Cream of the Crop 22

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Cream of the Crop 22 / Cream of the Crop 22.iso / bbs / bw401pcb.zip / BWDOOR.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1996-09-02 | 108KB | 2,144 lines

The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00 Copyright (C) 1992-1996 by Cutting Edge Computing All Rights Reserved Reference Manual for the Use and Operation of The Blue Wave Mail Doors Written by George Hatchew and Martin Pollard Cutting Edge Computing P.O. Box 90476 Burton, Michigan 49509-0476 USA BBS Support Number: +1-810-743-8464 FAX Support Number: +1-810-743-5910 (REGISTERED users only) Internet E-Mail : bluewave@concentric.net World Wide Web : http://www.concentric.net/~bluewave TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- Chapter 1 ABOUT THIS DOCUMENTATION 3 Section 1.1 Purpose of this Documentation 3 Section 1.2 Printing this Documentation 3 Chapter 2 ABOUT THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 5 Section 2.1 History of Offline Mail Systems 5 Section 2.2 What Are E-Mail Networks For? 6 Section 2.3 What Features are in Blue Wave? 6 Chapter 3 GETTING STARTED 8 Section 3.1 Locating and Installing a Mail Reader 8 Section 3.2 Using the Mail System for the First Time 8 Section 3.3 Selecting Message Areas for Download 8 Section 3.4 The Configuration Menu 10 Section 3.4 The Download/Bundle Options Menu 13 Section 3.5 The Main Menu 19 Chapter 4 USING THE MAIL DOOR 21 Section 4.1 Downloading Through the Mail Door 21 Section 4.2 Uploading Through the Mail Door 25 Section 4.3 File Requests 26 Chapter 5 THE BLUE WAVE BUNDLING COMMANDS 28 Section 5.1 Bundling Command Description 28 Section 5.1.1 The 'B' Bundling Command 30 Section 5.1.2 The 'L' Bundling Command 30 Section 5.1.3 The '*' Modifier 31 Section 5.1.4 The '!' Modifier 31 Section 5.2 Bundling Command Considerations 31 Chapter 6 USING THE DOOR IN QWK MODE 33 Section 6.1 Offline Configuration 33 Section 6.1.1 The "ADD/DROP" Method 33 Section 6.1.2 The "Single-Message" Method 34 Section 6.2 File Requesting 35 Section 6.3 Entering FidoNet NetMail Messages 36 Section 6.4 Entering Internet E-Mail Messages 36 Section 6.5 Entering FidoNet-Gated Internet E-Mail 36 Section 6.6 Extended Message Header Fields 37 ------------------------------------ Chapter 1: ABOUT THIS DOCUMENTATION ------------------------------------ Section 1.1 Purpose of this Documentation The documentation presented in this file is designed to: * Provide a description of offline mail systems in general, including a brief history of E-Mail networks and how they can be both entertaining and useful. * Provide an overview of the operation of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door from the End User or Client point of view. * Describe the features available in all Blue Wave Mail Doors with a version number of v4.00 or higher, and how you can use these features effectively. The documentation in this file is not meant as a reference for the installation and maintenance of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. If you are a SysOp or system administrator, please consult the file BWMAIL.DOC, which should have been enclosed with your copy of the mail door archive. If you are an end user or client of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, you will also need a copy of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or a mail reader that is Blue Wave compatible, in order to operate the mail door in "Blue Wave" mode. If the mail door you are using has been registered (the license fee has been paid), and the mail door version is 4.00 or higher, you may enable QWK packet mode. There are many QWK compatible mail readers available, including The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader should be available on the same BBS from which you received this file. The file name as distributed by Cutting Edge Computing is BWnn_DOS.ZIP, BWnn_386.ZIP, and BWnn_OS2.ZIP, where 'nn' is the current version number. The latest version as of this writing (15 Jun 96) is v2.30. Any version of the reader claiming to be "v3.00" are hacked copies of the reader, and should be avoided. This documentation provides a Table of Contents; use this to help you locate items of interest in this file, or use a file viewer/editor to search for items you may be looking for. Instructions for printing this documentation file can be found in the following section. Section 1.2 Printing this Documentation This documentation is formatted with Form Feeds for printing on all Personal Computer printers. This documentation file contains no IBM ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 3 Extended ASCII characters, so it should print fine on all printer models - even non IBM ProPrinter compatibles. To print this documentation in hard copy, simply execute the following command from the DOS (or OS/2) command line: COPY BWMAIL.DOC PRN If you would like to print this documentation using the PRINT.COM print spooler provided with most versions of DOS (and all versions of OS/2), simply execute this command at the DOS or OS/2 prompt: PRINT BWMAIL.DOC The documentation is formatted to 60 lines per page so that printing on laser printers should also work with no problems. If, when you attempt to print this documentation, your printer begins ejecting pages which are not complete (the page number is not at the bottom of the page), you should cancel the print job and configure your printer to accept at least 60 lines per page. You will need to consult your printer's user manual for information on how this can be done. The documentation was written by George Hatchew and is Copyright (C) 1992-1996 by Cutting Edge Computing. It may be distributed freely, so long as it is has not been modified. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 4 ----------------------------------------- Chapter 2: ABOUT THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------------------- Section 2.1 History of Offline Mail Systems Back in the early to mid 1980's, many people were beginning to get home computers and modems. People began communicating in several ways through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's). BBS systems began offering message bases where people of similar interests could communicate with each other through electronic means. As the technology grew, people started sharing message bases between different BBS systems across the city, then across the country, and eventually across the world. Mail conferencing was born, and nothing was going to stop it. At about the same time, commercial online services began offering E- Mail services which could transmit a message to a recipient several thousands of miles away in a matter of hours, minutes, or even seconds. In the early stages, however, these commercial online services were very expensive. E-Mail on commercial services normally could only be afforded by businesses and a handful of individuals. Many people became hooked, many others dependant, on E-Mail. While the commercial companies were developing newer, faster, and less expensive ways to transmit E-Mail across the world, so were the amateur BBS operators. Several amateur E-Mail networks and technologies were formed. One of the largest amateur E-Mail networks still popular today is FidoNet. Don't let the term 'amateur' fool you. Many of the people that are responsible for keeping FidoNet up and running may be classified as amateurs, but years of experience and knowledge, and usually thousands of dollars in equipment, have earned them a very respectable name. Today, FidoNet is nearly 35,000 nodes strong and still growing! As the networks and the number of home computer users has grown, the use of technology for reading and replying to E-Mail offline has become more and more essential. When BBSing was young, there was plenty of time to read and reply to messages online. Today, with more users than ever and more E-Mail flowing than ever, there just is not enough time for every user to spend a half-hour, an hour, or even two hours online to their local BBS. Long distance phone rates can also get to be outrageously expensive after just a few of these sessions per month. This is where offline mail reading comes into play. With today's innovations in offline mail processing, you can spend just a very few minutes per day online to your favorite BBS system(s) and do all of your work OFFLINE, where there is no system time limit to run up against, and where the phone company's meter is not running. This also frees up the host system's phone line(s) for access by more users and helps to alleviate the dreaded 'busy signals'. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 5 Best of all, you can read your mail at any time of the day or night -- whenever your have free time. Today's communications software allows users to build "smart" script files, which in turn allows you to retrieve your mail automatically at even the oddest times of the day or night (especially when long distance phone rates are low). Since mail 'packets' are compressed into a single file, you can easily copy your mail to a floppy disk and take it with you to work, school, or anywhere else you have access to a computer system. Section 2.2 What Are E-Mail Networks For? At this point, you may be asking yourself, "What exactly are E-Mail Networks for?". Some people unfamiliar with mail networks and E-Mail sometimes cannot understand the enjoyment and knowledge that can come out of being an active participant on an E-Mail network. Not only can you communicate with people from all corners of the world, but you can learn more about your favorite computer software, share recipes with others, learn how to repair your leaking roof, get advice from others on product quality ratings, or just join in a chat between long distance friends. As a matter of fact, FidoNet alone offers well over 500 E-Mail topics (sometimes called 'echos' or 'conferences') ranging from Aardvarks to Zymurgy. Many businesses now use internal E-Mail networks for communications between employees just down the hall, across town, or even half-way around the globe. Many software and computer hardware companies now have a support BBS which allows users to dial in and exchange messages and files between users. Technical support is nearly always offered through these types of support systems. If your favorite BBS system is not currently part of an E-Mail network, don't worry. The Blue Wave Offline Mail System will still provide you with all of the features described. And, if that system later decides to join an E-Mail network, you will have already mastered the use of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. Very few, if any, changes will be necessary to integrate the offline mail system into the E-Mail network. Section 2.3 What Features are in Blue Wave? The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door is unlike many offline mail systems available today. The Blue Wave Mail System will allow you to actively participate in this fun and fascinating hobby to any extent you like. You can retrieve mail from your favorite BBS system to your own computer, where you are free to take your time and enjoy yourself. When the mail door is coupled with a Blue Wave compatible mail reader, you have access to one of the most powerful mail systems available today. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is a complete mail manager, which allows you to reply to messages, save messages to disk in a text file, print messages to your printer, and help you search out only the messages that interest you through the use of keyword searching. Additionally, ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 6 the mail system provides full filtering capabilities as well as an internal tagline manager. Full compatibility with FidoNet EchoMail and NetMail message areas is one of the greatest features of the mail system. If you are a member of a FidoNet-style network, the mail door and reader offers full plug and play compliance with FidoNet standards. Those BBS systems that support a direct interface for Internet E-Mail and Usenet Newsgroups are also supported directly by The Blue Wave Mail Door. (Note that you must use version 2.20 or higher of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or a third-party reader which supports Blue Wave Version 3 mail packets, in order for Internet/Usenet support to work properly.) The Blue Wave Mail System offers a unique Offline Configuration system. If you are using a Blue Wave compatible mail reader, you can configure all aspects of the mail door's behavior while offline. When you upload (send) the offline configuration information to the mail door, the door automatically adjusts itself to your new configuration settings. There is absolutely no setup required to enable this feature. File Requesting is yet another option available to you. While offline you may input a list of files that you would like to download from the BBS to your system. The next time you use the mail door to upload your mail packet, the door automatically senses the request for specific files and will send them to you as part of your next mail packet. (This is an option which may be disabled by the SysOp of the host BBS system.) As a complement to the file requesting feature, the mail door will also perform "new file scanning." If you enable the new file scan feature, The Blue Wave Mail Door will automatically scan for new files on the BBS since your last mail download. This new file listing is included in your mail packet, and can be read through your mail reader. One of the more powerful features available to you is the Blue Wave Bundling Commands. Bundling commands allow you to selectively include, exclude, and manipulate the messages that are packed before you actually perform a mail download. There is an entire chapter in this documentation dedicated to the use of these Bundling Commands. The Blue Wave Mail Door is one of the most exciting and useful utilities that a SysOp offers you as a part of their BBS system. It provides many benefits for both SysOps and users alike. After a while, you will wonder how you ever managed without it! ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 7 --------------------------- Chapter 3: GETTING STARTED --------------------------- Section 3.1 Locating and Installing a Mail Reader Before you can use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door to read mail on your own computer, it will be necessary to locate and install a mail reader. There is a very wide variety of mail readers available, so it is well beyond the scope of this documentation to attempt to describe them all. In order to utilize the features of The Blue Wave Offline Mail System fully, you should attempt to locate a Blue Wave compatible offline mail reader. Search your local BBS systems, the Internet, or other sources of ShareWare for "Blue Wave" or "Bluewave" (people often omit the space in "Blue Wave"). If you are running DOS, Windows, or OS/2 on your computer, we (naturally) recommend The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. However, any Blue Wave or QWK compatible mail reader may be used with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. Section 3.2 Using the Mail System for the First Time The first time you enter The Blue Wave Mail Door, you will be presented with a few "welcome" and help screens. The SysOp or administrator of the online service you are using has the ability to set several system defaults for new users. You will be presented with the ARCHIVER (compression system), PROTOCOL (file transfer system), and possibly a few message areas that the SysOp has selected as default settings. Most of the time the default settings the SysOp has chosen are the best options to use. However, you can change these default settings once you reach the door's CONFIGURATION menu. The configuration menu allows you to change many aspects of the door's operation. All of these optioins are described in detail in the section of the documentation titled "The Configuration Menu." The first order of business, however, is to select the message areas that you would like to download (receive) from the host system. You do this by selecting "C)hoose Message Areas to Download". The procedure for selecting message areas is detailed in the next section. Section 3.3 Selecting Message Areas for Download Selecting the message areas that you would like to receive or download from the host system is done by selecting "C)hoose Areas to Download" from the mail door's configuration menu. Immediately after selecting this option from the menu, you are presented with a listing of message areas that are available to you. In the left-most column you will find the AREA NUMBER (or on some systems, the "area number" could actually be a word of up to 9 ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 8 characters), followed by the current STATUS of the message area. The right-most side of the screen contains the area's full name or description. The display on all Blue Wave Mail Doors that have a version number of 3.00 or higher looks similar to the following: +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Area # | Status | Area Description | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1 All Local Message Base - User Chatter 2 Forced Comments to and from the SysOp 3 Role Playing Games 4 Persnl FidoNet NetMail Messages 5 P+All FidoNet For-Sale Echo The "Status" column tells you how the mail door is going to handle that message area when you instruct the door to download your messages. Areas with no status displayed are not active and will not be included in your downloaded mail bundles. There are 4 different types of "Status" displayed. All - Indicates that you have told the mail door to download ALL NEW messages in the area each time you perform a mail download. Persnl - Indicates that you have told the mail door to download ONLY "Personal" messages in that area each time you perform a mail download. Personal messages are those messages that someone has entered with your name in the TO: field. P+All - Indicates that you have instructed the mail door to download ONLY messages in this area that are addressed to you, or messages that have been addressed to "All". Forced - Indicates that the SysOp has FORCED this message area on. You will not be able to turn this area off through the mail door. SysOps and administrators usually use FORCED message areas for important system announcements and bulletins. At the end of each screenful of message areas, you are presented with a prompt: Area#(s) or More [Y,n]? If you would like to change the status of any message areas on the screen, simply type in the area number (or name) listed in the "Area #" column of the display. HINT: You can type more than one area number or name at this prompt. Simply separate the areas with <Space> characters, and the mail door will process all of the areas listed at one time. If you do not want to change the status of any of the areas on the screen, either enter "Y" to see more message areas, or "N" to stop the area listing. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 9 If you have chosen to change the status of any of the areas on the screen, the door will present you with the following prompt: Area 1: P)ersonal msgs only, +)Personal+"All", [ENTER]All Msgs: If you want the mail door to only bundle personal messages in the message area shown, enter a "P" here. If you want to receive your personal messages, and messages addressed to "ALL", enter a "+" here. The default action of pressing [ENTER] will download all new messages that have been received into the message base since your last successful mail download. (This also implies that you will receive any personal messages that arrive in the message area.) Simply repeat this prcoess until you have selected all of the message areas that you would like to receive in your mail packet downloads. You can turn message areas OFF in the same way that you activate them. Enter the number of the message area that you would like to turn off, and the door will present you with a prompt similar to the one shown above. The default action of pressing [ENTER] will then turn the message base off, and you will no longer receive messages from that area in your mail downloads. After all message areas have been listed, you are given an opportunity to QUIT the area selection system, to re-list all of the available message areas, or to list ONLY those areas that you have activated. When you are done choosing your message areas, press [ENTER] at this prompt, or "!" followed by the [ENTER] key. You will then be taken back to the door's configuration menu, where you can make other changes to your online configuration profile. A complete description of the other options available on the door's configuration menu follows in the next section. Section 3.4 The Configuration Menu When viewing the door's Configuration Menu, it may seem a bit overwhelming to novice users. Please do not let the menu intimidate you, as most of the options available here are nothing more that preferences that you can turn ON and OFF. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 10 Here is what the Configuration Menu in The Blue Wave Mail Door looks like. Please note that a couple of the options are unique to mail doors with a version number of 4.00 or higher. (The version number of the door that you are using is displayed above the door's Main Menu.) +-----------| The Blue Wave Configuration Menu |-----------+ | | | C)hoose Areas for Download P)rotocol (Zmodem) | | A)rchiver (ZIP) | | R)eset Lastread Pointers S)et Password Options | | * G)raphics (Color) On/Off | | * H)otkey Menu Selections X)pert Menu Mode | | ?)Help | | D)ownload/Bundle Options Q)uit to Main Menu | | | | * Indicates Option is ON | +----------------------------------------------------------+ The remainder of this section will discuss the various options that are available on the Configuration Menu. Reset Lastread Pointers - Selecting this menu item will allow you to alter the records that both the BBS and the mail door record to disk. These records are updated each time the mail door is used to perform a successful download. The "lastread" records store information which tells the software what message # was the LAST one that you have read in each message base or conference. Once in a while it is possible for these records to become corrupted. Sometimes, after a successful mail download, you may accidentally delete the downloaded mail packet or the mail packet gets corrupted during transmission. In any case, if you ever have a need to change your message read pointers, this is where you should do it. Because each BBS system stores messages and lastread pointers in different ways, the procedure to use this option also varies from one door version to another. Explicit instructions are given on the screen when using this option, so it should be self explanatory. As long as you understand the concept of what this menu item does, you should be able to navigate the "Reset Lastread Pointers" prompts with little or no difficulty. Graphics (Color) On/Off - The Blue Wave Mail Door is capable of sending your terminal program ANSI and AVATAR escape sequences in order for you to view the mail door in full, living color. If your communications program does not support these escape sequences, you will want to turn this option OFF. When this option is turned off, only text will be sent to your terminal program, resulting in a "monochrome" display. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 11 Hotkey Menu Selections - If "Hotkey Menu Selections" is turned on, the door will accept menu input from you without having to press [ENTER] after each command. When this is off, you must enter your command followed by the [ENTER] key. Even when hotkeys are enabled, there are some prompts in the mail door that will still require you to press [ENTER]. If the door needs more than one character of input at any prompt, you will need to press [ENTER] in order to get the door to process your input. Download/Bundle Options - Selecting this menu item will take you to a sub-menu, which allows you to further configure the mail door to your liking. A full discussion of the Download/Bundle Options Menu can be found in the next section of this documentation. Protocol - Selecting this menu item will allow you to change the transfer protocol used to send mail packets to your system and to receive uploaded mail packets from your system. You will be presented a list of available protocols on the host system. Simply press the letter that corresponds to the transfer protocol you would like to use, and the door will use that protocol in all future file transfers. Archiver - Selecting this menu item will allow you to change the compression system that is used to build your mail packets and to decompress the mail packets that you upload. You will be presented a listing of all available archivers on the host system. Simply press the letter that corresponds to the compression system you would like to use. Please note that you must have a copy of this compression system on your system, and your mail reader must be properly configured to use this archiver. Consult your reader documnetation for more information. Set Password Options - The password option is unique to The Blue Wave Mail System. Although some may question its usefulness, there are several situations where you may wish to enable this feature. There are 4 levels of security offered: * Password prompting in the DOOR only. * Password prompting in the READER only. * Password prompting in the READER and DOOR. * No password prompting (the default). In a situation where you download sensitive areas from the BBS, and use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader on a machine that is shared by several other users, you may wish to add the secure option to the READER only. Each mail packet will then be encrypted with a password. If a user tries to read a packet encrypted with a password, they will be prompted to enter it. If the user does not get the correct password after three tries, the reader will NOT allow them to read the mail packet. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 12 Another situation may occur where Father downloads sensitive mail, and does not which for Daughter, Son, or Wife to read it. It may be useful to set the secure option in both the READER and DOOR, since it is possible that the family knows Father's BBS password. By prompting for a password when entering the mail door (obviously one that is different from the BBS password), he has another layer of security. Xpert Menu Mode - The Blue Wave Mail Door has two menu modes: Full Help Menus and Xpert Mode Menus. When Xpert Menus are enabled, you will receive a very short menu prompt listing the valid keys that may be pressed while the mail door is processing the Main, Configuration, or Bundle/Download Options menus. Unless you are very familiar with the operation of The Blue Wave Mail Door, it is suggested that you leave the Xpert Menus turned off. ?Help - Displays a help screen which contains very abbreviated portions of this documentation. This gives you a quick reference to the mail door's functions while you are online with the BBS. Quit to Main Menu - Selecting this option will leave the door's Configuration Menu, and return you to the door's Main Menu. Section 3.4 The Download/Bundle Options Menu The Download/Bundle Options Menu allows you to fine-tune the behavior of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. You can access the Download/Bundle Options menu by selecting "D)ownload/Bundle Options" from the mail door's Configuration Menu. A depiction of the Download/Bundle Options Menu is given below. +------| The Blue Wave Download/Bundle Options Menu |------+ | | | P)acket Type (Blue Wave) K)eyword Selection | | * N)ew File Listing in Packets F)ilter Selection | | T)agged Areas Only in Packets M)acro Definitions | | * B)undle Messages From You | | U)se Numeric Packet Extensions X)pert Menu Mode | | E)xtended Msg Information ?)Help | | L)imit Download Packet Size Q)uit to Config Menu | | | | * Indicates Option is ON | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Each item available on the Download/Bundle Options Menu will now be discussed in detail. Packet Type - Any Blue Wave Offline Mail Door with a version number of 4.00 or higher supports "Blue Wave" and "QWK" formatted mail packets. QWK mail packets can be read by any mail reader which indicates QWK-compatibility. Likewise, Blue Wave mail packets can only be processed by mail readers that indicate "Blue Wave" ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 13 compatiblity. If you have never installed an offline mail reader, it is recommended that you attempt to locate a Blue Wave- compatible mail reader in order to use The Blue Wave Mail Door to its full potential. However, if you have already purchased or installed a QWK-compatible mail reader, you need to enable "QWK mode" in the mail door. Simply type "P" at this menu to toggle between QWK and Blue Wave modes. The Main Menu of the mail door also contains this menu item, allowing you to switch modes without having to enter the Bundle/Download Options Menu. New File Listing in Packets - NOTE: The SysOp or administrator of your host system has the ability to turn this menu item OFF. Therefore, this menu item may not be available on some systems. Additiionally, this feature was added to mail doors with a version number of 3.00 and higher. If the mail door you are using is less than v3.00, this option will not be available. The "New File Listings in Packets" option has 3 possible settings: You can choose NOT to receive new file listing announcements in your mail packet, or you can have 2 different types of listings. The two possible types of listings are "COLOR" and "TEXT". Some mail readers may not be able to display color file listings properly (any version of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader above v2.10 will display them properly). When you choose to receive color file listings, ANSI escape sequences will be placed into the new files list, resulting in a nice color display on systems that have a proper viewer. If your mail reader cannot handle ANSI file listings, you can turn this item ON, but do not tell the door to create color lists. This option is very useful when combined with The Blue Wave Offline Mail System's "file request" capabilities. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader (v2.11 and higher) will allow you to simultaneously display the new file listing and enter file requests to the host BBS. You can use this powerful feature to keep updated on all of the latest utilities uploaded to the host BBS. Tagged Areas Only in Packets - Each time you download messages from The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, a mail packet is created which contains information about each message area that is available to you on the host mail system. On systems that contain several hundred to several thousand message areas, your mail packet can be quite large due to the simple fact that you are downloading information about EACH message area. Additionally, many mail readers cannot handle more than a couple hundred message areas without crashing or running out of memory. If you find that the system you are downloading mail from has several hundred message areas or conferences available, you may want to enable this option. When enabled, only a description of ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 14 the message areas that you are actually downloading, that is areas that you currently have tagged, will be included with your mail packet. If you have used other QWK-style mail doors in the past, you may be familiar with similar options in those mail doors. These similar options are sometimes labeled "Send Short CONTROL.DAT" or "Include Only Active Message Areas". There can be several drawbacks to enabling this option, however. The first is that you may not be able to perform Offline Configurations in your mail reader to enable specific message areas. This is due to the fact that the mail reader does not have a description of additional message areas that may be available to you. The second is that you will not be able to enter messages through a mail reader to areas that you do not currently have tagged. Again, this is due to the fact the the mail reader will not know that additional message areas exist on the host. Before enabling this option, you must weigh the advantage of receiving a smaller mail packet with the disadvantages listed above. Bundle Message From You - This menu item has two different states; it is either ON or OFF. When "Bundle Messages From You" is turned OFF, the mail door will not pack messages with your name in the FROM: field. If you are a very active participant in the BBS message bases, it is very possible that turning this option off will substantially decrease the size of the mail packets that you download. When this option is turned ON, all messages that you have entered into the BBS's message base will be downloaded and placed into your mail bundles. When this option is on you will be able to read the messages you have entered through your mail reader. This could also serve as a "confirmation tool". If you receive your own messages on your next mail download, you are assured that your mail upload was successful. Use Numeric Packet Extensions - When your SysOp or system administrator installs The Blue Wave Mail Door, they have the ability to specify (up to) an eight character "Mail Packet Name". This mail packet name normally corresponds to the name of the BBS System. For example, the name of the Cutting Edge Computing support BBS is "Wild! Blue". Our mail door is configured to generate mail packets beginning with the root name of "WILDBLUE". All mail packets downloaded through The Blue Wave Mail Door use this root name as a basis for generating file names for the mail packets that you download. Each time you download a mail packet, the root name will remain constant, but the file extension will vary. The default behavior of the mail door is to generate a mail packet extension that begins with the first two letters of the day of the week (the day the mail packet was created). For ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 15 example, "MO" is used for Monday, and "FR" is used for Friday. The third character of the file extension is the number of the mail packet downloaded that day. These numbers range from 1 to 9. If today is Thursday, and you are downloading the second mail packet of the day from the Wild! Blue BBS, your mail packet would be named WILDBLUE.TH2. When "Use Numeric Packet Extensions" is turned ON, and you have configured the mail door to create "Blue Wave" style mail packets, it will create a unique 3-digit extension for your mail packet. Each time you successfully download a mail packet, this number will be increased by 1. The first mail packet you download with this option turned on would be called WILDBLUE.001, the second mail packet (even if downloaded on a different day) would be named WILDBLUE.002. If you reach the point where you download a packet called WILDBLUE.999, the next mail packet created would be called WILDBLUE.001 again. Similarly, if this option is enabled and you have configured the mail door to create "QWK" style mail packets, it will create a mail packet extension that always begins with the letter "Q" (to indicate that this is a QWK style mail packet), followed by a 2 digit number. This number will increment each time you download a mail packet until you reach ".Q99". At this point, the mail door will start over with ".Q01". Please note that the mail door will never create a mail packet name with a numerical extension of ".000" or ".Q00". This may be useful if you use a "mail packet merge" utility. You can force your packet merge file to be called <BBSNAME>.000. As this is a unique number, you will not have to worry about the file being overwritten when downloading new messages. Enabling this option has many advantages. The first is that you will never encounter a problem with duplicate file names being downloaded (which causes many protocols to go into convulsions). Another advantage is that you will be able to look at a listing of mail packets and immediately determine which was the first and the last one that you have downloaded. The SysOp or administrator of the host system has the ability to edit the current download extension number through the door's User File Editor. If, for some reason, you need to change the number that is currently stored in your user record, you may be able to ask the SysOp (very nicely!) to alter the current extension number. Please note that some Blue Wave-compatible mail readers may not be able to digest the purely numerical packet extensions. If your mail reader will not load the file properly, turn this option off. Extended Message Information - NOTE: This menu option may or may not be available to you. The SysOp or system administrator has the option of turning this menu item off. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 16 Under normal circumstances, you will probably NOT want to enable this option, even if it is available to you. Many of the E-Mail networks (FidoNet especially) use certain "Control" information which is embedded into the message text. This control information is useless to most people (humans in general). Leaving this option off will greatly reduce the size of the mail packets that are generated by the door, because all of this information will be strippped from the message before it is bundled into your mail packet. If you are a SysOp or system administrator, you are probably familiar with what are called "Control-A" or "kludge" lines in network messages. When this option is on, the mail door will not strip this control information (including SEEN-BY lines), and you can then view it when reading messages through the reader. If you are a general user of the mail door, and you are seeing lines that start with "Happy Face Characters" (ASCII 01), you probably have this option turn on unintentionally. Turning off extended message information will remove this unwanted text from your downloaded mail packets. Limit Download Packet Size - If you are running with limited drive space, this option is extremely useful. If you define a maximum packet size of 100K, the door will stop bundling messages once the requested maximum packet size has been reached. The maximum packet size is the size of the UNCOMPRESSED mail bundle that the door is building. If you enable this option, you can ensure that the downloaded mail packet will fit onto the disk space you have available after the mail packet has been decompressed. When this option is enabled, the door will perform all of its functions as usual, until it gets to the mail packing stage. As the door gathers the mail and places it into your download packet, it monitors the packet's size to be sure that it does not exceed your specified size limit. When (if) the packet limit size is reached, the mail door sends a message to the screen indicating this fact, and the compresses the partial mail bundle for you to download. If you wish, you can then immediately download another mail packet to gather the messages that were not packed during the previous mail bundling session. Keyword Selection - The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 different Keyword definitions. These keywords will be used during the mail scanning process to inform you of mail in an area which contains any one of the keyword definitions. To get the full use out of keywords, you must use the Blue Wave Bundling Commands, described later in the documentation. The Blue Wave Mail Door does nothing with the keywords unless you issue a bundling command instructing it how to handle keywords in certain areas. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 17 The best way to describe the use of keywords is with an example. Let's suppose that you are looking for Apple computer equipment to buy in the National For-Sale FidoNet Echo. Sometimes the FOR- SALE echo generates more than 200 messages per day. Instead of downloading all 200 messages, of which (possibly) 199 of them are of no interest to you, you may define the keyword APPLE. You would then be informed during the SCANNING process of all mail containing the keyword APPLE. By using the Blue Wave bundling Commands, it is possible to ONLY bundle messages with the keyword APPLE in them. This, of course, saves on-line time, and time you would have to spend paging through the numerous (UNWANTED) messages offline when using the reader. Naturally, there are many other uses to the Keywords option. The idea behind keywords is to let The Blue Wave Mail Door do the work for you. NOTE: The Blue Wave Mail Door, at the present time, will only look for keywords in the TO:, FROM:, and SUBJECT: fields of the message. The actual body (text) of the message is not searched. Filter Selection - Like Keywords, The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 10 Filter definitions. Filters essentially work just the opposite of Keywords. During the door's scanning process, you are informed of messages that contain any of the filters that you have defined. After the mail scan is complete, you can use the Blue Wave Bundling Commands to filter the messages that you do not want to receive. Again, the best way to describe the usefulness of filters is with an example. Let's suppose that Joe Blow in the FidoNet C Programming Echo is consistently entering messages which contain false information, is constantly flaming others, and is being an all around nuisance. Although you really enjoy reading the C_ECHO, you get tired of seeing messages entered either from Joe Blow or to Joe Blow. By defining the filter of JOE BLOW, you will be flagged if there are any messages containing the Filter. By using the Blue Wave Bundling Commands, you can then instruct The Blue Wave Mail Door NOT to bundle messages containing the Filter JOE BLOW. Please see the chapter titled "The Blue Wave Bundling Commands" for information on how to use your Keyword and Filter definitions. NOTE: The Blue Wave Mail Door, at the present time, will only look for filters in the TO:, FROM:, and SUBJECT: fields of the message. The actual body (text) of the message is not searched. Macro Definitions - The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 3 macros that can be used in the place of manually entering your bundling commands during each mail download session. The blue Wave Bundling Commands are described later in the documentation. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 18 For each macro that you define, you can tell the door whether or not it should automatically be executed after a mail scan. If you do NOT set the macro to auto-execute, you must enter "M1", "M2", or "M3" at the bundling command prompt for the macro to execute. If the macro is set to auto-execute, the door will execute the macro for you at the end of a mail scan. If your macro contains the bundling command "!", it will force the door to not prompt you for any bundling commands, but rather to immediately start packaging your mail. If your SysOp has set up the system to allow "automatic downloads", the auto-execute function is also very handy. During an automatic download, you are never prompted for input by the door. The door performs a mail scan, bundles your mail, executes the download protocol, and exits back to the BBS system. Because of this, you do not have a chance to enter any bundling commands, unless they are defined in a macro that is set to auto-execute. Xpert Menu Mode - Turns Xpert Menu mode ON or OFF, as described earlier in this documentation. ?Help - Displays a help screen which contains very abbreviated portions of this documentation so that you have a quick reference to the mail door's functions while you are online with the BBS. Quit to Config Menu - Selecting this option will save all changes that you have made to your online mail door configuration, and return you to the door's Configuration Menu. Section 3.5 The Main Menu Each time you enter The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, the first menu you encounter will be the door's Main Menu. From here you can navigate to every part of the online mail system. A description of each menu command follows. Download New Mail - Selecting tis menu option will cause the door to enter "Download Mode", and immediately being a new mail scan. Documentation for performing mail downloads can be found in the next chapter. Upload New Replies - Selecting this menu option will cause the door to enter "Upload Mode", and immediately request that you being uploading the message reply packet created by your mail reader. Documentation for performing mail uploads can be found in the next chapter. Configuration Menu - Takes you to the mail door's online Configuration Menu, which was described in detail in the previous two sections of the documentation. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 19 Packet Type - Selecting this option will switch the mail door between "QWK Mode" and "Blue Wave Mode". This menu item performs the same operation as describe in Section 3.4 (The Bundle/Download Options Menu). Quit Back to BBS - Selecting this menu item will cause you to leave The Blue Wave Mail Door and return you to the BBS. Goodbye - NOTE: This item may or may not be available to you. The SysOp or administrator has the ability to disable this menu item. Selecting this menu item will cause the mail door to disconnect you from the host BBS. Xpert Menu Mode - Toggles the state of Xpert Menu Mode, as described in Section 3.3 (The Configuration Menu). ?Main Menu Help - Displays a help screen which contains very abbreviated portions of this documentation so that you have a quick reference to the mail door's functions while you are online with the BBS. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 20 ------------------------------- Chapter 4: USING THE MAIL DOOR ------------------------------- Section 4.1 Downloading Through the Mail Door After you have configured the mail door to your liking and you have chosen the message areas that you would like to receive, it is time to actually download a mail packet. Immediately after you select D)ownload New Mail from the door's Main Menu, the door begins to gather information about the BBS's message base and presents the information in tabular form. Below is a sample output screen: Logon Name: Joe Blow Keyword Scan: ON Alias Name: Little Joey Filters Scan: OFF ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Area Status Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 GENERAL Pers 100 7 0 0 0 0 2 PRIVATE Pers 257 1 0 0 1 1 3 NETMAIL New 129 0 0 0 0 0 4 FLINT P+All 98 17 4 0 0 17 23 CFORSALE P+All 200 199 19 0 0 86 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grand 784 224 23 0 1 104 Totals Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Please enter your Blue Wave bundling commands, R to Relist Scan Table, Q to abort, ? Command List, D)etailed Help or [ENTER] for ALL NEW mail : As you can see from this example, there is quite a bit of information presented during the mail scan. In this example, we are downloading 5 message areas. The first 2 message areas are being downloaded for PERSONAL messages only (notice the "Pers" under the "Status" column). The NEWMAIL message area is being scanned for ALL new messages, and the last 2 message areas are being scanned for personal messages + messages addressed to "All". The "Total" column in the scan table refers to the TOTAL number of messages that the host system has stored in those particular message areas. Since this is a total count of the number of messages, there are most likely messages here that you have already read (if you have performad a mail download before). More often than not, the TOTAL column will not contain the same number of messages as listed in the NEW column. If the TOTAL and the NEW column contain the same number, it means that you have not read any of the messages in that particular message area. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 21 The numbers in the KEYWORDS and FILTERS column inform you of the number of messages that contained your defined set of words in each category. Note that the number in the KEYWORDS or the FILTERS column will never exceed the number in the NEW column. The number in the KEYWORDS and FILTERS column is the number of messages that were found within the new messages on the system. The number in the PERSONAL column tells you how many messages in each message area were addressed directly to you. Again, this number represents the number of personal messages within the new messages on the system. And finally, the # DL'ING column tells you how many messages the door has "queued" for download in each message area. In our example, you can see that the CFORSALE area (#23) contained 200 new messages, but the door has only queued 86 of them for download. This is because when the user turned the CFORSALE area on through the configuration menu, they chose to only download messages in the area that contained the word "All" in the TO: field, and his personal messages. Since the number in the "Personal" column is 0, we can safely assume that all 86 messages queued for download have been addressed to "All". The number displayed in the "# DL'ing" column will change as you issue bundling commands to the door to change the number of messages that will be sent from that particular message area. While we are discussing the mail scan screen, it would probably be helpful to know all of the possible phrases that appear in the "STATUS" column, along with an explanation of each. Status Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- New - Indicates that the door is going to send ALL NEW messages in the message area. Pers - Indicates that the door will send only PERSONAL messages in the message area. P+All - Indicates that the door will send PERSONAL and messages TO: "All" in the message area. Kwds - Indicates that you issued a K<area> bundling command for the message area, and that only KEYWORD messages will be sent. Filt - Indicates that you issued a F<area> bundling command for the message area, and the door will not send FILTERed messages. L 20 - Indicates that you issued an <area#>L<#msgs> command for the message area, and only the last 20 messages will be sent. B 100 - Indicates that you issued an <area#>B<#msgs> command for the message area, and only the first 100 new msgs will be sent. Force - The message area has been FORCED by the sysop and you cannot issue any bundling commands for this area. None - The message area has been deselected from downloading by the use of a -<area#> bundling command. No msgs will be sent. After the mail scan has completed, the door is stopped at a command prompt, waiting for you to give it further instructions. The door is waiting for either a bundling command to be issued, or for one of the following selections: ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 22 R Pressing "R[ENTER]" will cause the door to redisplay the scan table in the case that some information has scrolled off of your screen. Q Pressing "Q[ENTER]" will abort the mail download. The door will prompt you with an "Are you sure" question. If you choose to abort the mail download, you will be taken back to the door's MAIN menu. ? Pressing "?