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Text File | 1993-09-26 | 89KB | 2,137 lines

Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. (c) 1993, The Master Programmer Group. A. Overview Mail2Fax allows you to fax directly from your PcBoard system. Users can send faxes or even receive their new mail via fax: √ Send faxes directly from your BBS √ Supports Pcboard version 15, including new index files √ Supports file sharing and multi-node systems √ Works with almost any type of fax card or fax/data modem √ Adds a new FAX command to your BBS (PPE file) √ Supports locally entered and netmail fax messages √ Complete control over long distance and local calls √ Supports blocking of individual fax numbers and ranges √ Supports use of alias names for commonly used fax numbers √ System generates reply status messages automatically √ Reply text fully customizable √ Customized cover sheet generation √ Cover sheet shows users name, & pages to follow √ For faxes from SYSOP, cover sheet can show your proper name √ Fax calls logged to PcBoard's logfile √ Supports tracking fax sent by user and charging for faxes √ Supports use of USERS.INF (PSA/TPA) √ New FORWARD command (PPE) allows user to set faxing of unread mail √ Supports Pcboard @variables and %Enviromment variables √ Compact and very fast √ Diagnostic option (DEBUG) √ Very complete documentation, including Troubleshooting guide. Mail2Fax software extends the reach of your PCBoard BBS for you and your users. With Mail2Fax your users can enter messages to be faxed. You can control who uses your fax service; what numbers and areas may or may not be called. This is our FaxMail service. You can specify the personalized coversheet used for each fax, as well as the text of the various reply messages the system can generate depending on whether the fax was sent successfully; encountered a busy signal etc. Another feature of Mail2Fax is that your users can arrange that Ver 1.0 1 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. mail they receive is automatically faxed if not read within a specified period. We call this our FaxForward service. On our board (JOB SEARCH, dedicated to helping people find work), we've extended this even further. When a new listing is entered into our jobs database, we match it against the selection criteria previously specified. When the listing matches a user's criteria, the software sends the user a fax. (To be exact, our Query software creates a QWK mail packet, which is posted to the board. M2F then finds the messages to be faxed and sends them.) With Mail2Fax your users get more use out of your board, while spending less time online. Best of all, Mail2Fax (M2F) can track how many faxes each user has sent, allowing you to bill for this premium service. M2F even supports pre-payment of faxes and can automatically disable faxing privileges for a user who used up his/her allotment. (With FORWARD mode only.) M2F will work with any fax modem or board whose software can be run from the command line (non TSR mode) and that will accept a file name and fax number as parameters. M2F has been extensively and successfully tested with a Zyxel modem and Zyxel's ZFAX software. Mail2Fax is distributed as shareware. As distributed, non-registered copies are limited to sending out the first three lines of a fax only, and FaxForward is not supported. Upon registering, you will receive a personalized keyfile to enable all features. This document describes our new Mail2Fax software for PcBoard Bulletin Boards. It covers how to install it and how to use it, and is written for the SYSOP who has knowledge of operating the PcBoard BBS as well as of installing both Door and Event software. B. What is Mail2Fax Mail2Fax is a system for faxing messages from a PcBoard BBS. The M2F package consists of the program Mail2Fax.Exe and the installable PcBoard commands FAX and FORWARD (implemented as SENDFAX.PPE and FORWARD.PPE). The package also includes a number Ver 1.0 2 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. of support files, such as COVRPAGE.TXT which contains the prototype text for the fax cover page, and LOCALNNX.TXT which contains the list of telephone number prefixes your users may fax to. M2F requires a Pcboard Version 15 system to operate, as well as a fax modem, fax/data modem or fax card and associated fax software. M2F will NOT operate with PcBoard version 14.5a or earlier, nor with any other type of BBS! C. How it works The Mail2Fax program scans the message base for messages to be faxed. When it finds such a message, it creates a file containing the text for that message (and coverpage). It then calls your Fax software, passing it the name of the file to be faxed and the telephone/fax number. The last step is that Mail2Fax posts an automatic reply message in the PcBoard message base to let the sender know that the fax was sent (or could not be sent). Mail2Fax recognizes that a message is to be faxed in one of two ways: » messages addressed to: "FAX MAIL@nnn-nnnn" » personal messages that have not been read within a specified period (and where the recipient user requested mail forwarding). The first form is where the sender used the Pcboard FAX command to enter a message to be faxed. These messages have in their TO: field the name "FAX MAIL", followed by an @ sign and the fax number. Actually you can configure Mail2Fax to scan for a name other than "FAX MAIL", as long as it is followed by the @ sign and the fax/telephone number. You would then also need to change the SENDFAX.PPS file to also generate messages with the name you want to use in lieu of FAX MAIL. On our board we use "FAX MAIL" for mail that is locally faxed, and "JOB SEARCH FAX" for messages that are sent from other BBS's via the network. (See Config file FAXID and NETID entries.) The second form of faxing is FaxForward. This allows users who use the board infrequently to have mail forwarded to them via Ver 1.0 3 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. their fax. Here the recipient user decides that the message is to be faxed and when. The user uses the FORWARD command to specify that he/she wants mail forwarded, where and when (number of days). If a message addressed to that user (i.e., not to ALL), remains unread for more than that number of days, the system will fax it. If the user reads the message before that date, it will not be faxed. Note that MAIL2FAX will not fax the PcBoard Extended headers. If it finds any they are skipped, except @ATTENTN: which becomes the @ATTN@ entry on the cover sheet. In a future version we will use the extended headers SUBJ and TO/TO2 (if present)), instead of their regular header equivalents. D. What you need To use this Mail2Fax software you need: » Pcboard software, version 15 » Fax board/modem » Fax Software » to install the Mail2Fax software and files Mail2Fax will ONLY work with PcBoard software from Clark Development Corp., and only with the index file format introduced with version 15. M2F will work with most Fax cards and modems, provided the Fax software for that modem has a "command line" mode can run from the command prompt, and accepts as parameters the name of the file to transmit and the fax number to fax it to. For instance, ZFAX, the software included with the ZYXEL modem, would be invoked as: C:> ZFAX 1 FAXFILE 5883821 Here '1' means SEND the fax. Some Fax software, such as the BLASTFAX software that came with USR Sportster modems, loads in TSR mode, and remains in memory after finishing the transmission. Such software is not usable. Similarly WinFax Pro and Winfax Lite are not usable, however DosFax Pro apparently