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1991-09-25
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FrontDoor 2.02 Noncommercial
User guide
For noncommercial use and distribution
To the memories of Catharina Frodin and Alva Gardlund.
And to Christian, Katja, and Igor Homrighausen.
Table of contents
1 LEGAL NOTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Hardware requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Additional equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.4 BBS software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 CONFIG.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 AUTOEXEC.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1 FD environment variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2 FD.SYS <> SETUP.FD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4.1 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4.2 Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4.3 Mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.4.4 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.4.5 Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.4.6 Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.4.7 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.4.8 Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.4.9 Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4.10 Folder Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4.11 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.4.11.1 Notes regarding protocols . . . . . . . . 30
4.4.12 Request Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5 The nodelist and the nodelist compiler . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.1 Hosts and hubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2 Compiling a nodelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.2.1 FDNODE.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
POINTLIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
PVTLIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
SWEPULSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
PHONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
USE ZONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
DIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
COST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.3 Nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.4 Command line switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.5 Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.5.1 Pointlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.5.2 FDNODE.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.5.3 Point handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.5.4 Remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.5.5 POINTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.6 Sharing the nodelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6 Modems and FOSSIL drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.1 Basic configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.1.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Modem port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Maximum baud rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Lock port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Reset modem to connect speed . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Lower DTR when busy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Lower DTR to terminate call . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Toggle DTR before dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Carrier detect mask (CDMASK) . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.1.2 Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.1.3 Command strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Escape code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Return on-line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Onhook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Offhook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Init-1..Init-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.1.4 Answer control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Manual answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Force answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Answer delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Limited hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Starting time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Ending time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2 Advanced configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2.1 The Modem Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2.2 An example, the HST/DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.3 Some sample configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
US Robotics HST (older models) . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
US Robotics HST/DS/V.32bis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.4 FOSSIL drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.4.1 BNU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.4.2 X00.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.1 The Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.1.1 External event behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.1.2 Mail event behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7.1.3 The @ event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.1.4 Overlapping events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
8 Mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.1 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.1.1 Programs <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.1.2 Utilities <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.1.3 Mail <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.2 Mail queue <Alt-B> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
8.3 Call progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8.4 Semaphore indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8.5 Undialable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
9 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
9.1 Main <Alt-M> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
9.2 Edit <Alt-E> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.2.1 <Alt-T> in edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.2.2 Toggle menu <Ctrl-F2> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
9.3 Utilities <Alt-U> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
9.4 Purge <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
9.5 Other keys in edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
9.6 Other keys in view (read) mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
9.7 Entering new messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
9.8 Management <Alt-F9> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
9.8.1 Main menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
9.8.2 Continuous tagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
9.8.3 Range select <F4> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
9.9 Keyboard macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.9.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.10 Carbon copies (CC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.10.1 Hidden CCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.10.2 Using files as input to CCs . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.10.3 Address expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9.11 Crossposting (XC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
10 Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.1 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.1.1 File <Alt-F> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.1.2 Line settings <Alt-L> . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
10.1.3 Session <Alt-S> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
10.1.4 Options <Alt-O> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
10.2 Keyboard macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.3 Raw mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.4 Keypad modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.5 PC keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.6 Phone directory <Alt-P> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.6.1 Queue status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.6.2 Adding/changing entries . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.7 Inactivity timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.8 File transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.9 On-line timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
11 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
11.1 Destination of messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
11.1.1 Name lookups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
11.1.2 Address browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
11.1.3 Address macros (NAMES.FD) . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12 File Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.1 Outbound Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.2 Requesting files with a password . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.3 Update Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.4 Inbound Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.4.1 Request modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Anyone can request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Systems in nodelist can request . . . . . . . . . . 90
No requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.4.2 Directory listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.4.3 Alias listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.4.4 Response message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
12.4.5 Limiting Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Max match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Max size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Max time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Minimum speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
12.4.6 Limited hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
12.4.7 Event restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
12.4.8 Protecting files and directories . . . . . . . . 93
13 Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.1 Complete path specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2 Loading programs in a DOS shell . . . . . . . . . . . 94
14 CRT environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
15 Message Status Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
File Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Update request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Kill/Sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Truncate file/sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Delete file/sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Immediate mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
No status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
16 Mail routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
16.1 Default routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
16.2 Message status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
16.3 Host/Hub/Boss routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
16.4 Qualifying systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
16.5 Route commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
16.6 LIST specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
16.7 Using nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
16.8 File routing/forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
16.9 Message forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
16.10 Multiple zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
16.11 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
16.12 Dynamic packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
16.13 Regarding points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
16.14 Order of evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
16.15 TARGET vs. qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
16.16 Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
16.17 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
MYZONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
MYNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
MYPOINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
16.18 Supported nodelist flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
17 EMSI and IEMSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
17.1 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
17.2 Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
17.3 IEMSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
18 Script language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
18.1 What can I do with it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
18.2 Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
18.3 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
18.4 Node block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
18.5 PC Pursuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
18.6 How do I update PCP.DAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
18.7 MNEMONICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
19 FDSERVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
19.1 What is a FDSERVER request? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
19.2 Request message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
19.2.1 Internal commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
19.3 Using it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
19.4 Keeping calls to a minimum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
19.5 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
20 Service requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
20.1 Service requests vs FDSERVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
20.2 Setting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
20.3 ^ - + ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
20.4 Remote system information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
20.5 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
20.6 A word of wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
21 Global command line switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
21.1 A word of wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
22 Environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
22.1 FDOPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
22.2 FDSWAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
22.3 POINTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
22.4 FMOVR and FDOVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
23 Semaphore files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
24 Batch files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
24.1 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
24.2 Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
24.3 Loading BBS software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
24.4 Different labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
24.5 Same label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
24.6 DOBBS.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
24.7 EXEBBS.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
24.8 Flow (batch files) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
25 Multi-tasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
25.1 NS16550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
25.2 DESQview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
25.3 DoubleDOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
25.4 Multilink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
26 Converting from other mail systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
27 Help systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
28 Sample (PCP) script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
29 Commercial inquiries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
30 Developer notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
31 Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
32 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
1 LEGAL NOTICE
The FrontDoor 2.02 Noncommercial software and information attached
hereto, hereafter referred to as FrontDoor, is protected by
applicable copyright laws and international treaty provisions.
FrontDoor is provided as is, without warranty of any kind or fitness
for a particular purpose, either expressed or implied, all of are
hereby explicitly disclaimed. Advanced Engineering sarl only
guarantees that FrontDoor will occupy disk space.
In no event shall Advanced Engineering sarl 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, loss
of the right to use FrontDoor, or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use or inability to use FrontDoor.
Additional statements by agents, employees, distributors, and dealers
of Advanced Engineering sarl do not constitute warranties by Advanced
Engineering sarl and do not bind Advanced Engineering sarl.
FrontDoor is not public domain, shareware, or freeware; nor does it
stop working after a certain amount of time. FrontDoor is simply free
of charge for individual hobby use by persons holding or aspiring to
obtain a network address (including point addresses) in one or more
of the amateur data communications networks throughout the world. It
is not allowed to use FrontDoor within a commercial environment (ie.
business, governmental organization, association, school, foundation,
or any other form of juridical person) without prior written
permission from Advanced Engineering sarl.
FrontDoor can only be used by physical persons (as opposed to
juridical persons), and installed on a computer which is personal
property. Exception to the rule of personal ownership of the
computer: before the year 1995, individual hobby use (as described
above) of FrontDoor can be carried on a computer owned by business or
state agency if the installation is located and remains in one of the
following countries: Albania, Angola, Bulgaria, China, Cuba,
Czeckoslovakia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Hungary, Latvia, Laos, Lithuania,
North Korea, Poland, Rumania, the Soviet Union, Sudan, Tanzania,
Vietnam, Yugoslavia, or former republic, province or member state of
one of these countries which has turned independent.
Information on how to obtain the commercial version of FrontDoor is
included in a separate section of this document.
You may freely distribute and copy FrontDoor provided no fee is
charged and the FrontDoor archive contains unmodified copies of the
original files as produced by Advanced Engineering sarl or Joaquim H.
Homrighausen. No part of FrontDoor may be modified, altered, reverse
engineered, sold, or distributed in any form which would involve some
sort of trade without prior written permission from Advanced
Engineering sarl.
All Advanced Engineering sarl and Joaquim H. Homrighausen products
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Engineering sarl
or Joaquim H. Homrighausen. Other brand and product names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
1
Copyright 1986-1991 Advanced Engineering sarl. All rights reserved.
Documentation and Software written and designed by
Joaquim H. Homrighausen.
2
2 Preface
Welcome to FrontDoor, the complete e-mail package from Advanced
Engineering sarl. It is probably safe to say that an e-mail package,
such as FrontDoor, is one of the most complex types of applications
around. This manual is very straight forward and may seem hard to
understand at first glance. If you get lost, or cannot understand
something, go back and read the section you are having problems with,
carefully.
FrontDoor has been tested on more than four thousand systems for over
five years. It will run under MS or PC DOS versions 3.1 and above;
including 4.x, 5.x, OS/2 1.3, and OS/2 2.0 DOS Mode. It runs under
most LAN software; including Novell and LANtastic. It also runs under
PC-MOS/386, VM/386 and in other multi-tasking environments such as
DESQview.
For complete technical and FidoNet-related specifications, see
"Technical specifications". Although FrontDoor will run on most
machines, there are a few restrictions and requirements.
2.1 Hardware requirements
o An IBM PC, AT, i386, i486, PS/2 or 100% BIOS compatible.
o A hard disk with at least 1 MB available diskspace.
o An asynchronous modem capable of sending alphanumeric
messages such as CONNECT 2400.
o A DTE interface (computer <> modem) that supports CTS/RTS
handshaking (most cables/internal modems do).
o A monochrome or color monitor.
o 384 KB of system memory.
2.2 Software requirements
o MS or PC DOS 3.10 or above.
o A FOSSIL driver such as X00 or BNU.
2.3 Additional equipment
FrontDoor can take advantage of, but does not require, the
following:
o EMS/XMS memory for overlays and memory image swapping.
o EGA/VGA extended screen modes such as 80x43/50 and
132x28.
o AT-style (extended) keyboard.
2.4 BBS software
FrontDoor can be used as a front-end to many popular bulletin
boards including TUBBS, PC Board, RemoteAccess, Maximus-CBCS,
TCL, TPBoard, QuickBBS, SuperBBS, Phoenix RCS, Fido, Opus-CBCS,
and WildCat!.
3
3 Installation
Included in the distribution archive are several files. This document
will walk you through the installation and configuration of the
system. All path names and directories suggested here are not
required. You can change them as you wish, but I suggest you use the
example in this document for a start and then move on to change
things as you become more familiar with the system. In the example,
it is assumed that you are about to install FrontDoor on your C
drive.
3.1 CONFIG.SYS
FrontDoor needs to have a few extra file handles allocated to
keep the nodelist and other files open. Your CONFIG.SYS file
should contain FILES=25 (or higher). If you do not know what
handles means, that is okay, as long as you have the FILES=25
statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. If you are using multi-tasking
software, your FILES= setting must usually be set to something
higher than 25.
You should also have BUFFERS=30 (or higher) in your CONFIG.SYS
file to improve DOS' buffer performance. If you are using a disk
cache, you should have BUFFERS=3 or something close to that.
3.2 AUTOEXEC.BAT
Add SET FD=C:\FD to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will make sure
FrontDoor can find all its system files. You may NOT have spaces
between FD and =.
3.3 Directories
From your root directory (C:\) create a directory called FD. This
is the main (ROOT) directory for FrontDoor. Change the active
directory to FD. Create the following directories:
NODELIST
MAIL
PACKET
FILE
3.4 Files
Copy FD.EXE, FD.OVR, FM.EXE, FM.OVR, FDNC.EXE and FDSETUP.EXE to
C:\FD.
The program files are now installed.
4
4 Setup
The Setup program, FDSETUP hereafter, is used to configure FrontDoor.
Most functions and behavior of the Editor (FM), Mailer (FD), and
Terminal are controlled from FDSETUP. When you start FDSETUP, it
searches for the system file, SETUP.FD, in the directory pointed to
by the FD environment variable.
If the FD variable has not been set, FDSETUP searches the current
directory for SETUP.FD. If it cannot open SETUP.FD, it will ask you
if you want to create a new file or abort.
4.1 FD environment variable
The FD environment variable specifies where FDSETUP should search
for SETUP.FD. If the FD environment variable is not set, FDSETUP
will search the current directory for SETUP.FD. It is recommended
that you add SET FD=<path> to your AUTOEXEC.BAT or other startup
file. This allows FDSETUP, and the other FrontDoor programs, to
locate SETUP.FD without having to be in the same directory.
Usage:
SET FD=<PATHSPEC>
Eg. SET FD=C:\FD
4.2 FD.SYS <> SETUP.FD
The system file was previously (FD 1.99c and FD 2.00) called
FD.SYS and some programs may still require it to be present
before they will run (TosScan 1.00 is one example). It is
therefore VERY IMPORTANT that you COPY SETUP.FD to FD.SYS
whenever you have made changes to SETUP.FD by using FDSETUP.
4.3 Getting started
To create a new SETUP.FD file, make the FrontDoor root directory
the active directory by using the DOS command CD; type FDSETUP
and press Enter. If you have set the FD variable, you do not have
to change the active directory before invoking FDSETUP.
FDSETUP will display a message saying something like "SETUP.FD,
path or file not found". Press <Space> to create a new file.
5
4.4 Menus
There are eight top-level (pull-down) menus. Each function and
menu of FDSETUP will now be described.
4.4.1 File
Shell to DOS Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and
press <Enter> to return to FDSETUP. You can
invoke a temporary DOS shell in FDSETUP by
pressing <Alt-Z> in the middle of input
fields, pull-down menus, selection fields,
etc.
Exit Returns you to DOS or the Mailer, depending
on how FDSETUP was invoked. If you made any
changes to your configuration, you will be
asked if you want to make your changes
permanent or abandon them. You can also exit
FDSETUP by pressing <Esc> at any of the
top-level menus.
4.4.2 Global
Address
Address Defines your network address and alternate
network addresses, or "also-known-as" (AKA).
You must define at least one network address
(the first slot).
Site info Defines your system's name, location,
telephone number, maximum speed, and nodelist
flags.
The telephone number should be specified in
international format, eg. +352 355936 or -
Unpublished- if you do not wish to reveal
this information to other systems.
6
Domains Specifies the name of a network zone. This
should be "fidonet.org" for all FidoNet Zones
(currently 1 through 6).
At the moment, this is only used for the
generation of the ^AMSGID: kludge line and
for inserting "^aVia" information in messages
forwarded by the Mailer (FD).
AKA.. Allows you to specify which AKA to use when
corresponding with certain zones and nets
within zones.
Ie. if you are writing a message to someone
in zone 2 and you have specified that you
wish to use your 2:270/17 AKA for this, the
Editor will automatically use 2:270/17
regardless of your current AKA setting.
This allows you to easily participate in
multiple networks.
Filenames
System Where the FrontDoor system files are stored.
This should NOT be a RAM disk.
Netmail Where Netmail messages are stored, ie. the
Netmail folder. The Mailer unpacks received
messages to this directory. This should NOT
be a RAM disk.
Files Where inbound (received) files are stored.
This should NOT be a RAM disk.
Packets Where the Mailer stores its temporary mail
packets. They are created every time the
Mailer runs a mail event and are removed
after when the event ends.
By putting the Packet directory on a RAM
disk, you can greatly improve the speed of
packing and scanning outbound mail. It is
recommended that you use a sub-directory on
your RAM disk (eg. <drive>:\PACKETS) since
the number of directory entries in the root
directory of a drive is usually strictly
limited.
7
Log file The log file. This is a complete filename,
eg. C:\FD\FD.LOG. The Mailer is the only
program in the FD package that writes
information to this file. You should NOT use
a RAM disk for the log file as it will
disappear if the system reboots.
Banner The contents of this file is displayed to
human callers before the Mailer passes
control to your batch file to invoke the BBS
software. This file is not used if you are
running in mail-only mode. You should NOT use
a RAM disk for the banner file.
Nodelist Where the nodelist database is stored. The
Nodelist Compiler (FDNC) expects to find its
control file(s) here. The Mailer (FD) and
Editor (FM) expects to find the compiled
nodelist database here. If this directory is
not specified, FrontDoor will use the SYSTEM
directory instead. The nodelist directory
should NOT be located on a RAM disk.
In-event This file is displayed to human callers if
the Mailer rejects their call. Ie. if you are
running in mail-only mode or if a mail event
prevents human callers from accessing your
BBS.
MSG Base Where the Editor (FM) expects to find the
Hudson Message Base files (MSGHDR.BBS,
MSGTXT.BBS, MSGINFO.BBS, MSGIDX.BBS,
MSGTOIDX.BBS and LASTREAD.BBS). If you do not
have any folders with MsgBase status, you do
not have to specify this.
Swapping If you enable swapping to disk or there is
not sufficient XMS/EMS memory available. The
Mailer (FD) and the Editor (FM) will use this
directory to store its swap file.
This setting can be overridden by the FDSWAP
environment variable (see "Environment
variables").
8
Semaphore Where the Mailer (FD) and Editor (FM) creates
and looks for the various semaphore files
(see "Semaphore files"). This allows you to
configure a multi-line and/or multi-user
system with different configurations to use
the same semaphore directory.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
General
Your country code
Your country code. Eg. USA=1, Sweden=46,
Luxembourg=352. This is used for telephone
number translations. This is related to the
COUNTRY= command used in CONFIG.SYS.
It does not, however, have to be the same as
your COUNTRY= setting. FDSETUP's country code
setting should always be your real country
code.
Screen flickers
FrontDoor attempts to detect if you have a
CGA card that causes flicker if software
performs direct memory access (DMA). The
default for this setting is NO and you should
leave it alone unless you are seeing flicker
on your screen when you use the Mailer (FD),
Editor (FM), and/or the Terminal.
Use "fastkey"
Forces the Mailer (FD), Editor (FM), and the
Terminal to speed up the typematic rate of
your keyboard. This is only valid for
machines with an AT- or compatible BIOS
installed.
If you are using other keyboard speed-up
utilities, leave this to NO; otherwise, the
programs will restore the typematic rate to
the default (slow) when they terminate.
9
Screen blanking
Prevents screen images from "burning in". If
you are using a monochrome monitor, data that
is displayed often in the same location on
your screen can "burn in" and leave ugly
marks. Color monitors usually do not have
this problem.
Since the Mailer (FD) is active more than 80%
of the day on most systems, it may be wise to
enable this option to avoid "burn ins" of the
Mailer's main display.
Blackout timer
Specifies how many seconds of inactivity
should pass before the screen is blanked.
This option is only used if screen blanking
(previous page) has been enabled. You can
"light up" a blanked screen by pressing a
key. The screen will also be lit when the
Mailer (FD) places outgoing calls and when
incoming calls are answered.
Extended keyboard
Specifies which type of keyboard you have
(101/102 or 83/84). FDSETUP will attempt to
"guess" which type of keyboard you have, but
some BIOS flavors does not properly indicate
the type. This allows you to override what
FDSETUP detects.
Force 24-hour fmt
Allows you to force the Mailer and the Editor
to display the time in 24-hour format even if
you are located in a country that uses the
12-hour format, such as the USA.
10
Users
Allows you to specify user names and access levels. The
default name of the first user is System Operator. You
should change this to your own name.
There are three different access levels. Supervisor,
Administrator and User.
A user with Supervisor access can override any
restrictions on folders and messages. He/she can also
change all settings regardless of passwords. You should
only have one user with Supervisor access, but FDSETUP
will allow you to define more than one. At least one user
with Supervisor access MUST exist and is required to add
any additional users.
A user with Administrator access cannot override any
restrictions on folders and messages. He/she has to enter
passwords for protected items before they can be changed.
A user with User access cannot override any restrictions
on folders and messages. The only setting he/she can
change in FDSETUP is his/her own password.
4.4.3 Mailer
Miscellaneous
Mail from unlisted systems
Defines whether or not the Mailer should
accept incoming calls from systems not listed
in your nodelist database. If this option is
disabled (set to NO) and an unlisted system
calls in, the Mailer will terminate the call
immediately.
11
Mail from "unprotected" systems
Defines whether or not the Mailer should
accept incoming calls from systems for which
you do not have a session level password
defined. If this option is disabled (set to
NO) and an unprotected system calls in, the
Mailer will terminate the call immediately.
Mail from unlisted points
The Mailer will by default accept calls from
points of other systems. You can, however,
specify that you do not want the Mailer to
accept calls from points that are not listed
in your nodelist database. If this option is
disabled (set to NO) and a point for which
you have no entry in your nodelist database
calls in, the Mailer will terminate the call
immediately.
Kill empty received messages
Specifies that you want the Mailer to kill
empty messages (messages with no text in its
body) when they are unpacked from mail
packets.
Terminal only (no mail)
If enabled, the Mailer will invoke the
Terminal as soon as it is loaded. This
setting can be overridden with the /M command
line switch.
Mail only (no BBS)
If enabled, the Mailer will not accept human
callers under any circumstances. Use this
option if you do not have a BBS or similar
software running "below" the Mailer.
12
Present all AKAs to remote system
If you have more than one AKA address, the
Mailer will by default attempt to pickup mail
destined for all your addresses during a mail
session.
This can be disabled so that only one address
is presented to the remote system. Which
address is actually presented is determined
by the AKA matching table (described
previously).
Trigger exit upon receipt of netmail
The Mailer will by default only trigger (set)
the exit flag when compressed (following the
ARCmail 0.60 standard) mail is received. If
this option is enabled, the exit flag will be
triggered (set) when NetMail packets (files
ending with the extension .PKT) have been
received. Whether or not the Mailer will
actually exit is controlled by event
behaviors (see "Events") and the mail exit
errorlevels.
Trigger exit upon receipt of ANY file
Similar to the previous option, but will
trigger exit as long as any (file) data has
been received.
13
Print received messages
If enabled, the Mailer will print messages
unpacked from received mail packets.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Busy retries
Defines the maximum number of times the
Mailer will attempt to call a system during
an event (see "Events") if the system is busy
or does not answer on the first call. See the
section about the Mailer for further details
regarding call progress.
Resend retries
Defines the maximum number of times the
Mailer will attempt to transfer mail to a
system during an event if the first attempt
fails. See the section about the Mailer for
further details regarding call progress.
Retry delay
Defines the minimum number of seconds the
Mailer will wait between outgoing calls. This
is used in conjunction with a random timer to
avoid two Mailers calling each other at the
same time (and thus causing both telephone
lines to be engaged).
Delay before first call
The Mailer will by default attempt to place
the first outgoing call as soon as possible.
If this option is enabled, it will delay the
first call.
Days to keep mail history
Number of days to retain entries in the
floating inbound/outbound history files. The
Mailer removes all entries older than this
value from the history files every morning
(at first opportunity after midnight).
14
BBS software name
Name of the BBS software you are running (if
any). This is displayed to human callers
together with the "Press <Esc> twice for
BBSNAME" if the event allows human callers to
access the BBS.
Seconds before passing to BBS
Defines the number of seconds the Mailer will
wait before assuming a human caller. Unless
the Mailer receives two consecutive escape
(ASCII 27) characters, it will attempt to
establish a mail session for the amount
specified here. The minimum and default value
is 11 seconds. The maximum value is 60
seconds.
Minimum undialable cost
The minimum cost of a call for a system to be
processed by the undialable handler. The
undialable handler is discussed in a separate
section.
Honor Return Receipt Requests (RRQ)
Specifies whether or not the Mailer should
generate a Return Receipt for received
messages with the RRQ flag set. The RRQ flag
is discussed in the Editor section.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Log Defines the various level of logging. All
messages will appear on the screen, the log
options defines which of them ends up in the
log file.
