BulkRate is an offline reader for FirstClass BBSs. With BulkRate, you can automatically get all new messages on a FirstClass BBS, then read and reply to them at your leisure, while offline. This frees up the BBS for other users and also allows you to have more control over the amount of time you spend with your mail and messages.
BulkRate works only with FirstClass BBSs. You must have an active account on a FirstClass BBS to use BulkRate. You can use BulkRate to call any FirstClass BBS, though you will have to adjust the setup for individual BBSs.
BulkRate operates by accessing the FirstClass BBS through the Command Line User Interface (CLUI). It is possible for a FirstClass sysop to set up his/her BBS so that the CLUI is disabled. BulkRate will not work in this situation, though a friendly request to the Sysop might fix things.
Unlike a point software package, BulkRate does not compress messages and mail or employ error checking, so it is subject to line noise and random errors. If you have a relatively clean phone line, however, this should not present much of a problem.
BulkRate also can act as an interface between a FirstClass BBS and Tabby, allowing a FirstClass BBS to be connected to FidoNet, a nationwide network of local BBS systems.
For more information on using BulkRate with Tabby, see the section “BulkRate and Tabby.”
BulkRate was developed with SuperCard 1.5, a product of Silicon Beach Software. (Now Aldus.) SuperCard is a HyperCard-like authoring environment with many enhancements. Its advantages are speed and ease of development; its disadvantages are memory requirements and speed of execution. One further disadvantage is that by nature, it is a self-modifying application. This means a system crash could cause BulkRate to become corrupted, so it is best to keep a backup copy at all times. BulkRate will not run on a locked volume for the same reason.
•Setting up BulkRate•
Before you can use BulkRate for the first time, you must set it up.
Host settings
Your first step in setting up BulkRate is to fill out the Host Settings dialog. Normally, when you first launch BulkRate, this dialog automatically opens for you. If it did not, open it by choosing "Host settings..." from the Settings menu.
Fill out each line of the dialog.
“Host name” is the name of the FirstClass BBS you will be calling.
“UserID” is the UserID you use to log on, and “Password” is the password you use to log on.
“Phone number(s)” must contain at least one phone number for the BBS. Be sure to include 1- (area code) if needed. If the FirstClass BBS ("host") supports multiple lines, you can enter more than one phone number, each on a separate line. When attempting to log on, BulkRate will automatically rotate through each phone number.
Next, click on “More host settings...”
More host settings
Setting up this dialog is a bit tricky. BulkRate comes already set up for Glassell Park BBS. For other BBSs, you may have to call first using a standard telecommunication program and access the host through the command line interface to be sure you have the right information.
Basically, you need to set up "paths" for BulkRate to use to look for new messages.
When you first log on to Glassell Park, you are in the "Home" directory. Your Mailbox appears there, as well as folders for Files and Conferences. All FirstClass BBSs may not call their root directory "Home," so this is changable in the field marked "Root directory name:" This name ("Home" or other) should also be the first entry in the “Conferences can be found in:” field, assuming that the Mailbox or some conferences are directly accessible from that level. Additional lines of this field should contain paths to conferences. For example, on Glassell Park, one chooses "Conferences" from the Home directory to access most conferences, so the path is "Home:Conferences". More conferences can be found under "Files" in the Home directory, so another path is "Home:Files". If there was a folder within “Conferences” that contained, say all the networked conferences, it might look like “Home:Conferences:Echoes”. You can also use the paths to limit BulkRate's search. For example, if you didn't want BulkRate ever to look in the Files conferences, you could simply delete the "Home:Files" path.
The second field ("DON'T read these conferences:") contains a list of individual conferences you want BulkRate to skip. BulkRate will never look for new messages in these conferences. On Glassell Park I've put "FileAccess" in this list, because it consists mainly of people asking the Sysop for file access (hence the name). You can customize this to your needs.
(Note: if you are setting up BulkRate to work with another BBS [other than Glassell Park], please share your setup with other users of the same BBS. Feel free to drop me a line as well.)
