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┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ ▒▒▒▄▄▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ A QWK-compatible mail door for RBBS-PC │ █
│ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ Copyright (C) 1991-93 Newark Connections │ █
│ ▒▒█ ▀▀▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ Copyright (C) 1993-94 Makai Software │ █
│ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ All rights reserved │ █
│ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ │ █
│ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ Version 3.51, January 27, 1994 │ █
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│ Newark, OH 43055 ▀▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▀▀ │ █
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▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
"Go gently among the messages and comments that have been left and
remember what peace there may be in silence."
"...Be proud of those whose company you keep -- all those that are
running or have ever run RBBS-PC."
"...Be careful. Strive to be happy and enjoy......."
Tom Mack
July 28, 1986
TABLE OF CONTENTS - Page i -
GENERAL INFORMATION 1
An Introduction to Mail Manager +Plus+ 1
Warranty, Distribution, and Registration 2
Registration Form 4
Features and Limitations 5
Checklist of Requirements 7
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ 8
** Before you begin, READ THIS! ** 8
Upgrading from a previous version 9
First time installation 11
Locked BPS rates 14
Command line options 15
Planning your user interface 18
Sysop-configurable text files 21
Text files for FIDO/netmail areas 25
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) 27
Screen #1 (General configuration #1) 29
Screen #2 (General configuration #2) 33
Screen #3 (General Configuration #3) 38
Screen #4 (Conference selection) 40
Screen #4 (Conference parameters) 41
Multiple configuration files 49
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS 50
An introduction to FIDO format 50
Setting up FIDO conferences 51
Netmail areas 54
Netmail messages within reply packets 57
Additional thoughts 60
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS 61
Debugging your setup and running in local mode 61
DORINFOx.DEF 62
Handling non-standard port addresses via MAILMGR.PRO 65
DESQview, OS/2, networks, and multiple nodes 67
Using a FOSSIL 70
QWK networking 71
Compressing the executable files 71
Security features of Mail Manager +Plus+ 72
Additional features 74
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ 77
CFG2TXT & TXT2CFG - binary <-> text utilities 78
MAILFIX, RBBS msg base maint. utility 82
MMINDEX, indexing utility for *.MSG areas 85
MMGRNODE, node list compiler 86
MNET, QWK network QWK->REP conversion utility 87
MUSER, editor for MAILMGR.USR user file 88
UPDATE and UPDATUSR, upgrade utilities 90
TABLE OF CONTENTS - Page ii -
MENU COMMANDS 91
Main menu 91
C - Configure Mail Manager 91
D - Download new mail 91
E = Expedite! 92
G - Goodbye 92
Q - Quit 92
H (or ?) - Display help file 92
I - Sysop information 92
R - Read messages 93
P - Post a message 93
U - Upload replies 93
W - Who's online? 94
X - Expert toggle 94
Configuration menu 95
A - Conference selection 96
X - Message selection 97
B - Q)WK or T)ext format 97
C - Mark msgs addressed to ALL as personal 98
D - Extract personal mail ONLY 98
E - Extract messages written by you 98
F - Abort packet if no new messages 98
G - Send updated bulletins 98
H - Send new file listings 98
I - Ask before sending packet 98
J - File compression method 98
K - File transfer protocol 99
L - Update high message numbers after downloading 99
M - Update high message numbers after R)eading 99
N - Max messages per packet/conference 99
T - Toggle 'turbokeys' 99
? - Display help file 99
Q - Quit (finished configuring) 99
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Common problems 100
Appendix B: Contacting the authors 104
Appendix C: Acknowledgements 105
Appendix D: File formats 106
Appendix E: About this document 111
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 1 -
INTRODUCTION
------------
The 'QWK' format, developed by Mark "Sparky" Herring, has been around
for some time now, and is intended as a standardized way to transfer
mail, news, and bulletins between your bulletin board and your users.
Mail Manager was conceived as a way to handle RBBS-PC message bases
offline, via this 'QWK' format used by popular mail readers such as
SLMR, JABBER, OFFLINE, OLX, and many others.
This type of mail transfer is normally a four-step process:
1) The user calls your BBS, opens the QWK-style mail door, and
downloads a *.QWK mail packet.
2) After logging off the BBS, the any of the many QWK-compatible
offline mail programs may be used to read and reply to
messages in the downloaded mail packets. The reader packs any
replies written by the user into a reply packet.
3) The user call yours BBS back up, opens the QWK-style mail
door, and uploads the reply packet (*.REP).
4) The QWK-style mail door then processes the reply packet, and
inserts the new messages into the proper message base(s).
Having experienced this marvelous system on other bbs types, we
searched for such a system for RBBS-PC. None seemed to be available
out there at that time, so it looked like we'd just have to write one
ourselves.
We acknowledge that there are at least five QWK mail doors for RBBS-PC
message bases:
JIMMER by Jim Goodenough, (Shareware)
TQM by Tom Collins, (Shareware)
Silver Express by Hector Santos (Shareware)
our original Mail Manager, and (Free)
Mail Manager +Plus+ (Shareware)
One of these packages should be able to handle your QWK needs.
Naturally, we're hoping that you choose Mail Manager +Plus+!
JIMMER popped up during development of Mail Manager's initial release,
and TQM followed a few months after Mail Manager's first release, and
Silver Express now supports the QWK format.
Mail Manager +Plus+ is our continuing effort to add additional
features to the original basic Mail Manager package. Mail Manager and
Mail Manager +Plus+ have been in nearly continuous development since
January of 1991, and they are by far the largest projects that either
of us have ever tackled, or are ever likely to!
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 2 -
WARRANTY, DISTRIBUTION, & REGISTRATION
--------------------------------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ is NOT guaranteed in any way, shape, or form.
Although we have worked very hard to keep our door compatible with a
wide variety of possible RBBS configurations, we are forced to deal
with two very important aspects of your RBBS-PC: your USERS files, and
your MESSAGES files. While it works just fine here, there may be
differences in your setup that can cause problems. THEREFORE:
RUN MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The Mail Manager +Plus+ package (MPLUS351.ZIP) may be distributed
freely (in unmodified form) to friends, associates, and bulletin
boards. Re-archiving into your favorite format (ARJ, LZH, etc) is
permitted, provided that the entire package (and all documentation) is
included in the re-archiving process, and no files are modified or
added. If you received this package in some other format than
MPLUS351.ZIP, or the .ZIP file does not have -AV verification from
Chip Morrow or Doug Wilson, then you did not receive an original copy.
Please see Appendix B for information about where you may obtain Mail
Manager +Plus+ in its official release form.
If you are a registered user of our door, do *NOT* distribute the
registration code that you received from us. This is your own
personal registration, and is not for distribution.
If you are a shareware distributor/dealer, you may distribute Mail
Manager +Plus+ provided you make it clear that any fees paid to you do
NOT constitute paying for the use of the program.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ is a fully-functional SHAREWARE package.
If you like our door, and continue using it beyond a reasonable
evaluation period, you are obligated to register it with us. Your
registration will be good for future releases of the door as well.
Registration of our door simply removes the "* UNREGISTERED *
Evaluation copy" notice that you and your users see when the door
loads, and replaces it with your registration number and name. Mail
Manager +Plus+ is not otherwise crippled in *ANY* way.
A companion product, MNET QWK-compatible network processing software,
is also available from Makai Software. This product is explained
elsewhere in this document.
The registration fee structure for Mail Manager +Plus+ / MNET is:
Mail Manager +Plus+ alone = $25.00
Mail Manager +Plus+ and MNET at same time = 30.00
MNET - add to existing Mail Manager +Plus+ reg. = 7.50
(incl latest Mail Manager +Plus+ on disk)
MNET by itself = 10.00
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 3 -
If you are already a registered user of Mail Manager +Plus+, and don't
want MNET, you're all set; just download the latest version of the
door from your favorite source.
As you can see, we're not attempting to get rich here, just trying to
cover some of the cost of development and support. As a SysOp
yourself, you already know what it costs for any LD connect time at
all, and the number of hours spent in front of the keyboard.
If you never intend to register Mail Manager +Plus+ with us, and/or
need only a fraction of its features, you may wish to consider our
"free" version of the door instead, which does not require a
registration fee for continued use.
If you do choose to register, BLESS YOU! The registration form is on
the next page.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 4 -
REGISTRATION FORM FOR MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+
Name: __________________________________________________
Address: __________________________________________________
City/State/Zip: __________________________________________________
Mail Manager +Plus+ version that I am currently using: ___v3.51___
BBS Name (as you'd like it to appear in the registration information).
This can be your organization name, your name, or any other one-liner
that you would like your users to see when the door loads. Should not
exceed 60 characters (for display considerations):
______________________________________________________________________
Specify disk size: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25" 360k [ ] 5.25" 1.2m
Comments (optional): _________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
OPTIONAL: BBS phone number and/or Zone:Net/Node ID (for our own use,
in case we feel it necessary to contact you directly).
_____________________________ 14.4 [ ] 9600 [ ] 2400 [ ]
[ ] Mail Manager +Plus+ QWK mail door for RBBS-PC and Fido *.MSG,
with MNET.EXE node QWK network conversion utility ......... $30.00
[ ] Mail Manager +Plus+ QWK mail door for RBBS-PC and Fido *.MSG:
......... $25.00
[ ] MNET QWK network node conversion utility alone............: $10.00
[ ] MNET - add to existing Mail Manager +Plus+ registration, with
current Mail Manager +Plus+ release on disk...............: $7.50
My MMGR+ registration # is _________ <-- IMPORTANT!
Total enclosed: ________
We will mail you a copy of the current version(s) of Mail Manager
+Plus+ (and/or MNET, if applicable), and instructions for registering
them in the name entered above. One registration covers all nodes of
your BBS.
Send check or money order (payable to F. D. Wilson) for total amount
in U.S. Funds to:
Makai Software
870 Golden Drive
Newark, OH 43055
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 5 -
FEATURES/LIMITATIONS
--------------------
The length of this list got ridiculous a long time ago. So, we'll
only list the MAJOR stuff that you might be interested in:
■ Can use a FOSSIL for communications.
■ Supports both DESQview and NetBIOS file & record locking schemes,
as well as file sharing under NetBIOS, and supports Novell
networks.
■ Support for running as a DOS application under OS/2.
■ Mail packets can be downloaded in either text or QWK format.
Both types of mail packets can, at the option of the sysop,
contain all sorts of additional stuff such as bulletins, news,
new file listings, etc.
■ Supports the optional multiple message headers that were
introduced in RBBS-PC v17.4.
■ Supports both types of RBBS-PC message bases, fixed-length and
'elastic'. (Your message bases are 'elastic' if you have
configured them to GROW as messages are added). Can handle a mix
of both 'fixed-length' and 'elastic' message bases.
■ Supports FIDO-style *.MSG message bases, as well as RBBS-PC's own
*M.DEF's.
■ Supports FIDO-style *.MSG netmail areas. If using a Binkley-
compatible mailer, also provides CRASH capability, file-attaches,
and file requests. Supports "point" addresses.
■ Each FIDO-style *.MSG area is configured with its own
Zone:Net/Node address, so you can painlessly be a part of many
different mail zones. Also, AKA addresses are supported for
Netmail areas, so crash mail can be sent to many different zones
with a single netmail area.
■ Supports QWK networks, can generate net-status-capable QWK
packets for specific usernames.
■ Users can read, reply, and post messages to both RBBS-PC *M.DEF
and Fido *.MSG areas while online within the door, as well as use
offline QWK/REP transfer of mail.
■ Multi-node support (up to 36 nodes) via DORINFOx.DEF and separate
subdirectories for each node (built by Mail Manager on-the-fly).
■ Up to 500 conferences can be configured.
■ Support for non-standard communication ports & IRQ's via FOSSIL,
MAILMGR.PRO, and batch files.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 6 -
■ Sysop-configurable limit of number of messages which can be
extracted & downloaded in any one mail packet (default is 1000).
Subsequent downloads will extract any additional waiting
messages. (1,000 messages means at least a 300K compressed mail
packet). User can set own lower limits if desired.
■ BPS rates up to 115K, and COM ports 1-4 are supported.
■ X, Y, and Zmodem for file transfers via Forsberg's DSZ, or you
can use our implementation of PROTO.DEF (MAILMGR.PRO) and
configure a number of different protocols.
■ "(R)", and "Re:", when found at the beginning of the subject
field of extracted messages, are stripped from the field. This
allows offline readers to group related messages together, rather
than into one group with and one without.
■ High/low ASCII can be allowed or stripped in each conference.
■ ANSI can be allowed or stripped in each conference.
■ Mail reader tearlines in uploaded messages can be altered (for
possible FIDO compatibility) from "--- " to "... ", or left alone
for each conference.
■ The popular "alias" merge is supported, and alias names can be
allowed or disallowed by conference.
■ Conferences can be joined from within the door, or can be
configured to force the users to join from RBBS-PC.
■ Extensive security checks.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ GENERAL INFORMATION - Page 7 -
CHECKLIST OF REQUIREMENTS
-------------------------
[ ] DOS v3.30 or above.
[ ] At least one RBBS-PC message base and user file, or if you are
running a BBS type other than RBBS-PC, a conversion utility to
create one for you.
[ ] If you are running RBBS-PC, separate RBBS-PC users files for each
conference/subboard.
[ ] DORINFOx.DEF for remote operation.
[ ] A recent version of DSZ.COM (one that supports the "handshake
slow" command) *IN A DOS PATH!*, or the external protocols of your
choice via MAILMGR.PRO (our implementation of RBBS-PC's
PROTO.DEF).
[ ] The environment variable of your choice set to indicate where Mail
Manager is to look for "XFER-[node].DEF" (where [node] is the node
number). XFER-x.DEF is no longer required to be in the default
directory.
[ ] The file compression/extraction programs of your choice in a DOS
path, or wherever you specified them in Mail Manager's list of
archivers (MAILMGR.ARL).
[ ] Memory:
- About 310K free memory for Mail Manager +Plus+ itself, plus
- 384 bytes for each conference, plus
- whatever you need for your file compression software and
external protocols.
Think about this. 200 conferences * 384 bytes each = 76,800
additional bytes. That's about 386K BEFORE your external
compression and file transfer software. The full slew of
conferences (500 * 384) would be an additional 192K (or a total of
about 502K). Figure in another RAM-hungry application like Robert
Jung's ARJ archiver, and you could need more conventional memory
than your PC has available!
There is a wonderful shareware program available out there,
written by Davis Augustine, by the name of "SHROOM". SHROOM has
the ability to swap an application to disk (or a RAM disk, for
speed) whenever the application "shells" to an external program.
SHROOM works very well with Mail Manager +Plus+ (RBBS-PC, too!),
and you would be well-advised to look into this utility if you are
tight on RAM, and/or have a large number of conferences to
configure into Mail Manager +Plus+.
You can locate SHROOM on many Bulletin Boards, or by contacting
the author directly:
Davis Augustine (Shroom Shareware)
P.O. Box 610, Sausalito, CA 94966-0610
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 8 -
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
----------------
*********************** PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!! ***********************
RBBS-PC has the unique ability to create, read, and manipulate its own
corrupted message bases, without ever telling you that anything's
wrong.
Mail Manager is not as forgiving, and requires that your message bases
be in good condition. It is therefore STRONGLY suggested that you run
some type of checkout/repair utility against your message bases BEFORE
installing Mail Manager. We've included a utility named MailFix to
repair/purge/renumber your message bases, which you can try out as an
alternative to CONFIG.EXE's repair and purge functions.
MailFix is compatible with RBBSMail'ed, MsgToss'ed, and OverMail'ed
message bases (which have differently-formatted message headers), as
well as RBBS-standard message bases, INCLUDING v17.4 multi-headers.
This is in contrast to RBBS-PC's CONFIG option #185, which simply will
not properly handle a message base that has been manipulated by any of
these mail processors.
*PLEASE* take a few minutes to read the section of this document
regarding MailFix before you attempt to utilize this program!
In any event, you really SHOULD check out the integrity of your
message bases before attempting to install Mail Manager.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 9 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 3.50 is a major update to the Mail Manager +Plus+ version 3.xx
series. Version 3.51 is a minor update to v3.50. If you are
upgrading from v3.50, you need only drop in the v3.51 MAILMGR.EXE
and go. No other changes are needed.
If you are upgrading from a version lower than 1.30, your best bet is
to set up Mail Manager +Plus+ from scratch. The changes are simply
too extensive. Initial installation is covered in a page or two.
With that out of the way, there are several things common to ALL
upgrades from v1.30 through 3.11:
[ ] - Back up your Mail Manager directory! It never hurts to play
it safe.
[ ] - Overwrite all executables with the ones contained within
351-EXE.ZIP. (You backed up your old ones, right?)
[ ] - Install the *.HLP files, which are revised with this
release.
If you are upgrading from a version earlier than v3.10:
[ ] - The main menu options have changed a bit. If you have
created custom menus, change them to reflect the new option
lineup - de-compress the file MAILMGR.MNU from 351-TXT.ZIP,
and have a look at what's there. If you are using the
default menus, just overwrite your existing ones with
MAILMGR*.MNU in 351-TXT.ZIP.
[ ] - Since the main menu items have changed, the Mail Manager
help files have too. Delete your old MAILMGR*.HLP files,
and use the new ones contained within 351-TXT.ZIP. If you
are upgrading from a version earlier than 3.0, you'll notice
these help files have a new naming convention: MMGR*.HLP.
Do not rename them.
SUPPLEMENTAL EXECUTABLES:
MAILFIX.EXE, our message base maintenance utility has been greatly
enhanced from the version included with Mail Manager releases prior to
v3.10, and with this release a new /P command line option has been
added. The MNET.EXE QWK network utility has also been updated from
the initial version included with Mail Manager v 3.0x. Also,
MINDEX.EXE (our Fido *.MSG index utility) has been updated with this
release as well (new /L command line option). You may wish to read
the documentation on these new versions.
That's it for the initial stuff. Now, find the version you are
upgrading from below, and follow the instructions for that upgrade,
and all later ones:
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 10 -
UPGRADING FROM THE "FREE" MAIL MANAGER v1.3x
---------------------------------------------
Although it is relatively painless to upgrade from v1.3x of Mail
Manager, please be aware that both the configuration file and user
file (MAILMGR.CFG and MAILMGR.USR) have changed in format, and the
new MAILCFG program will report that your old configuration file is
corrupt.
Run the supplied UPDATE.EXE against your existing configuration
file, then run the supplied UPDATUSR.EXE against your existing
MAILMGR.USR file. MAKE SURE YOU RUN THESE UTILITIES FROM YOUR MAIL
MANAGER DIRECTORY! After you've run these utilities once, you can
throw them away (UPDATE.EXE and UPDATUSR.EXE).
**********************************************
--->> * RUN UPDATUSR.EXE ONCE AND ONLY ONCE!!!!! * <<---
**********************************************
After that, run the new MAILCFG.EXE and carefully look for changes,
especially in the conference edit screen. You'll have to go into
the new manual if some of the options appear confusing.
UPGRADING FROM "PLUS" v2.0x:
----------------------------
Run the new MAILCFG against your existing configuration file(s),
and save your changes when finished. There is a new option on the
second screen of the main configuration:
- Allow G)oodbye and E)xpedite! options to drop DTR?
(Default = No)
There are also new options in each conference:
- Number of lines allowed per message (Default = 99). Set this
to zero (0) to not split long uploaded messages into smaller
parts.
- Conference description, up to 25 characters (no default).
UPGRADING FROM "PLUS" v3.00 and v3.01:
--------------------------------------
There is one new option on the second screen of MAILCFG - you can
now tell Mail Manager to display or hide empty conferences when
your users are in the conference selection screens.
Nothing else has changed from a configuration standpoint since
previous v3.x releases except the distributed PRELOG*.RBS and
EPILOG*.RBS text files, which you probably aren't using anyway.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 11 -
UPGRADING FROM "PLUS" v3.10:
----------------------------
If you are running Mail Manager from a "point" setup, you can now
enter your point address for each conference in MAILCFG, either as
a full 4D address or as a "fakenet" address.
UPGRADING FROM "PLUS" v3.11:
----------------------------
There are three new sysop options in MAILCFG:
- sysop can configure the maximum number of messages to allow in
one packet in the event he wishes to change this from the default
1000.
- sysop can choose whether to enable the built-in online R)ead and
P)ost capabilities.
- sysop can configure the conference which receives violation
notices to be mandatory. Normally this would be conf #1, but
this can be changed by loading MAILMGR via the new /Vnn switch,
where nn is the conference to receive violation notices.
These options are found on a new third MAILCFG screen.
IF YOU'RE SETTING UP FOR THE FIRST TIME:
----------------------------------------
There is no such thing as a "QUICK INSTALL" for Mail Manager +Plus+,
although you can be up and running fairly easily by:
- Creating a \MAILMGR directory off of your root,
- De-compressing the archives 351-EXE.ZIP and 351-TXT.ZIP there,
- Run MAILCFG.EXE, and follow the prompts, then...
- Follow standard procedure for adding a new door to your system
(DOORS.DEF, menus, etc. etc.)
However, we do *NOT* recommend that you do it this way if you have
more than a handful of conferences, and plan to add or delete any in
the foreseeable future. A little advance planning *NOW* can save you
a world of grief later, and there are many customizable text files
that you may want to change.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 12 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLING THE DOOR FROM SCRATCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If for some reason these instructions are not clear to you, or this is
your first attempt at installing a door in your RBBS-PC, there's
really not much that can take the place of RBBS-PC's documentation.
With that said...
Check your environment variables (type "SET" at the DOS prompt). Both
RBBS-PC and Mail Manager +Plus+ use the log file "XFER-x.DEF", where
"x" is the node number. Mail Manager +Plus+ needs an environment
variable to determine where this file is located on your system. Most
of us seem to be using Forsberg's DSZ for file transfers, so there
should be a line referencing "DSZLOG" in either the batch file you use
to load RBBS-PC, or your system's AUTOEXEC.BAT, which would look
something like this for node 1:
DSZLOG=C:\RBBS\XFER-1.DEF
or...
