This Manual explains how you, as a sysop, can set up InterFinder to work on your BBS.
Step 1: Install MacTCP
The first step is to install MacTCP. The things you need to configure are:
- Manual adress: you need a static adress for you Macintosh. Ask your internet supplier which adress you can assign to your Macintosh.
- Domain Name Server information: This is the adress of the next host which runs a domain name server. The domain name server is used to map hostnames to ip adresses. InterFinder uses the domain name server to find the next SMTP host.
- Hosts file in the Systemfolder. The hosts file is a text document. It is also used for mapping hostnames to ip adresses. It is a good idea to put the SMTP host you want to connect to into the hosts file as well as your own adress. So in the case you can not reac the domain name server, MacTCP still is able to connect to the SMTP host.
- Connection method: You have different possibilities through which connection method you can connect to your IP network. Ethernet is the usual one if you have an ethernet board in your mac or built in ethernet support. EtherTalk or LocalTalk or TokenTalk as methods can only be used if you have somewhere a IP Gateway which converts the ip packets which are encapsulated into AppleTalk into native IP packets. The gateway is not necessary if the receiving end is also a Macintosh using MacTCP and the EtherTalk/LocalTalk or TokenTalk method. For example if you use InterFinder to connect to a QuickMail server running GatorMail or Dispatcher SMTP, both products which act as a gateway between QuickMail and SMTP.
- Dial Up connections: If you use dial up connections to the internet, there are a few more steps to set up. This configuration usually depends on which tool you use. There are 3 tools I'm aware of: VersatermSLIP (part of Versaterm Pro), InterSLIP and MacPPP. Exept MacPPP, all use the SLIP protocol. MacPPP uses the PPP protocol. The different tools use different approaches to connect. Usually you have to supply a phone number, a serial port, a login name and a password. There might be different approaches to have a login script. Anyway, set up the dial up tools according to the tool's manual. Keep in mind that you need a static adress, this means an adress which is uniquely defined for your host. You might need to configure this adress in the tool itself and in MacTCP you choose the server adress instead of manual adress. But the result should be the same, an unique number you can be reached on.
-Testing MacTCP installation: The easiest way to test a MacTCP installation is to use a telnet capable application which supports MacTCP. For example TCP/Connect, Versaterm Pro or even Apple's MacTerminal 3.0 if you have a TCP/IP tool for the communications toolbox. Try to login to your next host. Tip: if you want to test the SMTP setup, try to login onto an alternate port. The usual telnet port is 23. Try to choose the port 25 instead. Port 25 is reserved for SMTP. The connection sould then answer by saing something like
220 aws95 Sendmail 5.64/A/UX-3.00 ready at Tue, 16 Nov 93 09:33:24 PST
There you have a frew commands which are accepted. QUIT is the one you can use to exit the SMTP session. If you dont get a system promt similar to the one above, you have troubles in the connection part. If you get the promt, you shouldn't have any troubles sending mail.
Step 2: InterFinder SMTP Setup
If you successfully tested your MacTCP setup we can start to install InterFinder on your system. To Install InterFinder yust copy tree files onto your harddisk in any folder you desire. The tree files needed are: InterFinterReceiver, InterFinderSender and InterFinder Prefs. InterFinder Prefs contains the actual settings, InterFinder Receiver is the application which should run to be able to receive mail and InterFinderSender is the application to send mail and to configure the system. So let's start with InterFinderSender first. Launch InterFinder Sender and choose SMTP Setup from the File menu. Now you can configure two things: the name of the host where you send your mail to and the name of your own host. Note: Those names must correspond with the settings in your host's file and with the settings stored in the domain name server database. This means that your hostname name has to be registered to be able to receive mail. If you use dialup connection, the SMTP registration should be configured that the mail for your host is sent to the host you connect to. This is necessary because you might not be connected 24h a day. So the host will store the mail for you and at connection time, it will send it to you. This has to be done by some sort of scripts. Ask your internet supplier on how this would be possible.
Now you have configured your SMTP Part. That's all there is to be configured for SMTP
Step 3: InterFinder Telefinder Setup
Now we have to configure the Telefinder connection. Use Telefinder Setup from the File menu. In the dialogbox you then can configure the link to your UserManager. This is neccessary so that InterFinder can find the dropboxes of the different Users. Note: If you run InterFinder on another Macintosh than the one UserManager is on, you need a tool like AutoGuest INIT which allows you to have an automatic AppleEvent connection using Guest. If not, he will ask for a username and password every time you restart Furthermore you have to be aware that you need to have the volume mounted where the mail folder resides.
You now have to set up an account which is called postmaster. This is absolutely required to exist. postmaster is the name where internet system administrator will send diagnostic information to. InterFinder does also send mail to postmaster in case of delivery problems. It can have the same dropbox as the one from sysop. postmaster must not have any telefinder login possibilities but it should have the priviledge to send & receive mail. See next section.
Next you need to setup an account called internet. Thats the dropbox where users will send mail to. Optionally you can define dropboxes for AppleLink, CompuServe and America Online. Instructions for those gateways follow lateron.
