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Text File | 1996-01-10 | 18.4 KB | 574 lines

The PPoint/FrontDoor Interface A Short Text File On Using PPoint With FrontDoor/InterMail By Lawrence Gordon (Fidonet 1:100/560) I. Introduction PPoint is an outstanding netmail and echomail program. It features a built-in mail tosser, seamless integration with your favorite text editor and spell checker, file requests, tagline support, UUCP e-mail support, multiple host support, and, perhaps most importantly, ease of use. The author of PPoint, Harvey Parisien, has taken great pains to make PPoint "user-friendly" - from its comprehensive menu and help systems to its built-in nodelist compiler to its automatic configuration of the BinkleyTerm frontend. PPoint has introduced hundreds of people to the joys of "pointing" and it has earned a reputation as being one of the best programs of its kind. Now, Harvey has made it even better... because PPoint now directly supports *.MSG file-attach frontends, such as FrontDoor, InterMail and D'Bridge. This enhancement to PPoint is an exciting development for those of us who love using PPoint and who don't want to sacrifice the power and enjoyment of our favorite frontends. II. Disclaimer This document is not a tutorial on setting up FrontDoor, InterMail or D'Bridge. Your use of PPoint with these frontends assumes that you already have or know how to set up these systems. What this document does is explain how to integrate these systems with PPoint and how to take advantage of PPoint's new *.MSG file-attach features. For this documentation, I have chosen FrontDoor v2.02/Noncommercial as the frontend for explaining PPoint's *.MSG features. My reason - it is free for noncommercial use and it is still widely used and available, even though newer versions have been released. III. Configuring FD 2.02 A. Unarchive FD into its own subdirectory, which we'll call C:\FD. B. Run FDSETUP.EXE. A message will appear SETUP.FD - Path or file not found. Press the Spacebar to create SETUP.FD. C. ->Global->Address 1. ->Address Enter your node number in Main: e.g. 1:100/560.1 2. ->Site info Enter your system's name: e.g. Toast Point a. ->Location Enter your system's location: e.g. St. Louis MO b. ->Phone# Enter your system's phone number or leave it as -Unpublished- If you enter a telephone number, use the complete number. In North America, for example, enter your phone number in the form 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX (1-Area Code-Exchange-Local). Most point systems should leave the phone number as -Unpublished-. c. ->Speed Arrow to the highest DTE speed supported by your modem. For 14400s, this can be set at 19200. d. ->Flags If you support continuous mail, V32bis and V42bis, type CM,V32B,V42B in this field. Consult your frontend's documentation for details. 3. ->Domains If you are pointing to a Fidonet system, e.g. type 1 under Zone and fidonet.org under Domain name. (This field is optional unless you are required to use 5d addressing). 4. ->AKA matching This is probably unnessary for point systems. Leave blank unless you have more than one AKA (e.g. you point off more than one Fidonet boss in different zones). D. ->Global->Filenames 1. ->System This is where FrontDoor's system files are located; e.g. C:\FD 2. ->Netmail This is where FrontDoor places and expects to find *.MSG netmail files; e.g. C:\FD\NETMAIL 3. ->Files This is where FrontDoor stores incoming files and incoming echomail packets; e.g. C:\FD\IN 4. ->Packets This is where FrontDoor expects to find outgoing mail packets. NOTA BENE: FD's packet directory MUST NOT be the same directory as PPoint's OUTBOUND directory - FD will trash or delete PPoint's outbound *.PKT files if they are placed in FD's Packets directory. DON'T DO IT! Keep PPoint's OUTBOUND directory separate from FD's Packets directory. 5. ->Log file This is the name of the log file you want FD to keep; e.g. C:\FD\FD.LOG 6. ->Banner Not used for nonBBS systems. Leave blank. 7. ->Nodelist The directory for your raw "St. Louis" nodelists. FD, as opposed to BinkleyTerm, requires the use of a raw nodelist; e.g. C:\FD\NODELIST 8. ->In-event A text message displayed when your system is in mail-only event. PPointers can leave this blank since this message is displayed only to human callers. 9. ->MSG Base Location of Hudson-type message base. PPointers should leave this blank, since PPoint does not use the Hudson message base. 10. ->Swapping Where FD swaps to disk. Set this to whereever your system can support disk swapping or leave it alone. 