OS/2 Shareware BBS: 35 Internet/35-Internet.zip/yrndl153.zip/readme.1st

Text File | 1997-03-13 | 22KB | 493 lines

README.1ST        13 Mar 1997        (from YRNDL153.ZIP)
(c) 1996-7 by Jerry Levy        Marblehead, MA USA
[e-mail]

README.1ST is a shortened version of YD.DOC.
README.1ST should suffice for most people.  YD.DOC has
assumed the bulk and format of a manual and become very long.
Its Table of Contents is provided in the README.1ST file
in the event you want assistance on a specific subject and
do not wish to kill trees printing the whole YD.DOC.

Any comments, problems, bugs, irregularities or inconsistencies
in operation of YARNDIAL or its installer, and any suggestions,
should be sent to me at [e-mail].  I will make every effort
to respond to each one.

YARNDIAL.CMD is a menu-driven front end for C.T. Huang's
OS/2 Souper and Yarn off-line News and Mail reader programs
and now supports use of VSoup as well as Souper.  VSoup is
recommended because of its speed: it is multi-threaded for
news retrieval.  I gratefully acknowledge Hardy Greich and his
VSoup implementation by means of the sincerest form of flattery:
the adoption here of his suggested mail and news subdirectory
structure, and adoption of his innovation of allowing more than
one Internet Service Provider's mail and news servers to be
linked in a single on-line session.

YARNDIAL.CMD is a ReXX utility running under OS/2 Warp.  It is
designed to automate the steps needed to retrieve and send news
articles and mail and while doing so to provide a more versatile,
friendlier interface for users than could be accomplished using
ordinary batch files.  Packaged with YARNDIAL.CMD is a
rather full-function installer.  If YARN and Souper are up and
running, installation of YARNDIAL via its installer is a breeze.

PRINTING THIS DOCUMENTATION
This documentation file should be printed at 10 cpi (Courier or
other monospaced font preferred).  Left and right margins of
1 inch or less (0.75 inches works very well) are recommended.

NOTE:  At some point in this documentation I started to use
%HOME% and %YARN% in place of HOME and YARN to denote
the HOME and YARN environmental variables, which are the
HOME and YARN directory paths as defined for installation
of YARN.  And at other times I write of HOME or YARN
as the directory names.  I think context will let you know
what I mean.

IF YOU USE IN-JOY
Read over Section 16.00 very carefully.  Give serious thought to
setting a routing interface name in  each host setup that is unique,
i.e., different from all other interface names used by IN-JOY or
your other dialers (if you do use others).  This interface name is
set in an options page for PPP and no doubt will be equally
configurable in a corresponding SLIP options page when SLIP is
supported by IN-JOY.  YARNDIAL will use this interface name you
assign to positively correlate an existing connection to the
YARNDIAL installation when YARNDIAL starts up.  It can only do
this competently if you use unique interface names, different for
all connections and providers.

There is a problem which in my experience is unique to IN-JOY
where a router interface is sometimes left standing when phone
connection and connection to the router (i.e., to your Internet
Service Provider) have been terminated.  INTERFACE_REMOVAL in
the YD_PARMS.DAT file can overcome the problem by permitting
removal of such interfaces when YARNDIAL finishes and the dialer
is shut down.  Options are discussed in Section 16.00 and again
summarized in the YD_PARMS.DAT file created upon installation of
YARNDIAL.  Unless you establish simultaneous multiple (modem)
connections, setting INTERFACE_REMOVAL=2 (which I use),
or 1, is preferred.

If INTERFACE_REMOVAL is set equal to 1 or 2 (refer section 16.00),
and a routing was left up when YARNDIAL exits, it is removed and a
message is returned indicating deletion of the routing, with indication
of the destination and router addresses.  The difference is that the
setting of 2 removes such interfaces whatever the dialer; whereas
a setting of 1 does so only if IN-JOY is the dialer.

IF YOU ARE USING THE IAK DIALER (DIALER.EXE)
Make sure when you set it up (SETTINGS or PROPERTIES), that if
there is a box to check to CONFIRM BEFORE CLOSING that
YOU SHOULD NOT CHECK IT  (If there is one it will probably
be on the phone page of the settings notebook).  If you
check the box, the dialer will need to ask you before it closes
and the dialer may/will remain connected until you respond
or it times out.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE VSOUP
Aside from getting a copy of VSoup (see section 33.00), you will need to
get and install at least version 09c of EMX.


