Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Thought I'd ask one more time about what people have been
doing with free BBS software.  I've downloaded all BBS
systems from the fish disks and looked at each.  The
SoftSpan version on ff374 seems the nicest.  One of the
other versions I wasn't even able to get working.

Unfortunately, I haven't tried dialing to any of these,
and SoftSpan at least required carrier detect to work,
so hooking up a vt220 doesn't do it.  (It allows you 
Amiga console access, but that's not quite the same as
really dialing up to see if it works).

I'm trying to get an extra modem to test these things.
The problem is that they were all designed to work with
Hayes compatible modems. They're supposed to be reconfigurable
for others, but not having two, I haven't managed to test
getting them to work with a DF224.  Has anybody else used
any of these with a df224 receiving?

Anybody in the Westford area willing to help with a test? :-)

Dave

the Scholar plus (DF242) has a Hayes (AT) compatible mode.

john

Unfortunately I'm stuck with a DF224, or plain scholar.

Hmmm, maybe it's time to ask for an upgrade :-)

    Modems like the Zoom Telephonics 2400 are under $100 at computer shows. 
    I have one and despite the odd name it performs quite well.  With the
    advent of appication-specific digital signal processing (DSP) chipsets,
    there are a raft of 2400 baud modems selling well under the Hayes or
    Digital price.  The Zoom modem is essentially two Texas Instruments
    chips you could probably order from a catalog.  Unless you have really
    lousy phone lines, it just isn't worth it to get an expensive model. 
    Besides, the prices are so low now that it's hardly worth the hassle to
    sign out a Digital modem on a property pass.
    
    Wes

    I recently bought a MAXON 2400 baud modem for $99.00 from Copper
    Electronics in Kentucky. They are currently selling an Emerson 2400
    modem (AT compatible) for $79.00 mail order. The MAXON works well on my
    phone lines and I have heard that the Emerson is a better modem (this
    is someone elses's opinion). If you are interested I will get the phone
    number and post it (it is an 800 number). 
    
    John

THanks.  I decided to defer a modem purchase Saturday,
since even though 98$ is cheap, it isn't when you add it
to the $5560 I spent on a new computer recently. 
So for now, I'll make due with the scholar ... I hope.

Dave

For anybody who's interested..

I've evaluated 4 of the Fred Fish available BBS software packages
for the amiga.  Following is a crude summary, since I don't remember a lot
of the data, but the bottom line is useful if you are looking into this
sort of stuff. 

- Oldest one was some Abasic hack.  Didn't even bother with it.

- Later came TAG-BBS.  Shareware, author asks 25$.  

- Then SoftSpan, similiar to TAG-BBS.

Both SoftSpan and TAG-BBS wouldn't work with my Packard Bell "Hayes compatible"
modem.  (A Packard Bell modem is NOT bug for bug compatible with Hayes.
It shows in how software manipulates the modems for answering). Both of
these packages DID work with a real Hayes modem.  But..

- The best I've seen as of FF444, is Elite_BBS.  It works with both
  the Hayes and the Packard Bell.  However, this author wants $50.
  What's strange about it is that the guy claiming to be the owner of
  EliteBBS is using what is CLEARLY a derivitave of TAG-BBS!  SOme of the
  files are identical, word for word.  So either the writer of EliteBBS
  ripped off the author of Tag-BBS, or there is some funny collaboration
  going on.

Anyway, summary is, that if you want the most up to date shareware bbs,
Elite_BBS is it.  There might be more after FF444, I haven't checked.

Dave