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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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qfw_119.zip
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HISTORY.DOC
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1996-03-07
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┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ QFront Revision History │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Note: This history file contains changes and additions to both the PCBoard and
Wildcat! versions of QFront. Please ignore any reference to Wildcat! if
you are using PCBoard, and PCBoard if you are using Wildcat!.
Version Date Description
─────── ──────── ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1.19b 03/07/96 Fixed a problem where file request status NetMail messages
were not being sent out (the log would report FILE NOT
FOUND).
QScan/PCB contained a bug that caused "Invalid message
block" messages to be reported by PCBPACK. This problem
occurred if extended header information was written to the
PCBoard message base. Fixed.
QScan/PCB is now more lenient in PCBoard NetMail formatting,
where it now accepts TO:Rob Kittredge@1:228/12+I. (Instead
of requiring <+I>, just +I is now accepted).
Fixed a bug in QScan where an extra line feed was inserted
between the tearline and the origin line.
QNList now swaps itself to EMS or disk when shelling to the
unarchiver. This should fix all problems with your
unarchiver reporting "out of memory".
QScan now has the ability to limit .PKT file sizes it
creates. If, while building an outbound packet, the PKT
size is larger than you specify, it will split the PKT into
several smaller PKT's. This is useful if the mail bundle
archive gets a CRC error during unpacking because one bad
CRC on a packet will not cause the rest of the mail in other
packets to be lost.
1.18b 09/06/95 NOTE: Major new features will not be included after this
release, in an effort to settle down to a "release" version
of QFront!
When using the "extended packet names" feature for packing
mail to downlinks/uplinks, QScan was using archive
extensions such as SA; and SA<. Fixed.
If a manual poll was in the outbound queue and the system to
be polled happens to call you first, the manual poll was
not removed from the queue. Fixed.
Fixed a problem in the QScan/WC version where tossed NetMail
to the Wildcat NetMail conference would not contain the
origin address, causing programs with programs like WCEDIT
because it could not determine the origin address when
replying to a message.
A serious problem was found (and fixed) that was related to
Windows 95, which caused QFront to send the wrong NetMail
to any address in a random manner.
In the QScan/WC version, new mail waiting pointers are now
updated in Wildcat. This means that if a message is tossed
to a user on your system, Wildcat will inform them of their
new mail and allow them to read it when logging on. Note
that this feature is NOT yet implemented for QScan/PCB.
Fixed a problem in QScan that occurs with long origin lines
and ends up causing QScan to send out duplicate messages.
For the QFront/PCB version, the USERNET.XXX file is updated
to show when events are running. Because of this addition,
a new "usernet message" configuration has been added to
QFConfig under "UserNet Messages".
QFront now sends out an ANSI and RIP inquiry to the caller
before it displays the "Press ESC" prompt. This is used to
determine whether the caller is a human caller or a mailer.
If an ANSI or RIP sequence is received, QFront knows that
the caller is a human caller and exits immediately to the
BBS without the caller having to press ESC or TAB twice.
When the RECEIVE-ONLY FidoMail flag was set, QFront was
still sending out mail on incoming mail runs. Fixed.
Fixed another problem with the QFront/WC version not being
able to initialize the modem.
Found a problem where NetMail could be sent out multiple
times if you have more than one QFront node dialing out at
the same time.
In the QFront/WC version, the QUOTES.BBS index was not being
saved, causing Wildcat to display the same quote (which is
the first quote in the quote file) to the caller over and
over.
In the QFront/PCB version, QScan now places the origin
address for NetMail messages in the FROM: portion of the
PCBoard message header (this only applies if you have a
PCBoard NetMail area). The use for this is so that you can
simply reply to the message without having to re-enter the
destination address of the message you are replying to.
QScan's Areafix processor now allows one or more spaces in
between the % and the command for Areafix commands. For
example, the Areafix command "%HELP" and "% HELP" work the
same way.
1.17b 05/03/95 !!! IMPORTANT!!! The phone number for the QFront support
BBS will be changing on or around May 17, 1995. The new
phone number is 616-844-0713. Your QFront system will
automatically dial this number instead of the old one after
May 17, 1995 if you should happen to try to send mail to
my system. Please change the phone number in any other
communication program you may be using!
Fixed a minor problem with the addressing of Internet
addresses on the TO: line of NetMail messages.
Under the Wildcat! version of QFront, the last caller dates
on the call-waiting menu and the last 5 caller list were
off by one. Fixed.
There is a new FidoMail flag added to the event manager
called "Compile nodelist when received". If this flag
is set, whenever a nodelist or nodediff is received,
QFront will exit with errorlevel 7 to compile the new
nodelist.
