        ͻ
                                                    Ŀ
              K E E P I N G   I N   T O U C H        
                      
            SPITFIRE Monthly Support Newsletter      
              for registered SPITFIRE Sysops!        
                      September 1995                 
           Compliments of BUFFALO CREEK SOFTWARE     
             Buffalo Creek's BBS * 515-225-8496      
                   28800 through 1200 Bps            
                          2 Nodes                    
                                                     
        ͼ 
          
                    Edited by Jacque Shipley
       The Mother Board BBS - (515) 986-3464 - 57600 Bps
                Sysop Of The Month by Walt Crede
      Roam This Fertile Land -  (515) 288-8755 - 14400 Bps
         Newly Registered SPITFIRE BBS List by Ann Woltz
                  Other Contributions As Noted


ͻ
    Notes from the author of SPITFIRE!   Ŀ
ͼ 
  


SPITFIRE/Modem Configuration
----------------------------

   The most frequent message which I receive states something like "I
just bought a new modem and I can't get it to work with SPITFIRE".
In an attempt to reduce the amount of such messages, listed below is
information which will work with most 14400 or 28800 modems.

14400 MODEM:
Baud Rate: 19200    (57600 if you are using a 16550 UART chip)

28800 MODEM:
Baud Rate: 38400    (115200 if you are using a 16550 UART chip)

Pre-Init String: ATZ^M

1st Choice
Init String: AT&F1S0=0V1&C1&D2Q0E0H0M0W2S95=3S2=1X4^M

2nd Choice
Init String: AT&FS0=0V1&C1&D2Q0E0H0M0W2S95=3S2=1X4^M

3rd Choice
Init String: ATS0=0V1&C1&D2Q0E0H0M0W2S95=3S2=1X4^M

Off Hook String: ATM0H1
Hardware Data Flow Control: Yes

   Until next time, smile on your brother, everybody get together
and try to love one another.


                            Best wishes...
                            Mike Woltz

                            [ James 4:7-8 ]ͻ
                             Resist the devil, and he will flee from Ŀ
                             you.  Draw near to God, and he will      
                             draw to you.                             
                            ͼ 
                              

͸
 TRIBUTE TO A FELLOW SPITFIRE SYSOP 
;
 
   Many of you may remember the article submitted by Mark Pospisil
which appeared in the August 1995 "Keeping In Touch" newsletter.
'Popsicle' provided detailed steps Sysops could follow in order to set
SPITFIRE up to run in the new Windows 95 environment.  Going a step
further, Popsicle offered an open invitation for Sysops to contact him,
either on his BBS or by his voice line, if additional help was needed.

   As a follow-up to last month's article, I asked permission of Nadine
Walsh to extract the following message from SFNET's message base to
include in this months newsletter.

   "I've read several messages throughout SFNET thanking people for all
the help that they have provided to an individual.  So, I would like to
share with all of you, someone who is very near and dear to me.  I
started my BBS almost two years ago.  Of course, like many others, I
was using different software than SF.  Then I just happen to log on to
a board called "Popsicle's Place", and my life changed forever.  I was
hooked from then on.  Much to my surprise, I had found someone who not
only said they would help, but did!  In today's society, all too often
people offer their help with the intent of never really backing up
their statement.  Popsicle has surpassed his offer of helping me get
started and has become a very important part of my life.  No matter
what I call him on, he's always got the time to help.  I'm sure he
thinks every time I log on...oh no, what now! <BG> But through it all,
he's been a life saver to me and my board.  I could never repay him for
all of his help and guidance, but I can sure let all of you know what a
wonderful person he is.  For those of you who have never had the
opportunity to talk with him or to of had his assistance, you are
missing out on someone very special!  So to you Popsicle....I thank you
from the bottom of my heart, and should the need ever arrise (although
I don't think there is anything that I could give you guidance
on..hehehe) I'll be there for you!!"

