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README.2ND
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Wrap
Text File
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1994-12-20
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14KB
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239 lines
Before you we start jumping into the techno-nerd stuff,
let's talk about some of the basic theories that you're
going to be working with.
The following diagram will help you get a visual picture
of the different rest-stops that your newsgroups and
email will go through before they eventually get where
they're going:
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│ TriDog │ │ TriToss │ │ MailScan │ │ Gateway │
│ Step #1 ├────>│ Step #2 ├────>│ Step #3 ├────>│ Step #4 │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └────┬────┘
│
┌───────────┐
Step #5 │ FX UUCICO │
│ Modem call│
└─────┬─────┘
│
┌──────────────────┐
Step #6 │ UUCP Provider │
│ accepts uploaded │
│ packets and sends│
│ "new" packets to │
│ you │
└─────┬────────────┘
│
│
│
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │
│ TriDog │ │ TriToss │ │ Gateway │ │
│ Step #9 │<─────┤ Step #8 │<─────┤ Step #7 │<───────┘
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └──────────┘
In plain and simple language, what the above graphic means is
this:
Step #1 - You run TriDog to pull any outgoing Internet email
messages from your email message conference. TriDog
transforms the messages from the TriBBS message format
into a special format (*.MSG) that can be used by one
of the other utilities at a later step.
Step #2 - You run TriToss to pull any outgoing Internet newsgroup
messages from your various newsgroup message conferences.
TriNet transforms these messages into a special format
(*.PKT) that will be used by one of the other utilities
at a later step. Hint: During this outbound TriToss
step, you do *not* want to configure TriToss to work
with your Internet email conference. That's why I have
two TriToss configuration files....on the outbound run
I only let it work with the newsgroup messages, and on the
inbound run I let it go ahead and work with the newsgroup
messages as well as the Internet email messages.
Step #3 - MailScan is a special utility included with the GIGO
program that is just perfect for taking the TriDog-prepared
*.MSG files and making them into *.PKT files so that GIGO
can work with them at a later step. I'm too ignorant to
know why, but I couldn't get outbound Internet email to
work until I was told specifically about MailScan. Since
I had already seen that TriToss had handled the email
messages on the *inbound* side of the equation, I had just
assumed that it would do the trick on the *outbound* side.
Wrong! You've got to use MailScan on the outbound side.
Step #4 - This is where the fun begins. The gateway program is the
heart and soul of GIGO. To put it into real simple terms,
it works as a translator to get DOS-based file formats into
a format that the UNIX machines will accept at your UUCP
provider location. It also works in a similar manner for
the inbound direction - it takes the special UNIX-format
files and translates them into file formats that our
DOS-based utilities can use. It's a real joy to see this
program work but it is a royal pain in the butt to setup if
you don't know anything about Fido (I believe that it was
originally written to aid BBS operators in bringing Fido
messages into their boards). Don't worry, I'm going to be
giving you my gateway configurations and a layman's
explanation of them. The important thing here is *not* to
get confused by terms such as gateway address, real
addresses, fake addresses, zones, points, nodes, etc..
Step #5 - This is where you finally get to make your modem call to
your UUCP provider. I recommend that you use a program
called FX-UUCICO. It is like an automatic script-oriented
communications package that specializes in calling and
working with UNIX boxes. It's pretty simple to use and
works well with event-driven batch files on the TriBBS
systems. During the call to your UUCP provider, you'll
login with your assigned username and password and then
FX-UUCICO will upload any of your outbound messages (if
there are any) and then download your inbound message
packets.
Step #6 - This is just another explanation of the modem call to
your UUCP provider.
Step #7 - After you have made your modem call to the UUCP provider,
you will probably (although not necessarily - there might
not be any fresh newsgroup messages or email for you) have
some special UNIX-format files on your PC now that need
to be processed so that they ultimately end up in your
TriBBS message conferences. You ran the gateway utility
during Step #4 in order to provide the translation for
the outbound direction. You're going to run it again for
the reverse translation so that your other utilities have
DOS-based file formats to work with.
Step #8 - TriToss is now used to take the gateway-prepared DOS-format
message packets and work with them. TriToss is custom-made
for the retrieval of inbound Internet newsgroup messages
out of these packets and inserting them directly into your
TriBBS newsgroup message conferences. On this inbound side
of things, TriToss is also quite good at pulling the Internet
email messages out of the packets and setting them aside
for TriDog to finish up with. Again, I don't know why it's
okay to use TriToss for the inbound operation but not okay
for you to use TriToss for the outbound operation. Let's
not quibble about it though, okay? Just do it my way or
I'll have you killed. Better yet, I'll have your mother-
in-law move in with you permanently.