is. Ver 1.0 4 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. MAIL2FAX invokes a program or batch file, whose name is specified in the M2F config file. The batch file can then invoke the fax program. Or the config file can specify ZFAX.COM as the command and it will be executed directly. The Mail2Fax software must be run on a BBS node equipped with a Fax modem (e.g. fax-only or fax/data). Normally this means it runs as Event software. Thus you would send faxes only at event time, i.e. once or twice a day. or even every hour. It is possible to run the program as part of the Pcboard $$LOGOFF.BAT procedure, but only on those nodes equipped with a fax card or modem. When your fax software does its job, it typically returns a DOS ERRORLEVEL code to indicate if it successfully transmitted the fax. For Zyxel's ZFAX those codes are: 0 - Fax sent successfully 34 - Called number was busy, 36 - No dial tone 37 - No answer (Ring No Aswer or RNA) 38 - Transmission failed Mail2Fax will accept those four codes, or their equivalent 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4, and process accordingly. If the fax was sent (0), or could not be sent (38), the fax message is killed and an automatic reply message is generated. If the fax was busy or did not answer, we retry a number of times. The exact number of times depends on the number of times the fax software is scheduled to run, but we'll try at least twice. After that we kill the message and create a reply to notify the sender. If there was no dial tone, we immediately try again to send the same fax (up to three times). This retry is in addition to any retry the fax software may have been set up to do. For instance we've configured our ZFAX software to retry once. Thus in case of no dial tone the software tries up to six times. If your fax software does not support usable return codes, it is possible to set up a batch file that does. We've included a utility (EC.COM) that can be invoked from a batch file to explicitly set the ERRORLEVEL. See file SENDFAX.BAT for an example. E. Cover Page and Replies Ver 1.0 5 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Normally you will want the fax to go out with a covering page. Mail2Fax can automatically generate a cover page based on the text you specify in COVRPAGE.TXT. If COVERPAGE.TXT is missing, no cover page is generated. When used, COVERPAGE.TXT typically contains a FormFeed character to ensure the cover page is a separate page, but it could be anything from a few lines to a few pages (not recommended). A sample of our own covering page is attached and is included as COVRPAGE.TXT. Mail2Fax supports PcBoard @variables. Entries like @FROM@ and @DATE@ and @FAXNO@ get replaced with the appropriate value at the time the program generates the text for the cover page and the fax itself. Mail2Fax is NOT a Door program. It runs when no-one is signed on at that node, so there is no current user. That means that Mail2Fax can handle only a few of the @ variables that PcBoard supports. Only those applicable to the current message are supported. We do however, provide several that are unique to Mail2Fax: @ATTN@ - ATTENTN extended header in orig message @BALANCE@ - Balance ($) available for user to send further faxes (*) @CHARGE@ - The $ charge to the user for sending this fax (*) @DATE@ - Date original message posted @FAXALIAS@ - If fax number was specified as an alias, this is it. (empty otherwise) @FAXID@ - To user name (as per FAXID and NETID) @FAXNO@ - Telephone number that message was faxed to. This is the real number, not the alias. @FROM@ - Name of originator of message we faxed @MSGAGE@ - How old was original message (In days) - FORWARD mode @NOFAXES@ - Number of faxes user has sent, including this one. (*) (available for Cover page & Replies) @PAGES@ - No of pages in this current fax (excluding cover page) Based on 68 lines per page, Formfeeds ignored. (Available for Cover page & Replies) @PRIVPUB@ - Is reply posted as Private or Public @REFNO@ - Message no of original message @REGNAME@ - Name in which Mail2Fax software is registered @SERIAL@ - Serial number for this copy of Mail2Fax @SUBJECT@ - Subject line of original message. Ver 1.0 6 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. @STATUS@ - Status of Fax BUSY/RNA etc. (Available for replies only) @SYSDATE@ - System Date (when fax is being sent and reply generated) @SYSOPNAME@ - Sysop name as would be used on coversheet @SYSTIME@ - Current system time @VERSION@ - Version of M2F software @TIME@ - Time original message was posted @TO@ - Content of TO of original message These @ variables must be specified in all upper case. They may be used in the covering page, the Fax itself and in any of the reply messages that M2F can generate (from the text files you specify - see below). Translation of SYSOP to your proper name (SYSOPNAME parameter in CFG file), only takes place for COVERPG.TXT, however @SYSOPNAME@ is available for use in replies as well. Thus if the FROM field in the original message is SYSOP (i.e. a message you posted), use of @FROM@ in the coversheet would result in Bill Clinton (if happened to be he). In the reply message @FROM@ would be replaced by SYSOP. Use of @SYSOPNAME@ would result in the name specified via the SYSOPNAME parameter in the config file, or in SYSOP if that parameter is not specified. (*) BALANCE, CHARGE and NOFAXES are available only with the FORWARD enabled version of the software. F. Replies Mail2Fax generates replies from the following text files: REPLY.TXT Text for reply message to send user (preempts sending of any other reply, e.g. FAXSENT, FAXFAIL or FAXBADn) May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT (This file, if present, is loaded every time a fax was sent (or failed) - for any ERRORLEVEL.) FAXSENT.TXT Text for reply message if Fax was sent successfully and a reply was requested (ReqRR). (ERRORLEVEL 0) May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT. FAXFAIL.TXT Text for reply message if Fax Software was Ver 1.0 7 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. unable to send fax and reported that retry not possible (no fax, RNA) (ERRORLEVEL 38) May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT FAXBAD1.TXT Text for reply message if the telephone number specified is bad, i.e. too few/many digits, bad NNX or blocked. May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT TOOMANY.TXT Text for reply message if user posted more faxes (new today) than the maximum. May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT FAXBUSY.TXT Text for reply message if a busy signal was encountered repeatedly. (ERRORLEVEL 34) May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT FAXRNA.TXT Text for reply message if a Ring No Answer was encountered repeatedly. This is essentially the same as FAXBUSY. The difference in the two messages reflects the results of the last call only (Busy vs RNA). (ERRORLEVEL 35) May use same @var@ as COVRPAGE.TXT If REPLY.TXT is found on disk, it will be used as the text for the reply to this message. This is regardless of the return code returned by the Fax software. Unlike the other .TXT files, which Mail2Fax loads only once, when it first starts up, REPLY.TXT is always loaded after the fax program returns control. (If it exists at that time.) This allows the Fax program (or whatever program was actually called) to create a custom reply. Killing of the original message is still controlled by the ERRORLEVEL that the called program returned to M2F. Files FAXSENT.TXT, FAXFAIL.TXT, FAXBAD1.TXT, FAXBUSY.TXT and FAXRNA.TXT are used as required, depending on the