Contents
PowerBBS - Microsoft Mail Gateway

Contents

Overview	Overview of the PowerBBS - MS Mail Gateway.

Basic setup	How to setup the Gateway.

Forum Setup	Setting up the forums.

New in version 1.5	New features in PowrBBS - MS Mail Gateway version 1.5

New in version 1.6	New features in PowrBBS - MS Mail Gateway version 1.6

New in version 2.0	New features in PowerBBS - MS Mail Gateway version 2.0

Trouble shooting	If it doesnt work.


Overview of the Gateway.
Overview of the Gateway

The PowerBBS - MS Mail Gateway is an application that allows users, connected to a LAN / WAN (Local / Wide Area Network) and using Microsoft Mail, to send / receive messages to / from a PowerBBS system. The gateway works with either the Windows for Workgroups version of MS Mail or the full Microsoft Mail version 3.2 and higher.

With the use of a special E-MAIL form on the users workstations you have full control of which forum to send mail to. This E-MAIL form allows you to select the destination user name from either a global user list or from a local, private, user list. It allows you to send mail to any forum, including Internet and News Groups.

The Gateway setup allows you to setup which BBS user names should be mapped to what MS Mail user name so that the name used on the BBS may be different from the name used in MS Mail.

You may also set options to always send a receipt to the MS Mail user when the mail has been received and transferred to the BBS mail bases. Note that even if this option is disabled the user may request receipt on a mail message when sending it. Another option allows you to define if a mail received from the BBS should be marked as read when transferred to MS Mail. It may be useful to turn this option off if you have MS Mail users that from time to time is out of the office and instead calls into the BBS to receive mail. A third option allows you to have the gateway periodically check for changes in the BBS user and forum data bases. If a change is detected this will be reflected in the global user / forum list, kept in the central post office.

The Gateway setup also allows you to select what specific forums should be transferred between the BBS and MS Mail. This way you can disable access to certain forums, no mail will be transferred to or from these forums, useful for news groups and similar.


New in version 1.5
New functions in PowerBBS - MS Mail Gateway ver. 1.5

PowerBBS - MS Mail Gateway version 1.5 has two additional functions, not found in the previous version:

Support for CC (Carbon Copy). You may send a copy of a message to a second user, useful when you want to keep someone updated on your conversation with another user. Both the normal TO address and the CC address must be of the same type, that is, both users must be an internet address or non-internet address. Both messages will be sent to the same forum.

FTPMail support. Your BBS can automatically process FTPMAIL requests, received either from internet, a BBS caller or a MS Mail user.


New in version 1.6
New features/fixes in version 1.6

The MS Mail part of the Gateway now handles group sends, you can create groups of up to 15 addresses to send messages to.

You can now also map up to 5 MS Mail users that receives mail addressed to one BBS user name, especially useful where more than one person acts as Sysop for the BBS or to send messages addressed to ALL to multiple MS Mail users.

The gateway now adds the two special BBS user names Sysop and ALL to the map list in the setup dialog, no need to enter them manually in the gateway system file (GATEWAY.INI). Also, the gateway no longer includes these two special user names in the mapping from MS Mail to BBS user name, in some cases previous version could include the ALL user name so that your outgoing mail had ALL in the From field.

The FTPMail part of the gateway no longer process FTPMail requests that you send to another system, previous version would process ALL requests, including the ones with another systems address in it.

The forum setup now allows you to change the Last processed message number. This number, kept and handled by the gateway, is similar to the Last read pointers in the BBS. If you restart the message base for one or more of your forums so that the message numbers start at a lower value the gateway will not pick up messages until the message numbers gets higher than the Last processed number. You will in this case need to reset the Last processed number back to zero in order to get the gateway to process the messages.

The gateway now allow your internet forum to have a longer name, for example, if you called your internet forum Internet e-mail it will still be detected as an internet forum.

For registered users only: You can now customize the tagline of outgoing messages. Insert a new section and entry in the GATEWAY.INI file, located in the same directory as the GATEWAY.EXE file.

[Options]

TagLine=<your favorite tagline>

The tagline will be added to the fixed part as in the following example:

* Through Mail Gateway * <your favorite tagline>


Version 2.0
New for version 2.0

Mail Administrator. Allows you to set up one or more MS Mail users that will act as administrators. If a MS Mail user sends a message to the BBS without using the Reader e-form the message will be forwarded to the Administrator(s). The Administrator can then help that user to install the Reader e-form or inform the user how to use the mail gateway.

