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Volume 4, Number 26 13 July 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1987 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA. Five Weeks to FidoCon! Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Hotline! (1) ............................................. 1 2400 Baud At The Right Price ............................. 4 Talking ASSEMBLER (Number #3) ............................ 5 THE DIRTY DOZEN -- An Uploaded Program Alert List ........ 11 Running 2 BBS's, or CHOOSEr.exe to have FUN! ............. 20 International Vietnam Veterans EchoConference Anniversa .. 23 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 25 Borland's Turbo C: Review, part 2 ........................ 25 From the Broadcasters Booth - routing .................... 29 The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 32 3. WANTED ................................................... 37 INFORMATION "FEEDS" WANTED ............................... 37 4. NOTICES .................................................. 38 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 38 Latest Software Versions ................................. 38 International FidoNet Conference Registration Form ....... 39 IFNA Board of Directors Ballot ........................... 40 FidoNews 4-26 Page 1 13 Jul 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= James Zachary Fido 115/537 Hotline! (1) (c) 1987 James Zachary On any given day, at any given moment, the phone at the water and sewage department can ring with a crisis call. Southeast Treatment Plant, this is Zack. "Ahem, err, why are ... uhhh are you adding ... uhhhmmm, why are you putting ammonia in our drinking water ...?" Pardon me? "Uhhh, in my drinking water ... in my fish-tank ..." You drink the water from your fish-tank? "Uhhhh, errr, nooooo, I uh ..." Sir, we have a terrible connection, sounds like you're talking into a garbage can ... "Hold on a sec ... THERE! IS THAT BETTER? I WAS ON MY NEW SPEAKER PHONE!" What else are you on? "'SCUSE ME?" Never mind. Don't shout, I can hear ya fine now. You said your fish-tank tastes funny? "Uhhhh, nooooo. All my fish died so I tested the water and it has ammonia in it." What's your point? "The water in my fish-tank came from our faucet ... it's regular drinking water from you. Your ammonia killed my fish!" We don't add ammonia to our water. Some of the large systems do, to form chloramines so they can carry a chlorine residual for great distances, but we don't do that. "Now wait a minute! I tested the water, both in the fish tank and from the faucet and it has ammonia in it!" I see. How much ammonia?. FidoNews 4-26 Page 2 13 Jul 1987 "Five." Five ...? Five what? Five parts per million, parts per billion, parts per trillion...? "Uhhhhh, it just says five." What kind of equipment are you using? "Well, I dunno but it cost me PLENTY! I spent $12 on it to find out YOU killed my fish! It has test tubes and a color chart! I went to college, you know!" Uh huh, I'm sure your mother is proud. Look, friend, let me assure you our lab, as well as the EPA lab, cost a tad more than $12. Both labs are certified for technique and accuracy and their results show the drinking water has barely enough ammonia to measure. "You mean I wasted $12?" Looks that way. "But my fish are all dead! The tank even smells like ammonia!" How big was the tank and how many fish were in it? "It was a 10 gallon tank and I had 50 black mollies in it." Wonderful. You had 50 fish in a 10 gallon tank? "Sure! The book that came with the tank said ..." Whoa! Listen, ammonia may have played a part in bumping your fish off but the ammonia came from their own waste. "Their own waste? I don't understand!" Waste ... excrement ... in college terms, your fish made wee wee in the water... "Oooooh......." ... and they made big poo poo ... "Ahhhh, but my filter removes all that!" Right. When was the last time you cleaned your filter? "Why, NEVER! This filter turns the waste into air by rotifer reaction so it never needs cleaning. It worked fine for a month!" Sir, have you ever considered changing hobbies to something other than tropical fish? FidoNews 4-26 Page 3 13 Jul 1987 "Well, I USED to raise tropical plants until YOUR water killed them!" How often did you water them? "At least four times a day ..." Maybe you'd consider raising hydroponic pet rocks. "C L I C K ! ! " Sometimes it doesn't pay to be helpful ... ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 4 13 Jul 1987 Jean Coppola 107/201 2400 Baud At The Right Price Recently I was looking for a new 2400 baud modem and decided to look around a bit. After seeing the prices on Hayes and Courier, I knew I had to go with a clone if I wanted 2400 baud at this time! After searching around I found the MAXUM 2400 baud modem at a very reasonable $199.95 from a rather large discount store in the area. (47th Street Photo) So, I plunked down the green and took this little joy home to see if I had been ripped off or not. To my surprise, it turned out to be a rather good purchase! It claimed to be Hayes compatible, but many of us have seen that before, and I for one was a little wary. But I was wrong to worry! I opened the box, plugged it in, and set Opus for Hayes 2400 and away we went. Both Opus and SEAdog recognized it as a Hayes 2400, and all the command sequences built into both pieces of software work fine with it! I have tested it now with both normal communications and file transfers with all the popular protocols, and have not found any increase in errors over 1200 baud transfers. But of course, it is much quicker, especially when you use the SEAlink transfer protocol and even faster when using some of the newer protocols. In all fairness, there was one problem that I could not solve by normal methods. For some unexplained reason, no matter what command sequence I fed it, I could not shut off the speaker, or lower the volume. Unlike most other external modems, there is no outside volume control. So a quick call to the dealer who was as stumped as I was. Being handy with tools, the speaker is now shut off! All in all, a very good purchase for someone looking for an inexpensive 2400 baud external modem. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 5 13 Jul 1987 TALKING ASSEMBLER 3 by Ned Sturzer Chattanooga, Tennessee OpusNODE 362/1 The machine instructions are the soul of Assembler and we will examine them in great detail. Each instruction may have two operands, one operand, or even no operands. Most instructions refer to memory locations, registers, port addresses, or immediate data. The manner in which these locations are referred to are known as addressing modes. Some instructions allow for implied operands and the operand is not indicated. For example, the instruction cbw takes the high-order bit in the AL register and places the same value in all the bits of AH. In effect, cbw extends the sign of AL to AH. In this instruction the operands are in the implied addressing mode. Immediate data is allowed in the operands of many instructions as in int 9 or in mov pointer,417H where pointer is a label for a memory address. In direct memory addressing the operand is in the form segment:offset an example being test di,ss:4ee7H Based operands refer to the memory location computed by adding a displacement, disp, to the value in DS:BX, CS:BX, SS:BX, or ES:BX. You may also use DS:BP, CS:BP, SS:BP, or ES:BP. DS:BX may be written simply as BX, while SS:BP may be expressed as BP. If the displacement resolves to 0 it is not written. Among valid ways of writing based operands are disp.[BX] ES:[BP]+disp [disp][BX] Now consider the instruction xchg [bx-3],di where bx contains the value a06b. Our instruction will exchange the contents of the di register with whatever value is in the two bytes of memory ds:a069 and ds:a06a. If the displacement is 0 it need not be indicated. Indexed operands are treated similarly to based operands except the si and di registers are used. With either si or di the default segment register is ds. An exception to this is that if di is used in string instructions such as stos or lodsw then the FidoNews 4-26 Page 6 13 Jul 1987 default segment register used with di is es. In this case es cannot be overriden. Based indexed operands use a displacement in conjunction with one register from either bp or bx and one register from either si or di. As you would expect by now the default segment register if bp used is ss and otherwise the default segment register is ds. Also if based indexed operands are used in string instructions then di forces the segment register to be es. As an illustration consider the instruction cmp byte ptr es:[bp+6][di],0feH where es:bp has the value b800:0147 and ds:di has the value 0000:0200. This instruction then compares the contents of the memory location b800:034d with fe. If based indexed operands seem complicated - they are. However, they allow you to do some fancy footwork through memory. Before moving on to examine the individual instructions I need to tie up a loose end. Whenever register IP is used to refer to a memory location the reference is always to location cs:ip. Similarly if register SP is used to refer to memory the location ss:sp is intended. I'll group the machine op codes according to their function, indicate the flags affected after the operation is performed, give the nature and size of the operands, and give examples. I. Logical Operators The logical operators AND, NOT, OR, and XOR (exclusive or) perform the bit-by-bit logical operations their names imply. The result is stored in the first operand. They are used to gain access to the individual bits of a byte or