Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/bbs_ra/pvthr304.arj/PRIVATE.DOC

Text File | 1991-08-19 | 17KB | 565 lines

                          PRIVATE HOURS v3.04
                            (C) 1991 PKsoft

                         Written by Peter Tan
                       The Elite Bulletin Board
                          FidoNet 6:600/403.0
                           VNet 45:620/101.0

             FOSSIL I/O routines (C) 1990, 1991 Philip Teo
                              CommCen BBS
                           FidoNet 6:600/61.0


























┌──────────┐
│ Warranty │
└──────────┘

        This program  is provided  "as is".  No warranty  of any kind is
        made, nor  implied. This  program is  only guranteed  to take up
        disk  space,  nothing  more.  If  you  break  anything with this
        program, you get to keep all the parts.

┌───────────────────┐
│ Special Thanks    │
│ and other credits │
└───────────────────┘

        I'd  like  to  thank  the  following  people,  without whom this
        program  would  not  have  materialised.  Here  they  are, in no
        particular order:

        - Charles "Bartman" Cheong (Shadow BBS @ FidoNet 6:600/307.0)
                for taking the pains and trouble to teach me Turbo
                Pascal

        - Philip Teo (CommCen BBS @ FidoNet 6:600/61.0)
                for consenting to let me have his FOSSIL I/O source
                routines

        - Kelvin Goh (The HOST Connection @ FidoNet 6:600/400.0)
                for letting this program run on his system, and risk
                having his RA configuration files and user files grunged
                by a largely untested software

        - Bob "I can write a better FOSSIL but I won't" Prow
                for his weird and wonderful solutions to seemingly
                difficult problems

        - Andrew Milner for writing RemoteAccess.


        Thanks guys! Couldn't have done it without ya!


┌──────────────┐
│ Requirements │
└──────────────┘

        φ  IBM PC/XT/AT/386 or compatible
        φ  At least 256K
        φ  A Front-End mailer software, such as FrontDoor
        φ  RemoteAccess 1.xx software
        φ  A Revision Level 5 FOSSIL driver, such as X00 or BNU
        φ  Lots of luck! ;-)



            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 1

┌──────────┐
│ Features │
└──────────┘
        ■ Full security checks against User names and passwords
        ■ Interfaces neatly with RemoteAccess files
        ■ Logs activities to RA's logfile
          (Now in OPUS/FD format!)
        ■ Fully FOSSIL driven
        ■ Graceful exits from carrier drops and inactivity timeouts
        ■ Not UserLevel or Flag dependent
        ■ First (?) 3rd party program to use the GROUP field
        ■ 'Twit' key to kick out unwelcomed people
        ■ Built-in DOS-Shell
        ■ Local "testing" mode
        ■ Four separate time slots for private hours
        ■ Checks Voice Phone numbers   [Registered only]
        ■ Checks Birth Date            [Registered only]
        ■ Displays LOGO.ASC if present [Registered only]

┌─────────┐
│ License │
└─────────┘

        Private Hours v3.04 is distributed under the shareware  concept.
In a non-commercial environment, you  are granted a license to  use this
program for  evaluation until  such time  as you  think is  a reasonable
period. After this period, you  are encouraged to register this  program
as  an  incentive  for  the  author  (Me!)  to keep working on 3rd party
enhancements for RemoteAccess bulletin board software.

        In a commercial environment,  you are granted a  limited license
to use  this program  for a  period of  30 days,  after which you *MUST*
register this program, or cease using it.

        Please see the accompanying REGISTER.DOC for more details.

┌─────────────┐
│ Description │
└─────────────┘

        This program was primarily born  out of need. I have  many users
whom I  think are  a deserving  bunch of  nice people.  Yet, they  often
complain (good-naturedly of course) that my BBS is one of the hardest to
logon. One of them  suggested I make a  day where I allow  some users to
logon but not the rest. Thus was the idea for this program born.

        Of course, I didn't make one whole day for them to logon, but  I
did the  next best  thing. I  made a  time-slot which  allows only THESE
users to logon everyday.

        You can  use this  program in  other ways  too. As  one Sysop in
RA_SUPPORT asked recently, whether he can let PAYING users logon  during
certain hours, and boot off those  that do not pay. This program  can do
what he wanted.  It's better than  copying configuration files  all over
the place, don't you think? ;-)


            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 2

┌──────────────┐
│ Installation │
└──────────────┘

     Use  an  unarchiving   utility  such  as   PKUNZIP  to  unpack  the
distribution file into your mailer directory.

     Run the setup program, PVTCFG.EXE. It is menu-driven, so you should
not have any problems getting it to run. In any case, here is an outline
of what to expect in the setups.

REGISTRATION   - This option brings you to the Registration info. When
                 you register PRIVATE HOURS, please send your name and
                 BBS name EXACTLY as it appears here!

PRIVATE HOURS START / END -

     This menu option brings  you to the screen  where there are 4  time
slots. These are where you tell  PRIVATE HOURS which are the time  slots
you designate as PRIVATE HOURS.

