Pro Line Installation User Tutorial Online Reference Morgan Davis Group Copyright © 1992 Morgan Davis Group. All Rights Reserved. Morgan Davis Group 10079 Nuerto Lane Rancho San Diego, CA 91977-7132 (619) 670-0563 Customer support (619) 670-5379 Bulletin board system (619) 670-9643 FAX No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this product, Morgan Davis Group assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. The product names mentioned in this manual are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their manufacturers. ProDOS and ProDOS BASIC are copyrighted programs of Apple Computer, Inc. licensed to the Morgan Davis Group to distribute for use only in combination with this product. Apple software shall not be copied onto another diskette (except for archive purposes) or into memory unless as part of execution of this product. When this product has completed execution, Apple software shall not be used by any other program. Apple Computer, Inc. makes no warranties, either express or implied regarding the enclosed software package, its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose. The exclusion of implied warranties is not permitted in some states. The above exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty provides you with specific legal rights. There may be other rights that you may have that vary from state to state. Sixth printing — November 1992 — U.S.A. Printed on recycled paper. Contents Personal Note .................................................. 4 Introduction ..................................................... 5 Part One: Installation Part Two: User Tutorial 1: Getting Started How To Make Toast....................................... 41 What You Should Know.................................. 9 Hardware Supported ..................................... 9 Getting Started .............................................. 43 Internal Modem Cards ................................. 10 What You Should Know................................ 43 Super Serial Card .......................................... 10 Connecting ................................................... 43 Get Your Account ........................................ 44 Apple IIGS Modem or Printer Port ................ 12 Main Menu .................................................... 45 External Modems .......................................... 14 Select Your Preferences ............................... 45 High Speed Modems.................................... 14 Custom Modem Control .............................. 15 Electronic Mail .............................................. 49 ProLine Disks................................................... 16 You Have Mail ............................................... 49 Install ProLine ................................................. 16 Configure ProLine ......................................... 18 Conferencing ................................................ 53 Running ProLine ............................................ 20 Getting Started ............................................. 53 Joining A Conference .................................. 54 2: Logging In Reading Messages ....................................... 55 login ................................................................ 23 Adding or Replying....................................... 55 Keyboard Events ........................................... 24 Conferencing In A Nutshell.......................... 56 Introduction To PLUSH................................... 24 File Library ...................................................... 57 The Sysop Account ....................................... 26 The Register Account ................................... 27 Reach Out . ............................................... 59 The Guest Account ...................................... 28 The Global Village Is Here ............................ 59 The MDSS Account ....................................... 29 Sending Net Mail .......................................... 60 Additional Set Up .......................................... 29 Domains ......................................................... 60 Where to Go from Here ............................... 32 Islands in the Net ........................................... 62 Programming ................................................ 34 Internet Guidelines ....................................... 63 3: Networking Graduation .................................................... 65 The Networking Advantage ........................ 35 Common Commands .................................. 65 Networking Glossary ..................................... 36 More Details .................................................. 65 Common Questions ..................................... 37 Road Map ..................................................... 66 Getting Connected ..................................... 37 The Responsibility of Privilege ...................... 38 Part Three: Online Reference Personal Note You are holding the latest manual for a software product that has consumed nearly every waking moment of my adult life—or so it seems. Almost ten years ago, I started writing a BBS for my brand new Apple IIe, because there were no bulletin board systems that supported my modem back then. My goal was to provide the basic features of a BBS published by Southwestern Data Systems, known today as Roger Wagner Publish- ing. Their Apple DOS 3.3-based BBS, called Online, was written by Bill Blue. My Online-like BBS would run under Apple’s new operat- ing system, ProDOS, and was cleverly dubbed ProLine. It was a limitless project. There was always work to be done, always another feature to add. It soon supported external Hayes-compatible modems and adopted a UNIX file system design, a solid platform for online information services. It grew so large that it wouldn’t fit on a floppy disk. Soon it could exchange mail with itself and UNIX computers, in a limited capacity. Later, Internet mail and newsgroup processing was added. Today it barely fits on two 800K diskettes. ProLine’s software milestones mark personal ones for me. ProLine and I started out in junior college, transferred to San Diego State University, then shared time between various jobs. ProLine intro- duced me to many friends and acquaintances, some long forgotten, but many who are good friends today, like Bill Blue. It allowed me to start my own software business, and helped me buy my first home. It was the reason that I met Dawn, sysop of pro-simasd. We married a couple of years later and have two wonderful kids! ProLine is more to me than just an item on our product list. It has permeated every aspect of my life for the last decade. If you have ever worried about investing in a product that might not be sup- ported after you take it out of the box, rest assured that this is probably the most secure and valuable purchase you’ve ever made. —Morgan Davis 4 INTRODUCTION Introduction What Is ProLine? Whether your world consists of classes or conference rooms, counties or continents, the ProLine bulletin board system brings people to- gether. Now you can “link” the neighborhood with the rest of the world! With networked electronic mail, files, and bulletins, your Apple becomes a portal of information with the Internet, a global connection of computer networks. The Internet is a super data highway allowing millions of people to participate in worldwide discussion groups. It even connects folks on commercial services, like America Online, AppleLink, BIX, CompuServe, Delphi, MCI Mail, and The Well, with users of net- worked bulletin board systems such as ProLine and FidoNet. Unlike most systems that clutch onto one feature and ignore everything else, ProLine not only communicates with the Internet—an impressive feature by itself—but is perhaps the most complete BBS for any personal computer. It includes powerful local electronic mail, personal file management and storage for each user, automatic and unattended system maintenance, compre- hensive online help, and incorporates the latest BBS technology available today. It is friendly and powerful, very easy to install, and is backed by the Morgan Davis Group with uncommonly responsive customer support. About This Book This manual is actually three books in one: Installation User Tutorial Online Reference 5 INTRODUCTION Part One, Installation, helps you prepare your computer system, and shows you how to install the software onto your drive. Installation takes about 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your computer system. After the ProLine software is installed, you configure it to work in the most optimum fashion with your hardware, then create your own account on the new system. Now you’re ready to begin learning about ProLine. Part Two, User Tutorial, takes you on a quick tour of ProLine, showing all of its major features, such as working with electronic mail, conferencing, and file transfers. The tutorial gives you an overview of ProLine’s features. You’ll want to explore ProLine in more detail. Part Three, Online Reference, explains the hundreds of features that make up ProLine. Information in the Online Reference is reproduced from ProLine’s online documentation. Every aspect of ProLine is described