word. A. AND ax/al,immed Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 B. AND r/m,immed 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 C. AND r,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 D. AND m,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 E. AND r,m 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 To explain the shorthand I'll use: In the operand area r is any register other than a segment register, m is any memory location, and immed stands for immediate data. Should a specific register be used it will be indicated as in form A. If the size of the operands (8 or 16 bits) is not implied by the form of the FidoNews 4-26 Page 7 13 Jul 1987 instruction I have indicated it. The flags are affected as indicated where =? means the flag may be changed arbitrarily. Consider AND al,01101000B where ax contains 01000011B. After the instruction is performed al will contain 01000000B, C=0, P=0, Z=0, S=0, O=0, and A is arbitrary. Form A is distinguished from form B since it requires one less byte in memory to store the instruction. AND is used to clear specific bits to 0 while keeping the other bits intact. F. NOT r/m 8 or 16 bits Flags: none NOT simply interchanges all the bits of the operand. Thus in NOT word ptr [bp+di] if bp contains 0050, di contains 0017, ss contains 0040, and 0040:0067 to 0040:0068 contain the word a51c, then after the operation this word will contain 5ae3. Note that it is here necessary to tell the Assembler that we are considering a word since there is nothing in the instruction which otherwise indicates the length of the operand. G. OR ax/al,immed Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 H. OR r/m,immed 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 I. OR r,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 J. OR m,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 K. OR r,m 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 L. XOR ax/al,immed Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 M. XOR r/m,immed 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 N. XOR r,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 O. XOR m,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 P. XOR r,m 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 The OR instruction allows you to set specific bits to 1 while the other bits are unchanged. XOR is used to reverse specific bits keeping the others as they were. Also the XOR instruction provides an efficient way of setting a register or memory location to 0. For example XOR bx,bx sets bx to 0. FidoNews 4-26 Page 8 13 Jul 1987 II. Other Bit Manipulators The TEST instruction and the various shift and rotate commands are akin to to logical operators in that they perform bit manipulation. A. TEST ax/al,immed Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 B. TEST r/m,immed 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 C. TEST r,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 D. TEST m,r 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 E. TEST r,m 8 or 16 bits Flags:C=0, P, A=?, Z, S, O=0 TEST is similar to AND in that it performs an AND but does not alter either operand. Only the flags are adjusted. TEST may be used to determine the bit settings of specific bits. F. SHL r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O G. SHL r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O The SHL command shifts the contents of the first operand either one bit left or by the number of bits indicated in the cl register. The low order bits vacated by this operation are replaced by zeros. Should cl contain a value greater than or equal to the length of the first operand then the operand will become 0. As long as no ones bits are shifted out then SHL multiplies by powers of two. For example, mov cl,3 shl byte ptr ds:0143 multiplies the contents of the byte at ds:0143 by 8 if ds:0143 originally has zeros in its high order three bits. Be aware that the Macro Assembler, MASM, accepts the mnemonic SAL which performs the same function as SHL. Oddly, SYMDEB and DEBUG do not recognize SAL in the -a command. The convention used by the 8088 chip is that if an integer is regarded as signed then the high order bit is the sign bit. A 1 in the sign bit means a negative number and a 0 means a positive number. With this in mind we can understand the rules used to set the flag bits in shift and rotate operations. The carry flag is set to the last bit pushed out of the end of the operand. The overflow flag is undefined if the second operand is a cl and cl has a value other than 1. if the second operand is 1 or if it is cl with a value of 1, then FidoNews 4-26 Page 9 13 Jul 1987 the overflow flag is set to 1 if the sign bit changes. Otherwise the overflow flag is cleared to 0. H. SHR r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O I. SHR r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O This is a shift right with the vacated bits replaced by zeros. SHR acts as an integer divide by powers of two as long as no ones bits are shifted out. J. SAR r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, P, A=?, Z, S, O K. SAR r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, P, A=?, Z, S, O This is an arithmetic shift right instruction which functions similarly to SHR. The difference, besides the effect on the flags, is that the vacated bits are filled by the sign bit. Thus the result of the sequence mov al,8f mov cl,3 sar al,cl is that al will contain f1. L. ROL r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O M. ROL r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O This rotate left instruction acts like the SHL command except that the value in the high order bit of the first operand replaces the value vacated in bit 0. Therefore if dh contains 7e and cl contains 2 then ROL dh,cl will leave dh with f9. N. ROR r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O O. ROR r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O The rotate right instruction, ROR, is the analog of ROL except that the value in bit 0 replaces the value vacated in the high order bit of the first operand. P. RCR r/m,1 FidoNews 4-26 Page 10 13 Jul 1987 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O Q. RCR r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O Rotate right through carry, RCR, is similar to ROR but here the value in bit 0 is placed in the carry flag and the value in the carry flag is placed in the high order bit of the first operand. R. RCL r/m,1 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O S. RCL r/m,cl 8 or 16 bits Flags:C, O RCL is the left rotating version of RCR. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IFNA, FIDONEWS, FIDO AND OPUS SYSOPS ARE GRANTED A NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENSE TO COPY, PROCESS, AND DISTRIBUTE THIS ARTICLE IN ANY MATTER THEY SEE FIT. COMMERCIAL RIGHTS GRANTED AT NO COST UPON WRITTEN REQUEST TO THE AUTHOR. REQUESTS MY BE SENT BY FIDO MAIL TO 362/1, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE OR BY LOGGING ON AT (615) 892-7773. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 11 13 Jul 1987 THE DIRTY DOZEN -- An Uploaded Program Alert List Issue #7 Compiled by Eric Newhouse Recently, many unlawfully copied or modified programs have appeared on various IBM PC bulletin boards across the country. THE DIRTY DOZEN is a list of known examples. There are four major categories of bad software: commercial pirate jobs, unauthorized copies of otherwise legitimate freeware programs, malicious "TROJAN" programs which damage your system, and miscellaneous illegal software. Please look in the definitions section of this document for a more detailed explanation of these terms. SysOps: Please be careful with the files you post in your download libraries! An professional quality uploaded game or disk utility should arouse your suspicions, especially if it doesn't include the author's name, address, and distribution policy. Such programs are probably NOT public domain! The BBS community is already under legislative threat at the State and Federal level. We cannot fight this trend effectively while our directories sit stocked with cracked Sega games, wargames dialers, and malicious "trojan horses!" Let's demonstrate a little social responsibility by cleaning up our download libraries. If you as a SysOp have any of these files on your system, please delete them and post "blocking" dummy file entries like this one: ZAXXON.COM DELETED!! NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN!! If everyone works together to fight this new brand of software, the growing numbers of piraters and trojan horse writers may well be put 'out of business!' The idea behind THE DIRTY DOZEN is to bring this important issue to the attention of more SysOps and users - to act as an information "clearing -house" for the latest known examples of "bogusware," so that an educated public can fight effectively for safe downloadable files. The Dirty Dozen is a big project, and it needs your help to succeed! Please call in any updates of bad software that you know of, but DO NOT modify this article yourself. If everyone who discovers a pirated program starts modifying the DD, there would be hundreds of issues in circulation. Also, I think it's quite unfair, especially considering that I've spent over a hundred hours of my time on this list, for just anyone to put their name at the top of the list and say that they write, or helped write, the DD. For example, someone named Gerhard Barth added two files, both of which were already listed in the DD, and proceeded to write "Updated by Gerhard Barth, FidoNews 4-26 Page 12 13 Jul 1987 please send all further updates to