RemoteAccess was a popular MS-DOS based Bulletin Board System (BBS) program.
RemoteAccess was a popular MS-DOS based Bulletin Board System (BBS) program.
RemoteAccess (commonly known as RA) was first developed in 1989 by Andrew
Milner, and released in January 1990 as shareware. It was initially popular
with QuickBBS sysops, as it started out as a clone of QuickBBS, and at the
time QuickBBS had recently changed ownership and had an uncertain future.
The main difference was that RA allowed multiple nodes to be used, by running
under a multitasker such as Desqview, DoubleDOS, OS/2 or even Windows. This
allowed supporting multiple phone lines/users at the same time, a feature
which very few non-commercial BBS packages allowed at the time. RA also
had a cleaner sysop-interface, which was styled after the popular FrontDoor
mailer with the permission of the FrontDoor author. Bruce Morse was a beginner Pascal programmer at the time he aquired RA.
He released a Y2K complient version of RA 2.60gamma1 on February 21st 2000.
After that he also released some minor updates/bugfixes, but no further
features were added. The final version of RA 2.62.1 was released on August
9th, 2000. It is still available as fullly-fuctional shareware, which gives
a few extra minor features if registered. There is also a "pro"
version available which supports internal chatting between nodes.
Here is the RA-Y2K Structures and Developer Notes,
and here is a list of whats new since version 2.50
Bruce Morse still runs the RA-pro web site here: www.rapro.com.
Most of the links below are no longer valid, because this (poorly designed)
web page has been here since 1995, and rather then deleting it, it will
remain here as a reminder of what once was...
RemoteAccess quickly improved over several versions, and gained huge popularity
in USA, UK and in its home country of Austrialia in the early years. By
1993 RemoteAccess was the most commonly used non-commercial BBS software
in USA for FidoNet members. RA gained immense
popularity in Europe by the mid 1990s, when the European Underground
BBS Scene jumped on the RA bandwagon in several countries including
The Netherlands, Belgum, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. From 1995 to 1997
the majority of the third-party utilities being developed for RA were provided
by the European scene coders.
Andrew continued development of RA up untill mid 1996 when version 2.50
was released. The Word Wide Web had exploded in popularity during the previous
year, and many BBS Sysops were switching over from running a Bulletin Board
to becoming an Internet Service Provider. Andrew was one of those Sysops,
and after the 2.50 release he halted development. The rights were offered
For Sale in April 1997. It was sold to Bruce
Morse in USA in December 1997.
See the News Article from Infotech.com.au.
By 1998 the BBS era was nearly dead, except for a small number of die-hard
sysops - some who continue to run telnet based BBSes even today.
Table of Contents
RemoteAccess Central
Bruce Morse's Page, the new owner of RemoteAccess software. Bruce purchased the rights and source to RA from Andrew Milner, after Andrew desided to give up on it's development in 1997.pcmicro Message Forum
pcmicro was one of 3 US RA Support sites. This forum offered a web message base where RA sysops who do not have access to fidonet can get alternative support.Slash
Jeroen van de Leur was the exclusive RemoteAccess Professional dealer for the Netherlands, Belgum, and Luxembourg. This is an excellent and informative site. He supports several other products as well, inculding FastEcho, FrontDoor, and TheReader, and tcRA32.Waldo's Place USA
Mark Lewis's Home Page. Mark is currently one of the most active RA support sites. He is the moderator of both the RA_SUPPORT and RA_UTILS fidonet echos, which no longer have much (if any) activity.RA-32 For Windows95 Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ answered in 1995 by Joel Ricketts. Joel was the programmer that started developing RA-32 for Interscape before it's development was scrapped in early 1996.Rumors from 1995 about RemoteAccess being dead, and about RA-32
In October 1995 people started to say that RA was dead, and Andrew had lost intrest. Here is intresting gossop about RA and RA-32 taken from the FidoNet "RemoteAccess_Support" echo during that time, including afew messages from Andrew Milner himself. Thanks to MAF^RAT.Questions and Answers for RemoteAccess
and excellent FAQ from Eric Staufers Q&A4RA package. Eric was a RA-beta siteRemoteAccess 2.xx filedatabase notes
FDB notes by Andrew Milner. Andrew was the original developer of RemoteAccess.Whats new in RemoteAccess 2.50
List of added features and bug fixes since version 2.02.
