Does anyone remember an old BBS called JetBBS? I believe it was released in the early to mid 90's. I want to say it went to version 5.0b. One of the authors, Troy Beckstrom, released it as freeware back in 1997 I think (or maybe it was 1996?). He only released the executable, no source code. It could be installed with a serial number after that. Sys admins would edit .MNU files and .TXT or .ANS files to fully customize the BBS for the users. Does anyone remember that BBS?
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Re: JetBBS
No one, huh? Did anyone run any other BBSes back in the day? If so, which ones?-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is Full -
Re: JetBBS
i did.
i cant remember the name, but most bbs's ran on Amiga rather than pc's
probably because at the time an amiga could blow away any pc and still cost several times less.
and of course it had a real working desktop enviroment.
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Re: JetBBS
Wow, I never used an Amiga. But I heard of them. Do you remember what year you ran yours? I always liked JetBBS. I have tried unsuccessfully to get the source code for it over the years. Finally, after years of waiting, I got the domain, JetBBS.com. Right now, I just have some old files available for download (JetBBS.com/bbs ) but I want to turn it into a support site for JetBBS. I also want to work on creating an open source clone called GNUJet ( http://github.com/Spork-Schivago/GNUJet ).
It's been sooo long since I've programmed that it's a bit harder than I seem to remember. I can't seem to come up with a good way to parse the MNU files. I asked for help on DreamCode but most of the responses where about how I shouldn't use GOTO statements. For it to be a true clone, the MNU's need to have GOTO's.
I found somehow who knows a bit about his stuff and he suggested the Dragon Book. I'm in the process of obtaining a copy.
As for the website, I'm working on creating the HTML pages but I suck at that kind of stuff. I can't make it look pretty no matter what I do. I don't have an artistic bone in my body. So far, I have a download.html file that connects to a MySQL database and lists all the files. If someone clicks a checkbox next to a few files, it'll create a zip for them and download all of them at once. If they only click one file, it'll just download that file. I can't seem to figure out how to get the button below the table though. Freaking hate HTML! Wish I knew someone who was good at it.-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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Re: JetBBS
early 90'sOriginally posted by Spork Schivago View Post
using this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiexpress
btw, jet seems pretty unknown here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBS_softwareComment
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Re: JetBBS
Yeah, it wasn't even on the list there until I added it. I didn't know what to put for the page because I didn't have much info on it at the time so I didn't create a page for it. Perhaps I should of waited until I had a wiki page just for JetBBS and then added it to List_of_BBS_software ?-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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Re: JetBBS
I'm checking out that Amiexpress now. I always wondered back in the day if the author to JetBBS somehow obtained a copy of some BBS source code, for a system like the Commadore 64 or the Amiga, and just changed a few things and called it his own. I couldn't find any BBSes that had a similiar layout though or ones that were compiled in C, like Jet was.-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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Re: JetBBS
I wish I had a screen shot. It looks very similiar to your Amiexpress. I remember a person would run the JetBBS.exe program and it'd take you to a screen saying waiting for connection or something. There where buttons you could hit, it'd say stuff like [F1] Local Login, etc. You could log in locally while other people called in. The original menu's that came with Jet look like the Amiexpress ones. The user would have a menu. In that menu there'd be key's they could press, like it might show a [X] File Transfers and if they user typed X, it'd take them to File Transfers. File Transfers would be just another MNU you created with an ANS text file for graphics. A lot of these BBSes look so similar. Was there one main one that was open source and did everyone just copy the source code? Or is it more or less developers just kinda developed the same thing but a bit different here and there?-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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Re: JetBBS
a lot of them were derivitives in one way or another.
it's pretty hard to hide the sourcecode when something is written in an interpreted language like basic.Comment
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Re: JetBBS
was jet oriented towards filesharing, or chat?
if it was chat then it may be based on citadel.Comment
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Re: JetBBS
JETBBS
TOPICS IN THIS SECTION
* INTRODUCTION
* FEATURES
* REGISTERING JET BBS
* TECH SUPPORT
* Contacting the author via snail mail
--------------------------------
* INTRODUCTION
---------------
JetBBS v5.0 (JETBBS50.ZIP) for MS-DOS is available at
http://www.jetbbs.com, or ftp://ftp.jetbbs.com/jetbbs.
