Ham Radio 2000 #1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Ham Radio 2000 #1 / Ham Radio 2000.iso / ham2000 / packet / terminal / paket61 / man08.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-08-15 | 55.0 KB | 1,345 lines

PART VIII - PERSONAL MESSAGE SYSTEM (PMS) Overview paKet's PMS system offers message handling facilities for you and your REMOTE users. The operation of this PMS is similar to most other PMS systems with facilities for users to list available messages, leave a message, read a message, and delete a message. paKet supports the standard MBL/RLI Mail Forwarding protocol so messages can be automatically sent to and received from other systems, including all known packet BBS systems. There are several convenient options for you to set up your own Mail Forwarding timetables so you do not even have to connect to the BBS - paKet can do that for you at regular intervals during the day or night. Messages in the system are allocated a message-number when they are entered. This message-number is retained for the life of the message. paKet's REMOTE Menu provides access to the PMS for other users. You, the paKet operator, have full control of the PMS via the Sysop PMS Menu which may be called up with the <Alt-M> key. The Sysop PMS Menu You have access to the PMS system via the Sysop PMS Menu. This menu appears in the Communications Window when you press <Alt-M>: Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> The <ScrollLock> will automatically be applied to hold any input from the TNC while you are using this menu. Please do not "release" it yourself - it will confuse the PMS processing if you do! The options in the Sysop PMS Menu are as follows: B (Bye) - End Sysop PMS Processing C (Copy) - Copy a message to a file (eg C 3) E (Edit) - Edit a message header (eg E 3) H (Help) - Display these details K (Kill) - Kill a message (eg K 3) KM (Kill Mine) - Kill all messages addressed to me L (List) - List available messages LM (List Mine) - list all unread messages addressed to me R (Read) - Read a message (eg R 3) RM (Read Mine) - Read all unread messages addressed to me S (Send) - Send a message (eg S VK2XYZ) ? (Help) - Display these details All operations on the PMS are performed in the Communications Window so they will be logged if the Log File is active at the time. Page 285 The 'H' command and the '?' command do the same thing which is to display the brief summary of the Sysop PMS Menu commands shown above. When you have finished with the PMS system, enter the B(ye) command or press <Esc>. <ScrollLock> will be automatically released and you will see the message: Returning to normal communications... All these commands are discussed in detail in the section, "Accessing the PMS" which follows shortly. PMS commands in the REMOTE Menu It is via the REMOTE Menu that other users have access to our PMS. The REMOTE menu is discussed more fully in its own section of this Manual; here in this section we are interested only in those REMOTE commands relating to the PMS. The REMOTE Menu commands relating to the PMS system are K, L, R and S. The "Mine" variants (KM, LM, RM) may also be used by REMOTE users. A REMOTE user may List all messages in our PMS and may Send a message to any other station. However they may not Read nor Kill any "third party" messages, that is Personal messages that were neither sent by nor addressed to that station. If third party messages are not permitted in your Country, paKet will not allow a REMOTE user to Send a message to a third party either. When another station first connects to our system, and you have the Automatic REMOTE Menu option active, paKet will check the PMS and if there is any unread mail addressed to that station the following information will be transmitted: You have mail waiting in my PMS Msg# Size To From Date Time Subject ---- -- ----- ------------- -------- ------ ----- --------- 186 PN 14 VK2DHU VK2XYZ MAR-11 13:50 Howdy In this example, I have connected to another station and it found there is an unread message addressed to me (VK2DHU) so it gives me these details before it sends its REMOTE Menu for the first time. The REMOTE commands to access the PMS are similar to some of the commands you have in the Sysop PMS Menu. These are discussed in the following section, "Accessing the PMS". Page 286 Accessing the PMS - B, C and E commands I will cover all the PMS commands in alphabetical sequence. Some of these commands are available only to you the paKet operator via the Sysop PMS Menu, but some are also available to a REMOTE user. As we cover each command I will explain which is which. B (Bye) - End Sysop PMS Processing Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ This PMS command is available only in the Sysop PMS Menu. There is a similar Bye command in the REMOTE Menu but that has a different purpose: that is used by REMOTE users to disconnect from our system. Type "B" when you have finished with the PMS for now and want to go back to normal communications. The <ScrollLock> is released and any data that was being held in paKet's input buffers will now flow into the Communications Window. If you press the <Esc> key while the PMS Menu is waiting for a command, it has the same effect as typing the Bye command. C (Copy) - Copy a message to a file (eg C 3) Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ This PMS command is available only in the Sysop PMS Menu. paKet keeps all your PMS messages in one file. The Copy command provides an easy way to extract one (or more) message from the PMS, creating a separate disk file with