Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!unlinfo.unl.edu!hoss!greg Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: BBS Software (was: Re: (none)) Message-ID: <1991May22.190148.5657@unlinfo.unl.edu> From: greg@hoss.unl.edu (Lig Lury Jr.) Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 19:01:48 GMT Sender: news@unlinfo.unl.edu References: <9105151430.AA25397@apple.com> <2435@novavax.UUCP> Organization: GBBS/ACOS Sysop Support Nntp-Posting-Host: hoss.unl.edu Lines: 88 grohol@novavax.UUCP (John Grohol) writes: >ENT0022@OUACCVMB.BITNET writes: >>Hello everyone, I am interested to setup me own BBS but I do not have any >>experiment. Could anyone provide me the information regarding to how to >>setup BBS, what kind of BBS software I should use. What kind of thing I >>should aware of. >I can only assume you are running some kind of Apple II (since ya posted >it here...) So that leaves you with about 6 choices, 2 of which are >the only real programs to run on an Apple II for a BBS. >GBBS Pro (from L&L) is the "standard" of Apple II BBS's. It's been >around for years... Its relatively easy to program in, but has >lousy support (my experience). It also has language limitations >which we programmers constantly have to work around (ie.- no >integers greater than 32,000). No arrays is also a major problem. Also I am attempting to provide unofficial GBBS "Pro" support through a mailing list. >However, with a lot of tweaking, its >a nice program. I ran a GBBS board for 2 years. Yeah. I have lots of modifications to my board. Problem is, if you want a good board, you must make modifications. Out of the box, it has bugs, which still persist on the L&L Support BBS. >Metal is the newcomer. All I've heard is good things about it. I have >seen a number of boards using Metal, and they don't look or act much >differently than GBBS. I haven't seen code for Metal. METAL code is very similar to ACOS (GBBS's language) code, but with some changes and extensions. I have some problems with it so far. First, it doesn't have message files, which I feel is ACOS's strongest point. Second, it currently doesn't work with my modem. (I'm thinking about getting a new one anyway. My sister can use my DataLink 2400 on her IIe.) Third, I still don't have a manual, so I can't even begin to attempt to write my own driver for the modem. Since it is still fairly new, it has bugs. While it can handle emulations, it still doesn't recognize a ? in PSE mode as an _. So far the only program I have found that recognizes that properly is ProTERM. (!) It can be a real good program, as soon as all the bugs are worked out of it. I don't know what the status of the Assembly ability is right now, but I was told it didn't work on the version I got. I've been taking a look at ProLine as well, but it has one major problem: it pretty much requires a hard drive, which I don't have. I'm trying to shoehorn it into a 2 800K disk setup, but work is slow. I likes a minimum of a 5 MB partition. GBBS "Pro" can be made to run on two 3.5" disks, with some popular and free modifications like modifying the SYSTEM.LOG so that it doesn't start eating up all your disk space. At the current time, my recommendation is GBBS "Pro". Just make sure you are running the right operating system with it. Several unexplainable phenomenon kept occurring with me until I updated my ProDOS 8 to v1.8. (Version 1.7 of ProDOS made GBBS "Pro" think that the assignment clr$=chr$(12)+chr$(0)+chr$(0) was a "String Too Long" error at the first + at startup, but not on subsequent runs. It had Bird's Better Bye installed.) >My two cents worth... I wish people would keep their pennies to themselves. Everyone and their dog is adding lines like that to their messages, and it becomes very tiresome. If I had a penny for every time I saw the above or some variation thereof... I'd be the person Steven Wright made a reference to. > John M. Grohol || Nova University - Ft. Lauderdale, FL > Internet: grohol@novavax.nova.edu || Center for Psychological Studies There are also several public domain/shareware AppleSoft BBS programs. Three off the top of my head are Magic City Micro, Sonic BBS, and AppleNET. There used to be an MCM board here (which one person described it as a "GBBS wannabe"), a Sonic BBS later moved to GBBS "Pro", and now the sysop is trying his hand at making his own "C" BBS, and there is an AppleNET currently running here in Lincoln, NE, though I have yet to call it. I'm planning on writing a comparison article on "The Big Three" in II Sysops in the second issue. -- /// ____ \\\ "The major problem--one of the major problems, for there are | |/ / \ \| | several--one of the many major problems with governing \\_|\____/|_// people is of whom you get to do it, or more to the greg \_\\\/ hoss.unl.edu point, who gets people to let them do it to them."