CRS Online NEW USERS GUIDE (TEXT VERSION) CRS Online 24 - 12 Steinway Blvd. Etobicoke, ON M9W 6M5 (416) 213-6000 May 1993 Copyright 884097 Ontario Limited All Rights Reserved For the use of CRS Online subscribers only. May not be reproduced by any means without express written authorization. First Published - 1988 This interim revision, May 1993 CONTENTS Welcome to CRS Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 HOW TO TALK TO CRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Sales And Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 POLICIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 GETTING ON-LINE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Setting Up Your Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Busy Signals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Out of Town Phone Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 CONNECTED! NOW WHAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 A Note On Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Main Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Exploring The Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Electronic Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Sending Mail To Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Sending Private Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Sending Comments To The System Operator . . . . . . . . . 12 Reading And Erasing Mail Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Sending a Prepared Document to the Mail Facility . . . . 13 Downloading And Uploading Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Uploading Files To The Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Downloading Files From The Board . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Downloading Archived Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Batch File Transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Bulletins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Script Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Other Bulletin Board Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 INFORMATION SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 News And Information Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Stock Market Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Archival CD-Roms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 HOW TO USE CD-ROMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 General Introduction: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Limitations: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Getting Started: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A Brief Description of the CD-ROMs: . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Using the CD's: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Database Searching: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 While Viewing an Article: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Taking a Look Around: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Contents: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Summary of Key Commands: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Downloading Saved Articles: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 CRS ONLINE STOCK DOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 CRS FAXMAIL SERVICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 COMMERCIAL AREAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 USENET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Sending A Public Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Sending A Private Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Site Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Common Usenet Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 HOW TO GET HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 CRS Online HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 TELEPHONE NUMBERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Office & Technical Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 CRS PCBoard/Online System Lines: . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 PASSWORDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 USER REQUESTED UPLOADS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 24 HOUR CLOCK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 SHUTDOWNS AND MAINTENANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 INET/DATAPAC USERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 REACH ACROSS CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 CRS Conferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 ***** -->NOTE: In order to keep this ASCII Text format of the user guide down to size, we have removed the listings of the conferences. These following files should be downloaded: USENET.CRS for Usenet Conferences CRSCONF.LST for all other Networks shown below ***** NorthAmeriNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 PRIVATE and/or SPONSORED CONFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . 49 Intelec Echo Mail Conference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 RIME Echo Mail Conferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 EchoNet Mail Network Conferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 ILink Echo Mail Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 QUEBECNET Echo Mail Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 ADANET Echo Mail Conferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 MidiLink Echo Mail Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 FidoNet Echo Mail Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Vervan's RPG Net. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 USENET CONFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 SOFTWARE: FILE AREAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 MACINTOSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 IBM/DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 AMIGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 ATARI ST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 COMMODORE 64/128. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 APPLE II+, //e, //c, //gs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 ECHOMAIL NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 POPULAR TECHNICAL QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 GETTING YOUR PERSONAL OFF-LINE READER . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Files On-line - Why the .ZIP extension? . . . . . . . . . . .104 Introduction to Using Other BBSs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 High Speed Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Why are my file transfers slow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 HIGH SPEED MODEM SETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 PCBOARD - REFERENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 Welcome to CRS Online Since beginning in 1981, CRS has grown steadily. From a single line system, attracting 20 calls a day, CRS has grown to over 200 incoming lines and 5000 calls a day. This continuing growth is a tribute to you, our subscribers. Anyone can put the hardware together to run a bulletin board, but without the input, support and guidance of subscribers, you'll have just hardware. CRS subscribers make the difference, and we would be remiss if we didn't thank you for your continued support. CRS is the largest system of our type in Canada and the second largest in North America. Our all inclusive annual fee structure means that you don't have to worry about per minute connect charges or file downloading charges. Files, messages, and network mail are all included in your low annual subscription fee. Our systems are constantly changing, and we've tried to keep this manual fairly generic. If something in here doesn't seem to be applicable or work any longer, check the on-line help systems (Type H from any menu), or review the on-line bulletins (Type B from any menu). On-line help and on-line bulletins are typically more current than our printed material. This manual is, of necessity, complex. Please take some time to read through the manual. Once you've done that, give our systems a call. And, if you have problems, give our tech line a call at (416) 213-6001. The tech support line is staffed by our full time system operators (sysops) from Monday to Friday 1pm to 7pm. We also run Thursday evening seminars about once every three weeks, so there's plenty of help available for you. Thank you for your support of CRS. We hope you enjoy our on-line services. David Chaloner General Manager HOW TO TALK TO CRS... We'll give you more info regarding the computer setup later, but the most important #'s we have (and the ones you should keep in mind) are our voice #'s. Unlike most small bulletin board services, CRS Online is a commercial full time operation. We have staff you can talk to. As a result, you'll find that questions or problems can often be resolved over the phone with very little delay. Sales And Administration Our sales and administrative staff deal with new accounts, password problems, time allocation, and the like, and they can be reached from 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday at: (416) 213-6000 Toronto and Area (800) 563-2529 North America If you encounter a problem with your account on any of our systems, call us, we will try to assist you in any way we can. Technical Support Our technical staff deal with system problems and questions. They cannot fix account problems, but they'll be happy to assist you with technical questions relating to CRS. They can be reached from 1pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday at: (416) 213-6001 All Areas If you are calling the technical line, please be seated at your computer and have a brief description of the problem ready. Be as detailed as you can. The more information that our tech staff has, the better they can assist you. Tech support is limited to CRS subscribers only and is typically fairly busy, so please be patient if you encounter some busy signals. You can also leave messages on-line to the sysops, but keep in mind that their workload is such that it may be up to 7 days before you get a response. If your question is more urgent, you will get the fastest response by calling voice. If you have a less urgent question, then leaving a message to "SYSOP" is recommended. POLICIES CRS Online has some policies that you should be aware of - 1. Nothing illegal is permitted on-line. No uploading of commercial or copyrighted software of any kind is permitted. 2. No excessive profanity. 3. No undue abuse of the system. 4. We do not typically edit or censor messages in any way, but reserve the right to do so. 5. The use of our systems is at your own risk. We particularly caution you that doors are add-ons to PCBoard, and may not be of the same high quality as PCBoard. Some doors are prone to crashing. Administrative Policies 1. It may take up to 3 working days to make an account change (new or existing). While we typically make changes the same day we receive a request, please allow 3 days. 2. Subscriptions are automatically suspended by the system on the date of expiry. Allow 2 weeks for your renewal to be processed, and don't leave it until the last minute if you want to ensure your access will continue uninterrupted. 3. An administrative charge of $20 will be levied for the following: i. Change of Account Name ii. Returned cheque 4. CRS reserves the right to cancel any subscription with or without cause by refunding the balance of your subscription fee. Subscriptions are non-cancellable by a user. CRS Online is operated by 884097 Ontario Limited as a private system. While we exercise due care and caution, we will not be responsible for any losses or damages you suffer while using our systems. We do not guarantee access at all times, and expressly reserve the right to change our policies at any time. GETTING ON-LINE Setting Up Your Software To deal with any electronic medium, you have to have a modem, computer and communications software. While the choice of a terminal program and modem is yours, we recommend one of the newer shareware packages as your communications program (typically Telix, Procomm or our own CRSEasyLink for the PC Based machines) and as high a speed modem as your budget will allow. Before reading any further in this handbook, now would be a good time to make sure that you do have the necessary equipment, and adequate documentation for your communications program. If you're not sure that it all works together, do the following: a. Turn on your computer (and modem, if you have an external modem) b. Bring your communications software up. This is usually explained in the manual that comes with your software package. As each package is different, we can't give specific instructions about getting your particular software running, but look for an EXE or a BAT file on your communications disk and try running it. Almost all communications software will start up in the "Terminal Mode" - this simply means that whatever you type on the keyboard is sent to the modem. c. Type (on your keyboard) "ATZ" (without the quotes) and hit a carriage return. d. If your modem/computer/software are all responding correctly, you will see on your screen either a "0" or an "OK". Either indicates proper functioning. If you don't see this, then you'll need to stop right here and get it all working together. We'll be happy to assist you on our technical line, but if you purchased the modem/software elsewhere, our first response will be to refer you to your dealer. If you did, continue on. If you did not, go back to "Setting up your software" Now, that you're communicating with the modem, you'll have to tell your software about CRS. CRS (and most Bulletin Boards) expect you to set up for 8 data bits (that's the number of bits in a computer character), 1 stop bit (that's the number of bits after the character is sent) and no parity. Basically, what this means is that we'll send you 10 bits for each character, allowing us to use 255 different combinations of bits to make characters that you and your computer can understand. You'll usually need to set these parameters (and the maximum baud rate of your modem) in two spots - One in the defaults section of your communication program and the other in the dialing directory of your communication program. Again, the exact specifics of your communications program cannot be covered in this manual, but look for a menu command in your software called "OPTIONS" or "TERMINAL OPTIONS". (See appendix J for special instructions on setting up error correcting modems) Once you type in the phone # (or activate your dialing directory), you'll hear a dialing. When the modems connect, you'll hear a couple of tones and then a short song or screech. Your software/modem should then say "Connected at xxxx Baud". You can also instruct the modem to dial one of our phone numbers by first entering our numbers into a dialing directory (This is often done with an ALT-D command, but check your software manual for dialing instructions) Phone #'s for our on-line systems are contained in the appendices section. Busy Signals If you are having problems getting through, and you've not been successful in the past, we suggest you try calling with your telephone as if you were going to talk to someone on the other end. You may find that we're busy, or that something else is wrong. When in doubt, call manually and listen first. CRS is often busy in the evening hours. We attempt to provide enough lines so that you'll wait no more than 10-15 minutes during the peak time, but you cannot expect immediate access during peak hours. As well, our systems have scheduled shutdowns daily from 12:00noon to 12:45pm, and you will never be able to access us during that period. If one set of numbers is busy, try the other number. We search for open systems only within a particular hunt group (A hunt group is a fancy way of saying that if the first line in the 213-6002 group of numbers is busy, your call will go to the next number, and so on until it reaches an open line). You'll generally need to dial only one or two numbers to have access to the entire set of modems available on the system. Out of Town Phone Numbers CRS has placed a numbers of lines into communities surrounding Metro Toronto. If you are local to one of these lines then you can reach our systems without any long distance charges. For callers, even further away from CRS, our systems are accessible through iNET 2000 and Datapac (Canada) and a variety of alternative long distances services (US). If you'd like more information on iNET 2000 or Datapac, please call our office and ask us for details. CONNECTED! NOW WHAT? Once you are connected to our on-line systems, you will be prompted whether or not you want graphics. (How do you know you're connected? The modem speaker will turn off, and your software will normally say CONNECTED). If you're using a program which supports ANSI graphics, answer Y and press Return. For other software, check to see if it supports the ANSI.SYS emulation; if so press Y, otherwise answer N. (If you aren't sure, just hit N.) Next you will be prompted for your first name, last name, and a Password. Enter these three identifiers as requested. (If you have not already been enrolled as a subscriber and assigned these three items, you will only be able to enter the on-line systems for a one hour demonstration. Contact CRS at (416) 213-6000 or (800) 563-2529 to register.) If you're not sure about your name and password, check the CRS invoice that came with your new subscribers kit. Typically, we use your first and last name as shown on the invoice. If we have set you up in any other manner, you'll see a note on the invoice "bb: name" which will identify you. (Note - If you're not recognized, one of two things has happened: a. You may not be entered into our systems yet. Typically, we set up subscriptions the same day we receive a request, but occasionally it can take a little longer. If you are not set up within two business days, give us a call and ask what the status of your account is. b. We have set up your account incorrectly. Give our office a call and we'll fix that right away.) Once the board has identified you as a subscriber, we'll display a NEWS file. This file appears the first time you log on and every other time you log on if the news file has been updated. It is an important source of news about the on-line systems and events that affect our subscribers. Avoid frustration - read this file when you log on. If you missed anything, you can always redisplay the file by typing NEWS. Following the news file, you'll be prompted to scan for new messages. Selecting YES will cause the board to search the message base for mail addressed to you starting from the last message you read. If you don't read mail on a regular basis, this may take a few seconds to complete, so be patient. The main menu will follow and you are now on your way to accessing all the services available on CRS Online. A Note On Speed We run our system on a Novell Network with over 30 gigabytes of storage. More than 95% of our workstations or nodes (the computers you call into) are high speed AT class or better, but there are still a few older nodes. Speed is always a relative thing - and we'll take a moment to address it here. In most instances, you'll find system speed to be more than adequate. However, when opening doors (external programs to the PCBoard software) or scanning messages, there may be a noticeable delay. This occurs for three reasons: a. The door software code must be moved from the file server to the workstation, and PCBoard BBS software unloaded. More popular doors may result in 300+K of code being moved across the network. If the systems are busy, there will be a network delay in providing your workstation with this code. b. Rosemail and Prodoors search an extended user file that is more than 400 megabytes in size for your name. If this is the first time you've logged onto the door, a delay of up to a minute may be encountered. c. In message scans, we're scanning tens of thousands of messages. Typically, our main and IBM message bases are in excess of 2000 messages each, even though we only keep them for periods of 4 to 30 days, and we generally receive 20,000+ messages a day. We constantly upgrade workstations to eliminate any bottleneck, but we're somewhat hamstrung with the other problems. As we don't charge you for connect time, it's not a big issue, but have patience in peak periods. Main Board The Main Board is a generic information area where you may view Bulletins, send Comments to the System Operator (Sysop) and change some of your Users Parameters. The Main Conference (Conference 0) is where you will find non-specific files. For most of you, you'll scan messages in the main conference and then move immediately to a computer specific conference (eg. IBM, Macintosh, Amiga, ...etc.) if you are interested in downloading software or a message conference if you want to browse messages on a certain topic. The Main conference contains private messages only, and unless there is a message to you, you'll see no messages in the Main conference. Conferences Many of the BBS features are available only after you have joined a conference, so the first step toward accessing more information is to "join a conference". Conferences are the basic areas into which the bulletin board is divided. When you first log onto the bulletin board, you will be presented with the "Main Board" menu. At this main board menu, enter J to join a conference. After typing "J", you'll be presented with a list of conferences. Conferences are available immediately by typing the conference number. Once inside a conference, you are presented with the message "Scan Message Base Since 'Last Read' (Enter)=yes?" Press Return and the message base is searched for any new electronic mail, E-Mail, that has been sent to you. After searching the message base, the system tells you if there are any messages for you, or from you. It will also tell you how many new messages were entered since you last read a message in this conference. Press Return again, and the system tells you the number of the last message you read (L/Msg.Read), the number of the highest message entered (High Msg.