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1990-03-15
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3,699 lines
The QuickBBS Group, Inc.
Presents
QuickBBS
The QuickBBS Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 621735
Orlando, FL USA 32862-1735
(407) 228-9096
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: i
Table of Contents
Licensing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
DISTRIBUTION FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Notation Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
QCONFIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Modem Parameters and System Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Restrictions, Netmail, and New User Parameters . . . . . . 13
The Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Other Miscellaneous Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Event Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Message Submenus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Read/Scan/Quick-Scan Method Selection . . . . . . 23
Read/Scan After-Each-Message Selection . . . . . 24
Additional Command Options For Linked Messages . 25
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Logging On in Local Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Bringing the Board Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Calling Up the Board from a Batch File . . . . . . . . 26
THE USER BASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Editing the User Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Invocation Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
THE MESSAGE BASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Cleaning the Message Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Packing the Message Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Message Linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
SUPPORT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Files QuickBBS Creates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Control Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Page: ii QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Table of Contents
Auto-Display Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
ASC/ANS File Control Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
NETMAIL & ECHOMAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Overview of Netmail Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Required Software for Netmail . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
An Overview of the Net Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Configuring QuickBBS for Netmail . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Compiling the Nodelist for QuickBBS . . . . . . . . . 44
Continuous Mailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Non-Continuous Mailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Sending Mail into the Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Getting Messages from the Net . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
QECHO Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
QECHO Command Line Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Defining Echomail Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
QuickBBS Setup Information and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 1
Introduction
Licensing Information
QuickBBS is copyrighted material of the QuickBBS Group, Inc. This
documentation is copyright Darrell J. Cadwallader, and the
QuickBBS Group, Inc. It may be used and copied only under the
following guidelines:
You may use QuickBBS and its utilities on your system for up to
thirty days to test its suitability for your application. After a
determination of suitability you must register your copy or
discontinue using the program. If you need more time, please feel
free to call or write and we will review your case.
You may NOT use QuickBBS in any governmental, institutional, or
pay system unless you register your copy.
You may NOT use QuickBBS in any unlawful or illegal manner, we
WILL notify the proper authorities if such an occurrence does
come to our attention.
You may distribute QuickBBS free of charge provided that no
charge is levied. This excludes charges for time online for pay
systems.
You may distribute QuickBBS for a fee provided that each copy of
QuickBBS that you distribute is pre-registered. Pay systems are
exempt from this clause but must notify the QuickBBS Group, Inc.,
prior to distribution.
You may distribute QuickBBS provided that no changes are made to
the programs or documentation. This includes ANY changes to the
executable programs, or changes to the information placed in the
message bases by QuickBBS products, and specifically includes
removal or alteration of tear line information or registration
information whether displayed to a caller or not.
QuickBBS was previously owned by Adam Hudson. If you registered
with Adam Hudson, you may use any of his release versions (1.0x,
2.03, 2.04, etc.) as long as you wish without charge. You are
also directed to send your queries regarding this software to
Adam Hudson as these versions are not supported by the QuickBBS
Group, Inc. A license to use Adam Hudson's product is not a
license to use the products owned by the QuickBBS Group, Inc.
Page: 2 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
A registration fee of $45.00US (subject to published discounts)
is required for each copy of QuickBBS that you use. Previously
registered owners may be eligible to receive a credit of up to
$25.00 towards the registration of QuickBBS. Site licensing of
QuickBBS is available and will be reviewed on a case by case
basis.
Non-profit and not-for-profit corporations, User Groups, etc. may
be eligible to obtain an exclusion from the licensing fees.
Applications for exclusion will be reviewed on a case by case
basis.
The QuickBBS Group, Inc. uses a security key system on QuickBBS.
This version allows evaluation without a key. This is to give the
SysOp time to determine if they choose to purchase the product
and if it meets their needs. The thirty day evaluation period is
consistent with the philosophy of SHAREware distribution. It is a
direct violation of this license to alter or tamper with, in any
way, the security system employed by The QuickBBS Group, Inc.
There is no difference between QuickBBS running in evaluation
mode or registered mode, except that the registered mode will
identify itself as "Registered To: System name" to its callers
and the tear line will, by default, display
"--- QuickBBS v2.xx (Reg)"
You may set the tear line to anything you wish by creating a DOS
environment variable called "TEARLINE" and setting that to what
ever you wish to have placed on the Tear Line, for example;
"SET TEARLINE=[REGISTERED]"
will yield a Tear Line of "--- QuickBBS 2.xx [REGISTERED]", and;
"SET TEARLINE=+"
will yield a Tear Line of "--- QuickBBS 2.xx+".
The evaluation mode will not display the registration information
and the tear line will display
"--- QuickBBS v2.xx (Eval)"
A Beta test copy of the system will display a tearline of:
"--- QuickBBS v2.xx (Beta)"
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 3
Introduction
QuickBBS is not and never will be "crippleware." The registration
fee will allow use of ALL release 2.xx versions, and there will
be no additional fee charged for new minor releases. There may be
a nominal charge for major releases to help defray development
costs. Major releases will also provide significant enhancements
to the program. A major release will be signified by a change in
the whole number part of the version number.
Printed documentation is available from the QuickBBS Group, Inc.
The charge is $15.00US and includes shipping. The documentation
will be typeset and comes with a binder and a diskette with the
current release. Documentation on disk will always be available.
Send all registration fees, site licensing requests, and requests
for licensing exclusion to:
The QuickBBS Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 621735
Orlando, Florida 32862-1735
Voice Mail: (407) 228-9096
Questions may also be directed in net-mail to:
Allen Fitzsimmons
QuickBBS Support System #1 (1:363/47)
and left in a message on the Support System #1 - (407) 856-0356,
or Support System #2 - (407) 644-1318. System #1 is for
administrative support and System #2 is for technical support.
Magic Login Name: "QuickBBS Support Sysop"
Please include your name, address, voice phone number (including
best EST times to call), system name, your net/node address(es),
and your security key.
DISCLAIMER
The QuickBBS Group, Inc. provides the QuickBBS software system as
is / where is. The QuickBBS Group, Inc. shall in no way be
responsible for any damages to your computer system nor the data
stored therein. The QuickBBS Group, Inc. endeavors to provide a
product that is a error free as possible, but from time to time a
program bug may be found; we will take what ever steps we deem
fit to correct those situations in as timely a manner as
possible.
Page: 4 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
DISTRIBUTION FILES
The distribution files available from The QuickBBS Group, Inc.
are as follows;
QDOC_xxx.ZIP This documentation in generic text format.
QDOCExxx.ZIP This documentation formatted for Epson MX & IBM
Pro Printers.
QDOCWxxx.ZIP This documentation with Desk Top Publishing
commands in WordPerfect 5.1 format. This version
REQUIRES Bitstream Fontware to print sucessfully.
QMEN_xxx.ZIP The complete documentation for the menu commands
of QuickBBS, the Menu Master program used to edit
QuickBBS menus, and a discussion of the sample
menus and text files.
QREL_xxx.ZIP The Master Release for QuickBBS. This file
will include all utilities and samples that
are required to start a Stand-Alone QuickBBS
System. This archive also includes a fossil, the
menu editor, user editor, message base utilities,
sample batch files, sample menu files, and sample
help files.
QEXE_xxx.ZIP This archive contains updated .EXE files for
any changed programs from previous releases.
This is only an update and MAY NOT contain a
complete set of the software.
QOVL_xxx.ZIP This archive contains updated Overlayed
versions of the software for any changed
programs from previous versions. This is only
an update and MAY NOT contain a complete set
of the software.
QNET_xxx.ZIP This file contains the current release
version of the QuickBBS Net Mail processing
utilities, including; QECHO.EXE,
MAILTOSS.EXE, and MAILSCAN.EXE.
QBATCH.ZIP This archive contains the sample batch files
provided with QREL_xxx.ZIP.
QTEXT.ZIP This archive contains the sample text & help files
provided with QREL_xxx.ZIP.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 5
Introduction
QMENU.ZIP This archive contains the sample menu files
provided with QREL_xxx.ZIP.
MM34.ZIP This archive contains Menu Master, a program for
editing menu files.
QUFExxx.ZIP This archive contains Quick User File Editor,
a program for editing the user file.
NOTES: Please note that in the above list, the notation "xxx" is to
be substituted for the curent version number. As of the
publication date for this documentation file, the current
release is version 2.65. Therefore the name of the master
release archive would be QREL_264.ZIP. Those systems that
are running FIDO compatable mailers may also do file
requests using the following "Magic Names"; QUICKBBS - The
current full release version (QREL_xxx.ZIP), QUICKEXE - The
current .EXE version (QEXE_xxx.ZIP), QUICKOVL - The current
Overlayed version (QOVL_xxx.ZIP), and QUICKDOC - The current
documentation file (QDOC_xxx.ZIP).
Page: 6 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Overview
QuickBBS is a fully self-contained Bulletin Board program. It is
ready to go as a stand-alone BBS with just DOS and a fossil
program. A fossil is a standard low-level interface that allows
systems that aren't fully compatible to run the same BBS
software. With the addition of a mailer program and a mail
tosser/scanner utility it is ready for netmail and echomail.
This version of QuickBBS provides an easy upgrade from version
2.04. If you are currently operating version 2.03, you must run
the copy of 203TO204.EXE that was included in the general release
archive to make the changes to CONFIG.BBS. If you have an version
2.04 update archive you will need to get a copy of this program
from the SDS, or any QuickBBS Beta Site, or one of the support
systems.
There are sample batch files for a variety of mailers contained
in the archive BATCHFIL.ZIP, included in the release archive. You
will need a separate mailer program in order to operate netmail.
A mailer IS NOT included with QuickBBS. Examples of some of the
mailers currently in use are Front Door, D'Bridge, and
BinkleyTerm.
QuickBBS uses a database format for the message base. This allows
messages in a busy board to be retrieved more quickly than with
other file oriented message base systems. It will also take less
disk space to store the messages.
QuickBBS supports message linking. Users can now opt to read
replies to a message, or previous messages to which the last
message was a reply, without losing their place in reading
sequentially through the board. Whether or not they choose to do
so, they need issue no additional commands.
QuickBBS uses menu-interruptable "hot keys". The user does not
have to wait for the prompt to enter a menu selection or hit the
return key after making the selection. Regular users can move
through your menus and message boards at lightning speed.
QuickBBS provides you with sample menus to get you started in an
archive called QUIKMENU.ZIP contained in the full distribution
archive and available separately. These menus may be modified to
suit your needs, allowing you to create a unique system
reflecting your personality and the theme of your BBS. Also
included in the main QREL_xxx.ZIP archive is a separate archive
called Q_MENU.ZIP or MM34.ZIP which contains a separate program
set to edit your menus. There are over 48 menu commands giving
you great flexibility in the look and feel of your system. You
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 7
Introduction
have complete control over color selection and can create custom
graphic menus. QuickBBS has its own built-in ANSI routines so you
don't need to have ANSI.SYS loaded.
There are 32,000 different security levels available, augmented
by thirty-two access flags and the ability to password protect
individual menus and file areas.
A questionnaire command language allows you to make custom
questionnaires. You can use more than 60 control character
commands in your questionnaire screens. In addition to menu
driven displays, QuickBBS displays text files of specific names
at strategic times. Log files are automatically created, there's
a built-in SysOp page function, and you can allow your users to
read through multiple message boards together.
QuickBBS can exit or shell out (stay resident in memory for a
speedier return) so that you can provide games and other external
programs for your users.
System Requirements
QuickBBS operates on IBM PC/XT/AT's or compatible. The minimum
memory requirement is 512Kb for the standard .EXE version and
256KB if you are using the Overlayed version. If you use QuickBBS
with a mailer or if you use any door software the memory
requirement will be greater.
While it may be possible to operate QuickBBS on a dual floppy
drive system, it is highly recommended that you have a hard drive
as the message base alone can easily exceed 2 megabytes if
echomail is used.
Ramdrives have been used with QuickBBS with quite a bit of
success, but beware, ramdrives are very dangerous. It is fairly
safe to copy your menus and text files into a Ramdrive every time
your system boots, but if you make any changes, you will want to
make sure to copy the changes from RAM to the hard drive. You
will never want your Message or User bases kept in a Ramdrive
unless you have the system copy these files to the hard drive
every time a user logs off. This will insure minimum losses in
the event of a power failure or brown out.
Besides the QREL_xxx.ZIP file you will need DOS and a fossil
driver. Fossils are programs that interface the BBS software to
your specific type of machine. X00 and BNU are fossils for PC's
and clones. These programs are manufactured by other companies.
QuickBBS as a convenience provides X00 in it's master release.
Page: 8 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The following are recommended minimum settings for CONFIG.SYS:
FILES=20
BUFFERS=25
You will also need to put the QuickBBS subdirectory in your path
statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT. See your DOS manual for more
information on CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
SHEDIT.EXE and QUICKED.EXE are optional full screen message
editors that are designed to work with QuickBBS. These are
separate shareware programs. Please register them separately from
QuickBBS and in accordance with the licensing agreements that
accompany the programs.
Notation Conventions
In this manual, user input is enclosed in double quotes (") for
text strings and single quotes (') for single characters except
numbers. Special keys are enclosed in braces { and }, i.e. {PgDn}
means press the Page Down key (3 on the numeric pad). Required
input is delimited by < >, optional input by [ ]. When referring
to modem command strings, the word "usually" refers to the Hayes
'AT' command set used by many modems. Check the documentation for
your modem to determine specific compatibility.
