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Ezycom V1.02. Copyright Peter Davies 1992. All Rights Reserved. Released 14 November, 1992. Table of Contents ----------------- Features 4 Conditions of Use 7 Registration 9 Support Sites 10 Copyrights 11 Installation 12 Configuration 14 Config (Info) 14 Config (Other) 15 Config (Screen) 33 Config (File Areas) 35 Config (File Areas, Protocols) 48 Config (Protocols, Bimodem) 49 Config (Protocols, Setting Up Your Own Protocols) 50 Config (Message Areas) 54 Config (Msg Areas, Message Areas) 54 Config (Node Manager) 62 Config (Message Misc) 70 Config (Msg Areas, Global Message Options) 75 Config (Manager) 78 Config (Manager, Limits) 78 Config (Manager, Events) 82 Config (Manager, Compression) 83 Config (Modem) 84 Config (Modem, Baud Rate Setup) 87 Networking with Ezycom 89 Sysop Function Keys 91 Ezycom Command Line Parameters 93 Errorlevels 94 Ezycom External Support Files 95 ANS/ASC/ASL/AVT Files 96 File Points 100 Page Tunes 100 Menu System (Ezymenu) 101 Menu System (Defining a Menu System) 101 Menu System (Templates) 107 Menu System (Global Menus) 108 Menu System (Automatic Options) 109 Menu System (Special Characters) 109 Menu System (Keyboard Stuffing) 110 Menu System (Groups) 110 Utilities (EZYMAINT, Maintenance Program) 113 Utilities (Conversion Files, DOCONV.BAT UPCONV.BAT) 115 Utilities (FEDIT, The Filebase Editor) 117 Utilities (USERCOMP, Userbase Utility Program) 122 Utilities (ANSTOAVT, Makes Avatar Screens) 123 Utilities (EZYMAIL, Echomail Utility) 123 Utilities (EZYNET, Netmail & Areafix Utility) 124 Utilities (MSGCOMP, Messagebase Utility) 132 Utilities (EZYFF, Filebase Utility) 133 Utilities (EZYUTIL, General Utility) 134 Utilities (EZYLINK, Fast Echomail Linker) 139 Page 2. Utilities (EZYED, Userbase Editor) 140 Utilities (EZYNODE, Nodelist Compiler) 146 Appendix A (Questionnaire Language) 150 Appendix B (Multiline Operation) 165 Appendix C (File Control Characters) 168 Appendix D (Menu Commands) 172 Appendix E (Operating Batch Files) 198 Appendix F (Credits) 206 Appendix G (Colour Changer) 207 Appendix H (Suggestions) 208 Appendix I (Problems) 209 Index 210 Page 3. Features of Ezycom ------------------ o Ezycom uses advanced file system technology to get high performance usage when used with Mass Storage Devices such as CD-ROMs. Typically file searches can find a file in approximately one second, where as on other older systems, it takes well over five minutes. o Database type file system, allowing high performance file listing, without continually accessing the hard disk to find a file's date/size. This gives a MASSIVE speed increase on CD-ROMs, Multiline and Networked BBS's. The system also allows classifying of files into separate areas, no matter WHERE the files are on your Hard Disk. You are not restricted to a file area for each file path. This allows CD ROMs which normally have their files laid out in no particular order (such as the RBBS-In-a-Box), to function well under Ezycom. o Ezycom is a fully Fido compatible Bulletin board. o Ezycom has a full-blown Mail Tosser/Scanner. Which is built around Ezycom to enable integration between it and Ezycom itself. Thus enabling many exciting features, such as automatically adding conferences into the BBS package. o Up to 65,000 security levels, with Up to 32 flags that can be defined on each level to make your BBS more secure. o Four ratio systems, including Post/Call Ratios, Kilobyte Ratios, File Ratios and a VERY Powerful File Points System are all included. o The File Points System is the answer to many sysop's prayers. It can be Sysop configured to credit the uploader of the file only if the file was downloaded many times. This avoids problems with Ratio systems where users upload rubbish so they can download. (Registered Versions Only) o Database message system, increasing speed in message base handling and decreasing space used by each message. This method is different to many other Database systems as two files are used per message area. Thus, if something dreadful happened to one of your message base files, you do not lose your entire message base. Page 4. o Message Base packing system allowing you to define 4 different ways of deleting messages. The most exciting is deleting by Kilobytes, enabling you to keep your message base at a fixed size. o Comprehensive Paging system allowing configuration of page times on a per day basis. As most people are home more on weekends than weekdays, this allows your users to page you more on weekends (If so desired). o Comprehensive File Management system taking care of all file area needs including sorting of file area lists, archive conversion, master list generation, virus checking, integrity checking and much more. o A full-blown file area editor allowing multiple tag and moving of files, deletion of multiple files, viewing of file information, including uploader and other various options. o Security can be placed on downloading of file areas but still allowing the viewing of the files. A look but not touch environment. o Passwording of files on per directory or per file basis can be easily done. o Allowing certain files to be 'FREE' for the user to download, again on per directory or per file basis. o Support for up to 250 lines, running under either a network, multitasker or both. o A full-blown built in chat system between nodes is available. Avatar/local users will be opened up into a full screen user to user chat. This allows messages to pop up even while they are typing them in. Up to 200 different chats can take place at any one time. Private messages can also be sent between nodes. o Ezycom also allows (sysop definable) restricted access to any function that Ezycom performs. This restricted access can vary dramatically. Different types of restrictions include Security, Flags, Age, Time On- Line, Time Of Day, File Ratio, Kilobyte Ratio and Post/Call Ratio. o An intelligent duplicate upload detection system, that stops users from being credited for files that are already on your system. The file will then be removed from your system, thus not taking up precious disk space. Page 5. o A built in full screen ANSI/AVATAR sysop/user chat which has full local and remote scrolling. o Local uploads and downloads giving the sysop an easy way to place new files on the system. o Full conferencing style system allowing message and file areas to be grouped. Use this to allow users to only view areas of their choosing such as IBM and/or Amiga. o Support for up to 1024 message areas. o Support for up to 400 file areas. o In-built QWK Mail (Off-line Mail Reader) Support. Page 6. Conditions of Use ----------------- o Ezycom is the copyrighted materials of Peter Davies and authors of respective products. The material it covers are the executable files, overlays, documentation and anything contained in the Ezycom Package. o If, you classify as a SHAREWARE registration (see "Registration"), you are allowed to evaluate Ezycom for 30 days. After that period you MUST either REGISTER Ezycom or stop using it. Non-Profit Organisations and Commercial customers may ONLY evaluate Ezycom for a period of 7 days before Ezycom must be bought or discontinued in use. If Ezycom is being used in a multi-line situation, then only one Registration is required. This is provided that the registration key in use, will only be on one hard disk and only in one directory of that hard disk. If this is not the case, then a site licensing agreement is required. o Before registration, you miss out on a few 'Nice' features taken out to help encourage registration. It must be stated however that Ezycom is useable without these features, and is not now and never will be 'Cripple Ware'. o Ezycom may never be used in an unlawful or illegal manner. o Ezycom distribution is encouraged, so long as nocharge is levied for the distribution. Pay Systems are exempt from this so long as there is no extra charge for Ezycom. Commercial Software Libraries may not include Ezycom in their libraries, without the written permission of Peter Davies. o Ezycom archives may not be altered in any way, shape or form. Conversion to a different archive format is allowed, but we prefer that you do not convert it. Adding of BBS comment files or headers to the archive, is NOT permitted. o You are NOT allowed to modify Ezycom executables, Overlays, registration keys or documentation in any shape or form. Tampering with messages inside executables is NOT permitted. o Site/Group licensing agreements will be reviewed on a case by case basis. o The registration key may not be distributed to other person(s). Doing so will violate the licensing agreement you made when Registering Ezycom. Page 7. o In using this program, you agree that in no event shall Peter Davies and respective authors be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damage or lost profits, even if Peter Davies and respective authors have been advised of the possibility of such damages or lost profits. You further agree that if for any reason Peter Davies and respective Authors are found to be liable to you as a result of your use of the program and software, that as partial consideration of Peter Davies and respective Authors granting you this license, you agree that Peter Davies and respective Authors, sole and exclusive cumulative liability to you or others shall be no greater than the amount of any registration fee paid by you. If no such registration fee was paid, then Peter Davies and respective authors are not liable for any amount. o Peter Davies or the associated Authors are in no way obligated to provide support for or future versions of Ezycom. o Registration of Ezycom entitles you to the use of the current version of Ezycom. Any future versions may have new licensing conditions, which may change the terms of your current licensing agreement. o The use of tampered versions of Ezycom, or the use keys not distributed by Registration Sites is an infringement of the Copyright Act. We will not hesitate in prosecuting offenders. o The copying and/or distribution of your license key is strictly prohibited. Except of course for backup or archival purposes. Page 8. Registration ------------ Included with the package is REGISTER.ARJ. It contains registration files for Australia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, USA and Canada. If, REGISTER.ARJ is not in a secured archive from "Ezycom Software Development Team", please contact one of our support sites for a legitimate REGISTER.ARJ. The prices for Ezycom within Australia are quoted below. International registration sites prices are quoted in their currency, on their registration form. Upon receiving your Ezycom key, you may have to rename it to "EZY.KEY". Place the key in your Ezycom System Directory. When you logon, just before the name prompt, you will notice a Ezycom Vx.xx#nnnnnnnn. The #nnnnnnnn is your keynumber, and signifies that you have registered Ezycom. $60AUD for use of Ezycom in a private home, for non commercial activities. $150AUD for use of Ezycom in a non-commercial environment. That is, the business is a NON-PROFIT organisation and makes no money in the use of Ezycom. Example: Public School, University, Church, Tennis Club, etc. $250AUD for use of Ezycom in a commercial environment. That is, none of the above conditions are met. Prices subject to change without prior notice. Postal Inquiries Richard Stocks Peter Davies PO Box 811 PO Box 43 Mt Waverley VIC 3149 Bentleigh VIC 3204 Australia Australia Technical Support Hotline (Commercial Customers Only) Garry Gillard Voice +61-3-583-5374 (24 Hour answering service) The Ezycom support conference (EC_SUPPORT) and the latest version of Ezycom, should be available at any of the support sites or beta test sites. Page 9. Support Sites ------------- Peter Davies Richard Stocks +61-3-578-0968 V32 +61-3-808-4510 V32b FidoNet 3:633/152 FidoNet 3:633/374 WorldNet 61:61/400.2 WorldNet 61:61/400 daviesex@brt.deakin.edu.au stocksex@brt.deakin.edu.au Wayne Burnside Garry Gillard +61-3-546-3038 V32 +61-3-585-0495 V32 FidoNet 3:636/100 FidoNet 3:636/200 David Bergstad Lars Eriksson +1-604-495-5333 HST +358-28-45992 FidoNet 1:353/100 FidoNet 2:20/211 IntlNet 57:46/102 Jens Mueller Robin Cook +49-431-338087 V32b +1-512-674-4978 V32b FidoNet 2:240/70 FidoNet 1:387/635 Ken Givens Christian Kraus +1-214-641-1136 V32b/HST +61-2-564-2172 FidoNet 1:124/2213 FidoNet 3:712/607 Matthew Taylor +61-49-56-2853 FidoNet 3:622/407 Page 10. Copyrights ---------- The following products are copyrighted to the following people. Unlisted products, are also copyrighted to their respective authors. Arj Robert Jung Async Professional Turbo Power BNU David Nugent D'Bridge Mosaic Press DESQView Quarterdeck Office Systems DSZ, GSZ Chuck Forensberg Ezycom Peter Davies Ezycom Docs Speedy Soft Ezyed Wayne Burnside EzyEdit Brad Vonarx Ezymenu Richard Stocks Front Door Joaquim Homrighausen IBM International Business Machines Lha H Yoshizaki MS-DOS Microsoft OS/2 IBM/Microsoft PkZip Pkware Scan McAfee Associates Sound Blaster Creative Labs Inc Turbo Pascal Borland International Windows Microsoft X00 Ray Gwinn Page 11. Installation Install ------- Requirements ------------ Ezycom can run on any IBM PC or compatible. A modem with Hayes compatible commands (such as CONNECT/RING/etc) and hardware flow control (CTS/RTS) is also required. A DOS version 3.xx, 4.xx, 5.x or later is also required although MS-DOS Version 5.0 is recommended. Ezycom requires a machine with at least 512K of RAM, although 640K is preferable. A Hard Disk is also required with a minimum of 5 meg of free space recommended. If, you have EMS memory, XMS memory or Extended memory, Ezycom can make use of this. It can directly use EMS to Swap itself out to or to load the Overlay into. It can also indirectly use EMS/XMS or Extended memory if this is made into a RAM Disk and the overlay/swap files are placed on there. Set-up ------ Ezycom requires one other program to run it successfully stand alone. That is a FOSSIL driver. X00 by Ray Gwinn, and BNU by David Nugent have successfully been tested with Ezycom. See their documentation for the installation of those programs. If you are using Ezycom in a mail Network which is FidoNet compatible, you will also require a Mailer. D'Bridge and Front Door have both been successfully used with Ezycom. Ezycom has its own Fido compatible mail tosser/scanner. In your CONFIG.SYS add the following lines... FILES=20 BUFFERS=20 FILES=20, tells DOS how many files can be open at once. BUFFERS=20, tells DOS how many buffers are to be open. Generally, 20 is good, as it does not use too much memory, and it speeds up disk access. In your AUTOEXEC.BAT add the following lines depending on the drive you set EZYCOM to run on... SET EZY=C:\EZY SET TASK=1 Page 12. SET EZY, tells Ezycom where to find the system directory. It can optionally be the directory where your BBS runs from. SET TASK, The node number to execute Ezycom under. Note: -N overrides this variable. For Example: SET TASK=1 Extract SETUP.ARJ in a temporary directory and run INSTALL. An example command to perform this is "ARJ e SETUP.ARJ". It will automatically install a default setup of menus, messages, files and text files for the operator to observe as a sample system, to learn from, or to work from. Ezycom sample setup will now be located in the path specified, but the executables will still be where you unarchived them from. Move all the other files in the Ezycom archives, that is *.EXE, *.OVR, *.LNG, to the path where Ezycom is to be located. For Example: COPY *.EXE C:\EZY COPY *.OVR C:\EZY COPY *.LNG C:\EZY You are now ready to start configuring Ezycom. Page 13. Configuration ------------- When you load Config, you will presented with a series of pull down menus full of options. You access these by moving the cursor on the option you want to change then hit ENTER. So options pop out menus to further lists of options, accessed in the same manner. You will have to set up many of these options in order to get Ezycom up and running. Site **** Firstly start by moving to the Info menu and then Enter the Site option. Here you setup such things as your name (the sysop), your alias (if any), the BBS's name, and where its located. This information is mainly used for IEMSI (see later) and for validating your key once you've registered Ezycom. For Example: Sysop Name : Matthew Taylor Sysop Alias : The Boss System Name : Lake Macquarie BBS System Location : Adamstown, NSW, Australia Page 14. Other ***** Paths ----- Now you must setup all the directories that will be used by your system. The directories you have to set up are as follows. For Example: Overlay Path : C:\EZY\ System Log : C:\EZY\EZY*N.LOG Maintain Log : C:\EZY\EZY*N.LOG Swap File : C:\EZY\EZYSWAP AVT Files : C:\EZY\TXT\ ANS Files : C:\EZY\TXT\ ASC Files : C:\EZY\TXT\ ASL Files : C:\EZY\TXT\ Menu Files : C:\EZY\MENUS\ Menu 2nd : [UnUsed] Netmail : C:\FD\MAIL\ Nodelist : C:\FD\NODELIST\ Message Base : C:\EZY\MSGBASE\ File Base : C:\EZY\FILEBASE\ File Index : C:\EZY\FASTBASE\ File Sec : C:\EZY\ User Base : C:\EZY\USERBASE\ Bimodem Path : [UnUsed] Node Message : C:\EZY\ Temp Path : C:\EZY\TEMP\ Upload Path : C:\EZY\UPLOADS Outside Page : [Unused] Overlay Path ------------ This is where Ezycom looks to find its overlay file (EZY.OVR). You can set this to a RAM Disk, for improved efficiency. System Log ---------- This is the path and filename of where Ezycom will write its log file. If you place a *N in the log name, it will be translated into the current node number. So EZY*N.LOG would actually become EZY1.LOG for node one. Page 15. Maintenance Log ---------------- This is where Ezycom writes the logs for all the utilities that come with it. You should NEVER have this the same filename as the other log if you are running more than one line. Here, you can also place a *N in the filename for translation into node number. Each Ezycom utility has a unique identifier for logging, so if you place a *T in the maintenance log name, many logs will be written out for each utility. Swap File --------- When Ezycom swaps out its memory, it can (sysop definable) swap itself to DISK. This is the path and filename to the swap file(s). The extension is not allowed, as Ezycom will append its own extension for node number. EZYMAINT and EZYMAIL append different extensions so they can be run at the same time as nodes. Text Files ---------- These are the paths to where the text files are kept. They may all point to the same directory if you like. Since ANSI files are the most popular, you may like to put .ANS on a RAM Disk, but leave the rest on your hard disk. Menu Files ---------- Your Menu Files are stored in this path. This may be a RAM Disk or Physical Disk Path. Menu 2nd -------- This is a second menu path, for when the first path points to a RAM Disk. Take the situation where you alter a menu on a RAM Disk. All modifications are stored to the RAM Disk, not a physical disk. Placing a path here, causes all menu modifications to be stored on this path as well. Netmail/Nodelist ---------------- Put simply, these are your Netmail and Nodelist paths. A more complete explanation can be found in the Echomail/Netmail section of this document. Message Base ------------ This is the location of Ezycom's message base. It should be noted that you MUST use the SAME userbase with the message base. You can NOT have several message bases per userbase or vice versa without totally destroying lastread pointers. Page 16. File Base --------- This is the location of where the filebase is stored, the database of all the files downloadable from your BBS. File Index ---------- The Fast Find Index is stored here. This is a fast index to EVERY file downloadable on your BBS system. File Sec -------- The FILESEC.EZY is stored in this path. A path is provided to allow you to place this file on a RAM Drive. Userbase -------- Quite simply, where the database that stores your BBS user records is stored. Bimodem Path ------------ This is where BIMODEM.COM and BIMODEM.1, BIMODEM.2, etc should be found. Normally this path would be null. If there is a path here, you MUST have BiModem fully Set-up in order to run Ezycom. Node Message ------------ This is where the internode communication files are stored. If you plan to use the in-built multi-user chat, it might be advisable to point this path to a RAM Disk. Only 10k maximum would be required in the RAM Disk. Temp Path --------- This is where Ezycom stores its temporary files, whilst a user downloading for instance. Outside Page ------------ If you wish your the page bell to use other tunes besides the default beeping or the tune files, you can use Page modules written for Ezycom. EZYSB102 is one such page program. It plays Sound Blaster VOC files. Please see the documentation with such PAGE programs for more details on this. Page 17. Upload Path ----------- This is a TEMPORARY path where ALL uploads will be uploaded to before they are moved. If the upload is aborted, then the file is left in this directory for later resumption. It is advisable to have a daily maintenance routine to delete all files in your upload path. (Remove aborted uploads). A statement like: ECHO Y | DEL C:\EZY\UPLOADS\*.