Dial-Out

History

Born from one of the functions within the Functions and Utilities module, Dial-Out became a module in its own right with some additional features not present in the previous module. The development of Dial-Out allowed Galactic Innovations to compete with Logicom's popular Outlink module.

Dial-Out continued to be sold by Galacticomm after the acquisition of Galactic Innovations.

Utility Information

The Dial-Out module allows users to connect to other systems using the BBS as a host. This can be used as a front end to allow users to access other services over modems, serial connections, or X.25 virtual circuits. Script files may be executed at connect time for automated logins which are transparent to the user.

Users are presented with a Dial-Out menu with options including dialing a system, information about a system, list systems available, and topic search.

List Systems Available

When you first go into Dial-Out, you may want to list the various systems available to you. Each system you have access to will be displayed, each with a short description and a system number. The system number is what you will be typing in when prompted for a system to actually connect to. Don't worry about remembering the number though, because all the systems (and their numbers) will be displayed to you again when you choose to dial a system.

Topic Search

Choose this option to have the BBS search all the systems available for a particular topic. You will be prompted for a topic to search for, and the BBS will search all the short descriptions for available systems under that topic. Each system found with your topic will be displayed to you with its system number and short description.

Information About A System

Choose this option to get specific information about a particular system. You'll want to do this before you go and dial a system you're interested in. When you use this option, any additional connect time charges while you're using Dial-Out will be displayed (these are usually only in place to cover long distance charges, if any). When you select this option, all available systems will be displayed to you, and you can select the number of the system you wish to look up.

Dial A System

Choose this option when you're ready to go ahead and connect to another system. All available systems will be displayed, and you will be asked to select one to dial.

After selecting a system, you may be told that the system is "waiting for an available channel". This will appear if all of the system's modems (or serial lines) are currently being used by other users. In this case, you'll have to wait a minute until one of the channels becomes free. (You can also hit RETURN to abort the dialing attempt.)

If the BBS you're trying to DIAL is busy, you'll be informed that Dial-Out is re-dialing the system. It may do this several times before giving up. You can always hit RETURN to abort, and try again later.

Otherwise, if none of this happens, Dial-Out should beep your terminal and tell you it connected. At this point, you're online the other system!