What is a BBS? Bulletin Board System

Old School "Internet" - Bulletin Board System

A BBS, or Bulletin Board System is computer software that allows users to log in and use various features of the software. The software is installed and runs on a computer that is connected to a network either hard-wired, wirelessly, or through a modem. These days, most people speaking of BBS's are referring to the days before the "Internet". Traditionally, a user would connect using another computer, through a telephone line using a MODEM. They would run a terminal program on their computer which would access the modem and dial out to the bbs they want to connect to. The modem dials, gets a signal and "handshakes" with the receiving modem. A handshake is what happens when two modems connect, they determine compatible error protocols, data-compression, evaluate line-quality, negotiating the best connection, essentially.
BBS software allows users to do various things such as manage messages, to or from other users on that system. Though some BBS's were set up to automatically dial out and send all out-going mail, receive all incoming-mail and relevant information, at a certain time when traffic would be at a low point. In those days, phone calls would cost more and the telco. companies gave breaks for calls made at certain times. Often, many BBS users would be dialed-in late at night or early in the morning when long distance charges applied, to get the lowest rate. Not every town had a BBS so some people had to make a long-distance call to connect to a BBS. So the BBS software would be configured to send all mail at 3:00AM, for example, so if long-distance fees applied, they would want to pay the lowest rate. Some were configured to call a local machine and deliver mail packets, and in turn that computer would dial another to send the packets down the line.