* would delete them. This path MUST be unique and NOT be used anywhere in the file base system. System ------ Inactivity (Mins) : 5 Local Inactivity Timeout : No Multiline : Yes Multi Tasker : Auto-Detect Allow Extended IBM Chars : Yes Swap Out on Jump to Dos : Yes Top Menu : TOP Log to Printer : No Printer Port : LPT1 Password Echo Character : * Internode Message Freq (s) : 5 Age Check, minimum Age : 18 Utility Date Format : DDMMYY Use EMS for Overlays : Yes Type Of Swapping : XMS/EMS Enclosing Brackets : () Left Bracket/Right Bracket : ( ) Min Time For Call : 5 Inactivity (Mins) ----------------- If the user online hasn't hit a key within the time period defined in this option, he/she will be automatically logged off. Local Inactivity Timeout ------------------------ This determines if the above option applies to users (such as the sysop) logged in locally. Normally you would set this to No unless for some reason you want it to log you off locally after the defined time of inactivity. Page 18. Multiline --------- This tells Ezycom to perform multiline capabilities, including internode messages, user to user chats and other various updates. Multi Tasker ------------ Allows you to toggle how it detects if your system is running under a Multi Tasker such as Desqview or Double DOS or others. Just hit Enter to toggle through the supported options. Allow Extended IBM Chars ------------------------ This allows users to type in Extended characters. For example, if your users are not always English speaking, then their name might include some Extended IBM characters, although disabling this option helps reduce line noise. Swap Out on Jump to Dos ----------------------- With this set to Yes, Ezycom will swap out to either EMS, XMS or your hard disk (depending on the setting for swapping) this will give you more memory in DOS on the swap out. Top Menu -------- The name of the first menu Ezycom is to display. This can be any menu you like but it must be in the menu path on your hard drive. Log to Printer -------------- This will send all the Log information to your printer, except for local logins. Printer Port ------------ This is the port that Ezycom will send the Log to. This can either be LPT1->3, or COM1->4. Make sure that you do not log to the comport being used for modem communications. Password Echo Character ----------------------- This is the character that the user will see when they enter their password on your system. Page 19. Internode Message Freq (s) -------------------------- This is how often (in seconds) Ezycom checks for inter- node messages on multi-node systems. Internode messages are ONLY checked within User/User chats or while the user is moving around menus. Age Check, minimum Age ---------------------- If you have message areas and/or file areas that have information that maybe X-Rated or you feel that young users should not have access to these areas, all you have to do is set the age limit that your users have to be over to get access to those areas. You also have to set this option in your menus otherwise it won't work for specific menu options but age checking is always done automatically by the system on file/message areas. Utility Date Format ------------------- Toggles the two date formats that Ezycom can use, either DDMMYY or MMDDYY, when writing log files. Use EMS for Overlays -------------------- Tells Ezycom if its allowed to use your EMS memory (if you have it) for its overlay files. This will speed up the system if set to Yes. Swapping Type ------------- This option allows you define what type of swapping is used in Ezycom. The swapping techniques ranges from EMS, XMS, DISK, EMS then XMS then DISK, or XMS then EMS then DISK. Enclosing Brackets ------------------ This defines the chars that will be used as enclosing brackets in Ezycom. Left Bracket/Right Bracket -------------------------- Defines the left and right brackets used in Ezycom prompts etc. Edit the left one then press enter and you will be able to edit the right one. Page 20. Min Time For Call ----------------- This setting determines how long a call must last (in mins) for it to be counted as a call for that user in that day. You can use this in conjunction with the Limits manager to control the number of times a user may call in a given day. Be sure to set this high enough so as to make sure brief calls (eg those terminated due to line noise) do not get counted. New User -------- Choosing this option you will be able to set all the options that need to be set and ask when a new user logs on to your BBS. For Example: Ask NewUser Home/Voice Phone : Yes Ask NewUser Data/Bus Phone : Yes Use Forced Phone Format : No Forced Phone Format : XX-XXX-XXXX Ask NewUser for Alias : Yes Ask NewUser for Date of Birth : Yes NewUser Ansi : Ask (Yes) NewUser Avatar : Ask (No) NewUser Full Screen Editor : Ask (Yes) NewUser Clear Screens : Ask (Yes) NewUser More Prompt : Ask (Yes) NewUser IBM Characters : Ask (Yes) NewUser Date Format : Ask (DDMMYY) NewUser Security : 10 NewUser Flags : Minimum Password Length : 6 Minimum ANSI/AVATAR Baud Rate : 1200 NewUser File Points Credits : 30 NewUser NetMail Credit : 100 NewUser Topmenu : TOP Ask NewUser Home/Voice Phone ---------------------------- This option controls whether you want your New Users to be asked for their Home/Voice Phone Number. (Toggle with the ENTER Key). Ask NewUser Data/Bus Phone -------------------------- This determines if you wish to ask new users for there data/business phone number as this often differs from their home/voice phone number. (Toggle with the ENTER Key). Page 21. Use Forced Phone Format ----------------------- This allows you to set if you want to use a forced phone format which is configurable in the next option. Forced Phone Format ------------------- Define the format of your forced phone number style here, using '#' for where numbers should be and '-' where a hyphen should appear. The next nine settings are all simple toggle options that control the main options/questions a new user should be presented with when they are logging on for the first time. Use the ENTER key to toggle through the settings on each. Some have Yes, No and Ask options (Ask meaning the user will be prompted for an answer). When Ask is set there are is also a further option shown in brackets. This indicates the DEFAULT answer to the question so that the user may press ENTER and get this answer automatically. You will find this useful for novice users because it gives them a good guide as to what its normal to select in each case and so if they panic and press ENTER, the best setting will be chosen. Ask NewUser For Alias --------------------- If your system allows alias's to be used, then you can use this option to prompt the new user for one. Should they not enter one, their real name becomes their alias by default. Ask NewUser For Date of Birth ----------------------------- This controls whether the a new user should be prompted for a date of birth. This information can then be used as a security check (see later). NewUser Ansi ------------- Controls whether a new user should be able to select ANSI graphics or not. NewUser Avatar -------------- Like the above only it controls whether a new user should be able to choose AVATAR graphics. Page 22. NewUser Full Screen Editor -------------------------- Allows the new user to choose whether or not to use the external full screen editor (such as EZYEDIT). Such editors are like a word processor with full screen editing facilities. Should the user choose No, they will be given the internal line editor when they wish to write messages. NewUser Clear Screens --------------------- This determines whether or not new users want their screen cleared between menus etc. If set to No, screen clearing codes, where ever found, will be ignored. NewUser More Prompt ------------------- Allows the new user to select whether they wish to be prompted for more text whenever the screen reaches the number of lines they defined in their screen length. NewUser IBM Characters ---------------------- Determines if the new user wants any IBM chars to be sent. Non-IBM users with non 100% emulation terminals may want to turn this to off in order to filter out any high characters. NewUser Date Format ------------------- Depending on your user's country of origin, they may prefer all date prompts in one form or the other. They may have either the DD-MM-YYYY or the MM-DD-YYYY formats. NewUser Security ---------------- This is the level that you set for ALL New Users to your BBS. Set a low one so you can enhance it as you feel. You can override this if you set one in the NEWUSER.Q-A file but more on that later. NewUser Flags ------------- The Flags are labelled A..D with each flag having 8 settings that is to say A1..A8 B1..B8 etc. you can use these flags to enhance your Security Levels. You might use this for instance to force a user into a bulletins menu or to only let them answer a questionnaire once. Minimum Password Length ----------------------- This controls the minimum length of the Password you want your New Users to use. (The longer the better!!) Page 23. Minimum ANSI/AVATAR Baud Rate ----------------------------- Sets the minimum speed for users to be able to select/use ANSI/AVATAR graphics. Any user logging on under this baud rate will get ASCII graphics only. NewUser File Points Credit -------------------------- This sets the initial amount of file points a user receives when logging on for the first time. NewUser Netmail Credit ---------------------- This allows New Users the option to use Net Mail from their first logon. Set this to something small unless you want new users to be able to post lots of netmail else be sure security on netmail areas will not allow this. NewUser Top Menu ---------------- You can if you wish, have new users placed into a different top menu (first menu) than default. Use this to specify the menu. Be sure that it exists and is in your Menus Path. Logon ----- This section contains options that are used to set the way Ezycom handles each Logon attempt. They are given in two columns. Example Of Column 1: Forced Password Change (Calls) : 30 Ask for Date of Birth (Calls) : 10 Ask for Phone Number (Calls) : 15 WatchDog Message Board (0=Off) : 60 Bad Logon Message Board (0=Off) : 60 Minimum Logon Security : 10 Number of Logon Attempts : 3 Allow OneWord Logon Names : No Minimum Logon Baud Rate : 300 Minimum Slow Baud Rate : 300 Slow Baud Start : 00:00 End : 00:00 Low Security Start : 00:00 End : 00:00 Forced Password Change ---------------------- This allows the sysop to set how often users will be forced by the system to change their password. For example, setting it to 30 means every 30 calls they will have to select a totally new password. This will make your system more secure and decrease the possibility of people hacking your user's accounts. Page 24. Ask for Date of Birth --------------------- This is also a Security feature that Ezycom uses to make sure that the user logged on, is in fact who they say they are. In the example above, they will be asked every 10 calls, to enter their birthdate. Ask for Phone Number -------------------- This is also a Security feature. The user will be asked to enter their Phone Number (Last four digits) to stay logged on to the system. You set the number of calls between asking for this check. WatchDog Message Board ---------------------- This tells Ezycom where to post a message concerning possible unauthorised use of a user's account. This message should let the User know that someone has tried to log in under their password and failed. A good place for this message is the Sysop's Conference if you allow users to read messages in this area. A file called WATCHDOG.ASL must be placed in the Ezycom system directory, which is a plain text file, that contains the message you wish to send to the user. Bad Login Message Board ----------------------- When a user unsucessfully attempts to login Eg. they have forgotten their password, placing a non-zero value in this field means the user will be given the option of writing a message to the sysop and it will be posted to the area number specified in this option. As with the above, point it to the message board where sysop mail goes. Ezycom also has a special feature to deal with users in this dilemma. If you go and blank out the user's password in EZYED, then next time they login they will not be asked for a password but will be forced to input their phone number & date of birth. If they manage to get this right, they will then be prompted for a new password in the usual manner. This can save you (the sysop) a lot of time (and money from having to call people and tell remind them what their password is). Page 25. Minimum Logon Security ---------------------- This is the lowest security level that you will allow users to login under. Eg. If you set New User Security Level to 5 but have a level lower than this for Users that may have Upset you, you can give them this access. Users between security level 1 and this security level, can logon between the times allocated by low security start and end time. Note : Users with Security Level 0 are ALWAYS barred from the system. Number of Logon Attempts ------------------------ If the user gets their password wrong this many times while attempting to login, they will not be logged on to the system. If you have set the WatchDog Message to a message board the user will be notified when he/she successfully logs on next. If you have Bad Login Message Board set to a non-zero value, the system will also ask them if they wish to post a message to the sysop about it before being logged off. Allow OneWord Logon Names ------------------------- This is for systems that allow their users to login under an Alias (first time on) or allow Users to use there First Name as a Login Name. Generally not advisable due to the increased possibility of name double-ups. Minimum Logon Baud Rate ----------------------- This is the slowest Baud Rate at which Ezycom will allow users to gain access to your system. Minimum Slow Baud Rate ---------------------- This is a baud rate the you can set so you can pick the time the users with slow modems can access your BBS. Slow Baud Start and End ----------------------- These the hours between which you allow users with SLOW modems to access your system, as defined above. Page 26. Low Security Start and End -------------------------- These are the hours between which you allow users that have a Security level less than that set in the Minimum Logon Security. Eg. If the minimum security was 5, then those users from security levels 1 through 4, can only logon between these times. A start and end time of 00:00, would indicate users can logon all the time, but any other time intervals where start and end times match, would indicate these users can NEVER logon. Example of Column 2: Initial Logon Time : 10 1st Rego Exp Warning : 7 2nd Rego Exp Warning : 2 Check for Mail : Yes Check for Files : Ask (No) Fast Local Login : No Show User's Password : No Ask for Local Password : Yes Allow Sysop Remote : No Auto Detect ANSI : Yes & NU IEMSI Sessions : Yes & NU Initial Logon Time ------------------ This defines the time a new user gets to reach the WELCOME.Axx screen. This must be enough time for the new user to answer all the questions about their terminal configuration and also to answer NEWUSER.Q&A (see later) should you have one defined. 10-15 mins should be fine for this option. 