PC go! 1995 September

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Text File | 1994-11-18 | 31.5 KB | 638 lines

^t-=> T H E P O I N T S Y S T E M <=-^n The EMSI point system is designed mainly for points in fidonet or other similar networks. It can also be used by companies that have a mailer program running such as Frontdoor, Portal of Power, d'Bridge or Binkley >2.50. It now also supports the old standard called YooHoo/2U2. With this system you can, as a point, totally throw away a frontdoor if you are not using another maileditor. As a default it is set up with GECHO and runs in what people call Binkley style. If you are using Frontdoor/Gecho and want to change to Terminate/Gecho, you only need to change Gecho from running in Frontdoor mode to Binkley mode. If you are using Binkley or Portal of Power you can run directly with the same directories. With a mail system you can send and receive packed messages and files without getting online to a BBS system. The only demand is that the system you are calling runs EMSI (Electronic Mail Standard Identification). When using the mail system in Terminate you can throw away your fossil driver (serial device driver) and your nodelist compiler. Terminate can use direct port access and read the uncompiled nodelists with large buffers. Maybe this is a little slower than searching a compiled nodelist BUT normal points normally only call their BOSS (uplink) and get their mail and files from there. With Terminate you will not have to find and setup nodelist compilers and this will save a lot of hard disk space. Fidonet, which we are a part of, is the biggest private network in the whole world. It has thousands and thousands of computers connected throughout the entire world. To understand this system you must understand what a node number looks like. This number is an identification number - so if anyone sends you a message from anywhere in the world. The message will be 'routed' through some other systems before reaching the destination. The best part is that you only call your BOSS and send the message - the rest will be taken care of by the network, so you save the phonebill by not calling long distances. The only thing it costs you is the call to your BOSS, which is normally located in your own city or country. You will also be able to participate in conferences where all messages are public. But you will learn all this if you make contact with a Fidonet sysop near you. BBS's belonging to a network will often have a mailer program answer the phone and decide if the caller is another mailer or a 'human' caller. That is why you have to press ^hESCAPE^n and then the system says something like: 'Loading BBS, please wait'. If you are calling with the point system you will be recognized as a mailer, and a mail- session will be started. Mail session ──────────── You dial up and connect The point system tries to handshake (establish EMSI session) Terminate sends all mail-packets/files to system with Zmodem Goes into receive mode and receives mail/files/requested files for you The other end terminates the call, (Terminate will also hangup) The best thing about running this mail system, is that you will start transferring files immediately you have been connected and will not have to log on manually and type anything - everything is fully automatic. Most points in fidonet are users that have had modems for a while and have problems paying their phonebill, because they were hanging online on systems quite a lot. Now they can save money because ^hREQUESTING^n files is much faster and the requests will not appear on their user account under downloads. At our system we allow all points in fidonet to request, but some places you will not be allowed to do this. To understand how the system works you need to understand what a nodenumber looks like. The syntax for a nodenumber in fidonet is Zone:Net/Node.Point. Zone 1 = USA / Canada 2 = Europe / Commonwealth of Independent States 3 = Australia / New Zealand 4 = Latin America 5 = Africa 6 = Asia Many other networks are also using Fidonet Technology and uses normally higher zone numbers. Net The network you are a part of Node The node (BOSS) you belong to Point Your point number at the node Our nodenumber is 2:236/111.0 (or short 2:236/111). A node is a computer that is always available in zone mail hour, at least. This is a time, usually at night, depending on where you are in the world, where you always can expect to reach the node. Most nodes are also BBS systems where normal users can access conferences and write messages to users on other boards, sometimes in other parts of the world. A node will always have