Installing the Software
To install QuickBBS, make a directory on your hard disk called
"QUICKBBS". This is the directory where you will run the bulletin
board in and is called "The QuickBBS home directory". Change to
this directory extract QREL_xxx.ZIP and then run the batch
program INSTALL.BAT. You will need to have the program "PKUNZIP"
available in your path or in the QuickBBS subdirectory to enable
the installation program to function correctly. The install
program will install QuickBBS, create your menu and text file
subdirectories, an initial down load directory. You will have to
make sure that your CONFIG.SYS file has a minimum of FILES=20,
BUFFERS=10 and the DEVICE=X00.SYS command if you are going to use
X00.SYS for your communications driver (fossil). We recomend
putting the QuickBBS home directory in your path. After running
INSTALL.BAT your BBS will be ready to answer the phone and take
callers. You will probably want to make a few adjustments to
further customize your system. You will use the QCONFIG.EXE
program to add new message bases, and MM to modify and add new
menus for your system.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 9
Introduction
QCONFIG
QCONFIG is the main configuration program for QuickBBS. QCONFIG
is used to set modem parameters, paths to system files, default
user restrictions, miscellaneous parameters, configure the
message boards, and set the event schedule. To run QCONFIG from
DOS type "QCONFIG" and press {Enter}. You will see the following
menu:
QuickBBS Configuration Utility Version 2.xx
<1> ... Modem Commands/Responses and System Paths
<2> ... Restriction, Net-Mail, and New User Parameters
<3> ... Misc. Parameters (Page 1)
<4> ... Misc. Parameters (Page 2)
<M> ... Message Board Information
<E> ... System Event Information
<ESC> Exit QCONFIG
Selection:
Figure I
Page: 10 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Modem Parameters and System Paths
Select function <1> from the QCONFIG menu and you will see:
QuickBBS Configuration Utility Version 2.xx
Communications Port ............: 1
Baud Rate to Initialize Modem ..: 2400
Max. Number of Initialize Tries : 10
Seconds to Wait for Carrier ....: 30
Modem Initialization String ....: |ATE0F1M0Q0V1X1C1H0S0=1S7=15|
Modem Initialization Response ..: OK
Modem Busy String ..............: |ATH1M0|
Modem Busy Response ............: OK
Response for 300 Baud Connect ..: CONNECT|
Response for 1200 Baud Connect .: CONNECT 1200
Response for 2400 Baud Connect .: CONNECT 2400
Response for 4800 Baud Connect .: CONNECT 4800
Response for 9600 Baud Connect .: CONNECT 9600
Menu Files Path:
C:\QuickBBS\MENU\
Text Files Path:
C:\QuickBBS\TEXT\
Net Mail Path:
C:\{mailer}\MAIL\
Figure II
The current field is extended with blocks. Use the up arrow or
down arrow keys to go from field to field.
If you are using a port other than 1 (for the technically minded
this is PORT0 or COM1) change the value in the Communications
Port field.
Set the Maximum Baud Rate to Initialize Modem to the maximum baud
rate of your modem. If your modem supports baud rates of 9600
baud or higher, use 9600. QuickBBS cannot directly take calls at
baud rates above 9600 in stand alone mode; you must use a front-
end program to pass callers at higher baud rates to QuickBBS.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 11
Introduction
The Maximum Tries Allowed to Init Modem determines how many times
QuickBBS will attempt to set the modem before aborting with a
modem initialization error message.
Seconds to Wait for Carrier determines how long QuickBBS will
wait for a carrier tone on incoming calls before giving up and
reinitializing the modem.
Modem Initialization String is the string that QuickBBS uses to
set your modem. If you are using a front-end mailer then you need
not worry about this field. If you are changing to QuickBBS from
some other software you can probably copy your current
initialization string. Consult your modem manual to ensure that
all of the commands listed in the default string are valid for
your modem. Be sure that S0=1 is used so that your modem will
answer the phone. QuickBBS supports several special modem
characters:
| Sends a carriage return (CR)
^ Raises DTR - will answer the phone
Figure III
Set the Modem Initialization Response to match the response that
your modem gives when it is initialized. If you are using a
front-end mailer you do not need to set this field. Some modems
return numeric result codes, some return strings (called verbal
responses), most are programmable to return one or the other.
The Modem Busy String is used when the bulletin board is doing
something and cannot accept calls, such as when you log on
locally or when QuickBBS exits. There are two accepted methods of
performing this. The first, and oldest, is to drop the DTR so
that the modem can not answer the phone. This results in the
caller getting a ring without ever having your machine answer the
phone, often leading the caller to think that your board is down.
The other method is to take the phone off of the hook, thereby
generating a busy signal. This is the default. Usually, this
command string is ATH1.
The Modem Busy Response is the response your modem will generate
if the modem busy command string is correctly executed.
Page: 12 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The Response for 300, 1200, 2400, and 9600 Baud connections is
the response your modem generates for connects at each of these
speeds. Your modem must be able to generate different responses
for each of these. Many modems require a "|" (carriage return
character/DOS pipe command) at the end of the 300 baud connect
string. QuickBBS cannot take calls directly at baud rates above
9600, but you can have a front-end program such as Binkley pass
higher baud rates to QuickBBS.
The Menu Files Path is the path to the directory that you created
for the menus.
Change the Text Files path to the path you created for the text
files.
The Net Mail Path is where the QuickBBS mail handling utilities
look for incoming netmail and echomail, and place outgoing mail
for your mailer program to process. You don't need to make an
entry here if you're running a stand alone system.
Press "{Esc}" when all parameters appear correct and you will be
returned to the first menu.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 13
Introduction
Restrictions, Netmail, and New User Parameters
Select option <2> from the QCONFIG main menu to see the
following:
QuickBBS Configuration Utility Version 2.61
Min. Baud Rate to Logon ...........: 300
Min. Baud Rate to use ANSI ........: 1200
Min. Baud Rate for File Transfers .: 1200
300 Baud Usage Time Window ........: 00:00 to 24:00
Downloading Time Window ...........: 00:00 to 24:00
SysOp Paging Time Window ..........: 18:00 to 23:00
Zone Net Node Point
Main Node Address ..........: 1 363 363 0
Aka Address #1 .............: 99 9004 363 0
Aka Address #2 .............: 23 23001 5 0
Aka Address #3 .............: 72 7201 1 0
Aka Address #4 .............: 0 0 0 0
Aka Address #5 .............: 0 0 0 0
Net Mail Board Number ......: 1
New User Security Level ....: 5
New User Net-Mail Credit ...: 0
New User A Flags ...........: --------
New User B Flags ...........: --------
New User C Flags ...........: --------
New User D Flags ...........: -------X
Figure IV
Minimum Baud Rate to Logon is the minimum that a user must use to
gain access to your board. You can set this to any baud rate
found on Page <1> of QCONFIG that your modem supports. The
program cannot check this against your modem's abilities, so if
you set it higher than your own modem's maximum speed no one will
be able to log on.
Page: 14 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The Minimum Baud Rate to Use ANSI is the slowest speed at which
you will allow users to have ANSI graphics and color. Set this to
1200, 2400 or 9600 baud as 300 baud is rather slow for effective
use of ANSI graphics. ANSI allows the use of color, full screen
editors and interesting screen displays that you can create.
However, it requires long escape character sequences sent through
the modem for each ANSI com^R ' 1 ' this slows things down
noticeably.
The Minimum Baud Rate for File Transfer is the slowest speed at
which you will let a user upload or download files.
The 300 Baud Usage time window will allow you to restrict 300
baud access to specific hours. This allows you to cater to 300
baud users during your low traffic periods, if you desire.
Downloading Time Window Hours is hours that you will allow
downloading on your system. Uploading is always allowed.
SysOp Paging Time Window sets the hours that you will allow
pages. When users attempt to page you outside of these hours they
will see a message stating that you are not available.
The Zone Number is used for netmail. The FidoNet zones are:
1 - North America
2 - Europe
3 - Pacific Basin
4 - Latin America
5 - Africa
Figure V
Other net structures, such as EggNet, use Zone 99. INSANEt uses
Zone 23, and Financial Net uses Zone 72.
The Main Node Address is used for netmail. This address will be
assigned to you by your net or regional coordinator. Leave it
blank until then. See the netmail section for more information
about applying for a net/node address). Do not use a net/node
address that is already assigned to another system.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 15
Introduction
The Alternate addresses are used for boards that have more than
one net/node address. These are usually network hosts, help
nodes, and other special cases. Do not set these unless you have
an alternate net/node address assigned to you.
The NetMail Board Number is the number of the message board that
will be used for netmail. QuickBBS now saves the net mail board
number in QCONFIG. Disregard this for now.
The New User Security Level is the default security level
assigned to a new user. Security levels can range from 0 to
32000. You may wish to assign a low level to new users and raise
it later. A user assigned a security level of 0 cannot access the
system. If you want to run a private board, set new user security
to 0.
New User NetMail Credit is the credit for netmail each new user
gets. When a user enters a netmail message to a board outside of
a toll free calling area, QuickBBS can deduct the cost of the
message from this credit. If the user doesn't have enough credit
the message is not stored or sent and the user is informed. Most
SysOps do not give credit to new users. QuickBBS and the QuickBBS
Group, Inc. cannot pay YOUR phone bill. Any toll charges incurred
by your system are your responsibility.
Page: 16 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The Flags
You can control your user's access based upon flag settings as
well as by security levels. There are 32 flags in four groups of
eight. If you set the first part of flag A on, it looks like
this: X------- (flag A1). In a menu selection, only those users
that have that flag set in their USERS.BBS record AND the
required minimum security level will be able to access the area.
For example, if you restrict access to a message board to those
with a security level of 20 or higher and Flag A1 set and you
have three users:
Security
Name Level Flag A
John Smith 10 X-------
Mark Jones 20 --------
Sally Doe 20 X-------
Figure VI
Only Sally Doe will have access that message board. John Smith
does not have a high enough security level, and Mark Jones
doesn't have Flag A1 set.
You can set a user's flags by using QUFE (see "Editing the User
File" elsewhere in the manual) or by using the SetFlag command in
a questionnaire file (see Appendix).
You may set flags for individual menu items (see "Setting Up
Menus"). Make sure to set the same flags on your menus for
access to these message boards as you do here in QCONFIG, or your
users will get a message telling them that access is denied.
For starters, you may wish to leave all flags off and add them
later when you think of good uses for them. With 32 of them, it's
real easy to lose track of which is used where, so you might want
to keep a list.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 17
Introduction
Other Miscellaneous Parameters
Select Function <3> from QCONFIG menu to see the following:
QuickBBS Configuration Utility Version 2.xx
Message Reply Quoting String ...: > Upload Time Credit Multiplier ..: 1
Inactivity Time Out (Seconds) .: 120 Max. Logon Time Limit (Minutes).: 10
Default Foreground Color (0-15) : 2 Default Background Color (0-7)..: 0
Max. Password Tries Allowed ...: 3 Max. SysOp Pages per Call...: 2
Page Bell Length ..............: 10 Registration Key Code: 999999999
SysOp Name .....................: Richard Creighton
System Name ....................: The Digital Connection BBS
Figure VII
The Message Reply Quoting String is used in external message
editors such as QuickEd and Shedit. You may select up to three
characters to be placed in a message when quoting message text,
or you can opt to place a "^A" (Ctrl A) in that area. QuickBBS
will place the initials of the person you are quoting there.
QuickBBS will also add a text line at the top as in this example:
In a message to Darrell Cadwallader <20 Nov 89 17:13:00> Allen
Fitzsimmons wrote:
AF> Darrell,
AF>
AF> We'd like to release this version on December 30th. Do
AF> you think you will have the documentation completed on
AF> time?
AF> Allen
The Inactivity Time Out (Seconds) is the amount of time you set
QuickBBS to drop carrier when there is no keyboard input. A
standard setting would be 120 seconds (2 minutes).
The Default Foreground Color is the foreground color that will be
used if no other colors are specified in the menus. 7 is low
intensity white. A complete color chart is in the Appendix.
Page: 18 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The Max. Password Tries Allowed is the number of attempts a user
has to get their password correct before QuickBBS hangs up.
The Page Bell Length sets the number of seconds the bell sounds
each time you are paged.
The Upload Time Credit Multiplier will add 'x' number of
minute(s) to every minute a user uploads a file. It is
recommended that you set this to '1.', to effectively allow free
uploading time.
The Max. Logon Time Limit (Minutes) is the amount of time you set
to allow a user to logon. Under normal conditions, it should take
no more than 3 minutes for someone to completely logon. If the
caller is a new user and you have lengthy welcome messages and
new user information text files, set this number higher.
The Default Background Color is the background color that will be
used if no other color is specified in the menus. 0 is black. A
complete color chart is in the Appendix.
The Max. SysOp Pages per Call is the amount of time a user can
page you this call. You can write a custom file called
MAXPAGE.A?? in either ASCII or ANSI to show callers that page you
more than this limit.
The Registration Key Code is the key assigned to registered users
of QuickBBS v2.60 and above. You can obtain this key by
registering the product as explained in the Licensing
Information. This key is not necessary to run QuickBBS.
The SysOp Name field is where you will put your name.
The System Name field is where you will put your BBS name.
