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██████┐ ██┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ██┐ ████┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ██┌─██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ └██┌──██│ ██┌────┘ ██│ └██┌┘ ██┌────┘ └──██┌──┘ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ █████┐ ██│ ██│ ███████┐ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██┌──┘ ██│ ██│ └────██│ ██│ ██│ ██████│ ███████│ ████████│ ███████┐ ██████┐ ████┐ ███████│ ██│ └─┘ └─────┘ └──────┘ └───────┘ └──────┘ └─────┘ └───┘ └──────┘ └─┘ ██┐ ██┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ███████┐ ██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ └██┌──██│ ██┌──██│ └──██┌──┘ ██┌────┘ ██┌──██│ ██│ ██│ ███████│ ██│ ██│ ███████│ ██│ █████┐ ███████│ ██│ ██│ ██┌────┘ ██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ ██│ ██┌──┘ ██┌─██┌┘ ███████│ ██│ ████████│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ███████┐ ██│ ███┐ └──────┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └──────┘ └─┘ └──┘ Nodelist Updater version 2.00 Copyright (c) 1992-93 by Roland van der Put All rights reserved. Software and documentation written by Roland van der Put. M A D E I N H O L L A N D ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ You must register after a period of 30 days! │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ USER MANUAL - 1 - Table of contents ║ ══════════════════╝ 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1 What is Nodelist Updater? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.3 System hardware and software requirements . . . . . . . 7 1.4 License and disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. FidoNet technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1 Network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2 Nodelists and difference files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3. NUSETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.2 Starting NUSETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3 Command line options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4 Keys and mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.5 Automatic installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4. NUSETUP options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.1 System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.1.1 Site information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.1.2 Pathnames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.1.3 Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1.4 Compression programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1.5 External programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.1.6 Log options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.1.7 Other options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.2 Nodelist Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.2.1 View mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.2.2 Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.2.3 Nodelist manager fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.3 Export data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.3.1 System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.3.2 Nodelist Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.3.3 Entire configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.4 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.5 Exit to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5. Starting Nodelist Updater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 5.1 Commandline options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 5.2 Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 5.3 Errorcodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.4 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 6. Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6.1 Using NU with a mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6.2 Using NU with a fileprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 - 2 - 7. Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 8. Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 9. Address and latest versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 9.1 Contacting the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 9.2 Latest versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 9.3 Support area's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 10. Biography of the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 11. Technical notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 - 3 - 1. Introduction ║ ════════════════╝ 1.1 What is Nodelist Updater? │ ──────────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater is a fast, advanced and fully FTSC-compatible program which updates the nodelists using the difference files which are send to you every week. Nodelist Updater is very easy to use and lets you configure many options by using a full-screen mouse-driven setup utility. Nodelist Updater is written in Borland Pascal 7.0 and some parts in Turbo Assembler 3.2. I decided to write this program after I got problems with processing the difference files. I