point number .0 . The first point a sysop gets will be .1. Our first point is 2:236/111.1. The SysOp decides for himself the point numbers. For each user profile in the setup you can define a nodenumber. Don't get confused about all the different expressions. To test the system, edit user profile 1 (with your name) and enter 2:236/111.9999 as a test number. You are hereby allowed to use that number for test reasons only, please do not abuse the number. Then setup the point system described later and try to call our system at 2:236/111. There are plenty of new words to learn in this world! ^hPoll^n Poll simply means calling a mail system ^hRequest^n When you request a file from a BBS system, you must know the filename in advance. There is something called ^hMAGIC^n filenames, that refers to filename alias's. For example, if you request ^hFILES^n from any system the system should send the entire BBS filelist. Another known alias is ^hABOUT^n which will send you a small description of the BBS. If you want the latest Terminate, you can just request ^hTERMINAT^n from our number. You can also request files from all the areas on a BBS where the SysOp has allowed file requests. If you want the filelist from DAN BBS, you could either request FILES or DANBBS.ARJ. ^hNetmail^n A netmail is a private message that is only destined for one person. The message can be routed through the network but also sent directly. All the SysOps will be able to see your message if you route it through the network, but you can also send the message ^hCRASH^n which means you dial directly to the system to which the message is addressed. You are not able to send messages directly to other points of course, because they do not have mailers running, but if you want to send to another point, you can call the point's BOSS and then the message will be directed to the point (then the SysOp on that board can read your message.) You can only send crashmail to systems which have a CM flag in the nodelist you are using. The CM flag means that the system can accept crashmail 24 hours a day, that means the phoneline is used only for the computer. ^hEchomail^n Echomail messages are messages written in a conference. There is a public conference called ^hTERMINATE^n, in both Fido and EuroLink, where everyone is encouraged to contribute. When you write a message in such a conference the message can be read by anyone that has access to that conference. Every conference has a set of rules that must be followed and which normally are administered by the conference moderator. ^hHold^n When things are on hold it means that they are waiting to be picked up. Your BOSS will always place your mail on hold, so you will get it the next time you poll. ^hSnailmail^n A term used for the normal letters you put in the mailbox. Using a mail system is faster and more convenient for a SysOp than using a fax machine. If you want to send a message to any member of the fido network, you can write the message with crash status, press a button and 1 minute later the guy anywhere in the world has your message. This kind of electronic mail system will take over almost everywhere in the next few years. Nothing else will be faster and why use fax paper when you can do it this way? ^hAlt-O,N^n ^m╒═══════════════╤═════════════════════════════════════════╡^t Point system ^m╞╕ │ ^nMain address ^m│ ^h2:236/111.9999 ^m│ │^r Boss setup ^m│ ^m│ │ ^nDescriptions ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ │ ^nRedial tries ^m│ ^h3 ^m│ │ ^nDial prefix ^m│ ^hATDT ^m│ │ ^nAllow ZedZap ^m│ ^hNo ^m│ │ ^nAsk device ^m│ ^hNo ^m│ │ ^nPop Simulate ^m│ ^hNo ^m│ │ ^nZone match ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ │ ^nHandshake ^m│ ^hAuto ^m│ │ ^nInbound ^m│ ^hI:\ ^m│ │ ^nOutbound ^m│ ^hOUT\ZONE\ ^m│ │ ^nNodelist 1 ^m│ ^hUTILS\NODELIST.* ^m│ │ ^nNodelist 2 ^m│ ^hC:\NODELIST\NODELIST.* ^m│ │ ^nNodelist 3 ^m│ │ │ ^nPassword file ^m│ ^hPASSWORD.TXT ^m│ │ ^nPhone convert ^m│ │ │ ^nModem strings ^m│ │ │ ^nMail editor ^m│ ^hMAILEDIT.BAT ^m│ │ ^nImport ^m│ ^hGECHO TOSS ^m│ │ ^nExport ^m│ ^hGECHO SCAN PACK ^m│ │ ^nAfter mail ^m│ ^h ^m│ ╘═══════════════╧═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛^n ^hMain address^n For each user profile you can define a network address (nodenumber/ pointnumber). Choose which address will be your main address when calling other systems. The test number which you are allowed to use is 2:236/111.9999 - that means you are point number 9999 of DAN BBS. ^hBoss setup^n Terminate will allow you to use 8 different systems. So here you can set up each phone number and other options. ^hDial^n If you call Terminate from the command line with /BOSS or /BOSS:0 Terminate will either call every Boss specified in the Point System setup or call the marked systems until you get a connection, depending on what you have selected here. The "dial until connect" option is useful if you have a Boss that has different numbers and you just want to connect to one of these numbers in case the other numbers are busy. ^m╒═══════════════╤═══════════════════╡^t Boss setup ^m╞╕ │^r Boss phone ^m│ ^h43623990 ^m│ │ ^nBoss Device ^m│ ^hCOM1 2400 8N1 ^m│ │ ^nBoss prefix ^m│ ^hATDT ^m│ │ ^nBoss password ^m│ ^m│ │ ^nBoss synch ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ │ ^nBoss autodial ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ ╘═══════════════╧═════════════════════════════════╛^n ^hBoss phone^n Terminate does not need to know the nodenumber of your BOSS, you can call to any system, then the outbound directory will be checked and any file that has the same nodenumber as the called system, will be sent. ^hBoss device^n Which device to use for dialing this Boss. ^hBoss prefix^n Which string to send to the modem before dialling. This works just as in the phonebook. ^hBoss password^n Force a password especially for this system, to make sure that you have actually got the right system. If the password does not match on both sides the called system will hang up. When calling a Boss, the password file will not be used and you MUST specify the password you use in this menu. ^hBoss synch^n When using the ^bC^nall Boss function your computer's time/date will be synchronized to the same as the Boss's computer. In this way you can always be sure your watch is correct if you have an unstable clock. If your Boss has an unstable clock you should turn this off. ^hBoss autodial^n When choosing autodial, Terminate will call this Boss and all other Boss's that have autodial enabled. Works only when 2 or more are defined. ^hDescriptions^n When you send files within the point system and this toggle is on, then Terminate will look in the same directory for a FILES.BBS/DESCRIPT.ION style files. These files contain descriptions of the files. Terminate will grab the descriptions and create a file called NNNNnnnn.BBS where NNNN is the netnumber in hex and nnnn is the nodenumber in hex. (00EC006F.BBS). This file will be transfered after all the other files. ^hRedial tries^n How many times to try connecting, Terminate will wait ^h`pause'^n seconds between each call (modem and dailing). Enter a 0 to keep on dialing until connect. ^hDial prefix^n Which prefix to use when dialling systems in nodelist or manually. ^hAllow ZedZap^n Use Zmodem 8k for transfering the mail, if you have any trouble with bad lines, you should not turn this on. Turning ZedZap on will increase the CPS a little. ^hAsk device^n When calling any system, then ask which device to use. Will be used when you dial from outbound, nodelist or manually. ^hPop Simulate^n Some people do not like points or other people to filerequest with Terminate, because it is so easy to setup. They might have a program that will test this. So if you are denied filerequest simply because you are using Terminate, enabling this will make the other end think that you are calling with a popular mailer called Portal of Power. ^hZone match^n Yes: Compare the Zone number. No : Don't compare the Zone number. Since the chance of getting a call from another person with the same nodenumber is practically zero, you should always set this to No, so if the zonenumber is wrong (0:236/111) the transfer will continue anyway. ^hHandshake^n With a mailer you can use either EMSI or Yoohoo/2U2, with this option you can force which mail-handshake to use. ^hInbound^n The directory where incoming files will be stored ^hOutbound^n The directory where outgoing files/packets/mail files will be stored. If you have mail for other zones they will be stored in a directory called the old plus the zone in hex. OUT\ZONE -=> OUT\ZONE.016 for zone 27 (16 hex = 27 dec). Terminate will delete empty directories. ^hNodelist 1^n ^hNodelist 2^n ^hNodelist 3^n A nodelist in fidonet is usually called NODELIST.xxx. The xxx is the day number of the release. The nodelist is compiled every week by leading members of fidonet who also provide NODEDIFF files, which contain changes in the nodelist for last week. The current nodelist is (was) NODELIST.092. When you specify a filename called C:\NODELIST\NODELIST.