FARGO IBM-PC USER GROUP AUGUST NEWSLETTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- July Meeting Notes---------------------------------------------------1 DOS Corner: Command Line Editing-------------------------------------1 Hardware: Computerland Computer--------------------------------------1 3-1/2" Disk Support: Microsoft---------------------------------------1 Hardware: RAMpage EMS Board------------------------------------------1 Editor's Corner: Getting Help----------------------------------------1 RBBS Uploads (7/11/86 to )-------------------------------------------4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ** MEETINGS ** The Fargo IBM-PC User Group meets the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Our current meeting place is the classroom located in Bethany Homes, 201 University Drive South, Fargo. Meetings are free to the public and new computer owners are encouraged to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JULY MEETING NOTES ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our July meeting featured a look at the latest versions of three word processing software packages--NewWord, Microsoft WORD, and Word Perfect. NewWord 3. Once upon a time, WordStar was the king of microcomputer word processing packages. It's muscle was developed in the world of CP/M machines, and Micropro made a good transition over to the MS-DOS and PC-DOS systems. The axiom for WordStar was: "Hard to learn, easy to use." NewWord was designed to overcome the deficiencies of WordStar, and to a great degree it has done just that. The menu screens are simpler to understand, while at the same time retaining most of the control commands of WordStar. For users reluctant to abandon WordStar, but who want an improved and less expensive package, NewWord 3 is a fine product. Word Perfect. This program is a generation ahead of WordStar. It was designed specifically for the PC's keyboard, and does not suffer from design limitations that burden those programs rewritten from beginnings with other systems. Word Perfect 4.0 is fast and flexible. It allows you to toggle between two documents at once. It offers a full-featured spelling checker, which will even look for wildcard characters. You also receive a built-in thesaurus, which makes Word Perfect a complete writing tool. Word. Like Word Perfect, Word 3.0 offers state-of-the-art text processing. Microsoft designed Word around a concept called style sheets. The user can either format text manually (centering, boldface, hanging indent, font changes) as with Word Perfect, or design his own ALT key combinations that govern the formatting of the selected text, which can be anything from a single character to the entire document. Style sheets greatly simplify the formatting of documents--especially those which require a variety of paragraph layouts, tab settings, and font changes. The user need only set the parameters for a paragraph once. These are then assigned to a two-key ALT code that is attached to the document through a style sheet. Different style sheets, in turn, can be attached to the same document to produce varied printouts without reformatting. Word 3.0 includes a spelling checker, but no thesaurus. Unlike Word Perfect, it supplies a fully-integrated outline program and enables you to generate tables of contents and indexes. Word also supports multiple columns. It allows up to seven windows, each of which can contain a unique document or part of a single which appears in another window. Both programs offer mathematical functions, orphan control, hyphenation, automatic numbering, and conversion utilities for WordStar files. Neither writes in ASCII, but both can print documents in an ASCII file. Both support a wide range of printers and offer programs whereby you can create your own printer drivers for unlisted models. Frankly, there is too much in either Word or Word Perfect to condense into an evening meeting or an article like this one. Both possess many strengths and only few weaknesses. Loren would like an improved display of justified text with Word Perfect, and I would like a thesaurus included in Word. Had we both been introduced only to the other program, our enthusiasm would probably be reversed. As it is, neither of us is about to switch. Anyone seeking a first-class word processing program ought to look at Word Perfect 4.1 ($495 retail; $239 mail order) and Microsoft Word 3.0 ($450 retail; $247 mail order). Both were rated as "editor's choice" in PC-Magazine's January 28 issue. August Meeting. The focus of our August meeting looks like it will be printers--the peripheral you love to hate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DOS CORNER: Command Line Editing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Save Time. Command Line Editing is a fancy way of describing various ways you can save keystrokes at the DOS