A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user performs functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting. In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail, which is similar to internet-based email.
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems (BBSes). It uses a store-and-forward system to exchange private (email) and public (forum) messages between the BBSes in the network, as well as other files and protocols in some cases.
FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer. Fido refers to FidoNet, Opus refers to Opus-CBCS BBS, and SEAdog refers to a Fidonet compatible mailer. The standards document that defines the FOSSIL protocol is maintained by the Fidonet Technical Standards Committee.
Renegade is a freeware bulletin board system (BBS) written for IBM PC-compatible computers running MS-DOS that gained popularity among hobbyist BBSes in the early to mid 1990s. It was originally written by Cott Lang in Turbo Pascal, optimized with assembly language, based on the source code of Telegard, which was in turn based on the earlier WWIV.
Synchronet is a multiplatform BBS software package, with current ports for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and BSD variants. Past versions also ran on MS-DOS and OS/2, but support for those platforms were dropped in version 3.0.
WWIV was a brand of bulletin board system software popular from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. The modifiable source code allowed a sysop to customize the main BBS program for their particular needs and aesthetics. WWIV also allowed tens of thousands of BBSes to link together, forming a worldwide proprietary computer network, the WWIVnet, similar to FidoNet.
PCBoard (PCB) was a bulletin board system (BBS) application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Company. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid expansion of BBS systems in the early 1990s. Like many BBS companies, the rise of the Internet starting around 1994 led to serious downturns in fortunes, and Clark Development went bankrupt in 1997. Most PCB sales were of two-line licenses; additional line licenses were also available.
VBBS is an acronym for Virtual Bulletin Board System. It was a shareware bulletin board system (BBS) for DOS that was conceived by Roland De Graaf in 1990. Written from scratch in QuickBASIC, it developed a loyal following. Originally it was a door for WWIV, but quickly grew into an original BBS concept on its own. By 1993, there were thousands of computers running VBBS around the world. VirtualNET, the largest VBBS message network, had close to 1500 members by version 6.14 in 1993.
Maximus is a bulletin board system, originally developed by Scott J. Dudley through his company, Lanius Corporation. The software was first written and released for both MS-DOS and OS/2, with later versions supporting 32-bit Windows operating systems. The MS-DOS version interfaced with the serial port through a FOSSIL driver. Version 1.0 was released in 1990, with versions 2.0 and 3.01 following in 1991 and 1995. The source code for Maximus and its companion utilities, such as Squish, was released under the GNU General Public License in 2002. It has since been ported to run under Linux, and other Unix-like operating systems.
T.A.G. is a DOS-based bulletin board system (BBS) computer program, released from 1986 to 2000.
SPITFIRE is a DOS-based bulletin board system written by Mike Woltz (1945-2022), published by his company Buffalo Creek Software of West Des Moines, Iowa.
The Atari Message Information System (AMIS) was one of the first BBS software packages available for the Atari 8-bit computers. It was known to crash pretty often and could not be left unattended for more than a few days. The autorun.sys file which contained the modem handler was at cause. Versions of the AMIS BBS were modified with the modem handler supplied with the Atari XM301 modem and was deemed much more stable.
Wayne Bell is the creator of the WWIV BBS system. The first WWIV BBS went online in Los Angeles in December 1984. His BBS, WWIV version 1.0 written in BASIC and 2.0 written in Turbo Pascal later came to be named Amber, node 1 of the WWIVnet BBS network. His handle as the SysOp was Laison Al'Gaib when it was WWIV, then Random when it became Amber.
BNU is a high-performance communications device driver designed to provide enhanced support for serial port communications. The BNU serial port driver was specifically targeted for use with early DOS-based BBS software. The reason for BNU and other similar enhanced serial port drivers was to provide better support for serial communications software than what was offered by the machine's BIOS and/or DOS being used on the machine. Having serial port support as provided by BNU and other similar drivers allowed the communications software programmers to spend more time on the actual applications instead of the depths and details of how to talk to the serial ports and the modems connected to them. Sending communications data across a modem link was a lot more involved than sending data to a serial printer which was basically all that was originally capable of being done with the existing serial port software support.
NetFoss is a popular Network FOSSIL driver for Windows. A FOSSIL is a serial communications layer to allow DOS based software to talk to modems without dealing with hardware I/O and interrupts.
McBBS was a Bulletin Board System developed by Derek E. McDonald and distributed by DMCS Technologies between October 30, 1989, and May 30, 2000, and operated over 18 versions.
StarDoc 134 is a Dos/Linux hybrid BBS running EleBBS maintained by Andrew Baker aka "RamMan, Dotel and Dotelpenguin".
SIO is a serial port driver package for OS/2 written by Raymond L. Gwinn. It is designed to not only improve performance over OS/2's default serial drivers, but also improve compatibility. SIO contains a virtualized FOSSIL (VX00) driver that can be loaded to provide FOSSIL support to DOS based communications software. SIO later added the ability to create virtualized COM ports, which, combined with the included program VMODEM, allows incoming telnet connections to be directed toward the virtualized COM port. Older communications software are also able to "call out" to telnet sites. This is possible due to a custom set of "AT" commands that allow users to pass a hostname to the VMODEM software.
FrontDoor was one of the most popular mailers in the FidoNet-compatible networks in the 1990s, acting as the physical representation of the written network node connection and mail handling standards. It was an MS-DOS-based product written by Joaquim Homrighausen. The FrontDoor system contained a Mailer, an Editor, a Terminal, a serial port device driver and configuration utilities. FrontDoor was first released in 1986.