Woodruff Software
Bryan Woodruff is the author of WinFOSSIL, an excellent fossil driver for Windows 95 and WinFosNT for Windows NT. Unfortunatly the author is no longer developing it, and does not respond to email.NTFOSS
NTFOSS is a fossil driver for WindowsNT, developed by Gerhard Wiesinger.Ray Gwinn's SIO and X00
Ray Gwinn is the author of X00 fossil for DOS and SIO fossil for OS/2Morris Softronics
Carl Morris is the author of OneFossil for DOS.Scandanavian Digital Systems
Anders Danielsson is the author of ADF Fossil Driver for DOSBNU Frequently Asked Questions
David Nugent is the author of the BNU Fossil driver for DOS. BNU was the most popular fossil driver for many years. David used to be a RemoteAccess beta tester in the old days.CFoss
Cfoss is a fossil driver for ISDN modems, which allows you to use traditional modem software with your ISDN.NTFOSS
NTFOSS is a fossil driver for WindowsNT, developed by Gerhard Wiesinger.
- Allfix
Allfix is a Popular RA compatible .tic file processor by Harald Harms.AMU
The Automated Maintenance Utility for RA by David Hickey. AMU incorporates many differnt RA maintenance features into a single utility.Ardent Utils
The Ardent Utils for RA are all Freeware, developed by Daniel Ostman in Sweden. Releases include Subber Subscription Manager, Logcutter, and LastCall.Artware
The Artware Utilities: TimeEd, NetMgr and WIMM by Gerard van Essen.BBS Archives
The largest collection of RemoteAccess utilities available on the internet. Over 40 file areas, each containing full FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions of popular and hard to find BBS utilities. You can search for new files here, or search for specific filenames.Boiled Sweets Software
A few RA utils are developed here, including RA-Renumberer which renumbers your RA 2.50 file areas so that all the numbers are in sequencial order.Blue Wave questions and Answers
Blue Wave was once a popular offline mail door by George Hatchew which supported RA. It used it's own propritary mail format rather then the standard QWK. It is no longer being supported or developed, and George no longer accepts registrations.Catbytes Software
Several RA utilities by Armin Gilliar are available here. Most are in German but a few do have English docs and descriptions as well.Coffee Productions
This UK Group is still developing some nice RA utils, including Putty Login matrix, Bouncing disclaimer door, a whoson door, and others.Creators of the Shadow Force
CSF is a coder group from Brazil who produce a few RA doors, including CSF-Bank, CSF-Liner, CSF-Speed-Login, and CSF-User-List. They also produce several non BBS utilities as well.Crow
A group of coders from Sweden that used to custom make the RA utils you dreamed of. Some of their RA doors include KIWI - the lightbar One-Liner, and CrowMenu - a PCBoard style menu system for RA.Cyber Circus
A group of Swedish coders that used to make afew RA and PCB utilities.Creative Computer Software
Former home of FastFile, a complete lightbar file door for RemoteAccess. Unfortunatly the Authors seem to have given up on it's development, but you can email them from this page and request that they release the code as freeware. :)Dimension X Creations
This Dutch group creates several excellent utils for RA, such as ReadMsg, WriteMsg, Selecktor, WhoAreOn, PrivateFile and several others.DCT Productions
Dan C. Traczynsk wrote some incredible RA doors, such as DCTBL (BBS List), DCTCL (Callers List) DCTUC (User Chat), DCTVD (Vote Door), and his latest: DCTEDIT (BBS Message Editor). Most of his doors are lightbar driven, and Freeware!Dementia
Dementia (DMA) was one of the most popular of the Dutch scene groups back in the mid 1990's, and released dozens of RemoteAccess utilities including LawGator, FileGate, and many others. They have recently returned from the dead to release more utils for RA.Donald Kerr's BBS Utilities
Several utilitys for Remoteaccess BBS from a once RA Sysop.Excessive Force Crew (EFC) page by Deadline
This Dutch groups of coders developed some great elite style RA doors among other things. Unfortunatly they still spell RemoteAccess as two words :-).El Bucanero Productions
A group of coders from Argentina, who made afew RA utilities, including TheTops for WarezTag, NewsMaker, and some file_id.diz utils.Elevator Productions
