From: skaplin@skypoint.com (Samuel Kaplin)
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 94 20:57:43 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Freeport information
Message-ID: <KTyukKjqROY4075yn@skypoint.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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- -------- Forwarded message --------
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 12:11:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Michelle Montpetite <michelle@americast.com>
To: skaplin@mirage.skypoint.com
Subject: Freeport


Here is the information you requested on Freeport software.

Sincerely,

Michelle Montpetite

******************************************************************************
*Michelle Montpetite                      E-MAIL:  Michelle@Americast.com    *
*Account Manager                          PHONE :  (216) 498-5100            *
*American Cybercasting                    FAX   :  (216) 498-5101            *
*                       http://www.americast.com                             *
******************************************************************************


                    FreePort  Version 2.3
                      Product Overview

              Case Western Reserve University

FreePort provides a simple, extensible, menu driven
bulletin board system for Unix  BSD systems. FreePort
is designed to be used by people with little or no
knowledge of computers yet still provide all of the
benefits of today's powerful, computer based
information systems. The more sophisticated computer
users may bypass some of the basic functions of
FreePort in order to streamline their access. In this
way FreePort is adaptable to users of all levels of
expertise.


Features

Accessible from any asynchronous terminal or
microcomputer Except as noted here, all functions are
available from any asynchronous terminal or any
computer with terminal emulation software.  If
the user's terminal has intelligent cursor-control,
FreePort supports  full-screen (in addition to line)
editing and cursor-based selection of menu items.
Support for some devices may require editing of a
configuration file.  File transfers require the user to
have a computer.


Menu interface

The menu interface presents information and FreePort
functions as a hierarchy of menus.  Menu selection is
the user's basic navigation tool.  Commonly accessed
menus may be assigned aliases for direct jumping to the
desired menu.  Some system-wide functions, including
context-sensitive on-line help are available from any
menu.

Your system administrator defines the individual menus
and linking among menus to correspond to your view of
your information.  Selecting a menu item launches the
menu or Unix program associated, by that menu, with
that item.


User Profile

Access rights are configurable by user group.
Anonymous users have read-only access (e.g. they cannot
post to the bulletin boards nor send e-mail);
registered users have full normal access;  and
authorized bulletin-board operators have additional
privileges to manage the portions of the information
hierarchy delegated to them.  Additional privileges may
be defined by your system administrator.

Each registered user has an electronic mail address and
mailbox, a modifiable user profile, and a disk work
area.  Portions of the profile (e.g. name, e-mail
address, and interest keywords) are searchable by other
FreePort users.  The work area is for temporary storage
of files saved from the bulletin board, mail, and file
transfer systems.


Electronic Mail

Users may send (and receive) electronic mail to other
FreePort users.  If the system is connected to a TCP/IP
network, electronic mail extends to any user@host
reachable through that network.  Mail is received into
the user's private mailbox.  Users may browse the
mailbox at their leisure --searching for or selecting
messages to read, search, save, delete, or forward.

Messages may be composed using one of the built-in text
editors or uploaded from the user's computer.


Bulletin Boards

A bulletin board is much like a public mailbox.  It is
often used to implement  a discussion group as well as
the electronic equivalent of the traditional corkboard.
 Every user may read and save a copy of, but not
modify, existing messages on the bulletin board.  Users
may post their own messages through an
e-mail-like interface.

On an open bulletin board, posted messages immediately
appear for reading by all.  On a moderated board,
posted messages are first filtered by a human moderator
who may post to the actual bulletin board.

For each user, the system remembers which messages on
each bulletin board he has read (or marked as read).


Multi-user Chat

Users may interactively chat with others on chat areas
analogous to CB radio channels.  The chat system
moderates and distributes the contributions of each to
the others on the channel.


Voting

Authorized users may post issues for voting by the user
community.  An issue posting defines the issue text to
be presented to users, and the predefined and/or free
formatted answers allowed.  Users may go to the voting
area, select an issue, and vote through a bulletin
board like interface.  The system maintains running
tallies which may optionally be displayed.


File transfer

A user may send files to other FreePort users,
upload/download files to his computer using the Kermit
or {XYZ}Modem serial line protocols, and transfer files
to/from systems on a TCP/IP network using FTP.


Gateway to other systems on a network

If the FreePort system is on a TCP/IP network, "padded
cell" versions of Telnet  and ftp provide user
connections to external administrator-selected service
systems (including other FreePorts) on that network.


Miscellaneous

Other features include a text file viewer, a simple
database system, system usage logging, an automated
address taker, session time limits, and a function to
get a list of on-line users.



Interoperable with other systems

FreePort is designed for maximum interoperability with
other internet information resources.  It utilizes
popular publicly available layered products to
implement  the underlying communications services.
Thus it is compatible today and will interoperate as
these layered products evolve to use new standards.


The layered products and standards include:

*  The Berkeley Unix sendmail, or compatible
*  C-News bulletin board service and various library
   routines
   written at the University of Toronto
*  Internet Relay Chat server  written  at University
   of Oulu
   (Finland) and client written at Boston University
*  Kermit serial file transfer service written at
   Columbia University
*  Telnet, ftp and various library routines written at
   the University of California

FreePort is configured to run on a single computer
system containing the above layered products.
Installation by knowledgeable Unix Systems Programmers
in a distributed computing services environment of
multiple computer systems is possible, though not
supported.