* FEATURES
------------
EASY TO INSTALL
Takes less than 5 minutes to install, just run "JETSETUP".
TOTALLY CUSTOMIZABLE
Put any command on any key in any menu, or make your own menus
and even make your own commands using the MNU script language.
Perfect for special purpose BBSes.
SUPPORTS MULTITASKING
Fast, smooth multitasking under Windows 3.1, Windows 95, OS/2,
and DESQview by yielding unused CPU time back to the OS. You
can keep using your computer while the BBS runs in the
background.
FREE MULTI-LINE
No extra charge for running multiple lines on one computer.
Includes inter-user color chat channels, touch, broadcast, and
who's online commands.
EASY TO USE
Intuitive arrow-key controlled scroll-bar interfaces for the
E-Mail Reader and Message Base, just like a UseNet Newsreader,
but does not require special client software since it does
everything using ANSI commands. Also fully supports standard
ASCII menu-driven access to e-mail and the message base.
FULLY FEATURED
Includes all the standard features you expect in a BBS:
- Supports four of the most common door protocols:
DORINFO1.DEF, CALLINFO.BBS, CHAIN.TXT, and DOOR.SYS.
- File transfers with ANSI scroll-bar file tagging, keyword
search, auto-logoff after transfer, short and long
descriptions, download counts, file_id.diz viewer, external
transfer protocols.
- E-Mail with file attachments, upload text to editor, quoted
reply, forwarding, delete/undelete, easy to use arrow-key
controlled color mail reader.
- QWK mail and REP replies.
- Voting polls.
EXTRAS
Built-in extras you don't find on most BBSes, and some you
won't find anywhere else:
- Sub-BBSes that you can make users sysop of.
- Credit system with mailable checks, various things around the
BBS that can be purchased, and a "chargecredits" function so
you can put a fee on any menu command.
- 8 built-in casino games that use the credit system.
* REGISTERING JET BBS
-----------------------
Registration is $59.95 + $3 S&H. A registration form is created
when the Jet BBS setup program is run.
* TECH SUPPORT
--------------
For technical support, contact the author of JetBBS (Troy
Beckstrom) on the JetBBS support board at (206)LAB-TEAM, or
e-mail beckstrom@jetbbs.com.
* Contacting the author via snail mail
--------------------------------------
Troy Beckstrom
2318 Second Avenue #492
Seattle, WA 98121
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Re: JetBBS
Thanks for the download links STJ, I already have those though. You can check out the ones I have at http://JetBBS.com/bbs Right now, I just have an .htaccess file that lets you see the files to download. I have a PHP script and a MySQL database and a webpage on my local server I'm going to upload soon but I want to make sure it's secure first. If you ever run across any registered version that's NOT version 5, let me know! Or any other JetBBS files that aren't JetBBS (like the message database, custom scripts, etc).
I think one of the huge selling points for Jet was it's messaging database. It was a lot like news groups or forums. If you had the registered version, you could connect to their main server in Washing (the state, not the city) and upload your BBSes messages / download everyone elses. I think that was huge back then. I don't really think the chatline was a huge selling point because, well, we only had one line but even if you had more, I think for the longest time, it could only support 4 lines.
I figured out how Troy was encrypting JetBBS.dat files and I can successfully extract the files without JetSetup. I'd like to figure out the messaging format though. My goal is for GNUJet, it will connect to JetBBS's forum (once I set one up) and people can leave messages on the web or via the BBS and it'll all be synced automatically. I think that'd be cool.-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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Re: JetBBS
what your describing sounds like FIDOnet.Comment
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Re: JetBBS
Man, if I could just get my hands on a copy of someone's JetBBS message database from back then, I could verify the format by comparing it to FIDOnet. You might of saved me a lot of time and helped me a lot there STJ. Thanks! I was only a teenager still in school back then so everything's a bit foggy. I remember there was some tool that came with Jet that allowed you to convert the message bases from other popular BBSes into Jet's format.-- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is FullComment
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