It is important to note that both the SysOp Name: and System
Name: fields are used by the registration key routines. The
registration key routines notice the difference between UPPER and
lower case letters in both fields. Thus the following System
Names, "My BBS System", "My Bbs System", and "MY BBS SYSTEM" will
all yield different keys. When The QuickBBS Group, Inc. processes
your registration key we will take the Sysop Name and System Name
from the registration form you mailed in with your payment and
then send back to you a receipt with your key and the information
we used to create that key. It is very important that the
information you enter into QCONFIG for SysOp Name: and System
Name: match exactly with the information on your receipt,
otherwise your system will still show (Eval) and identify itself
as an Evaluation Mode system.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 19
Introduction
In the event that after entering your key your system still
responds as Evaluation Mode, please try the following BEFORE
calling Customer Support; delete all information from the three
affected fields (Key Code, SysOp Name, and System Name), then
exit from QCONFIG to save the file, and then re-start QCONFIG and
enter the information again. Be sure that there are no trailing
blanks in your System Name: field.
An Additional note for those Sysops that use an Alias on their
systems, please be sure to note this on your registration form so
that we may correctly generate your key. Please also include your
real name on the registration form so that we may properly file
your registration.
QuickBBS allows the SysOp to use external "door" programs and
then return control to the system. See the descriptions for menu
commands 7 and 15 in the menu manual. You can input your own
custom message to display while the system is loading the
external programs.
A TYPE 6 Selection Prompt Text will be appended to all TYPE 6
selection menu files that you include in your menu system. See
the descriptions in the menus manual for more detailed
information.
The DOS Command Line for Full Screen Editor is where you will
place the name of the external message editor. You should place
this editor in the 'root' QuickBBS directory, and the full name
(including extension) should be in place.
The Default Origin Line is the text that will be appended to
every echo-style message originating from your system. You can
override this by creating a file called ECHOORIG.CTL (see Control
Files). Do not include your net/node address as QuickBBS will
automatically add it. If you run a stand alone system, you do not
need to input data into this field.
Page: 20 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Press {ESC} when finished, and select Function <4> to see the
following menu:
QuickBBS Configuration Utility Version 2.xx
Output ^E (ENQ) Character .........: N
Use Fast SysOp Logon Option .......: N
Clear Screen at Idle ..............: Y
Use Extended Last-Read Pointers ...: Y
Run System in Monochrome Mode .....: N
Use Direct Screen Writes ..........: N
Check for Snow of Direct Writes ...: N
Exit on Net/Echo Mail Entry .......: Y
Use One-Word User Names ...........: N
Check for Personal Mail at Logon ..: Y
Ask for Home/Voice Phone # ........: Y
Ask for Data/Business Phone # .....: Y
Are ANSI Color/Graphics Available .: Y
Use Colored Input Fields for ANSI .: Y
Use Xmodem Protocol ...............: Y
Use Xmodem-1k Protocol ............: Y
Use Ymodem Protocol ...............: N
Use Ymodem-G Protocol .............: N
Use SEAlink Protocol ..............: Y
Figure VIII
Output ^E (ENQ) Character allows communication programs like
Telix, ProComm Plus and GT-PowerComm to start a logon sequence.
Use Fast SysOp Logon Option will automatically select the FIRST
user defined in USERS.BBS and just ask for that person's
password. If the password is entered correctly then the system
will start with that user name as the current user. If the
password is incorrect then QuickBBS will prompt for a User Name
and Password.
Clear Screen at Idle is used on stand alone systems. This will
blank the screen if there is no one online, reducing screen burn-
in, especially on monochrome monitors.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 21
Introduction
Use Extended Last-Read Pointers is used to keep track of the last
read message of each caller. A file called LASTREAD.BBS, will be
created. If you want your users to be able to read new messages
each call, set this on, otherwise they will have to wade through
the entire message base in order to read new messages. The
LASTREAD.BBS file will consume 400 bytes for each user record
defined in USERS.BBS on your system.
Run System in Monochrome Mode only affects local operation.
Remote callers with color systems will still see the colors.
Use Direct Screen Writes option speeds the updating of the status
line on the local console. Turn this off if you run a
multi-tasker.
Check for Snow on Direct Writes option will attempt to correct
problems with snow on direct screen writes which some older PCs
with CGA cards experience.
Exit on Net/Echo Mail Entry is used when you are running QuickBBS
with a continuous mailer. If you are running a stand alone system
this option is not necessary. The net/echo error levels are
listed in the netmail section of this manual.
Use One-Word User Names if you allow callers to logon with single
word names only or aliases. If you want users to log on with two
word names, toggle this function off.
Check for Personal Mail at Logon scans the message base and flags
messages addressed to them. This allows callers to see what new
messages they have waiting and read and respond to them
immediately after signing on.
QuickBBS asks several questions of first-time callers and stores
their answers in the User file. You can select whether the
Business/Data Phone and/or the Home/Voice Phone numbers will be
requested.
If you have ANSI graphic screens or a full screen editor in your
system Are Ansi Color/Graphics Available must be toggled on. The
system will not check for them or ask users if they want to use
them otherwise.
Use Colored Input Fields option, when set to "Y", tells the
system to use the Foreground and Background colors as defined on
Page <3> of Qconfig. If set to "N" then all input will be done
from monochrome data entry areas using color 7 for text and color
0 for the background (white characters on a black background).
Page: 22 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Press {ESC} and select Function <M> from the QCONFIG menu. You
will see this screen:
Editing Board #: 1 F1=Change F2=Clear PgDn=Next PgUp=Prev
Name of Message Board ...................: QUICKBBS
Are Aliases Allowed .....................: N
Use in Combined Mode ....................: Y
Type of Msgs (0=Std 1=Net 3=Echo) .......: 3
Kinds (0=Both 1=Pvt 2=Pub 3=Read-Only) ..: 2
Aka to use (0 for Primary Address) ......: 0
Read Security Level .....................: 150
Read A Flags ............................: --------
Read B Flags ............................: --------
Read C Flags ............................: --------
Read D Flags ............................: --------
Write Security Level ....................: 32000
Write A Flags ...........................: --------
Write B Flags ...........................: --------
Write C Flags ...........................: --------
Write D Flags ...........................: --------
SysOp Security Level ....................: 32000
SysOp A Flags ...........................: --------
SysOp B Flags ...........................: --------
SysOp C Flags ...........................: --------
SysOp D Flags ...........................: --------
Figure IX
All messages on all boards are contained in just five files.
There aren't separate subdirectories for each area as with file
oriented message systems. Each message board is referred to by
the number that is found on the first line of this screen. All
boards share a single message numbering sequence.
Name of Board is used during mail check to indicate to the users
where they have new mail, in the message header to identify the
board and in the Combined Boards selection screen. It will not
automatically appear on your menus. When using the MM.EXE
program's cReate menus function, if you have a "^A" on the Text
Line or Prompt Line on your template menu, MM will take the board
name from QCONFIG and replace the "^A" with that information.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 23
Introduction
There are three basic types of message areas: Standard, net, and
echo. A standard message board in one in which there is no
exchange with other boards, that is, a local message area. There
can only be one netmail message area. Netmail is the private
exchange of messages or files between systems in a network. Echo
message areas are used for echomail, which is basically a shared
message base. Messages entered on one BBS in the echo will be
sent to all of the other BBSes that participate in the echo. Both
NetMail and EchoMail require the use of an external Mailer to
send and receive the messages to other systems. There can be up
to 200 separate message areas defined, these can be any mix of
Local and Echo areas.
The kinds of messages allowed on a board are privileged
(accessible only to the author, addressee, and those with SysOp
level security) or public (accessible to anyone). Many echoes
allow only public messages. Some echomail tossing utilities will
strip the privileged bit and send your messages out to other
systems as public, in which case, this setting would have meaning
only on your system. The QuickBBS echo tosser QECHO.EXE will pass
the Priviledge bit correctly.
If the board is set to "Read Only" only the SysOp will be able to
post messages on the board.
You may allow your users to read or scan through messages from
more than one board at a time. Accomplish this by creating menu
commands for fictitious board 0. Your users select the boards
they wish to read in combined mode via menu command TYPE 28. If
Combined Mode Access is turned off, the board will be excluded
from combined board reads and scans.
If you wish to allow your users to post messages under an alias
in this board toggle Are Aliases Allowed on. Under no
circumstances will a user be allowed to post with the name SysOp
or the name of any other user name that appears in USERS.BBS. If
messages are posted using an alias, the user will have to
specifically tell QuickBBS to read messages to the alias name as
the alias is not tied to the user in any way. QuickBBS requires
that the recipient of a message, (the name in TO:), be defined in
USERS.BBS for all local messages, no such requirement exists for
Echo areas.
Page: 24 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
You have the option of assigning an AKA address to each message
area. If your system is in more than one network, this allows the
SysOp greater flexibility in assigning origin lines. For example,
since the QuickBBS echo is a Fidonet message area, I would assign
'0' as my primary address. If I receive EggNet's E_QuickBBS echo,
I will assign my AKA address: 1, for 99:9004/363. These AKA
addresses are kept in Menu <2> in QCONFIG. Each time a message is
posted, no matter which network the message is from, will have
the correct net/node address.
Read Security Level is the minimum level that the user must have
to read messages on the board. The read flags are flags that must
be on to have read access to the message board.
Write Security Level is the minimum level that the user must have
to write messages on the board. The write flags are flags that
must also be set to have write access to the message board.
Sysop Security Level is the minimum level that the user must have
to Sysop privledges for this board. The Sysop flags are flags
that must also be on to have Sysop access for this message board.
Sysop access will allow reading of privledged messages, deletion
of any message, moving, printing, and modification of the
privledge flag for messages, etc.
When you are finished setting up a board, press {PgDn} to go on
to the next one. {PgUp} allows you to go back to the previous
board if you need to make changes. QuickBBS allows the SysOp to
create up to 200 boards. Press {Esc} to return to the QCONFIG
main menu.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 25
Introduction
Event Editing
Press <E> from the main menu. The following screen will display:
Editing Event #: 1 F1=Change F2=Clear PgDn=Next PgUp=Prev
Status of Event (0=Deleted 1=Enabled) .....: 1
Time of Day to Run Event ...................: 04:00
Error level for Event (6 - 255) ............: 6
SMTWTFS
Days to Run ................................: XXXXXXX
Figure X
Event Schedule editing is used for automatic processing of
functions that you would not normally want to do manually. For
instance, maintenance events such as packing the message base,
processing node lists, and creating an ALLFILES list can be done
while system usage is low, normally in early morning hours. You
can literally specify as many events as your BBS batch file has.
Time of Day to Run Event is the time that the event will run, in
a 24 hour clock format.
The Error level Value is the return value that will be passed to
your batch file when QuickBBS exits for the event. Examples of
batch files are in a separate archive enclosed in the
documentation archive QBATCH.ZIP.
Days to Run are signified by placing an 'X' under each day of the
week you want this event to run. Leave the setting blank for days
you don't wish it to run.
Page: 26 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Menus
Included in the main QREL_xxx.ZIP archive is a separate archive
called MM34.ZIP. This file contains the program you'll need to
set edit your bulletin board's menus, the file QMENU.ZIP contains
the core menus for the basic system, use these for a starting
point on your system. There are over 48 seperate types menu
commands giving you great flexibility in the look and feel of
your system. You have complete control over color selection and
can create custom graphic menus. QuickBBS has its own built-in
ANSI routines so you don't need to have ANSI.SYS loaded. Please
refer to the menu documentation for a detailed discussion on
menus and menu editing.
There are 32,000 different security levels available, augmented
by thirty-two access flags and the ability to password protect
individual menus and file areas.
A questionnaire command language allows you to make custom
questionnaires. You can use more than 60 control character
commands in your questionnaire screens. In addition to menu
driven displays, QuickBBS displays text files of specific names
at critical times. Log files are automatically created, there's a
built-in SysOp page function, and you can allow your users to
read through multiple message boards together.
QuickBBS can exit or shell out (stay resident in memory for a
speedier return) so that you can provide games and other external
programs for your users.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 27
Introduction
The Message Submenus
QuickBBS has built-in submenus to handle message reading,
scanning and quick-scanning.
1. Read/Scan/Quick-Scan Method Selection
If a command to read, scan or quick-scan a message base
(TYPEs 23 through 25) is selected this sub-menu appears:
<F>orward Order <R>everse Order <I>ndividual Msgs
<N>ew Messages <S>elected Messages <M>arked
Figure XI
The first three selections provide a prompt asking for
specific message number. <F>orward accepts a Carriage Return
as a default to the first message, <R>everse as a default to
the last message.
<N>ew Messages will probably be the most frequently
selection. It allows users to start reading at the point
they left off on their last call, provided you have Extended
Last Read Pointers set on in QCONFIG.
When <S>elect Messages is chosen, another sub-menu appears
allowing you to select the <F>rom, <T>o or <S>ubject areas
of message headers.
Users can <M>ark messages to read later when Scanning
through messages. Unread new mail for the user is
automatically <M>arked as well.
A final prompt follows the above selections for Read or
Scan, asking the user if they want to "Pause After Each
Message (Y/n)?" A carriage return defaults to Yes.
Selecting <H>elp displays READHELP.A??, which is described
in "Auto-Display Files" elsewhere in this manual. <Q>uit
returns users to the menu.