1st Rego Exp Warning (Days) --------------------------- This is when Ezycom will let the user know that their registration is about to expire in the number of days you set here. 2nd Rego Exp Warning (Days) --------------------------- The user will be notified again about their registration expiring soon. This expiry warning should be LATER (closer to expiry date) than the first warning, for it to function correctly. Page 27. Check for Mail at Logon ----------------------- With this option you are able to toggle whether you want the system to Check for NEW Mail at each Logon, Ask the User each Logon or Never ask the user. If you pick not to ask or check for mail, make sure that you have an option in one of your menus or the user will never know when they have new mail. The option in brackets after the Ask setting shows the default result if ENTER is pressed instead of a Yes or No answer. Check for Files at Logon ------------------------ This is similar to the Mail Checking option above but for New Files on your system. A new file check looks for files that are new since the LAST new file scan the user did, NOT new files since their last login. Fast Local Login ---------------- With this option set to Yes all you have to do is hit Enter at the Logon Prompt, and the Sysop will be logged into the system. With this set to No, pressing enter will assume the sysop's name but you will still have to enter a password. Display Remote User's Password ------------------------------ This option when set will display the Remote User's Password on your screen. Not a good idea if your BBS is in public view. Ask for Local Password ---------------------- If you have this option set you will have to enter your password when logging into the system. Allow Sysop Remote ------------------ If set to No, the sysop will not be able to login remotely. It is advised that unless you ever need to be able to login remotely that you set this to No as a security precaution. Auto Detect ANSI ---------------- With this option set, Ezycom will Auto detect ANSI so it will display ANSI graphic files and menus. If the User has another graphic setting in his/her UserBase record, that one will be used. Setting it to YES & NU means the result of the detect will be used to assume some New User settings. Page 28. IEMSI ----- This allows users to logon to Ezycom using the IEMSI protocol. Just set it to Yes to turn it on. Combined with NU (Yes & NU) it means that if a new user logs in with IEMSI, most of their setup details will be assumed from the information in their IEMSI profile and they will only have to answer a few questions. Alt/Ctrl ******** The Alt-Function keys enable you to set options to be executed while users are online. Much in the same way as a Type 7 Exit. These options could include, running FEDIT, running EZYMENU etc. For Example: Alt-F1 EZYED.EXE Pressing Alt-F1 while in Ezycom would run EzyEd. The Ctrl-Function keys are macros that are used inside of the Ezycom Chats. By pressing Ctrl-Fx, it will display the pre-defined macro you have setup. Page 29. Paging ****** As most people are home more on the weekend than the rest of the week, we thought that you would like to be able to completely customise the page times on a day by day basis. Maximum Pages per Session : 3 Number of Page Files : 7 Page Length (secs) : 15 Ask for Page Reason : Yes Page Start (Sunday) : 10:00 Page End (Sunday) : 01:00 Page Start (Monday) : 10:00 Page End (Monday) : 01:00 Page Start (Tuesday) : 10:00 Page End (Tuesday) : 01:00 Page Start (Wednesday) : 10:00 Page End (Wednesday) : 01:00 Page Start (Thursday) : 10:00 Page End (Thursday) : 01:00 Page Start (Friday) : 10:00 Page End (Friday) : 01:00 Page Start (Saturday) : 10:00 Page End (Saturday) : 01:00 Message to Sysop Area : 60 Use Sysop's Alias in Chat : No Auto Capture Chat : No Maximum Pages per Session ------------------------- Allows you to control how many times a user may page you in any one call. Number Of Page Files -------------------- Sets how many page tunes you have in your Ezycom system directory. These are files named PAGExx.EZY where xx is a two digit number starting and '01' and working up. This allows Ezycom to randomly choose a different tune to use each time a user pages you. Should you not specify any page files, the default beeper tune will sound. Page Length (secs) ------------------ This determines how long the page sound/tune will play before telling the user you are apparently not available. Ask For Page Reason ------------------- Setting this option to Yes will force the user to supply a reason for wanting to chat. This will help you determine why it is they want you and whether you really wish to answer the page bell. Page 30. Page Start/End -------------- Use each of these options to define Start and End times for each day of the week in which your page bell will be allowed to sound. Message To Sysop Area --------------------- Should you not answer your page bell, and this option be set to a non-zero value, the user will be asked if they wish to leave you a message instead in the area pointed to be this number. Use Sysop's Alias In Chat ------------------------- When in chat mode to users, setting this to yes means you ALIAS will be used to the user so in a full screen chat, your alias will appear on the dividing line. Auto Capture In Chat -------------------- If you want all your chats to users automatically captured to a text file without you having to remember to do it, set this option to Yes. Sound ----- If you set a start and ending time this will enable the bell (Speaker) to chime when a user logs on in stand alone mode (ie when Ezycom is doing the phone answering). A start time of 00:00 and end time of 00:00 enables full 24 hour chimes, whereas a start time of 00:01 and end time of 00:01 disables it completely. Any other times, only enable it during those times. For Example, to enable chimes from 8am to 11pm: Incoming Call Bell Start Time : 08:00 Incoming Call Bell End Time : 23:00 Access ****** These access settings are to set your system up in special ways. Guest Account : EZYCOM Keyboard Password: [UnUsed] Logon Password : [UnUsed] Newuser Password : [UnUsed] The example above shows that you don't need to use all the features in this section. Just the ones you want. Page 31. Guest Account ------------- This allows you to make a special access account. With this you can configure your system to allow special users to have a special security level that can do different things on the system. You have to open an account with Ezyed (userbase editor) with the same name. If you use the Topmenu option in the user editor (Page 2) you can setup an entirely different system to your normal one. If you have multiple lines this is the only account that will allow more than one user at a time to be logged in under it simultaneously. One use for this option could be to allow anyone to download the latest version of Ezycom from your system without having to register and or use their own time. Note: ANSI/AVATAR/Full Screen Editor settings are reset on this account each time someone logs into it. The download stats are also reset upon a user logging out from it. Keyboard Password ----------------- This password is used to lock out all the special "Alt" keys from the local keyboard. When an "Alt" key is pressed, the user is prompted for a password. If the user types in the correct password, then the "Alt" keys become free to use for the remainder of the session. Useful if your BBS runs in a public area. Logon Password -------------- This password is used to stop user(s) logging onto your system unless they know this password. If they do not get it correct, then they are denied access to the system. (Not Yet Implemented). NewUser Password ---------------- This password is used to stop new users gaining an account on your BBS, unless they know this password. (Not Yet Implemented). Page 32. Screen ****** In this section of the configuration, you deal with setting related to the screen output that Ezycom gives. You can configure the colours used in most places throughout Ezycom from here. Message/Files ------------- This allows you to configure the colours used in prompts/fixed format information for file/message areas. You can toggle the colours used in quoted parts of a message, the options bar at the bottom of a message during reading and all the colours in the file list. As you toggle the options, the result will appear in the examples shown on the screen. Windows ------- Using this option you can fully customise the colours used in Config itself to display the pop up windows and option entry boxes. Toggle the colours on the frames, hi- lighted options etc and the example window will show the result of your changes. General ------- From here you can toggle the colour options on the username prompt and the colours used on the status bar while a caller is online. Once again, the resulting look is instantaneously shown by the examples on screen. Default Colour ------------- Use this to set all the colours back to Ezycom's defaults. You might find this useful if you totally muck up your colour selections. Default Mono ------------ This will set all the colours to default colours suitable for monochrome monitor based systems (such as laptops or bbs's running on older systems). Page 33. Options ------- Here you will be able to tell Ezycom how it should operate with your system's video display, like how it writes to the screen, if it checks for snow etc. The following points should help when filling out this section. Direct Screen Writes -------------------- This tells Ezycom if you want it to write the information directly to the screen or use the BIOS (slow). Check for Snow -------------- If you have an old CGA Card, Ezycom may cause snow on your screen due to the way it writes to the screen. If you enable this option, Ezycom will check your system set-up and if it detects snow it will do its screen writes in a way to prevent it. 40/50 Line Mode --------------- If you have an EGA/VGA card and screen, you can utilise its enhanced capabilities by setting this option to Yes. This will display more lines on the screen depending on the Card/Screen you have. This will enable you to see more files/more of a message on the screen at any one time. Screen Blanking --------------- When Ezycom is in Waiting for Caller mode, you could possibly get screen burn in if your monitor is left on all that time. Setting this option to an amount in seconds will tell Ezycom to BLANK the screen after waiting that time, thus SAVING your monitor. Page 34. File Areas ********** File Areas --------- Here we set-up your file areas for the BBS. Please read this and the following sections very carefully as the information shown here will take a while to get through. But once you understand how Ezycom file areas are set-up, you will then have one of the best file area managers and filebase's in the world of BBS's. File Area Name ( 1) : IBM PC Archiving Utilities Area Path : 1-C:\DOS\ARCHIVE\ Upload File Area : 30-IBM PC Uploads File Group : I Conversion : None Off-line Allowed : Yes Sort by : Alpha Use in Master List : Yes User Security : 10 User Flags : Sysop Security : 100 Sysop Flags : File Area Name (Number) ----------------------- This is the name you wish to call this file area, try to be as informative as possible as this name is what is displayed to your users. Area Path --------- This is the path where all moves (of files) to this path are placed. The actual path is defined in the "File Paths" section of the config. This allows multiple paths for one file area, or multiple file areas for one path. Generally, the Area Path Number, would be the same Number as the File Area. You can press "S" for a pick list, if you forget the Area Path number. Upload File Area ---------------- This is the file area where ALL Uploads that are done to this template file area (explained in the menu configuration documentation). Eg. If you had an IBM Uploads area, you would place that number in all IBM areas, so that all uploads would go to that file area. You can also press "S" for a pick list of file areas, in case you forget the file area number of IBM Uploads. Page 35. File Group ---------- Use this in conjunction with group commands in menus (explained later) to group your file areas into related sections eg IBM areas and Amiga areas. A single letter (A thru to Z) may be used. In the above example you could use Group I for all IBM areas and Group A for all Amiga areas. If you specify group '*' it, then this area will always come up. Conversion ---------- You can pick the conversion type you wish files in this area to be converted to. If you like ZIP then if a user uploads a file called FRED.LZH then in the next maintenance Ezycom will convert the file to the format you place here. The formats supported are None, ZIP, LZH, ARJ, PAK, ARC and ZOO. So as you see we have covered most formats. If you have any other formats you wish added, please contact us and we should be able to provide support for it in future versions. To set up conversion mechanisms, see "Conversion". If you only accept uploads to specific areas then its suggested you only have conversion set for those areas and not all your areas. Off-line Allowed ---------------- This option tells Ezycom, whether off-line descriptions are allowed. If set to No, then any file descriptions that do not have the associated file on your hard disk, will be removed file list. If, Off-line allowed is set to Yes, then all file descriptions without an associated file on your hard disk, is set Off-line. If, you have large file lists, that hold all files that used to be on the hard disk, but are now off-line, then to stop Ezycom checking to see if the file is now online, set Off-line Allowed to 'Off-line, Keep Off-line'. Sort by ------- This tells Ezycom in what order you would like your users to see the file listing. The options are None, Date and Alpha to give an unsorted list, a alphabetically filename sorted list or a file date sorted list respectively. Use in Master List ------------------ This tells Ezycom if this particular file area, should be included in Master Lists generated with EZYMAINT. However, this does not effect the Online Master List Generator. Page 36. User Security ------------- This is the security level that users need to see this file area. Whether they can download from it is still controlled by the path security (see later). User Flags ---------- These are the flags that the user MUST have set to gain access to this file area. SysOp Security -------------- This security level is the one needed to gain SYSOP access to the file area listed. SysOp Flags ----------- As for the user flags but applying to the SYSOP. As you can see if you like you can set some users as SysOps to selected file areas. For Co-SysOps and alike. File Paths ---------- The paths you set up here are the file area paths that your BBS uses for all your users at any security level you might have set. File Path : C:\DOS\ARCHIVE\ Dnld Security : 15 Record : 1 Dnld Flags File Area : 1-IBM PC Archiving Utilities Password : [UnUsed] CD Rom Path : No Sec Action : File Displayed as Not Enough Security Free Path : No Age Check : No File Path --------- This is the full drive/pathname to the file area to be displayed to the user. Download Security ----------------- This is the minimum security needed to be able to download files from this path. This security also effects functions such as view archive, and view text file. Download Flags -------------- These are the flags needed by the user to download from this file area. Page 37. File Area --------- When Ezycom finds a file in this directory that is NOT in ANY of the file lists, it can optionally place this file in a file area for you. This is the file area that it should place it in. You can press 'S' for a pick list, if you forget the file area number. Password -------- If you place a password here the user must enter it before they can download a file from this path CD Rom Path ----------- If this path is on a CD-ROM disk, then set this option to 'Yes'. This will tell Ezycom not to MOVE/DELETE files in this area. It also aids in efficiency during filebase maintenance. Sec Action ---------- When a user tries to download a file in this area, and does not have enough Security/Flags/Age to download it, this is the type of message that Ezycom will display to the user. Eg. If you set it to 'Not Found', then Ezycom will tell the user that this file is not found, whereas if you set it to 'File Displayed as Not Enough Security' then Ezycom will tell the user they do not have enough security to be able to access the file. Free Path --------- You toggle this option with the Enter key. If this option is set to 'Yes' then ALL files in this path are TOTALLY FREE to the user. Age Check --------- If you select Yes to this feature Ezycom will test the users age against the Age set in the system set-up. If the user is below this age then the user will not get access to files in this path. Note: To move around the file paths, you can hit the Page Up or Page Down keys or hit P to get a pick list of the file paths that you have already entered. Also Ctrl-Page Up and Ctrl-Page Down will take you to the first and last file path setups respectively. Page 38. Misc ---- With these choices you tell Ezycom how to behave when using Bimodem, Archiving and many other options. Usable File Areas : 220 Minimum Upload Space (k) : 300 Swap Out on BiModem : Yes EzyMaint Conversion Swap : XMS/EMS FEdit View Swap : XMS/EMS Swap Out on Upload Checks : Yes Minimum Ignore FPs Sec : 100 FPs credited for Download (%) : 100 Time of Upload FPs Given (%) : 100 1 File Point is worth (k) : 0 Upload Time Credit Factor (%) : 100 Min Description Length : 5 Max Description Length : 46 Delete Incomplete Uploads : Yes Move Local Uploads : No Usable File Areas ----------------- In order to speed the filebase up, you should set the maximum number of file areas you wish to use. The absolute maximum is 400 but in practice you are not likely to need anywhere near this many. You can always increase this value at a later date. Minimum Upload Space -------------------- This is the minimum free disk space that your hard disk must have on it before Ezycom will allow a user to begin an upload to your system. Swap Out on Bimodem ------------------- If set to Yes, Ezycom will swap out to either disk, XMS or EMS (depending on what you have set the swap outs to). This will give Bimodem more room to use in its shell thus making sure it runs with no problems. Ezymaint Conversion Swap ------------------------ This tells EZYMAINT whether to Swap out Memory (leaving 4k resident) when processing DOCONV.BAT (archive conversion). You can select either EMS, XMS or DISK. Two other options, XMS/EMS and EMS/XMS, exist to allow EZYMAINT to check for the existence/use of these memory management devices in the order shown. Page 39. Fedit View Swap --------------- Simular to EZYMAINT conversion swap only this controls swapping when you choice to view a file/archive in FEDIT, the file area manager (see later). Swap Out on Upload Checks ------------------------- This setting is only used if you use the UPCONV.BAT file that comes with Ezycom. After an upload, if UPCONV.BAT in present, it will check the file(s) uploaded for integrity, scan for Viruses (if you have and use Scan by McAfee) and convert archive types if needed. So if you set this option to Yes it will give the running programs plenty of room to do its work. Minimum Ignore FPs Security --------------------------- This option sets the minimum security level that your users must have in order not to have to not worry about being caught by the filepoint ratios. FPs credited for Download (%) ----------------------------- This sets the percentage of a filepoint that should be given to the uploader of the file a user has downloaded. That is, the more downloads a file gets, the more filepoints the uploader will receive. Time of Upload FPs Given (%) ---------------------------- This sets the percentage of filepoints given, when the user UPLOADS a file to the system. You may wish to set this to NULL, so that the user ONLY receives filepoints for POPULAR files. That is, files that are downloaded. 