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┌─────────┐┌───────┐ ┌────────────┐┌──────────┬───────────┬───────┐ │ ┌───┐ ││ ┌───┘ │ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ││ ┌───┐ ├────┐ ┌───┤ ┌───┘ │ │ │ ││ └───┐ │ │ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───┐ │ └───┘ └┤ ┌───┘ │ │ │ │ │ └┤ │ │ └┐ │ └┐ │ ┌───┘ │ ┌────┐ │ └─────┤ │ │ │ │ │ └───┘ │ │ │ │ └─────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──┘ └──┴─────────┴──┘ └──┘ └───┴───────────┘ └───┘ └─────────┘ ┌──────────┬──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ │ ┌───┐ │ ┌──┘ │ ┌──┘ │ ┌───┘ │ ┌───┘ │ ┌───┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───┐ │ └─────┤ └─────┐ │ └───┘ │ │ │ │ │ ┌───┘ └─────┐ ├─────┐ │ │ ┌────┐ │ └────┤ └────┤ └─────┬─────┘ ├─────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──┘ └──┴────────┴────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘ RemoteAccess 1.11 (C) 1989-92 Andrew Milner and Continental Software, All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── PREAMBLE AND CREDITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 OVERVIEW AND FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 LICENSING INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 HOW TO REGISTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 SHAREWARE version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 PROFESSIONAL version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 REGISTRATION FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The key system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 PRODUCT SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 USA and Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Europe and others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Support conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 RACONFIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 PATHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 SITE INFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 ADDRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 MESSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 RESTRICTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ERRORLEVELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 COLOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 PAGING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 NEW USERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 PROMPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 PRINTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 COMMANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 RESPONSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 MESSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 INTERNAL PROTOCOLS . . . . . . . . . . . 38 EXTERNAL PROTOCOLS . . . . . . . . . . . 38 LANGUAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 ALT-Fn KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 MENUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 USERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 CTL FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 COMBINED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 MENUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Menu functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Automatic command execution . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Special optional data switches . . . . . . . . . . 76 Menu templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 The global menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Setting up your menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Creating your menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 THE USER DATABASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Information stored in the user database . . . . . 92 Packing and sorting the user file . . . . . . . . 93 THE MESSAGE DATABASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Message database size limitations . . . . . . . . 94 Packing and renumbering the message base . . . . . 95 MAIL NETWORKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Installing the nodelist files . . . . . . . . . 102 MULTI - NODE OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 REFERENCE SECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Sysop keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Command-line parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 RA.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 RACONFIG.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Text file control codes . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 User parameter codes . . . . . . . . . . . 114 System parameter codes . . . . . . . . . . 115 Colour control numbers . . . . . . . . . . 116 Modem string translation . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Questionnaire script language . . . . . . . . . 118 Terminal emulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Text file naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . 126 Interactive EMSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 BATCH FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 This document makes reference to a number of third-party products. All copyrights, trademarks and reserved rights held in these products are acknowledged. 1 PREAMBLE AND CREDITS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess started as one of those spare-time projects in early 1989. After about eight months of initial development I released version 0.01 on the 25th of January, 1990. Almost two years later as this is written, after four major releases, a couple of maintenance releases, a few thousand registered users (thanks!) and an uncountable number of other changes in my life, RemoteAccess has become a full- time occupation. I'd like to thank Mark Anderson for his patience in updating this documentation, Bruce Bodger, Barry Phillips and their support groups NARAS, UKRAS and EURAS, the guys who operate the registration sites and of course the beta test team. I'd also like to thank the following for their contributions (in no particular order whatsoever) - all of them have played a part in the development of RemoteAccess: Adam Blake, Joaquim Homrighausen, Ray Gwinn, David Nugent, Rob van Hoeven, Tomas Bremin, Peter Janssens, Advanced Engineering, Phil Mackay, Bob Fletcher, Adam Hudson, Gary Smith, Scott's Pub and Restaurant, Mum, Dad, Vanessa, Matt, Sugar, Letham Burns, James Smith and Online Communications Inc., Guns n' Roses, Matilda Bay Brewing, Al Hays and the Church Street Station gang, Kevin Johnson, Terry Harvey, john barton, Andrew Russell, Mike Janke, Fred "Levis" Horner, and the Luxembourg PTT for connecting my telephone in just seven weeks. Andrew Milner, Luxembourg City. ──────────────── 2 OVERVIEW AND FEATURES ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess is a "fully-blown" remote bulletin board package. It may be used as a stand-alone system or with a front-end mailer if you wish to interface it to a mail network such as FidoNet. It offers fully definable menus with a unique template system which provides not only a massive degree of flexibility in making your BBS look different from any other, but also the lowest possible maintenance. AVATAR screen control is built in, making possible extremely efficient and complex colour and cursor control at the user's end if an AVATAR terminal program is used. Access to the 200 available message areas is controlled by your menu structure, along with a sophisticated security system which incorporates over 64,000 security levels with a set of user-definable flags. For each security level you can specify maximum download limits for different log-on speeds, daily time limits, and optionally activate the built-in file ratio system, limiting downloads by ratio to uploads by either number of files or kilobytes. In addition it's possible to assign a user to one of 255 separate groups, and in so doing segregate groups of users from each other. Other security features include the disallowing of downloads during peak hours, disallowing low speed callers at certain times, and disallowing ANSI graphics at low speeds. You can disallow one-word "pseudonyms", and optionally configure the system to force a user to change passwords every x log- ons. Undesirable user names and passwords are also definable for maximum security. If you're unlikely to want to call your own system, remote sysop access can be disabled, making it virtually impossible for your account to be "hacked". Direct support for high-speed modems up to 38,400 baud is available, and RemoteAccess will optionally answer the phone automatically to ensure that the modem will answer if your BBS is "alive and well". RemoteAccess supports as many as 250 lines simultaneously. Full system access to all file and message areas is available to each line (at your discretion), as are all doors. Several "multi-node specific" features are provided to augment multi-line operation. You can configure the system to disallow one person logging on to more than one line at a time. A "who else is on-line?" and "today's callers" function is available to you, along with separate system logs for each line. Logging is selectable between either Opus (expanded) or FrontDoor (compact) styles to aid integrated log readability. Some basic user-to-user on-line messaging, to be expanded at a later date is also available. RemoteAccess offers a fully configurable user environment. Its multi-lingual support and configurable date formats mean that your users will feel at home no matter where they are calling from - every one of the 500+ text prompts is fully sysop-configurable. 3 RemoteAccess does NOT do its own internal multi-tasking. To this end, we have attempted to make it as well-behaved as possible. It has built-in time-slicing and screen-handling support for Windows, DESQview, TopView, MultiLink, DoubleDOS and PC-MOS/386. It is fully overlaid and occupies approximately 220k of memory when fired up. What do you do if you have say a 300k DESQview window and want to run TradeWars in a shell? No problem! Simply by specifying a control character on the command line, you can instruct RemoteAccess to swap itself lock, stock and barrel to EMS and/or disk leaving only 3k resident. A comprehensive file transfer system is also part of the package. Six of the most popular protocols, including Zmodem, Ymodem batch and Xmodem are built-in, and fifteen slots for external protocols are available for you to add any others. All protocols may be made available on an "error free" connect basis at the your discretion. The protocol interface system is extremely flexible, and has been tested with DSZ, Kermit (an Opus compatible protocol), and BiModem. There are of course many others we haven't tested, but most should work. Support for CD-ROM and other mass read-only media is another invaluable feature. The file transfer system is further enhanced by comprehensive file search and locate functions along with the ability to tag any file or group of files as "free" and or password protected. A large selection of transfer options include global downloads and the ability for specific files to be attached to a file transfer menu option. Interactive EMSI session support is an exciting new first for RemoteAccess! Read the section on IEMSI in the reference section at the end of this document for details on this revolutionary new set of features. Extensive on-line facilities are available to the sysop. An optional set of status bars provide a wealth of information about both the person currently on-line and the system. Several "hot-keys" are also available to perform a wide range of functions, amongst which is a full screen user attribute editor, a "sysop on next" key, shell to DOS, hang up, lock out, and local snoop. As an added bonus, we have decided to use the QuickBBS-style user and message database formats. This means that you can continue to use your favourite QuickBBS utilities with no need to convert to another format. Any incompatibilities in the configuration files is taken care of by an upgrade utility. We make no apology for the similarity between RemoteAccess and QuickBBS. QuickBBS had many features that we wanted, and compatibility gives the added bonus of offering the sysop ease of installation and a familiar environment. To cater for both Opus and QuickBBS users alike, each user has (at the discretion of the sysop) the option of using hot-keyed menus or command stacking. Comprehensive messaging, file search options and support for a wide range of "doors" ensure that your BBS will be a hit! 4 LICENSING INFORMATION (Shareware version) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── "RA" refers to the executable programs and documentation contained in RemoteAccess Bulletin Board Software distribution archives released by Continental Software. (Shareware version). 1. RA is the copyrighted material of Continental Software. It may only be used in accordance with the conditions set out in this license agreement. 2. You may use RA for a period of three weeks on a trial basis in order to determine it's suitability for your particular application. After this period you MUST register each copy of RA that you run simultaneously. Multi-line installations that share a common file base AND have the same name need only register one copy. 3. Registration entitles you to use RA and any future versions of RA for as long as you wish, subject to any special licensing conditions attached to future versions. For details on the registration procedure, refer to the section in this document "HOW TO REGISTER". 4. Continental Software is in no way obligated to provide future versions of, or support for, RA. 5. Site and Group registrations are available, and are dealt with on a case by case basis. 6. You may not modify or otherwise reverse-engineer RA. 7. You are encouraged to distribute RA provided that no fee is charged for its distribution, and that the distribution archive is not modified in any way. Pay Bulletin Board Systems may however charge their normal fee provided that no additional charge for RA is levied. 8. RA may not be included as part of any software library which is distributed on a commercial basis (commercial = "for money") without prior written permission from Continental Software. 9. RA may not be used in any unlawful or illegal manner. 10. Continental Software's liability resulting from your use or inability to use RemoteAccess is limited to the amount that the affected party has paid for it, or in the event that RA was registered with a third party for payment to Continental Software, liability is limited to the amount that was received by Continental Software from that third party. 5 HOW TO REGISTER ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SHAREWARE version: Systems that qualify for this category must be physically run from a noncommercial site. A site is considered to be noncommercial only if it is a private residence at which no commercial activities are conducted. Print or reproduce the registration form at the end of this section and send it with your registration payment to one of the following sites: AUSTRALIA: AUD60 CANADA: CDN60 "Registration/RA" "Registration/RA" C/- Terry Harvey C/- Royce Jones PO Box 593 624 Dolph Street N Apt #B Burwood NSW 2134 Cambridge ON AUSTRALIA CANADA N3H-2B4 Accepts VISACARD, MasterCard, BankCard EUROPE: DFL120 USA: $50 "Registration/RA" "Registration/RA" C/- R.A. de Bruin C/- Ed Meloan Columbusrede 17 1110 Terrace Circle Drive 2725 KL Zoetermeer North Augusta SC 29841 HOLLAND USA GERMANY: DM90 "Registration/RA" C/- Frank Altenburg Wickopweg 9 6100 Darmstadt GERMANY ASIA: AUD60 or equivalent UNITED KINGDOM: GBP33 "Registration/RA" "Registration/RA" C/- Andrew Russell C/- Barry Phillips D1-1-6 R.S.G.C. View PO Box 21 Desa Pandan Ormskirk Jalan Kampong Pandan Lancs L39 3QW 55100 Kuala Lumpur UNITED KINGDOM Malaysia * You MUST fill out the registration form correctly in order for your details to be processed. Not doing so will result in delays in your key arriving. 6 * Cheques and money orders should be made payable to the person at your registration site. * Please include either a FidoNet address or a stamped, self-addressed envelope so that receipt of your payment can be acknowledged. PROFESSIONAL version: If the system is physically run from a commercial site (ie. the site is not a private residence, or commercial activities are conducted at the site). This is professionally packaged with an expanded ring-bound manual and includes three modules not available in the shareware version: 1. Real-Time Conferencing - supporting up to 250 users concurrently, featuring public/private/password-protected conferences, conference moderators and sub-conferences. 2. RANETMGR - The RemoteAccess Network Manager, a utility designed to give you complete control over a busy multi-node system. Dynamically view the status of each node as users log on and off, what each user is doing, broadcast messages to any combination of nodes and automatically take any combination of nodes down for maintenance. 3. TopEd/Pro - A fully functional, specially customised and registered version of TopEd, a premium full-screen message editor. The professional version supports up to 100 languages, while the shareware version supports a maximum of eight. The professional version of RemoteAccess is sold on a commercial basis only. It is NOT shareware. Enquiries for the professional version should be directed to: USA: Europe: Online Communications Inc. Advanced Engineering sarl 22 State Street 8, Am For Bangor, Maine 04401 L-5351 Oetrange USA Luxembourg Tel: (207) 941 1110 Tel: +352 358725 Fax: +352 355938 BBS: (207) 990 3511 BBS: +352 355936 7 *** RemoteAccess REGISTRATION FORM *** Sysop Name _________________________________________________ System Name ________________________________________________ [The above two items are used to generate your registration key and must appear EXACTLY as they do in RACONFIG.] Network Address (number and network name) __________________ Any other networks you are a member of _____________________ Primary BBS telephone number and baud ______________________ Voice telephone number _____________________________________ Hours of BBS operation _____________________________________ Postal Address : ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Version of RemoteAccess registering ______. Registration amount enclosed _______, for ____ copies. What do you like about RemoteAccess? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ What enhancements/changes would you like to see in our next release? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 8 The key system ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Upon registering you will receive your uniquely generated key. Each key is a small file approximately 2k in size which contains information about your registration. To install the key, simply rename it (if necessary) to RA.KEY and copy it to your RemoteAccess system directory. When RemoteAccess detects a valid key it switches into registered mode, identifying itself by placing a "+" at the end of the version number as well as displaying the name of the system and sysop it is registered to in the "version information" menu function. For example, logging on to a registered system you would see: RemoteAccess 1.11+ Please enter your full name: Features marked in this manual with a {+} are only available when RemoteAccess is running in registered mode. These bonus features show our appreciation of your taking the time to register with us. It should be made absolutely clear that RemoteAccess is still fully functional before it is registered; the bonus features are "nice" but their absence makes the system no less usable. RemoteAccess is not and never will be "DemoWare" or "ExpireWare". WARNING! Your key is unique, and under NO circumstances should it be made available to anyone else. Doing so is a direct violation of the agreement you entered into with us by registering. 9 PRODUCT SUPPORT ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── You can always get the latest shareware version of RemoteAccess and technical support from the following systems: Australia: Terry Harvey The Eagles Sydney NSW (02) 745 3190 V32 V42 PEP FidoNet@3:712/704 3:712/707 USA and Canada: (North American RemoteAccess Support group) Bruce Bodger Fred Horner The TruckStop BBS The Private EaR Tulsa OK Waco TX 918 254 6618 HST 817 776 9877 HST FidoNet@1:170/400 FidoNet@1:388/10 Mike Janke Ed Meloan Kendall BBS Augusta Forum Miami FL N. Augusta SC 305 271 2146 HST 803 279 4124 HST FidoNet@1:135/4 FidoNet@1:360/1 Al Bruner Royce Jones The SW/SE Connection DAKIN BBS San Diego CA Cambridge Ontario 619 467 0335 HST 519 653 7677 HST FidoNet@1:202/707 FidoNet@1:221/204 Mark Howard Geoffrey Booher Rivendell The Gateway Net BBS Buffalo NY Freeport IL 716 646 0227 HST 815 233 5008 HST FidoNet@1:260/1 FidoNet@1:2270/233 10 Europe and others: (European RemoteAccess Support Group) Ruud de Bruin Orlando Castillo HOLLAND SPAIN +31 49 424553 V32 +34 6 543 7026 V32 FidoNet@2:281/603 FidoNet@2:346/4 Joerg Dassler Tony Van den Bogaert GERMANY BELGIUM +49 911 752799 HST +33 3 2720210 FidoNet@2:244/8501 FidoNet@2:295/43 Robert Soubie Reinier De.Groot FRANCE HOLLAND, HELP 2 +33 56 89 51 12 +31 1749 48422 FidoNet@2:324/5 FidoNet@2:512/100 Malte Erikson Frank Altenburg SWEDEN GERMANY, HELP 2 +46 300 29436 +49 6151 710809 FidoNet@2:203/302 FidoNet@2:249/7 Peter Hermann Wim Abels GERMANY, HELP 3 GERMANY, HELP 4 +49 531 13216 +49 211 5961291 FidoNet@2:240/550 FidoNet@2:242/20 Roland Gautschi Bjarne Maschoreck SWITZERLAND DENMARK +64 230319 +45 31 42 72 64 FidoNet@2:30/6 FidoNet@2:231/50 Andrew Milner Clive Jones LUXEMBOURG REPUBLIC of SOUTH AFRICA +352 490 486 +27 11 868 4790 FidoNet@2:270/18 FidoNet@5:7101/14 Lars Eriksson Hilmar Thors FINLAND ICELAND +358 28 23452 +354 1 627648 FidoNet@2:222/150 FidoNet@2:257/60 11 U.K. (United Kingdom RemoteAccess Support Group): Barry Phillips Mark Kerr MIDLANDS IRELAND and WALES +44 695 571117 HST DS +44 232 768163 HST DS FidoNet@2:440/66 FidoNet@2:263/301 James Berry S.E. ENGLAND +44 303 862415 HST DS FidoNet@2:440/16 Peter Burnett Mark Anderson S.W. ENGLAND SCOTLAND +44 424 853361 +44 236 747393 HST DS FidoNet@2:440/80 FidoNet@2:259/11 Sweden (SWRAS): Malte Erikson Johan Nilsson SWRAS HQ SWRAS Coordinator +46 300 29436 +46 42 112714 FidoNet@2:203/302 FidoNet@2:200/212 Mats Wallin Patrik Sjoberg +46 8 6453882 +46 26 628057 FidoNet@2:201/329 FidoNet@2:205/208 12 Support conferences: Conference Support Name Language Area Moderators ------------- --------- -------------- -------------- RA_SUPPORT English World Wide Bruce Bodger Mike Janke Andrew Milner RA_UK English United Kingdom Mark Anderson Barry Phillips RA.GER German Germany / Joerg Dassler Switzerland Roland Gautschi RA_SWE Swedish Sweden Hasse Widghal SF.RA/FD_SP Finnish Finland Lars Eriksson RA_SUP.028 Dutch Netherlands Ruud de Bruin Reinier de Groot RA_SUP.B Belgian Belgium RA_UTIL English World Wide Andrew Leary (For RA Utilities) John Bierrie RA_UTIL.GER German Germany Frank Altenburg Joerg Dassler New releases and the RA_SUPPORT conference should also be available from any of the beta test sites, listed in the accompanying document. 13 INSTALLATION ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess should run on any IBM 80x86 compatible computer. The only two programs you will need in addition to the release package are DOS 3.x and a FOSSIL driver. The FOSSIL is a memory-resident program that many communications packages use to communicate with the modem. Two FOSSILs that have been successfully tested with RemoteAccess are Ray Gwinn's X00, and David Nugent's BNU. Either of these should be readily available from any local bulletin board. You will also need a modem that is capable of accepting Hayes-type commands. The minimum memory requirement is approximately 350K, but 512K is recommended. 1. Ensure that your CONFIG.SYS file contains these statements: FILES=20 BUFFERS=25 If you intend to run a multi-node system you may need to increase the number of file handles that DOS can open at one time, by raising the "FILES" value. Note: Each additional file handle will reduce available memory by 50 to 60 bytes. The more "BUFFERS" you allocate, the faster RemoteAccess will run. However, each additional buffer allocated will reduce memory available by 500 to 600 bytes. 2. Create a directory to put the main program files in. The configuration example that follows later assumes that this directory (the SYSTEM directory) is C:\RA. 3. Ensure that your AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains a command to set the environment variable RA to your SYSTEM directory, so RemoteAccess can find its configuration files: SET RA=C:\RA It is possible to increase the overall performance of RemoteAccess by placing the file "RA.OVR" onto a ramdrive. If you elect to do this you must also set the following environment variable: SET RAOVR=F:\ 4. Copy all of the executable files from the RemoteAccess distribution package into the SYSTEM directory. 14 5. Create four more sub-directories: C:\RA\MSGBASE This will hold the message files the system creates. C:\RA\MENUS To put your menus in, C:\RA\TXTFILES To put files such as welcome and disconnect screens in. C:\RA\ATTACH To hold message file attaches. This completes the installation, and you are now ready to move on to the CONFIGURATION section. 