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Monster Disc 2: The Best of 1992
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1992-01-08
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Upload/Download Protocol setting programs v0192-05
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 1991, James E. Toro BBS Concepts
(Not for resale, only free distribution!)
For TBBS 2.2 using TDBS v1.1x or Gamepak TDBS
FreeWare, BUT if you like this program maybe stuff a $5 bill in
an envelope and send it to me. I run a bbs for a living and
write an occasional program. Contrary to popular belief, money
doesn't flow in everytime a new caller logs on to the bbs, so ANY
contributions help to put food in the fridge and beers in cooler.
Thank you for any contributions in advance.
James E. Toro
1 Hollins Road
Hicksville, Ny, 11801
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program enables TBBS sysops who are running TDBS or Gamepak TDBS
to allow users to change their protocols for uploading OR downloading
from any menu without giving them the full reconfigure options from
the TYPE=31 user profile change option. This allows fast protocol
changes BUT DOES NOT PERMIT USERS TO SELECT THE ASCII OR TYPE PROTOCOLS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview:
Running a bbs for a living can be very rewarding, but it has its
pitfalls. Many people who are new to the telecommunications world
desperatly want to get onto bbs's and start downloading, but few
of them understand what they are doing NOR do they really want to
take the time to learn how to improve their online time. In my
7 years of being a sysop I have learned that if you create a system
that a moron could use, you will have many happy users online. Thats
not to say all users are morons, but you will get your share if you
don't plan for it. ;->
The TYPE=31 TBBS function is normally used to change any of the users
profile settings in the userlog. I have found that most of them are
set and forget items, but some do change with the taste of the user
or with the change in dialing programs that come out. The only problem
is that the TYPE=31 offers many users the ability to totally screw their
accounts up by fooling with things like NULLS, LINEFEEDS, TERMINAL TYPES
SCREEN SIZE, ETC. I found that once a user gets used to your system
they often will select a preferred protocol, changing it only on occasion
when needed. Alot of users also do stupid things like setting their
protcols to ASCII types so that they cannot download anything in a
binary format. With the advent of TBBS 2.2 you can now limit the user
to what protocols they can use when they select from the download prompt
BUT if they use the TYPE=31 option they can put in the ASCII download
options which really are of little use to most bbs's.
What I have done is create two simple programs, one for changing the
uploads protocol called PROTUPLD.TPG and one for changing the download
protocol called PROTDOWN.TPG which will present the user with ALL
the current protocols along with slightly extended protocol descriptions
and the option to switch to any of them. When a user runs either program
they will be told which protocol is already selected and then they will
be offered the possible protocols to change to. If the do not enter
anything the program then tells them their protocol is not changed and
returns them to the calling menu. If they change their protocol it
is stored in their userlog for the next download. These are "permanent"
changes, that is the protocol they select with these programs will
be the defaults for every time they download or upload, but they can
be changed at any time.
An important item to note here is Zmodem Moby Turbo. Many users on
my system complain that when they try to upload with Zmodem Moby
Turbo they often get some kind of data overrun and the upload fails.
Certain modems seem to have this problem more than others and this
may also have something to do with the UART chip in either the
bbs or users computer or the overall loading/performance of the
bbs computer. With this in mind I have made a special modification
to the UPLOAD description of Zmodem. When the user modifies the
UPLOAD protocol to Zmodem it says "STANDARD ZMODEM". The DOWNLOAD
protocol Zmodem description says "Zmodem Moby Turbo OverThruster".
This seems to help the user understand that uploading to the bbs
should not be done in Zmodem Mobyturbo, rather it should be done
in Zmodem standard.
Important note: Nothing about the zmodem upload protocol
selection is different from the downloading
protocol ON THE BBS SIDE. The protocol is
still the Zmodem90(tm) that is coded into TBBS
and it will detect and handle either standard
or Moby Zmodem, BUT the description of the
upload protocol USING THESE PROGRAMS is
different to fool the user into using standard
Zmodem for uploads. If you do not experiance
a problem uploading in Zmodem Moby Turbo, you
may want to do it that way and your users can
do so as well, but these programs will always
"pretend" that they are different from upload
and download so that the user will avoid Moby
on the upload.
