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WTRGATE.TXT
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1996-10-14
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W...W
W.W.W
.W.W.
WaterGate
Version 0.92 gamma
Message processor for FidoNet and Internet/Usenet
Documentation 14 October 1996
Copyright (c) 1993-1996 Waterline Software Development V.O.F.
All Rights Reserved
Development by:
Ramon van der Winkel
Martijn Dijksterhuis
Michel van der Laan
(we have removed all the graphics and high-ASCII from this file, so
it can be printed on any printer in a non-proportional font)
WaterGate Manual Table of Contents Page i
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of contents
-----------------
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Welcome to WaterGate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Contacting the authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Support site, newsgroup and the mailing list. . . . . . . . . 6
Disclaimer, legal stuff, license, money and you!. . . . . . . 7
Limitations in the unregistered version . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Installing WaterGate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Program description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The distribution system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The gateway system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
UUCP for beginners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About UUCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About SMTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
UUCP spool directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Compressed news and batch headers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
UUCP Name and Domain addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Smart host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
WaterGate terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
User types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
System Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
SysOp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
System path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
AreaFix and NewsFix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Max. open handles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Cache .TDB files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Oversized path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Log file path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Use swap file? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Swap file path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Swap file size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Time slicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Minimum disk free. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Drives to check. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Setting up the Fido system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fido AKAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fido Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Inbound directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Outbound directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Origin lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Fido system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Mailer rescan file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Editor rescan file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Max length settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Default groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
WaterGate Manual Table of Contents Page ii
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ArcMail names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Fido Message bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Auto Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Strip SEEN-BY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Replace Tearline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Netmail message base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Decode files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Badmail message base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dupes message base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Default number and days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Auto create type and default path . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Fido Compression Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Fido AreaFix Forwarding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting up the UUCP System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
UUCP settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The spool directory system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
UUCP name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Domain addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Smart host. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Backbone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Default groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Time zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Maximum bundle size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Undeliverable mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Bounce small. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Mail and news grades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
UUCP filenames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
UUCP compression programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
UUCP newsfix forwarding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Gateway Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Gateway AKA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Gateway User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Gateway TO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Kill gated netmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
FSC-35 kludges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Fido From: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Copy Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
ASCII conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Message-ID to MSGID conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Organization to Origin conversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Name separator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Small addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Private mail settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Log file settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Area Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Area name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Area type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
In groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
WaterGate Manual Table of Contents Page iii
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Allow passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Origin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Custom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Origin AKA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Add SEEN-BY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Moderated and Moderator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Fido base and path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Fido age and limit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Decode files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Files path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
User Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
FidoNet style user. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Allowed groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Subscribed to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Passive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
SysOp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Packet password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
AreaFix password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
AreaFix special. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
New Area-create. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Send format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Export AKA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Decode files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Max PKT length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
UUCP name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
World registered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Allow sub-domains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Domain addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
UUCP style user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Compress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Add batch header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Remark on the use of "New Area-create" . . . . . . . . . . 68
Bag supplier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Return system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
WARNING about the return system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
SMTP interface user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
SMTP-In path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
SMTP-Out path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Some notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
The List Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Subscribing to a mailing list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Setting up a mailing list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
List name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Welcome file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Private list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Only known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
AKA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
WaterGate Manual Table of Contents Page iv
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Area name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Echo to list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
List to echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Default access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Subscribers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Gateway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The echomail-news gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Gating echomail to news. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Gating news to echomail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The netmail-mail gateway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Using the gateway with netmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
FidoNet address to e-mail address translation. . . . . . . 80
Unknown AKA and full name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
User record, without domain address . . . . . . . . . . 81
User record, with domain address. . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Mapping statement, without full name. . . . . . . . . . 82
Mapping statement, with full name . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Creating UUCP message headers in the netmail . . . . . . . 83
Using the gateway with mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The ROUTE.TDB file and its options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
ROUTE-FIDO: Route Fido messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ROUTE-UUCP: Route UUCP messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
About bangpaths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Routing things you cannot do in ROUTE.TDB. . . . . . . . . 91
A few last remarks about UUCP routing. . . . . . . . . . . 92
MAP-FIDO: Mapping fido netmail messages . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Order of precedence for MAP-FIDO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
MAP-UUCP: Mapping UUCP mail messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Order of precedence for MAP-UUCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
FORBID-FIDO/ALLOW-FIDO: Restricting the gateway . . . . . . . 96
MAP-AREA: Receive a mailing list in a message base. . . . . . 97
SIGNATURE: Adding signatures to a message . . . . . . . . . . 98
NEWSFILTER: Auto-created newsgroups filter. . . . . . . . . . 100
Logging information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
SENDFILE: a simple file robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
BOUNCE: Send mail back with a reason. . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
SAVE: Write messages to disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
MAP-UUCP and BOUNCE, SAVE, SENDFILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
GZIPBATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Mail Tunnel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
How do I set it up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Incoming Tunnel Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
A complete picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
A few notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Using AreaFix / newsfix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Automatic file encoding / decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
How it works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Encoding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Decoding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Customizing messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
WaterGate Manual Table of Contents Page v
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The language file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
The text files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Tokens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using a secondary tosser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Several options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
The basic construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Connecting the inbound and outbound directories . . . . . . . 119
Including MailTunnel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Statistical information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Format of the WTRGATE.STA file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
The WtrStat program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Possible graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Command line options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Configuration testing with WtrTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Simulating an netmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Simulating an e-mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Routing tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
System maintenance with WtrUtil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Message base maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Re-index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Renumber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Purge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Log file and statistics file maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . 130
WaterGate database maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Overlaid WtrGate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
What is an overlay file?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Tuning parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Translating from other programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Adding information from GEcho v1.02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Adding information from Waffle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Adding Information from Squish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Commandline parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
WTRGATE.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
WTRCONF.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
WTRUTIL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Groups filter option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Appendix A: Message Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Fido *.MSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Squish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
JAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Appendix B: Error codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Appendix C: Trade Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Appendix D: WaterGate Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
WaterGate Manual Page 1
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Introduction
------------
WaterGate is a message processing system. It can handle netmail and
echomail in FidoNet Technology (FTN) format and Internet e-mail and
Usenet news in several formats. It can distribute the messages in any
of the supported formats and gate the messages between the different
formats.
Message "processing" means WaterGate does not do transfers, but
processes files instead. Speaking in FidoNet terminology, it is a
tosser that can handle Internet and Usenet as well.
As far as Internet and Usenet are concerned, WaterGate can process
files (jobs) in UUCP, SMTP and BAG format. UUCP is the core protocol
that WaterGate is based on and is used to transfer e-mail and news.
The terms FidoNet and UUCP will be used to differentiate between the
two systems. FidoNet refers to both netmail and echomail, where UUCP
refers to both Internet e-mail and Usenet news.WaterGate Manual Introduction to WaterGate Page 2
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
--------
- FidoNet message processing: netmail and echomail
- Internet/Usenet message processing: e-mail and news
- Gateway between FidoNet and Internet
- Supports 65,000+ areas and nodes
- Support for *.MSG, Squish, and JAM message bases
- Built-in Remote Area Manager for FidoNet and Usenet(!)
- Utility program to perform system and message base maintenance
- Built-in Mailing List Server
- Built-in File Robot
- MailTunnel to transport FidoNet via e-mail
- Configuration program with friendly user interface
- Context sensitive online help "everywhere"
- The fastest, most complete and most user friendly around!
WaterGate Manual Introduction to WaterGate Page 3
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Compatible with
- FrontDoor/InterMail
- BinkleyTerm/TIMS
- d'Bridge
- Waffle's UUCICO/FX-UUCICO
- WinDis, KA9Q, Slurp, Changi
WaterGate Manual Introduction to WaterGate Page 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Requirements
------------
- An IBM Compatible computer (AT/386/486/Pentium)
- MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows '95, Windows NT or compatible Operating
System
- About 475Kb of available "low" memory (360Kb for the overlaid
version)
- Optionally some XMS/EMS memory
- Enough hard disk space depending on your configuration
To operate effectively, you probably need a FidoNet compatible
mailer such as FrontDoor or BinkleyTerm. Also, if you want to
exchange mail with the UUCP mechanism, a program such as UUCICO or
the faster FX-UUCICO is needed. These programs should be available
on any large BBS or FTP site.
We would like to thank the following users for testing the beta
versions of WaterGate, finding bugs, sending problem reports and test
files, and making suggestions for improvements:
Miguel Lupi Alves, Mitchell Baker, Anthony Barlow, Gerrit Brinkman,
Christian von Busse, Glen Chambers, Thomas Charron, Troy Engel,
Richard Fairhead, Sue Fairhead, Frans van Geene, Guus Goos,
Christopher Henderson, John Halbig, Erik Kolodziej, Phill McKenna,
Jim Meijer, Steve Milstead, John Mudge, Pete Rocca, Bob Ross, Jan
Ruys, Robert Stark, Peter van der Steen, Joop Stokvis, Pat Trainor,
Michel Voorn, Rene Vreeman, Remco Vrolijk, Rob Waite, Jurgen van der
Wilk.
and anybody else who we forgot to mention!
Special thanks to Rob Szarka of Brazerko Communications in the USA.
Explicit NO thanks to Jon Greaves and Colin Taylor for disappearing
as credit card sites, without telling us.
WaterGate Manual Welcome to WaterGate Page 5
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Welcome to WaterGate,
---------------------
The demand for electronic mail is increasing daily, as is the number
of people reading and writing electronic messages. There is FidoNet,
connecting thousands of Bulletin Board Systems and their users on
all continents, and there is Internet, to which almost every
university and major company has a connection. Then there are
numerous other networks, using technology similar to the ones
mentioned.
WaterGate is a mail processing program capable of processing both
messages that were created by a FidoNet Technology compatible
program, and messages created by a program that supports RFC822, the
protocol widely used within Internet for e-mail. Finally, it
supports a variant to the RFC822 protocol that is used for the over
10000 newsgroups within Internet, also known as Usenet.
From now on, the term UUCP will be used for both Internet e-mail and
Usenet news, just like FidoNet refers to both netmail and echomail.
WaterGate was written to simplify the process of connecting both
FidoNet and UUCP compatible systems by integrating the four steps
needed to build a FidoNet/UUCP message host:
1. Process and distribute UUCP messages, for us and other systems.
2. Process and distribute FidoNet messages, for us and other
systems.
3. Translate (gate) messages between the two formats.
4. Import either style message into message bases.
So, no matter if you are a Fido point, node, hub, zonegate, or UUCP
node or hub, WaterGate is the program to use for processing all your
netmail, echomail, mail and news.
In addition to that, it is loaded with tools and features like
AreaFix for both FidoNet and UUCP(!!), mailing list server,
read-only areas, file robot and options to import data from your
previously favorite programs. We plan to support other transport
mechanisms and mailers in future as well. It was designed to do this.
We hope WaterGate achieves its design goals: ease of configuration
of both WaterGate and your complete mail processing system, speed of
operation, computability, and stability.
The authors
WaterGate Manual Welcome to WaterGate Page 6
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Contacting the authors
----------------------
The authors can be contacted at the following addresses:
Ramon van der Winkel
Internet: ramon@wsd.wline.se
Michel van der Laan
Internet: michel@nijenrode.nl
Support site, newsgroup and the mailing list
--------------------------------------------
The WSD (Waterline Software Development) system at wsd.wline.se is
our support site, operated by Ramon van der Winkel. Mail your
problems and requests to ramon@wsd.wline.se. The latest patches are
always requestable from our file robot. Send a message to
watergate-info@wsd.wline.se to get a text file with a description of
all the files you can request.
There is a newsgroup as well: alt.bbs.watergate.
Unfortunately, there are some distribution problems, apart for the
continuous spam postings. Everything seems to work properly from the
USA side, but posting in Europe doesn't make it far.
Finally, there is the WaterGate mailing list. To subscribe, write a
message to listserv@wsd.wline.se and put the following command in
the body of the message: "connect watergate" (without the quotes).
After the reply from the listserver, you can send your problems to
watergate@wsd.wline.se to have them distributed to everybody else
that is connected to the mailing list. The main use of the mailing
list is for announcements by the authors.
WaterGate Manual Welcome to WaterGate Page 7
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Disclaimer, legal stuff, license, money and you!
------------------------------------------------
"WaterGate" refers to all executables and documentation included in
the package that was released.
WaterGate is (c) Copyrighted material by Waterline Software
Development V.O.F. in The Netherlands. By using this software you
accept the terms of the license agreement stated below.
- WaterGate is released as Shareware, you may use the unregistered
version of this program for a trial period of thirty (30) days.
After this period you MUST either register WaterGate or stop
using it.
- WaterGate is provided 'as is', without warranty of any kind,
neither expressed nor implied. Waterline Software Development
only guarantees that WaterGate will occupy disk space.
- In no event is Waterline Software Development liable to you or
anyone else for any damages, including lost profits, lost
savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising
out of the use of WaterGate.
- In no way is Waterline Software Development obliged to you or
anyone else to provide future versions of WaterGate.
- All mentioned products and packages are copyrighted by and
trademarks of their respective holders. If you are using
WaterGate in a non-commercial environment refer to the
REGSITES.DOC file for information on how to register.
Commercial users have to contact the authors for more
information.
A commercial environment is any of the following:
- Business
- Government
- Organization
- Foundation
- School
- Any other form of juridical person
- Any form of system where WaterGate is used to make a profit,
direct or indirect.
Remember that WaterGate is currently in a GAMMA phase. This means it
needs extensive testing by YOU! Most parts of it are currently used
by a number of larger sites, but this doesn't mean it is
trouble-free all through! Stay up to date with the latest release.
We try to release a new version at least every two months, so read
ALT.BBS.WATERGATE or connect to the mailing list for release
announcements.
Please do support the Shareware concept.
WaterGate Manual Welcome to WaterGate Page 8
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Limitations in the unregistered version
---------------------------------------
You can use all options when not registered. WaterGate does not
contain a time lock or limitations whatsoever, except for the
following:
- The fact that you are not registered is reflected in a few
places, like the Received: header in an e-mail, the tear-line
in a netmail and echomail, the PID, TID and Via kludges.
- The tear-line replacement option is always ON which means all
tear-lines are replaced by "WtrGate vX.yy Unreg".
- WtrGate accepts only five (5) MAP-UUCP statements in the
ROUTE.TDB file. This statement allows you to connect a nice
e-mail address to a FidoNet style user. You can do without
this, so five is not really a limitation.
- WtrGate accepts only four (4) TUNNEL statements (TUNNEL-TO and
TUNNEL-FROM) in the ROUTE.TDB file. This limits you to two
bi-directional Mail Tunnels.
- WtrGate waits five seconds when you exit the program and then
continues.
That is all. There is no limitation to the number of users, areas,
mailing lists, send files, routings, domain names, networks, AKAs or
what so ever. The limitations still allow you to evaluate the product
to its full extent.
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 9
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Installing WaterGate
--------------------
Before you go through the step-by-step installation, please read
this chapter first. After reading it, you will know about the basic
issues that are involved with WaterGate and understand the big
picture when installing the smaller parts.
Program description
-------------------
WaterGate supports the FidoNet and UUCP technologies. Throughout
this chapter we will assume you need support for both of them. You
can see them as two separate flows of messages that only touch when
messages are going through the gateway. Have a look at the following
two pictures that describe the distribution abilities of WaterGate.
The distribution system:
+------+ +----+ +---------+ +-------+ +--------------+
| UUCP | |SMTP| |satellite| |FidoNet| |optional other|
|uplink| |link| |receiver | |uplink | |FidoNet uplink|
+--+---+ +--+-+ +----+----+ +---+---+ +------+-------+
| | \|/ | |
+--+---------+--------+------------+--------------+------+
| W A T E R G A T E |
+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+---+-----+
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
U P P P N P U P N P P P N U P P U U U U U U P |
+-----+-------+
U = UUCP-style user |local system |
N = FidoNet-style node |message bases|
P = FidoNet-style point |like BBS |
+-------------+
The pictures shows a few systems that provide the big message traffic
to you. The satellite receiver is optional, of course, but is put
here because WaterGate supports it. Whereas you can be in more than
one network with the FidoNet technology, there is only one Internet
and thus you have only one UUCP uplink.
On the bottom side you see the systems that receive their messages
from your system. WaterGate allows FidoNet style systems to receive
UUCP messages and vice versa. The messages can also be imported into
a message base for your BBS, or for you to read.
Don't worry if your system is not as big as in the picture above. You
can use WaterGate as well if you are `just' a FidoNet style node or
point, with possibly a UUCP feed as well.
The next picture shows what WaterGate does to provide the
interchangeability of the messages between UUCP and FidoNet. The top
and bottom bars are the UUCP and FidoNet message flows respectively
and in the middle is the WaterGate program.
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 10
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The gateway system:
------------------------- - - - -------------------------
mail SMTP/UUCP/BAG news
-----+--------+-------+-- - - - ---+------+---------+----
| | | | | |
+---+---+ +--+----+ ++------------++ +---+---+ +---+---+
|newsfix| | mail | | mailinglists | | news | |message|
|AreaFix| |gateway| | server | |gateway| | bases |
+---+---+ +--+----+ ++------------++ +---+---+ +---+---+
| | | | | |
-----+--------+-------+- - - - - - +------+---------+----
netmail FidoNet echomail
------------------------ - - - - - ----------------------
The internal parts of WaterGate can be divided into the parts
described above. It can process mail, news, netmail, and echomail to
and from UUCP and FidoNet.
If it is necessary for a mail or netmail message to go to the other
network, it goes through the mail gateway. There is a different
gateway for the news, but that one is almost invisible to the users.
The mail gateway can be addressed from both networks.
News flows in newsgroups, and echomail flows in echoes. Inside
WaterGate we simply call them areas. To connect and disconnect areas,
the users have to write a netmail or mail message to AreaFix so the
system operator (that's you) doesn't have to do all that work
manually.
On the far right side of the picture are the message bases. Every
message that flows through an area can be imported into a message
base as well. WaterGate supports the *.MSG, Squish, and JAM message
base formats. In fact, there is also a netmail messagebase (not
shown in the drawing).
The big box in the middle of the picture is not WaterGate's heart,
but is the mailing list server. A mailing list is like a private
newsgroup. If a message is sent to a mailing list, all users
connected to that list receive the message by mail or netmail. So,
the mailing list is just a list of receiver addresses. It is also
possible to connect the mailing list to an area so you can connect a
newsgroup or echo, but that is mainly intended to import the
messages into a message base. This explains why the box in the
middle of the drawing has so many connections.
UUCP for beginners
------------------
There are a lot "FidoNet people" that want to connect the Internet
and receive e-mail and news. The "Internet related" terms used in
WaterGate are not always familiar to them. This short chapter
therefore explains how the "other" system works.
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 11
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About UUCP
----------
To receive mail and news and process it with WaterGate, you need a
UUCP connection to an Internet Provider. These providers mostly sell
PPP and SLIP connections and give you an account to login and a
mailbox. After connecting to them and using special software, you
can read your e-mail.
The problem with these links is that you only have one mailbox and
thus one e-mail address. WaterGate was made to handle loads of e-mail
addresses, sub-systems (downlinks) (basically *@*.yourdomain), so
have to ask for a UUCP connection instead.
Once you have this connecting, your provider will store all news you
want to receive and all e-mail for your system and your downlink
systems. When you connect to them, you pick up all this mail and
news using the UUCP protocol.
WaterGate cannot do this for you. WaterGate is a tosser and not a
mailer. You need a program like Waffle's UUCICO or the FX-UUCICO
program to send and receive your UUCP "batches" as they are called.
About SMTP
----------
If UUCP is not available, then you might still be able to use
WaterGate. We added support for SMTP and BAG systems.
SMTP is the protocol used on the Internet to transport mail messages,
but not news. You need a special program to get the mail from your
provider, where after WaterGate can process it. You can also use SMTP
for outgoing mail. WaterGate will queue it up on your hard disk and
the special application can then send it. Examples of these programs
are WinDis and KA9Q.
The BAG support is a generic format for storing a lot of news (and
optionally mail) messages in one file. There are programs that allow
you to retrieve news from a so called "news server" and store these
articles in a .BAG file. You can then use WaterGate to process these
BAG files. Notice that there is no way at this moment to get news
back to the news server using BAG files. Examples of programs to
download news and store these as BAG files are WinDis, Slurp and
Changi.
UUCP spool directory
--------------------
These batches are stored in your "spool directory", which is a
sub-directory on your hard disk, for example C:\SPOOL\. Your UUCP
uplink system has a sub-directory there, as well as your UUCP style
downlink systems. Not your FidoNet style downlink systems, they have
the inbound and outbound directories.
In these spool directories you will find files with the names *.X,
*.D, *.XQT, *.DAT and *.CMD. The first two are incoming (inbound,
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 12
---------------------------------------------------------------------
received) files. WaterGate processes these files. The last three are
outgoing (outbound, to be sent) files. The XQT file will end up on
the other system's hard disk like a .X file and the .DAT file as a
.D file. The .CMD file is used by the UUCICO (UUCP mailer) program
and tells it which files to transfer.
The .X file is the so called "envelope" file and the .D file the
letter itself. Each e-mail file has a .X file in which WaterGate
finds the e-mail address of the recipient and a reference to the .D
file, amongst others. In case of news, the .X file contains the
recipient name "rnews".
Each e-mail message has its own .X and .D file. The news is bundled
and you will find one .X file for each .D file with a number of news
message in it. The .D file is mostly limited by size, not by number
of news messages.
Compressed news and batch headers
---------------------------------
To reduce the transfer time, news batches are mostly compressed.
E-mail is never compressed. There are two forms of compression used
with UUCP: the older 12-bit or 16-bit "compress" and the nowadays
more common "gzip".
Because of this compression, you cannot read the .D files with news
directory. You have to decompress them first.
To make it easier for a script-based UNIX machine to detect the
compression format, a special "batch header" is added to the start
of the compressed file. When the file is compressed with normal
compress, you will find the header "#! cunbatch" there. When it is
compressed with gzip you will find the header "#! gunbatch" or "#!
zunbatch" there.
WaterGate automatically detects all these headers and compressed
formats and decompressed the .D files.
UUCP Name and Domain addresses
------------------------------
There are two key issues involved in addressing in the Internet
world: UUCP name and domain address.
The "UUCP name" is the is a name of maximum 12 characters that
identifies your system from your neighbors. You and your direct
neighbor systems (systems you exchange messages with) need to have a
unique UUCP name.
The more important "domain address" identifies your system
world-wide. My UUCPname is "wsd" and my domain address is
"wsd.wline.se".
When you want to create UUCP downlinks, you have to give them an (for
your system) unique UUCP name. You only almost never have to give
Fido downlinks a UUCP name.
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 13
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Your e-mail address is always <username>@<domain address>, for
example "ramon@wsd.wline.se", where the part before the @ is called
"user name".
Smarthost
---------
All mail to domains not know at your system are sent to the "smart
host", which is mostly the computer of your UUCP service provider.
That computer will then know how to transport the message to the end
system.
Internally, WaterGate depends heavily on the UUCP names. You have to
define one system as the smart host by telling WaterGate that
system's UUCP name.
WaterGate terminology
---------------------
To configure the WaterGate system, you have to use the WtrConf
program. Inside this program you can create the areas, mailing
lists, receiving users, and uplink systems. Note that the latter two
are logically the same for WaterGate.
A message that is received from a user is sent to all other users
connected to that same area, no matter if that user is an uplink
system or not. Read that again, because all WaterGate does is based
on this!
You also use the WtrConf program to configure all the other system
related items. An exception is the ROUTE.TDB ASCII configuration file
that contains the routing information, mapping commands, and gateway
restrictions. You don't need this file right away when you start to
set up your system. Most of these items will be moved into the
WtrConf program some day.
Groups
------
WaterGate allows you to separate the areas from the different
networks into 26 groups. An area has to be in at least one group,
but can also be in more than one group. That way you can give one or
more users access to a certain group in which they can only connect
to some of the areas you have. You can also easily divide the UUCP
and FidoNet networks into groups. And it is also possible to make a
group read-only so that users subscribing to areas in that group
cannot post messages in it, but only receive messages from it.
If a message is received in an area that is not defined in your
system, you can have WaterGate create that area automatically (and
optionally a message base as well). You can enable this for your
uplinks and save yourself a lot of typing work.
WaterGate Manual Installing WaterGate Page 14
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User types
----------
There are a few different user types that you have to be aware of
before you start creating users. The big difference between the
users is the way they communicate with your system: with UUCP, SMTP,
BAG files or in FTN (FidoNet) packets. Aside from that, you can
assign UUCP addresses to FidoNet users. That way, a user with
FidoNet address 2:280/802 can have an Internet domain address like
bbsw.wlink.nl. If a user on that system sends a message to Internet,
his address will be a nice Internet address instead of something
like user@f802.n280.z2.wlink.nl.
Resuming, there are UUCP users, SMTP users, BAG suppliers and FidoNet
users.
