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Volume 5, Number 19 9 May 1988
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief Dale Lovell
Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
Contributing Editors: Al Arango
FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet
Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to
submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission
standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from
node 1:1/1.
Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All
rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for
noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and
are used with permission.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
received.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
Four Unusual Echos ....................................... 1
Our turn? How Hackers hacked away at Opus in Hong Kong ... 3
Your IFNA Working for You ................................ 5
Etiquette and Protocols -- SEAlink vs Zmodem ............. 8
New Features for SCOREKEEPER ............................. 11
Fido 12 Utilities ........................................ 12
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 20
FidoCon '88: Visit The Cincinnati Observatory ............ 20
3. NOTICES .................................................. 21
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 21
Latest Software Versions ................................. 21
4. COMMITTEE REPORTS ........................................ 23
And more!
FidoNews 5-19 Page 1 9 May 1988
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
George A. Stanislav
Opus 1:129/39
The Four Astral Board Echos
The logo of Astral Board, 1:129/39, is "The Unusual Board For
Unusual People." Indeed, the whole purpose of Astral Board is
discussing unusual things. Its two main local message areas are
"Unusual Experiences" and "Martial Arts." Four echos have been
born on Astral Board so far, all, hopefully, falling in the
"unusual" category.
The first and best known echo originating at Astral Board is
80XXX. Its purpose is to get a public forum to anyone writing
programs for the 8088 Intel chip and its derivatives, e.g.
80286, 80386, 8087, etc.
Another programming echo may not seem that unusual. After all,
there is a general programmers' echo, a C echo, a Pascal echo
and others. The "unusual" part of 80XXX is in its orientation
towards low level programming of a specific chip, or rather a
family of chips. Most of the discussion is about PC assembly
language programming, although the echo is not limited to
assembly language. As long as it has something to do with the
low level programming of the Intel 80XXX chips, any message is
welcome here.
Another unusual thing about 80XXX echo is its file transfer
protocol. If participants of the echo want to transfer chunks of
code that will not fit into one message, or even if they want to
transfer small binary files, they arc the file, convert it into
an ASCII text file by John Navas's ECHOARC and post that text as
a message. The recipient uses the same program to convert the
message into an arc file. That is why all sysops carrying the
80XXX echo are required to carry a copy of ECHOARC on their
systems for download by their users.
Unidentified Flying Objects are the topic of discussion of UFO,
another unusual echo from the unusual board. The history of this
echo is somewhat peculiar. Before I started it, I had no special
interest in the UFO phenomenon. Some of my callers were
attracted to my BBS by its name, Astral Board, in the hope they
would find a UFO related discussion there.
After several users expressed a desire for such an area, I
agreed to start it, not as a local discussion, but an echo. To
my great surprise, the day I started the echo, messages started
coming from all over the country, mostly thanks to Aaron
Schmiedel, sysop of Chai Way in Dallas, who spread the new echo
FidoNews 5-19 Page 2 9 May 1988
all over the USA and even sent it to Europe.
People who have personally viewed UFO's have participated in our
discussion. For me the echo was an eye opener. While before I
started the echo I would have probably treated anyone claiming
to have seen a UFO with great suspicion, nowadays I have no
doubt about the UFO phenomenon and even about its potential
danger for our planet. Those alliens seem to be anything but
friendly folks.
STARGAZE is another echo started on request of others. The echo
is dedicated to Astrology. The echo has started very slowly,
and up to this point not much discussion has happened there.
Mostly I asked people to help me find the algorithms for
astrological calculations as I would like to write an online
astrology program. If anyone can help in this regard, please
post in STARGAZE.
The fourth unusual echo is BBOS. This echo seems the most
unusual of all, at least to me. I started it when several sysops
requested an echo dealing with Opus Embedded Commands and AVATAR
(Advanced Video Attribute Terminal) for which I wrote a
compiler, OECC.
While the request for the echo was strong, there rarely ever
appear any messages in it. BBOS stands for Bulletin Board
Operating System. The echo is open not just to the discussion of
the currently available Opus Embedded Commands, but to
suggestions for new ones. In fact, the echo can be an excellent
meeting place of developers and users of different BBOS's to
possibly create standard ways of embedding commands and screen
control codes into text files that could be portable among the
various bulletin board operating systems.
Apparently this idea came too early before its time. The echo is
very little used. Ironically, I came to the point when I wanted
to discontinue the echo. I posted a message to that matter in
other echos and received many answers asking me not to do that.
Despite that, the traffic has been slow. I hope that after
reading this article more people will become aware of this echo
and its purpose.
All four echos are available at the Stars. One of the Stars
polls me every night for the echos and delivers the messages
from other places.
I would like to emphasize especially the presence of the last
two echos, STARGAZE and BBOS, as it seems not many sysops are
aware of their existence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 3 9 May 1988
SEAnet/2 - Hong Kong IFNA node 3:700/13.0
A POTENTIAL SECURITY PROBLEM IN OPUS
------------------------------------
Our turn?