QNList "should" be able to compile your nodelist database
WHILE OTHER QFRONT NODES ARE ONLINE. It does this with
some semaphore file trickery. It works great on my test
system but the real test will come in your beta testing.
Please TRY to compile your nodelist while one or more
other QFront nodes are online to see if this works as it
should.
Modified the AREAS.BBS import function so that the area
number (the first number in each line of the AREAS.BBS
file) is imported as the conference number. In addition,
any nodes that are listed after the EchoMail area name
are now imported into your Node Manager in QFConfig.
Fixed a problem in QScan/WC where the date on imported
messages was completely wrong.
QNList no longer uses EMS memory for doing node and sysop
sorting. This will slow down performance, but it had to
be done due to unknown problems with my EMS sorting
routines. I will be attempting to fix these soon, but for
now EMS memory will not be used for sorting (disk will be
used instead).
1.16b 04/09/95 Fixed a problem in QFConfig when editing/adding automatic
polls, where QFConfig would report an event no longer
exists when it really does.
Added an option to QFConfig under Mail Scanner where you
can turn on checking of packet passwords when tossing
mail packets.
Added support for a new Areafix command, %FROM. This
command allows a node who is given access to use the %FROM
command (via the Node Manager) to do remote add/drop area
maintenance for another node address other than their
own. Before a node can use the %FROM command, the node
must be allowed to use this command in their entry in your
Node Manager in QFConfig.
Added DigiBoard support for the Wildcat! version of QFront.
QScan now keeps track of what archived bundles have been
created in a given day, and will NOT use that bundle name
again until the next day. This means, for example, that
if QScan creates a .MO0 file, and you send that to your
hub, and then scan mail again, QScan will now use a bundle
name of .MO1 because a bundle name of .MO0 had already
been created on the current date. This is necessary if
you scan mail and send mail several times a day to your
hub who may or may not process the bundles immediately.
The new method QScan uses prevents possible file collisions
on your hub's system.
If any high message pointer was set to 0 in QScan/WC,
QScan would report a disk read error. Fixed.
If the "Keep Areafix requests" option was set in QFConfig,
QScan was not marking the messages as RECEIVED, as it
should have. Fixed.
QScan was scanning out mail that was entered as a COMMENT
TO SYSOP in PCBoard even when the "Scan private mail" flag
was set to N. Fixed.
QFront now always uses Zmodem 8k block sizes for file
receives. It was found that some mailers, such as PCBoard
15.21, would use Zmodem 8k block size without setting that
capability in the EMSI handshake packet. This would cause
QFront to report "long packet received during protocol"
errors during file receive transfers.
The system information that is sent out in the EMSI and
YooHoo handshake packets is now configurable. This means
you can configure the system name, sysop name, etc., that
are sent to a remote system when connecting to them. The
setup information is located in the FidoMail Setup menu
option in QFConfig.
QFront now adds the address it is communicating with when
it updates the PCBoard USERNET.XXX file to display the
FidoMail transfer UserNet message.
QFront was not running with the OS/2 program called
OS2SPEED. Although OS2SPEED is not required when using
QFront, I did find the conflict between the two and have
fixed it.
Fixed a routing problem where NetMail addressed to private
nodes may cause the NetMail to be placed on HOLD for your
OWN address instead of the proper destination address.
Fixed some more routing problems dealing with point
addresses.
Fixed a problem with the SEND-ONLY FidoMail flag and EMSI
handshakes. The send-only flag worked with YooHoo
handshakes but not EMSI handshakes.
QFront and QScan were not reading the SET PCBDAT=
environment variable. Fixed.
In the Wildcat! version of QFront, a node number of zero
was not causing the mailer to load in local-only mode like
it should have. Fixed.
NetMail that was marked HOLD was being routed when it
should not have been. Fixed.
The terminal mode in QFront was not properly displaying
blinking colors. Fixed.
When executing batch file events, QFront was only copying
the first 80 characters of each line in the batch file to
the QEVT-x.BAT file. This has been expanded to the first
255 characters of each line.
If the modem initialization string was blank, QFront would
continually report a "modem initialization error". Fixed.
Fixed a problem in QScan where seemingly corrupt log files
would be created. Also, QScan would shell to your archiver
trying to archive strange packet names. Contrary to what
you might think from the log, this is not a serious problem
causing lost mail or anything else.
Received NetMail that is addressed to RAID, ALLFIX, TICK,
DW_TIC or FILEMGR are now always saved to .MSG format
regardless of the "Unpack NetMail into .MSG format"
switch.
