NetXpress
Internet Access BBS Door
Administrator's Manual
Copyright © 1996 Merlin Systems Inc. All rights
reserved. This software product and this manual are
copyrighted and all rights are reserved by Merlin Systems
Inc. No part of the contents of this manual may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
written permission of the publisher.
Merlin Systems Inc. does not assume any liability arising
out of the application or use of any products described
herein. Merlin Systems Inc. further reserves the right to
make changes in any products described herein without notice.
This document is subject to change without notice.
NetXpress Internet Access BBS Door, NetXpress Server and
NetXpress Mail & News Gateway are copyrighted by Merlin
Systems Inc.
All other mentioned products are copyrighted by their
respective authors.
Merlin Systems Inc.
P.O. Box 3043, Station C
Ottawa, Ontario
K1Y 4J3 Canada
Fax/BBS: (613) 741-7583
info@merlinsys.com
support@merlinsys.com
sales@merlinsys.com
http://www.merlinsys.com
FidoNet: 1:163/509
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE INTERNET
The future is upon us. That mythical information
superhighway is now in clear reach.
Many estimates are floating around about the Internet's
population and its increase in size. It is considered safe to
say that it currently has around 50 million people and that
it is doubling every couple of years. In fact lately, the
population acceleration has frightened and overwhelmed many
Internet old timers. All figures denote that the Internet has
obtained 'critical mass' to be present for a very long time
to come.
No longer the realm of universities and big business, the
Internet has begun to bring cyberspace to the masses.
The Internet with its thousands of protocols, can be
managed from well conceived software that takes care of all
of the unruly elements of Internet connectivity. There will
always be a learning curve due to terminology, but we hope
that our software will provide one of the easiest in-roads on
to the Internet.
CONVENTIONS
In this book, the following conventions are used:
- Optional variables are placed within square
brackets; for example, [ <variable> ]
- Mandatory variables are placed within angled brackets;
for example, <variable>
- Whenever you may use more than one variation, a |
character is used to denote the different possible values;
for example, put | send | output
- Input typed in by you is printed in italic; for
example, cd \netxbbs
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
There are a number of places to receive technical
support.
Fax: 1-613-741-7583
BBS: 1-613-741-7583
E-mail: support@merlinsys.com
Web: http://www.merlinsys.com
FidoNet: Support 1:163/509
INSTALLATION
If you received a diskette, insert the diskette in one of
your disk drives. Then enter INSTALL and press the
<Enter> key.
Example: If you placed the disk in drive A:, you would
type:
a:
INSTALL
NetXpress Door Directory: C:\NETXBBS
|
F10 - Ok | Esc - Cancel
|
The NetXpress Door Directory is where you would like to
install the software.
Press the F10 key to continue.
If you received a compressed file containing the software
programs, simply uncompress the file(s) into an empty
directory.
Example:
md \netxbbs
cd \netxbbs
pkunzip NETXBBS
After the INSTALL program finishes, you must go into the
NXCFG program and alter the default settings, especially your
network addresses.
SYNTAX
The syntax for the Setup program is as follows:
NXCFG [configfile]
Where [configfile] is the location and name of the
configuration file.
If you omit the [configfile] parameter, NXCFG will try to
open the configuration file NXBBS.CFG in the current
directory.
USING TEXT WINDOWS AND YOUR MOUSE
The NXCFG program uses a text window approach to
displaying information for you. The top window is always the
current one and only those fields within it are active.
NXCFG also allows you to use a mouse or a pointing device
to perform functions. All mouse-assessable functions can also
be accessed through a keyboard command. To access a certain
field or command by using the mouse, simply move the mouse
cursor to the area occupied by the field or command and click
on the left mouse button. Clicking on the right mouse button
will usually get on-line help.
GENERAL CONFIGURATION
System Directory d:\dev\netsrv\bbs
System Help HTML file:///help.htm
Work Directory C:\TEMP
Date Type MMDDYYYY
Date Delimiter /
|
F1 - Help | Esc - Cancel | F10 - Ok
|
- System Directory:
- The directory that includes the executable
program and the configuration file.
