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┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ████ ████ │ │ ██ ██ ██ ██ │ │ ██ ████ ██ ╔══╗ ╔═══╬═╦══ ╔══╗ ╔══ │ │ ██ ▀▀ ██ ╠══╣ ╚═╗ ║ ╠═ ╠═╦╝ ╚═╗ │ │ ██ ██ ╜ ╚═══╝ ╜ ╚═══╝ ╚════╝ │ │ ██ ████████ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ │ │ ██ ▀▀ │ │ ██ │ │ ████████ ╔══╗ ╔══╬═╗ ╔═╦══╗ ╔══╗ ╔══ │ │ ██ ║ ║ ╠═ ║ ║ ╔╗ ║ ╠══╣ ╠═╦╝ ╠═ │ │ ▄▄ ██ ╚══╩═╝ ╜ ╚═╝╚═╝ ╜ ╚═╝ ╚══╩══ │ │ ████████ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ T H E - M A I L ! An automated file transfer script for TELIX The-Mail! is released to the public domain and you are granted full licence to distribute this product, at no charge, to any interrested party, provided that the Masters Software logo and name remain attached to the product and it is distributed with all files in an un-modified condition. The-Mail! is a SALT language application written by Masters Software. The-Mail! is supplied "as-is" and Masters Software offers no Warantees regarding the function or suitability of this product. Masters Software and/or associates will not be held liable or responsible for any losses either real or anticipated which may result from the use or abuse of this product. The-Mail! is not now nor will it ever be in any way compatible with any communications programs used to communicate messages or files between Bulletin Board Systems, nor is it compatible with any other package which might perform a similar function to that performed by The-Mail!. The-Mail! Users Guide Table Of Contents Introduction..............................1 Files In The Package......................2 Other Software You Will Need..............2 Notes About Shareware.....................2 Some Points about Modems..................3 Installing The-Mail!......................4 Floppy Disk Users....................4 Hard Disk Users......................4 Make a The-Mail! Phone List..........5 Running TCONFIG...........................6 TCONFIG Menu entries.................6 The-Mail! Name..................6 Full Name.......................6 Street Address..................6 City/Province/Pc................6 Phone Number....................6 Incoming tmail..................7 Outgoing tmail..................7 Cyclic Dial Start...............7 Cyclic Dial Stop................7 Abort TELIX.....................7 Running The-Mail!.........................8 The-Mail! Menu Selections............8 Caller Mode During Call.........8 Host Mode During Call...........8 Dialing Directory...............8 Lock Out Timed Functions........8 Resume Timed Functions..........9 Force Cyclic Dialing............9 Set Start/Stop Times............9 Quit The-Mail!..................9 Jump to DOS.....................9 ESC Hang-up Modem...............9 The The-Mail! Sequence...................10 Files To Be Sent....................11 Received Files......................12 Making Contact......................12 Host Mode................................13 Existing Call Mode.......................13 Manual Dial Mode.........................13 Cyclic Dailing Mode......................14 The-Mail! and Bulletin Boards............16 Setting Up a The-Mail! Network...........17 Calling Masters Software.................18 The-Mail! Users Guide Introduction: The-Mail! was created to solve a communications problem. One of my friends (also a business associate) was moving quite a distance away, and we needed a means of sending confidential mail and files back and forth very cheaply. At first we thought of the popular networks that exist between BBS systems, which work wonderfully for most situations, but rejected them for various reasons. Investigating Shareware and Commercial software did not provide an adequate solution, since each package seemed to have some shortcoming in the situation we had. What we needed was a package that would come to life late at night when the rates were low, do a very rapid exchange of compressed archive files and then get off line just as quickly as possible. At first I wrote a TELIX script to handle just this one situation but it wasn't long before we realized that it could do more. The-Mail! grew from this to a fully time driven private networking system that uses its own phone list, incorporates an automatic log-on sequence that gives full security to your system and once contact is established it does an automated file send and receive during each contact (if files are available). Thanks to the power of TELIX SALT language it is still a script program! When you start The-Mail! it sits in "Host Mode" waiting for a call and will answer the phone for you and do the appropriate exchanges while waiting for its "Cyclic Dialing" time to begin. Once it is time to start cyclic dialing The-Mail! will call the other The-Mail! terminals listed in your phone list and do the file trades for you. All unattended and late at night - when the phone is cheapest. System security is assured by a log-on routine that trades a password and both parties full names and addresses at the beginning of each exchange. Only another The-Mail! terminal can complete the log-on sequence. Further to this The-Mail! only has access to two directories on your system - One for incoming mail and one for outgoing mail. Of course since this is a one-to-one contact there is no chance of someone "stealing" your files from a BBS or network! We now use The-Mail! with all our customers and have a regularly scheduled "Mail Hour". If you wish to test The-Mail! or send us a letter or two, see the section later in this document titled "Contacting Masters Software". Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.1 The-Mail! Users Guide Files In The Package If you are receiving The-Mail! by any means you should have the following files: TMAIL.SLC The The-Mail! script for TELIX. TCONFIG.SLC The The-Mail! setup script for TELIX. TMAIL.DOC This instruction manual file. README.1st General information text file. Other Software You Will Need The-Mail! is a TELIX script language (SALT) program. In order to use The-Mail! you will also need the following programs: TELIX (Version 3.11 or newer) TELIX is a Communications package produced by EXIS Inc. and it is distributed as Shareware. If you are unable to find it on your local Bulletin Boards you can contact: Exis inc., P.O. Box 130, West Hill Ontario, Canada M1E 4R4 Phone (416) 289-4641 Fax (416) 289-4645 Or you can get it from their support BBS at: (416) 439-8293 PKZIP/PKUNZIP (Version 1.02 or newer) PkZip is a file compression utility that will reduce your on-line time by at least 1/3 and in many cases saves more than half. I highly recommend PkZip for use with The-Mail!. The PkZip package is also distributed as Shareware under the file name of PKZ102.EXE and it is available from most Bulletin Boards, or you can contact: PKWare inc., 7545 N. Pt. Washington Rd., Glendale Wi. 53217-3442 Phone (414) 352-3670 Fax (414) 352-3815 Or you can download it from their support BBS at: (414) 352-3670 Notes About Shareware: Shareware is not free software. Most Shareware packages represent hundreds of hours of work by highly qualified programmers who rely on your registration fees to make all or part of their livings. Both the above packages are very high quality and I heartily recommend that you pay the small fees asked. Shareware relies on you to make it work! Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.2 The-Mail! Users Guide Some Points About Modems When The-Mail! starts up it expects a few things to be true about your copy of TELIX and your modem: It expects you to have a modem that is 100% compatible with the standard 'AT' command set. It assumes that the modem is configured and working correctly under the normal TELIX terminal and that the 'modem init.' and 'auto-answer' strings contain no errors. Your modem must be sending verbal result codes as opposed to numeric result codes. (The ATV1 state) If you are not sure that it is type AT and press Enter while in the TELIX terminal screen - If the modem responds with 'OK' then it should work with The- Mail!. If the response is '0' you will need to add the 'V1' command to your init. string in the ALT-O/Modem window. The modem must respond correctly to the ALT-H (hang-up) command from the TELIX terminal window. 2400 baud users may have to add '&C1&D1' or '&C1&D2' to their modem Init. strings to get this to work. In the ALT-O/Modem part of your setup window you must have "Drop DTR to hang up" active. The-Mail! issues the following commands to your modem and expects it to respond correctly: Your TELIX dialing strings are used by The-Mail! during Cyclic or Manual Dialing. When using Host Mode during an existing call, The-Mail! sends 'ATA' to your modem and expects it to come off hook and send a carrier signal. When in Caller Mode during an existing call, The-Mail! sends 'ATH1O' to initiate the originate mode in the modem and expects the modem to respond by coming off hook and waiting for a carrier. When The-Mail! loads and starts running it sends the 'Auto-Answer String' to the modem to set it to answer incoming calls. If you wish to silence the modem this string should include the 'M0' parameter. At the end of each session The-Mail! resets your modem using the Init. sting from the ALT-O/Modem part of the TELIX configuration window. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.3 The-Mail! Users Guide Installing The-Mail! The-Mail! is very easy to install and requires only that you make two directories and run a simple configuration program. The setup procedure is below and the Configuration program is described in the next section. Floppy Disk Users. Format a fresh disk and make the following directories on it: \MAILIN \MAILOUT Copy the files TMAIL.SLC and TCONFIG.SLC to your TELIX program disk. Hard Disk Users. From your TELIX directory make the two directories: C:\TELIX\MAILIN C:\TELIX\MAILOUT If you don't already have a scripts directory create one as: C:\TELIX\SCRIPTS Copy the files TMAIL.SLC and TCONFIG.SLC to your scripts directory. Under your ALT-O menu select "Files and Paths" and set the "Scripts Directory" to: C:\TELIX\SCRIPTS Actually you can name the directories anything you want to name them, but for the balance of this manual I will assume that you have used the names indicated above. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.4 The-Mail! Users Guide Installing The-Mail! (continued) Make a The-Mail! Phone List From the TELIX terminal screen type ALT-D. This will bring up your dialer window. Type O for Other functions which will change the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Type C for Create. This will bring up a window that will ask you for the name of the blank phone list. Type in TMAIL.FON and press Enter. This will create a new phone list for you to use with your The-Mail! contacts. NOTE: You must use TMAIL.FON for this to work. Once you have The-Mail! on screen you will be able to enter the new phone list and put all the required information into it. (This comes a little later in the manual.) Please note that you must make this phone list for The-Mail! to run and that you can only make an un-attended The-Mail! contact from names on this list and while actually running The-Mail!. It is not possible to call a The-Mail! terminal from outside The-Mail! and complete the required sequences! This completes the basic installation. Now it is time to run the configuration script, TCONFIG.SLC Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.5 The-Mail! Users Guide Running TCONFIG. TCONFIG is the The-Mail! configuration program and is the next step in setting up. To start TCONFIG : From the TELIX terminal screen type ALT-G. This will bring up the script execution window. Type TCONFIG and press Enter. This will start TCONFIG running and it will present you with its menu. Now that you have the The-Mail! Configuration menu on screen, this is the time to do all the setup needed to make it work. All you need to do is type the letter (A through J) at the beginning of each line and enter the information appropriate to the area. You will be prompted as to what is expected and the next section is a line-by-line description of each entry. TCONFIG Menu Entries A. The-Mail! Name This is the name of the file that the The-Mail! you contact will look for when sending you a file, or create when receiving a file from you. This can be 3 to 8 characters in length and must not contain any characters that DOS will not recognize as part of a filename. B. Full Name Enter your full name (or business name) here. This information is transmitted to the other The-Mail! at the beginning of each contact so be sure it is correct, if you are expecting a reply. C. Street Address This should contain your street number, street name and any apartment or unit numbers that are appropriate. This information is also sent during each contact. D. City/Prov/Pc (or City/State/Zip for U.S.A.) This completes your address and is sent to the other end on each contact. E. Phone Number Enter your phone number here, include the area code when appropriate. This can be either your voice phone number or your computer number for return The-Mail! contacts. Which you use would depend on the arrangements made in your own The-Mail! net. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.6 The-Mail! Users Guide F. Incoming The-Mail! This is the full path and directory name for files you receive via The-Mail!. If you are following our example installations you would put C:\TELIX\MAILIN\ here if you were on a hard disk. Floppy users would make an entry like B:\MAILIN\ (if the mail disk was in B:) G. Outgoing The-Mail! Enter the full path and directory name here, for files that you receive via The-Mail!. Hard disk users would enter C:\TELIX\MAILOUT\ or Floppy users could enter B:\MAILOUT\ H. Cyclic Dial Start This is a time in hours and minutes when you want The-Mail! to begin Cyclic Dialing out to other The-Mail! contacts on your list. Make the entry in Military time as HH:MM for example 8:15p.m. is 20:15 and 7:03am is 07:03. (don't forget the leading 0s) I. Cyclic Dial Stop This is the time to stop Cyclic dialing. Make the entry as described above. Please note that if this time is earlier than the Start time Cyclic dialing will begin at the Start Time and continue until the Stop Time... the next day. J. Abort TELIX Enter the time at which you want Telix to exit to DOS, using the same HH:MM style as above. Setting this to 00:00 will prevent the Exit to DOS altogether. Usually this would be 00:00 except in the case where The-Mail! is used with a BBS as explained in the section titled "The-Mail! and Bulletin Boards" later in this manual. If you are just beginning with The-Mail! you will have to go to each entry in turn and fill in the information. Once you have it all in the only time you should have to run TCONFIG again is to change your Identification or your default dialing hours. (If you want to change your dialing hours for one session only you can do this from the The- Mail! menu in the main program.) Note: To completely defeat the cyclic Dialing make the stop time the same as the start time. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.7 The-Mail! Users Guide Running The-Mail! The main The-Mail! script will not run properly until you have completed all entries in the TCONFIG menu. If you have not done this you should do it now if you want to work with the manual and the screen together. The startup procedure is this: From the TELIX terminal screen type ALT-G. This will bring up the script execution window. Type TMAIL and press Enter. You should get the message "Setting Up" followed by the The-Mail! Menu. You should now have The-Mail! running, and it will be in Host mode ready to take an incoming call. From here you can literally walk away from it and let it run unattended, but for learning purposes we will go through each function and mode in turn. The-Mail! Menu Selections (C)aller Mode During Call. This function and its compliment "Host Mode During Call" are used to pick up the line with the modem and connect to a The-Mail! system at the other end of a call which is already in progress. This is explained more fully under "Existing Call Mode" later in this manual. (H)ost Mode During Call This is the compliment of "Caller Mode During Call" and is explained more fully in the section titled "Existing Call Mode" later in this manual. (D)ialing directory This menu selection is used to bring up the TMAIL.FON dialing list to allow you to make manually selected The-Mail! calls or to edit the numbers and names in your list. It is not time driven and marking entries will not alter the Cyclic Dialing activity of The- Mail!. See "Manual Dial Mode" and "Cyclic Dial" later in this manual. (L)ock Out Timed Functions Use this function to completely disable Cyclic Dial during a The- Mail! session. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.8 The-Mail! Users Guide (R)esume Timed Functions After using the H, C or D selections from the menu, cyclic dialing will be locked out. Press R to release it back to normal activity. (F)orce Cyclic Dialing Using this selection will change the Cyclic Dialing start time to be right now. You would use this to begin a dialing session early or outside normal dial-out hours set in TCONFIG. (S)et Start/Stop Times This allows you to change the start and stop time for Cyclic dialing during the current session only (the TMAIL.CFG file is not changed). See "Cyclic Dialing Mode" for a full explanation. (Q)uit The-Mail! This menu selection will abort The-Mail! altogether and leave you at the TELIX terminal window. The modem initialization string is sent so that the The-Mail! parameters are re-set. (J)ump to DOS This function allows you to shell out to DOS while at the menu of The-Mail! To return to the script type EXIT at the DOS prompt and press Enter. (ESC) Hang-up Modem Pressing ESC will force a "Hang-up" command to be issued to the modem. This key is active in all modes, at all times. Each of these menu selections will be explained more fully as we get to the individual modes of The-Mail! a bit later in this manual. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.9 The-Mail! Users Guide The The-Mail! Sequence The-Mail! is designed to transfer .ZIP archive files automatically, between two running The-Mail! scripts, and can do it in an unattended fashion if you so desire. Transfers are accomplished by the following sequence, which takes place during each contact: Log-on. Your The-Mail! name and your full name, address and phone number as set up in TCONFIG are traded for the same information from the other The-Mail! terminal. Sending. One file can be sent during each The-Mail! contact. This is explained in the section "Files To Be Sent". Sending is always via XMODEM protocol. Receiving. The-Mail! will go into an XMODEM receive condition and wait for the other end to either send one file or to cancel this portion of the transfer. This is explained below in "Received Files". Logging. The-Mail! keeps a detailed log to let you know who your The-Mail! has talked to and what happened during the contacts. The log is in TMAIL.LOG in your TELIX directory. Disconnect. At the end of all the above both The-Mail! packages hang up and the contact is completed. This transfer sequence allows no intervention by the operators of the two communicating The-Mail! terminals and can even be accomplished late at night by a process of Cyclic Dialing as explained later in this manual. If you wish to do the call selection manually you can use the Manual Dial Mode to pick which The-Mail! calls you want to make immediately. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.10 The-Mail! Users Guide Files To Be Sent To send a file to another user, what you need to do is put the right files, archived with PKZIP, with the right names in the Outgoing The- Mail! directory. When a contact is made one of two files can be sent: An explicit file. If you wish to send a file explicitly to one caller it must be in your Outgoing The-Mail! directory with the The-Mail! name of the party you are sending it to as its first name, and the extension '.ZIP'. e.g. Our The-Mail! name is MASTERS. Thus a file for us would be named MASTERS.ZIP and would be placed in your Outbound The-Mail! directory. ALL.ZIP as an alternate. This file (if it exists) will be sent to any caller when The-Mail! cannot find a file that bears their The-Mail! name. The archive file ALL.ZIP must be created with PKZIP and placed in your Outgoing The-Mail! directory. Failing both of the above, a cancel sequence is sent. Text files sent as part of an archive should be in plain ASCII with line feeds included, to ensure that they will exchange properly between word-processing packages. (If a text file displays properly with the DOS 'TYPE' command it should be fine.) There are no restrictions on the contents of the archive files that are transferred by The-Mail! but since only one file is sent per call you must use PKZIP to create an archive file. This will also reduce sending time when only one file is sent since PKZIP really shrinks a file for you. Please note: Depending on your network agreements it is possible to use any file compression system, or none at all -but- the file extension must be '.ZIP' or The-Mail! will not send it. Please note: EXPLICIT FILES ARE ERASED AFTER SENDING, to prevent double sends! Do not place the only copy you have of any file in the Outgoing The-Mail! directory! Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.11 The-Mail! Users Guide Received Files When a file is sent to you from another The-Mail! terminal it is placed in your Incoming TMAIL directory under the other parties The- Mail! name with the extension .ZIP. This helps you keep track of who is sending you what. e.g. A file received from us would be in your Incoming The-Mail! directory under the name MASTERS.ZIP. Should two files of the same name come in the second file will have the extension .ZI0, the third will be .ZI1 and so on. The-Mail! will never over-write a file! Since the file you receive is an archive you will have to use PKUNZIP to extract the actual file(s) that are in the archive. PKUNZIP will recreate the original files under the same names they had on the sending The-Mail! system and the archive can be erased once the files are recovered from it. It is a good idea to avoid confusion by moving the files elsewhere on your system and to keep the Incoming The-Mail! directory as empty as possible. Please note: The archiving scheme may be changed by decisions made when setting up the network you are part of but the file extension of received files will be .ZIP regardless of your decisions. In the interests of universality, I strongly favour the PKZIP archiving package. Making Contact The normal mode of operation for The-Mail! is the Cyclic Dial mode which will run un-attended and call the first 50 numbers in your phone list in a cycle attempting to make as many contacts as possible. Please Note: Do not put any numbers you don't want to cyclic dial in the first 50 listings of your phone book. Use the manual number entry function of the Dialing Directory, or keep the numbers below #50 on your dialing list. If you wish to send the files immediately use the Manual Dial Mode to select the calls to make from the The-Mail! dialing window. We do most of our calling out this way and use the Manual number entry selection from the dialing menu for long distance calls. If you have a network schedule you need do nothing except start up The-Mail! and let it run un-attended in the Cyclic Dial mode until the end of your agreed time. You can even do the transfers "call in progress" if you like. See the section on "Existing Call Mode" for details. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.12 The-Mail! Users Guide Host Mode The The-Mail! Host Mode is active at any time that the The-Mail! is not otherwise occupied. The-Mail! will answer the phone when it rings and begin the log-on sequence. If the call is from another The-Mail! terminal the full sequence will begin and files will be transferred if available. At the end of the contact (successful or otherwise) The- Mail! falls back into the Host Mode and is ready for another call. If you get a call from a non-The-Mail! user they will get the on- screen message "This is not a BBS!", followed by a disconnect. Existing Call Mode When operating The-Mail! on a voice line that is shared by your computer you can get The-Mail! to connect to another The-Mail! terminal without breaking the connection of a call in progress. This is provided for situations where you don't want The-Mail! to answer every call, and also saves the "3 minute minimum" from being repeated by the phone company as it would be when the connection had to be broken and the call placed again to get the computers to connect. To get The-Mail! to connect during an existing call, one party has to select "Host Mode During Existing Call" and the other must select "Caller Mode During Existing Call". Once these selections have been made and the computer's tones can be heard on the line both parties can hang up their voice receivers and the computers will then take over and go through a The-Mail! sequence. The party selecting 'Caller