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Monster Media 1996 #14
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Monster Media No. 14 (April 1996) (Monster Media, Inc.).ISO
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bbs_door
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ksptel50.zip
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WHATSNEW.DOC
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1996-02-24
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WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
5.0: New Feature: Added an option (ksp-tlnt.allowed_ip_list) to
specify the name of a file containing a list of allowed IP
addresses. Users will not be allowed to connect to any IP
address not on this list.
Enhancement: Whenever the local BBS console screen is
disabled (by SysOp command, user selection of binary mode,
or during Zmodem transfers), KSP-TLNT now displays the
user's name, city, the remote host id, and the minutes
remaining.
Enhancement: KSP-TLNT now assigns it's local tcp/ip port
randomly. This helps when trying to re-establish a
connection to a remote host that was lost in a recent
previous execution of KSP-TLNT.
Clean Up: KSP-TLNT no longer hangs up the modem when the
user times out but rather simply returns to the BBS and
lets the BBS decide whether or not to hangup.
New Feature: Added reverse domain name lookups so that the
command prompt reflects the correct hostname even if an IP
address was given by the user. This feature is disabled
by default, but may be enabled by setting
ksp-tlnt.retrieve_hostnames=ENABLED. Note: This change
required adding an entry to KSP-TLNT.TXT.
4.9: Clean Up: Improved handling of "ksp-tlnt.ophours" . If
start time is after the stop time, the hours of operation
will be interpreted as all but those in the window
specified. I.e., setting ophours to 03:20-03:00 will
allow operation anytime except 03:00-03:20.
New Feature: Now attempts telnet option negotiation only
if connecting to the standard telnet port (23) of a remote
host. Use of any other port will disable option
negotiation.
4.8: New Feature: Added a option (ksp-tlnt.blocked_ip_list) to
specify the name of a file containing a list of blocked IP
addresses. Users will not be allowed to connect to any IP
address on this list. This required adding a new message
to the end of KSP-TLNT.TXT.
4.7: Bug Fix: If the minutes remaining passed to KSP-TLNT in
the DOOR.SYS file was zero, the user would get unlimited
time; corrected. Note: This required adding a new message
(#10) to KSP-TLNT.TXT.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
4.6: Work Around: Discovered that the ARNET driver in Egberto
Willies' COMM-DRV (used by Clark Development's PCBoard)
does not adhere 100% to the fossil spec in that function
04h (Initialize) does not return 1954h when called with
DX=00FFh. I was using this to detect the presence of a
fossil driver as recommended in the fossil spec! Corrected
by modifying the presence test to add two additional
presence tests if the first one (04h) fails.
4.5: Bug Fix: Fossil drivers do not typically detect an
incoming serial "break" signal. Thus when used with a
fossil driver, the configuration parameter called
"serial_port" is used to enable additional code to provide
this feature. Although this code worked fine when tested
with the X00 fossil driver, it prevented both the BNU
fossil driver and PCBoard's COMMDRV program from doing
serial output properly. Corrected.
Bug Fix: Was not detecting carrier loss (user hangup)
properly. Corrected.
Clean Up: When opening the door, the number of minutes
remaining is announced properly to the caller. However,
the minutes remaining was not displayed properly in the
prompt when it was a very large number (like 1440 minutes
= 24 hours). Corrected.
Enhancement: A caller could abort an attempt to connect to
a remote site by pressing any key while the dots are being
painted back and forth on the screen. However, this
caused a rather obvious problem if the caller had a noisy
modem connection to the BBS. Now only three specific
keystrokes are recognized as a request to abort the
connection attempt: Esc, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-X.
Enhancements: When run from the local BBS console, the
door no longer announces to the SysOp that Shift-F1
toggles the local BBS screen and the key has no effect;
when a remote caller invokes the door, however, Shift-F1
is fully functional in the normal manner. When used with
a remote caller to enable/disable the local console
screen, Shift-F1 now informs (only) the SysOp whether the
screen has been enabled or disabled.
4.4: Bug Fix: Wasn't working with Digiboard when used with a
fossil driver. Corrected.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
Bug Fix: The COM port number in DOOR.SYS was limited to
COM1 through COM4 since this is all that can be supported
by the async library; however, there should be no such
limit if a fossil driver is used. Corrected.