- System Help HTML:
- This is an URL of general help available at the menu.
- Work Directory:
- A tempoary directory that is used to store temporary files. This
may be a RAM disk or a local drive. All files written to this
directory will be deleted by NXBBS.
- Date Type:
- The format of the displayed date. This is only used in
the FTP client and in IRC for the log file.
You have four options:
- YYYYMMDD (1995-10-23)
- MMDDYYYY (10-23-1995)
- YYYYDDMM (1995-23-10)
- DDMMYYYY (23-10-1995)
- Date Delimiter:
- The character that is displayed in-between the date fields.
This window allows you to configure your TCP/IP
connection parameters. These values are used with the Packet
Driver software to connect the NetXpress BBS Door to the
Internet.
Most, if not all, of these values will come from your
service provider
This section does not provide any way to configure your
Packet Driver. You must have it loaded and configured before
running the NetXpress BBS Client software. The Packet Driver
software may handle either Ethernet or SLIP classes. Please
see the Appendix section on Packet Drivers for more
information.
For dial-up access, you will need to either have your
modem connect and login in to your service provider before
you load in your SLIP/PPP packet driver.
BOOTP
Enable
Server
Timeout
|
Gateways
204.191.36.1
|
Addresses
IP 204.191.36.201
Net Mask 255.255.255.0
Host Name node1
Domain Name merlinsys.com
|
Name Servers
204.191.36.5
204.191.36.4
|
Transmission Parameters
Max. Segment Size 512 Name Lookup Timeout 30
TCP Connect Timeout 60 Inactivity Timeout
|
F1 - Help | Slip | Ethernet | Esc - Cancel | F10 - Ok
|
- BOOTP Enable:
- If enabled, NetXpress will use the BOOTP protocol and
connect up to the specified server to query the information
in the two other windows. This means that your IP address is
a temporary address, and that you may not give it out since
it will always change.
If disabled, then you must fill out the rest of the
information in the next two windows, but you do not need to
fill out any of the information in the BOOTP window.
- BOOTP Server:
- The IP address of a BOOTP server to contact upon startup
to query your address information. You must not place a
domain address in this field.
- BOOTP Timeout:
- The timeout in seconds for a connection to the BOOTP
server to fail.
- IP Address:
- Your IP address.
- Net Mask:
- If you have more than one IP address for your network,
then you must set the network mask for your local network.
If not (which is usually the case), then just leave this
entry blank or enter the default value of
'255.255.254.0'.
This value may never be '255.255.255.255'.
- Host Name:
- Some applications will wish to know your PC's name, a
short textual name. This will be the machine's name and not
your domain name. This name may contain only numeric digits
and letters, and should be less than 9 characters.
- Domain Name:
- Your system's domain address. The domain and hostnames
will be concatenated into one domain address for this
machine.
Example:
node1.merlinsys.com
Where:
node1 is the hostname
merlinsys.com is the domain name
- Gateway Address:
- The address of a local gateway. This value is always
supplied by your network service provider and is usually the
IP address of the machine that NetXpress will connect up to.
- Name Servers:
- The IP addresses of name servers (in order of
importance). These name server will resolve domain addresses
into IP addresses.
- Maximum Segment Size:
- This is the maximum segment size that NetXpress BBS Door
can receive over the packet driver. The default value is 1400
for Ethernet.
The maximum value should not exceed 4096.
- TCP Connect Timeout:
- This allows you to specify a specific amount of seconds
that the NetXpress BBS Door will attempt to connect to a
remote computer, wait for data from a remote computer, and
wait to accomplish other miscellaneous networking tasks.
The default is 30 seconds, but may be set longer if you
have an especially slow connection.
- Name Lookup Timeout:
- The time needed to resolve a domain name into an IP
address. Some name servers are very slow (very busy) and thus
this value needs to be increased.
- Inactivity Timeout:
- The number of seconds of inactivity with a session
before it timesout. This value usually will be set to 0 or
left blank.
WORLD-WIDE-WEB
Home Page file:///homepage.htm
Local Base Dir c:\nxbbs
Mail HTML mail.htm
New User HTML newuser.htm
|
F1 - Help | Esc - Cancel | F10 - Ok
|
- Home Page:
- The default HTML file used as the home page.
