19 May
2017
19 May
'17
6:13 a.m.
When I got my first system running, S100, I had an Imsai 8080 with a
Hayes 103 modem. I used it to log into multics and some BBS's at the
time and record sessions and files and the like. I only had the usual
8" floppies, with eventually 1mb x 2 for storage.
However, reason for mentioning was that there was a simple program which
would auto answer on the Hayes modem and allow you to run things.
One evening when my roommates and I had gone to dinner, a friend who was
going to call at a certain time did so. However we had forgotten he was
to call, and I had left the system up and connected to the phone.
He called a couple of times and realized that we weren't around to pull
the line, or call back, so he got his terminal up and running and left
us a message on the screen for later.
I sort of count it as the first sort of BBS type I ran. There was a
program you could leave running which would challenge for a password,
and then re-run when the modem lost signal, so you could have a low
grade login that way. (password only).
And one could take ones choice of files and xmodem them (which he did in
future sessions).
I logged into many BBS systems which weren't much more than this or a
restricted menu program after you logged in. Some were nice with some
presentation, and some were just (enter 1 to do ... 2 to do ... etc).
Not much else really required if you want to get to very basics.
With any BBS having more than just the floppies, login and messaging and
more download options were the next level up.
And after that there were various BBS software packages that had
networks of like users that one could obtain.
thanks
Jim
19 May
19 May
9:44 a.m.
Another BBS obscurity ?
I ran a BBS in the early 80s called The Bethesda RCP/M. Those of us who couldn?t afford
dedicated lines often used a method called ?ringback.? This was a clever way to share a
regular home phone with a modem.
The idea was that if you wanted to dial up to the BBS, you?d call my number, but hang up
after one ring, then call back. The software (BYE, as someone else here mentioned) would
be monitoring the ring-detect line on the modem?s serial port, and watch for ring
patterns. If it saw a second ring within ~4 seconds, it would ignore the call, assuming it
was a voice call; otherwise, it would send the Hayes code to answer the line (ATA). It?s
weird how I still remember all that logic, 35 years later...
I used ringback for my BBS for a few weeks until my parents got so annoyed at late-night
telephone rings (with those loud clapper bells) that they paid up for a dedicated line.
?John
On May 19, 2017, at 6:13 AM, jim stephens via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
When I got my first system running, S100, I had an Imsai 8080 with a Hayes 103 modem. I
used it to log into multics and some BBS's at the time and record sessions and files
and the like. I only had the usual 8" floppies, with eventually 1mb x 2 for
storage.
However, reason for mentioning was that there was a simple program which would auto
answer on the Hayes modem and allow you to run things.
One evening when my roommates and I had gone to dinner, a friend who was going to call at
a certain time did so. However we had forgotten he was to call, and I had left the system
up and connected to the phone.
He called a couple of times and realized that we weren't around to pull the line, or
call back, so he got his terminal up and running and left us a message on the screen for
later.
I sort of count it as the first sort of BBS type I ran. There was a program you could
leave running which would challenge for a password, and then re-run when the modem lost
signal, so you could have a low grade login that way. (password only).
And one could take ones choice of files and xmodem them (which he did in future
sessions).
I logged into many BBS systems which weren't much more than this or a restricted menu
program after you logged in. Some were nice with some presentation, and some were just
(enter 1 to do ... 2 to do ... etc).
Not much else really required if you want to get to very basics.
With any BBS having more than just the floppies, login and messaging and more download
options were the next level up.
And after that there were various BBS software packages that had networks of like users
that one could obtain.
thanks
Jim
10:01 a.m.
On Fri, 19 May 2017, John Labovitz via cctalk wrote:
Another BBS obscurity ?
I ran a BBS in the early 80s called The Bethesda RCP/M. Those of us who
couldn?t afford dedicated lines often used a method called ?ringback.?
This was a clever way to share a regular home phone with a modem.
The idea was that if you wanted to dial up to the BBS, you?d call my
number, but hang up after one ring, then call back. The software (BYE,
as someone else here mentioned) would be monitoring the ring-detect line
on the modem?s serial port, and watch for ring patterns. If it saw a
second ring within ~4 seconds, it would ignore the call, assuming it was
a voice call; otherwise, it would send the Hayes code to answer the line
(ATA). It?s weird how I still remember all that logic, 35 years later...
I recall seeing the feature in BYE, but this is the first time I've heard
of someone using it. Neat! :)
For those that don't know what BYE is, it's basically a fancy I/O
redirector for CP/M. It would handle the serial comms and a few other
things, and redirect I/O from the serial port, to the console. This meant
that you could run BBS software that didn't have any serial I/O. The
first versions of RBBS were like this - simply compiled BASIC with regular
INPUT and PRINT statements.
BYE was written in 8080 assembly (I think MBYE was Z-80, but I'm not sure)
and used an "insert" for the type of computer you were going to use it on.
The insert contained code for all the machine-specific features that BYE
needed (serial port control, 25th line support for status bar, etc.).
At some point a version of BYE was created for the IBM PC, but as far as I
know, there was only a single release of it.
g.
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