home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
BBS Toolkit
/
BBS Toolkit.iso
/
wildcat
/
fidocat.zip
/
FIDOCAT!.TXT
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-10-07
|
139KB
|
3,289 lines
Fidocat! Version 1.10
A tutorial for setting up your Wildcat 3.55M BBS to receive
FidoNet Echomail using BinkleyTerm v2.50, Wildmail v2.04 and
QM v1.30 *gamma*
Copyright (C) 1992 by Rudolf Rothemund, all rights reserved
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 2
WHY THIS DOCUMENTATION
======================
Just before my vacation in July, 1992 I decided that I wanted to
become a member of FidoNet. The reason for this was because I
became interested in the Star Trek Echos that I had seen on other
BBS's. I had recently joined a chapter of Star Fleet Command, the
USS Columbia (NCC-621), and I wanted to offer the members with
computers the opportunity to communicate with their counterparts
at a national level.
I did some research and found that FidoNet had at least two Star
Trek echos available on their backbone. I also found out that I
had to apply to Star Fleet Command's TrekNet in order to receive
their Echos, which were different than the ones offered on the
Fido backbone. So I set out to find the "right" software to
accomplish my goal of becoming a FidoNet member.
I have been running a local BBS for about three years (Wildcat!
3.55M) and I wanted to run my BBS as well as send and receive
messages from my echo conferences. Wildcat! 3.55M does not come
packaged with a mail system (something I hope will change with
future releases, Rick Hemming!), so I had to look for a software
package that would pass normal calls to Wildcat and handle mail
sessions to send and receive Net and Echo mail.
I found out the hard way that it would take many many hours of
configuring many software programs to accomplish my goal. Worse,
I became obsessed with it, and it took me away from my family. It
took so much time because all the programs were not available for
download from one place. Also it took a while for me understand
the FidoNet concept of Net and Echomail and how each is handled.
There really isn't one documentation file that ties in all these
programs together unless you are a FidoNet Hub. And being a hub
for these systems requires a lot of programs and configurations
that I simply did not need. So I decided to write some documen-
tation on what I did on my system, the Red Phoenix BBS, so that
the "average person" could become a member of the FidoNet mail
network.
I also wanted to become a FidoNet node at a minimum cost so where
I could I used public domain software. This is not to say that
this kind of software is "cheap," or ineffective. Binkleyterm
from Bit Bucket Software is one of the most versatile front-end
mailers written and it is offered free of charge. But when I
found a software package that I tried and liked, I registered it,
and I expect that you will do the same. The shareware concept
won't work unless we all help it along.
This version of my documentation deals with how to set up your
system and software packages for Fidonet echos ONLY. I had to
learn to do this before I could branch out and learn how to get
both FidoNet echos and TrekNet echos. Another version of this
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 3
documentation (version 2.10) will deal with how to set up your
system for more than one zone address.
KUDOS
=====
I want to thank Rick Nash (1:226/1250) for all the help he gave me
through this. Rick and I went through this trial together, and
I'll bet we racked up at least $300 apiece in calls. I want to
thank my family for putting up with my obsession. And lastly I
want to thank all the shareware software authors for their fine
programs.
FIRST DISCLAIMER
================
I want you to know up front that I don't consider the way that I
get FidoNet mail as the ONLY WAY. There are lots of other pro-
grams written that will accomplish the same goal. I'm only going
to tell you how I use the programs that I have chosen to receive
FidoNet mail. Please feel free to modify what I do to suit your
needs, and choose other programs if you feel that they are better
suited for your system.
I also am not claiming that my configurations and these programs
will be absolutely safe and that your systems will not crash. I
didn't write the programs, and you use them and my suggested con-
figuration files AT YOUR OWN RISK. I'm only trying to help here;
I don't want to end up in court.
SECOND DISCLAIMER
=================
Now I'm going to tell you something you might not want to hear.
Setting up your system to accept FidoNet mail is definitely going
to take some time and effort on your part. Hopefully this docu-
ment will smooth a lot of things over for you, but YOU have to put
in your dues. As with all things, your effort WILL pay off. One
of life's greatest feelings is watching your first successful mail
run.
SHOPPING LIST
=============
OK, so you're ready to procure all the programs that you need to
get started. Here's the list. You can get all these programs on
my board in the FIDO files section, The Red Phoenix BBS, 216-345-
5807, (1:226/1260):
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 4
Name of Program File Name
--------------- ---------
BinkleyTerm v.2.50 BEXE_250.LZH
BDOC_250.LZH
QM v.1.30 *gamma* QM_130GM.LZH
VFOS v.1.10 (optional) VIBM_110.ARJ
Wildmail! v.2.04 WMAIL204.ZIP
Wildnode v.1.10 WNODE110.ZIP
X00 v.1.24 X00124.LZH
Xlaxnode v.2.56 XLAX_256.LZH
One real quick lesson in extracting LZH, ARJ files and ZIP files.
First, make sure that LHA.EXE, ARJ.EXE, and PKUNZIP.EXE are in
your PATH statement. I put them in my C:\DOS directory. For LZH
files, type "lha e BEXE_250.LZH" (without the quotes). This will
extract your LZH file. To extract the ARJ file, type "arj e
VIBM_110.ARJ" (without the quotes). This will extract your ARJ
file. For ZIP files, type "pkunzip WMAIL204.ZIP" without the
quotes and your ZIP file will be extracted.
The documentation files for BinkleyTerm v. 2.50 are in a separate
file, BDOC_250.LZH.
I suggest that as you read a section of any of the documentation
files, make a copy of my working configuration file as documen-
ted in this article. You should make the necessary changes such
as drive and path statements that reflect actual conditions on
your system.
Along with the previous programs you will need ALL these compres-
sion programs, also available at the Red Phoenix BBS in the COM-
PRESSION PROGRAMS file section. Take the compression and decom-
pression executable files and put them somewhere in your PATH
statement. I put them in my c:\dos directory.
Name of program File Name
--------------- ---------
PKZIP.EXE PKZ110.EXE
PKUNZIP.EXE PKZ110.EXE
ARCE.COM ARC602.ZIP
ARJ.EXE ARJ230.EXE
LHA.EXE LHA213.EXE
LHARC.EXE LHARC.ZIP
PAK.EXE PAK251.ZIP
PKARC.COM PKARC.COM
PKXARC.COM PKXARC.COM
ZOO.EXE ZOO210.ZIP
One of my greatest problems was trying to find ALL the programs
on my shopping list in ONE PLACE. I hope that I have solved that
problem for you.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 5
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===================
Computer
--------
I run a 386DX clone with 4 megs of onboard RAM. At this writing I
have an 85 meg IDE hard drive. I intend to get another bigger
drive, as I found out that these Star Trek echos get a large
volume of calls per day. You should have at least 20 megs of free
space for your system files and echo conferences. I use Micro-
soft's DOS 5.0 and Desqview's QEMM to manage my memory (sorry,
Microsoft). I have Desqview 386, but I am not running it with
BinkleyTerm. I intend to do so in the future, then I may write
another version of this document.
My autoexec.bat and config.sys files are also included with this
documentation. Please compare them with your own. You will see
that I use some of my 386 extended memory to make a RAM disk and
about a meg of memory for a disk cache. I also use X00.SYS as my
FOSSIL driver (more on that later) and it is loaded as a device
driver in my config.sys file.
Autoexec.bat file
-----------------
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\QEMM\BUFFERS=40
PATH=C:\QEMM;C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WC30;C:\WC30\DATA;C:\WC30\WCWORK;
C:\WC30\WCWORK\NODE1;C:\ME;C:\DV;C:\BINK;C:\BINK\NODELIST;
PROMPT $p$g
VERIFY=ON
SET BINK=C:\BINK
D:
MD SWAP
MD WORK
C:
CD\wc30
CAT.BAT
Config.sys
----------
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ROM SORT:Y MA=10 X=E000-E7FF TA=30
FILES=40
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 6
BUFFERS=1
STACKS=0,0
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:4 /RES=8192 /SQT=F600-F7FF
C:\X00.SYS E 1 B,0,19200 T=512 R=1024
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:4 /RES=416 /SQT=F600-F8FF
C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:4 /RES=1152 /SQT=F600-F6FF
C:\DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 1024 512 1024 /e
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:4 C:\DOS\TANSI.SYS
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\SMARTDRV.SYS 1024 256
I put blank spaces between the actual lines so that the lines
would be in a more readable form. The spaces do not appear in my
actual autoexec.bat and config.sys files.
Modem
-----
I have a US Robotics 14400 Courier external modem locked at 19200.
If you're going to have a lot of conferences, I suggest you get a
high speed modem. Here are my settings:
DIP switches
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
U U D D D U U D D U
I leave the QUAD switch alone in the UP position. Please note
that #2 is UP (verbal results), #5 is DOWN (auto answer sur-
pressed), and, importantly, that #10 is UP (load from NRAM at
power-up).
Here are my NRAM settings for my US Robotics 14,400 Courier
modem. I obtained these setting by typing ATI5 in my comm pro-
gram:
USRobotics Courier 14400 HST NRAM Settings...
Dial=PULSE B1 F1 M1 X7
BAUD=19200 PARITY=N WORDLEN=8
&A1 &B1 &G0 &H1 &I0 &J0 &K0 &L0
&M4 &N0 &P0 &R2 &S0 &X0 &Y1
S02=255 S03=013 S04=010 S05=008
S06=002 S07=050 S08=002 S09=006
S10=007 S11=O50 S12=050 S13=000
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 7
S15=008 S19=000 S21=010 S22=017
S23=019 S24=150 S26=000 S27=000
S28=008 S38=000
I have no stored phone numbers in my NRAM.
PERTINENT WILDCAT MAKEWILD SETTINGS
===================================
There are a few MAKEWILD settings that must be in place for you to
send and receive FidoNet mail.
In the GENERAL INFORMATION screen, part one:
12. Path for node information file: c:\bink\nodelist
This is where I keep my nodelist.
In the GENERAL INFORMATION screen, part two:
2. Database File Safety Mode: None
This speeds up the tossing of mail to your databases.
3. Terminate on Doors and Menu Hooks: N
You should Shell to DOS for these functions and not use
errorlevel checking.
4. Swap out during DOS shell: Y
You should Shell to DOS and not use errorlevel checking.
Other than these settings, you should make sure that your Comments
to the SYSOPS conference is conference zero, and I have my Netmail
conference as conference 1.
MINI-GLOSSARY
=============
Now you will need some explanation of words and terms:
Address: The zone/net/node number assigned to you by FidoNet by
your host system. In many configurations, the zone is assumed to
be zone 1, or North America.
Front-end mailer: The program (in this case, BinkleyTerm) used to
send and receive electronic mail in the FidoNet mail network. It
is called a front-end program because your new CAT.BAT file will
run it before it starts Wildcat. A front-end mailer passes normal
calls to the BBS software. If the call is a mail call the front-
end mailer, along with other software, handles the mail session.
Netmail: A system of sending "private" messages to people by
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 8
using their Fido net/node address and the name that they use on
that system. Your netmail conference is separate from your echo
conferences and is treated differently.
Echo: An ECHO is essentially a national or international message
base. This is almost always a public conference.
Echomail: The actual messages in an ECHO collected and processed
by hubs and host systems.
Hub: A Bulletin Board or other system that acts as a way station.
You will probably use it to send and receive Echomail, and Netmail
if allowed. Think of it as being the county seat of a county.
Host: A Bulletin Board or other system that collects mail from a
number of hubs. Think of it as being the state capital of a
state. (Not quite a perfect analogy, but it will do).
Node: A system within a hub. This will be your system. Think of
it as being a city within the county.
Poll your hub: To place a call to your hub, usually to initiate a
mail session.
Mail session: The time period during which your system connects
to your hub for sending and receiving Net and Echo mail.
Session password: A unique password assigned to your system that
allows you and you alone to start your mail session.
FREQ: FREQ stands for File Request. A remote system may request
a file on your system, and BINK may be set up to send a requested
file to the remote system.
Nodelist: A list of systems within the FidoNet mail system. The
list contains the names and locations of the systems, their FIDO
address, the name of the SYSOPS, and other important information.
MINI-EXPLANATION
================
Let me explain what happens during a mail session. I have a lot
of echos: Binkley, Wildcat, many FidoNet Star Trek echos and a few
others. BinkleyTerm (my front-end mailer) polls my HUB every
night around 5AM for new mail. When BinkleyTerm makes the connec-
tion, it identifies my system to my HUB. My HUB then asks for the
session password and BinkleyTerm (from now on I'll use the term
BINK) supplies it. After my HUB decided it's me, his system lets
BINK upload my mail to him. My mail consists of all the responses
that my users have entered into the various ECHOS on my BBS.