When you are done with this dialog, click "OK".
Modem settings
Lastly, you should tell BulkRate about your modem. Choose "Modem settings..." from the Settings menu.
Use this dialog to set which port your modem is connected to, what kind of phone line you have and at what baud rate you want to call.
The modem initialization string is customizable, but try the default before you change it. BulkRate works only with reasonably-Hayes-compatible modems, but unchecking the "Hayes-compatible modem" box may help BulkRate work with some modems that accept Hayes commands but don't give Hayes replies.
Click OK when you are finished with this dialog.
Now that you have set up BulkRate, you're ready to try it.
•Using BulkRate•
Using BulkRate is simple. Normally, you would follow these steps:
1) Launch BulkRate.
2) Compose mail you wish to send in the Outgoing mail window.
See Bulk Rate windows – Outgoing mail for details.
3) Choose "Exchange mail now" from the Mail menu.
BulkRate will call the host BBS, get new mail, send your mail, and log off.
4) Read new messages in the Incoming mail window
and compose replies in the Outgoing mail window.
See Bulk Rate windows – Incoming mail for details.
5) Quit BulkRate.
BulkRate saves any unsent messages and asks if you wish to
delete all incoming messages.
That's it.
For information on using BulkRate with Tabby, see the BulkRate and Tabby section.
•BulkRate windows•
Outgoing mail
This window is where you create and edit your outgoing mail, as well as replies to any incoming messages. The new button will display a new blank form to enter a message. Delete will delete the current message. The left and right arrows will take you to the previous and next messages, respectively.
You may enter multiple names in the To: and cc: fields; your message will be sent to every name you include.
When a message is sent, the Message sent box will be checked. You can also set and clear this manually.
Incoming mail
This window is where all new incoming messages are displayed. The first "page" of the window will contain the mail log and message list. You can toggle between these views by clicking on the "Show mail log" or "Show message list" button.
Message list
The message list shows all new messages that are available to read. You can jump directly to any message in the list by double-clicking on its entry in the message list.
The message list display.
By clicking on "Sort by subject" you can re-sort your incoming mail so that all messages with a given subject line are together. This can make it easier to read a "thread" of conversation, since FirstClass does not currently support message threading.
The square characters in the subject field of the first message result from special Macintosh characters without ASCII equivalents such as curled quotes, accents and printer’s dashes. These special characters – é in this example are filtered by the FirstClass command line interface into other arbitrary characters.
Mail log
The mail log is a log of the conferences and folders checked by BulkRate to find all new mail. New messages are indicated with an asterisk.
The mail log display.
Messages
Subsequent "pages" of the Incoming mail window contain the individual messages from the host BBS. You can navigate between them with the left and right arrow buttons as well as the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.
You can cause the text window to scroll up or down by using the up and down arrow keys.
"Delete" will delete the currently displayed message, as will Command-D.
"Reply" will open the Outgoing mail window and format a reply to the current message.
If you select text of the original message before clicking on "Reply", the selected text will be automatically copied and pasted to the reply. If you hold down the Option key as you click on "Reply," not only will the text be auot-copied, but it will also be formatted "Quoter"-style.
Command-R will also create a reply.
The center button, which looks like a “return key” symbol, takes you back to the message list/mail log.
Address book
This window is simply a list of names - use it to help you address your outgoing mail. You can cut, copy and paste into the list. The "Sort" button will sort the names by last name; Option-click will sort by first name.
The Address Book "windoid."
•Bulk Rate menus•
File menu
New text
Opens the Outgoing mail window and displays a blank form for you to enter a new outgoing message.
Open text...
Allows you to open a text file. The file will appear in the text body of a new outgoing message.
Close text
Closes the Outgoing mail window.
Save text...
Allows you to save the currently displayed *outgoing* message as a text file. Addressing information is lost; only the text portion is saved.
Save selection...
Save any currently selected text as a text file — useful for saving parts of an incoming message, or a single incoming message. If you want to save them all, use Archive messages.
