Frank's Column

What do I need to run a Fidonet System?
By Frank Vest

It still amazes me that there is BBS and Fidonet software around that will run in Dos. With the Windows, and even Linux, being so popular, It is nice to still see software that will run in Dos being developed. It is also amazing that the Dos programs are still half or less of the size of the Windows programs.

Now, on to the title of this little article.

What does it take to run a Fidonet system? Really?? In all honesty, this depends on what you want to do. The basic system to receive and send mail can be very small and, depending on how many echos you want to carry, how much traffic and how many days of mail you want to keep in your message base, a Fidonet system could probably still be run on a 20 meg drive. I pretty sure that Spitfire BBS, although not really supported anymore, can still be run on a 286 and is Y2K compliant.

So, what does this all mean?

Just this. One of the selling points of Fidonet is that we are a hobby. One of the things that might keep people away from this hobby is the cost of equipment to participate in the hobby. Let's face it, any hobby costs the hobbyist money. When dealing with computers, it's easy to imagine that one would need a Pentium or better with a minimum of a 20 or 30 gig drive. After all, most communication programs and such that connect to the Internet are at least 5 megs minimum. It would be easy for a person that has seen nothing but Windows and the Internet to imagine spending a couple of thousand dollars or more to setup a Fidonet hobby system that is going to bring in no money at all. Wouldn't that be a deterrent to joining Fidonet? Possibly.

Now, what if these people that might be interested in Fidonet were informed that they could get into Fidonet for the cost of that old 386 or 486 that they have lying around gathering dust and maybe the monthly cost of a phone line? Not only that, but they only need about 2 or 3 hundred megs of drive space. Wow! They don't even have to buy a new drive for that old 486. :)

This might not go anywhere, but the next time you are talking to a friend or in a crowd and you mention that you run a Fidonet BBS, be sure to explain that Fidonet is a hobby and that it doesn't cost that much to be a part of the hobby.

Regards,

Frank