After I send my mail, my HUB sends to BINK mail destined for my
system.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 9
OBJECTIVE
=========
I use BinkleyTerm v2.50 as my front-end mailer. To use BINK, you
first need to install a FOSSIL driver. BINK also needs to have
a processed nodelist. I use XLAXNODE v.2.56 to process my FidoNet
nodelist for BINK. To collect and pack your mail to send to your
hub, and to toss your incoming mail into the proper echos, you
need Wildmail v2.04 and QM v.1.30 *gamma*. To be able to use your
Netmail function in Wildcat, you need another nodelist pro-
cessor, Wildnode v.1.10.
There are other utilities that make life easier for you, but I
will not get into them as they are not necessary to get a FidoNet
Net/node number. You will run across them soon enough and will
want to make your own choices for FidoNet utilities.
X00 v.1.24 Fossil Driver
========================
A FOSSIL driver must be installed in your system prior to running
BINK in order for BINK to work properly. I place X00.SYS in my
root directory and have a line in my config.sys which installs
X00.SYS as a device driver whenever my system is booted. I use
QEMM manage my memory, and it handles my X00.SYS installation to
maximize memory. For those of you who don't use QEMM, place
X00.SYS in your root directory and add this line to your
config.sys:
DEVICE=C:\X00.SYS E 1 B,0,19200 T=512 R=1024
This configuration works well with my system. If you have
problems with your FOSSIL driver, please consult the X00124
documentation file X00USER.DOC.
BinkleyTerm v2.50
=================
Let's get to the nitty gritty. Create a directory off your root
directory named BINK. Place in your BINK directory all the files
that come with BEXE_250.LZH, (BinkleyTerm 2.50) and BDOC_250.LZH.
PRINT OUT THE DOC FILES. You should have four of them. Two of
them are user and reference guides for BinkleyTerm 2.30. The other
two are the update docs for versions 2.40 and 2.50. Put them all
in a suitable notebook. I suggest that you use space tabs for the
different sections so that you can get to them without too much
trouble. Please read the documentation. Page 54 of the USERS
GUIDE has a nice glossary of terms that you should be familiar
with before proceeding further.
You will see from the TREE.TXT in the appendix that I have all my
mail-related files in either my BINK directory or in subdirec-
tories under it. I keep them separate from my Wildcat system
files where possible. If you choose to use my configurations,
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 10
then you will not have to change drive and path statements.
The heart of BINK is the BINKLEY.CFG file. It is a straight ASCII
file that should be placed in your newly created BINK directory.
This file tells BINK how to do certain things and where to find
the files to do them. The BinkleyTerm 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5 docs tell
you what the different parameters mean, and your BinkleyTerm pack-
age gives you a sample BINKLEY.CFG file. I suggest that you make
a copy of my sample configuration in this documentation, then copy
it to another directory and delete the one in your BINK directory.
Then substitute my sample BINKLEY.CFG file. Edit it with your own
drive and path statements to reflect your system.
My BINKLEY.CFG file has no comment lines in it. I don't like
cluttered configuration files, and I only use comments when
absolutely necessary. I will now describe my BINKLEY.CFG file.
BINKLEY.CFG file
----------------
Port 1
Baud 19200
Carrier 80
Init ATZ|
Prefix |ATDT~
Busy |ATM0H1|
Answer ATA|
StatusLog c:\bink\bink.log
Serial 071755
LogLevel 1
NoSLo
SwapDir d:\swap
Unattended
BoxType 4
Banner The Red Phoenix BBS
BBSNote Loading Wildcat! 3.5M. Give me a few seconds...
DoingMail The BBS is currently processing mail. Please try
again later.
EnterBBS Press <ESC> to Enter BBS
BBS BATCH
Colors 113 30 30 30 31 31 78 15
ScreenBlank call
BlankWait 60
System The Red Phoenix BBS
Sysop Rudolf Rothemund
Address 1:226/1260
NetMail c:\bink\netmail
NetFile c:\bink\netfile
Hold c:\bink\outbound
Nodelist c:\bink\nodelist
Version7
Okfile c:\wc30\okfile.txt
Avail c:\wc30\allfiles.zip
About c:\bink\phoenix.txt
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 11
MaxReq 8
MaxBytes 2000000
MaxTime 60
Port 1 - I use comm port 1. If you use com port 2, change it to
2 and so forth.
Baud 19200 - My maximum baud is 19200 (I only have a 16450 UART
chip). One of these days I will install a 16550.
Carrier 80 - This has to do with FOSSIL status bits and the BINK
documentation files say that this value is nearly always correct
with modems that support carrier detects.
Init ATZ| - (Note - the | is a carriage return). The initial-
ization string. I am a whole-hearted supporter of NRAM (non-
volatile RAM) on the HST. When ATZ is sent to the modem, the
modem defaults to the settings programmed in by the NRAM. I use
these setting for my BBS as well as for the front-end mailer
(nice, huh?)
Prefix |ATDT~ - This tells my modem to use tone dial.
Busy |ATM0H1| - Takes the modem off hook.
Answer ATA| - For modems that are not set to automatically answer
the phone (such as my system). This keeps the modem from
answering the phone if BINK is off.
StatusLog c:\bink\bink.log - This is where BINK puts it's log
file.
Serial 071755 - Binkley is free. I like to think that this is my
serial number. You can put anything that you want here. This
happens to be my birthday.
LogLevel 1 - I like minimal log levels. If you are having a
problem with BINK and you want to have a more detailed log
change this to LogLevel 5 (the most verbose level).
NoSLo - For No SeaLink overdrive protocol.
SwapDir d:\swap - Enables memory swapping, and this is the path
for BINK to swap to. On my system, this is a RAM disk.
Unattended - This statement is necessary, and it is used to tell
BINK that it is to be used as a front-end mailer.
BoxType 4 - The kind of box that I like to see the BINK screen
use.
Banner The Red Phoenix BBS - This is what callers see before they
press the ESC key to enter the BBS.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 12
BBSNote Loading Wildcat! 3.5M. Give me a few seconds... - This
is what is displayed after the BBS caller types the ESC key to
enter the BBS.
DoingMail The BBS is currently processing mail. Please try again
later. - (note - this is all on one line in the real config file).
This statement is sent to the caller when the BINK is processing
mail and non-mail calls are not allowed. This occurs when the B
flag is not placed during an event (more on this later).
EnterBBS Press <ESC> to Enter BBS - This statement is sent when
the B flag is present during an event (more on this later) and
callers are allowed into the BBS.
BBS BATCH - This is an important statement. This tells BINK how
it will interface to the BBS. This subject is discussed more in
depth in the BBS INTERFACE section.
Colors 113 30 30 30 31 31 78 15 - I use a modified Mark Kromm.
Mark Kromm was the guy who originally made up these colors and
a lot of FidoNet nodes use them. The only modification that I
made is that when an outgoing call is made, the line that contains
the Fido address of the remote system is backlighted in red and
the number is yellow.
ScreenBlank call - Tells BINK that I want the opening screen to
become blank after a certain period of time to be designated
later. The screen will unblank when a call is placed, comes in, or
a key is depressed. Note - this only works if you have a video
fossil (VFOS) installed. I have one installed and will deal with
it in the CAT.BAT section.
BlankWait 60 - Tells BINK that I only want 60 seconds to pass
before blanking the opening screen. Note - This only works if you
have a video fossil (VFOS) installed. I have one installed and
deal with it in the CAT.BAT section.
System The Red Phoenix BBS - The name of my BBS. This information
is needed during a mail session.
Sysop Rudolf Rothemund - The name of the SYSOP, which is also
needed during a mail session. Please don't use my name.
Address 1:226/1260 - This is my FIDO address. (Note - how does one
send for a FIDO address? You NEED a FIDO address to send for one.
A "catch 22" that will be answered in the section HOW TO GET A
ZONE/NET/NODE NUMBER).
NetMail c:\bink\netmail - This is the area where Wildmail places
newly extracted netmail from my Wildcat netmail conference. BINK
also uses this area to build a mail.sys file using the compiler
BTCTL (more on that in the BTCTL section).
NetFile c:\bink\netfile - This pathway points to the directory
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 13
where incoming mail and files are stored before being processed by
Wildmail.
Hold c:\bink\outbound - This is where outbound mail is kept until
a BINK mail session is initiated.
Nodelist c:\bink\nodelist - This is where the nodelist and related
files are kept.
Version7 - I use the latest version of nodelist compilation,
version 7.
Okfile c:\wc30\okfile.txt - This file lists the drive and path-
ways to the files that I allow people to FREQ (file request).
When someone FREQ's a file from The Red Phoenix BBS, OKFILE.TXT
tells BINK where the file resides on my hard drive. Since FREQ's
are generated from calls coming in, cost is not a problem and any
file that is available on The Red Phoenix BBS may be FREQ'ed. A
sample OKFILE.TXT is located in the appendix of this documen-
tation.
(Note: I don't have this set up yet, but files may also be
FREQ'ed from other systems via MAGIC NAMES, which are defined in
this text file. Page 46 of the BinkleyTerm 2.30 user's guide has
an elegant explanation on how to set up MAGIC NAMES and their
paths on your system).
Avail c:\wc30\allfiles.zip - This is a list of files available
to be FREQ'ed. When anyone FREQ's my system with the MAGIC NAME
of FILES, this is the file that is sent. This file happens to be
the same allfiles.zip generated by WCPRO during my nightly main-
tenance run. This keeps the file current (neat, huh?).
About c:\bink\phoenix.txt - This file is sent if a FREQ is not
possible. It is a little blurb file describing my system and
letting the other person know as nicely as possible that the file
doesn't exist on my system. I have an example included in the
appendix of this documentation.
MaxReq 8 - I only allow 8 files to be sent during one FREQ
session. I don't want my board tied up for too long.
MaxBytes 2000000 - I allow a total of 2.0 Megs of files to be sent
during one mail session. It is this big because sometimes I get
requests for nodelists and nodediffs (more on these files later).
MaxTime 60 - I only allow FREQ'ers 60 minutes per FREQ session.
BINKLEY.EVT file
----------------
The BINKLEY.EVT file lets BINK know when to do certain things and
for how long. It is an ASCII file that is placed with the other
BINK system files in the BINK directory. My BINKLEY.EVT file
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 14
looks like this:
EVENT ALL 00:00 00:03 N L=0 E1=80 ;MAINTENANCE
EVENT ALL 00:04 03:59 B H M L=0 E1=50 E2=60 A=30 ;RUN BBS
EVENT ALL 04:00 04:59 H M L=0 E1=50 E2=60 A=30 ;NMH
EVENT ALL 05:00 06:59 D H M N L>0 E1=10 E2=60 A=30 ;MAIL RUN
EVENT WEEK 05:00 23:59 B H M L=0 E1=50 E2=60 A=30 ;RUN BBS
EVENT WKEND 05:00 15:59 B H M L=0 E1=50 E2=60 A=30 ;RUN BBS WKEND
EVENT WKEND 16:00 18:59 D H M N L>0 E1=10 E2=60 A=30 ;WKEND MAIL
EVENT WKEND 16:00 23:59 B H M L=0 E1=50 E2=60 A=30 ;RUN BBS WKEND
Here's the syntax for the BINKLEY.EVT file, taken from page 26 of
the BinkleyTerm version 2.30 Reference guide:
EVENT <day> <start> [<stop>] [<string>] <flags/options>
I don't have any use for the "string" parameter, and fortunately
this parameter is optional. I will now describe my BINKLEY.EVT
file in human language.
The first event that I have is a maintenance event. I run WCPRO
to create my statistics bulletin and my ALLFILEST. I also
renumber my local conferences. I want to do this every day of
the week so after the word EVENT I have the word ALL. I want this
event to start at midnight. The batch file takes about three
minutes run so I have the start time at 00.00 and the finish time
at 00:03 (from midnight until three minutes past midnight). The
first flag, N, means that the mailer will not accept FREQ's (file
requests) during this time. The second flag, L=0, means that mail
with a cost of zero (local mail) will be sent. Since I normally
don't send any mail to anyone except to my long distance HUB and
one other long distance node, no mail will be sent during this
time period.
BINK always starts an event by exiting to the errorlevel desig-
nated by the E1 flag. In my first event, I have my E1 flag set to
E1=80, which causes BINK to exit with an errorlevel of 80. I have
a statement in my CAT.BAT file (which is used to start BINK, the
mail processing software, and my BBS) that starts my maintenance
program when BINK exits at this errorlevel.
My second event allows normal callers access to the BBS. It
starts at 00.04 (four minutes after midnight) and runs until
3:59AM. It is active every day of the week (ALL). The event
contains seven flags. The first flag (B) allow BBS callers during
the event. The second flag (H) allows callers (including the
SYSOP) to send crash mail. This is mail that is sent immediately
to another FidoNet node. The third flag (M) tells BINK that it is
a mail event; that is, mail can be sent and accepted. I allow
mail to be sent to me anytime except during my maintenance period.
The fourth flag means that only local mail will be sent.
