CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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KSP-Mail (tm) Multi-Threaded Software for ESMTP Mail and NNTP (Usenet) News on Bulletin Board Systems Version 3.1 Copyright (C) 1995-96 All Rights Reserved by KEY SOFTWARE PRODUCTS 40 Atherton Court Redwood City, California 94061 BBS/FAX: 415-364-9847 KSP-Mail is a trademark of Key Software Products. WATTCP is a trademark of Erick Engelke. Power C, Multi-C, and C/Database are trademarks of Mix Software. Lantastic is a trademark of Artisoft, Inc. Novell is a trademark of Novell Corp. Banyan Vines is a trademark of Banyan Inc. DESQview is a trademark of Quarterdeck Office Systems. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ........................... 1 1.1 Why is KSP-Mail Better than UUCP? ............... 1 1.2 Mail and News Service Overview ................. 2 1.2.1 The "Mail-In" Server Process(es) ......... 3 1.2.2 The "Mail-Out" Client Process ............ 4 1.2.3 The "News-In" Process (and Import Methods) . 5 1.2.4 The "News-Out" Client Process ............ 7 1.2.5 The MS/DOS "Command" Process ............. 8 1.2.6 The "Set-Clock" Client Process ........... 10 1.3 Hardware Requirements ....................... 10 1.4 Software Requirements ....................... 11 1.5 Running under OS/2 ........................... 11 1.6 Network Resources You'll Need ................. 11 1.7 GMT Time and the TZ Environment Variable ......... 12 1.8 Other KSP Software ........................... 13 1.8.1 KSP Telnet ............................. 13 1.8.2 KSP FTP ................................ 13 1.8.3 KSP SLIP ............................... 13 1.8.4 KSP HOST ............................... 13 1.8.5 So Many CD's ............................ 14 CHAPTER 2 - INSTALLING THE NETWORK CONNECTION FIRST .... 15 2.1 Packet Driver Shim for Novell .................. 15 2.2 Packet Driver Shim for Novell w/Token-Ring SNAP .. 16 2.3 Packet Driver Shim for Lantastic ............... 16 2.3.1 Changes to CONFIG.SYS ................... 16 2.3.2 Changes to PROTOCOL.INI ................. 17 2.4 Packet Driver Shim for Banyan Vines ............. 18 CHAPTER 3 - THE WATTCP CONFIGURATION FILE ............. 19 3.1 Network Parameters .......................... 20 3.1.1 The PC's Host Name ....................... 20 3.1.2 The PC's Domain Name ..................... 20 3.1.3 The PC's IP Address ...................... 20 3.1.4 The Name Server's IP Address .............. 21 3.1.5 The Router's IP Address .................. 21 3.1.6 The PC's Network Mask .................... 21 3.2 TCP/IP Parameters (optional) ................. 22 3.2.1 Maximum Segment Size (MSS) ............... 22 3.3 KSP-Mail Parameter Format .................... 22 3.4 Enabling and Disabling Processes .............. 22 3.5 Required KSP-Mail Parameters ................. 23 3.6 ESMTP (Mail) Parameters ...................... 24 3.6.1 The Remote Mail Server(s) ................ 24 3.6.2 The UUCP Mail Spool Directory ............. 25 3.6.3 Removing the UUCP "From" Line ............. 25 3.6.4 Customizing the ESMTP Server's Greeting ... 25 3.6.5 Mail Forwarding ........................ 26 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.6.6 Limiting Inbound Message Size ............ 26 3.6.7 Sitename alias ......................... 26 3.7 ESMTP (Mail) Mailbox Verification ............. 27 3.7.1 The KSP-VRFY.EXE Verification Program .... 28 3.7.2 The PCB-VRFY.EXE Verification Program .... 29 3.7.3 Specifying Mailboxes to Verify (RCPT) ..... 29 3.7.4 Specifying the Verification Program ...... 29 3.7.5 Mailing List Expansion (EXPN) ............ 29 3.8 NNTP (News) Parameters ....................... 30 3.8.1 The Remote News Server(s) ................ 30 3.8.2 The UUCP News Spool Directory ............. 31 3.8.3 News Import Scheduling .................. 31 3.8.4 Specifying Newsgroups (and Import Method) . 31 3.8.5 Limiting Size of the POSTED.IDX File ....... 33 3.8.6 Specifying Timeout for NEWNEWS Command .... 33 3.8.7 Preventing Feedback .................... 34 3.8.8 UUCP News File Format .................... 34 3.8.9 Limiting Inbound Article Size ............ 34 3.9 Command Process Parameters ................... 35 3.9.1 Memory Swapping ........................ 35 3.9.2 Exporting Mail: The UUCP Command Line ...... 35 3.9.3 Exporting Mail: Scheduling the Command .... 36 3.9.4 Exporting Mail: Expediting the Command .... 36 3.9.5 Importing Mail: The UUCP Command Line ...... 37 3.9.6 Importing Mail: Scheduling the Command .... 37 3.9.7 Importing Mail: Expediting the Command .... 37 3.9.8 Exporting News: The UUCP Command Line ...... 38 3.9.9 Exporting News: Scheduling the Command .... 38 3.9.10 Importing News: The UUCP Command Line ..... 38 3.9.11 Importing News: Expediting the Command ... 39 3.10 Set-Clock Parameters ....................... 39 3.10.1 The Remote Time Server(s) ............... 39 3.10.2 How Often the Clock is Set ................ 39 3.11 Other Parameters ........................... 40 3.11.1 Server Timeout ........................ 40 3.11.2 Client Timeout ........................ 40 3.11.3 Close Timeout ......................... 40 3.11.4 Retrieving Hostnames .................. 41 3.11.5 Checking for Outbound Mail and News ....... 41 3.11.6 Triggering an Exit ..................... 41 3.11.7 Retry After Server Timeout .............. 42 3.11.8 Avoiding File Sharing Violations ........ 42 3.11.9 Sequence Naming of UUCP Files ............ 42 3.11.10 Silencing the Console Bell ............. 43 3.11.11 The Log File Directory ................. 43 3.11.12 Controlling Information Overload ...... 43 3.11.13 Limiting Growth of Log Files ............ 43 3.11.14 Monitoring Program Condition .......... 44 3.11.15 Controlling the Screen Saver ........... 44 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.11.16 The "OK" file ......................... 45 CHAPTER 4 - THE USER INTERFACE ....................... 46 4.1 The "Hot-Keys" .............................. 46 4.2 The Spinner ................................. 46 CHAPTER 5 - REMOTE SYSTEM MANAGEMENT ................. 48 5.1 The HELP Command ............................. 48 5.2 The LIST Command ............................. 49 5.3 The PROCESS Command .......................... 49 5.4 The QUIT Command ............................. 49 5.5 The STATS Command ............................ 50 5.6 The VALUE Command ............................ 50 CHAPTER 6 - INSTALLING YOUR ACCESS KEY ................ 51 APPENDIX 1 - TEMPORARY FILES CREATED BY KSP-MAIL ....... 52 APPENDIX 2 - HOW TO REACH US .......................... 53 APPENDIX 3 - GETTING UPDATES VIA THE INTERNET .......... 54 APPENDIX 4 - LEGAL STUFF ............................ 55 Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 1 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION For years, the defacto method to provide Internet mail and Usenet news on a BBS was via a dial-up UUCP connection. The recent public demand for Internet access has motivated many BBSs to look beyond mail and news; many now also offer telnet, ftp, and other Internet services. This kind of access requires a TCP/IP connection, and so now many BBSs actually have two connections to the Internet - a UUCP connection for mail and news, and a TCP/IP connection for everything else. You may have wondered if both connections are really necessary. They aren't! With the introduction of KSP-Mail, now you can get rid of your UUCP connection! KSP-Mail uses the TCP/IP protocols called ESMTP (Extended Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) to transfer mail and Usenet news over the Internet. 1.1 Why is KSP-Mail Better than UUCP? With KSP-Mail, you get all of the following advantages: 1. You'll save those monthly fees you're paying now for UUCP access! Most people will be able to recover the cost of KSP-Mail within three months! 2. You'll enjoy the faster transfer rates that TCP/IP normally employs as compared to the typical 9600 baud UUCP dial-up. 3. Even if your TCP/IP connection runs at the same rate as your UUCP connection, you'll still get faster newsfeeds! That's because most UUCP connections feed you more newsgroups than you want; the unwanted newsgroups waste transmission time and then have to be deleted later. KSP-Mail only retrieves those newsgroups you specify. 4. Your callers will enjoy mail transfers that don't have to wait for scheduled "events". KSP-Mail waits for inbound mail 24 hours a day, and can immediately post it to the BBS message base the moment that it arrives! Outbound mail can be sent as soon as the caller saves it to the message base, without even waiting for him to log off! Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 2 5. KSP-Mail uses multi-threaded code so that multiple processes can run concurrently. What that means is that you can receive mail, send mail, receive news, and send news all at the same time! In fact, as many as four inbound mail transfers can be taking place at the same time from four different remote sites on the Internet! You don't even need a multi-tasking operating system; KSP-Mail will run on a regular MS/DOS machine. 6. KSP-Mail was designed so that it can be used with any kind of BBS software. If your BBS can do UUCP mail, then it can use KSP-Mail! In other words, KSP-Mail reads and writes UUCP-style mail and news files, not the message base format of a specific BBS package. KSP-Mail is shareware. The unlicensed version is fully functional except that it limits mail and news messages to a maximum of five lines of text. Once licensed, this limitation is removed. KSP-Mail was implemented using Erick Engelke's Waterloo TCP library and Mix Software's Power C compiler and their Multi-C and C/Database libraries. Thanks go to James Laszko at The File Bank BBS (jlaszko@tfb.com) for his many extended hours of beta testing this product so that you won't have to! The File Bank BBS now runs the full line of KSP products. 1.2 Mail and News Service Overview There are a total of nine different "threads" of execution (processes) running concurrently in KSP-Mail. Four of these accept incoming mail from as many as four different remote computers simultaneously. Three more handle outbound mail, outbound news and inbound news. The eighth is a command shell thread is used to run other MS/DOS programs, and the last is used to periodically contact a network time server to set KSP-Mail's time and date clock. There are (of course) some resource limitations: The command shell thread is only allowed to run when all of the other threads are idle; while the command thread is running, no other thread is allowed to start an activity. When the command thread is not running, no more than four of the remaining seven threads may run at the same time; note that this always guarantees that at least one inbound mail process is always running except when the command thread is active. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 3 1.2.1 The "Mail-In" Server Process(es) KSP-Mail implements an ESMTP server with up to four independent processes that do nothing but listen for connections from remote machine wishing to upload incoming mail. Up to four processes may be configured to improve the odds that at least one will always be available to respond when a remote machine wishes to connect. Once a mail message has been received, it is written to a spool directory as a pair of UUCP files whose names are derived from number stored in a "sequence" file. The "data" (*.D) file contains the text of the message and is created first; once it has been successfully written, then the "execute" (*.X) file is created containing the UUCP commands needed to import the message into the BBS message base. Mail-In ---> UUCP UUCP BBS ESMTP ---> Files ---> Import ---> Message server ---> (*.D) Utility Base sessions ---> (*.X) Figure 1. Overview of how mail is imported. Importing the UUCP files is handled by your own UUCP mail import utility program, such as PCBoard's UUIN.EXE. There are several ways to run this utility: (1) On a separate machine, you can setup a batch file with a continuous loop that looks for execute files in the mail directory and runs the import utility as soon as one or more are discovered. The batch file can be as simple as: :TOP IF EXIST C:\UUCP\SPOOL\MAIL\*.X UUIN GOTO TOP Theoretically, you could use DESQview to run both KSP-Mail and this batch file on the same machine. Although KSP-Mail is DESQview "aware" and will give up time slices, many UUCP utilities do not, and so this approach may degrade KSP-Mail's performance. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 4 (2) You can use the "ksp-mail.import_mail_seconds" configuration parameter to have KSP-Mail run the import utility for you at regular intervals. (3) You can use the "ksp-mail.import_mail_trigger" configuration parameter to run the import utility immediately after KSP-Mail has written the UUCP inbound spool file(s) to the spool directory. (4) You can use a regular BBS scheduled "event" to run the import utility for you at regular intervals. (Of course this method does not expedite importing of inbound mail.) 1.2.2 The "Mail-Out" Client Process The Mail-Out process of KSP-Mail is implemented as an ESMTP client. It watches the UUCP mail spool directory looking for outbound UUCP message files. As soon as an execute file is discovered, the Mail-Out process wakes up, connects to the remote ESMTP or SMTP mail server, delivers the mail, and then deletes the corresponding UUCP files. UUCP stores each message as a set of three files - a "command" file (*.CMD), an "execute" file (*.XQT), and a "data" file (*.DAT). Mail-Out ignores the command file and looks instead for the execute file, since it is usually created after the data file. BBS UUCP UUCP Files The Message ---> Export ---> (*.DAT) ---> Mail-Out Base Utility (*.XQT) Client (*.CMD) Process Figure 2. Overview of how mail is exported. This approach requires that outbound mail is somehow exported from the BBS message base to the UUCP spool directory by a UUCP export utility program. There are several ways to run this utility: (1) On a separate machine, you can setup a batch file that runs the export utility in an infinite loop. The batch file can be as simple as: :TOP UUOUT GOTO TOP Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 5 Theoretically, you could use DESQview to run both KSP-Mail and this batch file on the same machine. Although KSP-Mail is DESQview "aware" and will give up time slices, many UUCP utilities do not, and so this approach may degrade KSP-Mail's performance. (2) You can use the "ksp-mail.export_mail_seconds" configuration parameter to have KSP-Mail run the export utility for you at regular intervals. (3) You can use the "ksp-mail.export_mail_trigger" configuration parameter to run the export utility whenever the size of the BBS Internet message base increases. This will run the utility whenever someone enters a new outbound message. (Note that the size of the message base will also increase when inbound mail is added to the message base, but running the export utility in this case should have no detrimental effect.) (4) You can add the export command to the batch file that runs your BBS, causing it to always try to export any pending outbound mail after each user logs off. (5) You can use a regular BBS scheduled "event" to run the export utility for you at regular intervals. (Of course this method does not expedite exporting of outbound mail.) 1.2.3 The "News-In" Process (and Import Methods) NNTP (and KSP-Mail) provides two methods for importing news. The first method is known as "pulling" news: KSP-Mail connects as a client to an NNTP server and asks (for each of several newsgroups) what new news is available and then requests the new articles one at a time. The second method is known as "pushing" news: KSP-Mail runs as a NNTP server and waits for a news "feed" from a client. When the client connects, it tells KSP-Mail what new articles it has and uploads those that KSP-Mail requests. In the "pull" method, KSP-Mail maintains the list of newsgroups it wants to import; in the "push" method, the list of newsgroups Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 6 fed to KSP-Mail is maintained by the system administrator of your news feed. KSP-Mail determines which method to use based on whether or not you specify a list of newsgroups using the "ksp-mail.newsgroups" configuration parameter. The "pull" method gives KSP-Mail more control over what articles it retrieves. It allows you to change your selection of newsgroups without notifying the NNTP system administrator. However, the "pull" method also places a heavy load on the remote NNTP server, and most NNTP system operators would prefer that you ask for a feed. The either case, the News-In process writes UUCP files that are imported into your BBS message base by your UUCP import utility program: News-In UUCP UUCP BBS Client ---> Files ---> Import ---> Message Process (*.D) Utility Base (*.X) Figure 3. Overview of how news is imported. UUCP can transfer (and store) Usenet news in one of three formats: (1) "Unbatched and Uncompressed": This is the same format as used for mail. Each individual news article is transferred as a separate file without compression. (2) "Uncompressed Batch": Like (1), except that separate articles are concatenated with separators and transferred as a single file without compression. (3) "Compressed Batch": Like (2), except that the file has then been compressed to reduce transfer time. KSP-Mail writes incoming Usenet news as UUCP files in in uncompressed batch format; no decompression is required. One data (*.D) file and one execute (*.X) file is written per newsgroup. If you prefer, KSP-Mail will write these files in uncompressed/unbatched format by setting the configuration parameter "ksp-mail.batch_news" to "disabled". Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 7 News is imported into the BBS message base by running the UUCP import utility. There are several ways to run this utility: (1) On a separate machine, you can setup a batch file with a continuous loop that looks for execute files in the news directory and runs the import utility as soon as one or more are discovered, similar to the same method described for inbound mail. Theoretically, you could use DESQview to run both KSP-Mail and this batch file on the same machine. Although KSP-Mail is DESQview "aware" and will give up time slices, many UUCP utilities do not, and so this approach may degrade KSP-Mail's performance. (2) You can use the "ksp-mail.import_news_trigger" configuration parameter to run the import utility immediately after KSP-Mail has written the UUCP inbound spool file(s) to the spool directory. (3) You can use a regular BBS scheduled "event" to run the import utility for you at regular intervals. (Of course this method does not expedite importing of inbound news.) KSP-Mail allows you to specify different spool directories for mail and news. This means you can import mail immediately when it arrives without spending lots of time importing lots of news that happens to be sitting in the same spool directory. 1.2.4 The "News-Out" Client Process Outbound news is handled in two different ways according to whether or not the newsgroup is moderated. Postings to moderated newsgroups are sent as mail messages to the designated newsgroup moderator; postings to unmoderated newsgroups must be sent as news to a news server. With UUCP, this difference is handled by the remote machine at the far end of your UUCP link; with ESMTP/SMTP and NNTP this difference must be determined before the message is put out to the Internet. In KSP-Mail, the News-Out process is designed to handle postings to unmoderated newsgroups; postings to moderated newsgroups are handled by the Mail-Out process. The News-Out process works almost identically to the Mail-Out Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 8 process. Both are implemented as client processes, and both scan for execute (*.XQT) files of outbound messages (although perhaps in different directories). The difference is that mail must be sent to an ESMTP/SMTP server while news postings must be sent to an NNTP server. KSP-Mail makes this decision by examining the UUCP command stored inside the execute file. News is exported from the BBS message base by running the UUCP export utility. There are several ways to run this utility: (1) On a separate machine, you can setup a batch file that runs the export utility in an infinite loop, similar to the same method described for outbound mail. Theoretically, you could use DESQview to run both KSP-Mail and this batch file on the same machine. Although KSP-Mail is DESQview "aware" and will give up time slices, many UUCP utilities do not, and so this approach may degrade KSP-Mail's performance. (2) You can use the "ksp-mail.export_news_seconds" configuration parameter to have KSP-Mail run the export utility for you at regular intervals. (3) You can use a regular BBS scheduled "event" to run the export utility for you at regular intervals. (Of course this method does not expedite exporting of outbound news.) 1.2.5 The MS/DOS "Command" Process KSP-Mail can execute as many as four different external commands. These commands are intended to be used to import/export mail and news between the BBS message base and the UUCP spool directories. The commands are specified by using one or more of the following configuration parameters: ksp-mail.export_mail_command: Used to export Internet mail messages from the BBS message base to a UUCP spool directory. Parameters that determine when this command will run are: ksp-mail.export_mail_trigger Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 9 ksp-mail.export_mail_seconds ksp-mail.export_news_command: Used to export news postings from the BBS message base to a UUCP spool directory. Parameters that determine when this command will run are: ksp-mail.export_news_seconds ksp-mail.import_mail_command: Used to import Internet mail messages from a UUCP spool directory to the BBS message base. Parameters that determine when this command will run are: ksp-mail.import_mail_seconds ksp-mail.import_mail_trigger ksp-mail.import_news_command: Used to import Usenet news files from a UUCP spool directory to the BBS message base. Parameters that determine when this command will run are: ksp-mail.import_news_trigger No commands will run until all other processes (Mail-In, Mail-Out, News-In, News-Out, and Set-Clock) are idle. Once a command starts running, no other process can do anything until the command is finished; this includes accepting incoming ESMTP/SMTP connections from remote machines. Note: With lots of newsgroups, the News-In process can generate hundreds of inbound news article files to be processed by the UUCP import utility in the command shell. This can cause long periods of "dead time" during which the Mail-In server cannot listen for connections from remote ESMTP/SMTP clients wishing to deliver mail. Most ESMTP/SMTP clients will try to connect several times over a period of hours before giving up, so this usually is not a serious problem. However, if you are "pulling" news, you can reduce the "dead time" dramatically by appending the ",sort" option to the end of the "ksp-mail.newsgroups" configuration setting. This causes KSP-Mail to run the UUCP utility between newsgroups rather than after all have been processed, thus greatly reducing the number of files to be processed. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 10 1.2.6 The "Set-Clock" Client Process In order to guarantee an accurate time reference for retrieval of Usenet news articles posted since a certain date and time, a network time client is provided to set KSP-Mail's internal clock. If enabled, the process sets the clock immediately after KSP-Mail is started, and then again periodically as determined by the configuration parameter "ksp-mail.set_clock_hours". A network time server can be specified using the configuration parameter "ksp-mail.time_server". More than one server can be specified in case the first does not respond. Note: Since the objective is to synchronize KSP-Mail's time with that of the NNTP server, then if that machine is also running a time server, you might want to use it as your time server too. 1.3 Hardware Requirements KSP-Mail must be run on a PC with a 24 hour connection to the Internet. Ideally, this connection is by means of an adapter card connected to an Ethernet and then through a "gateway" to the Internet. However, it is also possible to connect to the Internet via a dial-up SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) connection to a commercial Internet Access Provider. This approach requires a second serial port, modem, and telephone line dedicated to this purpose. Information on finding such a provider is available on the KSP BBS. We recommend dedicating an entire machine to KSP-Mail due to the typically heavy inbound news traffic. Although theoretically KSP-Mail can run on anything from an 8088 on up, best results will be obtained on a 386SX25 or better. Every BBS uses a pair of utility programs to convert messages to UUCP files and vice-versa. (E.g., PCBoard uses UUIN and UUOUT.) KSP-Mail can load and execute these utilities on the same machine; however, KSP-Mail will not be able to listen for inbound mail while they are running. A heavy Usenet news load may require running the inbound conversion utility for quite some time; in this case, you'll probably need yet another machine just to do this conversion. If you're "pulling" news, however, you may be able to reduce this time using the ",sort" option of the "ksp-mail.newsgroups" configuration parameter. A reasonable compromise solution would be to run KSP-Mail and the conversion utilities under separate DESQview windows on the Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 11 same machine; in this case we recommend a 486SX25 or better. Although KSP-Mail is DESQview "aware" and will give up time slices, many UUCP utilities do not, and so this approach may degrade KSP-Mail's performance. 1.4 Software Requirements KSP-Mail was designed to run under MS/DOS. Since it runs on its own machine, it doesn't matter what operating system the BBS uses, as long as the KSP-Mail machine can read and write the same file system used by your BBS. KSP-Mail runs on top of another piece of software called a "packet driver". The packet driver presents a standard software interface to KSP-Mail, regardless of the type of hardware interface that connects the PC to the network. Public domain packet drivers exist for SLIP links and most Ethernet cards. If your PC is connected to a non-TCP/IP proprietary network (such as Novell or Lantastic), you will probably need a packet driver "shim". KSP-Mail does NOT require that you purchase a separate TCP/IP package, such as that sold by Novell, Artisoft, or IBM. KSP-Telent should happily coexist with any of these packages, however. An assortment of public domain packet drivers and shims are available on the KSP BBS. 1.5 Running under OS/2 KSP-Mail CAN be run in a DOS session under OS/2. It is "OS/2 Aware", and will give up time slices so that it doesn't hog the cpu. To run under OS/2, you must install the packet driver in the same DOS session that runs KSP-Mail. Since the packet driver is also designed for DOS, it will NOT talk to the TCP/IP stack of OS/2 Warp Connect; thus you must install a separate network interface card just for KSP-Mail. You cannot share one interface card between both KSP-Mail and the TCP/IP stack of OS/2. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 12 1.6 Network Resources You'll Need KSP-Mail can handle mail, or news, or both. To use KSP-Mail as an ESMTP client to deliver outbound mail, you will need to identify an ESMTP or SMTP server that will allow KSP-Mail to connect and post mail; the server must be willing to act as a "relay server", forwarding the mail to its ultimate destination. To use KSP-Mail as an ESMTP server for inbound mail, you'll need to establish an "MX" (Mail Exchanger) record in your name server that directs mail addressed to the domain name of your BBS to the IP address of the machine running KSP-Mail. To use the "pull" method of news retrieval, you will need to find an NNTP server that will allow you to connect as an NNTP client, retrieve news articles, and post news articles. To use the "push" method of news retrieval, you will need to find someone running an NNTP server who is willing to give you a "news feed". To use KSP-Mail's Set-Clock process to keep an accurate clock, you will need to find a TIME server. Your local network guru or Internet Access Provider should be able to help you with these matters. For each of the remote servers (ESMTP/SMTP, NNTP, and TIME), either its domain name or IP address is required; IP addresses are preferred however, since they eliminate the necessity of doing name server lookups at startup. 1.7 GMT Time and the TZ Environment Variable The international time standard used by both ESMTP, SMTP and NNTP is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). KSP-Mail uses an environment variable string called "TZ" that specifies how your local time is converted to GMT time. The environment string must consist of a three letter abbreviation for your time zone, followed by a signed integer. The integer is the number of hours that when added (mod 24) to your local time gives GMT time. For example, when it's 3am in California, it's 11am GMT; i.e., we add 8 to get GMT time, and thus the proper TZ string for California's Pacific Standard Time is PST8 (or PST+8). The corresponding command placed in an Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 13 AUTOEXEC.BAT file would be: SET TZ=PST8 In general, time zones west of Greenwich use a positive integer, while time zones east of Greenwich use a negative integer. The TZ string may be optionally followed by another three letter abbreviation to indicate that daylight saving time is observed (e.g., PST8PDT for "Pacific Daylight Savings Time"). In this case, KSP-Mail will automatically move its clock one hour ahead at 2am (local time) on the first Sunday in April, and move it back at 2am on the last Sunday in October. 1.8 Other KSP Software Key Software Products offers a number of other products for BBS's: 1.8.1 KSP Telnet A door program that allows callers to connect to remote computers anywhere on the Internet via your BBS. Available now on our BBS. 1.8.2 KSP FTP A door program that allows callers to transfer files to/from remote computers anywhere on the Internet via your BBS. 1.8.3 KSP SLIP A door program that allows callers to run any TCP/IP software from home, including using Mosaic to browse the World Wide Web. Available now on our BBS. 1.8.4 KSP HOST An inbound Telnet server for MS/DOS Bulletin Board Systems. Every node can answer both telnet and modem calls! Requires a fossil driver on each node, a 24 hour TCP/IP connection to the Internet, and a local area network that supports NetBios such as Novell or Lantastic. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 14 1.8.5 So Many CD's A PCBoard PPE to handle off-line CD-Roms. Seamlessly integrated into PCBoard. Users post requests for off-line files and have then returned as attachments to messages. Configurable message pack-out dates automatically keep your hard disk from getting cluttered. Available now on our BBS. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 15 CHAPTER 2 - INSTALLING THE NETWORK CONNECTION FIRST Before installing KSP-Mail, you must first install: 1. The network interface hardware. 2. A corresponding packet driver. 3. A packet driver shim (if needed). Detailed directions for these preliminary steps are available in separate documentation that comes with the corresponding hardware or software. It's most common that multi-node BBS's are interconnected with Ethernet and either Lantastic or Novell. Unfortunately, these two network operating systems were designed using their own proprietary protocols rather than the TCP/IP protocol and their own proprietary software rather than packet drivers to talk to their Ethernet interface cards. However, a piece of software called a packet driver "shim" can be used to let both TCP/IP and their proprietary protocol coexist. 