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· ∙■ · │ ▄▄█████▄▄▄▄■▄▄▄▄ · ∙ · ──┼── ░░▒██▒▒▒▒███▀█▓▌█▌██▌■ ▄· Cutting Edge Computing Presents │ ░░▒██▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓███████▄■·▌ ∙ ░░▒██▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓██▀▀█▀▌█████▌▄·■ ░░▒██▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓█▀ ■·▀▐■▀■■▄∙■ The ░░▒▒█▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓█▀ · ∙ ░░▒▒█▒▒▒▒▓▓▓█▌ ┬┬─┐ ┬┬─ ┬┬ ┬ ┬┬──┐ ┬┬ ┬ ┬ ┌┬──┐ ┬┬ ┬ ┬┬──┐ ░░▒▒▓██▒▒▒▓▓▓█▄ │├─┴┐ ││ ││ │ │├─ ││ │ │ │├──│ ││ ┌┘ │├─ ░░▒▒▒▓▓██▒▒▒▓▓▓█▌ ┴┴──┘ ┴┴──┘ ┴┴──┘ ┴┴──┘ └┴─┴─┘ ┴┴ ┴ └┴─┘ ┴┴──┘ ░░▒▒▒▒▒▓▓██▒▒▒▓▓▓█▄▄▄ ░░▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓███▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓█▄ Mail System ░░▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓████▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓█▄▄ │ ░░▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█████████████ ▀_▄▄▄▄▄ ──┼── ▒▒███▒▒▒▒████▒▒▒██████▒▒▒████▒▒▒▒███▒▒ │ ▒▒███▒▒▒▒████▒▒▒██████▒▒▒████▒▒▒▒███▒▒ Copyright (C) 1992 by: ▒▒███▒▒▒▒████▒▒▒██████▒▒▒████▒▒▒▒███▒▒ Cutting Edge Computing Version 1.00 The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual Documentation by George Hatchew RemoteAccess Door Code by George Hatchew All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- LICENSE AGREEMENT 2 WHAT IS THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR? 4 INSTALLING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 6 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR 7 General Information 7 The Options and Toggles Menu 10 The Directories and FilePaths Menu 13 The Message Area Override Editor 19 The Logging Level Editor 23 The Protocol Definitions Editor 25 The Archiver Definitions Editor 28 Sample Command Lines for Popular Archivers 29 The Security/Flag Editor 30 The User File Editor 31 INSTALLING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR INTO RA 32 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS 33 BWMAIL.PRM Override 33 System/Node Directory Override 33 MAINTAINING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 37 The BWUTILS PURGE Function 37 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DOOR OPERATIONS 38 Keys Used While a User is Online 39 Carrier Checking 40 Inactivity Timer 40 Lastread Pointers 41 OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS 42 SENDING NETMAIL THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 43 FILE REQUESTING THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 44 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 45 The Blue Wave Bundling Commands 49 PRODUCT SUPPORT 53 LICENSE AGREEMENT ----------------- Cutting Edge Computing has taken every precaution to ensure that no harm or damage will occur on systems running The Blue Wave Mail Door. However, we cannot be responsible for any damages or other losses suffered as a result of running The Blue Wave Mail Door on your system. The user assumes full responsibility for the proper use of this mail system, whether damage occurs as a fault of operator error or software error. NO WARRANTIES ARE IMPLIED OR EXPRESSLY STATED. The Blue Wave Mail System and its documentation are copyrighted materials of Cutting Edge Computing and George Hatchew. Cutting Edge Computing reserves all rights to these materials, and is protected under United States and International Copyright laws. No part of these materials may be reproduced or modified in any way without the prior express written permission of Cutting Edge Computing. Use of The Blue Wave Mail System constitutes acceptance of the stated terms and conditions. Cutting Edge Computing reserves all rights which are not expressly granted. The Blue Wave Mail System is fully copyrighted, and is not, nor will it ever be, in the Public Domain. The Blue Wave Mail System is NOT FreeWare. It is distributed under the concept of ShareWare. Users are allowed to try this program for 30 days before paying for and registering the mail system with Cutting Edge Computing. In this 30 days, you may use the program to its full capacity. If the software does not meet your needs, and you do not plan on registering with Cutting Edge Computing after your 30 day trial period, you are to cease usage of the mail system. Continued use beyond the authorized evaluation period requires payment of the registration fee in full. Cutting Edge Computing grants an unlimited license to make and distribute UNREGISTERED copies of The Blue Wave Mail System which have been released to the public by Cutting Edge Computing. Absolutely no modifications to the files contained in the software package, including this documentation file, may be made before distribution. No fee may be charged by anyone other than Cutting Edge Computing beyond the actual cost of providing these copies without the prior written consent of Cutting Edge Computing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 2 REGISTERED USER'S LICENSE ------------------------- Registered users of The Blue Wave Mail System are granted an unlimited license to use the product, provided the following: Registration fees are NOT refundable. Registration codes are not transferable to other parties. Unofficial software patches must not be applied, and all copyright notices in the documentation and supporting files are not to be altered. Backup copies may be kept of all registered versions of this software for archive purposes only. Use of a registered copy is limited to one machine at a time. Use of multiple registered copies on multiple machines requires additional payment to Cutting Edge Computing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 3 WHAT IS THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR? -------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door is only half of a complete package. It is the part that you, as a sysop, will run online from your BBS. Users can then sign into The Blue Wave Mail Door, download mail packets to read offline, and upload replies that they have created offline. The Blue Wave Mail System is a complete package consisting of The Blue Wave Mail Door, and The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Both programs work together to make your message bases more active. Since users can download their mail in less than one tenth of the time that it would take them to read it online, your system is open for more callers, or activity in other areas of the BBS. Users are not pushed against time limits, and long distance users are not paying for the extra connect time to the BBS. The advent of offline mail systems has helped amateur e-mail networks, such as FidoNet, grow and prosper into a wealth of useful information. Since users can take their time and reply offline at their convenience, many times their messages are more meaningful. The Blue Wave Mail System allows users to utilize the editor of their choice in order to reply to messages. This gives them even more comfort with the idea of entering mail. What else does The Blue Wave Mail System have to offer? Why use The Blue Wave Mail System when there are a host of other programs available that allow users the luxury of offline mail reading? * Supports RemoteAccess's Message base locking scheme, so it can be used on multi-line systems with complete confidence. * Communication through your existing FOSSIL driver, to ensure total compatibility with today's and tomorrow's high-speed modems. * Full remote TTY/ANSI/AVATAR support. * Full support for either HotKeys or no HotKeys. * Incredible ease of installation. The installation module reads most of its setup parameters directly from your existing RemoteAccess Setup. * A maintenance utility that makes changing your Blue Wave Mail Door setup parameters incredibly easy. * Allows users maximum flexibility in creating a custom download packet through the use of Blue Wave Bundling Commands. * Full, accurate updating of your BBS statistics. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 4 WHAT IS THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ------------------------------------------- * Full DUPE checking, to ensure that users do not upload duplicate messages into your message bases. * Support for up to 10 protocols and 8 archivers of your choice. * Informational status bar at the bottom of the local sysop screen. * Allows users the ability to password-protect both their on-line mail sessions AND downloaded mail packets. * Ability to store up to 3 user Bundling Command Macros, for those that repeat frequently used commands. * The Blue Wave Mail Door can optionally swap to extended or expanded memory, or even to disk during its shell to the external archivers and protocols, to allow it to run in limited memory situations. * A Blue Wave Mail Door user file editor is contained with your Blue Wave Mail Door maintenance utility, BWUTILS. * An interactive user environment when ON-LINE, unlike some packages that require the user to perform all of their duties off-line. * Allows users a choice of AUTO-LOGOFF at the completion of a mail packet download. * Excellent support for multiple mail packets from the same BBS. Each mail packet is named identifying your BBS, the day of the week it was downloaded, and the packet number downloaded for the current day. * Full user and sysop support via the FidoNet backbone echo BLUEWAVE, and direct netmail support from the authors of the package for registered users. * Saves users on-line time and $$$, while still allowing active participation in Echomail, Groupmail, and local message bases. This in turn frees up your system, so more callers can get through, since users do their reading and replying OFFLINE, at THEIR convenience! * Full support for FidoNet netmail, interzone netmail, netmail to and from points, and cost checking through your RemoteAccess nodelist. * All of this, and The Blue Wave Mail Door runs faster than any mail door that we have been able to test! ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 5 INSTALLING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ---------------------------------- Because most people absolutely abhor reading documentation, this section is meant to provide a quick, simple, yet detailed step-by-step installation procedure. If you read no further in the documentation, PLEASE READ THIS! There are some tricks to installing The Blue Wave Mail Door, that, when followed, will provide you with a near hassle- free installation. NOTE: The Blue Wave Mail Door requires that you have a FOSSIL driver loaded. Currently available FOSSIL drivers include X00, BNU, and OpusCom. You should be able to find a FOSSIL driver on a BBS that carries communications files. UNPACK BWMAIL.ZIP, which is enclosed within the distribution archive. Make a directory on your hard drive specifically for The Blue Wave Mail Door. Making a separate directory for The Blue Wave distribution files will make life easier in the long run. UnZIP BWMAIL.ZIP into your new directory (we'll call it the BLUEWAVE directory throughout the documentation.) CHANGE TO YOUR BLUEWAVE directory, and execute BWUTILS. This will load the door's INSTALLATION module, and guide you through the initial setup procedures. You will first be prompted to enter the name of your RemoteAccess v1.xx CONFIG.RA file. You should enter the full path and file name here. If the door locates your CONFIG.RA file, it will find out as much information as possible from your existing RemoteAccess setup. EACH MESSAGE AREA that you have defined in RemoteAccess will be used by the door EXACTLY as it is defined within RA. The door reads all message area definitions directly from RA's MESSAGES.RA file. This includes Security levels, area flags, private/non-private status, etc. You won't even have to type them all in! AFTER A FEW SECONDS, BWUtils will show you a screen informing you that is has gathered as much data as possible. The installation program also installed several sample archiver and protocol configurations into your setup. At this time it will be necessary to "walk" through each menu item of the installation and maintenance utility in order to enter information that cannot be found through your RemoteAccess setup. At this time, you should continue reading the documentation in order to learn what each item inside of BWUtils does. The next section will describe, in detail, each of the menu items and choices available to you. The Blue Wave Mail Door also allows several command line parameters, which you may need to use in order to customize your setup. Please see the section regarding COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS, following the next section. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 6 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR -------------------------------------------- (How to use BWUTILS.EXE to edit your setup.) After the original initialization of The Blue Wave Mail Door is complete, you will be taken to The Blue Wave Mail Door's Configuration Editor. By default, if BWUTILS finds a configuration file already present, you will be taken directly to this menu. If at any time you wish to re-run the Door Initialization module, simply delete the file named BWMAIL.PRM, located in your BLUEWAVE directory. To make simple changes to your setup, run BWUTILS with no command line parameters, and you will be taken to the configuration menu. (If you would like to edit a setup besides the default "BWMAIL.PRM", enter the name of the file you would like to edit on the command line. For instance, to edit a PRM file called "BWLINE2.PRM", simply enter the command "BWUTILS BWLINE2.PRM".) A thorough description of each item available for editing through BWUTILS will now be given. General Information ------------------- The General Information menu allows you to edit data regarding your system name, your name as sysop, and some user limits. BBS Name: Enter the name of your BBS here, exactly as you want it to appear in the door. Your BBS name will be shown at the top of the main door menu, and also to the users inside of the offline reader. Your Real Name: You should enter your real name in this field. If you use a handle or alias on your BBS, this is not the place for it. Your registration code will be computed based upon the name you give here. Rest assured that your users will NEVER see this field. Your Name as Sysop: Please enter the name or handle that you use in your RemoteAccess setup to identify yourself to your users. When entering mail in the offline mail reader, users may enter "SYSOP" in the TO: Field. The Blue Wave Mail System will insert this name for them, instead of your real name, since it may be different in some cases. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 7 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Name of Mail Packet Identifying your BBS: Enter the root name of the mail packet that you would like to use to identify your BBS. It should probably correspond to the name of your BBS. For example: WILDBLUE -- The Wild! Blue BBS IOBUS -- The I/O Bus The Blue Wave Mail Door will generate mail packets using this field as the 'root name'. If today is Monday, and Joe User is downloading his second packet of the day, and your Mail Packet Name is IOBUS, the file generated will be named IOBUS.MO2. This allows users of your BBS to have multiple download packets available at one time for reading from your BBS. Registration Number: Upon registration of The Blue Wave Mail Door with Cutting Edge Computing, you will receive a unique registration code. Registration of The Blue Wave Mail Door not only removes the UNREGISTERED COPY on the Main Menu, but also entitles you to special utilities and support NOT available to unregistered users. If you have a registration code, please enter it here. Maximum Number of Downloadable Messages: Upon initialization of The Blue Wave Mail Door, this field is defaulted to 1000. Sysops with tight disk space may wish to set the default lower. When bundling mail for a user, the door checks to be sure that the scanned messages do not exceed this limit. If they do, the user is instructed to "trim" his or her packet before the door will allow the bundling process to begin. Maximum Number of File Requests: The Blue Wave Mail Door has a built in file request mechanism. If a user requests that a file be sent with his or her mail packet, the door will attempt to find it, based upon the file areas that you have defined within RemoteAccess. The door respects all Sec. and Flag levels, and checks any upload and download ratios that may be enforced. This field allows you to define the maximum number of files that can be requested during one download session. To completely disable The Blue Wave Mail System's file requesting, simply enter a 0 here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 8 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Reader Files: Reader files are plain ASCII, or ANSI files that will be displayed to the user when they load a mail packet downloaded from your BBS. You may define up to 5 files to be displayed. You may wish to send files with each mail packet as an advertisement of new items or echos available on the BBS, etc. These files should reside in the BLUEWAVE directory. You may use 2 special character sequences in the reader text files in order to control the display of the files: {PAUSE} - Inserts a "Press Any Key To Continue" {BEEP} - Sounds a beep in the reader. Default Network Address Information: These four fields (Zone, Net, Node, Point) require your Networks's PRIMARY Zone, Net, Node, and Point Number, if you will be using The Blue Wave Mail Door in a FidoNet-style application. If you do not have a network address, please leave these fields as 0's. Whenever possible, The Blue Wave Mail Door finds the address information for each echomail and netmail area from RA's MESSAGES.RA file. The door will append the origin line defined within RA and insert the network address. However, if it cannot find the area within MESSAGES.RA or the Origin line is blank, this default address will be used to address the message. If you are running a point system, and would like to use The Blue Wave Mail System, there should be no problem. Specify your BOSSnode address here, along with your specified point number. Your complete address will appear in the origin lines with the 4-D point address. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 9 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Options and Toggles Menu ---------------------------- Swap on Shell to Externals: If this option is turned on, The Blue Wave Mail Door will perform a "Memory Swap" when shelling to execute the external protocols and archivers. The door will swap all but about 3K out of memory and free your valuable RAM for use by your archivers and protocols. If you enable this option, please also be sure to specify one of the next 3 options. Swap to Extended Memory: If this option is enabled, the door will attempt to swap to extended memory. If not enough extended memory is available, a swap to DISK will be performed. Swap to Expanded Memory: If this option is enabled, the door will attempt to swap to expanded memory. If not enough LIM v4.0 Expanded Memory is available, a swap to DISK will be performed. Swap to Disk: If you choose to have The Blue Wave Mail Door swap its used memory to DISK, you will need about 150K free on your "Swap Drive". You can specify the full path to your swap directory within the BWUtils "Directories and Filepaths" menu. Fast (Direct) Screen Writes: If this option is set to "Yes", the door will use direct video writes; directly to your monitor glass. This is by far the fastest video mode, and may be incompatible with some systems and/or multi-taskers. If you have trouble with direct video writes, set this option to "No". The door will then use generic BIOS screen writes. If DESQview is detected, the door will automatically write directly to the DESQview video buffer regardless of what this setting is at. If auto- DESQview detection causes problems, use the /NODV command line parameter for the door. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 10 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Allow G)oodbye Commands: Normally, The Blue Wave Mail Door will give users the option of logging off your system through the door [G)oodbye from the Main Menu], and the choice of an "Instant" or "Countdown" logoff after downloading a mail packet. If you do not want the users given the ability to automatically log off after a mail transfer, or to say G)oodbye from the Main Menu, set this option to "No". In most cases, however, this option should probably be set to "Yes" in order to give users increased flexibility within the mail door. Hangup on Input Timeout: After 4 minutes of input inactivity from the remote user, the door normally drops carrier and recycles back to RemoteAccess in order to prevent a user from tying up your system. If you do not want the door to drop carrier on the user for inactivity, set this option to "No". If this option is "No", and the online user has been inactive for more than 4 minutes, the door will simply exit and return control back to RemoteAccess, rather than dropping carrier on the user. Hangup on user when Time Limit Expires: When the user's daily time limit has expired, the door normally drops carrier on them and returns control to RemoteAccess. However, if you would like the door to just exit back to RA when the time limit expires, set this option to "No". Allow +)All Areas Command: When a user is at the area selection menu in the door, they are normally allowed to enter a "+" symbol to turn on ALL areas that are available to them. If you find that this option is abused, or you have a lot of message areas and you don't want users to be able to perform this function, simply set this option to "No". Users will then have to enter each area they would like to download manually. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 11 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Nuke *.NEW Packets after Local Upload: When The Blue Wave Mail Door is used in local mode, the .NEW packet generated by the reader is not normally erased from the Upload directory. If you would like the door to erase your upload packet after tossing the .NEW message replies, set this option to "Yes". This option only affects LOCAL MODE operations. *.NEW packets are always erased after the door has processed it with a remote user online. Keep Old DL Packets (Don't Erase): Normally, when The Blue Wave Mail Door builds a mail bundle in LOCAL mode, it erases PKTNAME.* in the local download directory, just as it does for a remote user. If you use the door in local mode, and you would like the door to NOT erase other mail bundles which may reside in the door's and reader's download directory, set this option to "Yes". Another feature that is enabled when this option is set to "Yes" is auto-incrementing of the download packet extension numbers. If the door was about to build a bundle called WILDBLUE.TH1, and WILDBLUE.TH1 already existed in the download directory, the door would then check for WILDBLUE.TH2. It will repeat this process until it finds a 'hole' between .TH1 and .TH9. If there are packets named WILDBLUE.TH1 through WILDBLUE.TH9, the door will erase the oldest packet and build a new one. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 12 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Directories and FilePaths Menu ---------------------------------- A feature of The Blue Wave Mail Door is the ability to work easily on multi-line systems. For all of the path and file names described below, it is possible to use the '%T' metaphor wherever you would like to use the TASK number the door is using. For example, if a system is running 2 lines, it is necessary to specify different WORK, UPLOAD, and DOWNLOAD directories for each line. It is not possible to share the door's working directories between 2 tasks. To simplify the setup process for multi-line setups, you may wish to declare your paths in the following way: DOWNLOAD Directory: C:\Ra\Bluewave\Down%T UPLOAD Directory : C:\Ra\Bluewave\Upload%T WORK Directory : C:\Ra\Bluewave\Work%T If the door is invoked with a '-T1' command line parameter, the door will search for and use the following paths: DOWNLOAD Directory: C:\Ra\Bluewave\Down01 UPLOAD Directory : C:\Ra\Bluewave\Upload01 WORK Directory : C:\Ra\Bluewave\Work01 The door always expands the %T metaphor into a 2 digit, hexadecimal number. A '-T12' on the command line would expand to 'C:\Ra\Bluewave\Down0C', and so on. The task number translations work for not only the working directories, but for EVERY path name, filename, and Flag File name described below. When the door needs to load a RemoteAccess system file (EXITINFO.BBS, MESSAGES.RA, and FILES.RA are 3 examples), it performs 3 steps: 1) Looks in the path defined in "Path to RA Files", described on the next page. 2) Looks in the directory specified by the "RA" environment variable. 