status returned from the Fax program. Mail2Fax loads these files when it first starts up. They cannot be changed dynamically. File TOOMANY.TXT is used when you have set a maximum number of faxes per user per day. For all fax messages the system encounters beyond that number, it will generate this reply and not invoke the Fax software. The status of the fax message remains unchanged. This check only works when the FAX FORWARD option is installed. Ver 1.0 8 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. The reply messages generated have the following message header entries: TO: As per FROM: field of message that was to be faxed FROM: From the FAXID or NETID parameter that matched the TO: entry of the original message SUBJECT: Same as in original message, or as per SUBJ config option if specified. Ref # Message number of original message. G. Screening of fax numbers Since these faxes are sent through your telephone (fax) line, you as the Sysop are responsible for any long-distance charges incurred. You will want to keep some level of control over dialling out. The checks built into Mail2Fax apply to the North American telephone system. Here, with essentially no exceptions, local numbers are 7 digits, and never start with 0 or 1. Long distance calls always start with 0 or 1 and are 7 or 10 digits (plus the 0 or 1). Some of these checks are also done in the FAX command (SENDFAX.PPE), however since it is possible to enter a message to be faxed via the regular PcBoard Editor, the controls in SENDFAX.PPE are not sufficient. The easiest is to limit telephone numbers to 7 digits (local calls only). For telephone number validation, embedded '(', ')', '-' and ' ' characters are removed. Mail2Fax also checks that the first digit of a seven digit number is not 0 or 1. In long distance mode (specified with the LDOK parameter in the config file), Mail2Fax will also accept 10 digit numbers. In this mode, the 7 or 10 digit number may be preceded by the digit 0 or 1. The next step is to validate against a list of acceptable telephone number ranges and a list of excluded telephone numbers (or ranges of numbers). These are kept in two files: LOCALNNX.TXT and BLOCKTN.TXT. LOCALNNX.TXT has a list of 3 or 6 digit NNX or NPA + NNX numbers that represent valid dialling prefixes. Each 3 or 6 digit number is preceded by a blank. A 3 digit number Ver 1.0 9 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. represents an NNX (the first 3 digits of a 7 digit number). A 6 digit number represents an NPA + NNX (the first 6 digits of a 10 digit number). No leading 0 or 1 in this file. BLOCKTN.TXT contains a list of telephone numbers that are blocked. Numbers typically are in 7 or 10 digit form (e.g. 4165883821) and each number is preceded by a blank. Numbers that are not exactly seven or ten digits are allowed in the file, but are interpreted somewhat differently. These partial numbers are matched against the left-most numbers in the telephone numbers. Thus 416976 would block all ten-digit numbers starting with (416) 976 (pay per call porn numbers here in Canada) FAXALIAS.TXT contains a list of commonly used fax numbers, with for each number an alias name that may be used instead. Alias numbers are not checked further. (against BLOCKTN or LOCALNNX). If it's in the Alias file, users can fax to it. Entries in this file occur in pairs, Alias followed by fax number. Each Alias and fax number are separated by one or more blanks. Aliases are also preceded by at least one blank. Embedded blanks are allowed in the Alias but not in the fax number. Note that the length of the alias is limited by the 25 character TO: field size. If your FAXID/NETID (see Config file) is FAX MAIL, the alias is limited to 14 characters, (e.g. TO: = "FAX MAIL @ 12345678901234"). The greater length of your NETID and FAXID is what counts. This file is used in both Mail2Fax.Exe and in SendFax.Ppe. The file must be in the same directory as SendFax.Ppe, or SendFax.Pps must be changed and recompiled. If the TO: field specifies a fax number alias, e.g. "FAX MAIL @ WARD", it is looked up in FAXALIAS.TXT. If found, the Ver 1.0 10 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. corresponding fax number is used. Fax aliases are supported through both MAIL2FAX.EXE and through the FAX command (SENDFAX.PPE). The latter accepts the alias, and validates it, but is the alias that gets stored in the message. Thus Mail2Fax.EXE will also look it up and translate it. A number that was entered as an alias is not further validated. If a match is not found between a fax number and an entry in LOCALNNX.TXT, the number is rejected and the fax is not sent. On the other hand, if a match IS found between the fax number and an entry in BLOCKTN.TXT, the number is rejected as well. One use of this file is to deal with complaints about unwanted faxes. If someone complains about faxes from your users, just put their fax number in the BLOCKTN.TXT file. Note that in all three these files every entry must be preceded by a space (at least one). Even the first entry in the file is preceded by a blank. Fax numbers in LOCALNNX.TXT and BLOCKTN.TXT must not be formatted (i.e. 2345678901 rather than (234 567-8901). Those in FAXALIAS.TXT may be. Entries in the alias file are limited to an alias and a fax number together on a line. In the other two files there may be multiple codes per line. Messages from SYSOP may be sent to any fax number. The number is not validated in any way. H. FAX Command To make it simpler for your users to enter faxes, we've included a brand new PcBoard command: FAX. With version 15, PcBoard allows you to easily add new commands. Clark Development has even created PPL (PcBoard Programming Language), a method for creating such a command, without writing complex "Door" software. The FAX command is implemented as a PPL script: SENDFAX.PPE is the compiled and executable version. SENDFAX.PPS, the source code, is included, so you can change the complete user interface. You will, however, need a copy of Clark Development's PPL compiler (PPLC.EXE) to recreate SENDFAX.PPE after you changed SENDFAX.PPS. In essence, the FAX command is simply a fancy front-end for the Ver 1.0 11 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. PcBoard editor, which is still required to allow your user to enter the text for his/her fax. What FAX does is to remove the hassle of remembering the format required for the TO: field or for the ATTN file at the top of the message. The things the FAX command does are: » Confirm that the user does want to prepare/send a fax » Explain what FAX does and its limitations (e.g. local calls only) » Ask for fax number and validate it (this is only a limited validation, but is done right at time the fax is entered, as opposed sending a reply message the next day "your fax number was no good and we deleted your message .... have a nice day" » Ask for the "Attention" name. » Switch to the FAX conference. » Invoke the editor by stuffing the keyboard buffer. This creates the message header and Attntn line in the proper format. From therein, the user is in editor mode and can type or upload the text for the fax. The user can save the message or abandon it, just as for any other message. Only messages saved in the FAX conference (and with a properly formatted TO: field) will be faxed. The maximum length for a fax is the same as for any message (as set in the PcBoard configuration program). The FAX command is installed in CMD.LST (PcbSetup) and must have 3 parameters, the number for the conference for fax mail, a Y or N to indicate in long distance is allowed and a Y or N to signal if this