The last thing you have to do before you start setting up the system
is think about the addresses and names the system will be known as.
This is very important, because a lot of errors are made with the
assignment of addresses. Try to write down the addresses of your
uplink(s), the addresses and names of your WaterGate system, and
some of the addresses of your downlinks (users). This will make it a
lot easier to configure the system.
Note that users who receive UUCP and FidoNet messages need not be
defined twice in the userbase, but if the same user receives messages
from two different FidoNet networks, you do have to define him/her
under both addresses in the userbase.
WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 15
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System Configuration
--------------------
The following pages describe the installation of WaterGate by going
through all the possible entries in WtrConf. After that, we assume
that you have become familiar with the system and explain several
complete installations. This chapter will also teach you to use the
user interface.
During this documentation, the term WaterGate refers to the entire
package and the terms WtrGate, WtrConf and WtrUtil refer to separate
programs of this package.
To start, unpack the archive containing the program files into a new
directory on your hard disk, for example C:\WTRGATE. At least the
following three executables should be present in the archive:
WTRGATE.EXE
WTRCONF.EXE
WTRUTIL.EXE
You might want to set a environment variable called WTRGATE to this
directory so WaterGate knows where to find its configuration files
when not started from its home directory. Add this line to your
autoexec.bat file:
SET WTRGATE=C:\WTRGATE
Then run the configuration program, WtrConf, to create new
configuration and database files. If you don't run it from the
installation directory, make sure the WTRGATE environment variable
is set, as indicated above. You might want to reboot or set it
manually before continuing.
After starting WtrConf, you will see the following menu:WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 16
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------+
| Main Menu |
+-------------------------+
| System configuration |
| Area definitions |
| User definitions |
| List Server definitions |
| Group descriptions |
| Import/export menu |
| About WaterConf |
| Exit program |
+-------------------------+
You can select a menu line with the cursor keys up and down. To
select one of the options, press enter. You can also exit a menu by
pressing escape. In this case, pressing escape will present another
menu, asking if you really want to quit the program. Select Yes and
press enter to quit, or press escape again to return to the main
menu. You can also exit the program by selecting the bottom menu
option. To get there, use the cursor keys or press PgDn (page down).
To get back at the top of the menu, press PgUp (page up). You can
also use the Home and End keys. You can always use function key F1
to get context sensitive help. Try pressing F1 in the Main Menu.
To remove the help window, you have to press escape. It is sometimes
possible to use special keys in the help screens, like PgUp and PgDn.
The help screens will tell you when.
Last remark before we start. Have a look at the bottom line of the
screen. It shows most of the keys you can use throughout the program
and will change to reflect the keys you can use at a certain point.
We start with System Configuration, so select the top option from the
Main Menu and press enter. You are now presented with a new menu,
which looks like this:WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 17
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------------------------+
| System configuration menu |
+---------------------------+
| System settings |
| Fido system AKAs |
| Fido settings |
| Fido message bases |
| Fido compression programs |
| Fido areafix forwarding |
| UUCP settings |
| UUCP compression programs |
| UUCP newsfix forwarding |
| Gateway settings |
| Private mail options |
| Logfile settings |
| Administrator settings |
+---------------------------+
The System configuration menu is split into several parts, starting
with general system settings, followed by five options that have to
do with FidoNet settings, followed by three options for UUCP
configuration settings. The last separate options are to setup the
gateway and the private mail scanning system, to tune the log file
and to setup the administrator.
System settings
---------------
Let's start with System settings. Press enter to get the screen:WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 18
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------+
| SysOp Ramon van der Winkel |
| System path C:\WTRGATE\ |
| Areafix name AreaFix |
| Newsfix name newsfix |
| Dupe checking OFF on |
| Dupe checks 10000 |
| Max. open handles 8 |
| Cache .TDB files OFF on |
| Oversized path C:\WTRGATE\TOOBIG\ |
| Log file path C:\WTRGATE\WTRGATE.LOG |
| Use swap file? off ON |
| Swap file path C:\WTRGATE\WTRGATE.SWP |
| Swap file size 2 |
| Time slicing no YES |
| Minimum disk free 10 Mb |
| Drives to check C |
+-------------------------------------------+
This is a window with fields where you can enter data. You can use
the cursor keys up and down to go through the fields. There are a
number of different type of editing fields, but they all have one
thing in common: press enter to edit the contents.
SysOp
-----
The first field in this window is "SysOp". You have to put your name
there. Since this is a text field, you can either press enter and
edit away or you can start typing at once, without first pressing
enter. This will clear the current contents of the field. So, press
enter if you want to change its contents, or just start typing to
completely replace it.
When editing a text field, you can always press escape to stop
editing and restore the old contents. If you are satisfied with the
new contents, you have to press the enter key to accept the changes.
Inside the field, you can use the cursor keys left and right to move
the cursor through the field. The backspace and delete keys work as
expected. Insert mode is always on, though.
You can clear the contents of the field from the cursor position to
the end of the field, by using the WordPerfect method: ctrl+end. To
jump to the following or previous word, you can hold down the
control key (ctrl) and use the cursor keys again. Finally, the home
key brings you to the beginning of the field and the end key to the
last character of the contents.
The SysOp field is used when WaterGate has to write special replies,
for example for AreaFix. More about that later. Let's go to the next
field.
WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 19
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System path
-----------
You have to enter the path to the WaterGate databases here, in our
example C:\WTRGATE. This path information is stored in the WaterGate
configuration database. It finds this database by looking at the
environment variable WTRGATE. The path in this field will be used to
find the other databases after having read the configuration file.
So:
WTRGATE=C:\WTRGATE ->
WTRCFG.TDB ->
System Path ->
The other *.TDB files
AreaFix and NewsFix
-------------------
The next two fields are the names for AreaFix and newsfix, programs
integrated in WTRGATE.EXE. A user can write a message to these
programs to connect and disconnect areas and to change settings that
are personal to that user. The names you enter in these fields are
the names your users have to use when writing a message to them.
AreaFix is used for FidoNet and newsfix is used for UUCP. It is
conventional to use mixed case names for FidoNet ("AreaFix") and
flat, lower case names for UUCP ("newsfix"). We will get back to
these names later and assume you are using the default names, so
there is no reason to change them here.
Duplicates
----------
On to the next two fields that have to do with dupe checking.
WaterGate is able to identify two messages as being identical
(duplicates) and then only distribute the first. This prevents
wasting disk space and transport time.
At this moment, the method used to identify duplicates inside the
WaterGate program is not very robust. We therefore advise big systems
to disable duplicate checking until we have implemented a better
algorithm. (At this moment, one database with a maximum of 16000
entries is used to keep track of all FidoNet and UUCP messages. No
way is this enough for a system receiving packets via satellite.
Future algorithms will not only separate Fido and UUCP dupes, but
also do message/reply id bridging and allow a bigger duplicates
database).
The first field you can set for the duplicates checking is a "toggle"
field. Toggles are used to select from two or more predefined
options, in this case ON and OFF. You can only use enter to toggle
the setting. The one in upper case is the current selection.
The next field is a numeric input field, where (in this case) you can
input the number of duplicates WaterGate has to "remember". The
number in our example window is 10000, which means WaterGate will
identify two duplicates, even if 9999 messages are sent in between.
WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 20
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The maximum number you can enter here is 16000.
When a duplicate message is found, it will be destroyed by default.
Later in the configuration, you can also create a message base to
put the duplicates in.
Max. open handles
-----------------
Because opening and closing a file takes a lot of time, WaterGate
tries keep an outgoing mail bundle open as long as possible. If you
allow it to use more file handles, you can drastically reduce the
number of open/close actions.
By default, WaterGate tries to open up to 8 handles for outgoing mail
packets. If you don't export mail to other computers, then you can
reduce this setting to 1. If you do export mail, try increasing this
number by 1 for each node. WaterGate is capable of using up to 100
file handles. If you have more nodes than handles, files are closed
in a priority order: the more mail a node receives, the less often
its packets are opened and closed.
Depending on its configuration, WaterGate needs up to 10 file handles
for its own use, the system will use a few too, so make sure you have
a matching number in your CONFIG.SYS:
FILES=20+Nodes+10
Cache .TDB files
----------------
WaterGate is able to copy its databases containing users and areas
into XMS memory, decreasing disk access during a run. To activate
this option, toggle "Cache .TDB files" to ON.
At startup, WaterGate will copy its databases into XMS memory, up to
the amount of available memory. WaterGate has no other use for XMS
memory besides caching its databases and shelling.
Oversized path
--------------
When WaterGate encounters a message bigger than it can handle, it
will use the 'Oversized' path to store it for the SysOp to look at.
The maximum size of a message is limited by the amount of free
memory, which should be approximate 200 kilobytes.
If you use a swap file (see below), WaterGate will only use the
oversized directory if the swap file gets full as well.
Log file path
-------------
Use the 'Log file path' to specify a complete path and file name for
WaterGate's log file. This file is used by both WaterGate and WtrUtil
to log run-time actions.
WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 21
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This path is also used to write the statistics file. This file takes
the same name as the log file, but with the extension .STA. So, if
your log file is called WTRGATE.LOG, the statistics log is named
WTRGATE.STA and put in the same directory as the log file.
Use swap file?
--------------
WaterGate is able to use a swap file as additional memory. If it runs
out of normal memory to store a message in, it will swap all lines
out of normal memory into the swap file. This frees up a lot of
normal memory, allowing another couple of thousand lines to be read
again. If it fills up again, it flushes these lines to the swap file
as well, and so on. You can limit this by configuring a maximum swap
file size.
Since WaterGate is not capable of using XMS memory to store messages,
you might be able to setup the swap file on a RAM-drive and let the
RAM-drive use XMS memory. In this case, though, the swap file is
limited by the available memory. It may be better to put the swap
file on hard disk, so you can process those 1 megabyte+ news and
FTP-mail messages easily.
You can use the toggle 'Use swap file?' to switch the swap file
usage on and off. It is on by default.
Swap file path
--------------
Since you might want to put the swap file on a RAM-drive, you can
enter the complete path plus filename for the swap file in this
field. WaterGate will create the file by itself and delete it after
running.
Swap file size
--------------
To set a maximum size for the swap file (you don't want it to use up
all of your hard disk space, do you?), you must enter a limit in
megabytes here. The default is 2 megabytes. WaterGate will not use
the space unless necessary. You can check the swap file usage in the
log file.
The main use for the limit is when putting the swap file on a
RAM-drive. Depending on your mail configuration, between 1 and 2
megabytes should be enough for the swap file. Let us know if you
ever have to process bigger files (FTP-mail).
Time slicing
------------
WaterGate supports Windows, OS/2 and DesqView by giving up time
slices to make sure it WtrGate.exe or WtrUtil.exe doesn't hog the
CPU.
If you are experiencing problems with the time slicing support, then
WaterGate Manual System Configuration Page 22
---------------------------------------------------------------------
you can switch it off by setting this toggle to NO. Otherwise leave
it to YES.
Minimum disk free
-----------------
You can tell WaterGate to monitor the free space on one or more of
your hard drives. The space will be checked regularly by wtrgate.exe
while it is working on your messages.
If the free spaces runs below the limit set in this field, then
WtrGate will stop.
Drives to check
---------------
You can select the drives you want to have checked for free disk
space in this field. Simply type the drive letters. For example,
"CDT" to check drives C:, D: and T:.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 23
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Setting up the Fido system
--------------------------
This part tells you in detail how to set up the FidoNet side of your
WaterGate system. Other chapters will teach you how to add users
(uplinks, nodes, points, etc.) and areas (echomail and netmail).
Fido AKAs
---------
Because WaterGate needs to know who you are, enter the "Fido AKAs"
sub-menu from the "System Configuration" menu. Here you can enter up
to 100 different Fido addresses. The following screen will be
presented to you.
+ (100) -------------------------+
| Fido AKAs |
+--------------------------------+
||2:280/803 1017 |
||60:100/1 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
||0 0 |
|v0 0 |
+--------------------------------+
We call these type of screens "Lists". They look very similar to
menus and the little difference is the number in the top left corner
of the window and the arrows on the line at the left (it was changed
to a "v" here). The number tells you how many items are in the list.
If there are more items in the list than fit in the window, you can
scroll through the list. The arrows at the top and bottom of the
line will tell you if there are more items in a certain direction.
Because you can only see an arrow at the bottom of the line, we must
be near the top and there are more items below.
You can use a lot of keys to scroll through the list, including the
cursor keys Up, Down, PgUp, PgDn, Ctrl+PgUp, and Ctrl+PgDn.
Some lists contain wider lines than fit in the window. In that case,
you can also scroll horizontally using the cursor keys Left and Right
and the Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+Right, Home, and End keys. There will also be
arrow indicators on these oversized lines. We will get to some of
these lists later. Let's get back to the AKAs.
In this list you enter all the Fido addresses (AKAs) this system must
be know as. Don't start typing all the AKAs at once, but add some
more as you configure more and more networks.
The first AKA you enter here will be your main Fido address.
Normally, the program will try to use a system AKA that matches
closely to the network it has to send a message to. The main AKA is
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 24
---------------------------------------------------------------------
used when it is not possible to find a proper match, or on other
occasions, such as when the system has to send a message to you, the
SysOp.
Optionally, you can specify a Fakenet or Pointnet number. Only use
this if you have (or are) a point using old 3D Fidonet software,
which can't handle complete point addressing directly.
For those of you who don't know what a pointnet is: if a mailer is
incapable of handling 4D (zone:net/node.point) addresses, but only
3D (zone:net/node) addresses, it would be very inconvenient to have
to use node numbers for your points instead. Pointnets have been
invented to solve this. A point with an address 2:280/802.33 would
then be translated to 2:1017/33 if your pointnet for that AKA is
1017.
Note: if you want WaterGate to use the pointnet for a certain point,
you have to define that user in the userbase with the pointnet
address as his AKA. More on this later. Once again back to the list.
The left side contains the AKA and the right side the pointnet
number. If you want to change a line, press Enter and you will be
presented a little (two line) window. You can change the AKA at the
top line and enter the pointnet number at the bottom line.
Since WaterGate supports 5D addresses, you can enter your fido AKA
as zone:net/node.point@domain. The minimum is zone:net/node, though.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 25
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fido Settings
-------------
The next option from the System Settings menu brings you to a screen
like this:
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Inbound dir 1 C:\INBOUND\ |
| Security on OFF |
| |
| Inbound dir 2 |
| Security on OFF |
| |
| Outbound dir E:\NODE\OUT\ |
| |
| Origin 1 Life at the end of the impossible |
| Origin 2 |
| Fido System binkley FRONTDOOR d'bridge |
| D'bridge queue E:\DBRIDGE\QUEUE\ |
| Mailer rescan file C:\FD\FDRESCAN.NOW |
| Editor rescan file C:\FD\FMRESCAN.NOW |
| Max *.MSG length 12000 |
| Max Squish length 12000 |
| Max JAM length 12000 |
| Max *.PKT length 0 |
| Default groups A |
| Arcmail names ARCMAIL hex all |
+------------------------------------------------------+
Inbound directories
-------------------
When Fidonet mail bundles arrive at your system, by use of a Fido
mailer such as FrontDoor or Binkley, they are put in a special
holding directory, also known as the "Inbound" directory.
WaterGate supports up to two such directories. Each directory has a
switch to toggle security on or off. When security is ON for an
inbound directory, mail bundles are only decompressed if they were
sent by a system that is configured as a user on our system.
Second, decompressed mail bundles are checked to ensure they contain
the same password as defined for the user sending the bundle. If no
password is defined for a node, the password within the mail bundle
is ignored.
A mail bundle from an unknown node will be renamed to *.UNK and
logged. Mail bundles with a wrong password are renamed to *.PWD and
logged as well.
Outbound directory
------------------
New mail bundles created for Fido style nodes that this node sends
mail to are put in the "Outbound" directory. For BinkleyTerm
systems, this is a Binkley 2.50 5D compatible outbound directory,
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 26
---------------------------------------------------------------------
with support for Binkley point directories.
WaterGate tries to create Binkley sub-directories when needed. For
FrontDoor systems, all outgoing mail bundles are stored in this
directory.
Since The TBBS mailer TIMS also uses the Binkley outbound style
directories, you can have WaterGate and TIMS operate on the same
directories as well. WaterGate does not _yet_ check for TIMS busy
files yet, nor does it create them. It does do this for Binkley,
though.
Just as TIMS and BinkleyTerm are almost the same, you can select
FrontDoor if you are using InterMail.
Warning: always make sure that WaterGate's primary system AKA (the
first one in the list) is also the primary AKA that the mailer uses!
If you fail to do so, the wrong users can get the wrong archives!!
Origin lines
------------
You can define up to two default Origin lines, which are attached to
messages exported from your local message bases without one, or when
messages are converted from UUCP to Fidonet. You can define a custom
origin line for each area, or choose to use one of these default
lines.
Fido system
-----------
Choose the type of mailer you are using. Possible systems include
BinkleyTerm 2.50 and up, FrontDoor, and d'Bridge. All three of these
programs employ a different way to store information on outgoing
files. BinkleyTerm expects information files in its outbound
directories; FrontDoor uses the netmail messages directory; and
d'Bridge has a special queue path where it looks for its information.
If you are using d'Bridge, specify that path in the "d'Bridge Queue"
option.
Note that this selection changes WaterGate's behavior drastically.
Don't forget to set this switch properly, or you will have a very
hard time processing your inbound and creating a proper and
compatible outbound!
Mailer rescan file
------------------
Your mailer will have to rescan its list of outgoing files and
messages after new mail has been set ready by WaterGate. To inform
the mailer of this, WaterGate can create or 'touch' a special flag
file. All you have to do is enter the proper path plus filename. The
following files are used for the different systems:
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 27
---------------------------------------------------------------------
d'Bridge DBRIDGE.RSN
FrontDoor FDRESCAN.NOW
InterMail IMRESCAN.NOW
Editor rescan file
------------------
If you are in your netmail editor while WaterGate is importing new
netmail messages in the background or on another network machine,
then it would be nice if your editor was informed about newly
imported netmail messages.
WaterGate does this by setting a flag file. For FrontDoor's editor
FM for example, you could have WaterGate set the flag file
FMRESCAN.NOW.
Max length settings
-------------------
Because old Fido mail processors have trouble processing messages
over 12Kb in size, WaterGate can split messages that exceed some
maximum message length. Set this limit using the "Max *.MSG length"
option. This limit is used to split messages when importing into the
*.MSG message base and when exporting to a .PKT file!
Although both the Squish and JAM specifications allow for unlimited
message sizes, most editors have trouble reading messages that are
over 64Kb in size. If you want WaterGate to split the messages when
importing them, enter a maximum message size, or use 0 to ignore the
message size and disable message splitting.
Note: These are approximate values. WaterGate checks them after
having added a line of text, so there might be a slight deviation in
the final message size.
When packing outgoing messages for other nodes, WaterGate will group
them in .PKT files. You can specify a maximum size for those .PKT
(Max *.PKT length) files before WaterGate creates a new one. During
buildup, these .PKT files are named *.QQQ. At the end of the run they
are renamed to .PKT one at a time and then added to the final
archive.
Default groups
--------------
You can give each node access to a number of groups. You will soon
decide which groups will contain the echomail areas and which will
not.
When creating a new Fido style user, you have to set the groups he or
she is allowed to access. Because you don't want to set these every
time, you can enter a default list of groups in this screen.
After pressing enter, you are presented with the standard group
editing method. The groups are listed on the left side of the screen
(complete with description and read-only flag). You can press the
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 28
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Insert key to add new groups, or use the Delete key to remove one.
After pressing Insert, a new list pops up on the right side of the
screen.
Select the group you want to add with the cursor keys and then press
Enter. If you change your mind and don't want to add a group, simply
press Escape. When you are done changing the groups, you have to
press Escape or F10 to return to this screen again.
More advanced users can also use tagging to add or remove more than
one group at a time. Use the F5, F6, and F7 keys for tagging. F5
selects or deselects one item; with F6 you can select all the lines
that match a certain search string (an empty string matches all);
and F7 deselects all lines that match a certain search string.
ArcMail names
-------------
When creating outgoing Fido mail archives, WaterGate can create mail
bundles that use the following name extension conventions:
ArcMail: (day of week) + 0..9
Hex: (day of week) + 0..9, A..F
All: (day of week) + 0..9, A..Z
Ensure that the software your up- and downlinks are using can handle
the format you specify. The default setting is ArcMail, which results
in archive bundles with names like .SU0, .TH3, .FR4, etc.
WaterGate keeps track of the digit or letter it last used for each
user. If the .SU0 file has been sent, for example, WaterGate will
create a .SU1 file instead of a new .SU0 file.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 29
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fido Message Bases
------------------
If you select the Fido Message bases option from the System Settings
menu, you will be presented a screen that looks like this. This
screen contains all the important settings related to the local
message bases.
+-----------------------------------------+
| Auto link OFF on |
| Strip SeenBy off ON |
| Replace Tear off ON |
| |
| Netmail type MSG squish jam |
| Netmail path D:\NODE\NET\ |
| Decode files no ON IMPORT |
| Files patch D:\DECODED\NET\ |
| |
| Badmail type NONE msg squish jam |
| Badmail path |
| Dupemail type NONE msg squish jam |
| Dupemail path |
| |
| Default number 200 |
| Default days 5 |
| Auto Create Type NONE msg squish jam |
| Default new path E:\NODE\NEW\ |
+-----------------------------------------+
Auto Link
---------
Toggle "Auto Link" to ON if you want WaterGate to link messages in
all areas that received new mail during the mail toss. You might
want to turn this off and save time if you toss a lot of small mail
bundles containing only a few new messages. To link your message
areas, you can then use WaterUtil's 'Link All' option.
Strip SEEN-BY
-------------
Toggle "Strip SeenBy" to ON if you want to save harddisk space by NOT
importing SEEN-BY lines into your message base. Remember that
re-exporting messages with incomplete SEEN-BY lines is often
considered a capital crime.
Replace Tearline
----------------
The "Replace Tear" option is only available for registered users, the
setting is ignored for the unregistered version. If you set to ON,
the program will replace all tear lines it finds in locally generated
messages with its own. Tear-lines are also added to messages that are
converted by WaterGate from UUCP to Fidonet.
The result is something like:
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 30
---------------------------------------------------------------------
--- WtrGate v1.00 Unreg
--- WtrGate+ v1.00
Netmail message base
--------------------
Since a Netmail message base is required by WaterGate, enter a full
path to it under "Netmail path". You can choose to make it a *.MSG,
Squish, or JAM base. Use "Netmail type" to choose your preferred
type.
If you set it to *.MSG, the path has to point to a directory. If you
set it to Squish or JAM, the path has to include the message base
name without an extension.
If you're using FrontDoor as your Fido system type, then a *.MSG
directory is required! Also, for compatibility with many other
programs, usage of a *.MSG netmail path is advised.
Notice that you DO NOT have to create an Area Record (Area
definitions from the main menu) for the netmail area, nor the
badmail or dupes message areas! Doing so might result in operational
problems.
Decode files
------------
If an e-mail messages contains an UU-encoded, XX-encoded or MIME
encoded file, then WaterGate can automatically decode this file, save
it on your harddisk and store the remainder of the message. This
option is currently only available for *.MSG bases.
If you set this option to ON IMPORT, then WaterGate will decode files
from messages that are imported into you *.MSG netmail area and are
addressed to one of your system AKAs. All messages for downlinks are
left as they are for the moment. Decoding those files means routing
them as well and this is not built in yet.
The decoded files will be written to the path given in "Files path".
Badmail message base
--------------------
If you want to keep track of messages that somehow go wrong, then
enable the Badmail message base. Use the "Badmail type" option to
enable this option or select NONE to disable it. Make sure you enter
a correct path under "Badmail path". WaterGate uses the "Default
Number" and "Default Days" settings to clean up your Badmail.
Dupes message base
------------------
If WaterGate finds a duplicate message, it deletes it by default. If
you want to keep track of these messages, you can setup a message
base to put them in. Just as with netmail and badmail you have to
set a type and enter a path.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 31
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Default number and days
-----------------------
When a new area is created, these two values are put in the "Fido
limit" and "Fido age" fields. The first is the maximum number of
messages you want to have in a message base and the second is the
maximum age of a message. If the message is older, it will be removed
when cleaning the message base.
Auto create type and default path
---------------------------------
If a message arrives in an unknown area and the user that sent it has
the "Create new areas" option in his user record set to YES,
WaterGate automatically creates an area record in the areabase.
If you want that area as a message base later on, you have to enter
the path to the message base and set the correct type. The path
might be a lot of typing work, so you can enter the default path for
the message base in the "Default new path" field.
If you also want to have a message base created for it (very handy
for small systems, like points, where you know that the new areas
are OK), you can set the message base type for these areas in the
"Auto Create Type" field.
Because you need a message base name for Squish and JAM, WaterGate
automagically creates one for you. Since the first eight characters
of an area are not unique (and completely useless for Usenet areas
like ALT.BBS.SOMETHING, where you have the dots), WaterGate creates
a magic number. This is the CRC32 value of the complete string that
represents the area-name, padded with spaces to the maximum length.