This file is displayed whenever the user does not specify an
URL in the menu or whenever the menu is disabled.
- Local Base Directory:
- The directory that all WWW local file access will be
relative from.
- Mail HTML:
- The HTML file used to gather information for a message.
If empty, the message function will be disabled.
- New User HTML:
- The HTML file displayed to first-time users of the
NetXpress BBS Client.
GOPHER , IRC & WHOIS
All three functions need the two pieces of information,
the default server and the default port.
- Default Server:
- The address of the default server. This server is used
whenever the user does not specify a server to contact.
Defaults:
Gopher: boombox.micro.umn.edu
IRC: irc.bu.edu
WhoIs: rs.internic.net
You should never have to change the WhoIs default Server,
but you should change the IRC server to one that is closer to
you. For more information on IRC servers, look in the I.R.C.
FAQ.
- Default Port:
- The port of the default server. This server is used
whenever the user does not specify a port. You should never
have to change these values.
Defaults:
Gopher: 70
IRC: 6667
WhoIs: 43
TELNET
Terminal Emulation vt100
|
F1 - Help | Esc - Cancel | F10 - Help
|
- Terminal Emulation:
- The default terminal emulation used in Telnet. This
should always be vt100, since ANSI is not usually recognized
by Telnet servers.
Mail Configuration
Default SMTP Host mail.uunet.net
Address Delimeter .
UT Time Offset -300
Default POP3 Host mail.uunet.net
UUCP Spool Dir \spool
News Server news.uunet.net
|
F1 - Help | Esc - Cancel | F10 - Ok
|
- Default SMTP Host:
- The address of a default SMTP mail host. If blank, then the mail
function will be disabled.
Example:
mail.magmacom.com
- Address Delimiter:
- The character that replaces the space within user's name
when their names get converted into an Internet address. This
is only used in the FTP client and in IRC for the log file.
- UT Time Offset:
- The offset in minutes from Universal Time/Greenwich Meadian Time.
Example:
- EST = -300 (Eastern Standard Time - North America)
- PST = -480 (Pacific Standard Time - North America)
- CET = +60 (Central European Time - Europe)
- Default POP3 Host:
- This is the address of a POP3 server that all user's who have
access to the mailbox functions will get as their default POP3
server. The user may wish to change their own value if they have
an account on another POP3 server.
- UUCP Spool Directory:
- The location of your UUCP Spool directory. NXBBS will look inside
this directory and its subdirectories for incoming UUCP messages
addressed to the user.
If you do not use UUCP, then leave this blank.
- News Server:
- The NNTP server to contact when requesting news.
DIAL-UP DOOR CONFIGURATION
- Internal BOOTP Server
- When enabled, NXDIP will process all BOOTP requests and
reply with its own IP address.
You might wish to disable this feature if you have a
BOOTP server on your network and wish to use it instead.
- Static IP Addresses:
- By matching user names to specific IP addresses, you can create static IP addresses for particular BBS accounts.
SECURITY LEVELS
The security levels settings control whether a user has
access to certain functions. If the users has a greater or
equal security level than required, then they are allowed to
perform that function.
If they do not have sufficient security access, then they
will be displayed the HTML in the 'No Security HTML' field.
If this field is empty, then a 'Not enough security' message
is displayed.
SYNTAX
nxbbs [/G <configfile>] [/I <ip.ad.dre.ss>]
[/B <drop-file>] [/Q <comport irq>]
[/A <comport address>] [/C <comport>] [/U <baud>] [/ForceFOSSIL] [/H] [/?]
[menu commands]
- /G <configuration_file>
- Path and a filename to the configuration file to be used.
If not specified, then NXBBS.CFG in the current directory
will be used.
- /I <ip.add.re.ss>
- The IP address to use instead of the one in the
configuration file. The IP address may also be defined in an
environmental variable named IP. The command line switch
takes precedence over the environmental variable.