11. ->Semaphore Not available in FD 2.02. Ignore it. E. ->Global->General Read the FD docs for help with these settings. F. ->Global->Users Enter your name under Username; e.g. Lawrence Gordon Enter any password or leave blank Keep your access at Supervisor G. ->Mailer->Miscellaneous Recommended settings for PPoint users (my preferences): Mail from unlisted systems -> No Mail from unprotected systems -> No Mail from unlisted points -> No Kill empty received messages -> Yes Terminal only -> No Mail-only (no BBS) -> Yes Match remote zone -> Yes Present all AKAs to remote system -> Yes Trigger exit on receipt of any netmail -> Yes -upon receipt of ANY file -> Yes Busy retries -> 5 Resend retries -> 0 Retry delay -> 60 Delay before first call -> No Days to keep mail history -> 7 BBS software name -> [blank - remember you're not running a BBS!] Minimum undialable cost -> 1 H. ->Mailer->Log Settings for FD's log file. Please read the FD docs. I. ->Mailer->File requests Mode -> No requests (a point should probably not allow f'reqs anyway. Read the FD docs if you want to allow file requests. J. ->Mailer->FDServer Not necessary for use with PPoint. K. ->Mailer->External mail Not necessary for use with PPoint. L. ->Mailer->Display No reason to touch this if you are using PPoint. Read FD's docs. M. ->Mailer->Colors Your choice of custom colors, default mono and default color sets. Read FD's docs. N. ->Mailer->Hidden dial info Read FD's docs. O. ->Mailer->Function keys Here's how I use these with PPoint: F1 Title -> PPoint Action -> ?245 (creates an errorlevel 245 explained later) Pause -> No Check -> No F2 Title -> Mail scan Action -> ?240 (creates an errorlevel 240 explained later) Pause -> No Check -> No P. ->Mailer->Errorlevels Leave everything at 0 except Received mail; e.g. Received mail -> 250 (creates an errorlevel 250 explained later) Create BAT.file -> No (you are not going to be dropping to a bbs, so this should be set to No). Q. ->Mailer->Audio control ->Mailer->Swapping ->Mailer->Protection Read the FD docs. R. ->Editor->Miscellanous Read the docs. I recommend leaving everything as is. S. ->Editor->Keyboard macros ->Editor->Origin lines (not used with PPoint) ->Editor->Display ->Editor->Colors ->Editor->Xlat.In ->Editor->Xlat.Out ->Editor->Swapping I suggest leaving all these alone (except for Colors, which you can customize). Read the FD docs for details. T. ->Terminal->Miscellanous ->Terminal->Display ->Terminal->Keyboard macros ->Terminal->Xlat.In ->Terminal->Xlat.Out ->Terminal->EMSI Profile These settings are for use with FrontDoor's built-in terminal. Read the FD docs. U. ->Modem->Hardware ->Modem->Messages ->Modem->Command strings ->Modem->Answer control These are settings for your modem. Read FD's documentation and your own modem manual. Note: make sure that your FOSSIL driver (BNU, X00, etc.) is set to the same speed set in your ->Modem->Hardware setup. NOTA BENE: in ->Modem->Answer control, you can toggle whether you want FD to answer the phone. If you are running a 24 hour mail system, you'll want Manual Answer set to Yes. V. ->Printer Useless in FD 2.02/Noncommercial. W. ->Manager->Events Press spacebar to create the default event Press enter to edit the default event These settings are my recommendations for PPoint: ->Behavior Use the defaults in FD except for the following: Exit when mail is received -> Yes ->Folders Not used with PPoint ->Security Used to place your session-level password with your boss or host. Read FD's docs; e.g.: System -> 1:100/560 Password -> Secret FREQs Mail EMSI FTSC1 Zap YooHoo -> read FD's docs ->Requests ->Modem Read FD's docs. X. Recommendations Read the documentation for your frontend!!!! PPoint does not setup FrontDoor, InterMail or D'Bridge the way it sets up BinkleyTerm. The task of setting up these programs is left to the intrepid system or point operator. If you don't understand these programs, by all means do NOT attempt to run PPoint with them; use BinkleyTerm instead. IV. FD's Routing File (FD system directory) FrontDoor expects to find a file in its system directory called ROUTE.FD. This is a simple text file, and it is used in conjunction with FD's events. A simple ROUTE.FD that can be used with PPoint follows. Comments are set off by the semicolon. ;Simple ROUTE.FD ;Route all mail through your boss except local Fidomail ROUTE-TO 1:100/560 1:* EXCEPT 1:100/* ; ; Make sure we don't send mail to systems who don't indicate support ; for Continous Mail. Note that you will have to set up another event ; and create another SCHEDULE block for it, if you want to send out ; mail to these systems, or alternatively, remove the "HOLD !CM" ; below. ; ; For further information about mail routing, please refer to the ; FrontDoor documentation. ; Schedule @ * Hold * Except MyNet ;MyNet is the net number defined in your Address, e.g. 100 ; end of file "ROUTE.FD" V. FD's FDNODE.CTL file (FD's nodelist directory) To process a raw "St. Louis" nodelist, place the nodelist and FDNODE.CTL file in FD's nodelist directory and run FD's FDNC.EXE to compile. A simple FDNODE.CTL file might look like this: ;Simple FDNODE.CTL USE ZONE 1 ;My compiled nodelist uses only Zone 1 DIAL 1-314- ;Remove the leading 1-314- when dialing local St. Louis nodes END Read the FD docs for more complex commands, including multiple zones and multiple nodelists. FD expects to find a file called NODELIST.XXX (where XXX is the Julian day number of the nodelist) in FD's nodelist directory. VI. Setting up PPoint Set