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CNet for Maximus Version 1.00
"The ONLY way to move your Max QWK-mail"
Copyright(c) 1991-1992, Rollin White
QWK Format Networking Software
Written by Rollin White
Documentation by Rollin White & Bill Castle
Table of Contents
-----------------
Introduction ................................... 1
Features ................................... 1
Thank Yous ..................................... 2
Registration ................................... 2
Installation ................................... 3
Keyword Reference .......................... 3
CRCMETHOD ................................. 3
MAXDIR .................................... 4
LOGDIR .................................... 5
CRCDIR .................................... 5
SYSTEM .................................... 5
READONLY .................................. 5
CRCREBUILD ................................ 6
TEMPDIR ................................... 6
SYSOPNAME ................................. 7
QWKDIR/REPDIR ............................. 7
POINTERDIR ................................ 7
HOSTSYSOP ................................. 7
FIDO_TAGS ................................. 8
PRIVATE ................................... 8
CONFERENCE ................................ 8
YOURTAG#/HOSTTAG# ......................... 8
ALIAS ..................................... 9
APPEND .................................... 9
TCAN ...................................... 9
COMPRESS/EXTRACT .......................... 10
COMMENTS .................................. 10
File Renaming .................................. 10
Duplicate Message Checking ..................... 10
Running The Program ............................ 11
Important Details .............................. 12
Bug Reports .................................... 13
The Latest Version ............................. 13
Contacting the Author .......................... 13
Error Messages ................................. 13
Credits ........................................ 14
Disclaimer ..................................... 14
History ........................................ 15
- Page 1 -
INTRODUCTION
************
CNet is functionally equivalent to RNet, QNet,
MkNet and TNet. Basically it will export your
messages into a .REP packet and will import a QWK
packet into your message base. This allows
bulletin boards to "network" their message bases
via the popular QWK format mail doors. For a
thorough discussion of the echo mail concept
please see the file NETWORK.TXT.
CNet was originally written for UltraBBS software
but has since been written for other BBS software.
All references to CNet in this manual are to CNet
for Maximus unless stated otherwise.
Some of the features of CNet for Maximus 1.0 include:
===========================================================
* Ability to limit the number of messages exported.
* Uses shared reads and writes for multitasking and
network environments
* Ability to reset import/export pointers via
command line arguments
* Option to allow/disallow private messages
* Fully configurable tagline by conference, with up
to nine different taglines
* Full control over which conferences from host are
imported into your message bases
* Supports Hub conference numbers above 1000
* Small program size
* Complete logging of all actions
* External pointers so that conferences may be
shared with other network software such as a FIDO
interface UTI drivers, or even CNet
* Control over where the log, CRC, and pointer
files are kept
* Multiple configuration file support
- Page 2 -
* Because CNet uses external pointers it may be
used to "gate" conferences
* Checks for Duplicate messages on imports using 16
or 32 bit CRCs
* Option to turn off tagline and CRC checking
* Option to add host tagline to messages without an
origin line
* Easy to use configuration file format
* Color text based windows for clear presentation
of information
* Option to make a conference read only
* Full implementation of aliases
* Trashcan option to prevent messages from unwanted
users
* CNet backs up REP files and your pointer files
The actual transfer of the QWK and REP packets is
up to you. It is best done in your nightly event
through a script file or Robocomm.
THANK YOUS
**********
I'd like to first thank Mia for all of her love and
support. I'd especially like to thank Bill Castle.
He helped me develop CNet from it's primitive form
in .99a for UltraBBS to what it is now. He did most
of the testing and came up with most of the ideas.
In short, he's been the driving force behind the
program! Thanks also go to the people who helped
him, Mark Henderson, Colin Davidson, Bob Huson,
Bill Overson, and Klaus Lamort
REGISTRATION
************
CNet is being distributed as Shareware. You are
permitted to evaluate this program for a reasonable
amount of time(30 days) before you make a decision.
If you continue to use CNet after the evaluation
period, you obligated to register. Registration is
- Page 3 -
a one time $25(US) and qualifies you for unlimited
upgrades. Please see the file REGISTER.TXT for more
information. Registered users not only become legal
users of CNet, but many of it's features are
enabled for registered users only.