the contents of just that message. The name of the disk file that is created is composed of the callsign of the other station; and the extension is the message number. So, if I had in my PMS a message addressed to XY4BBS and that was message number 200, a "C 200" command would create a file in my PMS Directory with a name of XY4BBS.200. If you enter more than one message number on that command line, all those messages would be combined into the one file. The file name is created from the first of those messages. For example, if I typed: C 205 257 450 (and say message 205 was sent to me by VK2BZC) the contents of all three messages would be written to a file with the name VK2BZC.205. The new file will contain a reconstructed command line and subject. You may type the Copy command as CM (Copy Message data only) which will copy the message(s) to disk without including the two lines of header and subject information. Eg: CM 205 Page 287 E (Edit) - Edit a message header (eg E 3) Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ This PMS command is available only in the Sysop PMS Menu. In the PMS, every message has a Header. The Header is that part you see when you call up a List of messages. It includes the message number, callsigns, title, etc. You can edit those details with this command. Just type the E command followed by the message number of the one you want to change. paKet will bring up the following window where you can move to any line and change its contents. ┌─────────────────────Message Number 115───────────────────┐ │From VK2DHU │ │To G1XGP │ │At BBS @GB7DUG.#32.GBR.EU │ │Type P │ │Status F │ │Date MAR-12 │ │Time 7:31 │ │Bid $115_VK2DHU │ │Subject Performance. │ └───────────────────Press <Esc> when finished──────────────┘ This is probably a good time to discuss these Header fields and explain what they mean. Msg# - The Message Number is part of the Header but you can't change that! It is shown in the top line of this window. From - This is the callsign of the station who lodged the message in the PMS. If you sent this one, this will be your callsign. This example is showing my callsign (VK2DHU) because I entered this message into the PMS. To - This is the callsign of the station the message is addressed to. Note this is the callsign only. If the network address is required, see the following field for that information. In this example I am sending a message to G1XGP. Page 288 At BBS - This field contains optional addressing information for messages that are to be Forwarded to the BBS (and beyond). If this field is blank, the message is considered to be local and will not be Forwarded, remaining here in this PMS until it is deleted. But in this example there is an address recorded. When I entered that message I typed: SP G1XGP @ GB7DUG.#32.GBR.EU The address conforms to the Hierarchical Addressing method which is now widely used by BBS systems worldwide. Here I am sending a message to Steve, G1XGP whose home BBS is GB7DUG. The #32 is a local identifier used in Great Britain to subdivide the Country into zones to help them manage the large number of BBS systems there. The GBR and EU, as you might guess, are the codes for Great Britain and Europe. If you are not familiar with this system of addressing, ask your local BBS Sysop for more information. If you have a message already in your PMS, with a blank "To BBS" field, you can add that information by moving the cursor to this line in the Edit Window and typing your new information here. paKet will then send this message to your local BBS for onward Forwarding during our next Forwarding session (you might also need to change the Status to N). Type A message can be either: P - Personal message addressed to a particular station. Personal messages are entered into the PMS with an "SP" command. If you enter "S" without a Type, paKet assumes "SP". B - Bulletin, which is a message intended for a wider audience and usually addressed to some topic, such as PAKET, AMSAT, etc Bulletins are entered into the PMS with an "SB" command. Status The status can be: N - the message has not yet been read nor Forwarded. Y - the message has been read by its addressee. F - the message has now been Forwarded to our BBS. Page 289 H - the message is Held. paKet changes the status to Held if the BBS has rejected our attempt to Forward this one. The most common reason is Duplicate Bid, meaning the BBS already has a message with this BID number. (You could edit the Status to N, change the BID to something else and try again?) K - the message is Killed. The message has been marked for deletion but remains in the PMS until paKet does its housekeeping, usually after leaving the Sysop PMS Menu. You can see it is possible to undelete a message provided you do not exit the PMS before editing that message header. While the message is still there with a K status, you can edit that Header changing the status to any of the other values. Then the message will not be removed during housekeeping. Date Time This is the date and time the message was entered into our PMS system. Bid A "Bid" is a unique identifier for this message. This field is used (mostly by BBS systems) to determine whether this message has already been Forwarded. paKet uses the same Bid format used by many BBS programs - it builds the Bid from the current message number and your callsign. Actually, it doesn't matter what is in this field, so long as it is unique. If you happen to reset your PMS message numbers (maybe you have deleted your PMS files and started again from message number 1) there is a risk the BBS will