Gerhard Barth," etc. If everyone does this, how will anyone know which file is the latest and TRUE Dirty Dozen? If you have an update, please see the end of this article for information on how to reach me with new information. A word on TROJANS: I have been hearing more and more reports of these "worm" programs, from all directions. While I don't doubt their existence, do not get hysterical. Remember, a Trojan rumor is much easier to START than it is to STOP. Some people have accused legitimate *joke* programs, like DRAIN (which pretends to be gurgling excess water out of your A drive) of being "killers." If a program locks up your system, it isn't necessarily Trojan; it might not like co-residing with Superkey, or your graphics card. Ask around a little before you announce something as Trojan. I would appreciate a bagged specimen of any real Trojan program that you might have the (un)luck to find. A word on Pirated programs: Recently many pirated programs such as AUTODEX have been going under many different names. Although I will try to keep all these names current in the DD, the best way to check for piracy in a file is to run that file yourself -- checking for (C)opyright notices of commercial manufactures, similarities in looks and operations of commercial programs, and of course whether the name is in this list. Finally I want to thank all BBS SysOps and users that notified me of updates, additions, and/or corrections to DIRTYDOZ.006. It's great to see so much support! In this issue more people than ever called in with updates. Everyone else who reads this list, along with myself, really appreciates the effort! NOTE: If I do not supply a file extension, that means that the file circulates under many different extensions. For instance, users commonly upload with extensions of either: .EXE, .COM, .EQE, .CQM, .LBR, .LQR, and .ARC. TROJAN HORSE PROGRAMS: Name Category Notes ANTI-PCB *TROJAN* The story behind this trojan horse is sickening. Apparently one RBBS-PC sysop and one PC-BOARD sysop started feuding about which BBS system is better, and in the end the PC-BOARD sysop wrote a trojan and uploaded it to the rbbs SysOp under ANTI-PCB.COM. Of course the RBBS-PC SysOp ran it, and that led to quite a few accusations and a big mess in general. Let's grow up! Every SysOp has the right to run the type of BBS that they please, and the FidoNews 4-26 Page 13 13 Jul 1987 fact that a SysOp actually wrote a trojan intended for another simply blows my mind. ARC513.EXE *TROJAN* This hacked version of arc appears normal, so beware! It will write over track 0 of your [hard] disk upon usage, destroying the disk. ARC514.COM *TROJAN* This is totally similar to arc version 5.13 in that it will overwrite track 0 (FAT Table) of your hard disk. Also, I have yet to see an .EXE version of this program.. BACKTALK *TROJAN* This program used to be a good PD utility, but some one changed it to be trojan. Now this program will write/destroy sectors on your [hard] disk drive. Use this with caution if you acquire it, because it's more than likely that you got a bad copy. CDIR.COM *TROJAN* This program is supposed to give you a color directory of files on disk, but it in fact will scramble your disks FAT table. DANCERS.BAS *TROJAN* This trojan shows some animated dancers in color, and then proceeds to wipe out your [hard] disk's FAT table. There is another perfectly good copy of DANCERS.BAS on BBS's around the country; apparently the idiot author in question altered a legitimate program to do his dirty work. DISKSCAN.EXE *TROJAN* This was a PC-MAGAZINE program to scan a (hard) disk for bad sectors, but then a joker edited it to WRITE bad sectors. Also look for this under other names such as SCANBAD.EXE and BADDISK.EXE... DMASTER *TROJAN* This is yet another FAT scrambler.. DOSKNOWS.EXE *TROJAN* I'm still tracking this one down -- apparently someone wrote a FAT killer and renamed it DOSKNOWS.EXE, so it would be confused with the real, harmless DOSKNOWS system-status utility. All I know for sure is that the REAL DOSKNOWS.EXE is 5376 bytes long. If you see something called DOSKNOWS that isn't close to that size, sound the alarm. More info on this one is welcomed -- a bagged specimen FidoNews 4-26 Page 14 13 Jul 1987 especially. DPROTECT *TROJAN* Apparently someone tampered with the original, legitimate version of DPROTECT and turned it into a FAT table eater. DROID.EXE *TROJAN* This trojan appears under the guise of a game. You are supposedly an architect that controls futuristic droids in search of relics. In fact, PC-Board sysops, if they run this program from C:\PCBOARD, will find that it copies C:\PCBOARD\PCBOARD.DAT to C:\PCBOARD\HELP\HLPX. In case you were wondering, the file size of the .EXE file is 54,272 bytes. EGABTR *TROJAN* BEWARE! Description says something like "improve your EGA display," but when run it deletes everything in sight and prints "Arf! Arf! Got you!" EMMCACHE *CAREFUL* This program is not exactly a trojan, but it may have the capability of destroying hard disks by: A) Scrambling every file modified after running the program, B) Destroying boot sectors. This program has damaged at least two hard disks, yet there is a base of happily registered users. Therefore, I advise extreme caution if you decide to use this program. FILER.EXE *TROJAN* One SysOp complained a while ago that this program wiped out his 20 Megabyte HD. I'm not so sure that he was correct and/or telling the truth any more. I have personally tested an excellent file manager also named FILER.EXE, and it worked perfectly. Also, many other SysOp's have written to tell me that they have like me used a FILER.EXE with no problems. If you get a program named FILER.EXE, it is probably alright, but better to test it first using some security measures. FINANCE4.ARC *CAREFUL* This program is not a verified trojan; there is simply a file going around BBS's warning that it may be trojan. In any case, execute extreme care with it. FidoNews 4-26 Page 15 13 Jul 1987 FUTURE.BAS *TROJAN* This "program" starts out with a very nice color picture (of what I don't know) and then proceeds to tell you that you should be using your computer for better things than games and graphics. After making that point it trashes your A: drive, B:, C:, D:, and so on until it has erased all drives. It does not go after the FAT alone, but it also erases all of your data. As far as I know, however, it erases only one sub-directory tree level deep, thus hard disk users should only be seriously affected if they are in the "root" directory. I'm not sure about this on either, though. NOTROJ.COM *TROJAN* This "program" is the most sophisticated trojan horse that I've seen to date. All outward appearances indicate that the program is a useful utility used to FIGHT other trojan horses. Actually, it is a time bomb that erases any hard disk FAT table that IT can find, and at the same time it warns: "another program is attempting a format, can't abort!" After erasing the FAT(s), NOTROJ then proceeds to start a low level format. One extra thing to note: NOTROJ only damages FULL hard drives; if a hard disk is under 50% filled, this program won't touch it! If you are interested in reading a thorough report on NOTROJ.COM, James H. Coombes has written an excellent text file on the matter named NOTROJ.TXT. If you have trouble finding it, you can get it from my board. TIRED *TROJAN* Another scramble the FAT trojan by Dorn W.Stickle. TSRMAP *TROJAN* This program does what it's supposed to do: give a map outlining the location (in RAM) of all TSR programs, but it also erases the boot sector of drive "C:". PACKDIR *TROJAN* This utility is supposed to "pack" (sort and optimize) the files on a [hard] disk, but apparently it scrambles FAT tables. PCW271xx.ARC *TROJAN* A modified version of the popular PC- WRITE word processor (v. 2.71) has now FidoNews 4-26 Page 16 13 Jul 1987 scrambled at least 10 FAT tables that I know of. If you want to download version 2.71 of PC-WRITE be very careful! The bogus version can be identified by its size; it uses 98,274 bytes whereas the good version uses 98,644. For reference, version 2.7 of PC-WRITE occupies 98,242 bytes. QUIKREF *TROJAN* This ARChive claims that it will load RBBS-PC's message file into memory 2 times faster than normal. What it really does is copy RBBS-PC.DEF into an ASCII file named HISCORES.DAT... RCKVIDEO *TROJAN* This is another trojan that does what it's supposed to do, then wipes out hard disks. After showing some simple animation of a rock star ("Madonna," I think), the program will go to work on erasing every file it can lay it's hands on. After about a minute of this, it will create 3 ascii files that say "You are stupid to download a video about rock stars," or something of the like. SECRET.BAS *TROJAN* BEWARE!! This may be posted with a note saying it doesn't seem to work, and would someone please try it; when you do, it formats your disks. SIDEWAYS.COM *TROJAN* Be careful with this trojan; there is a perfectly legitimate version of SIDEWAYS.EXE circulating. Both the trojan and the good SIDEWAYS advertise that they can print sideways, but SIDEWAYS.COM will trash a [hard] disk's boot sector instead. The trojan .COM file is about 3 KB, whereas the legitimate .EXE file is about 30 KB large. STAR.EXE *TROJAN* Beware RBBS-PC SysOps! This file puts some stars on the screen while copying RBBS-PC.DEF to another name that can be downloaded later! STRIPES.EXE *TROJAN* Similar to STAR.EXE, this one draws an American flag (nice touch), while it's busy copying your RBBS-PC.DEF to another file (STRIPES.BQS) so Bozo can log in later, download STRIPES.BQS, and steal all your passwords. Nice, huh! FidoNews 4-26 Page 17 13 Jul 1987 TOPDOS *TROJAN* This is a simple high level [hard] disk formatter. VDIR.COM *TROJAN* This is a disk killer that Jerry Pournelle wrote about in BYTE Magazine. I have never seen it, although a responsible friend of mine has. This is the end of the "bad files list." The rest of this document contains instructions on what to do if YOU run a trojan horse, an update history, a glossary, and information on how and where to contact me with updates. If you run a trojan horse.. While reading this, bear in mind that there is no better remedy for a drive that has run a trojan horse than a recent backup.. The first thing to do after running what you think to be a trojan horse is diagnose the damage. Was your [hard] drive formatted? Did the trojan scramble your FAT table? Did every file get erased? Did your boot sector on the [hard] drive get erased/formatted? Odds are that the trojan incurred one of these four disasters.. After the initial diagnosis, you are ready to remedy the problem. 