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That's interesting about the insane number of nodes on a single box. I didn't know MajorBBS could do that. I suspect though that it wasn't handling full bandwid

That's interesting about the insane number of nodes on a single box. I didn't know MajorBBS could do that. I suspect though that it wasn't handling full bandwidth file transfers for all 50+ connections simultaneously?

evanelias 5y ago
Good question! I honestly have no idea. The handful of MajorBBS boards in my area were pay-for-access systems focused on multi-player gaming and chat, since those were the main features where a 50-line community BBS has a huge advantage over all the free hobbyist 1-2 line boards. The message base and file download sections of MajorBBS systems in my area were pretty sparse. Actually, your point likely explains why the BBS in the OP was set up the way it was: Software Creations BBS was a major shareware file distribution hub, so a much greater focus on file transfers.
- justinlloyd 5y ago
  So here was an interesting anecdote from years past. During the heyday of CompuServe and its ilk, living in the UK where long distance calls, e.g. greater than about 7 miles radius, was prohibitively expensive, and with the introduction of a flat rate single payment of around 20p for a local call sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, no matter how long the call lasted, the trick to doing downloads was to call into a local compuserve number at 2400bps, which was charged at a lower rate than their faster lines, put all of the stuff you wanted into your "download basket", e.g. files, news, email, etc. Then hang up, and place a long distance call to one of their 9600bps lines to make the download as quickly as you could. There was also the trick of making every call a local call (when British Telecom still used the old crossbar systems rather than the newer switching networks) if you knew how to dial all the single digit area codes between you and the number you wanted to call. Pentyrch (the town) to Penarth (the town) was not a local call, at a distance of about 20 miles, but you could dial 5 for Radyr (about 2 miles), pause, then dial 3 for Fairwater (another 2+ miles), and so forth, until you reached the local exchange in Penarth, and then could send the actual phone number. Unfortunately each area, to dial another exchange, had different numbers, so Pentyrch to Radyr might be 5, but Taffs Well to Radyr might be 9. People on BBS's would exchange area code lists and exchange routing lists like they were precious commodities. Dialing through to London over a great distance using single digit exchange codes wasn't possible though, because London had a more modern telephone system, and you were limited by the number of digits you could send before the first exchange system would timeout and drop your call.

evanelias 5y ago

Good question! I honestly have no idea. The handful of MajorBBS boards in my area were pay-for-access systems focused on multi-player gaming and chat, since those were the main features where a 50-line community BBS has a huge advantage over all the free hobbyist 1-2 line boards. The message base and file download sections of MajorBBS systems in my area were pretty sparse. Actually, your point likely explains why the BBS in the OP was set up the way it was: Software Creations BBS was a major shareware file distribution hub, so a much greater focus on file transfers.

justinlloyd 5y ago
So here was an interesting anecdote from years past. During the heyday of CompuServe and its ilk, living in the UK where long distance calls, e.g. greater than about 7 miles radius, was prohibitively expensive, and with the introduction of a flat rate single payment of around 20p for a local call sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, no matter how long the call lasted, the trick to doing downloads was to call into a local compuserve number at 2400bps, which was charged at a lower rate than their faster lines, put all of the stuff you wanted into your "download basket", e.g. files, news, email, etc. Then hang up, and place a long distance call to one of their 9600bps lines to make the download as quickly as you could. There was also the trick of making every call a local call (when British Telecom still used the old crossbar systems rather than the newer switching networks) if you knew how to dial all the single digit area codes between you and the number you wanted to call. Pentyrch (the town) to Penarth (the town) was not a local call, at a distance of about 20 miles, but you could dial 5 for Radyr (about 2 miles), pause, then dial 3 for Fairwater (another 2+ miles), and so forth, until you reached the local exchange in Penarth, and then could send the actual phone number. Unfortunately each area, to dial another exchange, had different numbers, so Pentyrch to Radyr might be 5, but Taffs Well to Radyr might be 9. People on BBS's would exchange area code lists and exchange routing lists like they were precious commodities. Dialing through to London over a great distance using single digit exchange codes wasn't possible though, because London had a more modern telephone system, and you were limited by the number of digits you could send before the first exchange system would timeout and drop your call.