Step 4: InterFinder Priviledges Setup
Choose Priviledges setup from the file menu.
Now we need to define who can send mail. InterFinder allows tree possibilities.
a) only certain groups can send mail. You can list the groups in the priviledges setup dialogbox.
b) oly certain groups can not send mail. You can list the groups in the dialogbox.
c) everyone can send mail
Check that postmaster belongs to a group which is allowed to send mail.
Step 5: Test
You successfully have installed InterFinder on your system. There is nothing more to be configured. Let's test the configuration. Open Telefinder/User (version 3.11 or newer) or Telefinder/Pro (version 2.12 or newer). Choose New Mail. In the header you have to supply destination. Type "internet". In the source field type postmaster. This name has to exist exactly like this in UserManager. Now as the first line of the text type postmaster@hostname. Please specifiy your hostname correspondingly as it is defined in the hosts file, SMTP setup and in the domain name server database. So we send mail to ourself. Let's save this mail (as type E-Mail, not type TEXT!) into the dropbox called internet which you previously defined. So the mail is now stored for going out to the internet. Users who type their mail online or offline and then upload them, will create similar files in the dropbox "internet". Now since we have everything configured, we launch InterFinderReceiver. InterFinder Recevier first reads the preferences file and then waits for a connection. The only thing you can do is launch it or quit it. The receiver is automatically enabled. Note: if you change the settings while InterFinderReceiver is already launched, you need to quit it and relaunch it. Now we launch InterFinder Sender. Choose "Send now" from the actions menu. This will enable the immediate sender. InterFinder Sender should now connect to the next SMTP host and deliver our mail to them. A status window does appear where you can see what's going on. If the mail is successfully sent, you will see that our mailfile dissapeared from the internet drobox. Also there should be no file called "Internet Reply" or similar in the dropbox of postmaster. If there is one, look at the content to figure out what's wrong. After a short while the mail should come back from the SMTP host. Since we sent the mail to ourself, InterFinder Receiver will get active and take the mail back from your SMTP host. Note: this only works if the SMTP host knows about your host and is able and willing to route your mail. If at the other end, there is also InterFinder, it will not accept your mail because it's not destinated to the other host. InterFinder only accepts mail for its own adress and not for others. Unix based SMTP are usually smart enough to accept any destination mail and route them correspondingly. WHen the mail arrived you should have a file called "Internet Mail #1" in the dropbox of postmaster. This would indicate your system is up and running correctly.
Step 6: General Options / other Gateways
In the general options you can specify different things. First you can choose if InterFinder does write a logfile. If you enable this, InterFinder will create a logfile called "InterFinder.log" in the same folder and will write anything which happens into the logfile. The logfile contains Date, Time, RX or TX (whether it is a InterFinderSernder (TX) message or an InterFinder Receiver (RX) message) and the message. Most of the messages tell you who had send/received mail to/from. Its good to look at the file if you have connection troubles.
Second option is that InterFinder Sernder is enabled at launch time. Automatic sending of internet mail means that every X seconds, InterFinderSender will check the mail folders for outgoing mail and send them out. You can specifiy the time intervall in the same dialogbox. By default the automatic sender is not enabled if you launch InterFinder. Thats good for testing and installation. But since in the future you would like to enable InterFinder at startup time, you might check the AutoSend feature.
Foreign gatewas:
InterFinder is also able to send mail to other systems than internet hosts. InterFinder currently supports AppleLink, CompuServer and America online. How can InterFinder do this? Well it's quite simple. It yust sends the mail through the internet to the corresponding mail gateways of AppleLink, CompuServe or AmericaOnline. You can enable or disable each of those foreign gateways separately. They don't do a lot finally. Here is what happens:
If you send mail to the dropbox AppleLink, the mail is send through the internet and
@applelink.apple.com is appended to the adress line (the first line of text).
If you send mail to the dropbox America Online, the mail is send through the internet and @aol.com is appended to the adress.
If you send mail to the dropbox CompuServe, the mail is send through the internet and @compuserve.com is appended to the adress line and all commas (,) are replaced by points (.).
So the tree gateways are yust a little help for the end user. Finally any user can send directly by the use of the corresponding internet adress but some users don't know how to figure out an internet adress out from a corresponding AppleLink, CompuServe or America Online adress.
We arrived to the end of this manual. Its so short because InterFinder is so simple to set up that I decided the best form for this manual is a readme file on the disk instead of a printed manual. This because printed manuals are often out of sync with the actual version of a product, cost a lot of money and finally nobody reads them. I hope you enjoyed the reading of this manual and would like to have your feedbacks. Tell us if something goes wrong or something is unclear. Here is hwo you can reach us:
By ordinary Mail:
Micro Frame
Andreas Fink
Oberdorf 123
8934 Knonau
Switzerland / Europe
By Internet E-Mail
fink@box4.microframe.ch (prefered)
By AppleLink E-Mail
CH0364
On our Telefinder BBS Box4:
+41-1-7768000
By Fax:
+41-1-7768019
By Voice:
+41-1-7768017 (calculate the european central time first before you call)
