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ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso
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WHATSNEW.200
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1993-06-02
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What's new in version 2.00
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RNET version 2.00 is a complete rewrite. Since the alpha version of PCBoard
15.0 was released, I've been working non-stop 7 days a week rewriting RNET.
Since there are major changes involving the extended headers in PCBoard 15,
and message routing functions are being implemented, this is the perfect
time to finally develop the long planned version 2.00!
The upgrade from version 1.xx to 2.00 requires very little effort -- add two
keywords to the top of your CFG's (HOSTID= and LOCALID=) and you're all set.
To make use of some of the new features or better ways of defining confs,
you'll need to do a little more work (but not much).
See UPGRADE.DOC for more information on how to upgrade from 1.xx to 2.00.
What's new in version 2.00a (see CHANGES.200 for additional features added):
■ Speed -- RNET is even faster than before. The "slow" mode of operation
(flushing the directory structure after every message) is faster than the
old "fast" mode. Of course, RNET still maintains safety as top priority
and can even enable or disable the DOS flush "on the fly" as needed.
(revamped in 2.00c to create a disk cache on-the-fly if memory available)
■ Internal and VERY FAST support for "you have mail waiting" flags. No need
to run another product to check out your conferences, RNET can update all
your users' mail waiting flags. Since it does it itself, it doesn't need
to update each user for each message by scanning the messagebases, it
updates each user ONCE setting ALL of their mail waiting flags at the end.
■ Refer numbers now fully supported -- both incoming and outgoing packet
refer numbers are adjusted. Assuming all nodes between two points are
running RNET version 2, the refer numbers will all be correct. Networks
running entirely on RNET will find their refer numbers correct across the
entire network! The refer "tables" are automatically packed to match the
messagebase packing. Thus, if you maintain 1000 messages in your message-
bases, the refer tables will keep track of those 1000 messages. If you
pack your conferences down to 500 messages, RNET will automatically adjust
the refer tables down as well.
■ Automatic dup checking against host packets -- since the refer tables keep
track of the "host number" for each message, RNET can check all incoming
messages against the table to determine if that message has already been
imported. (This can be disabled if you have a host that tends to lose or
renumber their conferences often). [Also added X.25 CRC32 dup checking].
■ Automatic age checking -- specify to RNET the age (in days) of the oldest
message you'll accept. The default is 30 days. The age check allows RNET
to catch "mass uploaded dups" even if the CRC and similar tables have long
since lost track of those messages.
■ RNET allows you to abort an import in the middle then re-start it later
and RNET will only import the messages it didn't import the first time!
Combined with KILL_QWK, if there is a problem and the QWK packet remains
available to RNET, the next time it runs it'll import only the messages it
didn't get the first time (this assumes you fixed the out of disk space
problem or whatever else caused the first import to fail).
■ Supports versions 14.5, 14.5a and 15.0 of PCBoard. Support for PCBoard
14.0-14.2 and ProDoor based systems is coming soon.
■ RNET will automatically create missing messagebases, NDX, and IDX files.
No need to crank up PCBoard to create the messagebase, just define it in
PCBSM, tell RNET about it, and forget it. RNET will do the rest.
■ Messages may be of an unlimited (er, up to PCBoard maximum) size and
number of lines. PCBoard still limits the total message size to 32K (255
x 128 byte blocks).
■ PCBoard 15.0 extended headers are fully supported INCLUDING file attach!
For a file attach to work, the mail door must be setup to include the file
in question. If the existing mail doors don't support this soon, don't
worry, the RNETdoor will.
■ Fancy and sysop defined reports including an expanded usage analysis
report! The new analysis report keeps track of the number of days each
conference has been in use, public/private/routed exports and imports,
average daily traffic, date of last import, date of last export, etc. The
report tells you what conferences your users aren't using and even warns
you of dead conferences.
■ Tracking reports for taglines and origin. Jim Lee needs only turn on the
tagline_track and then use a batch file with grep to tell him the taglines
which don't conform to ILink standards (heh). No more writing of custom
programs to do it -- RNET will do it for you! If the network is using
Origin and Seenby lines, RNET can dump all @ORIGIN lines to a log to see
how much each board contributes to the network.
■ An easy-to-use sysop programming language for filtering (translations,
tcans, tracking) messages on a global or conference specific basis!
Running a family board and don't want to see specific 4 letter words?
Just tell RNET to translate those words into something else like "f***"
or "<word deleted>" and whenever such words show up, they're "fixed". Or,
if you prefer, messages with specified phrases can be tcanned or logged or
both. You tell it what you want it to do.
■ Customized tracking logs for logging the header or entire message of
specific messages. Want to see a log of every message written by a
certain user (ie, someone being moderated), or perhaps a list of messages
which are addressed to you? Just tell RNET to do it and it does!
■ RNET can now automatically keep the last x (you define x) REPs, QWKs, and
pointers. It will automatically renumber and copy the packets off as
desired... no more need to write a batch-file-of-doom to keep backups!
■ Oh, and lets not forget ROUTED mail! It does require that the mail door
support routed mail, of course, but again, if it becomes a problem don't
worry -- the RNETdoor will handle routed mail just fine.
■ Sysop customizable "last mail event at ..." support to update your NEWS
or other display files. Includes dozens of "@..@" replacement codes for
things such as day of week, day or year, week of year, month short, month
long, etc.
■ Specialized @..@ codes can be used when defining ANY log filename to RNET
so your logs can be called exactly what you want. Don't like getting your
daily VERBOSE.@DAYOFWEEK@ logs? How about @WEEKNUM@.LOG -- keep a log for
each week of the year. Or, use environment variables anywhere -- how
about %PCBDRIVE%%PCBDIR%DAY_LOG.@DAYOFYEAR@? And, of course, RNET will
delete the "tomorrow" log automatically to keep your logs from growing out
of control.
■ If running in a low memory situation, RNET will automatically swap out to
disk leaving about 800 bytes of itself in memory! Useful since PKZIP
version 2 wants up to 206K of free ram for itself (sheesh).
■ Programmable packing of your messagebases. I used to run PACK /AREA:ALL
/MAX:550... every night during my 4am event. Packing conferences with
only 100 messages was useless and time consuming (never mind beating up
the disk). Now, I have RNET pack my echo conferences down to 500 only
when they have more than 750 messages! On top of that, you can specify
the "rules" for packing on a conference by conference basis and even tell
RNET the rules for ALL of your conferences, not just the echos. You can
even use this when you don't use RNET as your tosser!
■ And lots of little things that make the difference -- uses YOUR defined
PCBSM colors for display; supports 80x25 through 132x66 (or larger screen
sizes .. and *uses* the space); detects when running under DV, OmniView,
VU, Windows, etc to use the right video mode/buffer; can import packets
in reverse order if using Robocomm; writes Error, Warning, and Notice
logs for different levels of warnings; even the DOS SHELL in a box
function correctly handles the "fast-char" output from PKZIP version 2.
Of course, these are only the *new* things for version 2.00 -- the full
feature list of RNET is indeed impressive! We also offer a printed manual
in a ring binder so you can look up the features and functions when you need
to implement them!
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