This YARNDIAL program is and will stay freeware.

DIALERS
For use of third-party dialers such as IN-JOY or ILINK/2, or if
you use PPP.EXE or SLIP.EXE dialup strings, it is most convenient
and strongly recommended that you go through the motions of
setting up SLIPPM even where you do not intend to use SLIPPM to
make the connection.  Think of SLIPPM in that context as a PM
program to conveniently store parameters where the YARNDIAL
installer can most readily get at them.

SLIPPM is a fine utility, and in most instances where you are
connecting to a provider with other than the IBM/Advantis IAK
dialer, alone or with add-on script packages such as PPDIAL29, it
is serviceable.  ILINK/2 is an improvement over SLIPPM in
many respects and piggybacks on SLIPPM-created dialup
configurations.  IN-JOY is another improved dialer, but unlike
ILINK/2, it was rewritten from the ground up and is totally
independent of the SLIPPM, SLIP.EXE and/or PPP.EXE programs,
and does not speak to (or listen to) the TCPOS2.INI file used by
SLIPPM and ILINK/2.  IN-JOY version 1.0 now supports SLIP
as well as PPP.  Most testing with IN-JOY was for version
0.9.  The very recent v. 1.0 seems to work equally well but after
being mercilessly assaulted by its advertising gimmick I stopped
all futher tests with it.

I am committed to adding and improving support of third-party
dialers provided I can obtain a copy to work with and the
interface is not obscure.  So far, only ILINK/2 and IN-JOY have
been brought to my attention as alternatives to SLIPPM, PPP.EXE
and SLIP.EXE.

Contact me if I do not support your pet dialer ([e-mail]).

                        CONTENTS
 1.00  Installation For The Impatient User (Assumes Yarn And
        Souper Are Installed And They Work
 2.00  What Is Yarndial?
 3.00  Key Features
         3.10   Multiple Service Providers
         3.20   Setting Up To Access More Than a Single
                 Provider's Servers In A Single Session
 4.00  Copyright Notice And Disclaimers
 5.00  Passwords - Disclaimer
 6.00  How Does The Installer Work?
 7.00  Example: Setting Up For Two Users (My Installation)
 8.00  What Does YDINSTL.CMD Do?
 9.00  .CMD Files Created - Meaning Of Customization
10.00  Recreating Objects (Running OBJECTS.CMD - A Peculiarity)
11.00  Warp, Souper, VSoup, Yarn: Versions Tested
         11.10   VSoup
            11.11   VSoup is Supported
            11.12   Changes That Have Been Made In YARNDIAL To
                    Enable VSoup Support, And Applicability To
                    Souper
               11.121   Directory Structure
               11.122   Command Lines: Souper vs. VSoup And Other
                        Command-Line Issues
               11.123   No More YD_ALT.DAT Parameter File
               11.124   Automatic Backups of  SOUP.ZIP
                  11.1241   Restoring from the Backed-Up SOUP.ZIP File
               11.125   (Changes in) How Scheduled Operation Works
12.00  You Have Not Installed Yarn And Souper Yet?
13.00  History
14.00  Should You Upgrade Anything Before You Install?
        14.10   Souper
        14.20   IBM/Advantis IAK Dialer
        14.30   SLIPPM.EXE (Dial-Other-Internet-Providers Utility
                 and SLIP Upgrades
        14.40   EMX
15.00  Before You Run YDINSTL.CMD
16.00  Notes On Using the IN-JOY Dialer
17.00  About The Fix-Interrupted-Import Option On The Main
        YARNDIAL Menu
18.00  Souper Command-Line Options
19.00  Issues That May Come Up During Or After Install
20.00  Manual Install
21.00  Manual Install: The Password Problem
22.00  Connection_Type: The Different Choices
23.00  More About Dialup_String: A Programming Note
24.00  Zip And UnZip Files
25.00  Compression Executables: OS/2 Versus MS-DOS
26.00  Some Other Breed Of Compression Utilities
27.00  Files For Setting Up Yarn And Souper From Scratch
28.00  Install EMXRT, METAMAIL, MIME64 (recommended)
        28.10 EMXRT09 (optional, butEMXRT09c is required for
               VSoup))
        28.20 MIME64 (optional)
        28.30 METAMAIL (optional)
           28.31  Metamail Tricks
           28.32  Doing MIME Attachments Under Yarn, Metamail
                   Operation, Decoding Multipart Messages, and
                   Handling Non-Conforming MIME Attachments
              28.321  Doing MIME Attachments Under Yarn
              28.322  Decoding Non-Conforming Mime Attachments
              28.323  Decoding MIME With MIME64.EXE
              28.324  Content-type Editing:  MIME Associations
           28.33  UUENCODED Attachments Under Yarn,
                   Using YEP
              28.331  Installing YEP
              28.332  UUENCODED Attachments (Insertions)
              28.333  Decoding UUENCODED Attachments Under
                       Yarn
              28.334  Decoding UUENCODED Attachments the
                       Hard Way
29.00  Step-By-Step Installation Of Yarn and Souper
30.00  Note About Adding Newsgroups
31.00  Setting Up And Installing For Multiple Users
32.00  Connection Killed Or Not When YARNDIAL Ends
33.00  Where To Get Software And Helpful Documentation
34.00  Bugs and Error-Trapping