Bug Fix: The special break detect code used with fossil
drivers was interfering with normal fossil operation;
corrected.
New Feature: Added support for an environment variable
(ksp-ip) to set the IP address. Since the IP address is
often the only parameter in WATTCP.CFG that changes from
one BBS node to another, this allows using a single copy
of that file for all nodes.
New Feature: While user is in the door, pressing Shift-F1
on the local console of the BBS will toggle whether or not
output also appears on the BBS's local console screen.
Clean Up: Used to be that any function key (and others
like Home, PgDn, etc.) on the BBS console would escape
back to command mode. Now that function is restricted to
Ctrl-F1.
Clarification: Some Internet access providers configure
their dial-up slip and ppp accounts with a very small
segment size. You may need to set mss as low as 212 if
your Internet connection is through such a connection.
4.3: Oops! When I fixed the search algorithm in 4.2, I
accidentally broke the "include" directive in WATTCP.CFG.
Corrected.
4.2: Bug Fix: Configuration parameter
"ksp-tlnt.escape=disabled" was not functioning properly;
corrected.
Bug Fix: Dynamic parameters did not function properly;
corrected.
Change: Changed the search order for WATTCP.CFG to be
downward compatible with earlier versions of KSP-TLNT.
First, it checks for an environment variable called
WATTCP.CFG that specifies the directory. Second, it looks
in the current (default) directory. Third, if still not
found, it looks in the directory that contains the
executable (KSP-TLNT.EXE).
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
4.1: Enhancement: KSP Telnet now looks in three directories to
locate the WATTCP.CFG configuration file. First, it
checks for an environment variable called WATTCP.CFG that
specifies the directory. Second, it looks in the
directory that contains the executable (KSP-TLNT.EXE).
Third, if still not found, it looks in the current
(default) directory.
Enhancement: Added a command line option
(/CONFIG=<number>, where "<number>" is a non-zero integer
such as "1") to facilitate dynamic configuration options.
If used, then any WATTCP.CFG configuration file parameters
of the form:
ksp-tlnt[<number>].<parameter>=<value>
are ignored unless the integer number enclosed in square
brackets matches that specified in the command line
option. This also works for global parameters, such as
"ksp[<number>].<parameter>".
4.0: Clean Up: Oops! The version 3.9 ZIP file went out with
version 3.8 docs! Also, forgot to mention that foreign
language support is only provided in the standard (i.e.,
not ANSI or RIP) user interface; if you want everything in
a lnaguage other than English, you should include the
following two configuration settings in WATTCP.CFG:
ksp-tlnt.ansiinterface=disabled
ksp-tlnt.ripinterface=disabled
3.9: New Feature: Added a command line option (e.g.,
/MAX_MINS=60) to limit the time a caller is allowed in the
door. If used, time in the door will be the minimum of
that specified by the option and their time remaining on
the BBS.
New feature: Added support for foreign languages by
putting all the program text in a file called
KSP-TLNT.TXT. This file can be modified using any normal
text editor. The file MUST be placed in the same
directory as KSP-TLNT.EXE and marked read-only.
3.8: Bug Fix: Found a second condition under which KSP Telnet
might not unhook the serial port interrupt routine before
exiting the program. Most users would never experience a
problem since it required an improbable combination of
events to cause it to occur. Corrected.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
New Feature: All of our software is now available via
anonymous ftp at "scizzl.scu.edu", directory "ksp".
Please note that there is no "e" at the end of "scizzl".
3.7: Enhancement: Reduced time required to close a connection.
Enhancement: Some sysops have configured door commands to
take users directly to some special Internet resource.
This is done by simply creating a door batch file (e.g.,
"WEATHER") in which the remote host name (e.g.,
downwind.sprl.umich.edu;3000) is provided on the KSP-TLNT
command line. Invoked this way, KSP Telnet returns to the
BBS as soon as the user logs out of the remote host rather
than returning to the Telnet command prompt. Once inside
the door however, the user can escape back to the Telnet
command prompt, close the current connection and open a
new connection to anywhere they please. This made it
impractical to provide unrestricted access to Weather
forecasts while restricting general Telnet access to
subscribers. Thus KSP Telnet has now been modified so
that if the remote host name is passed on the command
line, the "open" and "close" commands are not available
("quit", "exit", "bye" and "goodbye" do an implicit
"close").