This number is used as the filename (Squish, JAM) or directory name
(*.MSG) for that message base.
The only disadvantage of this magic number is that the real areaname
cannot be determined from the base-name, other than by consulting
the configuration program. You can manually change the name of the
message base afterwards, although WtrConf will not (yet) rename the
message base files automatically. But if you use WtrConf to export a
Squish config file (also good for JAM bases!) and feed that to your
editor, you don't have to know the message base name at all!
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 32
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fido Compression Programs
-------------------------
Select "Fido Compression Programs" from the System Settings sub-menu
to enter a screen that looks like this:
+---------------------------------------------+
| ARC PKPAK -OCT A |
| UNARC PKUNPAK /R |
| ARJ ARJ A -E |
| UNARJ ARJ E -N |
| LZH LHA A /M |
| UNLZH LHA E |
| PAK PAK A |
| UNPAK PAK E /WN |
| ZIP PKZIP -A |
| UNZIP PKUNZIP -O |
| ZOO ZOO -Add |
| UNZOO ZOO -Extract |
| RAR RAR A |
| UNRAR RAR E |
| OP1 |
| GUS |
| Default arc arj lzh pak ZIP zoo rar op1 pkt |
+---------------------------------------------+
WaterGate is capable of recognizing 7 of the most widely used
compression programs within Fidonet: ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, ZIP, ZOO
and RAR.
When it encounters compressed Fidomail bundles, it tries to start
the correct decompression program. If it is unable to recognize the
compression method, it checks whether a GUS (General Unpack Shell)
is defined and lets the GUS have a try at it.
Use this screen to enter the correct program names and options for
each compression and decompression program. A special option is
'OP1', which you can use to compress your mail using a program
unknown to WaterGate. There is, of course, no way for WaterGate to
recognize and decompress this sort of archive.
Use the last line to select a Default type for WaterGate to use in
situations when it has to pack messages for an undefined node, for
example when sending crash mail messages. This is also the default
type for newly created user records.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the Fido system Page 33
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fido AreaFix Forwarding
-----------------------
WaterGate is capable of AreaFix forwarding for both Fidonet and UUCP.
When a user requests an area that is not available at your system,
WaterGate can ask one of your uplinks to start sending that area.
Notice that there is a separate section about newsfix forwarding and
a section that explains how to use AreaFix and newsfix.
When WaterGate does this, the area is created automatically and both
the requesting user and the uplink system are connected at once.
The areas that can be requested dynamically are stored in one or more
listings on disk. You tell WaterGate what the node number for your
uplink is and which file to check for area names. You can define up
to 50 listings for Fidonet and the same amount for UUCP.
You can configure the Areafix forwarding by selecting Fido areafix
Forwarding from the System Configuration menu. You can then select
one of the ten entries and press enter to edit it. You will see the
following screen to edit an entry.
+------------------------------------------+
| Address : 2:280/801 |
| Unconditional : NO yes |
| Arealist path : C:\BBS\AREALIST.BBS |
| Arealist type : AREAS.BBS name list |
| Area manager : AREAFIX |
| Password : highbrazil |
| Group : A |
| Add "+" : NO yes |
+------------------------------------------+
Specify the Fido address of each uplink system in the 'Address'
field. When you flag an uplink as 'unconditional' the request is
always forwarded to this node, and WaterGate makes no attempt to
search the specified area list.
Specify the full path to the area listing in the "Arealist path".
Then select the type of listing: the AREAS.BBS type follows
'standard' areas.bbs convention, while for the 'Name list' each line
in the file has to contain a single area name.
Select the program name of the Area Manager program on your uplink
system. Most should be capable of understanding the default
'AreaFix'. The password is used when writing the AreaFix message.
Specify to which group the new area is to be added. WaterGate will
only scan the lists for groups to which the requesting user has
access. Adding a '+' is used to support AreaFix programs that need
one for each requested area. Instead of just listing the requested
areas, each one has a '+' added in front.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 34
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Setting up the UUCP System
--------------------------
This chapter explains in detail how to set up the UUCP side of your
WaterGate system. Other chapters will teach you how to add systems
(users) and newsgroups (areas).
If you don't have a UUCP connection, you can still use this program
perfectly well without entering any options in this section.
UUCP settings
-------------
If you select "UUCP settings" from the System Settings menu, you
will be presented with the following screen:
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 35
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------------------------------------------------+
| Organization Waterline Software Development |
| UUCP SPOOL path C:\SPOOL\ |
| System UUCP name water |
| World registered NO yes |
| Smart host seunet |
| Backbone Berkeley.EDU |
| System domains wsd.wline.se |
| admin.wline.se |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Default groups |
| Time zone GMT+1 |
| Maximum .DAT length 200000 |
| Undeliverable mail netmail BOUNCE |
| Bounce small no YES |
| Mail grade A |
| News grade Z |
| UUCP filenames NORMAL no bitmask |
+----------------------------------------------------+
First of all, who are you? WaterGate will append an "Organization"
line to all messages it sends into Usenet. This can be a message
gated from FidoNet or a message created by the system itself. You
can enter a short line describing your organization or company.
Organization: Sweet Bug & Company, Holland
The spool directory system
--------------------------
The spool directory is a place to store outgoing and incoming files
for UUCP systems. Each system requires its own spool sub-directory
to store the files destined for or received from that system.
The UUCICO program searches for .CMD files in this directory. A .CMD
file holds the names of the files to transfer.
News and mail is sent in .DAT files, where multiple news messages go
in one file (called a batch) and mail messages are put in separate
files.
The news batches can also be compressed using COMPRESS, COMP430D, or
GZIP and can have a special header on top of that, called a
"cunbatch" header.
The .DAT files contain all the data and the .XQT files contain the
processing statements and tells us whether it is a mail message or a
news batch. A program called XQT will then run the correct program
to process these files.
Since WaterGate is compatible with the spool directory structure and
has to create mail and news batches for systems that process them as
described above, WaterGate creates .DAT, .XQT, and .CMD files.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 36
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The UUCICO does one thing more with .DAT and .XQT files when sending
them: the receiving system renames them to .D and .X, so they can't
overwrite any outgoing files. Since the .CMD file is only a command
file for UUCICO, it is not transferred.
When WtrGate (the program) runs, it searches the userbase for UUCP
style users, then checks if there is a sub-directory in this spool
directory for that user and creates one if it doesn't exist already.
It then searches for .X files and reads these. According to the
contents of the .X file it then processes the .D file.
If something goes wrong during processing, or if it can't file the
.D file, it renames the .X and .D files to .BAX and .BAD.
You have to put the spool directory path in the second field of the
screen. Don't append any UUCPname whatsoever, just enter the path up
and until the directory that is usually called SPOOL, as you can see
in the example screen grab.
Note that the TBBS option module "PIMP" is not compatible with this
spool directory structure, although it is capable of transferring
files using the UUCP protocol.
UUCP name
---------
The next field to fill in is your system's UUCPname. You don't have
to create yourself in the userbase (just as you don't create a Fido
style user with your AKA), but WaterGate needs to know your UUCPname
during processing and it puts it in the files it creates in the
spool directories.
In our case, our UUCPname is "wsd", which has to be typed in using
the correct case (capital letters or not). The maximum length of
this name is 12 characters, of which only 7 are significant.
Domain addresses
----------------
Next are your domain addresses. This is the last part of your e-mail
address, behind the @ sign. For me (ramon@wsd.wline.se) it is
"wsd.wline.se". You can fill in up to 10 different domain addresses.
WaterGate uses these names to see if a message is addressed to
itself, for example for newsfix or for the listserver.
If you have a world wide registered UUCPname, you are also allowed
to use the .UUCP convention, as in "wsd.UUCP". Don't enter this if
you don't have a world wide registered UUCPname!
The first domain address should be your primary (most important)
domain address. WaterGate uses this when it has to write messages.
The list server, for example, will always advertise itself as
listserver@<your first domain name> and there are loads of other
places where this first domain name is used. Make sure this is your
most important domain name. The other domain names are just used to
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 37
---------------------------------------------------------------------
detect that a message is for this system.
Examples of domain addresses:
UUCPname: rubbish
Domain names: rubbish.linknet.nl
rubbish.thehost.linknet.nl
rubbish.UUCP
In this example, WaterGate accepts mail addressed to 'rubbish',
'rubbish.linknet.nl', 'rubbish.thehost.linknet.nl', and
'rubbish.UUCP' as addressed to itself.
Smart host
----------
If WaterGate receives a mail message that is not addressed to any
node it knows, it will try to send it to your smarthost, UNLESS this
mail message already came from there. In that case, the message will
be bounced to the original sender, since the smarthost assumed the
addressee (which can be a subnode as well as a point) should be
known at our site but, since we don't know the addressee, it does
not exist.
Your smarthost is usually the system from which you receive your
mailfeed. Even if that system is not capable of smart routing, it
should be able to transport the message to a system that is. Enter
the UUCP name of your Smarthost in the 'Smarthost' field. Important!
Make sure you define a UUCP style node for the system you assign as
your smarthost.
Smarthost: wtrlnd
Backbone
--------
When sending messages in moderated newsgroups, you either know the
moderator, or it is sent to a backbone site capable of transporting
it to the correct moderator. THIS IS USUALLY NOT YOUR SMARTHOST. If
you don't know a backbone site closer to you, leave the setting at
its default.
Backbone: Berkeley.EDU
Default groups
--------------
When new UUCP style users are created, you can connect them to a
default combination of area groups. Just select the groups you want
using "Def. Groups". See the Fido style default group setup for a
complete explanation of how to select and deselect groups.
Time zone
---------
Messages created by WaterGate contain a time field that is created
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 38
---------------------------------------------------------------------
using the system date and time, and the "Time Zone" string added to
it.
Time zone: GMT
results in:
Fri, 19 Nov 1993 04:12:50 GMT
According to the RFC regulations, this field should contain an
official TimeZone identifier. Many sites in Europe tend to use 'CET'
here, for 'Central European Time', commonly used by European cable
and satellite stations such as MTV-Europe. However, this is NOT an
official TimeZone!
Instead, European sites should indicate their relation to Greenwich
time by using the timezone identifier, GMT, plus an adjustment. For
the European mainland, this is GMT+1 in winters, and GMT+2 in
summers (this is a direct result of the phenomenon 'daylight
savings').
Some people like to put phony timezone identifiers here; this may be
tremendous fun, but, although it won't bother WaterGate, correct
mail handling by your smarthost or other mail systems involved
cannot be guaranteed. There are some systems that seem to have a lot
of CPU time left and they check to make sure this time zone is a
valid string. If it is not, they simply trash the entire message!
RFC1036 advises using the GMT time zone.
Maximum bundle size
-------------------
By default, WaterGate will append news messages to the same outgoing
mail bundle for each UUCP node during one toss. Mail messages are
always put in a separate file.
If you have downlinks that have trouble with large UUCP *.DAT files
you may want to set the ".DAT length" option. WaterGate will then
check whether a UUCP message bundle exceeds that limit. If so, it
closes it and creates a new one. A setting of "0" disables this
option. The default is "200000" (200k) bytes; remember that this is
before compression!
Notice: mail jobs are always in one file. Even large files attached
to a mail message are put in one big .DAT file.
Undeliverable mail
------------------
When a message is sent to your system, but it cannot be delivered
because the target system does not exist, then something has to be
done with that message. For example, when a message is sent to my
system for "somehost.wsd.wline.se",then this message cannot reach it
destination because the host "somehost" does not exist as a
sub-domain of my system.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 39
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In that case, there are two options. First, the message could be
sent back to the originator, which can then take appropriate actions.
Second, it can be written to the netmail area, so the administrator
can have a look at it.
Bounce small
------------
When a undeliverable mail message is sent back, then you want to be
able to control how big that message is. For example, it is no use
to send an undeliverable UU-encoded mail message of 100kb back to
somebody. Instead, only the headers and perhaps the first part of
the message should be sent back. This is enough for the originator
to find out what was wrong.
If you don't care about your telephone bill, then set this option to
NO, in which case the entire message will be sent back to the
originator.
Mail and news grades
--------------------
The first letter in the filenames created in the spool directories
(first or second position of the filename, depending on the "munging"
method) indicates a "grade" to your UUCP mailer (UUCICO). You can
tell it to only transfer file up to a certain grade. For example to
transfer news in the cheap hours only.
You can set the grades for mail and news here. You normally don't
have to worry about this setting, unless you want to change the
grades (= letters in the filenames) used.
UUCP filenames
--------------
During the course of all the testing we found that some
implementations didn't like the UUCP job filenames created by
WaterGate.
The problem is difficult the point out, but basically, your provider
receives the jobs but then can't process them and your messages
never arrive at their destination.
If this is the case with your UUCICO, then try the "No bitmask"
option under WtrConf, System Configuration, UUCP settings.
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 40
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UUCP compression programs
-------------------------
Outgoing UUCP news batches have to be compressed with either the
COMPRESS/COMP430D program or GZIP. WaterGate can detect the
compression method used for incoming news batches and will
automatically spawn the correct decompression program.
You can enter the details and arguments of these programs in this
screen:
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 41
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-----------------------------+
| Compress COMP430D -v |
| De-compress COMP430D -dv |
| GZip GZIP -v |
| Un-GZip GZIP -dv |
+-----------------------------+
For use with "compress" it is wise to define a decompressor here
that can handle (and recognize) both 12 and 16 bit compression.
WaterGate will usually be able to free up enough memory to perform
16 bit compression and decompression when shelling out to the
(de)compressor by swapping itself to XMS/EMS/Disk.
Make sure you have the correct compression programs. You can find
these on the Simtel 20 CD-ROM. On the September 1994 release it was
on disc 2 in the directory \DISC2\COMPRESS. BBS's might use the
description for this directory, which is "MS-DOS port of UNIX
compress, gzip; and compression pgms".
The names of the files are:
COMP430D.ZIP
GZIP124.ZIP
Don't use PKZIP for GZIP compression or decompression because this
will not work!
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 42
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UUCP newsfix forwarding
-----------------------
Newsfix forwarding is exactly like Areafix forwarding, but then for
UUCP areas. When a user requests a newsgroup that your system
currently doesn't have, you can have WaterGate scan a list of all
available newsgroups.
But, since there is no 'standard' AreaFix alike program for UUCP
mail processors, WaterGate is unable to forward a request for such
an area. To aid in the development of utilities that can interface
with your UUCP host it is capable of creating a text file named
UUCPREQ.LST on disk that contains the name of the requested area,
and the system it has to be requested from.
You can define up to fifty (50) listing files and uplink systems.
Normally there will only be one UUCP uplink, so you can utilize the
other entries to split the listing of newsgroups.
To configure the newsfix forwarding, select UUCP newsfix forwarding
from the System Configuration menu. You will then be presented with
a listing with 50 entries. Press Enter to edit one of the entries,
you will now see a screen like this:
WaterGate Manual Setting up the UUCP system Page 43
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+-----------------------------------------------+
| UUCP name of uplink seunet |
| Newsgroups listing path c:\wtrgate\seunet.lst |
| Group for created areas A |
+-----------------------------------------------+
The UUCP name will be written to the UUCPREQ.LST file and refers to
your uplink. Nice there is no automatic processing possible, you
could as well fill in another name.
The newsgroups listing path must be a complete path and filename.
The format of the file is a newsgroups list. It starts with the
areaname and optionally followed by a description and one or more
options (/OPTION).
The description is put in the Comments field when a new record is
created. An example of one line from this file:
alt.bbs.watergate WaterGate support
The group is where the area is initially created. If you have a
special group for Usenet areas, then you set this to the letter of
that group.
WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 44
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Gateway Settings
----------------
The gateway is the path messages take when they have to be sent from
UUCP to FidoNet or vice versa. The message body is translated to the
new format and the headers (from, to, subject, date, etc.) have to be
translated as well. WaterGate does this all automatically.
There are a few settings you can tune, almost all of which have to do
with addressing the gateway and translating addresses. "The Gateway",
below, will explain how to use the gateway and how to set up
mappings, which are address translation helpers.
You can reach the Gateway Settings screen via the System Settings
menu. That screen looks like this:WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 45
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+--------------------------------------------------+
| --- Fido to UUCP --- |
| Gateway 2:280/802@joho |
| Gateway User UUCP |
| Gateway TO no YES |
| Kill gated netmail NO yes |
| Allow headers no YES |
| Line wrap 72 |
| |
| --- UUCP to Fido --- |
| FSC-35 kludges? no YES |
| Fido From: e-mail address FULL NAME |
| Copy headers <press enter to edit> |
| ASCII Conversion <press enter to edit> |
| Message-ID to MSGID NO include |
| Organization to Origin no yes OVERRIDE |
| |
| --- Both directions --- |
| Name separator _ |
| Small addresses no YES |
+--------------------------------------------------+
The screen is split up in three parts, related to the direction of
the gateway on which the option has effect.
Gateway AKA
-----------
This is not the node number on which the gateway can be reached from
within FidoNet. In fact, you and your users can reach the gateway on
any of your system node numbers.
The gateway AKA is used to calculate what parts of an FidoNet
address need to be put in the domain part of the resulting Internet
address. It is also used to restore this complete node number on the
way back.
For example:
Gateway = 2:280/802
Sender = "xx" at 2:280/802
First system domain = wsd.wline.se
-> Result = xx@p15.wsd.wline.se
On the way back:
Incoming = xx@p15.wsd.wline.se
Gateway = 2:280/802
-> Result = "xx" at 2:280/802.15
Notice that this information is not used when mapping statements are
in effect (MAP-UUCP).
It is perfectly valid to use a point address for the gateway node
WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 46
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number.
Gateway User
------------
In order for WaterGate to know that a message must go through the
gateway, you have to tell it what username will appear in the To:
field of netmail messages destined for the gateway. The default is
UUCP, a common choice, but it can be changed to anything.
You have to put the recipient address (of the person which is to
receive your e-mail) on the first line of the body of the message,
preceded by "To:" (case insensitive).
Gateway TO
----------
If the option "Gateway TO" is set to YES, WaterGate also scans the
To: field of the netmail for a UUCP address. In that case, you don't
have to put the UUCP address on the first line of the body of the
message, but you can then simply put it in the To: field of the
FidoNet message, provided the entire address fits in the To: field.
Kill gated netmail
------------------
If you write a message in the netmail area that has to be sent to
UUCP, you may want it to remain there after it has been sent so you
can move it to another area (history, for example). If you don't
want it to stay in the netmail area after gating it, you can put the
Kill/Sent flag on it with your editor.
If one of your points or downlinks sends a netmail to the gateway
and he or she does not put a Kill/Sent flag on the message, this
message will remain in your netmail area after it has been gated.
After a while, these messages pile up.
If you set this toggle to YES, all netmails that were gated to UUCP
are automatically given a Kill/Sent flag, so WaterGate deletes them
after gating. This keeps your netmail area free of already gated
messages.
FSC-35 kludges
--------------
If a message is translated from UUCP to FidoNet, you have to be able
to reply to it from within your editor. This can be done in several
ways. The newer editors support FSC-35, which makes replying to a
message from UUCP very simple. Two kludges are added to the message:
REPLYTO and REPLYADDR. The first contains the AKA and username of
the gateway and the second holds the Internet address of the sender
of the message (that's where the reply has to go).
If there are more than one possible reply address, then WaterGate
creates one or more REPLYALSO kludges as well, but there are no
editors at this moment to support these kludges and present you with
WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 47
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a list of return addresses to select from.
Fido From:
----------
If your editor does not support FSC-35, you have to reply to the
message by manually putting the UUCP address on the first line of
the message. But since WaterGate is also capable of finding the
recipient's address in the Fido To: field, it would be handy if it
was in the From: field of the message you are going to reply to.
Your editor will then automatically setup a message from you to
whatever was in the From: field. If this is the complete Internet
address, you are done and don't need to type anything more. Set this
option to "e-mail address" if you want this.
If the e-mail address does not fit in the To: field of the message,
WaterGate automatically puts the address of the sender in the body
of the message, preceded by "Message Sender:".
If your editor does support FSC-35, you don't need the UUCP address
in the From: field of the message. Some addresses are very ugly to
look at and it would be much nicer if the full name of the sender of
the message was in this field, as with normal FidoNet messages. If
you set the option "Fido From:" to "full name", WaterGate puts the
full name of the sender of the UUCP message in the From: field.
If you want the full name of the sender in the From: field and the
address in the body of the message, you have to use Copy Headers.
Copy Headers
------------
A UUCP messages contains several "header" lines. If a message is
gated to a FidoNet message, these headers are lost, unless you use
this option. You have to put the cursor on this field in the "Gateway
Settings" screen and then press Enter to change the settings. You
will then see the following screen:WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 48
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-(30)--------------------------------------------+
| E-mail/news headers to copy to netmail/echomail |
+-------------------------------------------------+
| From: Copy as kludge |
| To: Copy as kludge |
| Subject: Copy as kludge |
| Date: Copy as kludge |
| Message-Id: Don't copy |
| Organization: Copy as plain text |
| From Don't copy |
| Path: Don't copy |
| Newsgroups: Don't copy |
| Don't copy |
| Don't copy |
+-------------------------------------------------+
The left column holds the header name to search for (case
insensitive) and the right column tells what to do with it. You can
have to copied to the netmail or echomail as a kludge line or as
plain text, or don't copy at all.
Of the 30 entries you can make, a set of common header lines have
already been set up. You can change them, delete them and add some
more.
WaterGate searches for the header line with a space appended to it.
This is important, because "From" and "From:" are different headers
and we don't necessarily want to match both. Also, don't forget the
terminating colon (':') after the header name!
Note: There is a known problem with Remote Access together with
BlueWave. When you download messages with BlueWave, you can get a
number of empty lines before the actually message body starts. This
has to do with too long headers that were copied as kludges. It is
assumed that the bug lies within Remote Access. If you experience
this problem, then check on the headers you copy as kludges.
ASCII conversion
----------------
High ASCII characters (values >128) are widely used within FidoNet,
but are illegal in plain text messages on the Internet. WaterGate
will replace those characters when converting a message into UUCP
format using a conversion table.
You can specify an appropriate "low ASCII" value for each "high
ASCII" value. For example, characters with an umlaut can be replaced
with their equivalent without the umlaut.
To support computers that are using a different high ASCII table than
the Latin one used in most American and European computers, you can
use the 'ASCII conversion' option to re-define the default table. If
you mess up the table really bad, then you can press F5 to restore
the default table.
WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 49
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WaterGate cannot convert one-letter characters to two letters. Future
version will support different character sets (supporting the CHRS
kludge) and multi-character translation.
Message-ID to MSGID conversion
------------------------------
This option allows transparant gating of Message-ID headers into
FidoNet and back again. The contents of the Message-ID header will
be put in the MSGID kludge of the Fido message and recovered when a
reply is sent.
Some tossers cannot handle this irregular, but completely legal
format and might even crash. Use NO if you experience problems or
use INCLUDE if you want to be a completely transparent gateway.
Notice that WaterGate always puts the MSGID and REPLY kludges in a
Message-ID: or In-Reply-To: header (FidoNet to Internet/Usenet). You
only control the other direction with this toggle.
Organization to Origin conversion
---------------------------------
With this option you can tell WaterGate to gate the Organization:
header from a news message into the Origin line of the resulting
echomail.
Since you can also use Copy Headers to copy the Organization: line
into the body of a gated message, you can override that option for
echomail here.
Set this toggle to NO to disable the function. Set it to YES to
always put the Organization: header in the Origin line and use
OVERRIDE to disable the Copy Headers entry for the Organization:
header when using this option.
You can edit language entry 105 to configure how the Organization:
header is gated into the Origin.
Name separator
--------------
The name separator is used to convert Fido names to names compatible
with UUCP systems. It replaces all spaces in the Fido user name with
the character you configure here.
Examples (replacement character is underscore '_'):
"Jaap Aap"
-> Jaap_Aap@...
"Ramon van der Winkel"
-> Ramon_van_der_Winkel@...
"Michel van.der.Laan"
-> Michel_van.der.Laan@...
WaterGate Manual Gateway Settings Page 50
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The default is to use the underscore ('_'), because some BBS users
still use dots ('.') to separate the parts of their names, as in the
last example. The problem with those names is not the translation
_to_ UUCP, but _from_ UUCP. If the last example was translated with
a dot, it would be "Michel.van.der.Laan". If that is translated back,
you get "Michel van der Laan", instead of "Michel van.der.Laan".
Small addresses
---------------
The small addresses option is used to keep the result of translating
a Fido addresses into a UUCP address as small as possible. If
WaterGate has to put the sender's FidoNet address in a UUCP address,
it creates an address with this format:
p<point>.f<node>.n<net>.z<zone>.<first system domain address>
For example: 2:280/802.33 -> p33.f802.n280.z2.wlink.nl
But a lot of this information is actually unnecessary if your gateway
AKA closely matches this address, for example 2:280/802.
