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RemoteAccess System Statistics
Version 1.00
A Configurable User/System Statistics Generator
For RemoteAccess 1.00
(c) Copyright 1991, by Kenneth R. Doebler
All Rights Reserved
Released on 3/23/91
DISCLAIMER:
"RSS is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warrantees,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the
warrantees of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose.
The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of RSS."
DISTRIBUTION:
RSS is distributed in archived form. The distribution archive
should contain the following files:
RSS EXE 46315 3-23-91 1:00a
RSS DOC 14204 3-23-91 1:00a
SOFTRES DOC 1579 3-23-91 1:00a
If your distribution archive is missing any of these files, or if
any of your files are different from the above list, you do not
have an original distribution archive. Please contact me at the
address or number listed at the end of this document. You may
obtain the latest official distribution archive at any time from
The Software Resource, listed at the end of this document.
You are encouraged to pass a copy of RSS along to your friends or
post it on Bulletin Boards for downloading, provided that you:
1) Do not modify or alter the original program or
documentation files in any way.
2) Pass along the complete archive with all files included,
in it's original unmodified form.
3) Do not distribute the archive in conjunction with any
commercial or money making endeavor of any kind without
prior consent of the author.
If you are in doubt about the contents of your distribution
archive or any of the above items, please contact me via netmail
or call The Software Resource at the address and number listed at
the end of this document.
ONWARD:
RSS is a utility for use with RemoteAccess 1.00. RSS will read
your Users.Bbs file and generate a screen of statistics that can
be displayed using RA's Type 5 menu command, or any of the other
functions which display an ANS/ASC file. Sorry, no AVT files
yet.. I have no idea how to generate AVATAR files, however,
someone was nice enough to forward some info on AVATAR, so I may
be able to include this in future releases.
This is the first official public release of RSS. It has been
tested on several systems running RemoteAccess 1.00 with good
results and should work as expected. Every effort has been made
to find and eliminate all bugs in the testing process.
RSS will not harm or modify any of your RA system files in
any way, so you may use it without fear of possible dire results.
RSS is a snap to set up and use. Please give the sections below
a quick browse for details.
What does RSS do?
RSS is basically a User/System statistics generator. RSS will
read your Users.Bbs file and generate a report screen which can
then be displayed online via RA's Type 5 or similar menu command.
The report screens generated look something like the following:
RemoteAccess System Statistics for [Your System Name]
Total system calls ................................... xxxx
Total number of users ................................. xxx
Total messages posted ................................. xxx
Total downloads ....................................... xxx
Total download kbytes ............................... xxxxx
Total uploads ......................................... xxx
Total upload kbytes .................................. xxxx
Average calls per user ................................. xx
Average time used per call ............................. xx
Average messages posted per user ....................... xx
Average user security level ............................ xx
Average downloads per user ............................. xx
Average download kbytes per user ...................... xxx
Average uploads per user ............................... xx
Average upload kbytes per user ........................ xxx
Press [Enter] To Continue:
RSS automatically excludes the Sysop (or User Record #0) from the
summary of stats. If your Sysop User Record is anything like
mine, it would render the stats useless. :)
In order to make RSS more configurable for individual Sysops, I
have included a Configuration Menu within RSS which will allow
you to select which statistics are displayed and which are not.
You may also enable/disable the screen clearing codes and prompt
lines via the config menu as well as select the colors used in
the .ANS screen generated by RSS.
Including the configuration code within the main program resulted
in extra overhead for the RSS.EXE file, however, this seemed to
be the best choice for overall efficiency and easy of use. I
prefer keeping the RSS distribution archive as small as possible,
and adding a separate configuration program would have increased
it's size substantially.
RSS will generate one .ANS and one .ASC file, with a screen
clearing code at the top of each, and the prompt "Press [Enter]
To Continue: " at the bottom by default. A default set of colors
is also used in the .ANS file. The .ANS/.ASC files generated
will automatically be placed in your \TXTFILES directory as
defined in CONFIG.RA. Look for the text files RSS.ANS and
RSS.ASC in this directory after you run RSS.
RSS will not harm any of your RA system files in any way. I
repeat this for anyone who may be wondering about potential
dangers to your RA files. RSS only reads the RA system files,
and does no writing to those files whatsoever. Isn't that a
relief!
What does RSS need to run?
RSS.EXE would typically be run from your main RA system directory
(\RA), however, you can run it from just about anywhere if you
have your RA environment variable set (RA=Drive:\Path). RSS will
read the DOS environment and search for the "RA=Drive:\Path" info
to find out where your RA system files are located. If you have
the path that holds RSS.EXE in your DOS search PATH line, you can
execute RSS from any directory or drive.
RSS will first attempt to find your RA path information in the
environment, and if it finds nothing there (no "RA=xxx"), it will
search the current directory for your RA system files. If you do
not set your RA environment variable, or if you're in doubt about
all this, the simplest thing to do is place RSS.EXE in your main
RA system directory (\RA) and run it from there.