had a lot of batch files which did the job. Many times it went wrong. Nodelists difference files got lost. My Boss and other SysOps also had troubles with the processing of the difference files. Many SysOps wanted to compress the fresh created nodelists with a compression program. The filename had to get a extension like: ".A59". As you will know, this is not possible in batch files. Nodelist Updater does this job for you automatically. The first beta version has been released in January 1992 to a small group of beta testers. Nodelist Updater now has more than 75 registered users in The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, the United States of America, Denmark and Austria. I released Nodelist Updater as a shareware program. If you use the program, you will have to pay for it. Also commercial users have to pay for it (commercial users are schools and companies). Nodelist Updater is released in a ZIP file with PKWARE's PKZIP Authenticity Verification. When using PKUNZIP 2.0, you should see "-AV" after every file that is unzipped and at the end it should display: Authentic files Verified! # AJB440 R.G.L. van der Put If you do not see this, then the files may have been tampered with. Please do NOT change the contents of the ZIP or add files or comments. Please support this fine shareware program and register! Roland van der Put - 4 - 1.2 Features │ ─────────────┘ I will give you a short impression of the program, so here are the features: ■ Fully FTSC compatible. ■ Support for all different kind of nodelists and difference files. ■ You can use a full-screen mouse-driven setup utility to configure all options. ■ Full-screen output, including a progress bar. ■ All nodelists (up to 100) are updated within only one Nodelist Updater session. You will have to start the program only once. ■ If one or more nodelists were updated, NU will exit with an errorlevel. One or more compilers can also be executed automatically by Nodelist Updater. ■ Nodelist Updater automatically decompresses nodelists and difference files if necessary. No need to do this in a batch file. ■ Support for multiple compression formats such as ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, SQZ, ZIP and ZOO. ■ Can create a file containing lots of information about a nodelist. ■ Nodelist Updater lets you optionally compress the new nodelists, difference files and statistics files after processing. ■ Automatic updating of your alias file definitions (magic names). ■ Nodelist Updater can create a log file. You can easily see if new files have been processed. This is optional. ■ Nodelist Updater is DesqView, TopView, DoubleDOS, TaskView, OmniView, MultiDos Plus, VMiX, Windows, Windows NT and OS/2 aware. It will write directly in the screen buffer if one of these multitaskers is detected. ■ Nodelist Updater performs a check if the correct difference file has been found. Also the 16-bit CRC in the header is used. ■ It is possible to let Nodelist Updater swap out of memory when executing an external program. Supported are XMS, EMS, extended memory and disk. - 5 - ■ A complete program which is compact and reliable. ■ Very fast, but not memory-hungry. ■ HIGH quality and performance, extremely LOW registration fee! ■ Good support from the author and the help nodes by netmail and by echomail. Special support area's are available at all support sites. - 6 - 1.3 System hardware and software requirements │ ──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ■ An IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible PC with a hard disk. ■ Microsoft MS-DOS, IBM PC-DOS or DR-DOS version 3.10 or later. Version 5.0 or later is strongly recommended. ■ Your CONFIG.SYS file has to contain at least something like this: "FILES=20". You will need at least this value, otherwise it's possible that NU runs out of file handles. ■ It's also wise to have a disk cache program such as PC-CACHE or HyperDisk. Such program can improve the performance of NU (especially one that can buffer disk writes). Of course it is not necessary. Nodelist Updater always has an internal buffer. ■ At least 265 KB of RAM available. NU will use about 265 KB of memory. If you want to decompress files and/or compress files, you may need more memory, but NU can also swap itself out of memory leaving just a few bytes in memory. ■ Of course you also need a raw or St.Louis nodelist. ■ If you get your difference files in a compressed format you will need the decompression program which will be used to decompress the files. ■ Nodelist Updater was successfully tested with DOS 3.3, 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0, DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0, 4DOS/NDOS 4.0, OS/2 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1, Windows 3.0 and 3.1, Qemm 6.0 and 7.0, DESQview 2.3 and 2.4, DESQview/X 1.0 and 1.1 on systems equipped with NEC V20, V30, Intel/AMD 8086, 8088, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486 and Pentium processors. - 7 - 1.4 License and disclaimer │ ───────────────────────────┘ ■ Nodelist Updater and NU refer to all executables and manuals as distributed in the compressed file in which this package was released. ■ Nodelist Updater is copyrighted