15
File requests Controls how the Mailer (FD) treats inbound
File and Update Requests. A separate section
explains File and Update Requests in detail.
FDServer If no password is specified in FDSETUP, the
FDSERVER function is inactive (disabled). The
FDSERVER function is described in a separate
section.
External mail When the Mailer processes an incoming call,
all received characters are processed for a
possible match with any of the external mail
"wake-up" sequences (strings) and if a match
is made, the Mailer exits with the specified
errorlevel of the matching string.
This allows you to run alternate mail
handlers behind the Mailer, such as UFGATE
and Waffle to process uucp mail. Note that
the call is not terminated when using the
external mail interface, the FOSSIL driver is
simply de-initialized and the Mailer exits.
This option is NOT intended for echomail
processors, etc.
To enter characters with an ASCII code below
32 (Space), hold down the <Alt> key, enter
the ASCII code on the numerical keypad and
release the <Alt> key.
Display
Mail waiting flashing
When there is new mail waiting, the text
"Mail" will flash on the Mailer screen. The
flashing can be disabled with this option.
Display clock
Specifies whether or not you want the current
date and time displayed in the top right
corner of the Mailer screen.
Display timestamp
Specifies whether or not you want the Mailer
to display the time to the left of each line
displayed in the main activity window. This
setting does not affect what is being written
to the log file.
Screen size
25 25 line mode.
43/50 43/50 line mode. Only available for systems
with EGA and VGA cards.
16
Auto Specifies that the Mailer should attempt to
automatically adapt to whatever the current
screen size is when it is started. This also
means that the Mailer will not attempt to
reset the screen mode when it is terminated.
Custom Allows you to specify computer register
values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to
set and reset the screen.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Colors
Allows you to choose between the default monochrome
(black and white) and the default color sets. You can
also choose to customize the colors to suit your own
needs.
Hidden dial info
Allows you to hide portions of telephone numbers that
otherwise would be displayed when the Mailer places an
outgoing call. Eg. The Mailer calls 352-355936, if you
had one of the hidden dial info strings set to 352- the
displayed number would be 355936.
Function keys
Allows you to define up to 20 (24) programs, etc. to
invoke from the Mailer when any of the functions keys are
pressed. The first 10 (12) function keys are accessed
through <F1> - <F10> (F12), the second 10 (12) function
keys are accessed through <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12).
Title The title to appear on the screen when you
press <Alt-K> from the Mailer's main screen.
Action The program to invoke or errorlevel to exit
with. To specify more than one program,
separate them by semicolons (;). To exit with
an errorlevel, specify ?<errorlevel>. Eg.
LIST C:\FD\FD.LOG;DEL C:\FD\FD.LOG
Would load the program LIST and pass
C:\FD\FD.LOG as the parameter. When the LIST
program terminates, the Mailer would proceed
to the next command, which in this case
removes C:\FD\FD.LOG.
?255
Would force the Mailer to terminate with an
errorlevel of 255.
17
Pause Specifies whether or not you want the Mailer
to pause when the invoked program(s)
terminates.
Check Specifies whether or not the Mailer should
re-scan the Netmail folder when the invoked
program(s) terminates.
To create a DOS shell that does not force a re-scan of
the Netmail folder, specify C:\COMMAND.COM (or wherever
you have your copy of COMMAND.COM stored) as ACTION and
set CHECK to NO.
Errorlevels
This section allows you to invoke BBS software, or other
similar software, when an incoming call is established
and the Mailer has determined that it is not a mail call.
It also allows you to define an errorlevel to exit with
when mail has been received.
If a baudrate related errorlevel is zero, the Mailer will
display a message to human callers saying that your
system does not support non-mail calls at that speed and
then terminate the call. If you are running in mail-only
mode, the Mailer will never accept non-mail (human)
calls.
If the RECEIVED MAIL errorlevel is zero, the Mailer will
never exit when mail has been received. Whether or not
the Mailer will actually exit when it has received mail
is determined by the current event behavior and whether
or not the received file(s) indicated mail.
The CREATE .BAT FILE option allows you to simplify BBS
operation. If it is enabled, the Mailer will create a
batch file containing the current baudrate, the COM port
used, the number of minutes left to the next system
event, etc. This is described in a separate section.
18
Audio control
The Mailer can sound alarms and make other noises when
certain events occur, such as received mail, incoming
human callers, fatal errors, etc. This section allows you
to control which sounds should be active and when audio
should be active.
Swapping
Determines whether or not you want the Mailer to use
swapping. You can disable the use of XMS/EMS memory for
the swap function. The swap function is explained in the
Miscellaneous section.
Protection
Allows you to protect certain functions of the Mailer
(FD), such as access to the DOS shell, Editor (FM),
Nodelist compiler (FDNC), Terminal, etc. with a password.
This is not available in the noncommercial version.
4.4.4 Editor
Miscellaneous
Netmail.Restricted
Specifies if the Netmail folder should be
restricted. If you enable this, users with
User or Administrator access can only read
private messages addressed to their
usernames.
Netmail.Read-only
Prevents users with User or Administrator
access from writing messages in the netmail
folder. The definition of writing includes
forwarding and moving of messages to the
Netmail folder.
Netmail.Export OK
Defines whether or not users with User or
Administrator access can export messages from
the Netmail folder. The definition of export
includes moving, copying, and export to disk.
Netmail.Use tables
Defines whether or not the translation tables
should be active by default in the Netmail
folder. This can be toggled from within the
Editor.
Netmail.Crash
If the Crash status bit should be set by
default on locally created messages.
19
Netmail.Direct
If the Direct status bit should be set by
default on locally created messages.
Netmail.Hold
If the Hold status bit should be set by
default on locally created messages.
Netmail.Private
If the Private status bit should be set by
default on locally created messages.
Netmail.Kill/Sent
If the Kill/sent status bit should be set by
default on locally created messages.
Use zone gates
Determines if the Editor (FM) should ask you
whether or not you want to send inter-zone
messages via the zone gate, never send
messages via the zone gate, or always send
inter-zone messages via the zone gate.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Del.Orig (Conf)
Del.Orig (Locl)
Del.Orig (NetM)
Determines if the Editor (FM) should ask
"Delete original message" when replying to
messages in EchoMail (Conf), Local (Locl),
and NetMail (NetM)-type folders.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Show hard CRs
If enabled, the Editor will show hard CRs in
messages. The display of hard CRs is disabled
by default and can be toggled from within the
Editor.
20
Margin Specifies the margin at which the Editor
should automatically wrap text when you enter
and quote (replying) messages. The default
value, 60, should not be changed in most
cases.
When you read messages in the Editor, it will
use all available columns (80, 132, etc.) as
the wrap margin.
Keyboard macros
Allows you to define up to 20 (24) strings.
These can be used to insert common text, such
as name signatures, etc. while editing
messages. The first 10 (12) function keys are
accessed through F1-F10 (F12), the second 10
(12) function keys are accessed through Shift
F1-F10 (F12).
The Editor (FM) macro language is discussed
in the section about how to operate the
Editor.
Origin lines
Appended to messages you create in
echomail-type folders to show the origin of a
message. These should include the name and
location of your system if possible.
You can choose default origin lines for all
EchoMail-type folders. You can also choose a
different origin line from within the Editor.
Whether or not the origin line is appended to
messages you enter in echomail-type folders
is controlled by the echo info status bit for
each folder.
Display
Screen size
25 25 line mode.
43/50
43/50 line mode. Only available for systems
with EGA and VGA cards.
Auto
Specifies that the Editor should attempt to
automatically adapt to whatever the current
screen size is when it is are started. This
also means that the Editor will not attempt
to reset the screen mode when it is
terminated.
21
Custom Allows you to specify computer register
values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to
set and reset the screen.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Colors Allows you to choose between the default
monochrome (black and white) and the default
color sets. You can also choose to customize
the colors to suit your own needs.
Xlat.In and Xlat.Out
Defines the translation tables to use
wherever the translation table status bit is
active. This is used to translate language
specific 8-bit ASCII characters to 7-bit
ASCII when writing messages to disk and vice
versa when reading messages from disk.
The In table is used when reading messages
from disk and the Out table is used when
writing messages to disk.
FDSETUP program automatically creates
reasonable defaults for most countries when
it creates a new SETUP.FD (system) file. If
you are located in an English speaking
country, you do normally not have to worry
about translation tables.
Swapping Determines whether or not you want the Editor
to use swapping for its DOS shell. You can
disable the use of XMS/EMS memory for the
swap function. The swap function is explained
in a separate section.
4.4.5 Terminal
Miscellaneous
Init An additional modem initialization string,
sent to the modem as soon as the Terminal is
started. If you start the Terminal directly
from DOS (FD /T) or have set the
Terminal-only option in FDSETUP, the Mailer's
initialization strings are first sent to the
modem.
Download Default download path. Files that you receive
(download) during a Terminal session will by
default end up here.
Upload Default upload path.
22
Editor Allows you to install an Editor or file
listing program and invoke it from the
Terminal. The Terminal will prompt your for
optional parameters, such as filenames, etc.
This can also be used to invoke external
protocols or external protocol menu programs.
Protocol Zmodem, Telink, or Xmodem. Defines the
default transfer protocol to use for file
transfers in the Terminal. While SEAlink is
an available protocol in the Terminal, it
cannot be set as the default protocol in
FDSETUP.
Emulation ANSI, TTY, VT100 or VT52. Defines the default
Terminal emulation protocol to use in the
Terminal. Note that the Terminal's ANSI
protocol supports the AVATAR (AVT/0)
emulation protocol.
Avatar Allows you to disable the support for AVATAR
sequences in ANSI emulation. This can be
toggled from within the Terminal.
Buffer The size, in KB, of the scroll-back buffer.
Connect noise
Whether or not the Terminal should make noise
when a connection has been established.
Transfer noise
Whether or not the Terminal should make noise
after file transfers.
Use tables Whether or not the Terminal translation
tables should be active by default. See
Editor.Xlat In for a detailed explanation of
translation tables.
Auto Zmodem
Whether or not the automatic Zmodem download
(receive) function should be enabled by
default.
Local echo Whether or not the Terminal should echo typed
characters to your screen by default.
Wrap around
Whether or not the Terminal should move the
cursor to the beginning of a new line when it
reaches the end of the previous line.
23
Delay Number of seconds to wait between outgoing
calls if the number you dialed was busy or
did not answer. If there is more than one
entry in the dial queue, the delay is ignored
and the Terminal proceeds to the next number
in the queue.
Logging Allows you to enable logging of file
transfers, dialed numbers, and time spent on-
line to systems. Similar to the Mailer's (FD)
log output.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Display
Screen size
25 25 line mode.
43/50
43/50 line mode. Only available for systems
with EGA and VGA cards.
Auto
Specifies that the Terminal should attempt to
automatically adapt to whatever the current
screen size is when it is are started. This
also means that the Terminal will not attempt
to reset the screen mode when it is
terminated.
24
Custom
Allows you to specify computer register
values to send to the INT 10h (Video BIOS) to
set and reset the screen.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Keyboard macros
Allows you to define up to 20 (24) macro
strings. These can be used to transmit common
text, such as names and passwords, etc. The
first 10 (12) function keys are accessed
through <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12), the
second 10 (12) function keys are accessed
through <Ctrl-F1> - <Shift-F10> (F12).
To enter characters with an ASCII code below
32 (space), hold down the <Alt> key, enter
the ASCII code on the numerical keypad and
release the <Alt> key.
This is referred to as the default macro set.
Xlat.In and Xlat.Out
See Editor.Xlat In for a detailed explanation
of translation tables. The Xlat.In table is
used for characters received from the modem
(remote). The Xlat.Out table is used for
characters typed on the keyboard.
EMSI Profile
Defines the default IEMSI (Interactive
Electronic Mail Standard Information) profile
used to negotiate interactive EMSI sessions
with BBS software supporting it.
Active Determines whether or not IEMSI support
should be active by default.
Name The username you wish to use. If this field
is empty, the ACTIVE field (above) is
automatically toggled to "NO".
Handle The handle you wish to use, or empty if none.
Password
The password you wish to use.
25
Hot-keys
Quiet
Pausing
Editor
News
New mail
New files
Screen Clr
Specifies default user profile options,
allowing you to customize the BBS or on-line
service's behavior.
The Terminal allows you to configure separate
profiles for each individual telephone number in the
Terminal Phone Directory.
4.4.6 Modem
This option is used to configure your modem for use with
FrontDoor. Modems are discussed in a separate section.
4.4.7 Printer
The printer configuration can only be changed in the
commercial version. The noncommercial version defaults to
using LPT1.
4.4.8 Manager
The managers are used to define events, session level
security, file protection (for file requests) and to define
your various message folders.
All managers require that the SYSTEM path has been defined
since they store their data files (EVENT.FD, PASSWORD.FD,
REQUEST.FD and FOLDER.FD) in that directory.
26
4.4.9 Event Manager
Events are discussed in a separate section.
4.4.10 Folder Manager
Folders are used to define different areas (directories, or
boards for the Hudson Message Base) so that you can use the
Editor (FM) to read and write messages in those areas. The
Editor only knows about one folder by default. It is defined
in the Filenames section of FDSETUP (described earlier) and
is referred to as the NetMail folder.
The folder manager has two modes. The first is the view mode,
which is self explanatory. The second mode is the edit/create
mode. It will now be described.
Status The status and type of the folder.
Origin The default origin line to use. This is only
used for EchoMail-type folders with the Echo
info status enabled. Origin lines are used to
identify the origin of a message in EchoMail
conferences. This is required because
echomail is not a point to point environment,
like a telephone conversation or NetMail
exchange.
EchoMail conferences are usually widespread
and can have an unlimited number of
participating systems.
27
Title The title appearing in the folder list when
you select a new active folder in the Editor
(FM).
Board/Path Depending on the type of the folder, this is
either the Hudson Message Base board number
or the DOS path (directory) where the
messages for this folder should be stored.
Users Defines which users should have access to
this folder. If a user does not have access
to a folder, it will not show up on his/her
list of available folders.
Password Defines whether or not access to the folder
is protected by a password. You can allow
users to access a folder, and the password
protect it.
Use AKA Defines which address (AKA) the Editor should
use for the folder. This is only important
for EchoMail-type folders with the Echo info
status enabled. The address is a part of the
origin line.
Folder status
Restricted If enabled, users can only read Private
messages addressed to their username. Public
messages are not affected by this.
Echo info Whether or not an origin line should be
appended to newly created messages. See
Origin (previous page) for more information.
Export OK See Netmail.Export OK described earlier.
Echomail Defines the folder as an EchoMail folder (as
opposed to a Local or NetMail-type folder).
MsgBase Specifies that the folder is of the Hudson
Message Base type, rather than a directory
with .MSG message files. The Hudson Message
Base (HMB) is used by several BBS packages,
such as RemoteAccess.
NetMail Defines the folder as NetMail-type folder (as
opposed to an EchoMail or Local-type folder).
This enabled nodelist lookups, carbon copies,
etc.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
28
Local Defines the folder as a Local folder (as
opposed to an EchoMail or NetMail-type
folder). This is usually used to access local
BBS message areas.
Translate Enables the translation tables for the
folder. They can be toggled on/off from
within the folder.
Private Specifies that the Private status should be
allowed (and the default) for messages
created in the folder. This should NOT be
used in EchoMail folders unless the EchoMail
conference explicitly allows this.
Read-only See Netmail.Read-only described earlier.
4.4.11 Security
The security manager is used to define session level
passwords for other systems. It can also be used to
explicitly refuse File/Update Requests and Mail from a
system, and to disable/enable specific protocol and handshake
options to fine tune your outbound mail sessions.
Session level passwords are used to protect the receiving
(called) system in a mail session, and calling system during
an outbound EMSI session, to ensure that the calling system
really is what it appears to be. Anyone can setup a Mailer,
like FrontDoor or D'Bridge and send you mail. If there is
mail waiting for the address they are using, your system will
by default attempt to send it.
You should setup session level passwords for all your common
mail links, such as echomail distribution systems, etc.
System The system address of the remote system. Eg.
2:270/17.
Password Defines the session level password that your
system will present when calling the
specified system and the password that your
system requires to establish a mail session
with the specified system.
Note that some systems treat passwords case
sensitive, ie. ALLAN is not treated like
AlLaN. The Mailer (FD) will treat passwords
case insensitive on incoming (inbound) calls.
They will, however, be sent EXACTLY as you
have defined them here.
You do not have to specify a password to use
any of the other options.
29
FREQs Whether or not the specified system is
allowed to make File/Update Requests (see
"File Requests").
Mail Whether or not your system will allow the
specified system to call your system. Note
that by disabling (setting it to "NO") this
option, you may be in violation of network
policy.
EMSI Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt
to negotiate an EMSI session when it calls
the specified system.
FTSC1 Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt
to negotiate an FTS-1 session when it calls
the specified system.
Zap Whether or not you want the Mailer to use the
ZedZap/Zmodem protocol when negotiating an
FTS-6 (YooHoo) session. If this is set to
"NO", the DietIFNA protocol (Telink/SEAlink)
will be used during YooHoo sessions with the
specified system.
YooHoo Whether or not you want the Mailer to attempt
to negotiate an FTS-6 session when it calls
the specified system.
4.4.11.1 Notes regarding protocols
The Mailer (FD) will by default attempt to negotiate a
mail session in the following order:
1. EMSI
2. FTS-6 (YooHoo), ZedZap/Zmodem
3. FTS-6 (YooHoo), DietIFNA
4. FTS-1
The Mailer will ignore any entries in the security manager
with inactive status.
4.4.12 Request Manager
The request manager is used to protect file requests. File
and Update Requests are discussed in a separate section.
30
5 The nodelist and the nodelist compiler
The nodelist is FrontDoor's telephone directory listing and is used
for several purposes. Among these are to allow you to perform name
lookups of other SysOps, to retrieve information about remote
systems, such as the maximum supported baud rate, modem flags, and
system capability flags, to check if a remote system is known to your
system or should be treated as an unlisted system.
FD requires that a nodelist be present whereas FM and the Terminal
can both be used without one, if so required. The typical FidoNet
nodelist contains over 10.000 systems and has a fairly straight
forward structure as follows.
Zone Usually a large geographical area, such as North America,
Europe, Australia and New Zealand, etc. At the time of
the release of this package, the following FidoNet Zone
numbers have been allocated:
1 North America (including Canada)
2 Europe
3 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand
4 Latin America
5 Africa
6 Asia
Region Usually a somewhat smaller geographical area, such as a
country or part of a (large) country. A collection of
regions make up one zone.
Net Usually a collection of systems local to each other.
Typically a city and in some cases including its suburbs.
A collection of nets make up one region.
Node A single system within a net.
Point A single system belonging to a node. Typically, a point
is similar to a user logging on to a BBS system using
his/her terminal program, with the main difference being
that a point performs most of his/her activities offline
and use smart software to collect and transit his/her
mail.
5.1 Hosts and hubs
The coordinator of a net is called the host or NC for Network
Coordinator. The host is responsible for maintaining the nodelist
segment for his/her net and to act as an inbound NetMail gateway
for the systems in his/her net ("host routed mail").
In a large net, it is quite common that "sub-hosts", called hubs,
are set-up to aid in mail distribution within the net. In other
words, a hub has the same function for systems in a network that
a host has for (remote) systems outside the same network.
31
5.2 Compiling a nodelist
Before FrontDoor can use the information in a nodelist, it must
be compiled with the FrontDoor Nodelist Compiler, FDNC hereafter.
FDNC will process the specified nodelist file(s) and generate
database information and index files.
The nodelist that FDNC needs to process is often referred to as
the raw nodelist. It should not have been processed by Xlatlist,
Parselst or a similar utility; but only be the nodelist you
receive each week (if you are a FidoNet node) from your host.
Grab a somewhat recent version of a nodelist and decompress it.
Place the resulting file (such as NODELIST.228) in the NODELIST
directory. Create a file called FDNODE.CTL with your favorite
text Editor and place it in the same directory. You can also use
the sample file included in the FrontDoor distribution package
and modify it to suit your needs.
5.2.1 FDNODE.CTL
FDNODE.CTL is FDNC's control file. It is used to control how
FDNC processes the nodelist files, for dial translation and
cost calculation. The order of commands does not matter. All
commands are case insensitive.
POINTLIST <FILENAME> [BOSS]
This option allows you to add points to your nodelist
database. The optional BOSS address is required if FILENAME
does not contain a BOSS entry and should not be specified if
FILENAME contains a BOSS entry.
If you only have one file with point entries, you can name it
FDPOINT.PVT. FDNC will automatically use this file if it is
found in the NODELIST directory. If you use one or more
POINTLIST statements, FDNC will merge all specified files
into FDPOINT.PVT, overwriting its contents. A separate
chapter discusses the point concept.
PVTLIST <FILENAME> [ZONE]
Similar to the POINTLIST command, but FILENAME contains one
or more regular nodes. The optional ZONE number is required
if FILENAME does not contain a ZONE entry and should not be
specified if FILENAME contains a ZONE entry. The optional
ZONE number is only supported for the first PVTLIST
statement. FDNC accepts the POINT keyword in private
nodelists.
32
If you only have one file with additional node entries, you
can name it FDNET.PVT. FDNC will automatically use it if it
is found in the NODELIST directory. Note that if you use one
or more PVTLIST statements, FDNC will merge all specified
files into FDNET.PVT, overwriting its contents.
Note that FILENAME for POINTLIST and PVTLIST may contain
wildcard characters (* and ?). FDNC will use the most recent
(by comparing the timestamp of the matching files) file.
SWEPULSE
This command was added to handle the somewhat screwed up
method Swedish pulse exchanges handles dialing. Most modem
manufacturers uses the British standard for pulse dialing,
which is not compatible with Swedish pulse dialing. If you
use SWEPULSE in FDNODE.CTL, telephone numbers will be
properly translated. Do NOT use this command unless you live
in Sweden and have to use pulse dialing.
PHONE <ADDRESS> <NUMBER>
Some systems are listed as PVT (private) in the nodelist, in
which case there is no telephone number available (the text
-Unpublished- is used in place). This, of course, means that
FD cannot call a system listed as PVT. If you have the phone
number of a PVT listed system, or wish to override the
telephone number listed in the nodelist, you can use the
PHONE command.
ADDRESS is a fully qualified address (eg. 2:270/17). NUMBER
is an untranslated (raw) telephone number (eg. 352-355-936).
If the PHONE command is used, FDNC will remove possible DOWN,
HOLD and PVT flags for the specified system.
USE ZONE <ZONE>[<ZONE> <ZONE>..]
This command controls which zones FDNC should include in the
nodelist and username index files. The default is to include
all encountered zones. This does not affect the contents of
raw nodelist files, only what information ends up in the
nodelist and username index files.
DIAL <NATL PREFIX>/<SUFFIX> <INTL PREFIX>/<SUFFIX>
Indicates the start of the dial translation table. All four
parameters are optional and are only used if no other
translation applies for a telephone number.
33
If you only want to use a national (NATL) prefix/suffix, you
must specify the / character for the international (INTL)
prefix/suffix to indicate no special treatment. The same
applies if you only want to use an INTL prefix/suffix.
; prefix
; prefix/suffix
; /suffix
;
DIAL / 00 ; Add INTL prefix to all INTL
; numbers.
352- ; Strip country code
61- 0061-/X2 ; Send "X2" to HST for Australia
46-8 /391 ; Append (suffix) 391 to all
; numbers in Stockholm Sweden.
END
END is required to terminate the dial translation table.
If you need to strip the search value from a number, you do
not have to put anything after it. In other words, if you
need to strip 1-305-596 from all number, you enter that
string with no translation. Comments are ignored and must be
preceded by a semicolon.
DIAL 12345-1- 00
..
..
END
Would add (prefix) 12345-1- to all NATL numbers not otherwise
translated. It would add (prefix) 00 to all INTL numbers not
otherwise translated.
DIAL /2222 00/1111
..
..
END
Would append (suffix) 2222 to all NATL numbers not otherwise
translated. It would add (prefix) 00 and append (suffix) 1111
to all INTL numbers not otherwise translated.
The translation values (strings) does not have to contain
number characters (0-9,.-). They can include commands such as
"S25=100" etc. as long as your modem supports it.
34
COST <NATL COST> <INTL COST>
Indicates the start of the cost table. The two (default)
parameters are NOT optional. The default cost only applies to
numbers with no matching entry in the cost table.
COST 5 125 ; NATL default=5, INTL=175
1- 75 ; Canada and the US
1-808- 125 ; Hawaii
46- 27 ; Sweden
END
An additional parameter can be added after the cost for a
number entry indicating the maximum baud rate used. This is
useful when calling locations with a lot of line noise etc.
Please note that this does not work with several high-speed
modems such as the US Robotics Courier HST. You cannot force
a HST modem to connect at 2400 with another HST modem by
changing the baud rate.
To compile your nodelist, type FDNC and press <Enter>, or invoke
the nodelist compiler from FD's main menu, <Alt-N>.
When FDNC is started, it will compare the date of the raw
nodelist and its index files. If the dates match, and no update
has been made to FDNODE.CTL, no compilation will be made and the
program will ask "Nodelist files are up-to-date, compile
anyway?".
If you want to force compilation, run FDNC with the /F command
line switch.
5.3 Nodelist flags
Most of the system entries in the nodelist contain one or more
capability flags to indicate the system's capability. These are a
few of the flags and their meaning:
CM System accepts mail 24 hours a day.
MO System does not accept human (BBS) callers.
V32 CCITT V.32 capable modem.
V32B CCITT V.32bis capable modem (implies CCITT V.32
capability).
V42 LAP-M error correction w/fallback to MNP 1-4.
V42B LAP-M error correction w/fallback to MNP 1-5.
HST US Robotics HST modem (implies MNP capability).
MAX Microcom AX/96xx series modem.
PEP Capable of supporting the Packet Ensemble Protocol
(PEP).
XA Bark and WaZOO file/update requests (all systems
using FrontDoor 2.01 or above should have this).
35
5.4 Command line switches
/C Compile the nodelist if it (or FDNODE.CTL) has
been updated since the last time it was compiled,
otherwise exit directly. This is useful for
compiling the nodelist in batch files since it
avoids the "Nodelist files are up-to-date,
compile anyway?" prompt.
/F Forces FDNC to compile the nodelist regardless of
whether or not it has been updated.
36
5.5 Points
As mentioned before, a point is similar to a user logging on to a
BBS system using his/her terminal program, with the main
difference being that a point performs most of his/her activities
offline and use smart software to collect and transit his/her
mail.
A point system is addressed by specifying the BOSS system's
address followed by the point number. Eg. 2:270/17.1 is point one
of 2:270/17. The BOSS system is called point zero (2:270/17.0),
but the .0 is normally left out.
FrontDoor is a point smart software package and fully supports
the "four-dimensional" (zone, net, node, point) addressing
method. FrontDoor also supports the "two-dimensional" point
approach used by software like BinkleyTerm and oMMM. This is
often called the "fakenet" or "pointnet" method. "Fake" because
the software uses a non-existent network number to identify its
"pointnet" and uses the node field for the point number.
The maximum number of points any system can have is 65,535, not
counting the BOSS, or point zero.
5.5.1 Pointlist
A pointlist is similar to a normal nodelist, with the
exception that all entries are considered point systems.
FrontDoor, by default, uses the file FDPOINT.PVT to store its
pointlist. It is possible to add points of other systems to
your pointlist. This will allow you to enter messages to
other systems' points just like you would to any other
system.
Here is a sample FDPOINT.PVT:
,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600
,2,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600
As you can see, a point list looks very much like a raw
nodelist. The last field contains nodelist flags (HST, MO,
CM, etc.) and if more than one flag is present, they are
separated by commas.
37
Points can also be added to systems in the master nodelist by
using the POINT keyword:
,7,AES_Sales,Oetrange_L,Tomas,352-355-936,9600,CM,XA,HST,V32B
Point,1,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600
,17,AES_Labs,Oetrange_L,JoHo,352-355-937,9600,CM,XA,HST,V32B
Point,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600
Assuming this was listed under the Net-270 host in zone two,
we have created 2:270/7, 2:270/7.1, 2:270/17, and 2:270/17.1.
The second example works well if your nodelist is not updated
frequently (weekly, daily, etc.). But if you have to add the
"Point,#" every time you get a new nodelist, this task
becomes rather tedious.
FrontDoor therefore supports an additional pointlist format:
Boss,2:270/7
,1,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600
Boss,2:270/17
,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600
This does away with the need to constantly update the BOSS
system's data in the raw nodelist and allows you to put your
pointlist in a separate file. FDNC will then take the BOSS
system's data from the master nodelist.
5.5.2 FDNODE.CTL
If you only have one file with point definitions, you can put
them in FDPOINT.PVT and use the third example (above) to add
points for other systems, or your own system. If you have
more than one file with point definitions, however, you
should NOT name any of them FDPOINT.PVT.
Assume we have two files with pointlists:
FDHQ.PTS:
;
; Pointlist for 2:270/17
;
Boss,2:270/17
,1,The_Lab,Oetrange_L,JoHo,-Unpublished-,9600
,2,Marketing,Oetrange_L,Tomas,-Unpublished-,9600
38
and
SCOTT.PTS:
;
; Pointlist for 135/990
;
Boss,1:135/990
,1,ScottPoint,Miami_FL,Scott_Samet,-Unpublished-,9600
We would tell FDNC to merge these two files into FDPOINT.PVT
before it compiles the nodelist, by specifying the following
in FDNODE.CTL:
pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\SCOTT.PTS
pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\FDHQ.PTS
The BOSS statement in FDHQ.PTS and SCOTT.PTS can be removed
if you instead specify:
pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\SCOTT.PTS 1:135/990
pointlist C:\FD\NODELIST\FDHQ.PTS 2:270/17
You must ALWAYS specify the address of the BOSS system (as
shown above) if it is not listed in the actual pointlist
file.
5.5.3 Point handling
A point system is treated just like any other system with one
exception. A point system of another system than your own is
always treated as its BOSS (or point zero) system. When the
Mailer creates mail packets for 1:135/990, it includes mail
for any points under it by default.
5.5.4 Remapping
If you have points that uses "point dumb" software, ie. which
does not support the "four dimensional" (zone, net, node,
point) concept fully, you must instruct FrontDoor about this.
Since FrontDoor supports the "four dimensional" concept, it
has to remap mail from and to "point dumb" software.
39
5.5.5 POINTNET
If the POINTNET environment variable is set, mail from and to
systems with the same net number as the value of POINTNET is
remapped.
Eg. AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET POINTNET=1004
Would force FD and FM to remap mail from and to 1004/1,
1004/2, 1004/3, and 1004/4 to 2:270/17.1, 2:270/17.2,
2:270/17.3, and 2:270/17.4; assuming your network address is
2:270/17.
FD automatically remaps messages that it extracts from mail
packets. If you use the POINTNET variable, FD will treat
1004/1 identical to 2:270/17.1; assuming your network address
is 2:270/17.
5.6 Sharing the nodelist
FM, FD, and the Terminal are all capable of using the nodelist
together with another program that supports sharing of the
FrontDoor nodelist. If you are running FrontDoor under DESQview
or LANtastic, for example, it is possible to run FD at the same
time as FM, sharing the same nodelist.
When FDNC compiles the nodelist, you must, however, make sure
that no other program (including text editors) is using any of
the nodelist files (FDPOINT.PVT, FDNET.PVT, and/or the raw
nodelist).
40
6 Modems and FOSSIL drivers
FrontDoor works with several modems, including US Robotics HST and
HST/DS, Telebit's Trailblazer, ANC, Everex and Hayes. The general
rule is that the modem must be able to send alphanumeric result
strings. For most modems, the basic configuration is all that is
required. For high speed modems such as the HST, a few extra settings
are necessary.
To utilize your modem in the most efficient way, it must be properly
configured for use with FrontDoor. Most modems are incorrectly
configured for use with FrontDoor when they leave their factory.
FrontDoor require that your modem can return verbal result codes,
such as "CONNECT 2400" and "NO CARRIER". In addition, if you want
FrontDoor to answer the telephone on inbound calls, the modem must be
able to return a verbal code indicating a ring signal, such as
"RING". The modem must not have CD (carrier detect) forced. It should
support disconnecting by lowering DTR (data terminal ready), but it
is not necessary. DTR must not be forced.
For high speed modem users, it is usually recommended that you lock
the DTE (computer<>modem) speed to the highest possible baud rate;
which is usually 19.2 or 38.4 KBPS.
The current version of FrontDoor does not support manually operated
modems with fixed speeds since most of them do not send any type of
messages to the terminal (program). This is expected to be
implemented in future versions.
6.1 Basic configuration
The modem options are located in FDSETUP under the MODEM pull-
down menu. There are four sub-menus, Hardware, Messages, Command
strings, and Answer control.
6.1.1 Hardware
The Hardware option screen allows you to configure things
like the highest baud rate supported by your modem, the COM
port to which your modem is connected, etc.
Modem port The COM port your modem is attached to (1-8).
Maximum baud rate
The maximum supported baud rate of your modem
(300-38400 BPS). If you have locked your
FOSSIL driver (discussed later), set this to
the same speed as the speed you locked the
FOSSIL driver at.
41
Lock port Whether or not you have locked the FOSSIL
driver's baud rate.
Reset modem to connect speed
---------------------------------------------
This option should ONLY be used if you have a
modem that supports the CCITT V.23 (split
speed, 1200/75 and 75/1200) recommendation.
---------------------------------------------
Lower DTR when busy
Determines how the Mailer (FD) should handle
the modem when it invokes other programs,
exits and shells to DOS. If enabled, the
Mailer will simply lower DTR. This means that
your modem will not answer the phone, but any
calling systems will not get a busy signal.
If you disable this, the Mailer (FD) will
send the Offhook string to the modem instead
of lowering DTR. This can be used to take the
modem offhook when your system is not
available so that calling systems gets a busy
signal instead of no answer.
---------------------------------------------
It is against the law of some countries to
take a modem offhook unless actual
communication is taken place. As the operator
of FrontDoor, it is your responsibility to be
aware of such laws in your own country.
---------------------------------------------
Lower DTR to terminate call
If enabled, the Mailer (FD) will drop DTR for
a short period of time to terminate calls.
Most modems supports this and you should only
disable it if your modem does not support
lowering of DTR.
If disabled, the Mailer (FD) will send the
Escape code string followed by the Onhook
string to terminate a call.
Toggle DTR before dialing
Specifies that the Mailer (FD) should lower
DTR, pause, and then raise DTR again every
time it places an outgoing call.
While this increases the chances of call
collision, it may be required by some modems
to reset properly, etc. Do not enable this
option unless it is absolutely necessary.
42
Carrier detect mask (CDMASK)
The bitmask the Mailer (FD) should use when
asking the FOSSIL driver for the port status
to determine if a carrier signal is still
present. The default is 128 and cannot be
changed in the noncommercial version.
6.1.2 Messages
This option allows you to define the messages sent by your
modem. If your modem does not send one or more of the strings
you should NOT remove them.
The 300 string is sent as CONNECT followed by a carriage
return by some modems (US Robotics Courier HST for example).
You should therefore set the string to CONNECT| (the pipe
character will be replaced with a CR by the Mailer) if this
is the case with your modem.
The RING string should be set to RING| (the pipe character
will be replaced with a CR by the Mailer) if your modem sends
the RINGING message while waiting for a call to be connected.
6.1.3 Command strings
All command strings may contain a pipe (|) character, which
translates into a CR and a tilde (~) character which
translates into a one second pause.
Escape code Used to place the modem in command (as
opposed to data/on-line) mode. This is only
used if you have disabled "Lower DTR to
terminate call" or if you are using the
"Reset modem to connect speed" option.
Return on-line Used to place the modem in data/on-line (as
opposed to command) modem. This is only used
if you are using the "Reset modem to connect
speed" option.
Onhook Used to place the modem on hook (as opposed
to off hook) if you have disabled "Lower DTR
when busy" or "Lower DTR to terminate call".
Offhook Used to place the modem off hook (as opposed
to on hook) if you have disabled "Lower DTR
when busy".
43
Dial Used when the Mailer places an outgoing call.
The Mailer will send the dial (this) string,
the Prefix, the telephone number, followed by
the Suffix.
Ie. <Dial><Prefix><Number><Suffix>
Prefix Sent before every number when the Mailer
places an outgoing call (see above).
Suffix Sent after every number when the Mailer
places an outgoing call (see above). This
should be set to the pipe (|) character to
indicate a CR in most cases.
Delay The delay (in 1/10 second) between every
string the Mailer sends to the modem. If you
have an extremely fast modem (not baud rate),
such as the USR HST, you can set this as low
as one or two, but most modems require that
this is set between four and eight.
Init-1..Init-3 Modem initialization strings. They are sent
every time the Mailer initializes the modem
in order (Init-1, Init-2, Init-3). Unused
strings should not be set to anything (leave
field blank).
Down Sent to the modem when the Mailer terminates.
This occurs when mail has been received or
when you press <Alt-Q> (Quit).
Reset Sent to the modem to force it to respond with
an OK message. This should be set to "AT|" in
most cases.
6.1.4 Answer control
Manual answer Defines that the Mailer should wait for the
RING message from the modem and then send the
force answer string (below) to force the
modem to answer.
This is the safest way to control modem
answering and should be used unless your
modem does not support it. For Hayes
compatible modems, you should add S0=0 to one
of your init strings to prevent the modem
from answering automatically.
44
Force answer The string forcing the modem to answer an
incoming call. This should be "ATA|" in most
cases.
Answer delay When the Mailer receives the RING message
from the modem, it will pause for nn 1/10
seconds before sending the force answer
string. This should be set between four and
eight for most modems.
Limited hours
Starting time
Ending time Allows you to force the Mailer to ignore the
RING message outside the specified hours.
This is useful if the telephone line is
shared by other people during daytime but
available during the night for example.
6.2 Advanced configuration
Many modems have several different connection modes and options.
The US Robotics HST Dual Standard, HST/DS hereafter, for example
can be configured between several different connect modes,
including CCITT V.32, CCITT V.32bis, and the proprietary HST
protocol.
Since the nodelist can list a system's hardware (modem)
capabilities, the Mailer (FD) can automatically reconfigure your
modem depending on what type of hardware the remote system (to be
called) is using. This automatic reconfiguration feature can also
be used to disable or enabled certain options for individual
systems (ie. not based on a system's capabilities) because of
problems with to noisy lines, long satellite delays, etc.
This is all configured in the MODEM MANAGER under the Manager
pull-down menu in FDSETUP. The actual data is stored in a file
called MODEM.FD in the SYSTEM directory.
6.2.1 The Modem Manager
The entries are processed as defined, ie. in sequential
order. It may be important in which order these options are
configured and triggered, the modem manager therefore allows
you to re-arrange individual entries by using the "F2-Move"
option.
"String to match" is either a nodelist flag, such as HST, or
a complete network address, such as 2:270/17, that the Mailer
(FD) should match in order to send the specified string.
45
"String to send" is the string that will be transmitted to
the modem when a match is made.
The Mailer (FD) will ignore entries with INACTIVE status.
6.2.2 An example, the HST/DS
Most HST/DS owners will have the following three lines at the
beginning of their MODEM MANAGER list:
V32 ATB0|
HST ATB1|
V32B ATB0|
The first line, V32, will transmit "ATB0" followed by a
carriage return (ASCII 13) to the modem if the system to be
dialed has V32 in its nodelist flags. This is to enable the
HST/DS' CCITT V.32 handshake.
The second line, HST, will transmit "ATB1" (followed by a
carriage return) to the modem if the system to be dialed has
HST in its nodelist flags. This is to tell the modem that we
prefer the HST protocol. In the case of a system with both
the V32 and the HST flag, we want the HST flag, because that
protocol is faster than the CCITT V.32 protocol.
The third line, V32B, will transmit "ATB0" to the modem if
the system to be dialed has V32B in its nodelist flags. This
it to tell the modem that we prefer the CCITT V.32bis
protocol. In the case of a system with both the V32B and the
HST flag, we want the V32B flag, because it is easier to get
a good modem handshake over noisy phone lines and because
CCITT V.32bis is 14.4 KBPS in both directions (full-duplex).
Let us assume our modem has a problem, with incorrect busy
and voice signal detection, when it encounters a modem that
answers using PEP (Telebit Trailblazer is such a modem), we
would then want to disable our modem's capability to detect a
busy signal and/or a voice signal. We would then add:
PEP ATX2|
to the MODEM MANAGER.
46
6.3 Some sample configurations
US Robotics HST (older models)
DIP Switches:
0 (big)=OFF, 1=OFF, 2=OFF, 3=ON, 4=OFF, 5=ON, 6=OFF, 7=OFF,
8=ON, 9=ON, 0=OFF.
Command/modem strings:
CONNECT 300 CONNECT|
RING RING|
OffHook ATH1|
OnHook ~ATH0|
Init-1 AT&G2&K0&M4S19=2B&B1&H1&R2&N0
S15=72|
Init-2 ATV1X4S7=55EQM0S11=50S0=0|
Down AT|
Reset AT|
Modem hardware:
Lock port YES
Baudrate 38400, 19200 or 9600
Reset modem to connect speed NO
Lower DTR when busy YES
Lower DTR to terminate call YES
Toggle DTR before dialing NO
Answer control:
Manual answer YES
Force answer ATB0A|
Delay 4
47
US Robotics HST/DS/V.32bis
DIP Switches:
0 (big)=OFF, 1=OFF, 2=OFF, 3=ON, 4=ON, 5=ON, 6=OFF, 7=OFF,
8=ON, 9=ON, 10=OFF.
Command/modem strings:
CONNECT 300 CONNECT|
RING RING|
OffHook ATM0H1|
OnHook ~ATM1H0|
Init-1 AT&K0&M4S19=2&B1&H1&R2&N0E0Q0
B1&G2|
Init-2 ATV1X4S7=55M1S11=50S10=40S15=
72&A3|
Init-3 ATS0=0H0|
Down <empty>
Reset AT|
Modem hardware:
Lock port YES
Baudrate 38400, 19200 or 9600
Reset modem to connect speed NO
Lower DTR when busy YES
Lower DTR to terminate call YES
Toggle DTR before dialing NO
Answer control:
Manual answer YES
Force answer ATB0M0A|
Delay 4
In the MODEM MANAGER in FDSETUP:
V32 ATB0|
HST ATB1|
V32B ATB0|
48
6.4 FOSSIL drivers
A FOSSIL (or Fido/Opus/SEAdog Standard Interface Layer) driver is
a memory resident program that works as a layer between the
application program and your computer's hardware. The Mailer (FD)
requires a FOSSIL driver to function. One of the advantages of
the standard FOSSIL interface is that programs can be ported
easily to other machines and/or operating systems.
There are several FOSSIL drivers available. The Mailer (FD) has
been tested with OpusComm, X00, and BNU with good results. X00
and BNU will be described here.
6.4.1 BNU
BNU, written by David Nugent, comes in two flavors. One is a
device driver, similar to X00.SYS. The second flavor is a
.COM file, loaded from AUTOEXEC.BAT or another batch file.
The .COM flavor is assumed in the example. For a detailed
description of the BNU driver, please refer to the
documentation included in the BNU distribution archive.
[AUTOEXEC.BAT]
BNU /R=1024 /T=512 /L1:38400
/R=1024 Specifies a receive buffer of 1024 bytes.
/T=512 Specifies a transmit buffer of 512 bytes.
/L1:38400 Locks COM2 at 38,400 BPS (for use with the 14,400
HST or HST/DS modems).
If you are not using a high-speed modem the above example
should most likely be modified to not lock COM2.
6.4.2 X00.SYS
X00, written by Ray Gwinn, is a device driver (later versions
can also be loaded as an executable from AUTOEXEC.BAT), it is
loaded from your CONFIG.SYS file when your machine is
started. For a detailed description of the X00 driver, read
the documentation included in the X00 distribution archive.
[CONFIG.SYS]
device = X00.SYS E 1 B,1,38400 T=512 R=1024
E Disable 5 second advertisement when X00 is first
loaded.
49
1 Number of COM ports X00 should allow to be
accessed at one time.
B,1,38400 Locks COM2 at 38,400 BPS (for use with the 14,400
HST or HST/DS modems).
T=512 Specifies a transmit buffer of 512 bytes.
R=1024 Specifies a receive buffer of 1024 bytes.
If you are not using a high-speed modem the above example may
not be what you want. The most common command line for X00
is:
device=X00.SYS E 1
50
7 Events
There are two basic types of events. Mail events and external events.
Mail events are used to control how the Mailer (FD) treats mail
during a given time of the day. External events are used to force the
Mailer to terminate with an errorlevel at a specific time. They can
be used to run system maintenance programs, disk optimizers, etc.
The EVENT MANAGER in FDSETUP is used to control mail and external
events. There is a (required) global event, which is active when no
other event is active. The @ character is used for the global event.
7.1 The Event Manager
The event manager has two modes. The first is the view mode,
which is self explanatory. The second mode is the edit/create
mode. It will now be described.
Tag (T) The event "ID". A letter from A-Z or @. The @
event has special meaning and is described later.
X is used for eXternal events, all other letters
are used for mail events. Which letter you use is
not important. They could correspond with the
time of day, N for Night, E for Evening, D for
Day, etc. The event tag is used to associate an
event with a schedule block in the route file
(see "Mail routing").
Days The days you want the event to be active on. The
@ event is active on all days.
Modifier (M) You can define a start time for the @ event. It
is not used to control the start of the @ event.
It can be added, subtracted, or ignored, when
calculating the actual start time of other
events.
If the modifier for an event is +, the start time
of the @ event is added to the start time of the
event.
If the modifier for an event is -, the start time
of the @ event is subtracted from the start time
of the event.
If the modifier for an event is *, the start time
of the @ event is ignored and not used to
calculate the actual start time of the event.
This is very useful when it is time to switch
between winter and summer time. Instead of having
to manually go into each event and define a new
start time, you could change the start time of
the @ event and the start time of all other
events will be changed.
51
Let us assume that you have an event (tag=E) that
starts at 08:00 in the morning with a modifier of
+. Your @ event has a start time of 01:00. Since
the modifier was + (add), the start time of @
(01:00) will be added to the start time of the E
event and the result will be that event E starts
at 09:00. If you change the modifier to -
(subtract), the start time of event E will be
07:00 (08:00 minus 01:00). If you set the
modifier to * (ignore), the start time of E is
not affected.
Start time Defines the start time of an event. See Modifier
(above) for an explanation on how this can be
affected.
Length Defines the length of the event. External events
(X) always have a length of 00:01 (one minute).
Errorlevel
For external (X) events, this defines the
errorlevel that the Mailer (FD) will terminate
with.
For mail events, this defines the errorlevel to
exit with if mail is received (and the Mailer is
triggered to exit). If the errorlevel field is
set to zero, the default MAIL RECEIVED errorlevel
will be used.
You may use any value in the range 31-255.
Min.cost Defines the minimum cost of messages that should
be qualified (see "Mail routing").
Max.cost Defines the maximum cost of messages that should
be qualified (see Mail Routing). A value of -1
forces FD to ignore the cost of messages.
Behavior Defines the behavior of the event. Mail events
and external (X) events have different behavior
options, this is described later.
Retry delay
Defines the delay (in seconds) the Mailer should
wait between placing outgoing calls. A value of
zero means that you want the Mailer to use the
default delay (described earlier).
7.1.1 External event behavior
Allow users during event
Defines whether or not non-mail (human) calls are
allowed to interrupt the event.
52
If a non-mail call comes in at 12:00 and you have
an external (X) event scheduled for 12:30, the
Mailer will take the X event into account when
calculating the number of minutes left until the
next event, depending on how this option is set.
If it is disabled, the user would, in this case,
only have 30 minutes until the next event. If it
was enabled, the Mailer would instead scan ahead
for the next (if any) event that does not allow
users.
Forced Defines whether or not the event is forced. The
Mailer, by default, ignores events that it
"missed" while doing something else. If you
enable this option, the event will be executed
even if the Mailer have "missed" it.
Assume you have a non-forced external (X) event
scheduled for 12:00 and a user calls in at 11:50.
The call lasts for 30 minutes (12:20). When the
Mailer is brought back up again, the external
event will not be executed. If, however, you had
this option enabled for the external (X) event,
it would be executed as soon as the Mailer was
brought up again.
Inactive Toggles the state of the event. The Mailer will
ignore any inactive events. This allows you to
deactivate events without removing them from the
event manager.
7.1.2 Mail event behavior
Allow users during event
This has the same function as for external (X)
events. In addition, if this option is set to
"NO" (disabled), non-mail calls will not be
accepted during the duration of the event.
Exit when mail is received
Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to
exit when mail has been received. This allows you
to process received echomail, etc.
High priority (crash) mail only
Forces the Mailer to ignore messages that does
not have crash status. Note that messages with
IMM (Immediate) status are not affected by this.
Allow file requests
Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to
honor file requests during an event. If you
disable this option, the Mailer will simply
ignore file requests.
53
Pickup file requests
The Mailer will by default not accept file
requests received during an outgoing (outbound)
mail call since you are paying for the call. This
option allows you to pickup waiting file requests
and process them. Whether or not they are
actually honored is defined by the Allow file
requests option.
Hold (do not send) file requests
Forces the Mailer to ignore outgoing (your own)
file request messages during the event. This is
useful if you do not want to send out file
requests during daytime events for example.
Attempt to pickup waiting mail
Defines whether or not you want the Mailer to
pickup any waiting mail on outgoing calls. The
default (Yes) should be used unless you want the
Mailer to terminate the mail session as soon as
it has delivered its mail. If this option is
disabled, your file requests (if any) will fail
since the Mailer terminates the call before the
remote system has a chance to process them.
Allow nodes to pickup waiting mail
This option is the same as using the DENY route
command (see "Mail routing").
The only difference is that you cannot be
selective about which systems can pickup waiting
mail. If a system calls in to deliver its mail
and this option is disabled (NO), your system
will not release (send) any waiting mail.
Prioritize outbound calls
Forces the Mailer to make outgoing calls without
waiting for the specified time (retry delay,
etc.) between calls. The Mailer will still accept
incoming (inbound) mail, but the chances of
another system getting through are very small.
Receive-Only
Specifies that you do not want the Mailer to make
any outgoing calls during the event.
End event when no more mail to send
If you have an event with some restrictions on
other systems or do not allow users, it may be
useful to enable this option, forcing the Mailer
to release all restrictions enforced by the event
as soon as there is no more mail to send.
If new mail is entered that qualifies for mailing
and the event has ended (prematurely), it will be
restarted.
54
Send to CM systems only
Forces the Mailer to only qualify those systems
that have the CM (continuous mail) flag set in
their nodelist entry.
Send to non-CM systems only
Forces the Mailer to only qualify those systems
that Do not have the CM (continuous mail) flag
set in their nodelist entry.
Only execute event once
Forces the Mailer to only deliver mail to a
system once during the event. If the event is
interrupted or aborted, the Mailer will remember
which systems it has already delivered mail to
and when the event is restarted, it will not call
those systems again.
Assume you have mail to 1:135/20 and 2:310/11
during event A, with this behavior enabled. On
the first call to 1:135/20, the Mailer sends its
mail successfully. If the event is restarted for
some reason (user break, human caller, mail
receive exit), the Mailer will not call 1:135/20
again, even if there is new mail for that system.
Inactive The same as for external (X) events.
7.1.3 The @ event
The @ event is active whenever your system is not in another
mail event. The @ event is required. You do not have to tell
the Mailer to send mail during the @ event, but it must be
defined.
You can use it to send local and/or low cost mail whenever
the Mailer is not busy, etc. You can specify a schedule block
(see Mail routing), using the @ tag and define routing rules
for it just like any other mail event. If the Mailer does not
find a schedule block for the @ tag, it will still use any
global rules defined in the route file.
55
7.1.4 Overlapping events
Overlapping events are fully supported by the Mailer.
Event B starts at 05:00 with a duration of 01:00. Event A
starts at 05:01 with a duration of 00:15. The behavior for
event A includes Only execute event once and End event when
no more mail to send.
Event B will start at 05:00, after one minute, event A will
start and last for fifteen minutes (or end when there is no
more mail to send).
Once event A has ended, B will resume. This is a very
powerful and useful concept. It can be used to start
temporary or dynamic events within events that lasts for
several hours.
56
8 Mailer
The Mailer, FD hereafter, is the core program of FrontDoor. It is
responsible for sending and receiving messages; and optionally pass
human callers to a BBS or other interactive software. The Terminal
function is also located in FD and can be reached from one of its
menus.
Most functions of FD are reached by holding down the <Alt> key and
pressing a key, <A..Z>.
8.1 Menus
Each function and menu of the Mailer will now be described.
8.1.1 Programs <Alt-P>
<Alt-E>
Message Editor Loads FM.
<Alt-J>
Terminal Loads the Terminal (it resides in FD overlay
file, FD.OVR).
<Alt-C>
Configure Loads the FDSETUP program.
<Alt-N>
Nodelist Loads the nodelist compiler (FDNC).
<Alt-K>
User keys Allows you to select one of the 20(24) user
definable functions.
<Alt-Z>
DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and
press <Enter> to return to FD.
Packets created with any of the temporary
mail services function (File Request,
Transmit file, Send mail) will be discarded
when you return and FD will re-scan the
contents of the NetMail folder.
<Alt-Q>
Quit Returns you to DOS. FD will return errorlevel
10 (user break).
57
8.1.2 Utilities <Alt-U>
<Alt-A>
Active event Shows the settings for the currently active
event (if any).
<Alt-I>
Inbound history
Invokes the inbound call (mail) history
management function.
<Alt-O>
Outbound history
Invokes the outbound call (mail) history
management function.
<Alt-R>
Recent activity
Shows you the last two days of general
activity, failed sessions, file requests,
number of files/bytes sent and received, etc.
<Alt-X>
Disconnect Allows you to manually terminate a call. This
will also re-initialize the modem.
<Alt-L>
Lock keyboard Allows you to lock the keyboard (and FD)
against unauthorized use. FD will still
perform its duties such as sending and
receiving mail, etc.
You must enter the specified password to
unlock the keyboard. If FD exits (due to mail
received or a BBS call is received), the
keyboard lock status is retained and when FD
is brought back up, the keyboard will be
locked.
Restart event Forces FD to re-scan the message base and
create new mail packets. All previous
temporary packet information is discarded.
8.1.3 Mail <Alt-U>
<Alt-B>
Queue manager Allows you to manipulate the current mail
queue. If no mail event is active, the mail
queue is empty. The mail queue is described
in a separate section.
58
<Alt-V>
Undialable manager
Allows you to manipulate systems marked as
undialable. This is discussed in a separate
section.
<Alt-F>
Forced poll Creates a priority entry in the mail queue
for the specified system. If an entry for the
specified system already exists in the queue,
its status is set to priority. If FD has to
re-scan the message base, the temporary poll
is removed from the mail queue.
<Alt-G>
Request files Allows you to create a temporary file request
to the specified system. If FD has to re-scan
the message base, the temporary file request
is removed from the mail queue.
<Alt-T>
Transmit files
Allows you to transmit files to the specified
system. As with the poll and request function
(above), this is only a temporary function;
if FD has to re-scan the message base, the
entry is removed from the mail queue.
<Alt-S>
Send mail Allows you to create a temporary mail packet
for the specified system. You can choose to
include all or high-priority mail. If FD has
to re-scan the message base, the entry is
removed from the mail queue.
<Alt-Y>
Your profile
Answer Allows you to toggle the manual answer
status. This option is only valid if you have
enabled the manual answer option in FDSETUP.
Note that if you manually toggle this option,
the Mailer will honor the new setting until
it exits.
Printer Allows you to toggle the printing of new
(incoming) messages. This option is not
available in the noncommercial version.
Human callers
Allows you to toggle whether or not you want
FD to accept human callers.
This option is only valid if you are not
running FD in mail-only mode.
59
Exit on mail
Allows you to toggle whether or not FD should
exit when mail has been received. This option
is only valid if an errorlevel for received
mail has been specified in FDSETUP and the
active event (if any) specifies that FD
should exit when mail has been received.
<Alt-W>
Which AKA Allows you to select a different AKA to
operate under. The specified AKA will be
active until FD exits or you select a new AKA
to operate under. Note that this does not
effect the AKA matching function of FD.
8.2 Mail queue <Alt-B>
The mail queue function allows you to modify the status of one or
more mail packets, temporarily change the destination of mail
packets, and to unpack one or more packets.
<F1>
Priority Sets priority status on all selected packets.
Packets with priority status are always processed
before packets with crash or normal status.
<F2>
<Enter>
Verbose Shows more information about the highlighted mail
packet such as attached files, estimated transfer
time, etc. You can not use this function if the
destination system is unlisted (does not exist).
<F3>
Crash Sets crash status on all selected packets.
<F4>
Hold Sets hold status on all selected packets. Packets
with hold status will never be processed by FD
unless the destination system calls in to pickup
mail.
<F5>
Select all Selects all packets.
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<F6>
Destination Changes the destination of all selected packets.
When FD processes the mail queue, it will treat
all active (non-sent and non-held) packets as
individual packets, including two or more
different packets destined for the same system.
If a connection is made (whether the destination
system calls you or your system calls it),
however, all packets destined for that system
will be sent.
<F7>
Unpack Discards all selected packets (note: NOT MAIL)
from the queue.
<F8>
Clear status Sets normal status on all selected packets.
<F9>
Clear busy retries
Sets the dial attempts for all selected packets
to zero.
<Esc>
Exit Returns you to FD.
<Space>
Select Selects the currently highlighted packet.
8.3 Call progress
When FD has mail to send, it will step through the mail queue and
call the systems with mail packets waiting. Packets with sent,
failed, and hold status are ignored by FD. These can, however,
always be picked up by the destination system if it calls in.
After every unsuccessful (BUSY, NO CARRIER, etc.) call, the busy
retry counter is incremented until it reaches the value defined
in FDSETUP. Once the limit has been exceeded, FD puts hold status
on the packet. If a connection is made but the actual transfer
fails, the resend retry counter is updated and once the limit,
defined in FDSETUP, is reached, FD puts failed status on the
packet.
Press <Space> to force FD to place the next outgoing call.
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8.4 Semaphore indicators
Every time FD scans the NetMail folder, it looks for unread
messages destined for your system. If any are found, it will
enable the flashing "Mail" text in the bottom right hand corner.
Once the message(s) have been marked received (read), the
flashing mail text will disappear.
8.5 Undialable
When FD reaches the resend (session failure, transmission
failure, etc.) retry limit for a system during an event. That
system is added to the undialable table with a "grade" of one.
When the "grade" reaches three, the system is considered
undialable and FD will never call that system again (until you
manually "upgrade" it).
The undialable manager is accessed by pressing <Alt-V> from FD's
main menu and allows you to "upgrade" a system's status, add a
system manually to the undialable list, and remove one or more
undialable systems.
The undialable system information is kept in NODIAL.FD in
FrontDoor's SYSTEM directory.
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9 Editor
The Editor, FM hereafter, is the program used to write and read
messages. It can be invoked from the command line in DOS or from FD
by pressing <Alt-E>.
FM has two "status" lines. The bottom status line is used to display
the current message, number of messages in the current folder, the
lowest and highest message numbers and the number of messages
remaining to the last message (last minus current). The top status
line shows the currently active AKA (address), the current time and
the folder you are in.
Most functions of FM are reached by holding down either the <Ctrl> or
<Alt> key and pressing a key, <A..Z>. If you press a key that has no
function in FM, it will display a message saying "Press Alt-M for
menu" on the bottom status line.
Each function and menu of FM will now be described.
9.1 Main <Alt-M>
<Ins>
Create Allows you to create a new message in the current
folder. You will be prompted for the destination
(user name and possibly a network address),
subject, etc.
<Del>
Kill Removes the currently displayed message. FM will
confirm that you really want to remove the
message.
<Alt-R>
Reply Similar to the CREATE function. The destination
of the newly created message, however, is taken
from the sender of the message you are replying
to. This function also allows you to quote the
original message, in whole, or selected parts.
<Alt-N>
Netmail reply Similar to the REPLY function. If you are in a
Local or EchoMail folder, your message (the
reply) will be placed into the NetMail folder.
The destination address of the message is taken
from either the origin line (EchoMail folders) or
the sender's name (Local folders).
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<Alt-C>
Reply comment Similar to the REPLY function. It allows you to
create a follow-up message with additional
comments to the same destination as the original
message.
This function is not available in the
noncommercial version.
<Alt-L>
<Tab>
Forward This function allows you to redirect a message to
someone else. It will also insert some additional
information at the top of the message, showing
who the message was originally from, etc. You can
choose whether or not you want to overwrite the
original message with the forwarded message.
<Alt-L> will also add the default message status
to the message and remove the Rcvd and Sent
status bits if they were set.
<Alt-F>
Folders Allows you to change the active folder. You
cannot change to another folder while editing a
message, but you can view the folder list. The
type of each folder is shown as 'E' for EchoMail,
'L' for Local and 'M' for NetMail.
The commercial version allows you to configure
any folder with NetMail status, the type will
then be displayed as 'N'.
To select a folder, you can use the arrow keys to
move the highlight bar and then press <Enter>.
You can also type the number of the folder
followed by pressing <Enter>.
<Ctrl-F>
Folder scan Scans all folders and indicates which folders
have any message number higher than the last read
message. Typically, this means that new messages
have arrived in a folder since you last accessed
it.
<Alt-Z>
DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and
press <Enter> to return to FM.
<Alt-Q>
Quit Returns you to DOS or to FD, depending on how FM
was invoked. If you are editing a message, you
will be asked whether or not you wish to save it
before exiting.
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9.2 Edit <Alt-E>
<Alt-S>
Status Allows you to change the status of a message. See
the separate section about Message Status Bits
for a detailed description of this.
<Alt-A>
Subject Allows you to change the subject of a message. If
you have a message with file attaches and press
<Alt-A>, the file attach list will be processed
again and if you specified wild-cards or more
than one file on the subject line, you will have
to select the files you want to send once again.
<Alt-T>
Text Allows you to edit the text (body) of a message.
If you are already in editing mode, this will
bring up a secondary menu with text editing
related functions.
<Alt-D>
Destination Allows you to change the destination of a
message. This will add the default message status
bits as well as the Local bit to the message and
remove the Rcvd and Sent status bits if they were
set.
As opposed to the FORWARD function, using <Alt-D>
will not result in any text being added to the
message body (forwarding info).
<Ctrl-F2>
Toggle Brings up the toggle menu.
9.2.1 <Alt-T> in edit mode
<Alt-F2>
Import file
Allows you to import an ASCII file into the text.
The contents of the file will be inserted at the
current cursor position.
<Ctrl-Enter>
Insert line
Inserts a blank line after the current line. The
cursor will remain in the same position.
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<Ctrl-B>
Line to buffer
Adds the current (where cursor is positioned)
line to end of the temporary buffer and moves the
cursor down one line. The last eighty lines of
deleted/marked text is always retained in a
temporary buffer and can be reinserted with
<Alt-F1> or <Esc>.
<Ctrl-W>
Delete word
Deletes the word to the right of the cursor.
<Ctrl-G>
Go to line#
Allows you to specify an absolute line number to
place the cursor on.
<Ctrl-T>
Delete to EOF
Deletes all text from cursor to end of message.
<Alt-F5>
Find Searches for the specified string, and if found,
places the cursor on the first character of the
found word.
<Alt-F6>
Find & Replace
Allows you to replace a string with another. Note
that this function will restore the cursor
position (the find function will not).
<Alt-F8>
Re-format Reformats a block of text (from cursor to the
next blank line) and removes any hard CRs from
the reformatted lines. It will add a hard CR to
the end of the reformatted block.
<Alt-F4>
Line drawing
Allows you to draw lines and boxes using a
variety of line sets.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
<Alt-F1>
<Esc>
Undelete Inserts the last deleted line at the current
cursor position. The last eighty lines of
deleted/marked text is always retained in a
"scratch" buffer.
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<Alt-F10>
<Ctrl-Z>
Save & Exit
Save (or discard changes to) the current message.
9.2.2 Toggle menu <Ctrl-F2>
<Ctrl-X>
Translation tables
Toggles the state of the translation tables.
<Ctrl-C>
Hard CRs Toggles whether or not hard CRs in the message
text should be displayed.
<Ctrl-E>
Echo info Toggles the state of the echo info. This function
is only available in echomail folders.
9.3 Utilities <Alt-U>
<Alt-F9>
Management Invokes the management function.
<Alt-J>
Move/copy Allows you to move/copy the current message to
another folder.
<Alt-V>
Message to file
Exports the current message to an ASCII file. If
the specified file already exists, you will be
asked if you want to overwrite its contents or
append the message to the end of the file.
<Alt-I>
Print message Adds the current message to the print queue.
Messages added to the queue are printed in the
order they were added. If you attempt to leave FM
while messages are still being printed, it will
ask you to confirm your choice to exit. If you
choose to exit, FM will cancel the remaining
messages in the print queue.
FM does NOT use any external print spooler, such
as DOS' PRINT program.
<Alt-B>
Renumber Renumbers the messages in the current folder so
that there are no gaps in the numbering. This
function is not available in Hudson Message
Base-type folders.
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<Alt-G>
Change username
Allows you to change the current user profile.
<Alt-W>
Change address Allows you to change the active network AKA
(address). This will also change the address that
is inserted in origin lines in EchoMail folders.
<Alt-O>
Change origin Allows you to change the active origin line.
Whether or not an origin line is appended to
messages that you create is determined by the
echo info setting (EchoMail folders only).
<Alt-X>
Show notes Displays extended information (hidden behind ^A,
ASCII 1, characters) in a message.
9.4 Purge <Alt-P>
The options on the Purge menu allow you to remove one or more
messages, in the current folder, based on the various criteria,
as described below.
From user Purge all messages FROM the specified user.
To user Purge all messages TO the specified user.
From net address
Purge all messages that originated from the
specified address.
To net address Purge all messages destined for the specified
address.
Received Purge all received (read) messages.
Age Purge all messages older than the specified date.
9.5 Other keys in edit mode
<Left>
<Right>
<Up>
<Down> Moves the cursor.
<Ctrl-Left> Places the cursor at the beginning of the word to
the left of the cursor.
<Ctrl-Right> Places the cursor at the beginning of the word to
the right of the cursor.
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<Home> Moves to the beginning of the current line. If
the cursor is already at the beginning of the
line, it will be moved to the top of the text
window.
<End> Moves to the end of the current line. If the
cursor is already at the end of the line, it will
be moved to the bottom of the text window.
<PgUp>
<PgDn> Scrolls one page up/down.
<Ctrl-Up>
<Ctrl-Down> Scrolls one line up/down without moving the
cursor. This option is only available for systems
with 101/102 key (extended) keyboards.
<Ctrl-PgUp>
<Ctrl-PgDn> Moves to the beginning/end of the message.
<Tab> Expands to four spaces (or to the next TAB
column).
<Shift-Tab>
(Backtab) The opposite of Tab. Moves the cursor four spaces
back (or to the previous Tab column). If the
cursor is already at the beginning of the line,
no action is taken.
<Ins> Toggles insert mode on/off.
<Del> Deletes character under cursor and scrolls the
rest of the line left without moving the cursor.
<Backspace> Deletes character to the left of cursor and
scrolls the rest of the line left, moving the
cursor one step.
<Ctrl-End> Deletes from the cursor to end of line.
<Ctrl-Y> Deletes the entire line.
<Ctrl-U> Changes the case of the current line. Uppercase
characters are converted to lowercase characters
and vice versa.
9.6 Other keys in view (read) mode
<Home> Move to first message in folder.
<End> Move to last message in folder.
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<Left>
<Right> Move to previous/next message in folder.
<Up>
<Down>
<PgUp>
<PgDn> Scroll message text (line or page).
<Ctrl-PgUp>
<Ctrl-PgDn> Move to beginning/end of message.
<Space> Selects current message as "home" message. Note
that once you switch to another folder, set
"home" message is by default set to the current
message.
<Enter> Returns to home message.
<Ctrl-Left>
<Ctrl-Right> Find previous/next message addressed to current
user.
<->
<+> Move to previous/next message in reply chain.
<Ctrl-Home>
<Ctrl-End> Move to first/last message in reply chain.
<1..9> Go to specified message number.
<Ctrl-Up>
<Ctrl-Down> Move to previous/next tagged message. This
requires that you first use <Alt-F9> (Management)
and select the messages you wish to move between.
9.7 Entering new messages
Press <Ins>. The screen will be refreshed and you will be
prompted for the destination. If you are in the NetMail folder,
you can use the name/address look-up function to specify the
destination of the message; if you are in an EchoMail/Local
folder, you must type the destination manually.
Once you have specified the destination of a message, you will be
prompted for the subject (Re:). If you want to send or request
files to/from another system, select the proper status bits and
specify the file data in the subject line. Note that the default
message status (specified in FDSETUP) is always added, but can be
changed.
Enter the message text and press <Ctrl-Z> or <Alt-F10> to save
the message.
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9.8 Management <Alt-F9>
The management function is used to perform global operations on a
range of messages such as moving, printing, copying, deleting,
etc.
When you press <Alt-F9> for the first time in a folder, FM will
scan all the messages in the folder and build a list of them.
That list is kept in memory until you press <Alt-F9> in another
folder, or when FM, for some reason, has to rebuild its internal
message list for a folder. If you remove, add or renumber
messages the list will be updated accordingly, so no rescan is
necessary.
9.8.1 Main menu
<Del>
Kill Removes all selected messages.
<F3>
Print messages Prints all selected messages.
<F4>
Range select Allows you to select a range of messages
matching a certain criteria.
<F5>
Select all Allows you to select all messages in the
folder.
<F6>
Move Allows you to move all selected messages to
another folder.
<F7>
Copy Allows you to copy all selected messages to
another folder.
<F8>
Export to file Allows you to export all selected messages to
an ASCII file.
<Enter>
Go to message Returns to view mode and makes the
highlighted message the current message.
<Space>
Select Selects or deselects the current message.
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<Esc>
Exit Returns you to view mode.
9.8.2 Continuous tagging
If you activate Caps Lock, messages can be tagged (selected)
by moving the bar with the arrow keys.
9.8.3 Range select <F4>
The range select function allows you to select a range of
messages matching a certain criteria. Most of the functions
only require a partial match with the selected search
criteria.
<F2>
From user Selects all messages from the specified user.
<F3>
To user Selects all messages to the specified user.
<F4>
Originating address
Selects all messages originating from the
specified address.
<F5>
Destination address
Selects all messages destined for the
specified address.
<F6>
Text Selects all messages containing the specified
search string in the message body.
<F7>
Date Selects all messages between two dates.