#:) and the number of active messages. Pressing Return again brings you to your Conference Menu. The command prompt at the bottom of the menu lists which conference you're currently in. At this menu you can read bulletins; send electronic mail to all conference subscribers or send private messages to specific subscribers; read public or private mail sent to you, upload a file (send a file to the conference) or download a file (copy a file from the BBS). Most of these files can be downloaded either directly to your screen, printed on your printer, or saved to disk for later use. Conferences available at the time of reprinting of this book are shown in the appendices. The list changes often, however, so to get the current listing, just enter "J". There are some special conferences that are worth note - a. Computer Specific Conferences (1,2,3,5,6,13,14). Most of the files available here are in computer specific conferences. File listings do not cross conferences, so you must join the computer specific conference of your choice to obtain files for that computer type from CRS. b. Technical/Help Conference (#9) - All responses from the System Operators go into Conference 9. There are 3 operators dealing with your messages/comments/scripts, and to ensure that you can find our response, we place our answers to you in conference 9. c. Information Services (#39) - This area contains direct news feeds from Reuters and UPI, a selection of CD-ROMS, and closing stock market results from seven North American exchanges. This conference is an extra to the basic subscription, and you may join it only after paying an additional fee. (Call the office to join). It's described in some detail later in this manual. d. Buy and Sell (#34) - A very popular area to buy and sell products of all types. This area is intended for personal use only. Companies may not advertise products unless they are either corporate subscribers or have purchased the "commercial advertising" add-on. Call the office for details. Exploring The Board Feel free to try out the commands listed on the menus and explore your way through the BBS system. If you enter an invalid command, you'll get a message telling you what went wrong. Sometimes at high transmission speeds, these messages disappear before you can read them. You may usually stop these by typing Ctl-S to stop and Ctl-Q to restart, or your communications software may support some form of scroll back feature. Unless you are using some kind of a script that requires continuous sending of information, we recommend that you use the "P"age Length command to set your page length to a suitable number (this ensures that our systems only send your computer as much information as it can display at one time). To ensure that everyone has a chance to use the BBS, each subscriber is allocated a certain amount of time per day to access it. The board keeps you continually informed of how much time you have remaining. Each subscriber can save up some of their unused time so that they can use it another time. There is a section later in this guide that covers the use of the Deposit door. Whenever you want information about an operation, just enter the "H" command to display Help text. Anytime you're ready to log off the BBS, just enter "G" for Goodbye. Electronic Mail Four types of electronic mail communications are provided: Public Mail - To all other conference subscribers - provides a public forum for exchanging information of interest to all conference subscribers. At the main or conference menu, enter "R S", and all public mail active since you last called will be presented. Private Mail - To and from another individual - a direct message to another individual. Should be used for personal messages and messages that would typically not be of interest to all subscribers. Echo Mail - To other systems - public mail that is echoed out through our connections to other systems. With echo mail, you can address questions and/or comments to hundreds of other Bulletin Boards and thousands of other users. Not all conferences permit echo mail. (See the appendices, for full details on our current echo connections) Comment to SysOp - When you have a question about the Bulletin Board system - send a (C)omment to the System Operator by entering "C". The SYSOPs typically respond to messages within 4 days and all SYSOP responses are placed in conference 9 (our technical/help conference). Use this for general questions. System related problems (file not found, door not working, etc) should be addressed to the SYSOPs by completing Script Questionnaire #6 (type <> from any menu prompt). Sending Mail To Everyone To send your questions, answers, or comments to all conference subscribers, at any conference prompt, enter "E" to Enter a message. When asked to enter the subscriber for whom the mail is intended just press Return to send the mail to all subscribers. You're presented with an area into which you can type your mail. The built in editor will provide word wrapping so you don't have to worry about carriage returns at the end of each line. (To insert a blank line, type a space, then Return.) If your software supports it, you may use the full screen editor that is provided on our system. When the message is finished, press Return on a blank line (in Full Screen mode you would hit the escape key). You're then asked if you want to send the message, abort it, delete it, re-enter the message area for editing, and other options. Selecting "S" will save and send the message to everyone in your conference. You are encouraged to address your mail to all subscribers when you feel the topic is of general interest to your conference subscribers. In many instances, another caller already knows the answer to your question, or can benefit from the question and public reply. In this way, all subscribers can participate in and benefit from the conference. Sending Private Mail To send comments or questions privately to a CRS subscriber, enter "E" to Enter a message. The process is the same as that for sending mail to everyone, except that when asked to enter the subscriber for whom the mail is intended, enter the person's first and last name. Enter your message in the displayed, numbered blank lines (up to 99 lines), and end the message by pressing Return on a blank line. You're then asked if you want to send the message, abort it, delete it, re-enter the message area for editing, and other options. Select "S" to save and send the message to whomever you addressed it. Selecting "SC" will save and send the message, then ask you if you want to send a "carbon copy" (of the same message) to another person. As long as you keep entering a first name/last name on the blank line you can continue sending carbon copies to individuals. To stop the process, just press Return on a blank line. Depending on the conference you are in, the system may check for the identity of the intended recipient and you will be advised if he/she does not exist. DO NOT RELY ON THIS. It is not enabled in most conferences due to the additional time delays involved. If you're not sure of the name, you're better off not sending the mail. If sent to an invalid name, the recipient will not be able to retrieve it. (In many cases, if you are sending mail to a user on another system, our user records will not show the identity of that person - make sure you have the correct name, and send the message anyway.) Many of CRS's message bases are shared with other BBSs in North America and throughout the world through a system called echo mail. All messages (public and private) marked for echo will be passed to all the participating systems. In these conferences, an additional "Echo Message" prompt will appear when you enter a message. If the message is for someone on CRS, do not echo the mail. If, however, the person you wish to send mail to is not on CRS, then you must set this flag to "Y". If you do not wish to echo the mail, make the first three characters of the SUBJECT = "NE:". Sending Comments To The System Operator When you have a question about the bulletin board system - send a (C)omment to the System Operator, who will re-direct the mail for you. Enter "C", and the process is the same as that for sending mail to everyone, except that you're not asked for a subscriber name. Enter your message in the displayed, numbered blank lines (up to 99 lines). End the message by pressing Return on a blank line and entering "S" to save the message. The Comment to SysOp feature also provides a way for you to request more information about the BBS, comment on it, and request new features, such as the creation of a conference area for a topic of interest to you. Comments to SYSOP are automatically flagged private. Comments to system operators are always responded to in conference 9, but they may not be handled for a number of days. We offer faster, more effective ways of dealing with your questions - Script #6 is our general system problem script. This is where you tell us if something is wrong with the system. You usually will not get responses to this script, but the problems will be fixed as soon as we can examine them. Other scripts allow you to order products, renew your subscription and more. You may use either the Comments to sysop or scripts, but Scripts will normally be handled slightly faster than will comments. Reading And Erasing Mail Messages When you joined your conference, if you pressed Return when asked "Scan Message Base Since 'Last Read' (Enter)=yes?", the system replied by telling you what new messages, if any, were waiting for you. If you enter "R" at the conference prompt, a numbered list of available messages is presented. If you had new messages waiting you should enter the number of the first one then press Return. Or you may enter "Y" for Your Mail, and then "S" for since the last time you logged on, and the system will begin displaying your new mail since the last time you checked. As you become experienced you will learn that you can stack commands to save time. For example you could accomplish all of the above by entering the string "R Y S" Return. This tells the system that you want to read all your new mail since you last checked it. Many of the commands that you use within the conferences can be stacked in this manner. Once read, the messages remain stored on the board until you "kill" (delete) them. To kill a private message, enter K after reading the message, then press Return. Automatic Purging - We purge our message bases once daily. Messages will be deleted when either of the following conditions are met: a. The message is older than the predetermined conference parameter. Typically, messages will be purged (whether read or not) after 25 days (NANET) or 6 days (Other Networks); b. The message is both private and has been read. This catches some users who read a message but do not respond immediately. By the time they return to reread the message and respond, the automatic maintenance has deleted the message. It is best to respond to a message as soon as you read it if you want to avoid the automatic purging. When reading mail, you can reply to messages with the Reply ("RE") option. If you select this option, you're presented with space into which you can enter the reply. Enter and send your reply just as you do when sending new mail to someone (see the sections above on sending mail). Every reply to a message becomes logically tied to that message. This includes replies to replies. This logical tie is called a "thread". When a message you're reading has replies associated with it, you are presented the option of reading them. In this way, you can thread through all the responses to a topic and add your own comments to the forum, which are in turn threaded to the other messages. Text searches may be done on a message base with the TS command. The searches can be done with logical AND/OR parameters. For example, if you wanted to find all messages on laser printers for the Atari and Amiga computers, the command would be: TS Laser & (Atari | Amiga) The "&" sign indicates a logical AND while the "|" represents a logical OR. The TS command can handle multiple parentheses and logical searches. Sending a Prepared Document to the Mail Facility You can prepare a document off-line (on your computer) and send it to the BBS as a mail message using many communications programs. You'll need to do an ASCII upload as follows: Set your Character line length to be 72 characters or less. A completely blank line is assumed to end the message. To insert a blank line, enter a space character, then a carriage return. Once you've composed your offline message, log on to CRS and join the CRS message conference of your choice. Start your message by completing the users name and subject matter in the normal manner. Then, when you see the 1: from our system (indicating the first line of your message), do an ASCII upload to us. You should see your offline message appear on-line. When the upload is complete exit the message editor and save the message as you normally would. Downloading And Uploading Files The BBS stores files for distribution to subscribers. Files can be sent to the board only by subscribers. If you are sending a file to us, it's called uploading (only subscribers can upload files to CRS). Files can also be transferred to your own computer's disk for usage or reading. This is called downloading. Files can be transferred between the BBS and your computer with error-free file transfer protocols. Text files can also be transferred using ASCII protocol which does not perform error- checking. If you select T at the main board or any conference prompt, you can then select the desired file transfer protocol. Among those available are: HSLINK Xmodem Xmodem CRC Xmodem-1K blocksG Ymodem Batch Zmodem (recommended protocol) None If you're just starting, we suggest that you choose ZMODEM, as it remains the most reliable protocol. When you select a BBS protocol, select the same protocol in your communications software. Note that not all communications software uses the same naming convention, so you may have to experiment. To use ASCII protocol to transfer text-only files, first turn on your communications software's disk capture option (if you want to save to disk). Uploading Files To The Board If you have a file you think might be of interest to other subscribers, select "U" at a conference menu. You're asked to enter the name of the file as you want it to appear on the bulletin board. Set your communications software to the desired file transfer protocol, and begin transferring the file. Before uploading, please make sure that you are in the proper machine specific conference (i.e. IBM/DOS is conference 2). After you upload a file to the board, it is immediately available for downloading from the appropriate upload area. All uploaded files must first pass an integrity check that includes scanning for viruses. On a regular basis, CRS sysops will review the file and place it in an appropriate area on the BBS. Please note that Canada Remote does not accept for upload OFFENSIVE, COMMERCIAL or PIRATED software. Subscribers found uploading such software will have their subscriptions suspended. Downloading Files From The Board CRS has defined a number of file areas to help find files more easily. To view the files in these areas, use the "F" command. You'll be presented with a menu of all the available file areas in the present conference. Select the area that interests you and enter the number when the system prompts you for it. You'll then be given a list of the files and their description. These file listings may also be downloaded. View file area 2 for the exact names of the file listings. You can also display the names of files that have appeared on the BBS since a specific date. To do so, select "N" for New Files, and enter the date in the numerical format mmddyy. For example, October 31, 1987 would be entered as 103187. Alternatively, you can search for filenames using the wildcard character *. Enter "L" for Locate File, then supply the wildcard designation. There are a number of sub-commands available for the locate command. Adding the number of a particular file area will instruct the system to search only that area, while "A" will search all areas. If you're not sure of the file name, you can use the Zippy search. The Zippy search can be used to find files from the description as well as the file name. It searches on any combination of characters and will advise of matches regardless of where they fall in a name or description. For example, a Zippy search on "COMM" would turn up things like "teleCOMMunications" and "COMMand" in the same search. Zippy is a text search and does not require (and cannot handle) wild cards. Both the LOCATE command and the ZIPPY command are searching text file listings, created by CRS. While we attempt to keep the text of the file listings up to date, there may be instances where a file is shown in the directory, but is not actually on-line. You will not know this until you actually try to download the file with the "D"ownload command and receive a "file not found" error. For files not on-line will generally be unavailable. Once you've located a file you want to download, enter "D" at the menu and supply the name of the file you want to download. Then instruct your communications software to begin receiving the file to disk. Remember, CRS runs on IBM DOS based equipment, so the format of the file is always xxxxxxxx.yyy - (eight or fewer characters to the left of the period, three or fewer to the right). Downloading files is generally a two step process - First you tell us to send you the file, using the "D" command. Then, you tell your computer to receive the file. This is often done with PageDown key, but again, will vary from communications package to communications package. If you tell us to send, and 60 seconds later you get a "Transfer Aborted" message, then you didn't tell your end to receive. When receiving files, most communications software will place them in your current directory, unless you specify otherwise. When the transfer is complete, a message to that effect is displayed. Downloading Archived Files Some of the files available for downloading have the extension .ARC or .ZIP. These extensions indicate that the file has been archived. Archiving a file reduces its size to conserve space on the BBS's host computer disk, and also to minimize the amount of time it takes to transfer the file. The .ARC. or .ZIP. file may actually be an archiving of multiple files into one. You can view the file makeup of an archived file by selecting "V" before downloading it. Once you've transferred an archived file to your disk, you need to "unarchive" it so it can be used. To do so, use the program PKARC.COM or PKUNZIP.EXE. If you don't have these "shareware" programs, you can download a copy of them from file area 1. Be sure to print out and read the documentation that comes with this series of programs. You may also find other compression formats on-line. There are many different compression systems for the various computer types. Some of the more popular ones are: ARC Use PK361.EXE IBM PAK Use PKZ204G.EXE IBM ZIP Use PKZ204G.EXE IBM SIT Use Stuffit MAC CPT Use Compactor MAC USQ Use Unsqueeze CPM LU Use Library Utility CPM PIT Use Stuffit MAC LZH Use LHARC IBM Working versions of these unpacking utilities are always maintained in our file area 1. To see the current contents of file area 1, enter "F 1", and then download the utility necessary for your machine. For IBM users, unzipping is done by typing PKUNZIP fn.ft (where fn.ft is the file name.file extension). For PKUNZIP, the extension must be .ZIP, so don't call it something else when you download it. Batch File Transfers We allow you to select a number of files for upload or download with the "UB" and "DB" commands respectively. When you select one of these commands, the system will prompt you for all of the files you wish to transfer. Once the file names are entered (and file descriptions in the case of uploads), we'll prepare to transfer them one at a time to you without further intervention. When you have selected all of the files you wish (or the maximum that you have time or bytes available for), we'll give you the option of logging off immediately after the transfer. To do this, select "G" when prompted after you select the last file. Bulletins Messages the SysOp feels are of general interest are posted on the board as bulletins. Topics posted in the bulletins include information on each conference, tips on using the BBS, special announcements for the conferences, and other subjects. Bulletins are placed there by CRS and contain important information on the operation and use of our systems. To read a bulletin, enter "B" at the main or conference menu. A list of bulletins are displayed, their numbers, and a description of their contents. When you see a bulletin of interest to you, enter its number to display it. To capture a copy to disk, turn on the disk capture option on your software and then display the bulletin. To reread the daily news, type "NEWS" at the main menu. To read the news for any particular conference, "J"oin that conference and type "NEWS". Bulletins can be downloaded or captured through a screen capture using your communications software capture feature. Script Questionnaires A script questionnaire is a method of allowing you to report problems, make requests, renew subscriptions and the like in a formal manner. We use scripts rather than allowing you to complete free form messages as there's a considerable amount of information we need to act on your request. You reach the scripts by typing "S" at any main menu. For example, script #6 is our trouble reporting script. It's here that you report system problems. Script #6 asks you for a considerable amount of information including the Node Number (that's the workstation that you actually entered the system on). Each node has over 75 batch files controlling it and with 175 nodes, that's 10000+ batch files, one of which will be wrong when you report a problem. Without the node #, it's sometimes hard for us to know where to begin to solve your problem. The node # is displayed on logon, but can always be obtained on-line by entering "I" to redisplay the initial welcome. Please use the proper script to make requests of us. Scripts are handled daily. Message to Sysop may not be for a number of days, depending on workload here at CRS Online. Other Bulletin Board Features As you become more experienced at using the BBS, you may wish to try out some of its other features. Use the H command, as needed, to display help messages. The X command changes to Expert mode, in which menus are bypassed. Review bulletins and messages for tips on features and short cuts available. If you ever have any questions or suggestions, just send a (C)omment to the System Operators. The M command, which toggles Color Graphics on/off, can be changed anytime. You will find that your screen writes will be slightly faster while you are in the Non Color Graphics Mode, however, the Color Graphics Mode On may be more presentable. Doors Doors are a means of exiting from the PCBoard controlling software to DOS. In essence, they allow us to provide you with services that are not built-in to the PCBoard BBS software used for our main BBS. When you select the door command, you are presented with a list of options. On CRS, all doors are identical in all conferences except for the gaming conference (#11) where, due to the nature of this conferences, additional special doors reside. Doors are constantly changing, but three that you should always be aware of are: RoseMail (for IBM users Only) is a door that will actually reduce your time connected to CRS while letting you participate with the message bases as much as you want. CRS does not supply you with an offline reader, but we recommend RoseReader or QMAIL DELUXE (see Appendix G). The door allows you to select the message bases you wish to keep track of and then download to you automatically all new messages available. Unpacking of the message packet is handled off-line at your end, and replies are created automatically. The replies are compressed in a file that you upload through the door where they are inserted into the correct message base(s). To access doors, simply "open ##" (where ## is the door number). Doors are available from every conference as well as the main conference. Conference 11 (the Gaming conference) has a different set of doors - specifically for gaming. Other Features CHATS CRS supports full interactive CHAT between nodes. You can use it at any time. To enter a CHAT, just type CHAT. At that point, a list of all users on-line will be presented, and by typing the number of the user you want, he/she will be alerted that you'd like to CHAT. Wait up to 2 minutes for a response, as Chats are only available from the main prompts, and the person you wish to chat with may be doing something else. To enter a group chat, just type CHAT G. This is the same as a private chat, except that any node wishing to participate may join in the session. SUPPORTING VENDORS CRS is pleased to have the support of many vendors, and you can talk directly to these vendors in conference 4 (the Vendor Support Conference). Your messages to vendors are answered at least weekly by the supporting vendors, and you have direct access to their technical and sales staff. For a current list of vendors, Join conference 4 and type NEWS. We know that we can't possibly cover everything in this short guide, so feel free to ask questions- either on-line (as a comment to the Sysops) or on our technical line (213-6001). Please don't call the sales lines with system related questions. INFORMATION SERVICES CRS is a leader in the provision of information services at a fixed fee. The following are available to you in conference 39. You must be registered in (and have paid an extra fee) to access conference 39. Here's what's currently available to you: News And Information Publications Newsbytes - Current Computer News and Information - (Updated Mon-Fri) Newsbytes is an electronic publication available five times a week. Through a network of international correspondents, Newsbytes provides you with latest happenings in the world of computers. The local Newsbytes reporter, Grant Buckler, provides Newsbytes with Canadian Happenings. Toronto Computes Newspaper - (Updated monthly) Appears here at approximately the time it is sent to the printers for printing. Toronto Computes covers the local world of computer happenings, but also provides a window across Canada. No ads, but the entire editorial coverage is here. Denver BoardWatch Magazine - (Updated Monthly) BoardWatch is an electronic magazine published by Jack Rickart. Oriented towards telecommunications, it often provides BBS information not available any place else. UPI Wirefeed (updated continuously) A one hour time delayed feed directly from United Press International. Approximately 4 megabytes per day of news are moved over this wire feed. It's available to you in conference 39, door 59 or conferences 2381-2490. Reuters Wirefeed (updated continuously) A one hour time delayed feed directly from Reuters Financial Services. This wirefeed covers financial information and is moved into conference 39 by typing "reuters", through door 60 or conferences 2369, 2370 and 2380. Stock Market Results Currently available are over 14000 common stocks from seven difference stock exchanges. (High, Low, Close and Volume). We update these daily at approximately 5:45pm, with the closing prices. See later section for more details. Archival CD-Roms CD-ROMS A multitude of on-line information is available in our Information Services package, including the Canadian Encyclopaedia on CD-Rom, Family Doctor, World Book of Facts and Shakespeare on disk. See later section for more details. HOW TO USE CD-ROMS General Introduction: In May of '91 CRS Online announced the addition of CD-ROMs to its list of Information Services. Since then the Family Doctor (1500 common medical questions with straightforward easy to understand explanations) Shakespeare on Disk and the CIA World Fact Book have been added. We expect to be adding the Canadian Enclyclopaedia on CD-Rom in June 1993. Limitations: There are a few limitations that as a user you should be aware of before trying to use the CD-ROMs. None of these limitations affect the value of the service, but if you are unaware of them, you may find them to be quite annoying. 