS's spend their time downloading files, and never bother with BBS messages. And with all the interesting shareware programs available, new releases to keep up with every week, and brand new releases that can revolutionize the way you live and work, it's understandable. But you really miss out on a LOT by not getting into messages. Many BBS's allow you to communicate with thousands of knowledgeable people all over the world -- for free, on topics ranging from the computer-oriented subjects, to politics, to adult topics, to scuba diving, to just about any other topic you can imagine. The larger BBS's carry an astonishing number of different message topics, which can be a very valuable resource to both business and home user alike. If you haven't taken the time to investigate BBS messages yet, you really should take a closer look at what's available. 3.1 Getting Started with Messages Getting started and leaving that first message or reply is the hardest part; but once you do it you'll be glad you did, as a whole new world will open up to you. People are friendly, helpful, and NOBODY worth talking to is going to laugh at you if you do something wrong, provided that you learn from your mistakes. Everyone -- absolutely EVERYONE -- was in the same boat when they started. And though you may feel like you're going to stick out like a sore thumb as a "newcomer", in reality newcomers show up by the dozens every day, and unless you're on a very small BBS ... nobody is going to know the difference. And by the time you finish reading this section, you'll be fully informed and won't BE "green" anymore, so you'll have nothing to worry about. You might feel dumb for asking a question, but again no one was born knowing everything, and if anyone does try to make you feel dumb -- it's THEY who have the problem and not you. There simply are no dumb questions... provided you ask in a coherent manner and ask the question or make your comment in the RIGHT place. 3.2 Message Conferences/Forums/Areas Most BBS "message bases" are split up into various topic areas... so that people who are interested in a given topic can find information quickly, and so that those who DON'T have any interest in a given topic don't have to weed through messages they have no interest in. The individual message/subject areas are normally called "conferences" or "forums". For example, if someone says "the Intellicomm conference", it means a Message Area on the BBS that exists for the purpose of discussing Intellicomm, and receiving advice. 3.3 The MAIN/GENERAL Message Area Most BBS's also have a "Main" or "General" message area/conference (normally area 0), where you can talk about the BBS itself (i.e. if you want to ask someone on the BBS if they know where a given file is), and Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 26 to just say hello to other people on your specific BBS. Often this is the ONLY message area where you can chit-chat. All other message areas probably have a specific purpose in life, and there you should only discuss the subject for which the area is intended. Some networks/BBS's are VERY strict about this (you'll be told by several dozen people if you post a message in the wrong place ... the RelayNet/RIME network is pretty strict about where messages are posted), and some are more relaxed. Message conferences called "Catch 22" or "Chit Chat" are also a common message area used on BBS's as a catch-all, or general discussion area. Normally if you see an "International" or specific language area (Dutch, Spanish, etc), you can also just chit-chat back and forth there... provided you speak the language. But don't ask "Bob" how the weather is in Vancouver -- in the WordPerfect conference -- unless you have a question/comment about WordPerfect for Bob as well. And preferably don't bring up the weather at all, unless you're in a chit-chat or weather conference. 3.4 Proper Behaviour "Proper" behaviour when leaving messages on one BBS may mean that you aren't permitted to use foul language or insult anyone -- while on another BBS swearing and insulting people may be the main objective. To find out what is proper on a given BBS, the best bet is to, as usual, read the BBS bulletins. The BBS bulletins are the "user's manual" for a given BBS and usually all important information is outlined in one or more bulletins. "Capture" or download all the bulletins, and read them offline at your convenience. One thing that is ALWAYS proper behaviour though, even if using foul language, is using relatively good spelling and grammar in your messages (alright, alright... get off my case, I'm working on it... <grin>). Another thing that is also ALWAYS proper behaviour is to make sure you know what you're talking about, before you put it in print in a BBS message... or to make sure you tell everyone that you're not positive about whatever information you're posting. There are quite a few "experts" hanging around on the various BBS networks, who respond to questions to impress people, when they have only a vague idea of the correct answer and terms they're using. They inadvertently leave the wrong advice, and never give a hint that they might be mistaken... and aren't "quite" positive about the advice they're giving. People appreciate help if you tack onto the end "I might be wrong on this", or "I'm not an expert in this area" or the like... but if you come across as a know-it-all and then make mistakes, you're going to end up in people's "twit filters" (an offline mail reader feature, which automatically filters out any messages from you), and you may even lose your access to that message area if you screw up badly enough. The problem (?) is that there are REAL experts monitoring BBS message conferences, on most every topic you can imagine. And the cold facts almost always end up right beside the know-it-all's remarks, disproving everything s/he said. If you come across with a fantastic bit of information and then say "take it or leave it, I'm no expert" (unless you are an expert and are positive), you'll leave an infinitely better Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 27 impression than if you come across as an expert, leave the wrong advice, and then have a real expert disprove your remarks in excruciating detail. 3.5 Comments to Sysop Comments to Sysop are the surest way to find out what BBS policy is, but they are something you should use only after you gone through the bulletins. Sysops tend to be asked the same questions over and over... and thus they put answers to commonly asked questions in the bulletins. 