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1997-12-19
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INTRODUCTION:
You've got your Telegard v3.02 or v3.09.g1 BBS software installed, and
you and your users are really enjoying it. Now you would like to offer
networked echomail, and you would like to receive private netmail.
You've ask around for help, and have been told you will need a
front-end, a mail tosser and a nodelist compiler. "Great," you think,
"wottheheck are they and how much are they going to cost?" You know
Telegard was free, and wonder if you can match that price with your
mailer software. The answer is YES!
A "front-end" is software that runs before the BBS is loaded. When an
modem call comes in, it will detect if the call is to drop off and pick
up mail, a remote request for files from your system (a freq), or if one
of your users is trying to log onto your BBS system. The front-end to
be discussed here is "Portal of Power", known also as Portal or PoP. It
is free (after you send them five nice postcards).
The "mail tosser" is software that manages your incoming and outgoing
mail bundles -- both echomail and netmail. Its similar to the post
office, only faster (and it doesn't shoot fellow employees). It breaks
down the mail bundle into packets for each received echo, and tosses
them to the correct destination. (Ie. echomail for TG_SUPPORT goes to
the TG_SUPPORT message directory and netmail goes to the NETMAIL message
directory.) We will deal with the Squish mail tosser here because it is
fast, and yup -- its also free.
Briefly, the nodelist compiler takes the weekly nodelist changes, merges
them in with the current nodelist, compiles them together and outputs a
variety of lists for your mail system to use. A nodelist is a published
list of mail addresses of the members belonging to that network. There
are two popular versions of nodelists: Version 6 and Version 7.
Telegard likes Version 6, but I prefer Version 7 for Portal and Squish.
My nodelist compiler is FastV7, and costs 25 Dutch Guilders. If you
prefer a Version 6 compiler for free, use QNode or one similar.
This FAQ will describe how to link each of the above programs to work
well with each other. The samples provided are for a 386 or above
computer, running on DOS 5.0 or above, with at least 4MB of memory. If
you are planning to run a BBS with lots of files, I will assume you have
a hard drive with several megabytes free on it.
Before we get going, you will need to have the following programs:
TG_309G1ZIP w/TG_309S2.ZIP - Telegard BBS software (or TG_302.ZIP)
P062-286.ZIP - Portal of Power 0.62 front-end
SQSH_111.ZIP - Squish 1.11 mail tosser
FV7-203K.ZIP - FastV7 2.03K version 7 nodelist compiler
Current FidoNet nodelist and BACKBONE.NA (echo listing)
Also nice to have, but not required:
P062UTIL.ZIP - Additional Portal utilities
TG2TP100.ZIP - Adds last five TG callers to Portal's WFC screen
SQTOOL11.ZIP - Multi-purpose tool for Squish 1.11
Create the directories for each of the programs (see my DIR.HLP file). I
put Telegard in C:\TG, Portal in C:\POP, and Squish in C:\SQ. The
nodelist and FastV7 go into C:\NODE. I have also created C:\MSG\FIDO to
store my echomail messages, and C:\MSG\NET to store my netmail. I like
to keep each in their own directories -- it makes upgrading so much
easier.
Now unarchive each program into its respective directory. For the sake
of brevity, I will assume you already have Telegard installed and
running. We will just concentrate on setting it up to handle echomail
and netmail. I will also assume you have already obtained your FidoNet
node address.
TELEGARD SETUP:
Refer to the file TG-MAIL.HLP for setting up Telegard to handle echomail
and netmail using Squish and Portal.
PORTAL SETUP:
There are two important components required to operate Portal: The
PORTAL.CFG file and the POP.BAT file. I admit, the documentation that
comes with Portal is sketchy at best. To make it easier to install this
robust program, I have taken screen shots of each of the Configuration
Menu screens and included an annotated sample of a working POP.BAT.
To configure Portal, from the command line type: PORTAL /C /N. This
will bring up the config menu. Refer to the files TG-PORT.HLP to
configure Portal, and TG-PBAT.HLP to set up your POP.BAT file.
SQUISH SETUP:
Now that we have the BBS and the front-end ready for callers and mail,
we need to install the mail tosser: Squish. Squish will receive your
uplink's mail bundles, unarchive them, sort them by echotag, then send
them to their respective message holding areas. It also handles your
outgoing echomail and netmail by bundling them up into a mail packet and
prepares it to go to your uplink. Portal will handle the actual sending
by polling your uplink (either via a forced or scheduled event).
Squish handles netmail, plus two type of echomail message areas: shared
and pass-thru. A "shared" echo is when both your BBS and a downlink
receives the echo. A "pass-thru" echo is when only the downlink gets
mail that passes through your system.
Refer to TG-SQSH.HLP for an example of the SQUISH.CFG file, the
ROUTE.CFG file and the COMPRESS.CFG file. Please observe the
capitalizations used; it is VERY important. If you wish to cut & paste
this file, please remove the comments in the right-hand column. (NOTE: A
semi-colon ";" to the left of a command option will disable it.)
FASTV7 SETUP:
Each week FidoNet will send down changes for the nodelist in a file
called NODEDIFF.Ann. It is important to keep your nodelist accurate and
up-to-date, and FastV7 will make this task simple and quick. It will
extract the weekly nodelist changes from the nodediff, merge them with
your current nodelist, and recompile the new nodelist. FastV7 also
provides an excellent nodelist browser that will quickly help you locate
a name or node address and provide you with information about that
system.
Setting up FastV7 can be intimidating, to say the least. To ease this
problem, refer to TG-FV7.HLP -- it contains step-by-step annotated
examples of each configuration menu and sub-menu for FastV7. The
examples are meant to mesh with your previous TG, Portal and Squish
setups.
TROUBLE-SHOOTING:
If any program in this setup fails to work, normally it is due to a
spelling error of one of the commands. Refer to the .HLP file for that
program while going over your own configurations. If you still can not
get it to work correctly, ask someone in the FidoNet TG_SUPPORT echo, or
send me netmail at 1:265/124, or via email at b_lotspeich@juno.com.
In closing, I would like to remind everyone that the program configur-
ations discussed here are basically for the sysop wanting to add FidoNet
echomail and netmail to his/her system for the use of their users and
themselves. It does not discuss information for sysops who want to
utilize their system as a mail or file hub, with multiple downlink
addresses, multiple networks, the ability to hatch files, process .TIC
files, etc. I plan on providing an add-on to this FAQ showing how to
set up Seal 0.50 to handle all of this. Yes, Seal is also free... <G>
-O-O-