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1990-11-05
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REMOTE BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM
for the
Personal Computer
Version 17.3A
Technical Reference Guide
Technical Support Numbers
(407) 627-6969 (data)
(407) 627-9767 (voice)
(read section 4.1 before calling voice line)
Copyright 1983-1990
by
D. Thomas Mack
39 Cranbury Drive
Trumbull, Connecticut 06611
DATA #1 -- (203) 268-5315
Ken Goosens
5020 Portsmouth Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22032
DATA #1,2,3 -- (703) 978-6360
Doug Azzarito
5480 Eagle Lake Drive
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33418
DATA #1 -- (407) 627-6969
#2 -- (407) 627-6862
August 26, 1990
RBBS-PC 17.3A TABLE OF CONTENTS i
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.1 The Philosophy Behind RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.2 Distribution of RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.3 The "Contributions" Requested for RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.4 How to Send Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
2. INSTALLING RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.1 First Time Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.2 What's New In 17.3A? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
2.3 Upgrading To 17.3A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
2.4 Common Problems Encountered Installing RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . 2-9
3. "BASE-LINE" HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
4. RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
4.1 RBBS-PC's User Support Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Written documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
"The Complete Electronic Bulletin Board Starter Kit" . . . . 4-1
"RBBS-PC in a Box" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Network mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Technical Support BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Telephone support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Support Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Help by Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Professional Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
4.2 RBBS-PC's Vendor Support Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
5. HOW TO GET A COPY OF RBBS-PC SENT TO YOU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
6. FILES RBBS-PC USES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
6.1 RBBS-PC Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2
6.2 RBBS-PC System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
6.3 RBBS-PC's Graphics Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
6.4 RBBS-PC Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
7. PLANNING YOUR USER INTERFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
7.1 Menus Shown to Callers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
7.2 Subsystem Prompts Shown to Callers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
7.3 Commands Available to Callers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
7.4 RBBS-PC's "Wrap-around" Command Search . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
7.5 How to Have a Single Universal Command Line . . . . . . . . . 7-2
7.6 RBBS-PC'S Programmable User Interface (PUI) . . . . . . . . . 7-4
7.6.1 An Example Using PUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
7.6.2 How to Implement PUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
7.7 RBBS-PC's Support of Sub-menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
7.7.1 How to Implement Sub-menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
7.7.2 Shared Options Across Sub-menus . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10
7.8 RBBS-PC's "Macro" Command Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10
7.8.1 How to Set Up "Macros" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12
7.8.2 Macro Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13
7.8.3 A Sample Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-18
7.8.4 On-line Data Base With Macros & Questionnaires . . . 7-19
7.9 RBBS-PC's "SmartText" Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-21
7.10 "Colorizing" the RBBS-PC User Interface . . . . . . . . . . 7-24
7.11 RBBS-PC's Automatic Operator Page Option . . . . . . . . . 7-26
7.12 Enhancing the File View Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-27
RBBS-PC 17.3A TABLE OF CONTENTS ii
7.13 Bulletins and News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-28
8. UNIQUELY IDENTIFYING YOUR CALLERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
8.1 Setting Up Identifying and Individuation Fields . . . . . . . 8-1
8.2 Preloading Identities For Instant Access . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
9. RBBS-PC's AUTOMATIC SUBSCRIPTION/TIME MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
9.1 Setting It Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
10. USING THE "CONFIG" UTILITY TO CONFIGURE RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . 10-1