To every BBS, it seems, there comes a Hacker - and we've just
had our first major attempt at gaining unauthorized access to
our system.
As we use Opus 1.03b which is, to say the least, a rather
widely used system we have decided to share our experience
with you in the hopes that you may avoid similar occurrences
on your own systems.
The hacker in question used a very simple, but powerful,
method which could - had things gone according to his plan -
have allowed him to gain full control of the machine running
Opus. This would have included access to all the BBS
utilities on the machine.
Such a success would, of course, meant that the hacker would
have been able to completely cover his tracks, even leaving
the Sysop unaware that his system had been compromised.
Due to some luck (good for us, bad for the hacker) he failed
in his attempts to control our system, and merely managed to
crash it leaving the system down for several hours.
A debate
--------
There is always something of a debate over whether the
methodology behind such things as Virus programs, Trojans and
so on should be publicly revealed in full detail.
The argument against full disclosure is seated in the idea
that we should not risk telling other people how such things
can be accomplished in the hope that no more people will find
out than already know.
Opposing this is the belief that only by letting people know
about a danger, and by fully informing them of that danger,
can ways be developed to combat the danger.
The two arguments might be summarized as the "Keep quiet and
hope it goes away" against the "Forewarned is forearmed".
It is in the light of the latter belief that this article
will explain what the hacker did, and how he did it.
I do of course advise all those who think their systems might
be susceptible to this line of attack to protect themselves
at once in the manner I will describe shortly.
FidoNews 5-19 Page 4 9 May 1988
The Method
----------
Basically what the hacker did was to take advantage of the
fact that we do not make much use of the *.GBS files in our
Opus system.
For those unfamiliar with .GBS files I should pause to
explain that these are the graphic equivalents to the .BBS
files containing system logos, file lists, menus and the
like.
People with ANSI graphics set ON will see what is in the .GBS
files, while those with it off will see what is in the .BBS
file.
This allows users with ANSI capability to take full advantage
of that system, while still producing perfectly legible
displays for those without ANSI support.
The hacker uploaded a file called FILES.GBS to a file area,
as no such file existed previously the system allowed him to
do this.
This file was a text file containing OANSI embedded commands
to shell to DOS and perform various functions.
These included DEL *.LOG in a successful attempt to remove
the system logs and so cover his trail.
The hacker then tried to run the remote sysop utility using
this system, luckily for us he was unaware of which com: port
we are using. By performing CTTY with the wrong port he
managed to crash the system.
Protection
----------
Protecting against further attempts to do this is quite
simple, we have now set the upload paths for all file areas
to a directory that is only available from a file area in
which the F)iles and T)ypes command are disabled.
Sysops will have to check this area and hurl (real problem as
Opus won't hurl across multiple drives) files into the areas
they are intended for. Not entirely satisfactory, but it's a
solution.
Raymond C Lowe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 5 9 May 1988
Your IFNA Working for You
Where DO those DUES go?
Steve Bonine, 115/777
There has been discussion in the sysop echomail conferences about
whether there is a need for an organization like IFNA, what such
an organization should do, and what IFNA is doing now. I want to
share with you a couple of things that IFNA is doing, right now,
for the good of FidoNet. You can agree or disagree about whether
they SHOULD be done, HOW they should be done, WHO should do them;
but at least you will be able to argue from a base of facts.
Last September, Ken Kaplan was looking for someone to help him
out with replies to inquiries received at the IFNA post office
box. I volunteered for the job because that aspect of IFNA is an
important one -- it's all well and good to say that potential
sysops can obtain information about FidoNet from a local BBS, but
what do you do if you're in India, or if you don't know where the
local BBS is? The IFNA mailing address provides an important
means of distributing information about what we are doing.
The work that Ken wanted to delegate seemed simple enough -- send
some sort of reply to folks who request information by writing to
IFNA. The pamphlet that Ken had been sending was a bit out of
date. (It doesn't take long for things to get out of date when
it comes to FidoNet information!) So I sat down with the old
pamphlet, my trusty PCWrite and HP Laserjet, and came up with a
new mailer. Nothing fancy, but it worked.
The response to PO-box inquiries consists of this little
pamphlet, a list of help nodes, a list of all the FidoNet
coordinators, and an IFNA order/application form. It goes for a
single unit of postage (two units international), and provides
general information aimed at a diverse audience.
The audience grew when PC Magazine ran a short article on
FidoNet. The article referred to a number on the reader-service
card, making it very easy for people to generate an inquiry. PC
Magazine does a nice job of handling these "BINGO cards". They
send the target company (IFNA in this case) a post-card-sized
form for each inquiry, with a peel-off mailing label. There have
been more than 500 requests from this one article. It has been
especially interesting to watch PC Magazine make its way around
the world in the last few weeks as requests started to appear
from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia. . . PC's are truly
international.
Back in the dark ages (a year or so ago), requests for
information on FidoNet came primarily from potential sysops --
people who were interested in starting their own BBS. This has
changed, with many more requests coming from potential USERS.
These are people who have heard about FidoNet and echomail, and
want to know what benefits the network has to offer to them as
users. This shows how FidoNet has matured to more than a network
FidoNews 5-19 Page 6 9 May 1988
to facilitate communication between sysops. Based upon this
change in the mix of the audience, the material in the pamphlet
has been revised to include more user-oriented information. If
you are interested in seeing the picture that IFNA is painting of
itself, send me netmail (115/777) and I will gladly mail you a
copy of the PO-box-inquiry mailing.
To appeal to the potential sysop, a longer document provides a
more detailed introduction to FidoNet. This file, NEWSYSOP.TXT,
has been made available for download on a number of systems
throughout the network. It provides an introduction to what
options are available in BBS software, mailers, and echomail.
The audience for this publication is technical enough to be able
to cope with downloading from a local BBS, so this publication is
not generally made available in printed form.
So there you have it -- the attempts of one segment of IFNA to do
something to help FidoNet. Now let me preach a bit. The work I
have done for FidoNet has been quite rewarding. I do it because
I enjoy it. Try it; you might enjoy it also. You don't have to
be "anointed" to be a part of the team; I hold no position in
IFNA whatsoever. I have found that many people criticize IFNA
for "not doing anything" but there are mighty few who will
actually pick up the ball and run with it.
You want balls? OK. . . here are a few things that need to be
done. Nick Baroque (104/413) has made the excellent suggestion
that new systems receive a message from their IFNA director when
they are added to the nodelist, providing them with a greeting
and letting them know who their director is; in general, painting
a positive picture of IFNA. (Remember how exciting it was to get
netmail right after your node number first appeared in the
nodelist?) We even have a volunteer who will send out the
netmail. What we need in order to implement this fine suggestion
is a way to identify new nodes. This is a bit more complex than
a simple file matching program, since it has to weed out things
like nodes that just changed their address. Any whiz programmers
out there want to tackle this one?
More balls. Mitch Kessler (107/269) has made another excellent
suggestion that a local contact, perhaps a followup to the
standard IFNA mailing, would be a valuable way to improve the
public relations of FidoNet. In fact, Mitch feels that FidoNet
PR should be coming from the local nets. Implementing this idea
would require a network of systems organized geographically to
provide this. Are there enough folks out there to make this
work?
There are other projects which could be done. Exposure in the
national press, like the article in PC Magazine, counters the
media's tendency to paint computer bulletin board systems as
places where hackers and phreakers do their dirty work. Is
anyone in a position to get us more of this type of publicity?
(It would be even nicer if we knew it was coming this time, so we
could gear up to answer the inquiries.) NEWSYSOP.TXT can always
use a section on new products; to corrupt a popular phrase, "Send
FidoNews 5-19 Page 7 9 May 1988
prose!". Maybe there are areas in addition to new-sysop
orientation that you feel should be addressed by a similar
booklet.
The purpose of this article is to point out that IFNA really IS
accomplishing something. There ARE reasons to have a national
organization representing FidoNet, and two of them are providing
a central location from which information can be requested and
organizing a convention. Both of these tasks are being done;
you've read about the great progress towards a super FidoCon in
other articles. I hope to meet many of you at FidoCon this
August!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 8 9 May 1988
Kilgore Trout, 107/9
System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
Etiquette and Protocols
We've done a number of benchmark runs on various file transfer
protocols over the last few years, a few of which have been
reported in FidoNews. Our last published benchmark series
compared SEAlink and Zmodem at 2400 baud.
Recently some people have questioned if it was valid to
extrapolate the results of our 2400 baud trials to data transfers
at 9600 baud. In particular, how would the Overdrive variant of
SEAlink compare against Zmodem? We were confident that our
earlier results were still valid at the higher baud rate, but we
decided to confirm this opinion with hard data.
For this benchmark series we used an IBM-AT (sending) and an
IBM-XT (receiving) connected by a null modem cable at an
interface speed of 9600 baud. The implementations tested were
the 12/28/87 version of the DSZ.COM Zmodem protocol driver, and
version 1.25 of the OVERDRIV.EXE SEAlink/Overdrive protocol
driver. All timing was done using Ben Baker's BENCH.COM
benchmark timing program. The benchmark run consisted of a
series of files with varying sizes that were multiples of 128
bytes (a "block" in SEAlink parlance, or a "sector" in Zmodem
parlance).
