Whats A BBS?
Before there was anything called "The Internet" there were BBS's. BBS'ing
was born from a very basic concept. Someone wanted to connect two computers
together to exchange information. So once they figured out how to do that,
someone somewhere along the line figured out that they could run such a
"BBS" on a normal telephone line with a modem, and people could call in and
do stuff. So people started setting up these systems for FREE for people to
call. Some people collect stamps, others run a BBS. It's just a hobby. So
you don't have to be a computer nerd, have a degree in computer science,
or run a company to run a BBS. Anyone can do it. All it takes is brainpower
enough to figure out how to setup the software you are using for your BBS.
The whole main concept of BBS'ing is that average individuals ran (and still
run) such systems for FREE, and as a hobby. At one point in time there were
over a THOUSAND dialup BBS's in any one city. There were millions of BBS's
at the time in the world. I'd say theres only about a thousand dialup BBS's
left in the US compared to what there was. Most BBS's went to the Internet,
and are available via a Telnet Client, such as MTel or CRT. BBS's provide
different things depending on the theme of the BBS. Some BBS's provide a
bit of everything. Some BBS's are just chat boards made primarily for chatting.
Some boards are mainly files, and others are loaded with online games to play.
Some BBS's do all of the above. Anyone can run a BBS, and we encourage it.
If you are blessed enough to have a cable modem or a DSL connection of
some sort, then if you choose to run a BBS, you could have one dialup phone
line for people in your area, and at least a good 5 telnet lines for people
to come in off the net. If you are connected 24/7 to the Internet on a high
speed bandwidth, you can provide things on your BBS such as telnet in/out,
IRC Chat, FTP, Newsgroups, E-mail, and more! There are even text based
web browsers for BBS's, and lots of other things. Right now in the larger
cities, there are prolly only about 5 or 10 dialup BBS's left. Aside from
being dialup, most of those are trying to get Internet connections as well,
as to increase activity. There arn't millions of BBS's like there used to
be, there there are still hundreds of thousands left out there. Dialup and
Telnetable off the Internet. So, if you have never heard of a BBS, and are
not really knowlegable about the BBS Scene, it might just be something you
need to check out.
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