1 File Point is Worth (k) ------------------------- This tells Ezycom how many kilobytes a file point is worth. Any amount you think fit could be used here anywhere from 1k to 255k. The higher the amount in k, the less accurate filepoints is. That is, if you set this to 30k, downloading a 10k file is free in terms of filepoints. Setting this option to 0k, DISABLES the filepoints system. Upload Time Credit Factor (%) ----------------------------- This is the percentage of time a user receives for uploading a file. Eg. 100% would mean that the user loses no time for uploading, whereas 200% would give the user double the time he/she spent uploading. Page 40. Min Description Length ---------------------- This is the minimum length of the description(s) you wish the user to give for file(s) he/she has just uploaded to your BBS. Max Description Length ---------------------- This is similar to the above option only it sets the maximum length of a description that an uploader can give. Delete Incomplete Uploads ------------------------- If this option is set to 'Yes', Ezycom will kill any incomplete uploads. But if you do set this, Zmodem or any other protocol that allows recovery of aborted uploads, will not function correctly. Move Local Uploads ------------------ When you (the sysop) locally upload files to the BBS, you can set this option to Yes so that the files will be deleted from their original location after being copied to BBS. For safety reasons but, you may want to set this to 'No' so a copy is made of the file(s) you upload and they are not deleted from their original location, handy should something go wrong during the uploading process. File List --------- This section specifies exactly how Ezycom displays file information to you the Sysop, and to your users. This is another way you can make your BBS look totally different to others. User Show Date : Yes User Show FileSize : K User Uploader : No User Download Count : No User Show Security : No User Transfer Time : No User Show File Points : No User Show Security Files : Yes Sysop Show Date : Yes Sysop Show Filesize : K Sysop Uploader : No Sysop Download Count : No Sysop Show Security : No Sysop Transfer Time : No Sysop Show File Points : No Highlight New Files : Yes Show New Files Character : Yes Security Files Char : S Page 41. User File List Options ---------------------- The following options apply only to the format of the file list displayed to Users (ie not the sysop). User Show Date -------------- This will show the date of the files in the list. This will give the user an idea of how old the files are. User Show FileSize ------------------ This tells Ezycom how and whether to display the file size to the user online. It can either be in Kilobytes, Bytes or the file size not be displayed at all. If you pick None you may wish to display the file points for the file instead. User Uploader ------------- If this is set to Yes, Ezycom will show the user who uploaded each of the files that they are looking at. User Download Count ------------------- This shows the user how many times the files listed have been downloaded by your users. This may be a good indication to them which files are better due to their popularity. User Show Security Files ------------------------ When a file is marked with a Security flag (using FEDIT), you can optionally show that these files are security files. The default would display an "S" on any security files. User Transfer Time ------------------ With this option on Ezycom will tell the user online how long it would take them to download the files. This is an estimate based on the baud rate used. Slower speed users will greatly appreciate this information. Page 42. User Show File Points --------------------- This shows how many file points each file is worth so the user's can quickly work-out if they can download the file, as long as they know how many points they have left. This option only displays file points if the user does not have the 'Ignore File Points' Flag set on for their account, or their security is below the 'Ignore File Points' Security. As File Points are only in the registered versions of Ezycom, this feature also only works in registered versions. Sysop File List Options ----------------------- The next seven option on the menu have the same function as those for the user list only they apply to files lists that you the sysop see when logged in. This means your file list and the users file lists can look totally different, for information relevant to you may not be relevant to the users and vice versa. Highlight New Files ------------------- If this option is set, then all new files are highlighted, and the rest of the files are dull. This means new files will immediately stand out from the rest. Show New Files Character ------------------------ This option selects whether you wish the new files indicator '*' to be shown, not shown or just shown to ASCII users (since they cannot see colour). Security Files Char ------------------- This is the same as the above option only that it applies to files that the user has not enough security to download. It will show the character specified here beside any such file when the user is looking at a file list. File Security ------------- The file security options listed in this area define what files are password protected separately or any that are free downloads from your system. Filename : BADFILE.BAD Security : 0 Flags Password : [UnUsed] Sec Action : File Displayed as Not Enough Security Free File : No Age Check : Yes Page 43. Filename -------- This is the file that the following options will apply to. This can contain wildcards such as '*.GIF'. Note that Ezycom will 'translate' wildcards for performance reasons into something like '????????.GIF'. Security -------- This is the minimum security level needed to download/view the file(s) listed. Flags ----- Like above this is the required security flags for the file listed. Password -------- If a password is placed here, then the user will have to supply the correct password to download/view the file. Note that this password takes precedence over any password defined in filepaths that also covers a file specified in this part of Config. Security Action --------------- You have two options to pick from security action. File Displayed as Not Enough Security or File Displayed as Not Found Depending on which one you have picked the user will either be told that they did not have enough security to download the requested file or that it wasn't found. Free File --------- A free file does not count against a users daily download total. Setting this to Yes enables this effect. You may find this useful for say your Master File List or your membership application form. This setting overrides any setting in FilePaths. Age Check --------- If this is set to yes then Ezycom will check the user's age against the age set in the system's config. If the user is younger than the test age then they will not be allowed access to the specified file(s). Page 44. Global File Options ------------------- The following options operate on the file areas GLOBALLY so be careful as they are very powerful. Set Default Security Set Default Flags Set File Area Conversion Set File Area Sort Set File Area Off-line Set File Area Master List Set CD Rom Drive Set Security/Not Found Centre File Area Name UnCentre File Area Name Set Default Security -------------------- This will enable a popup window that shows the following options that deal with security on all aspects of the file base. (U)ser File Area Security, (S)ysop File Area Security, (P)rotocol Security, (F)ile Path Security, (I)ndividual File Sec or (Q)uit : User File Area Security ----------------------- If you use this option you will be setting the user security for ALL of your file areas. This maybe the best option to use if you have many file areas that all your users have access to and you only have a few areas that normal users don't have access to. Then you just have to go to each special area and change them individually. Sysop File Area Security ------------------------ As with the above option this sets all the file area sysop securities. If you have different sysops for different file areas you would/should have different security levels for each sysop. If they are the same all of them would be sysops of each other's areas. The other way to make them different is to use the flags, more on this later. Protocol Security ----------------- This will set the security level needed for any user to gain access to the file transfer protocols. If set too high, none of your users will be able to upload or download files from your system. Page 45. File Path Security ------------------ This will set the level of security needed to gain access to all of the file paths in use on the system. Individual File Security ------------------------ If you have files that you want protected by a separate security level you can set them all to the same security level with this option. Set Default Flags ----------------- As with the set default security this option also displays another popup window. (U)ser File Flags, (S)ysop File Flags, (P)rotocol Flags, (F)ile Path Flags, (I)ndividual File Flags or (Q)uit : Each option in the list is the virtually the same as the previous menu and affect the flags in the same way. The only difference is a flag window pops up. If, you set an "X" on one of the flags, then all of the records will have that flag set On. If you set an "O" on one the of the flags, then all of the records will have that flag set off. Leaving the flags as '-' will mean to not touch that flag. Set File Area Conversion ------------------------ This displays a smaller popup window which shows you how to change the conversion type. SPACE=Change, ENTER=Accept and ESC=Quit : None By toggling the option with the space bar you can set the default conversion type to None, ZIP, LZH, ARJ etc. You then hit the Enter key to tell Ezycom that the type displayed is the type you want all areas set to, or hit ESC to exit with NO change. Set File Area Sort ------------------ As with the above option this also displays a small popup window simular to the last one. SPACE=Change, ENTER=Accept and ESC=Quit : None Again by hitting the space bar you are able to toggle between the options, which are None, Date or Alpha. The Enter and Esc keys behave the same as the previous option. Page 46. Set File Area Offline --------------------- Yet another option with a popup that looks like the last and behaves the same. SPACE=Change, ENTER=Accept and ESC=Quit : No This time the options are No, Yes or Yes & Keep Off. The Keep Off option will set files Off-line all the time unless you set it otherwise. Set File Area Master List ------------------------- You only have two options in this popup window Yes or No. Again Space to toggle Enter to accept and Esc to exit. This will of course globally set whether areas should or should not be included in a master file list made by EZYMAINT. Set CD Rom Drive ---------------- This is to set the drive letter's of your CD's if you have them. The options are C to Z for the drive letters. This option basically sets the CD Rom Flag of ALL paths using the specified drive letter to Yes. Set Security/Not Found ---------------------- With this option you can set Files or Paths to 'Not Found' or 'Not Enough Security' if you wish. Centre File Area Names ---------------------- As the name implies this option will Centre all your file area names so when you display them to your users in an ANSI, ASCII or avatar screen you can be sure they will all be Centred. UnCentre File Area Names ------------------------ This is exactly the same as the previous option, except that it does the reverse. That is, it removes all leading and trailing spaces from all the file area names. Page 47. Protocols --------- Ezycom comes with its own external protocol engine called EzyProt. It is a fully FOSSIL aware engine and so is made to work regardless of whether you have locked com ports or not. The protocol engine comes with XModem, XModem CRC, XModem-1K, XModem-1KG, YModem, YModem-G and ZModem. These protocols automatically dupe check on the fly. In other words, when a new file is sent, it checks to see if its already on the BBS and if so, stops that file from being sent. If the user is using ZModem, then the file is simply skipped. But if YModem is being used, then the whole transfer is aborted unfortunately. Single file transfers are different since Ezycom stops the user from uploading the duplicate file before it passes to EzyProt. Ezycom also comes with a sample setup for Moby Turbo (in registered versions of DSZ), Lynx, Puma and now HSLink. They have been disabled in case you do not have these protocols setup. If these protocols are installed, then the DSZLOG environment variable must be set for them to work. Normally it would look like: SET DSZLOG=C:\EZY\DSZ.1 for node 1 SET DSZLOG=C:\EZY\DSZ.2 for node 2 Page 48. Bimodem ******* Ezycom has a menu option (Type 30) to run BiModem. This is a full blown BiModem interface. No external utilities are required. You are required to have a version of BiModem V1.25 or later to use with this option properly. Place the path where BiModem will reside in your Config>Other>Paths>BiModem_Path (Usually C:\EZY\BIMODEM). In this directory, you are required to place BIMODEM.COM, BICONFIG.COM and the configuration for each Node (BIMODEM.1, BIMODEM.2 etc from the sample setup). When Ezycom executes BiModem, it tells BiModem to use BiModem.<node> as the configuration file for it. To edit the configuration for each node, you use BICONFIG /C BIMODEM.1 for node 1 BICONFIG /C BIMODEM.2 for node 2 etc If your system path is not C:\EZY, then you will need to alter the filenames and paths accordingly in BICONFIG. Ezycom automatically makes a list of download directories on execution of BiModem. This list of paths, contains only those of which the user has access to. It creates a DOWN.<node> in your BiModem directory. If, you want to reject uploads, then make sure your rejection list of directories points to this file as well. As users might not have access to all directories, it could be possible for them to upload duplicate files. If, you do not want this to occur, make up your own list of paths (or with EZYFF - L<filename>), and make the rejection list point to that file. All BiModem uploads should go to the Config->Paths->Upload_Path. Ezycom will then move the files to the directory which you actually wished the upload(s) to go. eg IBM Uploads, Amiga Uploads etc. Page 49. Setting Up Your Own Protocols ***************************** Name : XModem Key : X Status : Up/Down Batch : No BiDir : No Log Name : C:\EZY\PROT1\DSZ.*N Ctrl Name : [UnUsed] Minimum Security : 0 Flags Download Command : C:\EZY\PROT1\DSZ.COM port *P speed *O Download Ctrl : [UnUsed] Download Log Key : S Download Err Key : E Dnload Err2 Key : L Upload Command : C:\EZY\PROT\DSZ.COM port *P speed *O Upload Log Key : R Upload Err Key : E Upload Err2 Key : L Efficiency (%) : 78 Log : FileName : 11 Log : CPS : 5 As you can see you are able to add extra protocols to Ezycom. You will however have to read the documentation for the protocol itself in order to work out how to set it up for Uploading and Downloading in Ezycom. As a reference, the options above, have the following functions: Name ---- This is the name of the protocol used in this record. Eg. Zmodem, Puma etc. Ezycom will use this to display the name to the user online. Key --- This is a ONE character key that the user will hit to gain access to this protocol. This should be a unique key (not used in other protocols). Status ------ The status tells Ezycom what the protocol will be able to do. Either Upload, Download, Both or if the protocol is Disabled. Use the Enter Key to toggle the status of this option. If the protocol is disabled it will NOT be shown to the user. Page 50. Batch ----- This option tells Ezycom if the protocol is able to handle batch uploads or downloads. Eg. Zmodem. BiDir ----- This is for the new bi-directional protocols. If you wish Ezycom to be able to detect files that may have been uploaded during a download for instance, then you should enable this. One example of a bi-directional protocol is HSLink. Log Name -------- This is the name of the log file used. The most common one will be C:\EZY\PROT1\DSZ.*N. The *N will translate to the Node being used. Ctrl Name --------- If the protocol is capable of a batch transfer it will most likely need a control file to tell it what files to download. Thus you would set this to something like C:\EZY\PROT1\FILES.