* then the nodelist with the highest day number will be used. If you have a NODELIST.085 and a NODELIST.092 then .092 will be used. You should place a small nodelist first with important numbers of people so they will be found very quickly. When calling a number first the nodelist 1 will be searched, then nodelist 2, then nodelist 3. ^hPassword file^n A file that will be used when dialling systems in the nodelist. The syntax is simple: Nodenumber Password PktPassword on each line 2:236/111 hello PKTsafe That would tell you that you have talked with 2:236/111 and agreed on a password to use at both places. If no PKT password will be inserted directly in the netmail. ^hPhone convert^n ^m┌──────────────────┤^t Phone convert ^m├┐ │ ^nStrip Add before ^m│ │ ^r1^n ^h39- 0 ^m│ │ ^n2 ^m│ │ ^n3 ^m│ │ ^n4 ^m│ │ ^n5 ^m│ └───────────────────────────────────┘^n In fidonet nodelists, there is a country prefix on all phone numbers. When you call a system in your country you must first remove that information. The international prefix for Danish nodes is 45- so we have to remove the 45- from the phone numbers before dialling. This should already be set up as the default if you had COUNTRY.SYS installed the first time you ran Terminate, so 45-43623990 will be converted into 43623990. You can then also add extra information when stripping. This will only be added before the number if the strip string was found. In Italy they need first to strip 39- then put a 0 in front of the phone numbers. 39-10-3770080 will be converted into 010-3770080. In some places you also need to strip your city code. Remember that 39-10 must be before 39- otherwise only 39- will be stripped. Remember when calling another country the international dial prefix will be used. ^hModem strings^n ^m┌──┤^t Nodelist flags/strings ^m├┐ │ ^nFlag String to send ^m│ │^r V32 ATB0^M ^m│ │ ^hHST ATB1^M ^m│ │ ^hV32B ATB0^M ^m│ └────────────────────────────┘^n When dialling a number from the nodelist, you can tell Terminate to send special strings to your modem, depending which flags there are in the nodelist. Flags in the nodelists are used for giving you information on the system you are about to call. It will tell you which modem or modem standards the system is using and allow you to configure your own modem before dialling. The example is for a USRobotics Dual Standard modems. ^hMail editor^n Setup which program you want to call when pressing Mail editor in the point system. You could send any command and parameters here. ^hImport^n Which program and parameters to call when you have received mail and want to import it into your mailsystem. ^hExport^n When you have written some mail and want to export the mail from your mail system and make it ready to be sent to your BOSS or another system. ^hAfter mail^n When you receive files or mail with the point system, you can call any external program or batchfile. ^hAlt-F7^n ^hUsing the point system^n ^m╒═══════════════╤═════╤╡^t Outbound 2:236/111 ^m╞══════════════╡^t Point system ^m╞╕ │^r Call Boss ^m│ │ ^nNode Files Size Flags ^m│ │ ^nCall syste^bm ^m│ │ ^h2:236/3 1 208 ··C···· ^m│ │ ^bS^nend files ^m│ │ ^h2:236/111 8 97 ·R····· ^m│ │ ^nFile ^br^nequests ^m│ │ ^h2:236/111 1 302 ··C···M ^m│ │ ^bK^nill mail ^m│ │ │ │ ^nAu^bt^no request ^m│ │ │ │ ^bP^nick up mail ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ │ │ ^nSend ^bA^nKA's ^m│ ^hYes ^m│ │ │ ^bZ^noom mail ^m│ │ │ │ ^nMain addr^be^nss ^m│ │ │ │ ^nSe^bn^nd message ^m│ │ │ │ ^nC^bh^nange mail ^m│ │ │ │ ^nMai^bl^n editor ^m│ │ │ │ ^bI^nmport ^m│ │ │ │ ^nE^bx^nport ^m│ │ │ ├───────────────┴─────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ ╘═╡ ^bV ^nView logfile ^m╞═════════════════════════╡^b (A)dd time, Timeout in ^m╞╛^n To start up directly in this menu: ^hTERMINAT /POINT^n ^hThe outbound window^n In the outbound window you will be able to see all packets/files/messages that are waiting to be sent. First the nodenumber that shows which node the files are intended for. Then how many files you are going to send or how many you have requested, the size of the files and some status flags that will show what kind and what do to with the package. Status flags used in other mailers (?UT = Netmail, ?LO flow files) ^bI^n Immediate flag, force a mailer to start dialling at once and keep on dialling until the package is delivered. (.ILO .IUT) ^bC^n Crash is almost the same as the Immediate flag, but it will not be sent as fast as Immediate. (.CLO .CUT) ^bH^n Files are on hold, that means they will not be sent from your system. (.HLO .HUT). ^bF^n A normal package able to be routed. (.FLO .FUT) ^bD^n A direct package which cannot be routed (.DLO .DUT) ^bR^n The package is a filerequest (.REQ) ^bM^n Unpacked netmail Since you are a point and nobody will call you and you will always call out, there are a lot of flags that you will never need. Terminate will send all files to the system you have called no matter what flag it has, except for files with the ^hH^nold flag. Do not get confused about these flags, just think: If the file is not on hold, it will be sent. The filename of a package determines it's destination. A file request package for DAN BBS 236/111 (the zone does not matter) will be a file called: 00EC006F.REQ The 00EC is ^h236^n and the 006F is ^h111^n, the numbers are converted from the Hexnumber system (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F). 