   Thanks for your willingness to share this, Nadine.  But, most of
all, thanks to Popsicle for exemplifying the 'top-shelf' spirit we so
frequently make reference to being attributed to SPITFIRE Sysops!


͸
 SPITFIRE BOARD-OF-THE-MONTH 
;

                                 Jon Goering
                                The Bureau BBS
                                 515-342-3671
                               SFNET: A0515004

   I couldn't believe it! I got selected for SPITFIRE BOTM.  What did I
do to receive this recognition I asked myself.  Coming from Mike Woltz,
I consider it an honor.

   I started with computers in the early 80's.  A co-worker had a CoCO
64K and I was amazed with what it could do.  He had an account with an
electronics warehouse and he could get me a Timex-Sinclair for $50.  So
I started out with a 2K ram machine.  Has technology changed now!  I
got tired of that piece of plastic in a hurry and got a CoCo 64k of my
own.  Now I was playing with power!  I got all kinds of games, all on
cassette tape.  What fun, what graphics!   I soon got a 300 baud modem
and got hooked.  I logged on to Compuserve and had the world at my
fingertips, not to mention LD phone bills, since my local access # was
LD from me.  Sometime later I got a disk drive for my monster machine.
Wow that made swapping games etc so much faster.  I soon found out that
there were BBS's in Des Moines I could call, even a couple of dedicated
CoCo boards.  I was then driving 40+ miles to attend CoCo meetings.
After receiving an Amateur "Ham" Radio License ( N0HJQ ) I had this
machine sending morse code and tracking ham satellites.  For years I
used this puter to keep track of contacts on the radio, thousands of
them!

   Many years later I got a 286-12Mhz with a 40 Meg drive.  What power,
what graphics!  Sorting out all those contacts was now being done in
seconds instead of minutes, and now I didn't have to swap endless
diskettes.  I got a 2400 baud modem at the same time as well.  Now I
really had speed with the computer and modem.....well at least compared
to the Timex & CoCo!

   Over 3 years ago I was talking to ham friend of mine in Des Moines
over the ham radio and he asked me if I still called BBS's...."well I
used to", I said.  Well call my BBS I just setup.  Hmmm OK, I called
and I was instantly hooked, this was the easiest BBS I have ever called
to find my way around on.  And it had everything; messages, online
games, files, you name it.  Naturally,I had to ask where did you get
this software and how much did it cost?  He said it was $89 but it was
shareware and I could test it out and he just so happened to have a
copy I could try out.  And tried out I did, I had this puppy running
"bare bones" in no time.  I let a few people I knew locally about it
and soon the Bureau BBS was born.  I told the wife that I needed a
dedicated phone line for this new hobby.  She was reluctant at first,
but soon gave in after my complaining of the phone getting picked up
when I and the friends were on testing my new hobby.  It was not long
before I had those big LD phone bills again.  Calling BCS and the
Mother Board to get these add-on programs sure gave the 2400 baud modem
a workout!  With the help of Jacque Shipley, I was on my way to making
Ansi screens, tweaking batch files, etc.  One day while chatting with
Jacque, she told me about CircuitNet.  This would make a great add-on I
thought, and I became her first node in 515-land.  On down the road I
ended up with SFNET, Fidonet, and recently Internet-Email for myself
and my callers.  One day I woke up with the computer not wanting to do
anything it was suppose too.  After sending it to the doctor, it was
diagnosed with a leaky battery, that had shorted out the ole puter.
The doctor said it was dead, but he could take some of the body parts
and couple it with a new heart "386DX-40Mhz" and it would be better
than new.  I said perform the operation.  A week later after the
operation the HD starting acting up, so to the Best Buy hospital I went
to get a 540 Meg drive.  Now I could get Front Door added, stick in
more of those door games, add more message areas.  Now me needs a Gig
drive!