material by Roland van der Put (R.G.L. van der Put). This program may only be used in agreement with the conditions which are set out in this part of the manual. ■ Nodelist Updater is distributed as a shareware program: - You are allowed to use Nodelist Updater for an evaluation period of THIRTY days. After this period you MUST REGISTER or you MUST stop using this program. - You are allowed to distribute Nodelist Updater as long as you: 1. do NOT modify any files; 2. supply ALL files; 3. you do NOT ask money for it. ■ Although care has been taken to write and test a program that does what this manual states, the program is provided as is, without warranty or guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the quality or performance of this program, except that Nodelist Updater will occupy disk space. ■ The author of Nodelist Updater, Roland van der Put, is NOT responsible for any (direct or indirect) damage or costs, including, but not limited to, lost savings, lost profits and loss of data, which may result from the use or the inability to use Nodelist Updater. ■ You are NOT allowed to do any disassembling, reverse engineering, creating patches for Nodelist Updater and things alike. ■ I (Roland van der Put) am NOT obligated to provide new versions or support for Nodelist Updater. ■ If you use this program, you will constitute your agreement to this disclaimer/license. ■ The source code or part of it, is NOT available. ■ Insufficient fees can and will not be accepted. ■ All rights reserved worldwide. - 8 - 2. FidoNet technology ║ ══════════════════════╝ 2.1 Network structure │ ──────────────────────┘ FidoNet is the biggest amateur network in the world. It was started in 1984 by Tom Jennings. Currently more than 25.000 nodes worldwide are connected. The network has a hierarchic tree (or star) topology: ┌──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────> │ │ zone 1 zone 2 │ │ ┌────────┼────────┐ ┌────────┼────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ region region region region region region │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──┴──┐ │ ┌──┴──┐ ┌───┼───┐ │ ┌──┴──┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ net net net net net net net net net net net │ ┌─────┼─────┐ │ │ │ node node node │ ┌───┴───┐ │ │ point point Zones are divided in Regions, which are divided in Nets. The Nets consist of Nodes, which are usually Bulletin Board Systems. Each node has a unique address which consists of four parts: Zone, Net, Node and Point, in text form expressed as "Zone:Net/Node.Point". Zone numbers 1 up to and including 6 are used by FidoNet: 1 = North America (United States of America and Canada) 2 = Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States 3 = Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) 4 = Latin America 5 = Africa 6 = Asia There are several other networks which occupy higher zone numbers. Many nodes have one or more points. Points are users who get mail from a node in compressed files. That way they can read and write messages off-line, saving time and money. The point address of the boss is 0, but the ".0" is usually omitted from the address. - 9 - 2.2 Nodelists and difference files │ ───────────────────────────────────┘ As you will know, a modem needs a telephone number to call another node. FidoNet and other networks (like SIGnet) have a huge list of phonenumbers. In these, so called, nodelists you can find the BBS name of a node, the location, the name of the system operator, the phonenumber, the speed of the modem and finally the flags for the system. These nodelists get inaccurate after a few weeks. Some nodes quit or change and nodes may be added. For this reason these networks create difference files. Every week all systems in the network will get this difference file. You can find all changes in this textfile. You will need a special program to process these files. Nodelist Updater will do this for you in an easy and convenient way. The difference files were invented, because the complete nodelist would be too long (hundreds of KB) to send it on a weekly base. Normally you would decompress the difference file, update the master nodelist, delete the unnecessary files, compress the new files and finally compile the nodelist(s). Nodelist Updater has integrated all this and more! Well, it is time to install everything. Please read the next part of this manual to get the information you will need to install Nodelist Updater. - 10 - 3. NUSETUP ║ ═══════════╝ 3.1 Installation │ ─────────────────┘ It is convenient if the directories which contain executable files are listed in the DOS PATH, so make sure that your AUTOEXEC.BAT contains a line that looks like this: SET PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\DB;C:\RA;C:\DOS;C:\DB\NU This will make sure that programs in those directories can be started from any directory. Put the directories that are accessed most often first to improve performance. Copy the following files from the compressed distribution file to your Nodelist Updater directory. NUSETUP.EXE This is the setup utility, used to create and update the system data files. It is full-screen and you can use a mouse. NU.EXE The main program. It is responsible for compressing, decompressing and updating nodelists. NU.DOC The Nodelist Updater user manual. This is the file you are reading at the moment. NU.REG The information file about registering. NU.LST A list of all registered users. NU_BETA.LOG A list of everything that has changed since version 1.99. 