1.00  INSTALLATION FOR THE IMPATIENT USER (ASSUMES YARN AND
       SOUPER ARE INSTALLED AND THEY WORK)

=========
BEFORE YOU START:
I tried to mimic the directory structure required for VSOUP, but there
is
one thing I did not implement and yet felt should be done.  You can
make the change yourself.  That change is to use reply.zip as the name
for the reply-packet file in YARN's CONFIG file, and with a path which
is the path recommended by Hardy Griech for his VSoup installation.

Edit the Reply-Packet statement in YARN's CONFIG file to show this
new file name with its full path.  In my setup where E:\ADVANTIS
is the %HOME% directory, this line becomes
        reply-packet=E:\ADVANTIS\YARN\OUT\REPLY.ZIP

Substitute your own YARN %HOME% directory for E:\ADVANTIS.

That's it.  You don't have to do this.  Just seems desirable in the
event you want to tackle the real VSoup installation at some later time.
If you do it, best to do it before you (re)install YARNDIAL.  That way
the installer finds the correct path and reply-packet filename and you
won't have to edit a zillion places.
============

    1.10   First unzip YRNDLxxx.ZIP archive into a temporary
folder.  You have probably done that if you are reading this.

Files in the YRNDLxxx.ZIP archive are
        FILE.DIZ        Zipfile Description
        README.1ST    A lot shorter than YD.DOC
        YD.DOC          This file
        YDINSTL.CMD   The installer
        YARNDIAL.CMD
        GO.EXE          From GO_15.ZIP, needed by YARNDIAL
        GO_15.ZIP      Please open at your leisure, read
                          the documentation and send Carsten
                          his postcard.

        Also an \ICONS\ subdirectory containing all of the icons
          needed

        (YD_ALT.DAT, for storing data for supplemental ISP's, is
        no longer used.  Instead that data can be edited into the
        YD_PARMS.DAT file created during installation.)


If you unzipped YRNDLxxx.ZIP with PkZip without using the -d
option, you will not have a subdirectory named ICONS.  That
will not interfere with installation.  YDINSTL will manage
to find the icons.

       1.20   If you are using the IBM/Advantis IAK Dialer
proceed directly to the next step (1.30).

If you are using either SLIPPM (the IBM Dial-Other-Internet-
Providers utility) or the ILINK/2 dialer, you MUST set up
SLIPPM and verify it can connect to your provider successfully
before you run YDINSTL.CMD to install YARNDIAL.

If you are using either the IN-JOY dialer, or a SLIP.EXE or
PPP.EXE dialup string to connect, you SHOULD set up
SLIPPM and verify it can conect to your provider successfully
before you run YDINSTL.CMD to install YARNDIAL.  This is
because the YARNDIAL installer (YDINSTL.CMD) can extract
parameters from the TCPOS2.INI file used to store SLIPPM
setup information.