reject some of your messages that are being Forwarded. It is possible we have sent a message with this same Bid number some time ago and the BBS thinks this new one must be a duplicate. It can do this even if the message is addressed to a different callsign! You could use this Edit facility to change the BID to something else - then the BBS will accept it next time we try to Forward this message. Hint: If you are getting a lot of Rejects because of duplicate Bids, (i.e you are reusing the old message numbers) you could get paKet to use different numbers for all new messages. There is a line in the PAKET.CFG file which Page 290 records the last message number. This field is "PMSMSG" and if you edit that line in the CFG file so it reads: PMSMSG=1000 then your message numbers will start from 1000 and that should avoid the duplicate Bid problem with the BBS. Or you could add a new line to the CFG file (after the first line): PMSSUFFIX=A Then paKet will create Bid numbers with that suffix resulting in a different Bid!. Subject The contents of this field is displayed when messages are Listed. The subject field is usually limited to 30 characters because most BBS systems will display only that number when sending its List of messages. paKet can handle up to 80 characters in this field. When sending a new message, especially if it is a Bulletin, try to provide a brief but descriptive summary of your message in this Subject field. People often decide to read or ignore a Bulletin solely on the basis of this Subject field. If you want them to read your Bulletin, make it sound interesting! When editing any of these fields, the usual rules apply for editing in paKet. Press <Enter>, <Up-Arrow> or <Down-Arrow> when finished with a line. If you make a mistake, you can press <Esc> to ignore the changes you have made to that line. When there are no more changes press <Esc> to return to the Sysop PMS Menu. Page 291 Accessing the PMS - H, K and L commands H (Help) - Display details of the Sysop PMS Menu Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ This PMS command is available only in the Sysop PMS Menu. Typing a "?" is the same as typing "H". In either case paket displays the following information in the Communications Window to jog your memory: B (Bye) - End Sysop PMS Processing C (Copy) - Copy a message to a file (eg C 3) E (Edit) - Edit a message header (eg E 3) H (Help) - Display these details K (Kill) - Kill a message (eg K 3) KM (Kill Mine) - Kill all messages addressed to me L (List) - List available messages LM (List Mine) - list all unread messages addressed to me R (Read) - Read a message (eg R 3) RM (Read Mine) - Read all unread messages addressed to me S (Send) - Send a message (eg S VK2XYZ) ? (Help) - Display these details K (Kill) - Kill a message (eg K 3) Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and in the REMOTE Menu. (I wish other systems had used the term "Delete" or "Remove" rather than "Kill", but that is the accepted term for removing a message so I use "Kill" for the sake of conformity). A remote operator may Kill only a message sent BY that station or addressed TO that station, but if you are accessing the PMS through the Sysop PMS Menu, you have full authority to delete any message. The messages are identified by number so the command must include the message number that is to be killed, eg: K 5. If possible, paKet will delete that message from the PMS Database and will respond with a message such as: Message 5 Killed It is permissable to enter more than one message number on the line. So you can for example, enter: K 1065 1108 to kill those two messages. Page 292 As mentioned earlier under the Edit command, a Killed message is not removed from the PMS immediately. It is flagged with a Status of "K" and left there until paKet does its housekeeping. So if you are using the Sysop PMS Menu, you could edit that message Header and change its Status to something else, effectively undeleting that message. KM (Kill Mine) - Kill all messages addressed to me Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and to a REMOTE user, although it is not shown separately in the REMOTE Menu (it is full enough already!). "KM" is almost the same as the "K" command but this one will Kill all messages addressed to the user if the message Status is Y or F. So, if you are using the Sysop PMS, KM will Kill all messages addressed to you provided you have read them. And REMOTE users who type "KM" will Kill all messages addressed to them, provided they have read those messages. L (List) - List available messages Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and in the REMOTE Menu. Upon receipt of a simple "L" command, paKet will produce a listing of every message in our PMS, showing one message per line. If we enter the "L" command from the Sysop PMS Menu, the listing appears in our current Communications Window. That means it will also be written to the log file if it happened to be active at the time. If the REMOTE user types the "L" command the listing is sent to the TNC for transmission back to that station. All messages in the PMS are listed here, whether the REMOTE user has access to the message or not. The PMS Listing will look something like this: Page 293 Msg# Size To From Date Time Subject ---- -- ----- ------------- -------- ------ ----- --------- 1057 PK 1447 VK3DJM@VK3KSD VK2DHU JAN-31 19:42 paKet and Windows 1065 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4WAC FEB-20 8:49 Gidday 1077 BF 1011 PAKET@WW VK2DHU FEB-17 21:50 Binary Transfer problems. 