2.1 Packet Driver Shim for Novell Novell's network software is installed in layers as TSRs in the order shown below. These commands are usually found either in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file or in another batch file in a directory typically called C:\NWCLIENT. LSL NE2000 }-- specific to your interface card IPXODI VLM The packet driver shim (ODIPKT) logically sits on top of IPXODI, providing a packet driver interface for software such as KSP-Mail: LSL NE2000 +--- Frame Type (0-3) IPXODI | ODIPKT 2 97 }--- The packet driver shim VLM | +----- Packet Vector Interrupt (96-127) (See comment below about hex vs. decimal) The ODIPKT command line parameters may vary according to which version of the software you have and how your hardware is Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 16 configured. The "Frame Type" parameter should correspond to the position of ETHERNET_II among the frame types specified in NET.CFG; zero (0) selects the first frame type, one (1) the second, and so on. The "Packet Vector Interrupt" number should correspond to an unused interrupt vector. Note that older versions of ODIPKT insist that this number be given in decimal (96-127) rather than in hex (0x60-0x7F). The necessary packet driver shim can be downloaded from the Key Software Products BBS as file ODI-SHIM.ZIP. 2.2 Packet Driver Shim for Novell w/Token-Ring SNAP Another shim called ODITRPKT exists for Novell that should be used if the underlying network is Token-Ring_SNAP. Installation is similar to ODIPKT as described above, except that the first command line parameter must correspond to the Token-Ring_SNAP frame type in NET.CFG, and starts at "1" rather than "0". This shim can be downloaded from the Key Software Products BBS as file TKN-SHIM.ZIP. 2.3 Packet Driver Shim for Lantastic Using a packet driver shim with Lantastic requires that Lantastic be installed using NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) Support. The necessary packet driver shim can be downloaded from the Key Software Products BBS as file DIS-SHIM.ZIP. NDIS allows you to stack multiple protocols on a single adapter. This lets you use multiple protocol drivers (such as LANtastic and TCP/IP) on the same adapter. You can also use NDIS to include third-party adapters that have NDIS drivers in your LANtastic network. Supported adapter types include Ethernet, Token-Ring and ARCNET (R) adapters. The software and documentation necessary to add NDIS support to an existing Lantastic network is available free of charge from Artisoft. Once you have NDIS installed and working with Lantastic, adding the shim is a simple matter of editing PROTOCOL.INI (part of the NDIS support) and CONFIG.SYS. 2.3.1 Changes to CONFIG.SYS With NDIS installed, there will be two device driver lines in your CONFIG.SYS file that look something like the following: Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 17 DEVICE=C:\LANTASTI\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\LANTASTI DEVICE=C:\LANTASTI\AEXNDIS.DOS The file listed in the second line may differ if you are not using Artisoft's interface card; in that case, this file would typically be replaced by a NDIS driver supplied by the card manufacturer. The packet driver shim itself is installed as a third device driver after the first two, as in: DEVICE=C:\LANTASTI\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\LANTASTI DEVICE=C:\LANTASTI\AEXNDIS.DOS DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\DIS_PKT.DOS }--- The packet driver shim 2.3.2 Changes to PROTOCOL.INI The PROTOCOL.INI file is a text file created (usually in the C:\LANTASTI directory) as part of the NDIS installation. Before adding the packet driver shim, it typically looks like the following, but with the "iobase" and "interrupt" parameters changed according to your hardware, or with the entire "[AEXNDIS_NIF]" section replaced if you are not using an Artisoft interface card. [PROTMAN] DRIVERNAME = PROTMAN$ DYNAMIC = YES [AEXNDIS_NIF] DRIVERNAME = AEXNDS$ IOBASE = 0x300 INTERRUPT = 15 Adding the packet driver shim requires adding another section to the PROTOCOL.INI file: [PROTMAN] DRIVERNAME = PROTMAN$ DYNAMIC = YES [AEXNDIS_NIF] <---+ DRIVERNAME = AEXNDS$ | IOBASE = 0x300 | INTERRUPT = 15 | These names must match! | Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 18 [PKTDRV] | DRIVERNAME = PKTDRV$ | BINDINGS = AEXNDIS_NIF <---+ INTVEC = 0x61 CHAINVEC = 0x66 NOVELL = Y Note that the name "AEXNDIS_NIF" must exactly match the spelling used as the title of the previous section, "[AEXNDIS_NIF]"; if you are not using Artisoft interface cards, then both occurences will use some other identifier. The "INTVEC" parameter may be anything from 0x60 to 0x80; you may have to experiment to find an unused interrupt number. 2.4 Packet Driver Shim for Banyan Vines Although Key Software Products has never used it, and thus cannot offer help on its installation, a packet driver shim does exist for Banyan Vines and can be downloaded from the Key Software Products BBS as file BAN-SHIM.ZIP. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 19 CHAPTER 3 - THE WATTCP CONFIGURATION FILE In order to run, KSP-Mail needs to know some information about your network, and tries to find this in a configuration file called WATTCP.CFG. KSP-Mail looks in three directories to locate this file. First, it checks for an environment variable called WATTCP.CFG that specifies the directory. Second, it looks in the current (default) directory. Third, if still not found,it looks in the directory that contains the executable (KSP-MAIL.EXE). The following example may be helpful for those using the environment variable approach: If you place WATTCP.CFG in your PCB directory, then your AUTOEXEC.BAT file should contain the following command: set WATTCP.CFG=C:\PCB Note that there is no trailing "\" after the directory name! If KSP-Mail still can't find the configuration file, it will attempt to automatically configure itself by looking for a "BOOTP" server on your network. Most BBSs will not have a BOOTP server, so we do not recommend this approach. We only mention it here because it explains why you'll get a message saying "Configuring through BOOTP" if it can't find your configuration file. The WATTCP.CFG configuration file is a normal text file containing one entry per line. A sample configuration file is included in this distribution, but the values MUST be modified to suit your particular environment or else KSP-Mail will not work! The syntax of every entry follows the following format: [ directive = [ "data" | data ] ] [ # comment | ; comment ] I.e., if a directive is not followed by data, the directive is ignored. Similary, lines without directives are ignored. The directive is NOT case sensitive; the data IS case sensitive. e.g., netmask=255.255.252.0 domainslist=ksp.com ; Our domain Whitespace is normally removed from data; data containing blanks must be surrounded by quotes. An unquoted '#' or ';' marks the beginning of a comment. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 20 3.1 Network Parameters The following parameters control how KSP-Mail communicates with the rest of the TCP/IP network. 3.1.1 The PC's Host Name This is the network name of the PC that runs your BBS (and thus KSP-Mail). If your BBS is implemented by a network of PC's, then each PC should have its own unique host name. Example: hostname=bbs Note that the host name does not include the domain name suffix. For example, the hostname of machine '"bbs.ksp.com" is simply "bbs". 3.1.2 The PC's Domain Name This is the network name of the subnet to which your PC (and possibly others) are connected. Example: domainslist=ksp.com Note that the domain name does not include the host name prefix. For example, the domain name of machine '"bbs.ksp.com" is "ksp.com". 3.1.3 The PC's IP Address This is the unique IP address assigned to your PC. Example: my_ip=100.2.37.4 Note: As an alternative, you may also set the IP address using an environment variable, as in: set ksp-ip=100.2.37.4 NOTE: An "IP address" is a logical addressing scheme used on TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. Each computer connected to the Internet is assigned a unique IP address. Your local network "guru" or access provider should be able to provide you with the IP addresses you need. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 21 IMPORTANT: The IP addresses given in this document are only examples. Do NOT attempt to use them - they will NOT work and your network administrator will probably get VERY upset! 3.1.4 The Name Server's IP Address This is the unique IP address assigned to a network name nerver. You may specify more than on nameserver by using more than one "nameserver" line. Example: nameserver=111.21.108.110 Your local network "guru" or access provider should be able to provide you with the proper IP addresses of appropriate network name servers. 3.1.5 The Router's IP Address This is the unique IP address assigned to the network router. Syntax: gateway = ipaddr [ , subnet [ , subnet_mask ] ] Examples: gateway=129.97.176.1 gateway=129.97.176.2,129.97.0.0 gateway=129.97.176.2,129.97.0.0,255.255.0.0 Usually the (destination) subnet and subnet mask need not be specified, and is used to create a "default". The other forms are used to specify one or more other gateways for particular subnets. Your local network "guru" or access provider should be able to provide you with the proper IP address of the network router. 3.1.6 The PC's Network Mask Network masks are used to distinguish destination IP addresses that are on the local subnet from those that are not. This option may not be required, depending on your network topology. Example: netmask=255.255.254.0 Your local network "guru" or access provider should be able to provide you with the proper netmask if needed. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 22 3.2 TCP/IP Parameters (optional) KSP-Mail will work without using the following parameters, but they are provided if you wish to change them. 3.2.1 Maximum Segment Size (MSS) The default value of MSS is 1400. If you know what maximum segment size means and know what size you want, you can change it: Example: mss=512 Note: Some Internet access providers configure their dial-up slip and ppp accounts with a very small segment size. You may need to set mss as low as 212 if your Internet connection is through such a connection. 3.3 KSP-Mail Parameter Format The remaining parameters in WATTCP.CFG are operating parameters that are specific to KSP-Mail. Each follows the format: ksp-mail.<parameter>=<value> where <parameter> and <value> are replaced by appropriate strings. Some parameters have counterparts in other members of the KSP family of network application programs. Rather than have multiple entries in the WATTCP.CFG file for each application, such parameters can be specified globally using the format: ksp.<parameter>=<value> This global setting can be overridden for a specific application by using the application-specific form at a subsequent line in WATTCP.CFG. 3.4 Enabling and Disabling Processes Each process has a corresponding configuration parameter that can be used to disable that process or to report missing parameters required for proper operation: Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 23 ksp-mail.import_news_process ksp-mail.import_mail_process ksp-mail.export_news_process ksp-mail.export_mail_process ksp-mail.command_shell_process ksp-mail.set_clock_process Any of these parameters may be set to "disabled" to prevent that process from running. Setting a parameter to "enabled" allows the process to run (the default), but also checks whether or not all the other parameters necessary for proper operation of that process have been provided and reports any that are missing. The configuration parameter ksp-mail.import_news_process works a little differently: setting it to "enabled" has no effect, but it may be set to either "pulled" or "pushed" to check process parameters. 