Page: 28 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
2. Read/Scan After-Each-Message Selection
If the SysOp answered <Y> to "Pause After Each Message?"
this menu is displayed below the message:
<A>gain, <N>ext, <R>eply, <D>elete, <!>, <=>, <M>ove,
Figure XII
The caller sees:
<A>gain, <N>ext, <R>eply, <S>top
Figure XIII
On a Read Only board, or if the user doesn't have write
privileges, <R>eply will not show. <D>elete will display
only if the message is addressed to them or if the user
wrote it and if allowed in the QCONFIG setting. Most of
these commands are self-explanatory. <N>ext goes to the next
message in direction they are reading. There is no command
to change directions, call up the previous message
displayed, or to post a new message while in read or scan
routines. Upon exiting a <R>ead routine to enter a message
and return to <R>ead, they will start over from the
beginning. Last Read Pointers are not updated in the user
record until log off.
<!> repeats the last message similar to <A>gain, except
that it displays the IFNA "kludge" information on
echomail. This may help when trouble-shooting problems
with echomail delivery. A message EID will display at
the top of the message, PATH and SEEN-BYs will display
at the bottom of the text.
<=> toggles the message public if it's privileged, or
privileged if it is public.
<*> toggles the received bit in the message. If you would
like to read your mail but not reply at that time, this
option will toggle the received bit off. Each time you
logon, that message will be in your personal mail
scan.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 29
Introduction
This function is not displayed on the menu line in this
release due to space constraints.
<M> ove allows you to move the displayed message to another
message board. <F>orward allows you to send a copy of
the message to someone else. Both of these commands
provide a series of prompts, some of which apply only
to netmail but which appear nonetheless.
<X> port allows you to print a copy of the displayed
message or copy it to a file. You may select any valid
subdirectory or drive to write the message to a text
file.
3. Additional Command Options For Linked Messages
If the message is part of a thread, additional choices may
appear one line above the other options. If there are
previous messages in the thread, <-> allows you to read
reverse through the thread. If there are subsequent messages
in the thread, you may read forward through them by
selecting <+>. Both <-> and <+> appear when the message is
in the middle of a thread. A new line between the header and
message text gives the numbers of the messages immediately
linked to the one you are reading.
Once you have entered into a linked message thread, you will
not see <+> or <->. You can continue reading through the
thread in the direction you have selected by entering <N>ext
or {Enter}. You have a command option allowing you to
<Q>uit reading the thread and return to the original
message, but you cannot change directions from within the
thread.
When you are finished reading a thread, either by reading
through to the end or pressing <Q>uit, the original message
is redisplayed. While this may seem redundant, it allows you
to respond to the original message after reading what others
have already typed. And you can always interrupt with the
hot key <N>ext to go on to the next sequential message. Your
Last Read Pointers do not advance when you read forward
through a thread, so you will not risk missing messages when
using the <R>ead <N>ew command.
Page: 30 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Getting Started
Logging On in Local Mode
Once you have your menus in place, start up QuickBBS by typing
"QuickBBS -L {Enter}". If you set up all of the files correctly
QuickBBS will load and start by asking for your name. Log in with
the name you wish to use as SysOp. This will create the first
entry in USERS.BBS, which contains all of the data on the users
in your system. You can now test your BBS system, look at the
menus and act just like a remote caller except that the COM port
is not envolved.
Bringing the Board Online
To bring the board online as a stand-alone BBS, change to the
directory that contains the QuickBBS programs and type "QuickBBS
{Enter}". To bring the board down press the {Esc} key. To log
on the system locally while the board is online press 'L'.
Calling Up the Board from a Batch File
You may eventually wish to call up your board from a batch file.
Even if you do not implement netmail or echomail, you may find it
convenient to have the board periodically exit to a batch file to
run maintenance functions. Here is a list of command line
parameters that QuickBBS accepts:
-Bx = Baud Rate of Caller is x (i.e. -B2400)
-Ex = Exit After Caller at ERRORLEVELx
-Tx = Time in Minutes Until Next Event
-L = Logon in Local Mode
-P = Log System Activity to the Printer
if Printer is Online
-R = Relogon After a TYPE 15 Exit
-S = Snoop Mode Default to OFF (Helpful for
Multitasking. Stops Display to Local
Figure XIV
-Bn This parameter is used to pass the baud rate of the current
caller to QuickBBS when it is started. Use this when
transfering from a front end mailer.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 31
Introduction
-Ex This parameter is used to have QuickBBS terminate when the
user logs off. You can set any error level you choose and
trap the logoff and do additional processing with your batch
file. If you do not wish to do processing after a user logs
off, use "-E0" and QuickBBS will terminate with out setting
an error level.
-Tn The number of minutes until the next external event defined
in the front end mailer. This doesn't have any effect on any
events that may be set within QuickBBS's internal event
handler. This simply prevents the current user from
remaining on the system beyond the start of any non-QuickBBS
events that may be defined. When used, the -T parameter will
reduce the caller's available time to the number of miniutes
following the "T" if the caller's security level specified a
greater amount of time.
-L Local login, this will allow QuickBBS to run without
affecting the COM port.
-P Log activity to the printer. Normally, QuickBBS writes
information about it's callers and other activities to a
file called SYSTEM.LOG, by using this option, you may
additionaly cause QuickBBS to write this same information to
your printer. Be sure that the printer is on line and has
sufficient paper or QuickBBS will suspend operation until
the printer is ready if this switch is set.
-R Restart QuickBBS. This parameter is used for returns from a
"TYPE-15" exit to batch file menu command. QuickBBS will
read the information in EXITINFO.BBS & DOORINF1.DEF and then
relogin the user. The user will be started at the TOP menu
unless another menu was defined in the exit command.
-S "Snoop Mode" off. QuickBBS normally will display on the
console the same information that the caller sees. This can
cause problems for some types of Multi-Tasking software,
especially if you have Direct Screen Writes selected. If you
notice "bleed through" or similar problems then try setting
this option. Turning "Snoop Mode" off will also reduce the
processor overhead and give slightly better performance in
Multi-Tasking enviornments.
Page: 32 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
THE USER BASE
Editing the User Base
QUFE is a program that allows you to view and manipulate the
QuickBBS user file USERS.BBS in many different ways; a single
record at a time, or a group of records at a time. QUFE replaces
the need for USEREDIT and USERPACK programs and gives you more
power at the same time. Type QUFE from the DOS prompt. Press
{Enter}. The following screen will display:
QuickBBS UserFile Editor 1.22 Copyright (c) 1989 by
Mike Smedley
-[00000]-----------------------------------------------9:54p
Name Richard Creighton
CityState Orlando, Fla Credit 9974
Password ****** Pending 0
SecLevel 32000 ScrnLen 23
DataPhone 407-644-1318 Deleted N
HomePhone 407-644-1318
ScrnClrCodes Y
DateLastOn 12-01-89 MorePrompt N
TimeLastOn 02:21 AnsiGraphics Y
NumTimesOn 575 NoKill Y
ElapsedTime 2 IgnoreDnlHrs Y
HighMsgRead 6100 FullScrnEdit Y
TimesPosted 147
NumUploads 40 12345678
NumDownloads 300 Flag A 01100100
UploadK 341 Flag B 01010100
DownloadK 5393 Flag C 01010101
TodayK 0 Flag D 01111001
Figure XV
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 33
Introduction
QUFE uses "Moving Bar" menus, use the Cursor keys to move the
reverse video bar from item to item, press {ENTER} to select the
desired action. Alternatively, you may press the high lighted
letter in any displayed command on the menu to directly access
that command.
The QUFE program is divided into three menus, the following
details each menu, and the options available from each;
The "MAIN" Menu
ADD - Add a new user record to the end of the user file.
Press [F10] to save, or [Esc] to abort. Many other
popular Wordstar and/or dBASE-style editing keys
are available. No blank fields are allowed and
only valid data is accepted.
DELETE - Mark the current record for deletion. This does not
physically delete the record from file. Fields that are
affected: SecLevel, Credit, Deleted, and NoKill.
EDIT - Edit the current record. Password will be visible
during the edit. Press [F10] to save, or [Esc] to
abort. Many other popular Wordstar and/or dBASE-
style editing keys are available.
FIRST - Go to the first record. If a filter is active, then go
to the first record matching the filter. If no records
match the filter, then an Eof error will occur.
GOTO - Go to another record. You will be prompted for the
record number requested. If the given record number is
out of range, an Eof error will occur. You can also get
an Eof error if a filter is active and you specify a
record that doesn't match the filter requirements.
LAST - Go to the last record. If a filter is active, then go
to the last record matching the filter. If no records
match the filter, then a Bof error will occur.
NEXT - Go to the next record. If a filter is active, then go
to the next record matching the filter. If no records
following the current record match the filter, then an
Eof error will occur.
OTHER - Display menu of other options. You will be able to
return to the Top Menu by pressing [Esc] in the Other
Menu (See the section on "Other Menu" below).
Page: 34 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
PREVIOUS - Go to the record. If a filter is active, then go
to the previous record matching the filter. If no
records preceding the current record match the
filter, then a Bof error will occur.
QUIT - Quit QUFE and return to DOS. You will be prompted for
confirmation first.
SEARCH - Searches for a record by using a match string and
comparing it to the Name field of each record following
the current record. If no records following the current
record match the search text, then an Eof error will
occur. If a filter is active, then only those records
matching the filter will be searched.
The "OTHER" Menu
The "Other Menu contains the following options;
CONFIG - Configure the QUFE environment. Allows you to either
permanently or temporarily configure several features
of QUFE including colors, screen-writing method, mouse
usage, sound usage, and more.
This will allow you to modify the following attributes;
Video writes, Snow checking, Mouse usage, Error beeps,
Backup files, and do the following activities;
Configure colors, Write config to disk, Save changes
and quit, and Abandon changes.
EXECUTE - Execute a DOS command. Works just as if you typed the
command from DOS. This can be an internal DOS command
or an external .BAT, .COM, or .EXE file. If the
program is not found in the current directory, then the
current path is searched.
FILTER - Define a filter. This feature restricts user records to
those that match a certain condition. This affects the
First, Goto, Last, Next, Previous, and Search commands.
The filter does NOT affect any of the Group commands.
If you select this action you will be asked if you want
to show All records on file (turn an active filter
off), or select Records matching condition where you
will be given a series of popup windows that guide you
through selection of fields and conditions to create an
active filter. Only those user records that match the
conditions will then be displayed and available for
editing.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 35
Introduction
GROUP - Display the Group menu. This menu contains commands
that operate on more than one record at a time. You
will be able to return to the "Other Menu" by pressing
[Esc] from the Group menu (See the section "Group Menu"
below).
QUIT - Quit this menu (Other) and return to the Top menu. You
can also do this by pressing [Esc] from this menu.
SHELL - Shell to DOS. This will take you to the DOS command
line prompt. To return to QUFE, you must type "EXIT"
from DOS.
The "GROUP" Menu
The Group Menu contains the following options;
DELETE - Mark a group of records for deletion. This does not
actually delete any records, but marks them for
deletion. You will need to Pack the user file
afterwards if you want these records physically
removed. When selecting this option, you will be
allowed to define a match condition and which fields
you want updated. A filter will not affect this
command.
PACK - Pack the user file. Permanently removes all records
that were marked for deletion from the user file. A
USERS.BAK file will be created in case you need to
recover. A filter will not affect this command.
PRINT - Print a group of records to a device or file. This is
typically used to print a hardcopy of a group of
records to the printer, but any valid MS-DOS output
device or file name can be used. You will be allowed to
define the format of the output report. A filter will
not affect this command.
QUIT - Quit this menu (Group) and return to the Other menu.
You may also press [Esc] to achieve the same result.
UPDATE - Update a group of records. This allows you to update a
group of records that match a defined condition. You
will be prompted for selection criteria and fields to
update. A filter will not affect this command. Be
careful of over-selection!
Page: 36 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Features
QUFE allows updating a group of records matching a specified
selection criteria using a virtually unlimited number of
condition combinations. This is probably the most powerful
feature of QUFE.
Some possible commands are:
- Select records where SecLevel <= 10 and NumUploads > 20.
Update SecLevel to 20.
- Select all records. Update FlagA1 to 0 and FlagB7 to 1.
- Select records where DateLastOn <= "12-31-88".
Update SecLevel to 0 and Credit to 0 and Deleted to "Y".
You can print reports based upon the flexable selection criteria.
The reports can be sent to any device or file.
QUFE also has a Filter command that allows specifying the
selection criteria that will be used when moving from record to
record. This enables working with a more specific group of users.
For example, if you have your BBS setup to recognise a security
level of 100 as being a "Visiting Sysop", and 15000 as "Co-
SysOp", and 32000 as your Sysop Level then the following
selection;
Select records where SecLevel >= 100
will display only the subset of user records with SysOp security
level. If you are currently at one SysOp record and press Next,
you will advance to the next SysOp record, not the actual next
record. The Filter affects all record movement commands including
Previous, Next, First, Last, Goto, and Search.
The user password is masked with asterisks during display, and
shows only during edit. This keeps people that may be watching
the screen from seeing a user's password.
QUFE's Search command will search the Name field of the user
records. You may search for a full name or any part of a name.
QUFE also restricts searched records to those matching a defined
filter if one is active.
QUFE has a built-in Pack command and replaces the QuickBBS
USERPACK utility.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 37
Introduction
QUFE has extensive context-sensitive help from within the
environment.
Can use either direct screen writes for speed, or BIOS screen
writes for compatibility with doorway and multitasking programs.
QUFE has integrated mouse support.
QUFE has "Shell to DOS" and "Execute DOS Command" commands from
within the environment.
