186 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
186 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
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FD-FAQ.001 - September 24th, 1991
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Frequently asked questions about FrontDoor, TosScan, and related utilities.
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Copyright 1991 Advanced Engineering sarl; All rights reserved.
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Published by Advanced Engineering sarl with assistance from the users of
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FrontDoor, TosScan, and related utilities, as well as the FrontDoor Help
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nodes. This document may be freely distributed for noncommercial and
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informational purposes. This document may not, under any circumstance, be
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traded, sold, or otherwise used for commercial gain or purposes without the
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prior written consent of Advanced Engineering sarl.
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These questions and answers do not appear in any specific order.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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FD=FrontDoor Mailer FM=FrontDoor Editor TS=TosScan
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Q: In FD version 2.01, and later, occasionally various indicators will
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appear in the lower right hand corner. Amongst these are MAIL and
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NU. What are they?
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A: Four possible symbols might pop up there in the lower right:
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NU: No Users. Event configured to not allow users, or is toggled
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off at the FD screen with ALT-Y, Human callers "NO". Also
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displayed when FD detects the semaphore file FDNOUSER.NOW in
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its SYSTEM or SEMAPHORE (commercial versions only) directory.
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UD: One or more nodes have been marked as undialable, since your
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system has called them, got a connect, but then failed when
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attempting to establish a mail session. When this has occured
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the number of "Resend retries" you've defined in FDSETUP, FD
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will set one check mark for this node. When the node has got
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three check marks, FD will not call this node again, until
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you've removed the check marks.
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Press ALT-V to review the list of undialable nodes, and edit
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the check marks.
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NE: No exit. The flag FDNOEXIT.NOW is present in the FD SYSTEM
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directory. When present FD will not exit (event if event is
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configured to exit) when mail arrives.
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MAIL: Unread mail for your system has arrived (if this is configured
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to be displayed in FDSETUP).
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---
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Q: On my point system I always get an error "Unable to open INBOUND.HIS:
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File not found". What does this error mean and what can I do to prevent
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it?
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A: The message means that FD was looking for the file which records all
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inbound calls to your system. FD tries to reorganize the two activity
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files (INBOUND.HIS and OUTBOUND.HIS) on a daily basis, as defined in
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FDSETUP. If you haven't had any inbound calls yet (or if you don't ever
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have inbound calls) then obviously no file with inbound history exists.
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The message itself does cause any harm. Nevertheless, if you want to
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avoid the error message then create a zero byte INBOUND.HIS on your
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disk with the DOS command "ECHO > INBOUND.HIS" and FD will no longer
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report the error.
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---
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Q: Since I have installed FrontDoor 2.01 the system doesn't seem to accept
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file/update requests anymore from certain system of which it previously
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did accept and honour them.
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A: Check your logfile whether you can find a report "remote refused
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pickup". One of the changes between FrontDoor 1.99c and 2.01 is that
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FrontDoor 2.01 will also honour this flag for file requests. That means
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that if the requesting node has setup his system in such a manner that
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it should not pick up traffic then your FD will honour that request and
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will not attempt to send anything to that system.
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---
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Q: In the FrontDoor Technical Note on using HST Dual Standard modems (FDTN-
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001) there is a mention that I should use "CONNECT 1200/" as the connect
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string for 1200 bps connects. Must I also include the slash in the other
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connect messages?
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A: No. The reason why you must include the slash for 1200 BPS connects is
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that there is also a possibility that your modem reports a "CONNECT
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12000". If you don't include the slash on the 1200 BPS connect message
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then the CONNECT 12000 will be interpreted as a 1200 BPS connect and
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time calculations for transfers and file requests will be wrong.
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---
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Q: The FrontDoor manual states that FrontDoor 2.01 supports the new connect
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messages for the new US Robotics high speed modems. However, when I
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review the connect messages in FDSETUP, I can not find the connect
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messages for the 7200, 12000 and 14400 BPS speeds. How do I configure
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FrontDoor for my modem?
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A: For compatibility reasons the connect messages for these three speeds
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have been hardcoded in the FrontDoor software. This means that FD will
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always recognize these connect messages and use the appropriate speed
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and time calculations for the session. However, they are not
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configurable and thus can not be changed.
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Note that if you wish to enable human callers at that speed then you
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must set the appropriate errorlevels in FDSETUP-> Mailer > Errorlevels.
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---
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Q: If I poll my boss, 2:512/1 (for example), for mail, then FD logs a
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message "Unexpected password, XXXXXXXX, from 2:512/1011". What does this
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mean and is this a security bug in FrontDoor? I don't even have a
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password for 2:512/1011!
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A: That is exactly what the message means. It tells you that you have had
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a session with a system which presented an unexpected password for one
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or more AKAs. The password was unexpected because you haven't configured
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a session password for that particular AKA. The message is part of
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FD's security system. If the message is not important to you then you
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might want to consider to disable the (#) logentry in FDSETUP > Mailer >
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Loglevels. However, please read on to the next question.
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---
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Q: One of my downlinks has 8 different AKAs on his system and it seems as
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if he changes them more often than his underwear. Must I really enter
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all his AKAs in the security manager? He only receives echomail for his
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primary address from me. Does it help if I just disable the "Present all
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AKAs.." option?
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A: It's not a matter of *YOUR SYSTEM* presenting all AKAs, but the other
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side. If you feel that some node has so many AKAs that you don't want to
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include all his passwords in your security manager then make sure that
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you route mail for his AKAs to ONE of his addresses. If you do that, you
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only need to password protect that particular address.
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Otherwise, you will either have to accept that mail for his AKAs is not
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password protected (and can thus be picked up by anyone who puts that
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address in his AKA list) or you will have to set passwords for his
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entire AKA list.
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---
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Q: All the message that I or my BBS users write are displayed as having the
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'Local' status when I read them in FM. Does this mean that FD will not
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send these messages?
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A: The 'Local' status of any message on your system simply means that the
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message apparently originates from your system. FD checks the 'Local'
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flag before honouring any special flags within the message, such as
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'Direct' or 'Immediate'. If these message don't have the 'Local' bit
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set then FD will refuse to send these messages. This is part of FD's
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security systems and its goal is to prevent people from forcing your
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system to call to places at times where or when you don't want the
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calls to happen (e.g. for cost reasons).
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---
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Q: FM doesn't generate a tearline anymore. I have configured my echomail
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folders with "Echo Info" enabled but FM still does put any text behind
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the three dashes (---) under each message.
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A: It is our belief that we should disturb the readers of echomail messages
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as little as possible with unnecessary and uncalled for advertisements.
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Therefor we support the thought that program information should be
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hidden for the user. If you press ALT-X when reading one of your
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messages you will see a notice "PID FM <version>". Thus, you are still
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able to see which software people have used to enter a message, but only
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when you want to see it. This is compliant with the desire of many
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people to clean up the echomail from unwanted commercials as much as
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possible.
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---
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Q: I can't do anything in the Terminal. Not even leave it with ALT-Q.
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A: You have the <Scroll Lock> key on. When it is active, the Terminal is in
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'Raw mode', which transmits ALL keystrokes to the remote side. Just
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press <Scroll Lock>, to turn it off, then you can use the Terminal as
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you're used to.
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/* end of file "fd-faq.001" */
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