The fifth flag (E1=50) means that the event will start with BINK
exiting at an errorlevel of 50. I have BINK start in unattended
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 15
mode at an errorlevel 50. The sixth flag, E2=60, tells BINK that
whenever mail comes in from an outside system (usually my HUB), it
is to exit at an errorlevel of 60. At an errorlevel of 60, my in-
coming mail gets processed. The last flag, A=30, tells BINK that
I want an interval of 30 seconds between outgoing calls.
The third event is the national mail hour event. FidoNet has a
rule that the BBS MUST be down and able to accept mail during
National Mail Hour. This is keyed to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
and the time in zone 1 on the East Coast (North America) is
between 4AM and 5AM Daylight Savings Time. The event is struc-
tured like the previous one except that the B flag is removed.
Without the B flag, the BBS cannot accept callers, but everything
else is the same.
My fourth event starts after National Mail Hour. It is during
this event that my mail processing software scans, tosses, and
packs outgoing mail and polls my hub. This is a dynamic event,
and the first flag, D, reflects this. BINK will call my HUB until
it reaches him, and then it will send and receive mail. It will
not stop until this is accomplished. I do not have a B flag in
this event, which means that BBS callers are not allowed. The H
flag means that I can send crash mail, the M flag means that it is
a mail event, and the N flag tells BINK not to allow file
requests.
The fifth flag, L>0, means that any mail with a cost greater than
0 cents per minute will be sent. This essentially means that all
mail will be sent during this event. The next flag, E1=10, causes
BINK to exit with an errorlevel of 10 at the start of the event.
At an errorlevel of 10, my mail processing software tosses, scans
and packs the mail and directs BINK to call my hub. The next
flag, E2=60, tells BINK to scan and toss (but not pack) any in-
coming mail. And the last flag, A=30, tells BINK that I want an
interval of 30 seconds between outgoing calls.
The fifth event occurs only on weekdays (Monday through Friday),
so instead of using ALL I use WEEK. Please also note that the
starting time of this event is exactly the same as the starting
time of the previous event. When the previous event (the mail
event) is completely finished, then it ends and this one takes
over. For this to occur, the starting times of the two events
must be exactly the same. Except for the use of WEEK and the
starting and ending times, this event is like the second event.
The sixth event occurs only on weekends (Saturday and Sunday), so
instead of ALL or WEEK I use the term WKEND. Other than that and
the start and end times, it is like the previous event.
The seventh event also is a weekend event. This is my extra mail
event. There is usually more mail to pick up on Saturday and
Sunday, so I call my hub twice a day. Other than the WKEND term
and the start and end times, this event is like the fourth event.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 16
The last event is also a weekend event, and other than the start
and finish times is like the second event.
Caveat Emptor
-------------
One quick note about the BINKLEY.EVT file. If you make changes to
your BINKLEY.EVT file and then plan to restart BINK with the new
file in place, you have to do several things. First, make sure
that you are outside of BINK's code before replacing the file.
You can't be in BINK's DOS shell. Next, replace your old BINK-
LEY.EVT with your new one in your BINK directory. Then delete
these two files: BINKLEY.SCD and BINKLEY.DAY. If you don't delete
these two files, BINK will "remember" the old BINKLEY.EVT file and
use those parameters instead of your new one. This caused me some
distress and I thank RICK NASH (226/1250) for the solution to the
problem.
An unfortunate side effect of deleting those files will be that
you will lose the information in your "TODAY AT A GLANCE" screen.
This screen is located at the upper middle part of the BinkleyTerm
opening screen. This information includes how many BBS/MAIL calls
were made and how much you spent making those calls, so if you
need this information write it down before deleting the two files.
BTCTL
-----
BTCTL.EXE is a small compilation program packed with BinkleyTerm
2.50. The purpose of this file is to create MAIL.SYS, which is
necessary for some mail processing programs to work properly.
BTCTL.EXE should be placed in your C:\BINK directory. After your
BINKLEY.CFG file is properly configured, type BTCTL at your DOS
prompt. Do not start BTCTL while in BINK's DOS shell. The pro-
gram will create the necessary files and display your address,
netfile and netmail path statements.
I suggest that every time you change your BINKLEY.CFG file, you
should run BTCTL. The docs say that you don't have to unless you
make changes in address and/or path statements, but in my exper-
ience with BINK I have found that the BTCTL program needs to be
run with additional BINKLEY.CFG changes. Better to be safe than
sorry.
MINI-GLOSSARY
=============
Here are some more words and terms for you to digest before pro-
ceeding further.
Nodelist: A list of systems within the FidoNet mail system. The
list contains the names and locations of the systems, their FIDO
address, the name of the SYSOPS, and other important information.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 17
Nodediff: A list of systems to be added, deleted, or otherwise
modified to the nodelist. The NODEDIFF is produced weekly.
Merge: The process of adding the NODEDIFF to the NODELIST.
Compilation: Processing the NODELIST to a form usable by Wildcat
and BinkleyTerm v.2.50.
MINI-EXPLANATION
================
In order for BINK to call your hub (or any other system) for your
mail session, you need to have several files that pass infor-
mation to BINK such as the phone number, FIDO address, and baud
rate of the remote system. The NODELIST contains such information
but it needs to be processed by a compiler to a form that BINK
understands.
XLAXNODE II V.2.56
==================
XlaxNode II v.2.56 contains a series of programs used to process
the FidoNet nodelist. We will need two of them in order to
process the FIdoNet Nodelist to a usable form.
The first program is called XLAXDIFF. This program merges the
current NODEDIFF into the NODELIST. In order for XLAXDIFF to
work, the file compression program ARCE must be somewhere in your
PATH statement. I keep all my compression programs in my C:\DOS
directory, which is in my PATH statement.
I keep my NODELIST and all my nodelist processor files in a
directory with the path C:\BINK\NODELIST. All I have to do is
go to this directory and type at the DOS prompt XLAXDIFF and the
program merges the NODEDIFF into the NODELIST. You should reserve
about four megs of disk space to ensure proper operation.
I keep an earlier NODELIST and all subsequent NODEDIFF's in case
my current NODELIST becomes corrupted.
The second program is called XLAXNODE. I use this program to
produce two nodelist files used by BINK. There are other options
with this program such as making human readable files but I don't
use these options as the files take up too much space in my hard
drive.
The heart of XLAXNODE is the XLAXNODE.CTL file. It is a straight
ASCII file which is kept in my nodelist directory. Here is the
file with my explanations:
NODE 1:226/1260
SORTWORK D:\SWAP
MAXBAUD 19200
ZONE 1
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 18
PASSWORD 1:226/0 XXX
PASSWORD 1:226/1210 XXX
PASSWORD 1:226/5200 XXX
PASSWORD 1:104/330 XXX
PASSWORD 1:226/1250 XXX
VERSION7
COUNTRY 1-
DIAL / 011-/#
1-216-262 262
1-216-263 263
1-216-264 264
1-216-287 287
1-216-345 345
1-216-435 436
1-216-567 567
1-216-624 624
1-216-669 669
1-216-682 682
1-216-683 683
1-216-684 684
1-216-698 698
1-216- 1-
END
COST 15 250
1-800 0
1-216-262 0
1-216-263 0
1-216-264 0
1-216-287 0
1-216-345 0
1-216-435 0
1-216-567 0
1-216-624 0
1-216-669 0
1-216-682 0
1-216-683 0
1-216-684 0
1-216-698 0
1-216 11
1-419 11
1-513 11
1-614 11
END
NODE 1:226/1260 - This is my zone/net/node address. Make sure
that you DO include the zone address here.
SORTWORK D:\SWAP - This is the path to the directory where files
are sorted if they can't be sorted in memory. This is a RAM disk.
MAXBAUD 19200 - This tells XLAXNODE that the speed of the modem is
19200.
ZONE 1 - This is my zone.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 19
PASSWORD 1:226/0 XXX - This is the way that XLAXNODE enters
passwords into the nodelist. The zone/net/node of the remote
system is entered along with the password. The password doesn't
have to be three letters; I have just X'd out my passwords.
PASSWORD 1:226/1210 XXX This is another example of the password
feature with another remote system.
PASSWORD 1:226/5200 XXX - And still another remote system.
PASSWORD 1:104/330 XXX - And still another remote system.
PASSWORD 1:226/1250 XXX - Last one.
VERSION7 - This is the latest nodelist version compilation. This
version produces two files, the nodex.xxx and the nodex.ndx files.
COUNTRY 1- (The dash needs to be included) - This is the entry for
the US and Canada.
DIAL / 011-/# - This tells XLAXNODE how to treat North American
telephone numbers (it leaves them alone), and what to do with
international numbers (it adds the prefix 011 and the suffix #).
1-216-262 262 This list of numbers are all local to my
1-216-263 263 exchange. You will have to go to the front of
1-216-264 264 your phone book and look up all the exchanges
1-216-287 287 that are local to your exchange and place
1-216-345 345 them here exactly like the ones in this
1-216-435 436 example. When the nodelist is compiled by
1-216-567 567 XLAXNODE, the numbers, for example, that start
1-216-624 624 with 1-216-345 will be truncated to 345. That
1-216-669 669 way, my modem will be able to dial a local
1-216-682 682 call. At this writing, there are no other
1-216-683 683 FIDO nodes in my local dialing area, but you
1-216-684 684 never know.
1-216-698 698
1-216- 1- This needs to be here in order for calls in
your area code that are not local calls to be
dialed properly.
END This statement ends the DIAL parameter
COST 15 250 The 15 is the cost of a local call in cents
per minute and the 250 is the cost of an
international call in cents per minute.
1-800 0 These are all exchanges that are local to me,
1-216-262 0 and all these costs are 0.
1-216-263 0
1-216-264 0
1-216-287 0
1-216-345 0
1-216-435 0
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 20
1-216-567 0
1-216-624 0
1-216-669 0
1-216-682 0
1-216-683 0
1-216-684 0
1-216-698 0
1-216 11 All these costs are night time call costs in
1-419 11 cents per minute. I have REACH OUT OHIO from
1-513 11 AT&T, and this is what it costs in all the
1-614 11 area codes in OHIO at night.
END This ends the COST parameter and the
XLAXNODE.CTL file.
MINI-GLOSSARY
=============
Now I get to throw more terms at you.
AREAS.BBS file: This is a straight ASCII file which tells
Wildmail where WILDCAT keeps your echo conferences. It includes
the conference number in WILDCAT, the name of the echo, and the
place where all mail from the conference is to be forwarded. It
does NOT include any information about your Netmail conference.
Netmail conference: This is the conference in my Wildcat BBS
where Wildmail tosses your "private" netmail. In version Wildcat
3.0 and later, you may specifically create a Netmail conference
(as opposed to a Normal conference).
Badecho directory: Mail that comes to your system that does not
have a conference that is defined in your AREAS.BBS is routed to
this directory. The reason for routing of echomail to this area
is usually a spelling error in the AREAS.BBS file.
Netfile directory: This is the place where your incoming mail
is kept until they are processed by WILDMAIL. All your incoming
files are also stored here. If you make an arrangement with your
hub for you to pick up the weekly NODEDIFFS during a mail session,
they will be stored here.
Scan: When Wildmail processes mail, it searches the netmail
conference and the conferences defined in your AREAS.BBS for new
messages. Then it searches the BADECHO directory messages and
tries to match them with conferences in AREAS.BBS. It then
extracts all these new messages and packs them in an archival
format.
Toss: The term used when WILDMAIL takes incoming mail from your
hub and places them in the proper directories according to your
AREAS.BBS file. Wildmail also places netmail in the netmail
conference, but it gets that information from BINK. An analogy
would be when your mail person tosses your mail in your mailbox.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 21
MINI-EXPLANATION
----------------
Just before my mail session, the new messages that my BBS users
leave in their favorite conferences need to be collected and
packaged for delivery to my hub. During the mail session my hub
deposits my echo mail in my C:\BINK\NETFILES subdirectory. After
my mail has been delivered, it needs to be unarchived, and the
messages deposited (tossed) into the proper conferences. I use
Wildmail v.2.04 to process my mail. This is available on my BBS
as WMAIL204.ZIP.
WILDMAIL
========
I suggest that you create a subdirectory under your BINK directory
named WILDMAIL and place Wildmail v.2.04 in it. Unzip it and
PRINT OUT THE DOCUMENTATION FILES. Place them in a suitable
notebook. You will then have to call the wildmail support board
at either 1-510-687-0236 (USR/DS) or 1-510-687-2134 (V.32bis) and
log on with your real name. Be sure that you have your Wildcat
registration number handy. The reason that you have to do this is
because this program needs an ID file for it to work, and the ONLY
place that you can get it is the WIldmail support board. You can
download it with the first call, and the key is good for one only
month, and then it pukes. You can't get another temporary file;
you have to register the program after the month is up to get the
permanent ID file. Then everything works fine again.
Wildmail has a voice number for support and they will help you
with all your stupid or otherwise questions. That number is
1-510-687-1122. The company is on the west coast so don't call
before 12 noon or after 9PM EDT on weekdays or you'll get a
recording.
WM.CFG
------
Wildmail can be said to have two hearts. The first one is the
WM.CFG file, and the other one is the AREAS.BBS file. Let's
examine the WM.CFG file first.
ZONE 1
ADDRESS 226/1260
MAILER BINKLEY
INBOUND c:\bink\netfile
WILDCAT c:\wc30
NETMAIL 1
MATRIXMAIL c:\bink\netmail
OUTBOUND c:\bink\outbound
LOG c:\bink\wildmail\wm.log
BADECHO c:\bink\badecho
DUPLICATES 7500
NULLMESSAGE
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 22
NONETMAILMESSAGE
NOTIFY
PURGE
STANDARDARCHIVE
; Keyword Constant Command/Arguments
; -------- --------- ------------------
UNPACKER ARCPACKER pkxarc.com -x @a
UNPACKER ARJPACKER arj.exe e -n @a
UNPACKER LZHPACKER lha.exe e @a
UNPACKER PAKPACKER pak.exe e @a
UNPACKER ZIPPACKER pkunzip.exe -x @a
UNPACKER ZOOPACKER zoo.exe xO @a
; Keyword Constant Command/Arguments
; ------ --------- -----------------
; DO NOT COMMENT OUT ARCPACKER!!!! THIS IS YOUR DEFAULT PACKER.
PACKER ARCPACKER pkarc.com -a
PACKER ARJPACKER arj.exe a -e
PACKER LZHPACKER lha.exe a /m
PACKER PAKPACKER pak.exe a
PACKER ZOOPACKER zoo.exe -add
PACKER ZIPPACKER pkzip.exe -a
; Keyword Constant Node Address Definition
; ------- --------- -----------------------
TYPEPACK ZIPPACKER 226/0 10 1210 1250 104/330
SWAPEMS
DELETESEENBYLINES
FORWARDPACKETS
LOCKCOUNT 0
QUIETARC
ZONE 1 - This is my zone.
ADDRESS 226/1260 - This is my Fido address. Do NOT include the
zone of 1 here.
MAILER BINKLEY - This is the front-end mailer that I run.
INBOUND c:\bink\netfile - This is where all my incoming mail is
placed. This includes files either requested by my system or
files offered to my system.
WILDCAT c:\wc30 - This tells WILDMAIL where my WILDCAT system
files are located.
NETMAIL 1 - This tells WILDMAIL the conference number of my
netmail message conference. I use conference 1 as my Netmail
conference.
MATRIXMAIL c:\bink\netmail - This is the path to the outbound
netmail message directory. When WILDMAIL scans my conference 1,
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 23
which is my netmail conference, it places the outbound netmail
in this directory. This is the same directory as defined in the
BINKLEY.CFG file.
OUTBOUND c:\bink\outbound - This is the path where all mail
archives will be placed. This is the same directory as defined in
the BINKLEY.CFG file.
LOG c:\bink\wildmail\wm.log - This is the path to where WILDMAIL
keeps it's log file.
BADECHO c:\bink\badecho - This is where WILDMAIL puts echo mail
that does not have an AREAS.BBS entry.
DUPLICATES 7500 - This number reflects the number of messages
that WILDMAIL will keep information about to check for duplicate
messages. If an incoming message has already been scanned by
Wildmail, it is not allowed in the echo conference. I get about
1500 messages per day, and the WILDMAIL manual suggests keeping
about 5 days worth of data, so this number is 7500 on my system.
WILDMAIL will tell you how many messages it tosses per day.
NULLMESSAGE - This parameter allows deletion of messages that have
no text in the message body.
NONETMAILMESSAGE - This option will permit only one incoming
netmail message which is created in the Wildcat netmail
conference.
NOTIFY - This option scans my WILDCAT user file and notifies the
user if he/she has netmail waiting for them.
PURGE - This allows WILDMAIl to maintain the size of the echo
conference as specified makewild. I generally allow 500 messages
in my echo conferences, and when the number of messages exceeds
500, WILDMAIL will purge the oldest messages to make room for the
new ones.
STANDARDARCHIVE - This causes WILDMAIL to use the standard
archiving name used by FidoNet of MO, TU, etc. for all outbound
mail archives. Mu hub uses this method so I use this method
also.
; Keyword Constant Command/Arguments (Header Lines) I use these
; ------- --------- ----------------- two lines as headers for
the lines below.
UNPACKER ARCPACKER pkxarc.com -x @a In plain English using
UNPACKER ARJPACKER arj.exe e -n @a the first line as an ex-
UNPACKER LZHPACKER lha.exe e @a ample, the decompression
UNPACKER PAKPACKER pak.exe e @a (UNPACKER) method is ARC
UNPACKER ZIPPACKER pkunzip.exe -x @a PACKER (a name that I
UNPACKER ZOOPACKER zoo.exe xO @a supply) and the full file
name is pkxarc.com, the
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 24
extension MUST be specified)
which uses a parameter flag,
-x. The @a is used by WILD-
MAIL to provide the path to
insert pkarc.com when it de-
compresses mail.
; Keyword Constant Command/Arguments (Header Lines)
; ------ --------- ---------------- (Header Lines)
; DO NOT COMMENT OUT ARCPACKER!!!! THIS IS YOUR DEFAULT PACKER.
PACKER ARCPACKER pkarc.com -a In plain English, this is
PACKER ARJPACKER arj.exe a -e the compression method.
PACKER LZHPACKER lha.exe a /m Using the first line, the
PACKER PAKPACKER pak.exe a compression (PACKER)
PACKER ZOOPACKER zoo.exe -add method is ARCPACKER (the
PACKER ZIPPACKER pkzip.exe -a same name as the de-com-
pression method and in the
same order) and the full
file name is pkarc.com,
(which uses a parameter
flag, -a). Note that the
@a is not present. It is
not needed.
; Keyword Constant Node Address Definition (Header Lines)
; -------- --------- -------------------------- (Header Lines)
TYPEPACK ZIPPACKER 226/0 10 1210 1250 5200 104/330
The line just above this one tells Wild-
mail what kind of compression to use when
dealing with specific nodes. In plain
English this line says that the kind of
compression (TYPEPACK) to use is ZIPPACKER,
(which was defined in the two earlier
PACKER and UNPACKER lines), and to use ZIP
to pack mail to the nodes listed.
The node address definitions may seem strange
so I will explain. A complete node address
looks like this: 1:226/1260. Wildmail
assumes that you are dealing with Zone 1, so
it allows you not to include it in your address
definition. Also, if numbers are listed such
as 226/0 10 (the 226 is part of a net and 0
and 10 are nodes) that the 0 and the 10 are
part of the same node. So the line 226/0 10
1210 1250 5200 104/330 is "shorthand" for
1:226/0, 1:226/10, 1:226/1210, 1:226/1250,
1:226/5200 and 1:104/330. Each program has it's
own "shorthand" syntax, although they are usually
similar.
SWAPEMS - This allows Wildmail to be swapped to EMS memory as
opposed to being swapped to disk.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 25
DELETESEENBYLINES - This option deletes SEENBY lines (lines which
show the caller which systems have seen the messages) in my
messages. These lines take up a lot of space and the caller
really doesn't need to see them, so I let Wildmail delete them.
FORWARDPACKETS - If mail comes to my system and it is not to
addressed to me (1:226/1260) this option will forward it back to
my HUB. You should only use this option if your HUB agrees to
this.
LOCKCOUNT 0 - This means that the message base will lock after
Wildmail tosses 30 messages into it (the 0 means 30). The default
value is 1, which means Wildmail will lock the base after each
tossed message. Since I have a fast computer, I can use a value
of 30. Slower computers need to use a lower value.
QUIETARC - This option redirects the screen output of the
compression programs to NULL. They still work, but the screen
doesn't display it. This option doesn't work with LZHPACKER, but
I don't care becuase I don't send or receive any mail packed with
LZH.
AREAS.BBS
---------
AREAS.BBS is another straight ASCII file that tells Wildmail
where to place the Echo mail delivered to my system. I will now
describe my AREAS.BBS file.
The Red Phoenix BBS (216) 345-5807 #
2 REGION11 1:226/1210
3 SYSOP226 1:226/1210
10 TREK 1:226/1210
11 STDSN 1:226/1210
12 STTNG 1:226/1210
13 R11STTNG 1:226/1210
14 WILDCAT 1:226/1210
15 BINKLEY 1:226/1210
16 NFL 1:226/1210
17 COMICS 1:226/1210
18 CMX4SALE 1:104/330
19 BB-CARDS 1:226/1210
20 HST-SALE 1:226/1210
21 TVRO 1:226/1210
22 FANTASY_SPORTS 1:226/1210
23 STARWARS 1:226/1210
24 DIABETES 1:226/1210
25 STOCK_MARKET 1:226/1210
26 STARTREK 1:226/1210
27 WRITING 1:226/1210
28 DISNEY 1:226/1210
29 JOBS 1:226/1210
The first line shows the name of my BBS along with the phone
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 26
number. The # sign is used by Wildmail to place my zone/net/node
FIDO address. This information is added to every message that is
extracted from my system. PLEASE be sure to change this line
before you fire up your mailer and send mail. I don't want tons
of mail out in the universe with my tagline on it that's not from
my system. Thank you.
The next set of information is organized in columns. The first
column of numbers indicates to Wildmail the number of a Wildcat
conference. The second column tells Wildmail the official name of
the Echo. The two columns together tell Wildmail for example,
that the mail for the Echo REGION11 will be tossed into my Wildcat
conference number two.
The third column tells Wildmail where to forward any new messages
that my users will enter in the conference. Using the above
example, the mail that a user enters into the REGION11 conference
(2) will be forwarded to the Fido address 1:226/1210, which
happens to be the address of my HUB.
Note that a list of all Echos available from FidoNet is available
from 1:1/201. The file that should be FREQ'ed has a "magic name:
of ECHOLIST. Once you get BINK set up to send and receive mail,
FREQ the file so that you have a current ECHOLIST. The file
changes at the beginning of every month so try to wait for a few
days in the month to be sure that you get a current list.
HOW TO SPEED UP WILDMAIL
------------------------
In my opinion, Wildmail tends to be a slow tosser and scanner.
There are ways, however, to speed up the process. In the section
PERTINENT MAKEWILD SETTINGS for Wildcat, I have this comment:
2. Database File Safety Mode: None
This speeds up the tossing of mail to your databases.
This turns off integrity check of the databases, including the
message databases that Wildmail tosses the mail. Setting this to
NONE will speed up the tossing process. The Wildcat docs say that
there is little danger of message base corruption if this is set
to NONE, and whatever is corrupted is easily repaired by the
Wildcat repair utility WCREPAIR.
Another way to speed Wildmail's performance is to use some of your
extended memory to make a disk cache. I have a 386DX clone with
4 megs of memory. I use about a meg of memory for a RAM disk and
about a meg for a disk cache. The disk cache is very important;
let me give you some actual numbers.
Before I installed a disk cache, Wildmail took 31 minutes to toss
about 500K of messages. That works out to be about 16K of
messages tossed per minute. I left a message in the WILDCAT echo,
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 27
and I got an answer from Joe Martin, who works at Wildmail. He
suggested things that I had already implemented, with the excep-
tion of creating a disk cache, so I created a one meg disk cache
with SMARTDRV.SYS from Microsoft.
The next time I tossed and scanned mail, I was astounded. Wild-
mail took ten and a half minutes to toss about 380K of messages.
That works out to be about 36K of messages per minute. The im-
provement is about 125 percent! So I would greatly suggest that
you install a disk cache if you can.
CAVEAT EMPTOR I
---------------
One quick note about Wildmail and the netmail conference in Wild-
cat. I purge my old messages in all my local message bases
periodically using WIldcat's purge option on the SYSOP's menu, and
then run a maintenance program to renumber my conferences every
night. The renumbering also used to also include my netmail con-
ference. I found out the hard way that if you delete and purge
old messages and renumber the netmail conference every night,
WILDMAIL will not scan and toss new messages UNTIL you run Wild-
mail from the DOS prompt in the c:\bink\wildmail directory using
this set of parameters:
WM -T1,XX
where 1 is the number of my wildcat netmail conference and xx is
number of my last message in the netmail conference.
What this does is to reset WIldmail's high water mark for this
conference, and new messages above xx will be scanned/tossed. Not
knowing this little trick took a week out of my life, and I had no
idea why Wildmail wouldn't scan my new messages. I thought I'd
configured Wildmail wrong, and it took a call to my friendly Wild-
mail support person (Eric) to clue me in on the solution to the
problem. I hope I have just saved you lots of grief. Needless to
say, I DON'T renumber my netmail conference nightly anymore.
