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BBSTEST Version 1.0 Jim Kloss - Nochange Software 540 Silver Pine Trail Roswell, GA 30076 (404)587-3815 Note: If you intend to use BBSTEST, it is highly recommended that your modem support the BUSY, VOICE, and RINGING return codes. Most 2400 baud modems do these days and many 1200 baud modems do as well. If your modem doesn't support these, BBSTEST will not do a very good job at determining what is going on during call progress. It will record most calls as "VOICE" answers since it can't figure out what is going on. BBSTEST was designed to help you keep track of local BBS phone numbers. It has several nice features to help you keep an accurate list with a minimum of time and trouble. BBSTEST was developed as a "lark" by Jim Kloss at Nochange Software. Although we develop commercial software of exceptional quality, we didn't write BBSTEST for commercial reasons. It was written because the OAS (Organization of Atlanta Sysops) needed a way to keep up with local BBS phone numbers without having to spend hours of manual time doing it. This documentation, and the program itself, are provided "as is". You can consider this package as "informal". We're simply trying to provide a tool to those who need it - but we're not providing all the bells and whistles associated with our commercial packages. This documentation is being written "on the fly" and assumes you are pretty familiar with your computer, your modem, and BBS's. If you want better documentation complete with indexes and all the associated goodies, send us some bucks or forever hold your peace. If there is sufficient interest and financial support for BBSTEST, we will enhance it and make it a "super program". If you'd like to see that happen, a contribution of $35 would help ensure that it happens. Frankly, we don't expect a large outpouring of support for BBSTEST. But, if you decide you like it, let us know so that we can provide enhancements. Please do not call us on our 800 number to discuss BBSTEST unless you've made a financial contribution. WHAT IS BBSTEST AND HOW WILL IT HELP ME? If you are responsible for maintaining a list of local BBS phone numbers, you know what a time consuming task it can be. User groups frequently provide phone number lists to their members but these lists are often out-of-date. Volunteers find that keeping such a list up-to-date requires hours of manual dialing to see if a BBS is still running. If the line is busy, you have to call back later. If there is no answer (but you're 99% sure there's a BBS there) you have to call back later. In addition, you have to scribble notes about baud rates accepted, hours open, software type, registration information, etc. BBSTEST was written to alleviate 90% of the manual headaches associated with keeping such a list. Note that we said 90% - it will not do 100% of the work. But it will do most of the grunt work leaving you time to go drink beer or throw boomerangs or whatever you're into. In addition, it provides a more accurate way of keeping track of BBS numbers than most manual methods can. After you've run it, you'll have a sorted list of BBS numbers on your disk that you can print or allow others to download. In addition, you'll have some interesting statistics about all the BBS's in your local area including percentages of availability and baud rates. BBSTEST has some features which allow you to be pretty lazy. For example, you can use ANY file for input which contains local phone numbers. You can use your current QModem or Procomm dialing directory. Or, you can use the current text version of your local BBS list. Or, you can combine as many files from as many different sources as you want. BBSTEST will automatically generate a list of phone numbers and statistics which you can "flesh out" later with BBS names and specific information. (That is of course optional but some of you will surely want to put BBS names next to the numbers in the report.) BBSTEST can actually logon to most systems (it's fun to watch it try and figure out how to logon to a system its never seen before!) and capture the session to disk for later review. In addition, you can use BBSTEST to try and contact busy or no answer numbers for several days without losing your original "verified" list. BBSTEST even creates a summary log of important information about various BBS's according to your parameters. If you use BBSTEST, you'll find that you save hours (maybe even days) over the manual method of verification. Even if you're not responsible for keeping a BBS list for a Users group, BBSTEST is a fun and quick way to "scan" all the local BBS's for those you are interested in. This may be the most popular usage of BBSTEST. Once someone in the local area has taken the time to build the BBSTEST.SCR file (and we've already given you 99% of it), any novice can use it to log onto hundreds of local BBS's to get a "look see" and determine which ones are worth calling back manually later. HOW TO START In order to use BBSTEST, you need two (2) major input files. The first is called BBSTEST.INP. (It stands for INPut.) It is an "unformatted" file which contains 7 digit local phone numbers. By unformatted, we mean that it does not need to be in any particular format. You can use your QMODEM.FON file or your PC-TALK.DIR file. You can use text or non-text files as long