Archive messages...
Saves all the messages in either the Incoming message window or the Outgoing message window into one text file.
Restore archive...
Allows you to restore a saved archive.
Quit
Quits BulkRate.
Edit menu
Undo
Doesn't work. It's there for DAs to use.
Cut
Copy
Paste
All offer the standard Mac editing functions on text.
Clear incoming
Deletes all messages in the Incoming mail window.
Clear sent mail
Deletes all Outgoing messages that are marked as sent.
Mail menu
Incoming mail
Opens or brings to front the Incoming mail window, in which all incoming messages from the host BBS are displayed.
Outgoing mail
Opens or brings to front the Outgoing mail window, in which all outgoing messages to the host BBS are displayed.
Address book
Opens the Address book. The Address book will always remain front-most unless you specifically close it.
Create new mail
Opens or brings to front the Outgoing mail window and displays a blank form for you to enter a new outgoing message. This is essentially the same as choosing "New text" from the File menu.
Exchange mail now
This is the command you use to initiate a mail transfer with your host BBS. BulkRate will call the host BBS, get all the new messages posted since your last call, send any mail you've composed, log off, then create a double-clickable list of the new messages.
Exchange mail later
Brings up a dialog that allows you to set a time for a mail exchange to occur. For example, you could set a mail exchange to occur at 2 am, while you sleep.
Settings menu
Host settings...
Opens the first of three interconnected dialogs in which you set up everything for BulkRate to be able to communicate to the host BBS. See the section "BulkRate set up" for details.
Modem settings...
Opens a dialog to allow you to choose modem speed, phone line type, and other modem settings.
Save settings...
Allows you to save the current settings to a file. This allows you to use BulkRate to call multiple BBS, or to have multiple users use the same copy of BulkRate.
Open settings file...
Allows you to restore a settings file.
Tabby...
Opens the Tabby window. See the Tabby section for details.
Preferences...
Opens a dialog that allows you to decide how BulkRate will behave in certain situations.
"Auto-delete mail after sending", when checked, causes BulkRate to delete each piece of mail as it is sent.
"Delete sent mail when quitting" causes BulkRate to purge all sent mail when you choose Quit from the File menu.
"Manual connection (no autodial)" is for use with non-Hayes compatible modems or other serial connections in which you cannot autodial. You should also uncheck the “Hayes-compatible modem” box in the Modem settings dialog. If the Manual connection option is specified, when you choose Exchange mail now from the Settings menu, you will get a dialog requesting you to connect to the host manually, then press return. BulkRate will then take over and complete the mail transfer.
"Use a message tag line" causes BulkRate to add a “tagline” at the end of each message you send. BulkRate will choose randomly from the taglines in this field. You can add to, delete from, or change the taglines supplied with BulkRate to anything you want.
"Maximum number of redials" is the maximum number of times you want BulkRate to try to dial a busy BBS before giving up.
Text menu
Font
With this submenu, you can change the font of any selected text.
Size
With this submenu, you can change the size of any selected text.
Find text...
Attempts to find the specified text in the topmost open window.
Find again
Finds further occurrences of the same text. Due to a quirk in SuperCard, this does not function reliably when selected from the menu. For better results, use the Command key equivalent (Cmd-G) instead.
•BulkRate and Tabby•
BulkRate is Tabby-compatible. You can set up BulkRate, Tabby, and a few other applications to connect a FirstClass BBS to FidoNet or AlterNet.
Pete Johnson, Sysop of Glassell Park BBS and author of several telecommunications utilities, was responsible for ironing out the BulkRate/Tabby interface. His notes on the interface follow.
BulkRate and Tabby notes by Pete Johnson
In addition to its usefulness as an off-line mail reader, BulkRate can link FirstClass to Tabby, which opens up networked message possibilities of FidoNet, AlterNet and other domains.
To accomplish this magic, BulkRate calls using the FirstClass command line interface to get and post messages. Because the command line interface has limited error checking and is somewhat slow, this is not an ideal way to import and export hundreds of messages, but it works fine for low-volume sections.
