Monster Media 1996 #15

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Monster Media 1996 #15 / Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO / bbs_util / nm20ra.zip / NODEMAN.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1996-05-24 | 33KB | 824 lines

▄█████▄ ▄█████▄ ██████▄ ▄██████ ▄██████▄ ▄█████▄ ▄█████▄ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀▀ ██ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀█████▀ ██████▀ ▀██████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Copyrighted Multiboard Communications Centre, 1996 All rights reserved, worldwide. ╓────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ Introduction ║ ╙────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ What is it? ■ NodeManager is a tool that allows a sysop running a multi-line BBS to handle all of their nodes from a single station. You can see who is online all nodes, or you can view a users actions on a specific node. The most important, and most powerful, feature of NodeManager is that, with a network and the IPX protocol you can assume full control of a workstation. This means that your screen and keyboard act as the workstations own screen and keyboard. ■ Other features include sending users online messages, rebooting remote workstations, full system usage charts and graphs. You can also initiate jobs and events based on time of day, file semaphores as well as spooled commands. ■ NodeManager not only shows you when a user is logged onto the BBS, but shows you when the mailer is using a node for either inbound or outbound calls. Is it hard to setup? ■ NodeManager comes with various command line options to help you setup the required files. The default setup will get you to an operational point, then you simply enter the finer details. ╓────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ How to setup? ║ ╙────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ Setting up NodeManager is quick and easy. You need the following files to before NODEMAN will execute: NODEMAN.CFG and NODEMAN.SET. The CFG file is created by the setup program NMSETUP.EXE, the available options are detailed below. The SET file can be created automatically with this command: NODEMAN BUILDSET PATH=<path> LOCAL=<node>,<node> This only works if all your available nodes have similar paths, like: C:\BBS\NODE1\ C:\BBS\NODE2\ For the above example you would use NODEMAN BUILDSET C:\BBS\NODE*N If you are unable to create the file with the parameter, then you can use a text editor to define each node, a sample 2 node with 1 local node system would have a file that looks like this: NODE 1 C:\BBS\NODE1 NODE 2 C:\BBS\NODE2 NODE 3 *C:\BBS\LOCAL\NODE3 The asterisk (*) is used to indicate a local node. Local nodes are excluded from the overall node usage graph. Once you have the SET file and the CFG file created and configured to your satisfaction then you have an operational NodeManager. ╓────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ NMSETUP.EXE - The setup program ║ ╙────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ │ BBS Setup └────────────────────────────────── System and Sysop name ■ Both the system and the sysop name is taken from the RemoteAccess configuration file. Serial number and registration code ■ This is the serial number and the registration code that you received for your registration. Please ensure that the entered numbers are the same as they appear on the registration form. │ Mailer information └────────────────────────────────── Display mailer info type ■ You can select to display either information from the selected mailer's last call, or information regarding drive space. Mailer system directory ■ This is the where the lastcall, inbound and outbound history files are stored. This path must be the same as the system path defined in your mailer. Mailer semaphore directory ■ This is where the mailer creates the semaphore files. This path must be defined if you want to see mailer activity. This path must be the same as defined in the mailer. Display mailer at startup ■ If you have one of the compatible mailers, you can decide whether to display the mailer's last call information or the disk information when the program is first launched. The two information types can be toggled from NodeManager. If you did not pick a mailer then the disk information will always be shown. NetMail editor ■ You can load your netmail editor from Nodeman by pressing Alt-E. This field should include the path and executable name of your editor. Drive 1 and drive 2 ■ This is where you place the letters of the drives you would like to see information on. │ Misc Options └────────────────────────────────── Rescan rate ■ This indicates how long to wait before reading the user on file and checking for mailer and defined semaphores. If you have a low number, then the information displayed will be more accurate than if you have a high number. A high number however will be less task intensive on the hard drive. Sound if paged ■ This will sound three beeps through the PC speaker only if a user has attempted to page the Sysop. Show password ■ When a user record is brought up you have the choice of viewing the user's password. Last field display ■ You have the option of displaying the time that a user has logged on/off or the amount of time that has elapsed since log on. When idle display ■ If a user logs off, by default NodeManager will display where the user logged off from. By selecting "Change action" you can have the "Waiting" prompt displayed when the user logs off. If you choose "Clear line" then the line will be entirely blanked, except the action field which will say "Waiting" Semaphore precedence ■ Nodemanager looks for both mailer semaphores and defined semaphores, because there is a possibility of two semaphores being defined for one node, it is important to know which semaphore should be displayed. Create system history file ■ If you would like to be able to view yesterday's statistics and callers then you will need to create a history file. Time slice release level ■ This number will alter how often you release time slices. When this number is increased, the fewer number of slices will be sent. Each system may require a different number so play with the numbers until you find the system that suits you best. If you do not wish to release time slices, then set this number to 0. Remote connection key ■ This will let you set one of the predefined keys to use to connect to one of the remote machines. (Can connect if NODETSR is loaded) Allow Escape to exit ■ This will allow you to use the Escape key, as well as the Alt-Q key to exit NodeManager. Node reboot method ■ If you would like to reboot a remote node, you have the choice to send it a hard or a cold reboot. You can only reboot the remote node only if you are able to connect and control the node. Time to view tagged nodes ■ You can define how many seconds you would like to view a node when cycling tagged nodes, or nodes with users on. Viewing Mode ■ If you would like to see more nodes on the screen, then you have the option of using 43/50 line mode, which requires an EGA/VGA compatible monitor and video card. │ Edit time based events └────────────────────────────────── ■ NodeManager is able to program up to 100 events. This will allow you to easily configure each event. These events will be run only on the selected days, at the time specified. │ Edit file triggered events └────────────────────────────────── ■ NodeManager will run up to 25 events based on file activity. When editing the events, the TYPE will determine what is required from the FILENAME. The file can either exist, be missing, ot can be updated, if the file meets the requirements the COMMAND line will be executed. │ Edit Alt-keys └────────────────────────────────── ■ You can have up to 9 ALT keys programmed. These keys can be used to execute other programs. This is simply a faster way than manually DOS shelling, and typing the command to run the desired program. As option parameters, you may wish to use some of the control keys: ^` Simulates an ESC key ^@ or *N Enters the current node number ^A..^Z Note: ^M is the ENTER key &MSG <filename> Sends the file as a text message to all tagged nodes &KICK <filename> Sends the file as a text message to all tagged nodes, and kicks the users offline. │ Edit macros └────────────────────────────────── ■ You are able to send a node a string of characters as if you typed them yourself. These strings can be saved in the macro keys. A list of the available control characters: ^` Simulates an ESC key ^@ or *N Enters the current node number ^A..^Z Note: ^M is the ENTER key │ Edit semaphores └────────────────────────────────── ■ NodeManager will search for up to 50 semaphore files. You must specify the filename that it must search for. If the file is found then the node that is found in the file name will have the information changed to that as was entered. When defining the filename use *N to represent the node number. IE - C:\BBS\BUSY.*N or C:\BBS\NODE*N\BUSY.YES │ Logging options └────────────────────────────────── Nodeman's full filename ■ This is the path and filename of the log file for NodeManager to log its various events. Log events, jobs, file, and alert triggers ■ These options will log when the executed command began, what the command was, and when the command was finished. Pager's full filename ■ This is the path and filename of the log file for Pager to log its page reasons and other pertinent information. Page reasons ■ These options will log when the executed command began, what the command was, and when the command was finished. │ Alert Options └────────────────────────────────── Method to Alert ■ There are three methods to alert you of a nodes activity, including: Beep : This will cause your pc speaker to beep. Flash : This will flash 'Alert' in the bottom left corner. External program: This will execute a defined external program. You can select either one, or a combination of these methods to alert you when a node has been determined inactive. You can use parameters in your call to the external program, but the last parameter on the line will be a hyphen separated listing of inactive nodes. IE: (1-2) Delay between beeps ■ If you have set your computer to beep to alert you, then you can define the number of seconds, between beeps. External program to execute ■ This is the program you would like to execute if a node has been determined inactive. Delay between external program ■ If you are executing and external program to alert you, then you can define the number of seconds, between executions. Threshold delay ■ If you are using a multitasker such as Desqview, Windows, or OS/2, you may wish to delay calling the external program for xx number of seconds. This is so you can tell if just one window is hung, or the entire machine is down. If you do not wish to use a delay, this number must be 0. Execution times ■ These times will determine the times you will allow the computer to execute an external program, or beep. You can define a starting and stopping time for every day of the week. To be active for 24 hours you would set your times like: Monday 00:00 23:59 System alerts ■ You can check up to 10 defined semaphores against the current time, to see if a node is inactive(hung). You must define the semaphore to look for, how old the semaphore is allowed to be (in seconds), and whether or not to search for it. You must use *N to indicate where the node number will be. IE - C:\SEMAFORE\FDALIVE.