*N. As in the previous section the *N will translate to the Node being used at the time of calling the protocol. Minimum Security ---------------- This is the minimum security the user must have to gain access to this protocol. Flags ----- This will display a popup window that you will be able to edit. Using the up and down arrows you can access the flag that you want. Users will have to have the flagged specified in order to use this protocol. Page 51. Download Command ---------------- This is the actual command line that will be sent to the protocol itself to get the protocol begin a transfer. Make sure that you read the documentation on the protocol to get it right. All the usual Type 7 menu option control codes can be placed in the command line. One SPECIAL character exists that can be used for translation. '#' is a list of All the Files that will be sent in this session. Although if you are using a BATCH protocol, the number of files in the batch could exceed the maximum length allowed by DOS for parameters, so that only a few files are sent. In this case, the download control file is method is recommended. '#' is nearly ALWAYS used on non-batch protocols. (Eg. XModem) Download Ctrl ------------- This is the control character used by the protocol with batch capability. 'Special' characters exist that can be translated. That is @ will translate into the path and filename of a file to be downloaded. If multiple files are being sent, then each line will contain a path and filename. Text can also be placed in there, such as 'Send @' and would translate into 'Send C:\FRED1.ZIP' on line 1, and "Send C:\FRED2.ZIP" on line 2, and so forth. Download Log Key ---------------- This is the key used by the protocol to log the download in the log file. Download Err Key ---------------- This is the error key used by the protocol if there is an error that aborts the sending of the file. As users now receive "FREE" downloads by aborting downloads near the end, it is in your best interests to have aborted downloads LOGGED. Dnload Err2 Key --------------- This is the second error key if the protocol has one. Page 52. Upload Command -------------- Like the download command this is the actual command line used by the protocol to upload a file to your BBS. Two SPECIAL characters exist for translation before the protocol is executed. The '#' is again used, but this time indicates the upload directory WITH a trailing backslash. If you do NOT want a trailing backslash, simply add a '.' after it. Also a '$' can be used to indicate the filename of the file to be uploaded. This is only for use with NON-BATCH protocols as they generally require the filename of the file to be uploaded. (Eg. XModem) Upload Log Key -------------- This is the key character used by the protocol in the log file it uses. Upload Err Key -------------- This is the error character that is used by Ezycom to determine files that were aborted during the upload process. Primarily this is used to delete aborted uploads, provided the sysop has configured Ezycom to do it. Upload Err2 Key --------------- This is the second error key if the protocol supports one. Efficiency (%) -------------- This is how efficient the protocol is under normal circumstances. Ezycom uses this to work out how long the download will take. Log - FileName -------------- This is the position of the filename in words in the log file. In a DSZ Log format, the position is 11. Log - CPS --------- This is the position of the CPS rate in words in the log file that the protocol generates. In a DSZ Log format, the position is 5. Example of the DSZ Log format CPS Rate v Z 10007 2400 bps 240 cps 0 errors 0 512 C:\CONFIG.SYS ^ ^^^^^ Upload Log Keyword Filename Page 53. Message Areas ************* Message Areas ------------- Message Area Name ----------------- Place a unique title for the message area here to identify it from all others. Try to make the name of the area reflect the contents of the messages that the area will contain. As an example "EZYCOM Support". Msg Area Name EZYCOM Support Rec 160 Area Tag EC_SUPPORT QWK Name E: EZY SUP Alias Real Names Only Message Type EchoMail Message Kind Public Only Message Group G EchoArea Group E Kill Old Msgs 30 Kill Recv Messages 14 Kill Max Msgs 500 Kill Max Kilobytes 0 Read Security 10 Write Security 100 Sysop Security 100 Read Flags Write Flags Sysop Flags Combined Yes Age Check Yes Visible No Int Combined Yes Private No Security No Use Template Yes Import Seenby No Force Mail Yes Tiny Seenby No Origin Aka 151:6122/100 Uplink Aka 151:6120/100 Origin Line [UnUsed] SeenBy 3:622/407 151:6122/100 Export To 3:622/403 640/588 151:6120/100 6122/102 103 104 The message area name can be up to 30 characters long. To delete an area just remove the area name. Areafix Tag ----------- This is where you put the name of the echomail conference. It must be a unique Conference tag and reflect the actual echomail name. It can be up to 30 characters long, but can not contain spaces. For example : EC_SUPPORT, EC_BETA. QWK Name -------- Here you put the name that the area should be called when exported to a QWK mail packet by a user. See the section on QWK offline mail for more information on QWK. Page 54. Alias ----- Use this option to control the use of real names or aliases in the message area. There are 4 possible settings : 1) USE ALIAS - Only the user's alias can be used in this message area. 2) USE ALIAS, ASK FOR ALIAS - This enables the user to be prompted to use different alias to their default, as long as it is not already used by another user on the BBS. 3) REAL NAMES ONLY - Only real names can be used in this area. This is particularly used for Fidonet echomail conferences. 4) ASK FOR ALIAS - This gives the user the option to write a message in the area using an alias. The alias selected however can not be used if it already exists on the BBS. Message Types ------------- There are 6 possible types of message areas you can configure in EZYCOM. 1) LOCAL - Allows the exchange of messages only between users of the BBS. 2) NETMAIL - Allows you to send/receive a private message to any user on another BBS that is also part of the same mail network that this area is connected to. 3) ECHOMAIL - Allows the exchange of messages between users on BBS's that are linked to the same Network and the same echomail conference. Usually these messages are public and deal with a specific topic. 4) PASSTHRU - This option if enabled, tells EZYMAIL that the conference is forward only. i.e. No mail for this areas will be unpacked into your message base but any inbound mail will be forwarded to those in your export list. 5) WAITTHRU - This option is mainly used by HUBS and HOSTS of NETWORKS. If a conference is in WaitThru mode, it is not active. It does however allow a node to turn a conference on at his HUB site by making his HUB request the conference from his HOST. 6) ALLMAIL - Messages posted to "All" in this conference are shown to "All" users on a New Mail Scan. Page 55. Message Kinds ------------- There are 3 different message kinds you can set : 1) PUBLIC ONLY - These are message areas that contain messages that any user can read on the BBS, given that they have read security for that area. 2) PUBLIC/PRIVATE - This allows you to have both public and private messages in the same area. When leaving a message in one of these areas, the user will be prompted to select if they would like to make it private or not. 3) PRIVATE ONLY - Messages in this area are private only. Private messages are distinct from public messages in that only the user who the message is addressed to, or the user who wrote it, can read it. Message Group ------------- This option allows you to group message areas together. Using this in conjunction with menu options, you can for instance break your message areas up into groups such as IBM & Amiga related message areas and have a menu option that allows accessing of only that type of message area. This works the same way as file area groups (see previous section). Areafix Group ------------- This option allows the sysop to define which group the Echomail conference belongs to. The valid range is A through to Z. You should categorise your Echomail areas. Example: You could use 'F' for all your Fidonet areas and W for all your WorldNet areas. This function is used in conjunction with Echo area manager (Described later). Do not confuse this with Message Group described above. They are not related although nothing stops you from grouping them the same way, using the same letters. Kill Old Msgs ------------- This field is used by MSGCOMP and determines how long a message can reside in the message area before being deleted. Eg. If you set this field to "7" then all mail older than 7 days will be removed. If the field is set to ZERO then the age of the messages will be ignored. Page 56. Kill Recv Messages ------------------ This works the same as "Kill Old Msgs" except that MSGCOMP wont delete the messages until the specified number of days after the message has been read (received). If this field is set to ZERO then the age after the messages have been read will be ignored. Kill Max Msgs ------------- This is the maximum number of messages that can be posted in the area. Eg. If you set Kill Max Msgs to 100, then MSGCOMP won't start deleting messages till 100 messages have been reached and then will maintain the area at 100. When the number of messages exceeds this limit and you invoke MSGCOMP, old messages get removed till the number of messages is equal to the maximum number you have specified. Kill Max Kilobytes ------------------ This is the simular to "Kill Max Msgs" except instead of controlling how many individual messages an area can hold, it is controls how big the message area can be in kilobytes. This is especially useful for those sysops who have limited disk space. Read Security ------------- This is the minimum security level required by the user to read mail in this area. Security levels can be set from 0-64000. Eg. If the read security is set to 100 then only users with security 100 and above can read the messages in that area. If however you wish all users to have read access to the area then set Read Security to 0. Write Security -------------- This is the minimum security level required by the user to write mail in the area. This option works the same way as Read Security except that it applies to writing messages in this area. Sysop Security -------------- This is the security level required to carry out sysop functions on the message area. This enables the sysop to read all messages in the area even if they are private, delete messages, edit users, forward messages, export messages to disk or printer and also edit the message header. Page 57. Read Flags ---------- These are the flags required to read mail in the area. There are 32 flags available from A1-D8. These flags work in conjunction with the read security level. Eg. If you have set the Read Security level to 100 and A1 flag is turned on then only users with security level of 100 and above PLUS the A1 flag can read the messages. To set a flag ON place the cursor over the flag you wish to set and press X. Press 'Enter' to bring up the current flag settings so you can edit them. Write Flags ----------- These flags work the same as the Read Flags except they work in conjunction with the write security. Sysop Flags ----------- These flags work thesame as the Write Flags exceptthey work inconjunction with the sysop security. Combined -------- This option determines whether the user is allowed to have Combined Access to the Message Area. Combined Access is whether they can do a Mail Check and/or Globally Read New messages for that conference. Normally this would be set to 'Yes', but under some circumstances a 'No' might be required. The user also has the ability to turn Combined Areas Off, but if this option is set 'Off', they can NEVER turn it on. Use 'Int Combined' (see below) if you want them to have it 'Off' to start with, but be able to turn it 'On'. Age Check --------- This makes Ezycom test the users age, before allowing them to access this message area. It stops them READING and WRITING to the conference. The minimum Age is defined in Config->Other->System. Visible ------- This determines whether or not a conference should appear in a system area listing when an authorised system requests a list of available conferences, but does not have access to the group. If the visible option is set to 'No' then the conference will not appear in the list. Page 58. Int Combined ------------ This controls whether new users automatically get combined access to this area by default. Private ------- This allows you to keep the private bit set on inbound echo messages for this area. This enables only the person whom the message is addressed to, to read it. If you set this option to 'No', then any private bits will be removed and the messages will become PUBLIC. Security -------- This option will precent echomail messages arriving for this area that did not come from a system you have defined in the area's export list. It will prevent them being tossedinto this area or being forwarded. Use Template ------------ Controls whether this area should appear in the list of available areas when the user selects change message area. Thus if this is set to 'Off' the only way you can get to the area is if you specifically have a menu option that reads/writes to this area explicitly. Import Seenby ------------- This is for the sysop and if you decide to set the option to "Yes" then when the sysop presses '!' while reading messages online, he can see the path the message has taken. Be warned though, retaining the seenbys wastes disk space and is really only useful for mail flow debugging purposes. Force Mail ---------- This option forces this area to be scanned during a mail check. In normal practice you would have this option set to 'Yes' else users would miss their mail in this area unless they go and physically look for it. Tiny Seenby ----------- This gives you the option to remove seenbys on the echomail you are forwarding through your system. Only the systems you echo with directly are left in the SeenBy information. This option is normally only used by Zonegates. Page 59. Origin Aka ---------- This specifies which address should be placed on the origin line of an Echomail conference. Press Return and a window will open presenting you with a list of addresses you defined under Config->Msg Areas->Network Aka. This is particularly used if you are a member of more than one Network. Uplink Aka ---------- This is used with Echomail, Netmail and WaitThru areas. It is where you put the network address of the system you are collecting your conferences from. (Usually your HUB or HOST). Press Enter to pop up a list of people you send/receive mail from. Origin Line ----------- Defines the origin line placed at the bottom of Echomail messages which originate from your BBS in this area. It can be up to 50 characters long, and should contain at least the name, location and phone number of your system. You can optionally place a *N in the origin line, to indicate the node number. Eg. Lake BBS. Newcastle, NSW, Australia +61-49-56-2853 If you do not define an origin line here then the default origin line specified in Messages Areas->Misc will be used. Seenby ------ This is a list of your current Seenbys, as defined using F8. For a detailed explanation of Seenbys, see "(F8) SEENBYS" further on in this chapter. Page Up/Down ------------ By pressing Page Up/Down you can scroll through each message area in numerical order. Page 60. (F8) Seenbys ------------ Seenby lines contain useful information for Echomail/Passthru/Waitthru software. Seenbys are a list of systems that have already seen/forwarded a message. By pressing F8 you will be presented with a list of all your network addresses you defined under Msg Areas->Network Aka. Use the Up/Down arrow keys to highlight the address you wish to use and then press Enter. The address you pick should be relevant to the conference you are forwarding. Note : At least one seenby should be defined in each Echomail/Passthru/Waitthru area. (F10) Export List ----------------- To access the export list press F10. You will be presented with a list of addresses you defined in the Node Manager. Use your arrow keys to highlight the address you wish to toggle forwarding of mail onto and press Enter. A small square will the be presented to the left of that address if it is set for export from that conference. Pick List --------- By pushing "P", a window will be displayed presenting you with all message areas. Use the Up/Down arrow keys or Page Up/Down keys till you highlight the area you wish to edit. Press Enter on the area to accept it. Moving Message Areas -------------------- Using ALT-M, you can quickly and easily move or re-arrange messages areas. Go to the area you wish to move, then press ALT-M. You will then be given a pick list of current areas. Choose where you wish to move the message area to and all messages in that area will be moved, along with the configuration for it. All user lastread pointers are also updated automatically and other options in config such as the watchdog board number (should you move this area for instance). The Escape key will abort the move function. Deleting Message Areas ---------------------- ALT-D will completely delete the current message area (config and all). It will also reset all user lastread/received pointers. Page 61. Node Manager ------------ Node ---- Defines a network address for your export list. Eg. 3:622/400. You can have up to 128 nodes. Node Address ( 1) : 3:622/400 EchoMail Active : Yes Echo Manager Groups : F Compress to : ZIP Password to EchoMgr : PASSWORD Password from EchoMgr : PASSWORD Mail Status : Normal Mail Days to Hold Mail : 7 Send .PKT Type : Type 2+ Can Create New Echos : Yes Add to New Echos : No Max Num Msgs in PKT : 300 Max Bundle Size (k) : 250 Echomail Active --------------- Toggled between Yes/No by the Return key to determine if the system is active or not. This can be useful if you know one of your NODES is going away on holiday for a few weeks and wont be able to pick up mail. Simply set the field to 'No' and no mail will be forwarded to that NODE until you reset it to 'Yes'. Generally, this option would be set to 'Yes'. Echo Manager Groups ------------------- This specifies which groups a system has access to. Valid range is A through to Z. If you have given a system access to GROUP 'F' then that system can access all the conferences that you have designated 'F' in field Areafix Group in the message areas. Use CTRL-Y to clear current settings. Use '*' to turn all groups on. Config will translate this to ABC....XYZ automatically after you press Enter on this field. Compress to ----------- This allows you to select which compression method you wish to pack mail packets to this node with. You have a choice of 6 archivers and they can be toggled by pressing the Return key till you reach your selected choice. Page 62. Password To Echomgr ------------------- This is the password that is used when you are requesting conferences from this node. This password would generally be the same password as Password From Echomgr. Password From Echomgr --------------------- This is the password your downlinks use when requesting areas off you. Mail Status ----------- This specifies the status of the mail for this system. You can toggle 3 choices of mail by pressing RETURN. 