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Text File | 1990-11-05 | 17.9 KB | 400 lines

RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES 4-1 4. RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES ----------------------------- 4.1 RBBS-PC's User Support Methods --------------------------------- RBBS-PC is supported as well as any commercial product (even better than some), albeit in a different way. Rather than a single source for technical support, RBBS-PC distributes its help via a network of volunteers. This section outlines the many ways you can find assistance in setting up your RBBS-PC Written documentation with RBBS, which you are reading. This is more a reference than a guide for novices, however. A book, "The Complete Electronic Bulletin Board Starter Kit", published by Bantam Books and available at B. Dalton Bookstores. This book covers installing RBBS-PC in detail, although the version discussed is 15.1C. (Note that RBBS-PC remains upward compatible with 15.1C, and virtually everything in the book still applies.) A commercial product, "RBBS-PC in a Box", a CD-ROM disc which has thousands of shareware and public domain programs stored in compressed format, and has RBBS-PC virtually pre-installed. You can be online only minutes after installing the CD-ROM. For information and ordering, contact Quanta Press, at (612) 641-0714. Network mail. Both RBBS-Net and RelayNet have RBBS-PC support conferences. For RBBS-Net, contract Rod Bowman (number listed below). For RelayNet contact Greg Snyder (703-323-1782, data number). Technical Support BBS. News, information, and answers to questions about RBBS-PC are available at the following numbers: (407) 627-6969 (407) 627-6862 Telephone support. When all else fails, you can place a voice call to one of the authors. Since RBBS-PC SysOps should know how to use a modem, voice calls should NOT be needed. The Technical Support BBS is a much better medium for technical questions. However, if you MUST make a voice call, dial (407) 627-9767. Usually, the phone will be answered by a voice mail system. You can record questions and call back later to hear answers. If you request that someone return your call, we will call you COLLECT. Your best chance of having a human answer the phone are between the hours of 7pm and 11pm (Eastern U.S.). Support Boards. Support boards are BBS's where the SysOp: - commits to running RBBS-PC for the foreseeable future - has an at least one free, public line - is regularly available for helping others - makes the latest version of RBBS-PC available, either electronically or by mail Please realize that bulletin boards may cease to exist, or change their phone numbers, and that other commitments can make people unavailable. Bearing that in mind, the list of BBSs knowledgeable about RBBS-PC include: Arizona Tucson: Gene Lowry, Bigfoot RBBS. (602) 886-7943 RBBS-PC 17.3A TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL 4-2 California Colton: Rod Bowman, The PC Spectrum (tm). (714) 381-6013 Concord: Jon Martin, Aircomm. (415) 689-2090 LakePort: Randy Sun, Sigma Industries RBBS. (707) 263-8581 Connecticut Trumbull: Tom Mack, The Second Ring. (203) 268-5315 Florida Tampa: Dave Hacquebord, The Sunshine Board. (813) 887-3984 and (813) 885-4659 Palm Beach Gardens: Doug Azzarito, Technology Consultants RBBS. (407) 627-6969 and (407) 627-6862 Delray Beach: Mark Lautenschlager, Silicon Beach. (407) 276-6263 Kentucky Lexington: Ronald Nutter, Bluegrass RBBS. (606) 272-0499 (Fill out SysOp questionnaire) Illinois LaGrange: Loren Jones, RBBS-PC of Chicago. (708) 352-1035 Indiana Bloomington: John Taylor, Indiana On-Line. (812) 332-RBBS Maryland Rockville: Roger Fajman, CPCUG Member's Information Exchange (Capital PC Users Group). (301) 738-9060, 9 lines (Join SysOp conference) Nebraska Broken Bow: Tom Hansen, Church Chatters. (308) 872-6112 and 872-3394. Nevada Reno: John Morris, (702) 746-1364. Ohio Tiffin: Don Smith, NorthWest OHIO BBS. (419) 448-1421. Pennsylvania Sharon Hill (Philadelphia): Mark Horninger, Electric Playground. (215) 534-1466 Virginia Arlington: Lee Pollard, Death Star. (301) 839-0705 Fairfax: Ken Goosens, Your Place. (703) 978-6360, 3 lines Help by Topic: Ken Goosens maintains an interactive, on-line data base of people who volunteer to help with RBBS-PC on particular topics. Call Ken's BBS, and use the QUESTIONNAIRE function to search for someone in your area who can help. Some of the topics listed are: Auto Maintenance File Mgt System (FMS) Protocols BASIC File maintenance Questionnaires Batch Files HST Quick Basic CD-ROM Hardware Setup Communication LANTASTIC SmartText Compiling Modems Startup RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES 4-3 Conferences Network Sub-boards Configuration Novell Netware Submenus Desktop Publishing PC-Slaves Time Lock DESQview PUI Uploads Doors Personal downloads User Interface DoubleDOS