CAVEAT EMPTOR II
================
Another grief-ridden two days was spent needlessly because of
another undocumented feature of Wildmail. There is a file in
Wildmail v.2.04 called WMCRASH.LST. DO NOT, I repeat DON'T put
any names in it if you plan to run with multiple addresses. It is
just a straight ASCII text file, and I thought I had to put my
name in it in order to be able to send crash mail to other
systems. This is not entirely true. If you configure your
QM_ROUTE.CFG (which is your QM mail routing configuration file)
correctly, you can send crash mail to other systems without the
WMCRASH.LST file.
Let me tell you what happened to me. I use two names on my
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 28
system: My sysop name of John Redmund and my real name of Rudolf
Rothemund. I was setting up my system for dual addresses (not
covered in this documentation) and I sent my TrekNet hub a message
using my real name. I couldn't get Qmail to route the mail to his
TrekNet address of 87:6001/0. It would get routed to 1:6001/0.
I couldn't figure out why this was happening. I poured over all
the docs in BINK, Wildmail and Qmail to no avail. Then I did
something quite by accident (don't we all learn the most when this
happens?). I sent a message to my TrekNet hub with my SYSOP name,
and it WORKED. It was routed correctly to 87:6001/0. With my
new-found courage and wisdom, I whipped off a message to my Trek-
Net hub with my real name, and BAM, my system puked again. I was
stymied. Here I had two different messages, one which was routed
to the correct address and one with the wrong address.
I looked at the messages and the outbound areas what they were in
and found that the correctly routed one was zipped, even though it
was a one line message. The incorrectly routed one was NOT
zipped, even though it was larger. So I checked Wildmail and
QM for ANYTHING out of the ordinary and came up with NADA. Zip.
Wild goose chase. Then I went back into the board and saw that I
used the two different names to write the messages. I used my
sysop name and real name for another test and lo and behold, I was
able to duplicate the results. I immediately realized that I had
put my real name in Wildmail's WMCRASH.LST because I wanted to be
able to send crash mail anytime I wanted to with my real identity.
So I took my name out of WMCRASH.LST and repeated the experiment
and guess what? BOTH messages were zipped together and routed to
the correct zone 87 address.
The moral of the story: DON'T use the WMCRASH.LST if you want to
use multiple addresses.
QM
==
Wildmail is a good program, however, it does not route outbound
mail. This is unfortunate because I paid good money for the pro-
gram, and I hope that Online Computer Resources (the people that
wrote Wildmail) will someday support their own internal packing,
bundling, and routing of their outbound mail.
Online Computer Resources suggests using a program called QM for
this function. I use QM v.1.30 *gamma*. This program is provided
free of charge by Greg Dawson and George Peace. It is not pack-
aged with Wildmail, but it is provided on my BBS as QM_130GM.ZIP.
Create a directory under your BINK directory named QMAIL and place
your QM_130GM.LZH file in it. Decompress it with lha.exe, print
the documentation file and put it in a notebook. I have my
Wildmail and QM documentation files in the same notebook.
As I only need QM for it's routing capabilities, I don't use QM's
tossing and scanning routines. I still had to configure the whole
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 29
program to get it to work properly.
There are two files that must be configured with QM. The first
one is QM.CFG. This configuration file is surprisingly similar to
WM.CFG. Where possible I have used the same parameters on both
configuration files.
The second file is the QM_ROUTE file. This is the file that tells
QM and BINK where to route (send) your mail and how to route it.
This file is tied in with the CAT.BAT file and four other batch
files. These other files will be discusses in later sections.
The QM.CFG file is another straight ASCII file that is placed in
the Qmail subdirectory. It directs QM much as WM.CFG directs
Wildmail.
QM.CFG
------
Primary_Zone 1
Address 226/1260
NetMail C:\BINK\NETMAIL
NetFile C:\BINK\NETFILE
Outbound C:\BINK\OUTBOUND 1
Status_Log C:\BINK\QMAIL\QM.LOG
Sysop RUDOLF ROTHEMUND
Swap 7
Bad_Msgs C:\BINK\BADECHO
Dupes 7500
No_Content
No_Private_EchoMail
ARC_Unpack 8 arce.com %s *.PKT /r
ARC_Unpack 9 pkxarc.com /r %s *.PKT
ARC_Unpack 10 pak.exe e /wa %s *.PKT
%ARC_Unpack 20 arc7 e %s *.PKT
ZOO_Unpack 0 zoo.exe xO %s *.PKT
ZIP_Unpack 0 pkunzip.exe -o %s *.PKT
LHARC_Unpack 0 lharc.exe e /m %s *.PKT
LHA_Unpack 0 lha.exe e /m %s *.PKT
ARJ_Unpack 0 arj.exe e -y %s *.PKT
No_Private_EchoMail
Routing_Config_File C:\BINK\QMAIL\QM_Route.Cfg
Define_Packer ARC pkarc.com -oct a
Define_Packer PAK_W/CRUSH pak.exe a /wa
Define_Packer ZOO zoo.exe -add
Define_Packer ZIP pkzip.exe -a
Define_Packer LHARC lharc.exe a /m
Define_Packer LHA lha.exe a /m
Define_Packer ARJ arj.exe a -y
Pack ZIP 1:226/0 10 1210 1250 5200 104/330
Primary_Zone 1 - This is my zone (North America and Canada)
Address 226/1260 - This is my FIDO address.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 30
NetMail C:\BINK\NETMAIL - This is the path to the NETMAIL
directory. As stated in the WM.CFG section, when WILDMAIL scans
my conference 1, which is my netmail conference, it places the
outbound netmail in this directory. QM then takes these messages,
compresses them and routes them to their destination.
NetFile C:\BINK\NETFILE - This is the path to the NETFILE
directory, where I get my incoming mail and files.
Outbound C:\BINK\OUTBOUND 1 - This is the path to my OUTBOUND
directory, where mail is stored and sent. Note that this
directory does NOT have an extension (such as outbound.txt).
QM will supply one if necessary. The 1 refers to my primary
zone, 1.
Status_Log C:\BINK\QMAIL\QM.LOG - This is the name and path of
QM's information log.
Sysop RUDOLF ROTHEMUND - My name.
Swap 7 - This tells QM to swap to EMS, XMS, of file (in that
order) during the unpacking, tossing, or DOS shell functions.
Bad_Msgs C:\BINK\BADECHO - This is where my echomail goes that is
not properly labeled in AREAS.BBS.
Dupes 7500 - This number reflects the number of messages that
QM will keep information about to check for duplicate messages.
No_Content - This parameter allows deletion of messages that have
no text in the message body.
No_Private_EchoMail - This option does not allow any private
messages in the echo mail conferences.
ARC_Unpack 8 arce.com %s *.PKT /r These lines tell
ARC_Unpack 9 pkxarc.com /r %s *.PKT QM the name of
ARC_Unpack 10 pak.exe e /wa %s *.PKT the unpacker, it's
%ARC_Unpack 20 arc7 e %s *.PKT compression method
ZOO_Unpack 0 zoo.exe xO %s *.PKT number (for ARC's)
ZIP_Unpack 0 pkunzip.exe -o %s *.PKT the name of the
LHARC_Unpack 0 lharc.exe e /m %s *.PKT decompression file,
LHA_Unpack 0 lha.exe e /m %s *.PKT and the path (%s).
ARJ_Unpack 0 arj.exe e -y %s *.PKT
(Please note - I have the line ARC_Unpack 20 arc7 e %s *.PKT
commented out because I can't find the ARC7 archiving program).
Routing_Config_File C:\BINK\QMAIL\QM_Route.Cfg - This is the
name and path of QM's route file.
Define_Packer ARC pkarc.com -oct a These lines tell
Define_Packer PAK_W/CRUSH pak.exe a /wa QM the name of
Define_Packer ZOO zoo.exe -add the compression
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 31
Define_Packer ZIP pkzip.exe -a utility and gives
Define_Packer LHARC lharc.exe a /m each method a
Define_Packer LHA lha.exe a /m designated code
Define_Packer ARJ arj.exe a -y name (such as ZIP).
Pack ZIP 1:226/0 10 1210 1250 5200 104/330
The line above tells QM, for example,
that it should ZIP all mail going to
1:226/1210 (my hub).
QM_ROUTE.CFG
------------
The QM_ROUTE.CFG file is yet another straight ASCII file that is
located in the QMAIL subdirectory. After Wildmail scans and
tosses the mail, QM routes, or sends, the mail on it's way.
Where and how the mail is sent is determined here.
SCHED MAIL1 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND NORMAL 1:ALL
POLL NORMAL 1:226/1210
SCHED MAIL2 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND NORMAL 1:ALL
SCHED MAIL3 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND CRASH 1:ALL
;SCHED MAIL4 ALL 00:00 23:59
;ROUTE NORMAL 1:226/1210 1:ALL 2:ALL 3:ALL 4:ALL 5:ALL 6:ALL
Page 28 of the QM documentation file shows the syntax of the
QM_ROUTE.CFG file.
SCHED <tag> <day> [<start_time> <end_time>]
I have four schedules in my QM_ROUTE.CFG file. The first three
schedules are active. The fourth one is not (commented out by the
semicolons). When the schedule is active it will start at the
first line and then continue to the instructions on the next line.
It will go from line to line until the schedule is complete.
SCHED MAIL1 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND NORMAL 1:ALL
POLL NORMAL 1:226/1210
My first schedule has the tag MAIL1 which is defined in my CAT.BAT
and MAIL1.BAT files. This schedule operates every day of the week
(ALL) and starts from midnight until one minute before midnight
the next day.
The second line tells QM to send all mail directly to all
addresses in zone 1. In other words, if I need a file request
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 32
from or mail for a Fido system in North America or Canada, and I
use this schedule to route the mail, QM will tell BINK to call
this system normally. In other words, the message will be sent
directly without routing through a hub. It will also ONLY send
the request or mail IF it is allowed to do so according to the
BINKLEY.EVT file. Remember, if my L flag is set to zero (L=0),
then only LOCAL mail will go out directly. When my L flag is set
for greater than zero (L>0), then ALL requests and mail will be
sent.
I use the third line to direct BINK to call my hub on a regular
schedule. The third line in my first schedule directs BINK
(through QM) to call the net/node address listed, which is
1:226/1210 (my hub). BINK will ONLY do this when my L flag is set
to zero (L=0). This usually is only at 5AM during the weekdays
and 5AM and 4PM on weekends. The reason I have this line in this
schedule is because BINK will not call my hub if there is no mail
to send.
Note: when you determine the zone/net/node of your hub, you should
replace the FidoNet address of my hub with your hub number.
SCHED MAIL2 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND NORMAL 1:ALL
The second schedule is like the first schedule except that the
POLL line is removed. I sometimes like to send mail or request
files without polling my hub.
SCHED MAIL3 ALL 00:00 23:59
SEND CRASH 1:ALL
I use the third schedule to send crashmail. Crash mail is mail that
goes out immediately (I can also request files this way, also).
The tag is called MAIL3, and the starting and ending times are the
same as the other schedules. The second line directs BINK through
QM to send all mail or file requests CRASH (immediately). The
1:ALL means that all mail that is destined for zone one (North
America and Canada) will go CRASH. Unless used otherwise, the
verb CRASH will send mail directly (BINK will call the remote
system, not route the call through a hub).
;SCHED MAIL4 ALL 00:00 23:59
;ROUTE NORMAL 1:226/1210 1:ALL 2:ALL 3:ALL 4:ALL 5:ALL 6:ALL
The last schedule is not an active schedule, and is commented out
by the semicolons. It is not active because at the present time
my HUB does not support routing of netmail. I have to send it
directly to the system. I have made this schedule in case the
policy of my HUB and HOST changes and allows host routing of
netmail.
The first line has the tag MAIL4 which is defined in my CAT.BAT
file. The times that I want it to route netmail would be all the
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 33
time, so I use my usual start and end times.
The second line tells QM that I want to route mail normally. This
means that I only want to send mail whenever the BINKLEY.EVT file
allows mail, which in my case is when the L flag is greater than
zero (L>0). The address immediately following ROUTE NORMAL is the
address that I will want all my netmail to go through. In this
case, it would be my hub. The addresses starting with 1:ALL
2:ALL, etc. mean that I want netmail generated from my system ad-
dressed to any of the six FidoNet zones to be routed through my
hub.
Wildnode
========
I need Wildnode v.1.10 to gain access into my Wildcat Netmail
area. This program is like Xlaxnode v.2.56 in that it is compiles
the nodelist in a form that the Wildcat Netmail area can use.
I unzipped Wildnode v.1.10 and placed all my files in the
C:\BINK\NODELIST directory. I suggest that you print out the
documentation files and place them with the Xlaxnode v.2.56
documentation files. The program is easy to configure. The
configuration file is named WILDNODE.CFG and mine only contains
five lines:
NODE 1:226/1260
ZONES 1
COUNTRY 1
COST 20 250
END
The first line is my Fidonet zone/net/node address. The second
line contains the zones that I want compiled form the nodelist. I
only want zone 1, so the ZONES line only contains a 1. The code
for the USA is 1, so my COUNTRY is 1. The fourth line contains my
cost statement. The first cost (20) stand for 20 cents per min-
ute, which is what I charge anyone who uses netmail for a domestic
call, night or day. The second cost is the cost of an interna-
tional call. This cost is really a moot point since I don't allow
international calls, but I have it set to $2.50 per minute to keep
the program happy. The last line is the obligatory END statement.
