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└──┘ └───────┘ └───────┘ └──────┘
The Virtual BBS/NET for OS/2
Version 6.10
VBBS-OS2.DOC
(C) Roland De Graaf 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
4246 Elisabeth Ave.
Holland, MI 49424
*
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Terms of Use & Registration
The Virtual BBS and associated files are:
Copyright (C) Roland De Graaf 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993.
This Virtual BBS/NET software has been made available to you as
SHAREWARE, and is provided to you as such with hope that after
evaluating this software, you will join our growing family of
sysops nationwide.
Your possession of this program entitles you to evaluate it for
a reasonable period of time prior to registration, and in NO
case shall this evaluation period go beyond 2 months without re-
sulting in either formal registration, or discontinuation of its
use.
The author makes no warranty, expressed or implied, with regard
to any claims of loss or damage arising from the use of VBBS/NET
or related softwares.
Your use of this software constitutes acceptance of the above.
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ TABLE OF CONTENTS ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
OVERVIEW ....................................................
Scope .....................................................
Why VBBS-OS/2? ............................................
OS/2 System Considerations ................................
VBBS-OS/2 VCONFIG ...........................................
Running VBBS-OS/2 ...........................................
VBBS-OS/2 working with VBBS-DOS .............................
Scripts .....................................................
OS/2 and LANs ...............................................
VBBS-OS/2 Multinet Networking ...............................
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OVERVIEW │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Scope
═════
This document will attempt to provide information particular to
VBBS-OS/2, and not a rewrite of the entire body of VBBS
documents. Generally, VBBS 6.0 DOCS will apply, but where this
document and VBBS 6.0 DOCS conflict, this document applies with
regards to VBBS-OS/2.
Why VBBS-OS/2?
══════════════
OS/2 is a powerful operating system, allowing multithreaded
multitasking at the operating system level without kludgey OS
shells. OS/2 virtualizes ram; unlike DOS which swaps memory in
and out of the "base" 640 ram that DOS addresses directly. OS/2
has superior (and faster) I/O control in multiuser applications.
Now, with OS/2 2.0 adding functional DOS and WINDOWS support,
REXX and more, OS/2 is a viable OS for many people with high end
PC's. In every way, OS/2 has been designed to be a superior
multitasking environment to DOS.
The one drawback to OS/2's performance has been the inefficient
way it handles DOS and WINDOWS communications programs. Because
these programs require a great deal of CPU attention, they
degrade OS/2 system performance significantly, compared to
equivalent OS/2 programs.
VBBS has been designed from the start to be a multiline
communications program. Written in assembly and Quick Basic, it
is a very efficient program. Since an OS/2 compiler is readily
available for programs written in Quick Basic and most of the
code could be a direct port, the marriage of VBBS and OS/2
became the next logical step in the evolution of VBBS. No other
move could produced such dramatic performance results for single
machine, multinode VBBS so easily at this point in time.
From the users standpoint, VBBS-OS/2 is identical to VBBS-DOS.
Every function is identical.
OS/2 System Considerations
══════════════════════════
HPFS vs. FAT
Although HPFS is generally regarded as faster (higher
performance) than FAT file systems, it is only advantageous
under certain circumstances. For a reason unknown at this time,
VBBS disk intensive operations are at least twice as fast with
FAT as they are with HPFS. It is strongly recommended that HPFS
NOT be used to run VBBS at this time. Booting with HPFS is fine,
as long as VBBS is run from a FAT partition or a NETWORK drive.
Virtual Technologies is working with IBM to resolve the HPFS
performance issue. Up to date information on this progress will
be posted in the VirtualNet sub "VBBS OS/2 Support",
AUTOSUBSCRIBE sub type 472629.
We recommend the following hard drive partitioning scheme if HPFS
is to be used:
BOOT MANAGER
(1) 60 MB PRIMARY HPFS partition (Enough for OS/2, SWAPFILE, ETC.)
