This month I would like to talk about a proposed solution for replacing our BBS, Sacra Bytes. Because Web sites are replacing BBSs all over the country, I am really surprised that any BBSs are still around.
     Every organization has three primary needs. The most important is e-mail so we can contact each other. The second is a Web page so people can see information about our group and what we have to offer. The third is an FTP site so we can store files for people to download, such as the files we maintain in our software library. We currently have a Web page through CalWeb, which is nicely done; CalWeb hosts our site at no cost to the group. E-mail is currently available only through our BBS, but we will lose this service when we take our BBS down. Taking our BBS down also means that we will lose the FTP site.
    As a consultant, I specialize in setting up businesses on the Web, so I’d like to bring to your attention a couple of alternatives to our current setup. The most exciting thing to happen lately is DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, which Pacific Bell offers. DSL is offered in two flavors: ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line).
    The speeds for ADSL are 384 Kbps for uploading and 1.5 Mbps for downloading. ADSL is the only line Pacific Bell offers that allows a faster speed to download than to upload. SDSL, on the other hand, offers the same speed for downloading or uploading. Besides Pacific Bell, Roseville Telephone is another provider that plans to offer SDSL.
    DSL is a service that can be installed in your home for about $50 a month. If you have a DNS entry like www.sacpcug.org, then you need enhanced service, which costs about $80 a month. I have proposed that we look into this service as an alternative if we ever lose our free service from CalWeb.
    Here's one possibility. Let's suppose that we need to replace our existing BBS with a computer running Windows NT that does everything. First, we would build a machine with plenty of disk space that is capable of handling a Windows NT Server. I would recommend a machine with a 200-MHz Pentium processor or better with 64 MB of RAM and about 4 GB of disk space--a relatively cheap computer by today's standards. I would first install a Windows NT Server with a user base of all SPCUG members. Then I would install Internet Information Services with room enough to put our Web pages on. I would also install FTP services so we could put our software library disks there for members to download. To access these services, members would use their passwords from the address labels of Sacra Blue. We could allow anonymous users to log in as well, but they would have only limited access.
    Now comes the fun part: the Exchange Server. Since we all need e-mail, I would install Microsoft's Exchange Server to allow all members access to e-mail. Each user would have several aliases as well as the possibility of a forward. For example, my e-mails would be:

Milt.Hull@sacpcug.org
MiltH@sacpcug.org
MHull@sacpcug.org
Milt@sacpcug.org (if no one else has that first name)

   I might also use the title of any office I might hold at the time, such as Program.Coordinator@sacpcug.org. As an option, I could leave my mail on the server and check it there, or have all mail automatically forwarded to an e-mail account I have elsewhere. Currently, all my mail would be forwarded to mfhull@ucdavis.edu.
   Those people who do not have another e-mail account can check their mail in several ways. The first solution would be to use a pop mail program like Eudora or, for that matter, Microsoft Exchange or Outlook. You could set up your e-mail program to check your mail through the SPCUG's Exchange Server. Your mail would be on your machine every time you check it. Another solution would be to connect to the Exchange Server directly through the Web and keep the mail there all the time, but I would not recommend this option until we test the lines to see how much of a load the server could take. The last way would to be to enter www.sacpcug.org/exchange and check your mail online.
   While useful to most SPCUG members, these options do not address those who do not have Internet access. At an additional cost, we could attach modems to this server, allowing people to check their mail. However, because we would not have to pay for an extra phone line, it would be cheaper for us to give these users a Juno account and have their e-mail forwarded since an extra phone line would not allow them to browse the Web anyway.
     Accessing distribution lists is a big advantage of having a mail server. We could have add all members to a main distribution list, have another for all the officers, one for each SIG, and one for any other group we wanted to set one up for. Members could belong to as many lists as they wanted to. Another cool feature of the Exchange Server is access to Address Views. You can browse addresses by SIGs or chapters and it will show all people that belong to, let's say, the Auburn chapter.
    Newsgroups are also an option, although not knowing the bandwidth, I would not recommend doing this at first. Address books would be available only if members want their addresses listed. There is plenty of flexibility here and the service can be customized to include all of the club's needs for about $80 a month.
    Remember, this is just a proposal in case we lose our existing services offered by CalWeb. But because I administer about 20 Exchange Servers with my clients, I can tell you it is a breeze.