Problem: When WinPack connects to the BBS, either in an Auto BBS session or when I press F2, it gets to WAITPROMPT and then sits there until I cancel the script, even though the BBS has sent the prompt. (Another variation of this is that the WAITPROMPT disappears before the prompt is received from the BBS, and WinPack may then abruptly disconnect.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Answer: It is very important to input the correct setting for "BBS prompt" in "Personal/BBS Info". Unless this setting is correct, the BBS.TXT script will stick at WAITPROMPT or terminate prematurely. Help is available if you press F1 when the "Personal/BBS Info" window is open. Here are some examples of BBS prompts and the correct setting for "BBS prompt". Here's an example of a very common BBS prompt:- 2:GB7IDE> Here is what you put in "BBS Prompt" in WinPack:- :GB7IDE note the ':' and note no '>' on the end. Here's another prompt:- (1) G8MZX de GB7IDE BBS 12:34 > Here is what you might put in "BBS Prompt" in WinPack:- ) G8MZX de GB7IDE Here's another prompt:- (3) GB7IDE (H for Help) A,B,C,D (most of the alphabet) > Here is what you might put in "BBS Prompt" in WinPack:- ) GB7IDE (H for Help) What you're trying to do is to put some text which occurs in the prompt, but is unlikely to occur anywhere else. WinPack always assumes that the prompt from the BBS ends with a '>', so you don't need to put it in. NOTE that the text you specify must be in the correct case. A common error is to put something like:- 3:GB7SKG The '3' is a stream number, and will vary from connect to connect, so sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't. Another common error is, with a prompt like the example above with the time in it, to put:- ) G8MZX de GB7IDE > By putting the '>' on the end, you are specifying something which does not actually occur in the prompt. ") G8MZX de GB7IDE" occurs in the prompt and so does '>', but ") G8MZX de GB7IDE >" does not. As stated above, WinPack assumes that the BBS prompt ends with a '>', you don't need to put it in. One other thing which can *very rarely* give a problem is if you have an absolutely superb path to the BBS, and the BBS has very little welcome text, so the prompt arrives in the first frame almost the instant you connect. In that case remove the WAITCON from BBS.TXT. (The following was added to the FAQ on 2000-Jan-06 as a result of someone sending a bulletin to WINPAC @ GBR saying that all you needed in "BBS prompt" was '>'.) ************************************************************** Don't be tempted to take the easy option of putting simply:- > It may appear to work, but it will probably cause problems at some stage. It will certainly cause problems if the sysop configures the BBS so you see something like this when you connect:- < Welcome to GB7XXX! > < A great BBS for testing your WinPack prompt setting. > If you have only put '>' in "BBS prompt" in WinPack then the chances are that you'll never get as far as the real BBS prompt, which is on the next line:- (1) GB7XXX BBS> It will also give you a problem if you don't use the FBB unproto beacons, and so WinPack has to collect the message list by connecting to the BBS and listing it. Packet users will quite often surround the message title with '<' and '>'. When WinPack lists the messages, it will stop at any line ending with '>'. ************************************************************** Roger Barker, G4IDE 2000-Jan-06