10 hex = 16 decimal , 000D hex = 13 decimal , FFFF = 65535 The .REQ means filerequest. The file is a normal text file with one filename on each line. Like DANBBS.ARJ TERMINAT If there is a password on files you request you can place a !password after the filename. Like: TERMINAT !SECRET (Zoom mail and edit request file) A flow file is a *.CLO *.HLO *.ILO *.FLO *.DLO. Terminate will think that everything other than *.HLO files will be processed. These files are all textfiles which have 1 line for each file you want to send. A flow file for our system could be 00EC006F.CLO. In this textfile all files to be sent will be listed in a special way: ^C:\PRIVATE\HELLO.TXT #C:\TERMINAT\OUT\0000FFE8.TU1 C:\GRAPHICS\GIF\DPG-0125.GIF The ^ means to delete the file after transfer. The # means to truncate (make filesize = 0) the file after transfer (This is used by some tossers to keep the same filename, don't worry about it) Without ^ or # the file is just transferred. The 0000FFE8.TU1 is a mail package created by the mail-tosser program. Gecho is a tosser/scanner/packer that can do this for you. If you want this program you can either filerequest GECHO*.* from 236/111 or go online to DAN BBS and download the archive containing the program, you will also need a good mail editor. Mail packages can be compressed with all kinds of different programs, but currently PKZIP is mostly used because it is faster than most other packers. ^hCall Boss^n Calls the number you have specified in the configuration (when handshaking Terminate will know the nodenumber (or systems AKA's)) and send all files/ messages/packages. If you start Terminate with: ^hTERMINAT /BOSS^n Terminate will start up, dial all systems with autodial enabled, then exit Terminate, so you can call Terminate from batch files. If you already have a carrier, you can enter the pointsystem, then the session will be started at once. ^hCall system^n Call another mailer, either from outbound, a nodelist or manually. The manual dial is only for registered persons. This allows you to send files or request from any system without knowing their nodenumber. You can start Terminate with: ^hTERMINAT /CALL:search-string^n, the search-string can be a nodenumber or a part of name/system/location. Then Terminate looks in the nodelists and the first match it finds will be polled (called), then Terminate will exit to DOS just like /BOSS. ^hSend files^n Send files to another system. You will be placed in the file manager and can select files in both windows. When finished you press return and Terminate will create the correct package. If you want to send C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to our system 236/111 Terminate will generate a package in the outbound directory called 00EC006F.CLO which only has one line: C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. If Descriptions in setup is 'Yes' Terminate will search for descriptions of the files in a file called FILES.BBS or DESCRIPT.ION and create a file called 00EC006F.BBS and append it to the .CLO file. ^hFile requests^n The same as send files. Select the system to request from, then you will be placed in the tagmenu, where you can select files from a filelist or enter the names manually. That's it. You call the system, Terminate sends the requests file, you receive the files as they are found and you are allowed to request from that area. It is the system you call that decides limits for how much you can request each time. ^hKill mail (DELete)^n Allows you to remove any packet in the outbound window. If it is a flow file and the files were marked for truncation or deletion, you will be asked to confirm first. ^hAuto request^n { Only in registered version } ^m╒══════════════════╤═════════════════════════════════════╡^t Auto request ^m╞╕ │ ^nMake autorequest ^m│ ┌─>─┐ ^n# Prefix MaxReq node/searchstring/Pxxx (P12)^m│ │ ^nSelect files ^m│ │ │ ^h1 1 100 ^m│ │^r Edit numbers ^m│ │ │ ^h2 1 100 ^m│ ├──────────────────┤ │ │ ^h3 1 100 ^m│ │ ^nCalls : ^m│ │ │ ^h4 1 100 ^m│ │ ^nFiles left : ^m│ │ │ ^h5 1 100 ^m│ │ │ │ │ ^h6 1 100 ^m│ │ │ │ │ ^h7 1 100 ^m│ │ ^nSpace = Next ^m│ │ │ ^h8 1 100 ^m│ │ ^nEsc = Abort ^m│ │ │ ^h9 1 100 ^m│ │ │ └─<─┘ ^h10 