15 CONFIGURATION ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RACONFIG ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Return to the RemoteAccess system directory again, and fire up the configuration utility, RACONFIG.EXE. You will use this to select the configuration options and maintain your particular system. You will see that there are four main configuration menus. RACONFIG - System ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── PATHS - Here is where you tell RemoteAccess where all its associated files are stored. Paths can be defined for the following: System : Full path to the RA system files. Menus : Default menu path (*.MNU). Textfiles : Default textfile path (*.A??). Msg base : Message-base and user files. File attach : Local msg file attaches. Nodelist : Network nodelist files. File list : Alternative FILES.BBS path. Semaphore : Alternative semaphore directory. System log : Filename of the system log. Enter the full directory paths to your chosen directories. The trailing backslash is optional. See the section on MAIL NETWORKING for details on how to set up the NODELIST path, the section on message configuration for details on the FILE ATTACH PATH, and the section on files configuration for details on the FILE LIST path. SITE INFO - Use this window to enter the sysop name (probably your own), the name of the BBS, and the BBS's location. The first two must be entered exactly the same as those specified on your registration form. ADDRESS - In this section you can enter your network address (if any). If you have any alias addresses (AKAs), you may enter these in one or more of the nine slots provided. For extra information on network operation and an explanation of addresses, see the section on MAIL NETWORKING. SECURITY - Here you may define a configuration password that must be entered every time you wish to run RACONFIG and every time you use one of the ALT keys at the local console. {+} Registered only. 16 RACONFIG - Options ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── MESSAGES - This section deals with many of the global settings in relation to mail and messages. Logon. : When enabled, will force the system to Newmail scan the message-base for new mail addressed to the user (regardless of what area it is in, provided the user has access to that area) at log-on. Full : This option determines the type of mail mailcheck check that is performed. A full check scans from the start to the end of the message-base for all mail addressed to the user that does not have the "Received" flag set. If you set the option to "Off", the msgbase is only checked from the last message that the user read. While this is much faster, there is the possibility that some mail may be skipped if the user elected not to read his/her mail during the last logon. Quote : This string is a highlight character that string RemoteAccess will place in front of any message that is replied to. For example, a message quoted using " > " as the quoter would look like: > I have been using RemoteAccess for > 2 months now and love it! I have to agree with you there, Tom. Flexibility-wise it can't be beaten. A "@" character in the quote string will be translated into the uppercase initials of the person whose message is being quoted. A "#" character will do the same but use the lowercase. External : This is the DOS command line that will be editor used to activate a full screen message editor, if one is installed. This option is available only to users of ANSI graphics. The full screen editor is a third-party package that enables messages to be entered in a "word-processing" environment, with cursor movement and text formatting ability. TopEd and QuickEd are two such packages that interface directly with RA. The command-line may contain any of the metacommands listed in the description of the type 7 menu command, including "*M" to swap RemoteAccess out of memory before the editor is loaded. 17 Default : This option sets the default origin line origin which is appended to all outgoing EchoMail messages. This will take effect in all areas except where you have entered a specific origin line for a particular area. Reply : The REPLY HEADER is displayed at the top of header a message when a user replies to a message that was not originally addressed to him/her. The following macro characters may be used: @ - Person the original message was addressed to, # - Person who posted the original message, ` - Date of the original message, ~ - Time of the original message. Msg : When this option is set to "Yes", when users uploads enter a message they are asked if they wish to "upload a prepared message?" This allows the user to prepare his/her messages offline and send them using any of the available file transfer protocols. Note that ONLY internal protocols may be used as RemoteAccess does not have enough control over the external ones. The maximum size of a message that may be uploaded is pre-set at 20k. Echo : If this option is enabled, when replying netreplies to an EchoMail message, users will be asked if they would like to reply directly to the originator of the message via netmail, rather than replying in the same area with a msg that might not be of interest to the other participants. Note: that this {+} registered only option is only enabled if RemoteAccess can determine where the original message came from. Net. : This option applies to NetMail sent through killsent a mail network. When the msg is entered, if set to "Ask", the user will be asked whether to delete his/her message after it has been exported from the message database. Confirm : When enabled, RemoteAccess will prompt the delete user for confirmation before deleting msgs. 18 Net.crash : This defines the minimum security level opt at which users have the choice of sending NetMail with the "crash" flag set. The "crash" means the mail will be sent out of your system immediately. This can be very costly, so care should be taken when setting this option. Net.crash : This option defines the security level at force which NetMail always has the "crash" flag set. Again this can be costly so care should be taken when setting this option. Net. : This option defines the minimum security attach level a user must have in order to attach files to a NetMail message. Once again, take care when setting this option as it can be costly. NOTE: In many mail networks sending Netmail messages with files attached to them through other systems is not permitted. If in doubt you should set the "net.crash force" security level so that all file attaches are sent direct. Group : This option determines the minimum security Mail a user must have in order to post mail to a group of users. See MENU COMMANDS, menu type 27 for detailed information on Group Mail. 19 FILES - This section allows you to define global options which affect the behaviour of the file transfer facilities: Upload : The UPLOAD CREDIT provides a way of credit rewarding your users for uploading files to you. If this value is set to a non-zero value, after each upload session, the user is granted that many seconds per minute of upload time. So, if you set the credit factor to 30 (seconds), and a user spends 10 minutes uploading, he/she would be granted an extra 5 minutes for that session. Note that during uploads the timer is "frozen" in addition to this bonus. Touch : When a file is uploaded using a batch dates protocol such as Zmodem or Ymodem, the original date of the file is normally preserved when the file is saved in the upload area. This is of little use if the file was originally created in 1987, so RemoteAccess will, if the TOUCH DATES option is enabled, reset the date stamp of the file to the date on which it was uploaded. Show : When a user displays a list of files, the missing default action is to show missing files as "<MISSING>". By disabling this option you can make RemoteAccess remove missing files from the users display. Upload : It is possible to disable uploads when the space the amount of free space on your upload drive falls below a preset level. For example, to disable uploads if there is less than 1 megabyte free, set UPLOAD SPACE to 1024 (kilobytes). Logon. : If the LOGON.NEWFILES option is enabled, the Newfiles user will be given the opportunity to run a check for files which are new since his/her last call at logon. Download : This defines the starting time during which start users can download files. Download : This defines the ending time during which end users can download files. By setting this option and the DOWNLOAD START option to 00:00, users will be able to download at any time. Download : This option allows you to set a minimum speed speed at which users can download files. 20 List : You may configure the format in which file format description lines are displayed when a user asks for a list of available files. To {+} achieve this you must build a template Registered string in this field. The following macro Only characters can be used: % - Full filename, uppercase ^ - Full filename, lowercase & - Filename (no extension), uppercase ! - Filename (no extension), lowercase @ - Date (in user's selected format) # - File size (bytes) $ - File size (k) | - New line ` - '*' if new, space if not ~ - Description You may also enter colour sequences into the templates. If a non-ANSI caller calls these sequences will be ignored and the user will see white text on black. To enter the colour sequences, press CTRL-P and then CTRL-K[<colour code> (See the section on COLOUR CODES for more information). To emulate the old hardcoded display use: [0E% [0D# [0A@' [03~ RESTRICTIONS - This section allows you to set following restrictions on your system: Logon : Minimum speed at which callers can logon speed to your system. ANSI : Minimum speed at which callers may select ANSI speed graphics. No300 : Start time for disallowing 300 baud start callers. No300 : End time for disallowing 300 baud callers. end If you wish to allow 300 baud callers to logon at any time, you can disable the NO300 restrictions by setting both the START and END times to 00:00. ERRORLEVELS - These values are used if you have activated the "Shell to Mailer" feature. For full information on this option, read the reference section on COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS. 21 DISPLAY - This section allows you to set the following video display attributes: Monochrome : Forces monochrome operation on the local display. Direct : If you are not using RemoteAccess in a write Multi-tasking environment, then set this option to "Yes". This will cause all screen output to be written to Video RAM directly instead of using BIOS calls, and will result in a significant speed increase. Snow : If you use one of the older CGA cards that check is prone to "snowing", enable this option. Display : This detects the screen mode you are in. lines "AUTO" sets RA to automatically detect the screen mode, 25 and 43/50 options force 25 and 43/50 line modes respectively. COLOURS - The COLOURS submenu allows you to customise some of the more-often used colours that the user sees. 22 PAGING - The PAGING menu allows you to control the following: Duration : Duration, in seconds, that the paging tune will sound at the local console. Max number : Maximum number of times a user can page the sysop unsuccessfully during one session. Ask why : If enabled this option will cause Remote- Access to ask the user why he/she wishes to chat. The response is then displayed on the status bar, and may be redisplayed later by pressing F6. {+} Registered only. Sysop msgs : If the page was unsuccessful, the user can be prompted whether to leave a msg addressed to the sysop. To enable this option enter the desired message area number that you would like these msgs to be posted in. Setting this field to zero disables the feature. {+} Registered only. External : If you wish to use a external chatting utility, you can specify the command line to shell to run the program in this field. {+} Registered only. Suspend : If enabled, this option prevents time from being deducted from the users daily time limit during a chat with the sysop. Auto Log : When enabled, this option will cause RA to automatically open a capture file when chat mode is initiated. Sunday : In these seven fields, you can define the Monday starting and ending times at which users Tuesday are permitted to page the sysop, on a day Wednesday by day basis. The first field of each day Thursday determines the starting time and the second Friday field determines the ending time at which Saturday users can page the sysop. To disable the starting and ending page times set both fields to 00:00. 23 NEW USERS - The NEW USERS section controls how your system will treat new users. You can configure the following for new users: Security : This is the security level (0 to 64000) that will be granted to a new user who logs on for the first time. If you run a private system, and do not want to allow new users to log on, set this field to zero. In this case, the user is notified that the system is private and is disconnected. Flags : The 4 flag entries determine the flag configuration that will be granted to new users. See the section on SECURITY for a full description of the security system. Credit : This sets the new user's initial credit against sending netmail messages. The NETWORKING section provides full detail on setting up netmail costings. Group : This is an arbitrary number between 0 and 255 you may assign new users. It allows you to segregate users into separate groups, which then can be used in various menu types. (see the menu command list for further details) ANSI : Determines whether a new user may use ANSI codes (Yes/No/Ask). AVATAR : Determines whether a new user may use AVATAR codes (Yes/No/Ask). Clrscr : Determines whether a new user would like screen clearing codes enabled (Yes/No/Ask). More : Determines whether the new user would like to be prompted with "More Y/N" at the end of each screen page (Yes/No/Ask). Sub days : Number of days subscription new users are allocated. Data : If enabled, new users are asked for their phone Data Phone number. Voice : If enabled, new users are asked for their phone Voice Phone number. One word : If disabled, new users will be required to names enter their name as at least 2 words with a total length of at least three characters. Note that this restriction only applies to new users; a user already in the user database may log on using his or her "handle". 24 Handle : If this option is enabled, new users will be asked to choose an optional unique handle or alias. This is saved as part of the user's record and may be used to log onto the system later, and to send and receive mail. Birthdate : If enabled, new users will be prompted to enter their full birthdate. RemoteAccess will attempt to intelligently identify if the date supplied is legitimate. Hotkeys : RemoteAccess may be configured to behave either like QuickBBS with hot-keyed menus, or like Opus with command stacking facilities (Yes/No/Ask). FS msg : FS MSG VIEW, when enabled, will display view messages to the user using a "fixed header" format, designed for enhanced readability. FS msg : The FS MSG EDIT setting will determine if RA edit asks the new users if they would like to use the external message editor (Yes/No/Ask). IEMSI : When a new user connects to your system using IEMSI ( explained fully in the reference section of this manual), RA will skip the regular new user questionnaire as it can determine the user's screen parameters, location, password etc. auto- matically. If this option is disabled however, all new users will be forced to answer the regular questionnaire manually. Language : This option sets the default language for new users before they select their preferred language. If this option is set to zero, the new users will not be asked which language they wish to use as their default. Date : If set to "ASK" new users are able to select format which date format they would like to use when entering dates and when dates are displayed. The available formats are: DD-MM-YY MM-DD-YY YY-MM-DD DD-Mmm-YY The sysop may choose to force a particular date format by selecting the format in this field. Cap : If enabled this will force RA to capitalise location the users location, when entered. 25 SYSTEM - The SYSTEM submenu contains options that pertain to the hardware/software environment plus some other global options listed below: Fast : Whenever RA is activated in local mode and logons this option is set, it is assumed that it is the sysop who is logging on, and you will be prompted for a password only. If you press [CR] at the password prompt RA will ask for a full user name. Check : When running more than one line, you should multi set CHECK MULTI to "Yes". This will prevent a user from logging on to more than one line at the same time, and effectively using his /her entire daily time limit on EACH LINE. Remote : If you never (or rarely) call your own BBS sysop remotely, you should disallow sysop remote access by setting REMOTE SYSOP to "No". This makes it almost impossible for an unknown "hacker" to gain access to your system via your own account. Exclude : If enabled, this option will cause the sysop sysops name to be omitted from a User List, List of Today's Callers, Who Else Is Online, and the Last Caller functions. Text : By inserting a special control code in a shells textfile it is possible to automatically activate a program in a shell when the text file is displayed. As explained in the TEXT FILE CONTROL CODES section, there are important security considerations that must be looked into if you intend to use this feature. If you aren't going to use it, set TEXT SHELLS to "No". Log : The logging format is determined by this style option. The "Expanded" format mode contains more information, including the line number in a multi-line system. The "Compact" format is less detailed. Multi : If you are installing RemoteAccess on a node multi-node site (ie. you are going to be running more than one node), you MUST set this option to "Yes". This enables extra file/message checking routines to ensure that a conflict between two lines accessing the same data never arises. If you are running only one line, setting this option to "Off" will disable this checking and significantly increases the system's operating speed. 26 Enviro- : The ENVIRONMENT option refers to the type nment of multi-tasking system that you will be running RemoteAccess under. If set to "Auto- detect", RemoteAccess will attempt to determine the multitasker in use when it fires up. On some hardware / software configurations it may not be able to correctly detect it's environment. To overcome this, you can force RemoteAccess to "assume" that it is running under a specific multitasker. Those currently supported are DoubleDOS, Windows 3.x (enhanced mode), DESQview, TopView, MultiLink, PC-MOS/386 and the "standard" AT BIOS. RA will time-slice, or give up CPU time, to other tasks when it is waiting for a call or at a prompt. The result is a significant overall system performance improvement. Screen : To avoid screen "burn in" on the "waiting blank for call" display, set the SCREEN BLANK to the number of seconds you would like the display to remain visible after the last activity. This is a {+} registered only option. After : After RA displays a system message, the msgs default action is to wait for one second before returning to the current menu. You may alter this wait period by setting the AFTER MSGS option to the desired number of seconds. If you set this field to zero, instead of waiting for a few seconds, RA will prompt the user to press the Enter key to continue. ALT-J : If enabled, this option will cause Remote- swap Access to swap itself out of memory before a sysop shell to DOS. This will enable programs that require a large amount of memory to be run. NOTE: the swapping process will take a few seconds. IEMSI : The IEMSI option simply allows you to enable or disable RemoteAccess' IEMSI capabilities. IEMSI is fully explained in the reference section at the end of this manual. Setting this option to "Only" will force RA to permit IEMSI logons only. Pwd echo : The PWD ECHO allows you to define which character is echoed back to the user when any password is entered. If this if left blank, no character is echoed back to the user. 27 Auto ANSI : When the user logs on, if AUTO ANSI is enabled RA will attempt to determine if the calling terminal has ANSI capabilities. If it has, the file LOGO.ANS will be displayed instead of LOGO.ASC. Pwd : PWD TRIES sets the maximum number of invalid tries password attempts at logon. After this is exceeded the user will be disconnected. Pwd : PWD CHANGE is another security feature. If change this is set to any non-zero value, then all users (excluding the sysop) will be forced to change their password every number of logons as determined by its value. Pwd : PWD STRICT is an invaluable security feature strict which if enabled, will check passwords that users enter. You can specify certain undesirable passwords in a control file (see the section on EXTERNAL FILES), such as "Secret" or "Test". It will also disallow the user's first or last name as a password and checks the old and new passwords for phonetic similarity. Pwd : You may specify the minimum password length length that users may select. Longer passwords mean better security, a value of 4 is recommended as an absolute minimum. Logon : This option specifies how much time to time grant to a user before the system knows how much time he/she is entitled to. You should make this long enough to enable a new user to complete the new user procedure and questionnaire, if you have one. User : USER TIMEOUT determines how long to wait timeout during periods of inactivity before disconnecting. The inactive time period is measured from the last character sent to the modem, and users are given a warning that they are about to be disconnected fifteen seconds before the timer expires. This feature is automatically disabled in local mode, or by a setting of zero. 28 Watchdog : If a user logs on and is disconnected area because he/she enters his/her password incorrectly, RemoteAccess can notify that user of a possible attempt at guessing the password, by way of a private message. In the WATCHDOG AREA field, specify the message area number (as per your msg area configuration) that the warning message should be placed in. A value of zero disables this feature. In addition, you will need to create an ASCII text file called " WATCHDOG.MSG " in the system directory that contains the text of the msg that is sent to the user. Sysop : Before a user is disconnected, after area incorrectly entering their password, they are given the opportunity to enter a msg to the sysop. The SYSOP AREA defines which area the msg is placed in. PROMPTS - This menu allows you to define the global system prompts. The prompts in this section are common to all languages. Logon : This is the prompt that the user will see prompt when prompted for his/her name at logon. Left & : These define which characters RemoteAccess Right places around Yes/No and similar prompts. brackets For example - if the characters are "{" and "}", a Yes/No prompt would appear as: {Y/n}? Language : This prompt is displayed when RemoteAccess prompt asks the user to select a language. Language : This prompt is displayed above the list of header available languages. PRINTER - In this section you may define which printer port you wish RemoteAccess to direct output to when using the "-P" command-line parameter or the ALT-P key to enable log printing. (See COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS and SYSOP KEYS for more information on printer logging). {+} Registered only. 29 RACONFIG - Modem ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── OPTIONS - This window contains general configuration information for your modem. Comport : Set this to the communications port you have your modem hooked up to. Valid ports are 1-4. A setting of 0 forces RA into local mode regardless of command-line parameters. Speed : SPEED refers to the highest modem-computer speed your modem supports. If you are using a high-speed modem you should lock the speed at the modem's maximum speed to ensure the highest possible throughput. Refer to your FOSSIL documentation on how to do this. Lock : If you have a high-speed modem which is capable of being locked at a fixed speed, set this option to "Yes". Answer : Setting this to "Yes" tells RemoteAccess to make the modem answer the phone whenever it receives the ring string by sending the answer command to the modem (see COMMANDS). If it is set to "No" then it is assumed that the modem will answer the phone itself. "Yes" is the preferred setting, as it ensures that your BBS will only answer the phone if it is "alive and well". Otherwise, you are likely to upset your users when they waste their money on a BBS that answers the phone and then does nothing. Delay : This refers to a delay, in tenths of a second that RemoteAccess waits between sending characters to the modem during initialisation. Usually you will only need to raise this above zero if you are using a high-speed modem that cannot handle commands at high speeds. A typical example of this is the Courier HST, which requires a delay of about 3. 