response 177 of 211:

May 29 21:03 UTC 1997

I take back what I said in #174.  It seems that from inside the firewall here
at work, I can't telnet to anything pop3.

response 179 of 211:

May 30 05:37 UTC 1997

A smaller percentage of users even try bbs now, than earlier?

response 181 of 211:

May 30 16:02 UTC 1997

I would not be surprised if a number of users run bbs once and find it
initially frustrating, and don't go back.

response 183 of 211:

May 30 20:22 UTC 1997

Well, obviously, I don't agree either! But I was speaking about you, atticus,
in #181. :)

response 185 of 211:

May 31 01:00 UTC 1997

On 'telnet' links from outside the States, it might be difficult to run 'bbs'
during the daytime. At least, it is the case with me. When I try 'bbs'
the connection gets closed :) So to access 'bbs', I have to stay up till 
11:30 in the night. I think that may be one of the reasons why people
(at least those like me) don't try 'bbs'. 

response 187 of 211:

May 31 07:08 UTC 1997

I don't think it is the idle zapper (I am assuming that the idle zapper
is the one which warns me sometimes that I am going to be logged out in
another 5 minutes :-)) The problem is something like this: when I run
'bbs', after the welcome banner, I get a message "Connection closed by
foreign host". I have a narrow dial-up link towards the router; the link is
shared by many. Can this be a reason? This usually happens only in case of
'bbs'. Also, this does not happen when the traffic is low -- in the night,
or on Sundays. I don't think that this is a problem with Grex; most probably
something to do with my link.

response 189 of 211:

May 31 14:57 UTC 1997

re #187: I used 'backtalk' for the first time today. I think that will
solve my 'bbs' woes since there is no question of a closed connection
here. If we are
going to attract people to conferences, I feel 'backtalk' should be
given more 
publicity.

BTW, is it possible to run a shell command (on Grex) while I am in
'backtalk'?

response 191 of 211:

Jun 1 04:08 UTC 1997

Well, assuming your computer will run your web browser and a telnet client
at the same time, you could have a shell open and be in backtalk.  The problem
with that is that then that uses up a pty that could be used by somebody else.

It sounds like you are effectively duplicating Grex's Internet connection on
your end.  Grex is also on a 28.8 modem and pushing way more load through it
than a 28.8 should really be able to handle.  Having connections like that
on both ends must create some pretty impressive lag.  What telnet client are
you using?  On the reare occasions when I use a Macintosh, I sometimes find
that Grex's netlag is enough to make NCSA Telnet for the Mac time out and
close the connection.

response 193 of 211:

Jun 1 17:20 UTC 1997

Most people in bbs are either old users who've been bbsing for a long time
or old users (like me) who started more recently.  A huge majority of grex
social traffic runs in party.

response 195 of 211:

Jun 2 18:44 UTC 1997

I think Valerie must have misunderstood your question, atticus. You 
certainly can have a shell open on Grex in a telnet session while also 
using backtalk over the web. 

I agree with STeve that if you are going to conference via backtalk it 
is courteous not to tie up a pty, unless you are actively using it as 
well.

I have even run picospan and backtalk at the same time, but I warn you 
not to do this in the same conference, because picospan caches its copy 
of the participation file and Backtalk does not. Your participation file 
would be at risk.

I can think of nothing that would cause the telnet connection to be 
broken by starting up bbs. That's a new one on me. Does this happen 
every time, or only when it is slow?

response 197 of 211:

Jun 3 00:59 UTC 1997

Valerie did understand my problem -- what I wanted to know was whether
I could run some shell or shell-like thing *from my backtalk session*.
For example, 'finger' is already there as a link from the user name
when using backtalk. Currently I am using the two-session solution
when I want to 'tel' people while I am using the bbs.

I am afraid I've already tried out running picospan and backtalk at
the same time. I guess I was lucky since nothing seems to have 
happened to my participation file.

Regarding broken telnets, it happens only when the traffic is high.
Is there any chance that if the traffic is high, the telnet client
will start losing packets sent from the daemon and after a while
time out and exit? We have to onsider that when 'bbs' is started
a lot of characters are suddenly pumped on to the screen as against 
a non-bbs session where I will be mostly using 'party' or 'tel'.