RSS reads CONFIG.RA to obtain the paths to your Users.BBS file
and your TextFiles (*.ANS/ASC). RSS also grabs your System Name
from the CONFIG.RA file for use in the screens it creates.
RSS also takes a quick peek at SysInfo.Bbs to grab the total
system calls number. RSS will use the total calls found in
SysInfo.Bbs for the Total System Calls display line, however, RSS
will use the sum of all the active user's calls for calculating
the averages.. i.e., Average Calls Per User, and so on.
If the file RSS.CFG exists in your RA system directory (\RA),
then RSS will also read it's configuration information from this
file when it fires up.
In a nutshell: RSS can be run from any directory or drive as
long as you set your RA environment variable (RA=Drive:\Path).
If you're in doubt about how to do this, please see your RA docs
or simply run RSS from your main RA system directory (\RA).
That's about it.
How do I set up RSS?
The first time you run RSS, you should run it with the "-c"
command line option, or "RSS -c". This will bring up RSS's
Configuration Menu and create a file called RSS.CFG in your
RA system directory (\RA\). The Configuration Menu should
be self-explanatory.
The "-c" Configure RSS option will allow you to control what
statistics RSS reports and which ones it leaves out. Handy for
suppressing those potentially embarrasing ones like Average
Upload Kbytes Per User! Simply toggle the items you wish to
include/exclude in the statistics screens and exit. RSS will
automatically save the changes if any were made.
The "-c" Configure RSS option also allows you to specify whether
you want RSS to put screen clearing codes in the .ANS/ASC files
it generates. In addition, you may tell RSS to include the
prompt line "Press [Enter] To Continue: " in your screens or
exclude it if you like. These two options should make it easier
to use some of the other RA display commands, rather than just
Type 5 only.
And, as a final touch, the "-c" Configure RSS option also allows
you to configure the colors which RSS will use in generating the
RSS.ANS screen file. This will let you configure RSS to fit in
with your overall color scheme.
If you do not run RSS with the "-c" option, no RSS.CFG file
will ever be generated, and RSS will default to displaying all
statistics as well as including screen clearing codes and prompt
lines. A default set of colors will also be used in the .ANS
screen.
You'll need to set up a menu type 5 command (Display ANS/ASC
File) in one of your menus to display the output files created by
RSS. You can use any of the RA display commands you like,
however, it seems to be easiest to use a type 5 and simply put
the file name "RSS" in the Optional Data field. I have a menu
option called "E)xtra Info" on my main menu for displaying the
RSS stats screen.
How do I run RSS?
To run RSS, just type "RSS". RSS can be run as part of your
batch file after each caller logs off, or alternately, during
your nightly maintenance. RSS should be fast enough to run after
each caller, but if you prefer, it can be run once a day.
Note: Needless to say, do not run RSS with the "-c" command line
option from your batch file or RSS will sit there patiently
waiting for you to do something.
What else is there to know?
Well, there isn't much else to it! RSS is a pretty simple
program for RA and it's something that I created while playing
with the BBS here and browsing thru the RASTRUCT information. I
wanted something like this for my system to display general User
stats and I thought some other Sysops running RA might enjoy it
also. It's mostly just for fun!
I have avoided putting any kind of "advertising" or annoying junk
in the display screens created by RSS. I personally dislike
seeing all kinds of crud in screens created by RA utilities, and
I think most other Sysops can easily live without it also. If
people want to know where an RA utility came from, they can
easily ask the Sysop and find out. That's just my personal
feeling on this, so I've left RSS "clean" and free of "plugs".
RSS is free to anyone interested in using it. No registration,
no fees, nothing.. If you like it, and enjoy using it, that's
great. Send me a note via netmail and tell me you like it. It'd
make me feel good. If you don't like it, and don't wish to use
it, that's fine also.. I can sympathize with you. There's
nothing worse than disliking a BBS utility and forcing yourself
to use it anyway. I have tried to make RSS as configurable as
possible and hopefully some of you will enjoy using RSS.
RSS was written and compiled using Microsoft's BASIC 7.1 PDS
(Professional Development System) with a little additional help
from Microsoft's MASM 5.1.
My special thanks to those who helped in the beta testing of RSS,
and who have provided suggestions, bug reports and other helpful
comments on RSS:
David Boehm The General Store Fidonet 1:102/134
Basil Groman Branson's Remote Access Fidonet 1:284/100
Mike Janke Kendall BBS Fidonet 1:135/4
Gary Vedvik The Library Fidonet 1:102/1006
Please check RSS out and see how it works on your system. If you
find any bugs please let me know via netmail or on the BBS. If
you have any ideas or suggestions for improving RSS, I'd like to
hear about them also. I can't commit much of my time to working
on BBS utilities, but I would like to do so as long as it remains
"just for fun".
Thanks, and enjoy..
Ken
The Software Resource
24 Hours A Day
1200-2400 bps
(213) 214-2018
Fidonet Address: 1:102/330
Torrance, California
And finally..
BASIC PDS and MASM are (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation,
1981-1990.