<F8>
Subject Selects all messages matching the specified
subject.
<F9>
Received Selects all messages with received (read)
status.
<Esc>
Exit Returns you to the main menu of the
management function.
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9.9 Keyboard macros
The keyboard macros are located on <F1> - <F10> (12) and <Shift
F1> - <Shift-F10> (12). When a macro key is pressed, FM will
insert its contents at the current cursor position. The following
macros are supported:
Sequence Expands to Key in FM
---------------------------------------------------------------
~~ ~
~| |
| CR <Enter>
~B TAB <Tab>
~> Cursor one step to the right <Right>
~< Cursor one step to the left <Left>
~^ Cursor one line up <Up>
~V Cursor one line down <Down>
~F Reformat paragraph <Alt-F8>
~L Insert line <Ctrl-Enter>
~} Delete from cursor to EOL <Ctrl-End>
~T Delete from cursor to EOF <Ctrl-T>
~S Save message and keep original <Ctrl-Z>, 'N'
~# Save message and delete original <Ctrl-Z>, 'Y'
~U Current username
~! Invoke DOS shell <Alt-Z>
~E<prog><parm>; Execute program
~I<filename>; Import file <Alt-F2>
~R<filename>; Import file and remove it
9.9.1 Examples
The sequence "~Edir /w>x.bak;~Rx.bak;" (without the quotes)
will:
1. Execute "DIR /W>X.BAK"
2. Import X.BAK into the message text
3. Remove X.BAK
Note that the semi-colon (;) is NOT optional for the
"Execute" and "Import" macros. It determines the end of the
program name and its parameters and/or the end of the name of
the file to import.
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The sequence "|~T|~B~B~BRegards,|~B~B~B~U|" (without the
quotes) will:
1. Insert a CR
2. Delete the text from the cursor to the end of the
message.
3. Insert another CR
4. Insert three TAB characters (equivalent to pressing
<Tab> three times).
5. Insert the text "Regards," without the quotes
followed by a CR.
6. Insert three TAB characters (equivalent to pressing
<Tab> three times).
7. Insert the current user's name followed by a CR.
Eg. ..
<message text>
..
Regards,
John Doe
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9.10 Carbon copies (CC)
The Carbon Copy function, is more or less what the name implies.
A function that allows you to send the same message to two or
more recipients; a distribution list. The CC function is only
active in the NetMail folder. CCs can also be used for File
Attach and File Request messages.
To use the CC function, put the text "cc:" (case does not matter)
followed by one or more SysOp names or system addresses,
separated by a comma, at the top of the message. Once you select
to save the message, FM will scan the beginning of the message
text for CC: and if found, process each element of the CC list.
You can have more than one line with CCs. Eg.
cc: bremin,#bodger,samet
cc: howard,kasza,wallin,1:135/4
Note that if you create several messages using the CC function,
editing any of them will not reactivate the CC function. FM will
only process a CC list the first time you enter a message (ie. a
new message).
9.10.1 Hidden CCs
To hide a recipient in a CC list, put the pound (#) character
in front of the SysOp name or system address. Eg.
cc: #1:135/20,#1:135/990,2:310/11
9.10.2 Using files as input to CCs
You can also specify a file containing SysOp names or
addresses to the CC function. Eg.
cc: @betanote.txt
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9.10.3 Address expansion
All addresses in a CC list can be entered in short form, and
several macros are recognized.
cc: MYNET
Will process your whole net and add every system to the CC
list. Note that the previously supported notation
"MYNET/node" (eg. MYNET/12) is no longer supported.
cc: 2:310/*, 1:135/*
Will include all systems in net 2:310 and 1:135.
cc: 2:270/17.*
Will include all listed point systems under 2:270/17.
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9.11 Crossposting (XC)
Although CCs are not supported for EchoMail and Local folders,
there is an additional function that provides you with a method
of broadcasting the same message to two or more folders. This
function is called crossposting, XC hereafter, and is not
available in the noncommercial version.
To use the XC function, put the text "xc:" (case does not matter)
followed by one or more numbers, separated by commas. Each number
represents a folder number where you want the message
cross-posted. If your folder list looks like:
1 BNU
2 COMP.SYS.IBM.PC
3 FDECHO
4 TSECHO
5 NETSYSOP
And you put "xc: 1,3,5" in a message in folder two. The resulting
messages will have
* Crossposted in BNU
* Crossposted in COMP.SYS.IBM.PC
* Crossposted in FDECHO
* Crossposted in NETSYSOP
At the top of each message. The target folder is excluded from
the list. Ie. " * Crossposted in BNU " will appear in each
message not going to the first (BNU) folder.
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10 Terminal
Although FrontDoor was designed primarily as an e-mail system, it
also features a powerful terminal emulator, hereafter called the
Terminal. The Terminal features very accurate and efficient Terminal
emulation and file transfer protocols; and several other features
found in expensive and/or complex communications packages.
The Terminal is invoked by pressing <Alt-J> from FD's main menu, or
by specifying /T on the command line when FD is started. You can also
choose to run FD in terminal-only mode, in which case the Terminal is
brought up directly when you start it.
Most functions of the Terminal are reached by holding down the <Alt>
key and pressing a key, <A..Z>. If you press a key that has no
function in the Terminal, it will display a message saying "Press
Alt-H for help".
10.1 Menus
Each function and menu of the Terminal will now be described.
10.1.1 File <Alt-F>
The file menu contains functions to manipulate macros, upload
and download files, transmit ASCII files, invoke DOS shell
and Editor, etc.
<Alt-G>
Download files Receive one or more files from the remote
system.
<Alt-T>
Upload files Transmit one or more files to the remote
system.
<Alt-A>
Transmit ASCII file
Allows you to transmit an ASCII file to the
remote. You will be able to select the
default inter-character delay and line
translation. It is possible to create simple
script or macro files by using this option.
<Alt-V>
Macro management
Allows you to create and maintain your macro
key sets. Use this function to make a
different macro key set the active set.
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<Alt-E>
Profile management
Allows you to create, maintain, and select
IEMSI session profiles. IEMSI is discussed in
a separate section.
<Alt-U>
Command history
The Terminal records your last ten typed
lines. When you press Enter, it removes the
oldest entry and adds the newly typed line to
the list. You can choose any one of the ten
history entries and retransmit it to the
remote.
<Alt-I>
Editor Invokes the program defined in the Terminal >
Miscellaneous > Editor field in FDSETUP. You
will be asked for optional command line
parameters, they are stored for the remains
of your Terminal session. This could also be
used to bring up external protocol menus,
etc.
Note that the FOSSIL driver is deactivated
when leaving the Terminal and reactivated
upon returning to the Terminal. This is to
make sure FrontDoor maintain control of the
FOSSIL driver even when loading other
programs that could possibly leave the FOSSIL
driver in a non-desirable state.
<Alt-Z>
DOS shell Invokes a temporary DOS shell. Type EXIT and
press <Enter> to return to the Terminal.
<Alt-Q>
Quit Depending on how the Terminal was invoked,
this will return you to FD's main menu or to
DOS. If you are connected to a remote system
when you press <Alt-Q>, you will be asked to
confirm that you want to hang up.
10.1.2 Line settings <Alt-L>
The line settings menu contains your current communications
parameters. You cannot reach the options of this menu unless
you press <Alt-L>. Most of the options in this menu are self
explanatory, only the not so obvious options are explained
here.
79
BPS The current DTE baud rate. If you have
enabled the "Lock port" option, this field
will contain "Fixed" and you will not be able
to change it.
Wraparound Determines whether or not the Terminal should
place the cursor on a new line when it is
positioned at the rightmost position of the
screen and a character is received. This
should be set to On in most situations. There
are however VT100/VT52 applications that
require this setting to be Off. Note that a
CR/LF will force a new line even if this is
set to Off.
CR expansion Determines how a received CR character should
be processed. If set to CR, no expansion is
made. If, however, it is set to CR/LF, the
Terminal will expand all received CR
characters to CR/LF.
Local echo Some on-line services do not echo the
characters you type. It may be necessary to
enable this option to see what you are
typing. If the on-line service you are using
does echo the characters you type and you
enable this option, you will get duplicated
characters. Eg. "HHEELLLLOO!!".
Emulation Allows you to choose between ANSI, VT100,
VT52 and TTY (no) emulation. Note that the
default for ANSI emulation is to support
AVT/0+ (AVATAR/0+). This is a Terminal
emulation protocol designed by G. Adam
Stanislav. It is extremely fast and very
efficient.
Translation tables
If enabled, the Terminal will use the
Terminal translation tables to filter any
received characters.
Auto-Zmodem downloads
The Terminal monitors received characters for
the special sequence a Zmodem transmitter
sends when a Zmodem file session is started.
If it detects this start-up sequence, it will
automatically invoke the Zmodem receiver. If
you disable this option, you must use <Alt-G>
(Download) to receive files using the Zmodem
protocol.
80
Allow AVT/0 sequences
Determines whether or not you want to accept
AVT/0+ emulation sequences when you are in
ANSI emulation. Since AVT/0+ is based upon
certain control characters, you may want to
disable this option if you are using programs
like Doorway, etc. which frequently transmits
control characters.
Clear on Form Feeds
Determines whether or not the Terminal should
clear the screen when receiving a Form Feed
(FF, ASCII 12) character from the remote.
Interactive EMSI
Determines whether or not the Terminal should
attempt to establish IEMSI sessions with
systems you call. IEMSI is completely
transparent and should not cause any
problems. IEMSI is described in a separate
section.
10.1.3 Session <Alt-S>
<Alt-C>
Capture Allows you to capture characters, as they appear
on the screen, to a disk file, or logging it to a
printer. Since the Terminal filters out NUL
characters (ASCII 0), they will never appear in a
capture file.
Other characters and control sequences may not
appear either, depending on what terminal
emulation protocol is active at the time.
<Alt-N>
Conversation (chat)
The conversation mode function splits the screen
in half, creating two windows or sections on the
screen. Data received from the remote system will
be displayed in the top section, while the
characters you type will be displayed in the
bottom section.
<Alt-D>
Dial Allows you to dial a system in the nodelist. This
function is disabled if no nodelist files are
detected when the Terminal/FD is started. Note
that you cannot queue numbers in the nodelist.
<Alt-M>
Manual dial
Allows you to enter a number manually, which will
then be dialed until you press the <Esc> key or a
connection has been made. Note that you cannot
queue manually entered numbers.
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<Alt-X>
Disconnect Disconnects the current call and displays the
elapsed time.
<Alt-P>
Phone directory
Brings up the phone directory manager.
<Alt-R>
Reset timer
Resets the on-line timer. The timer is
automatically reset when a new connection is
made.
<Alt-B>
Scroll back buffer
Allows you to view data that has scrolled off the
screen.
<Alt-W>
Send BREAK Sends a (short) BREAK signal to the modem.
Consult the documentation for your modem
regarding BREAK signals. This is often used to
terminate inquiries to commercial on-line
systems, etc. but can be treated differently by
your modem.
<Alt-J>
Clear screen
Clears the screen and moves the cursor to the
upper left-hand corner.
<Alt-Y>
Initialize modem
Transmits the Init-1..Init-3 modem strings as
configured in FDSETUP under Modem > Command
strings, followed by the Init string defined
under Terminal > Miscellaneous, to attempt to
initialize the modem.
This is not available in the noncommercial
version.
10.1.4 Options <Alt-O>
Most Terminal emulators and communications packages have a
status line, either at the top or at the bottom of the
screen; on which they display various information about
settings and the current connection. FrontDoor's Terminal
does not have a status line, hence the options menu.
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10.2 Keyboard macros
Depending on how many function keys you have on your keyboard,
you will have access to 20 or 24 keyboard macros for every macro
set. You can have over 60,000 macro sets defined, but only one
can be active at any time. The macro management function is
reached by pressing <Alt-V>.
The keyboard macros are located on <Shift-F1> - <Shift-F10> (12)
and <Ctrl-F1> - <Ctrl-F10> (12). When a macro key is pressed, the
Terminal will send the data specified as the macro string,
uninterpreted, to the remote system. The two exceptions to this
are the tilde (~) character which forces a one second pause, and
the pipe (|) character which translates into a CR. Neither the
tilde, nor the pipe character is transmitted to the remote
system.
10.3 Raw mode
The IBM PC keyboard generates two characters for every key you
press. The first character is called the ASCII code, and the
second character is called the scan code. Only the ASCII code is
transmitted to the remote system by default. There are, however,
some situations which require the Terminal software to transmit
both codes. The AVATAR emulation protocol and the Doorway
programs both require the complete codes (two characters) to
identify certain keys; function and arrow keys in particular.
Once raw mode has been enabled (by pressing the Scroll Lock key),
you cannot reach any of the Terminal's regular functions. Raw
mode is disabled by deactivating Scroll Lock.
10.4 Keypad modes
The VT100 and VT52 emulation protocols require that the cursor
keys transmit different codes depending on the state of the
remote application. Most on-line services follows the VT100
recommendation for this, but several Editors and other programs
have their own ideas of how this should be handled.
If you enable the numerical keypad (Num Lock), the white cursor
keypad will transmit the numerical application codes for
VT100/VT52. If you have an extended (101/102) keyboard, the grey
cursor keys will not follow the numerical keypad setting.
By using the <Shift> key together with the white cursor keypad,
you can negate the setting of Num Lock temporarily. Ie. if Num
Lock is enabled and you press <Shift-Up> (8), the Terminal will
transmit the up key sequence to the remote. If Num Lock is
disabled and you press <Shift-Up> (8), the Terminal will transmit
the numerical application keypad sequence for 8.
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10.5 PC keyboards
When the remote (host) requests that the Terminal enters
numerical application keypad mode, the Terminal automatically
enables Num Lock. On extended (101/102) keyboards, this will also
enable the Num Lock LED. The Num Lock LED on IBM-PC (standard)
keyboards will not change by doing this. The Options, <Alt-O>,
menu should correctly reflect the proper state of Num Lock
anyway.
10.6 Phone directory <Alt-P>
The phone directory allows you to define up to 200 (400 in the
commercial version) numbers in addition to those stored in the
nodelist database. The Terminal keeps the internal phone
directory in a file named TERMPHON.FD, which is located in the
SYSTEM directory.
The top menu in the phone directory has nine options.
<F1>
Clear queue Removes the queue (Q) status from all entries in
the phone directory. If no entries are listed in
the queue, no action is taken.
<F2>
<Enter>
Dial Adds the current (highlighted) number to the
queue and proceeds to the dial function. If no
connection is made, the Terminal will proceed to
the next number in the queue. If no other numbers
exists in the queue, the Terminal will wait the
defined (in FDSETUP) number of seconds before
trying again. You can abort dialing by pressing
<Esc>.
<F4>
Edit existing entry
Allows you to change an existing entry.
<F6>
Purge Removes all entries marked for deletion (small
square) from the phone directory. There is no way
to recover a removed entry, so use this option
with caution.
<F7>
<Space>
Toggle queue status
Adds/removes the current (highlighted) number to
the queue.
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<F8>
Sort/Purge This option is similar to the PURGE option with
one difference. It will sort the phone directory
in ascending order, based on the name field.
<Ins>
Add entry Allows you to add a new entry to the phone
directory.
<Del>
Mark for deletion
Marks an entry for deletion (small square). No
other action is taken. You must use the <F6> or
<F8> function to remove entries marked for
deletion.
10.6.1 Queue status
The queue status is only retained while you are in the phone
directory. Once you return to the Terminal, the phone
directory is removed from memory.
10.6.2 Adding/changing entries
When you press <F4> (Edit) or <Ins> (Add), the edit screen
will appear. Press <F10> to save the entry and <Esc> to
abandon the entry/changes.
10.7 Inactivity timer
If you are not connected to another system, the Terminal function
will be terminated automatically after ten minutes of inactivity,
if there is no carrier signal. The timer is reset if a key is
pressed and when the carrier signal changes.
10.8 File transfers
When you transmit or receive files in the Terminal, it will
automatically set the line parameters to no parity, eight data
bits and one stop bit. Once the transfer is completed, the line
parameters will be reset to whatever values they had prior to the
transfer.
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10.9 On-line timer
The on-line time displayed in the Options, <Alt-O>, menu shows
the elapsed time of the current connection in hours and minutes.
It is not intended as a precise mechanism for cost calculations,
etc. but will give you a rough estimate of the time you have
spent on-line.
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11 Miscellaneous
This chapter contains functions and options that are global to all
programs in FrontDoor.
11.1 Destination of messages
When you are prompted for an address and/or SysOp name for a
message, you can use the look-up function. This is true for both
FD, FM, and the Terminal. FM only allows you to use the look-up
function for messages written in the NetMail folder.
You do not have to use the look-up function, of course. You can
enter a short form address, such as 10 (for node 10 in your own
net), .1 (for point one in your own point net) in which case the
SysOp's name is taken from the nodelist data. This is one of the
most flexible functions in FrontDoor.
11.1.1 Name lookups
If you specify "Homrig" as the destination, you will be
prompted to select from a list of all users with a last name
matching "Homrig" (Homrighausen for example). The network
address will also be taken from the name you select.
11.1.2 Address browsing
To enter the address browse mode, specify an incomplete
address, such as "2:?", "2:270/?" or "2:270/17.?". You can
then browse through all zones, regions, networks and
pointlists known to your system.
If you press <Enter> (and the input field is blank) when you
are prompted for an address, you will be placed in browse
mode in your own net.
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11.1.3 Address macros (NAMES.FD)
You can also create a file containing short names which
expands into a full address/SysOp name. The macros are
located in a file called NAMES.FD which must be placed in the
SYSTEM directory. The format of NAMES.FD follows:
<alias>,<user name>,<address>[,<subject>]
ALIAS The name you want to use for the macro.
USER NAME The name you want FM to place in the TO: user
name field.
ADDRESS The network address you want as the destination
when using the macro.
SUBJECT The fourth and optional parameter can be used to
insert a default subject in FM and also in the
"File(s):" field in FD when using the "Mail
services" options "Request files" and "Transmit
files".
Eg. oci,James Smith,1:132/300
am,AreaMgr,2:512/1,MyAreaMgrPassword
joho,joaquim homrighausen,2:270/17
tebe,tomas bremin,2:270/7
tj,Tom Jennings,1:125/111
Would allow you to place "*oci", "*am", "*joho", "*tebe",
and "*tj" anywhere you are prompted for a network address
or user name, including carbon copies (CC).
A special format can also be used to automatically address
messages to UUCP and INTERNET gateways. By putting a
commercial at character (@) as the first character of the
user name field (second field), you indicate to FM that the
macro should receive special treatment.
Eg. dn,@INTERNET/david@csource.oz.au,2:241/999
Would place "INTERNET" in the message header's
TO: field and address the message to 2:241/999.
On the first line of the message text, it would
put "TO: david@csource.oz.au".
If no forward slash (/) is found in the user name
field (where "INTERNET" is above), FM defaults to
putting "UUCP" in the message header's TO: field.
This cannot be used for carbon copies (CC).
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12 File Requests
This section will explain and discuss the various aspects of File
Requests. There are two types of Requests, File Request and Update
Request. The latter is basically a File Request that triggers a
mechanism to only send the requested files if they are more recent
than those found on the requesting system. Two basic terms have to be
explained and understood:
Outbound Requests A File or Update Request created and
transmitted by your system to another,
remote, system.
Inbound Requests A File or Update Request transmitted by
another system to your system.
There is no mechanism in FD to control how an outbound Request is
treated by the remote system. FD strictly deals with controlling the
access to and security of your system (inbound Requests).
12.1 Outbound Requests
When you want to Request one or more files from a remote system,
you may do so using several different methods:
1. By using FM and entering a message with File or Update
Request status. The files you want to request from the
remote system are listed on the subject (Re:) line of the
message and you set FilReq or UpdReq to indicate that FD
should give the message special treatment.
2. By using FD's temporary mail services, which are accessed
with <Alt-M> from FD's main menu. Whether or not the
Request is treated as an Update Request or File Request
is determined by how you specify the filename(s) in the
File(s): field. If you include a path, FD will treat it
as an Update Request, otherwise, it will be treated as a
File Request.
Requests created this way will not remain if FD is
brought down (for one reason or another) as they are
intended for temporary, quick and dirty, purposes only.
3. Use a robot utility, such as XRobot, to create the File
or Update Request message(s).
Note that an Update Request with no matching target, that is, you
have attempted to Update Request a file that does not exist on
your system, is automatically converted to a File Request.
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12.2 Requesting files with a password
Since files and directories can be protected with passwords, it
may be necessary for you to present a password in order to
request certain files from a remote system.
To add a password to an outbound File or Update Request, you
simply put the password preceded by a space character and a '!'
character. Ie. <filename> !<password>. Regardless of whether you
are creating the Request in FM or from FD's Request function,
this is the format used to specify passwords.
12.3 Update Requests
As mentioned before, an Update Request is really a File Request.
The difference is that an Update Request is used to "update" a
file that already exists on your system. The mailers accomplish
this by transmitting the date and time of the existing file, the
system that processes (receives) the Update Request then compares
this with the requested filemask and sends any matching file that
has a later date and time.
12.4 Inbound Requests
You can control which directories should be accessible from the
"outside world" during a Request. This is accomplished by telling
FD which directories should be searched for matches. How FD
handles inbound Requests depends on how you have configured the
Mailer > File requests option screen in FDSETUP.
12.4.1 Request modes
There are three different modes which decide how FD treats a
Request from a remote system.
1. Anyone can request. This means that FD will allow any
system to Request files from your system, subject to
event behaviors and other modifiers.
2. Systems in nodelist can request. Similar to (1), but
FD will only process Requests received from systems
that are listed in your Nodelist database.
3. No requests. Forces FD to ignore any received
Requests, effectively disabling the ability to
request files from your system.
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12.4.2 Directory listings
The directory list file is a plain vanilla ASCII file with
one directory (complete path) per line. This is used by FD to
determine which directories should be searched for a file
that is being requested by a remote system. No other
directories than those listed here will be searched.
Two separate list files can be defined in FDSETUP under
Mailer > File requests. The first one, LIST, is used for
unprotected sessions. The second one, SECLIST, is used for
password protected sessions; allowing you to make different
directories available for Request depending on the status of
the session. If no SECLIST file has been defined, FD will use
the LIST file for password protected sessions as well.
Please note that each line defines a directory and not a
filemask. All files in the specified directory will be
available for Request, subject to password protection and
other factors.
12.4.3 Alias listings
The alias list file is a plain vanilla ASCII file with one
alias definition per line. Alias definitions are useful to
allow remote systems to use the same name when requesting
files that change frequently, such as a file list or another
file with similar contents. The remote system simply requests
the "alias" and FD will send whatever files you have defined
to send for that alias.
Eg. FRODO C:\FILES\FDKIT.ARJ
XR C:\FILES\XROBOT.ARJ
RACCESS C:\FILES\RA*.ARJ
MYSECRET C:\TEST1.ARJ C:\TEST2.ARJ
The remote system can request FRODO, XR, RACCESS or MYSECRET
and get the above specified files. Files listed as alias
names do not have to be located in requestable (see
"Directory listings") directories.
Two separate alias files can be defined in FDSETUP under
Mailer > File requests. The first one, ALIAS, is used for
unprotected sessions. The second one, SECALIAS, is used for
password protected sessions; allowing you to make different
alias definitions available for Request depending on the
status of the session. If no SECALIAS file has been defined,
FD will use the ALIAS file for password protected sessions as
well.
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12.4.4 Response message
In the event that FD cannot satisfy a Request for one reason
or another, it will return a message to the requesting system
telling it why the request(s) could not be satisfied.
If you have specified a filename for the MESSAGE option,
under Mailer > File requests, FD will attempt to open the
specified file and append its contents to the end of the
automatically generated response message.
