BBS R.I.P.

by Paul Cipywnyk

The time has come to bid farewell to the BBS, the club's Bulletin Board System. It served us for many years, and was the start to many a friendship. It's still running, but will likely be gone by the end of February.

The BBS is ancient - 16 years old I hear - and deserves to rest in peace. It's been going down more frequently and for most members has outlived its purpose.

The BBS was a training ground for many TPC members who learned bits and bytes of DOS, Wildcat and NetWare to keep it up and running. My first ever modem connection was to the TPC BBS back in 1988 with a 1200bps no-name modem I paid ¥25,000 for!

We have a Web presence now, along with newsgroups and mailing lists. The newsgroups and mailing lists reflect each other. In other words, you have a choice of how to stay in touch with club members and share questions, asnwers and information. Some like the simplicity and familiarity of their email program. Some like the more powerful threading capabilities of a newsreader.

In either case, you probably have both on your system already. Even if you don't have a dedicated email or newreading program, if you're on the Internet, you've probably got either Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both come with email and newsreading modules, and the 4.X versions in particular have become fairly sophisticated - though the 3.X do fine as well.

When it comes to dedicated programs, two of the most popular email applications for Windows are Eudora and Pegasus. As for newsreaders, Agent and Anawave Gravity are popular.

How do you get talking?

With a newsreader, point your application at:

news.tokyopc.org

President Pat Hughes wrote an article in the September 1997 AJ about how to set up Netscape and Internet Explorer for newsgroups. Whatever application you use, just check its Help system, or corner somebody at a TPC meeting for assistance.

As for mail programs, to subscribe, send mail containing only the word "subscribe" to:

listname-request@tokyopc.org

For example, to subscribe to the TPC-help list, send mail

To: TPC-help-request@tokyopc.org

Subject: subscribe

Body:

subscribe

Here's a list of what you can access, either through email, or a newsreader.

Hope to see you online!

And don't forget to check out the TPC Web Site at:

http://www.tokyopc.org/

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