Mode' will be asked for the Baud Rate so that a connect can be assured with any speed Host system. Enter the fastest speed that the Host terminal can accept if it is slower than your fastest speed. Pressing Enter or ESCape on a blank entry will default to your fastest speed. Please note that the modem connection is always broken at the end of a The-Mail! sequence, so it is best to do the transfers at the end of the voice part of the call. Some modems include a switch which automatically disconnects the handset for you, if you have such a modem you can continue the conversation, if needed. Manual Dial Mode When you select "Dialing Directory" from the main menu you are putting The-Mail! in the Manual Dial Mode. This condition allows you to pick and choose who you call and the calls are done immediately in a cycle just like dialing out in the TELIX terminal mode. Numbers that you do not wish to dial during cyclic dialing activity should not be in the first 50 listings in your phone book. Use the Manual number entry function of the dialing window for numbers you do not wish to 'cyclic dial'. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.13 The-Mail! Users Guide Please note that any names selected while in the Dialing window will not change the behavior of the Cyclic Dialing routine, which will call up to 50 contiguous names on your list. (The next section explains this a little better.) If you have a number of calls to make while in Manual Dial Mode select them with the cursor keys and the space bar (just like while in the Dialing window of the normal TELIX terminal). When you press enter The-Mail! will begin dialing out to the names you have selected. While the manual dialing cycle is trying the selected names on your list the Host Mode is not active and The-Mail! cannot answer the phone, so it is best to use the Cyclic Dialing whenever possible. Cyclic Dialing Mode This is the time driven function of The-Mail!. When the DOS time of day clock reaches the Cyclic Dialing Start Time, or if you start The- Mail! within the range of time between the Start and Stop times, The- Mail! will begin dialing out to the first 50 names on your The-Mail! list and trying to complete as many file transfers as possible. Dialing begins with entry number 1 on your list and continues down the list until it reaches the end of the list, or entry number 50 whichever comes first. The-Mail! keeps track of who has been reached and who hasn't. It will not call the same number from the list twice during the same day or session if a carrier was detected (whether the contact is successful or not). Thus as each The-Mail! terminal in the sequence is contacted it is flagged out of the cycle to prevent unnecessary repeat calls. Busy or No Answer numbers will be re-dialed in a loop until a carrier is detected. Please note that the Cyclic Dialing cannot keep track of who has called in and it is possible that it may call out to someone who has already called you. This will be a very brief contact since there will be no files to transfer (less than 30 seconds). Since only the first 50 callers on your list are called during Cyclic Dialing you are advised to keep any names you do not wish to call as part of this cycle above #50, or to use the Manual entry selection of the dialing menu if you have less than 50 names on your list. (Don't insert a bunch of blank lines as this will result in unnecessary delays in the cyclic activity.) Cyclic Dialing calls are launched according to the Dial Pause time you set in the Modem and Dialing screen of TELIX or on 30 second intervals whichever is greater, and between calls The-Mail! falls into the Host Mode so that another The-Mail! terminal can call in. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.14 The-Mail! Users Guide This dialing routine will continue until the Cyclic Dialing Stop Time you have set using TCONFIG. At this time it will sit in Host Mode waiting for calls, or the Exit Telix time. (See the section on "The- Mail! and Bulletin Boards" for more details). It is also possible to force the Cyclic Dial to begin immediately by pressing F to select Force Cyclic Dialing Now. This temporarily changes the Dial Start Time and Dialing will begin immediately. Should you not want the system to Cyclic Dial at all during this session you can lock it out using the "Lock Out Dialing" function from the menu. "Resume Normal Dialing" will re-enable the Cyclic Dialing mode with the times set in TCONFIG. Please Note that the "Host Mode during call", "Caller mode during call" and "Manual" modes will lock out the Cyclic Dialing feature which must be re-enabled with the "Resume Timed Functions" function. Failing to re-enable cyclic dial will result in no cyclic calls being made. If you would like to change the Start and Stop times for a given session select "Set Dialing Start/Stop Times" from the menu and you will be asked to enter the new times. Use the same HH:MM military time format that you used in TCONFIG where 8:30p.m. is 20:30 and 7:05 am is 07:05. Please note that if the Stop Time is earlier than the Start Time, Cyclic Dialing will begin when appropriate and continue to the Stop Time... the next day. This allows you to enter time settings that span midnight and still have proper dialing occur. If you do not want the system to ever Cyclic Dial, set the Start and Stop times to both be 00:00 in TCONFIG. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.15 The-Mail! Users Guide The-Mail! and Bulletin Boards In cases where the The-Mail! user also has a bulletin board program it is possible to use The-Mail! as an Event from the BBS system. This provides full-automatic operation. The procedure is this... Set a BBS event to SHELL to TELIX using the command line as C:\TELIX\TELIX sTMAIL <-- Note the 's' Set the Cyclic Dial Start time to coincide with the time set for the BBS event. Set the Cyclic Dial Stop time to the time when you wish The-Mail! to stop trying to call out. Set the Exit Telix time for the time when you want the The-Mail! event to end. (for 00:00 use 23:59 since 00:00 is used to prevent the exit from happening) Place the command SET TELIX=C:\TELIX in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (Substitute your TELIX directory name for C:\TELIX if necessary.) Reset your computer to ensure that the SET command is read into your DOS environment. With this arrangement TELIX will be started by your BBS at the desired time and will in turn start The-Mail!. At the end of the Cyclic Dial time The-Mail! will sit in Host mode taking calls and will exit completely back to DOS at the time set for Exit Telix in TCONFIG and the BBS will take over again. Please note that you cannot have the Exit TELIX time set to 00:00 in TCONFIG or you will be left at the The-Mail! menu screen, until you manually exit TELIX. This of course will have your BBS off line until you do. Also note that The-Mail! will not exit during a file transfer, and the Exit Telix time will be delayed if a sequence goes past the time you set up... but it will exit. If it is more desirable to SPAWN from your BBS the following batch file can be used and an event in the BBS set to call it: C: CD \TELIX TELIX stmail BBS.BAT <---- substitute the name of your BBS batch file here to ensure a full BBS restart. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.16 The-Mail! Users Guide Setting Up a The-Mail! Network Please note: TMAIL is not now nor will it ever be in any way compatible with any other communications network or program. So please don't try calling your local BBS and getting Echo or Net mail with this package! The-Mail! can be used almost anyplace that public access is not needed, and files can contain almost anything you need to transfer. Letters and memos can be sent as easily as a data file or a program file (try that with a FAX!). For those who wish to set up The-Mail! networks it is necessary that each "point" in the network must have a working copy of The-Mail!. And there are some agreements that must be reached amongst users of the Net: First it is necessary to decide a schedule so that each user of the net knows when all other users will be on-line for The-Mail! calls. This is best established by group consensus. Second it is necessary that each user know the phone number of the others in the net. This is needed information if you are going to call each other with mail and file transfers. Third and most important it is necessary to know the The-Mail! name of each user you intend to call. The-Mail! will look for files with the other party's The-Mail! name and the extension .ZIP in your MAILOUT directory when a contact is made, you need the name to know what to name the file. (e.g. a file for us will be named MASTERS.ZIP) For businesses that would like to use The-Mail! with their customers and employees as we do it will be necessary to publish your The-Mail! Name and the phone number, as well as the maximum Baud Rate to call at to each of those who are to have access to your network. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.17 The-Mail! Users Guide Calling Masters Software If you would like to call and try out The-Mail! with us we would be pleased to hear from you. Perhaps you would like to drop us a little note and let us know what you think of The-Mail!. Transfers to us must be archived with PKZIP and any text files in the archive should be in plain ASCII with line feeds included. Our The-Mail! name is MASTERS and the phone number is 416-688-1509. ---> Please call at 1200 baud. <--- Our The-Mail! will be on-line week-nights from 22:00 to 23:30 our time and we Cyclic Dial to send local messages between 22:00 and 22:30. Since our line is used for voice outside these hours please call using The-Mail! only during this time span. Contacts at special times can be arranged for business or testing related transfers by calling us on voice during office hours. If your message needs a reply you can pick it up from us, just give us a day or two to answer your messages then call us back. We hope you enjoy The-Mail! and find it very useful. Copyright Masters Software 1990. pg.18 @