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1996-09-21
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P A D L O C K
-------------------------------------------------
version 3.20
(C) 1996 Stefan Xenos
L e g a l S t u f f
_____________________
This software is entirely without warrantly, expressed or implied.
If you decide to use it, you do so at your own risk. The only thing I
guarantee about it is that it will take up space on your hard disk. I take
no responsibility for anything that happens through your use of this
software, no matter how bad it is.
All of the files included in the Padlock distribution archive are
(C) 1996 Stefan Xenos.
If people weren't in the habit of suing everyone who looked at them
the wrong way, then time and space-wasting messages like this would be
unnecessary.
You may modify this source code however you like for your own
personal use as long as the copyright message and the author's name is not
removed. You MAY NOT distribute modified versions of the code. You may not
charge money for the use or distribution of this program without my prior
permission in writing. Feel free to distribute it like crazy as long as you
don't charge for it.
You may:
- Use Padlock on any sort of electronic bulletin board system,
even those that charge money for access or provide some
commercial service.
- Distribute Padlock on a BBS or through the internet. In fact,
I'd encourage you to distribute this software like there was
no tomorrow.
- Modify the source code for your own personal use.
- Use portions of Padlock's source code for writing other utilities,
as long as you don't distribute them without my prior permission
in writing.
You may do the following only with my prior permission in writing:
- Charge money for the use or distribution of Padlock.
- Distribute Padlock on CD-ROM or diskette as part of a compilation
of other shareware and freeware.
- Include Padlock in the distribution of some other product.
- Use any part of Padlock's source code in another piece of software
available publicly.
You may not:
- Take credit for writing Padlock or any portion thereof, no matter
how much you've modified its source code.
- Distribute modified versions of Padlock.
- Add or remove any files to the Padlock distribution archive. This
includes BBS adds.
- Remove the copyright notice or author's name from the program.
- Reproduce the source code in any form.
Please remember that this is copyrighted software. Although it is
free, it is NOT in the public domain. If you've written bug fixes
or patches for Padlock, please do not distribute them. Instead,
send them to me for inclusion in the next release, and if I decide
to include them, you will be credited for your work.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
_______________________
The document you are reading now was put together in a real rush.
I'm hoping to include better documetation in a future release. If there's
any die-hard Padlock user out there who would be interested in writing a
better user's manual for me, I'd be very grateful. <grin>
Padlock is a flexible call back verifier for Maximus 3.xx and up.
It has been written entirely in Mex (The Maximus EXtension Language) to
ensure portability and to enable you to customize it however you want.
Pleez exkuze my speling. I havint had a chanse to spel chek this
fiel yet.
F e a t u r e s
_______________
This section describes Padlock's features and describes its behaviour.
If you just want to get started
Padlock's features include:
- Multinode friendly.
- International phone number support.
- Padlock can often guess a user's phone number if it is in the
wrong format.
- Sysop-definable logic for adding prefixes and suffixes to phone
numbers from particular areas.
- Verifications to different areas can be restricted to particular
times of the day.
- The user's city can be updated based on their phone number.
- Auto detection of long distance phone numbers.
- Baudrate checking.
- Many wildcards are supported for specifying phone numbers in the
input file.
- Additional verification attempts can be made if another user tries
to call the BBS during a verification.
- Runs under DOS, Win 95, OS/2 2.1, and OS/2 Warp.
- Most output is done through user-editable .MEC files.
- Complete Mex source code included.
- The user's security level can be automatically updated after
a successful verification. User keys can also be added or removed.
- Cursor animation and line editing for most user input.
- Very flexible. Every aspect of Padlock's behaviour is user
configurable. Padlock can even be set up to duplicate the behaviour
of most other popular verifiers.
S y s t e m R e q u i r e m e n t s
_____________________________________
In order to run Padlock, you must have the following:
- Maximus CBCS v3.00 or higher. Padlock will NOT run with Maximus
versions earlier than version 3, and it will not run with any
other BBS package (sorry).
- An operating system capable of running Maximus 3.00. Padlock
should be able to run under any environment Maximus can.
- 500k of hard disk space.
I have tested Padlock 3.00 using the default settings on a Pentium 90
with a USR Sportster 14.4k under DOS 6.22, OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp, and
Win 95. In addition, OS/2 2.1 and OS/2 Warp were tested with a
Zoom 28.8k modem.
I n s t a l l a t i o n
_______________________
1. Move all the files into their own directory. By default, I use a
directory inside my main Max directory called PADLOCK. If you
decide to use another directory name, you will have to make several
additional changes to your configuration.
2. Back up all the default control files that come with Padlock
just in case you change something that doesn't work.
3. Edit SETTINGS.CFG. This file contains the minimum configuration
information you will need to get Padlock up and running. If you're
in a rush to get Padlock running, you can skip to step 4 and finish
this step later. Otherwise, you should edit the other .CFG
files in your Padlock directory (especially BEHAVIOR.CFG).
You may also want to edit the file INSETUP.MH, which controls
the behaviour of the input/output routines.