*N │ Page information └────────────────────────────────── Music duration ■ This is how long to wait if you do not respond to the page. The music will play for this long, unless the PAGE.RA file is missing. Page length ■ This is how long of an input line there should be for the user. The maximum length available is 79 characters. Use internal chat ■ If you select yes, then you will use the chat within PAGER, however if you select no, then PAGER will bomb out and use the RemoteAccess chatting program. Notes... ■ The Pager program is used so that the chat reason can be obtained from the user. If you are using Pager then the chat reason will replace the fwd line in the user info screen ("I" from NodeManager). If you are not using Pager then the page reason can not be obtained and the fwd line will still be displayed. If you have created your configuration file, and you are using one of the supported mailers, you can build a list for NodeManager to reference when it finds a mailer semaphore. If you do not have a list then instead of the remote systems information, you will see "Unknown site" in the username area. To build the list simply type: NODEMAN.EXE BUILDLIST This will create the files: MAILER.IDX and MAILER.LST. This is an optional feature which is not required to run NodeManager. ╓────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ NODEMAN.EXE - The program ║ ╙────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ │ Description └────────────────────────────────── ■ NodeManager is a powerful program that allows you to control your system from a single console. You can send online messages, and kickoff users, and if you have NODETSR loaded on the remote machine, then you can fully control it including the keyboard and monitor, as if you were sitting in front of it. There are also system usage charts and graphs available to you for node or system analysis. ■ In order for NODEMAN.EXE to run, there must be a NODEMAN.CFG file (created by NMSETUP.EXE) and a NODEMAN.SET file which defines paths for each node. If all nodes share a common name, then you can use the BUILDSET parameter to create the set file. │ Features └────────────────────────────────── ■ Help <F1> This will bring up a list of available help topics. ■ Configure Nodeman <Alt-C> This allows you to configure NodeManager, without having to exit, configure, and reload. After exitting the setup program, you will be returned to NodeManager which will then load the new configuration. ■ DOS Shell <Alt-J> This will allow you to execute DOS commands. You must type EXIT to return to NodeManager. ■ Netmail Editor <Alt-E> If you configured a netmail editor in the Mailer section of the setup program, then this will bring up your netmail editor. ■ Display current user record <I> This will display the users user record, in a fashion that resembles RemoteAccess's user editor. The Fwd line will be replaced with the page reason if PAGER is being used as the paging program. ■ Send Message <M> If there is a user on the selected node, you can enter a message for that user. If you have tagged nodes then you can send a message to all the tagged nodes. Note: Only nodes with users on them will be sent a message. ■ Polite Kickoff <K> It there is a user on the selected node, you can enter a message to the user, before kicking them off. If you have tagged nodes then you can send a message to all the tagged nodes. Note: Only nodes with users on them will be sent a message. ■ Quick Kickoff <Q> If there is a user on the selected node, you can kick the user off immediately. If you have tagged nodes then you can kick off all users on the tagged nodes. ■ Toggle Mailer/Disk Stats <Alt-D> This will toggle the disk statistics with your mailer's last call information. If in the SETUP program you specify to display disk statistics, this will not do anything. ■ Toggle Time field <Alt-T> This will toggle the time field between the Logon/Logoff time and the time elapsed per call. ■ Toggle executed events <E> This will allow you to change which events you would like to execute. You can toggle, the timed events, file triggered events, and spooled events. ■ List downed nodes <D> If there are nodes have been determined hung, by the defined alert semaphores, then they will appear in this list box. If you use alert semaphores that do not have a node number in the filename then NODE 0 will be listed as down. ■ Show Alt-keys <ALT-K> This is a quick way to bring up you list of 9 Alt keys so you have some form of reference to the keys that you can't remember. ■ Show next event <N> This will show you the details of the next event that is to be executed. ■ Tag/untag current node <Space> This will toggle the current nodes tagged status. ■ Tag all nodes <T> This will tag all defined nodes. ■ Tag all nodes <U> This will untag all defined nodes. ■ Snoop/Control a Node <Enter/Defined> If you would like to view what is happening on a specific node, you can view it, if it has the NODETSR loaded. While viewing the node it is like being on that computer, and if you press a key, that node will receive the key. This allows you to Sysop chat from your computer. To stop viewing a node, just