1) If the trojan low-level formatted your [hard] disk: Hope that you have a recent backup; that's the only remedy for this disease. 2) If the trojan high-level formatted your [hard] disk: There is only one way out of this mess, and that is to use the MACE+ utilities by Paul Mace. MACE+ has two devices in it to recover formatted disks, and believe me, they work! I will talk more about the MACE+ utilities later. 3) If the trojan scrambled your FAT table: Once again, there is nothing to do. However, there is a program called FATBACK.COM (available on my board named as FATBCK11.ARC) that will back up your FAT table in under a minute to floppy. Using FATBACK, it is easy and non time consuming to back up your FAT regularly. 4) If the trojan erased file(s), and the FAT table is undamaged: There are many packages to undelete deleted files. Norton Utilities, PC-tools, MACE+, and UNDEL.COM will all do the job. I recommend the first three, but they are more expensive than the Public Domain program UNDEL.COM. When you are undeleting, be sure to undelete files in the order of last time written to disk. I know that PC-tools automatically lists undeletable files in the correct order, but the other three may not. 5) If the boot sector on your [hard] disk gets erased/formatted: There are four things to do if this happens, and the worst FidoNews 4-26 Page 18 13 Jul 1987 that can happen is that you will go without a [hard] disk for a while. To be on the safest side, back up everything before even proceeding to step "A," although I can not see why it would be necessary. A) Try doing a "SYS C:" (or "SYS A:") from your original DOS disk, and copy COMMAND.COM back onto the [hard] drive after that. Try booting and if that doesn't work try step B. B) If you have the MACE+ utilities go to the "other utilities" section and "restore boot sector." This should do the job if you have been using MACE+ correctly. C) If you are still stuck, BACK EVERYTHING UP and proceed to do a low level format. Instructions on how to perform a low-level format should come with your [hard] disk controller card. Be sure to map out bad sectors using either SCAV.COM by Chris Dunford or by manually entering the locations of bad sectors into the low level format program. After the low level format, if your have a hard disk, run FDISK.COM (it comes with DOS) and create a DOS partition. Refer to your DOS manual for help in using FDISK. Then put your original DOS diskette in drive A: and do a FORMAT <drive letter>:/S/V. Drive letter can stand for "C" or "B" depending on whether you are reformatting a hard disk or not. Finally you are ready to attempt a reboot. D) If you are still stuck, either employ some professional computer repairmen to fix your drive, or live with a non- bootable [hard] drive.. By now you may be saying to yourself: "How can I get a hold of a 'MACE+' utilities package so that I can guard against trojans? Why, MACE+ can recover a formatted drive, undelete files, restore boot sectors, optimize a disk, and provide a disk cache! Anyone can obtain these marvelous utilities in one of two ways: one is to call up the Paul Mace Software Company (tm) and order them at a retail of $ 79.95. The other is place an order for them at the WEST LOS ANGELES PC-STORE, which supports next day UPS shipping! The BBS phone # for the PC-STORE is at the end of this document. Finally: If you have any additions or corrections for this list, send them to Eric Newhouse at any of the following places: (in order of most frequented) FidoNews 4-26 Page 19 13 Jul 1987 * The Crest RBBS (213-471-2518) (1200/2400) (80 MB) * The West LA PC-STORE (213-559-6954)(300/1200/2400) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 20 13 Jul 1987 Are you tired of the same old thing, are you catering to the same old users and tired of maintaining the same old BBS? Well have you ever thought of putting up a whole new BBS, cater to a new group of users, but haven't wanted to lose the established crowd you have worked so hard for? Well have I go a deal for you! Why not leave your old BBS as it is and put up a second one and use the same phone line for both? This was a problem presented to me when one of the local syslops had to give up an adult board when his parents found it. The idea of two BBS's isn't new and I don't lay claim to it. The OTHER Side was originally a second BBS that was invoked with the 'O' command. This worked okay but had some definite problems. First when the second BBS was called up it loaded one on top of the other and used all available memory (DoubleDOS was out of the question). It also had the tendency to screw up the on line time if you switched back and forth. I approached Randy Bush with the problem and after some gentle reminding he built a little program called CHOOSER. What CHOOSER does is sit between SeaDOG or Dutchie and the BBS. SeaDOG answers the phone and then passes control to CHOOSER, CHOOSER then asks the caller what he wants to do. Currently there are 10 possibilities, depending on a reply of 0,1,,,,,9 CHOOSER passes the error level to a small batch file that then invokes your regular BBS command line. This has enabled me to effectively run two BBS's off of one phone line. SeaDOG now calls up OSWEGO OPERA (Chooser) that then asks you if you want OSWEGO OPUS (1) or OSWEGO's OTHER Side (2). Think of the possibilities, you can run your regular BBS (OSWEGO OPUS) and beta test another software package (FIDO V12) or maybe run the same BBS but with two different bbs packages (Opus and Fido, same files areas and message areas) or possibly become demented like I have and run the same software but each side has two different themes. (the OTHER Side is a sexually oriented BBS) I have two sperate user.bbs and am able to keep OSWEGO OPUS at the same level it has always been (whatever that is). CHOOSER.ARC is file requestable from DawGone Disgusted 105/6. It doesn't like X00 as a fossil driver and really requires the most current version of OPUSCOMM. I'm including my runbbs.bat and also the complete DOCs file for CHOOSER. so you can see just how simple the setup is. ; Chooser 0.04: Select a function via a FOSSIL driver ; ; Copyright 1987, Pacific Systems Group. All rights FidoNews 4-26 Page 21 13 Jul 1987 ; reserved. ; ; This program may be used by any member of IFNA, Inc. without ; further obligation to the author. Members of IFNA, Inc. may ; give it to other members as long as no fee is charged in any ; way. ; ; For use or distribution by or to others (e.g. non-m,embers of ; IFNA, Inc.), you must contact the author: ; Randy Bush ; Fido 105/6 ; 9501 SW Westhaven Drive ; Portland, Oregon US-97225 ; But, it will probably be easier to just join IFNA, Inc. ; ; ; The command line MUST look like ; ; CHOOSER <port> <prompt> ; ; where ; ; <port> is 1, 2, 3, or 4 ; <prompt> is the string to be shown to the caller."~" will be ; translated to <cr><lf>. ; ; For example: ; ; CHOOSER 1 Welcome~ 1 - Randy's Fido~ 2 - Other Side~Choose ; one : ; ; will cause the caller on port 1 to be prompted as follows: ; ; Welcome ; 1 - Randy's Fido ; 2 - Other Side ; Choose one : ; ; ; A FOSSIL driver must have been installed to run this program. ; ; Returned errorlevels are: ; 12 - Bad command line or FOSSIL driver ; 11 - Carrier lost ; 10 - Response was <cr> ; 0..9 - Service 0..9 selected by caller ; :Restart CHOOSER %1 OSWEGO OPERA~~ 1 for OSWEGO OPUS~ 2 for OSWEGO's OTHER Side~~~ IF ERRORLEVEL 11 GOTO End IF ERRORLEVEL 10 GOTO Normal IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Other IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Normal FidoNews 4-26 Page 22 13 Jul 1987 :Normal OPUS DAY -p%1 -b%2 -t%3 GOTO End :Other cd\other OPUS OTHER -p%1 -b%2 -t%3 cd\opus GOTO End : :End It should also be noted for any syslops not currently using a front end like SeaDog of Dutchie that the events and maintenance is handled by the your SEADOG/DUTCHIE.BAT Remember that the front end answers the phone not CHOOSER or OPUS. Bill President and Chairman of the Board of FUN, an elite organization for the elimination of UN_FUN. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 23 13 Jul 1987 Todd Looney Vietnam Veterans' Valhalla IFNA 143/27 INTERNATIONAL VIETNAM VETERANS' ECHOCONFERENCE ANNIVERSARY!!! Well, here I am again, this makes about the fifth article I published in this distinguished (?) newsletter over the past 12 months. Many of you probably at least recognize my name if not already know who I am. But, for those of you who are not familiar with my not-so-illustrious personage, I am the SysOp of the Vietnam Veterans' Valhalla Opus BBS in San Jose, California. I am also the founder and international coordinator of the Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference. Without the indefatigable help and support from the several dozen Fido/Opus/TBBS SysOps who host the conference on their own bulletin boards making it's intelligent and mature debates and communications available to hundreds of readers across the continent. The conference network has grown steadily from the one lonely BBS in San Jose, California (then know only as the LooneyBin), to an organized cluster of some 40 bulletin boards located from the far-off islands of Hawaii, clear across the central United States to New York and Canada. The ever-increasing visibility of the International Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference offered by these doughty SysOps contributes greatly to it's overwhelming popularity and undeniable success. It has been said that the Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference has become "one of the most important and productive echomail conferences available in the Untited States today." Frankly, my own modesty makes me question the validity of that declaration, but the depth and maturity of the conference message base substantially demonstrates is the need for a support resourse like it in todays often mis-directed, largely mis-informed society whose level of collective familiarity with the era surrounding the Vietnam conflict is practically non-existent. A short while back I conducted a survey of the various SysOps hosting the International Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference in an attemp to gather statistical data related to their individual caller bases. The results of my analysis indicate upwards to 2000 people have read the conference message base, and that approximately 40% of those are military veterans. The remaining 60% are composed of a diverse variety of ex-protesters, ex-supporters, ex-Vietnamese civilians and military, draft dodgers, etc. A significant number of vets have found solace in the International Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference during the year the echomail project has been in place. They have found a place where they can "bare their souls" wihtout fear of having to deal with someone else' reaction to what they have to say. They can also take their time inputting their messages in the comfort and safety of their own homes. They can also respond to sincere questions placed in the conference by the numerous non-vets who are interested in knowing about the Vietnam conflict and those who served in the war. Some very meaningful communication has FidoNews 4-26 Page 24 13 Jul 1987 taken place between the vets and non-vets, as well as every other combination of the two. A lot of vets have found their way to professional therapy and guidance through the VA Vietnam Era Vet Centers. The entire continent-wide network acts like the one massive support network it has become. We all lend comfort and support to one another, even if our problem is not directly related to Vietnam. We all need emotional encouragement at times and many people have found a niche in the Vietnam Veterans' EchoConference. And not all of them are veterans. Last month the conference celebrated its first anniversary. We were a year old on the 16th of June! We have grown. We are stable. We are productive. We are a valuable service in this country where most everything comes at a cost. We are still trying to spread, too. If you are a sysop and would like to host this conference, either contact me direct at 143/27, or contact one of the regional coordinators for the Vietnam Veterans EchoConference listed below. Any one of us will help you get aboard (with a full message base to boot!). 123/6 Memphis, TN 107/105 Staten Island, NY 17/43 Tacoma, WA 200/100 Redondo Beach, CA 113/1 Hawaii 143/27 San Jose, CA If you are not a sysop of a Fido or Opus bulletin board, please give us a call. You should be able to find a local sysop carrying the conference listed in the ORIGIN statements listed below each message, or ask your local sysop to host the conference on his or her board! We are looking forward to hearing from you! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 25 13 Jul 1987 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Eric Ewanco, private SEAdog 130/3 Borland's Turbo C: Review, part 2 (continued from last week) HARDWARE INTERFACE Turbo offers more than you could ever imagine in the way of interfacing with assembler, other languages, interrupts (calling and being), TSRing, and everything else. Turbo offers (via MASM) inline ASSEMBLY source which can reference any C symbol accessible at that point (provided it makes sense in the context), even labels to C statements. If that's not enough, or is too much, all registers can be accessed through "pseudo- variables," like _AX, _BX, etc., for all the general purpose variables, not including IP and flags (which aren't very accessible in assembler, either). If you need more power, the documentation for writing your own assembler programs is clear, complete, easy to understand, and all-encompassing. It is the best I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot. In addition, Turbo allows you to generate interrupts, write interrupt routines, terminate and stay resident (and Turbo C programs can be converted into .COM files), call bios routines very easily, set interrupt vectors, set a control break handler, set a hardware error handler ("Abort, Retry, Ignore?"), and a million other things. MS C style DOS calls are offered, too. One example of these routines is bioscom(), call the BIOS communications routines. With this call, IT IS POSSIBLE TO INTERFACE TO ANY FOSSIL DRIVER WITH NO ASSEMBLER PROGRAM SUPPORT! I have in fact written a program dependant only on Turbo C's libraries to use Opus!Comm, without the need of external assembler routines. One statement does it all. THIS is POWER. Turbo Lighting can be called just as easily using the bioskey(). And Turbo C also offers Pascal-style parameter passing for those "older" routines you've written. DOCUMENTATION The documentation for Turbo C, contained in two voluminous manuals, is the User's Guide (300 pages, 2 centimeters thick) and the Reference Manual (385 pages, 2.5 centimeters). Both are the usual paperback, and are written so that beginners and experts alike will love it. It offers an excellent step-by-step introduction to the integrated environment for beginners, as well as a short two-chapter coverage of the C language. There are two chapters for interfacing with Turbo Prolog and a thorough comparison with Turbo Pascal, complete with side-by-side code, and, my favorite, caveats to avoid. Borland's insight is incredible in the two sections they devote to "Common Pitfalls of Programmers Using C," one for programmers in general, one for Turbo Pascal programmers. They cover the usual screw-ups, like FidoNews 4-26 Page 26 13 Jul 1987 using assignment for comparison, the difference between strings and arrays, zero based arrays, leaving semicolons off last block, case sensitivity, multi-dimensional arrays, omitting required parens on function calls, using \ in constant path names, and forgetting to pass addresses. All utilities are thoroughly explained in plain language. Also included is a reference to C, similar to the appendix in the C bible, with C bible cross reference. Also included is a figure of C constructs, again like the tail end of the C bible. It covers the ANSI C draft implementation, too. In general, the documentation is the best I have ever seen, covering everything you wanted to know. It handles beginner to operating system developer. The very best, written in the wonderful Borland style. ENVIRONMENT Let's start with the environment. There are two programs on the Turbo C set; TCC.EXE and TC.EXE. One is the usual integrated enviroment, close to but slightly different from Turbo Prolog and Turbo BASIC. The other is the long-awaited command line environment that the traditional compiler is written as, an example of Philippe's insight for the programmers of C and care for the customers who asked for it. Although Turbo C keeps much of Borland's magic, they seemed to have lost the compiler code size magic: TC EXE 231257 5-20-87 1:00a TCC EXE 169098 5-20-87 1:00a As you can C, Turbo C is HUGE. So is Turbo BASIC and Prolog. Borland has moved into hard disk territory. But the features gained well outweigh it. Both programs put together beat MS C whose 5 or 6 different files add up to more than a disk, although they work in overlays (something we may expect from Borland, hopefully). The integrated environment is much like the other new generation Borland programs, with an interface very similar to TB's. There are two primary windows; one for editing, and one for messages. All functions are available anyplace in the compiler. However, the old familiar and much-praised compile to memory is gone. It has been replaced by a shell-to-dos-and-run scheme, which is functionally equivalent, but takes up a lot of memory. One of the unique features of Turbo C is the multiple error message capability, something long awaited. The Turbo C compiler will compile and flag as many errors as you select then proceed to put you, in Borland style, into the source code where the first error is. Hitting F8 will move to the next place and the next error found, and so forth. Editing the source does not invalidate the error positions; further errors will always put you in the correct place. One unique thing about Borland's compiling: as you compile and link, it keeps track of how many warnings and errors flagged, source lines compiled, and amount of memory left, displayed in FidoNews 4-26 Page 27 13 Jul 1987 real time. When it finishes, it