The Layman's Guide to Establishing 
            a Computer Bulletin Board System
                                or
                How to Spend $1500 and Wonder Why.
                ----------------------------------
                               by
                         Bill Eastburn
)

                             Part I
                      Our Only Business


    So you want to run a Bulletin Board System?)  I guess the 
thought has crossed the mind of many people over the years....)
the glory,) lower phone bills,) the mystique of being a SYSOP.)  
Probably ten percent of those many people have actually taken the
step needed to set up and operate a BBS system,) and perhaps five
percent of those have endured their first year.)
    Make no mistake,) running a BBS is a business.)  Your commodity
is information,) your ")store") is the BBS itself,) you are the manager,)
and your users are the customers.)  All of these items must be in
balance to run a successful BBS.)  Thus,) the MBA from Harvard,) with
a poor software package and using last month')s Compute!) as his only
information source is doomed to failure as much as the greatest
computer wizard in the world who fails to communicate with the rest
of the human race in an intelligent manner.) 
    Be it in the form of news flashes,) how to build it articles,)
programs or messages,) the heart of the BBS is the information it
provides.)  This information must be current,) reasonably diverse,) and,)
in some cases,) topical.)  The news flashes from last month')s Compute!,)
or any other magazine,) are roughly three months old by the time you
see them in print,) hardly current.)  Then too,) the national magazines
are generally read by most users,) or potential users,) so parroting
the information back to these users is largely a waste of their
time.)  Similarly,) many programs,) particularly games,) are time
perishable as well.)  How many times can your users download PacMan
from various BBS and still want it from yours?)  In the same vein,)
some programs and articles are virtually timeless.)  There will
always be users who don')t know about track and sector editors,)
ASCII-)CBM ASCII conversions,) etc.)  As the SYSOP,) it is your job
to insure that the information on your BBS is in line with what
your users want or need.)


                             Part II
                  Come In To Our Modern Offices


    Would you go into a dilapidated shack with a dirt parking lot
to buy a gourmet dinner?)  Or,) would you rather go into a clean,)
well lit structure with valet parking?)  Your BBS is your store,)
or restaurant,) and it should present the image you want to convey
to your users.)
    First step.)  Look at your hardware.)  Do you have a C64 or a 
C128,) or some other computer?)  The type of computer you intend to
use will generally determine the types of software packages,) 
storage,) and general tone of the BBS.) 
    How about disk drives?)  The C64 goes with the 1541 disk drive,)
which holds about 170K on floppy disks.)  170K is usually barely
sufficient to run a small,) message oriented BBS,) without downloading.)
It is also notoriously slow,) although this may or may not be a factor
to be reckoned with.)  Simply increasing the number of 1541s on your
BBS will increase your mass storage,) in 170K increments,) but not
address the speed factor.)  A fast load device will address the 
speed factor,) but do nothing about the storage capacity,) and is
often incompatible with the software package you wish to use.)                 
The 1571 goes with the C128,) and holds about 340K.)  It is feasible
to use a single 1571 for a SMALL BBS system,) provided the software
package can support it.)  The 1571 is also considerably faster than
the 1541.)
    The SFD1001 can hold a megabyte of data,) but requires an external
interface,) as do many of the other available disk drives in use
around the country.)
    At the moment,) hard drives cost too much to be really practical
for a single person BBS.)
    How about modems?)  Do you want a 300 baud only system,) or one to
do 1200 baud as well?)  It is possible to use a C64 or C128 at
2400 baud,) though they are running about as fast as the can at this
speed,) and reliability becomes a factor here.)  
    Quickly looking over some popular modems,) the CBM 1650 is the
only really reliable BBS modem for 300 baud.)  I know lots of people
who have used the Westridge 6420,) but every one of them has had
problems due to the way the Westridge detects carriers.)  The CBM
1660 is a total write off,) unless you modify the hardware yourself.)
For 1200 baud,) the Volksmodem 6470 is virtually impossible to support
in software.)  The CBM 1670 can be used,) though it too has problems
in compatability with different modem types.)  Best bets at 1200 baud
appear to be the Anchor Signalman Mark XII or the Hayes Smartmodem
1200,) both of which require external interfacing.)
    Printers?)  On a BBS?)  Somewhere along the line you are going to
need hard copy information from the BBS,) such things as user lists,)
copies of interesting messages,) etc.)  You will need a printer.)  
There are virtually NO CBM printers that are acceptable for BBS work.)
They are all too slow,) and force down time or delays while they are
printing out.)  All printers force these delays,) but CBM printers are
roughly half the speed of relatively inexpensive alternatives,) so
things like the Gemini 10X,) Epson MX80,) etc.,) are all better than
CBM')s own here.)
    Second Step.)  Having decided your hardware configuration,) you 
can now begin to look at the software side of your BBS.)  Obviously,)
the first consideration is that it works on your computer and
supports the various hardware devices your have selected.)  We will
be looking at software considerations throughout the remainder of
this article,) so none will be recommended at this point.)  The
biggest factors to keep in mind are that the software:)
    1)) Supports your hardware,) and
    2)) Provides the type of environment you want.)