1085 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4CMC FEB-20 5:43 paKet 5.1 1105 PF 2820 VK4CMC@VK4DIT VK2DHU FEB-28 22:29 paKet program 1107 PY 1552 VK2DHU AI8I MAR-01 5:44 NEW VERSION?? 1108 PN 2176 VK2DHU ZS0STB MAR-01 5:45 PAKET 5.1 1110 PF 1179 AI8I@KQ4OK.VA VK2DHU MAR-01 6:36 New version. The contents of the Message Headers are shown here, each line representing one message in our PMS. These fields were covered in detail earlier when we discussed the Edit command. The one thing we didn't mention earlier is the Size of each message, because you can't change that with the Edit command. Screen space is limited so the normal thing is to abbreviate any long addresses in this Listing. In this example the messages with a To BBS address (1057 1077 1105 and 1110) are shortened if necessary to enable them to fit into the space available. Of course the full address is still there. That will be obvious if you call up that message with the Edit or Read commands. If the Subject is too long to fit on the line, paKet will allow that data to run over to the next line, as shown in message 1077. You (or the REMOTE user) can select a partial listing with the LM command which is discussed below. You can also specify a From or To callsign in order to get a listing of those messages sent by or addressed to the specified callsign. For example, I could enter: L> VK2DHU and, using the same PMS shown above, paKet would respond with: Msg# Size To From Date Time Subject ---- -- ----- ------------- -------- ------ ----- --------- 1065 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4WAC FEB-20 8:49 Gidday 1085 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4CMC FEB-20 5:43 paKet 5.1 1107 PY 1552 VK2DHU AI8I MAR-01 5:44 NEW VERSION?? 1108 PN 2176 VK2DHU ZS0STB MAR-01 5:45 PAKET 5.1 Or, if you are interested in a wider search pattern you can use a partial callsign. For example, if I enter: L< VK4 paket would respond with: Msg# Size To From Date Time Subject ---- -- ----- ------------- -------- ------ ----- --------- 1065 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4WAC FEB-20 8:49 Gidday 1085 PY 862 VK2DHU VK4CMC FEB-20 5:43 paKet 5.1 which includes all messages from VK4. Page 294 If the PMS DataBase is empty, paKet will display: No messages LM (List Mine) - list all unread messages addressed to me Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and to a REMOTE user, although it is not shown separately in the REMOTE Menu. This command is very similar to the "L" command we just covered but here the user is asking for a selective listing, displaying only messages addressed to that user that have not yet been read. Page 295 Accessing the PMS - R and S commands R (Read) - Read a message (eg R 3) Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and in the REMOTE Menu. The messages are identified by number so the command must include the message number that is to be read, eg: R 5. paKet will access the PMS DataBase and locate the specified message. If the command came from a REMOTE user, the contents of the message will be sent to the other station. If the command came from the Sysop PMS Menu, the contents of the message are displayed in the Communications Window and also written to the log file if it is active. When the message has been read, paKet will change its Status to "Y". It is permissable to enter more than one message number on the line. So you can for example, enter: R 1065 1108 to read those two messages. If the message number specified does not exist in the PMS DataBase, paKet will respond with: I can't find that message! A REMOTE operator may Read any Bulletin but is allowed access to Personal messages only if sent by or addressed to that station. If an attempt is made to read another Personal message, paKet will send: You are not allowed access to that message RM (Read Mine) - Read all unread messages addressed to me Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and to a REMOTE user, although it is not shown separately in the REMOTE Menu. Instead of Reading just one message at a time, you may type "RM" to ask paKet to display the contents of ALL your unread messages. A REMOTE user can do the same thing, asking for all unread messages addressed to that station. Page 296 S (Send) - Send a message (eg S VK2XYZ) Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ [paKet] (A,B,D,H(elp),I,K,L,MD,MU,MW,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,YD,YU,YW,?) > ^ This PMS command is available in both the Sysop PMS Menu and in the REMOTE Menu. This is the command used to enter a new message into our PMS. It should be noted that the message is not actually "sent" anywhere at this stage. It is recorded in our PMS DataBase. If this message is given a "To BBS" address, paKet will Forward the message to our local BBS during the next Forwarding session, but if there is no To BBS address, this message will stay here in our PMS until it is Killed. The Send command may be entered as "SP" or "S" (which is the same thing) if entering a Personal message, or "SB" to enter a Bulletin. paKet needs to know who the message is being "sent" to. If you are entering a message at the Sysop PMS Menu, you must enter a callsign (or Bulletin topic) along with the Send command. For a REMOTE user the callsign is optional; if no callsign is entered, paKet will assume the message is for you. A common practice is to address a Bulletin with a topic of "ALL". This is to be discouraged as far as possible because many Sysops and many packet users like to sort their mail into well defined categories. A Bulletin addressed to ALL is a bit