The following raw data was collected:
Transfer time in seconds at 9600 baud
Sectors SEAlink Zmodem
100 18.01 18.73
200 31.97 32.79
300 46.14 47.02
400 59.81 62.17
500 73.76 75.63
600 87.67 88.43
700 101.61 102.61
800 115.23 115.73
900 129.13 129.24
1000 142.97 144.07
2000 281.60 286.16
3000 420.29 421.67
BENCH.COM reports times to a hundredth of a second, but the
MS-DOS system clock is only accurate to an eighteenth of a
second. Hence, the above numbers should be regarded as accurate
to one tenth of a second. The hundredth place is retained and
used to preserve the accuracy of the tenth place.
FidoNews 5-19 Page 9 9 May 1988
As can be readily seen, the two protocols are very close in
overall performance. When linear regression analysis is applied
to the above data, the following results are obtained:
SEAlink Zmodem
Slope 0.1386 0.1392
Intercept 4.3707 5.2133
This form of analysis is useful because it resolves the data into
two significant factors, the fixed protocol overhead (the
intercept), and the running per-sector transfer time (the slope).
The above results could also be represented as the following
formulas:
Transfer time for N sectors at 9600 baud, in seconds
SEAlink 0.1386 N + 4.3707
Zmodem 0.1392 N + 5.2133
The question now arises of how consistent the data set is, and
how much margin of error the testing procedure results in. To
answer this question we must first normalize the above data.
This consists merely of subtracting the fixed protocol overhead
(the intercept) from each datum, and then dividing by the number
of sectors which were transferred. The resulting numbers should
cluster around the calculated value for the per-sector transfer
time (the slope). The following values are obtained:
Transfer time per sector (normalized) in seconds
Sectors SEAlink Zmodem
100 0.136393 0.135167
200 0.137997 0.137884
300 0.139231 0.139356
400 0.138598 0.142392
500 0.138779 0.140833
600 0.138832 0.138695
700 0.138913 0.139138
800 0.138574 0.138146
900 0.138621 0.137807
1000 0.138599 0.138857
2000 0.138615 0.140473
3000 0.138640 0.138819
Mean 0.138483 0.138964
Standard deviation 0.000717 0.001794
Standard error 0.52% 1.29%
As can be seen, the data set is both consistent and highly
FidoNews 5-19 Page 10 9 May 1988
linear, and does in fact cluster around the calculated slope,
thus confirming both the data set and the validity of using
linear regression in this case. The greater variance of the
Zmodem data set may be attributed to the greater complexity and
variability of the protocol itself.
With all of this in mind, we calculate that our end results are
accurate to one decimal place for the intercept, and two decimal
places for the slope, thus rendering the above formulae as
follows:
Transfer time for N sectors at 9600 baud, in seconds
SEAlink 0.14 N + 4.4
Zmodem 0.14 N + 5.2
In a trial such as this the fixed protocol overhead includes the
time required to load the protocol driver, and hence may not be
representative of the actual best possible fixed protocol
overhead. Regardless, unless there is some wild divergence in
fixed overhead (which there is not), then it may generally be
regarded as negligible, and may hence be ignored.
This leaves the running per-sector transfer time (the slope) as
the only significant factor in comparing protocol speeds. Our
tests show no measurable difference in running per-sector
transfer time between Zmodem and SEAlink/Overdrive to within one
second per hundred blocks, so we thus conclude that raw thoughput
speed cannot be a deciding factor when choosing between the two
protocols.
This still leaves a number of other factors on which one may base
a choice. For example, most Zmodem implementations include an
ability to resume an interrupted transfer, while the Dutchie
restartable SEAlink variant is not yet widely supported. Also,
Zmodem is capable of character quoting for packet-switched
networks (such as Tymnet) which do not yet support a transparent
binary mode. On the other hand, SEAlink is less complex than
Zmodem and requires less code space (approximately 5k versus
12k), and includes the inherent ability to do XMODEM and its
popular variants such as Modem7 or Telink. All of these and more
are factors which the software developer must consider when
selecting a long-term strategy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 11 9 May 1988
Daniel Tobias
1:380/2
New Features for SCOREKEEPER
Version 3.00 of SCOREKEEPER, a program to let you keep a
running scoreboard of online game results on your system, has now
been released.
The major new feature added is an ability to purge the score
file of users who are no longer in your user file. Most sysops
regularly remove inactive users from the user records, but under
earlier SCOREKEEPER versions, these "deadwood" users remained
cluttering up the score file. Now, a feature has been added to
let SCOREKEEPR purge records in the score file that don't
correspond to any current user.
The latest version of SCOREKEEPER is downloadable and file-
requestable on node 1:380/2 at (318) 222-3503, in the file
SCOREKPR.ARC. Some online games that work with SCOREKEEPER are
in the files SECRETWD.ARC, NUMBERS.ARC, WINNER.ARC, BLAKJACK.ARC,
and PLANET.ARC. An online political survey (which doesn't have
anything to do with SCOREKEEPER but is another interesting thing
to have in your Outside section) is in the file POLIPREF.ARC.