- /B <drop-file>
- Supported drop-files are:
- DOOR.SYS
- DORINFO?.DEF
- PCBOARD.SYS
- USERS.SYS
- CHAIN.TXT
- SFDOORS.DAT
- XTRN.DAT
- CALLINFO.BBS
The <drop-file> can also be 'LOCAL' followed,
optionally, by a colon and a user name. Example: /B
"LOCAL:Joe Smith"
You may state more than one drop-file by placing multiple
/B commands
- Menu Commands
- Anything you can type in at the main menu can be included
here. Commands can be partial or they can contain all needed
information.
FUNCTIONS
The following is a list and descriptions of all the
function in the NetXpress BBS Client:
- World-Wide-Web
- The World-Wide-Web protocols allows for the exchange of
information in a extremely flexible and unstructured manner.
The WWW server is just a file request server, the WWW client
has most of the intelligence and makes decisions about how to
obtain certain information.
The important difference between the older Gopher
protocol and the Web protocols are that the Web display
formats are unstructured and can look like anything, while
Gopher has a rigid menu structure. Also Web browsers possess
knowledge of many more methods of accessing data than gopher
clients do. The number of access methods available to Web
browsers is bound to increase in the future.
- File Transfer Protocol
- The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows users to peruse
the file system of another system on the Internet. One
important fact concerning FTP, is that it tries to look like
a file system and thus contains no file descriptions,
although there are methods of displaying descriptive text to
the user.
- Telnet
- Telnet allows people on the Internet to remotely login
to another computers on the Internet. It is like using a
terminal program with a modem over phone lines. Except that
all communication is handled through the TCP/IP protocol over
the Internet.
- Gopher
- The Internet Gopher protocol offers users the ability to
browse through the Internet in a structured menued
environment looking at user-friendly menu descriptions
instead of service names, hosts and ports. The beauty of
Gopher is that a menu entry may point anywhere on the
Internet, and thus hoping from one Gopher to another is
virtually seamless to the user. It also allows users to
retrieve documents without the need to do it themselves
interactively.
- Internet Relay Chat
- IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat". It was
originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen (jto@tolsun.oulu.fi)
in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over
60 countries around the world. IRC is a multi-user chat
system, where people convene on channels (a virtual place,
usually with a topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or
privately.
- WhoIs
- WhoIs is used to look up names of users and corporations
in a main database. The default action is to do a very broad
search, looking for matches to your target in many fields:
handle, name, nicknames, hostname, net address, etc., and
finding all record types. WhoIs then shows the results in one
of two ways: as a full, detailed display for a single match
(with possible subdisplay), or as one- or two-line summaries
for multiple matches.
- Finger
- Finger is a common Unix facility to examine the user
login information on a system. Information retrieved can
either be a text file or information about that user on that
system.
- Ping
- Ping checks is valuable to check to see if a system is
running and how long messages take to reach it and come back
to your system.
- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
- SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is
defined in RFC821 and has been updated in other various RFCs.
It is the standard way of transferring private mail between
hosts directly connected to the Internet. The SMTP function
will actually send the message right away on to the Internet
via the SMTP Host defined below. The message will not be
stored anywhere on the local system or on your BBS. The SMTP
function cannot access incoming messages, you will need to
use an Internet gateway for your BBS.
- Remote Login
- Remote Login is very similar to Telnet, except that it
automatically logs in the user.
- ph
- ph is also known as qi and CSO. It is a phonebook
protocol that allows searches to be made on various fields.
Gopher uses CSO internally, thus we have made it available as
a separate function. CSO will probably be used the least out
of all of the functions.
- Remote Execution (Rexec)
- Rexec is used to execute programs on another computer.
The software must reside on that computer and your login ID
must have rights to it.
- Raw Telnet
- This is just Telnet without any Telnet control codes.
This is a straight TCP/IP connection.
- Bookmarks
- A list of the user's permanent bookmarks of favorite
places.
- Session History
- A list of the user's session history.
INTERNAL URLS
You can include special internal URLs (Universal Resource
Locators) in your HTML documents that allow you to retrieve
input from the user and then perform a certain function with
that input. The following is a list of available URL codes
and their associated FORM names:
- internal:///telnet
- ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD TERMINAL
Terminal defaults to ANSI. The User and Password values
are only displayed to the user and are not actually used in
the Telnet routines.