1) Some of the CD-ROMS have VGA graphics; these are unavailable due to the type of interface used for accessing the CD-ROMs. 2) All of the CD-ROMs provide facilities for saving and printing information located by your searches, however the files are not directly sent to your disk drive or printer. When you make a request to have the data printed or saved it is actually saved as a file on a hard drive located at CRS. At the end of your session with a particular CD-ROM, a menu will pop up that will allow you to select and download any of the articles you have requested. Once you have downloaded the articles of interest you may do with them what you wish (keep in mind that all articles are covered by standard copyrights). 3) CRS has placed two limitations on the CD-ROMs. They both deal with the amount of data a single user can access. The first one deals with the amount of disk space a user is able to use on CRS' hard drives. This limitation has been introduced so people that are unfamiliar with the CD-ROM services don't end up requesting that the entire database be saved for downloading and causing CRS to run out of disk space. The second one deals with a limit on the amount of data a user can actually download. At this time the limit has been set to 100 kilobytes. This limit exists simply because CRS would like to avoid unnecessary problems with the distributor of the CD-ROM should they feel users are downloading the data down in large volumes. While many distributors feel that it would be of some advantage to have their CD-ROM visible to 9,000 computer users, they don't want to see a loss in revenue due to it being available on such a service as CRS. 4) While CRS enjoys adding such interesting services as the CD-ROMs we make no guarantee as to the functionality of the service nor to the continued existence of any particular CD-ROM. We strive to maintain a fully functioning CD-ROM capability, but (as with so much here), we're pushing the state of the art, and the operation of the CD-ROM's is sometimes fragile. Getting Started: The CD-ROMs share several things in common in terms of how they are accessed. First, all information services are located in conference 39 (J 39). Since PCBoard doesn't and couldn't be expected to know how to handle CD-ROM information services, you will need to OPEN a door to access the CD-ROMs. Below is a list of the CD-ROMs and the door you will need to open to access them: 16 for the Family Doctor 18 for the World Fact Book 19 for Shakespeare After a few seconds the system will display a screen similar to the following: CIA World Fact Book. CRS Online. Installed Aug 6th/1991. Welcome to the CIA World Fact Book, before When using this information service make sure that your communications software supports ANSI Graphics. The use of a communications package that supports DOORWAY mode is also recommended, but not necessary. Options 1) Enter the CD-Rom. 2) Return to the BBS. Which one? (1/2) There are two terms used above that may be unfamiliar: ANSI Graphics and DOORWAY. ANSI Graphics refers to the ability of your communications package to support the sending and interpretation of certain character sequences that tell your communications package how to change the colors, clear the screen, and position the cursor. ANSI Graphics does not mean the ability to show GIF pictures or draw pretty pictures on the screen of your computer. DOORWAY is a mode that your communications package can enter that will allow you to use certain keystrokes not usually supported while in a telecommunications package. For example: ALT-F (holding down the ALT key while pressing the F key) is a keystroke that does not belong to the ANSI Graphics terminal emulation, but under DOORWAY is able to be transmitted. Currently there are three telecommunications packages that support DOORWAY mode, Telix (for IBM compatible computers), QModem (IBM compatibles), and JR-COMM (for the Commodore-Amiga line of computers). If you are not using one of these communications packages it does not mean that you will be unable to access the CD-ROMs, just that it will require different keystrokes to be used to execute the same commands. These keystrokes will be listed at the end of this article for convenience and while reading this article NON-DOORWAY keystrokes will appear in parentheses '()' right beside their DOORWAY equivalents. If you are using one of the communications packages mentioned above you would need to enter DOORWAY mode at this point. In Telix and Qmodem the command to enter DOORWAY mode is "ALT-=". After enabling DOORWAY mode you will then choose option '1' from the screen shown above followed by a 'Y' to enter the CD-ROM and inform it of the fact that your communications package supports DOORWAY mode. If you are not using one of the packages mentioned above you will choose option '1' followed by a 'N'. This would enable the CD-ROM to be accessible in NON-DOORWAY mode. Once you've entered your choices the CD-ROM database software will be loaded. At this point each of the CD-ROMs are accessed differently. Depending on which CD you are trying to access you may wish to skip certain sections of this article. A Brief Description of the CD-ROMs: The Family Doctor CD-ROM contains advice and information to over 1,500 commonly asked medical questions. Family Doctor also contains Health Update Booklets with detailed information regarding the most common health problems, names and addresses of support groups and informational resources and complete data on over 1,600 prescription drugs from Consumers Guide to Prescription drugs. World Fact Book carries a wealth of information on different countries of the world. Such tidbits vary from the country's literacy rate to what import and exports can be found in that country. It's really quite an impressive body of data. Shakespeare on Disc. If I had only had this when I was in school! Full copies of every play and poem that Shakespeare every wrote are available from this CD-ROM in both American English and Queen's English versions. Shakespeare on Disc would be a valuable resource to anyone that needs to find references to characters or incidents that happened within any of his works. Using the CD's: When you enter one of the three CD-ROMs listed above, you will be shown a welcoming message and asked to press ENTER (ENTER) to continue. After the welcoming screen you are placed inside the retrieval software. At the top of the screen will be a pull down menu containing such options as Search, Browse, Contents and Database. Database Searching: Finding a particular piece of information is a easy as choosing the Search option from the pull down menu located at the top of the screen. The cursor keys (CTRL-S, CTRL-D,CTRL-X and CTRL-E) will allow you to move around the menu and ENTER (ENTER) can be used to select an option. The search function is broken down into four different categories: Search every word contained in the database Search only by the authors name Search by the subject of an article Search by the title of an article Note: depending on which CD-ROM you have chosen, not all of the options described above may be available. i.e. A search by the authors name in Shakespeare on Disc would be of no value, so that menu option has been made unavailable. Once you have selected the type of search wanted, a new window appear asking you to supply the criteria for locating the article of interest. The CD-ROMs will allow you to supply up to 7 pieces of data, each item being separated by a boolean operator. For example to search for "chickenpox and children" in the Family Doctor CD-ROM you would enter: Type: Chickenpox(ENTER) The display will show: [AND] Press: ENTER to use the boolean AND function, or the SPACE BAR to select a different boolean operator Type: Children(ENTER) The display will show: [AND] Press: ENTER to use the boolean AND function, or the SPACE BAR to select a different boolean operator Press: ENTER again to inform the software you are finished with entering the criteria When finished the display should look something like this: Use: CHICKENPOX______________ [AND] CHILDREN_______________ [AND] ___________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ Next you'll see yet another window open, this one containing a list of the articles found matching the criteria. Use the cursor keys (CTRL-S, CTRL-D,CTRL-X and CTRL-E) to move around the menu and press ENTER (ENTER) on the article you wish to view. While Viewing an Article: When viewing the article you'll find that the cursor keys (CTRL-S, CTRL-D, CTRL-X and CTRL-E) are active and can be used to scroll through the article. If you decide that you would like to save copy of the article, just press the F8 (CTRL-C) key. You will be prompted to enter a filename. YOU MUST prefix the file name with B: in order to save a copy of the text. Please refer to the section "DOWNLOADING SAVED ARTICLES" for more details. Pressing the F3 (CTRL-N) key will cause the next article in the list of ones found matching you criteria to be displayed. The F10 (CTRL-T) key will cause the screen to display the area of text where the next match of the criteria was met to be displayed. SHIFT-F10 (CTRL-B) will cause the software to display the previous match. Taking a Look Around: Another way of checking out what is on the CD-ROM is to use the Browse feature from the main pull down menu. This feature like the search feature has four sub-functions, which describe what part of the CD-ROM is to be browsed. Once, a method is selected a window will appear listing the contents of the CD-ROM with the number of occurrences for each entry. A quick way to check for a particular entry is to enter part of the text that would be found in that entry. Likewise, full cursor key support is available. Contents: This area will change dramatically for each CD-ROM. For instance, World Fact Book uses this area to provide information on each continent, whereas The Family Doctor places the Consumer Guide to Prescription Drugs in the area. No matter which CD-ROM you are using, everything should be quite clear as to what to do. Exiting the CD-ROM: When finished with the CD-ROM place yourself back at the main menu and select the option Change/Exit. From there choose the Exit option. If you have saved any articles they will be made available to you for downloading at this point. Summary of Key Commands: DOORWAY and NON-DOORWAY Commands are listed below: Option/Command DOORWAY Keystroke NON-DOORWAY Keystroke FIND LAST OCCURRENCE Shft-F10 CTRL-B FIND NEXT OCCURRENCE F10 CTRL-T SAVE ARTICLE F8 CTRL-C NEXT ARTICLE F3 CTRL-N RESTART SEARCH F2 CTRL-R Cursor Controls: DOORWAY Keystroke NON-DOORWAY Keystroke Up Cursor UP CTRL-E Left Cursor Left CTRL-S Right Cursor Right CTRL-D Down Cursor Down CTRL-X Insert INS CTRL-U Delete DEL CTRL-J Home HOME CTRL-I End END CTRL-K PageUp PAGEUP CTRL-O PageDown PAGEDOWN CTRL-L Downloading Saved Articles: If you have saved any articles while using one of the CD-ROM information services, you will be displayed a menu that will list all of the files available for downloading. To select or deselect a file from being transferred, enter the corresponding file number followed by a return. Should you find that you had saved more that nine articles use the cursor keys or their matching NON-DOORWAY counterpart to scroll through the list. Entering the letter "T" will allow you to change your transfer protocol. The CD-ROM services support three protocols: Xmodem, Ymodem (Batch), and Zmodem (Batch). The door will automatically check which protocol you use when inside the CRS BBS; if it finds that you have a protocol selected that it does not support the door will immediately ask you to choose one that is supported. Pressing escape with no files selected will cause the service to return you to the CRS BBS. Pressing escape with any file selected will cause the door to begin transferring the file after confirming that you are ready to receive the file. With any luck the CD-ROMs will have become somewhat easier to use after reading this article. If you find there are questions that still remain unanswered, post a message in conference 39 (INFOSERV). Another subscriber will probably be more than willing to give you the answer. CRS ONLINE STOCK DOOR CRS offers you (as part of our information services) an after hours feed of closing stock prices. There are 7 exchanges available as follows: Toronto Prefix "T" New York Prefix "N" Composite Prefix "3" Nasdaq Prefix "4" Montreal Prefix "M" Alberta Prefix "C" Vancouver Prefix "V" Stock symbols used are those used by each exchange. While we have a cross-reference here, it would take hundreds of hours to turn it into computer form for you, but any stock broker should be able to provide you with a Symbol Table. We use the Dow Jones/Telerate service at CRS Online. Using The Stock Door Using our Stock Door is easy - Just oin Conference 39, OPEN 61 and you'll be in it. The door can hold approximately 100 symbols for you, and once stored, your portfolio will be held for you so that you don't have to update it daily. There are very few commands for the door: $ - Displays the closing value for your personal stock portfolio. This portfolio is one that you create with the + command, and it will be retained until you change it. = - Sends the closing value for your personal stock portfolio to a file for later downloading. You cannot download directly from this program, but on returning to the CRS BBS, you'll be able to download your personal file. + - Allows you to create or edit a stock portfolio. You have 10 lines to place your information on, and may place as many symbols as will fit on a line (separate each one by a space). The rules for these symbols follow. You may request any quote just by entering the appropriate symbol. You may enter the full ticker symbol - or a wildcard. Symbols used are those of the exchanges involved, which are not necessarily the same as those published in the newspaper. Consult your stock broker for symbol tables. Examples: Single Stocks Toronto IBM Symbol TIBM New York IBM Symbol NIBM Composite IBM Symbol 3IBM Batches of Stocks All TSE starting with A TA* Our stocks are updated at approximately 7:30pm and 10:30pm. We currently bring in over 11,000 stock symbols, and it does take a while to get it all done. If you wish a full listing, this is available for downloading. Currently, the file is about 90K zipped, and can be downloaded daily as STOCKS.ZIP. Prior day versions are available in conference 39, file area 10. CRS FAXMAIL SERVICE CRS offers its subscribers a complimentary outgoing FAX service to exchanges local to Etobicoke. We're pleased to announce that this gateway will now take uploaded files and include them in your fax. To Send A Fax a. Join Conference 106 - Fax Traffic is sent only from conference 106. b. Compose your fax as follows - i.e. i. Address it to FAX GATEWAY in conference 106 ii. Make the first line of your message: TO: xxx-xxxx iii. Leave the second line of your message blank (put a few spaces on the line) iv. Use the next 98 lines for your fax text. To Include A File In Your Fax: a. Upload it in the normal manner to conference 106. It will arrive here as a private upload. b. Compose your fax as follows - i.e. i. Address it to FAX GATEWAY in conference 106 ii. Make the first line of your message: TO: xxx-xxxx iii. Leave the second line of your message blank (put a few spaces on the line) iv. Use the next 98 lines for your fax text. c. At the point in your message where you wish to include your file, just say: "/*INCLUDE: filename" Your file will then be automatically included in your fax. Your file should be straight ASCII text. The gateway does not have the ability to handle graphics or word processor files. Faxes may be sent to any exchange that is local to CRS in Etobicoke. Bell Canada is constantly adding new exchanges. If there's one that you know is local to Etobicoke that the FAX GATEWAY cannot reach, just leave a comment to SYSOP and it will be added. PLEASE NOTE - a. Faxes are sent from the Gateway approximately every 10 minutes. You will not receive a confirmation that your fax has been successfully sent. b. Incoming Faxes are not supported by CRS Online. c. There is no charge for this service. COMMERCIAL AREAS We'd like to take a few minutes to highlight some of the new and interesting Commercial Conferences on CRS Online. These Conferences are open to all CRS subscribers, so feel free to go in and browse around. TAXATION, MANAGEMENT, AND ACCOUNTING - CONFERENCE 69 Moderated by Mr. Keith Doxsee, C.A., this conference has been set up for both individuals and small businesses to ask for information on important financial items. If you have questions about taxes, small business management, or accounting, feel free to oin Conference 69 and pose a question to Keith. Keith is a Chartered Accountant of long standing, and has kindly agreed to address these issues on CRS. COMPUBOOKSTORE - CONFERENCE 71 Mr. David Chen, owner of CompuFamily Inc. is the proud sponsor of this new endeavour on CRS. His motto of "Any Book, Any Time, Any Place", reflects his goal of making available almost any computer-related book to CRS subscribers. Go into Conference 71 and look around. The Conference Bulletins provide most of the information on how to utilize this new service. He has available for sale many thousands of computer books - and offers the vast majority of them to CRS subscribers at a price lower than that of most regular bookstores. His discounts range up to 27.3%, and convenient pickup or delivery can be arranged! Leave any queries or messages to COMPUBOOK STORE. So, if you're looking for a book on WordPerfect, on a programming language, or on almost any computer-related topic, please give David's new service a try! INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF BUSINESS COUNCILS (ICBC) - CONFERENCE 29 This new conference has been set up for the subscribers of the ICBC, a group that exists to facilitate business networking opportunities between small businesses. It will be used mainly to exchange business leads, and will facilitate communication between the various subscribers of this association. Any CRS subscriber is welcome to go on in and browse (ie - read messages), but only ICBC subscribers may leave business leads in this Conference. Mr.Greg Warren in the Conference Moderator, and will be happy to tell you all about the many other advantages of becoming an ICBC subscriber. EDUSERVE - CONFERENCE 65 This Conference is proudly moderated by Mr. Paul Shuster. Designed to be a meeting place for all types of educational institutions, this new area is already collecting its following of regular contributors. Calling in regularly from Ottawa, I'm sure Paul will be happy to pass on any information he can about his goals and objectives. EDPAA/ISSA - CONFERENCE 72 We're very pleased to welcome the subscribers of the Electronic Data Processing Auditors Association (EDPAA) and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). Recently having migrated to CRS, this Association Conference is moderated by two individuals - Mr. David Rostoker and Mr. Ed Ing. These organizations exist to spread the word about security, virus, and electronic auditing issues. Join Conference 72, and look at some of the bulletins for more details on these two groups! PENSION COMMISSION OF ONTARIO - CONFERENCE 149 The Pension Commission of Ontario has made available through its on-line conference, most of its policy materials. Recent news bulletins are also made available. For more information, join conference 149 and enter "menu" to see what is available. CANBUILD, THE CONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE ON CRS - CONFERENCE 36 Moderated by Mr. Steve Hartwell, an Estimator by trade, the CANBUILD Conference is dedicated to the Construction Industry. If you need information on almost any type of do-it-yourself or construction-related issue, Steve and the regulars in Conference 36 will be happy to help you out. USENET Introduction The birth of USENET happened in 1979 when two grad students at Duke University in North Carolina decided that they needed to be able to exchange information. The original implementation of the USENET Software was written as UNIX shell scripts, which resemble DOS batch files. During 1980, the USENET Software was rewritten in C and debuted at the conference of UNIX professionals. It was at this conference the Network was given the affectionate name of USENET. In twelve years the Network has grown from two computers to a network of approximately 30,000 computers, with a daily readership of over 15 million people worldwide. Since its creation, the network has allowed people from the areas of research and development, education, commercial business, military, and hobbyists to come together and exchange their views and help each other with problems they may be experiencing within an "infinite" number of topics. At this time USENET contains over 2400 different topics. Access to information such as commercial product updates, newsbriefs on research projects, the ability to obtain the views of people around the world on just about any topic under the sun, and technical help are available at the touch of a button. But with any connection between two different services (software) there are adjustments. One of the major differences between USENET and CRS Online is in the software used. CRS uses a package called PCBoard for its callers. It imposes a 99 line limit when entering a message, whereas the UNIX software allows messages up to a size of 64 kilobytes. Another difference is how messages are entered on CRS; unlike the PCBoard based E-Mail networks, messages that are to be sent out via the PCB/USENET Gateway require additional information - an EMail address. An EMail address is similar to the postal address at your place of residence. Your address for EMail via the USENET Gateway is the following: Firstname.Lastname@canrem.com For example: If your login on CRS was John Doe, your USENET Email address would be: john.doe@canrem.uucp. What the "@canrem.com" tells the person sending mail to you is that you are a user at the site "canrem" (CRS Online) which belongs as a commercial subscriber to the electronic mail network. There are several other mail networks that are accessible through the USENET Gateway, which include CompuServe, MCI Mail, Bitnet, Internet, FidoNet, and few others. Sending mail to these networks will be described a little further on. Now before continuing on with how to enter a message to a person on USENET, there is one more difference between USENET and PCBoard that needs to be clarified. That is, the difference between public messages on USENET and CRS. On CRS when a user wants to read public messages, he or she only needs to 'join' the conference of interest; the same is done on a UNIX system except it is called a "newsgroup". The difference between the two only crops up when private mail enters the picture. A conference on CRS has the ability to contain both private and public messages. USENET newsgroups do not have this ability; they draw a more dramatic line between public and private messages. Public messages are posted to a newsgroup, while private mail is sent to a specific user. Please keep in mind the incongruency between the way private messages are handled on PCBoard mail networks as compared to USENET mail network. USENET uses a point to point mailing method whereas PCBoard mail networks send a copy of the private message to all systems that talk to each other. What this means is that if two people have the same name on PCBoard mail network both will be able to read the message; this will not happen if sending private mail via USENET. This is why an address is needed before being able to send private mail to a user on USENET. Sending A Public Message When reading USENET public messages - which will be referred to as newsgroups for the rest of this article - and you wish to respond to it with everyone being able to read your message you'll need to use the following: I) Choose 'E' (for 'Enter' as message) from the PCBoard menu. II) When prompted for who the message is TO, enter "ALL". III) When asked for a subject, precede it with "UN: ". (The space is necessary) IV) When asked if you would like echo the message, enter "Y" (YES). V) Begin entering your message. NOTE: If your message will not be seen as of interest to everyone reading that newsgroup, please send a private message instead, to the specific user. The following is an example of a public message posted in a USENET Conference: Main Board Conference Command? J U-ONTTEST U-ONTTEST Conference Command? E TO (enter=ALL)? (ALL ) SUBJECT (enter=ABORT)? (UN: This is a test. ) Echo Message? (Y) 1)This is just a test message. 