[ENTER]" will cause the door to display a list of all of the bundling commands available to you. This is a very short display with a one-line description of the bundling commands. D Pressing "D[ENTER]" will force the door to display a help screen containing a list of all bundling commands, and an example of each. This help screen contains much more detail than the previous help screen, and is several pages long. [ENTER] - Simply pressing [ENTER] will cause the door to begin a mail packet. The number of messages displayed in the "# DL'ing" column will be packed for each message area. After you have issued any bundling commands or have instructed the door to begin bundling by simply pressing the [ENTER] key, the mail system will immediately start packing your mail for download. You will see a status bar appear on the screen, much like a bar graph, that indicates the mail door's progress in the packing. When the mail door has finished packing your mail bundle, it will then scan the host BBS's file base for new files since your last mail download (if your sysop allows it, and you have told the door to do so). After a few seconds you will see the message: Mashing your mail with <YOUR SELECTED ARCHIVER>. One moment... At this point in time, the host system is compressing your mail packet into a compressed mail file for faster transmission. On some slower host systems, this process could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. On faster systems, this process will probably take less than a minute, even on large download packets. When the mail system is done compressing your mail packet, you will be presented with a screen similar to the following: ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 23 Your mail packet is ready for download! File Name: WILDBLUE.001 File Size: 106080 bytes Est. Time: 1:20 mins A)bort Download Session I)nstant logoff after transfer C)ountdown before logoff P)rotocol Change (YOUR PROTOCOL) [ENTER] to begin normal download Select: As you can see, the information at the top of the screen tells you the name of the mail packet you will be downloading, the size of the mail packet that was created, and an estimated transfer time of the mail packet. The five menu selections will be described below. Abort Download Session - Selecting this option will cause the door to give you an "Are you sure?" prompt. If you answer NO to the question, you will be given the same screen/menu again, and you can make another selection. If you answer YES (you want to abort the download session), the door will ask you the question "Mark the scanned messages as READ?". If you answer YES to this question, the door will update your lastread pointers, indicating that you have already read all of the messages that were packed for download. If you were to immediately begin another download session, the door would find 0 new messages for you. Answering NO to this question will not update your message pointers, and will return you to the door's MAIN menu. Instant Logoff After Transfer - NOTE: This option may not be available on all systems. SysOps and administrators can disable this menu option if they wish. Selecting this menu option will cause the door to immediately begin sending you the mail packet with the protocol that you have configured. If the download was successful, the door will then update your lastread message pointers and then log you off of the system. This is good for unattended download sessions. Countdown Logoff - NOTE: This option may not be available on all systems. SysOps and administrators can disable this menu option if they wish. Selecting this menu option will cause the door to immediately begin sending you the mail packet with the protocol that you have configured. If the download was successful, the door will then update your lastread message pointers and then give you a "Countdown before Logoff" screen. That is, door will count down for 10 seconds - if you press a key, the countdown will be ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 24 aborted and you will not be logged off. If you do not press a key within 10 seconds, the door will assume that you do not wish to stay connected to the BBS, and log you off of the system. Protocol Change - If you decide at the last minute that you cannot or do not wish to use the protocol that is displayed in parentheses, you can select this menu item. You will be presented with a list of all available protocols on the system. Simply choose a new protocol, and you will be returned to the menu shown above so that you can make another selection. [ENTER] to Begin Normal Download - To begin the download of your mail packet, just press the [ENTER] key. After a successful mail download, your message lastread pointers will be updated and you will be returned to the door's MAIN menu. At this point in time, you have completed a mail download session. That's all there is to it! In the following section we will go through the steps to upload reply packets, offline configurations, and file requests to The Blue Wave Mail Door. Section 4.2 Uploading Through the Mail Door Uploading reply packets through The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door is even easier than performing a mail download. Immediately after selecting "Upload New Replies" from the mail door's Main Menu, you will be prompted to begin the upload of your reply packet (which has been created by your mail reader, whether it be a QWK or Blue Wave compatible mail system). You will use the same file transfer protocol that you have configured for downloading mail packets. Simply start your communications (terminal) program to upload the packet created by the reader (the reply packet will have the BBS's ID as the root name, and a .NEW file extension for Blue Wave packets and .REP extension for QWK packets). If your upload is unsuccessful, the mail door will report "Unsuccessful Upload. Please try again." You can then press U from the main menu again to retry your upload. If your upload was successful, the door will immediately begin unpacking the reply bundle. Each message that you have entered through the reader will be placed into the appropriate message area on the BBS. For each message that is found in your reply packet, a status display will be generated on the screen. The display will include the information found in the FROM: field, the TO: field, the SUBJECT: field, and the network address (if it is a netmail message). The door will tell you which message number the message was saved as, and move on to the next message. It is possible that some kind of error will occur while processing your uploaded replies. The most common "error" will be the report of a "Duplicate Message". If you upload the same message(s) more than one time, you will see this reported to the screen. This is nothing ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 25 to worry about, as the door will not import the duplicate message into the BBS's message base. After all of the uploaded messages have been processed, the door will then look to see if you performed an OFFLINE CONFIGURATION while in the reader. If there is an offline configuration to be performed, the door will do it for you at this time. Finally, the door will look for any files that you may have requested through your offline mail reader. If you did not request any files, you will be returned to the door's Main Menu, and you can then continue with your online BBS session. If you have performed a file request through your offline mail reader, the door will begin processing your request at this point. The next section will describe the file request function in the door. Section 4.3 File Requests If the door has received a file request in your mail upload packet, it will attempt to process it immediately after processing the rest of your reply packet. For each file you requested, a display will be shown indicating the file name, the file size, and the estimated transfer time of the file. After all of the files have been listed, the door will generate a total number of files requested, the total size of all files requested, and an estimated transfer time for all of the files requested. You will then be presented with a display similar to the following: File Request Session ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BW23_DOS.ZIP 483476 bytes, 8:58 mins Added to download queue. BW23_386.ZIP 705122 bytes, 13:05 mins Added to download queue. BW23_OS2.ZIP 484646 bytes, 8:59 mins Added to download queue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Files 1673244 bytes, 31:02 mins A)bort request session E)dit file request queue D)ownload requested files T)ransfer files with mail download Select: Abort request session - Selecting this option, of course, will abort the current file request session. You will be returned to the door's Main Menu after choosing to abort. Edit file request queue - If you want to remove any of the requested files from the download queue, select this item. You are taken to another screen which allows you to select which files to remove from the queue. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 26 Download requested files - If you want to download the displayed files immediately, select this option. The mail door will enter "send" mode to begin sending your files. To complete the file request, simply tell your communications program to begin a download. Transfer files with mail download - If you will be downloading a mail packet (*without leaving the mail door*), you may tell the door to queue the files for later transmission. Later, when you begin to download your mail packet, the requested files will be sent at the same time. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 27 ------------------------------------------- Chapter 5: THE BLUE WAVE BUNDLING COMMANDS ------------------------------------------- Probably the single-most powerful feature of The Blue Wave Mail Door is the ability to dynamically select messages for download using The Blue Wave Bundling Commands. New users to the mail door often get confused and do not understand the use or concept of using these commands. This is unfortunate, as this ability is very powerful, convenient, and can save you massive amounts of online time. And, after you understand the concept of the bundling commands (and how they can be used effectively), they really are very simple to use. Section 5.1 Bundling Command Description With the exception of the "B" bundling command and the "L" bundling command, all of the bundling commands take the same form. The first part of the bundling command is the ACTION to take on a certain message area, and the second part of the command is the area in which to perform the desired action. Let's take it one step at a time and list each of the bundling command letters, and the action that they perform. SYMBOL ACTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Deselects a message area from the scan list. When this command is used on an area, NO messages in the area will be packed for download. + Reselects a message area from the scan list. When this command is used on an area, ALL NEW messages in the area will be packed for download. A Tells the door that you only want to download PERSONAL msgs, and those messages that are addressed to "All". This action is the same as defining an area as P+ALL at the Configuration Menu. B Tells the door that you only want the BEGINNING 'n' number of messages to be downloaded from a particular message area. E Tells the door to "clean the slate" or ERASE all previous bundling commands for the area. The area is returned to its original state (before any bundling commands were issued). F Tells the door that you want to FILTER the messages in a particular message area. Any message that contains one of your defined FILTERS will not be packed in your mail packet. K Forces the door to only send PERSONAL messages, and those messages containing any of your defined KEYWORDS. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 28 L Instructs the door to bundle only the last 'n' number of messages in a particular message area. M Instructs the door to execute Macro #'n'. You can define bundling command macros from the door's CONFIGURATION menu. P Tells the door that you only want to get PERSONAL messages in a particular message area. N Instructs the door to NOT update lastread pointers in a particular message area. U Forces an update of the lastreads in an area (the mail door does this by default -- this command is simply used to counter-act an 'N' bundling command). Each of the symbols described on the previous page requires the "second part" of the command to be used properly. The "second part" of the command, as described earlier, is simply the area number to perform the action on. For example, let's take the sample mail scan screen that we used earlier: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Area Status Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 GENERAL Pers 100 7 0 0 0 0 2 PRIVATE Pers 257 1 0 0 1 1 3 NETMAIL New 129 0 0 0 0 0 4 FLINT P+All 98 17 4 0 0 17 23 CFORSALE P+All 200 199 19 0 0 86 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grand 784 224 23 0 1 104 Totals Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Suppose that we are looking for a particular item through the CFORSALE echo. Let's say we're looking for FAX machines or FAX modems. Therefore, we have gone to the configuration menu earlier and defined the keyword of "FAX". We will also assume this is the only keyword that we have defined. We can see from the above table that the CFORSALE echo contains 19 messages that have the word FAX in them. Since we are running short on time today, we only want to download those 19 messages that contain the word FAX in the CFORSALE echo, plus the 17 messages in FLINT and the 1 message in PRIVATE. Therefore, we could issue the door the following bundling command: K23 The "K" part looks familiar. It simply tells the door to perform keyword-only bundling on area #23. More than one bundling command can be issued at one time, too. Suppose we wanted the same KEYWORD messages in area #23, but we also ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 29 wanted ALL NEW messages in area #4, instead of just Personal+All messages. We could enter the following bundling command: K23 +4 The '+' tells the door to remove the "P+All" status for the area, and instead download ALL NEW messages in the area. The K23 has the same effect as before. As you can see, you can enter as many bundling commands at the prompt as will fit on one line. With the flexibility of the mail bundling commands, you can easily build custom mail packets. As mentioned before, all of the mail bundling commands take the same form except for the "L" and the "B" commands. These commands need an additional parameter given to them, since they explicitly tell the door HOW MANY messages you want to receive. Section 5.1.1 The 'B' Bundling Command The 'B' bundling command takes the first 'n' number of messages in the message area AFTER your lastread pointer. Therefore, when you use this command, you will always receive the first 'n' messages in the area that you have not yet read. Let's examine the bundling command "23B100". This command instructs the door to bundle the BEGINNING 100 messages in area #23. Or, to rephrase it, "In area #23, I want the beginning 100 messages." As you can see, the 'B' bundling command takes the form <area#>B<#of msgs>. When the door updates your lastread pointers for an area that was issued a 'B' bundling command, it only marks the last message that was actually downloaded as being read. Any messages that you did not receive because of this command are left as "unread", and you can download them on a subsequent mail download. Section 5.1.2 The 'L' Bundling Command The 'L' bundling command is very similar to the 'B' command described above. The 'L' command instructs the door to bundle the LAST 'n' number of messages in the message area. The bundling command "17L50" would take the LAST 50 messages in area #17 and pack them into your mail download. It tells the door, "In area #17, I want only the last 50 messages." The 'L' bundling command does not care what your lastread message pointer is in the area. If the door tells you that there are only 50 NEW messages in area #77, but there are 500 TOTAL messages in area #77, a bundling command of "77L500" would take all of the messages in the area and place them into your packet for downloading. With the special modifier, the '*' symbol, you can download ALL messages in an area, regardless of lastread pointer. For example, ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 30 "56L*" would download all messages in area #56. Using the command "*L*", you would be able to download ALL messages that have been scanned in EVERY message area. More information regarding the '*' modifier is given in the next section. Whenever the 'L' bundling command is used, the door updates your lastread pointer in the affected areas to the LAST message in the message base. Section 5.1.3 The '*' Modifier The '*' modifier tells the mail door to perform the desired action on ALL areas that are listed on the scan table. For instance, a bundling command of "F*" would filter messages in ALL areas. A command of "K*" would download only KEYWORDS in all message areas. The '*' modifier is supplied to make global changes to your scan list quick and easy. But, what if you want to perform an action on all areas EXCEPT area #23? In area #23 you want to download ALL messages, but in all of the other areas you only want personal messages, and those messages addressed to "All". The bundling command you would issue is: A* +23 For all areas, the P+All status will be set, and then for area number 23 the door will pack ALL NEW messages. Section 5.1.4 The '!' Modifier Normally after you issue a bundling command the door will process that command, compute a new download message total, and return you to the bundling command prompt. This allows you to check the results of your last command, and possibly enter more commands. The '!' command tells the door that you have finished entering your commands, and you are ready to begin downloading your mail. If you entered the following command at the prompt: A* +23 ! the door would not stop to ask you for more input. It understands that those are the only bundling commands you want to issue, and it begins packing the messages immediately. Section 5.2 Bundling Command Considerations There are a few things to keep in mind about how the bundling commands operate. Understanding certain things about the bundling commands will make them easier to work with. Bundling commands are evaluated from LEFT to RIGHT. If you entered the command "-23 A17 +23", you would find that the door saw the -23 ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 31 command first, evaluated the A17, and then performed the +23 command. Therefore, you WOULD have received all new messages in area number 23. The next thing to keep in mind regarding the bundling commands is that you can only have one 'action' being performed on an area at any one time. Unfortunately, due to a limitation of The Blue Wave Mail Door, a command of "K* F*" would only FILTER messages in all areas. You cannot yet have KEYWORDS and FILTERS performed on the same message area. In a similar way, you cannot only download "P+All" messages, and still have them FILTERED. Then there are some commands that just do not make sense when used together. For example, it doesn't make sense to ask the door for KEYWORD and PERSONAL messages only in an area. (A P<area> and a K<area> command). Because the behavior of the KEYWORD action includes bundling PERSONAL messages, this is not a real concern. WARNING: If you are already thoroughly confused, reading the next two paragraphs will do nothing to extend your life expectancy. If your head is already spinning, please skip reading the rest of this section. [Seriously.] We cannot be held responsible for medical bills resulting from exposure to the following material. Of course, to every rule there must be an exception. The "strange" bundling command 'N' will cause the door NOT to update message pointers for a particular message area. Offhand I can think of very few uses for this action, but there have been instances where creative people have used it. Since the sign on my desk reads "Creativeness stops here", I can't for the life of me think of why they needed this bundling command. Anyway, on to the exception to the rule. You can issue the bundling command "P23 N23" to get only PERSONAL messages in a message area, *and* to NOT UPDATE the message read pointers. The 'N' command can be used in combination with *any* of the bundling commands, except for the 'U' bundling command (which FORCES an update of the message pointers). [Can you say "Vicious Circle"?] If you've *really* mucked up your scan list with a bunch of bundling commands, you do not have to go to the extreme of quitting the mail scan and starting over. Simply issue an "E*" bundling command, which clears ALL previous modifications and lets you get a good night's sleep. Another way is to press the <Alt-H> key in your terminal program, lay back, turn on that soothing "Ocean Sounds" CD you've never been daring enough to open, and try again tomorrow. The Blue Wave Mail Door will recognize that fact that you have dropped carrier and exit back to the BBS so the next fool can try his or her fate. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 32 -------------------------------------- Chapter 6: USING THE DOOR IN QWK MODE -------------------------------------- For the most part, using The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door in QWK mode is the same as using the mail door in Blue Wave mode; bundling commands, message area selection, and file uploads and downloads are performed the same way in both modes. Most of the differences that do exist are minor, and have already been described. This chapter describes the remaining differences. Note that QWK MODE IS ONLY AVAILABLE WHEN THE MAIL DOOR IS REGISTERED. If the mail door is not registered, you may still upload any reply packets you may have pending, but you will not be able to download mail packets in QWK format (you may still download mail packets in Blue Wave format, however). Section 6.1 Offline Configuration Although offline configuration of the mail door is not as easy to accomplish in QWK mode as it is in Blue Wave mode, it can still be done with relative ease. The secret is in knowing how your particular QWK mail reader handles the details. In QWK mode, adding and removing message areas is done through the use of "control messages". These are actual messages that are stored in the reply packet, with special keywords stored in the message headers that tell the mail door, "Hey, I'm a configuration message!" This is done by specifying "BWAVE" in the To: field of the message, and the control information in the Subject: field. Some QWK readers have the ability to automate these procedures, but many more do not. Consult your QWK reader's documentation for details. Section 6.1.1 The "ADD/DROP" Method The simplest method is also the most widely supported amongst QWK readers, and is known informally as the "ADD/DROP" method. To add a message area to your tagged area list, enter a message in the area you wish to add with the following header information: From: Your Name To: BWAVE Subject: ADD Similarly, to drop a message area from your tagged area list, enter a message in the area you wish to drop with the following header information: From: Your Name To: BWAVE Subject: DROP ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 33 You can place anything you like in the text of the message, because the door will ignore it. When you then upload the .REP packet to the mail door, these messages will trigger the offline configuration mechanism in the door, and the area(s) you have specified will be added and dropped. Section 6.1.2 The "Single-Message" Method If you need to add and/or drop more than a handful of areas, you can readily see how creating individual messages for each area would create an unwieldy mess in your .REP packet. Fortunately, there is a more advanced method available, where all configuration information is stored in a single message. To use this method, enter a message in any message area with the following header information: From: Your Name To: BWAVE Subject: CONFIG In the text of the message, you would place lines of text that specify offline configuration commands. The following configuration commands are available: Command : ADD <area#> [<YOUR> <ALL> <YA>] YOUR <area#> YA <area#> YOUR ALL <area#> Description: Add Message Area to Tagged Area List The ADD command adds the specified message area to your tagged area list. You can optionally place YOUR, ALL, or YA after the area number, to tell the mail door to bundle only your messages (YOUR) or to bundle all personal messages and messages addressed to "All" (ALL and YA). Note that the YOUR command performs exactly the same as "ADD <area#> YOUR", and the YA and YOUR ALL commands perform the same function as "ADD <area#> ALL". These are provided for compatibility with other QWK mail doors. Command : DROP <area#> Description: Drop Message Area From Tagged Area List The DROP command drops the specified message area from your tagged area list. Command : FILES <ON or OFF> Description: Enable/Disable New File Scanning The FILES command enables or disables scanning for new files and the generation of the NEWFILES list. ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 34 Command : OWN <ON or OFF> Description: Enable/Disable Bundling Messages From You The OWN command enables or disables the bundling of messages written by you. Command : EXPERT <ON or OFF> Description: Enable/Disable Expert Menu Mode The EXPERT command enables or disables expert menus when operating the mail door in interactive mode. Command : LIMIT <kilobyte-value> MAXSIZE <kilobyte-value> Description: Set Maximum Size of Download Packet The LIMIT command specifies the maximum size of a mail packet BEFORE compression. The size is specified in kilobytes. The minimum value is 50; any smaller values will be automatically bumped up to 50. A size of "0" indicates no maximum size. Here is a sample of the commands specified in a typical configuration message: ADD 24 ADD 36 YOUR ADD 200 ALL DROP 19 DROP 20 FILES ON LIMIT 500 Section 6.2 File Requesting Requesting a file through the mail door in QWK mode is remarkably similar to performing offline configuration, in that a control message is addressed to the mail door with the name of the file you wish to download. To accomplish this, enter a message in any area with the following header information: From: Your Name To: BWAVE Subject: REQUEST <filename> Simply place the name of the file on the subject line after the REQUEST command, i.e. "REQUEST FOOBAR.ZIP". You can also use DL: in place of REQUEST ("DL:FOOBAR.ZIP"); this was added for compatibility with other QWK mail doors. You can request as many files as your .REP packet can hold. Note, however, that the SysOp can limit the number of files that you can receive, and can even completely disable file requesting. The mail ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 35 door will alert you if you try to request more than the allowed number of files, or if file requesting is disabled. Section 6.3 Entering FidoNet NetMail Messages Even though the QWK mail format doesn't support FidoNet Netmail, you can still address messages in NetMail areas with your QWK reader. This is done by specifying "To: <zone:net/node.point>" as the first line of the message text. For example: From: Your Name To: George Hatchew Subject: This new door is great! ------------------------------------------------------------ To: 1:2240/176 George, I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that the new Blue Wave door is great! The QWK support is fantastic! The mail door will strip out the "To:" line and create a proper NetMail message in the BBS message area. Make sure, however, that you enter the message in a NetMail area, otherwise it's not going to work. (Consult your SysOp if you need to find out which message area, if any, supports FidoNet NetMail.) Section 6.4 Entering Internet E-Mail Messages As with FidoNet NetMail, the QWK mail format doesn't support Internet E-mail, however you can still address messages in Internet E-mail areas with your QWK reader. This is done by specifying "To: <user@domain>" as the first line of the message text. For example: From: Your Name To: George Hatchew Subject: This new door is great! ------------------------------------------------------------ To: bluewave@concentric.net George, I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that the new Blue Wave door is great! The QWK support is fantastic! The mail door will strip out the "To:" line and create a proper E-mail message in the BBS message area. Make sure, however, that you enter the message in an Internet E-mail area, otherwise it's not going to work. (Consult your SysOp if you need to find out which message area, if any, supports Internet E-mail.) Section 6.5 Entering FidoNet-Gated Internet E-Mail Some SysOps may provide an Internet E-mail message area which is "gated" through FidoNet NetMail (in other words, messages are converted back and forth between the two networks). You can ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 36 accomplish this by essentially combining the two methods described above: From: Your Name To: George Hatchew Subject: This new door is great! ------------------------------------------------------------ To: bluewave@concentric.net George, I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that the new Blue Wave door is great! The QWK support is fantastic! The mail door will strip out the first "To:" line and create a proper NetMail message in the BBS message area. The second "To:" line is left intact, as the software which gates messages between FidoNet and the Internet will use it to properly address the E-mail message. Section 6.6 Extended Message Header Fields The message headers in QWK mail packets are limited to 25 characters each for the From:, To:, and Subject: fields. You can specify longer fields by using "From:", "To:", and "Subject:" lines at the top of the message text. For example: From: Your Name To: JoJo Subject: Howdy! ------------------------------------------------------------ To: Joseph Josenakankambalowski Subject: Hey, dude, that's one tongue-twisting last name! For BBSes that support longer message header fields, the mail door will strip out these extended lines and place the specified text in the message header; the text specified in the QWK message header itself will be ignored for each field that is replaced. Note that even though the "From:" field is recognized and stripped out, the specified text will not be used UNLESS the message area allows you to enter any name in the From: field. (Normally, your real name or your alias is used, depending on how the SysOp has configured the message areas.) ----------------------------------------------------- Blue Wave Mail Door User Documentation, v4.00; Page 37