DSZLOG=XFER-1.DEF
If Mail Manager +Plus+ cannot find "XFER-x.DEF", it will report that
all file transfers have failed.
In any case, make a note of the environment variable name (in this
case DSZLOG), since you'll need it later.
Once you're past this, you can get on to the actual installation.
Create a subdirectory just for Mail Manager +Plus+. Stick it anywhere
you want, and name it anything you want, just be sure that it is a
drive and directory specifically meant for Mail Manager +Plus+. From
here on we'll just refer to it as the "\MAILMGR" directory.
De-compress the imbedded archives "351-EXE.ZIP" and "351-TXT.ZIP" to
the directory you just created.
Now go through the motions of adding a new door to your system. On a
'normal' RBBS-PC this would entail:
- Editing MENU5* (or whatever you have named your door menu) and
adding the word " MAILMGR ".
- Creating a MAILMGR.BAT file, and sticking it where RBBS can find
it. Your batch file that calls Mail Manager is very important,
and as a minimum must logically do the following:
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 13 -
- change to drive and directory where MAILMGR.EXE is located
- copy the DORINFOx.DEF door information file to the Mail Manager
directory
- execute the MAILMGR program
- return to your RBBS directory
With that in mind, a minimum batch file would look something like
this:
cd\mailmgr
copy \rbbs\dorinfo%1.def
mailmgr %1
cd\rbbs
If you're running the recent "DOORS.DEF" method that RBBS-PC provides,
here's an example line to implement Mail Manager:
MAILMGR,5,,D,"MAILMGR.BAT [NODE]",N,,
This line tells RBBS-PC the following:
1) The name of the door is MAILMGR.
2) Security level 5 and above can access the door.
3) No questionnaire is to be invoked.
4) Exit to this door, rather than shell to it. (Mail Manager
requires a lot of RAM)
5) The name of the batch file to invoke is MAILMGR.BAT.
6) RBBS-PC is to pass the node number to the batch file.
* NOTE - Type the word "[NODE]" as shown above, and RBBS-PC
will replace it with the true node number when it calls the
batch file. If you are running a single-node system, and
find this confusing, you can instead pass the node number
directly, but it isn't necessary to do it this way. This
would make your DOORS.DEF line look something like this:
MAILMGR,5,,D,"MAILMGR.BAT 1",N,,
7) Don't ask for a password when returning back to RBBS-PC.
8) Don't display a text file when the door closes.
9) Use the time limit from RBBS-PC as the time allowed in the
door.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 14 -
IF YOU HAVE A LOCKED BPS RATE
-----------------------------
If you have your communications port locked higher than what the
user's actual connect speed is going to be, you may find that Mail
Manager +Plus+ will not report the correct BPS rate, nor will it
estimate the amount of time required for file transfers properly.
This is due to RBBS-PC passing the locked BPS rate to the door,
instead of true connect speed.
RBBS-PC versions 17.3C and lower had no provision for passing the true
connect rate to doors. The locked rate is always passed to
DORINFOx.DEF. The only way around this is to run RBBS-PC v17.4 or
later, and modify the command line used to call Mail Manager +Plus+.
The following will work *ONLY* with RBBS-PC v17.4 and up! (or with
copies of RBBS-PC compiled with the CBAUD merge):
Change the DOORS.DEF example mentioned on earlier to read:
MAILMGR,5,,D,"MAILMGR.BAT [NODE] [CBAUD]",N,,
Then, in your batch file that loads the door:
mailmgr %1 /CBAUD%2
If the door is called on node 4 of your system, and the user's connect
rate is 2400 BPS, the above line will look like this to Mail Manager
+Plus+:
mailmgr 4 /CBAUD2400
With this done, your basic door installation is finished, and the time
has come to plan your interface for the users, and to configure the
door for your system.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 15 -
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
--------------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ has several different available command line
options. You will never use all of them at once, but variations of
these can be useful for the various operations that the door is
capable of performing.
MAILMGR [Node] [/I] [/O] [/A] [/CBAUDxxxxx] [/WX:\PATH] [/Vxx]
Node = The node number currently in use. (1, 2, 3, etc.)
/I = "Import mode". Most useful when operating in local mode,
this option causes the door to immediately process a REP
packet that is waiting in the proper work directory.
/O = "Output mode". Most useful when operating in local mode,
this option causes the door to immediately extract mail
from your selected conferences, creating a new mail
packet.
/A = "Automatic mode". Again, most useful in local mode. This
option causes the door to go straight into E)xpedite
mode, which will process any waiting .REP, and also
extract any new waiting mail.
/CBAUD = An option that became available with the advent of RBBS-
PC's template variable "[CBAUD]", which is the true
connect rate of the user. This option can be used in
your DOORS.DEF as follows, but ONLY IF YOU ARE RUNNING A
VERSION OF RBBS-PC THAT SUPPORTS THE [CBAUD] VARIABLE!:
/CBAUD[CBAUD]
Then, if the user were connected at 2400 bps on your
system, Mail Manager +Plus+ would see it like so:
/CBAUD2400
This makes the door capable of accurately determining
transfer times for your users.
/W = Drive/path to use for work directories. Mail Manager
+Plus+ normally creates and manipulates files in separate
directories off of the directory in which you installed
the door. If you are tight on disk space on this drive,
or would rather use a ram disk for a work drive, you can
specify this option. NOTE - If you implement this
option, and intend to use a RAM disk for a work drive, it
had best be a BIG one indeed! Don't forget that a single
MESSAGES.DAT can be over 1 meg in size, plus the archived
mail packet itself. And if you have multiple nodes all
trying to use this ram disk, you'll need a big one. If
you run out of room, you will not be able to pack/unpack
the QWK or REP packet.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 16 -
To use drive "X" as your work drive, this command would
look like this:
/WX:
The door *will* create separate work subdirectories (such
as \LOCAL, \NODE1, etc.) off of what you specify here.
In the above example, X:\LOCAL, X:\NODE1, etc. would be
used as your work directories. You can specify a
specific path to use as the base for these directories,
if you do not want them off the root of your work drive.
If you do not use this option, Mail Manager +Plus+ will
create the work directories off the directory in which
you installed the door.
/Vnn = Conference which should receive any security violation
messages generated by Mail Manager +Plus+. By default
violation messages are placed in conference #1, but you
can change this to any conference you wish. To change to
conference 2, you would use the switch as /V2.
Sample command lines, based on the above:
MAILMGR - No command line always assumes local operation. Door
will come up in local mode, using the sysop name as
listed in the configuration file. Any mail packets
created during the session will be placed in the \LOCAL
work directory, as mentioned above.
MAILMGR /A - Local mode, automatic operation. Goes straight into
expedite mode, then returns to DOS. Processes any
waiting .REP in the \LOCAL work directory, and will also
create a mail packet there if there was any new unread
mail waiting to be picked up.
MAILMGR 1 /o - Read DORINFO1.DEF for operating parameters, create a
new mail packet in the \NODE1 work directory, and return
to DOS.
MAILMGR 1 /i - Read DORINFO1.DEF for operating parameters, process
any waiting .REP packet in the \NODE1 work directory, and
return to DOS.
MAILMGR 5 /CBAUD14400 /wD:\WORK - Read DORINFO5.DEF for operating
parameters, tell the door that the connect rate is 14400
bps, and use D:\WORK as the base drive/dir for the door's
work directories. The program will use D:\WORK\NODE5 as
its work directory.
MAILMGR 3 /CBAUD2400 /V5 - Read DORINFO3.DEF for operating
parameters, tell the door that the connect rate is 2400
BPS, and have conference #5 receive any violation
notices.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 17 -
By careful, planned use of these options, and "dummy" DORINFOx.DEF
files with the communications port configured as COM0, you can do some
mighty advanced stuff via batch files. Some thoughts that come
immediately to mind are "prescanned" mail packets for specific users,
and automatic operation of QWK networking. As you become more
familiar with the door, and begin using it yourself in local mode as
the sysop, more and more of these options are likely to become useful
to you.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 18 -
PLANNING YOUR USER INTERFACE
----------------------------
As with most aspects of your RBBS-PC, you will get the best results
from Mail Manager +Plus+ with a little advance planning. To your
users, the single most important aspect of Mail Manager will be the
ability to locate which conferences they want to follow. This sounds
simple enough, but think about that for a second, especially if you're
running a system with more than a handful of conferences.
Here are some serious points to consider BEFORE diving into the
configuration program:
1 - Your RBBS-PC MAIN message base must ALWAYS be configured as
conference #1. This is VERY IMPORTANT - Mail Manager +Plus+
simply will not function properly if your MAIN area is not #1
on the list. The door uses the information found in the MAIN
area for some of its default functions for each user. If you
are not running RBBS-PC, your conversion utility that loads
the door must be capable of creating RBBS-PC users and
messages files, which you would configure as area #1. The
user file created in this operation MUST (as a minimum)
contain information for the user that is loading the door.
2 - Once MailCFG creates your configuration file, and your users
start using the door, you cannot easily re-sort your
conferences.
3 - If you have several different TYPES of conferences (such as
local, RBBS-NET, FIDO-NET, etc.), you'll want to consider how
to group the conferences together for the user's purposes.
4 - Will you be adding more conferences at some point? Will you
want those conference names to be inserted in the middle of
your list of conference numbers? It is easy to tack
conferences onto the end, but to insert them in the middle
requires a little forethought to skip empty conference numbers
*NOW*.
5 - After Mail Manager +Plus+ has been running for a while, and
you decide to delete a conference, delete it, but RESERVE THE
SPACE FOR THAT CONFERENCE NUMBER!!! If you don't, your
conferences will be re-numbered, and the unsuspecting users
might inadvertently upload a reply to the wrong conference
number.
If all this is too much to think about for the moment, consider this
relatively simple example... Say you have a total of 3 conferences:
1 MAIN message base, 1 RBBS-NET area, and 1 FIDO-NET area.
Now, if you think at some point that you might add two more
conferences to your list of RBBS-NET conferences, and maybe five more
local areas, here's how you might want the conference numbers to look
from Mail Manager's standpoint:
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 19 -
1 - MAIN - My main message base
2 - ---
3 - ---
4 - ---
5 - ---
6 - ---
7 - RBBSNET - An RBBSNet conference
8 - ---
9 - ---
10 - FIDONET - A FidoNet conference
Now, when you do add an extra local conference, you can insert it in
position #2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.
Otherwise, your conferences will be ordered as:
1 - MAIN
2 - RBBSNET
3 - FIDONET
... and you would have to tack that new local conference on at
position #4. Starting to make sense now?
OK... with that in mind, if you have a CONFMAIL.DEF file (RBBS-PC's
list of conferences), copy it to your Mail Manager directory, and take
a look at it. If you don't have a CONFMAIL.DEF, go ahead and skip
this section.
Are your conference types grouped together? Do you want to leave
spaces between any of them? Is the FULL PATH TO THE CONFERENCE
listed, or does it just read something like:
C:MAINU.DEF, C:MAINM.DEF ?
The above WON'T WORK. Mail Manager +Plus+ does not operate out of
your RBBS directory, and therefore won't know where to find your
conferences. You will need to change each line to reflect the FULL
PATH to the conference, something like:
C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF, C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
That's why we suggested you make a copy of your CONFMAIL.DEF, and then
use the EDITED COPY for importing into MAILCFG. With that done, now's
the time to sort it however you see fit, making sure that your MAIN
area is the very first one listed, at the top of the file.
If you want to add empty conference numbers between any of them, add
the following line:
{EMPTY}U.DEF,
MailCFG will reserve that spot for future use. Using a real quick
example, say you have two conferences, and your current CONFMAIL.DEF
looks like this:
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 20 -
C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF,C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
C:\RBBS\BBSADSU.DEF,C:\RBBS\BBSADSM.DEF
If you wanted to reserve a space between these two, you would edit the
copy of CONFMAIL.DEF that you copied to Mail Manager's directory
(don't edit your RBBS original) to look like this:
C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF,C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
{EMPTY}U.DEF,
C:\RBBS\BBSADSU.DEF,C:\RBBS\BBSADSM.DEF
Mail Manager will see conference #2 as empty, and you'll be able to go
back into MailCFG to add it in later. DON'T FORGET THE COMMA AFTER
{EMPTY}U.DEF !!
One last thing to note here is that you can configure Mail Manager to
display the empty conference spaces to your users, or to condense the
listing to just those conferences available to them (we'll cover that
in the section on the MAILCFG configuration utility). If you choose
to display the empty conferences, Mail Manager displays conferences to
the users in either columns of 10, like so:
1 11 21
2 12 22
3 13 etc..
4 14
5 15
6 16
7 17
8 18
9 19
10 20
...or in groups of 15 if they are viewing conference descriptions:
1 MAIN - My main message base
2 CONF2 - My second conference
3 - (etc. etc. etc.)
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -
12 -
13 -
14 -
15 -
If you have a large number of conferences, you may want to take this
into consideration as well.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 21 -
Once you have prepared CONFMAIL.DEF for Mail Manager +Plus+ as
mentioned above, it is ready for importing into the MAILCFG.EXE
configuration program.
One last thing to mention here is that CONFMAIL.DEF is not used by
Mail Manager +Plus+ itself at all. Once you have imported your
conferences into the MAILCFG.EXE program, Mail Manager +Plus+ will
never look at your CONFMAIL.DEF again.
Now that your temporary copy of CONFMAIL.DEF is ready for the MAILCFG
program, it is time to set up your text files that Mail Manager +Plus+
is to use.
SYSOP-CONFIGURABLE TEXT FILES
-----------------------------
The last step before getting into the configuration program is to set
up your text files, and Mail Manager +Plus+ uses quite a few. Here
goes:
(All in Mail Manager's directory)
MMGR1.HLP \ _ The online help files that will be displayed to
MMGR2.HLP / users when "H" and "?" are selected from the main
menu. You can customize if need be, but they
should be pretty much OK as-is.
MAILMGR.PRE - The initial screen displayed when Mail Manager
loads. Again, you might want to customize it for
your own individual system, but it is generic
enough as distributed that you may not need to.
If this file (and the corresponding graphic and
ANSI versions) do not exist, Mail Manager +Plus+
will take the user Directly to the main menu
after it loads. Otherwise, this screen will be
displayed, and the prompt "Press any key to
continue..." will be shown.
NEW_USER.OPT - This file is optional. You can use it to define
the default options Mail Manager will use for new
users, if you don't care for our choice of
defaults. A sample NEW_USER.OPT file is included
in the distribution archive. Only the first
character of each line in this file is
significant; the balance of each line is used to
describe to you what each option is for.
MAILMGR.MNU - Mail Manager's main menu, displayed to the users
just before the command prompt.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 22 -
PRELOG.RBS - The welcome message that your users will see when
they first fire up their mail reader against one
of Mail Manager's QWK's. Probably the most
common thing that you'd want to put here would be
a copy of your RBBS-PC prelog or welcome screen,
but this is entirely up to you!
EPILOG.RBS - The signoff message that the users will see just
as they exit your QWK packet from their mail
reader. You might want to put an adaptation of
RBBS-PC's EPILOG.DEF here.
MMGR1G.HLP \
MMGR2G.HLP \
MAILMGRG.PRE \ ASCII graphic versions of the above.
MAILMGRG.MNU / (Optional)
PRELOGG.RBS /
EPILOGG.RBS /
MMGR1C.HLP \
MMGR2C.HLP \
MAILMGRC.PRE \ Color/ANSI versions of the above.
MAILMGRC.MNU / (Optional)
PRELOGC.RBS /
EPILOGC.RBS /
MAILMGR.BUL - The list of *NON-GRAPHIC* versions of any
bulletins (with full path/filenames) that you'll
want to include in your users' QWKs. Mail
Manager +Plus+ will look for the "g" or "c"
versions of the bulletins according to the
graphic preference of the callers.
Edit this file to pertain to your system
bulletins (and/or any other text files that
you'll want to include in your users' QWK
packets), and if any of them are newer than the
user's last call to RBBS-PC, the user will get
them included in his/her QWK packet.
Bulletins preceded with a double-asterisk are
considered mandatory for inclusion in the user's
mail packets, and if new, they will be included
regardless of whether the user has configured
Mail Manager to send new bulletins.
Example:
c:\bulletin\bulet1
c:\bulletin\bulet2
**c:\bulletin\bulet3
bulet1 and bulet2 are optional, bulet3 will
always be included if it has been updated.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 23 -
(NOTE - The path\filename of MAILMGR.BUL is
sysop-configurable in MailCFG.EXE.)
MAILMGR.PRO - A copy of the RBBS-PC PROTO.DEF that you intend
to have Mail Manager +Plus+ use. Mail Manager
+Plus+ can use all of RBBS-PC's "template"
variables in here, such as [NODE], [PORT#],
[BAUD], [CBAUD], etc. Refer to the RBBS-PC
documentation for information on these "template"
variables.
For the purposes of Mail Manager +Plus+, it is
important that you configure "N)one" as the last
protocol in this file! You will also need to
configure an external X)modem and Y)modem, since
Mail Manager obviously cannot use RBBS-PC's
internal X and Y that are probably listed in your
existing RBBS-PC PROTO.DEF. See the sample
MAILMGR.PRO for an example of how to configure
these protocols externally using DSZ.
If you are running multiple nodes with different
communication port setups, you may want to create
copies of this file with the necessary arguments
changed accordingly (MAILMGR1.PRO, MAILMGR2.PRO,
etc.).
NOTE #1 - If one of the protocols that you
configure here happens to be bi-directional (like
Samuel Smith's HSLINK), you don't need to do
anything special to implement it. When the user
downloads a QWK packet, any REP packet that was
received during that transfer will be immediately
processed when the transfer is complete. Easy!
NOTE #2 - The path/filename of MAILMGR.PRO is
sysop-configurable in MAILCFG.EXE.
MAILMGR.ARL - The list of archivers that are available to your
users through Mail Manager +Plus+. MAILMGR.ARL
is a "template" file, similar in structure to
MAILMGR.PRO.
The supplied copy of MAILMGR.ARL allows the use
of ARC, ARJ, LZH, and ZIP compression methods,
which the user can pick and choose from to suit
their own preference. You can configure fewer or
additional archivers as you see fit. Format of
each line:
Name, EXT, Compress, Extract
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 24 -
Name = The name of the archiver, as shown to the
user.
EXT = The three-letter extension that this
archiver creates by default for compressed
files.
Compress = The line to send to DOS to compress
the mail packets.
Extract = The line to send to DOS to extract the
uploaded reply packets that the user uploads.
"Template" variables that can be included in the
Compress and Extract lines (Mail Manager will
convert these to their true values):
[FILE] - Compressed file to create, or extract
from.
[INC] - All files that Mail Manager normally
includes in the downloadable archive.
[REPLY] - Reply file that Mail Manager expects
to be contained within the compressed upload.
[NODE] - Current RBBS-PC node number.
See the supplied MAILMGR.ARL for an example
implementation of this file.
(NOTE - The path/filename of MAILMGR.ARL is
sysop-configurable in MAILCFG.EXE).
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 25 -
TEXT FILES RELATED TO FIDO *.MSG NETMAIL AREAS
----------------------------------------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ has two system text files that pertain only to
FIDO-style netmail areas. If you are not running any of these types
of areas, these two files need not exist. Otherwise, Mail Manager
+Plus+ will look for both of these in your Mail Manager directory
whenever someone uploads a "crash" (Binkley-style) netmail message.
MMGRNODE.AKA List of "AKA" addresses that your system uses.
If you are a member of more than one network, you
may wish to make use of this file for your
netmail areas. This is a simple text file,
listing all of the Zone:Net/Node numbers that
pertain to your system. It's format is as
follows (flush left in the file):
1:226/1400
8:965/9
10:10/1
This would inform Mail Manager that you are a
member of three different networks, zones 1, 8,
and 10. Any netmail message addressed to zone 8
would cause Mail Manager +Plus+ to temporarily
change your ID to "8:965/9" for that particular
message, regardless of the zone:net/node ID that
you configured that netmail area in the MAILCFG
program.
Only one address per mail zone can be listed
here, since Mail Manager +Plus+ will use the
first one it finds. For instance, if you set
this file to read:
1:226/1400
1:226/1401
8:965/9
10:10/1
... Mail Manager +Plus+ will always use the "AKA"
of 1:226/1400 for netmail messages addressed in
zone 1, since that is the first zone 1 address
listed. See the example MMGRNODE.AKA included in
this package for a sample implementation of this
file. If MMGRNODE.AKA is not found in your Mail
Manager directory, the Zone:Net/Node address
listed in the configuration file for that
conference will be used at all times.
INSTALLING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 26 -
MMGRNODE.OB The list of outbound directories that your system
uses. This file informs Mail Manager +Plus+
where to place CRASH messages, and file
attach/request packets. If this file is not
found (or not configured properly), you will be
unable to send CRASH netmail.
The format of MMGRNODE.OB is as follows (again,
flush left):
Zone, X:\PATH\OUTBOUND.DIR
So, if you are in three separate mail zones, your
MMGRNODE.OB file might look like this:
1, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND
8, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND.008
10, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND.010
A trailing backslash on the directory name is
optional.
NOTE: Mail Manager only knows how to send "crash"
mail and file attach/requests on systems running
BinkleyTerm or compatible front ends. Other
front end systems do things differently, and do
not need the MMGRNODE.OB file. Users of non-
Binkley front ends can still send/receive regular
routed netmail via this door.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 27 -
Mail Manager +Plus+'s configuration file (MAILMGR.CFG) is binary in
nature (for FAST loading), and can be directly manipulated by the
supplied program, MAILCFG.EXE.
Since many SysOps are VERY accustomed to using text editors against
the various configuration files on their systems, we have managed to
catch quite a bit of unexpected flak about the way MAILCFG does
things.
So now we give you two ways to configure your setup:
MAILCFG.EXE - Manipulate the configuration file directly, or use
the following pair of executables:
CFG2TXT.EXE - Convert MAILMGR.CFG to a text file.
TXT2CFG.EXE - Convert a text configuration file to MAILMGR.CFG.
MAILCFG.EXE is the recommended way to go, so the following
instructions pertain to the use of this program. The other pair of
programs are covered in the section of this document entitled:
"UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+".
Change to your Mail Manager directory, and run MAILCFG.EXE.
The first time you fire up MAILCFG, it isn't going to find the
configuration file, MAILMGR.CFG. MAILCFG will report to you as such,
and ask you if this is a first-time setup. (Just answer "Y" at this
point).
Just for the record, if you tell it "N", (this is not a first-time
setup), MAILCFG will figure that you started it from the wrong
directory, and will ask you for the correct path/name to MAILMGR.CFG.
After you press "Y", MAILCFG will prompt you whether to A)uto-config,
or M)anually configure your conferences.
A)uto - If you're not familiar with RBBS' CONFMAIL.DEF, ignore
this option, and choose M)anual instead.
This option will let you choose the path\filename of your
CONFMAIL.DEF, and then ask you for default values to
auto-create for EVERY conference. This can save LOTS of
time if you have many conferences to configure into Mail
Manager.
SUGGESTION: At this point, you should key in the
path/name to THE EDITED COPY of CONFMAIL.DEF that you
created a few pages back.
MailCFG will then step through your CONFMAIL.DEF and set
things up for Mail Manager +Plus+'s use. The TWO
REQUIREMENTS for using CONFMAIL.DEF is that your MAIN
message base absolutely *MUST* be the first conference
listed, and each line in your CONFMAIL.DEF must list the
FULL path\filename to the conference!
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 28 -
M)anual - Will create a default configuration file, and require you
to manually add all of your conference information.
If you have FIDO *.MSG conferences to add to your Mail
Manager +Plus+ configuration, and would like to auto-
import them in the same manner as above, you should first
set up all of your RBBS-PC *M.DEF areas via CONFMAIL.DEF
as above, read through this section so that you will know
what each option is for, and then read up on the section
of this document specific to FIDO *.MSG message areas.
Now let's talk about MAILCFG.EXE itself.
There are four main screens. Use the cursor keys to move around in
each one. [Esc] always takes you back to the previous level. [PgUp]
and [PgDn] usually lets you switch screens. Starting on the next
page, we'll take each one individually.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 29 -
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILCFG SCREEN 1 - GENERAL CONFIGURATION (Screen #1 of 3):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Unless you're configuring Mail Manager +Plus+ for the first time, this
is the screen that pops up when you load MAILCFG. It looks something
like this:
Name of your BBS................ : RBBS-PC
Remote Sysop Name............... : SECRET LOGONNAME
Sysop First Name................ : SYSTEM
Sysop Last Name................. : OPERATOR
Security to read ALL messages... : 10
Security to use in local mode... : 10
Use ANSI graphics in local mode? : Y
Tagline : Your friendly neighborhood RBBS-PC - (123) 555-1212
Network type (local mode only).. : DOS
Filename to use for extracts.... : RBBS-PC
Default file compression........ : ZIP
Path/Name of your NEWS file .... : C:\RBBS\MAIN.NWS
Path/Name of your FMS directory. : C:\RBBS\MASTER.DIR
Handshake method (F, R, X, N)... : XON/XOFF
Next Screen Edit Conference selections Exit
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now to take these one at a time:
- Name of your BBS................ :
This should be the name of your board as set in RBBS CONFIG.
You can stick anything in here, however. This name will be
shown to the user several times, and will be shown in the
offline mail reader as the board name.
- Remote Sysop Name............... :
This *MUST* be the full name that you use to log on remotely.
Mail Manager +Plus+ will not operate properly if it cannot
find you (the SysOp) in the various users files.
- Sysop First Name................ :
Your first name as you are known to your users.
- Sysop Last Name................. :
Your last name as you are known to your users.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 30 -
- Security to read ALL messages... :
* A VERY IMPORTANT SECURITY LEVEL! *
This should be set to either SYSOP or CO-SYSOP level only!
Anyone with this security level or higher can read any message
addressed to any user, regardless of whether or not it's
private!
Mail Manager +Plus+ also uses this security level for most of
it's SysOp-only functions, such as the ability to use the
I)nfo option from Mail Manager +Plus+'s main menu.
- Security to use in local mode... :
Should be set to SYSOP level. Whenever Mail Manager +Plus+ is
brought up locally, it will use this security level, and the
SysOp name(s) as listed above.
- Use ANSI graphics in local mode? :
Either "Y" or "N", and pretty self-explanatory, I think.
- Tagline :
This can be anything that you'd like to stick on the bottom of
all messages. (Usually a very brief BBS advertisement). If
this is left blank (or "NONE"), Mail Manager will not append a
tagline to the bottom of each message that the user downloads.
Please note that taglines can be different in each conference.
This is simply what you use as a default.
- Network type (local mode only).. :
This setting affects local operation only. Valid settings
are:
D = DOS - No file/record locking in place.
Q = DESQview - Use DESQview resource locking.
N = NetBIOS - Use NetBIOS file/record locking, and
implement file sharing. Unless you're running
in a Novell network, this option requires that
DOS SHARE be installed.
Type of network is fully explained elsewhere in this document.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 31 -
- Filename to use for extracts.... :
Specify up to 8 characters here. All downloaded files will
begin with this filename. You might want to abbreviate your
board name here to make it clearer to the users once they've
downloaded their file(s).
Using "MYBBS" for an example, QWK downloads would be named
MYBBS.QWK, and text extracts would be named MYBBS.ZIP, ARJ,
etc.
Also, all uploaded replies will be expected to have this
filename, with the extension ".REP". Any uploads that don't
have an exact match on filename are ignored.
- Default file compression........ :
Must be three characters, and one of the following:
ARC - Use Katz's PKARC.
ARJ - Use Jung's ARJ.
LZH - Use Yoshi's LHARC.
ZIP - Use Katz's PKZIP/PKUNZIP.
Unless you use Mail Manager +Plus+'s list of archivers, all
downloads will be compressed using this format, and all
uploads will be expected to be in this format. The archiver
of your choice absolutely *MUST* be in a DOS path if you are
not using the list of archivers! Just sticking it in the Mail
Manager directory won't do. If you are using the list of
archivers, Mail Manager will use the archiver list to
determine how to call the archiver.
- Path/Name of your NEWS file.... :
Type in the full path to the *NON-GRAPHIC VERSION* of your
RBBS-PC news file (usually MAIN.NWS in your RBBS-PC bulletin
directory). If the user is using ASCII or ANSI graphics, Mail
Manager +Plus+ will automatically attempt to pick up the
appropriate graphic version of this file for them. If this
file is newer than the user's last logon, it will be included
in their QWK packets. Otherwise it will be skipped when their
QWK packet is created.
- Path/Name of your FMS directory :
If you are using an RBBS-standard FMS directory, and would
like to make a list of new files available to your users
(since their last trip into the Mail Manager door), key in the
full path/filename of your FMS directory here. If you do not
want to use this option, leave this blank, or key in the word
"NONE" (with no quotes).
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 32 -
- Handshake method (F, R, X, N)... :
Allows you to specify the type of flow control that you'd like
Mail Manager +Plus+ to use. The four possible settings are as
follows:
F = FOSSIL Mail Manager will always try to use a FOSSIL with
this setting. If Mail Manager +Plus+ is unable (for
whatever reason) to initialize your FOSSIL driver, it
will default to XON/XOFF.
R = RTS/CTS (Use request to send/clear to send)
X = XON/XOFF (Use XON/XOFF)
N = NONE (No handshaking)
If set to R, X, or N:
The FOSSIL argument is passed to Mail Manager from RBBS-PC
in the DORINFOx.DEF file. If Mail Manager finds that a
FOSSIL is active in RBBS-PC, it will automatically attempt
to utilize the FOSSIL, regardless of this setting.
Mail Manager will default back to this setting if it is
unable to use your FOSSIL driver.
Use of a FOSSIL with Mail Manager is further explained
elsewhere in this document.
- Next Screen
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the second general configuration screen.
- Edit Conference selections
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the conference selection screen.
- Exit
Position the cursor over this option and press [ENTER] (or
press [Esc] from anywhere on this screen), and you'll be asked
to save your configuration before MAILCFG exits to DOS.
Thus endeth screen #1.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 33 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILCFG SCREEN 2 - GENERAL CONFIGURATION (Screen #2 of 3):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This screen should look something like this:
Path/Name of your bulletin list. : C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.BUL
Path/Name of protocol definitions: C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.PRO
Path/Name of list of archivers...: C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.ARL
Environment variable to check....: DSZLOG
Modify uploaded msgs date/time? .: No
Location of your BBS.............: Anytown, USA
BBS Phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx)..: 123-456-7890
Smart text character (1-255).....: 123
Default path to RBBS-PC msg bases: C:\RBBS\
Log file for FIDO conferences....: NONE
Door is timelocked from (xx:xx)..: 00:00
to (xx:xx)..: 00:00
Allow G)oodbye to drop DTR? .....: No
Show empty conferences? .........: Yes
Previous Screen Next Screen Edit Conference selections Exit
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now to take these one at a time:
- Path/Name of your bulletin list :
Type in the full path to your list of bulletins that you would
like to include to your users in their QWK packets. This is a
text file, and simply lists the paths and names of the *NON-
GRAPHIC VERSIONS* of your commonly updated bulletins. (The
door will automatically pick up the ASCII or ANSI versions of
your bulletins, depending on the user's graphic preference).
The default is MAILMGR.BUL in a directory named C:\MAILMGR.
This file should look something like this:
C:\RBBS\BULLET1
C:\RBBS\BULLET2
C:\RBBS\BULLET3
**C:\RBBS\ALWAYS.BUL
... etc.
The date stamp on these files will be checked against the last
logon date of the user, and if they are determined to be the
same as (or newer than) the user's last logon date, they will
be included in his/her QWK packet.
Bulletins preceded with a double-asterisk "**" are deemed as
"mandatory for inclusion", and will be included in the user's
mail packets (if they are newer than the user's last date into
the door) regardless of whether or not the user has turned
"off" the ability to receive new bulletins.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 34 -
Bulletins without the leading double-asterisk are deemed as
"optional", and will not be sent to the user if they have
turned "off" the ability to receive new bulletins.
- Path/Name of protocol definitions :
Type in the full path to the RBBS-PC PROTO.DEF that you wish
to use with Mail Manager +Plus+. The supplied file
MAILMGR.PRO allows X, Y, and Zmodem via DSZ. The very last
protocol letter listed in this file MUST be "N", for none.
- Path/Name of list of archivers...:
Type in the full path to Mail Manager +Plus+'s list of
archivers (default is MAILMGR.ARL in the C:\MAILMGR
directory). If you do not want to give your users the option
of which compression format to use, leave this line blank, or
enter "NONE" (no quotes), and Mail Manager will use only your
default type of file compression.
See the section of this document entitled "SYSOP-CONFIGURABLE
TEXT FILES" for further details regarding the format of
MAILMGR.ARL.
- Environment variable to check....:
Key in the name of the environment variable that Mail Manager
+Plus+ is to check to determine where to look for "XFER-
x.DEF". Most of us seem to be using Forsberg's DSZ for
transfers, so in this case you would key in the default name
of "DSZLOG".
When you're finished configuring Mail Manager +Plus+, check
your environment variable to insure that it points to XFER-
x.DEF. Without XFER-x.DEF, Mail Manager +Plus+ will assume
that all file transfers have failed.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 35 -
- Modify uploaded msgs date/time?
Either "Y" or "N". Setting to "Y" tells Mail Manager +Plus+
to use your computer's current system date and time for all
uploaded replies. Setting to "N" tells Mail Manager +Plus+ to
use the date and time stamp as it was received in the uploaded
reply packet.
Advantage: Having Mail Manager +Plus+ modify this field
assures that all uploaded messages will have the correct
date and time stamp applied before inserting into your
message base(s).
Disadvantage: If a user uploads several replies in the same
mail packet (many do), some mail networks (like FIDO-NET)
will have trouble with several messages containing the
exact same date & time stamp, and will likely refuse
everything but the first msg of the "offending" group. If
you're a member of one of these networks, you'll probably
want to take the date/time stamp as-received from the
user.
- Location of your BBS
The City, State in which your system is located. This is
added to the CONTROL.DAT file that is included in all QWK
packets, is part of the QWK standard, and is not used anywhere
else by Mail Manager +Plus+.
- BBS Phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx)
The phone number to your system. This is also added to the
CONTROL.DAT file that is included in all QWK packets, is part
of the QWK standard, and is not used anywhere else by Mail
Manager +Plus+.
- Smart text character (1-255)
The ASCII value of the "lead-in" character for RBBS-PC smart
text. RBBS-PC default for this value is "123", which is the
"{" character. This value must match what you are using with
RBBS-PC, or smart text in bulletins and news files will not be
converted properly.
Mail Manager +Plus+ will attempt to replace all possible
"smart text" variables with their true values in bulletins and
news files.
- Default path to RBBS-PC msg bases
This should be set to the path where your *M.DEF message bases
are located. MAILCFG.EXE will then attempt to save you some
keyboard entry time by "guessing" the true path/filename of
all conferences entered manually.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 36 -
For instance, if this value is set to "C:\RBBS\", and you
configure a conference named BBSADS, MAILCFG.EXE will "guess"
the path/name of the users file as:
C:\RBBS\BBSADSU.DEF
- Log file for FIDO conferences
This is an optional argument, and pertains only to sysops who
have configured FIDO-style "*.MSG" areas into Mail Manager
+Plus+. If this path/filename is set to anything other than
"NONE", Mail Manager +Plus+ will append this text file with
the FIDO-style area names of all "*.MSG" conferences that the
user uploaded messages to.
For instance... if the user uploaded 3 messages to area name
"RBBS-PC", two messages to "HS_MODEMS", and 1 message to "FOR-
SALE", the resulting log file would be appended with:
RBBS-PC
HS_MODEMS
FOR-SALE
Your system's batch files can then take care of any necessary
external mail processing based on the contents of this file.
- Door is timelocked from (xx:xx)
to (xx:xx)
If you run an echomail system, there may be certain times of
the day that you do not want your users into your message
bases. These two arguments tell Mail Manager +Plus+ when to
disallow access to the door. To disable, set the "from" and
"to" times identically. For example: 00:00 to 00:00 would
let users into the door 24 hours a day.
Users with sufficient security to read ALL messages are
allowed into the door during the time lock, after receiving a
brief warning message. All other users attempting to access
the door during the timelock will be informed that you are
processing mail, and will be asked to try again later.
- Allow G)oodbye to drop DTR?
Either "Y" or "N". If set to "Y", the door will drop DTR when
the user selects G)oodbye from the menu, and also after an
E)xpedite! mail session.
If set to "N", the G)oodbye command will not be supported, and
"G" will not show on the command line. E)xpedite! will return
the user to the BBS after the user's packet is downloaded.
If you chose "N" to disable the G)oodbye command, you should
edit the menu and help text files to remove the "G)oodbye"
option.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 37 -
***************************************************************
* WARNING! - If you have elected to allow the door to drop *
* DTR, do *NOT* have your modem in autoanswer *
* mode! If you do, it will be possible (although unlikely) *
* for a 2nd user to call and connect in the "window" between *
* the door dropping carrier, and when RBBS recovers. In *
* this case, it is conceivable that this 2nd user could *
* receive a "Welcome back!" message from RBBS, and your *
* board would think that the PREVIOUS user just returned *
* from the door. As you can see, this could be dangerous. *
* You have been warned! *
***************************************************************
- Previous Screen
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the first general configuration screen.
- Next Screen
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the third general configuration screen.
- Edit Conference selections
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the conference selection screen.
- Exit
Position the cursor over this option and press [ENTER] (or
press [Esc] from anywhere on this screen), and you'll be asked
to save your configuration before MAILCFG exits to DOS.
Thus endeth screen #2.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 38 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILCFG SCREEN #3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
At this stage of development, there are only three configuration
options on this screen, other than the ones that control where to go
next from this screen:
- Max number of msgs per packet
When extracting messages, if this number is reached,
extraction will stop and the packet will be archived and sent.
If additional new messages still remain, the user can extract
an additional packet to get them.
Note that the number set here will have an effect on the
amount of memory necessary to run the door, and the amount of
disk space needed to create the working files when extracting.
If you do not set this, a default of 1000 will be assumed.
- Make violation conference mandatory
If set to "Y", all users will receive messages in this
conference in their packets. They will not be able to
"deselect" this conference. A number of sysops have requested
that we make the MAIN conference mandatory, and this is the
way you can do it.
NOTE: If you wish a conference other than conference #1 to
receive security violation notices, you may set this via the
/Vnn command line switch.
- Allow online R)ead and P)ost
Either "Y" or "N". If set to "N", the "R" and "P" options
will be removed from the main command prompt, and the user who
chooses one of those two options will receive the familiar
"Command not recognized" message.
If set to "Y", online read and post are allowed, and those two
options will be available.
Sysops who disallow online R)ead and P)ost should edit the
MAILMGRx.MNU menus as well as the online help files
(MMGR*.HLP) to remove all mention of these two options.
- Previous Screen
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the second general configuration screen.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 39 -
- Edit Conference selections
Position the cursor over this option, press [ENTER], and you
will be taken to the conference selection screen.
- Exit
Position the cursor over this option and press [ENTER] (or
press [Esc] from anywhere on this screen), and you'll be asked
to save your configuration before MAILCFG exits to DOS.
Thus endeth screen #3.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 40 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILCFG SCREEN #4 - CONFERENCE SELECTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This screen should look something like this:
1 MAIN 11 21 31 41
2 12 22 32 42
3 13 23 33 43
4 14 24 34 44
5 15 25 35 45
6 16 26 36 46
7 17 27 37 47
8 18 28 38 48
9 19 29 39 49
10 20 30 40 50
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFERENCE SELECTION SCREEN
Use cursor keys to select a conference to edit.
[ENTER] = Edit this conference.
[PgUp] = Move to previous screen.
[PgDn] = Move to next screen.
[Esc] = Finished editing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can use the cursor keys, [PgUp], and [PgDn] to switch between all
of the different conferences possible. You can configure as many as
500 conferences. Position the cursor over the conference that you
wish to edit, press [ENTER], and you will be taken to the conference
edit screen.
**********************************************************************
* It is VERY IMPORTANT to have your MAIN message area as the first *
* conference listed, and that ALL MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ USERS have *
* sufficient security to at least READ in this area! Mail Manager *
* +Plus+ uses this internally for some of its functions. *
**********************************************************************
Press [Esc] (or [PgUp]) when you're finished editing your conferences,
and you'll be taken back to general configuration screen #2.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 41 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILCFG SCREEN #4 - CONFERENCE EDIT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Once you've pressed [ENTER] at the conference selection screen, up
will pop something that looks like this:
Editing Conference #1
Conference name .............................: MAIN
Conference description ......................: Main message base
FIDO area name ..............................: N/A
Message base type: Y=Fixed, N=Elastic, F=Fido: N
Path/Name of conference USERS file:
C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF
Path/Name of conference MESSAGES file: Fakenet: N/A
C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
Allow ANSI graphics in uploaded messages? ...: Y
Allow high & low ASCII in uploaded messages? : Y
Security level to READ this conference ......: 5
Security level to POST in this conference ...: 5
Tagline for this conference: Add tag: N/A
NONE
Use Fido-style tearlines? ...................: N Zone: N/A
Allow users to join within Mail Manager? ....: N Net: N/A
Maximum # of lines per message ..............: 99 Node: N/A
Path/Name of conference ALIAS file: Point: N/A
NONE Netmail: N/A
Press [Esc] or [F10] when finished with the conference, [F1] for help.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Several of these options pertain only to FIDO *.MSG areas, and some
have different meaning to FIDO *.MSG areas. We will attempt to cover
each one individually as completely as possible:
- Conference Name
Up to 7 characters that you will use to describe this
conference to the users. Normally set as the first 7
characters of the name of the MESSAGES and USERS file,
although you can put anything in here. For FIDO *.MSG areas,
you will want to match this as closely as possible to the true
FIDO-style area name of the conference, since this is what
will be displayed to the users.
The important thing is to describe the conference as fully as
possible (for the users) in the 7 characters that you have
available. The 25-character conference description will
describe it for them a lot better.
If the conference name is left blank, or it is set to
"{EMPTY}", pressing [F10] will cause MAILCFG to ask you
whether or not to reserve a space for this conference number.
If you do NOT reserve the space, this conference number will
be skipped when you save your settings.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 42 -
- Conference description
Up to 25 characters that you will use to more fully describe
the conference to the users. This field will be (optionally)
shown to the users when they are configuring which conferences
to follow within the door, and also when selecting conferences
in which to R)ead or P)ost a message.
If the user is in expert mode, the default is to NOT show the
conference descriptions. If in novice mode (display the
menus), the default is to show conference descriptions. The
user is given a choice at all times.
When displaying conference descriptions, the user will see 15
conferences on each screen. When NOT displaying descriptions,
the user will see 50 conferences per screen.
- FIDO area name
Pertains only to FIDO *.MSG areas, and optional. If not a
FIDO *.MSG area, this field will be skipped.
This should be set to the exact FIDO-style area name of the
conference, as your external mail processor knows it. This
name is used ONLY when appending the optional log file, as set
in the general configuration.
- Path/Name of conference USERS file
Full path to your RBBS-PC users file for this conference.
A quick note here: You really should have a unique USERS file
for each conference/subboard. RBBS-PC does not absolutely
require this, but it is necessary to keep the last message
read in each conference updated, and for Mail Manager to know
exactly which messages to extract and prepare to download for
the users.
If this is a FIDO *.MSG area, this setting has no meaning to
Mail Manager +Plus+, and you can literally put whatever you
want in here in this case.
- Path/Name of conference MESSAGES file
Full path to your RBBS-PC messages file for this conference.
If this is a FIDO *.MSG area, this must be set to the full
pathname to this area's *.MSG's. The trailing backslash is
optional. For example, if set to:
C:\MAIL\4SALE
Mail Manager +Plus+ will manipulate files named:
C:\MAIL\4SALE\*.*
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 43 -
- Allow ANSI graphics in uploaded messages?
