ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 Shareware Freeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)

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FrontDoor 2.02 Noncommercial User guide For noncommercial use and distribution To the memories of Catharina Frodin and Alva Gardlund. And to Christian, Katja, and Igor Homrighausen. Table of contents 1 LEGAL NOTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.1 Hardware requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.2 Software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.3 Additional equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.4 BBS software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1 CONFIG.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2 AUTOEXEC.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.3 Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.4 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.1 FD environment variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.2 FD.SYS <> SETUP.FD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.3 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.4 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.4.1 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.4.2 Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.4.3 Mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.4.4 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.4.5 Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.4.6 Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4.4.7 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4.4.8 Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4.4.9 Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4.4.10 Folder Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4.4.11 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 4.4.11.1 Notes regarding protocols . . . . . . . . 30 4.4.12 Request Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 5 The nodelist and the nodelist compiler . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 5.1 Hosts and hubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 5.2 Compiling a nodelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 5.2.1 FDNODE.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 POINTLIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 PVTLIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 SWEPULSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 PHONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 USE ZONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 DIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 COST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 5.3 Nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 5.4 Command line switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 5.5 Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.5.1 Pointlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.5.2 FDNODE.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 5.5.3 Point handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5.5.4 Remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5.5.5 POINTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5.6 Sharing the nodelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 6 Modems and FOSSIL drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 6.1 Basic configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 6.1.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Modem port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Maximum baud rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Lock port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Reset modem to connect speed . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Lower DTR when busy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Lower DTR to terminate call . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Toggle DTR before dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Carrier detect mask (CDMASK) . . . . . . . . . . . 43 6.1.2 Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 6.1.3 Command strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Escape code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Return on-line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Onhook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Offhook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Init-1..Init-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 6.1.4 Answer control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Manual answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Force answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Answer delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Limited hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Starting time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Ending time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.2 Advanced configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.2.1 The Modem Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.2.2 An example, the HST/DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 6.3 Some sample configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 US Robotics HST (older models) . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 US Robotics HST/DS/V.32bis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 6.4 FOSSIL drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 6.4.1 BNU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 6.4.2 X00.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 7 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 7.1 The Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 7.1.1 External event behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 7.1.2 Mail event behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 7.1.3 The @ event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 7.1.4 Overlapping events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 8 Mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 8.1 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 8.1.1 Programs <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 8.1.2 Utilities <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 8.1.3 Mail <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 8.2 Mail queue <Alt-B> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 8.3 Call progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 8.4 Semaphore indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 8.5 Undialable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 9 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 9.1 Main <Alt-M> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 9.2 Edit <Alt-E> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 9.2.1 <Alt-T> in edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 9.2.2 Toggle menu <Ctrl-F2> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 9.3 Utilities <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 9.4 Purge <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 9.5 Other keys in edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 9.6 Other keys in view (read) mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 9.7 Entering new messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 9.8 Management <Alt-F9> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 9.8.1 Main menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 9.8.2 Continuous tagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 9.8.3 Range select <F4> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 9.9 Keyboard macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 9.9.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 9.10 Carbon copies (CC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 9.10.1 Hidden CCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 9.10.2 Using files as input to CCs . . . . . . . . . . 75 9.10.3 Address expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 9.11 Crossposting (XC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 10 Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 10.1 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 10.1.1 File <Alt-F> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 10.1.2 Line settings <Alt-L> . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 10.1.3 Session <Alt-S> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 10.1.4 Options <Alt-O> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 10.2 Keyboard macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 10.3 Raw mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 10.4 Keypad modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 10.5 PC keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 10.6 Phone directory <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 10.6.1 Queue status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 10.6.2 Adding/changing entries . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 10.7 Inactivity timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 10.8 File transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 10.9 On-line timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 11 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 11.1 Destination of messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 11.1.1 Name lookups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 11.1.2 Address browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 11.1.3 Address macros (NAMES.FD) . . . . . . . . . . . 88 12 File Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 12.1 Outbound Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 12.2 Requesting files with a password . . . . . . . . . . . 90 12.3 Update Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 12.4 Inbound Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 12.4.1 Request modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Anyone can request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Systems in nodelist can request . . . . . . . . . . 90 No requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 12.4.2 Directory listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 12.4.3 Alias listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 12.4.4 Response message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 12.4.5 Limiting Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Max match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Max size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Max time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Minimum speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 12.4.6 Limited hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 12.4.7 Event restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 12.4.8 Protecting files and directories . . . . . . . . 93 13 Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 13.1 Complete path specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 13.2 Loading programs in a DOS shell . . . . . . . . . . . 94 14 CRT environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 15 Message Status Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 File Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Update request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Kill/Sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Truncate file/sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Delete file/sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Immediate mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 No status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 16 Mail routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 16.1 Default routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 16.2 Message status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 16.3 Host/Hub/Boss routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 16.4 Qualifying systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 16.5 Route commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 16.6 LIST specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 16.7 Using nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 16.8 File routing/forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 16.9 Message forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 16.10 Multiple zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 16.11 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 16.12 Dynamic packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 16.13 Regarding points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 16.14 Order of evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 16.15 TARGET vs. qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 16.16 Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 16.17 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 MYZONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 MYNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 MYPOINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 16.18 Supported nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 17 EMSI and IEMSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 17.1 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 17.2 Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 17.3 IEMSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 18 Script language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 18.1 What can I do with it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 18.2 Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 18.3 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 18.4 Node block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 18.5 PC Pursuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 18.6 How do I update PCP.DAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 18.7 MNEMONICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 19 FDSERVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 19.1 What is a FDSERVER request? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 19.2 Request message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 19.2.1 Internal commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 19.3 Using it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 19.4 Keeping calls to a minimum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 19.5 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 20 Service requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 20.1 Service requests vs FDSERVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 20.2 Setting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 20.3 ^ - + ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 20.4 Remote system information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 20.5 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 20.6 A word of wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 21 Global command line switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 21.1 A word of wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 22 Environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 22.1 FDOPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 22.2 FDSWAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 22.3 POINTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 22.4 FMOVR and FDOVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 23 Semaphore files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 24 Batch files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 24.1 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 24.2 Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 24.3 Loading BBS software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 24.4 Different labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 24.5 Same label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 24.6 DOBBS.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 24.7 EXEBBS.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 24.8 Flow (batch files) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 25 Multi-tasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 25.1 NS16550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 25.2 DESQview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 25.3 DoubleDOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 25.4 Multilink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 26 Converting from other mail systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 27 Help systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 28 Sample (PCP) script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 29 Commercial inquiries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 30 Developer notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 31 Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 32 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 1 LEGAL NOTICE The FrontDoor 2.02 Noncommercial software and information attached hereto, hereafter referred to as FrontDoor, is protected by applicable copyright laws and international treaty provisions. FrontDoor is provided as is, without warranty of any kind or fitness for a particular purpose, either expressed or implied, all of are hereby explicitly disclaimed. Advanced Engineering sarl only guarantees that FrontDoor will occupy disk space. In no event shall Advanced Engineering sarl be liable to you or anyone else for any damages or costs, including, but not limited to, any lost profits, lost savings, lost income, lost information, loss of the right to use FrontDoor, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use FrontDoor. Additional statements by agents, employees, distributors, and dealers of Advanced Engineering sarl do not constitute warranties by Advanced Engineering sarl and do not bind Advanced Engineering sarl. FrontDoor is not public domain, shareware, or freeware; nor does it stop working after a certain amount of time. FrontDoor is simply free of charge for individual hobby use by persons holding or aspiring to obtain a network address (including point addresses) in one or more of the amateur data communications networks throughout the world. It is not allowed to use FrontDoor within a commercial environment (ie. business, governmental organization, association, school, foundation, or any other form of juridical person) without prior written permission from Advanced Engineering sarl. FrontDoor can only be used by physical persons (as opposed to juridical persons), and installed on a computer which is personal property. Exception to the rule of personal ownership of the computer: before the year 1995, individual hobby use (as described above) of FrontDoor can be carried on a computer owned by business or state agency if the installation is located and remains in one of the following countries: Albania, Angola, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czeckoslovakia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Hungary, Latvia, Laos, Lithuania, North Korea, Poland, Rumania, the Soviet Union, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, or former republic, province or member state of one of these countries which has turned independent. Information on how to obtain the commercial version of FrontDoor is included in a separate section of this document. You may freely distribute and copy FrontDoor provided no fee is charged and the FrontDoor archive contains unmodified copies of the original files as produced by Advanced Engineering sarl or Joaquim H. Homrighausen. No part of FrontDoor may be modified, altered, reverse engineered, sold, or distributed in any form which would involve some sort of trade without prior written permission from Advanced Engineering sarl. All Advanced Engineering sarl and Joaquim H. Homrighausen products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Engineering sarl or Joaquim H. Homrighausen. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 1 Copyright 1986-1991 Advanced Engineering sarl. All rights reserved. Documentation and Software written and designed by Joaquim H. Homrighausen. 2 2 Preface Welcome to FrontDoor, the complete e-mail package from Advanced Engineering sarl. It is probably safe to say that an e-mail package, such as FrontDoor, is one of the most complex types of applications around. This manual is very straight forward and may seem hard to understand at first glance. If you get lost, or cannot understand something, go back and read the section you are having problems with, carefully. FrontDoor has been tested on more than four thousand systems for over five years. It will run under MS or PC DOS versions 3.1 and above; including 4.x, 5.x, OS/2 1.3, and OS/2 2.0 DOS Mode. It runs under most LAN software; including Novell and LANtastic. It also runs under PC-MOS/386, VM/386 and in other multi-tasking environments such as DESQview. For complete technical and FidoNet-related specifications, see "Technical specifications". Although FrontDoor will run on most machines, there are a few restrictions and requirements. 2.1 Hardware requirements o An IBM PC, AT, i386, i486, PS/2 or 100% BIOS compatible. o A hard disk with at least 1 MB available diskspace. o An asynchronous modem capable of sending alphanumeric messages such as CONNECT 2400. o A DTE interface (computer <> modem) that supports CTS/RTS handshaking (most cables/internal modems do). o A monochrome or color monitor. o 384 KB of system memory. 2.2 Software requirements o MS or PC DOS 3.10 or above. o A FOSSIL driver such as X00 or BNU. 2.3 Additional equipment FrontDoor can take advantage of, but does not require, the following: o EMS/XMS memory for overlays and memory image swapping. o EGA/VGA extended screen modes such as 80x43/50 and 132x28. o AT-style (extended) keyboard. 2.4 BBS software FrontDoor can be used as a front-end to many popular bulletin boards including TUBBS, PC Board, RemoteAccess, Maximus-CBCS, TCL, TPBoard, QuickBBS, SuperBBS, Phoenix RCS, Fido, Opus-CBCS, and WildCat!. 3 3 Installation Included in the distribution archive are several files. This document will walk you through the installation and configuration of the system. All path names and directories suggested here are not required. You can change them as you wish, but I suggest you use the example in this document for a start and then move on to change things as you become more familiar with the system. In the example, it is assumed that you are about to install FrontDoor on your C drive. 3.1 CONFIG.SYS FrontDoor needs to have a few extra file handles allocated to keep the nodelist and other files open. Your CONFIG.SYS file should contain FILES=25 (or higher). If you do not know what handles means, that is okay, as long as you have the FILES=25 statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. If you are using multi-tasking software, your FILES= setting must usually be set to something higher than 25. You should also have BUFFERS=30 (or higher) in your CONFIG.SYS file to improve DOS' buffer performance. If you are using a disk cache, you should have BUFFERS=3 or something close to that. 3.2 AUTOEXEC.BAT Add SET FD=C:\FD to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will make sure FrontDoor can find all its system files. You may NOT have spaces between FD and =. 3.3 Directories From your root directory (C:\) create a directory called FD. This is the main (ROOT) directory for FrontDoor. Change the active directory to FD. Create the following directories: NODELIST MAIL PACKET FILE 3.4 Files Copy FD.EXE, FD.OVR, FM.EXE, FM.OVR, FDNC.EXE and FDSETUP.EXE to C:\FD. The program files are now installed. 4 4 Setup The Setup program, FDSETUP hereafter, is used to configure FrontDoor. Most functions and behavior of the Editor (FM), Mailer (FD), and Terminal are controlled from FDSETUP. When you start FDSETUP, it searches for the system file, SETUP.FD, in the directory pointed to by the FD environment variable. If the FD variable has not been set, FDSETUP searches the current directory for SETUP.FD. If it cannot open SETUP.FD, it will ask you if you want to create a new file or abort. 4.1 FD environment variable The FD environment variable specifies where FDSETUP should search for SETUP.FD. If the FD environment variable is not set, FDSETUP will search the current directory for SETUP.FD. It is recommended that you add SET FD=<path> to your AUTOEXEC.BAT or other startup file. This allows FDSETUP, and the other FrontDoor programs, to locate SETUP.FD without having to be in the same directory. Usage: SET FD=<PATHSPEC> Eg. SET FD=C:\FD 4.2 FD.SYS <> SETUP.FD The system file was previously (FD 1.99c and FD 2.00) called FD.SYS and some programs may still require it to be present before they will run (TosScan 1.00 is one example). It is therefore VERY IMPORTANT that you COPY SETUP.FD to FD.SYS whenever you have made changes to SETUP.FD by using FDSETUP. 4.3 Getting started To create a new SETUP.FD file, make the FrontDoor root directory the active directory by using the DOS command CD; type FDSETUP and press Enter. If you have set the FD variable, you do not have to change the active directory before invoking FDSETUP. FDSETUP will display a message saying something like "SETUP.FD, path or file not found". Press <Space> to create a new file. 5 4.4 Menus There are eight top-level (pull-down) menus. Each function and menu of FDSETUP will now be described. 4.4.1 File Shell to DOS Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and press <Enter> to return to FDSETUP. You can invoke a temporary DOS shell in FDSETUP by pressing <Alt-Z> in the middle of input fields, pull-down menus, selection fields, etc. Exit Returns you to DOS or the Mailer, depending on how FDSETUP was invoked. If you made any changes to your configuration, you will be asked if you want to make your changes permanent or abandon them. You can also exit FDSETUP by pressing <Esc> at any of the top-level menus. 4.4.2 Global Address Address Defines your network address and alternate network addresses, or "also-known-as" (AKA). You must define at least one network address (the first slot). Site info Defines your system's name, location, telephone number, maximum speed, and nodelist flags. The telephone number should be specified in international format, eg. +352 355936 or - Unpublished- if you do not wish to reveal this information to other systems. 6 Domains Specifies the name of a network zone. This should be "fidonet.org" for all FidoNet Zones (currently 1 through 6). At the moment, this is only used for the generation of the ^AMSGID: kludge line and for inserting "^aVia" information in messages forwarded by the Mailer (FD). AKA.. Allows you to specify which AKA to use when corresponding with certain zones and nets within zones. Ie. if you are writing a message to someone in zone 2 and you have specified that you wish to use your 2:270/17 AKA for this, the Editor will automatically use 2:270/17 regardless of your current AKA setting. This allows you to easily participate in multiple networks. Filenames System Where the FrontDoor system files are stored. This should NOT be a RAM disk. Netmail Where Netmail messages are stored, ie. the Netmail folder. The Mailer unpacks received messages to this directory. This should NOT be a RAM disk. Files Where inbound (received) files are stored. This should NOT be a RAM disk. Packets Where the Mailer stores its temporary mail packets. They are created every time the Mailer runs a mail event and are removed after when the event ends. By putting the Packet directory on a RAM disk, you can greatly improve the speed of packing and scanning outbound mail. It is recommended that you use a sub-directory on your RAM disk (eg. <drive>:\PACKETS) since the number of directory entries in the root directory of a drive is usually strictly limited. 7 Log file The log file. This is a complete filename, eg. C:\FD\FD.LOG. The Mailer is the only program in the FD package that writes information to this file. You should NOT use a RAM disk for the log file as it will disappear if the system reboots. Banner The contents of this file is displayed to human callers before the Mailer passes control to your batch file to invoke the BBS software. This file is not used if you are running in mail-only mode. You should NOT use a RAM disk for the banner file. Nodelist Where the nodelist database is stored. The Nodelist Compiler (FDNC) expects to find its control file(s) here. The Mailer (FD) and Editor (FM) expects to find the compiled nodelist database here. If this directory is not specified, FrontDoor will use the SYSTEM directory instead. The nodelist directory should NOT be located on a RAM disk. In-event This file is displayed to human callers if the Mailer rejects their call. Ie. if you are running in mail-only mode or if a mail event prevents human callers from accessing your BBS. MSG Base Where the Editor (FM) expects to find the Hudson Message Base files (MSGHDR.BBS, MSGTXT.BBS, MSGINFO.BBS, MSGIDX.BBS, MSGTOIDX.BBS and LASTREAD.BBS). If you do not have any folders with MsgBase status, you do not have to specify this. Swapping If you enable swapping to disk or there is not sufficient XMS/EMS memory available. The Mailer (FD) and the Editor (FM) will use this directory to store its swap file. This setting can be overridden by the FDSWAP environment variable (see "Environment variables"). 8 Semaphore Where the Mailer (FD) and Editor (FM) creates and looks for the various semaphore files (see "Semaphore files"). This allows you to configure a multi-line and/or multi-user system with different configurations to use the same semaphore directory. This is not available in the noncommercial version. General Your country code Your country code. Eg. USA=1, Sweden=46, Luxembourg=352. This is used for telephone number translations. This is related to the COUNTRY= command used in CONFIG.SYS. It does not, however, have to be the same as your COUNTRY= setting. FDSETUP's country code setting should always be your real country code. Screen flickers FrontDoor attempts to detect if you have a CGA card that causes flicker if software performs direct memory access (DMA). The default for this setting is NO and you should leave it alone unless you are seeing flicker on your screen when you use the Mailer (FD), Editor (FM), and/or the Terminal. Use "fastkey" Forces the Mailer (FD), Editor (FM), and the Terminal to speed up the typematic rate of your keyboard. This is only valid for machines with an AT- or compatible BIOS installed. If you are using other keyboard speed-up utilities, leave this to NO; otherwise, the programs will restore the typematic rate to the default (slow) when they terminate. 9 Screen blanking Prevents screen images from "burning in". If you are using a monochrome monitor, data that is displayed often in the same location on your screen can "burn in" and leave ugly marks. Color monitors usually do not have this problem. Since the Mailer (FD) is active more than 80% of the day on most systems, it may be wise to enable this option to avoid "burn ins" of the Mailer's main display. Blackout timer Specifies how many seconds of inactivity should pass before the screen is blanked. This option is only used if screen blanking (previous page) has been enabled. You can "light up" a blanked screen by pressing a key. The screen will also be lit when the Mailer (FD) places outgoing calls and when incoming calls are answered. Extended keyboard Specifies which type of keyboard you have (101/102 or 83/84). FDSETUP will attempt to "guess" which type of keyboard you have, but some BIOS flavors does not properly indicate the type. This allows you to override what FDSETUP detects. Force 24-hour fmt Allows you to force the Mailer and the Editor to display the time in 24-hour format even if you are located in a country that uses the 12-hour format, such as the USA. 10 Users Allows you to specify user names and access levels. The default name of the first user is System Operator. You should change this to your own name. There are three different access levels. Supervisor, Administrator and User. A user with Supervisor access can override any restrictions on folders and messages. He/she can also change all settings regardless of passwords. You should only have one user with Supervisor access, but FDSETUP will allow you to define more than one. At least one user with Supervisor access MUST exist and is required to add any additional users. A user with Administrator access cannot override any restrictions on folders and messages. He/she has to enter passwords for protected items before they can be changed. A user with User access cannot override any restrictions on folders and messages. The only setting he/she can change in FDSETUP is his/her own password. 4.4.3 Mailer Miscellaneous Mail from unlisted systems Defines whether or not the Mailer should accept incoming calls from systems not listed in your nodelist database. If this option is disabled (set to NO) and an unlisted system calls in, the Mailer will terminate the call immediately. 11 Mail from "unprotected" systems Defines whether or not the Mailer should accept incoming calls from systems for which you do not have a session level password defined. If this option is disabled (set to NO) and an unprotected system calls in, the Mailer will terminate the call immediately. Mail from unlisted points The Mailer will by default accept calls from points of other systems. You can, however, specify that you do not want the Mailer to accept calls from points that are not listed in your nodelist database. If this option is disabled (set to NO) and a point for which you have no entry in your nodelist database calls in, the Mailer will terminate the call immediately. Kill empty received messages Specifies that you want the Mailer to kill empty messages (messages with no text in its body) when they are unpacked from mail packets. Terminal only (no mail) If enabled, the Mailer will invoke the Terminal as soon as it is loaded. This setting can be overridden with the /M command line switch. Mail only (no BBS) If enabled, the Mailer will not accept human callers under any circumstances. Use this option if you do not have a BBS or similar software running "below" the Mailer. 12 Present all AKAs to remote system If you have more than one AKA address, the Mailer will by default attempt to pickup mail destined for all your addresses during a mail session. This can be disabled so that only one address is presented to the remote system. Which address is actually presented is determined by the AKA matching table (described previously). Trigger exit upon receipt of netmail The Mailer will by default only trigger (set) the exit flag when compressed (following the ARCmail 0.60 standard) mail is received. If this option is enabled, the exit flag will be triggered (set) when NetMail packets (files ending with the extension .PKT) have been received. Whether or not the Mailer will actually exit is controlled by event behaviors (see "Events") and the mail exit errorlevels. Trigger exit upon receipt of ANY file Similar to the previous option, but will trigger exit as long as any (file) data has been received. 13 Print received messages If enabled, the Mailer will print messages unpacked from received mail packets. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Busy retries Defines the maximum number of times the Mailer will attempt to call a system during an event (see "Events") if the system is busy or does not answer on the first call. See the section about the Mailer for further details regarding call progress. Resend retries Defines the maximum number of times the Mailer will attempt to transfer mail to a system during an event if the first attempt fails. See the section about the Mailer for further details regarding call progress. Retry delay Defines the minimum number of seconds the Mailer will wait between outgoing calls. This is used in conjunction with a random timer to avoid two Mailers calling each other at the same time (and thus causing both telephone lines to be engaged). Delay before first call The Mailer will by default attempt to place the first outgoing call as soon as possible. If this option is enabled, it will delay the first call. Days to keep mail history Number of days to retain entries in the floating inbound/outbound history files. The Mailer removes all entries older than this value from the history files every morning (at first opportunity after midnight). 14 BBS software name Name of the BBS software you are running (if any). This is displayed to human callers together with the "Press <Esc> twice for BBSNAME" if the event allows human callers to access the BBS. Seconds before passing to BBS Defines the number of seconds the Mailer will wait before assuming a human caller. Unless the Mailer receives two consecutive escape (ASCII 27) characters, it will attempt to establish a mail session for the amount specified here. The minimum and default value is 11 seconds. The maximum value is 60 seconds. Minimum undialable cost The minimum cost of a call for a system to be processed by the undialable handler. The undialable handler is discussed in a separate section. Honor Return Receipt Requests (RRQ) Specifies whether or not the Mailer should generate a Return Receipt for received messages with the RRQ flag set. The RRQ flag is discussed in the Editor section. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Log Defines the various level of logging. All messages will appear on the screen, the log options defines which of them ends up in the log file. 15 File requests Controls how the Mailer (FD) treats inbound File and Update Requests. A separate section explains File and Update Requests in detail. FDServer If no password is specified in FDSETUP, the FDSERVER function is inactive (disabled). The FDSERVER function is described in a separate section. External mail When the Mailer processes an incoming call, all received characters are processed for a possible match with any of the external mail "wake-up" sequences (strings) and if a match is made, the Mailer exits with the specified errorlevel of the matching string. This allows you to run alternate mail handlers behind the Mailer, such as UFGATE and Waffle to process uucp mail. Note that the call is not terminated when using the external mail interface, the FOSSIL driver is simply de-initialized and the Mailer exits. This option is NOT intended for echomail processors, etc. To enter characters with an ASCII code below 32 (Space), hold down the <Alt> key, enter the ASCII code on the numerical keypad and release the <Alt> key. Display Mail waiting flashing When there is new mail waiting, the text "Mail" will flash on the Mailer screen. The flashing can be disabled with this option. Display clock Specifies whether or not you want the current date and time displayed in the top right corner of the Mailer screen. Display timestamp Specifies whether or not you want the Mailer to display the time to the left of each line displayed in the main activity window. This setting does not affect what is being written to the log file. Screen size 25 25 line mode. 43/50 43/50 line mode. Only available for systems with EGA and VGA cards. 16 Auto Specifies that the Mailer should attempt to automatically adapt to whatever the current screen size is when it is started. This also means that the Mailer will not attempt to reset the screen mode when it is terminated. Custom Allows you to specify computer register values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to set and reset the screen. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Colors Allows you to choose between the default monochrome (black and white) and the default color sets. You can also choose to customize the colors to suit your own needs. Hidden dial info Allows you to hide portions of telephone numbers that otherwise would be displayed when the Mailer places an outgoing call. Eg. The Mailer calls 352-355936, if you had one of the hidden dial info strings set to 352- the displayed number would be 355936. Function keys Allows you to define up to 20 (24) programs, etc. to invoke from the Mailer when any of the functions keys are pressed. The first 10 (12) function keys are accessed through <F1> - <F10> (F12), the second 10 (12) function keys are accessed through <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12). Title The title to appear on the screen when you press <Alt-K> from the Mailer's main screen. Action The program to invoke or errorlevel to exit with. To specify more than one program, separate them by semicolons (;). To exit with an errorlevel, specify ?<errorlevel>. Eg. LIST C:\FD\FD.LOG;DEL C:\FD\FD.LOG Would load the program LIST and pass C:\FD\FD.LOG as the parameter. When the LIST program terminates, the Mailer would proceed to the next command, which in this case removes C:\FD\FD.LOG. ?255 Would force the Mailer to terminate with an errorlevel of 255. 17 Pause Specifies whether or not you want the Mailer to pause when the invoked program(s) terminates. Check Specifies whether or not the Mailer should re-scan the Netmail folder when the invoked program(s) terminates. To create a DOS shell that does not force a re-scan of the Netmail folder, specify C:\COMMAND.COM (or wherever you have your copy of COMMAND.COM stored) as ACTION and set CHECK to NO. Errorlevels This section allows you to invoke BBS software, or other similar software, when an incoming call is established and the Mailer has determined that it is not a mail call. It also allows you to define an errorlevel to exit with when mail has been received. If a baudrate related errorlevel is zero, the Mailer will display a message to human callers saying that your system does not support non-mail calls at that speed and then terminate the call. If you are running in mail-only mode, the Mailer will never accept non-mail (human) calls. If the RECEIVED MAIL errorlevel is zero, the Mailer will never exit when mail has been received. Whether or not the Mailer will actually exit when it has received mail is determined by the current event behavior and whether or not the received file(s) indicated mail. The CREATE .BAT FILE option allows you to simplify BBS operation. If it is enabled, the Mailer will create a batch file containing the current baudrate, the COM port used, the number of minutes left to the next system event, etc. This is described in a separate section. 18 Audio control The Mailer can sound alarms and make other noises when certain events occur, such as received mail, incoming human callers, fatal errors, etc. This section allows you to control which sounds should be active and when audio should be active. Swapping Determines whether or not you want the Mailer to use swapping. You can disable the use of XMS/EMS memory for the swap function. The swap function is explained in the Miscellaneous section. Protection Allows you to protect certain functions of the Mailer (FD), such as access to the DOS shell, Editor (FM), Nodelist compiler (FDNC), Terminal, etc. with a password. This is not available in the noncommercial version. 4.4.4 Editor Miscellaneous Netmail.Restricted Specifies if the Netmail folder should be restricted. If you enable this, users with User or Administrator access can only read private messages addressed to their usernames. Netmail.Read-only Prevents users with User or Administrator access from writing messages in the netmail folder. The definition of writing includes forwarding and moving of messages to the Netmail folder. Netmail.Export OK Defines whether or not users with User or Administrator access can export messages from the Netmail folder. The definition of export includes moving, copying, and export to disk. Netmail.Use tables Defines whether or not the translation tables should be active by default in the Netmail folder. This can be toggled from within the Editor. Netmail.Crash If the Crash status bit should be set by default on locally created messages. 19 Netmail.Direct If the Direct status bit should be set by default on locally created messages. Netmail.Hold If the Hold status bit should be set by default on locally created messages. Netmail.Private If the Private status bit should be set by default on locally created messages. Netmail.Kill/Sent If the Kill/sent status bit should be set by default on locally created messages. Use zone gates Determines if the Editor (FM) should ask you whether or not you want to send inter-zone messages via the zone gate, never send messages via the zone gate, or always send inter-zone messages via the zone gate. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Del.Orig (Conf) Del.Orig (Locl) Del.Orig (NetM) Determines if the Editor (FM) should ask "Delete original message" when replying to messages in EchoMail (Conf), Local (Locl), and NetMail (NetM)-type folders. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Show hard CRs If enabled, the Editor will show hard CRs in messages. The display of hard CRs is disabled by default and can be toggled from within the Editor. 20 Margin Specifies the margin at which the Editor should automatically wrap text when you enter and quote (replying) messages. The default value, 60, should not be changed in most cases. When you read messages in the Editor, it will use all available columns (80, 132, etc.) as the wrap margin. Keyboard macros Allows you to define up to 20 (24) strings. These can be used to insert common text, such as name signatures, etc. while editing messages. The first 10 (12) function keys are accessed through F1-F10 (F12), the second 10 (12) function keys are accessed through Shift F1-F10 (F12). The Editor (FM) macro language is discussed in the section about how to operate the Editor. Origin lines Appended to messages you create in echomail-type folders to show the origin of a message. These should include the name and location of your system if possible. You can choose default origin lines for all EchoMail-type folders. You can also choose a different origin line from within the Editor. Whether or not the origin line is appended to messages you enter in echomail-type folders is controlled by the echo info status bit for each folder. Display Screen size 25 25 line mode. 43/50 43/50 line mode. Only available for systems with EGA and VGA cards. Auto Specifies that the Editor should attempt to automatically adapt to whatever the current screen size is when it is are started. This also means that the Editor will not attempt to reset the screen mode when it is terminated. 21 Custom Allows you to specify computer register values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to set and reset the screen. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Colors Allows you to choose between the default monochrome (black and white) and the default color sets. You can also choose to customize the colors to suit your own needs. Xlat.In and Xlat.Out Defines the translation tables to use wherever the translation table status bit is active. This is used to translate language specific 8-bit ASCII characters to 7-bit ASCII when writing messages to disk and vice versa when reading messages from disk. The In table is used when reading messages from disk and the Out table is used when writing messages to disk. FDSETUP program automatically creates reasonable defaults for most countries when it creates a new SETUP.FD (system) file. If you are located in an English speaking country, you do normally not have to worry about translation tables. Swapping Determines whether or not you want the Editor to use swapping for its DOS shell. You can disable the use of XMS/EMS memory for the swap function. The swap function is explained in a separate section. 4.4.5 Terminal Miscellaneous Init An additional modem initialization string, sent to the modem as soon as the Terminal is started. If you start the Terminal directly from DOS (FD /T) or have set the Terminal-only option in FDSETUP, the Mailer's initialization strings are first sent to the modem. Download Default download path. Files that you receive (download) during a Terminal session will by default end up here. Upload Default upload path. 22 Editor Allows you to install an Editor or file listing program and invoke it from the Terminal. The Terminal will prompt your for optional parameters, such as filenames, etc. This can also be used to invoke external protocols or external protocol menu programs. Protocol Zmodem, Telink, or Xmodem. Defines the default transfer protocol to use for file transfers in the Terminal. While SEAlink is an available protocol in the Terminal, it cannot be set as the default protocol in FDSETUP. Emulation ANSI, TTY, VT100 or VT52. Defines the default Terminal emulation protocol to use in the Terminal. Note that the Terminal's ANSI protocol supports the AVATAR (AVT/0) emulation protocol. Avatar Allows you to disable the support for AVATAR sequences in ANSI emulation. This can be toggled from within the Terminal. Buffer The size, in KB, of the scroll-back buffer. Connect noise Whether or not the Terminal should make noise when a connection has been established. Transfer noise Whether or not the Terminal should make noise after file transfers. Use tables Whether or not the Terminal translation tables should be active by default. See Editor.Xlat In for a detailed explanation of translation tables. Auto Zmodem Whether or not the automatic Zmodem download (receive) function should be enabled by default. Local echo Whether or not the Terminal should echo typed characters to your screen by default. Wrap around Whether or not the Terminal should move the cursor to the beginning of a new line when it reaches the end of the previous line. 23 Delay Number of seconds to wait between outgoing calls if the number you dialed was busy or did not answer. If there is more than one entry in the dial queue, the delay is ignored and the Terminal proceeds to the next number in the queue. Logging Allows you to enable logging of file transfers, dialed numbers, and time spent on- line to systems. Similar to the Mailer's (FD) log output. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Display Screen size 25 25 line mode. 43/50 43/50 line mode. Only available for systems with EGA and VGA cards. Auto Specifies that the Terminal should attempt to automatically adapt to whatever the current screen size is when it is are started. This also means that the Terminal will not attempt to reset the screen mode when it is terminated. 24 Custom Allows you to specify computer register values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to set and reset the screen. This is not available in the noncommercial version. Keyboard macros Allows you to define up to 20 (24) macro strings. These can be used to transmit common text, such as names and passwords, etc. The first 10 (12) function keys are accessed through <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12), the second 10 (12) function keys are accessed through <Ctrl-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12). To enter characters with an ASCII code below 32 (space), hold down the <Alt> key, enter the ASCII code on the numerical keypad and release the <Alt> key. This is referred to as the default macro set. Xlat.In and Xlat.Out See Editor.Xlat In for a detailed explanation of translation tables. The Xlat.In table is used for characters received from the modem (remote). The Xlat.Out table is used for characters typed on the keyboard. EMSI Profile Defines the default IEMSI (Interactive Electronic Mail Standard Information) profile used to negotiate interactive EMSI sessions with BBS software supporting it. Active Determines whether or not IEMSI support should be active by default. Name The username you wish to use. If this field is empty, the ACTIVE field (above) is automatically toggled to "NO". Handle The handle you wish to use, or empty if none. Password The password you wish to use. 25 Hot-keys Quiet Pausing Editor News New mail New files Screen Clr Specifies default user profile options, allowing you to customize the BBS or on-line service's behavior. The Terminal allows you to configure separate profiles for each individual telephone number in the Terminal Phone Directory. 4.4.6 Modem This option is used to configure your modem for use with FrontDoor. Modems are discussed in a separate section. 4.4.7 Printer The printer configuration can only be changed in the commercial version. The noncommercial version defaults to using LPT1. 4.4.8 Manager The managers are used to define events, session level security, file protection (for file requests) and to define your various message folders. All managers require that the SYSTEM path has been defined since they store their data files (EVENT.FD, PASSWORD.FD, REQUEST.FD and FOLDER.FD) in that directory. 26 4.4.9 Event Manager Events are discussed in a separate section. 4.4.10 Folder Manager Folders are used to define different areas (directories, or boards for the Hudson Message Base) so that you can use the Editor (FM) to read and write messages in those areas. The Editor only knows about one folder by default. It is defined in the Filenames section of FDSETUP (described earlier) and is referred to as the NetMail folder. The folder manager has two modes. The first is the view mode, which is self explanatory. The second mode is the edit/create mode. It will now be described. Status The status and type of the folder. Origin The default origin line to use. This is only used for EchoMail-type folders with the Echo info status enabled. Origin lines are used to identify the origin of a message in EchoMail conferences. This is required because echomail is not a point to point environment, like a telephone conversation or NetMail exchange. EchoMail conferences are usually widespread and can have an unlimited number of participating systems. 27 Title The title appearing in the folder list when you select a new active folder in the Editor (FM). Board/Path Depending on the type of the folder, this is either the Hudson Message Base board number or the DOS path (directory) where the messages for this folder should be stored. Users Defines which users should have access to this folder. If a user does not have access to a folder, it will not show up on his/her list of available folders. Password Defines whether or not access to the folder is protected by a password. You can allow users to access a folder, and the password protect it. Use AKA Defines which address (AKA) the Editor should use for the folder. This is only important for EchoMail-type folders with the Echo info status enabled. The address is a part of the origin line. Folder status Restricted If enabled, users can only read Private messages addressed to their username. Public messages are not affected by this. Echo info Whether or not an origin line should be appended to newly created messages. See Origin (previous page) for more information. Export OK See Netmail.Export OK described earlier. Echomail Defines the folder as an EchoMail folder (as opposed to a Local or NetMail-type folder). MsgBase Specifies that the folder is of the Hudson Message Base type, rather than a directory with .MSG message files. The Hudson Message Base (HMB) is used by several BBS packages, such as RemoteAccess. NetMail Defines the folder as NetMail-type folder (as opposed to an EchoMail or Local-type folder). This enabled nodelist lookups, carbon copies, etc. This is not available in the noncommercial version. 