     Note  that  the  time  MUST  NOT  overlap the midnight hour, ie you
cannot have a private hour time  slot from 23:59 to 00:01, for  example.
The time slot MUST start and end on the SAME DAY.

     The "GRP" behind every  time slot is the  GROUP of users you  allow
during that time slot. Thus, you can now allow up to 4 different  groups
in 4 different time slots for your private hours.

DIRECTORIES AND PATHS - This menu option brings you to the screen where
                        you input your paths to the various files
                        required by PRIVATE HOURS for it to run. The
                        trailing backslash in directory names is
                        optional.

ERRORLEVELS  - This menu option brings you to the screen where you enter
               all the errorlevels you pass from the mailer to your BBS
               for the BBS to recognise as HUMAN CALLERS. If your
               errorlevel passed from your mailer to signify a human
               caller at 2400 is "235", then input "235" into the "2400"
               field.


BBS SPECIFICS  - This menu option brings you to the menu where you get
                 to choose what you want PRIVATE HOURS to do when
                 prompting a user. Each "X" inside the box indicates
                 that the option is active. Note that "ASK FOR VOICE
                 PHONE", "ASK FOR BIRTH DATE" and "SHOW LOGO.ASC" are






            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 3

                 registered-only functions. You can select them here,
                 but it will only take effect if you are registered.

                 "FOSSIL PORT" is the port number used by the FOSSIL for
                 communications. COM1 is "0", COM2 is "1" and so on.

                 "TIMEOUT IN MINUTES" is the number of minutes to wait
                 for the user to input something before booting him off
                 for inactivity.

                 "LOCAL LOGON ERRORLEVEL" is the errorlevel to be
                 returned if you run PRIVATE HOURS locally as a test.


     Next, in your RUNBBS.BAT (or equivalent) that you use to run  up your
BBS, replace the line which calls your mailer with the name of  the program,
like so:

╔════════════════════╗
║ Example batch file ║
╚════════════════════╝

        :Start
        @echo off
        cd \fd
        Fd
        if errorlevel 200 goto human9600
        if errorlevel 190 goto human4800
        .
        .


Replace with:

        :Start
        @echo off
        cd \fd
        PRIVATE                 <-- replace your "FD" call
        if errorlevel 200 goto human9600
        if errorlevel 190 goto human4800
        .
        .


        The next step is  to run up your  USERED (or RACE, like  me) and
choose those users that are deserving (or those that PAID) and give them
all a common group number. This number *MUST* be the same one as defined
in the PRIVATE.CFG file for the time slot you want.






            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 4

        This program will allow users even of different levels to access
the BBS during the private hours. Therefore you can have a level 10  and
a  level  100  user  accessing  the  BBS  during private hours if you so
wished.

        After this, you're all set to go!

┌─────────────────────┐
│ VoicePhone checking │
└─────────────────────┘

        This  option  is  activated  only  if  a  registered  version is
running. It acts as a second security feature in case a hacker got  hold
of someone's password.

        It should be  noted that for  this to work  properly, your phone
number *MUST* be formatted to USA standard of XXX-XXX-XXXX.

┌────────────────────┐
│ BirthDate checking │
└────────────────────┘

     This option is activated only if a registered version is running.
It acts as a third security feature.

┌────────────┐
│ 'TWIT' Key │
└────────────┘

        The 'Twit' key is ALT-H. When pressed, it will immediately  drop
DTR on the user, without displaying anything. Maybe in future versions I
will simulate some line noise before dropping carrier on the user ;-)

┌───────────┐
│ DOS Shell │
└───────────┘

        There is a built-in DOS shell. It is there in case you may  want
to do something in DOS or whatever. The key to activate this is ALT-J.

        It would come in useful if  you want to add the current  user to
the list of people allowed to logon by shelling to DOS and adding him to
the group there and then.

        Be sure to shell to DOS *ONLY* at the "Enter your First and Last
name" prompt, when all the  RA configuration files are closed.  Do *NOT*
shell when  the system  is prompting  him for  the VoicePhone number (in
registered versions)  or the  password. That  is the  time when the user
files are opened for reading, and shelling out and changing  information
within them would most probably be hazardous to the files!




            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 5

        As a point of info,  the RA configuration files are  opened only
*AFTER* the user has entered his name and the screening process  begins,
and they  are closed  IMMEDIATELY upon  finding a  match, or not finding
the user after searching through the files.


┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Command-line Parameters │
└─────────────────────────┘

        PRIVATE HOURS has only one command-line parameter. When run with
the command-line:

        PRIVATE demo

        it will  go into  local logon  mode, bypassing  the call  to the
mailer.  From  here,  you  can  test  to  see if your setup is correctly
defined. I put this in because when I test the program locally, it  gets
kind of boring waiting for the mailer to load up and then for me to  hit
the local-logon key to test the program ;-)

┌──────────────────────┐
│ Logging to a Logfile │
└──────────────────────┘

     PRIVATE HOURS will log activities to the system logfile, as defined
in  the  PRIVATE.CFG.  It  now  also  logs  in  OPUS  in addition to the
FrontDoor format,  thus Binkley  users will  now not  have PRIVATE HOURS
giving them sore eyes from looking at the logs. ;-)

        If PRIVATE HOURS encounters any  problems, it will write to  the
system logfile as well.






















            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 6


┌──────────────┐
│ How it works │
└──────────────┘

        Here's a rough outline of  how this program works. This  part is
for information's sake only, and to satisfy any curiosity as to how this
program works.

        1. PRIVATE.EXE runs up
        2. PRIVATE.EXE shells out and calls the mailer
        3. Upon *ANY* events (whether HUMAN callers or mail calls or
           events), the mailer exits with an errorlevel
        4. PRIVATE.EXE traps this value, and tests for validity of
           Private Hours being enforced
        5. If private hours are in effect, it will test the errorlevels
           against those defined in the PRIVATE.CFG file.
        6. If no match is found, PRIVATE.EXE assumes a non-human caller
           and exits with the preserved errorlevel to let your batchfile
           handle the rest.
        7. If the errorlevel matches one of those defined in the CFG
           file, and if private hours are in effect, then it goes
           through the 'screening' process.
        8. If Private Hours are not in effect, but the errorlevel
           matches those in the CFG file, it will exit with the
           preserved errorlevel.

        In any case, it's transparent to both the Sysop and the user  as
to whether PRIVATE HOURS is loaded. For the sake of speed, I wrote  this
program to  search usernames  against the  REAL NAME  only, and  not the
handle. Any user  trying to logon  during private hours  with his handle
will not be recognised.






















            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 7

┌───────────────┐
│ Miscellaneous │
└───────────────┘

        The  only  mailer  that  has  been  tested  with this program is
FrontDoor. You  use this  program with  other mailers  at your own risk!
Generally any mailer that generates an errorlevel upon exit should  work
with this program, but as I said earlier, there's no guarantee it  WOULD
work.

        Also, PRIVATE  HOURS has  only been  tested using  the BATCHFILE
calling  the  mailer  method.  It  has  *NOT*  been tested with the RA's
Shell-to-mailer mode;  it should  work though,  since it  also runs  the
mailer and returns an errorlevel exit.

        If you want to try  it in the Shell-to-mailer mode,  replace the
"FD" with "PRIVATE.EXE".  In essence, think  of this program  as another
mailer.

        PRIVATE HOURS will ALWAYS exit with Errorlevel 0 if the user is
not granted access to the system, or is a new user (which aren't allowed
during private hours).

┌───────────────────────┐
│ Contacting the author │
└───────────────────────┘

        You can't!

        Just  kidding.  I  read  the  RA_SUPPORT echo frequently. If you
encounter any problems, you may leave  a message in the echo (but  don't
let Bruce Bodger catch you! *Grin* ), or you can send a netmail to me at
6:600/403.0@FidoNet, or 45:620/101.0@VNet.

        If there are too much problems, then it either means my  program
is buggy, or my DOCs are not  extensive enough ;-). In any case, I  will
try to solve your  problems, but if there's  too much, priority goes  to
those registered people.

        Also, if you  happen to find  any undocumented features,  please
let me know too! ;-)













              PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 8

┌─────────┐
│ History │
└─────────┘

        1.00ß   First draft program. Very simplistic in design, checks
                only the name and the group field.

        1.10ß   Added support Password checking

        1.11ß   Added VoicePhone checking

        1.20ß   Added logging activities to logfile, and added an
                errorlogfile for errors.

        1.25ß   Fixed my oversight at not disallowing ";" in name
                inputs, plus adding support for up to 3 names in the
                name input field.

        1.30ß   Added an option to let 'non-members' of Private Hours to
                leave the Sysop a message which is logged to the RA
                logfile. Not implemented in v2.0

        2.00    First public release of PRIVATE HOURS. Major re-coding
                of the program as well as cosmetic changes. Re-coding is
                necessary as I have to make the program as generic as
                possible. All beta versions are specific only to my
                system.

        2.50    Major bug-fix version.

        2.51    Added "ASK FOR BIRTHDATE" option (REGISTERED ONLY).
                Added Logging activity to OPUS format as well.
                Fixed user name automatically getting truncated to 3
                words only ;-) (Can't blame me! Chinese people have ONLY
                3-word names!)


┌─────────────┐
│ Errorlevels │
└─────────────┘

        PRIVATE HOURS will always exit with an ERRORLEVEL 0 if a problem
crops up, to recycle  to the mailer, like  a carrier loss or  inactivity
timeout.

        It will exit with the preserved errorlevels should the  problems
be that of  a non-fatal nature.  This should let  the user logon  should
anything go awry.






            PRIVATE HOURS v3.04 Documentation       Page 9