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                                               Version 1.10
                                               Gamma Zero


                             Released  - 5th June 1994


                       (C) Copyright 1991-94 - Peter Davies

               Documentation (C) Copyright 1992-94 - Matthew Taylor






                               TABLE OF CONTENTS
                               TABLE OF CONTENTS
                               TABLE OF CONTENTS



              Setting Up Ezycom
              Setting Up Ezycom
              Setting Up Ezycom


              Chapter 1 ..................................................9

                   Getting Started .....................................9
                        Installation Requirements ......................9
                             Operating System Requirements .............9
                             Hardware Requirements .....................9
                        Installation ...................................9


              Chapter 2 ..................................................11

                   Basic Configuration .................................11
                        Introduction ...................................11
                        CONFIG .........................................11
                        Setting Up System Paths ........................12
                        General System Wide Options ....................14
                        Defining Settings For New Users ................16
                        Configuring The Logon Process ..................19
                             Column 1 ..................................19
                             Column 2 ..................................21
                        Online Control Keys & Macros ...................23
                        Controlling The Page Bell ......................23
                        The Login Chimer ...............................24
                        Special Access Settings ........................25
                        Configuring Colours In Ezycom & Utilities ......26
                             Video Behaviour Options ...................26
                        The Manager ....................................27
                        Managing Security Levels .......................27
                             Column 1 ..................................27
                             Column 2 ..................................28
                        Managing System Events .........................30
                             Events -Things To Remember ................30
                        Compression Settings ...........................31
                             Compression ...............................31
                             UnCompression .............................32
                        Configuring Modem Settings .....................32
                        Setting Up Baud Rates ..........................35
                        Conclusion .....................................35


              Chapter 3 ..................................................36

                   File & Message Areas ................................36
                        Introduction ...................................36
                        File Areas With Ezycom .........................36
                        Creating File Areas ............................37
                        Setting Up File Area Paths .....................40
                        Miscellaneous File Area Options ................41
                        Controlling The Look & Feel Of File Lists ......43






                    Securing Specific Files ........................45
                    Time Saving Global Functions ...................46
                         Set Default Security ......................46
                         Set Default Flags .........................47
                         Set File Area Conversion ..................47
                         Set File Area Sort ........................47
                         Set File Area Offline .....................47
                         Miscellaneous Global Options ..............48
                    File Transfer Protocols ........................48
                    Setting Up A Protocol ..........................49
                         DSZ Style Logs ............................52
                    Message Areas ..................................52
                    Defining Message Areas .........................52
                    Moving Message Areas About .....................57
                    Special Message Related Security Settings ......58
                    Miscellaneous Message Feature Settings .........58
                    Global Message Area Functions ..................60
                    Conclusion .....................................61


          Chapter 4 ..................................................62

               Working With Menus ..................................62
                    Introduction ...................................62
                    Types of Menu Structure ........................62
                    Allowing Movement Between Menus ................63
                    EZYMENU - Ezycom's Menu Editor .................63
                    Creating & Defining The Function Of a Menu
                    Entry ..........................................64
                    Useful Options Available While Editing
                    Menus ..........................................67
                    Menu Templates .................................69
                    Global Menus ...................................70
                    Automatically Executing Menu Options ...........71
                    Special Menu Characters ........................71
                    Keyboard Stuffing ..............................72
                    Conclusion .....................................72


          Chapter 5 ..................................................73

               System Maintenance ..................................73
                    Introduction ...................................73
                    File Area Maintenance ..........................73
                    FEDIT - Ezycom's File Area Manager .............73
                         Tagging Files .............................74
                         Working With Tagged Files .................75
                         Miscellaneous Single File Functions .......76
                         Editing Descriptions ......................76
                         Colours ...................................77
                    EZYIDX - Ezycom's Fast File Index
                    Maintenance Tool ...............................78
                    EZYFILE - Ezycom's File Base Maintenance
                    Utility ........................................79
                    EZYADOPT - Adding Files To Your Database
                    On Mass ........................................80
                    EZYMAST - Ezycom's Master File List
                    Creator ........................................81






                        Special Archive Conversion & Testing Files .....82
                        Message Area Maintenance .......................83
                        MSGCOMP - Ezycom's Message Base
                        Maintenance Tool ...............................83
                        Maintaining Your User Base .....................85
                        EZYED - Ezycom's User Editor ...................85
                             Keys Available In Edit Mode ...............86
                        User Account Settings ..........................87
                        USERCOMP - Keeping Ezycom's User File In
                        Shape ..........................................89


              Advanced Features
              Advanced Features
              Advanced Features


              Chapter 6 ..................................................91

                   Mail Networking .....................................91
                        Introduction ...................................91
                        Network Hierarchy ..............................91
                             Other Aspects .............................93
                        Types Of Mail ..................................93
                        Mail Networking With Ezycom ....................94
                        Defining Your Network AKAs .....................95
                        The Uplink/Downlink Manager ....................95
                        Configuring Network Message Areas ..............99
                        Global Management Of Echomail Conferences ......102
                        Netmail Message Areas ..........................103
                        General Network Message Options ................103
                        Automatic Creation of Echomail Areas ...........106
                        Special Message Security Settings For
                        Network Mail ...................................107
                        Netmail Odds & Ends ............................109
                        EZYMAIL- Ezycom's Echomail Processor ...........109
                        EZYNET - Ezycom's Netmail/Areafix
                        Processor ......................................111
                        The Echo Area Manager ..........................112
                        How To Use Echo Area From Remote ...............112
                        Echo Area Commands .............................114
                        EZYPACK - Ezycom's Netmail Pack Router .........115
                        Setting Up EZYPACK.CTL .........................117
                        EZYNODE - Ezycom's Nodelist Compiler ...........119
                        Setting Up EZYNODE.CTL .........................119
                             An Example EZYNODE.CTL ....................122
                        Using Ezycom's Mailer Semaphore Support ........122
                             Front Door ................................122
                             D'Bridge ..................................122
                             BinkleyTerm ...............................123
                        Front End Mailer Types .........................123
                             Front Door *.MSG Style Mailers ............123
                             Binkley Style *.FLO Mailers ...............124
                        Conclusion .....................................128






          Chapter 7 ..................................................129

               More Advanced Features ..............................129
                    Introduction ...................................129
                    File & Message Area Groups .....................129
                    QWK Offline Mailing ............................131
                         Configuring Your System To Create QWK
                         Mail ......................................131
                         Netmails In QWK ...........................133
                         Remote QWK Maintenance ....................133
                    Questionnaires .................................133
                         Special Questionnaire Files ...............133
                    EZYUTIL - A Powerful Collection Of Tools .......134
                         Message Importing .........................134
                         Quickly Re-arranging Message Areas ........135
                         Rapidly Deleting Certain Messages .........136
                         Undeleting Messages .......................137
                         Sorting Your Node Manager .................137
                         Sorting Your Netmail Folder ...............138
                         EZYUTIL -SORTMSG ..........................138
                         Rescanning Echomail For New Downlinks .....138
                         Stripping Log Files .......................138
                         Automatically Building File Areas .........139
                         File Area Information .....................140
                         Message Base Information ..................141
                         Message Base Statistics ...................142
                         Adding Rumours ............................142
                         Deleting Rumours ..........................142
                    EZYLINK - Fast Message Subject Linking .........143
                    File Points - What Are They? ...................143
                    ANSTOAVT - Convert ANSI to AVATAR ..............143
                    EZYADOPT - Advanced Features ...................144
                    LANGEDIT - Ezycom's Complete Prompt Editor .....145
                    Custom Page Tunes ..............................147


          Chapter 8 ..................................................148

               Multi-line Operation ................................148
                    Introduction ...................................148
                    Software You Will Need .........................148
                    Multi-tasking Software .........................148
                    Running Multi-line with Desqview ...............149
                         Sample Desqview Configuration .............149
                    Running Multi-line with OS/2 ...................150
                         Using SIO/VSIO/VX00 .......................151
                         DOS Settings ..............................151
                    SHARE.EXE - File Sharing .......................152
                    STARTBBS.BAT ...................................152
                    The Directory Layout ...........................153
                    Multi-Ports, Doors & Other Things ..............154
                    Multi-line Using Networks ......................154
                    Ezycom Utilities - Do's & Don'ts ...............155
                    Special Files For Multi-line Use ...............156
                         NODEINFO.<node> ...........................156
                         EZYEX???.<node> ...........................157






              Reference Section
              Reference Section
              Reference Section


              Appendix A .................................................158

                   Menu Commands .......................................158


              Appendix B .................................................190

                   Questionnaire Commands ..............................190
                        Commands For Producing Screen Output ...........190
                        Commands For Producing File Output .............193
                        Commands For Getting Input .....................194
                        Commands For Modifying User Settings ...........195
                        Conditional Branching & Subroutines ............201
                        Miscellaneous Commands .........................206


              Appendix C .................................................211

                   External Support Files ..............................211
                        External Access Control Files ..................211
                        Special Log Files ..............................212
                        Graphic Support Files ..........................213
                        Special Control Characters .....................219
                        User Parameters - CTRL-F Codes .................220
                        System Parameters - CTRL-K Codes ...............222


              Appendix D .................................................224

                   Miscellaneous Information ...........................224
                        Sysop Function Keys ............................224
                        Smart Colour Codes .............................226
                        Runtime Errors .................................227
                        Ezycom Errorlevels .............................228
                        Ezycom Command Line Parameters .................229
                        Support Services ...............................230
                        Suggestions/Bug Reports ........................230


              INDEX ......................................................231








              Conditions of Use
              Conditions of Use
              Conditions of Use


                 Ezycom is the copyrighted materials of Peter Davies and
                 authors of respective products.  The material it covers
                 are the executable files, overlays, documentation and
                 anything contained in the Ezycom Package.

                 If, you classify as a SHAREWARE registration,  you are
                 allowed to evaluate Ezycom for 30 days. After that
                 period you MUST either REGISTER Ezycom or stop using it.
                 Non-Profit Organisations and Commercial customers may
                 ONLY evaluate Ezycom for a period of 7 days before
                 Ezycom must be bought or discontinued in use.  If Ezycom
                 is being used in a multi-line situation,  then only one
                 Registration is required.  This is provided that the
                 registration key in use, will only be on one hard disk
                 and only in one directory of that hard disk.  If this is
                 not the case, then a site licensing agreement is
                 required.

                 Before registration, you miss out on a few 'Nice'
                 features taken out to help encourage registration.  It
                 must be stated however that Ezycom is useable without
                 these features, and is not now and never will be
                 'Cripple Ware'.

                 Ezycom may never be used in an unlawful or illegal
                 manner.

                 Ezycom distribution is encouraged, so long as no charge
                 is levied for the distribution.  Pay Systems are exempt
                 from this so long as there is no extra charge for
                 Ezycom.  Commercial Software Libraries may not include
                 Ezycom in their libraries, without the written
                 permission of Peter Davies.

                 Ezycom archives may not be altered in any way, shape or
                 form.  Conversion to a different archive format is
                 allowed, but we prefer that you do not convert it.
                 Adding BBS comment files or headers to the archives is
                 NOT permitted.

                 You are NOT allowed to modify Ezycom executables,
                 Overlays, registration keys or documentation in any
                 shape or form.  Tampering with messages inside
                 executables is NOT permitted.

                 Site/Group licensing agreements will be reviewed on a
                 case by case basis.

                 The registration key may not be distributed to other
                 person(s).  Doing so will violate the licensing
                 agreement you made when Registering Ezycom.






                 In using this program, you agree that in no event shall
                 Peter Davies and respective authors be liable for any
                 indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or
                 exemplary damage or lost profits, even if Peter Davies
                 and respective authors have been advised of the
                 possibility of such damages or lost profits.  You
                 further agree that if for any reason Peter Davies and
                 respective Authors are found to be liable to you as a
                 result of your use of the program and software, that as
                 partial consideration of Peter Davies and respective
                 Authors granting you this license, you agree that Peter
                 Davies and respective Authors, sole and exclusive
                 cumulative liability to you or others shall be no
                 greater than the amount of any registration fee paid by
                 you.  If no such registration fee was paid, then Peter
                 Davies and respective authors are not liable for any
                 amount.

                 Peter Davies or the associated Authors are in no way
                 obligated to provide support for or future versions of
                 Ezycom.

                 Registration of Ezycom entitles you to the use of the
                 current version of Ezycom.  Any future versions may have
                 new licensing conditions, which may change the terms of
                 your current licensing agreement.

                 The use of tampered versions of Ezycom, or the use keys
                 not distributed by Registration Sites is an infringement
                 of International Copyright Laws.  We will not hesitate
                 in prosecuting offenders.

                 The copying and/or distribution of your license key is
                 strictly prohibited.  Except of course for backup or
                 archival purposes.








                                                                 Chapter 1

                                                           Getting Started


              Installation Requirements
              Installation Requirements
              Installation Requirements


              Operating System Requirements

              Ezycom 1.10 will run on under any version of  MS/PC-DOS
              version 3.xx or later although version 5.0 or 6.0/6.2 are
              recommended. If you wish to run multiple lines under DOS
              with Ezycom, you will however need to use a program such as
              Quarterdeck's Desqview or Microsoft's Windows Version 3.1.
              Ezycom has been tested with both of these and works very
              well with either environment although Desqview is
              recommended if you want speed! Ezycom also runs very well
              in a DOS session under IBM's OS/2 Versions 2.0 & 2.1 but
              running 2.0 with the Service Pak installed is not
              recommended. It seems IBM introduced some DOS problems with
              this upgrade.

              Hardware Requirements

              Ezycom can run on any IBM PC or compatible.  A modem with
              Hayes compatible 'AT' commands and one which is capable of
              hardware flow control (CTS/RTS) is also required. At least
              450K of free memory is required to run Ezycom correctly,
              although 600K+ is preferable.  A hard disk is also
              required, and a minimum of 5 megabytes of free space before
              beginning installation is recommended.  It is also
              adventageous to have a memory manager installed such as
              QEMM from Quarterdeck Office Systems.  If you have EMS
              memory, XMS memory or Extended memory, Ezycom can make use
              of this.  It can directly use EMS to Swap itself out to or
              to load the Overlay into. It can also indirectly use
              EMS/XMS or Extended memory if this is made into a RAM Disk
              and the overlay/swap files are placed on there.


              Installation
              Installation
              Installation

              If, you are converting from an old version of Ezycom, read
              the WHATSNEW.110 file FIRST for upgrade information.  If
              you are a new user of Ezycom then please continue reading.

              Ezycom requires one other program to run it successfully
              stand alone.  That is a FOSSIL driver.  X00 by Ray Gwinn
              and BNU by David Nugent have successfully been tested with
              Ezycom.  See their respective documentation for how to
              install those programs.



                                         Chapter 1 - Getting Started     9
                                                                         9
                                                                         9






          If you are going to use Ezycom in a mail Network which is
          Fidonet compatible, you will also require a Mailer.
          BinkleyTerm, Portal Of Power, InterMail, D'Bridge and Front
          Door have both been successfully used with Ezycom.  Ezycom
          has its own Fido compatible mail tosser/scanner and so does
          not need ANY additional software besides the front end
          mailer.

          In your CONFIG.SYS add the following lines...

          FILES=20
          BUFFERS=20

          The first line tells DOS how many files can be open at
          once. The second line tells DOS how many buffers are to be
          open. Generally, 20 is good, as it does not use too much
          memory, and it speeds up disk access dramatically over not
          having any at all.

          In your AUTOEXEC.BAT add the following lines depending on
          the drive you set EZYCOM to run on:

          SET EZY=C:\EZY
          SET TASK=1

          The first command tells Ezycom where to find it's system
          directory.  It can optionally be the directory where your
          BBS runs from.

          The second comand tells Ezycom the node number to execute
          Ezycom under.
          Note: -N overrides this variable.

          Extract SETUP.ARJ in a temporary directory and run INSTALL.
          An example command to perform this is ARJ E SETUP.ARJ.  It
          will automatically install a default setup of menus,
          messages/file areas and text files for you the new operator
          to observe as a sample system, either to learn from or to
          work from.

          Ezycom sample setup will now be located in the path
          specified, but the executables will still be where you
          unarchived them to.  Move all the other files in the Ezycom
          archives (Disks 1 and 2) ie. *.EXE, *.OVR, *.LNG, to the
          path where Ezycom is to be located.

          For Example:

          COPY *.EXE C:\EZY
          COPY *.OVR C:\EZY
          COPY *.LNG C:\EZY

          You are now ready to start configuring Ezycom.



          10
          10
          10      
                  
                  Setting Up Ezycom








                                                                 Chapter 2

                                                       Basic Configuration


              Introduction
              Introduction
              Introduction

              By now you should have Ezycom unpacked and installed with a
              simple default configuration and you will have had a little
              fiddle with it. Having done a simple login you will be
              familiar with the basic look of Ezycom. This section of the
              document deals with all the basic configuration settings
              that Ezycom has. The information in this section will help
              you get Ezycom fully functional as a simple stand alone
              BBS. Later chapters will deal with the more advanced (and
              optional) features of the package.


              CONFIG
              CONFIG
              CONFIG

              CONFIG is the central configuration utility for Ezycom. It
              allows you to configure most of Ezycom features using a
              simple, friendly and yet powerful pull-down menu system.
              You access these by moving the cursor on the option you
              want to change then hit ENTER.  Some options pop out menus
              to further lists of options, accessed in the same manner.
              You will have to set up many of these options in order to
              get Ezycom up and running as a functional BBS. If an option
              or a group of options is skipped, do not worry, it is
              probably not relevant to the basic functioning of Ezycom
              and is thus covered in a later chapter.

              Firstly start by moving to the Info menu and then ENTER on
              the Site option. This information is mainly used for your
              system's IEMSI packet (see later) and for validating your
              key once you've registered Ezycom. These options are as
              follows:

                 Sysop Name  - Put your real name here. Messages
                 redirected from 'Sysop' will be sent to this name.

                 Sysop Alias - You can optionally specify an Alias for
                 yourself here.

                 System Name - Your BBS name eg. Lake Macquarie BBS

                 System Location - This is where your BBS is located eg.
                 Adamstown, NSW, Australia

              Once you're finished here, press ESC to exit from the Site
              option.




                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      11
                                                                        11
                                                                        11






          Setting Up System Paths
          Setting Up System Paths
          Setting Up System Paths

          Moving across to the far right you will see a menu entitled
          Other. Select the Paths option from this menu using ENTER.
          This option allows you to set-up most of the directories
          that Ezycom requires for its functioning. The relevant ones
          for now are used as follows:

             Overlay Path - This is where Ezycom looks to find its
             overlay file (EZY.OVR).  You can set this to a RAM disk
             for improved efficiency if you so wish.

             System Log - This is the path and filename for where
             Ezycom will write its log file.  If you place a *N in
             the log name, it will be translated into the current
             node number. So EZY*N.LOG would actually become EZY1.LOG
             for node 1.

             Maintain Log - This is where Ezycom writes the logs for
             all the utilities that come with it.  You should NEVER
             have this the same filename as the other log if you are
             running more than one line unless you use the *N
             parameter in a simular manner to the previous option.
             Each Ezycom utility has a unique identifier for logging,
             so if you place a *T in the maintenance log name, many
             logs will be written out for each utility.

             Swap File - When Ezycom swaps out its memory, it can
             (sysop definable) swap itself to DISK.  This is the path
             and filename to the swap file(s).  The extension is not
             allowed as Ezycom will append its own extension
             depending on the node number. EZYFILE & EZYMAIL will
             append different extensions so they can be run at the
             same time as nodes.

             RIP, AVT, ANS, ASC & ASL Files - These are the paths to
             where the BBS's text files are kept. They may all point
             to the same directory if you like. Since ANSI files are
             the most popular, you may like to put .ANS on a RAM disk
             and leave the rest on your hard disk.

             Menu Files - Your menu files (*.MNU) are stored in this
             path. This may be a RAM disk or fixed disk path.

             Menu 2nd - This is a second menu path for when the first
             path points to a RAM disk.  Take the situation where you
             alter a menu on a RAM disk.  All modifications are
             stored to the RAM disk, not on a fixed disk.  Placing a
             path here causes all menu modifications to be stored on
             this path as well (ie. both paths will be kept in sync).






          12
          12
          12      
                  
                  Setting Up Ezycom






                 Message Base - This is the location of Ezycom's message
                 base.  It should be noted that you MUST use the SAME
                 user base with the message base.  You can NOT have
                 several message bases per user base or vice versa
                 without totally destroying last read pointers. You may
                 find it useful to place the message base on its own
                 drive to reduce fragmentation on your system drive. This
                 also helps to keep mail processing space and message
                 base space separate.

                 File Base - This is the location of where the filebase
                 is stored, the database of all the files downloadable
                 from your BBS. Some speed gains and fragmentation
                 reduction can be achieved from having this on a separate
                 drive also.

                 File Index - The Fast Find Index is stored here.  This
                 is a fast index to EVERY file downloadable on your BBS
                 system.

                 File Sec - The FILESEC.EZY is stored in this path.  This
                 option is provided to allow you to place this file on a
                 RAM disk for speed of access.

                 User Base - This is quite simply where the database that
                 stores your BBS user records is located.

                 Node Message - This is where the internode communication
                 files are stored.  If you plan to use the built in
                 multi-user chat, it might be advisable to point this
                 path to a RAM disk.  Only 10k maximum should be required
                 in the RAM disk.

                 Temp Path - This is where Ezycom stores its temporary
                 files, whilst a user downloading for instance.

                 Upload Path - This is a TEMPORARY path where ALL uploads
                 will actually be placed during the upload process.  If
                 the upload is aborted, then the file is left in this
                 directory for later resumption unless you have the
                 CONFIG option Delete Incomplete Uploads set to Yes (see
                 later).  It is advisable to have a daily maintenance
                 routine to delete all files in your upload path.
                 (Remove aborted uploads).

                   A statement like:

                   ECHO Y | DEL C:\EZY\UPLOADS\*.*

                   would delete them.  This path MUST be unique and NOT 
                   be used anywhere in the file base system.





                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      13
                                                                        13
                                                                        13






             Outside Page - If you wish your the page bell to use
             other tunes besides the default beeping or the tune
             files, you can use Page modules written for Ezycom.
             EZYSB102 is one such page program. It plays Sound
             Blaster VOC files.  Please see the documentation
             accompanying such programs for more details on this.

          Once you've finished modifying these options ESC will take
          you back to the previous menu.


          General System Wide Options
          General System Wide Options
          General System Wide Options

          The next set of options you should configure are found in
          the System submenu. Press ENTER on this option and you will
          find a series of options to control general system
          behaviour.

             Inactivity (Mins) - If the user online has not hit a key
             within the time period defined in this option, he/she
             will be automatically logged off. The user will however
             get a 30 second warning before disconnection. 5 minutes
             is a good value for this option.

             Local Inactivity Timeout - This determines if the
             previous option applies to users (such as the sysop)
             logged in locally. Normally you would set this to No
             unless for some reason you want it to log you off
             locally after the defined time of inactivity. Use ENTER
             to toggle this option.

             Multiline - This places Ezycom into multiline aware mode
             and thus tells it to perform duties such as internode
             messaging, user to user chats and other various updates.
             Use ENTER to toggle the option.

             Multi Tasker - Allows you to toggle how Ezycom detects
             if your system is running under a Multi-tasking
             environment such as Desqview or OS/2.  Just hit ENTER to
             toggle through the supported options. Setting Auto-
             Detect means each time Ezycom loads it will try to
             detect which environment it is running under for you.
             Sometimes it may be necessary to force a particular
             environment.

             Allow Extended IBM Chars - This allows users to type in
             Extended (high-ASCII) characters.  For example, if your
             users are not always English speaking, then their name
             might include some Extended IBM characters. Disabling
             this option helps reduce the affects of line noise
             however as this will be filtered out.





          14
          14
          14      
                  
                  Setting Up Ezycom






                 Swap Out on Jump to Dos - With this set to Yes, when
                 Ezycom jumps to DOS it will swap out to either XMS, EMS
                 or your hard disk (depending on the setting for
                 swapping) this will give you more memory in DOS on the
                 swap out.

                 Top Menu - The name of the first menu Ezycom is to
                 display.  This can be any menu you like but it must be
                 in the menu path as defined previously in CONFIG.

                 Log to Printer - This will send all the Log information
                 to your printer, except for local logins (naturally).

                 Printer Port - This is the port that Ezycom will send
                 the Log to if the previous option is enabled.  This can
                 either be LPT1 to 3, or COM1 to 4.  Make sure that you
                 do not log to the comport being used for modem
                 communications. ENTER toggles through the various
                 options available.

                 Password Echo Character - This is the character that the
                 user will see when they enter their password on your
                 system. An asterisk '*' is always a good choice.

                 Internode Message Freq (s) - This is how often (in
                 seconds) Ezycom checks for inter-node messages on multi-
                 node systems.  Internode messages are ONLY checked for
                 within User/User chats or while the user is moving
                 around menus.

                 Age Check, minimum Age - If you intend to have message
                 areas and/or file areas that have information that maybe
                 X-Rated or you feel that young users should not have
                 access to these areas, all you have to do is set the age
                 limit that your users have to be over to get access to
                 those areas.  You also have to set this option in your
                 menus otherwise it won't work for specific menu options
                 but age checking is always done automatically by the
                 system on file/message areas.

                 Utility Date Format - Toggles the two date formats that
                 Ezycom can use when writing log files. These are either
                 DDMMYY or MMDDYY.

                 Use EMS for Overlays - Tells Ezycom if it is allowed to
                 use your EMS memory (if you have it) for its overlay
                 files.  This will speed the system up if set to Yes when
                 EMS is present.

                 Type of Swapping - This option allows you to define what
                 type of swapping is used in Ezycom.  The swapping
                 techniques vary and in each case an order of preference
                 is shown. XMS/EMS  is the fastest (ie try for XMS, if
                 not then try EMS). All options fall back to DISK.


                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      15
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             Enclosing Brackets - This defines the characters that
             will be used as enclosing brackets in Ezycom.

             Left Bracket/Right Bracket - This defines the left and
             right brackets used in Ezycom prompts etc. Edit the left
             one then press ENTER and you will be able to edit the
             right one.

             Minimum Time for Call - This setting determines how long
             a call must last (in minutes) for it to be counted as a
             call for that user on that day. You can use this in
             conjunction with the Limits manager to control the
             number of times a user may call in a given day. Be sure
             to set this high enough so as to ensure that brief calls
             (eg. those terminated due to line noise) do not get
             counted.

             Show Sysop in Who Online - Using this setting you can
             determine whether or not the sysop will show up in the
             Who's Online List when he/she is logged in a multi-node
             situation. If set to No, then users will not be able to
             tell when the sysop is logged in.


          Defining Settings For New Users
          Defining Settings For New Users
          Defining Settings For New Users

          The next option on the Other menu is a submenu called
          Newuser. This section allows you to set all the options
          that control the behaviour of a new user's login procedure

             Ask NewUser Home/Voice Phone - This option controls
             whether you want your New Users to be asked for their
             home/voice phone number. Again, most options in this
             area toggle with the ENTER Key.

             Ask NewUser Data/Bus Phone - This determines if you wish
             to ask new users for their data/business phone number as
             this often differs from their home/voice phone number.

             Use Forced Phone Format - This allows you to set if you
             want to use a forced phone format which is configurable
             in the next option.

             Forced Phone Format - Use this to define the format of
             your forced phone number style here, using '#' for where
             you'd like numbers to be and a '-' where a hyphen should
             be forced to appear.