   So from a Timex Sinclair to a 386DX-40, 540 Meg HD, 14.4 modem that
runs a BBS that serves a handful of callers, I have came a ways! I
currently run 7 welcome screens and 30+ goodbye screens that get
rotated by sfinit.bat.  Over 80 message areas with SFNET, Fidonet,
Internet-Email, Internet User Group areas. 70 Fidonet File Areas, WWLN
( World Wide LordNet ) and other door games. And some day a CD-Rom will
be added ( so I can keep up with the big boys ) <G>.


   The experts say that the average life of a BBS lasts 2 years. Well
the Bureau BBS has outlasted that.  But why?  I strongly believe that
the major reason is that I run SPITFIRE BBS software.  Where can you
get unlimited support for $89?  If I run into a snag, whether it be
difficulty setting up FD, SFNET, Internet-Email, a door game, etc there
is always someone that can help me out.  I will never forget when I had
trouble with Lakota, I had left a message to Mike W on BCS about my
problem.  On July 5th I got a call from Mike, now mind you this was a
holiday for most of us since in that particular year the 4th was on a
Sunday, and here this guy is calling me!  In no time we had it figured
out.  I had a very large welcome screen and Lakota didn't like that too
well.  But a change in the code took care of that.  Support does not
come better...... Another reason is I live in a county of 8000 people,
with this size there is not many callers but what I do have I've been
able to get to know many of them personally.  It makes for a great
relationship between the Sysop and callers.  They always know where to
get an answer to their computer questions, if I don't know it, I know
someone that does.  And this helps both of us.

   Mike says that SPITFIRE Sysops are like a family and it truly is.  I
can't end this without personally thanking some people that have helped
me along the way. My wife ( she tells everyone that she always knows
where I am ), Mike, Jacque, Della, Ross Cassell, Jim Biehn, Bob Hindal,
and others.  Special thanks to Jim for turning me onto SPITFIRE.

God bless.......


͸
 SPITFIRE SYSOP-OF-THE-MONTH 
;        
                            
                            Cammy Cochrane
                            Mad Hatter BBS
                             919-736-8005
                            SFNET: A0919000

   Well, gosh, where do I begin?  I suppose that my first experience
with a computer was back in junior high.  My step father had this
ancient thing (compared to our current standards) that sat on a large
drafting table in the corner of our living room.  I, of course, didn't
even realize what this strange creature could do!  All I really new was
that my step father did an awful lot of work on it in the evenings and
the weekends.

   In my freshman year of high school, I took a computer class in BASIC
programming, and my sophomore year was PASCAL.  All I really remember
about those classes was that we printed our programs on a huge printer
that printed slower than a 9 pin dot matrix, the teacher was nice, and
I somehow managed to pull a B.

   After high school, I joined the United States Air Force as an
Aircraft Maintenance Scheduling Specialist.  When I chose that career
field I had no idea what it would involve, but over the following 7 1/2
years I came into contact with loads of computers and many different
software programs.  Jay and I met over in England and got married.  In
the mean time I had continued to pursue my college degree.  During one
very tedious term in late 1990, I was taking 2 courses which required 2
14 page research papers.  Alas, I no longer had access to a typewriter
as I had changed duty sections and fervently began begging Jay to allow
me to purchase a computer.  He finally relented and the next day I came
home a bit further in debt and with my new pride and joy....a Commodore
64.  I went all out and bought everything I thought I would need to
include a ream of computer paper and several extra ribbons for our new
STAR 1000 9 pin!   Boy was I a fool!  I struggled with it and did
finally get my papers typed out, but Jay wouldn't have anything to do
with it until he got stuck home for a four week stint with 2 children
getting chicken pox!  Before I knew it, I was no longer playing games
on my computer, I was an instant computer widow.  Jay had discovered
the world of RUN magazine and learned to program this fascinating
little creature called a sprite.

