The Arcade BBS/arcadebbs.zip/arcadebbs/TEXT/BBSSETUP.ZIP/BBSSETUP.EXE/NEWSOCT.93

Text File | 1993-10-11 | 17.7 KB | 295 lines

Digital Communications - by Hank Volpe
How to make friends and influence people

So what's troubling you Bunky? You say you're feeling Un-loved? Un-needed?
Un-appreciated? You say you want to change the world but hey, who has the
time these days? Well you do! Yes you, and a little help from your
computer. What if I told you that you could meet people right in your own
neighborhood and also from distant lands, have these people look to you
for advice, and in fact you could be THE most in-demand person in a
specific area of expertise? Interested? Intrigued? Power-hungry? Well if
so, you can make this dream real! Its easy...all you need is a modem, a
computer, a telephone line and you can be a SYSOP! Imagine the hours of
fun raising and lowering people's access levels! Feel the tingling waves
of power as you deny someone the right to download a file! Revel in ecstasy
as you deliberately change user's passwords, making their lives a living
hell! You're the King of your dominion, and as Mel Brooks once said, "It's
good to be the King".

So I had you going for a minute, well as with most of my "humor", its to
prove a point or in this case to make a statement; Why would anyone (in
their right mind) want to be a SYSOP? SYSOP (mangled Computer-ese for
System Operator) is the person or persons in charge of a Bulletin Board
service. I'm not sure if these people are born with a gene for self-abuse
or if they are some of the nobelist of people you may meet anywhere. After
all, these people out of their own pocket place a computer, a telephone,
and a file system at your disposal 24 hours a day. They answer questions,
provide help and training, and work hard to correct every little complaint
they receive from the people who use their system. They never take
vacations, they rarely get praised for their work, and as soon as they get
a little money they put it back into the system in the forms of more
storage space, more phone lines, and more computers to run the BBS.
Of course, the rewards for doing this are immense; high phone bills, high
network relay charges, and little in the form of cash to pay for it all.
If the system "crashes" for more than a few minutes, the SYSOP is deluged
with voice calls while the system is down, and endless messages when back
on line from angry users who of course can't understand why their service
was interrupted.

Why would anyone want to be a SYSOP? Well, like I said, its either due to
a defective gene or the fact that SYSOP's are some of the nobelist people
you will find in any hobby. Most systems are free to use, and run out of
individual homes or by user groups. They may ask for donations (usually a
small amount) to help offset the cost of operation and maintenance. Even
the smallest systems offer access to hundreds of shareware programs, and
as such they keep the shareware concept alive. SYSOPS and their relatively
unselfish ways have directly lead to the boon in personal communication
devices, furthered the exchange of technical and operational information
via their many conference"echos", and taken on-whole, the thousands of
individual systems merge together to form one of the largest free-exchange
of ideas arenas you can find in the world. Maybe that's why some of us
decide to be SYSOPS. The rest, the users of these systems should spend
some time learning how these systems work; If for no other reason, to
appreciate what a SYSOP does for you.

Basic SYSOP Skills

The best SYSOPS are those who possess two important attributes; a good
technical knowledge of PC's and hardware, and good interpersonal skills.
Competent technical skills and interpersonal skills in the right mix are
illusive character traits for most individuals, yet these are essential
for a SYSOP. The hardware skills are necessary when planning the system,
choosing the components, and debugging / customizing the hardware.
Interpersonal skills are needed to attract and maintain a base of users.
The best hardware gets you nowhere if you don't know how to treat people.
The best people-skills get you nowhere if your technical competence is
poor. The mix between the two of these is what makes a BBS "good" or
"bad".

Having run a BBS for about 9 years (both as part of a user group and on my
own), I've been able to develop an ability to spot a "good" BBS rather
quickly. Good BBS's seem to have these simple items working in harmony;
easy to use, well-organized, easy to access, current files, and most
importantly, it has a "mission", a reason for being. I can't stress enough
the importance of a BBS having a reason to exist. Simply being the biggest
system can be a good reason, but something like being a "clearing-house"
for (lets say) Computer Graphic software and Graphic help is a mission
even a one-line, small BBS can effectively execute. If you are planning on
setting up a BBS, make sure you spend as much time deciding on your
mission as you do choosing your hardware. Doing so might be the difference
between a successful BBS or a total waste of time.


Hardware Considerations

Planning your BBS system's hardware encompasses more than just purchasing
the parts. The parts are important, but before you purchase anything you
should decide where the BBS will be located. Ideally, it should be in a
portion of your house that has good ventilation, a reliable source of
power, and sufficient storage area to handle the system as its configured
today plus room for future expansion. A clean and even-temperature
environment is also a must. A BBS computer is normally on 24 hours a day.
Actually, this is good for the system. The only wear-and tear item in a
computer system is the hard drive, but most of those are rated in
thousands of hours between failures. Pure electronic components prefer to
be on all the time, but not in dusty or hot rooms. Dust and heat can bake
IC chips. A piece of dust as small as a 70 micro-inches (pretty darn
small) will crash a hard drive faster than you can say "Bill Gates".