displays all errors and warnings and steps through the source code. The environment also offers an extensive "project" utility, similar to make, but simpler and easier to use. (A full-fledged UNIX make is included as a standalone.) The included MicroCalc has an example of a control file for this project manager: mcalc (mcalc.h) mcparser (mcalc.h) mcdisply (mcalc.h) mcinput (mcalc.h) mcommand (mcalc.h) mcutil (mcalc.h) mcmvsmem.obj This indicates that the source files on the left are dependent on the file in parens. There is also an implicit dependency that all executable files are dependent on all object files and the project file itself. Also included is a small CPP C Pre-Processor utility to preprocess to a file (strictly no-frills). A Touch utility is included to update a file's date and time; used to force a make to occur. Turbo C comes with its own linker. This linker is about 1/5 the size of the MicroSoft Linker (that comes with MS C) and is much faster: TLINK EXE 9753 5-20-87 1:00a LINK EXE 47896 3-14-86 3:16p As the manual puts it, "As we said earlier, TLINK is lean and mean; it does not have an excessive supply of options. . . . it is not a general replacement for MS Link." Boy, for 1/5 the size, it sure packs an awful lot. Let me stress again the Turbo C object modules are supposed to be compatible with every IBM or MicroSoft linker, although in one instance I ran into problems using a non-TLINK linker. Borland is working on the problem, as well as a bigger linker. CODE SIZE and BENCHMARKS I am very impressed with Turbo C's "extensive properties," a phrase I just invented to apply to such things as compilation speed, code size, execution speed, and the like. For the most part Turbo C is tight in it's code generation, the most notable exception being floating point object (but not .EXE) files. Turbo C always optimizes at least space. You can switch that to speed or turn on various other optimizations aforementioned. The compiler is FAST as usual; a moderately long floating-point low- comment program (164 lines, 4329 bytes) took 48 seconds to compile and link in TC, but 2 minutes 9 seconds to compile in MS C. The same program had a TC OBJ size of 4191 and EXE size 28140 emulation, 18236 8087 only; MSC OBJ was 3648, EXE 29126 FidoNews 4-26 Page 28 13 Jul 1987 emulation, 22214 8087, and 3567/24812 for altmath, which Turbo C doesn't offer, but neither have I found a need for it. As for runtime execution, Turbo C wins. The same program (which generates hi-res 3-d surfaces, see 80 Micro, May 83, p. 236) took 4:22 minutes TC and 5:45 minutes MS C (for reference, it takes 15 minutes TPascal 8087, 3 hours C without 8087, 15 hours TPascal w/o 8087, and well near 24 hours in BASICA). It used square roots and sines. Other benchmarks: a UNIX grep utility, no floating point, compiled in 49 seconds TC no options, 46 seconds no warnings, 41 seconds no floating point link search, and 40 seconds no warnings or floating point link search; code size (obj/exe) 7025/12864. MSC took 2 minutes 50 seconds, with code size 6795/13608. My favorite, the null program ("main (){}"), took 28 seconds in TC and 50 seconds in MS C; code size was 160/1694 TC and 276/1986 MSC. All times are for both compile and link. I have had only one problem in the week or two I've had Turbo C, and that was the handling of floating point exceptions. This is the only problem I've seen; other than that it's flawless. In conclusion, Turbo C is 99% the functionality of MS C in some places, 101% in others, but at 20% the price (discount; reference: PC Connection), and besides that, it took them one version, not three or four. It is fast in both compiling and executing, produces tight code, offers advanced warnings, can produce .COM files, can be used to write TSRs, has several optimization settings, and will be very well supported. Every programmer should have a copy. However, if you do want to get a copy, I recommend expedience, because Borland does not guarantee the current price beyond July 1st, and Turbo C is sure worth a heck of a lot more than $99. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 29 13 Jul 1987 Glen Jackson Broadcast Software BBS Fido/SEAdog 100/517 Echo mail routing It's been 5 months now since I have been into Echo Mail. I run a backbone on one echo (*plug on* - the Broadcast echos , also including the Request Line for the Public - *plug off*), feed another node across the country, and am down line on several others. Because of this, I have run into several combinations of software (SEAdog/TBBS, SEAdog/OPUS, SEAdog/FIDO, FIDO/OPUS, and of course, FIDO by itself). The biggest problem that most of the mail systems run into is this: Node A polls or sends some mail to Node B. Node B has messages waiting for Node A, but when Node A calls, he isn't given any mail packets. Let's start with the route files. Here's how we want our route to look every night: at 1:00 AM we will poll 1000/1 for any mail at 3:30 AM we will route outgoing mail to our host at 4:00 AM we run National Mail hour at 5:00 AM we will hold mail for 1000/2 to pick up. This takes 4 seperate routes. If you run SEAdog, they can all go into your one ROUTE.DOG file. Here's how they should look: Schedule E ; (route.e) polls 1000/1 HOLD ALL except 1000/1 SEND-TO ALL GIVE-TO ALL POLL 1000/1 - the HOLD statement places all mail in a hold status in case another node calls in looking for his mail. DO NOT HOLD any mail packets to nodes you are sending to or polling. - the SEND-TO statement allows HOLD mail to be released if an incoming call comes in. - the GIVE-TO will give the mail you have for 1000/1 to 1000/1 when you call him. - the POLL statement makes sure that you will call 1000/1 whether or not you have mail for him. If you only want to call 1000/1 IF you have mail for him, don't use the POLL statement. Next, we want to route our mail to our host. But, in case we did not connect with 1000/1, we still want to keep it here and not route it. Run a route that looks like this: FidoNews 4-26 Page 30 13 Jul 1987 Schedule G ; (route.g) local routing ROUTE-TO [your host net/node] ALL NO-ROUTE 1000/1 1000/2 SEND-TO [your host net/node] PICKUP [your host net/node] GIVE-TO ALL - the ROUTE-TO will route ALL to [your host net/node]. - the NO-ROUTE keeps mail you hold at a later time from being sent over to your host for routing. - the SEND-TO and PICKUP are here for you to be able to make the call to your host if you have mail to send out. - the GIVE-TO statement gives mail to incoming callers that have mail waiting. Next, we want to run the National Mail hour. Remember, we don't want to send or route any of 1000/1 or 1000/2 mail, as they are dealt with later. Here's the sample route file: Schedule A ; (route.a) natl mail hour NO-ROUTE 1000/1 1000/2 HOLD 1000/1 1000/2 SEND-TO ALL GIVE-TO ALL - the NO-ROUTE makes sure that the mail for 1000/1 and 1000/2 stays at your node. - the HOLD keeps your node from calling these nodes directly. - the SEND-TO calls the nodes you have not routed mail for, and that you have mail at your location for. - the GIVE-TO gives the mail to any incoming calls that have any mail waiting. You could also add a PICKUP ALL in the route so when you call a node to drop off mail, you can pick up any mail for you that he may have waiting. Confused YET ? If not, I'll try harder. Now, we're going to hold some mail for 1000/2. Here's where most nodes get into trouble- the ability to actually give mail to an incoming caller that has messages there. Here's out holding route for 1000/2: Schedule F ; (route.f) hold for 1000/2 HOLD ALL SEND-TO ALL GIVE-TO ALL FidoNews 4-26 Page 31 13 Jul 1987 - the HOLD keeps your system from calling out. - the SEND-TO releases packets to an incoming caller that has mail waiting. - the GIVE-TO actually gives the packet to the caller. Ahhhhh, finished. Just remember this important rule: * you MUST BE IN A MAIL EVENT TO GIVE MAIL TO A POLLING NODE, no matter what type of system you run. * Next week. we'll take a look at the schedule configurations, and if you run SEAdog, how to put up a true 24 hour mail system with your BBS. Don't forget to call in and request our latest utility - MSGDB. It can be requested by filename MSGDB.ARC . The arc file also contains FIXDATE - a simple utility that corrects those off the wall dates we see in the echo areas. That's all for now. If you have any broadcasters calling into your BBS, you may want to join one of our Broadcast Echos. Just Net_Mail me at 100/517... And that's the way it was... from the Broadcast Booth, Glen Jackson ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 32 13 Jul 1987 -- The Regular Irregular Column -- Dale Lovell 157/504 Well, things have gone somewhat better this week. The new system has been performing flawlessly, and I actually enjoy the new keyboard. Things are looking up here, if things keep working out I may even become a public access board again (right now I'm a private node, so mail to me has to be routed). This has made it necessary for me to look into a few new things, so I'm going to start off by asking for your help. -- What's a LAN? -- As you may recall, last week's problems were caused by a keyboard failure and a lack of my old XT clone. In an effort to prevent that from ever happening again, I bought a stripped down clone at a hamfest this weekend (someone else had just upgraded to an AT and wanted to get rid of their old machine). After I got it home, I dug up some old cards and brought it up to 640K with a 20 meg hard disk. While this is primarily intended as a backup machine, I've been thinking about using it as a public bulletin board. After I got everything hooked up and tested, an idea occurred