press your defined connect key. ■ View Tagged Nodes <Alt-V> This will scroll through the tagged nodes, and view each node for the configured amount of time. To stop scrolling through the nodes, you must press the defined connection key. ■ View Nodes with users <Alt-W> This will scroll through the nodes that are in use by a user, mailer, or a defined semaphore. This will view the node for the configured period of time, and can be stopped by the defined connection key. ■ Reboot a node <Alt-R> You can reboot a node that has the "NODETSR" program loaded. You can reboot tagged nodes, if there are nodes tagged. ■ BBS Information <Alt-B> This will display how many users you system has, who the last caller was, and the total number of calls your system has received. ■ Last Message <Alt-L> If the user shown on the screen has written a message, this will display the message information, including who it was to, what area it was written in, and if it was private or not. ■ Node usage graph <Alt-G> This will display a graph showing the busy rate for X number of days, at each hour, for the current node. You can navigate through the node you are viewing by using the > for the next node, and < for the previous node. You can also see how busy you were over all the nodes. Note: You can exclude local nodes from the overall usage by placing an asterisk (*) before the path in the NODEMAN.SET file. ■ Caller listing <L> This will give you a complete listing of the callers that have completed a call to the BBS since midnight. You can toggle the user's name/handle by pressing H. The list will start at the bottom, so you can move from the last caller, to the first caller. ■ System usage graph <Alt-H> This will display a graph showing all nodes, and the busy rate over each hour. This can be compared to the previous days graph by pressing Y from today's graph or Alt-Y from the main screen. To have yesterdays graph available you must have selected the Create system history file from the setup program. ■ System usage summary <Alt-N> This will display a chart, charting each node's statistics, like the number of calls today, the number of new users, how much time was used on that node, the average time used, and a percentage of time used. ■ Inbound/Outbound history files <Alt-I/Alt-O> This will bring up the last 100 calls via your mailer. This feature reads only the INBOUND.HIS/OUTBOUND.HIS files. If your history files do not have the same name, you might consider defining an Altkey to copy your history files to the apporpriate filename. ■ Reset timers <`> You can force everything to update by pressing this key. All the visual windows will be updated (Users online, Last call/drive stats), and all the events will be rechecked. ■ Drop-down menu <ALT-M, ALT-F, ALT-U, ALT-S> This will drop down a menu, which will allow you to pick the function you wish to execute. This is so you do not have to memorize all the available keys. │ Command line parameters └────────────────────────────────── ■ /NOEVENTS, /NOJOBS, /NOFILE, /NA By using one or a combination of the first three parameters you will disable some of the file executions. By using the /NA parameter you will disable all three of the first parameters ensuring that your session will remain uninterrupted. ■ /SCAN=# This will replace the rescan rate entered in the setup program. This may be useful if you are running more than one copy of NodeManager at a time. ■ /NOVGA NodeManager will be forced to use the standard 25 line screen mode when executed with this parameter. This is useful if you are running NodeManager on more than one computer, because not all computers will have a EGA/VGA monitor. ■ WATCH #, REBOOT #, REBOOT ALL These options will load the program and return to a DOS prompt when the desired task has been completed. This simply provides you with an automated way to perform key functions. ■ SEND # This allows you to send a string to a remote node, this is not sending a user message, but stuffing the remote keyboard, so that a command or series of commands can be executed. All parameters that follow the # parameter will be sent as the text. ■ BUILDSET If the paths to each node resemble each other, then this feature will automatically build the required NODEMAN.SET file. You do not need to include the local parameter, by stating what nodes are local nodes, you can leave these nodes out of the overall node usage graph. ■ For example... NODEMAN BUILDSET PATH=C:\RA\NODE*N LOCAL=3,4 ■ BUILDLIST This will use your mailer's inbound and outbound history files to build the lookup files used by NodeManager. ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ NODETSR.EXE - The TSR ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ │ Description └────────────────────────────────── ■ NODETSR requires that you pass it the node number it will be viewing in order to run properly. This program must be loaded into each machine that you wish to monitor via NODEMAN. For example, on node 3 you would use... NODETSR 3 ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ &.EXE - The Utility ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ │ Description └────────────────────────────────── ■ & is a utility to create the spooled job requests for NodeManager to run. Whatever you type after the "&" will be sent as a job for the NodeManager to spool at its earliest convenience. (providing it has not been disabled with the /NOJOBS parameter) This function is great if you have NodeManager running on a seperate machine and would like it to handle jobs from any workstation, rather than