2) (A,C,D,E,I,Q,S,S,SN,SC) Text entry command? sn Your message will be sent out by the USENET Gateway within the hour. Sending A Private Message Private messages can be entered in the main conference, conference 104 (U-REPLIES), and any USENET Newsgroup. (Writers Note: I recommend using conference 104, so that you can keep track of your private mail easier.) As stated above you'll need to have the receiver's address before you'll be able send private messages. This is not a big problem because every message be it private or public will contain the original sender's EMail address. Once you have the receiver's address you will enter the message using the following format: I) Choose 'E' from the PCBoard menu. II) When prompted for who the message is TO, enter "USENET GATEWAY". III) When prompted for a subject, enter the subject of the message. IV) When asked for the message security, enter "R" for receiver only. (This is not needed if you enter the message in conference 104.) V) Set the echo flag to "N" for no. VI) The first line of your message should have "TO: useraddress" VII) Place a blank line between the user address and the first line of your message. Use the space bar to make sure that you have a blank line. The following is an example of a private message posted in USENET Conference 104: Main Board Conference Command? J 104 U-REPLIES Conference Command? E TO (enter=ALL)? (USENET GATEWAY ) SUBJECT (enter=ABORT)? (This is a test to Joe ) Echo Message? (N) 1)TO: joe.smith@canrem.uucp 2) 3)This is just a test message. 4) 5)Thanks, 6)Michael. 7)michael.macdonald@canrem.uucp 8) (A,C,D,E,I,Q,S,S,SN,SC) Text entry command? sn Your message will be sent out within the hour. Site Addresses Now that we have handled how to enter private messages you probably want to know how to interpret the many different E- Mail addresses. The following is a list of the several addresses and the corresponding network it is used with: Format Example 1) SITE!USER canrem!michael.macdonald or cunews!carleton.ca!victor.kamutzki This was the original method used to send private mail on the USENET mail network. It required the sender know every site the message had go through to get to the destination. This method is known as the "bang path method". A bang refers to the exclamation mark used to separate the pieces of data in the address. 2) USER@SITE Michael.MacDonald@canrem.com This is referred to as the smart mailing method, because of the fact a user does not need to know the entire bang path to the receiver. It was originally used with the Internet Mail network, but it is currently being adopted - if it hasn't been already - by most USENET sites. 3) USER%SITE@VIA-SITE Michael.MacDonald%canrem@telly This method is primarily used when a direct path to the receiver does not co-operate. For instance: Lets say LSUC (Law Society of Upper Canada) ran into some difficulty handling your message, it could be sent indirectly via another stop. The example above tells the sites handling your message to send it to the site TELLY first, then direct the message to the site CANREM. 4 a) #####.####@COMPUSERVE.COM 74534.7234@compuserve.com Use this method when you want to send private mail to a personal account on CompuServe. The "#####.####" refers to the account of the receiver on CompuServe with the comma changed to a period. b) USER@ORGANIZATION.COMPUSERVE.COM Joe@borland.compuserve.com The method is used when you need to send private mail to a company that has an account on CompuServe. 5) ####@MCIMAIL 2344@MCIMAIL When sending mail to an account on MCI's EMail service. 6) USER%SITE.BITNET@GATEWAY-SITE VKamutzk%carleton.ca.bitnet@cunews This method is actually the same as method three except it explicitly mentions the fact that the message is bound for a user on the BITNET EMail network. The GATEWAY-SITE refers to a system that is able to convert messages from a USENET system into a format the BITNET systems can handle. 7) FIDONET USER@P#.F#.N#.Z#.FIDONET.ORG James Dean at the FidoNet Site 1:350/12.2 would become: james.dean@p2.f12.n350.z1.fidonet.com For sending mail to users on the FidoNet mail network. Common Usenet Terms With the introduction of CRS Online's connection to the USENET world, subscribers who are interested in using this may find it helpful to know some of the more commonly used terms. What follows is a list of terms often used when referring to the USENET EMail network: DOMAIN: A method used to break up geographical areas or topical areas. Examples of geographical domains are: ON for Ontario and CA for Canada. Topical areas include: COM for Commercial Organizations, EDU for Educational sites, and ORG for non- profit organizations. GATEWAY: A program or system setup to handle the mingling of messages between two non compatible EMail Networks. MAILER-DAEMON: The program responsible for directing messages. Users usually never see anything from this program except when a message turns out to be undeliverable (often referred to as bounced messages). SITE: Site refers to a system able to handle and process USENET messages or one of the deviations of it. A site can be made up of the following information: SITE = ( MACHINE.) SITENAME ( . (SUBDOMAINS.) DOMAIN ) UUCP: UUCP is actually an acronym for Unix to Unix Copy Program. It is the actual program used for transferring messages between two UNIX sites. We hope this article has helped in solving some of your questions about USENET. If you find that there are some questions left unanswered by this document, we would like to recommend the following: Download the file USENET.CRS; it contains a list of the newsgroups available on CRS from the USENET Gateway. Download the file USENET2.ZIP; this document was compiled by CRS subscribers (Thanks Jack) and should answer just about any questions you may have. If you find that more information is required leave a message in the USENET Support conference (#8), where we and several knowledgeable subscribers will try to answer your questions. HOW TO GET HELP By Modem: Call our systems and go to conference 9 (technical/help conference). You'll find a series of bulletins and messages covering most common system problems. If you still can't resolve your problem, leave a omment to the Sysops. By Telephone: Call our technical line at 213-6001. It's staffed by our tech staff between the hours of 1pm and 7pm Monday to Friday. In Person: CRS provides free seminars on a variety of topics including a new users seminar and an advanced seminar. Check the newsletter or the online news or call the office (213-6000) for a current list of upcoming seminars. CRS Online HOURS Office/Tech Support Hours Sales/Administration Line: 9:00 am - 5 pm Monday - Friday Technical Support Line: 1:00 pm - 7 pm Monday - Friday Office and Voice Phone lines are closed Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays. The systems operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except for scheduled downtimes. If you have a problem relating to a crashed node, call the technical support line 213-6001. TELEPHONE NUMBERS Office & Technical Support Sales/Administration: (416) 213-6000 1-800-563-2529 Technical Support Line: (416) 213-6001 Fax: (416) 213-6038 CRS PCBoard/Online System Lines: 300/1200/2400/9600/14,400/16,800: MNP2-5/USR HST/V.32/V.32bis 213-6002 or 213-6003 Hayes V9600/V.32 213-6006 Telebit Trailblazer 213-6032 CompuCom Speed 213-6007 Out of Town Lines Brampton (to serve Georgetown) * 874-3001 Burlington/Milton * 681-4048 Hamilton/Stoney Creek/Dundas * 572-7773 Oshawa (to serve Oshawa/Bowm) * 404-2021 Newmarket * 836-4074 Barrie * (705) 737-4215 Hespeler (Kitchener/Waterloo) * (519) 651-2408 Moonstone (Orillia/Midland) * (705) 835-7015 (*) Supports 300-16.8K baud with USR HST/V.32/V.32bis modems. iNet 2000 ACCESS CRS Datapac (for NUI Users) 43700818 CRS UNIX BOX LINES T2500 - PEP/V.32 213-6004 Trailblazer+ - PEP (call CRS) 2400 Baud (call CRS) Phone lines are changed from time to time. Check Bulletin 1 ON-LINE for the most current list of phone lines. PASSWORDS Passwords are yours and yours alone. While we may assign an initial password (if you haven't indicated a choice), you should change that password with the "W" command as quickly as possible. We have run into 3 or 4 instances recently of users finding that their passwords have been changed. As best as we can tell, these users used the same password on other systems. We don't recommend that you do so. Keep your CRS password confidential and unique. We also suggest that you use the "W" command from time to time to change your password...... If you haven't done so for a while, please do so now. USER REQUESTED UPLOADS Due to the high volume of users, we cannot deal with individual USER REQUESTED UPLOADS. If a file is not available on-line, it is not likely to exist here at CRS. We simply don't have the human resources to go out and search for individual files for you. However, PCSIG and PCBLUE disks are ALWAYS available. To access these, you'll need to open door 70 (or 71) to mount our CDROM, and then access the files in the normal way. PCSIG and PCBLUE disks are available only from conference 2. 24 HOUR CLOCK Your subscription entitles you to a certain amount of time on-line per day, on an as available basis, and in most cases, you'll have no problem in achieving this time on-line each and every day should you so wish. However, the time calculation in PCBoard isn't perfect, and if you are on the systems at midnight, some strange things will happen. Here's how it works - PCBoard maintains 2 pieces of information in your user record, namely your last date on and the time used for that particular day. The time used is cumulative, so if you make multiple calls, PCboard will simply add your session time to the previous counter. At midnight, your counters will not be zeroed if you are on the system. Effectively, PCBoard will update your last date on to the current day (e.g. the day after midnight) and show your cumulative time for the session along with any time for yesterday's session. The net effect is that you'll lose time for the current day. The answer is simple - log off before midnight and log back on after midnight. That way, the counters will be properly updated. CRS time is set daily from the National Research Council Atomic clock in Ottawa, and our time is normally accurate to 2 seconds. Don't second guess us. If you want to ensure you have your full time the next day, log off before midnight. SHUTDOWNS AND MAINTENANCE Like any major system, CRS must shut down from time to time for maintanence, backup and upgrading. Here are our scheduled shutdown times: 12:00pm - 12:45 pm - Daily - for backup/system logs/etc 10:00am - 3:00 pm - Tuesdays - for scheduled maintenance Note that if you log on between 10am and 12pm, your available time is automatically reduced to the amount available before 12pm. You get it all back after the shutdown. Other shutdowns occur as required. They will typically be of relatively short duration and to the extent possible, we will announce them in advance where possible. Remember, we are running one of Toronto's Largest Novell Networks, and while our uptime is greater than 95%, we cannot guarantee that we'll be up all the time. INET/DATAPAC USERS We run our systems into an EDA 8 port pad, giving you access to 4 systems through our iNet/Datapac address. Here are some tricks about iNet - a. Make sure that you have a program that supports YMODEM protocol. Most of the popular ones do. Telix, Qmodem, Flash, Red Ryder 10.0, Procomm, and MEX all have Ymodem protocol. Ymodem protocol transfers packets of data 1024 bytes at a time, rather than 128 byte blocks. This means that the overhead on iNet/Datapac is much less, and you'll achieve 1000-1100 baud without difficulty. When using YMODEM, select YMODEM protocol as your transfer protocol at our end (using the command to set it), and then choose a similar protocol at your end (this may be called YMODEM, 1K Xmodem, or something of that nature). If you don't use YMODEM, your effective throughput here will be no better than 400-500 baud. b. Interactive messaging, due to the echoing back from our end, is very slow. No fix in sight. PCBoard requires full duplex due to screen wrapping, and we can't change to half duplex. The slow interactive messaging is just something you'll have to learn to live with. c. If you find that you're dropping back to the iNet menu for no apparent reason, change your escape character from / to something unusual (we use a ~). You do this from the main iNet menu (personal parameters). That should solve most of your problem, although iNet will occasionally get confused no matter what. We don't advise using 2400 baud. 2400 baud on iNet can incur a 'bulk transfer charge', which is not mentioned in any of your iNet documentation. This charge can be up to $70/hour. You'll never encounter it at 1200 baud. We know that there are problems in iNet. Over the years, we've tried to eliminate most of them, but haven't got them all. Sorry for the inconvenience. You are being charged, by iNet, an amount that's considerably less than what it would cost you for the dial up lines......I guess the problems we encounter are the price we pay for 'cheaper transmission charges'. REACH ACROSS CANADA If you've signed up for our "Reach Across Canada" program, then you've been issued a Datapac Network User ID (NUI) by us. With this NUI, you can reduce your access charges to as low as $4/hour (depending on time of day, location and bytes transferred). To access CRS with your NUI: a. Call your local Datapac # - it's in your phone book, or you may call our office for the port nearest you. b. After establishing carrier with Datapac, enter .. <> c. Datapac will respond with an 8 digit #. The # is not important. d. Then type: NUI "yournui" <> Leave a space between the I and the first letter of your NUI. You received your NUI from CRS and it's typically a 6 character code. e. Datapac responds: XXXXXXXX f. Type your Password g. Datapac responds: NUI yournui active h. Type: 43700818 <> <> and you'll be on CRS. It's simple, but you must be precise. If you have problems, or for more information, call our technical staff at (416) 213-6001. CRS Conferences Remember - if you're looking for certain topic, you can use the J S xxx command where xxx is the text you're looking for. This is a full conference listing of the conferences available to you on CRS Online. To join any conference, just type J xxx where xxx is the conference #. COMPUTER AND FILE SPECIFIC CONFERENCES - All software (files) resides in the computer specific conferences only. Other conferences are messaging only and will contain no files. These areas contain both messages and files. Use the ile command to check the various file areas within these conferences. *** ---> NOTE: In order to keep this ASCII Text format of the user guide down to size, we have removed the listings of the conferences. These following files should be downloaded: USENET.CRS for Usenet Conferences CRSCONF.LST for all other Networks - NorthAmeriNet, FidoNet, Intelec, EchoNet, and others. *** TECHNICAL SUPPORT CONFERENCES - CRS provides technical support to its members via these conferences. Check these conferences for messages related to CRS specific problems/questions. Qmail Support ........24 | Usenet Gateway.........8 | Technical/Help ........9 Additional Information on Mail Networks is available as follows: Files may be downloaded from any conference. USENET.CRS A listing of the Usenet Conferences on CRS CRSCONF.LST Current List of CRS conferences (all nets) CRSALL.LST Current List of CRS conferences (alphabetical) IL-APP.ZIP Interlink Application Form ILCONF09.ZIP Interlink Conferences ILNK0912.ZIP Participating Interlink Systems INTCONFS.ZIP Intelec conference list and decriptions RLYCONF.ZIP RelayNet conference list and description NANETAPP.ZIP NorthAmeriNet Application Information NANET.SYS NorthAmeriNet Participating Systems RELAY.FRM Application Form for Relaynet RLYMAN1.ZIP Relaynet rules/regulations THROBNET.ZIP Application for Throbnet Network USENET CONFERENCES INFORMATION Please note the following rules for posting message to Usenet: Procedures for entering PUBLIC messages. a) Enter the message to ALL or anyone else you desire b) Mark the message as PUBLIC c) Make the first 3 letters of the subject UN: to signify that you want this message to be sent WORLD WIDE on Usenet. NOTE - PUBLIC MESSAGES should be of interest to the USENET Community.As your public messages are sent to thousands of different sites, please make sure that they will be appropriate both as to topic and to content. Procedures for entering PRIVATE messages. a) Enter the message to USENET GATEWAY b) Mark the message as RECEIVER ONLY c) Make the first line of the message "to: user@site" (important - you must leave a space after "to: ") d) Leave a blank line (important) and then continue entering your message on the next line. All Incoming Private Messages from our Usenet Gateway are posted in Conference 104. Outgoing mail may be left in conference 0, 104 or any of the Usenet specific conferences 104 U-REPLIES *Conference for incoming private mail. SOFTWARE: FILE AREAS ÄÄÄÍÍÍ MACINTOSH FILE AREAS ÍÍÍÄÄ- Conference 1 7. The Best for Mac -- Files Everyone Should Have USER GROUP DISKS 10. Educorp Disks 2000 - 3999 11. Educorp Disks 4000 - 5999 12. Educorp Disks 6000 and up 13. Public Domain Exchange Disks 14. Los Angeles Mac Group 15. Berkley User Group 16. Washington Apple PI 17. Boston Computer Society 18. Club Mac Disks (U.S.) 19. Mac Tutor Journal's Source Codes COMMUNICATIONS 20. Anti-Viral Utilities/Information 21. Archive Utilities (for .sit .cpt .zip .arc etc.) 22. BBS Lists (world wide) 23. BBS Software 24. Communications Software 25. Networking / Mac  IBM Utilities PRODUCTIVITY and EDUCATION 30. Business and Financial 31. Database - Programs, Utilities, Templates 32. Spreadsheet - Programs, Utilities, Templates 33. Programming Utilities and Languages 34. Programming Source Codes 35. Word Processing / Text Editors / DTP 36. Science, Math, Health and Medicine 37. Other Productivity GRAPHICS and SOUND 40. Graphics Programs, Editors and Viewers 41. Still Graphic Files (clip art) 42. Nudes / Adult Files -- See Adult Conference 43. Moving Graphics 44. Digitized Sounds 45. Music 46. Sound Utilities / Applications SYSTEM RELATED SOFTWARE AND UTILITIES 50. System, Finder and Multifinder Utilities 51. Hardware Utilities (eg. SCSI related, clock speed test) 52. Printer Utilities 53. Disk and File Utilities (incl. resource editors) 54. Icons and Icon Utilities 55. Screen Utilities (screen savers, copiers etc) 56. Fonts and Font Utilities 57. Utilities for Hypercard 58. Misc. Utilities 59. Apple Licensed Software - Not to be redistributed except by license from Apple. GAMES 60. Adventure and Fantasy Games 61. Arcade Games 62. Board, Dice and Card Games 63. Puzzles and Word Games 64. Simulations (eg. car racing, etc.) 65. Sports Games 66. Misc. Games OTHER FILES 70. Mac II Specific Software (works only on Mac II family) 71. Reference / Text Files / Misc. Information files 72. Software not Classified or Unknown RECENT UPLOADS 97. Uploads by CRS - Automated File Collection 98. User Uploads - Two Months Ago 99. Current User Uploads ÄÍÍ IBM/DOS FILE AREAS ÍÍ- Conference 2 A. GENERAL INFORMATION - All Computer Types Information on CRS...................1 Catalogs and Lists..................2 Byte Listings........................3 PC/MacTutor Magazine Listings.......4 Computer Language/AI Listings........5 Unclassified........................6 B. USER GROUP DISKS - User Group Software is more nicely cataloged than Topical Software, but may not be as complete or as current. PCSIG is on CD-ROM, PCBlue (NYACC) is on CD-ROM, Type OPEN 70 to download...........351 Type OPEN 71 to download..........352 C. TOPICAL SOFTWARE - Software in the following areas is arranged by topic. You may find considerable duplication and older versions, so exercise some caution when looking in these areas. New software always resides in areas 394 to 399. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM SOFTWARE LISP programs.......................17 BBS News...........................27 Updates/Text files..................19 BBS Listings/Information...........26 Misc. AI files......................18 Front End Mail Handlers............33 Multi-BBS Doors....................25 BUSINESS Opus/Maximus/FIDO (inc doors)......30 Finance.............................39 PCBoard related (inc doors)........28 Forms...............................48 QBBS/RA/Etc (inc doors)............31 Inventory...........................40 RBBS related (inc doors)...........29 Loan Amortization...................41 Other BBS types....................32 Mailing list programs...............42 Misc. BBS Utilities, Convertors....34 Metastock/TAS.......................46 Productivity/Management.............44 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) Real Estate/Rent....................47 AutoCAD Graphics Files............198 Statistics..........................45 AutoCAD Utils/AutoLISP Routines...199 Misc. Business......................43 AutoCAD Misc......................200 AutoDesk Animator related files...201 AutoSketch related files..........202 Misc. CAD Files...................203 Misc. CAD Graphic files...........204 Misc. CAD programs................205 Misc. Drawing programs............206 COMMUNICATIONS DATABASE Area Code Information..............219 CLIPPER, and related software.....222 External protocols.................210 DBASE, and related software.......223 Fax Related........................156 FOXPRO/Foxbase, and related.......227 Modem Utilities/Settings...........217 PARADOX, and related software.....225 Off-Line mail readers, and utils...211 RBase, related files..............226 PROCOMM related files..............213 Misc. Database....................224 QMODEM related files...............214 Remote Operation...................215 EDUCATIONAL TELIX and related files............216 Computer related...................52 Other Terminal Programs/Dialers....218 English............................54 Misc. Communication related........212 Educational Games..................53 Geography/Maps.....................61 History............................60 Instructor tools...................55 Language tutors....................56 Mathematics........................57 Science, Space.....................59 Misc. Educational..................58 GAMES GRAPHICS Adventure Games.....................74 Animation, Simulations............235 AD&D/Roleplaying Games/Files........78 ANSI Enhancements, Pictures.......236 Arcade Games........................67 Editors, Drawing Programs.........237 Board Games.........................68 GIF's and Viewers.................238 Card Games..........................77 Grasp Art and Viewers.............239 Cheat Files/Hints/Tips..............70 Misc. Graphics Files/Programs.....240 Games of Chance.....................69 Flight Simulators and related.......65 MULTI-TASKING MahJongg............................62 Desqview...........................80 Mean 18/JNicklaus Golf Courses......71 Double Dos.........................81 Puzzles/Tetris Clones...............79 O/S 2..............................84 Real Life Games/Simulations.........76 Windows - Drivers/Typefaces........87 Sports Games........................66 Windows - Games....................85 Strategy Games......................75 Windows - Graphics (BMP/ICONS).....86 War Games, Modern/Historic..........63 Windows - Utilities................83 War Games, Futuristic...............64 Windows - Misc. Windows files......88 Word Games..........................73 Misc. Multi-Tasking................82 Misc. Games.........................72 HOME/PERSONAL MUSIC and SOUND Astronomy..........................248 AD-LIB/Soundblaster Files..........94 Automotive.........................259 Files for Other soundcards.........93 Cooking/Kitchen Aids...............249 Midi/Cakewalk......................90 Finance/Personal...................256 Music and Sound Players............92 Genealogy..........................250 ROL Files..........................95 Ham/Packet Radio...................244 Misc. Music and Sound..............91 Health/Medicine....................251 Lottery Programs...................252 NETWORKING Organizing (Database/etc)..........258 Lantastic..........................99 Religion...........................257 Novell............................100 Speech Synthesis...................246 Serial Networks...................101 Sports/Hobbies.....................254 Other Networking Files............102 Tax/Legal/Laws.....................245 Weather............................255 Misc. Home/Personal................253 PRODUCTIVITY REFERENCE/DEMOS Calculators........................260 Commercial Game Demos.............109 Calendars..........................261 Commercial Software Demos.........110 Desktop Managers...................262 Entertainment.....................107 Geoworks/Framework.................264 General Interest Text Files.......111 Misc. Productivity.................263 Jokes/Humour......................108 Magazines/Publications............115 PROGRAMMING Mysteries/The Unexplained.........106 Assemblers (ML) and aids...........269 PC Magazine Related...............117 Assembly Lang. Programs............270 Real Life Applications............112 Aseembly Lang. Tutorials...........271 StarTrek..........................116 BASIC Related files................272 Tech - Hardware Related...........113 BASIC Tutorials....................273 Tech - Software Related...........114 "C" Compilers and aids.............274 "C" Libraries......................275 SPREADSHEETS "C" Tutorials......................276 Excel related software............124 "C" Source Code....................280 Lotus related software............123 Pascal and Related Files...........278 Quattro Pro related software......125 Programming Utilities..............282 Misc. Files.......................126 Source Code for Other Languages....281 Misc. Programming Languages........277 Misc. Programming..................279 UTILITIES 4DOS and related files.............307 Mouse.............................302 Archiving/Packing/Zipping..........285 Printer - Banner programs.........303 Backup.............................286 Printer - Non-laser Fonts.........304 Batch Files........................287 Printer - Graphics................305 Cache..............................288 Printer - Label makers............306 Clock..............................289 Printer - Laser general...........308 Directory..........................290 Printer - Spoolers................311 Diskette...........................291 Printer - System setup............310 Display............................292 Printer - Misc....................309 DOS fixes/Addons...................293 Ram Disks.........................312 Emulators/Convertors...............318 Screen Control/Speedup/Misc.......313 File...............................295 Security (locks)..................314 Hard Drive.........................297 System Setup......................301 Keyboard...........................298 System Diagnostics................317 Memory.............................299 Unprotects (for backup)...........315 Menu...............................300 Virus Scanning....................316 Misc. and General Utilites........296 WORD PROCESSING Desk Top Publishing - Add-ons......134 PFS First Pub. Files/Graphics.....140 Desk Top Publishing - Clip Art.....155 Qedit and Related.................147 Desk Top Publishing - Misc.........133 Text File Related (Not Editors)...138 Editors (Text/Hex).................294 Text Readers......................152 Foreign Language Editors...........157 Ventura, related files............141 H.P. Fonts.........................151 WordPerfect Graphics..............142 H.P. Miscellaneous.................150 WordPerfect Utilities.............143 Hypertext..........................154 WordPerfect Printer Disks.........144 Microsoft Word Related.............136 Wordstar Graphics.................145 Optical Character Recog. (OCR).....158 Wordstar Utilities................146 Postscript Related.................137 Writing Aids/Dictionaries/Etc.....153 Printmaster Graphics...............139 Misc. Word Processing Related.....148 NEW FILES Uploads - RoseMail/RoseReader Files......391 Uploads - Graphics Files from Usenet.....392 Uploads - Uploads via FidoNet Filebone...394 Uploads - Over 90 Days, Not classified...395 Uploads - Over 90 Days, Not classified...395 Uploads - 60-90 days old.................396 Uploads - 30-60 days old.................397 Uploads - BY CRS 0-30 days old...........398 Uploads - BY CRS via Fido Network........394 Uploads - BY MEMBERS.....................399 Files marked (CRS) have been sourced by CRS and have been virus scanned. Files marked (ASP) have been received directly from the authors or via the Association of Shareware Professionals. ÄÄÍÍ AMIGA FILE AREAS ÍÍÄ- Conference 5 AMIGA SPECIFIC FILE DIRECTORIES +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Further information on where you are likely to find specific files | | can be found in the file DIRINFO.TXT in directory 70 (Information | | for users) | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ A. Collections, Disk Sets (Including Related Utilities and Databases) - AmigaLibDisk (Fred Fish) disks .................................. 7 - Other disk sets (ABUG/AMICUS +) ................................. 8 - Other collections ............................................... 9 B. System Resources and Tools - OS/System/RAM (OS patches/general libs/testers/snoopers +) ...... 10 - I-O excl. storage (printer/keyboard/monitor/mouse/I-O libs +) ... 11 - Interface/WB (screen/window/gadget/icon/pointer/requester/menu +) 12 - Archiving/Backup/Compression (Lha/DMS/Zoo/Zip/XFH/Imploder +) ... 13 - File/Directory control (dir util/cataloger/lister/finder +) ..... 14 - Disk tools (edit/format/diagnose/repair/salvage/prep/mount +) ... 15 - File tools excl. text editors (edit/convert/modify/encrypt +) ... 16 - Fonts > Compugraphic Outline .................................... 17 - Fonts > Postscript Outline (Types 1 and 3) ...................... 18 - Fonts > Bitmapped (2 colour) .................................... 19 - Fonts > Colour .................................................. 20 - Fonts > Proprietary (ProPage/Aladdin/Toaster/NimbusQ +) ......... 21 - Font manipulation (edit/view/convert +) ......................... 22 - Shell/CLI oriented utilities excl. file/directory/disk listers) . 23 - Platform/CPU emulation (BridgeBoard/Amax/Emplant +) ............. 24 - Virus checking and killing ...................................... 25 - Connectivity (networking/remote access/direct file transfer +) .. 26 C. Applications [Including Editors/Converters/Viewers/Readers] - Bitmap painting + ............................................... 27 - 2D vector object drawing/CAD/structural design + ................ 28 - 3D object modelling and rendering + ............................. 29 - Fractal/Landscape/Mathematical Function imaging ................. 30 - Music/MIDI/Sound ................................................ 31 - Animation (standard OP-X modes)/Video/Film ...................... 32 - Charting (business graphics/plotting/project planning +) ........ 33 - Authoring/Multimedia/Hypertext .................................. 34 - Database/Information Management excl. disk catalogers) .......... 35 - Numerical/mathematical analysis (spreadsheet/calculator +) ...... 36 - Finance/Accounting/Budgeting/Bookkeeping/Stocks ................. 37 - Text incl. ANSI processing/editing (interactive) ............... 38 - Desktop Publishing/Presentation ................................. 39 - Telecommunications (BBS/term/fax/modem/protocol lib +) .......... 40 - Education/Learning/Science/Arts/Crafts/AI/Engineering ........... 41 - Personal utils excl. databases (nagger/scheduler/calendar +) .... 42 D. Programming Code/Deck Samples, Aids, Development Tools, Libraries - AREXX (general) ................................................. 43 - Assembler ....................................................... 44 - C ............................................................... 45 - Basic ........................................................... 46 - Graphically oriented languages (CANDO/AMOS/SEUCK +) ............. 47 - Other languages (Modula/Forth/Perl +) ........................... 48 - AmigaDOS scripts ................................................ 49 - Multi-Language and general tools/utilities/references/libraries . 50 E. Sound and Music (DATA) - IFF/8SVX digitized sounds ....................................... 51 - Self executing sounds and scores ................................ 52 - Program-specific scores/instruments (DMCS/Sonix/SuperJAM! +) .... 53 - MODs (MED/'Tracker/OctaMED +) ................................... 54 - MIDI (Bars&Pipes/Music-X/KCS +) ................................. 55 F. Images, Objects, Document Samples, Icons & Pointers (DATA) - Standard mode/format OCS/ECS/AGA bitmaps/brushes (IFF/ILBM +) ... 56 - Special mode/format bitmaps/brushes (24-bit IFF/JPEG/DCTV/GIF +) 57 - 3D vector objects/clips (Imagine/Lightwave/Aladdin +) ........... 58 - 2D vector objects/clips/drawings (ProDraw/AegisDraw/DR2D +) ..... 59 - EPS and special format text-oriented documents (Pagestream +) ... 60 - Icons/Pointers/Patterns/Palettes/Prefs/Presets .................. 61 G. Anims, Productions and Scripts (Data) - Standard mode OCS/ECS/AGA anims/animbrushes (IFF OP-5/6/7/8 +) .. 62 - Special mode anims (>8-bit/24-bit/DCTV/OpalVision/Scala/MPEG +) . 63 - Movies/Toons (Director/MovieSetter/Deluxe Video +) .............. 64 - Interactive productions/flows (AmigaVision/Scala/Director +) .... 65 - Self executing/booting graphics and music "Demos"/"slide shows" . 66 H. References, News, General Reviews, Events, Magazines + - Electronic magazines, general news, rumours and opinions ........ 67 - General references .............................................. 68 - Hardware news/reviews/specs/how-to/benchhmarks .................. 69 - Information for users ........................................... 70 I. Entertainment, Fun, Games and Simulations - Screen/System hacks ............................................. 71 - Adventure/Strategy role playing games/simulations ............... 72 - Board/Tile games ................................................ 73 - Card games ...................................................... 74 - Sports/Technology simulation games .............................. 75 - Word/Text/Trivia/Quiz/Numbers games ............................. 76 - Physical Puzzles/Static Obstacles games ......................... 77 - Shoot-em-up/Moving Obstacles games .............................. 78 - Unclassified games .............................................. 79 - Game Cheats/Tips/Reviews/Announcements/Editors .................. 80 J. Current - Uploads - >60 days (unsorted) ................................... 96 - CRS automated uploads - up to 60 days ........................... 97 - Graphics files (USENET Newsgroups) .............................. 98 - Members' Uploads - up to 60 days ................................ 99 ÄÄÍÍ ATARI ST FILE AREAS ÍÍÄ- Conference 6 ATART-ST (Conference 6) FILE AREAS GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Canada Remote Systems Info 4. PC/MacTutor Magazine Listings 2. Catalogs and Lists 5. Computer Language/AI Listings 3. Byte Listings 6. Unclassified *COMMUNICATIONS* 7. Archive Utilities (ARC/LZH/ZIP) 10. Communications Utilities 8. BBS and Support Programs 11. Virus Remedies 9. Terminal Programs *PROGRAMMING* 15. Languages General 18. Other Source Code 16. GFA Programming 19. Programming Utilities 17. C Programming *PRODUCTIVITY* 25. Databases 27. Business Utilities 26. Spreadsheets 28. Home/School Utilities 29. Calculators\Math Utilities *WORDS AND PRINT* 30. Wordprocessors 34. GDOS/Other Fonts 31. Text Readers/Processors 35. Clip Art 32. Desktop Publishing 36. Print Utilities 33. Calamus Fonts 37. Calamus Support *TEXT FILES* 40. Online Magazine 42. Other Text Files 41. Computer References *GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT* 50. Arcade Style Games 53. Misc. Games 51. Adventure Games 54. Educational Games 52. Board Dice Card Games 55. About Games/Help/Reviews *MUSIC* 60. MIDI Programs and Patches 63. Other Songs 61. MIDI Music/Sound Files 64. Music/MIDI/Sound Utilities 62. Other Music Programs 65. Music and sound Players 66. Sound Samples *SYSTEM AND DESKTOP* 70. Alternate Desktops 72. TOS/GEM Fixes/Utilities 71. Alternate Operating Systems 73. Desktop Icons *GRAPHICS* 75. Drawing Programs 78. Graphics utilitiesn 76. Pictures 79. Graphics and Sound Demos 77. Animation 80. Picture Viewers *OTHER UTILITIES* 85. Disk Utilities 87. Emulators et al 86. Misc. Utilities 88. System Utlilties *PORTFOLIO* 90. Portfolio Programs 91. Portfolio Information *NEW UPLOADS* 96. Graphics Files-Usenet Newsgroups 98. Unclassified/Previous Months 99. Current Month COMMODORE 64/128 FILE AREAS Conference 13 7. C64 - Utilities 18. C128 - Utilities 8. C64 - Communications 19. C128-Communications 9. C64 - Games 20. C128 - Games 10. C64 - Graphics Utilities 21. C128 - Graphics Utils 11. C64 - Graphics 22. C128 - Graphics 12. C64 - Music Utilities 23. C128 - Music Utilities 13. SIDPLAYER Music 24. C64/128 Music 14. CPower C 25. C64/128 Misc 15. GEOS - Utilities 26. GEOS - Games 16. GEOS - Graphics 27. GEOS - Fonts 17. GEOS - Documents 28. GEOS - Drivers 29. CMD Support 30. CP/M 31. Commodore Education 32. Current User Uploads ** APPLE II+, //e, //c, //gs (APPLE Conference 14) ** Conference 14 7. The Best for Apple -- Files Everyone Should Have PDE SOFTWARE 10. Public Domain Exchange Disks ApII - 1988-89 11. Public Domain Exchange Disks ApII - 1990 and up 12. Public Domain Exchange Disks IIgs - 1988-89 13. Public Domain Exchange Disks IIgs - 1990 and up 14. New from other sources (by CRS) COMMUNICATIONS 20. Anti-Viral Utilities/Information 21. Archive Utilities (for .BXY .BQY .BLU .QQ etc) 22. BBS Lists (from Toronto Computes!) 23. BBS Software 24. Communications Software 25. Networking PRODUCTIVITY and EDUCATION 28. HyperCard - Utilities and Stacks 29. HyperStudio - Utilities and Stacks 30. Business and Financial 31. Database - Programs, Utilities, Templates 32. Spreadsheet - Programs, Utilities, Templates 33. Programming Utilities and Languages 34. Programming Source Codes 35. Word Processing / Text Editors / DTP 36. Science, Math, Health and Medicine 37. Misc. Files and Utilities 38. Educational templates / files / games, etc. GRAPHICS and SOUND 40. Graphics Programs, Editors and Viewers 41. Still Graphic Files (clip art) 42. Nudes / Adult - Also, see Adult Conference 35 43. Animated Graphics 44. Digitized Sounds 45. Music 46. Sound Utilities / Applications 47. MIDI 48. Print Shop Graphics 49. GIF SYSTEM RELATED SOFTWARE AND UTILITIES 53. System and Finder Utilities (CDA's; NDA's; CDevs; Inits 54. Hardware Utilities (eg. SCSI tester) 55. Printer Utilities 56. Disk and File Utilities 57. Icons and Icon Utilities 58. Screen Utilities (screen savers, copiers etc) 59. Fonts and Font Utilities 60. TrueType Fonts GAMES 64. Eamon 65. Adventure and Fantasy Games 66. Arcade Games 67. Board, Dice and Card Games 68. Puzzles and Word Games 69. Simulations (eg. car racing, etc.) 70. Sports Games 71. Misc. Games OTHER FILES 75. Tech Notes 76. IIgs Specific Software (works only on a IIgs) 77. Reference / Text Files / Misc. Infomation files 78. Software not Classified or Unknown RECENT UPLOADS 99. Current 2 Months - User Uploads ECHOMAIL NETWORKS CRS supports the concept of Echo Mail and participates in a number of international networks. Echoing into and out of CRS are the following networks - a. NorthAmeriNet - over 500 worldwide systems, now set up on a regional basis, NorthAmeriNet (NANET) is one of the most active nets in Canada. It's been expanded to the U.S. under the name NorthAmeriNet, and regionals are now in place in a dozen or so locations in the US. We expect to see NorthAmeriNet grow dramatically over the next few months as more and more systems start to tie into the regionals. Canada Conference Mail/NorthAmeriNet conferences are the usual CRS conferences from 1-106 and from 300-350. b. Usenet - Over 30,000 primarily Unix based systems, around the world. With 2800+ conferences, Usenet is one of the oldest and most active systems in the world. Offering true point to point mail capabilities as well as international echo capabilities, the Usenet conferences may be accessed through all conferences starting with U-. c. Intelec - A relatively small system, Intelec offers some 100 conferences. Intelec conferences all start with I-. d. RIME - Through arrangements with RIME, CRS subscribers have access to the entire RIME network and conferences. PCBrelay is a network of some 650+ systems and over 150+ conferences, including some very important vendor support conferences. RIME conferences all start with R-. e. Echonet - A very local network of some 12 conferences and 35+ systems, Echonet offers many things of local interest. Echoed only into systems in the Toronto area, the entire echonet set of conferences is available. Echonet conferences all start with E-. f. ILINK - A professional network of some 150+ conferences. ILINK is a very tightly moderated net, and you'll find that messages in ILINK conferences are almost always on topic and of a high quality nature. ILINK is not noted for idle chitchat, but you'll find some very interesting conferences. ILINK conferences all start with L-. g. Throbnet - An adult network, accessible only to those that have the adult add-on. Throbnet conferences all start with T-. It's very simple to send message in network conferences. Simply join the conference of your choice and leave your message in the normal manner. Networks have their own rules and regulations, and if you plan on participating in the many mail networks, please review the appropriate documentation found in file area 1. POPULAR TECHNICAL QUESTIONS Q1 - How do I join the Adult Conference? A1 - Go to the main conference and complete script #3 by hitting "S" followed by a carriage return and then "3". Please note that this script must be filled out entirely and all information must match. We're very concerned about the material in this conference. We ask you for some personal information (which is not recorded in our database, but which is used to verify your age), and without it, we simply will not allow you into the Adult Conference. This conference is an add-on to your basic subscription, and you will be asked to provide credit card information. Q2 - How do I get the latest version of Qmail Deluxe? I can't find the door or the door doesn't recognize me. A2 - OPEN (Door) 67 for the latest version of Qmail Deluxe. The door must find your serial # in our user file. If you get a message that your serial # is not found, just leave a comment to SYSOP in any of the machine specific or main conferences. We'll update the database, typically within 24 hours, so you can get the latest version. Q3 - I tell CRS to download and then it gives me a time out error. I don't get any files. How come? A3 - After telling us to send a file to you with the "D" command, you must tell your end to receive the file. This is often (but not always) done by hitting the PageDown key. Unfortunately, each software package may be different, so you'll have to look in your manual for exact downloading instructions. Downloading is a two step process - tell us to send, and then tell your end to receive. Q4 - How do I unarchive a file ending in ZIP? A4 - Get PKZ204G.EXE from our system, and use it. ZIP files are a different type of compression, and require PKZIP. Latest version is PKZ204G, and it can be downloaded from Conference 2. (Note that this version # changes from time to time. The latest version may always be found in file area 285, conference 2). Q5 - Can I download the directory listings? A5 - In most cases, yes. Directory listings for MAC, IBM, CP/M, Amiga and ST are all downloadable using the format xDIRyy where x is the first letter of the conference, and yy is the number of the directory in question. To download IBM Spreadsheet info (directory 34) for example, you would download IDIR34. The New File Upload directories are the only listings that cannot be downloaded in this manner, as they are constantly being updated on our net. To capture a new file listing, use the screen capture feature of your communications program. Q6- I tried to open a door and the system hung. Why? A6 - Doors are add-on programs, and have to load themselves. Some are quite large. Thus, depending on the speed of the workstation/node that you are on, the network activity, and where you are in the extended user file, it may take 2 to 4 minutes to open a door. Q7 - What is the fastest protocol for file transfer? A7 - Fast is a relative term. In purely theoretical terms, any Non- Error correcting protocol designed to be used with Error correcting modems will be the fastest. In practice, line noise may play a significant role in the speed of your transfer. Xmodem-1K-G will be the fastest. However, we use (and recommend) Zmodem. Although it will be a bit slower, it's a more robust protocol and you are less likely to have an aborted file