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              The next nine settings are all simple toggle options that
              control the main options/questions a new user should be
              presented with when they are logging on for the first time.
              Use the ENTER key to toggle through the settings on each.
              Some have Yes, No and Ask options (Ask meaning the user
              will be prompted for an answer). When Ask is set there are
              is also a further option shown in brackets. This indicates
              the DEFAULT answer to the question so that the user may
              press ENTER and get this answer automatically.  You will
              find this useful for novice users because it gives them a
              good guide as to what its normal to select in each case and
              so if they panic and press ENTER, the best setting will be
              chosen.

                 Ask NewUser for Alias - If your system allows an alias
                 to be used, then you can use this option to prompt the
                 new user for one. Should they not enter one, their real
                 name becomes their alias by default. Once defined, a
                 user can login using this alias in lieu of their real
                 name (the will still actually be logging in as their
                 real name however) but as their alias is often shorter,
                 it will save them time.

                 Ask New User for Date of Birth - This controls whether
                 the a new user should be prompted for their date of
                 birth. This information can then be used as a security
                 check (see later) and allows the user's age to be shown
                 on the status bar. You should have a good reason for
                 disabling this option as it disables a lot of useful
                 features in Ezycom along with it.

                 NewUser Ansi - Controls whether a new user should be
                 able to select ANSI colour graphics or not.

                 NewUser Avatar - This is like the above only it controls
                 whether a new user should be able to choose AVATAR
                 graphics.

                 NewUser Full Screen Editor - Allows the new user to
                 choose whether or not to use an external full screen
                 editor (such as EZYEDIT or Gedit). Such editors are like
                 a word processor with full screen editing facilities.
                 Should the user choose No, they will be given the
                 internal line editor when they wish to write messages.

                 NewUser Clear Screens - This determines whether or not
                 new users want their screen cleared between menus etc.
                 If set to No, screen clearing codes where-ever found,
                 will be ignored.







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             NewUser More Prompt - Allows the new user to select
             whether they wish to be prompted for more text whenever
             the screen reaches the number of lines they defined in
             their screen length. If a user selects No for this
             option (or you force No) then Ezycom's powerful file
             list tagging feature is rendered completely useless.

             NewUser IBM Characters - Determines if the new user
             wants any IBM chars to be sent. Non-IBM users with non
             100% emulation terminals may want to turn this off in
             order to filter out any high ASCII characters.

             NewUser Date Format - Depending on your user's country
             of origin, they may prefer all date prompts in one form
             or the other. They may have either the
             DD-MM-YYYY or the MM-DD-YYYY formats. The toggleable
             default is in brackets.

             NewUser Security - This is the security level that all
             new users to your system will get when first logging in.
             Set a low value so you can enhance it as you feel.  You
             can override this if you set one in the NEWUSER.Q-A file
             but more on that later.

             NewUser Flags - The Flags are labelled A..D with each
             flag having 8 settings that is to say A1..A8, B1..B8
             and so on. You can use these flags to enhance your
             Security Levels. You might use this for instance to
             force a user into a bulletins menu or to only let them
             answer a questionnaire once. An X indicates the flag is
             set for that position so if the A flag shows --X--X--
             then flags 3 and 6 have been set to on.

             Minimum Password Length - This controls the minimum
             length of the Password your new user is to choose. The
             longer the better but do not go overboard.

             Minimum ANSI/AVATAR Baud Rate - This Sets the minimum
             speed can login in and be able to select/use ANSI/AVATAR
             graphics. Any user logging on below this speed will get
             plain ASCII graphics only.

             NewUser File Points Credits - This sets the initial
             amount of file points a user receives when logging in
             for the first time.

             NewUser Netmail Credit - This allows New Users the
             option to use Net Mail from their first logon. Set this
             to something small unless you want new users to be able
             to post unlimited amounts of netmail. Otherwise, you had
             best be sure that security control on netmail areas
             prevents them from doing so.




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                 NewUser Topmenu - You can if you wish, have new users
                 placed into a different top menu (first menu) than the
                 default. Use this to specify that menu. Be sure that it
                 exists and that it is in your menus path.


              Configuring The Logon Process
              Configuring The Logon Process
              Configuring The Logon Process

              The next option on the Other menu is a submenu titled
              Logon. This section contains options that are used to set
              the way Ezycom handles each Logon attempt. These options
              are given in two columns.

              Column 1

                 Forced Password Change (Calls) - This allows the sysop
                 to set how often users will be forced by the system to
                 change their password. For example, setting it to 30
                 means every 30 calls they will have to select a totally
                 new password. This will make your system more secure and
                 decrease the possibility of people hacking your user's
                 accounts.

                 Ask for Date of Birth (Calls) - This is also a Security
                 feature that Ezycom uses to make sure that the user
                 logged on, is in fact who they say they are. If you set
                 this to 10 for example, then on every tenth call, users
                 will be asked to enter their date of birth.

                 Ask for Phone Number (Calls) - This is also a Security
                 feature. The user will be asked to enter their Phone
                 Number (Last four digits) to stay logged on to the
                 system.  You set the number of calls between asking for
                 this check.

                 WatchDog Message Board - This tells Ezycom where to post
                 a message concerning possible unauthorised use of a
                 user's account.  This message should let the User know
                 that someone has tried to log in under their password
                 and failed.  A good place for this message is the
                 Sysop's Conference if you allow users to read messages
                 in this area.  A file called WATCHDOG.ASL must be placed
                 in the Ezycom system directory, which is a plain text
                 file, that contains the message you wish to send to the
                 user.

                 Bad Login Message Board (0=Off) - When a user
                 unsuccessfully attempts to login Eg. they have forgotten
                 their password, placing a non-zero value in this field
                 means the user will be given the option of writing a
                 message to the sysop and it will be posted to the area
                 number specified in this option.  As with the above,
                 point it to the message board where sysop mail goes.



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          Note: Ezycom also has a special feature to deal with users
          in this dilemma.  If you go and blank out the user's
          password in EZYED, then next time they login they will not
          be asked for a password but will be forced to input their
          phone number & date of birth.  If they manage to get this
          right, they will then be prompted for a new password in the
          usual manner.  This can save you (the sysop) a lot of time
          (and money from having to call people and remind them what
          their password is).

             Minium Logon Security - This is the lowest security
             level that you will allow users to login under.  Eg. If
             you set New User Security Level to 5 but have a level
             lower than this for Users that may have Upset you, you
             can give them this access.  Users between security level
             1 and this security level, can logon between the times
             allocated by low security start and end time.

          Note : Users with Security Level 0 are ALWAYS barred from
          the system (the lock-out key sets this also).

             Number of Logon Attempts - If the user gets their
             password wrong this many times while attempting to
             login, they will not be allowed to continue.  If you
             have set the WatchDog Message to a message board the
             user will be notified when he/she successfully logs on
             next.  If you have Bad Login Message Board set to a non-
             zero value, the system will also ask them if they wish
             to post a message to the sysop about not being able to
             login,  before being forcibly logged off.

             Allow OneWord Logon Names - This is for systems that
             allow their users to login under an Alias (first time
             on) or those that allow Users to use there First Name as
             a Login Name.  Setting this option to yes is generally
             not advisable due to the increased possibility of name
             double-ups. However, should an alias consist of a single
             word, this can be used to login regardless as this
             setting only affects the choice of real names.

             Minimum Logon Baud Rate - This is the slowest Baud Rate
             at which Ezycom will allow users to gain access to your
             system.

             Minimum Slow Baud Rate - This is the baud rate control
             from the next option.

             Slow Baud Start/End - These the hours between which you
             allow users with SLOW modems to access your system,
             using the speed as defined above.






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                 Low Security Start/End - These are the hours between
                 which you allow users that have a Security level less
                 than that set in the Minimum Logon Security.  Eg. If the
                 minimum security was 5, then those users from security
                 levels 1 through to 4, can only logon between these
                 times.  A start and end time of 00:00 indicates theses
                 users can logon all the time. But any other time
                 intervals where the start and end times match indicates
                 these users can NEVER logon.

              Column 2

                 Initial Logon Time - This defines the maximum time a new
                 user is given to reach the WELCOME.Axx screen. This must
                 be enough time for the new user to answer all the
                 questions about their terminal configuration and also to
                 answer NEWUSER.Q&A (see later) should you have one
                 defined. 10-15 mins should be fine for this option.

                 1st Rego Exp Warning - This is when Ezycom will first
                 let the user know that their registration is about to
                 expire. On the number of days before expiry that you set
                 here, the user will receive a warning message during
                 login. Eg. 7 days.

                 2nd Rego Exp Warning - The user will be notified again
                 about their registration expiring soon.  This expiry
                 warning should be LATER (closer to the expiry date) than
                 the first warning for it to function correctly. Eg. 2
                 days.

                 Check for Mail - With this option you are able to toggle
                 whether you want the system to Check for NEW Mail at
                 each Logon, Ask the User each Logon or Never ask the
                 user. If you pick not to ask or check for mail, make
                 sure that you have an option in one of your menus to do
                 so manually or the user will never know when they have
                 new mail. The option in brackets after the Ask setting
                 shows the default result if ENTER is pressed instead of
                 a Yes or No answer.

                 Check for Files - This is similar to the Mail Checking
                 option above but applies to New Files on your system. A
                 new file check looks for files that are new since the
                 LAST time that user DID a new file scan, NOT new files
                 since their last login.

                 Fast Local Login - With this option set to Yes, all
                 local logins will skip WELCOME and NEWS screens. Setting
                 this to No means all the usual login screens be shown
                 when logging in locally.





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             Show User's Password - This option when set will display
             the remote user's password on your screen. Not a good
             idea if your BBS is in public view. Regardless of this
             setting, the user will still see the password echo
             character defined previously.

             Ask for Local Password - If you have this option set to
             Yes you will have to enter your password when logging
             into the system locally as will any users.

             ____
             Note: The sysop's name is automatically assumed if you

             press ENTER at the name prompt. Doing this with this
             with the above option set to No will cause an immeidate
             login of the sysop upon pressing ENTER at the name
             prompt. Combine this with Fast Local Login set to Yes
             and a single key press gets you almost to the main menu.

             Allow Sysop Remote - If set to No, the sysop will not be
             able to login remotely. It is advised that unless you
             ever need to be able to login remotely that you set this
             to No as a security precaution.

             Auto Detect ANSI - With this option set, Ezycom will
             Auto-detect ANSI colour graphics on the remote terminal
             (or try to) and if the test is passed, even the initial
             LOGO.ANS screen will be displayed before the name
             prompt.  If the User has another graphic setting in
             his/her user base record, that one will be used. Setting
             it to YES & NU means the result of the detect will be
             used to assume some New User settings so they will not
             be asked if they wish to use ANSI.

             IEMSI Sessions - This allows users to logon to Ezycom
             using the IEMSI protocol.  Just set it to Yes to turn it
             on. Combined with NU (Yes & NU) it means that if a new
             user logs in with IEMSI, most of their set-up details
             will be assumed from the information in their IEMSI
             profile and they will only have to answer a few
             questions. Terminal packages such as Communique',
             Terminate and Front Door all support this method of
             login. It automates the login process and passes
             information in both directions about the general
             configuration in use. It also automatically sets many
             login preferences such as whether a New File Scan is
             wanted.










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                 Auto Detect RIP - This will tell Ezycom whether or not
                 to attempt to detect if there is a RIP (Remote Imaging
                 Protocol) capable terminal on the other end. Ezycom will
                 make a note in the log about the terminal name/version
                 detected if successful. If you do not intend to support
                 RIP graphics then set this option to No. You may however
                 find that setting this to Yes is a good way to survey
                 how many users have such a terminal.


              Online Control Keys & Macros
              Online Control Keys & Macros
              Online Control Keys & Macros

              A number of useful key combinations can be configured from
              the Alt/Ctrl submenu off Other.

              The Alt-Function keys enable you to set options that can be
              executed while users are online in much the same way as a
              Type 7 exit (see later).  These options could include for
              example include running FEDIT or running EZYMENU etc.

              For Example:

              Alt-F1   EZYED.EXE

              Now pressing Alt-F1 while in Ezycom would run EZYED

              The Ctrl-Function keys are macros that are used inside of
              the Ezycom chat mode.  By pressing Ctrl-Fx it will display
              the pre-defined macro you have set-up.


              Controlling The Page Bell
              Controlling The Page Bell
              Controlling The Page Bell

              Ezycom allows you to very precisely configure your user's
              ability to page you (audibly request you to talk with
              them). All these settings are controlled from the Paging
              submenu off the Other menu in CONFIG. As most people are
              home more on the weekend than the rest of the week, Ezycom
              allows configuration of acceptable paging hours on a daily
              basis.

                 Maximum Pages per Session - Allows you to control how
                 many times a user may page you in any one call. Any
                 further attempt to page you after this will result in
                 them only being allowed the option to post you a message
                 instead.

                 Number of Page Files - Sets how many page tunes you have
                 in your Ezycom system directory. These are files named
                 PAGExx.EZY where xx is a two digit number starting at
                 '01' and working up. This allows Ezycom to randomly
                 choose a different tune to use each time a user pages
                 you. Should you not specify any page files, the default
                 beeper tune will sound.


                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      23
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             Page Length (secs) - This determines how long the page
             sound/tune will play before telling the user you are
             apparently not available.

             Ask for Page Reason - Setting this option to Yes will
             force the user to supply a reason for wanting to chat.
             This will help you determine why it is they want you and
             whether you really wish to answer the page bell. This
             reason is also retained as part of the status bar info
             in case you wish to see why a user paged you when you
             were not around (ie. the [Want Chat] indicator is
             flashing on the status bar).

             Page Start/End (Day) - Use each of these options to
             define Start and End times for each day of the week in
             which your page bell will be allowed to sound.

             Message to Sysop Area - Should you not answer your page
             bell, and this option be set to a non-zero value, the
             user will be asked if they wish to leave you a message
             instead and it will be posted in the area pointed to by
             this number.

             Use Sysop's Alias in Chat - When in chat mode to users,
             setting this to yes means your ALIAS will be used in a
             full screen chat ie. your alias will appear on the
             dividing line.

             Auto Capture Chat - If you want all your chats to users
             automatically captured to a text file without you having
             to remember to do it, set this option to Yes.


          The Login Chimer
          The Login Chimer
          The Login Chimer

          In the Sound submenu (off Other in CONFIG) you will see two
          options entitled Incoming Call Ball Start/End Time. If you
          set a start and ending time this will enable a bell
          (Speaker) chime when a user logs on  while Ezycom is in
          stand alone mode (ie when Ezycom is doing the phone
          answering).  A start time of 00:00 and end time of 00:00
          enables full 24 hour chimes, whereas a start time of 00:01
          and end time of 00:01 disables it completely.  Any other
          times will enable it only during those times (note that the
          time is in 24 hour format so 23:00 means 11pm).











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              Special Access Settings
              Special Access Settings
              Special Access Settings

              The Access submenu (off Other) allows you to set-up some
              special access features in Ezycom. These features are all
              optional and you probably won't wish to use them, but they
              are explained now anyway. Refer back to this section later
              when you feel ready to use them. Two of these features are
              as yet not implemented anyway.

                 Guest Account - This allows you to set-up a special
                 account with special privileges. This is often used for
                 software support in that it allows you to define a
                 special account, normally with widely known details such
                 as a user name and password, and then have a special set
                 of menus (the tope one of which is pointed to by the
                 menu on that account) that are normally very different
                 to the rest of your BBS and very specific to your
                 purpose. This option simply specifies which account in
                 EZYED (you must create the user account before this will
                 work) that the guest access applies to. This account is
                 special because it is the ONLY account that is allowed
                 to have simultaneous logins on a multiline system.

              Note: ANSI/AVATAR/Full Screen Editor settings are reset on
              this account each time someone logs into it. The download
              statistics are also reset upon a user logging out from it.

                 Keyboard Password - This password is used to lock out
                 all the special "Alt" keys from the local keyboard.
                 When an "Alt" key is pressed, the user is prompted for a
                 password. If the user types in the correct password,
                 then the "Alt" keys become free to use for the remainder
                 of the session. You will find this very useful if your
                 BBS runs in a public area.

                 Logon Password - This password is used to stop users
                 logging onto your system unless they know this password.
                 If they do not get it correct, then they are denied
                 access to the system. (Not Yet Implemented)
                                       (Not Yet Implemented)
                                       (Not Yet Implemented).

                 Newuser Password - This password is used to stop new
                 users gaining an account on your BBS unless they know
                 this password. (Not Yet Implemented).
                                (Not Yet Implemented).
                                (Not Yet Implemented).













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          Configuring Colours In Ezycom & Utilities
          Configuring Colours In Ezycom & Utilities
          Configuring Colours In Ezycom & Utilities

          The Screen main menu in CONFIG deals with setting related
          to the screen output that Ezycom gives. You can configure
          the colours used in most places throughout Ezycom from
          here.

             Messages/Files - This submenu allows you to configure
             the colours used in prompts/fixed format information for
             file/message areas. You can toggle the colours used in
             quoted parts of a message, the options bar at the bottom
             of a message during reading and all the colours in the
             file list. As you toggle the options, the result will
             appear in the examples shown on the screen. Use the
             given numeric keys to cycle through the available
             colours for the option shown beside each.

             Windows - Using this option you can fully customise the
             colours used in CONFIG itself to display the pop up
             windows and option entry boxes. Toggle the colours on
             the frames, hi-lighted options etc and the example
             window will show the result of your changes. Again use
             the numeric options listed to do this.

             General - From here you can toggle the colour options on
             the user name prompt and the colours used on the status
             bar while a caller is online. Once again, the resulting
             look is instantaneously shown by the examples on screen
             and the numeric keys cycle through the various available
             colours.

             Default Colour - Use this to set all the colours back to
             Ezycom's defaults. You might find this useful if you
             totally muck up your colour selections. Be aware, you
             get no warning before this option takes affect. Hitting
             ENTER on it will immediately change the colours.

             Default Mono - This will set all the colours to default
             colours suitable for monochrome monitor based systems
             (such as laptops or BBS's running on older systems).
             Again this is a no warning immediate action option.


          Video Behaviour Options

          At the bottom of the Screens submenu is another submenu
          called Options. Here you will be able to tell Ezycom how it
          should operate with your system's video display, like how
          it writes to the screen for example.  The following points
          should help when filling out this section.

             Direct Screen Writes - This tells Ezycom if you want it
             to write the information directly to the screen or use
             the BIOS (slow).


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                 Check for Snow - If you have an old CGA Card, Ezycom may
                 cause snow on your screen due to the way it writes to
                 the screen.  If you enable this option, Ezycom will
                 check your system set-up and if it detects snow it will
                 do its screen writes in a way so as to prevent it
                 occurring.

                 40/50 Line Mode - If you have a EGA/VGA card and screen,
                 you can utilise its enhanced capabilities by setting
                 this option to Yes.  This will display more lines on the
                 screen depending on the Card/Screen you have.  This will
                 enable you to see more files and more of a message on
                 the screen at any one time.

                 Screen Blanking - When Ezycom is in Waiting for Caller
                 mode, you could possibly get screen burn in if your
                 monitor is left on all that time.  Setting this option
                 to a time period in seconds will tell Ezycom to BLANK
                 the screen after waiting that time, thus SAVING your
                 monitor. Note this only works in standalone mode.


              The Manager
              The Manager
              The Manager

              The Manager menu in CONFIG contains many very important
              submenus full of settings vital to Ezycom's primary
              function. Such settings as security levels, system events
              and file compression settings can be found here.


              Managing Security Levels
              Managing Security Levels
              Managing Security Levels

              Ezycom allows you to define up to 65536 different security
              levels, each with its own individual characteristics. These
              settings are laid out in two columns for each security
              level in the Limits submenu. To create a new security level
              you hit the INS key and all the options will be blanked or
              be at defaults.  Type the security level number that you
              wish to define, then fill out the blanks as you see fit for
              that level. Each option is explained for you below.

              Column 1

                 Security Level -  Naturally this is where the security
                 level number you are currently working on is defined.

                 Maximum Time - This sets the maximum time per day that
                 you allow for this security level.








                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      27
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             Baud Daily K limit - Here you will see that for each
             valid baud rate (300, 1200, 1275, 2400, 4800, 7200,
             9600, 12000, 14400 & 19200) you can define a daily
             kilobyte limit for this security level at that connect
             speed. This is important as a 2400 bps user can only get
             one sixth the amount of files in the same period of time
             as a 14400 bps user can so it may be necessary to vary
             the limit for each speed. A setting of Zero does not
             disable the limit, it actually sets it to Zero (ie NO
             downloads). Setting 65000 will effectively give this
             security an unlimited download limit for the given
             speed(s).

             Global Daily K - Type in a value on this option and each
             baud rate will immediately be set to that limit. If you
             wish to give an across the board limit, this will be
             easier than typing each one in separately.


          Column 2

             Downloads per One Upload - This sets the Download Ratio
             Factor (by number of files) for this security. This is
             the number of Downloads a user on this level can have
             before he/she must Upload a file.  This ratio means that
             when it is set to one, a user must upload 1 file for
             every file he/she downloads.  When the ratio is set to
             2, the user must upload 1 file for every 2 files the
             user downloads.  When the ratio is set to 3, the user
             must upload 1 file for every 3 files the user downloads,
             and so on. To disable this option, set the ratio to
             Zero.

             Initial Download Credit (Files) - This setting sets how
             many files the user can download before the files ratio
             is enforced. That is, if set to 1, a user can download 1
             file before he/she has to upload. Setting the credit to
             0 means the user must Upload BEFORE he/she can download,
             provided of course a file ratio was previously defined.
             Essentially this option is for allowing a ratio grace
             period for new users.

             Downloads in k per One K Uploaded - This is simular to
             ratio by files except it applies to kilobytes. For
             instance, if this was set to 5, then for every kilobyte
             the user uploads, he/she can download 5 kilobytes.

             Initial Download K Credit - This is the initial free
             kilobytes credit you give the user.  The examples used
             above are similar to this situation, except that the
             ratio applies to kilobytes not files.





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                 Post Call Ratio (%) - This is a percentage.  Just enter
                 the percent of calls to message ratio you want this
                 security to have.  Setting the percentage 100% means
                 that a user MUST post one message for every call he/she
                 makes.  Setting the percentage to 200% means the user
                 MUST post 2 messages for every call he/she makes.
                 Setting the percentage to 50% means the user MUST post 1
                 message every two calls he/she makes.  Setting the
                 percentage to 0% disables the option for this security
                 level.

                 Initial Message Credit - Again the initial credit gives
                 the user some "breathing space" before the post call
                 ratio is enforced.

              Note: The previous two options have no affect unless menu
              access controls are used to limit access to other functions
              such as downloads on the basis of this setting.

                 Number of Days till Rego Expires - This is used to
                 calculate when this user level's registration date will
                 expire.  At the point of expiring, REGEXP.Q-A is
                 executed at logon for that user (see  the section on
                 Questionnaires for more details). Setting this value to
                 365 would mean that the registration for a user on this
                 level would expire 365 days after the date set in the
                 rego date field of that user's record (this is usually
                 the date of when they first logon although you can
                 modify this date as required using EZYED).

                 Maximum Time in Bank (mins) - This is the maximum time
                 in minutes a user on this security level, may build up
                 in the bank before they will no longer be able to
                 deposit more time.

                 Maximum Time to Deposit per Day - Use this to control
                 the maximum amount of time users on this security level
                 can deposit in the bank each day.

                 Maximum Time to Withdraw per Day  - This allows you to
                 control how much time users on this level can withdraw
                 each day from the time bank.

                 Maximum K in Bank - This option controls the maximum
                 number of kilobytes a user may store in the bank before
                 they will no longer be able to deposit more kilobytes.

                 Maximum K to Deposit per Day  - This controls how many
                 kilobytes users on this level can deposit into the bank
                 each day.

                 Maximum K to Withdraw per Day  - This is the opposite to
                 the above, controlling how many kilobytes a user on this
                 level can withdraw from the bank each day.


                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      29
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             Maximum Calls per Day - A useful feature, this allows
             you to control how many times per day a user on this
             level can call your BBS. This setting uses Minimum time
             to call setting (explained previously) as a threshold.
             That value must be reached for a call to be counted
             against this setting for a user on this level.


          _____
          Notes: To delete a security level just hit the DEL key.

          Hit 'P' to get a Pick List of all the security levels you
          have set-up.  Moving between the security levels can also
          be achieved by using the PgUp and PgDn keys.


          Managing System Events
          Managing System Events
          Managing System Events

          A system event is merely something your system must do at a
          particular time of the day. You can use system events to do
          things like daily maintenance, process mail, make a new
          master file list and hundreds of other things.

          To create an event just hit the INS key and you will be
          able to enter a number of settings for that event.

             Start Time - Simply the time (in 24 hour format) when
             this event must start.

             Status - Toggle this to enable or disable this event.

             Errorlevel  - This defines the errorlevel at which this
             event will exit at. Your batch file would then trap this
             errorlevel and take appropriate action.

             Days Active - This option will give you a submenu that
             allows you to set which days this event will occur on.
             You can set individual days or move down the bottom and
             use the All On/All Off options to globally change the
             days.


          Events -Things To Remember

             If a user is on-line when an event should take place,
             they are automatically dropped off so that the event can
             be processed.

             Events are triggered 5 minutes earlier than the actual
             start time, so it can be possible for Ezycom to come
             back on-line before the actual event start time.  If
             this occurs, Ezycom will NOT trigger the event again, it
             will continue as per normal.




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                 If Ezycom is not running when an event occurs, then
                 Ezycom will NOT execute the event when fired up.

                 Events are also checked for each time a user logs in. If
                 one is approaching and that user's normal time limit
                 would cause them to over-run that event, then their time
                 will be cut back to 5 minutes before that event and they
                 will be informed so. The user is however allowed to bank
                 that lost time in the time bank later if they so wish.

                 The command line parameter for passing the time till the
                 next system event from a front-end mailer (-T) takes
                 precedence over any events defined in Ezycom.


              _____
              Notes: Use DEL to remove events and press 'P' to bring up a

              Pick list of your events. PgUp and PgDn will also scroll
              through your defined events.


              Compression Settings
              Compression Settings
              Compression Settings

              In the Manager menu of CONFIG you will find two menu
              options Compression and UnCompression. These settings are
              used for a wide variety of operations within Ezycom
              including online master list making, QWK offline mail
              packet production network mailing and even in other
              external file management utilities. You probably need not
              concern yourself with these settings as the defaults are
              quite satisfactory and will work provided you have all the
              listed programs somewhere on your system PATH. However, a
              brief explanation follows should you wish to alter anything
              here.

              Compression

              This is where you define the compression command line
              parameters for your archiver utilities. Beside each
              supported method is the actual command line passed to the
              appropriate utility. If you are sending mail with old
              echomail processors using LHA, then you might have to
              replace the -tm with -otm.

                   ZIP  :    PKZIP.EXE      -ao
                   LHA  :    LHA.EXE        a -tm
                   ARJ  :    ARJ.EXE        a -ey
                   ARC  :    PKARC.COM      -oct -a
                   PAK  :    PAK.EXE        A /O /WA /L
                   ZOO  :    ZOO.EXE        a:
                   SQZ  :    SQZ.EXE





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          UnCompression

          This is where you define the decompression command line
          parameters for your archive handling utilities. The
          defaults are shown below:

               ZIP  :    PKUNZIP.EXE    -o
               LHA  :    LHA.EXE        e /cnm
               ARJ  :    ARJ.EXE        e -y
               ARC  :    PKXARC.COM     -r
               PAK  :    PAK.EXE        e /wa
               ZOO  :    ZOO.EXE        -e
               SQZ  :    SQZ.EXE


          Configuring Modem Settings
          Configuring Modem Settings
          Configuring Modem Settings

          This section is used to control your modem itself. If you
          do not set these options correctly, communication with your
          modem may not function as it should. If you are having
          problems getting your modem to answer, the problem is
          likely to lie somewhere in your settings here.

             Comport - This merely specifies which communications
             (serial) port your modem is connected to ie.  1 for
             COM1, 2 for COM2. Ezycom supports COM1 to COM8.

             Maximum Baud Rate - Sets the maximum baud rate your
             modem supports.  To select a baud rate press RETURN till
             the correct baud rate appears.  This is the speed your
             modem will be initialised at.  Valid baud rates are 300,
             1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200 &  38400.

             Locked Port - This is usually set to No for most slow
             modems (2400 or lower) but for high speed modems  it is
             usually Yes. The Maximum Baud Rate (above) should be set
             to the locked speed if this option is set.

             Lower DTR when BUSY - This is not advised, but in some
             countries it is illegal to have the modem off-hook
             (holding the line open to make it busy) when the BBS is
             not available for calls. Use this option to lower the
             DTR signal on the comport instead. This will ensure the
             modem cannot answer calls whilst this is the case. For
             most modems, this normally prevents the modem from auto-
             answering an incoming call.










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                 Off Hook - After a caller disconnects or Ezycom logs a
                 user off, your BBS may process mail or do other things
                 before becoming available to answer the next call. If
                 this is the case, use this option to cause Ezycom to
                 immediately take the modem off-hook on exit whilst this
                 is occurring (hence making the phone line seem engaged)
                 and to prevent it from ringing until the modem is next
                 initialised ready for another caller.

                 Init Response - This the response sent back by your
                 modem after a command has been issued. This is usually
                 set to 'OK'.

                 Ring String - This field allows you to define the ring
                 response from your modem when a ring signal has been
                 detected as the result of an incoming call.  Usually
                 this is set to 'RING'.

                 Modem Delay - Many modems cannot accept command strings
                 at full speed. Because of this, an inter-character delay
                 (in tenths of a second) is needed. For high speed modems
                 this can often be set to 1 or 2 but for most modems set
                 it to a value between 4 and 8. If you are having trouble
                 getting an OK back from the modem, try increasing this
                 value.

                 Force Answer - This determines if Ezycom should answer
                 the phone or whether the modem should.  If you select
                 Yes then Ezycom will send a manual answer string to the
                 modem to make it answer.  Make sure ATS0=0 is in your
                 Init String (or in it's stored active profile) for this
                 option to work (else both Ezycom and the modem will try
                 to answer a call). If you select No then the modem will
                 have to answer the call.  Make sure you have ATS0=1 (or
                 higher) in your init string (or profile) for this
                 option.  However the recommend setting is Yes as it
                 proves Ezycom is up and running otherwise if the system
                 crashes, users will still get connected, but the BBS
                 will not respond.

                 Answer Delay (1/10s) - This is the delay (in 10ths of a
                 second) that Ezycom will wait after receiving a RING
                 signal, before it sends the Answer command to the modem.
                 Some modems will not answer reliably if this option is
                 not carefully set. Experimentation will find the most
                 suitable setting for your modem. 7 is a good value to
                 start at.

                 Start Time - This allows you to define the start time
                 for when Ezycom is to begin answering the line.  Make
                 sure Force Answer is set to Yes.  This is useful if you
                 are only running a part time BBS.




                                   Chapter 2 - Basic Configuration      33
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             End Time - This defines when Ezycom will cease to answer
             the modem. Note both these times are in 24 hour format.

             Init Tries - Here you can specify how many times Ezycom
             will send the initialisation string to the modem before
             giving up should it not get an appropriate response
             back. Usually you set this to a value between 5 and 10.

             Init String 1 - Type your modem initialisation string in
             here.  This is the command which is sent to the modem to
             initialise it and prepare it to answer calls. Use the
             pipe '|' symbol on the end of your string to achieve a
             carriage return in the string. If your modem has an
             Active Profile in NVRAM it is more convenient to store
             all your settings in there and use a simple ATZ| to
             recall them on each initialisation.

             Init String 2 - This is used if you want to send more
             than one initialisation string to your modem.

             Set Busy String - Use this to put your modem into the
             busy state ie. hold the line open or off hook. Usually
             you would set this to 'ATH1|'.

             Manual Answer String  - If you selected Yes to Force
             Answer, then this is the string that is sent to your
             modem to force it to answer the call.  The default is
             'ATA|'.

             No Carrier String - This is the response your modem
             sends to the computer when loss of carrier (connection)
             occurs. Normally this would be 'NO CARRIER'.

             Fax Connect String - Ezycom has built in support for
             Fax/Modems. When an incoming call is detected to be a
             fax (by a string that matches the one set in this
             option), Ezycom will exit with errorlevel 10 from which
             you can get your batch file to fire up fax receiving
             software (such as BGFAX).

             Send BREAK to Modem - This option tells Ezycom to send a
             break signal to your modem when clearing the FOSSIL
             buffer. This is mainly for use with high speed modems
             with internal buffers (such as the US Robotics Courier
             HST).  If you are not sure whether to place this option
             On or Off then LEAVE IT OFF! Used incorrectly it can do
             more harm than good.









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              Setting Up Baud Rates
              Setting Up Baud Rates
              Setting Up Baud Rates

              Also found on the Modem menu in CONFIG is a submenu called
              Baud Rate Setup. Here you will find a scrolling list of
              valid baud rates (use PgUp and PgDn to view them) and two
              settings belonging to each (other than the baud rate
              itself).

                 Efficiency (CPS) - This is used to measure the
                 efficiency of a transfer Usually this is worked out on
                 10 % of the modem baud rate (since transfers occur in 10
                 bit words). For example 300 baud would be 30, 1200 baud
                 would be 120 and so on. However for HST modems this is
                 not quite true as a HST can do 1600(cps) or greater for
                 14400 baud.  For HST users the best setting would be
                 about 1650(cps).  This efficiency setting is used to
                 work out download time estimates.

                 Connect String - This is the connect string that the
                 modem passes to Ezycom for a given baud rate. For
                 example CONNECT 2400, CONNECT 9600. Make sure you end
                 the CONNECT for 300 baud with a pipe '|' or else all
                 CONNECTs will look like 300 baud! This setting only
                 affects Ezycom in standalone mode.


              Conclusion
              Conclusion
              Conclusion

              This brings us to the end of the most basic configuration
              options in Ezycom's CONFIG utility. The next section will
              deal with the more complicated issues of setting up file
              and message areas. By now you should have a good
              understanding of the basic features of Ezycom and be
              feeling ready to launch into file and message areas. If you
              are still lacking confidence with some of the features
              discussed in this section, go back and read over them again
              now. Be sure to have a fiddle with them while doing so
              before moving on to the next chapter.


















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                                                             Chapter 3

                                                  File & Message Areas


          Introduction
          Introduction
          Introduction

          Probably the two main and most used services that a BBS
          offers are file transfer and electronic mail services.
          Ezycom provides a powerful implementation of both these
          service types. While it is relatively simple to set-up
          these services, the shear quantity of available options
          that Ezycom provides for you to control them is often
          overwhelming to the new sysop or even to converting sysop
          who is new to Ezycom.

          This section of the documentation will attempt to de-
          mystify the many features they encompass. In order to
          simply this introductory look at message areas, you will
          note relatively no mention of network mail. This topic is
          covered at length in its own chapter later on. If you are a
          relatively experienced sysop, you may need to only briefly
          scan this section to get to main ideas and then move onto
          the electronic mail section.


          File Areas With Ezycom
          File Areas With Ezycom
          File Areas With Ezycom

          Ezycom provides you with one of the fastest and most
          flexible database file systems available in BBS packages
          today. The current version provides for up to 65535
          distinct file areas and/or up to 65535 different paths on
          which the contents of these may reside. Ezycom is TOTALLY
          path independent so files in the same physical path can be
          very easily broken up into several logical file areas and
          yet still retain their link with their common path. This
          provides for some interesting possibilities, for example,
          files can exist in one path but be available from more than
          one area. The scope is enormous and it is hoped you will
          enjoy taking advantage of this.















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              Creating File Areas
              Creating File Areas
              Creating File Areas

              The majority of Ezycom's file-base system is controlled
              from the File Areas menu in CONFIG. The file areas
              themselves are defined in the submenu also named File
              Areas. Upon selecting this option you will find yourself in
              a scrollable (by PgUp and PgDn) list of all the file areas.
              You may as always also use the Pick List (press 'P') to
              move between areas. The Home key will take you to the first
              option, End will take you to the last and pressing CTRL
              with the PgUp & PgDn keys will take you to the first and
              last areas respectively. Each file area has a number of
              options. The purpose of each of these will be explained
              now.

                 File Area Name - This is simply a description for the
                 file area that will show up in all file scans, area
                 lists and so on. If you support multiple computer types
                 on your system, it is wise to specify which computer
                 these files are for as part of the description. Note
                 also how the file area number is show in brackets before
                 the area name.

                 Area Path - This is the DEFAULT path for this area.
                 Whenever files are PHYSICALLY moved to this area they
                 will be placed in the path shown here. Paths are defined
                 elsewhere in the configuration and will be explained in
                 the next section. Notice this option also shows the file
                 path number in front of the actual path. To modify the
                 path being used, you may either type its number manually
                 if you happen to know it or use the 'S' key to bring up
                 a scrollable list of all paths and pick it from there
                 visually.

                 Upload File Area - Whenever a file is uploaded to this
                 area, it will be placed into the area indicated by this
                 option. This is useful because it allows you to place
                 all files for say IBM area into an IBM Upload area
                 rather than allowing files to be directly uploaded into
                 individual areas (which can present problems). You may
                 wish files to go to an hidden area for processing by you
                 or possibly to a public area where suitable warnings
                 about the files being unchecked are posted. The path the
                 files will end up in is the default path for the upload
                 area specified. Once again, you may either enter the
                 number for the area required or use the 'S' key to
                 visually search for the area.









                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      37
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             File Group - You may or may not wish to use this option.
             Ezycom allows files (and indeed message areas) to be
             grouped together in a manner to suit the sysop's needs.
             For example, if you have IBM files and Amiga files you
             may wish to group the IBM files with the letter 'I' and
             Amiga files with the letter 'A' and then use special
             menu options (explained later) to make it so only one
             group or the other containing those types of files,
             shows up at the user's request. It is probably best to
             leave this option till you gain an understanding of menu
             commands.

             Conversion - This allows you to ensure that all files in
             this area conform to a given archiving method. Use ENTER
             to toggle through the various available options. Ezycom
             uses the Checked flag along with its EZYMAINT utility
             (see later) to determine whether a file should be
             converted. It is often best to only set this option for
             Upload areas and so set None for areas you do not wish
             to convert files in.

             Off-line Allowed  - This option has 3 different settings
             available. Setting it to No means that if a file in the
             database is found not to be present in its path
             location, then it will be DELETED from the database
             during maintenance. Setting this to Yes means that the
             file will be simply marked as Offline and not be
             deleted. Setting this option to Yes & Keep Offline means
             that any files marked Offline will not be checked during
             the next run of EZYMAINT for an online status again (ie.
             they will stay marked as offline regardless of whether
             that/those files now exist again). This option is useful
             if you have CD-ROM disks online that you rotate every
             day or two through a single drive (or multiple drives
             but have more disks than drives). Set Offline Allowed to
             Yes for this to work and be sure to run a filebase
             maintenance (see later) after changing disks.

             Sort by  - This controls the sorting of the file list.
             There are once again three possible settings. None means
             no sorting of this area list will be done. Alpha means
             alphabetical A to Z sorting will be done. Date means a
             most recent to oldest file date sorting will be done on
             this area. The latter is useful for public upload area
             as the newest files will always appear at the top.
             Generally Alpha sort is the best one to use, it makes
             finding files a lot easier. Note however that sorting is
             not done on the fly. EZYMAINT (see later) is required to
             be run to achieve the sorting.







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                 Use in Master List - This specifies whether or not this
                 area should be included in any master lists generated.
                 There are several options available. Ezymast
                                                      Ezymast
                                                      Ezymast means this
                 area can be included in a list made by the Ezycom
                 utility EZYMAST (see Chapter 5). Online
                                                  Online
                                                  Online means this area
                 can be included in a master list generated online by the
                 appropriate menu command (see Appendix A).  Naturally
                 Online & Ezymast
                 Online & Ezymast
                 Online & Ezymast means it can be in both and No
                                                              No
                                                              No means
                 not at all.

                 User  Security  - This specifies the security level
                 required to access this file area. It will not show up
                 in file lists etc unless the user has this security or
                 higher. Note however that this has nothing to do with
                 the ability to access files in this area. That is still
                 controlled by the security on the relevant file path.

                 User  Flags - Like the above this controls which flags a
                 user must have set to access this area.

                 Sysop Security - This specifies the sysop security
                 access for this area so that files with Security status
                 set (for instance) will show up when viewing the area.

                 Sysop Flags - Similarly this controls the flags required
                 for sysop status in this area.

                 Minimum Age - If you type a number here a user must be
                 this age or older to have access to the FILE LIST for
                 this area.

                 Show in New Files - When this option is set to Yes, this
                 area will be checked for new files when a user requests
                 a New File Scan. Set this option to No for CD-ROM areas
                 since these will not get new files added to them. This
                 will save a lot of time during new file scans.

                 No Descriptions - Set this to Yes if you do not wish
                 Ezycom to request a description after a user uploads a
                 file to this area. Setting this option to No means a
                 user will always be asked to describe their upload(s)
                 when uploading to this area.

              Note: Alt-D can be used to completely delete the file area
              currently being shown.











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          Setting Up File Area Paths
          Setting Up File Area Paths
          Setting Up File Area Paths

          The next option down on the File Areas menu in CONFIG is
          the File Paths submenu. This is where all the paths where
          file areas are actually located, are defined. The ability
          to access these various file paths is controlled from here
          also. The options available are as follows. Use PgUp & PgDn
          to move between paths as well as 'P' to get a pick-list to
          visually select the path to examine. The Home & End keys
          take you to the first and last option respectively and
          pressing CTRL along with PgUp & PgDn takes you to the first
          and last path configurations respectively.

             File Path - This is a fully qualified DOS path name and
             must be valid for this file path to actually work. It
             should include the drive name and all the sub-
             directories one must traverse to get to the actual
             directory. If you leave the trailing back-slash off,
             CONFIG will automatically add it for you.

             Files.BBS - This is the path to the file list for this
             area for the purpose of adopting files not already
             listed in it. The default is FILES.BBS in the path
             specified for this area.

             Dnld Security - This defines the minimum security a user
             must have in order to download files from this file
             path. Notice this is not file area, but file path. The
             path and file area have independent security controls.
             This also affects the ability to use the menu option to
             view archives in this path (see later).

             Dnld Flags - Like the above this controls what flags a
             user must posses to download files from this path.

             File Area - This defines the default file area for this
             path. Any stray files found in this path (but not
             listed) during an appropriate run of EZYMAINT will be
             automatically added to this file area's list for you.
             Once again either a number of pressing 'S' will allow
             you to set this area easily.

             Password - If you enter a password here, any time a user
             wishes to download a file from this area, they will need
             to enter this password.

             CD Rom Path - Defines whether this path is on a CD-ROM
             or not. This is used for special handling in EZYMAINT
             since it cannot write to such paths.







          40
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                 Free Path - This specifies whether files downloaded from
                 here count against a users daily kilobyte limit or not.
                 They still however need to have enough time to download
                 the files they select. Anything downloaded from a Free
                 path does not get recorded against a user's download
                 record (although it is logged naturally).

                 Adopt Files - If you set this to Yes, then Ezycom will
                 attempt to adopt files found in this path that are not
                 already in the file database whenever EZYADOPT or
                 EZYFILE is run.

                 Min Age - Placing a number here (in years) will control
                 the minimum age a user must be to able to access files
                 in this path. This is normally used to prevent under age
                 access to x-rated material and the like.

              ____
              Note: Alt-D once again completely deletes the settings for

              the currently displayed path.


              Miscellaneous File Area Options
              Miscellaneous File Area Options
              Miscellaneous File Area Options

              The next option on the File Areas menu is another submenu
              called Misc which contains many general options for file
              area control. Each will now be explained in turn.

                 Usable File Areas - Setting this only to the required
                 level will speed the filebase up dramatically. The
                 absolute maximum is 65535 but in practice you are not
                 likely to need anywhere near this many. You can always
                 increase this value at a later date.

                 Minimum Upload Space (k) - This specifies how much free
                 space (in kilobytes) there must be on the destination
                 path's drive for an upload to be allowed to take place.
                 Any less than this value and the upload request will be
                 refused by Ezycom. This prevents users from filling your
                 hard disk completely.

                 EzyMaint Conversion Swap - This tells EZYMAINT whether
                 to Swap out Memory (leaving 4k resident) when processing
                 DOCONV.BAT (archive conversion).  You can select either
                 EMS, XMS or DISK.  Two other options, XMS/EMS and
                 EMS/XMS, exist to allow EZYMAINT to check for the
                 existence/use of these memory management devices in the
                 order shown.

                 FEdit View Swap - Simular to EZYMAINT conversion swap
                 only this controls swapping when you choose to view a
                 file/archive in FEDIT, the file area manager (see
                 later).



                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      41
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             Swap Out on Upload Checks - This setting is only used if
             you use the UPCONV.BAT file that comes with Ezycom.
             After an upload, if UPCONV.BAT in present in the Ezycom
             directory, it will check the file(s) uploaded for
             integrity, scan for Viruses (if you have and use Scan by
             McAfee) and convert archive types if needed.  So if you
             set this option to Yes it will give the running programs
             plenty of room to do its work.

             Minimum Ignore FPs Sec - This option sets the minimum
             security level that your users must have in order not to
             have to not worry about being caught by the filepoint
             ratios.

             FPs credited for Download (%) - This sets the percentage
             of a filepoint that should be given to the uploader of
             the file a user has downloaded.  That is, the more
             downloads a file gets, the more filepoints the uploader
             will receive.
             Time of Upload FPs Given (%) - This sets the percentage
             of filepoints given, when the user UPLOADS a file to the
             system.  You may wish to set this to NULL, so that the
             user ONLY receives filepoints for POPULAR files.  That
             is, files that are downloaded.

             1 File Point is worth (k) - This tells Ezycom how many
             kilobytes a file point is worth.  Any amount you think
             fit could be used here anywhere from 1k to 255k.  The
             higher the amount in k, the less accurate filepoints is.
             That is, if you set this to 30k, downloading a 10k file
             is free in terms of filepoints.  Setting this option to
             0k, DISABLES the filepoints system.

             Upload Time Credit Factor (%) - This is the percentage
             of time a user receives for uploading a file.  Eg.  100%
             would mean that the user loses no time for uploading,
             whereas 200% would give the user double the time back
             that he/she spent uploading.

             Min Description Length - This is the minimum length of
             the description(s) you wish the user to give for file(s)
             he/she has just uploaded to your BBS.

             Max Description Length - This is similar to the above
             option only it sets the maximum length of a description
             that an uploader can give.

             Delete Incomplete Uploads - If this option is set to
             'Yes', Ezycom will kill any incomplete uploads.  But if
             you do set this, Zmodem or any other protocol that
             allows recovery of aborted uploads, will not function
             correctly.




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                 Move Local Uploads - When you (the sysop) locally upload
                 files to the BBS, you can set this option to Yes so that
                 the files will be deleted from their original location
                 after being copied to BBS. For safety reasons but, you
                 may want to set this to 'No' so a copy is made of the
                 file(s) you upload and they are not deleted from their
                 original location, handy should something go wrong
                 during the uploading process.


              Controlling The Look & Feel Of File Lists
              Controlling The Look & Feel Of File Lists
              Controlling The Look & Feel Of File Lists

              Ezycom allows complete control over the look and feel of
              the file lists it displays. This feature of Ezycom is
              configured from the File List submenu in CONFIG. Each
              option will be explained briefly now.

              These first set of eight options configure how USERS will
              see file lists.

                 User Show Date - This will show the date of the files in
                 the list. This will give the user an idea of how old the
                 files are.

                 User Show FileSize - This tells Ezycom how and whether
                 to display the file size to the user online. It can
                 either be in kilobytes, bytes or the file size not be
                 displayed at all.  If you pick None you may wish to
                 display the file points for the file instead.

                 User Uploader - If this is set to Yes, Ezycom will show
                 the user who uploaded each of the files that they are
                 looking at.

                 User Download Count - This shows the user how many times
                 the files listed have been downloaded by your users.
                 This may be a good indication to them which files are
                 better due to their popularity.

                 User Show Security - When a file is marked with a
                 Security flag (using FEDIT), you can optionally show
                 that these files are security files.  The default would
                 display an "S" on any security files.

                 User Transfer Time - With this option set to Yes, Ezycom
                 will tell the user how long it would take them to
                 download the files.  This is an estimate based on the
                 baud rate used. Slower speed users will greatly
                 appreciate this information.







                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      43
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             User Show File Points - This shows how many file points
             each file is worth so the user can quickly work-out if
             they can download the file, as long as they know how
             many points they have left.  This option only displays
             file points if the user does not have the Ignore File
             Points flag set on for their account, or their security
             is below the Ignore File Points Security.  As File
             Points are only in the registered versions of Ezycom,
             this feature also only works in registered versions.

             User Show Security Files - With this option set,
             security files will be shown in file lists to all users.
             Unless User Show Security is set however, the user will
             not know the file has this status unless they try to tag
             it and do not have the required access.


          Following these are a further seven options for the sysop's
          file list look and feel. These are Sysop Show Date, Sysop
          Show Filesize, Sysop Uploader, Sysop Download Count, Sysop
          Show Security, Sysop Transfer Time and Sysop Show File
          Points. They work in the same manner to the user file list
          options only they apply to the sysop list.

          Highlight New Files - If this option is set, then all new
          files are highlighted, and the rest of the files are dull.
          This means new files will immediately stand out from the
          rest.

          Show New Files Character - This option selects whether you
          wish the new files indicator '*' to be shown, not shown or
          just shown to ASCII users (since they cannot see colour and
          so the highlighting will not be visible to them if set
          above).

          Security Files Char - This is the same as the above option
          only that it applies to files that the user has not enough
          security to download. It will show the character specified
          here beside any such file when the user is looking at a
          file list.
















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              Securing Specific Files
              Securing Specific Files
              Securing Specific Files

              In the File Sec submenu of the File Areas menu, you can
              configure Ezycom to have special settings on specific files
              in the filebase. You can use these settings to put a
              password on a specific file or group of files and or you
              can make such files free. Press INS to create a new entry,
              DEL to delete the currently displayed entry or ENTER to
              edit that entry. Like most other options, 'P' gives a pick
              list view of defined entries, PgUp and PgDn move up and
              down between entries. The Home and End keys move to the
              first and last fields of the current entry and CTRL when
              combined with PgUp and PgDn will move to the first and last
              entry respectively.

                 Filename - This is the file that the listed options will
                 apply to.  This can contain wildcards such as '*.GIF'.
                 Note that Ezycom will 'translate' wildcards for
                 performance reasons into something like '????????.GIF'.

                 Security - This is the minimum security level needed to
                 download/view the file(s) listed.

                 Flags - Like the previous option, these are the required
                 security access flags for the file specification on this
                 entry.

                 Password  - If a password is placed here, then the user
                 will have to supply the correct password to
                 download/view the file.

                 Sec Action  - This works the same as the option for
                 download paths in the earlier part of CONFIG. This will
                 control what sort of reason a user will be given if they
                 are unable to tag/view the file(s) specified in this
                 entry.

                 Free File - A free file does not count against a users
                 daily download total. Setting this to Yes enables this
                 effect. You may find this useful for say your master
                 file list or your membership application form.

                 Age Check - If this is set to yes then Ezycom will check
                 the user's age against the age set elsewhere in CONFIG.
                 If the user is younger than the test age, then they will
                 not be allowed access to the specified file(s).
              ____
              Note: Any settings in the section will take precedence over

              other security controls. Be careful when defining these
              entries.






                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      45
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          Time Saving Global Functions
          Time Saving Global Functions
          Time Saving Global Functions

          The File Areas menu also contains a powerful submenu called
          Global. Here there are many useful options for making
          widespread changes to your file area configurations. They
          will save you time if used correctly. However used
          incorrectly and the results can be disastrous. Be careful
          with these options. Each is now explained in some detail.

          Set Default Security

          Selecting this option will enable a pop-up window that
          shows a number of options that deal with security on all
          aspects of the file base.

             (U)ser File Area Security - If you use this option you
             will be setting the user security for ALL of your file
             areas.  This maybe the best option to use if you have
             many file areas that all your users have access to and
             you only have a few areas that normal users don't have
             access to. Then you just have to go to each special area
             and change them individually.

             (S)ysop File Area Security - As with the previous option
             this sets all the file area sysop securities.  If you
             have different sysops for different file areas you
             would/should have different security levels for each
             sysop.  If they are the same, all of them would be
             sysops of each other's areas.  The other way to make
             them different is to use the flags (see next sub-
             section)

             (P)rotocol Security - This will set the security level
             needed for any user to gain access to the file transfer
             protocols.  If set too high, none of your users will be
             able to upload or download files from your system.

             (F)ile Path Security - This will set the level of
             security needed to gain access to all of the file paths
             in use on the system.

             (I)ndividual File Sec - If you have files that you want
             protected by a separate security level you can set them
             all to the same security level with this option.

             (Q)uit - This naturally quits this option and returns
             you to the Global menu.









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              Set Default Flags

              Like the previous option, this option also displays another
              pop-up window.

              (U)ser File Flags,       (S)ysop File Flags,
              (P)rotocol Flags,             (F)ile Path Flags,
              (I)ndividual File Flags or    (Q)uit :

              Each option in the list is the virtually the same as the
              previous sub-menu and affects the flags in the same way.
              The only difference is that a flag window pops up upon
              selecting the type of action to take. If you set an 'X' on
              one of the flags, then all of the records will have that
              flag set On.  If you set an 'O' on one the of the flags,
              then all of the records will have that flag set off.
              Leaving flags as '-' will cause Ezycom not to touch that
              flag.


              Set File Area Conversion

              This displays a smaller pop-up window which allows you to
              change the conversion type globally. It will look something
              like:

              SPACE=Change, ENTER=Accept and ESC=Quit : None

              By toggling the displayed option with the space bar you can
              set the default conversion type to None, ZIP, LZH, ARJ etc.
              Then if you hit the ENTER key, Ezycom will set all areas to
              that type of conversion. Hit ESC to exit with NO change.


              Set File Area Sort

              This option works simular to the previous one only it
              applies to the type of file list sorting you wish to use
              globally. Again by hitting the space bar you are able to
              toggle between the options, which are None, Date or Alpha.
              The ENTER and ESC keys behave the same as with the previous
              option.


              Set File Area Offline

              Once again a simular selection box will pop-up for this
              option. This time the options are No, Yes or Yes & Keep
              Off.  These globally set the Offline status allowed for
              file areas as previously explained earlier in this chapter.






                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      47
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          Miscellaneous Global Options

          The rest of the Global menu contains five other much
          simpler options:

             Set Master File List - You only have two options in this
             pop-up window Yes or No.  Again the space bar will
             toggle this,  ENTER will process the request and  ESC
             will exit. This will of course globally set whether
             areas should or should not be included in a master file
             list made by EZYMAINT. It does NOT affect online master
             lists.

             Set CD Rom Drive - This is to set the drive letters of
             CD-ROM drives if you have them.  The options are C to Z
             for the drive letters.  This option basically sets the
             CD Rom Flag to Yes for ALL paths that are on the
             specified drive.

             Set Security/Not Found - With this option you can set
             Files or Paths to respond with 'Not Found' or 'Not
             Enough Security' as you require when a user cannot
             access a file.

             Centre File Area Names - As the name implies, this
             option will Centre all your file area names so when you
             display them to your users in an ANSI, ASCII or AVATAR
             you can be sure they will all be Centred. Ezycom will
             left and right pad area names with spaces.

