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WHATSNEW.30
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1992-06-29
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THESE ARE RELEASE NOTES ONLY
READ UPGRADE.DOC FOR THE ACTUAL
UPGRADE PROCEDURES!
** SMART OPERATING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT YOU KEEP A COMPLETE BACKUP
OF YOUR _CURRENTLY_ INSTALLED BACKFIRE SYSTEM IN CASE SOMETHING GOES
WRONG DURING THE UPGRADE **
11-29-91 New features incorporated in BackFire Version 3.02
1.) BackFire now senses the presence of and USES, if found a FOSSIL driver.
If a Fossil driver is not found in the system BackFire uses its own
internal com routines as it did before. This has been fully tested
with X00 and BNU and found to be 100% compatible.
2.) Many parts of the actual out-dial routines were modified in 3.0
for better sensing of carrier detect on modems that turn on
their CD before sending the connect string. BackFire will now
function normally with the ATI 9600e series of modems.
3.) The result code sensing of BackFire was enhanced to recognize BUSY
signals, VOICE, NO CARRIER and RINGING result codes on modems that
supply these signals and adjust the calling actions accordingly.
4.) The LOGGING features have been greatly enhanced to provide more
meaningful information. Most notable of these is that if a user
duplicates phone numbers with another user, the logs will report
the NAME of the user they dupped with.
5.) The comport output routines recieved MUCH work in an effort to provide
a fool proof output scheme, one in which BackFire would never lockup
waiting on a modem that had gone to sleep for some reason. This
APPEARS to have been achieved by constantly monitoring the output
buffers inside a timing loop. If the buffers do not empty within
a preset time, BackFire will take an error exit and return to the
BBS.
6.) A bug in REGION calling in which the AREA code was being stripped
out was fixed. The area code now remains in the number dialed from
the REGION.x files.
7.) Format masking was added to the input routine where the user is
allowed to change thier second phone number. BackFire now demands
that the number be in EXACT format.
8.) All previous versions of BackFire used a 'BOGUS' area code detection
scheme to filter out calls that had area codes of 911, 976, 900 and
a few others. We inadvertently missed 800 in this list. While there
MAY be a VERY FEW users call you with a valid 800 number for
callback, we felt that the percentage of these was low enough to make
800 a BOGUS in the list. 800's are now treated as a 'Malicious
Security Violation Attempt' and logged.
9.) Added a routine to clear the I/O buffers when the USERS modem answers
BackFire. This clears any garbage that might be left in the buffers
that would result in the garbage getting read as the users input for
their password.
10) A new flag in BFFIG panel #6 to allow you to TURN ON the SPEAKER
during callback. This has proven to be very valuable in diagnosing
callback problems because you can actually hear the call in progress
and hear what the user on the other end does. You can turn this ON
during testing phases and then back off when you are done.
11) Added a new parameter to BCFIG in the configuration of the REGION
type calls. Before, by default these were consider LOCAL and the
user was left on-line after verification. You NOW have the option
to DROP THE CONNECTION on these after verification OR leave the
user on-line.
12) ** MULTI-NODE OPERATORS TAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING **
NEW IN V 3.0
Unlike many other callback verfication systems, BackFire allows
NODE DEPENDENCY of the DATA FILES containing numbers that will be
called back for verification.
This is designed specifically for sysops who have nodes that are
NOT within the same calling area and require different lists of
numbers for callback qualification.
You might for example have a TWO NODE system, one of your nodes
might be AREA 402, PREFIX 421 and the OTHER node might be in AREA
402, PREFIX 533. This is typically done by sysops in small towns
who are located close to a metropolitan area but are normally
long distance calls for those in the larger city. Some phone
services will allow you to have a direct local line from that
larger city so that people calling you from the larger city may
do so for a local call instead of a long distance call. So,
anyone calling on the second node or the direct line from the
larger city may be safely called back as a LOCAL call by that one
node only. If they called on the OTHER node, it would be a LONG
DISTANCE call. By necessity then, each of the two nodes MUST
have DIFFERENT number lists because callers from certain prefixs
are treated differently by the two nodes.
Using LOCALNUM.1 as an example. This file is read by DEFAULT
when BackFire starts up on NODE 1. If your second node requires a
different list then simply make a LOCALNUM.2 file that contains
the numbers that are considered local to IT! You would then have
a LOCALNUM.1 and a LOCALNUM.2 file in your ?:\WC30\DATA
directory. In this situation when BackFire is started on NODE 1,
it will read LOCALNUM.1, when it is started on NODE 2, it will
read LOCALNUM.2.
This scheme is true for ALL number lists in BackFire, ZONENUM0.x,
ZONENUM1.x, REGION.x and so on. The ONLY number file that does
not honor this format is BADNUM.LST, this file is read by ALL
nodes.
If you have multi-nodes and they are all within the SAME
area/prefix then the above is not necessary. All that is
required is the LOCALNUM.1 file. When NODE 2 thru X startup they
attempt to locate any NODE DEPENDENT data files. If none are
present the node will use the files with .1 extension.
Bear that in mind as we proceed through the descriptions of call
types and remember that when I refer to XXXXXXX.1, it also
applies to XXXXXXX.2 and so on.