as the phone numbers are actually text within the file (almost all communication programs create text phone numbers within their dialing files). BBSTEST will scan the BBSTEST.INP file and extract any phone numbers it can from within it. This feature keeps you from having to enter a long list of numbers. In effect, you can "steal" dialing directories or text lists from your Users group and plug them right into BBSTEST. BBSTEST does its best to filter out long-distance phone numbers but it is best if your list has only local numbers. Although BBSTEST will never dial long-distance, it may try to make long-distance numbers into local numbers which isn't what you want. Most input files will be okay but this is something to watch out for. You may have several files which contain local BBS numbers. For example, you may have the file from your IBM PC Users Group and the file from your Compaq Users Group. You'd like to combine the lists to insure that you don't miss any phone numbers. That's easy - simply use the append feature of the DOS COPY command to create BBSTEST.INP: COPY IBMBBS.TXT+COMPAQ.TXT+MACBBS.LST BBSTEST.INP If you are unfamiliar with the + option of the DOS COPY command, please refer to your DOS manual. By the way, BBSTEST is smart enough not to repeat duplicate phone numbers. So, you can append 2, 5, or 500 lists together and BBSTEST will use duplicate phone numbers only once. We have not provided a BBSTEST.INP file with the distribution archive because every city in the US has different BBS phone numbers. (Actually, this archive may already have a BBSTEST.INP in it - if so, it is for your local area or the Atlanta area - check it out with your text editor.) Therefore, you may need to create your own BBSTEST.INP file. If you've got a text file with local BBS numbers, why not just copy that file into BBSTEST.INP? If you don't have such a text file, try copying your communication package phone number file into BBSTEST.INP. If all else fails, you can just create your own BBSTEST.INP file with a text editor and type in a bunch of 7 digit phone numbers. Remember, the format is unimportant since BBSTEST will scan any format and just pick out 7 digit phone numbers (the - symbol is okay if you use 587-3815.) The other input file to BBSTEST is called BBSTEST.SCR. (It stands for SCReen.) It tells BBSTEST which communication port to use, what baud rate to use, and what modem initialization string to use. Its major function is to provide a sort of "script" language for BBSTEST. This script language tells BBSTEST how to log onto BBS's and which lines you want it to record in history files. It also tells the program which lines indicate that BBSTEST should hang up the phone and proceed to the next call. It can also be used to indicate phone numbers or groups of phone numbers that should never be called using BBSTEST. We're not going to go into detail about BBSTEST.SCR in this documentation. That's because the best documentation for the file is contained WITHIN the file itself! It is always better to include documentation within a file itself whenever possible so that as you edit the file, you don't have to refer to this manual. BBSTEST.SCR is a text file which you can edit with your favorite text editor. We suggest that you simply PRINT the one we have provided, scan it over, and go from there. The one provided is 99% complete but some BBS's in your area may have their own custom prompts which you will probably want to include later. The BBSTEST.SCR which we have provided is certainly adequate to get you started. You will probably want to modify it later as you get more familiar with BBSTEST operations and the BBS's in your local area. You *WILL* want to modify the first few parameters in BBSTEST.SCR which set up the communication port, baud, and modem initialization string unless they already correspond to your system. You will also want to customize BBSTEST.SCR to put your own name, address, etc. in it. You can look at each line (most that need customization are marked with CUSTOMIZE) and change it to agree with the facts in your case. To start BBSTEST, all you do is type BBSTEST at the DOS prompt. The program will begin to run and is fairly self-explanatory. If you need a reminder of what the function keys do, just press the F1 key. Otherwise, you should be able to sit back and just watch. By the way, you'll note that BBSTEST builds a sorted list of phone numbers (ascending) by default. If you don't want your list sorted, just use the command line parameter NOSORT. Or, if you want it sorted in descending order, just use the command line parameter SORTD. For example, BBSTEST NOSORT or BBSTEST SORTD. You can also use the command line parameters DEBUG and MONITOR. If you use DEBUG, MONITOR is automatically assumed. DEBUG will cause very detailed information about prompts and responses to be kept in each !xxxxxxx file. MONITOR will cause slightly less detailed information to be kept in the file. You only use DEBUG and MONITOR when you have a problem with your prompts/responses that you can't figure out simply by looking at your BBSTEST.SCR file. RUNNING BBSTEST The first time you run BBSTEST, it will scan the BBSTEST.INP file for 7 digit phone numbers. It's okay if the numbers appear as either: xxxxxxx or xxx-xxxx. BBSTEST does a great job of figuring out all the BBS numbers - if you find a list that it can't