Also, BulkRate has to work around a limitation of the current FirstClass Server -- it will not allow a caller to post a message with a pseudonym or to send a message to someone who is not a recognized user on the board. As a result, all messages posted by BulkRate will be “From” whatever account name you give BulkRate. To preserve the true origin of the message, BulkRate writes the original header as a preamble to the text of the message.
BulkRate has been extensively tested on the Glassell Park BBS, where it uses an account name of Fido. This is what a display of message headers in a networked area on Glassell Park looks like:
Home:NetHelp: 17 Messages.
1 From Fido 1K 10/23/91 11:17 PM 400k disks
2 From Fido 2K 10/21/91 8:16 PM Re: I NEED PRINTER DRIVERS!!!
3 From Fido 1K 10/21/91 8:16 PM I NEED PRINTER DRIVERS!!!!!!!
4 From Pete Johnson 1K 10/21/91 9:46 AM Re: Fidonet
5 From Neil Clark 1K 10/21/91 1:27 AM Fidonet
6 From Lee Rosenstein 1K 10/20/91 10:20 PM Re: Mac Hardware.
7 From Fido 1K 10/19/91 3:58 PM Re: Icons for use in Copernic
8 From Fido 2K 10/19/91 3:58 PM Icons for use in Copernicus I
9 From Fido 1K 10/18/91 8:27 AM Mac Hardware.
10 From Fido 1K 10/18/91 8:27 AM Re: Encrypted File
11 From Fido 1K 10/17/91 9:37 AM Re: Encrypted File
12 From Fido 1K 10/17/91 9:36 AM Re: Encrypted File
13 From Fido 1K 10/16/91 10:54 PM Test of Help
14 From Fido 1K 10/16/91 10:54 PM Encrypted File
15 From Fido 2K 10/16/91 8:05 AM Re: Encrypted File
16 From Pete Johnson 1K 10/15/91 5:40 PM Test of Help
17 From Fido 2K 10/15/91 5:21 PM Ugh........... MNP-5......
All the messages posted by BulkRate show here as from “Fido.” The full text of the first two messages looks like this:
================================
Message 1 10/23/91 11:17 PM
Subject: 400k disks
From: Fido
To: NetHelp
To: All
From: Lawrence Wolf
Subject: 400k disks
Created on 10/22/91 at 21:34:18
How can I initialize 400k disks HFS? I have some old single sided floppies
I’d like to use for storage. ?? The init BAD formats disks, marking bad
blocks as used (much like system 7 does). It only works with HFS.
Thanks
lawrence wolf 101/300.0
--- Tabby 2.2
* Origin: The Graphics Factory -Braintree, MA (617)849-0347 (1:101/640)
- via BulkRate 1.0a7
Message 2 10/21/91 8:16 PM
Subject: Re: I NEED PRINTER DRIVERS!!!
From: Fido
To: NetHelp
To: William Marcus
From: Kirk Crawford
Subject: Re: I NEED PRINTER DRIVERS!!!!!!!!
Created on 10/20/91 at 20:43:09
You will find the ImageWriter driver that you need on your Apple System
Software disks. Just drag it to your System Folder. If you don't have any
System Software disks you should be able to get them from your local apple
dealer. He will probably be willing to copy System 6.0.7 onto four blank
disks if you bring in your originals.
Since the ImageWriter driver is Apple System Software and I don't have a
license to distribute Apple System software I cannot make it available for
download on this BBS. It is available on several online services though
such as GEnie or America Online.
Anybody want a disk for America Online? It gets you online and comes with
If you reply to either of these messages, BulkRate will redirect your reply to ALL. If you want to send a message to a specific individual, Kirk Crawford, for instance, you can accomplish that by writing
To: Kirk Crawford
followed by an empty line (just a carriage return) as the first two lines of the text of your reply. BulkRate will use this information to readdress the message.