(1) 1 MB PRIMARY FAT partition (Just enough to boot DOS)
(1) Extended FAT partition (To run applications such as VBBS from)
NOTE: Using this arrangement will result in EITHER primary
partition (whichever is selected as active) being mapped as the C
drive and the extended FAT partition will always be the D drive.
OS/2 1.3
Though not tested, VBBS-OS/2 should run fine in multinode
situations on a single 80286 based machine, running OS/2 1.3
with a minimum of four megabites of RAM and a 60 megabyte hard
drive. Many OS/2 old timers that do not use DOS applications
still prefer OS/2 1.3 because of it's leaner system
requirements.
OS/2 2.x
OS/2 2.x requires at least a 386sx to run. To run VBBS-OS/2
effectively, at least 8 megabites of RAM and a 125 megabyte hard
drive should be used. Though OS/2 2.x will run on lesser
systems, performance and storage space will quickly become
issues on systems configured in such a manner.
Although VBBS-OS/2 should run fine on OS/2 1.3, it has been tested
extensively only on OS/2 2.x. As a result, there are some system
settings that we can pass on as a result of our experience that may
help you.
CONFIG.SYS Settings:
TIMESLICE=32 (Minimum timeslice OS/2 will use)
MAXWAIT=1 (Number of wait units system will wait before
checking other tasks)
SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 4096 8192 (This controls the size of
the swapfile. If you have
room on you HD, increasing
the start size to 4 MB and
the max size to 8 MB seems to
help when running with 8
MB DRAM)
DEVICE=C:\OS2\VDISK.SYS 16 128 16 (This will create a Virtual
disk to use for the
CONTROL.DAT directory. Place
this at the end of your
CONFIG.SYS file.)
VBBS-OS/2 has been tested with OS/2 version 2.0 through each
beta version of 2.1 and now the 2.1 GA release. OS/2 2.1 is
recommended because most users report superior stability.
Digiboard
OS/2 drivers are available for Digiboards from the manufacturer
for both 1.3 and 2.0.
Communications Ports
OS/2 will not allow programs to share interrupts (except on
properly configured Microchannel machines). The easiest
way to run two nodes would be to use a bus mouse, making
comport 1 and comport 2 available for modem use.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VBBS-OS/2 VCONFIG │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Installing and running VBBS-OS/2 is nearly identical to the
procedure used for VBBS-DOS.
The main difference is that the VBBS-OS/2 Control Panel has been
stripped down. Most WFC functions are not needed, since WFC
functions can be handled as separate tasks.
Channel configuration is handled identically to the DOS version,
HOWEVER the OS/2 2.x GA release does NOT support locked com port
speeds of over 19,200 baud with supplied COM.SYS drivers.
Since VBBS-OS/2 is untested under OS/2 1.3 as of this writing,
locking the com port at speeds over 19,200 baud is not recommended
without experimentation. OS/2 1.3 and 2.0 have 16550 UART support.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Communications performance can be greatly enhanced by locking
the com port at 38400 instead of 19200. Since the stock com
drivers supplied with OS/2 do not allow this, replacement
drivers must be used. We recommend Ray Gwinn's SIO drivers.
These are shareware, and curently registration is only $15.00
for four ports. Additional ports are supported at an
additional cost. They really are outstanding drivers, and
well worth the money for all OS/2 communications, not just
VBBS. SIO is available at:
The Rubber Room, 203-877-5856 and 203-876-0695
Virtual Technologies, 616-399-8791 and 616-399-4818
1. Obtain a copy of Ray Gwinn's SIO102.ZIP.
2. Unzip it into a directory something like this:
C:\SIO
3. Modify your config.sys file, removing the COM.SYS and
VCOM.SYS drivers, and replacing them with SIO.SYS and
VSIO.SYS. EX:
REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS
DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS
4. No special paramters are necessary for normal operation of com
ports 1 and 2. However, com port can be configured however
needed by specifying the port, base address and IRQ.