prompt [A>]. Normally, commands like DIR or CHKDSK don't require much thought about saving keystrokes. If you work with DOS a great deal, however, there are some shortcuts using the function keys that can save you time and effort. Repeating Commands. Occasionally you may wish to repeat a command from DOS. You might, for instance, want to take a quick look at your DOC extension files on drive B and on Drive C. The traditional way would be to type: DIR B: (... screen shows directory) DIR C: (... screen shows directory) Here are several ways you could simplify the operation above. They are all based on the fact that DOS remembers the last command you entered from the A>. The command is stored in what is called a template. Each time you enter a DOS command you write over the previous command letter by letter, from left to right. Several function keys offer word processor-like assistance in using keystrokes from the previous command. --The F1-Key replays each character in your last command, one key at a time, from left to right. To see how it works, type: DIR . Now type the F1 key from the DOS prompt. It should repeat the D. If you depress it again it will replay the I, then the R and so on. --The F3-Key replays the entire text of the last DOS command, allowing you to duplicate your command with one keystroke and the RETURN key. The F3 key will replay the entire command or the number of characters remaining from the previous command. Assume you type DYPE LETTER.TXT. You want to re-enter the command without retyping it. You could enter A>T. --The F2-Key replays all characters up to the character you specify. For example, suppose you type DIR DOCTOR.DOC and then you want to display a directory of the corresponding BAK file. Type F2 followed by D, then . It will copy until it reaches the letter D. But which D? It stops first at the D in DOCTOR. Type F2 and D again and it will copy up through the period. Then all you need do is add the file extension BAK and press . --The F4-Key is the counterpart to the F2-key. It deletes characters up to a given character. If you entered DIR B:\MESSAGE\*.DOC and then wanted to look at the DOC files in the root directory, you could type: \*. The F4-key + \ copies DIR B:, the F2-key + * skips all characters up to the *, and the F3-key repeats *.DOC. The Insert and Delete keys function as toggles as in most word processors. You can use them to enter additional characters in a previous command line or delete them. Suppose your last command was: DIR AUG*.DOC and you found two files--one called AUGUST.DOC and another called AUGUST2.DOC. You want to read the first one using the type command. You could enter: TYPE*UST. Here's how it looks graphically: DIR AUG*.DOC -- old template TYP (write over 3 characters) (INS=add extra space) E (add E, turn INS off) AUG (F2 copies to *) (INS on) UST (add UST) (DEL *) .DOC (F3 copies to end) For fast typists, this use of the function keys on a short command is foolish. However, if your DOS commands are long and especially if they involve one or more subdirectories, these keys can save time. Most users start out with the F-1 key and use it to repeat the previous command character by character, then learn the others as needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HARDWARE: ComputerLand's PC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- At the July meeting Richard Zaylskie gave an oral description of the generic computer that is now being marketed by ComputerLand. For those of you with a short memory (like me), or those who missed the meeting, here's an overview of the machine. PC or AT. One unique feature of the ComputerLand PC is its ability to serve as a 8088 PC compatible or a 80286 AT compatible. The system unit of the ComputerLand machine accomplishes this through the use of a backplane. The backplane is basically a bus circuit board into which you plug other boards--including the central processing unit (CPU). There is no motherboard to limit the flexibility of the machine. The PC configuration requires two plug-in boards. One contains a dual speed 8088-2 processor and a clock. The other contains parallel and serial ports, a dual floppy drive controller, and sockets for 640K of RAM memory. Six slots remain empty--one of which will be filled with a video board of your choice. The AT configuration requires three plug-in boards. The first includes an 80286-2 dual speed processor and a clock, similar to the PC board. The second contains a parallel port, two serial ports, and up to 2 Mb of RAM memory. The third contains controllers for two floppy and two hard disks. If you operate a hard disk in either ComputerLand's PC or AT configuration, three slots (plus one for your video board) are required. This is because the PC configuration does not include a hard disk controller board. ComputerLand markets a dual monochrome/RGB board that they