To run the program once the WILDMAIL.CFG is configured, just type
WILDNODE and away you go. But be prepared for at least 8-10
minutes of waiting, and the files that are produced take up around
one and a half megs of space.
One note about the Wildcat netmail area. You won't be able to
send any messages in this area until you give yourself netmail
credits. To do this, go to your SYSOP menu in Wildcat and enter
the user database. Find your name and look at the bottom right
hand section of the screen. Type number 30 and then the enter
key. You will be prompted to enter a number. Enter a large
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 34
number there. If you don't do this, you will get a message every
time you try to enter a netmail message that states that you don't
have enough netmail credits. If you allow your users to have
access to this area, you must give them appropriate credits here
under their names also.
TOSSING SCANNING AND PACKING MAIL: USING WILDMAIL AND QM
========================================================
Now it's time to show you how I use Wildmail and QM to process my
mail. I have created four batch files to do this: MAIL1.BAT,
MAIL2.BAT, MAIL3.BAT AND MAIL4.BAT. All the these batch files are
called from the CAT.BAT file.
MAIL1.BAT
---------
ECHO TOSSING AND SCANNING
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
ECHO ROUTING THE MAIL AND POLL HUB
C:
CD\BINK\QMAIL
QM PACK -sMAIL1
CD \WC30
The first line in the first block of lines echos (writes) a
message to me that tells me that MAIL1.BAT is working. I was
having trouble getting it to work when I first developed the
CAT.BAT and MAILx batch files, and I used this echo to let me know
where I was. I decided to keep this line in; you can delete it if
you wish.
The second and third lines make sure that I an on hard drive C and
changes directory to my WILDMAIL directory under my BINK direc-
tory. The fourth line starts Wildmail. The order of TOSS and
SCAN doesn't matter; Wildmail will toss mail if it exists in the
NETFILE directory and will scan for new mail in the NETMAIL area
and in the conferences defined in the AREAS.BBS, as well as the
BADECHO area.
The first line in the second block of lines is another echo
letting me know that the program and batch file works properly.
The next line is the QM pack command. The syntax is:
QM PACK -s<schedule tag>
The -s activates the schedule tag option, which overrides the
normal scheduler (which I don't use) and substitutes a specific
schedule tag.
When the PACK option is used in this manner, QM will look for mail
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 35
in the Netmail area (c:\bink\netmail) and extract it to the out-
bound area (c:\bink\outbound). The PACK option will take this
extracted netmail and any echo mail tossed into the outbound area
by Wildmail and treat it according to the schedule tag (-sMAIL1).
I have defined the schedule tag MAIL1 in the QM_ROUTE.CFG file to
send all mail directly to the Fido address, and also to poll
(call) my hub.
In plain English, when I use my MAIL1.BAT file, I am tossing,
scanning and packing my mail to be sent directly to my hub. The
mail will only go when my L flag in my BINKLEY.EVT file is set to
greater than 0 (L>0), which is at 5AM nightly and twice a day
during the weekends. If there is no mail to send, BINK will still
call my hub to pick up any mail for my system.
MAIL2.BAT
---------
ECHO TOSSING AND SCANNING
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
ECHO ROUTING THE MAIL WITHOUT CALLING THE HUB
C:
CD\BINK\QMAIL
QM PACK -sMAIL2
CD \WC30
The ONLY difference between the MAIL1.BAT and MAIL2.BAT is that
the MAIL2 schedule tag is NOT defined to poll my hub. Sometimes I
want to toss, scan and pack my mail without having to call my hub.
MAIL3.BAT
---------
ECHO TOSSING AND SCANNING
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
ECHO SENDING MAIL CRASH
C:
CD\BINK\QMAIL
QM PACK -sMAIL3
CD\WC30
The first block of lines of this batch file are the same as in
MAIL1.BAT and MAIL2.BAT. I want Wildmail to toss and scan my net
and echo mail.
I use my MAIL3 schedule tag in this batch file, which is defined
in the QM_ROUTE.CFG file as my crash mail tag. I use this batch
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 36
file to send mail immediately anywhere in zone 1 (North America
and Canada).
MAIL4.BAT
---------
ECHO TOSSING AND SCANNING
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
ECHO ROUTING NETMAIL
C:
CD\BINK\QMAIL
QM PACK -sMAIL4
CD\WC30
I use the schedule tag MAIL4 as defined in the QM_ROUTE.CFG file
to route my netmail through my hub. This schedule tag is not
active at this time.
BBS INTERFACE
=============
There are three methods that BINK can use to interface with the
BBS (allow human callers into the BBS). I have chosen the BBS
BATCH method. When BINK detects a human caller (as opposed to a
mail call) the BBS BATCH method causes BINK to write to the
disk a file named BBSBATCH.BAT. This file always contains the
same line:
SPAWNBBS %1 %2 %3 %4 %5
Wildcat may be started by using the following line in a batch
file:
Wildcat /b %2%5 %4
where in both cases %2 = the caller's connect rate as reported by
the modem, %5 = error control information (such as MNP), and %4 =
the number of minutes left before a hard event (such as National
Mail Hour - see the third event in the EVENT section). Please
note that the %2 and the %5 are right up to each other. That is
how Wildcat likes it; it is not an error (pun not intended). As
you can see, Wildcat does not use all the parameters (the %
numbers) that BATCHBBS.BAT creates.
SPAWNBBS.BAT
------------
To use the BBS BATCH method SPAWNBBS.BAT needs to be created.
My SPAWNBBS.BAT is as follows:
set live=2
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 37
set baud=%2
set minleft=%4
set error=%5
cat.bat
These parameters are defined (set) in this file and then passed to
the CAT.BAT file.
A word of caution: The ONLY things that you can change in this
file and still get it to work are the words LIVE, DTE, BAUD,
MINLEFT, ERROR, and the equivalent words in your CAT.BAT file.
The numbers must stay the same and, importantly, the order must
stay the same, ESPECIALLY if there is an equal or double equal
sign in the equation. Remember if you do change a word such as
MINLEFT, be consistent about changing it everywhere you see it or
your system WILL puke.
CAT.BAT
-------
This is the central file for my entire mail system. This file
controls all the functions of the mailer, BBS operation, mail
processing software, and maintenance. The file is named CAT.BAT
and was originally used to start up my Wildcat BBS. I have mod-
ified it and placed it in my Wildcat systems directory, which is
my C:\wc30 directory. This path is in my PATH statement in my
autoexec.bat file.
echo off
cls
SET WCNODEID=1
SET WCPORTID=1
:start
IF 2==%LIVE% GOTO WILDCAT
set live=
set baud=
set minleft=
set error=
REM F1 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND CALL HUB
REM F2 = SCAN TOSS AND PACK MAIL NO HUB CALL
REM F3 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND SEND CRASH
REM F4 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND ROUTE NORMAL
REM F5 = CYCLE BBS
REM F6 = TOSS AND SCAN ONLY NO PACK
REM F8 = MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
REM F9 = ENTER BBS LOCALLY
REM F10 = EXIT
cd\bink
VFOS_IBM
bt unattended
IF ERRORLEVEL 192 goto RUNBBS
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 38
IF ERRORLEVEL 144 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 120 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 100 goto EXIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 96 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 90 goto LOCALBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 80 goto MAINTAIN
IF ERRORLEVEL 60 goto SCAN
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 goto START
IF ERRORLEVEL 48 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 40 goto MAIL4
IF ERRORLEVEL 30 goto MAIL3
IF ERRORLEVEL 24 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 20 goto MAIL2
IF ERRORLEVEL 12 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 10 goto MAIL1
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto EXIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 goto EXIT
goto exit
:RUNBBS
VFOS_DEL
BBSBATCH.BAT
:WILDCAT
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\WC30
if /%error%==/ goto WILD1
set error=MNP
:WILD1
wildcat /b %baud%%error% %minleft%
set live=
goto START
:LOCALBBS
SET MINLEFT=
SET BAUD=LOCAL
goto WILDCAT
:MAIL1
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK
CALL MAIL1.BAT
goto START
:MAIL2
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK
CALL MAIL2.BAT
goto START
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 39
:MAIL3
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK
CALL MAIL3.BAT
goto START
:MAIL4
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK
CALL MAIL4.BAT
goto START
:SCAN
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
cd\wc30
goto START
:MAINTAIN
VFOS_DEL
c:
cd\wc30
call maintain.bat
goto START
:EXIT
VFOS_DEL
goto GOODBYE
:GOODBYE
My CAT.BAT file is actually simple to understand. I have made it
as straightforward as possible and have included some REM state-
ments to show what my function (F1, F2, etc) keys do.
echo off
cls
SET WCNODEID=1
SET WCPORTID=1
:start
The first four lines turns off character echos, clears the screen,
and then sets my node and port to one. This is a necessary
statement because BINK and Wildcat both occasionally need to be
reminded of this information. The fifth line is a label. When-
ever a GOTO START statement is encountered in the CAT.BAT
file, the file will jump to this point.
IF 2==%LIVE% GOTO WILDCAT
set live=
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 40
set baud=
set minleft=
set error=
The first line is like an IF..THEN statement. When CAT.BAT is
first started, the statement 2==%LIVE% is false, so the line will
be skipped and the batch file will proceed to the next line. The
reasoning behind this will become apparent in the next MINI-
EXPLANATION section.
The next four lines tie in with my SPAWNBBS.BAT file. Please
recall that I have set these parameters in my SPAWNBBS.BAT file.
When CAT.BAT is first started, the three SET commands cause these
parameters to be set to nothing. It clears out these parameters
so they can be properly set in the SPAWNBBS.BAT file.
REM F1 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND CALL HUB
REM F2 = SCAN TOSS AND PACK MAIL NO HUB CALL
REM F3 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND SEND CRASH
REM F4 = SCAN TOSS PACK MAIL AND ROUTE NORMAL
REM F5 = CYCLE BBS
REM F6 = TOSS AND SCAN ONLY NO PACK
REM F8 = MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
REM F9 = ENTER BBS LOCALLY
REM F10 = EXIT
BINK uses errorlevel testing in order to start it's functions and
guide the functions of the other programs. One characteristic of
BINK is that whenever an errorlevel is tested, it is tied in with
a function key on my keyboard. The relationship is that if BINK
sets an errorlevel, the function key on your keyboard that will
start the program is that errorlevel divided by ten. For example,
when I want to exit BINK, I type F10. If you look at my error-
level settings below, you will see that ERRORLEVEL 100 is set to
goto an exit marker. For all you math majors out there, 100
divided by 10 equals 10. So my F10 key functions as my exit key.
BINK allow me to do this from F1 through F10, so my errorlevels
10,20,30,40,50,60,80,90 and 100 are automatically keyed (pun
intended) into my function keys by BINK. I have placed these
function key reminders (REM's) here so I don't forget what keys
are for what function.
cd\bink
VFOS_IBM
bt unattended
The first line changes the directory to where I keep all my BINK
files. The second line starts my video fossil. This is not to be
confused with my other fossil driver. The video fossil controls
the colors on my BINK screen. I have my VFOS_IBM.EXE file in my
DOS directory (which is in my PATH statement), and I start my
video fossil before I start BINK. The video fossil is an OPTION.
This is not required, so if you have a monochrome screen, or
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 41
just care to look at BINK's black and white screen, don't include
this statement in your CAT.BAT file.
The third line starts BINK. BT.EXE is the name of the program,
and the unattended mode is the way BINK starts up as a front-end
mailer. BINK can also start up as a dumb terminal program. I
have my own personal communications program and never use the dumb
terminal option.
IF ERRORLEVEL 192 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 144 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 120 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 100 goto EXIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 96 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 90 goto LOCALBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 80 goto MAINTAIN
IF ERRORLEVEL 60 goto SCAN
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 goto START
IF ERRORLEVEL 48 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 40 goto MAIL4
IF ERRORLEVEL 30 goto MAIL3
IF ERRORLEVEL 24 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 20 goto MAIL2
IF ERRORLEVEL 12 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 10 goto MAIL1
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 goto RUNBBS
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto EXIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 goto EXIT
goto EXIT
The IF ERRORLEVEL statements all point to markers in the rest of
my CAT.BAT file. If BINK exits with an errorlevel that is either
not hard programmed into it or not designated here, it drops to
the goto EXIT line, where BINK exits to my DOS prompt. This has
not happened to me yet, so I must have things set up OK.
