Hermes II 3.5.9 is the latest official release of the Hermes BBS. 3.5.9 adds the following features to Hermes:
- Users can now log in to the BBS over a TCP/IP connection using the telnet protocol.
- Updated FidoNet support using the FidoNet External.
- Hermes II can now support up to 50 nodes using a special version of the BBS (available upon request).
System requirements:
- Requires a Mac Plus or higher with at least 4MB of RAM.
- Using Mac OS X? Hermes II runs fine in Classic mode on PowerPC computers. Only TCP/IP connections are supported in Classic mode (no serial ports).
- Have an Intel Mac, UNIX machine, or Windows computer? You can use Basilisk II to run Hermes with full TCP/IP support. Contact me for more information about this configuration.
Hermes II is free software! Use the following links to download Hermes or read the full release notes:
Beta Release
The current beta release of Hermes II is 3.5.10b3. The following major changes have been made since the release of the 3.5.9 version:
- X-, Y-, and Z-Modem download support over TCP/IP.
- Support for Python-based externals written using the External Development System. (PowerPC only)
Coming soon in the 3.5.10 beta cycle:
- Hermes Tracker: keeps your web-based BBS listing up-to-date by notifying the web site of any changes to your dynamic IP address.
- Z-Modem upload support.
Additional system requirements (beyond the current release):
- Python-based externals can only be used on PowerPC machines and require that Apple’s Macintosh Runtime for Java (MRJ) and the MRJ SDK are installed. These can be found at the following URLs:You must install the MRJ components even if you are running Hermes on Mac OS X in Classic mode. MRJ will be installed in the Classic System Folder and will not affect your Mac OS X install.
Everyone is encouraged to download the beta version of Hermes and try it out with their BBS. The current beta version has been running on Olympus for quite some time and is very stable. If you do find a problem, make sure to send me a bug report!
FidoNet
Every FidoNet installation requires two components: a tosser and a mailer. On a Hermes II BBS, the tosser is provided by the FidoNet External and the mailer is provided by Formula1.
FidoNet External
Versions of Hermes II after 3.5.9 do not include built-in FidoNet support. Instead, the FidoNet code has been moved into an external.
The latest release of the FidoNet external is 1.0b1. The following features are supported:
- Inbound processing of EchoMail and NetMail.
- Partial processing of outbound messages. 1.0b1 acts as a FidoNet leaf node: it will send messages that originated on the BBS to its directly-connected FidoNet peers, but will not forward incoming messages to other FidoNet nodes.
- Internal ARC and ZIP decompression. Aladdin Systems (now Allume Systems) granted me a low-cost license to their ARC and ZIP code. This allows the FidoNet external to decompress mail bundles without using any external applications.
Features that are not yet implemented, but will be supported in 1.0:
- EchoMail and NetMail forwarding.
- Scheduler for automatically polling other nodes.
- Compression of mail bundles.
- NetMail gating. NetMail is only delivered to directly-connected nodes; it cannot yet be routed through your host node.
- BinkP support.
Use the following links to download the FidoNet external or read the full release notes:
Formula1
Formula1 is the official (modem-based) mailer for the Hermes BBS. Massimo Senna gave me a copy of the source code in 1999 and has allowed me to distribute my modified version of Formula1 for use with Hermes. The FidoNet External uses a special interface to communicate with this custom version of Formula1.
Use the following link to download the latest version of the Formula1 mailer for Hermes: