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xMail 1.00 Echomail Processor for Hudson, *.MSG, Squish and JAM message base. (c) 1990-1993 Roger Kirchhoff & Stefan Graf xMail H.Q. BBS +49-2351-786580 All rights reserved FEATURES ======== Supports Hudson, Squish, *.MSG and JAM. Multiline tossing. NETWORK and multiline support with advanced file and record locking abilities lets you run a multiple node BBS and process mail while users are online. xMail can toss on multiple lines at the same time. Supports Cost Sharing System for Echomail. Forward echo area requests Automatic creation of new echos with alert messages to Sysop and in an echo, fully configurable for every node Message Forwarding and Readdressing Post textfiles Free definable textfiles for all messages created by xMail with powerful macro support Works with almost any BBS system Works with FrontDoor, DBridge and Binkley! Advanced Security options for both mail packet checking and echoarea/node control Mixed Message base styles (Hudson, *.MSG, Squish + JAM) configurable for every echo ! Conference Support for easy usage in multiple network environments (Fido, SigNet etc.) Up to 50 conferences. Comfortable FULLSCREEN SETUP program lets you change your configuration in seconds Context sensitive Help System in xMail's setup program XMSETUP Supports all compression formats and allows you to add support for ANY new packer in the future!! Built in Areafix can RESCAN Areas Configurable Areafix messages Allows unlimited number of netmail areas in your BBS for special addresses and user groups Advanced dupe checking, stores up to 100.000 dupes All mail processing in one run: Import, Export, Reply-Linking and Areafix Multiple Logfiles for Areafix and Statistics Supports 1000 Message Areas and many, many more !!! FILES WITH xMail ================ XM.EXE Main executable program XM.OVR Overlay file for xMail XMAIL.CFG Sample configuration file. This is a plain ASCII file which contains all information about your system. You may use any ASCII editor or the built in editor in XMSETUP to edit it to your needs. COMPLETE.CFG Sample XMAIL.CFG configuration file which contains all possible config statements and their descriptions. Please read this file carefully to get to knoww all xMail features. WHATSNEW.DOC What's new with xMail 1.00 and XMSETUP XMSETUP.EXE xMail's fullscreen setup program XMSETUP.OVR Overlay file for XMSETUP XMSETUP.HLP XMSETUP's help file (english). XMSETUP.GER XMSETUP's help file (German) Rename XMSETUP.GER to XMSETUP.HLP to use german language online help. XMAIL.DOC This document file 110TO111.EXE Conversion Program to Update Data Files from RA-Echo 1.10 to xMail 1.00 specs. Files created by either xMail or XMSETUP: NODE.XM Node database AREAS.XM Echo configuration CONFNAME.XM Conference descriptions LINKS.XM Reply-Links information If you renumber your message base you have to delete the file LINKS.XM which contains the info about reply linking. xMail will then rebuild it the next time you start it. DUPES.XM Info for dupe checker LASTEXP.XM Last exported message in *.MSG directory LOGFILES ======== xMail's logfiles may have any name (see XMAIL.CFG), defaults are the following: XMAIL.LOG General information and errors AREAFIX.LOG All Areafix events STATIST.LOG Import & Export statistics GETTING STARTED =============== 1 - Copy all files to your xMail directory 2 - If you have a valid xMail key rename the keyfile to XMAIL.KEY 3 - Start XMSETUP NOTE: If you are upgrading from RA-Echo version 1.10, be sure to use the 110TO111.EXE conversion program before running XMSETUP. 4 - Edit XMAIL.CFG to your needs (see comments in COMPLETE.CFG) NOTE: There are many feature of XMAIL that are not specifically addressed in this document, but in the XMAIL.CFG file. Please read XMAIL.CFG. I also highly recommend to use the XMAIL.CFG from the distribution package and edit it to your needs as there are a lot of new keywords and features! 5 - Enter all echos (You may enter these manually or use XMAIL's import feature.) 6 - Enter all nodes and configure them accordingly 7 - Make sure that you have your FILES=45 or more. 8 - Reboot your system so that the new CONFIG.SYS is used. SYNTAX and PARAMETERS ===================== Commands -------- XM IMPORT <switches> This command will tell xMail to import received mail to the messagebase and export them to your downlinks. (see Command Line Switches below) XM EXPORT <switches> This command tells xMail to scan the messagebase and export new locally entered mail. (see Command Line Switches below) On Export you can declare what Areas have to be scanned by giving the name of a file which contains a list of the areas as 2nd parameter with '@<FileName>'. Some systems automatically create this file, and exporting can be much faster if you use this. Example: XM EXPORT /Q+ /V- /L- @EXPORT.BBS If no name is specified all areas will be scanned. This does of course not affect the message base. XM DELETEAREA <AREANAME,...