:RUNBBS
VFOS_DEL
BBSBATCH.BAT
One of the parameters that the Wildcat BBS needs to know in order
to start it is the baud rate of the caller. BINK passes that
information to Wildcat by exiting at an errorlevel determined by
the baud rate of the caller divided by 100. For example, if a BBS
call comes in at 2400, BINK will exit at an errorlevel of 24. If
you look at my ERRORLEVEL statements, errorlevel 24 points the
batch file to go to the :RUNBBS marker. I have errorlevels
3,12,24,48,96,120,144,and 192 set up to go to the marker :RUNBBS.
The second statement deletes my video fossil program. I keep the
file VFOS_DEL.EXE in my DOS directory along with the VFOS_IBM
program. The only time I want to run the video fossil is when
BINK is at it's opening screen, so I delete the program whenever I
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 42
have BINK do anything else. Again, if you aren't going to run the
video fossil, don't include this statement in your CAT.BAT file.
The third statement starts the BBS interface process. As
previously stated in the BBS interface section, I have BINK
configured to use the file BBSBATCH.BAT to pass parameters to
WILDCAT. BBSBATCH.BAT is NOT created by me. BINK creates it. It
starts another file that IS created me. That file is called
SPAWNBBS.BAT. SPAWNBBS.BAT sets the parameters needed by Wildcat
to a form that can be used in my CAT.BAT file to start WILDCAT.
It also sets an additional parameter named LIVE equal to 2, and
then it restarts the CAT.BAT file.
MINI-EXPLANATION
================
At this point I will digress to explain a little how the batch
files work. When BINK is first started with the CAT.BAT file, the
batch file finds the line if 2==%LIVE% goto WILDCAT (WILDCAT is a
label in the batch file). Since the parameter LIVE has not been
set yet, 2 is not equal to %LIVE% and the batch file continues to
the next lines, where the next three parameters are set equal to
nothing. This is accomplished by not putting anything after the
equal sign. This clears these parameters for future setting.
After clearing these parameters, the batch file goes to the next
lines, which starts the video fossil and starts BINK in unattended
mode (the front-end option).
Then Bink waits for either a mail call or a BBS call. If a
BBS call comes in, BINK determines the baud rate of the caller,
and then exits at the errorlevel determined by the baud rate
divided by 100. As previously stated, a 2400 baud caller would
cause BINK to exit at an errorlevel of 24. At errorlevel 24, the
batch file goes to the label :RUNBBS. The commands at this label
turns off the video fossil and starts the BBSBATCH file, which was
automatically written by BINK at the time of the errorlevel exit.
BBSBATCH.BAT in turn starts the SPAWNBBS.BAT file which, among
others, sets the parameter LIVE==2. The last line of SPAWNBBS.BAT
restarts the CAT.BAT file. Now when the program gets to the line
IF 2==%LIVE%, the statement is true (the parameter was set in
SPAWNBBS.BAT) and the program goes to the :WILDCAT label.
:WILDCAT
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\WC30
if /%error%==/ goto WILD1
set error=MNP
goto WILD1
:WILD1
wildcat /b %baud%%error% %minleft%
set live=
goto start
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 43
At this point, the first lines deletes the video fossil and
changes to my Wildcat program files directory. The next set of
lines, which was written by my good friend Rick Nash (1:226/1250),
allows callers with MNP error level checking to be able to enter
the BBS with this feature intact. This is important because
Wildcat will not allow Y-MODEM-g downloads without MNP being
detected. If a caller has a modem with error checking, the line
"if /%error%==/" is false, and the call goes to the next line,
where the parameter "error" is reset to MNP and then the call goes
to the WILD1 label. If the "if /%error%== /" is false, as with
non-MNP calls, the program goes to the WILD1 label without
resetting the error parameter.
At the WILD1 label, Wildcat is actually started. As previously
stated, Wildcat may be started by using the following line in a
batch file:
Wildcat /b %2%5 %4
where %2 = the caller's connect rate as reported by the modem,
%5 = error control information (such as MNP), and %4 = the number
of minutes left before a hard event.
These parameters were further defined in SPAWNBBS.BAT:
set live=2
set baud=%2
set minleft=%4
set error=%5
The Wildcat software uses the parameters that are defined in this
file to start and allow a BBS caller access to my bulletin board
with the proper baud rate, absence or presence of error checking,
and time left until a hard event.
After the caller exits my board, the next line in the CAT.BAT is
followed. This line (SET LIVE= ) sets the parameter LIVE to
nothing. That way my bulletin board doesn't accidentally stay
resident.
The next line is GOTO START, which instructs the batch file to
proceed to the label START which is at the beginning of the
CAT.BAT file. Since the previous line defined the parameter LIVE
to nothing, the equation in the following line IF 2==%LIVE% GOTO
WILDCAT is false, the file continues on and BINK is restarted.
The whole cycle is repeated with the next BBS caller.
:LOCALBBS
VFOS_DEL
SET MINLEFT=
SET BAUD=LOCAL
goto WILDCAT
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 44
This label grants me access to my board from my local terminal.
If you look at my ERRORLEVEL definitions, I have a statement IF
ERRORLEVEL 90 goto LOCALBBS. At this label, I again delete the
video fossil, set MINLEFT equal to nothing (I don't want to worry
about how much time I have left on my own board). and the baud
rate is set to LOCAL. The next line goes to the label WILDCAT,
and I am treated as if were running Wildcat without a mailer and
typed ALT-L from my keyboard.
:MAIL1
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK
CALL MAIL1.BAT
goto START
The next four labels in the batch file are similar, the only
difference being that the file CALLED is different. I have four
mail batch files which are kept in the BINK directory. Each one
of them performs a different function. Each MAIL.BAT file is tied
to a FUNCTION key by errorlevels. MAIL1.BAT is started when BINK
exit at errorlevel 10 (or by pressing function key F1), MAIL2.BAT
is started when BINK exits at errorlevel 20 (or by pressing the
function key F2) and so forth. The batch files are CALLED, so
when the file has done it's job, it exits back where it started.
After the batch file exits, it goes to the label :START and BINK
restarts.
:SCAN
VFOS_DEL
C:
CD\BINK\WILDMAIL
WM TOSS SCAN
cd\wc30
goto START
After I receive mail from my hub, BINK exits at an errorlevel
designated by my E2 flag in my BINKLEY.EVT file. On my system,
this is errorlevel 60. When BINK exits at this errorlevel, it
goes to the SCAN label. It first deletes my video fossil, then it
goes to my wildmail directory and starts Wildmail by the command
WM TOSS SCAN. After my mail is processed my Wildmail the program
goes back to the label :START and BINK is restarted. Please note
that I can also cause Wildmail to toss and scan mail manually by
typing the F6 key.
:MAINTAIN
VFOS_DEL
c:
cd\wc30
call maintain.bat
goto START
This is my maintenance schedule. I keep the file in my Wildcat
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 45
systems directory, and I CALL it much as I call the MAILX.BAT
files.
:EXIT
VFOS_DEL
goto GOODBYE
When I type my F10 key, BINK goes to this label, which deletes the
video fossil FOR ONE LAST TIME (HURRAY!!!!!) and then it goes to
the GOODBYE label.
:GOODBYE
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!! BINK goes to the DOS prompt.
HOW TO GET A ZONE/NET/NODE NUMBER
=================================
FidoNet requires that in order to get a Zone/Net/Node number you
must be able to Netmail your request. But here's the twist: you
can't send Netmail until you have a node number. Nice catch 22,
huh? Well, there is a way around this. We will simply make up
our own.
The first thing that you must do is to acquire a nodelist. Node-
lists can be but are not always available from a FIDO board such
as mine. If you happen to call a FIDO board near your city, then
try to download it from them. I have a current nodelist avail-
able, but the name changes every week. In order to find out
the name from my system, you must download my ALLFILEST or ZIP
file and look in the FIDO section. Then you can call my board and
leave a message for me stating that you want the nodelist.
I allow non-registered users three files a day (maximum 200K a
file) to be downloaded from The Red Phoenix BBS. Registered users
have no download limits and four hours a day of time. If you
would like the nodelist from me, please leave a message to me
stating that you want to become a registered user on my board and
I will grant you registered status on your next call. The regis-
tration fee is only $10 a year; I figure anyone can afford that.
The name and address to send the bucks to is listed on my GOODBYE
screen.
The nodelist that you get from me will NOT be compressed. The
name will be NODELIST.### with the ### representing three digits.
The digits represent the day of the year that the nodelist was
compiled. In my allfilest the entry will look similar to this:
nodelist.2551,500,500
The reason it looks like this is because the name of the file
(nodelist.255) and it's size (1,500,500) are bumped together.
If you request the file from me, please make sure that you use
only the first three digits as the file extension.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 46
One word of advise before you think about hacking into the node-
list: DON'TDOITYOUWILLREGRETITDON'TDON'TDON'TEVENTHINK ABOUT IT!!!
The reason you can't hack into a nodelist is because CRC's are
checked and if the CRC's don't match, as what will happen in a
hacked nodelist, XLAXNODE will puke. And, you will lose a 1.5 MEG
file that costs bucks to download. So DON'T hack into a nodelist.
After you acquire a nodelist, place it in your C:\BINK\NODELIST
directory. Take another copy and put it in the same directory as
your favorite text editor and start up your editor. Scan the
nodelist until you find the section near the city where you live.
This may take some time because the nodelist is, as far as I can
tell, not in any order. Once you find entries with your city in
it, scroll upward line by line until you find the word HOST. This
will be your NET. Take your editor and mark the entire line that
has the HOST statement and copy that line to another file named
BLOCK1.NET.
After you have done this, scroll downward until you see the last
net/node entry before the next HOST. Mark the entire last entry
line and copy it to another file named BLOCK2.NET. Then restart
your editor with the BLOCK2.NET file ready to edit. Your
BLOCK2.NET file should look like this:
,1260,The_Red_Phoenix_BBS,Wooster_OH,Rudolf_Rothemund,1-216-345-
5807,9600,CM,HST,XA
This is my node entry. As you know, my FidoNet zone/net/node
number is 1:226/1260. The 1260 comes from this line. I have to
split up the entire line in this example because it can't be
printed as one line on this page. When you edit this line, make
sure that it all appears as one line.
What you need to do now is to replace the number 1260 with the
number 9999, and replace the name my BBS name with the name of
your BBS, your real name, the phone number of your BBS, and the
maximum speed of your modem (no higher than 9600). If you have a
US Robotics 14,400 courier or dual standard modem, leave the next
three flags (CM,HST,XA) alone. If you don't have a US Robotics
modem, then take out the HST flag along with ONE of the commas.
(CM,XA). The CM flag stands for continuous mail and the XA
means that you are running a BinkleyTerm V.2.50 mailer.
Make sure that you follow the example EXACTLY. All the commas
underlines, and dashes MUST be in their proper places. If
XLAXNODE doesn't process the list, this will probably be the
reason.
By the way, I used four 9's because there were four numbers in the
last node address. If there are only three or two numbers, then
you should use only two or three 9's.
After you edit it, resave it under the same name (BLOCK2.NET) and
then recall your BLOCK1.NET. BLOCK1.NET should look like this:
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 47
Host,226,Buckeye-Net,Columbus_OH,David_Pointer,1-614-457-1701,
9600,CM,XA,HST,V32b,V42b
This is my HOST. As you know, my FidoNet zone/net/node number is
1:226/1260. The 226 comes from this line. What you should do now
is to copy BLOCK2.NET to the next line immediately under the HOST
line. Your new BLOCK1.NET should look something like this:
Host,226,Buckeye-Net,Columbus_OH,David_Pointer,1-614-457-1701,
9600,CM,XA,HST,V32b,V42b
,9999,The_Red_Phoenix_BBS,Wooster_OH,Rudolf_Rothemund,1-216-345-
5807,9600,CM,HST,XA
Please note that the address of my host is 1:226/0. The 0
(zero) stands for NODE ZERO. You will need to know this later.
Once this is done, save the file as BLOCK1.NET and place it
in your C:\BINK\NODELIST directory. PLEASE DON'T use my NET
number of 226 for your net number unless you live near the
Columbus, Ohio area. I don't want David Pointer breathing down my
neck for thousands of new FidoNet applicants that don't belong in
his area!
Once you make BLOCK1.NET, you need to add a line to the
XLAXNODE.CTL file. I'll show an excerpt of the file and where the
new line needs to be added:
NODE 1:226/1260 NODE 1:226/1260
SORTWORK D:\SWAP SORTWORK D:\SWAP
MAXBAUD 19200 MAXBAUD 19200
ZONE 1 ADD THIS LINE ======> PVTLIST BLOCK1.NET
PASSWORD 1:226/0 XXX ZONE 1
PASSWORD 1:226/1210 XXX PASSWORD 1:226/0 XXX
PASSWORD 1:226/5200 XXX PASSWORD 1:226/1210 XXX
PASSWORD 1:226/5200 XXX
Using the PVTLIST command with the name of the list is one of the
methods XLAXNODE uses in order to allows private lists of nodes to
be inserted into the nodelist files. Without this private list
with your name and temporary number, BINK will not see your Fido-
Net address in the nodelist (because it doesn't exist yet) and
BINK will loop, trying to start over and over again. I can't tell
you the number of times this happened to me until I got this
right!