"Y" or "N". If set to "N", Mail Manager will strip all escape
characters out of uploaded messages, effectively disabling
ANSI.
- Allow high & low ASCII in uploaded messages?
"Y" or "N". If set to "N", Mail Manager will strip all high
and low ascii characters out of uploaded messages, replacing
them by either blank spaces, or an equivalent "normal"
character.
The most common reason for disabling both ANSI and ASCII is to
conform to FIDO-NET rules & regs, although there are several
reasons why you might want to disable ANSI.
- Security level to READ this conference
Minimum security level required to see this conference listed
in Mail Manager's configuration menu. If the user does not
have sufficient security to READ this conference, the
conference name will be replaced by " --- " in Mail Manager's
menu, and the user will not be allowed to download messages
(or upload replies) in this conference.
- Security level to POST in this conference
Minimum security level required to leave a message in this
conference. If the user's security level is lower than this,
yet the same as (or higher than) the security required to
READ, any messages that he/she uploads to this conference will
result in the following:
■ A Mail Manager security violation notice being passed back
to the user in the MAIN area, as a private message. This
message will be shown as being from "MAIL MANAGER".
■ The uploaded message itself being ignored. Nothing will be
posted in the conference.
- Tagline for this conference
The tagline that you want to use for this particular
conference. If set to "NONE", Mail Manager will use the
default tagline. If the default tagline is also "NONE", no
tagline will be appended to the end of the message.
If this is a FIDO *.MSG area, this is the origin line that
will be appended to the message if the "Add tag" option is
turned on
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 44 -
- Use FIDO-style tearlines?
During our development of Mail Manager and Mail Manager
+Plus+, there was much discussion to and fro in the various
echos regarding the allowability of mail reader tearlines
("---"). At this writing, it is not clear as to whether or
not these additional tearlines on echo messages will be
permissible. In any case, we gave you an out. Set this to
"Y", and any mail reader tearlines on uploaded messages will
be replaced by three periods ("..."). Set to "N", and
tearlines will be passed into the message untouched.
- Type of msg base: Y=Fixed, N=Elastic, F=Fido?
VERY IMPORTANT, and either "Y", "N", or "F". RBBS-PC and Mail
Manager +Plus+ handle fixed-length conferences differently
from those that are configured to "grow" as messages are
added.
If set to "F", you are telling Mail Manager +Plus+ that this
is a FIDO *.MSG area, and all of the "N/A"'s that you see on
this screen will be replaced by the current settings. You
will also be allowed to edit the options specific to FIDO
*.MSG areas.
Setting this option to "Y" or "N" turns "off" all of the FIDO-
specific options, and replaces their values with "N/A". None
of the FIDO-specific options will be available for edit.
- Allow users to join within Mail Manager?
Either "Y" or "N". (Has no meaning to FIDO *.MSG areas)
If set to "Y", Mail Manager +Plus+ will allow your users to
automatically "join" this conference when they attempt to flag
it as active, and will add them to the RBBS conference user
file if they have not joined it from the BBS.
If set to "N", the user will have to use the J)oin command in
RBBS-PC to become a member of the conference.
FIDO *.MSG areas cannot be joined from within RBBS-PC, and
can therefore always be "auto-joined" from within Mail Manager
+Plus+, regardless of this setting.
- Maximum # of lines per message
Mail Manager itself can handle any length message for
uploading or extracting. Note that the version of RBBS you
are using may be limited to 99 lines (stock RBBS) or some
larger number in some of the popular modification packages.
Mail Manager has the capability of splitting long uploaded
messages into several smaller ones when placing them into your
RBBS-style message bases. The default length is 99 lines per
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 45 -
message, but you can select any number of lines per message
that you desire for this conference, from 9 to 99. If you
don't want Mail Manager to split long messages, set this to 0
(zero).
**************************************************************
* Note that messages from normal users will be limited to 8 *
* lines less than this setting, while network packets from *
* "net-status" user names will be able to utilize the full *
* line limit prior to being split. *
**************************************************************
The door will also use this number when the user attempts to
R)ead, reply, or P)ost a message online, and will not allow
the number of lines to exceed what you specify here. If "0",
99 lines per message are allowed in R)ead/P)ost online.
- Path/Name of conference ALIAS file
There is a popular merge available for RBBS-PC that allows the
use of alias names. If you are not using the ALIAS merge, you
can still make use of this option, if you would like a few
users to be able to post messages via Mail Manager under a
different name than the one they use on the BBS. Set this
option to "NONE" if you are not using alias names.
Since alias names are taboo in the Fido kingdom, this setting
is ignored for Fido *.MSG areas.
The filename that this option points to is a text file,
formatted as follows:
REAL NAME, ALIAS NAME
So, to have all messages uploaded by "JOE DOE" posted as being
from "MAIL ADDICT", and to have the SysOp's own messages
posted as being from "TEST SYSOPNAME", this file would look
like this:
JOE DOE, MAIL ADDICT
REMOTE NAME, TEST SYSOPNAME
"REMOTE NAME" would of course be replaced by the name that you
use to sign onto your system remotely.
Mail Manager +Plus+ is smart enough to take care of updating
the mail waiting flag in RBBS-PC for the REAL NAME of the
recipient, and to add messages addressed to the user's alias
to the personal index of the recipient's mail packets.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 46 -
When a user joins a conference for which there is a defined
alias file, Mail Manager will give the user an opportunity to
select an alias to use. Mail Manager will not let a user
select an alias already in use in that conference, but it
makes no other checks. We recommend that you review the alias
files frequently to make sure objectionable names are not
being used.
- Fakenet
Applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
If you run a point system that utilizes a "Fakenet" network
address, then you may want to make use of this argument for
your netmail area(s). This option will cause the door to set
the Fido message header properly for your fakenet, and your
mail processor will take care of the rest. MMGR+ creates type
2+ mail packets and messages, meaning that it puts both the
Zone and Point numbers into the message header where your mail
processor can deal with it. This option is therefore NOT
NEEDED if your mail processing software can handle 4D points.
Here is exactly what this option does (by example):
Add Tag: Yes
Fakenet: 31226
Zone: 1
Net: 226
Node: 1400
Point: 2
At the bottom of the message, your tear and origin line would
look something like:
--- MMGR +Plus+ v3.51
* Origin: Makai support node (1:226/1400.2)
But, your address in the message header itself would read:
1:31226/2
| | |
Zone | |
| |
Fakenet |
|
Point
That's really all there is to it. If your mail processor
doesn't need things this way, don't worry about it. Just set
the "Fakenet" to zero. Mail Manager +Plus+ can handle fakenet
numbers up to 32767.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 47 -
- Add tag
Applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
If set to "Y", Mail Manager +Plus+ will append a tear and
origin line to messages uploaded to this conference, such as:
--- MMGR+ v3.51
* Origin: [Tagline for this conference] (Zone:Net/Node.Point)
If set to "N", the tear/tag is *NOT* appended to the uploaded
messages. (Normally, this is a function of your mail
processor, but you may want Mail Manager +Plus+ to append
these lines in your NETMAIL areas).
- Zone
Applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
FIDO-NET is normally "1", RBBS-NET is normally "8". Each
conference can be set to different Zone:Net/Node arguments, so
Mail Manager +Plus+ allows you to be in MANY different mail
zones!
- Net
As above, applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
Set this to the net number you are using for this conference.
- Node
As above, applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
Set this to the node number you are using for this conference.
For these three options, settings of:
Zone: 8
Net: 965
Node: 9
...would mean a FIDO-style address of "8:965/9".
- Point
As above, applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
If you are operating a point system, set this to your point
number that you are using for this conference. If you are not
operating as a point, set this option to 0 (zero).
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 48 -
For these last four options, settings of:
Zone: 8
Net: 965
Node: 9
Point: 1
...would mean a FIDO-style address of "8:965/9.1"
- Netmail
Applies to FIDO *.MSG areas only.
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT SETTING. If this is a netmail area,
set it to "Y", otherwise DEFINITELY set it to "N"! Mail
Manager +Plus+ handles netmail areas quite differently than
standard *.MSG echo areas, and messages will *NOT* be posted
properly if this setting is incorrect.
Please see the section of this document regarding FIDO *.MSG
areas for all the info on Mail Manager +Plus+'s handling of
netmail areas.
CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ (MAILCFG.EXE) - Page 49 -
MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION FILES
----------------------------
When Mail Manager +Plus+ loads, it will first look for a node-specific
configuration file MAILMGRx.CFG (where x would be the node number).
If no node-specific configuration file is found, Mail Manager then
defaults back to MAILMGR.CFG. This permits you to have a separate
configuration file for any node that requires one.
To edit a configuration file other than the default MAILMGR.CFG, enter
the filename on the MAILCFG command line. For instance, to edit
MAILMGR2.CFG, your command might be:
MAILCFG C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR2.CFG
MAILCFG will look for and edit the filename MAILMGR.CFG (in the
current directory) if nothing is passed on the command line.
Please be aware that Mail Manager +Plus+ can use the same
configuration file between the various nodes of your RBBS-PC, and file
sharing/locking is fully implemented. Therefore it is not necessary
to create multiple configuration files unless you have unique
requirements between nodes. (Non-standard port configurations is one
example, where you may want to have different MAILMGR.PRO files.
Since the path/name of MAILMGR.PRO is specified in the configuration
file, this would make for a good argument to use multiple
configuration files).
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 50 -
AN INTRODUCTION TO FIDO FORMAT
------------------------------
If you do not wish to use FIDO-style *.MSG formatted conferences with
Mail Manager +PLUS+, you may skip this section.
Mail Manager +PLUS+ merely allows you to access FIDO-style message
bases via an offline mail door, it does not handle the actual
transmission or reception of these messages. For that you need a
separate frontend mailer such as BinkleyTerm or Front Door.
Mail Manager's handling of FIDO conferences is MUCH slower than its
handling of RBBS conferences. You may seriously wish to consider
tossing FIDO conferences into standard RBBS message bases in order to
speed up Mail Manager operation. Utilities from other authors for
doing this include RBBSMail, MsgToss, and OverMail. The time spent
doing this ONCE for each mail packet received may amount to
considerable time savings for EACH time a caller uses this door.
Before we talk about the intricacies of setting up Mail Manager +Plus+
with your FIDO-style system, we should talk about this particular
format for a bit.
RBBS-PC is capable of running under a frontend mailer such as Binkley-
Term, Frontdoor, Seadog, etc. etc. Depending on what type of mail
processor the Sysop is using, mail can normally be "tossed" into
either RBBS-PC message bases, or into the native FIDO-NET format,
which is termed here as "*.MSG". Some Sysops prefer to keep their
echo mail in FIDO format, rather than converting all incoming and
outgoing messages to and from RBBS-PC *M.DEF's.
FIDO "message bases" consist of a unique DOS subdirectory for every
conference, with each message in a separate file. A DOS directory
structure for this type of message format will typically look
something like this:
C:\FIDO (Base mail directory)
C:\FIDO\4SALE (First conference)
C:\FIDO\RBBS (Second conference)
... ...so on and so forth.
Within each directory (or "conference") will be filenames like 1.MSG,
2.MSG, 3.MSG, etc. etc. The first message in each conference (1.MSG)
is normally some type of "checkpoint" file for mail processors (such
as QM, et al), and is therefore not usually available for reading by
the user. An exception to this is any "NETMAIL" area that the sysop
has set up. Netmail conferences do not go through quite the same
process as regular echo conferences do, and in these types of areas,
1.MSG is usually permissible reading material.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. We'll come back to
handling netmail later.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 51 -
Setting up FIDO conferences in Mail Manager is a fairly
straightforward process, but there are several things that you will
need to keep in mind:
- FIDO conferences don't have a user file for Mail Manager +Plus+
to rely on. Therefore, Mail Manager +Plus+ creates one for
itself in each FIDO area, named "MMGR.USR".
- FIDO conferences don't have any built-in indexing available,
short of reading each and every message every time the
conference is accessed. Therefore, Mail Manager +Plus+ creates
one for itself in each FIDO area, named "MMGR.NDX".
- FIDO conferences cannot be joined from within RBBS-PC.
Therefore, Mail Manager +Plus+ will allow every user with
sufficient security to read the conference to "join"
transparently from within the door.
- FIDO conferences are usually renumbered every night. This means
that what was message number 175 on one day might become message
number 37 on the next. Mail Manager therefore determines a
unique CRC for each message, based on selected unchanging
portions of each message header. This information is stored in
the "MMGR.NDX" file within each conference.
- This index should be updated right after your
renumbering/maintenance event, to save the first hapless user a
*LOT* of time while Mail Manager +Plus+ re-creates it. That's
what the supplied MMINDEX.EXE program is for, and we'll get into
the usage of this program shortly.
- Mail Manager must know your Zone:Net/Node ID for each FIDO
conference, so that it can properly create the message headers
of all uploaded replies to these areas.
SETTING UP YOUR FIRST FIDO *.MSG AREA
-------------------------------------
With all that in mind, try setting up your first FIDO conference in
Mail Manager +Plus+. Make sure that it is working properly before you
add the entire slew of conferences! At MAILCFG's conference edit
screen, there are several options unique to FIDO conferences that are
worthy of note:
Path/Name of conference USERS file ..: Ignored by Mail Manager
for FIDO conferences. You can literally put whatever you want
in this field.
Path/Name of conference MESSAGES file: This is the DOS PATH to
the conference, rather than the name of the *M.DEF file. For
instance, if you enter "C:\MAIL\4SALE", Mail Manager will
manipulate files named
"C:\MAIL\4SALE\*.*". A trailing backslash is optional.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 52 -
Allow ANSI graphics in uploaded messages? : NO. FIDO-NET doesn't
like ANSI.
Allow high & low ASCII .................. : NO. Moderators will
be all over you if they find messages containing high ASCII that
originated on your system.
Use FIDO-STYLE tearlines? ............... : YES. This strips out
the "---" tearlines that offline readers like to stick on
uploaded messages. Your FIDO-NET mail processor will add a
tearline and tag of its own, and duplicate tearlines are taboo
in the FIDO kingdom.
Message base type: Y=Fixed, N=Elastic, F=FIDO: F
Allow users to join within Mail Manager? ....: Ignored by Mail
Manager +Plus+ for FIDO areas. Any user with sufficient
security to READ the conference can "join" from within the door.
Path/Name of conference ALIAS file? .........: Aliases aren't much
good in FIDO land, either. This setting is ignored for FIDO
conferences. (See the section regarding "CONFIGURING MAIL
MANAGER +PLUS+" for more information regarding alias names).
Zone: Set to your mail zone (U.S. FIDO-NET would be 1).
Net: Set to your net ID (the Buckeye Net is 226).
Node: Set to your node ID (the Buckeye Net's host would be 0).
Point: Set to your point ID (if applicable). Point 1 would be 1,
otherwise, set to zero (0).
(These examples would mean an address of 1:226/0.1).
Netmail: VERY IMPORTANT. If you are configuring a netmail
conference, set this option to "Y". Otherwise, DEFINITELY set
it to "N"!
Now save your configuration, and as far as Mail Manager +Plus+ is
concerned, you just added a FIDO conference.
BEFORE YOU EXTRACT MAIL FROM THE CONFERENCE, be sure that there is a
file named "1.MSG" in that directory. Results can be unpredictable if
Mail Manager +Plus+ sees only "2.MSG" and up. Also, remember that
there is no Mail Manager +Plus+ index created as of yet. You'll want
to run the MMINDEX.EXE program to initialize the conference for Mail
Manager +Plus+'s use. Although this last is not TRULY necessary, it
will speed up initial operation for that conference considerably,
especially if it contains a few hundred messages or so. Usage for
MMINDEX:
MMINDEX D:\PATH\MAILMGR.CFG [/x] [/Lfilename.log]
If no filename is passed on the command line, MMINDEX will look for
MAILMGR>CFG in the current directory.
To process just one conference, use /x (where x is the conference
number to process).
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 53 -
To process only the conferences listed in an echotoss.log-type of
file, use "/Lfilename.log", and replace "filename.log" with the
full path\filename of the pre-existing log file to process.
MMINDEX reads your Mail Manager +Plus+ configuration file, and
creates an index file in all of your FIDO conferences (or just
the ones you specify with the optional command line arguments).
At this point, you're ready to test out the conference from within
Mail Manager +Plus+ itself. When satisfied, you can do one of two
things:
1) Go back to MailCFG and repeat all but the MMINDEX.EXE step for
the rest of your FIDO confs. Or,
2) Run the supplied CFG2TXT utility against your MAILMGR.CFG. This
will create a text file that you can use your favorite text
editor against, and add the balance of your FIDO conferences.
When finished, run the companion program, TXT2CFG to convert the
text file back into Mail Manager +Plus+'s binary configuration
format. If you have MANY Fido conferences to configure, this
might be the way to go.
See the section of this document regarding "UTILITY PROGRAMS" for
more information on these two utilities.
After doing one of these two things, run MMINDEX.EXE as the very last
item BEFORE firing Mail Manager +Plus+ back up for more testing.
Remember to add it to your nightly event, as the very LAST thing run
before your BBS comes back up.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 54 -
NETMAIL CONFERENCES
-------------------
Guess what! Netmail areas require a little more work. "Regular"
echomail *.MSG areas are scanned out by your mail processor for
sending to your host. NETMAIL, on the other hand, can be sent
anywhere, either directly from your system to destination, or routed
through your HOST.
The most courteous way to do this is generally thought to be via
"Crash" or "Direct" netmail, which bypasses the network and puts you
in immediate contact with the individual system. By going direct,
there are other fun things that are considered almost automatic for
Sysops of frontend mailer systems, such as "File Attach", and "File
Request" (commonly referred to as "FREQ"), not to mention that non-
involved parties shouldn't have to front the long distance bill for
personal messages between two individuals in the net.
On the other hand, if you're sending mail to your host, you might want
to send the message normally, which means that it would be sent out
when your mail packer picks it up during your regular mail event.
This way, you don't have to make two separate (and possibly long-
distance) calls to your host if you want to send them netmail.
* VERY IMPORTANT NOTE * - In its current state of development, MMGR+
can handle outbound crashmail, file attaches, and file requests only
when used in conjunction with the BinkleyTerm frontend mailer. Other
front end programs such as FrontDoor, Seadog, D'Bridge, Intermail,
etc. etc. use DIFFERENT METHODS of sending off outbound mail packets.
For this reason you will be unable to send CRASH netmail with this
door unless you are running some variant of BinkleyTerm. You will be
able to send normal (routed) netmail with this door just fine, no
matter what frontend you are using. Regular netmail is picked up by
your mail processor, and that is handled the same way for all *.MSG
systems.
In any case... if you are running BinkleyTerm, you need to inform Mail
Manager of your outbound directories for NETMAIL zones, so that you
can use the CRASH, file attach and file request options. This is done
via the MMGRNODE.OB text file in your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory.
This is a simple text file, and does nothing more than inform the door
where to put File requests, File attaches, and outbound netmail when
creating a CRASH message. The format for each line is:
Zone, X:\PATH\OUTBOUND.DIR
So, if you are in 3 different mail zones, your MMGRNODE.OB file would
look something like this:
1, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND
8, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND.008
10, C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND.010
...and that's all that's needed for your MMGRNODE.OB text file.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 55 -
If you are in more than one mail network, you may be using what are
termed as "AKA" addresses. In this case, the Zone:Net/Node address
that you configured for this netmail area may not always be what you
want Mail Manager +Plus+ to use. For instance, if you are a member of
both Rbbsnet and FidoNet, you may wish to send a message to someone
that is reachable only through RBBSNet in zone 8. In this case, you
may want the recipient of the message to see your RBBSNet address on
the message, rather than your Fido address.
Our solution to this is a file named MMGRNODE.AKA, which Mail Manager
+Plus+ will look for in your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory. This text
file is formatted as such for each line: Zone:Net/Node So, to copy
the above-mentioned example, your MMGRNODE.AKA file might look like:
1:226/1400
8:965/9
10:10/1
See the section of this document entitled "Text files for FIDO netmail
areas" for the full scoop on MMGRNODE.OB and MMGRNODE.AKA.
NOW, we have to get into something that we're probably going to catch
flak about, and that's our implementation of how to handle searching
the nodelist to find the system to which you're sending netmail
messages.
Mail Manager +Plus+ uses a proprietary nodelist format. It just is
not feasible at this stage of the game for us to attempt to support
Version 6 and/or Version 7 nodelists, so we deemed it best to use a
format of our own, optimized for FAST searches and small file size.
You need not use our implementation of the nodelist, but if you don't,
you will lose convenience, and will then need to be able to enter in
the exact Zone, Net, and Node ID of the recipient on every netmail
message, with no search options.
MMGRNODE.EXE is Mail Manager +Plus+'s proprietary nodelist compiler.
This executable should be placed in your Mail Manager +Plus+
directory, and should be run whenever you update your nodelists. Its
usage is:
MMGRNODE [/A] X:\PATH\NODELIST.FIL
/A - Tells Mail Manager +Plus+ to append to the existing
compiled nodelist. If omitted, Mail Manager +Plus+
will create the compiled nodelist from scratch,
overwriting any pre-existing one. (By "Compiled
nodelist", we are referring to Mail Manager +Plus+'s
proprietary one, MMGRNODE.DAT).
X:\PATH\NODELIST.FIL - The path/filename to the raw nodelist
that you are compiling.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 56 -
MMGRNODE will create two files in the current DOS subdirectory:
MMGRNODE.DAT - The main data file containing Sysop names,
Zone, Net, and node numbers, and phone numbers. All
other information in the raw nodelist is ignored, to
save on file size as much as possible.
MMGRNODE.DIX - The data file's index. This file will be MUCH
smaller, and contains information to quickly jump to an
individual system's info based on Zone, Net, and Node.
Mail Manager +Plus+ will look for these two files in your Mail Manager
directory whenever a netmail message is found within a reply packet.