3.5 Required KSP-Mail Parameters Each of the several KSP-Mail services requires one or more specific KSP-Mail parameters to be specified; if any of these is missing, KSP-Mail will still run, but that particular service will not be provided. The Mail-In process(es) require that you specify parameter: ksp-mail.mail_directory The Mail-Out process requires that you specify paramaters: ksp-mail.mail_directory ksp-mail.esmtp_server The News-In process requires that you specify at least one parameter: ksp-mail.news_directory If news will be "pulled" rather than "pushed", then you must also specify: ksp-mail.nntp_server ksp-mail.newsgroups ksp-mail.news_hour Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 24 The News-Out process requires that you specify parameters: ksp-mail.nntp_server ksp-mail.news_directory All other parameters are either not required or have default values. However, you may still need to use one or more of them to configure KSP-Mail properly. 3.6 ESMTP (Mail) Parameters The following configuration parameters are specific to sending and/or receiving Internet mail. 3.6.1 The Remote Mail Server(s) Syntax: ksp-mail.esmtp_server=<ip_address>[,<string> ...] or: ksp-mail.esmtp_server=<domain_name>[,<string> ...] Aliases: ksp-mail.mail_server, or: ksp-mail.mail_out_server Example: ksp-mail.esmtp_server=129.295.261.1 or: ksp-mail.esmtp_server=129.295.261.1,jdoe,mypswd or: ksp-mail.esmtp_server=super.man.gov or: ksp-mail.esmtp_server="super.man.gov,john doe,mypswd" Purpose: Specifies the remote ESMTP/SMTP server that accepts your outbound mail and routes it to its final destination. Comment: This parameter is required only by Mail-Out. This parameter may be repeated to specify alternative servers in the order of preference. IP addresses are preferred over domain names to avoid name server lookups at startup. Note: One or more command strings, separated by commas, may be appended to the end of this line. These commands will be sent to the server immediately after establishing the connection, and may be used (for example) with servers that require the client to login with a username and password. If blanks appear within one or more of the commands, then everything after the "=" sign must be surrounded by a pair of quotation marks. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 25 3.6.2 The UUCP Mail Spool Directory Syntax: ksp-mail.mail_directory=<path_spec> Example: ksp-mail.mail_directory=d:\pcb\uucp\spool\mail Purpose: Specifies the directory where inbound and outbound UUCP spool files for mail are located. Comment: This parameter is required by both Mail-Out and Mail-In. 3.6.3 Removing the UUCP "From" Line Syntax: ksp-mail.uucp_from_line=<option> Example: ksp-mail.uucp_from_line=disabled Purpose: By default, Mail-In writes a uucp-style "From" line in front of the RFC header at the beginning of every e-mail message, as in: From tech.support@ksp.com Thu Feb 29 13:52:00 1996 This non-RFC line may be eliminated by setting this option to "disabled". Note: This option is unrelated to the "From:" line required as part of every RFC header. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, it defaults to enabled, and the uucp-style "From" line is included. 3.6.4 Customizing the ESMTP Server's Greeting Syntax: ksp-mail.esmtp_greeting=<string> Example: ksp-mail.esmtp_greeting="Greetings from Key Software Products" ksp-mail.esmtp_greeting="This server now supports ESMTP!" Purpose: Adds text to the login greeting message presented by Mail-In to the remote client. This parameter may be repeated for multiple line messages. Note: Since the presence of a space within the text is Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 26 likely, don't forget to surround everything to the right of the "=" by a pair of quotation marks as shown in the example above. Comment: This parameter is optional. It adds text after the default greeting, which is of the form: 220 ksp.com ESMTP service via KSP-MAIL v3.1 3.6.5 Mail Forwarding Syntax: ksp-mail.forwarding=<option> Example: ksp-mail.forwarding=enabled Purpose: For use with intelligent UUCP utilities such as GIGO that can forward mail addressed to a different domain name. If this parameter is enabled, the destination domain name is compared to that of the local machine; if they match, only the user name is written to the UUCP *.X file, otherwise the full destination address (e.g., tech.support@ksp.com) will be written. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, the domain name will never be written to the UUCP *.X file. 3.6.6 Limiting Inbound Message Size Syntax: ksp-mail.max_message_bytes=<number> Example: ksp-mail.max_message_bytes=100000 Purpose: To limit the size of inbound email messages. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, the default is NO limit on inbound mail message size. Limit applies total article size, including RFC header. 3.6.7 Sitename alias Syntax: ksp-mail.sitename_alias=<host.domain> Example: ksp-mail.sitename_alias=ksp.com Purpose: To support situations where the hostname used in the destination address of mail sent to your local site Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 27 differs from the actual hostname of the machine. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, your the regular hostname defined by the "hostname" and "domainslist" parameters in the WATTCP.CFG configuration file will be used. 3.7 ESMTP (Mail) Mailbox Verification Mailbox verification is embedded within three ESMTP commands: RCPT, VRFY, and EXPN. The RCPT command is used to specify a recipient of an inbound email message; the other two commands are mainly used by systems administrators to diagnose mail delivery problems. The VRFY command checks that a mailbox name is that of a user on the local BBS. The EXPN command expands the name of a mailing list that resides on the local BBS into a list of recipients; this command is only implemented if one or more mailing lists have been defined in the WATTCP.CFG configuration file. KSP-Mail provides no default mailbox verification. It will accept any mailbox name as valid unless a verification program is specified in WATTCP.CFG (see "ksp-mail.vrfy_program" below). Specifically, if no verification program is specified: 1. The RCPT command will accept any recipient. 2. The default VRFY response will be a positive acknowledgement, but one which indicates that it can't perform a verification. 3. The default EXPN response will be "Command not implemented". If specified in WATTCP.CFG, KSP-Mail will load and execute an external program to perform username verification. This program indicates the result by exiting with a return code: 0 The username IS valid on the local BBS 1 The username is NOT valid on the local BBS other An error occurred during execution If an error occurs during execution (e.g., can't locate username database), the verification program writes a suitable one-line error message (terminated with CR, LF) to a file called SMTPVRFY.ERR in the current directory; KSP-Mail reads the contents of this file, adds it to its own log, and then deletes Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 28 the file. The verification program outputs nothing to the screen. When the verification program is invoked by KSP-Mail, the username is the only parameter passed on the command line (e.g., "john.doe"); any other site-dependent information (e.g., location of user database) is provided by other means such as environment variables or configuration files. The use of upper/lower case in the username may vary. 3.7.1 The KSP-VRFY.EXE Verification Program This program creates and uses its own (indexed) username database from your list of user names. There are two basic ways to run the program: "online" (invoked by KSP-Mail) and "offline" (for database maintenance). The "offline" commands are: KSP-VRFY /BUILD <filespec> E.g., "KSP-VRFY /BUILD C:\TEMP\USERNAME.TXT" Builds a file called "USERNAME.IDX" in the current directory, using data taken from the ASCII file specified on the command line. The input file contains one username per line. Upper/lower case doesn't matter. Spaces within the name will be replaced by periods. KSP-VRFY /ADD <username> E.g., "KSP-VRFY /ADD John Smith" Adds a name to USERNAME.IDX. Username may contain any number of spaces. Upper/Lower case does not matter. KSP-VRFY /DEL <username> E.g., "KSP-VRFY /DEL John Smith" Deletes a name from USERNAME.IDX. Username may contain any number of spaces. Upper/Lower case does not matter. KSP-VRFY /FIND <username> E.g., "KSP-VRFY /FIND John Smith" Prints message on screen indicating whether or not the Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 29 specified username is present in the database file USERNAME.IDX. KSP-VRFY /PACK Packs the database after a number of username entries have been deleted. 3.7.2 The PCB-VRFY.EXE Verification Program This program is a PCBoard-specific replacement for KSP-VRFY that reads the username database of PCBoard directly. It requires merely that an environment variable called "PCBDAT" be set to the filespec of (any one of) your PCBOARD.DAT file(s). E.g., set pcbdat=c:\pcb\node1\pcboard.dat 3.7.3 Specifying Mailboxes to Verify (RCPT) Syntax: ksp-mail.check_recipients_at=<host.domain> Example: ksp-mail.check_recipients_at=ksp.com Purpose: Attempts to deliver mail to mailboxes at sitenames in this list will be checked to see if the mailbox is a valid username or mailing list. Comment: This parameter is optional; by default, the sitename list already includes the normal machine name specified by "hostname" and "domainslist" in WATTCP.CFG, plus any alias specified by "ksp-mail.sitename_alias". This parameter may be repeated to allow multiple sitenames. 3.7.4 Specifying the Verification Program Syntax: ksp-mail.vrfy_program=<filespec> Example: ksp-mail.vrfy_program=KSP-VRFY.EXE Purpose: This parameter specifies the program to be used for username verification. Comment: This parameter is optional. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 30 3.7.5 Mailing List Expansion (EXPN) Syntax: ksp-mail.mailing_list=<filespec> Example: ksp-mail.mailing_list=c:\ksp\customer.lst Purpose: Specifies the name of a mailing list used by the EXPN command. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, the "EXPN" command will be rejected. This parameter may be repeated for multiple mailing lists. The first eight characters of the mailing list name must match the filename ("customer" in the example above); the text file contains a list of local usernames or Internet style email addresses, one per line. 3.8 NNTP (News) Parameters The following configuration parameters are specific to sending and/or receiving Usenet news. 3.8.1 The Remote News Server(s) Syntax: ksp-mail.nntp_server=<ip_address>[,<string> ...] or: ksp-mail.nntp_server=<domain_name>[,<string> ...] Aliases: ksp-mail.news_server, or: ksp-mail.news_out_server, or: ksp-mail.news_in_server, Example: ksp-mail.nntp_server=134.121.2.54 or: ksp-mail.nntp_server="134.121.2.54,authinfo user ksp" or: ksp-mail.nntp_server=fountain.com or: ksp-mail.nntp_server="fountain.com,authinfo user ksp" Purpose: Specifies a remote NNTP server. Required by the News-Out process (and the News-In process if inbound news is pulled). Different servers can be specified for News-In and News-Out by using the alias forms of the command parameter name. Comment: This parameter may be repeated to specify alternative NNTP servers in the order of preference. IP addresses are preferred over domain names to avoid name server Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 31 lookups at startup. Note: One or more command strings, separated by commas, may be appended to the end of this line. These commands will be sent to the server immediately after establishing the connection, and may be used (for example) with servers that require the client to login with a username and password. If blanks appear within one or more of the commands, then everything after the "=" sign must be surrounded by a pair of quotation marks. 3.8.2 The UUCP News Spool Directory Syntax: ksp-mail.news_directory=<path_spec> Example: ksp-mail.news_directory=d:\pcb\uucp\spool\news Purpose: Specifies the directory where inbound and outbound UUCP spool files for Usenet news are located. Comment: This parameter is required by both the News-In and News-Out processes. 3.8.3 News Import Scheduling Syntax: ksp-mail.news_hour=<hour(s)>[,<hour(s)> ... ,<hour(s)>] Where: <hour(s)> = <number> | <number> '-' <number Example: ksp-mail.news_hour=21 ksp-mail.news_hour=0-4,6,12,18,20-23 Purpose: Specifies what hour(s) of the day news will be retrieved; retrieval starts on the hour. Comment: If News-In "pulls" news, this parameter is required. If news is "pushed" by a news feed, then this parameter is optional and determines what hours of the day News-In will run as an NNTP server; otherwise News-In will run as an NNTP server 24 hours a day. This parameter may be used more than once to specify multiple hours in the day. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 32 3.8.4 Specifying Newsgroups (and Import Method) Syntax: ksp-mail.newsgroups=<filespec>[,sort] Example: ksp-mail.newsgroups=c:\ksp\ksp-mail\newsgrps.lst or: ksp-mail.newsgroups=c:\ksp\ksp-mail\newsgrps.lst,sort Purpose: If this parameter is omitted, News-In will run as an NNTP server, waiting for new news to be "pushed" by a remote client. Otherwise, News-In will act as a client and "pull" news from a remote NNTP server. In the latter case, this parameter specifies a list of newsgroups to be imported and the most recent date and time of import for each group, one per line. The format of each line is: <YYMMDD> <HHMMSS> <Newsgroup_Name> Where "<YYMMDD>" and "<HHMMSS>" are each a sequence of six digits specifying the GMT (not local!) date and time (respectively) of the last retrieval, as in: 951003 120000 alt.bbs.pcboard If these first two fields are all zeroes, KSP-Mail will retrieve all articles posted within the preceding 24 hours. If ",sort" is added after the filename, KSP-Mail will sort the list before retrieving news so that the oldest news will be retrieved first. In addition, if the execution of any external import/export programs is pending, then news retrieval will be suspended at the end of the current group, the external program will be executed, and then news retrieval resumed. Comment: This parameter is required by only the News-In process, and only if news is "pulled" rather than "pushed". It replaces the old "newsgroup" (no trailing 's') parameter, and no longer supports "wild cards ('*') in the newsgroup names. Comment: If you create an entry where the newsgroup name has been replaced by the IP address of your NNTP server, as in: 000000 000000 137.168.1.1 Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 33 then KSP-Mail will record new newsgroups whenever they are created on the server! The list of new newsgroups will be added to the end of a file called GROUPS.NEW in the same directory specified by ksp-mail.newsgroupslist. If you have multiple NNTP servers, just create one line for each server with the corresponding IP address. PCBoard: A utility program for PCBoard BBSs called PCB-GRPS.EXE is included in the distribution file; it reads the CNAMES.@@@ and CNAMES.ADD files and outputs a list of newsgroups to the screen. Redirect its output to a file for use with this configuration parameter. PCB-GRPS requires one command line parameter, which is the filespec of either of the CNAMES files. 3.8.5 Limiting Size of the POSTED.IDX File Syntax: ksp-mail.max_article_days=<days> Example: ksp-mail.max_article_days=7 Purpose: KSP-Mail records the article ID's of those news articles which have already been imported, so that duplicates will not be imported. These ID's are kept in a file called "POSTED.IDX". After each news import, KSP-Mail removes ID's from this file if their age is older than the oldest newsgroup import, but no older than the value set by this parameter. KSP-Mail does this by loading and executing a file called KSP-PACK.EXE. Comment: Used only with the "pulled" method of news retrieval. This parameter is optional; default value is 7 days. 3.8.6 Specifying Timeout for NEWNEWS Command Syntax: ksp-mail.newnews_timeout=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.newnews_timeout=300 Purpose: Used only with the "pull" method of news retrieval. Specifies the amount of time that KSP-Mail will wait for a response to the NEWNEWS command when asking for the list of new articles posted to a newsgroup. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 34 Comment: This parameter is optional; default value is 300 seconds. 3.8.7 Preventing Feedback Syntax: ksp-mail.news_filter=<your_site_name> Example: ksp-mail.news_filter=ksp.com Purpose: When news is retrieved from an NNTP server, you don't want to retrieve those articles that originated from your own BBS. To prevent this "feedback", KSP-Mail looks at the "From:" line in the header of the news article and discards the article if the domain name in the Internet address matches that of your BBS. For this to work properly, exported news postings must use the domain name style of addressing in the From: line of the header, as in "john.doe@bbs.ksp.com". Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, a default news filter is constructed by concatenating the WATTCP.CFG values specified for "hostname" and "domainslist". For example, with hostname=bbs and domainslist=ksp.com, the default news filter will be "bbs.ksp.com". 3.8.8 UUCP News File Format Syntax: ksp-mail.batch_news=<option> Example: ksp-mail.batch_news=disabled Purpose: By default, KSP-Mail writes UUCP spool files for news in the uncompressed batch format. If you prefer the uncompressed and unbatched format, include this configuration parameter as shown in the example. There is no option to write these files in a compressed format. Comment: This parameter is optional; if used, the only option is "disabled". 3.8.9 Limiting Inbound Article Size Syntax: ksp-mail.max_article_bytes=<number> Example: ksp-mail.max_article_bytes=100000 Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 35 Purpose: To limit the size of inbound news articles. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, the default is NO limit on inbound news article size. Limit applies total article size, including RFC header. 3.9 Command Process Parameters There are several configuration parameters that control how KSP-Mail runs external programs. Most external programs are UUCP utility programs to import/export mail and news between the BBS message base(s) and the UUCP spool files. If you prefer to do this on a separate machine or in a DESQview window, then you may omit all of these configuration parameters from your WATTCP.CFG file. However, KSP-Mail also executes some other external programs such as KSP-SORT.EXE, KSP-TRIM.EXE, and KSP-VRFY.EXE. Execution of all external programs is affected by the setting of the configuration parameter "ksp-mail.dont_swap_to" (see below). 3.9.1 Memory Swapping KSP-Mail normally tries to make as much memory available as possible to run an external command. It does this by saving its own memory image, shrinking down to a small stub, running the command, and then restoring its memory image. KSP-Mail tries first to save its image in XMS memory, then EMS memory, and as a disk file as a last resort. This command allows you to disable one or more of these options. Syntax: ksp-mail.dont_swap_to=<storage_type> Example: ksp-mail.dont_swap_to=xms Purpose: Options that may be disabled are "xms", "ems", and "disk". Comment: If all three options are disabled, then KSP-Mail will not swap itself out of memory while the external command is executed. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 36 3.9.2 Exporting Mail: The UUCP Command Line Syntax: ksp-mail.export_mail_command=<command_line> Alias: ksp-mail.bbsmail2uucp_command Example: ksp-mail.export_mail_command=uuout or: ksp-mail.export_mail_command="uuout -c 5" Purpose: Specifies the command that exports Internet mail from the BBS message base to a UUCP spool directory. Comment: Optional. If the command line text contains one or more spaces, the entire command line must be surrounded by quotation marks (see above example). 3.9.3 Exporting Mail: Scheduling the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.export_mail_seconds=<seconds> Alias: ksp-mail.bbsmail2uucp_seconds Example: ksp-mail.export_mail_seconds=300 Purpose: Specifies how frequently the export_mail command will be executed. Comment: Has no effect is no command is specified. Default period is 60 seconds. 3.9.4 Exporting Mail: Expediting the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.export_mail_trigger=<seconds>,<filespec> Alias: ksp-mail.bbsmail2uucp_trigger Example: ksp-mail.export_mail_trigger=60,c:\pcb\i-email\msgs Purpose: Specifies the name of the BBS message base file for Internet mail and how frequently KSP-Mail should check its size. If growth is detected, KSP-Mail assumes that new outbound mail has been posted and will run the export_mail command. Comment: Has no effect if no command is specified. If used, it will also trigger the export_mail command when new inbound mail is posted to the message base, but this Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 37 should have no detrimental effect. Resets the timer associated with export_mail_seconds. 