10.1 Global RBBS-PC Parameters (Part 1 of 3) . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
10.2 Global RBBS-PC Parameters (Part 2 of 3) . . . . . . . . . . 10-3
10.3 Global RBBS-PC Parameters (Part 3 of 3) . . . . . . . . . . 10-5
10.4 Parameters for RBBS-PC System Files (part 1) . . . . . . . 10-8
10.5 Parameters for RBBS-PC System Files (part 2) . . . . . . . 10-10
10.6 Parameters for RBBS-PC "Doors" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-12
10.7 Parameters for RBBS-PC's Security (part 1) . . . . . . . . 10-13
10.8 Parameters for RBBS-PC's Security (part 2) . . . . . . . . 10-15
10.9 Parameters for Multiple RBBS-PC's/Conferences . . . . . . . 10-17
10.10 RBBS-PC SysOp Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-19
10.11 RBBS-PC's File Management System Parameters . . . . . . . 10-20
10.12 Communications Parameters (part 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-22
10.13 Communications Parameters (part 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-25
10.14 Parameters for RBBS-PC NET-MAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-25
10.15 New Users Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-27
10.16 Use of the Library Sub-System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-27
10.17 RBBS-PC's Parameters for Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-28
11. MODEM SWITCH SETTING AND CONSIDERATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-1
12. RBBS-PC's FILE MANAGEMENT SUBSYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-1
12.1 Simple Directory Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-1
12.2 The Single and Chained FMS Directory Format . . . . . . . . 12-2
12.3 Advantages/Disadvantages of FMS Directory . . . . . . . . . 12-3
12.4 Creating FMS Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5
12.5 Defining the FMS Category Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6
12.6 The "Library" Subsystem, CD-ROM, and FMS . . . . . . . . . 12-7
12.6.1 How the "Library" Subsystem Works . . . . . . . . . 12-9
12.6.2 The "Library" Subsystem and PC-SIG's CD-ROM . . . . 12-10
12.7 Creating the Personal Files Directory . . . . . . . . . . . 12-10
12.8 Automatically Checking & Converting Uploaded Files . . . . 12-14
12.9 Fast File Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-15
13. SETTING UP ".BAT" FILES FOR RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-1
13.1 RBBS-PC's Startup Batch File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-1
13.2 The Daily Event .BAT file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
14. THE USE OF RBBS-PC "DOORS" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1
14.1 A Quick Start to Installing Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1
14.2 The Major Problems with DOORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1
14.2.1 Redirecting I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2
14.2.2 Exchanging Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3
14.2.3 Terminating After Carrier Loss . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3
14.2.4 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4
14.3 Invoking "DOOR"s Via The External Control File . . . . . . 14-4
14.4 EXITing or SHELLing to "DOOR"s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6
14.5 Resetting The User's Record Via a "DOOR" . . . . . . . . . 14-6
14.6 A Summary of "DOOR"s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-7
RBBS-PC 17.3A TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
15. THE SECURITY FEATURES OF RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1
15.1 RBBS-PC's Security Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1
15.2 Examples of Uses for RBBS-PC's Security System . . . . . . 15-2
15.3 How to Implement the Password File . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-3
15.4 Implementing Security for Download Files . . . . . . . . . 15-5
15.5 Implementing Security for RBBS-PC Commands . . . . . . . . 15-7
15.6 Beware of the "Trojan Horse!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-8
16. SYSOP FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1
16.1 SYSOP Commands Within RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1
16.2 SysOp Use of Function Keys and Numeric Pad . . . . . . . . 16-2
16.3 Local Status Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-4
17. MESSAGE AREAS WITHIN RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-1
17.1 "Conferences" and "Sub-boards" -- the Differences . . . . . 17-1
17.2 Making a "Conference" or "Sub-board" Successful . . . . . . 17-3
17.3 Setting Up a "Conference" or "Sub-board" . . . . . . . . . 17-4
17.4 Conference File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-4
17.5 Establishing a "Conference" or "Sub-board" SysOp . . . . . 17-5
18. CALLERS AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATIONS OF MAIL WAITING . . . . . . . . . 18-1
19. RBBS-PC QUESTIONNAIRE FACILITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-1
19.1 Branching to Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2
