Call Waiting Screen
The call waiting screen is shown only to you, the SysOp.
From this screen, you can access all of the important PCBoard configuration utilities and modify some of the ways that PCBoard operates.
There are fifteen buttons on the call-waiting screen that define the action that will be taken.
Navigating
When the call waiting screen is displayed, you will notice that the Sysop - Busy button is highlighted. You can move the highlight bar around the call-waiting screen by using the following keys:
| Left | Move the highlight bar one button to the left. If the highlight bar is at the left-most button on the row, the highlight bar will not move. |
| Right | Move the highlight bar one button to the right. If the highlight bar is highlighting the rightmost button on the row, the bar will not move. |
| Down | Move the highlight bar one button down. If the highlight bar is on the bottom button, the bar will not move. |
| Up | Up. Move the highlight bar one row up. If you are at the top of a column of buttons, the highlight bar will not move. |
| ENTER |
Options Explained
The following describes each of the buttons available on the call-waiting screen:
User - Busy
Selecting this button or pressing 2 enables you to login locally as a user.. The display will change to approximate what would be viewed if you called in using a modem. The only difference is that the status line is visible. In addition, the phone line for this node will be made busy (if a COM port has been selected).
User - Not Busy
This button is identical to the User - Busy button, except that the phone line will not be made busy. If someone calls while you are logged in, PCBoard will make a ringing sound and print a notice on the status line to let you know that you should log off.
Sysop - Busy
This button allows you to log in locally to PCBoard as the SysOp. The graphics, name, and password prompts are all skipped to allow for quicker logins. PCBoard will make its best attempt to approximate the display that a remote caller would see on their screen. The only difference is that the status line is visible. In addition, the phone line for this node will be made busy (if a COM port has been selected).
Sysop - Not Busy
This button is identical to the Sysop - Busy button, except that the phone line will not be made busy. If someone calls, while you are logged in, PCBoard will make a ringing sound and print a notice on the status line to let you know that you should log off.
DOS - Busy
Selecting this button or pressing 1 will exit PCBoard and return to DOS. The phone line will be made busy preventing users from being able to login to the node.
DOS - Not Busy
This button will exit PCBoard and return to DOS. The phone line will not be busy meaning that callers will hear the phone continually ring. If you prefer to use keyboard short-cuts, you can press 0 or E instead of selecting this button.
Printer
Selecting this button or pressing 3 will toggle the printer status.
| Off | The information that is written to the caller log will not be sent to the printer port. |
| On | Anything that is written to the caller log will also be written to the printer port defined in PCBSetup Node Configuration. |
Page Bell
Selecting this button or pressing 4 will toggle your chat status to be either on or off.
| Off | Users will be told that the SysOp is not available for chat if they use the O user command. Instead, they are asked if they would rather leave a comment to the SysOp. |
| On | When the page bell is turned on, users will be able to page you for chatting if they attempt to page between the hours defined in PCBSetup > Configuration Options > Limits. If paged, you will be beeped for 30 seconds. You can then choose to answer the page by pressing M or to ignore the page. If you do not answer, the user will be asked if they wish to leave a comment to the SysOp. |
Alarm
Selecting this button or pressing 7 will toggle the alarm status to be either on or off. While a caller is online (either local or via modem), PCBoard will beep when an invalid command is entered, at the beginning of the call, and when the automatic logoff for inactivity is about to occur. The setting of the alarm will determine if the beeps will be heard on the local computer only – remote callers will always be sent beeps.
| Off | The beeps will not be heard on the local computer but they will be heard on the remote computer. |
| On | The beeps will be heard on both the local computer and the remote computer. |
PCBSysMgr
Pressing this button or ALT-S will load System Manager. See the System Manager chapter for further details. As long as you use BOARD.BAT to load PCBoard, you will return to the call waiting screen when you exit System Manager.
PCBFiler
Pressing this button or ALT-D will load PCBFiler. See the PCBFiler chapter for further details. As long as you use BOARD.BAT to load PCBoard, you will return to the call waiting screen when you exit PCBFiler.
PCBSetup
This button will load PCBSetup. As long as you use BOARD.BAT to load PCBoard, you will return to the call waiting screen when you exit PCBSetup.
Statistics
The call waiting screen keeps track of the last caller, and number of calls, messages, and file transfers since being reset by the Reset Stats switch. This button toggles the statistics that are displayed on the call waiting screen between local and system status.
| Local | All statistic totals refer to the current node only. |
| System | All statistic totals refer to all of the nodes in your system. |
NOTE: The statistics will not be updated on local logins if the Exclude Local Logins from Stats option is enabled in PCBSetup | Configuration Options | Switches.
PCBMoni
When this button is selected or you press ALT-M, PCBMoni will be loaded. See the Utilities chapter in this manual for further details. PCBoard shells to PCBMoni so you will always be returned to the call waiting screen when you exit.
Reset Stats
Selecting this button will reset the last caller, and the number of calls, messages, and file transfers. If you are displaying LOCAL statistics, only that node's statistics will be reset. If you are viewing SYSTEM statistics, all nodes will be reset. You may want to do this on a regular basis to help keep tabs of how active your system is.
Additional Keyboard Commands
In addition to the buttons on the call waiting screen, there are two keyboard commands that are available:
| F8 | Recycle node. Using this keyboard command will cause PCBoard to recycle the node and re-initialize the modem. |
| F9 | Toggle screen display. This keyboard command will toggle the status of the screen. When the screen is off, no information is printed on the screen (leaving the entire screen black). Otherwise, the normal information you would see is displayed on the screen. |