OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/soupbox0.zip/SOUPBOX.DOC

Text File | 1998-01-26 | 17KB | 348 lines

SOUPBOX v0.0 [beta] January 25, 1998

 This is a beta version of SOUPbox, a collection of conversion programs
 which convert SOUP offline reader packets used by Internet-compatible
 software to .PKT's which can be read by fido-compatible BBS programs.

 It is intended for use by fido-style BBS sysops and point node operators.

 This is being distributed as-is and is for noncommercial use only. If
 you modify the source code in any way, please rename the archive and
 also be sure to indicate what you've changed.

 This has been tested using VSOUP for os/2 on a Binkley/Squish/Maximus
 system but should be adaptable to other configurations including WSOUP
 (Windows) and SOUPER (DOS).

 You will need to install VSOUP (or another program that downloads SOUP
 packets) and be able to connect via an Internet service provider to
 usefully employ the SOUPbox programs.

 I neither guarantee this to be bug-free (it's not) nor guarantee that
 you won't get your sysadmin upset at you if you misuse this program.

How does it work?

 Basically, SOUP is an offline reader format which does for the Internet
 what formats like QWK do for the BBS world. It just downloads all of your
 messages so that they can be stored and read or processed later.

 Programs like VSOUP and SOUPER download the messages and store them as
 a series of text files, one for each message area.

 News server (NNTP)
        |                                                .msg
 Internet Service _______modem<------>modem___OS/2---VSOUP--->souppkt
 Provider (ISP)                                       ^         | .pkt
        |                                         .msg|         v
 E-Mail server (POP3, SMTP)                         pktsoup<---BBS software
                                                           .pkt

 The SOUPbox archive contains two conversion programs; one (souppkt) converts
 Internet SOUP messages to BBS (*.pkt) files and the other (pktsoup) converts
 BBS messages back into SOUP.

 Note that the SOUP *.msg files do not use the same format as fido *.msg files.

 There are two versions of these; one is for DOS (souppkt, pktsoup) and the
 other is for OS2 (souppkt2, pktsoup2).

 If you're not using os/2, install the DOS versions of the programs.

 The program (MS-C 6.00 source code) listing is the same for both versions.

What files are created by SOUP?

 The VSOUP or SOUPER programs (required but not included in this archive)
 typically uses the following files:
 NEWSRC         a list of newsgroups to be downloaded
                the name of each group is followed by : and the number of the
                last article read - a ! indicates you're not subscribed to a
                group
 SCORE          an optional file used to filter incoming news by ignoring
                posts with certain text in the headers
 AREAS          a list of *.msg files that have been downloaded from the net
 REPLIES        a list of *.msg files waiting to be uploaded to the net
 NEWS.MSG       newsgroup posts waiting to be uploaded
 MAIL.MSG       e-mail waiting to be uploaded
 000????.MSG    downloaded messages, one file per message area or newsgroup

 Note that the conversion programs in the SOUPbox archive expect these files
 to be in uncompressed format (unix text with binary length on each message).

 This appears to be compatible with programs such as VSOUP.

What do the SOUPbox programs do with all of this?

 The conversion utilities included here convert SOUP files (*.msg) to Fido-
 style packet (*.pkt) files and vice-versa. This lets you read Internet
 messages into BBS software.

 There are a number of differences in message format between BBSs and
 Internet, mostly in the message headers and the addresses. The souppkt
 program changes addresses like "[e-mail]"
 into their BBS equivalents, ie: "Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116.0" and
 writes Fido-compatible headers. It also splits any overly-long messages.

 The pktsoup program converts and removes these Fido-style message headers
 and changes any addresses back into their Internet counterparts.

 Message dates are changed to indicate the proper timezone, BBS origin and
 tear lines are removed and "area:" is changed back to "Newsgroups:".

How does this fit into a BBS or pointnode setup?

 The SOUPbox programs need to be assigned a Fido-style address, much like
 another BBS or point-node system would have an address when connecting
 via mailer and tosser programs. A pointnode address is sufficient.

 For instance, a BBS with address 1:249/116.0 could communicate with a set
 of SOUPbox programs using the address 1:249/116.1; the mailer program on
 the BBS would be configured to put all mail for this address on "hold"
 instead of dialing, then the SOUPbox programs would convert this mail and
 VSOUP or SOUPER could then upload it to an Internet service provider.

 Typically, a BBS mail tosser will give the same base filename to all mail
 destined for one address. If today's mail for a node is in 12345678.su*
 then tomorrow's mail for that node will be found in 12345678.mo*

 Uncompressed mail packets will have names ending in *.pkt or *.?ut but will
 also follow a consistent naming pattern. To determine the exact filename to
 be used, just put some mail on "hold", addressed for the desired BBS address,
 and see what files are created by the BBS mail tosser.

 SOUPbox works only with uncompressed packets; if your BBS software is
 creating compressed archives (ARC, ZIP, ARJ, LHA...) you'll need to have
 a .bat or .cmd file uncompress them first before running pktsoup.