transfer. Our choices (in descending order of preference are) ZMODEM XMODEM-1K-G (for error correcting modems) XMODEM-1K XMODEM-CRC Note that with slower modems, the choice of protocol makes little difference in file transfer speed. Q8 - How do I use .SIT or .PIT files from the Mac area? A8 - Download STUFFIT 1.51 from the Mac conference. Click on Stuffit and then use Stuffit to open your .SIT or .PIT file. Q9 - How does CRS keep track of our time on-line? I signed on at 11pm and off at 1am, and the system won't let me on today. A9 - PCBoard keeps two variables in the user files - The date last on and the amount of time used on that date. This works fine unless you are on the systems over midnight. If you are on over midnight, PCBoard will charge the current day with the entire time on-line for that session. Thus, if you log on at 11pm and off at 1am, PCBoard will record todays date and 120 minutes, and not allow you back on until tomorrow. To get around this, simply log off a minute or two before midnight and then log back on. Q10- I haven't called the system for a number of months, and it doesn't recognize my name. I know my subscription is still paid up. A10- Something's wrong. It is possible that something in your user record has been changed (this will be a problem at CRS). Try calling our main Etobicoke #'s (213-6002 or 213-6003). If your name still isn't recognized, call the CRS office at 213-6000 and we'll sort out the problem for you. Q11 - I can't ever get on at noon between 12:00pm and 12:45pm. A11 - Our systems shutdown automatically for maintenance between 12:00pm and 12:45pm (eastern time). During that time, our tape backups are completed, new users added, and other system maintenance is done. Call back after 12:45 and you'll get on. The systems also are scheduled down between 10am and 3pm on Tuesdays. Q12- How do I use LHZ extensions? A12 - LHZ is simply another method of packing/squeezing files. It's very efficient, and some boards are moving towards it. We don't plan to do so here at CRS, but some files are coming in in the LHZ format. To extract, you need LHARC.EXE, available in conference 2, area 36. Q13 - What steps do you take to ensure virus free software? A13 - CRS cannot guarantee that you'll never get a virus from CRS. No professional software company can make this claim. However, as all our software comes from known and reputable sources, your chances of contacting a virus at CRS is quite remote. In 10 years of running a BBS, we've only seen two trojan horses. All programs that show (CRS) at the front of their description have been virus scanned. CRS runs virus scanning software on all new IBM software that we acquire over the phone lines, but in the final analysis, it's your responsibility to take appropriate precautions. Since the most common threat of viruses is from disks passed from user to user, you should be constantly checking for viruses on all software that you bring onto your computer. You can get the latest virus protection software from McAfee from CRS in the IBM file areas. Q14 - Can I send private mail through NorthAmeriNet Systems? A14 - Yes, you can. Mail left privately here at CRS will travel to any NANET system that accepts private mail, and replies will, in turn, travel back to CRS. However, the remote system must be willing to accept private messages. Q15 - Are my messages on CRS private? A15 - Yes and no. Messages left on CRS can only be viewed by someone with System Operator status. That includes only full time staff of CRS, and generally is limited to the three individuals involved in running the board. As a matter of policy, we do not comment on or involve ourselves in private messages unless there is clearly something illegal going on. We do not delete messages except in very rare instances and then, a message will be left by "Sysop" advising why a message has been deleted. Conference Chairmen may also review and respond to private messages IN THEIR CONFERENCE only. Again, they typically will not involve themselves in private messages. Other employees of CRS, Canada conference sysops, and subscribers of CRS cannot view private messages, as long as you do not mark them for ECHO. If marked ECHO, then your private messages echo throughout our network, and can be read by other network sysops. Q16 - What protocols do you support for high speed transfer? A16 - Our phone list has a breakdown for the different modem protocols CRS supports. Q17 - How do I view GIF files? A17 - GIF files are in a Graphics Interchange Format, a protocol developed by Compuserve for display of graphics files. In order to read them, you need a GIF reader. GIF readers vary in their capabilities, but will be found in file area 29 of conference 2. Most popular is a GIF reader called CSHOW, but you'll need to check the listings for your particular combination of hardware/software. GIF readers are available for some other machines, in the graphics areas of the machine specific conference. Q18 - Why is your tech line so busy? Why isn't it toll free? A18 - Our tech line is busy for two reasons - First, the tech staff will attempt to assist you with virtually any of your questions, and are a valuable resource for you to call on. Second, it's free, and you can't get a better price than that. It's most busy between 1pm and 2pm - just after it opens daily and between 6pm and 7pm. Call between 2pm and 6pm and you'll often get right through. If it is busy, please keep trying. Don't call on the sales lines. The sales staff aren't equipped to answer technical questions and thus cannot help you. The tech service is free, but we cannot pay for your long distance calls. If you can't make the long distance call, feel free to write us or leave a message on the system. Letters and messages get responded to but not quite as quickly as telephone calls. We know the tech line is busy, but the alternative is to add more staff and charge for access to it. We think you'd rather have it free. TECH ASSISTANCE 213-6001 GETTING YOUR PERSONAL OFF-LINE READER CRS Online offers free on-line updates of the Qmail Deluxe. You may obtain your original copy of QMAIL Deluxe for $30 by calling the office. Many of you asked how to go about getting the Qmail reader or the latest upgrade of same. Believe it or not, it is quite simple! QMail Deluxe Qmail Deluxe is available for downloading to the public as Deluxe2.ZIP at the time of this writing. Note that this name may change with future revisions. The file you download is a demo version only which requires a QMAIL.KEY file to make it fully functional. You can always download the latest version of the reader (the demo) regardless if you have purchased the software or not. If you have a .KEY file you are all set. Should the .KEY file have changed or if you have just purchased the reader you will need to download the .KEY file from us. You can do this quickly via the QMail system. At our main system prompt simply enter "QMAIL4 KEY" (without the quotes!) and you'll be on the way! If you acquired Deluxe from CRS Online simply select the download option. Note that the transfer is automatically set for XModem - not your default protocol! This is a very small file and it makes sense to use XModem. If you acquired Deluxe at Sparkware or some other place you must have a .KEY file in order to get a new one from us. Simply select the upload option, transmit your current .KEY file and you will receive the latest copy automatically via return transfer. If you have no .KEY file or if your Deluxe serial number contains the letter "s" (sysop copies) you must call Sparkware for the upgrade. If you have the original disk from us, you can simply leave a comment to SYSOP along with your serial # and we'll provide further instructions on obtaining the latest version. Once you have the latest version of the .KEY file place it in your Deluxe directory and you are all set! This is all there is to it. Give it a try you'll find it simple and quick! Should you have further questions we'll be happy to answer them. QMAIL The Qwikmail System is a combination of a door accessable by users from PCBoard, and a reader program available on this board. The Qwikmail door allows you, the user, to download a copy of all the public messages (and any private messages addressed to you) available since your last call. You are not deducted or credited for downloads or uploads during message transfer. The door will package up the messages in a format usable by the QMail reader program. Before using the door, you should download the reader program for a few reasons. First, the door is useless to you without it. Second, it contains a more detailed explanation of the door, the configuration process and usage. The program is available for downloading as "QMAILnnn.ARC" where 'nnn' is the current release version number. At the time of this writing, it is QMAI01.ARC, however check for new releases by using the Locate command (at the Command prompt enter "L QMAIL *.ARC A", without the quotes). The reader program, Qmail, which runs on the IBM PC family and compatibles, allows MS-DOS or PC-DOS users to read the messages offline in an environment very similar to that of PCBoard and, best of all, reply to messages while reading. The replies are then uploaded to the Qwikmail door on a second call and placed in all the appropriate conference and main message bases. Qmail also gives you the ability to: * scan the messages for your personal database of keywords. * scan for messages only from a list of users you choose. * read only the messages you haven't yet seen. * thread through conversations by subject. * import text into messages. * send public or private messages * send carbon copies of private messages to several users To download messages through the QMail door, you must use either the XModem CRC, 1K-Xmodem (also called YModem), 1K-XModem-G (used to be called YModem-G) or Z-Modem protocols. YModem-G will not be available unless you have an MNP connection here. To use the Qmail reader, you must have the PKXARC and PKARC (or PKZIP) utilities available in your DOS PATH. There is one other caveat - the MOST IMPORTANT ONE. You must follow this procedure carefully to avoid serious problems (and to save your Sysop some grief). If you are familiar with the PCBoard conference system, be aware that your Qmail packet will contain ALL the public messages in ALL the public conferences on the board. That means, that if you have never entered a PCBoard conference with the Join option, your message pointer (the highest message number you have read) is ZERO. When you open the Qmail door, ALL THE MESSAGES WITH NUMBERS GREATER THAN THIS MESSAGE POINTER WILL BE SENT. If they are extremely active conferences, this could be several megabytes of text files. Since CRS Online has several megabytes of free space, you'll get a big file (you'd better have a hard drive and be ready for it!). Follow this simple procedure the FIRST TIME you pick up Qmail. 1. Open the Qmail door. 2. Select the transmission protocol you desire. 3. Select and deselect conference to indicate just which topics you wish to receive. 4. For conferences you selected, check and if needed reset the message pointer somewhere near the highest message shown. 5. Choose D (to begin the packing and download procedure). WAIT for the board to tell you when to begin your download. With ZModem, the board supplies the filename for you. 6. Once the download is complete, choose Q (Quit) to return to the Executive Network or G (Good bye) to hang up On your computer, make sure the CRS.QWK file that contains your messages is in the same directory as QMAIL.EXE. Type Qmail at the DOS prompt and begin the program. From here, please rely on the documentation that comes with Qmail. To upload replies, simply call the board back, open the Qwikmail door and choose the U (upload) option from the Qwikmail prompt. WAIT for the board to prompt you when to begin your upload. If your upload is successful, it will notify you of that fact. You can immediately read the messages you have just posted in conferences and on the main board. If you have bug reports or suggestions on the program, please leave all messages in the QMail support conference. The bottom line is simply a very large savings in your connect time, which translates to savings of $$. In addition, you gain immediate access to several other conference areas with specialized topics of interest. You will find QMail to be a significant addition to BBS-ing for sure. Configuring the Qmail Door Before you can use The Qmail Door you really need to spend some time on it and configure it for your needs and usage. This bulletin will introduce the latest features available and describes how best to use them. "A" - The AUTOSTART sequence AutoStart sequences are Qmail Door commands that are stored inside your private configuration area. Every time you open The Qmail Door and there is an AutoStart sequence defined the door will count down ten seconds before it executes the command(s). You can abort the AutoStart sequence by pressing the [ESC] or [CTRL-K] keys TWICE during the countdown. The AutoStart sequence is designed to get around the problem of "line noise" that can plague SCRIPTED sessions. Sometimes during a SCRIPTED session line noise (usually seen as random characters) can be introduced on the telephone line. This can cause incorrect commands to be transmitted to The Qmail Door and cause a scripted session to fail. The AutoStart sequence is a stack of Qmail Door commands (up to ten characters long) separated by semicolons that are sent to the door when it is first opened. This means that your script no longer needs to transmit commands to the door - the script can wait for certain prompts to take appropriate actions. Since no characters are ever accepted from the script by the door line noise can no longer affect the door's performance. There can be many different AutoStart commands - you can define any sequence of valid characters you wish. The AutoStart sequence below offers the best performance by The Qmail Door (when certain options are combined with it): D;Y;U;G This sequence performs the following tasks: "D" Downloads waiting messages. "Y" "Download this packet (Y or N)? " is answered with a "Y". OPTION #2 must be set to OFF if this sequence is used. See OPTIONS for more information. "U" Uploads any replies the you have ready to send. The script should check to see if you have a reply packet waiting for The Qmail Door. If a packet is found it should be uploaded to the door. If one is not found then the script should transmit CTRL-X's to abort the upload process. You might want to turn OPTION #3 ON when using this sequence. This lets you upload your replies and then logoff the system BEFORE messages are integrated into the message bases. "G" Goodbye - and disconnect from The Qmail Door You can erase an AutoStart sequence by entering SPACES instead of a command. @BULLET =  "ARC" - Selecting an archiver The Qmail Door has the ability to work with up to five different archiving systems. The door will not let you upload or download messages without selecting an archive system first. Currently we support only the .ZIP and .ARC formats, both through the use of the PK series programs. The "ARC" command will give you a list of the archivers supported by The Qmail Door. You can then select from the list and the door will use this archiver to pack their messages. ! The Qmail Door does not use this archiver selection to unpack .REP files. The door scans the .REP file and matches it to the correct archiving system used. This lets you change to a different archiver and still upload a .REP file used by their old selection. "F" - Packet formats The Qmail Door has the ability to send your messages in three different formats. You can choose which format you wish to use. DeLuxe 1.xx and shareware readers. This selection will send you packets that are compatible with the shareware Qmail Reader and the Qmail DeLuxe 1.xx readers. If you have been using the older Qmail Door 2.33 you should select this choice. DeLuxe 2.00. The DeLuxe 2.00 format has yet to be defined inside The Qmail Door so for the time being this selection will default to the DeLuxe 1.xx format. Text format. The Qmail Door will send you a text file that contains messages scanned by the door. The file also includes the WELCOME, NEWS, bulletins and new files lists, if any. @BULLET =  "K" - Keywords The Qmail Door lets you enter and store up to five keywords in your setup. These keywords are stored inside a file on our system for you. You can enter the keywords one keyword per line. You will then be asked if you wish to search for all messages that contain these keywords or messages that DO NOT contain these keywords. If you set KEYWORDS to search for all messages that contain these keywords, then Qmail Door will only include messages that contain any one of the keywords. If you set KEYWORDS to search for all messages that do not contain these keywords, Qmail Door will reject any messages that contain any one of the keywords. A keyword can be erased by typing SPACES instead of a keyword. "L" - Limit packet sizes If you will be using the Qmail readers on floppy disk system, you might not like receiving a mail packet that unpacks to over 500k - the packet wouldn't fit on a 360k diskette. You can limit the size of your packets by using the "L" command. All you need to do is to enter the largest packet size you wish to receive (in Kbytes) and the door will stop scanning when the packet size reaches this limit. ! You cannot exceed the total amount of workspace allocated by the sysop. This figure is displayed by The Qmail Door at the beginning of each download. "P" - Protocols You must select a protocol before you can upload or download messages. When you enter The Qmail Door for the first time the door will attempt to use your PCBoard protocol (if it is defined). A list of protocols will be displayed and you can enter the LETTER associated with the protocol's name. For example, "Z" always refers to the ZMODEM protocol. "OPT" - Options Options are "configuration switches" that you can turn on or off inside The Qmail Door. Some options may be disabled by the sysop - or they may have passwords attached to them. If one of these options is NOT displayed inside the door then the sysop has disabled it. #1 - Download your own replies This option, if ON, will send you any message replies you have uploaded since your last download scan. Some folks like to see their own replies; others like to write a reply and never see it gain. Now they can decide how to do this for themselves. #2 - Download packets without messages If this option is ON The Qmail Door will not ask the question "Download this packet (Y or N)?" if the scan does not find any messages. Some scans may find new files or bulletins but no messages. This option will simply bypass the question and return you to the "Command?" prompt. If a stacked command line is being used in the door (either from AutoStart or from you directly) then The Qmail Door will "bleed off" the next keystroke in the buffer when this option is turned ON and when no messages were found. This prevents the door from trying to interpret the "Y" response as a valid Qmail Door command. #3 - Logoff after uploading replies This option, when ON, will let you log off The Qmail Door before message replies (.REP packets) are inserted into PCBoard. The door will give you a ten second countdown before being logged off - you can abort the logoff by pressing the [ESC] key twice (but inserting messages continues). This option is great for long distance callers who don't want to stay connected to the system while their messages are being inserted into PCBoard. #4 - Send the WELCOME screen This option will insert the Executive Network's WELCOME screen in your .QWK message packet. #5 - Send the NEWS screen This option will insert the NEWS file in your .QWK message packet. #6 - Scan for new BULLETINS This option will insert any new bulletins found during the message scan into your .QWK message packet. #7 - Scan for new FILES This opti will scan the main upload directory and any conference upload directories you have access to into your .QWK packet. #8 - Send the LOGOFF screen This option will insert our logoff file into your .QWK packet. #9 - Send the Qmail DeLuxe menu This option will insert the Qmail DeLuxe menu screen into your .QWK packet. #10 - Download only network mail This option will ignore any mail entered locally on this system and will only scan mail that was received over InterLink. #11 - Show "dots" while scanning Sometimes you may think that The Qmail Door is "hung" when it's really scanning large bases. If this option is ON then the door will transmit "."'s to you - one for every five messages scanned. If you are capturing the message scan to a file in your SCRIPT this option should be left OFF. Otherwise, the display captured might look a bit strange (due to the backspacing over the dots). #12 - Display extended prompts This option, if ON, will send "extended" prompts to you so your SCRIPT might easily "pick up" on them and perform actions on your end. Some of you have wondered why use these extended prompts in the door? Here are a few reasons: A script cannot rely on the fact that a prompt in Qmail Door will not change ("Command?" for example). The Qmail Door fully supports international languages and this would force script authors to support multiple versions of one script. The extended prompts are HARDCODED into the door itself and will always be presented in English. Some telecommunications programs seem to have problems picking up some prompts. Extended prompts can help fix this problem (see option 13 for more information). Using extended prompts along with an AutoStart sequence gives scripted users as close a chance as possible to a 100% successful mail transfer every time. All scripts should use the extended prompts option. These prompts are supported by The Qmail Door: AUTOSTART If you have defined an AutoStart sequence this prompt is sent by the door. The SCRIPT can send [ESC] or CTRL-K twice in ten seconds to disable the AutoStart command from executing. ~ COMMAND This prompt is sent whenever The Qmail Door is at the "Command?" prompt. Scripts should delay sending commands to the door for one second after receiving this prompt. UP The door is about to send you a message packet that was scanned by the system during a maintenance schedule. No message scanning has been done and the SCRIPT should be ready to accept a .QWK packet. TRANSFER This prompt is sent whenever option #2 is ON and no messages were found in the message scan. This can also be sent after a message packet has been archived but there is insufficient time left for the you to download the packet. DOWNLOAD The door is ready to begin sending the .QWK message packet to you. The script should be ready to accept the download. SUCCESS The Qmail Door has checked the transfer log and found that the message packet was transmitted successfully. ERROR The QmaiDoor has checked the transfer log and found that the message packet was NOT transmitted successfully. AD The Qmail Door is ready to accept a message reply packet from the script. The script should check to see if a .REP packet is waiting to be sent. If one is found then it should be uploaded now. If a packet was not found the script should transmit CTRL-X's to abort the upload function. SUCCESS The Qmail Door has checked the transfer log and found that the reply packet was transmitted successfully. ! This does not mean that the messages were inserted into PCBoard correctly. This prompt is sent when the file transmitted was successfully uploaded. ERROR The Qmail Door has checked the transfer log and found that the reply packet was NOT transmitted successfully. MESSAGES INSERTED The Qmail Door has completed inserting messages. The script can now take whatever action it wants to with the .REP reply packet on your system (usually the script should delete the .REP packet at this time). This prompt should be used to delete .REP packets by the script instead of SUCCESS because the script may upload the wrong .REP packet. In this case, the door would reject the packet - but the script, keying only on the success of the upload, would DELETE it. MESSAGES NOT INSERTED Qmail Door could not identify the archiving system used to pack the reply packet or the replies uploaded were not intended for this system. The replies were not inserted so the script should not delete the .REP file. HANGUP The Qmail Door has hung up on you. The script should disconnect at this time. #13 - Delay extended prompts one second. If option #12 is ON this option, when ON, will delay sending the extended prompts by ONE second. Setting this option ON is a good idea for those using a script. Some telecommunications programs have problems picking up prompts because their input buffers may get behind incoming text from the door. This option will force a one second pause before transmitting the extended prompts - giving these programs a second to "catch their breaths". #14 - Clear the keyboard buffer. If this option is ON then The Qmail Door will clear any input received before the prompt was transmitted to the you. This helps cutdown on any "line noise" effecting script commands. #15 - Configuring Qmail Door offline. More to come on this option later. Stay tuned! "S" - Select conferences When you open The Qmail Door for the first time you are assigned conferences that have been defined as "default conferences". If you wish to remove or add conferences, this is where you need to go. If you are in GRAPHICS mode or are using a telecommunications program that uses ANSI then the Qmail Door will send you what might be called the "fancy" configuration screen. Otherwise, you get a conference selection screen that scrolls down the display. Files On-line - Why the .ZIP extension? * System note: if you have trouble with a ZIP'd file - download PKZ204G.EXE * Most all of the files on our system have a .ZIP extension on them, for example, in directory #1 there is a file called CRSNOV91.ZIP (Our November/91 Newsletter) What is the significance of .ZIP and why is it used here? A program called PKZIP, created by Phil Katz, has been used to create the files you see on this system with the .ZIP extension. Each of those files may contain within themselves one or more files in a compressed format. The reasons for ZIPing a file are: 1) creates a smaller file which saves disk space 2) the same file, being smaller, takes less time to download 3) because the file can contain entire groups of files (even directories) inside of a single file it is easier to download one file and get all of the necessary components of a program or system at one time. For example, in the file mentioned above, CRSNOV91.ZIP contains within itself 33 separate DOC files. These separate DOC files adds up to 179240 bytes - which could take nearly 30 minutes to download at 1200 baud. By compressing all 33 files into one file you are able to download all 33 files at once and the size of the download is now only 80,723 bytes (a savings of nearly 15 minutes of download time at 1200 baud). What do I do with a ZIP file after I've downloaded it? To extract the files from a ZIP file you use the companion program to PKZIP called PKUNZIP. An example might be: PKUNZIP CRSNOV92 which will extract all 33 files into the current directory. What if I get the message "warning don't know how to handle this file"? That means that the file you are trying to UNZIP was created with a later release of PKZIP. For example, you might be using version 1.10 of PKZIP and PKUNZIP and if you try to extract files from a ZIP file created by version 2.04G of PKZIP then you will get that message. To correct this - you need to download a newer copy of PKZIP and PKUNZIP. Where do I get PKZIP and PKUNZIP? The file is available from CRS and is called PKZ204G.EXE. This is a self-extracting file - which means that you download only one file but when you run this file it will extract a number of files from itself (including the PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE files mentioned above). Introduction to Using Other BBSs Observing how people use an Electronic Bulletin Board has led me to conclude that many of you spend a fair amount of time floundering around before you get comfortable with its use. Therefore, I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to optimize your time and minimize your phone bill. BBS COMMANDS Learn the basic command set. Most BBSs have similar commands (R for Read, B for Bulletins, etc.). Usually you'll find either on-line help (for PCBoard systems, type H and the letter of the command on which you need help - "H R" for help on the Read command), or a user's guide. If you 'capture' this info the first time you use an unfamiliar system, and keep it handy for reference, you'll save considerable time. BBSs FOR IBM PC AND COMPATIBLES If you're using an IBM PC, you should probably take the time to get comfortable with the three major BBS systems - RBBS, FIDO, and PCBoard. There are others, but these three make up the majority of IBM PC based boards and are quite similar. You will find it much more economical to familiarize yourself with these different systems using local boards, than trying to learn them while on a long distance connection. You should not have much difficulty finding these in most cities. SCREEN GRAPHICS CHARACTERS AND ANSI.SYS IBM PC screen graphics characters can be used in board menu and other info screens to make the screens more interesting. These characters do not require that ANSI.SYS be installed at your end, but the screen files may use ANSI.SYS commands that will not produce the desired effect at your end unless you have ANSI.SYS installed. If you haven't bothered with ANSI.SYS yet, you may want to soon because its commands are being used more and more commonly. ANSI.SYS is used by having it loaded when you boot your system. That is done by having the file ANSI.SYS (from your PC/MS-DOS program disk) in your bootup drive's root directory and the line "device=ansi.sys" in your CONFIG.SYS file. CALLER STYLE Develop a style for maneuvering about a new board. Most experienced callers will do the following when dialing into a new board: 1. Note any particular requirements in the initial logon message - this is not usually repeated. Some boards require that you leave a comment to the Sysop (SYStem OPerator) with particular information. Most boards require that you answer a questionnaire. 2. Review the bulletins - particularly if you are having problems. There's usually a fair amount of information there that the Sysop thinks you ought to know. Usually he or she spent a good deal of time putting these bulletins together. 3. Read or scan the primary message file - I'll generally read the first few and last few messages (if it's a large message base), and do a Quickscan of the entire message base, noting any message numbers of particular interest. Doing this will give you a sense of the board's "style" and users. If you're on a PCBoard system, try the "Thread" command if you find a particularly interesting topic - this allows you to go through an entire mini- conference, staying on a single topic, hopefully. 4. Capture (don't print) the download directories. On your first visit, you may not be able to download files, but you will usually be allowed to review what's available. 5. If you decide that a board will be of use to you and plan to dial back in, make sure you've supplied all of the requested information, and leave a comment or message to the Sysop noting your interest/appreciation. SAVING TIME To optimize your time (and minimize your long-distance charges) switch to expert mode (type X on PCBoard and RBBS systems). If you get stuck later, simply type X again, and you'll be switched back to novice mode. Note that many systems (e.g. RBBS, PCBoard) permit you to "stack" commands. For example, at logon, when you are asked to enter your first name, you can often enter your first name, last name, and password, all separated by semicolons or spaces: ENTER YOUR FIRST NAME: JOHN;DOE;NHOJ Also, you can often stack requests for downloads, bulletins, etc. If you're using a 300 or 1200 bps (bits per second) modem, unless you're only calling local boards, a 2400 bps modem (about $75 these days) will quickly pay for itself in reduced long distance charges. Also, a number of boards no longer permit 300 bps access. LINE NOISE If you're suffering through lots of line noise - garbled text, numerous errors during uploads and downloads - it'll probably be better to hang up, and dial back in, hoping for a cleaner telephone line. Some of the alternate long distance services have difficulty handling 2400 bps transmission. It may be worthwhile to dial back in at 1200 bps. Also, check with your long distance service; some of them have special dialing sequences for data calls. DOWNLOADING FILES When you first logon to most systems you will be asked to specify a download "protocol" (some systems will make you specify this each time you do a download). Your choices are generally one of the following: 1. ASCII - files will be sent as normal text files. Note that this will not allow re-transmission in case of errors, or allow you to receive any "binary" files (executable modules or com pressed files). 2. XMODEM - files are sent as blocks of 128 bytes, with a block sequence number and a checksum. If there is an error in either the block number or checksum, the block will be retransmitted. 3. CRC-XMODEM - this is the same as XMODEM, except that a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) character is used instead of the checksum. This provides greater reliability. 4. YMODEM - this is like CRC-XMODEM, but with longer blocks (up to 1024 bytes) being transmitted. If you have a good telephone connection this will greatly speed up your file transfer. On the other hand, if you have lots of line noise, this will be slower than XMODEM. 5. KERMIT - this is a machine-independent protocol, sometimes used for accessing mainframe computers. 6. ZMODEM - Files are sent in a streaming manner, with longer blocks. ZMODEM is generally the protocol of choice if your software supports it. It's a little slower than -G protocols when used with error correcting modems, but much more robust. 7. NONE - this will cause you to be prompted for the transmission protocol each time you request a download. You should check the documentation for your communications package to see which of these are supported. It's considered bad manners to do nothing but download - try to download only a couple of files at a time. Use your remaining time to upload something in return or else to participate in the messages. Remember, you can always dial in the next day and download additional files. Many Sysops recommend that you try to maintain a ratio of at least one upload for every ten downloads. UPLOADING FILES Avoid uploading files currently on the board or ones that are not of interest to a particular board. If you've just installed a new printer, why not write up a review of it. If you've had good or bad dealings with a particular mail-order house, a lot of people are interested in reading about it. TALKING TO THE SYSOP Most BBSs allow you to page the Sysop (on RBBS and PCBoard, use O for Operator). If the Sysop has authorized paging and is around, he or she will generally be happy to help you with problems, answer questions, etc. Larger boards may not have the time to monitor your session or to answer your CHAT call. CRS sysops monitor over 180 phone lines, and they cannot respond to CHAT calls. Try leaving a message to ALL if you are in need of urgent help. Occasionally, the Sysop may notice that you're having difficulty and enter "chat" mode to offer help. (The Sysop's monitor displays your session, just like your own). On chat mode - in the first place, remember that there's a real human behind the computer you've dialed in to. One time, I noted a visitor leaving a somewhat hostile comment, and broke into chat mode to discuss it with him. He was immediately apologetic and somewhat flustered at dealing with a person instead of a disembodied keyboard/monitor. Secondly, spelling and grammar don't really count in chat mode (unless a typo changes the meaning of a sentence). I think it's rather a waste of time to backspace a few words to insert a comma in the right place or fix up a mis-spelling. CONFERENCING Many Sysops have established separate conferences as sub-boards of their main board. These may be either public or private. These conferences are intended to provide a special area for messages and files of a particular nature. For example, you may run across conferences dedicated to a particular software package (Turbo Pascal, Framework, Lotus, etc.), or to a topic dear to the Sysop's heart (religion, running a BBS, AI, and so on). Usually, the Sysop will allow you to join these conferences simply by leaving a request. SHOULD I PAY FOR USING A BBS? Sometimes a Sysop will request (or require) you to donate money to help fund or expand a particular board. If you are a regular user of the BBS, it may be worthwhile for you to help keep it operational. Most boards are funded out of the Sysop's pocket, and while the original equipment may already be paid for, there are a number of ongoing expenses (telephone service, supplies, repairs, etc.). Additionally, it may be to your advantage to support a board's expansion for higher speed modems, additional disk storage, and the like. Sysops will often try a number of incentives to obtain funding (additional time allotments, access to special files, etc.) - you'll need to evaluate its services against your needs and pocketbook. Boards like CRS are large commercial services, and subscription is required for access. The larger services may have their own quirks (for example, you are not required to upload files at CRS), but the basics will remain the same. High Speed Modems (REPRINTED from Salt Air BBS - The Home of PCBOARD) - This is a somewhated dated article, as the HST now is a 16.8K modem and the V.32 has been extended to V.32bis (14.4), but it does give a good summary of differences in modems. We have received numerous messages asking about high speed modems, their capabilities and compatibility between modems from different manufacturers. The following text basically discusses the US Robotics HST 9600 bps modems and the Hayes V-Series 9600 bps modems. It also covers the subject of v.32 modems. 1) The old USR HST had a top transmission speed of 9600 bps. This is before taking into account any kind of MNP compression. Typical throughputs with the old HST ranged from 1150 cps on a compressed file with the modem-compression-DISABLED to 1900 cps on a regular text file with modem-compression-ENABLED. The HST will only transmit at 9600 bps when connected to another HST but will connect at 300/1200/2400 baud to other standard modems. 2) The new USR HST (termed the 144) is able to transmit data at 14400 bps (again, this is before taking into account MNP compression, etc). Typical throughputs with the new HST will range from about 1500-1700 cps on a compressed file with modem-compression-DISABLED to about 2300-2400 cps on a text file with modem-compression-ENABLED -- this is assuming that you've opened your comm port at 38400 bps. The HST will only transmit at 14400 bps when connected to another HST but will connect at 300/1200/2400 baud to other standard modems. 3) The Hayes V-Series 9600 modems are similar to the old USR HST described in #1 above. You will typically see throughputs as high as 1900 cps on text files but only about 960 cps on compressed files. The Hayes V-Series 9600 will only transmit at 9600 bps when connected to another Hayes V-Series 9600 modem but will connect at 300/1200/2400 baud to other standard modems. 4) Hayes has recently begun shipping its V-Series modems with new ROM chips in them giving them v.42 compatibility. This means that the V-Series 9600 modems can now provide an error-corrected session when connected to any regular MNP modems at 2400 bps. This is because v.42 implements MNP levels 1 through 4 (which excludes MNP compression). You will typically see throughputs of about 260-280 cps on a 2400 bps line due to MNP's stripping of the start and stop bits. 5) The v.32 modems (such as those made by US Robotics and GVC) run at 9600 bps and will give you similar throughputs to those described in #1 above (i.e. v.32 will give you slower transmission speeds than will the new HST's running at 14400 described in #2). However, the advantages of v.32 are that it provides you with better "interactive response times" (such as when typing) and that because v.32 is a CCITT "standard" they will connect at 9600 bps to modems made by OTHER manufacturers. By "other" I mean that you can connect US Robotics v.32's to MultiTech v.32's to any other v.32's. The v.32 standard appears to be one that remain for some time to come .. so purchasing a v.32 modem may be a better investment if you are concerned about future compatibility. 6) The USR Dual Standard is BOTH a v.32 and an HST modem. When it is in the "HST mode" everything said in #2 above (about the new 144 HST's) is true. When it is in "v.32 mode" then every thing said in #5 (about v.32 modems) is true. In other words in v.32 mode you will not get the full speed advantage of the Dual Standard for file transfers. However, one BIG advantage to the Dual Standard is that it is compatible not only with the v.32 standard but with all of the existing HST modems as well. This may or may not be an advantage for you depending on which modems you frequently dial into or which modems dial into you. Why are my file transfers slow? From Salt Air BBS - The Home of PCBOARD The above question is one that just doesn't seem to want to go away. It is most often asked by users who have just recently purchased a high speed modem but even the veterans with high speed modems sometimes ask the same question. Let's look at a few possible reasons: Line Noise at Connect Time If line noise occurs during the connection process where your modem and the host modem perform their handshaking sequence looking for common ground then it is very likely that the two modems will agree to a SLOWER speed to avoid having problems during the remainder of the connection. For instance, we very commonly have users with US Robotics HST or HST Dual Standard modems complain that their modems are capable of 1700 cps but they are seeing only 1400 cps or maybe 1150 cps or even lower and they ask why. Let me explain: the HST modem has real BPS rates of 14400, 12000 and 9600. With the effects of MNP or v.42 (no compression here) you can figure about a 20% speed increase making the CPS rates 1700, 1400 and 1150 respectively. That makes it very obvious then that during the connection phase the modems agreed to only 12000 or 9600 bps instead of the full rated speed of 14400 bps. In fact, if line noise occurs during the call the modems may very well decide to shift down at that time as well. If 9600 bps is noisy your modem may shift down even further to 7200 or 4800 bps. For the USR HST user you can, immediately after logging off, type ATI6 and your modem will tell you what your connect speed was which may help you determine if the slow down was the speed of the connection. Other modems have similar drop down capabilities. Line Noise During the File Transfer For years people used to state that 2400 bps was as fast as DIAL UP phone lines could handle and that we would never go beyond that rate due to the low bandwidth and high noise levels of telephone lines. Then along comes people like US Robotics and Hayes and many others who make high speed modems practical even on dial up lines. Well, line noise is NOT a thing of the past, lost and forgotten. It is still with us. These new modems are not magic either. They manage to HIDE the line noise and in some cases are able to filter it out or even through special encoding cancel some of the line noise. But it is still there. When line noise occurs during a file transfer between two modems which have established an error correction session the only TANGIBLE EVIDENCE of this line noise may very well be SLOW FILE TRANSFERS and nothing else. The USR HST modem has a light on the front panel labelled ARQ. Depending on which modem may have to recover from the line noise by re-sending its data you may see the ARQ light flash perhaps randomly, sometimes very quickly to indicate that it is having to retransmit the data. Most modems give no indication at all that extra work is being required of the modem. Some modems eventually give up and just drop the carrier completely. Like the first example above the HST's ATI6 report (after hanging up) can give you information as to how many times packets of data had to be retransmitted which may give you some clue as to how noisy the line may have been. Inability to Compress ZIP Files If you find that downloading ASCII files produces OUTSTANDING file transfers but that downloading ZIP files cuts file transfer CPS rates 25% or more off of your expected throughput then very likely you have turned on what is called "data compression". If you've ever tried to use PKZIP to zip a .ZIP file you usually find that PKZIP will decide to just "store" the file rather than "shrink" or "implode" the file. Why? Because in its attempt to shrink the file it actually causes the file to GROW in size! Quite the opposite of the desired effect. The same exact thing happens when you try to use your modem's built-in data compression capability on a file that is already compressed. The modem's compression algorithm actually causes the data to GROW (i.e. it sends more bytes out over the phone line than are coming into the modem) which slows the file transfer. PCBoard's modem configuration program, called PCBModem, is generally set up to turn data compression ON by default! Why? You ask... because it is generally believed that it should be up to the CALLER to decide if he wants to take advantage of the data compression capabilities of his modem. If PCBModem were to turn data compression OFF then *nobody* calling your system would get data compression. Leaving it enabled allows the caller to make the choice. However, many sysops like to use the same high speed modem that they set up for use with PCBoard to dial out to other systems. What they are forgetting is that PCBModem has turned data compression ON and they go right ahead and try to download a ZIP file. Our recommendation is this: Leave data compression turned on when the BBS is up and running but turn data compression off when dialing out (assuming you are planning to download ZIP files). One "high tech" solution to the problem is to upgrade your modem to the v.42bis standard. In theory, like PKZIP, v.42bis data compression will detect when it is making the data grow and turn itself off so that the data is sent out un-compressed (similar to PKZIP's simple "storing" of zip files). Again, in theory, that means that you can leave data compression turned on all the time and never have to worry about slow transfers of pre- compressed files. Flow Control Problems For high speed file transfers to work you generally want to open your port speed (the speed that your PC talks to your Modem) at a rate that is faster than the line speed (the speed that your Modem talks to the other Modem). This is somewhat akin to squeezing a bottle to make the liquid come out faster than if you just poured it out directly. If the data is sent to the modem at 9600 bps then the fastest over-the-phone-line rate will be 9600 bps. By sending data to the modem faster than the over-the-line rate you give the modem time to work on packetizing the data (this is where the 20% increase in speed comes from) and possibly even compressing the data (if compression is turned on and the data is not already compressed). The only trouble is, if you are sending data to the modem FASTER than it can send it across the line then there are times when the PC simply must stop sending and wait for the modem to catch up. That is when a traffic light called CTS and RTS, must enter the picture to control the flow of the data. To indicate when the modem's buffer is sufficiently empty to receive data and to indicate when it is full and the data flow must be stopped. If your modem is not configured correctly for flow control, or