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1991-11-06
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IMAIL 1.21 -- Questions and Answers
Version 1.06 (04.11.91)
written by Andreas Klein
(2:241/8002 @ FidoNet)
(57:49/0 @ IntlNet )
0. Introduction
This text should help all people to install IMAIL, the
best mailprocessor I ever seen. Although IMAIL is a well
documented and supported product I noticed that some
problems occur very often. I try to describe possible
situations and solutions which could help you if you use
IMAIL on your system.
If you have a problem not described in this text and you
cannot solve, use the IMAIL-support-echos (IMAIL_HELP).
I try to maintain this text as actual as possible, if you
have problems which should described here, please send me a
netmail with your problem and your solution. Moreover known
bugs (are there any? :-) will be described here, too.
I'd like to thank Felix Kasza, Cliff Jones, Stefan Kaspar,
Klaus Michael Ruebsam and all the others for their help
and answers.
Munich (Germany), 04.11.1991
Andreas Klein
2:241/8002 @ FidoNet
57:49/0 @ IntlNet
1. IMAIL in general
Q: I have a path to IMAIL, but IMAIL doesn't find his
configuration.
A: Set the IMAIL-environmentvariable to the path, where
IMAIL can find its configuration, like
SET IMAIL=E:\FRODO\IMAIL
Now, you can run IMAIL from everywhere without switching
to the IMAIL-homedirectory, first.
Q: IMAIL reports the following error if I try to call TOSS
or PACK:
*** ERROR *** Error in configuration file ->
does not exist
A: Check whether the filename for the reply-text is correct
and whether this files resides in the IMAIL-hom-directory.
Q: I am actually using TosScan and want to try IMAIL. Is
it possible to transfer the TosScan setup into an IMAIL
setup?
A: Indeed, it is. Klaus Michael Ruebsam (2:247/816) wrote
a program, which can transfer the whole TosScan setup
into an IMAIL-setup.
You only have to setup the additional features of IMAIL.
Look for
TS2IM120.*
which should be at least available at the IMAIL-support-
systems.
Q: IMAIL TOSS/SCAN and ALNK always pack the temporary packets
(created by FrontDoor and Intermail) into the arcmail
packets (netmails, file-attaches, ...).
A: Make sure, that IMAIL's outbound directory and FrontDoors
and Intermails Packet-Directory are different. According
to the FrontDoor-documentation, the packet directory
should only be used for FrontDoor and nothing else.
Q: What about Security?
A: Security is a very important topic today, so IMAIL offers
you several possibilities to prevent unauthorized people
to originate echomail through your system.
If you set the "secure" switch in the echo area manager
of an echo to Yes, IMAIL checks before tossing a message
into this echo whether the originating system (according
to the information in the packet header) is mentioned
in the export list of this echo. So, only people getting
this echo from you can distribute their mail again via
your system, mails from other systems were tossed into the
badecho.
Therefore you should normally set "secure" to Yes, except
you use programs like RAID which cannot write a system
adress in the messagehaeder which is in your export-list.
In this case, set only the security of the echos used by
RAID or other programs to No.
Systems can only request echos at your system if they
are defined in the nodemanager and if they present their
password in the subject-line of their request. If you set
no password, they will never be able to invoke AreaLink.
Moreover, they can only request echos of the groups
you set in the nodemanager. This is the main reason for
using groups of echos. You can specify which node will
get which group of echos.
Q: What's the Capability Word?
A: The Capability Word (CW) is a part of each PKT-header. It
is used to determine whether a packet is a Type 2+ or a
Stone Age-packet.
This is very important, the Type 2+ is newer and contains
much more information than Stone Age. Only Type 2+ packets
are use 4d-addresses, together with a Stone Age mailpro-
cessor, you have to use a fakenet. Type 2+ is an extension
of the Stone Age-packets, using free space in the header.
The CW itself is a bitfield where each of the 16 bits is
used as flag which show the capabilities of the program
which created the PKT. It indicates whether the extended
data in the header is valid. Moreover, it makes it possible
to support several other, non Type 2+ packets.
From FSC-0038:
Actually, only the first six bits of the CW are used:
Node Supports ---FTSC Type Supported --
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2+
2+,3, and 7 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1
2+,3, and 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
2+ (this Doc) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Stone Age 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
If the only the first bit of the CW is set, the packet was
created by a Type 2+ mailprocessor and the extended data
(for example zone and point-information) is valid.
The CW also a solution for the TosScan-problem. The CW was
introduced after TosScan 1.0 was released, so Joaquim
Homrighausen had to find another solution to determine
whether a packet was Type 2+ or not. He did it by checking
the productcode and implemented only the programs which
were type 2+ capable at this time, TosScan and D'Bridge.
IMAIL was programmed later, so TosScan isn't able to
recognize the 4d-structure of the packetheader.
TosScan 1.0 was released, the CW
Q: I want to convert my IMAIL-configuration into FOLDER.FD,
MESSAGES.RA, CONFIG.BBS or an AREAS.BBS.
A: Look for IMCONV from me. It is capable to convert your
IMAIL-config into all these config-types. Moreover
it can creates configurable AREAS.BBS-like files.
It was hatched into IMAIL-fileecho and you can request
it here under magic IMCONV.
2. IMAIL on a point
Q: My bossnode sends all my echomail back to my system.
A: You are configured as a 3d-point at your bossnode or send
your echomail with your fakenet-adress, although you are
configured as a 4d-point.
Q: TosScan tosses all my echomail into the badmail-echo.
A: This is a TosScan problem.
IMAIL is fully 4d-capable (according to FSC-0039 and
FSC-0048). All mailpocessors use a unique product-code
(according to the FTSC-productcode-list).
TosScan was developped befor