is an Echo Conference. See installation instructions. I. FORWARD Command A more advanced option is Fax Forward. (Fax Forward is available only as an option in the registered version of this software.) When this option is activated, your users can specify that any messages sent to them should be automatically forwarded via fax, if the user does not call in to read his/her mail (online or via a mail door). Like the FAX command, FORWARD is a new PcBoard command and it too is implemented as a PPE file. Ver 1.0 12 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. FORWARD simply records that the user selected the service and allows him/her to set the number of days. The user can even set the maximum number of faxes to be sent. For every fax successfully sent (both via the FAX command and as the result of the FORWARD command), we reduce this count. Once the count reaches zero, no further faxes are sent for that user. Note that with this option the software uses the COMMENT2 field in the user record. The reason is that PPL scripts cannot access TPA areas in the USERS.INF file. (That would have been the preferred solution.) What this means is that if the COMMENT2 field is currently in use on your system, you will not be able to use this PPL script as is. In that case, you may want to let us know when you register, and we can send you a TPA version of Mail2Fax.Exe You can also specify via a configuration option that Mail2Fax is not use any fields in USER.INF (NOUSERINF). J. Netmail Fax Messages So far we've talked about the messages to be faxed being entered on line by callers to your own BBS. Your users can create a message online, using the FAX command. They can also use an off-line mail reader and your mail door. That is because ultimately the fax message is an ordinary message. Most mail readers will not support our ATTENTN extended header. This can be accommodated by typing on the first line: @ATTENTN:< attention > MAIL2FAX accepts this pseudo extended header format. The only requirements are that @ATTENTN: is spelled exactly as shown and starts in the first byte of the message (past any real Pcb extended headers. The other requirement is that the < attention > text may be at most 60 bytes long. If MAIL2FAX does not find an end of line by byte 61, it treats the ATTENTN line as part of the message text. MAIL2FAX supports both a FAXID (typically defined as FAX MAIL on any system using M2F) and a NETID. NETID is normally set up as <BBS ID> FAX, for instance JOB SEARCH FAX. You can network this service with other BBS's that are outside your local calling area. This way you can offer long distance faxing without paying for each fax as a long distance call. Instead, you zip the message up and move it with your regular Ver 1.0 13 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. mail to a system that is local to that calling area, and have it fax the message. So instead of paying for several 1 minute (minimum call duration) LD calls, the zipped messages add a few seconds to your mail call. Each of the systems jointly offering this service must set up a Fax Mail conference and echo that conference. Each system gets assigned a network fax ID (e.g. "JOB SEARCH FAX" "HYPER BBS FAX" etc.) These ID's should all be disabled as user ID's on everyone of the participating systems. The FAX command can be made to prompt for the ID of the system that is to fax this message (this is not implemented in this version of SENDFAX.PPS, but is provided for ("the hooks are there"), and is left as an exercise for the reader. K. Replies to Automated Messages In addition to FAXID and NETID, which give TO: user ID's, M2F also supports one special FROM: user ID. This ID is specified as NOREPLYID. The purpose of NOREPLYID is to suppress the generation of the reply messages. On our BBS we have this set to NOREPLYID QUERY ENGINE. QUERY ENGINE is our database search facility that matches new job listings with standing queries. When a user's query is matched, we fax or message that user a copy of that job listing. QUERY ENGINE has no use for any replies, so NOREPLYID can turn those off. As an alternative to NOQUERYID, you can also just use the default option in M2F, which says that no reply is generated, UNLESS there is a problem. (The same information is also available from the log file.) L. Fax Busy or No Answer The fax software may encounter a Busy condition (ERRORLEVEL 34 in Zyxel's Zfax) or a Ring No Answer( 37). In those cases we retry many times (if required): 1. as set up in the Fax software (our's is set to 2 tries, no pause) 2. every time the fax software runs on the day the fax was posted (at two tries each) 3. every time the fax software runs before 9AM (any day) 4. twice more (two tries each) when run at any other time. Ver 1.0 14 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Thus for a fax posted in the morning with an hourly faxing schedule, we may retry from 10-20 times. MAIL2FAX uses the Message Read flag to control retries. As long as the current system date is the same as the message date, or the time before 09:00 we keep retrying. When the date differs (regardless if before or after), and we encounter a Busy/RNA, we set the Message Read flag. When we encounter a Busy/RNA again and the Message Read flag was already set, we regard the fax as non-deliverable, notify its originator (FAXBUSY.TXT or FAXRNA.TXT message) and deleted the fax message. It is desirable to set up a faxing schedule that has frequent events during working hours, but only a few over night. That improves chances that an out-of paper situation is rectified before we used up all retries. M. No Dial Tone Errors In a typical configuration, you have a Fax/Data modem on one of your BBS's lines, that is used to receive incoming data calls. Now you will be using that same line to place outgoing calls. If you fax with some frequency, sooner or later you'll have call collision between an incoming call and an outgoing one. It won't happen often (unless the line is very busy), but it will. If your fax software is reasonably smart, it will report this as something like "NO DIALTONE" (ERRORLEVEL 36 in Zyxel's ZFAX). What the Fax software does is hang up on the other party (it's all it can do). In this case MAIL2FAX will immediately try to send the fax again. Since the other caller likely also has a modem and repeat-dialing software, it essentially becomes a race. In this scenario it is advantageous to be using a touch-tone line. It also is advantageous to be connected to a modern (digital) telephone Central Office. If it still remains a problem, there are a few things you can try: 1. Get a dedicated fax line 2. Run fax events only during quiet periods 3. Reduce the maximum time available to users calling in on that line (PWRD file). This solves the problem as a lot of the slower users (the non-mail reader crowd) will not call in on that line any more. 4. Ask your callers to set their time between redial attempts to at least 5-10 seconds. Ver 1.0 15 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. If there was no dial tone, we immediately try again to send the same fax (up to three times). If we get the No Dial Tone error three times in a row, we terminate all fax processing. The event gets displayed on screen and gets logged to the log file, but the fax involved is not changed, nor do we generate a reply. N. MAIL2FAX Error levels M2F exits with one of the following error codes, for the reasons given: 0 - Ok 1 - Out of memory 2 - Open failed on FaxFile 3 - Failure running fax software (unknown errorlevel received) 4 - No dial tone on repeated attempts 5 - Invalid keyword in config file 16 - Date wrong on system clock 17 - Demo or Beta key expired 18 - Keyfile is invalid All non-zero codes mean the program may not have processed all fax messages (if any). For more detail, see the section on error messages. O. Config file Mail2Fax.Exe takes a few command line parameters, but most options are controlled through a config file. The command line parameters are: MAIL2FAX <config> <message base> <faxfile> [<debug level>] <config> - path and name of the configuration file <message base> - path and name of message base to scan <faxfile> - path and name of intermediate file passed to fax software. <debug level> - 1 - 5 to activate diagnostic mode A sample of the config file is listed in the attachments. Lines starting with // and blank lines are ignored. Each entry consists of a keyword, which may be followed by a value (such as a file name), which must be on the same line, e.g.: Ver 1.0 16 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. PUBL PRIV LOGFILE C:\PCBLOG\CALLER%PCBNODE% The order of the keyword entries is insignificant, except that if the END keyword is used it must be last in the file (it is not required). Keywords must be spelled exactly as shown, but case is not significant You can use environment variables in the config file by bracketing it with two % signs. For instance on multi-node PcBoards PCBNODE= is commonly used to identify the Node number (see above example). %Variables may be used in a keyworded entry, but not within the keyword itself. BLOCKTN // File with blocked telephone numbers COVERPAGE // File containing cover page DEBUG // Turns on some debugging support within Mail2Fax // See the separate document on Troubleshooting END // Must be last keyword (if used) FAXALIAS // File with aliases and fax numbers FAXBAD1 // File containing text for bad fax no/alias FAXBUSY // File containing text for fax line busy FAXCMD // Command to invoke Fax software FAXFAIL // File containing text if fax xmit failed FAXID // TO: entry for locally posted fax messages FAXSENT // File containing text if fax was transmitted LDOK // Flag to signal long distance calls ok LOGFILE // Log file to use LOGLINES // Display separator lines in caller log (LOGFILE) MAXFAX // Maximum no of new faxes per user per day NETID // For messages (to be faxed) that were NOREPLYID // If this is the FROM: user, don't generate any replies NOUSERINF // Do not access any fields in USERS.INF OKNNX // File with NNX that are allowed PRIV // Make Reply messages private PUBL // Make Reply messages public REPLY // File containing text for special reply SUBJ // Subject line for reply, NO // ALLOWED // If omitted reply uses original message's subject line SYSOPNAME // Sysop's proper name to use for faxes from SYSOP TOOMANY // File containing text for Max fax P. Testing of Fax Before you install Mail2Fax, you should first verify that your Ver 1.0 17 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. fax card/modem is properly installed, and that it and its software function as expected. In particular, create a small text file, and fax it to a fax machine so you can see the results. Use command-line mode. Doing this test first may save you a lot of hardship debugging your Mail2Fax installation. If you are using a fax/data modem to receive data calls (for the BBS), you should verify that your fax software does not mess up the modem initialization in a way the PcBoard cannot deal with. This test too is simple. Use your fax software to send a fax (from the command line). If after that your BBS still receives calls ok, you're in business. Q. How to install Mail2Fax We're assuming that you are a reasonably experienced PcBoard Sysop and that you've added conferences, installed doors or PPE files before. We also assume that you know your way around DOS, Batch files and creating directories. If you are new to operating PcBoard, you may want to get some help. Mail2Fax is not that difficult to install, but for a new Sysop, it may be somewhat daunting. It's recommended that you dedicate a Conference to faxes entered with the FAX command. Do not try to install the FAX FORWARD option yet (if you've received it). Get the FAX MAIL option working first. For our sample installation, we're assuming the following: » Fax Mail mode only (no Fax Forward ) » Conference 99 - FAXMAIL contains all messages to fax and reply. (the number for this conference is set in CMD.LST) » Only users level 50 and up can use the FAX command or access conf 99 » All Mail2Fax software as well as your modem's fax software are placed in directory \ZFAX » your fax program is called ZFAX and takes three parameters, a 1, a file name and a telephone number. MD \ZFAX Create a directory to hold all Mail2Fax files and software as well as your fax software. Copy in all files from this Ver 1.0 18 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. diskette, as well as your fax software and the files it requires. If you change this name, change the path in your Event batch software. If you have a dedicated directory for PPE files, place SENDFAX.PPE and FORWARD.PPE there. The files FAX and FORWARD are help files explaining the corresponding command. Copy these two files to your help file subdirectory (normally C:\PCB\HLP). FaxAlias.Txt must go in the same directory as SendFax.Ppe (see below). EVENT Set up one or more event files to invoke Mail2Fax.EXE. Ours reads CD \ZFAX MAIL2FAX MAIL2FAX C:\PCB\MAIN\MSGS99 FAXFILE Set up your event times to run the software (say every 2 hours during the day), and twice during the night. Callerlog Specify where you want Mail2Fax to log all the faxes it sent. We use CALLER1, CALLER2 etc for various nodes. All our log files are in C:\PCBLOG (for all nodes). LOGFILE C:\PCBLOG\CALLER%PCBNODE% FAX command Using PcbSetup, select B, File locations/Configuration files From the list of files, pick the one for CMD.LST and assign it a file name, e.g. C:\PCB\GEN\CMD.LST Then press F2 to edit (or create) this file. In the file add as command: FAX , security level 50, and as file C:\ZFAX\SENDFAX.PPE 99 N N. Note that the PPE suffix must be specified. (If you placed SENDFAX.PPE in a different directory, adjust accordingly. Move FaxAlias.Txt to that same directory.) You will have to specify the security level for users to have access to this command. In our example, that is level 50. Do not set the security level here any lower than the security needed to access the FAXMAIL conference. Otherwise Ver 1.0 19 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. when the FAX command tries to issue a JOIN , that will fail and the message will end up in the wrong conference, where MAIL2FAX will never look for it. Note the "99 N N" as in ...