As mentioned earlier, a reliable source of power is also essential.
Ideally, the computer and its hardware should be the only devices plugged
into the electrical service line. Since that is not always possible, make
sure you use a good-quality surge suppressor. Also, do not plug devices
with large motors (refrigerators, portable air conditioners) into the same
power service. These devices have large inductive "kicks" when they start,
which might damage or reboot your computer. A phone-line suppressor is
also important, especially in areas with long, overhead phone lines.
Lightning or other potentially damaging electrical surges can walk into
your modem via the phone line.

When choosing the actual hardware components, you might feel the need to
go as cheap as possible. Well, I'm here to tell you that you've chosen the
best way to go, with a few "caveats". Speed is more important than cheap,
but its easier than ever to accomplish both goals.

Your computer should be the fastest you can afford and your hard drive
should be the largest and fastest you can afford. Your computer of choice
does not have to be a name-brand item. BBS software is some of the most
generic you will find anywhere, and virtually any platform that runs MS-
DOS 5 or MS-DOS 6 will work for you. My BBS runs off of a 486-DX 50
motherboard I bought for $450 and placed in a $60 case with a $20
keyboard. All of this was cheerfully assembled for me by the merchant who
sold me the system. A fast computer will allow you to multi-task, giving
you the ability to handle more than one telephone line in the future. It
also will make the computer easier to use (from a user's standpoint).
Commands, doors, shells, and external protocols will run at an impressive
clip. This projects a well-running, well-organized aura for your BBS.

Hard drives, especially IDE drives, are very inexpensive. A 120 meg drive
is a good starter size. With IDE controllers, you could always add another
drive and increase your size to 240 megs. Higher than that, you really
should be purchasing an SCSI interface and drive combination. Remember,
you can always purchase a new drive. 120 megs is a modest size that will
get you going for less that $250. Most hard drives offer under 20
milliseconds of access time. Speed again is important, especially when a
user is searching for files or compacting mail. A slow running hard drive,
like one of the old MFM's of yesteryear tied to a fast computer is like
tying a garbage barge to a warp-driven star-ship (apologies to Montgomery
Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise).

Picking the modem will run you smack-dab into a Speed vs. Cheap vs.
Quality triangle. You can do speed and quality, but not cheap. You can do
cheap and speed, but not quality. So what do you do? Well good conscience
does not allow me to endorse a particular brand of modem, but let me point
you in the right direction with a few simple rules of purchase; You will
not find a good quality 14400 bps modem for under $200 (external version).
A good modem must have better than average noise tolerance. This is what
separates the cheap from quality, not the electronics. The actual
electronic components vary little between manufacturers. The big
difference comes in how these components interface to the telephone line
and to your computer. A good modem will isolate its input from the
telephone line via a transformer or an optical coupler. This means there
is no direct connection to the telephone wire. The input electronics will
offer good echo-cancellation, essential to smooth, high-baud rate
sessions. Additionally, a good modem's input circuits will minimize
"spikes" and  interference that can travel on phone wires from a variety
of sources and will have adequate shielding to keep the modem from
radiating unwanted signals that might interfere with your TV set or radio
devices in your house. If you are looking for a good modem but don't know
how to go about it, simply call a BBS system and ask the SYSOP what he or
she is using. Another way is to look at the documentation accompanying the
modem. Is it organized, easy to read, rich in commands and features? If
so, you're probably making a good choice.

Why so much about modems? Besides the fact it is a BBS you're trying to
setup, a good modem is essential to allow for compatibility with BBS
software. A BBS modem must be able to recycle quickly, inform the program
of the state of carrier connections from 300 bps to 19.2kbps and over a
variety of handshaking and packeting schemes. A good modem must be able to
connect reliably, even with the cheap and so-so compatible modems. No one
piece of hardware can cause you more grief than a more-or-less compatible
modem. Price and reputation are your best guides when purchasing a modem.


Before we move out of hardware, there is always a debate about external
vs. internal modems. I prefer externals because you can see the lights.
Most times, the monitor for the BBS is off. The only hint of activity is
the connect LED's on the modem. Reading those lights tells me that
everything is ok, or it raises suspicion making me investigate.


Software Considerations

Your choice of BBS software goes a long way to helping you meet your
mission goals. Your choice should be easy to customize, easy for your
users to operate, and easy for you to organize and maintain. Some
professional BBS system packages (WildCat, PC-Board, Galacticomm) can cost
several hundred dollars or more. Shareware programs like Maximus, Fido,
Opus, WWIV, Remote Access, and RBBS are either free or much less expensive
to use. Some programs use a special TSR called a FOSSIL (Fido/Opus
Standard Serial Interface Layer) that handles communication with your
modem. Some have built-in mail handlers, others require you shell to DOS
to operate external programs. Some have built-in file management and
transfer functions, others rely on external programs.