3.2 Starting NUSETUP │ ─────────────────────┘ Before Nodelist Updater can run, it needs to be configured using the setup utility NUSETUP. When you start NUSETUP, it will search for the system data file SETUP.NU in the current directory. The first time you run NUSETUP, it will not be able to locate the file and it will ask you if you want to create it. If you press the space bar, NUSETUP will create a new system data file with example default values for most input fields. - 11 - 3.3 Command line options │ ─────────────────────────┘ NUSETUP has some switches which can be used to force NUSETUP to use colors or not. Usage: NUSETUP [switch] Switches: -Mono Force monochrome mode -Color Force color mode 3.4 Keys and mouse │ ───────────────────┘ NUSETUP uses pop-up menus. You can use your mouse, the cursor up and down keys or Tab and Shift-Tab keys to move the menu bar up and down. You can select an option or command by pressing the left mouse button or by pressing Enter. The right mouse button or the Esc key will take you back to a previous level. At some places NUSETUP may ask you if you want to save the changes or discard them. Wherever this is the case, you may press F10 to save the changes unconditionally, ie. without getting this question. The last line on the screen will contain useful help about the use of the selected function or help on keys that can be used. 3.5 Automatic installation │ ───────────────────────────┘ NUSETUP will automatically read the configuration of other programs when it could not find SETUP.NU. The correct environment variable has to be set to let this work. Supported are D'Bridge, FrontDoor, InterMail, GEcho and RemoteAccess. Should something go wrong with this feature, then you can disable it by temporary removing the environment variable(s) of the above programs. - 12 - 4. NUSETUP options ║ ═══════════════════╝ 4.1 System data │ ────────────────┘ This menu enables you to enter miscellaneous system information, such as address, files, directories, compressions programs and external compilers. 4.1.1 Site information Here you can enter all your personal information. This information will only be used for your key and in the statistics file which you can optionally create. SysOp name The name of the System Operator of this node. In nearly all cases that is you. System name This is the BBS name for this system. If your system does not have a name, then leave this option blank. Access password Password required to access NUSETUP. This option only works for registered users. 4.1.2 Pathnames Here you can specify the pathnames used by Nodelist Updater. If you enter a path that does not exist, NUSETUP will ask if you want to create it. Nodelist path Where the mailer looks for the nodelists. Swap path Path where the swap file is stored if there is insufficient XMS/EMS/EXT memory available. Up to 140 KB disk space is required. It is recommended to use a RAM disk for this. Difference path Where incoming nodelists and difference files are stored by your mailer. Statistics path Where the statistics files created by Nodelist Updater can be stored. Nodelist Updater will use the Nodelist path by default. - 13 - Filebase path Where the RemoteAccess 2.0 filebase can be found. When you enter a path here, then Nodelist Updater will write to the RA filebase instead of writing to Files.Bbs files. 4.1.3 Filenames Log file The name and location of the log file. In the "Log options" menu you can determine which kind of messages should be logged. Magic file The name and location of the file containing the alias file definitions (magic names). Nodelist Updater can optionally update the file with newer information. 4.1.4 Compression programs Here you can specify up to 10 programs which can be executed to decompress nodelists and difference files. Nodelist Updater recognizes archives in ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, SQZ, ZIP and ZOO format. These programs can also be selected to compress a file. Program The name of the program to execute to compress files. This program has to be in your DOS PATH. Switches The switches needed to compress files. Swap If Nodelist Updater should swap itself out of memory when executing this program. Output visible If you want to view the output of this program, then turn on this switch. Also turn on this switch, if Nodelist Updater is unable to suppress the output of this program (direct screen writes). Character All compress files will be in the format NODELIST.A27. You can choose which character you want to use, in this case it is the 'A'. Program The name of the program to execute to decompress files. This program has to be in your DOS PATH. Switches The switches needed to decompress files. Swap & output visible Same as above. - 14 - 4.1.5 External programs Here you can specify up to 10 programs which will be executed after one or more nodelists have been updated by Nodelist Updater. Users who haven't registered Nodelist Updater, can only use the first external program. You can put all your nodelist compilers here. Examples are FrontDoor's FDNC and GoldED's GOLDNODE. Program The name of the program to execute after updating one or more nodelists. This has to be the full path and filename of the executable file. Otherwise this program must be in your DOS PATH. An extension is not necessary, but can always be added. Switches The switches needed for this program. Swap If Nodelist Updater should swap itself out of memory when executing this program. Output visible If you want to view the output of this program, then turn on this switch. Also turn on this switch, if Nodelist Updater is unable to suppress the output of this program (direct screen writes). 