Programming Utilities Most Bulletin Board Software is dedicated to making money for its authors. No matter how much the authors love the work, it endures only so long as the hope of income continues. RBBS-PC is given away for free, and depends not on the flow of money, but on the continuing dedication and generosity of people who volunteer to help support and enhance it as a public service, and share their labor of love with others for the benefit of all. The commitment of the coordinating authors of RBBS-PC is to: - fix any problems, on a priority basis - steadily refine and enhance RBBS-PC to better serve the needs of its users - help support and coordinate contributions, testing, and releases RBBS-PC should be bug free, period. If there are any problems with it, we want to know. We want people to use RBBS, not because it is free, but because it is the best bulletin board available. Professional Tech Support: While RBBS-PC remains an "all-volunteer" effort, BBSs run by corporations may find security in "paying" for support. If your corporation desires 24-hour, quick-response help, contact Doug Azzarito at (407) 627-9767. You will be referred to someone who can offer a support plan that will satisfy any corporate user. 4.2 RBBS-PC's Vendor Support Policy ----------------------------------- While a great deal of care was taken to make RBBS-PC as flexible as possible, supporting a wide range of computers and modems, the program was designed with the IBM PC (or compatible) and Hayes Smartmodem (or compatible) in mind. Many of RBBS-PC's default values assume this combination, and it is certainly this combination which requires the least effort to bring online. The philosophy of RBBS-PC is outlined in section 1.1 of the RBBS-PC documentation. Those who contribute to RBBS-PC do so without any hope of monetary reward. In fact, great lengths are taken to assure that neither those involved with the development of RBBS-PC, nor anyone who distributes RBBS-PC, does so for personal gain or to promote a specific product at the expense of other products. If the hardware you are using is not part of the "base-line" hardware and RBBS-PC doesn't work, your only recourse is to either modify RBBS-PC to meet your particular needs (that's why the source code is distributed), or contact your vendor and ask him to either fix his hardware or modify RBBS-PC (via .MRG/.DOC files) to support his hardware. Since 1984, RBBS-PC has become something of an "industry standard." As such, several manufacturers have requested that support for their RBBS-PC 17.3A TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL 4-4 particular hardware and/or software be incorporated into RBBS-PC. These vendors have had three choices: 1. Obtain a copy of the BASIC source code by sending $8 to the Capital PC User Group's Software Exchange. The source code allows the vendor to determine what is required to be "RBBS-PC compatible." Who better knows the quirks of the manufacturer's product than the manufacturer? RBBS-PC's limited license specifically permits the distribution of ".MRG" files that would allow RBBS-PC to run with whatever idiomatic quirks a specific vendor's product exhibited. The advantage to the manufacturer is that they are in complete control and need not make the .MRG "universal" (i.e. it need only support their product). The disadvantage is that new releases of RBBS-PC come out every six to eight months and the vendor would have to review each release to make sure the new releases and his .MRG files were compatible. Of course, as with any other RBBS-PC operator, casual telephone support is available to these vendors. 2. Supply the necessary equipment or software on a loan or gift basis to be used in the testing of future releases of RBBS-PC. This approach has been actively DISCOURAGED for three fundamental reasons. 1. The vendor perceives he has "paid" for on-going support by the loan or donation of the product. This is not the case because RBBS-PC's development is an all-volunteer activity. As such, it is possible that none of those involved with the development of RBBS-PC may have the time or expertise sufficient to assure compatibility of the specific vendor's product with future releases of RBBS-PC. About all that can be done is to give the vendor our "best effort" to assure compatibility, and advise when it can not be made compatible. 2. The particular product may not have a universal applicability to RBBS-PC users and/or may not be of interest to those who regularly contribute to the development of RBBS-PC. Both of these conditions must exist before any vendor's product is incorporated into the RBBS-PC development cycle. 3. The price of the loaned or donated products (usually 3 to 5 such products) in no way can even begin to compensate for the hundreds (if not thousands) of development hours required to support other than "base-line" hardware. 