12 replies to this topic

[Marius1976]

Hi everybody,

After some beta tests... and a longer personal test-time, I have decided to release the Address of my BBS!

Beware:
The BBS is started from scratch; so if you owned an account in the past. It is gone now! Please subscribe again.

When the connection appears to be dead; there is another person online, or the BBS is doing some 'householding events' ... unfortunately my Lantronix does not respond with a "Busy" message.

Info
The BBS runs without the need of a PC! That is cool! It is a standalone setup. It runs on an Atari 600XL (first upgraded to 64KB ofcourse, and then 512KB extra SRAM was added... so the total is 576KB). The Atari 600XL is using the BlackBox for the RS232 port and the SCSI harddrive (which is a CF card by the way). I use an ACARD 7720u SCSI -> IDE adapter to connect an IDE->CF adapter. A lot of adapters here... but it works great!

The Software is BBS Express Pro! 5.0b and my Express Net! node = X_476. I bought and licensed this copy in 1995! Original disks whoohooo!

The best experience is when you call in Atascii ofcourse. Later I might release a manual how to connect the BBS.

For the people who already know how this all works:

telnet://bbs.inspiration-soft.com

When you think you will connect more than once: feel free to take a permanent password. When you are a NEW user you don't have all the options yet. I will validate your NEW account ASAP. So when you call in next time, you can explore all the options BBS The Atari Inside offers!

Greetz
Marius

[DarkLord]

Awesome, thanks Marius!

PS You know, you might want to put an announcement in the 8bit BBS thread - its "pinned",
so it will always be on the front page...

[Stephen]

Sweet - I will check this out tonight, I'll use ATASCII.

[AtariDude]

I logged onto the system and then tried to play one of the online games. It told me that the security level was too low. Is this because i was just creating the account?

[Mclaneinc]

AtariDude, on Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:15 AM, said:

I logged onto the system and then tried to play one of the online games. It told me that the security level was too low. Is this because i was just creating the account?

Most likely, that what it looks like from his post.

Edited by Mclaneinc, Wed Jan 4, 2012 7:08 AM.

[Marius1976]

AtariDude, on Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:15 AM, said:

I logged onto the system and then tried to play one of the online games. It told me that the security level was too low. Is this because i was just creating the account?

That is right. There is a little 'bug' in one of the online games. This 'bug' is that when a NEW user is online for the first time, and he is going to play that particular game, there will come a wrong entry in the highscore list. This is the only reason I locked the online games for new users.

I will update your account in a few minutes. So next time you will log in, you can play the games!

GreetzM.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Marius1976, on Wed Jan 4, 2012 8:17 AM, said:

There is a little 'bug' in one of the online games. This 'bug' is that when a NEW user is online for the first time, and he is going to play that particular game, there will come a wrong entry in the highscore list.

It's not a bug. This is by design.

Any non-registered user has no handle, no user name and no user number assigned, nor a record, so there is no data to store in things like a high-score list. A user gets registered once the (co-)sysop has validated the record. There are "commands" to auto-validate any new user. When these are used the new user gets a note right after he entered his data that the BBS will break the connection and that you'll have to call back immediatly. During the disconnect-reconnect the BBS auto-validates the account.

If it's smart to use such a feature is another matter.

[Marius1976]

@fox-1

It is definately a bug. Why? Simple: the game Kingdom stores the credentials of the PREVIOUS caller in the highscore list. That looks rather buggy to me.

When I update a New user 'online' (on the first call), this problem only occurs with Kingdom not on other games.

Let's use an exemple:

When this NEW user posts a message in the Messagebase the RIGHT name is used.
I don't see the reason why Kingdom would NOT do this right, while messagebase does do that right. So in my opinion: a bug in Kingdom.

Unfortunately Stephen J. Carden only updates/fixes CMD's for the latest release of his BBS software. So when he fixes the bug, it will only compatible with TCPIPExpress 7.x and up. Unfortunately no support for 5.x users.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Updating a new-user on-the-fly when he's online may lead to some unpredictable results as the user record is only read during log-on. Some cmd's may re-read this info (msgbase.cmd does this) but most won't.