For those using multiple nodelists, consider which one you'll use the
most, and compile that one FIRST, to improve on search speed. For
example, say you're compiling the RBBS-NET nodelist (zone 8) and the
entire FIDO-NET nodelist. RBBSLIST is so small that the search time
to go through it to get to FIDO addresses is minimal. On the other
hand, it would take considerably longer to have to go through the
entire FIDONET nodelist when you're looking for someone in RBBS-NET.
You get the idea. To compile using this scenario, here's the command
lines you'd use (we'll just use dummy nodelist filenames for the
moment). Make sure you're in your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory!:
MMGRNODE C:\BINKLEY\RBBSLIST.178
MMGRNODE /A C:\BINKLEY\NODELIST.094
This would create MMGRNODE.DAT and MMGRNODE.DIX from scratch, starting
with the RBBS-NET nodelist. The FIDO nodelist would be appended to
it. You can append as many nodelists as you'd like in this way. (We
tried five, for testing purposes, and had no trouble).
At this point, you should be all setup and ready to roll with your
FIDO areas, as well as your NETMAIL areas.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 57 -
NETMAIL MESSAGES WITHIN REPLY PACKETS
-------------------------------------
Uploaded *.REP's will work just like they always have within Mail
Manager and Mail Manager +Plus+, until you run into a NETMAIL message.
When Mail Manager +Plus+ encounters a message for a conference you
have configured as netmail in your REP packet, it stops to ask you a
few questions, so DON'T RUN MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ FROM A SCRIPT, IF
YOU'RE UPLOADING NETMAIL! There *is* one exception to this rule:
read on to find out what it is.
You'll be informed that this is a *NETMAIL MESSAGE*, then will be
asked a series of questions:
Users that have sufficient security to read ALL messages (or higher)
will get the option of posting the message as C)rash, and will also
get the file request and attach options. Users with security LOWER
than this will not get these options, and their netmail will be posted
"normally" (as an *.MSG in your netmail directory, waiting to be
tossed out by your mail processor). REMINDER - Mail Manager +Plus+
can only handle outbound crashmail if you are running BinkleyTerm!
If the user has sufficient security, the first question will be:
"Send message [N]ormally, or C)rash?"
(Defaults to normal). A crash message goes directly to your
outbound area, and is also posted (and marked as sent) in your
netmail area. A normal message is posted in your netmail area, and
is not sent to anyone until your mail packer finds and moves it.
If a (C)rash message, you'll be asked: "File attach Y/[N]?"
(Defaults to No). If you tell it yes, you'll be prompted for the
path/filename to send out.
If a (C)rash message, you'll also be asked: "File request Y/[N]?"
(Defaults to No). If you tell it yes, you'll be prompted for the
name to request.
NOTE - In our current state of development, you can do one or the
other (attach or request), but not both! If you really need to
both attach and request to the same system at the same time, you'll
have to upload two separate netmail messages: 1 for the request,
and 1 for the attach.
"Private Message Y/N?"
Defaults to whatever it was set to in the REP packet.
"Search by I)D, or S)ysop name ([ENTER] = bypass the search)?"
This is where Mail Manager +Plus+ will look at the MMGRNODE.DAT and
MMGRNODE.DIX files created by the MMGRNODE.EXE nodelist compiler.
Here are what the 3 options mean to you:
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 58 -
(I)D - You'll be asked for an exact Zone:Net/Node[.Point] number to
look up (Point is optional). If Mail Manager +Plus+ finds a
hit, it will first ask you whether or not to [A]ccept what it
found, then either search again, or ask you whether or not to
post the message. The ID search uses the data index file, and
is VERY fast. Please note that if you are sending your
message to a POINT address, the search will pull up the HOST
system for that point. This is perfectly normal.
(S)ysop name - You'll be asked for a partial sysop name to look
for. The search is NOT case sensitive. As soon as Mail
Manager +Plus+ finds the first hit, it displays what it finds,
and asks you whether to accept what it found, or search again.
Please note that you can't search by sysop name if you are
sending mail to a point, unless you have compiled a separate
"point nodelist" with MMGRNODE.EXE.
[ENTER] - Bypass the search. You'll key in the
Zone:Net/Node[.Point] ID's, and *NO* error checking will be
performed. Mail Manager +Plus+ will take whatever you give
it, and attempt to post the message. This is the only option
available to you if you did not utilize the MMGRNODE.EXE
program.
Post Message Y)es, N)o, M)odify ([ENTER] = Y)?
We do give you one last chance to abort the message <grin>. If you
made a mistake, you can choose "M" to start over and re-enter the
information.
There is a quick and easy way to bypass all of this. If the very
first line of the message body contains nothing but "TO: address",
then the door will attempt to use that address as a normal message (to
be scanned out later by your mail processor). For example, if the
first line of the message body reads:
TO: 1:380/14
...here is what will happen:
- MMGRNODE.NDX is searched for Zone 1, and Net 380.
- If found, MMGRNODE.DAT is searched for 1:380/14.
- If found, the message will be posted normally in your netmail
area, without requiring further intervention.
If any of the above are NOT found, the "TO:" line is ignored, and
you will be prompted as always for the full information about the
netmail message.
This works for netmail messages found within REP packets, as well as
netmail messages that are entered online within the door. You can
also specify a point address on this line, if the need ever arises.
(Example: To: 1:380/14.1).
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 59 -
You cannot send a CRASH message or a file attach/request in this way,
but you might find this option handy for posting a quickie routed
message now and then.
---------------------------------------
NOTE - We haven't forgotten about the InterNet. The door will only
look at the first line of the message for the "To:" directive. Any
FOLLOWING "To:" line will be passed through as-is. So, to send off a
message to the International Fido Internet gateway, destined to a
specific Internet user, the first two lines of the message body might
read:
To: 1:1/31
To: 72677.502@compuserve.com
The first line of this netmail message directs it to 1/31 (the
Internet gate), and the 2nd line tells the UUCP software on the
other end that it is to be sent to "72677.502@compuserve.com".
(That's Chip Morrow's Internet address, by the way). The first
"To:" line will be stripped from the message body itself when
posted.
FIDO-STYLE *.MSG MESSAGE AREAS - Page 60 -
LAST MINUTE THOUGHTS ON FIDO
----------------------------
That's about it for the FIDO *.MSG and NETMAIL implementations. A
couple of things that should probably be mentioned: Eddie Rowe has
written a program that we have never tried, and that's NoSnail.
NoSnail has the capability of sending netmail from an RBBS-PC message
base (*M.DEF). If you are using this utility, you can ignore all of
the above for netmail areas, and use Eddie's instructions instead.
Aren't you glad you read this far? <g>
Message extracting, and manually setting last message read markers are
noticeably slower in *.MSG conferences. There are several reasons for
this, most of which probably don't need a lot of explanation, but here
are a few anyway:
Each message is in a separate file. Therefore, there's an awful lot
of file opening and closing going on.
A user might be posting (or have just posted) a FIDO message via Mail
Manager (or some other utility) on another node of your BBS. We
perform checks to guard against this (and allow for it), which slows
things down a bit.
Fido messages don't have a whole lot of "standardization". A
perfectly valid message could have any number of different things
determining end of printable line, or *NO* end of line markers at all.
So, there's a lot of checking and conversion to be done in order to
get the message into QWK format.
Beyond that... it is acceptably fast on a non-networked system (even a
fairly slow one), but the extraction process really bogs down when run
through a network with fairly slow transfer rates. We are working on
a few ideas to speed up the extraction process in some future release.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 61 -
DEBUGGING YOUR SETUP, AND RUNNING IN LOCAL MODE
-----------------------------------------------
Assuming (again) that your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory is named
\MAILMGR:
Change to the \MAILMGR directory, and run MAILMGR.EXE with no command
line to bring the door up in local mode.
NOTE - Depending on how many conferences you've entered, Mail Manager
+Plus+ may take a while to come up. Mail Manager +Plus+ attempts to
find the user in each and every conference as soon as it loads to
determine which conferences the user has and has not joined. The more
conferences you have, and the slower your hard disk, the longer this
will take. This is required by the security measures mentioned in the
'features' section.
If this is a first-time installation, Mail Manager +Plus+ should say
that you're a new user and walk you through the user setup.
We think it is necessary to mention Mail Manager +Plus+'s own running
scenario, since it is important for you as the SysOp to understand
this for any debugging purposes on your end.
You created +-- Work directories created & maintained by the door.
| |
\MAILMGR |
|
\MAILMGR\LOCAL
\NODE1
\NODE2
...etc.
Mail Manager +Plus+ changes to these work directories as it runs, and
changes back to the parent directory just as it exits. If you used
the "/W" work directory command line switch, these directories will be
created and manipulated wherever you specified them to be.
If you are not using Mail Manager's list of archivers (MAILMGR.ARL),
one file that absolutely MUST be in the directory that you created is
RBBSQWK.BAT. If you are running the list of archivers, this file is
not needed -- in fact, you can save some precious execution time by
deleting this file completely... it will save an unneeded SHELL to
this batch file (and consequently, perhaps a bit of SHROOM swapping).
But if you are NOT running MAILMGR.ARL: DON'T DELETE OR RENAME
RBBSQWK.BAT!!! You can edit RBBSQWK.BAT if you are familiar with the
format of the CONTROL.DAT file that is included in all .QWK packets,
and/or want to modify what the users will receive in their QWK's.
This is not for the faint of heart, requires some knowledge of how
things work in QWK land, and simply isn't necessary. If it exists,
RBBSQWK.BAT is run each time that Mail Manager +Plus+ creates a QWK
packet for the user to download, and doesn't do anything at all if you
are using the list of archivers, MAILMGR.ARL.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 62 -
FOR A FIRST-TIME INSTALLATION, WE RECOMMEND YOU DON'T MODIFY
RBBSQWK.BAT!
An important consideration is what to do with your own personal QWK's
and REP's created locally. You may find it convenient to configure
your offline reader to use the \MAILMGR\LOCAL directory for all .REP's
and .QWK's, since that's where Mail Manager will manipulate your mail
in local mode.
To stick a .REP packet into your message bases, just U)pload while in
local mode, and select any protocol other than N)one. If your .REP
packet is in the \MAILMGR\LOCAL directory, it will be processed as if
you'd uploaded the file remotely.
It is important to make you aware that there is a sysop-only menu
option available, and that's "I" (Info), which isn't listed in either
the command prompt, or the menu itself. This menu option is available
only to those with sufficient security to read ALL messages, or
greater. If the user does not have at least this security level, they
will see the familiar "Command not recognized", instead.
If you have set yourself up with sufficient security to use this
option, pressing "I" at the Mail Manager +Plus+ main menu will greet
you with something like this:
SYSOP INFORMATION:
Mail Manager version ............: v3.51
Mail Manager path ...............: C:\MAILMGR
MailMGR's operating environment .: LANtastic v4.10 (NetBIOS)
DOS version .....................: 6.00
DOS SHARE detected? .............: Yes
Flow control method .............: Local mode
Free string space ...............: 20624
Non-string array avail ..........: 273408
Available stack space ...........: 1738
MAIN message base ...............: E:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
MAIN users file .................: E:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF
Highest message # in MAIN .......: 6132
Last msg # YOU read in MAIN .....: 6131
Filename of protocol definitions : C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.PRO
Filename of list of archivers ...: C:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.ARL
Filename of FMS directory .......: E:\RBBS\MASTER.DIR
RBBS-PC semaphore file ..........: E:\RBBS\IBMFLAGS
MailMGR semaphore file ..........: MMFLAGS
RBBS-PC semaphore file size (6) .: 6
MailMGR semaphore size (3) .: 3
These 20 are all of the possible lines that can be shown to you.
The last four will be displayed only if your environment is
NetBIOS.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 63 -
Some of the more important information in here:
Mail Manager path should reflect the drive and directory that
you have installed the program in. If it doesn't, your batch
file is probably not changing to the proper directory prior to
running MAILMGR.EXE.
Mail Manager's operating environment should reflect what you've
told Mail Manager to use. If it doesn't, there's definitely a
problem!
DOS version must be 3.30 or above in order for Mail Manager
+Plus+ to operate properly.
DOS SHARE must be detected if you are operating in a NetBIOS
environment. The only exception is if you are running under a
NOVELL network, in which case SHARE checking is bypassed.
Flow control method can report one of five things: Local mode,
FOSSIL, RTS/CTS, XON/XOFF, or NONE.
Free string space is pretty darned important, too. This should
really be up around 10,000 or higher at all times when you
display this screen. If it is less than that, we want to hear
about it!
Non-string array available is approximately the amount of free
memory that is available for DSZ and your file compression/
extraction programs. If this number is less than 200K, you are
likely to run into trouble, and should check to make sure that
you are EXITING, (NOT SHELLING!) from RBBS-PC to Mail Manager
+Plus+. The only other way that we can think of that would
cause you to have less than 200K available on today's 640K+ PC's
would be if you have a VERY large # of conferences. If you have
less than 200K here, you will probably need a utility like
SHROOM (mentioned in the memory requirements section of this
document) in order to use Mail Manager +Plus+.
MAIN message base and user file names must match what is true
for your MAIN area. If not, you don't have MAIN as your 1st
conference listed, and Mail Manager +Plus+ will NOT operate
properly.
Highest message number in MAIN, and highest message # that you
read in main should be accurate. If they're not, then Mail
Manager +Plus+ didn't properly find you in the MAIN users file,
and/or it wasn't able to correctly access the MAIN message file.
Filename of list of protocol definitions should match what you
told MAILCFG to use for MAILMGR.PRO.
Filename of list of archivers should match what you told MAILCFG
to use. (If this file does not exist, Mail Manager will use the
default type of compression that you chose, and will require
said archiver to be in a DOS path!)
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 64 -
Filename of FMS directory should match what is true for your
system if you are using an RBBS-PC FMS directory, or "NONE"
otherwise.
The last four lines will only be shown to you if you are running
under NetBIOS, and they are described in better detail elsewhere
in this manual.
If, after following these instructions, you continue to have
trouble, take a look at the "COMMON PROBLEMS" section of this
manual.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 65 -
HANDLING NON-STD PORTS VIA MAILMGR.PRO
--------------------------------------
The easiest way to handle nonstandard port addresses in Mail Manager
+Plus+ is to create a separate configuration file for each node, and
have each configuration file point to a different copy of MAILMGR.PRO.
The downside of doing this is that every change you later make in your
configuration will have to be duplicated for each node's configuration
file. It IS possible to achieve the same results with a single
configuration file, however.
In order to support a nonstandard port address in a single
configuration file, have your MAILMGR.PRO specify a custom batch file,
rather than a direct call to the protocol executable itself. Your
custom batch file can then send the correct commands to the protocol,
depending on which port is involved.
Here's what an entry in the MAILMGR.PRO file might look like. (This
should all be on one line, of course, but is split here for clarity):
"Z)modem (Batch)",0,S,8,,B,1024,,0.95,,1=E,
"X:\ZMODEM.BAT S [PORT#] [BAUD] [FILE]",
"X:\ZMODEM.BAT R [PORT#] [BAUD] [FILE]"
With drive X: of course being whatever drive\directory you want.
Then the ZMODEM.BAT file could look something like (assuming that you
have ports 1 and 2 at standard addresses, and port 3 at non-standard
address 3e8, irq 5):
@ECHO OFF
: --------------------------------------
: 1st arg is either S or R,
: 2rd arg is comm port number
: 3rd arg is bps rate, and
: 4th arg is filename being transferred.
: --------------------------------------
IF (%1)==(S) GOTO SEND
IF (%1)==(R) GOTO RECEIVE
GOTO END
:SEND
IF NOT (%2)==(3) dsz port %2 speed %3 sz -m %4
IF (%2)==(3) dsz portx 3e8,5 speed %3 -m sz %4
GOTO END
:RECEIVE
IF NOT (%2)==(3) dsz port %2 speed %3 rz %4
IF (%2)==(3) dsz portx 3e8,5 speed %3 rz %4
:END
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 66 -
This could, of course, be refined into a single batch file that
handles all protocols, not just Zmodem, but it should serve to
illustrate the principle. Or a separate batch file could be set up
for each protocol.
We leave it to you to adapt for protocol drivers other than DSZ.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 67 -
DESQVIEW, OS/2, NETWORKS, AND MULTIPLE NODES
--------------------------------------------
Operating in a multitasking environment or on a network is a special
case, worthy of further explanation!
First off, Mail Manager +Plus+ can automatically detect the following
conditions:
- Is Mail Manager running in an OS/2 Dos box?
- Is SHARE installed under DOS?
- Is DESQview present?
- Is Artisoft's LANtastic present?
- Is Novell present?
What Mail Manager +Plus+ detects will be used as the basis for
initially determining the operating environment, which will be:
- DESQview, if it is present.
- NetBIOS, if DESQview is not present, and SHARE is installed, or
OS/2 or Novell is detected.
- Good ole' normal DOS if neither of the above is true.
Mail Manager +Plus+ will initially use the above file locking
technique for the type of environment that was detected. At this
point, the only file being accessed is Mail Manager's own
configuration file, so your RBBS files are quite safe even if this is
not the same environment that you have specified for RBBS to use.
Once the program has progressed far enough to have read what network
type you specified (i.e. your RBBS network setting from DORINFOx.DEF
if operating remotely, or MAILMGR.CFG if operating in local mode),
Mail Manager +Plus+ will, if necessary, switch to your specified type
of network.
With that out of the way, let's talk about the supported environment
types, and what they mean from the standpoint of Mail Manager +Plus+:
DESQview - Mail Manager +Plus+ will use the same file and record
locking scheme that RBBS-PC itself uses. In fact, it uses the
very same assembler source, which was written by Jon Martin in
1988. Therefore, the DESQview semaphore locking routines used by
Mail Manager +Plus+ are copyrighted by Jon Martin, and are
available to anyone who has a copy of RBBS-PC's source code.
Look for RBBSDV.ASM in RBBS-PC's assembler source. Mail Manager
+Plus+ also gives back unused time slices under DESQView,
resulting in a speedup of your other nodes.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 68 -
NetBIOS - This is a special case, and requires that physical file
and record locking take place (this is also what is used under
Novell). RBBS-PC uses what is termed as a "semaphore" file, to
control access to what Mail Manager +Plus+ is concerned with:
Your USERS file(s), your MESSAGES file(s), and your FMS file (if
any).
This is done with the hard-coded filename "IBMFLAGS", which will
exist in the same directory as your MAIN message base. If you're
already running RBBS-PC under NetBIOS, look for it... it should
already be there. IBMFLAGS is 6 bytes in length, and contains
nothing but three empty 2-byte records, which are controlled by
RBBS-PC and Mail Manager +Plus+ to limit access to USERS,
MESSAGES, and FMS directory files.
Under NetBIOS, in addition to IBMFLAGS, Mail Manager +Plus+ will
create and maintain its own "semaphore" locking file to control
access to its own files, using the same principle as IBMFLAGS.
The Mail Manager +Plus+ semaphore file is named MMFLAGS, and will
be created in your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory. MMFLAGS will
be 3 bytes in length, and manipulated by all nodes of Mail
Manager +Plus+.
It is also noteworthy that all files will be opened in SHARED
mode, which is the nature of the NetBIOS beast.
If you are running under Novell Netware, Mail Manager +Plus+ will
detect it, and will not check for the installation of DOS SHARE.
If Novell is not detected, yet NetBIOS is specified as the
environment, Mail Manager will check for DOS SHARE before
allowing itself to continue.
OS/2 - Unless DESQView is specified in your setup, and then
detected, Mail Manager +Plus+ will operate in NetBios mode (see
above) when OS/2 is detected. Mail Manager +Plus+ gives back
unused time slices under OS/2, thus speeding up your system
(there is no need to use OS2SPEED or similar utilities to "fool"
Mail Manager into giving back DESQView time slices).
DOS - Gee, isn't it nice when you don't have to worry about all
this? Under good 'ole DOS, none of the above is meaningful, and
all files will be opened normally, with no sharing or locking
mechanisms in place.
If you happen to be running in an environment that does NOT match any
of the above situations, AND you are sharing the same set of RBBS
message bases and users files between nodes, you will want to consider
having DOS SHARE loaded, and configuring both RBBS-PC and Mail Manager
+Plus+ to use NetBIOS as the operating environment.
Or, if file sharing is not a concern, just configure Mail Manager
+Plus+ to use DOS as its environment.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 69 -
For most installations, you can run up to 36 nodes from a single
configuration file, utilizing a unique work directory for each node.
Unusual installations (non-standard comm ports have already been
discussed) can be accommodated via separate configuration files for
one or more nodes. One such case might be a networked setup in which
the network drive letters are not the same for each node (C:\MAINM.DEF
on one, D:\MAINM.DEF on another). Why you'd set your network up that
way we don't know, but it isn't our place to, is it?
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 70 -
WORKING WITH A FOSSIL DRIVER
----------------------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ does support a FOSSIL driver. If you told RBBS-PC
to use a FOSSIL, Mail Manager +Plus+ will also. The door has been
tested extensively with both BNU v1.70 and X00 v1.2x FOSSILs.
PLEASE NOTE that some door converters & programs that 'launch' doors
for you may not correctly set the FOSSIL argument in DORINFOx.DEF!!!!
The very last line of your DORINFOx.DEF (line #13) should be either a
zero or minus one (0 or -1). -1 indicates that the FOSSIL is active
in RBBS-PC, and tells the door that it too should use a FOSSIL.
To keep you from having to dig up the RBBS-PC documentation, here's
what Mail Manager +Plus+ expects from DORINFOx.DEF:
NEWARK CONNECTION <- BBS name (ignored by Mail Manager +Plus+)
CHIP <- Sysop's first name
MORROW <- Sysop's last name
COM1 <- Communications port
2400 BAUDD,N,8,1 <- Communications parameters
6 <- Network type (4=DV, 6=NetBIOS)
JOE <- User's first name
USERNAME <- User's last name
NEWARK, OH <- User's city/state
2 <- User's graphics preference (2=ANSI)
10 <- User's security level
30 <- Number of minutes remaining
-1 <- FOSSIL in use (0=no, -1=yes)
* NOTE - The second "D" in "BAUDD" is a bug in RBBS-PC 17.3C, and
may or may not be present in your own DORINFOx.DEF files. Either
way, it does not affect the operation of the door.