\SENDFAX.PPE 99 N N. Here 99 is our Faxmail conference. The first N signals that long distance calls are not allowed. The second N signals that the fax conference is set up as non-echo. FAXMAIL conf Set up a new conference using PCBSETUP. In our example it is # 99, and is called FAXMAIL. The conference number may be anything you want, but it must match the number you specified in CMD.LST following SENDFAX.PPE. Set the conference as non-echo if you do not want netmail faxes, and echo if you want non local faxes echoed between systems. (See the section on Netmail Fax Messages.) Set the security level to 50, the same as for the FAX command. Lower is acceptable to, but does not make much sense. ID's Since you are using FAX MAIL as a sort of user id, make sure no-one can log on with that ID. Using the PCB user editor, simply create a new record with this ID and security level zero. It wont affect the operation of Mail2Fax, but it will stop users from signing on under that ID. Bulletin Create a Bulletin or News file for your users to tell them about the new service. A sample is included as FAX.BLT (for the FAX command only). Help files Copy the files "FAX" and "FORWARD" to your PCB Help directory, typically C:\PCB\HELP. These files are what your user will see if they type in HELP FAX or HELP FORWARD. How to use it Once the installation is complete, using M2F is easy. Use the FAX command to enter a fax/message, and that's it. The rest is automatic. You do want to review your CALLER log from time to time to check usage and to check for any Ver 1.0 20 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. problems. That's it for a basic installation. You may want to review the Reply Text files that are provided as part of the package. You'll also want to adapt the files LOCALNNX.TXT and FAXALIAS.TXT (or not use them at all.) Note that we distribute MAIL2FAX.CFG with the DEBUG parameter in place. This is a diagnostic tool, geared to checking out your configuration. Leave it in place for the first few runs, until you are satisfied with the results. The only downside is more messages in the log, and (for DEBUG 5), a 10 second delay on exit from the program - to allow you time to read the screen. See the Troubleshooting document (TROUBLE.DOC) for more information on the DEBUG option and on what to do if things don't work as expected. R. Known Limitations In the non-registered copy: - only the first three lines of a fax are sent. - FAX FORWARD is not available - Maximum faxes per day is not enforced. If LOGLINES is used, configuration errors are still logged before the first line of ****************** Mail2Fax skips all extended headers except @ATTENTN:. In SENDFAX.PPE, we create an ATTENTN line that almost looks like an PcBoard extended header, but isn't. The current version of PPL may not allow us to fully create an extended header entry. M2F accepts this extended header even if improperly formatted. We use this to accept @ATTENTN lines from messages posted via mail readers. S. Copyright The files in this package are copyright, 1993, Master Programmer Group. PcBoard, Zyxel, USR and BLASTFAX are trademarks of their respective owners. You are allowed to freely distribute copies of this software, Ver 1.0 21 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. provided all files in the ZIP file remain included and are not changed in any way. To use the software, you will have to register, as specified below. T. Registration Mail2Fax is distributed as shareware. That means that you may install it on your system for a period of 30 days for evaluation purposes. This will allow you to use the real software in your own environment to verify that it is compatible with your system and works the way you think it should. If after this period you decide to keep using it, you must register. Registration for this software is: $30.- not including Fax Forward. $45.- including Fax Forward option (not available at this point) $ 5.- for a full functionality, 30 day demo key. Prices are in US dollars, but Canadian residents may pay in Canadian currency, at par - but will have to pay GST/PST. To give you a further incentive for registering, in the shareware version we have disabled some functions. Specifically: » only the first three lines of a fax will actually be sent. Upon registering you will receive a key file to unlock the full functionality of Mail2Fax (key file MAIL2FAX.KEY). You may not distribute copies of this key file. Also available is a Registered Demo key, that unlocks the full functionality of the system (except Fax Forward), but only for a period of 30 days. You will also receive the latest version of the program/files, if changed. To register, fill out the enclosed registration slip (see file REGISTER.FRM). If you are paying by Master card, you will also be able to register online via our Software Support Bulletin Board (416 588-9690). You will be able to immediately download your key file. Ver 1.0 22 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages U. Error messages M2F returns one of the following error codes, for the reasons given: 0 - Ok Program ran successfully and no serious errors were encountered. (Fax busy or no answer, is not considered a serious error.) See log file for details. 1 - Out of memory At start-up time the program could not allocate the memory it required. It requires 32K + the combined size of all .TXT files it uses. It should run properly in 120-200K in total. 2 - Open failed on FaxFile The system reported an error when M2F tried to open/create the text file that is to hold the text to be faxed. 3 - Failure running fax software (unknown errorlevel received) The Fax software that is specified via the FAXCMD in the config file (by default SENDFAX.BAT) either was not found (in current directory on DOS path), or returned an unknown ERRORLEVEL. See the Log file for the error code returned. 4 - No dial tone on repeated attempts The modem reported NO DIALTONE on repeated (3) attempts to place an outgoing call. This either means that there were incoming calls (in particular on a line that is also used to receive many calls - such as a BBS line), or the telephone line was not plugged in. Not all modems are capable of reporting this condition. 5 - Invalid keyword in config file The first word on the line from the config file that is shown with this message is not recognised as a valid keyword (see section Config File above). Blank lines and lines starting with // (comment lines) are skipped. All other lines must start with a valid keyword. Ver 1.0 1 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages 16 - Date wrong on system clock The date of your system's clock is before the date of the key file you are using (MAIL2FAX.KEY or MAIL2FAX.BTA). The battery in your computer may need replacing. 17 - Key file expired The program is running with a 30 day Registered Demo key (MAIL2FAX.DMO), or with a 45 day Beta key (MAIL2FAX.BTA). That key is now more than 60/90 days old. The program will no longer run with this key. If you delete the file MAIL2FAX.DMO and/or MAIL2FAX.BTA, the program will run, but it will run in non-registered demo mode, and will fax only the first three lines of a message. If you happen to have both MAIL2FAX.BTA and MAIL2FAX.DMO, this message would reflect the .BTA file. 18 - Keyfile invalid The name of the key file or some of its content was changed. That invalidates the file. The name must be MAIL2FAX. The suffix must be .KEY or .BTA or .DMO and must not be changed. The content of the key file is validated and checked against the file's name. The following messages can be produced as well. Some of these relate to the ERRORLEVEL codes listed above - as indicated. Some of messages are only produced when the DEBUG option is specified. Cannot open the output file <faxfile> See ERRORLEVEL 2 above XLAT buffer overrun - REPLY When replacing @variables@, the resulting text was longer than the text it replaced by more than 200 characters. Reduce the number of times you use @variables@ in this text. Fax Special Reply Status message - M2F found the file REPLY.TXT and used this to generate the reply for this Fax message. Fax OK Ver 1.0 2 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages Status message - fax was successfully sent. A reply message will be created if the user selected one (REQRR). Fax Number bad Status message - The fax number entered for the message was not valid, such as the wrong number of digits, LD (and not allowed) an invalid Alias, or did not match an entry in the valid NNX table. Fax Number blocked