3) Looks in the current directory. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 13 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- For this reason, if you are running multi-line, you will either need to be sure that the "RA" environment variable is set in each multi-tasker window, or use the /S command line parameter to tell the door where to look for the files. Path to RemoteAccess System Files: The Blue Wave Mail Door needs to load a RemoteAccess v1.00+ EXITINFO.BBS file in order to know several things about your system and the user that is online. Please enter the full path and file name to your RemoteAccess NODE or SYSTEM directory here. Note: For those running multiple tasks, you may specify the SYSTEM Dir. to use on the command line, if you wish. If you enter the name of the SysDir on the command line, it will override the default setting that you enter here. Please see the section regarding COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS. Path to the Message Base Files: Please enter the full path to your Message Base files here. The door will need to know exactly where your message base is before it can do any work with it! The door also updates the file LASTREAD.BBS in this directory. Path to Alternate File Lists: If you will be enabling The Blue Wave Mail Door's File Requesting Option for your users, and you keep your FILES.BBS-type file listing(s) in another directory, you will need to tell the door where to find them. This field serves the same purpose as the RemoteAccess Alternate File List Directory. Before the door will allow a user to download a file from your system, it MUST be able to find an entry in FILES.BBS for that file. Otherwise, the file request will be declined. The Blue Wave Mail Door uses the same format for the alternate file listing; it searches for "FILES.<area #>" in the directory specified here if FILES.BBS is not found in the file directory itself (probably most useful for CD-ROM drives.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 14 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave's WORK Directory: Specify the path pointing to Blue Wave's personal WORK directory. The Blue Wave Mail Door will perform all of its bundling and unpacking in this directory. You should have enough free space in this directory to handle the MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DOWNLOADABLE MESSAGES specified in the General Information Menu. (This path can lie on a different drive). WARNING: This directory will be COMPLETELY erased whenever the user begins an upload or download session. Do NOT point this directory somewhere where there are files that you do not want deleted. Never allow 2 tasks to use the same WORK directory! Blue Wave's DOWNLOAD Directory: Specify the path to Blue Wave's personal DOWNLOAD directory. This is the area where mail packets will be compressed into, and downloaded from. This directory is cleaned of "PACKETNAME.*" whenever a user begins to download a packet. To be safe, you should never keep files in this directory that you want to keep. WARNING: Do NOT share your work directory with the download directory. The door will still work, but may not operate correctly. The download directory *may* be shared with the upload directory, but again, we advise against it. Also, do not share a DOWNLOAD directory between 2 or more tasks. Normally, when a user leaves The Blue Wave Mail Door, this directory is cleansed of the packet that was made. However, in LOCAL mode, the file is kept so that you may download mail in local mode and read the packet with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Blue Wave's UPLOAD Directory: The Blue Wave Mail Door uses the UPLOAD directory to accept a user's upload packet. The protocols will be executed with the upload directory on the command line. After a protocol is finished executing, the door will expect to find the upload packet here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 15 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- After a remote user is finished with an upload, this directory is erased of "PACKETNAME.*". However, after a local upload, this directory is not cleaned, in case you would like to save your upload packet for later use. When the door begins an upload session, it CHANGES to the upload directory, for those protocols that can only accept uploads to the current directory. This means that you must either store your protocol driver in your DOS PATH statement, or specify the full path and file name to your protocol driver in the PROTOCOL menu. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 16 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Path to Blue Wave's SWAP File: The path you enter here will be where The Blue Wave Mail Door will write its SWAP file when shelling to an external protocol or archiver. If you do not have swapping enabled in The Blue Wave Mail Door, you do not need to specify a path here. If you told the door to use Extended or Expanded memory on a swap, you should still specify a path here, however. If the swap to extended or expanded memory fails, the door will automatically swap to disk. The Blue Wave Mail Door's swap file consumes about 150K, and is erased when control returns to the door. You MUST specify a different swap directory for each task that you may be running. Two copies of The Blue Wave Mail Door cannot share the same swap directory. This is most easily accomplished through the use of the '%T' metaphor, as described at the beginning of this section. Path to Blue Wave's LOG File: The Blue Wave Mail Door will keep a log file of all activity within the door. You can specify the name of this file here. You need to have separate LOG files if you are running more than one task. You can use the '%T' metaphor to specify different log file names for the different tasks you may be running. If you do not want the door to keep a log file, simply leave this field blank, and no log file will be kept. You can also define different logging levels for the door to use through the LOGGING ACTIVITY EDITOR, which will be described in a separate section. Local WORK Directory: This directory serves the same purpose as the normal work directory described above, with one exception: This directory will be used when the door is loaded in LOCAL mode (there is no remote user). If you want to use the same directory in LOCAL mode as for REMOTE mode, simply leave this field blank. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 17 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Local DOWNLOAD Directory: This directory serves the same purpose as the normal download directory, but is used when the door is in LOCAL mode. Leave this field blank if you do not want separate download directories. Local UPLOAD Directory: Serves the same purpose as the Local DOWNLOAD and WORK directories. A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT DIRECTORIES: The Blue Wave Mail Door checks for the existence of each of the UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD, and WORK directories during the initialization process. If any or all of these directories do not exist, the door attempts to create them. If, however, the door is unsuccessful in its attempt to create its working directories, it will log an error and refuse to run. The UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD, and WORK directories can be overridden from the DOS command line. Please see the section "COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS", later in the documentation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 18 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Message Area Override Editor ----------------------------------- The message area override editor is provided in order for you to have seperate read access, write access, and area descriptions between the door and RemoteAccss. The override editor also gives you the power to define DEFAULT message areas for new users, and to FORCE message areas on (the user will not be able to turn it off.) New overrides are added to the door by pressing <INS> after entering the Override editor. A scrollable "pick-list" will then be displayed, and you will be able to highlight the area definition you would like to override. After you have found the message area that you would like to create an Override for, simply highlight it and press <ENTER>. A new area override will be created, and you can then edit the parameters described below. It should be noted that unused or unnecessary overrides should not be created, since it will only take the door longer to initialize when called from RemoteAccess. You should always Delete message area overrides that you do not wish to have active. NOTE ---- If you are trying to override a message area, and it is not showing up when pressing <INS> to select from the pick-list, be sure that the area you are trying to work with has an Area Description defined in RACONFIG. Areas that do not have an Area Name defined will be skipped by the BWUtils editor and by the door itself! It is necessary to define an area as an override if you would like to FORCE downloading the area to all users, or have the area active as a default for new users [which will be explained later in this section]. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 19 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Area Number: BWUtils allows you to edit the AREA NUMBER of the message area. If, for some reason you would like to change the area's "number" in the door, you can do it here. However, as you are probably aware, the Hudson Message Base that RemoteAccess uses requires that area numbers EXACTLY correspond with your BBS Setup, mail tosser setup, etc. Only change the area number if you have changed it within all of your other configuration files! Area Description: If you would like a different description in the door from the one you have defined within MESSAGES.RA, you can change it here. Changing the area description has absolutely no effect on anything but the display of the area in the door. Area Origin Line: Normally, The Blue Wave Mail Door will append an Origin line to messages entering the system as Echomail. The origin line used is the one that is defined within RA. If you would like to override an area's Origin line, and have a different one appended by the door, you should enter it here. Do not include the Zone:Net/Node information, as the door will automatically add this information itself from the information found within MESSAGES.RA for the current message area. Area Type: If you would like to change the type of messages that the door posts in the message area, simply press "T" several times until the correct setting comes on the screen. Valid message area types are LOCAL, NETMAIL, and ECHOMAIL. Message Kinds: If you would like to change the type of messages that the reader allows a person to enter, simply press "K" several times until the correct message type comes on the screen. Valid message kinds are "Private Messages Only", "Public Messages Only", "Public and Private Messages", and "Read-Only" (which means a user cannot post in the area at all.