The program uses no databases and no special input or output
consideration. No ANSI screen i/o is done and this program can be put
on a RAM disk with no worry of data loss, nothing is updated
other than the users USERLOG account at run time.
Operation is completely seamless, that is it appears to work like
and internal TBBS function. These programs can be run as often
as needed without any damage to the users record.
Installation: ** FOR TBBS 2.2 ONLY. DO NOT USE WITH TBBS 2.1 **
Simple!
After unzipping the zip you ended up with two files:
UP&DOWN.DOC - This info file.
PROTUPLD.TPG - The TDBS UPLOADS protocol selector
PROTDOWN.TPG - The TDBS DOWNLOAD protocol selector
Simply copy the TPG's to ANY directory you like, keep the docs
somewhere you can find it, the same directory as the TPG
is a good idea. YOU DO NOT NEED A SPECIAL DIRECTORY FOR THESE
PROGRAMS, THEY WILL NOT GENERATE ANY OTHER FILES.
The menu type and optional data should be as follows:
For the either the PROTUPLD.TPG or PROTDOWN.TPG program:
TYPE=200 OPT DATA=C:\TBBS\PROTxxxx /Q
|-------|-------|-|
Sub-dir -----------+ | |
Program name -------------+ |
/Q eliminates startup msg -----+
The programs name is either PROTUPLD or PROTDOWN, do not enter
the '.TPG' extension.
The '/Q' simply eliminates the TDBS startup notice.
Running:
The above Installation section, Part 1, explains virtually all
you will need to know about running this program. Since it is
seamless to the user and has no maintenance there is NOTHING
to do when running. It doesn't hurt to install this option
and to remove the standard <P>rotocol option from the download
prompts using EDLANG and remove the TYPE-31 if you want. For me
it works best to not allow the user all the options of the
TYPE-31, so I have made these two protocol programs and a few others
like MORETOGL to replace the TYPE-31 page pause selection.
Just make a calling option from a menu that says something like
"<P>rotocol change". For the uploads I have a specific uploads
menu so I stick the protocol changer in with a "<U>pload Protocol Change"
menu item.
I put these options in all my file area menus and never have to
worry about new users trying to download ZIP files with ASCII
protocols or leaving me a message that they did something to their
account and can't read the screen any longer. I am getting to old
to have to clear up users accounts everytime they say "Hmmm.... maybe
I should set the NULLs to something!".
Support:
Very little. This program is shareware and I don't expect much money
or great praise for it either, BUT if you have an unusual programming
request or a desired modification of this program I can often
do it for free or for a VERY low fee. Anything I write for a
fee is ALWAYS fully supported and bug fixes and updates are always
free.
Anyone who contributes $5 for these little shareware releases
can get full help and other considerations.
If I screwed the pooch and this program doesn't work for you, contact
me at the numbers below and tell me what is wrong.
If you have an unusual problem, please feel free to contact
me at the phone numbers below. This program should NOT damage
any files in your system, that includes your userlog. I have been
running this program for almost a month and I get about 300+ calls
a day and nothing has happened to me yet. Should you awake one
day and find your userlog trashed understand that it is unlikely
this program did it, if it runs flawlessly for any length of time
then its very odd that it would cause corruption. Remember, TBBS
is CONSTANTLY updating the userlog and many other 3rd party
TBBS and TDBS programs are doing the same. Also any disk or system
problem can cause just one file to get blown away. I am very
confident with this program and hope you will be too, but someone
in Monkeys Paw, Montana will get a fried USERLOG one day and who
do you think he will blaim first ????.
Contacts:
System name Phone # Account name
--------------------------------------------------------
House Of Files 516-938-6722 JIM TORO (or SYSOP)
EXEC-PC 414-789-4210 JIM TORO
TBBS SUPPORT 303-699-8222 JAMES TORO
--------------------------------------------------------
VOICE- 24hours 516-938-1729
FAX- 24hours 516-938-0675