This function is also useful if you use MS Fax at Work on the BBS machine. All received faxes are sent to the Administrator(s). The Administrator will then check the received fax and forward it to the correct person in the company. This function is setup from the Config/Mail Administrator menu.

The Gateway also support an Info function, similar to the FTPMAIL function. If the gateway receives a message, addressed to INFO@<your system name> it will automatically create and send a reply message containing the text from a file created by you.

The Gateway can also be setup to Bounce mail that is addressed to non-existing BBS users.

The Gateway now also has added FTPMAIL security. You may select from three levels of security, none (same as previous version), Username + Password and Username + Password + BBS Sec Level.

For more information about the above functions see the help for the Config setup.


Trouble Shooting

There are several reasons why the gateway may not work, most, if not all, setup related.

I just installed the gateway and it doesnt work:

First check that the path entered for your PowerBBS data file (normally called POWRBBS.DAT or POWERBBSn.DAT where n is the node number) is correct.

If you are using MS Mail also check the path to the postoffice and the name of the MS Mail user / mailbox you set up for the BBS gateway. Note that the MS Mail user / mailbox should be used only by the gateway, no other user should login to MS Mail using that name. Also remember that the current implementation of the MAPI only allows one user to be logged in at the time from the same workstation so you can not be running both the gateway and the MS Mail application on the same machine at the same time.

Some network implementations does not automatically handle network paths that does not consist of a drive/path. You may need to change this into a drive/path type by first connecting to the network file server and give it a drive letter. This can be done from the file manager. For example, if your MSMAIL.INI shows:

ServerPath=\\SERVER1\DATA\WGPO

make a connection to \\SERVER\1\DATA as any free drive letter, check the Reconnect at startup so that this is done automatically each time you start up windows. Lets say you connected the \\SERVER1\DATA to drive D:. Now change the entry ServerPath in MSMAIL.INI to:

ServerPath=D:\WGPO

Use the same path for the postoffice path in the gateway setup.

Do the same change in the MSMAIL.INI in the workstations that is using the Reader application. Again, this may not be needed for your network since it is depending on how the network is implemented. A good way to find out is to install the gateway and then on another work station start the reader application, if the user names (in the global list) and forum names does not show up this is most likely your problem.

Second, check the forum setup. If the forum setup does not show the forum names go back and double check the PowerBBS data file path in the setup, this is most likely wrong.

For each forum there are three check boxes, Echo, Internet and Allow FTPMail. Use the Echo check box to tell the Gateway if it should look in that forum for messages addressed to a MS Mail user / FTPMAIL request. Make sure this check box is turned on for all forums that the gateway should check, remove the check mark for forums that you want the gateway to ignore. The Internet check box can not be changed, it is used for your information only to indicate that the gateway has detected a forum as being a Internet type of forum (the file format of the internet forums are slightly different so the gateway needs to handle them differently). The last check box is used to indicate that people can request files and directory listings from this forum.

How would you know which forum to check the Allow FTP Mail for? Just compare to a caller that dials into your board. Which forums would he/she need to access to be able to download files? This is the same forums for which you would check the Allow FTP Mail. You may of course make a smaller selection available for FTPMail by removing the check mark for some forums that you dont want to make available for FTPMail.

I have had the gateway working but now it doesnt pick up messages/FTPMail request anymore:

The gateway keeps a Last processed message number for each forum, similar to the Last read pointer for each user on the BBS. If you have restarted the message base for one or more forums the message numbers will start from one again. The gateway will not detect new messages until they becomes higher than the last processed message number. Check what the current high message number for the forum is (shown by the BBS when you change forum or you may use PowerEdit to check it), open the forum dialog in the gateway and compare it to the last processed message number for that forum. If the current high message number is lower than the number shown in the last processed message number you need to change it to match the current number. This should only happen if you restart the message base (in other words if you delete the old message files and then recreate it), normal message base packing does not effect the message numbers.


Basic Setup
Basic setup of the Gateway

Before installing the Gateway you should install MS Mail on the BBS computer. Have your MS Mail administrator create a user for this purpose, suggested name is 'BBS Mail' for both the user name and the mail box name. If you have already an account for that machine the setup will allow you to change the default name to the user name of your existing account. Startup the MS Mail application, use the Save password option so that the mail system can be started without having to enter a password each time you restart the BBS computer. Also set the Scan for new mail interval to 1 minute, change the option for saving a copy of sent messages to No (if you don't change this option your disk will eventually fill up since there will be no-one that will cleanup these copies). Once you have setup the MS Mail as described above exit the  MS Mail application, you will not be running the MS Mail application once the gateway has been installed.