> This command will remove the echos. Each area must be separated by a comma ','. xMail will generate an Areafix Message to your UPLINK to terminate the feed. All DOWNLINKS will be sent a message informing them of the change. The text to be sent is configurable in XMAIL.CFG under the keyword ECHOCANCELTEXT. Areafix macros are available including '&Z' for the AreaName. e.g. EchoCancelText Area &Z was deleted by Sysop. NOTE: Areas deleted with DELETEAREA will not be accepted as new areas for 10 days. The reason for this is quite simple: If you have deleted an Echo, your next poll will usually still contain some messages for that area, and xMail would try to add that as a new area. XM CLEANUP <Number of Days> This command will remove all Pass-Thru areas that do not have mail flow for <Number of Days> days. CLEANUP will also remove Pass-Thru areas without downlinks. xMail will generate an Areafix Message to your uplink to terminate the feed. All DOWNLINKS will be sent a message informing them of the change. The text to be sent is configurable in XMAIL.CFG under the keyword ECHOCANCELTEXT. Areafix macros are available including '&Z' for the areaname. XM POST [Filename] [Areaname] [Subject] <NodeAdr|NodeName> This command allows you to post a textfile into ECHO or NETMAIL areas. Filename: Name of the text file to be imported. Areaname: Area that text shall be posted in. If 'NETMAIL', then Netmail will be created. Subject : Subject of the message. NodeAdr : Unlimited number of node addresses for NETMAIL posts. Wildcards ('ALL' or '*'). Receivers of NETMAIL must be in XMAIL's Nodefile (NODES.XM). NodeName: If you don't specify a nodenumber but a name xMail creates an mail to this name. Include the name in "". Examples: XM POST C:\NEWS.ASC "NETMAIL" "News from your boss" 2:245/4.* posts a textfile to all points as netmail. XM POST C:\RA\NEWUSER.ASW "PRIVATE POST" "Ein neuer User..." "Klaus Roessler" posts the RA questionaire answer file as a private message to my Co-Sysop. XM NOTIFY This command tells xMail to create a notify message for selected nodes with an actual list of all ordered echos. More link information can be added with the notify-message configuration parameters. (See Areafix) You must have set the Node's 'Send Notify Message' switch to 'Yes' to let him receive the message. Same with QUERY and FILEQUERY commands. You may declare nodes to receive such a message in the command line (for example 'xMail NOTIFY 2:All') and use the wildcards 'All' or '*' to include nodes. XM QUERY This command tells xMail to send a message to selected nodes to inform them what areas are available on your system. XM AREAFIX This command tells xMail to process Areafix messages only. NO Import is done! xMail only scans for netmail addressed to Areafix and processes them. See AREAFIX section for details. XM PACK This command tells xMail to pack netmail. Please read the PACK NETMAIL section of this manual for more information. You may optionally specify a route file in the command- line with @<FILENAME>. This route file like a 'batch' of command lines for use with PACK. Use the command xMail @<FILENAME> where the <FILENAME> is the route file. Example: ROUTE.XM 245/4.all 2:245/all VIA 245/31 /NC 2:all VIA 245/0 /NC 1:all VIA 2:2/0 /NC For this, we would use: xMail PACK @ROUTE.XM XM REATTACH This command tells xMail to scan your arcmail outbound directory and check if there are file attach messages for every packet. If missing, new ones will be created. This should prevent a packet from not being sent if the file attach message gets lost. Note: Use REATTACH /Y0 to reattach arcmail packets on ALL lines. XM CHECKSYSTEM Check if echos requested from an uplink did arrive within the last 14 days. If not the requester will be notified that the requested echo is not available. XM REIMPORT xMail is now able to reimport dupes and illegal messages! You can select if the messages shall also get exported and pass several area names or *.MSG directories. Example: xMail REIMPORT DUPE BAD E:\FD\MESSAGE\ILLEGAL The areas DUPE and BAD and the MSG directory E:\FD\MESSAGE\ILLEGAL will be reimported. XM REIMPORT NEWMAIL All msgs from the newmail area will be reimported. This might be useful if you don't want new echos to be