             UnCentre File Area Names - This is exactly the same as
             the previous option, except that it does the reverse ie.
             it removes all leading and trailing spaces from all the
             file area names.


          File Transfer Protocols
          File Transfer Protocols
          File Transfer Protocols

          Ezycom comes with its own external protocol engine called
          EZYPROT. It is a fully FOSSIL and multi-tasker aware engine
          and so is made to work regardless of whether you have
          locked com ports or not. Its is a very nice clean looking
          engine featuring status graphs and many other pieces of
          useful information that is updated throughout the transfer.
          The protocol engine comes with XModem, XModem CRC, XModem-
          1K, XModem-1KG, YModem, YModem-G and ZModem.  These
          protocols automatically dupe check on the fly. In other
          words, when a new file is sent, it checks to see if its
          already on the BBS and if so, stops that file from being
          sent.  If the user is using ZModem, then the file is simply
          skipped. But if YModem is being used, then the whole
          transfer is aborted unfortunately.  Single file transfers
          are different since Ezycom stops the user from uploading
          the duplicate file before it passes to EZYPROT.


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              Ezycom also comes with sample set-ups for Moby Turbo (in
              registered versions of DSZ), Lynx, Puma and HSLink.  They
              have been disabled in case you do not have these protocols
              set-up.  If these protocols are installed, then the DSZLOG
              environment variable MUST be set for these to work.
              Normally this would look like:

              SET DSZLOG=C:\EZY\DSZ.1  for node 1
              SET DSZLOG=C:\EZY\DSZ.2  for node 2 (and so on)


              Setting Up A Protocol
              Setting Up A Protocol
              Setting Up A Protocol

              Ezycom allows for virtually any protocol to be installed
              for use by users of your BBS system. Installing new
              protocols is something that requires quite a good deal of
              fiddling however and it is not recommended for the beginner
              to try this just yet. You will need to do some reading into
              the documentation that comes with the protocol as well as
              this documentation in order to get it working correctly.

              We recommend you come back to this section at a later date
              unless you specifically wish to set-up a protocol now. You
              may however wish to quickly glance through this section to
              get a general idea of the options available and what they
              do.
              You may define up to 60 different protocols for Ezycom.
              There are many options you can set for each defined
              protocol. These are as follows:

                 Name - This is the name of the protocol whose set-up is
                 defined by this record. Eg. Zmodem, Puma etc.  Ezycom
                 will use this to display the name to the user online.

                 Key - This is a ONE character key that the user will hit
                 to gain access to this protocol.  This should be a
                 unique key ie. not used by another protocol.

                 Status - The status tells Ezycom what the protocol will
                 be able to do.  This option can be toggled to either
                 Upload, Download, Both or to Disabled.  Use the ENTER
                 key to toggle the status of this option.  If the
                 protocol is disabled it will NOT be shown to users.

                 Batch - This option tells Ezycom if the protocol is able
                 to handle batch uploads or downloads (more than one file
                 in a single run, one after the other).

                 BiDir - This is for the new bi-directional protocols. If
                 you wish Ezycom to be able to detect files that may have
                 been uploaded during a download for instance, then you
                 should enable this. One such bi-directional protocol is
                 HSLink.



                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      49
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             Log Name - This is the name of the log file used.  The
             most common one will be C:\EZY\PROT1\DSZ.*N.  The *N
             will translate to the node being used in a multi-line
             environment.

             Ctrl Name - If the protocol is capable of a batch
             transfer it will most likely need a control file to tell
             it what files to download. Thus you would set this to
             something like C:\EZY\PROT1\FILES.*N.  As in the
             previous section the *N will translate to the node being
             used at the time of calling the protocol.

             Minimum Security - This is the minimum security the user
             must have to gain access to this protocol.

             Flags - This will display a  standard pop-up window for
             flag editing. Users will have to have the flags
             specified in order to use this protocol.

             Download Command - This is the actual command line that
             will be sent to the protocol itself to get the protocol
             begin a transfer.  Make sure that you read the
             documentation on the protocol to get it right.  All the
             usual Type 7 menu option control codes (see later
             chapter) can be placed in the command line to pass
             information such as port and baud rate.  One SPECIAL
             translation character exists exclusively in a transfer
             protocol exit though. The hash '#' character translates
             to the filename of the list of ALL the files that will
             be sent in this session. Using this is important because
             if you are using a BATCH protocol, the number of files
             in the batch could exceed the maximum command line
             length allowed by DOS for parameters (128 characters) so
             only a few files would be sent.  '#' is nearly ALWAYS
             used on batch protocols.

             Download Ctrl - Use this to define the control
             character(s) used by a protocol with batch capability.
             Once again, a special character exists here that will be
             translated.  The at symbol '@' will translate into the
             full path and filename of a file to be downloaded.  If
             multiple files are being sent, then each line will
             contain a path and filename.  Text can also be placed in
             here. For example if you put  'Send @' in this field,
             then this will translate into 'Send C:\FRED1.ZIP' on the
             first line of the control file and "Send C:\FRED2.ZIP"
             on line 2 and so on.

             Download Log Key - This is the key used by the protocol
             to log the download in the log file.






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                 Download Err Key - This is the error key used by the
                 protocol if there is an error that aborts the sending of
                 the file.  As it is possible otherwise for users to
                 receive "FREE" downloads by aborting downloads near the
                 end, it is in your best interests to have aborted
                 downloads LOGGED.

                 Dnload Err2  Key - This is the second error key if the
                 protocol has one.

                 Upload Command - Like the download command this is the
                 actual command line required by the protocol to upload a
                 file to your BBS.  Two SPECIAL characters exist for
                 translation before the protocol is executed.  The '#' is
                 again used but this time it indicates the upload
                 directory WITH a trailing backslash.  If you do NOT want
                 a trailing backslash, simply add a full stop '.' after
                 the hash symbol.  Also a '$' symbol can be used to
                 indicate the filename of the file to be uploaded.  This
                 is only for use with NON-BATCH protocols as they
                 generally require the filename of the file to be
                 uploaded (eg Xmodem).

                 Upload Log Key - This is the key character used by the
                 protocol in the log file it uses.

                 Upload Err Key - This is the error character that is
                 used by Ezycom to determine files that were aborted
                 during the upload process. Primarily this is used to
                 delete aborted uploads, provided the sysop has
                 configured Ezycom to do it.

                 Upload Err2 Key - This is the second error key if the
                 protocol supports one.

                 Efficiency (%) - This is how efficient (percentage wise)
                 the protocol is under normal circumstances.  Ezycom uses
                 this to work out how long the download will take.

                 Log : FileName - This is the position of the filename in
                 words in the log file.  In a DSZ Log format, the
                 position is 11.

                 Log : CPS - This is the position of the CPS rate in
                 words in the log file that the protocol generates.  In a
                 DSZ Log format, the position is 5.


              As always, you can get a pick-list of protocols using 'P',
              move between protocols with PgUp & PgDn, move to the first
              and last fields using Home & End and CTRL combined with
              PgUp and PgDn will move to the first and last protocols
              respectively.



                                  Chapter 3 - File & Message Areas      51
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          DSZ Style Logs

          Below is a brief layout description for a standard DSZ
          style log. This may help you set-up some protocols which
          can use this style.

                          CPS Rate
                            v
          Z 10007 2400 bps 240 cps  0 errors   0  512 C:\CONFIG.SYS
          ^                                                     ^^^^^
          Upload Log Keyword             
          Filename


          Message Areas
          Message Areas
          Message Areas

          Some of Ezycom's most useful functions stem from its
          powerful electronic messaging features. Ezycom features one
          of the world's fastest message database formats and support
          for this format is growing daily. Other major shareware
          packages such as Odin Sorenson's very popular mail reader
          known as GoldEd Version 2.41 (and later) allows the sysop
          to use a powerful message utility directly compatible with
          this format. A vast majority of the settings in CONFIG
          related to message areas are for the configuration of
          networking mailing. These settings will not be discussed in
          this section and can be found in a later chapter in the
          Advanced Features section of this manual. So any options
          skipped here you can safely assume you do not need to know
          about for the time being. Only options necessary to get
          simple local electronic mail functioning will be mentioned
          here.


          Defining Message Areas
          Defining Message Areas
          Defining Message Areas

          In CONFIG you will find a menu entitled Message Areas. On
          this menu you will find another menu option of the same
          name. Selecting this option brings up a large window that
          will allow you to configure each of the individual settings
          a defined message area can have. The relevant settings for
          now are discussed below.

             Msg Area Name - Place a unique title for the message
             area here to identify it from all others.  Try to make
             the name of the area reflect the contents of the
             messages that the area will contain. The message area
             name can be up to 30 characters long.  To effectively
             disable an area, just remove the area name (press CTRL-Y
             to delete the field when in edit mode on it).






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                 QWK Name - If you want users to be able to download this
                 area as part of a QWK offline mail packet (see later)
                 then you MUST define a unique name here (up to 12
                 characters long) that offline mail readers can use to
                 identify the area with.

                 Alias - Use this option to control the use of real names
                 or aliases in this message area. There are 4 possible
                 settings :

                USE ALIAS -             Only the user's alias can be used
                                        in this message area.

                USE ALIAS, ASK FOR ALIAS -  This enables the user to be
                                        prompted to use different alias
                                        to their default, as long as it
                                        is not already used by another
                                        user on the BBS.

                REAL NAMES ONLY -       Only real names can be used in
                                        this area. This is particularly
                                        used for Fidonet echomail
                                        conferences.

                ASK FOR ALIAS -         This gives the user the option to
                                        write a message in the area using
                                        an alias. The alias selected
                                        however can not be used if it
                                        already exists on the BBS.


                 Message Type - This option tells Ezycom what type of
                 messages this area will contain. There are currently six
                 different types of message areas you can configure in
                 Ezycom and the ENTER key will toggle through them. All
                 except two of these (Local and Allmail) are used for
                 network mailing and need not concern you for now
                 although a brief description is given of each following:


                Local           Allows for the exchange of messages only
                                between users of the BBS. Names will be
                                checked upon posting.

                Netmail         Allows you the sending and receiving of
                                private messages to any user on another
                                BBS that is also part of the same mail
                                network that this area is connected to.








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            EchoMail        Allows the exchange of messages between
                            users on BBS's that are linked to the
                            same network and the same echomail
                            conference that this message area is set-
                            up for.  Usually these messages are
                            public and deal with a specific topic.

            PassThru        This option if enabled, tells EZYMAIL
                            that the conference is for forwarding
                            only ie. no mail for this area will be
                            unpacked into your message base but any
                            inbound mail will be forwarded to those
                            in your export list.

            WaitThru        This option is mainly used by Hubs and
                            Hosts of networks.  If a conference is in
                            WaitThru mode, it is not active.  It does
                            however allow a node to turn a conference
                            on at his Hub site by making his Hub
                            request the conference from his Host.

            AllMail         Messages posted to 'All' in this type of
                            area will be shown to All users who have
                            not read them yet on a New Mail Scan. Use
                            this for public announcements that you
                            want all users to see.

             Message Kind - Here you can control the status of
             messages posted into this area from your BBS. They may
             be one of three different types. Use ENTER to toggle
             through these options:


            Public Only     These are message areas that contain
                            messages that any user can read on the
                            BBS, given that they have read security
                            for that area.

            Public/Private  This allows for posting of  both public
                            and private messages in this area.  When
                            leaving a message in one of these areas,
                            the user will be prompted to select if
                            they would like it marked private or not.

            Private Only    Messages posted in this area will be
                            marked private. Private messages are
                            distinct from public messages in that
                            only the user who the message is
                            addressed to or the user who wrote it,
                            can actually read it (the sysop aside
                            naturally).





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                 Message Group - This option allows you to group message
                 areas together. Using this in conjunction with menu
                 options (see later) you can for instance break your
                 message areas up into groups such as IBM & Amiga related
                 message areas. You may then set-up a menu option that
                 allows accessing of only that type of message area. This
                 works the same way as file area groups (see previous
                 section).

                 Kill Old Msgs - This setting is used by Ezycom's MSGCOMP
                 utility (see the chapter on maintenance) to determine
                 how long a message can reside in a message area before
                 being deleted. If you set this field to 7 for example,
                 then all mail older than 7 days will be removed.  If set
                 to ZERO then the age of messages in this area will be
                 ignored.

                 Kill Recv Messages - This works the same as Kill Old
                 Msgs except that MSGCOMP will not delete a message until
                 the specified number of days after the message has been
                 read (received).  If this field is set to ZERO then this
                 option is ignored.

                 Kill Max Msgs - This is the maximum number of messages
                 that can remain in this area after MSGCOMP has been run.
                 For example, if you set Kill Max Msgs to 100, then
                 MSGCOMP will not start deleting messages till 100
                 messages have been reached and then will maintain the
                 area at 100 (failing any other settings causing message
                 to be deleted). When the number of messages exceeds the
                 limit you define here and you invoke MSGCOMP, old
                 messages get removed till the number of messages is
                 equal to the maximum number you have specified.

                 Kill Max Kilobytes - This is the simular to Kill Max
                 Msgs except instead of controlling how many individual
                 messages an area can hold, it is controls how big the
                 message area can be in kilobytes.  This is especially
                 useful for those sysops who have limited disk space.

                 Read Security - This is the minimum security level
                 required by the user to read mail in this area. Security
                 levels can be set from 0-64000. If for example the read
                 security is set to 100, then only users with security
                 100 and above can read the messages in this area.  If
                 however you wish all users to have read access to the
                 area then set Read Security to 0.

                 Write Security - This is the minimum security level
                 required by the user to write messages in the area. This
                 option works the same way as Read Security except that
                 it applies to writing messages in this area.




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             Sysop Security - This is the security level required to
             carry out sysop functions on the message area.  This
             enables the sysop to read all messages in the area even
             if they are private, delete messages, edit users,
             forward messages, export messages to disk or to the
             printer and also edit the message header.

             Read Flags - These are the flags required to read mail
             in the area. There are 32 flags available from A1 to D8.
             These flags work in conjunction with the Read Security
             level. Use ENTER to bring up the pop-up flag box.

             Write Flags - These flags work the same as the Read
             Flags except they work in conjunction with the Write
             Security.

             Sysop Flags - These flags work the same as the Write
             Flags except they work in conjunction with the Sysop
             Security.

             Combined - This option determines whether the user is
             allowed to have combined access to this Message Area.
             Combined access is where a user can do a Mail Check
             and/or Globally Read New messages for any number of
             conferences without having to change into specific areas
             to do so. Normally this would be set to Yes, but under
             some circumstances a No might be required.  The user
             also has the ability to turn combined areas Off.  But if
             this option is set Off they can NEVER turn this area on.
             Use Int Combined (see below) if you want them to have it
             Off to start with but be able to turn it On at a later
             date. This setting also controls the ability for a user
             to access this area in a QWK packet download (see
             later).

             Age Check - Typing a number in this option (in years)
             will make Ezycom test the users age before allowing them
             to access this message area.  It stops them Reading and
             Writing to this area if they are too young.

             Int Combined - This controls whether new users
             automatically initially get combined access to this area
             by default.













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                 Use Template - This controls whether this area should
                 appear in the list of available areas when the user
                 selects the change message area menu option (see later).
                 Thus if this is set to Off, then the only way they can
                 get to this area is if you specifically have a menu
                 option that reads/writes to this area explicitly.

                 Force Mail - This option forces this area to be scanned
                 during a mail check. In normal practice you would have
                 this option set to Yes else users could miss mail
                 addressed to them in this area unless they go and
                 physically look for it. This would be due to them not
                 having this area set on in the combined area
                 configuration.

              _____
              Notes: By pressing PgUp and PgDn you can scroll through

              each message area in numerical order. By pressing 'P' a
              pick list window will be displayed allowing a visual
              selection of the required message area.  Use the Up and
              Down arrow keys to move about the options within each area
              as well as Home and End to move to the first and last
              options. CTRL pressed along with PgUp and PgDn will take
              you to the first and last areas respectively. Alt-D will
              completely delete a message area although the actual
              messages themselves (if present) will not be deleted till
              the next time MSGCOMP is run with the -CLEANUP parameter.
              Pressing ENTER on any option either toggles it or selects
              it for modification by either direct entry or through a
              pop-up list of available choices.


              Moving Message Areas About
              Moving Message Areas About
              Moving Message Areas About

              Using ALT-M you can quickly and easily move or re-arrange
              messages areas. Go to the area you wish to move, then press
              ALT-M. You will then be given a pick list of available
              areas including empty ones. Choose where you wish to move
              the message area to (using the Up/Down and PgUp/PgDn keys)
              and all messages in that area will be moved, along with the
              configuration for it once you press ENTER on the desired
              new location in your message base. All user last read
              pointers are also updated automatically and other
              references to the original area number in CONFIG such as
              the watchdog board number (should you move this area for
              instance) are updated. The ESC key will abort the move
              function. Notice you can also move one area on top of
              another. Be careful as you may do this by accident and
              there is no way to reverse the process once done. Be aware,
              menus are not checked for references to specific message
              areas so you should take care to make sure you don't have
              menu options pointing to a non-existent or the wrong area
              as the result of using this feature.



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          Special Message Related Security Settings
          Special Message Related Security Settings
          Special Message Related Security Settings

          The Message Areas menu contains a submenu entitled
          Security. A couple of the settings in this menu are
          relevant at this stage and will now be explained.

             Security to Update Users - This is the minimum security
             level to allow (usually the sysop) to upgrade users from
             the message reader by pressing 'U' or from the user
             listing by selecting 'Edit'.  In either case you can
             edit the user's security level and flags.

             Request Receipt Security - This sets the minimum
             security level needed to ask for a receipt on a message
             being posted. If you the user has this security level or
             higher, they will be asked if they require a receipt. If
             they ask for one, Ezycom will send a message back to
             that user when the recipient has received that message.
             You MUST have a file called RETRECPT.ASL in your text
             file path for this feature to work.  A sample of
             RETRECPT.ASL in the SETUP.DAT file that comes with
             Ezycom.  This file handles all the smart text codes
             except the change current colour ones (see later).

             Upload Message Security - When writing a message, this
             is the minimum security a user must have to be asked
             whether they want to upload a pre-prepared message (in
             ASCII format). This text file must NOT contain any high-
             ASCII or control codes (including a CTRL-Z terminator)
             else it will be rejected by the system for security
             reasons. If a user is having trouble uploading a
             message, this is probably why they cannot.


          Miscellaneous Message Feature Settings
          Miscellaneous Message Feature Settings
          Miscellaneous Message Feature Settings

          The Misc option on the Message Areas menu controls a number
          of the more general features of Ezycom's message
          facilities. They are now explained.


             Usable Msg Areas - This setting defines the maximum
             number of message areas that will be used. Although the
             maximum is 1536 areas (65535 in the future), if you are
             only using 200 areas for example, the system will
             perform much quicker if you make this setting 200
             instead. This setting works in multiples of 16 so any
             number that is does not have 16 as a factor will be
             rounded up to the nearest such number. The minimum
             setting is 32. Last read pointers are rebuilt upon
             exiting CONFIG when this setting is changed so DO NOT
             change this setting with any Ezycom nodes active.




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                 Quote String - This is the quote string used in the
                 message editor. By default this option is '@>' which
                 means the original message writer's initials (ie the one
                 whom you are replying to) followed by a '>' will be
                 placed in the message text. So if you replied to a
                 message from Peter Davies, it would place a 'PD>' in
                 front of any quoted text.

                 External Editor - This is the DOS command line that will
                 be used to call up a full screen external message editor
                 such as EzyEdit or Gedit.  All control codes used in a
                 type 7 menu command are supported.  For example *P for
                 comm port, *B for baud rate and *T for time remaining.

                 Old Style MSGTMP - This option allows the System
                 Operator to configure which style of External Full
                 Screen Editor drop format Ezycom should support.
                 Currently, two formats exist, the MSGTMP format, and the
                 MSGTMP.<node> format.  The MSGTMP format is the most
                 common, and this is used by QuickED and TopEd full
                 screen editors, whereas the other format is only used by
                 programs such as EzyEdit and Gedit which directly
                 support Ezycom. The first two editors place a very big
                 restriction on Ezycom, in that for every node used,
                 there must be a separate directory for each node.
                 EzyEdit and Gedit interface better with Ezycom allowing
                 all nodes to run in the one directory if so desired. See
                 the section on multi-node operation for more
                 information.

                 Show Full Messages - After a message has been replied
                 to, use this option to control whether the whole
                 original message should be redisplayed or not. Setting
                 this to No means only the header and options bar will be
                 redisplayed after you have replied to a message. This
                 feature is most comforting to those at slow baud rates.

                 Write messages to Self - Some users may find it helpful
                 to be able to write messages to themselves so that next
                 time they login they will be reminded of something.
                 Setting this option to Yes will enable this feature.















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          Global Message Area Functions
          Global Message Area Functions
          Global Message Area Functions

          In a simular manner to file areas, the Global submenu of
          Message Areas allows you global and very powerful control
          over most settings on message areas. They have the
          advantage of saving time by allowing you to set values for
          all message areas at once, instead of editing each
          individual area. You will probably not need these options
          at this stage, but you may find it helpful to understand
          how to use them so that you can make use of them later
          after you have established a few message areas in your
          message base.

             Set Default Security - If you select this option (by
             pressing RETURN) you will be presented with another
             small pop-up window

               (R)ead Security     (W)rite Security
               (S)ysop Security    (Q)uit

             By selecting the appropriate option will be able to set
             that type of security on EVERY message area to that
             level in one hit. This is useful if you have mostly the
             same access on all your areas with only a few
             exceptions. It is quicker to change a couple of areas
             back than to set hundreds of areas individually. The 'Q'
             option naturally quits from this menu.

             Set Default Flags - This works in exactly the same
             manner as Set Default Security but changes the Read,
             Write or Sysop flags for all message areas to the given
             flag settings. Flags not specified to be On or Off will
             not be touched however thus this option works
             identically to the global file area flag change options.

             Set Maximum Kilobytes - This option causes another
             window to open where you just type the value you wish to
             set all the Maximum Kilobytes fields to. Once ENTER is
             pressed, this field in all message areas will then be
             set to this value.

             Set Maximum Messages - Select this option and type the
             value you wish to set Kill Max Msgs field to in each
             area and then press ENTER.  All message areas will then
             be set to this value.

             Kill Messages After XX Days Old -  Give this option the
             value you wish to set Kill Old Msgs field to in each
             area and then press ENTER.  All message areas will then
             be set to this value.






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                 Kill Recv Messages After XX Days - Enter the a value for
                 the Kill Recv Messages field and press ENTER. All
                 message areas will then be set to this value.

                 Centre Message Area Names - This centres the Message
                 Area names on all defined message areas.  To carry out
                 this operation just press ENTER on this option and all
                 message area names will be centred (by padding left and
                 right with spaces). You might find this option useful
                 for neat, centred message area name displays in your
                 menus.

                 UnCentre Message Area Names - This reverses the above
                 process. You may not want to have you message area names
                 centred any longer so use this to left justify them
                 again (remove all padding).


              Conclusion
              Conclusion
              Conclusion

              This now draws us to the end of this two chapter section on
              the basic configuration of Ezycom's primary features. By
              now you should be quite familiar with Ezycom's most used
              features and have a pretty much functional BBS system ready
              with exception to your very own menu structure. The next
              chapter will thus attempt to de-mystify Ezycom's menu
              flexible system.





























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                                                             Chapter 4

                                                    Working With Menus


          Introduction
          Introduction
          Introduction

          Ezycom allows you as sysop complete freedom over the layout
          and style of your menu system.  You can make the menus
          appear exactly as YOU want as apposed to some other
          packages where you are very much held to whatever the BBS
          software author thought looked great. The availability of
          this feature introduces a certain degree of complexity into
          the Ezycom BBS package because you have to understand the
          menu system in order for you to build the system that you
          want.  Included with Ezycom is a sample set-up. This allows
          you to have a look at a full blown and ready to go menu
          system and will help to give you ideas for your own system
          as well as introduce you to menu structural concepts.


          Types of Menu Structure
          Types of Menu Structure
          Types of Menu Structure

          First of all you must make a decision on the style of the
          menu structure.  A structure appears much like a tree. A
          'function' oriented structure would look like:


                  --UTILITIES
                /
               -----FILES
          TOP
               -----MESSAGES
                \
                  ---GAMES


          Here we have begun with a TOP menu. This is the name given
          to the first menu that is loaded when you run Ezycom. You
          can configure the name of this menu in CONFIG if you so
          wish but it defaults to TOP. In this example, the TOP menu
          then allows various ranges of options which includes
          allowing movement to/from other menus such as FILES,
          UTILITIES, MESSAGES and GAMES.











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              Allowing Movement Between Menus
              Allowing Movement Between Menus
              Allowing Movement Between Menus

              When defining the previously described menu structure, you
              can use the GOTO or GOSUB commands to allow movement
              between these menus.  From these menus you would most
              likely want to be able to move back to the TOP menu.  This
              can be done in three different ways.  First of all you
              could use the GOTO command.  This would move you to
              whichever menu you place in the optional data field of the
              menu entry.  You could also use RETURN FROM GOSUB.  This
              would return you to the menu which previously called the
              current one using GOSUB.  This becomes important when you
              consider that if for example you had the MESSAGES menu
              coming off the TOP menu and also off the FILES menu, you
              could never be sure when at the MESSAGES exactly which menu
              actually called it, should you wish to return to it.  Using
              a GOSUB and then a RETURN FROM GOSUB, the system would
              automatically return you to the menu that called it.  The
              other option is GOTO MENU AND CLEAR GOSUB STACK.  This is
              similar to the GOTO menu type, except that it also CLEARS
              any previous information about the menu stack (GOSUBs make
              a menu stack which is simply a list of menus previously
              called with GOSUB)


              EZYMENU - Ezycom's Menu Editor
              EZYMENU - Ezycom's Menu Editor
              EZYMENU - Ezycom's Menu Editor

              EZYMENU is a utility used to build/modify your menu system
              for Ezycom.  Upon first loading,  you are greeted by a Menu
              called NONAME.MNU.  You can either load another menu by
              pressing F3, or you can create a new menu using F6.  If we
              were making the previously drawn menu structure, you would
              press F6.  Then type in the name TOP.  This would create
              the menu TOP and give it the same information as the
              current menu (NONAME).  To load a different menu on start-
              up with EZYMENU use the command line parameter '-
              L<filename>'.

              For Example:

              To load SYSOP.MNU on start-up type

              EZYMENU -LSYSOP













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          Creating & Defining The Function Of a Menu Entry
          Creating & Defining The Function Of a Menu Entry
          Creating & Defining The Function Of a Menu Entry

          You may now set about defining the ways in which you will
          move to the other menus such as FILES & MESSAGES. Press
          ENTER to edit the current menu line.  You will now be
          editing the first menu line of the menu called TOP. In this
          mode you actually define the capabilities of this entry and
          for the purposes of this example you will setting up the
          options necessary to allow users to move to the menu called
          FILES. The many menu control fields will now be explained
          using the example structure to illustrate.

             Display
             Display
             Display - This is the information that will be displayed
             to the user for this Menu option.  This could be
             something like "[F] File Area".  Although there are 90
             characters available for use in the Display information
             you should note that even when using special control
             characters (explained later), that the displayed line
             length should never exceed 79 characters on the screen,
             or else weird visual side effects will occur.

             Data
             Data
             Data - This is where specific information for the menu
             command you are about to use should go (referred to as
             Optional Data). Since we will be using the GOTO command,
             we need to place the name of the menu we intend to call
             in this field. We are calling FILES so FILES will be
             placed in the Data option.