handle (it skips some of the valid numbers) PLEASE get in touch with us so we can revise the program to handle those situations. After the list of phone numbers is created, BBSTEST will sort it into ascending order. It will then attempt to dial the numbers starting from the top of the list. Each time a number is dialed, BBSTEST writes out to disk its current status. This status is written to a file called BBSTEST.MEM. (It stands for MEMory.) This insures that even if power is lost, you won't lose the status of your current list. If you'd like to take a look at BBSTEST.MEM, you'll probably find it fairly easy to understand since it is a simple text file. BBSTEST will continue dialing numbers, recording the status of those numbers, signing onto BBS's when it finds them, and keeping history logs. Once the list of numbers has been cycled through, it will go back to the top and redial any numbers which were busy or had no answer. You'll normally let BBSTEST run for several hours while it goes through the list. But, if you decide you want to stop in the middle of the list, you can by pressing the F10 key. You can then come back in a few hours or even a few days and BBSTEST will start back up right where it left off. This keeps you from constantly redialing and reverifying numbers which you know are good. Okay, great. So what sort of output do you get? There are several kinds. The first is a report - you can see the report by pressing the F8 key. This will send a report to your screen as well as record it on disk in a file called BBSTEST.REP. (It stands for REPort.) This is simply a text file which you can print that gives the status of all your phone numbers. It has some nice summary statistics on the bottom as well. Whenever you exit BBSTEST by pressing the F10 key, the BBSTEST.REP file is updated to show the current status. Therefore, BBSTEST.REP will always have the latest information gathered by the program. Another sort of output is the BBSTEST.DAT file. (Uh huh - DATa.) This file contains summary information about each of the BBS's that was called. This file is always appended to by BBSTEST so it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. (Yes, you'll want to erase it periodically especially when you are going to reverify all numbers from scratch.) The information recorded in BBSTEST.DAT is controlled by your BBSTEST.SCR file and the |RECORD records. Again, refer to your BBSTEST.SCR file itself for more information about the |RECORD statement. The purpose of the BBSTEST.DAT file is to give you details (according to your specifications) about individual BBS's. This file is generally printed and used to "flesh out" the BBSTEST.REP report. Everybody does it differently - you may want to just combine the two files into one big file and distribute it. The choice is yours. BBSTEST also keeps individual files containing a complete transcript of an online session with a BBS. These files always begin with the ! (exclamation point) and are followed by the 7 digit phone number. For example, the file !5873815 would contain the complete session which was recorded for the BBS at 587-3815. The reason for the ! at the beginning of the filename is to allow you to say ERASE !*.* or COPY !*.* and know that you're getting all the individual log sessions. A handy command might be FOR %M IN (!*.*) DO TYPE %M ... that would show you each of the individual log session files. You'll also want to refer to the individual log session files when the information in BBSTEST.DAT is sketchy or incorrect. Some user groups may even distribute the !*.* files as examples of what you can expect when you log onto the BBS. One final kind of output which BBSTEST can make is called monitoring. It is created when you turn on the monitoring option using the F4 key. Output is sent to the !xxxxxxx file for easy reference. It is useful when you can't figure out why BBSTEST is responding to a BBS in a certain way. It contains various 'debugging' information about why BBSTEST is doing what it is doing. You can also use the command line parameters DEBUG and MONITOR to automatically enable monitoring when BBSTEST is started. FUNCTION KEYS The F keys will help you control BBSTEST. They are self-explanatory. Press the F1 key to get a list of what the various F keys do. Press the F2 key to remove the current phone number from the callout list (which sets the status to CANCEL - the number is not dialed again.) F3 will disconnect from the current session. F4 is used to turn on and off the monitoring options. F5 is used to make BBSTEST's output visible or non-visible. (For BBS's that don't echo your output or "blank it out" for security, you'll almost always want this key enabled.) The F6 key lets you restart the dialing sequence selecting either busy or no answer phones. Once that list has been cycled through, BBSTEST will start at the top of the list again and cycle through. The F6 key also lets you "reset" the list so that ALL numbers are gone through again for verification. In addition, you can tell BBSTEST what number to resume dialing at (either as #x of y total numbers or by keying the actual phone number). The F7 key can be used to disable BBSTEST's ability to type automatic responses. If you want to begin talking to the BBS yourself manually, you can either press any key (which automatically disables autotype) or press the F7 key. The