30 Buffer : This field sets the size of RemoteAccess' internal communications send buffer for baud rates up to 2400. You can change it to fine-tune your system for maximum throughput. If you are using a slow machine (ie. a 4.77 MHz XT), set it to zero. This disables the internal buffering system and its associated overhead. For most systems, the default setting of 5 will not need to be changed. In a multi-tasking environment though, you will achieve much better performance by increasing the buffer size. Experimentation has shown values around 80-150 to be most effective. Break : Some modems (such as the Courier HST) can be configured to clear their internal transmit buffer when they receive a break signal from the local console. If the BREAK option is enabled, RemoteAccess will send a break whenever it purges it's own internal transmit buffer. The result will be a faster hotkey response. Since most modems CANNOT handle this, the recommended setting is OFF. Tries : This is the number of times RemoteAccess will attempt to initialise the modem before aborting and returning an error condition. Offhook : If enabled, this will force RemoteAccess to take the modem off-hook when a call is terminated. COMMANDS - This submenu is where the commands that are sent to the modem are defined. Init1 & : These fields define in the strings sent to Init2 the modem, whenever RemoteAccess is fired up, in order to prepare the modem to take calls. See the reference section MODEM STRING TRANSLATION at the end of this document for more information. Busy : The BUSY string is sent to the modem whenever you either log-on locally, drop to DOS or if you ESCape from the "wait for call" sequence. You could either tell the modem to go "off hook" with an "ATH1|", or simply not to answer the phone by dropping DTR. Note : in some countries it is prohibited to place a telephone line "off hook", please check with your phone company if you are unsure. 31 Answer : The ANSWER string is sent to the modem if you have set automatic answer on, and a call comes in. Most modems will answer a call upon receiving an "ATA|" from the computer. RESPONSES - The responses section is where you can tell RemoteAccess what responses it can expect to receive from your modem. Init : The INIT response is the string that the modem returns after RemoteAccess sends it the init string. Most modems return "OK". Busy : The BUSY response is the string that the modem returns after the busy command has been sent to place the modem "Off hook", most modems return "OK". Check your modem operating manual for more information. Ring : The RING response is the string the modem displays when someone calls your system, to indicate that the call should be answered. Most modems return "RING", some use "RINGING". Check your modem manual and set this accordingly. Secure : The SECURE response is the response your modem returns when it gets an MNP connection. Ignore this entry if your modem doesn't support MNP. Check your modem manual to determine what string your modem returns. 300 - : 300 - 38400 are the response strings the 38400 modem returns when a connection is made with another modem. Most modems return a "CONNECT <Baudrate> " string, or simply "CONNECT" for 300 baud. Note that if this is the case you should specify the vertical bar after the string to indicate the end of the string. (See MODEM STRING TRANSLATION in the reference guide at the end of this document). 32 RACONFIG - Manager ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This is perhaps the most important part of RACONFIG. It is where all the message and file areas, protocols, menus, users and events are defined. MESSAGES - From the messages menu you may define up to 200 different areas, each with it's own attributes and security requirements. Name : In this field you can give each message area a name. This should be a meaningful description of its content, for example "IBM Users", "Cooking", or "Games". Avoid using names like "Message Area 1". If you wish to "delete" a message area, simply set the area name to nothing. Type : Each area can be one of three TYPES. LOCAL, if the message area is available on your BBS only, or if you are in a mail network such as FidoNet, ECHOMAIL or NETMAIL. These latter two types are explained more fully in the MAIL NETWORKING section. If you are not part of a mail network, set the type to LOCAL. When a user posts a message in a message area which has the type LOCAL assigned, the recipient must be an existing user of the system. If RemoteAccess can not find the recipient's name in the user database the user will be asked if he/she would like to search/list the user database. The only exception to this is a message posted to "All". Status : This controls the types of messages that users are allowed to post in the area. You have the choice of PRIVATE ONLY, PUBLIC ONLY, PRIVATE/PUBLIC and READ ONLY. It may be desirable to allow only public messages in general discussion areas, or likewise private only in user-to-user message areas to ensure that all messages in that area may be read only by the sender or the recipient of the message. Message areas marked as READ ONLY may only have messages posted in them by the sysop. This is useful for, say a general announcement area. 33 Users : Each message area may be configured via the USERS option, to allow users to post messages with real names only, handles only (this is the user's permanent "registered" handle), or with an alias which the user may select at the time the message is posted. RemoteAccess will not allow the use of the alias "Sysop" or any other users name or handle. Days old : This defines how long RemoteAccess should keep old messages. The removal of messages which are older than the number of days set is performed by RAMSG, the message-base maintenance utility (see MESSAGE DATABASE FILES for more information). Days rcvd : This defines how long RemoteAccess should keep messages that have been read by the addressee. As with the previous field, the removal of these messages is performed by RAMSG (see MESSAGE DATABASE FILES). Max msgs : This defines how many messages RemoteAccess will allow to be kept in each area, after this limit has been reached RAMSG will remove the oldest messages and maintain a constant number of messages equal to the number specified. (see MESSAGE DATABASE FILES) Echoinfo : The default action for an EchoMail message area is to append an origin line (see the section on MAIL NETWORKING for more on this) to each outgoing message. This may be disabled by setting the ECHOINFO flag to "No". Combined : The COMBINED flag determines whether users may select the current message area as part of their combined message area settings. Attaches : RemoteAccess provides an extremely powerful facility which allows users to attach one or more files to a message. This means that users can send each other files privately. To enable this option, set ATTACHES to "Yes". Also ensure that the FILE ATTACH path in the SYSTEM/PATHS submenu points to a directory which exists. When a user uploads files with a message, RemoteAccess creates a uniquely named subdirectory in this directory, and places all the attached files in it. After the recipient has received the message and confirmed that he/she received all the files, all the files and the directory are deleted. This option is valid only in areas defined as LOCAL. 34 If the user elects to attach a file to a message when logged onto a local node, RemoteAccess will prompt him/her for the DOS path and filename of the file they wish to send. {+} Registered only. SoftCRs : This option, if on, will tell RA to treat SoftCR characters ($8D), in this message area, as normal printable characters. Deletes : This, if enabled, will allow users to delete messages in this message area provided the message is either to or from the user. AKA : This option allows you to specify which network address you wish to use for this message area. If you only have one or no network address then you need not concern yourself with this option. You may select any of the AKAs you have defined in the SYSTEM/ADDRESS menu (see MAIL NETWORKING for more information). Origin : This option allows you to define a separate origin line to the message area. This origin is appended to the bottom of all outgoing EchoMail messages. If this is left blank RemoteAccess will append the default origin line specified in OPTIONS/MESSAGES submenu. Access to the message area is controlled by READ, WRITE and SYSOP security levels and access flags. Full information on security levels and flags can be found in the SECURITY section. Read : This is the minimum security level and flag Security combination the user needs to be allowed to read messages in each message area. Write : This is the minimum security level and flag Security combination the user needs to be allowed to post a message. When replying to a message addressed to the user, he/she is only permitted if the user's security level is equal to or higher than the Write Security setting. Sysop : This security access combination permits security reading of all messages in the area, even if they are private and addressed to another user. This is useful for message areas which are run by assistant sysops and the like, so they can check messages for suitable content and delete off-topic ones. 35 FILES - The FILE submenu is where you define your file areas. Full information on security levels and flags can be found in the SECURITY section. Name : NAME is the name of the file area as the user will see it. Path : The PATH is a fully qualified directory path that points to where the files in this area are stored, for example C:\FILES\IBM\GAMES\. Note that the trailing backslash is optional. New files : This option determines whether to include this file area in a new files scan, and may be overridden by the use of optional parameters when using the "new files" menu command. (see MENU COMMANDS for more information.) Upload : When a user uploads a file, RemoteAccess has dupes the capability to search for the file before allowing the user to upload it. If this option is disabled, RemoteAccess will not scan this area for dupes. Long : If you would like to have long descriptions desc for your files, ie. more than one screen line, then you should enable the LONG DESC option. This enables RemoteAccess to handle the descriptions correctly. When editing your FILES.BBS file it is not necessary to put a [CR] in the description as the text will be wrapped when displayed. NOTE: To enable long descriptions for uploads in which the full upload path is specified in the optional data field rather than a template area number, append a /L after the upload path. Access to the file areas is controlled in a similar fashion to that of the message areas, by the DL, LIST and UL security levels and access flags. DL : This determines the minimum security level security and flag combination at which a user can download files from this area. List : This determines the minimum security level security and flag combination at which a user can list the files in this area. UL : This determines the minimum security level security and flag combination at which a user can upload files into the area. 36 The list of files that your users see for a particular area is generated from a textfile that you can edit yourself. By default, this file is called FILES.BBS and is located in the same directory as the files it describes. When a file is uploaded to a file area, RemoteAccess creates a new FILES.BBS if it doesn't already exist, and then appends a single line entry for the file. The format of FILES.BBS is simple: <FILENAME.EXT> <Description> Filenames that contain wildcard / pattern match characters are expanded to full filename specs. A separate entry is displayed for each matching file found. The <Description> field may be up to 255 characters long. When displayed to the user the description is automatically word wrapped to the width of the user's screen. If you have some kind of read-only mass storage device online such as a CD-ROM, then it usually isn't possible to have a FILES.BBS in each file directory. To get around this problem simply create a separate directory to hold all of the FILES.BBS files. The individual files should be named FILES.n, where n is the file area number. For example - C:\RA\CDROMLST\FILES.33 Is the file that would be read in place of FILES.BBS for area number 33. In this example, the FILE LIST path (in the PATHS section of RACONFIG) has been set to C:\RA\CDROMLST. The EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES section contains information on marking files as free and/or password protected under the subheading FILES.CTL. 37 PROTOCOLS - The protocols section deals with the different transfer methods used by RemoteAccess to send and receive files. This section also allows you to define any new transfer protocols that you wish to add. The INTERNAL PROTOCOLS submenu allows you to disable, enable, or make available only on an error-free (ie. MNP) connect, any of the six internal protocols. MNP (Microcom Networking Protocol), also known as ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request), is a method by which modems can detect transmission errors and resend the incorrect data. Only modems which both have MNP facilities can use this type of error correction. Since, when using MNP, error correction is carried out by the modem hardware, the software does not need to watch the incoming data for errors or wait for the receiving modem to confirm that it has received all the data correctly. Some protocols are written especially for MNP modems and therefore get very fast throughput. If you use such a protocol you should set it for "error free" connect only. An example of such a protocol in the internal protocol list is "Ymodem-G". When using an "error free" protocol, RemoteAccess will establish whether the user is using an MNP modem by looking at the modem connection string to see if it contains an errorfree response code. This code is definable in RACONFIG. {+} Available in the registered version only. The EXTERNAL PROTOCOLS submenu. This option allows you to interface up to fifteen external protocols for your users to use, in addition to the six that are built-in. Name : The NAME field is the protocol name as it will be displayed to the user when they download or upload. Note if you use the textfile XFERPROT.A?? to override the hard coded protocol selection menu then this name will not be displayed to the user. Key : The KEY is the keypress that should activate the protocol. Note that the KEY must be unique. In other words, since [Z]modem is an internal protocol, you can't use [Z] to activate an external protocol. Ext ctl : Before RemoteAccess activates the external file protocol, it creates a control file that tells the protocol which files to send or receive. This file consists of some general information and a list of files, one per line. You may define exactly what each line looks like. If you select EXT CTL FILE, then RemoteAccess will write the information needed by Opus-compatible external protocols at the beginning of the file before the file list. Check the docs for each protocol you install to determine whether it is "Opus compatible". 38 Batch : If the protocol has the capability to send or receive more than one file at a time, set BATCH to "Yes". Status : You may temporarily disable the current protocol by setting its status to NOT-AVAILABLE, re-enabling it later by setting it to ALWAYS AVAILABLE. If you wish to restrict a protocol's use to users who have connected using an error correcting modem then change the status to ERROR FREE. This option is particularly useful if you use protocols such as "YModem-G" which are specifically designed for error correcting modems. (See the section on internal protocols for a full explanation of "Error Free" connections and MNP). Log file : The LOG FILE is the full path and name of the log file that the external protocol writes. This file contains information about what files were actually sent or received. Without this information, RemoteAccess will not be able to update the user's record. Most protocols have the facility to create a log of the files that were actually sent or received; if the protocol you are installing doesn't, it is advisable not to use it. Control : The CONTROL FILE is the full path and name file of the control file that RemoteAccess creates before activating the protocol. In order to allow the use of as many different protocols as possible, you have full control over the format of this file. DL/UL : DL/UL COMMAND LINE tells RemoteAccess what command program name to execute in order to lines activate the external protocol. It is possible to insert variables into the command line using special control characters. For example, the string: PROTNAME.EXE Send *B would be expanded to: PROTNAME.EXE Send 2400 For a full list of special control codes, refer to the description of a Type 7 menu command in the MENU COMMANDS section. In addition to these codes, the # symbol can be used if the filename to send or receive needs to be specified on the command line. 39 DL ctl : The DL CTL STRING determines the format string of each file entry. Inserting a "@" in the string substitutes that position with the file name. For example, if you wanted to download the file C:\FILES\FUN\CASINO.ZIP using an Opus type external protocol, you would set the control file string to: Send @ When the control file is created, this would be expanded to: Send C:\FILES\IBM\FUN\CASINO.ZIP If the user were to select a batch download, say RA*.ARJ, the wildcard/pattern match is expanded to a full list of fully qualified path and file names. UL ctl : The UL CTL STRING works in exactly the same string way as the DL CTL STRING, except that for batch uploads, instead of specifying the full file name, it substitutes just the path to the upload directory, as the filenames are not known prior to the upload. DL/UL : When the external protocol has finished and log control is returned to RemoteAccess, the keyword log file that was created is scanned to extract information about what files were sent or received. RemoteAccess scans the file for the UP or DL LOG KEYWORD. As soon as it finds that word, it will scan forward x number of words to get the name of the file transferred and a description, if available. To illustrate how this works, look at this extract from a BiModem log: = 10 Sep 14:10:10 BMOD DL-B \GRAPH\VGA.ZIP = 10 Sep 14:12:22 BMOD DL-B \GRAPH\MAP.ZIP The DL/UL LOG KEYWORD can be any word in the log file that indicates the transfer of a single file. The keyword in the example above should be set to "DL-B". Log name : This option determines how many words RA word 1 scans after it finds the UL/DL LOG KEYWORD, to find the file name that was uploaded or downloaded. In the previous example the LOG NAME WORD 1 should be set to "1", as RA has to scan ahead 1 word after finding "DL-B" to obtain the downloaded file name. 40 Log desc : When a user uploads, RA can also obtain a word 2 description from the log file if the protocol used supports description logging, and write it directly to the FILES.BBS. To achieve this you can set the LOG DESC WORD 2 to the number of words RA has to scan after it finds the UL/DL LOG KEYWORD. If the protocol doesn't support description logging or RA cannot find a description, the user is prompted for the description. 41 Example : Installing Lynx as an external protocol ------------------------------------------------- Select an empty protocol slot, and enter the following information: Name : Lynx Key : L Extended control file : No Batch available : Yes Status : Enabled Log file name : C:\Ra\Dszlog.Txt Control file name : C:\Ra\Lynx.Ctl Download command line : Lynx.Exe S /*P /*B /S /H @Lynx.Ctl Upload command line : Lynx.Exe R /*P /*B /S /D /H # Download ctl string : @ Upload ctl string : Download log keyword : x Upload log keyword : X Log : Name word # : 10 Log : Desc word # : 0 (Note the case of the upload and download log keyword entries). The above example assumes that your system directory is C:\RA. To complete the installation, you'll need to set the DSZLOG environment variable to the full path and name of the log file that Lynx writes: SET DSZLOG=C:\Ra\Dszlog.Txt 42 LANGUAGES - RemoteAccess contains full support for multiple languages. This means that you can have different prompts, textfiles and menus for any language. This version of RemoteAccess supports up to eight languages, while the professional version supports a maximum of one hundred. Selecting the LANGUAGES option displays a list of all the installed languages. To edit one of the currently installed languages position the cursor bar over it and press ENTER. If you wish to generate a new language file, position the cursor over a blank entry and press ENTER. Name : This field holds the name for the language, this is the name which will be displayed to users when they are asked to select a language. It is important that you use the spelling of the language which would be used by people who speak the language. Available : If you do not wish to make the language available set the AVAILABLE option to NO. Language : This is where you can edit all the prompts. There are approximately 500 different prompts, all of which can be changed to suit your needs. To use the editor place the highlight bar over the text you wish to change, press ENTER and then enter the new text. At the top of the editor screen the default English text appears for the currently selected prompt. You may include any textfile control characters in any of the prompts (see the section on TEXT CONTROL CHARACTERS for further information). When editing the prompts the following keys can be used to assist: [ALT-C] - To change the prompt's default colour. If set to black on black, RA will display the prompt in the internally hard-coded colour. [ALT-D] - To copy the default into the current prompt. [ALT-I] - Display / edit the "info" field. This usually contains information about the revision level and author of the language file being edited. [ALT-S] - To search for an entry. 43 You can run the language editor directly without having to go through the RACONFIG menus by using the "-L" parameter on the RACONFIG command line, for example "RACONFIG -L" (See the section on COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS for further information). Editing the languages is a simple process however there are a number of pitfalls to watch out for : * You will notice that some prompts (marked with an asterisk before the prompt number) require you to enter the keys that are used to activate the options to which that prompt refers. Make sure you maintain the correct order of the keys, and that they match your new text. * Some prompts are the headers for listing functions, like today's callers, who's online etc; you'll see that these have obvious spacing built in, which must be maintained if you change any part of the text. * If you're translating the text into another language, there are two rules of thumb: 1. Translate all text as literally as possible, 2. Try to use "generic" words and phrases. For example, RA uses the same prompt for the "Access denied!" message if the user gets his password wrong at logon as it does when a user tries to access a passworded menu and fails - therefore you wouldn't want to change the string to "Access denied, logging you off". Anyway, you get the idea. Menu path : Each language can have it's own set of menus. With this option you can define the paths to the menus for each specific language. Text path : Each language can also have it's own set of textfiles. With this option you can define the paths to the textfiles for each specific language. Ques path : In this field you may enter the path to the directory where the questionnaire files are stored for each individual language. 44 Filename : This option allows you to give your language a filename to be stored in. Enter the path and filename in this field. It is not necessary to enter an extension for the filename as the extension .RAL will be added automatically. ALT-Fn KEYS - When one of the ten function keys on your keyboard is pressed in conjunction with the ALT key, RemoteAccess will do one of three things : If the command string that you have assigned to the function key that is pressed is a standard DOS command line, then that line will be executed in a shell while RemoteAccess remains in memory. If, on the other hand, the first character of the command string for the function key is the query symbol (?) followed by a number, RemoteAccess will exit to DOS with an errorlevel equal to the number. Alternatively, if the first character of the command string is the hash (#), RemoteAccess will display the named text file from the textfile directory. For example, suppose three entries looked like this: 5 : ?110 6 : C:\COMMAND.COM 7 : #WELCOME Pressing ALT-F5 would cause RemoteAccess to exit to DOS with an errorlevel of 110, ALT-F6 would execute a copy of COMMAND.COM in a shell, and ALT-F7 would display the appropriate (ASC/ANS/AVT) version of your WELCOME.A?? file to the user. EVENTS - The RemoteAccess Event Editor allows you to set pre-determined times during the week when RemoteAccess will automatically exit to your batch file and perform certain functions, usually some kind of system maintenance. You may define up to 20 events to run at any time during the day. In addition to this, it is also possible to specify that an event only run on a particular day or days of the week. To modify an event, simply move the highlight bar to the event you wish to alter, and press [CR]. Use the cursor keys to move between entries in the event edit window, and enter the time you want the event to start at, in 24 hour format. Next, enter the errorlevel; when the event is activated, RemoteAccess will exit to the batch file from which it was called at this errorlevel. Your batch file should trap this errorlevel and act accordingly. In this window, you can also specify what days you would like the event to run on, and whether the event is enabled or disabled. If a user's upload or download overruns an event which is FORCED then the transfer will be aborted and the user disconnected to ensure that the event runs at the proper time. More information on trapping events is contained in the BATCH FILES section. 