If you think it's really a bug in kingdom, patch it. Just skip the write-highscore routine for any user number under 10. If the original author doesn't want to fix such an easy solvable incompatibility I'd do it myself.

[fibrewire]

BBS Express Pro - I would like to run it on my hardware, please point me in the right direction.

[Marius1976]

fibrewire, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 3:47 AM, said:

BBS Express Pro - I would like to run it on my hardware, please point me in the right direction.

When you want to run stand-alone you need:

1. An RS232 port on your Atari. There are several options. Best is CSS BlackBox but probably impossible to obtain. You could go for an Atari 850 but there are more solutions (see F.A.Q.)

2. BBS Express Pro!fessional program. This program is not available 'illegal' so you have to buy. I guess Lance Ringquist (Video 61) sells it. But there is something going on about the rights. You might also want to contact Stephen J. Carden.

3. PBI harddisk. Although it can and will run from SIO based harddisk you probably do not want that. Too slow. Pro won't let you work with high speed Sio, so when you use Sio2SD or something like that you're doomed to very slow diskaccess. Till now MyIDE was not capable of running BBS Pro! but with the latest (non public yet) release of the MyIDE OS I think it will run. IDE+ interface is right choice too.

4. Lantronix MSS100 or UDS10. To get incoming telnet connections to your Atari (this is an RS232 -> Ethernet converter/adapter/interface; in fact it is a device server)

If you do not want to go standalone

1 and 4 can be done by APE. You will need an APE interface (sio2PC interface).

Greetz
M.

[bf2k+]

5. Don't forget you need SpartaDOS 3.x and an XL/XE computer.

I am pretty sure that you can run PRO in High Speed SIO too, although maybe LO-speed only is a 'feature' of the newer PRO versions... I run the older 2.1a.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

I feel free to make some corrections and additions...

Marius1976, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 4:48 AM, said:

When you want to run stand-alone you need:

1. An RS232 port on your Atari. There are several options. Best is CSS BlackBox but probably impossible to obtain. You could go for an Atari 850 but there are more solutions (see F.A.Q.)

Since a re-run of the MIO has been done this would probably the best choice these days. PBI (SCSI) harddisk and the required RS232 port.

Marius1976, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 4:48 AM, said:

2. BBS Express Pro!fessional program. This program is not available 'illegal' so you have to buy. I guess Lance Ringquist (Video 61) sells it. But there is something going on about the rights. You might also want to contact Stephen J. Carden.

BBS Pro! itself is the property of Video61 (Lance Ringquist), according to both Lance and Stephen. Some CMD's (BBS modules) may still be © Stephen J Carden. The discussion about copyright issues were mainly about Sparta-Dos (3.3).

TCP Express (ILS / Stephen J Carden) may be an alternative to Pro! but I never used it myself. Claims to be a similar software package as Pro! BBS is.

Marius1976, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 4:48 AM, said:

3. PBI harddisk. Although it can and will run from SIO based harddisk you probably do not want that. Too slow. Pro won't let you work with high speed Sio,

Yes, BBS Pro! does highspeed SIO when you use Sparta-Dos 3.3b or 3.3c. It even runs with Sparta-Dos 3.2c but comes up with a nag screen about compatibility each time you load the BBS.

In stead of using a fast (PBI) harddrive solution a set-up with a big ramdisk will do too, preferably a battery back-up SRAM solution. Initial booting will be slow but once loaded it will do and you'll have to create some events to back-up sensitive data to a real disk every now and then (like user-log, messagebases, etc).

Marius1976, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 4:48 AM, said:

4. Lantronix MSS100 or UDS10. To get incoming telnet connections to your Atari (this is an RS232 -> Ethernet converter/adapter/interface; in fact it is a device server)

Or use a PC tool to do the serial<>telnet conversion. Both ways have there own advantages/disadvantages.