up PPoint as you normally would, but please note the following: A. PPoint's default directories - Set up PPoint's INBOUND directory the same as FD's Files directory; e.g. C:\FD\IN Set up PPoint's OUTBOUND directory so that it is NOT the same as FD's Packets directory; e.g. if FD uses C:\FD\PACKET for its Packets, PPoint should use its default C:\FD\OUT for outgoing *.PKTs. I cannot stress enough how important this is, because FD will hose your outgoing packets if they end up in FD's Packets directory!!! B. Editing your PPOINT.INI file In order to have PPoint create a *.MSG file-attach for use with FrontDoor, InterMail, or D'Bridge, you must add the FD-NET keyword to your PPOINT.INI file. The .INI file might have other commands associated with PPoint or other processors. A simple .INI file might look like this: QUOTE=On [DATE], [FROM] wrote to [TO]: SLEEP=120 FD-CMD=C:\FD\EMAIL.BAT FD-NET=C:\FD\NETMAIL\ FD-CRASH=NO FD-NET tells PPoint where to place the *.MSG file. The file-attached *.PKT will be created in PPoint's OUTBOUND directory. FD-CMD is optional, depending on whether you run FD (or InterMail, or D'Bridge) from PPoint or run PPoint from your frontend. This will be explained shortly. Other PPOINT.INI commands and keywords can be found in your PPoint documentation. C. MAILER.BAT This file is created by PPoint. It defaults to using BinkleyTerm. This file is no longer executed by PPoint when the FD-CMD is implemented, so it can be safely ignored. Instead of executing MAILER.BAT, PPoint will execute whatever you define with the FD-CMD keyword. Note: I have modified my MAILER.BAT so that it exits when called - REM MAILER.BAT @rem THIS BATCH FILE IS USED INTERNALLY BY PPOINT exit REM END OF MAILER.BAT VII. Running PPoint from FD If you plan to run PPoint from FD, set up a RUNFD.BAT file with appropriate errorlevels. Here's a simple one: REM RUNFD.BAT @echo off set fd=c:\fd bnu /l:0=19200,8N1 /F+ :main c: cd\fd fd /nounpack if errorlevel 250 goto mail_in if errorlevel 245 goto read_mail if errorlevel 240 goto mail_out if errorlevel 10 goto get_out :mail_in rem PPoint processes incoming mail at errorlevel 250 explained above ppoint /in goto main :read_mail rem PPoint accessed using the F1 key as explained above ppoint goto main :mail_out rem PPoint processes outgoing mail using F2 key as explained above ppoint /out goto main :get_out rem ALTQ is pressed in FD goto bye :bye bnu /u set fd= Notes: This is a FrontDoor "driven" batch file, meaning that PPoint is run from FD. When this setup is used, FD remains the primary program, allowing you to run it for continuous mail purposes. Because of this, you should set FD-CMD=VER or FD-CMD=VOL to render MAILER.BAT non-functional. VIII. Running FD from PPoint If you plan to run FD from PPoint, you must set an FD-CMD directive in your PPOINT.INI file that calls a batch file to run FD; e.g. FD-CMD=C:\FD\EMAIL.BAT. This file (EMAIL.BAT) will be executed when Host Transfers is selected from PPoint's Host menu. A simple EMAIL.BAT might look like this: rem start of EMAIL.BAT @echo off set fd=c:\fd bnu /l:0=19200,8N1 /F+ c: cd\fd fd /nounpack bnu /u set fd= rem end of EMAIL.BAT Notes: This is a PPoint "driven" batch file, meaning that FD is run from PPoint. When this setup is used, PPoint remains the primary program, allowing you to run it for noncontinuous mail purposes. Because of this, you must create a setting for FD-CMD in your PPOINT.INI file, such as FD-CMD=C:\FD\EMAIL.BAT, so that your frontend will be called from PPoint. When FD receives incoming mail, it will exit back to PPoint, which will process incoming mail, provided you set FD to exit upon receipt of netmail or other files using appropriate errorlevel and events. You should be aware that FD will not automatically terminate if no mail is received. Because of this, I have FD set to exit whenever any file is received. IX. Conclusion Setting up programs like FrontDoor, InterMail or D'Bridge may seem like daunting tasks for the inexperienced sysop or pointop, and, quite frankly, I have to recommend that these programs not be used by novices; instead, BinkleyTerm should be used because PPoint will automatically set up BinkleyTerm. However, when you're ready to use a frontend like FrontDoor, InterMail or D'Bridge, PPoint can step right in and get the job done for you. PPoint itself requires only a few setting changes in your PPOINT.INI to accomplish this, and, in my opinion, the enjoyment and control you get from this combination of software is well worth the effort! X. Support Questions regarding the PPoint/FD/InterMail interface can be directed to me at Fidonet 1:100/560 or in the Fidonet POINTS echo. XI. Acknowledgments FrontDoor, InterMail, D'Bridge, BinkleyTerm, BNU and X00 are copyrighted by their respective authors. PPoint is copyrighted by Harvey Parisien. Thanks, Harvey, for the best point software and support... anywhere! XII. The Author Lawrence Gordon Toast House BBS (Fidonet 1:100/560) St. Louis, MO USA 1-314-994-0312 Documentation Revision 1.0 (09/04/95)