1) NORMAL MAIL - If mail is flagged as normal it will not be transmitted till a scheduled mail event or the system who the mail is address to calls you to pick up mail. 2) CRASH - Mail flagged as Crash is allowed to be sent any time of the day. However Crash mail does require the destination system to be qualified. 3) HOLD MAIL - When mail is flagged as hold, it will not be sent until the destination system polls your system to pick their mail up. Days To Hold Mail ----------------- This determines how long you hold mail for a system before it is deleted. For instance, if a node does not pick up mail after 7 days, EZYMAIL could delete it for you. Send .PKT Type -------------- Currently in FidoNet there are two standards at which EchoMail can be packed as. They are both compatible, but Type 2+ is 4D, that is, it has Zone, Net, Node and Point, whereas Type 2 only has Net and Node information. Ezycom does not handle the fakenet approach, as we do not believe in kludging things to make them work. Most echomail processors are now capable of the Type 2+ format. Can Create New Echos -------------------- If this option is enabled, then any conference that is sent to you by this node, can be automatically added to your message areas, whereas if it is not, then this node can not create a new conference on your system. This might be enabled for your Host. Page 63. Add to New Echos ---------------- If this option is enabled, then if a new conference is made in one of the groups this node has access to, then this node is automatically added to the conference. This might be enabled for your Downlinks (Hubs/Nodes/Points) for instance. Max Num Msgs in PKT ------------------- Use this option to control the maximum number of messages that Ezycom is allowed to place in an packet for one of your nodes. Once this number has been reached, Ezycom will archive the packet up and start a new packet for this node. Max Bundle Size (k) ------------------- This controls the maximum size (in kilobytes) a mail packet can get for the specified node before Ezycom will archive it up and begin a new packet. Use this in conjunction with Max Num Msgs in PKT to control hard drive usage when unpacking inbound mail/bundling for downlinks. PgUp/PgDn --------- By pressing Page Up/Down you can scroll through each Area Manager area in numerical order. Pick ---- By pressing (P) a window will open presenting you with a list of all Nodes. Use your Up/Down arrow keys or Page Up/Down keys till you highlight the Node you wish to edit. Press Enter on the Node to accept it. Page 64. Network Aka ----------- This is where you list all your network addresses. Put your most important address in the main address entry and all subsequent addresses (up to 15) as aka's (also known as). In order to use an address in a seenby/origin you must define it here. For example : Main Address : 3:622/407 Aka Address #1 : 58:2200/105 Aka Address #2 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #3 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #4 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #5 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #6 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #7 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #8 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #9 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #10 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #11 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #12 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #13 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #14 : 0:0/0 Aka Address #15 : 0:0/0 This shows that your primary address is in Zone 3, Network 622 and node 407. Page 65. Domains ------- For each network address you define you should also define a domain name. If you're not sure of the domain name for the network in question, ask someone in the network. The domain is used at the end of your address when mail is exported from your system eg. From the example below, any message written from a Fidonet area would have the address '3:622/407@fidonet' in the originating address kludge lines. 3:622/407 : fidonet 58:2200/105 : intlnet.oz 0:0/0 : [Unused] 0:0/0 : [Unused] 0:0/0 : [Unused] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] 0:0/0 : [UnUsed] Page 66. Netmail Boards -------------- Here you define where inbound netmail for each network address you have, should be tossed into upon arrival. Eg. To place Fidonet netmail into area 94 and Intlnet netmail into area 55 : 3:622/407 : 94 58:2200/105 : 55 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 0:0/0 : 1 Intelligent Guess Note: If you hit Enter on the Intelligent Guess option, then Ezycom will make an educated guess on which areas belong to which network address automatically, provided you have setup a netmail area previously for each network. If you have a lot of akas then this can save quite a bit of time, especially if you re-arrange your areas at some later date. New Echo Area ------------- This option is the heart of the auto echomail message area adding feature of Ezycom. For each Network address you can specify where Ezycom should start looking for free message areas in which to automatically create new ones. This makes setting up new echoes very easy because you can wait till a message arrives for that echo and Ezycom will automatically completely set it up for you. Page 67. Eg. If you want any new Fidonet areas to start filling up empty areas from area 50 onwards and Intlnet for areas 100 and onwards : 3:622/407 : Group F Msg Board Start at 50 58:2200/105 : Group I Msg Board Start at 100 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 0:0/0 : Group A Msg Board Start at 1 Security -------- Force Crash Mail Security : 120 Optional Crash Mail Security : 100 Netmail File Attach Security : 100 Netmail File Request Security : 100 Security to Update Users : 100 Read Sec on New EchoMail Area : 100 Write Sec on New EchoMail Area : 100 Sysop Sec on New EchoMail Area : 100 Reply Via Netmail Security : 20 Request Receipt Security : 20 Upload Message Security : 20 Force Crash Mail Security ------------------------- This is the minimum security level required to send Crash Netmail messages. Optional Crash Mail Security ---------------------------- This is the minimum security level required for a user to be prompted if he/she wishes to send a Crash Netmail message. If he selects no then the message will be sent in a normal mail session. Netmail File Attach Security ---------------------------- This is the minimum security level to allow users to attach a file to a Netmail message. Page 68. Security To Update Users ------------------------ This is the minimum security level to allow (usually the sysop) to upgrade users from the message reader by pressing "U" or from the user listing by selecting "Edit". In either case you can edit the users security level and flags. Read Security On New Echomail Area ---------------------------------- This is the minimum Security level set to 'Read' Echomail in newly created Echomail Areas if you have selected 'Echomail' in Unknown Areas Action under Msg Areas- >Misc. Write Security On New Echomail Area ----------------------------------- This is the minimum Security level set to 'Write' Echomail in newly created Echomail Areas if you have selected 'Echomail' in Unknown Areas Action under Msg Areas- >Misc. Sysop Security On New Echomail Area ----------------------------------- This is the sysop Security level set in newly created Echomail Areas if you have selected 'Echomail' in Unknown Areas Action under Msg Areas->Misc. Reply Via Netmail Security -------------------------- This sets the security level for replying to an echomail message using NetMail. For this to work fully a few things have to be right. First the user has to have the security level needed to access this feature, second the user MUST have access to the WRITE netmail access for the area that the message belongs to Eg. Fido. And finely the message being replied to MUST have a MSGID in its kludge lines. Request Receipt Security ------------------------ This sets the security level needed to ask for a receipt on a message you post, ONLY in local mail. If you have this security level you will be asked if you require a receipt, if you ask for one, Ezycom will send you a message that the user has received the message that you set the receipt on. You MUST have a file called RETRECPT.ASL in your text file path. A sample of RETRECPT.ASL in the SETUP.DAT file that comes with Ezycom. This file handles all the smart text codes except the change current colour ones. Page 69. Upload Message Security ----------------------- When writing a message, this is the minimum security a user must have to be asked whether they want to upload a pre-prepared message (in ASCII format). Message Misc ------------ Usable Msg Areas : 400 of 1024 Inbound Mail Path : C:\FD\FILE\ Outbound Mail Path : C:\FD\ARCOUT\ ARCmail 0.6 Compatibility : Yes Import Messages to Sysop : No EchoMail Routing : Direct Swap Out on EzyMail : XMS/EMS Dupe Detection : Yes Keep EchoMgr Node Receipts : No Bad Message Board (0=Off) : 140 Unknown Area(s) Action : EchoMail* Kill Bad Archive(s) : No Quote String : @> External Editor : C:\EZY\EZYEDIT.EXE -N*N Old Style MSGTMP : No Default Origin Line : Lake Macquarie BBS. OZ. Mark Netmail as Kill/Sent : Yes Kill Null Netmail : Yes Show Full Messages : No Maximum Messages to Rescan : 500 Delete Mail Bundles : Yes Usable Msg Areas ---------------- You can have a total of 1024 messages areas. It is however unlikely that most people would have this many areas. So for efficiency reasons, you can put the actual number of message areas you have. For Example: If you use only 400 message areas, you can select 400. This will speed up some operations in Ezycom dramatically. Note: You can only define the number of message areas in jumps of 16, and the minimum is 32. Also, when you do change the number of message areas, it effects the size required by the LastRead Pointers. On exiting Config, it will rebuild the users lastread pointers keeping them all in tact. This option should NOT be changed while any Ezycom programs are running. Page 70. Inbound Mail Path ----------------- Path where your incoming mail packets are delivered. Eg. C:\FD\FILE\ Outbound Mail Path ------------------ Path where your outgoing mail packets reside till they are picked up. This path, must be ONLY used by EzyMail. If any other files are found in this directory, EzyMail will remove them. This is done to help keep the area 'Clean' of files. For Example: C:\FD\ARCOUT\ ARCmail 0.6 Compatibility ------------------------- By pressing Return you toggle Yes/No to ARCmail 0.6 compatibility. Ezycom uses its own naming convention for the mail bundles. Turning this to 'Yes', forces Ezycom to use the ArcMail naming method. Import Messages to Sysop ------------------------ Use this option to control whether netmail addressed to the sysop is imported into Ezycom or left in the netmail directory. Swap Out on EzyMail ------------------- If enabled, EzyMail will swap out all except for 20k of its memory to either EMS, XMS or disk. Toggle this option with Return to select order of preference for swapping. Disk is always the final fallback. Dupe Detection -------------- If enabled, EzyMail will do Dupe Detection on all Inbound Echomail with MSGID kludge lines present. Keep EchoMgr Node Receipts -------------------------- If you want to keep EchoArea requests from other systems (such as those requesting conferences to be turned on or off, or a list of available conferences your system carries) then enable this function. Page 71. Bad Message Board ----------------- Defines the message area you wish to use to inform you of bad conferences you have received. This works in conjunction with Unknown Areas Action. If you have selected Kill in Unknown Areas then the bad message will be posted in the bad message area. Use '0' to disable this option. Unknown Area(s) Action ---------------------- There are 3 options to select from: 1) ECHOMAIL - If you select "EchoMail" then any new undefined "Conference Tags" that are detected by your system will automatically be added to the message area. This works in conjunction with Message Security options. Note: Works in Registered Version Only. 2) PASSTHRU - If this option is selected then any new undefined "Conference Tags" that are detected by your system will be automatically added as passthru conferences in the message area. 3) KILL - If this option is selected then any new Undefined "Conference Tags" that are detected by your system will be deleted, and not added to your message area. Kill Bad Archive(s) ------------------- Lets you select if you wish to delete incomplete or corrupted mail packet archives. Should you want to be able to try and resume pickup of the packet later on, you should set this to 'No'. Quote String ------------ This is the string used when you quote a message using a full screen message editor. An example is @> the @ will insert the users initials and the > just acts as a prompt but this is sysop definable. External Editor --------------- This is the DOS command line that will be used to call up a full screen external message editor. All control codes used in a type 7 menu are supported. For example *P for command port, *B for baud rate and *T for time. Page 72. Old Style MSGTMP ---------------- This option allows the System Operator to configure, which style of External Full Screen Editor Format should Ezycom support. Currently, two formats exist, the MSGTMP format, and the MSGTMP.<node> format. The MSGTMP format is the most common, and this is used by QuickED, GEdit and TopEd full screen editors, whereas the other format is only used by EzyEdit (by Brad Vonarx). The first three editors place a very big restriction on Ezycom, in that for every node used, there must be a separate directory for each node. EzyEdit interfaces better with Ezycom, allowing all nodes to run in the one directory if so desired. More information about Full Screen Editors and multitasking can be found in the "Multiline" part of this document. Default Origin Line ------------------- Used to define your default origin line. Each Echomail area can be set with different Origin lines to be attached to the end of messages that are posted in each area. However if you choose not to put individual Origin lines in each area then the Origin line defined here will be used. Remember to at least put your system Name, location and phone number in the Origin line. You can also optionally add a *N to indicate which node the message was written on. Eg. Ezycom Support, Newcastle, NSW, OZ. +61-49-56-2853 Mark Netmail as Kill/Sent ------------------------- Allows you to set the Status Bit to Kill/Sent by default on created Netmail messages from your system. What this means is that once the Netmail message has been sent it will then be deleted. Hit Return to toggle between Yes/No/Ask. Kill Null Netmail ----------------- If this option is set, then any packed netmail messages sent to EzyMail and your system (not passing through), will be purged if there is no text within the message. Show Full Messages ------------------ After a message has been replied to, use this option to control whether the whole message should be redisplayed or not. Setting this to 'No' means only the header and options bar will be redisplayed after you have replied to a message. A good thing for those at slow baud rates. Page 73. Maximum Messages to Rescan -------------------------- This sets the maximum number of messages a node can request to be rescanned at once. See the section on Area Manager later in this document. Delete Mail Bundles ------------------- This option will delete mail bundles if there is no matching message attach for them in your netmail directory. Unique QWK Filename ------------------- This is where you specify a unique filename for QWK mail packets that your system generates For Example: To set QWK packets to the name LAKEBBS.QWK - Unique QWK Filename : LAKEBBS Maximum Messages : 1000 QWK Message Board : 140 Maximum Messages ---------------- This sets the maximum number of messages that a user can download in a QWK at once. This doesn't control how much they actually download, only the maximum that they can. The range for this option is 1-65000. QWK Message Board ----------------- Any bad QWK messages that are uploaded will be placed into the message area specified here. If set to '0', then bad messages uploaded in a QWK reply packet will be deleted. Page 74. Global Message Options ---------------------- The options listed below give the sysop great versatility, plus, the added advantage of saving time by allowing you to set values for all message areas at once, instead of editing each individual area. By selecting any one of the following fields, you will set all defined message areas for that option to the same value. I will now discuss each option individually. Set Default Security Set Default Flags Set Maximum Kilobytes Set Maximum Messages Kill Messages After XX Days Old Kill Recv Messages After XX Days Global Export List Global Seenby List Centre Message Area Names UnCentre Message Area Names Set Default Security -------------------- By pressing RETURN on this option you will be presented with another small window - (R)ead Security (W)rite Security (S)ysop Security (Q)uit By selecting "R" you will be able to change the Read security on All message areas if you wish to have them set at the same security level. By selecting "W" you will be able to change the Write security on All message areas if you wish to have them set at the same security level. By selecting "S" you will be able to change the Sysop security on All message areas if you wish to have them set at the same security level. By selecting "Q" - it will take you back to Global Message Options. Page 75. Set Default Flags ----------------- Works the same as Set Default Security but changes the Read, Write or Sysop flags for all message areas to the same flag settings. Set Maximum Kilobytes --------------------- By pressing Return on this option another window will open. Just type the value you wish to set Maximum Kilobytes to and then press Return. All message areas will then be set to this value. Set Maximum Messages -------------------- By pressing Return on this option another window will open. Just type the value you wish to set Kill Max Msgs to and then press Return. All message areas will then be set to this value. Kill Messages After XX Days Old ------------------------------- By pressing Return on this option another window will open. Just type the value you wish to set Kill Old Msgs to then press Return. All message areas will then be set to this value. Kill Recv Messages After XX Days -------------------------------- By pressing Return on this option another window will open. Just type the value you wish to set the Kill Recv Messages to then press Return. All message areas will then be set to this value. Global Export List ------------------ This allows you to Add or Remove a Node in your export list From or To a Group of conferences. When you hit Return another window will open prompting you if you want to add or remove. Select what option you require. You will then be shown a pick list of the nodes you have defined in your node manager. Use the Up/Down Arrows and Enter to select the node you wish to work with. Upon choosing a node, a list of groups will come up. Use CTRL-Y to erase this field if you wish to only remove this node from selected groups. Once you have selected the groups, it will then go and carry out your request and return you to the Global Message Menu. Page 76. For example if you wish to remove 3:622/400 from receiving group 'F' Echomail conferences you would 1) Select Remove. 