GN9209-3.TXT Issue #22 GIF News Page Three - September/October 1992 Hsiao & Hunter, Inc. Editor's note: Advertisements are between the equal bars and the \/ /\ symbols. ===================================================================== \/ From Sunny Spain, comes: \ / \__/ ooo oooo ooo ooo ooo ooooo ooooo ooo / \ O O O O O O O O O O O O O ---| |--- O O OoooO Ooo O O Oooo Oooo Oooo \__/ O O O O O O O O O O O O O / \ oOo Oooo O O O O OoO oOooo oOooo OoooO / \ Open 24 hours/day, running on a v.32bis modem. Sysop: Emilio Castellano (2:341/1.0) Co-Sysop: Jose Pedro Moro (2:341/1.1) CIS: 100021,176 Internet: 100021.176@compuserve.com BBS dedicated to OS/2, games and programming. LucasFilm Games support BBS, Official ASP approved BBS, Home of the Spanish OS/2 echo area, running on Binkley and Maximus/2 under OS/2 2.0. 300 Megs online. Membership fee of 3000 pesetas ($30 US) gives unlimited access. El numero del telefono: 34-1-519-4645 Saludos y bienvenidos! /\ ===================================================================== _________________________________________ > < > More on the Telecommunications Survey < >_______________________________________< Hardware Other modems owned by survey respondents include: ATI, Anchor, Quicktel, Packard Bell, Digicom Scout, ZyXel, Global Village Power Port, Zoom, Twincomm, GVC Super Modem, Everex, and Microcom. Among the Australian respondents, Netcomm was the most popular. USRobotics modems are not approved by the Australian goverment, therefore it is illegal to use a HST or Dual Standard there. Some indicated that the Telebit PEP protocol works very well on noisy lines. Also, Telebit is preferred in the Unix world, just as HSTs are in the BBS world. However, with v32bis standardized, it is quickly becoming the popular choice among users. Since Supra and USRobotics garnished the most amount of votes, lets see what people had to say about these modems: US Robotics: "...very good quality, performance, and reliability." "...excellent. Well documented, well engineered, no surprises. Overpriced for an individual user who does not have a need for the HST protocol, but an excellent choice for a BBS modem." "I prefer the Dual Standard unit, as that gives me the required option to communicate with as many different types of modems available." "I have a USR DUAL 16.8, and its GREAT!" "I am using a USR Courier HST Dual Standard 14.4kbps and have considerably good success with this modem, with the exception of trying to connect with a SUPRA and some Telebits." "Alot of the other 14.4k modems are still buggy. USR's product has been stable for over 1.5 years." Supra: "Good modem, cheap, fast, but a bit buggy. Much performance for the price, though." "Good. Inexpensive, reliable, and seems to get along well with most types of modems..." "...all advanced features, including FAX, in one package. Low price." Software 1. Amiga In the software category, different users have their own preference for terminal programs. In the Amiga area, JRComm is preferred the most. Some general comments about it: "Easy to use, lots of features, stable." "I like its full Zmodem support, excellent interface." "...it lacks a script lanuage." "...better serial handshaking..." Another frequently mentioned program is VLT 5.517 - comments include: "...it behaves very well under AmigaOS 2.04 and looks great on a 40x80 character screen. It also has a nice 'phone book' utility." "Extensive ARexx support, completely configurable and programmable." "...Clipboard support...quick to use...good VT100 emulation... extensive scripting/programming capabilities." "Wish it had VT200 or better emulation." "Very versatile but a bit difficult to set up." 2. IBM and Compatibles Qmodem and Telix tied for first. Among the comments received are: Qmodem: "...wish it had mouse support, or was available in a Windows version. Wish it had MNP emulation in it." "...it's the most versatile..." "Key combinations makes access to functions very fast." Telix: "Very satisfied...encountered only two bugs, and these are more annoyances than critical errors." "Robust, has a decent zmodem. Poor terminal emulations on VT-102... ANSI is not complete..." "...reliable and easy to use. Also the scripting language is awesome..." "...I don't like Telix 3.15 because I can't get 'vi' (unix editor) to work properly...I get really annoyed when Telix can't do non-destructive backspace." "I like it's speed and reliability. I dislike the fact that it isn't a Windows application..." "...easy to use while providing all of the power/configurability I need to work with a wide variety of modems and host systems...fairly efficient. Unfortunately, its VT-102 emulation isn't perfect and its Kermit protocol implementation is absolutely minimal." 3. Macintosh ZTerm 0.9 earned the most amount of votes for the most used Mac term program. Here is what people had to say about it: "It's fast and very useful...it doesn't download in the background very well." "...it is the best comm program for the mac...only problem is flakey vt100 emulation." BBS Software There are alot of different types of BBS software for the different platforms of computers out there. The most popular among Amiga users is DLG Pro. Here is what some people had to say about it: "It is fast, friendly, has many nice features like compressing mail in the background, Usenet support, a nice full-screen editor..." One respondent who runs a pre-release of DLG Pro BBS/OS says this: "Total modularity. It is called a BBS/Operating System because that's what it is. In fact, any DOS command can be made part of the BBS... Multi-line. Unlimited number of lines can be added, as far as the software is concerned...it is so darned rich in commands, most of my users are at first daunted by the sheer amount of options presented to them." For PC-based bulletin boards, PC Board and Waffle were popular mentions. PC Board: "I like it because I can do things quickly. Without having to go thru a million menus, I can quickly read the new messages and see the new files." "...use PC Board, Wildcat, Binkley Term...they're all the same to me." Waffle: "...ease of use...dislike setup." "Waffle on the IBM PC is powerful but hard to use." "It is not the easiest to learn, but once you know what you are doing, you can quickly access the files and messages that you want to download and read." For the Macintosh systems, Mac users had this to say about the various different packages: "TeleFinder and FirstClass BBS are both excellent examples of how BBSs are destined to become graphical in nature." "Don't like any of the PC-based boards as they are implemented differently...whatever happened to consistency?" ===================================================================== \/ Quandra BBS (602)527-8895 v.32bis compatibility All files are FREQable Files, online games, messages + International E-mail via FidoNet New shareware! Cedar Island Link v2.15 Current version of GIF News FREQable under magicname GIFNEWS Sysop: Scott (Scooter) Fell Fidonet: 1:304/7 /\ =====================================================================