sell with either configuration. Storage. ComputerLand's machine squeezes four half-height disk drives into its system. You can mount three units (such as floppy, hard, tape backup) horizontally. If you want a fourth, there is room for one to be mounted vertically behind the cover of the system unit. Keyboard. The base unit comes with a selectric-style keyboard. There is no enter key on the numeric keypad, but "Caps lock", "Scroll lock," and "Num lock" indicators are located above the numeric keypad. I would rate the tactile feedback as average. Prices. The base PC unit, called the BC88, comes with 256K and retails for $1495. You pay extra for a video board and monitor. The salesman could not give me a suggested retail price for ComputerLand's AT clone, called the BC286. I was told to expect that unit to cost about $2995, exclusive of monitor and video board. It will reportedly include 256K and a 1.2Mb floppy drive. Again, the video board is extra. Summary. The best selling feature of ComputerLand's units lies in the reputation and accessibility of the dealer. While you can obtain similar equipment of equal value for less elsewhere, you don't get ComputerLand's service department with other machines. Overall, ComputerLand's machines appear to be a "safe" alternative to more expensive name-brand equipment, especially for buyers who don't wish to cut the umbilical chord to a respected dealer. --JL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3-1/2" Disk Support: Microsoft ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone considering a PC-Convertible (or compatible) wants to know what the bottom line will be regarding software in the 3-1/2" format. This is one worry Microsoft eliminates in s splendid fashion. Like others, I want to upgrade to the smaller disks--but not at the cost of purchasing expensive duplicates of my 5-1/4" software. Having read in PC Week that Microsoft would offer free copies of programs in the smaller format to registered users of their software, I decided to find out for myself. Off went a letter to Bellevue, Washington. Within four weeks, Microsoft shipped me 3-1/2" copies of Word and Multiplan by UPS. I received four disks in all and did not have to pay a cent for either the disks or shipping. Hats off to Microsoft! It's really easy to appreciate a company that makes transitions so easy for microcomputer users. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HARDWARE: RAMpage EMS Board ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Function. An expanded memory (EMS) board gives you memory beyond 640K in the standard PC. The memory is limited in its use, however. It does not allow you to run programs that require more than 640K. It does, however, give you additional memory for cache programs, spooler programs, and RAMdisk programs--freeing your precious 640K for other tasks. So why get one? My argument is that you can set aside your EMS memory as a giant RAMdisk on which you copy your application programs. This results in a dramatic speed increase (even over hard disks) and saves wear and tear on both hard and floppy drives. Hardware. As you would expect, the basic EMS board consists basically of banks of RAM chips. Mine came with 8 rows of sockets, each requiring 9 256-bit chips. You can buy the board with 256K-2048K of memory. Installation. Hardware installation is easy. Simply remove the cover of your system unit and plug the board into an empty slot. There are two dip switches you can set, but the factory settings ought to satisfy most users. I didn't have to touch them. Software installation is a bit more complicated. You have to modify your CONFIG.SYS file and your AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE The early version of the manual listed five examples. I wanted something a bit different, so it took an hour or so of reading to figure out the right combination of commands in my case. The latest board comes with an automatic menu-driven installation program. I attempted to use it, but for some reason it didn't want to recognize my extended memory. AST may have changed a dip switch setting or may have additional instructions in the new installation manual. The new disk/old manual combination didn't work for me. Either way, the explanation of the parameters for the few lines you type in can be figured out--though it will take new users a bit longer than old veterans to get things exactly right. To create a 1Mb ramdisk on my system, I entered the following lines in my CONFIG.SYS file: device=rex.sys 1024 device=fastdisk.sys /m=1000/EXTM The first command sets aside 1024Kb of my EMS memory as available for spooler or RAMdisk programs. The second assigns 1Mb of memory to a RAMdisk in extended memory. The fastdisk.sys is AST's ramdisk driver for RAMdisks that exceed 360K. Documentation. The RAMpage comes with about 150 pages of instructions. I would