vague and is likely to be ignored by busy people. If you are going to the trouble to write a Bulletin you want people to read it, so try to make a "topic" that might give readers an idea what this one is about. There are often dozens even hundreds of new messages to read when accessing the BBS and few people have time to read them all. So if your message does not have some title or description to grab the readers' attention, all your effort might be in vain because few people might read it. When we ask for the BBS or paKet for a List of messages, it will display details of each message on one line, which includes the callsign or Topic, and up to 30 characters for the "Subject" (paKet can display more but most systems limit the subject display to 30). So if you feel your Bulletin is of such wide appeal that "ALL" is appropriate, be sure to include a meaningful Subject with your message, to try to attract the readers' attention. Examples of a Send command: SP VK2BZC Personal message addressed to VK2BZC, may be read by that station when he connects to this PMS. Page 297 SB PAKET Bulletin for this PMS only. Anyone accessing our PMS can read this message. SP G1XGP @ GB7DUG.#32.GBR.EU Personal message to G1XGP, but this one has a "To BBS" specified, so it will be Forwarded to our local BBS later for onward Forwarding. SB PAKET @ WW Bulletin with a "To BBS" destination specified. This too will be Forwarded to the BBS. S A simple S (or SP) command is permissable for a REMOTE user. In this case the message will be addressed to you and stored here in your PMS. When the PMS is ready to take the message it will prompt for the message header. Eg: Subject for msg 5 from VK2DHU to G1XGP? The "Subject" is the text that is shown in the PMS Listing so try to make it interesting and meaningful. That could be the only part of your message some users will see! Then, finally, the following prompt is issued: OK, send your message...(Ctrl-Z to end) Any text that is entered after this will be recorded in the PMS for this message. A <Ctrl-Z>, or "/EX" on a separate line, will terminate the message. paKet then saves the message details in the PMS DataBase and issues the following confirmation that all is well: Message 5 stored ? (Help) - Display details of the Sysop PMS Menu Sysop PMS menu: <B,C,E,H,K,KM,L,LM,R,RM,S,?> ^ This PMS command is available only in the Sysop PMS Menu and is the same as the Help command discussed earlier. Page 298 Mail Forwarding What is Mail Forwarding? This is a system of exchanging messages via packet radio with any other packet radio station anywhere in the world. The system of Mail Forwarding was originally created by Hank Oredson (W0RLI) where two compatible BBS systems could communicate with each other using this special handshaking protocol. Then we could leave a message on one BBS and it could automatically send our message to the other one without any manual intervention. As the idea spread, we found a large number of these BBS systems were talking to each other, sending messages back and forth. When the destination address of a particular message was the "next-door" BBS that message was Forwarded easily. But sometimes a message was addressed to some far distant place which could not be reached by the radio channels in use. So the Forwarding system was developed to allow a message to hop from one BBS to the next until it finally reached its destination. Marvellous stuff! This sounds easy but the poor Sysops had trouble figuring out where to send a message addressed to some unknown faraway place. So the concept of Routing Tables was developed. Then a Sysop could specify that all messages addressed to such-and-such would be forwarded to the neighbouring BBS to the North; and these others addressed to so-and-so destination would be sent to the neighbouring BBS to the South; and so on. With these Tables in place, the system just did it automatically. It no longer had to know where every BBS was; it only had to know which neighbouring BBS to send the mail to. Hierarchical Addressing The introduction of the Hierarchical Addressing system made this easier too, because that address includes State, Country and Regional details. For example, my packet address (using that convention) is: VK2DHU @ VK2ATM.NSW.AUS.OC That means my local BBS is VK2ATM and that is in the State of New South Wales, which is in Australia in the Oceania Region. A BBS on the other side of the world trying to Forward a message to me might have to look only at the OC in that address to know which direction to send the message on its next hop. As the message gets closer to home, say somewhere in Australia, that BBS might look at the NSW part to identify which direction to send it and finally as it gets somewhere within my State, the VK2ATM BBS will probably be known. We certainly don't expect a BBS in Outer Mongolia to know where VK2ATM is! The Hierarchical Addressing system makes it easier for everybody. Some addresses include additional zone or local address information. Usually these additional parts begin with a "#" and are accepted (in many cases ignored) by Forwarding mechanisms in various BBS systems. Page 299 We saw an example of this one earlier when I addressed a message to G1XGP @ GB7DUG.