45 MENUS - This option activates the RemoteAccess menu manager. For full details on setting up menus and menu types please refer to the MENU section of this manual. USERS - This is where you add, delete, modify and otherwise maintain your user database. Full details can be found on the user editor further on in the manual under the section THE USER DATABASE. CTL FILES - This option allows you to edit all the *.CTL files in addition to any other ASCII textfile, for example a FILES.BBS list. VIP : Very Important Persons list. TRASHCAN : Disallowed users list. NODECOST : Nodelist costing file. FILES : Passworded and free file list. BADFILES : Disallowed files for upload. HANDLES : Disallowed handles. PHONENUM : Disallowed phone number masks. LIMITS : Time and file transfer restrictions. PWDTRASH : Disallowed passwords. NAMES : User name macros. Other : Any other textfile. (User selectable) COMBINED - This option allows you to specify which message areas will by default be enabled for combined message area reading to new users. 46 SECURITY ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── All user-security is controlled by a security level and set of access flags. The security level is any number from 1 to 64,000. Setting a user's security level to zero will lock him or her out of the BBS. There are thirty-two access flags arranged in four sets of eight individual flags, each of which can be either ON or OFF. An ON flag is represented by an "X", and an OFF flag by a "-". Firstly let's look at menu security. Each menu is made up of a number of lines, each of which may have a command associated with it. (The structure of menus is explained fully in the next section). In order for a menu line to be visible (and selectable) to a user, the user's security level must be equal to or greater than the security level assigned to that line. In addition to this, every flag that is set ON in the menu line must also be set ON in the user's flag setting. Read/Write and Sysop access to message areas is controlled in the same way. To be able to read messages in an area, the user must have not only a sufficient security level, but also at least the flags that are defined in RACONFIG for that area. Similarly, the file area access security/flag system works in the same way, BUT the settings only affect the three file search menu functions. To restrict up/download access to certain areas, you will have to use menu security. 47 MENUS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This is possibly the most important stage in configuring your BBS. The menus that you create will give the system it's own "feel", and will make your system look completely different from the one next door. The menu system gives you one hundred percent flexibility not only cosmetically, but in allowing and disallowing access to certain functions and parts of your BBS to groups of users. The menus are line-oriented. Using the menu editor supplied, you enter the lines one at a time. Each line has a line of text that is displayed to the user, a menu "type", a minimum security level and flag setting required to access that line, and some optional data that is used by some menu types. There are approximately seventy menu functions that may be activated by the user pressing the key you have linked to that function. These functions are explained fully in the following pages. 48 Menu functions Type : 1 Name : Goto another menu Optional Data : <Menu Name> [Password] [/F=<File Area>|+|-] [/M=<Message Area>|+|-] This function causes a jump to another menu, which has been created with the editor and saved as <Menu Name>. If [Password] is specified then the user will be asked to supply a non-case-sensitive password before proceeding. <File Area> and <Message Area> set the currently selected file and message areas respectively for the template system. See the section on MENU TEMPLATES for a full explanation on this. Examples: FILES : Jump to the menu 'FILES'. FILES FBES : Prompt the user for a password, then jump to the menu 'FILES' provided the user entered the correct password of 'FBES'. FILES /M=10 : Jump to the menu 'FILES' and set the selected message area template to message area '10'. FILES /F=10 : Jump to the menu 'FILES' and set the selected file area template to file area '10'. FILES /M=+ : Jump to the menu 'FILES' and set the selected message area template to the current message area plus 1. FILES /F=+ : Jump to the menu 'FILES' and set the selected file area template to the current file area plus 1. Type : 2 Name : Gosub another menu Optional Data : <Menu Name> [Password] [/F=<File Area>|+|-] [/M=<Message Area>|+|-] As for Function 1, but saves the path to the last menu on a "stack", making it possible to return to the calling menu with a type 3 function. Note that menus called in this way may be nested to a maximum of 50 levels. 49 Type : 3 Name : Return from gosub Optional Data : None Use this function to return from a Gosub (type 2) to the previous menu in the menu stack. Type : 4 Name : Goto menu after clearing menu stack Optional Data : <Menu Name> [Password] [/F=<File Area>|+|-] [/M=<Message Area>|+|-] As for function 1, but before jumping to the new menu, the gosub menu stack is cleared. Obviously you can't use a type 3 return straight after this! Type : 5 Name : Display a *.ASC/*.ANS/*.AVT text file Optional Data : <1-8 character name> This menu type will display a file in your textfile directory (as defined in RACONFIG). RemoteAccess will display the file specified in the Optional Data field with one of three extensions. If the user has AVATAR codes active in their setup, RemoteAccess would display the file <Filename.AVT> to the user. If however the file <Filename.AVT> was missing or the user did not have AVATAR enabled, but only ANSI, the file <Filename.ANS> would be displayed. Finally if the user has only 'ASCII' enabled or both the files <Filename.AVT> and <Filename.ANS> are missing the file <Filename.ASC> would be displayed. These files may contain any text or graphical information up to the limitations of the text format. For example you cannot display ANSI colour in a *.ASC file. Along with text and graphics it is possible to display comprehensive system and user details by inserting special control codes in the files. These codes are listed in the TEXT FILE CONTROL CODES section. Examples: STATS : This Optional Data line would display the file 'STATS.AVT' if the user has AVATAR enabled, 'STATS.ANS' if the user has ANSI enabled or the file 'STATS.AVT' is missing and 'STATS.ASC' if the user has only ASCII enabled or both the AVT and ANS files are missing. 50 Type : 6 Name : Bulletin menu Optional Data : <1-8 character name> This function will display the file <filename.ASC/ANS/AVT> from the textfile directory. The user is then prompted for a file suffix of length '8-<length of filename>'. The suffix is then appended to the original filename, as specified on the Optional Data line, and that textfile is displayed to the users as it would be in a Type 5 command. Examples : BULLET : If this optional data field was specified the file 'BULLET.ASC/ANS/AVT' would be displayed. Then the user is prompted for a 2 character input. If the user typed "1B", then the file "BULLET1B.ASC/ANS/AVT" would be displayed. The original text file defined in the optional data should therefore contain a list of available bulletins. 51 Type : 7 Name : Run an external program in a shell Optional Data : <Command Line> [Control Codes] This command will run an external program (a "door") in a shell while the user is on-line. Examples are on-line games, mail-checking facilities and so on. (Refer also to type 15 - Exit to DOS for an alternative way of running external programs). The FULL name of the program must be specified if it is an .EXE or .COM file. To run one of these two simply put the name of the program in the optional data field. If you wish to call a batch file, this must be done via COMMAND.COM, the memory-resident command-line processor. So to run your TradeWars batch file, the command line could read: C:\COMMAND.COM /C \BBS\DOORS\TW2.BAT Many programs require extra information to be passed on the command line, so the following control codes may be used. In each case, the code is replaced by it's value: *A : Write the user's handle (if any) in DORINFO.DEF instead of the user's real name. *B : User's baud rate, or 0 if local. *C : Full path and name to COMMAND.COM. *D : Automatically generate the Doorway DOOR.SYS parameter file. *F : User's first name. *G : ANSI graphics, 0=Off/1=On. *H : Normally the FOSSIL is de-initialised before running an external program to avoid any possible conflicts between the FOSSIL and the program. Specifying this parameter leaves the FOSSIL "hot" or active. *L : User's last name. *M : Activate MemorySwap feature. RemoteAccess attempts to swap itself and all the memory it occupies to EMS (if installed) and disk, leaving only 2k resident. Great for running memory-hungry programs, but it takes a few seconds to do the swap. If it can't do the swap, it will try a normal shell. NOTE : Some programs are notorious for "fragmenting" memory, and will not work with MemorySwap. Programs compiled in QuickBASIC, such as TradeWars 1000 exhibit this problem. *N : Line number, as specified by the -N command line parameter. 52 *Oxxx : Override the baudrate value passed on to the called program with xxx. *P : Communications port being used (1-4). *R : User's record number in the user file. *S<filename.ext> : Generates a custom exitfile using a template file with the extension .RAT in the system directory which contains any valid textfile macros. See the "Textfile Control Codes" section of the reference chapter for a full list of available text macros. The 'filename' is the base filename of the .RAT template file. RA will process the file and create filename.ext where the EXITINFO.BBS file is stored. *T : Time remaining for current call. *! : Freeze the system timer for the duration of the shell. Useful for running external utilities like full-screen chat programs etc. *# : Turn off the "Wants Chat" indicator on return from the shell. This is to facilitate the proper installation of external chat utilities. *0 : The full path to the currently selected file template area. *1 : The number of the currently selected template message area. In addition to this command line information that can be passed, RemoteAccess also creates two data files before the shell. DORINFO1.DEF, which is a RBBS-compatible file, and EXITINFO.BBS, which contains an extremely comprehensive amount of system and user information. The structure of this file can be found in the RemoteAccess structures document, RASTRUCT. It should also be noted that ALL system files are written to and closed off before the shell is activated, then reopened and scanned upon return. This means that programs that modify system files (eg. USERS.BBS) can be safely run in a type 7 shell. RemoteAccess also supports Doorway's DOOR.SYS parameter file directly; including a *D on the command line enables the generation of this file. Note that the external program must do it's own time limit and carrier watchdogging, in the event that the user does not exit from the program correctly. 53 Type : 8 Name : Product information Optional Data : None Displays product information including the version number, licensing details and copyright information. If a user is on-line remotely, the name and version of the FOSSIL in use is also displayed. Type : 9 Name : Terminate the session Optional Data : None Displays the GOODBYE.ASC/ANS/AVT text file and hangs up on the user by dropping the DTR signal to the modem. To this end, make sure your modem's DTR line is not "forced high" continuously. Type : 10 Name : System usage Optional Data : None This displays a nicely formatted full-screen autoscaling graph that depicts system usage in terms of percentage use per hour. Each node (line) keeps a separate system usage graph and therefore you can see how busy each individual node is. If you wish to reset the graph, delete the file "TIMELOG.BBS" from your system directory or, if you are running multi-node, the node directory. 54 Type : 11 Name : Page sysop to chat Optional Data : <Paging string> This function will display the <paging string> to the user and page the sysop for a chat by playing a paging tune sounded at the local console. If the REASON FOR PAGE option has been enabled in RACONFIG, RemoteAccess will display a user-defined prompt and wait for the user to enter a reason for requesting the chat. When the paging tune sounds the sysop may select "C" to chat with the user, or "A" to abort the page. You may break in for a chat at any time by pressing ALT-C. If the remote is using an IEMSI-compatible terminal which supports the IEMSI full-screen chat flag, RemoteAccess will initiate a split-screen chat session. To force the "old" style line-oriented chat, hold down the left SHIFT key when you press ALT-C. All sysop keys are listed in the reference section of this manual. During a chat, the system timer is "frozen", and is re-started when the chat is terminated. The sysop terminates chat mode with the ESCape key. During chat, you may open a capture file to record what is said during the chat session by pressing CTRL-A, and again to close the capture. If you have set the "Auto log" option in the Paging options of RACONFIG to on, RemoteAccess will open a chat log automatically upon entering chat. The times at which a user is allowed to page the sysop for a chat and the number of times a user is allowed to request a chat in one session is controlled in RACONFIG. You can override the times at which users can page you by pressing ALT-O when a user is on-line and selecting between the options. The default paging sound is a constant "beep-beep" tone for the duration of the page. You may define your own page sound by creating a text file called PAGE.RA in the system directory. The following keywords are valid: TONE [hz] [1/100's sec] (sounds hz) WAIT [1/100's sec] (sounds nothing) 55 The following table lists several musical octaves and the correct frequency value associated with each note: Note Oct - 1 2 3 4 5 6 ---- C F 45 134 268 536 1071 2145 C# r 71 142 284 568 1136 2273 D e 75 150 301 602 1204 2408 D# q 80 159 319 638 1275 2551 E u 84 169 338 676 1351 2703 F e 90 179 358 716 1432 2864 F# n 95 190 379 758 1517 3034 G c 100 201 402 804 1607 3215 G# y 106 213 426 851 1703 3406 A # 113 225 451 902 1804 3608 A# 119 239 478 956 1991 3823 B 127 253 506 1012 2025 4050 The RemoteAccess distribution archive contains a sample PAGE.RA file to get you started. Type : 12 Name : Questionnaire Optional Data : <1-8 character file name> [/N] Initiates a questionnaire. The <file name> is the first part of the name of the questionnaire file. All questionnaire files are stored in the questionnaire directory, as specified in the RemoteAccess Language Editor, and have a name extension of .Q-A. User's responses are stored in an output file named <filename>.ASW. There is a full tutorial on questionnaires, including the script language in the reference section of this manual. RemoteAccess has two hard-coded questionnaires. If present, it will initiate the questionnaire NEWUSER.Q-A for a new user after the hard-coded text file NEWUSER2.ASC/ANS/AVT is displayed. The SUBDATE.Q-A questionnaire is automatically initiated when a user logs on and his/her subscription date has expired. You could use this questionnaire to possibly downgrade the user's security and/or flag settings and display a message informing the user that his/her subscription has expired. For information on hard-coded (external support) files, refer to the EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES section. Normally the initiation of a questionnaire is noted in the system log. Placing the /N parameter after the questionnaire name on the optional data line will suppress this log entry. 56 Type : 13 Name : User listing Optional Data : [/G] [/H] Displays a list of users in the user file. Lists users name, location, file ratio, and the last time he/she called the system. This function has some basic pattern matching capabilities on the name field. By default all users are listed. However, if a /G is specified in the optional data field then the user will only see users who are in the same group. Note that this restriction does not apply to the sysop. If a /H is specified in the optional data field then the users handles will be displayed in place of the user names. If the users handle field is blank then the user name will be used. The /G and /H options may be used at the same time to produce a group user listing by handle. Type : 14 Name : Time Optional Data : None Shows the current date and time, time of connection and the user's daily time limit, time used and time remaining for the day. Type : 15 Name : Exit to DOS Optional Data : <Errorlevel> This function causes RemoteAccess exit to the batch file that executed it, with a specific errorlevel. Set the optional data to the errorlevel you wish to pass to the batch file. The batch file should trap the errorlevel and act accordingly. If you exit while the user is still on- line, to log the user back on invoke RemoteAccess with the - R command line parameter. This will force it to read the EXITINFO file that was written at the time of the previous exit and take the user directly to the top menu. Note that errorlevels 0 to 5 are reserved by RemoteAccess for system use (see the reference section on ERRORLEVELS for a complete list and description of these and how to use them), and should not be used. There are two control codes that are valid on the optional data field: *A : Pass the user's handle/alias in DORINFO.DEF *D : Generate the DOOR.SYS file See the description of the menu command type 7 for additional information on both of these options. 57 Type : 16 Name : Alter location Optional Data : None Allows the user to change the "location" field in his/her user record. RemoteAccess will automatically capitalise users locations if the CAP LOCATION option is enabled in RACONFIG/OPTIONS/NEW USERS. Type : 17 Name : Alter password Optional Data : None Allows the user to change his/her password. Before the user can change their password they will be asked to re-type their current password. Frequent password changes should be encouraged to ensure system security, and in fact there is an option to force a change of password every certain number of logons (refer to "RACONFIG"). Type : 18 Name : Alter screen length Optional Data : None Allows the user to alter the vertical length of his/her screen display. This affects the "Continue?" prompt. Type : 19 Name : Toggle screen clearing Optional Data : None Allows the user to specify whether he/she would like screen clearing codes sent. If enabled RemoteAccess will clear the users screen every time the user changes menus. Type : 20 Name : Toggle page pausing Optional Data : None Allows the user to enable or disable the "Continue?" prompt at the end of each screen page. Type : 21 Name : Toggle ANSI graphics Optional Data : None Allows the user to select, or deselect ANSI graphics. If the user disables ANSI, he/she will be asked whether the use of the full-screen editor should be disabled. 58 Type : 22 Name : Check the mailbox Optional Data : None Checks to see if there is any mail addressed to the user that he/she hasn't yet read. This can be done automatically at log-on by setting the appropriate option in RACONFIG. See the section on configuration for details of the two types of mail-check available. All new messages are marked for later retrieval with the "Read Marked" option. Note that the user will only be notified of mail in areas that he/she has read access to, as defined in RACONFIG. Although the system only prompts the user with a "Read mail now [Yes/no]" prompt, several options can be activated. Valid choices are [R]ead, [S]can, [Q]uickscan, [K]ill, or [M]ark as received. 59 Type : 23 Name : Read messages Optional Data : <Message area #> or /M This command initiates the message reading routines. Before a user can read any message RemoteAccess checks that the user has read access to the message area first. The <Message area #> as defined in RACONFIG, should be placed in the Optional Data field or if a value of 0 is entered RemoteAccess will allow the user to read in "combined" mode (see function type 28 for more information on this feature). If you put a "/M" in the optional data field in place of the area number, RemoteAccess will automatically substitute the currently selected template message area into the data field. See MENU TEMPLATES for more on this. The message area number refers to number assigned to the desired area in RACONFIG. After selecting this function the user may select one of eight different reading modes, which are: (F)orward : Read forward from the selected message number to the last message. (R)everse : Read reverse from the selected message number to the first message. (I)ndividual : Read an individual message, selected by message number. (H)elp : Displays the file "MAILHELP.A??" to the user, if it exists (see EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES). (M)arked : Read messages marked by the user previously when doing a message scan, (See Menu Type 24). (N)ew msgs : New messages since the users last call. (S)elected : Read messages, by a search criteria on the "To:", "From:" or "Subject" fields. (Q)uit. : Abort the message reading. 60 A menu bar is displayed at the end of each message, this provides the user with the following functions: [-] : Read previous reply [+] : Read next reply [A] : Redisplay message again [N] : Go to the next message [L] : Go back to the previous message [R] : Post a reply to the current message [E] : Enter a new message in the current area [F] : Download files that are attached to the message [D] : Delete the displayed message (check the "delete msg" menu function for more information) [S] : Stop reading messages The following options are available only to users who have sysop access to the message area: [!] : Display ^A kludge lines normally hidden. These lines normally contain information pertaining to the product that created the message, echomail information and information about replies to the message. [*] : Edit the current message's attributes. This allows you to edit the following message characteristics: Area no. : Message area number. From : The sender of the message. To : The recipient of the message. Subject : The subject of the message. Attributes : Message attributes toggles; Deleted, Netmail, Private, Received, and Local flags. Exported : If the msg is an Echomail msg, this determines if the msg has been exported. [X] : Export message to a file or the printer [/] : Forward message to another user in any msg area. [=] : Mark message as unreceived and go to the next message. The message will then be redisplayed next time you do a mail check. [U] : Modify the security level of the user who posted the currently displayed message, provided the user is listed in the userfile. Great for "on the fly" user verification! NOTE - only users with a security level less than the person making the change may be modified, and their level may not be upgraded higher than the person making the change. {+} Registered only. 61 Type : 24 Name : Scan messages Optional Data : <Message area #> or /M Same as the READ message function (type 23) but only displays the message header of each message. The user also has the option of marking messages for later retrieval. Messages marked with this method can be read later by the user by selecting the read "Marked" option from a menu type 23 command. Type : 25 Name : QuickScan messages Optional Data : <Message area #> or /M Same as the READ message function (type 23) but each message is listed as a single-line entry containing message number, the author of the message, who it is addressed to, and the subject line. Type : 26 Name : Delete message Optional Data : None Allows a user to delete a message provided that: * The user has sysop access to the area the message is in, OR * The message is in a LOCAL or NETMAIL area, the user is the sender or recipient of the message and the message area allows users to delete messages (See RACONFIG Manager), OR * The message is in an echomail area and the user is the sender of the message, provided the message has not been exported from the message-base and the message area allows users to delete messages (See RACONFIG Manager). 62 Type : 27 Name : Post message Optional Data : <Message Area #> or /M [/L] [/U] [/T=<Name>] Post a message in the specified area (or the currently selected template area if the "/M" is used). The user must have either write or sysop access to the message area, as defined in RACONFIG. The /L option will log the user off immediately after the message is saved (useful for a "Leave message to sysop before disconnecting" option). The /T= option will force the message to be addressed to a specific user. Simply place the user's name in the optional data field after the /T= parameter to select this option. For example, on my "log-off" menu, I have the following entry: Menu Type 27 Optional Data: 60 /L /T=Andrew_Milner (Any messages to "Sysop" are redirected to the sysop's name as defined in RACONFIG). If you do use a full name, be sure to use underscores in place of spaces. Specifying a message area number of zero forces RemoteAccess to display all message areas that the user has write access to and prompt for the message area to post the message in. When posting a message, the user will be prompted for the following information: Alias? : If the message area allows users to post messages using an Alias, the user will be asked if they wish to do so, if they do they will then be prompted for the alias they wish to use. To : In this field the user must enter the name of the recipient of the message. In Echo- Mail areas any name will be accepted. If however the user is posting a message in a local message area, RemoteAccess will search the user database to confirm that the recipient is a valid user of the system. If no record of the recipient is found and the /U parameter is on the optional data line the user is notified and asked if he/she would like to view/search the user database. If the user elects not to search the user database the message will be posted as normal. 