automatically created but also don't want to loose the messages. Reimported msgs get deleted. If the messages have to be exported to downlinks also add a '+' in front of the name. Example: xMail REIMPORT +ILLEGAL XMSETUP FD Create FOLDER.FD file from xMail echo setup. XMSETUP RA Create RemoteAccess 1.1x compatible MESSAGES.RA. XMSETUP RA200 Create RemoteAccess 2.0x compatible MESSAGES.RA. The environment variables RA and FD have to point to the directory where the files shall be created. Command Line Switches ===================== Use can use several command line switches to toggle some of xMail's features. '+' switches on and '-' off. General Switches /Y.. Line number Example: XM IMPORT /Y1 Import on line 1 If you don't define the line number xMail will automatically use the first free line number. Using line 0 will lock all other lines. Use this for maintenance tasks like CLEANUP etc. /L+- Reply-Linking You can tell xMail to automatically Reply-Link messages as they are being imported with the /L+ switch. Default: /L- (OFF) /N+- Network and Multiline Support With this switch you can tell xMail to work in NETWORK mode and to turn on all the record locking schemes If Novell or Share is loaded xMail will automatically switch to network mode. Default: /N- (OFF) /V+- Screen Output You may suppress screen output when IMPORTING/EXPORTING with the /V- switch. /D+- Dupe-Checking You can suppress dupe checking with the /D- switch. Default: /D+ (ON) /E+- EMS Usage You can suppress the use of EMS with /E- Default: /E+ (ON) /Q+- Quick-Scan on EXPORT In Quick-Mode, only messages after the last exported message will be exported. Otherwise xMail will scan the whole message base. In /Q- mode you can be sure that never a message will remain unexported, but Quick-Scan mode is *much* faster. If you use Quick-Scan mode, xMail creates a file named EXPMARK.XM with the data of the last exported message. xMail will recognise if you have purged your base in the meantime and then scan the whole base no matter if Quick-Scan is enabled. Default: /Q+ (ON) /S+- Save Mode for all file handling. If On, all files and the message base will be flushed to disk after every write operation. If your system crashes all files are saved, but this will SLOW DOWN xMail VERY MUCH, so usually this will not be necessary. Default: /S- (OFF) /R+- Force Mailer Rescan. If xMail writes a netmail to your netmail directory it can also create a file to force your mailer to rescan your netmail directory. FDRESCAN.NOW for FrontDoor DBRIDGE.RSN for D'Bridge Default: /R+ (ON) /A+- Process Areafix Messages. If /A-, xMail will not process any inbound messages to Areafix. Default: /A+ (ON) /B+- Process/Import NETMAIL If /B- suppresses processing and importing of Netmail Default: /B+ (ON) /G+- Ignore MSGINFO.XM If /G+, xMail will not consult MSGINFO.XM. Default: /G- (OFF) /C Use Different Configfile. /C<filename> is the name of the config file that you want xMail to use. This makes it possible to operate with different configurations. Default: /CxMail.CFG /I+- Import *.PKT from inbound directory. Default: /I+ (ON) /UH The Hudson base will not be scanned /UM *.MSG areas will not be scanned /US Squish areas will not be scanned /UJ Jam areas will not be scanned Security Switches ================= /O+- Security check for inbound Arcmail packets. If /O-, nodes can send arcmail in Areas they are not qualified for. Default: /O+ (ON) /P+- This is the most important security switch. If a sender of an arcmail packet is not in your nodefile xMail will NOT process the packet. You can switch this check off with /P-. CAUTION: If you do this anyone will be able to send you arcmail (including potential arcmail bombs.) Default: /P+ (ON) COMMAND LINE EXAMPLES ===================== xMail IMPORT /L+ /D- Import mail with reply linking ON and dupe checking OFF. xMail EXPORT /Q- Export mail from your system and disable Quick-Export. xMail NOTIFY Create a notify netmail for every system in your nodefile that has set the 'Send Notify Message' in XMSETUP to 'Yes'. xMail NOTIFY 245/4 Create a notify netmail only for 245/4 xMail NOTIFY 245/4.ALL (or xMail NOTIFY 245/4.