F8 key will produce an updated BBSTEST.REP on both screen and disk. F9 will allow you to leave BBSTEST and return to DOS. Remember that the copy of BBSTEST is still active in memory. To get back to it, type EXIT at the DOS prompt. The F10 key will force BBSTEST to shutdown and return to DOS. FEATURES AND MISCELLANEOUS BBSTEST has alot of intelligent features. In general, it expects you to "trust" it. In other words, if it is cycling through the list and all of a sudden begins to skip phone numbers you think it should be dialing, trust it. For example, if a number comes up with no answer, it will try that number only once on the same day (twice the first time you bring up BBSTEST). After that, it skips the number. (If it has been no answer twice today, why should BBSTEST expect it to start answering now?) But, tomorrow, it will try again once. If you're attempting to verify lots of numbers, you'll really appreciate this feature. The same is true of VOICE numbers. A number can be assigned a voice status even though the modem did not return VOICE. This is normal. It would happen in the case where a BBS was called, RINGING was seen once and NO CARRIER came back more than 20 seconds later. Although no VOICE was actually heard, there certainly was no BBS so it makes sense to assign this a voice status. Another feature is that if there is no answer in 3 rings, BBSTEST will assume no answer. But, the next time it calls, it will let the phone ring 3 more times until it sees NO CARRIER. In some cases, it will let the phone ring until the time in the modems S7 register has elapsed. (For example, if the previous call gave a BUSY, then it will let the phone ring until S7 has elapsed because it is likely that there really is a BBS here.) Only BUSY numbers will be cycled through endlessly after the first two passes of BBSTEST. (Makes sense doesn't it?) Occasionally, you'll see BBSTEST appear to get "stuck" on a BBS when it doesn't know how to answer. You're probably sitting there watching going "argggg - it's gonna do this all night long!" Don't worry. BBSTEST is normally smart enough to figure out that he doesn't know what's going on and simply disconnect. In the event he can't figure that out, he'll stay connected a maximum of 8 minutes (5 minutes for 1200 baud and higher) and then simply hang-up. The worst that can happen is that BBSTEST gets in an endless loop with a BBS for 5-8 minutes before hanging up. In some cases, BBSTEST will absolutely amaze you. It appears to use artificial intelligence. For example, if a BBS comes up with: Hey there Bozo ... your name is what I'd like to know but then again, if you can't tell me what it is, I'll cut you off... ---> you'd probably think "no way" could BBSTEST understand what is being said. But, surprisingly, BBSTEST will respond with your name! It's fun to watch - even when BBSTEST gets messed up and responds with the wrong thing. Just for your information, BBSTEST decides how to respond as follows. It looks at the last input line and scans BBSTEST.SCR for the most likely responses to that line. It then backs up one line on the screen and figures the most likely responses for that line. It continues to do this, backing up for a total of 24 lines. Once it has built the "list" of most likely responses, it sends them one by one until the prompt changes. In some cases (like with the ENTER key, NS (non-stop), or "C"ontinue) it will repeat that same response over and over. You generally do not have to be concerned with how BBSTEST figures what it is going to do. But, if you are interested, using the DEBUG option will show you in detail the thought process BBSTEST went through to get its response list. Whenever BBSTEST detects a prompt that it knows it can't deal with, it records it at the bottom of the BBSTEST.SCR file. It sticks an * in front (so it is a comment) and records the phone number. This allows you to edit the BBSTEST.SCR file, go to the bottom, see some obvious prompts that you know how to allow for, uncomment them and add the appropriate response. This feature makes it much easier for you to enhance your BBSTEST.SCR script file without having to sit and watch all the sessions. The rate of speed which BBSTEST types at is determined by the baud rate it connected at. The lower the baud rate the slower BBSTEST types. Whenever the cursor is flashing fast, BBSTEST is considering responding to the BBS. When the cursor is off, BBSTEST realizes that the BBS is sending information an no response is required. When the cursor is blinking slowly, BBSTEST is in the process of sending a response. You will normally see this response in red on your screen before the BBS echoes it. The ENTER key is indicated by a red arrow. If you decide to add more phone numbers to your current list, you can simply create a new BBSTEST.INP file. The program always looks to see if BBSTEST.INP has changed (date/time stamp) since the last time it was read. If it has not, it continues on with the old list. If the file has changed, it will read it in and combine any new numbers with its current list. This allows you to keep an ongoing list and simply add new numbers by creating a new BBSTEST.INP file. Remember, even if some of the numbers are duplicated, BBSTEST will filter them out and add only the new numbers. If for some reason your list becomes "messed up" simply ERASE the file BBSTEST.MEM. That