Now copy the GATEWAY.EXE. You may install it in the windows directory, the PowerBBS directory or any other directory, the application is written to be able to run from any location. Create an icon for it, either in your PowerBBS group or in the Startup group. If installed in the Startup group it will automatically be started each time you restart windows.

Start the application. The first time it is started it will show a message that it has not been properly setup yet. From the Config menu select Setup.

Before the gateway can start working it will need to know the location of some of the PowerBBS system files and the location of the MS Mail post office directory. Therefore the first part of the dialog shown when selecting the Setup menu item requests you to enter these items.

The first entry is Path to PowerBBS .DAT file. Enter the full path and name of this file. In a single line system this would be something like C:\POWRBBS\POWRBBS.DAT, in a multi line system you would probably have something like C:\POWRBBS\POWRBBS1.DAT.

The second entry is the location of you MS Mail Postoffice directory. This could be something like X:\WGPO for a Windows for Workgroups installation. If you don't know the location you may look in the MSMAIL.INI file, found in your windows directory on the BBS computer. Look for an entry called ServerPath=, the path following this is the path you would need to enter in the second entry of the setup dialog.

The third entry is the user name for the mailbox used to send mail to the gateway. By default this is BBS Mail but you may change this if you created a different name. Note! If you are using different names for the Mail User and the Mail Box name you must enter both. The Mail user name should be entered first, followed by a semicolon (;) and the Mail Box name.

If you use the FTPMail option only you don not need to enter anything in the second and third entries.

The next part of the setup dialog concerns options that you may select. The top two options enables the MS Mail (MAPI) functions and the FTPMail functions respectively. To allow you to use the gateway for only MS Mail or FTPMail you may check or un-check these options as needed. The next option select if a mail message, transferred from the BBS, should be marked as read. When the message is marked as read it will not show up in the 'Read your new messages' function if the user calls into the BBS. In cases where MS Mail users may be away from the office and instead calls into the BBS to receive messages this may not be what you want, in this case make sure this option is not checked.

The following option selects if a receipt should always be sent to the MS Mail user when a mail message has been received by the Gateway and transferred to the BBS. You may disable this option, the user will still have the option to specify that he/she want to have a receipt for a message. If an error occurs a message will always be returned to the sender.

The last option allows you to enable automatic update of the global user / forum list. This list is available to the MS Mail users for addressing of their mail messages. If this option is selected the global list will be updated automatically when users are added / removed from the BBS as well as when forums are added / removed. If this option is not enabled the global list is only updated after selecting the Setup and Forum items from the Config menu. Normally you would have this option checked.

The last part of the setup dialog is used to create a mapping between the BBS user names and the MS Mail user names. This part consist of a list box with all user names from the BBS in the first column. The second column contains their corresponding MS Mail user names or (Not a MS Mail user) if they have not been assigned a MS Mail user name. You may add their MS Mail user name by selecting the BBS user name and click the Add/Update button. This will show you the MS Mail user list. Simply double click the name from the list and click on the OK button. This will change the name in the list box to the selected MS Mail name. If you want to remove a user from the map list simply select the name and click the Delete button.

Note that if you disable the MS Mail (MAPI) option all entries that is related to this option is disabled (grayed) since you dont need to enter any selection to these fields when only using the FTPMail function.

Once you have entered the paths to the BBS data file and the post office, gone through the mapping list and set the options you like click the Done button. This will save the information and you are ready for the forum setup.

After entering the MS Mail postoffice information for the first time you must exit the Gateway and then start it again to allow the gateway to connect to the MAPI support functions in windows before setting up the BBS user - MS Mail mapping.

Not shown in the above picture is the new Info and Bounce Mail functions. To enable the Info function check the Info check box. Then you will need to create a ASCII text file, called INFO.TXT, in the same directory as the gateway program itself. This file should not contain more than 200 lines of text.