- internal:///rawtcp
- ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD
The User and Password values are only displayed to the
user and are not actually used in the Raw Telnet
routines.
- internal:///rlogin
- ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD TERMINAL
Terminal defaults to ANSI.
- internal:///rexec
- ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD COMMAND
- internal:///finger
- ADDRESS PORT USER
Port defaults to 79.
- internal:///whois
- ADDRESS PORT USER
Port defaults to 43. Address defaults to
rs.internic.net
- internal:///ping
- ADDRESS NUMBER
Number defaults to 1.
- internal:///ftp
- ADDRESS USER PASSWORD PORT PATH
User defaults to anonymous and Password defaults to the
user's email address. Port defaults to 21.
- internal:///cso
- ADDRESS PORT
Port defaults to 105.
- internal:///gopher
- ADDRESS PORT PATH TYPE
Address and Port default to the values from the
configuration file. Type defaults to '1' (menu). Path
defaults to "" (nothing).
- internal:///http
- URL
- internal:///irc
- USER PASSWORD ADDRESS PORT PATH
Address and Port default to the defaults from the
configuration file. Password is rarely used. The PATH variable states the channel to automatically join.
- internal:///smtp_send
- USER SUBJECT TEXT NEWSGROUP
If the USER variable is not empty, then the message will be sent to the default SMTP server for delivery.
If the NEWSGROUP variable is not empty, then the message will be delivered to the default NNTP server for posting.
- internal:///config
- IRCNAME POP3SERVER POP3USERNAME POP3PASSWORD
This URL actually causes the information sent back to be
saved. Every time the user goes into IRC, their IRC userid is
saved.
- internal:///bookmarks
- Brings up the user' bookmarks.
- internal:///history
- Brings up the user's current session visited
documents/places.
- internal:///help
- Brings up the Help HTML.
- internal:///inbox
- Brings up the user's inbox.
- internal:///outboxbox
- Brings up the user's outbox.
- internal:///pop3_get
- Retrieves the user's mail from their POP3 server.
- internal:///mailbox
- Brings up the Mail main HTML document. From this document the user can select to fetch new mail or compose a new message.
- internal:///mail
- Brings up the 'Message Editor' HTML document.
- internal:///uucp_get
- Fetches new mail stored on your UUCP spool directory.
FORM VARIABLES
Variables are only used in the "VALUE"
parameter of a INPUT FORM object.
Example:
<INPUT NAME="test" VALUE="#destination#">
- #destination#
- Represents the message destination
- #subject#
- The current message's subject
- #msgtext#
- The current message's body text
- #gopher_server#
- Default gopher server
- #gopher_port#
- Default gopher port
- #whois_server#
- Default whois server
- #whois_port#
- Default whois port
- #irc_server#
- Default IRC server
- #irc_port#
- Default IRC port
- #homepage#
- Default Web home page
- #sendmail_html#
- Send a Message HTML
- #help_html#
- General Help HTML
- #user_irc_name#
- User's IRC name
- #user_address#
- User's Internet address
- #host_address#
- This host's domain name
- #new_user_html#
- New user's HTML
- #mailbox_html#
- The HTML document that brings up the Mail menu.
- #pop3_username#
- The user's POP3 name
- #pop3password#
- The user's POP3 password
- #pop3server#
- The user's POP3 server
- #newsgroup#
- The current message's newsgroup field
SYNTAX
nxdip <configuration_file> [/B <drop-file>]
[/I <ip_address>] [/C <comport>]
[/Q <comport irq>] [/A <comport address>]
[/P] [/T <minutes>] [/ForceFOSSIL] [@PPP]
- <configuration_file>
- Path and a filename to the configuration file to be used.
If not specified, then NXBBS.CFG in the current directory
will be used.
- /I <ip.add.re.ss>
- The IP address to use instead of the one in the
configuration file. The IP address may also be defined in an
environmental variable named IP. The command line switch
takes precedence over the environmental variable.