tying up the workstation itself. The &.EXE program must be located in the same directory as the NODEMAN.EXE program in order to work correctly. For example: & TOSSMAIL.BAT This would cause the machine running NODEMAN.EXE to shell to DOS and execute TOSSMAIL.BAT, keeping your machine free. ■ For an added measure of security, you can set the NMPASS environment variable on the machine running NODEMAN.EXE. This will force the machines spooling the jobs to have the same password in their environment variable. This password scheme is only required in some systems, for example if you are running on a LAN and would like to spool jobs, but you don't want your BBS machines to be able to spool events, you could create the environment on the server and on your personal workstation but not on the nodes. That way, if someone was able to hack your DOS shell on your nodes, they would not be able to cause your server to spool a job. This increases security, as you can then restrict sensitive areas from node machines without worry of them sending a dangerous job to the NodeManger on the main server. For example: SET NMPASS=PRIVATE If you set this on your NodeManager machine, NodeManager would only accept jobs spooled from a workstation that had a valid NMPASS environment varible set. ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ PAGER.EXE - The program ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ │ Description └────────────────────────────────── ■ NodeManager allows you to view a users reason for chat, if you are running PAGER.EXE instead of the standard type-11 menu option "Page Systems Operator for a chat" To run PAGER instead, simply create a type-7 menu option (Execute external program) to run PAGER.EXE, and remove your old type-11 page option. In the setup program you can have your choice of running the internal PAGER chat program, or you can run the one you have setup in RemoteAccess. (either Internal or External) ■ PAGER can be modified to look exactly like your internal setup, by editing the file PAGER.CFG with a text editor. Below is a listing of the available control codes in the config file: `@ - Wait for an ENTER `| - ENTER `^ - ClearScreen `A..`P - Change Color (Black..White) ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ Support ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ If you have any questions or comments, you can netmail us at FidoNet address 1:2401/305 (CM,VFC,V34). Please poll back for your replies as we get dozens of messages a day, and crashing them all out is just too expensive - or optionally, make a note that you would like your message routed back to you. You can also contact me via the Internet for faster responses, and directly sent out replies. The address is "support@multiboard.com". Normally you will find me in the RA_UTIL FidoNet area as well, as well as the MCC_SUPPORT echo of course. The latest version can always be FREQ'd from me with the magic name NODEMAN. Also, the newest MCC software is also now available via the Internet: ftp://ra.uti.com/sys/bbs/bbs/mcc http://www.mgl.ca/~multib You can also "FREQ" the files from us via fidonet at 1:2401/305, our system is online and taking requests 24 hours/day. ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ Registration ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ Please see the REGISTER.EXE file for a list of our registration site. If you ever have questions about our registration sites, feel free to post our infobot at "reginfo@multiboard.com", or send a netmail message to us at 1:2401/305 ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ License and Disclaimer ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ "NODEMAN" is NOT free, it is being marketed under the "try before you buy" or shareware concept. You are entitled to use NodeManager for a period up to forty-five (45) days, after which you MUST register or stop using the program, a 15 day grace period will be given after which the program will cease to function. Registration entitles you to use this version of NODEMAN as well as any future versions of the program that may or may not be released, subject to additional licensing conditions which may be attached. Registration will also you to use all of the available functions of NODEMAN, and help to continue the development of this program. (not to mention maintain the legality of this agreement) By running any of the executable programs included, you agree that Pete Rocca, Darryl Olthoff, Multiboard Communications Centre nor any affiliates of the above mentioned are responsible for any damage ever experienced, however so created. If you cannot agree to this, then your privilege to use any of these programs is revoked and it becomes illegal for you to execute any programs included with this documentation. You may freely copy and distribute the shareware version of NODEMAN as long as its original archived contents are not modified in any way. You may NOT distribute any registration keys without the expressed written consent of Pete Rocca of Multiboard Communications Centre. You may not use a registration key that is not licensed to you by Pete Rocca, or any of the registration sites appointed by Pete Rocca. It is illegal to edit, alter, hack, reverse engineer and / or modify any components of the NODEMAN archive in any manner. If dispute of any issues on legal grounds said above, then governing law of Ontario, Canada will rule. If you agree to all of the above, then you may use these programs. * REMEMBER THAT REGISTRATION IS QUITE INEXPENSIVE FOR ALL YOU GET! *