*) Create notify netmail for all points of 245/4 xMail QUERY 2:* Create Query netmail for all nodes in zone 2. xMail PACK @ROUTE.XM Pack netmail with routing as defined in ROUTE.XM All switches are optional. IMPORT ====== If you start xMail with the IMPORT parameter, all arcmail packets get unpacked in order of their date of creation. The echomail then gets imported into the base and/or directories and exported to the nodes. During the import xMail shows you the area of the message currently being processed and some addition info: l Reply link message s Save message to Hudson base q Save message to squish base j Save message to JAM base w Write Message (*.MSG) e Export to node c Create new area d Duplicate message found i Illegal message After this has been completed, the netmail directory is scanned for new messages to your system. If present, they will be imported to the netmail area with the nodenumber of the message. EXPORT ====== On EXPORT, all new messages entered on your system (which carry the 'local' bit) will get exported (simple, huh?). To increase export speed you can tell xMail which areas have to be exported by defining an ASCII file which contains the area names that have to be processed: XM EXPORT @<FileName> <FileName> has to be a plain ASCII file which contains one area name per line. Each line must be terminated by a CR/LF. PACK ==== xMail can pack netmail. You can use several keywords and command line switches to tell xMail where netmail has to go. Call xMail with the PACK parameter and a list of the nodes whose netmail shall get packed, followed by 'VIA' the node that you want these netmails to be sent to. You may use the 'All' or '*' wildcard for more general processing. You may also use the following switches to exclude some groups of netmail from routing: /NC Crash-Mail will NOT be routed /NI In-Transit-Mail will NOT be routed /NL Locally created Mail will NOT be routed /NH Mail with Hold-Status will NOT be routed /ND Omit packing of mail with Direct flag on Binkley systems /RD Direct netmail will be routed /R[x] Toggle default netmail routing Examples: XM PACK 2:ALL VIA 2:245/31 /NC Send all netmail for zone 2 except crashmail to 2:245/31 XM PACK 2:245/4.All Pack netmail to the points XM PACK * VIA 245/4 /RD Direct mail will be packed All PACK commands can be put into one route file. You can specify the route file in the command line with @filename. The route file is built up in the same way as command lines. Example: ROUTE.XM 245/4.all 2:245/all VIA 245/31 /NC 2:all VIA 245/0 /NC 1:all VIA 2:2/0 /NC ... and the command line you call xMail with: xMail PACK @ROUTE.XM ECHOS ===== The file AREAS.XM contains the information about all echomail areas on your system. Each area has a number from 1 to 1000 and can be imported to *.MSG, Hudson Base, Squish base or JAM base. Every echo can also get switched to PassThru which means the echo is not imported to any local message base but only forwarded to downlinks. Hudson areas may be hold in areas 1-200. Please refer to XMSETUP's Online Help for more information. NODES ===== The file NODE.XM contains the information about the connected nodes. You have to enter at least one node, your uplink, to make xMail work. Please refer to XMSETUP's Online Help for more information. AREAFIX ======= xMail's Areafix can handle both the original Areafix (by Greg Dawson) style commands with the switches in the subject line and Tosscan (by J. Homrighausen) style commands with % in the messagetext. Additionally Areafix can rescan areas if you add -R after the area name. AREAFIX.HLP must be in your xMail directory! AREAFIX COMMANDS %HELP: Request a HELP message. [+]<AREANAME> Turn On/Request an area. -<AREANAME> Turn Off/Disconnect an area %LIST Request a list of areas available. %QUERY Request a list of connected areas. <AREANAME> -R Request a rescan for <AREANAME> %PACKER <TYPE> Change the compression type (ARJ/ZIP/ZOO/PAK/ARC/etc..) %NETPACKER <TYPE> Change Netmail compression type. %PASSWORD <password> Change AreaFix password to <password> %PASSIVE Temporarily Disable all exports. %ACTIVE ReEnable all exports. %+*** or %+ALL Request all available areas %-*** or %-ALL Disconnect all areas Example: By: Klaus Schaefer To: AREAFIX, MISTER MUSIKER (2:245/4) Re: password <---- Areafix Password St: Pvt Crash Kill ------------------------------------------------------------ IBM.GER <---- Add area FLEA.GER -SYSOPS.024 <---- Remove area POINTS.MMM -R <---- Rescan area %QUERY <---- Ask for available areas %LIST <---- List active areas Areafix Uplink Requests ----------------------- If one of your downlinks orders an echo which is not available on your system xMail's built in Areafix is able to order this echo from one of your uplinks. The downlink must have the 'Forward Area Requests' switch enabled, the uplinks have to be defined in XMAIL.CFG. More than one uplink can be defined. UPLINK <adr> <arealist> <requestname> <password> <level> adr: Node address of the Uplink arealist Filename of an ASCII list with the names of the uplink's echos requestname The name