How do I make my ProBoard BBS TELNETable under Windows 2000?

What you will need

• Windows NT4 or Windows 2000.
• NetFoss 0.02 from http://pcmicro.com/netfoss/download.html

How to do it

• Extract The NetFoss ZIP-file to c:\netfoss
  
• Edit your nf.bat and change the first line by adding " %1" to the end like so:
  c:\netfoss\netfoss.com %1
• Follow the instructions in NetFoss.txt under the ProBoard section to set up a telnet server.

How do I make my ProBoard BBS TELNETable under OS/2?

What you will need

• OS/2 Warp 3.0/4.0 or Warp Connect.
• Ray Gwinn's SIO drivers, currently the latest version is 1.60d.
• At least one free port for SIO - if you are using the shareware 4 port version, this means you must have less than 4 (3 if using a serial mouse) ports already assigned to modems or other serial devices.
• TCP/IP version 2.0 or later. (Warp IAK)

How to do it

Add the following to your DEVICE=SIO.SYS line :
(COM[port]:[lock baud],INTERNET:[dos port address],NONE:[dos irq])
where:

[port] is the COM port you want to use for internet connections.

[lock baud] is the speed you want to lock the port at.

[dos port address] is the port address you want to place this virtual com port at. It is usually best to use the address usually assigned to that port for compatibility.

• COM1 3f8
• COM2 2f8
• COM3 3e8
• COM4 2e8

[dos irq] is the IRQ to use. You can use any IRQ available on your system. It seems to be possible to share IRQs between INTERNET ports, so if you allocate two, you should be able to use the same IRQ for both if you are short on free IRQs.

If you are not connected to a network and have a dial-up Internet connection, you will want to set up your system so that you don't have to be online to test it out.

in config.sys :

SET USE_HOSTS_FIRST=1
SET HOST=localhost

In your TCP/IP\ETC directory, you should edit the file HOSTS adding the line :

127.0.0.1     localhost

Path & Filename: x:\TCPIP\BIN\IFCONFIG.EXE
Parameters : lo 127.0.0.1 up

Time to ReBoot to setup SIO and your hostname and startup TCP/IP (don't worry it won't take you online :-)

You can test your settings once you have rebooted by opening an OS/2 window and typing :
PING localhost

If you get a "unknown host localhost" error, check the SET USE_HOSTS_FIRST=1 line is in your config.sys and that you have put the correct line in your HOSTS file.

If you get several 64 bytes... lines then press CTRL-C - all is well.

In the OS/2 window, change to your SIO directory and type VMODEM.

All being well, you should see a blue screen with what looks like a text version of modem lights which means Vmodem is running. Minimize the window.

Now use ProCfg to set up another node with the modem on your newly setup INTERNET port, use the same settings you used in SIO for your Node specific Modem settings. And set up a batch file to run ProBoard standalone for this new node.

Now you can try it out.

Start your batchfile, making sure that ProBoard displays an OK message in the modem window and says that it is ready for calls.

Start a Telnet session, if it tells you that you aren't online and do you want to connect, click don't connect as it will still load and work locally. Open a connection to 'localhost' without the quotes and after a few seconds delay, (you can see what is happening by opening the VModem and ProBoard windows) you should see the familiar ProBoard Intro screen displayed ready for you to login.

Now when you are online to the Internet, people can Telnet to your BBS as long as they know your hostname or IP Address.