This section takes you from a finished install to your first caller. It assumes you have done Installing ProBoard v4, or upgraded a 16-bit board with Upgrading from 16-bit ProBoard.
There are four steps. Do them in order the first time.
| Step | What you do | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Give the board its name, check its folders and decide who may join. | Your first configuration |
| 2 | Start PBDispatch, the program that answers callers. | Starting PBDispatch |
| 3 | Log in yourself, then create your sysop account. | Your first caller |
| 4 | Open the board to the outside world. | Going online |
You only ever run two programs by hand: PBConfig to change settings and PBDispatch to run the board. PBDispatch listens on the ports for your services. When a caller connects it starts one ProBoard.exe for that caller, which gives them the logon screens, menus and areas, and ends when they hang up. The picture on the Introduction page shows this in full.
Because every caller gets their own ProBoard.exe, several callers can be on at once. Each one is a node, and the number of nodes is a setting you choose (see Your first configuration). Each node keeps its own scratch files in NODEDIR\NODE<n>, so callers cannot overwrite one another's work.
C:\ProBoard unless you chose another.