to me. Instead of having two separate machines; one for me to work on, and another dedicated to a bulletin board; why not attach the two with a local area network. This way I could go over my mail, maintain the board, and not have to duplicate message bases on two different machines. There's only one problem with this, I don't know the first thing about LANs. This isn't to say I don't approve of (or rather haven't approved of) local area networks. It has always sounded like a great way to do some things (like sharing an expensive printer). I've just never been in an environment where it was practical. At my current job, there's exactly one PC in the office and it sits on my desk. It's a small office and no one else really knows how to use a computer. I got the AT at the office because my boss noticed how long it took the computer to recalculate some spreadsheets and re-index a database. He asked me if there was a way to speed it up, and the company ended up buying an AT for me to work on. Most of what I've learned has come through actual experience, and I've just never has a chance to install or work on a LAN. Since I now have a situation where one might be useful, I'm going to look into buying one. In this endeavor, I ask for your help. I currently have an AT clone running at 10 mhz with a 42 meg MiniScribe hard disk (using SpeedStor to make it look like three drives; a 21 meg drive for my work, a 10 meg drive for files, and a 10 meg drive for messages with 1K clusters). The "new" XT clone is running at 4.77 mhz and has a 20 meg Seagate ST225 with a Western Digital controller. What I'd like to do is set up the XT as a bulletin board, with all BBS programs, utilities, file areas, and message bases residing on it's own hard drive. The AT should ideally be able to read the message bases (through SEAdog's user interface), and be able to do the bulletin board's FidoNews 4-26 Page 33 13 Jul 1987 maintenance. If possible I would also like the AT to be able to use the modem in the XT for dialing out (mainly to the Unix machine I use occasionally) although it wouldn't be necessary. Since I don't expect any LAN to fill these needs perfectly, I'd appreciate hearing from your own experiences with ANY LAN. At the end of the column there are several different adresses for me, just make certain you specify which LAN you're using and what software is being used to run it. I'll sum up the opinions and advantages between the different networks sometime in the future. -- The AT clone -- My first comment on the new AT clone is WOW! Unless you have ever worked on an AT before, you would never believe the difference in speed. As an example of this, my echomail processing has dropped to an unbelievably short time. In spite of my private status, I pass along echomail to 5 nodes in net 157. I start processing the echomail at 6:30 every morning (NMH + 30 minutes). As soon as it's done, I send it out to the four nodes that are running SEAdog. In the past, my system usually finished up the echomail processing between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on the amount of mail being sent out. Since I switched everything over to the AT, the mail has gone out by 7:00 every day (at least it starts calling out at 7:00). I'm using this as a comparison only because it will hopefully mean something to most of the sysops in FidoNet, at least I think it means more than a straight out benchmark (Norton's SI of 9.8, just in case you like that "benchmark"). -- Speedstor (Storage Dimensions, $99.95) -- The Miniscribe 6053 hard disk came with SpeedStor, which is a partitioning "program." With any drive over 32 meg you run into a problem, DOS won't recognize a larger hard drive (PC-DOS 3.3 is supposed to "fix" this, but I've heard that it has problems with non-IBM equipment). While it is possible to do strange things with FDISK and your controller card to make these larger drives act like several different hard drives (C,D,E,etc) it was never that easy. Speedstor makes this task easy, while also allowing you to use a "non-standard drive." In an AT, all the information on the type of hard drive is stored in non-volatile memory. There are at least 14 different types of hard drives that the AT knows about (IBM started off with 14 and everyone supports at least those same drive types) that can be used with no trouble. Unfortunately the Miniscribe 6053 isn't usually one of them. In the past this meant part of the hard disk was wasted, as the AT didn't know how to address the extra cylinders or heads. Speedstor gets around this by keeping it's own information on the type of hard drive being used (I think in the non-volatile RAM, but I'm not certain). When the system boots up, it loads the Speedstor software (one line in the CONFIG.SYS) and your system now knows about this non-standard drive. In addition to letting use your drive to it's full capacity, Speedstor let's you do some more unusual things. While I'm fairly certain that it will let you get past the 32 meg limit of DOS, I FidoNews 4-26 Page 34 13 Jul 1987 didn't try it. What it does do very easily is allow each hard drive partition act like a separate drive. Right now I have one physical hard disk in the AT. But DOS "knows" about drives C,D and E; and I don't have any RAM disks installed. Using Speedstor I made three partitions on the hard disk. The first partition is using one half of the hard drive and is a bootable DOS partition. The other two partitions each have one quarter of the hard drive and are usable by DOS (although I may change this in the future to support XENIX). The nice thing is that the third partition has a 1K cluster size. Under DOS 3.x cluster sizes are normally 2048 bytes (2K), this means your two line batch file is going to use 2K of your hard disk. If you're running a DOS 2.x it get's even worse as those versions of DOS use an 8K (8192 bytes) cluster size. Under Speedstor I can move the cluster size down to 512 bytes, although when I tried that with a 10 meg partition it gave me some warning about not enough space in the FAT table and CHKDSK would have problems (I chickened out and moved it up to the next choice). Fido and Opus sysops take note, you don't have to lose insufferable amounts of disk space (due to slack) because of your message bases. I "gained" over 1 meg of disk space by putting my message bases on this partition with it's 1K clusters. If I had felt like spending a little more time I may have played around with the partition size and cluster size and gotten something with no warnings and a 512 byte cluster size, although I don't think the space savings would have been as great. If you aren't doing anything unusual, like I did, it installs very quickly. I initially ran Speedstor's semi-automated installation and ended up with two 21 meg partitions. All I had to do was tell it what type of drive I was using. On the menu it had a choice called manufacturer. After I choose it, I was able to pick the drive out of a list of the three current Miniscribe drives. Since my copy is the "Miniscribe version" I'd assume that the full version would include a fuller list of drives from several manufacturers. Other than that, about all I had to enter was the bad track table for the drive. Almost everything else was completely automatic. Miniscribe is now including Speedstor with all of their larger drives, and from what my dealer tells me Seagate is doing something similar with a program called Disk Manager by OnTrack (Although he says it is nowhere near as powerful as Speedstor). It's nice to see the hard drive manufacturers are interested in the end user, not just getting their money. While including Speedstor or Disk Manager with the drive may kick up the price a few dollars, I feel better getting everything I need at once rather than getting the drive and finding out a need something else to really use it. -- SYSEDIT and SuperKey -- After I got all the data transferred over to the AT, it came time to change all my SYSTEM*.BBS files. Because of the different way I set up the new system, I needed to change a lot of message and file paths. In the past everything was on the same logical drive (as opposed to a physical drive, of which I have only one), while now it was on two logical drives. This wasn't too bad as I dug up a copy of Eric Ewanco's SYSEDIT. SYSEDIT let's you go in FidoNews 4-26 Page 35 13 Jul 1987 and edit the system files from DOS. It has a nice full screen display and is very easy to use. I started doing every change manually but quickly decided there had to be an easier way to do things (I have over 20 echomail conferences going through my machine). Enter SuperKey from Borland (list price $69.95) a keyboard macro program. I quickly installed SuperKey and taught it what needed to be done on all the message bases. I had to put in what Borland refers to as a keyboard delay because SYSEDIT didn't use the keyboard buffers, but that was the only difficulty. In under five minutes I had all my system files changed and was ready to go, or so I thought. I tried running some of the echomail programs, but it couldn't find some needed directories. After puzzling over this and checking the system files I finally realized what I had forgotten. I had changed all the system files, but had forgotten about SEAdog's CONFIG.DOG, AREAS.DOG, and the Fido/Opus MAIL.SYS file. After correcting my oversight it was finally changed over and everything has been running fine since. SYSEDIT and SuperKey are both excellent programs and helped make this switch over much easier than I had anticipated. I've seen I program similar to SYSEDIT for OPUS systems, but I haven't managed to find it in the Opus files directory. Programs like SYSEDIT do a lot to make a sysop's life easier, I'd encourage you to dig up a program like this (SYSEDIT in particular for Fido sysops) if you are currently running a bulletin board. -- Winding down... -- Since I became interested in local area networks this past week, the book I'm going to recommend is going to reflect my current concerns. "Networking IBM PCs, A Practical Guide" by Michael Durr (QUE books, $18.95) has provided me with a lot of information on how a LAN works. While the copy I got ($10 at the hamfest I attended) is somewhat out of date, many of the specific LANs mentioned are still with us. It provides a description on several different LANs (probably most of the one's available in 1984, the year it was written) and goes over the features available under the network software. It covers many topics that I have found to be of interest such as administration, performance, maintenance and such. It has helped explain a lot of what goes on in a LAN, and has helped me decide what I'll want included in the LAN I buy (Such as a non-dedicated server). While the book has raised many questions for me, it has gotten me to start thinking about more than the brand name. I think I could now shop intelligently for a LAN, and have a much better chance of coming out with something that will do the job versus something the salesman wanted to sell me. After all, isn't that the whole idea behind learning a little about something before you go out and buy it? I once again welcome your comments, even ask for them if you can help me out with information on LANs. Down below you'll find several addresses for me. Some of you have asked about Compuserve or The Source mailboxes or account numbers. Unfortunately I don't maintain an account on any of these systems, only on the more public access networks. Since I'm a private node in the nodelist, FidoNews 4-26 Page 36 13 Jul 1987 all FidoNet mail to me should be routed through 157/1 or 157/0 (same board really). If you send me anything through US mail, please make sure I have some sort of return address (are you hearing this "Ender Wiggin?") in order to send you a reply. Next week I should be looking at a game, so all you fellow gaming people who have sent me mail be patient. I haven't forgotten you. -- Late Breaking News -- Couple of quickies here that "came in" just as I was finishing this column. First, the latest version of the echomail conference list is now available from Thomas Kenny at 107/316. You can file request under the name "ECHOLIST.ARC." Also, Hewlett Packard Laser Jet printer owners will be pleased to hear that Hewlett Packard hopes to have a PostScript update for all of their laser printers available by the end of the year. I'm a strong supporter of PostScript, even if IBM has endorsed it (Whadda mean Thom? I thought everybody who wrote on the computer scene was supposed ta hate IBM. You mean I can actually support an IBM decision? S'Allright....) Dale Lovell 3266 Vezber Drive Seven Hills, OH 44131 FidoNet: 157/504 (or 1:157/504.1 for an extended address) uucp: decvax\ >!cwruecmp!hal\ cbosgd/ >!ncoast!lovell /--!necntc/ ames---\ / talcott \/ harvard / sri-nic/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 37 13 Jul 1987 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= INFORMATION FEEDS WANTED I am currently involved in a project in which I have a need for "information providers" who are willing to do the following. 1) Write to their State Lottery Commission and request a complete history of all numbers drawn for each of the game(s) played in that state. 2) Send a daily "crash mail" message containing a listing of the game(s) played that day, and the number(s) drawn for those games AS SOON AFTER THE DRAWING AS POSSIBLE! At this time I am willing to pay $10 to the first person in each of the following states who sends me the "history" listed in (1) above. (Please send a "crashmail" message before you send the data to insure that you are indeed the first.) ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA, CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE, D.C., ILLINOIS, IOWA, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN, MISSOURI, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, "N.NEW ENGLAND," OHIO, OREGON, RHODE ISLAND, WASHINGTON & WEST VIRGINIA As for (2) I am unable to promise any payment at this time, however, if the concept is sold it may mean payment for this information in the near future! Please direct all inquiries to me, John Penberthy at 129/200, 129/28, or voice 412-364-3951. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 38 13 Jul 1987 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 1 Aug 1987 Third Annual BBS Picnic in Edison, NJ. Please register before July 10th. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for 12 and under, free for 5 and under. Contact John Kelley at 107/331 for details. 20 Aug 1987 Start of the Fourth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA. Contact Brian Hughes at 109/634 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.51 EDITNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 11w LISTGEN 05.25.86 ARCmail 0.60 Opus 0.00 Prune 1.40 EchoMail 1.31 SEAdog 4.00 TestList 8.3 FastEcho 2.00 TBBS 2.0M XlatList 2.81 Renum 3.30 * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list as current as possible by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 39 13 Jul 1987 OFFICIAL REGISTRATION FORM FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FIDONET CONFERENCE RADISSON MARK PLAZA HOTEL ALEXANDRIA, VA. AUGUST 20 - 23, 1987 Name _________________________________ Date _____________ Address ______________________________ City & State _________________________ Phone (Voice) ________________________ Net/Node Number ______________________ Phone (Data) _________________________ Number in Your Party _________________ Staying at the Radisson? _____________ Number of Rooms? _____________________ Arrival Date? ________________________ Departure Date? ______________________ Registration Fees: How Many Total Full Conference $60.00 each ________ $________ Late registration $10.00 each ________ $________ (after Aug. 1) Friday Night Banquet $30.00 each ________ $________ Saturday Luncheon $16.50 each ________ $________ Total Amount Included (Registration and Meals) $________ IFNA MEMBERS ONLY: How many in your party will be attending the Sunday morning Board of Directors meeting? ________ Send your registration form and a check or money order to: Fourth International FidoNet Conference 212 E. Capitol St., Washington, D.C. 20003 Attn: Brian H. Hughes -- voice: (202) 543-4200 This registration form does not include hotel accomodations. If you wish to stay at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel, please contact them directly and mention you are with the FidoNet Conference. Conference room rates are $80/night for single or double occupancy, and $20/night for an extra cot. Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel 5000 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, Va. 22311 1-800-228-9822 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-26 Page 40 13 Jul 1987 Bob Morris 141/333 Chairman, Elections and Nominations Committee The next two pages are your Official ballot for the Election of the IFNA Board of Directors. The following are the few rules which must prevail in this election: 1. You must send a legible copy of this ballot to the address listed on the ballot. It must be signed and bear your net/node number. 2. You may vote for any one person in your region for the position of Regional Director. This vote is to be cast in the LEFT column of the ballot. 3. You may vote for any eleven people in any regions for the position of Director at Large. These votes are to be cast in the RIGHT column of the ballot. 4. Voting will continue until the end of registration at the Conference in August. The results will be read during the opening of the business meeting on the first day of the conference. 5. Write-in Votes will be accepted and are requested during this election. FidoNews 4-26 Page 41 13 Jul 1987 IFNA Board Of Directors Ballot Regional At Large Region 10: Steve Jordan _________ ________ Region 11: Ryugen Fisher _________ ________ Theodore Polczynski _________ ________ Region 12: Region 13: Don Daniels _________ ________ John Penberthy _________ ________ Thom Henderson _________ ________ Gee Wong _________ ________ Brian Hughes _________ ________ Region 14: Ben Baker _________ ________ Ken Kaplan _________ ________ Brad Hicks _________ ________ Region 15: David Dodell _________ ________ Larry Wall _________ ________ Region 16: Bob Hartman _________ ________ Hal Duprie _________ ________ Region 17: Rob Barker _________ ________ Bob Swift _________ ________ Region 18: Wes Cowley _________ ________ FidoNews 4-26 Page 42 13 Jul 1987 Region 19: Mark Grennan _________ ________ Wynn Wagner _________ ________ Region 2: Henk Wevers _________ ________ Write-in candidates: ___________________ _________ ________ ___________________ _________ ________ Name ______________________________ Net/Node ___________ Signature______________________________ Date ___________ Please complete this and mail it to: Robert Morris IFNA Elections Committee 210 Church Street West Haven, Ct. 06516 or bring it with you when you come to the conference in August. These ballots will be counted by myself since with 200 members the charges for a CPA would be very high. Hard copies will be made available to anyone wishing to insure that their vote was included. Thank You Bob Morris Elections and Nominations Committee -----------------------------------------------------------------