It is possible to configure Mail Manager to ALWAYS check for a FOSSIL
driver, regardless of the setting in DORINFOx.DEF. This is done in
the MAILCFG program, by setting the flow control method to "F". In
this case, Mail Manager +Plus+ will ALWAYS try to use a FOSSIL for
communications.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 71 -
QWK NETWORKING
--------------
In addition to handling mail for individual callers, Mail Manager
+Plus+ can also process QWK-formatted network mail packets for sharing
conferences between bulletin boards.
When used as the net host, Mail Manager +Plus+ can create the "net
status" packets needed to interface with existing QWK-based network
software such as TNET and RNET in use by node boards.
For node operation, we provide a utility called MNET which converts a
"net status" QWK packet from a host into a REP which can then be
uploaded into the node BBS's QWK door. MNET also does the reverse
conversion, taking messages exported from the node system via a QWK
and converting them to a REP that can then be uploaded to the host
system. This eliminates the need for a separate network interface
such as RNET. Although MNET is ideal for use with a Mail Manager
+Plus+ system (and MMGR+ has several enhancements that allow them to
work well together) MNET may be used with any system capable of
exporting QWK packets and receiving REP packets.
Since this subject is a fairly complex one, details are handled in a
separate file called NETINFO.DOC.
COMPRESSING THE EXECUTABLE FILES
--------------------------------
We're distributing the executables in non-compressed format. You'll
find that our .EXE's will compress quite nicely with utilities like
PKLITE and LZEXE. We leave it up to you to use the compression
utility of your choice, or run as-is.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 72 -
SECURITY FEATURES
-----------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ has extensive built-in security functions. We
hope you agree that it does make for a pretty secure mail door.
We want to make you aware of the importance of the security level that
you configured in the MAILCFG program for the ability to read ALL
messages. This security level is checked for all of the SysOp
functions that Mail Manager +Plus+ performs, and should be set to
either SysOp or Co-SysOp level only! Some of the more important
things that users with this security level or higher can do:
- Use the SysOp-only function I)nfo from the main menu (which shows
where everything that pertains to your Mail Manager +Plus+ setup is
located).
- Upload a message under a name other than the one that they use on
the BBS, regardless of the setting of the "Alias file" argument in
the MAILCFG program for that conference.
- Read everybody's mail, regardless of whether it's marked as private
or password-protected.
- Use the C)rash option when uploading netmail messages, and also the
file attach and request options.
You get the idea.
Contrary to some of the concerns we have received on this subject over
the last few years, a user CANNOT inadvertently download a mail packet
that was extracted by a previous user of the door. Mail Manager
+Plus+ temporarily keeps the mail packet on disk so that the SysOp can
check it out for appearance, if there were any problems in the
transfer, etc. Mail Manager +Plus+ deletes any existing mail packet
whenever a user attempts to D)ownload, E)xpedite, or U)pload.
Conferences are configured with two minimum security levels: One for
the ability to read, and the other for the ability to post.
Users can only extract mail from conferences that they have joined
(either from the BBS itself, or via Mail Manager +Plus+, if you have
turned "on" this ability in the MAILCFG program).
Mail Manager +Plus+ will add a user to a conference only if you have
specified that it is OK to do so in the MAILCFG program.
Mail Manager +Plus+ bypasses all killed messages.
Password-protected messages are only extracted and downloaded to users
with an exact name match in the "TO" or "FROM" fields, or to those
with sufficient security to read ALL messages.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 73 -
With two exceptions, only users with sufficient security to read ALL
messages are permitted to upload messages under a name other than the
one they use on the BBS. The exceptions are:
- If you have configured Mail Manager +Plus+ to look for an ALIAS file
for a given conference, it will accept messages from the user's pre-
defined alias, and will change the user's real name to his alias
before posting.
- If you have configured a specific username for "net status" QWK
network capability, that username will be able to upload messages
with any name in the "FROM" field.
Users cannot upload messages to conferences that they have not joined.
Mail Manager +Plus+ posts a private message to the sender's true name
whenever a security violation regarding an uploaded reply occurs.
This by default will be placed in Conference #1, but the sysop can
designate a different conference to receive violation notices via the
/V command line option when loading the door. Violation notices can
be triggered by:
- Uploading a message with the "FROM" name not matching the user's
name on the BBS or his pre-defined alias.
- Uploading a message to a conference that the user has not joined.
- Uploading a message to a conference that the user does not have
sufficient security to post a message in.
- Uploading a message to a conference number that does not exist.
Files listed in your FMS directory that were uploaded as "SYSOP-ONLY"
will be listed only in the SysOp's own mail packets. They will be
bypassed for everyone else.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 74 -
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
-------------------
CHAT MODE: While Mail Manager +Plus+ is waiting for a keystroke
(preferably at the MAIN MENU), the Sysop can press [F10]
to jump into a no-frills chat mode with the user that's
currently online.
Sysop terminates the chat by pressing [Esc] or [F10].
(Typing "/QUIT" by either party is no longer supported.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DOS SHELL: While Mail Manager +Plus+ is waiting for a keystroke
(again, preferably at the MAIN MENU), the Sysop can press
[F2] to jump to DOS. When finished, type EXIT to return
to Mail Manager +Plus+. Naturally, this works only from
the local keyboard. Mail Manager +Plus+ will
automatically return to the proper drive and directory, no
matter where you are when you type "exit" to return from
the DOS shell.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME LIMIT: This is passed to Mail Manager +Plus+ from RBBS-PC in
DORINFOx.DEF. It will be either the amount of time
remaining on your RBBS-PC, or whatever time limit that you
specified in DOORS.DEF, otherwise. In local mode, the
time limit is always 120 minutes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
KYBD IDLE: If Mail Manager +Plus+ has to wait more than 180 seconds
for the user to press a key, it will exit back to the BBS.
The user will get a beep and a warning message after 90
seconds, and every 30 seconds thereafter, until keyboard
time expires.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CARRIER DETECT: If the user drops carrier, Mail Manager +Plus+ will
report to you as such, write this info to the appropriate
log file, and return to the BBS. RBBS-PC will see that no
carrier detect is present, re-cycle itself, and wait for
the next caller.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD & EXIT: Although the E)xpedite! option is documented
elsewhere in this manual, we didn't make it clear as to
the best way to automate this from RBBS-PC's standpoint.
RBBS-PC 17.3C and above allow you to specify "/G" after
the name of the door, which allows the user to be logged
off immediately after returning to RBBS-PC. Therefore,
the user could type: "d mailmgr /g".
Then, from within Mail Manager +Plus+, select E)xpedite!,
and the user will be logged completely off the BBS after
downloading their mail.
As an alternative, you can choose to have the door drop
DTR whenever G)oodbye and E)xpedite! are chosen. Please
read the warning message about this option elsewhere in
this documentation!
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 75 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW FILES: If you are running a standard RBBS-PC FMS directory, you
should be able to use this built-in capability. If you
are not running a standard FMS, and the path/name of your
FMS directory is set to "NONE" in the MAILCFG program,
Mail Manager +Plus+ will not attempt to include a new file
listing in the user's mail packets.
It should be noted here that the users do have the ability
to turn this feature "off", if they do not desire a file
listing in their mail packets.
Here's what is required of your FMS directory:
- No 'special' lines contained within it (semi-private
filenames preceded with an asterisk (*) before the
filename, special comment lines, etc).
- Oldest files listed at the top of the FMS, and most
recent files listed at the bottom.
If yours fits all of the above, NEWFILES should work fine.
Here's the way NEWFILES works:
1) Finds the date that the user last checked the file
listing (from the RBBS-PC main users file). If user
never listed your file directories, the user's last
date into the Mail Manager +Plus+ door is used,
instead.
2) Grabs the very first line of your FMS, to determine the
line length, since this can vary depending on how you
set things up via RBBS-PC's CONFIG. HOWEVER, all lines
in your FMS are expected to be the same length as the
first line listed!
3) After determining line length, moves to end of file,
grabs the very last line of your FMS, and checks the
date stamp against the user's "last check" date.
4) If the last file's date is the same as, or newer than,
the user's date that they last listed your files,
NEWFILES steps through your FMS in reverse order,
pulling out filenames & extended descriptions until the
date stamp is earlier than the user's last check. The
file created (NEWFILES.DAT) is then included in the
user's QWK mail packet, and can be viewed easily with
the user's mail reader.
If the last file's date is older than the user's last
check, NEWFILES figures no new files, and doesn't
include a NEWFILES.DAT in the QWK packet.
MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS - Page 76 -
PRIVATE UPLOADS TO THE SYSOP are listed ONLY in the
sysop's own mail packets. These files (and their extended
descriptions) are skipped for everyone else.
If you use chained FMS directories, or any of the "\FMS"
directives, NEWFILES will stop searching when it reaches
that line of your FMS. Why? The line won't be an
extended description (" ." as the last three characters
on the line), and won't have a file date in the proper
positions on the line. In this case, NEWFILES will
consider the file date to be 00-00-00, and will quit
searching your FMS directory.
*NEW* in v3.5: If the user has ANSI turned on, the
NEWFILES.DAT will be in ANSI color. This feature was
requested often!
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 77 -
We supply several utility programs to aid in your setup and operation
of Mail Manager +Plus+. A quick overview:
MailCFG, the configuration program:
We recommend using MAILCFG to configure Mail Manager +Plus+.
MAILCFG directly edits the binary configuration file, and is easy
to use. MAILCFG is covered in the separate section of this manual
entitled: "CONFIGURING MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+".
CFG2TXT & TXT2CFG - the binary<-->text utilities:
Throughout Mail Manager's relatively short life, we have heard from
several SysOps who simply do not care for the configuration program
MailCFG. These two utilities are provided as an alternative, and
also to ease the installation of FIDO *.MSG message areas.
MAILFIX, the purge/repair/renumber utility for RBBS message files:
A handy utility intended as an alternative (or replacement) for
RBBS CONFIG's "repair" facility, MU-EDIT, and similar utilities.
MAILFIX has the ability to keep a physical number of messages in a
given message base (handy for echo areas), purge killed messages,
and repair damaged messages. MAILFIX can also renumber message
bases and reset user message pointers according to the new message
numbers.
MMINDEX, the indexing program for *.MSG areas:
Optional (but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) utility for SysOps running Fido
*.MSG message areas. This program has no meaning if you are
running only RBBS-PC *M.DEF message bases.
MMGRNODE, the nodelist compiler:
Optional (but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) utility to compile raw nodelists
into a shortened binary format readable by Mail Manager +Plus+.
Useful only if you are running an *.MSG netmail area or two.
MNET, the QWK network conversion utility:
This utility is used only on the "node" end of a QWK network, and
can be used with ANY BBS type that has a QWK mail door capable of
handling MarkMail-compatible network mail packets.
MUSER, the Mail Manager +Plus+ user file editor:
A utility to edit/purge/manipulate Mail Manager's internal users
file, MAILMGR.USR. This utility was created to handle QWK network
usernames, but has other obvious uses as well.
The following pages describe these programs in greater detail.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 78 -
CFG2TXT & TXT2CFG
-----------------
Mail Manager +Plus+ uses a binary configuration file, which can be
directly edited by the configuration program, MAILCFG.EXE. However,
there are some situations where MAILCFG becomes repetitive, and there
are many SysOps who have expressed the desire for a text
configuration.
So... to address the above, these two utilities are provided.
The two programs are companions: CFG2TXT converts the standard
MAILMGR.CFG binary configuration file into text format, and TXT2CFG
converts a text file to Mail Manager +Plus+ binary configuration
format.
Usage of these programs:
CFG2TXT [INPUT.FIL] [OUTPUT.FIL]
Where INPUT.FIL is the name of the Mail Manager +Plus+ binary
configuration file to convert, and
OUTPUT.FIL is the name of the text file to create.
If nothing is passed on the command line, CFG2TXT will default
to:
INPUT.FIL = MAILMGR.CFG
OUTPUT.FIL = MAILMGR.TXT
TXT2CFG [INPUT.FIL] [OUTPUT.FIL]
The reverse of the above. INPUT.FIL is the name of the text
file to convert, and OUTPUT.FIL is the name of the binary
configuration file to create. If nothing is passed on the
command line, TXT2CFG will default to:
INPUT.FIL = MAILMGR.TXT
OUTPUT.FIL = MAILMGR.CFG
Each line in the text configuration file must be flush left.
The supplied MAILMGR.TXT file should be pretty self-explanatory,
but here is the run-down:
Lines beginning with a semi-colon ";" are ignored as comments.
ANY BLANK LINES WILL BE CONSIDERED PART OF THE CONFIGURATION!
Lines without semicolons (the order in which TXT2CFG will read
them) are as follows:
MAX = Maximum number of characters,
INT = Integer (cannot exceed 32767)
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 79 -
Line # Meaning MAX
------ ------------------------------------------------ ---
1 Name of your RBBS-PC. 35
2 Name you use to log onto your BBS remotely. 31
3 Your first name as you are known to your users. 15
4 Your last name as you are known to your users. 15
5 Security level to read *ALL* messages everywhere INT
6 Security level to use when operating locally. INT
7 Graphics to use locally (0=no, 1=ascii, 2=ansi) 1
8 Default tagline to use for ALL conferences. 61
9 First eight characters for packet filenames. 8
10 Default file compression (ARC,ARJ,LZH,ZIP only) 3
11 Path/Name of news file - *NON-GRAPHIC* version. 40
12 Path/Name of list of system bulletins. 40
13 Type of network to use in local mode. (D,N,Q) 1
14 Type of handshaking to use remotely (F,R,X,N) 1
15 Path/filename of your FMS directory (optional) 40
16 Path/filename of your list of available archivers 40
17 Environment variable pointing to XFER-x.DEF 15
18 Modify REP time stamp to system date/time? (Y,N) 1
19 City/State where your BBS is located. 31
20 Your BBS phone number. 12
21 Character to use for smart text (default=123) 3
22 Default path to *M.DEF conferences. 40
23 Path/filename of echo toss log. 40
24 Start of timelock. Use 24-hour clock (HH:MM) 5
25 End of timelock. Use 24-hour clock (HH:MM) 5
26 Allow door to drop DTR at G)oodbye, E)xpedite! 1
27 Show empty/unjoinable conference? 1
28 Max msgs users may extract per packet (9999 max) 4
29 Force "violation notice" conference active? (Y, N) 1
30 Allow MMGR online R)ead and P)ost options? (Y, N) 1
31 and up = Conference configuration section. Each conference
is configured as follows (24 arguments = 23 commas on each
line):
1,2,3,4,"5","6",7,8,9,10,"11",12,13,14,"15",16,17,18,19,20,21,
22,23,"24" (all on one line).
MAX = Maximum number of characters,
INT = Integer (cannot exceed 32767)
Arg # Meaning MAX
------ ------------------------------------------------ ---
1 Conference number (1 to 500). 3
2 Conference name 7
3 Fido point number (applies to Fido areas only) INT
4 Fido "fakenet" ID for 2D Fido points (Fido only) INT
5 Path/Name of this conference's USERS file. 80
6 Path/Name of this conference's MESSAGES file. 80
7 Allow or dis-allow ANSI (Y or N). 1
8 Allow or dis-allow high/low ASCII (Y or N). 1
9 Security level needed to read this conference. INT
10 Security level needed to post in this conference. INT
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 80 -
11 Tagline for this conf (NONE = use default tag). 61
12 Modify mail reader tearlines? (Y or N). 1
13 Type of msg base (Y=fixed, N=elastic, F=FIDO). 1
14 Allow users to join from within the door? (Y, N). 1
15 Path/Name to alias file (leave empty if none). 80
16 Zone for this conf (applies to FIDO areas only) INT
17 Net for this conf (applies to FIDO areas only) INT
18 Node for this conf (applies to FIDO areas only) INT
19 Is this a FIDO *.MSG NETMAIL area? (Y or N). 1
20 Add tear/origin line (Y or N) (FIDO areas only) 1
21 True FIDO symbolic area name (FIDO areas only) 15
22 Allow private messages in this conference? (Y/N) 1
23 Max # of lines per msg for this conference (1-99) 2
24 Conference description. 25
Your MAIN RBBS-PC MESSAGE BASE must be listed as conference #1!
From there on, you can mix/match as you see fit. Your MAIN
conference might look something like this:
1,MAIN,0,0,"C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF","C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF",Y,Y,5,5,
"NONE",N,N,N,"NONE",0,0,0,N,N,"",Y,99,"Main message base"
NOTE that it should all be on one line! It is split here for
the purposes of this documentation. This line tells Mail
Manager that:
This is conference #1, named "MAIN".
Your system is not a Fido "point" (i.e. point #0).
Your system is not using a Fido "fakenet" (i.e. fakenet = 0).
The path to the users file is "C:\RBBS\MAINU.DEF".
The path to the messages file is "C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF".
Both ANSI and high/low ASCII are allowed in uploaded replies.
Users with security level 5 and above can both read and reply.
Default tagline will be used.
We are not bothering with FIDO-STYLE tearlines.
This is an "elastic" message base.
Users cannot join this conference from within the door.
There is no alias file for this conference.
This is not an *.MSG Fido-style area.
Private messages will be allowed.
99 maximum lines per message.
Conference description is "Main message base".
----------------------------------------------------------------
...and that's the way it works. Conferences do NOT have to be
listed in numerical order: TXT2CFG will handle them no matter
where they are in the list. HOWEVER, if you need "gaps" between
conference numbers, pay close attention to the following:
*PLEASE NOTE* - TXT2CFG will *NOT* automatically "fill-in-the-
blanks" for you. This INCLUDES conference numbers! If you
intend to reserve a space for a conference, set the conference
name to "{EMPTY}". The bare minimum line to reserve a
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 81 -
conference would look like this:
X,{EMPTY},,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
(Yes, that's 23 commas). Replace "X" with the conference
number.
If you intend to leave gaps in conference numbers, you will have
to add one of these lines for every conference in question.
TXT2CFG will completely ignore any unused conference numbers,
meaning that if your text configuration looks like this:
1,MAIN,.....
3,CONF3,.....
TXT2CFG will convert them to:
1,MAIN,.....
2,CONF3,.....
But, if you configure it like this:
1,MAIN,.....
2,{EMPTY},.....
3,CONF3,.....
TXT2CFG will import them that way, and "reserve" conference #2.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 82 -
MAILFIX
-------
MAILFIX is an alternate purge/repair utility for RBBS-PC message
bases. Because of its obvious utility for all RBBS sysops, we are
releasing it as a separate stand-alone utility with full documentation
as well.
This version is much faster than releases before v4.0, and has a few
more useful options as well.
USAGE:
MAILFIX [options] D:\PATH\MESSAGE.FIL
Available options:
/V - Only View the integrity of the message file. Do not perform
the actual repair work, and do not create an output file.
/D - Use DOS screen writes instead of direct. Slows the program
down a tad, but allows for DOS redirection of output.
/F - Informs MAILFIX that this is a fixed-length message base. If
"/F" is not chosen, MAILFIX assumes the message base to be
configured as 'elastic'.
/R - Informs MAILFIX that the sysop uses RBBSMail or MsgToss on
this message base. Both of these mail processors format the
time field in the message header with a period instead of a
colon, which CONFIG's option #185 (repair messages) chokes
on.
/O - Informs MAILFIX that the sysop uses OverMail on this message
base. OverMail formats the time field in the message header
with a semicolon instead of a colon, which CONFIG's option
#185 (repair messages) chokes on.
/P - Causes MAILFIX to purge private messages which have been read
by the addressees.
/Knnn - (Where "nnn" is the number of messages to keep.): Tells
MAILFIX to trim down the physical size of the message base,
regardless of whether or not the messages to delete are
flagged as "killed". This is useful for things like an echo
area that grows almost out of control daily. If you want to
keep 50 messages, your switch would be "/K50".
This switch may not be used in conjunction with "/V"!
Use of this option will OVERWRITE your original message
file!
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 83 -
/N - Tells MAILFIX to renumber the message base, starting at
message number 1. If used with the /K option, the retained
messages will be renumbered starting with 1.
Use of this option will OVERWRITE your original message
file!
Optionally, you may immediately follow the /N with the
drive:\path\filename of the user file for this message base
if you wish MAILFIX to update the user's message pointers to
reflect the renumbering (We STRONGLY urge you to do so!).
There can be no spaces between the /N and the beginning of
the filename. Your original user file will be updated in
place, so if you want a backup of your unaltered user file,
you must make one first.
D:\PATH\MESSAGE.FIL is the name of the messages file to
purge/repair.
/Snnn - (where "nnn" is message base size.) By default MAILFIX can
handle a message base of up to 1000 messages. If your
message base has more messages than this (via modification
of your RBBS version, or additional messages being added by
a mail processor), you must inform MAILFIX of this via the
/S switch. If you fail to do this, MAILFIX will not
allocate enough memory to handle the extra messages. For
instance, to run on a base of up to 2000 messages, your
syntax would be /S2000.
Unless the /V option is used, MAILFIX will create an output file with
the same name and the extension '.FIX'. Above example would create
D:\PATH\MESSAGE.FIX.
If the /Knnn or /N switches are used, MAILFIX will make a second pass
on your message base, using the *.FIX file for input, and the original
file name for output. When finished your original message file will
have been replaced by MAILFIX's work, and the *.FIX file will be
deleted.
EXAMPLES:
Unless you use the "/Knnn" or "/N" command line options, MAILFIX will
not overwrite (or modify in any way) your original message file. If
you want to replace your old message file with the one that MAILFIX
creates, your best bet is to run MAILFIX from a batch file, like so:
MAILFIX C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
IF EXIST C:\RBBS\MAINM.FIX DEL C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
IF EXIST C:\RBBS\MAINM.FIX REN C:\RBBS\MAINM.FIX C:\RBBS\MAINM.DEF
On the other hand, if you have an echo area that's scanned by
RBBSMail, and you want to keep it purged down to 100 messages, your
command line would be:
MAILFIX /R /K100 C:\RBBS\FILENAME.DEF
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 84 -
If you want to also renumber the message base, and to update the
pointers in your user file for this base:
MAILFIX /R /K100 /NC:\RBBS\USERFILE.DEF C:\RBBS\FILENAME.DEF
If you wanted to do the same thing with a message base that's been
scanned by OverMail:
MAILFIX /O /K100 /NC:\RBBS\USERFILE.DEF C:\RBBS\FILENAME.DEF
These last three examples would replace "FILENAME.DEF" with the
fixed/purged/pruned message base.