EX:
DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1,3F8,4) (2,2F8,3)
DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RUNNING VBBS-OS/2 │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VBBS-OS/2 is started similarly to VBBS-DOS. Different
channels are started by passing the channel number to VBBS.EXE
as a parameter just as in the DOS version. A CMD file is
included to get started. The shareware version supports two
active nodes and one local node. EX:
BBS 0 Starts Local Channel;
BBS 1 Starts Channel 1;
BBS 2 Starts Channel 2;
:
:
BBS 8 Starts Channel 8.
VBBS runs only in full screen mode for optimum efficiency.
Multiple VBBS nodes can be started under OS/2 in the startup
sequence by including the following in the STARTUP.CMD file:
--- Begin STARTUP.CMD ---
start bbs 0
start bbs 1
start vsysmon
--- End STARTUP.CMD ---
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VBBS-OS/2 MULTINET NETWORKING │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VBBS-OS/2 fully supports FIDO type and the new Vnet type networks
using the VXY protocol.
Care must be taken to make sure that if VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2
will share databases, that network configurations do NOT allow
HSLINK, as this protocol is not currently available for
VBBS/OS2. A setting in VCONFIG allowing DSZ for Virtualnet
type networks will enable VXY's ZMODEM.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OS/2 AND LANS │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VBBS-OS/2 can be connected to other VBBS workstations (OS/2
or DOS based) via Novell Netware, or IBM's LAN Server
products. VBBS-OS/2 has been tested using OS/2 2.x and
Novell 3.11 very successfully. The requestor for OS/2 2.x is
available from Novell for about $40.00, and the requestor
for 1.3 comes with Novell Netware.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VBBS-OS/2 WORKING WITH VBBS-DOS │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VBBS-OS/2 has been fully tested and is VBBS-DOS compliant.
VBBS-OS/2 can be installed directly over VBBS-DOS, taking the
place of the DOS base program or it can be installed parallel to
the DOS program, working with it using the same databases and
control.v file. VBBS has been tested with the following path
configuration:
VBBS-DOS Executables:
\VBBS\DOS
VBBS-OS/2 Executables:
\VBBS\OS2
All other paths shared by VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2.
Special considerations for VBBS-OS/2:
* If upgrading from VBBS-DOS, remember to remove DSZ and
HSLINK protocol options in VCONFIG, as well as any other
DOS protocols.
* Remove DOS Doors from the door configuration in VCONFIG.
(NOTE: Although it is possible to run DOS BBS doors from
VBBS-OS/2 with OS/2 2.x, it is not recommended. DOS DOORS
slow overall system performance terribly, since almost none
were written with OS/2 awareness in mind.
* Remove references to DOS programs called in scripts (SCAN,
etc.) unless you have OS/2 equivelents.
* Remove ARJ, LHA and other miscellaneous archive utility
configurations from VCONFIG. A bound version (meaning it
will run natively both in OS/2 and DOS) of PKZIP 1.10 is
available at the Rubber Room BBS, 1@1203000 and at Virtual
Technologies, 1@1 as PKZ102-2.EXE.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SCRIPTS │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VBBS-OS/2 should now be able to share scripts with VBBS-DOS.
No special provisions must be made for VBBS-OS/2 for properly
written scripts. VBBS-OS/2 does come with it's own OS/2 script
compiler.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DOORS │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
It is known that the SIO.SYS and VSIO.SYS drivers replacing
COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS, (written by Ray Gyinn) with OS/2 2.1 will
make DOS doors run under OS/2 2.x. To make this possible, modify
the SIO command line, adding port speed and a - to the command line
as follows:
DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1:38400,3F8,4, -) (2:38400,2F8,3, -)
Even so, this is not recommended, as opening a DOS
communications session will significantly impair system
performance, virtually defeating the purpose of running OS/2 in
the first place. Additionally, a certain degree of reliability
is traded off.
Using only OS/2 Door programs is recommended.