The Bounce Mail function, when enabled by checking the Bounce check box, will send a message back to the source of the message if the name the message is addressed to does not exist in the PowerBBS user data base. Some specific names are excluded, SYSOP, INFO, ALL, RFREY (the name used by WinNet for sending the monthly bill, even though you might wanted to bounce these...) and FTPMAIL. You may add more names to exclude by creating a new section, [NoBounce] in the GATEWAY.INI file.  Enter a line under this section, with the name as in the following example:

John Doe=YES

Enter one such line for each name you want to exclude from the mail bounce function. Note that the names in your PowerBBS user data base is automatically excluded so you should not enter these in the .INI file.

To setup the FTPMAIL enhanced security select Config/Security from the menu bar. Select the level you want to use:

None	This is the lowest level, anybody can request files or directory information from your system. This is identical to the previous version.

Username + Password  This level require the requestor to include a CONECT command in the request. The connect request should have the following syntax:

CONNECT <first name> <last name> <password>

The <> should not be included. If the username is found in the PowerBBS user data file and the password match they are given access to the FTPMAIL function and can request files and directory information freely.

Username + Password + Sec Level  This is the highest level.  For this level you should also enter a minimum security level. The Connect syntax is the same as above example. In this level a FTPMAIL requestor is given access if the user name is found in the BBS user data base, the password is correct and the user has at least the minimum security level on the BBS. For each change directory command (which is actually a change forum command) the requestors security level is checked against the security level for the forum. If the requestor does not have high enough security level for a forum the change directory command is denied.

The gateway comes complete with all text files used by the various functions, you should edit these files to match your BBS name. You may use any ASCII editor to do this.


Forum setup
Forum Setup.

Once you have made the Basic Setup you are ready to do the Forum setup. In most cases you will not need to change anything, the default settings should work well for you. The Forum Setup dialog shows the forums you have available, five at the time. For each forum shown there is a checkbox that allows you to disable the gateway from transferring mail messages to or from that forum. A forum with a check mark in the Echo checkbox will have the mail messages transferred, you disable it by removing the checkmark for that forum. The second checkbox, Internet, is for information only, you can not change this since there is a slight difference in the mail data base for an internet forum. The Allow FTPMail option selects if the files in this forum should be available for access via FTPMail.

The entry following the Allow FTPMail option is the Last message number processed by the gateway. Normally you should not change this number, it is updated by the gateway but if you have to restart the message base in one or more of your forums so that the message numbers in your message base are lower than the number shown here you need to change it to match the low number of your new message base. This number works the same way as the Last read pointers on the BBS itself. This field is not shown on the picture below.

Use the scroll bar to move up and down among the forums, when done click the Done button.

The gateway is now ready for use. You will now need to install the special E-MAIL form used by the workstations to send and receive mail through the BBS.

The first time the Gateway is started it will send all unread messages with a destination that matches an entry in the map list to the MS Mail users. Before the E-MAIL form has been installed at the users workstations they will see a message telling them that they will need a form called Reader to be able to see the message. The reader is needed since the BBS messages contains more information than the normal MS Mail message will carry, e.g., the forum.


PowerBBS data file

PowerBBS uses one central data file to find the locations of all other files, mail data bases, user files and other information needed for its function. There is one of these data files for each node your system is running. The default name and location for this file is C:\POWRBBS\POWRBBS.DAT but your system setup may use a different name. The easiest way to find the name is to check the startup line for one of your nodes. Select the icon for your first node, select the File/Properties from the program manager menu and check the second part of the Command line, e.g.,

C:\POWRBBS\POWRBBS.EXE C:\POWRBBS\POWRBBS1.DAT /I

In the example above the path and name of the data file is shown in italic and red. This is the path and name to enter in the first entry of the setup dialog.


Post Office
The MS Mail Post Office directory.

The gateway needs to know where the post office of your MS Mail is located. This is normally a path to a directory located on a central file server or a shared directory on a workstation. In a Windows for Workgroups that may be either a path like X:\WGPO or a machine name like \\POSTMACHINE\WGPO. If you don't know the path you may either ask you system administrator or you may look in the MSMAIL.INI file, located in your windows directory. Search for the entry ServerPath= and copy the rest of that line into the second entry of the Gateway Setup dialog.


Mail user
MS Mail user

This entry should contain the user name of the mailbox to be used by the gateway and the workstation to send mail messages to the BBS. By default the name 'BBS Mail' is used. If you have already setup an account for the BBS computer you may change the name in this field to that name. Remember: You should not have the MS Mail application running on the BBS machine. Doing so will make the two applications fight for mail messages and some mail may end up in the MS Mail application, unavailable to the gateway!