             Menu Type
             Menu Type
             Menu Type - This is a number that represents a code
             which tells Ezycom the type of menu option we are using
             in this entry. For GOTO the Menu type is 1, so a 1
                                                              1
                                                              1 will
             be placed in the Menu Type field.  Optionally, you could
             press F1 to scan through a list of all the menu types if
             you can not remember the code number for the one you are
             wishing to use.

             ____
             Note : Once you have defined the menu type, any

             optional/compulsory data for this menu type will be
             shown down the bottom of the screen in the Data
             information field. You should use this as a reference
             for options to place in the Data field explained above.
             Consult the appendix for a full explanation of all
             available menu options.

               For example - For a type 1 command, the data options 
                              are:

               <Menu filename>     ie. the menu filename MUST be 
                                        given (shown by < >)
               [password]          ie. a password is optional (shown 
                                        by [ ])




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                 Hotkey
                 Hotkey
                 Hotkey - The hot key is the key you wish to use to
                 activate the menu command.  In our example, an F
                                                                F
                                                                F would
                 be placed in this field. Hot simply refers to the fact
                 that it can be pressed at any time even if this menu is
                 still being drawn on the user's screen.

                 Automatic
                 Automatic
                 Automatic - This should be left as No
                                                    No
                                                    No for our current
                 example. This will be explained at length later in this
                 section.

                 Security
                 Security
                 Security - This option has two components. The first
                 part defines the way in which the security level test
                 will be applied to this menu option. The default is
                 Greater than/equal to
                 Greater than/equal to
                 Greater than/equal to. This means that a user must have
                 a security level greater than or equal to the one
                 specified in the 2nd part of this option in order for
                 them to be able to select this option. Use the Space bar
                 to toggle between the different options.

               The options available are:

                   Greater than/equal to
                   Greater than
                   Less than/equal to
                   Less than
                   Equal to
                   Not Equal to

                 Consequently it is possible to have very complex
                 controls over access to menu options in Ezycom. In our
                 example, as you would probably want all users to have
                 access to this menu, the test would be Greater
                 than/equal to and the security level would be 0.

                 Flags
                 Flags
                 Flags - These are the Flags which the user MUST have to
                 allow them to use the menu option.  Pressing X
                                                              X
                                                              X on a flag
                 while editing the flags fields tells Ezycom that the
                 USER must have that flag ON to use this option.  Leaving
                 an entry as is or pressing a -
                                              -
                                              - on it means that you do
                 not care whether the user has the FLAG or not. You can
                 also place an O
                               O
                               O on a flag to specify the user must have
                 this flag OFF in order to use this menu option.

                 Foreground
                 Foreground
                 Foreground - Using Space you can toggle this field to
                 change the foreground (written text) colour to be used
                 when displaying the Display
                                     Display
                                     Display field for this menu option.

                 Background
                 Background
                 Background - This is simular to the foreground colour
                 only this option controls the background colour when
                 displaying the Display
                                Display
                                Display field of this menu option.






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             Time Online
             Time Online
             Time Online - This is the amount of time the user must
             have been online (for the current call) before they can
             access this menu option.  Setting the value to 0 means
             users will always have access to this menu option.
             However if you set the Menu Time
                                    Menu Time
                                    Menu Time flag in EZYED (see next
             chapter) for a user, this field will not affect that
             user.

             Start Time
             Start Time
             Start Time/End Time
                        End Time
                        End Time - These two options control the
             start and end times (if any) during which this menu
             option can be selected by a user.  The time is entered
             in 24 Hour format ie. 13:00 is 1:00pm.  Setting both
             times to 00:00
                      00:00
                      00:00 will make the menu option function ANY
             TIME of day. However setting them to say 00:01
                                                      00:01
                                                      00:01 and 00:01
                                                                00:01
                                                                00:01
             would make the menu option only function at 1 minute
             past midnight.  In our example, you would leave these as
             the default ie. all the time.

             Node
             Node
             Node - This tells Ezycom which node (line) number can
             access this menu option.  In multiline environments, it
             might be desirable to have different menu options for
             different nodes.  Setting this to 0
                                               0
                                               0 allows all nodes to
             activate the menu option. Setting this option to 1 
                                                              1 
                                                              1 for
             example, would 
                            
                            only allow a user logged into node 1 to
             activate it.

             Baud
             Baud
             Baud - This is the minimum baud rate that a user must be
             connected at for this menu option to be available.
             Setting this to 0
                             0
                             0 allows all baud rates to access it.

             File Points
             File Points
             File Points - Use this option to set the minimum number
             of file points that a user must have left in order to
             select this option. If you are using file points on your
             system, you could for instance use this on the Download
             key so that they cannot even begin to attempt a download
             until they earn more file points by uploading.

             Age Test
             Age Test
             Age Test - This is a flag that allows you to restrict
             access to this menu option depending on the users age
             compared to the minimum age defined in CONFIG (usually
             18 years of age).  If this flag is set to Yes
                                                       Yes
                                                       Yes, then no
             one with an age less than 18 can use this menu option.

             Test Post/Call
             Test Post/Call
             Test Post/Call - If a user's post call ratio is not in
             balance, then setting this option to Yes
                                                  Yes
                                                  Yes will prevent
             them from using this menu option. You might use this to
             stop file area access to the user until he/she writes
             more messages for instance. Use the Ignore Message Ratio
                                                 Ignore Message Ratio
                                                 Ignore Message Ratio
             flag in EZYED (see next chapter) to exclude specific
             users from this test when enabled.






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                 Test Kilobytes
                 Test Kilobytes
                 Test Kilobytes - To stop a user from selecting this menu
                 option when their kilobyte file ratio is out of balance,
                 toggle this setting to Yes
                                        Yes
                                        Yes. The Ignore Ratios
                                                 Ignore Ratios
                                                 Ignore Ratios option in
                 EZYED (see next chapter) can be used to allow individual
                 users to override this setting eg. you for example.

                 Test Files
                 Test Files
                 Test Files - This is the same as Test Kilobytes
                                                  Test Kilobytes
                                                  Test Kilobytes only it
                 is controlled by the ratio on the number of files. It is
                 also overridden by the same option in EZYED.

                 Local Only
                 Local Only
                 Local Only - Sometimes you may want a menu option that
                 can only be selected from the local console (ie. by
                 you). Setting this to option to Yes
                                                 Yes
                                                 Yes means users cannot
                 press this option but you can press it from the local
                 keyboard. They will see the result as if they pressed
                 it.


              Useful Options Available While Editing Menus
              Useful Options Available While Editing Menus
              Useful Options Available While Editing Menus

              You will notice several function keys and other keys listed
              down the bottom of the screen while editing a menu option.
              A brief description of each follows:

                F1              This brings up a pick list of available
                                menu options in case you forget the
                                number. Note however that this works any
                                time in option edit mode and so you do
                                not have to be on the menu type field to
                                press it.

                F2              This will immediately write all changes
                                to the menu file.

                F5              This allows you 'preview' what the menu
                                will look like, complete with colours and
                                all. If you are using an Auto ANSI/Hotkey
                                Display Type 40 command (see later) then
                                this will also come up. Note however that
                                ALL control codes (see later) will be
                                IGNORED.

                 CTRL A         Use this key to scrap/abort any changes
                                you have made to this option and return
                                to the options pick-list.

                 ESC            Same effect as F2 only this returns you
                                to the menu load option pick-list where
                                as F2 does not.







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          Back to our example menu structure.....

          Press ESC to save the current menu option.  You should
          notice that the pick list now shows that menu option at the
          top.  You can now complete the other menu options for
          getting to the UTILITIES, MESSAGES & GAMES menus in the
          same way.

          To make a new entry before a current one, move that entry
          and then press the INS key. To add a blank entry to the end
          of the current ones press the + (plus) key.

          After you have finished you should save the menu using the
          F2 key.  The TOP menu has now been completed.  It will
          allow users that logon to your system to go to all the
          menus laid out in your menu structure.

          Now you can make the Second-Level menus.  To begin with,
          just make the menu options to allow users to return to the
          main menus.  As stated before, you can use the GOTO command
          to accomplish this. If you use GOSUB commands from the TOP
          menu to the others instead, you may then use a RETURN FROM
          GOSUB command to get back to the TOP menu. The choice is
          yours.

          After defining the basic menu structure, all the options
          must be placed in each menu.  It is entirely up to you to
          work out which options will be in each menu.  A complete
          list and description of all the menu options available in
          Ezycom can be found in the reference section of this
          document. Be sure to have a good look through these now, in
          order to become familiar with the hundreds of possible
          functions available to your BBS system. You might for
          example wish to place options such as File List, Download,
          Upload and other file related options in your FILES menu
          for instance. You can create as simple or as complex a menu
          structure as you like using the above process. Have a
          fiddle with some menus of your own. Remember however that
          you will need to login to Ezycom locally to try them out.

















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              Menu Templates
              Menu Templates
              Menu Templates

              Ezycom has a special menu templating system which allows
              user defined menu systems to be less maintenance
              orientated.  Instead of creating a File Menu for EACH file
              area, it is possible to (and it is recommended) that you
              define one File Menu for all/some areas.  This can be
              accomplished by placing /F
                                      /F
                                      /F in the Data field in certain
              file area commands. This will tell Ezycom to use the
              current file area template number for use in this command.
              As an example, when doing a file list, instead of placing
              the file area number in the Data field, you could place a
              /F
              /F
              /F there instead.  This tells Ezycom to do a file list of
              the current file area template number.

              The problem now arises of how to tell Ezycom, which file
              area template to use.  There are a number of ways in which
              this can be done and the most used method is the through
              the use of the /F=
                             /F=
                             /F= command, which is placed in the data
              field for the GOTO/GOSUB/GOTO MENU and CLEAR GOSUB STACK
              commands.

              For Example:

                   Menu Type : 1                      (ie. Goto Menu)
                   Data : FILES /F=1

                 This tells Ezycom to GOTO the FILES menu and make the
                 current file area template equal to File Area 1.  This
                 means any file functions in the FILES menu containing a
                 /F
                 /F
                 /F in their data field would now act on File Area 1.

              Ezycom also allows another way in which you can change the
              current file area, that is through the use of the Select
              the Current File Area menu command.  This menu option
              allows the user to select the current file area.  This
              command would typically be placed in the FILES menu under a
              'Change file area' worded option.

              Ezycom also allows the current file area to be
              incremented/decremented by the use of +/- respectively.
              This can be done by placing the +
                                              +
                                              + or -
                                                   -
                                                   - after the /F=
                                                               /F=
                                                               /F=
              command.

              For Example:

                   Menu Type : 1                      (ie. Goto Menu)
                   Data: FILES /F=+








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             This would tell Ezycom to GOTO the FILES menu, and
             increment the current file area by One.  If the user
             does not have access to that file area (or there is none
             defined for that number), Ezycom keeps on searching till
             it finds an area that the user has access to.  The -
                                                                -
                                                                -
             option works in exactly the same manner, except that it
             decrements the file area number. Often this option would
             be used to recall the same menu again but would change
             the current template area in the process of doing so.

          The message areas also contain this templating approach,
          except that instead of using /F
                                       /F
                                       /F  the /M
                                               /M
                                               /M is used. Thus it is
          easy to differentiate between file areas and message areas.
          The only other difference naturally is that the command to
          allow the user to select the current message area is Select
          Current Message Area instead of File Area.

          ____
          Note: You can specify the '/M' and the '/F' in the same

          Data field in order to simultaneously set the current file
          and message area templates.


          Global Menus
          Global Menus
          Global Menus

          Ezycom also allows up to 10
                                   10
                                   10 menu commands to be defined
          GLOBALLY.  Thus instead of having say a command in EACH
          menu to return the user to the main menu (TOP), you could
          have a GLOBAL menu command to do this function.  The name
          used for the global menu is naturally GLOBAL.  If this is
          in the menus directory on loading Ezycom, then ALL menu
          commands in the GLOBAL menu will become globally available
          in all menus. If a normal menu has the same menu command as
          one in the GLOBAL menu, then the normal menu command will
          override the GLOBAL option whilst in that menu. It is also
          possible to Disable the GLOBAL menu for a specific menu,
          using menu type 81- Disable Global Menu command.  This
          command HAS to be an automatic menu option (see next
          section) to function correctly.

















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              Automatically Executing Menu Options
              Automatically Executing Menu Options
              Automatically Executing Menu Options

              Ezycom allows for menu options to be automatically executed
              when a menu containing them is loaded.  When combined with
              Menu Type 40 (Display ANS/ASC/ASL/AVT), you can display
              these pictures automatically every time the menu is loaded,
              or after a menu function has been performed in that menu.
              In this way you can use a custom screen to display menu
              options to a user instead of the using the menu itself to
              display the options. This allows you complete layout and
              design freedom over your menu's appearance. It also allows
              you to hide options. This is done by not putting any
              indication in your menu screen that a specified option is
              available, but having that option defined anyway. Unless
              the user has been told about it (or they press every key
              just to try), they will not know it is there.

              For example, if you make the top line in a menu into a Type
              40, and set Automatic
                          Automatic
                          Automatic to Yes
                                       Yes
                                       Yes, then the screen that you
              define in the Data
                            Data
                            Data field will be displayed every time that
              menu is loaded and the menu keys will be scanned for while
              it is being displayed.  Since you are displaying a picture
              to the users, you will not want to have the Display lines
              shown to the users. To stop these from being shown, the
              only thing on the display line for each menu option should
              be a ; 
                   ; 
                   ; (semi-colon).  This stops anything being displayed.
              Leaving the display line blank is NOT the same thing and
              causes a blank line to be displayed on the screen after the
              screen is finished and can lead to a bouncing menu affect.


              Special Menu Characters
              Special Menu Characters
              Special Menu Characters

              Ezycom provides some SPECIAL characters that may be used in
              the DISPLAY line of each menu option.

                ^               This changes the colours between the
                                highlight and the normal menu lines
                                colours.

                ;               This stops a carriage return being placed
                                on the displaying of that line.  This
                                should be placed ONLY at the end of EACH
                                line.

              The Ctrl-F/K smart text codes can also be embedded into the
              Display and/or Data options (see reference section).









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          Ezycom also provides a means for accommodating SPECIAL
          characters in the Data line of each menu option.  You can
          do this by placing a $<hex code> in the menu line.  The
          <hex code> is a two digit hexadecimal number.  To place a $
                                                                    $
                                                                    $
          symbol in the Data field as an example, the code would be
          $24
          $24
          $24.  This feature's main inclusion was to cater for the
          placement of non-alphanumeric characters for use in the
          /SK= option 
          /SK= option 
          /SK= option (next).


          Keyboard Stuffing
          Keyboard Stuffing
          Keyboard Stuffing

          Ezycom allows characters to be stuffed into the keyboard
          buffer of the IBM PC on ANY menu option.  This allows the
          simulation of a key press to Ezycom.  For example, if there
          was a need to pass through one menu to get to another, you
          could stuff the keyboard with the character that the user
          needs to press to go to the other menu from the one in
          between.  This option can also be used to press keys in
          external programs run by Ezycom.

          For Example:

               Type : 7
               Data : GAME.BAT /SK=$0D

          This would place a return character in the keyboard, so
          that when GAME.BAT is run, a return is pressed
          automatically. To simulate multiple key presses, just place
          them one after the other eg. /SK=ABCD$0D (be sure not to
          put spaces between them however).

          Conclusion
          Conclusion
          Conclusion

          By now you should at least be familiar with the basics of
          menu creation and the use of EZYMENU. Be sure to consult
          the reference section of this document for a complete list
          of menu commands and their capabilities.


















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                                                                 Chapter 5

                                                        System Maintenance



              Introduction
              Introduction
              Introduction

              Once your system is up and running, it will require quite a
              bit of maintenance. Some of this must really be done on a
              daily basis and the rest can be done every week or two. How
              often you do a lot these tasks depends on how tidy and up
              to date you want to keep your system. For instance if you
              like to personally check users out before upgrading them,
              this is best done several times per week else users will
              get impatient waiting for access. Other things such as
              moving new files about could easily be left for weeks
              without too much of a problem. But once again, your users
              might get sick of waiting for you to do this too. This
              chapter of the document therefore explains in detail all
              the maintenance tools available to you and makes some
              suggestion as to when you should use them and how often.


              File Area Maintenance
              File Area Maintenance
              File Area Maintenance

              Ezycom provides a wealth of powerful tools for managing
              file areas. You will probably spend more time working with
              file areas than anything else. This section will explain
              how to use each of the tools provided.


              FEDIT - Ezycom's File Area Manager
              FEDIT - Ezycom's File Area Manager
              FEDIT - Ezycom's File Area Manager

              This is a fully menu driven file area editor that allows
              you to do things like move files between areas, delete and
              rename files and edit their descriptions. You can probably
              get away with using this only once per week, just to tidy
              things up. If you are running a larger multi-line BBS
              however it may be prudent to at least have a look around
              your file base using FEDIT every couple of days to make
              sure things are not getting untidy, particularly if you get
              a lot of files uploaded to your system.

              When you first load FEDIT a scrolling list of all your file
              areas will appear, just as you defined them in CONFIG.  Use
              the PgUp/PgDn and the Up/Down arrow keys to move from area
              to area till you locate the one you wish to work with. All
              areas you have defined will appear as well as those that
              are not used. FEDIT will automatically skip over these and
              the list will scroll up to the maximum number of areas you
              have allowed for in CONFIG (up to 65535 areas).



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          Once you have decided on which area to work with and it is
          highlighted by the selection bar, press ENTER and the
          contents of that area will brought onto the screen. This
          list will look very much like the file list in the BBS
          showing the filename, the date (or Offline if it is marked
          so) and the first line of the description. You will notice
          that offline files appear in a different colour so you will
          immediately notice them. Anything that is deleted will also
          be in a different colour and will automatically be skipped
          over should you scroll near it.

          To move around within the file list use the up and down
          arrows to move the selection bar one line at a time. Use
          PgUp and PgDn to move a screen full at a time and use Home
          and End to move to the first and last entry respectively.
          You can also use the letter keys to jump to the first
          filename that starts with that letter (if there is one). So
          if you were at the bottom of an area for example, if you
          pressed 'D' then the pointer would immediately jump to the
          top most filename starting with the letter D, should there
          be one. The ESC key takes you back to the file area list
          should you wish to work on another area.


          Tagging Files

          Most of the management functions in FEDIT work for files
          you have previously selected by tagging them. There are a
          number of different ways a file can be tagged (and indeed
          un-tagged).

             Tagging Individual Files  (CTRL-T) - While a file is
             highlighted, using this function will cause that file to
             become tagged, this being indicated by a triangle on
             each side of the entry on the screen.

             Tagging All Files (ALT-T) - Upon selecting this option
             you will find that you have tagged all the files in the
             file list for the current area.

             Un-Tagging Individual Files (CTRL-U) - This function
             will un-tag the currently highlighted file if it is
             tagged.

             Un-Tagging All Files (ALT-U) - This option un-tags all
             files in the current area that were tagged.










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                 Range Tagging (CTRLK-B/CTRLK-K) - Using the standard
                 Word Star block marking keys, if you point to a file and
                 type CTRLK-B (press CTRL and K together and then release
                 them before pressing B) then you will be defining the
                 first entry in a range of files to tag. If you then move
                 down to where you would like to stop the range and press
                 CTRLK-K (in the same manner) then all files from the
                 current one up to the one you pressed CTRLK-B on will
                 now be tagged. This is a very quickly way of tagging a
                 large number (but not all of) the files in a given area.


              Working With Tagged Files

              Once you have tagged a series of files you can use a number
              of useful management functions to do things to that group
              of files. The options available are as follows:

                 Deleting Tagged Files (ALT-D) - This will delete the
                 DESCRIPTIONS for all tagged files in the current area.
                 Note it does NOT delete the files themselves however.

                 Physically Removing Tagged Files (ALT-R) - This will
                 physically delete all tagged files ie. both the file
                 itself and the database entry. Care should be exercised
                 when using this option.

                 Physically Moving Tagged Files (ALT-P) - This will
                 physically move all tagged files and their descriptions
                 to another file area. When you first press ALT-P a list
                 of file areas will appear from which you should pick the
                 area to move the files to. Press ENTER to select the
                 area or ESC to cancel the command. Once an area is
                 picked FEDIT will move each file one by one to the new
                 area showing you each file as it is moved. Fedit will
                 also remember the last area moved to on sucessive moves.

                 Mark Tagged Files Offline (ALT-O) - This will mark all
                 currently tagged file as being offline.  When a user
                 does a file listing the files will be shown as Offline
                 as will the file list is FEDIT after this command has
                 been used.

                 Mark Tagged Files Online (ALT-A) - This has the opposite
                 affect to the above command and will mark all tagged
                 files as being Online. The file date will now be shown
                 in file lists instead of the Offline status.









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          Miscellaneous Single File Functions

          There are a number of commands that can be used to do
          special functions with
          individual files as apposed to working will all tagged
          files.

             Delete Individual File (CTRL-D) - This will delete the
             file description of the currently highlighted file (note
             - it will NOT delete the file itself however).

             Physically Individual File (CTRL-R) - This will
             physically delete the selected file ie. both the file
             itself and the database entry.

             Mark Individual File Offline (CTRL-A) - This will mark
             the currently highlighted file as Offline. The file date
             will now this be replaced with the word Offline.

             Mark Individual File Online (CTRL-O) - This will mark
             the currently highlighted file as being Online. The
             Offline status will now be replaced by the file's date.

             Edit Uploader Of File (CTRL-S) - This is a very special
             function that is only available in the DPMI version of
             FEDIT. If you press this function when a file is
             highlighted, a special DLL will be called that will
             cause a user editing screen to appear so that you can
             alter any of the statistics that the uploader of the
             file has. You may use this to reward this user for
             sending you such a good file for example. This screen
             works identically to the one in EZYED (see later).

          Editing Descriptions

          Probably the most useful feature of FEDIT is its ability to
          edit the descriptions on files that are stored in the
          database. Pressing ALT-M while pointing to a file will
          cause a pop-up box to appear containing the current
          description ready for you to edit.

          The cursor keys will allow you to move around the box.
          Insert or overwrite mode can be toggled using the Insert
          key. Delete and back space also work in the usual manner
          that they would in any text editor. It is important to note
          however that in most descriptions you do not force any hard
          carriage returns unless you want a specific formatting for
          the description. This is because Ezycom will automatically
          format the description when a user is listing that file
          area on the fly depending on the width available at the
          time. In other words, when typing a description in, let
          FEDIT auto-wrap the text for you rather than pressing ENTER
          when you get to the end of each line as that is not REALLY
          the end of the line.


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              You will notice however that if you look at most imported
              descriptions (such as those imported from a FILE_ID.DIZ by
              the utilities such as EZYADOPT - see later) that little
              carrot ^ symbols will be shown at the end of each line.
              Normally you will find these on descriptions that feature a
              decorative box around them or the like. This will stop
              Ezycom putting in its own carriage returns and so it will
              not ruin the look of the description. Thus you too can also
              force your own hard carriage returns for the same purpose
              using the carrot symbol. Simply place the carrot where you
              want to force Ezycom to take a new line.

              Pressing ESC will save the description and return you to
              the file list once again.

              Colours

              Using Fedit you can also place colour and control codes in
              file descriptions. Colours are placed in descriptions using
              the same codes as the Rumours facility in Ezycom uses (see
              Appendix A - Command 90). So while in description edit mode
              (ALT-M) if you typed:

                   |BThis is in Blue and |Rthis is in Red!

              then the appropriate parts of this description will show up
              in blue and in red when viewing the file list for this area
              on the BBS.

              The CTRL-F and CTRL-K codes (see Appendix C) can also be
              used in the same manner if so required. Simply insert them
              in the description where required.
























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          EZYIDX - Ezycom's Fast File Index Maintenance Tool
          EZYIDX - Ezycom's Fast File Index Maintenance Tool
          EZYIDX - Ezycom's Fast File Index Maintenance Tool

          Part of the reason Ezycom can so quickly make use of its
          file database is due to a set of files known as the fast
          file index. This file is simply a list of EVERY filename
          available for download on your system along with a pointer
          to the path it is located in. This file MUST be kept up to
          date else files will not be downloadable. EZYIDX is the
          tool for doing this.


            -BUILD          This creates/updates the fast file index.
                            If you add files to your file areas or
                            remove them, this should be run to fully
                            update and sort the index.  This should
                            be run once every day to ensure your
                            index is correct and up to date.

            -SORT           This sorts the fast file index.  This
                            will make it faster if you do not happen
                            to use -BUILD everyday (you should!).

            -LIST<filename> This creates a list of all available
                            directories as per your file base. You
                            would normally use this file for your
                            front-end mailer so it can search your
                            system during file requests (for example
                            Front Door).

            -FLSEARCH       This will make a FLSEARCH.CTL (QuickBBS
                            File Area List) compatible file. Some
                            doors may require this.

            -DUPE           This will list & log duplicate files in
                            your file base.

            -N<node>        Node number to run EZYIDX under (1-250).



















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              EZYFILE - Ezycom's File Base Maintenance Utility
              EZYFILE - Ezycom's File Base Maintenance Utility
              EZYFILE - Ezycom's File Base Maintenance Utility

              The heart of Ezycom's file base maintenance lies in this
              utility. EZYFILE should at best be run once per night as
              part of your daily maintenance. It will keep your file area
              databases in shape and ensure that all is in order. EZYIDX
              should ALWAYS be run prior to using this utility to ensure
              the fast file index is up to date. As usual this utility is
              command line driven and each of these options is now
              explained in turn.


                -SORT           This will cause EZYFILE to examine all
                                your file areas and re-sort each of them
                                into the order (if any) specified in
                                CONFIG for that area.

                -PACK           This option will make EZYFILE physically
                                remove any  file entries marked for
                                deletion from the database. Deleted files
                                and their descriptions still take space
                                until they are Squeezed out of the
                                database with this option.

                -OFFLINE        This option will mark files as 'offline'
                                if they are not found  on your system.
                                Also if files that are marked offline are
                                found to be present, they will be marked
                                as online again.

                -DELPATH        This will mark files as either deleted or
                                offline (depending on area settings) if
                                their path is found present on the system
                                but not the file itself.

                -DELNOPATH      If a file's path is found not to be
                                present on the system, then that file
                                will be marked offline or deleted
                                depending on the settings for that area.

                -UPDATE         This option will check all file sizes and
                                dates stored for each file in the
                                database against those on the actual
                                files themselves. Any difference will
                                cause the new values to be placed into
                                the database. This is useful for updating
                                the size and date on your master file
                                list for example.








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            -FROM<area #>   This specifies the file area to start
                            maintenance at.

            -TO<area #>     This specifies the file area to finish
                            maintenance at.

            -N<1..250>      Specifies the node number to log to.

          Note: Download counters and file points information ready
          for USERCOMP to use (see later) are always updated
          regardless of the parameters that EZYFILE is run with.
          The switches for EZYFILE can be combined if required to do
          multiple actions in a single pass eg. EZYFILE -SORT -PACK -
          FROM10 -TO50. Some options such as -UPDATE are best used
          with -FROM and -TO parameters else you will find it taking
          quite some time if you have CD-ROMs online. It is not
          neccesary to run an UPDATE process across CD-ROM areas.


          EZYADOPT - Adding Files To Your Database On Mass
          EZYADOPT - Adding Files To Your Database On Mass
          EZYADOPT - Adding Files To Your Database On Mass

          This is a very special utility for adding large quantities
          of files quickly to Ezycom's file base.  It basically adds
          in any files that are present on your system that are not
          already in your file base. Naturally you need to have set-
          up your file areas and paths correctly before using this
          utility and MUST have file adoption allowed for the
          appropriate paths in CONFIG for EZYADOPT to work on that
          file path.

          There are quite a few switches for this utility and they
          will be explained now.