of the uplink's Areafix (for example Areafix or Areamgr) password Your password for the uplink's Areafix level Minimum level a downlink must have to forward his area request to this uplink Example: UPLINK 2:245/31 E:\XM\LISTS\22450031.LST Areafix GIBSON 100 If a node request a new area and the request has to be forwarded to an uplink first xMail takes a look at the uplink's arealist to see if the echo is actually available. If yes the requesting node gets a short notify message and xMail creates a message to the uplink's areafix and requests the desired areas. If xMail cannot find the echo in one of the echolists the echo will be requested from the first uplink in your zone if the requesting downlink has the ForceReq level defined in XMAIL.CFG. When the requested areas are received from the uplink they will be created as passthru areas and attached to all nodes that have requested them and also to all nodes that have set 'Add new Echos' to YES and are in the zone of the uplink who sent the new echo to you. Usually most other echomail processors are only able to forward an area request no matter if an echo really exists on one uplink system. This means request for echos which don't even exist might be routed throughout your network from system to system without ever getting the echo. What a mess. That's the reason why xMail looks into the uplinks arealist first and checks if the echo exists. The problem is that those lists are mostly not up to date. The solution: xMail creates the lists from the uplink's query message. As it is impossible to recognise all different query formats of all echomail processors xMail will only create the area list file if the query message comes from xMail, Tosscan or the original Areafix. For all other Uplinks you can define a static list which for example could be the echolist of your network. If you want xMail to create the echolist you must add a '+' before the filename of the list. Examples: UpLink 2:245/100 +C:\XM\LISTS\24500100.LST Areafix PASSWORD 100 The list will be created. UpLink 2:245/4 C:\XM\LISTS\24500004.LST Areafix PASSWORD 100 The list will not be created. The arealist will only be created if the query message is newer than the existing list. The old list will be renamed to *.OLD. With keyword QUERYSUBJECT you can define up to 10 subjects to let xMail recognise a message as a query message from an uplink and the echo list for this uplink has to be created from this message. Default is 'Query'. xMail also looks for parts of what you define here in the query message. Notice: The query mail MUST have one of the names you defined in the AREAFIXNAME statement as the name of the sender. Otherwise xMail will not recognise that the message comes from another Areafix. Additional Areafix Features --------------------------- Areafix can create unique notify and query messages using macros for nodename, nodenumber and several other system parameters. So you can make messages from your Areafix very personal and add statistical information for your downlinks (received mails, sent mails, password etc.). One special Areafix function I want to mention is the 'holiday' switch. Normally if a node is not in town for a longer period he has to cancel all echos and order them again when he's back. Not with xMail's Areafix ! Your downlink can simply write a message to Areafix with %PASSIVE in the message text. Areafix then will switch the complete node to passive, which means he will get no more echomail from you. When he is back and wants to continue receiving echomail he does not have to switch every single echo on but he may write to Areafix again: %ACTIVE and he will receive all echos again like he did before. Please read sample XMAIL.CFG for more information about Areafix parameters. Areafix Messages ---------------- You can completely configure the text within the messages sent to nodes via QUERY, NOTIFY and AREAFIX. You do this by using special control characters, that will be replaced by actual data, in your textfiles. We have included some sample textfiles with this release of xMail, edit them as you feel needed. MACROS available in all TEXTFILES ================================= &N Full Name of node &F First name of node &L Last name of node &Y Your global system address (NodeAdr = zone:net/node.point in XMAIL.CFG) &D Date in your country style &T Time in your country style &A Address of receiving node &E Number of messages the node has sent &I Number of messages the node has received (you can reset these two nodefile entries with XMSETUP from the fullscreen setup or from the command line. &J Status: 'Pay