will force a whole new list to be built. This is like "starting over". If you're sitting there watching numbers be dialed and you want to cycle past a number, you can simply press a key after the number is dialed. This will force the modem to return NO CARRIER and you will move on to the next number. If you press the space bar, the same number that was just dialed will be dialed again. This is handy if you get an incoming call (you may be using your BBS line to make outgoing calls with BBSTEST) and you know there was no dial tone. Just press the space bar repeatedly until you hear dial tone and the number is actually dialed. Whenever BBSTEST is able to get connected but gets no response from the BBS, it will give it a special status. The next time it calls, it will force itself to 300 baud. Sometimes 300 baud BBS's are hard to get connected to and this is why BBSTEST does this. Also, any number which is given voice status will be redialed at 300 baud. Again, all of this is normal and should be considered a feature of BBSTEST as it tries to get connected with trouble BBS's. If the message "NO DIAL TONE" comes up, BBSTEST will continue trying to dial the number it is on until the NO DIAL TONE goes away. The "Call=xxxx" on the status line indicates the number of outgoing calls that have been attempted this session. The number is NOT carried forward from session to session. The status line also indicates the current time and the elapsed time that this session has been active. BBSTEST will record new "possible" BBS phone numbers that it finds in BBSTEST.DAT. It does a fairly good job of this although many of the numbers it records will be voice numbers. To verify, simply go to the !xxxxxxx file and see what the entire context was. Amazingly enough, BBSTEST located over 15 new phone numbers in the Atlanta area simply by scanning what other BBS's were telling it. By the way, a number which is already in the BBSTEST list or doesn't make sense (begins with a 0 or 1 or 999) will not be considered a new number and is therefore ignored. Whenever I find a new BBS number, I just use my text editor (I'm still using clunky old WordStar since it doesn't truncate long lines) and add it to the bottom of BBSTEST.INP. SUGGESTED USE I use BBSTEST once every few weeks to verify all the local numbers. If you've got a PC at work, it is easy to let BBSTEST run all weekend or all night. When you come in, you'll be able to see what has happened on the status line. Just press F10 to save everything and PRINT BBSTEST.REP. You can run BBSTEST again in a few days to try and pick up the numbers that were busy or no answer. Each time your Users group comes out with a new text list of phone numbers, simply copy it into BBSTEST.INP. If any new numbers are listed, they will be added automatically to BBSTEST's dialing list. This allows you to keep a perpetual report of BBS activity in your local area. If you want to start the list over again sometime just ERASE BBSTEST.MEM. The ongoing statistics are sometimes nice since you can see, for example, that out of 35 calls, 32 were BUSY, and 3 times you verified. This would show that the particular BBS is very busy. In addition, if the BBS goes down for a few weeks, the DATE/TIME LAST VERIFIED column will show the last date/time you were able to get logged on. If you run BBSTEST over a week it should give you an excellent idea of which BBS's are really no answer because they are down permanently. Of course, each time you run BBSTEST you increase your chances of finding BBS's which were just down temporarily. It is probably a good idea to give BBS's a full month of no answer before removing them from your lists. BBS's that you think are down permanently but keep showing up on your BBSTEST.INP lists can be filtered out by using the BBSTEST.SCR file (see its doco). In addition, BBS's which NEVER connect correctly can be filtered out in the same manner. If you're just trying to produce a quick list of BBS numbers for friends, you can simply distribute BBSTEST.REP directly to them. They could in turn use that file as a BBSTEST.INP file and using BBSTEST log onto all the boards in the area to get a quick feel for what they are like. FINALE BBSTEST has a sense of humor (just like the author who occasionally does standup comedy at a local nightclub!) Oftentimes it complains about the workload and says other cute things. In addition, it can't quite figure out what it's worth - you'll notice the contribution amount change each time you run it. Take it all in stride - we just believe that life without a few laughs is boring indeed. That's about it for the documentation. As you can tell, it was written in a "shoot from the hip" fashion. You may have other questions about BBSTEST which aren't answered here. You can call us at (404)587-3815 if you like, but keep in mind that is a business number. At this point, BBSTEST is a non-profit venture so we simply can't afford to devote a great deal of time to supporting it. If you think BBSTEST is neat and you want to see a commercial version, fully documented and with complete support, then let us know - particularly with your financial contributions. By the way, we have always applied 100% of contributions to commercial purchase price and we frequently let early contributors beta test and upgrade them for free. Have fun with BBSTEST and let us know what you think!