 The souppkt converter creates uncompressed *.pkt files which may be moved
 directly into your system's inbound directory and tossed normally.

How does this work with Binkley (or Portal) -style mailers?

 Binkley-style systems have the mail tosser do all of the routing
 and compression of packets; this works well with SOUPbox as it allows
 the tosser to be configured to do things like (in Squish's route.cfg):

   route hold noarc 1:249/116.1

 This leaves all mail addressed to 116.1 in the outbound directory in
 uncompressed form. It takes both netmail and echomail and puts them into
 standard Fido-style packets (the names will be 00000001.hut in this case)

How does this work with ArcmailAttach (FrontDoor/InterMail) mailers?

  These mailers operate a little differently; they will always compress
  outbound echomail packets and the tosser will completely ignore outbound
  netmail as it's handled by the mailer itself.

  The routing commands to put mail for a node on "hold" instead of sending
  it normally are handled by the mailer, not the tosser. This means changing
  ROUTE.IM or ROUTE.FD to "hold" any mail for SOUPbox instead of sending it.

  As the echomail is compressed (ARC or PKPAK are the defaults) a batch file
  must be used to check for these bundles, move them and unpack them before
  they can be processed by SOUPbox.

  Also, as the tosser is not processing outbound netmail at all, a special
  echo named EMAIL must be created on your pointnode or BBS for outbound
  Internet e-mail. This way, your outbound e-mail gets packed with the rest
  of your outgoing messages instead of being left in your netmail area.

How do I configure these programs?

  Much of the configuration for the SOUPbox programs is in SOUPBOX.CFG,
  which must be in the current directory for the conversion to be run.

  The following are recognized in SOUPBOX.CFG; anything else is ignored:

Origin      <fido-style 4D address>
  This is the address of the SOUPbox conversion program itself. This address
  serves as one side of a gateway between the BBS and the Internet world.
  This should be a 4D (point-node) address, ie:
  Origin      1:249/116.1

  All messages being converted to fido-style packets will have this as the
  originating address. Your mailer or tosser must be configured to accept
  echomail from a "system" at this address and to put outbound messages for
  this address on "hold" instead of sending them via mailer or routed netmail.

Domain      <fido-style 4D address> <internet domain name>
  This is the address assigned to a BBS or pointnode which is using the
  SOUPbox programs to access Internet message areas. If more than one
  system is listed, the first one must be a Fido-style mail hub feeding the
  others.

  The internet domain name is the name of this (these) computer(s) for
  sending/receiving Internet e-mail. This may point to an existing gateway
  elsewhere or to a system able to put all mail for an entire subdomain into
  one POP3 mailbox (such as an Internet presence provider or ml.org's Monolith
  Mail Depot beta)
  Domain      1:249/116.0 pausecafe.home.ml.org
  Domain      1:249/117.0 cyberspace.gryn.org

  Note that it is possible to override this default address for individual
  users using Replace, ReplaceAll or Alias. (optional)

Reply       <filename>
  The name of the (uncompressed) fido-style pkt file containing messages
  to be converted to Internet SOUP format. If your tosser creates only
  compressed (*.mo0, *.tu*... *.sa*, *.su*) bundles, these will need to
  be unZIPped or unARCed before processing by pktsoup.exe

  The filename should therefore normally end in pkt, out, hut or ?ut,
  ie: Reply c:\outbound\12345678.pkt

  Note that all SOUP (*.msg) files and inbound pkt's are placed in the
  current directory; your .bat files must move these pkt's to your
  tosser/BBS inbound directory once souppkt conversion is complete

TimeZone    -0500
  This appears on the date/time of outgoing e-mail and is -0800 in
  Vancouver, -0500 in Montréal and +0000 in London, England. Internet
  programs use this information to convert e-mail time to another region.

  SOUPbox ignores the timezone information on incoming mail.

E-mail      email
  If incoming e-mail is to be converted to netmail, indicate the name used
  by VSOUP or SOUPER for the e-mail area (normally EMAIL). This information
  is also needed to prevent SOUPbox from including the "Newsgroups:" line
  on outgoing e-mail if "EMAIL" has been created as a BBS echomail area.

Split       14000
  This is the approximate length limit before SOUPbox continues text as a
  second (or third...) message. Note that this value will be exceeded in
  order not to split messages in the middle of a line or paragraph of text.

Encode      <program> <msgheader> <file to attach>
  (optional) This allows an external program to be installed to
  automatically encode files as e-mail and send them via the Internet.
  The external program will normally call a mime/base64 or a uuencode
  utility, either of which accept a binary file and generate an encoded
  text file. The program should also delete the original file after
  conversion. This is usually used to automatically send BBS mail to
  long-distance hubs inexpensively by sending it as e-mail file-attach.

  The <program> is normally a small batch file like:
    move \binkley\out\%1 %1
    mime64 %1 %2 -e
    del %1
  where %1 is the base filename (no path) of the original file and %2 is
  the name of the file to be created by the encoder program. Note that
  uuencode and mime64 encoders, while freely available, must be downloaded
  separately as they're not built into this version of SOUPbox.

