BBS Software Related Question.

Greetings..

I had a question for some of you that were heavy BBS sceners back in the day.

There were programs like AE (ascii express) for the Apple line of computers, and some similar apps for the MSDOS machines that provided BBS like functionality, but were pretty much dedicated to file transfer. Some of these apps had a user system, but a lot of them were simply a single password to get in for everyone and then you had full access to everything shared - think of it as sort of an FTP server built from a BBS program... Or like the host mode that the C64 program "Phone Man" had in it.

I was just curious if anyone had any details on a similar application that was written for the Amiga? Again, i am not talking about anything TCPIP related - this would be purely dialup and would most likely have been written and distrubuted purely for warez distribution.

Additionally, were there any apps other than BBS programs, and terminal programs for the Amiga that were written to assist in file transfer.. Things like disk communicators, etc...

I'm really just trying to get an idea of whether or not there were any "specialty" apps that were written for the distribution of warez other than an actual, "true" BBS soft...

Thanks guys..

[paranoid]

Wow Phone Man sure brings back memories.. I missed out on blue boxing, though, in my area, but it still came in handy by handling different bits/stop bits/etc. I never used the host mode (only vaguely remember it, actually) though I remember a lot else about it.. The "Motor City Madman" wrote it, yes? I digress.

All my experience with BBSs were one of two types, and neither like you describe. Either P/D and if there was a limit, it was just to let others call in (like being able to download only X files a day, or only being able to be on an hour a day, etc) and the other would be for warez that didn't usually have a time or file limit, but a credit limit. You had to upload X amount to download Y amount.

On the Amiga itself, the most popular for warez was AmiExpress (I'd certainly guess anyway) (Often written /X, btw) and that was slimmed down as far as a BBS goes and file transfer oriented but, again, not at all like a single password ftp-like program. I think the popularity of the Amiga (and C64, the other computer I traded heavily with) made keeping tabs on downloading a priority. (Read: Lots of leaches.)

Having said that, perhaps a scene group may have set something like that up, but I was never in a group.

I don't know what you mean by a "disk communicator". To take a stab at it, though, DMS (Disk Masher, or Smasher, or.. something) was used heavily for trading and warez. A PD application to just compress a disk (a disk entirely, not simply the files on the disk, which meant some non-standard (though not protected) disks could be transferred) but it also allowed for a little text to be shown before unpacking which was used to have an ANSI group logo, BBS numbers, etc. That would be the closest thing I know of on the Amiga for what you're talking about.

excellent reply - thank you.. the disk masher app may be just what i was asking about as far as "disk communicator" goes.. i will check it out and see.

thanks again.