3. Establish an on-going institutional commitment to maintain a dialogue between the vendor's engineering group and the RBBS-PC development team along with supplying the necessary equipment or software on a loan or gift basis to be used in the testing of future releases of RBBS-PC. This approach has been actively ENCOURAGED for three different and fundamental reasons. 1. The vendor overtly makes an institutional commitment to jointly participate in the development of RBBS-PC. The vendor has the opportunity to supplement the all-volunteer activity that is the basis for RBBS-PC development by choosing to either modify their current or future products to be compatible with RBBS-PC or to supply software that ensures compatibility with RBBS-PC. This benefits all RBBS-PC users. 2. The particular products that fall into this category are required to have a universal applicability to RBBS-PC users (i.e. multi-tasking DOS, networking, 2400 or greater baud capability, error-free RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES 4-5 protocols, etc.). Also, a regular contributor to RBBS-PC's development must be geographically located close to the vendor's development engineers to assure a timely dialogue. Further, any regular contributor to RBBS-PC's development who accepts the responsibility for assuring RBBS-PC's compatibility with a particular vendor's product must be willing to do so solely on a volunteer basis over an extended period of time and in such a way as not to exclude other vendor's products. Only when all these conditions exist is any vendor's product a candidate to be incorporated into the RBBS-PC development cycle. This assures that the RBBS-PC user community has a feed-back mechanism to the vendor's product development and design teams and the vendor is assured of a matching long-term commitment from the RBBS-PC development team. 3. The vendor recognizes that the price of the loaned or donated products (usually 3 to 5 such products) is minuscule compared with the hundreds (if not thousands) of man-hours that may be required from both the RBBS-PC development team as well as the vendor's engineers. This assures that the vendors who choose this third approach are committed to the PC user community. It is precisely this type of commitment that RBBS-PC's USERWARE concept is designed to encourage (from both users and vendors) Many vendors have chosen to make this third type of commitment to RBBS-PC. We hope each of them will continue their support. In turn, we hope RBBS-PC SysOps and users will show their appreciation of the vendors' support. Some of these vendors are (alphabetically): Alloy Computer Products, Inc. 165 Forest Street Marlboro, MA 01752 (508) 481-7711 Ark Electronic Products, Inc. 325 W. Hibiscus Blvd. Melbourne, Florida 32901 (407) 724-5260 Corvus Systems, Inc. 2100 Corvus Drive San Jose, California 95124 (408) 559-7000 The Forbin Project (c/o John Friel III) 4945 Colfax Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55409 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. 5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. Norcross, Georgia 30092 (404) 449-8791 International Business Machines Corporation (Internal Zip Code 2900) P.O. Box 1328 Boca Raton, Florida 33432 (305) 998-2000 Microcom, Inc. RBBS-PC 17.3A TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL 4-6 1400A Providence Highway Norwood, MA 02062 (617) 762-9310 Multi-Tech Systems, Inc. 82 Second Avenue, S.E. New Brighton, Minnesota 55112 (612) 631-3550 Orchid Technology 4790 Westinghouse Drive Fremont, CA 94539 (415) 490-8586 PC-SIG 1030 E. Duane Ave Suite D Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 730-9291 Prometheus Products Incorporated 4545 Cushing Parkway Fremont, CA 94538 (415) 490-2370 Quarterdeck Office Systems 150 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405 (213) 392-9701 Racal-Vadic 1525 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, California 95035 (408) 774-0810 The Software Link, Inc. 8601 Dunwoody Place Suite 336 Atlanta, GA 30338 (404) 998-0700 System Enhancement Associates 21 New Street Wayne, NJ 07470 (201) 473-5153 U.S. Robotics, Inc. Skokie, Illinois 60076 (312) 982-5010 Users who feel that they have benefitted or who appreciate such commitment to the user community should write or call the above vendors and tell them so, especially if such a commitment influenced the purchase of their products. Similarly, if any user feels that other vendor should make a similar commitment to RBBS-PC and the user community, write to that vendor and send a copy of your letter to the following address: Ken Goosens 5020 Portsmouth Road Fairfax, VA 22032 RBBS-PC's SUPPORT POLICIES 4-7 Section 20 describes the RBBS-PC standard interface for protocol drivers. All vendors of proprietary protocols who would like to have them added to future releases of RBBS-PC need do is simply conform to this interface.