Date: Fri, 04 Nov 1994 12:57:52 EST From: "Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep, 604-984-4067" Subject: "The BBS Construction Kit" by Wolfe BKBBSCON.RVW 940826 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 22 Worchester Road Rexdale, Ontario M9W 9Z9 800-263-1590 800-567-4797 fax: 800-565-6802 or 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 USA 800-CALL-WILEY 212-850-6630 Fax: 212-850-6799 Fax: 908-302-2300 jdemarra@jwiley.com aponnamm@jwiley.com "The BBS Construction Kit", Wolfe, 1994, 0-471-00797-8 To understand this book you have to understand BBS sysops (system operators). Most of them are very hardworking individuals who give lavishly of their time, and sometimes expertise, in order to provide a resource for their users. By and large, this work is done without recompense, and may even be done at considerable personal cost. The sysop, though, has absolute control. No ifs, ands or buts. And, like they say, power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thus it is that some sysops, admirable people though they may otherwise be, suffer delusions of grandeur. All of the foregoing is by way of saying that Wolfe has written a very thorough, readable and potentially useful book. He is, however, *extremely* opinionated. You want to discuss the merits of different BBS software? Fine. Go someplace else. GAP is the *only* BBS software. You want to run a specialized BBS? Forget it. Games and file downloads, here. Chapter fourteen, "Joining an Echo Net", lists Rime, Fidonet, Internet, Usenet and others (capitalizing all the ones I know, incorrectly) -- but discusses only Rime. The coverage of the topic is wide-ranging. There are chapters on planning, basic hardware, modems, legal issues, menu design, viruses, and advertising, as well as appendices on compression formats. GAP BBS software is included, and most of the book (chapters 5, setup; 6, commands; 7, menus; 8, message base; 9, doors; 11, file transfer; 13, offline mail; 15, system events; 16, user files; 17, multinode use; and appendix B, installation) is documentation for it. It is highly ironic that almost the first thing the Introduction states is, "Why should you believe [Wolfe]?" His material, while one-sided, is generally good and should be very helpful to any first-time sysop. His technical advice, though, is appalling. He has most of the concepts right--and almost all of the actual details wrong. He correctly delineates the difference between band and bits per second (bps)--but knows nothing of modem signalling, so his definition makes no sense. He introduces the upcoming V.34 modem standard--but gets the number wrong. He gives proper details of the various UART chips--but is wrong about which ones are common. His description of error correction is a good illustration--of file transfer methods, not "on the fly" correction. Fortunately, most of the advice he gives is good enough for the budding sysop. Just remember, though--if you are depending on technical details given in the book, you *will* have to check them out with a better source. (I cannot be as generous with his chapter on viruses. He states that running a BBS is the best way to get infected--and then talks of a run-in with Michelangelo. Repeat after me: "Boot sector infectors do *not* spread via modem." His "first virus" was an ANSI bomb--not viral at all. The bulk of the book very strongly pushes for the use of ANSI graphics--there is only one short mention that you might want to replace ANSI.SYS with a version that doesn't allow key remapping. The recommended antivirals are CPAV, NAV and McAfee.) For those wanting to set up a BBS for the very first time, this book gives you the software, instructions and a lot of good tips. Do remember that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKBBSCON.RVW 940826 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag