  Ŀ Ŀ Ŀ    Ŀ Ŀ  Ŀ  Ŀ Ŀ

        Ĵ                               GATE V1.0n

                        

    S Y S O P - M A N U A L           (C) E.KONINGS  ( NL1RSD @ NL3RSD )

                                    



This manual describes the installation + working of the FIDOnet <-> Packet Radio

gateway for sysops.



DISCLAMER:



Although I've made every effort to create a save program I'm not responsable for

any damage caused by using prgate. Please always make backups of your software.



Don't install de gateway in your FBB-DIR (C:\FBB) but install it in a subdir, for

example C:\FBB\PRGATE

For starters you need to run PRGRATE.EXE. Use F1/F2/F3 from the main menu to enter

specific settings. First step is to enter all parameters and save them every time

using F2.

The Orig* parameters are needed to filter specific .PKT-files from a directory.

From your FIDOsoftware you need to forward different Area's to this FIDO-address.

For example: A fellow sysop uses 2:285/750.9999 as a Fido address.

Alle messages from Packet Radio that are send to Fidonet will get this Orig* address.

When someone from Fidonet wants to write to a (registered) Packet Radio user via the

gateway they need to use this address. All Packet Radio users share the same Fido-address

(pointnumber)

The Dest* parameters are used to send Packet Radio mail to this Fido address.

For example my college sysop uses 2:285/750

All Packet Radio mail is divided in differnt Fido area's For example all mail send on

Packet Radio to ALL@NLD will be send to PR_algemeen on Fidonet. The .PKT file will be

send to the Dest* address. This address does not contain a pointnumber and needs to be

0.



Next step is to create a new BBS in your FBB software, for example QL2TEL. You need to

configure FBB to forward mail for this BBS to a FILE. The exportfile must be named to

'FBBMAIL' This exportfile will contain all packet radio mail + mail from registered

packet radio users who want to send a message from packet radio to Fido net.



The next thing you need to do is to forward all normal Fido area's to the Fido address

that you have created for using the gateway. Although maybe not all area's are send to

Packet Radio they are scanned however for personal mail for registered packet Radio 

gateway users! So packet radio users will always get their personal mail.



You can run the gateway in 2 ways:

 1 From DOS with the command 'PRGATE GO'

 2 From the prgate editor using F6



You can use 1 if you're running prgate from a batchfile, after completion the software will

switch back to DOS.

You can use 2 when you run the gateway manually, you can also add news users, change area's

or change your BBS config.



We can split the gateway in 2 main functions:



 1 Converting mail from FIDO to Packet Radio.

 2 Converting mail from Packet Radio to FIDO net.

 3 Handling SERVER messages. These are speicial messages mend for the Fidogate software.



1 CONVERTING PACKET -> FIDO  (Describes how the gateway operates)

----------------------------

STEPS:

  A When possible (registered users) replace Packetcall by real name. For example FT2RSD

    by Frank Troost. And when sender is NL1RSD than it will become Erwin Konings

  B When message is send to FIDO @ <name of PacketFidoBBS> AND when sender= registered

    user -> replace sender by real name.

    - Find @AREA:<Areaname> in message and send message to <areaname>

    - Find @TO:<name> in message and send message to <name> in <areaname>

      A NETMAIL message is send using:

      @AREA:NETMAIL

      @TO:Frank Troost (2:285/70.0)



      Using this method a -REGISTERED- user can write a message in ANY FIDO-area. Also

      in area's that are not converted to Packet Radio.

      @AREA:<Areaname>

      @TO:<name>

      Above 2 lines need to be in the upper left corner of the (packet)message.



  C If not a (B) message sort message and send it to the apropiete Fidogroup

    (PR_algemeen, PR_market etc.)





2 CONVERTING FIDO --> PACKET

----------------------------

STEPS:

  A Convert all mail from area's that are in PRGATE.CFG to Packet Radio.

  B When possible (only registered users) replace real name by Packet Radio call

    Example: 'TO: Erwin Konings' by 'NL1RSD@NL3RSD' and 'FROM: Frank Troost' by

    'FT2RSD'

    Above only works when Userconfig = 0

  

  C Scan other area's (that are normally not send to Packet radio) for personal

    messages of registered Packet Radio users and replace TO: Erwin Konings by

    NL1RSD @ NL3RSD (for example)

  D -EVERY- message that is converted to packet contains:

    - FIDO area

    - From <real name>, TO <real name>

    - MSGTYPE (I'll explain that later)

    - Date + time when the message was written on Fido net.

    - Version number of de gateway software.



3 SERVER MESSAGES

-----------------



A registered Packet Radio user can send servermessages to the gateway to retreive

some information without intervention of the gateway operator. The gateway will

send a message back to the sender of the server message with some info.

For more info about server commands read PRGATE.MAN (usermanual)





EXPLANATION OF HOW MESSAGES FROM FIDONET ARE SORTED TO PACKET RADIO GROUPS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'll give an example, let's say below is in Area-menu:



PR_ALL

ALL

+



The first line is the NAME of the fido area, in this case 'PR_ALL'

The next 2 lines are important for sorting.

An FBB-message is stored in the BBS as FORSALE@EU (for example)

I will name the word BEFORE '@'  : Word-A , in this case 'FORSALE' 

I will name the word AFTER '@' : Word-B, in this case 'EU'

With the sign '+' I will mean EVERYTHING, this can be ANY word.

In the configfile there are 2 lines

<Line 1>

<Line 2>

The AREA is valid when Word-A is in line 1 AND Word-B is in line 2

Example:

Line 1 contains 'FUNNY NICE HAPPY'

Line 2 contains 'EU'

When a packet Radio message is send to FUNNY@EU, 'FUNNY' is in Line1 and 'EU'

in line2, the Area is valid!

When a message is send to FUNNY@WW, 'FUNNY' is in line1 but 'WW' is not in line2,

The area is INVALID!



Example2:

Line1 contains: 'SALE'

Line2 contains: '+'

A packet radio message is send to SALE@WW. 'SALE' is in line1 and 'WW' is in line2

Why?? --> because '+' means EVERY word!  The area is valid.



IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The area's in PRGATE.CFG are sorted from up to down, this means that when a message

is sorted in a certain area and also valid for an area that is lower in PRGATE.CFG

it will be put in the FIRST area. It's not possible that a message is put in 2 different

area's.



Always create a final area 'PR_UNKNOWN' that contains these lines:

+

+

-Every- message that is not sorted in one of the upper area's wil be put in this area.



Don't forget to create an Area 'PR_PRIVATE' that contains on line1 your HomeBBS, Packet

Radio call and your real name when you want to read your personal packet mail via Fido.



Also create an Area called 'PR_BAD' All messages that are not correct (for example when

someone forgets to put @AREA: in a message) will be put in this area. Please check this

area often and send a message to the sender.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  GATE_BID.BIN

  ------------

When you run the software for the first time you'll get an error that the GATE_BID.BIN

file is missing, just enter 'Y' to create one. Every message gets its own ID for example

257_QL2TEL. To prevent that 2 messages will get the same ID, the last used ID is saved in

the file GATE_BID.BIN It's important not to delete this file!





PRGATE.LOG

----------

After converting a LOG-file is created. The logfile contains the number of messages that

are converted, also the last used BID (Bulletin ID) The file is deleted when is gets

bigger than 500Kb and recreated.



MSGTYPE

-------

Every message contains: MSGTYPE <number>

Number can be 1,2 or 3 and means the following:



1 : A message FOR a NON REGISTERED Packet user. The Fido area is converted completely to

    Packet Radio. 99% of all messages are of this type.



2 : A message FOR a REGISTERED Packet user. The Fido area is converted completely to Packet.



3 : A message FOR a REGISTERED Packet user. The fido area will not be converted to Packet,

    only this message is filtered out.



4 : When you (sysop) writes a message in area PR_private and and this message is converted

    to packet radio it will get this ID.





NETMAIL

-------

The software supports Netmail and also Internet E-mail, It is possible to send email using

a Fido <> Internet. I'm not sure if this gateway is still working so please let me know if

you're interested.



OTHER NETWORKS

--------------

The gateway supports other networks like Phlegmnet; so it's also possible to connect other

networks. For Zone,Net,Node and Pointnumber a 4-digit number can be used. (Normally you can

only use 1,2 or 3 as Zone-address on Fido) The area-name can be 20 character long max.





Finally I suggest all sysops to read the file PRGATE.MAN carefully. This file is intended for

all new users so please send it to new users an put the file in a public directory of FBB.

You have to make some adjustment to the file PRGATE.MAN. Change QL2TEL to your own 'FIDO-FBB-BBS'

name and don't forget to change the Fido-gate-address (2:285/750.9999) etc.



REGISTRATION

------------

Registration is FREE, please write an email message to nl1rsd@packet-radio.org or

erwink@home.nl let me know your real name so I can create a key.





FINALLY A FEW POINTS

--------------------



* I no longer support this program, however if you need changes in the software I'll will

  take a look in it to see if it's possible. Additionally under certain conditions I'm willing

  to release the source code (Borland Turbo Pascal V7.0) so you can make your own changes in the

  software



* I'm not sure if this program is milleniumproof.



* I've developed this program for a sysop who is running a phone Bulletin Board System with Fido

  mail, I'm not familiar with Fido software or how to configure it.









 











 