1.15b 03/07/95 Fixed (finally) a problem involving the "enforce request
limits by day" where the calculation of previous requested
bytes and files in a day was incorrect. What was actually
happening is the byte and file counts were not being set to
zero at midnight when they should have.
Events are now sorted by start time in the event editor in
QFConfig.
Reduced memory requirements for QScan by more than 30k.
QScan was not writing the "UserNet message" while it was
running (PCBoard version). Fixed.
The SEND-ONLY FidoMail flag in the event manager was not
working. Fixed.
Added /TO:, /FROM:, and /SUBJ: command line parameters to
the QFUTIL program, allowing you to set the TO, FROM, and
SUBJECT strings for the NetMail messages that may be
created.
Significantly modified the undialable manager. Now, QFront
can be told to allow "x" number of failed connections per
day. Once that limit is reached, the "level" of the node
in the undialable manager is raised by one and if that
level gets to 3, the node will be permanently marked as
undialable (depending on the option in QFConfig that says
"Mark undialable after 3 days"). Previously, if a failed
connection resulted, QFront would NOT dial out to that node
until the next day. With this release, it *WILL* dial out
to that node up to "x" times before giving up for that day.
As I said, it will continue to try to connect to that node
for up to 3 days before permanently giving up, depending on
that option in QFConfig (please see the next history entry).
A new option has been added to the modem setup in QFConfig,
called "Mark undialable after 3 days". If this is set to
Y, QFront will never dial a node once if has tried to
connect to it for 3 days.
2 rather serious problems with NetMail packing in QFront
have been fixed. The first involves messages that are
orphan (ie., the destination address is not found in the
nodelist). If QFront found one of these, sometimes it did
not mark the message's ORPHAN flag, and also when packing
the message into .PKT form, the message text was duplicated
causing invalid packets to be created. The second problem
is related to the first except that if 2 or more messages
that are destined for an orphan node number were found,
the node was added to the dial queue when it should not
have, causing QFront to dial the wrong phone number to try
to deliver the mail!
Pressing the spacebar while at the call-waiting screen will
cause the mailer to immediately dial out. Using this you
can override the "delay between redials" setting that is
in QFConfig if you are anxious to have the mailer dial out.
QNList now forces the PRIVATE flag on node entries in the
nodelist if the phone number is unpublished. In practice,
any unpublished phone number should have the PRIVATE flag
set in the nodelist itself, but in reality, some nodelists
don't adhere to this, causing QFront to try to dial
unpublished phone numbers.
Changed the way NetMail file attaches are handled in the
messages' SUBJECT field. Previously, QFront kept the
entire path to the forwarded file intact when sending the
.PKT. This is has been changed so that only the filename
is kept when sending the .PKT.
Inbound FidoMail runs were still being allowed even if
FidoMail was not active on that node. Fixed.
Fixed a problem where QFront could initialize and
immediately say "Function key ALT-F12 has not been defined".
When using the "O" async type in PCBSetup for OS/2, QFront
now will use UART mode instead of FOSSIL mode for
communications. Previously, a fossil driver was required
with QFront if you use the "O" async type.
Added a simple terminal mode. To access the terminal mode,
press ALT-C from the call-waiting screen. Note that the
terminal mode does not include file transfer capability at
this time, but does support ANSI color controls.
A new field has been added to the undialable manager
called "never downgrade". If you answer Y to this field,
QFront will never mark the node as undialable. You may
want to do this for all nodes that are local calls to you,
for example, since it doesn't cost anything to call these
nodes.
Baud rates of 57600 and 115200 "should" be supported in
FOSSIL mode now.
The "Compile nodelist" and "Scan/toss mail" menu options
off the call-waiting screen now work. All they do is exit
with errorlevels 7 and 8, respectfully.
If the "Update mail bundles" switch was set to Y, it is
possible that QScan could archive a packet while that same
archive is being transmitted by another QFront node. Now,
if QScan sees this situation, it will automatically turn
OFF the "Update mail bundles" switch during the archiving
process.
Added a new modem off-hook flag, "Semaphore file exit" that
causes QFront to take the modem off-hook when right before
exiting to DOS when it finds a semaphore file.
If a node is in the dial queue to be polled, and that
node calls you before the poll completes, the poll is now
removed from the queue.
Received NetMail that is addressed to RAID, ALLFIX, TICK
or FILEMGR are now always saved to .MSG format
regardless of the "Unpack NetMail into .MSG format"
switch.
I believe I've finally found the problem with orphan .PKT's
being left in your outbound directory after QFront exits.
Normally, QFront builds temporary .PKT files to send to
systems, and if you exit the mailer before the packets are
sent, the .PKT's are supposed to be deleted. Please bring
ALL of your QFront nodes down to the DOS prompt and delete
all *.PKT files from your outbound directory. Then, every
once in a while keep an eye on the outbound directory and
you should NEVER see any .PKT files there when all QFront
nodes are down. If you do, please let me know.
On startup, QFront will now scan its outbound mail queue
BEFORE initializing the modem. This will help for systems
with a large amount of outbound mail where the queue
scanning can take a while by keeping the phone busy if a
caller should try to call.
QScan now supports the "Double byte character" option that
is in PCBSetup for foreign systems.
A problem where NetMail addressed to a node marked PRIVATE
in the nodelist could cause the mailer to dial itself has
been fixed.
Fixed a problem when deleting items from the EXPANDED VIEW
where deleting one item would cause several others to be
deleted as well.
A situation where an inbound mail run on one node and an
outbound mail run on another node connected to the same
address has been fixed. Previously, QFront only created
semaphore files to signify a mail connection on OUTBOUND
mail runs - now, it also creates a semaphore file when it
receives an INBOUND mail run.
A new FidoMail event flag has been added, called "Don't send
HELD NetMail attaches". If this flag is selected, QFront
will NOT send a NetMail file attach if it places an outbound
call to that system. If this flag is NOT selected, QFront
WILL send the file attach if it places an outbound call to
that system. In the 1.14 version of QFront, it was assumed
that HELD NetMail attaches NEVER be sent unless the remote
system calls your system. Now, this behavior is changeable.
A field for entering the "real name" for quick lookup names
has been added. This is primarily used when using quick
lookup names in PCBoard NetMail messages. If the "real
name" is not empty, QScan will replace the quick lookup
name in the TO: part of the message with the associated
real name. In the 1.14 version, for example, addressing a
message to a quick lookup name of ROB caused QScan to keep
the TO: name set to ROB which doesn't really make much
sense. Now, you can have QScan replace ROB with Rob
Kittredge, for example.
When viewing the outbound queue, the number displayed for
the count of file requests, file update requests, file
forwards, and EchoMail bundles was misleading. This number
now reflects the actual number of files destined for a
system.
QFront now recognizes the CM (continuous mail) nodelist
flag. The CM flag signifies whether a system can accept
mail 24 hours a day. There are 2 new FidoMail flags in
the event manager - "Send to CM systems only" and "Send to
non-CM systems only". This causes QFront to only dial
systems who HAVE the CM flag set, and causes QFront to
dial systems who DON'T have the CM flag set, respectively.
This is used to prevent the mailer from trying to dial a
system which may not be able to accept mail 24 hours a day.
In addition, if you enter a forced poll to a system, QFront
will warn you if the system you are trying to poll doesn't
have the CM flag set in the nodelist.
QScan and QFConfig are a little more lenient in dealing
with the situation where you have conferences defined in
QFront that no longer exist in your PCBoard setup. QScan
will now skip these areas altogether (placing a warning in
the log file), and QFConfig will say "None Selected" in the
Area Manager picklist instead of reporting an "Error 100
reading CNAMES.@@@". If you see any of these warnings, you
should go into QFConfig and DELETE the offending areas from
the Area Manager.
Pressing ALT-B at the call-waiting screen will now turn on
the screen blanker.
1.141b 01/10/95 The new support for PCBoard 15.2 style NetMail message
entry was resulting in a "invalid message format" if you had
"LONG TO: NAMES" turned on in PCBSetup for your NetMail
conference. Fixed.
QScan was importing text into PCBoard that was over 80
characters - this was causing PCBoard 15.21 to truncate
any text after the 80th column when displaying the message.
QScan now sets the FROM: name to "QSCAN (AREAFIX)" when
entering Areafix response messages. This prevents QScan
from incorrectly tossing what might LOOK like a regular
Areafix response message when in fact it is a REPLY to an
Areafix response message.
If a message had a TO: name that was completely blank,
QScan would think the message was addressed to a "trashcan
user" and not import the message. Fixed.
When exporting NetMail from your PCBoard conference, QScan
now updates the "READ DATE" on the message at the date/time
the message was exported so that you know for sure the
message WAS exported.
1.14b 12/04/94 PLEASE read the file called SUPPORT.DOC *IMMEDIATELY*! We
are in the process of applying for FidoNet backbone status
for the QFront support conference, but we can't do this
without YOUR help. Please, read the SUPPORT.DOC file right
now and help in any way you can.
Fixed the problem in QScan where NetMail messages were
being identified as x:x/*.*.
Minor logging problem in QFront caused it to say "received"
when it should have said "sent" during file transfers.
Messages that should be marked IN-TRANSIT weren't being
marked so in QScan. Fixed.