28 Local Defines the folder as a Local folder (as opposed to an EchoMail or NetMail-type folder). This is usually used to access local BBS message areas. Translate Enables the translation tables for the folder. They can be toggled on/off from within the folder. Private Specifies that the Private status should be allowed (and the default) for messages created in the folder. This should NOT be used in EchoMail folders unless the EchoMail conference explicitly allows this. Read-only See Netmail.Read-only described earlier. 4.4.11 Security The security manager is used to define session level passwords for other systems. It can also be used to explicitly refuse File/Update Requests and Mail from a system, and to disable/enable specific protocol and handshake options to fine tune your outbound mail sessions. Session level passwords are used to protect the receiving (called) system in a mail session, and calling system during an outbound EMSI session, to ensure that the calling system really is what it appears to be. Anyone can setup a Mailer, like FrontDoor or D'Bridge and send you mail. If there is mail waiting for the address they are using, your system will by default attempt to send it. You should setup session level passwords for all your common mail links, such as echomail distribution systems, etc. System The system address of the remote system. Eg. 2:270/17. Password Defines the session level password that your system will present when calling the specified system and the password that your system requires to establish a mail session with the specified system. Note that some systems treat passwords case sensitive, ie. ALLAN is not treated like AlLaN. The Mailer (FD) will treat passwords case insensitive on incoming (inbound) calls. They will, however, be sent EXACTLY as you have defined them here. You do not have to specify a password to use any of the other options. 29 FREQs Whether or not the specified system is allowed to make File/Update Requests (see "File Requests"). Mail Whether or not your system will allow the specified system to call your system. Note that by disabling (setting it to "NO") this option, you may be in violation of network policy. EMSI Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt to negotiate an EMSI session when it calls the specified system. FTSC1 Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt to negotiate an FTS-1 session when it calls the specified system. Zap Whether or not you want the Mailer to use the ZedZap/Zmodem protocol when negotiating an FTS-6 (YooHoo) session. If this is set to "NO", the DietIFNA protocol (Telink/SEAlink) will be used during YooHoo sessions with the specified system. YooHoo Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt to negotiate an FTS-6 session when it calls the specified system. 4.4.11.1 Notes regarding protocols The Mailer (FD) will by default attempt to negotiate a mail session in the following order: 1. EMSI 2. FTS-6 (YooHoo), ZedZap/Zmodem 3. FTS-6 (YooHoo), DietIFNA 4. FTS-1 The Mailer will ignore any entries in the security manager with inactive status. 4.4.12 Request Manager The request manager is used to protect file requests. File and Update Requests are discussed in a separate section. 30 5 The nodelist and the nodelist compiler The nodelist is FrontDoor's telephone directory listing and is used for several purposes. Among these are to allow you to perform name lookups of other SysOps, to retrieve information about remote systems, such as the maximum supported baud rate, modem flags, and system capability flags, to check if a remote system is known to your system or should be treated as an unlisted system. FD requires that a nodelist be present whereas FM and the Terminal can both be used without one, if so required. The typical FidoNet nodelist contains over 10.000 systems and has a fairly straight forward structure as follows. Zone Usually a large geographical area, such as North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, etc. At the time of the release of this package, the following FidoNet Zone numbers have been allocated: 1 North America (including Canada) 2 Europe 3 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand 4 Latin America 5 Africa 6 Asia Region Usually a somewhat smaller geographical area, such as a country or part of a (large) country. A collection of regions make up one zone. Net Usually a collection of systems local to each other. Typically a city and in some cases including its suburbs. A collection of nets make up one region. Node A single system within a net. Point A single system belonging to a node. Typically, a point is similar to a user logging on to a BBS system using his/her terminal program, with the main difference being that a point performs most of his/her activities offline and use smart software to collect and transit his/her mail. 5.1 Hosts and hubs The coordinator of a net is called the host or NC for Network Coordinator. The host is responsible for maintaining the nodelist segment for his/her net and to act as an inbound NetMail gateway for the systems in his/her net ("host routed mail"). In a large net, it is quite common that "sub-hosts", called hubs, are set-up to aid in mail distribution within the net. In other words, a hub has the same function for systems in a network that a host has for (remote) systems outside the same network. 31 5.2 Compiling a nodelist Before FrontDoor can use the information in a nodelist, it must be compiled with the FrontDoor Nodelist Compiler, FDNC hereafter. FDNC will process the specified nodelist file(s) and generate database information and index files. The nodelist that FDNC needs to process is often referred to as the raw nodelist. It should not have been processed by Xlatlist, Parselst or a similar utility; but only be the nodelist you receive each week (if you are a FidoNet node) from your host. Grab a somewhat recent version of a nodelist and decompress it. Place the resulting file (such as NODELIST.228) in the NODELIST directory. Create a file called FDNODE.CTL with your favorite text Editor and place it in the same directory. You can also use the sample file included in the FrontDoor distribution package and modify it to suit your needs. 5.2.1 FDNODE.CTL FDNODE.CTL is FDNC's control file. It is used to control how FDNC processes the nodelist files, for dial translation and cost calculation. The order of commands does not matter. All commands are case insensitive. POINTLIST <FILENAME> [BOSS] This option allows you to add points to your nodelist database. The optional BOSS address is required if FILENAME does not contain a BOSS entry and should not be specified if FILENAME contains a BOSS entry. If you only have one file with point entries, you can name it FDPOINT.PVT. FDNC will automatically use this file if it is found in the NODELIST directory. If you use one or more POINTLIST statements, FDNC will merge all specified files into FDPOINT.PVT, overwriting its contents. A separate chapter discusses the point concept. PVTLIST <FILENAME> [ZONE] Similar to the POINTLIST command, but FILENAME contains one or more regular nodes. The optional ZONE number is required if FILENAME does not contain a ZONE entry and should not be specified if FILENAME contains a ZONE entry. The optional ZONE number is only supported for the first PVTLIST statement. FDNC accepts the POINT keyword in private nodelists. 32 If you only have one file with additional node entries, you can name it FDNET.PVT. FDNC will automatically use it if it is found in the NODELIST directory. Note that if you use one or more PVTLIST statements, FDNC will merge all specified files into FDNET.PVT, overwriting its contents. Note that FILENAME for POINTLIST and PVTLIST may contain wildcard characters (* and ?). FDNC will use the most recent (by comparing the timestamp of the matching files) file. SWEPULSE This command was added to handle the somewhat screwed up method Swedish pulse exchanges handles dialing. Most modem manufacturers uses the British standard for pulse dialing, which is not compatible with Swedish pulse dialing. If you use SWEPULSE in FDNODE.CTL, telephone numbers will be properly translated. Do NOT use this command unless you live in Sweden and have to use pulse dialing. PHONE <ADDRESS> <NUMBER> Some systems are listed as PVT (private) in the nodelist, in which case there is no telephone number available (the text -Unpublished- is used in place). This, of course, means that FD cannot call a system listed as PVT. If you have the phone number of a PVT listed system, or wish to override the telephone number listed in the nodelist, you can use the PHONE command. ADDRESS is a fully qualified address (eg. 2:270/17). NUMBER is an untranslated (raw) telephone number (eg. 352-355-936). If the PHONE command is used, FDNC will remove possible DOWN, HOLD and PVT flags for the specified system. USE ZONE <ZONE>[<ZONE> <ZONE>..] This command controls which zones FDNC should include in the nodelist and username index files. The default is to include all encountered zones. This does not affect the contents of raw nodelist files, only what information ends up in the nodelist and username index files. DIAL <NATL PREFIX>/<SUFFIX> <INTL PREFIX>/<SUFFIX> Indicates the start of the dial translation table. All four parameters are optional and are only used if no other translation applies for a telephone number. 33 If you only want to use a national (NATL) prefix/suffix, you must specify the / character for the international (INTL) prefix/suffix to indicate no special treatment. The same applies if you only want to use an INTL prefix/suffix. ; prefix ; prefix/suffix ; /suffix ; DIAL / 00 ; Add INTL prefix to all INTL ; numbers. 352- ; Strip country code 61- 0061-/X2 ; Send "X2" to HST for Australia 46-8 /391 ; Append (suffix) 391 to all ; numbers in Stockholm Sweden. END END is required to terminate the dial translation table. If you need to strip the search value from a number, you do not have to put anything after it. In other words, if you need to strip 1-305-596 from all number, you enter that string with no translation. Comments are ignored and must be preceded by a semicolon. DIAL 12345-1- 00 .. .. END Would add (prefix) 12345-1- to all NATL numbers not otherwise translated. It would add (prefix) 00 to all INTL numbers not otherwise translated. DIAL /2222 00/1111 .. .. END Would append (suffix) 2222 to all NATL numbers not otherwise translated. It would add (prefix) 00 and append (suffix) 1111 to all INTL numbers not otherwise translated. The translation values (strings) does not have to contain number characters (0-9,.-). They can include commands such as "S25=100" etc. as long as your modem supports it. 34 COST <NATL COST> <INTL COST> Indicates the start of the cost table. The two (default) parameters are NOT optional. The default cost only applies to numbers with no matching entry in the cost table. COST 5 125 ; NATL default=5, INTL=175 1- 75 ; Canada and the US 1-808- 125 ; Hawaii 46- 27 ; Sweden END An additional parameter can be added after the cost for a number entry indicating the maximum baud rate used. This is useful when calling locations with a lot of line noise etc. Please note that this does not work with several high-speed modems such as the US Robotics Courier HST. You cannot force a HST modem to connect at 2400 with another HST modem by changing the baud rate. To compile your nodelist, type FDNC and press <Enter>, or invoke the nodelist compiler from FD's main menu, <Alt-N>. When FDNC is started, it will compare the date of the raw nodelist and its index files. If the dates match, and no update has been made to FDNODE.CTL, no compilation will be made and the program will ask "Nodelist files are up-to-date, compile anyway?". If you want to force compilation, run FDNC with the /F command line switch. 5.3 Nodelist flags Most of the system entries in the nodelist contain one or more capability flags to indicate the system's capability. These are a few of the flags and their meaning: CM System accepts mail 24 hours a day. MO System does not accept human (BBS) callers. V32 CCITT V.32 capable modem. V32B CCITT V.32bis capable modem (implies CCITT V.32 capability). V42 LAP-M error correction w/fallback to MNP 1-4. V42B LAP-M error correction w/fallback to MNP 1-5. HST US Robotics HST modem (implies MNP capability). MAX Microcom AX/96xx series modem. PEP Capable of supporting the Packet Ensemble Protocol (PEP). XA Bark and WaZOO file/update requests (all systems using FrontDoor 2.01 or above should have this). 35 5.4 Command line switches /C Compile the nodelist if it (or FDNODE.CTL) has been updated since the last time it was compiled, otherwise exit directly. This is useful for compiling the nodelist in batch files since it avoids the "Nodelist files are up-to-date, compile anyway?" prompt. /F Forces FDNC to compile the nodelist regardless of whether or not it has been updated. 36 5.5 Points As mentioned before, a point is similar to a user logging on to a BBS system using his/her terminal program, with the main difference being that a point performs most of his/her activities offline and use smart software to collect and transit his/her mail. A point system is addressed by specifying the BOSS system's address followed by the point number. Eg. 2:270/17.1 is point one of 2:270/17. The BOSS system is called point zero (2:270/17.0), but the .0 is normally left out. FrontDoor is a point smart software package and fully supports the "four-dimensional" (zone, net, node, point) addressing method. FrontDoor also supports the "two-dimensional" point approach used by software like BinkleyTerm and oMMM. This is often called the "fakenet" or "pointnet" method. "Fake" because the software uses a non-existent network number to identify its "pointnet" and uses the node field for the point number. The maximum number of points any system can have is 65,535, not counting the BOSS, or point zero. 5.5.1 Pointlist A pointlist is similar to a normal nodelist, with the exception that all entries are considered point systems. FrontDoor, by default, uses the file FDPOINT.PVT to store its pointlist. It is possible to add points of other systems to your pointlist. This will allow you to enter messages to other systems' points just like you would to any other system. Here is a sample FDPOINT.PVT: ,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600 ,2,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600 As you can see, a point list looks very much like a raw nodelist. The last field contains nodelist flags (HST, MO, CM, etc.) and if more than one flag is present, they are separated by commas. 37 Points can also be added to systems in the master nodelist by using the POINT keyword: ,7,AES_Sales,Oetrange_L,Tomas,352-355-936,9600,CM,XA,HST,V32B Point,1,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600 ,17,AES_Labs,Oetrange_L,JoHo,352-355-937,9600,CM,XA,HST,V32B Point,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600 Assuming this was listed under the Net-270 host in zone two, we have created 2:270/7, 2:270/7.1, 2:270/17, and 2:270/17.1. The second example works well if your nodelist is not updated frequently (weekly, daily, etc.). But if you have to add the "Point,#" every time you get a new nodelist, this task becomes rather tedious. FrontDoor therefore supports an additional pointlist format: Boss,2:270/7 ,1,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600 Boss,2:270/17 ,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600 This does away with the need to constantly update the BOSS system's data in the raw nodelist and allows you to put your pointlist in a separate file. FDNC will then take the BOSS system's data from the master nodelist. 5.5.2 FDNODE.CTL If you only have one file with point definitions, you can put them in FDPOINT.PVT and use the third example (above) to add points for other systems, or your own system. If you have more than one file with point definitions, however, you should NOT name any of them FDPOINT.PVT. Assume we have two files with pointlists: FDHQ.PTS: ; ; Pointlist for 2:270/17 ; Boss,2:270/17 ,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600 ,2,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600 38 and SCOTT.PTS: ; ; Pointlist for 135/990 ; Boss,1:135/990 ,1,ScottPoint,Miami_FL,Scott_Samet,-Unpublished-,9600 We would tell FDNC to merge these two files into FDPOINT.PVT before it compiles the nodelist, by specifying the following in FDNODE.CTL: pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\SCOTT.PTS pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\FDHQ.PTS The BOSS statement in FDHQ.PTS and SCOTT.PTS can be removed if you instead specify: pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\SCOTT.PTS 1:135/990 pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\FDHQ.PTS 2:270/17 You must ALWAYS specify the address of the BOSS system (as shown above) if it is not listed in the actual pointlist file. 5.5.3 Point handling A point system is treated just like any other system with one exception. A point system of another system than your own is always treated as its BOSS (or point zero) system. When the Mailer creates mail packets for 1:135/990, it includes mail for any points under it by default. 5.5.4 Remapping If you have points that uses "point dumb" software, ie. which does not support the "four dimensional" (zone, net, node, point) concept fully, you must instruct FrontDoor about this. Since FrontDoor supports the "four dimensional" concept, it has to remap mail from and to "point dumb" software. 39 5.5.5 POINTNET If the POINTNET environment variable is set, mail from and to systems with the same net number as the value of POINTNET is remapped. Eg. AUTOEXEC.BAT: SET POINTNET=1004 Would force FD and FM to remap mail from and to 1004/1, 1004/2, 1004/3, and 1004/4 to 2:270/17.1, 2:270/17.2, 2:270/17.3, and 2:270/17.4; assuming your network address is 2:270/17. FD automatically remaps messages that it extracts from mail packets. If you use the POINTNET variable, FD will treat 1004/1 identical to 2:270/17.1; assuming your network address is 2:270/17. 5.6 Sharing the nodelist FM, FD, and the Terminal are all capable of using the nodelist together with another program that supports sharing of the FrontDoor nodelist. If you are running FrontDoor under DESQview or LANtastic, for example, it is possible to run FD at the same time as FM, sharing the same nodelist. When FDNC compiles the nodelist, you must, however, make sure that no other program (including text editors) is using any of the nodelist files (FDPOINT.PVT, FDNET.PVT, and/or the raw nodelist). 40 6 Modems and FOSSIL drivers FrontDoor works with several modems, including US Robotics HST and HST/DS, Telebit's Trailblazer, ANC, Everex and Hayes. The general rule is that the modem must be able to send alphanumeric result strings. For most modems, the basic configuration is all that is required. For high speed modems such as the HST, a few extra settings are necessary. To utilize your modem in the most efficient way, it must be properly configured for use with FrontDoor. Most modems are incorrectly configured for use with FrontDoor when they leave their factory. FrontDoor require that your modem can return verbal result codes, such as "CONNECT 2400" and "NO CARRIER". In addition, if you want FrontDoor to answer the telephone on inbound calls, the modem must be able to return a verbal code indicating a ring signal, such as "RING". The modem must not have CD (carrier detect) forced. It should support disconnecting by lowering DTR (data terminal ready), but it is not necessary. DTR must not be forced. For high speed modem users, it is usually recommended that you lock the DTE (computer<>modem) speed to the highest possible baud rate; which is usually 19.2 or 38.4 KBPS. The current version of FrontDoor does not support manually operated modems with fixed speeds since most of them do not send any type of messages to the terminal (program). This is expected to be implemented in future versions. 6.1 Basic configuration The modem options are located in FDSETUP under the MODEM pull- down menu. There are four sub-menus, Hardware, Messages, Command strings, and Answer control. 6.1.1 Hardware The Hardware option screen allows you to configure things like the highest baud rate supported by your modem, the COM port to which your modem is connected, etc. Modem port The COM port your modem is attached to (1-8). Maximum baud rate The maximum supported baud rate of your modem (300-38400 BPS). If you have locked your FOSSIL driver (discussed later), set this to the same speed as the speed you locked the FOSSIL driver at. 41 Lock port Whether or not you have locked the FOSSIL driver's baud rate. Reset modem to connect speed --------------------------------------------- This option should ONLY be used if you have a modem that supports the CCITT V.23 (split speed, 1200/75 and 75/1200) recommendation. --------------------------------------------- Lower DTR when busy Determines how the Mailer (FD) should handle the modem when it invokes other programs, exits and shells to DOS. If enabled, the Mailer will simply lower DTR. This means that your modem will not answer the phone, but any calling systems will not get a busy signal. If you disable this, the Mailer (FD) will send the Offhook string to the modem instead of lowering DTR. This can be used to take the modem offhook when your system is not available so that calling systems gets a busy signal instead of no answer. --------------------------------------------- It is against the law of some countries to take a modem offhook unless actual communication is taken place. As the operator of FrontDoor, it is your responsibility to be aware of such laws in your own country. --------------------------------------------- Lower DTR to terminate call If enabled, the Mailer (FD) will drop DTR for a short period of time to terminate calls. Most modems supports this and you should only disable it if your modem does not support lowering of DTR. If disabled, the Mailer (FD) will send the Escape code string followed by the Onhook string to terminate a call. Toggle DTR before dialing Specifies that the Mailer (FD) should lower DTR, pause, and then raise DTR again every time it places an outgoing call. While this increases the chances of call collision, it may be required by some modems to reset properly, etc. Do not enable this option unless it is absolutely necessary. 42 Carrier detect mask (CDMASK) The bitmask the Mailer (FD) should use when asking the FOSSIL driver for the port status to determine if a carrier signal is still present. The default is 128 and cannot be changed in the noncommercial version. 6.1.2 Messages This option allows you to define the messages sent by your modem. If your modem does not send one or more of the strings you should NOT remove them. The 300 string is sent as CONNECT followed by a carriage return by some modems (US Robotics Courier HST for example). You should therefore set the string to CONNECT| (the pipe character will be replaced with a CR by the Mailer) if this is the case with your modem. The RING string should be set to RING| (the pipe character will be replaced with a CR by the Mailer) if your modem sends the RINGING message while waiting for a call to be connected. 6.1.3 Command strings All command strings may contain a pipe (|) character, which translates into a CR and a tilde (~) character which translates into a one second pause. Escape code Used to place the modem in command (as opposed to data/on-line) mode. This is only used if you have disabled "Lower DTR to terminate call" or if you are using the "Reset modem to connect speed" option. Return on-line Used to place the modem in data/on-line (as opposed to command) modem. This is only used if you are using the "Reset modem to connect speed" option. Onhook Used to place the modem on hook (as opposed to off hook) if you have disabled "Lower DTR when busy" or "Lower DTR to terminate call". Offhook Used to place the modem off hook (as opposed to on hook) if you have disabled "Lower DTR when busy". 43 Dial Used when the Mailer places an outgoing call. The Mailer will send the dial (this) string, the Prefix, the telephone number, followed by the Suffix. Ie. <Dial><Prefix><Number><Suffix> Prefix Sent before every number when the Mailer places an outgoing call (see above). Suffix Sent after every number when the Mailer places an outgoing call (see above). This should be set to the pipe (|) character to indicate a CR in most cases. Delay The delay (in 1/10 second) between every string the Mailer sends to the modem. If you have an extremely fast modem (not baud rate), such as the USR HST, you can set this as low as one or two, but most modems require that this is set between four and eight. Init-1..Init-3 Modem initialization strings. They are sent every time the Mailer initializes the modem in order (Init-1, Init-2, Init-3). Unused strings should not be set to anything (leave field blank). Down Sent to the modem when the Mailer terminates. This occurs when mail has been received or when you press <Alt-Q> (Quit). Reset Sent to the modem to force it to respond with an OK message. This should be set to "AT|" in most cases. 6.1.4 Answer control Manual answer Defines that the Mailer should wait for the RING message from the modem and then send the force answer string (below) to force the modem to answer. This is the safest way to control modem answering and should be used unless your modem does not support it. For Hayes compatible modems, you should add S0=0 to one of your init strings to prevent the modem from answering automatically. 44 Force answer The string forcing the modem to answer an incoming call. This should be "ATA|" in most cases. Answer delay When the Mailer receives the RING message from the modem, it will pause for nn 1/10 seconds before sending the force answer string. This should be set between four and eight for most modems. Limited hours Starting time Ending time Allows you to force the Mailer to ignore the RING message outside the specified hours. This is useful if the telephone line is shared by other people during daytime but available during the night for example. 6.2 Advanced configuration Many modems have several different connection modes and options. The US Robotics HST Dual Standard, HST/DS hereafter, for example can be configured between several different connect modes, including CCITT V.32, CCITT V.32bis, and the proprietary HST protocol. Since the nodelist can list a system's hardware (modem) capabilities, the Mailer (FD) can automatically reconfigure your modem depending on what type of hardware the remote system (to be called) is using. This automatic reconfiguration feature can also be used to disable or enabled certain options for individual systems (ie. not based on a system's capabilities) because of problems with to noisy lines, long satellite delays, etc. This is all configured in the MODEM MANAGER under the Manager pull-down menu in FDSETUP. The actual data is stored in a file called MODEM.FD in the SYSTEM directory. 6.2.1 The Modem Manager The entries are processed as defined, ie. in sequential order. It may be important in which order these options are configured and triggered, the modem manager therefore allows you to re-arrange individual entries by using the "F2-Move" option. "String to match" is either a nodelist flag, such as HST, or a complete network address, such as 2:270/17, that the Mailer (FD) should match in order to send the specified string. 45 "String to send" is the string that will be transmitted to the modem when a match is made. The Mailer (FD) will ignore entries with INACTIVE status. 