* FrontDoor 1.99c


RemoteAccess has been designed from the start to run with FrontDoor -
hence the "Read batch file" option in RAConfig using the batch file that
FrontDoor would normally create. Interfacing the two programs is fairly
easy. To start with, you should go into RA setup and make a note of the
errorlevels you have setup in the "Modems" section. If any of these are
below 31, then you will have to change them for FroDo. I use 101 for
300bps, 102 for 1200bps and so on. That is about all you need to do with
RAConfig.

Next, you should go to FrontDoor's SETUP utility and make sure you have
got a ordinary, non-QuickBBS area defined for your normal netmail. This
should go in your folder definitions as well, as you will be entering
most of any netmail you enter with the FroDo editor into this area. You
should also define your RA netmail area if you ever want to read any
messages in it.

There are several utilities you can use for processing echomail and
netmail into and out of the RA message base - the most integrated would
seem to be FD TosScan, but I haven't got a clue how you run that (it is
commercial and I can't afford it :-)

I use MBUtil to process netmail, but I don't import mail addressed to
me. In the MBUTIL.CTL I have set:

UserName Stuart Henderson

When I run MBUtil's import function after each mail call, I use:

MBUTIL IMPORT -Users

Which will import mail to all the users in USERS.BBS except any listed
in the control file. This means my mail stays in the netmail area in
.MSG format - I find it easier if I have the Mail Waiting flag working
properly.

For the echomail processing, I use QEcho v2.65 from The QuickBBS Group,
designed for QBBS but it (now) works just as well with RemoteAccess.
Earlier versions look for RA and won't work if they find it. The
documentation for that is in the QuickBBS manual, QDOC_265.???.

These are not the only mail processors around that work with RA and
FroDo, but I have had them working quite successfully for a while.

To run these various utilities I set up "exit after mail" and "exit
after compressed mail" to "YES" in the Event Setup of FrontDoor. I also
set the errorlevel to 99, which I test for in my batch file.

I use RA with the "Shell to Mailer" option, and "Read Batch File" - this
makes it faster for the caller to get into the BBS at the expensive of
about 150k of EMS Memory or disk space. I leave the current directory
set to my RemoteAccess directory, and set the FD environment variable to
where FrontDoor and all of its overlays are located. This means it stays
in the RA directory, ready for a caller, but it can find all the
overlays and so on it needs. I run RA in the following way:

IF EXIST DOBBS.BAT DEL DOBBS.BAT
RA -m\FD\FD.EXE*M -e20

This basically gets rid of any old DOBBS.BAT that may be lying around,
and loads up RA which in turn calls FrontDoor. After each caller, it
exits with an errorlevel.

I check for various errorlevels immediately after RemoteAccess has
finished:

00 - Takes the BBS offline
01 - Modem Problem with RA
02 - Problem generally encountered during Beta-Testing RA
03 - NetMail entered by the user
04 - EchoMail entered by the user
05 - NetMail and EchoMail entered by the user
06 - The FOSSIL driver is too old
07 - No FOSSIL driver is loaded
08 - FrontDoor is already in memory
09 - FrontDoor "Beta-type" error
10 - Takes the BBS offline
11 - Internal FrontDoor error
12 - External FrontDoor error
13 - FrontDoor reports too low disk space for operation
14 - FrontDoor "Beta-type" error
15 - FrontDoor Modem Problem
20 - User has logged off
99 - NetMail has been received from another system

Many of these are problems with the system and simply exit the batch
file to DOS after displaying a suitable message. A few are treated
differently:

Errorlevels 3, 4, and 5 mean that a user has entered mail that has to be
processed specially. If the errorlevel is 3 or 5, then MBUtil's Export
command is used, so that any netmail on the system is put into .MSG
format to be sent to the right BBS. If the errorlevel is 4 or 5, then
QEcho is started up and the echomail messages are packed up to be sent
to your echomail feed.

After those exits, and also errorlevel 20, the BBS is re-started in the
same way as before.

When errorlevel 99 is detected, the message importing part of the batch
file goes into action:

QECHO -a -x -p -s1500 -t -u    : this imports any echomail lying around,
                               : unpacking packets and ARCmail, and
                               : aborting if there is less than 1.5mb left
                               : on the disk.

MBUTIL Import -Users           : this imports any netmail lying around into
                               : the RemoteAccess message base, as long as
                               : it is addressed to one of your users and
                               : none of the names listed in MBUTIL.CTL

MBUTIL Link -Clean             : this links the messages in the RA message
                               : base, and removes any garbage like RE: and
                               : so on.

QECHO -a -x -p -s1500 -t -u -e : this exports any echomail waiting in
                               : your RemoteAccess message base

Every day at midnight I perform some general maintenance - this is where
you should put things in like the command to start up RAMsg or MBUtil to
pack up and sort your message base so it doesn't grow too big.


. (C) Stuart Henderson
. dataMatrix! 0392 434477, 2:255/13, 1200 to 14400 HST, V32, MNP 5