                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-1


	 ͻ
          CHAPTER EIGHT     OPTIMIZING VBBS                              
	 ͼ

		Running a BBS -- and VBBS is no exception here -- is a
	 major source of hard-drive wear and tear.  This is not to put
	 down any BBS software; it's just the nature of the beast.  There
	 are several steps you can take to optimize VBBS so as to minimize
	 hard-drive abuse.

	 "Defragging" Your Hard Drive
	 

		One piece of maintenance you should run periodically is a
	 program designed to de-fragment files on your hard drive.  Daily
	 maintenance erases the oldest messages on your hard drive, lea-
	 ving "gaps" where those messages used to be.  After several days
	 of this, a map of your hard drive utilization can look like some-
	 one took a shotgun to it -- empty sectors/clusters scattered all
	 through your data.
		"Defragging" your hard drive puts your data into contigu-
	 ous (adjacent) sectors/clusters, thereby reducing the amount of
	 time it takes the read/write heads to access a particular piece
	 of information.  Utilities such as Norton's SPEEDISK accomplish
	 this quite well; be prepared, though, to spend several minutes
	 watching the process when you run it the first time.

	 --> IMPORTANT NOTE:  Just to be on the safe side, you SHOULD NOT
			      run a disk defragmentation program from
			      within VBBS or from WFC; always EXIT the
			      BBS prior to running the program.

	 Using a RAMdrive
	 

		Another means of optimization is to place the most fre-
	 quently accessed files -- menus and such -- into a RAMdrive
	 (virtual disk).  By loading the most frequently accessed files
	 into RAM, many systems will realize system speedup ranging from
	 modest to substantial.
		VBBS textfiles and menus within the \TXT directory pro-
	 bably benefit most from being placed in a RAMdrive; these would
	 be the .MNU, .ANS/.ASC, and .TXT files.  Because they are acces-
	 sed often, having them in RAM can substantially decrease hard-
	 drive access.  Another group of files suitable for placing in a
	 RAMdrive are your script files -- the .V, .COD and .LIT files.
	 This speeds the process of loading the scripts, since no disk
	 access is performed.
		To install a RAMdrive, include the following in your
	 CONFIG.SYS file:

		DEVICE=RAMDRIVE.SYS 80 /E

	 This command line creates an 80-kilobyte RAMdrive; the "/E"
	 switch tells DOS to place the RAMdrive in EXTENDED memory.

                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-2


	 In addition, the default limit on the number of files that can
	 be placed in a RAMdrive (as would be the case in the above ex-
	 ample) is 64; if you want to place more files than that in the
	 RAMdrive, you need a command line similar to this:

		DEVICE=RAMDRIVE.SYS 128 128 /E

	 The above command line would create a 128K RAMdrive with a maxi-
	 mum of 128 files in extended memory.  For more information,
	 please consult your DOS manual or reference book.
		To make the best use of a RAMdrive, you need to be run-
	 ning a 286 or 386 computer with at least 1 Mb of RAM and the
	 DOS device HIMEM.SYS (an extended memory manager) loaded.  If
	 you're running a 386, you might consider QEMM386 as your exten-
	 ded memory manager.

	 --> IMPORTANT NOTE:  It is recommended that you do NOT assign
			      your VBBS \TEMP directory to a RAMdrive.
	 

	 ͻ
	  SECURITY                                                       
	 ͼ

		VBBS provides a high level of security.  One of the most
	 significant security features of VBBS is that it will not allow a
	 remote user to drop to DOS through internal functions.  If you
	 would like to enable a remote drop-to-DOS capability, you will
	 need to install DOORWAY or DoorMaster (both shareware programs)
	 as a door from VBBS.  This is generally a much safer method, and
	 in the case of using DOORWAY, provedes a much more powerful re-
	 mote interface than a built-in remote DOS access routine could.
	 By using a program such as this, you may also run VBBS utilities
	 such as VCONFIG remotely.
		In VCONFIG, you have the option of allowing remote sysops.
	 Allowing a remote sysop will let a user with a SL of 255 who 
	 knows the system password to access the sysop functions of VBBS.
	 Pressing [S] from the sysop menu will show all users on the sys-
	 tem who have security level access.  Although a user may view
	 an archive, there is no function that will allow him or her to
	 extract an archive.  As with all BBS software, it is recommended
	 that you register DSZ (ZModem) for maximum security.
		VBBS uses a \SYSOP directory which stores all files up-
	 loaded to the system and files sent that were attached to E-mail.
	 Here, the sysop has the ability to view, scan and move the files
	 and file listings to the appropriate directory after review.  Be
	 sure to leave the maximum settings for this database at 0 (zero)
	 and make sure that DSZ.COM is in your path (a common mistake
	 when setting up for the first time).
		VBBS features a special exclusion file, EXCLUDE.TXT, in
	 which you define whole filenames, partial filenames, or DOS
	 extensions that you wish VBBS to NOT allow upload of (such as
	 .GIF).  It is highly recommended that you do NOT delete any of
	 the lines in the default EXCLUDE.TXT provided.

                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- 8-3


                VBBS allows you to automatically check for archive
         integrity and viruses. See Automatic New Upload Verification
         in the VCONFIG portion of this document for details.


	 ͻ
	  MAINTENANCE                                                    
	 ͼ

		Much of your system's maintenance is performed automatic-
	 ally by VBBS each day.  Database "packing" occurs as the primary
	 event where your system's databases are compacted and old mes-
	 sages are removed according to the limits you set in VCONFIG.
	 System logs are then compacted as well and the daily log cycles
	 into another log file that shows a log of the last five days of
	 system activity.  Many sysops run other maintenance as well.  
	 Backing up certain important system files each day is common.
		There are several VBBS-specific utilities as well as
	 several general-use utilities that can be valuable for the VBBS
	 sysop.  Some of these utilities, such as those by Neil J. Mar-
	 shall and other VBBS freeware utility programmers, perform such
	 tasks as searching out duplicate posts and files, removing users
	 who have not called for a specific time, printing reports, etc.
		There are several shareware utilities available that will
	 allow you to automate periodic batchfile events so that they run
	 on a daily or weekly (or other interval) basis.

