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1989-03-11
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A Short Course in Operating Your Net/EchoMail System
Version 6 - 3/15/89
Introduction
There have been many procedures to show a new Sysop how to setup his
Mailing system, but I've found that even after this is done, very few of
them have even the faintest idea of what this conglomeration of batch
files and unfamiliar programs and utilities is doing. Since there is a
requirement for the Sysop to handle difficulties and monitor the automatic
maintenance as well as to be able to upgrade to new version of programs as
they become available, I thought I'd prepare a very basic guide to
beginning operation of a Netmail BBS system.
This information is NOT RBBS specific, but is definitely specific to
systems running BinkleyTerm as a Front-End Mailer.
NOTE: Do not use this to forego reading the docs on the various programs
(especially Binkley) as there are MANY things I won't even attempt to
cover here.
How to Start Up your System and Give it a Quick Operational Test
This is pretty simple. Just run Binkley.bat. It will first load up your
FOSSIL driver and then your video fossil and finally BinkleyTerm.
BinkleyTerm will boot and may run through a few events. Watch carefully and
look for indications of errors, files not found, etc. Try to spot where
they are occurring so you can troubleshoot them. Since this screen will be
present at all times except when a user is on the BBS, you may want to get
a screen blanker. If you are using DESQview as a multi-tasker, its screen
blanker will do the job.
See if you can dial out and POLL your HOST. An ALT-M will initiate a
MANUAL POLL. Put your HOST's net/node number in and press return. Binkley
should try to call him and if it connects, you will see the soon to be
familiar YooHoo/2U2 words at the bottom of the screen. If he's busy,
Binkley will just keep on dialing, so you can interrupt it with a PgDn
key. If you have followed the schedule and given your HOST a list of
conferences that you want to carry a few days ago, then you probably will
have mail waiting for you.
If there is mail, it will proceed to send it to you and after the mail is
received, you should see Binkley execute an ErrorLevel of 30 and then it
will begin unpacking the mail and copying it to conferences. If you
notice a large number going into BAD_MSGS, then you probably don't have
the AREAS.BBS set up exactly correct. Look at the file provided with the
docs and compare against yours and see if there is any difference. You
also can take a text editor and look at some of the messages in BAD_MSGS
to see what the AREA: is listed as.. That's the name areas.bbs must have
in it if it will be able to direct those messages to the specific area you
want.
Next, if all this went well, you probably will want to get someone to call
into your BinkleyTerm setup with their BinkleyTerm. Your HOST or any
others in the Net will probably be glad to help out with this. NOTE: You
are new at this, they are probably "jaded' by now and might not be quite
as enthusiastic as you. So don't call after midnight and expect to get a
civil response <grin>.
You should see a connect with the proper baud rate, then a YooHoo/2U2,
along with an Intro Line of who is calling. If he has mail for you (or you
for him) then it should transfer. The biggest problem at this stage is
getting the modem to answer the phone! You may have to tinker with the
Init string in Binkley.cfg in order to get it to work. The string
provided in these docs has been tested for the HST modem and should work
for that. The newer HST 14400 and Dual Std modems will need different
parameters and I have tried to cover those also.
Finally, you need to see if BBS users can get into the BBS and it responds
all right. Try out your conferences, files, and especially your doors and
make sure everything returns properly. Finally, after he logs off, it
should come back up to BinkleyTerm.
OPERATION
Most of the operation is completely automatic. But there are some things
you might want to learn about.
All of the function keys are usable and they respond the same as if you
had executed an ErrorLevel/10 in the binkley.bat file. ie:
F1= Errorlevel 10,
F2= ErrorLevel 20
and so on.
We already mentioned about ALT-M automatically forcing a POLL. It can be
used to call anyones net/node address in your nodelist. Keep a copy handy
of the errorlevels in your batch file so you can refer to them for manual
operation. ALT-F10 will let you see the internal binkley commands.
ALT-F1 will bring up your SmlNet Netmail reader. I suggest reading the
Smlnet docs thoroughly to get a good understanding of how it works. Try
reading and replying to some mail and also try to send a NetMail message
to your HOST asking for a reply to see if its getting through fine. DON'T
send a bunch of test messages through the echos as that will just make others
angry. They are paying for this service and who wants to haul around a
message that just says Test, Test, Test all over the world to 4,000 BBS's
!!!! Telling SmlNet goodbye will take you back to BinkleyTerm.
If you have setup AMAX, then ALT-F2 will take the phone off the hook and
bring up AMAX. This will allow you to explore what's in the OUTBOUND area
and redirect anything that is there. You also can do File Requests or
File Attaches (send a file to someone) from AMAX. Look at the AMAX docs
for more information.
If you are not using a door, but have used RBBSMAIL to move messages into
RBBS conferences or if you just want to locally logon to your BBS, then
you can select F10 for local access to RBBS. Then you can read messages
as you normally would in LOCAL mode.
Regular Activities
Once a week, your HOST will send out a new nodelist. Your batch files
should sense this and automatically copy it to a safe place and then
recompile a new one for you to use with Binkley. There should be a
NetMail message from your HOST also informing you of the new nodelists
arrival. I use Mail Robot to send out nodelists and newsletters and I
have a little message I attach that tells the users to look for it. If all
of a sudden, you see a ! in the last column for a perfectly good node
address in the Outbound Mail Window (Upper right hand window) on Binkley,
there may have been a nodelist problem and you will have to take a look at
it manually.
Take some time out to get familiar with the nodelist and what all the
symbols mean. Usually, the problem is a simple typo. You then can fix it
and type PARSE manually and watch it compile. Then when you bring up
Binkley, the ! should be replaced by a *,- or some other symbol.
Once a month a new newsletter will be sent out automatically by your HOST.
Your batch file will look for it and copy it to the directory you wanted.
You will probably have a NetMail message from your HOST telling you it was
sent as well as see comments in RBBS-SYSOP or RBBSBITS echo about it.
Tips
One thing I can HIGHLY recommend is to read the BinkleyTerm docs
thoroughly and get a good understanding of what is being depicted on the
screen. If you don't read any of the other docs, make it a point to at
least read through BinkleyTerm. Understanding the operation of this
program is understanding 75% of all the Mail activities. Most of your
troubleshooting can be dramatically shortened by just looking at the
screen to see what is SUPPOSED to be happening compared to what has really
happened.
Also, after a few days, you may notice your machine running slower in disk
operations. Mail has a tendency to terribly fragment your hard drive.
Running a utility like DOG or Norton Utilities Speed Disk is HIGHLY
recommended at least once a week. As a HOST, I run Speed Disk in
automatic quick mode daily from my autoexec.bat. DOG would be run in the
FAST mode. It is not necessary to run a COMPLETE defragmentation, except
about once a month. You will notice a MAJOR improvement in operation.
Even if the REPORT function shows little fragmentation, parts of the drive
where mail has been written and rewritten will be terribly fragmented.