4. Edit the file PHONE.CTL to reflect your local calling area.
The default PHONE.CTL is the file I use with my system. It
contains examples of many different ways to configure your
system. Follow the instructions in that file for more
information.
If you don't have the time or patience to configure your local
calling area, you can use a generic "bare bones" setup. An example
of such a setup is included in the file SAMPLE.CTL. It should
work on almost any system with very little editing, but does not
take advantage of many of Padlock's powerful features. This is
not recommended, but is useful if you just want to get Padlock
up and running on a trial basis.
The current version of PHONE.CTL is backwards compatible to
version 1.2, so if you are upgrading from any previous version
of Padlock you should be able to use your existing PHONE.CTL without
any problems. Just rename the default PHONE.CTL that comes with
Padlock and copy yours into the padlock directory.
5. If you placed Padlock to the default directory, you can
skip this step. Otherwise, edit all the .MEC files to
change all uses of the directory name "padlock\" to
wherever you placed the Padlock files.
You will also need to modify FILENAME.CFG and change
the keywords message_file_directory, phone_file, and
log_file to point to the new directory.
5. If you are using the default directory names for maximus
and for Padlock, go into the padlock directory and type:
BUILD
Otherwise, type:
BUILD [maximus directory] [mex include directory]
where [maximus directory] is the directory where the maximus
executables can be found and [mex include directory] is the
directory where the file MAX.MH and the other default maximus
header files can be found. By default, these files are placed
in a directory called "m" inside the main maximus directory.
IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You MUST run this batch file EVERY TIME you change any of the .MH,
.CFG, or .MEX files that come with padlock in order for your changes
to take effect. Forgetting to run BUILD after changing a configuration
file is by far the most common mistake I've encountered.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Connect Padlock to your BBS somehow. To do this, you must
tell Maximus to display the file padlock.mec to your
unregistered users. There are two common ways of doing this.
The first is to add a menu option to MENUS.CTL which says something
like:
display_file padlock\padlock Demoted "Register"
Another way is to display padlock.mec from inside another mec
file. By displaying padlock.mec from welcome.mec to all users
below a certain security level, you can force callers to pass
through call back verification before they even get to see your
main menu.
For example:
Add "[keyon]R " to your NEWUSER2.MEC file
Then add the following to WELCOME.MEC:
[notkey]R [link]padlock\padlock
[notkey]R [hangup]
Then configure PADLOCK to disable the R key after a successful
verification.
P r o b l e m s
_______________
This section covers some common problems and gives suggestions for
solving them. Please read this section to see if your problem is discussed
here before writing me with a bug report.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: When Padlock begins, a message appears saying something like:
! 06 Aug 22:13:29 MAX Cannot find file: padlock\somefile.BBS
Cannot find file: padlock\somefile.BBS. Please report this error to the sysop
Solution:
Ensure that all the filenames defined in SETTINGS.MH are correct and
that the files actually exist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: The changes I make in SETTINGS.MH don't seem to have any effect!
Solution:
Remember to run BUILD after making any changes to SETTINGS.MH.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: Maximus crashes and I get a message that looks something like this:
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
FATAL ERROR. The program encountered an exception violation.
Please record the following information and report it to the author.
--> This report is being saved to file '953.trp' in the current directory.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
type: c0000005 address: 171d5114 time: 3207e748
flags: 00000000 params: [0]=00000001 [1]=0028ee07
cs:eip=005b:171d5114 ss:esp=0053:0008dd1c
cs=005b ds=0053 es=0053 fs=150b gs=0000 ss=0053
eax=0028ee07 ebx=000004d0 ecx=000004d0 edx=00000000
esi=ffffffff edi=001c585d ebp=0008dd38 efl=00092202
ESPd: 15421d17d347290007ee280051291d1730002b0058dd0800000000008cdd0800
EBPd: 8cdd08005d581c00ffffffffd3472900f0000000550a1d170000791300002900
EIPd: 3810a8037409881040c1ca084975f351c1e902e81b0000005983e103740e8810
Stk at 171d5114:
001c585d 001c585d 001c585d 001c585d 00051353
0004f921 0004f3dd 0004f0b4 0004edbc 0005921b
00058fee 00037b85 0003
The BBS has ended for unknown reasons.
Please wait while an attempt is made to record this bad news...
Thank you.
MsgAPI is closing an open area...
MsgAPI is done closing areas.
SYS1808:
The process has stopped. The software diagnostic
code (exception code) is 0005.
Solution:
This is caused by a bug in Maximus, not Padlock. Maximus seems to
crash when calling certain small Mex functions (don't ask me why). I think
I've managed to avoid this bug while writing Padlock, so this shouldn't
happen. If you get this error, please report it to me and I'll try to write
a work-around. Be sure to give me enough information to reproduce the problem.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: Padlock takes "forever" to dial out the first time.
Solution:
You don't have enough of a delay after your hangup command. Try adding
a few "~"s to the end of your hangup string. This may also be due to problems
in your init string. Try adding a delay to the end of your init string or just
using a blank init string to see if that works - most modems don't require any
init string at all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: I get errors when I run BUILD.