In setting up SLIPPM, you MUST fill in the names of your news
server, your mail gateway (i.e., your SMTP server), your POP
mail server, your pop login ID, and your pop password.  This is
not required for SLIPPM operation but the YARNDIAL installer
(YDINSTL.CMD) needs them and will automatically incorporate those
parameters into YARNDIAL's data file.

       1.30   Double-click on YDINSTL.CMD and follow the
instructions in screen prompts.

       1.40   For unattended operation, read section 35.00.


2.00    WHAT IS YARNDIAL?
YARNDIAL.CMD is a menu-driven front end for C.T. Huang's
OS/2 Souper and Yarn off-line News and Mail reader programs.
YARNDIAL is a ReXX utility running under OS/2 Warp.  It is
designed to automate the steps needed to retrieve and send news
articles and mail and while doing so to provide a more versatile,
friendlier interface for users than could be accomplished using
ordinary batch files.

YARNDIAL and its installer (YDINSTL.CMD) should work with any
version of OS/2 Warp (3.0).  Beta testers have confirmed that fixes
applied to YARNDIAL v. 1.32(beta) and beyond permit it to work with
the OS/2 Merlin beta.

ReXX must be installed for YARNDIAL and its installer to run.

Yarn and Souper must be correctly installed and functioning (the
true test of "correctly installed").  YARNDIAL only functions as a
front end and control panel for Souper and its interfaces with
Yarn, and is not a substitute.

YARNDIAL's opening menu allows you seven choices:

MAIN SELECTION MENU
1  Only import Mail
2  Only import News Articles
3  Only import, but both Mail AND News
4  Only export (send Mail, Posts, Replies, and Follow-ups)
5  Everything: Get Mail and News AND send Posts, Replies,
    Follow-ups
6  Complete an interrupted importation of mail/news
         or rebuild a corrupted YARN history file
7  Souper options:  one-time-only changes in how souper runs:
      Catchup on News
      Maximum News Packet Size
      Do not retrieve newsgroup articles longer than set number of lines
      Read-only for Mail: Don't empty POP3 mailbox
Press:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7   Executes functions as shown; goes off-line when done
 or ! @ # $ % ^ &   Same functions; connection remains up
To exit now and close connection: Escape key
To exit, but leave any existing connection up: CTRL-Q



Note: The ! @ # $ % ^ & choices represent shift-1, shift-2,
through shift-7 on a US-English keyboard.  Those alternates may be
changed to suit your own keyboard.


3.00  KEY FEATURES
o  Automatic dialup, connection, retrieval and sending of
news and/or mail, and (usually) signoff.  Optionally, can be run
so connection remains up when YARNDIAL finishes.

o Ability under certain circumstances to use an existing
SLIP or PPP connection to a provider.

o  Ability to select read-only for mail retrieval (doesn't empty
your POP3 mailbox).  I did not extend this to read-only for news
retrieval (i.e., to prevent your NEWSRC file from updating).  You
can edit the Souper parameters in YD_PARMS.DAT file following
installation to achieve this end (add -r to the
souper_getnews_xtra options element).

o  Ability to use a variety of dialup and connect options.
Supported are: the IBM/Advantis IAK Dialer,  IBM's Dial-
Other-Internet-Providers utility (SLIPPM.EXE),  PPP.EXE and
SLIP.EXE dialup strings, the IN-JOY dialer (in-joy v. 09 is
well tested, and v. 1.0 seems so far to be a plugin) and
ILINK/2.  Other dialers can be used.

o  Menu-driven, for convenient selection of tasks.

o  Supports use of Souper and VSoup.

o  Ability to choose/change a limited number of Souper
or VSoup command-line options (menu, during install).

o  Ability to choose/change some Souper or VSoup command-line
options (menu, when running YARNDIAL).

o  A YARNDIAL menu item which allows you to complete an
importation of news or mail which had been interrupted,  and
to call up the Yarn utility REBUILD to restore damaged Yarn
spool and history files.  (You don't need to understand this:
if you were downloading news and mail and it never showed
up, or your machine quit in the middle, or the lights went
out, maybe this will provide a fix.)

o  YDINSTL.CMD provides a near-automated (prompted)
installation process if you already have installed Yarn and
Souper and they work.