INSTALLATION
************
Installation should be fairly easy. The first step
is to create/modify a configuration file. The file
is straight ASCII, and should be named HOST.CFG,
where HOST is the actual ID your HOST BBS uses for
his QWK packets. For example, if the QWK packets
you receive are named LSO.QWK, your configuration
file should be named LSO.CFG
Included with CNet is a file, SAMPLE.CFG that may
serve as a starting point for creating your own
configuration files. A configuration file consists
of a series keywords which describe how CNet
should work. SAMPLE.CFG contains brief
descriptions of each keyword, while this reference
manual contains detailed descriptions of each
option.
Options that have the word required in parenthesis
are keywords that are necessary for every
configuration file. Options that have the word
registered in parenthesis are limited to
registered users.
KEYWORD REFERENCE
*****************
All keywords should be capitalized unless stated
otherwise. Where a path is required, the trailing
backslash is optional. The following Items are
also outlined in great detail in the SAMPLE.CFG.
CRCMETHOD
---------
This defines what CRC method is used for specific
conferences. CRCs are used to keep track of
duplicate messages in each conference. CNet may
use 16 bit or 32 bit CRCs according to your
preference. Sixteen bit CRCs are slightly quicker,
but less accurate than 32 bit CRCs. For the
- Page 4 -
CRCMETHOD statement, 1 represents 16 bit CRCs and
2 represents 32 bit CRCs. If a conference is not
included in a CRCMETHOD statement, no duplicate
message checking will be performed on that
conference.
Example:
CRCMETHOD=2:10,11,12,13
Would instruct CNet to use 32 bit CRCs on
conferences ten through thirteen. All other
conferences would have no duplicate message
checking. CNet allows multiple CRCMETHOD
statements even if the same CRC method is used.
MAXDIR (required)
----------------
This is the location of your Max directory where
Area.Dat is located.
Example:
MAXDIR=C:\Max
- Page 5 -
LOGDIR (required)
-----------------
This is the name and location of your log file.
You may have one log file for all of your
configuration files or you may have one for each.
Example:
LOGDIR=C:\Cnet\CnetMax.Log
CRCDIR
------
This is the location for your CRC files. If it is
left blank or omitted, the CRC files are placed in
the same directory as the message files. CNet uses
these files to determine duplicate messages. Their
location is not critical, however do not place
them on a RAM drive since you will lose their
contents if you reboot the computer.
Example:
CRCDIR=C:\Cnet\Crc
SYSTEM (required)
-----------------
This keyword is required. Set SYSTEM to MAX.
Example:
SYSTEM=MAX
READONLY (registered)
---------------------
This keyword is used to indicate conferences that
are to be read only. Often major networks will
have news conferences available for the
- Page 6 -
administration to post informational news items.
Usually users are not permitted to post messages
in this type of conference. Making a conference
read only will prevent any messages from being
exported.
Example:
READONLY=100,101
CRCREBUILD (required)
---------------------
This is one of the most important keywords. It
describes how you would like your CRC files to be
maintained. If it is assigned a value of 0, CNet
will rebuild your CRC files when it determines
that they need to be updated. This could be after
a message base pack or if another mail tosser has
imported new messages. This makes CNet extremely
effective at eliminating duplicates even in a
gated conference.
If you specify a number other than 0, CNet will
keep no more than that number of CRC records for
each conference. Using this option, CNet will
never rebuild the CRC files. While this option
sacrifices a small amount of accuracy, it can
greatly speed imports, especially for active
conferences. A maximum of 3000 CRC records are
maintained for each conference.
Example:
CRCREBUILD=500
TEMPDIR
-------
This keyword allows you to define the temporary
directory used by CNet. This directory should be
on your fastest drive(a RAM drive if possible).
Make sure that there is enough space for the QWK
packet to be unzipped into this directory. Rule of
thumb is to have at least three times your largest
QWK packet free on this drive.
Example:
TEMPDIR=C:\Temp
- Page 7 -
If this keyword is omitted or left blank, a
directory named $TEMP$ will be created during
operation and removed when CNet is finished.
SYSOPNAME (required)
--------------------
This is your name. It is substituted into message
that are from/to "SYSOP" upon export.
Example:
SYSOPNAME=Rollin White
QWKDIR/REPDIR (required)
------------------------
These keywords define where your QWK packets are
located and where your REP packets should be
created. Note that CNet will not delete the QWK
packet after it is done importing.
Example:
QWKDIR=C:\Dloads\Qwk
REPDIR=C:\Uploads\Rep
POINTERDIR (required)
---------------------
This is the location of your pointer file. The
pointer file is an 4000 byte file that tracks the
last messages imported for each conference. This
should NOT be a ramdrive. CNet will maintain 9
generations of pointer files named SAMPLE.PN?,
where ? is a number.
