PBDispatch
PBDispatch is the program that keeps your board open. It stays running, listens for callers on the ports you enabled, starts a ProBoard.exe node for each one, runs the mailer and the other programs on their schedules, and shows you what is happening.
Figure 1. The PBDispatch dashboard.
Keep it running whenever the board is open. Closing PBDispatch stops new callers from reaching you; callers already online keep their sessions, because each one is a separate ProBoard.exe.
The window
The top of the window has the ProBoard logo, the board's status and a clock. Below it is the menu bar:
| Menu | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Dispatcher | Dark Mode, Suite (open PBConfig, PBTerm or PBMessages), Reload Configs (re-read the mailer, tosser, web, QWK, events or host-filter settings without restarting), Exit. |
| Tools | Local Login, Configure System, Rotate Logs Now, Login Guard (Status, Clear Bans), Host Filter, FTP Sessions, NNTP Sessions, ProBoard Updates (Check for Updates / Install, Roll Back, How to Schedule), the BBS list and update-key tools. |
| Mailer / Tosser | Queue Viewer, Poll Uplinks, and Run Toss, Scan or Both. |
| Events | The Events Viewer. |
| QWK | Poll Now and Pack Now for your QWK networks. |
| View | Which panels the dashboard shows, the Mailer Monitor window, and the layout commands. |
| Help | About ProBoard Dispatcher. |
In this section
- The dashboard: the panels, the layouts, and how to arrange them.
- Service Management: stop, start or restart a service without restarting PBDispatch.
- Logs and the Log Viewer: reading, searching and exporting the log, and rotating the log files.
- Reporting: calls and failed logins by hour or by day.
- The Mailer Monitor: watch BinkP sessions live.
Program updates are in Program updates.
Starting PBDispatch
Run PBDispatch.exe from the install folder. The first start opens the dashboard in the dark theme. For starting it automatically with Windows, see Going online.
Right-click menu on a caller
In the Currently Logged In Users panel, right-click a row to get View Connection Window or Disconnect. This works for Telnet, SSH and RLogin nodes and for mailer sessions. Web, FTP and news rows have no connection to drop.