April 3, 1999
COM/IP 2.0 News:
This will be a major breakthough for BBS Sysops running under Windows who
have been waiting for a reliable telnet server for their existing DOS or
Windows based BBS. Untill now the only multi-port Telnet server for Windows
95/98 has been NetModem. Unfortunatly NetModem has been in beta for over
a year now and is still rather unstable, often causing fatal crashs
(ie: blue-screens of death).
COM/IP 2.0 will emulate up to 256 com ports (and modems) in Windows, which
are attached to your TCP/IP network or internet connection. This allows
virtually any software that uses a modem to work under a telnet connection
just as if it was communicating with a normal modem.
COM/IP can work with BBS software that communicates directly with a com
port, or it can be installed with a Fossil driver (such as Winfossil)
for BBS applications and DOS doors that require a Fossil. COM/IP does not
include its own Fossil (as Netmodem does). It's also possible to use a
DOS Fossil driver with COM/IP (such as ADF or BNU) by using another
driver called TurboCom to emulate a UART chip under Windows.
Tactical Software had originally planned to raise the price of COM/IP
version 2.0, but just announced that the price for 1 copy will be the
same as it was - $59.95. Prices for multiple copies will save $10-$20
per copy depending on the quanity, so registering with some friends can
save a sysop some money. Tactial Software will start accepting orders
for COM/IP 2.0 next friday, but will not be shipping product untill
around the 19th of April.
Anyone wanting to try COM/IP 2.0 before the release can request a beta
version and a temporary key from Tactical Software.
Project FreeWorldBBS News:
This is a Unix based freeware BBS being developed by a team of programmers
attempting to create the ultimate BBS for Unix (and it's clones).
The team is making the C source publicly available, and anyone is welcome
to join in on the development, or just make suggestions.
One of the many features being implimented include master/slave support
for multiple BBS servers across a network to function as a single BBS,
allowing the ability to simultaneously handle 1000's of users across
multiple servers.
This version offers many fixes and changes, including several Year2K
issues that were addressed.
For developers, new functions were added to both wcBASIC and wcSDK.
For Sysops, two new utilitys were added: wcRefresh.wcx is a wcBASIC
coded utility to move files in and out of the file directories while
keeping the file database current. A wcSDK utility called wcSrvMon.exe
is also included, to monitor all the WIN Server client connections.
They have also begun design on the next generation of product, called
WIN Server 2000! This version of Winserver will include:
Xenoterra was originally planned to be shareware, but the author
has desided to make it freeware instead. They have several screen
shots available on their web site.
Tactical Software has just announced that the long awaited COM/IP 2.0 telnet
server for Windows 95/98/NT will be released this month on April 19th!
This will be the first release version of COM/IP that supports multiple
incoming connections on one port.
http://www.tactical-sw.com
Project FreeWorldBBS is now in full development, as of March 21 1999
beta 0.2.1 was released, and since then new updates are now released
on a daily basis.
http://www.freeworldbbs.org
Winserver (WildCat5) News:
Santronics Software, the new owner of Winserver (wildcat 5 bbs)
released an update to their Winserver BBS today, in addition
to an update subscription plan. The new version (v5.02 build 446)
is Satronic Softwares first maintenance release since they took
over development.
Satronics has also announced an AUP upgrade program today.
The annual AUP signup fee is $149.00. A minimum 3 month
sign up with monthly billing thereafter is $34.95!
http://www.santronics.com
EleBBS News:
Since it's last release 1 month ago, several minor bugs have been fixed
in EleBBS (including some serious bugs in the OS/2 version). And a new
public release should be out within the next week or two.
http://home.wxs.nl/~elevator
RGC News:
According to Brian Tafoya, author of the (unreleased) RGC BBS for Windows,
the first public beta will not be available this month as originally
announced. He recently picked up a major project which has taken away
development time from RGC BBS this month. He thinks it will be at least
another month before he releases the first public beta.
http://www.rgcomputing.com/rgcbbs.htm
Update: April 7th
Xenoterra BBS News:
The first beta version of Xenoterra BBS for Windows 95/98/NT was
released to the public on April 3rd. This beta is still missing
some important features, such as file downloads. It's released
as a early beta in order to get feedback from sysops on it's
GUI design. Also available now is source code to two of the sample
plug-ins, so door developers can begin writing their own doors
for it.
http://pw1.netcom.com/~spelwevr/xenoterra
If you have any additional BBS related news, please send to mike@pcmicro.com