User' or 'Normal User' &K Actual Echomail Account (1/100) &M Date of Last Notify &S Sender address for the mail packets &P Areafix password &B Password for the mail packets &C If node is active "Active" is shown, otherwise "Passive" &G The name of the packer (ARJ,ZIP,etc) &Y Limit the Pay-Users are checked for (only on CHECKCREDIT!) &Z The echo that was disconnected with DELETEAREA NETWORKS and MULTINODE ENVIRONMENT ================================== Network Environment ------------------- xMail can run in multitasking environments such as DESQview and OS/2 or in Networks such as Novell. xMail will detect DesqView and use DesqView's screen buffers. xMail also detects OS/2. If you have SHARE loaded xMail will automatically switch to NETWORK mode and use special file and record locking schemes. xMail will detect NOVELL and default to NETWORK Mode. If you use any other network software or WINDOWS you have to use the /N+ switch to force xMail to network mode. Network mode of course is somewhat slower than non-network (normal) mode, but xMail is really safe in a multiline environment. With xMail you can even define how many messages are being tossed before the base will be temporarily unlocked. You can import or export mail while users are online in your BBS, and we have even tested simultaneous imports with xMail on more than one line. You don't even have to think about complicated batchfiles, semaphores, or events, simply use xMail ! We have tested several other so called multiline echomail processors and came to a very surprising result: Some of them are absolutely unable to run safely in multiline or network environments. Some lock the messagebase on startup and unlock it when finished. That's funny... no user will be able to enter a message while these tossers are running. But that's of course the reason why they call themselves FAST :-). Locking and unlocking the base takes time, but xMail 1.00 with it's new disk caching system is *STILL FASTER* than all other tossers we have tested! Try and compare! Multiline Tossing ================= xMail is introducing a new multiline concept! xMail is now able to work in networks or multitasker environments with the same directories and data. This means you only need one inbound directory, one inpacket directory, one outpacket directory and one outbound directory for all lines! Up to 16 lines (xMail/Pro) are supported which can import and export *simultaneously*! xMail will use different packet names for all lines so each line will never touch the packets created by other lines. This is the most secure and efficient system in multiline environment currently available. The line number has to be given in the command line: xMail IMPORT /Y<line_number> Example: xMail IMPORT /Y1 Import on line 1. If no line number is supplied xMail will automatically select the first free line number. xMail uses a special file to keep track of used lines. On startup xMail will login for the specified line and logoff after program execution. If the line is already in use xMail will abort execution. This file (LINELOCK.XM) will automatically be created in the xMail directory. xMail locks a line by writing a one byte code to the appropriate position in LINELOCK.XM. The unlock code is 00hex, xMail's lock code is 01hex. Other programs which support this locking scheme should use another code which can be given by the xMail team. If a mail line remains locked because of a system crash or a program error the file LINELOCK.XM can simply be deleted. It will automatically be recreated on next xMail startup. As all mailer lines on one system work with a shared netmail folder and file outbound directory xMail has to make sure that it only uses files under xMail's administration. This affects logfiles, mail packets and arcmail packets. All these files are separated with the filename. On multiline systems unique filenames are used for all mail lines. The last character of the logfile's file extension contains the hexadecimal value of the line number (1hex..Fhex), and mail packets contain the line number in the first character of the packet filename. This does not affect Binkley and D'Bridge systems where the packet names are pre-defined. Apart from lines 1..16 xMail supports special mail line 0 for service and maintenance tasks. When you use line 0 all other xMail lines have to be unlocked which will be checked on startup. xMail then locks all 16 lines to execute service tasks like CHECKCREDIT, CLEANUP, DELETEAREA etc. and unlocks all lines after program execution. Other utilities like XMPURGE may access LINELOCK.XM to prevent parallel