Example:
POINTERDIR=C:\Cnet\Pointers
HOSTSYSOP (required)
--------------------
This is the name of your host sysop. This is used
to translate any incoming messages that contain
"SYSOP" in the from or to fields.
Example:
HOSTSYSOP=Matt Bennett
- Page 8 -
FIDO_TAGS
---------
With this keyword set to "Y", the normal tagline
character of '■' will be replaced by an '*'. This
should be used in those conferences which don't
allow 8 bit ASCII or High-ASCII.
Example:
FIDO_TAGS=Y
PRIVATE
-------
This keyword is used to describe those conferences
which permit private messages. If a private
message is encountered in a conference not listed
by this keyword, the message will not be
processed.
Example:
PRIVATE=10,11
CONFERENCE (required)
---------------------
The conference keyword is used to define your
conferences. This keyword contains your host's
conference number, your conference name and the
tagline to use for this conference.
Example:
CONFERENCE=146,133,1
This would import your host's conference 146 into
your conference 133 using tagline one(defined
next). You need one conference statement for each
conference to be processed. Registered users who
specify tagline zero will not have a tagline
appended.
YOURTAG#/HOSTTAG#
-----------------
With version 1.00 you may have up to nine
different pairs of taglines. Taglines must be less
- Page 9 -
than 65 characters and should be defined in
pairs(yours and host's).
Example:
YOURTAG1=PROGNET:CES,Huntington Beach,Ca,714-965-9963
HOSTTAG1=Programmer's Lynk BBS - ProgNet Central Hub
ALIAS (registered)
------------------
Another new function of CNet 1.00 is support for
aliases. You may define up to 20 different aliases
through the ALIAS keyword.
Example:
ALIAS=El Guapo,Joe Bellinger
Would translate all messages containing "El Guapo"
to Joe Bellinger upon exporting and all messages
containing Joe Bellinger to El Guapo upon
importing.
APPEND (registered)
-------------------
A feature of CNet 1.00 is the ability to append a
.REP packet with new replies. To enable this
feature set this keyword to "Y".
Example:
APPEND=Y
When using this option it is very important that
you delete your .REP files immediately after
uploading them. Otherwise, the chance of
re-uploading that same packet, with new replies,
is very great.
This option might be used if you export many times
before making a mail transfer.
TCAN (registered)
-----------------
Another new feature of CNet 1.00 is the TCAN(or
trashcan). This option will prevent any messages
that contain TCANned names from being imported.
- Page 10 -
Example:
TCAN=JOHN DOE
COMPRESS/EXTRACT (required)
---------------------------
This pair of keywords define the program you'd
like to use for compression of your QWK packets.
Please see SAMPLE.CFG for examples.
COMMENTS
--------
Any text after a semi-colon is ignored. Using this
feature, you may place comments(such as conference
names) in your configuration files by preceding
them with a semi-colon.
FILE RENAMING
-------------
For your protection, CNet will frequently backup
certain files. If you are not using the APPEND
option, every time CNet exports it will rename the
reply packets. In addition, pointer files are
renamed every time you import or export. This
provides an easy way to recover from an
accidentally deleted file. Files are renamed in
the following fashion:
Original New File Name
-------- -------------
BBSID.REP --> BBSID.RE1
BBSID.RE1 --> BBSID.RE2
BBSID.RE2 --> BBSID.RE3
The above process is continued until the extension
is RE9. If a file with the final extension(*.re9)
exists, it will be deleted.
DUPLICATE MESSAGE CHECKING
--------------------------
A major feature of CNet is the ability to check for
duplicate messages upon importing. This feature
will effectively eliminate duplicate messages in
your conferences processed by CNet.
- Page 11 -
In order to provide duplicate checking, CNet will
create ###.CRC files where ### is the number of the
conference. These files hold the CRC values of
messages that have been previously imported.
When CNet finds a duplicate message, it will note
the specifics both on the screen and in the log
file. The messages is NOT imported.
RUNNING THE PROGRAM
-------------------
Running CNet is also very easy. The format follows:
CNETMAX <command> <HOST> [param1] [param2]
Where <command> is one of the following:
E - Export
----------
Export messages according to the configuration
file. Under this command, param1 is optional and is
the maximum number of messages per conference to
export. This option would be used to keep the size
of a mail packet small for large exports. The .REP
packet that is generated is placed in the directory
specified in the configuration file.
I - Import
----------
Import messages. This will import a QWK packet for
the HOST specified into your message base according
to the configuration file.