(Note - BulkRate's reply button now does this automatically for you in networked sections. -Greg)
•Setup for Tabby•
This document is not a tutorial on Tabby. To set up Tabby you’ll have to consult the Tabby docs. Tabby is available for $80 from:
Michael Connick
ME Connick and Company
P.O. Box 307
Bradley Beach, NJ 07720
BulkRate has been tested and works with Tabby 2.2.
Put a copy of BulkRate at the same disk/folder level as your copy of TabbyNet. Keep a spare copy of BulkRate once you have it configured properly.
You will probably want to create a unique account name for BulkRate. In the case of Glassell Park it uses an account named Fido. Fido is both the logon name and the last name of the user, who has no first name. BulkRate wants you to use accounts with matching logon names and “real” names. You could just as easily use a first name of Fido, last name Gate and logon name of Fido Gate.
Play with this account a bit to make sure you have it set up correctly. One easy way to set it up is to subscribe (Make Alias) the gateway user to the conferences you want to network, then tell BulkRate to read conferences only in the Home directory. When you have it set the way you want it, choose Preferences for the gateway account and select “Show only unread items in conferences and mailbox.” This will substantially speed up your sessions.
Remember to configure BulkRate with this user ID and password in BulkRate’s Host Settings dialog.
To configure BulkRate to work with Tabby, you must have a working and properly installed copy of Tabby (including a valid Tabby Nodes file). In addition, you need to find a friendly Host who will set you up as a point. Since FirstClass will not accept CrashMail, you cannot get a legal Fido node ID. Instead, you can operate as a point through a private network. Glassell Park is point 7 on Greg Staie’s MacValhalla, 1:102/942. Greg’s private network number is 30838, so BulkRate is set up as 1:30838/7.
Here are the Tabby Maint settings Glassell Park uses (to configure your copy of BulkRate, substitute your own BBS origin line, private net number and the node address of the Host BBS):
Primary Node Address 1:30338/7
AKA Nodes <none>
Events N 0000 to 24000 <any application name -- it will never run>
Schedule BBS Both 0000 to 2400
Tabby Send Only 0000 to 2400 Special All days 102/942
Routing:
102/942 POLL
102/942 DIRECT
Origin Name:
Glassell Park BBS (213) 254-4852
EchoMail Areas:
2 SCMGEN 102/942
3 SCMHEL 102/942
4 SCMPROG 102/942
5 SCMMUSIC 102/942
6 SCMBUY 102/942
7 ARTILB 102/942
255 UNKNOWN
The other Tabby Maint settings don’t make a difference.
Configure BulkRate’s Tabby settings by selecting Tabby… from the Settings menu.
The resulting window lets you adjust the following:
"Tabby event applications to run" is the sequence of events you’d like BulkRate to initiate for events. The default settings will look much like what Glassell Park has been using:
BulkRate sends itself signals through the Tabby launch.next file. The first signal appears in the first two events -- BulkRate,BRExport. There is no BRExport application, but when BulkRate sees that command in a launch.next file it automatically initiates an export session. The second signal appears at the end of the launch.next list -- BulkRate,BRImport. This launches BulkRate, which then notices the BRImport command in the launch.next file and does an import session.
Before we proceed, a bit of terminology. Import and export are used from the point of view of the FirstClass BBS. An import session delivers messages from Tabby’s Generic Import file to BulkRate and then to the FirstClass BBS. An export session sends messages from the FirstClass BBS to BulkRate and then to the Tabby Generic Export file. Please remember this distinction -- it can get a bit confusing since BulkRate exports and imports messages from and to both the FirstClass board and the Tabby board.
Here is a brief description of other components of the event string:
* EscToNull turns escape characters in the Generic Export file into ASCII nulls. This is necessary because BulkRate can’t directly write an ASCII null, which is required by the Generic Export file.