Example:
SET IP=142.55.23.123
- /B <drop-file>
- Supported drop-files are:
- DOOR.SYS
- DORINFO?.DEF
- PCBOARD.SYS
- USERS.SYS,
- CHAIN.TXT
- SFDOORS.DAT
- XTRN.DAT
- CALLINFO.BBS
- /P
- Doesn't hangup the modem when the door exits
- /T <minutes>
- Sets the maximum number of minutes that the user can be online
- /F
- Forces the use of non-standard FOSSIL drivers
- @PPP
- Sets NXDIP to use PPP instead of SLIP/CSLIP
OPERATION
This program is called as a door from the BBS and handles
all SLIP, Compressed SLIP and PPP encoding and decoding of the
communications link. It bridges the gap between the IP
packets coming over the modem's lines to the packet
driver.
The user must have configured their IP address correctly
on their end and it must be an address that is 'owned' by
you. They can optionally use BOOTP to request their IP
address since the SLIP door has an internal BOOTP server that
will respond to their BOOTP request. If they use PPP, the PPP connection will set their IP Address automatically.
Compressed IP Headers in SLIP are
automatically switched on if any incoming packets are
compressed. In PPP, they are negotiated at the begining.
The software terminates when:
- the sysop pressed <Esc> on the local
console
- the user's daily time expired
- the carrier is lost
A packet driver must be load prior to the execution of NXDIP.
USER CONFIGURATION
The user must have configured their IP address correctly
on their end. Their IP address must be one that is 'owned' by
you. If they set their IP address to 0.0.0.0, then the
internal BOOTP server in NXDIP will take care of their IP
Address request and return this node's IP Address. PPP automatically sets the user's IP address at the begining negotiations.
The user's netmask may be anything at all since they are
using a dial-up connection. Usually , they can just set it to
'255.255.255.0.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the standard document on the
Web. It is out of this manual's scope to detail it's syntax.
You may use any of the available HTML editors to create local
web pages. Please note, that your user's will only see a text
representation of the document, so inline images and image
mappings will not be relevant.
ERROR MESSAGES
- Could not allocate socket!
- Not enough memory was available to allocate the Internet
socket (4k).
- No packet driver found!
- No packet driver software was found in the interrupt
range of 0x60-0x80.
- NXBBS.KEY not found!
- Your serialized KEY file could not be found in the system
directory.
- NXBBS.KEY is corrupt!
- Your serialized KEY file is damaged and should be
replaced by contacting the source of purchase.
DISPLAY FILES FORMAT
Both the WELCOME and the MENU display files use the same
PCBoard color macro format. This allows one file to be used
by users with ANSI and users without ANSI. The color macros
are formatted as:
@Xbf
Where b is the background color and f is the foreground
color. Both f and b are hex digits that represent the color
required.
Hex Digit
|
Foreground Color
|
Background Color |
0
|
Black
|
Black |
1
|
Blue
|
Blue |
2
|
Green
|
Green |
3
|
Cyan
|
Cyan |
4
|
Red
|
Red |
5
|
Magenta
|
Magenta |
6
|
Brown
|
Brown |
7
|
Light Gray
|
Light Gray |
8
|
Dark Gray
|
Blinking Black |
9
|
Light Blue
|
Blinking Blue |
A
|
Light Green
|
Blinking Green |
B
|
Light Cyan
|
Blinking Cyan |
C
|
Light Red
|
Blinking Red |
D
|
Light Magenta
|
Blinking Magenta |
E
|
Yellow
|
Blinking Brown |
F
|
White
|
Blinking Light Gray |
Other than the color macros, you an also use @CLS@ to
erase the screen, and @MORE@ to pause and display 'Press any
key to continue'.
You may also use two distinct display files; one for
users with ANSI and one for users without ANSI. A display
file with a file extension of .ANS will be used by users with
ANSI. A display file with a file extension of .ASC will be
used by users without ANSI.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to all of our beta testers for their time.
We would also like to offer our gratitude to the following
people:
Ed Bercovitz,
Michael Boettger,
Brad Dameron,
Peter Ellis,
Erick Engelke,
Ian Gerada,
Anna Kalasznikow
and Tony Rocha.