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PBIFF35
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PBIFF.TXT
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1997-03-27
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PBiff 3.5 ... just another PM biff programm for TCP/IP
1. What does it do?
-------------------
It checks periodically if your POP mail host has got some mail for you. It
works on 'hard wired' networks as well as with a SLIP connection via modem.
The number of mails (or any network problems) are displayed in a window in the
upper right corner of your screen.
Alternatively, the program may be used as a simple network monitor, just to
check if the network is up and running (you only need a computer with a POP
demon running anywhere reachable, without the need to have an own account on
this machine). The program will detect network problems which are not realized
by most other TCP/IP programs, e.g. a broken connection due to a modem hangup,
or a broken network due to heavy network traffic.
2. Installation
---------------
Copy pbiff.exe to any directory and start the program. On its first start, it
will ask you for your POP host, the port number to use (usually, port 110 will
work fine), your user name, and your password. These data will be stored in a
file pbiff33.ini (yes, pbiff33.ini, because of compatibility reasons), If you
want to change this configuration, simply remove pbiff33.ini and restart the
program; it will ask you again for the information it needs.
In order to automatically start pbiff, you may add the program either into your
startup folder (located in the OS/2 system folder), or add a statement 'start
x:\pbiff-path\pbiff.exe [any options]' at the end of the tcpstart.cmd file
(located in x:\tcpip\bin\).
You need the EMX runtime DLL (emx.dll) in the version 0.9b, which is not
included in this package but easily available at most OS/2 ftp servers (and
included in many other useful public domain and shareware OS/2 programs).
3. Using pbiff.exe
------------------
There a five command line options:
-m Don't look for mail; you only need to enter the name of any machine
reachable for your computer with a POP demon running.
-t=n Check all n seconds; e.g., -t=600 means one check every ten minutes.
Default is one check per minute.
-? Display some information about the program.
-x=n Lower left horizontal position of pbiff's window in screen coordinates;
-x=0: most left
-y=n Lover left vertical position of pbiff's window;
-y=0: bottom of screen
pbiff.exe is a 'run and forget' program: The recent status of your POP server/
your network is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen and updated
whenever there is a change. However, there is one interactive feature: With a
double click in the window area, you can initialize a check (for example, just
before shutting down your computer to look if some 'last minute' mail has
arrived).
To stop pbiff.exe, you have to use close feature of the task list or a kill
utility.
4. What you need
----------------
pbiff.exe has been tested under OS/2 2.1 with IBM's TCP/IP 2.0 and under WARP
connect, and it works with a 'hardwired' network as well as with the SLIP
protocol via modem.
The EMX runtime DLL (emx.dll, version 0.9b) is required, but not included; it
is easily available, for example via ftp from Hobbes (ftp-os2.nmsu.edu),
ftp-os2.cdrom.com, or (in Germany) ftp.leo.org. Because lots of useful
freeware, shareware, and public domain programs are developed with the EMX
package, you might find it already on your hard disk.
5. How it works
---------------
When being started, pbiff.exe looks for the file pbiff33.ini in its working
directory. If pbiff33.ini does not exist, some data (POP host and port, user
name, password) are being asked from the user and saved in pbiff33.ini;
otherwise, this information is read from pbiff33.ini.
The program periodically tries to establish a connection to the POP host using
the port you entered on its first start. If the -m flag was not given, it tries
to obtain information about the number of mails for the user. If -m was given,
the connection is closed immediately after having been established, so no user
name and password information is needed (and you don't have to enter it after
the first start).
The function that establishes the connection is started as an own thread. Using
a timer, it is checked how long this thread has been running; after 15 seconds
without response from the POP host, the thread is killed, and a time out
message is displayed. In some cases of network problems, network calls are
not refused, but only 'hang'. For example, this happens if you are using the
SLIP protocol via modem and your modems hangs up; in this case, most TCP/IP
programs simply wait forever (or at least for a very long time), and you might
not realize that your connection has broken down. pbiff.exe detects such cases
by way of its time out functionality; so if you don't need the biff function,
it might be useful as a simple network monitor (with the -m option).
6. Legal stuff
--------------
pbiff.exe is freeware. If you use it, send a short e-mail to the author:
oliver.diedrich@uni-tuebingen.de
pbiff.exe is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. I hope it is useful, but there
is no warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
7. Bugs and limitations
-----------------------
Version 3.5 of biff.exe is the fouth version released to the public. The
program is doing well on my machines and is used by different other persons; it
seems to be free of obvious bugs. If you experience any trouble, send an e-mail
to the author.
pbiff.exe has been tested with different OS versions (OS/2 2.1 with the TCP/IP
2.0 package, WARP connect) and on different hardware. Of course, this does not
imply that it will run with every hardware-/software-combination. Especially,
there might be problems with other screen resolutions than 1024 x 786 (I've
got some bad experience with other PM programs).
8. Author
---------
Any bug reports, wishes or comments (and some friendly words if you like this
program) shoud be sent to
oliver.diedrich@uni-tuebingen.de
If you are interested, I'll send you the source code.
9. Thanks
---------
pbiff.exe was developed with EMX 0.9b. Thanks to Eberhard Mattes for this great
package (for me, emx is a major reason to use OS/2), and to all who contributed
to this package.
10. History
-----------
3.0 First public release
3.1 Occasionally, the program crashed with an access violation. Following the
EMX documentation, _beginthread() is used instead of DosStartThread(), but
the problem was not fixed; the crash was found to be caused by a string
operation. Fixed; no more crashes since then.
3.2 When starting the program, two seconds are waited before starting the
first network access, in order to get TCP/IP intitialized when started
via startup folder.
3.3 Shame on me: I used port 109 for POP services (because this works with my
POP server), instead of looking into the literature on well-known TCP/IP
ports defining port 110 for POP services. As a consequence, the user may
enter any port number on the first program start, and the port number is
stored in the ini file. The name of the ini file changed from pbiff.ini to
pbiff33.ini, in order to allow for an upgrade without difficulties.
Thanks to Michael Moennich who reported the port number problem.
3.5 As default, pbiff asks for mail every 10 minutes (instead of 60 seconds)
The time the program waits for a successful connection is increased to 15
seconds (was 10 seconds - sometimes to short when the network is slow)
Added the -x and -y parameters to position the window anywhere on the
screen (some people asked for this); sorry, no dragging with the mouse,
but this option is quite useful when starting the program via startup
folder or \tcpip\bin\tcpstart.cmd.