OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/v611docs.zip/VMAIN611.ZIP/VC8

Text File | 1993-10-08 | 7KB | 148 lines

                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-1


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         ║ CHAPTER EIGHT     OPTIMIZING VBBS                              ║
     ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

        Running a BBS -- and VBBS is no exception here -- is a
     major source of hard-drive wear and tear.  This is not to put
     down any BBS software; it's just the nature of the beast.  There
     are several steps you can take to optimize VBBS so as to minimize
     hard-drive abuse.

     "Defragging" Your Hard Drive
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        One piece of maintenance you should run periodically is a
     program designed to de-fragment files on your hard drive.  Daily
     maintenance erases the oldest messages on your hard drive, lea-
     ving "gaps" where those messages used to be.  After several days
     of this, a map of your hard drive utilization can look like some-
     one took a shotgun to it -- empty sectors/clusters scattered all
     through your data.
        "Defragging" your hard drive puts your data into contigu-
     ous (adjacent) sectors/clusters, thereby reducing the amount of
     time it takes the read/write heads to access a particular piece
     of information.  Utilities such as Norton's SPEEDISK accomplish
     this quite well; be prepared, though, to spend several minutes
     watching the process when you run it the first time.

     --> IMPORTANT NOTE:  Just to be on the safe side, you SHOULD NOT
                  run a disk defragmentation program from
                  within VBBS or from WFC; always EXIT the
                  BBS prior to running the program.

     Using a RAMdrive
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        Another means of optimization is to place the most fre-
     quently accessed files -- menus and such -- into a RAMdrive
     (virtual disk).  By loading the most frequently accessed files
     into RAM, many systems will realize system speedup ranging from
     modest to substantial.
        VBBS textfiles and menus within the \TXT directory pro-
     bably benefit most from being placed in a RAMdrive; these would
     be the .MNU, .ANS/.ASC, and .TXT files.  Because they are acces-
     sed often, having them in RAM can substantially decrease hard-
     drive access.  Another group of files suitable for placing in a
     RAMdrive are your script files -- the .V, .COD and .LIT files.
     This speeds the process of loading the scripts, since no disk
     access is performed.
        To install a RAMdrive, include the following in your
     CONFIG.SYS file:

        DEVICE=RAMDRIVE.SYS 80 /E

     This command line creates an 80-kilobyte RAMdrive; the "/E"
     switch tells DOS to place the RAMdrive in EXTENDED memory.

                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-2


     In addition, the default limit on the number of files that can
     be placed in a RAMdrive (as would be the case in the above ex-
     ample) is 64; if you want to place more files than that in the
     RAMdrive, you need a command line similar to this:

        DEVICE=RAMDRIVE.SYS 128 128 /E

     The above command line would create a 128K RAMdrive with a maxi-
     mum of 128 files in extended memory.  For more information,
     please consult your DOS manual or reference book.
        To make the best use of a RAMdrive, you need to be run-
     ning a 286 or 386 computer with at least 1 Mb of RAM and the
     DOS device HIMEM.SYS (an extended memory manager) loaded.  If
     you're running a 386, you might consider QEMM386 as your exten-
     ded memory manager.

     --> IMPORTANT NOTE:  It is recommended that you do NOT assign
                  your VBBS \TEMP directory to a RAMdrive.


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     ║ SECURITY                                                       ║
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        VBBS provides a high level of security.  One of the most
     significant security features of VBBS is that it will not allow a
     remote user to drop to DOS through internal functions.  If you
     would like to enable a remote drop-to-DOS capability, you will
     need to install DOORWAY or DoorMaster (both shareware programs)
     as a door from VBBS.  This is generally a much safer method, and
     in the case of using DOORWAY, provedes a much more powerful re-
     mote interface than a built-in remote DOS access routine could.
     By using a program such as this, you may also run VBBS utilities
     such as VCONFIG remotely.
        In VCONFIG, you have the option of allowing remote sysops.
     Allowing a remote sysop will let a user with a SL of 255 who
     knows the system password to access the sysop functions of VBBS.
     Pressing [S] from the sysop menu will show all users on the sys-
     tem who have security level access.  Although a user may view
     an archive, there is no function that will allow him or her to
     extract an archive.  As with all BBS software, it is recommended
     that you register DSZ (ZModem) for maximum security.
        VBBS uses a \SYSOP directory which stores all files up-
     loaded to the system and files sent that were attached to E-mail.
     Here, the sysop has the ability to view, scan and move the files
     and file listings to the appropriate directory after review.  Be
     sure to leave the maximum settings for this database at 0 (zero)
     and make sure that DSZ.COM is in your path (a common mistake
     when setting up for the first time).
        VBBS features a special exclusion file, EXCLUDE.TXT, in
     which you define whole filenames, partial filenames, or DOS
     extensions that you wish VBBS to NOT allow upload of (such as
     .GIF).  It is highly recommended that you do NOT delete any of
     the lines in the default EXCLUDE.TXT provided.

                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-3


                VBBS allows you to automatically check for archive
         integrity and viruses. See Automatic New Upload Verification
         in the VCONFIG portion of this document for details.


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     ║ MAINTENANCE                                                    ║
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        Much of your system's maintenance is performed automatic-
     ally by VBBS each day.  Database "packing" occurs as the primary
     event where your system's databases are compacted and old mes-
     sages are removed according to the limits you set in VCONFIG.
     System logs are then compacted as well and the daily log cycles
     into another log file that shows a log of the last five days of
     system activity.  Many sysops run other maintenance as well.
     Backing up certain important system files each day is common.
        There are several VBBS-specific utilities as well as
     several general-use utilities that can be valuable for the VBBS
     sysop.  Some of these utilities, such as those by Neil J. Mar-
     shall and other VBBS freeware utility programmers, perform such
     tasks as searching out duplicate posts and files, removing users
     who have not called for a specific time, printing reports, etc.
        There are several shareware utilities available that will
     allow you to automate periodic batchfile events so that they run
     on a daily or weekly (or other interval) basis.