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Text File | 1990-11-27 | 17KB | 365 lines

TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 1 P A R T I ---------- Setup Tutorial Introduction: Although I find that TransAmiga's manual is quite complete, I feel that it lacked a good example setup for beginners to follow. The included instructions are for both dual floppy drive and hard drive users. For floppy users, your BBS will be messages only with no file areas. The hard drive setup will be a full features bulletin board with file and message areas. If you are unregistered, you should have unLHarc'ed all the file from the archive to an empty disk. Be sure that the directory structures were properly extracted (use the -x option if you use LHarc, LZ does this automatically). Floppy Drive Preparation: To setup TransAmiga on a dual floppy system, set aside two disks. Both disks need to be formatted. Call one 'BBS', and the other 'Mail'. The BBS disk will be your boot disk, so it must have a few things on it before you go any farther. Firstly, it needs to be installed. This can be accomplished with: Instal df1: From the CLI or Shell prompt. Replace df1: with the name of the actual drive the disk is in. Next, you need to make an s directory and a Startup-Sequence. Type in the following: MakeDir df1:s ed df1:s/Startup-Sequence After you enter that last command, the editor will load up and you will have a blank file. In the editor, enter the following lines: SetPatch >NIL: Addbuffers df0:200 Addbuffers df1:200 TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 2 Makedir ram:t Assign T: ram:t Then press Escape, then X to save your file and quit the editor. You will also need an l directory, so type the following: MakeDir df1:l Copy l:ram-handler df1:l Copy l:Disk-Validator df1:l You will also need a Devs directory, so type this: MakeDir df1:Devs Copy Devs:serial.device df1:Devs copy Devs:System-Configuration df1:Devs Now some things need to be copied over from the TransAmiga disk to your BBS disk. Copy the Configs, the Text, the C, the Libs, and the Fonts directories along with their contents to the BBS disk (this is most easily accomplished with a directory utility such as SID or DirMaster). Also copy the files TransConfig and TransAmiga over to the BBS disk. The preparation stage is almost complete. Your Libs directory on the BBS disk should be filled with all the libraries that come on a standard Workbench 1.3 disk, and you will want to put some more commands in your C directory. Among those are Copy, Run, Assign, MakeDir, Dir, List, AddBuffers, Type, SetPatch, Ed, etc. Hard Drive Preparation: This is much shorter and easier than the floppy drive setup. First, make three directories anywhere on your hard drive, call them BBS, Mail, and File. Then assign the names BBS: Mail:, and File: to those three directories (add this to your Startup-Sequence). Copy the Text, Configs and directories from your TransAmiga disk to BBS:. Put the contents of C, Libs, and Fonts in C:, Libs: and Fonts: respectively. Put TransAmiga and TransConfig in BBS:. Now extract the XPRGate archive. Put the XPRGate programme in BBS:, and the included .library files in Libs:. TransConfig: You are now ready to startup TransConfig and actually setup the BBS. Floppy users should reboot their machines using the BBS disk, and hard drive users should cd to BBS:. TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 3 Startup TransConfig as follows: TransConfig BBS:Configs/TransAmiga.Config TransAmiga will load and will take you through the setup procedure. Follow the main TransAmiga manual for guidance here. Your paths will be BBS:System/, BBS:Configs/, BBS:Text/ and BBS:Bulletins/. Don't worry if you haven't already created these, TransConfig will do it for you. When it comes to setting up the message areas, skip past all the FidoNet related questions by just hitting RETURN. Your message area paths will all start with Mail:, eg. Mail:General/, Mail:AmigaTalk/, Mail:Sports/, etc. All areas will be type 0 (local). If you are using a floppy drive, you will have no file areas. But TransAmiga requires at least one. So setup one, call it anything (your name, your favourite colour, it makes no difference), set it's path to ram:, and give it access 255. You must also setup at least 1 archiver and 1 file transfer protocol. Since these will never be executed, it doesn't matter what you put here, it can be anything. Hard drive users will probably want to setup file areas as they have more space. All file paths will begin with File:, eg. File:Utilities/, File:Comms/, File:Graphics/, etc. Set up archiving methods as you wish, remember you must have at least one. Setup the file transfer protocols according to the XPRGate manual. Now you setup the bulletins. You'll probably want to set one bulletin file to CallerLog, as TransAmiga updates this file automatically to say who has called the BBS. Any other bulletins are up to you. Finally, it's time to reset the user file. This is a very easy step, just answer the questions that are asked of you and you're set. Now that you're done with TransAmiga, exit it. Remember you can call up TransConfig again at any time to change things. Final Preparation: We're nearly done now. Basically all that remains is to edit your Command files and your text files. Floppy users should edit the command in Main.Cmds that takes users to the files menu, giving it access 255 so no one can get there since you have no file areas. Any other changes are up to you, this is how you customise the BBS to your own tastes. You will probably want to go edit your text files, and write TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 4 up any bulletins that you set up, also to add that personal touch to your board. Finally, floppy and hard drive users need to add the following line near the end of their Startup-Sequence: Run BBS:TransAmiga BBS:Configs/TransAmiga.Config So that everytime you boot the BBS will start up automatically. TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 5 P A R T I I ------------ FidoNet Setup Introduction: The purpose of this section is to go into a little bit more