Status message - The number matched an entry in the BLOCKTN.TXT file. Fax Failed Status message - Transmission of the fax failed, including the case where the called number answered but did not respond as a fax (voice or BBS line?) Fax Busy Status message - The called number was busy. One or more further attempts will be made. (No reply is generated for this attempt.) Fax Busy2 Status message - The called number was busy again. This was the last time a call was attempted. A reply was generated (if FAXBUSY.TXT specified), and the message was killed. Fax RNA Status message - The called number did not answer (Ring No Answer - RNA). One or more further attempts will be made. (No reply is generated for this attempt.) Fax BRNA2 Status message - The called number did not answer again. This was the last time a call was attempted. A reply was generated (if FAXRNA.TXT specified), and the message was killed. (Actually, this last attempt was RNA. Prior attempts were all either RNA or Busy. Ver 1.0 3 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages Fax No dial tone Status message - The fax modem reported NO DIAL TONE. This means that either the line it was dialling out on was disconnected, or at the exact time of calling out a call came in. Fax Other Status message - The status code returned for this fax was not recognised as on of the standard ones. Msg <msgno>, <statuscd>, <to>, <from>, <subject> Now processing this particular message. The message was selected because its <to> field matches the user id specified (may be partial match on leading characters). The message will still be ignored if it does not contain @ <fax no> or @ <fax alias> in the <to> field as well. (DEBUG Level 1) Rest of fax skipped. Please register this software. This software is running without its registration key file (MAIL2FAX.KEY). This means that a few functions are restricted. In particular we will fax only the first 3 or 4 lines of a message. When you have the file MAIL2FAX.KEY or current MAIL2FAX.DMO or MAIL2FAX.DTA, place it in what is the current directory at the time Mail2Fax is started. Normally that is the directory where Mail2Fax.Exe is located (e.g. \ZFAX in our installation instructions.) Call collision/ no dial tone (See Fax No Dial tone) This message is displayed as we retry the call. (DEBUG Level 1) Failure invoking The M2F software was unable to invoke the program or batch file that was specified as FAXCMD in the config file. The error code returned would typically be one of the following: Code │ Meaning -2 │ File not found -3 │ Path not found -5 │ Access denied -6 │ Invalid handle -8 │ Not enough memory -10 │ Invalid environment Ver 1.0 4 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages -11 │ Invalid format -18 │ No more files Unknown Return code (n) The command/batch file that M2F invoked as the FAXCMD (see config file returned a DOS error level that was unknown (not 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 34, 35, 36, 37 or 38) Not enough memory See 1 - Out of Memory above. Keyword not recognised: ( <keyword> <text> ) See 5 - Invalid keyword in config file. ID <userid> Displays what user id we are scanning for now. These ids are specified in the config file with the FAXID and NETID keywords. (DEBUG Level 1) Program exit with error code <sExitCode> Reports the DOS ERRORLEVEL that Mail2fax.exe will set upon exit. These codes and their meaning are listed above. <nNoProc> messages processed No messages found to process Reports the number of messages that we processed as being faxes (and sent or tried to send). Mail2Fax done Last message just before exit. Wrong # of parameters MAIL2FAX.EXE must have 3 or 4 parameters Name and location of the config file. If no suffix is specified, .CFG is assumed, e.g. MAIL2FAX.CFG Name and location of the message base to scan e.g. C:\PCB\MAIN\MSGS99 Name and location of the file we write fax text to e.g. FAXFILE Debug level (optional parameter), a one-digit number, typically 1 or 5, see Troubleshooting guide. Ver 1.0 5 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages (1) Registered to NOT REGISTERED, serial # DEMO COPY, version <version> (2) Registered to BETA USER, serial # BETA COPY, version <version> (3) Registered to <name>, serial # <serialno>, version <version> Identifies that whether this copy is registered and to whom. The Non-registered copy does not have a MAIL2FAX.KEY, MAIL2FAX.BTA or MAIL2FAX.DMO file. The Beta version has file MAIL2FAX.BTA. The registered version has the full key file MAIL2FAX.KEY. The registered Demo version has file MAIL2FAX.DMO. System Clock wrong See 16 - Date wrong on system clock Demo Key expired. Please Register this program See 17 - Demo key expired Keyfile invalid See 18 above. Beta version out of date, please get a new copy Beta versions must be refreshed periodically. If a copy is more than 45 days old, this message will appear. The program will also pause 10+ seconds when this message is displayed. This message only appears for copies running with the Beta key file (MAIL2FAX.BTA). It will disappear when you obtain your regular .KEY file. Scanning: <msgbase> To show what message base was specified on MAIL2FAX's command line. (DEBUG Level 1) No Reply text The program was going to generate a reply message, but did not since no text was defined for this particular type of reply. The following message in the log identifies the kind of reply that would have been otherwise generated (e.g. fax busy, fax no bad). Ver 1.0 6 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 1 - Error Messages Either the corresponding file (e.g. FAXBUSY.TXT, FAXBAD1.TXT) was not specified, or was totally empty. This is a valid way of suppressing certain types of replies. (DEBUG Level 1) File xxxx not specified xxxx is one of the following: BLOCKTN, COVERPAGE, FAXALIAS, FAXBAD1, FAXBUSY, FAXFAIL, FAXSENT, OKNNX, TOOMANY, or TOOMANY. This is a diagnostic warning (DEBUG Level 1) to warn that this particular option was not specified. This would mean, for instance if FAXBUSY is not used that M2F would not generate a reply message for the FAXBUSY2 condition (fax busy on repeated attempts. This may be what was intended. Leading blank missing in xxxxx xxxx is one of the following: BLOCKTN, FAXALIAS, or OKNNX. This is a diagnostic warning (DEBUG Level 1) to warn that file specified for this particular option was in the wrong format. These files are searched by M2F for a matching entry. To avoid incorrect matches, each entry in the file must be preceded by a space character, including the left-most entry on every line. When DEBUG level 1 is set the program warns if any line in the file does not have space as its first character. Pause for Debug When DEBUG level 5 is set, the program will pause for 10 seconds after it finishes, but before exiting. This stops the display, giving you a chance to read all messages. This message is to remind you why the program is pausing. To suppress the pause, set DEBUG level to a value less than 5. Ver 1.0 7 September 26, 1993 V. Fax coversheet ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Fax sent by JOB SEARCH for one of its users. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ To fax : @FAXNO@ Attention : @ATTN@ From : @FROM@ Subject : @SUBJECT@ Date : @DATE@ @TIME@ To follow : @PAGES@ Page(s) ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ This fax was sent as a service that JOB SEARCH provides to its users │ │ and subscribers. This fax originated from the above user(*). │ │ There are no facilities for our users to receive incoming faxes. │ │ │ │ (*) If the message is from "QUERY ENGINE", our computer system has │ │ identified that there is a Job listing or message on JOB SEARCH │ │ that matches the selection criteria that you specified. The │ │ details are on the next page. ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┤ JOB SEARCH ├──┘ ┌─┤ 387 Sunnyside Ave, │ │ │ Toronto, Ont. M6R 2R9 │ │ │ 588-9690 Modem │ │ │ 588-3821 Fax or Modem │ │ │ 588-1111 Voice ├─┐ │ └─────────────────────────┘▓│ │ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓│ │ Connecting People and Jobs │ └─────────────────────────────┘ Ver 1.0 1 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 3 - Sample config files Sample configuration file - with comment entries // Configuration file for Mail2Fax Version 1.0 // Blank lines and entries starting with // are ignored // Entries may be in any order loglines // Show **************** lines in log DEBUG 1 LOGFILE C:\PCBLOG\CALLER%PCBNODE% // PcBoard log file FAXID FAX MAIL // ID for locally posted messages NETID JOB SEARCH FAX // ID for messages from network PRIV // Make replies PRIVATE FAXCMD ZFAX.COM // Command to process/fax an extracted message SYSOPNAME Frans van Duinen FAXALIAS FAXALIAS.TXT // File with aliasses and fax numbers // LDOK // Flag long distance calls ok (omit if not ok) // MAXFAX // Maximum no of new faxes per user per day // NOUSERINF // Do not access any fields in USERS.INF // SUBJ Your Fax // Subject line for reply, NO // ALLOWED // NOREPLYID // No replies for this user COVERPAGE COVRPAGE.TXT // File with text for covering page // Blank cover page with text using @var@ OKNNX LOCALNNX.TXT // List of 3 digit NNX numbers that represent // valid local area dialing prefixes. // Each 3 digit number is preceded by a blank. BLOCKTN BLOCKTN.TXT // List of 7/10 digit telephone numbers that // are blocked. Numbers are in 4165883821 or // 5883821 form and each number is preceded by // a blank FAXSENT FAXSENT.TXT // Text for reply if Fax was sent successfully // and a reply was requested (ReqRR). FAXBUSY FAXBUSY.TXT // Text for reply if number was busy on final try FAXRNA FAXRNA.TXT // Text for reply if number did not answer on // final try Ver 1.0 1 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 3 - Sample config files FAXFAIL FAXFAIL.TXT // Text for reply if Fax Software was unable to // send fax and reported retry not possible (no // fax) FAXBAD1 FAXBAD1.TXT // Text for message if The telephone number // specified is bad, i.e. too few/many digits, // bad NNX or blocked. //TOOMANY TOOMANY.TXT // Text for message if user posted more faxes // (new today)than the maximum //REPLY REPLY.TXT // Text for reply to send user (pre-empts sending // of any other reply, e.g. FAXSENT, FAXFAIL or // FAXBADn) Ver 1.0 2 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 3 - Sample config files Configuration file - no comments DEBUG 1 LOGFILE C:\PCBLOG\CALLER%PCBNODE% FAXID FAX MAIL NETID JOB SEARCH FAX PRIV FAXCMD ZFAX.COM SYSOPNAME Frans van Duinen FAXALIAS FAXALIAS.TXT COVERPAGE COVRPAGE.TXT OKNNX LOCALNNX.TXT BLOCKTN BLOCKTN.TXT FAXSENT FAXSENT.TXT FAXBUSY FAXBUSY.TXT FAXRNA FAXRNA.TXT FAXFAIL FAXFAIL.TXT FAXBAD1 FAXBAD1.TXT Ver 1.0 3 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 3 - Sample config files Table of content A. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 FaxForward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 B. What is Mail2Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Pcboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 C. How it works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Fax software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 automatic reply message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FAX MAIL@nnn-nnnn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 mail forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 SENDFAX.PPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FAXID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 NETID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FaxForward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PcBoard Extended headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 D. What you need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 "command line" mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 TSR mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 WinFax Pro and Winfax Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 BBS node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 $$LOGOFF.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 DOS ERRORLEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 no dial tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 EC.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 E. Cover Page and Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 @variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bill Clinton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 @SYSOPNAME@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 F. Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 REPLY.TXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 message header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 G. Screening of fax numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 local calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 acceptable telephone number ranges . . . . . . . . . . . 9 fax number alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Messages from SYSOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 H. FAX Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 PcBoard Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 editor mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 maximum length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Echo Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 I. FORWARD Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 COMMENT2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 J. Netmail Fax Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 ATTENTN extended header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 NETID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 network fax ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Ver 1.0 4 September 26, 1993 Mail2Fax - Sending fax messages from your BBS. Appendix 3 - Sample config files K. Replies to Automated Messages . . . . . . . . . . . 14 NOREPLYID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 L. Fax Busy or No Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Message Read flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 faxing schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 M. No Dial Tone Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 N. MAIL2FAX Error levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 O. Config file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 order of the keyword entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 P. Testing of Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Q. How to install Mail2Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 sample installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 DEBUG parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 R. Known Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 S. Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 T. Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 $30.- not including Fax Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 $45.- including Fax Forward option . . . . . . . . . . . 22 U. Error messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 V. Fax coversheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Ver 1.0 5 September 26, 1993