Windows Versions
The windows version of WWIV is developed and tested on Windows 10, however may also run on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012R2 (NT 6.3) or later, however is not tested on anything older than Windows 10 currently.
32bit x86 Windows
Although WWIV BBS will start and run on 64-bit (x64), none of the 16-bit DOS programs and utilities you use with WWIV will work on 64-bit windows. For the best experience, you may want to use a 32bit x86 version of Windows.
Windows Updates
You should have ALL high priority updates on your Windows machine. This may mean running Windows Update several times.
Take the build of WWIV you downloaded and extract all the files
into c:\wwiv (or c:\bbs). To make it easy on the author(s) we’ll
just say c:\wwiv from now on.
You must copy sbbsexec.dll to %WINDIR%\system32.
From a command prompt run wwivconfig.exe
You will see this:
WWIV v5.6.0 (Build ####) Configuration Program.
Copyright (c) 1998-2021, WWIV Software Services
CONFIG.DAT NOT FOUND.
Perform initial installation?
Type Y and wwivconfig will install all the files need and create all of the directories.
You will also be prompted for the the following information:
You will then see the main wwivconfig screen that looks as follows:
┌────────────────────────────────── Main Menu ┐
│ G. General System Configuration │
│ P. System Paths │
│ T. External Transfer Protocol Configuration │
│ E. External Editor Configuration │
│ S. Security Level Configuration │
│ V. Auto-Validation Level Configuration │
│ A. Archiver Configuration │
│ I. Instance Configuration │
│ L. Language Configuration │
│ N. Network Configuration │
│ R. Registration Information │
│ U. User Editor │
│ X. Update Sub/Directory Maximums │
│ W. wwivd Configuration │
│ Q. Quit │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
You navigate these wwivconfig forms with the arrow keys and ENTER key. Hit ESC to Exit the forms and save your changes.
NOTE: All the changes you make are saved when you exit.
Type ESC to exit back to the main menu
On the Main Menu hit ESC or Q to exit wwivconfig
From the command prompt at c:\wwiv
From a command prompt run: bbs to launch the bbs’s Waiting for Caller
screen. Note that the name is for historical reasons, and the BBS isn’t
actually waiting for a call anymore, wwivd handles the inbound telnet sessions.
NOTE: This starts a local copy of the WWIV BBS without opening up connections for outside users.
This is the Waiting For Caller (WFC) Screen.
┌──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Date: 12/25/2016 Time: 12:52:52 │OS: Windows │
└──────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Activity and Statistics of My WWIV BBS Node 1 │
├──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Calls Today....... 48 │ WWIV Version.... 5.8.0 │
│ Feedback Waiting.. 1 New: 1 │ Net Version..... 51 │
│ Uploads Today..... 0 │ Total Users..... 99 │
│ Messages Today.... 98 │ Total Calls..... 20167 │
│ Local Msgs Today.. 12 │ Call/Day Ratio.. 52 │
│ Email Today....... 9 │ Chat Status..... Not Available │
│ Feedback Today.... 4 │ │
│ Mins Used Today... 720 Mins (50.0%) │ │
├──────────────────────────────┬───────┴───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Commands: │ Last User: │
│ │ Newsysop #1 │
│ SPACE) Local Log on ├───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Q) Quit BBS │ Instance Monitor - Node 1 │
│ ?) Display Help │ User.... Nobody │
│ │ Status.. Waiting for Call │
└──────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
F to log in as the sysop account created
in wwivconfig.Congratulations! You are now the SysOp of a WWIV BBS!
Continue on to more advanced wwivd settings to get on the Internet. But we suggest you read through the rest of the documentation before you get too excited about that just yet. But don’t worry, it’s not hard at all!
See WWIVnet for details on configuring WWIVnet and subscribing to subboards (aka message areas).