3.9.5 Importing Mail: The UUCP Command Line Syntax: ksp-mail.import_mail_command=<command_line> Alias: ksp-mail.uucp2bbsmail_command Example: ksp-mail.import_mail_command=uuin or: ksp-mail.import_mail_command="uuin -s mail" Purpose: Specifies the command that imports mail from a UUCP spool directory to the BBS message base for Internet mail. Comment: Optional. If the command line text contains one or more spaces, the entire command line must be surrounded by quotation marks (see above example). 3.9.6 Importing Mail: Scheduling the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.import_mail_seconds=<seconds> Alias: ksp-mail.uucp2bbsmail_seconds Example: ksp-mail.import_mail_seconds=300 Purpose: Specifies how frequently the import_mail command will be executed. Comment: Has no effect is no command is specified. Default period is 60 seconds. 3.9.7 Importing Mail: Expediting the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.import_mail_trigger=<option> Alias: ksp-mail.uucp2bbsmail_trigger Example: ksp-mail.import_mail_trigger=on_arrival Purpose: Specifies that KSP-Mail should execute the import_mail command immediately after writing the mail to the UUCP spool directory. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 38 Comment: The only option allowed is "on_arrival". 3.9.8 Exporting News: The UUCP Command Line Syntax: ksp-mail.export_news_command=<command_line> Alias: ksp-mail.bbsnews2uucp_command Example: ksp-mail.export_news_command=uuout or: ksp-mail.export_news_command="uuout -c 5" Purpose: Specifies the command that exports news postings from the BBS message base to a UUCP spool directory. Comment: Optional. If the command line text contains one or more spaces, the entire command line must be surrounded by quotation marks (see above example). 3.9.9 Exporting News: Scheduling the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.export_news_seconds=<seconds> Alias: ksp-mail.bbsnews2uucp_seconds Example: ksp-mail.export_news_seconds=300 Purpose: Specifies how frequently the export_mail command will be executed. Comment: Has no effect if no command is specified. Default period is 60 seconds. 3.9.10 Importing News: The UUCP Command Line Syntax: ksp-mail.import_news_command=<command_line> Alias: ksp-mail.uucp2bbsnews_command Example: ksp-mail.import_news_command=uuin or: ksp-mail.import_news_command="uuin -s news" Purpose: Specifies the command that imports messages from a UUCP spool directory to the BBS message base for Usenet news. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 39 Comment: Optional. If the command line text contains one or more spaces, the entire command line must be surrounded by quotation marks (see above example). 3.9.11 Importing News: Expediting the Command Syntax: ksp-mail.import_news_trigger=on_arrival Alias: ksp-mail.uucp2bbsnews_trigger Example: ksp-mail.import_news_trigger=on_arrival Purpose: Specifies that KSP-Mail should execute the import_news command immediately after writing the news to the UUCP spool directory. Comment: The only option allowed is "on_arrival". 3.10 Set-Clock Parameters The following configuration parameters apply to the Set-Clock thread. 3.10.1 The Remote Time Server(s) Syntax: ksp-mail.time_server=<ip_address | domain_name> Example: ksp-mail.time_server=129.295.261.1 ksp-mail.time_server=time.nist.gov Purpose: Specifies the remote time server that is used to set the time and date on the KSP-Mail machine. Comment: This parameter is required only by Set-Time. This parameter may be repeated to specify alternative servers in the order of preference. IP addresses are preferred over domain names to avoid name server lookups at startup. 3.10.2 How Often the Clock is Set Syntax: ksp-mail.set_clock_hours=<hours> Example: ksp-mail.set_clock_hours=12 Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 40 Purpose: Specifies how often KSP-Mail contacts the remote time server to set the local time and date. Comment: Default is once every 24 hours. 3.11 Other Parameters The following configuration parameters apply to both mail and news. 3.11.1 Server Timeout Syntax: ksp-mail.server_timeout=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.server_timeout=600 Purpose: Determines the maximum time a KSP-Mail server process will wait for a command when connected to a remote client. When this time limit expires, the connection is aborted. Used by Mail-In and (pushed) News-In. Comment: This parameter is optional; if ommitted, the server timeout defaults to 300 seconds (5 minutes). 3.11.2 Client Timeout Syntax: ksp-mail.client_timeout=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.client_timeout=600 Purpose: Determines the maximum time a KSP-Mail client process will wait for a response when connected to a remote server. When this time limit expires, the connection is aborted. Used by Mail-Out, News-Out, (pulled) News-In, and Set-Clock. Comment: This parameter is optional; if ommitted, the client timeout defaults to 300 seconds (5 minutes). 3.11.3 Close Timeout Syntax: ksp-mail.close_timeout=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.close_timeout=10 Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 41 Purpose: Determines the maximum time allowed to close a connection with a remote host. When this time limit expires, KSP-Mail simply aborts the connection. Comment: This parameter is optional; if ommitted, the close timeout defaults to 10 seconds. 3.11.4 Retrieving Hostnames Syntax: ksp-mail.retrieve_hostnames=<option> Example: ksp-mail.retrieve_hostnames=enabled Purpose: If enabled, IP addresses of remote hosts will be translated into hostnames using the domain name server to provide a reliable identification of the remote host. Otherwise, only IP addresses will be used. Affects both the display and the log files. Comment: Default is disabled. No other processes can run while doing a DNS lookup; this usually isn't a problem because translation of IP addresses into domain names is normally quite fast and only occurs once when a connection is established. 3.11.5 Checking for Outbound Mail and News Syntax: ksp-mail.outbound_check_seconds=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.outbound_check_seconds=10 Purpose: Specifies how often KSP-Mail checks the UUCP spool directories for outbound news and mail. Comment: Default is once every 5 seconds. 3.11.6 Triggering an Exit Syntax: ksp-mail.exit_spec=<filespec>[,<seconds>] Example: ksp-mail.exit_spec=c:\ksp\ksp-exit.*,5 Purpose: If a file matching <filespec> is created while KSP-Mail is running, the file will be deleted and then as soon as KSP-Mail reaches a stable state, it will exit with Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 42 an error code given by the three-digit filename extension of the matching file. The <filespec> string may contain wildcards. Comment: This parameter is optional; The <seconds> subparameter specifies how frequently the check for file existence is made; if not specified, it defaults to once every 10 seconds. 3.11.7 Retry After Server Timeout Syntax: ksp-mail.outbound_retry_seconds=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.outbound_retry_seconds=3600 Purpose: If a timeout occurs while waiting on a remote server to respond, this parameter specifies how long to delay before trying that server again. Comment: Default is 600 seconds (10 minutes) or twice ksp-mail.outbound_check_seconds, whichever is greater. 3.11.8 Avoiding File Sharing Violations Syntax: ksp-mail.share_delay_seconds=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.share_delay_seconds=10 Purpose: Used to eliminate file sharing violations. Specifies how long KSP-Mail delays before reading outbound UUCP files once they have been found in the spool directory. Comment: Default is 0 seconds. 3.11.9 Sequence Naming of UUCP Files Syntax: ksp-mail.sequence_file=<filespec> Example: ksp-mail.sequence_file=d:\pcb\uucp\ksp-mail.seq Purpose: Specifies the location where the sequence file will be kept. This file controls the naming algorithm used to create inbound UUCP spool files for mail and news. Comment: This parameter is optional; if omitted, a sequence file Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 43 will automatically be created in the same directory where KSP-MAIL.EXE is located. 3.11.10 Silencing the Console Bell Syntax: ksp-mail.local_bell=<option> Example: ksp-mail.local_bell=disabled Purpose: Prevents KSP-Mail from ringing the bell when an error occurs. Comment: This parameter is optional; if used, the only option is "disabled". 3.11.11 The Log File Directory Syntax: ksp-mail.log_directory=<directory_spec> Example: ksp-mail.log_directory=d:\pcb\uucp\logs Purpose: Specifies the directory where the process logs (if any) will be stored. These files include MAIL-IN1.LOG through MAIL-IN4.LOG, MAIL-OUT.LOG, NEWS-IN.LOG, NEWS-OUT.LOG, and SETCLOCK.LOG. File size may be controlled with the "verbose" parameter (see below); files are not created unless their corresponding process does some work. Comment: This parameter is optional; if not specified, no log files will be created. 3.11.12 Controlling Information Overload Syntax: ksp-mail.verbose=<option> Example: ksp-mail.verbose=log_files and: ksp-mail.verbose=on_screen Purpose: Controls the amount of information written on the screen and in the log files. The default is that only minimal information is written; more detail can be enabled by use of one or both of the examples shown above. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 44 3.11.13 Limiting Growth of Log Files Syntax: ksp-mail.log_days_newsin=<days> or: ksp-mail.log_days_mailin=<days> or: ksp-mail.log_days_newsout=<days> or: ksp-mail.log_days_mailout=<days> or: ksp-mail.log_days_setclock=<days> or: ksp-mail.log_days_extcmds=<days> Example: ksp-mail.log_days_newsin=1 Purpose: KSP-Mail makes use of a program called KSP-TRIM.EXE to limit the growth of log files. Just after each process (Mail-In, News-Out, etc.) runs for the first time on a new day (i.e., just after midnight), KSP-Mail will load and execute KSP-TRIM to remove old entries from the associated log file. The entries removed are those whose date is older than the number of days specified by this parameter. Comment: These parameters are optional; all defaults are seven days. For performance reasons, each log file now has an associated index file (e.g., NEWS-OUT.LOG and NEWS-OUT.IDX) that records the position of dated entries in the log. 3.11.14 Monitoring Program Condition Syntax: ksp-mail.monitor=<option> Example: ksp-mail.monitor=memory or: ksp-mail.monitor=speed or: ksp-mail.monitor=error Purpose: These configuration parameters are used to enable monitoring of three program statistics. "memory" displays (at the top of the screen) the minimum amount of program heap and stack space remaining. "speed" displays the number of threads executed per second in the upper right-hand corner. When an error occurs, "error" causes the active window to change to that in which an error occurred. Comment: These parameters are optional; each defaults to not being monitored. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 45 3.11.15 Controlling the Screen Saver Syntax: ksp-mail.screen_saver_seconds=<seconds> Example: ksp-mail.screen_saver_seconds=60 Purpose: Controls the number of seconds before the screen saver is activated. Comment: This parameter is optional; default is 60 seconds (one minute). The timer starts when all processes are idle; the screen will not go blank as long as at least one process is busy. Setting this parameter to zero disables the screen saver. 3.11.16 The "OK" file Syntax: ksp-mail.ok_filespec=<filespec>[,<seconds>] Example: ksp-mail.ok_filespec=c:\ksp\ksp-mail.ok,600 Purpose: Specifies the name of a zero-byte file to be created on a periodic basis. The period defaults to once every 60 seconds, but may be adjusted by appending the second parameter. Existence of this file with a recent date stamp (relative to the period) implies that everything is running ok. Comment: This parameter is optional; if not specified, no file will be created. Default period is 60 seconds (one minute). Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 46 CHAPTER 4 - THE USER INTERFACE The KSP-Mail user interface consists of nine status screens and a set of keystrokes to move among them. Up to four screens are associated with the Mail-In process(es), and one each for Mail-Out, News-In, News-Out, and Set-Clock. Another screen displays a brief status summary of all processes. All screens are constantly updated, whether or not they are currently being displayed. The Summary Screen is displayed when KSP-Mail starts execution. Each press of the spacebar moves you to the next display screen in a cyclic fashion. Pressing the Escape Key terminates the program. 4.1 The "Hot-Keys" A set of active "Hot-Keys" appear in the lower left-hand corner of each screen, with one Hot-Key for each active display window. If one or more of the processes (Mail-In, Mail-Out, News-In, News-Out) are inactive, their Hot-Keys will not be shown. The key associated with the current screen will be highlighted. Pressing a Hot-Key will move you directly to its corresponding display screen as follows: "M" The Mail-Out Process "1" Mail-In Process #1 "2" Mail-In Process #2 "3" Mail-In Process #4 "4" Mail-In Process #4 "N" The News-Out Process "I" The News-In Process "C" The Set-Clock Process "S" The Summary Screen 4.2 The Spinner In the upper right-hand corner of each screen is an rotating "spinner". It progresses from one position to the next for each "N" executions of the active threads (processes), where "N" is calculated periodically so as to make it spin at a relatively constant 75 revolutions per second. The spinner is provided as a visual confirmation that KSP-Mail is operating properly - cycling through the active processes looking for work to do, and to confirm that no one process is blocking concurrent execution Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 47 of the other processes. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 48 CHAPTER 5 - REMOTE SYSTEM MANAGEMENT KSP-Mail provides an extensive set of system management commands that allow you to remotely view or modify a large number of operating parameters. To enable this capability, you must first establish a system management password using the following configuration parameter: Syntax: ksp-mail.remote_management_password=<password> Example: ksp-mail.remote_management_password=mothergoose Purpose: Specifies a password to be used with the "HELO <password>" that will enable the remote system management commands. Comment: This parameter is optional; if not specified, the remote system management commands will be disabled. Remote system management of your KSP-Mail machine is available from anywhere in the world. Simply telnet to port 25 (or 119 if the NNTP server for "pushed" news is configured) at the IP address (or hostname) of the KSP-Mail machine, as in: telnet mailer.ksp.com 25 (If using KSP Telnet, use "mailer.ksp.com:25") This will connect you as a client to one of KSP-Mail's ESMTP server processes (or the NNTP server if using port 119). Once connected, you must enter the command: HELO <password> where "<password>" is replaced by the password you established with the "ksp-mail.remote_management_password" parameter in the WATTCP.CFG file. The system management commands will only be available if the HELO command has been given with the correct password. Since the HELO command is usually followed by a domain name, it would be a good idea if your password did not resemble one. The following commands and their command line arguments may be abbreviated by unambiguous substrings. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 49 5.1 The HELP Command Syntax: HELP or: HELP <command> Example: HELP or: HELP LIST Purpose: To display help on one or more system management commands. 5.2 The LIST Command Syntax: LIST or: LIST <list> or: LIST ADD <list> <item> or: LIST DEL <list> <item> Example: LIST Mail-Out-Servers or: LIST ADD News-Hours 12 or: LIST DEL News-In-Servers 129.215.88.7 Purpose: To display the contents of a managed list, or to add an item to a list, or to delete an item from a list. Comment: The names of lists managed by this command may be viewed by entering the command with no command line arguments. The value of "<item>" must be an IP address or a single hour of the day (in 24-hour format). 5.3 The PROCESS Command Syntax: PROCESS <process> or: PROCESS PAUSE <process> or: PROCESS RESUME <process> Example: PROCESS News-Out or: PROCESS PAUSE Set-Clock Purpose: To display the current status of one or more processes, or to pause or resume a selected process. Comment: The names of processes managed by this command may be viewed by entering the command with no command line arguments. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 50 5.4 The QUIT Command Syntax: QUIT Purpose: To close the current management session. 5.5 The STATS Command Syntax: STATS or: STATS RESET Purpose: To display a short summary of system status including the count of mail messages and news articles imported and exported, how long KSP-Mail has been running, and information about utilization of system file handles and memory. Comment: The optional command line parameter "RESET" sets the message and article counts to zero. 5.6 The VALUE Command Syntax: VALUE or: VALUE <parameter> or: VALUE <parameter> <value> Purpose: To display or modify the setting of one or more operating parameters. Comment: The names of parameters managed by this command may be viewed by entering the command with no command line arguments. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 51 CHAPTER 6 - INSTALLING YOUR ACCESS KEY The unlicensed version of KSP-Mail limits each inbound and outbound mail or news message to a maximum of five lines. To remove this limit, you must purchase an access key and install it as described below. There are two parameters that must be specified in two environment variables called "KSP-ID" and "KSP-MAIL" in order to install your access key. The environment variable "KSP-ID" is used to specify your BBS name, as in: set KSP-ID=Key Software Products BBS The name of your BBS is always displayed KSP-Mail is running. The environment variable "KSP-MAIL" is used to specify your access key as in: set KSP-MAIL=12345678 The access key is derived from the name of your BBS and of course must match. If not, then the message "EVALUATION COPY: Messages limited to 5 lines" will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 52 APPENDIX 1 - TEMPORARY FILES CREATED BY KSP-MAIL The following temporary files are created during the execution of KSP-Mail. Filename Used By Description ARTICLES.$$$ News-In List of article IDs for the (Pulled) current newsgroup. MAILLIST.$$$ Mail-Out List of filenames containing messages to be exported. NEWSLIST.$$$ News-Out List of filenames containing articles to be posted. POSTED.IDX News-In List of articles used to (Pulled) prevent duplicate postings. POSTED.$$$ KSP-PACK Used to remove unnecessary entries in POSTED.IDX file. RCPT-TO1.$$$ Mail-In Keeps track of (multiple) RCPT-TO2.$$$ recipients for an inbound RCPT-TO3.$$$ email message. RCPT-TO4.$$$ SORTED.$$$ News-In Used to sort list of newsgroups, and list of articles to import. SMTPVRFY.ERR KSP-VRFY Contains error message used PCB-VRFY in logs by KSP-Mail. MAIL-IN1.$$$ KSP-TRIM Temporary filenames used while MAIL-OUT.$$$ creating trimmed log files. NEWS-IN.$$$ NEWS-OUT.$$$ SETCLOCK.$$$ USERNAME.$$$ KSP-VRFY Temporary filenames used while creating username database. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 53 APPENDIX 2 - HOW TO REACH US The Key Software Products BBS/FAX number (415-364-9847) operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Software at our end automatically determines whether an incoming call is data or FAX and will operate accordingly. If you have access to electronic mail, you can send us a message via any of the following: On COMPUSERVE, send mail to: >Internet:tech.support@ksp.com On Internet, UUCP, or Bitnet, send mail to: tech.support@ksp.com On Fidonet, address mail to "UUCP" at nearest fidonet site which provides a gateway to Internet, such as 1:105/42. 1st line of message: To: tech.support@ksp.com Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 54 APPENDIX 3 - GETTING UPDATES VIA THE INTERNET The main distribution file is KSPMTS??.ZIP, where "??" is the version number. You can retrieve this file via anonymous ftp at "scizzl.scu.edu", directory "ksp". Please note that there is no "e" at the end of "scizzl". This file is also available from the KSP BBS. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved Sep 07, 1996 KSP-Mail (tm) v3.1 55 APPENDIX 4 - LEGAL STUFF LIMITED WARRANTY This software is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusions may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. Key Software Products has taken due care in preparing the documentation and software included in to ascertain their correctness and effectiveness. However, Key Software Products does not warrant that operation of this software will be uninterrupted or error free. In no event shall Key Software Products be liable for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the furnishing, performance, or use of this software. LICENSE You MAY use this software on any computer or computers in your possession. The licensed version is registered for use on up to a fixed number of BBS nodes running on multiple machines and/or multiple multi-tasking processes. You MAY copy this software into any machine readable or printed form for backup or modification purposes in support of your use of the software. You MAY distribute the original unmodified, unlicensed version of this software, but you may not charge a fee exceeding $5.00 to cover the cost of duplicating, shipping, and handling. You may NOT distribute a licensed version of this software. You may NOT use, copy, modify, sublicense, assign or transfer this software and its license, or any copy or modification, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. Copyright (C) 1995-96, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved