Hi! I am writing this to all of the people that are just getting started with
VBBS/VA. This information may also be useful for those who have ran the
software for many years too. The information is more toward those who are
running multi-node systems, but will also help on a single node, but not as
noticable.

While the documentation to VBBS or VA is fairly adequate at giving help on
the workings of the software, very little is mentioned about one of the tips
that will give a big performance increase. What I am referring to is a
RAMDRIVE.

A Ramdrive is basically system memory that appears to DOS and Windows as a
regular hard drive. You can copy files to it, and delete them from it.. but
it all takes place in RAM. The bad thing about the ramdrive though is that it
is RAM, so when you turn off the system, you lose whatever was stored on the
Ramdrive. You can use this to your advantage with either VBBS or VA.

VBBS and VA both use a file called CONTROL.DAT which is found in the
directory you specify in VConfig as the Control Directory. This file is a
temporary file used by the software that contains information on what is
actually going on with the different nodes. If you have a multi-nodes system
setup, then you will probably have noticed that your hard drive is constantly
being used for some unknown purpose.. that is the BBS software reading this
file to update each node; about every 5 seconds. This could create a lot of
wear and tear on the hard drive, but more importantly it is much slower than
say, you put the CONTROL.DAT file in RAM.

Here is how you do it (for Windows and DOS)...

First you need to decide how big of a Ramdrive you need. The easiest way to
do this is to multiply the number of nodes you are running by 8. I am running
4 nodes on my BBS, so I want a 32k Ramdrive for the CONTROL.DAT file.

Edit your CONFIG.SYS file in your root directory. Add the following lines, if
they aren't already there:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 32 /E

If you calculated a different number above, then change '32' to the number
you have.

If these files are in different directories on your computer, then change
them accordingly. Make sure that himem.sys is loaded before ramdrive.sys.

The '/E' commands it to use Extended memory instead of Conventional memory.

Reboot your computer.

Enter VConfig, and edit the Paths Configuration. Change the CONTROL.DAT
directory to the drive that was created above. On my system, it was drive
(E. Make sure that there is NO trailing backslash after the path.

Now, load up the BBS software and you can look at your Ramdrive to see the
CONTROL.DAT file that was created there. You can delete the old CONTROL
directory off your hard drive if you want now.

Ok, you maybe thinking two things now. 1) What will happen if I turn off the
system now, and 2) I have a lot of room left on the Ramdrive (CONTROL.DAT
should be about 530 bytes). The answers are: 1) This directory is strictly a
temporary directory. It will probably do you more good to delete the
CONTROL.DAT file occasionally than to let it remain on your hard drive.
2) This directory is also where the BBS will write certain files to signal
events on the BBS.. such as users paging another user, or a user emails
another user. Just use the formula above and you will good to go.

I hope that this information helps someone out there. Plus you will notice
that you don't hear the hard drive constantly read the file. If you have any
questions about the information above, then please email me at the address
below.

Aspect Technologies Design BBS
http://scribers.midwest.net/swinn
telnet://at2k.dhs.org