About BBSfinder

BBSfinder is based off of the concept used at SHOUTcast.com.
A dynamically updating list of of radio stations (in BBSfinders case, Bulletin Board Systems) that is never out of date. The idea was sparked due to two main factors…

1. 1. The Bulletin Board Scene has dwindled since it’s glory days in the 80’s and 90’s.
      While there are many BBS’s active, the caller numbers have lowered. This is a site to help raise awareness that BBS’s are still alive and kicking.

1. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of BBS lists floating around the WWW. Out of those hundreds of BBS lists maybe 5% at most, are up-to-date. Many lists around are in excess of 12 months old, and many BBS listed in them are either down, or have changed thier telnet address.

The main idea behind BBSfinder overall, is to be able to provide a list of active and online BBS’s to people – knowing that when they come here, they can always find a BBS that is active and ready for a caller.

How BBSfinder Works.

BBSfinder works due a little application called “Bf Connect” (BfC). Every five minutes, BfC sends an “I’m alive” signal to the BBSfinder servers. When the signal is received, the BBS’s entry is “updated” and the status of the BBS is slated as “Online”.

If BBSfinder does not receive an “I’m alive” signal from a BBS after the five minute mark, the BBS’s status is flagged as “Unknown” until the next update is received.

After 10 minutes of no “i’m alive” signals (two updates consecutively missed), the BBS’s entry is removed from the listings until the next update is received.

As examples…

An “Online” BBS.

Status
BBS Name	Blah BBS   (telnet://bbs.blah.blah)
SysOp	BlahMan
Location	Somewhere, HJ, USA
Nodes	5
Description	Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

An “Unknown” BBS.

Status
BBS Name	Blah BBS   (telnet://bbs.blah.blah)
SysOp	BlahMan
Location	Somewhere, HJ, USA
Nodes	5

What is Bf Connect? (BfC)

Bf Connect (BfC) is a small low-resource application the sends updates to the BBSfinder servers.

Main Window This is the BfC Main Window. Your username and password are the same ones for the account which you signed up with there, at BBSfinder.com.

System Tray While BfC is running, the white “B” icon above will be resident in your system tray.

Mouse Hover By hovering your mouse point over the BfC icon in your system tray, a quick summary of information will be display.

Mouse Right-Click By right-clicking on the BfC icon in the system tray, you are given the option of selecting “Show Bf Connect” (this will display the Main Window -or- “Exit Bf Connect”.

The BBSfinder Team.