NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT TITLE: Information on Novell DSG's Host System BBS DOCUMENT ID: TID800017 DOCUMENT REVISION: A DATE: 15AUG94 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: DR DOS 6.0 ABSTRACT: NA ----------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE General Information: HOST SYSTEM MAIN NUMBERS & CONFIGURATION The BBS phone number is 801-429-7785. This number and 6 other lines that are a connected to it have Supra 2400 baud modems. The Supra modems automatically adjust to a caller's baud rate if it is lower than 2400. There is also a 9600 U.S. Robotics Courier V.32bis modem at 801-429-7787. This modem will also adjust to the same baud rate as the caller. Using the U.S. Robotics HST Standard, speeds as high as 14,400 baud are supported. Lower speed modems (2400 or lower) should not be used to call this line as unexpected hangups can occur. WORD,PARITY,STOP The BBS is set for a protocol of 8,N,1. "8" refers to the word length. "N" refers to parity which in this case is NONE. "1" refers to the stop bit. No matter what baud rate is used to call into the BBS the 8,N,1 word,parity,stop protocol combination needs to remain the same. Most communications software will indicate the protocols that are to be used prior to dialing. TROUBLESHOOTING Indications of having the wrong protocol are the appearance of "garbage" characters on the screen or the inability to enter any text. Make sure that your word,parity,stop are set at 8,N,1. If these are set correctly, make sure that you are not trying to force some type of error correction control such as MNP. The modems on 3443 do not support MNP. The 9600 baud modem on 3696 can support MNP as well as V.42 and the U.S. Robotics HST error control. Random lockups or a large number of retries on downloading a file are an indication of a possible noisy or bad phone line. Hang up and try again at a later time. Random lockups can also occur if you have some of the phone companies optional services such as Call Waiting. Call Waiting must be disabled while communicating or an incoming call will disconnect the BBS. (additional information on Call Waiting is given later) If there are problems just getting a connection with the BBS the modem may be timing out. Some communications software limits the time that the software waits for a carrier detect. Try extending this time. This can also happen intermittently if the phone line has noise at the same frequency as the carrier. The BBS Software: LOGIN AND REGISTRATION The BBS uses the MajorBBS software from Galacticomm. The first screen displayed by the BBS will be a greeting message followed by a request for a UserID. If you have never called the BBS before just type "new" (the BBS is not case sensitive). The BBS will step you through the registration process. Registration is required so that access to different levels of the system can be controlled and determine the number of users that the system has. All information is considered confidential. If you have called within the last 60 days enter your UserID and Password. Callers are given 3 tries for correct UserID or password. MAIN MENU The Main Menu is the starting point for all callers to the BBS. From here you can select all of the services that the BBS offers. The most important are the 3 options that concern downloading files. These are highlighted with an asterisk '*'. M A I N M E N U *F .. Files Menu I .. Information Center P .. Polls and Questionnaires A .. Account Display/Edit *U .. Frequently Requested Updates *D .. Popular Documents Q .. Questions & Comments to Sysop X .. Exit System (Logout) FREQUENTLY REQUESTED UPDATES This option leads to a sub-menu that allows downloading of the most popular updates on the BBS. The only additional information that needs to be provided is the download protocol to use (see Download Protocols). This is the quickest way to download an update on the BBS. POPULAR DOCUMENTS This option displays a sub-menu that allows you to chose some of the most popular documents downloaded from the BBS. Like the Updates menu the only additional information that you need to provide is the download protocol. FILES MENU All information in the BBS is organized into Libraries. The Libraries reflect the various products supported by the BBS. For example, the DRDOS Library contains all DR DOS files while the NWLITE Library contains all NetWare Lite files. The File Menu option displays a sub-menu that allows you to select which of the Libraries you wish to investigate. For detailed information on how to navigate the BBS Libraries download the file BBSUSER.DOC located in the UTILS Library. This document is offered to all new callers to the BBS automatically as part of the NEW USER greeting. PROTOCOLS Download protocols are not a random choice. A decision needs to be made based on the type of file being downloaded and the software you are using to communicate with the BBS. For example, ASCII download protocol cannot be used on any files that have the .ZIP extension (which are binary files not ASCII). An option is available to view the contents of ZIP files. DOWNLOAD PROTOCOLS SUPPORTED BY THE BBS LISTING (Text display one screen at a time) ASCII (continuous) XMODEM XMODEM-CRC XMODEM-1K YMODEM Batch YMODEM-G ZMODEM ZMODEM RESUME (recover after an aborted download) KERMIT MULTI-FILE DOWNLOAD PROTOCOLS If multiple files are selected or tagged for download the protocol options will be reduced to those that support multi-file downloads. LISTING (a screen at a time) ASCII (continuous ) YMODEM Batch YMODEM-g ZMODEM ZMODEM RESUME KERMIT If you are not familiar with the type of download protocols your software supports then check your documentation. The same protocol must be used by both the BBS and your communications software. All protocols, except ZMODEM, also require that the download process be started manually on the caller side. ZMODEM is also the only protocol that can recover an aborted download. All other protocols must start over after an aborted download. Once you have selected a protocol and answered any questions that may appear (these depend on the protocol selected) the BBS will try to begin the file transfer. If problems are encountered in beginning a download, you may have selected a protocol that is not supported by your software. The BBS will timeout if it does not receive a response from your software in approximately 1 minute. If the download appears to begin and then suddenly aborts it may just be a bad phone line. The BBS will allow for a number of retries before canceling a download. CALL WAITING If you are suddenly logged off the BBS, the phone line may have been disconnected. This can occur if Call Waiting is active on the phone line that you are calling from. Call Waiting cuts the line for a short period of time. This is detected by the BBS as a disconnect and it hangs up. Call waiting can be canceled for the duration of a call by adding *70 as a prefix. For example: *70 1 801 429 7787 will disable Call Waiting while calling the BBS. This option is for touch-tone phones and may change depending on the calling area. Check the white pages in the phone book for information on disabling Call Waiting. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. -----------------------------------------------------------------