6.2.2 An example, the HST/DS Most HST/DS owners will have the following three lines at the beginning of their MODEM MANAGER list: V32 ATB0| HST ATB1| V32B ATB0| The first line, V32, will transmit "ATB0" followed by a carriage return (ASCII 13) to the modem if the system to be dialed has V32 in its nodelist flags. This is to enable the HST/DS' CCITT V.32 handshake. The second line, HST, will transmit "ATB1" (followed by a carriage return) to the modem if the system to be dialed has HST in its nodelist flags. This is to tell the modem that we prefer the HST protocol. In the case of a system with both the V32 and the HST flag, we want the HST flag, because that protocol is faster than the CCITT V.32 protocol. The third line, V32B, will transmit "ATB0" to the modem if the system to be dialed has V32B in its nodelist flags. This it to tell the modem that we prefer the CCITT V.32bis protocol. In the case of a system with both the V32B and the HST flag, we want the V32B flag, because it is easier to get a good modem handshake over noisy phone lines and because CCITT V.32bis is 14.4 KBPS in both directions (full-duplex). Let us assume our modem has a problem, with incorrect busy and voice signal detection, when it encounters a modem that answers using PEP (Telebit Trailblazer is such a modem), we would then want to disable our modem's capability to detect a busy signal and/or a voice signal. We would then add: PEP ATX2| to the MODEM MANAGER. 46 6.3 Some sample configurations US Robotics HST (older models) DIP Switches: 0 (big)=OFF, 1=OFF, 2=OFF, 3=ON, 4=OFF, 5=ON, 6=OFF, 7=OFF, 8=ON, 9=ON, 0=OFF. Command/modem strings: CONNECT 300 CONNECT| RING RING| OffHook ATH1| OnHook ~ATH0| Init-1 AT&G2&K0&M4S19=2B&B1&H1&R2&N0 S15=72| Init-2 ATV1X4S7=55EQM0S11=50S0=0| Down AT| Reset AT| Modem hardware: Lock port YES Baudrate 38400, 19200 or 9600 Reset modem to connect speed NO Lower DTR when busy YES Lower DTR to terminate call YES Toggle DTR before dialing NO Answer control: Manual answer YES Force answer ATB0A| Delay 4 47 US Robotics HST/DS/V.32bis DIP Switches: 0 (big)=OFF, 1=OFF, 2=OFF, 3=ON, 4=ON, 5=ON, 6=OFF, 7=OFF, 8=ON, 9=ON, 10=OFF. Command/modem strings: CONNECT 300 CONNECT| RING RING| OffHook ATM0H1| OnHook ~ATM1H0| Init-1 AT&K0&M4S19=2&B1&H1&R2&N0E0Q0 B1&G2| Init-2 ATV1X4S7=55M1S11=50S10=40S15= 72&A3| Init-3 ATS0=0H0| Down <empty> Reset AT| Modem hardware: Lock port YES Baudrate 38400, 19200 or 9600 Reset modem to connect speed NO Lower DTR when busy YES Lower DTR to terminate call YES Toggle DTR before dialing NO Answer control: Manual answer YES Force answer ATB0M0A| Delay 4 In the MODEM MANAGER in FDSETUP: V32 ATB0| HST ATB1| V32B ATB0| 48 6.4 FOSSIL drivers A FOSSIL (or Fido/Opus/SEAdog Standard Interface Layer) driver is a memory resident program that works as a layer between the application program and your computer's hardware. The Mailer (FD) requires a FOSSIL driver to function. One of the advantages of the standard FOSSIL interface is that programs can be ported easily to other machines and/or operating systems. There are several FOSSIL drivers available. The Mailer (FD) has been tested with OpusComm, X00, and BNU with good results. X00 and BNU will be described here. 6.4.1 BNU BNU, written by David Nugent, comes in two flavors. One is a device driver, similar to X00.SYS. The second flavor is a .COM file, loaded from AUTOEXEC.BAT or another batch file. The .COM flavor is assumed in the example. For a detailed description of the BNU driver, please refer to the documentation included in the BNU distribution archive. [AUTOEXEC.BAT] BNU /R=1024 /T=512 /L1:38400 /R=1024 Specifies a receive buffer of 1024 bytes. /T=512 Specifies a transmit buffer of 512 bytes. /L1:38400 Locks COM2 at 38,400 BPS (for use with the 14,400 HST or HST/DS modems). If you are not using a high-speed modem the above example should most likely be modified to not lock COM2. 6.4.2 X00.SYS X00, written by Ray Gwinn, is a device driver (later versions can also be loaded as an executable from AUTOEXEC.BAT), it is loaded from your CONFIG.SYS file when your machine is started. For a detailed description of the X00 driver, read the documentation included in the X00 distribution archive. [CONFIG.SYS] device = X00.SYS E 1 B,1,38400 T=512 R=1024 E Disable 5 second advertisement when X00 is first loaded. 49 1 Number of COM ports X00 should allow to be accessed at one time. B,1,38400 Locks COM2 at 38,400 BPS (for use with the 14,400 HST or HST/DS modems). T=512 Specifies a transmit buffer of 512 bytes. R=1024 Specifies a receive buffer of 1024 bytes. If you are not using a high-speed modem the above example may not be what you want. The most common command line for X00 is: device=X00.SYS E 1 50 7 Events There are two basic types of events. Mail events and external events. Mail events are used to control how the Mailer (FD) treats mail during a given time of the day. External events are used to force the Mailer to terminate with an errorlevel at a specific time. They can be used to run system maintenance programs, disk optimizers, etc. The EVENT MANAGER in FDSETUP is used to control mail and external events. There is a (required) global event, which is active when no other event is active. The @ character is used for the global event. 7.1 The Event Manager The event manager has two modes. The first is the view mode, which is self explanatory. The second mode is the edit/create mode. It will now be described. Tag (T) The event "ID". A letter from A-Z or @. The @ event has special meaning and is described later. X is used for eXternal events, all other letters are used for mail events. Which letter you use is not important. They could correspond with the time of day, N for Night, E for Evening, D for Day, etc. The event tag is used to associate an event with a schedule block in the route file (see "Mail routing"). Days The days you want the event to be active on. The @ event is active on all days. Modifier (M) You can define a start time for the @ event. It is not used to control the start of the @ event. It can be added, subtracted, or ignored, when calculating the actual start time of other events. If the modifier for an event is +, the start time of the @ event is added to the start time of the event. If the modifier for an event is -, the start time of the @ event is subtracted from the start time of the event. If the modifier for an event is *, the start time of the @ event is ignored and not used to calculate the actual start time of the event. This is very useful when it is time to switch between winter and summer time. Instead of having to manually go into each event and define a new start time, you could change the start time of the @ event and the start time of all other events will be changed. 51 Let us assume that you have an event (tag=E) that starts at 08:00 in the morning with a modifier of +. Your @ event has a start time of 01:00. Since the modifier was + (add), the start time of @ (01:00) will be added to the start time of the E event and the result will be that event E starts at 09:00. If you change the modifier to - (subtract), the start time of event E will be 07:00 (08:00 minus 01:00). If you set the modifier to * (ignore), the start time of E is not affected. Start time Defines the start time of an event. See Modifier (above) for an explanation on how this can be affected. Length Defines the length of the event. External events (X) always have a length of 00:01 (one minute). Errorlevel For external (X) events, this defines the errorlevel that the Mailer (FD) will terminate with. For mail events, this defines the errorlevel to exit with if mail is received (and the Mailer is triggered to exit). If the errorlevel field is set to zero, the default MAIL RECEIVED errorlevel will be used. You may use any value in the range 31-255. Min.cost Defines the minimum cost of messages that should be qualified (see "Mail routing"). Max.cost Defines the maximum cost of messages that should be qualified (see Mail Routing). A value of -1 forces FD to ignore the cost of messages. Behavior Defines the behavior of the event. Mail events and external (X) events have different behavior options, this is described later. Retry delay Defines the delay (in seconds) the Mailer should wait between placing outgoing calls. A value of zero means that you want the Mailer to use the default delay (described earlier). 7.1.1 External event behavior Allow users during event Defines whether or not non-mail (human) calls are allowed to interrupt the event. 52 If a non-mail call comes in at 12:00 and you have an external (X) event scheduled for 12:30, the Mailer will take the X event into account when calculating the number of minutes left until the next event, depending on how this option is set. If it is disabled, the user would, in this case, only have 30 minutes until the next event. If it was enabled, the Mailer would instead scan ahead for the next (if any) event that does not allow users. Forced Defines whether or not the event is forced. The Mailer, by default, ignores events that it "missed" while doing something else. If you enable this option, the event will be executed even if the Mailer have "missed" it. Assume you have a non-forced external (X) event scheduled for 12:00 and a user calls in at 11:50. The call lasts for 30 minutes (12:20). When the Mailer is brought back up again, the external event will not be executed. If, however, you had this option enabled for the external (X) event, it would be executed as soon as the Mailer was brought up again. Inactive Toggles the state of the event. The Mailer will ignore any inactive events. This allows you to deactivate events without removing them from the event manager. 7.1.2 Mail event behavior Allow users during event This has the same function as for external (X) events. In addition, if this option is set to "NO" (disabled), non-mail calls will not be accepted during the duration of the event. Exit when mail is received Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to exit when mail has been received. This allows you to process received echomail, etc. High priority (crash) mail only Forces the Mailer to ignore messages that does not have crash status. Note that messages with IMM (Immediate) status are not affected by this. Allow file requests Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to honor file requests during an event. If you disable this option, the Mailer will simply ignore file requests. 53 Pickup file requests The Mailer will by default not accept file requests received during an outgoing (outbound) mail call since you are paying for the call. This option allows you to pickup waiting file requests and process them. Whether or not they are actually honored is defined by the Allow file requests option. Hold (do not send) file requests Forces the Mailer to ignore outgoing (your own) file request messages during the event. This is useful if you do not want to send out file requests during daytime events for example. Attempt to pickup waiting mail Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to pickup any waiting mail on outgoing calls. The default (Yes) should be used unless you want the Mailer to terminate the mail session as soon as it has delivered its mail. If this option is disabled, your file requests (if any) will fail since the Mailer terminates the call before the remote system has a chance to process them. Allow nodes to pickup waiting mail This option is the same as using the DENY route command (see "Mail routing"). The only difference is that you cannot be selective about which systems can pickup waiting mail. If a system calls in to deliver its mail and this option is disabled (NO), your system will not release (send) any waiting mail. Prioritize outbound calls Forces the Mailer to make outgoing calls without waiting for the specified time (retry delay, etc.) between calls. The Mailer will still accept incoming (inbound) mail, but the chances of another system getting through are very small. Receive-Only Specifies that you do not want the Mailer to make any outgoing calls during the event. End event when no more mail to send If you have an event with some restrictions on other systems or do not allow users, it may be useful to enable this option, forcing the Mailer to release all restrictions enforced by the event as soon as there is no more mail to send. If new mail is entered that qualifies for mailing and the event has ended (prematurely), it will be restarted. 54 Send to CM systems only Forces the Mailer to only qualify those systems that have the CM (continuous mail) flag set in their nodelist entry. Send to non-CM systems only Forces the Mailer to only qualify those systems that Do not have the CM (continuous mail) flag set in their nodelist entry. Only execute event once Forces the Mailer to only deliver mail to a system once during the event. If the event is interrupted or aborted, the Mailer will remember which systems it has already delivered mail to and when the event is restarted, it will not call those systems again. Assume you have mail to 1:135/20 and 2:310/11 during event A, with this behavior enabled. On the first call to 1:135/20, the Mailer sends its mail successfully. If the event is restarted for some reason (user break, human caller, mail receive exit), the Mailer will not call 1:135/20 again, even if there is new mail for that system. Inactive The same as for external (X) events. 7.1.3 The @ event The @ event is active whenever your system is not in another mail event. The @ event is required. You do not have to tell the Mailer to send mail during the @ event, but it must be defined. You can use it to send local and/or low cost mail whenever the Mailer is not busy, etc. You can specify a schedule block (see Mail routing), using the @ tag and define routing rules for it just like any other mail event. If the Mailer does not find a schedule block for the @ tag, it will still use any global rules defined in the route file. 55 7.1.4 Overlapping events Overlapping events are fully supported by the Mailer. Event B starts at 05:00 with a duration of 01:00. Event A starts at 05:01 with a duration of 00:15. The behavior for event A includes Only execute event once and End event when no more mail to send. Event B will start at 05:00, after one minute, event A will start and last for fifteen minutes (or end when there is no more mail to send). Once event A has ended, B will resume. This is a very powerful and useful concept. It can be used to start temporary or dynamic events within events that lasts for several hours. 56 8 Mailer The Mailer, FD hereafter, is the core program of FrontDoor. It is responsible for sending and receiving messages; and optionally pass human callers to a BBS or other interactive software. The Terminal function is also located in FD and can be reached from one of its menus. Most functions of FD are reached by holding down the <Alt> key and pressing a key, <A..Z>. 8.1 Menus Each function and menu of the Mailer will now be described. 8.1.1 Programs <Alt-P> <Alt-E> Message Editor Loads FM. <Alt-J> Terminal Loads the Terminal (it resides in FD overlay file, FD.OVR). <Alt-C> Configure Loads the FDSETUP program. <Alt-N> Nodelist Loads the nodelist compiler (FDNC). <Alt-K> User keys Allows you to select one of the 20(24) user definable functions. <Alt-Z> DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and press <Enter> to return to FD. Packets created with any of the temporary mail services function (File Request, Transmit file, Send mail) will be discarded when you return and FD will re-scan the contents of the NetMail folder. <Alt-Q> Quit Returns you to DOS. FD will return errorlevel 10 (user break). 57 8.1.2 Utilities <Alt-U> <Alt-A> Active event Shows the settings for the currently active event (if any). <Alt-I> Inbound history Invokes the inbound call (mail) history management function. <Alt-O> Outbound history Invokes the outbound call (mail) history management function. <Alt-R> Recent activity Shows you the last two days of general activity, failed sessions, file requests, number of files/bytes sent and received, etc. <Alt-X> Disconnect Allows you to manually terminate a call. This will also re-initialize the modem. <Alt-L> Lock keyboard Allows you to lock the keyboard (and FD) against unauthorized use. FD will still perform its duties such as sending and receiving mail, etc. You must enter the specified password to unlock the keyboard. If FD exits (due to mail received or a BBS call is received), the keyboard lock status is retained and when FD is brought back up, the keyboard will be locked. Restart event Forces FD to re-scan the message base and create new mail packets. All previous temporary packet information is discarded. 8.1.3 Mail <Alt-U> <Alt-B> Queue manager Allows you to manipulate the current mail queue. If no mail event is active, the mail queue is empty. The mail queue is described in a separate section. 58 <Alt-V> Undialable manager Allows you to manipulate systems marked as undialable. This is discussed in a separate section. <Alt-F> Forced poll Creates a priority entry in the mail queue for the specified system. If an entry for the specified system already exists in the queue, its status is set to priority. If FD has to re-scan the message base, the temporary poll is removed from the mail queue. <Alt-G> Request files Allows you to create a temporary file request to the specified system. If FD has to re-scan the message base, the temporary file request is removed from the mail queue. <Alt-T> Transmit files Allows you to transmit files to the specified system. As with the poll and request function (above), this is only a temporary function; if FD has to re-scan the message base, the entry is removed from the mail queue. <Alt-S> Send mail Allows you to create a temporary mail packet for the specified system. You can choose to include all or high-priority mail. If FD has to re-scan the message base, the entry is removed from the mail queue. <Alt-Y> Your profile Answer Allows you to toggle the manual answer status. This option is only valid if you have enabled the manual answer option in FDSETUP. Note that if you manually toggle this option, the Mailer will honor the new setting until it exits. Printer Allows you to toggle the printing of new (incoming) messages. This option is not available in the noncommercial version. Human callers Allows you to toggle whether or not you want FD to accept human callers. This option is only valid if you are not running FD in mail-only mode. 59 Exit on mail Allows you to toggle whether or not FD should exit when mail has been received. This option is only valid if an errorlevel for received mail has been specified in FDSETUP and the active event (if any) specifies that FD should exit when mail has been received. <Alt-W> Which AKA Allows you to select a different AKA to operate under. The specified AKA will be active until FD exits or you select a new AKA to operate under. Note that this does not effect the AKA matching function of FD. 8.2 Mail queue <Alt-B> The mail queue function allows you to modify the status of one or more mail packets, temporarily change the destination of mail packets, and to unpack one or more packets. <F1> Priority Sets priority status on all selected packets. Packets with priority status are always processed before packets with crash or normal status. <F2> <Enter> Verbose Shows more information about the highlighted mail packet such as attached files, estimated transfer time, etc. You can not use this function if the destination system is unlisted (does not exist). <F3> Crash Sets crash status on all selected packets. <F4> Hold Sets hold status on all selected packets. Packets with hold status will never be processed by FD unless the destination system calls in to pickup mail. <F5> Select all Selects all packets. 60 <F6> Destination Changes the destination of all selected packets. When FD processes the mail queue, it will treat all active (non-sent and non-held) packets as individual packets, including two or more different packets destined for the same system. If a connection is made (whether the destination system calls you or your system calls it), however, all packets destined for that system will be sent. <F7> Unpack Discards all selected packets (note: NOT MAIL) from the queue. <F8> Clear status Sets normal status on all selected packets. <F9> Clear busy retries Sets the dial attempts for all selected packets to zero. <Esc> Exit Returns you to FD. <Space> Select Selects the currently highlighted packet. 8.3 Call progress When FD has mail to send, it will step through the mail queue and call the systems with mail packets waiting. Packets with sent, failed, and hold status are ignored by FD. These can, however, always be picked up by the destination system if it calls in. After every unsuccessful (BUSY, NO CARRIER, etc.) call, the busy retry counter is incremented until it reaches the value defined in FDSETUP. Once the limit has been exceeded, FD puts hold status on the packet. If a connection is made but the actual transfer fails, the resend retry counter is updated and once the limit, defined in FDSETUP, is reached, FD puts failed status on the packet. Press <Space> to force FD to place the next outgoing call. 61 8.4 Semaphore indicators Every time FD scans the NetMail folder, it looks for unread messages destined for your system. If any are found, it will enable the flashing "Mail" text in the bottom right hand corner. Once the message(s) have been marked received (read), the flashing mail text will disappear. 8.5 Undialable When FD reaches the resend (session failure, transmission failure, etc.) retry limit for a system during an event. That system is added to the undialable table with a "grade" of one. When the "grade" reaches three, the system is considered undialable and FD will never call that system again (until you manually "upgrade" it). The undialable manager is accessed by pressing <Alt-V> from FD's main menu and allows you to "upgrade" a system's status, add a system manually to the undialable list, and remove one or more undialable systems. The undialable system information is kept in NODIAL.FD in FrontDoor's SYSTEM directory. 62 9 Editor The Editor, FM hereafter, is the program used to write and read messages. It can be invoked from the command line in DOS or from FD by pressing <Alt-E>. FM has two "status" lines. The bottom status line is used to display the current message, number of messages in the current folder, the lowest and highest message numbers and the number of messages remaining to the last message (last minus current). The top status line shows the currently active AKA (address), the current time and the folder you are in. Most functions of FM are reached by holding down either the <Ctrl> or <Alt> key and pressing a key, <A..Z>. If you press a key that has no function in FM, it will display a message saying "Press Alt-M for menu" on the bottom status line. Each function and menu of FM will now be described. 9.1 Main <Alt-M> <Ins> Create Allows you to create a new message in the current folder. You will be prompted for the destination (user name and possibly a network address), subject, etc. <Del> Kill Removes the currently displayed message. FM will confirm that you really want to remove the message. <Alt-R> Reply Similar to the CREATE function. The destination of the newly created message, however, is taken from the sender of the message you are replying to. This function also allows you to quote the original message, in whole, or selected parts. <Alt-N> Netmail reply Similar to the REPLY function. If you are in a Local or EchoMail folder, your message (the reply) will be placed into the NetMail folder. The destination address of the message is taken from either the origin line (EchoMail folders) or the sender's name (Local folders). 63 <Alt-C> Reply comment Similar to the REPLY function. It allows you to create a follow-up message with additional comments to the same destination as the original message. This function is not available in the noncommercial version. <Alt-L> <Tab> Forward This function allows you to redirect a message to someone else. It will also insert some additional information at the top of the message, showing who the message was originally from, etc. You can choose whether or not you want to overwrite the original message with the forwarded message. <Alt-L> will also add the default message status to the message and remove the Rcvd and Sent status bits if they were set. <Alt-F> Folders Allows you to change the active folder. You cannot change to another folder while editing a message, but you can view the folder list. The type of each folder is shown as 'E' for EchoMail, 'L' for Local and 'M' for NetMail. The commercial version allows you to configure any folder with NetMail status, the type will then be displayed as 'N'. To select a folder, you can use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar and then press <Enter>. You can also type the number of the folder followed by pressing <Enter>. <Ctrl-F> Folder scan Scans all folders and indicates which folders have any message number higher than the last read message. Typically, this means that new messages have arrived in a folder since you last accessed it. <Alt-Z> DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and press <Enter> to return to FM. <Alt-Q> Quit Returns you to DOS or to FD, depending on how FM was invoked. If you are editing a message, you will be asked whether or not you wish to save it before exiting. 64 9.2 Edit <Alt-E> <Alt-S> Status Allows you to change the status of a message. See the separate section about Message Status Bits for a detailed description of this. <Alt-A> Subject Allows you to change the subject of a message. If you have a message with file attaches and press <Alt-A>, the file attach list will be processed again and if you specified wild-cards or more than one file on the subject line, you will have to select the files you want to send once again. <Alt-T> Text Allows you to edit the text (body) of a message. If you are already in editing mode, this will bring up a secondary menu with text editing related functions. <Alt-D> Destination Allows you to change the destination of a message. This will add the default message status bits as well as the Local bit to the message and remove the Rcvd and Sent status bits if they were set. As opposed to the FORWARD function, using <Alt-D> will not result in any text being added to the message body (forwarding info). <Ctrl-F2> Toggle Brings up the toggle menu. 9.2.1 <Alt-T> in edit mode <Alt-F2> Import file Allows you to import an ASCII file into the text. The contents of the file will be inserted at the current cursor position. <Ctrl-Enter> Insert line Inserts a blank line after the current line. The cursor will remain in the same position. 65 <Ctrl-B> Line to buffer Adds the current (where cursor is positioned) line to end of the temporary buffer and moves the cursor down one line. The last eighty lines of deleted/marked text is always retained in a temporary buffer and can be reinserted with <Alt-F1> or <Esc>. <Ctrl-W> Delete word Deletes the word to the right of the cursor. <Ctrl-G> Go to line# Allows you to specify an absolute line number to place the cursor on. <Ctrl-T> Delete to EOF Deletes all text from cursor to end of message. <Alt-F5> Find Searches for the specified string, and if found, places the cursor on the first character of the found word. <Alt-F6> Find & Replace Allows you to replace a string with another. Note that this function will restore the cursor position (the find function will not). <Alt-F8> Re-format Reformats a block of text (from cursor to the next blank line) and removes any hard CRs from the reformatted lines. It will add a hard CR to the end of the reformatted block. <Alt-F4> Line drawing Allows you to draw lines and boxes using a variety of line sets. This is not available in the noncommercial version. <Alt-F1> <Esc> Undelete Inserts the last deleted line at the current cursor position. The last eighty lines of deleted/marked text is always retained in a "scratch" buffer. 66 <Alt-F10> <Ctrl-Z> Save & Exit Save (or discard changes to) the current message. 