SCOREKEEPER works with Fido, Opus, and any compatible BBS
which uses the standard Fido user file format and has an ability
to exit to an "Outside" section to run other programs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 12 9 May 1988
Fido 12 Utilities
The following is the documentation for eleven (11)
utilities I have written for use with Fido Version 12. I had
previously published them and distributed through the Fido
backbone when Jerry Hindle was the Net Host of 123. He passed
these through to Finland even. Each bore a statement
requesting a $10.00 contribution, or requiring it in the case
of a commercial user.
After six (6) months of waiting, not one thin dime has
ever been received in return for these efforts from anyone. I
have therefore withdrawn these from general distribution and
now will send them from here by mail (or file attach if a
speedier method is needed). Send indicated price ** AND ** a
self-addressed, stamped, return disk-mailer with a formatted
disk enclosed. Phone orders accepted with VISA, MASTERCARD,
AMERICAN EXPRESS and DISCOVER. Pricing for Fido Sysops is:
1 Utility $ 10.00
2 Utilities $ 19.00 Formulae is 1 for $10 and each
3 Utilities $ 28.00 additional utility for $1 less.
4 Utilities $ 37.00
5 Utilities $ 46.00 Net effect is buy 10 and get 11.
6 Utilities $ 55.00
7 Utilities $ 64.00
8 Utilities $ 73.00
9 Utilities $ 82.00
10 Utilties $ 91.00
11 Utilities $ 100.00
Phone orders add $3 for disk, mailer and postage.
I hope that by publishing this information in FidoNews
that these utilities may get wider use by legitimate users.
Such utilities and other ditties as I write will NEVER be
released as shareware, freeware or in the Public Domain again.
Documentation for the STEWart uTILitieS
Copyright 1987,88 by Bill Stewart
All rights under Copyright are strictly
reserved. The following is prepared to assist System
Operators of Fido version 12. Most of the really good
utilities of version 11 are completely incompatible in
version 12. As I prepare more utilities I'll put them out
for use.
Wednesday, May 5, 1988
There are currently nine (11) utilities named:
FidoNews 5-19 Page 13 9 May 1988
DFC.EXE - Dir Files Comparator
FTR.EXE - File Transfer Reporter
LUG.EXE - Last User Generator
MSU.EXE - Master Sysop Utility
NFU.EXE - New Files Uploaded
ULS.EXE - User Log Sorter
UDP.EXE - Userlog Dump to Printer
UDS.EXE - Userlog Dump to Screen
UPR.EXE - Userlog Purge Reporter
WUW.EXE - Who Uploaded What
WVF.EXE - Wrong Version Fixer
Each has special uses designed to fill specific needs.
The rest of this documentation defines those needs.
DFC.EXE
The DFC program is used to detect files that exist
in a directory but are not shown in FILES.BBS, and vice-
versa. An advantage of this program over previous versions
by other authors is that this one can handle a
directory/FILES.BBS of up to 500 files. It was written in
a machine with 640k in it and has NOT been tested with less
memory at this writing.
Output is to the printer. As with all STEWTILS,
it is totally non-destructive. Neither the DIRectory
nor FILES.BBS is changed in any way.
FTR.EXE
I wrote the File Transfer Reporter to encourage
users to upload by giving them credit for doing so. It
requires that the file named FIDO.LOG be available in the
same directory that FTR.EXE is in. Output is to a file named
FTR.OUT.
FTR is totally NON-DESTRUCTIVE. That is, it only
reads FIDO.LOG and does not make any changes to it whatsoever.
FTR creates a file named FTR.OUT that lists who
uploaded what files (and where, by path), and also shows
HOW MANY files were downloaded in the same period, and also
shows the total number of calls received by the system in that
period.
Example output:
[File [T]ransfer [R]eport, 11-08-87
Uploads:
Bill Stewart sent PC-FILES\PD.LST
GENERAL\RULES.TXT
FidoNews 5-19 Page 14 9 May 1988
John Doe sent SCIFI\TREK.CON
There were 11 files downloaded.
The system received 38 calls.
In that period means the dates FIDO.LOG covers. If you
only run FTR once a week then it will list a week's
worth of information. If run daily it will show daily
information.
My system changes FTR.OUT each day and copies it
to the system file named WELCOME2.BBS so that each caller
sees it. Here is a portion of the batch file showing its use:
....
....
FTR
COPY FTR.OUT WELCOME2.BBS
ERASE FTR.OUT
....
....
This portion of a batch file is executed by an
external event each night after mail time.
LUG.EXE
Several external programs require the presence of a
version 11 type file named LASTUSER.BBS. Of critical
importance in this file are the users name, city, password
and privilege level. Output of this file contains ONLY those
items, and is not identical to the original. Ron Bemis OUTER
requires it, for example, and the output of LUG is
sufficient to fill that need.
LUG requires two files to be in the same directory with
it. One is FIDO.LOG and the other is CALLER.SYS and LUG will
not operate without both files present.