Solution:
You've probably made a typing mistake while editing SETTINGS.MH. Try
restoring the default SETTINGS.MH file that came with the distribution archive
and making your changes a few at a time until you find where your problem was.
You may also get this error if you've modified the Padlock source code. In
this case, the error probably has something to do with whatever changes you've
made.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: There are no .EXE files in the Padlock distribution archive!
Solution:
There aren't supposed to be any executables. Padlock is a Maximus
add-on. It works in much the same way as your .MEC files do. You can compile
and run the files here from within Maximus, without requiring an external
.EXE. This makes Padlock more reliable, and portable. It also means that if
you're already familiar with MECCA or MEX programming, you can totally
reconfigure Padlock to make it do whatever you like.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U s e r C o m m e n t s
_________________________
I've received a lot of positive feedback about Padlock. I liked these
ones so much that I just had to quote them here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Raymond Cool
To: Stefan Xenos
Subject: Callback verifier
I've been waiting for a good, simple, yet flexible Call-Back Verification
system, and I must say that yours is what I've been waiting for! It's fast,
easy, and even the stupidest of my callers has managed to use it without a
glitch.
What's your next project?
-Ray
--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Covenant BBS Tacoma, Washington (1:138/228)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joe Negron
To: Stefan Xenos
Subject: Padlock v2.00
Just finished installing Padlock 2.0 - nice work! It's working great
(thus far! :) and is an impressive piece of coding (hats off to Scott
also for including something as powerful as MEX in Maximus).
--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: The Programmer's Mark * Brooklyn, NY, USA: 718-921-9267 (1:278/216)
Thanks, guys. It's hearing things like this that make all this effort
worthwhile.
S u p p o r t
_____________
I tend to fix bugs quite quickly, so if you report a bug, I'll
probably have it patched an a new version released before long. Just
be sure to tell me in detail what the problem is. It may also be a
good idea to include a copy of your input files in your bug report so
that I can test them out myself.
If you have any suggestions, improvements, criticisms, etc.,
please get in touch. If you think you've made significant
improvements to my code, please send it my way and I may include
it in the next release (along with appropriate credit, of course).
I encourage user feedback. If you have anything to suggest for a
future version of this software, please let me know. Many of the
new features in this version were suggested by users. Keep the
feedback coming, good or bad.
Padlock is entirely free. You don't have to pay a cent for its use.
I wrote it for the pleasure of doing so, not to make any money. If
you feel that it is worth something to you, though, you're welcome
to send a donation my way. If nothing else, this will encourage me
to continue supporting this product and write more maximus add-ons
in the future.
D i s t r i b u t i o n
_______________________
You can always pick up the latest version of Padlock by:
- Calling Hyper BBS at (613) 257-7636 and logging on as Guest.
- File requesting PADLOCK from 1:163/557.0
Several other sysops have also kindly volunteered their services as
distribution sites, but as of this writing I still haven't figured
out how I'm going to get new versions to them. In the near future,
you may also be able to pick up Padlock from:
System name: The Programmer's Mark
Sysop: Joe Negron
Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Phone number: (718) 921-9267
Fido address: 1:278/216
Action: If you are in the fidonet nodelist, F'req PADLOCK.
Otherwise, download it from the BBS.
System name: The Barrack's Rat BBS ][
Sysop: Michael Andrews
Fido address: 1:260/801
Sysop: John Medland
Fido address: 1:250/840
System name: The Vented Spleen
Sysop: Tony Summerfelt
Fido address: 1:249/139 or 1:249/100
Phone number: (613) 544-9332
Action: F'req "PADLOCK" or "PADxxx.ARJ", where xxx is the version
number.
C o n t a c t
_____________
I can be reached at the following coordinates:
Fidonet netmail: 1:163/557.2
Hyper BBS: (613)257-7636
Long distance callers should log on as "Guest"
and leave a comment to sysop
Snail mail: Stefan Xenos
Almonte, Ont.
Canada
K0A 1A0
I can also usually be reached on any of the following fidonet
echos: MECCA, MUFFIN, MAX_UTIL
Please address any electronic correspondence to either Stefan Xenos
or Cyclone. Snail mail should only be addressed to Stefan Xenos.
C r e d i t s
_____________
Padlock is written, designed, maintained, debugged, and supported by
Stefan Xenos. Special thanks go to:
Will Schweizer, for all the testing he did for me. If he hadn't gone
through the verifier about a thousand times with different terminal
programs and modems, this program would have never seen its first
release. Will, thanks a lot for your patience.
David Mackintosh, for running the primary Padlock distribution site
and putting up with me no matter how many new releases I sent him
in a short period of time.
John Medland, for his excellent beta testing and feedback.
Joe Negron, who suggested adding the Padlock log file.
Everyone who wrote me with a detailed bug report, suggestion,
or bit of encouragement. Since there's been so many of you I can't
possibly list you all, but among others I'd like to thank:
Michael Andrews Joel Bergen Tony Summerfelt
Padlock users everywhere. I hope you continue to find this software
useful and keep recommending it to your friends.