12.4.5 Limiting Requests
You can choose to place a limit on how many files, how many
kilobytes, and/or how long a Request may take. This allows
you to fine tune your system for maximum efficiency.
Max match The maximum number of files your system will
send during one Request session. If the
remote system requests an alias filename that
expands to two files, the request is counted
as two files. A setting of zero disables this
feature.
Max size The maximum amount of data (in KB) your
system will send during one Request session.
Note that if the remote system requests an
alias filename that expands into two files,
the size of both files is checked. A setting
of zero disables this feature.
Max time The maximum time (in minutes) the resulting
files of a File or Update Request may take to
transfer. Before sending each file, a check
is made to see if sending the file will cause
this limit to be exceeded. If so, the file is
skipped and the next file in the list will be
checked. A setting of zero disables this
feature.
Minimum speed The minimum baud rate required to allow
Requests. If the current connection is at a
lower speed, Requests will not be honored.
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12.4.6 Limited hours
You may also choose to limit the access of your Request
functions to certain days and certain hours of those days.
Limited Enables limited hours.
Start The time of day when your system should start
honoring Requests. This setting can only be
changed if the LIMITED option is enabled.
End The time of day when your system should stop
honoring Requests. This setting can only be
changed if the LIMITED option is enabled.
Days Defines on which days your system will honor
Requests.
12.4.7 Event restrictions
Ultimately, whether or not your system will honor Requests is
controlled by the current event's behavior. If the ALLOW FILE
REQUESTS option is set to NO, Requests will not be honored.
12.4.8 Protecting files and directories
You may want to protect access to certain files and
directories, just like another system may require you to
present the proper password to request one or more files. See
"Outbound Requests".
The Request Manager in FDSETUP is used to protect Inbound
Requests.
Filename/
Directory Defines the filename/directory you want to
protect. This is NOT an exclusive name. If you
set this field to C:\HIDDEN\ and define a
password, all Requests that result in files being
sent from C:\HIDDEN\ are protected. If you set
this field to MYSECRET.ARJ and define a password,
the file MYSECRET.ARJ will only be sent if the
requesting system presented the proper password.
Password Defines the password for the specified
file/directory. The requesting system have to
present this in its request to get the file(s).
These passwords are treated case insensitive.
Entries with inactive status in the Request Manager are
ignored by FD. Note that Alias definitions can also be
protected by placing the name of the Alias definition in the
Filename/Directory field.
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13 Swapping
Both FM and FD requires over 220 KB of RAM. If you shell to DOS, or
load another program from FD, this memory is not freed. FrontDoor
allows you to swap out the memory used by FD and FM, either to
XMS/EMS memory or to a disk file. If you have specified that you want
the programs to use XMS/EMS memory for swapping but there is not
sufficient XMS/EMS memory available, the swap image is written to
disk. The swap file is placed in the SYSTEM directory and removed
when you return to the program.
If you enable swapping for FD, it will be swapped out when you invoke
a DOS shell and when you invoke other programs. The FD swap setting
also affects the Terminal. The Terminal will not flush its
scroll-back buffer to disk if any type of swapping is enabled for FD.
Once the swap image has been created and written to XMS/EMS memory or
a disk file, all used (by FD/FM) memory is freed except between three
and five KB which will always remain in memory.
13.1 Complete path specifications
To avoid problems when you enable swapping to XMS/EMS memory or
to a disk file, it is recommended that all the filename and
directory specifications under Global > Filenames in FDSETUP
contain complete path specifications, including a driver
specifier.
If you choose to swap to a disk file, it is further recommended
that you specify a complete path to where you want the swap files
to be placed (Global > FileNames > Swapping).
13.2 Loading programs in a DOS shell
Make sure that you do not load any TSR (Terminate and Stay
Resident) programs, such as DOS' PRINT and SideKick, when you are
in a DOS shell. Failure to follow this advice may lead to system
lockups when you attempt to return to FD or FM.
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14 CRT environments
All programs in the FrontDoor package are screen environment aware
and most of them can adjust to most (if not all) screen sizes as long
as the current screen mode has 80 or more columns (horizontally).
If you have an EGA or VGA card that allows you to set the screen mode
to something like 132x28 and you want to use this in FM, FD, or the
Terminal, you should specify that you want the AUTO screen mode for
that particular program. This will prevent it from altering the
screen mode.
Please note that if you run FD in AUTO mode, you must run FM and the
Terminal in AUTO mode as well, if you plan to load either from FD
(and not just from DOS). Otherwise, FD will display garbage data on
the screen when you return from the Terminal. The opposite (running
the Terminal in AUTO and FD in 25 or 43/50) is, however, properly
handled.
To set extended screen modes (except 80x43 and 80x50), you must use
an external utility in the noncommercial version. The commercial
version allows you to specify video BIOS parameters to set and reset
extended screen modes.
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15 Message Status Bits
Message status bits determines how FD will treat outbound (outgoing)
messages and how FM will treat locally destined messages. The Message
status menu is accessed by pressing <Alt-S> in FM and is also
displayed when entering a new message and changing the subject of a
message.
The keys listed refer to the status menu in FM.
<Ctrl-P>
Private Indicates that the message should only be read by the
addressee.
<Ctrl-C>
Crash High-priority mail. Messages with crash status can
never be routed or held by a route file (see Mail
routing). Crash messages do, however, NOT override
any cost restrictions for an event; they also require
that the destination system has been qualified before
FD will call it.
<Ctrl-H>
Hold The hold status will force FD to ignore the message
unless the destination system calls your system to
pick up its mail. If the message is destined for a
point system and the boss of the point system calls
your system, the message will be given to the boss
unless the message also has Direct status.
<Ctrl-F>
File Indicates that the message has one or more files
attached to it. The files are listed in the subject
(Re:) line. File attach messages can be routed and
held unless another status bit (Crash, Immediate,
Hold, etc.) prevents it. The default treatment of a
file attach message is to send it directly to its
destination.
<Ctrl-R>
File Request Indicates that the message is a File Request. The
requested files are listed in the subject line and
may contain wild-cards characters. File request
messages can be held, but are never routed. See "File
Requests".
<Ctrl-U>
Update request Similar to a File Request, <Ctrl-R>, but the subject
line (Re:) must contain valid (existing) file
specification(s). When FD connects to the destination
system, the requested files will only be sent by the
remote if they are more recent than the matching
files on your system. See "File Requests"
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<Ctrl-K>
Kill/Sent Removes the message after it has been sent or picked
up. If the Kill/Sent status is not set on a message,
it will be marked as sent after it has been sent or
picked up.
<Ctrl-T>
Truncate file/sent
Truncates the attached files to zero length after
they have been sent or picked up. This option is only
valid for file attach messages.
Note that it is nearly impossible to recover a
truncated file so use this option with caution.
<Ctrl-E>
Delete file/sent
Removes the attached files after they have been sent
or picked up. This option is only valid for file
attach messages.
<Ctrl-D>
Direct Similar to the Crash status, with the difference that
they can be held. Messages with the Direct and Hold
status combined require that the destination system
(including points) call in to pickup their mail.
<Ctrl-I>
Immediate mail Similar to the Crash status, but messages with
immediate status will be sent at the first
opportunity, ignoring all restrictions and
qualifications. If there is one or more messages with
immediate status to a system, all other messages
(except those with hold status) to that system will
be added to the mail packet.
USE THIS OPTION WITH CAUTION!
<Ctrl-L>
Lock Locks a message from further access. This is done by
setting the DOS attribute to read-only and adding a
special flag to the message text. FD and most other
utilities will ignore message files (.MSG) with
read-only attribute.
Messages with lock status cannot be removed by any of
the purge functions and will never be sent (or picked
up). FM can, however, renumber a folder containing
one or more messages with locked status.
<Ctrl-S>
Sent Indicates that the message has been sent or picked up
by the addressee. Once a message has been flagged as
sent, they cannot be sent or picked up by the
addressee.
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<Ctrl-Z>
No status Clears all status bits.
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16 Mail routing
This is one of the most complex parts of FrontDoor and takes
considerable time to learn and understand. Make sure you understand
how each routing verb affects mail routing before you use it.
When FD is brought up, it scans for any active events and when one is
found, opens the route file, ROUTE.FD, and uses it to determine whom
to send mail to, and how to send it. The route file must be placed in
the SYSTEM directory. If the timestamp of the route file is modified,
FD will detect it and re-scan the NetMail folder (see "Semaphores").
Global routing verbs are those that appear before any SCHEDULE
keyword in the route file. They are always used, so you can specify
routing that is identical for all your events here.
Local routing verbs are those that appear between two schedule
keywords (a schedule block) in the route file. FD determines which
schedule block to use by searching for a schedule keyword with a tag
(letter) matching the current event tag (see "Events").
Several references are made to Hold status in this chapter. Do not
confuse this with the HOLD route verb. The Hold status refers to the
message status bit (see "Message Status Bits"), or where stated, to a
system's nodelist status.
FD allows you to insert comments in your route file. Every line with
a semicolon as the first non-space (TAB/Space) character is treated
as a comment. While comments may seem inadequate at first glance, it
is a very useful function. Going back to a route file you wrote five
months ago may not be your definition of spending a weekend in joy
and happiness.
Addresses specified in the route file should always be fully
expressed. The * macro (implying "ALL") is supported. You can also
use nodelist flags to specify a range of systems. The routing
language is completely case insensitive (case does not matter).
SCRIPT, SCripT, and scRIPt are all treated as the same command.
16.1 Default routing
FD has several default rules for routing that will be used if no
other rules have been defined for a specific system. Some of the
default rules cannot be overridden by routing verbs.
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16.2 Message status
Messages with immediate (IMM hereafter), Crash, File/Update
Request, and Direct status will normally not be routed. They are
sent directly to the destination system, with the exception of
systems without a telephone number, as described later.
Messages with IMM or Crash status can never be held by using the
HOLD keyword. Messages with Crash status can, however, be
prevented from being sent by event behavior, qualification lists,
and cost restrictions, but never held with the HOLD route verb.
Messages with Hold status will NEVER be packed into a mail
packet. They can always be picked up by the destination system.
Messages to points with Hold status can and will be picked up if
the Boss of the point calls to pickup mail, unless the message
also has Direct status.
Messages with IMM status will always be packed into mail packets,
overriding ANY event restrictions. If you have a message with IMM
status, FD will add all other qualifying messages to the same
system to the same mail packet.
Messages with Received (read), Orphan, Lock, and/or Sent status
are ignored by FD.
16.3 Host/Hub/Boss routing
Messages not otherwise prevented from being routed will by
default be sent to the destination system's HOST (see "Nodelist")
if the destination system is outside your own net and to its HUB
if it is within your own net.
If you have mail for a system listed as DOWN in your nodelist
database, it will never be packed. If the system calls your
system to pick up mail, it will receive its mail.
If you have mail for a system listed as HOLD or PVT (no telephone
number) in your nodelist, the default behavior is to send the
mail via the system's Host, Hub, or Boss. If the mail to a HOLD
or PVT listed system contains file attaches, the mail packet will
by default be placed on hold for the Host/Hub, or go directly to
the Boss in the case of a point.
Messages to systems not in your nodelist (unlisted systems) will
not be Host/Hub routed by default, but they can be routed by
using route verbs.
Messages with Crash, IMM or Direct status, destined for points to
which FD cannot place a call directly will retain its status (and
restrictions), but FD will instead assume the point system's Boss
as the destination.
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16.4 Qualifying systems
Before FD will send mail to a system, it must be qualified by
specifying its address, or a macro that includes its address in a
SCHEDULE block (this is not true for IMM mail as previously
described).
You can qualify a system by placing a SEND-TO statement in the
global section of a route file, but this is NOT RECOMMENDED.
SEND-TO, POLL and the optional SEND-LIST after a Schedule command
are the only available methods to qualify a system for mailing.
If FD cannot find ROUTE.FD, mail to all systems will be put on
hold for the destination system to call in and pickup its mail.
16.5 Route commands
SCHEDULE <TAG> [SEND-LIST]
Defines the start of a schedule block. All commands following a
Schedule command are considered a part of the same block until
another Schedule command is encountered.
TAG is a letter corresponding with the event tag, defined in
FDSETUP (see "Events"). You should only have one Schedule block
per defined event tag.
The optional SEND-LIST parameter should contain the systems to
qualify for the event.
SEND-TO <SEND-LIST>
Qualifies the specified systems. This is identical to the
optional SEND-LIST after the Schedule command.
HOLD <LIST>
Hold mail for the specified systems.
UNHOLD <LIST>
The opposite of HOLD. Useful if you have global HOLD statements
and want to negate the effect of those statements for one or more
systems.
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NO-ROUTE <LIST>
Send mail to the specified systems directly. This overrides the
default routing rules. Some logics is applied to "directly" when
using the NO-ROUTE command. Systems which FD cannot mail directly
will be sent "as directly as possible".
If <LIST> includes a system listed as PVT (unpublished telephone
number), for example, FD evaluates the "NO-ROUTE" as "NO-ROUTE
this message to the system's nearest Host/Hub".
DIRECT <LIST>
Unconditionally send mail to the specified systems directly (you
can still place it on hold by using the HOLD command). No logics
is applied to this command, and if FD cannot call the specified
systems, the resulting mail packets are placed on hold
automatically. Note that a system must still exist for this to
apply. If a system that is included in a DIRECT <LIST> does not
exist, the message will be stamped "Orphan" and not included in a
mail packet, but it can still be picked up by the destination
system.
ROUTE-TO <TARGET> <LIST>
Route mail (excluding file attach messages) for the specified
systems through TARGET. This automatically implies "NO-ROUTE
<TARGET>", ie. the target system's mail will not be routed
through another system, even if so previously stated.
HOST-ROUTE <LIST>
Route messages, not otherwise prevented from being routed, for
the specified systems through their HOST system.
HUB-ROUTE <LIST>
Route messages, not otherwise prevented from being routed, for
the specified systems through their HUB system.
ROUTE-FILES <TARGET> <LIST>
Route file attach messages (excluding normal mail) for the
specified systems through TARGET. This automatically implies "NO-
ROUTE <TARGET>", ie. the target system's mail will not be routed
through another system, even if so previously stated.
You should ask the SysOp of the TARGET system if he allows you to
route files through his system before using this command.
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POLL <LIST>
Force FD to call the specified systems even if there is no other
mail destined for them. This does not effect the routing of
existing mail destined for the specified systems. The POLL
command unconditionally qualifies a system for mailing. Each
system in LIST will only be called once. If an event is
restarted, FD will not call systems that it has already polled.
EXCEPT <LIST>
Specifies an exception to the LIST of the previously used
command.
FORWARD-FOR <LIST>
Tells FD that you allow the specified systems to send mail
(excluding file attach messages) through your system. Note that
this does not place any restrictions of the destination of the
forwarded mail.
FORWARD-TO <LIST>
Tells FD that you allow mail (excluding file attach messages) to
be forwarded through your system ONLY if it is destined to any of
the specified systems. This is a more secure alternative to the
FORWARD-FOR command.
FILES-FOR <LIST>
Identical to FORWARD-FOR, but for file attach messages.
FILES-TO <LIST>
Identical to FORWARD-TO, but for file attach messages.
DENY <LIST>
Allows you to prevent the specified systems from picking up
waiting mail. FD will still accept incoming mail from the
specified systems. This can be used to prevent local (or other
low-cost) systems from picking up their mail in national mail
events, etc.
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SCRIPT <SCRIPT FILE> <LIST>
Tells FD to use the SCRIPT FILE when calling the specified
systems instead of the telephone number (if any) in your nodelist
database. Script files are explained in a separate section.
NO-SCRIPT <LIST>
Prevents FD from using default script handling for the specified
systems. Script files are explained in a separate section.
16.6 LIST specifications
You can use a variety of formats to specify a list of systems for
a route verb. A few follows:
* All systems
2:* All systems in zone two
2:270/* All systems in zone two, net 270.
2:270/1 2:270/1 and all points under it.
2:270/1.0 2:270/1 but no points under it.
2:270/1.1 2:270/1.1.
MYNET All systems in your own net. Note that the result
of this format depends on which AKA FD is
operating under. This is normally your primary
AKA.
16.7 Using nodelist flags
When you specify system LISTs to a route command, you can use
nodelist flags in place of address information. Most of the
available mail and system related nodelist flags are supported by
FD. You can mix flags and address information as you wish. A few
follows:
HST CM All systems with HST or CM in their nodelist
entry.
!HST All systems that do not have HST in their
nodelist entry. The ! character negates the
meaning of a flag.
!HST !CM All systems that do not have HST _or_ CM in
their nodelist entry.
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!HST CSP All systems that do not have HST in their
nodelist entry and all systems that have CSP
in their nodelist entry.
1:1/101 HST CM 1:1/101 and all other systems with HST or CM
in their nodelist entry.
16.8 File routing/forwarding
FILES-FOR and FILES-TO will mark all in-transit (not destined for
your system) file attach messages as Del/Sent (see "Message
Status Bits"). If you receive the same file destined for two
different systems, the file will not be removed until it has been
sent to (or picked up by) both systems.
16.9 Message forwarding
When FD unpacks received mail packets, it will always mark
messages as in-transit if they are not destined for your system
(including any AKAs). These messages can be forwarded by using
FORWARD-FOR and FORWARD-TO, but FD will under NO circumstances
forward mail, that has not been entered or modified locally,
automatically to systems unless one or both of these two commands
are used.
16.10 Multiple zones
If you are operating under more than one AKA listed in different
zones, it is important to explicitly specify a zone for address
information in the route file.
16.11 Examples
Here are a few examples of route files and how to use route
commands:
schedule @ *
This is the most simple of route files and qualifies all systems
for mailing. It will force FD to use its default routing rules
for mail to all systems.
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schedule @ *
route-to 2:512/1 2:*
hold 2:512/1 !CM !HST
This qualifies all systems for mailing, routes all mail destined
for zone two through 2:512/1, and places the mail for 2:512/1
(including the routed mail) and any systems, that do not have the
CM or HST flags in their nodelist entry, on hold.
schedule @ MYNET
This qualifies all systems in your own net and uses default
routing.
schedule @
send-to 1:* 2:* 3:*
route-to 2:512/1 2:*
except 2:201/329
2:201/130
route-to 3:632/348 3:*
deny MYNET
This qualifies all systems in zone one, two, and three. Routes
all mail destined for zone two through 2:512/1 except for mail
destined 2:201/329 and 2:201/130, routes all mail destined for
zone three through 3:632/348, and prevents systems in your own
net from picking up their mail.
schedule B *
hold *
except 2:*
no-route 2:*
This qualifies all systems, holds all mail except mail destined
for systems in zone two, and sends mail destined for zone two
directly to its destination.
hold *
schedule D MYNET
unhold MYNET
schedule A 1:*
unhold 1:*
This holds all mail by default (the HOLD command is in the global
section).
Schedule D sends mail to all systems in your own net.
Schedule A sends mail to all systems in zone one.
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16.12 Dynamic packing
Whenever a mail event is started, FD scans the messages in the
netmail folder and possible packets are built. Messages that do
not qualify to be processed will not be packed (but kept in the
internal list). If a system calls in, FD will scan the message
list stored in memory and create a mail packet on the fly and
immediately send it to the calling system. So mail is always
available, 24 hours/day.
This means that your system does not have to be in an event for
other systems to pickup their mail. Note that you can prevent
systems from picking up their mail with the DENY command and by
modifying an event's behavior.
16.13 Regarding points
Points of other systems are always treated as their boss system
unless you explicitly specify the boss or a point. To ONLY
reference a boss system, without referencing its points, use .0
(eg. 2:270/17.0).
If you have the telephone number for another system's points, the
will be treated just like any other node. Ie. you can send mail
to them directly.
16.14 Order of evaluation
The route file is evaluated (processed) from top to bottom.
Because of this, it is wise to put the "global" (affecting all
systems) first, followed by the exceptions. Eg.
route-to 2:512/1 *
no-route 2:270/17
will result in all mail being routed via 2:512/1, except mail for
2:270/17, which is sent directly to 2:270/17.
The only route command that cannot be overridden in this manner
is the ROUTE-FILES command. It is therefore required that you use
the EXCEPT keyword to override a ROUTE-FILES command where
necessary. Eg.
route-files 2:512/1 *
except 2:270/17
will result in all file attaches messages being sent via 2:512/1,
except file attach messages destined for 2:207/17, which are sent
directly to 2:270/17. The only other way to override the effects
of a ROUTE-FILES command is to use the DIRECT command.
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16.15 TARGET vs. qualification
Note that only actual <TARGET> systems, and systems which you
have told FD to send mail directly to, or systems not otherwise
included in default routing, need to be qualified.
route-to 2:512/1 *
no-route 2:270/17
schedule @ 2:512/1 2:270/17
Note that even if you have mail for a non-qualified system (ie. a
system other than 2:512/1 and 2:270/17), it would be routed to
2:512/1, and qualified for sending (via 2:512/1), using the above
scenario.
16.16 Restrictions
A <TARGET> system cannot contain a point address.
You can not route mail destined for your own systems via another
system.
16.17 Macros
MYZONE All systems in your zone.
MYNET All systems in your net.
MYPOINTS All points under your system.
16.18 Supported nodelist flags
Note that the meaning of the following flags can be negated by
placing a '!' character in front of them, eg. !HST.
CM, MO, HST, H96, PEP, MAX, XA, XB, XC, XP, XW, XX, MNP, V29,
V32, V33, V34, V42, V42B, V32B, CSP.
All FrontDoor systems should have the "XA" flag in their nodelist
entry.
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17 EMSI and IEMSI
EMSI (EMSC-001 and FSC-0056) or "Electronic Mail Standard
Identification" is a handshake method developed by Joaquim H.
Homrighausen and Chris Irwin (author of D'Bridge). It provides
features and flexibility that other handshake methods, such as FTS-1
and FTS-6 (YooHoo), do not offer.
The two major advantages of the EMSI handshake method is the ability
to pickup mail for all your AKAs in one call, and unlimited expansion
of the data (handshake packets) exchanged when a session is
negotiated. I will not go into any technical details about EMSI here,
I will, however, describe the handling of the multiple AKAs.
The EMSI handshake is supported by FrontDoor, AirMail, TrapDoor, and
D'Bridge. I expect other packages such as BinkleyTerm to add support
for it in the near future. EMSI does not interfere with other
handshake protocols such as FTS-1 and FTS-6.
17.1 Passwords
If you have established or wish to establish a session level
password for a certain system, you must make sure that you have
entered all AKAs of that system in the Security Manager. All
entries must have the same password.
For example, let us assume you want to establish a session level
password with 1:135/142 which is also 26:1305/142. You should add
both 1:135/142 and 26:1305/142 in the security manager and use
the same password for both entries.
17.2 Mail
Using the same example, if you have mail for both 1:135/142 and
26:1305/142, all mail (for both addresses) would be delivered
during the same session. This is true for both inbound and
outbound connections.
If you know that a system is EMSI capable and you have regular
mail traffic with more than one of its AKAs, you can HOLD mail
for the system's other AKAs and only allow the Mailer (FD) to
call one of the addresses. When the session is established, all
of the remote system's AKAs are processed.
This probably sounds more confusing than it really is. So to make
a long story short, make sure you have the "Present all AKAs to
remote" option enabled (Mailer>Miscellaneous) and play it by ear.
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17.3 IEMSI
IEMSI is similar to the EMSI handshake protocol, with the
exception that it deals with the handshake between a terminal
program (such as the one found in FrontDoor) and an on-line
service, such as a BBS.
110
18 Script language
The script language provides an alternative method of calling a
system (instead of calling it directly with the telephone number
listed in your nodelist). A script file is used where you have to, or
prefer to, connect to another system indirectly. Ie. you will not be
calling it by dialing its number directly. This could be through X.25
or PC Pursuit.