#32.GBR.EU - the #32 is their local code. The BBS here in Australia doesn't care about that. All it is interested in is the fact that this message has to go to Europe so it directs the message towards the Gateway station that looks after our overseas mail. Nowadays, the Routing mechanism is even easier with the development of automatic Routing systems such as White Pages. The BBS Network has developed significantly in only a few years, with UHF, VHF and HF Gateways, even Satellite Gateways to move our mail. I hope all packet users appreciate the efforts, the dedication and the contribution made by BBS Sysops all around the world. Without these guys, we would not have a Network like this to look after our mail. Where paKet fits in to all this. When I created paKet's Mail Forwarding system, I considered it essential that it conform to the established standards. But paKet is not a BBS - it is a personal tool for a personal user system. Its role is to serve the needs of an individual user. The role of a BBS is to serve the needs of the local packet community and that is largely satisfied with its link into the Network for Mail Handling and distribution. It gathers our incoming mail from the Network and it can also send into the Network any mail we want sent to some other destinatino. The role of the Network is to move our packets from one place to another. Mostly it is the various BBS systems around the country that make up the links in this Network. Those systems then are serving a dual role: one role as a local Bulletin Board for its regular users, and one role as a vital link in the Network for Mail Forwarding. For paKet's Mail Handling, I decided to make this Mail Forwarding system an interface to the local BBS only. paKet is not considered to be part of the Network as such - the BBS systems are doing a fine job and introducing too many peers into that Network is asking for trouble, I think. And the BBS systems are already handling the complex Routing information that would probably seem a little daunting to a lot of paKet users. You might think of the local BBS as your local Post Office. All we have to do is exchange our mail with that BBS, leaving it to worry about the Routing and distribution details. I have developed paKet's Mail Forwarding system so it conforms to the standard RLI/MBL Mail Forwarding protocol which is supported by all packet BBS systems in use today. Provided you set up your system with a few simple options, you too can have your mail automatically Forwarded to and from any station anywhere in the world. Page 300 Making Auto Mail Forwarding work for you. To make it work for you, there are three things you have to do. 1. you have to set up the CTEXT parameter in your TNC; and 2. check the PMS Configuration in paKet's Online Configuration. 3. arrange with your local BBS Sysop to have your mail forwarded to you at regular intervals. Let's have a look at these things. - 1 Set up CTEXT parameter The CTEXT parameter in your TNC contains some optional text that you can have sent to another station immediately that station connects to your TNC. Usually this might contain a welcome message such as: Welcome to this paKet system... feel free to use the Menu. or whatever takes your fancy. Have a look at your TNC Manual for more information on this parameter. You might also ensure it is enabled - ensure the TNC's CMSG setting is ON. We have to change the CTEXT because we want the TNC to identify this system as one that supports Mail Forwarding. That identification should be sent as the first line of data sent to a calling station if we want to be sure it will recognise our SID. Our SID! Oh, haven't I explained a SID? Before I get into an explanation of a SID, I should point out I have taken much of the information in this section from documents produced by other people. Many thanks to Jim G6FCL for providing most of these documents. The information seems to be in the Public Domain but I had trouble getting it all together. Jim did that and sent it all to me. I am not sure who the original authors are so I am unable to give credit where credit is due, but I am sure readers of this Manual will realise the work is a product of many dedicated amateurs who have left their mark on our hobby with their valuable contributions. SID A SID is a System IDentifer which is a special code recognised by all modern packet Forwarding systems, and is expected to be the FIRST piece of information sent by a system that supports Forwarding. So if you make this the first part of your CTEXT, the TNC will send this information to the other station before it sends anything else. For paKet the SID is: [paKet-6.1-HM$] You could change your CTEXT by sending the following command to your TNC: CTEXT [paKet-6.1-HM$] Page 301 If you wish, you can ADD that text to the beginning of any other CTEXT information you want to send. Do this by typing a <PASS> character which is usually a <Ctrl-V> before you press the <Enter> key. Then you could, for example, type: CTEXT [paKet-6.1-HM$]^V<Enter>Welcome to paKet.<Enter> The <PASS> or <Ctrl-V> character tells your TNC the keystroke immediately following is part of the text and therefore is NOT to be taken as the usual command termination character. The CTEXT command is terminated when you type the second <Enter>. I have also included an example of setting my CTEXT in the Begin Auto commands so have a look at that in the Windows - Configuration (Begin Auto commands) section of this Manual. For those interested, here is a slightly technical description of a SID: The SID consists of three parts separated by a dash and surrounded by square brackets. The first part is the author/program identification. In our case this is "paKet". The second part is optional but if used, contains author/program specific data. For our SID this is the paKet version number. The third part is the most complex part. This contains various codes