4.1.6 Log options Here you can define what kind of messages should be written to the log file. The DEBUG setting allows you to log all messages without losing your customized settings. 4.1.7 Other options Make noise after If Nodelist Updater detected a fatal error it will fatal error normally make a noise to notify you. If your computer is situated in your bedroom, then you might want turn this off. Log file style Which log file should be used. You can use None or FrontDoor. Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use EMS memory for to EMS swapping. Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use XMS memory for to XMS swapping. - 15 - Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use extended memory for to EXT swapping. Touch date of Nodelist Updater has the ability to touch the date compressed files of a compressed file and set it to the date and time of the file it contains. This can be useful in some BBS environments. 4.2 Nodelist manager │ ─────────────────────┘ This manager is used to define the nodelists, their difference files, compression programs and many other options. 4.2.1 View mode In view mode you can walk through the areas with the cursor up/down or left/right keys. The index is sorted alphabetically by area name. Pressing Home will take you to the first area, pressing End will take you to the last area. You can press A-Z to jump to the first record starting with this character. Enter, F1 Edit the current area. Ins Add a new nodelist. NUSETUP will use the defaults to initialize the values. You can add up to 100 nodelists. Del This will remove the current nodelist configuration. You will be prompted for a confirmation. The record will be deleted immediately. F2 Perform global maintenance on multiple nodelists. This will allow you to change settings, set or clear options, change the paths and change the compression programs. F3 Edit the default settings. Here you can enter all data that you want to be the default for a certain field. - 16 - 4.2.2 Edit mode In edit mode you can move between input fields using the cursor up/down, Tab/Shift-Tab and Enter keys. The following function keys are available: Esc, F9 Save changes and return to view mode. If the nodelist name was already in use or no nodelist name was entered, then NUSETUP will exit with saving. F10 Save the changes unconditionally. Enter Toggles between the possible states of an option. 4.2.3 Nodelist manager fields The Nodelist manager has several fields which look the same. Nodelist name The basename of the nodelist you want to update. Nodelist Updater will automatically look for the extension (a daynumber) when updating the nodelist. Nodelist Updater will not interfere with temporary nodelists (*.999). It will just ignore them. Nodelist path The destination directory for the compressed nodelist. Every time the nodelist is updated, you can let Nodelist Updater compress it with a compression program of your choice. This directory defines where the compressed nodelist will be placed. Leave it empty if you don't want to compress the nodelist. Nodelist description The description of this nodelist for the Files.Bbs in the directory mentioned above or the RemoteAccess 2.0 filebase. If you don't want Nodelist Updater to add the description for this nodelist, then leave it empty. You can also add the daynumber of this nodelist by using "@@@", this is automatically replaced with the daynumber. Nodelist options This will bring you to a submenu where you enter some options for this nodelist. These options are described below. - 17 - Compression Specifies which program should be used to compress this nodelist. If you select "No compression", Nodelist Updater will not compress this nodelist. Keep How many compressed nodelists should be kept in this directory. This is only valid when you compress the nodelist. Nodelist Updater will start deleting the oldest nodelists first. This option only works for registered users. Magic name If Nodelist Updater should update the magic name for the compress nodelist. If a password was found behind the magic name then it will be copied by Nodelist Updater. Delete old If Nodelist Updater should delete the old nodelists. This option only works for registered users. Del old cmp If Nodelist Updater should delete the old compressed nodelists in your inbound path. This option only works for registered users. Filearea no The areanumber for the RemoteAccess 2.0 filebase. Only enter a number when