detail about FidoNet than the TransAmiga manual. Complete details on FidoNet is beyond the scope of this documentation, but here is a brief description of its purposes and operation. FidoNet (and other similar mail networks) is a group of bulletin board systems that can exchange messages and files through automated computer operations. With over 6,000 member bulletin board systems worldwide, FidoNet is the largest amateur mail network in the world. The nodelist file, available on most FidoNet boards, is a "directory" to these systems. But what does FidoNet do? Well, there are a few major features. The first is netmail. Netmail allows you to send a priveleged message to anyone in the world (that has access to a FidoNet system) for a small cost - usually less than that of a stamp. The most commonly used feature is echomail. Echomail areas are large public message conferences where large groups of users can discuss almost anything (in the appropriate topic area of course). There are hundreds of different echoes available that cover just about every topic from Amiga music to back pain. FidoNet's method of organization is based on geography. There are five zones. Zone 1 is North America, 2 is Europe, and 3 is Australia. Within each zone, there are regions. Regions are still reasonably large areas, most zones contain 5 to 18. For example, region 12 in zone 1 comprises most of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The final level of FidoNet above the individual BBS is the network. A net usually covers an area code, or a large city, and they contain from about 15 to 200 nodes. A consists of one single system. Most node operators also run BBSes. There is one last level below the node, and that is the point. A point is connected to a single node, and is quite TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 3 similar except that it usually can only do exchanges with its parent, or "boss" node. Usually points are run by people who like to simply read messages in the comfort of their own home, but do not want the greater responsabilities of operating a node. Who and where you are in FidoNet is identified by your FidoNet addess. Your address follows the format zone:net/node.point (your region is not identified in your address). For example, point 4 running off node 102 in net 247 in zone 1 would have an address of 1:247/102.4. Usually, when the person has a point address of 0 (that means the person is infact a node and not a point) then you can omit that and assume a point number of 0. If the zone is left out, it is also usually safe to assume that the zone is the same as yours. Before moving onto the mechanics of interfacing with FidoNet, we should perhaps mention how to join FidoNet. It doesn't cost anything to join FidoNet as a sysop. Some nets have special files about becoming a member of their net, and most FidoNet sysops will be glad to help you apply for a node number. Usually, you are required to send a netmail message (from your system) to the net co-ordinator of the network you wish to join to demonstrate that you support at least minimal FidoNet functions. The Net Co-ordinator's node number will always be zone:net/0. When you send the message, set your node number as zone:net/9999. Include all the information you feel he/she will require, including your voice phone number. After two weeks or so you should have a node number. Traditionally, FidoNet has been available only to MS-DOS users, and Amiga FidoNet software has only been developed in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, most FidoNet software is either expensive or only suitable for a single user point setup. TransAmiga bridges the gap between price and performance for Amiga FidoNet, by bringing you a low cost BBS that works fully in a FidoNet setup. FidoNet and TransAmiga: TransAmiga supports FidoNet as a point or a node. TransAmiga is only one component in a total FidoNet setup, several other programmes are necessary. A simple FidoNet setup involves the following: 1. The mailer (sometimes called a session handler) 2. The mail processor (also called a mail packer, or tosser/scanner) 3. The message reader and editor. The purpose of number 3 is fairly obvious, but 2 and 1 TransAmiga BBS Manual Supplement Page 3 require some explanation. At its most basic level, FidoNet simply involves the transferring of files from system to system over the modem. This is what the mailer does. It makes calls and receives calls to send and receive files. The files can be anything but are usually packed messages. This is where the mail processor comes in. Every message you enter on your system in either an echomail conference or in netmail needs to be processed and packed into a "bundle" ready to be sent or picked up by another system. Conversely, you'll receive your mail in these "bundles", which will need to be unpacked and placed into the appropriate areas. This is what the mail processor is for. There are two major mailers for the Amiga called Welmat and TrapDoor. Both programmes have strengths and weaknesses, and both are equally suited for use with TransAmiga, so you may use which ever you prefer. As far as mail processors go, your choice is more complex. There are three major ones, FastPoint, Global Conference Control, and Conference Mail. The first two can only be used by points, while the latter can be used by points and nodes, but is more cumbersome, so unless you're a node, don't use it. If you're a point, FastPoint is recommended. It is the easiest to setup and the nicest to use. Finally, the message reader and editor is TransAmiga itself. It can handle both netmail and echomail message areas. Setting up FidoNet: The first step is to obtain the other programmes. Chris' Amiga BBS has most of the above mentioned programmes if there is no where closer to you that has them. I won't give a tutorial on how to use them here, they both have manuals that explain how to use them. Once you are setup, request the echo called AMY_POINT (it is available everywhere), which is an echo dedicated to Amiga FidoNet discussion. You'll be able to get help and advice here from a multitude of Amiga FidoNet users.