Invocation Syntax
To run QUFE, all you need to do is type "QUFE" from the DOS
command prompt. USERS.BBS and LASTREAD.BBS files must be in the
current directory. There are a few command line switches
available for use. These switches are used to override a default
or configured setting.
The allowable command line switches are:
-B Use BIOS for video writes.
-C Use the default color setup.
-M Use the default monochrome setup.
-S Use snow suppression (CGA only).
Figure XVI
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Introduction
Configuration
Configuration of QUFE is accomplished from within the program.
You will need to select the menu item [O]ther, then [C]onfig. Use
the [W]rite option to save the configuration file QUFE.CFG to
disk, and [S]ave to make the configuration take effect
immediately. When you run QUFE from the command line, it will
look for QUFE.CFG and use its parameters if it exists.
If the configuration file does not exist, then QUFE will use
defaults for the configuration options. Remember that you can
also override configured settings using the above command line
switches.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 39
Introduction
THE MESSAGE BASE
Cleaning the Message Base
MSGUTILS performs several functions on the message base. These
operations, their parameters and functions are:
KILLOLD <Board Numbers> -Dn
Kills messages on the listed boards that are more
than 'n' days old. Spaces between -D and 'n' not allowed.
KILLRECV <Board Numbers>
Kills received messages on the specified boards.
DELBRD <Board Numbers>
Deletes all messages on the board numbers specified.
MOVEBRD <Board Numbers> -Tx
Moves all messages on the board specified to the board
in the target field where 'x' is the destination board.
Spaces between -T and 'x' not allowed.
PRINTBRD <Board Numbers>
Prints all messages on the specified boards.
TOALL <Board Numbers>
Figure XVII
Page: 40 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Some examples of the usage of MSGUTILS are;
MSGUTILS Command Syntax
MSGUTILS KillOld 1 2 3 -D30
Kills messages over 30 days old in message boards
1, 2, and 3.
MSGUTILS KillRecv 1 2
Kills all received messages in boards 1 and 2.
MSGUTILS DelBrd 4 Deletes all messages on board 4.
MSGUTILS MoveBrd 5 6 -T4
Moves all messages on boards 5 and 6 to board 4.
MSGUTILS PrintBrd 4 Prints all messages on board 4.
MSGUTILS ToAll 6 Makes all messages on board 6
addressed to all.
Figure XVIII
MSGUTILS does not remove deleted messages from the file. Run
MSGPACK to remove deleted messages.
Packing the Message Base
MSGPACK removes the messages that are marked for deletion by
writing out a new set of files. It has five command line options.
They are:
-A Analyzes to make sure that there is enough disk space
for the new set of files before continuing. Use this
together with -W to have MSGPACK Write In Place ONLY if
there is not enough disk space for backups. "-A" by
itself is the MSGPACK default.
-B Will Delete the backup message files when processing is
completed. MSGPACK creates MSGTXT.BAK and MSGHDR.BAK if
you omit this parameter.
-Hnn Limits the amount of Heap space that MSGPACK will use.
Default is 60k. "nn" is the number of 10k blocks to be
used. It is not necessary to specify Heap. MSGPACK will
automatically do so.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 41
Introduction
-I Rebuilds the message base Index. This is used in cases
where the Index has been corrupted by a power failure
or other catastrophic problem.
-R Renumbers the messages during processing. It is not
necessary to renumber your message base each time you
use MSGPACK. It is recommended that you renumber at
least weekly, depending on the size of your message
areas. Currently, do not allow your message numbers, in
the message base to grow larger than 32000, larger
message numbers will be supported in a future release.
-W Write In Place Runs MSGPACK without writing backups. If
-A has been selected as well it will only write in
place if there is not enough disk space for the new set
of files. Although Write In Place saves space on disks
with limited free space there is a real danger of
message base corruption if the operation is interrupted
in any way. WARNING: The MSGPACK program for version
2.65 does not have the Write In Place function
operable. Use previous versions to utilize this mode.
Example: MSGPACK -A -B -R -W
Message Linking
QuickBBS links messages together by subject in two ways.
Messages entered as replies on the local BBS are automatically
linked when they are saved. Incoming echomail can be linked by
running the QLINK utility. This links all messages in the same
board with the same subject together. If two separate
conversations in the same boards have the same subject, those
messages will be linked as well. There is no way for QLINK to
differentiate between the two.
There is only one command line parameter for use with QLINK;
"-LFilename" where "Filename" is a list of the names of the
message boards you wish to be linked. This linking list file can
be generated by QECHO's corresponding "-L" parameter. In the
absence of the parameter, QLINK defaults to the areas listed in
AREAS.BBS.
MSGPACK now updates message links after packing the message base,
and QMSG has an option to remove all reply chains.
Page: 42 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
SUPPORT FILES
Files QuickBBS Creates
QuickBBS stores all messages for its message boards together in a
single database consisting of five files. These are MSGTXT.BBS,
MSGHDR.BBS, MSGINFO.BBS, MSGIDX.BBS and MSGTOIDX.BBS. These are
described fully in the accompanying STRUCT.264 document. In
addition, if you set QCONFIG to keep "Extended Last Read
Pointers" a LASTREAD.BBS file is created. QCONFIG's setting are
stored in CONFIG.BBS, your user records are in USERS.BBS.
QuickBBS keeps a log of all errors that are generated by QuickBBS
in a log file called ERRORS.LOG. This log does not include errors
encountered while running any external programs. A list of Turbo
Pascal error messages are included in the documentation.
TIMELOG.BBS contains all of the information used to create the
system usage graph. To reset this graph, erase the file.
The current number of callers to your system is stored in
SYSINFO.BBS.
Control Files
QuickBBS reads information from 5 external files that you create
and place in the same directory as the QuickBBS program. They are
ECHOORIG.CTL, FLSEARCH.CTL, LIMITS.CTL, PHONENUM.CTL and
TRASHCAN.CTL. LIMITS.CTL is required, the rest are optional. All
data items in *.CTL files can be spread out into even columns.
ECHOORIG.CTL contains the origin lines for your echo boards. The
origin line from QCONFIG will be used if you don't create this
file or don't have an entry in it for the specific echo board.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 43
Introduction
The format of this file is:
<BOARD #> <Origin Line>
where <BOARD #> is the number of the board as defined in QCONFIG
and <Origin Line> is a line of text not more than 58 characters
in length. If it is longer than 58 characters then QuickBBS will
truncate it. Example:
9 Orlando Super System - A QuickBBS Beta Site
17 TRS80 Nat'l Moderator - Orlando Super System!
Figure XIX
In this example message boards 9 and 17 have origin lines that
are different from the default. Don't enter your NET/NODE address
on these lines, QuickBBS will automatically append the address
selected in the message base definition for the approiate message
base.
FLSEARCH.CTL contains the full path name, security level, and
description used for the search for file by key word and search
for file by name menu options. This file is needed only if you
use search by key word or search by name procedures.
Example:
D:\FILE\COMMUTIL 30 Communications_Software
Figure XX
This example would allow any user with a security level of 30 or
more to search the communications software, a security level of
45 would be required for a search of the QuickBBS support files,
and only users with a security level of 90 or more would be able
to search the Beta Release files area. NOTE THE UNDERSCORE. The
underscore is used to separate the words that describe the
directory. All underscores are converted to spaces. If the
underscore is omitted, only the first word in the file area
description will be displayed.
Page: 44 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
LIMITS.CTL determines the time limit and download limit for the
security levels. This file uses the following format:
<Sec Level> <Time Allowed Per Day> <Download Limit (In KB)>
Figure XXI
If LIMITS.CTL contained:
5 45 200 5 45 200 400 800
10 60 400 10 60 400 500 600
Figure XXII Figure XXIII
In Fig. XXII, security level 5 would be allowed 45 minutes per
day and 200K in downloads, security level 10 would be allowed 60
minutes per day and 400K in downloads, and security level 100
would be allowed 200 minutes per day and 1024K in downloads.
In Fig. XXIII, security level 5 would be allowed 45 minutes per
day, 200K in downloads at 300 baud, 400K at 1200 Baud, and 800K
at 2400 Baud. Security Level 10 would be allowed 60 minutes per
day, 400K in downloads at 300 baud, 500K at 1200 Baud, and 600K
for baud rates of 2400 and above. Note: The columns listing
security levels, and downloads area for display purposes only. It
is recommended that you do not create your LIMITS.CTL files in
this way.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 45
Introduction
PHONENUM.CTL is used to specify phone numbers that you know to be
bad or unacceptable, such as numbers of other bulletin boards,
phone numbers with the 976 exchange, directory assistance, and
time/temperature/weather. These are popular entries used by
persons attempting to gain access to your system without
revealing their real phone number. To implement, you place the
phone numbers in an ASCII file in the format xxx-xxx-xxxx.
QuickBBS will scan the phone numbers in the list against the
phone numbers entered. If a bad number is found the user is not
allowed on the system.
You may enter partial phone numbers. If the partial number
matches the first digits of the entered phone number, it is
considered to be bad.
For example, if PHONENUM.CTL contained:
A user could not enter a phone number that began 407-976
with 407-976. Any number containing 555-1212 407-555-1212
(information) including area code 999 has been 999-555-1212
blocked as well as 123. SysOps should be 123-
cautious when entering a number string as it may
in fact be part of a user's phone number. Use Figure XXIV
your own discretion when editing this file.
There are caller verification utilities
available for SysOps that allow your system to
call the potential user with the number they
supplied at logon. ValiDOOR and CBV are two such
utilities.
Page: 46 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
TRASHCAN.CTL contains a list of names you deem unacceptable on
your system. If you are trying to screen callers to prevent the
use of aliases, or want the system to hang up the first time a
caller uses "SysOp" to log on, create this ASCII file
accordingly. This file is optional. Each line contains a first
name, last name, or a full alias.
For example, if TRASHCAN.CTL contained:
Dr. Hacker A user could not logon with a name that
Mad contained the words or names: Dr. Hacker,
Sysop Mad, SysOp or Destroyer as a first or last
John Doe name. John Doe has also been flagged as an
unacceptable name. Use your own discretion
Figure XXV when compiling this file.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 47
Introduction
Auto-Display Files
These following files will be automatically displayed by QuickBBS
at an appropriate time. These files belong in the custom text and
ANSI files subdirectory that you specified in QCONFIG. Most, but
not all, can have an *.ANS version for your graphics callers. You
only need to create those you want your system to have. QuickBBS
has built-in default displays for some of these functions if a
text file does not exist in the text files directory. The archive
QTEXT.ZIP contains samples of all of these files, you are free to
use these sample files as is, or modify them to suit your own
personal tastes and those of your system.
DNLDHRS.A?? is displayed if the user attempts to download a file
during hours that downloading is not allowed as specified in
QCONFIG.
EDITHELP.A?? is displayed if the user selects the help option
from the message editor built-in to QuickBBS.
GOODBYE.A?? is the text that displays to a user as they log off.
LOGO.ASC is displayed just before the system asks for the user's
name. This file is used to identify your system and does NOT have
an ANSI counterpart as the system doesn't know whether or not the
user can use graphics.
MAXPAGE.A?? is displayed if the caller attempts to page more
times than is allowed. The number of pages allowed is specified
in QCONFIG.
NEWS.A?? is displayed after NEWUSER2.A?? or WELCOME.A?? and after
the system checks for mail. Put any announcements you want all
users to see here.
NEWUSER1.ASC is displayed after the user has verified that their
name is typed correctly but before any questions specified in
QCONFIG are asked. This file does NOT have an ANSI counterpart.
NEWUSER2.A?? is displayed after a new user has selected a
password. This file might contain information about your system
that would be of interest to a first time caller.
NOTE: If you have a Questionnaire file with the name NEWUSER.Q-A
the system will automatically execute this questionare after the
NEWUSER2.A?? file has been displayed. This allows you to force a
new user to answer a questionare and provide you with additional
information about themselves.
Page: 48 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
NO300.ASC is displayed if a user attempts to call in when 300
baud is not allowed. The user is logged off after this file is
displayed. No ANSI counterpart.
NOTAVAIL.A?? is displayed if the SysOp is paged outside of the
times that paging is allowed, as set in QCONFIG. There is a
default message that displays if you don't create this file.
NOTFOUND.ASC is displayed if the system cannot find the user's
name before they are asked if they typed their name correctly.
This file might be used to tell the caller what names are not
allowed on the system. This file does NOT have an ANSI
counterpart.
PAGEABRT.A?? is displayed if the SysOp aborted the page. There is
a default display for this.
PAGED.A?? is displayed after the page has been made but before
the SysOp answers. There is a default.
PASSWORD.A?? is displayed before the system asks the user for the
password they will use on the system.
PRIVATE.ASC is displayed if the system is a private system and a
non-registered user attempts to call in. The caller will be
logged off after this is displayed. This file does not have an
ANSI counterpart.
READHELP.A?? is displayed if the user selects help from the
read/scan/quick-scan options. This file should explain what each
of the options do.
SECnn.A?? is displayed to each user with the security level
indicated by lower case 'nn', where 'nn'is a number from 1 to
31999. (Security level 32000 is not a recommended security level
for any user except the SysOp.) SEC10.ASC will be displayed to
users that have a security level of 10 and ONLY to users with
that security level. This is displayed after WELCOME.A??, but
before checking for mail.
