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USER.TXT
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1996-01-23
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SDN INTERNATIONAL(sm)
The Shareware Distribution Network
SDN Shareware User Kit - Revision #12
Guidelines for User Participation
Published from The SDN Project, January 23rd 1996
(c)Copyright 1996 Ray Kaliss - The SDN Project
This document is Copyright The SDN Project 1996 and the property of
Ray L. Kaliss as The SDN Project.
This document in not public domain. It is intended as an
informational document for Shareware author's considering
distribution via SDN International. This document may be copied
whole and unmodified for that intent only.
Official SDN International Policy is formulated by The SDN Project
and published at The SDN Project Bulletin Board in Meriden, CT,
U.S.A. 203-634-0370. Policy posted online at The SDN Project
supersedes policy in circulation or of earlier date.
-= Copyright =-
SDN, The SDN Project, the service mark of SDN International (sm)
and SDNews! as used by The SDN Project are Copyright 1989 - 1996 by
Ray L. Kaliss and can not be used with out express written
permission.
1. SDN INTERNATIONAL(sm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SDN International is The Shareware Distribution Network since
January 1989. The trusted and respected pipeline to hundreds of
bulletin boards among Fidonet's 30,000 and growing participating
boards.
Beyond that - SDN distributes through satellites, Internet and
major online services. SDN is always open to other avenues of
distribution.
SDN reaches all of North America and into Europe such as
Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and further. SDN is imported into
the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Puerto Rico and many other
countries.
Software distributed by SDN is Shareware for DOS, Windows, and OS/2
operating systems. United States Copyright laws defines shareware
as 'Try before you buy'. When you obtain files by SDN distribution
you should read the copyright and license of the program you have
obtained to learn the author's terms of your trial use of the
product. Shareware is a distribution method and you are expected
to use the product for a limited time, set by the authors terms,
and pay the authors asking registration price if you decide you
would like to use the product longer.
2. WHAT ARE SDN FILES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SDN files are shareware author's programs that authors have been
sent to SDN International for processing and distribution. Each
file is a compression of individual program files into one archive
for easy downloading.
As an example, you might see this type of listing on the BBS or
online service that you log into.
FILES SIZE DATE DESCRIPTION
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3MENU10.ZIP 112987 02/15/93 Three-Menu 1.0 easy DOS menu system
MYED410.ZIP 648833 02/15/93 My Editor 4.10 programmers editor
OLCOM51.ZIP 1290000 02/19/93 ONLine COM 5.1 full featured terminal
Each archive file contains an author's complete program in
compressed form. When you download that file, you have the
complete program ready to be un-packaged. The file is named to
reflect the program and version number it contains.
SDN files are compressed using PKWare's pkzip, pkunzip.exe should
be used to decompress, or unpackage them.
3. WHAT ARE SDN.ID FILES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inside every SDN there is a pure ASCII text file that you can read
to get a description of the program. The files name is SDN.ID. It
lets you know you have a program that was distributed via SDN. If
the secruity seals are not broken, you can be assured you have
recieved the authors program, complete and in the form and
condition the author released it in. Nothing has been extracted,
nothing added, and nothing changed.
XMENU EXE 60123 12-11-93 7:44p
XMENU DOC 123564 12-13-93 12:00p
MENUAPP1 DAT 2345 10-01-93 10:00a
--> SDN ID 1200 10-12-93 1:00p
UTILONE EXE 47567 2-04-93 2:00p
On most BBS'es where you can find SDN files you may also find a
message area in the message base where copies of each program's
SDN.ID are posted. This makes for easy browsing of all the SDN
programs posted at the BBS.
4. TESTING AUTHENTICATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each file distributed via SDN is enclosed in a two security seals.
The Zip Authentication Verification or -AV, will be tested unpon
decompression. The other security is the SDNSeal(c) security and
may be tested using SDNTest(c). If you can not find SDNTest, you
can download it from The SDN Project BBS at 203-634-0370 as
sdntestd.zip for DOS and sdntestp.zip for OS/2. Put SDNTEST.EXE on
path, then, to test the SDNSeal on any file SDN has distributed,
enter...
C:>sdntest filename.zip
If the results are good, the file has indeed been distributed via
SDN International, it is not corrupt and had not been tampered
with. Any failure means either the file was not distributed via
SDN, the file has been tampered with, or the compression has become
corrupt. In any failure case, use the program only at your own
risk.
5. DECOMPRESSION OR UNPACKING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unpackage an SDN file, you need the program pkunzip.exe from
PKWare's zip program version 2.04g or later. It is best to place
this program 'on path' which means to place it in a directory given
in the "PATH=" statement of your config.sys. Since the /DOS
directory is usually on path, you can place it there. Now you will
be able to use it no matter what your currant directory may be.
Change to the directory in which you have placed the SDN Zip file.
For the sake of example, let us say that the name of the file you
wish to decompress is "xword110.zip".. you would unpackage it this
way.
C:>pkunzip xword110
During decompression, each file is tested for Zip security and you
should see an -AV beside each file as it decompresses.
/eof