execution of xMail. PAY ACCOUNTS ============ xMail is the first echomail processor that offers you a new echomail cost sharing and accounting system, great for HUBs and other systems with many downlinks! Maybe you have already thought about sharing the costs for your echomail polls with your downlinks. xMail brings to you an easy to use solution for this problem. You can define the costs for each echo and give an account to every downlink. The costs for every echomail message the downlink received will be subtracted from his account. There are two types of costs you can define for every echo. 1. Absolute Costs: Every echomail 'costs' the downlink the amount that you have defined for this echo (that could be for example Cents), no matter how many downlinks receive this echo. This amount is subtracted from his Echomail Credit. If you have set Absolute Costs to zero no absolute costs will be calculated for this echo. 2. Relative Costs: The node only has to 'pay' the costs per message devided through the number of downlinks. If you have set Relative Costs in an echo to 20 and the echo has 10 downlinks on your system, every receiver of this echo has to pay 2 units per message. If you set Relative Costs to zero no Relative Costs will be calculated for this echo. Relative costs make echos cheaper that you poll for many downlinks Both methods can be mixed. If you have set both fields to zero receiving this echo is free. ERRORLEVELS =========== xMail will exit with the following errorlevels after execution. 1 Echomail was imported 2 Netmail was imported 3 Both Echomail and Netmail were imported 4 Echomail was exported 8 Netmail was exported 12 Both Echomail and Netmail were exported All error codes above 90 show a program error: 90 General program error 91 Unable to open the messagebase 92 Unable to create the messagebase 93 The messagebase is corrupted 94 Unable to close the messagebase 97 Not enough memory 98 Unable to flush files, don't use /S+ parameter! 99 File locking error (network mode) 240 Key not found 241 Overlay Error 250 Line locked 254 Processor > 80286 required 255 Runtime Error (program aborted with ^C) CREDITS ======= All brand and product names mentioned above are Copyrighted Material, Trademarks or Registered Trademarks of their respective holders. JAM(mbp) is Copyright 1993 Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner, Mats Birch, Mats Wallin. SPECIAL THANKS ============== As you may have noticed it took quite a long time to bring out this new version. Stefan was very busy building a house for his family and I'm very much involved in my shop these days. We both know that this slowed down xMail development a bit but I'm sure you understand. We just want to say a BIG thank you for your great support, your patience and your suggestions! xMail Beta Team =============== This is in fact the best beta team a programmer can have. Please keep up your good work! Thank you all, folks!!! Mike Mast Lancaster PA, USA 1:270/415 Rob Buckman Ft. Walton Beach FL, USA 1:366/844 Mike Paschen Hamburg, Germany 2:240/100 Wim Abels Duesseldorf, Germany 2:242/20 Thorsten Seidel Bad Lippspringe, Germany 2:242/55 Michael Hoess Stuttgart, Germany 2:242/82 Mirko Mucko Duesseldorf, Germany 2:242/94 Martin Brumm Marburg, Germany 2:244/4343 Hans Koehncke Wiesbaden, Germany 2:248/1 Marc de Bruin Coevorden, Netherlands 2:282/209 Ad Damstra Amsterdam, Netherlands 2:2801/1015 Tobias Gasser Basel, CH 2:301/234 Philippe Feuerstein Saint-Clair, France 2:323/3 Michel Barthelemy Saint-Firmin, France 2:323/10 Fil Grushevsky Kiev, Ukraine 2:463/34 Brian Jennings Elizabeth West SA, Australia 3:800/839 Jim Melksham Hattonvale QLD Australia 3:640/190 Daryl Collins Seaton SA, Australia 7:777/300 Kelvin Goh Singapore 6:600/400 Mac Chou Taipei, Taiwan, China 6:720/107 Shizuka J Taipei, Taiwan, China 6:720/241 If *you* are interested in becoming an xMail Beta Team member and think your system setup might be something special and interesting for us please contact us! We are also still looking for competent support sites in some states. DISCLAIMER ========== xMail is (c) Copyright 1991-1993 by Roger Kirchhoff and Stefan Graf. You can reach us at 2:243/4510@fidonet.org and 2:245/4@fido.classic (xMail H.Q.) +49-2351-786580. We only guarantee that xMail will occupy disk space. In no event shall we be liable to you or anyone else for any damages or costs, including, but not limited to, any lost profits, lost savings, lost income, lost information or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use xMail. If you have any suggestion or bug reports please let us know.