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1995-08-26
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FTNSOUP v1.00
Internet/Fidonet Mail Packet Processor
(c) Adrian Walker
8 Aug 1995
WHAT
====
Ftnsoup is a mail packet tosser/scanner which provides a conversion
between Internet Soup-style mail packets and Fidonet *.msg messages. It
will toss a downloaded Internet Soup packet into a *.msg base, and will
scan out *.msg format messages into Soup packets for sending into the
Internet.
This allows you to continue using your favourite Fidonet message editor,
provided you are using a *.msg format for the affected message areas,
but to send and receive email and newsgroups through a SLIP/PPP Internet
connection.
Since this is only a tosser/scanner, I have to assume that you already
have:
1. A SLIP or PPP connection and account with a local Internet
service provider.
2. Trumpet Winsock or similar log-on utility to establish the
connection with your provider.
3. WSSoup [(c) Copyright 1995 Magnus Cameron, magnus@world.net],
or similar Soup packet mail exchanger.
4. This has also been tested against inbound mail from the OS/2
Soup Mailer, Souper v1.3 - POP3 mail and NNTP news to SOUP by
Chin Huang, cthuang@io.org
WHY
===
Why did I do this? After getting my first SLIP account, and doing my
first exploration of the Internet, after several years doing mail with
DOS-based Fidonet message editors I found the indistinct graphical
environment of Windows-based mail and news readers to be less than
satisfactory (so maybe I should get a better monitor!). In addition,
the proprietary formats used by these readers to store downloaded
messages prevented me from forwarding them easily to Fidonet addressees,
or even to do any editing of them.
Since the Soup packet format [(c) 1992-1993 Rhys Weatherley,
rhys@cs.uq.oz.au] is essentially a flat ASCII file, with only 4
extended-ASCII characters at the start of each message to denote the
message size, the conversion was essentially a matter of a little string
manipulation, well within the capabilities of an amateur programmer like
myself.
HOW
===
Put the FTNSOUP EXE and CFG files into a directory and edit the CFG file
as detailed in the sample provided.
Make a separate sub-directory for each message base you plan to use,
i.e. one for email and one for each newsgroup, just as you would for a
Fidonet *.MSG type base.
Insert the details of the email and newsgroup bases into the CFG file of
your favourite Fidonet message editor. Treat the email base as you
would a netmail area, and the newsgroup bases as echoes. Here is the
extract from my editor's area config file (Golded):
AREA email "Email" FN u:\internet\msgs\email\ PVT
AREA alt.winsock "Winsock" FE u:\internet\msgs\winsock\
AREA alt.winsock.trumpet "Trumpet" FE u:\internet\msgs\wintrump\
WHEN
====
After connecting to your provider and running WSSoup (or equivalent),
you should have mail and news Soup packets in the inbound sub-directory
which WSSoup has been told to use in the WSSOUP.INI file.
Run "FTNSOUP TOSS" (without the quotes).
After all the magic has been done on screen, start up your favourite
Fidonet message editor and turn to the email and news areas you set up
above. Enjoy reading.
So you want to reply to someone?
For email, just enter the message in the appropriate area in your
editor, using as the "To:" name the full Internet name@address
for your correspondent (e.g.: awalker@portal.ca). When tossing
email, Ftnsoup inserts the Internet name@address of the author, so if
you are quoting the message, the correct reply address should
automatically be inserted into the "To:" field by your FTN message
editor.
When tossing news, Ftnsoup puts the real name of the author (if
known) into the message's "From:" field, but since there is no "To:"
field in a news message, when replying you can either put "All" into
the "To:" field or leave it as the real name of the original author,
since that field will be ignored. The Fidonet addresses are also
ignored by Ftnsoup, so it doesn't matter what they are. The
FTNSOUP.CFG file takes care of the Fidonet address.
After saving the message(s), exit the editor and run "FTNSOUP SCAN".
This will do more magic and scan out all new messages into Soup packets
in the outbound sub-directory. Note that the inbound and outbound
sub-directories MUST be consistent between WSSOUP.INI and FTNSOUP.CFG if
the two programs are to work with each other.
All sent messages are then moved automatically into a separate directory
for posted mail. This avoids the same message being scanned out a
second time, and avoids having a duplicate when the news server at your
provider sends back the 'official copy' with your daily news.
How big a message can you send? Well, the 4-character extended-ASCII
field at the start of each Soup packet message allows for
256x256x256x256 bytes, which is a 4.3 gigabyte message. If you really
think I am going to bother coding the calculation to allow for that,
you'll have to think again! <grin> I have allowed for a 16.7 megabyte
message (still WAY more than anyone should write to their Mother), which
means that the first character of the 4-character string will always be
a null. Don't worry - it does this all by itself!
ADDED BENIFITS (this section documentation by Ervin Jay 1:153/767
============== ejay@direct.ca)
For those running Fidonet Systems.
FTNSoup can be used to process Newsgroups and Email to/from your BBS
bases. Because your users will not have a valid internet address
for replies sent via your Internet provider, FTNSoup has been written
to handle them a wee bit differently from your own messages.
FTNSoup will, upon encountering a message in a newgroup from a user
on your BBS, scan the message into the outbound Soup Replies file
using your Fidonet address to create a valid reply address in the
form user.name@fxxx.nxxx.zx.fidonet.org, where fxxx is your node
number, nxxx is your net number and zxxx is your zone number. In
this manner people in the newsgroup can send a private email reply
to the user should they wish.
You can also set up two configuration files, one for your mail and
one for your BBS mail, passing the name of the cfg file as the 2nd
parameter on the command line when running FTNSoup.
WHO
===
If you have any questions or note any bugs, please feel free to contact
me. I take no responsibility for what this software does to you, your
computer, your family, your work, your enjoyment of life, or anything
else. Use it at your own risk. After all, so do I! Here's how to
contact me:
...............................................................
Internet: awalker@portal.ca Adrian Walker
Fidonet: 1:153/752.0 Vancouver BC Canada
...............................................................
Have fun!
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