Step #9 - Ah, at last....the only thing left in your process is to
take the leftover Internet email messages and throw them
into your TriBBS email conference. That's what TriDog
is there for on the inbound side. It's easy to configure
and very simple to run.
Now, let's talk about the utility programs that you see in
the above graphic....
TriDog - A utility written by Mark Goodwin that, when properly
configured (yes, I'm going to help you on that), does
two basic things for you. If you have Internet email
in your board's email conference that needs to be thrown
out onto the Internet, it will find it, do a dupe check
on each message, convert the TriBBS-style message format
to a different format, and place the outbound email in a
special directory so that it can be processed in a later
step. Also, if you've got Internet email that is inbound
to your board, it will find the messages and throw them
into your Internet email conference in your message base.
As of this writing, I'm using TriDog version 6.2 and it
is freeware to all registered TriBBS Sysops.
TriToss - A utility written by Mark Goodwin that, when properly
configured (yes, dammit, I'll help you with that also),
does two basic things for you. If you have Internet
newsgroup messages in your newsgroup conferences that
need to get out onto the Internet, it will find it, do a
dupe check on each message, convert the TriBBS-style
message format to a different format, and place the
outbound newsgroup mail in a special directory so that it
can be processed in a later step. (See my special note
about this outbound process later in this paragraph).
Also, if you've got Internet newsgroup messages that are
inbound to your board, it will find the messages and
throw them into your Internet newsgroup conferences in
your message base. Actually, on the inbound side of the
process, TriToss will get the Internet email messages
from your inbound packets and put them into a special
directory so that TriDog can throw them into your
email message conference. The important thing to remember
is that Internet newsgroup messages and Internet email
have different formats.....TriToss can do a lot of the
work for you but you *have* to use TriDog as the first
step in getting the Internet email messages out of your
board's email conference for the outbound process and
you *have* to use TriDog as the last step in getting the
Internet email messages into your board's email conference
for the inbound process.
As of this writing, I'm using TriToss version 1.03. It
is not freeware but has a low registration fee.
*Special note - TriToss is kind of funny and you have to
watch how you use it - depending on whether you're
processing the outbound messages or whether you're working
on the inbound messages. I run two different configurations
for TriToss - one for the outbound side that *does not*
take the TriDog-prepared Internet email messages (we're
going to talk about the MailScan utility next, so don't
blow a gasket yet) and another configuration for the
inbound process that *does* take the Internet email messages
and put them in the special directory so that TriDog can
do the final import.
MailScan - A utility written by Jason Fesler that you configure to
look in a special directory for the outbound Internet
email messages that TriDog has pulled out of your email
message conference and then prepare them into the special
format (*.PKT) that will be used in a later step. It's
got a configuration file that is a breeze to setup and
it is very easy to operate. The MailScan utility comes
bundled with the GIGO archive file so you don't have to
spend a fortune hunting it down. I don't believe there
is a special version number for MailScan....just use the
copy that comes with your GIGO archive file.
Gateway - Gateway is a pretty sophisticated program and it can be
a gut-buster to get configured if you don't know a lot
about Fido. Gateway is actually just an executable
program that is the core of GIGO. GIGO is the collection
of programs and utilities that Jason Fesler has put
together to confuse....er, help us. <g> There are a ton
of configuration files in GIGO but I'm going to take all
the mystery out of them by going over that in another
readme file. So, don't get your panties in a wad just
yet.
As of this writing, I am using the November 7th, 1994
beta version of GIGO. I found it via an FTP address
provided by Jason Fesler. I believe Jason is about to
go "general release" with the program but for now it's
still beta (although very stable for me so far) and has
a date-kill function that won't let it run after 60 days
or so from it's compile date. Do yourself a favor, don't
do what I did and change the date of your system just to
run this thing (if you get an old copy)....you'll find out
the hard way that it doesn't pay to do this. Have you ever
left a node of your board running and then changed the
system date back about two months? If you haven't, get
ready to see a *lot* of events cycle on that node!
GIGO is not freeware but has a very reasonable registration
fee.
FX-UUCICO- A program written by Bob Kirkpatrick that is just a very
simple, but effective, communications program to hook
up with UNIX boxes at UUCP provider sites. It's easy
to use and I'll be talking about some of it's configuration
later.
As of this writing, I'm using FX-UUCICO version 1.0. It's
not freeware but has a low registration fee.
Okay, that's it for simple explanations of the programs you're going
to be using. Go on to the next readme file where we will begin
discussing some of the other important details to all of this.