2) Select the Node number from the list ie. 3:622/400 3) Press CTRL-Y and type the group 'F' 4) Finally pressing Enter will carry out the request. This will then remove Node (3:622/400) from all group 'F' conferences. Global Seenby List ------------------ This option is basically the same as the previous one, except that it works on your seenbys rather than your export list. Centre Message Area Names ------------------------- This centres the Message Area Names on all message areas. To activate this function just press Return on this option and all message area names will be centred. You might find this option useful for neat, centred message area name displays in your menus. UnCentre Message Area Names --------------------------- This reverses the above process. You may not want to have you message area names centred any longer so use this to left justify them again. Page 77. Manager ******* Limits ------ Ezycom allows you to define up to 65536 different security levels, each with its own individual characteristics. These settings are set out in two columns for each security level in the Limits Manager Security Level -------------- To open a new security level you hit the INSERT key and all the options are blank. Type the security level that you wish to enable. Then fill out the blanks as you see fit for that level. An Example Of Column 1 : Security Level : 20 Maximum Time : 55 300 Baud Daily K limit : 400 1200 Baud Daily K limit : 400 1275 Baud Daily K limit : 400 2400 Baud Daily K limit : 400 4800 Baud Daily K limit : 400 7200 Baud Daily K limit : 400 9600 Baud Daily K limit : 400 12000 Baud Daily K limit : 400 14400 Baud Daily K limit : 400 19200 Baud Daily K limit : 400 38400 Baud Daily K limit : 400 Global Daily K Maximum Time ------------ This sets the maximum time per day that you allow for this security level. Daily K Limit ------------- The next options are the Daily Kilobyte Download limits which you can set for each Baud rate that your system supports. Unlike other options you will use later, 0 does not disable daily K limits, it makes the users daily K limit 0 (effectively not allowing them to download at all). To effectively give the user unlimited download Kilobytes, make the limit 65000. Global Daily K -------------- Use this to set an 'across the board' download limit. It will very quickly set the same limit for all baud rates for the current security level. Page 78. An Example of Column 2: Downloads per One Upload : 10 Initial Download Credit (Files) : 10 Downloads in k per One K Uploaded : 5 Initial Download K Credit : 100 Post Call Ratio (%) : 20 Initial Message Credit : 0 Number of Days till Rego Expires : 0 Maximum Time in Bank (mins) : 1000 Maximum Time to Deposit per Day : 45 Maximum Time to Withdraw per Day : 45 Maximum K in Bank : 2000 Maximum K to Deposit per Day : 350 Maximum K to Withdraw per Day : 350 Maximum Calls per Day : 3 Downloads per One Upload ------------------------ Sets the Download Ratio Factor (by number of files) for this security. This is the number of Downloads a user on this level can have before he/she must Upload a file. This ratio means that when it is set to one, a user must upload 1 file for every file he/she downloads. When the ratio is set to 2, the user must upload 1 file for every 2 files the user downloads. When the ratio is set to 3, the user must upload 1 file for every 3 files the user downloads, and so on. To disable this option, set the ratio to 0. Initial Download Credit (Files) ------------------------------- This setting means how many files the user can download before the files ratio is enforced. That is, if set to 1, a user can download 1 file before he/she has to upload. Setting the credit to 0 means the user must Upload BEFORE he/she can download, provided of course a file ratio was previously defined. Downloads in k per One K Uploaded --------------------------------- This is simular to ratio by files except it applies to kilobytes. For instance, if this was set to 5, then for every Kilobyte the user uploads, he/she can download 5 kilobytes. Initial Download K Credit ------------------------- This is the Initial Free Kilobytes Credit you give the user. The examples used above are similar to this situation, except that the ratio applies to Kilobytes not files. Page 79. Post Call Ratio --------------- This is a percentage. Just enter the percent of calls to message ratio you want the user to use. Setting the percentage 100% means that a user MUST post one message for every call he/she makes. Setting the percentage to 200% means the user MUST post 2 messages for every call he/she makes. Setting the percentage to 50% means the user MUST post 1 message every two calls he/she makes. Setting the percentage to 0% disables the option for this security level. Initial Message Credit ---------------------- Again the initial credit gives the user some "breathing space" before the Post Call Ratio is enforced. Note: This Post Call Ratio (PCR) actually works differently to the other two cited above. If the user does not meet the required PCR, then there is actually nothing stopping him/her from doing anything on the BBS. But, through the use of the Menu System flag "Test Post/Call", you can stop access to selected options (such as downloading) for users who have exceeded this ratio by setting the test ratio option to YES for that menu option. Number Of Days till Rego Expires -------------------------------- This is used to calculate when this user level's registration date will expire. At the point of expiring, REGEXP.Q-A is executed at logon for that user. See "Questionnaires" for more details on "REGEXP.Q-A". Setting this value to 365, would mean that the user's registration would expire 365 days after the setting of the user's registration date (usually the date of when they first logon although you can modify this date as required, in EZYED). Maximum Time in Bank (mins) --------------------------- This is the maximum time in minutes a user on this security level, may build up in the bank before they will no longer be able to deposit more time. Maximum Time To Deposit per Day ------------------------------- Use this to control the maximum amount of time users on this security level can deposit in the bank each day. Maximum Time To Withdraw per Day -------------------------------- This allows you to control how much time users on this level can withdraw each day from the time bank. Page 80. Maximum K in Bank ----------------- This option controls the maximum amount of kilobytes a user may store in the bank before they will no longer be able to deposit more kilobytes. Maximum K to Deposit Per Day ---------------------------- This controls how many kilobytes the users on this level can deposit into the bank each day. Maximum K to Withdraw Per Day ----------------------------- This is the opposite to the above, controlling how many kilobytes a user on this level can withdraw from the bank each day. Maximum Calls Per Day --------------------- A useful feature, this allows you to control how many times per day a user on this level can call your BBS. This setting uses 'Minimum time to call' elsewhere in Config as a threshold. That value must be reached for a call to be counted against this setting for a user on this level. To create another Security Level just hit your INSERT key. To delete a Security Level just hit the DELETE key. Hit (P) to get a Pick List of all the Security Levels you have set-up. Moving between the Security Levels can also be done by hitting the Page Up and Page Down keys. Page 81. Events ------ Setting of System Events is easy, just hit the INSERT key and you will be entering the time you want the event to start. Then you can set whether the event is enabled or disabled. Next set the ERRORLEVEL you want Ezycom to exit with. And the last thing to do is tell Ezycom when to use the Event, just pick the days required or all days. Events can be used to trigger activities on your system, such as system maintenance. If a user is on-line when an event should take place, they are automatically dropped off so that the event can be processed. Events are triggered 5 minutes earlier than the actual start time, so it can be possible for Ezycom to come back on-line before the actual event start time. If this occurs, Ezycom will NOT trigger the event again, it will continue as per normal. If, Ezycom is not running when an event occurs, then Ezycom will NOT execute the event when fired up. Start Time : 07:30 Status : Enabled Errorlevel : 20 Days Active : Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Last Run : 23-04-1992 This example shows that there is an event at 7:30, which will exit Ezycom with errorlevel 20 on all days of the week. Use INSERT to create a new event, DELETE to remove one. To bring up a Pick list of your events, press P. Page Up & Page Down will also scroll through your events. Page 82. Compression ----------- This is where you define the compression command line parameters for your archiver utilities. ----------------------------------- ZIP : PKZIP.EXE -ao LHA : LHA.EXE a -tm ARJ : ARJ.EXE a -ey ARC : PKARC.COM -oct -a PAK : PAK.EXE A /O /WA /L ZOO : ZOO.EXE a: ----------------------------------- Ezycom is already set up to handle 6 different archives, so usually you can just leave the above parameters as default. If, you are sending mail with old echomail processors, and using LHA, then you might have to replace the -tm with -otm. UnCompression ------------- This is where you define the decompression command line parameters for your Archive utilities. ------------------------------ ZIP : PKUNZIP.EXE -o LHA : LHA.EXE e /cnm ARJ : ARJ.EXE e -y ARC : PKXARC.COM -r PAK : PAK.EXE e /wa ZOO : ZOO.EXE -e ------------------------------- Ezycom is already set up to handle 6 different archives so usually you can just leave these parameters as default. Page 83. Modem ***** This section is used to control your modem itself. If you do not set these options correctly, communication with your modem may not function as it should. For Example: Comport : 1 Maximum Baud Rate : 19200 Locked Port : Yes Lower DTR when BUSY : No Off Hook : Yes Init Response : OK Ring String : RING Modem Delay : 10 Force Answer : No Answer Delay (1/10s) : 7 Start Time : 00:00 End Time : 23:59 Init Tries : 5 Init String 1 : ATH0Z| Init String 2 : [UnUsed] Set Busy String : ATH1| Manual Answer String : ATA| No Carrier String : NO CARRIER Fax Connect String : CONNECT FAX Send BREAK to Modem : No Comport ------- Specifies which Communications (serial) port your modem is connected to. Eg. 1 for COM1, or 2 for COM2. etc Maximum Baud Rate ----------------- Sets the maximum baud rate your modem supports. To select a baud rate press RETURN till the correct baud rate appears. This is the speed your modem will be initialised at. Valid baud rates are 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400. Locked Port ----------- Usually "No" for most low speed modems (2400 or lower), but with high speed modems it is usually Yes. The Maximum Baud Rate (above) should be set to the locked speed if this option is set. Page 84. Lower DTR when Busy ------------------- This is not advised, but in some countries it's illegal to have the modem off-hook (holding the line open to make it busy) when the BBS is not available for calls. Use this option to lower the DTR signal on the comport. This will ensure the modem cannot answer calls whilst this is the case. In most modems, this normally prevents the modem from auto-answering an incoming call. Off Hook -------- After a call disconnects/Ezycom logs a user off, your BBS may process mail or do other things before becoming available to answer the next call. If this is the case, use this option to take the modem off-hook whilst this is occurring (hence making the phone line seem engaged) and prevent it from ringing until the modem is next initialised ready for another caller. Init Response ------------- The response sent back by the modem after a command has been issued. Usually set this to 'OK'. Ring String ----------- This field allows you to define the Ring Response from your modem when a ring signal has been detected a the result of an incoming call. Usually this is set to 'RING'. Modem Delay ----------- Many modems cannot accept command strings at full speed. Because of this an inter-character delay in tenths of a second is needed. For high speed modems this can be between 1 or 2 but for most modems set it to a value between 4 and 8. Page 85. Force Answer ------------ This determines if Ezycom should answer the phone or whether the modem should. If you select Yes then EZYCOM will send the manual answer string to the modem to make it answer. Make sure ATS0=0 is in your Init String for this option (else both Ezycom and the modem will try to answer a call). If you select No then the modem will have to answer the call. Make sure you have ATS0=1 in your init string for this option. However the recommend setting is Yes as it proves Ezycom is up and running. Answer Delay ------------ This is the delay (in 10ths of a second) that Ezycom will wait after receiving a RING signal, before it sends the Answer command to the modem. Some modems will not answer reliably if this option is not carefully set. Experimentation will find the most suitable setting for your modem. Start Time ---------- This allows you to define the start time for Ezycom to answer the modem. Make sure Force Answer is set to Yes. This is useful if you are only running a part time BBS. End Time -------- This defines when Ezycom will cease to answer the modem. Init Tries ---------- Specifies how many times Ezycom will send the initialisation string to the modem before giving up should it not get an appropriate response. Usually you set this between 5 and 10. Init String 1 ------------- Type your modem initialisation string in here. These are the commands which are sent to the modem to initialise it and prepare it to answer calls. Use the pipe '|' symbol on the end of your string to achieve a carriage return in the string. Init String 2 ------------- This is used if you want to send more than one initialisation string to your modem. Page 86. Set Busy String --------------- Used to put your modem into the busy state ie hold the line open. (Offhook). Usually you set this to 'ATH1|'. Manual Answer String -------------------- If you selected Yes to Force Answer, then this is the string that is sent to your modem to force it to answer the call. The default is 'ATA|'. No Carrier String ----------------- This is the response your modem sends to the computer when loss of carrier (connection) occurs. Normally this would be 'NO CARRIER'. Fax Connect String ------------------ Ezycom has built in support for Fax/Modems. When an incoming call is detected to be a fax (by a string that matches the one set in this option), Ezycom will exit with errorlevel 10 from which you can get your batch file to fire up fax receiving software. Send Break To Modem ------------------- This option tells Ezycom to Send a Break to your Modem when clearing the Fossil Buffer. This is mainly for use with High Speed modems with Internal Buffers (such as the US Robotics Courier HST). If you are not sure whether to place this option On or Off, LEAVE it Off. Baud Rate Setup --------------- Here you Define the baud rates your modem supports, each in a separate window. For example if you have 2400 baud modem and it supports 300, 1200 and 2400 use the PgUp/PgDn keys, and place a single baud rate in each window. If you are using a modem that does NOT support LOCKED baud rates, then only 300, 1200, 1275, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200 and 38400 baud rates are supported, however, if you lock your modem at a particular baud rate, then you can select/make baud rates of any amount eg. 12000, 14400, 16800, etc baud. Page 87. Efficiency (CPS) ---------------- This is used to measure the efficiency of a transfer Usually this is worked out on 10 % of the modem baud rate. For example: 300 baud would be 30 1200 baud would be 120 1275 baud would be 120 2400 baud would be 240 9600 baud would be 1920 However for HST modems this is not quite true as a HST can do 1600(cps) or greater for 14400 baud. For HST users the best setting would be about 1650(cps). This