Signon

BBS Operation - Signing On Your BBS

There are a couple ways to initiate a sign-on: A user can call your system using their modem, or you can do a local sign-on by pressing F1 from the Sysop Menu.

Local Sign-On

This is probably the first action you take with your newly-running BBS. The Local Sign-on allows the Sysop to bypass some of the processes and be logged into the BBS locally. This will take the modem off-hook, so users will only get a busy signal until you logoff.

When F1 is pressed, the system will ask if you want to perform a Fast Logon. Fast Logon permits you to jump all the startup screens and information and places you at the command prompt in the BBS as user #2. If you answer “N” to Fast Logon, it will be a “normal” login where you must enter your user name and password, although √systemstart and √systemstart2 are not displayed. The BBS automatically assumes you are graphics-capable, so the first screen you will see is √welcome1 and the User ID prompt.

When you are done with your local session, logoff the BBS as you normally would and the system will be returned to a ready-for-call state.

Normal Sign-On

If a user calls the system, then the BBS will answer the phone and attempt to connect with the remote modem. If the connection succeeds, the BBS will find out the baud rate and then display the √systemstart and √systemstart2 screens followed by a Graphics Mode check.

• The Graphics Mode Check (and √systemstart2)

The first thing that will occur after displaying the initial system start screens is a Commodore Graphics check (where the user must hit the backspace or delete key as part of the check). You need to stipulate this in your √systemstart2 file. Avoid any graphical (like Commodore graphics, color changes, etc) in both √systemstart and √systemstart2 since we do not yet know at this point if the user can display these.

The BACKSPACE/DELETE key check is used to detect if the caller is using a Commodore graphics terminal program or an ASCII/ANSI terminal. Commodore graphics terminals send a character with an ASCII value of 20 for their DELETE character, while ANSI and ASCII terminals will send a character with an ASCII value of 8 or 127. If they are using ASCII/ANSI, then the BBS program will ask if the user wants to see full ANSI color and graphics. If the caller selects plain ASCII translation, then they will also be asked if their terminal requires line feeds added to carriage returns.

Once the graphics mode has been determined, then the file "√welcome1" in the System Files is printed. You should test to see that this file looks OK in both Commodore, ASCII, and ANSI terminal programs, because it is the first welcome message that all callers will see.

One important point here: previous iterations of Color 64 has it hardcoded to prompt the user to hit the backspace or delete key. This is no longer the case in 8.1a. You must have some content in √systemstart2 telling the user to do this. I did this in order to allow sysops to make their BBSes more unique.

• The User Number Prompt

A prompt is displayed asking for the user number of the caller. The user number is the record number in the password file that contains the caller's information; the BBS automatically assigns a number to each new user who applies to the BBS system. A new user would type "NEW" at this prompt to apply for membership on your BBS system. A current user would enter their user number, or a caller may press RETURN to view the membership list.

When the system is first installed, there will be only one user: you the SYSOP as user number 2. Again, the password is "SYSOP". You should use password maintenance to edit your record and change your password (and other relevant information too). You may be wondering why the SYSOP is user number (record) 2 and not number 1. The reason for this is that record number 1 in the password file is used to store the current number of records in the file. This information must be stored along with the password file because it could get lost or destroyed if stored in a different file.

If a caller enters a number at this user number prompt, then it will be checked to see if it is a valid user number. If it is not, then the BBS will tell the caller that the number is invalid. Otherwise, the caller will be asked for their password.

• The Password Prompt

Passwords can be from 3 to 9 characters, and they are restricted to uppercase alphabetic characters, numerals, and some other non-graphics characters. As the caller is typing their password, it will not be displayed on your screen; only asterisks will be displayed as each character is typed.

If the caller happens to enter the incorrect password, they will be notified that the password is incorrect and will be sent back to the user number prompt. If after three attempts the user cannot correctly enter a password, then the system will hang up and record the incident as an invalid sign-on. After the fifth invalid call within one 24-hour period the system will go into a waiting mode, where it will not answer any calls for about 3 minutes, to deter pranksters and hackers.

If all goes well and the caller enters the correct password, then the rest of their information will be loaded in from the password file and the following files will be displayed if they exist in the system’s directory:

* √welcome2

* √logon stats or

* √logon stats80 file for 80-column users

* √sysopin or √sysopout depending on setting

* √level # msg where “#” is the user’s access level number

Once this is done then the "√sysop news" file will be printed, but since it has a special format, you may want to review information on this file in the Installation Section "System Messages".

Next, the system will check to see if the caller has any private e-mail waiting for them. If they do, then the system will do a quick scan of the mail headers to show the caller who the messages were from and who posted them. The caller can then decide if they want to read their e-mail or not. If the caller decides to hold their e-mail, or once they are done reading their e-mail, the system will ask if they want to sign the guestbook and then proceed to the main BBS prompt.

• New Users

If a caller entered "NEW" at the user number prompt, then the system would perform the following procedures:

1) Will check to see if the file called "√bbs closed" exists in your System Files and if it does it will be displayed to the caller, after which they will be disconnected from the system. You should create this file if you want to close the system to any new users.

2) If the BBS is not closed, then the caller will be asked to enter a name or a handle. This is what will be put into their password record as their membership name, the name that all the other users will see. The membership name must contain at least one alphabetic character and can be no more than 20 characters long. No color or graphics can be included in the membership name, so it can be made up of upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and non-graphics characters.

3) The system will check the password file to see if that name already exists, and to find a spot in the password file for the new user.

* If the membership name already exists, then the caller will be notified and will be allowed to enter another membership name.

* If the password file is full, then the system will print the file called “√membership full" in the System Files to notify the user that no more space is available, after which the user will be disconnected.

4) If all goes well, then the file "√password msg" in the System Files will be printed and the caller will be asked for the password that they want to use on your BBS. The password must be from 3 to 9 characters and is limited to a small set of characters to prevent callers from entering passwords with graphics characters (most often which they would not be able to remember easily).

Once the caller successfully enters a password the BBS system will display the new user's information for review. After that, the file called "√new user msg1" in the System Files will be printed as a prelude to the application routine. This file can be used as information about the system, or specific instructions about the application to follow. Once that is done the user will be asked to fill out an application for membership on your system. See "User Application" for more details.

Once the application is completed, then the BBS system will display the file called "√new user msg2", after which the user will be sent to the main BBS prompt.

The Main BBS Prompt

All callers, new or otherwise, will eventually end up at the main BBS prompt, from which they can decide which aspect of the system they want to utilize next. From this prompt the caller only needs to type a single key that corresponds to a main BBS command. Users will be able to use a command only if their level is equal to or higher than the level defined in SETUP.

Also, the user can also press the "?" question mark key to get a menu of commands available to them. The file called "√menu#" will be printed, where the “#” is the level of the user (e.g. a level 1 user will see the √menu1 file). You can use the included menu maker utility to create the level menus if you wish, because it will automatically put the valid commands for each level into the menus.

The function of each command is self-explanatory and the system will guide a caller through a series of prompts for complex operations. Also, the caller will always have access to the help files, so that they can find out how to use specific features of the system.

Next Section: Graphics Mode

BBS Operation