If "Small Addresses" is set to YES, WaterGate removes all the parts
of the Fido address that match, so the result would then be:
p33.wlink.nl
Your system's points are just
user@p<pointnr>.wlink.nl
and that is a lot better-looking than the complete, big address.
When a message is received from UUCP in the form above, the Gateway
AKA is again used to reconstruct the full FidoNet recipient's
address.
Note that if your gateway AKA contains a point number, this point
number is ignored when constructing the complete address. Otherwise
the point number would always be in the recipient's address (also if
that is a node), if it was not in the UUCP address. So, you can
safely use a point number for your gateway.
WaterGate Manual More installation options Page 51
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Private mail settings
---------------------
Scanning through your mail areas, wondering if anybody wrote you a
message to you can become quite a tedious job if you subscribe to
lots of areas. And then there all the areas that pass through your
system but aren't imported, so you'll never know if somebody isn't
desperately trying to give you that "change of a lifetime <tm>"
(Starting to feel a little paranoid?)
Well fear no more! Simply select "Private mail options" from the
System Configuration menu. Choose what kind of message base you want
to use to store those private messages, or select NONE to disable
all private mail copying. Make sure you enter a correct path for the
base! You need to enter a directory name for *.MSG or a complete path
plus filename (without extension!) for JAM and Squish.
WaterGate is capable of scanning for messages TO or FROM a certain
user, or with a certain SUBJECT. Comparisons are case-insensitive,
so 'Spock', 'SPOCK' and 'SpOcK' should all work OK.
The search strings you enter don't have to match what you're
searching for completely. For example, "Ramon" will find all
messages, either to my e-mail address ramon@wsd.wline.se, or my
munged address Ramon.van.der.Winkel@p33.wline.se, or even when
somebody uses my name (even misspelled) in a subject, like "What I
think about Ramona". If the search string you enter can be found in
the searched lines, then you have a match.
The matching messages are completely copied into the message base,
preceded by a short notice that the message was copied.
The private mail scan searches incoming netmail, echomail, mail, and
news. Messages that are leaving your message bases are not scanned,
although certain constructions might cause a hit on those messages
as well.
It is also possible to decode files from messages written to the
message base connected to this private scan area. This is currently
limited to *.MSG only though.
An interesting use for the private mail scan option is to copy all
messages to you and enable decoding of enclosed files.
This way, you primary netmail area is not scanned and files are not
decoded for users that are not even on your system.
Set the option "Decode files" to YES and enter a path to the
directory where to store the decoded files.
WaterGate can decode uu-encoded, xx-encoded and MIME base64 encoded
messages.
WaterGate Manual More installation options Page 52
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Log file settings
-----------------
WaterGate is capable of logging a lot of things. Not only error
messages, but also progress of tossing for both FidoNet and UUCP.
These progress log lines can take up an awful lot of log file and
you might not even be interested in them at all.
If you select "Logfile settings" from the "System Configuration"
sub-menu of WtrConf, then you can toggle various logging information
generators on and off.
If you want to debug your WaterGate configuration, you can choose to
set the Debug option to YES, which will automatically enable all
other options you can set.
Currently, you can disable a number of 16 or so of the log file
information generators, but more option are added every now and then.
WaterGate Manual More installation options Page 53
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Administrator
-------------
The administrator user maintains the WaterGate program and the flow
of messages. In case of trouble, the administrator should solve
things.
To support a "remote" administrator, the administrator address was
built in. You can either have a UUCP style administrator or FidoNet
style administrator, which require different addresses.
Following is the configuration screen for the Administrator Settings:
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Administrator Settings |
| |
| Address type disable FIDO uucp |
| |
| Fido username WaterGate Administrator |
| Fido address 1:2/3.4 |
| |
| E-mail address |
| |
| Send log? no YES |
| |
| (more to come in future releases) |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
At this moment, you can only use the administrator to send it a copy
of the part of the log file that was last added by the wtrgate.exe
program.
In future, it will be possible to use the administrator to help
WaterGate in its decisions on where to send mail messages, and
possible to edit the configuration.
WaterGate Manual Groups Page 54
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Groups
------
Before discussing message area setup, it is important to know about
groups.
If you have a lot of areas, there might be a few that you don't want
all the users to read, for example the SysOp areas. Because users can
connect and disconnect areas themselves, using AreaFix or newsfix,
there has to be a way to differentiate these areas from each other.
If you are in more than one network, it is also important to keep the
areas of the different networks separated. Every network has its own
AKAs that have to be used in messages written in those networks. If
you connect some of these areas to UUCP, the correct AKA has to be
used when a message is gated from UUCP.
WaterGate uses "groups" to keep the areas separated. The groups are
named A through Z, where Z is a special group for automatically
created new areas. You can enter a description for each of the
groups, so it is easy to tell them apart, and you can select a
"Default origin AKA" for every group.
You can then select which areas belong in which groups. It is also
possible for an area to be in more than one group at a time.
You can give your users access to some of the groups. They can then
use AreaFix or newsfix to connect areas that are in those groups and
nothing else.
It is also possible to make a group read-only. This means that users
can connect to an area in that group and receive messages from it,
but cannot write a message back. If you only want this for some of
your users, you can put these areas in two groups: one read-only and
one read/write. If you put an area in a read-only group, you have to
put it in a read/write area as well or your uplink will not be able
to deliver any messages to this area.
You can edit the group descriptions, default origin AKA, and
read-only flag via the "Group descriptions" option in WtrConf's main
menu.
WaterGate Manual Area Definitions Page 55
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Area Definitions
----------------
This section explains in detail how to create an area. An area can be
either a FidoNet echomail area or a Usenet newsgroup. It is possible
for both FidoNet style users and UUCP style users to be subscribed
(as we call it) to the same area. If a message has to be sent to both
UUCP and FidoNet style users, WaterGate automatically translates the
message.
So, if you want to give your points access to newsgroups, then just
create the areas and subscribe the points to them. It works the same
the other way around: if you want a UUCP system to receive FidoNet
echomail, then just create the area and connect the UUCP user.
This has two advantages. First, you only have to define an area once
and, second, WaterGate can bundle the message very quickly. If it is
an echomail message, WaterGate first bundles it for all subscribed
FidoNet users, then translates it (if there are any connected UUCP
users), and finally bundles it for all the UUCP users. (In fact,
WaterGate can even be extended to use another formats in the future
and was designed with that in mind).
To create a new area, select "Area definitions" from WtrConf's main
menu. You will then be presented with a list of all 26 groups (A to
Z). Select one group (or more, using tagging with F5, F6 and F7) that
you want to see all the areas from. Then press enter.
If you have a lot of areas (1000+), it might take a while before the
list with all the areas names has been constructed. It is possible
to abort the construction of the list of areas by pressing Escape.
But in the end, you will have a sorted list with all the areas and
the header line of the lists will show the groups you selected.
You can now press Insert to add a new area, or press the Delete key
to remove one. If you want to look at one or edit it, put the cursor
on top of the area name and press Enter. If you want to go back to
the previous menu, just press Escape.
After pressing Enter or Insert, you are presented with the screen on
the following page. It contains all the settings you can change for
a certain area. You can use the up and down cursor keys to move
through all the fields. If you want to change a field, you have to
press Enter first.
If you want to exit the screen, you can press Escape or F10 (escape
is more like abort, but they act the same). If you are creating a
new area, you are asked if you want to save the new area. If you
select Yes, certain fields have to be filled in correctly and WtrConf
checks that for you.
Some of the fields contain the text "<press enter to ...>". If the
cursor is on one of these fields and you press enter to edit it, you
will be presented another screen. The same thing happens when you
edit the "In groups" field.
WaterGate Manual Area Definitions Page 56
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------------------------------------------+
| Fido name ALT.BBS.WATERGATE |
| Usenet name ALT.BBS.WATERGATE |
| Comment WaterGate support area |
| Area type ECHO net local |
| In groups A |
| Subscribers <press enter to see list> |
| Allow Passive no YES |
| Passive NO yes |
| Origin BOFH is watching you! |
| Custom |
| Origin AKA 2:280/802 |
| Add SEEN-BY <press enter to see list> |
| Moderated NONE use |
| Moderator |
| Fido base none msg squish JAM |
| Fido path W:\MSGS\ABWG |
| Fido age 5 |
| Fido limit 200 |
| Decode files no ON IMPORT |
| Files path D:\DECODED\ABWG\ |
+---------------------------------------------+
Area name
---------
The first two lines of the screen hold the area names for FidoNet
and Usenet. Normally these names will be the same, but is possible
to change the name of an area. We could change the Fido name to
"WTRGATE.028", for example.
If you enter a name in the "Fido name" field, and there is no name
in the "Usenet name" field, it is automatically copied. The same
thing happens if you enter an area name in the Usenet name field and
the Fido name field is empty. This saves you some typing and
prevents errors.
Comment
-------
You can use the Comment field to describe the message flow in this
area. This line is put in lists that AreaFix or newsfix create, to
make it is easy for your users to see which area might be interesting
to connect.
Area type
---------
There are three types of areas: echo, net, and local. "Local" is an
area that is connected to a message base on your hard disk (more on
that later), "net" stands for netmail. This way you can define
other-than-the-primary netmail areas. The usual setting though is
"echo", which stands for Echomail. Echo is also the option if you
want to say "pass-through", although all areas are pass-through
until you connect them to a message base (explained below).
WaterGate Manual Area Definitions Page 57
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In groups
---------
This field shows all the groups to which this area belongs. If you
press Enter to edit this field, the line turns into a list with not
only the group letter, but also the full description.
To add another group, press Insert and select (with Enter) a group
from the other list that pops up. To remove the area from a group,
select the group and press the Delete key. You can also use tagging
to add or remove more than one group at a time.
Subscribers
-----------
If you press enter on this field, you will be presented with a list
of the users connected to the area. You can use the Insert key to
add a user or the Delete key to remove a user; you can also tag lists
of users to add or remove. If you try to remove a user, WtrConf asks
you to confirm your choice.
If you want to add a user, WtrConf scans the configured users and
only lists the users that are allowed to connect the area. These
users must be allowed in a group that contains this area.
If you are finished editing the list of subscribed users, you can
press Escape to exit the list and return to the area screen.
Allow passive
-------------
If nobody is subscribed to an area anymore, you can let WaterGate
send a message to the provider (uplink) of the area and have it
disconnected, thereby saving you transmission costs for an area that
nobody reads.
If this options is set to NO, WaterGate will never disconnect the
area. This is especially useful for local message bases.
WaterGate assumes that the last person connected to the area (when
everybody else has disconnected it) is the provider.
Passive
-------
This field shows the current state of the area. If it has been
disconnected from your uplink, WaterGate sets it to YES. If it is
still connected, it is on NO. You can toggle this setting manually,
but no message will be sent to your uplink. (Future versions will do
this, after asking for confirmation.)
Origin
------
You can select which system origin line will be used for this area.
You can also select Custom and enter a special origin line for this
WaterGate Manual Area Definitions Page 58
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area in the next field.
The origin line is put at the bottom of a message when WaterGate
translates a message from UUCP to FidoNet, or when it exports a
message from a message base and no origin line is present.
Custom
------
You can enter a custom origin line for this area in this field. To
activate it, you also have to set the previous field to "Custom".
Origin AKA
----------
Every area belongs to a certain network. Here you can select your
system AKA for the network this area belongs to. When you create a
new area, the AKA is copied from the "Default origin AKA" of the
first group that includes this area. This AKA is also put at the end
of an origin line.
Add SEEN-BY
-----------
If your system has more than one AKA in a network and you want other
AKA's to be added to the SEEN-BY list, you can select them in this
list. You have to press Enter first to see the list. The Origin AKA
for this area is always added to the SEEN-BY line and doesn't need
to be put in this list.
Moderated and Moderator
-----------------------
These two fields relate to Usenet. If an area is moderated, then all
new messages for an area have to be sent to the moderator first. If
the moderator approves the message, it is then sent to the newsgroup.
If a new message arrives in a moderated area without an "Approved:"
header, WaterGate converts the message into a UUCP e-mail and sends
it to the moderator. If no moderator is defined for the newsgroup,
it is sent to the backbone defined in the System configuration
section, which defaults to "berkeley.edu". For example, a message in
ALT.BBS.XYZ is sent to ALT-BBS-XYZ@Berkeley.edu.
If you are unsure about any of this, DON'T USE THIS OPTION; let
another system upstream take care of it. If someone you know
moderates the area, enter his address in the "Moderator" field.
Fido base and path
------------------
If you want all messages in the area to be put in a message base as
well as being passed on to subscribers, you can select the type of
the message base in the "Fido base" field and fill in the path to
the message base in "Fido path". You can select a message base type
from *.MSG, Squish, and JAM. For a *.MSG area you need to fill in
WaterGate Manual Area Definitions Page 59
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the complete directory name; for Squish and JAM you also need to
include a filename (without extension).
Fido age and limit
------------------
You can use WtrUtil to automatically clean the message bases. If
certain messages are too old or there are too many messages in an
area, they can be removed automatically.
You can enter the maximum age of a message (in days) in the "Fido
age" field and the maximum number of messages that can be in an area
at any one time in "Fido limit".
Note that when there are too many message in an area, the oldest
messages are deleted first. The deletion is not automatic: you have
to use WtrUtil to remove them.
If you don't want to remove messages by age or limit, you can see
the field to 0.
Decode files
------------
WaterGate can automatically detect and decode UU-encoded, XX-encoded
and MIME encoded files from messages. It extract the file and saves
it to disk.
It does this when the messages is imported into a message base. This
prevents the messages from being split in numerous smaller parts
which you otherwise had to put together and decode manually.
Using this option you can enable and disable the automatic decoding
of files from messages that are imported into this message base.
Notice that WaterGate currently only support extracting files from
messages that are imported into a *.MSG base. JAM and Squish support
will follow in a future version.
Files path
----------
The automatically decoded files can be stored in a different
location (download area?!) for each message base. You can enter the
path to that directory in this field.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 60
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User Definitions
----------------
A user in the WaterGate system represents a system with which you
exchange messages. There are three different types of users,
depending on the method you use the exchange messages with that user:
- FidoNet
- UUCP
- Bag supplier
- SMTP interface
A FidoNet style user basically uses .PKT files, a UUCP user uses the
UUCP mechanism, a Bag supplier only sends messages to you in .BAG
files and SMTP interface uses two directories for message to and from
the application that does the actually SMTP transport.
You can add or remove users using the "User definitions" option from
the main menu. After pressing the Enter key to select the option
from the main menu, you will be presented with a list of all the
currently defined users. Depending on their type, their UUCP name or
Fido address will also be shown.
You can add a user by pressing the Insert key, or delete a user by
pressing the Delete key. Pressing Escape returns you to the main
menu.
When adding a user to your system, you are asked what type of user
record you want to add. After having selected the type of user, you
will be presented with a screen where you can enter all the user's
settings. Since these screens differ quite a bit from each other,
they will be described separately.
FidoNet style user
------------------
As stated before, a FidoNet style user exchanges mail with you via
.PKT files. These files may also be archived and compressed.
Besides the normal FidoNet settings you might be used to, WaterGate
also offers the capability to let the FidoNet style user
transparently integrate with Usenet / Internet. That is, to receive
and send e-mail and read and write news. If you want this user to be
able to do that, you also have to fill in some or all of the fields
that relate to UUCP.
The screen to edit the settings for a FidoNet style user looks close
to the screen below. Notice that WtrConf uses different screen
layouts, depending on the number of lines your screen can handle.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 61
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-[Fido style user]-------------------------------------+
| Address 2:200/112.15 |
| SysOp Ramon van der Winkel |
| Organization Waterline Software Development |
| Allowed groups ABC OP |
| Subscribed to <press enter to see list> |
| AreaFix password verysecret |
| AreaFix special NO yes |
| Create new areas NO yes |
| Passive NO yes |
| PKT password wsdpkt |
| Compression arc arj lzh pak ZIP zoo rar op1 pkt |
| Send format NORMAL hold crash direct |
| Export AKA Automatic |
| Decode files NO yes |
| Max. PKT length 0 |
| UUCP name wsd |
| World registered NO yes |
| Allow sub-domains no YES |
| Domain addresses wsd.wline.se |
| admin.wline.se |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Organization
------------
The Organization field is common to all users. It is used when a
UUCP message is created for the user--in this case, when a FidoNet
message is translated into a UUCP message. The "Organization" header
in that UUCP message will be filled in with whatever you type here.
If you leave this line blank, no "Organization:" header will be put
in the UUCP message.
Allowed groups
--------------
This field shows you which groups this user is allowed in. Each group
can contain a number of areas, so the groups filter effectively
grants the user access to those areas. This is used by AreaFix and
WtrConf.
If you want to connect this user to an area, WtrConf only shows you
the areas that this user is allowed in. It is perfectly possible,
though, to connect a user to an area that is not in one of these
groups, by adding the group letter, connecting the area and removing
the group letter again. (Future versions of WtrConf will warn you
when a user is connected to an area without being allowed in a group
that includes it.)
To edit the groups filter, press Enter on the field. You will now be
presented with a list of groups this user is allowed in. You can use
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 62
---------------------------------------------------------------------
the Delete and Insert keys to change them.
Subscribed to
-------------
If you press Enter on this field, WtrConf will list all the areas to
which this user is connected. You can use tagging (or not) and press
the Delete key to disconnect one or more areas for this user. If you
press Insert, WtrConf will list all the areas this user has
permission to connect, but is not yet connected to. You can again
use tagging (or not) and press Enter to connect the user to those
areas. You can always press Escape to return to the previous list,
or to the edit screen. While WtrConf is busy building the list, you
can press Escape to abort it.
Passive
-------
If a user will be going on an extended holiday, it might be
unnecessary to pack echomail for him. If you set this option to YES,
the user is considered on a holiday.
The user can change this option via AreaFix with the "%PASSIVE" and
"%ACTIVE" commands (for more information, see the chapter on
AreaFix).
Address
-------
Type the user's FidoNet address here. You can use a full 5D address,
like 2:280/802.33@bananas, although less will work perfectly fine as
well. The minimum is zone, net, and node number.
If you want the 3D point address to be put in the archives that are
created for this user, you have to define the user with the
pointnet, instead of the full address!
SysOp
-----
Enter the full name of the SysOp at this address here. If WaterGate
wants to report special things to that site, it will use this name
in the To: field of the FidoNet message.
Packet password
---------------
To increase security, you can enter a packet password in this field.
It will be put in the outgoing packets that are sent to this user
and, if "inbound security" is switched on, WaterGate will also check
that packets from this user contain the correct password as well.
If the packet password is wrong, the packet is renamed to .PWD and a
line is written to the logfile with both the expected and found
passwords.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 63
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AreaFix password
----------------
AreaFix is a very powerful tool users can use to change settings or
to (dis)connect areas. To make sure an authorized user is using it,
a password is required. You can enter this password here. If you
want to block somebody from using AreaFix, you can type something
funny here.
AreaFix special
---------------
You can set this option to YES for co-sysops. They will then be
allowed to change their identify in AreaFix with the %FROM command
and change settings for other users. This option is currently
disabled in AreaFix (version 0.18) because of a rewrite of the
AreaFix code.
There are some other maintenance commands in AreaFix that are
enabled for users with this option set to YES. See the AreaFix
chapter for more details.
Please be very careful with this option, because it can be a big
security gap if it is set to YES for the wrong person!
New Area-create
---------------
To save yourself a lot of typing, you can tell WaterGate to
automatically create a new area when this user sends you a message
in an area that is not yet present on your system. This new area
will always be created in Group Z. You can then move the area to
another group to allow other users to connect the area.
It is more than useful to enable this option for your uplink
systems, because new areas will be created as soon as a message is
received in them. If you also enable the automatic creation of a
message base, you won't miss a message.
Be aware that this can create a lot of new areas when you enable
this for your UUCP uplink. See the NEWSFILTER option of the
ROUTE.TDB file for a solution.
Compression
-----------
This setting selects the way one or more .PKT files are archived in
the outbound directory. The first six options speak for themselves.
The option OP1 is your custom defined archiver and if you set it to
PKT, the .PKT will not be archived.
Send format
-----------
There are different priorities for delivery of an archive to a
system. You can select a priority in this field:
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 64
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Normal If you regularly call this node, set it to Normal. The
archive will be sent when you call this system or this system calls
you.
Hold
Hold for Pickup. If you set it to this option, this system must call
you to pick up the archive.
Crash
If you want your mailer to call this system as soon as a new archive
has been created, set it to this option.
Direct
If you set it to this option, you don't want to route this mail
bundle via another node.
Of course, you will have to configure the way your mailer software
(such as FrontDoor) responds to these flags.
Export AKA
----------
You can use this option to select the system node number to use when
sending messages to this uses. If you set it to automatic, then
WtrGate will pick the best matching AKA by itself.
There are situations though where you want to select an AKA
yourself. In that case, you can select it using this option.
Decode files
------------
This is not implemented yet, but will work like the other Decode
files options in the system and route the file to the user.
Max PKT length
--------------
It is possible to limit the size of a .PKT file. WaterGate checks
the length of the .PKT after writing a message to it. If the size of
the .PKT is bigger than this value, the .PKT file is closed and a
new .PKT will be started. You can disable this option by setting it
to 0.
UUCP name
---------
This field and the following three fields all relate to the UUCP
side of this user. You might not need these.
The UUCPname is the name of this system. The name can be 12
characters long, but only the first seven characters are used. You
must fill in this field if this system will be involved in UUCP,
because all UUCP actions are based upon this name. The name must be
unique within your system.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 65
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World registered
----------------
If the UUCP name entered above is World Wide Registered, you are
allowed to use it in addresses. If this is not the case (most
likely!), then leave it at NO. If you set it to YES, WaterGate will
use the UUCP name in the From and Path: header lines.
Allow sub-domains
-----------------
If you want a user to be able to define sub-domains of his own
domain, you need to set the 'Allow sub-domains' switch to YES. By
doing so, you allow a user to process mail for his own set of
sub-systems.
If you set this option to NO, WaterGate will only send messages to
this system that are addressed to one of its domain addresses (or to
its UUCP name, if it is world registered).
If you set this option to YES, WaterGate will also route messages
for sub-domains of this system. This has the same functionality as
adding the following line to your ROUTE.TDB file (example for the
wsd system):
ROUTE-UUCP .wsd.wlink.nl wsd
Notice the dot in front of the domain name. The last part of this
line is the UUCP name as defined in the user record.
You can also just add the domain address with the dot in front in
the domain addresses list. This or a ROUTE-UUCP statement makes the
switch useless! Future versions of WaterGate will also block messages
from this system if this switch is set to NO.
Domain addresses
----------------
Apart from a UUCPname, the system must have one or more domain
addresses as well. The first domain address is the most important
one and WaterGate uses it when it has to have a domain address for
this user. The other five addresses you can enter here are just
aliases. If five are not enough, you can also use ROUTE-UUCP
statements in the ROUTE.TDB file.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 66
---------------------------------------------------------------------
UUCP style user
---------------
A UUCP style user is a system with which you exchange messages via
the UUCP protocol. You need a program like Waffle's UUCICO or the
FX-UUCICO program to transfer the files. These files are set up in
the spool directory structure, where every system has its own
sub-directory named after its UUCP name.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 67
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-[UUCP style user]---------------------------+
| Organization CyberSpace AB |
| Allowed groups AB JKL |
| Subscribed to <press enter to see list> |
| Passive NO yes |
| NewsFix password verysecret |
| NewsFix special NO yes |
| New Area-create NO yes |
| Compress none compress ZIP |
| Add batch header no YES |
| UUCP name cyber |
| World registered NO yes |
| Allow sub-domains NO yes |
| Domain addresses cyberspace.wline.se |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+---------------------------------------------+
Most of these fields have been described in the "FidoNet style user"
chapter. The NewsFix system is the same as the AreaFix system with a
different name, but it lists the UUCP name of the area.
The only two new fields are Compress and Batch header.
Compress
--------
With this option you select how the news bundles (.DAT files in the
spool directory) have to be archived, if at all. Mail bundles (also
.DAT files) are never archived.
You can choose between the older COMPRESS or the newer GZIP (don't
confuse it with PkZip!).
The setting of this switch is not important for extracting the
archives in the spool directory. WaterGate uses a detection
mechanism for that.
Add batch header
----------------
The batch header is a special header that can be added for UNIX
systems, so they can easily find out that the .DAT file is
compressed.
WaterGate will add the header "cunbatch" for compressed file and
"gunbatch" for G-zipped files. It is possible to override this with
the GZIPBATCH statement in the ROUTE.TDB file, so you can set it to
"zunbatch" for GZip compressed news batches.
For reliability issues, it is better not to set any header at all,
or maybe not even compress news batches at all (V42.bis modems will
compress it for you anyway). Certainly not towards your uplink UUCP
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 68
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system. It is very easy to find problems between you and your
downlinks, but not with your uplink.
Remark on the use of "New Area-create"
--------------------------------------
If you enable "New Area-create" for UUCP systems, WaterGate will
create a new area as soon as it receives a message in a non-existent
newsgroup.