  The <msgheader> is a small text file which is added to the encoded text
  before it's sent as e-mail. It must (at a minimum) contain the From:,
  To: and Subject: fields:
    To: [e-mail]
    From: [e-mail]
    Subject: fido-mail attached
    Mime-Version: 1.0

  One "encode" line is included in SOUPbox.cfg for each downlink, ie:
   Encode      encode.bat downlink.hdr c:\binkley\out\00012345.*

Decode      <program> <areaname>
  (optional) this runs an external program to decode files attached to
  incoming Internet messages in specified message areas. The program must
  be one that removes message headers and plaintext, such as uudoall or
  mime64 for os/2 users. These decoders are not included with SOUPbox.

  The external program is called with the *.msg filename and the name of
  the message area (either EMAIL or a newsgroup name) as parameters, ie:

  Decode      decode.bat alt.binaries.

  where decode.bat (decode.cmd for os/2 users) contains:
    uudecode %1

  If the original file is moved, renamed or deleted within this .bat file,
  the messages for this area will not be gated to echomail at all. This may
  be useful when processing alt.binaries.* posts where plaintext is ignored.

Replace <BBS e-mail address> <individual e-mail address>
ReplaceAll <BBS e-mail address> <individual e-mail address>
Alias <BBS e-mail address> <individual e-mail address>
  (optional) These are used to indicate that a different address is to
  be used for one SOUPbox user instead of the default first.lastname@domain

  This is useful if e-mail is being forwarded from individual userid's on
  shell accounts (.forward), poboxes.com addresses (http://www.netforward.com)
  or being picked up directly from a POP3 mailbox on an ISP or an Internet
  presence provider such as softhome.net or usa.net

  The "To:" field on forwarded mail is that of the original message and
  does not get changed by the Internet mail forwarding process. This means
  that it's possible to forward many individual addresses from assorted
  Internet sites to one individual POP3 mailbox, download all the mail at
  once using SOUP, then have SOUPbox address it to individual usernames
  based on the Internet address originally in the message's "To:" field.

  For instance, if the entire pausecafe.home.ml.org subdomain were forwarded
  to [e-mail], SOUPbox could be configured as:
  Origin 1:249/116.1
  Domain 1:249/116.0 pausecafe.home.ml.org
  Replace [e-mail] [e-mail]
  Replace [e-mail] [e-mail]

  This would cause e-mail "to: [e-mail]" to be converted in
  the same way as e-mail "to: [e-mail]"
  and become netmail from 1:249/116.1 to: Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116.0

  There are three versions of this:
  Replace      - uses the individual user's address on all e-mail (not news)
  ReplaceAll   - uses the individual user's address on both e-mail and news
  Alias        - only uses the individual user's address for incoming e-mail

  This is done so that SOUPbox can optionally be set to recognize forwarded
  e-mail without having the individual user address appear on newsgroup
  postings.

  It's unfortunate that this is needed, but newsgroup posts are the largest
  source of e-mail addresses for "spammers" who gather your address to send
  large quantities of unsolicited commercial e-mail. Some users simply do
  not want their e-mail address in the From: field on usenet for this reason.

What Internet resources are available or needed?

  At a minimum, to use SOUPbox you'll need a connection to an Internet
  service provider and a working VSOUP (os/2) SOUPER (dos) or WSOUP
  (windows) installation to download e-mail and newsgroups.

  You'll most likely also want an e-mail address for each person who'll
  be using SOUPbox; individual addresses may be obtained at netforward.com
  and forwarded to an existing POP3 e-mail mailbox. There is a project
  currently in beta test at ml.org to forward an entire subdomain (the
  Monolith Mail Depot, not yet fully available) and this same service
  may be available commercially from Internet presence providers as part
  of a virtual domain hosting service.

  Individual POP3 mailboxes are available from usa.net and softhome.net

  Outbound e-mail (SMTP) servers are usually provided by Internet service
  providers; if news (NNTP) isn't provided by your ISP, there are a limited
  number of free servers listed in the NNTP FAQ available on the web.

  These "free servers" are well known for their unreliability but there
  are also a few commercial NNTP servers available for a price. Please
  resist the temptation to download thousands of groups from a server
  just because it's there; this loads the system and interferes with others.

  There are a number of existing e-mail <-> netmail gateways on Fido and
  other amateur networks; not all provide news and many object to routing
  files and mailing lists, but using an existing gateway for ordinary
  e-mail and SOUPbox for Usenet news can sometimes be a useful combination.

  Many resources have already been lost to the online community due to
  abuse - everything from anon.penet.fi to the e-mail to news gateways
  to the fidonet.org (1:1/31) gate are now only distant memories.

  Please be careful to use BBS and Internet resources with respect for
  other users so as not to overload the few useful services that remain.

This is SOUPbox v0.0 beta; please send comments and bug reports to:
 Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116.0 ([e-mail])
 PO Box 21024 Kingston, Ontario K7L 5P5 Canada, eh?