            -CDROM          To adopt files in CD-ROM areas, you MUST
                            specify this switch.

            -FILEID         This will cause EZYADOPT to use
                            descriptions out of FILE_ID.DIZ. If there
                            is no FILE_ID.DIZ, the description found
                            in FILES.BBS will be used (as per usual).
                            If there is no description for the file
                            and it is a GIF image, then EZYADOPT will
                            make the dimensions/colours into a
                            description for you.

            -IGNORECR       In some FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions, the
                            standard import process used on the
                            descriptions looks weird because by
                            default EZYADOPOT will take notice of
                            carriage returns. Specifying this option
                            will disable this feature.




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                -DESC<pos>      Some FILES.BBS files contain dates, file
                                sizes, download counters and other
                                information that is not used by Ezycom.
                                Using this option you can tell EZYADOPT
                                which column number to start importing
                                the descriptions from. For example:
                                EZYADOPT -DESC14 would tell EZYADOPT to
                                start importing descriptions from
                                position 14.  If  this option is not used
                                on the command line, then EZYADOPT will
                                import descriptions from the first space
                                after the filename in FILES.BBS.

                -FROM<file path #>     EZYADOPT will by default scan all
                                file paths (except for CD-ROM paths). You
                                can specify a particular file path for it
                                to scan by using -FROM<file path #> eg.
                                -FROM10. If this is a CD-ROM area
                                remember that EZYADOPT will NOT scan it
                                unless the -CDROM switch is also used.

                -TO<file path #>  It is also possible to specify a range
                                of file paths.  If paths 20 to 30 needed
                                to be scanned for adopting, you would use
                                EZYADOPT -FROM20 -TO30


              EZYMAST - Ezycom's Master File List Creator
              EZYMAST - Ezycom's Master File List Creator
              EZYMAST - Ezycom's Master File List Creator

              Unlike some other BBS packages where you have to go and
              find a third party utility to generate a complete list of
              all files on your system, Ezycom provides you with such a
              utility as standard. This utility is known as EZYMAST and
              is very simple to use.

              The command line switches for it are used as follows:


                -M<filename>    This is the full path and file name where
                                EZYMAST should create the master file
                                list itself.

                -H<headername>  Use this option to specify the full path
                                and filename of  a text header file for
                                your master list. This would normally be
                                nicely presented heading telling the
                                reader what your system is about and how
                                to contact it, what speeds it supports
                                etc.

                -FROM<area num> Specifies the first area number to
                                include in the file list being generated.




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            -TO<area num>   Specifies the last area number to include
                            in the file list being made.

            -FD<DDMMYYYY>   If this option is used in conjunction
                            with the -M option.  EZYMAST will create
                            a master list that contains only files
                            added since the date specified here (in
                            the format DDMMYYYY)

            -TD<DDMMYYYY>   If this option is used, EZYMAST will only
                            include files in the master list on the
                            system dated on or before the given date
                            (in DDMMYYYY form).

          Examples:

          EZYMAST -MC:\BBSFILES\1992.LST -FROM10 -TO25

          This will create a master list of all the files in areas
          starting from area 10 and finishing at area 25, provided of
          course that the CONFIG for these areas allows each area to
          be included in a master list (see Chapter 3).

          EZYMAST -MMASTER.LST -HC:\BBSFILES\HEADER.LST

          This will create a master file list called MASTER.LST using
          the header file C:\BBSFILES\HEADER.LST.

          EZYMAST will also honour the date format specified in
          CONFIG so that if you have selected the US Date format,
          then all dates will be is US format in the master lists.


          Special Archive Conversion & Testing Files
          Special Archive Conversion & Testing Files
          Special Archive Conversion & Testing Files

          Two archive conversion files that are supplied with Ezycom
          to do all the conversions from one archive type to another
          archive type, as well as scanning the files inside the
          archives for any virii that might be hiding within. They
          are just batch files that we have been using ever since we
          started this project and have found them to work very well.
          You must have your archive utility programs somewhere in
          your PATH if you want to use these batch files.  Also as
          they are designed to scan for virii you will also have to
          have McAfee's SCAN in your PATH somewhere as well.  If you
          answer the phone with an ATS0=1 command, you should ONLY
          use DOCONV.BAT.  If you however decide to use the
          UPCONV.BAT, you need to remember that the file is converted
          immediately upon the completion of any uploading and that
          it will take time to do the conversion(s) and worse still,
          the user may get impatient and hang-up.





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              Ezycom will test for the presence of each of these files at
              the appropriate time so if you do not what to convert after
              an upload, ensure that UPCONV.BAT is NOT in the Ezycom
              directory. Conversely removing DOCONV.BAT from the Ezycom
              directory prevents any run of file maintenance from doing
              the same.


              Message Area Maintenance
              Message Area Maintenance
              Message Area Maintenance

              Your message base is probably the single largest collection
              of related files on your system. It may total anything from
              a few megabytes in size to many hundreds. Your message base
              is like a garden. It will grow and needs to be pruned back
              regularly. The more mail networks you are involved in, the
              more obvious this will become as time goes on. By this
              stage you should have already configured a few message
              areas and will have configured some maintenance settings on
              them such as maximum messages per area and maximum days
              old. MSGCOMP is the main you will use to  take action on
              these settings.


              MSGCOMP - Ezycom's Message Base Maintenance Tool
              MSGCOMP - Ezycom's Message Base Maintenance Tool
              MSGCOMP - Ezycom's Message Base Maintenance Tool

              This is Ezycom's message base compacter and will do
              maintenance on your message areas.  Its function is to keep
              your message areas to at least those limits you set in
              CONFIG for each area.  For example if you set Kill Max Msgs
              to 200 and the area has 300, MSGCOMP will delete the first
              100 messages to maintain the area at 200.  However if you
              set any of the message limits to 0 then MSGCOMP will ignore
              these fields.  MSGCOMP should be run once a day in a
              nightly event and can ONLY be run while NO-ONE is online
              else it will abort with an error message. Do not try to run
              it otherwise.

              The message compacter is limited to a maximum of 16,000
              messages per message area and so if the number of messages
              in an area exceeds 15,000, it will automatically compress
              that message area to 15,000 messages.  Depending on how
              much free RAM is available, MSGCOMP will handle more
              messages per area with an upper limit of 16,000.  Ezycom
              itself and other utilities can handle up to 65,000 messages
              per conference.











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          MSGCOMP also has six command line switches, explained
          individually below:


            -LINK           This option will cause MSGCOMP to link
                            together any messages within an area that
                            share the same subject line. Only message
                            areas that have had new echomail/netmail
                            tossed into them since LINK was carried
                            out, will be done however.

            -LINKALL        This will unconditionally LINK messages
                            among ALL echomail and netmail areas
                            whether they are linked already or not.
                            Local areas are NOT linked as Ezycom does
                            this when you reply to messages, so
                            trying to LINK them would be wasting
                            system time.  MSGCOMP links the messages
                            (makes reply chains), by matching those
                            with the same subjects together.

            -NODELETE       This will stop MSGCOMP from deleting
                            messages by days, received days, number
                            of messages or number of kilobytes.

            -CLEANUP        This will tell MSGCOMP to delete areas
                            that were used for conference(s) that no
                            longer exist in your configuration set-up
                            (ie. clean up stray database files).

            -RAMDRIVE=<path>  If you have a reasonably big RAM drive
                            you can tell MSGCOMP to use it as a
                            temporary and FAST packing location
                            whilst it kills messages. During MSGCOMP
                            you will see a (RD) after an area during
                            packing when the RAM drive is being used.
                            If the RAM drive is not big enough for
                            some areas they will be packed on disk.

            -N<node>        Allows you to specify the log file which
                            MSGCOMP should log its progress to.















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              Maintaining Your User Base
              Maintaining Your User Base
              Maintaining Your User Base

              Possibly the most common and often most time consuming
              thing you will find yourself doing as a sysop is
              maintaining your user base. Ezycom provides many tools for
              you to use to make this task a little easier.


              EZYED - Ezycom's User Editor
              EZYED - Ezycom's User Editor
              EZYED - Ezycom's User Editor

              Ezycom's easy to use menu driven user editor is known as
              EZYED. Using this utility you can alter any/all the
              settings on the accounts of users who use your system. You
              should try to use this utility at least once every couple
              of days.

              On loading EZYED you will be presented with the first user
              in your Ezycom user base.  This should normally be the
              Sysop as he/she would usually be the first person to use
              the system and should also have the highest security level.
              A number of options are available to you from here.

                F1              Displays the online help screens for
                                EZYED.

                P               This gives you a very elaborate pick list
                                for you to choose a user from. To move
                                around in the pick list just use the
                                arrow keys to go up and down one user at
                                a time, or use the PgUp and PgDn keys to
                                move up and down the list a page at a
                                time.

                E               This launches you in to the edit mode
                                (more on this later).

                F10             Toggles you to and from the two available
                                display screens.

                Arrow keys      These keys move you to and from the next
                                and previous record (as do PgUp and
                                PgDn).

                F2              This option will give you a choice to
                                search for someone either by their user
                                name/alias or by the their security
                                level. The search will bring up the first
                                occurrence of the pattern you chose. For
                                example, Name = 'Pet' will find the first
                                record that has 'Pet' in the Name/Alias
                                Field. Case is ignored in the search so
                                'Peter' is the same as 'peter'.




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            F3              This will continue the search using the
                            last pattern used. When the search does
                            not find a user to match the pattern,
                            EZYED will tell you before taking you to
                            the first user in your user base.

            F4              This command allows certain global
                            options to be performed on the user base.
                            These include flag editing and group
                            editing.  When editing global flags, a '-
                            ' (minus) sign means do not change the
                            flag, an 'X' symbol means turn the flag
                            ON for all users and an 'O' symbol means
                            turn the flag OFF for all users.  When
                            editing global groups, the setting that
                            you make will affect all users, so every
                            user will have that global group setting.

            ESC             This will exit from EZYED.

            INS             This will add a new record to your user
                            base.

            DEL             This key will toggle the Deleted flag of
                            the user displayed.


          Keys Available In Edit Mode

            CTRL A          This will abort any changes made to this
                            record.

            CTRL P          This gives you a pick list of users.

            CTRL S          This saves the record you are editing.
                            ESC will do the same.

            CTRL Y          This deletes the current line in a text
                            field (eg. alias, location) while
                            editing.

            Arrow           These keys move you to and from the next
                            and previous field entries.

            PgUp/PgDn       These two keys move you to the next and
                            previous records after first saving your
                            changes.









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                CTRL Home/End   These keys will take you to the top and
                                bottom of the page you are currently
                                editing.

                CTRL PgUp/PgDn  These keys will take you to the first and
                                last records in your user file
                                respectively.

                ALT J           This will cause a jump (shell) to DOS.
                                This also works when not in edit mode.

                ESC             This will exit from edit mode.


              The function keys (F1, F2, F3, F4, F10) work in exactly the
              same way as they do in display mode.


              User Account Settings
              User Account Settings
              User Account Settings

              You will notice that each account has a wide range of
              togglable settings available to it. All of these settings
              are changed by placing the highlight on the Yes or No
              display and then you tap the Space Bar to toggle between
              Yes or No. The meaning of these settings are as follows:

                 Deleted - If this is set to Yes then the next time you
                 run USERCOMP, this user will be deleted from the user
                 base.

                 Clear Screen - This will tell Ezycom whether or not to
                 send screen clearing codes to this user when required.

                 Continue - This tells Ezycom that this user requires a
                 continue prompt to be sent when displaying file lists
                 and screens longer than their screen length.

                 ANSI Capable - This tells Ezycom whether the user will
                 accept ANSI graphics characters/control codes or not.

                 Don't Kill User - If this option is set to Yes, then
                 even if the user has not called in the number of days
                 you set to kill users when using USERCOMP, they will NOT
                 be deleted from the user base.

                 Ignore File Points - This option will stop the user from
                 using his/her file points.  The end result is this user
                 will not be stopped by this powerful ratio system when
                 downloading files.

                 Full Screen Ed - This enables or disables whether this
                 user uses the external Full Screen Editor (such as
                 EzyEdit or Gedit).



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             Quiet Mode - If enabled for this user, then they will
             not be able to be called by another node with the multi-
             node chat system.

             Ignore Ratios - This is similar to the ignore file
             points option but it applies to all the other file
             ratios used in the Ezycom package.  So if this option is
             Yes and ignore file points is No the users can download
             all they like until their file points are used up
             (providing they don't exceed their daily download/time
             limit).

             Avatar Capable - This option will tell Ezycom to send
             AVATAR screen codes to this user when it is set to Yes.

             IBM Characters - When this option is set to Yes, Ezycom
             will send high-bit IBM characters to the user (frames,
             lines etc). Users of Non-IBM systems will likely have
             this set to No.

             Ignore Paging - If this option is set, then the user
             will be able to override all paging hours, hence be able
             to page the sysop 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

             Exclude User - With this option to Yes, the user will
             NOT show up in any statistical type lists eg. best user
             statistics, online user lists, last caller lists etc.
             The sysop may find this setting of use given the number
             of times the sysop may end up logging in each day. A
             user with this setting will however still show up in a
             Who's Online? list.

             Menu Time - If this option is set to Yes, then the user
             will NOT have to wait for the time restrictions on any
             of the menu options.

             No Page Sound - When a user pages you with this option
             set to Yes, no page sound will be heard. The user will
             however still be under the impression that he/she is
             paging you.

             Page On Logon - If you set this option to yes and this
             user logs on, five short beeps are sounded to indicate
             to you that a very important user has logged on.  Note
             though that this option works 24 hours a day, 7 days a
             week and is NOT restricted by page times.

             Ignore Message Ratio - If this option is set to Yes,
             then the user will NOT have to comply with message ratio
             restrictions on menu options.

          The rest of the settings for user accounts are fairly self
          explanatory and so will not be discussed.



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              USERCOMP - Keeping Ezycom's User File In Shape
              USERCOMP - Keeping Ezycom's User File In Shape
              USERCOMP - Keeping Ezycom's User File In Shape

              USERCOMP is a user base compacter utility for Ezycom. You
              should run this utility at least once per day AFTER any
              message and file base maintenance. You MUST not run
              USERCOMP while a user is online to your system. There are
              several command line switches that can be used with
              USERCOMP. Each will be discussed separately below:


                -S1             Sort the user list by security then
                                surname.

                -S2             Sort the user list by security then first
                                name.

                -S3             Sort the user list by security then
                                alias.

                -S4             Sort the user list by surname.

                -S5             Sort the user list by first name.

                -S6             Sort the user list by alias.

                -D<days>        This will delete users who have not
                                called the system for the number of days
                                specified by <days>. Eg. If you use the
                                option -D30 then all users who have not
                                called for 30 days (or more) will be
                                deleted, unless you have set Don't kill
                                user in their user record.

                -U<Security>    This will tell -D<days> option not to
                                delete users with a security level
                                greater than or equal to the one
                                specified by <security>. Eg. If you set -
                                U100 the users with security level 100
                                and above will not be deleted regardless
                                of how long it has been since they last
                                called.

                -ADD            This option will add security zero users
                                to TRASHCAN.CTL. (See the Appendix C for
                                more information on TRASHCAN.CTL)

                -P              This option will credit file points to
                                uploaders whose files have been
                                downloaded, provided this option has been
                                implemented in CONFIG and you are
                                registered.





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            -Bnnn           This allows you to assign how many users
                            you want shown in your best users
                            information screens. Eg. If you assign a
                            setting of -B10 then the best 10 users
                            will be shown. The valid range is 1-200.

            -ALIAS          When USERCOMP makes the best user lists,
                            it will make them up using the users'
                            aliases instead of their real names if
                            you give this switch.

            -N<Node>        This will tell USERCOMP which file to log
                            to.
                            Range 1-250.

          Any combination of these command line switches can be used
          simultaneously if you wish with USERCOMP.

          For Example:

          USERCOMP -S1 -D20 -P -B1O -ALIAS -N1

          If you forget any of these switches, you can type

          USERCOMP -?

          at the DOS prompt for a quick reference.





























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                                                                 Chapter 6

                                                           Mail Networking


              Introduction
              Introduction
              Introduction

              One of Ezycom's most powerful features is its ability to
              interact with Fidonet Technology Networks (FTN). The
              Fidonet concept was invented by Tom Jennings around May
              1984 as a way to connect many BBS's together so that they
              could exchange electronic mail. His original concept with
              the help of many other BBS community notables has developed
              today into a solid and mostly reliable way of exchanging
              mail between BBS's. The network in which the technology
              began, Fidonet, now has over 26,000 member systems around
              the world. There are also literally thousands of other
              networks run by different groups using the same technology
              often referred to as 'other-nets'.

              The shear size of these networks and the many different
              levels of technology in use within these networks, is the
              cause of a lot of late nights for new sysops.  As a result,
              the next few pages will delve into the inner workings of
              these networks so that beginners will have some ground work
              for the later sections. If you are already quite familiar
              with the basics, you may the next three pages.


              Network Hierarchy
              Network Hierarchy
              Network Hierarchy

              As you may well have already imagined, a network with
              26,000 participating BBS's must have some sort of operating
              structure else it could not possibly hope to do its job in
              a  successful manner. In the case of FTN's this structure
              is derived from a file called the Nodelist. A nodelist is
              simply a text file which contains a list of all BBS's
              (nodes) in that network along with the administration
              structure that holds them together. Today, the full Fidonet
              nodelist exceeds 2 megabytes in size!

              You may well have come across an FTN network address before
              but not understood it's meaning. The components of an
              address will therefore now be explained.

              A typical full 5-dimensional Fidonet address may look as
              follows:

              3:622/407.0@fidonet






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          Let's break each component (dimension) up:

             The 3 represents the zone which is typically a very
             large geographical area and in this case means the
             Pacific Basin (Australia, New Zealand). Other major
             zones in Fidonet include Zone 1 (USA & Canada) and Zone
             2 (Europe).

             The 622 represents the network number (in this case,
             Newcastle - New South Wales). Typically a network is a
             defined by a geographical area such as a city or a group
             of towns. In more populated areas a city may consist of
             many similarly numbered networks because there are too
             large a number of nodes in the area to make one network
             manageable.

             The 407 represents the actual node's individual number
             within his/her network. These are typically numbered
             sequentially with the network co-ordinator taking the
             /100 address (the person who is responsible for that
             small part of the nodelist).

             The .0 is the point number. It is possible to have other
             nodes that hang off your system for example that are not
             listed in the nodelist but can still exchange mail using
             the same technology. Often mail intensive users opt to
             do this as do new sysops who do not want to take on full
             network membership just yet. You as the boss node (.0)
             allocate a number to each system who 'points' off of
             you. Normally you would allocate these sequentially so
             the first system would be .1 and so on. For most
             situations you can ignore the .0 for your address, it is
             not needed. Back before the days of 4 & 5 dimensional
             addressing, a method known as the fakenet was used for
             points. Ezycom neither supports this or recommends such
             an outdated method of point management. If your points
             cannot support the modern method, its time they changed
             software.

             The '@fidonet', the 5th and last dimension, is known as
             the domain. The '@' signifies that a domain name is
             following and is not part of the domain itself. The
             domain (when fully implemented) allows multiple networks
             to have conflicting Zones without getting the two
             confused. Mailers such as BinkleyTerm 2.56 or later are
             fully 5 dimensionally aware and use the domain name to
             its fullest potential. Ezycom is 5D in all respects when
             fully configured. Be sure to ask your network co-
             ordinator for the correct domain to use in each network
             you are in.






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              Other Aspects

              Within the nodelist you will also notice other entries. The
              most notable ones are (briefly):

                 Hub - In larger networks or networks that cover several
                 small geographical areas, the network co-ordinator will
                 often allocate hubs to break down the distribution of
                 mail into smaller groups. Instead of everyone connecting
                 to the net co-ordinator for mail, nodes are broken into
                 smaller groups and are assigned a hub who picks up the
                 mail from the net co-ordinator and then passes it on to
                 these smaller groups thus reducing the load on that
                 system. The only affect this has on addresses is
                 normally in causing a jump to the next multiple of 100
                 and then sequentially numbering nodes from there.
                 Region - A geographically based grouping of networks.
                 Used for co-ordination purposes only and so has no part
                 in the network address

              There is also often quite a quantity of other information
              contained within the nodelist such as nodelist flag types
              and other announcements placed in there by the network
              hierarchy. These are part of comment lines and do not
              affect the nodelist structure. You may however find reading
              this information useful for understanding some of the
              conventions used in the nodelist.


              Types Of Mail
              Types Of Mail
              Types Of Mail

              There are two major types of mail transmitted within a FTN.
              These are echomail and netmail.

              Echomail is probably the type of mail that you and your
              users will make the most use of. The term echomail is
              derived from the fact that every message posted within a
              specific area (known as a conference) is 'echoed' to every
              other BBS system who receives that conference. The nett
              result is discussions can be held over a local, national
              and even an international level with ease and very little
              effort on the part of the participating BBS's. Conferences
              have a specific topic and you should ensure that you and
              your users adhere to that topic else the moderator (the
              person in charge of that area) can have your feed access to
              that conference cut.










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          Typically echomail is public only so anything you post in
          there can be read by every user on every BBS that has
          access to that conference. There are however times when you
          will want to send a private message to someone on a distant
          member system. This is where netmail is used. Unlike
          echomail, netmail is point to point only and for all
          intents and purposes can only be read by the sender and the
          recipient. It only goes to one system, the one to which it
          is addressed where it will be received by the person there
          to whom it is addressed. Often netmail is used for replies
          to echomail messages that would otherwise be off-topic or
          possibly not a good idea to post a public reply to (for
          example a response to a for sale advertisement giving your
          name and address). Netmail can either be routed (sent
          through other systems and eventually arrive at its
          destination) or be sent Crash (where it is sent directly to
          its destination). Its a good idea not to give your users
          access to crash netmail else you could end up with quite a
          phone bill if they write internationally bound netmails.
          Unless otherwise stopped by your mailer configuration, your
          system will happily dial up an international number and
          deliver the message for them.

          You should now be familiar with mail network basics and be
          ready to start configuring Ezycom to work within such
          networks.


          Mail Networking With Ezycom
          Mail Networking With Ezycom
          Mail Networking With Ezycom

          Many components of Ezycom have to work together to allow it
          to efficiently interact with mail networks. Most of these
          components rely upon the settings in CONFIG to determine
          the way in which they behave. Following is a virtual step
          by step approach to configuring your mailing set-up that
          can be used each time you wish to make major changes to
          your configuration. It deals with each option in order of
          importance so that you may later skip components that do
          not require any changes but this procedure will ensure you
          do not forget things. An incorrectly configured system can
          cost you and many other systems a lot of money in
          unwarranted long distance charges so its important that you
          get it right.













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              Defining Your Network AKAs
              Defining Your Network AKAs
              Defining Your Network AKAs

              On the Messages Areas menu in CONFIG you will find a
              submenu entitled Network AKA (AKA = Also Known As) that
              allows you to configure up to 16 different network
              addresses. Each time you join a new mail network you must
              first come here and enter in your address. Your main
              address (typically the first or most major network you
              join) goes in the top entry and all other addresses follow
              in which ever order you wish after this. Be sure to keep
              your Main (Primary) address consistent throughout your
              system, especially in other programs such as your front-end
              mailer. Simply press ENTER on an entry and another box will
              pop-up allowing you to enter each dimension of your address
              (by pressing ENTER on that dimension). The ESC key will
              allow you to exit from a field without changing it or to
              exit from the address box back to the AKA list after you
              have finished editing that address. If you're not sure
              about the correct domain name for each net, ask your host.


              The Uplink/Downlink Manager
              The Uplink/Downlink Manager
              The Uplink/Downlink Manager

              Your various mail feeds for echomail have to come from
              somewhere. Normally these come from a system known as an
              Uplink who is essentially someone who is up-stream from
              you. Most often this will be your network co-ordinator. On
              the other hand if you are a network co-ordinator yourself
              or you simply feed mail to certain systems (you may be a
              hub for example) then you will also have Downlinks. These
              are nodes that are 100% dependant on you for a feed to a
              particular conference. In other words the bulk of the mail
              they receive in that conference is passed to them through
              your system. Consequently ANY system you send or receive
              echomail to or from whatsoever MUST be defined in the Node
              Manager which can be found as a submenu off the Message
              Areas menu in CONFIG. Currently Ezycom allows up to 128 of
              these entries, ample for just about any system.

              Each option will now be explained.

                 Node Address - In a simular manner to your Network AKA
                 set-up, enter the full address of the node you will be
                 sending/receiving echomail from in here. Be careful to
                 set the domain name correctly. This will be used for
                 outbound naming when running with a fully 5-dimensional
                 mailer (see later).

                 Echomail Active - This is normally set to Yes. Use this
                 to temporarily disable the processing of mail to this
                 node without actually disconnecting them from the
                 conferences they get from you. This can be useful if the
                 person is going to be down for some time such as while
                 away on holidays.


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             Pack To - By default this address will be the same as
             the Node Address however if you press ENTER on this
             field you will be presented with a pick list of
             currently defined nodes. Move the highlighted option so
             that it points to the appropriate entry and then press
             ENTER again. This allows you to 'pack-route' echomail
             from one address to another and is a very powerful
             option. It is mostly used to eliminate lots of smaller
             mail bundles where your system sends mail for more than
             one FTN to the same physical system. Instead of having
             one or more special mail archives for each network you
             send to them, you can have it all placed into the one
             archive.

             Echo Manager Groups - In order to make it easier to
             control access to various conferences (and to make
             management easier overall) you can place echomail areas
             into groups, often on the basis of where you receive
             them from. The group consists of a single letter of the
             alphabet A..Z. A downlink may well be connected (or be
             allowed to connect) to multiple groups so up to 26 can
             be put here. Use CTRL-Y to delete all groups shown.
             Ezycom will automatically alphabetically sort whatever
             you put in. You can also enter an asterisk/star '*'
             character to enable all groups.

             Compress To - This option will allow you to choose the
             compression method which will be used on all mail
             archives destined for the system being configured. Press
             ENTER to toggle through the available choices. The node
             will usually inform you of their preferred method.
             Please note however that if Pack-To is active, the
             compression method for the Pack-To node will over-ride
             the setting here. It is regardless still a good idea
             however to keep them consistent for each physical system
             you feed.

             Password To Echomgr - This is the password that this
             node's automatic echo area manager will expect from any
             requests that your system sends it. This is used for
             wait-thru areas (see later) and allows any of your
             downlinks (with sufficient privilege) to cause your
             system to send requests to your uplink to turn on new
             echomail areas so that they can receive them through
             your system.

             Password from Echomgr - This is the password this node
             must use in requests to your Ezycom echo area manager
             (see later). Normally this password is the same as the
             previous one but for added security you may use
             different ones. Often this will also be the same as your
             mailer's session level password with this node.



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                 Mail Status - This option will determine the status of
                 any mail bundles destined for the system. Use ENTER to
                 toggle through the many options. Normal is the most
                 common status and should be used unless you have a
                 special reason not to. Crash status will mean the mail
                 could be sent immediately by your mailer (at your cost)
                 and Hold status means it can never be sent by your
                 mailer and must be picked up by the node in question
                 unless you manually alter the status on waiting mailer
                 later on. The Direct version of each of these options
                 means the mail cannot be routed through another system
                 and so will only be sent (when allowed) straight to the
                 system it is addressed to.

                 Days to Hold Mail - This option will cause Ezycom to
                 only allow mail to be awaiting delivery for the
                 specified number of days before it will automatically be
                 deleted. The test for this condition is based on the
                 last date the mail archive was updated. Use Zero days to
                 disable deletion of mail bundles. Systems that do not
                 pick up for some time, especially if they are heavy mail
                 takers, will cause a large quantity of your hard disk
                 space to disappear over time. A setting such as 7 days
                 is probably a good start.