Here is an example of the use of LUG in my batch file:
....
....
LUG
CTTY COM1
OUTER /l /60
CTTY CON
....
....
MSU.EXE
FidoNews 5-19 Page 15 9 May 1988
The Master Sysop Utility gives you TOTAL control of the
user log. Every single bit is open to manipulation by the
Sysop for every user. Documentation for MSU is included with
that file, usually seen separate from the STEWTILS.
A few of the routines MSU allows are special in that you
won't find them elsewhere that I know of. A user log SORT is
included that can sort the log by privilege first, and
alphabetical order within privilege. PURGEing bad log entries
and so forth is also supported. SEARCH can be done by name,
city or password. It is as complete as I know since every
possible change to a log entry is allowed.
The current version of MSU is 1.01 as of this writing.
IMPORTANT NOTE: MSU.EXE IS DESTRUCTIVE! It makes actual
changes to the log itself.
NFU.EXE
It is often mentioned in Sysop messages that users wish
they didn't have to scan the entire FILES.BBS list in
order to see what has come in recently. This program
creates a new file containing ONLY those files. There
are three pre-conditions:
1) FILES.BBS absolutely, positively, unequivocally
and without doubt MUST contain a line that says " New
files uploaded". It may say more than that, but it must
begin with that. I call this a statement.
2) The statement must begin with a space.
3) Upper/lower case useage MUST be exactly as shown.
The statement separates older files from newer ones.
Thus in my FILES.BBS it shows:
...
...
SOMEFILE.TXT This is a file in the older list
New files uploaded since October 10, 1987
ANOTHER.FIL This is a file that has come in recently
YETANOTH.ER And yet another file recently received
NFU will create a file named NEWFILES.LST that will
contain ANOTHER.FIL and YETANOTH.ER. Now users can find out
what is new by T)yping the file NEWFILES.LST. I have my
batch file execute NFU every night.
NFU doesn't change FILES.BBS so as new files are
added NEWFILES.LST will get bigger and bigger.
FidoNews 5-19 Page 16 9 May 1988
Note that my statement also contains the information "
since October 10, 1987". This is permissable, since it is
AFTER the statement and doesn't change it. NEWFILES.LST will
show the entire line.
ULS.EXE
This program sorts the user log first by privilege, and
then by last name. This gives your users with higher
privilege levels quicker recognition in the logon
search. It also moves those with the lowest privilege
levels to the rear of the log. The alphabetic sort by
last name is obviously helpful when looking for a particular
entry.
ULS requires the presence of one file named CALLER.SYS
in the same directory as ULS.EXE. It is important for you
to note that ULS is totally NON-DESTRUCTIVE to the
original log. It's output is to a file named
CALLER.SRT. The original file CALLER.SYS is completely
unchanged.
Here is an example of it's use in my batch file:
....
....
ULS
COPY CALLER.SYS CALLER.BAK
COPY CALLER.SRT CALLER.SYS
....
....
UDP.EXE and UDS.EXE
These files dump the user log. They require the presence
of the file named CALLER.SYS in the same directory that
they are run.
Since both of these files do the same thing one
description will serve for both. The only difference
is that UDP outputs to the printer and UDS outputs to the
screen.
Each senses where a page (or screen) break occurs and
takes appropriate action to redraw the header. Output
to the printer is continuous while output to the screen
stops each time the screen fills.
Both UDP and UDS dump the log in the order it is
written. Neither file does any sorting of output. You can
use ULS to sort the file prior to using UDP or UDS.
FidoNews 5-19 Page 17 9 May 1988
UPR.EXE
The Userlog Purge reporter requires the presence of a
file named CALLER.OLD which is generated by SYSOP or by
MSGMGR. The object here is to show you who got axed. It
shows the name, the privilege level of the user, and the date
of their last call. Output is to the printer.
Here is an example of its use in my batch file:
....
....
MSGMGR
UPR
ERASE CALLER.OLD
....
....
WUW.EXE
This is the newest of the STEWTILS. With the advent and
spread of virus programs, trojan horses and tapeworms it has
become very necessary to know the source of every file coming
into the board. WUW performs two tasks. First, it gives
output similar to FTR in a file named GIVE.CRT that I suggest
you attach a small header to and copy to WELCOME2.BBS so that
those who upload get public credit for doing so. GIVE.CRT
lists the user name first, then the filename uploaded, and
then the date of the upload. Second, it maintains a growing
file listing ALL uploaded files by filename, then user who
uploaded the file, then date file was received. This is
appended to a file named UPLOAD.WHO which can then be T)yped
to see just exactly who sent what and when.
Should a problem file appear it is then simple to trace
it's origin on the system, either by you privately, or as in
my case, by any user. I put UPLOAD.WHO in my general files
area and listed it in the FILES.BBS file so that users would
know it is there and why.