   We moved to California in late 1991 and for almost another year, we
played around with our "antique".  We had really begun itching to get
our first IBM after my being exposed to a brand new 386SX33 at my
office with all those wonderful programs (Windows, Excel, etc...) that
in England I had never known to exist.  Finally, once again, I
convinced Jay to let me buy an IBM.  I proceeded to Montgomery Ward
where I purchased a Laser 386SX16 with a mere 1 meg of RAM and a meager
40 meg hard drive.  One week later, I went to the Base Exchange and
bought a 24 pin printer to go with it.  It took about a month to
realize that the big 40 meg hard drive really wasn't so big after all.
So we mail ordered a nice huge 120 meg drive.  (Yes another mistake.)
It wasn't until early 1993 that I discovered modems.  I quickly went
back to the Base Exchange and bought a Reveal 2400 bps modem.  We
quickly discovered what a BBS was and even more quickly became quite
addicted.  It didn't take very long for Jay to fill hundreds of
floppies with files he'd downloaded but didn't have the time or the
hard drive space to use.  (He was the file junky while I was the door
junky.)  In September of 93 we came across a great deal on a 386DX33
with a 320 meg drive and 4 meg of ram, etc...  well, Jay couldn't get
away from work so I, very much pregnant (4 days from my due date with
our youngest son), drove the 3 hours by myself to San Jose to purchase
our new toy.  I got home, set it up and we were now a three computer
family.  (We still had the commadore.)

   One night in mid December of 93 I was having a difficult time
getting to sleep.  I suddenly had this crazy idea.  I rolled over and
started poking Jay on the shoulder to get him awake.  When I finally
got him awake enough to listen I told him of my wonderful idea.  The
next day, our lives changed forever.  We had began our search for the
perfect BBS software for us to use to start our very own bulletin
board!  The first one we found was a demo of Wildcat.... I said it was
way too complicated as well as expensive so we deleted it and continued
on our search.  Next came Renegade... well, we couldn't even get the
modem to initialize with that so again, we continued our search.  Then
we found SPITFIRE v3.4.  Oh what a joy that was!  Basically set up with
the modem initializing and even a couple file areas and message areas
all in about an hour!  We'd found our perfect software and were on our
way.  I the door junky, quickly learned about batch files, and Jay the
file junky ended up being my technical backbone!  I would try to get
new things working properly with only about 50/50 success.  Jay would
always be there to iron out the problem areas and get things back on
track.  In just about one and a half weeks, we were ready to announce
the opening of the Mad Hatter BBS.  Oh what a meager little BBS we
were!  We had managed to get a 14.4 modem and all those floppies he'd
filled with files quickly became our file base.

   It was all very slow going but we stuck with it.  In March, we were
surprised when UPS made a delivery to our door.  My stepfather had
replaced his 1 year old 386dx33 with a new 486dx66 and a new multimedia
kit and sent us his old soundblaster card, speakers, and ancient single
speed CDROM.  Talk about a happy Sysop!   Well, things just kept
growing until, in mid 1994, we were forced to get a larger hard drive.
We ended up buying a 420 meg drive that we had intended to slave with
the current drive.  Unfortunately that didn't work so we ended up with
just a mere 90 more meg.  It worked for awhile though!  We also bought
a second CDROM and just kept on plugging away at our little hobby.

   We moved to North Carolina in August of 1994.  It was sad to close
down our little BBS out in California, even knowing that we would be up
and running again soon.  We had made many wonderful friends through our
BBS and we knew we would miss them tremendously.  Well, our household
goods arrived on October 3rd and even though I knew my in-laws would be
visiting in a mere week, I just had to have the BBS running again just
as quickly as possible.  I had my unpacking priorities straight!  First
the bed linens so we could sleep on beds instead of the floor, then
some dishes so we could quit eating fast food, then (well, in the
middle of all that) the computers.  By mid day of October 4th, the Mad
Hatter BBS was alive and well once again!

   In just a few more weeks we were set up with our very first mail
network.  SFNET was great.  I was so excited.  Just imagine how excited
I was two days later when our area hub called me voice and asked me to
take over as the new area hub!  I was completely flabergasted, but
gladly took it on with great excitement!  Needless to say, I feel that
being a SPITFIRE Sysop has brought great joy to our lives.  We had
found something that we could do together and when our 4 boys were old
enough, that they could join in as well. (The 10 year old already is
addicted to the RPG's!)