                 Send .PKT Type - This option will control the structure
                 of the uncompressed mail packets that Ezycom will
                 generate. It is quite important for outbound mail (it
                 has no affect on inbound mail). Type 2 is a 2-
                 dimensional only mail packet and contains no Zone or
                 Point information. You can see this by looking at your
                 Ezycom log after tossing mail and noting whether there
                 is only a 2-D address listed next to the 'Tossed Packet
                 From'. Thankfully most systems today generate Type 2+
                 packets which are fully 4-dimensional. Unfortunately
                 this is not always the case though (strangely enough
                 particularly among Fidonet administration) so you should
                 check first with your uplink/downlink to ensure you
                 choose the right packet type.

                 Can Create New Echos - If set this to Yes, this node is
                 allowed to send you new echomail areas and your system
                 can be configured (elsewhere) to create them
                 automatically as they arrive to save you manually doing
                 so.

                 Add to New Echos - This works in tandem with the
                 previous option and will add this node to any new echos
                 that arrive in any groups they are connected to. So not
                 only will the new echo be created, but this node will
                 immediately begin receiving mail from it.





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             Allow 2D Security - This is a very special setting that
             is only used if you have to communicate with a 2
             dimensional (type 2 - stone-age) mail system. Without
             this setting turned On for such a system, ALL mail from
             that system will be tossed bad should you have security
             (see later) enabled for a message area they feed to you.
             On the other hand if this option is enabled, Ezycom will
             check the net/node dimensions for allowable exports for
             the area in question and if it finds a match it will
             allow tossing into that area from this node. If you see
             only 2 dimensional addresses for PKT tossed entries in
             your log, then that system is only sending you Type 2
             packets. You should then find out if they are capable of
             type 2+ and get them to switch otherwise be sure to use
             this option if you want a secure system.

             Max Num Msgs in PKT - This is a space conservation
             measure and is particularly useful if you feed a large
             quantity of the same conferences to a number of nodes.
             While tossing (processing inbound) mail, once an
             outbound PKT to one of your downlinks has this number of
             messages in it, it will stop tossing mail and
             automatically archive that packet and then continue
             tossing upon completion. Setting Zero will disable this
             option. A good working value might be 400. Count on the
             fact that average message size is about 1K so if you
             have say 6 downlinks that is at least 2.4MB of space
             that will be used up by this stage in the processing.
             Archiving at this point would normally at least halve
             the amount of space used.

             Max Bundle Size (k) - Once an archive gets within this
             specified size, a new archive will be started for that
             node. When an archive is updated, a complete temporary
             copy of the old archive has to be made on disk before
             the new PKT is added to it. So the bigger the archive
             gets, the more disk space you will need as you
             progressively wish to add more PKTs to it. Do a
             calculation simular to the above to determine the best
             size. Also be aware that the bigger the archive gets,
             the more space your downlink will need to unpack it
             because the complete contents must be extracted before
             the archive can be deleted on their end. A 2MB archive
             could produce 5MB of PKTs so that is 7MB of free space
             they would require to even begin to process that mail.
             Once again a value of Zero will disable this feature for
             that node.









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                 Packet Password - This adds a further and almost
                 impossible to by-pass mail security feature to Ezycom.
                 Passwords on packets prevents bogus systems from
                 dropping off mail under an anonymous AKA that looks like
                 (when tossed) it came from a valid system that you
                 normally have mail exchanges with. Up to 8 characters
                 can be used for this password. The node you are defining
                 here must be capable of packet passwords else you will
                 be unable to toss mail from their system. You MUST
                 implement this feature when neither of your two systems
                 have mail waiting for each other under this AKA else you
                 will have problems tossing some of the mail as it will
                 not contain a password since those packets would have
                 been created before you set this option up.

              Now that you have configured each of the systems you will
              be connecting to for mail you can now move on to the
              message area configuration to actually create the echomail
              areas themselves.


              Configuring Network Message Areas
              Configuring Network Message Areas
              Configuring Network Message Areas

              This section of the manual only deals with the components
              of the Message Areas configuration that relate specifically
              to mail networking. The other options have already been
              explained in detail in the first part of this document and
              it is thus assumed you know how to use these options by
              this stage and so they are not covered again.

              To configure your mail network areas you need to look at
              the following options:

                 Area Tag - This is a special unique name that is
                 assigned normally by the echo conference creator to his
                 or her conference and is used to identify the messages
                 that belong in this area when mail is being tossed. As
                 soon as you enter something in this field, the
                 configuration will automatically set the Message Type
                 field to Echomail for you. For example the area tag for
                 the Fidonet Ezycom Support area is EC_SUPPORT. Your mail
                 feed will supply you with a list of  area tags and a
                 description of what they are about. You will normally
                 pick from this list, the conferences you wish to connect
                 to.

              Once this is set you should then check the Alias field and
              the Message Kind fields to ensure they are correct. All
              conferences with few exceptions are public only and some
              areas allow aliases while most do not. It is safest to
              assume initially that aliases are not allowed and that
              public is the only status allowed on messages in that area.




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             EchoArea Group - This is used as mentioned previously to
             group echomail message areas together normally by their
             source so that you can control who can get access to
             them (by the node manager) and also be able to globally
             manage selected groups of echos. Be sure to correctly
             set this field as per the node manager. Do not confuse
             this field with Message Group which is normally used for
             grouping areas of simular subject and is not limited to
             echomail areas.

             Private - Some echos are meant to be private. This
             option will cause any private echomails to be imported
             with the private status maintained. Normally this status
             would be stripped. Check the particular conference
             rules.

             Import Seenby - Determines whether the SEEN-BY lines
             will be imported into the message base for this area.
             These lines are hidden at the bottom of a message and
             allow mail processors to determine which systems have
             already gotten that message and so it will not scan it
             out to them again. This information takes up valuable
             space however and is normally stripped on import. If you
             are however having dupe-loop problems (where mail goes
             around in circles), you may wish to turn this on for a
             short time in order to track down the source of the
             loop.

             Tiny Seenby - If you are acting as a domain (echo) gate
             between two different networks, this option allows you
             to completely strip all seen-by lines out of a message
             before forwarding it over this boundary so that foreign
             addresses will not show up on either side of the gate
             and confuse mail processors. Most systems will never use
             this option. Between any two different FTN's there
             should NEVER be more than one system doing this.

             Visible - Determines whether this conference is visible
             to all echo manager (Areafix) requests to your system
             (see later). Setting this Yes means the requestor will
             not have to have access to this area's group to actually
             see that it exists. They will however not be able to
             connect to it without access to it's group. This can be
             used to show compulsory conferences to people without
             allowing them access to the group so they can disconnect
             from them.










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                 Security - When Ezycom is tossing mail into this area,
                 if the mail is coming from a system that is not allowed
                 to have access to that area, then this option will
                 prevent mail from being tossed from that node to that
                 area. Such mail will then be tossed to a bad area (if
                 defined) for your perusal later. This option should
                 normally always be on and is useful for finding when
                 systems are sending to you from an AKA different to the
                 one you have set-up for them to send to you from.

                 Origin Aka - If you press ENTER on this option a list of
                 all your network addresses will pop-up for you to choose
                 from. Press ENTER again to select one. Be sure to pick
                 the correct network address for the network the
                 conference in question belongs to else you will find
                 yourself receiving nasty messages from those above you.

                 Uplink aka - Again pressing ENTER on this option will
                 give you a pick-list of nodes that you send/receive mail
                 to/from. Pick the node whom the bulk of the flow comes
                 from in this echo ie. the person who actually gives you
                 your connection to the distribution chain for that echo
                 at large. This is (or will be) used for forwarding
                 requests for connection from your downlinks to this
                 uplink via your system if this area happens to be a
                 wait-thru area.

                 Origin Line - This is a the greeting/advertising type
                 line that goes on the bottom of every message posted in
                 this area form your system. If you don't specify one,
                 the default will be used. Note: Do NOT put the ' *
                 Origin : ' part in as this is automatically done for you
                 during processing of new outbound messages.

              The bulk of the configuration for the message area is now
              done. All that remains now is to configure the seen-by and
              export tables.

                 Seenby - This option is accessed by F8 and will cause a
                 special easy selection box to pop-up that will show all
                 your currently defined AKAs. Simply move throughout this
                 box (the highlight will show you where you currently
                 are) and use the ENTER key to toggle the little box
                 beside each relevant address. The box indicates that
                 this AKA is active for that conference. Normally you
                 should only activate one AKA for any one conference and
                 only the one for that network. If you hold a co-
                 ordinator position or multiple addresses in the one
                 network, its a good idea to enable all of the addresses
                 for that network that you hold so as to prevent any
                 possible dupe looping when confusion over which AKA you
                 are using occurs. Notice how this box will stay open
                 even if you PgUp/PgDn to another area? This is a useful
                 way of quickly setting Seenbys in multiple areas and/or


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             checking that they are correct. The pointer will
             remember where it was also even if you close the box (F8
             again) until you completely exit CONFIG so if you are
             configuring many areas in the same network it will save
             quite a lot of time for you. Notice also that upon
             closing the window, any AKAs you have enabled will be
             listed beside the Seenby field.

             Export To - By pressing F10 you can configure this in
             the same way as you do for the seen-by table. This is
             where you define ALL the systems that you send/receive
             this conference to/from. This includes the Uplink system
             you defined in the option just above. A small square box
             beside the address indicates that node is active for
             this conference and once again PgUp/PgDn will work
             allowing you to move to other areas with this view still
             open. The only extra thing to be aware of is if you have
             more than 45 nodes in your node manager, you will need
             to use the 'Q' and the 'A' keys to move up and down
             between each screen full of defined uplink/downlink
             nodes. The status of the display is also maintained
             during movement between areas too so you do not have to
             press 'A' to go to the 2nd page after doing a PgUp/PgDn
             again.


          Global Management Of Echomail Conferences
          Global Management Of Echomail Conferences
          Global Management Of Echomail Conferences

          Altering export lists can get very tedious after a while,
          especially for a new node. Ezycom does provide an
          alternative way to add nodes to the seen-by and export
          lists. Go into the Global option at the bottom of the
          Message Areas menu in CONFIG. Here you will find among
          other things two options for echo control, specifically
          Global Export List and Global Seenby List. Selecting these
          options gives you an A)dd R)emove Q)uit menu. This menu
          will allow you to either add or remove a system from a
          group of echos or to add or remove an AKA from seen-bys in
          a given echo group.

          Once you have picked the type of operation you will get a
          pick list. Choose the node/AKA to work with and then press
          ENTER and you will get an echo group list. By default all
          groups are affected (hence all are listed) but you should
          NOT allow it to proceed that way unless you want to change
          that setting in ALL groups regardless of network. Be very
          careful if you want to do that. Use CTRL-Y to delete all
          the groups listed and then type the ones you wish it to
          work with. Pressing ENTER will then carry out the request.
          If you then go and check in the message area(s) you should
          see your changes affected. This method for instance
          provides a very quick way of adding a node to several
          hundred echos.



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              Something worthy of pointing out at this stage is that the
              message areas only contain a reference to the appropriate
              entry in the node manager so if one of your nodes has an
              address change for some reason you need only change the
              address in the node manager. If someone else takes over a
              major feed the same also applies, just change the address
              in the node manager and when you check the area
              configuration you should see the correct address in the
              export list. You do NOT have to do a Global Remove followed
              by a Global Add.


              Netmail Message Areas
              Netmail Message Areas
              Netmail Message Areas

              When configuring a netmail board, all but one of the
              options previously mentioned are irrelevant. That exception
              is the Origin Aka which aside from general area settings,
              is the only thing you have to configure for a netmail area,
              that is of course, aside from setting the Message Type to
              Netmail in the first place. CONFIG will tell you if you try
              to use an option not meant for the message area type you
              have set. Once you have defined all your netmail boards
              (you MUST have one for each network you are in) you have to
              go into the Netmail Boards off the Message Areas menu and
              tell Ezycom the board number of the appropriate netmail
              board for each network AKA you have defined. If you are
              feeling lazy and are sure you have correctly defined all
              the netmail boards (one for each AKA) hit ENTER on the
              intelligent guess option and Ezycom will locate and set all
              the options for you automatically. It is however best to
              check them anyway to make sure you have not made a mistake.


              General Network Message Options
              General Network Message Options
              General Network Message Options

              Selecting the Network Misc option from the Message Areas
              menu will take you into a screen full of options to do with
              configuring your FTN operations. Each of the options is
              explained in turn below:

                 Inbound Mail Path - This tells Ezycom where to find
                 inbound mail archives destined for your system. Your
                 front-end mailer will place them in a directory
                 specified by you. These two directories should thus be
                 the same.

                 Outbound Mail Path - This is where Ezycom will place all
                 outbound mail archives. This directory MUST be unique
                 and is NOT the same as the PACKET directory which Front
                 Door/Intermail mailers use for creating dynamic
                 outbounds  (see the section on Front End Mailer Types
                 for more information).




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             ARCmail 0.6 Compatability - This will force Ezycom to
             use the ARCmail 0.6 naming convention on mail archives.
             Ezycom uses a much more intelligent method of its own if
             you set this to No. However in Fidonet particularly,
             some older systems may not be able to cope with anything
             other than ARCmail 0.6 naming. More often than not
             though the naming method is irrelevant.

             Import Messages to Sysop - Most sysops prefer not to
             have private netmail addressed to them imported into the
             message base and instead have it left in their *.MSG
             netmail folder for direct manipulation by their mail
             reader. This option will allow you that choice.

             Real Name Kludge Line - In Alias message areas this
             option will cause a hidden @REALNAME kludge to be
             inserted in all the messages posted. This means the real
             name of the author can be readily identified. This may
             not be desirable especially in some Adult type echomail
             areas where embarrassment could be caused to the author
             of the message.

             Swap Out On Ezymail - Here you can control the swapping
             method that Ezycom will use while processing mail
             whenever it needs to fire up an archive processing
             utility. Use ENTER to toggle through the various
             options. Disk is always the ultimate (and slowest) fall-
             back. Best option is XMS/EMS since XMS is faster. Ezycom
             will try each method in order of priority in this case.

             Dupe Detection - This enables automatic echomail dupe
             detection in Ezycom. Instead of blindly
             forwarding/tossing mail your system has already seen
             before (as the result of a dupe-loop) Ezycom can detect
             such dupes and delete the messages without processing
             them further. To do this it uses a dupe table of 8000
             entries which contains CRCs of the message header info
             for the most recently tossed messages backwards. This
             makes detection of dupes very fast and very reliable.

             Keep EchoMgr Node Receipts - When a node in your node
             manager sends a request to your echo manager, this
             option allows you to keep a copy of those requests if
             you so wish. You may want to keep track of who has been
             doing such requests or if someone is having trouble with
             them you can help them because you will be able to see
             where they are going wrong.

             Bad Message Board (0=Off) - Placing a number here
             defines a message board where bad messages will go upon
             tossing. Bad messages are caused by security violations
             on an echo area ie. a system trying to send mail into an
             area that is not available to them.



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                 Unknown Area(s) Action - Probably one of Ezycom's more
                 powerful features, this will allow you to cause new echo
                 areas sent to you to be auto-created and even be fed to
                 your downlinks automatically if the Node Manager
                 specifies so. Set EchoMail* to enable this Registered
                 Only feature. Optionally you can set new areas to pass
                 through (which still allows auto-adding to downlinks) or
                 to Kill whereby any messages to them will be killed
                 without question.

                 Kill Bad Archive(s) - Any inbound mail archives found to
                 be corrupt (often incomplete) can optionally be killed
                 upon discovery. Setting this option to No is probably a
                 good idea in a Front Door/Intermail set-up however
                 because a mail transfer may have aborted leaving only
                 half the file received and if the archive is then
                 deleted, the transfer cannot resume except from scratch
                 should the transfer be tried again at a later date.

                 Default Origin Line - This simply defines an origin line
                 to use by default in the absence of a specific one in
                 any of your message areas. As with the specific one, the
                 ' * Origin: ' is NOT required as this is automatically
                 placed in for you when new outbound messages are
                 processed.

                 Mark Netmail as Kill/Sent - Determines whether mail
                 written on netmail boards and any other netmails that
                 Ezycom generates, get a kill upon sending status. If you
                 want to keep all netmails for manual deletion then set
                 this option to No.

                 Kill Null Netmail - Any netmails without a body text in
                 them (eg. file attaches coming in) will be killed if
                 this option is set to Yes.

                 Maximum Messages To Rescan - If a node in your node
                 manager issues a rescan request (ie. wishes to get old
                 mail from an area he/she has just turned on so as to
                 give their system something to start with) then this
                 option will control the maximum number of messages that
                 they can actually get (per area). This option has a
                 maximum value of 999 and Zero disables this feature
                 entirely.

                 Delete Mail Bundles - Any mail bundles found lying
                 around in a Front Door/Intermail type mailer environment
                 that do not seem to have a netmail attached to them,
                 will be killed if this option is set to Yes. Do NOT
                 enable this in a BinkleyTerm/Portal Of Power
                 environment.





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             Binkley Support - This option is used to specify the
             style of outbound your front-end mailer uses. If you are
             using Front Door/Intermail, set this to No. If you are
             using Portal of Power, set this to Yes. If you are using
             BinkleyTerm 2.50 or higher, set this to Yes + 5D. The
             latter will enable full 5-dimensional mailer support ie.
             the use of domains, which allows two different networks
             to share the same zone number.

             Create OUT, DUO, etc - If you are running either Portal
             Of Power or BinkleyTerm (or any other Binkley style
             mailer) then enable this option so that EZYPACK will
             happily convert Crash/Hold etc *.MSG netmails to
             outbound bundles that this type of mailer uses.


          Automatic Creation of Echomail Areas
          Automatic Creation of Echomail Areas
          Automatic Creation of Echomail Areas

          Probably the most time consuming thing a new sysop can find
          him or herself doing is setting up new echos, especially if
          you have just joined a new mail network and have to add
          tens or even hundreds of new echos. Ezycom allows sysops
          using a registered version of Ezycom to avoid this very
          time consuming task through its ability to automatically
          create new echos as they arrive and even link up downlinks
          on the fly. The heart of this function is controlled from
          the New Echo Area option that can once again be found off
          the Message Areas menu in CONFIG.

          Upon selecting this option you will see a pop-up box that
          shows all your defined AKAs once again as well as Group and
          Msg Board Start fields beside each. This means for each
          network you receive (or indeed each AKA you receive from),
          you can configure a default echo group and starting
          position (message board number) for new (unknown) echos to
          begin being created at. Ezycom will start at this message
          area number and locate an empty area where it will quickly
          create the new echo for you. It automatically skips over
          used ones till it finds a suitable location to create the
          new area. When creating the area it uses sensible defaults
          for most of the options, automatically sets the uplink,
          seen-by and export list fields for you (including auto-
          added downlinks as per the node manager settings) and then
          proceeds to toss mail into this area (and to downlinks).
          Other options such as default security levels are
          configured elsewhere (see next section). A node MUST have
          access to the group defined for the appropriate AKA here
          else they will NOT be able to create areas despite their
          node manager setting.







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              The configuration in this section equally applies to pass-
              thru echos also and registration is not required for this
              feature. Pass-thru areas are simply ones that do not exist
              in the message base but contain mail that gets forwarded to
              downlinks. Normally if the echos are of no interest to
              yourself or your users but a system you feed wants them,
              then you make them pass-thru so that they do just that,
              pass through your system. This is a fairly speedy process
              as they don't have to be tossed into your message base and
              merely go from one packet to another.

              Be aware that once echos are created, they will not be
              completely ready for use by users. You will have to go and
              adjust the access levels on them and give a proper title to
              the message area (the default will be the echo-tag). You
              will also need to check message maintenance options (ie
              days, number, kilobytes etc) and set a proper QWK area name
              (which also defaults to the first 12 chars of the echo-
              tag). But overall you will save hours of otherwise tedious
              work.


              Special Message Security Settings For Network Mail
              Special Message Security Settings For Network Mail
              Special Message Security Settings For Network Mail

              In the Security option found off the Message Areas menu you
              will find quite a number of security controls related to
              echo and netmail. These are very much set and forget
              options although if you ever make any major changes to your
              security level system, it is a good idea to check these
              settings again. The options available are used as follows:

                 Force Crash Mail Security - This is the minimum security
                 level for which crash status on netmail messages will be
                 forced ie. no choice is given, it is forced on. You are
                 well advised not to give this to users unless you trust
                 them with your life. Your front-end mailer could be
                 going bizzerk delivering netmails all over the globe
                 otherwise.

                 Optional Crash Mail Security - This is the minimum
                 security for which crash status is optional (up to the
                 forced security). Upon attempting to write a netmail
                 message, users with this security and above (up to the
                 forced level) will be prompted as to whether they would
                 like the message sent crash or otherwise.

                 Netmail File Attach Security - This is quite a dangerous
                 option to allow users to have. If a user has this
                 security or higher they can attach any files they like
                 to a netmail message. It would be a simple matter to
                 attach say your user file to a netmail and then call in
                 with a mailer to your system presenting the appropriate
                 address and then they would pick up that file.



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             Netmail File Request Security - This is equally
             dangerous, at least for your wallet. If users have
             access to this option they can cause your system to do a
             file request to anywhere they like and your mailer will
             happily dial and try and pick-up whatever files they
             have requested (*.* maybe?)

          All of the previous options should only be available to you
          and maybe co-sysops.


             Security To Update Users - While viewing the user list
             or reading a message online, a user with this security
             or higher can access pertinent options in the user file
             and alter them such as security level and flags for a
             given user. This may be useful for co-sysops to upgrade
             users from remote for you but be careful. Remember they
             can upgrade themselves too and/or downgrade you!

             Read Sec on New EchoMail Area - This defines the default
             read security on auto-created echo areas (see previous
             section). Normally you would set this to the same as the
             sysop security so you can prevent access to new echos
             until you have correctly completed their set-up.

             Write Sec on New EchoMail Area - Simular to the above
             this option defines the default write security on auto-
             created areas.

             Sysop Sec on New EchoMail Area - This defines the
             default sysop security on newly created areas.

             Reply Via Netmail Security - This is the minimum
             security a user must have in order to reply via netmail
             to an echomail message. This will automatically
             determine the appropriate netmail address using the
             hidden kludge lines present in most echomail messages
             (see later). If these kludge lines are not missing,
             Ezycom will ask the user to type the destination address
             manually.

             Request Receipt Security - This applies to local mail as
             well as netmail. A user with this security or higher can
             request a receipt to their message. In the case of
             netmail, a message will be sent back by the destination
             system once the message arrives to say that it did
             arrive and possibly what date/time that was.









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              Netmail Odds & Ends
              Netmail Odds & Ends
              Netmail Odds & Ends

              There are three other options important to mail network
              operation that have yet to be mentioned. If you go into the
              Other menu in CONFIG and select Paths you will see three
              paths that relate to network operation.

                 Netmail - This points to your front-end mailers *.MSG
                 folder. All systems will have this. Be sure your mailer,
                 your mail reader and Ezycom all point to the same place.
                 This path should be unique (ie. not used for anything
                 else).

                 Nodelist - This tells Ezycom where your RAW nodelist
                 files are stored so that Ezycom's nodelist compiler (see
                 later) and ultimately Ezycom itself can find them for
                 use in nodelist searching and other mail related
                 functions. Be sure this points to the same place that
                 your front-end mailer uses them from.

                 Binkley Path - This tells Ezycom exactly where to
                 find/create OUTBOUND.zzz holding directories if you are
                 using a Binkley style mailer. Normally you would set
                 something like C:\BINKLEY and so any mail for zone 3
                 from your primary network would go into
                 C:\BINKLEY\OUTBOUND.003.

              This completes our grand tour of the options in CONFIG that
              affect FTN operation. Now the usage of the actual utilities
              that do the mail processing will be explained.


              EZYMAIL- Ezycom's Echomail Processor
              EZYMAIL- Ezycom's Echomail Processor
              EZYMAIL- Ezycom's Echomail Processor

              The heart of Ezycom's echomail processing is handled by the
              EZYMAIL utility. This program is responsible for the de-
              archiving of all compressed inbound mail and processing it
              as well as generating all outbound echomail bundles. There
              are several command line options with which it can be run
              with. These function as follows:

                -SCAN           Giving this option will scan out all
                                waiting echomail. This function scans all
                                echomail conferences and exports all
                                messages that have not been exported
                                before. It will export these messages to
                                systems listed in your export list for
                                each area, as appropriate.








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            -SCANALL        This is the same as -SCAN except that it
                            will check every message area for
                            outbound mail that is pending export
                            rather than relying on the files that
                            Ezycom creates to tell EZYMAIL where mail
                            waiting to go out is situated.

            -TOSS           This option will toss inbound echomail.
                            This function is used to import mail
                            packets into Ezycom echomail areas and to
                            process pass-thru areas.  If EZYMAIL
                            detects a message for a conference in
                            which you have systems defined in your
                            export list, it will automatically
                            forward the message to those systems.
                            Complete information about all mail
                            tossed is logged to the log file.

                            Note: TOSS & SCAN are NOT mutually
                            exclusive and can be combined in a single
                            pass! The rest of the options following
                            may also be combined with these two as
                            needed.

            -FULLCHECK      This will cause EZYMAIL to do a full
                            check in inbound packets when tossing
                            mail. Normally if you only have one
                            system in your export list for an area,
                            Ezycom just assumes the mail came from
                            them and tosses it. Some utilities you
                            may be running generate PKT files (for
                            file announcements for example) and these
                            would otherwise not be exported since it
                            would assume the message came from the
                            one and only export when in fact your
                            system generated it.

            -STOPFORWARD    This will allow processing of inbound
                            mail but it will cause EZYMAIL to ignore
                            up\downlinks while doing so. As a result
                            no mail will be scanned out.

            -VERBOSE        This will make EZYMAIL list how much mail
                            was processed for each conference to the
                            screen and to your log file.

            -?              As with all Ezycom utilities, this will
                            give you a help screen on command line
                            options for EZYMAIL.







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              EZYMAIL also unpacks inbound compressed Netmail messages so
              they are ready for processing by another Ezycom utility
              called  EZYNET (see next section) and any messages found to
              'Sysop' will be re-addressed to the sysop name defined
              elsewhere in CONFIG. EZYMAIL is also very space conscious.
              It will unpack and process mail archives as it finds them
              (one at a time) rather than unpacking all mail archives
              immediately. It will also refuse to unpack mail if it
              calculates that there will not be enough free space to
              unpack them onto the current drive. If there is
              insufficient space for any given (uncompressed) packet to
              be tossed onto the drive where your message base resides,
              EZYMAIL will skip that packet.


              EZYNET - Ezycom's Netmail/Areafix Processor
              EZYNET - Ezycom's Netmail/Areafix Processor
              EZYNET - Ezycom's Netmail/Areafix Processor

              EZYNET is used to import/export your Netmail to/from your
              front-end mailer. It also contains Ezycom's built in Echo
              Area manager (Areafix like utility) and will process these
              messages when found. EZYNET is FULLY Zone Gate aware and
              will correctly re-address netmail messages, as appropriate,
              should you be acting as a zone gate or should netmail
              destined for another zone be processed. The command line
              parameters for EZYNET are:

                -EXPORT         This will export all pending netmail from
                                Ezycom and place it in to the correct
                                path for your front-end mailer to send.

                -ZONEGATENO     This will disable EZYNET's built in zone
                                gate function. Normally EZYNET will
                                automatically re-address netmail messages
                                for you if you are sending messages
                                across zones.  This will stop EZYNET from
                                sending them through the Zone Gate.

                -IMPORT         This will import all the netmail from the
                                directory where your front-end mailer
                                puts them and places them into your
                                message base.