Maarten Beckers is developing EleBBS, a RemoteAccess 2.50 clone for DOS, Windows, and OS/2. It runs all RA doors, utils, language files, ect. Marten has also developed several utilities for RA.EnkHuizen BBS Software
EnkHuizen BBS is the new owner of all the RA utilities originally developed by Jan Rietveld of J.H.R. Software, including RA_2_TAG, TAG_DOWN, and others. All users that registered with J.H.R are no longer registered according to EnkHuizen BBS.Envy Technologies
The Maker of Visual Tools for RA and Windows 95, Including RA-Monitor.Frame
FRAME is a bulletin and file header utility for RA by Yat Tung Cheung.GET-DIZ
The RAMGR add-on that imports FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions into the RA FileDataBase. Also available here is PUT-DIZ, which writes FILE_ID.DIZ files into archives.IceSoft Technologies
IceChat, IceEdit, IceNote, Ice-CBV and other Ice utilities by Jeremy Landvoigt of Canada. Jeremy created some of the most popular BBS utilities in the world, which are now no longer developed, and registration is no longer possible.Infidels
A Swedish group used to make nice utilities for RemoteAccess.Integral Corporation
Several nice utils for RemoteAccess are developed here in Russia. Full Freeware.KHL - Kaotik Hackin League A UK group that wrote a few RA doors.
Late Night BBS Software
Over a dozen RemoteAccess utilities are developed here by Roblo, including Tag Keeper, Auto Login, and Scrap-It!Lightning Software
Developer of LightChat, a full featured sysop to user chat door for RA and PB made in the U.K.LiveSystems Software
Gerhard Hoogturp's RA Utilities from Holland, includes USERON, the popular 'who's online' replacment for RA.LoMa Productions
LongWord Freeware
Maker of MagicList, a RA file manager and fileslist maker that looks like RAMGR, but has alot more features. Developed by Lars Osterlund in Sweden.
Several RA and Archive related utils by Chris Buijs, including RAFT, a file manager for RemoteAccess 2.02.Madsoft
A few nice utilities are developed here by Andreas Lein (Madman), including the famous Madlogin Matrix for RA/ELE BBS's. Unfortunatly the documentation for his products are only in German.Matrix Technologies
The new owner of QuickBBS, and the former IceSoft Utilities. Unfortunatly the registered users of the Ice products need to re-register (under the new name QuikUtils) if they want support or future updates. Several sysops boycotted Matrix due to their actions.Merlin Systems
Makers of NetXpress, an expensive Internet/UseNet gateway for RA and other DOS BBS software, using SMTP amd NNTP technology. They also developed an Internet Access BBS Door. Now Merlin has made their software freeware! Download the key files from their site.Mikerosoft Productions- RIP
Several RA utilities were deveoped here by Michael Heliker & Steve Blinch, including TurboEdit, TurboChat, TurboCheck, TurboNews and TurboBank. They have discontinued support, and have sold the source code.Mercury Soft Technology
Mercury Soft is the Asian Distribution/Registration Site of many BBS utilities. We also develop BBS utilities for DOS & Windows 95/98/NT. Our BBS Doors are compatible with RemoteAccess, and well as most other BBS software. All of our productions are released as Freeware or Shareware!Multiboard Communications
Several RA Utilities by Pete Rocca including OLMS (an off-line mail door), NodeManager (a Multinode console), Upcheck (an upload/archive processor), CVS (Call-Back-Validator), GifSee (online GIF Viewer) and more. Most of Pete's excellent utils are now freeware!NetModem/32 Telnet Server
NetModem allows your BBS to accept telnet callers over the internet, by emulating a modem under Windows 95. It works with RemoteAccess, ProBoard, and many other BBS programs.Niels Schoot Software
Home of TotalControl, a 32-bit graphical user manager for RA 2.xx and Win95 which includes a monitor to view all your nodes current status. Also tcFileEditor, a 32-bit RA FileBase manager, and tcRA2HTML, the RA FileBase to HTML converter used at the BBS Archives. Niels is currently developing tcRA32 BBS, a RA compatible BBS for Windows 95/NT. Click here for several screen shots.Omega Software
Several RA Utils by Mark Williamson including Labtest were here. Mark has moved on to other projects.PPSoft - Piston Poper Software
Several small RA Utils by Peter Burnett.R.A.M.S.