Run MAILFIX with no additional command line parameters to get a help
screen.
*=- ABOUT MAILFIX and MESSAGE BASES with CARBON COPIES -=*
--------------------------------------------------
MailFix *DOES* work with message bases that have been configured with
the "carbon copy" feature of RBBS-PC v17.4+. MailFix does not go
through any special gyrations to look for multiple-recipient messages,
but it will not trash your message base, either. When renumbering, it
will reset the message number in all "carbon copies".
In over two years of Mail Manager / Mailfix's life thus far, we have
found that there are MANY utilities floating around out there that do
not strictly adhere to the RBBS-PC message format as-defined in the
documentation for our favorite BBS software. MailFix was specifically
written to be as generic as possible, and to work with the widest
possible variety of RBBS-PC message bases.
The only known incompatibility with RBBS-PC v17.4 message bases is the
following scenario:
The message base is configured with "carbon-copy" turned on, and
1) - The very first header of the "carbon-copy" message is bad, or
2) - The very first header of the "carbon-copy" message is marked
as "killed".
In the first case, MailFix will skip the "bad" message, and maybe the
one following it as well, until it can get its bearings and find the
next "good" message header.
In the second case, Mailfix will purge the entire message, even if
some of the other carbon copies have not been marked as killed.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 85 -
MMINDEX
-------
MMINDEX is the Mail Manager Plus indexing utility for Fido-style *.MSG
message areas. If you are not running any of these types of message
areas, you do not need MMINDEX, and can skip this section.
Usage: MMINDEX [FILENAME.CFG] [/n] [/LFILENAME.LOG]
FILENAME.CFG is the Mail Manager configuration file to process.
Default is MAILMGR.CFG in the current DOS subdirectory.
/n = An individual conference number to process. (I.E. - /5).
If omitted, processes all Fido *.MSG conferences. You can
only specify ONE individual conference on the command line,
such as:
MMINDEX E:\MMGR\MAILMGR.CFG /5
This would cause MMINDEX to read the E:\MMGR\MAILMGR.CFG
configuration file, and process only conference #5.
/LFILENAME.LOG = Read a text "ECHOTOSS.LOG" type of file, and
process only the Fido areanames listed within. If omitted,
processes all Fido *.MSG conferences. This lends itself to
"smarter" automatic operation after tossing new messages into
your *.MSG areas. There can be no space between /L and the
name of the log file. Sample usage:
MMINDEX E:\MMGR\MAILMGR.CFG /LC:\FIDO\ECHOTOSS.LOG
An ECHOTOSS.LOG file contains a list of Fido area names.
Therefore, if you are going to use the "/L" option, it is
very important to properly configure the "Fido area name"
for all of your *.MSG areas in the MAILCFG program, which
is the 3rd option on the conference configuration screen.
* NOTE - /n and /L cannot be used together.
If nothing is supplied on the command line, MMINDEX will look for a
file named MAILMGR.CFG in the current directory, and process all Fido
conferences.
MMINDEX reads the Mail Manager +Plus+ binary configuration file, and
looks for all conferences configured as F)ido (*.MSG). It then
creates a file named MMGR.NDX in each FIDO *.MSG subdirectory, which
is what Mail Manager +Plus+ uses to move as quickly as possible
through the messages within. The index is 4 bytes per message, so if
you have 100 messages in a FIDO conference, MMGR.NDX should be 400
bytes in length.
Mail Manager +Plus+ creates/updates these index files itself, but you
will save yourself (and your users) a lot of time by putting MMINDEX
in your nightly event AFTER your toss/scan/renumber processes. If
the door finds that the indexes in each area are invalid, it will have
to re-create them from scratch.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 86 -
MMGRNODE
--------
MMGRNODE.EXE is meaningful only if you are running one or more FIDO
*.MSG netmail areas. If you are not configuring any such areas into
Mail Manager +Plus+, you have no need for this utility.
Mail Manager +Plus+ uses a proprietary compiled nodelist format for
all Zone:Net/Node searches in your netmail areas. Although it is not
absolutely necessary to use our implementation, you will lose the
convenience of being able to confirm that you are sending netmail to
the correct Zone:Net/Node, and will have to blindly enter in your
Zone:Net/Node arguments for netmail messages that you upload into Mail
Manager +Plus+.
MMGRNODE reads a "raw" nodelist, and compiles it into a format that is
optimized for small file size and fast searches. MMGRNODE can use a
single nodelist, or can combine several different ones together.
Usage: MMGRNODE [/A] X:\PATH\NODELIST.FIL
/A = Instructs MMGRNODE to append to any pre-existing compiled
nodelist that it created previously. If no "/A" on command
line, MMGRNODE will create the compiled nodelist and index from
scratch, overwriting any pre-existing ones.
X:\PATH\NODELIST.FIL = The path/filename of the raw nodelist that you
wish to compile.
MMGRNODE should always be run from your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory.
It creates the following two files whenever it is run:
MMGRNODE.DAT - The main data file containing Zone, Net, and
node numbers, as well as SysOp name, and BBS phone number.
MMGRNODE.DIX - The main data file's index (MUCH smaller in
size).
If you intend to compile several different nodelists together, it is
important to consider which list contains the addresses that you will
want to access frequently, and also the physical size of the nodelist
itself. For instance, if you ever need to send something to someone
in RBBS-NET, and you intend to compile both the RBBS-NET and FIDO-NET
nodelists, you may want to compile the RBBS-NET list first, since the
file size is so small. The search time to get through RBBSLIST is
minimal in comparison to having to scan the entire FIDO nodelist just
to find someone in RBBS-NET. To compile using this scenario, your
command lines would be:
MMGRNODE X:\PATH\RBBSLIST.178
MMGRNODE /A X:\PATH\NODELIST.094
This would create the two files MMGRNODE.DAT and MMGRNODE.DIX from
scratch, starting with the RBBS-NET nodelist. The FIDO-NET nodelist
would then be appended to them.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 87 -
MNET
----
MNET.EXE is a QWK->REP file conversion utility for QWK networks. This
program is available separately, and can be used with BBS types other
than RBBS-PC.
Usage: MNET HOSTNAME [I|O]
HOSTNAME = The name of the configuration file that MNET is to use for
this session. (If your host sends QWK packets named FOOBAR.QWK,
you'd call this file FOOBAR.CFG.) HOSTNAME.CFG will then be
read for operating parameters, and the program will look for the
HOSTNAME.QWK in the directory you specify.
I = Import mode; convert existing HOSTNAME.QWK to BBSNAME.REP (where
BBSNAME.REP would be the correct name for a .REP to be uploaded
to YOUR system.
O = Export mode; convert existing BBSNAME.QWK to HOSTNAME.REP, for
later uploading to the host system.
You can have as many configuration files as necessary for your
installation. The format of each configuration file is like so:
<<START OF EXAMPLE>>
NODE ; NODE PACKET NAME
NODESYSOPFIRST NODESYSOPLAST ; NODE SYSOP NAME
HOSTSYSOPFIRST HOSTSYSOPLAST ; HOST SYSOP NAME
C:\MAILMGR\NODE5\ ; NODE PACKET DIRECTORY
C:\MAILMGR\NODE5\ ; HOST PACKET DIRECTORY
My own personal BBS (123) 456-7890 ; NODE TAGLINE
The remote system I am calling (123) 456-7890 ; HOST TAGLINE
PKZIP -es [FILE] ; PACK COMMAND LINE
PKUNZIP -o [FILE] ; UNPACK COMMAND LINE
; ALL REMAINING LINES CONSIST OF THREE TO FIVE PARAMETERS, SEPARATED ;
; BY COMMAS (all on ONE line):
; NODE CONFERENCE NUMBER,
; HOST CONFERENCE NUMBER,
; PRIVATE MESSAGES ALLOWED (Y=Yes, N=No, C=Convert priv to pub),
; NODE CONFERENCE TAGLINE (optional),
; HOST CONFERENCE TAGLINE (optional)
19, 4, Y, Node Conference Tag, Host Conference Tag
<<END OF EXAMPLE>>
MNET converts the word "SYSOP" to the true sysop name in question, as
listed in the HOSTNAME.CFG file, whenever it is found in the TO or
FROM names, appropriately.
The supplied NETINFO.DOC explains the use of this program in greater
detail.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 88 -
MUSER
-----
MUSER.EXE is the Mail Manager +Plus+ editor for the door's internal
users file, MAILMGR.USR. The utility is meant to be run from within
your Mail Manager +Plus+ directory, and will look for MAILMGR.USR when
it loads. Optionally, you can specify the path/name of the users file
on the command line.
The program was created for the purpose of setting up "net status
usernames" for the HOST sysop in QWK networks, but quickly evolved
into a useful utility for general aspects of Mail Manager +Plus+ user
file maintenance.
One particularly useful capability is the purging of inactive users
from the user file. This can speed up operation, since the door will
not have to scan through as many records in the file in order to find
everyone when the door loads. This may be done manually from within
MUSER, or automatically via the /Pnn command line switch:
MUSER /P90
would automatically purge the file of all users who had not used the
door for 90 days or more. This can be run from a batch file for
unattended operation.
When loaded, it looks like this:
MUSER - Utility to edit MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ User Files.
Version 3.50 Copyright (C) 1993, Makai Software. All rights reserved.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
A) USER: JOE MODEM RECORD: 5
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
B) Packet type: QWK L) Abort if no msgs: Yes
C) Update pointer: Yes M) Ask before send: No
D) Xfer protocol: Z N) Default msg select: All msgs
E) Msg to ALL as pers: No O) Turbokey: On
F) Display Menu: No P) Max Msgs pkt/conf: 0/0
G) Archive choice: ZIP Q) Net Status: None
H) Last-on (YYMMDD): 921102 R) Net identification:
I) Send own msgs: No S) .MSG Date (YYMMDD): 921102
J) Send bulletins: No T) .MSG Time (HHMMSS): 030100
K) Send new file info: No U) .MSG Length: 2643
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
TO SELECT USER: Press , , PgUp, PgDn. (<ESC> to QUIT)
OPTIONS: EDIT USER SHOWN:
1) Find User Name A-T) Edit data above
2) Add new user 4) Edit conf data
3) Purge User Records 5) Delete user
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The above screen shows all of the user's settings, and each one can be
changed as needed by pressing the letter corresponding to it (A-U).
You can use the up, down, PgUp, PgDn keys to move forward and backward
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 89 -
through the user file. Press "5" to delete the user, or "4" to edit
his/her conference selection settings.
Additional numeric options (1-3) work as you would expect:
1 - Find a user. You'll be asked for a search string.
2 - Add new user. Adds a blank user record to the end of the
file then lets you fill in the data.
3 - Purge. You will be asked to purge by date, or elapsed days.
Options "A" through "P" pertain to the user's settings as they
configured themselves from within Mail Manager +Plus+.
The user has no control over options "Q" through "U" from within the
door.
Options "Q" and "R" pertain to QWK network users. Usage of this
utility for network operation is described in NETINFO.DOC.
Options "S", through "U" pertain to Mail Manager +Plus+ duplicate
upload checking, and normally should not need to be modified. If for
some reason you wish to "fool" Mail Manager into letting a user upload
the identical QWK packet a second time in succession, change the
information in one of these fields so Mail Manager will not recognize
the packet as a duplicate.
UTILITY PROGRAMS BUNDLED WITH MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ - Page 90 -
UPDATE AND UPDATUSR
-------------------
The pair of utilities UPDATE.EXE and UPDATUSR.EXE are intended as
"one-shot" programs for SysOps who are upgrading from v1.30 through
v1.36 of Mail Manager. If you are not upgrading from one of these
previous versions of Mail Manager, you do not need these two
utilities.
By the time you read this, you will likely have already converted your
files, but here is the scenario anyway:
- BACK UP YOUR ORIGINAL MAILMGR.CFG and MAILMGR.USR FILES! (Just
in case something goes wrong).
- BOTH programs must be run from your Mail Manager directory.
- UPDATE.EXE updates your binary configuration file (MAILMGR.CFG)
to the new format used by Mail Manager +Plus+.
- UPDATUSR.EXE updates Mail Manager's binary user file
(MAILMGR.USR) to the new format used by Mail Manager +Plus+.
These utilities are "run-once-then-throw-them-away". Once your files
are converted, you won't need them again.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 91 -
THE MAIN MENU
-------------
Although we hope that you'll find Mail Manager to be pretty self-
explanatory, a complete run-down on everything that you can do with
this door follows.
A shorter version of this is available to the user, in the online help
files MMGR1.HLP and MMGR2.HLP.
The menu itself looks something like this:
---------------------------------------------
/ MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MAIN MENU / \
/ / \
l C)onfigure MAIL MANAGER l l
l D)ownload mail l l
l E)xpedite! (Download then exit to bbs) l l
l G)oodbye l l
l Q)uit (return to bbs) l l
l H)elp! l l
l P)ost a message l l
l R)ead messages by conference l l
l U)pload your replies. l l
l W)ho's online to RBBS-PC? l l
l X)pert toggle (this menu on/off) l l
-------------------------------------------------------------------.
HHHHHH "--------------------------"
HHIIII
HHIIII
Your choice, Username <C,D,E,Q,H,M,W,U,X,?>?
PLEASE NOTE: Users of versions earlier than 3.10 will notice the
option to select which messages to extract (i.e. set message pointers)
has been moved from the main menu to the configuration menu. If you
have installed a customized menu, you should revise it to reflect
this.
MAIN MENU commands are as follows:
C - Configure Mail Manager.
Brings up a separate configuration menu for the user's personal
options. These options are discussed separately immediately
after Main Menu Commands.
D - Download new mail.
Will find and extract all new mail from your selected
conferences, in the format that you told Mail Manager to use
(Text or QWK). Mail Manager will then compress the file(s) in
your selected file compression format.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 92 -
Unless your file protocol is set to N)one, Mail Manager will
then send you the mail packet. If your default protocol is set
to N)one, you'll be asked for the transfer protocol of your
choice. If you choose "N", the file will not be sent to you,
and you'll be returned to the main menu. Otherwise Mail Manager
will do its best to send a compressed version of the mail to you
via your selected choice.
Upon completion of the download operation in QWK mode, Mail
Manager will then check for the existence of a REP file and
process it if found. This provides compatibility with bi-
directional transfer protocols which can upload a REP while
downloading a QWK.
E - Expedite!
Same as Download (above), except automatically exits Mail
Manager when finished.
If you have configured the door to drop DTR when G)oodbye is
chosen, this option will drop DTR after the download to
disconnect the caller upon exit, otherwise it will return the
caller to the BBS.
G - Goodbye
Returns to BBS (same as Q)uit), unless you have configured the
door to drop DTR. If so, it will drop DTR on the user
(disconnects most modems).
Q - Quit (return to BBS)
What can we say? This takes the user back to your bbs.
H (or '?') - Display help file
Displays an abbreviated version of these command descriptions.
I - Sysop Information
This command is not shown in the online help file, is not
displayed in the command prompt, and is not shown in the menu
itself.
Only those with sufficient security to read ALL messages will be
able to activate this command. Everyone else will get the
familiar "Command not recognized".
The purpose of this command is to assist you in debugging your
setup, and it is covered in detail elsewhere in this manual
under "DEBUGGING YOUR SETUP".
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 93 -
R - Read messages.
Allows users to read messages while online within the door.
This can be useful for checking out a message or two before
downloading a packet. User will be asked for which conference
to read whenever this option is chosen.
If the user has sufficient security to post a message in the
conference they select here, they will have the option to reply
to messages that they read, and choose to quote or not quote the
message that they are replying to.
Mail Manager +Plus+'s read function itself is somewhat
rudimentary; we did not try to duplicate RBBS-PC itself in this
regard. The user can choose to read all messages, or personal
messages only, reading "forward" starting with a particular
message number, or S)ince last read.
P - Post a message
A complement to the R)ead option, allows user to post a message
while online within the door, and will allow them to select only
the conferences in which they have sufficient security to post.
Mail Manager +Plus+ is equipped with a line editor, similar in
function to RBBS-PC's. Message length will be limited to 8 less
than the lines per message allowed in that area (as configured
for Mail Manager) for normal "non-net-status" users. The same
line editor used in the P)ost function is used when R)eplying to
a message while reading online.
U - Upload your replies
Works with QWK-compatible mail reader/repliers only. Your
uploaded file is expected to be compatible with the .REP format
used by popular mail readers such as SLMR. Mail Manager will
look for the REP packet after the upload and attempt to place
your replies into the proper message bases.
If your default protocol is set to N)one, you'll be asked for
the protocol that you wish to use. If you select N)one, you'll
be returned to the main menu.
If you're in local mode as the Sysop, place the .REP file in the
\MAILMGR\LOCAL directory, and choose this option. This is
covered further in the section regarding "DEBUGGING YOUR SETUP".
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 94 -
W - Who's online?
Displays a list of who's online to all nodes of this RBBS-PC.
(Much like RBBS's command of the same name).
Those with sufficient security to read ALL messages will have
the following displayed:
- User's name,
- City/State, and
- BPS rate.
If a node is inactive, the last user's information is
displayed, and will be reported as "Last call".
All other users will have the following displayed:
- User's name, and
- baud rate.
If a node is inactive, "Waiting for next caller" is displayed.
X - Expert toggle
Turns the main menu on or off. (Much like RBBS's command of the
same name). This setting is saved for the user's next time into
the door.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 95 -
CONFIGURATION MENU COMMANDS:
----------------------------
The configuration menu allows the user to select personal options, and
select or change conferences from which to extract new mail.
You'll be presented with a screen that looks something like this:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration options:
A - Choose active conferences.
X - Message selection menu.
B - Download messages in Q)WK or T)ext format .........: Q
C - Msgs addressed to ALL marked as personal (QWK only): No
D - Extract ONLY your personal mail as default ........: No
E - Extract messages written by YOU ...................: Yes
F - Abort packet if no messages .......................: No
G - Send updated bulletins ............................: Yes
H - Send new file listings ............................: Yes
I - Ask before sending packet .........................: No
J - Type of file compression to use ...................: ZIP
K - Default file transfer protocol ....................: N
L - Update high message numbers after downloading .....: Yes
M - Update high message numbers after R)eading ........: No
N - Max messages desired per packet/conference ........: 1000/1000
T - Use 'TurboKeys' (act on 1 char commands) ..........: Yes
-----------------------------
? - Display help file.
Q - Quit. (Finished configuring)
Enter your choice(s), UserName <A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,Q,T,X,?> ->
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 96 -
Now let's see what these various commands do:
A - Select conferences to extract and download.
You'll be presented with a list of conferences that you are able
to access, which will look something like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You may select any conference which is shown in UPPER CASE.
Conferences shown in lower case must first be joined from the bbs.
Conferences you've marked as active are surrounded in brackets '[]'.
Conferences marked as --- are not available.
1 - [MAIN ] 11 - TEEN 21 - [RSYS ]
2 - [4SALE ] 12 - [PRIVATE] 22 - [BITS ]
3 - [MS-DOS ] 13 - [SYSOP ] 23 - [POL ]
4 - BBS 14 - [USER ] 24 - [CRES ]
5 - --- 15 - grafx 25 - [WINB ]
6 - [CODE ] 16 - arj 26 - [MAILMGR]
7 - [DEBATE ] 17 - ---
8 - [HAM ] 18 - [QB ]
9 - HUMOR 19 - [RBBS ]
10 - [IBM ] 20 - [DEV ]
Enter conf. number(s) to toggle on/off, [ENTER] for next page, F to
find, or Q to quit ->
--------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: If you have configured your board NOT to show
empty/unjoinable conferences, the line "Conferences marked as
--- are not available" will not be shown.
In this example, all conferences that you have joined (or which
you have configured to be joinable via the Mail Manager +Plus+
door, are flagged as active, except BBS (conference 4), HUMOR
(conference 9), and TEEN (conference 11).
If you wanted to mark those three as active, you'd enter:
4 9 11
at the above prompt.
Conferences #5 and 17 are shown as unavailable, meaning that the
user either has insufficient security to access them, or you
(the Sysop) have "reserved" these conference numbers in the
MAILCFG program, for future use. (If you have configured your
board not to show empty/unjoinable conferences, these
conferences would not be displayed at all.)
Conferences #15 and 16 are valid conferences, which the user has
not joined, and which the sysop has not configured to allow
joining from within the door, as indicated by being shown in
lower case. To access these conferences the user must first
join them from RBBS.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 97 -
Use the F)ind option to locate a conference via text search.
When you press F, you will be prompted for search text. You can
enter up to a 15 character string which Mail Manager will search
for in the conference names and descriptions. If found, you
will then be able to toggle the conference on/off, keep looking
for the next match, or abort the search. On boards with several
screens of conference listings, this can be the fastest way to
find the conference you want.
X - Message selection menu (for active conferences).
Mail Manager will normally download mail based on the last
message that you've read in each conference. Since you can read
mail both online AND offline, and have the option of telling
Mail Manager NOT to update your last message read markers, you
might want to use this option to reset them to what you want.
You can set individual conferences one at a time, or you can
reset all at once.
When setting individual conferences, you will be prompted to
select the type of mail you wish to extract. Each conference
can be configured in 1 of 3 different ways:
A)ll - Extract all mail from this conference
P)ersonal - Extract only your personal mail
S)ys Default - Extract based on what you told Mail Manager
to do by default via option D on the
Configuration menu (see below).
B - Download messages in Q)WK or T)ext format
Set to text if you want to use Mail Manager as a simple "extract
and download" system (all messages in a single continuous ascii
file).
Set to QWK if you want to read and reply offline using a QWK-
compatible mail reader.