* TSN is my abbreviation for TabbyNet SendNews
* ReOrigin changes 1:30838/7 in Generic Export origin lines into 1:102/942.7
* TSM is my abbreviation for TabbyNet SendNews
* ArcMC is my abbreviation for ArcMail Compress
* TabbyNet is TabbyNet
* ArcME is my abbreviation for ArcMail Extract
* TDM is my abbreviation for TabbyNet DeliverMail
* TSort is Kirk Crawford’s utility which sorts Generic Import messages by date. If you don't have TSort, you can safely remove its name from this sequence.
* UnDupe eliminates messages posted by the FirstClass board from being echoed back to it, as would otherwise happen with echoes routed to points.
EscToNull, ReOrigin and UnDupe were written by Pete Johnson. They are all free (but copyrighted by Pete) and are included in the BulkRate Tabby package. Here is a bit more information on these three Tabby utilities:
EscToNull turns all escape characters (byte value 27) in Generic Export into ASCII nulls (byte value 0). It requires no configuration -- just put it at the same level as TabbyNet.
ReOrigin turns all incidences of your private node number in the origin line into a Fido point number. It requires configuration -- launch it and hold down the mouse button, enter the private net number (i.e. 1:30836/7) and the Fido point number (i.e. 102/942.7) and click OK. Put it at the same level as TabbyNet.
UnDupe deletes all incoming messages with the same origin line as your BBS -- this is necessary to avoid dupes if you’re picking up messages as a point (it won’t hurt anything anyway). It requires no configuration -- just put it at the same level as TabbyNet.
The four buttons in the BulkRate Tabby dialog do the following:
"Do Tabby event now" initiates a Tabby event using the string of events in the “Tabby event applications to run” window. This cycle normally consists of calling the FirstClass BBS to get mail, exporting mail, turning things over to Tabby, then importing mail and calling the FirstClass BBS to send the mail.
"Schedule Tabby event" lets you schedule a time for the Tabby event to run automatically.
"Export mail now" calls the FirstClass BBS to get mail, then exports mail to the Generic Export file. If Generic Export already exists, new mail is added to the end of the file.
"Import mail now" imports mail from the Generic Import file, then calls the FirstClass BBS to send the mail.
If you use the “Export mail now” and “Import mail now” buttons, you will have to run TabbyNet on your own, either through a subsequent session using BulkRate’s “Do Tabby event now” button or with a utility such as Gliders.
"Network Node Number" is your private node number. In the case of Glassell Park, this is 30838/7.
"Conference Names / Category Numbers" is a list of conference names as they appear on your FirstClass BBS followed by a slash and a three-digit code for the Tabby areas you want to map them to. These can be any numbers from 1 to 255 as long as they agree with the numbers you assigned to EchoMail Areas with Tabby Maint. These are the settings used by Glassell Park:
NetGeneral,002
NetHelp,003
Programming,004
Music,005
Buy&Sell,006
ArtilleryBeta,007
•Bugs, Hints and Kinks•
The following problems exist with BulkRate:
* You cannot reliably transfer messages at 9600 baud, but 2400 baud and below work fine. Some users have reported that they are using 9600 bps successfully, so do so at your own risk.
* Chat requests from other users will cause BulkRate to become hopelessly confused. My recommendation is to log on to your FirstClass BBS using FirstClass User 1.65 (or later) and set your preferences to disallow chat requests.
* The FirstClass CLUI has problems when there are more than 100 messages available in a section - so BulkRate has the same problem. To get around this, and also make BulkRate run MUCH faster, use FirstClass User to set your preferences to show only UNREAD messages.
If BulkRate hangs up during its processing, try the following:
* Hit Command-. (that’s a period) to interrupt BulkRate.
* When you see a dialog asking what to do, hit Cancel.
* Hit Command-W one or more times to close any windows. Although some windows look like modal windows which you cannot close, many of them will close via Command-W.
* Quit BulkRate.
The next time you start BulkRate, it may automatically try to start a Tabby event -- just hit Cancel.
You will have to trim old messages from your networked conferences. At the moment, there is no solution for automating this (unless you want to set a *very* short message expire time for your whole board!).