to identify the features supported by this station. These codes are as defined as follows: C - Supports "forwarding" of date and time (obsolete). H - Supports hierarchical location identifiers. M - Supports message identifiers. R - Supports extended forwarding responses. Y - Supports YAPP binary protocol (unused). $ - Supports BID. MUST BE LAST CHARACTER in the last part for downward compatibility. There are other features in use now including Compressed Forwarding used by the FBB system. But that was not included in the documents I received. paKet does not support that method anyway. Our paKet SID contains HM$ in this field. The existence of a SID implies that the system supports reverse forwarding and OK/NO message rejection. You didn't really need to know all that, but now you know anyway. The important thing is to add the standard paKet SID to your TNC's CTEXT setting, or in your Begin Auto commands if there is a CTEXT command in there. Now, when another system connects, our TNC will send that SID to let the other guy know we are able to handle standard Mail Forwarding. Page 302 - 2 Check the PMS Configuration in paKet's Online Configuration. The second thing we must do to set up our system for Mail Forwarding is to check out PMS Configuration to ensure we have entered all the relevant information there. These things are covered in the Configuration Windows section of the Manual so you could refer to that as well, just to confirm you have the correct settings here. Some of these things are critical for correct Forwarding, others are not so critical but it is opportune to mention them all here while we are looking at this Configuration Window. Let's go through each of the REMOTE/PMS Configuration options: - Allow REMOTE access? - Issue REMOTE Menu on connection? Both these items must be Y because we want the BBS to be able to connect and access our system for Mail Forwarding operations. - SEND files to REMOTE station? - RECV files from REMOTE station? - REMOTE trigger None of these items are relevant to Mail Forwarding operations. - BBS callsign We need to recognise our BBS when it connects to our system. Here you enter the callsign of your local BBS, including any SSID. For example, my local BBS is VK2ATM-1 and I must enter all that into this field, including the "-1". - Allow third party messages in PMS? This is not actually required to be set for Forwarding but now is as good a time as any to set this to suit your local regulations. Most users would set this to Y but if third party messages are illegal in your area then set this item to N. - Delete message after Forwarding? You can make up your own mind on this one. If set to Y, paKet will flag a Forwarded message with a status of K, so it will be removed next time paKet does its PMS housekeeping. If set to N paKet flags a Forwarded message with a status of F, indicating it has been Forwarded, and that message stays in the PMS until it is removed manually. Page 303 - Call hourly (Mail, Always, No) paKet can check the PMS every hour, at the appointed time, and will take action depending on the option set here. There are three options available here: M - Mail This tells paKet to check the PMS every hour and make a call to the BBS ONLY IF there is mail in there waiting to be Forwarded. This is the preferred setting. There is very little overhead if there is no new mail waiting, but if you do enter a new message into the PMS you know it will be sent within the hour. A - Always This tells paKet to call the BBS every hour, whether there is any mail waiting in our PMS or not. This one could generate additonal load on the frequency because in most cases I suspect there will be no more mail to send or receive. Not every hour, surely? But it does mean you will be in contact with the BBS at lease once per hour, so if you are waiting on some urgent or important message, this option helps to ensure you get it within an hour of its arrival at the BBS. N - No This tells paKet to forget it. Don't even check the PMS every hour and certainly do not make any hourly calls to the BBS. - When (minutes past the hour) This item is ignored if you specify No to the previous option. But if you specify Mail or Always to the Call hourly option, paKet needs to know when you want to do this. Type a value between 0 and 59 here. This identifies the minute in each hour that you want paKet to perform its hourly processing. - Call BBS once per day? (M, A, N) In addition to the hourly option, paKet has a similar option to do the same processing once per day. This separate option is provided so you can be sure you are in contact with your BBS at least once per day. If the BBS is set up to call you at least once per day you can set this option to N and not bother to have paKet make another call. Page 304 But if the BBS is not already calling you for a Forwarding session, you can set this to Always. This will ensure you are in contact with the BBS at least once per day to collect any incoming Mail that might be waiting for you there. The three options, Mail, Always, or No are the same as described earlier, although this time we are talking about a call once per day not once per hour. You could set this option to Mail, in which case paKet will call the BBS once per day only if you happen to have any mail in your PMS at that time waiting to be delivered. The preferred options here are: N if the BBS is already calling you; or A if the BBS is not already calling you for Forwarding. - What time of day to call ? (hh:mm) This is the time of day paKet will do its PMS processing if the previous