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 20 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Read Security Level: Selecting this option will allow you to define the Security level needed to access (read) this particular message area. The Blue Wave Mail Door supports all of RA's Security levels and FLAGS. If you enter a security here that is different than RA's setting, this will OVERRIDE what you have defined in RA. Write Security Level: The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define a Security and flag level for a user to ENTER mail into a message area. If a user has sufficient access to download a message area, but insufficient access to post, the reader will give them a message that says "This is a READ-ONLY Area", if they try to enter a message into the area. *)Default Msg Areas for New Users: If you would like to make the current message area a DEFAULT message area for new users, you can toggle the Default status by pressing the '*' key. When an area is selected as a default, it will be active the first time a new user enters the door. They will still be able to turn the message area off through the door's Configuration Menu, or through the reader's OFFLINE CONFIGURATION. Of course, the area is only automatically activated if the current user has READ access to the message area. When entering the door for the first time, the user is shown the default active message areas. !)Force Message area ON: Through the use of the Override editor, it is possible to FORCE a message area ON for all users who use The Blue Wave Mail Door. If an area is forced on, a user will not be able to turn it off through the door's Configuration Menu, nor through the use of the reader's OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS. It is also impossible to modify the download count in the message area through the use of The Blue Wave Bundling Commands. This option is used to Globally force a message area. You can force message areas on for individual users through the BWUtils User File Editor, which will be described in a separate section. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 21 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- It should be noted that a message area will not be forced ON unless the user online actually has READ access to the message area. If the user doesn't have access, they will not even know that the message area exists. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 22 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Logging Level Editor ------------------------ The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to "build" your own custom log file format. Of course, if you want to disable logging completely, you may do that, too. Simply set all of the fields described below to "No", or give the door a null string in the DIRECTORIES AND FILEPATHS Menu for the Log File Name. You can choose to log or ignore the following entries: Scanning Information: If this option is enabled, the door will write into your log file a detailed account of what messages were scanned by a user online. It includes a Keyword count, a count of NEW messages, a Filter count, and a count of the personal messages. All logging done by this function will have a ":" symbol preceding the log entry. To toggle these entries ON/OFF, press the ':' key. Bundling Information: This option is similar to the Scanning Information function, except it writes an entry for each area BUNDLED. All logging done by this function will have a "+" symbol preceding the log entry. To toggle these entries ON/OFF, press the '+' key. Upload Information: This option will log all messages that were uploaded through The Blue Wave Mail Door. With this option enabled, an entry will be made for each message a user uploads in a packet, including information about who the message is TO, who it was FROM, the subject of the message, and the area to which the message was tossed. All logging done by this function will have a "@" symbol preceding the log entry. To toggle these entries ON/OFF, press the '@' key. Error Messages: This option will log all errors encountered by the door. All logging done by this function will have a '!' symbol preceding the log entry. Press the '!' key to toggle these log entries ON/OFF. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 23 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Scanning and Bundling Totals: With this option enabled, the door will write the total number of messages scanned and the total messages bundled to the log file. Please note that this is a GRAND TOTAL. In order to get a total number of messages that were scanned and bundled by AREA, please see the previous page regarding SCANNING INFORMATION and BUNDLING TOTALS. All logging done by this function will have a "*" symbol preceding the log entry. To toggle these entries ON/OFF, press the '*' key. Log General Activity: This option is primarily a "catch-all" for those who would like a log file, but not a detailed account of events. General activity will log things such as "Joe User Entering The Blue Wave Mail Door at 9600 Baud", "Scanning Message Areas", and "Bundling Messages". If you want totals and other information included, please use some of the above mentioned logging levels. All logging done by this function will have a '=' symbol preceding the log entry. To toggle these entries ON/OFF, press the '=' key. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 24 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Protocol Definitions Editor ------------------------------- The Protocol Definitions Editor will allow you to define the protocols that are allowed to be used by users while downloading and uploading their mail packets. When The Blue Wave Mail Door is initialized, several protocol command lines were inserted as examples. You may need to edit these default command lines to suit your system setup. Default Protocol: When the door is first initialized, it marks protocol #1 as the default for new users. If you would like to make another protocol the default, go to the protocol desired and type the "D" key. This protocol will now be used as the default protocol. There ALWAYS needs to be a default protocol defined. Because of this, if protocol #1 is defined as "default", typing the "D" key will not turn it off. If you wish another protocol to be the default, you will need to move to the desired protocol and select "D". The previously defined default protocol will be set to "No" in the default field automatically! Batch Protocol: The Blue Wave Mail Door needs to know if the current protocol is a BATCH protocol. If a protocol is marked as BATCH, the door will handle File requesting differently. Single-file protocols will require that the user downloads their file requests at the time they perform their upload session. If a user is using a batch protocol, they will be given the option of downloading the files immediately after their request upload, OR during their mail download session! The files gathered by the door will always be sent as a "batch" when the protocol is so tagged. Protocol Hotkey: This option selects the "Hotkey" used to select/deselect the protocol from the door's CONFIGURATION menu while a user is online. This key should not conflict with other protocol hotkeys being used. "Q" should also not be used, since it is used internally by The Blue Wave Mail Door for the "(Q)uit" command. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 25 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Protocol Title: This option allows you to define the title of the protocol that is displayed to users in the CONFIGURATION menu of the door when they are online. This description should be kept as short as possible, to avoid a "messy" appearance on the selection screen. Suggested names are "Zmodem", "Xmodem", "Ymodem", "Xmodem 1-K", etc. Download (Send) Command Line: Upon initialization of The Blue Wave Mail Door, BWUtils inserted some sample protocols and command lines. In most cases, these command lines should work just fine. However, you *may* have to edit them in order for the door to work correctly on your system. If you do need to edit the command line, you need to be aware of 3 "metacharacters" used by the door. These metacharacters are replaced by parameters when the door executes its shell to the protocols. %P Use the %P where you wish the port number to be passed to the external protocol. %B Use the %B where you wish the baud rate of the caller to be passed to the external protocol. (NOTE: Those running LOCKED COM PORTS will probably want to avoid using the %B parameter. Instead, pass the locked baud rate directly to the protocol, if it needs it. %F Use the %F where you wish the file name to be passed to the external protocol. Here is an example of both a locked com port setup and an unlocked port setup using DSZ's Zmodem with MobyTurbo: LOCKED BAUD AT 19200: dsz port %p speed 19200 estimate 0 %b sz -m %f UNLOCKED PORT dsz port %p speed %b sz -m %f NOTES ABOUT PROTOCOL COMMAND LINES ---------------------------------- If the protocol you wish to execute is located somewhere on your DOS PATH statement, it is not necessary to provide the complete path to the protocol. If, on the other hand, your protocols are NOT located on the PATH, you will need to specify the complete drive, path, filename, and extension in order for the door to find it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 26 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Upload (Receive) Command Line: The upload command line follows the same basic rules as the DOWNLOAD command line. The upload command line is used by the door to receive a mail packet from the remote user. Before executing the UPLOAD command line, the door changes to the directory where the upload packet will go. This will allow the use of external protocols that only allow uploads to the current directory. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 27 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Archiver Definitions Editor ------------------------------- As with the protocols, the door initialization module installed some sample archivers. Some editing may be necessary in order for the archivers to work correctly. The archivers are used to compress downloaded mail bundles before sending them to the user. Default Archiver: This field allows you to define the Default Archiver for new users to The Blue Wave Mail Door. (A user may later change his/her default from the door's CONFIGURATION menu.) As with protocols, there must always be a default archiver defined. Because of this, if archiver #1 is set to the default, you will NOT be able to disable it. To select another archiver to be the default, move to the correct definition number, and type the letter "D". Any previously marked default archivers will be toggled off automatically. Archiver Hotkey: This field allows you to define the "Hotkey" used to select the current archiver from the door's CONFIGURATION Menu. You should be careful not to duplicate hotkeys between different archivers (such as using "Z" for .ZIP and "Z" for .ZOO, both). The letter "Q" should also not be used, as this is used internally by the door for a "(Q)uit" menu option. Any other alpha-numeric character, however, is OK. Archiver Title: This is the short, 3 letter extension used by the archiver. You should probably make it match the "standard" extension so as to not confuse your users. Examples of popular archivers would include "ZIP", "ARC", "PAK", "LZH", and "ZOO". Archiver Compress Command Line: Here you will define the command line used to compress your users' mail packets. The Blue Wave Mail Door supports 2 "metacharacters" in the compression command lines, and will be described on the next page. WARNING: LHARC *will* hang your system if you do not give it the proper command line. The door uses "non-standard" filename extensions, and LHARC will complain. See the next page for a sample. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 28 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- Archiver Decompress Command Line: Here you will define the command line used to decompress your users' uploaded mail packets. NOTE: It should be mentioned that there MUST BE ENOUGH MEMORY FREE ON YOUR SYSTEM TO RUN THE EXTERNAL ARCHIVERS! If you are getting "Out of Memory or Disk Space" errors, and you have plenty of disk space, you will need to either enable SWAPPING within The Blue Wave Mail Door, or make RemoteAccess swap or run the door as a type 15 exit. Archiver Command Line Metacharacters ------------------------------------ @F Inserts the directory/filename of the file to be BUILT when used in the compress command line. When used in the Decompress command line, the door inserts the directory/filename of the file to be DECOMPRESSED. @I When used in the Compress command line, the door inserts the directory and filename of the files to INCLUDE in the archive. When used in the DECOMPRESS command line, the door inserts the directory/filename of the place where the extracted files will be placed (the door's WORK directory). Sample Command Lines for Popular Archivers ------------------------------------------ The following examples have been tested with their respective archivers and work well: PKZIP @F @I ZIP Compression command line PKUNZIP @F @I ZIP Decompression command line PKARC -a @F @I ARC Compression command line PKXARC -e @F @I ARC Decompression command line LHARC a /m @F @I LZH Compression command line LHARC e /m @F @I LZH Decompression command line PAK a @F @I PAK Compression command line PAK e @F @I PAK Decompression command line ARJ a @F @I ARJ Compression command line ARJ e @F @I ARJ Decompression command line ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 29 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The Security/Flag Editor ------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door has full built-in support for Fidonet netmail. The door allows you to define the privelege level and locks/keys needed to access every BIT on a netmail message. When the door was installed, it defaulted to SYSOP on all privelege levels. You should be careful about allowing users access to certain netmail attributes. That, however, is left at your discretion. The Blue Wave Mail Door simply provides the capability for users to enter File Request messages, and other "usually sysop-only" bits. The Blue Wave Mail Door, however, allows you to have even more control over messages entered in your netmail bases. The door will allow you to define the default bits to place on ALL MESSAGES. Several bits are allowed to be toggled, but obviously those that will never be used were left out. (What do you mean you want to mark ALL Netmail as File Attaches??) For example, you could place the HOLD bit on all netmail messages so that they can be "screened" before leaving your system. The door double checks these flags and priveleges when users upload netmail through the door, so there is absolutely no chance of someone "hacking" their way through the security system. For full details on how The Blue Wave Mail Door handles netmail bases, please see the appropriate section in the documentation. The door uses "Security to send Unlisted Nodes" when a user tries sending mail to unlisted nodes. Unlisted nodes are those that the door could not find in your NODELIST when doing a matrix-mail lookup for the costing on a node. If you allow "Normal" access to this option, it is possible to run the door without a nodelist. If a node is unlisted, and the user has proper access to SEND to unlisted nodes, the door checks the "COST TO SEND TO UNLISTED NODES" field. Then, if the user has a proper CREDIT/DEBIT ratio, the message will be allowed to enter the system. Otherwise, the user is given an informative message, and the door does not accept the new mail into the system. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 30 THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR CONFIGURATION EDITOR (continued) -------------------------------------------------------- The User File Editor -------------------- BWUTILS contains a User File Editor, which allows you access to all of the user-configurable options and several other extra items. Most of the items in the user file editor are self explanatory, so it would only be a waste of time and paper to explain them here. The User File editor contains an on- line help screen, which is accessible by pressing F1 in the editor. The part of the user editor that deserves mention is the Area Editor. To see and/or edit the areas that a user is currently active for, you can press F5 to bring up a "pick- list". Areas that the user has active will be tagged with a yellow box. To toggle the ACTIVE status on the highlighted message area, simply press the [Space] bar. Through the user area editor, it is also possible to selectively FORCE message areas for particular users. By pressing F9 while on a highlighted message area, it is possible to toggle the FORCED status of the area for the current user. Forcing a message area on a user through the user editor is somewhat different than forcing an area through the Message Area Override Editor, although both serve the same basic purpose; to disallow the user to turn OFF the active status either through the door's Configuration Menu or through the reader's OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS. When a particular message area is FORCED on a user through the user file editor, the door disregards the privelege levels when evaluating whether or not the person has access to see and/or read the area. If you force an area on a user, and they do NOT have access to read the area, IT WILL STILL BE TAGGED AS ACCESSIBLE AND ACTIVE! This provides a very powerful way to give selected users access to higher-security areas without actually having to increase their Security and Flag levels for the rest of the BBS. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 31 INSTALLING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR INTO RA ------------------------------------------ If you have installed other external programs into your RemoteAccess setup, you should have absolutely no problem installing The Blue Wave Mail Door. In order for the door to execute properly, it needs to have its data files and help files in the current directory. This means that you will probably have to run The Blue Wave Mail Door from a batch file. The Blue Wave Mail Door modifies EXITINFO.BBS . All information on Netmail Credits and Debits is read from EXITINFO. When the door needs to modify the debits for a particular user after uploading netmail to the door, it writes this information BACK to EXITINFO. If you have enabled the internal File Request option, the door will write back the information about the total number of bytes file requested through the door. This will cause RemoteAccess to properly update the user record. Here is a sample menu entry to run The Blue Wave Mail Door through a TYPE 7 Menu Item. This menu assumes a multiline system. Simply disregard the "*N" parameter if you're running single-line: Menu Text Optional Data ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B)lue Wave Interactive Mode *C /C C:\Ra\BWave.Bat *M *N D) Quick DOWNLOAD Your Mail *C /C C:\Ra\BWave.Bat *M *N /d U) Quick UPLOAD Your Replies *C /C C:\Ra\BWave.Bat *M *N /u BWAVE.BAT for single line system BWAVE.BAT for multiline system ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cd\ra\bluewave cd\ra\bluewave bwmail %1 bwmail /t%1 /sc:\ra\node%1 %2 cd\ra cd\ra\node%1 exit exit There are obviously many ways to load the door besides this one. However, this may be the simplest way to handle it, unless you are running a complex multiline system. Please see the section regarding COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS in the next section of the documentation for complete information on running your BWAVE.BAT batch file. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 32 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS ----------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door accepts several command line parameters in order for you to override certain settings and defaults within your BWMAIL.PRM file or defaults internal to the door. BWMAIL.PRM Override (-c) ------------------------ Multiline users may wish to maintain separate Blue Wave PRM files, one for each node. By default, the door will load BWMAIL.PRM. If you use the -c command line parameter, you can override this default. The command line: BWMAIL -cLINE2.PRM would load the door's parameter file called LINE2.PRM. (If you wish to maintain separate PRM files between nodes, you can edit others with BWUtils by specifying the name of the configuration file on the command line: "BWUTILS LINE2.PRM" would allow you to edit the parameters in "LINE2.PRM". USAGE : BWMAIL -c<bwave.prm name> DEFAULT: BWMAIL.PRM System/Node Directory Override (-m) ----------------------------------- When the door initializes, the first file that it loads is BWMAIL.PRM, or the file that you specified on the command line. BWMAIL.PRM contains the name of the RemoteAccess System or NODE directory that will be used when looking for RA System Files. (See also section regarding Dirs/Filepaths) If you would like to override the default contained within BWMAIL.PRM, use the command line: BWMAIL -sC:\RA\Line5.Prm USAGE : BWMAIL -s<RA system or node directory> DEFAULT: Directory defined within door's configuration file. Port Override (-p) ------------------ By default, The Blue Wave Mail Door uses the port contained within the DORINFO1.DEF file that is loaded during initialization. If, for some reason, you need to OVERRIDE this parameter, use the -p command line. (Port 0=COM1, Port 1=COM2, etc.). The door will support any port that you would like to use, as long as it can communicate with your FOSSIL driver. USAGE : BWMAIL -p<number> DEFAULT: Found from DORINFO1.DEF ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 33 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS (continued) ----------------------------------- Task Override (-t) ------------------ You can override the task number used by using the "-t" command line. The only time that the door uses this information is in the translation of the '%T' metaphor in the Directories and Filepaths. If the task is defined as "1", the door will replace "%T" with "01". When running a multi-line system, it will always be better if you specify the task number on the door's command line. This will help eliminate some confusion when setting up multiple copies of the door. If you do not run multiline, and you are not using the "%T" metaphor in your Directories/Filepaths descriptions, you will not need to worry about the TASK override. USAGE : BWMAIL -t<number> DEFAULT: 0 Local User Override (-k) ------------------------ Normally, The Blue Wave Mail Door can detect when there is a local user through the LASTUSxx.BBS file that is loaded. However, if there is some type of problem with the door's auto-detection, and you wish to run the door in local mode, you will need to specify the -k parameter. USAGE : BWMAIL -k DEFAULT: Information read from LASTUSER file loaded. Local Color (Colour, for our other friends) Override (-mono) ------------------------------------------------------------ The Blue Wave Mail Door will always output color to the local screen, even if the remote user has TTY graphics enabled. Sometimes this color is not desireable, especially on Monochrome systems. Since the door contains so much BLUE, most of the text appears underlined. To disable color output to the local console, use the -MONO command line switch. This switch has no effect on the remote user. USAGE : BWMAIL -MONO DEFAULT: Local color output. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 34 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS (continued) ----------------------------------- WarpSpeed AutoDownload Mode (-d) -------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door has a special command line parameter to force the door into download mode, and exit. When the door is executed with the -d parameter, it immediately begins scanning the message areas and bundles a mail packet. If there is a remote user, the door will immediately fire up the appropriate protocol, and then exit back to the BBS. If there is no remote user, the door skips executing the protocol, and drops back to the calling batch file. This is extremely handy for local use in batch files to possibly build a mail bundle during a maintenance "event". The door will NOT prompt for user input during the entire session. AutoUpload Mode (-u) -------------------- Specifying -U on the command line will cause the door to immediately go into upload mode. This parameter works the same as the AutoDownload Parameter; the user will never be prompted for input during the mail session. Work Directory Override (-WORK=) -------------------------------- If you would like to override the default WORK directory defined within BWMAIL.PRM, use the -WORK=<path> command line. USAGE : BWMAIL -WORK=d:\path\to\workdir DEFAULT: Drive and path defined within BWMAIL.PRM. Download Directory Override (-DOWN=) ------------------------------------ To override the door's default DOWNLOAD directory, simply specify the drive and path to use on the command line in the form -DOWN=<path>. USAGE : BWMAIL -DOWN=d:\path\to\downdir DEFAULT: Directory defined within BWMAIL.PRM. Upload Directory Override (-UPLOAD=) ------------------------------------ To override the door's default UPLOAD directory from the command line, add the command line parameter -UPLOAD=<path>. USAGE : BWMAIL -UPLOAD=d:\path\to\upld_dir DEFAULT: Directory defined within BWMAIL.PRM. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 35 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS (continued) ----------------------------------- Carrier Detect Override (-NOCD) ------------------------------ Normally, The Blue Wave Mail Door requires that a carrier detect signal be present in order for the door to send data through the FOSSIL and serial port. This poses a problem when trying to run the door through a NULL Modem Cable, or something similar. If the command line switch -NOCD is added, no carrier detect function will be activated, and data will be sent through the port specified with the -P<port> command line parameter. This switch should NOT be used with a remote user online, since the caller may drop carrier and tie up your system until there is an input timeout (4 minutes). USAGE : BWMAIL -NOCD DEFAULT: Carrier detect is active, unless running in LOCAL mode. DESQview Detection Override (-NODV) ----------------------------------- If the door detects that it is running under QuarterDeck's DESQview multi-tasker, it will automatically write directly to DV's video buffer to eliminate screen write bleed-through and give away time slices to other tasks when the door is idle. To eliminate this behaviour, use the -NODV parameter. Transmit Software Flow Control (-XTX) ------------------------------------- If you are having problems with XON/XOFF software flow control (the door's menus pause while displaying to the remote user), try enabling the -XTX command line and see if the problem goes away. You will not normally need this command line switch. Receive Software Flow Control (-XRX) ------------------------------------ If you are having problems with XON/XOFF software flow control, the -XRX command line switch may help. You will not normally need this command line switch. Hardware Flow Control (-CTS) ---------------------------- Under normal conditions, The Blue Wave Mail Door can sense that Hardware Flow Control needs to be activated. If you are having problems with the door's menus and prompts overflowing the user's modem buffer (characters are being lost in transmission), try adding the -CTS command line parameter. You will not normally need it, however. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 36 MAINTAINING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------------- Careful thought has gone into making The Blue Wave Mail Door easy to maintain. There is nothing worse than having to duplicate efforts while adding and deleting message areas to and from your BBS. After all, you have already edited the RemoteAccess data files, why have to do it again? You don't! Since each time the door loads it reads directly out of RA's MESSAGES.RA, the message area definitions are always up to date with RA's setup. The only time message area maintenance would be required is if you use the Message Area Overrides feature of the door. The BWUTILS PURGE Function -------------------------- About the only maintenance that may be necessary is the deletion of users from the door's user file (BWMAIL.USR). The Blue Wave Mail Door makes it easy to keep a 'clean' user file. If you want to delete all users from the user file that have not used the door in 90 days, simply execute the command line "BWUTILS PURGE 90" from the BLUEWAVE Directory. The door will automatically pack the user file and remove all inactive users. Any number may be entered for the number of days to pack the user file down to, but the BWUTILS Purge function will not allow the <days> parameter to be less than 30. This is a built-in safety precaution against wiping out your entire Blue Wave user file. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 37 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DOOR OPERATIONS ----------------------------------- Now that we have examined the operation of BWUTILS in detail, and you have gone through the initial installation of the door, it seems appropriate to discuss (in general terms) the operations of the door itself. The Blue Wave Mail Door interfaces with RemoteAccess almost seamlessly. The main bridge between RemoteAccess and The Blue Wave Mail Door is the EXITINFO.BBS file. The EXITINFO.BBS file contains some important information that The Blue Wave Mail Door uses to initialize itself when first executed. In fact, the door will not run at all if it cannot find an EXITINFO.BBS file in your RemoteAccess System Directory [unless the /K<user number> command line is used. Please see the section regarding COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS for more information]. If you are attempting to run The Blue Wave Mail Door in LOCAL MODE, and you get a message that says "LOST CARRIER" on your screen, chances are that the EXITINFO.BBS file that the door is reading does not contain your information. To simplify the usage of the door in LOCAL mode, simply go to the BLUEWAVE directory and type "BWMAIL /k1", where the /K parameter contains the user number of the person you would like to run the door as. "BWMAIL /K1" would load the first user out of RA's USERS.BBS (normally the sysop), and execute the door in local mode. Please see "COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS" for details. Also during initialization, all 3 of the door's PRIVATE directores are purged of any files thay may be lurking around and ready to cause trouble during the door operation. For this reason, you should make sure NEVER to store files in the private directories (UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD, and WORK) that you plan on keeping. After the door has initialized itself, and prepared for operation, the user will be shown either the file BWINTRO.TXT (if they have neither ANSI nor AVATAR selected in RA), or BWINTRO.ANS for those with graphics enabled. If the user has never used The Blue Wave Mail System before, they will then be shown the text in the file NEWUSER.HLP, and then their default settings. Otherwise, they will be taken to the Main Menu. From the Main Menu, a user is able to configure their setup, upload new mail, or download their mail packet. Full information on using The Blue Wave Mail Door follows later in the documentation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 38 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DOOR OPERATIONS (continued) ----------------------------------------------- Keys Used While a User is Online -------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door contains several keys that you, as a sysop, can press while a user is online. The door is always in "simultaneous keyboard mode", meaning that whatever you type on the local keyboard will also be echoed and processed to/for the remote user. However, there are "Special" key combinations that do not echo to the remote user or affect their input. Before we discuss the "Sysop Keys", let's explain a little bit about the status bar on the bottom row of your screen. The status bar is not visible to your remote users, of course. During normal operation, you will only see 1 visible line, however, there are actually 2 lines that make up the status bar display. When you press your sysop keys, additional information will fill the "second" status line, just above the normal one. This additional information will be cleared, and the status bar updated every 10 seconds. Please remember that anything shown on the bottom 2 lines of your display is not echoed to the remote user! The <HOME> Key: Anytime a user is online, you can press the <HOME> key to get help on the keys available to you. They will be displayed on the STATUS BAR at the bottom of the screen. The <ALT-N> Key: The <ALT-N> key will display extended information about the current user, including their Real Name and CITY. The information, as with all of the sysop keys, will be cleared in about 10 seconds for a more "tidy" appearance. The <ALT-H> Key: Ever have a user that is just plain annoying, and likes to see how much he can abuse your hard drive by scanning and bundling ten times in one session? The <ALT-H> key will help you deal with them. It performs a disconnect (drops modem DTR), and exits the door, returning control to RemoteAccess. The <ALT-D> Key: The <ALT-D> key will perform a local shell to DOS. Don't worry, the remote user won't be able to see what you are doing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 39 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DOOR OPERATIONS (continued) ----------------------------------------------- The <PageUp> Key: The <PageUp> key will raise the user's online time for this session by 10 minutes. The total time remaining is displayed on line 1 of the status bar. The <UpArrow> Key: The <UpArrow> key will raise the current user's online time by 1 minute. The <PageDown> Key: The <PageDown> Key will lower the current user's online time by 10 minutes. The <DownArrow> Key: The <DownArrow> Key will lower the current user's online time by 1 minute. Carrier Checking ---------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door performs its own carrier detect function. If at any time a user hangs up on the system, the door will detect it, clean its private directories, and exit back to RemoteAccess. If the door is in the process of building a mail bundle, the door will exit as soon as it is safe to do so. Sometimes this may take a second or two because the files have to be flushed and closed before the door can exit. Do not be alarmed, if during the scanning or bundling process, that it takes a couple of seconds for the door to react. People have expressed concern over the fact that, while a bundle is being archived, the door does not exit immediately. The fact is that while an external archiver is working, the door does not have control over your computer. There is no way for the door to "reach out and grab" the archiver and exit. The archiver will continue to bundle the mail packet until it is finished. The door will exit immediately when it regains control of your system. Inactivity Timer ---------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door has a built-in inactivity timer which will disconnect a user after 4 minutes of inactivity, unless the setting under OPTIONS AND TOGGLES in BWUtils tells the door not to drop carrier on an inactive user. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 40 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DOOR OPERATIONS (continued) ----------------------------------------------- Twenty seconds before the automatic exit takes place, a user will be given a "second chance" to show that he is still alive. If a key still is not pressed, the door will lower your modem's DTR (if toggled ON) and exit back to RemoteAccess. Rest assured that by pressing your SYSOP KEYS (described earlier), the inactivity timer will *not* be reset. If a user has been inactive for 3 minutes, and you happen to type ALT-N to see more information about him/her, the inactivity timer will still be set at 3 minutes. However, if you press one of the "normal" keys, the timer will be reset, just as if the remote user had entered the keystroke. Lastread Pointers ----------------- The door understands and updates RA's LASTREAD pointers for each user. The Blue Wave Mail Door requires that "Extended Lastread Pointers" be active in RemoteAccess. When extended lastread pointers are active, there will be a file called LASTREAD.BBS residing in your Message Base Directory. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 41 OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS ---------------------- The Blue Wave Mail System contains a built-in Offline configuration function. There is absolutely nothing to configure for this function to operate properly within The Blue Wave Mail Door. Everything is automatic. When a user wants to perform an offline configuration, all of the information is entered through the reader. The next time that they sign onto the BBS and upload their mail packet through The Blue Wave Mail Door, the door will process their offline configuration. Through the reader's offline configuration menu, users are able to change everything about their door setup, except for the selection of protocols and archivers. Even message areas can be toggled on and off through offline configurations! ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 42 SENDING NETMAIL THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door fully supports Fidonet netmail. Both the reader and the door have full netmail capabilities, and can address mail FROM Point systems, TO Point systems, and even handle mail from one zone to another! It has already been described how you can edit your netmail configuration through the BWUtils Security and Flag Editor. For each netmail "bit" that the user has access to, they will be given the option to toggle it. Extended attach flags, used by FrontDoor and D'Bridge, are also supported. The DIRECT and IMM(ediate) flags are used to control the handling of your netmail. If you are using a mailer that does not understand these extended flags (a ^AFLAGS line), then you may want to set these bits to "hidden" so that you don't have to deal with them. If netmail is uploaded through The Blue Wave Mail Door which is destined for another Zone, the door writes the proper ^AINTL: line to handle the routing of the mail. To determine whether or not the netmail is destined for another zone, the door compares your DEFAULT network address (zone) to the destination zone of the message. If they are different, the ^AINTL: line is written. The Blue Wave Mail Door also respects user's Netmail Credits and Debits. Netmail cost is handled the same way as RemoteAccess. The door looks up the cost for each netmail message through a RemoteAccess nodelist (the same one used by RA). The door finds the nodelist through your CONFIG.RA file. There is no where to tell the door where to look that overrides this setting. If a user has enough credits to send a netmail message, the message will be tossed, and the user's "Pending" field will be added to. The resulting balance information will be written back to EXITINFO.BBS, so that RemoteAccess can properly update the user record. If a node is unlisted, or The Blue Wave Mail Door cannot access your nodelist, it acts according to your "Unlisted Node" setup. It respects the privelege level to "Send Unlisted Mail", and also uses the cost that you have defined for "Cost for Unlisted Nodes" in your BWMAIL.PRM file. If the node is unlisted, the message will only be accepted if the user has enough access to send to unlisted nodes, and the user has enough credits to his or her name. Each netmail message uploaded will be logged to your log file (if you have enabled the UPLOAD INFORMATION logging (@)). The log entry will contain the cost information and the destination of the uploaded message. Obviously, you should be cautious about the people you allow to have access to the Netmail area. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 43 FILE REQUESTING THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door allows users to download files from your BBS, if you have enabled the option to do so. If you do not want the file request function to be active, you can set the "Maximum File Requests per Session" to 0. Otherwise, The Blue Wave Mail Door will accept them. When a user requests that a file be sent with his or her mail packet, the door performs all necessary checks to be sure that they actually have access to download the file, and that their upload/download ratio, if active, is in balance. To determine the Upload/Download ratio for a user, the door loads LIMITS.CTL from your RemoteAccess system directory. As an added bonus, FILES.CTL, if it exists, is read and completely utilized. If a file is marked as "Free" within FILES.CTL, the user will not be charged for his or her download. Likewise, if the requested file requires a password to download it, the user must give the proper password before the door allows the file request. All file area information is loaded directly from FILES.RA, so no extra setup is necessary or required! All security levels and flag restrictions are honored, just as with the message areas. Any files that are requested are logged to your log file. The door also updates a user's DOWNLOAD K and Total Download K for each file request made and writes the information back to EXITINFO.BBS for RemoteAccess to update the user's record. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 44 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------- Although most of the time you spend using The Blue Wave Mail System will be spent in the Offline Reader Environment, much of the power and potential for online savings of time and money will come through using the Blue Wave Mail Door to its full potential. In order to get the fullest out of The Blue Wave Mail Door, it is necessary to become familiar with the operating procedures in the door. The Configuration Menu ---------------------- This section will describe all of the commands available to you through the Blue Wave Mail Door's Configuration Menu. At first glance, the Configuration Menu may seem overwhelming. Please do not let this scare you off. The mail system was carefully designed to provide each individual user with options not available in other mail systems. Each menu item will be described below, along with a short description of where, how and/or why the command would be useful in any given situation, if the command description is not obvious Choose Message Areas -------------------- When selecting "C", you will be displayed a list of all LOCAL, ECHOMAIL, and GROUPMAIL bases available to you. Here you will be able to select and deselect message areas for download through the Blue Wave Mail Door. To toggle the status of a message base, enter the base number or number/letter combination associated with the message area. You may enter more than one message base number at a time; simply separate them by spaces. Reset Lastread Pointers ----------------------- Selecting "R" from the Configuration Menu will allow you to reset the pointers indicating which messages have been read, and which have not been read. You can choose to reset lastread pointers by individual message areas or "Globally", which acts on all areas that you have turned on in the mail scan. You then have the option of resetting the lastread pointers by DAYS or by Message Number. When resetting lastread pointers by DAYS, entering any number other than 0 will reset your pointers to the specified number of days. (Entering a '1' would set your pointers back 24 hours. Entering a '2' would set your lastread pointers back 48 hours, and so on.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 45 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- Archiver Selection ------------------ Selecting "A" from the door's Configuration Menu will allow you to select the archiver of your choice, from those defined by the Sysop. The archiver will be used to compress (Mash) the mail packet before you download it. Protocol Selection ------------------ Selecting "P" from the Configuration Menu will allow you to select the transfer protocol of your choice, from those defined by the Sysop. The protocol will be used during a download of a mail packet, the upload of a mail packet, and any File Request sessions that you may make. HotKeys ------- The Blue Wave Mail Door defaults to using "HotKeys" for a new user. The HotKey option allows you to select menu commands without having to press ENTER after each selection. Obviously, however, it will be necessary to press ENTER after some commands that require input of more than one character. With extremely noisy phone line conditions, HotKeys may not be desirable. Xpert Help Menus ---------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door defaults to using FULL help menus. However, after you become comfortable with the door, you may wish to turn off the full help menus. With Xpert Mode enabled, only the menu title, command keys, and time remaining are displayed. Extended Message Information ---------------------------- Normally, the door strips ^A and SEEN-BY lines from messages (when used in a Fidonet-type network) before they are bundled into the user's download packet. If the user would like to see this information, this option should be toggled ON. Otherwise, the default setting of OFF should be used. Bundle Messages FROM You ------------------------ If this option is ON, mail that is on the BBS with your name in the FROM: field will be bundled and placed in your mail packet. If this option is OFF, the door will not bundle messages entered by you. This can help save some transfer time if you frequently enter numerous messages. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 46 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- Limit Download Packet Size -------------------------- It may be necessary in some situations for the user to limit the UNCOMPRESSED packet size that the door generates. If a user sets this option to cease bundling when the download packet size reaches 300K, the door will stop bundling and compress the mail packet that it created. A message is sent to the user if the Maximum packet size is reached, and the lastread pointers are updated accordingly. Set Password Option ------------------- The Password, or Secure option is unique to The Blue Wave Mail System. Although some may question its usefulness, there are several situations where you may wish to enable this feature. There are 4 levels of security available: * Password prompting in the DOOR only. * Password prompting in the READER only. * Password prompting in the READER and DOOR. * No password prompting (DEFAULT). In a situation where you download sensitive areas from the BBS, and use the Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader on a machine that is shared by several other users, you may wish to add the secure option to the READER only. Each mail packet will be encrypted with a password. If a user tries to read a packet encrypted with a password, they will be prompted to enter it. If the user does not get the correct password after three tries, the reader will NOT allow them to read the mail packet. Another situation may occur where Father downloads sensitive mail, and does not wish for Daughter, Son, or Wife to read it. It may be useful to set the secure option in both the READER and DOOR, since it is possible that the family knows Father's BBS password. By prompting for a password when entering the door (obviously one that is different from the BBS password), he has another layer of security. Keyword Selection ----------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 different Keyword definitions. These keywords will be used during the mail scanning process to inform you of mail in an area which contains any one of the keyword definitions. To get the full use out of keywords, you must use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands (described later) to instruct the door on how to handle keywords in certain areas. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 47 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- The best way to describe the use of keywords is with an example. Let's suppose that you are looking for Apple computer equipment to buy in the National For-Sale FidoNet Echo. Sometimes the FOR-SALE echo generates more than 200 messages per day. Instead of downloading all 200 messages, of which (possibly) 199 of them are of no interest to you, you may define the keyword APPLE. You would then be informed during the SCANNING process of all mail containing the keyword APPLE. By using the Blue Wave Bundling Commands, it is possible to ONLY bundle messages with the Keyword APPLE in them. This, of course, saves on-line time, and time you would have to spend paging through the numerous (UNWANTED) messages offline when using the reader. Naturally, there are many other uses to the Keywords option. The idea behind keywords is to let The Blue Wave Mail Door do the work for you! Filter Selection ---------------- Like Keywords, The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 FILTERS. Filters essentially work just the opposite of Keywords. During the door's SCANNING process, you are informed of messages that contain any of the Filters that you have defined. After the mail scan is complete, you can use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands to FILTER the messages that you do not want to receive. Again, the best way to describe the usefulness of Filters is with an example. Let's suppose that Joe Blow in the FidoNet C Programming Echo is consistently entering messages which contain false information, is constantly flaming others, and is being an all around nuisance. Although you really enjoy reading the C_ECHO, you get tired of seeing messages entered either from Joe Blow or to Joe Blow. By defining the Filter of JOE BLOW, you will be flagged if there are any messages containing the Filter. By using The Blue Wave Bundling Commands, you can then instruct The Blue Wave Mail Door NOT to bundle messages containing the Filter JOE BLOW. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 48 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Bundling Commands ------------------------------- Several Bundling Commands are available to you to make The Blue Wave Mail System one of the most robust mail systems available today. By combining The Blue Wave Bundling Commands with Keyword Definitions and Filter Definitions, you can discriminately select messages ON-LINE to download, rather than wasting time downloading mail, of which only a few messages are of any interest. The following section will give an in-depth description of each Bundling Command available to you, and examples on how to use each one to build a custom mail packet. The Blue Wave Mail Door prompts you for your Bundling Commands at the end of each mail SCAN, just before the system actually gathers mail for you. After viewing the SCAN TABLE, you can actually select which areas and/or messages you wish to download. The Bundling Commands ONLY affect the current download session, and are not saved for later use. (Unless you have defined them as a MACRO in the door's configuration menu, or in the reader's OFFLINE configuration). The default behavior of the door is to gather ALL NEW MAIL. The Blue Wave Bundling Commands only MODIFY the result. You can think of The Blue Wave Bundling Commands as a way to dynamically change the messages that the door has prepared to download for you. The commands are actually LETTERS and SYMBOLS, followed by numbers and "key words" which modify the effect of the Command. The keywords "*" and "all" area recognized by each Bundling Command, and operate on ALL message areas. (A "K*" would gather Keywords ONLY in ALL areas). The Bundling Commands may be "linked" together to form one long string. To perform multiple commands within the same bundling command, you simply need to separate them by SPACES. "-2 K9 P14 F22" is a perfectly valid bundling command. (This example would cause the door to not bundle messages in area number 2, gather keywords only in message area number 9, gather only personal mail in area number 14, and filter out messages in area number 22.) Deselecting an Area ------------------- To dynamically (and temporarily) deselect an area from the message bases that you are downloading, you can use the "-" bundling command. "-*" or "-ALL" would deselect all message areas, resulting in a total of 0 messages being downloaded. "-14" would temporarily deselect area #14. "-P1" would deselect message area "P1" on systems that use letters as area names such as Maximus-CBCS. Format: -<area #> ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 49 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- Adding an Area -------------- To reselect an area which was previously deselected using the "-" command, use the "+<area #>" command. Please note that it is NOT possible to add a message area to your download packet that you are not currently scanning. If you have entered several bundling commands and realize that you have made a mistake, use the "+*" or "+ALL" command. This will reselect ALL message areas that you are scanning, and clear any designation of keywords/personal/filters in all message areas. In other words, it's the same as starting new. Format: +<area #> Bundling Personal Messages Only ------------------------------- To instruct the door to bundle only your personal mail (mail addressed either to your login name or real name) in a message area, use the "P" command. To bundle only your personal mail in area #23, use "P23". To bundle only personal mail in ALL areas, use either "P*" or "PALL". Format: P<area #> Bundling Keywords Only ---------------------- To instruct the door to bundle only messages containing your Keyword definitions, use the "K" bundling command. WHEN USING THE "K" COMMAND, PERSONAL MAIL IS ALSO BUNDLED, IF ANY IS FOUND. To download only keyword messages in area #192, use the bundling command "K192". If you want to download ONLY keyword and personal mail in all areas, use "K*" or "KALL". Format: K<area #> Filtering Messages in an Area ----------------------------- If you would like the door to skip packing any messages that contain your filter definitions, use the "F" bundling command. To filter all messages in area #57, use the bundling command "F57". To filter messages in ALL message areas, use the "F*" or "FALL" commands. Format: F<area #> ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 50 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- Bundling a Specified NUMBER of Messages --------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door has the ability to download a specified number of messages in any message area. This command is especially useful when downloading a message area for the first time, as sort of a "test drive". You may only want to bundle the last 10 messages in the area to see if you will enjoy reading that particular message base. To perform this function, use the "L" bundling command. The "L" bundling command is a bit different from the rest, as it takes two parameters, instead of one. To bundle the last 10 messages in area #563, use the command "563L10". To gather the last 10 messages in ALL areas, use the command "*L10". The "L" bundling command is also a quick way to override your lastread message pointers for a particular area. If you choose to download the last 500 messages in area #3, and your lastread pointer indicates that only 7 messages are new, the "L" command will allow you to override the setting and download all 500 messages. (Use "3L500"). Format: <area #>L<# of messages to bundle> Lastread Pointers and Bundling Commands --------------------------------------- By default, upon a successful download session through The Blue Wave Mail Door, the door will update the last read message pointers in ALL areas that were SCANNED. (Note: If an area was deselected with a "-" command, it will STILL be updated to reflect the new last read pointer!) In most cases, this is desirable. However, The Blue Wave Mail System takes into consideration that all users' needs are different. The following two Bundling Commands will modify the default setting regarding message pointers. No Update of Message Pointers ----------------------------- If you wish the door NOT to update your message pointers for one reason or another, use the "N" bundling command. If you want the door to not save message pointers in area #75, use the command "N75". To not update message pointers in ALL areas that you are scanning, use "N*" or "NALL". ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 51 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR (continued) ----------------------------------------- Force Update of Message Pointers -------------------------------- Because the default behavior of the door is to UPDATE message pointers, this command is only useful to kill the effect of a previously entered "N" command. Suppose that you are downloading 50 areas, and only want one message base updated. You could use the command "N* U2". This would force the door to ONLY update the pointers in area #2. After an accidental "N*", a "U*" will correct the mistake. The "!" Command --------------- Finally, the "!" command. A "!" anywhere on the command line tells the Blue Wave Mail Door to NOT prompt for any more bundling commands once the bundling command has been processed. By default, the door will process a command line, calculate a new TOTAL MESSAGES, and display it. You may the enter more bundling commands, or simply press ENTER to accept what was already processed, and begin bundling. Example Bundling Commands ------------------------- Most of the Blue Wave Bundling Commands described above do very little good when used alone. By combining the commands, the ultimate in custom mail bundling is available. Several examples follow, but please remember, there is virtually no end to what can be accomplished! -ALL +14 K17 F1 This command deselects all areas, adds area #14 for ALL NEW mail, area #17 for KEYWORDS ONLY, and FILTERS mail in area #1. The door then calculates a new total, and waits for more input. -ALL +14 K17 F1 ! This command does the same thing as the previous example, except it doesn't prompt for more commands, and begins bundling immediately. -14 P2 N18 K1 P22 17L60 F928 This command deselects area #14, gathers personal messages only in area #2, does not update message pointers for area #18, selects keywords only in area #1, personal messages only in area #22, gathers the last 60 messages in area #17, and filters messages in area #928. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 52 PRODUCT SUPPORT --------------- The Blue Wave Mail System is a growing and developing software package. Cutting Edge Computing is always interested in hearing your comments, complaints, suggestions, and of course kind words. We take into consideration every request that we get in order to make The Blue Wave Mail System a first class offline mail package. We would like to hear from you! If you are having trouble with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or have comments and suggestions, please drop us a line. We can be reached via direct FidoNet NETMAIL, through the International BLUEWAVE Echo (available on the FidoNet Backbone and Distribution Hubs), and of course through the US Mail. Cutting Edge Computing is owned and operated by George Hatchew in Burton, Michigan, USA. Here are the addresses where you may contact me directly: US Postal Service ----------------- Cutting Edge Computing PO Box 90476 Burton, MI 48509 USA The Cutting Edge Computing Support BBS -------------------------------------- The Wild! Blue BBS 1-313-743-8464 Flint, Michigan 1200-14400 Baud HST/v.32bis FidoNet 1:2240/176 Sysop: George Hatchew ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Mail Door for RemoteAccess Operations Manual, v1.00 Page 53 INDEX OF KEYWORDS ----------------- %B 26 LOCAL MODE 38 %F 26 Local User Override 34 %P 26 Locked com port 26 @F 29 Log file 23 @I 29 Logging 24 ^AFLAGS 43 LOST CARRIER 38 ^AINTL Maximum File Requests 44 {BEEP} 9 Memory Swap 10 {PAUSE} 9 Monochrome 34 Addresses 53 Multiline users 33 Archiver 46 Multiple tasks 14 AutoUpload Mode 35 Netmail attributes 30 BATCH protocol 25 Netmail configuration 43 BIOS screen writes 10 Netmail Credits 43 BLUEWAVE 53 Network address 9 BOSSnode 9 NEWUSER.HLP 38 Bundling Commands 49, 52 Nodelist 43 BWINTRO.ANS 38 Offline configuration 42 BWINTRO.TXT 38 Out of Memory 29 BWUTILS 7 Password 47 Carrier detect 40 Point system 9 Carrier Detect Override 36 Port Override 33 Command line parameters 33 Protocol 46 Copyrighted 2 PROTOCOL COMMAND LINES 26 Cost for Unlisted Nodes 43 Protocol Definitions 25 Cutting Edge Computing 2 Protocol driver 16 Default Archiver 28 Read Security Level 21 Default Msg Areas 21 Reader files 9 Default Protocol 25 Receive Software Flow Control 36 DESQview 10 Registration code 7 DESQview Detection Override 36 Registration codes 3 DIRECT 43 Registration fees 3 Direct video 10 Sample menu 32 DOS PATH 16 ShareWare 2 DOWNLOAD directory 15 Status bar 39 Download Directory Override 35 Support 53 Echo 53 Swap 10 ECHOMAIL 45 Swap Drive 10 EXITINFO.BBS 32, 38 Swap file 17 Expanded memory 10 Sysop Keys 39 Extended memory 10 Task Override 34 FidoNet 53 Transmit Software Flow Control 36 File Requests 8 UNREGISTERED COPY 8 Filters 48 UPLOAD directory 15 Force Message area ON 21 Upload Directory Override 35 FOSSIL 6 WarpSpeed AutoDownload Mode 35 GROUPMAIL 45 WORK directory 15 Hardware Flow Control 36 Work Directory Override 35 HotKeys 46 Write Security Level 21 IMM 43 Xpert Mode 46 Inactivity timer 40 Installation 6 Keywords 47 LASTREAD pointers 41, 45 LHARC 28 Local Color 34