19.2 Display Data Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2
19.3 Display Data And Get Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3
19.4 Multiple Choice Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3
19.5 Forward And Backward Branching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.6 Raise/Lower User's Security Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.7 Abort Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.8 Chain Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.9 Turbo Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.10 Macro Execute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-5
19.11 Assign Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-5
20. RBBS-PC's STANDARD INTERFACE FOR PROTOCOL DRIVERS . . . . . . . . 20-1
20.1 Parameters passed to a protocol driver . . . . . . . . . . 20-1
20.2 Calling external protocols using "templates" . . . . . . . 20-4
20.3 Parameters Returned by a Protocol Driver . . . . . . . . . 20-5
20.4 The Protocol Drivers Tested With RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . 20-6
21. UPLOADED FILE TIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-1
22. DUE WARNING AND SYSOP'S LEGAL LIABILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-1
23. COMPILING AND LINKING RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-1
24. LIMITED LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-1
25. LIMITED WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-1
26. THE HISTORY BEHIND RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-1
27. PROPOSED RBBS-PC SYSOP CONFERENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-1
28. RBBS-PC, THE LARGEST SOFTWARE HOUSE IN THE WORLD . . . . . . . . 28-1
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
APPENDIX A -- RBBS-PC Record Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
RBBS-PC 17.3A TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
APPENDIX B -- RBBS-PC Software Registration . . . . . . . . . . . B-1
APPENDIX C -- RBBS-PC Subscription Service . . . . . . . . . . . . C-1
APPENDIX D -- Modems with RBBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-1
Anchor Signalman Express (MK12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-1
Ark-Paradyne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-1
Everex Evercom 2400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-3
FASTCOMM 2496 Turbo Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-4
Leading Edge Series L 2400B Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-6
MICROCOM AX\9624c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-6
Prometheus 2400G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-7
USRobotics Courier and HST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-7
USRobotics HST Dual Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-9
ZOOM Modem HC2400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-10
APPENDIX E -- RBBS-PC and the Hearing-Impaired . . . . . . . . . . E-1
APPENDIX F -- RBBS-PC And The AT's RS-232 Cable . . . . . . . . . F-1
APPENDIX G -- RBBS-PC And BASIC Compiler Patches for "Doors" . . . G-1
APPENDIX H -- Running a multiple node RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . H-1
APPENDIX I -- RBBS-PC in a DESQview Environment . . . . . . . . . I-1
1. Basic Hardware Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-1
2. Modifications to DOS CONFIG.SYS and RBBS-PC batch files . I-1
3. What to Tell RBBS-PC's "CONFIG" Utility . . . . . . . . . I-2
4. DESQview Setup Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-2
5. Adding RBBS-PC to DESQview's "Open Window" Menu . . . . . I-3
6. Memory Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-3
7. Expanded Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-4
8. How to AUTOEXEC RBBS-PC From DESQview . . . . . . . . . . I-4
9. Quarterdeck Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-4
10. Redirecting I/O Considerations (DOS CTTY Command) . . . . I-5
11. FOSSIL Drivers - Break the 2-node Barrier under
DESQview! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-5
12. RBBS-PC Technical Support For DESQview . . . . . . . . . I-8
APPENDIX J -- Using RBBS-PC with DoubleDOS . . . . . . . . . . . . J-1
APPENDIX K -- RBBS-PC in a MultiLink Environment . . . . . . . . . K-1
APPENDIX L -- RBBS-PC in a CORVUS Network . . . . . . . . . . . . L-1
APPENDIX M -- RBBS-PC in ORCHID or AST PCnet NETWORK . . . . . . . M-1
APPENDIX N -- RBBS-PC in an Alloy PC-SLAVE/16 Environment . . . . N-1
APPENDIX O -- RBBS-PC and 10 NET Network . . . . . . . . . . . . O-1
APPENDIX P -- Running RBBS-PC on a NETBIOS network . . . . . . . . P-1
APPENDIX Q -- RBBS-PC and the IBM PCjr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Q-1
APPENDIX R -- Using RBBS-PC to access ORACLE or dBASE Remotely . . R-1
Using dBASE "DOORS" with RBBS-PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R-1
Using ORACLE with RBBS-PC for On-line Data Base Access . . . R-3
APPENDIX S -- Using RBBS-PC with SEAdog to Access FIDO-NET . . . . S-1
APPENDIX T -- DOS Limitation on Running Programs Remotely . . . . T-1
APPENDIX U -- Recompiling RBBS-PC to Reduce Memory Required . . . U-1