At a glance
- Package
- Fido v12u, Tom Jennings's Fido (Fido Software), public domain
- Lines
- Six on a fresh install, up to 255 (each line is a task number; nothing to set up per line). Proven: six.
- Starting account
- Studley Whackburn (the package's own demo caller, raised to SysOp)
- Callers page you with
- P at the main menu
- Console keys
- Answer: 1. Break in: 1. Leave: Ctrl and Z.
The board
Fido is the board that started FidoNet, in its last DOS release.
What ATA set up. The compiled setup FIDO.SYS (Fido reads only that, never its text files), every message and file area directory its AREAS.INI names (a board without them loses posts silently), uploads into each file area's own directory so they appear in its listing, and Fido's handoff at a speed it can count (19200: Fido reads 38400 as a negative number).
The DOS page. "Waiting for caller" is the Fido console. "SET-FIDO" compiles the text files into FIDO.SYS and creates any new area folders.
Making it your own. Three text files in the FIDO folder: FIDO.INI (system and sysop names, modem, errorlevels), AREAS.INI (the message and file areas) and COMMANDS.INI (the menus). Edit them through your host's file manager, then run SET-FIDO. The welcome screens, QUOTES.BBS and the BULLETIN files are plain text. Change the starting account's password from C)hange on the board itself.
Callers. Name, then password. Fido capitalises a typed password like a name (first letter capital, the rest small), so choose passwords written that way. A new caller applies with name, city and a chosen password, and becomes a member only when they leave by G)oodbye: Fido writes the record at logoff, so an applicant who closes the tab is not registered. That is the package's own behaviour.
Paging. Fido honours a page only while one of its own scheduled Page events is running, and the shipped schedule has none: a caller is told the operator cannot be paged until you add one in SET-FIDO.
Doors. Fido 12 has no door road of its own, so LORD and other doors do not run on it.
Doors on Fido
Fido 12 has no door road of its own: its menus have no command that runs an outside program for a caller. LORD and other doors do not run on Fido. That is the package, not ATA.