o  Some ability exists to discriminate if the connection
that is up is the correct connection for the particular user
for which YARNDIAL was installed.  For the IN-JOY dialer
this works best if one selects a unique interface name
when configuring IN-JOY to connect to your provider.  Refer
Section 16.00 for more on use of the IN-JOY dialer.

o  Ability when you run YARNDIAL to do catchup on news.
Catchup marks as read all but some number you specify of
unread articles in each news group.  Catchup as implemented
in YARNDIAL uses the same "catchup" number for all
newsgroups.

o  Among the Souper/VSoup command-line options you can
choose when you run YDINSTL.CMD or at runtime when
YARNDIAL is executed are:
      Set maximum size of the news packet you can download
      in a single session
  and
      Limit retrieval of news articles to those with no more than
      some maximum number you set of lines in the body of the
      article.

o  Ability to set up and (try to) connect to multiple ISP's in a
single session (refer next section).

         3.10   MULTIPLE SERVICE PROVIDERS
YarnDial Version 1.5x allows you to get news and mail and send
mail and postings to/from more than one ISP in a single session.
This was an idea copied from Hardy Griech's VSoup. (Thanks).
Not all Service Providers will let you access POP3 Mail Servers
and NNTP News Servers when you are signed on to another
provider.  This is because, for security reasons, those servers
may operate behind firewalls and part of the security regime
is that those servers can only be accessed (ordinary subscribers)
via a dial-in or otherwise directly-logged connection.

That limitation generally does not apply to the sending of mail,
posts, etc., via an SMTP server.  Any mail gateway (SMTP server)
to which you have access via the ISP you dialed into, will
appropriately accept and broadcast your outgoing mail and postings.
Whatever additional ISP's you add to YD_PARMS.DAT, we always
do our sendoing send with the server/settings for the ISP 1 (the one
you did the YarnDial install for).

         3.20   SETTING UP TO ACCESS MORE THAN A SINGLE
                 PROVIDER'S SERVERS IN A SINGLE SESSION

First install YARNDIAL and make sure YARNDIAL is working well
for your principal Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Then print out and read the notes contained in YD_PARMS.DAT
which the YARNDIAL installation creates in the Yarn %HOME%
directory.  The parts concerning adding more ISP's are near the
end.

Only then experiment to see if your alternate ISP can be
accessed.  Open YD_PARMS.DAT in your %HOME% directory and
edit parameters for your second ISP.  Play with them until either
you can do what you want (get/send stuff) or until you determine
that firewall protection prevents this kind of access.  Do this for
each additional ISP section in YD_PARMS.DAT in turn.  Set
each ISP_ACTIVE.i=1 or 0 in YD_PARMS.DAT to activate or
de-activate each added ISP section.

NOTE: Because you may need to play around a bit, the password
fields are managed such that if you have something in both the
encrypted and unencrypted fields, only what is in the unencrypted
field(s) is operative.  That way you can make changes to your
heart's content with simple editing.  When/if you get it working,
you can and should wipe out the unencrypted entry, do the encryption
(see the note in the YD_PARMS.DAT you printed out) and transfer
the encrypted password(s) into YD_PARMS.DAT.

Because of protection schemes your ISP providers may use, it may
not be possible to get mail or news from all of them while logged in
via modem to a different ISP.


4.00  COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMERS
        YDINSTL.CMD is Copyright 1996-7 by Jerry Levy
           (all rights reserved)
        YARNDIAL.CMD is Copyright 1995-7 by Jerry Levy
                   (all rights reserved)
        YD.DOC is Copyright 1995-7 by Jerry Levy
                   (all rights reserved)
These are provided as-is and without charge, with no
warranty expressed or implied as to merchantability or
fitness for any particular purpose.  All responsibility for
any and all incidental and consequential damages is
disclaimed.  These programs and associated text files are
freeware.  They may be distributed without restriction
providing: (1) this notice and disclaimer remain intact, (2)
all programs and files are included and unchanged, and (3)
they are distributed either in the original .zip archive or
the archive after being unzipped into a folder or onto a
disk or other medium.  Use of either or both of these
programs constitutes acceptance of these terms by all users.

GO.EXE and GO_15.ZIP are  (c) 1993-95 by Carsten Wimmer and
are included with permission.
YARN.ICO is (c) by Chin Huang and is included with
permission.

JL   Marblehead, MA USA