3.6 BBS Message Networks Many BBS's belong to BBS "networks", which can be loosely compared to a local television station in your area belonging to a television network. On television networks, for certain shows, everyone on the network is watching the exact same thing. So if you're watching CBS in Tampa, and I'm watching CBS in Toronto -- even though we're watching different stations run by different people -- we're both seeing the exact same thing. BBS networks work on the same principle -- but for messages and message areas, rather than television shows. If you leave a 'public' message on a BBS network, everyone else on the network sees the message, if they're tuned to that channel (or conference in this case). Just as some television stations belong to a given network (CBS as opposed to NBC, for example) so do BBS's choose the networks they wish to belong to. It also works the other way around, and the network organizers must approve and may also refuse a BBS access to the network for one reason or another (namely, if you or one of your fellow BBS callers make a pain of yourself on a network, and your sysop doesn't do something about it, s/he could lose his/her access to the network). Unless a BBS belongs to a network of some sort, the messages posted on the BBS will remain on that one BBS only, and no messages will come in from other BBS's. 3.7 How do Networks Work, and Who Pays? Being able to leave messages to people all over the World, without paying any extra fees, is something that dumbfounds many people when they first experience it. If you make a long-distance call to a friend/relative out of the country, the phone company charges you -- per minute -- for the long distance call. But this is almost never the case on BBS's (I would say "never" but there may be one exception that I've never heard of... I've never come across a BBS where you have to pay extra for any one message, no matter where the message goes). "Someone must be paying...", you say, and you're right. But normally YOU don't directly pay, other than through your BBS subscription. It is possible to even access a free BBS and send messages all over the world for nothing. The way it works is actually pretty simple. If you really don't care how it works and aren't interested, just skip to the next section. If you're the curious sort, read on. As to who pays, it is usually a pay/subscription-only BBS in a given city (which they call a regional HUB), and those who subscribe to this BBS Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 28 foot the bill as far as long-distance fees go. Once a regional HUB is established in a given area, other BBS's that are local to the area simply call that HUB (without paying long distance fees, and often without any charge at all) and pick up all the new mail in whatever message areas they carry -- and post your mail from their BBS to the HUB. The HUB in turn then makes a long-distance phone call to the "main hub" (usually once a day; or at night when LD charges are lower... many times using Intellicomm to do the job) and the HUB transfers all their mail (which now consists of all the mail from the smaller BBS's in the HUBs local area) to the main hub. The regional hub then collects whatever new mail there was on the main hub (mail posted by OTHER regional hubs). So the only long-distance charges paid are when the regional hubs call the main hub to dump, possibly an entire city's-worth (or even country's- worth) of messages. The following picture may explain it better: Local BBS's ■ ■ \ / █<REGIONAL HUB (Toronto) │ Local BBS's $ ■ ■ │ \ / │ REGIONAL HUB>█─────$─────$─────███<MAIN HUB (New York) (Seattle) / \ │ ■ ■ │ Local BBS's $ │ █<REGIONAL HUB (Miami) / \ ■ ■ Local BBS's The picture is simplified, since only (hypothetical) regional hubs in Toronto, Seattle and Miami are shown. In reality, there would be regional hubs in most of the major cities in North America, and there may even be hubs in Paris, Sydney, etc. They ALL call into the Main Hub in New York (or wherever the Main Hub happens to be), dump the entire city's worth of mail there, and then pick up all the mail that was dumped on the main hub from all the other regional hubs. Sometimes there are more types of hubs to reduce long distance charges, but basically the principle is the same. As you can see, the only long distance fees involved (or at least the most expensive calls) are from the regional hubs to the main hub. And every single message on the network goes through the MAIN HUB at one point or another. Local BBS's which call into a regional hub can thus pick up world-wide mail for nothing (and drop off your replies to be posted at the main hub later), since the regional hubs have done all the work transferring mail TO AND FROM the main hub. So, when you post a message on your local BBS; your Sysop uploads the message to the regional hub, and also downloads any new mail that exists on the regional hub (new messages for you to read). The regional hub Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 29 then transfers the message (and pays the long-distance charges) to the main hub. Regional hubs elsewhere then call the main hub and pick up your message (again, at their own expense), and within a day or two, it will probably have spread to every single BBS on the network. If someone in another city replies to your message, the process is reversed: his reply goes to his local BBS, which in turn goes to his regional hub, then to the MAIN hub. Your regional hub calls the MAIN hub (once or twice a day) picks up the message ... then your local Sysop calls the regional hub and downloads it where you then call and read it. In this way, mail can be received from and sent to any BBS on the network. Private messages often work in the exact same way: even though you're only sending the message to one person at one BBS -- every single BBS on the network will receive the message anyway. But no one will be able to read it, since it's marked private (no one except every System Operator at every BBS on the network; since any Sysops can read private to/from anyone). So why would any BBS become a regional hub if they have to pay all the long-distance fees for everyone else? Usually the regional hubs are very large BBS's (often the largest BBS in a city or country), and the large BBS's usually make lots of money charging subscription fees to their users. The people who take out subscriptions at BBS's which are regional hubs foot the bill with their subscription fees; often supporting the long-distance charges for an entire city full of BBS's. The smaller BBS's don't make as much money and can't afford the long-distance fees -- but they can offer (hopefully) interesting people to contribute messages to the network. A message network is useless without people, so the regional hub "opens itself up" to other local BBS's mainly to make their own service more attractive: The more people there are on a network, the more attractive and useful the network is, and thus the more money the regional hubs can charge people for the yearly BBS subscription fees that pay for the long-distance charges. It all works out nicely, and benefits everyone. If you're wondering why the smaller BBS's don't then just offer the exact same service as the HUBs offer, without the expense of the long-distance charges; it's due to lack of funds (lack of hardware). It takes a tremendous amount of hard drive space to be a regional hub for a major network, so smaller BBS's simply pick a few of the conferences that the regional hub carries. They rarely have the hard drive space to carry all conferences on the network, and hubs MUST carry every single conference on the network, and they must have enough hard drive space to carry every single message that passes through the network. BBS message networks have been set up over time, by interested and hard- working Sysops. There are dozens of networks using the principles above, in North America and other areas of the world. Some common/large BBS networks are NorthAmeri-Net, RelayNet (also known as RIME), FidoNet, ILink, Intelec, U'Ni-net, and so on. You probably use a BBS that calls a regional hub (or IS a regional hub) and carries at least one of the above networks. Many BBS's carry several networks, simply by transferring messages to/from several different network hubs. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 30 3.8 What is "Echo"? When you enter a message, you are often asked whether you wish to "echo" it or not. Echo is a term used on BBS networks to refer to the process of distributing (echoing) a given message across the entire BBS network. If the message is echoed, it is seen in the same message conference/forum, by every single BBS on the network that is carrying that particular message area. If the message is NOT echoed, it does not leave your local BBS, and only people who call the same BBS will see the message (i.e., the message is never transferred from your BBS to the regional HUB). You control whether a message is echoed or not, so if you have a question that is related to your specific BBS only -- do NOT echo the message, or people will see the message (which will be irrelevent to them) possibly on thousands of other BBS's. NOTE: Not all BBS's on a given network carry all network conferences. Your Sysop may be hooked into the NorthAmeriNet network, but may not carry the NorthAmeriNet Intellicomm conference unless someone on the BBS expresses some interest in it. Each network conference the Sysop carries takes up disk space to store all the messages, and unless someone on the BBS is interested in those messages it's just wasted disk space. So often you will have to request that your Sysop pick up a specific network conference before it will be made available on the BBS. Any BBS that belongs to one or more networks will (or should) have a listing of ALL the network conferences. So you can read that listing, see what conferences are available that your Sysop isn't currently carrying, and put in a request for the conference(s) you'd like to see picked up. Your Sysop may not agree to pick up every conference you desire, but it never does any harm to ask... and asking is usually the ONLY way to get a specific conference picked up. Also note that not all network conferences have the same name/number from one BBS on the network to another. So if you know someone in Paris, you probably cannot tell him/her to just look for mail from you in conference 5 (assuming it was #5 on your BBS, and you knew #5 was a network conference). Many times, due to the way BBS's are designed and the fact that BBS's often carry more than one network, the conference/forum numbers will not match up from one BBS to the next. Instead, look for an official conference name on the BBS itself and "describe" the conference to the other person if you want them to meet you there. I.e. you might ask someone "Do you receive the RelayNet Intellicomm conference on your BBS in Paris?" ... wheras if you say "Do you get conference #1774 on your BBS?" the person may have a completely different conference (or no conference at all) as #1774 on his BBS. As well if you simply say "Do you receive the Intellicomm conference on your BBS?" then the person will not know WHICH Intellicomm conference you are referring to, since you didn't specify which network you meant (NorthAmeriNet, RIME/RelayNet, etc). Specify the network name and the conference name/description and people will know what you're talking about from one BBS to the next. Unfortunately, BBS networks tend to "compete" with each other, rather than co-operating with one another, so you will often find duplicated conferences from one network to the next. Probably every major network Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 31 in existence has a WordPerfect conference, and if you wanted to gain maximum access to WordPerfect information, you should look for either a BBS that carries multiple networks (and thus has multiple WordPerfect conferences), or should call separate BBS's that belong to different networks. Sometimes a given conference/subject can be completely dead on one network, while the same subject on another network may have many people participating. At the time of this writing the NorthAmeriNet Intellicomm conference was receiving ten or more times the message traffic that the RelayNet Intellicomm conference was, and the same applies to other conferences/subjects. There is such a thing as "the most active network", as far as TOTAL message traffic goes, but you still aren't guaranteed that the subjects YOU are interested in will be actively discussed on a given network. The only way to find out is to talk to people (leave a message) and look around. If the subject you're interested in is dead on your BBS, post a message to "ALL" asking why it's so dead and asking where the real action is. Once you find out, ask your Sysop if s/he'd be willing to pick up that network/conference. Picking up a network (from a Sysop point of view) usually involves no fee, and is a simple matter of filling out an application, mailing it, and waiting. If you have no luck, look for another BBS that carries the network. When using Intellicomm to automate your mail transfers while you sleep, it makes no difference whether you call one BBS or two hundred BBS's ... so you might as well make the most of it and spread yourself around! 3.9 Private Mail "Private" mail on BBS's and the BBS networks is of more use to simply be considerate and save others from reading irrelevent mail, rather than as a way to actually say something private. If you post a message to another user on your BBS saying "isn't our Sysop a jerk at times?" ... then you may find yourself kicked off the BBS quickly. YOUR Sysop can and probably does read your private mail ... but worse, unless you specifically ask for a private message NOT to be echoed, EVERY OTHER SYSOP ON THE NETWORK will also be able to read your private messages (not true on some networks under some circumstances, but generally it's the case). Of course "Sysop" means anyone who has a given security level at a BBS (assistant Sysops... friends of Sysops, whoever any Sysop wants to give the ability to). If your next-door-neighbour's son set up his own BBS in his basement and joined a message network (which is easily done) he can read all your mail -- if you echo it -- even if it's private. If you're in business, and your competitors know a Sysop, the friend of a Sysop, or have Sysop access to one of any of the BBS's on the network, they can also read your private mail (if you have been told otherwise, disregard this: sometimes special security is offered). In general, don't say anything in a "private" message that you wouldn't otherwise say in public. BBS's and BBS networks also have glitches, and private mail does end up becoming public and being echoed to the entire network by accident every once in a while. Avoid embarrasement and use other methods (written mail, a voice telephone call, etc.) to discuss truly private matters, and you won't have to worry. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 32 3.10 Finding the Source of a Message (TAGLINES) On most BBS message networks, it's easy to find out where a given message came from. Look at the very bottom of the person's message for a "tagline", and if it has the name of another BBS there, then the person originally posted the message on a different BBS. The tagline may look something like this: This is the last line of the message to you. --- ■ SPIFFYREADER v0.00 #0: Some clever remark here ■ SNET v0.00 ■ SPIFFYNET: BIF's BBS - Toronto (416) 555-1234 The first line below the "---" (tearline) in this example is an OFFLINE MAIL READER tagline. Whoever entered this message was using an Offline Reader program called SPIFFYREADER, it was version 0.00 of the reader, and the person does not have a registration number (#0) and thus has not paid for the reader yet. Following this information on the same line you'll usually find a clever or humourous (or annoying or dull) remark called a "tagline", left by the messager. The line(s) following are put there by the BBS networking software before the BBS "echoes" the message to the hub. In this example, the BBS networking software was something called SNET version 0.00, the network name is SPIFFYNET, and the message came from a SPIFFYNET BBS called BIF's BBS. BIF's BBS is located in Toronto, and could be reached at the number listed (not a forced standard, but generally this is the information you'll find in each BBS's network tagline). If no tagline follows the Offline Mail Reader tagline (or if there are no taglines at all) then the person is calling the same BBS that you are. This can be important to know if you're talking to someone and want to tell them to download a certain file, or have a question about your specific BBS, etc. 3.11 Message "Threads" The term "thread" is used every once in a while in and around BBS messages, and a thread is simply a few messages that discuss the same subject. When you leave a message, you must specify who the message is for (TO:) and what the subject or topic of your message is. For example, if you were going to leave a message to me about Intellicomm, the start of it might look like this: TO: WAYNE DUFF FROM: JOHN SMITH SUBJ: SUGGESTION When I left a reply to you (replies automatically use the same SUBJect), we'd then have a "thread" on the topic "SUGGESTION", and the thread would contain two messages. If someone else liked your suggestion and wanted to second it, they would also use the same subject you used and we'd then have three messages in the thread, and so forth. Sometimes threads can grow to many dozens of messages when an interesting topic comes up, but more importantly Offline Mail Readers (and the BBS itself, if reading Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 33 online) allow you to SORT the messages by subject/thread, allowing you to see all the messages for a given subject, in order. 3.12 Addressing A Message As mentioned above, when you enter a message on a BBS usually the first thing you're asked for is who the message is "TO" (who you want to read the message... like addressing a letter). If you're replying to an existing message, then the BBS software (or offline mail reader) won't have to ask you who the message is to; it can simply look at the message you're replying to, to see who it was FROM, and obviously that's who it's TO if you're replying. However, if you want to address a message to someone specifically, you must know their name and also must must be careful to SPELL it properly or the person may miss it. If you leave a message to WANYE DIFF, I probably won't find it unless I have a lot of time that day and am reading all the mail in the conference. I normally only read my personal mail (my name has to be spelled correctly or my BBS won't flag it as 'personal' mail), and mail addressed to ALL. When you just have a general question and want advice or comments from anyone, address your message to "ALL". On some BBS's, such as the Icom Online Service, if you press [Enter] when asked who to address the message to, ALL is assumed and you needn't actually type the word "ALL". When I first got into BBS messages I was a little reluctant at first to get into network messages, because I didn't know how to reply to someone in another city, on another BBS. I was sure there must be some complex procedure to go through that would take me weeks to learn... but, at least in my experiences with the major BBS networks, all you have to do is spell the person's name properly, and post it in the proper conference, and it'll get to him/her (though it may take a day or two to get your reply back... if you hear nothing after a week or two, try again). Obviously you have to make sure that you "echo" the message if the person is on a BBS other than the one you're calling, but 99 times out of 100, the messages you leave will be echoed unless you tell the BBS software NOT to echo it. This is because even if the person is on the same BBS as you are (where echoing isn't required); your message may prove interesting to other people, and may start a discussion that many other people on the network are interested in. The only time you DON'T echo is when you're talking to someone about something that is clearly uninteresting to other BBS's on the network (personal discussions: how's the weather in Seattle, how are the wife and kids, etc). The RelayNet/RIME network has something called "routing", which allows you to echo a message (get it off your BBS to another BBS) WITHOUT echoing to every single BBS on the network. If you use RelayNet you should ask your Sysop for the user's manual (usually posted online, or in a bulletin; you may be able to find it yourself) and read up on routing techniques. "Fidonet" and some other networks also have other procedures/features, but again you should be able to find out everything you need to know about a given network right from your BBS. As usual check the BBS bulletins for information first, but ask your Sysop for the filename of the "network user's manual" (i.e. the Fido or RIME user's Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 34 manual), if you can't find any information elsewhere. The network user's manual may be a file you download and read, instead of a bulletin. 3.13 Message "Lingo" and Abbreviations Messages are fairly bland as opposed to speaking to someone in person where you can see their facial expressions and tell whether they're mad or happy, joking or serious. Thus, people have created lingo to use in messages, to give the person they're talking to a better picture of the mood they were in when the posted the message. Often, without using this lingo (or by using it improperly), you can be misunderstood and taken to be angry when you're not. IF YOU TYPE MESSAGES LIKE THIS, WITH YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY ON ... EVERYONE WILL THINK YOU ARE SHOUTING AT THEM. So keep your caps lock off, and use capitals to emphasize certain words ... or to yell when you really do want to yell about something (which is not advisable; people will ignore you or discount your opinion if you appear angry... keep your cool, or pretend to keep your cool, and people will pay closer attention). To substitute for underlining, _underscores_ are often used at either end of the word. For italics or boldface (emphasis), *this* or -this-, or /this/ works. Italics can't be used, but asterisks *do* make a certain word stand out. You'll also see obvious lingo such as: <grin> <smile> <laugh> <groan> <g> (short for <grin>) If you're kidding