Koos z'n Doos
From BBS Wiki
| Koos z'n Doos (1991-1999) |
| Location: Nieuwegein, the Netherlands |
| Sysop: Koos van den Hout |
| Software: Maximus |
The history of BBS Koos z'n Doos in Dutch can be found at Geschiedenis BBS Koos z'n Doos and screenshots can be found at BBS Koos z'n Doos schermen.
[edit] First experiment
November 1990 I did the first experiment running a BBS: in a week my parents were on holiday I ran the BBS a few evenings. I put up a sign at school. One fellow student (I never knew who) wrote "Koos z'n Doos" on that sign. That name stuck.
[edit] My own phone line
Somewhere in 1991 I got a phone line for the BBS on which it could run 24 hours per day.
[edit] CoSysop Lennart Herlaar
Somewhere in the first few years Lennart became an active user on the BBS and became CoSysop. On more than one occasion he visited my parents when I was away to reset the BBS computers.
[edit] Internet e-mail and usenet access
In 1992 I joined the hacktic UUCP network with real Internet e-mail access. After some failed tests with uucp under Minix I configured Waffle under MS-DOS which was also available as 'door' program so users of the BBS could use e-mail and usenet.
[edit] A cd-rom drive
Walnut creek cd-rom saw a market in making collections from Internet ftp archives available on cd-rom. I bought a secondhand cd-rom drive and integrated it into the BBS so suddenly lots of extra download was available.
[edit] Modem upgrade: 14k4
19 August 1992 I got a Supra 14k4 modem. In a 'Sysop deal' I was able to order this directly in the US.
[edit] Networking BBS computers
In November 1992 I bought 2 network cards. Clone versions of the WD8003 8-bit network card. Ethernet networking finally became somewhat affordable for home users. December 1992 I networked 2 computers together for the BBS. One ran the server (Netware lite) and one the client. I was able to access the BBS, read messages and do everything while the BBS was still available to callers.
[edit] Echomail networks
Together with other students I started our own echomail network aimed at exchanging information for students.
[edit] More diskspace
The BBS could always use more disk-space. In February 1993 bought a 245 megabyte harddrive: it was a special offer at a computer fair. But since they ran out of stock already I had to go buy it at a remote warehouse in the north of Utrecht. This disk ran in the BBS server continually for years. The first time I tried to use it afterwards it was completely dead.
[edit] Second phone line
In October 1993 a second line was opened for the BBS. The old 2400 baud modem ran on that line. For this line there was a simple PC-XT with just a floppy drive, modem and a monitor. Everything ran via the network.
[edit] An even faster modem
In July 1994 I bought an 28k8 modem, the new standard, also as a Supra 'sysop deal'. The 14k4 modem moved to the second line.
[edit] A new BBS server on Linux
In the mean time I learned about linux and samba file sharing. The new BBS server was a 486 dx/2 66 which ran Linux. The clients ran the DOS version of the lan manager client which was quite hard to find at the microsoft ftp site. The new BBS server had a harddisk of a stunning 4 gigabyte. And: it did not hang like MS-DOS+netware lite did.
[edit] Moving to a new place
In January 1997 I moved to Utrecht. The BBS moved along and got new phone numbers.
[edit] OS/2
For a while I ran the BBS under OS/2 warp 4. Most of the software (Binkley, Maximus) had OS/2 versions.
[edit] The End
In January 1999 I announced the end of the BBS to the left-over users. The main reasons were that the usage of the BBS had dropped steeply (mainly due to Internet) and I had a girlfriend at the time leaving me with little time for maintaining the BBS.