RemoteAccess Automated Message System by Eddy Matthews & Geoff Bassett. Automated posting of those boaring messages a busy sysop needs to send to his users.RealmWare Development
Several nice RA utils are available here, along with screen shots.RemoteAccess Force- RIP
A Dutch group of coders that made several great RA utilities including RAF-ANSWER, RAF-MENU, Online User Editor, MSGEDIT, and several others. Like most other RA groups, they have given up and left the scene, but before they did, Pope-X released all their source code to the public!RemoteAccess Force - Bass's Oblivian Page
RA-Force has died, but one of the coders (Bass) is also a member of Obilvian, the makers of the elusive BytezTag. Byteztag is a clone of the famous Wareztag FileDoor. Currently only RAF-ZAP is offered here, bi-directional protocol.Santronics Software's Silver Xpress
A popular mail door that supports RA. Developed by Hector Santos.Skullsoft Group Berlin
Grischa Brockhaus develops several RA utilities in Germany, including SkullCheck (upload processor), RAV (remote archive viewer), FastDupe (filebase dupe searcher), and Ratomic (upload nuker/mover/credit).Synopsis - Edge of Honor
Several excellent RemoteAccess Utilities including the Wareztag filedoor, and Photochat.Sys-Stat
A very nice RemoteAccess statistics generator, now under new ownership and development.T-Ras Multimedia
Home of UBiz lister and other RemoteAccess utils by Iftach Silberman.Tek-War
A group of coders/artists from Argentina, who make afew RA utils and screens, including a lastcallers door, and some mail/file/logon animations.Tide Full Screen Editor
Tide is a full screen message editor for RemoteAccess and compatable BBS's. It is developed by Errol Smith.TwoDogs Computing and FLUffY Freeware
Several BBS Doors are available here, 100% RA compatible. The Home of the BeelzeBub oneliner.THD Proscan Support
A RA compatible upload archive tester by David Muir. This is freeware. Also several archive compressors can be found here.TWAiN PAiN Software
Several RA utils including Cross-View online archive viewer, DaTag RA file tagging door, 4Sale shopping door, and about a dozen other fine RA utilities.UltraComm UltraDoors
Freeware utilities for RemoteAccess, from the UK.
BBToss
Home of BBT, a Fido compatibler message/netmail tosser for Dos and OS/2.Beemail
Beemail is a Windows GUI Fidonet compatible Mailer, tosser, and scanner all in one.FidoNet 2 InterNet Mailer
Bo Bendtsen's new FidoNet to InterNet mailer works with your existing mailer (FrontDoor, InterMail, McMail, POP, D'bridge, etc). Uses Win95's dialup networking to send fidonet packets and files to the destinations email address.Definite Solutions
Joaquim Homrighausen's Home Page. FrontDoor Headquarters, located in Sweden. FD is one of the worlds most popular mailers.FastEcho Support
FastEcho is a one of the fastest tossers/scanners available, supporting Hudson, JAM, Squish, and *.MSG formats. This support page is maintained by Jeroen van de Leur, the Benelux Registration site.FMail Support
Folkert Wijnstras Home Page. Fmail is a popular mail processor from Holland.Further Development Inc
InterMail- a premier Mailer, and InterEcho- a fast mail processor are both supported here.GEcho Support
Gerard van der Land's Home Page. GEcho was a popular mail processor from the Netherlands.GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out)
GIGO a free fido/uucp mail tosser for DOS and OS/2. It converts between Internet Email and FidoNet style Netmail, as well as between USENET Newsgroups and FidoNet Echomail. The source code and key generator are available here as well.Goldware International
Home of GoldEd, a Danish Fido/JAM and internet offline mail reader by Odinn Sorensen.Intuitive Vision
Home of T-Mail, A 'Do-Everything Mailer' and Altair, a 32-bit mail tosser.McMail
McMail is a FidoNet Mailer developed in Germany.Tentacle
Tobias Tiecke's home page. Author of Tentacle, a Fidonet Mailer and mail processor.Lenzt Software Development
Arjen Lenzt's home page. Author of Xenia, a Fidonet Mailer and message reader/editor for DOS and OS/2.RIT Research Labs
Developer of Argus, a 32-bit BinkStyle Mailer for Windows95 and NT, featuring dialup and Internet transport.Watergate North American Registration/Support site
Watergate is a fido/uucp mail tosser. This site is maintained by Rob Szarka.