about something, or saying something tongue-in-cheek -- people may not be able to tell ... since the usual cues such as rolling your eyes, or a slight smirk, or whatever, can't be seen. Without the usual facial cues, in bland messages... people can't even tell whether you even have a sense of humour. A little <grin> after a remark makes it clear that you're not about to commit suicide (or homocide). There's another slant on this that less obvious. And "slant" is what you have to do to understand it. If you tilt your head to the left when looking at the symbols below (it may take a second for you to catch on), you'll see simple facial expressions: :-) A smile... sideways eyes : nose - and smiling mouth ) :-> A variation using > as a sideways smiling mouth ;-) A smile and a wink ... the right eye is winking at you ; :) Another variation without the nose 8-) A smile from someone wearing glasses :-( A pout or frown :-O Yelling or going crazy <8-=) Hair or hat, glasses, nose, moustache, smile Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 35 There are others, but by tilting your head to the left and looking at it sideways you should be able to figure them out. You'll also run into many abbreviations. Over time (I guess... I'm not the definitive source on any of this... <grin>) people got tired of typing the same things over and over, so they started using short-forms. Here are some common ones you'll likely see eventually: BTW By The Way FWIW For What It's Worth IMO In My Opinion IMHO In My Humble Opinion IMNSHO In My Not So Humble Opinion ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing (when <grin> just won't do) TTYL Talk To You Later There are many others (probably too many others), but these are the ones you'll see most often. If you come across one you can't figure out, just ask the person what it means; sometimes people go a little overboard, and it's common for people to not know what these abbreviations mean and ask... don't be even slightly embarrassed about asking. Of course you have to use CAPITALS with the abbreviations or the meaning may be lost.. If you say "Imho, I think you're mistaken" (In my humble opinion, I think you're mistaken) ... people will simply think you're speaking a foreign language, or have gotten their name wrong. My reply to the above would likely be "My name is Wayne, not Imho". It's corny, and sort of like CB talk ... "breaker breaker, what's your 10-4?" (gag) but it gets the job done, and we really have no alternatives yet. BTW, don't use [Ctrl-A] or [Ctrl-B] instead of <grin> or :-) (Ctrl- A and B are the smily face characters and ). Control characters are often filtered out by BBS message software. 3.14 "Capturing" Messages/Reading Offline If you plan to read messages from various conferences, and would also like to reply to messages and jump into discussions, this message "capture" method is not for you. Offline Mail Readers are the best way to go if you're going to get into messages to any extent. But if you just want to quickly grab messages from a given conference/message area once in a while, instead of wasting all your online time and tying up the BBS reading mail online, turn the CAPTURE FILE on (Intellicomm captures to \ICOM\CAP\ICOM.CAP by default; [Alt-L] turns capture on/off/pauses) and read the messages in "non-stop" mode ... Then logoff the BBS and read the capture file instead of doing it all online. The same can be done with BBS bulletins. The BBS's HELP facility should give you specific message command help, if you need help on how to go about reading messages in non-stop mode. 3.15 ASCII Uploading Message Replies For those times when you don't want to bother setting up an Offline Mail System (described below), and just perhaps want to enter a Comment to the Sysop or a quick message to someone, the easiest way to do it is to enter Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 36 the text OFFLINE in your Word Processor, save the file to disk as a DOS TEXT FILE (not as a regular document, or you'll end up with printer control codes all over the text). For convenience you should save it using a simple name, such as COMMENT, and save it in your regular Upload Directory as defined in Intellicomm (defaults to \ICOM\SND. If a file is in the Upload Directory you needn't specify the directory name when you upload the file later). Then logon to the BBS and select [C]omment to Sysop or [E]nter Message or whatever the proper command is on the BBS you call. If asked whether you want to use a full-screen editor it is essential that you answer NO for this trick. When the BBS is waiting for line 1 of your message, press [PgUp], select the ASCII protocol from the Icom protocol menu, enter the filename of the text you created in your Word Processor (COMMENT), then sit back and let the ASCII protocol "type" the message for you at high speed. This will save not only your online time, and possibly long distance fees -- but it also allows you to avoid learning BBS-based "editors" (most of which are slow and awkward to use), and to use your own Word Processor/spell checker which you're familiar with. Of course, none of this has anything to do with Intellicomm's automated mail transfers... it's just a trick you can use for a quick manual message that isn't worth automating. 3.16 Spelling and Appearances In BBS messages, people cannot see you and can only judge you by what you say and how you say it. If you're a sloppy speller, people will probably picture you as a slob with your shirt hanging out, bad breath, and your pants zipper unzipped. Your messages are how you present yourself to other people, and if you make no effort to spell properly you will eventually leave a bad impression, and your opinions will be discounted or even ignored. This isn't to say you have to be a perfect speller... all you have to do is show some sort of effort, just as you would comb your hair and tuck your shirt in before any other social function. When you leave a message on a BBS, you can be talking to an audience of several hundred people from all over the world... and you wouldn't do that with your hair in a mess and your pants unzipped. If you have trouble spelling, your best bet is to use an Offline Mail Reader program (described below), or the ASCII uploading technique outlined above, combined with your Word Processor and spelling checker. Spell checkers, over a very short time, can improve your spelling dramatically (even if you're a good speller, there are always those certain words you'll misspell). If you find the word "seperate" (separate is the proper spelling, in both contexts) being constantly pointed out to you as a mistake by your spell checker, as I did, it won't take long before you become annoyed and memorize the proper spelling to avoid having your spell checker complain to you. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 37 4. OFFLINE MAIL SYSTEMS/OFFLINE MAIL READERS Reading and entering messages manually online is an ancient art that is going the way of the dinosaur. Offline Mail Systems (on the BBS) combined with a comm. program and Offline Mail Reader (on your computer), allow you to read and reply to messages on the BBS, in all the various Conferences/Forums you're interested in -- while OFFLINE. This way you can relax and go through the messages, and enter your replies at your own pace without rushing or using up all your online time... or incurring extra long-distance fees. Offline mail also allows you to use a "real" editor or your favorite Word Processor AND spell checker, without learning a slow, cryptic BBS-based editor. Most Offline Mail Systems (on the BBS) also provide a means to collect the new BBS Bulletins, and new files listings. Intellicomm will extract and auto-import new files listings included in any mail packets, as described below. It's the best way to collect new files listings because offline mail packets are *compressed* and thus take less time to transfer than it would take to simply list and capture the new files list from the BBS. The most popular offline mail format on BBS's is the QWK format, which was created by Mark (Sparky) Herring for his QwikMail/Qmail system for PCBoard BBS's. The QWK format caught on, and spread to other BBS types and today there are QWK-based offline mail systems available for just about every BBS type. The reason the offline message format is important is because the programs (called OFFLINE MAIL READERS) which allow you to read and reply to the mail produced by these systems, normally only work with one type of mail format -- and it's usually the QWK format. Another mail format that is established and available on multiple BBS types is the "MegaMail" format, created by Kip Compton, which sends .DL files rather than .QWK files. Most QWK-compatible readers do NOT handle the MegaMail format, and actually the only reader I'm aware of that supports both the MegaMail AND .QWK format is the "MegaMail Reader". It is also available as Shareware on most BBS's. 4.1 Finding the Offline Mail System Due to the lack of standards at BBS's, and with the Offline Mail Systems themselves, finding the BBS's Offline Mail System could probably be the subject of an entire tutorial. However... it/they should be available from one of the following locations: On the [M]essage Menu, or the [D]oor menu, which may also be the [OPEN] menu, through a [D]ownload Messages command on the Main or Message menu, through a [QWK] command... etc. It's best to look around, read the bulletins and if all else fails ask your Sysop where it is. If no offline mail system is available, it's a very good idea to request that your Sysop set one up for the benefit of all the message users on the BBS: Offline mail systems (for the BBS end of things) are very reasonably priced ($25-$50), are usually "try before you buy" (shareware), are available for most all BBS types, and can be set up by the Sysop in an hour or two. Today there is very little reason to not include an offline mail system on a BBS... unless the BBS doesn't carry messages. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 38 4.2 Finding an Offline Mail Reader Once you know what type of offline mail system your BBS uses, you need to find an OFFLINE MAIL READER program that is compatible with the BBS's mail system. As mentioned above, the QWK format is the most popular and there are dozens of QWK-compatible readers available, and most all are shareware. If the BBS you call is using a MegaMail, Blue Wave or other offline mail system that isn't QWK-compatible, you'll have to locate and use the proper reader. Again if you can't find the proper reader program, check the BBS bulletins, then leave a message to your Sysop asking what to download if all else fails. The original QWK reader, produced the developer who invented the whole QWK standard, is the "Qmail DeLuxe" reader. This reader is a commercial product, but there is a demonstration version available for downloading on most BBS's. The demo allows you to see if the reader meets your needs, and if so you order the commercial version via mail order or electronically on Sparkware's BBS. Details accompany the DeLuxe demo. Another popular QWK reader is the "Offline Express" system, produced by Mustang Software (developers of the Wildcat BBS system). EZ-Reader, MegaReader (which supports BOTH the QWK and MegaMail DL format for those interested in flexibility), PMDBM, RoboMail, and SessionManager are some of the others, and the list goes on and on... There are many QWK readers available and there is almost surely a reader available to suit your needs and budget. Most are Shareware and were priced in the $25 range at the time of this writing, and are WELL worth the money, as opposed to handling your mail online. There are also technical support conferences available for most of the popular offline mail readers, on most all of the BBS networks, where you can receive advice on the reader(s) you're interested in. 4.3 Setting Up Offline Mail for Use Setting up the Offline Mail System on the BBS, and the Offline Reader program itself are both topics covered in the documentation that comes with each reader (and usually also in the online help inside the mail system on the BBS). Installation and setup techniques vary widely, so I can't cover them here. Once you download a reader, uncompress it and read the documentation (.DOC) file(s) and you'll receive all the information you need to get going. One item to pay close attention to is that your Reader will allow you to configure a directory for "Message Packets" and another directory for "Reply Packets". Whatever directories you choose in your Reader, you must ALSO enter in the Intellicomm main setup, on the Filenames and Paths screen. This will allow Intellicomm to put your mail packets where your reader expects them, and will also allow Icom to find your reply packets where your reader creates them, and upload them back to the mail system. You may also define your Reader command (the same command you enter from DOS to start your reader) in the Icom setup so that you can access your Mail Reader from within Intellicomm. It's not "necessary" to define your Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 39 reader command, but it can be convenient. All these items are defined in the Icom main setup on the "Filenames and Paths" screen: +=| File/Path Items |===========================================+ | Mail Reader> C:\READER\READER.EXE [or READER.BAT if used] | | Reply Dir > C:\READER\REP | | Message Dir> C:\READER\QWK | Well, that's the end of this tutorial/introduction to BBSing. I hope you found it informative, and will be relaxed and confident the next time you call a BBS. I wished I had a document like this when I first started calling BBS's, and that's mainly why I produced this one and included it with Icom. The information 'is' out there, but is scattered around in different places, and is not always easy to locate. Of course, the whole point of Intellicomm is to allow you automate your online sessions, avoiding tedious manual interaction with the BBS entirely (when that's desirable). But some basic understanding of the major BBS features is necessary to get going, and it's also sometimes just more practical to call the BBS manually to get something done quickly. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 40 I. GLOSSARY CR and LF CR stands for Carriage Return, and on printers it causes the "carriage" (print head) to "return" to the left margin. CR's are also used by BBS's when they want to move your screen cursor back to the leftmost screen column. LF stands for Line Feed and it moves the cursor down one line. A CR without a LF is like a day without sunshine... and besides that your cursor will simply move to the left column and the next line received will overwrite the previous one. If this happens, there's a setting called "Add Line Feeds" in each Intellicomm BBS Information File (BIF) which you can turn on, and Intellicomm will add the LF automatically when it receives a CR, thus ensuring that the previous line isn't overwritten. Alternatively, if lines are DOUBLE-SPACED you probably have "Add Line Feeds" turned on when it needn't be (the BBS is sending a LF, Icom then adds its own, and you get a blank line). ANSI The acronym "ANSI" is often used in the first question you're asked on a BBS. Pronounced "an-see" it stands for "American National Standards Institute", and as you may expect, ANSI's job is to come up with standards for various things. On BBS's, ANSI refers to a certain set of ANSI "terminal" codes which provide a standard way of moving the screen cursor around, and setting screen colors, from a remote computer. Aside from the CR/LF mentioned above, and a TAB character (which moves the cursor right by a few positions), there is simply no way for a BBS to move your screen cursor to a specific location, or to change the screen color, without using special codes; ANSI codes are what most all BBS's use to get the job done. If you're asked whether to use "ANSI Graphics" by a BBS, you're being asked two questions really. "Graphics" doesn't refer to dazzling VGA graphics, but refers to the IBM graphics characters (the boxes you see around Intellicomm's menus) while ANSI refers to color, which is mainly what ANSI codes are used for by BBS's; to set the screen colors. So if you have a color monitor, you can use ANSI codes. If you have a monochrome or LED display, don't use ANSI graphics or you may get color combinations that are unreadable on your screen. ASCII/HIGH ASCII Pronounced "ask-key", and stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange" (and if you remember that in ten seconds' time, you'll have wasted some perfectly good brain cells). Computers know one thing and only one thing: numbers. Actually they don't even comprehend those... but they can pretend that they do. They have no idea what an "alphabet" is, have no concept of periods, quotes, etc., so someone had to assign numbers to all the symbols we humans use so that the computer could simulate some sort of intelligence. If your computer used the number 20 to refer to the letter "A" and mine used the number 20 to Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 41 refer to the letter "B", then this text file would be making no sense to you and might look like this: Waj3290 Adjaj32!@#$2. But luckily we have the ASCII standard which lets all our computers use the same numbers for letters numbers and symbols. "High ASCII" is another way of referring to the IBM extended (graphics) characters. Not all computers can display these IBM "High ASCII" codes (believe it or not... there are people who use computers other than IBM compatibles, and these people can call BBS's too), so most BBS's allow you to turn them off. As an IBM PC user you can leave use high ASCII features on BBS's. DUPLEX FULL DUPLEX is the ability to send and receive information over the phone at the same time. When someone phones you by voice, you can interrupt them in mid-sentence to tell them that someone's at the door and you have to go... I.e. you can both talk and listen at the same time, and most modems are also capable of this. HALF DUPLEX means that only one modem can talk, while the other listens. Full duplex (talking and listening) is the norm with PC modems and BBS's. ECHO Determines whether your modem and/or communications program display what you type on the screen. HALF DUPLEX requires ECHO ON, and FULL DUPLEX requires ECHO OFF. Put simply if you see this on your screen when you type to the BBS: HHeelloo?? ... then Intellicomm is "echoing" when it needn't. If you see nothing at all when you type, then Intellicomm isn't echoing and should be. Intellicomm defaults to "echo off" and where BBS's are concerned (assuming your modem is set up properly, using full duplex) you will probably never have to change this for regular BBS use. ERROR CORRECTING MODEMS/LINE NOISE Error correcting modems are capable of detecting and correcting errors when transferring data over the phone line. We've all had bad connections on voice calls where you hear static in the background, or other clicks and noises (or even other conversations at times)... Since modems communicate by making noises to each other, static and other line noise can distort the sounds the modems are making ... and this distortion causes garbage to be displayed on your screen (or worse). Error-correcting modems eliminate this problem by running checks on the data sent and received. It would be similar to me giving you $1,000 to deposit in the bank, but to also phone the bank and tell them that you were bringing $1,000 for deposit. If you arrived with less than $1,000 the bank could phone me and tell me... and I could then "correct the error" and have your legs broken or something. <grin> With modem data (if error-correcting modems are in use) it's a little less painful and the "$1,000" is simply re-sent. It's all done behind the scenes by the modem hardware, and it means that you never see garbage on your screen due to line noise. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 42 For error-correction to work, BOTH modems must using it, and must be using the same type of error-correction. MNP, LAP-M, HST, PEP, V.42, V.32, V.32bis, V.Fast These are the various types of error-correction 'protocols' and you'll see the terms quite frequently in and around modems and BBS's. Recently new standards have become common enough that you really don't have to worry too much about the various types. Most error-correcting modems, even cheap ones, incorporate the new 'v' standards, and if the error- correction type on your modem is the letter 'v' followed by a period and some numbers (v.32, v.42, etc), then you're safe and will have error- free connections with virtually any other error-correcting modem. The 'v' standards are now worldwide standards used by most modem manufacturers. The difference from one v standard to the next is speed. As technology advances, new (faster) v standards emerge. V.fast was not yet complete at the time of this writing, but it's the newest and fastest one coming. BAUD/BPS Technically the two terms aren't the same thing, but since they're so often used to refer to your computer's "COM port speed" I'm not going to buck the system and confuse everyone (and myself) with technicalities. If your modem manual tells you to set your comm. program to 9600 baud, that's what you do (Intellicomm's main setup on the "Terminal" screen). If it tells you to set it to 9600 BPS (Bits Per Second), pretend they said "baud" and do the same thing. I.e. though the terms aren't technically the same thing (BPS is actually the correct term to use when referring to data speed), just pretend that they are and you'll be fine. DATA BITS/PARITY/STOP BITS These are some other settings that have to do with your computer's COM port (similar to the port speed, above) and are not something to be overly concerned with, save the way you might understand the "10-W-30" in engine oil. If your car's owners manual tells you to put 10W30 in the engine, that's what you do. If it tells you to put 10W40 in it... put that in. Similarly on BBS's if they tell you to use No parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit, that's what you use. One note though: many times the three items are short-formed as N81 to mean No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, or E71 to mean Even parity, 7 data bits, and 1 stop bit, etc. There are other combinations, but you'll probably never have to use anything but N81 on a BBS (N81 is Icom's default). Some long-distance services, such as PC-Pursuit require you to use 7E1 but Icom automatically uses 7E1 to call through PC-Pursuit, so you don't have to worry about it there either. If/when you ever do need to change these port settings, the BIF, just below where you define the BBS phone numbers, is where to make the change. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 43 OFFLINE This means that your computer is NOT connected to another computer (it's being unsociable). Before you connect to a BBS, and after you disconnect, you are said to be offline. ONLINE Means that your modem IS connected to another modem. As soon as you connect your computer to another computer (a BBS), your computer is said to be "online". If Intellicomm tells you that you're online when you're not, and reports that it can't hang up when there's no connection, it's due to the fact that your modem is pulling a fast one on Intellicomm and saying it's connected when it isn't. Icom actually can't operate with your modem in this state, since for reliable unattended calls it must know when it's connected and when it isn't. To apply the truth potion to your 2400 baud (or faster) modem, add the command &C1 to your modem init string (Icom main setup / Terminal Settings), and your modem will stop lying. For 1200 bauders and below you have to change a small switch either inside the modem or sticking out the back of it (a bank of small switches). Switch 6 usually does the trick... just flip it to the opposite position. PROTOCOL Protocols are the little things like... you say "Hi", and I say "Yo" back. Then you ask "like how's it goin, eh?", and I say, "take off hosehead", and so forth. If you said "Hi", and I said "pickles are NOT a type of fruit" ... this would be a tremendous breach of protocol. At some later point, you 'may' have been about to ask me whether pickles were a type of fruit or not ... but you hadn't actually asked yet. But seriously. In the context of computer communications, protocols are used to transfer files. If line noise interferes with the connection and you're simply reading a BBS bulletin or the like, you see garbage on your screen and no real harm is done. But if you're transferring a computer program from a BBS and line noise distorts the machine code of the program, the program could end up doing virtually anything when you ran it (probably nothing pleasant). So it's imperative when transferring programs over the phone to double check everything to ensure that it arrived intact. That's the mission of the transfer protocols used by comm. programs and BBS's: to detect and correct transfer errors when transferring something important such as a program or program data file. Protocols are discussed in more detail in the file transfer section above, and in the Icom online help link: Protocols. SYSOP Pronounced "sis-op", this is a shortform for "system operator". On a BBS, the Sysop is the person to get hold of if you run into a problem or have a question that doesn't seem to be answered anywhere in the BBS online help (or in this tutorial). Normally the sysop is also the BBS owner. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 44 UART Pronounced "you-art", and stands for "Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter". You have no need to memorize what it stands for, but you should know what it is ... because if you have the wrong one (and it happens often) your modem could be all but useless to you. If you're having problems with missing characters when calling a BBS ... such as it's trying to ask for your name but you get something like "Wt i you nam?" instead, you may have the wrong UART. There are two types of UARTs for PC compatibles ... no cute names, they just gave them numbers: the 8250 (cheap) and the 16550 (cheap but more expensive than an 8250). The 8250 UART is what comes with most computers (on the multi I/O card... that card that you plug your modem into), and the 8250 like a sink that is only capable of holding a single drop of water before overflowing. The 16550 can hold 16 drops of water before overflowing. Assuming your computer is the "drain" of the sink, you're going to have a mess if it doesn't allow the water out of the sink (UART) fast enough (characters from the BBS are lost). This usually happens on either slow computers with very fast modems, or sometimes on burdened computers (running networks, multitaskers, etc.) even without extremely fast modems. If your computer has a lot of work to do, such as running Windows, OS/2 or a network, and can't empty the UART fast enough, you'll lose characters and get protocol errors when doing file transfers. In such a case you need a 16550 UART which can hold more data before overflowing. Your dealer can install a 16550 UART for you, or if you're so inclined, and your 8250 chip isn't soldered in, you can do it yourself quite easily or have a knowledgeable friend do it. 16550 UARTs won't cost you more than a few bucks. BEFORE you think about running off to get a 16550 UART though, make sure you have checked the following settings in Intellicomm's main setup. You may already have a 16550 UART but Intellicomm might not be using it properly due to improper setup. These items on the main setup "Terminal" screen should be set as follows: | Receive Buffer Size [K] . 4 <<may be higher but not lower | | Transmit Buffer Size [K] 2 <<may be higher but not lower | [further down, near the bottom of the screen...] | Enable 16550 if Found? . Yes <<should be set to Yes | | 16550 Receive Trigger . . 4 <<may be higher but not lower | | 16550 Transmit Trigger . 3 <<may be higher but not lower | And on the "Protocols" screen make sure you are NOT using anything higher than a 1K disk buffer: | Disk Buffer Size [Kbytes] 1 | Why use a 1K buffer? The bigger the buffer, the more time is needed to write the data to disk when the buffer fills up, and DOS doesn't let the computer do any emptying of the sink while it's writing to disk. Intellicomm v2.01 Online Primer 45 You can often lower the port speed (baud/BPS) and eliminate problems that way; from 38400 to 19200 for example. A. Common Modem Problems/Solutions Other common modem setup problems are covered in the Intellicomm online help. See topics "Common Questions & Answers", "Setup Problems", and "Optimizing Intellicomm", as well as "Multitasking Intellicomm" if you're running under DESQview, OS/2, or Windows. And don't forget that Icom gives you the ability to search ALL online help topics for specific keywords. If you want to see every online help topic with the word "modem" in it, just press [Ctrl-F1] in the help system and enter 'modem' (no quotes) when asked what to search for.