As a point of general information, WUW would work on
version 11 and earlier Fido's if the file SYSOP.LOG is first
renamed to FIDO.LOG. This is also true of FTR.EXE.
WVF.EXE
One change to Fido version 12's user log has been
the addition of a flag to indicate the log's version
number. Any change to that flag at the start of each
individual user's entry causes errors in Fido's SYSOP
and MSGMGR programs. In SYSOP this error shows up as a
FidoNews 5-19 Page 18 9 May 1988
message on the top line of the users entry that says
WRONG VERSION CALLER.SYS and so on. No matter what you do
to that entry, you can't fix it. In MSGMGR the program
simply fails to complete it's processing of the log.
Unfortunately, unless you are watching MSGMGR process
you can't tell the error occurred. It usually shows up as
repeated attempts to purge a user without success.
WVF fixes any such error. What it does NOT do is fix
the log entry itself. Any damages done to the user
name, address, password or attributes remains damaged. WFU
serves ONLY to make the record accessable by SYSOP so that
you can complete the repair. Conversely, it will not
change any other information in the entry. If the name was
OK before, then it will still be OK. The flag will simply be
fixed.
This program outputs a new user log named CALLER.FIX so
once again use of a STEWTIL is non-destructive. You should
first copy or rename CALLER.SYS so that the original
remains intact. Once that is done, rename CALLER.FIX to
CALLER.SYS so that the SYSOP program or my MSU program can
work on the repaired log.
Printer output alerts you to the particular record where
the error occured, as well as the name in the log BEFORE
the error. Since damage to the flag usually damages the name
as well I show the intact entry previous to the error to
help you locate the problem. If the previous entry was
damaged as well then WVF will report that it cannot give you
a valid previous entry name.
Remember, WVF fixes a problem in version identification
that may occur in the log as used with the current
version of Fido 12. It does not repair the log
itself. You must complete repairs with SYSOP, MSU or other
utility.
Conclusion
No damage can occur to any of the files referenced
by STEWTILS, even should a power failure occur in mid-
execution since those files are only READ FROM and are
never written to, with the sole exception of MSU.EXE.
Output is always either to the printer, the screen or
another file that you can then manipulate as you wish.
Therefore, don't be afraid to experiment with them.
Thanks to Tom Jennings for source material in
file definition available on his board.
Complaints, observations, bug reports and so forth should
be addressed to:
FidoNews 5-19 Page 19 9 May 1988
Sysop, 1:123/1
via fidomail. The direct number is (901) 761-5018, running
300/1200/2400 baud, 8 bit words, no parity and 1 stop bit.
Phone orders call (901) 767-8914, Stewart Computer & Supply.
Ask for Bill.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 20 9 May 1988
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
+*+*+ FidoCon '88 Special Function Report +*+*+
Here in Cincinnati Ohio as a special treat for FidoCon '88
attendees, on aug 25 1988 8:00 PM EDT The Cincinnati Observatory
will be open to FidoCon attendees for a special private
viewing.
The Observatory has two large refractors. The 12" Fraunhofer was
dedicated in 1843 and was at the time the largest in the united
states and the finest in the world. The lens was made in Munich
transported to the US mounted and housed Locally using local
Labor. The tube is made of polished Walnut and most of the
hardware is polished brass.
In 1904 a new building and a new 16" Alvan Clark & Sons was
installed. The 12" was then sent to the Alvan Clark shops for
refurbishing. Sky&Telescope Jan 1986 gives a brief biography of
the observatory's founder Ormsby Mitchel. Burnam's handbook
mentions the 12" as being one of the first to see a companion to
Antares in 1845.
Shuttle busses will be provided by FidoCon '88 and will depart at
about 7PM from the Drawbridge Inn. This is just one of the
events planned for FidoCon '88.
If you want to find out about registration for FidoCon '88 read
your FidoNews or contact 1/88. Space for this excursion is
limited. If you want to get on the list for the Thursday 25 AUG
88 Observatory tour (and viewing if someone brings weather from
Denver) Just leave me a note.
Pete
Astronomy & Solar 1:108/81
(513)398-7883
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 21 9 May 1988
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
16 May 1988
Digital Equipment Corporations Users Society Spring Symposium.
Will be held May 16-May 20 in Cincinnati, OH.
29 May 1988
MetroFire Third Annual Birthday Bash and Floppy Disk Throwing
Contest. ALL FidoNet Sysops and their families are invited.
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more details. Details
available by SEAdog file request as FPICMAP.ARC or BASH.
5 Jun 1988
David Dodell's 31st Birthday
18 Jun 1988
Area Code 407 takes effect in East/Central Florida. All Sysops
should adjust their Nodelist entries immediately.
25 Jun 1988
EuroCon II starts in Tiel, Holland. Sponsored by the Dutch
Hobby Computer Club. Will run for 2 days. Contact Hans
Lichthelm at 2:2/999 for information.
