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BWPCB.FAQ
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1996-09-02
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Frequently Asked Questions About
The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, Version 4.01
for PCBoard v15.2x (DOS and OS/2)
Copyright (C) 1992-1996 by Cutting Edge Computing
All Rights Reserved.
Q. One of my users attempted to change the packet type from Blue
Wave to QWK, but the door would not allow him to do so. Why
not?
A. The ability to download mail packets in QWK format is new
starting with version 4.00, and is a "registration incentive".
As such, it is only available in the registered version. If
you wish to make this feature available to your users, you
will have to register the door.
Q. But I've already registered the Blue Wave door for another BBS
program. Are you saying that I need to register AGAIN?
A. Only if you wish to enable QWK support. Otherwise, you may
continue to use your current registration code, and the door
will act just like any other Blue Wave door (it just won't
have QWK support).
Unregistered users must pay the full registration fee.
Registered users can upgrade to version 4.00 for a nominal
fee; they don't need to pay full price. Refer to the
registration forms included in the distribution archive for
details.
Q. My wife (husband/girlfriend/roommate/whatever) and I like to
read the same mail packet and create reply messages with our
own names in the From: field. This little "trick" allows us
to avoid having to use multiple mail packets. Other QWK doors
for PCBoard will use whatever name is in the From: field, but
the Blue Wave door ignores it. Why?
A. All Blue Wave doors are designed to work as much like the
underlying host BBS software as possible. In order for the
aforementioned "trick" to work, the host BBS must allow
message areas to be configured for "any name" mode (i.e. any
name is acceptable in the From: field). Since PCBoard does
not allow conferences to be configured in this manner, the
From: field is ignored in favor of the real name (or alias) of
the currently logged-in user.
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The Blue Wave Door for PCBoard FAQ - Page 1
Q. How does the door know the difference between conferences
configured as FidoNet NetMail and EchoMail?
A. The Blue Wave door uses the same logic as PCBoard: The
Conference Type must be set to 5, and the Fido Area Name
(*NOT* the Area Filename!) must be set to "NETMAIL" for
NetMail, or anything else for EchoMail.
Q. Does the door treat any of PCBoard's various conference types
differently than PCBoard?
A. Two conference types are, by necessity, treated differently by
the door than they are by PCBoard. These types are:
Internet/Usenet Junk (type 2)
PCBoard uses conferences of this type to store
"orphaned" Internet E-mail and Usenet newsgroup
messages. As such, the door treats them as local,
read-only conferences (to prevent users from posting
in them).
Moderated Usenet Newsgroup (type 3)
Since Blue Wave has no way to distinguish between
moderated and unmoderated newsgroups, and since the
UUCP utility that comes with PCBoard will take care
of the nitty-gritty details of moderating posted
messages, this type is considered to be the same as
a Usenet Public Newsgroup conference (type 4).
Any conferences which are assigned a type not recognized by
the door will be treated as local (type 0).
Q. My DOS PCBoard setup is configured to share a single
PCBOARD.DAT file between all nodes. How do I tell the Blue
Wave door the comm port configuration for each node?
A. When an online user runs the door, it will search for the
"PCB" environment variable (this variable is explained in
detail in your PCBoard BBS Software SysOps Manual). Each
NODEx.BAT file for the various nodes on your system should
contain a "SET PCB=..." line which tells PCBoard the
configuration of that node. The only options that will be
discussed here will be the comm port configuration switches:
/COMx: Selects direct async communications on COM
port "x".
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The Blue Wave Door for PCBoard FAQ - Page 2
/PORTxF: Selects FOSSIL communications on port "x".
Also used when using COMM-DRV to access
multi-port comm boards (COMM-DRV ports
must be set up to emulate FOSSIL).
/OS /PORTx: Selects direct access to OS/2 comm drivers
for COM port "x".
Consult the "PCBoard BBS Software SysOps Manual" for
additional information about the PCB environment variable and
the switches that may be used with it.
Q. What about comm stuff under the OS/2 version?
A. The Blue Wave door uses the OS/2 API for all comm functions,
so there's no need to worry about multiple types. Simply
ensure that the door is configured via the instructions in
Chapter 5 of BWMAIL.DOC, and the door will take care of the
rest.
Q. I tried executing the Blue Wave door in local mode, but it
locked up my system after displaying "Loading PCBoard". Help!
A. This will happen if the user specified on the command line has
a security level that is not defined in the PCBoard PWRD file.
For some reason, this can cause PCBoard to lock up solid. The
solution, naturally, is to make sure that the user's security
level is defined in the PWRD file.
Note that we observed this strange behavior with an early beta
version of PCBoard v15.3 (which is eventually to be released
as version 15.23). This may or may not happen with version
15.22 or earlier -- we haven't tested it -- but if it does, at
least you now know why it happens!
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The Blue Wave Door for PCBoard FAQ - Page 3