give them a "C" rating regarding readability. They contain more than enough technical information, but some paragraphs must be read several times to be clearly understood. AST also bundles the window management program DesqView with the board. It's a nice extra--though I've come to the conclusion that both this program and it's cousin, Windows, operate best on an AT or compatible rather than an 8088 machine. Compatibility. There has been some discussion about the compatibility of the two types of extended memory board--EMS (as in the Intel AboveBoard) as compared to EEMS (as in the RAMpage). I've found no problems with the EEMS superset. AST has been producing boards long enough that I have confidence in their ability to conform to the standards of the industry. If you're considering such a product, you can now obtain a board which will give you EMS memory plus a clock calendar and/or a parallel port. If you already have a multifunction board, but wish to preserve a slot for future use, an expanded memory/multifunction board would be a wise investment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S CORNER: Getting Help ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some computer owners consider writing to computer firms to be an exercise in futility. Fortunately, that is not necessarily the case. I purchased AST's RAMpage EMS board early this year, which came with the Desqview software for switching from one program to another. Both worked fine. When I picked up a copy of Microsoft's Windows, it choked on the drivers for the AST board. A driver is a small SYS file (usually 2-12K) that helps add-on hardware work with your DOS. I wrote to AST about the incompatibility problem. A technician called me from California to let me know that they were working on a patch for the driver for Window users. Several weeks later I was shipped a disk, but it had the wrong program on it--another copy of DesqView. Another letter produced the right disk this time, and my problem was solved. I appreciate companies like AST that respond to user's needs. Though they goofed (twice), they were willing to rectify the situation as soon as it was pointed out to them. Sure, it would have been nice to have a bug-free product from the beginning. Daily innovations in hardware and software render that expectation unrealistic in many cases--especially if the product is new. It's good to work with a company that responds to a user's needs. Good going, AST. --JL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USER GROUP OFFICERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- President & Sysop-----Loren Jones Vice-President------James Grettum Librarian----------Calvin Paulson Newsletter Ed.---------Jim Levitt Treasurer-------------Loren Jones Printing----------------TLC Press Address:Box 9121, Fargo ND 58109 User Group Phone: FARGO RBBS: 1-701-280-2608 1-701-293-5973 RBBS UPLOADS 7/11/86 A86.ARC 121856 07-03-86 80x86 Assembler--very fast ARCHIVE.ARC 21504 06-18-86 Another backup utility COMUFLT.BQS 4352 07-10-86 A FLIGHT LOG DISKPACK.ARC 31232 06-20-86 Like STUFIT, for DOS 3.0 and above DOG101.ARC 46592 06-06-86 disk organizer 1.01a,compresses hd's DROID.EQE 40192 07-10-86 A CG GAME. OKAY. FLOOK.ARC 13824 06-17-86 Read any ASCII text file...utility FORBIN.NUM 1024 07-09-86 NEW Forbin Project Phone Numbers!! CALL! FUND0612.ARC 29696 06-13-86 Mutual Fund Tracking data - 6/13/86 HDNOISE.ARC 5120 06-13-86 Sage advice on noisy hard disk drives INVESTOR.BAS 3712 06-28-86 ? IR160.ARC 92160 06-28-86 Instant Recall - Memory Res. Database JIGGLE.ARC 27392 06-18-86 Management tool LEASECAR.ARC 177152 07-08-86 Car leasing evaluation prgm from FoMoCo MDM.ARC 2048 06-18-86 Modem lights on screen MODBUTLR.ARC 92160 06-23-86 Modem Butler - Unattended communications PATHMOD.ARC 1664 06-13-86 Modify online PATH with options PC-GOLF.EXE 51200 06-06-86 Golf game PCGAZ102.ARC 36864 06-28-86 PC-GAZETTE Issue 2 PCGAZ103.ARC 80896 06-25-86 PC-Gazette issue 3 PCGAZ104.ARC 91136 07-05-86 PC-Gazette issue 4 - June PCW26FIX.ARC 2048 07-10-86 Fix Pc-Write 2.6 Justification prob. PROSET34.ARC 17408 06-18-86 Memory resident Proprinter utility RBBS-BAS ARC 178432 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B BASIC source code RBBS-DOC ARC 172928 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B Documentation RBBS-FIX ARC 84864 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B Fixes as of 5/31/86 RBBS-KRM ARC 125952 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B KERMIT transfer program RBBS-OBJ ARC 7424 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B .OBJ files for compiling RBBS-TXT ARC 55168 06-08-86 RBBS-PC 14.1B Menus, Helps, etc. RBBS-VAR.BAS 7808 06-27-86 RECOMP/LINK CHG DEF TO 2,1,-1 READER21.ARC 21504 06-28-86 Source Code for PC-Gazette Reader REAL.ARC 89600 06-13-86 Oil & Gas Cash Flow Anlysis for 123 ver 2 SUPRTREE.ARC 11008 06-13-86 Version of DOS TREE in Turbo Pascal TIMEPARK.ARC 3840 06-13-86 Parks hard disk head after N seconds WP-LASER.ARC 6144 07-09-86 Macros for WP and HP Laser printer. XPNDIR.COM 66688 06-25-86 Add desc to files - useful - not perfect IBMa International Business Machines Corp. FARGO IBM-PC USER GROUP SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meeting Notes--------------------------------------------------------1 Hardware: Tandy 1000 EX----------------------------------------------1 Trends: PC's at Target & Sears---------------------------------------1 Need Floppy Disks?