9.2.2 Toggle menu <Ctrl-F2> <Ctrl-X> Translation tables Toggles the state of the translation tables. <Ctrl-C> Hard CRs Toggles whether or not hard CRs in the message text should be displayed. <Ctrl-E> Echo info Toggles the state of the echo info. This function is only available in echomail folders. 9.3 Utilities <Alt-U> <Alt-F9> Management Invokes the management function. <Alt-J> Move/copy Allows you to move/copy the current message to another folder. <Alt-V> Message to file Exports the current message to an ASCII file. If the specified file already exists, you will be asked if you want to overwrite its contents or append the message to the end of the file. <Alt-I> Print message Adds the current message to the print queue. Messages added to the queue are printed in the order they were added. If you attempt to leave FM while messages are still being printed, it will ask you to confirm your choice to exit. If you choose to exit, FM will cancel the remaining messages in the print queue. FM does NOT use any external print spooler, such as DOS' PRINT program. <Alt-B> Renumber Renumbers the messages in the current folder so that there are no gaps in the numbering. This function is not available in Hudson Message Base-type folders. 67 <Alt-G> Change username Allows you to change the current user profile. <Alt-W> Change address Allows you to change the active network AKA (address). This will also change the address that is inserted in origin lines in EchoMail folders. <Alt-O> Change origin Allows you to change the active origin line. Whether or not an origin line is appended to messages that you create is determined by the echo info setting (EchoMail folders only). <Alt-X> Show notes Displays extended information (hidden behind ^A, ASCII 1, characters) in a message. 9.4 Purge <Alt-P> The options on the Purge menu allow you to remove one or more messages, in the current folder, based on the various criteria, as described below. From user Purge all messages FROM the specified user. To user Purge all messages TO the specified user. From net address Purge all messages that originated from the specified address. To net address Purge all messages destined for the specified address. Received Purge all received (read) messages. Age Purge all messages older than the specified date. 9.5 Other keys in edit mode <Left> <Right> <Up> <Down> Moves the cursor. <Ctrl-Left> Places the cursor at the beginning of the word to the left of the cursor. <Ctrl-Right> Places the cursor at the beginning of the word to the right of the cursor. 68 <Home> Moves to the beginning of the current line. If the cursor is already at the beginning of the line, it will be moved to the top of the text window. <End> Moves to the end of the current line. If the cursor is already at the end of the line, it will be moved to the bottom of the text window. <PgUp> <PgDn> Scrolls one page up/down. <Ctrl-Up> <Ctrl-Down> Scrolls one line up/down without moving the cursor. This option is only available for systems with 101/102 key (extended) keyboards. <Ctrl-PgUp> <Ctrl-PgDn> Moves to the beginning/end of the message. <Tab> Expands to four spaces (or to the next TAB column). <Shift-Tab> (Backtab) The opposite of Tab. Moves the cursor four spaces back (or to the previous Tab column). If the cursor is already at the beginning of the line, no action is taken. <Ins> Toggles insert mode on/off. <Del> Deletes character under cursor and scrolls the rest of the line left without moving the cursor. <Backspace> Deletes character to the left of cursor and scrolls the rest of the line left, moving the cursor one step. <Ctrl-End> Deletes from the cursor to end of line. <Ctrl-Y> Deletes the entire line. <Ctrl-U> Changes the case of the current line. Uppercase characters are converted to lowercase characters and vice versa. 9.6 Other keys in view (read) mode <Home> Move to first message in folder. <End> Move to last message in folder. 69 <Left> <Right> Move to previous/next message in folder. <Up> <Down> <PgUp> <PgDn> Scroll message text (line or page). <Ctrl-PgUp> <Ctrl-PgDn> Move to beginning/end of message. <Space> Selects current message as "home" message. Note that once you switch to another folder, set "home" message is by default set to the current message. <Enter> Returns to home message. <Ctrl-Left> <Ctrl-Right> Find previous/next message addressed to current user. <-> <+> Move to previous/next message in reply chain. <Ctrl-Home> <Ctrl-End> Move to first/last message in reply chain. <1..9> Go to specified message number. <Ctrl-Up> <Ctrl-Down> Move to previous/next tagged message. This requires that you first use <Alt-F9> (Management) and select the messages you wish to move between. 9.7 Entering new messages Press <Ins>. The screen will be refreshed and you will be prompted for the destination. If you are in the NetMail folder, you can use the name/address look-up function to specify the destination of the message; if you are in an EchoMail/Local folder, you must type the destination manually. Once you have specified the destination of a message, you will be prompted for the subject (Re:). If you want to send or request files to/from another system, select the proper status bits and specify the file data in the subject line. Note that the default message status (specified in FDSETUP) is always added, but can be changed. Enter the message text and press <Ctrl-Z> or <Alt-F10> to save the message. 70 9.8 Management <Alt-F9> The management function is used to perform global operations on a range of messages such as moving, printing, copying, deleting, etc. When you press <Alt-F9> for the first time in a folder, FM will scan all the messages in the folder and build a list of them. That list is kept in memory until you press <Alt-F9> in another folder, or when FM, for some reason, has to rebuild its internal message list for a folder. If you remove, add or renumber messages the list will be updated accordingly, so no rescan is necessary. 9.8.1 Main menu <Del> Kill Removes all selected messages. <F3> Print messages Prints all selected messages. <F4> Range select Allows you to select a range of messages matching a certain criteria. <F5> Select all Allows you to select all messages in the folder. <F6> Move Allows you to move all selected messages to another folder. <F7> Copy Allows you to copy all selected messages to another folder. <F8> Export to file Allows you to export all selected messages to an ASCII file. <Enter> Go to message Returns to view mode and makes the highlighted message the current message. <Space> Select Selects or deselects the current message. 71 <Esc> Exit Returns you to view mode. 9.8.2 Continuous tagging If you activate Caps Lock, messages can be tagged (selected) by moving the bar with the arrow keys. 9.8.3 Range select <F4> The range select function allows you to select a range of messages matching a certain criteria. Most of the functions only require a partial match with the selected search criteria. <F2> From user Selects all messages from the specified user. <F3> To user Selects all messages to the specified user. <F4> Originating address Selects all messages originating from the specified address. <F5> Destination address Selects all messages destined for the specified address. <F6> Text Selects all messages containing the specified search string in the message body. <F7> Date Selects all messages between two dates. <F8> Subject Selects all messages matching the specified subject. <F9> Received Selects all messages with received (read) status. <Esc> Exit Returns you to the main menu of the management function. 72 9.9 Keyboard macros The keyboard macros are located on <F1> - <F10> (12) and <Shift F1> - <Shift-F10> (12). When a macro key is pressed, FM will insert its contents at the current cursor position. The following macros are supported: Sequence Expands to Key in FM --------------------------------------------------------------- ~~ ~ ~| | | CR <Enter> ~B TAB <Tab> ~> Cursor one step to the right <Right> ~< Cursor one step to the left <Left> ~^ Cursor one line up <Up> ~V Cursor one line down <Down> ~F Reformat paragraph <Alt-F8> ~L Insert line <Ctrl-Enter> ~} Delete from cursor to EOL <Ctrl-End> ~T Delete from cursor to EOF <Ctrl-T> ~S Save message and keep original <Ctrl-Z>, 'N' ~# Save message and delete original <Ctrl-Z>, 'Y' ~U Current username ~! Invoke DOS shell <Alt-Z> ~E<prog><parm>; Execute program ~I<filename>; Import file <Alt-F2> ~R<filename>; Import file and remove it 9.9.1 Examples The sequence "~Edir /w>x.bak;~Rx.bak;" (without the quotes) will: 1. Execute "DIR /W>X.BAK" 2. Import X.BAK into the message text 3. Remove X.BAK Note that the semi-colon (;) is NOT optional for the "Execute" and "Import" macros. It determines the end of the program name and its parameters and/or the end of the name of the file to import. 73 The sequence "|~T|~B~B~BRegards,|~B~B~B~U|" (without the quotes) will: 1. Insert a CR 2. Delete the text from the cursor to the end of the message. 3. Insert another CR 4. Insert three TAB characters (equivalent to pressing <Tab> three times). 5. Insert the text "Regards," without the quotes followed by a CR. 6. Insert three TAB characters (equivalent to pressing <Tab> three times). 7. Insert the current user's name followed by a CR. Eg. .. <message text> .. Regards, John Doe 74 9.10 Carbon copies (CC) The Carbon Copy function, is more or less what the name implies. A function that allows you to send the same message to two or more recipients; a distribution list. The CC function is only active in the NetMail folder. CCs can also be used for File Attach and File Request messages. To use the CC function, put the text "cc:" (case does not matter) followed by one or more SysOp names or system addresses, separated by a comma, at the top of the message. Once you select to save the message, FM will scan the beginning of the message text for CC: and if found, process each element of the CC list. You can have more than one line with CCs. Eg. cc: bremin,#bodger,samet cc: howard,kasza,wallin,1:135/4 Note that if you create several messages using the CC function, editing any of them will not reactivate the CC function. FM will only process a CC list the first time you enter a message (ie. a new message). 9.10.1 Hidden CCs To hide a recipient in a CC list, put the pound (#) character in front of the SysOp name or system address. Eg. cc: #1:135/20,#1:135/990,2:310/11 9.10.2 Using files as input to CCs You can also specify a file containing SysOp names or addresses to the CC function. Eg. cc: @betanote.txt 75 9.10.3 Address expansion All addresses in a CC list can be entered in short form, and several macros are recognized. cc: MYNET Will process your whole net and add every system to the CC list. Note that the previously supported notation "MYNET/node" (eg. MYNET/12) is no longer supported. cc: 2:310/*, 1:135/* Will include all systems in net 2:310 and 1:135. cc: 2:270/17.* Will include all listed point systems under 2:270/17. 76 9.11 Crossposting (XC) Although CCs are not supported for EchoMail and Local folders, there is an additional function that provides you with a method of broadcasting the same message to two or more folders. This function is called crossposting, XC hereafter, and is not available in the noncommercial version. To use the XC function, put the text "xc:" (case does not matter) followed by one or more numbers, separated by commas. Each number represents a folder number where you want the message cross-posted. If your folder list looks like: 1 BNU 2 COMP.SYS.IBM.PC 3 FDECHO 4 TSECHO 5 NETSYSOP And you put "xc: 1,3,5" in a message in folder two. The resulting messages will have * Crossposted in BNU * Crossposted in COMP.SYS.IBM.PC * Crossposted in FDECHO * Crossposted in NETSYSOP At the top of each message. The target folder is excluded from the list. Ie. " * Crossposted in BNU " will appear in each message not going to the first (BNU) folder. 77 10 Terminal Although FrontDoor was designed primarily as an e-mail system, it also features a powerful terminal emulator, hereafter called the Terminal. The Terminal features very accurate and efficient Terminal emulation and file transfer protocols; and several other features found in expensive and/or complex communications packages. The Terminal is invoked by pressing <Alt-J> from FD's main menu, or by specifying /T on the command line when FD is started. You can also choose to run FD in terminal-only mode, in which case the Terminal is brought up directly when you start it. Most functions of the Terminal are reached by holding down the <Alt> key and pressing a key, <A..Z>. If you press a key that has no function in the Terminal, it will display a message saying "Press Alt-H for help". 10.1 Menus Each function and menu of the Terminal will now be described. 10.1.1 File <Alt-F> The file menu contains functions to manipulate macros, upload and download files, transmit ASCII files, invoke DOS shell and Editor, etc. <Alt-G> Download files Receive one or more files from the remote system. <Alt-T> Upload files Transmit one or more files to the remote system. <Alt-A> Transmit ASCII file Allows you to transmit an ASCII file to the remote. You will be able to select the default inter-character delay and line translation. It is possible to create simple script or macro files by using this option. <Alt-V> Macro management Allows you to create and maintain your macro key sets. Use this function to make a different macro key set the active set. 78 <Alt-E> Profile management Allows you to create, maintain, and select IEMSI session profiles. IEMSI is discussed in a separate section. <Alt-U> Command history The Terminal records your last ten typed lines. When you press Enter, it removes the oldest entry and adds the newly typed line to the list. You can choose any one of the ten history entries and retransmit it to the remote. <Alt-I> Editor Invokes the program defined in the Terminal > Miscellaneous > Editor field in FDSETUP. You will be asked for optional command line parameters, they are stored for the remains of your Terminal session. This could also be used to bring up external protocol menus, etc. Note that the FOSSIL driver is deactivated when leaving the Terminal and reactivated upon returning to the Terminal. This is to make sure FrontDoor maintain control of the FOSSIL driver even when loading other programs that could possibly leave the FOSSIL driver in a non-desirable state. <Alt-Z> DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and press <Enter> to return to the Terminal. <Alt-Q> Quit Depending on how the Terminal was invoked, this will return you to FD's main menu or to DOS. If you are connected to a remote system when you press <Alt-Q>, you will be asked to confirm that you want to hang up. 10.1.2 Line settings <Alt-L> The line settings menu contains your current communications parameters. You cannot reach the options of this menu unless you press <Alt-L>. Most of the options in this menu are self explanatory, only the not so obvious options are explained here. 79 BPS The current DTE baud rate. If you have enabled the "Lock port" option, this field will contain "Fixed" and you will not be able to change it. Wraparound Determines whether or not the Terminal should place the cursor on a new line when it is positioned at the rightmost position of the screen and a character is received. This should be set to On in most situations. There are however VT100/VT52 applications that require this setting to be Off. Note that a CR/LF will force a new line even if this is set to Off. CR expansion Determines how a received CR character should be processed. If set to CR, no expansion is made. If, however, it is set to CR/LF, the Terminal will expand all received CR characters to CR/LF. Local echo Some on-line services do not echo the characters you type. It may be necessary to enable this option to see what you are typing. If the on-line service you are using does echo the characters you type and you enable this option, you will get duplicated characters. Eg. "HHEELLLLOO!!". Emulation Allows you to choose between ANSI, VT100, VT52 and TTY (no) emulation. Note that the default for ANSI emulation is to support AVT/0+ (AVATAR/0+). This is a Terminal emulation protocol designed by G. Adam Stanislav. It is extremely fast and very efficient. Translation tables If enabled, the Terminal will use the Terminal translation tables to filter any received characters. Auto-Zmodem downloads The Terminal monitors received characters for the special sequence a Zmodem transmitter sends when a Zmodem file session is started. If it detects this start-up sequence, it will automatically invoke the Zmodem receiver. If you disable this option, you must use <Alt-G> (Download) to receive files using the Zmodem protocol. 80 Allow AVT/0 sequences Determines whether or not you want to accept AVT/0+ emulation sequences when you are in ANSI emulation. Since AVT/0+ is based upon certain control characters, you may want to disable this option if you are using programs like Doorway, etc. which frequently transmits control characters. Clear on Form Feeds Determines whether or not the Terminal should clear the screen when receiving a Form Feed (FF, ASCII 12) character from the remote. Interactive EMSI Determines whether or not the Terminal should attempt to establish IEMSI sessions with systems you call. IEMSI is completely transparent and should not cause any problems. IEMSI is described in a separate section. 10.1.3 Session <Alt-S> <Alt-C> Capture Allows you to capture characters, as they appear on the screen, to a disk file, or logging it to a printer. Since the Terminal filters out NUL characters (ASCII 0), they will never appear in a capture file. Other characters and control sequences may not appear either, depending on what terminal emulation protocol is active at the time. <Alt-N> Conversation (chat) The conversation mode function splits the screen in half, creating two windows or sections on the screen. Data received from the remote system will be displayed in the top section, while the characters you type will be displayed in the bottom section. <Alt-D> Dial Allows you to dial a system in the nodelist. This function is disabled if no nodelist files are detected when the Terminal/FD is started. Note that you cannot queue numbers in the nodelist. <Alt-M> Manual dial Allows you to enter a number manually, which will then be dialed until you press the <Esc> key or a connection has been made. Note that you cannot queue manually entered numbers. 81 <Alt-X> Disconnect Disconnects the current call and displays the elapsed time. <Alt-P> Phone directory Brings up the phone directory manager. <Alt-R> Reset timer Resets the on-line timer. The timer is automatically reset when a new connection is made. <Alt-B> Scroll back buffer Allows you to view data that has scrolled off the screen. <Alt-W> Send BREAK Sends a (short) BREAK signal to the modem. Consult the documentation for your modem regarding BREAK signals. This is often used to terminate inquiries to commercial on-line systems, etc. but can be treated differently by your modem. <Alt-J> Clear screen Clears the screen and moves the cursor to the upper left-hand corner. <Alt-Y> Initialize modem Transmits the Init-1..Init-3 modem strings as configured in FDSETUP under Modem > Command strings, followed by the Init string defined under Terminal > Miscellaneous, to attempt to initialize the modem. This is not available in the noncommercial version. 10.1.4 Options <Alt-O> Most Terminal emulators and communications packages have a status line, either at the top or at the bottom of the screen; on which they display various information about settings and the current connection. FrontDoor's Terminal does not have a status line, hence the options menu. 82 10.2 Keyboard macros Depending on how many function keys you have on your keyboard, you will have access to 20 or 24 keyboard macros for every macro set. You can have over 60,000 macro sets defined, but only one can be active at any time. The macro management function is reached by pressing <Alt-V>. The keyboard macros are located on <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (12) and <Ctrl-F1> - <Ctrl-F10> (12). When a macro key is pressed, the Terminal will send the data specified as the macro string, uninterpreted, to the remote system. The two exceptions to this are the tilde (~) character which forces a one second pause, and the pipe (|) character which translates into a CR. Neither the tilde, nor the pipe character is transmitted to the remote system. 10.3 Raw mode The IBM PC keyboard generates two characters for every key you press. The first character is called the ASCII code, and the second character is called the scan code. Only the ASCII code is transmitted to the remote system by default. There are, however, some situations which require the Terminal software to transmit both codes. The AVATAR emulation protocol and the Doorway programs both require the complete codes (two characters) to identify certain keys; function and arrow keys in particular. Once raw mode has been enabled (by pressing the Scroll Lock key), you cannot reach any of the Terminal's regular functions. Raw mode is disabled by deactivating Scroll Lock. 10.4 Keypad modes The VT100 and VT52 emulation protocols require that the cursor keys transmit different codes depending on the state of the remote application. Most on-line services follows the VT100 recommendation for this, but several Editors and other programs have their own ideas of how this should be handled. If you enable the numerical keypad (Num Lock), the white cursor keypad will transmit the numerical application codes for VT100/VT52. If you have an extended (101/102) keyboard, the grey cursor keys will not follow the numerical keypad setting. By using the <Shift> key together with the white cursor keypad, you can negate the setting of Num Lock temporarily. Ie. if Num Lock is enabled and you press <Shift-Up> (8), the Terminal will transmit the up key sequence to the remote. If Num Lock is disabled and you press <Shift-Up> (8), the Terminal will transmit the numerical application keypad sequence for 8. 83 10.5 PC keyboards When the remote (host) requests that the Terminal enters numerical application keypad mode, the Terminal automatically enables Num Lock. On extended (101/102) keyboards, this will also enable the Num Lock LED. The Num Lock LED on IBM-PC (standard) keyboards will not change by doing this. The Options, <Alt-O>, menu should correctly reflect the proper state of Num Lock anyway. 10.6 Phone directory <Alt-P> The phone directory allows you to define up to 200 (400 in the commercial version) numbers in addition to those stored in the nodelist database. The Terminal keeps the internal phone directory in a file named TERMPHON.FD, which is located in the SYSTEM directory. The top menu in the phone directory has nine options. <F1> Clear queue Removes the queue (Q) status from all entries in the phone directory. If no entries are listed in the queue, no action is taken. <F2> <Enter> Dial Adds the current (highlighted) number to the queue and proceeds to the dial function. If no connection is made, the Terminal will proceed to the next number in the queue. If no other numbers exists in the queue, the Terminal will wait the defined (in FDSETUP) number of seconds before trying again. You can abort dialing by pressing <Esc>. <F4> Edit existing entry Allows you to change an existing entry. <F6> Purge Removes all entries marked for deletion (small square) from the phone directory. There is no way to recover a removed entry, so use this option with caution. <F7> <Space> Toggle queue status Adds/removes the current (highlighted) number to the queue. 84 <F8> Sort/Purge This option is similar to the PURGE option with one difference. It will sort the phone directory in ascending order, based on the name field. <Ins> Add entry Allows you to add a new entry to the phone directory. <Del> Mark for deletion Marks an entry for deletion (small square). No other action is taken. You must use the <F6> or <F8> function to remove entries marked for deletion. 10.6.1 Queue status The queue status is only retained while you are in the phone directory. Once you return to the Terminal, the phone directory is removed from memory. 10.6.2 Adding/changing entries When you press <F4> (Edit) or <Ins> (Add), the edit screen will appear. Press <F10> to save the entry and <Esc> to abandon the entry/changes. 10.7 Inactivity timer If you are not connected to another system, the Terminal function will be terminated automatically after ten minutes of inactivity, if there is no carrier signal. The timer is reset if a key is pressed and when the carrier signal changes. 10.8 File transfers When you transmit or receive files in the Terminal, it will automatically set the line parameters to no parity, eight data bits and one stop bit. Once the transfer is completed, the line parameters will be reset to whatever values they had prior to the transfer. 85 10.9 On-line timer The on-line time displayed in the Options, <Alt-O>, menu shows the elapsed time of the current connection in hours and minutes. It is not intended as a precise mechanism for cost calculations, etc. but will give you a rough estimate of the time you have spent on-line. 86 11 Miscellaneous This chapter contains functions and options that are global to all programs in FrontDoor. 11.1 Destination of messages When you are prompted for an address and/or SysOp name for a message, you can use the look-up function. This is true for both FD, FM, and the Terminal. FM only allows you to use the look-up function for messages written in the NetMail folder. You do not have to use the look-up function, of course. You can enter a short form address, such as 10 (for node 10 in your own net), .1 (for point one in your own point net) in which case the SysOp's name is taken from the nodelist data. This is one of the most flexible functions in FrontDoor. 11.1.1 Name lookups If you specify "Homrig" as the destination, you will be prompted to select from a list of all users with a last name matching "Homrig" (Homrighausen for example). The network address will also be taken from the name you select. 11.1.2 Address browsing To enter the address browse mode, specify an incomplete address, such as "2:?", "2:270/?" or "2:270/17.?". You can then browse through all zones, regions, networks and pointlists known to your system. If you press <Enter> (and the input field is blank) when you are prompted for an address, you will be placed in browse mode in your own net. 87 11.1.3 Address macros (NAMES.FD) You can also create a file containing short names which expands into a full address/SysOp name. The macros are located in a file called NAMES.FD which must be placed in the SYSTEM directory. The format of NAMES.FD follows: <alias>,<user name>,<address>[,<subject>] ALIAS The name you want to use for the macro. USER NAME The name you want FM to place in the TO: user name field. ADDRESS The network address you want as the destination when using the macro. SUBJECT The fourth and optional parameter can be used to insert a default subject in FM and also in the "File(s):" field in FD when using the "Mail services" options "Request files" and "Transmit files". Eg. oci,James Smith,1:132/300 am,AreaMgr,2:512/1,MyAreaMgrPassword joho,joaquim homrighausen,2:270/17 tebe,tomas bremin,2:270/7 tj,Tom Jennings,1:125/111 Would allow you to place "*oci", "*am", "*joho", "*tebe", and "*tj" anywhere you are prompted for a network address or user name, including carbon copies (CC). A special format can also be used to automatically address messages to UUCP and INTERNET gateways. By putting a commercial at character (@) as the first character of the user name field (second field), you indicate to FM that the macro should receive special treatment. Eg. dn,@INTERNET/david@csource.oz.au,2:241/999 Would place "INTERNET" in the message header's TO: field and address the message to 2:241/999. On the first line of the message text, it would put "TO: david@csource.oz.au". If no forward slash (/) is found in the user name field (where "INTERNET" is above), FM defaults to putting "UUCP" in the message header's TO: field. This cannot be used for carbon copies (CC). 