TIMEWARN.A?? is displayed when the user's time limit has been
adjusted because of an upcoming system event. There is a default
warning if you do not create this file.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 49
Introduction
TOOSLOW.ASC is displayed if a user attempts to log onto the
system with a modem that is too slow as defined in QCONFIG. The
system will log the user off. This file does not have an ANSI
counterpart.
TRASHCAN.ASC is displayed if the system finds the user's name in
TRASHCAN.CTL. After displaying this file, the system will log the
user off. This file does not have an ANSI counterpart.
WELCOME.A?? is displayed to callers once they have entered their
name and password, and after the display of any new user files
and SECnn.A??. This file is not the same as LOGO.ASC, and should
be the most elaborate screen online.
XFERHELP.A?? is displayed when a user requests help with the file
transfer functions. It should explain what each of the protocols
do and how they work.
ASC/ANS File Control Characters
You may place certain commands into your text screens that will
automatically execute when the display reaches them. They allow
you to provide information from the system to the user and to
control the display of the text file. They do not work on *.MNU
files (use a TYPE 40 command to use them on a menu) or on
questionnaires. Check the documentation for your word processor
or text editor to see how you can add these commands to your
files. All of these commands are listed in the Appendix.
Page: 50 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
NETMAIL & ECHOMAIL
Overview of Netmail Operation
Netmail is the automatic exchange of information between systems
in a network. More specifically, netmail refers to the mailing of
messages or files directly between two systems (although netmail
can be routed through other boards along the way). Echomail is
the sharing of a message base among several bulletin boards, with
the messages usually limited to a specific topic. These echoes
are sometimes called conferences. The term netmail will be used
in the comprehensive sense in section headers, but will refer
specifically to privileged netmail in the following text.
Echomail is almost always public, with privileged messages being
sent by netmail. SysOps routing your echomail do not wish to pay
to send privileged messages, so be sure to set your echomail
boards to Public only. Certain echoes are only open to SysOps. Be
sure that you do not allow users other than SysOps to enter
messages in them. In order to prevent duplicate posting of
messages in an echo, you will receive and send mail for an echo
from just one board. This board is your echo host, also known as
a hub. You should not forward the echo to any other board without
approval of your echo host.
The first netmail systems exchanged mail only at specific times.
Mailers have since evolved to the point that they now send and
receive mail at any time. If you run a continuous mail system you
must use a "front-end" program (usually the same as your mailer)
to answer the phone and determine whether the call is from
another system or from one of your users. QuickBBS cannot handle
incoming mail transfers. If you run non-continuous mail you need
to set an event in QCONFIG to exit with an error level that calls
up your mailer from your batch file.
Outgoing net and echomail messages are placed in the netmail
directory for the mailer by QuickBBS-compatible mail scanning
utilities. Messages are bundled up with other messages destined
for the same board. The mailer then calls the destination board
and sends the bundle. Mailers usually also require specific
inbound ("FILE") and outbound ("HOLD") directories. QuickBBS does
not concern itself directly with them.
Incoming net and echomail are delivered to the netmail directory
by the mailer or its utilities and unpacked by QuickBBS
compatible mail tossing utilities.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 51
Introduction
Required Software for Netmail
In order to use netmail and echomail, QuickBBS requires a
separate mailer program such as BinkleyTerm, D'Bridge, or Front
Door. Please refer to the mailer's documentation for instructions
on installation and use. There are example batch files for
several mailers included in this archive file. See BATCHFIL.ZIP
for examples. You will need to alter these files to suit your
needs, (i.e. subdirectory statements, message pack/squeeze and
user edit options, etc).
You will need certain utility programs to extract netmail and
echomail ("scanning") from the QuickBBS message base for access
by your mailer program and to "toss" netmail and echomail into
your message base.
The mail utilities provided for use with QuickBBS are contained
in the archive QNET_xxx.ZIP. MAILTOSS and MAILSCAN toss and scan
messages to and from the netmail board and QECHO is used to toss
and scan echo mail to and from the QuickBBS message base. Future
releases of MAILSCAN, MAILTOSS and QECHO will support multiple
Zones and Points.
You will need a file compressing utility such as PKARC, ARC,
ARCA, PKZIP, LHARC, or ZOO to allow compression of outgoing Net &
Echo Mail. QECHO will allow the selection of what packer to use
on a system by system basis and will automatically choose the
correct program ot use for extraction of incomming mail.
An Overview of the Net Organization
The largest PC BBS network is FIDONET. Other networks have
formed, such as AlterNet, EggNet, INSANEt, and Financial Net. The
information here is specific to Fidonet. We cannot provide
complete information on Fidonet here; your local Net Host or
Regional Coordinator can provide that. For information specific
to any other net structure contact a SysOp of a board within that
net. They should be quite similar in structure.
Page: 52 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Fidonet is divided geographically into three zones. Zone 1 is
North America, Zone 2 is Europe, Zone 3 is the Pacific Basin, Far
East, Zone 5 is South America, and Zone 6 is Africa. Zones are
further divided into regions, which are divided into nets. Each
individual bulletin board is a node within a net or, if located
in a rural area not covered by a net, assigned directly to a
region. Addresses are written in the form ZONE:NET/NODE.POINT or
ZONE:REGION/NODE.POINT. Many software packages don't require you
to include the zone number in the address, they default to the
current zone. Regions have two digit numbers, nets have between
two and four digit numbers. Net Hosts and Regional Coordinators
are always assigned Node 0. NODELISTs, listing all boards with
Fidonet addresses, and NODEDIFF files, which list all changes
from a specific nodelist, are published weekly.
Contact your local Net Host or Regional Coordinator for
instructions on applying for a net/node address. If you do not
know who your Net Host is, log on to a local Fidonet board and
note what net the board operates in. Send a message to "SysOp" at
Node 0 of that net. If you have no netmail boards operating in
your area you can search the NODELIST file for a Regional
Coordinator that covers your area. To qualify for a net/node
address you must be able to send and receive mail during Zone
Mail Hour (ZMH, formerly called NMH). This is 9:00 to 10:00 GMT,
regardless of local daylight savings time. Your Net Host or
Regional Coordinator will tell you what net/node address to use
when applying.
Configuring QuickBBS for Netmail
The QuickBBS netmail utilities interface with your mailer by
placing outgoing messages in a netmail directory where your
mailer picks them up and bundles them for mailing. Likewise, the
mailer places incoming mail in this directory for the QuickBBS
utilities to toss into your message base. QuickBBS and your
mailer must both point to the same directory.
Some mailers do not handle the bundling and extraction of mail.
QECHO can accommodate them and take over these functions. The
documentation for your mailer should tell you which approach to
use.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 53
Introduction
Refer to the QCONFIG section above on setting up your netmail
board and entering your zone number and net/node address.
You will need to set up a menu to access the netmail area. You
can copy a local board menu using QUIKMENU and edit the netmail
menu so that the commands point to the netmail message board
number. Be sure to raise the access levels so that users cannot
run up your phone bill with unauthorized netmail. Refer to the
QUIKMENU manual included in this archive for more information.
Compiling the Nodelist for QuickBBS
QuickBBS must have access to the NODELIST files. These files can
be created by the package XLATLIST supplied in QNET_xxx.ZIP.
QNL_DAT.BBS and QNL_IDX.BBS are the compiled nodelist files
QuickBBS uses in order for you to enter netmail messages. The raw
NODELIST may also be preprocessed by XLATLIST to reduce the areas
that will be provided to QuickBBS. For example, you may want to
have XLATLIST remove all entries from the nodelist except your
own net and then compile the nodelist for QuickBBS' use. This
would prohibit your users from sending netmail to any systems not
in your net. You should run XLATLIST whenever you get an update
to the NODELIST. The update file is usually called NODEDIFF.###,
where '###' is the julian date that NODEDIFF was created.
Archived versions are called NODEDIFF.A##. Please consult the
documentation provided with XLATLIST for more information about
this package and its capabilities.
QuickBBS can automatically deduct the cost of long distance
netmail messages from your users' Net Mail Credit account. To
implement, the nodelist preprocessor must be supplied by you with
this information, usually in the form of a control text file. See
the documentation for the particular mailer you use.
Page: 54 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Continuous Mailers
Continuous mailers will always answer the phone in case another
system is calling. When a human calls, the mailer turns things
over to QuickBBS. It can do this by "spawning," where the mailer
stays in memory and calls the board as a child process, or by
Exiting. Spawning may be faster but requires more substantially
memory. When starting QuickBBS from a batch file as part of a
mailer system you will need to pass some information to the
software. This is accomplished using the command line options;
The QuickBBS command line parameters are:
If you use the spawn -Bx = Baud rate of caller is x (i.e. -B300)
option you will need
to create a batch -Ex = Exit After Caller at ERRORLEVEL x
file in the
directory that you -Tx = Time (in minutes) until the next event
run the mailer. To
use this option the -L = Logon in Local Mode
mailer will have to -P = Log System Activity to Printer
allow you to send
the baud rate of the -R = Relogon a User After a TYPE 15 Exit
caller. If the
mailer allows the -S = Snoop Mode Default to Off (For
time to the next Multi-task people)
event to be passed,
QuickBBS can adjust Figure XXVI
the caller's time
accordingly.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 55
Introduction
Some mailers exit to run the bulletin board. With these you need
to place the commands to run QuickBBS in the batch file that runs
the mailer. Mailers such as Binkley exit with an error level
equal to the baud rate divided by 10 (i.e. error level 12=1200),
while others may require you to assign the error levels yourself.
To ensure that QuickBBS doesn't allow callers to overrun external
events you can duplicate the mailer's schedule in QCONFIG's event
section. Examples of both spawn and exit batch files for several
mailers are found in QBATCH.ZIP.
Non-Continuous Mailers
Non-continuous mailers only send and receive mail during
specified time slots called events. QuickBBS answers the phone
during the non-mail events and exits to the mailer for the mail
events. To perform this, the QuickBBS event schedule must be set
up to exit at the proper times with error levels set so a batch
file can start the mailer. The event schedules are set with
QCONFIG. Similarly, the mailer must exit at the end of its event
and call QuickBBS from its batch file.
Sending Mail into the Net
If you run a continuous mailer you will want new net and echomail
sent at the end of the calls in which they are entered. QuickBBS
exits after calls with the following error levels:
You will want to 0 = Normal Exit
have your batch file 1 = Important File Missing (Top.Mnu,
call the appropriate etc.)
netmail and echomail 2 = Fatal System Error Occurred
scanning utilities (Logged in ERRORS.LOG)
for error levels 3, 3 = New Netmail was Entered
4 and 5. You must 4 = New Echomail was Entered
set "Exit When 5 = Both Netmail and Echomail were
Net/Echomail is entered
Entered" ON in
QCONFIG in order to
Figure XXVII
Figure XXVII
have QuickBBS return
these error levels.
If you run a non-continuous mailer, your batch file will only
have to call the mail utilities during the specific mail events.
Page: 56 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Getting Messages from the Net
When your mailer gets mail
from another board it will
QECHO -F -U -T -Z most likely be in
(For the OMMM environment) "bundles". You can extract
QECHO -A -E -P -K them to recreate the mess-
(in Front Door enviornment) ages as files with the
messages as files with the
extension .MSG in your
Figure XXVIII netmail directory by using
QECHO with the -U option.
If you also use the -T option, QECHO will toss incoming echomail
messages into the message boards according to the information it
finds in the AREAS.BBS file. MAILTOSS can take the netmail
messages and import them into your netmail message board.
MAILTOSS has one command line option. The -K parameter will tell
MAILTOSS not to toss null messages.
If you run a point system, you will need to toss mail to your
points after running QECHO but before running MAILTOSS.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 57
Introduction
QECHO Configuration File
QECHO can reside in almost any directory of your drive (or
drives), but the configuration file must be located in the
current directory you run QECHO from.
The configuration file is called QECHO.CTL. It is a text file
that can be edited/created by using most any text editor or word
processor. Here is a sample configuration file:
;QECHO.CTL - Orlando Super System
;
Node 363/363
Aka 99:9004/363
Aka 23:23001/5
Aka 72:7201/1
ArcCommand PKARC /OCT A
UnArcCommand PKXARC -R
; PointNet
DupPath C:\FD\BAD
MailPath C:\FD\MAIL
FilesPath C:\FD\OUTB
; ArchivePath
OutboundPath C:\FD\OUTB
QuickBBSPath C:\QUIK
Figure XXIX
Explanations of control file statements are as follows:
NODE [Net]/[Node]
Specifies your network address. This is your main network
address and NOT your alias address(es).
AKA [Net]/[Node] [Net]/[Node] ...
Specifies your additional network addresses. You may specify
up to ten alias addresses.
Page: 58 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
PACKERS ... ENDPACKERS
The Packer block allows you to specify what packer/archiver
to use for each of the systems you send mail to. The format
is;
PACKERS
363/34 PKZIP
363/1701 LHARC
363/69 ARC
ENDPACKERS
In the above example, any outgoing mail for 363/34 would be
packed using the PKZIP program, any mail to 363/1701 would
be packed using LHARC and the mail going to 363/69 would use
the ARC program. All mail going to any other systems will
use the default packer (PKARC).
POINTNET [Net Number]
Defines your private point network number. If you do not
send to points, omit this line.
DUPPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies DOS path where duplicate messages will be placed.
If omitted duplicate messages will NOT be saved.
MAILPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies the DOS path where network mail is stored in .MSG
file form. Required.
FILESPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies the DOS path the mailer places inbound files.
Required.
ARCHIVEPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies the DOS path where QECHO will place outbound
archive files. This should never be the same as the
FILESPATH! Required using the -A command line switch.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 59
Introduction
OUTBOUNDPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies the DOS path the oMMM outbound bundle area is.
Only used if your system runs oMMM to archive mail
(Binkley). Required if using the -Z command line switch.
QUICKBBSPATH [d:][path][\]
Specifies DOS path QuickBBS system files are stored (message
base files, configuration file). Required if using the -T
command line switch.
Page: 60 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
QECHO Command Line Parameters
QECHO has many command line parameters. They are as follows:
-A Archives all mail generated.
-C Marks mail generated as (CRASH) priority.
-E Exports outbound messages. This disables
QECHO from processing inbound mail.
-F[name] Uses an alternate areas file rather than AREAS.BBS
-G Processes only inbound messages from nodes
listed for the specific board in the areas file.
-H Hides SEEN-BY lines by placing a Ctrl-A
character before the SEEN-BY string.
-K Disables checking for duplicate echomail messages.
-L[name] Generates the text file [name] with a list
of area names QECHO tossed to. Used in
conjunction with the -T option.
-N Disables processing of any stray echomail
located in the network mail directory.
-P Process and parse ^aPATH: statements in
EchoMail messages.
-R Strip SEEN-BY: lines down to your own
network and any addresses you forward to.
-S[x] Checks free space and only processes mail
if at least [x] kilobytes are available.
-T Imports all echomail processed into the message base.
-U Processes any mail archives or stray packets.
-V Disables forwarding of any echomail to new nodes.
-X Marks all mail generated as HOLD FOR PICKUP.
-Z Running in an oMMM environment (BinkleyTerm).
Figure XXX
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 61
Introduction
Defining Echomail Areas
QECHO needs to know the echomail areas you carry and where to
forward them. To command QECHO to do so, create a file called
AREAS.BBS (see -F command line parameter). QECHO parses the areas
file line by line. All text to the right of a semi-colon is
considered to be a comment and is ignored. The first line of the
AREAS.BBS file MUST be a comment.
Here is a sample AREAS.BBS file:
The first argument on ;AREAS.BBS - 11 November 1989
each line is the QuickBBS ;
board number defined in 3 ECHO_REQ 363/29
QCONFIG. This argument is 4 DBRIDGE 363/29
used by the -T toss 5 TRS-MOD134 363/29 15 18
command line option. If 6 TEST363 363/29 47 66
'P' is specified the area 7 VIDEO_REVIEW 363/29
is considered to be a 8 QUICKBBS 363/29
pass-thru area. All 9 NET363 363/29
messages in that area are 10 ALIAS363 363/29
forwarded and deleted. 11 USER363 363/29
12 ALT.CYBERPUNK 363/29
The second argument is 13 QUICKBBS_BETA 363/34
the EchoMail area name. 14 ORLSYSOP 363/29
Area names can be up to 15 HUMOR 363/29
20 characters long and 16 ALT.MUSIC 363/29
must NOT contain spaces, 30 E_SYSOP 99:9004/32
use the underline 31 E_USER 99:9904/32
character "_" to indicate 32 E_LONI 99:9904/32
a space. 50 I_INSANITY 23:23001/1
51 I_PAGANS_AN 23:23001/1
All other arguments are 52 I_ASK_AB 23:23001/1
considered network mail P CHAT_LINE 150/301
addresses you forward
that specific message Figure XXXI
area to. Up to 50 network
addresses may be specified for each message area.
QECHO can handle up to 200 EchoMail areas. If you use more than
this you must employ the -F command line parameter to manipulate
multiple areas files.
Page: 62 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Acknowledgements
AlterNet is a trademark of the InterGalactic SysOp Alliance
ARC is a trademark of System Enhancement Associates, Inc
ARCA is a trademark of Tri-Systems, Inc
BinkleyTerm is a trademark of Bit Bucket Software, Co.
- A Delaware Corporation
CBV is a trademark of Jim Baldwin
D'Bridge is a trademark of Chris Irwin
EggNet is a trademark of Ken Shackelford
FidoNet is a trademark of the International Fidonet Assn
Financial Net is a trademark of Super System Financial Network
FrontDoor is a trademark of Scandinavian PC Systems
Hayes is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc
INSANEt is a trademark of Mac Druaidh, The System(tm)
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
PKARC is a trademark of PKWare, Inc.
PKZIP is a trademark of PKWare, Inc.
ProComm is a trademark of Datastorm Technologies, Inc.
QuickEd is a trademark of Dror and Oren Tirosh
QUIKMENU/MM34/MM102 is a trademark of Robert Fletcher
QUFE is a trademark of Mike Smedley
Shedit is a trademark of Dana P'Simer
ValiDOOR is a trademark of Cabell Clarke
Xlatlist is a trademark of Scott Samet
X00.SYS is a trademark of Raymond L. Gwinn
Programming Team:
Steve Gabrilowitz, Richard Creighton, Dale Barnes, Jim Perry, Mac
Druaidh, Rob Fletcher, Mike Smedley, Dionis Smith, Allen Fitzsimmons
Special thanks to Mike Ratledge
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 63
Introduction
QuickBBS Setup Information and Notes
System Name: __________________________________________________
Net/Node(s) _____________ _____________ ______________
System Key: __________________________________________________
Origin Line: __________________________________________________
Modem Init: __________________________________________________
Text SubDir: __________________________________________________
Menu SubDir: __________________________________________________
NetMail Path: __________________________________________________
Flag Sets: A ________ A ________A ________A ________
B ________ B ________B ________B ________
C ________ C ________C ________C ________
D ________ D ________D ________D ________
Sec. Levels: _____ _____ __________
Time Limits: _____ _____ __________
Parameters:
Qecho _____________________________________________________
EchoKDup _____________________________________________________
MsgPack _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Notes
Page: 64 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Pascal Error Codes
The following list of error codes is designed to assist the SysOp
in determining problems before issuing bug reports to the
QuickBBS Group, Inc.
2 File not found
3 Path not found
4 Too many open files
5 File access denied
6 Invalid file handle
12 Invalid file access code
15 Invalid drive number
16 Cannot remove current directory
17 Cannot rename across drives
100 Disk read error
102 File not assigned
103 File not open
104 File not open for input
105 File not open for output
106 Error in numeric format
150 Disk is write_protected
151 Unknown unit
152 Drive not ready
153 Unknown command
154 CRC error in data
155 Bad drive request structure length
156 Disk seek error
157 Unknown media type
158 Sector not found
159 Printer out of paper
160 Device write fault
161 Device read fault
162 Hardware failure
200 Division by zero
201 Range check error
202 Stack overflow error
203 Heap overflow error
204 Invalid pointer operation
205 Floating point overflow
206 Floating point underflow
207 Invalid floating point operation
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 65
Introduction
ASC/ANS File Control Characters
The "ASCII" column shows the decimal ASCII value of the
corresponding character. The "^" in the "Char" column represents
the control key.
ASCII Char Function
----- ---- ------------------------------------------------
001 ^A Pause and wait for the ENTER key to be pressed
002 ^B Turn <S>top Aborting Off
003 ^C Turn <S>top Aborting On
004 ^D Turn More Prompts On
005 ^E Turn More Prompts Off
006 ^F Combination Command (User Parameters)
007 ^G Ring Caller's Bell
008 ^H Backspace
009 ^I Tab
010 ^J Linefeed
011 ^K Combination Command (System Parameters)
012 ^L Clear Screen
013 ^M Carriage Return
017 ^Q Used for XON/XOFF. NEVER USE THIS.
019 ^S Used for XON/XOFF. NEVER USE THIS.
026 ^Z MS-DOS end of file marker. NEVER USE THIS.
006 065 ^FA Full User Name (Or Alias)
006 066 ^FB City and State
006 067 ^FC Password (Not recommended)
006 068 ^FD Business/Data Phone Number
006 069 ^FE Home/Voice Phone Number
006 070 ^FF Last Date User Logged On
006 071 ^FG Last Time User Logged On
006 072 ^FH A Flags
006 073 ^FI B Flags
006 074 ^FJ C Flags
006 075 ^FK D Flags
006 076 ^FL Credit Value (in cents)
006 077 ^FM Number of Messages User Has Posted
006 078 ^FN Highest Message User Has Read
006 079 ^FO Security level of user
006 080 ^FP Number of Times User Has Logged On
006 081 ^FQ Number of Uploads User Has Sent
006 082 ^FR Amount User Uploaded in KiloBytes
006 083 ^FS Number of Downloads User Has Received
006 084 ^FT Amount User Downloaded in Kilobytes
006 085 ^FU Elapsed Time (in minutes)
006 086 ^FV Screen Length (number of lines)
006 087 ^FW User's First Name
006 088 ^FX Returns ON or OFF - ANSI Setting
Page: 66 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
ASC/ANS File Control Characters
ASCII Char Function
----- ---- -----------------------------------------------
006 089 ^FY Returns ON or OFF - More Prompt
006 090 ^FZ Returns ON or OFF - Screen Clear
006 049 ^F1 Returns ON or OFF - Full Screen editor.
011 065 ^KA Total Number of Calls Logged
011 066 ^KB Last Caller's Name
011 067 ^KC Number of Active Messages
011 068 ^KD Lowest Message Number
011 069 ^KE Highest Message Number
011 070 ^KF Number of Times User has Paged Sysop This Call
011 071 ^KG Day of the Week (Monday, Tuesday, etc)
011 072 ^KH Total Number of Users
011 073 ^KI Current time in 24-Hour Format (HH:MM)
011 074 ^KJ Current date in DD-MM-YY form
011 075 ^KK Minutes Connected
011 076 ^KL Seconds Connected
011 077 ^KM Minutes Used Against Time Limit
011 078 ^KN Seconds Used Against Time Limit
011 079 ^KO Minutes Remaining
011 080 ^KP Seconds Remaining
011 081 ^KQ Time Limit Expressed in Minutes
011 082 ^KR Current Baud Rate (300-9600)
011 083 ^KS Abbreviated Day of Week (Mon, Tue, etc)
011 084 ^KT Download Limit Expressed in Kilobytes
011 085 ^KU Number of Minutes Until Next System Event
011 086 ^KV Time of Next System Event. (24 hour format)
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 67
Introduction
SysOp Key Functions While User Is Online
Key Use
----- ------------------------------------------------------
Alt-C Begin CHAT mode. This will allow you to talk (type) to
the user currently on line. Press "{Esc}" to end the
chat mode.
Alt-D DISPLAY toggle. This is for multitasking environments
where you may not want to see what the user is doing.
Alt-D will turn the display on or off.
Alt-F Changes any of the 32 privilege flags (A1 through D8)
of the current user.
Alt-H HANGS UP now! Disconnects the user.
Alt-J JUMPS to DOS, while the user is still on line, to
perform some task. Type {Enter} to return to QuickBBS.
Alt-L LOCKOUT the user. This logs the user off and changes
the user's security level to 0 so they no longer have
access to the board.
Alt-P Toggles the PRINTER log switch. This sends SYSTEM.LOG
entries to the to the printer. If the printer is not
online this will have no effect. This can also be done
from a command line parameter.
Alt-S Changes the SECURITY level of the user currently on
line. The current security level will display and
prompt you for a new security level for the current
user.
{Up} Increases the users time limit by 1 minute.
{Down} Decreases the users time limit by 1 minute.
{Home} Displays a help menu locally.
{End} Removes any windows and returns to the normal screen.
{PgDn} Displays Flag assignations and Times Caller on the
user.
All other keys work as though typed by the user. This means that
you can answer a page, chat with the user, and assist the user
through the menus by pressing the appropriate keys.
Page: 68 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Menu Types and Optional Data
Type Description Optional Data
0 Text Line None
1 Goto New Menu <MenuName>[Password]
2 Gosub New Menu <MenuName>[Password]
3 Return from Previous Gosub None
4 Clear Gosub Stack, Goto New Menu <Menu Name>
5 Display .ASC/.ANS File <1-8 Character Name>
6 Selection Menu <1-7 Char. Prefix>
7 Shell To DOS, Run Program See Text
*B Passes Baud Rate (3-9600 and 0 for Local)
*C Full path to COMMAND.COM as set in the DOS
environment variable COMSPEC.
*F First Name of User
*G Graphics Mode (0=Off, 1=On)
*H Tells QuickBBS to shell with the fossil (Open).
*L Last Name of User
*R Record Number of User for the User Database
*T Time Left for Call (in minutes)
8 Version & Copyright Information None
9 Logoff the System None
10 Display System Usage Graph None
11 Page the SysOp for Chat Page Prompt
12 Execute Questionnaire File <1-8 Character Name>
13 List/Search User List None
14 Time Statistics None
15 Exit to DOS <DOS ERRORLEVEL>
16 Change City and State None
17 Change Password None
18 Change Length of Screen None
19 Toggle Screen Clearing None
20 Toggle Page Pausing None
21 Toggle Graphics Mode None
22 Check for Personal Mail None
23 Read Messages <Board #>
24 Scan Messages <Board #>
25 Quick-Scan Messages <Board #>
26 Delete Selected Messages <Board #>
27 Post a New Message <Board #> [/L] [/T=<Name>]
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 69
Introduction
Menu Types and Optional Data
Type Description Optional Data
28 Select Combined Boards None
29 Move A File <Full Path>
30 MS-DOS Directory <Full Path>
31 List the FILES.BBS file
for a given D/L directory <Full Path>
32 Download a File from SubDir <FullPath>[Password]
33 Upload a File to SubDir <Full Path>
34 List Archive in SubDir <Full Path>
35 Search for File by Keyword None
36 Search for File by FileName None
37 List New Files on System None
38 View a Text File <Full Path and Name>
39 Display a Direct Text File <Full Path and Name>
40 Display ASC/ANS File W/Hot Keys <1-8 Character Name>
41 Toggle Full Screen Editor None
42 { reserved }
43 { reserved }
44 { reserved }
45 Display ASC/ANS File w/EOF <1-8 Character Name>
46 Display a ".GIF" file header <Full Path>
47 Write a System.Log entry <Text to be written>
48 Download A Specific File <Full Path and Name>
Page: 70 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
Questionnaire Command Language
Ask <Len> <Var Num>
Reads a user's response of up to <Len> characters and stores
it in variable number <Var Num>. <Len> can be from 1 to 255.
