MB> Well, that helps quite a bit.  I only have about 3300 
 MB> messages, it is just the message numbers that are 
 MB> getting up there.

 PK> The fact you are running under DOS/Win311 probably means that the
 PK> memory index is likely to be your limit. 

I've got 20MB of memory in this system, and all it runs is Binkley and
TimEd, with Squish doing the tossing, so I've not run into any real memory
problems

 PK> Just the other day I was
 PK> thinking I handn't seen or heard about a running Win311 system for
 PK> several years now. You never know what pops up out of the
 PK> woodwork....;-) 

I have at least three or four systems running WfWG 3.11 here, a couple or
three 386/40s, a 486/66 or two, and a 5x86/133.  They all work fine.

 PK> You would probaly gain quite a bit in a few areas
 PK> by using a .SQD message base, it will not only perform better, but
 PK> consume less disk space and also help with the directory entry
 PK> issue. 

Disk space is also not a real issue, as there is a 2.5GB drive in this
system, with really not much else running on it. Performance would be the
big gain.

 PK> If I recall correctly, the Squish API holds the message base index
 PK> in memory, so its probably more of a memory limitiation than
 PK> anything else. I have heard of people with 50,000+ message stored
 PK> in one Squish area, but I have not done that myself...

The area currently has 4001 messages (highest message number 27052)
consuming 7.446 MB of space on an 80 MB logical drive with 40 MB free.

 MB> Well, that helps quite a bit.  I only have about 3300 
 MB> messages, it is just the message numbers that are 
 MB> getting up there.

 PK> Well 50,000 messages under a decent OS is quite likely, however I
 PK> wouldn't like to guess how Win 311 would handle that, the code is
 PK> likely to run into some of the 16bit DOS limitations I guess. How
 PK> much disk space does that message base take up as FAT?

See note above.

 MB> This PC has been running virtually non-stop for 24/7 with Binkley and a 
 MB> couple different message readers since November 1992 
 PK>    ... text deleted ...
 MB> months.  I usually shut down over Christmas holidays 
 MB> and clean out the dust and cat hair.

 PK> Well that certainly qualifies as perseverence in my books. Well
 PK> done....;-) 

It has been real solid. The only problem is that it appears that the
ethernet controller now has a problem, but I have a spare when I have the
time/inclination to replace it.

 MB> I like reliability.  :-)

 PK> Yup, when it comes to online communications, reliabilty is a pretty
 PK> important factor.

I'm often only in town from fairly late Friday night to early Monday
morning for weeks at a time, so I don't have time to mess with things much.

Mike Bourne

--- timEd 1.10.y2k