88 12 File Requests This section will explain and discuss the various aspects of File Requests. There are two types of Requests, File Request and Update Request. The latter is basically a File Request that triggers a mechanism to only send the requested files if they are more recent than those found on the requesting system. Two basic terms have to be explained and understood: Outbound Requests A File or Update Request created and transmitted by your system to another, remote, system. Inbound Requests A File or Update Request transmitted by another system to your system. There is no mechanism in FD to control how an outbound Request is treated by the remote system. FD strictly deals with controlling the access to and security of your system (inbound Requests). 12.1 Outbound Requests When you want to Request one or more files from a remote system, you may do so using several different methods: 1. By using FM and entering a message with File or Update Request status. The files you want to request from the remote system are listed on the subject (Re:) line of the message and you set FilReq or UpdReq to indicate that FD should give the message special treatment. 2. By using FD's temporary mail services, which are accessed with <Alt-M> from FD's main menu. Whether or not the Request is treated as an Update Request or File Request is determined by how you specify the filename(s) in the File(s): field. If you include a path, FD will treat it as an Update Request, otherwise, it will be treated as a File Request. Requests created this way will not remain if FD is brought down (for one reason or another) as they are intended for temporary, quick and dirty, purposes only. 3. Use a robot utility, such as XRobot, to create the File or Update Request message(s). Note that an Update Request with no matching target, that is, you have attempted to Update Request a file that does not exist on your system, is automatically converted to a File Request. 89 12.2 Requesting files with a password Since files and directories can be protected with passwords, it may be necessary for you to present a password in order to request certain files from a remote system. To add a password to an outbound File or Update Request, you simply put the password preceded by a space character and a '!' character. Ie. <filename> !<password>. Regardless of whether you are creating the Request in FM or from FD's Request function, this is the format used to specify passwords. 12.3 Update Requests As mentioned before, an Update Request is really a File Request. The difference is that an Update Request is used to "update" a file that already exists on your system. The mailers accomplish this by transmitting the date and time of the existing file, the system that processes (receives) the Update Request then compares this with the requested filemask and sends any matching file that has a later date and time. 12.4 Inbound Requests You can control which directories should be accessible from the "outside world" during a Request. This is accomplished by telling FD which directories should be searched for matches. How FD handles inbound Requests depends on how you have configured the Mailer > File requests option screen in FDSETUP. 12.4.1 Request modes There are three different modes which decide how FD treats a Request from a remote system. 1. Anyone can request. This means that FD will allow any system to Request files from your system, subject to event behaviors and other modifiers. 2. Systems in nodelist can request. Similar to (1), but FD will only process Requests received from systems that are listed in your Nodelist database. 3. No requests. Forces FD to ignore any received Requests, effectively disabling the ability to request files from your system. 90 12.4.2 Directory listings The directory list file is a plain vanilla ASCII file with one directory (complete path) per line. This is used by FD to determine which directories should be searched for a file that is being requested by a remote system. No other directories than those listed here will be searched. Two separate list files can be defined in FDSETUP under Mailer > File requests. The first one, LIST, is used for unprotected sessions. The second one, SECLIST, is used for password protected sessions; allowing you to make different directories available for Request depending on the status of the session. If no SECLIST file has been defined, FD will use the LIST file for password protected sessions as well. Please note that each line defines a directory and not a filemask. All files in the specified directory will be available for Request, subject to password protection and other factors. 12.4.3 Alias listings The alias list file is a plain vanilla ASCII file with one alias definition per line. Alias definitions are useful to allow remote systems to use the same name when requesting files that change frequently, such as a file list or another file with similar contents. The remote system simply requests the "alias" and FD will send whatever files you have defined to send for that alias. Eg. FRODO C:\FILES\FDKIT.ARJ XR C:\FILES\XROBOT.ARJ RACCESS C:\FILES\RA*.ARJ MYSECRET C:\TEST1.ARJ C:\TEST2.ARJ The remote system can request FRODO, XR, RACCESS or MYSECRET and get the above specified files. Files listed as alias names do not have to be located in requestable (see "Directory listings") directories. Two separate alias files can be defined in FDSETUP under Mailer > File requests. The first one, ALIAS, is used for unprotected sessions. The second one, SECALIAS, is used for password protected sessions; allowing you to make different alias definitions available for Request depending on the status of the session. If no SECALIAS file has been defined, FD will use the ALIAS file for password protected sessions as well. 91 12.4.4 Response message In the event that FD cannot satisfy a Request for one reason or another, it will return a message to the requesting system telling it why the request(s) could not be satisfied. If you have specified a filename for the MESSAGE option, under Mailer > File requests, FD will attempt to open the specified file and append its contents to the end of the automatically generated response message. 12.4.5 Limiting Requests You can choose to place a limit on how many files, how many kilobytes, and/or how long a Request may take. This allows you to fine tune your system for maximum efficiency. Max match The maximum number of files your system will send during one Request session. If the remote system requests an alias filename that expands to two files, the request is counted as two files. A setting of zero disables this feature. Max size The maximum amount of data (in KB) your system will send during one Request session. Note that if the remote system requests an alias filename that expands into two files, the size of both files is checked. A setting of zero disables this feature. Max time The maximum time (in minutes) the resulting files of a File or Update Request may take to transfer. Before sending each file, a check is made to see if sending the file will cause this limit to be exceeded. If so, the file is skipped and the next file in the list will be checked. A setting of zero disables this feature. Minimum speed The minimum baud rate required to allow Requests. If the current connection is at a lower speed, Requests will not be honored. 92 12.4.6 Limited hours You may also choose to limit the access of your Request functions to certain days and certain hours of those days. Limited Enables limited hours. Start The time of day when your system should start honoring Requests. This setting can only be changed if the LIMITED option is enabled. End The time of day when your system should stop honoring Requests. This setting can only be changed if the LIMITED option is enabled. Days Defines on which days your system will honor Requests. 12.4.7 Event restrictions Ultimately, whether or not your system will honor Requests is controlled by the current event's behavior. If the ALLOW FILE REQUESTS option is set to NO, Requests will not be honored. 12.4.8 Protecting files and directories You may want to protect access to certain files and directories, just like another system may require you to present the proper password to request one or more files. See "Outbound Requests". The Request Manager in FDSETUP is used to protect Inbound Requests. Filename/ Directory Defines the filename/directory you want to protect. This is NOT an exclusive name. If you set this field to C:\HIDDEN\ and define a password, all Requests that result in files being sent from C:\HIDDEN\ are protected. If you set this field to MYSECRET.ARJ and define a password, the file MYSECRET.ARJ will only be sent if the requesting system presented the proper password. Password Defines the password for the specified file/directory. The requesting system have to present this in its request to get the file(s). These passwords are treated case insensitive. Entries with inactive status in the Request Manager are ignored by FD. Note that Alias definitions can also be protected by placing the name of the Alias definition in the Filename/Directory field. 93 13 Swapping Both FM and FD requires over 220 KB of RAM. If you shell to DOS, or load another program from FD, this memory is not freed. FrontDoor allows you to swap out the memory used by FD and FM, either to XMS/EMS memory or to a disk file. If you have specified that you want the programs to use XMS/EMS memory for swapping but there is not sufficient XMS/EMS memory available, the swap image is written to disk. The swap file is placed in the SYSTEM directory and removed when you return to the program. If you enable swapping for FD, it will be swapped out when you invoke a DOS shell and when you invoke other programs. The FD swap setting also affects the Terminal. The Terminal will not flush its scroll-back buffer to disk if any type of swapping is enabled for FD. Once the swap image has been created and written to XMS/EMS memory or a disk file, all used (by FD/FM) memory is freed except between three and five KB which will always remain in memory. 13.1 Complete path specifications To avoid problems when you enable swapping to XMS/EMS memory or to a disk file, it is recommended that all the filename and directory specifications under Global > Filenames in FDSETUP contain complete path specifications, including a driver specifier. If you choose to swap to a disk file, it is further recommended that you specify a complete path to where you want the swap files to be placed (Global > FileNames > Swapping). 13.2 Loading programs in a DOS shell Make sure that you do not load any TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs, such as DOS' PRINT and SideKick, when you are in a DOS shell. Failure to follow this advice may lead to system lockups when you attempt to return to FD or FM. 94 14 CRT environments All programs in the FrontDoor package are screen environment aware and most of them can adjust to most (if not all) screen sizes as long as the current screen mode has 80 or more columns (horizontally). If you have an EGA or VGA card that allows you to set the screen mode to something like 132x28 and you want to use this in FM, FD, or the Terminal, you should specify that you want the AUTO screen mode for that particular program. This will prevent it from altering the screen mode. Please note that if you run FD in AUTO mode, you must run FM and the Terminal in AUTO mode as well, if you plan to load either from FD (and not just from DOS). Otherwise, FD will display garbage data on the screen when you return from the Terminal. The opposite (running the Terminal in AUTO and FD in 25 or 43/50) is, however, properly handled. To set extended screen modes (except 80x43 and 80x50), you must use an external utility in the noncommercial version. The commercial version allows you to specify video BIOS parameters to set and reset extended screen modes. 95 15 Message Status Bits Message status bits determines how FD will treat outbound (outgoing) messages and how FM will treat locally destined messages. The Message status menu is accessed by pressing <Alt-S> in FM and is also displayed when entering a new message and changing the subject of a message. The keys listed refer to the status menu in FM. <Ctrl-P> Private Indicates that the message should only be read by the addressee. <Ctrl-C> Crash High-priority mail. Messages with crash status can never be routed or held by a route file (see Mail routing). Crash messages do, however, NOT override any cost restrictions for an event; they also require that the destination system has been qualified before FD will call it. <Ctrl-H> Hold The hold status will force FD to ignore the message unless the destination system calls your system to pick up its mail. If the message is destined for a point system and the boss of the point system calls your system, the message will be given to the boss unless the message also has Direct status. <Ctrl-F> File Indicates that the message has one or more files attached to it. The files are listed in the subject (Re:) line. File attach messages can be routed and held unless another status bit (Crash, Immediate, Hold, etc.) prevents it. The default treatment of a file attach message is to send it directly to its destination. <Ctrl-R> File Request Indicates that the message is a File Request. The requested files are listed in the subject line and may contain wild-cards characters. File request messages can be held, but are never routed. See "File Requests". <Ctrl-U> Update request Similar to a File Request, <Ctrl-R>, but the subject line (Re:) must contain valid (existing) file specification(s). When FD connects to the destination system, the requested files will only be sent by the remote if they are more recent than the matching files on your system. See "File Requests" 96 <Ctrl-K> Kill/Sent Removes the message after it has been sent or picked up. If the Kill/Sent status is not set on a message, it will be marked as sent after it has been sent or picked up. <Ctrl-T> Truncate file/sent Truncates the attached files to zero length after they have been sent or picked up. This option is only valid for file attach messages. Note that it is nearly impossible to recover a truncated file so use this option with caution. <Ctrl-E> Delete file/sent Removes the attached files after they have been sent or picked up. This option is only valid for file attach messages. <Ctrl-D> Direct Similar to the Crash status, with the difference that they can be held. Messages with the Direct and Hold status combined require that the destination system (including points) call in to pickup their mail. <Ctrl-I> Immediate mail Similar to the Crash status, but messages with immediate status will be sent at the first opportunity, ignoring all restrictions and qualifications. If there is one or more messages with immediate status to a system, all other messages (except those with hold status) to that system will be added to the mail packet. USE THIS OPTION WITH CAUTION! <Ctrl-L> Lock Locks a message from further access. This is done by setting the DOS attribute to read-only and adding a special flag to the message text. FD and most other utilities will ignore message files (.MSG) with read-only attribute. Messages with lock status cannot be removed by any of the purge functions and will never be sent (or picked up). FM can, however, renumber a folder containing one or more messages with locked status. <Ctrl-S> Sent Indicates that the message has been sent or picked up by the addressee. Once a message has been flagged as sent, they cannot be sent or picked up by the addressee. 97 <Ctrl-Z> No status Clears all status bits. 98 16 Mail routing This is one of the most complex parts of FrontDoor and takes considerable time to learn and understand. Make sure you understand how each routing verb affects mail routing before you use it. When FD is brought up, it scans for any active events and when one is found, opens the route file, ROUTE.FD, and uses it to determine whom to send mail to, and how to send it. The route file must be placed in the SYSTEM directory. If the timestamp of the route file is modified, FD will detect it and re-scan the NetMail folder (see "Semaphores"). Global routing verbs are those that appear before any SCHEDULE keyword in the route file. They are always used, so you can specify routing that is identical for all your events here. Local routing verbs are those that appear between two schedule keywords (a schedule block) in the route file. FD determines which schedule block to use by searching for a schedule keyword with a tag (letter) matching the current event tag (see "Events"). Several references are made to Hold status in this chapter. Do not confuse this with the HOLD route verb. The Hold status refers to the message status bit (see "Message Status Bits"), or where stated, to a system's nodelist status. FD allows you to insert comments in your route file. Every line with a semicolon as the first non-space (TAB/Space) character is treated as a comment. While comments may seem inadequate at first glance, it is a very useful function. Going back to a route file you wrote five months ago may not be your definition of spending a weekend in joy and happiness. Addresses specified in the route file should always be fully expressed. The * macro (implying "ALL") is supported. You can also use nodelist flags to specify a range of systems. The routing language is completely case insensitive (case does not matter). SCRIPT, SCripT, and scRIPt are all treated as the same command. 16.1 Default routing FD has several default rules for routing that will be used if no other rules have been defined for a specific system. Some of the default rules cannot be overridden by routing verbs. 99 16.2 Message status Messages with immediate (IMM hereafter), Crash, File/Update Request, and Direct status will normally not be routed. They are sent directly to the destination system, with the exception of systems without a telephone number, as described later. Messages with IMM or Crash status can never be held by using the HOLD keyword. Messages with Crash status can, however, be prevented from being sent by event behavior, qualification lists, and cost restrictions, but never held with the HOLD route verb. Messages with Hold status will NEVER be packed into a mail packet. They can always be picked up by the destination system. Messages to points with Hold status can and will be picked up if the Boss of the point calls to pickup mail, unless the message also has Direct status. Messages with IMM status will always be packed into mail packets, overriding ANY event restrictions. If you have a message with IMM status, FD will add all other qualifying messages to the same system to the same mail packet. Messages with Received (read), Orphan, Lock, and/or Sent status are ignored by FD. 16.3 Host/Hub/Boss routing Messages not otherwise prevented from being routed will by default be sent to the destination system's HOST (see "Nodelist") if the destination system is outside your own net and to its HUB if it is within your own net. If you have mail for a system listed as DOWN in your nodelist database, it will never be packed. If the system calls your system to pick up mail, it will receive its mail. If you have mail for a system listed as HOLD or PVT (no telephone number) in your nodelist, the default behavior is to send the mail via the system's Host, Hub, or Boss. If the mail to a HOLD or PVT listed system contains file attaches, the mail packet will by default be placed on hold for the Host/Hub, or go directly to the Boss in the case of a point. Messages to systems not in your nodelist (unlisted systems) will not be Host/Hub routed by default, but they can be routed by using route verbs. Messages with Crash, IMM or Direct status, destined for points to which FD cannot place a call directly will retain its status (and restrictions), but FD will instead assume the point system's Boss as the destination. 100 16.4 Qualifying systems Before FD will send mail to a system, it must be qualified by specifying its address, or a macro that includes its address in a SCHEDULE block (this is not true for IMM mail as previously described). You can qualify a system by placing a SEND-TO statement in the global section of a route file, but this is NOT RECOMMENDED. SEND-TO, POLL and the optional SEND-LIST after a Schedule command are the only available methods to qualify a system for mailing. If FD cannot find ROUTE.FD, mail to all systems will be put on hold for the destination system to call in and pickup its mail. 16.5 Route commands SCHEDULE <TAG> [SEND-LIST] Defines the start of a schedule block. All commands following a Schedule command are considered a part of the same block until another Schedule command is encountered. TAG is a letter corresponding with the event tag, defined in FDSETUP (see "Events"). You should only have one Schedule block per defined event tag. The optional SEND-LIST parameter should contain the systems to qualify for the event. SEND-TO <SEND-LIST> Qualifies the specified systems. This is identical to the optional SEND-LIST after the Schedule command. HOLD <LIST> Hold mail for the specified systems. UNHOLD <LIST> The opposite of HOLD. Useful if you have global HOLD statements and want to negate the effect of those statements for one or more systems. 101 NO-ROUTE <LIST> Send mail to the specified systems directly. This overrides the default routing rules. Some logics is applied to "directly" when using the NO-ROUTE command. Systems which FD cannot mail directly will be sent "as directly as possible". If <LIST> includes a system listed as PVT (unpublished telephone number), for example, FD evaluates the "NO-ROUTE" as "NO-ROUTE this message to the system's nearest Host/Hub". DIRECT <LIST> Unconditionally send mail to the specified systems directly (you can still place it on hold by using the HOLD command). No logics is applied to this command, and if FD cannot call the specified systems, the resulting mail packets are placed on hold automatically. Note that a system must still exist for this to apply. If a system that is included in a DIRECT <LIST> does not exist, the message will be stamped "Orphan" and not included in a mail packet, but it can still be picked up by the destination system. ROUTE-TO <TARGET> <LIST> Route mail (excluding file attach messages) for the specified systems through TARGET. This automatically implies "NO-ROUTE <TARGET>", ie. the target system's mail will not be routed through another system, even if so previously stated. HOST-ROUTE <LIST> Route messages, not otherwise prevented from being routed, for the specified systems through their HOST system. HUB-ROUTE <LIST> Route messages, not otherwise prevented from being routed, for the specified systems through their HUB system. ROUTE-FILES <TARGET> <LIST> Route file attach messages (excluding normal mail) for the specified systems through TARGET. This automatically implies "NO- ROUTE <TARGET>", ie. the target system's mail will not be routed through another system, even if so previously stated. You should ask the SysOp of the TARGET system if he allows you to route files through his system before using this command. 102 POLL <LIST> Force FD to call the specified systems even if there is no other mail destined for them. This does not effect the routing of existing mail destined for the specified systems. The POLL command unconditionally qualifies a system for mailing. Each system in LIST will only be called once. If an event is restarted, FD will not call systems that it has already polled. EXCEPT <LIST> Specifies an exception to the LIST of the previously used command. FORWARD-FOR <LIST> Tells FD that you allow the specified systems to send mail (excluding file attach messages) through your system. Note that this does not place any restrictions of the destination of the forwarded mail. FORWARD-TO <LIST> Tells FD that you allow mail (excluding file attach messages) to be forwarded through your system ONLY if it is destined to any of the specified systems. This is a more secure alternative to the FORWARD-FOR command. FILES-FOR <LIST> Identical to FORWARD-FOR, but for file attach messages. FILES-TO <LIST> Identical to FORWARD-TO, but for file attach messages. DENY <LIST> Allows you to prevent the specified systems from picking up waiting mail. FD will still accept incoming mail from the specified systems. This can be used to prevent local (or other low-cost) systems from picking up their mail in national mail events, etc. 103 SCRIPT <SCRIPT FILE> <LIST> Tells FD to use the SCRIPT FILE when calling the specified systems instead of the telephone number (if any) in your nodelist database. Script files are explained in a separate section. NO-SCRIPT <LIST> Prevents FD from using default script handling for the specified systems. Script files are explained in a separate section. 16.6 LIST specifications You can use a variety of formats to specify a list of systems for a route verb. A few follows: * All systems 2:* All systems in zone two 2:270/* All systems in zone two, net 270. 2:270/1 2:270/1 and all points under it. 2:270/1.0 2:270/1 but no points under it. 2:270/1.1 2:270/1.1. MYNET All systems in your own net. Note that the result of this format depends on which AKA FD is operating under. This is normally your primary AKA. 16.7 Using nodelist flags When you specify system LISTs to a route command, you can use nodelist flags in place of address information. Most of the available mail and system related nodelist flags are supported by FD. You can mix flags and address information as you wish. A few follows: HST CM All systems with HST or CM in their nodelist entry. !HST All systems that do not have HST in their nodelist entry. The ! character negates the meaning of a flag. !HST !CM All systems that do not have HST _or_ CM in their nodelist entry. 104 !HST CSP All systems that do not have HST in their nodelist entry and all systems that have CSP in their nodelist entry. 1:1/101 HST CM 1:1/101 and all other systems with HST or CM in their nodelist entry. 16.8 File routing/forwarding FILES-FOR and FILES-TO will mark all in-transit (not destined for your system) file attach messages as Del/Sent (see "Message Status Bits"). If you receive the same file destined for two different systems, the file will not be removed until it has been sent to (or picked up by) both systems. 16.9 Message forwarding When FD unpacks received mail packets, it will always mark messages as in-transit if they are not destined for your system (including any AKAs). These messages can be forwarded by using FORWARD-FOR and FORWARD-TO, but FD will under NO circumstances forward mail, that has not been entered or modified locally, automatically to systems unless one or both of these two commands are used. 16.10 Multiple zones If you are operating under more than one AKA listed in different zones, it is important to explicitly specify a zone for address information in the route file. 16.11 Examples Here are a few examples of route files and how to use route commands: schedule @ * This is the most simple of route files and qualifies all systems for mailing. It will force FD to use its default routing rules for mail to all systems. 105 schedule @ * route-to 2:512/1 2:* hold 2:512/1 !CM !HST This qualifies all systems for mailing, routes all mail destined for zone two through 2:512/1, and places the mail for 2:512/1 (including the routed mail) and any systems, that do not have the CM or HST flags in their nodelist entry, on hold. schedule @ MYNET This qualifies all systems in your own net and uses default routing. schedule @ send-to 1:* 2:* 3:* route-to 2:512/1 2:* except 2:201/329 2:201/130 route-to 3:632/348 3:* deny MYNET This qualifies all systems in zone one, two, and three. Routes all mail destined for zone two through 2:512/1 except for mail destined 2:201/329 and 2:201/130, routes all mail destined for zone three through 3:632/348, and prevents systems in your own net from picking up their mail. schedule B * hold * except 2:* no-route 2:* This qualifies all systems, holds all mail except mail destined for systems in zone two, and sends mail destined for zone two directly to its destination. hold * schedule D MYNET unhold MYNET schedule A 1:* unhold 1:* This holds all mail by default (the HOLD command is in the global section). Schedule D sends mail to all systems in your own net. Schedule A sends mail to all systems in zone one. 106 16.12 Dynamic packing Whenever a mail event is started, FD scans the messages in the netmail folder and possible packets are built. Messages that do not qualify to be processed will not be packed (but kept in the internal list). If a system calls in, FD will scan the message list stored in memory and create a mail packet on the fly and immediately send it to the calling system. So mail is always available, 24 hours/day. This means that your system does not have to be in an event for other systems to pickup their mail. Note that you can prevent systems from picking up their mail with the DENY command and by modifying an event's behavior. 16.13 Regarding points Points of other systems are always treated as their boss system unless you explicitly specify the boss or a point. To ONLY reference a boss system, without referencing its points, use .0 (eg. 2:270/17.0). If you have the telephone number for another system's points, the will be treated just like any other node. Ie. you can send mail to them directly. 16.14 Order of evaluation The route file is evaluated (processed) from top to bottom. Because of this, it is wise to put the "global" (affecting all systems) first, followed by the exceptions. Eg. route-to 2:512/1 * no-route 2:270/17 will result in all mail being routed via 2:512/1, except mail for 2:270/17, which is sent directly to 2:270/17. The only route command that cannot be overridden in this manner is the ROUTE-FILES command. It is therefore required that you use the EXCEPT keyword to override a ROUTE-FILES command where necessary. Eg. route-files 2:512/1 * except 2:270/17 will result in all file attaches messages being sent via 2:512/1, except file attach messages destined for 2:207/17, which are sent directly to 2:270/17. The only other way to override the effects of a ROUTE-FILES command is to use the DIRECT command. 107 16.15 TARGET vs. qualification Note that only actual <TARGET> systems, and systems which you have told FD to send mail directly to, or systems not otherwise included in default routing, need to be qualified. route-to 2:512/1 * no-route 2:270/17 schedule @ 2:512/1 2:270/17 Note that even if you have mail for a non-qualified system (ie. a system other than 2:512/1 and 2:270/17), it would be routed to 2:512/1, and qualified for sending (via 2:512/1), using the above scenario. 16.16 Restrictions A <TARGET> system cannot contain a point address. You can not route mail destined for your own systems via another system. 16.17 Macros MYZONE All systems in your zone. MYNET All systems in your net. MYPOINTS All points under your system. 16.18 Supported nodelist flags Note that the meaning of the following flags can be negated by placing a '!' character in front of them, eg. !HST. CM, MO, HST, H96, PEP, MAX, XA, XB, XC, XP, XW, XX, MNP, V29, V32, V33, V34, V42, V42B, V32B, CSP. All FrontDoor systems should have the "XA" flag in their nodelist entry. 108 17 EMSI and IEMSI EMSI (EMSC-001 and FSC-0056) or "Electronic Mail Standard Identification" is a handshake method developed by Joaquim H. Homrighausen and Chris Irwin (author of D'Bridge). It provides features and flexibility that other handshake methods, such as FTS-1 and FTS-6 (YooHoo), do not offer. The two major advantages of the EMSI handshake method is the ability to pickup mail for all your AKAs in one call, and unlimited expansion of the data (handshake packets) exchanged when a session is negotiated. I will not go into any technical details about EMSI here, I will, however, describe the handling of the multiple AKAs. The EMSI handshake is supported by FrontDoor, AirMail, TrapDoor, and D'Bridge. I expect other packages such as BinkleyTerm to add support for it in the near future. EMSI does not interfere with other handshake protocols such as FTS-1 and FTS-6. 17.1 Passwords If you have established or wish to establish a session level password for a certain system, you must make sure that you have entered all AKAs of that system in the Security Manager. All entries must have the same password. For example, let us assume you want to establish a session level password with 1:135/142 which is also 26:1305/142. You should add both 1:135/142 and 26:1305/142 in the security manager and use the same password for both entries. 17.2 Mail Using the same example, if you have mail for both 1:135/142 and 26:1305/142, all mail (for both addresses) would be delivered during the same session. This is true for both inbound and outbound connections. If you know that a system is EMSI capable and you have regular mail traffic with more than one of its AKAs, you can HOLD mail for the system's other AKAs and only allow the Mailer (FD) to call one of the addresses. When the session is established, all of the remote system's AKAs are processed. This probably sounds more confusing than it really is. So to make a long story short, make sure you have the "Present all AKAs to remote" option enabled (Mailer>Miscellaneous) and play it by ear. 109 17.3 IEMSI IEMSI is similar to the EMSI handshake protocol, with the exception that it deals with the handshake between a terminal program (such as the one found in FrontDoor) and an on-line service, such as a BBS. 110 18 Script language The script language provides an alternative method of calling a system (instead of calling it directly with the telephone number listed in your nodelist). A script file is used where you have to, or prefer to, connect to another system indirectly. Ie. you will not be calling it by dialing its number directly. This could be through X.25 or PC Pursuit. The script file must be a plain vanilla ASCII file. A semicolon (;) may be used as a comment character, making FD ignore everything following the semicolon on the same line. FD is not case sensitive when interpreting the script file. The route file (ROUTE.FD) can be used to specify that a script should be used for one or more nodes by entering: SCRIPT <SCRIPT FILE> <LIST> (see Mail routing). The command may be global or local to a specific event's schedule block. If you are using PC Pursuit, you can use a generic script file for all "PC Pursuitable" nodes. See PCP SCRIPTS. 18.1 What can I do with it? The script language consists of a number of commands that allows you to send characters to the modem, wait for responses from the modem or the remote system/network that you are using, and trigger different actions depending on the responses you get. The versatility of the script language is further enhanced by the use of so-called labels to execute different parts of the script depending on a specific situation. The script language can be seen as a simple programming language for controlling the way FD or the Terminal makes a call. 18.2 Commands SEND <STRING> Sends a series of characters to the modem or the remote system. Everything following the SEND command on the same line will be sent. Control characters may be entered using mnemonics, eg. <CR>. In addition, <CR> (carriage return) may be sent by using the pipe (|) symbol. The string will be sent exactly as entered, with no case conversion. 111 DIAL <NUMBER> Sends NUMBER, preceded by the dial command specified in FDSETUP's modem section. Control characters may be entered in the same manner as with the SEND command. SETPORT <BAUD> <DATABITS> <STOPBITS> <PARITY> Sets the communications port to the specified parameters. BAUD can be any value supported by the hardware between 300 and 9600 baud. At no time will the baud rate be set to a higher value than the highest supported speed of the destination system, or the baud rate of the outbound node in a PC Pursuit script. DATABITS is 7 or 8. STOPBITS is 1 or 2. PARITY is NONE, ODD or EVEN. In addition, a value of -1 means that the previous setting for that parameter should be retained. PROVOKE <STRING> Keeps sending STRING with an interval of one second, until any character is received from the remote system, or until a timeout occurs (see TIMERSET), or until interrupted by the user. Control characters may be entered in the same manner as with the SEND command. TIMERSET <SECONDS> Sets the timer for fatal timeouts while waiting to receive something from the remote system. The default is 120 seconds (two minutes). The maximum value is 300 seconds (five minutes), and the minimum is 0. DEBUG <ON|OFF> Sets debug mode on or off. In debug mode, all characters received while waiting for one or more strings will be displayed. When you are not using debug mode, only the string that matched a pattern will be displayed. Similarly, in debug mode all strings sent to the modem/remote system will be displayed, whereas FD will only say "Sending string" when not using debug mode. It is recommended that you enable debug mode while developing and testing a script. WAIT <SECONDS> Makes the script wait for SECONDS seconds before continuing. 112 WAITFOR <STRING>[|<STRING>|<STRING>..] Forces the script function to wait for one or more specified stri ngs or until a timeout occurs (see TIMERSET). Each string must be separated with a pipe (|) character. Control characters may be entered in the same manner as with the SEND command. Of the specified strings, only the first will signify success, the other strings will immediately terminate the script with failed status. The string comparison is case sensitive, and requires an exact match. CASE / ENDCASE Starts and ends a CASE statement, respectively. CASE is a more flexible variety of WAITFOR. Each line after CASE must start with a string that the script should wait for, followed by a colon and one or more script commands, or a label jump directive (see LABELS). If the string consists of more than one word, it must specified between quote characters ("). The CASE statement is ended with the command ENDCASE on a separate line. When a matching string has been received from the modem or the remote system, the command on the same line will be executed. If the command consists of a label jump instruction, the script will continue from the specified label position. If it is one or more script commands, they will be executed, and the script will continue from the line following the ENDCASE statement, unless the command terminates the script (see SESSION and FAIL). The string comparison is case sensitive, and requires an exact match. A short example follows. CASE ; Comments: CONNECT : session ; connect BUSY : >redial "NO CARRIER": >redial VOICE : fail @NOCARRIER : fail ; carrier lost @DEFAULT : fail ; timeout ENDCASE 113 @NOCARRIER Tests the presence of carrier in a CASE statement. @DEFAULT May be used to specify a default course of action if a timeout occurs in a CASE statement. SESSION Terminates the script with success status, leading to a mail session. It is NOT necessary to have a SESSION command in script files used to connect to another system in the Terminal. The SESSION command is only used to establish mail sessions. FAIL Terminates the script with failed status. No mail session will be initiated. PURGEIN Purges the inbound buffer, getting rid of any pending characters. PURGEOUT Purges the outbound buffer, getting rid of any pending characters. RETRYCOUNT <RETRIES> Provides a means of incrementing and checking a predefined retry count variable. If the retry count exceeds RETRIES, the script is terminated with failed status, otherwise the count is incremented with 1. The retry count does not include the first attempt. CLEARCOUNT Clears the predefined retry count variable, resetting it to 0. 114 MAX2400 <COMMANDS> MAX1200 <COMMANDS> Commands following on the same line will only be executed if the max baudrate for the session is 1200/2400. The maximum baudrate for a session is calculated as the maximum baudrate supported by the remote system, by the outbound node (if using PCP), or by your own modem, whichever is lowest. Eg. MAX2400 setport 2400 -1 -1 -1 MAX1200 setport 1200 -1 -1 -1 @OUTBOUND Used to insert the name of an outbound PC Pursuit node in a string. The contents of @OUTBOUND is undefined if used in any other script than PCP.SCR. Eg. send C @OUTBOUND,ABC12345<CR> @LOCALNUM Used to insert the local telephone number in a PC Pursuit script. The contents of @LOCALNUM is undefined if used in any other script than PCP.SCR. Eg. send ATDT@LOCALNUM<CR> ENDNODE Terminates a "node block". See NODE BLOCK. UPLOAD <PROTOCOL> <FILESPEC> Transmits the files matching FILESPEC to the remote, using the PROTOCOL transfer protocol (X=Xmodem, T=Telink, S=SEAlink, Z=Zmodem). FILESPEC may include wild-cards characters for all protocols. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. Eg. upload Z C:\FILES\FD*.LZH 115 DOWNLOAD <PROTOCOL> <PATH> Receives one or more files from the remote, using the PROTOCOL transfer protocol (X=Xmodem, T=Telink, S=SEAlink, Z=Zmodem). PATH must be a complete filename for Xmodem transfers and a valid directory for Zmodem, SEAlink, and Telink transfers. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. Eg. download Z C:\INFILES\ download X C:\INFILES\FUN.LZH DISCONNECT Unconditionally terminates a call (if any) from within a script. Script execution will resume as soon as the carrier (CD) signal has been lost; the script function lowers DTR to disconnect. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. IFBAD <line to execute> Executes the command(s) listed on <line to execute> (which is the line following "IFBAD") if an UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD command failed. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. SENDBREAK Transmits a short BREAK signal to the modem. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. LONGBREAK Transmits a long BREAK signal to the modem. This command is not available in the noncommercial version. 116 18.3 Labels A label is used to define a position in the script, so that it may be used as a jump destination. The label can consist of any word, starting with a letter from A to Z, except the above script commands, and must be preceded by a colon. At the position in the script where you want to execute a jump to the label, you enter the label name preceded by a greater than sign (>). Eg. .. .. :redial send ATDT@LOCALNUM<CR> CASE CONNECT : session BUSY : >redial @default : fail ENDCASE 18.4 Node block A node block is a special type of label. It starts with a node number preceded by a colon. All commands from the first line to the ENDNODE statement, that ends the node block, will only be executed if you are currently calling the specified node. Eg. .. .. :270/17 ; start of node block send ATZ<CR> ENDNODE ; end of node block 18.5 PC Pursuit You can use a generic script for calling all "PC Pursuitable" nodes, taking advantage of the specific PCP commands @OUTBOUND and @LOCALNUM. This requires that the script file is named PCP.SCR and is placed in the SYSTEM directory. You must also compile the nodelist with the file PCP.DAT, containing a list of all "PC Pursuitable" exchanges, present in the NODELIST directory. If you have followed these steps, the PCP script file will be used automatically when FrontDoor finds that a node is "PC Pursuitable". You will probably wish to prevent FrontDoor from using the PCP script in the daytime on weekdays. A special route command, NO-SCRIPT, exists specifically for this purpose. For further information, see Mail routing. 117 18.6 How do I update PCP.DAT? The file PCP.DAT is a somewhat modified version of the file provided by Telenet's BBS. We take no responsibilities whatsoever regarding the contents of the PCP.DAT file supplied with FrontDoor. To update it, you must issue CONNECT PURSUIT from PCP's command prompt and log-on to their BBS. The file that you want to download is called EXCHANGE.TXT (or EXCHANGE.ARC). Should you update this file, you MUST make sure that your files follows the same format as the file supplied with FrontDoor. 18.7 MNEMONICS The following mnemonics may be used to enter control characters in the script, both for sending and receiving. They can be used with the following commands: SEND, DIAL, PROVOKE, WAITFOR, and CASE. ASCII MNEMONIC : ASCII MNEMONIC --------------------+---------------------- 0 <NUL> : 17 <DC1> 1 <SOH> : 18 <DC2> 2 <STX> : 19 <DC3> 3 <ETX> : 20 <DC4> 4 <EOT> : 21 <NAK> 5 <ENQ> : 22 <SYN> 6 <ACK> : 23 <ETB> 7 <BEL> : 24 <CAN> 8 <BS> : 25 <EM> 9 <HT> : 26 <SUB> 10 <LF> : 27 <ESC> 11 <VT> : 28 <FS> 12 <FF> : 29 <GS> 13 <CR> : 30 <RS> 14 <SO> : 31 <US> 15 <SI> : 32 <SP> 16 <DLE> : --------------------+---------------------- 118 19 FDSERVER FD has a function referred to as FDSERVER. It can be used to perform functions on your system from a remote site, such as moving and copying files, etc. FDSERVER is a very powerful function and the examples given in this chapter are only some of the things you can do with it. FDSERVER is activated by specifying a password in FDSETUP. FDSERVER requests will be ignored if no password has been specified in FDSETUP. FDSERVER requests are processed after a mail session has been completed and the call has been terminated, so everything you specify in request message is processed off-line. 19.1 What is a FDSERVER request? A FDSERVER request is a message, addressed to FDSERVER (case does not matter) on your system, with commands. Think of it as a remote, but controlled, DOS shell. You can run almost any program and perform any DOS function from a FDSERVER request. The FDSERVER function has some limitations, however. You cannot use the DOS command ECHO in a FDSERVER request. Programs that require local keyboard input should not be executed from a FDSERVER request since these program(s) will just sit and wait for keyboard input. FDSERVER request messages must NOT be compressed (ARCmail, etc.). The function is only triggered if FD unpacks the request message. Batch (.BAT) file labels are not supported. 19.2 Request message Each line of the message is considered a command and blank lines are ignored. When FDSERVER has executed all commands found in the message, it will change drive and directory to where it was before processing your request and return to FD. 119 19.2.1 Internal commands Lines beginning with a % character are internal FDSERVER commands. %logall Will create one line in the log file for each command that was executed along with the status (err: or exe:). %nologerr Normally, all commands that generated an errorlevel will be logged, this can be disabled with this command. %store After a request is processed, it will be deleted by default. This can be disabled by putting this command in the message which will force FDSERVER to mark the messages as received. 19.3 Using it You are sitting in front of your computer at home, working with a report or something similar and find that you need some files from the office machine. Assuming that these files contain information that is very sensitive or confidential, and even though you have the option to protect your file requests with a password, you may still not want to have the files semi-accessible. This is where you can use FDSERVER. The directories and file names used in this example were thought up and does not necessarily match the setup on your machine. Create a message addressed to FDSERVER on the node you want to call and send it. By: joaquim homrighausen, JoHo's Home (2:270/17.1) To: fdserver, Advanced Engineering sarl (2:270/17) Re: password ---------------------------------------------------- %nologerr cd \TEMP copy C:\LOTUS\THA*.SPS arj a THA THA*.SPS erase *.SPS copy THA.ARJ C:\REQUEST\FORNOW erase THA.ARJ 120 The server function will read the message and execute each line. The next step would be to create a new server request containing the following: By: joaquim homrighausen, JoHo's Home (2:270/17.1) To: fdserver, Advanced Engineering sarl (2:270/17) Re: password ---------------------------------------------------- %nologerr erase C:\REQUEST\FORNOW\THA.ARJ And send it along with a File Request for THA.ARJ. FD will process the File Request first, and when the mail session has been completed, the newly created server request will be processed by FDSERVER. 19.4 Keeping calls to a minimum You could avoid the extra phone call in the example with the request if you have a robot utility such as XRobot (by Joaquim H. Homrighausen) and create a file attach with the files you need so the Mailer will call you back. 19.5 Security If you do not need to use FDSERVER, Do not define a password for it in FDSETUP. Since FDSERVER is a VERY powerful function, the results could be disastrous if someone got hold of your FDSERVER password. 121 20 Service requests Service requests is a very powerful function of FD. It allows you to use FD as a front-end to databases, to make on-line inquiries etc. without having to manually call the system with a Terminal program. 20.1 Service requests vs FDSERVER The difference between a service request and a FDSERVER request is that they are processed while two systems are connected. This has the drawback of being slightly more expensive, but it offers a much greater flexibility than the FDSERVER function. Consider this. You have a program on your system that allows people to search for data in a database of files and then get a list of all the new files, you have named the service request WHATSNEW. Your system receives a file request for WHATSNEW and FD runs the program SEARCH.EXE, defined as the program to run for WHATSNEW. When SEARCH terminates, FD will send the file NEWFILES.LST, created by SEARCH, to the remote system. 20.2 Setting up Service requests are defined in the ALIAS file (where you define alias file names for file requests). The format of a service request definition looks like this: <NAME> ><PROGRAM> <PARAMETERS> ^<+ or - path name> Eg. WHATSNEW >SEARCH.EXE findit =A =T ^-C:\SERVICE\RESULT\*.TXT Service name NAME (case does not matter) is what the remote system should request to invoke the service request. Program >PROGRAM is the program that should be invoked when FD receives a request for NAME. The > character is required and tells FD it is a service request and not an alias definition. There should be no spaces between the > and PROGRAM. The extension of PROGRAM is important. FD can execute batch (.BAT) files as a result of a service request, but it must do it through COMMAND.COM. So it has to know what type of file (program) it is that you are executing. 122 Parameters You can pass any parameters to the program. The only restriction is (as with DOS) that they do not exceed a length of 128 characters and none of them starts with the ^ (see below) character. There are several macros that you can specify as parameters. Macros should be preceded by a single equal sign (=). FD will expand these macros before calling the program. You may include macros in other parameters. Eg. -p=P Would pass -p followed by the value of the P macro to the program. Macros Here is a list of the available macros: =A The requesting system's network address. Eg. 2:270/17. =B The baud rate of the connection. Eg. 9600. =C The cost per minute for the connection. If your system initiated the session (called the requesting system), this is the cost per minute. If the requesting system initiated the session (called your system), this will be 0. =D OUTBOUND if your system initiated the session (called the requesting system) or INBOUND if the requesting system initiated the session (called your system). =L The requesting system's location. Eg. Oetrange_L. This value is taken from the nodelist based on the network address. Note that if the requesting system is not listed in your nodelist, this value will be "UNKNOWN". =N The name of the requesting system. Eg. FroDo_HQ. =O The operator of the requesting system. Eg. Bilbo_Baggins. Note that space characters are replaced with an underscore. =P The password that was specified for the request (if any). 123 =S The service that was requested. Eg. WHATSNEW. =U The date and time supplied on an update request. It is expressed in UNIX format, ie. the number of seconds since 1970. If the request was a plain file request, this will be 0. =X Whether or not the session is password protected. This macro can have two values, SECURE or UNSECURE. =Z The type of the mail session that has been established. This macro can have three values, WAZOO, EMSI, or OTHER. 20.3 ^ - + ? The ^ character defines the beginning of a filemask that FD should send after the service request has been completed. If no ^ definition has been made, FD will not send any files as the result of a service request. The plus (+) means that FD should NOT remove the files once they have been transmitted. The minus (-) means that FD SHOULD remove the files once they have been transmitted. This also means that the files will be removed even if they could not be sent (carrier lost, etc). The question mark (?) means that FD should ONLY remove the files once they have been SUCCESSFULLY transmitted. This means that if a session fails after transmitting three files, only those three files will be removed and the remaining left intact. The path name is a file specification, it may include wildcard (? and *) characters. FD will send all matching files. 20.4 Remote system information When FD loads the program specified for the request, it will create a file with information about the remote (requesting) system, such as the system name, system location, operator's name, list of network addresses, etc. allowing an external program to access this information without having to know the internals of FrontDoor. This file is described in detail in the FrontDoor Developer's Kit (FDDEV). 124 20.5 Security Since service requests are built on the concept of File Requests, they are protected the same way a File Requests is protected. To setup a password, you have to use the Request Manager in FDSETUP and define a password for the service request name. 20.6 A word of wisdom Service Requests should be used with extreme caution. It is recommended that you have a full understanding of what a service request actually does before you attempt to use it. You should also keep in mind that the requesting system is waiting at the other end for FD to start sending files. So keep it short and sweet. 