The Equipment The only equipment REQUIRED are one disk drive, and a auto answer modem (that the BBS program has been modified to support). Optional are: Printer (device 4), and extra drives (devices 8 - 11). Disks?? Your complete BBS system will have one SYSTEM disk (containing the BBS, boot file, editors, configurer, and all ML files. This disk should not be in any drives while the BBS is on-line and should be set aside when the BBS is on-line. When you set up your BBS, you can have up to 3 drives with anything you like to be stored on them. The exception is your MAIN data disk. This disk will be in device 8 and will hold all main files. Other file types (UD section, Msg base, Mail, Text files) can also be set to device 8 but are optional. The disks you have set in any other drives act as data disks and can have other functions of the BBS rerouted to them (individual sigs, mail, etc.). GETTING STARTED! Included on your system disk is a program to set up some example files for your MAIN and data disks. These files can be edited as needed. LOAD "CONFIG 2.2" ,8 SEARCHING FOR CONFIG 2.2 LOADING READY. RUN You will now see an opening screen and a prompt to press RETURN. Because this does not configure to your personal desires and only sets some example values, it will only set up for 1 or 2 drives. Turn on drive 8. If you have a second drive, turn on drive 9. Make sure drive 9 has a FORMATTED disk inside. Drive 8 can either have a formatted or unformatted disk inside. When this is done, press return and answer the questions very carefully. Your handle is up to 17 characters, name: 17 chars, phone: 8 chars, pass: 8 chars. The password will be any combination of upper or lowercase letters that should be known to YOU only and not given out. Now the program should begin creating the main files, menus, msg base, and vote section respectively. Lastly, it will ask you to swap between your system disk and MAIN data disk in drive 8 while it copys 2 of your main system files. Off-line editor! LOAD "EDITOR 2.2" ,8 SEARCHING FOR EDITOR 2.2 LOADING READY. RUN NOTE: Any reference to the "DATA DISK" refers to all data disks being put in their proper drives! From this program you can change any of the example values. Lets look around... hit 1 from the main menu. 1) Edit main level options This option alows you to change the command letter (letter pressed) for the functions available from the main menu as well as the access level required (or higher) to use the option. To edit any option, press the number next to it and answer the questions. REMEMBER: Any time you change options, MAKE SURE you change the coresponding menus. In this case, "(pound)mainmenu x" (x = access level 0 - 9) will hold the main level options. Type "q" when done editing. 2) Edit msg mkr options This alows you to edit the command letters for the BBS message writer options. These functions are typed as *(letter) (RETURN) The functions not listed that are set in permanently are: *w (word wrap toggle) *u (uppercase/lowercase toggle) *h (help file) A list of these commands should be included in the file "(pound)msg mkr help" 3) Edit msg base options This section is devoted to the command letters for your msg base and the access level required to use them. Msg delete and resp delete should be reserved for those with a higher access. 4) NAME OF BBS 5) Mail Device Here is the device number (8-11) for all personal user-to-user mail. This is also the device for your TEXT or LIBRARY files. 6) Sig System This is a very important part of your BBS system and should be edited ONLY ONCE. The only changes that may not affect the current status of your msg base would be the adding of sigs. Maximum Messages refers to the number of individual subjects that will be accepted in a sig at one time. Each msg has its own file on the disk and all responses are tagged to the end of the subjects and should not be considered in this option. 7) UD Editor 8) Time/Calls editor This is where you edit the number of calls per day, hours on-line allowed per call, and tens of minutes allowed on-line per call. All new users (first time callers) are given level 0. Q) Quit- USE THIS OPTION ONLY IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR CHANGES STORED!!! S) Save and Quit- Save the file "(pound)variables" with all of the information in this section. This file along with all menus are MAIN data disk files. OPTION 2 from the main menu This is the editor for the userlog on your Main data disk.1) Create new user log This completely erases and re-writes the userlog as done in the configurer. 2) Edit userlog This is the option to edit an individual user. This off-line editor allows you to edit EVERY aspect of a users information. The varaibles mentions (of which only 0 and 1 are used now) are numbers up to 4 chars. The Message base uses variables 0 and 1 to hold the last msg read. (each msg posted in your message base is assigned a consecutively higher number which is compared with these variables). 3) Display users 4) Add a User This is used to add a user wherever there is an opening. Openings are assigned as follows. 1) Any record that has not been written to already. 2) Any record which has a handle of "EMPTY". 5) Exit MAIN OPTION 3 EACH SIG YOU HAVE CREATED IN THE MSG BASE EDITOR MUST HAVE A SIG FILE RECORD CREATED FOR IT. ANY SIG FILE CREATED WILL ERASE PREVIOUS RECORDS FOR THAT SIG! Whats What. Put your MAIN data disk in drive 8 and load the directory. Here are the names of files you should see with a description of what they are. Depending on how you've configured your system, some files will or will not be present. All files on your Main data disk should be preceded with the english pound sign as a reminder that they are BBS data disk files and they should not be allowed to be downloaded. userlog - all user information. This file will grow as your number of users grows calls - this holds the number of calls made by each user for that day. This file should be reset (by the BBS monster mode) every 24 hours. The BBS (when on-line) will go into monster mode automatically any free time between 11:00 pm and 12:59 am. opening msg - this file will be displayed as soon as a caller has made connection and has identified himself as a STANDARD ASCII or COMMODORE ASCII user. closing msg - this file is displayed whenever a user logs off or the BBS throws him off (because he has dropped carrier ,ran out of time, or the SysOp thrown him off.) variables - mentioned above last caller - A VERY IMPORTANT FILE. This file holds information as precious to the well being or your msg base as the varaibles file is to the BBS itself. If this file is erased and not rewritten by the logoff sequence before information is lost, your msg base is done for and should be re-done. This file is correctly erased and re-written in the logoff sequence. If this file is erased, reset your Sig files and set variables 0 and 1 for all users back to 0. info - this file contains some basic information about your BBS and is available from the main command level. newuser - this file is shown to those logging on to your BBS for the first time, after they have given the BBS their personal user information. mainmenu (0-9) these are the main menus for each access level, they are read fron the main command level. msg mkr help - mentioned above sysopmenu - this is the menu read from the private sysop editing section of the BBS msgmenu - this is the menu for your msg base, you should not include the sysop functions on this menu. emailmenu - this is the menu for the Electronic user-to-user mail section. udmenu - this is read from the Upload/Download section Sig (0-X) This hold the number of msgs, message pointer, and for each msg: number of replys and the msg number. sigmsg (0-X) this is shown apon entering a sig. vote - this file holds the basic information for the voting section. question - this holds a more detailed explanation of the voting section question. vote box - this holds the accual votes, along with the id# of the person that voted for it. v2.0 ml1 - main system ml file p.protocol - punter ml newqs - list of questions for the new user asked AFTER the newuser file is displayed. Files that will pop up later: feedback - mail left for the SysOp's reading. txt (0-X) text file. NOTE: Text file 0 is accually the text file menu msg (0-X) (0-X) - posted messages Log! - a seq file holding the calls of the day as well as a general look at what they did. This file can fill up your data disk and should be erased periodically. newinfo - answers to the questions from the newqs file. All users answers are in this file. Now your ready to look at the BBS program itself!