63 In addition to posting messages to individual users, it is possible to post mail to a group of users. The following macros are valid for a user to use in the "to" field of a message provided they have the minimum security level required to post a group mail message. Send msg to : @[g] - all users in group [g] @ALL - all users =[s] - all users with security = [s] >[s] - all users with security > [s] <[s] - all users with security < [s] A separately addressed message is generated for each qualifying user, so large group mailings can take a little while to process and occupy a large amount of disk space. Address : If the message is being posted in a Netmail area, the user will be prompted to enter the network address of the system they wish to sent the mail to. If the user is unsure of the network address, they may browse the nodelist obtain the correct address. NOTE : Browse the nodelist is a {+} registered feature only. Subject : In this field, the user may place a short description of the subject matter of the message. Private? : If private messages are permitted in the message area, the user will be given the option to address the mail privately for reading by the recipient only. Crash? : This option determines if a Netmail message is sent immediately from your system to the destination system. The option is only available to users who have the minimum security level to use Crash mail. 64 Type : 28 Name : Select combined areas Optional Data : None Allows the user to select any combination of message areas for "combined" mode message reading/scanning/quickscanning. The user is shown a list of available areas and may toggle any of them "ON" or "OFF". This combination of areas is saved as part of the user's permanent user record, and is restored at next log on. To read messages in the "combined" area, use a normal read/scan/quickscan menu function but set the message area number in the optional data field to zero. Area zero is hard-coded as this combined area and cannot be defined by the sysop. Note that it is possible to define via RACONFIG a default selection of combined message areas for new users. 65 Type : 29 Name : Move a file Optional Data : <Full source path> Primarily intended as a sysop/assistant sysop function, this allows the user to move files from a pre-defined area <source-path> to any valid DOS directory without the need for remote access to DOS. After the file has been copied successfully, RemoteAccess will optionally move the file's description (if there is one) to the destination directory. Type : 30 Name : Directory Optional Data : <Full path> or /F Displays an MS-DOS style directory of the directory specified in the optional data field, showing name, length and date of each file. The user is prompted for an optional wildcard pattern match filespec. For example "*.*" would display all files. The use of the "/F" parameter will enable you to use the current file template in place of the <Full path>. Type : 31 Name : List files Optional Data : <Full path> or /F This option displays a list of files available for download from the directory specified by the path name in the optional data field. The file names and descriptions are contained in a file called FILES.BBS. This file is automatically maintained by RemoteAccess when files are uploaded, but it may also be edited by the sysop. The file consists of a single word file-name per line with a description, up to 255 characters in length. Descriptions that exceed the width of the screen are automatically wrapped to the next line. It is possible to define how you want the file listing to be displayed to the user by editing the file "list format" template in RACONFIG. The default list format will display the file name, upload date, size of each file and the file description. An asterisk before the description signifies that the file is new since the user's last call. (See RACONFIG/OPTIONS/FILES AREA for further information on "List Format"). If, instead of the full path to the file area, you put a "/F", RemoteAccess will substitute the path name that corresponds to the currently selected template file area, as defined in RACONFIG. See the MENU TEMPLATE section for further information on this. 66 Type : 32 Name : Download a file from area Optional Data : <Full path> or /F [Password] Enables the user to download any file that is contained in the specified directory. Note that the file need not be listed in that directory's FILES.BBS for the user to be able to download it. If a password is specified for the file in the "FILES.CTL" file or a password is specified in the optional data field, the user will be asked for a non case-sensitive password before being allowed to proceed with the transfer. The /F option works in the same way as in function 31. (See the section EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES for further information on the "FILES.CTL" file). If a user is logged onto a local node, RemoteAccess will prompt the user for a directory to move the selected files to. Type : 33 Name : Upload a file Optional Data : <Full path> or /F [/L] Enables the user to upload (send) a file to your system. The file will be placed in the directory specified in the optional data path. FILES.BBS will be automatically updated to reflect the upload. The /F option works in the same way as in functions 31 and 32. After uploading a file, the user is prompted to enter a one line file description. If however the "Long desc" option is enabled in RACONFIG for the file area to which the file has been uploaded, the user may give the file a description longer than one line. The file description a user enters is appended to the end of the FILES.BBS file for the area in which the file has been uploaded. The only exception to this is when the user asks for the file to be marked private for the sysop only by starting the file description with a '/'. In this case the file details are recorded in "PVTFILES.LOG" in the system directory. If a user selects to upload a file while they are logged onto a local node, RemoteAccess will prompt them for the full DOS path and filename of the file they wish to upload. The user will then be prompted for the file descriptions as normal and finally the files will be copied to the correct upload directory. When uploading a file locally it is also possible for the user to specify a Wildcard, such as "D:\FILES\BBS\RA*.ARJ". This would enable the user to upload multiple files matching the wildcard criteria. Use the /L parameter to enable long file descriptions (see the section on FILES for more information on this feature). 67 Type : 34 Name : View archive Optional Data : <Full path> or /F Allows the user to view the contents of an archived file in the specified directory. The following archive formats are supported: .ARC/PAK/PKA .ZIP .ZOO .LZH/LZS .DWC .MD .LBR .ARJ .HYP Menu templating is supported with the /F option. This is explained more fully in MENU TEMPLATES. Type : 35 Name : File scan by keyword Optional Data : [area1 area2 area3 ...] or /F This function uses the data specified in RACONFIG to search all file areas that the user has access to for a key-word that is supplied by the user. Any FILES.BBS entries that match are displayed with the name of the area the match was found in. The default is to scan all areas, but you may specify that only certain areas be searched by putting the area numbers to include on the optional data line. If you use the "/F" parameter you can force RA to scan only the currently selected template file area. Type : 36 Name : File scan by file name Optional Data : [area1 area2 area3 ...] or /F Same as function 35, but scans for an exact file name match. Wildcard and pattern matching characters are valid. The default is to scan all areas, but you may specify that only certain areas be searched by putting the area numbers to include on the optional data line. The /F option works in the same way as function 35. 68 Type : 37 Name : Show new files Optional Data : [area1 area2 area3 ...] or /F Scans all file areas which have the "New Files" option enabled in RACONFIG that the user has access to, for files that have a date more recent than the date specified by the user. The default is to search for files new since the users last log-on. The default is to scan all areas, but you may specify that only certain areas be searched by putting the area numbers to include on the optional data line. The /F option works in the same way as function 36 and 37. Type : 38 Name : Type (view) a text file Optional Data : <Full path> or /F Allows the user to type to the terminal the contents of a plain ASCII/ANSI/AVATAR text file in the specified directory. This is useful for on-line file lists or magazines. The /F option overrides the path name with the currently selected template file area path. Type : 39 Name : Display a fully named text file Optional Data : <Full path and name> Similar to the type 5 function, but allows you to specify the full path and name (including extension) of the file that will be displayed. Like the type 5 function, this also interprets the special control characters. Type : 40 Name : Display a ASC/ANS/AVT text file with hotkeys Optional Data : <1-8 character name> Displays an ASC/ANS/AVT text file the same way as a type 5 would, but leaves the current menu hot keys active while the file is displayed. This allows the use of elaborate graphics in your menus that would be impossible to create with the line editor. See also AUTOMATIC COMMAND EXECUTION for details on how to integrate these files into your menus. Type : 41 Name : Toggle full screen editor Optional Data : None Allows the user to select or deselect the use of the full screen message editor. Use of the editor is only permitted if the user has ANSI graphics enabled. 69 Type : 42 Name : Toggle hot-keys Optional Data : None Allows the user to choose between hot-keys or command stacking. In command stacking mode, several commands, or key-presses, can be specified on one command line by putting a semi-colon in between each command. Type : 43 Name : NewMail {+} Optional Data : None Display a full list of all the message areas the user has read access to, highlighting those that contain unread messages. This menu command is only available in registered mode. Type : 44 Name : Reset combined areas setting Optional Data : None Allows the user to turn ON or OFF all available message areas for his/her combined message area setting. Type : 45 Name : Display text file and wait Optional Data : <1-8 character name> This is the same as a type 5 function, but prompts the user to press [Enter] before continuing. This is useful for displaying text files that are generated automatically by utilities that don't append a Control-A (wait character) at the end of the file. Type : 46 Name : Display direct textfile with CR Optional Data : <Full path and name> Displays a text file with a fully qualified path and name and waits for the user to press [Return] before continuing. 70 Type : 47 Name : Make a log entry Optional Data : <Log entry> When this command is executed, it simply takes the contents of the Optional Data field and writes it to the system log as if it were a normal hard-coded log entry. The only macro characters that are valid are: @ : Insert the name of the current template file area ` : Insert the name of the current template msg area Type : 48 Name : Download a specific file Optional Data : <Full path and name> Enables the user to download a file or set of files that you have pre-defined, using a protocol of the user's choice. Note that you may specify wild-cards and pattern match characters in the file name, but if you do, the user will be forced to use a batch transfer protocol. For example, a type 48 command with the following optional data field: C:\FILES\RA\RELEASE\RA*.ARJ Would send all files in the C:\FILES\RA\RELEASE directory that matched RA*.ARJ. Type : 49 Name : Select message area Optional Data : None Displays a list of all message areas the user has read access to, and asks the user to select one by number. The current message template area number is set to the users choice. This allows the sysop to run a very low maintenance system, since all that is required to add or delete a message area is to modify the configuration file via RACONFIG. Type : 50 Name : Select file area Optional Data : None This operates in the same way as the "select message area" (type 49) menu function, but uses file areas instead of message areas. 71 Type : 51 Name : List today's callers Optional Data : [/H] Lists every caller that has called your system since midnight along with log on/off times, baud rate and what line the call was taken on. The /H switch will show handles instead of read names. Type : 52 Name : Show all users on-line Optional Data : [/H] Lists all users currently on-line. This would only be useful in a multi-node installation. It shows where each caller is calling from, their baud rate, the line they are connected to and what they are doing. Type : 53 Name : Toggle "Do not disturb" Optional Data : None This is another multi-line feature only. It allows the user to turn on or off the ability of other users to send him/her messages with the type 54 function, like - "Hey Joe, I noticed that you're on line 3. Wanna chat?" Note that the sysop has the ability to override this. Type : 54 Name : Send an on-line message Optional Data : None Allows the user to send a message to another user who is logged on to another line at the same time. Provided that the other user has not set his/her "do not disturb" flag, the sender will be prompted for a one-liner to transmit. Depending on what the recipient is doing at the time, he/she will get the message ten to fifteen seconds later. Type : 55 Name : Download any file Optional Data : None This is an extremely powerful function that should be only accessible to the sysop. It allows the user to download a file from any valid drive or directory using any of the available file transfer protocols. This is the ONLY download function that takes no account of download limits, file ratios or transfer time, and does not update the users record to reflect the download. 72 Type : 56 Name : Browse the nodelist {+} Optional Data : None Allows the user to browse the nodelist. Includes functions to list all zones, list all nets and regions in a zone, and list all nodes in a net or region. Type : 57 Name : Change home/voice number Optional Data : None Allows the user to modify his/her home/voice phone number permanently. Type : 58 Name : Change business/data number Optional Data : None Allows the user to modify his/her business/data phone number permanently. Type : 59 Name : Global download {+} Optional Data : None Allows the user to download files as per the type 32 download command, but searches ALL areas the user has access to for the requested file(s). All normal time and other security restrictions apply. Type : 60 Name : Change handle Optional Data : None Allows the user to select a new handle. Note that RemoteAccess will not allow the user to choose a name or handle which is in use by another user or a handle which is listed in the "HANDLES.CTL" file. RemoteAccess will also not allow the use of "SYSOP" as a handle. Type : 61 Name : Toggle AVATAR Optional Data : None Toggles the use of AVATAR codes (see the section on TERMINAL EMULATIONS for more information). 73 Type : 62 Name : Toggle full screen message viewer Optional Data : None Allows the user to select or deselect use of the full screen message presentation manager. When active, this option displays all messages with a fixed header and uses ANSI and AVATAR codes for special screen manipulation. Type : 63 Name : Select a new language Optional Data : None Allows the user to change their current language setting. (See LANGUAGE FILES for more details) Type : 64 Name : Select a new date format Optional Data : None Allows the user to change his/her currently selected date format. The user has a choice of the following date formats: DD-MM-YY MM-DD-YY YY-MM-DD DD-Mmm-YY Type : 65 {+} Registered only. Name : Change current users flags Optional Data : <flagset><flagnum><action> This allows you to set on, set off or toggle any of the users security flag settings. The "action" determines how the flag is to be set. The actions available are: - : Turn flag OFF + : Turn flag ON * : Toggle flag For example, if the optional data was "A1+ A2- D8*", the flag A1 would be turned on, A2 would be turned off and flag D8 would be toggled. 74 Type : 66 Name : Toggle Text file shells Optional Data : <ON|OFF> Enables/Disables textfile file shells. This overrides the default setting in RACONFIG for the one session. (see TEXT FILE CONTROL CODES for more information) Type : 67 Name : Toggle auto message-forwarding Optional Data : None If a user is going to be away for an extended period of time, he/she may specify the name of another user to whom all his/her mail is redirected. When this option is toggled on the user will be asked for the name of a person he/she wishes to forward his/her mail to. This name must be a valid user listed in the system user database. If the name entered can not be located in the user database, the user will be given the option to view/search the user database and then reselect the user to forward mail to. 75 Automatic command execution ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Normally a menu function would be activated when a user presses the key that you have linked to that function. However, it is possible to cause a function to be executed automatically as soon as a menu is displayed by setting the entry to "auto execute". As soon as that particular menu line is displayed the function is executed automatically, without the need for the user to select the option. This is a very powerful feature when used with the type 40 menu function, which displays an ASCII/ANSI/AVATAR text file while checking for menu hot-keys. By setting up the first line of a menu as a type 40 with automatic execution, as soon as the menu is called your text file is displayed instead of the normal menu lines. This allows you to design very elaborate graphical menu displays that contain extra information about the user by inserting the special text file control codes. What happens if a user "passes through" a menu by using a stacked menu command? In some cases you may want the automatic command to execute, for example to redirect the user to another menu by automatic execution of a type 1 or 2. On the other hand, if the command is only for cosmetic purposes (maybe a text file to display some user statistics) it would be better to skip the command and continue straight to the next menu. The rule is that the menu command will only be executed if it is the first entry in the menu AND it is not a 'display textfile' type function. Special optional data switches ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── There are two special "switches" which may be placed at the end of the optional data field for any menu command: /NS : This switch suppresses the usual clear screen code that RemoteAccess sends when a new menu is displayed, and is only useful when used with a menu navigation (GOTO, GOSUB etc) command. /K=xxx : {+} Registered only. This switch places the specified text <xxx> into the user's input buffer to be processed exactly as if it had been entered as a stacked command. This is an extremely powerful facility which can be used to link a number of menu commands together, and customise a large number of hard-coded selection menus. 76 Menu templates ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The biggest drawback of other BBS packages that allow the sysop the flexibility of designing his or her own menus is the amount of maintenance that is necessary in updating the menus. Until now it was necessary to have a separate menu for each file and message area. The RemoteAccess menu templating system alleviates this problem by allowing you to set up one menu that will act as a "skeleton" for all your message and file areas. Two "variables" are available to you; "M" for the currently selected message area and "F" for the currently selected file area. In your template menu(s), where you would normally put the message area number in the optional data field for say a "Read" command, put in "/M". When the read is selected by the user, RemoteAccess will substitute this for a message area number. Likewise, where you would specify a full path for a file function, put a "/F in the optional data field. RemoteAccess will replace this variable with the path to the currently selected file area. To put a value into one of these two variables, simply put a "/M=<Area Number>" or "/F=<Area Number>" in the optional data field of a type 1, 2 or 4 menu command. For example, say you set up a message area template menu called "MSGMENU", using the /M in the optional data fields. Another menu, which you have set up to list the available message areas, simply consists of type 1 or 2 menu commands to jump to MSGMENU. One menu line looks like this: <H>ard Disk Conference This is a type 2 command, which will "gosub" to the MSGMENU menu: Type : 2 On the optional data line, put the name of the menu to jump to, and also set the template variable. Optional Data : MSGMENU /M=45 45 corresponds to the hard disk conference area, as defined in RACONFIG. There are two other constructs that work with the template commands. /M=+ or /F=+ will increment the currently selected template area by one, and /M=- or /F=- will decrement the currently selected template area by one. RemoteAccess will automatically scan all file (or message) areas in the specified direction to determine the next area that the user has been given access to. The current message and file template areas are stored at logoff, and when the user logs back on they will be set to these message and file template areas. 77 When user logs on for the first time, RemoteAccess will scan the file and message areas and set the user selected template areas to the first area found to which the user security rights. There are a number of special characters that you can put in the display line of a menu which will display certain system information: ~ : Displays time remaining today. ^ : Switches between the normal line colours and the overall menu highlight colours. ; : Don't display a carriage return / linefeed at the end of the line. @ : Displays the name (as defined in RACONFIG) of the currently selected file template area. ` : Displays the name (as defined in RACONFIG) of the currently selected message template area. ^A : This will force RemoteAccess to wait until the user presses the enter key. To enter this character in the menu, press CTRL-P followed by CTRL-A. You may also include any valid textfile control code, as listed in the TEXTFILE CONTROL CODES section of this manual. The global menu ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── It is likely that there are some commands that you will want to be available from every menu that the user sees. Instead of duplicating these for every single menu, simply place them by themselves in a menu called GLOBALRA. RemoteAccess searches for this special menu and if it exists, automatically appends it to the end of every menu. RemoteAccess appends the whole menu; in other words, not just the commands but any visible text as well. Note that the global menu will always inherit the highlight colours of the current menu it is appended to. This feature is only available in the registered version {+}. 78 Setting up your menus ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Spend some time thinking about how your menus will be set up. Your BBS can be made to look as unique or as "uniform" as you like - you can choose a subjective topology, where the menus are organised according to area of interest, or a functional topology, where menus are organised according to their function. For example, a functional topology would group all message areas together and all file areas together, whereas a subjective topology would perhaps group together several message and file areas that were related. The diagram below illustrates this by depicting the same systems using the two different topologies: FUNCTIONAL +----------Amiga messages +---------Messages menu | | +----------IBM messages Main menu | | +----------Amiga files +------------Files menu | +----------IBM files SUBJECTIVE +----------IBM files +--------------IBM menu | | +----------IBM messages Main menu | | +----------Amiga files +------------Amiga menu | +----------Amiga messages Alternatively, you could even use a combination of the two topology types. The layout of your BBS is determined by how the menus are set up. In many cases a user will not realise that he or she is looking at a menu. The best technique for creating menus is to create all the "low-level" menus first, then the main menu, and then fill in between with the intermediate menus. 