This change is implemented only in the "standard" (not
ANSI or RIP) user interface; the other two must be
disabled using WATTCP.CFG configuration parameters
"ksp-tlnt.rip_interface" and "ksp-tlnt.ansi_interface".
If all user interfaces are desired for regular Telnet
access, then you will need two WATTCP.CFG files; the one
for WEATHER should "include" the one for TELNET followed
by commands to disable the two options described above.
Having two WATTCP.CFG files means that each door batch
file must also change the WATTCP.CFG environment variable
to point to a different subdirectory containing the
appropriate configuration file before running
KSP-TLNT.EXE.
Enhancement: Added the ability to override Waterloo
TCP/IP's automatic search for the packet vector interrupt
by using an environment variable, as in:
set ksp-pv=<number>
where "<number>" may be in decimal (e.g., "96"), in hex
preceded by "0x" (e.g., "0x60"), or in octal preceded by
"0" (e.g., "0140").
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
Bug Fix: The configuration option "ksp-tlnt.7bit_warning"
added in version 3.5 did not work; corrected.
Enhancement: Added information in the documentation about
a packet driver shim for Novell with a Token-Ring_SNAP
network.
Enhancement: Added support for providing login name and
password on the KSP-TLNT command line. The command line
syntax is now:
KSP-TLNT [<name_or_IP> [<login_name> [login_password]]]
where the square brackets "[]" indicate optional
parameters.
Enhancement: Performance problem when running under
DESQview with PKTMUX solved by creation of KSP-DVMX packet
multiplexer. Available as file KSPMUX*.ZIP, where "*" is
the version number.
Bug Fix: Users who hung up abruptly in the middle of a
Telnet session could cause the software to hang;
corrected.
3.6: Bug Fix: Pressing "Enter" incorrectly caused CR NUL rather
than CR LF to be sent to remote host. This caused
problems with some hosts such as downwind.sprl.umich.edu
(port 3000); Corrected.
3.5: New Feature: Now DESQview "aware" to provide better
performance in a multitasking environment.
New Feature: Added configuration option
"ksp-tlnt.7bit_warning". Normally, KSP Telnet will
disallow 7-bit callers. This option can be used to allow
such callers and to display a configuration-defined
warning message.
New Feature: Added configuration option
"ksp-tlnt.local_bell" which can be set to "disabled" to
silence the bell on the BBS console.
New Feature: Added configuration option
"ksp-tlnt.local_screen" which can be set to "disabled" to
improve screen painting speed for the caller.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
Enhancement: Added Waterloo TCP/IP configuration parameter
"dns_search_mode" to accelerate nameserver lookups.
3.4: CleanUp: Discovered that only the newest versions of the
Novell packet driver shim (ODIPKT) allow command line
parameters to be specified in hex; older versions require
that they be specified only in decimal. Our docs
describing how to install ODIPKT have now been modified to
show decimal parameters since they will work in all
versions of ODIPKT.
3.3: Enhancement: Configuration parameters such
"ksp-tlnt.serial_port" that are common to more that one
KSP product may now be enterred in the WATTCP.CFG
configuration file once, as in "ksp.serial_port".
Enhancement: Documented the "include" directive that helps
when you have multiple nodes.
CleanUp: Clarified the description of the batch file used
to invoke the door.
BugFix: If no WATTCP.CFG environment variable was used,
there was a chance that part of memory might be
corrupted. Corrected.
BugFix: Ouch! Fix one problem, introduce another! Version
3.2 added code to filter out those VT100 escape sequences
that ANSI.SYS interprets improperly, and which caused the
display to change to 40 column mode. Unfortunately, this
filter corrupts packets when downloading a file through
the door. Although the code was intended to detect and be
disabled during Zmodem downloads, that proved impractical;
furthermore, there was nothing to disable the filter when
downloading with other protocols.
The filter has now been removed since there is no way to
properly determine when it should be enabled and when it
should be disabled. Moreover, the 40 column symptom only
occurs on the BBS display, not the caller's display.
That's because the BBS display interprets escape sequences
using ANSI.SYS while the caller's display uses terminal
emulation built into their communications program.
One way to fix the problem on the local BBS display would
be to modify the code of NANSI.SYS (a popular
public-domain ANSI.SYS replacement) so that it ignores the
two VT100 escape sequences that cause the problem: ESC[=
and ESC[?.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
3.2: Enhancement: Some remote hosts improperly force a VT100
termtype regardless of the termtype specified in KSP
Telnet and negotiated at time of connection. Although
ANSI and VT100 termtypes are quite similar, there are
differences! Specifically, there is a VT100 sequence
which ANSI misinterprets as a command to change to 40
column display mode. To prevent this possibility, KSP
Telnet now intercepts and discards this particular escape
sequence when the (default) ANSI termtype is specified.
Enhancement: Added a "ksp-tlnt.reserve_mins" configuration
parameter so that the user has some BBS time remaining
even if time expires while in the door.
Enhancement: The standard TCP/IP "port" for telnet
sessions is port 23. Some telnet hosts, however, use a
non-standard port and so some provision is needed to
specify the port number. This can now be done by
appending the port number at the end of the host id,
separating it from the host id with any character from the
set {,;:/}, as in:
telnet> open machine.host.com;25
If omitted, the default port 23 will be used.
3.1: Enhancement: Fossil drivers do not support break
detection. Added code to add that break detection when
used with fossil driver provided WATTCP.CFG file contains
a ksp-tlnt.serial_port configuration option.
Bug Fix: When a user dropped carrier, KSP Telnet did not
necessarily properly unhook the serial port interrupt
routine. Corrected.
3.0: Bug Fix: 'Thought I had fixed the fossil interface, but
apparently had not! This time it's been thoroughly tested
and should work ok; if not, PLEASE let me know!
Bug Fix: Detection of presence of KSP-FTP.EXE was based on
looking in same directory as that of KSP-TLNT.EXE, but
actual execution of KSP-FTP.EXE tried to find the file
using the DOS path. When the directory was not in the
path, the execution of FTP would fail. Corrected.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
New Feature: The "help" command may now be followed by an
optional command name substring to obtain brief help on
the corresponding subset of commands matching the string.
New features: Added several configuration options to
WATTCP.CFG:
ksp-tlnt.max_mins: Places an upper limit on time
in the door.
ksp-tlnt.idle_mins: Sets the maximum time without
keyboard input.
ksp-tlnt.ophours: Limits the hours of operation of
the door.
ksp-tlnt.minbaud: Enables a minimum connect speed
required to use the door.
ksp-tlnt.termtype: Sets the default termtype reported
to remote host when in either ANSI graphics
or RIP mode.
ksp-tlnt.escape: Allows disabling the ability (and
initial message describing how to) "escape"
back to telnet command mode.
ksp-tlnt.ansi_interface: Allows disabling the blue
interactive menu interface presented to
novice mode callers with ansi graphics enabled
and DCE rate of at least 9600 baud.
ksp-tlnt.rip_interface: Allows disabling the RIP
graphics interface.
Enhancement: Now checks for and requires 8N1 operation.
Enhancement: When user enterred an invalid command, KSP
Telnet would complain (beep) on every character until the
error was corrected. Now it beeps once and then eats
characters after an error until keyboard input clears.
Enhancement: Added a check for bad IP addresses.
2.9: New Feature: Added configuration parameter
"ksp-tlnt.serial_port". If used, it overrides serial port
address and IRQ values implied by "COMx" in DOOR.SYS and
is provided to support non-standard configurations that
don't use a fossil driver.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
2.8: Enhancement: Improved handling of TCP/IP error
conditions.
2.7: Enhancement: Vastly improved Z-Modem download (and remote
screen update) performance!
Configuration Change: Location of log file is now
specified in the WATTCP.CFG file; the KSP-TLNT.LOG
environment variable has been eliminated to save
environment variable space.
2.6: Bug Fix: If Telnet option negotiation was enabled, the
user was connected to a remote host, but had escaped back
to the interactive ANSI graphics "blue" screen, and THEN
changed from ascii to binary mode or vice-versa, the
option negotiation progress messages would overwrite the
blue screen screen. Corrected.