   The Mad Hatter is almost 2 years old now, and as I look back, we've
had many triumphant and frustrating times.  But I must say that being
able to run our board with SPITFIRE software, hearing the anecdotes and
getting help from others in the Sysop family has made it all worth
while!  I must really thank my wonderful husband.  Without him by my
side as my Co-Sysop giving his support, the Mad Hatter may well have
ceased to exist before it ever began.  Of course, our lives now consist
of the two of us, our four wonderful boys and our almost 800 users!  A
special thanks goes to all of them!


͸
  NEWLY REGISTERED SPITFIRE SYSTEMS 
;

   A hearty welcome is extended to the following, who have
recently become public registered SPITFIRE Bulletin Board Systems:

The Rat City II BBS...........................317-472-4815...14400 BPS
Donovan McLean, Sysop....................................Peru, Indiana

Terak Nor.....................................817-573-2331...14400 BPS
Lone Star PC Users Group, Sysop........................Granbury, Texas

The Gateway BBS...............................207-676-9383...19200 BPS
Cameron Lightner, Sysop...........................North Berwick, Maine

Classic BBS...................................909-275-9585...14400 BPS
Carl Schelling, Sysop............................Riverside, California

The Icehouse BBS..............................218-262-6429...28800 BPS
Ray Rogers, Sysop...................................Hibbing, Minnesota

Third Earth BBS...............................504-732-8967...28800 BPS
Daniel Branigan, Sysop.............................Bogalusa, Louisiana

Sunvalley BBS.................................504-886-2369...28800 BPS
James Branigan, Sysop..............................Bogalusa, Louisiana

White Castle BBS..............................409-569-1251...14400 BPS
Richard Shepherd, Sysop.............................Nacogdoches, Texas

The Hole in the Wall BBS......................503-458-6125....2400 BPS
Jim Poe, Sysop.........................................Astoria, Oregon

The Hard Rocker BBS...........................702-883-2515...19200 BPS
Patrick Dixon, Sysop...............................Carson City, Nevada

Freshly Squeezed BBS..........................713-472-4221...28800 BPS
John Petzinger, Sysop..................................Pasadena, Texas

STARGATE BBS..................................814-664-9163...14400 BPS
Charles Brink, Sysop...............................Corry, Pennsylvania

The Maine Energy Watch BBS....................207-793-4821...14400 BPS
Gregory McCarthy, Sysop...........................West Newfield, Maine

The Dark Door BBS............................Phone Unknown...56000 BPS
Greg Preston, Sysop....................................Astoria, Oregon

The Hornet's Nest.............................730-3428.......28800 BPS
Dwayne Privott, Sysop......................................APO Address

Chuck's Corner BBS............................412-829-1386...14400 BPS
Chuck Cole, Sysop.........................East Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Leisure BBS...................................503-788-9566...14400 BPS
Mitch Nolen, Sysop....................................Portland, Oregon



     In addition, there are 5 new private SPITFIRE BBS Systems
registered.  These private SPITFIRE BBS were registered to Sysops in:
Clarksburg, Ohio; Sacramento, California; Lombard, Illinois; Auburn,
California; and Winchester, California.


     There are 13 registrations for whom registration information  
was incomplete.  These included BBS's in: Petaluma, California; 
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; New Market, Auckland, New Zealand; 
Leavenworth, Kansas; Columbus, Ohio; Homosassa, Florida; Lambeth,
Ontario, Canada; Otho, Iowa; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Little Rock,
Arkansas; Hudson, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Henderson,
Auckland, New Zealand.

     The increase in registrations where information is incomplete is
largely due to Buffalo Creek's Software's policy of accepting on-line
Mastercard and Visa credit card registrations.


     JUST A REMINDER...the newsletter is always looking for
contributions!  Please forward any articles in ASCII text to either
Buffalo Creek's BBS or The Mother Board BBS.
