A subset of the ANSI X3.64 standard for controlling text terminals. ANSI-BBS is not a formal standard but a subset of the full standard with emphasis on color and cursor positioning. Additionally, some programs support musical/sound codes in addition to the color and cursor codes.
A device driver included with MS-DOS operating systems. It interpreted a subset of escape sequences from the more comprehensive ANSI X3.64 standard for controlling text terminals. It ran in the background and automatically interpreted any recognized codes sent to the standard output stream. Some BBS packages and terminal programs relied on ANSI.SYS for display purposes, although eventually most programs implemented built-in support.
An acronym for Advanced Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator. AVATAR is a FidoNet standard for encoding color and cursor codes in an efficient, binary manner. It was commonly supported by bulletin board systems (and door games) because the codes were efficiently transfered over slow dial-up lines. However, it never reached widespread support outside of the BBS community.
An early video adapter for IBM-compatible computers. While CGA is no longer commonly used, its internal layout of colors and characters in video memory has carried forward to modern computers. Virtually all color-related BBS control codes are based on the CGA color scheme.
A program purposely designed to be executed by a BBS or front-end answering system. A door typically reads configuration information passed by the BBS or front-end. A variety of different door development kits were created in the 1990s to make it easier to create door programs.
A FidoNet system that has been offline for a long period of time and may be removed from the network.
A configuration file generated by a bulletin board system for the purposes of passing information to an external program. Several different door file formats reached widespread popularity with authors of door programs. Some systems would read changes from the drop file after modification by the door. This allowed the door to pass back changes such as updated time limits or security levels.
A message conference that is shared among multiple bulletin board systems on FidoNet.
A popular message tosser for MS-DOS.
A network of bulletin board systems. FidoNet developed before the widespread adoption of the Internet and is therefore largely founded on dial-up technologies and protocols.
Fido/Opus/SEAdog Standard Interface Layer. A standard for accessing serial ports in a unified manner under DOS and IBM-compatible computer systems. The standard was devised because DOS-based operating systems did not implement drivers or a common interface for accessing modems and serial port hardware. The FOSSIL standard is essentially a driver API for serial ports.
A front-end messaging and FidoNet mailer that was very popular in the 1990s.
The "Hold" keyword in a FidoNet nodelist indicates the BBS is temporarily offline. Mail to the BBS should be placed on hold until further notice.
A Commodore 64 bulletin board system.
A message database format primarily used by MS-DOS bulletin board systems. The JAM format was intended to correct the deficiencies in older formats like the Hudson Message Base format. It was created by Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner, Mats Birch and Mats Wallin in 1993.
A freeware door development kit from the 1990s, since abandoned.
A FOSSIL driver that allows DOS doors to operate over a Telnet connection.
An MS-DOS BBS system, now apparently abandoned.
A computer system in the FidoNet network.
A text file containing the differences between the current nodelist and the most recent nodelist. See
A text file containing all nodes in a FidoNet-style network.
A portion of a FidoNet network address that refers to a user or process on a computer system. A FidoNet address has the format zone:net/node.point, where zone refers to a geographic area, net refers to a network of computers, node refers to a specific system in that network, and point refers to a user or process on that node.
A popular MS-DOS BBS software package in the 1990s.
A program that scans a message board and looks for new messages that need to be processed and delivered to a FidoNet mailer for subsequent transmission to the network. See Tosser.
A simple security scheme commonly implemented by bulletin board systems. A security level was an integer where lower values implied restricted access and higher values implied extended access. Often a security level of zero was designated for new, unverified, or banned users. Values below zero or above 255 were not commonly supported since security levels were often internally stored as an 8-bit byte.
A popular multi-platform BBS system, will actively developed.
Founder of FidoNet.
A program that processes incoming message packets and extracts into the message databases used by a BBS program. See Scanner.
A popular MS-DOS bulletin board system.
Creator of the XMODEM file transfer protocol and sysop of the CBBS bulletin board (considered by many to be the first dial-up bulletin board system.
A popular commercial BBS software package by Mustang Software, later sold to Santronics Software.
A simple file transfer protocol originally for use with CP/M systems. It was developed in 1977 as a quick-and-dirty protocol by Ward Christensen for use in his MODEM program.
The most popular file transfer protocol used by BBS systems in the 1990s. Zmodem was designed for high performance and reliability while solving pressing problems with older protocols like XMODEM and YMODEM.
A large geographic area in FidoNet (e.g., Zone 1 is North America).