Messages originating from one of your point addresses were
being incorrectly identified as duplicates. Fixed.
If you had "Strip high ASCII on scan" set to Y for QScan,
PCBoard NetMail file attaches would not work properly,
and in addition, PCBoard 15.0 control lines would not be
stripped out. Fixed.
Fixed a small problem with NetMail routing in that if
a message was marked HOLD, no routing would take place on
the message. This is fixed so that the "route through
another node" and other route types can apply to HELD mail.
The "keep Areafix requests" function was not working in
QScan. Fixed.
Added two options to the FidoMail Options menu item on the
call waiting screen - "Request files" and "Forward files".
These two options make it a little easier to enter file
requests and file forwards than the method before of using
the queue editor to enter the information.
Pressing ALT-S (shell to DOS) on the call-waiting screen
while the screen was blanked would cause strange results.
Fixed.
When an Areafix forward was performed by QScan, the newly
created EchoMail area was properly selected for the
DOWNLINK, but wasn't being selected for the uplink. Fixed.
QScan was having an error initializing the EchoMail
conference array in memory if you didn't have any areas
defined. Fixed.
File attaches via NetMail messages that are marked HOLD are
now treated as ABSOLUTE HOLD, meaning that if your system
connects to the remote the attached file will NOT be sent;
the other system must connect to YOU before they will be
sent the file.
When importing EchoMail area names from AREAS.BBS or
FIDONET.NA files, QFConfig will now check to make sure the
area names are NOT already configured on your system before
adding new areas.
When exporting AREAS.BBS type files, QFConfig was not
adding the proper downlink information. Fixed.
PCBoard 15.2 style NetMail messages are now supported by
QScan. With PCBoard 15.2, you can enter a NetMail message in
the following way:
For the TO name, enter the name of the user to send to
along with an address, such as ROB KITTREDGE@1:228/12
QScan will accept EITHER the old way of addressing NetMail
(putting the destination address on the first line of the
message within parenthesis) *OR* the new way. Message flags
can be specified on the TO portion of the message just as
with PCBoard, in the following way:
<+C> Crash flag, <+H> Hold flag, <+D> Direct flag. For
example, ROB KITTREDGE@1:228/12 <+C> would direct the
message to 1:228/12 with the crash flag.
You can also specify the message flags within the message
just like QScan has always worked. So, the following example
message is completely valid:
TO: ROB KITTREDGE@1:228/12
(IMM,DIR)
Hello, this is a test message.
Added a "trashcan" to QScan. Using this, you can define up
to 30 user names, and if QScan comes across any of these
names during a toss, it will not import the messages to your
PCBoard conferences.
If the last line in a message was over 80 characters,
QScan would word-wrap the origin line, causing duplicates
to be sent out because of stripped SEEN-BY lines. Fixed.
The quick lookup name function has been expanded to support
QScan. Whenever QScan scans your PCBoard NetMail
conference, it looks at the TO: name and searches for a
match in the quick lookup name list. If it finds a match,
the destination address of the quick lookup name is used.
The primary use for this is for UUCP mail. Now, you or
your users can enter a NetMail message with a TO: name of
UUCP, and QScan will find the matching quick lookup name
and automatically use that destination address. The bottom
line is that neither you or the user needs to know the
actual address that the message is to be sent to.
Fixed the file receive renaming function so that files won't
be overwritten once downloaded, which occurred in some
circumstances.
Implemented the undialable address manager. Whenever QFront
unsuccessfully completes an outbound mail run, the address
is added to the undialable manager and QFront will UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES dial that system until the next day. It will
try for up to 3 days to connect successfully to the remote
system and if it does not, the node will be marked
permanently undialable and QFront will never try to dial
that system again until you manually remove the node from
the undialable list (press ALT-U on the call-waiting menu).
Any node that is marked undialable will be reported so in
the QFront system log so that you know WHY that system isn't
being dialed.
The undialable manager is primarily used to make sure your
system isn't trying to dial all day long to a system that
may be having mailer problems.
The "convert high ASCII" option was removed from the mail
scanner setup and moved into each EchoMail area. This
change allows you to set, on a per-area basis, whether high
ASCII characters are converted to '*' characters or not.
The PCBoard node number is now displayed on the outbound and
inbound FidoMail status windows so you know which node on
your network is transferring the mail.
Timeslicing routines weren't working properly with Windows.
Fixed.
Added a new FidoMail flag to the event manager. The flag,
called "Exit after no more outbound mail", causes QFront to
exit to your STARTER.BAT batch file with an errorlevel of 3
if there is no more outbound FidoMail to be sent.