Extensible

The programs provided give you the tools needed to set
up and run a simple bulletin board system. Without
modifying any source code or recompiling any programs,
you can expand the BBS as far as your imagination (and
system resources) permit. The BBS software uses Ascii
files and any available Unix programs to build a system
that you can modify and expand.   Menus can be updated
and new sections added to the running system without
interrupting service.



                      System Prerequisites

Hardware Prerequisites


User access ports

You must provide some way for your users to access the
system.  FreePort will work with any method (e.g.
modems, serial lines, and remote login) which
establishes a login session to your FreePort service
system.


Network connection (optional)

If your FreePort system is connected to a TCP/IP
network, you may participate with other information
services on that network.  Examples include: e-mail,
file transfer, other FreePort systems, Usenet bulletin
boards, remote data feeds, and  remote login.


Disk space

You will need disk for your host Unix operating system
and utilities, program maintenance, electronic mail
queues, bulletin boards, user mailboxes and work areas,
and the information files that you make available to
your users.  Disk space requirements are dominated by
the data that you wish to keep on-line.

*  Installation and maintenance of FreePort and its
   prerequisite programs requires about 60MB.
*  Mail queue and bulletin board space depend on your
   anticipated e-mail traffic and the amount of
   information that you wish to retain in
   bulletinboards.  Cleveland Free-Net runs the
   FreePort software and currently retains about 1000MB
   of bulletin boards alone.
*  Mailboxes and user work areas are quota controlled.
   You might use 100KB per user for an initial
   estimate.


Performance

FreePort runs on workstation or larger Unix systems.
Performance of your system depends on the type of
information services that you provide and on the nature
of your clients' use of the system.  We have found the
following configurations to be satisfactory for the
CWRU and Cleveland Free-Net user communities.

   IBM RT/115 with 8MB memory serving 10 simultaneous
   users
   IBM RT/135 with 16MB memory serving 24 simultaneous
   users



            Software Prerequisites

Operating system

FreePort is dependent on Unix BSD 4.3 features.  It
does not currently run on System 5 R3, AIX, or
compatible systems.  Operating systems that FreePort is
known to run under include SunOS 3.5 or newer, DEC
Ultrix 3.0, and IBM/4.3.


Prerequisite software

FreePort is distributed in source code.  You will need
typical Unix program development tools including an C
compiler, yacc, and linker.  The publicly available
layered software mentioned above is available from
various ftp sites on the internet, or is available from
CWRU as a complete collection of the prerequisite
source code.


Support staff

Depending on the size of your planned system, support
staffing may vary from one to several full-time staff.
Most of the effort in operating FreePort goes to the
management of information sources and users.  Staff
functions include technical support, operations,
administration, and user support.

Installation and maintenance of the FreePort software
requires an experienced Unix Systems Programmer.  The
technical support person requires 'root' access to
install and configure the various prerequisite
communications software.

The system runs with little or no operator
intervention.  The major operations duty is filesystem
backups.

System administration duties include architecting the
menu hierarchy, installing new menus, authorizing new
Sysops and adding users, coordinating Sysops, and
arbitrating usage conflicts.  The Cleveland Free-Net,
for example, has over 400 volunteer Sysops who each
husband a delegated information area in the system.


More Information


Try it out.

If you would like to see what FreePort can do, you may
connect to the Cleveland Free-Net any time of the day
or night.  The Cleveland Free-Net is running FreePort
plus some experimental extensions which may appear in a
future release.  The modem pool phone number is
(216)368-3888.  If you have internet access, you may
telnet to one of the following addresses (the IP
addresses may change without notice):

        node name         IP address
        freenet-in-a.cwru.edu     129.22.8.82
        freenet-in-b.cwru.edu     129.22.8.75
        freenet-in-c.cwru.edu     129.22.8.76

The system will invite you to become a register user.
You may "explore the system" as a visitor, or you may
apply to be a registered user so that you can send
mail, post messages and participate in the chat areas.


Licensing

A 5-year renewable FreePort 2.3 license for a nonprofit
site is $850 ($2800 for-profit).  The software is
shipped as a "tar" file on 8mm Exabyte cartridge, or
for extra cost, on 1/2" magnetic tape or DC6150
cartridge.  The software is AS IS.  Additional
consulting services are available, as needed, from the
American Cybercasting Corporation (separate Fee
Required).  For the license agreement and other
information contact:
        American Cybercasting Corporation
        P.O. Box 575
        Aurora, Ohio  44202
        Phone:  (216) 247-0770
        FAX:  (216)247-0778
        Internet: USA@AmeriCast.Com


Unix  is a trademark of AT&T

###



==============================================================================

There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanical
religion, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a
superior capacity for happiness.
                        --H. L. Mencken--

==============================================================================
skaplin@skypoint.com                   | "...vidi vici veni" - Overheard
                                       | outside a Roman brothel.
PGP encrypted mail is accepted and     |
preferred.                             | Change is the only constant in the
                                       | Universe..."Four quarters, please."
E-mail key@four11.com for PGP Key or   |
Finger skaplin@mirage.skypoint.com     | Smile!! Big brother is watching.
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