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            -USERSNO        This parameter is used in conjunction
                            with the -IMPORT parameter. It will
                            disable EZYNET's special checking
                            function for inbound netmail. The netmail
                            checking function ensures that all
                            netmail destined for your system actually
                            have someone to go to on your system (ie.
                            it checks the user file to make sure that
                            user name exists). Should the user not
                            exist, the mail is redirected to the
                            sysop automatically along with an
                            explanatory note. You would not normally
                            disable this function without a good
                            reason.

            -ECHOAREA       Also used in conjunction with -IMPORT,
                            this parameter tells Ezycom's Echo Area
                            processor look for messages sent to it
                            and act upon them (see next section).

            -LIST -U<address> This option allows you to manually send
                            full areafix style messages to a given
                            node. This would be useful for new nodes
                            that do not know how to use EchoArea yet.
                            The address after the -U MUST be a fully
                            qualified 5-dimensional address (ie.
                            zone, net, node, point, domain).

            -?              As with all Ezycom utilities, this will
                            give you a help screen on command line
                            options for EZYNET.


          The Echo Area Manager
          The Echo Area Manager
          The Echo Area Manager

          Echo Area is a part of the Ezycom netmail processor.  It
          allows your downlinks (and indeed your uplinks) to make
          changes to their echomail profiles without them needing to
          bother you with manual requests. Echo Area will process
          them automatically without your intervention.


          How To Use Echo Area From Remote
          How To Use Echo Area From Remote
          How To Use Echo Area From Remote

          To access Echo Area, send a netmail message to your host
          addressed to the username 'EchoArea' or 'Areafix'. To
          safeguard your echomail profile, you must specify a
          password on the subject line of the netmail message.  If
          you do not have a password, or you do not know what it is
          then contact your host.






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              The main use for Echo Area is to connect and disconnect
              from conferences at your host.   To do this you simply tell
              Echo Area the Echo Tag of the conference(s) you want to
              pick up or drop.

              For example, to add the Ezycom Support Conference
              (EC_SUPPORT) and drop the Remote Access Support Conference
              (RA_SUPPORT)  you would send a message like:

                   To: EchoArea, 3:622/407
                   Re: foo
                   ----------------------------------------
                   +EC_SUPPORT
                   -RA_SUPPORT
                   ---

              Note that the '+' sign in front of the echos to be added is
              optional and so it can be left out if you wish.

              You may add/remove as many echos in the one message as you
              like using this method. The order in which you specify the
              echos does not matter either.

              Note also the tear line (row of dashes) at the end of this
              example.  Everything after the tear line is ignored, so you
              can also send comments or queries to your host.  This is
              useful if you have a question relating to your conference
              set-up or have problems using Echo Area. The tear line is
              not necessary unless you wish to make such a note on the
              bottom of the message and can be left out completely when
              not required.

              Once your request is processed, Ezycom will then write a
              netmail response back to you showing you a report of
              exactly what actions were taken (and pointing out any
              errors that occured). If you (or the remote system) process
              mail continuously, this response will be available for
              pickup shortly after the actual request was received and
              processed.

















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          Echo Area Commands
          Echo Area Commands
          Echo Area Commands

          There are several optional commands that can be invoked by
          either putting a parameter after your password on the
          subject line or by placing a control command in the message
          text. All parameters are preceded by a '-' character and
          commands are proceeded by a '%' sign. You may place as many
          of these together in your message as you like. All subject
          line commands must be separated by spaces and all control
          commands in the message text must each be on their own
          line.

            -Q or  %QUERY   The Query command will cause Echo Area to
                            create a list of all the echomail areas
                            that your system is connected to and send
                            it back to you in a netmail message.

            -L or %LIST     This is similar to the -Q command above,
                            but it lists all the echomail areas
                            available as well as the areas you are
                            already connected to.

            -U or %UNLINKED This is the opposite of -Q in that it
                            will create a list of all the echomail
                            areas your system is not connected to
                            (but are available for connection).

            -R or %RESCAN   All conferences added in this Echo Area
                            message, will be rescanned.  Rescan means
                            that all old messages up to a set limit
                            in the area(s) are bundled up and sent to
                            the requesting system as if they were new
                            messages. This option will also post a
                            message to the host system's operator
                            informing them that a rescan was
                            performed. All rescanned messages will
                            carry the @RESCANNED kludge to prevent
                            them causing dupe loops.

          Note:     The control command version of the rescan command
          is slightly different. While  the '-R' version will rescan
          all areas listed, the '%RESCAN' will only cause a rescan on
          areas listed AFTER the command.  This is useful if you only
          want to rescan a few of the areas you have added rather
          than all of them.

            -H or %HELP     EchoArea will send back a netmail message
                            containing information on how to use Echo
                            Area including a complete list of
                            commands.






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                -All or %+ALL   The All command will turn on all
                                available areas to your system.  Saves
                                doing a long list of echo tags.

                -NoAll or  %-ALL  The NoAll command is the exact opposite
                                to the All command. It will turn all
                                echomail areas off for your system.

              The following commands have no subject line equivalents and
              can only be used in the message body.


                %PAUSE          This command temporarily turns off the
                                mail for your system, while you are on
                                holidays for example.  The mail can then
                                be later resumed with %RESUME.  Note that
                                no areas are actually turned off, the
                                mail is just stopped (the equivalent of
                                setting the EchoMail Active option to No
                                in the Node Manager in CONFIG).

                %RESUME         This command resumes mail that has been
                                previously paused using the %PAUSE
                                command (or manually by the host sysop in
                                the node manager).

                %COMMENT        Identical to the tear line, '---'  at the
                                end of  a message. Everything on lines
                                following a %COMMENT command is ignored.


              EZYPACK - Ezycom's Netmail Pack Router
              EZYPACK - Ezycom's Netmail Pack Router
              EZYPACK - Ezycom's Netmail Pack Router

              EZYPACK is a netmail archiver/pack router for Ezycom. It
              basically packs netmail into an archived mail bundle (where
              echomail is normally placed). This reduces transmission
              size and thus saves money and it also reduces the need for
              your front-end mailer to do much routing of netmail since
              this will now already have been done for it, hence the term
              pack routing. EZYPACK is also a BinkleyTerm style packer.
              It can convert *.MSG file attaches to Binkley outbound
              bundles as well as non-routable messages such as Crash
              status ones. It can also perform routing on these bundles.
              If netmails do not have either an @INTL or @MSGID kludge
              present, EZYPACK will do a nodelist lookup to obtain this
              information (where possible) else it will leave that
              netmail message alone.









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          Once again, EZYPACK is command line driven and its switches
          are:

            -DEBUG          Shows a listing of the internal routing,
                            basically how EZYPACK understands your
                            intended routing. You may want to capture
                            this output to a file using DOS
                            redirection.

            -TESTMODE       Allows you to type the address of nodes
                            where you might wish to send netmail. It
                            will then tell you where it would send
                            the mail to if given the chance to pack
                            route it.  The
                            -C (Crash Mail) and -H (Hold Mail) are
                            also valid after the address, as it is
                            possible to route those messages to
                            different addresses. Normally without
                            these specifiers, any messages with this
                            status are ignored by EZYPACK.

            -VERBOSE        Verbose shows who the packed netmail is
                            being sent from and sent to, and who it
                            is being sent via. ie. a complete
                            description of what EZYPACK is doing as
                            it executes.

            -L<filename>    This switch allows something other than
                            the standard control file (EZYPACK.CTL)
                            to be used for routing. Useful if you
                            wish to have multiple routing procedures
                            possibly depending on what time of the
                            day it is. More than one file can be
                            specified at once also. Use a space to
                            separate each -L command.

            -FATTACH        This enables the Binkley attach
                            conversion feature of EZYPACK. During the
                            search of the *.MSG netmail directory,
                            EZYPACK will now look for any attach
                            messages and if found they will then be
                            converted to Binkley style attaches and
                            thus will be ready for sending by your
                            front end mailer.

            -?              Like all Ezycom utilities, this will give
                            you help on using EZYPACK.









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              Setting Up EZYPACK.CTL
              Setting Up EZYPACK.CTL
              Setting Up EZYPACK.CTL

              This is the standard routing file.  The command line
              routing (routing placed on the command line) is used in
              exactly the same way as routing in EZYPACK.CTL.  It is not
              essential to have routing on the command line.

              Comment lines may be placed in EZYPACK.CTL by placing a ';'
              at the start of the line. Each line indicates a new routing
              statement.  To list exceptions to a global routing
              statement (Eg: 3:*), they must be placed on a line previous
              to the global routing statement.  The command line can be
              considered as the 'top' line.  Any files added for routing
              with -L<filename> are processed after EZYPACK.CTL (if
              present). Global routing can be done by using '*' or using
              a '-' for a range of consecutive nodes.

              For Example:

                   *:622/*
                   3:622/*
                   3:622/407.* .*
                   *

              EZYPACK recognises short form addressing.  The short form
              is taken off the previous node listed, for example
              3:636/204 205 would mean 3:636/204 3:636/205.  However, all
              VIA lines (route mail via <address>) MUST include a fully
              qualified address consisting of at LEAST 3 dimensions.

              EZYPACK is a FULLY 5D aware netmail packer and recognises
              2000 different routings of netmail for one run in single
              route file.  Using different control files and command
              lines, it is possible to make this limit endless assuming
              that 2000 is not enough.

              Following are a series of routing examples. For the purpose
              of the examples it is assumed that 3:622/407 is one of your
              addresses.

                   3:622/407

              This tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for all points of
              3:622/407 ie. 3:622/407.1 etc.  As this is one of my
              points, netmail is directly sent to the point instead of
              being boss routed.

                   3:622/407.1

              This tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for 3:622/407.1 .






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               3:622/410

          This tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for 3:622/410 and all of
          its points. Any netmail for the points will be sent to the
          boss node ie 3:622/410.

               3:622/410.1 .*

          Tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for 3:622/410.1 but directly
          send the netmail to it ie. not to route it via the boss
          node. Netmail for 3:622/410.0 or 3:622/410.2 etc will be
          sent to 3:622/410.0 however.

               3:622/410
               3:* VIA 3:54/54

          Tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for all of Zone 3 and send it
          to 3:54/54.  However, netmail for 3:622/410 and points will
          be packed and be sent directly to 3:622/410 as it was
          listed previously in the routing statements.

               3:622/401-404 VIA 3:622/408
               3:* VIA 3:54/54

          This is exactly the same as the previous statement, except
          that netmail for 3:622/401 402, 403 & 404 will be sent to
          3:622/408. The rest of the mail for Zone 3 will be sent to
          3:54/54

          Notice the '-' between 401 and 404.  This indicates a range
          of nodes. The '-' only works on node addresses (ie. it will
          not work on zones, nets or points).

               3:* VIA 3:54/54
               *:  VIA 3:711/409

          This would tell EZYPACK to route all netmail for Zone 3 to
          3:54/54 and route netmail for other zones via 3:711/409

               3:622/410 -C -H

          This tells EZYPACK to pack netmail for 3:622/410 and all of
          its points including any Crash and Hold Mail.  All mail is
          routed to the boss node as points were not specifically
          listed.

          As you can well see, EZYPACK is very powerful and there are
          many different ways to achieve the same routing. Remember
          however that the .CTL file is processed sequentially so you
          cannot undo from below what you have done above. Some care
          must be taken in complicated routing situations to ensure
          that you do not end up with incorrectly routed netmail.




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              EZYNODE - Ezycom's Nodelist Compiler
              EZYNODE - Ezycom's Nodelist Compiler
              EZYNODE - Ezycom's Nodelist Compiler

              This utility is used to compile FTN nodelists for each of
              your network AKA's so that Ezycom may use them. The
              nodelists are used for many things in Ezycom including
              validating netmail addresses, doing Zone and other address
              look-ups during mail processing and for online nodelist
              browsing by users.

              Ezycom uses a very different style of nodelist
              compiling/viewing to many other BBS packages.  It allows
              the sysop to configure the nodelists to be viewed for each
              address that the sysop has.  In all, the sysop has a
              maximum of 16 network address. For each network address the
              sysop can have multiple nodelists.  Ezycom has a maximum of
              256 nodelists.  This should not be any real limit though.
              This feature can be used to secure your network from
              unwanted user access, for instance if you allow your users
              to post messages into Fidonet, but not allow them to post
              messages into EZYNET (a network of Ezycom BBS's).  It can
              also be used to make sure users only enter messages into
              Fidonet using your Fidonet address so that messages do not
              get cross-netted. It is almost most important that EZYNODE
              is setup correctly else full five dimensional routing will
              not work correctly as this relies on accurate nodelist and
              domain lookups.


              Setting Up EZYNODE.CTL
              Setting Up EZYNODE.CTL
              Setting Up EZYNODE.CTL

              EZYNODE requires a nodelist control file called EZYNODE.CTL
              and this should be located in your Ezycom system directory.
              Comments may be placed in this control file by placing a
              ";" at the beginning of the comment.

              For Example:

                   ;EZYNODE control file

              This is a valid comment since the ";" precedes the comment.
              Blank lines are also ignored by EZYNODE.

              EZYNODE accepts 6 different keywords.  START, AKA, LIST,
              PLIST, DEFAULT and COST.  A description of how each command
              is used and applied to the control file follows.

                START                   The START command tells EZYNODE
                                        that a NEW index should be
                                        created for the following
                                        AKAs/NODELISTs.  Up to 25 START
                                        commands (indexes) may be present
                                        in EZYNODE.CTL (one for each AKA
                                        defined in CONFIG).



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            AKA <net address or ALL>    The AKA command tells EZYNODE
                                    which network address should be
                                    used for this index.  This is
                                    very important as only those
                                    network addresses that use the
                                    nodelists indicated after this
                                    command should be used.  However
                                    a short cut command can be used
                                    called ALL.  This will tell
                                    EZYNODE that all network
                                    addresses are to be used for
                                    these nodelists.  If the ALL
                                    command is used for the network
                                    addresses, then no other network
                                    addresses should be stated.

          For Example:

               AKA 3:622/407
               AKA 3:622/407.2
               AKA ALL

          After entering the AKAs for the index, the nodelists to be
          used for the index must be specified.  This can be
          accomplished using the LIST or PLIST commands.

            LIST <nodelist> [optional zones] <@domain>

                                    The LIST command indicates that
                                    the nodelist that follows it
                                    compiles to the St Louis nodelist
                                    format, or in simpler terms that
                                    it has at least 1 Zone statement
                                    at the top of the nodelist.

          For Example:

               LIST NODELIST.* 1 2 3 @fidonet

          If the [optional zones] are left out, then EZYNODE assumes
          that all Zones are to be processed.  In this example,
          NODELIST.* will be compiled (the latest version of NODELIST
          in the nodelist directory). It is MOST important that the
          correct and a consistant domain name be used.

            PLIST <nodelist> <zone to use> <@domain>

                                    The PLIST command indicates that
                                    the nodelist which follows will
                                    be a private nodelist that does
                                    not contain any Zone statements.
                                    You MUST indicate which Zone
                                    EZYNODE is to use.



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              For Example:

                   PLIST EZYNODE.* 80 @ezybetanet

              In this example, Ezycom's beta network nodelist will be
              compiled, but because no valid zones are in the nodelist,
              EZYNODE will use zone 80 for the zone address.  Remember,
              the <zone to use> parameter MUST be present for the PLIST
              command to function as must the domain name.

                DEFAULT <cost>          This sets the default cost for
                                        all network addresses, that are
                                        not matched using the COST
                                        statement.  If no DEFAULT
                                        statement is specified, then a
                                        cost of 0 is assumed.  The <cost>
                                        is the units of cost for each
                                        minute of transmission.

              For Example:

                   DEFAULT 250

              This will set the default cost to 250 units.

                COST <phone number> <cost>  Sets the <cost> for a match
                                        of <phone number> in the network
                                        address where the message is
                                        being sent to.  The first match
                                        that Ezycom makes in phone number
                                        searching, will be the one Ezycom
                                        will use the cost for. costing is
                                        global for all nodelists.

              For Example:

                   COST 61-3 50
                   COST 61-49-    25

              In the previous example, any phone numbers such as 61-49-
              56-2853 would cost 25 units.  Whereas phone numbers such as
              61-3-578-0968 would cost 50 units.  If COST 61- 50 were
              placed before the line COST 61-49- 25, then ALL 61- phone
              numbers would cost the same, as the match for 61-49-56-2853
              would first match 61-. Costing is currently not used by
              Ezycom so this part is not greatly important for the time
              being.









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          EZYNODE stores all its index files in your nodelist
          directory as defined in CONFIG in the Other sub-menu under
          Paths.  Each index is named EZYINDEX.<index #>.
          EZYINDEX.00 contains path and netmail address information.
          EZYINDEX.COS contains phone number matching and costing
          information.

          If you wish to sort the indexes (for viewing ease), run
          EZYNODE with the command line switch -SORT. As always, -?
          gives help information on EZYNODE.


          An Example EZYNODE.CTL


          ; First Block will create EZYINDEX.01
          START
          AKA 3:622/407
          LIST NODELIST.* 1 2 3 4 5 6
          ;
          ; Second block will create EZYINDEX.02
          START
          AKA 151:6122/100
          LIST EZYNODE.*


          Using Ezycom's Mailer Semaphore Support
          Using Ezycom's Mailer Semaphore Support
          Using Ezycom's Mailer Semaphore Support

          Ezycom's mail utilities are capable of detecting the type
          of front-end mailer you are running and upon doing so, will
          generate appropriate semaphore files to make those mailers
          rescan their outbound bundles after new mail has be
          processed. The environment variable EZYSEM points to the
          directory where the semaphore file should be placed.

          Front Door

          If Ezycom finds the FD environment variable, it will update
          FDRESCAN.NOW and FMRESCAN.NOW after processing mail.  The
          commercial versions of Front Door make a file called
          FDINSESS.<task> in the Front Door System Directory while a
          mail session is in process.  If EZYMAIL detects one of
          these files then it will not attempt to process mail.
          Imagine what could happen if it was updating a mail bundle
          which was currently being sent in that session.

          D'Bridge

          If Ezycom finds the D'BRIDGE environment variable, it will
          update DBRIDGE.RSN after completion of execution. This
          tells D'Bridge to rescan its netmail.





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              BinkleyTerm

              When Ezycom detects the BINKLEY environment variable
              specifically, it will create BTRESCAN.xx flags (where xx is
              the node number). These flags will be placed in a FLAGS
              sub-directory that hangs straight off where the outbound
              directory also is so if your outbound was C:\BINKLEY then
              the flags would be placed in C:\BINKLEY\FLAGS. Be sure to
              point your BINKLEY.CFG to here.


              Front End Mailer Types
              Front End Mailer Types
              Front End Mailer Types

              There are two distinctly different types or groups of front
              end mailers currently available that Ezycom is able to
              function with. These are the Front Door style *.MSG attach
              type (known as Dynamic mailers) and the BinkleyTerm *.FLO
              type (known as Static mailers). A brief explaination of
              each of these two types of mailers and what to watch out
              for when setting them up with Ezycom now follows.


              Front Door *.MSG Style Mailers

              These type of mailers use a dynamic outbound manager where
              bundles are built on the fly and are readily able to be
              altered/routed. Common front end mail packages that fit
              into this group include Front Door and Intermail.

              Each mail bundle or file attach that is waiting to be sent
              to another system has a corresponding *.MSG (standard
              FidoNet message) in a netmail directory which tells the
              mailer where to send the file(s). To build a list of mail
              to go out, the mailer scans this netmail directory reading
              the addressing contained within each of the *.MSG files.
              From this it builds a list in memory of where everything is
              going taking into account any routing conditions you
              specify in the mailer's configuration (in the case of Front
              Door, in the ROUTE.FD file). The status of mail bundles in
              the outbound manager is derived straight from the status on
              the *.MSG message files themselves (unless routing
              overrides this). This makes it very simple to change the
              status of a bundle. One need only change the status on the
              appproriate messages using a message editor such a FM
              (supplied with Front Door) or GoldEd. However the mailer
              must then rescan the netmail directory to notice this
              change of status. On the fly altering of bundle status can
              also be done from the mailer directly but any changes here
              are lost should the mailer ever have to exit (eg. a user
              for your BBS calls in) or should it be forced to rescan for
              outbound mail.





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          Front Door style mailers offer the easiest and quickest
          Front End mailer setup, especially for the new sysop.
          However, if you are going to handle large volumes of mail
          for a number of up/downlinks, especially if you are running
          any inter-bbs games such as Barren Realms Elite (BRE), once
          the number of attaches gets into the hundreds, the mailer's
          dynamic bundling procedure will begin to take longer and
          longer to the point where it can take several minutes just
          to rebuild the dynamic bundles. It is therefore recommended
          that if you intend to do this, that you use a static type
          mailer instead.

          Things to look out for:

             Your PACKET directory should NOT be the same as your
             outbound or inbound directories (which should also be
             different to each other). Front Door/Intermail use a
             temporary directory to store the dynamic outbound
             bundles. To speed rescanning up, you should point this
             to a RAM drive where possible and multiple nodes must
             also have SEPERATE packet directories. These are only
             used by the mailer and should not be used by any other
             software including Ezycom.
             Be sure to delete netmail regularly so that your netmail
             folder does not get much bigger than 150 messages or so
             else as explained before, rescanning your outbound will
             become unbearably slow.

             It is also a good idea to set the Kill Bad Archive(s)
             option in CONFIG to No. This is because a mail transfer
             may have aborted leaving only half the file received and
             if the archive is then deleted, the transfer cannot
             resume except from scratch should the transfer be tried
             again at a later date.

          Binkley Style *.FLO Mailers

          This type of mailer uses a static outbound manager and puts
          virtually all of the onus for mail routing up to the mail
          processor (EZYMAIL/EZYNET/EZYPACK). Common front end mailer
          packages that fit into this category including BinkleyTerm
          and Portal Of Power.














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              Each mail bundle that is waiting to go out is pointed to by
              *.FLO style file instead of a *.MSG file. This file is
              simply a text file that lists, one per line, the full path
              and filename to each mail archive or file attach waiting to
              go out as well as information in coded form on what to do
              once that file has been sent. The *.FLO file gets the first
              part of its name from the destination address that files
              within are going to (in hexadecimal base 16 notation). The
              first four characters of the filename represent the net
              address of the system it is going to and the last four, the
              actual node itself. So for a system at 622/407 (hex
              026E/0197) a list of outbound files would be contained
              within 026E0197.FLO. So routing these files somewhere else
              merely involves changing the filename to reflect the new
              destination. Very simple indeed.

              Each of these *.FLO files is located in a specifically
              named directory depending on the zone which it is destined
              for. In a standard setup, *.FLO's destined for nodes in
              your primary address's Zone, are held within a directory
              called OUTBOUND. You normally configure the base directory
              that your OUTBOUND will reside on or hang off (for example
              C:\BINKLEY\). All BinkleyTerm aware software (such as
              Ezycom) then automatically look off this base directory for
              the OUTBOUND. Mail not destined for your primary address's
              zone and instead for some other zone is placed in a
              directory again named OUTBOUND only this time it will have
              an extension (also in hexadecimal) that states which zone
              the mail is destined for. So if your primary node number
              was 3:622/407 and you had mail on hold for zones 2 and 15,
              the *.FLO files for this mail would be placed inside the
              directories OUTBOUND.002 and OUTBOUND.00F respectively (15
              = 00F in hexadecimal).

              What about points? Well mail for points is placed in a
              subdirectory off the appropriate outbound directory as per
              the zone. The name for this directory is identical to that
              which a *.FLO file to your address would be named (should
              you happen  to send mail to yourself!) followed by a .PNT
              extension (so a *.FLO 3:622/407.1 would be placed in a
              directory ...\OUTBOUND\026E0197.PNT). The actual *.FLO file
              in here is then named from the point number. So 3:622/407.1
              would be a in .FLO file 00000001.FLO. The net number
              component is obviously not used in the case of points and
              so is always set to 0000.











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          Outbound status is implemented using special naming on the
          extension of *.FLO files. The first character of the
          extension gives this status as per the following:

          I    Important/Immediate - an attempt will be made to send
               this immediately
          C    Crash - will be sent off when crash mailing is allowed
               and if the recipient supports it
          F/N  Normal - will be sent in a normal sending event
          D/O  Direct - will be sent directly to the system it is
               addressed - same as normal
          H    Hold - will NEVER be sent on an outbound call. Can only
               be picked up.

          So a *.FLO type file with the extension *.CLO would be
          interpreted by your mailer as crashmail. Normally you would
          have the *.FLO (or *.NLO) extension unless you have a
          specific reason for setting something else.

          Other special extentions are also used within the outbound
          directories. These are:

            *.?UT           This is a standard FidoNet uncompresed
                            mail .PKT file. The same naming
                            conventions are used for the filename and
                            the ? in the extension is replaced by the
                            status of the bundle. Normally only crash
                            netmails would be sent like this.

            *.REQ           This is a text file that contains file
                            request  information. Each line has a
                            filename (or file spec) on it followed
                            optionally by a password preceeded by a
                            space and an exclaimation mark '!'. So
                            for example, a file request of TEST.ARJ
                            with password HELLO to 3:622/403 from
                            3:622/407, would be contained in a file
                            026E0193.REQ in OUTBOUND and the first
                            line of the file would read

                            TEST.ARJ !HELLO


          As mentioned previously, all filenames in *.FLO files are
          proceeded by one of the following characters:

            ^               This causes the mailer to delete this
                            file as soon as it has been sent.

            #               This will cause the mailer to truncate
                            (set the file to zero bytes in size) as
                            soon as the file is sent. Normally mail
                            archives would have this status.



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                ~               Not all files in the *.FLO have been sent
                                (the last mail session with this node was
                                probably interupted). Files that have
                                been sent already will be marked with
                                this character so that the mailer knows
                                where to continue from upon next
                                connecting with this node.

              Things To Look Out For:

                 Be sure that the Binkley Path in CONFIG points to the
                 base directory that your OUTBOUND.nnn (or DOMAIN.nnn)
                 directories hang from.

                 Ezycom will use the first eight characters of the domain
                 name on the destination node's AKA to determine the name
                 of the outbound directory to place *.FLO files in when
                 running in FULL 5 dimensional mode (only possible with
                 BinkleyTerm 2.50 or later to date). Be sure that these
                 names match those you have defined in your front-end
                 mailer's configuration else it will not be able to find
                 them. Ezycom is fully capable of operating in two
                 networks sharing the same zone when in 5D mode. It will
                 rely on domain and nodelist lookups so ensure that you
                 have correctly setup and used EZYNODE else the 5D
                 support will NOT work.

                 Messages with File Attach, Crash, Direct & Immediate
                 status need to be converted to Binkley style outbound
                 bundles. Use EZYPACK -FATTACH to do this (InterBBS games
                 such as Barren Realms Elite will require you to do
                 this). Be sure to also allow the creation of these
                 bundles by enabling the corresponding option in CONFIG
                 under Network Misc. Any routing in EZYPACK.CTL is
                 considered unless over-ridden. This allows you to file-
                 route non-crash/direct/immediate file attaches via other
                 nodes if need be.

                 The Delete Mail Bundles option must NOT be enabled else
                 all of your waiting outbound mail will get deleted each
                 time EZYMAIL is run since none of  it will have a *.MSG
                 attach.














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          Conclusion
          Conclusion
          Conclusion

          This brings us to the end of the very complex task of
          setting up Ezycom for network mailing. You will probably
          need to constantly refer to this chapter as you configure
          your mailing setup. If you are still lost after having read
          this chapter several times and tried the things mentioned,
          then contact an experienced mail network person near you
          for help. The information presented is already quite
          exhaustive and is well beyond the usual scope of this type
          of document. Nothing beats one on one help from an
          experienced network sysop.












































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