This is the Beta-test version of LIU95 - Packet for windows.
LIU95 is a general purpose Packet terminal & PMS program, for use on the amateur radio AX25 packet network, with most of the usual features found in packet programs, and few extra features thrown in too. The program is FREEWARE
System requirements
* IBM PC or 100% compatable - 386 upward
* Windows 3.1 or above
* BPQ v4.07b or above
* 7PLUS.EXE (supplied on Extras ZIP/disk)
* TNC capable of running with BPQ network software (most are)
* (optional) Real Soundblaster card capable of speech
* 640x480 display driver in Windows (256 colour recommend,but not essential)
Features
* 2 terminal windows for manual connections by sysop
* PMS for users to leave mail,download files etc.
* automatic forwarding/fetching of personal mail
* automatic forwarding/fetching of Bullitins
* Soundblaster Speech - annonces users connecting and other events
* 7PLUS server and capture
* Activity graph availble to sysop and users
* Monitor alert - sounds alarm when monitored text contains user-defined string
First things first
The program MUST be run on top of BPQcode,so that BPQCODE.EXE is loaded
before Windows,this causes problems on some systems. Presumably, you have put VBRUN300.DLL in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM then run SETUP.EXE from windows to install it, you should be set to run LIU95, but before you do, its very inportant to edit LIU.INI in the directory you installed LIU95....C:\LIU95
this is a standard text file you can edit with a DOS editor or NOTEPAD..Not a wordprocessor! The file configures LIU95 for your system. as you edit it,do not delete any lines, add any or alter the order unless stated below, just overwrite what is there. You may only add/delete the 'mulitple lines' (see below)
If you havn't use BPQ node software before,its essential you get that working before attempting to run LIU95. have a read of the documentation with BPQ, Basically, you need to edit BPQCFG.TXT with a text editor to tell it about your system,then run BPQCFG.EXE to compile it, if you then run SWITCH.EXE, you can test to see if its all working. all being well, you can then (prefrebly) but the line:
C:\BPQ\BPQCODE.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and re-boot. this loads the switch software into memory, you can then go ahead and run Windows.
A few beta-testers reported a general protection error when running LIU95, this is due to either BPQ not being loaded or not setup correctly, in future versions, I hope to provide a 'get-you-going-with-BPQ' document for newcommers to BPQ.
Here is a description of what each line in LIU.INI is :
Do not alter the order of the lines,or delete any,only the Multiple lines may be deleted/added to.
* the header line DO NOT ALTER THIS !
* The drive that LIU95 is installed on Eg. C: or D:
* The Full Path (including the drive name, but no \ at the end) Eg. C:\LIU95
* Your Callsign
* Your First Name
* Your Callsign as a Reply address Eg. G7LIU @ GB7BAD.#23.GBR.EU
* full address of your Home BBS Eg. GB7BAD.#23.GBR.EU
* Your QTH
* Minute past the hour at which you want to Forward outgoing Mail/Bullitins
* Minute past the hour you want to fetch Bullitins from your Home BBS
* Minute past the hour (every 3 hours starting from Midnight) you want to fetch personal mail
* Multiple lines containing 'keywords' scanned for when fetching Bullitins Eg. SATTV will fetch bullitins that are SATTV@??? or even if SATTV is mentioned in the title. end this list with a ***END
* Amount in Bytes that each 7+ part will contain (UK recommend limit is 5000 bytes)
* Mulitple lines (up to 10) containing your 'signature' added to the end of your outgoing mail, end with ***END
* Mulitple lines containing the 'connection script' to connect to your home BBS, exactly what you
would type in to connect to the BBS, end with ***END
* Single line containing the prompt your HomeBBS gives out (this is case sensitive!), you can use just the last few characters of the prompt. too few may create problems reading mail etc. the my example INI, ive used 7BAD> for the end of the prompt GB7BAD> If you get problems reading mail/bullitins or fetching mail/bullitins, experiment with this line.
* Single line : when reading a message on your homeBBS, this line must have what your BBS sends to say who the message is from,this may be simply just From : but as there are different language files it may be different, Eg. the star trek Language uses From S/Base : (you must put the colon on the end) LIU95 looks for what ever is after this string to find out who the message is from.
* Single line containing the string of characters the BBS sends to mark the end of a read message, this need not be the full line, just a few character (case sensitive) Eg. --- End of
* Multiple lines containing the welcome text (end with ***END)
* Multiple lines containing the Main menu text (end with ***END)
* single line containing your PMS main menu Prompt
* Multiple lines containing the File menu text (end with ***END)
* Single line containing Yes or No to say if you have a Soundblaster card, this may only work with a real soundblaster, and you must have FB_SPCH.DLL in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory which should have been installed from your soundblaster install disks.
* Single line containing your PMS file menu Prompt
* single template line DO NOT alter
* 26 lines containing file areas/descriptions, use the template above to line up the text correctly use a * as the first character for an inactive file area as shown in my example LIU.INI file
All set.....go!
Now that you've edited the INIialise file, you can now run the program. you'll need to set it up, in a Program manager Group,by selecting FILE,then NEW,and entering the details,the program will be \LIU95\LIU.EXE, then.... run it. After its loaded, the impressive title screen will show up (256 colour driver recommend!) then click on the OK button and the main LIU95 window will be displayed....Impressive eh?....well I thought so.
Main window display
The bottom big chunk of the window displays the incomming/outgoing text, it defaults to the monitor window on startup, so you may be seeing monitored traffic scrolling away. this area of the screen has 3 modes : MON , NODE1, NODE2 and is altered by 3 mode buttons in the control panel section above......
The control panel area fills the top area of the full window,and contains Buttons,lights or just textual displays. Heres a more in-depth description...
On the far left are 3 buttons that control the Mode of the main text window, the currently selected mode lights up red. MON displays the Monitored traffic heard. NODE1 & NODE2 are used for outgoing manual connections, see below for more info. Next along we have the MAIL & BULL buttons,these open up the Mail reading/sending & Bullitin reading/sending windows, more later. Now onto the 5 Miscellanous Buttons, the first being a disabled CHAT button, this enables when someone connected to your PMS wants to have a chat. Next is the SEND button, this is for sending ASCII text files, you use this when you are connected live to someone (on NODE1 only) and want to send a text file,you'll be asked to select a file to send using the usual Windows file selection dialog box. Next is the GRAPH button, this pops up a window containing 2 packet activity graphs, the top one is the amount of packet frames for the last hour, and the bottom one shows the same information, but for the last day. Next along is the DISC button used to manually disconnect any of the channels if theres a problem. And finally is the EXIT button...fairly abvious eh? Underneath these buttons are 2 gauges, the first shows the Progress of Mail & bullitin forwarding and the second shows the same for the ASCII SEND (see above)
Now onto the Status Panel on the far right. The first line displays from left to right, 1. Your callsign
2. Free BPQ buffers, if this reaches 0, your computer will explode.
2a. Amount on 'un-acked' packets sent.
3. Amount of Monitored frames recorded for the last minute
4. This displays the last callsign heard
5. The time according to your PC's Clock
The rest of the panel is divided into 4 sections,
1. User Port
2. Fetch (personal mail)
3. Bullitin fetch
4. Forwarding Bullitins & mail
each section shows the STATUS of that channel,the time it was last activated, and finally a green or red light to show if it is active at the moment.
The Pull-down menu contains further controls and utilities.
FILE : About - Tells you more about the Program
: Edit INI - Allows you to make modifications to the INI file
: Exit - Exits the program
7PLUS : Capture - a fairly crude capture 7+ utility
STATUS: BPQ & LIU Status - No function in the Beta version
: Mail forwarding - 'checked' if Mail forwarding is set to automatic
: Mail fetching - 'checked' if Mail fetching is set to automatic
: Bullitin Fetching - 'checked' if Bullitin fetching is set to automatic
YAPP : Yapp Download - } Not written yet
: Yapp Upload - }
MISC : Set alert string - set the string of characters for the Monitor alert
: Monitor alert on/off - 'Checked' either on or off
In-depth look at the Buttons
On start-up the MON button is select and displays the monitored traffic in the main text window below. the 2 NODE buttons change the display to show what is happening on the 2 manual connections. once you press them, it will connect you to your own node (if not allready) and you can go ahead and type commands, see the BPQ documentation for help on the commands available.
The MAIL button opens a window to allow you to read/send personal mail. The top box shows a listing of mail you have. the next box will display the contents of the selected message, and the bottom box is used to type messages in.