The best choice for a novice BBS SYSOP is a program that comes pre-
configured. In other words, its defaults are good enough to get most
people up and running with little trouble. My personal experience leans
towards either WWIV or RBBS. Both have built-in file handling, file
protocols, allow for multiple message conferences and allow users to shell
out to external programs (doors). RBBS also has the benefit of coming with
the source code in Quickbasic. If you are the least bit computer-language
literate, you can add or change the features of RBBS to be more towards
your liking. Also, many "merges" and "enhancements" for RBBS are found on
easily on BBS systems. With a merge program (BLED) and Quickbasic, you can
easily add features to RBBS that were not written into the original code.
RBBS can also work with FOSSIL Drivers, and with "conversion" software and
a "Front-Door" to answer the phone and co-ordinate, it can ship messages
to and from FIDO based conferences in a Net-mail environment. RBBS can be
easily organized. A PUI (Programmable User Interface) allows the SYSOP to
divide command sections into logical components (A main, a message, a
file, a utility and more). Macro words or commands can be created to make
it easier to navigate or access special features. External protocol
support makes it possible to add nearly any kind of file-transfer protocol
to RBBS.

Fido, Opus and Maximus are all excellent BBS programs. They require the
SYSOP to be a bit more than a novice in setting up BBS systems. Each
program boasts rich command sets and an ability to extensively configure
for a specific application. Maximus supports an internal QWK mail handler.
All of these programs use FOSSIL drivers and "Front-Doors" to answer the
telephone and handle the networking of mail packets. X00150.ZIP contains
Ray Gwinn's FOSSIL routines for communicating to your serial ports and
modems while running under DOS. SIO115.ZIP contains Gwinn's replacement
for the Comm.drv for OS/2 applications. Both of these programs are well
documented, well supported, and make it easier for those writing BBS
programs. When you use a FOSSIL, you don't need to write your own
communication routines. This saves development time. Front-Doors (Binkey
Term, Front-Door) answer the phone and handle mail for BBS systems. If you
are looking to add this type of support, you will need to make sure you've
added these two pieces of software to your BBS shopping list.

Programs like WildCat, PC-Board, and Galacticomm are well written, well
documented, professional E-Mail and file transfer systems. These programs
are written for the SYSOP who is running more than 2 lines, supporting CD
ROMS, Netmail, and most likely a network interface between computer
servers. These programs are the "Cadillacs" (if you will) of BBS software.
They are more difficult to configure, but reward the user in ease of
operation, and organization.


People Considerations

Finally, before you accept your first call, decide on how you will deal
with your users. Have you made things easy to use? Have you placed
adequate bulletins on-line explaining your rules for access? Have you
organized your files logically? Have you organized the command structure
of the BBS logically? How have you decided to deal with "problem" callers?
You'll get them. How you deal with them, especially in public, is how your
BBS will be judged. Finally, have you focused all of the above towards
your mission statement? If not, your BBS will not do as well as if you
did.

Focusing is simple. For example here is a brief idea of how my BBS
operates; New callers are let on immediately. They are assigned a level
sufficient to download any files and leave any messages on the BBS. They
are encouraged through the rules to treat the BBS like a library, taking
what they need. They are encouraged to ask for help, but are warned that
any information they get is provided "as-is" and using that information is
at their own risk. They are told to use their real names. If they would
like to upload, they are required to fill out a questionnaire. Its' my way
of controlling the spread of virus-infected programs. Access is free, no
donation or other monetary support is solicited from the users. The BBS
has one line, and its dedicated to communication software, DOS and Windows
utilities, and communication help. I don't have any pictures, graphic
programs, database managers, word processors, or spreadsheets on the BBS.
I leave those items for the big, multi-line BBS systems. I do have
hundreds of hard-to-find communication utilities. That is the mission of
the BBS. Anything that does not fit that mission is not allowed on, be it
a user or a file.

Some BBS's are more restrictive and some are less restrictive. It depends
again on the mission of the BBS. If I supported 3 or 4 phone lines and
gigabytes of files, I too would want some financial support from the
users. I would also limit the amount that could be downloaded without
uploading something. Your mission statement must accurately reflect what
you intend to do with your BBS. Set a realistic goal, evaluate it several
times a year, and make corrections when necessary. Without a mission, a
BBS has no reason to exist.

Walk a mile in my shoes

It may be an old saying, but users of BBS systems need to be aware of all
it takes to make a BBS work, and work properly. For those who are users, I
hope you take the time to read this article again, just so you have an
idea of the expense and investment of time a SYSOP makes to provide you
with a service that in most cases is free of charge. If you are a BBS
SYSOP, I hope some of these suggestions will make operating and
maintaining your BBS easier. If you have a question about Digital
Communications, please drop me a line on my BBS or by using the US Mail.
Write to Hank Volpe, PO Box 43214, Baltimore MD 21236, or call the Modem
Doctor BBS at 410-256-3631 (baud rates 300 to 16.8kbps).