79 Creating your menus ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Change to the system directory and fire up RACONFIG.EXE then select MANAGERS/MENUS; this then takes you into the menu editing utility which allows you to create and edit your menus. When run it will present you with a list of languages, after selecting the language of the files you wish to edit you will then be shown a directory of menus that have already been created for that language - select one, with the cursor keys and press RETURN to edit, or press INSERT to create a new menu. A large window is opened that displays a line by line summary of the menu. You may select a menu item to work on by moving the highlight bar to the item with the cursor. You can then edit the following fields : User : This field allows you to define what will display be displayed to the user on the menu for this menu entry. You may use any text control code in this field (See TEXT CONTROL CODES section for more information). After displaying this field RemoteAccess moves the cursor down one line to prepare for the next menu command. If you place a ";" as the last character on the user display line RemoteAccess will not move down a and the user display from the next menu command will be added to the same line. Action : Determines what this menu command will do. (See MENU TYPES for more information). Optional : This line is associated with the ACTION line data and contains the option parameter, which defines how the various menu commands function. (See MENU TYPES for further information) Hot-Key : In this field you specify the key you want to activate this menu command. Automatic : If enabled this will make this menu command execute immediately, without the user typing any key. Colour : This defines the colour of the USER DISPLAY. Security : This defines the minimum security level at which a user can select this menu command. (See the SECURITY section for further details) Flags : This sets the flag combinations the user must have to select the menu command. (See the SECURITY section for more details) 80 When editing the menus the following keys are available to assist you: [RETURN] - Edit the currently selected menu item. [INSERT] - Insert a new menu item immediately before the current item. [DELETE] - Delete the currently selected menu item. [ALT-D] - Simulate what the menu would look like to a user. [ALT-L] - Discard the present menu and load another from disk. [ALT-N] - Re-select language. [ALT-P] - View or modify the menu prompt, its colour and the menu highlight colours. [ALT-S] - Save the current menu to disk. You can run the menu editor directly, without having to go through the RACONFIG menus by using the "-M" parameter on the RACONFIG command line, For example "RACONFIG -M" (See the section on COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS for further information). Let's create the LOGOFF menu. Hit RETURN on the first blank menu item to bring up the EDIT MENU ITEM window. The first line of this menu will just display a message to the user, so in the USER DISPLAY field, put "You have chosen to disconnect. You may -". Move to the ACTION field and set it to DISPLAY ONLY. Next select a suitable colour for the display line in the COLOUR field. Since this is only a display line, leave SECURITY and FLAGS as they are. Press ESCAPE to return to the menu list, and note the entry you have just created. Now enter the user options for the menu. Move to the second menu entry (add one with the INSERT key if necessary) and press RETURN to edit. We'll give the user the option of leaving a message to the sysop, so in the USER DISPLAY field enter "<L>eave a message to the sysop". Set the ACTION to POST A NEW MESSAGE (this is under the heading of MESSAGE- BASE COMMANDS). This command requires a couple of parameters in the optional data field - the number of the message area to post the message in and the /T= parameter, to force the message to be addressed to the sysop. It might look like this: 80 /T=Andrew_Milner 81 (Message area 80 is set up as a "Messages to the sysop" area that contains local private messages). Set the HOT-KEY to "L" - this is the key that will activate the function. We want all users to be able to leave a message, so set the security level to 1. The third line of the menu gives the user the option of returning to the previous menu, so set this to a type 3, with a suitable display line. The actual log-off command is last. This will be a type 9 (Terminate Call). Set the hot-key to "G" and the display line to something like "<G>oodbye (Logoff)". The final step is to set the highlight and prompt options. Press ALT-P from the menu list to bring up the EDIT MENU SETTINGS window. Here you can tailor the menu by selecting the menu prompt and its colour, along with the menu highlight colour. Each menu line, in addition to it's own colour, may contain an overall menu highlight colour. To switch between the two colours on a menu line, simply insert the ^ character; Note that this character isn't actually displayed to the user, it just toggles the colours. Experiment with this feature by inserting a few ^ characters on display lines and viewing the menu with the ALT-D key. Finally, save the menu by going back to the menu list and pressing ALT-S. Save the menu with the name LOGOFF. Now, whenever you need a "Goodbye" option in another menu, just use a gosub (type 2) function to the menu LOGOFF. There is one hard-coded menu called TOP. RemoteAccess searches for this menu when a user logs on and displays it first, so it MUST be present. The layout of the top menu is up to you of course; it is recommended that you look at the menus of other Bulletin Boards so you can incorporate their best features into your own. 82 EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── There is very little that is actually "hard-coded" into RemoteAccess. Below is a listing of text files you can place in the text file directory to give your system just the right "feel". See the section on TEXT FILE CONTROL CODES for a list of special characters that can be used to display system and user information from any of these files. Files marked with an asterisk (*) have a default prompt if the file is missing. All the files are plain ASCII which you can create with your favourite text editor/wordprocessor such as the one in RACONFIG, or optionally ANSI which you will need a special ANSI editor to create. RemoteAccess also has the ability to display AVATAR files, which display faster if the user has an AVATAR terminal, and can be generated from your ANSI files by using the AVTCONV utility supplied. See the section on TERMINAL EMULATIONS for further information. 1ATATIME.A?? : This file is displayed if a user tries to * log on to more than one line at once if multi-line check has been enabled in RACONFIG. ALTNEWS.A?? : This file is displayed ONLY if the NEWS.A?? file was not displayed to the user because he/she requested to skip it during an IEMSI session. If you want all users to see your news file regardless, simply copy NEWS.A?? to ALTNEWS.A??. BADFILES.A?? : This file is displayed if the user attempts * to upload a file that is listed in the BADFILES.CTL control file. BADPWD.ASC : This file is displayed when a user enters an incorrect password and elects to leave a message to the sysop. BIRTHDAY.A?? : This file is displayed if the current date is the same as the user's birthdate. DATEFMT.A?? : This file is displayed just before a user * selects a new date format. DNLDHRS.A?? : This file is displayed if a user attempts * a download outside the allowed hours as defined in RACONFIG. EDITHELP.A?? : This file is displayed if the user asks for help while using the built-in message editor. ENDCHT.A?? : This file is displayed when the sysop * terminates chat mode. 83 EXPIRED.A?? : This file is displayed if the user's * password has just expired, just before the user is asked for a new password. FILEAREA.A?? : If present, this file will be displayed when the user is asked to select a new file area in place of the normal hard-coded list. GOODBYE.A?? : This file is displayed when the user elects to log off, just before the user is disconnected. GROUP#.A?? : These files are displayed to users of a particular group directly after the SEC#.A?? file. For example, the file GROUP1.A?? would be displayed to all users belonging to user group 1. HANDLE.A?? : This file is displayed just before the user is asked to choose a new handle. LANGUAGE.A?? : This file is displayed in place of the hard * coded language selection list. LOCKOUT.A?? : This file is displayed if the sysop uses * ALT-L while a user is on-line to lock him/her out of the system. LOGO.A?? : This file is displayed as soon as a connection is made. This should contain the name of your system and perhaps some other general information. If the "Auto ANSI" option is enabled in RACONFIG, RA will attempt to automatically detect if the remote terminal is using ANSI, and if so will send the ANS file in place of the ASC file. MAILHELP.A?? : This file is displayed if the user asks for help at the mailbox scan prompt. Note that the user is only offered help if this file actually exists. MAXPAGE.A?? : This file is displayed if a user tries to * page the sysop for a chat more times than you have specified in RACONFIG. MSGAREA.A?? : If present, this file is displayed when the user is asked to select a message area in place of the normal hard-coded list. MSGFWD.A?? : If the user has message forwarding enabled this file will be displayed at logon. NEWS.A?? : This file is a general news bulletin that is displayed after RemoteAccess checks for waiting mail (if the option is enabled), or straight after the WELCOME file. 84 NEWUSER1.ASC : This file is displayed to a new user as soon as he/she confirms that he/she entered his/her name correctly. NEWUSER2.A?? : This file is displayed after the user has confirmed that he/she entered all the standard logon questions correctly. NO300.ASC : This file is displayed if a 300 baud caller * attempts to log on during hours when 300 baud is not allowed, as defined in RACONFIG. NOCREDIT.A?? : This file is displayed if a caller attempts * to enter a netmail message for which he/she does not have sufficient credit. NOTAVAIL.A?? : This file is displayed if a user tries to * page the sysop for a chat outside paging hours, as defined in RACONFIG. NOTFOUND.ASC : This file is displayed if RemoteAccess * cannot locate the name of a user at logon, but before the user is asked to confirm that he/she entered the name correctly. NOTSYSOP.A?? : This file is displayed if a user attempts to * post a message to "Sysop" in an EchoMail message area. ONCEONLY.A?? : This file is displayed just after the NEWS.A?? file only once whenever the file is altered, to each user. PAGEABRT.A?? : This file is displayed if the sysop chooses * to abort a page for chat by the user. PAGED.A?? : This file is displayed after the user has paged for a chat if the sysop does not answer the page. Something like "Okay, the sysop has been paged and will break in for a chat if he/she walks past." PASSWORD.A?? : This file is displayed before the user is asked to select a new password. This file should stress the importance of choosing a suitable password! PRIVATE.ASC : This file is displayed if a new user tries * to log on to your system and you have set it up as a private, pre-register BBS. RATIO.A?? : This file is displayed if the user tries to * do a download which would exceed his/her ratio of number of files. RATIOK.A?? : This file is displayed if the user tries to * do a download which would exceed his/her ratio of K of uploads to K of downloads. 85 READHELP.A?? : This file is displayed if the user asks for help while reading messages. SEC#.A?? : These files are displayed to users of a particular security level directly after the WELCOME file, but before the mail check (if enabled). For example, the file SEC10.ASC/ANS/AVT, if present, would be displayed to all users with security level 10. STARTCHT.A?? : This file is displayed when the sysop breaks * in for a chat via ALT-C. Using the shell from textfile function this could conceivably be used to activate an external chat utility. See also ENDCHT.A?? TIMEhh.A?? : This file is displayed after WELCOME1.A??, when "hh" matches the current hour number (24 hour format). TIMEWARN.A?? : This file is displayed at log on if the * user's time limit has been adjusted to accomodate an upcoming event. TODAYK.A?? : This file is displayed if the user attempts * a download which would exceed his/her daily download limit. TOOSLOW.ASC : This file is displayed if a user tries to * log on at a speed lower than the minimum required to log on to your system as defined in RACONFIG. TRASHCAN.ASC : This file is displayed if a user enters an * unacceptable name at log on, as listed in the TRASHCAN.CTL file. VIP.A?? : If the user who has logged on is listed in the VIP.CTL file, this file will be displayed just before the SEC#.A?? file. WELCOME.A?? : This file is displayed after the user logged on, or in the case of a new user, after completing the new user procedure. This can be a fairly elaborate title screen that welcomes your users to the BBS. WELCOME1.A?? : This file is displayed directly after the WELCOME file, and could contain extra system information, maybe a "today in history" quote, or something similar. XFERHELP.A?? : This file is displayed if the user presses the "?" key on the file transfer protocol selection menu. It should contain general information about the different protocols themselves. 86 XFERPROT.A?? : This file is displayed in place of the hard * coded file transfer protocol selection. XFERTIME.A?? : This file is displayed if the user attempts * a download that would exceed his/her daily time limit. In addition to these ASC/ANS/AVT files, there are a number of *.CTL files that define various security aspects of the system: BADFILES.CTL : This file allows you to specify a list of files that users may not upload. Simply specify one file per line (wildcards valid), for example: *.GIF NORTON*.* Would not allow any files matching either of these two patterns to be uploaded. FILES.CTL : This file allows you to mark any downloadable file on your system as free {+} and/or password protected. The format of Registered this file is: Only <filespec> [/FREE] [/PWD=xxx] Example: \RAFILES\RA_110.ARJ /FREE \RABETAS\RABETA.ARJ /FREE /PWD=RACCESS Note that each filename must be fully qualified with a path (drive name optional). Here, RA_110.ARJ is free. Downloading it will not affect the user's download statistics. Note that even though the file is free in this regard, the user must still have enough time remaining for the download. RABETA.ARJ is both free and password protected with the password RACCESS. The user must supply the correct password before being allowed to proceed with the download. Passwords are case insensitive and a maximum of 15 characters in length. HANDLES.CTL : This file allows you to list handles that you don't want people to be able to use. It is identical in format to the TRASHCAN.CTL. 87 LIMITS.CTL : This file allows you specify, for each security level, a daily time limit, file download limit for each baud rate, and optional file ratios, either in number of uploads to number of downloads, or in total kilobytes uploaded to total kilobytes downloaded. The format of the file is as follows: <Sec Lvl> <Time> <300> [1200] [2400] [4800] [9600] or: <Sec Lvl> <Time> <300> <1200> <2400> <4800> <9600> <R#> [RK] Where <Sec Lvl> is the security level, <Time> is the daily time limit, <300> to <9600> are respective download limits depending on what baud rate the user calls at. <R#> is the ratio of uploads to downloads, and [RK] is the ratio of uploads in K to downloads in K. If you only specify a download limit for say 300, 1200 and 2400 baud, the download limits for the higher baud rates default to the highest baud rate specified, in this case the limit set for 2400 baud. If you specify a ratio by number (R#) value, then the user will be required to upload one file for every n they download. Similarly, setting the ratio by K will allow the user to download only the specified kilobytes of files per 1 kilobyte uploaded. This is fairly complicated, so look at this example LIMITS.CTL: 5 35 0 10 60 100 200 350 650 900 5 10 20 90 150 250 470 750 900 5 30 120 250 400 600 900 1200 50 300 900 Security level 5 entitles the user to 35 minutes per day, but no downloads. Security level 10 entitles the user to 60 minutes per day, 100k of downloads at 300 baud, 200k at 1200 baud, 350k at 2400 baud, 650k at 4800 baud, and 900k at 9600 baud or faster. In addition, the user must upload at least one file for every five downloaded, and may not download more than ten times the total size of files uploaded. 88 Security level 20 entitles the user to 90 minutes per day, 150k of downloads at 300 baud, 250k at 1200 baud, 470k at 2400 baud, 750k at 4800 baud and 900k at 9600 baud or faster. In addition, the user may only download five times the number of files he/she uploaded. Security level 30 entitles the user to 120 minutes per day, 250k of downloads at 300 baud, 400k at 1200 baud, 600k at 2400 baud, 900k at 4800 baud and 1,200k at 9600 baud or faster. There are no ratio restrictions. Security level 50 entitles the user to 300 minutes per day, and 900k of downloads at all speeds without any ratio restrictions. NAMES.CTL : RemoteAccess allows you to assign "shortnames" to users you frequently send messages to. Set up this text file with the following format, one entry per line: <shortname>,<realname>,<address>[,<subject>] Eg: rahq,Andrew Milner,2:270/18,RemoteAccess.. To use this feature, simply enter the shortname preceded by an asterisk when RemoteAccess asks you who the message is to. In the above example, addressing a message to "*rahq" would fill in the to field with "Andrew Milner", and the subject field with "RemoteAccess..". If the message is netmail, it would automatically be sent to 2:270/18. PHONENUM.CTL : Use this file to specify phone numbers or segments of phone numbers that you know to be false. A PHONENUM.CTL that contains: 00- 000- -0000 Would disallow the numbers "00-123-4567", "000-123-4567", "009-0000-1234". The rule here is that none of the specified numbers is allowed to be imbedded anywhere in the user's phone number. PWDTRASH.CTL : Allows you to specify a list of passwords that users are not allowed to use. This could contain passwords like SECRET, or TEST. 89 TRASHCAN.CTL : Allows you specify a list of names that users may not use to log on to your system. In this file, specify the undesirable names one per line. If for example you did not want the names "Sysop", "Jack Daniels" or "Superman" used, simply put the following lines in this file: Sysop Jack Daniels Superman The tests done on names is NOT case- sensitive, so the name "SYSOP" would also be invalid. Names that contain any part of the names in the list are not allowed either. VIP.CTL : When a user who is listed in this file logs on, a short bell is sounded at the local console, and if the there is any text in the user's COMMENT field (see "Information stored in the user database"), it is displayed on the status bar. The format for this file is the same as the TRASHCAN.CTL and HANDLES.CTL files. 90 THE USER DATABASE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The user file is possibly the most important single file on your BBS. It contains all the information about each user's history, screen settings, and vital security data. To use the user editor fire up RACONFIG and select Users from the Manager menu. This editor allows you to add, modify or delete any user's record. If there are already some users in the user-file, you will be presented with a list showing each user's name, location and security level. Select a user either by typing in the name, or moving the highlight bar to the entry on the screen and pressing RETURN. After the user is selected you will be presented with the Edit Screen. This lists the entire user's record which can be modified and saved if you wish. If there are no users already in the user-file, the Edit Screen will appear immediately for you to enter the details of the first user. Note that the only required piece of information (or "field") is the name, and you can't proceed any further until you enter one. You'll want to be included in the user file, so enter your own name in this field. After entering the user name, you may continue to enter all fields. When you have finished editing the user record press [CONTROL-ENTER] to save the information and then ESCAPE to exit. If you don't want to save, just press ESCAPE by itself. The following keys can be used to assist you in editing the user database: [INS] This allows you to add a new user, when pressed in the user list screen, a blank record will be created for you to edit. [DEL] Deleting a user is accomplished by moving the highlight bar to the user you want to delete and pressing the DEL key. A marker will appear in the right hand column to signify that the user is marked for deletion. Note that the user isn't actually removed from the user file at this stage. Users that have been marked for deletion are removed by packing the user-file, which should be done regularly using the utility RAUSER. [ALT-S] If you want to search for a particular user record to edit, you can press ALT-S, you are then prompted for the search criteria at the top of the screen. You can run the user editor directly without having to go through the RACONFIG menus by entering "RACONFIG -U". 91 Information stored in the user database ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This section details all the information contained about each user in the user database: Name : User's full name Handle : User's registered handle Location : Where the user is calling from Password : Secret password Security : Security level (1-64000, 0 to lock out) Home# : Home/voice telephone number Business# : Business/data telephone number A flags : "A" flag settings ("-" or "X") B flags : "B" flag settings ("-" or "X") C flags : "C" flag settings ("-" or "X") D flags : "D" flag settings ("-" or "X") Credit : Netmail credit remaining Pending : Value of unsent (unexported) netmail Uploads : Total number of uploads Dnloads : Total number of downloads UploadK : Total kilobytes of uploads DnloadK : Total kilobytes of downloads TodayK : Kilobytes downloaded today Comment : Comment, can contain anything Forward : Name person mail is being forwarded to Last time : Time user last called Last date : Date user last called 1st date : Date user first called Sub date : Subscription expiry date Birthdate : Date of birth Time used today : Minutes used today Screen length : User's screen length Last Pwd change : Number of calls since last pwd change Messages posted : Total number of messages posted High msg read : Highest message read Number of calls : Number of calls the user has made Last msg area : Last msg area the user had selected Last file area : Last file area the user had selected Deleted : Delete user when database is packed? Screen clear : Send screen clear codes? Page pausing : Pause at the end of each screen? ANSI graphics : Send ANSI codes? AVATAR graphics : Send AVATAR codes? No Kill : Never kill user? Xfer priority : Ignore download hours and ratios? Full screen editor : Use the full screen ANSI msg editor? Quiet mode : Ignore online messages? Hot-keys : Use hotkeys? Full screen viewer : Use the full screen msg viewer? Hidden : Hidden from the user list? Group number : User's group number (1 - 255) Language : Language number selected Date Format : Date entry format 92 Packing and sorting the user file ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RAUSER.EXE is the utility that is used to maintain the user- file. Not only will it remove users marked for deletion, it can also delete users that have not called your BBS for a certain number of days as well as sort the users in order of security level and surname. RAUSER may be run from any directory, will automatically locate system and user files, and will insert an activity summary in your system log. The following command-line parameters are valid: -P Pack the user-file, removing users marked for deletion. -S Sort users in order of security level and surname. -D[n] Delete users who have not called for [n] days. Note that this parameter implies a pack operation. -V Verbose logging; list any users that were deleted during a pack operation. -M[s] Specify the maximum security level user to be affected by a pack or delete operation. Put another way : "exempt all users with security level [s] and above from being deleted" . 93 THE MESSAGE DATABASE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RAMSG is the RemoteAccess message base maintenance utility. It's primary function is to trim the number of messages in local and echomail conferences and maintain them at a manageable level. RACONFIG provides the ability to enter, add and maintain message areas - RAMSG uses this information (contained in MESSAGES.RA) to delete old and/or excess messages. RAMSG will also attempt to repair damaged message bases; it has a number of integrity checks built in so that if it detects that the message base is damaged in any way, it will automatically re-create index files (even if they are missing) and warn of possible problems. All of RAMSG's activities are logged in the system log. Some options are provided for statistical information. Note that a value of 0 in any of the fields on the message area entry screen in RACONFIG will cause RAMSG to ignore that option. For example, if the maximum number of messages is set to 0, RAMSG will not kill messages based on number. Prior to running RAMSG, you should ensure that all areas have been set up correctly. RAMSG invoked without a command line results in a help screen being displayed. When one or more of the arguments below is specified, RAMSG searches for CONFIG.RA (first the current directory, then via the RA environment variable), MESSAGES.RA (in the current directory, then the system directory) and then the message base files. Failure to find one or more of these files will result in RAMSG aborting. If CONFIG.RA is found and the system log file can be opened, RAMSG will log any errors there. Message database size limitations ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Due to the message database file structures, there is a maximum physical limit on the number of messages it can contain. The maximum number of messages the database can hold is approximately 16,000. You should configure RAMSG so that this limit is never exceeded. There is also a limitation on the value of the highest numbered message, which may never exceed 32,767. It is good practice to regularly (preferably nightly) renumber the message database to ensure that this limit is never breached. 