Also Note! If the Mail account has different name for the User name and the Mail Box name you must enter both. In this case enter the User name first, followed by a semicolon (;) and the name of the Mail Box. Example:

BBS Mail;BBS

where 'BBS Mail' is the user name and 'BBS' is the name of the mailbox.


Mark transferred mail as read
Mark transferred mail as Read.

This option selects if the gateway should mark mail messages, transferred from the BBS to a mail user, as read. Use this option if the MS Mail user does not normally call into the BBS to search for new messages. This will allow the PowerPack program to remove the messages when run. It will also prevent the messages from showing up if that user calls in and select the 'Read your new mail' option. However, if you have MS Mail users that is often out of the office and that calls in to the BBS to check for mail you should probably leave this option unselected so that any mail messages will be available both on the BBS and in the MS Mail system.


Always send receipt

This option allows you to have the gateway always send a receipt to the MS Mail user when a mail message has been received and transferred to the BBS mail data base. This option is useful when the MS Mail users want to be sure the messages has been transferred successfully to the BBS, especially if you have remote MS Mail users. Note that even if you turn off this option the individual users may request a receipt from the BBS E-MAIL form.


Automatically add users to global list
Automatically add users and forums to global list

This option selects if the gateway should periodically check the BBS user and forum databases and, if any changes has occurred, automatically update the global user/forum list.

The workstation BBS E-MAIL form automatically synchronizes the local forum list with the global list so that the list always show all available forums. The E-MAIL form also gives the option to use the global user list or the local, private, user list for addressing of a mail message. The user can add his own addresses, e.g., Internet addresses, which is stored in the local list.

It is recommended to have this option selected.


Delete button

The delete button is used to delete a mapping between a BBS user and the corresponding MS Mail user name, i.e. when a MS Mail user has been removed from the MS Mail system. Simply select the user name in the list box and click on the Delete button. The MS Mail address will change to (Not a MS Mail user), indicating that any mail received on the BBS will not be transferred to the MS Mail system.


Add/Update button

This button will add or change the mapping for the currently selected user. The MS Mail address book dialog will be shown. Select the MS Mail user name that should receive the mail addressed to the selected BBS user name. Only one MS Mail user should be selected for a BBS user name.


Done Button

Once you have selected the options and mappings press the Done button to save and update the gateway control files.


User list
User mapping list

This list box shows the current mapping of BBS user names to MS Mail user names. All current user on the BBS is shown in this list box.

The list box is split in two halves, first half showing the BBS user name, the second the MS Mail user name or (Not a MS Mail user) if the BBS user is not mapped to MS Mail.

You may add or change the MS Mail address to a BBS user by simply selecting the user in the list box and then click the Add/Update button or remove a BBS user from the MS Mail mapping by selecting the user and then click the Delete button.

when adding or changing you will be presented with the MS Mail address book dialog, allowing you to easily select the MS Mail user name.


Forum Names
Forum name list

This list shows you the names and forum numbers of all the forums setup on the BBS. Five forums are shown at a time, use the scroll bar to move up and down the list.


Forum echo on/off
Forum echo

These check boxes are used to enable/disable the transfer of mail between a specific forum and MS Mail. This allows you to prevent MS Mail users from receiving/send mail from/to  selected forums, e.g., news group forums. When the check box is checked transfer is enabled, to disable a forum uncheck the check box for that forum.


Internet forum
Internet forum check box

These check boxes are for information only, since the format of the PowerBBS mail data files is slightly different for an internet mail data base you can not change this checkbox..


Help Button

The Help button shows this help file.


MAPI On button
MAPI On Check box

This option allows you to turn of the MS Mail gateway function to allow the gateway to only handle FTPMail. By default this option is checked, to disable the MS Mail MAPI function un-check this check box.


FTP Mail On
FTP Mail Check box

This option allows you to enable the PowerBBS - MS Mail gateway to also handle FTPMail requests. The FTPMAIL requests can come from either an internet connection, a dialin user or from a MS Mail user. By default this function is disabled, to enable make sure the check box is checked. You will also need to enable each forum that you want FTPMAIL users to have access to, see Forum, FTP check box..


Forum setup, FTP Mail
Forum setup, Allow FTPMail

This option allows you to select, for each forum, if the file area of that forum should be available for FTPMAIL requests. By default all forums are disabled for FTPMAIL access, to make them available make sure this check box is checked.

Also make sure the FTPMail checkbox in the main setup screen is checked to enable this function.