Getting Started

The Roger Wilco Base Station runs under Windows 95, 98, NT and (I expect) 2000. However, it is not a GUI application. Rather, it runs as a "console app", with a glum little black window. So do not be shocked if you double-click on it.

Why doesn't it look fancy?

The Base Station is sort of like a web server. It is designed to run and support people sitting at other computers... without direct human interface. It also runs on a variety of operating systems with fairly different ideas of how to make a GUI app. This simple packaging was an easy way to get going and concentrate on how other computers interact with the Base Station, rather than human operators.

We also did not take a long time in making it.

Running The Base Station

Windows 95 or 98

In Windows 95 or 98, you can merely double-click on the RWBS.EXE file and the Base Station will start up. It will host channels on all the IP addresses that the computer has, and allow people to congregate on named channels within it (using Roger Wilco). There will be a small console window in which some messages may scroll by (typically, to report unexpected events -- these messages might be helpful in reporting a suspected bug).
Once the window appears, you may want to minimize it so it is out of the way. You will have to leave it open and running, or the Base Station will shutdown and detune all visitors. If, however, you are running Windows NT, a better way of running RWBS exists.

Windows NT (and 2000?)

On an NT system, you can run RWBS in the manner described above by adding a -A option flag to the command line as you invoke it from a command shell. e.g.: open up a command prompt, cd to the directory where the rwbs.exe executable resides, and type
rwbs -A
However, the preferred way to run the RWBS under NT is to install it as an NT service. When it runs as an NT service, it seemingly "becomes part of the operating system" -- a very powerful way of running a program that is institutional in nature (like a web server or news server). The best part of running RWBS as a service is that it will continue even after you logout, and it will automatically start when you boot the computer -- even without requiring you to log in.
To tell the Base Station to install itself as a service, invoke it with the -I flag (again -- from a command prompt and from within the installation directory):
rwbs -I
Note that the command prompt will return after doing this. Fear not -- unless error mesasges appeared, the Base Station is running in the background. It will run until you shutdown the computer or explicitly ask it to remove itself as a service like so:
rwbs -R

More Options

If you like, you can give your Base Station a name (via -n "Your Name Here"), or require people joining its channels to enter a password (via -p yourpassword). These options can be used in combination with others. Some examples:

Here is how a Windows 95 or 98 user can name and secure her Base Station:
rwbs -n "Team Chaos" -p random
Here is how an NT user might install the Base Station for the first time:
rwbs -I -n "Cool Boys"

For a complete list of options, run rwbs -h
To learn more about the web-browser interface to RWBS, check the Readme.txt file in your installation folder.