S - Set
-------
Set the export/import message pointers. This option
is used if you would want to re-export a portion of
the message base. Under this command, param1 and
param2 are required. Param1 is the conference to
reset or "a" for all conferences. Param2 is the
number of messages from the top to reset the
pointer to.
After renumbering your message base, it is
recommended that you set CNet pointers to the high
- Page 12 -
message. For example:
CNETMAX S LSO A 0
EXAMPLE COMMAND LINES
---------------------
CNETMAX I SLEEPY - Will import the packet SLEEPY.QWK
CNETMAX E NOHO - Will export all new messages for
NOHO.CFG
CNETMAX E NOHO 100 - Will Export at most 100 messages
per conference for NOHO.CFG
CNet must be in your PATH, and the configuration
file must be in the current directory. Make sure
that you have enough room for the QWK file to be
unzipped and the .REP file to be created.
IMPORTANT DETAILS
-----------------
First and foremost you must have permission to echo
the conference(s) you are trying to import. To
satisfy this requirement you must do one of two
things. First if you are working with a PCBoard,
Wildcat BBS, Remote Access, SuperBBS, or UltraBBS
as your host, your host SysOp must "turn on"
NetStatus for your conferences. This is usually
done through the mail door. If your host SysOp is
running an UltraBBS system he must be running
version 2.09 or above.
Often these steps are associated with an admission
to a network such as UN'I, ProgNet, SourceNet,
WildNet or INTELEC. Regardless of the
circumstances, you must satisfy one of the above
requirements or CNet will not import messages into
your message base.
Remember that you should export your messages then
import any new messages. When you import, the high
message pointer is set to the top message whether
or not the messages below it were exported.
It is also necessary that the message files exist,
and there are at least two messages in the message
base.
- Page 13 -
BUG REPORTS
-----------
If you encounter a bug with CNet, by all means let
me know! If it is possible, I'd like to get the
QWK/REP files involved, your configuration file and
MESSAGES.RA. This will help me better reproduce the
problem.
WHERE TO FIND THE LATEST VERSION
--------------------------------
The latest version of CNet may always be FREQed as
CNETMAX from Fidonet node 1:103/132 from Computer
Education Services.
WHERE TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR
---------------------------
The best place to reach me is at my BBS, CES BBS.
The number is (714)-965-9963, FidoNet node
1:103/132. The next best place to contact me is
through one of the following conferences/networks:
Network Conference
------- ----------
WildNet SysOp Chat, Admin
ProgNet General
SourceNet General
Fidonet Netmail, Muffin, Tub
Or, as a last resort, you can write to me at:
Rollin White
Computer Education Services
20222 Windcave Ln.
Huntington Beach, Ca. 92646-5341.
ERROR MESSAGES
--------------
Option: (s)et
-------------
* Message: That would set the export pointer below
the low message!
- Page 14 -
You selected to set the export pointer below
the lowest message number. CNet will however,
still reset the pointer to the lowest
message. This is not really an error, but a
warning.
Option: All
-----------
* Message: XXXXXXXX.XXX: File not found
XXXXXXXX.XXX is a specific file. Often this
will be the configuration file(HOST.CFG) if
you have not included it in the current
directory. This might also occur on your
conference data file if you have specified
and invalid directory in your configuration
file.
Option: All
-----------
* Message: 0 Messages processed!
If you specified the "s" option, this is
completely normal. If you specified an
import, this means that there were no
messages in the QWK packet which is possible
at some times. This could result from the
lack of NetStatus, or having private messages
turned off. On an Export, this usually means
that there were no new messages.
CREDITS
-------
QWK and the QWK format are copyright Sparkware and
Mark(Sparky) Herring.
Maximus, Squish, and the Squish format message bases
are copyright Scott Dudley.
This program uses the MsgApi written and copyright by
Scott Dudley.
All other copyrights mentioned in this manual and
related documentation are copyrighted by their
respective holders.
DISCLAIMER
----------
I'm human. Although CNet and related programs have
been thoroughly tested, there is no guarantee that
they are error free. I am in no way responsible for
- Page 15 -
any damage directly or indirectly caused by CNet or
any of it's processes. As always, a backup is the
best protection.
HISTORY (Reverse Order)
-----------------------
1.00 08/02/93 Initial release. This version
is equal in features to CNet
1.20 for UltraBBS.
cnet_doc.bc rev 09/09/92
cnet_doc.rw rev 09/14/92
cnet_doc.rw rev 08/02/93