Example: Display "Question #1: What is your real name? "
Ask 60 1
OutputAnswer "NAME: " 1
ChangeColor <Foreground> <Background>
Changes the current color if the user has ANSI selected. The
<Foreground> can be from 0 to 15 and the <Background> can be
from 0 to 7.
Example: ChangeColor 15 1
ClearScreen
Clears the caller's screen, but only if the caller has
selected screen clearing.
Example: ClearScreen
Display "<String>"
Displays the character string <String>. It MUST have quotes
around the output string.
Example: Display "Question #1: What is your real name?"
Endif
Terminates the If statement (see IF below)
If <Var Num> = "<Test String>"
Compares a variable number to the Test String. The test is
not case sensitive. If the comparison is true then the
following questionnaire lines are processed until an Endif
is reached, otherwise all lines through the Endif are
skipped. You must have a space before and after the equal
sign, and you must end an IF with an ENDIF statement.
Example: If 3 = "Yes" SetSecurity 3000
EndIf
GetChoice <Choices> <Var Num>
Inputs one character which will consist of an item in the
<Choices>. The result is stored in variable number <Var
Num>.
Example:Display "What is the speed of your modem? |"
Display "1: 300 baud |"
Display "2: 1200 baud |"
Display "3: 2400 baud |"
Display "4: Over 2400 |"
GetChoices 1234 9
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 71
Introduction
ListAnswer <Var Num>
Displays the contents of <Var Num> to the user's screen.
This makes it possible to list the user's answers so far and
ask if they are correct.
OutputAnswer "<Description>" <Var Num>
Outputs the contents of <Var Num> to the answer file and
labels it with the string <Description>.
Example:OutputAnswer "NAME: " 2
PostInfo
Posts the user's name and city and state and the date and
time of the entry in the answer file. You may wish to put
this command at the top of your questionnaire so that you
have a header for each entry in the answer file.
Quit
Ends the questionnaire immediately and closes the answer
file.
SetFlag <Flag Set><Flag Number> <ON|OFF>
Changes the user's flag on or off as indicated. <Flag Set>
is A through D. <Flag Number> is 1 through 8, counting left
to right through the flagset. The changed flag setting takes
immediate effect on flags in menus, but does not take effect
on flag settings in Qconfig until the user's next call.
Example:SetFlag D5 ON
SetSecurity <Level>
Changes the user's security level to <Level>. This can be
any valid security level, from 1 to 32000.
NOTES:
Enter a pipe symbol '|' character inside a text string such
as the display command to send a carriage return to the
user's screen.
You have up to twenty variables to work with, each of which
can be up to 255 characters long.
Page: 72 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Introduction
The Full Screen Editor Interface
QuickBBS provides a standard interface between itself and the
external full screen editor. The editor must use the temporary
work file called MSGTMP (no extension) in the QuickBBS directory.
If the user is replying to a message, QuickBBS will ask if they
choose to quote the reply message text. If so, the MSGTMP file
will be created before calling the editor and quoted text will be
placed in the file with a hard return/line feed sequence after
each quoted line.
The message editor should be able to insert "soft" returns (ASCII
141) in the file when lines are wrapped and "hard" returns when
the user actually hits the carriage return key. QuickBBS gets the
name of the editor's program file from its configuration file.
When the editor is called, several command line parameters are
passed to it. They are:
ED.EXE <Port x> <Baud Rate> <Time Remaining> <Inactive Limit>
<Port x> is the communications port number.
<Baud Rate> is the callers baud rate. 0 is passed when in
local mode.
<Time Remaining> is the number of minutes remaining for the
user on their call.
<Inactive Limit> is the number of seconds the user is
allowed to stay idle before the system will disconnect.
This value is retrieved from the QuickBBS
configuration file.
When the editor returns to QuickBBS, certain errorlevel codes
must be passed. They are:
0 = Normal exit, message edited and ready to save
1 = User aborted the message, do not save
2 = User inactivity timeout, instructs QuickBBS to hang up
If QuickBBS sees there is no carrier after the editor has
returned control, it assumes that the user hung up and discards
the message text. The editor is called directly; another copy of
COMMAND.COM is NOT loaded. This is found to be much faster and
takes up less memory. This interface was designed for the SysOp
to install or write their own full screen message editor for
QuickBBS.
QuickBBS will only allow ANSI Graphics users access to the
editor. The editor will most likely use the VT-100/ANSI screen
control codes to handle such tasks as locating the cursor and
erasing the screen. The editor must be able to handle its own
communications I/O by using either the FOSSIL driver or its own
routines. QuickBBS will automatically append the origin line to
Echomail messages.
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 73
Introduction
Colors
QuickBBS allows you to set the colors that will be used when
displaying the menus. The colors are set by placing the desired
color code number in the foreground and background color options
for the menu line using Menu Master.
The color codes are:
Dark Colors Light Colors
Code Color Code Color
==== =========== ==== ============
0 Black 8 Dark Gray
1 Blue 9 Light Blue
2 Green 10 Light Green
3 Cyan 11 Light Cyan
4 Red 12 Light Red
5 Magenta 13 Light Magenta
6 Brown 14 Yellow
7 Light Gray 15 White
Background colors may only be dark colors, foreground colors may
be either dark or light. Monochrome screens display colors as
intensities. On some screens it is not possible to display
intensity. In this case light and dark colors will appear the
same. On some systems the blue colors will appear underlined. As
a general rule do not display dark colors on dark colors or light
colors on light colors. This should make it possible for all
users to see your menus.
Page: 74 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Index
^A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
^Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
^S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
^Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
AKA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
AKA/Alternate addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 21
Aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 21, 39, 46
Message Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
ALLFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AlterNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 50
ANSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ANSI graphic screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ANSI.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23
ARC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 47, 50
ARCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 50
ARCHIVEPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Are Aliases Allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Are Ansi Color/Graphics Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
AREAS.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 45, 49
Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
ASC/ANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Auto-Display Files
DNLDHRS.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
EDITHELP.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
GOODBYE.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
LOGO.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40, 41
MAXPAGE.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 40
NEWS.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NEWUSER1.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NEWUSER2.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NO300.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NOTAVAIL.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NOTFOUND.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
PAGEABRT.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
PAGED.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
PASSWORD.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
PRIVATE.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
READHELP.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 41
SECnn.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
TIMEWARN.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
TOOSLOW.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
TRASHCAN.ASC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
TRASHCAN.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 41
WELCOME.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40, 41
XFERHELP.A?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
AUTOEXEC.BAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Batch file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 26, 42
BATCHFIL.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 22, 42
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 75
Index
Binkley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 12, 42, 45, 47, 50
BNU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
BUFFERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Business/Data Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Caller verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 60
CBV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 50
CHAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Check for Personal Mail at Logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Check for Snow on Direct Writes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Clear Screen at Idle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Colored Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
COM port settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Combined Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Combined Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
CONFIG.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 37
CONFIG.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Continuous mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 44, 45
Control Files
ECHOORIG.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 37
FLSEARCH.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 38
LIMITS.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 38
PHONENUM.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 39
TRASHCAN.CTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Crippleware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Custom Text and ANSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Customer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
D'Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 42, 50
Days to Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Default Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Default Foreground Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Default Origin Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Deleting messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Direct Screen Writes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 32
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Disconnects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
DISTRIBUTION FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
DOS Command Line for FullScreen Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Downloading Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Dropping DTR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Duplicate messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, 47
DUPPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Echomail . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 12, 20, 24, 26, 36, 42, 45, 49
ED.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
EggNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 21, 43, 50
Error Codes, Index of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Errorlevel Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ERRORS.LOG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Page: 76 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Index
Evaluation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Event Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Event schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Exit on Net/Echo Mail Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
eXport Messages to a Disk File/Printer . . . . . . . . . . . 25
eXport Userlog to a Disk File/Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Extended Last Read Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 23, 24, 37
External Mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
External message editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 17, 19
External programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 17, 23, 32
Fast SysOp Logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Fee-based systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
FidoNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 21, 43, 50
File transfer protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
FILESPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Financial Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 43, 50
First-time callers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 19, 21, 23, 55
Floppy drive system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Foreground Color, Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Forwarding messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Fossil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 9
Front Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 42, 50
Front-end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 12, 42
Full Screen Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 60
Geographical zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
GT-Powercomm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hang Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 50
Heap space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Home/Voice Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Hot keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 25
Hours for 300 Baud Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
IFNA kludge information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Inactivity Time Out (Seconds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Index, Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Initialization, Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
INSANEt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 43, 50
INSTALL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Key Code, Instructions for use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
LHARC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 4, 9, 17
Linking Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Local Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
LOCKOUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Log files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 77
Index
Lowest Baud Rate to File Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Lowest Baud Rate to Use ANSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Magic Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
MAILPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
MAILSCAN.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
MAILTOSS.EXE, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Main Matrix Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Maintenance events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Marking messages for retreival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Master Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Max. Logon Time (Minutes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Max. Password Tries Allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Max. SysOp Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Maximum Baud Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Maximum Tries Allowed to Init Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Menu Files Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Message .BBS files
LASTREAD.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 32, 37
MSGHDR.BAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
MSGHDR.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
MSGIDX.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
MSGINFO.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
MSGTOIDX.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
MSGTXT.BAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
MSGTXT.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Message Base
Combined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Renumbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Message base index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Message boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Message EID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Message linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 25, 36
Message Reply Quoting String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Message Submenus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Messages
Deleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Privledged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Minimum Baud Rate to Logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Minimum memory requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Miscellaneous parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 16
MM.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
MM34.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Modem Busy Command String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Modem Busy Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Modem command strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Modem initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Modem Initialize Command String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Modem Initialize Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Page: 78 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Index
Modem parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 11
Mouse support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Moving messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
MS-DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
MSGPACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
MSGUTILS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 35
Multitasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 32
Net Mail Board Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Net Mail Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Net or regional coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Net/node address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 18, 21
Netmail . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 12, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26, 42-45
New messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
New User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
New User Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
New User Security Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
NODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Node Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Nodelist processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Non profit organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Non-continuous mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, 45
Notation Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Numeric result codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Offline Utilities
203TO204 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
ECHOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
MAILSCAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
MAILTOSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
MSGPACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 36
MSGUTILS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 35
QCONFIG . . . . . 13-15, 20, 21, 23, 37, 40-42, 44, 45, 49
QECHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 43
QLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
QMSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
QUFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 28, 31-33, 50
QUFE.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
QUIKMENU/MM34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 50
USEREDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 32
USERPACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 32
oMMM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
One-Word User Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Operating a private system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 41
Origin line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 37
OUTBOUNDPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Output ^E (ENQ) Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Overlayed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Packers, QECHO Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Packing the User File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Packing the message base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Page Bell Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 79
Index
Page function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23
Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
PATH and SEEN-BYs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Personal Mail, Check at Logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
PKARC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 50
PKUNZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
PKZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
POINTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Power failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 35
Printed documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Printing the User File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Privileged messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 42
Procomm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 50
Public messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 42
Q_MENUS.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23
QBATCH.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QCONFIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 16, 21
QDOC_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QDOCExxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QDOCWxxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QECHO
Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Packer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
QECHO.EXE, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QEXE_261.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 9, 23
QEXE_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QHELP.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
QMEN_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QMENU.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QNET_203.ARC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
QNET_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QOVL_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QREL_xxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Questionnaire command language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23
Questionnaire file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
QUFE
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-31
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
QUFExxx.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
QUICKBBSPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
QuickEd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 16, 50
Quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Ram drive usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Read Only board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Read Only messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Page: 80 QuickBBS Version 2.65 March 1, 1990
Index
Recommended buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Recommended files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Registration Key won't work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Registration fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Registration Key Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Renumber Message Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Renumbering messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Resetting received bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Run System in Monochrome Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Sample batch files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Screen burn-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Search by keyword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Search by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Seconds to Wait for Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Security key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Security level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 15, 21, 23, 38, 41
SetFlag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 9
Shedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 16, 50
Shell out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 23, 32
Site licensing requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Special modem characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Standalone system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 18, 19
STRUCT261.DOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
SYSINFO.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
SysOp Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Sysop Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
SysOp Paging Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
System events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
System Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
System Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
System usage graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Telix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Text files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Message Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Time of Day to Run Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Time Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
TIMELOG.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Toll charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
TYPE 6 Selection Prompt Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Underscore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Upload Time Credit Multiplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
User File
Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
User restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
USERS.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 26, 28, 32, 37
ValiDOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 50
March 1, 1990 QuickBBS Version 2.65 Page: 81
Index
Verbal responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Write In Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
X00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 50
Xlatlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Zone Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14