The script file must be a plain vanilla ASCII file. A semicolon (;)
may be used as a comment character, making FD ignore everything
following the semicolon on the same line. FD is not case sensitive
when interpreting the script file.
The route file (ROUTE.FD) can be used to specify that a script should
be used for one or more nodes by entering:
SCRIPT <SCRIPT FILE> <LIST>
(see Mail routing). The command may be global or local to a specific
event's schedule block. If you are using PC Pursuit, you can use a
generic script file for all "PC Pursuitable" nodes. See PCP SCRIPTS.
18.1 What can I do with it?
The script language consists of a number of commands that allows
you to send characters to the modem, wait for responses from the
modem or the remote system/network that you are using, and
trigger different actions depending on the responses you get.
The versatility of the script language is further enhanced by the
use of so-called labels to execute different parts of the script
depending on a specific situation. The script language can be
seen as a simple programming language for controlling the way FD
or the Terminal makes a call.
18.2 Commands
SEND <STRING>
Sends a series of characters to the modem or the remote system.
Everything following the SEND command on the same line will be
sent. Control characters may be entered using mnemonics, eg.
<CR>. In addition, <CR> (carriage return) may be sent by using
the pipe (|) symbol. The string will be sent exactly as entered,
with no case conversion.
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DIAL <NUMBER>
Sends NUMBER, preceded by the dial command specified in FDSETUP's
modem section. Control characters may be entered in the same
manner as with the SEND command.
SETPORT <BAUD> <DATABITS> <STOPBITS> <PARITY>
Sets the communications port to the specified parameters. BAUD
can be any value supported by the hardware between 300 and 9600
baud. At no time will the baud rate be set to a higher value than
the highest supported speed of the destination system, or the
baud rate of the outbound node in a PC Pursuit script. DATABITS
is 7 or 8. STOPBITS is 1 or 2. PARITY is NONE, ODD or EVEN. In
addition, a value of -1 means that the previous setting for that
parameter should be retained.
PROVOKE <STRING>
Keeps sending STRING with an interval of one second, until any
character is received from the remote system, or until a timeout
occurs (see TIMERSET), or until interrupted by the user. Control
characters may be entered in the same manner as with the SEND
command.
TIMERSET <SECONDS>
Sets the timer for fatal timeouts while waiting to receive
something from the remote system. The default is 120 seconds (two
minutes). The maximum value is 300 seconds (five minutes), and
the minimum is 0.
DEBUG <ON|OFF>
Sets debug mode on or off. In debug mode, all characters received
while waiting for one or more strings will be displayed. When you
are not using debug mode, only the string that matched a pattern
will be displayed. Similarly, in debug mode all strings sent to
the modem/remote system will be displayed, whereas FD will only
say "Sending string" when not using debug mode. It is recommended
that you enable debug mode while developing and testing a script.
WAIT <SECONDS>
Makes the script wait for SECONDS seconds before continuing.
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WAITFOR <STRING>[|<STRING>|<STRING>..]
Forces the script function to wait for one or more specified stri
ngs or until a timeout occurs (see TIMERSET). Each string must be
separated with a pipe (|) character. Control characters may be
entered in the same manner as with the SEND command. Of the
specified strings, only the first will signify success, the other
strings will immediately terminate the script with failed status.
The string comparison is case sensitive, and requires an exact
match.
CASE / ENDCASE
Starts and ends a CASE statement, respectively. CASE is a more
flexible variety of WAITFOR. Each line after CASE must start with
a string that the script should wait for, followed by a colon and
one or more script commands, or a label jump directive (see
LABELS).
If the string consists of more than one word, it must specified
between quote characters ("). The CASE statement is ended with
the command ENDCASE on a separate line.
When a matching string has been received from the modem or the
remote system, the command on the same line will be executed. If
the command consists of a label jump instruction, the script will
continue from the specified label position. If it is one or more
script commands, they will be executed, and the script will
continue from the line following the ENDCASE statement, unless
the command terminates the script (see SESSION and FAIL).
The string comparison is case sensitive, and requires an exact
match. A short example follows.
CASE ; Comments:
CONNECT : session ; connect
BUSY : >redial
"NO CARRIER": >redial
VOICE : fail
@NOCARRIER : fail ; carrier lost
@DEFAULT : fail ; timeout
ENDCASE
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@NOCARRIER Tests the presence of carrier in a CASE
statement.
@DEFAULT May be used to specify a default course of action
if a timeout occurs in a CASE statement.
SESSION
Terminates the script with success status, leading to a mail
session. It is NOT necessary to have a SESSION command in script
files used to connect to another system in the Terminal. The
SESSION command is only used to establish mail sessions.
FAIL
Terminates the script with failed status. No mail session will be
initiated.
PURGEIN
Purges the inbound buffer, getting rid of any pending characters.
PURGEOUT
Purges the outbound buffer, getting rid of any pending
characters.
RETRYCOUNT <RETRIES>
Provides a means of incrementing and checking a predefined retry
count variable. If the retry count exceeds RETRIES, the script is
terminated with failed status, otherwise the count is incremented
with 1. The retry count does not include the first attempt.
CLEARCOUNT
Clears the predefined retry count variable, resetting it to 0.
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MAX2400 <COMMANDS>
MAX1200 <COMMANDS>
Commands following on the same line will only be executed if the
max baudrate for the session is 1200/2400. The maximum baudrate
for a session is calculated as the maximum baudrate supported by
the remote system, by the outbound node (if using PCP), or by
your own modem, whichever is lowest.
Eg. MAX2400 setport 2400 -1 -1 -1
MAX1200 setport 1200 -1 -1 -1
@OUTBOUND
Used to insert the name of an outbound PC Pursuit node in a
string. The contents of @OUTBOUND is undefined if used in any
other script than PCP.SCR.
Eg. send C @OUTBOUND,ABC12345<CR>
@LOCALNUM
Used to insert the local telephone number in a PC Pursuit script.
The contents of @LOCALNUM is undefined if used in any other
script than PCP.SCR.
Eg. send ATDT@LOCALNUM<CR>
ENDNODE
Terminates a "node block". See NODE BLOCK.
UPLOAD <PROTOCOL> <FILESPEC>
Transmits the files matching FILESPEC to the remote, using the
PROTOCOL transfer protocol (X=Xmodem, T=Telink, S=SEAlink,
Z=Zmodem). FILESPEC may include wild-cards characters for all
protocols. This command is not available in the noncommercial
version.
Eg. upload Z C:\FILES\FD*.LZH
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DOWNLOAD <PROTOCOL> <PATH>
Receives one or more files from the remote, using the PROTOCOL
transfer protocol (X=Xmodem, T=Telink, S=SEAlink, Z=Zmodem). PATH
must be a complete filename for Xmodem transfers and a valid
directory for Zmodem, SEAlink, and Telink transfers. This command
is not available in the noncommercial version.
Eg. download Z C:\INFILES\
download X C:\INFILES\FUN.LZH
DISCONNECT
Unconditionally terminates a call (if any) from within a script.
Script execution will resume as soon as the carrier (CD) signal
has been lost; the script function lowers DTR to disconnect. This
command is not available in the noncommercial version.
IFBAD
<line to execute>
Executes the command(s) listed on <line to execute> (which is the
line following "IFBAD") if an UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD command failed.
This command is not available in the noncommercial version.
SENDBREAK
Transmits a short BREAK signal to the modem. This command is not
available in the noncommercial version.
LONGBREAK
Transmits a long BREAK signal to the modem. This command is not
available in the noncommercial version.
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18.3 Labels
A label is used to define a position in the script, so that it
may be used as a jump destination. The label can consist of any
word, starting with a letter from A to Z, except the above script
commands, and must be preceded by a colon.
At the position in the script where you want to execute a jump to
the label, you enter the label name preceded by a greater than
sign (>).
Eg. ..
..
:redial
send ATDT@LOCALNUM<CR>
CASE
CONNECT : session
BUSY : >redial
@default : fail
ENDCASE
18.4 Node block
A node block is a special type of label. It starts with a node
number preceded by a colon. All commands from the first line to
the ENDNODE statement, that ends the node block, will only be
executed if you are currently calling the specified node.
Eg. ..
..
:270/17 ; start of node block
send ATZ<CR>
ENDNODE ; end of node block
18.5 PC Pursuit
You can use a generic script for calling all "PC Pursuitable"
nodes, taking advantage of the specific PCP commands @OUTBOUND
and @LOCALNUM. This requires that the script file is named
PCP.SCR and is placed in the SYSTEM directory. You must also
compile the nodelist with the file PCP.DAT, containing a list of
all "PC Pursuitable" exchanges, present in the NODELIST
directory.
If you have followed these steps, the PCP script file will be
used automatically when FrontDoor finds that a node is "PC
Pursuitable". You will probably wish to prevent FrontDoor from
using the PCP script in the daytime on weekdays. A special route
command, NO-SCRIPT, exists specifically for this purpose. For
further information, see Mail routing.
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18.6 How do I update PCP.DAT?
The file PCP.DAT is a somewhat modified version of the file
provided by Telenet's BBS. We take no responsibilities whatsoever
regarding the contents of the PCP.DAT file supplied with
FrontDoor. To update it, you must issue CONNECT PURSUIT from
PCP's command prompt and log-on to their BBS. The file that you
want to download is called EXCHANGE.TXT (or EXCHANGE.ARC). Should
you update this file, you MUST make sure that your files follows
the same format as the file supplied with FrontDoor.
18.7 MNEMONICS
The following mnemonics may be used to enter control characters
in the script, both for sending and receiving. They can be used
with the following commands: SEND, DIAL, PROVOKE, WAITFOR, and
CASE.
ASCII MNEMONIC : ASCII MNEMONIC
--------------------+----------------------
0 <NUL> : 17 <DC1>
1 <SOH> : 18 <DC2>
2 <STX> : 19 <DC3>
3 <ETX> : 20 <DC4>
4 <EOT> : 21 <NAK>
5 <ENQ> : 22 <SYN>
6 <ACK> : 23 <ETB>
7 <BEL> : 24 <CAN>
8 <BS> : 25 <EM>
9 <HT> : 26 <SUB>
10 <LF> : 27 <ESC>
11 <VT> : 28 <FS>
12 <FF> : 29 <GS>
13 <CR> : 30 <RS>
14 <SO> : 31 <US>
15 <SI> : 32 <SP>
16 <DLE> :
--------------------+----------------------
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19 FDSERVER
FD has a function referred to as FDSERVER. It can be used to perform
functions on your system from a remote site, such as moving and
copying files, etc. FDSERVER is a very powerful function and the
examples given in this chapter are only some of the things you can do
with it.
FDSERVER is activated by specifying a password in FDSETUP. FDSERVER
requests will be ignored if no password has been specified in
FDSETUP.
FDSERVER requests are processed after a mail session has been
completed and the call has been terminated, so everything you specify
in request message is processed off-line.
19.1 What is a FDSERVER request?
A FDSERVER request is a message, addressed to FDSERVER (case does
not matter) on your system, with commands. Think of it as a
remote, but controlled, DOS shell. You can run almost any program
and perform any DOS function from a FDSERVER request. The
FDSERVER function has some limitations, however.
You cannot use the DOS command ECHO in a FDSERVER request.
Programs that require local keyboard input should not be executed
from a FDSERVER request since these program(s) will just sit and
wait for keyboard input.
FDSERVER request messages must NOT be compressed (ARCmail, etc.).
The function is only triggered if FD unpacks the request message.
Batch (.BAT) file labels are not supported.
19.2 Request message
Each line of the message is considered a command and blank lines
are ignored. When FDSERVER has executed all commands found in the
message, it will change drive and directory to where it was
before processing your request and return to FD.
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19.2.1 Internal commands
Lines beginning with a % character are internal FDSERVER
commands.
%logall Will create one line in the log file for each
command that was executed along with the
status (err: or exe:).
%nologerr Normally, all commands that generated an
errorlevel will be logged, this can be
disabled with this command.
%store After a request is processed, it will be
deleted by default. This can be disabled by
putting this command in the message which
will force FDSERVER to mark the messages as
received.
19.3 Using it
You are sitting in front of your computer at home, working with a
report or something similar and find that you need some files
from the office machine.
Assuming that these files contain information that is very
sensitive or confidential, and even though you have the option to
protect your file requests with a password, you may still not
want to have the files semi-accessible. This is where you can use
FDSERVER.
The directories and file names used in this example were thought
up and does not necessarily match the setup on your machine.
Create a message addressed to FDSERVER on the node you want to
call and send it.
By: joaquim homrighausen, JoHo's Home (2:270/17.1)
To: fdserver, Advanced Engineering sarl (2:270/17)
Re: password
----------------------------------------------------
%nologerr
cd \TEMP
copy C:\LOTUS\THA*.SPS
arj a THA THA*.SPS
erase *.SPS
copy THA.ARJ C:\REQUEST\FORNOW
erase THA.ARJ
120
The server function will read the message and execute each line.
The next step would be to create a new server request containing
the following:
By: joaquim homrighausen, JoHo's Home (2:270/17.1)
To: fdserver, Advanced Engineering sarl (2:270/17)
Re: password
----------------------------------------------------
%nologerr
erase C:\REQUEST\FORNOW\THA.ARJ
And send it along with a File Request for THA.ARJ. FD will
process the File Request first, and when the mail session has
been completed, the newly created server request will be
processed by FDSERVER.
19.4 Keeping calls to a minimum
You could avoid the extra phone call in the example with the
request if you have a robot utility such as XRobot (by Joaquim H.
Homrighausen) and create a file attach with the files you need so
the Mailer will call you back.
19.5 Security
If you do not need to use FDSERVER, Do not define a password for
it in FDSETUP. Since FDSERVER is a VERY powerful function, the
results could be disastrous if someone got hold of your FDSERVER
password.
121
20 Service requests
Service requests is a very powerful function of FD. It allows you to
use FD as a front-end to databases, to make on-line inquiries etc.
without having to manually call the system with a Terminal program.
20.1 Service requests vs FDSERVER
The difference between a service request and a FDSERVER request
is that they are processed while two systems are connected. This
has the drawback of being slightly more expensive, but it offers
a much greater flexibility than the FDSERVER function.
Consider this. You have a program on your system that allows
people to search for data in a database of files and then get a
list of all the new files, you have named the service request
WHATSNEW.
Your system receives a file request for WHATSNEW and FD runs the
program SEARCH.EXE, defined as the program to run for WHATSNEW.
When SEARCH terminates, FD will send the file NEWFILES.LST,
created by SEARCH, to the remote system.
20.2 Setting up
Service requests are defined in the ALIAS file (where you define
alias file names for file requests). The format of a service
request definition looks like this:
<NAME> ><PROGRAM> <PARAMETERS> ^<+ or - path name>
Eg.
WHATSNEW >SEARCH.EXE findit =A =T ^-C:\SERVICE\RESULT\*.TXT
Service name
NAME (case does not matter) is what the remote system should
request to invoke the service request.
Program
>PROGRAM is the program that should be invoked when FD receives a
request for NAME. The > character is required and tells FD it is
a service request and not an alias definition. There should be no
spaces between the > and PROGRAM.
The extension of PROGRAM is important. FD can execute batch
(.BAT) files as a result of a service request, but it must do it
through COMMAND.COM. So it has to know what type of file
(program) it is that you are executing.
122
Parameters
You can pass any parameters to the program. The only restriction
is (as with DOS) that they do not exceed a length of 128
characters and none of them starts with the ^ (see below)
character.
There are several macros that you can specify as parameters.
Macros should be preceded by a single equal sign (=). FD will
expand these macros before calling the program. You may include
macros in other parameters.
Eg. -p=P Would pass -p followed by the value of the P
macro to the program.
Macros
Here is a list of the available macros:
=A The requesting system's network address. Eg.
2:270/17.
=B The baud rate of the connection. Eg. 9600.
=C The cost per minute for the connection. If your
system initiated the session (called the
requesting system), this is the cost per minute.
If the requesting system initiated the session
(called your system), this will be 0.
=D OUTBOUND if your system initiated the session
(called the requesting system) or INBOUND if the
requesting system initiated the session (called
your system).
=L The requesting system's location. Eg. Oetrange_L.
This value is taken from the nodelist based on
the network address. Note that if the requesting
system is not listed in your nodelist, this value
will be "UNKNOWN".
=N The name of the requesting system. Eg. FroDo_HQ.
=O The operator of the requesting system. Eg.
Bilbo_Baggins. Note that space characters are
replaced with an underscore.
=P The password that was specified for the request
(if any).
123
=S The service that was requested. Eg. WHATSNEW.
=U The date and time supplied on an update request.
It is expressed in UNIX format, ie. the number of
seconds since 1970. If the request was a plain
file request, this will be 0.
=X Whether or not the session is password protected.
This macro can have two values, SECURE or
UNSECURE.
=Z The type of the mail session that has been
established. This macro can have three values,
WAZOO, EMSI, or OTHER.
20.3 ^ - + ?
The ^ character defines the beginning of a filemask that FD
should send after the service request has been completed. If no ^
definition has been made, FD will not send any files as the
result of a service request.
The plus (+) means that FD should NOT remove the files once they
have been transmitted.
The minus (-) means that FD SHOULD remove the files once they
have been transmitted. This also means that the files will be
removed even if they could not be sent (carrier lost, etc).
The question mark (?) means that FD should ONLY remove the files
once they have been SUCCESSFULLY transmitted. This means that if
a session fails after transmitting three files, only those three
files will be removed and the remaining left intact.
The path name is a file specification, it may include wildcard (?
and *) characters. FD will send all matching files.
20.4 Remote system information
When FD loads the program specified for the request, it will
create a file with information about the remote (requesting)
system, such as the system name, system location, operator's
name, list of network addresses, etc. allowing an external
program to access this information without having to know the
internals of FrontDoor. This file is described in detail in the
FrontDoor Developer's Kit (FDDEV).
124
20.5 Security
Since service requests are built on the concept of File Requests,
they are protected the same way a File Requests is protected. To
setup a password, you have to use the Request Manager in FDSETUP
and define a password for the service request name.
20.6 A word of wisdom
Service Requests should be used with extreme caution. It is
recommended that you have a full understanding of what a service
request actually does before you attempt to use it.
You should also keep in mind that the requesting system is
waiting at the other end for FD to start sending files. So keep
it short and sweet.
125
21 Global command line switches
Support for these switches is included in all programs in FrontDoor,
except where otherwise stated. All command line parameters must be
preceded by either a forward slash (/) or a dash (-). Command line
parameters are case insensitive (case does not matter) except where
otherwise stated.
Switch Programs Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------
C FDSETUP Forces color mode
M FDSETUP Forces monochrome mode
NORES All Disables use of internal (and undocumented)
DOS pathname resolution calls. This is
required under PC-MOS/386 and some LAN
environments.
NOCOMMIT All Disables use of DOS 3.3 commit() call.
NOSHADOW All Disables window shadows.
NOMULD All Prevents FrontDoor from attempting to detect
a multi-tasking environment, such as DESQview
and PC-MOS/386.
NOEKBD All Prevents FrontDoor from using extended (AT-
style) keyboard BIOS calls.
NOISCR FM Forces FM to treat a SoftCR (ASCII 141)
character as any other printable character.
The default for FM is to strip these when
reading and writing message from/to disk.
INTL FM Forces FM to always insert the ^aINTL kludge
line in newly created NetMail messages. FM
will, by default, only insert INTL
information if the destination system of the
message is located in a different zone than
that of the originating address (your) used
to create the message, or when a different
originating address than your primary AKA is
used.
NOEMS FD, FM Disables use of LIM/EMS memory for overlay
file buffers. This switch does not affect
whether or not FD and FM use EMS/XMS memory
when (if) swapping.
NOLOCK FM Disables Hudson Message Base locking support
in FM. Do not use this unless absolutely
necessary.
126
Switch Programs Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------
NODASH FD Forces FD to strip dash (-) characters from
telephone numbers before sending them to the
modem. This does not affect how telephone
numbers are displayed on screen or logged to
disk.
NOUNPACK FD Forces FD to ignore received mail packets
(files with .PKT extension). This assumes
that you have an external utility to unpack
NetMail packets. Do not use this unless you
absolutely need it.
NOMDM FD Forces FD to ignore information listed in
MODEM.FD.
NOSLO FD Disables support for the Overdrive protocol
option (SLO) in SEAlink. SLO is by default
only active during error free connections
(/ARQ, /MNP, /LAPM, etc.) and for link speeds
above 2400 BPS.
NODZA FD Disables support for the DirectZAP Zmodem
protocol (DZA) variant used between some EMSI
capable mailers such as FrontDoor and
D'Bridge. DZA is only used during EMSI mail
sessions that have not been negotiated via a
script file.
NOZAP FD Disables support for the Zmodem protocol
during mail sessions negotiated using the
FTS-6 (YooHoo) session protocol. This
effectively means that FD will only establish
FTS-6 sessions using the DietIFNA protocol
option. This does not affect sessions
negotiated using EMSI.
NOYOOHOO FD Disables support for the FTS-6 (YooHoo)
session protocol. This means that FD will
only support FTS-1 and EMSI sessions, unless
otherwise restricted.
NOFTSC1 FD Disables support for the FTS-1 session
protocol, effectively making FD non-FidoNet
compliant. This means that FD will only
support FTS-6 and EMSI sessions, unless
otherwise restricted.
--- Public (listed as non-PVT in the FidoNet
nodelist) FidoNet systems should use this
option with CAUTION since by using it, you
may be in violation FidoNet policy. ---
127
Switch Programs Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------
NOEMSI FD Disables support for the FSC-0056 (EMSI)
session protocol. This means that FD will
only support FTS-1 and FTS-6 sessions, unless
otherwise restricted.
RDEBUG FD Enables debug output from the mail routing
handler in FD. This is quite useful when
debugging your ROUTE.FD file.
X<1..255> FD Forces FD to terminate with the specified
errorlevel as soon as there is no more
outbound calls to make. This is not available
in the noncommercial version.
T FD Forces FD into Terminal mode directly from
DOS. Once you exit the Terminal, you will be
returned to DOS.
M FD Forces FD into Mail mode directly from DOS.
This switch was added to allow you to
override the Terminal-only setting in
FDSETUP.
S FD Forces FD to ignore any forced events it may
have missed. FD will by default execute all
pending external events when it is brought
up. This switch is useful if you have
performed system maintenance for several
hours and do not want FD to execute any
overdue forced events.
L:<pwd> FD Locks the keyboard with the specified
password directly from DOS. This has the same
effect as using the LOCK, <Alt-L>, function
from FD's main menu.
ONLINE Terminal Forces the Terminal to not initialize the
modem when it is started. This is not
available in the noncommercial version.
21.1 A word of wisdom
Please be aware that some of the previously described command
line switches completely alter the way FrontDoor acts and may
make it incompatible with other software and/or some
environments.
Use the switches with caution and when in doubt, try to test the
effects of the switch in a local environment or between your own
and a friend's system before you leave FD to answer your
telephone unattended.
128
22 Environment variables
Several environment variables affect how FrontDoor operates. It is
assumed that you are familiar with what and environment variable is
and how to set/remove one.
22.1 FDOPT
All of the "Global command line switches" except "-/C" and "-/M"
can also be specified by including them in the FDOPT environment
variable. To include more than one option, separate them by a
comma, eg.
SET FDOPT=NOISCR,NOSHADOW
22.2 FDSWAP
Overrides the "Swapping" path, defined under Global > Filenames
in FDSETUP, eg.
SET FDSWAP=D:\TEMPDIR\
22.3 POINTNET
See "Nodelist and the Nodelist Compiler".
22.4 FMOVR and FDOVR
Allows you to specify a complete path where FM and FD should look
for their overlay (.OVR) files. Useful when multiple copies of
either program are being used (eg. multi-line environment). This
is not available in the noncommercial version.
