FBB (Packet BBS)
FBB is a Packet Radio[1] BBS. This page has a bit of information about it.
FBB Administrators / Sysops
For people that maintain FBB.
Documentation
The main place for documentation is the file formats[2] page under the documentation section of f6fbb.org[3]. What they call `init.srv` is called `/etc/ax25/fbb.conf` on my system and has a more friendly but different format. Everything else is pretty much as documented.
2: http://www.f6fbb.org/fbbdoc/docform.htm
3: http://www.f6fbb.org/fbbdoc/doc.htm
Initial Tips
The first time you run fbb, it creates the config files. This is rather different than regular Unix tradition and came as a surprise to me.
You can log into it locally with `/usr/sbin/xfbbC -r -c -i YOURCALL` though this logs you in with sysop privileges.
New Features
Many new features in FBB aren't mentioned in the regular documentation. These include SMTP, NNTP, and POP interfaces, plus JNOS-style @areas in themes.sys. And "new" here means, roughly, "new since 1999". Some of them are documented fairly well in the `CHANGES` file.
POP, NNTP, and SMTP
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FBB's POP server provides a nice way for people to read P messages directed to them.
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FBB's NNTP server provides a nice way for people to read bulletins and post. Each `themes.sys` theme is presented as a newsgroup.
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SMTP provides a way for people to send P messages.
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None of its gateways provide a way to transmit or read traffic.
Here are some tips:
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Set your From line to `CALL@BBS.HIER` (that is, your full hierarchical address)
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The Newsgroups line for bulletins posted should be set to CALL@DEST -- for instance, LINUX@WW. Note that this will be different than the Newsgroups line for incoming bulletins, which will be set according to THEMES.SYS.
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The NNTP server is buggy. See the tips at Modern Clients With FBB
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POP requires authentication; set a password with EU. You may also have to set flags like modem -- not sure on that. NNTP requires authentication to post. SMTP does not support authentication at all.
Homepage and Releases
The FBB homepage is http://www.f6fbb.org/[4]. Old releases and some documentation is available there. However, newer versions are not appearing there. The newest version as of Dec 2010 is 7.04r13, which is available at http://f6bvp.free.fr/logiciels/BBS-f6fbb/xd704r13-src.tar.bz2[5]. Other releases can probably be expected to appear at http://f6bvp.free.fr/logiciels/BBS-f6fbb[6].
5: http://f6bvp.free.fr/logiciels/BBS-f6fbb/xd704r13-src.tar.bz2
6: http://f6bvp.free.fr/logiciels/BBS-f6fbb
Held Bulletins and First Line Issues
The default `reject.sys` will hold pretty much all bulletins. Sometimes this also causes bulletins to get a corrupted first line. I suggest starting with an empty `reject.sys`.
Misc notes
These should be organized better.
From f6bvp, 12/19/2010:
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Links to this note
- Modern Clients With FBB[7]
Packet BBSs like FBB (Packet BBS)[8] work great for what they're intended to do: provide access
to messaging within a low-bandwidth environment. They, however, don't do
a good job of things such as tracking what bulletins you've already
read.
- Packet Radio[9]
Packet radio, also known as AX.25, is a specific type of
Digital Amateur Radio[10].
Packet radio works somewhat like the Internet in that it splits
communications into discrete packets, performs error checking on these
packets, automatically requests retransmision of packets that arrived
with errors, and thus provides a reliable and error-free communication
channel.
More on www.complete.org
(c) 2022-2024 John Goerzen