After you have inserted the PVTLIST command into XLAXNODE.CTL, go
back to ALL the program configuration files that need an address
statement and make your address 1:XXX/9999, with the XXX the
number of your host. I believe they should include BINKLEY.CFG,
WM.CFG, QM.CFG, WILDNODE.CFG, and XLAXNODE.CTL. Pay attention to
my explanations in the configuration files: some files require
zone statements and some do not.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 48
STARTING IT UP
==============
Now we're ready to go. Go to your C:\BINK\NODELIST directory and
type XLAXNODE at the DOS prompt. The program should take about
two minutes to compile your nodelist and your private nodelist
(BLOCK1.NET) for BINK. After this is compiled, type WILDNODE at
the DOS prompt. The files that Wildcat needs for it's Netmail
directory will be created. WILDNODE takes about ten minutes to
compile the nodelist. After this is done, change over to the BINK
directory and type BTCTL. This will compile the BINKLEY.CFG file
for BINK. This should take a few seconds.
We are now ready to fire up BINK. Type CAT at the DOS prompt in
any directory (boy, and I assuming that you are using my direc-
tory paths and file names!) and you should get your opening
screen. If everything is OK, you should see this message in the
recent activity section of the screen:
+14:14:11 begin,BinkleyTerm Version 2.50 2.56 -uSoft6.0
The time on the left of the line will be the time that you first
started BINK.
In order to get your zone/net/node number you must send a message
to node zero (your HOST) with certain information. To enter your
BBS, type the function nine key (F9) and you will get Wildcat's
familiar prompt for your name, etc. Join your Netmail conference.
Type E to enter a message. You should see the following prompt:
[Z]one 1: North America
[R]egion/Net 0: North America
[N]ode.Point 0: North America
Zone:Net/Node.Point, [A]ccept, [S]ysop, [Help], [Q]uit ?
To send a message to node zero of your net, type 1:XXX/0 at the
prompt where XXX is the number of your net. The number of my NET
is 226, and you have to determine the number of your NET by
searching your nodelist (unless you happen to be lucky and already
know what it will be). The name of the person that you need to
send the message to will be the name after the BBS name in the
HOST nodelist entry. For example, if you look at my HOST entry,
you will see that the name of the Host Coordinator is David
Pointer.
*************
Host,226,Buckeye-Net,Columbus_OH,David_Pointer,1-614-457-1701,
9600,CM,XA,HST,V32b,V42b *************
When you find the name, don't use the underline between the
first and last name to send the message. The nodelist needs the
presence of the underline, but if you use it when you send the
message it won't get to the intended recipient.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 49
You will need to send a message to your host coordinator with this
information:
1) Your name.
2) Your voice telephone number
3) The name of your system.
4) The city and state where your system is located.
5) The phone number to be used when calling your system.
6) Your hours of operation, netmail and BBS.
7) The maximum baud rate you can support.
8) The type of mailer software and modem you are using.
This information comes from the Policy4.txt that FidoNet issues to
people wanting new Net/Node numbers. This document is available
from me for download from the Red Phoenix BBS, and should be
available on other FIDO boards. Please read this statement for
more information concerning the content of your admission letter.
Once you compose your letter save it and exit the BBS. You
should then get back to your opening BINK screen. Then type the
function key three (F3). As you should recall, when you type F3,
your mail will be tossed and scanned my Wildmail and then routed
to it's destination crash (immediately). It's a neat feeling to
finally watch your mail get processed, and once this letter has
been sent, you are on your way to getting a zone/net/node number,
and joining the wonderful world of FidoNet.
And by the way, when you get your real zone/net/node number, don't
forget to take out the PVTLIST BLOCK1.NET line in the XLAXNODE.CTL
file, substitute your real number where it needs to be substituted
and run Xlaxnode, Wildnode, and BTCTL again.
If you find any errors in this documentation, or have any sug-
gestions, or you want to leave me a message, please feel free to
Netmail me.
Rudolf Rothemund 1:226/1260
9/17/92
Appendix I
SAMPLE TEXT FILES
=================
OKFILE.TXT
C:\BINK\NODEDIFF\*.* These are the directories that
C:\FREQ\*.* the files that I allow for FREQing
C:\BBS\*.* reside. The * means that all the
C:\BBS\CHILDGAM\*.* files residing in the directory
C:\BBS\COMM\*.* are FREQable.
C:\BBS\COMPRESS\*.*
C:\BBS\DATABASE\*.*
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 50
C:\BBS\FINANCE\*.*
C:\BBS\GAMEA\*.*
C:\BBS\GRASP\*.*
C:\BBS\MISC\*.*
C:\BBS\PROGRAM\*.*
C:\BBS\SHAREBBS\*.*
C:\BBS\SOUND\*.*
C:\BBS\SPRSHEET\*.*
C:\BBS\TREK\*.*
C:\BBS\UTILITYA\*.*
C:\BBS\UTILITYH\*.*
C:\BBS\UTILITYN\*.*
C:\BBS\UTILITYT\*.*
C:\BBS\VIRUS\*.*
C:\BBS\WINDOWS\*.*
C:\BBS\WORD\*.*
C:\WC30\*.*
PHOENIX.TXT
===========
The Red Phoenix BBS, Wooster, OH
Running Wildcat! 3.5 and BinkleyTerm 2.50
Sysop: Rudolf Rothemund
P.O. Box 8102
Wooster, OH 44691
1 Line: (216) 345-5807 - 1200/14.4K [HST]
FidoNet 1:226/1260
------------------------------------------------------------------
Your request has failed for some reason or another.
Requesting the magic name "FILES" will get you a list of files
which may in turn be requested. The BBS has many more files than
those listed, but they are generally not requestable. Sorry.
My hard drive configuration:
----------------------------
Directory PATH listing for Volume HARD DISK C
Volume Serial Number is 1A5C-1DD7
C:.
├───BBS
│ ├───BATCH
│ ├───CHILDGAM
│ ├───COMM
│ ├───COMPRESS
│ ├───DATABASE
│ ├───FIDO
│ ├───FINANCE
│ ├───GAMEA
│ ├───GAMEH
│ ├───GAMEN
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 51
│ ├───GAMET
│ ├───GRASP
│ ├───MISC
│ ├───MSUPLOAD
│ │ └───VIRUS
│ ├───PROGRAM
│ ├───QUESTION
│ ├───SHAREBBS
│ ├───SOUND
│ ├───SPRSHEET
│ ├───TODAY
│ ├───TREK
│ ├───TREKGIF
│ ├───UTILITYA
│ ├───UTILITYH
│ ├───UTILITYN
│ ├───UTILITYT
│ ├───VIRUS
│ ├───WINDOW
│ ├───WINDOWS
│ └───WORD
├───BINK
│ ├───BADECHO
│ ├───NETFILE
│ ├───NETMAIL
│ ├───NODEDIFF
│ ├───NODELIST
│ ├───OUTBOUND
│ ├───QMAIL
│ └───WILDMAIL
│
├───DOS
│ └───DOC
├───FREQ
├───MB
│ ├───MSG000
│ ├───MSG001
│ ├───MSG002
│ ├───MSG003
│ ├───MSG004
│ ├───MSG005
│ ├───MSG006
│ ├───MSG007
│ ├───MSG008
│ ├───MSG009
│ ├───MSG010
│ ├───MSG011
│ ├───MSG012
│ ├───MSG013
│ ├───MSG014
│ ├───MSG015
│ ├───MSG016
│ ├───MSG017
│ ├───MSG018
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 52
│ ├───MSG019
│ ├───MSG020
│ ├───MSG021
│ ├───MSG022
│ ├───MSG023
│ ├───MSG024
│ ├───MSG025
│ ├───MSG026
│ ├───MSG027
│ ├───MSG028
│ ├───MSG029
│ ├───MSG030
│ ├───MSG031
│ ├───MSG032
│ ├───MSG033
│ ├───MSG034
│ ├───MSG035
│ ├───MSG036
│ ├───MSG037
│ ├───MSG038
│ ├───MSG039
│ ├───MSG040
│ └───MSG041
├───WC30
│ ├───ATTACH
│ ├───BULL
│ ├───DATA
│ ├───DISP
│ ├───DOOR
│ │ ├───BATGUY
│ │ ├───BBSLIST
│ │ ├───BOGGLE
│ │ ├───BOWL
│ │ ├───CASINO
│ │ ├───DARE
│ │ ├───DELUXE
│ │ ├───GAMBLE
│ │ ├───GUPPY
│ │ ├───HACK
│ │ ├───KEY
│ │ ├───KRAZY
│ │ ├───MAGIC
│ │ ├───NOTHING
│ │ ├───STOOGE
│ │ ├───STORY
│ │ ├───SUPER
│ │ ├───TANK
│ │ ├───TRIVIA
│ │ ├───TROUBLE
│ │ ├───TURBO
│ │ └───WHEEL
│ ├───HELP
│ ├───MENU
│ ├───QUES
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 53
│ ├───STAR
│ │ ├───BULL1
│ │ ├───MENU1
│ │ └───QUES1
│ ├───TOMCAT
│ │ ├───DOC
│ │ └───WORK.1
│ └───WCWORK
│ └───NODE1
│ ├───EP
│ └───TEMP
│
└
Appendix II
Wildcat! 3.55M
--------------
The Professional Bulletin Board System from Mustang Software,
Inc.
P.O Box 2264
Bakersfield, CA 93303
Tech support: (805) 334-2240
Office Sales: (805) 395-0223
Public BBS: (805) 395-0650
Private BBS: (805) 395-0250
Price - Wildcat! 3.55M: $249
BinkleyTerm v.2.50
------------------
A Freely Available FidoNet Compatible Electronic Mail Interface
and Dumb Terminal Package
Software written by Vince Perriello and Bob Hartman.
Documentation aritten by Alan D. Applegate.
Copyright (C) 1988, 1989 Bit Bucket Software, Co.
P.O. Box 462398
Aurora, Co 80046
"BinkleyTerm" and "Freely Available" are trademarks of Bit Bucket
Software, Co.
(note - there are no telephone, BBS, FAX, or E-mail numbers).
QM v.1.30 *gamma*
--------------------
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 54
An echomail processor offered free of charge. Copyright 1992 by
Greg Dawson and George Peace.
Version 1.00 documentation by Bob Davis (1:106/114).
Version 1.30 documentation by George Peace.
(note - there are no telephone, BBS, or FAX numbers).
Wildmail! v2.04 Echomail Processor for Wildcat! v.3.00-3.02 thru
v.3.5x
----------------------------------------------------------------
Copywright 1991, 1992 by Online Computer Resourses
4330-J Clayton Road
Concord, Ca 94521
Voice tech support/sales: 510-687-1122 (9am-6pm M-F PST)
(10am-5pm Sat PST)
BBS (USR HST/V32): 510-687-0236 Fido Address 1:161/503
BBS (v32bis): 510-687-2134 Fido Address 1:161/504
Price: $40
Wildnode! v1.10 Nodelist Processor for Wildcat! v.3.00-3.02 thru
v3.5x
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Copywright 1991, 1992 by Online Computer Resourses
4330-J Clayton Road
Concord, Ca 94521
Phones:
Voice tech support/sales: 510-687-1122 (9am-6pm M-F PST)
(10am-5pm Sat PST)
BBS (USR HST/V32): 510-687-0236 Fido Address 1:161/503
BBS (v32bis): 510-687-2134 Fido Address 1:161/504
Price: Released free of charge to the general public; no
registration fee required.
Xlaxdiff and Xlaxnode II v2.56
------------------------------
Copyright 1987-1992 by Scott Samet (Friends of Dorothy)
(1:135/990)
Address:
Scott Samet
PO Box 162082
Miami, Fla 33116-2082
Phone: There are no voice or data phone lines.
FIDOCAT! v. 1.10 (C) 1992 by RUDOLF ROTHEMUND Page 55
Price: $15 for Xlaxdiff and Xlaxnode v2.56 per node.
X.00 v1.24
----------
Copyright (C) 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 by Raymond L. Gwinn.
Address:
Raymond L. Gwinn
12469 Cavalier Drive
Woodbridge, Virginia 22192
FidoNet 1:265/1
Data phone: (703) 494-8331
Price: Free of charge
VFOS_IBM and VFOS_DEL VFOSSIL Compatible Driver
-----------------------------------------------
Revision 1.10
Copyright 1988 by Bob Hartman and Spark Software, Inc.
Fido Address: 1:132/101
Price: Free of charge
US Robotics 14400 Courier High Speed Modem
------------------------------------------
Address:
US Robotics, Inc.
8100 North McCormick Blvd.
Skokie, Il 60076
Phone (voice): 1-800-342-5877
Phone (BBS) : 1-708-982-5092
Tech support : 1-800-982-5151
Price (Sysop program): $349