efficiency setting is used to work out download times. Connect String -------------- These are the connect strings that the modem passes to Ezycom for a particular baud rate. For example: CONNECT 2400, CONNECT 9600 Make sure you end the CONNECT for 300 baud with a pipe '|' or else all CONNECTs will look like 300 baud!! Page 88. Networking with Ezycom ---------------------- A mail network is basically a set of bulletin board systems that are capable of exchanging messages and files with each other without the Sysop's needing to intervene. Of these mail networks, FidoNet is the world's largest, this is an amateur mail network which has over 10,000 bulletin board systems connected to it. Each of these is assigned a unique address. All networks have this type of address setup to keep all the different bulletin boards separate across the network. A file called a nodelist stores all these addresses along with other information about each system. Being part of such a network will give you access to NetMail and EchoMail. NetMail allows you to send a private message to any user of any one of the bulletins boards in the network. EchoMail also allows you post messages to many bulletin board systems in your mail network, but this method is different to NetMail in that the messages are usually public, and are organised into either general discussion areas, or areas that deal with specific issues and or topics. The FidoNet network is organised into several levels, which are usually based on geographical proximity. At the highest level there are six ZONES; Zone 1 is the USA, Zone 2 is Europe, Zone 3 is the Pacific Rim, Zone 4 is South America, Zone 5 is Africa and Zone 6 is Asia. Within each zone are a number of REGIONS that span large geographical areas. Typically there will be between 5 and 18 regions per zone. Each region is further divided into NETS. Each net has a unique net number, and the distribution of these nets is also based on geographical and technical considerations. Finally, within the net are a number of NODES. A node refers to a single bulletin board system. To find out about obtaining a node number, or an ADDRESS, contact the nearest FidoNet bulletin board. The sysop will usually be more than happy to help you out. Page 89. The only piece of software that you will need to connect your Ezycom software to such a network is a front end mailer. This is will answer the telephone for you and if it's a mail call, it will send the mail you have waiting and receive the mail from the system that has called. In most cases you will have to place the call to your host to pick-up your mail, this is called POLLING for mail. When you receive your mail you use EZYMAIL/EZYNET to toss the mail into the message base. The most common front end mailers are D'Bridge and Front Door. Note EZYMAIL will NOT work with BinkleyTerm at the moment. D'Bridge is a commercial mail package whereas Front Door is freely available for non-commercial use. Front Door is available from most bulletin boards, if you check with the sysop of one of these bulletin boards they might give you the access to get them. The node number you will be assigned should be of the format Zone:Net/Node.Point. This initial node number should be put into your configuration file. Eg. 3:622/407.0 Which means you are in Zone 3, in Net 622 and are Node 407. The .0 is there in case you are a point off a boss node. This is more fully explained in the mailer's documents and out of the scope of this document. Each EchoMail message that is posted on your system could potentially be read by hundreds of other sysops and users, with this in mind please abide by the rules of your respective networks. Ezycom allows you to be a member of many networks like FidoNet, SigNet, IntlNet, SBCnet, the list is endless. All you have to do is place the addresses they send you in your AKA address section of the config program. Conferences are the message areas that you can receive from the networks you are connected to. To add a conference to Ezycom all you have to do is enter the conference tag into the message base configuration and make sure you set up the seenby's, export list (other BBS's that might get this message conference off you), and so on. For further assistance you can contact your proposed host or Ezycom support for help, as this is beyond the scope of this document. Page 90. Sysop Function Keys ------------------- The following function keys are only available when a user in online. (F1-F6) Toggling between these keys displays complete user information on the status bar at the bottom of the screen. (F7) Pressing this key displays your custom (if defined in Config) status information. Consult the Config section of this document for more information. (F8-F9) Provides help on all the ALT and Function keys. (F10) Turns the status bar on the bottom of the screen off. Press any of the other Function keys to turn it back on. (ALT-S) Allows you to change the online user's security level. Note that this freezes the user while you are doing so. (ALT-C) Brings online users into chat allowing you to "talk" to the user via the keyboard. Press escape to end the chat mode. The standard Alt-C brings up the full screen chat if the user has ANSI/AVATAR turned on or the line chat otherwise. To bring up the line chat specifically, press SHIFT at the same time as pressing ALT-C. (ALT-M) This is very useful feature for when you log on locally. It allows you to completely edit (page 1) of a user's record while reading mail from that user. You can use this for instance to upgrade a new user after they have sent an introduction message. (ALT-J) Performs a shell to DOS while the user is on line. Note that they cannot do anything whilst you are shelled out. (ALT-E) Allows modification of Page 1 of the on-line user's settings. (ALT-P) Toggles whether the user activity should be sent to the printer. Page 91. (ALT-D) Toggles the local screen on/off. Use this to control whether you want to see what the user is doing or not. (ALT-G) Sends an ASCII bell character (character 0x07) to the user online to gain their attention. (ALT-H) Disconnects (hangs up on) the user immediately. (ALT-N) Displays fake line noise to the user and the local screen. (ALT-L) Drops the user's security level to zero (0), thereby locking them out of the system, then it logs them off. With a special switch on USERCOMP, you can have these names automatically added to your TRASHCAN.CTL file (see later) during your maintenance. (ALT-I) Sends an inactivity timeout message to the user and then log him/her off. (ALT-U) Allows you to make up a message to send to the user and then hang them up immediately. Might be something like 'If you cannot be truthful, don't call back!'. (ALT-X) Allows the sysop to edit certain system parameters for the current session. The statistics that can be edited are Next Sysop, Minimum Disk Free Space, Swap on Jump to DOS, Swapping Type, Number of Pages, Page Sound, User Ratios and Download Limit. Note that Type 15 Exits will reset some of these options. (UP ARROW) Increases the user time by one minute. (SHIFT-UP ARROW) Increases user time by ten minutes. (DOWN ARROW) Decreases the user time by one minute. (SHIFT-DOWN ARROW) Decreases user time by ten minutes. Page 92. Ezycom Command Line Parameters ------------------------------ The following is a list of command line parameters supported by Ezycom: -Px = Com port select (1-8). -L = Local logon. -BXXXX = Log user on at baud rate xxxxx (300-38400). -EXXX = Exit after caller logs off at error level xxx Range is 20-255. -S = Set display to off. (no local screen output). -D = Disable status bar at the bottom of the screen. -Fx = Which status bar to display (1-10) which corresponds to the function key you normally press to get it when a user is online. -T = Time (in minutes) till next system event. -R = Re-logon user after Type 15 exit. -NXXX = Node number if running Multi line.(1-250) This can also be used with the -R parameter when relogging a user back on a Multiline system. EG. -R -N2 -DEBMODEM = This special parameter (for use in standalone mode only) will allow you to see all modem strings that Ezycom is processing when answering the phone etc. This should be used for debugging purposes only. Page 93. Errorlevels ----------- When Ezycom exits after a user logs off or due to a type 15 menu exit it returns an errorlevel that the batch file you ran Ezycom from should trap and act upon. The errorlevels Ezycom produces are as follows: 0 = Normal exit 1 = Set-up error 2 = Software error 3 = Fossil error 4 = Modem Init Error 5 = Echomail Was Entered 6 = Netmail Was Entered 7 = Both Echomail and Netmail Were Entered 8 = Sysop on Next 9 = No Initial Modem Carrier 10 = Fax Connect Received 11-19 Reserved Page 94. Ezycom External Support Files ----------------------------- TRASHCAN.CTL (Optional) ---------------------- This text file contains a list of user names specified by you to be unacceptable for use on your system. Place one name per line. The standard check that Ezycom makes is to look for the Text you specify in the user's name. For example if you placed 'Sysop' in here it would not be allow a user who logged on as 'Fred Sysop' or 'Sysop'. Whereas if you placed a '*' in front of Sysop, for example '*Sysop' then 'Fred Sysop' would be allowed to logon, but 'Sysop' would not be allowed to logon. NOTE: If you are allowing aliases on your system be careful they don't use a single name like "John". If this user was to be put in the TRASHCAN.CTL file then any user whose name contained "John" as a first or last name would not be able to logon the system. If, you do want to stop the single word names, MAKE sure you place a "*" in front of the name to stop this from happening. ALIAS.CTL (Optional) -------------------- This file is exactly the same as TRASHCAN.CTL, except that it works on Aliases instead of real names. PHONENUM.CTL (Optional) ----------------------- This file contains phone numbers or partial phone numbers you know to be false or unacceptable. Place the phone numbers one per line. For Example, If PHONENUM.CTL contained: 12- -123- Then no user could logon with a phone number that contained 12-xxx-xxxx or xx-123-xxxx. SECCHECK.CTL (Optional) ----------------------- This text file contains names of users (one per line) whom you don't want to be forced to do security checks (eg birthdate/phone number), should you have them enabled. Page 95. REGEXP.Q-A (Optional) --------------------- This is a questionnaire defined by you that Ezycom will automatically run when a users registration has run out. This is only used if you have enabled regodays in config under 'Config>Manager>Limits'. See Script Files for help on REGEXP.Q-A. NEWUSER.Q-A (Optional) ---------------------- This allows you to define a new user questionnaire, presented to each new user after they have finished answering configuration questions. Consult the questionnaire section for more details. Be sure to have enough time set for new users to login as well as answer this questionnaire if you have this enabled. NEWUSER2.Q-A (Optional) ----------------------- This allows you to define a new user questionnaire, but the user record has already been written to the user records at this point, so MENUCMNDs are valid options now. PHONEDUP.LOG (Optional) ----------------------- If a user logs on using a phone number the same as another user, then you are notified in this file of the occurrence. Eg. John Doe logged on using same phone number as Jane Doe. ANS/ASC/ASL/AVT Files --------------------- Listed below are the ANS and ASCII support files which you can define. All files must reside either in the AVT/ANS/ASC/ASL directory. *** Means a default prompt will be displayed if the text file is not present. ALIAS.A* This file is displayed before the new user enters their alias. AREAHELP.ASL This file is sent to any nodes that request help from the EchoArea manager. DOBSEC.A* This is displayed before the user is asked for their date of birth for logon security verification. DOWNHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects 'H)elp' from the download command. EDITHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects help inside of the line editor. Page 96. FLSPHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects 'H)elp' from the file specification (Menu Type 36) search command. FILEXXX.ASC These files can be implemented if you require Ezycom to display a comment/header file before displaying the files listed in the file area that the user is about to look at. The XXX is the file area number and this file should be placed in the same path as the file base information for the area in question, is stored. So if you want a comment file for file area 10 you would have a file called FILE010.ASC placed in the path C:\EZY\FILEBASE\AREA1\FILE010.ASC KEYWHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects 'H)elp' from the keyword search command (Menu Type 35). *** LOCKOUT.A* This message is displayed when you either lockout a user (Alt-L), or a user who has been locked out tries to logon. LOGO.A* This file is displayed just before the system asks the user for their name and password. *** MAXPAGE.A* This file is displayed if the user exceeds the maximum number of pages specified in Config>Other>Paging>Maximum Pages. NEWS.A* This file is displayed after NEWUSER2.A* and WELCOME.A* and before the check for waiting mail. NEWUSER1.A* This file is displayed to a new user when they confirm that they have entered their name correctly. This might say something like 'Welcome to the system New User'. NEWUSER2.A* This file is displayed before the NEWUSER.Q-A, but after the system questionnaire specified in Config. *** NOTAVAIL.A* This file is displayed when a user pages outside the paging hours defined in Config. ONCEONLY.A* This file is displayed to all users once and once only. Ezycom checks the date on the file and will only display it to the user if they have not already seen it. It is displayed after the WELCOME screens. *** PAGEABRT.A* This file is displayed if the sysop aborts an attempted page by the user. Page 97. *** PAGED.A* This file is displayed after the user has paged the sysop but before the sysop answers. This could be something like your chat has been noted, the sysop will break in when available. *** PAGESTOP.A* This file is displayed if the sysop aborts the current page and stops all further paging. PASSWORD.A* This file is displayed before a user is asked to enter their system password. PHONESEC.A* This is displayed before the user is asked for their phone number for security verification. *** PRIVATE.A* This is displayed to newusers if the newuser security level is 0. It would advise them that the system is a PRIVATE system. PROTHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user presses (?) at the list of selectable upload and download protocols. *** REGWARN1.A* This is the last warning before registration runs out as defined in config. *** REGWARN2.A* This is the first warning before registration runs out as defined in config. READHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects help just after selecting to Read a message area. SECXXXXX.A* This file is displayed when a user logs on with XXXXX security. That is, if a user logged on with security 10, then SEC10.A* would be displayed to him/her. *** TIMESLOW.A* This is displayed when a user logs in using a slow baud rate but is outside the hours this baud rate is allowed. *** TIMESEC.A* This is displayed when a user logs on below the minimum logon security, and has not logged on between the low security start and end times. UPHELP.A* This file is displayed when the user selects 'H)elp' from the upload command. WATCHDOG.ASL This file is sent in a message to a user who has had a previous unsuccessful logon. Typically this message would say something along the lines of 'someone has tried to logon onto your account and failed. Please change your password.'. Page 98. WELCOME.A* This file is displayed after the user logs on. You can use this file to show the user a colourful display about your BBS, welcoming them online. WELCOME1.A* This file is displayed after the WELCOME.A*. This can be used to tell the user more about your system. WELCOME2.A* This file is displayed after WELCOME1.A*. WELCOMHH.A* This file is displayed between 00:00 and 23:00. You can have an individual WELCOME ANSI/ASCII screen displayed every hour. Eg. WELCOM11.A* would be displayed between 11am and midday. Page 99. File Points ----------- File Points is a file management system that doesn't incur the problems associated with the normal File/Kilobyte Ratio Systems. The unique feature of file points, is that when user(s) download the file, the uploader is given credit for the download. So, if user(s) upload old/boring files that will not be popular, then they will not receive many (if any, depending on the configuration) filepoints for the upload. This system encourages user(s) to upload decent files, as the more times their file's are downloaded, the more points they get, therefore the more downloads they can make. File Points can be configured in the 'Misc' part of 'File Areas' in the Config. See the documentation on these options for configuring them. (Registered Versions of Ezycom Only). Page Tunes ---------- Ezycom also has the ability to play page tunes while the user is paging the sysop. They take the form of PAGExx.EZY in the Ezycom system path. This first tune should be named "PAGE01.EZY", the second "PAGE02.EZY" and so on. These are plain text files, and they contain either a comment (indicated by a semi-colon ';' at the start of the line), the TONE [hz] [1/100's second] command or the WAIT [1/100's second] command. The [hz] indicates the frequency (pitch) of the tone to be played. Following is a list of frequencies together with their respective musical notes. Note Octaves ----------------------------------------- #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 ----------------------------------------- C 45 134 268 536 1071 2145 C# 71 142 284 568 1136 2273 D 75 150 301 602 1204 2408 D# 80 159 319 638 1275 2551 E 84 169 338 676 1351 2703 F 90 179 358 716 1432 2864 F# 95 190 379 758 1517 3034 G 100 201 402 804 1607 3215 G# 106 213 426 851 1703 3406 A 113 225 451 902 1804 3608 A# 119 239 478 956 1991 3823 B 127 253 506 1012 2025 4050 Eg. To play middle C for 1 second and then wait (have silence) for 1 second: TONE 45 100 WAIT 100 Page 100.