                            Part III
                        Alone In A Crowd 


    Look around at the CBM BBS in your local area.)  How many of 
them support computers other than the C64?)  Other than C64 users
and a few people running C128s in a crippled mode,) how many other
types of computers are the users using?)
    At the beginning of this article,) I stated that running a BBS
is running a business.)  No other business that I know of knowingly
limits its customers to five percent of all available customers.)
Yet,) CBM BBS consistently do this.)  This is lousy business!)
    If you are completely satisfied with serving this five percent,)
and simply ignoring the other 95 percent of the computer users 
around on your BBS,) just skip over this part,)and get the cheapest
hardware and software you can find.)  Your BBS will last maybe 90
to 120 days before you pull the plug.)
    CBM BBS have a reputation of being incompatible with other
computer types.)  Such things as color graphics,) Punter protocol,)
and foreign control codes all serve to foster this isolation.)  Yet,)
these factors are present in 90 percent of all CBM BBS today.)  It
is an uphill battle to overcome numbers like those,) but it can
be done.)
    By and large,) most of your users will be other CBM users.)  This
is natural and healthy.)  However,) there is nothing carved in stone
anywhere that says you can')t have Amiga users,) or Atari users,) or
even Apple users.)  Getting these ")outsiders") onto your BBS is 
easier said than done,) but it is possible.)  If the information
you provide is of interest to all computerists ()sounds like
people who should be wearing leather jackets,) swastikas hanging
around their necks),) and is available to them in a form they can
use,) you can attract these other users.)


                             Part IV
    He')s The Guy With The Low Number And Unpronouncable Name


    Steve Punter is a wizard on CBM machines.)  He wrote WordPro,)
a standard for CBM text processors.)  He is also responsible for
the Punter Protocol.)
    Now,) Punter protocol does the job of getting data from a BBS
to a remote computer relatively error free.)  It does have a few
drawbacks,) however.)  
    First,) Punter Protocol works on the 6502 series CPU.)  I have
never seen an implementation on any other CPU.)  Thus,) it won')t
go with the C128 in CP/)M mode ()Z80 based)) or the Amiga ()68000
based)) computers in the CBM family.)  Additionally,) most other
computer types are not 6502 based.)  Even Apple II and Atari,)
which are 6502 based,) don')t have Punter implemented for them,)
so,) if you choose Punter Protocol for your BBS,) you automatically
eliminate all those computers from your potential customer list.)
    Second,) Punter Protocol is relatively easy to access from BASIC.)
It is not,) however,) easy to implement from machine language.)  
Consequently,) almost all BBS using this protocol are BASIC or
compiled BASIC.)  BASIC BBS are slow.)  BASIC BBS are usually hard
pressed to run 300 baud,) and often have delays for the computer
phenomenon called ")garbage collection.")  Compiled BASIC BBS can
do 1200 baud,) and,) though minimized,) ")garbage collection") is still
a factor.)  Since Mr.) Punter has not made a commented source code
availble of his protocol,) machine language BBS authors cannot
write their software to accomodate the protocol without completely
reengineering the protocol,) a process simply not worth the effort
to most authors.)
    Third,) during the file transfer process using Punter Protocol,)
the entire function of the BBS is transferred to the protocol
module ()TERM.)C1).)  The module can continue sending requests for
data blocks long after the remote user hangs up the phone in
frustration should anything go wrong.)  This is more frequent than
it might sound,) and,) often,) the only way to restore the BBS is to
crash it and reboot the whole system.)
    Keep these factors in mind when selecting your BBS software,)
and,) if you must have Punter,) remember that it does work but it
does have problems.)