But, since so many messages on UUCP are cross-posted, WaterGate
checks for the existence of all the areas to which the message was
cross-posted. If they don't exist, it creates the area.
Unfortunately, messages are not only cross-posted in the publicly
know newsgroups, but sometimes also in local newsgroups. This means
that you might end up with an area with a name like "buro.general".
WaterGate enables you to avoid the areas like "buro.general" by
installing a proper "New Newsgroup Names Filter File". This will be
described later in more detail, but this file basically consists of
the newsgroup names that you do want to have created, or the first
part of that newsgroup name, for example:
alt.
comp.
rec.
The file is more powerful, so a separate chapter will explain this in
more detail.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 69
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Bag supplier
------------
A BAG supplier is a system that creates files with the names like
NEWS0001.BAG, NEWS0002.BAG, etc. These files are almost the same as
UUCP .D files.
WtrGate supports BAG files with news, but also mail. WtrGate cannot
create BAG files though.
They are used with systems that receive their Usenet news via a
satellite link. It is possible to receive up to 600+ megabytes per
day of news, without telephone costs!
There are also programs (like WinDis, Slurp and Changi) that download
messages from an NNTP (news) server and store them in a BAG file. The
created files do not necessarily have the extension "BAG".
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 70
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-[BAG supplier]-----------------------------------+
| Organization News from a dish! |
| Allowed groups A |
| Subscribed to <press enter to see list> |
| New Area-create no YES |
| Search path C:\NEWSPROG\ARTICLES\*.BAG |
| UUCP name satdish |
| Return system wtrlnd |
+--------------------------------------------------+
All fields in this screen have already been described in "FidoNet
style user" and "UUCP style user". The only new field in this screen
are the Search path and Return system.
Return system
-------------
Because the BAG system can only be used to receive messages, there
has be a way to send messages back to the network. This is done via
the "Return system". If a message is destined for the BAG system, it
is sent to the Return system instead.
You have to create the return system as another user in the database
(UUCP style users), fill in a UUCP name an enter the same UUCP name
in this Return system field.
WARNING about the return system
-------------------------------
The return system MUST NOT be connected to all the areas. If you do
this, the return system will receive the entire feed from the BAG
supplier. And since this return system is usually your real UUCP
uplink, they probably won't take kindly to receiving all this news
from you as well. You might create a nice duplicate loop if you do
this wrong, and that might be disastrous! So, be careful!
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 71
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SMTP interface user
-------------------
The SMTP style user is used to interface two directories where
messages to and from another application are stored. UUCP also works
on a file basis, but this is different.
SMTP is short for "Simple Mail Transport Protocol" and is the
backbone protocol to deliver messages directly to the target system
on the Internet. Notice that it is used for e-mail only and not for
news (NNTP is for news).
The deliver functionality is not built into WaterGate (just like UUCP
isn't), so you need a special application to deliver the messages.
Examples of these applications are WinDis and KA9Q. How to set up
these applications is beyond the scope of this manual.
The following screen is used to set up the SMTP interface user.
WaterGate Manual User Definitions Page 72
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Organization WSD does it with SMTP |
| Passive NO yes |
| SMTP-In path C:\SPOOL\RQUEUE |
| SMTP-Out path C:\SPOOL\MQUEUE |
| UUCP name smtp-if |
| World registered NO yes |
| Allow sub-domains no YES |
| Domain addresses |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------+
Most of the fields have been described before. A few new fields and a
few notes on the other fields follow below.
SMTP-In path
------------
SMTP-In path is the directory where the other application stores
received messages. This can be the RQUEUE directory (for routing
e-mail), but also the MAIL directory, depending on the setup of the
SMTP application.
SMTP-Out path
-------------
The SMTP-Out path is the directory where WtrGate will store messages
for the SMTP application to pick up and transport. This directory is
usually referred to as the MQUEUE directory.
Some notes
----------
The UUCP name is only there because WtrGate refers to a user by the
Fido address or UUCP name.
World registered, Allow sub-domains and Domain addresses are not
used for your uplink, but are there in case you use it for downlinks
and WaterGate needs to know which messages to queue up.
WaterGate Manual The List Server Page 73
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The List Server
---------------
The List Server is an automatic message distribution part of
WaterGate that handles mailing lists. A mailing list is a list of
e-mail and netmail addresses of people that are interested in that
particular mailing list. If a message is distributed by the list
server, everybody on that list receives a copy of the message.
So, you can see a mailing list as a more private echomail area or
newsgroup. The advantage is that all the intermediate systems don't
need to define that particular echo or newsgroup, and users who can
receive mail but not news can also participate. WaterGate can handle
up to 65000+ mailing lists.
The biggest advantage of mailing lists is the control of who can
posts messages to it and not having to read all the spam postings
that you find in the newsgroups nowadays.
Subscribing to a mailing list
-----------------------------
To subscribe to a mailing list, a user has to send a message to the
list server, which can be addressed as "listserv" or "listserver",
at any of your system AKAs or at any of your system domain addresses,
for example:
ListServer at 2:280/803
or
listserv@wsd.wlink.nl
You can request the list server to perform certain actions for you,
just like AreaFix. It doesn't matter if you send a message to the
list server via e-mail or via netmail. You use the same commands and
you put them in the body of the message. The end of the message is
indicated by a tear-line, so don't put any other lines in the
message, like "Hi!" or "Bye,", because the list server will try to
interpret them as commands.
The following commands are available:
LIST
Request the list server to send a list of all possible mailing lists
available at this system.
HELP
Ask the list server to send you information on using the list server.
This information is also sent automatically if a user sends an
unknown command (or something like "Hi!").
CONNECT listname
SUBSCRIBE listname
Two commands that both put the sender's address on the requested
mailing list.
DISCONNECT listname
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UNSUBSCRIBE listname
Two commands that remove the sender's address from the requested
mailing list.
Notice that the sender's address, or more accurately the reply
address, is very important for the list server, as it is put on the
mailing list! This is especially important for a UUCP e-mail
message, which has to have a proper Reply-To:, Sender:, or From:
header (in that order).
As soon as a user receives a reply from the list server indicating
that he has been put on the list, he can send a message to the
mailing list to have it distributed. Since your system might have
more than one mailing list, the message must be sent to the name of
the mailing list, on one of your system AKAs or system domain
addresses, for example:
WaterGate@wsd.wlink.nl
or
WaterGate at 2:280/803
Names of mailing lists are commonly given the extension -L, to
indicate that it is a mailing list and not a normal user. Our own
mailing list doesn't have a name like that yet, but if it did, the
name would be WaterGate-l@wsd.wlink.nl.
Notice that you MUST NOT put the domain address in the name of the
mailing list. Just "WaterGate-L" is all you have to enter. The first
system domain address is added automatically.
Setting up a mailing list
-------------------------
To create your own mailing list, select the "Mailing list
definitions" option from WtrConf's main menu. The names of all the
mailing lists that are currently defined on your system will then be
listed.
You can add a list by pressing the Insert key, or remove a list by
pressing the Delete key. The Escape key returns you to the main menu.
If you want to edit a mailing list definition, you have to press the
Enter key.
When editing a (new) mailing list definition, the following screen is
used:
WaterGate Manual The List Server Page 75
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+-----------------------------------------------+
| List name WaterGate |
| Description WaterGate Support mailing list |
| Welcome file c:\wsd\wtrgate\wg_hej.txt |
| Private list yes NO |
| Only Known yes NO |
| Active YES no |
| AKA 2:280/803 |
| |
| Area name WLINK.WATERGATE |
| Echo to List YES no |
| List to Echo YES no |
| |
| Subscribers <enter to edit> |
| Default access FULL receive-only post-only |
+-----------------------------------------------+
List name
---------
Enter the name of the mailing list here. This name has to be unique
on your system, so make sure there are no users with the same name!
You might want to put -L at the end of the name, to indicate that it
is a mailing list and reduce the chance of it being the same as a
user's e-mail address.
You MUST NOT type in a domain address here. The first system domain
address is added automatically when sending to a UUCP system.
Remember that the mailing list is accessible from within FidoNet as
well, so don't type in a domain address!!
Description
-----------
You can use the description line to describe this mailing list. This
line is used in the lists the list server sends in response to the
LIST command.
Welcome file
------------
The welcome file is sent when someone connects to this list. It
should contain some information about the mailing list: the purpose,
the language to use, and how to disconnect from it. The welcome file
is a normal ASCII textfile and can contain tokens, just like the
AreaFix and newsfix .TXT files. See the chapter "Installing the .TXT
files" and appendix A for more information on tokens.
Private list
------------
This toggle defines whether the list is private or not. Private lists
do not show up in the list of public mailing lists that people can
connect to using the list server. You have to maintain (connect /
disconnect people) private lists manually.
WaterGate Manual The List Server Page 76
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Only known
----------
If you set this toggle to YES, only systems that are defined in your
userbase can connect to the list. This is a middle way between public
access (Private list to NO) and complete manual access (Private list
to YES).
Active
------
This toggle determines whether this list is currently active. A
disabled list is completely ignored and hidden by your system.
It won't show up in the lists and users can neither connect to nor
disconnect from it.
AKA
---
Select a system AKA for messages sent into FidoNet. This AKA is used
as a From address for all messages sent by this list.
This will be changed in a future release, because the List Server is
addressable on all your system AKAs. It will then use the most
closely matching system AKA when replying to the message sender.
This AKA will then be used when a message is sent to the list from
UUCP and has to be translated to FidoNet. It is currently also used
when a message is translated to an echomail message, but that will
change also, since areas have an Origin AKA.
Area name
---------
It is possible to connect a mailing list to an echomail area. This
gives you several extra abilities, such as connecting a messagebase
to a mailing list.
Echo to list
------------
This toggle determines whether WaterGate allows message that were
written in the area (or messagebase) to be sent out on the mailing
list.
List to echo
------------
If you set this option to YES, WaterGate will copy all the messages
that were distributed via the mailing list to the area as well (and
into the messagebase, if it is connected to one).
Default access
--------------
As described below. When a new user subscribes to the list, the
WaterGate Manual The List Server Page 77
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access type in this field is used for the new entry.
Subscribers
-----------
If you press Enter on this field, you will be presented with a list
of addresses of all the users that are currently connected to this
mailing list. You can edit the list manually with the Insert, Delete,
and Enter keys.
When adding a new user, you have can select either a Fido user, UUCP
user or Gateway user. The first can be reached using netmail, the
second using UUCP or SMTP and the third is a bit special.
If you system doesn't have a connection to the Internet, but you are
a sub-domain of a system running the gateway, and you are running a
mailing list, then the address to reach the user on the Internet is
via the gateway at your uplink. In that case, select Gateway user,
enter the details of the gateway and the e-mail address of the user.
Using the access type you can block the user from posting messages
via the mailing list (very useful for announcement lists), or you
can configure a user to not receive any messages, but use the address
for posting messages only. The access type Full allows both posting
and receiving.
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 78
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The Gateway
-----------
This chapter describes the operation and use of the gateway. The
chapter "Gateway settings" (loads of pages back) describes how to
configure it.
The gateway is where messages are translated between the FidoNet and
UUCP formats. There are different gateways for the echomail-news
translation and the netmail-mail translation.
The echomail-news gateway
-------------------------
This gateway is used automatically when a message is sent in an area
from the FidoNet side and a UUCP style user is also connected to that
area; or the other way around, when a message is sent to an area from
the UUCP side and a FidoNet style user is connected to the area.
The message is then translated into the other format and sent out.
When distributing a message in an area, the message is first sent to
all connected users in the same style and if any users in the other
style were found, the message is translated and then sent to all
those users.
Gating echomail to news
-----------------------
When an echomail message is translated to a news message, a number of
actions are performed on the message. For example, all the kludge
lines are removed, the high-ASCII values in the body of the message
are translated using the ASCII conversion table, the date format is
converted and the day-of-the-week and a time-zone are added, all
addresses are translated, a valid UUCP header is put at the beginning
of the message, the tear-line, origin-line, PATH and SEEN-BY lines
are removed, the paragraphs are split into separate lines and a
signature might be added.
Gating news to echomail
-----------------------
When a news message has to be translated to an echomail message, a
number of actions are performed on the message. Not as much as when
translating in the other direction, but in short the header lines are
removed or copied to the Fido message as kludge lines or body text,
the date format is converted, the addresses are converted, the body
text is copied without change, special kludge lines are added, and a
tear-line, origin line, PATH line, and SEEN-BY line are added.
What is important to know about this gateway is that it works
automatically when it has to be used.
The netmail-mail gateway
------------------------
This gateway handles the translation between the FidoNet netmail
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 79
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style of messages and UUCP style mail messages. The translation is
more complex than the echomail-news translation.
What is important to know about this gateway is that it does not
always work automatically. If you use certain settings and addressing
formats, it works automatically. If you don't use them, you have to
send your messages to a specific address and username to have it
gated.
Using the gateway with netmail
------------------------------
If you are on FidoNet and you want to send a message to someone via
UUCP, you have to know the address. Say that I am "Ramon van der
Winkel" at 2:280/802.33 and I want to send a message to
martijn@dijkline.wlink.nl. I write a netmail message; it is then
sent to the gateway (WaterGate), which translates it and forms it
into a mail message, and then it is sent out on the UUCP side.
You can put the UUCP address (martijn@dijkline.wlink.nl) in the To:
field of the netmail message. WaterGate will recognize it as a UUCP
address and then automatically gate the message. The "Gateway TO:"
option has to be set to YES to enable this.
There are occasions when the complete UUCP address does not fit in
the To: field, for example when using QWK, which has a shorter To:
field, or when the address is simply too long. In that case, you
have to send the netmail to the WaterGate program and put the UUCP
address on the first line of the body of the message, preceded by
"To:", like this:
To: martijn@dijkline.wlink.nl.
The AKA to which the netmail must be addressed is any of the system
node numbers. The first field contains the AKA you want to use for
the gateway. The second field holds the name of the user to which
the netmail should be addressed. This defaults to "UUCP".
To return to the example above, the complete netmail message header
would then be:
From: Ramon van der Winkel 2:280/802.33
To: UUCP 44:230/40
Subj: Test
---------------------------------------------------------
TO: martijn@dijkline.wlink.nl
Hi Dijk!
...
The name "UUCP" is set in the Gateway settings screen and the AKA is
one of your system AKAs.
If the UUCP address fits in the To: field, you still have to address
to any of your system node numbers (44:230/40 in this example). The
netmail would then look like this:
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From: Ramon van der Winkel 2:280/802.33
To: martijn@dijkline.wlink.nl 44:230/40
Subj: Test
---------------------------------------------------------
Hi Dijk!
...
FidoNet address to e-mail address translation
---------------------------------------------
When a message is translated by the gateway, the FidoNet address of
the sender of the message must be translated to a valid UUCP address.
Remember that a FidoNet address consists of the full name of the
user (for example "Ramon van der Winkel") and an FidoNet address,
also known as an AKA (for example 2:280/802.33).
The UUCP address consists of two parts: the username (for example
"ramon") and the domain part (for example "wsd.wlink.nl"), which are
added together to form the full e-mail address user@domain (for
example ramon@wsd.wlink.nl).
When a netmail is received at your system that has to be gated,
there are five possible situations:
1. The user and his AKA are both unknown to your system.
2. A FidoNet style user record exists for this AKA, without the
UUCPname and domain addresses filled in. The full name of the
user does not matter.
3. A FidoNet style user record exists for this AKA, with the
UUCPname and domain addresses filled in. The full name of the
user does not matter.
4. A mapping statement exists in the ROUTE.TDB file for this AKA.
The full name of the user does not matter.
5. A mapping statement exists in the ROUTE.TDB file for this AKA
and this particular full name.
Each of these situations will be explained below, with examples of
the e-mail address. Remember that the most important thing about the
e-mail address is that it can be used to reply to the message. When
somebody replies to the message, then all the required information
has to be available in the UUCP address to translate it back to the
full FidoNet address and user name.
Unknown AKA and full name
-------------------------
If the Fido user is not known to your system, or in other words,
there is no Fido style user in your database with this AKA and there
is no mapping statement in your ROUTE.TDB file, then WaterGate uses
the most ugly form possible for the e-mail address.
The full name and the AKA of this user have to be reflected in the
e-mail address. For example:
-----------------------------------------------------
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 81
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Gateway AKA: 2:280/802
1st system domain address: wsd.wlink.nl
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:512/10.5
After translation:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@z2.n512.f10.p5.wsd.wlink.nl
Or with small addresses set to YES:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@n512.f10.p5.wsd.wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
User record, without domain address
-----------------------------------
If the AKA of the sending user is present in your userbase, that is,
the user has sent the message from one of your neighboring systems,
for example a point or node, but this record has no UUCPname and
domain address, then the translation is just like the first
situation, in which the user was not known to your system at all.
-----------------------------------------------------
Gateway AKA: 2:280/802
1st system domain address: wsd.wlink.nl
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:280/801
After translation:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@z2.n280.f801.wsd.wlink.nl
Or with small addresses set to YES:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@f801.wsd.wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
The only difference is that the address of the user is probably
closer to your address, because it is one of your neighbor systems.
This can shorten the e-mail address.
User record with domain address
-------------------------------
In this case, a record exists in your userbase with the sending
user's AKA, and you have defined a UUCPname and domain address for
this user.
This improves the translation, because the AKA does not have to be
put in the domain address anymore. The domain address from the user
record is used instead.
Some examples:
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 82
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-----------------------------------------------------
Gateway AKA: 2:280/802
1st system domain address: wlink.nl
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:280/803.33
Domain address: wsd.wlink.nl
After translation:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@wsd.wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
The same situation occurs when a local netmail is created with one
of the system AKAs. WaterGate then uses the first system domain
address. For example:
-----------------------------------------------------
Gateway AKA: 2:280/802
1st system domain address: wlink.nl
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:280/802
After translation:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
Notice that the only "ugly" thing about this address is the full
name that has been translated. It is perfectly possible to use a
full name like "ramon", though, instead of "Ramon van der Winkel".
Mapping statement, without full name
------------------------------------
In this fourth situation it doesn't matter whether the user is known
to your system. A MAP-UUCP statement in the ROUTE.TDB file tells
WaterGate to translate the AKA to a domain address, just as if a
user record existed with the UUCPname and domain addresses filled in.
This should be used for non-neighboring systems that you want to
give special domain addresses for use in UUCP. Don't put bangpaths
in the MAP-UUCP statements!
Example:
-----------------------------------------------------
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:512/10.5
Mapping statement in the ROUTE.TDB file:
MAP-UUCP faraway.wsd.wlink.nl 2:512/10.5
After translation:
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 83
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Ramon_van_der_Winkel@faraway.wsd.wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
Notice that the gateway AKA is no longer important for the address
translation, and neither is the system domain address. The netmail
still has to be sent to the gateway AKA, of course.
Mapping statement, with full name
---------------------------------
All the examples up to now still had the original full name of the
sender of the message as the user name of the e-mail address. This
can be changed by using an extended MAP-UUCP statement in ROUTE.TDB.
Notice that it is not possible to use a MAP-FIDO statement to change
the name of the sender, because MAP-FIDO statements only work on To:
fields of a netmail message, not From: fields.
The extended MAP-UUCP mapping is actually the most common way to
give a FidoNet user an e-mail address. An example follows:
-----------------------------------------------------
Full name: Ramon van der Winkel
AKA: 2:512/10.5
Mapping statement in the ROUTE.TDB file:
MAP-UUCP ramon@wsd.wlink.nl "Ramon van der Winkel"%2:512/10.5
After translation:
ramon@wsd.wlink.nl
-----------------------------------------------------
Once again is the gateway AKA not important for the address
translation.
Notice that the mapping statements we have used so far are working
in both directions. What other options you have with these mapping
statements will be explained later.
Notice that if you only use a mapping statement for a user with a
user record and you don't fill in the UUCPname and domain address
fields, this user can only be addressed with this e-mail address.
If you put a UUCPname and domain address in the user record, all
mail to whatever user at that domain will be sent to the user's AKA
(think about spelling problems). You might want to use a combination.
Creating UUCP message headers in the netmail
--------------------------------------------
WaterGate allows you to put header lines in the netmail message,
which are then copied to the UUCP message. An example could be
"X-Info: Oh coolness!".
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 84
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The headers have to be in the netmail messages as the first lines.
If you have a To: line in the message, then that must be the first
line of the message.
WaterGate only copies header lines up to an empty line or an invalid
header line. All other lines go in the body of the UUCP message.
An valid UUCP header line start with a capital, has no spaces in it,
ends with a colon (":") and a space and is followed with at least on
line of text. The header line itself (before the colon) has to be
two characters at least.
Further, WaterGate does not allow the following system header lines.
These will be ignored.
To:
From:
Path:
Message-ID:
Subject:
Date:
But it is very valid to use any other header line, for example:
Reply-To:
Sender:
Approved:
References:
Newsgroups:
etc.
It is advised that you put "X-" before the header lines that you
make up yourself.
Apart from just copying all the header lines and removing them from
the body of the message, WaterGate now also deletes the first empty
line it finds at the start of the message, or just behind the header
lines. Usually, when you write a netmail to a UUCP recipient, you
keep an empty line between the TO: and the "Hi!" line. This line
used to show up in the mail message as an extra empty line after the
empty line that separates the header lines and the body of the UUCP
message. Not anymore. Personally, I find that this hides even more
the fact that the message was created on a FidoNet system!
Using the gateway with mail
---------------------------
If you are on UUCP and you want to send a message to somebody on
FidoNet, you have to send it to his address. There are two general
options for this. (In fact there are five options, as mentioned in
"Using the gateway with netmail").
In the first case, the user has a mapping statement on a WaterGate
system, which means that you can send the message to a UUCP address
and let WaterGate takes care of the translation. Easy.
WaterGate Manual The Gateway Page 85
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In the other case, where you know only the user's full name and a
FidoNet address, for example "Ramon van der Winkel" at 2:280/802.33,
you have to use a special e-mail address that WaterGate will detect,
after which it translates the message. This address looks like this:
Ramon_van_der_Winkel@z2.n280.f802.p33.wlink.nl
The full name has been put in front of the of the @-sign and the
spaces in that name have been converted to underscores. This
underscore can be configured, so don't be surprised if someone sends
you a message from a WaterGate system with different characters
there.
The part after the @-sign is the destination address. The Zone, Net,
Node, and Point number have been coded in a special form, as above.
The last part of the address has to be one of WaterGate's system
domain addresses. This part is the address of a system you know that
runs WaterGate.
Some systems also allow "fidonet.org" as the last part of the
address. This only works if the UUCP provider and the smarthost in
the neighborhood of that system know that it handles mail for that
address. If this is not the case, the message will be sent to a site
somewhere in the world (such as 1:1/31) that handles fidonet.org as
well, after which it is translated to a FidoNet message and then has
to travel all the way through FidoNet to get to its destination. That
is not what you want.
Please talk to your UUCP provider if you want to be a public
UUCP-FidoNet gateway for your neighborhood. You have to add
"fidonet.org" to your list of system domain addresses to get this to
work.
The best way to find out the e-mail address of a FidoNet user is to
let him send a message to you first, so you can see the address.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 86
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The ROUTE.TDB file and its options
----------------------------------
Although you can set a wide range of options in the configuration
program, there is always need for more fields and more options which
are difficult to put in a configuration program.
The ROUTE.TDB file is not only used to configure your system's
routing, but has some additional functions. You can use it to:
- Make routing exceptions for certain systems
- Add signatures to mail and news messages
- Map certain messages to other people
- Allow special addresses for yourself or other people
- Put restrictions on the use of the gateway
All this and more can be configured in the plain ASCII text file
called ROUTE.TDB, that you can edit with MS-DOS's EDIT, for example.
In this ROUTE.TDB file, you can use the following commands:
ROUTE-FIDO
This command is used to route Fido netmail messages through
certain systems.
ROUTE-UUCP
This is nearly the same, but for routing UUCP mail messages
through different UUCP up- and downlinks.
MAP-FIDO
When a netmail message is received for a certain user, you can
map it to another user, possibly at another Fido system.
MAP-UUCP
Besides mapping UUCP mail messages to other systems, this
command is also used to assign different sender addresses to
Fido users.
FORBID-FIDO
You can forbid a certain Fido user, a group of users, or
everybody to use the gateway.
ALLOW-FIDO
After forbidding a group of people to use the gateway you can
make an exception for one or more users or systems.
SIGNATURE
Most UUCP messages have a small signature part with some general
(brag) information about the person writing the message or the
service provider. Use this command to automatically add
signature files to all messages created by a user or a system.
NEWSFILTER
Name of the file that contains the newsgroup names that you
want to create automatically or not.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 87
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SENDFILE
You can use this statement to let WtrGate reply with the
contents of a file, when somebody send a message to specific
address. It is a simple file robot.
SAVE
If you want to store messages that were sent to a specific
address to a directory, then use this statement. You can use it
to make some automatic mechanism where a program processes the
messages that were saved.
