Hello Nigel.

23 Jul 04 13:27, you wrote to Vince Coen:

 >> Try mbse full native bbs using jam msg base.
 >>
 >> Works very well and very well supported by the Author and the rest
 >> of us sysops.  See the 'mbse' echo for other info if needed.

 NR> Interesting, however I'm not going to install software that says it's
 NR> going to start changing my system files. Also, I don't like the look
 NR> of "bbs user is created as the login user". Does this
mean it doesn't
 NR> have any login control of its own and relies upon the linux side of
 NR> things to
 NR> handle that? Ie, am I going to have a lot of "bbs" users logged in
 NR> when I type who.

It chages your system files only in the sense it adds 2 new users to the 
system, namely MBSE and BBS, MBSE is the user under who'se account the BBS 
runs, and BBS is the user that any new user logs in as, and who'se only shell 
is the newuser script. Then the BBS creates a user account for the
"newuser" 
in /opt/mbse/home/newuser. On linux using the OS to handle users and user 
security makes sense, why re-invent "services" that are already more than 
adequately supplied by the underlying OS.

A newuser uses the "BBS" account only once to run the new suser
script, and 
thereafter uses the login name he supplied when he logged in as "BBS".

So the only time you will see multiple "bbs" users logged in is
if more than 
one person simutaniosly registers as a newuser.

 NR> My machine isn't mission critical, but I'm not about to let some
 NR> piece
 NR> of software take over.

It doesn't take over your machine only 2 user accounts bbs so newusers can 
create their own accounts, and mbse for running the BBS, for the rest, you 
can as you please with the box, mine runs apache, proftpd, telnetd, sshd and 
a host of other services, all on a 486DX4-100 before I upgraded to the 
current 200MMX system.

The only down side of the user "bbs" is if you want to use anothe
Linux BBS 
program and it also wants to create/use the "bbs" user account.

Enjoy!

Russell

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.4.7