16 Jul 1988
A new areacode, 508, will form in eastern Massachusetts and
will be effective on this date. The new area code will be
formed from the current areacode 617. Greater Boston will
remain areacode 617 while the rest of eastern Massachusetts
will form the new areacode 508.
25 Aug 1988
Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be
held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnati, OH. Contact Tim
Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big
annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people
you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see
you there!
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Software Versions
BBS Systems Node List Other
FidoNews 5-19 Page 22 9 May 1988
& Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
Dutchie 2.81* EditNL 4.00* ARC 5.21
Fido 12h* MakeNL 2.10* ARCmail 1.1
Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31
SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86* EchoMail 1.31
TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1
BinkleyTerm 1.40*
QuickBBS 2.00*
* Recently changed
Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 23 9 May 1988
=================================================================
COMMITTEE REPORTS
=================================================================
I.E.E.E. L.I. BBS
1:107/211
New Discounts for IFNA Members
The following two items are available to registered members of
IFNA (or the IEEE) at substantial discounts:
1. The Touchbase Systems WorldPort 2400 Portable Modem
This modem comes with both an AC adapter and a 9-volt battery
which will power it for approximately six hours. Roughly the
size of a package of cigarettes, this engineering marvel
supports the extended Hayes AT command set and is compatible
with Bell 103/212A and CCITT V.21/V.22/V.22bis. It has a
built in speaker, four call monitoring LEDs, special acoustic
coupler adapter cable, 25-pin female DB-25 connector, and a
standard RJ-11C modular connector telephone line interface.
It has substituted for a Hayes 2400 on this BBS with no
changes or problems. Bundled in this offer is CARBON COPY
PLUS version 4.0 which provides both a terminal emulator
program and a Remote PC Operation capabilty in the same
package. GREAT for lap-tops!
List price for this modem is $395 (CARBON COPY lists for $195
alone). Both are available to IFNA members for $216 plus any
applicable taxes and shipping charge.
2. The CAT Image Scanner Model SI
This scanner package was a hit at the recent Computer
Graphics Show in New York City. It attaches to your printer
and is driven by the print mechanism to capture 50 to 300 dpi
images in either Line Art or Half-tone modes. Scanned images
can be cropped, scaled, printed, or combined to make posters,
T-shirts, or viewgraphs. Captured images can be converted
into PCX, TIFF or PFF print formats for use by various
graphic packages or you can do your own desktop publishing
with any word processor package. Listing for $195, this item
is available to IFNA members for $126, plus shipping/taxes.
Printers supported: Panasonic KX-P1080, 1091, 1092
Epson MX 80/100, RX 80/100, JX 80, FX 80/100, FX 85/182
FX 86/286, Fx 86e/286e, EX 800/100, LQ 800/1000
For more information on these items see pages 52 and 317 of the
April 26, 1988 edition of PC magazine (the one that reviews 9600
baud modems) or send a msg with your voice phone number and
address to 1:107/211. Supplies are limited, so don't delay!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 24 9 May 1988
OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
Ken Kaplan 100/22 Chairman of the Board
Don Daniels 107/210 President
Mark Grennan 147/1 Vice President
Dave Dodell 114/15 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
Tom Marshall 107/524 Secretary
Leonard Mednick 12/1 Treasurer
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Steve Jordan 102/2871 Don Daniels 107/210
11 Bill Allbritten 11/301 Hal DuPrie 101/106
12 Leonard Mednick 12/1 Mark Grennan 147/1
13 Rick Siegel 107/27 Brad Hicks 100/523
14 Ken Kaplan 100/22 Ted Polczyinski 154/5
15 Jim Cannell 128/13 Kurt Reisler 109/74
16 Vince Perriello 141/491 Robert Rudolph 261/628
17 Rob Barker 138/34 Greg Small 148/122
18 Chris Baker 135/14 Bob Swift 140/24
19 Vernon Six 19/0 Larry Wall 15/18
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 Gee Wong 107/312
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 25 9 May 1988
__
The World's First / \
BBS Network /|oo \
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
_`@/_ \ _
| | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications.
Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________
Address _________________________________________________________
City ____________________________________________________________
State ________________________________ Zip _____________________
Country _________________________________________________________
Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________
BBS Name ________________________________________________________
BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________
Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________
Board Restrictions ______________________________________________
Your Special Interests __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
US Funds to:
International FidoNet Association
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112
USA
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors
was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
input to this Conference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-19 Page 26 9 May 1988
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
ORDER FORM
Publications
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing
them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee
Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each
publication, but we can make no written guarantees.
Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986
IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____
IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____
IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____
SUBTOTAL _____
IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member
Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____
Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member
International orders include $10.00 for
surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____
SUBTOTAL _____
HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS:
International FidoNet Association
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112
USA
Name________________________________
Zone:Net/Node____:____/____
Company_____________________________
Address_____________________________
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
Voice Phone_________________________
Signature___________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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