<<< QWK NETWORK USERS >>>
** NOTE ** This field is different for QWK network users.
If you have given a user "net status" via MUSER, this gives
them the option of creating a "full QWK" (with all
accompanying files normally present within), or a minimized
QWK packet that contains only what is necessary for network
mail transfer. The latter would save them archiving and
transfer time by creating a smaller packet, the former might
be preferred if they wish to review the packet via an
offline reader program, and can be useful when setting up
conference numbers appropriately on their end of the line.
At any rate, they will have the option one way or the other,
and can change it whenever they wish.
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 98 -
C - Msgs addressed to ALL marked as personal (QWK only)
If set to "Y", Mail Manager will add messages addressed to "ALL"
to the user's personal index the QWK packet.
D - Extract ONLY your personal mail as default
If set to "Y", Mail Manager will not extract a message unless it
is addressed to you. (Will also extract msgs addressed to "ALL"
if you have option C set to "Y".) This is the default setting
for the user, but it can be overridden for individual
conferences when setting the
conference message pointers (see main menu option M).
E - Extract messages written by you
If set to "NO", Mail Manager will not include messages from you
in your packet.
F - Abort packet if no new messages
You might not want to do this if you would still like to receive
new file listings or updated system news or bulletins.
G - Send updated bulletins
If set to "No", any updated bulletins which the sysop has
designated as mandatory will still be included.
H - Send new file listings
If you select this option, a listing of newly-uploaded files
will be included in your mail packet.
This option is only operational on systems with standard RBBS
FMS style file listings.
I - Ask before sending packet
If set to "Yes", will cause Mail Manager to prompt you whether
or not you want to receive the mail packet that it just created
for you. Will otherwise go right into the download when
finished extracting.
J - Type of file compression to use
If the Sysop has activated this option, you can choose from the
file compression utilities offered on this system (ZIP, ARC,
etc.).
MAIL MANAGER +PLUS+ MENU COMMANDS - Page 99 -
K - Default file transfer protocol
Choose from the protocols offered by your sysop (Xmodem, Zmodem,
etc.). If set to N)one, Mail Manager will prompt you for which
protocol to use at each file transfer.
L - Update high message numbers after downloading
If this is set to NO, both RBBS and Mail Manager will think that
you haven't read the messages that you've downloaded. (Mail
Manager will extract them again your next time in).
M - Update high message numbers after R)eading
This option will not be displayed if you have disabled the R)ead
and P)ost options in MAILCFG.
If set to NO, any messages that you read in the door will still
be downloaded in your next mail packet. This can be handy for
checking a message or two before downloading your mail.
If set to YES, the highest message number you read sets your
high message marker, and only higher message numbers will be
included in your next mail packet.
N - Max messages desired per packet/conference
If set to "0", will use sysop-selected maximum for both limits.
If user sets either beyond sysop-selected system limit, system
limit will be used when extracting.
T - Use 'TurboKeys' (act on 1-character commands)
Works like RBBS-PC's toggle of the same name. If set to Yes,
Mail Manager will not wait for [ENTER] when asking you for input
where one character responses are expected.
? - Display help file
Display help file which explains the configuration options.
Q - Quit (finished configuring)
(Or just press [ENTER] to accomplish the same thing).
APPENDIX A - COMMON PROBLEMS - Page 100 -
Problem : Not finding the Sysop in any conferences.
Solution: Double-check your setting of "Remote Sysop Name" on the
first screen of the MAILCFG program. This setting must be
the name that you use to log onto your system remotely, NOT
your name as you are known to your users.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Shows "Error finding new message" when trying to extract
your first mail packet.
Solution: Run MAILFIX.EXE against the message base in question (using
the proper command line switches). Re-read the section of
this document entitled "Before you begin".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Always showing Sysop name when operating remotely.
Solution: Probably not copying the correct DORINFOx.DEF file to the
Mail Manager directory prior to loading the door. Drop to
DOS, and take a look at the DORINFOx.DEF that was in use at
the time.
Also possible that the door is coming up in local mode.
Check your DOORS.DEF and MAILMGR.BAT files to be sure they
are set correctly. Mail Manager should be called (as a
minimum) like so:
MAILMGR %1
(Where %1 is the node number). If you suspect that the
node number is NOT being passed correctly, turn ECHO ON at
the top of your batch file and watch what it actually
passes to the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Always using locked BPS rate for download estimates,
instead of true connect rate.
Solution: No fix if you are running stock RBBS-PC v17.3C and lower.
You must upgrade to RBBS-PC v17.4 to get this figure
reported correctly, or recompile RBBS-PC with the CBAUD
merge.
If you are running RBBS-PC v17.4 and above, change your
DOORS.DEF line to read something like:
MAILMGR,5,,D,"C:\MAILMGR.BAT [NODE] [CBAUD]",N,,
Then, in MAILMGR.BAT, change the line that calls Mail
Manager to read: MAILMGR %1 /CBAUD%2
APPENDIX A - COMMON PROBLEMS - Page 101 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Not allowing REP uploads to a particular conference, with
the error message "Message base full".
Solution: Make 100% sure that both RBBS-PC and Mail Manager +Plus+
are configured to the exact same type of message base. For
instance, if RBBS-PC is configured to have message base
"grow" as messages are added, yet that conference is
configured in Mail Manager +Plus+ as fixed length, this
type of error will appear EVERY time a message is uploaded
for that conference.
If all appears to be sound, and that error message still
appears, try running MAILFIX.EXE against the offending
message base.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Program gives error message "Unable to pack...", after
trying to compress a mail packet.
Solution: We have heard this one before, (and have run into it
ourselves), and it has always been one of three things:
- Your file compression program was not where the list of
archivers said it was (MAILMGR.ARL), or
- There was insufficient memory to run the archiver, or
- There was insufficient disk space to archive the mail
packet for the user. (A 1,000-message packet can be over
1 meg in size before compression).
Read the section of this document entitled "CHECKLIST OF
REQUIREMENTS" for Mail Manager +Plus+ memory requirements.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Program gives errors while extracting mail from a FIDO
*.MSG area, and/or has problems when updating last message
read in a FIDO area after a download.
Solution: More than likely, Mail Manager +Plus+ experienced an error
with the index file for that FIDO area that it wasn't able
to recover from. Try running the MMINDEX.EXE program, and
insure that MMINDEX is in your nightly event as the LAST
thing before your BBS comes back up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX A - COMMON PROBLEMS - Page 102 -
Problem : Local screen looks fine, but the caller on the remote end
of the line has incomplete and partially garbled screens.
Solution: If your communications port is locked higher than the
user's true connect speed (typically 19200 or 38400 for
today's fast modems), Mail Manager +Plus+ is probably
overrunning the communications buffer. You can get around
this problem by installing a FOSSIL driver such as BNU or
X00 (available on bulletin boards all over the place), and
telling Mail Manager +Plus+ to always use the FOSSIL for
flow control. Set the flow control option (in the MAILCFG
program) to "F".
See the section of this document entitled "IF YOU HAVE A
LOCKED BPS RATE" for more information on this subject.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Mail Manager +Plus+ is not finding some of the files as set
in the configuration file, or always seems to be using
defaults instead of the options that you have custom-
configured.
Solution: The most likely cause of this problem is an incomplete (or
incorrect) drive:\path\file designation for a key file or
two in the configuration program. In particular - DO NOT
simply use a "drive:filename.ext" designation to tell Mail
Manager +Plus+ where to look. Mail Manager +Plus+ always
operates out of a work directory, and is never going to be
in the \MAILMGR directory when it looks for its files. For
example:
D:MAILMGR.PRO
may not work, but:
D:\MAILMGR\MAILMGR.PRO
might.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : After an RBBS message base has been renumbered, Mail
Manager +Plus+ doesn't find new messages until the user
manually resets his last-message-read (LMR) pointer.
Solution: Mail Manager reads the LMR pointer from the user's record
in the RBBS user file for that conference (xxxxU.DEF).
The utility you use to renumber the message base must also
update the LMR pointers in the user file in order for Mail
Manager (or RBBS for that matter) to find new messages. If
the renumbering utility you are using does not do this,
consider using our MAILFIX utility to renumber your base,
or the renumber facility built into RBBS' CONFIG utility
(17.4 or higher) - both of these will update the user LMR
APPENDIX A - COMMON PROBLEMS - Page 103 -
pointers when they renumber an RBBS message base.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Mail Manager works fine for nodes 1-9 but higher nodes will
not load.
Solution: If you are using a door control file (normally called
DOORS.DEF, but you may have named it something else in your
RBBS configuration), RBBS passes the node number via the
[NODE] variable. Apparently, when processing DOORS.DEF,
RBBS passes the nodes above 9 as "10", "11", etc., rather
than the one-character node designations "0", "A", "B",
etc. which MAILMGR needs. The solution is to set a NODE
variable containing the one-character node designation in
your dos environment in the batch file you use to load each
RBBS node (you're probably doing this already). Then pass
that to MAILMGR as follows:
In DOORS.DEF, don't pass [NODE] at all. An example line
would be:
MAILMGR,5,,D,"C:\MAILMGR.BAT [CBAUD]",N,,
In your MAILMGR.BAT file, change the line which actually
loads the door to:
MAILMGR %NODE% /CBAUD%1
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : Program gives error message to the effect of "Reply file
not found after upload".
Solution: One of two things: Either the user did not upload a valid
REP packet, or you have an invalid unpacker configured.
For example, if you have PKUNZIP v1.10 in your DOS path,
yet your user uploads a REP packet created with PKZIP
v2.04g, this type of error will occur.
APPENDIX B - CONTACTING THE AUTHORS - Page 104 -
Due to the transitory nature of many bulletin boards, and the fact
that you may be reading these instructions a long time after they are
written, it is probably best not to list bulletin boards where we may
be reached. Inevitably, whichever board we cite will immediately go
out of business, and the phone number will be reassigned to somebody
who does not care to be awakened by the phone ringing in the middle of
the night when we modem junkies place most of our long distance calls.
The authors, however, CAN be found on the following computer network
conferences:
Fido: RBBS-PC and OFFLINE
Rime: RBBS-PC and RBBSQWK
New releases are always announced in these conferences, and we
occasionally post lists of the currently active distribution sites
there. If you wish to contact us via these conferences, address
messages to Doug Wilson or Chip Morrow.
Current Makai Software releases are always sent to Compuserve within a
few days of release, in the IBMBBS forum (GO IBMBBS). The doors
themselves may be found in library 3, while the individually-
distributed utilities (MNET, MAILFIX, etc.) may be found in library 2.
While you're on Compuserve, you can reach one of the authors, Chip
Morrow, there (72677,502).
Chip Morrow is also available via Prodigy and Internet, if either of
those are more convenient:
Prodigy: GVHM95A
Internet: 72677.502@compuserve.com
And if all else fails, there's always good ol' U.S. Mail (see
REGISTER.DOC):
Makai Software
870 Golden Drive
Newark, OH 43055
We're sorry, but we simply do not have the time or resources to make
individual voice calls to help with debugging your MAILMGR setup. On
the other hand, we'd like to see you in any of the above network
conferences, where you can get help from others as well as ourselves,
and where questions/answers/reports/release notices get a much wider
audience, and can benefit more people.
APPENDIX C - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - Page 105 -
Microsoft, Crescent Software, DSZ, PKZIP, LHARC, ARJ, LZEXE, PKLITE,
JIMMER, TQM, SILVER EXPRESS, LANtastic, DESQview, BNU, X00, RBBSMAIL,
MSGTOSS, OVERMAIL, PDQ, PDQCOMM, QuickBASIC, RBBS-PC, SLMR, JABBER,
OFFLINE, OLX, RNET, TNET, and SHROOM (did we miss any?) are all
trademarks or tradenames of their respective authors and/or companies,
and are mentioned throughout our documentation for clarity only.
Our Special thanks go to everyone who supported us through development
of the Mail Manager package. Many of the names have faded, some have
gone on to other BBS's and/or other doors, others have grown silent
over the last few years, others continue to provide us with
suggestions to this day. Without your support, the door would never
be where it is today. Some names of special note:
Michael Lurie, who has supported the door (and its continued
development) since day one.
Dave Brodmann, who was severely abused by early beta versions of
Mail Manager +Plus+, and has goodnaturedly put up with our
harebrained schemes ever since. Dave's help was invaluable in
taking "Plus" beyond 250 conference limits.
The trio of Rod Bowman, Don Smith, and Joe Tailleur who beta tested
the first versions to support FIDO *.MSG's and helped solve a lot
of early problems before Mail Manager +Plus+ hit the streets.
Kip Gies, who tested a late beta of v2.03 and helped us get the
initial bugs out of the FIDO *.MSG handling.
Eddie Rowe, who tested the last betas of pre-v3.x code, helped us
get some last-minute bugs out of the new code, found the "old
format" problem in outbound mail packets created by v2.x, and
provided us with updated Fido format documentation.
Marion Royal, who ran our QWK network implementation through the
wringer, picked MNET and MUSER apart <g>, and provided us with
sufficient information to implement QWK network capability. There
would be no QWK networking in this door without Marion's efforts.
Paul Di Novo, who verified that the door really could work in a
non-RBBS-PC environment, and provided us with useful information
for future compatibility issues.
Rick Moen, who worked through many versions of QWK-networking and
handling of tear and taglines before we finally hit on the right
combination. Rick's long distance carrier thanks him too.
Richie Molinelli, who provided the modified time slice giveback
routines for implementing this feature under OS/2.
And thanks to everyone else who commented and offered suggestions,
help, and beta testing. We honestly cannot remember all of the names,
and do apologize for that!
APPENDIX D - MAIL MANAGER'S FILE FORMATS - Page 106 -
Just in case someone out there has an inkling to write a utility
program or two for use with their Mail Manager +Plus+ setup, here are
the formats for the Mail Manager +Plus+ v3.51 binary system files,
MAILMGR.CFG and MAILMGR.USR.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MAILMGR.USR - Mail Manager's internal users file. |
| One 570-byte record per user. Each 570-byte record |
| broken down as follows: |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Start Stop Length Record Type Description |
|====================================================================|
| 1 31 31 STRING The user's name, in upper case, |
| left-justified, padded with ASCII 32s|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 32 531 500 STRING Bit-mapped conference flags for each |
| user, 1 byte per conference. If bit |
| is set to 1 it means: |
| Bit: 0 = conf active |
| 1 = accept default msg select. |
| 2 = if bit 1 not set, pers only|
| 3 = conf net status granted |
| 4 = if bit 3 set, net access to|
| private messages. |
| 5,6,7 = reserved |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 532 532 1 STRING User's QWK preference. Either "Q" |
| or "T". (QWK or TEXT). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 533 533 1 STRING User's flag for whether or not to |
| update last message read in the RBBS |
| user files (after downloading pkts). |
| ASCII 1 for true, 255 for false. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 534 534 1 STRING Letter of the user's default file |
| protocol choice, in upper case. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 535 535 1 STRING Messages addressed to "ALL" marked |
| as personal in QWK packet? ASCII 1 |
| for true, 255 for false. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 536 536 1 STRING Xpert toggle on or off (ASCII 1, 255)|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 537 537 1 STRING Bit flag byte for other user options.|
| Bit: 0 = Send own msgs |
| 1 = Send bullets |
| 2 = Send newfiles |
| 3 = Abort if no msgs|
| 4 = Ask before send |
| 5 = Only pers mail |
| 6 = Turbokey toggle |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 538 540 3 STRING User's choice of archiver (ZIP, ARC, |
| etc.) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
APPENDIX D - MAIL MANAGER'S FILE FORMATS - Page 107 -
| 541 546 6 STRING "YYMMDD" that user last used the |
| door. ("911223" = 23 Dec 91) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 547 547 1 STRING Net status CHR$(0=none,1=node,2=host)|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 548 555 8 STRING Packet name for net status user |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 556 559 4 LONG Date/Time of last REP packet |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 560 563 4 LONG FileSize of last REP packet |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 564 564 1 STRING Update last read after reading online|
| CHR$(1) = true, 255 = false. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 565 566 2 INTEGER User's choice of max msgs / packet. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 567 568 2 INTEGER User's choice of max msgs / conf. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 569 570 2 STRING Reserved for future use. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MAILMGR.CFG- Mail Manager's configuration file. |
| Consists of one 556-byte header, followed by a number |
| of 384-byte conference configuration records. |
| |
| HEADER RECORD: |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Start Stop Length Record Type Description |
|====================================================================|
| 1 35 35 STRING Name of the BBS (in proper case). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 36 66 31 STRING Remote logon name of the sysop (left-|
| justified, in upper case, padded with|
| ASCII 32 blanks). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 67 81 15 STRING Sysop's public first name. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 82 96 15 STRING Sysop's public last name. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 97 98 2 INTEGER Security level to read ALL messages. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 99 100 2 INTEGER Security level to use in local mode. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 101 102 2 INTEGER Local sysop's graphic preference. |
| 2 = ANSI, 1 = ASCII, 0 = None. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 103 163 61 STRING Default tagline for all conferences. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 164 165 2 INTEGER Number of 334-byte conference |
| configuration records that follow |
| this header record. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
APPENDIX D - MAIL MANAGER'S FILE FORMATS - Page 108 -
| 166 173 8 STRING First 8 characters of extract file |
| name to use (this is the "*" of |
| *.QWK, *.REP, *.ZIP, etc.). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 174 176 3 STRING 3 upper case characters designating |
| the default file compression type |
| (ZIP, ARC, ARJ, or LZH) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 177 216 40 STRING Full path/filename of the NEWS file. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 217 256 40 STRING Full path/filename of the list of |
| bulletins (MAILMGR.BUL). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 257 257 1 STRING Network type to use in local mode. |
| D)os, N)etbios, desQ)view. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 258 258 1 STRING Handshake method to use, upper case. |
| R)ts, X)on, N)one, or F)ossil. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 259 260 2 INTEGER Version number (3.50 = 350). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 261 300 40 STRING Path/filename of MAILMGR.PRO |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 301 340 40 STRING Path/filename of FMS directory. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 341 380 40 STRING Path/name of list of archivers. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 381 395 15 STRING Name of environment variable to |
| path/name of XFER-x.DEF log file. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 396 396 1 STRING Modify uploaded messages date & time |
| stamp to the current system time? |
| (Y or N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 397 427 31 STRING City/State where BBS is located. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 428 439 12 STRING Phone number of BBS. "xxx-xxx-xxxx" |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 440 440 1 STRING SmartText ID character |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 441 480 40 STRING Default path to *M.DEF conferences. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 481 520 40 STRING Path/name of echo toss log. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 521 525 5 STRING Start of timelock (HH:MM). |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 526 530 5 STRING End of timelock (HH:MM) - 24 hour |
| format for both of these. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 531 531 1 STRING Drop DTR on G)oodbye/E)xpedite? (Y/N)|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 532 532 1 STRING Show empty/unjoinable confs? (Y/N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 533 534 2 INTEGER Max msgs allowed per packet |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
APPENDIX D - MAIL MANAGER'S FILE FORMATS - Page 109 -
| 535 535 1 STRING Make conference receiving violaton |
| notices mandatory (Y/N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 536 536 1 STRING Allow online R)ead, P)ost (Y/N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 537 556 20 STRING Reserved for future use. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CONFERENCE CONFIGURATION RECORD: |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Start Stop Length Record Type Description |
|====================================================================|
| 1 7 7 STRING Name of the conference, upper case. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 8 8 1 STRING # of lines per msg (CHR$ byte value |
| plus 32). CHR$(131) = 99 lines per |
| message. CHR(0) = do not split long |
| messages. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 9 10 2 INTEGER Point ID for Fido *.MSG areas. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 11 12 2 INTEGER "Fakenet" ID for 2D Fido points. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 13 25 14 STRING Reserved for future use. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 26 105 80 STRING Path/name to USERS file. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 106 185 80 STRING Path/name to MESSAGES file. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 186 186 1 STRING Allow ANSI in REPs? (Y, N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 187 187 1 STRING Allow high/low ASCII in REPs? (Y, N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 188 189 2 INTEGER Security level needed to join. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 190 191 2 INTEGER Security level needed to post. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 192 252 61 STRING Tagline for this conference. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 253 253 1 STRING Fido-style tearlines? (Y, N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 254 254 1 STRING Type of message base? (Y, N, F) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 255 255 1 STRING Allow join within door? (Y, N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 256 335 80 STRING Path/Name of conf alias file. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 336 337 2 INTEGER Zone ID (for FIDO areas) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 338 339 2 INTEGER Net ID (for FIDO areas) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 340 341 2 INTEGER Node ID (for FIDO areas) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 342 342 1 STRING Netmail area? (Y, N). |
APPENDIX D - MAIL MANAGER'S FILE FORMATS - Page 110 -
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 343 343 1 STRING Add tear/tag to end of FIDO msg?(Y,N)|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 344 358 15 STRING Symbolic area name for this FIDO |
| conference. (Optional) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 359 359 1 STRING Allow uploaded messages to be marked |
| as private in this conf? (Y, N) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 360 384 25 STRING Long Description of the conference. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
APPENDIX E - ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT - Page 111 -
Programmers have long been known to be terrible about writing
documentation to cover their own software, and we are probably not
going to disprove this theory with the opus you are reading now.
After two years of threatening to do so, we have finally taken the
rambling mess which spewed out of a couple of different text editors
(the same ones we used to do the program coding) and shoved it all
into an actual-by-gum word processor <gasp> to try to get more
consistency of formatting, automatic page numbering, etc.
But the basic text is what you have all come to love (?) in previous
releases. This means that there are two constants:
- It SHOULD print out just fine on standard tractor-fed 8 1/2 x 11
paper on your garden-variety dot-matrix printer. We have attempted to
limit page length to 60 lines, to allow it to be printed on 60-line-
per-page laser printers.
- It is practically guaranteed to contain spelling and grammar errors.
This thing is probably too long by half, but every time we try to cut
it down, we end up adding more than we cut (sounds sort of like
Congress trying to trim the Federal Budget...)
Sincere Best Wishes to Each of You,
Doug Wilson and Chip Morrow