94 Packing and renumbering the message base ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RAMSG Command summary --------------------- -I Re-create index files & check C=Kill crosslinked messages U=Kill unknown boards R=Renumber -P Pack (compress) message base K=Purge R=Renumber O=Overwrite A=Overwrite if necessary -K Purge messages from info in MESSAGES.RA -L Link reply chains -R Renumber messages -S Display/log message base statistics All options: S=Statistics V=Verbose stats RAMSG functions (NOT case sensitive) ------------------------------------ -I INDEX [Options : C, R, U] This option rebuilds the message base index files, MSGIDX.BBS, MSGTOIDX.BBS and MSGINFO.BBS. It also checks the integrity of all message base files and rebuilds other information as necessary. Errors in the message base are logged. During the index rebuild, you may choose to delete messages from unknown message areas (those areas which have no entry in the name field) and messages with message board numbers outside the valid range of 1-200. Under some circumstances RAMSG may detect a "sequence error" (when numbers are out of order). Since this causes significant problems with software using the message base, RAMSG considers this serious, and therefore will not proceed with any operation other than an index rebuild until this is corrected using the "R" option, to force message base renumbering. 95 "Crosslinking" of message text is also considered a serious problem, and this will prevent RAMSG repacking the message base. Cross-linking occurs when more than one message references the same section of text in MSGTXT.BBS. Following are some examples of what an index rebuild command might look like: RAMSG -Icu Rebuild indices, kill messages in unknown areas and crosslinked messages. RAMSG -I Rebuild index files only. -P PACK [options : K, R, O, A] Packs the message base, by eliminating all deleted messages and message text. Deleting (the -K option, for example) messages does not remove them from the message base files, it simply marks them for deletion. You MUST pack the message base to reclaim the space occupied by these deleted messages. PACK also provides options to purge old/ excess messages (same as -K, except that -K does not pack) and renumber (same as -R), so all standard maintenance functions can be carried out in the one command. RAMSG normally packs the message base by copying messages from the existing message base into temporary files, deleting the original files, then renaming the temporary files to their correct names. This is the safest option to use, since it is possible to rebuild the message base if for any reason the PACK process is interrupted (for example, by power failure). However, this requires t hat at least as much space as occupied by the old message base files be free on your hard disk. 96 To get around this, RAMSG provides an option to pack the message base "on top" of the existing one without using temporary files. This directly overwrites the existing files; and the problem with this is that if the process is interrupted, the message base may be irreparably damaged and data could be lost. To use overwrite mode, RAMSG requires the 'o' option in the PACK command; this forces overwriting unconditionally. To ensure that the message base is processed, while taking advantage of a safer environment, RAMSG also provides an 'a' option, which will use overwrite mode only if there is insufficient space for a regular pack. Examples: RAMSG -Pkra Pack the message base, kill messages according to information in MESSAGES.RA, renumber messages and use overwrite mode only if insufficient disk space for a regular pack. RAMSG -Po Pack the message base, using overwrite mode. -K Purge messages This option purges messages according to the maximum number of messages and aging information specified for each area in MESSAGES.RA. Note that the messages are not actually removed, they are simply marked for deletion. Use the pack command to reclaim the space that these messages occupy. -L Link reply chains Links reply chains in each area (this is automatically done by other maintenance functions where necessary). You would use this option by itself after an import by your echomail processor, for example. -R Renumber messages Renumbers the message base. This option may also be used to cure "out of sequence" errors. 97 -S Display/log message base statistics Simply logs message base and disk statistics for your own information. A 'v' after this option displays verbose statistics for each message area. You may run several operations on the same command line, but since there is some overlap in functionality, the need to do this is rare. One instance of where you might need this facility is to force the message base to be "clean" prior running a pack; for example: RAMSG -Pkra Checks/rebuilds index files, deleting messages in unknown areas, fixes cross-linked messages and forces a renumber to fix sequence errors. It then will proceed to pack and renumber the message base after killing excess/expired messages using overwrite mode if required. Several errorlevel exits are provided to allow management by batch file: 1 No arguments specified; help message given. 2 Cannot access/locate CONFIG.RA 3 Out of or insufficient memory 4 Error opening/locating a file 5 Serious IO error 98 MAIL NETWORKING ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── What is a mail network? Basically it is a set of bulletin board systems that are capable of exchanging messages and files with each other without the need for human intervention. All the discussion which follows relates to FidoNet, the world's largest amateur mail network. FidoNet consists of approximately 10000 bulletin board systems, each of which is assigned a unique "address". A file called a nodelist stores all these addresses along with other information about each system. Think of it like an international "telephone book". Being part of a network has two basic attractions; NetMail and EchoMail. NetMail allows you to send a private message to any user of any one of the bulletins boards in the network at little or no cost to you. EchoMail is a method of creating a huge message area that many hundreds of systems can potentially participate in. Usually all EchoMail areas will contain only public messages, and are organised into either general discussion areas, or areas that deal with specific issues and or topics. The net is organised into several levels, which are usually based on geographical proximity. At the highest level there are five "zones"; zone 1 is the USA, zone 2 is Europe, zone 3 is the Pacific Rim, zone 4 is South America, zone 5 is Africa and zone 6 is Asia. Within each zone are a number of "regions" that span large geographical areas. Typically there will be between 5 and 18 regions per zone. Each region is further divided into "nets". Each net has a unique net number, and the distribution of these nets is also based on geographical and technical considerations. Finally, within the net are a number of nodes. A node refers to a single bulletin board system. To find out about obtaining a node number, or an "address", contact the nearest FidoNet bulletin board. The sysop will usually be more than happy to help you out. Before going any further, let's talk about the extra software you will need to set up as a node. Firstly you will need an echomail processor. This is the program which unpacks the mail you will receive, and imports it into your RemoteAccess message-base, as well as packing up outbound mail that needs to be sent out. RemoteAccess does NOT include such a beast. There are several other processors around that will do the job: ZMailH, by Jason Steck, TosScan, by Joaquim Homrighausen, GEcho, by Gerard van der Land, IMAIL, by Fabiano Fabris. 99 The other piece of software you'll need is a mailer. RemoteAccess will not directly communicate with other network bulletin boards, so a separate program fills the gap. The two most widely used different types of mailers are: FrontDoor, by Joaquim Homrighausen, BinkleyTerm, by Bit Bucket Software. Both of these products are available on a shareware basis, and like the echomail processors, will usually be available on most FidoNet bulletin boards if you ask the sysop nicely enough. The node number you are assigned will be of the format Zone:Net/Node.Point. This initial node number should be put into your configuration file using the ADDRESS option of RACONFIG. Don't worry about the AKA addresses at this stage. The next step is to set up your EchoMail message areas. You will usually be given a list of areas that are available to you. Each area is identified by an uppercase alphanumeric name. As far as RemoteAccess is concerned, all you need is a description of each area you plan to "plug into". Fire up RACONFIG, and go to the MESSAGE AREAS window. Select an unused message area, and enter the area's name in the NAME field. Next, set the TYPE OF MAIL field to ECHOMAIL, and MESSAGE STATUS to PUBLIC. Most EchoMail areas don't allow the use of aliases, so set the area to "real names only". The AKA ADDRESS line shows your assigned node number. If it doesn't, hit RETURN on this option and select the correct address. Each EchoMail message that is posted on your system could potentially be read by hundred of other sysops and users, so you can put a "one-liner" at the end of each message. In the ORIGIN LINE field enter a short message. This should contain at least the name of your system, and possibly where it is or the phone-number, so that other users know where to call. Your node number is also appended to the end of the message, so a typical origin line might read: * Origin : RemoteAccess Central (2:270/18) Don't put the "* Origin" part in - this is added by the software). If you don't specify an origin line for a particular area, RemoteAccess will use the DEFAULT ORIGIN LINE. If running a multi-node system, the line number that the message was posted on may be inserted in the origin line by using the '@' macro character in any origin line definition. 100 The next step is to configure RemoteAccess for NetMail. Select another unused message area, and call it "NetMail", or something similar. Next, set the TYPE OF MAIL to NETMAIL, and MESSAGE STATUS to PRIVATE. NetMail messages don't have origin lines appended to them so leave the origin line entry blank. RemoteAccess incorporates a comprehensive online nodelist browsing facility, which allows users to search for nodes in particular zones, regions or nets. The section INSTALLING NODELIST FILES explains how to enable this feature. That's it! RemoteAccess is now fully configured for network mail. Assuming that you have a suitable mailer and echomail processor, all that is required is to set them up correctly and you're in business. An explanation of setting these up is beyond the scope of this document, full instructions are available with each respective package. 101 Installing the nodelist files ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Most other BBS software requires you to maintain large and unwieldy custom nodelist files for NetMail operation. RemoteAccess uses the "raw" (St. Louis) nodelist that you already have for your front-end mailer, in addition to a small (around 5K) index file. The key to the system is the nodelist index compiler (RANODE.EXE). You should adjust your batch files so it is run every time any changes are made to your raw nodelist (when you receive a NODEDIFF update, for example). RANODE can be run from any directory, and locates your raw nodelist via the NODELIST PATH defined in RACONFIG. It scans the most recent nodelist present and produces the index files (NODEIDX.RA and NODEINC.RA) in your RemoteAccess system directory. If you have multiple nodelists to process, simply specify the names of any additional nodelists on the command-line when RANODE is executed. Example : Compiling a FidoNet nodelist only. The raw nodelist is in the C:\NODELIST directory. Simply set your NODELIST PATH in RACONFIG to C:\NODELIST, and run RANODE whenever you process a nodediff, without any command-line parameters. Example : Compiling a FidoNet and ParaNet combined nodelist. The FidoNet NODELIST.nnn and ParaNet PARALIST.PVT raw nodelist files are in C:\NODELIST. Simply run RANODE with the following parameter: RANODE PARALIST.PVT Up to ten nodelists (including the FidoNet one) may be specified - wildcards and pattern matching characters are valid. Note that it is not necessary to specify the FidoNet NODELIST.nnn as well, as RANODE includes the most recent FidoNet nodelist automatically. In order to control the volume of netmail your users send, each user has a "netmail credit" field in his or her record. RemoteAccess will give all new users a credit limit based on the NEW USER NETMAIL CREDIT setting in RACONFIG. You define the cost of sending a single message to a particular node in a control file called NODECOST.CTL which is located in the RemoteAccess system directory. Each time a user sends a netmail message, it's cost is deducted from his or her account. The cost structure for your entire nodelist is set up by one or more entries of five keywords: 102 DEFAULT <cost> Assigns <cost> to any nodes that are not assigned a specific cost later on in the control file. ZONE <zone> <cost> Assigns <cost> to all nodes in <zone>. This overrides the DEFAULT keyword. REGION <region> <cost> Assigns <cost> to all nodes in <region>. This overrides the DEFAULT and ZONE keywords. NET <net> <cost> Assigns <cost> to all nodes in <net>. This overrides the DEFAULT, ZONE and REGION keywords. NODE <node> <cost> Assigns <cost> to <node>. <Node> is a fully qualified node address. This overrides all other keywords. Sample NODECOST.CTL: DEFAULT 200 ; A message to anywhere costs 200 cents, ZONE 3 60 ; except in zone 3, which costs 60 cents. ZONE 2 260 ; Messages to zone 2 cost a bit more, REGION 55 30 ; Within our region only costs 30 cents. NET 690 0 ; Msgs within our net are free, NODE 690/999 5 ; except this node which isn't local. The control file may contain a maximum of 150 entries of each keyword, and duplicate entries are obviously not permitted. 103 MULTI - NODE OPERATION ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── It is assumed that you have some knowledge of running RemoteAccess already, or have at least run a single line BBS for some time. If you haven't, it is strongly recommended that you run one line for a little while to familiarise yourself with the terminology and operation of RemoteAccess. The idea of multi-node operation is that more than one user can be on-line at the same time to the same BBS. To do this safely, it is necessary for RemoteAccess to manage the configuration and data files it uses very carefully. Firstly, tell RemoteAccess that it's running in multi-node mode by setting the MULTI LINE option to "Yes" in RACONFIG. You should also set CHECK FOR MULTI LOGON to "Yes". Not doing this can cause unpredictable results when a user logs on to more than one line at once. Set the SYSTEM LOG NAME to "RA.LOG". Make sure you do NOT specify a full path with the name. Next create one child directory of your system directory for each line you intend to operate. For example, assuming that the system directory is C:\RA, for two lines create C:\RA\LINE1 and C:\RA\LINE2 (the actual directory names are not important). At this stage, ensure that the RA environment variable points to the system directory so each line will be able to locate the configuration files. Why separate directories? Many on-line utilities and doors are not multi-node aware, so they must be isolated from themselves in the event that more than one copy of the same door is executed at the same time. Thus it may be necessary to place extra configuration files for some doors in each line directory. For example, to install QuickEd in a multi-node environment, ensure that QUICKED.EXE is in the system directory (C:\RA in this example) and that the EXTERNAL EDITOR setting in RACONFIG is set to "C:\RA\QUICKED.EXE". To complete the installation, copy the files QUICKED.HLP and QUICKED.CFG into each line directory; these two files need not be present in the system directory. All that is necessary now is to create the batch files that call each copy of RA for each line: REM Sample batch file to fire up line 1 :START CD \RA\LINE1 RA -N1 REM Check errorlevels etc GOTO START 104 Note that the -N1 parameter is not required since RemoteAccess defaults to line 1; it is included only for completeness. REM Sample batch file to fire up line 2, using FrontDoor REM as a front-end mailer in shell to mailer mode :START CD \RA\LINE2 RA -M\FD\FD.EXE*M -N2 REM Check errorlevels etc GOTO START RemoteAccess will keep a separate system log (RA.LOG) and usage graph file (TIMELOG.BBS) in each line directory. The placement of the EXITINFO.BBS and DORINFO1.DEF door files is handled differently in a multi-node environment. In a single line installation these files are written to the RemoteAccess system directory. In multi-node mode they are written to the current (default) directory, thus ensuring that each door has it's own set of info files from the BBS at all times. Additional configuration flexibility is provided in the method RemoteAccess uses to locate the configuration (*.RA) files. If one or more of the *.RA config files is present in a particular line directory, then the information in those files will override the information contained in the corresponding config file in the system directory. For example, it may be necessary for each line to use different modem configuration information. This data is contained in CONFIG.RA, so make a copy of this file in each line directory. Change to the line 1 directory and use RACONFIG to edit the modem settings. Save your changes and repeat the procedure for line 2. When RemoteAccess fires up, it will use the CONFIG.RA in the current directory that you just edited, and the other config files in the system directory. The LIMITS.CTL file works in the same way; you may override the global settings in the system directory by making a copy of LIMITS.CTL in one or more line directories and editing with an ASCII text editor. This enables each line to exhibit different download and time limits for one particular security level. Beware of third party utilities that write to the system files! RemoteAccess is specifically written so that many users can read and post messages simultaneously to the same message-base, but other programs probably AREN'T. Check the documentation very carefully before you fire up your favourite off-line mail editor and start posting messages while someone else is on-line. Similarly, if your echomail processor does not lock the message-base files while working, you should set up your system to ensure that mail is never imported when there is a user on-line. Exporting messages however, IS permitted. 105 It's quite likely that you'll need to increase the FILES setting in your CONFIG.SYS if RemoteAccess is running several lines under a multitasker. You'll also need a separate batch-file for each line to invoke RemoteAccess with the correct command-line parameters. See the reference section on command-line parameters for information on the -N parameter. It is ESSENTIAL that you load SHARE.EXE when operating multi-node. SHARE is a utility that comes with DOS which RemoteAccess uses to lock the database files it uses, to ensure that no conflicts occur. Not using SHARE is asking for trouble; you risk severe corruption of both your user and message database files. 106 REFERENCE SECTION ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sysop keys ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The following keys work while a user is on-line: [F1] : This displays the users name, location, security, time remaining, connection speed and the line number he/she is on. If the user has ANSI or AVATAR emulations on this is also displayed on this line. [F2] : This displays the users voice and data phone numbers, the date and time on which the user last called, the date the user first called, the number of times the user has called and the age and birthday of the user. [F3] : The number of files the user has uploaded and downloaded is displayed, including the total kilobytes of the uploads/downloads. Also, on this line, is the users security flag combinations. [F4] : This displays the system statistics such as; Last caller, total system calls, current time, printer status, local screen status and the time and errorlevel of the next system event. [F5] : This displays the total number of messages posted by the user, highest message number the user has read, the users selected language, the users group number, the amount of netmail credit the user has and the users handle. [F6] : User's reason for wanting chat (if any). [F7] : Interactive EMSI session information. [F9] : Help! Hot-key summary. [F10] : Turn off the status bar to show exactly what the user is seeing. [F1] to [F5] brings it back. [CTL-A] : Opens and closes a capture file during a chat session. [ALT-Fn] : Activate one of ten programs in a shell, or exit to DOS at a certain errorlevel. [ALT-A] : Disable/enable answering (only available at the "wait for call" screen). 107 [ALT-C] : Break in for a chat if there is a user on remotely. ESC finishes chat mode and drops the user back to the BBS. [ALT-D] : Toggles "Snoop" mode, ie. whether the local screen shows what the user is doing. [ALT-E] : Activates a pop-up user attribute editor for the user currently online. [ALT-H] : Hang up on the user immediately. [ALT-J] : Drop to a DOS shell while the user is still on-line. [ALT-L] : Lock the user out of the system by dropping his/her security level to zero and hanging up. [ALT-N] : Toggle "sysop on next". When this mode is activated (indicated by [NS] on the F1 status bar), RemoteAccess will pause and page the sysop for two minutes when the current user logs off. After paging the sysop RA will then exit with and errorlevel of "2". {+} Registered only. [ALT-O] : Override paging hours. This allows you to enable or disable sysop paging regardless of the time. Note that this is permanent, and affects all lines until reset. [ALT-P] : Toggle printer logging. [ALT-S] : Modify the current user's security level. [Up-Arrow] : Increase the user's time by one minute. [Down-Arrow] : Decrease the user's time by one minute. [Scroll Lock] : Disables the paging tune. When a user pages the SysOp no sound will be produced at the local console. {+} Registered only. When the system is waiting for a call, the only sysop keys that are active are [ALT-O], [ALT-J], [ALT-D], [ALT-P] and [ALT-A]. However, pressing [L] will allow you to log-on locally, and [ESC] will terminate the program and return to DOS. Note that terminating in this way will always return an errorlevel of 0 to DOS regardless of whether the -E command-line parameter is invoked. 108 Command-line parameters ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess accepts the following command-line parameters: * RA.EXE --------- -NOEMS : Forces RemoteAccess to ignore any available EMS. -L : Run RemoteAccess in local mode. -S : Set "snoop" mode off; disable local screen. -D : Disable status bar by default. -R : Log user back on-line after a menu type 15 exit. -G : Used with the -R option; forces RemoteAccess to {+} return to the last menu the user was in at the time of the previous exit to DOS. The default is to return to the TOP menu. -P : Log user activity to printer. -Nxx : Line (node) number in a multi-line system (1-250). -Cx : Communications port to use (1-4). -Bxxxxx : Log user on-line at baudrate xxxxx. -Exxx : Exit at errorlevel xxx after caller logs off. -Txxx : Time (in minutes) until next system event. NOTE: Some mailers have the capability to generate a "standard format" batch file called DOBBS.BAT to run the BBS program. In shell-to-mailer mode (see below) RemoteAccess will scan this batch file (if present) to determine the time until the next event. -M<f> : Activate the "shell to mailer" feature. This causes RemoteAccess, upon loading, to execute your front-end mailer program in a DOS shell. When the mailer exits, RemoteAccess detects the errorlevel it would normally pass to the batch-file. If the errorlevel matches one defined in RACONFIG, the user is logged on to the BBS at the appropriate baud rate. If the errorlevel is not recognised as an incoming call, RemoteAccess exits to its batch-file at that errorlevel. See the BATCH FILE EXAMPLES section for more on this feature. NOTE: RemoteAccess does the swap by storing a "swap file" in EMS (if available) and on disk. Normally this file would be stored in the system directory, but it is possible to force RemoteAccess to put the file in a directory of your choice by setting the RATEMP environment variable. For example, if you executed the DOS command SET RATEMP=E:\TEMP\STORAGE, then the swap file would be placed in the E:\TEMP\STORAGE directory. 