ACiD
"ANSi Creators in Demand" is a popular ANSi/RIP Art group. Yes! ACiD's site is back, now with an excellent search engine and a much larger ftp site.BGFAX
BGFAX Recieve Faxs on your the same phone lines that your BBS uses. Works even if you run a mailer such as FrontDoor.Boardwatch Magazine
Read this months Boardwatch BBS Magazine Online!Computer Connection
Fidonet Region 19 REC Homepage, maintained by Ben Hamilton. Lots of info and links relating to Fidonet. Ben also offers low prices on fidonet feeds via ftp, telnet, or email, and offers USENET newsgroups gated to fidonet echomail format. You can also telnet to his ProBoard BBS.The FidoNet Home Page
Info about FidoNet. See pictures of Andrew Milner and Joho.FidoGate
This is an internet FTP hub service for Fidonet mail and file distribution over the internet.Freeware BBS Utils list
A lot of freeware utilities that work with RemoteAccess.BBS Corner
Simular to Sysops Corner. Links to many BBS support sites.BBS Links
Links to many BBS support sites.BBSRef
Several Links to many BBS support sites.Logon
A large collection of BBS software, doors and links. slightly dated.The Terminate Homepage
Bo Bendtsen produces the most advanced communication terminal available. Terminate is a terminal plus a fidonet reader, mailer, tosser, scanner, packer, UUencoder, mini-BBS and much more. Bo also developed the FidoNet-to-InterNet Mailer.The Wishing Well Sysops Corner
MaryLou White's excellent links to web pages that are BBS door related.My BBS Source Site
Full Source Code to many BBS System's are available here, in Pascal,C/C++, Basic, and VB. It's also a Support site for Tornado BBS And Max Graphics - RIP-like graphics drop-in for BBS's.ANSi/RIP Art
Some of the best underground art groups in the scene.
ftp://ftp.pcmicro.com/ pcmicro ftp. A lot of RA utilities! Fidonet: 1:102/1001
ftp://ftp.fileshop.com/pub/rapro/ Interscape Developments RA-Pro FTP site. A few files.
ftp://ftp.juge.com/The Comm Port. Bob Juges' FTP site. Many BBS related utils.
ftp://ftp.ttown.com/pub/fastecho/ FastEcho FTP directory by Tobias Burchhardt.
ftp://ftp.gigo.com/pub/artware/ Artware FTP directory by Gerard van Essen.
ftp://uniserve.com/pub/bbs_doors/Uniserves door FTP directory.
ftp://ftp.rmii.com/pub2/ziem Psycho Utils FTP directory by Andrew Ziem.
ftp://ftp.multiboard.com/multiboard/ Multiboard FTP directory by Pete Rocca.
ftp://ftp.bitcon.no/.10/msdos/ra/Bitcon Norway FTP site. RA utils directory.
ftp://ftp.bitcon.no/.10/msdos/bbs// SimTelNets DOS BBS collection
ftp://ftp.bitcon.no/.10/msdos/bbsdoors/ SimTelNets DOS BBS doors collection.
alt.bbs.ra Newsgroup for RemoteAccess discussions. alt.bbs Newsgroup for General BBS discuusions. alt.bbs.allsysop Newsgroup for all BBS System Operators. alt.bbs.doors Newsgroup for BBS Door discussions. comp.bbs.misc Newsgroup for Misc. BBS programs.
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