---------------------------------------------------1 Video Boards---------------------------------------------------------1 Editor's Corner------------------------------------------------------2 Bulletin Board System------------------------------------------------2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ** MEETINGS ** The Fargo IBM-PC User Group meets the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Our current meeting place is the classroom located in Bethany Homes, 201 University Drive South, Fargo. Meetings are free to the public and new computer owners are encouraged to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MEETING NOTES ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our August meeting featured a look at several different printers. We compared the output of the regular 8-pin Epson with the newere 24-pin Epson LQ-1000, along with a handy little portable Citizen printer. We also saw a print sample from a line printer, which outputs a single line of type in one operation. September will feature a look at Kodak's projection system for computer generated slide shows. We also hope to get our hands on ComputerLand's clone, mentioned in last month's newsletter. October Meeting. The focus of our October meeting will be the Paradox database program. A company representative will demonstrate the program and answer questions regarding its operation. In November we will celebrate Thanksgiving with a "Great Turkey Swap & Sale." If you have any software and/or hardware that you wish to sell, trade, or whatever, bring it to the November meeting! Our feature for the month will be networking. Karl Peterson will give us a shake down cruise through the Novell network hardware and software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HARDWARE: Tandy 1000 EX ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Radio Shack takes one more step toward a full line of IBM compatible computers with the introduction of the $799 Tandy 1000 EX computer. Remember what the Apple II looked like? That's the general shape of the 1000 EX. The computer's typewriter-shaped plasic enclosure contains the keyboard and the motherboard and has a horizontal slot on the right side housing a 5¬ 360K floppy disk drive. The keyboard is identical to the 90 key Tandy 1000. It offers 12 function keys placed horizontally across the top, a numeric keypad, and seperate cursor keys arranged in an inverted T pattern. What's inside? The 1000 EX offers an expansion connector for a second floppy 5¬ drive ($249.95) or a 3« 720K mini floppy drive ($279.95). It also offers the connectors for two joysticks, headphone, parallel port, and RGB color monitor. The unit comes with 256K, DOS 2.11, and GW-BASIC. The reference manuals for DOS and BASIC are extra. No clock or serial port is provided. Expansion. You can expand the unit in two ways. You can directly plug in one card. Tandy offers a 1200 baud modem ($199.95) or a Network interface ($299.95). An optional color monitor they picture with the system lists for $299.95. For more serious users, you must first plug in a memory expansion adapter ($129.95) which adds 128K, sockets for an additional 256K (for a 640K total) and a DMA circuit. The memory expansion adapter also has two connectors into which you can plug the boards mentioned in the previous chapter. The Tandy 1000 EX is obviously designed for the home and school market. It should give stiff competition in educational environments where 256K RAM and one 360K disk drive is sufficient. Meanwhile, Tandy has also souped-up the popular 1000. The enhanced version, dubbed the 1000 SX, offers a dual speed 8088 (7.16/4.77 MHz), 384K of memory, and two 5¬ floppy drives. It still requires the shorter 10" card, like its predecessor. For the faster processor and the second drive, and DOS 3.2 you pay $200 more than for the unenhanced 1000. Beyond all this, Tandy is now marketing a four slot AT computer at around $1700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TRENDS: PCs at Target & Sears ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-Week reports that Target has ordered 35,000 PC computers to be marketed between now and November. The unit, called the Blue Chip Personal Computer, comes with one 5¬" 360K drive, six expansion slots, a parallel and serial port, a keyboard, and a monochrome graphics adapter. A second floppy drive and a monochrome display cost an additonal $218. Meanwhile 500 Sears outlets will sell a PC from Franklin Computer. The unit, including monitor, will retail for $1050. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEED FLOPPY DISKS? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The User Group has a limited supply of DS/DD 360K floppy disks available. These come with tyvek sleves and have a lifetime guarantee. Your cost is only 75› each. Contact Loren if interested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VIDEO BOARDS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A big revolution is now occuring in the video board market. Back in the good old days, the user's options were much like buying a televison set-- either color or monochrome. Then along came EGA about two years ago, changing the standard resolution for color monitors from 320 x 200 pixels in four colors to a resolution of 640 x 350 pixels with 16 colors available. Quadram just announced a $595 EGA+, which offers another option--752 x 410 pixels using a multisync monitor, like NEC's fast-selling $799 model (which can support resolution up to 800 x 560 pixels.) But wait, yet another "standard" may be on the horizon. Intel and Texas Instruments are promoting video chips which offer resolution and speed greater than the current EGA crop. Intel's 82786 offers 640 x 480 pixel resolution. Microsoft is working with Intel to make Windows operate in this environment. One manufacturer--Number Nine Computer--already sells an 82786 graphics board for under $800. Such alternatives are exciting, but make upgrading a difficult decision. Is EGA already growing obsolete? Will 640 x 480 become the standard? What chips will the software companies support? What level of resolution do "ordinary" users want? My suspicion is that we will see resolution for most single user systems peak not at the EGA level (640 x 350) but at the 82786 level (640 x 480). The latter seems more attractive, since it offers faster processing speed as well as better resolution. I seriously doubt that most single users will want even greater resolution. Which of us would spend $3,495 for 1,280 x 1,024 pixel resolution in 256 colors? I'd like to step up from (320 x 200) color graphics, but I'll wait to see who "wins" first. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S CORNER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most editors stray from strict computing in their commentaries from time to time, so I'll exercise this prerogative now. Since the first draft of the newsletter has some space remaining, I'd like to let the users know about an upcoming community event which may have appeal to the college- educated business and professional people who comprise our group. The Fargo-Moorhead business and professional men and women are sponsoring a dinner at 6:30 p.m. on October 2nd. Guest speaker will be former Watergate consiprator, Charles "Chuck" Colson. Tickets are $8.50 per person and can be obtained through Concordia College. Call 299-3073 or 236-7424 for more information. One of the co-chairmen told me that tickets for a similar dinner with Mr. Colson in Minneapolis are running $50 each, making this opportunity a bargain in more ways than one. --Jim Levitt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USER GROUP OFFICERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- President & Sysop-----Loren Jones Vice-President------James Grettum Librarian----------Calvin Paulson Newsletter Ed.---------Jim Levitt Treasurer-------------Loren Jones Printing----------------TLC Press Address:Box 9121, Fargo ND 58109 User Group Phone: 1-701-280-2608 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bulletin Board System ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren has made heroic efforts to make the bulletin board system run on both nodes as it ought to. Among other things, our sysop suffered a drive failure of one of the two 45 Mb drives. He contacted the supplier, which finally agreed to swap the drives in exchange for an 80 Mb Seagate drive rated at 28 nanosecends. The drive went in on the 13th, and both nodes operated flawlessly--for a few minutes. Then crash again. Loren rechecked the hardware in the system and discovered some 150 ns chips mixed with 200 ns chips in the same banks. Could that contribute to the problem? Switch chips on the 14th and try again. Success at last! Forty minutes later the system goes ker-plunk! Aargh!! At press time Loren has the system running again--but only on the subscriber board node. The public system is not operational at the current time. Our determined sysop is committed to finding the bug and correcting the problem. Your patience is appreciated. From those of us in the user group--thanks, Loren, for not giving up.