109 In "shell to mailer" mode, it is possible for two errorlevels to conflict. For example, errorlevel 5 is used by RA to indicate that a user entered both net and echomail, and by FrontDoor to indicate modem initialise failure. If the front-end returns an errorlevel that conflicts in this way, RemoteAccess will pass to the batch file that errorlevel plus 10. So, if FrontDoor returned errorlevel 5 because the modem would not initialise, RemoteAccess would pass errorlevel 15 to the batch file. * RACONFIG.EXE --------------- -B : Runs RACONFIG in black and white (mono) mode. -L : Runs RACONFIG in language editor mode. -M : Runs RACONFIG in menu editor mode. -U : Runs RACONFIG in user editor mode. 110 Errorlevels ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── When RemoteAccess exits to DOS either after a user logs off or because of a menu type 15 "Exit to DOS" function it returns an errorlevel that your batchfile should test for and act on accordingly: Errorlevel Meaning ---------- ------- 0 User logged off OK, default value. Note - this can be overridden with the -E command line parameter. 1 Initialisation error - couldn't find the FOSSIL driver, or the modem failed to initialise. 2 Sysop Next function was active when the user logged off. {+} Registered only. 3 The user entered one or more NetMail messages during the session. The message base should be scanned for outgoing NetMail. 4 The user entered one or more EchoMail messages during the session. The message base should be scanned for outgoing EchoMail. 5 Both NetMail AND EchoMail messages were entered. You can force RemoteAccess to exit with a specific errorlevel by creating a file called "RAXITn.e". If this file is present in the Semaphore directory, then node "nnn" will terminate with the errorlevel "nnn". This file is very powerful and will disconnect any caller who is currently online. 111 Text file control codes ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── There are a range of special control characters that can be inserted in any of your ASCII/ANSI files that cause certain system and user information to be displayed. There are three classes of codes. Each code is a two-character combination of a control-code followed by a normal character: Character ASCII# Combination Purpose ------ ----------- -------------------------------------- 01 ^A Wait until the [Return] key is pressed 02 ^B Disable aborting with the "S" key 03 ^C Enable aborting with the "S" key 04 ^D Enable the "Continue?" prompt 05 ^E Disable the "Continue?" prompt 06 ^F * Insert a user parameter 07 ^G Produce a beep on the caller's console 08 ^H Backspace 09 ^I Tab (forward 8 characters) 10 ^J Linefeed 11 ^K * Insert a system parameter 12 ^L Clear screen 13 ^M Carriage return 17 ^Q RESERVED FOR XON/XOFF HANDSHAKING 19 ^S RESERVED FOR XON/XOFF HANDSHAKING 22 ^V RESERVED FOR AVATAR 23 ^W Pause for one second 24 ^X * Execute a program in a DOS shell 26 ^Z END OF FILE MARKER. DON'T USE THIS! EXECUTING A PROGRAM IN A DOS SHELL: This gives you the ability to run an external program in a DOS shell whenever RemoteAccess encounters a ^X embedded in a text file. The ^X is followed by the command line you want to execute, and terminated with the pipe symbol (|). For example, to run an external mail checking utility when a user logs on you could embed the following entry in the WELCOME.A?? file: ^X\RA\MAILCHEK.EXE *B *F *L| RemoteAccess would then execute the following DOS command: \RA\MAILCHEK.EXE 2400 FirstName LastName Note that you MUST terminate the command with the pipe symbol. All special DOS shell control codes may be used as per the type 7 menu function. BEWARE! Use this feature with caution. Imagine the damage that this embedded command could do: COPY \RA\USERS.BBS \RA\FILES\IBM\NEWFILES 112 If there is any possibility of a user being able to modify any of the text files that your system displays, then disable the shell feature by using the option in RACONFIG. "Note to next user" programs are notorious for this! If you don't think it ever happens, then maybe this will convince you. A local sysop was watching his board one afternoon and noticed that when a user logged off, he got the following message: "Hey, Joe! What sort of a password is ROCKET? Next time choose a harder one!! ... Fred" The sysop couldn't believe his eyes. How could this have happened? Well, the "note to next user" utility he had installed a few weeks earlier was to blame. It actually allowed a user upload a short text file that was appended to the GOODBYE disconnect file. "Fred" had simply inserted a few control characters into the file that would display the current user's first name and password, which of course would always be correct for whoever viewed it. Well, it shook that sysop up a bit, as well as teaching him a lesson. Luckily the ^X feature wasn't enabled, or anything could have happened... 113 * User parameter codes ---------------------- Character ASCII# Combination Information displayed ------ ----------- --------------------------------------- 48 ^F0 Full screen editor (ON/OFF) 49 ^F1 Quiet/do not disturb mode (ON/OFF) 50 ^F2 Hot-Keys (ON/OFF) 51 ^F3 Handle 52 ^F4 Date of first call 53 ^F5 Date of birth 54 ^F6 Subscription expiry date 55 ^F7 Days until subscription expiry 56 ^F8 AVATAR setting (ON/OFF) 57 ^F9 File ratio limit (number of files) 58 ^F: File ratio limit (kilobytes) 59 ^F; Full screen message viewer (ON/OFF) 60 ^F< Users date format 61 ^F= Auto message forwarding ON/OFF 62 ^F> Name (if any) of message forwardee 63 ^F? Current file ratio (number of files) 64 ^F@ Current file ratio (kb) 65 ^FA Users full name 66 ^FB Location 67 ^FC Password 68 ^FD Business/Data phone number 69 ^FE Voice/Home phone number 70 ^FF Date of last call 71 ^FG Time of last call 72 ^FH A Flags setting 73 ^FI B Flags setting 74 ^FJ C Flags setting 75 ^FK D Flags setting 76 ^FL NetMail credit remaining (cents) 77 ^FM Total messages posted 78 ^FN Last message read 79 ^FO Security level 80 ^FP Total calls to the BBS 81 ^FQ Number of uploads 82 ^FR Kilobytes of uploads 83 ^FS Number of downloads 84 ^FT Kilobytes of downloads 85 ^FU Minutes used today 86 ^FV Current screen length 87 ^FW First name only 88 ^FX ANSI setting (ON/OFF) 89 ^FY "Continue?" prompt setting (ON/OFF) 90 ^FZ Screen clearing (ON/OFF) 91 ^F[ Kilobyte download limit remaining today 92 ^F\ Name of selected language 93 ^F] User's comment field 114 * System parameter codes ------------------------ Character ASCII# Combination Information displayed ------ ----------- --------------------------------------- 48 ^K0 Number of msgs in selected msg area 49 ^K1 Number of current template msg area 50 ^K2 Number of current template file area 65 ^KA Total system calls 66 ^KB Last caller (any line) 67 ^KC Number of active messages 68 ^KD System starting message number 69 ^KE System ending message number 70 ^KF Number of times user has paged sysop 71 ^KG Day of the week (full form) 72 ^KH Number of users in the user file 73 ^KI Time in 24 hour format 74 ^KJ Today's date 75 ^KK Minutes connected this call 76 ^KL Seconds connected (always returns 0) 77 ^KM Minutes used today 78 ^KN Seconds used today (always returns 0) 79 ^KO Minutes remaining today 80 ^KP Seconds remaining today (always 0) 81 ^KQ Daily time limit 82 ^KR Current baud rate 83 ^KS Day of the week (abbreviated form) 84 ^KT Daily download limit (in K) 85 ^KU Minutes until next system event 86 ^KV 24 hour format time of the next event 87 ^KW Line number (as set on command line) 88 ^KX TERMINATES THE CALL 89 ^KY Name of current template message area 90 ^KZ Name of current template file area 91 ^K[cc Change foreground and background colour (cc = colour code number. See the section on COLOUR CODES for further information). 92 ^K\ Clear to end of line. 93 ^K]nnn Displays the language prompt number "nnn" from the currently selected language. "Nnn" must be padded with zeros. 115 Colour control numbers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Colour code numbers are used by RemoteAccess when you setup your File list template and when using the "^F[cc" control codes to define colours in your Menu displays, Language prompts and textfiles. Foreground Background Colours (2nd "cc" digit) (1st "cc" digit) ------------------ --------------------- 0 - Black 0 - Black 1 - Blue 1 - Blue 2 - Green 2 - Green 3 - Cyan 3 - Cyan 4 - Red 4 - Red 5 - Purple 5 - Purple 6 - Brown 6 - Brown 7 - White 7 - White 8 - Grey 9 - Bright Blue A - Bright Green B - Bright Cyan C - Bright Red D - Bright Purple E - Bright Yellow F - Bright White 0 - Flashing Black 8 - Black 1 - Flashing Blue 9 - Blue 2 - Flashing Green A - Green 3 - Flashing Cyan B - Cyan 4 - Flashing Red C - Red 5 - Flashing Purple D - Purple 6 - Flashing Brown E - Brown 7 - Flashing White F - White 8 - Flashing Grey 9 - Flashing Bright Blue A - Flashing Bright Green B - Flashing Bright Cyan C - Flashing Bright Red D - Flashing Bright Purple E - Flashing Bright Yellow F - Flashing Bright White Examples: 43 - Red foreground on a Cyan background. 01 - Blue on a black background. FB - Flashing Bright White on a Cyan background. 116 Modem string translation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess recognizes certain characters embedded in your modem initialise strings, and converts them to special functions. The supported characters are: ^ Raise DTR, modem will answer the phone. v Lower DTR, disconnect if connected. ~ Wait for 1/4 of a second before continuing | Send a carriage-return [CR] to the modem 117 Questionnaire script language ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Questionnaire script files are stored in the system directory and have the extension .Q-A. Each file is plain ASCII, and contains one command per line. The available commands are listed below. Note that the command interpreter is case-insensitive, so the command "Ask" could be entered as "ASK" or "ask". 118 Ask <Len> <Var num> ------------------- Waits for the user to input a string that is up to 80 characters long, and stores the string in the variable <Var num>. Valid values for <Len> are 1 to 80. <Var num> may be any number between 1 and 50. Example : Ask 30 5 This example will ask the user for an input of up to 30 characters in length, and then store the inputted string in variable 5. Capitalise <ON|OFF> ------------------- Turns on or off auto-input prompt capitalisation. Example : Capitalise ON ChangeColor <Foreground> <Background> ------------------------------------- Changes the colour of the text if the user has ANSI graphics enabled. The colour selected will remain the default colour for all subsequent text, until the end of the questionnaire script or the next ChangeColour command. Valid colours are: <Foreground> <Background> ------------ ------------ 0 Black 0 Black 1 Blue 1 Blue 2 Green 2 Green 3 Cyan 3 Cyan 4 Red 4 Red 5 Magenta 5 Magenta 6 Brown 6 Brown 7 Light Grey 7 Light Grey 8 Dark Grey 9 Light Blue 10 Light Green 11 Light Cyan 12 Light Red 13 Light Magenta 14 Yellow 15 White Example : ChangeColor 7 1 This example would change the text colour to light red foreground on a black background. 119 ClearScreen ----------- Clears the user's screen if the user has enabled screen clearing. Example : ClearScreen This command would simply clear the users screen. Display "<Text>" ---------------- Displays the specified text on the screen. The vertical bar is translated to a line-feed and carriage return. If this bar is omitted, any following text starts at the next character on the same line. Example : Display "Please answer ALL questions|" In this example the text, "Please answer ALL questions" would be displayed to the user with a linefeed/carriage return. DisplayFile <1-8 character file name> ------------------------------------- Causes a text file to be displayed in the same way as a menu type 5 would be displayed. The text file must be in the text file directory, and have the extension .ASC/.ANS/.AVT. Example : DisplayFile BBSRULES This example would display the file BBRULES.ASC/ANS/AVT (ASC to ASCII users, ANS to ANSI users and AVT to users with AVATAR enabled) to the user. Once the file has been displayed the user would then be returned to the questionnaire. EndIf ----- Signifies the end of an IF statement. The function of "If" and the relationship of the "EndIf" statement are more fully explained later in this chapter under the "If" script command. Example : EndIf 120 If <Var num> = "<String>" ------------------------- The IF command compares the contents of the specified variable number with <String>. If the two do not match, then all following lines are skipped until an ENDIF statement is encountered. Example : If 5 = "Perth" Display "That's where I live|" EndIF The above section of script would examine the contents of variable 5 and check to see if it matches the text, "Perth". If it does the text "That's where I live" would be displayed. If variable 5 does not match the text, the script would jump to the EndIF statement and continue with the questionnaire without displaying the text. Exec <commandline> ------------------ Executes a program in a DOS shell. All command-line parameters valid in a menu type 7 command may be used. Example : Exec C:\RA\NEWMAIL.EXE *B*M This command would force RemoteAccess to execute the DOS command "MAIL.EXE" whilst the user is on-line. The "*M" tells RemoteAccess to swap itself out of memory before executing the command. This is useful when running programs that require large amounts of memory. For further information on executing DOS commands see MENU TYPE, type 7. GetChoice <Valid choices> <Var num> ----------------------------------- Waits for the user to enter one of the characters in <Valid choices>, and stores the response in the variable <Var num>. Example : GetChoice YN 2 This command would wait for the user to press "Y" or "N" and then store the response in variable 2. 121 Goto <Label> ------------ Causes the script to jump to the specified <Label>. The Label can be any 12 character alphanumeric sequence. Labels can be placed into the script by placing a ':' before the label string. Example : If 5="Y" Goto EXT EndIf Quit :EXT Display "You answered Yes!" Quit In this case, if variable 5 is "Y" RemoteAccess will jump to the segment of script beginning with ":EXT", then display the text, "You answered YES!". If the variable is not equal to "Y", the questionnaire would be terminated immediately. ListAnswer <Var num> -------------------- Displays (to the screen) the contents of the variable <Var num> followed by a CR/LF. Example : ListAnswer 5 This example would display the contents of variable 5. MenuCmnd <Num> <Data> --------------------- Executes a menu command. Simply specify the command number followed by the contents of the optional data field. Note that menu navigation commands (GOTO, GOSUB, RETURN etc) may not be used. Example : MenuCmnd 27 60 /T=Andrew_Milner This example will force RemoteAccess to run the menu command type 27, with an optional data field of "60 /T=Andrew_Milner". This is the command to post a message in message area 60 addressed to "Andrew Milner". For further information on menu commands see the section on MENU TYPES. 122 OutputAnswer "<Descriptor>" <Var num> ------------------------------------- Outputs <Descriptor> followed by the contents of the variable <Var num> to the questionnaire answer file. The answer file is given the same name as the questionnaire file but has an extension of .ASW. Example : OutputAnswer "Hobbies : " 6 The answer stored in varable 6 will be outputted to the file <filename.ASW>, where "filename" is the same name as the questionnaire file. If this answer is the first outputted answer in the questionnaire it is a good idea to first use the command "PostInfo" to output a header detailing information about the person who is answering the questionnaire. PostInfo -------- This option tells RemoteAccess to output the users name and the date and time to the answer file. Example : PostInfo Quit ---- Terminates the questionnaire and returns to the BBS. Example : Quit SetFlag <Flag set><Flag number> <ON|OFF> ---------------------------------------- Turns on or off the specified user flag. <Flag set> is "A", "B", "C" or "D", and <Flag number> is a number between one and eight. Changes to the users flag settings are permanently recorded in the user database. Example : SetFlag C3 OFF In this example the users C3 flag would be turned off. 123 SetSecurity <Security level> ---------------------------- Simply sets the user's security level to the number specified. The level may be any number from 1 to 64,000. Any changes to the users security level will be permanently recorded in the user database. Example : SetSecurity 10 This would set the users security to a level of 10. WaitEnter --------- Waits for the user to press [ENTER]. If the user presses any other key, then the input will be ignored. Example : WaitEnter When this line is encountered in the script, the user will have to press the Enter key before he/she can continue. 124 Terminal emulations ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── A terminal emulation is the method that RemoteAccess uses to communicate with the user's software. The most basic of these is straight ASCII. The ASCII terminal emulation can only display normally visible characters plus a few others, such as backspace, linefeed and clearscreen. RemoteAccess supports two additional emulations - ANSI and AVATAR. ANSI is currently the most popular terminal emulation in the bulletin board world; it has the capability to change text colour, cursor position, and can do simple animations. Some implementations of ANSI can even play simple tunes at the user's end. ANSI does have some drawbacks; each special control code is several characters long. To change the text colour for example, requires a control code of up to 8 characters. These lengthy codes can severely slow the user's display, and for this reason the usefulness of ANSI at speeds of 1200 baud and lower is limited. AVATAR, on the other hand, uses control codes that are typically a quarter to a third of the length of their ANSI equivalents, making it usable at lower speeds. Not only that, but AVATAR has much more advanced screen control, making possible relatively complex animations and screen displays. AVATAR is a newcomer - there are comparatively few terminal programs that support it, even fewer that support it properly. At this time there are no utilities for creating AVATAR screens. You can however convert your ANSI screens to AVATAR with the supplied utility. RemoteAccess uses AVATAR level 0+ (AVT/0+). The only terminal programs which have been tested successfully with AVT/0+ are Joaquim Homrighausen's FrontDoor, Adam Stanislav's TinyTerm and Adam Blake's Communique. If you make use of AVT/0+ you should make it clear to your users that they should be using one of these two, until more terminal programs implement AVATAR support. 125 Text file naming conventions ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RemoteAccess displays text files at specific points and in response to specific events. The EXTERNAL SUPPORT FILES section details all these text files. Files that have the .A?? extension may be displayed in any one of three "flavours": .ASC : ASCII only, no special control codes .ANS : ANSI, should only contain text and ANSI codes .AVT : AVATAR, may contain text and AVATAR codes. If a user has both ANSI and AVATAR enabled, RemoteAccess will search first for a .AVT file, and if unsuccessful will then try .ANS and then .ASC. If only ANSI *or* AVATAR is selected and the preferred file type isn't available, the .ASC version will be displayed. 126 Interactive EMSI ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Interactive EMSI (IEMSI) is a protocol which can be used by communications software to establish certain parameters for an interactive session, for example a user logging on to a bulletin board. The only BBS software to support IEMSI at this time is RemoteAccess 1.11. From within the Terminal setup utility, the user can define a number of user "profiles", each of which includes a user name, handle, password, telephone number, location etc. When IEMSI is enabled from within the terminal and the user calls a RemoteAccess BBS, the user's information is sent to the BBS automatically. This makes it possible for a user (the "client") to log on to a BBS (the "server") without even touching the keyboard. The terminal and RemoteAccess will automatically exchange information such as software name and version number, screen parameters and local time. One useful feature is the ability of the server to temporarily modify the user's display parameters for the current session only. For example, normally when a user calls a particular BBS he/she might use 25 line mode locally, so the "screenlength" field in his/her record is set to 25 accordingly. However, on one occasion he/she activates the terminal in 50 line mode. RemoteAccess will recognise this and set the screen length to 50 for the current session only, restoring it to 25 when the user disconnects. In addition, RemoteAccess will automatically activate whatever terminal emulations both it and the client supports. Another benefit is the ability to chat to a users using a full screen chat mode. This is accomplished by the IEMSI remote terminal being able to maintain the chat screen. To see if a user is connected in IEMSI mode to your BBS, press F7. If IEMSI is active, RemoteAccess will display the relevant information about the client's system on the status bar. At the right hand end of the status bar the user's request flags are displayed. A request flag is an option that the user asked for. RemoteAccess currently supports these request flags: CHT : Split screen chat mode capability indicator CLR : Clear screen codes NEWS : Display the NEWS.A?? file MAIL : Check for new mail FILE : Check for new files HOT : Use hot-keys HUSH : Activate "do not disturb" FSED : Use the full screen message editor 127 BATCH FILES ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── You will require a batch file to run RemoteAccess successfully. A batch file is a DOS file which contains a list of commands which will be executed in the designated order (one per line). Along with normal DOS commands you can execute programs and use special commands only available in batch files. (Refer to your DOS manual for information on BATCH file commands). To help in the construction of batch files, the following files are generated by RemoteAccess: {+} Registered only. RAREADY.nnn : When there are no callers on-line RemoteAccess will produce a file called "RAREADY.nnn" in the semaphore directory, "Nnn" is the node which generated the file. When a caller logs on this file is deleted. RABUSY.nnn : This file will be generated in the semaphore directory when a caller logs on. The file extension "nnn" corresponds to the node number. When the caller logs off this file is deleted. Additionally, it is possible to force RemoteAccess to terminate and return to DOS at any time (while a user is online or while waiting for a call) by creating the following file in the semaphore directory: RAXITn.e Where 'n' is the target node, and 'e' is the errorlevel to exit with. For example, the file RAXIT3.45 would cause node three to exit to DOS with errorlevel 45. 128 BATCH FILE EXAMPLES ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── These examples are not usable in their presented form. They are provided as a starting point for your own batch files: Using RemoteAccess stand-alone (ie. without a mailer) ----------------------------------------------------- :START Cd \RA REM Run the main program: RA -E20 REM User logged off, cycle back: if errorlevel 20 goto START REM RemoteAccess exits to the batchfile with errorlevel 7 REM once a night: if errorlevel 7 goto CLEAN if errorlevel 3 goto START if errorlevel 2 goto LOCAL REM An errorlevel of 1 means a fatal error, an REM errorlevel of 0 means that ESCape was pressed while REM in "wait for call" mode - so we quit: goto END :CLEAN REM Do nightly message and user maintenance with RAUSER and RAMSG goto START :LOCAL REM Load RemoteAccess in local mode RA -L goto START :END echo RemoteAccess HQ Line 1 Down. NOTE: Unlike some other BBS packages, RemoteAccess will ALWAYS exit back to DOS (or your batch file) after a caller logs off. This means that you can only run in stand-alone mode with a batch file that will recycle back to restart the main program. 129 Using RemoteAccess with a mailer (FrontDoor or BinkleyTerm) (using either TosScan or Echogen to process mail) ------------------------------------------------- :START cd \RA REM Run the main program and run the mailer in a "shell". REM The *M tells RemoteAccess to swap out of memory REM before running the mailer. REM Either FrontDoor : RA -m\FD\FD.EXE*M -E20 REM or BinkleyTerm : RA -m\BT\BT.EXE*M -E20 REM Any errorlevels that RemoteAccess does not understand REM it passes back to the batchfile: if errorlevel 150 goto CLEAN if errorlevel 99 goto UNPACK if errorlevel 20 goto START if errorlevel 10 goto END if errorlevel 5 goto NET&ECHO if errorlevel 4 goto ECHO if errorlevel 3 goto NET if errorlevel 2 goto LOCAL goto END :CLEAN REM Do your nightly maintenance here. In this example REM the mailer is set to exit at errorlevel 150 nightly. :UNPACK REM Toss incoming mail REM Either : TOSSCAN toss REM or : ECHOGEN -A -P -T -U goto START :NET&ECHO REM Net and EchoMail needs to be exported from the REM message base. REM Either : TSUTIL export REM or : MAILSCAN :ECHO REM Export EchoMail. REM Either : TOSSCAN scan REM or : ECHOGEN -A -E -P goto START :NET REM Only export NetMail REM Either : TSUTIL export REM or : MAILSCAN goto START :LOCAL REM Load RemoteAccess in local mode RA -L goto START 130 :CLEAN REM Do nightly message and user maintenance with RAUSER and RAMSG goto START :END REM Some fatal error occurred. echo RemoteAccess HQ Line 2 Down. * The Echogen command-line switches shown assume a FrontDoor environment. Note that the particular command-line switches for all of these utilities (BinkleyTerm, FrontDoor, TosScan or Echogen) will vary according to your set up. All of these programs are supplied with documentation which will provide you with this information. It is stressed again that these examples are only intended to give you a starting point for creating your own batch files. 131