2.5: Enhancements to ANSI interactive menu: (1) Cursor keys now
work in local console mode; (2) Home key now moves
directly to Remote Host field; (3) End key now moves
directory to Quit button; (4) Pressing Alt-<anything> in
local console mode will always escape back to command
mode, even with binary transmission mode enabled.
Bug Fix: Found a pair of two-byte sequences (FF F2 and 4F
FF) that would cause a CRC error if present in a Zmodem
data block during download; zmodem uploads were NOT
affected. The probability of a particular two byte
sequence having one of these two data patterns is only
0.003%, so most downloads worked without a problem.
Corrected.
Bug Fix: Discovered that Fossil support was not working.
Corrected.
2.4: Bug Fix: If an attempt to open a connection failed, KSP
Telnet sometimes would mistakenly try to "close" the
(non-existant) connection on the next attempt to open or
quit. This caused an entry in the log file with a date
and time of "Jan 01 0):00:00 1970" with a empty string as
the name of the remote host. Corrected.
2.3: Enhancement: Added sections in the documentation on how to
install packet driver shims for Novell, Lantastic, and
Banyan Vines networks.
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
2.2: Bug Fix: Discovered that KSP Telnet would hang during
option negotiation during the startup of a session with
some remote hosts. The reason was that the remote host
was negotiating with option numbers that were unknown to
KSP Telnet and such a case was not being handled
properly. Corrected.
2.1: New Feature: Added code to tell the remote host that the
terminal type is "ANSI" if ansi graphics is enabled in
users BBS configuration. Also added a new command called
"term" to allow user to change the term type that is
passed to the remote host.
Change: The default key mapping for "interrupt process" is
now ^Y instead of ^C so that it doesn't interfere with
emacs-like editors running on remote hosts.
New User Interfaces: Callers who have RIP graphics enabled
are now presented with a RIP graphics interface. Others
who have ANSI graphics enabled are presented with an ANSI
graphics version of this interface provided they (1) are
not in "expert" mode, and (2) their DCE (carrier) speed is
at least 9600 baud. Otherwise, the standard command line
interface is used.
2.0: New Feature: User logging added. If the environment
variable "KSP-TLNT.LOG" is defined, it is used as the name
of a directory where a log of user sessions will be
recorded. The log file will be named KSP-TLNT.XXX, where
"XXX" is the BBS node number. KSP Telnet appends a line
to that file for each remote login session. The line
lists the time and date of the login, the user's full
name, the name of the remote host computer, and the
duration of the session in minutes.
New Feature: Added commands to switch between ascii and
binary modes so that the user could invoke a file transfer
command on the remote host and not have binary data
misinterpreted. Enabling binary mode, however, also
disbles the Telnet escape character (normally '^]'). Thus
KSP Telnet now also recognizes a "break signal" sent by
the user as a request to return to command mode.
New feature: Added command to enable/disable xon/xoff flow
control.
New Feature: Now recognizes the start and end of a Z-Modem
transfer and automatically changes to Telnet binary mode
for the duration of the transfer. Added "zmodem" command
WHAT'S NEW IN KSP TELNET
to enable/disable this feature.
New Feature: KSP Telnet used to always return to command
mode after the user closed the connection in case he
wanted to open a connection to another host. We made the
following change since most users connect to a single
host: If the host ID is given on the KSP-TLNT.EXE command
line when the door is invoked, then closing the connection
causes control to be returned to the BBS; if no host ID is
given on the command line, then closing the connection
returns the user to KSP Telnet command mode.
Enhancement: KSP Telnet command prompt now indicates time
remaining.
Enhancement: Now issues a Telnet logout command to the
remote host just before closing a connection. Some hosts
need this to prevent leaving the process suspended.
Enhancement: Added 5 minute keyboard timeout limit with
warning beep once every minute when prompting user for
input. If user does not respond, control is returned to
the BBS.
Enhancement: Significant improvements to serial I/O
bandwidth, by optimizing internal algorithms and by
converting code to use MarshallSoft's interrupt driven
async library.
Enhancement: Improved Telnet option negotiation code per
RFC1143.
1.0: Initial release.