SAVEFROM
If you want to store messages that were sent from a specific
address to a directory, then use this statement. You can use it
to make some automatic mechanism where a program processes the
messages that were saved.
BOUNCE
If a system closes down or you don't want people to send mail
somewhere, you can use this statement to block their path. The
messages will be sent back with a specified reason.
BOUNCEFROM
If somebody keeps on sending you crap mail, then you can use
this statement to bounce messages from that user automatically.
The messages will be sent back with a specified reason.
GZIPBATCH
This can be used to set the first letter of the header that is
added to news batches that compressed with GZip.
FORCEPACK
This is only used when running in FrontDoor mode and tells
WaterGate to put netmail for a certain user or system into .PKT
files, instead of storing them in the netmail area and letting
FrontDoor handle the delivery.
The following pages contain an long explanation of each of the
statements. There are two other statement to do with the Mail Tunnel
functionality. See the separate chapter for more information.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 88
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ROUTE-FIDO: Route Fido messages
-------------------------------
WaterGate currently implements only a very simple form of Fido
routing:
ROUTE-FIDO <System_We_Route_Through> [<addresses> [...]]
ROUTE-FIDO 2:285/1 2:285/*
ROUTE-FIDO 2:280/802 2:* 140:*
ROUTE-FIDO 60:100/1 60:*
The destination system must be defined in the userbase. WaterGate
will report an error if the system is unknown.
When a netmail message is encountered, WaterGate will check whether
it is capable of transporting a message to its destination address.
In the above example, a message for 2:255/1000 would be sent via
2:280/802, as would a message for 140:1000/100. However a message
for 2:285/500 would be routed via 2:285/1
If WaterGate is incapable of routing a message, to 133:100/1 for
example, an attempt is made to bounce the message to its sender.
If more than one routing statement can be used for a certain address,
the routing statement with the highest address match will be used.
For example 2:285/1000 will be routed to 2:285/1 (two matches) and
not via 2:280/802 (one match only).
If the system is in FrontDoor compatible mode, the routing statements
are not used. Instead, everything is put in the netmail directory,
where FrontDoor/InterMail will take care of the routing.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 89
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ROUTE-UUCP: Route UUCP messages
-------------------------------
The routing of UUCP mail can be implemented in two different ways.
One is by configuring routings in WtrConf; the other is by using
statements in the ROUTE.TDB file.
Usually, this is a proper way of setting up the system:
First, define your UUCP neighbors in the userbase. This is mandatory;
if your neighbors are not defined there, you cannot route messages to
or through them.
In these user records, you can also define their domain addresses,
if any. There is a limit of 6 domain addresses for each neighbor.
Note that logically it does not matter if your neighbor is
physically a FidoNet style node. This only affects the format of
output created for your nodes, but is not of any importance for the
names and routing of mail.
Next, define the systems that are more than one 'hop' away, i.e.,
not your neighbors, in your ROUTE.TDB file. The format of a
UUCP-routing line in the ROUTE.TDB is:
ROUTE-UUCP <UUCP-name> <System-address>
where <UUCP-name> must be the UUCPname of one of your neighbors as
defined in your userbase.
<System-address> can be:
- The UUCPname of a system more than one hop away
- The complete domain address of a system
- A domain address with wildcards
If nodes under you have a world-registered UUCPname, you can use
this UUCPname in bangpath addressing. If the name of the system
through which a message should be routed is missing from the
bangpath, a UUCPname routing statement can enable the mail to arrive
anyway.
By using a complete domain address, you specifically route mail for
that domain to one of your neighbors. The domain address must match
100% for it to work. This is the most widely used form of UUCP
routing.
Note that this method can be used to add more domain names to one of
your neighbors that is defined in the userbase, where you have space
for only six domain addresses. On the other hand, you can also use
those six lines as ROUTE-UUCP statements. Although it does work, we
don't recommend using it, as you loose the complete view and control
rather quickly.
Wildcards in the <System-address> allow you to route a complete
hierarchy of domain-addresses to a certain neighbor without having to
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 90
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define each sub-node of that system separately. This allows your
nodes to have sub-nodes of their own and they can create as many as
they want. This is very useful when you or one of your nodes uses
Fido-style addresses like "user@z2.n280.f802.p10.hisnode.wlink.nl".
You can then 'wildcard' the Fido segment of the complete domain
address, so you won't have to define each Fido-style address he wants
to use.
There are currently two types of wildcards:
1..yournode.wlink.nl
2. *.yournode.wlink.nl
There is a very slight difference: Type 1 will route ALL addresses
that end in 'yournode.wlink.nl', including sub-domains and the
address "@yournode.wlink.nl" itself. Type 2 will ONLY route
sub-domains, and will NOT route addresses like
"user@yournode.wlink.nl".
Here are some example ROUTE-UUCP statements:
ROUTE-UUCP picard enterprize.space.nasa.gov
This ROUTE-UUCP line will route all mail for domain
"enterprize.space.nasa.gov" to the system with the UUCPname "picard".
This system must be defined in your userbase.
E.g., addresses like "Mr.Spock@enterprize.space.nasa.gov" or
"enterprize.space.nasa.gov!Mr.Spock" will be sent to the system
named "picard". Subdomains are not allowed here and the
domain-address will have to match 100%.
ROUTE-UUCP nixon *.WaterGate.wlink.nl
This line will route all mail destined for all sub-domains (and
sub-domains only!) of "WaterGate.wlink.nl" to the system with
UUCPname "nixon". Once again, "nixon" must be defined in the
userbase.
For example:
"operator@phonetaps.WaterGate.wlink.nl"
or
"oval.office.WaterGate.wlink.nl!president"
will be routed to that system. It will NOT route addresses like
"first.lady@WaterGate.wlink.nl" or "WaterGate.wlink.nl!authors".
ROUTE-UUCP rspca .rodent.net
This line will route all mail to users with domain addresses ending
in "rodent.net" to the system with the UUCPname "rspca". For example,
"mickey.mouse@rodent.net" as well as "rabbits.rodent.net!bugs.bunny"
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or "sylvester@cats.rodent.net" are routed to the "rspca" system,
which has to be defined in your userbase.
ROUTE-UUCP picard xs4all
This last example routes all mail sent to "annie.user@xs4all" or
"xs4all!xs4no1!mary.helen" to the system with UUCPname "picard".
Because "xs4all" does not appear to be a domain style address, it
makes us suspect this routing line is used to alias another UUCPname
or to be able to route a UUCPname of a system that is not our
neighbor.
About bangpaths
---------------
Any system that is defined on UUCP has a bangpath, but not all
systems have domain addresses. Therefore, bangpath addressing is
always possible. Bangpaths are usually built up from UUCPnames (to
keep them short), but a bangpath can also contain a domain addresses.
Internally, WaterGate converts all addresses to bangpaths. Then, for
routing, it only looks at the part of the address that is in front of
the first bang (bang = !). If that part of the address turns out to
be its own UUCPname, and the address contains more than one bang, it
looks at the part between the first and the second bang. This
algorithm allows a very powerful and flexible way of UUCP mail
routing and, knowing this, you may find some ingenious and creative
ways to perform all the routing you want.
Don't use bangpaths in MAP-UUCP statements where you use a username
as well, because there is no way for WaterGate to find out if the
last part of the bang-path is a username or the name of a system.
Use domain addresses instead.
Routing things you cannot do in ROUTE.TDB
-----------------------------------------
You cannot put more than one <System-address> on a ROUTE-UUCP line.
If you do this anyway, the line will be ignored. If you want more
routings to the same UUCPname, then simply use as many lines as you
need to route all system addresses and have them start with the same
UUCPname.
You cannot chain the routing of UUCP-names. E.g.:
ROUTE-UUCP picard nixon
ROUTE-UUCP nixon *.watergate.wlink.nl
This will NOT cause mail for *.WaterGate.wlink.nl to be routed to
system "picard". WaterGate will try to route it directly to "nixon",
even though "nixon" is routed to "picard". Instead, use something
like this:
ROUTE-UUCP picard nixon
ROUTE-UUCP picard *.watergate.wlink.nl
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The reason is obvious: to prevent routing loops.
You cannot 'wildcard' bits and pieces of domain addresses. E.g.:
ROUTE-UUCP picard *gate.wlink.nl
This will NOT cause mail for "WaterGate.wlink.nl" or
"water.gate.wlink.nl" to be routed to "picard". In fact, this may
cause funny routing behavior.
A few last remarks about UUCP routing
-------------------------------------
If mail addresses contain capitalization, it will be kept intact, but
will be ignored for routing. Capitalization in your routing
statements (make them wolverine if you wish) will also be ignored.
In other words: the routing in WaterGate is case-insensitive.
All routing techniques discussed here about the ROUTE.TDB file also
apply to the domain addresses defined in the userbase. Whatever you
fill in there will have the same effect as defining just as many
ROUTE-UUCP lines that all start with the <UUCP-name> of that user.
However, it is wise to stick to the structure as proposed above.
If the format of your ROUTE-UUCP statements are incorrect, then this
may (and often will) cause unpredictable routing behavior. So make
sure that all your routing statements are correct. Keeping the
definition structure as proposed above will help to keep things
clear and obvious, so you can almost immediately locate the problem
if any problem occurs.
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MAP-FIDO: Mapping Fido netmail messages
---------------------------------------
The MAP-FIDO command is used to map received Fido netmail messages to
a different destination. For example, you can use this option to map
messages for users that also have a point address to their point, or
you can map messages for a Fido user to a different system, or even a
UUCP system. Note: It only works on the To: address of netmail
messages.
There are two forms of this command:
MAP-FIDO "username"%fidoaddr "username"%fidoaddr
and
MAP-FIDO "username"%fidoaddr user@domain
Examples and an explanation of all the options follow:
1. MAP-FIDO "username" "username"
MAP-FIDO "jaap aap" "SysOp"
Map netmail messages for a user on your system to a different user
on your own system. All your system AKAs are accepted.
2. MAP-FIDO "username" "username"%2:280/803
MAP-FIDO "username"%2:280/802 "username"
MAP-FIDO "username"%2:280/802 "username"%2:280/803
This is the same as for the first example, except that in the first
line the message is now mapped to 2:280/803 instead of to your own
system. The second line shows how a message passing through your
system can be mapped to a local user, and the third sho
3. MAP-FIDO "username" user@domain
MAP-FIDO "username"%2:280/802 user@domain
MAP-FIDO "jaap aap" jaap.aap@network.nl
Received netmail can also be mapped to an Internet domain address;
this is a one way conversion. Messages for jaap.aap@network.nl are
not mapped back to the "jaap aap" fido user! Neither can you specify
a domain address for the first parameter!
Order of precedence for MAP-FIDO
--------------------------------
When more than one MAP-FIDO statement could be applied to a netmail
message, the mapping statement that will be used is selected as
follows:
When only the address matches, the last mapping statement will be
used. If a mapping statement exists that both matches the address and
the user name, then that mapping is used and the search is stopped.
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MAP-UUCP: Mapping UUCP mail messages
------------------------------------
Mapping received UUCP mail messages is a little more complicated, as
there are quite a lot of possible options. It is possible to map a
message for a user to another user, or map all messages for a system
to another system, or even to one user. Besides that, you can use the
information BACKWARDS to allow mapping of Fido addresses into domain
addresses.
If you want these commands only to work from FidoNet to UUCP, you
can use the prefix -FU. If you only want them to work from UUCP to
FidoNet, you can use the prefix -UF. If you want them to work in both
directions, then don't use a prefix at all. The prefix has to be put
on the line right after the command.
Note: unregistered users can only have five (5) MAP-UUCP statements
in their route.tdb file. Extra MAP-UUCP statements are ignored and an
error message will be logged.
The two basic formats of this command are:
MAP-UUCP user@domain user@domain
MAP-UUCP user@domain "username"%fidoaddr
Examples and an explanation of each of the options follow below:
1. MAP-UUCP user@domain user@domain
MAP-UUCP jaap.aap@network.nl sysop@network.nl
MAP-UUCP jaap.aap@network.nl aapwork.nl
MAP-UUCP jaap.aap@network.nl jaap.aap@aapwork.nl
The simplest map is to send all message from one user to another.
Use this, for example, if you use multiple user names, but like to
have all replies to 'SysOp'.
The last two options are equivalent, and will both deliver all
messages for jaap.aap@network.nl to jaap.aap@aapwork.nl
2. MAP-UUCP domain user@domain
MAP-UUCP oldserver.network.nl sysop@newserver.network.nl
Use this combination to send all messages for a complete domain to a
single user at another system. This may come in handy when one of
your downlinks changes its name or is temporarily off-line.
3. MAP-UUCP domain domain
MAP-UUCP oldserver.network.nl newserver.network.nl
This will map all messages for all users of a domain to the same
users at another domain address.
4. MAP-UUCP user@domain "username"
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MAP-UUCP user@domain "username"%fidoaddr
MAP-UUCP user@domain fidoaddr
MAP-UUCP jaap@aapwork.nl "jaap aap"
MAP-UUCP jaap@aapwork.nl "jaap aap"%2:280/802
MAP-UUCP jaap@aapwork.nl 2:280/802
To map all messages for "user@domain" to a Fido system, simply
specify the username at your own system, or the name of a user at
another Fido system.
5. MAP-UUCP domain fidoaddr
MAP-UUCP domain "username"%fidoaddr
MAP-UUCP aapwork.nl 2:280/802
MAP-UUCP aapwork.nl "sysop"%2:280/802
This combination will send all messages for an entire domain to a
Fido system. The user names will be correctly translated into an
acceptable Fido form. (Jaap_Aap -> Jaap Aap)
Order of precedence for MAP-UUCP
--------------------------------
When more than one mapping statement can be applied to a particular
message, then only the first mapping statement is used.
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FORBID-FIDO/ALLOW-FIDO: Restricting the gateway
-----------------------------------------------
Acting as a public gateway may be a really rewarding thing for your
soul, and a great thing for mankind; but it's not going to pay your
monthly phone bills. By default, WaterGate will allow everyone to
gate messages between a Fido and a UUCP network.
Add the following command to your ROUTE.TDB file:
FORBID-FIDO *
Now nobody, including yourself, is allowed to use the gateway;
probably not exactly what you intended. Now relax this a little by
giving some people access rights:
ALLOW-FIDO 2:280/*
ALLOW-FIDO 2:281/*
ALLOW-FIDO 2:280/802 Maarten User
ALLOW-FIDO 2:280/802 SysOp
ALLOW-FIDO 2:280/18.*
FORBID-FIDO 2:280/18 Jaap User
This allows everyone within the nets 280 & 281--except a special
case, "Jaap User" at 2:280/18--to use the gateway. Plus 2:280/18 and
its points, and "Maarten User" and "SysOp" at the system 2:280/802,
are allowed to use the gateway.
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MAP-AREA: Receive a mailing list in an area
-------------------------------------------
Quite some users on your BBS might subscribe to a mailing list and
receive this as netmail on the BBS. There is quite some flow in some
of these mailing lists, so that means a lot of messages in your
netmail area.
Also, if more users on your BBS want to receive the same mailing
list, you receive more than one copy of these messages and they will
all have to be stored in the netmail area until the users have read
and deleted them.
It is not possible to set up a local mailing list and feed all
incoming messages into that list, because the sender of the message
must be connected to the local mailing list. And in most cases, the
sending will be the original sender of the message that was
distributed by the mailing list server. It is impossible to have all
these names in your local mailing list setup.
If you don't like all these messages in your netmail area, or want
to provide a mailing list for all your users, so you only have one
copy of them, you have to take a look at the MAP-AREA statement.
Basically, what the MAP-AREA statement does is convert incoming
e-mail into news. The news is then distributed, gated to echomail and
stored in your message base.
When you receive e-mail from a mailing list, you always receive that
to the same name. Because the MAP-AREA statements takes all incoming
mail to a certain address, you have to subscribe to the mailing list
with a special "receiver" address, or else all your personal e-mail
will be mapped as well.
For example, you are connected to the mailing list WaterGate, which
is watergate@wsd.wline.se. You receive the mailing list messages as
wg-receiver@bravo.com and you want this to be put in the area you
created with the name WG-LIST. You then use the following statement
in your ROUTE.TDB file:
MAP-AREA wg-receiver@bravo.com WG-LIST
Where WG-LIST can be either the Fido or Usenet name of the area.
Notice that this statement looks at the e-mail address that can be
found in the .X file in your spool directory. Only MAP-UUCP
statements are processed before the MAP-AREA is checked against that
address.
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SIGNATURE: Adding signatures to a message
-----------------------------------------
Most messages found on UUCP have some kind of signature at the end,
usually containing some information about the writer, the fact that
whatever he or she wrote wasn't done with all senses intact, and that
his employer would be most surprised if someone took it seriously.
Of course, this can be done in a million unique ways, and as long as
the message isn't irritating (try to keep it at four lines or less),
nobody will bother.
Since most Fido style BBS programs are unable to add signatures to a
message by default, or aren't capable of using different ones for
different users, you can have WaterGate do it automatically. All you
need for each signature is a small text file containing the
signature, and a definition in the ROUTE.TDB.
SIGNATURE filepath fidoaddr {username}
SIGNATURE D:\BBS\SIG\DEFAULT.SIG 2:280/802
SIGNATURE D:\BBS\SIG\SYSOP.SIG 2:280/802 Jaap Aap
SIGNATURE D:\BBS\SIG\NEOLINK.SIG 2:280/801
This will add DEFAULT.SIG to all messages gated from Fido to UUCP
originating from 2:280/802, except that user "Jaap Aap" will get the
SYSOP.SIG signature instead.
An example signature file:
,----------------------------.------------------------------.
| Martijn Dijksterhuis | Kids! Bringing about |
| martijnd@dijkline.wlink.nl | Armageddon can be dangerous. |
| martijnd@htsa.aha.nl | Do not attempt it at home |
`----------------------------.------------------------------'
For automatic processing, the signature will be preceded by a
tear-line, just as in fido messages. This tearline consists of two
dashes followed by a space ("-- "). WaterGate automatically adds this
tearline, so there is no need to put it in the signature file.
When a netmail message is distributed by a mailing list and gated to
e-mail then the signature of the sending user is not used, but the
signature for the mailing list. This is the name of the mailing list
the mailing list AKA. This allows you to put a special signature
under these distributed netmails with - for example - information on
how to disconnect.
If you don't like the above behaviour then you can send a netmail to
through the gateway to the e-mail side of the mailing list. Your
signature will be added to the gateway e-mail and is then distributed
by the mailing list. This requires that you are subscribed to the
mailing list with your e-mail address.
On the next page is an excerpt about signatures from a classic
article, which is regularly posted to news.announce.newusers by Gene
Spafford.
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Q: Dear Miss Postnews: How long should my signature be? --
verbose@noisy
A: Dear Verbose: Please try and make your signature as long as you
can. It's much more important than your article, of course, so try
to have more lines of signature than actual text.
Try to include a large graphic made of ASCII characters, plus lots of
cute quotes and slogans. People will never tire of reading these
pearls of wisdom again and again, and you will soon become
personally associated with the joy each reader feels at seeing yet
another delightful repeat of your signature.
Be sure as well to include a complete map of UUCP with each
signature, to show how anybody can get mail to you from any site in
the world. Be sure to include Internet gateways as well. Also tell
people on your own site how to mail to you. Give independent
addresses for Internet, UUCP, and BITNET, even if they're all the
same.
Aside from your reply address, include your full name, company and
organization. It's just common courtesy -- after all, in some
newsreaders people have to type an *entire* keystroke to go back to
the top of your article to see this information in the header.
By all means include your phone number and street address in every
single article. People are always responding to UUCP articles with
phone calls and letters. It would be silly to go to the extra
trouble of including this information only in articles that need a
response by conventional channels!
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 100
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NEWSFILTER: Auto-created newsgroups filter
------------------------------------------
The NEWSFILTER statement points to a file that WaterGate uses to
decide whether an area should be created automatically when a
unknown newsgroup name is detected.
If you have "New area create" enabled in the user record of your
UUCP uplink, then you might have noticed that WaterGate creates a lot
of new areas with funny names. Most of these areas you don't want to
have at all.
The new newsgroups filter file allows you to tell WaterGate which
newsgroups you want to have auto-created and which you do not. By
default, WaterGate doesn't auto-create a newsgroup at all, until you
install the NEWSFILTER file.
In this file, you can enter the complete or partial names of the
newsgroups. There are special characters and wildcards that save you
a lot of typing. People that are familiar with the Waffle FEEDS file
will find some resemblance.
ALT.*
COMP.*
!COMP.OS.*
This file tells WaterGate that you don't want any newsgroups unless
they start with ALT and COMP. But, you don't want the newsgroups that
start with COMP.OS.
The exclamation sign (!) is a "NOT" operator.
The extension dot plus asterisk (.*) means that you want all the
newsgroups that start with that text, but not the newsgroup that
starts with that name itself (for example "ALT").
Here is a somewhat more complicated example:
ALT.*
!ALT.BBS.*
ALT.BBS.WATERGATE
!ALT.BBS.WATERGATE.D.
This file basically tells WaterGate that you want all the newsgroups
that start with ALT, but not the newsgroups that start with ALT.BBS,
except newsgroups that start with ALT.BBS.WATERGATE, which you do
want, but not that one special ALT.BBS.WATERGATE.D newsgroup.
The extension dot (.) means that you want the newsgroup with that
name and only that newsgroup, not the newsgroup with names that start
with this. If the exclamation sign (!) is in front, it means that you
don't want that specific newsgroup.
You can also put comments in the filter file on any line you want by
putting in a semi-colon (;) before the comment.
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A special case is when the NEWSFILTER statement is not present in
the ROUTE.TDB file, or the news filter file could not be opened, or
it is empty, or the ROUTE.TDB file is not present. In that case, no
new newsgroup names filter statements are present. WaterGate then
allows all new newsgroup names. That way, you don't have to setup the
filter file at once. This is reported in the log file at startup of
WtrGate with the line "Allowing all new newsgroup names".
Logging information
-------------------
When your filter file gets big, it might become troublesome to find
why a certain newsgroup name is rejected by WaterGate, while you
want it, or why a certain newsgroup name is allowed, while you don't
want it.
If you enable the "New newsgroup names check" log file option,
WaterGate will tell you when it accepted or rejected a certain
newsgroup and which line in the log file caused the decision.
For example,
ALT.*
!ALT.BBS.*
ALT.BBS.WATERGATE
!ALT.BBS.WATERGATE.D.
The newsgroup ALT.BBS.WATERGATE is accepted, because of line three.
If line three was not there, then line two would have caused
WaterGate to reject it. When WaterGate processes the filter file, it
looks at every single line; if that line applies to the newsgroup
name, the decision to accept or reject the newsgroup can be changed.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 102
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SENDFILE: a simple file robot
-----------------------------
You can let WaterGate reply to a message automatically. You prepare
the reply in a file that is put in the body of the reply message. If
you want to send a file, you have to UU-encode it yourself first.
The sendfile statement works from both the UUCP side as the Fido
side.
The format of this statement is:
SENDFILE <user name> <path to file>
For example:
SENDFILE watergate-info c:\wsd\wginfo.txt
SENDFILE wtrkit-req c:\wsd\wtrkit.txt
The e-mail address where people have to send their message to is the
<user name> at any of your system domain addresses, for example
watergate-info@wsd.wline.se.
For FidoNet, people have to send a netmail message to <user name> at
one of your system AKAs, for example watergate-info at 2:200/111.
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BOUNCE: Send mail back with a reason
------------------------------------
You can use the BOUNCE option for more than one purpose, but it is
mostly used to inform people that certain e-mail addresses or even a
whole system cannot be used anymore.
The e-mail address you have to put in the statement has to match
only partially. Or in other words: the search string you put in the
statement must appear in the e-mail address that is checked.
BOUNCEFROM is used to bounce messages sent from a certain address,
whereas BOUNCE checks who the message is sent to. The Sender:,
Reply-To: and From: headers are checked for the search string and
only a partial match is enough.
Not only is the message returned to the sender, but you can supply a
reason as well. To support multiple languages, you have to put
"Reason: " in front as well, if you wish.
The format for this statement is:
BOUNCE <partial e-mail address> "Reason"
BOUNCEFROM <partial e-mail address> "Reason"
For example:
BOUNCE wsd.wlink.nl "Reason: moved to Sweden"
BOUNCE ftpmail "Reason: ftpmail option is blocked!"
BOUNCE erik@wsd.wlink.nl "Reason: Account is closed!"
BOUNCEFROM sales "Reason: Not interested"
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SAVE: Write messages to disk
----------------------------
With the SAVE and SAVEFROM statement you can save messages that were
at your system to a file on disk. SAVE checks the address in the .X
file and SAVEFROM the From:, Reply-To: and Sender: headers. The
contents of the messages are completely saved in the file.
You can use it to let an external program process the message and
send a reply, although there are no posting options in WaterGate yet.
For SAVE, the e-mail address that is checked has to match exactly.
So, it is not possible to save all messages for a complete domain in
a directory. This is to protect systems. On the other hand, SAVEFROM
works on a partial address.
