Bob Jones wrote in a message to Joe Davis:

 BJ> Another solution would allow a small web page pointing 

 JD> A small web page, I already have the space for.  
 JD> This is interesting.... hmmm...   :)

 JD> Although to pursue it, I would need help ...  a web 
 JD> page creation guru, I ain't.

Guru I ain't either,  but I've done some of that sort of thing...

Got a bunch of the doc files on my linux box organized that way!

 BJ> I was figuring something that is mainly text and then has URL's to 
 BJ> the on-line bbs's that carry the archives, and maybe also info for
 BJ> freq'ing the files (if one is a fidonet node).  It is relatively
 BJ> easy to write up such a page.  If you have a late enough Microsoft
 BJ> word (97 or so), and have installed the HTML filter (optional if I
 BJ> remember correctly), you can write up a single page and save it in
 BJ> HTML format.  The only thing I don't like about Microsoft's way of
 BJ> doing this is that you may have to mannually correct the URL info. 
 BJ> It can be done in word, but you have to drop to a mode that allows
 BJ> you to edit the raw HTML.  And once the URL is edited, if you make
 BJ> changes around or to the URL in the HTML mode of word, then you
 BJ> have to re-edit the URL again....    [Microsoft Word edits
 BJ> URLs to fully qualified URL's and not relative URLs.]

Arg.  I use a bloody text editor,  no more...

 BJ> Of course one could always look up the current HTML standard on the
 BJ> web and hand write the ASCII text file from scratch, but that is a
 BJ> little more work, especially if you aren't familar with the HTML
 BJ> tags....

You don't need that many of them.

 BJ> So, if you want, write up the word document, save it as HTML and
 BJ> then send that to me for editing if needed....  If you don't have
 BJ> any other HTML files for your web site, then the file will usually
 BJ> be named index.html or index.htm .  There are also a few other
 BJ> possible names depending on how your serverice provider is
 BJ> configured.

 BJ> to where the files could be freq'ed (or downloaded) from internet 
 BJ> connected BBS's.  I can set up a small (few Mb) web page with my 
 BJ> current ISP, but the bulk of the files I'd have to leave on my 
 BJ> BBS.

 JD> You mentioned binkp in a previous message, right?  I assume your 
 JD> system is connected 24/7 to the internet. And I believe you wanted 
 JD> to eventually put all the files up for freq.

 BJ> Yes.  I'm connected 24/7 using BinkP, Vmodem and Telnet to the 
 BJ> internet, currently with a cable modem.  The telnet URL would be 
 BJ> "telnet://tophat.darktech.org".  If you type that URL into your 
 BJ> web browser (without the quotes), it will open a termial window 
 BJ> telnet session to my system. While this allows you to look at my 
 BJ> BBS, and respond there, unless you have configured a different 
 BJ> telnet program from the standard, you can't download files because
 BJ> standard telnet doesn't understand XModem or the like.  :(

Hm.  I used to log into a local system that dropped me at a login prompt. 
 There it was possible to download stuff,  using zmodem even, 
with my term program.  I suppose that it might also have been possible to
put something together with ftp,  but I didn't know from ftp in those days.

 BJ> As to putting the files up for freq, once I have them configured in
 BJ> my BBS, they would be available for freq.  I've got Binkley
 BJ> answering POTS, Telnet and VModem "lines", and bink will drop to
 BJ> Max for the BBS.  And I have BinkD answering the standard BinkP
 BJ> port.

 JD> Would you be able to, or have any desire to, run an FTP server?  
 JD> to allow the files to be d/l'd? I'm free wheeling and dreaming 
 JD> here...  so if the answer is no,  np....

 BJ> I have the technical know how to run an FTP server, I just don't 
 BJ> have the proper permission.  Same thing goes for running a web 
 BJ> server.  [I actually have appache running on one of my internal
 BJ> machines here, but it is not accessable from the internet.]  I also
 BJ> haven't checked my FTP and HTTP options out for security concerns. 
 BJ> As long as items stay as part of the current BBS stuff, I should be
 BJ> ok.  I realize if one made things available via FTP protocol, then
 BJ> one could write a  web page using standard URL's to reference each
 BJ> file....  My solution requires a little more work on the user
 BJ> wanting to pick up the files....  On the other hand, we could give
 BJ> pointers on the web page on how to do a freq via supported TCP/IP
 BJ> protocols from the various BBS systems.

 BJ> We could potentially distribute the load by mirroring the files 
 BJ> to a number of BBS's or sites....

 JD> All this is very interesting and encouraging.  Perhaps some others 
 JD> will have ideas to share here too.

Yep!

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