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- ID:ST Technical Support via Smartnet
- Quarterdeck Technical Note
- by Eric Wieling
-
- This technote describes how you can access one of Quarterdeck's
- 24 hour electronic Technical Support services. But first, a little
- background information.
-
- SmartNet is a network of individual Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)
- that exchange messages, questions, answers, and files on a daily
- basis. The SmartNet Network is not like the Local Area Networks
- (LANs) that you may be familiar with. SmartNet is currently a
- three-level network.
-
- The International/Administrative Host system of the SmartNet is
- The Sound of Music BBS (SOM). The Sound of Music Bulletin Board
- System (SOM) is a system that brings the very latest technologies
- to the telecomputing world. SOM has grown to supporting over 1.5
- GIGABYTES of online resources including over 10,000 files available
- for subscribers of the Sound of Music BBS.
-
- Regional Systems call The Sound of Music every night to exchange
- any new information or messages that may have been received during
- the day. There are several regional hubs; each in addition to
- exchanging information with SOM also exchanges information with
- smaller, individual Bulletin Boards. The regional hubs usually
- have large user bases. These systems usually have several
- incoming lines and require a paid subscription for full access.
-
- Individual bulletin board systems call the closest regional hub
- to exchange messages and information that has been received during
- the day. Most of them have only one or two incoming lines and many
- times do not charge subscription fees for access.
-
- By using this method of exchanging messages and information, a
- message left on any one of the BBSes on the network is received by
- everyone of the BBSes on the network within days. It also allows
- Quarterdeck Technical Support to call one system, currently The
- Sound of Music, and reach hundreds of users with technical
- bulletins, upgrade information and answers to technical support
- questions.
-
- The DESQview product support conference discusses DESQview,
- QEMM-386, QEMM-50/60, QRAM, Manifest, and the API programing
- interface to DESQview.
-
- Quarterdeck is not the only company that uses SmartNet as an
- avenue for technical support. Many hardware manufacturers and
- software publishers (both commercial and shareware/Public Domain)
- provide support on SmartNet.
-
- SmartNet is such a good resource for computer users that BYTE
- magazine wrote of Smartnet and the Sound of Music BBS is a "major
- national bbs network and system".
-
- The Sound of Music Bulletin Board System (SOM) is the system
- that Quarterdeck uses to distribute its information on SmartNet.
- This information is sent to any SmartNet node that carries the
- DESQview product support conference.
-
- Although you may prefer to contact one of the participating
- SmartNet nodes in your area, the following is subscription
- information for The Sound of Music BBS:
-
- There are presently two FREE PUBLIC ACCESS NODES to the Sound of Music
- BBS which can be accessed at (516) 536-8723. Public access limits
- downloading to the first 90 days online. Thereafter, the trial user is
- expected to subscribe to the Sound of Music BBS in one of several
- categories defined below. These public nodes are available for accessing
- all of the conferences of the system. Many features of the system are
- only available to subscribers of the system. The public nodes only
- support 1200/2400 bps modems. 9600 bps is only available on subscriber
- nodes.
-
- FULL YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: $50.00/calendar year with full access to all
- forums, doors, conferences and file directories with NO restrictions to
- number of files downloaded with a 1 megabyte daily download limit and a
- daily online limitation of 3 hours per day.
-
- TRIAL 90 SUBSCRIPTION: $25.00/90 day period with full access to all
- forums, doors, conferences and a file directories with a daily byte
- limitation of 500,000 bytes/day and a daily online time of 40 minutes.
-
- The following is a list of BBSes participating in SmartNet.
-
- Sound Of Music 516-536-5630 Oceanside, NY
-
- Oasis BBS 613-236-1730 Ottawa, ONT, CANADA
- PC Connect 416-733-9052 Toronto, ONT, CANADA
- Rose Media 416-733-2285 Toronto, ONT CANADA
- Chips+ Connection 714-760-3265 Newport Beach, CA
- DPS 213-459-6053 Pacific Palisades, CA
- Easy Access BBS 415-829-6027 San Ramon, CA
- Hideaway BBS 916-961-1042 Sacramento, CA
- LAX Lighthouse 213-673-4745 Inglewood, CA
- Little Angels PCBoard 213-387-5901 Los Angeles, CA
- SeaHunt BBS 415-344-4348 Burlingame, CA
- The CHARISMA BBS 415-349-6576 Foster City, CA
- The HIDEAWAY 916-961-1042 Sacramento, CA
- The Higher Powered BBS 408-737-9447 Sunnyvale, CA
- The Hotline 818-567-6564 Burbank, CA
- The Network 2000 415-474-4523 San Francisco, CA
- The PC GFX Exchange 415-337-5416 San Francisco, CA
- WEST LOS ANGELES BBS 213-838-9229 West Los Angeles, CA
- Twin Peaks BBS 303-651-0225 Longmont, CO
- HH Info-Net 203-738-0306 New Hartford, CT
- BOSTON GAS BBS 617-235-6303 Wesley, MA
- Channel 1 (tm) 617-354-8873 Cambridge, MA
- TRAVEL ONLINE 314-625-4054 St. Louis, MO
- The Odyssey 201-984-6574 Morris Plains, NJ
- Apollo III BBS 716-894-7386 Buffflo, NY
- HI TECH NetWork 212-769-4734 New York, NY
- PharmStat BBS 718-217-0898 Bayside, NY
- The Big Apple BBS 516-536-1546 Rockville Centre, NY
- The Invention Factory 212-431-1194 New York, NY
- Blue Lake 503-655-0842 West Linn, OR
- Chemeketa OnLine 503-393-5580 Salem, OR
- The Underdog PCBoard 215-788-6647 Croydon, PA
- Data World BBS 615-966-3574 Concord, TN
- TEJAS 713-681-1920 Houston, TX
- The Abend BBS 713-771-2802 Houston, TX
- Ye Olde Bailey 713-520-1569 Houston, TX
- Arlington Software 703-532-5568 Walls Church, VA
- Data Bit NETWork 703-719-9648 Alexandria, VA
- Springfield Bypass 703-941-5815 Springfield, VA
- The Midnite Rider 703-591-5744 Fairfax, VA
- Poverty Rock 206-232-1763 Mercer Is., WA
- Poverty Rock PCBoard 206-367-2596 Seattle, WA
- Real Batchin' 206-391-2330 Issaquah, WA
- Starfinder I 206-277-1689 Renton, WA
-
- Copyright (C) 1990 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
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