After the message has been saved, it is destroyed and not sent along.
The format of the SAVE and SAVEFROM statements are:
SAVE <e-mail address> <directory>
SAVEFROM <partial e-mail address> <directory>
For example:
SAVE ftpmail_receiver@wsd.wlink.nl c:\saved\
SAVEFROM mailer-daemon c:\saved
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MAP-UUCP and BOUNCE, SAVE, SENDFILE
-----------------------------------
The MAP-UUCP statement is processed before the BOUNCE, SAVE and
SENDFILE options are checked. This way, you can "route" messages
that are sent to different addresses all to one address and then use
one bounce, save or sendfile statement.
Of course, it is perfectly possible to use more that one bounce,
save or sendfile statement that have the save reason, use the same
directory or point to the same file.
WaterGate Manual The ROUTE.TDB file and its options Page 106
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GZIPBATCH
---------
This option can be used to set the first letter of the header that
can be added to news batches that have been compressed with GZip.
The header is used on UNIX systems to find out that the batch is
compressed. Actually, it is a command that executes a script.
This script is called "cunbatch" when the batch is compressed with
normal compress. The names of the script for gzip compressed batches
is differing though. Normally, it is gunbatch, but it can also be
zunbatch.
To overcome this difference, you can set this letter system-wide
(for all your UUCP users that you compress with gzip for and have the
"Add batch header" option set to YES).
The format of this line is:
GZIPBATCH <letter>
for example:
GZIPBATCH z
You normally don't need this statement.
FORCEPACK
---------
This is only used when running in FrontDoor mode.
WaterGate normally writes netmails for users to the netmail area
when configured to work together with FrontDoor. The actual delivery
of the netmail is then handled by FrontDoor.
When configured for Binkley or d'Bridge compatibility, WaterGate
packs up the netmails into .PKT files and doesn't write them to the
netmail area.
You can use FORCEPACK to tell WaterGate to put netmails into a .PKT
file, even when running in FrontDoor mode.
This is especially useful when using Mail Tunnel in combination with
FrontDoor mode and basically then only way to get netmails delivered
because the user in question would never dial in.
The format of this statement is:
FORCEPACK <node number>
for example:
FORCEPACK 2:200/111.15
WaterGate Manual Mail Tunnel Page 107
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Mail Tunnel
-----------
The Mail Tunnel functionality in WaterGate allows you to forward
outbound archives for a FidoNet style user to an e-mail address and
the other way around. The outbound archives are uu-encoded and put
in an e-mail and sent to a system that could be on the other side of
the world. That system then extracts the archive from the e-mail and
processes it by putting it in the inbound. An identical path is used
from the other system back to you.
Using this, you can exchange echomail with a system on the other side
of the world, without the expensive telephone costs.
Most important, this allows me, the author of WaterGate, to
participate with several support echos without being a FidoNet
system myself. Both systems simply use WaterGate (for full
automatism) and send e-mail messages between them.
How do I set it up?
-------------------
Both systems use an identical setup, but with different e-mail
addresses and FidoNet node numbers. You define the remote user as a
normal FidoNet style user in WaterGate and connect it to the areas
you want to send, and set the compression to use. You don't need to
fill in a UUCP name or domain addresses.
You then put a TUNNEL-TO statement in the ROUTE.TDB file to tell
WaterGate to send outbound archives for that user to a certain e-mail
address. This information is used during the PACK phase. A TUNNEL-TO
statement looks like this:
TUNNEL-TO wsd2brazerko-tunnel@brazerko.com 2:200/111.15 wsd2brz
There are three parameters to this statement. The e-mail address is
the address where the e-mails will be sent to. To make it easier to
keep all the tunnel addresses apart, you could use a format like
above, but your don't have to. Notice that this is the e-mail
address at the other end, so don't put your own domain address after
the @.
The second argument is the node number as defined in the user record
in WtrConf for the user you are tunneling the archives for. The
Packer checks the .PKT files for this address.
The third and last argument is the archive base filename. This name
will be used instead of some cryptic number. The archives are created
in the outbound directory and the normal tracking of .SU0, SU1, etc.
will be used. You can configure this filename for a number of
reasons: so it doesn't collide with other archive names, so it
remains useful and you can extract what it is for and last because
the name is put in the e-mail and extracted like that on the other
side.
So far for outgoing Tunnel Traffic. The next section explains how to
WaterGate Manual Mail Tunnel Page 108
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process incoming traffic.
Incoming Tunnel Traffic
-----------------------
To complete the Mail Tunnel, you need to process incoming e-mail
messages, extract the archives and put them in your inbound. You
configure WaterGate to do this with the TUNNEL-FROM statement in the
ROUTE.TDB file as follows:
TUNNEL-FROM brazerko2wsd-tunnel@wsd.wline.se c:\inbound\
This fairly simple statement tells WaterGate to check for messages
address to the specified e-mail address, to discard the e-mail
itself, but to extract the message in the e-mail and store them in
the specified directory.
Notice that the e-mail specified must be on your own system, so
after the @ you have one of your system domains. You have to specify
the directory because you can have more than one inbound directory.
Once the archive is in your inbound directory, WaterGate will
decompress it (assume it is compressed) and process the .PKT file.
This requires that you configure the sender in under User
Definitions in WtrConf as a FidoNet style user and connect that user
to the areas you receive messages in.
A complete picture
------------------
Following is a complete picture of how a bi-directional Mail Tunnel
can be set up between two systems.
System wsd.wline.se
System AKA 2:200/111
User Definition for 2:200/111.20
TUNNEL-TO wsd2brazerko-tunnel@brazerko.com 2:200/111.20 wsd2brz
TUNNEL-FROM brazerko2wsd-tunnel@wsd.wline.se c:\inbound\
System brazerko.com
System AKA 2:200/111.20
User Definition for 2:200/111
TUNNEL-TO brazerko2wsd-tunnel@wsd.wline.se 2:200/111 brz2wsd
TUNNEL-FROM wsd2brazerko-tunnel@brazerko.com d:\inbound.sec\
WaterGate Manual Mail Tunnel Page 109
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A few notes
-----------
- The Packer completely ignores the System Mailer (FrontDoor etc.)
and everything related to that like file attach netmails, flow
files, correct outbound sub-directories, alternative outbound
directories, send format set in the user record, etc.
- If you try to let a secondary tosser create the .PKT files, then
you have to route them to WaterGate's node number so WaterGate
gets the .PKT files in the archive from the other tosser, where
after everything goes on as planned.
- It is possible to exchange archives with netmail as well,
although WaterGate doesn't pack netmail automatically when
running in FrontDoor mode. You have to use the FORCEPACK
statement in the ROUTE.TDB file to tunnel netmails in that case.
- Be careful with echomail to other zones. WaterGate cannot handle
zone gating (yet!) and will not correctly handle inter-zone
echomail.
- Make sure you set up AreaFix and Packet passwords because
anybody can send an e-mail to you and fake a Mail Tunnel! If
you have defined the user in your mailer, then make sure you
use a Session password as well, even if the user is never going
to dial in.
WaterGate Manual Using Areafix and newsfix Page 110
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Using AreaFix / newsfix
-----------------------
WaterGate has a built-in Area Manager to allow your users to easily
maintain the areas in which they receive messages.
A Fido user has to send a netmail message to "AreaFix" at one of your
system AKAs. A UUCP user has to send a mail message to "newsfix" at
one of your system domain addresses. For both, the password has to
be in the subject line.
Examples:
[Fido Netmail]
From: Jaap Aap 2:280/802.67
To : AreaFix 2:280/802
Subj: MyPassword
--------------------------------------------
+ARENA
-POINTS.028
%QUERY
[UUCP mail]
From: Jaap@TheNode.Network.Nl
To : NewsFix@HostNode.NetWork.Nl
Subj: MyPassword
--------------------------------------------
+ARENA
-POINTS.028
%QUERY
The following commands are available:
AREANAME
This will connect the area with the name "AREANAME" for the
requesting user, if the area exists and the user has access to
that area (it has to be in a group to which the user has
access). Optionally, you can use +AREANAME.
-AREANAME
This will disconnect the user from the area with the name
"AREANAME". A user can always disconnect an area, even if he no
longer has access to connect it.
%+ALL
This will connect the user to all the areas to which he has
access.
%-ALL
This will disconnect the user from all the areas to which he is
connected.
%PASSIVE
This will stop WaterGate from sending messages to this user.
WaterGate Manual Using Areafix and newsfix Page 111
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This is especially useful when the user goes on a holiday, for
example, and doesn't want to have messages pile up. This will
not affect netmail or mail messages.
%ACTIVE
If a node is ready to receive messages again, he can issue this
command, after which WaterGate will resume preparing mail for
this user.
%FROM <addr>
If a user is allowed to do remote maintenance (see User
Configuration), then all modifications following the %FROM
line, will be made to the user specified in <addr>. Multiple
%FROM lines may be used in messages. If anything goes wrong
(e.g., a user with <addr> does not exist), all further commands
are ignored until the end of the message or another %FROM line.
Note: this option is currently (version 0.92) disabled.
%HELP
The user can issue this command to request help. WaterGate will
send a short list of all the commands that the user can use. If
the user is allowed to use a special AreaFix command, it will
also be shown.
%QUERY
This will send a list of all the areas to which the user is
currently connected. The areas will be grouped and sorted, and
the list will also indicate whether a group is read-only.
%LIST
WaterGate will create a list of all areas available to the node
and send it. The areas will be grouped and sorted, with the
descriptions of the areas from the Comment field in the area
record.
See the section " The text files " for information about the .TXT
files you can use to override the standard help message and the
headers and footers of the lists.
You can also use the old style query and list requests: putting -Q
or -L after your password, with a space in between.
WaterGate Manual Automatic file encoding / decoding Page 112
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Automatic file encoding / decoding
----------------------------------
To send files to other users in FidoNet, you can use file attaches.
To send files to other users on the Internet or attached to an
article in a newsgroup, you encode the file and store it in the body
of the message.
An encoded files in a message can look like this:
begin 666 wtrutil.dif
M1$E&7U8U5U12551)3"Y%6$4@\"@"`.'(W\2=A(@@`0```/__```!`/____\!
<etc>
>`/$H`````````(`=`6,#`@#E`6(#`@"M`6$#`@``
`
end
This is a so called "UU-encoded" file. The strange format is done
because most news articles and e-mail messages can only contain
7-bit characters and no control characters or high-ASCII. A binary
files contains a lot of 8-bit codes so this cannot be put into a
message directly.
How it works
------------
UU-encoding takes a group of 8-bits codes and converts it to four
6-bit codes. These 6 bits are then encoded in the message using 64
(2^6) characters, amongst which A-Z, 0-9 and some others.
The difference between UU-encoding, XX-encoding and MIME encoding is
basically the set of 64 characters used. There are different reasons
to use a certain character set, basically to become independent of
the transport mechanisms between the sender and recipient.
Encoding files
--------------
To help you send files along to other users on the Internet,
WaterGate has the ability to automatically UU-encode an attached
file when it gates a netmail message to an e-mail. All you have to
do is write a netmail that will be gated and attach the file to that
netmail (using a file attach).
WaterGate currently never deletes the gated files. Automatically
gated files from your downlinks will be deleted in the future though.
The internal decoder is smart enough not to encode files that don't
contain 8-bit codes, for example plain text files.
Decoding files
--------------
WaterGate can detect and extract an encoded file from a message when
it writes the message to a message base. It can do this for all three
types of message bases.
WaterGate Manual Automatic file encoding / decoding Page 113
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Decoding files is only done when you have specifically told
WaterGate to do it for that area. For netmail it only decodes files
for messages addressed to your system. It will never decode files
for your users. This requires some more support that will follow in
the future.
Each area can be configured to have its own path where the decoded
files will be stored. This way you can keep the decoded files nicely
separated per area.
Notice that decoding takes place when the message is imported into
the message base, thus not when the message is gated from e-mail to
netmail or news to echomail. This was done with several reasons in
mind: the same message will be sent to several users, imported into
an area and possible distributed via a mailing list. Not all
"targets" want this file extracted, so it is extracted when the
message is imported.
This means that an echomail or netmail message that contains a valid
encoded file, but did not arrive via the Internet, can be decoded by
WaterGate when that message is imported. If you are a Fidonet style
user underneath some gateway, then you can now decode the files from
messages you receive from that gateway!
Look for the options "Decode files" and "Files path" in the Area
definitions and Fido message bases setup to enable the automatic
decoding.
Tip: I have disabled decoding of files for my primary netmail area,
but I have set up a Private Scan for my personal mail and connected
it to a *.MSG base and enabled decoding on that message base.
WaterGate Manual Customizing messages Page 114
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Customizing messages
--------------------
WaterGate allows a great deal of flexibility in the language it uses
towards your users. You can configure almost every aspect by two
means: the language file and text response files.
Using this, you can change all replies to your local language, for
example.
WaterGate Manual Customizing messages Page 115
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The language file
-----------------
This is the WTRGATE.LNG text file in your WaterGate system
directory. Each "language line" contains a number, followed by text.
Apart from that, you can have empty lines and comment lines, which
start with a semi-colon (;).
The numbers in the language file are fixed and all numbers must be
present, or else WaterGate won't start. Unknown numbers or duplicate
entries are reported in the log file.
The text part of the language line can contain tokens that will be
replaced with the real item when the line is used. These tokens are
@1@, @2@ and so on.
There is no complete description of each language line, when it is
used and what the tokens will be replaced with. Most of the lines
are self-explanatory and the tokens can be guessed. You will find
helping comments in the language file where the tokens are not
directly clear.
WaterGate Manual Customizing messages Page 116
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The text files
--------------
Text files are optional. They have special names and the extension
.TXT and are stored in the sub-directory TXTS of the WaterGate System
directory, for example C:\WTRGATE\TXTS\.
When present, these special files are used by WaterGate instead of
the standard internal response messages, which are most of the time
just one line.
With these text files you can customize WaterGate's responses, put in
more details about the response and of course translate them to your
own language, if you which.
Apart from text, you can use special so-called "tokens" in these text
files. WaterGate replaces these tokens with special items, like the
current date, etc. But before getting to the tokens, let's have a
look at the different .TXT files.
Filenames
---------
Currently, the following .TXT files are supported. Everywhere you see
"AreaFix", you can also substitute "newsfix".
AFLSRHDR.TXT
AreaFix LiSt Request HeaDeR.
Sent as the header of an AreaFix %LIST request reply-message.
AFLSRFTR.TXT
AreaFix LiSt Request FooTeR.
Sent as the footer of an AreaFix %LIST request reply-message.
AFQRRHDR.TXT
AreaFix QueRy Request HeaDeR.
Sent as the header of an Area Manager %QUERY request
reply-message.
AFQRRFTR.TXT
AreaFix QueRy Request FooTeR.
Sent as the footer of an Area Manager %QUERY request
reply-message.
BNCFIDO.TXT
BouNCe FIDO.
Sent when WaterGate is unable to transport a Fido message.
BNCGATE.TXT
BouNCe GATEway.
Sent when WaterGate is unable to transport a message through the
gateway, such as when a FORBID-FIDO statement in the ROUTE.TDB
file prevents this user from using the gateway.
UNKAFUSR.TXT
UNKnown AreaFix USeR.
WaterGate Manual Customizing messages Page 117
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Sent when an unknown user sends a message to AreaFix. A user
must be defined in the userbase to use AreaFix.
WRNGAPWD.TXT
WRoNG AreaFix PassWorD.
Sent when an invalid password was found in a message to AreaFix.
This is not sent back to the sending user, but to the SysOp of
that system.
LISTHELP.TXT
Help file for a HELP command in a message to the List Server.
LISTHDR.TXT
LIST HeaDeR.
The header of the message created in response to a LIST command
in a message to the List Server.
LISTFTR.TXT
LIST FooTeR.
The footer of the message created in response to a LIST command
in a message to the List Server.
The following two files are not shared by AreaFix and newsfix; each
has a separate file, so you can explain how to address AreaFix or
newsfix and use the terms "echomail" and "newsgroups".
AREAFIX.TXT
Sent as a response to a %HELP request for AreaFix.
NEWSFIX.TXT
Sent as a response to a %HELP request for newsfix.
Tokens
------
Each .TXT file may contain any of the tokens listed below, although
some may be empty when used. PASSWORD, for example, will be an empty
string when not used in conjunction with WRNGAPWD.TXT.
FirstUserName
Message sender's first name
LastUserName
Message sender's last name
UserName
Message sender's full name
Subject
Subject of sent message
Password
AreaFix password found
Date
Current system date
WaterGate Manual Customizing messages Page 118
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Time
Current system time
WeekDay
Current day of the week
FromAddress
Address used by the original sender
ToAddress
Address used by us for the reply
SysOp
SysOp name found in the configuration
SysopFirst
Sysop's first name
AreaName
Current message area
PID
Our program ID (WaterGate)
Version
Current program revision (0.92)
To use a token, put it between @ characters. For example, if you want
to use the SysOp token, put the string @Sysop@ in your textfile.
WaterGate Manual Using a secondary tosser Page 119
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Using a secondary tosser
------------------------
This chapter explains how to use a second tosser together with
WaterGate, as we receive a lot of questions about this.
Several options
---------------
You might have a perfectly running FidoNet setup right now, with a
tosser that takes care of your complete distribution. Now, you also
want to connect to UUCP, and you want to use WaterGate to do this,
but you don't want to replace your complete system. This is
perfectly possible.
You can configure WaterGate to do all the translation work between
Internet/Usenet (in UUCP, SMTP or BAG formats) and FidoNet while your
other tosser continues to take care of the distribution to all your
nodes and points.
Even more simple and possible is to use WaterGate for the translation
of newsgroups and to toss them directly into your message bases for
the BBS and not to distribute them to your points or to other nodes.
The best thing to do is to use a different zone for the newsgroups.
waterGate will have its own node number and it will be very clear
that netmail messages sent to that one address are going to another
network, in this case to the Internet.
The basic construction
----------------------
In WaterGate you define the node number for WaterGate under System
Configuration. Then create a user (User Definitions) that represents
your other tosser and fill in the correct node number. Give this user
access to the necessary group(s) and connect a few areas. You of
course have to define a few areas first.
In your other tosser you also define a user that represents
WaterGate, with the correct node number and connected to the
necessary areas.
You, of course, have also created a user in WaterGate that represents
your Internet/Usenet provider and connected this user to the areas
that will be delivered.
If you have now received some newsgroups from your provider, then
start WTRGATE.EXE with the correct command line options (UUCP in
most cases) to process these newsgroups. The user record for the
provider makes it that the newsgroups arrive in the system and the
user record for the other tosser makes it that the newsgroups are
translated into echomail and sent out again as a .PKT file.
WaterGate Manual Using a secondary tosser Page 120
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Connecting the inbound and outbound directories
-----------------------------------------------
Next you need to connect WaterGate's outbound to the inbound of your
current tosser. Be careful not to set these to the same directory! If
you do, when WaterGate creates a .PKT file it might overwrite an
already present .PKT file in that directory.
It is also dangerous to just copy all the .PKT files from WaterGate's
outbound to your tosser's inbound directory, again because you might
overwrite an already present .PKT file.
The best way to solve this is to let WaterGate create an archive,
then copy this file to the inbound of your tosser and let your tosser
extract the archive when it is ready for it. If it is a good tosser,
it first processes all the .PKT files in the inbound directory and
then starts to extract an archive, process all the .PKT files again,
etc. so problems with .PKT filenames don't occur.
I hear you saying: but archiving takes a long time. You can force
the compression factor to 0, so your archiver just puts all the .PKT
files together. ARJ has the option -m0 for this. And, since there is
no other point or node for which WaterGate has to create archives
(with ARJ), it is no problem to change the arguments for ARJ.
If you do want to use ARJ for a node anyway, you might also use the
OP1 option to compress for your other tosser and put the special
command line arguments there.
On the way back, you can simply copy the .PKT files to WaterGate's
inbound, but you probably don't know the names of these .PKT files
because these are taken randomly. So, you have to archive everything
again.
Don't point WaterGate's inbound directory to your other tosser's
outbound directory, because WaterGate processes every archive it
finds!
Including MailTunnel
--------------------
If you want to use the MailTunnel functionality in combination with a
secondary tosser, then you should consider the following.
WaterGate is currently not capable of detecting that an inbound .PKT
file is for a Mail Tunnel user. So, you will have to route the
netmails to the WaterGate system and send all echos as well. You
then create the a normal FidoNet style user, connect the areas and
set up the MailTunnel configuration in the ROUTE.TDB file.
Future version of WaterGate will have better support for this.
WaterGate Manual Statistical information Page 121
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Statistical information
-----------------------
To let you know what passes through your system, WaterGate keeps
track of all mail that passes through your system. It counts the
size and amount of all messages - both received and sent - and
stores that information in a separate logfile, called WTRGATE.STA by
default. This file is located in the same directory you choose for
the logfile. It also uses the name of the logfile, but with the
extension .STA. New information is appended to it after each run of
WaterGate.
Format of the WTRGATE.STA file
------------------------------
A sample entry:
Statistics report of toss on Mon 05 Jun 1995 21:37:54
m 1952 dutchman@mbh.network.nl (Jaap Aap%2:280/802.6)
m 1210 sysop@waste.bin.network.nl (Jaap Aap%2:280/802.6)
n 894 Jaap Aap%2:280/802.6 (dutchman@mbh.network.nl)
u 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 49546 2:512/17@fidonet.org (Piet Hein)
v 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 2:512/17@fidonet.org (Piet Hein)
u 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2263 LOCAL
v 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 LOCAL
b 2263 1 WLINK.TEST
b 12778 3 HOLLAND.SYSOP
b 733 1 POINTS.028
b 3124 2 OVERIG.028
b 6328 5 FS.028
b 643 1 FDECHO.028
b 3309 2 ALT.BBS.WATERGATE
The first line contains the date and time of the run. When a new
statistics file is started, WaterGate will write a short explanation
of the different lines, so the first line could be followed by a
number of information lines, but these all start with a space.
Each line that starts with the letter 'u' or 'v' contains information
about a user that sent or received messages during the run. Only
users that either sent or received messages are shown. The 'u' lines
holds the number of bytes sent/received and the 'v' line holds the
number of messages sent/received.
Each 'u' or 'v' line has the following fields:
MailTo
UUCP mail sent to this node.
MailFrom
UUCP mail received from this node.
NewsTo
UUCP news sent to this node.
WaterGate Manual Statistical information Page 122
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NewsFrom
UUCP news sent received from this node.
NetTo
FidoNet netmail sent to this node.
NetFrom
FidoNet netmail received from this node.
EchoTo
FidoNet echomail sent to this node.
EchoFrom
FidoNet echomail received from this node.
Name
User identification, plus SysOp name or UUCPname between the
braces. Messages that originate from a messagebase are counted
as "LOCAL".
The flow of messages in each area is shown in the 'b' lines. The old
'a' lines are now obsolete and not produced anymore. Every 'b' line
contains the traffic in that area in number of bytes and number of
messages and the name(s) of the area. Again, only areas that had any
traffic are shown.
When an area has a different name for FidoNet and UUCP, then the
UUCP name is listed as second name as well. The exact format of the
'b' line is:
"b" space <flow in bytes> space <number of messages> space <fidonet area name> [space <uucp area name>]
Between the [ and ] is optional.
Each netmail and mail message passing through your system is tracked
in the 'm' (mail) and 'n' (netmail) lines. This is information on
netmail and mail messages and their size. The MsgTo and MsgFrom field
contain the destination and source address of the message, for fido
messages as username%fidoaddr and for UUCP messages as user@domain.
The WtrStat program
-------------------
You can use WTRSTAT.EXE, included in the WaterGate archive, to
process the statistics file and make ASCII graphs of the message
traffic passing through your system. If you want graphs number 1, 2,
and 3 created, you can start the program with the following command:
C:\MAIL\LOGS>wtrstat wtrgate.sta 1 2 3
WTRSTAT will create the files GRAPH1.TXT, GRAPH2.TXT, and GRAPH3.TXT
in the program startup directory.
WaterGate Manual Statistical information Page 123
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Possible graphs
---------------
The program is capable of proceeding eight different graphs:
1. Message traffic in each of the areas.
2. Volume and a graphical overview of the traffic from this system
to each other system.
3. Volume and a graphical overview of the traffic from each other
system to this system.
4. Flow in each area and the total flow in all of the areas, for as
far as there has been a flow in those areas.
Graphs 5 through 8 are the same as graphs 1 through 4, but hold the
information in number of messages, instead of number of (kilo)bytes.
Command line options
--------------------
The program accepts a number of options as well. Options have to be
preceded with a forward slash (/) or dash (-). The following options
can be used:
-Dn
"Days". Makes a report for the last <n> days, starting to count
with today=1. -D1 creates a report over today, up to the last
data added. -D7 creates a report for the last week, including
today.
-A
"Amount". Sorts the area listing in graph 4 or 8 by amount, in
descending order. The area with the highest number of messages
or bytes is shown first, and so on.
