WinsHub — Our Windows BBS Terminal, Chat & File Hub NEW

WinsHub is a Windows program for connecting to Winserver / Wildcat! bulletin boards — including this one — and other text-based systems. Menus that used to be plain text show up as clickable color buttons, so the BBS looks current while staying a real BBS. It installs with a normal Windows setup program (64-bit Windows 10 or 11) — no Python or extra software needed.

Download Now WinsHub 1.19.0 — WinsHub-1.19.0-Setup.zip (installer, PDF manual and FILE_ID.DIZ)
Telnet, SSH & Rlogin — all three in one program, with Quick Connect for a one-off address such as host:port
Phone Book (F9) — save your boards with their settings and a logo picture for each, plus one-click tiles for your favorites
Text Chat — WinsChat in a window of its own, with no browser. Chat with web users, BBS terminal users and other WinsHub users at once
Voice & Video Calls — talk or video-call straight from WinsHub, to the web page or other copies, up to six people on voice and three on video
File Xfer — send files up to 10 MB to anyone in chat, with Accept and Decline on the other end, in either direction with the web page
WinsHub Net — passes chat between bridges so people on different systems can talk, shown as name@system
Auto Login & Quick Learn — answers the Login and Password prompts for you, or records your login once and replays it every time
Clickable Menus & Cards — plain-text menus become color buttons and “press a key” screens become neat cards, plus full RIPscrip 1.54 graphics for hosts that send them
RIPscrip Graphics — full RIPscrip 1.54 drawn in its own window for hosts that send it, with a RIP on/off switch on every phone-book entry so boards that don’t use RIP are left alone
Built-In Games — 9 Arcade Classics and 4 Casino Games, each drawn by the program’s own RIPscrip engine, playable while a download runs
File Transfers — ZMODEM, YMODEM and XMODEM downloads, plus a web-address download that never overwrites an existing file
FTP, FTPS, SFTP & SCP — a two-pane file client with your PC on the left, the server on the right, and its own phone book
Color Themes — Dark by default, with Red, Blue, Green and Orange to choose from
Built-In Manual — searchable help on F1 and a printable PDF Operator’s Manual that comes with the installer

First-run tip: Windows may show a “Windows protected your PC” notice because the installer isn’t code-signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Your phone books and settings are kept in one folder and are left alone if you ever uninstall.

Chat, Calls & Files

WinsHub talks to the same WinsBridge chat server as the WinsChat web page, so everyone is in one conversation: browser users, BBS terminal users and other WinsHub users.

  • Online while you are connected — log on to a system in the Telnet window and WinsHub quietly signs you in to WinsChat under your user name there, so people can chat to you, whisper, page you and call you. Turn it off any time under File > Show me online in WinsChat while connected.
  • Small boxes, not pop-up windows — a call, file offer, whisper or page arrives as a small box on top with Accept and Decline. Nothing opens a whole window until you say so.
  • Text chat — user list with WEB and TERM badges and pictures, channels, whispers and pages, all the page’s slash commands, six color themes, sounds and your own round avatar (JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP).
  • Voice calls — up to six people, with mic and speaker mute, level meters and a Record button that saves everyone’s voices to one WAV file.
  • Video calls — up to three people, each in their own tile, with Camera on/off and a Snapshot button that saves the other person’s picture. No camera? The call still works and you still see the others.
  • File Xfer — double-click a name and pick a file up to 10 MB. The other side accepts, the file goes by itself, and an existing file is never overwritten. It uses a fast upload path and quietly falls back to small pieces over the chat connection if needed.
  • Between web and WinsHub — calls and files work in either direction between WinsHub and the WinsChat web page.
Tip: use a headset for calls. A web browser cancels echo for you, but WinsHub does not, so speakers near the microphone will feed back. Calls go directly between the two PCs when they can reach each other.

WinsHub Net — Chat Between Systems

WinsHub Net passes the Main channel between two or more WinsBridge chat servers, so people on different systems can talk to each other. It has its own item in the launcher’s menu bar that reads WinsHub Net: On or Off, and one click turns it on or off.

  • Everyone shows up everywhere — people on one system appear on the others as name@system, for example Kim@crappiecracker.com, in the user list and in the chat.
  • Easy setup — WinsHub Net > Bridges... takes one bridge address per line, plus a block list for names you want kept out. Status... shows each bridge and who is on it.
  • Safe by design — no chat loops, no commands passed on, limits against flooding, and whispers, files and calls stay inside their own system.

RIPscrip Capabilities

  • Real RIPscrip 1.54 — when a host sends RIP graphics, WinsHub draws the screens, menus and buttons in a RIP window of their own.
  • RIP on or off for each board — every phone-book entry has a RIP selector. With it off, the RIP settings in the Terminal menu are ignored for that board.
  • Plain-text boards look modern too — Winserver / Wildcat! 10 sends no RIP, so WinsHub draws its menus as clickable color buttons and its “press a key” screens as cards, in switchable color themes.
  • Chat and user lists — chat screens such as WinsChat Terminal get a chat card with Who, List and Channels buttons, and long user lists page with Next and Previous.
  • For sysops — a converter in the full package turns your own .BBS menu screens into RIP screens that WinsHub finds automatically.
  • One engine for everything — the built-in games below are drawn through the same RIPscrip engine.

Game Titles

Arcade Classics — 9 games, opened from the Arcade Classics tile on the main screen or the Games menu:

  • Galaxy Guards (Galaga-style) and Star Swarm (Galaxian-style)
  • Asteroids and Space War
  • Missile Defense (Missile Command-style) and Rear Gunner (Tailgunner-style)
  • Pong — one or two players
  • Snow Skiing — downhill slalom
  • Bowling — one or two players, with pin physics

Casino Games — 4 games for play money only, with one bankroll shared by all four and remembered between sessions:

  • Draw Poker (Jacks or Better), Blackjack, Roulette (European single-zero wheel) and Slots

BBS door games — on Crappie Cracker Online’s Games menu, Interplanetary Trader and Oregon Trail show up as clickable buttons, alongside chat options such as Wildchat by EMSsoft.

Good to know: every built-in game runs in its own window and doesn’t touch your connection. Press Esc to close a game and P to pause.

Getting Started

  • Download the zip with the button above and unzip it. Run WinsHub-1.19.0-Setup.exe. It needs 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 and asks for administrator permission because it installs to Program Files.
  • Click through the welcome, folder and install pages. You can tick “Start WinsHub” on the last page.
  • Click Telnet, then choose File > Phone book (F9) and New.
  • Enter Name: Crappie Cracker Online, Address: crappiecracker.com, Port: 2323, Protocol: telnet. Double-click the entry to connect.
Where your settings live: phone books, tiles, login scripts and RIP settings are all kept in one folder, %APPDATA%\WinsHub. Copy that folder to back up or move to another PC. Uninstalling leaves it alone.