you want Nodelist Updater to add this file to the RA filebase. Difference name The basename of the difference file which belongs to this nodelist. If no difference files are submitted then leave this empty. Difference others For an explanation of the other options for difference files, see above (nodelist). Statistics name The basename of the statistics file that will be created by Nodelist Updater. If you don't want Nodelist Updater to create any statistics files then leave this field empty. Nodelist Updater will automatically use the daynumber as the extension for this file. Statistics others For an explanation of the other options for statistics files, see above (nodelist). - 18 - 4.3 Export data │ ────────────────┘ The export function can be used to export the configuration of Nodelist Updater partly or entirely to an ASCII text file. NUSETUP will ask you if it should overwrite an existing file if the file already exists. 4.3.1 System data This will export the general configuration to a text file. All options found under the menu item System data will be written to a text file. 4.3.2 Nodelist manager This will export the configuration of Nodelist manager to a text file. 4.3.3 Entire configuration This will export the entire configuration of Nodelist Updater to a text file. This option combines the two options mentioned above. 4.4 Information │ ────────────────┘ This screen will show you some general information about Nodelist Updater. This includes the copyright message, version number, compilation date and time and the compiler and assembler name and version. 4.5 Exit to DOS │ ────────────────┘ If you select this or press Esc from the main menu, you can exit NUSETUP and return to DOS. NUSETUP will check if the configuration has been changed and ask if you want to save the changes. From anywhere in NUSETUP you can press Alt-Z to temporarily shell to DOS. Type 'EXIT' at the DOS prompt to return to NUSETUP. - 19 - 5. Starting Nodelist Updater ║ ═════════════════════════════╝ It's very easy to use Nodelist Updater. Just type 'NU' and that's it! 4.1 Command line options │ ─────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater will automatically search for the file SETUP.NU in the directory in which Nodelist Updater is executed from. This means that Nodelist Updater can only use ONE setup file. Nodelist Updater has some switches which can be used to force Nodelist Updater to use colors or not. You can also make it execute the external programs at any cost. This is useful when you need to recompile your nodelists. Usage: NU [switch] Switches: -Mono Force monochrome mode -Color Force color mode -Force Forced execution of external programs Nodelist Updater also has a helpswitch. If you type NU /? or NU ? you will get a short help screen. 4.2 Errors │ ───────────┘ If you have any troubles, please contact me and I will try to solve these problems for you. Please report bugs if you find them!! If you have found a bug, please give me all the information that may be necessary to solve the problem. Take a look at the next section for information about errors and errorlevels. - 20 - 5.3 Errorcodes │ ───────────────┘ When something goes wrong when executing an external program, then Nodelist Updater will write some additional information to the log file. Remember that Nodelist Updater will always execute the commandline interpreter. In case of an "exec" error, here are the errorcodes: Code │ Meaning ═════╪══════════════════ 2 │ File not found 3 │ Path not found 5 │ Access denied 6 │ Invalid handle 8 │ Not enough memory 10 │ Invalid environment 11 │ Invalid format 18 │ No more files And for a "spawno" error the codes: Code │ Meaning ═════╪══════════════════ 2 │ File not found 3 │ Path not found 5 │ Access denied 8 │ Not enough memory 20 │ To big 29 │ Write fault - 21 - 5.4 Errorlevels │ ────────────────┘ If an error occurred, Nodelist Updater will exit with an errorlevel. In the following table you see what all errorlevels mean. 0: No nodelists updated and no errors. 1: One or more nodelists updated, but no errors. 2: One or more nodelists updated and one or more errors. 3: No nodelists updated, but one or more errors. 4: Fatal error during program startup. 5: Runerror detected. Contact the author. You can use these errorlevels to take special measures or to run a program that fixes that error. - 22 - 6. Hints ║ ═════════╝ On the following pages, you will find some hints about using Nodelist Updater in combination with a mailer and a fileprocessor. 