                             Part V
                             X Rated


    You can uncover your eyes now.)  There are two big X')s in the
world of BBS software.)  The first is XMODEM,) a file tranfer
protocol by Ward Christianson,) and the other is called X-)On/)X-)Off.)
    XMODEM is,) de facto,) the standard file transfer protocol for
most microcomputer BBS.)  It uses standard size blocks,) standard
file padding and is pretty dull and uninteresting.)  Its biggest
plus is that it works with almost every microcomputer on the 
market.)  If you choose XMODEM for your BBS,) you can have Amiga
files,) C64 files,) CP/)M files and Apple files all on your download
disk at the same time,) and the user desiring the files can take
whatever he can use.)  Contrary to popular belief,) XMODEM is not
slower than Punter protocol,) when implemented as described in 
the standard.)  Given its widespread implementation,) it is hard
to justify using any other protocol on a BBS system.)
    X-)ON/)X-)OFF is really a part of the American Standard Code for
the Interchange of Information ()ASCII).)  Long ago,) CBM deviated
from this standard,) and X-)On/)X-)Off has largely been lacking from
CBM BBS.)  Essentially,) all X-)On/)X-)Off does is provide a series
of Control characters to customize the flow of data to the remote
user.)  For example,) Control-)H is a backspace,) Control-)S normally
stops the flow of data,) Control-)Q resumes the data flow,) etc.)  If
you do much communicating with non-)CBM BBS,) you have probably
seen this implemented time and again.)  CBM machines are perfectly
capable of this standard system,) and real consideration should
be given by more authors in getting back in tune with the rest
of the world.)


                            Part VI
                         Jogging Along


    Having considered hardware and software,) let us now look at
actually running a BBS.)  Easily the most rewarding,) and most
frustrating,) part of your BBS is the message base,) or message
bases.)  It is here that the SYSOP and users interact with each
other.)  It is normally here that gems of information are found
that surpass even the most informed sources the SYSOP may find.)
The message base is one of the two most important areas on your
BBS,) and possibly the most important.)  More thought and attention
should be devoted to this area than any other single area of your
BBS.)
    How many is enough?)  I have seen BBS with many,) many separate
message bases,) each,) hopefully,) a cosmos unto itself.)  I have also
seen many successful BBS with a single message base.)  As an 
observer,) it seems to me that most SYSOPs and users have trouble
making proper use of multiple message bases.)  The SYSOP may have
intended his PhrakII message base to hold all the messages about
the Amiga in the world,) yet none of his users has figured out that
PhrakII is the Amiga interest center.)  Thus,) the first rule of
thumb,) name the message base so that the user knows what you want
it to be about.)  A user seeing a message base called Amiga Amigo
will probably have a reasonable idea what it is about,) or at least
more of an idea than PhrakII.)
    Unless your BBS is being run for the local AMA chapter,) a 
separate message base for Pulmonary Adema probably isn')t too good
an idea.)  Just because somebody mentioned it once doesn')t mean
that you can have a meaningful dialog with your customers about
it.)  So,) the second rule of thumb is don')t be too specific.)
    One of the local BBS here has a message base entitled Ads/)For
Sale.)  Since it has been active,) most of the messages have been
about calling numbers for other BBS.)  Then,) some of the messages
have been of the [expletive deleted] Khaddify variety.)  Obviously,)
the idea of this message base is not going over too well,) 
particularly when the same messages can be found in his GENERAL
message base.)  It would seem,) therefore,) that this particular
message base is excess to the needs of the BBS.)  Third rule of

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