ID:ST Technical Support via Smartnet Quarterdeck Technical Note #159 by Eric Wieling This technote describes how you can access one of Quarterdeck's 24 hour electronic Technical Support services. But first, a little background information. SmartNet is a network of individual Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) that exchange messages, questions, answers, and files on a daily basis. The SmartNet Network is not like the Local Area Networks (LANs) that you may be familiar with. SmartNet is currently a three-level network. The International/Administrative Host system of the SmartNet is The Sound of Music BBS (SOM). The Sound of Music Bulletin Board System (SOM) is a system that brings the very latest technologies to the telecomputing world. SOM has grown to supporting over 1.5 GIGABYTES of online resources including over 10,000 files available for subscribers of the Sound of Music BBS. Regional Systems call The Sound of Music every night to exchange any new information or messages that may have been received during the day. There are several regional hubs; each in addition to exchanging information with SOM also exchanges information with smaller, individual Bulletin Boards. The regional hubs usually have large user bases. These systems usually have several incoming lines and require a paid subscription for full access. Individual bulletin board systems call the closest regional hub to exchange messages and information that has been received during the day. Most of them have only one or two incoming lines and many times do not charge subscription fees for access. By using this method of exchanging messages and information, a message left on any one of the BBSes on the network is received by everyone of the BBSes on the network within days. It also allows Quarterdeck Technical Support to call one system, currently The Sound of Music, and reach hundreds of users with technical bulletins, upgrade information and answers to technical support questions. The DESQview product support conference discusses DESQview, QEMM-386, QEMM-50/60, QRAM, Manifest, and the API programing interface to DESQview. Quarterdeck is not the only company that uses SmartNet as an avenue for technical support. Many hardware manufacturers and software publishers (both commercial and shareware/Public Domain) provide support on SmartNet. SmartNet is such a good resource for computer users that BYTE magazine wrote of Smartnet and the Sound of Music BBS is a "major national bbs network and system". The Sound of Music Bulletin Board System (SOM) is the system that Quarterdeck uses to distribute its information on SmartNet. This information is sent to any SmartNet node that carries the DESQview product support conference. Although you may prefer to contact one of the participating SmartNet nodes in your area, the following is subscription information for The Sound of Music BBS: There are presently two FREE PUBLIC ACCESS NODES to the Sound of Music BBS which can be accessed at (516) 536-8723. Public access limits downloading to the first 90 days online. Thereafter, the trial user is expected to subscribe to the Sound of Music BBS in one of several categories defined below. These public nodes are available for accessing all of the conferences of the system. Many features of the system are only available to subscribers of the system. The public nodes only support 1200/2400 bps modems. 9600 bps is only available on subscriber nodes. FULL YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: $50.00/calendar year with full access to all forums, doors, conferences and file directories with NO restrictions to number of files downloaded with a 1 megabyte daily download limit and a daily online limitation of 3 hours per day. TRIAL 90 SUBSCRIPTION: $25.00/90 day period with full access to all forums, doors, conferences and a file directories with a daily byte limitation of 500,000 bytes/day and a daily online time of 40 minutes. The following is a list of BBSes participating in SmartNet. Sound Of Music 516-536-5630 Oceanside, NY Oasis BBS 613-236-1730 Ottawa, ONT, CANADA PC Connect 416-733-9052 Toronto, ONT, CANADA Rose Media 416-733-2285 Toronto, ONT CANADA Chips+ Connection 714-760-3265 Newport Beach, CA DPS 213-459-6053 Pacific Palisades, CA Easy Access BBS 415-829-6027 San Ramon, CA Hideaway BBS 916-961-1042 Sacramento, CA LAX Lighthouse 213-673-4745 Inglewood, CA Little Angels PCBoard 213-387-5901 Los Angeles, CA SeaHunt BBS 415-344-4348 Burlingame, CA The CHARISMA BBS 415-349-6576 Foster City, CA The HIDEAWAY 916-961-1042 Sacramento, CA The Higher Powered BBS 408-737-9447 Sunnyvale, CA The Hotline 818-567-6564 Burbank, CA The Network 2000 415-474-4523 San Francisco, CA The PC GFX Exchange 415-337-5416 San Francisco, CA WEST LOS ANGELES BBS 213-838-9229 West Los Angeles, CA Twin Peaks BBS 303-651-0225 Longmont, CO HH Info-Net 203-738-0306 New Hartford, CT BOSTON GAS BBS 617-235-6303 Wesley, MA Channel 1 (tm) 617-354-8873 Cambridge, MA TRAVEL ONLINE 314-625-4054 St. Louis, MO The Odyssey 201-984-6574 Morris Plains, NJ Apollo III BBS 716-894-7386 Buffflo, NY HI TECH NetWork 212-769-4734 New York, NY PharmStat BBS 718-217-0898 Bayside, NY The Big Apple BBS 516-536-1546 Rockville Centre, NY The Invention Factory 212-431-1194 New York, NY Blue Lake 503-655-0842 West Linn, OR Chemeketa OnLine 503-393-5580 Salem, OR The Underdog PCBoard 215-788-6647 Croydon, PA Data World BBS 615-966-3574 Concord, TN TEJAS 713-681-1920 Houston, TX The Abend BBS 713-771-2802 Houston, TX Ye Olde Bailey 713-520-1569 Houston, TX Arlington Software 703-532-5568 Walls Church, VA Data Bit NETWork 703-719-9648 Alexandria, VA Springfield Bypass 703-941-5815 Springfield, VA The Midnite Rider 703-591-5744 Fairfax, VA Poverty Rock 206-232-1763 Mercer Is., WA Poverty Rock PCBoard 206-367-2596 Seattle, WA Real Batchin' 206-391-2330 Issaquah, WA Starfinder I 206-277-1689 Renton, WA Copyright (C) 1991 by Quarterdeck Office Systems * * * E N D O F F I L E * * *