125 21 Global command line switches Support for these switches is included in all programs in FrontDoor, except where otherwise stated. All command line parameters must be preceded by either a forward slash (/) or a dash (-). Command line parameters are case insensitive (case does not matter) except where otherwise stated. Switch Programs Description -------------------------------------------------------------------- C FDSETUP Forces color mode M FDSETUP Forces monochrome mode NORES All Disables use of internal (and undocumented) DOS pathname resolution calls. This is required under PC-MOS/386 and some LAN environments. NOCOMMIT All Disables use of DOS 3.3 commit() call. NOSHADOW All Disables window shadows. NOMULD All Prevents FrontDoor from attempting to detect a multi-tasking environment, such as DESQview and PC-MOS/386. NOEKBD All Prevents FrontDoor from using extended (AT- style) keyboard BIOS calls. NOISCR FM Forces FM to treat a SoftCR (ASCII 141) character as any other printable character. The default for FM is to strip these when reading and writing message from/to disk. INTL FM Forces FM to always insert the ^aINTL kludge line in newly created NetMail messages. FM will, by default, only insert INTL information if the destination system of the message is located in a different zone than that of the originating address (your) used to create the message, or when a different originating address than your primary AKA is used. NOEMS FD, FM Disables use of LIM/EMS memory for overlay file buffers. This switch does not affect whether or not FD and FM use EMS/XMS memory when (if) swapping. NOLOCK FM Disables Hudson Message Base locking support in FM. Do not use this unless absolutely necessary. 126 Switch Programs Description -------------------------------------------------------------------- NODASH FD Forces FD to strip dash (-) characters from telephone numbers before sending them to the modem. This does not affect how telephone numbers are displayed on screen or logged to disk. NOUNPACK FD Forces FD to ignore received mail packets (files with .PKT extension). This assumes that you have an external utility to unpack NetMail packets. Do not use this unless you absolutely need it. NOMDM FD Forces FD to ignore information listed in MODEM.FD. NOSLO FD Disables support for the Overdrive protocol option (SLO) in SEAlink. SLO is by default only active during error free connections (/ARQ, /MNP, /LAPM, etc.) and for link speeds above 2400 BPS. NODZA FD Disables support for the DirectZAP Zmodem protocol (DZA) variant used between some EMSI capable mailers such as FrontDoor and D'Bridge. DZA is only used during EMSI mail sessions that have not been negotiated via a script file. NOZAP FD Disables support for the Zmodem protocol during mail sessions negotiated using the FTS-6 (YooHoo) session protocol. This effectively means that FD will only establish FTS-6 sessions using the DietIFNA protocol option. This does not affect sessions negotiated using EMSI. NOYOOHOO FD Disables support for the FTS-6 (YooHoo) session protocol. This means that FD will only support FTS-1 and EMSI sessions, unless otherwise restricted. NOFTSC1 FD Disables support for the FTS-1 session protocol, effectively making FD non-FidoNet compliant. This means that FD will only support FTS-6 and EMSI sessions, unless otherwise restricted. --- Public (listed as non-PVT in the FidoNet nodelist) FidoNet systems should use this option with CAUTION since by using it, you may be in violation FidoNet policy. --- 127 Switch Programs Description -------------------------------------------------------------------- NOEMSI FD Disables support for the FSC-0056 (EMSI) session protocol. This means that FD will only support FTS-1 and FTS-6 sessions, unless otherwise restricted. RDEBUG FD Enables debug output from the mail routing handler in FD. This is quite useful when debugging your ROUTE.FD file. X<1..255> FD Forces FD to terminate with the specified errorlevel as soon as there is no more outbound calls to make. This is not available in the noncommercial version. T FD Forces FD into Terminal mode directly from DOS. Once you exit the Terminal, you will be returned to DOS. M FD Forces FD into Mail mode directly from DOS. This switch was added to allow you to override the Terminal-only setting in FDSETUP. S FD Forces FD to ignore any forced events it may have missed. FD will by default execute all pending external events when it is brought up. This switch is useful if you have performed system maintenance for several hours and do not want FD to execute any overdue forced events. L:<pwd> FD Locks the keyboard with the specified password directly from DOS. This has the same effect as using the LOCK, <Alt-L>, function from FD's main menu. ONLINE Terminal Forces the Terminal to not initialize the modem when it is started. This is not available in the noncommercial version. 21.1 A word of wisdom Please be aware that some of the previously described command line switches completely alter the way FrontDoor acts and may make it incompatible with other software and/or some environments. Use the switches with caution and when in doubt, try to test the effects of the switch in a local environment or between your own and a friend's system before you leave FD to answer your telephone unattended. 128 22 Environment variables Several environment variables affect how FrontDoor operates. It is assumed that you are familiar with what and environment variable is and how to set/remove one. 22.1 FDOPT All of the "Global command line switches" except "-/C" and "-/M" can also be specified by including them in the FDOPT environment variable. To include more than one option, separate them by a comma, eg. SET FDOPT=NOISCR,NOSHADOW 22.2 FDSWAP Overrides the "Swapping" path, defined under Global > Filenames in FDSETUP, eg. SET FDSWAP=D:\TEMPDIR\ 22.3 POINTNET See "Nodelist and the Nodelist Compiler". 22.4 FMOVR and FDOVR Allows you to specify a complete path where FM and FD should look for their overlay (.OVR) files. Useful when multiple copies of either program are being used (eg. multi-line environment). This is not available in the noncommercial version. 129 23 Semaphore files FrontDoor can be controlled by using so called semaphore files. Both FD and FM periodically scan for certain file names in the SYSTEM directory, and if found, performs a task such as rescanning the contents of the NetMail folder, exits to DOS, prevents human callers, and more. The commercial version furthermore allows you to specify a separate semaphore directory (see FDSETUP > Global > Filenames) to allow several copies of FM and FD to use the same semaphore files. FD uses the lower right hand corner of its main screen to indicate that one or more semaphore is present. Filename Programs Description -------------------------------------------------------------------- FDRESCAN.NOW FD Forces FD to discard all mail packets (NOT messages) from the packet directory and rescan the contents of the NetMail folder before rebuilding the packets. FMRESCAN.NOW FM Forces FM to rebuild its internal list of messages in the NetMail folder. FDINSESS.nnn FD, FM FD creates this file whenever a mail session is initiated, and when it is dialing a system, attempting to establish a mail session. If FM detects this file, it will not let you renumber the NetMail folder. "nnn" is the task number (0-255). This is not available in the noncommercial version. FDINEXIT.nnn FD FD creates this file whenever a human caller is detected and passed onto a BBS or other on-line service. When FD returns, it compares the timestamp of FDINEXIT.nnn with the timestamp of FDRESCAN.NOW, and if they do not match, a complete rescan (see FDRESCAN.NOW) is performed. "nnn" is the task number (0- 255). In the noncommercial version, this file is not task aware, and is always called "FDINEXIT.NOW". FDNOUSER.NOW FD Forces FD to refuse human callers. This has the same effect as setting the "Human callers" option, under FD's "Your profile" menu, to "NO". The visual indicator for this semaphore file is "NU". FDNOSCAN.NOW FD Forces FD to ignore FDRESCAN.NOW. 130 FDNOEXIT.NOW FD Prevents FD from exiting because of received mail. This has the same effect as setting the "Exit on mail" option, under FD's "Your profile" menu, to "NO". The visual indicator for this semaphore file is "NE". NODIAL.FD FD While this is not a semaphore file per se, it triggers the display of a visual indicator, "UD". FDEXIT.nnn FD Forces FD to UNconditionally exit with the errorlevel "nnn". Before FD exits, it removes the file. FDRENUM.nnn FD, FM FM creates this file whenever you press <Alt-B> to renumber the NetMail folder. When FD detects this file, it will not place any outgoing calls until it can no longer be found. This prevents FD from initiating an outbound session while FM is renumbering the contents of the NetMail folder. "nnn" is the task number (0-255). This is not available in the noncommercial version. ROUTE.FD FD While this is not a semaphore file per se, it is used to determine if the NetMail folder has to be rescanned (see FDRESCAN.NOW). If the timestamp of this file has changed since FD last checked it, a rescan is forced. 131 24 Batch files FD will, in most cases, be run from a DOS batch (.BAT) file. When it terminates, it will return certain errorlevels that you can trap for in your batch file. 24.1 Errorlevels 1 Internal error 2 External error - missing files, paths, etc. 3 Insufficient available disk space (less than 32 KB) 4 (reserved) 5 Unable to initialize modem 6 Incorrect FOSSIL version 7 FOSSIL not loaded or detected 8 FrontDoor already loaded, issue EXIT to return 9 (reserved) 10 User break 11 - 30 (reserved) 31 - 255 User definable errorlevels If you invoke the Terminal from DOS by running FD /T, it will always terminate with an errorlevel of 10 (User break), the same applies when you have specified "Terminal-only" in FDSETUP. 24.2 Categories The various errorlevels can be organized into four basic categories: Mail received When mail is received, you can choose to exit to the batch file to run external mail processing utilities, such as TosScan, etc. User break/errors When you press <Alt-Q> from the FD's main menu or when errors occur. BBS calls If you are running a BBS under FD, it is necessary for FD to exit with an errorlevel indicating the baudrate of the call. The line is still active when FD exits to the batch file, the BBS software is loaded and the caller will be able to access the BBS. External events The errorlevels defined in FDSETUP's event manager. 132 24.3 Loading BBS software There are two methods that can be used to invoke BBS software when the Mailer detects a non-mail (human) call. The first uses different batch file labels for the various baudrates and the second one uses the same label for the various baudrates. The second method relies on the "Create .BAT file" option in FDSETUP (under Mailer > Errorlevels). 24.4 Different labels @echo off rem --- We end up here after every BBS call :loop C: CD \FD FD rem --- Check errorlevels returned by the Mailer if errorlevel 200 goto b9600 if errorlevel 199 goto b2400 if errorlevel 198 goto b1200 if errorlevel 197 goto b300 if errorlevel 100 goto mailIN if errorlevel 10 goto userBRK if errorlevel 1 goto FDerror :mailIN rem --- Process possible echomail, etc. tosscan toss tsutil link -t goto loop :b9600 Load BBS software for incoming call at 9600 bps goto loop :b2400 Load BBS software for incoming call at 2400 bps goto loop .. .. 133 :userBRK cls @echo User break. goto done :FDerror @echo Mailer returned an error (1-9) :done While this option works just fine for a environment where it is not critical that the BBS software knows about upcoming events etc. it is somewhat limited. 24.5 Same label @echo off rem --- We end up here after every BBS call :loop C: CD \FD FD rem --- Check errorlevels returned by the Mailer if errorlevel 200 goto bbsCALL if errorlevel 199 goto bbsCALL if errorlevel 198 goto bbsCALL if errorlevel 197 goto bbsCALL if errorlevel 100 goto mailIN if errorlevel 10 goto userBRK if errorlevel 1 goto FDerror :mailIN rem --- Process possible echomail, etc. tosscan toss tsutil link -t goto loop :bbsCALL rem --- Load DOBBS.BAT, created by the Mailer if rem the "Create .BAT file" option is enabled. dobbs :userBRK cls @echo User break. goto done 134 :FDerror @echo Mailer returned an error (1-9) :done 24.6 DOBBS.BAT This is the batch file created by FD when you have the "Create .BAT file" option enabled. It contains the speed at which the call came in, the COM port, number of minutes left till the next event and possibly a string indicating ARQ, MNP etc. The commercial version inserts the task number (0-255) between the number of minutes left till the next event and the possible ARQ/MNP string. For a call coming in at 9600 BPS with ARQ, 30 minutes left till the next non-user event, on COM port 1 the DOBBS.BAT file would contain: exebbs 9600 1 30 /ARQ For a call coming in at 2400 BPS, two hours left till the next non-user event, on COM port 1, the DOBBS.BAT file would contain: exebbs 2400 1 120 24.7 EXEBBS.BAT This is the file you have to create. It should handle everything required for the BBS software you are running, including exporting mail after users have logged off, etc. The last statement of your EXEBBS.BAT file should be the name of the big (main) batch file. Here is a sample of an EXEBBS.BAT file: coolBBS -b%1%4 -p%2 -t%3 if errorlevel 200 goto newmail if errorlevel 40 goto fatal run :newmail cls @echo User entered echomail, let's send it! tosscan scan run :fatal cls @echo A fatal error has occurred in coolBBS 135 Since DOBBS.BAT calls EXEBBS.BAT with various information, it can be used to pass parameters to the BBS software. The result of the above EXEBBS.BAT file would expand to: coolBBS -b9600/ARQ -p1 -t120 If a BBS call came in at 9600, the COM port is one, the number of minutes till the next non-user event is 120 and the optional (%4) string contained /ARQ. The text RUN, refers to the original (main) batch file, in which we bring the Mailer back up again. When the BBS software (coolBBS in the above examples) terminates, EXEBBS.BAT will trap two errorlevels and then invoke RUN(.BAT) again. 24.8 Flow (batch files) Complicated? Here is the actual file flow between RUN, DOBBS and EXEBBS: +-> RUN.BAT Loads FD and performs all EchoMail and : : error handling. When a non-mail (human) : : call is detected, it loads DOBBS.BAT, ^ V created by FD. : : : : : DOBBS.BAT Created by FD. It calls the EXEBBS.BAT : : file with the baudrate, port, remaining : : time till the next non-user event, and ^ V and possibly the /ARQ parameter. : : : : : EXEBBS.BAT Called by DOBBS.BAT with the above : : described parameters. Loads the BBS : : software, processes newly created ^ V mail (if any), and finally returns to : : RUN.BAT. +--<--+ 136 25 Multi-tasking FrontDoor can be used together with most multi-tasking programs. It has been tested with DESQview, PC-MOS/386, OS/2 1.3 DOS Box, DoubleDOS, Multilink and Taskview. It will automatically detect most multi-tasking software. My personal suggestion would be DESQview. One of the best multi-taskers around for PC/MS-DOS. 25.1 NS16550 If you are running FrontDoor under a multi-tasker or in a LAN environment, I suggest you replace your 8250 or 16450 UART chip with a NS16550AN or NS16550AFN. These are available from several electronics outfits for somewhere between USD 17 and USD 23. The 16550 family of UARTs have internal buffering (FIFO) and will improve performance in multi-tasking and LAN environments. Both BNU and X00 has direct support for the 16550 family and can be used without modifying your command-line parameters when loading them. 25.2 DESQview FrontDoor will request a virtual screen buffer from DV and write to it. The result is very fast and very well behaved screen writes. Here are the settings I use with DESQview (2.2x / 2.3x): Keys to Use on Open Menu FD Memory Size (in K) 250 Options: Writes text directly to screen N Displays graphics information N Virtualize text/graphics (Y,N,T) N Uses serial ports (Y,N,1,2) 2 Requires floppy diskette N Advanced Options: System Memory (in K) 0 Maximum Program Memory Size (in K) <empty> Script Buffer Size 0 Maximum Expanded Memory Size (in K) 0 Text Pages 1 Graphics Pages 0 Initial Mode <empty> Interrupts 00 to FF 137 Maximum Height 25 Starting Height 25 Starting Row 1 Maximum Width 80 Starting Width 80 Starting Column 1 Close on exit (Y,N,blank) N Uses its own colors Y Allow Close Window command Y Runs in background (Y,N,blank) Y Uses math coprocessor N Keyboard conflict (0-4) 0 Share CPU when foreground Y Share EGA when foreground/zoomed Y Can be swapped out (Y,N,blank) N Protection level (0-3) 0 25.3 DoubleDOS Smart multi-tasking software allocates a virtual screen buffer for each task. Applications can then ask the multi-tasking software where it should write and the multi-tasker handles the screen updates. DoubleDOS 5.0, however, is using a different method. Every time you switch tasks from the keyboard, the screen-buffers change. So there is no easy way for the software running under DoubleDOS to detect this. In DoubleDOS 5.00, there are two options that allows you to run FrontDoor under DoubleDOS just fine. You MUST run FrontDoor in the TOP section for the two methods below to work. DISPLAY=TEXT If your system has a MCGA, CGA, EGA or VGA card installed, there is extra memory available on those cards for graphics, etc. DoubleDOS can use some of that memory for each of its screen buffers. To enable this, add DISPLAY=TEXT to your DDCONFIG.SYS file. REFRESH If you have a text-only adapter (MDA) there is most likely no extra memory available on the card. Add REFRESH by itself on a line to your DDCONFIG.SYS file. This will tell DoubleDOS to repaint the screen if the other task is bleeding through. 138 X00 and DoubleDOS When using FrontDoor, X00.SYS and DoubleDOS, do not assign the COM ports in DDCONFIG.SYS. If you have problems with your clock, try the DEFER option in X00. Make sure you replace ANSI.SYS with DBLDANSI.SYS. The BOTTOM partition should initialize before the TOP partition. In other words, if you are loading FrontDoor in the BOTTOM partition, try to delay the initialization of the TOP partition. 25.4 Multilink I would personally not recommend anyone using FrontDoor with Multilink. I have never successfully executed any program under Multilink for longer periods of time than momentarily. 139 26 Converting from other mail systems If you were using SEAdog or D'Bridge before you started using FrontDoor, you should have little trouble converting to FrontDoor. The routing and message handling used by these two mail systems is very similar to the way things are done with FrontDoor. If you are converting from BinkleyTerm, Opus, or Dutchie, however, there are a few things you should know and make sure you have done before you install FrontDoor. The main difference between FrontDoor and BinkleyTerm or Opus is that FrontDoor does not use oMMM, the static message packer written by Bob Hartman. We see the oMMM approach as a black hole from which there is no return. This is not true in some cases and there are advantages of using oMMM type packers instead of the method used by FrontDoor. oMMM will create what we call static bundles, where each system has a control file that tells the Mailer what files and messages to send to what systems. FrontDoor will NOT recognize oMMM type bundles (packets) so before you fully convert to FrontDoor, you must make sure that all the oMMM type mail is sent before you convert to FrontDoor. You can use FrontDoor to send the remaining oMMM type mail by attaching the files manually with FrontDoor's Editor (FM) or a robot utility such as XRobot, but you will need a utility with which you can determine which file belongs to which system before you can do this. So it might be easier for you to tell BinkleyTerm or Opus to send its remaining mail before you do the conversion. 140 27 Help systems The following systems and persons can be contacted if you have problems or questions regarding FrontDoor. You will most likely find the latest noncommercial version on these systems as well. Bruce Bodger 1:1/101 USA Mark Howard 1:260/1 USA Mats Wallin 2:201/329 Sweden (Europe, Main) Stig Jacobsen 2:231/16 Denmark Lars Eriksson 2:222/150 Finland Zbigniew Borowiec 2:480/6 Poland Sascha Vogt 2:310/5 Austria Ulrich Bartelt 2:24/4 Germany Mark Kerr 2:263/301 Ireland Michael Bravo 2:50/200 USSR Peter Janssens 2:512/1 Netherlands Orlando Castillo 2:346/4 Spain Patrick Oetiker 2:30/5 Switzerland Nick Parker 2:253/165 United Kingdom David Nugent 3:3/101 Australia Ricardo Sandor 4:4/104 Latin America Ralph Colyn 5:5/103 RSA Larry Leong 6:6/101 Asia The above people are NOT responsible for helping you with commercial queries and/or problem. 141 28 Sample (PCP) script This script was written by Eric Larson, 1:260/330@fidonet and is intended as a sample PC Pursuit script. ; PCP script for FrontDoor version 2.0x ; Eric Larson, 1:260/330.0, 8/11/91 ; modified from script supplied in FD 1.99 documentation ; ; You must modify this script in at least 3 places: ; ; 1: Indial Number ; 2: PCP ID Number ; 3: PCP Password ; ; You may also want to modify the script for your modem ; or types of systems you call. See notes in script. ; For further information, see PCP documentation on ; Net Exchange BBS. To connect to the Net Exchange, type ; "C PURSUIT" at the Telenet @ prompt. ; debug ON setport 2400 ; Redundant if you have locked your Fossil ; If you have a 1200 indial :-(, use 1200 ; here and change the hunt-confirm sequence ; to @ wait 1 <CR> ; ; Users with MNP modems should disable MNP as the buffering ; combined with PCP's packet latency will cause block position ; errors during error recovery. For HST owners, use: ; send AT&M0<CR> waitfor OK ; ; Others should adjust the above for their modem ; non-buffered modem owners should comment out the ; above two lines. ; ;---------------------------------- ; Your Indial Phone Number Here ;---------------------------------- ; send ATDT4795372<CR> ; send ATDT4795445<CR> ; official number ; 6406 5776 5355 5372 ; alternates ; ; If you are having difficulty with your indial line, call ; PCP customer service and they may be able to give you ; an alternate number that works better. 142 case CONNECT : >whackit RING<CR> : fail BUSY<CR> : fail "NO " : fail @default : fail endcase :whackit ; Attempt to "wake-up" PCP purgein ; Telenet recommends at least wait 2 ; a 200 ms pause between send @ ; characters in the hunt-confirm sequence wait 1 ; change the @ to <CR> if you call send D ; a 1200 bps indial wait 1 send <CR> waitfor TERMINAL= send D3<CR> ; Preferred terminal type waitfor @ ;-------------------------- ; Your ID and Password Here ;-------------------------- :outdial ; Dial PCP city purgein retrycount 5 send C @OUTBOUND,YOURPCPID<CR> ; Your ID Here waitfor PASSWORD send YOURPASSWORD<CR> ; Your Password Here CASE CONNECT : >local ; Gotcha! BUSY : >outdial "NOT " : fail @nocarrier : fail @default : fail ENDCASE :local ; Initialize Outdial purgein send <CR> wait 1 send I<CR> send ATZ| timerset 15 waitfor OK send @| waitfor @ 143 ; ; Setup PADS ; ; Note - if you are calling a SEAdog system, ; change the SET and RST 5:1 and 12:1 to 5:0 and 12:0 ; as SEAlink is not transparent to software flow control ; ; If you only call WaZoo systems, use 5:1 and 12:1 for ; fewer errors and greater reliability. ; send SET?<sp>1:0,7:8<CR> ; waitfor @ ; ; send RST?5:1,12:1<CR> ; ; waitfor @ send CONT<CR> send ATH0Z<CR> waitfor OK|IDLE send <ENQ><CR> ; Turn on RV Mode waitfor * purgein timerset 50 wait 2 send D@LOCALNUM<CR> purgein case ANS : >landing ONLINE : >landing BUSY : fail FAILED : fail "NO CARRIER" : fail "NO DIAL TONE" : fail "NO DTR" : fail VOICE : fail @default : fail @nocarrier : fail endcase :landing ; Landing on Pluto wait 7 ; wait for PCP messages to clear purgein session ;/* End Of File */ 144 29 Commercial inquiries To use FrontDoor in a commercial environment, a commercial licence must be obtained. The commercial version of FrontDoor includes numerous features not found in any other software package (including the noncommercial version of FrontDoor). Eligible users of the non- commercial version of FrontDoor may also benefit from the commercial features, and can enjoy a special "SysOp's Discount" at the time of writing this. The easiest way to receive up-to-date information of features, availability, pricing and a list of local distributors and resellers of the commercial version, is to file request FDINFO from one of the following main distribution sites: Online Communications, Inc. Telephone: +1 207 941 1110 22 State Street Modem: +1 207 990 3511 Bangor Maine 04401 Email: 1:132/300@fidonet USA 1:132/301@fidonet Advanced Engineering sarl Telephone: +352 358 725 8, am For Modem: +352 355 936 L-5351 Oetrange Email: 2:270/7@fidonet Luxembourg ae@fido.rmi.de The file FDINFO is also available from some FrontDoor Help Nodes around the world. Please, make sure that you have the latest available order forms before placing an order! The FDINFO package contains information about various FrontDoor- related utilities, such as TosScan, the conference mail package. 145 30 Developer notes A separate package with information regarding FrontDoor is distributed under the name FDDEV. It contains structures and technical information directed towards authors of FrontDoor utilities. If you are planning on writing a utility with explicit support for FrontDoor, make sure you grab a copy of the FDDEV package. 146 31 Technical specifications FrontDoor was written using Zortech C++ 2.18, TASM 2.0, and Turbo Pascal 6.0. It uses direct-to-screen writes, and properly supports virtual screen environments, such as the one provided by DESQview. FrontDoor features support for several FTSC (FidoNet Technical Standards Committee) standards and standard proposals, including: FTS-1 Basic FidoNet Technical Standard FTS-4 EchoMail Specification FTS-5 The Distribution Nodelist FTS-6 YooHoo NetMail Handshake FTS-7 SEAlink Protocol Extension FTS-8 BARK File Request Protocol Extension FSC-15 FOSSIL 5.0 Documentation and Specifications FSC-25 AVATAR Video Specifications FSC-37 AVATAR 0+ Video Specifications FSC-39 A type-2 packet extension proposal FSC-41 MSGID / REPLY: A proposal FSC-46 Proposed product identifier FSC-53 Specifications for the ^aFLAGS field FSC-56 EMSI/IEMSI protocol definition (EMSC-001) FrontDoor's FTSC product code is 0x0C (or 12 decimal). The proper nodelist file request flag for systems using FrontDoor is XA. FrontDoor's Editor (FM) allows you to share the Hudson Message Base together with other programs, such as RemoteAccess, following the RemoteAccess/FrontDoor HMB sharing specifications. 147 32 Credits Thanks to.. ..Anders Johansson, Andrew Khoo, Dave Hatch, Bill Bolton, Bill Dunn, Bjorn Bogfelt, Bob Rudolph, Boris Osadciw, Chris Homrighausen (hey bro!), Chris Van Tuin, Chris Baker, Clement Studer, David Kerley, Dieter Soltau, Eelco de Graaff, Fred Vlinkervleugel, 1B Systems Management Ltd, Ken McVay, Darryl Gregorash, Carina Carlsson, Lovisa Hagberg, Gareth McClean, Joop Mellaart, Horst Buhl, James Henthorn, James Smith, Online Communications Inc., Jan Crommenacker, Jan Jonsson, Jeff Wolach, Jerry Hindle, Jim Faucette, Gerard van der Land, Joakim Hernberg, John Huls, Jon Schneider, Ken Doebler, Kim Lykkegard, Malte Erikson, Mario Diaz, Mark Howard, Mats Knuts, Mats Wallin, Peter Adenauer, Werner Berghofer, Randy Harner, Rick Petersen, Rick Siegel, Robin Valle', Ruud de Bruin, Scott Samet, Thomas Stjernstrom, Thomas Sundblom, Todd Lehr, Maurie Halkier, Tony Wagner, Ulf Hedlund, Ulf Jungjohann, Andreas Polz, David Nugent, Tom McGivern, Andrew Farmer, Steve Froeschke, Orlando Castillo, Eric Larson, Paul Marwick, Tommy Svensson, Bob Beilstein, Bruce Bodger, Michael Butler, Paul Schlyter, Bill Kraski, Alexander Holy, Lars Eriksson, Fabiano Fabris, Bob Snowdon, Aaron Schmiedel, Mike Janke, Peter and Irene Janssens, Jeff Murphy, Gary Funk, Luca Leone, Andrew Milner, Jan Berglund, Sascha Vogt, The Crocodile Club in Karlsruhe, Michael Raschke, Bofferding Breweries, Mark Kerr, Robert Hessler, Mats Birch, Mats Jansson, John Barton, Dirk Astrath, Glen Johnson, Ulf Nilsson, Ed Meloan, Nick Parker, Jim Louvau, Luc and Nathalie, Bob Hoffman.. All the help nodes. ..Tom Jennings, Felix Kasza, Bob Hartman, Chris Irwin, Chuck Forsberg, Henk Wevers, Randy Bush, Ray Gwinn, Thom Henderson, Vince Perriello, Wynn Wagner III, Mike Ratledge, Rick Moore, G. Adam Stanislav, Doug Boone, Ralf Brown, jim nutt, Maximilian Hantsch. 148