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1992-05-17
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MAXIBANK v2.13
(c)1992 RAFware
(1:xxx/xxx)@Fidonet.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't claim that MaxiBank is good for anything -- if you think it is,
great, but it's up to you to decide. If MaxiBank doesn't work: tough.
If you lose a million because MaxiBank messes up, it's you that's out the
million, not me. If you don't like this disclaimer: tough I reserve the
right to do the absolute minumum provided by law, up to and including
nothing.
This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all software packages,
but this is in plain English and other ones are in legalese.
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WHAT IT DOES
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Have your users ever complained that they don't have enough time? Do they
ask for more time to download a massive file, or to play online games? If
so, then your users will appreciate a 'time bank'. What this door does is
allows a user to deposit time for later use.
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FEATURES
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- Allows deposits and withdrawls
- Can give interest to users based on amount of time in their account
- Allows a maximum amount of time to be withdrawn
- Can be set to disallow withdrawls during certain hours
- Built in 'Bank Manager' function
- Allows 'Bonus' time for new accounts
- Allows user to transfer time to any other users' account.
- Will not let users overrun system events
- Totally configurable, and easy to set up
- Built in help screen
- ANSI graphics available
- Uses FOSSIL driver
- ByteBank feature - user can reduce/erase their daily download amount.
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HOW IT WORKS
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The user loads the bank door and deposits some of his online time. This
time is then stored in the bank account for later use and is subtracted from
his current online time. The user may then call back at a later date and
use this time for whatever purposes he may have. Essentially, the user
spends less time during one call, and more time during another call.
Also, the user has the ability to use the ByteBank. Let's say the user down-
loaded a 200K file, and has a 500K download limit. Now he wants to download
a 400K file, but alas - he can't! This is where the ByteBank comes in. All
the user has to do is load MaxiBank and choose the ByteBank option. Here
the user can clear the amount of kilobytes he has used today by paying it off
with his time. MaxiBank calculates the amount of time needed to pay off the
bytes based on the user's baud rate. So, for 200K, MaxiBank would ask the
user to pay, let's say; 15 minutes (@ 2400 baud) to clear it.
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REQUIREMENTS
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- Maximus CBCS
- MS-DOS v3.0 or higher
- a FOSSIL (for online use).
- 134,000 bytes of free RAM.
- and half a brain
Although I'm sure the first four items are obvious, I've included them just
incase you lack the fifth <grin>.
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IMPLEMENTATION
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Setting up MaxiBank is pretty easy. For starters, just copy BANKER.EXE,
MAXIBANK.EXE and MAXIBANK.CFG into either your Maximus directory or
any other directory. Your next step is to configure MaxiBank. This
is done by editing the MAXIBANK.CFG file (it contains comments, so each
option should be self-explanatory).
You can call up MaxiBank from your MENUS.CTL by adding:
ReRead Xtern_Run C:\Max\MaxiBank.Exe <options> Normal "$)Time Bank"
You can also call MaxiBank up from a BBS file like this:
[Xtern_Run]@C:\Max\MaxiBank.Exe <option>
^ Tells Maximus to re-read the LASTUSER.BBS upon reloading.
Note: This program will *NOT* work in an External Errorlevel Exit from
Maximus.
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COMMAND LINE SWITCHES
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MaxiBank supports the following switches, which will override the settings
inside of MAXIBANK.CFG (all switches are optional; if you load MaxiBank with
no arguments it will use the settings in the CFG file).
Usage: MaxiBank <options>
Where <options> are:
/C<filename> - name of configuration file to use
/T<#> - Maximus task number to use
/P<#> - COMM port to use (COM1 = 1, COM2 = 2, etc)
/E - starts MaxiBank up in LOCAL Bank Manager mode
/L<filename> - specify MaxiLog filename, overrides .CFG option
/D# - Deletes inactive accounts, # = days of inactivty
- Reports deletions in MaxiLog, and returns to DOS
- /L option must come before any /D# options.