129
23 Semaphore files
FrontDoor can be controlled by using so called semaphore files. Both
FD and FM periodically scan for certain file names in the SYSTEM
directory, and if found, performs a task such as rescanning the
contents of the NetMail folder, exits to DOS, prevents human callers,
and more.
The commercial version furthermore allows you to specify a separate
semaphore directory (see FDSETUP > Global > Filenames) to allow
several copies of FM and FD to use the same semaphore files.
FD uses the lower right hand corner of its main screen to indicate
that one or more semaphore is present.
Filename Programs Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------
FDRESCAN.NOW FD Forces FD to discard all mail packets
(NOT messages) from the packet directory
and rescan the contents of the NetMail
folder before rebuilding the packets.
FMRESCAN.NOW FM Forces FM to rebuild its internal list of
messages in the NetMail folder.
FDINSESS.nnn FD, FM FD creates this file whenever a mail
session is initiated, and when it is
dialing a system, attempting to establish
a mail session. If FM detects this file,
it will not let you renumber the NetMail
folder. "nnn" is the task number (0-255).
This is not available in the
noncommercial version.
FDINEXIT.nnn FD FD creates this file whenever a human
caller is detected and passed onto a BBS
or other on-line service. When FD
returns, it compares the timestamp of
FDINEXIT.nnn with the timestamp of
FDRESCAN.NOW, and if they do not match, a
complete rescan (see FDRESCAN.NOW) is
performed. "nnn" is the task number (0-
255). In the noncommercial version, this
file is not task aware, and is always
called "FDINEXIT.NOW".
FDNOUSER.NOW FD Forces FD to refuse human callers. This
has the same effect as setting the "Human
callers" option, under FD's "Your
profile" menu, to "NO". The visual
indicator for this semaphore file is
"NU".
FDNOSCAN.NOW FD Forces FD to ignore FDRESCAN.NOW.
130
FDNOEXIT.NOW FD Prevents FD from exiting because of
received mail. This has the same effect
as setting the "Exit on mail" option,
under FD's "Your profile" menu, to "NO".
The visual indicator for this semaphore
file is "NE".
NODIAL.FD FD While this is not a semaphore file per
se, it triggers the display of a visual
indicator, "UD".
FDEXIT.nnn FD Forces FD to UNconditionally exit with
the errorlevel "nnn". Before FD exits, it
removes the file.
FDRENUM.nnn FD, FM FM creates this file whenever you press
<Alt-B> to renumber the NetMail folder.
When FD detects this file, it will not
place any outgoing calls until it can no
longer be found. This prevents FD from
initiating an outbound session while FM
is renumbering the contents of the
NetMail folder. "nnn" is the task number
(0-255). This is not available in the
noncommercial version.
ROUTE.FD FD While this is not a semaphore file per
se, it is used to determine if the
NetMail folder has to be rescanned (see
FDRESCAN.NOW). If the timestamp of this
file has changed since FD last checked
it, a rescan is forced.
131
24 Batch files
FD will, in most cases, be run from a DOS batch (.BAT) file. When it
terminates, it will return certain errorlevels that you can trap for
in your batch file.
24.1 Errorlevels
1 Internal error
2 External error - missing files, paths, etc.
3 Insufficient available disk space (less than 32 KB)
4 (reserved)
5 Unable to initialize modem
6 Incorrect FOSSIL version
7 FOSSIL not loaded or detected
8 FrontDoor already loaded, issue EXIT to return
9 (reserved)
10 User break
11 - 30 (reserved)
31 - 255 User definable errorlevels
If you invoke the Terminal from DOS by running FD /T, it will always
terminate with an errorlevel of 10 (User break), the same applies
when you have specified "Terminal-only" in FDSETUP.
24.2 Categories
The various errorlevels can be organized into four basic
categories:
Mail received When mail is received, you can choose to exit
to the batch file to run external mail
processing utilities, such as TosScan, etc.
User break/errors When you press <Alt-Q> from the FD's main
menu or when errors occur.
BBS calls If you are running a BBS under FD, it is
necessary for FD to exit with an errorlevel
indicating the baudrate of the call. The line
is still active when FD exits to the batch
file, the BBS software is loaded and the
caller will be able to access the BBS.
External events The errorlevels defined in FDSETUP's event
manager.
132
24.3 Loading BBS software
There are two methods that can be used to invoke BBS software
when the Mailer detects a non-mail (human) call. The first uses
different batch file labels for the various baudrates and the
second one uses the same label for the various baudrates. The
second method relies on the "Create .BAT file" option in FDSETUP
(under Mailer > Errorlevels).
24.4 Different labels
@echo off
rem --- We end up here after every BBS call
:loop
C:
CD \FD
FD
rem --- Check errorlevels returned by the Mailer
if errorlevel 200 goto b9600
if errorlevel 199 goto b2400
if errorlevel 198 goto b1200
if errorlevel 197 goto b300
if errorlevel 100 goto mailIN
if errorlevel 10 goto userBRK
if errorlevel 1 goto FDerror
:mailIN
rem --- Process possible echomail, etc.
tosscan toss
tsutil link -t
goto loop
:b9600
Load BBS software for incoming call at 9600 bps
goto loop
:b2400
Load BBS software for incoming call at 2400 bps
goto loop
..
..
133
:userBRK
cls
@echo User break.
goto done
:FDerror
@echo Mailer returned an error (1-9)
:done
While this option works just fine for a environment where it is
not critical that the BBS software knows about upcoming events
etc. it is somewhat limited.
24.5 Same label
@echo off
rem --- We end up here after every BBS call
:loop
C:
CD \FD
FD
rem --- Check errorlevels returned by the Mailer
if errorlevel 200 goto bbsCALL
if errorlevel 199 goto bbsCALL
if errorlevel 198 goto bbsCALL
if errorlevel 197 goto bbsCALL
if errorlevel 100 goto mailIN
if errorlevel 10 goto userBRK
if errorlevel 1 goto FDerror
:mailIN
rem --- Process possible echomail, etc.
tosscan toss
tsutil link -t
goto loop
:bbsCALL
rem --- Load DOBBS.BAT, created by the Mailer if
rem the "Create .BAT file" option is enabled.
dobbs
:userBRK
cls
@echo User break.
goto done
134
:FDerror
@echo Mailer returned an error (1-9)
:done
24.6 DOBBS.BAT
This is the batch file created by FD when you have the "Create
.BAT file" option enabled. It contains the speed at which the
call came in, the COM port, number of minutes left till the next
event and possibly a string indicating ARQ, MNP etc.
The commercial version inserts the task number (0-255) between
the number of minutes left till the next event and the possible
ARQ/MNP string.
For a call coming in at 9600 BPS with ARQ, 30 minutes left till
the next non-user event, on COM port 1 the DOBBS.BAT file would
contain:
exebbs 9600 1 30 /ARQ
For a call coming in at 2400 BPS, two hours left till the next
non-user event, on COM port 1, the DOBBS.BAT file would contain:
exebbs 2400 1 120
24.7 EXEBBS.BAT
This is the file you have to create. It should handle everything
required for the BBS software you are running, including
exporting mail after users have logged off, etc. The last
statement of your EXEBBS.BAT file should be the name of the big
(main) batch file. Here is a sample of an EXEBBS.BAT file:
coolBBS -b%1%4 -p%2 -t%3
if errorlevel 200 goto newmail
if errorlevel 40 goto fatal
run
:newmail
cls
@echo User entered echomail, let's send it!
tosscan scan
run
:fatal
cls
@echo A fatal error has occurred in coolBBS
135
Since DOBBS.BAT calls EXEBBS.BAT with various information, it
can be used to pass parameters to the BBS software. The
result of the above EXEBBS.BAT file would expand to:
coolBBS -b9600/ARQ -p1 -t120
If a BBS call came in at 9600, the COM port is one, the
number of minutes till the next non-user event is 120 and the
optional (%4) string contained /ARQ.
The text RUN, refers to the original (main) batch file, in
which we bring the Mailer back up again. When the BBS
software (coolBBS in the above examples) terminates,
EXEBBS.BAT will trap two errorlevels and then invoke
RUN(.BAT) again.
24.8 Flow (batch files)
Complicated? Here is the actual file flow between RUN, DOBBS and
EXEBBS:
+-> RUN.BAT Loads FD and performs all EchoMail and
: : error handling. When a non-mail (human)
: : call is detected, it loads DOBBS.BAT,
^ V created by FD.
: :
: :
: DOBBS.BAT Created by FD. It calls the EXEBBS.BAT
: : file with the baudrate, port, remaining
: : time till the next non-user event, and
^ V and possibly the /ARQ parameter.
: :
: :
: EXEBBS.BAT Called by DOBBS.BAT with the above
: : described parameters. Loads the BBS
: : software, processes newly created
^ V mail (if any), and finally returns to
: : RUN.BAT.
+--<--+
136
25 Multi-tasking
FrontDoor can be used together with most multi-tasking programs. It
has been tested with DESQview, PC-MOS/386, OS/2 1.3 DOS Box,
DoubleDOS, Multilink and Taskview. It will automatically detect most
multi-tasking software. My personal suggestion would be DESQview. One
of the best multi-taskers around for PC/MS-DOS.
25.1 NS16550
If you are running FrontDoor under a multi-tasker or in a LAN
environment, I suggest you replace your 8250 or 16450 UART chip
with a NS16550AN or NS16550AFN. These are available from several
electronics outfits for somewhere between USD 17 and USD 23.
The 16550 family of UARTs have internal buffering (FIFO) and will
improve performance in multi-tasking and LAN environments. Both
BNU and X00 has direct support for the 16550 family and can be
used without modifying your command-line parameters when loading
them.
25.2 DESQview
FrontDoor will request a virtual screen buffer from DV and write
to it. The result is very fast and very well behaved screen
writes. Here are the settings I use with DESQview (2.2x / 2.3x):
Keys to Use on Open Menu FD
Memory Size (in K) 250
Options:
Writes text directly to screen N
Displays graphics information N
Virtualize text/graphics (Y,N,T) N
Uses serial ports (Y,N,1,2) 2
Requires floppy diskette N
Advanced Options:
System Memory (in K) 0
Maximum Program Memory Size (in K) <empty>
Script Buffer Size 0
Maximum Expanded Memory Size (in K) 0
Text Pages 1
Graphics Pages 0
Initial Mode <empty>
Interrupts 00 to FF
137
Maximum Height 25
Starting Height 25
Starting Row 1
Maximum Width 80
Starting Width 80
Starting Column 1
Close on exit (Y,N,blank) N
Uses its own colors Y
Allow Close Window command Y
Runs in background (Y,N,blank) Y
Uses math coprocessor N
Keyboard conflict (0-4) 0
Share CPU when foreground Y
Share EGA when foreground/zoomed Y
Can be swapped out (Y,N,blank) N
Protection level (0-3) 0
25.3 DoubleDOS
Smart multi-tasking software allocates a virtual screen buffer
for each task. Applications can then ask the multi-tasking
software where it should write and the multi-tasker handles the
screen updates. DoubleDOS 5.0, however, is using a different
method.
Every time you switch tasks from the keyboard, the screen-buffers
change. So there is no easy way for the software running under
DoubleDOS to detect this. In DoubleDOS 5.00, there are two
options that allows you to run FrontDoor under DoubleDOS just
fine. You MUST run FrontDoor in the TOP section for the two
methods below to work.
DISPLAY=TEXT If your system has a MCGA, CGA, EGA or VGA
card installed, there is extra memory
available on those cards for graphics, etc.
DoubleDOS can use some of that memory for
each of its screen buffers. To enable this,
add DISPLAY=TEXT to your DDCONFIG.SYS file.
REFRESH If you have a text-only adapter (MDA) there
is most likely no extra memory available on
the card. Add REFRESH by itself on a line to
your DDCONFIG.SYS file. This will tell
DoubleDOS to repaint the screen if the other
task is bleeding through.
138
X00 and DoubleDOS When using FrontDoor, X00.SYS and DoubleDOS,
do not assign the COM ports in DDCONFIG.SYS.
If you have problems with your clock, try the
DEFER option in X00.
Make sure you replace ANSI.SYS with DBLDANSI.SYS.
The BOTTOM partition should initialize before the TOP partition.
In other words, if you are loading FrontDoor in the BOTTOM
partition, try to delay the initialization of the TOP partition.
25.4 Multilink
I would personally not recommend anyone using FrontDoor with
Multilink. I have never successfully executed any program under
Multilink for longer periods of time than momentarily.
139
26 Converting from other mail systems
If you were using SEAdog or D'Bridge before you started using
FrontDoor, you should have little trouble converting to FrontDoor.
The routing and message handling used by these two mail systems is
very similar to the way things are done with FrontDoor.
If you are converting from BinkleyTerm, Opus, or Dutchie, however,
there are a few things you should know and make sure you have done
before you install FrontDoor.
The main difference between FrontDoor and BinkleyTerm or Opus is that
FrontDoor does not use oMMM, the static message packer written by Bob
Hartman. We see the oMMM approach as a black hole from which there is
no return. This is not true in some cases and there are advantages of
using oMMM type packers instead of the method used by FrontDoor.
oMMM will create what we call static bundles, where each system has a
control file that tells the Mailer what files and messages to send to
what systems. FrontDoor will NOT recognize oMMM type bundles
(packets) so before you fully convert to FrontDoor, you must make
sure that all the oMMM type mail is sent before you convert to
FrontDoor.
You can use FrontDoor to send the remaining oMMM type mail by
attaching the files manually with FrontDoor's Editor (FM) or a robot
utility such as XRobot, but you will need a utility with which you
can determine which file belongs to which system before you can do
this. So it might be easier for you to tell BinkleyTerm or Opus to
send its remaining mail before you do the conversion.
140
27 Help systems
The following systems and persons can be contacted if you have
problems or questions regarding FrontDoor. You will most likely
find the latest noncommercial version on these systems as well.
Bruce Bodger 1:1/101 USA
Mark Howard 1:260/1 USA
Mats Wallin 2:201/329 Sweden (Europe, Main)
Stig Jacobsen 2:231/16 Denmark
Lars Eriksson 2:222/150 Finland
Zbigniew Borowiec 2:480/6 Poland
Sascha Vogt 2:310/5 Austria
Ulrich Bartelt 2:24/4 Germany
Mark Kerr 2:263/301 Ireland
Michael Bravo 2:50/200 USSR
Peter Janssens 2:512/1 Netherlands
Orlando Castillo 2:346/4 Spain
Patrick Oetiker 2:30/5 Switzerland
Nick Parker 2:253/165 United Kingdom
David Nugent 3:3/101 Australia
Ricardo Sandor 4:4/104 Latin America
Ralph Colyn 5:5/103 RSA
Larry Leong 6:6/101 Asia
The above people are NOT responsible for helping you with commercial
queries and/or problem.
141
28 Sample (PCP) script
This script was written by Eric Larson, 1:260/330@fidonet and is
intended as a sample PC Pursuit script.
; PCP script for FrontDoor version 2.0x
; Eric Larson, 1:260/330.0, 8/11/91
; modified from script supplied in FD 1.99 documentation
;
; You must modify this script in at least 3 places:
;
; 1: Indial Number
; 2: PCP ID Number
; 3: PCP Password
;
; You may also want to modify the script for your modem
; or types of systems you call. See notes in script.
; For further information, see PCP documentation on
; Net Exchange BBS. To connect to the Net Exchange, type
; "C PURSUIT" at the Telenet @ prompt.
;
debug ON
setport 2400 ; Redundant if you have locked your Fossil
; If you have a 1200 indial :-(, use 1200
; here and change the hunt-confirm sequence
; to @ wait 1 <CR>
;
; Users with MNP modems should disable MNP as the buffering
; combined with PCP's packet latency will cause block position
; errors during error recovery. For HST owners, use:
;
send AT&M0<CR>
waitfor OK
;
; Others should adjust the above for their modem
; non-buffered modem owners should comment out the
; above two lines.
;
;----------------------------------
; Your Indial Phone Number Here
;----------------------------------
;
send ATDT4795372<CR>
; send ATDT4795445<CR> ; official number
; 6406 5776 5355 5372 ; alternates
;
; If you are having difficulty with your indial line, call
; PCP customer service and they may be able to give you
; an alternate number that works better.
142
case
CONNECT : >whackit
RING<CR> : fail
BUSY<CR> : fail
"NO " : fail
@default : fail
endcase
:whackit ; Attempt to "wake-up" PCP
purgein ; Telenet recommends at least
wait 2 ; a 200 ms pause between
send @ ; characters in the hunt-confirm sequence
wait 1 ; change the @ to <CR> if you call
send D ; a 1200 bps indial
wait 1
send <CR>
waitfor TERMINAL=
send D3<CR> ; Preferred terminal type
waitfor @
;--------------------------
; Your ID and Password Here
;--------------------------
:outdial ; Dial PCP city
purgein
retrycount 5
send C @OUTBOUND,YOURPCPID<CR> ; Your ID Here
waitfor PASSWORD
send YOURPASSWORD<CR> ; Your Password Here
CASE
CONNECT : >local ; Gotcha!
BUSY : >outdial
"NOT " : fail
@nocarrier : fail
@default : fail
ENDCASE
:local ; Initialize Outdial
purgein
send <CR>
wait 1
send I<CR>
send ATZ|
timerset 15
waitfor OK
send @|
waitfor @
143
;
; Setup PADS
;
; Note - if you are calling a SEAdog system,
; change the SET and RST 5:1 and 12:1 to 5:0 and 12:0
; as SEAlink is not transparent to software flow control
;
; If you only call WaZoo systems, use 5:1 and 12:1 for
; fewer errors and greater reliability.
;
send SET?<sp>1:0,7:8<CR>
;
waitfor @
;
; send RST?5:1,12:1<CR>
;
; waitfor @
send CONT<CR>
send ATH0Z<CR>
waitfor OK|IDLE
send <ENQ><CR> ; Turn on RV Mode
waitfor *
purgein
timerset 50
wait 2
send D@LOCALNUM<CR>
purgein
case
ANS : >landing
ONLINE : >landing
BUSY : fail
FAILED : fail
"NO CARRIER" : fail
"NO DIAL TONE" : fail
"NO DTR" : fail
VOICE : fail
@default : fail
@nocarrier : fail
endcase
:landing ; Landing on Pluto
wait 7 ; wait for PCP messages to clear
purgein
session
;/* End Of File */
144
29 Commercial inquiries
To use FrontDoor in a commercial environment, a commercial licence
must be obtained. The commercial version of FrontDoor includes
numerous features not found in any other software package (including
the noncommercial version of FrontDoor). Eligible users of the non-
commercial version of FrontDoor may also benefit from the commercial
features, and can enjoy a special "SysOp's Discount" at the time of
writing this.
The easiest way to receive up-to-date information of features,
availability, pricing and a list of local distributors and resellers
of the commercial version, is to file request FDINFO from one of the
following main distribution sites:
Online Communications, Inc. Telephone: +1 207 941 1110
22 State Street Modem: +1 207 990 3511
Bangor Maine 04401 Email: 1:132/300@fidonet
USA 1:132/301@fidonet
Advanced Engineering sarl Telephone: +352 358 725
8, am For Modem: +352 355 936
L-5351 Oetrange Email: 2:270/7@fidonet
Luxembourg ae@fido.rmi.de
The file FDINFO is also available from some FrontDoor Help Nodes
around the world. Please, make sure that you have the latest
available order forms before placing an order!
The FDINFO package contains information about various FrontDoor-
related utilities, such as TosScan, the conference mail package.
145
30 Developer notes
A separate package with information regarding FrontDoor is
distributed under the name FDDEV. It contains structures and
technical information directed towards authors of FrontDoor
utilities. If you are planning on writing a utility with explicit
support for FrontDoor, make sure you grab a copy of the FDDEV
package.
146
31 Technical specifications
FrontDoor was written using Zortech C++ 2.18, TASM 2.0, and Turbo
Pascal 6.0. It uses direct-to-screen writes, and properly supports
virtual screen environments, such as the one provided by DESQview.
FrontDoor features support for several FTSC (FidoNet Technical
Standards Committee) standards and standard proposals, including:
FTS-1 Basic FidoNet Technical Standard
FTS-4 EchoMail Specification
FTS-5 The Distribution Nodelist
FTS-6 YooHoo NetMail Handshake
FTS-7 SEAlink Protocol Extension
FTS-8 BARK File Request Protocol Extension
FSC-15 FOSSIL 5.0 Documentation and Specifications
FSC-25 AVATAR Video Specifications
FSC-37 AVATAR 0+ Video Specifications
FSC-39 A type-2 packet extension proposal
FSC-41 MSGID / REPLY: A proposal
FSC-46 Proposed product identifier
FSC-53 Specifications for the ^aFLAGS field
FSC-56 EMSI/IEMSI protocol definition (EMSC-001)
FrontDoor's FTSC product code is 0x0C (or 12 decimal).
The proper nodelist file request flag for systems using FrontDoor is
XA.
FrontDoor's Editor (FM) allows you to share the Hudson Message Base
together with other programs, such as RemoteAccess, following the
RemoteAccess/FrontDoor HMB sharing specifications.
147
32 Credits
Thanks to..
..Anders Johansson, Andrew Khoo, Dave Hatch, Bill Bolton, Bill Dunn,
Bjorn Bogfelt, Bob Rudolph, Boris Osadciw, Chris Homrighausen (hey
bro!), Chris Van Tuin, Chris Baker, Clement Studer, David Kerley,
Dieter Soltau, Eelco de Graaff, Fred Vlinkervleugel, 1B Systems
Management Ltd, Ken McVay, Darryl Gregorash, Carina Carlsson, Lovisa
Hagberg, Gareth McClean, Joop Mellaart, Horst Buhl, James Henthorn,
James Smith, Online Communications Inc., Jan Crommenacker, Jan
Jonsson, Jeff Wolach, Jerry Hindle, Jim Faucette, Gerard van der
Land, Joakim Hernberg, John Huls, Jon Schneider, Ken Doebler, Kim
Lykkegard, Malte Erikson, Mario Diaz, Mark Howard, Mats Knuts, Mats
Wallin, Peter Adenauer, Werner Berghofer, Randy Harner, Rick
Petersen, Rick Siegel, Robin Valle', Ruud de Bruin, Scott Samet,
Thomas Stjernstrom, Thomas Sundblom, Todd Lehr, Maurie Halkier, Tony
Wagner, Ulf Hedlund, Ulf Jungjohann, Andreas Polz, David Nugent, Tom
McGivern, Andrew Farmer, Steve Froeschke, Orlando Castillo, Eric
Larson, Paul Marwick, Tommy Svensson, Bob Beilstein, Bruce Bodger,
Michael Butler, Paul Schlyter, Bill Kraski, Alexander Holy, Lars
Eriksson, Fabiano Fabris, Bob Snowdon, Aaron Schmiedel, Mike Janke,
Peter and Irene Janssens, Jeff Murphy, Gary Funk, Luca Leone, Andrew
Milner, Jan Berglund, Sascha Vogt, The Crocodile Club in Karlsruhe,
Michael Raschke, Bofferding Breweries, Mark Kerr, Robert Hessler,
Mats Birch, Mats Jansson, John Barton, Dirk Astrath, Glen Johnson,
Ulf Nilsson, Ed Meloan, Nick Parker, Jim Louvau, Luc and Nathalie,
Bob Hoffman..
All the help nodes.
..Tom Jennings, Felix Kasza, Bob Hartman, Chris Irwin, Chuck
Forsberg, Henk Wevers, Randy Bush, Ray Gwinn, Thom Henderson, Vince
Perriello, Wynn Wagner III, Mike Ratledge, Rick Moore, G. Adam
Stanislav, Doug Boone, Ralf Brown, jim nutt, Maximilian Hantsch.
148