item is set to M or A. Enter the time in 24 hour format so if, for example, you want to do this at 10 minutes past 9am, set this to 09:10 and if you want it to be done at 2 minutes before midnight set this to 23:58. - Use Script to make BBS connection? - Connect path/Script file for BBS When paKet is to make a call to the BBS to initiate a Mail Forwarding session, it has to know how to establish that connection. It might be a simple CONNECT command is all we need but sometimes a paKet user needs to make a complex connection via Network Nodes to reach the desired BBS station. In that case a paKet Script will be required to provide the flexibility to handle the multiple connections. So we have two options here: 1. If you are able to connect to your BBS with a single CONNECT command: Enter "N" to the first of these two options because we do NOT need to use a Script file to make this connection. In the second of these two options, enter the callsign and any digipeaters etc you need to connect to your BBS. For example in my case I am within line of sight of my BBS so all I need here is to enter: VK2ATM-1 Page 305 but if I needed a digipeater to get there, I could enter something like: VK2ATM-1 v VK2RPM-1 or if I wanted to connect via the ROSE Network, I could specify here: VK2ATM-1 v VK2RPM 658300 The point to keep in mind here is that all of these examples require just a single CONNECT command, no matter how far away the BBS is. 2. If you are not so lucky and are unable to make contact with your BBS with a single CONNECT command, you can use a Script to make that connection. For example say you need to establish contact with some intermediate station, typically a Network Node, then once you are connected to that station you need to issue another Connect command to establish contact with another station further on, and so on until you are connected to your BBS. This procedure can be automated with a paKet Script. The Script can be set up to make the appropriate calls, each time waiting for the proper response before sending the next command. In this case, you should specify "Y" to the "Use Script to make BBS connection" option. Then, in the second option you specify the name of the Script File paKet is to use to make that connection. Please note the special syntax required to specify a Script File name. The file name must be entered in Pointer Brackets. For example, if the Script File is BBSCONN.SCP you would enter that as: <BBSCONN> As always, you do not need to enter the extension because paKet will assume ".SCP" for a Script File. Details on how to create a Script is covered fully in the Scripts section of this Manual. - 3 Make arrangements with your BBS Sysop. It is provided in all modern BBS systems for Mail to be automatically Forwarded to one or more other stations. This feature is included in the BBS software so it can participate in the Global Forwarding Network. Page 306 The BBS Sysop maintains some Forwarding Tables in his system to identify those other stations he wants mail to be Forwarded to. In those tables, he identifies which messages are to go to which stations. You could ask him to include your callsign in his regular Forwarding scheduling and to Forward to your system all messages addressed to you. You could also ask if he would include any particular Bulletin topics you are interested in too, such as Bulletins addressed to AMSAT. He might need to record your callsign as a "BBS" too, in order to allow his system to recognise you as one who can participate in a Forwarding session. This depends on the particular BBS system. Your Sysop will be able to help you here. If he agrees to this (and don't forget that is his system and it is his right to refuse) the Forwarding might take place at any time day or night so it is best done only if you are prepared to leave your system running 24 hours per day. It can be frustrating to see the BBS calling and calling and calling some station that is obviously off the air! If you leave your system running, the Mail can be sent at a quiet time, such as the wee small hours of the morning. This relieves congestion on a busy frequency and also is convenient because your mail will be ready and waiting in your PMS when you rise next morning. We should remember though, that paKet is not to be considered part of the Mail Forwarding Network - this is your private system and paKet will not normally be Forwarding Mail on to the next link in the chain! We do our Forwarding only with our own BBS as a convenience for more efficient Mail handling. Forwarding Summary Right. Now you will find paKet will do the automatic Mail Forwarding and you don't have to lift a finger. Any messages that arrive for you at the BBS will just appear in your PMS and paKet will display the "(msg)" signal in the Status Window to alert you to the new arrival. And any messages you want to send to anyone, are simply left in your PMS and they will automatically be Forwarded at the appointed time. (Don't forget to include a To BBS address if you want it Forwarded). One more thing I would like to mention while we are talking about Mail Forwarding. If some OTHER station (other than our BBS) connects and sends us a SID with a view to Forwarding some mail to us, paKet will respond with the standard handshaking and will accept into the PMS any messages the other station wants to send. However, any outgoing Mail will be Forwarded only to our own BBS. While paKet is in Forwarding Mode with some other station it will display "MAIL" in the Status Window. Page 307 (This page intentionally blank) Page 308