For example, a multi-line system might look like:
MaxiBank.Exe /Cc:\max\bank1.cfg /T1 /P2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BANKER.EXE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You MUST run BANKER.EXE after each caller so that the TIME ONTODAY field in
the USER.BBS is adjusted according the amount of time that the user has
deposited in his account. If the user didn't deposit any time, then nothing
will be changed. This is done so that the user can't call back and exceed
his daily accumulated time limit. I prefer not to fiddle with this while
Maximus is active. Max v1.02 did not allow any changes to the TimeOnToday
value and Max v2.00 has gone berserk internally with regards to this value.
Running Banker after every logoff takes about 2 seconds if no transactions
have occured. Less time on speady drives. Much less than ScanBld etc...
BANKER supports the following options (if none are specified, then Banker
will assume the default names, and will look in the current directory):
Usage: Banker <datafile> <userfile> <logfile>
<datafile> - the filename and the directory that your bank DAT
file resides in
<userfile> - the filename and path of your Maximus USER.BBS file
<logfile> - name of the logfile for BANKER to write to
Example:
Banker.Exe C:\Max\MaxiBank.DAT C:\Max\User.BBS C:\Max\Max.LOG
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USING MAXIBANK
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you first run MaxiBank, it will create it's data file and will award
users that open a new account with the amount specified in the CFG file
and deposit it into his account. The user is then presented with the
following options, all of which are quite self-explanatory:
D)eposit, W)ithdrawl, T)ransfer, B)yteBank and Q)uit ?
If there is an impending event, or if the user is not allowed to make
withdrawls, then the W)ithdrawl option will not be available. Also, if
the user has not downloaded any files, then the ByteBank option will not
be there either. Users can Transfer Time from their account to any other
users' account.
If the user does not make any transactions, then no account will be
created. This is useful if you just want to use the manager fuction, but
do not wish to have an account.
If your username matches that of the name specified for 'Bank Manager' in
the CFG file then the following options will be available through the
'E)dit' command which will also appear at the Main Menu:
N)ext, L)ist, P)revious, F)ind, J)ump, S)ort, E)dit, Q)uit ?
The user records will be displayed in the following form:
Account # 2. First Last 21 Jan 91 00:00:00 30
^ Record# ^ User Name Last visit ^ Minutes ^
(Date) (Time)
By choosing the 'E)dit' command from the Edit Menu, the following commands
will be available to you:
N)ame, D)ate, B)alance, H)ide, M)ark, P)urge, A)dd, L)evels, Q)uit ?
All are self-explanatory, except for the 'M)ark' command. This allows you
to tag user names for deletion. Note, you will not be able to edit
anything in account 0 except for 'time', the total number of transactions.
'P)urge' allows you to 'M)ark' accounts by number of days of inactivty. The
S)ort command allows you to selectively sort the data file by Name, Date or
time in users' account. Prefix your sort selection with a '-' for a reverse
direction sort. The H)ide command makes this account perminent. All attempts
to M)ark or P)urge will be ignored. Un H)ide if you want to M)ark. L)evels
will display the privilege level of the current user and the account limits.
If you are looking at the very first record, the MaxiBank logo, then this
option will list all privileges and the limits. These limit values cannot be
changed while in editor mode, you must edit Maxibank.Cfg, this option only
displays the values found in MaxiBank.Cfg.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAMPLE BBS FILE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On my system, I load MaxiBank through a BBS file. This is what my BANK.BBS
file looks like:
[cls][ckoff][moreoff]
[dbelow][white]Sorry, you must be registered to use this function. [quit]
[gray][xtern_run]@c:\max\maxibank.exe /T%k /P%P
[white][enter][cls][quit]
As you can see, I restrict the use of MaxiBank to users with Normal access
or higher. Note the '@' after the [xtern_run] token; this tells Maximus
to re-read the LASTUSER.BBS file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPORT
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You can reach the author of MaxiBank, Rodney Fraser, at 1:153/715 (FidoNet).
You can always file request the latest version of MaxiBank from the following
address:
1:xxx/xxx, 2400/MNP
Enjoy!