To read a message, click once on the message you want to read, then click once on the READ button, you can then use the scrollbar to the right to read through it.
at this point, if you have the soundblaster speech option on, you can click on SPEECH to have the computer read the message.
To send a message, first select either the Personal or Bullitin options, then click once on the Send, you'll then be prompted to type the address in the blue box, no SP or SB required. after this click on the ENTER button to the right of the blue box, then type the subject in the blue box and press the ENTER button again. you can then type the main text of the message in the Bottom White text box. when you have finished (no need for a /ex or control Z) press the ENTER button once more. and the message is saved ready to be forwarded. The KILL button archives mail into the \LIU95\OLDMAIL directory, the filename is taken from the current time & date. The EXIT button closes the window and goes back to the main LIU95 window. CUT will cut a marked peice of text from the middle window and put it in WIndow's clipboard, you can then paste it into any other Windows application that supports cut/paste. or you may PASTE it back into the bottom window (outgoing message). It works the other way around too, you can,say, cut a peice of text from a wordproccesor, and paste it into your outgoing message. The INPORT button, saves you cutting/pasting whole Documents, simple select the filename using the dialog box provided,and the whole document will be pasted into the outgoing message.
You also use this window to manually send 7+, click on the SEND 7+ button, and a small questionare pops up, fill in the details, the filename MUST be the full path & filename of what you want to send, use the TAB key to go to the next field, then press CREATE, it will then run the 7PLUS program to make the 7+ parts, after it returns,press SEND. the 7+ parts will be sent to the address one part per hour.
BULL button on the main LIU95 Window
The BULL button allows you to read bullitins that LIU95 has captured. it will only capture Bullitins that have the keywords in that are stated in the LIU.INI file.
to read a Bullitin, click once on the message,then click on READ, after this you may then click on the SPEECH button (if active) to have the message read out loud.
the KILL button kills all stored bullitins, this may be changed in later versions of LIU95 to kill selectivly or automatically after several days, much like what is done on BBSs. The EXIT button closes the window down, and goes back to the main LIU95 Window.
If a user connects and selects the 'C' option the beeper will sound and the soundblaster will annouce that the user wants to chat to you. you can then press the CHAT button either on the main LIU95 window or the CHAT button on the chat window the user's text is displayed in the top text box, and you type your replies in the bottom box. when you have finished,click on the END CHAT button, this closes the window, and returns the user to the main prompt.
Hidden Options
If you click on the Time-last-active boxes for the forward/fetch/bullitin fetch it will force LIU95 to do that function now. Due to a problem I havn't sorted yet, only one function is allowed at a time,whether forced or automatic.
Acknowlegments
Thanks in advance to people beta testing this program, if you find any bugs or have any suggestions, I'll see if I can put them in one of the full release version. when first run LIU95 sends a message to me to tell me you are running it, so I can keep a user list to keep you informed of future releases.
Thanks also to John G8BPQ for writing the Node software, Windows Drivers and for much needed help in how to use the Windows Drivers.
History
Febauary 1994 - first test version,which proved very unstable,so was scrapped !
January 1995 - Release of LIU95 Beta-test version
January 1995 - Release of LIU95 Beta-test 2 version (son of LIU95 hi!)
??? 1995 - Release of LIU95 Full Version
New releases of LIU will be available either by post (address below) or via Internet at ftp.demon.co.uk in the /pub/ham directory.
Wishlist
YAPP file Transfer
REQFIL \ REQDIR
FBB compressed mail forwarding
Multi-User PMS ?
HyperText mode for use between 2 LIU95 users
DX gateway for long distance node hopping. (unsociable !)
Internet Mail/Usenet News Gateway...When its Legal !
More Graphs ?
Known Bugs
If you are using the Soundblaster speech, you have to make sure LIU95 is MINIMIZED while it is in the background, so when you wanna do something else in Windows, just click on LIU95's MINIMIZE Button. this tells LIU95 not to do any speech, as it causes LIU95 to lock up windows,well at least on my machine, this could be a bug in the speech DLL, or the way in which LIU95 calls the speech routines. speech is restored when you RESTORE or MAXIMIZE the Window.
When writing mail, make sure you press Return at the end of every or most lines, this is not normally needed as it wraps-around, but again causes LIU95 to lock up when Forwarding the message.
Bug reports & suggestions
If you find any bugs or have some suggestions, I'll try and impliment them, but I ain't promising owt !