6.1 Using NU with a mailer │ ───────────────────────────┘ Basically, there are two ways of invoking Nodelist Updater. The first method is to execute Nodelist Updater after every call. A disadvantage is that it will take some time before your system is online again. An advantage is that your nodelists are always up-to-date. All nodelists will be compiled if one or more nodelists have been updated. The second method is to execute Nodelist Updater once or maybe a few times a day on fixed times. The disadvantage of this method, that your nodelists are not very up-to-date, but within about 24 hours. A big advantage is that you can update and compile your nodelists during a quiet time of the day. I personally prefer the second method. NOTE: Make sure that any other lines you have (if you have a multiline configuration) are not active. Otherwise they can cause big troubles when they can't find the nodelist any more. The best way is to take them down for a few minutes and then execute Nodelist Updater on one single line. 6.2 Using NU with a fileprocessor │ ──────────────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater can optionally delete and/or compress nodelists, difference files and statistics files. There are a few possibility's to combine this with a fileprocessor like AllFix. Most people who forward files to downlinks use the following setup. Create a 'waitlist' directory and let your fileprocessor (e.g. AllFix) copy all difference files etc. to this directory. Then insert this directory name into NUSETUP as the inbound directory. You can let Nodelist Updater compress the new nodelists and/or difference files and/or statistics files and place them into a BBS download directory (with a description). If you are a point or don't forward files to downlinks, then forget about the 'waitlist' directory and let Nodelist Updater use you inbound directory. There are more possibility's, but these two are the most common ones. - 23 - 7. Registration ║ ════════════════╝ Programming, documenting, testing and supporting Nodelist Updater took and will take me a lot of time. I am still working on Nodelist Updater so it will be improved in the feature. What did I do with money I received? I have registered GEcho, D'Bridge, PKZIP and AllFix and I have bought a ZyXEL U-1496E 16k8 modem! I still have enough plans for the future, so don't hesitate to register :-) You may use this program, but after you have evaluated this program for THIRTY (30) days you MUST register or you must stop using Nodelist Updater. So you steal the program if you don't register!!! Take a look at the file NU.REG for more information about registering. You will be able to use more features when you are a registered user. NOTE: I am looking for support sites all over the world. If want more information, please contact me by netmail. You will get a free key and you can partially keep the registration fees. Please register Nodelist Updater! Thank you! - 24 - 8. Credits ║ ═══════════╝ At this point, I would like to thank some people. I would like to thank my beta testers. They came with many suggestions and ideas. Thanks guys! Special thanks go to all support sites for opening their systems for my product. Many thanks also go to all registered users (see NU.LST). I really appreciate your fee! It is mainly the money that keeps me going. NO thanks go to all unregistered people who still use Nodelist Updater after 30 days without registering it!! The following programs/names mentioned are copyrighted material: Borland Pascal Turbo Assembler : Borland International, Inc. ARC : Systems Enhancements Associates ARJ : Robert K. Jung LHA : Haruyasu Yoshizaki PAK : NoGate Consulting PKZIP : PKWARE, Inc. SQZ : Jonas I Hammarberg ZOO : R. Dhesi D'Bridge : Chris Irwin FrontDoor : Advanced Engineering SARL Luxembourg Remote Access : Andrew Milner and Continental Software QEMM, DESQview, DESQview/X : Quarterdeck Office Systems, Inc. MultiDos Plus : Nanosoft Inc. VMiX : Commercial Software Associates Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows (NT) : Microsoft Corporation DR DOS : Digital Research IBM, PC-DOS, OS/2 : International Business Machines Corp. PC-CACHE : Central Point Software, Inc. 4DOS : JP Software Inc. AllFix : Harald Harms FileMgr : Erick van Emmerik GEcho : Gerard van der Land SPAWNO : Ralf Brown MulAware : ABSoft Pentium : Intel ZyXEL : ZyXEL Communications Corp. Nodelist Updater, Nodelist Generator: Roland van der Put - 25 - 9. Address and latest versions ║ ═══════════════════════════════╝ 9.1 Contacting the author │ ──────────────────────────┘ If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas or whatever you can contact me in several ways: By normal mail: Roland van der Put P.O. Box 1245 NL-3350 CE PAPENDRECHT The Netherlands By netmail : Fidonet : 2:285/320 VirNet : 9:310/501 SIGnet : 27:1331/106 Thanks in advance for all suggestions and ideas! If want a quick answer, then send me crashmail directly. I will answer your message by routed netmail. If you want to have my answer faster, then ask me to put my answer on hold for you. You can pick it up after about 24 to 48 hours. 9.2 Latest versions │ ────────────────────┘ The LATEST release of Nodelist Updater is always available to you by: ■ Logging on at a main support node: All zones : BBS name : The Royal BBS / RP Software Dev. Lab Location : Papendrecht - The Netherlands SysOp : Roland van der Put FidoNet : 2:285/320 VirNet : 9:310/501 SIGnet : 27:1331/106 Online hours: 18:00 - 05:30 (UTC+2) Modem #1 : +31-78-155273 (V32b/ZyXEL 16k8) - 26 - All zones : BBS name : EuroConnect! Location : Dordrecht - The Netherlands SysOp : Ronald Bras FidoNet : 2:285/301 VirNet : 9:310/502 PNNNet : 13:315/601 DrechtNet : 19:100/103 SIGnet : 27:1331/101 INTLnet : 57:3101/202 DenkNet : 241:3102/203 Modem #1 : +31-78-512204 (V32b 14k4) All zones : BBS name : The Mailman's Location : Zwijndrecht - The Netherlands SysOp : Marco Kraaijeveld FidoNet : 2:285/307 VirNet : 9:310/505 DigiTalNet : 15:900/205 DrechtNet : 19:100/207 SIGnet : 27:1331/105 JocoNet : 45:1300/101 HollandNet : 79:200/200 GamesNet : 100:100/612 Modem #1 : +31-78-122431 (V32b/ZyXEL 16k8) Germany: BBS name : Telekotz BBS Location : Düsseldorf - Germany SysOp : Boris Hürtgen FidoNet : 2:242/210 VirNet : 9:493/2100 ZyXELNet : 16:100/502 EzyNet : 150:4901/2 Modem #1 : +49-211-237113 (V32b/ZyXEL 19k2) Un. Kingdom: BBS name : Virtual Reality Location : St. Ives, Ringwood - United Kingdom SysOp : Terence Milbourn FidoNet : 2:251/22 RANet : 73:7440/22 Modem #1 : +44-425-478436 (V32b/HST 14k4) Sweden: BBS name : MakerBBS Location : Norrkoping - Sweden SysOp : Anders Naslund FidoNet : 2:204/465 VirNet : 9:464/111 SuperNet : 42:1005/106 GlobalNet : 52:460/0 Modem #1 : +46-11-125248 (V32b/ZyXEL 16k8) - 27 - Spain: BBS name : * Polaris Location : Santander - Spain SysOp : Juan J. Achutegui Online hours : 23:00 - 7:00 (UTC+2) FidoNet : 2:344/7 Modem #1 : +34-4-228-1756 (V32b/HST 16k8) Belgium: BBS name : Connect BBS Location : Westerlo - Belgium SysOp : Patrick Thijs FidoNet : 2:292/403 2:292/404 Modem #1 : +32-14-231424 (V32b/ZyXEL 19k2) Modem #2 : +32-14-231429 (V32b 14k4) Australia: BBS name : Vincula BBS Location : Clayton - Australia SysOp : PT Kao FidoNet : 3:635/537 INTLnet : 58:4100/35 Modem #1 : +61-3-543-4071 (V32b 14k4) Denmark: BBS name : BIG Boss MAN Location : Vordingborg - Denmark SysOp : Richard Hansen FidoNet : 2:230/64 2:230/88 VirNet : 9:451/111 RANet : 73:745/1 RA_FNET : 95:2300/0 Modem #1 : +45-55-341345 (V32b/HST 16k8) Modem #2 : +45-55-342345 (V32b/ZyXEL 19k2) Austria: BBS name : Horsestable Location : Vienna - Austria SysOp : Sascha Vogt FidoNet : 2:310/7 Modem #1 : +43-1-9851660 (V32b/HST 16k8) You can use "NU" as the magic name to frequest the LATEST release. ■ Logging on at a registered BBS: You can also try to frek the filename (NU_V???.ZIP) at one of the systems in the file NU.LST. These registered users will nearly always have the latest version available for file request and/or download. - 28 - ■ Logging on to a SDS Node: Nodelist Updater is distributed through SDS. New releases will be submitted through the SDS distribution point in Holland. ■ Logging to your favourite BBS You can also try to download Nodelist Updater at your favourite BBS, but it is possible that you'll get an older release. So I suggest that you to call one of above. ■ Logging on at a node in INTLnet or RANet: New versions will also be hatched in INTLnet and RANet, so these users will automatically get new versions of Nodelist Updater. Try downloading it from an INTLnet or RANet node. - 29 - 9.3 Support area's │ ───────────────────┘ On all systems mentioned above, you can find the filearea RP_BETA and the mailarea RP_BETA. These two area's are used to release and discuss beta versions of Nodelist Updater. In some country's you can find an additional regional area. As soon as you are registered, you will receive a list of nodes where you can get these area's. You can also suggest new features or report bugs in this mailarea. Any mail in this mailarea will be answered as soon as possible. These area's are only meant for registered users. It is not allowed to link other people to these area's. You can also link these area's directly at my system. If you are not connected to these area's then you can get support directly from me or from one of the support sites. I will try to answer all netmail as quick and as good as I can, but keep in mind that I am a very busy person. - 30 - 10. Biography of the author ║ ════════════════════════════╝ The author of Nodelist Updater, Roland van der Put, was born in Dordrecht (The Netherlands) on June 28, 1974. His full name is Robertus Gerardus Laurentius van der Put. Since 1975 he lives in Papendrecht, close to Dordrecht. He bought his first computer in 1986 and immediately started programming. He is a fully self-taught programmer. At the very beginning of 1992 he started to write Nodelist Updater. Other people were very interested, so the program expanded to the version you are facing at the moment. In June 1993 he graduated from the VWO. He will start a computer science study at the Delft University of Technology in September 1993. His current equipment consist of a 40 Mhz 386 machine with 4 MB of memory and a 120 MB harddisk. Other hardware are a 24 pin printer, a color VGA monitor and a 16.800 bps ZyXEL modem for communication. Any donation is welcome :-) - 31 - 11. Technical notes ║ ════════════════════╝ ■ The swapper used is SPAWNO 4.13 by Ralf Brown. It can swap to disk, XMS, EMS and extended memory. ■ Multitasker detection is done by the MulAware 4.00 unit by ABSoft. ■ NU is DesqView, TopView, DoubleDOS, TaskView, OmniView, MultiDos Plus, VMiX, Windows, Windows NT and OS/2 aware. It will write directly in the screen buffer if one of these multitaskers is detected. ■ NU performs a check if the correct difference file has been found. Also the 16-bit CRC in the header is used. ■ When you execute Nodelist Updater, it will perform a self check. If the file has been altered, a warning message will be displayed and the program will be terminated immediately. ■ The executable files have been compressed. - 32 -