-N
"Name" With this option you can tell WtrStat to use the UUCP
area name in graphs 4 and 8, instead of the FidoNet areaname.
The WtrStat program will first get and check all the command line
options, then read the statistics file to gather all the information
and finally create all the requested graphs.
WaterGate Manual WtrTest Page 124
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Configuration testing with WtrTest
----------------------------------
The program WtrTest can be used to simply test your WaterGate setup.
You can use it to simulate a netmail or e-mail and then simulate the
processing and whether everything works as expected.
WtrTest contains most of the code WtrGate uses, but doesn't touch
the message bases, inbound, outbound, spool directories and the like.
Instead, it sets up a netmail or e-mail as it would be after arriving
at your system and then processes it. The log file shows exactly
what happens to the message. Notice that WtrTest is a rather
technical and powerful program, but you can't damage anything. You
just learn and debug your configs.
After starting WtrTest you select from a short menu to either
simulate a netmail or simulate an e-mail.
Simulating a netmail
--------------------
For the netmail you can fill in the following fields:
From User
You type in the user name as it would show on the From line of
a netmail message.
From AKA
This is the node number of the system on which the message was
created.
To User
The name of the user who is to receive the message. If you want
to test the gateway, then you can type an e-mail address here,
or else address it to the user "UUCP" (providing you havn't
changed the gateway user).
To AKA
The node number of the system where the message must be
processed. You usually set this to one of your own node numbers.
To: line
If you send a netmail to a gateway (like WaterGate), then you
can put the e-mail address of the recipient on the first line
of the message, preceeded by "To: ". You can simulate this by
typing the e-mail address here. This is an optional field.
You then press F10 and WtrTest will process the message. If you have
enabled debug logging in WtrConf then you will see each step the
message takes until it finally is ready to leave your system again.
At that point WtrTest tells you where it would go and what the
important parameters were.
WaterGate Manual WtrTest Page 125
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Simulating an e-mail
--------------------
For the e-mail you want to simulate you can fill in the following
fields:
.X file: rmail
Fill in the e-mail address of the recipient of this message as
it would show when a .X file is received with UUCP. You could
type in your own e-mail address. This is the most important
information for WtrGate when it receives a message. Notice that
you can test the full e-mail address lookup function by typing
in a user name without the @ and domain address.
.D file: To:
Type the contents of the To: header as you would find it in the
.D file you received using UUCP. This information is used by
WaterGate when it gates the message to FidoNet format. The full
name is extracted from this line (if present). An example of
this line would could be "ramon@wsd.wline.se (Ramon van der
Winkel)". This e-mail address normally matches the one you
typed in in the previous line.
.D file: From:
This is the e-mail address and full name (same format as the
previous line) of the one sending this e-mail. This can be any
address and the information is used when bouncing a message or
gating it to FidoNet format.
After filling in all the fields you press F10 to start the
simulation.
WaterGate Manual WtrTest Page 126
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Routing tables
--------------
There is one more menu option in WtrTest called "Routing tables". If
you select this option then WtrTest will show you a list with the
three important tables that control the mapping of addresses and
routing of e-mails to the correct domains.
The first table it shows is directly related to the MAP-FIDO
statements. The second contains the MAP-UUCP statements and the
third the ROUTE-UUCP statements.
The reason for showing these tables is because WtrGate automatically
adds some of these statements with information it extracts from the
user records. A lot of people don't know this and they add
unnecessary MAP-UUCP statements.
Also, if you run into trouble with a certain address, then you can
track these tables and see what WaterGate exactly uses for the
decision making.
WaterGate Manual WtrUtil Page 127
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WtrUtil
-------
WaterGate comes with a maintenance utility program called WtrUtil
that you can use to trim message bases, the log files and
WaterGate's own databases.
To do this, you start WtrUtil and simply select one of the options
from the menu. Alternatively, you can use command line options to
start on of the options from - for example - a batchfile. Using the
same command line functionality, you can also tell WtrUtil to only
work on areas that are in a certain group or a certain set of groups.
That way, you can limit the number of areas involved.
See the section on command line options for details.
WaterGate Manual WtrUtil Page 128
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Message base maintenance
------------------------
Regarding message bases it can perform four important tasks:
- Link
- Re-index
- Renumber
- Purge
Link
----
To allow your BBS program or message editor to follow discussion
threads in a certain area, you need to have your messages linked
together. This basically means that one message points to the next
one.
You can use WtrUtil to link all message in all areas you have
configured in WtrConf with a *.MSG, JAM or Squish message base
selected.
WtrUtil uses different techniques to link messages, depending on the
capabilities of a message base type. Usually the MSGID and REPLYID
kludges are used.
Re-index
--------
JAM and Squish message bases have an index file that allows your
editor or BBS program to bring up a list of the messages present in
an area, without browsing every single message.
It is sometimes necessary to reconstruct these index files, and you
can do that with WtrUtil.
Renumber
--------
If a add a message to an area, it gets a message number. Normally,
every new messages gets the next highest message number. If you then
delete a lot of messages, you get gaps that cannot be reused.
You can use WtrUtil to renumber all the messages in an area so they
get sequential numbers again, starting with one. This also prevents
an overflow of the highest possible message number.
In case of JAM, the index file has an entry for each message number,
whether an actual message with that number is present or not. This
means it costs disk space (only eight bytes per message number
though) for not present messages. It can save some disk spaces to
renumber your area. WtrUtil advises you to do so during an Index or
Purge action if it finds a gap of at least 8k (1000 messages) in the
index file. The gap from 1 to the first actually message doesn't
"cost" any space though.
WaterGate Manual WtrUtil Page 129
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At this moment you can only renumber *.MSG and JAM areas.
Purge
-----
You can't just keep on getting new message in a certain area. You
wouldn't have the harddisk space to store them. So, you have to
delete some messages every now and then. But if you delete messages,
you get unused gaps in the message base, which you have to get rid
of as well.
You can use WtrUtil to do all that automatically. It removes messages
that have been deleted and recovers the storage space. You can also
let WtrUtil delete messages that are too old (more than n days old),
or simply set an upper limit on the number of messages you want to
keep in an area.
You set the maximum age of a message and the maximum number of
messages you want in a messages base in WtrConf under the area
definition. WtrUtil reads that information.
The Squish and *.MSG purge code is a bit hard when deleting messages
by number. *.MSG deletes the oldest message numbers and Squish the
first ones in the base. Only JAM scans the base again and kills the
oldest messages (by date), instead of the first ones in the base.
WaterGate Manual WtrUtil Page 130
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Log file and statistics file maintenance
----------------------------------------
You can use WtrUtil to trim the size of the WaterGate log file and
statistics file. This functionality is called "shrinking" and you
tell it the number of days of history you want to keep.
For example, telling it to "shrink 6" keeps today's information plus
six days of history.
There are different option for shrinking the log file and the
statistics file. Here are some examples:
WTRUTIL SHRINKLOG 6
WTRUTIL SHRINKSTA 14
It is advisable, especially when you have just started with WtrGate,
to enable Debug Logging (all possible information) and to put a
shrinklog statement in a batch file to keep the log file from
growing enormous.
WaterGate Manual WtrUtil Page 131
---------------------------------------------------------------------
WaterGate's Databases
---------------------
WaterGate's uses a number of database files where it keeps all the
configuration information: system setup, users, areas, groups,
mailing lists, which user wants which area, etc.
These databases are in binary format and you need the WtrConf program
to make changes, although WtrGate updates information as well. For
example, when a user connects an area using the built in AreaFix
Manager or subscribes to a mailing list with the Mailing List Server.
When you delete users and areas, or when you unsubscribe users or
areas, then WaterGate doesn't re-use the space because it would
require additional information and processing time. It is so much
easier to simply add new information at the end of the database.
To clean up these gaps, you use the Databases Maintenance option
built into WtrUtil. It basically creates a new database and removes
the empty space. Apart from that, it does a few other important
things.
Pack databases has built in detection for some forms of corruption
in the database structure. It can detect short loops in subscription
lists (list of areas a user is subscribed to) and doesn't hang.
Instead, it scans all the areas to see what the rest of the list
should be and restores that list. Notice that WtrConf contains the
same kind of detection mechanisms and warns you that it can't
continue and you should pack the databases immediately.
You start this option by selecting "Pack Databases" from the menu or
by typing the following on the command line.
WTRUTIL DATABASE
To safe a bit of time, you can prevent WtrUtil from sorting the
areas by adding the command line option -NOSORT. This is mainly
intended for very slow systems with a lot of areas. Faster systems
should always sort the areas.
This is especially important if you have a lot of areas, because
WtrConf sorts the areas when presenting a list and that can take a
bit of time as well. Pre-sorting with WtrUtil saves you from waiting
while WtrConf sorts that list with 3000 areas.
The databases are AREABASE.TDB, USERBASE.TDB, SUBSCRIPT.TDB,
LISTSRV.TDB, GROUPS.TDB and WTRCFG.TDB. A copy of packed databases is
kept in .OLD files.
WaterGate Manual Overlaid WtrGate Page 132
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Overlaid WtrGate
----------------
WTRGATE.EXE is quite big (over 350kB) and with only 640kB of
conventional ("low") memory you can run into problems. WaterGate
requires about 450 to 500kB of free low memory or it won't even
start.
While processing messages, it needs the low memory as well to store
a transient message in. If the message is too big for the amount of
free memory, then it will use the swapfile, but that means an
overhead for swapping the message out and reading it back later on.
Some people simply don't have 450kB of free memory because they use
(for example) DesqView. A special version of WtrGate was created for
these users: WTRGATEO.EXE, which uses the overlay file WTRGATEO.OVR.
What is an overlay file?
------------------------
Normally a program is completely loaded into memory when you run it
and all code sits there and occupies memory space, whether it is used
or not. The overlay version only loads code permanently that is used
a lot. The rest is in the .OVR file instead of the .EXE file.
Blocks of code that are needed are loaded from the .OVR file and
discarded (removed from memory) if other code has to be loaded.
Multiple blocks of code can be loaded at once for efficiency and the
most used blocks of code will be kept as long as possible.
Loading and discarding blocks of code costs a bit of time and disk
access. WTRGATEO.EXE is 200kB smaller as the full blown executable
and the rest is kept in the overlay file WTRGATEO.OVR.
Of these extra 200kB of low memory you get, 80kB is normally reserved
to load bits of pieces of code into. This means that you get 125k
more free low memory for storing messages or loading other programs
into.
To reduce disk access, the overlay version tries to load the .OVR
file into EMS memory so it can copy pieces of code from memory
instead of loading it from disk all the time. So, if you have some
EMS memory installed, then WtrGate/O will use that automatically. If
you are using DesqView or a real OS, then you are able to set the
amount of EMS a dos box gets, so you can enable the loading of the
.OVR file into EMS.
Tuning parameters
-----------------
If the .OVR file is used a lot (depending on your configuration),
then the processing slows down a lot. WtrGate/O writes a line to the
logfile when you exit the program to indicate the number of loads
from the .OVR file. If this number is high (>250) then you might
want to increase the 80kB low memory region that is used to load
blocks of code into.
WaterGate Manual Overlaid WtrGate Page 133
---------------------------------------------------------------------
You can use -OVR25K and -OVR50K on the command line to increase the
memory area a bit. This should reduce the load counter, but never to
0 though.
WaterGate Manual Translating from other programs Page 134
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Translating from other programs
-------------------------------
WaterGate is capable of adding information to its userbase and
areabase from other programs. Currently, it can directly process
information from GEcho, Waffle, and Squish. To do this, start the
"WTRCONF" program and select the "Import/Export" menu option.
WaterGate Manual Translating from other programs Page 135
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Adding information from GEcho v1.02
-----------------------------------
First select the "Import GEcho Nodes file NODEFILE.GE" option. This
will read all node information stored by GEcho and add this
information to the WaterGate userbase. You have to do this first
because without this node information WaterGate is unable to add
these nodes to the area lists when using the "Import GEcho Areas
file AREAFILE.GE" that you can use next.
WaterGate Manual Translating from other programs Page 136
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Adding information from Waffle
------------------------------
First select the "Import Usenet newsgroups file", this file is
usually located in your waffle\system directory and contains a
listing of all the areas available on your system.
A typical file looks like :
# All Areas that I ever want to read (Not!)
#
COMP.BBS.PROGRAMS
COMP.BBS.NONEWBBS /mod=jaap@aap.network.nl
Next import the SYSTEMS file, containing the names of all systems
that are directly linked to your system.
A typical SYSTEMS file entry looks like:
steambt Any g modemx tosystem 02995-9111 myid password
All information about mail that needs to be sent through another
system is located in the PATHS file, usually located in the
"WAFFLE\UUCP" directory. Use "Import Usenet Paths" file to import
this information.
To add areas for certain users, select "Import UUCICO Feeds". This
file contains information about all users connected to certain areas.
A typical entry is:
steambk /batch comp.bbs.*,alt.bbs.*
steambt /batch *
WaterGate Manual Translating from other programs Page 137
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Adding Information from Squish
------------------------------
WaterGate is capable of scanning a Squish configuration file
(usually SQUISH.CFG) for 'EchoArea' lines. A typical Squish EchoArea
entry:
EchoArea MUFFIN D:\WTRGATE\SQUISH\MUFFIN -$ -$m200 -$d5
EchoArea POINTS.028 D:\WTRGATE\SQUISH\PNT028 -$ -$m200 -$d5
WaterGate understands the -$, -0 and -F area types, to indicate a
Squish, passthrough and *.MSG area style. In addition, the -J switch
is also used to indicate JAM style areas. When using the "Export
Squish like Area config", as a non-standard addition, JAM areas are
also exported using this '-J' option, but each line is preceded with
a ';' to make sure other programs ignore those lines. The
"Import/Export" menu has another option, called "Import AREAS.BBS
file", which is useful if you want to delete a certain node from a
list of areas without using the normal 'tag & delete' options. You
can use another program to prepare a file containing a list of areas
that have to be added or deleted. When you select a file, you are
asked for which user you want to make these modifications. The
format of the input file:
+ARENA ; Add an area
+CHESS.INT ; Add an area
-POINTS.028 ; Delete an area
.... ; etc etc
Note: No '%' commands for normal AreaFix operation are available.
WaterGate Manual Command line parameters Page 138
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Command line parameters
-----------------------
WTRGATE.EXE
-----------
This is the main program. It must be correctly configured to run; the
program will exit if it is unable to initialize. To create new
configuration files, or modify an existing configuration, use the
WtrConf program.
You can start WaterGate using a command line option or you can start
it without one and select an option from the menu. Only a single
command line option is available for each run.
When scanning for outgoing Fido echomail messages, the program will
look for an ECHOTOSS.LOG or ECHOMAIL.JAM file in its system
directory, containing a listing of the areas it has to scan.
?
Display a short help screen.
SCAN
Scans local message bases for outgoing messages.
TOSS
Toss received FidoNet from inbound.
UUCP
Toss received Usenet/Internet from spool directory.
BAG
Toss received BAG files.
SMTP
Toss received SMTP files from Mail Queue.
-NONETSCAN
Skip the scanning of all netmail areas for outgoing messages.
The primary netmail area is stilled scanned for pending file
attaches (FrontDoor mode only). This tells SCAN to check echo
and local areas only.
-NOECHOSCAN
Skip the scanning of all echomail areas. A shorter alias for
this option is -NOES.
-NONETMAIL
Do not route netmail messages; store them in the local netmail
area instead.
-NOEXPORT
Do not export messages to other systems; only import local
messages.
WaterGate Manual Command line parameters Page 139
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-NOLOCAL
Don't import local messages; only export them to up and
downlinks.
-NODUPE
Force dupe checking off.
-NOCHECK
Force WaterGate to ignore the directory check at startup.
-NONEWSTOSS
Do not toss Usenet news batches, only e-mail.
-KEEPFA
Keep file attach netmail when the attached file cannot be found.
This can used for busy LANs that report a file as "not found"
when actually the LAN is to busy.
-MEMUSAGE
Report in the logfile the amount of memory used for each of the
configuration table that are loaded at start-up. This will help
you understand WaterGate's memory consumption.
Errorlevel returns 0 on success or >1 on failure.
WTRCONF.EXE
-----------
You will need this program to configure WaterGate; it is capable of
creating and modifying configuration files, including the areabase
and userbase files. For more information see "Installing WaterGate".
?
Show help screen.
EXPORT_SQUISH file
Exports a SQUISH.CFG file containing all areas defined in the
configuration. Or use [file] to specify another file name.
EXPORT_AREAS file
Exports an AREAS.BBS file containing all areas defined in the
configuration. Or use [file] to specify another file name.
IGNORE_SYSTEMDIR
WaterGate will ignore the System Directory as configured in
WTRCFG.TDB. This allows you to use a configuration in an other
directory than the original. Useful when checking somebody
else's databases.
Errorlevel returns 0 on success or >1 on failure.
WTRUTIL.EXE
-----------
WaterGate comes with a messagebase maintenance utility called
WtrUtil. It can link messages in all area types; remove messages
WaterGate Manual Command line parameters Page 140
---------------------------------------------------------------------
that are too old or over the maximum number of messages in an area;
create new index files for both Squish and Jam bases; and renumber
areas.
You can start WtrUtil with command line options, or start it without
one and simply select from the menu.
?
Show all command line options.
DATABASE
Removes deleted entries and unused links from all WaterGate's
configuration files, rebuild the databases and sort the
areabase for faster access by WtrConf.
Use -NOSORT to prevent the areabase from being sorted.
INDEX
Creates new index files for all Squish and JAM message bases.
LINK
Links messages in all areas.
RENUM
Renumbers all *.MSG areas.
RENUMJAM
Renumbers all JAM areas.
PURGE
Removes messages by number and date from all message bases.
IMPORT
This function imports messages from your *.MSG main netmail
directory into a JAM or Squish netmail area.
IMPORT AREANAME [Address] [-NoKill]
AREANAME specifies the name of the netmail base to which the
messages are to be imported.
Address specifies the AKA to which the messages have to be
addressed to be selected for import. This parameter is
optional; if not specified all your AKA's are used.
The -NoKill parameter ensures that the imported messages are not
removed from your netmail directory, which is the default.
SHRINKLOG n
This function will clean the logfile and all leaving only
today's plus n days of history, as supplied on the command
line. For example, SHRINKLOG 6 will keep a whole week in the
logfile.
-NOSLICE
Use this option to disable the time slicing support, in case it
causes problems, or when you want to speed up processing without
WaterGate Manual Command line parameters Page 141
---------------------------------------------------------------------
giving up time slices anymore.
Errorlevel returns 0 on success or >1 on failure.
Use the DATABASE option if you have removed large numbers of areas or
users from your configuration. Letting them stay in the base only
wastes memory and disk access time.
Since WtrConf has to sort the list of area names all the times, you
can speed up the editing work in WtrConf greatly by sorting the area
base with WtrUtil on a regular basis, for example every night.
Groups filter option
--------------------
To limit the number of areas that WtrUtil processes during the INDEX,
LINK, PURGE, RENUM and RENUMJAM options, you can add an extra command
line argument to these options to tell WtrUtil which groups to
process only.
For example:
WTRUTIL LINK Links messages in all areas.
WTRUTIL LINK ABC Links messages in areas that are in one of the
groups A B and C.
Notice that the groups filter option only works when using the five
functions from the command line.
WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 142
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendixes
----------
Appendix A: Message Bases
-------------------------
If you receive messages, you will need a place to store them.
WaterGate has built in support for three different messagebase
types, each with its own characteristics. None of the supported
bases puts more than one area into the same base, so if one area
crashes for some reason, you won't lose more than just that area.
Both the Squish base and the JAM base can be considered successors
to the Hudson Message Base. The HMB was a replacement for the Fido
*.MSG base, but its limit of 200 message areas and maximum size of
16Mb makes it somewhat outdated compared to the huge message traffic
produced by the various networks today. The Hudson Message Base is
not supported by WaterGate.
Fido *.MSG
----------
This is the oldest format, and is defined by FTS-0001. This format
needs a sub-directory for each defined area. Every message is put
into a single file, so this format is not recommended for areas that
receive lots of messages, especially when using standard DOS FAT
formatted hard disks. These become incredibly slow when the number
of files in a single directory exceeds 256.
This type of base is compatible with almost any piece of software
written for Fido. So you probably want to use it for your netmail
directory, to allow other programs to easily insert messages.
If you create a Fido *.MSG area, make sure you enter a valid
directory name in the "Area path" field, with a terminating
backslash.WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 143
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples:
C:\WSD\NETMAIL\
C:\WSD\NETMAIL\HISTORY\
Squish
------
Squish was designed in 1990 by Scott Dudley, and it is used in his
Maximus BBS package and Squish mail processor. It uses 4 different
files for each area: <name>.SQD contains the messages and header
information; <name>.SQI contains an index to the messages in the SQD
file; <name>.SQL contains lastread pointers for BBS users; and
<name>.SQB contains dupecheck information. The SQB file is not used
by WaterGate.
A Squish base can contain up to 2^32 (2 to the 32nd power) messages,
which should be enough for anybody. (Don't quote me on this one,
please.) If it isn't, you probably have more serious problems.
A Squish base can re-use space occupied by deleted messages without
needing repacking, so you don't need to pack a Squish base as often
as other types.
If you set a maximum number of messages for a Squish area, WaterGate
will automatically delete the oldest message. So, the area never
contains more than the set number of messages. Don't set this number
too low, because if WaterGate has to delete large numbers of messages
in each run, performance will suffer. If you want maximum performance
and don't care about disk space, just set the limit to 0 messages.
If you use the Squish base for an area, the "Area Path" should
contain a valid directory plus an 8 character area name. Don't use
any extensions (.???) in the path and don't put a backslash at the
end!WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 144
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples:
C:\BBS\SQUISH\ALTBBS for the area ALT.BBS
C:\BBS\SQUISH\ALTBMISC for the area ALT.BBS.MISC
etc.
JAM
---
JAM was designed in 1993 by Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner,
Mats Birch, and Mats Wallin. Like Squish, it is designed to support
up to 2^32 messages in a single message area and uses 4 different
files.
It uses a <name>.JHR file to store header information; each header
consists of a fixed part and a flexible part, depending on the
message. Storing only a small part in the fixed header makes it
relatively easy to add future enhancements to the message base. Each
header contains a pointer into the <name>.JDT file, which contains
the actual message. The areabase is indexed in the <name>.JDX file
and lastread information is stored into the <name>.JLR file.
JAM has a (for Fido systems) new way of linking messages: instead of
simply linking messages with the same subject, each message can have
an unlimited number of replies to it, so that each reply is a reply
to the original message. This way you can always see to which message
a new message is a reply.WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 145
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Example:
1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 5
| |
| +---- 8
|
+---- 3 --- 7
|
+---- 6
Messages 2, 3, and 6 are a reply to message 1. Message 4 and 8 are a
reply to message 2. Message 5 is a reply to message 4. Message 7 is a
reply to message 3.
If you use the JAM base for an area, the "Area Path" should contain a
valid directory plus an 8 character area name. Don't use any
extensions (.xxx) in the path and don't use a terminating backslash!WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 146
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples:
C:\BBS\JAM\ALTBBS for the area ALT.BBS
C:\BBS\JAM\ALTBMISC for the area ALT.BBS.MISC
etc.
WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 147
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix B: Error codes
-----------------------
Below is a description for most of the error numbers that WaterGate
writes in the logfile.
This should help you understand the error message better.
Code Description
2 File not found
3 Path not found
4 Too many open files
5 File access denied
100 Disk read error
101 Disk write error
150 Disk is write-protected
158 Sector not found
200 Division by zero
202 Stack overflow error
216 General Protection fault
WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 148
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix C: Trademarks
----------------------
All trademarks are owned by their respective owners,
ARC,ZIP PkWare, Inc
ARJ Robert K. Jung
Binkley Bit Bucket Software Co.
Fido Tom Jennings
FrontDoor Joaquim Homrighausen, Absolute Solutions
GEcho Gerard J. van der Land
JAM (mbp) Joaquim Homrighausen, Andrew Milner,
Mats Birch, Mats Wallin
LHA Haruyasu Yoshizaka
MS-DOS Microsoft Corporation
PAK NoGate Consulting
PC-DOS,OS/2 IBM
Pentium Intel
Squish,Maximus Scott J. Dudley
TimEd Gerard van Essen
Waffle DarkSide International
MailTunnel Waterline Software Development
WaterGate Manual Appendixes Page 149
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix D: WaterGate Development
---------------------------------
People sometimes ask me about the environment I use to develop
WaterGate, so below follows a little explanation.
- All code is written in Borland Pascal 7.0 on a Pentium
150Mhz/32MB/2G running Microsoft Windows '95.
- The user interface is the so called "Ramon Unit" which I
started about ten years ago. It is optimized for speed and
handles all the menus, lists, field editing, help file, etc.
- WaterGate is about 100 source files containing 70000 lines of
code.
- The manual is written in a HTML-like source format and compiled
by two different programs into the final HTML version and the
ASCII version. This allows me to maintain one set of documents
and produce both manuals in a few seconds.