1 100 ^m│ ╘══════════════════╧═════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛^n This function will allow you to enter up to 10 different phone numbers where you want to request files from. This function should only be used together with systems where you either know the SysOp or where anybody can request. Generally this function will allow you to get a lot of files without you having to call manually several times. If you define more files to be leeched than is allowed by a system on one call, then Terminate will keep calling back immediately for the remaining balance each time the remote system throws you off. Don't ever try to request files from BBS's in the mail hours (2-6 in the morning). Most SysOps don't like somebody requesting files when the SysOp expects mail at a specific time, but normally you will just get hung up, if the system expects another to call. Please do not abuse this system and rip off systems. Please ask the SysOp first if he will allow you to request or become a point in fidonet. When editing the numbers to call, you must select the dial prefix and the maximum files to request. If you call a system and get logged off after 5 files, you could assume the system only accepts 5 requests each time you call, but some systems also use max. size or max. time to decide how much or how long a time. You can insert a nodenumber or a search string then the nodelists are searched for a number, but you can also get a number from the phonebook directly by typing: Pxxx where xxx is the entry number in the phonebook. ^hPick up mail^n If you turn this option off you can send mail to the remote system without receiving any mail packets. It could be useful if you, for example have been on holiday and there is tons of mail you don't want to read, then you can send a netmail to the SysOp that you want to have your mail deleted. ^hSend AKA's^n Yes: Send all your AKA's (Also Known As). Terminate will check if the nodenumbers in the user profiles are different from 0:0/0 and send them all. If NO then only the primary address will be shown to the remote site. ^hZoom mail^n Shows information on the system to be called, mail-session password, and complete dial string. If a request or a flowfile, you are allowed to edit the file. Netmail can be viewed with PKTVIEW or the external lister. If some of the files you request have passwords, then you can edit the .REQ files and enter the password on the same line like this: 'BIGTITS.GIF !secret' (secret=password). ^hMain address^n Change your main address, without going into the configuration menu. ^hSend message^n Allows you to write a message to another system. You must know the correct network address of the destination. If the system is listed in the nodelists you will be asked to confirm the name. If the system is not listed you can continue anyway and write the name manually. You now enter the subject of the message. 'Hello Joe, how are you' and then the external editor will be called. Write your message, save it and the message will be placed in the outbound. The filename of an unpacked netmail has the same hexnumber prefix (00EC006F), but it always has .CUT as extension. When sending the message to the system it will be renamed to a Unix time + .PKT before sending. It is not important for you to know these things. Terminate will generate the newest .PKT format called ^hType 2+^n, the same as Gecho. ^hChange mail^n Change destination for a request, netmail or flow file. Also allowing you to put mailpackets or files on hold, so they will be sent later. ^hMail editor^n Call the external mail editor. Actually you are not forced to use Terminate as the menu system, but you can also use some batch files normally provided by the tosser or maileditor. ^hImport^n Call a mailtosser, a program like Gecho that will import new incoming mail. ^hExport^n After writing messages in a mail system, you should normally always export the messages, before they can be sent. ^hV ^nView logfile Allow you to view the entire logfile. Allows you to scroll through the last mail session. ^hManual^n { Only in registered version } If you want to request/send files from/to a system where you don't know the nodenumber, but just have the phone number you can use this function. For requests Terminate will generate a MANUMAIL.REQ which will be renamed when you call the next system and sent like a normal request. When sending files Terminate will generate a MANUMAIL.CLO file, which contain all the names of the files to be sent, then when you call the next system they are sent. If you have mail for other systems, delete the file again if you cannot get through to the system.