if your software is not configured correctly to use flow control, or if your asynch board does not support flow control, or if your modem's cable does not have the CTS and RTS lines wired properly ... all of these possibilities can result in flow con trol errors which will cause data to be lost. When data is lost due to flow control problems there is only one solution and that is to send the data again! This results in slowing down your file transfer. Zmodem will give a ZRPOS error (which means resend the last block of data) while other protocols will simple indicate an error and expect a retransmission of the data. Full flow protocols such as Ymodem/G and 1K-Xmodem/G have no built-in facility to request that data be re-sent and there fore must CANCEL the entire file transfer if such a loss of data occurs. Similar to the modem's buffer and its traffic light to control the flow of data, your PC, and the SOFTWARE it is using, will set up its own local buffer to receive data from the modem. If you are multitasking on your PC you may be asking the PC to perform other tasks besides attending to the data coming in from the modem. If the modem's buffer (or even the buffer on your asynch card) gets too full and is not emptied quickly enough the data can be lost. Your software should be configured to use flow control to tell the modem when to stop sending data to it. Another course of action is to utilize the National Semi-conductor NS16550AFN uart chip in your asynch port which has a 16-byte buffer on it (that may sound small but it is 16 TIMES the size of the buffer used by all uart chips before it). All things must come together to work in harmony, your modem, your software, your asynch card and cable. And this is only on one side of the connection. The same requirements are necessary on the other side of the telephone line to ensure fast and reliable transmission of data. File Transfer Protocols One more area that people need to learn about is choosing the right protocol for the file transfer. Too often you'll find people using Xmodem to download files when their modems have established a high speed connection. What's wrong with Xmodem, you ask? Xmodem sends packets of 128 bytes of data and after each and every packet is sent it waits for the receiver to tell if it the packet was good or bad. This is fine at slower speeds because if it takes 1/10th of a second to receive this acknowledgement at 1200 bps then at most you've lost the ability to send 12 characters out the port. At 2400 bps that same 1/10th second delay means a slow down of 24 characters. And at 9600 cps the delay means 96 characters. And a 1/10th of a second delay is being OPTIMISTIC here because if you are dialing long distance or going over a satellite or using a packet-switch network the delays might actually be measured in full seconds. Ymodem sends packets of 1024 bytes. This means that the same delay that Xmodem experiences occurs only 1/8th as often because it sends 8 times as much data before waiting for an acknowledge ment. Okay, that means that Ymodem will give you faster file transfers than Xmodem. But it still is not perfect. Zmodem, on the other hand, does not wait for an acknowledgement but instead continually sends data until the receiving end tells it to back up to a previous location (ZRPOS) in the data stream and resend that information. Since there are no built-in delays every X-bytes of data you'll find Zmodem gives you excellent file transfer rates. Ymodem/G, having less over-head than Zmodem because it ASSUMES that your modem is configured correctly and that there will be no data loss, is able to send the data even faster than Zmodem. The one caveat: if an error *does* occur then the file transfer will be aborted. In summary With the above arsenal of information, about line noise, about data compression, about flow control and about file transfer protocols you should have enough information to guide you to the real cause of the slow down in file transfers. There is no "one set answer" to the question. But taken together the above should help you determine which answer, or answers, may apply to your specific situation. One final point: Make sure the software you use is top-notch. PCBoard for the host connection has been tested to give very fast and very reliable transfers all the way up to 115K bps. On the caller's side programs such as Qmodem, Telix and Procomm are all worthy of evaluation. (note: the US Robotics HST was mentioned in the above, not to pick on HST for line noise, but simply because a very large majority of PCBoard sysops use HST's and can identify with the examples given) HIGH SPEED MODEM SETTINGS We get many requests for proper settings for high speed modems - The new modems are complex, and most often, the factory settings are not proper for optimal communications. Here's what we use - Those running PCBoard systems can use these settings directly. Those running other BBS systems may have to modify these settings (Sorry, we do not support other BBS systems). Those communicating with BBS systems should set these up once, write them to the modems NRAM with an AT&W command and use ATH0 as an initialization string in their communications program. Modem Selected: USRobotics HST (9600 model) Set Switches - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Rear - U U D D D U U D D U NRAM Settings ATC1F1M0Q0V1X4S2=255&B1 AT&A1&G0&H1&I0&M4&N0 AT&P0&R2&S1&Y1S7=60&W Modem Selected: Hayes V-Series with V.42 Comments: None NRAM Settings: AT&L0&G0&J0&P0Y0N1E0&K3&Q5 ATM0L2Q0V1X4W1&C1&D2&S0&X0 ATS2=255S0=0S36=5S37=0S38=2&W Modem Selected: USRobotics HST (14400 model) Set Switches - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Rear - U U D D D U U D D U NRAM Settings: ATC1F1M0Q0V1X4S2=255S15=8&B1 AT&A1&G0&H1&I0&M4&N0&P0 AT&R2&S1&Y1S7=60S0=0&W Modem Selected: USRobotics Dual Standard HST Set Switches - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Rear - U U D D D U U D D U NRAM Settings: ATC1F1M0Q0V1X4S2=255B0S13=1&B1 AT&A1&G0&H1&I0&M4&N0&P0&C1 AT&R2&S1&Y1S7=60S0=0&D2&W Modem Selected: ATI2400ETC Modem NRAM Settings: ATM0N1Q0V1W1Y0&C1&D2&G0&I0&J0&B0 AT&K3&L0&P0&Q5&R0&S1&T4&X0&Y1 ATS2=255S0=0&E1X4 Modem Selected: Telebit Trailblazer Plus NRAM Settings: ATE0F1M0Q0V1X1 S2=255 S52=0S53=3S54=1S58=2S59=4S66=1S68=2S95=2S110=0 Modem Selected: Practical Peripherals PM2400 NRAM Settings: ATB0E1L2M0Q0V1X4Y0/C1/D2/G0/J0/L0P0/Q0/R0/S1/X0 In all cases, if a register is not shown, the default is assumed. Setting up high speed modems is not difficult, but the settings are sometimes tricky. These settings have worked here at CRS. PCBOARD - REFERENCE (A)bandon Conference Subcommands NONE Description: Places you back in the main section of the board. If you are not in a conference, the main menu is re-displayed along with the main command prompt. You may also use the (J 0) command and get the same effect. (B)ulletin Listings Subcommands (#) (A) (D) (N) (R) (S) (NS) (#) Bulletin number to view. (A) Displays all of the bulletins. (D) Immediately goes into download mode to send the bulletin(s). See examples below. (N) Displays a bulletin only if it has been updated since you were last on. (R) Re-displays the Bulletin Menu. (S) Scans the bulletins for text. (NS) Displays file in non-stop mode. Description: Allows viewing Bulletins available. Selecting Bulletins Numbers can be stacked such as (1 2 3) or (1;2;3). Typing (A) will select all of the bulletins for display. Combining (A) with (N) would display all new bulletins while combining (A) with (S) would search all bulletins and display only those bulletins containing the search text entered. Reading Bulletins Typing (NS) selects Non-stop mode which avoid page breaks in the display. Typing (D) puts the system immediately into download mode to send the file using the default protocol. (D) option must be specified as the last variable of command. Imagine using the proper commands for viewing and then stack a (D) at the end. Examples: 1 2 3 D Displays bulletins 1, 2 and 3 2 N D Displays bulletin 2 if, and only if, it is new. B A N D Displays all new bulletins. B A N D D Using a batch protocol sends all new bulletins. 1 2 D - Download Bulletins 1 and 2. (C)omment to Sysop/System Operator Subcommands NONE Description: Allows leaving a private message or comment to the system operator. See (E)nter a Message for information on how to actually enter and save your comment text. (CHAT) or (NODE) Node CHAT Subcommands (#) (G) (A) (U) (#) Any other active Node Number. (G) Places you in Group CHAT with others. (A) Flags your Node as being available for CHAT (default). (U) Flags your Node as being Unavailable for CHAT. Description: Allows interactive keyboard conversation with one or more other system nodes. To CHAT with only one other node, enter that node's number. To CHAT with a group of nodes, enter (G). If a Node is unavailable for CHAT, you will be advised of such. If the Node requested is available, they will be informed of your request. When entering (G)roup CHAT, only other Nodes which are already in Group CHAT will be advised that you have joined them. When in Node CHAT, the following subcommands are available: (Q), (E), (U), (H) (Q) Quits Node CHAT. (E) Also quits Node CHAT. (U) Displays the status of the other Nodes. (H) Gives a quick display of these subcommands. When conversing in Node CHAT, there can be, and usually will be, delays between when you enter your text to the other person, and the time it takes them to respond. Since text is only sent to the other Node when an (Enter) key or word-wrap occurs, there can be time periods of several seconds between text coming back to your screen. Please WAIT until it is your turn to type! End your text with a (/ga) or (/o) to indicate it is the other person's turn to type D and then WAIT! (D)ownload a File Subcommands (filename 1) (filename 2) (etc) (protocol) (gb or bye) (filename) any valid DOS filename may be used and more than one filename may be entered if you choose to use a BATCH protocol for the file transfer (protocol) is a letter from A-Z or 1-9 of the protocol desired based on the protocols available. For a listing of protocols, see the (T) command. (gb) Either (gb) or (bye) may be entered on the (bye) command line to indicate that you want the system to hang up after it finishes the file transfer. You will have ten seconds to press CTRL-K to abort before the board hangs up. Description: Allows transferring a file from the system being called to your machine. There can be up to 26 different types of protocols available. If you have not previously set a default protocol for the system you are calling, you will be asked for the protocol type each time you request a download. Ascii protocol transfers are only available on non-binary text files. Filenames which have extensions of .EXE, .ARC, .COM, .WKS, etc. can not be downloaded using Ascii protocol. Selecting Files; Filenames do not need to be typed in completely in order for the system to locate the desired file. A default filename extension is usually provided by the Sysop such as (.ZIP) so that if you request a file called TEST it will first search to see if a file called TEST.ZIP can be located and if not it will search for TEST and send which ever file it finds. In some cases this default extension can make it difficult to download a desired file. For instance, if both TEST and TEST.ZIP exist on the system then typing (D TEST) will always result in downloading TEST.ZIP. To download the file called TEST in this instance you would need to type TEST followed by a period with no extension like this: (D TEST.) You may also locate files for download by using the * and ? wildcard characters - the same as those used by DOS to specify files. See the examples below. Batch Downloads Some protocols allow you to download more than one file at a time. Examples of this are the Ymodem and Ymodem/G protocols. Downloading more than one file at a time requires that you select a batch protocol on both your end and the host end of the connection. The system will continue to ask for filenames until it reaches it's batch limit, or you press enter at the filespec prompt. Examples D TEST - Downloads TEST using default protocol. D TEST X - Downloads TEST using Xmodem protocol. D TEST1 TEST2 Y - Downloads TEST1 & TEST2 using Ymodem. D TEST? G - Downloads TEST1 & TEST2 using Ymodem/G. D TEST*.* - Downloads any file starting with TEST. (E)nter a Message Subcommands NONE Description: Allows leaving a message to another person(s) for them to read at a later date. Full Screen Editor: After selecting (E), you will be asked if you want to use the Full Screen Editor. To use the Full Screen Editor your software must be capable of interpreting ANSI cursor position commands. The default answer to the question will be NO if the system did not detect ANSI on your end or if you are in novice mode. Addressing the Message: You will be prompted to enter the name of the person the message is being addressed to. If the system operator has enabled message name verification on his system, the name entered will be checked against all names in the user's file to insure a proper match. If the user's name is not found, or the user is not registered in the same conference or board area where the message is being left, you will be advised of such to avoid leaving a message to a non-existent individual. However, a SOUNDEX search to locate a name that sounds like what you entered can be performed or you can override the verification and answer (C) to continue and use the name that you have entered which might be done to facilitate leaving a message to a group of people. By not entering a username at the "To:" prompt, it will automatically address the message to (ALL). Brackets will be displayed either above the line or surrounding the area on the screen in which you are allowed to enter text. Entering a Subject: Next, up to a 25 character subject must be entered. If no subject is entered you will be returned to the main menu and command line prompt. Message Security: A security prompt will next appear looking something like this: Security: (G)roup, (R)eceiver, (S)ender, (H)elp, (N)one (N)one means that the message will be open for all to read. (G)roup allows assigning a password to the message which only other callers who know the common password will be allowed to read the message. (R)eceiver makes the message private to all except you and the person to whom it is addressed. (S)ender allows you to assign a password to the message so that only you can kill it later. This prevents the other person to whom the message is addressed from killing it. Note that you can NOT assign (R)eceiver protection to a message which has been addressed to ALL. All Messages Private? A message base can be set up such that all messages are initially flagged as private. In this case the above security prompt is skipped and the message will be saved using (R)eceiver security so that only you and the person to whom the message is addressed can read it. Entering a Message: After completing the above steps, you can enter your text. Each line you enter will be preceded by it's line number. Up to 72 characters per line is allowed. Typing beyond the 72 character limit will cause your text to automatically "word-wrap" down to the next line. Exiting the Editor: There are two modes in which text can be entered which you will have already chosen by the time you get to the editor. One of them is the Line Editor mode where only one line at a time can be entered or edited and the other is Full Screen Editor mode in which the entire screen is used as the workspace for message entry. To exit the Line Editor, press (Enter) alone on a blank line. To exit the Full Screen Editor, press (ESC). After you exit the Line Editor or the Full Screen Editor you will be prompted for message completion subcommands as described below: Message Completion Subcommands (A)bort Abandons/cancels your message entry. (C)ontinue Continue using the Line Editor. (D)elete Delete a line of text from the message. (E)dit Allows you to edit a line of text. (F)ull Continue using the Full Screen Editor. (H)elp Displays Help file. (I)nsert Insert a line of text above another. (L)ist Relist your text entry so far. (Q)uote Quote a portion of the replied-to message. (S)ave Writes the message to disk. (U)pload Upload ASCII text into message w/o echo. (SC) Save the same message to another individual. (SK) Save message, kill replied-to message. (SN) Save message, skip redisplay of replied-to message. Note, The format to (E)dit a line of text is: (old text;new text) where the (old text) is the text you wish to replace, followed by a (;) followed by the (new text). The old text search is case sensitive - so capital letters must match exactly. If your new text causes that line to exceed 72 characters, the characters beyond 72 will be truncated from the line. When uploading Ascii text to the message base, insure your text lines are 72 characters or less in length. Note, while in the full screen editor you can press CTRL-Z to get help on the editing keys available in the full screen editor. (F)ile Directories Subcommands (#) (D) (L) (N) (R) (U) (V) (Z) (NS) (#) Directory number to view. (D) Download a file. (L) Locate Files by Name (wildcarding OK). (N) Locate Files by Date Scan. (R) Re-lists the directory menu. (U) Display Upload Directory. (V) View contents of a compressed file. (Z) Zippy DIR Scan by Text Search. (NS) Displays request in non-stop mode. Description: This command allows you to view a listing of the files available. After selecting (F), a listing of the file directories available will be shown - usually grouped by category. To view one or more of the directory listing files, enter the number to view. Multiple listings can be viewed at the same time by entering several numbers at the same time. e.g. (F) (1) (2) (10) By adding the (NS) non-stop parameter at the end of your request, the entire listing will be displayed without screen pauses every 23 lines. You can use the (V)iew subcommand to view the files included in a compressed file listed in one of the directories. If you elect to (D)ownload the file just (V)iewed, the filename of the Viewed file will automatically be carried forward as the download filename request unless over-ridden by you. Additionally, you can request a download of a specific file from the (F)ile Subcommand prompt to avoid having to return to the main menu. Also, you can request a Download, Upload, or the Viewing of any file at all "More?" prompts while scanning a file directory. (FLAG) Files for Download Subcommands (filename 1) (filename 2) (filename 3) (etc) (filename) is the name of the file to be downloaded. Multiple names can be stacked on the same line and wildcards may be used in the name. Description: The FLAG command is used to flag files or groups of files for later download. For instance, you may be busy looking at a list of download files and find some that you want to download but don't wish to download them at that very moment. Rather than having to write down the name or try to remember it later you can simply tell the system to flag the file and remember it for you. To download the files that are flagged you would then issue a (D)ownload command at which point the system will ask you if you want to download the files that were flagged. Answering NO will cause the system to forget the files that were flagged. Examples * FLAG test1 Functioning the same as the download command, this command will first check to see if TEST1. exists where is the default extension for the system you are on. For example, it will see if TEST.ZIP exists and if not it will attempt to flag TEST instead. * FLAG file1 file2 file3 Flags all three files for download. * FLAG file*.txt Flags any files matching file*.txt for later download. (G)oodbye Subcommands NONE Description: Disconnects you from the host system. This command should always be used to log off of the system to insure proper updating of all message pointers, etc. NEVER just drop carrier by issuing an (Alt-H) (or equivalent) command to your communication's software without first entering the (G) command! Some systems also ask that you complete a (S)cript Questionnaire at the time of logoff. (H)elp Subcommands (A-Z) (CHAT) (DOOR) (A-Z) is any letter of the alphabet. (CHAT) or (NODE) displays Node CHAT help file. (DOOR) or (OPEN) displays DOOR help file. Description: Displays the appropriate help file which corresponds with the command you need help with. The software usually indicates that help is available by displaying a (H) option at the command line you are at. Additionally, the code will also recognize a (?) in place of the letter (H) when requesting help. If no help is available it will simply redisplay the command line prompt. (I)nitial Welcome Subcommands NONE Description: Redisplays the initial welcome screen, along with the version number of PCBoard which the system is running. (J)oin a Conference Subcommands (#) or (Name) (#) Valid conference number from 0 to the highest conference number on the system. (Name) Name of any existing conference. Description: Allows joining an active conference on the system. The conference name or number to be joined can be included with the (J) command on the same line if desired. If you are not registered in the conference requested, you will be advised of such and returned to the main command line prompt. The entering of a "J 0" will act as if you did an (A)bandon command and return you to the main board message base area. Examples J 1 - to join conference #1 J SYSOPS - to join the Sysops conference (K)ill a Message Subcommands (#) (#) Valid active message number Description: Allows marking a message as inactive or killed so that others can no longer read it. Additionally, when the system operator packs the message base, the message will be purged from the system. Entry of an invalid message number returns you to the main command line. (L)ocate Files by Name Subcommands (filename/wildcard) (A) (D) (N) (U) (NS) (filename/wildcard) Filename to search for. (A) Scans all available file directories. (D) Download all files found. (N) Combine the search with a date scan. (S) With (N) indicates new files since the last date you scanned. (U) Scans only the available upload file directory. (NS) Displays listing in non-stop mode. Description: Allows you to search the file directory listings for filenames which match those you are looking for. You can also use valid DOS wildcards in your filename request if you are unsure of the exact filename you are looking for. Examples: L TEST A - Search all directories for a file called TEST. L TEST*.* A - Search all directories for any file beginning with TEST. L TEST A D - Find TEST or TEST.(ext) and download it. L TEST*.* U - Find TEST*.* in the UPLOAD directory. L TEST*.* N A - Find only new files matching TEST*.*. Other examples of wildcards: TEST? TEST?.ZIP ??TEST.* Note, If the filename is less than 8 characters long and no wildcards have been used it automatically appends "*.*" to the name (i.e. searching for TEST turns into TEST*.*). If an invalid file is requested it will automatically switch to a (Z)ippy search command (LANG) Language Change Subcommands (#) (#) Language number to change to. Description: Allows you to change from the current default language to a new language of your choice. If the system you are calling does not support language changes, you are returned to the main command line prompt. (M)ode Subcommands NONE Description: Switches your screen display mode between ANSI graphics and non-graphics mode. If you toggle ANSI Graphics on, you must be using a communication's program which supports standard ANSI (Esc) code graphics. If you select graphics and get a lot of symbols such as "[01;49m" on your screen mixed in with the normal text display, your software does not support ANSI graphics and you should toggle Graphics off by re-entering the (M) command. Note, The system will automatically detect if you have ANSI capability and your system supports the CURSOR POSITION REPORT sequence. However, you still must select whether or not you want the color graphics sent to you. (N)ew Files by Date Subcommands (date) (A) (D) (S) (U) (NS) (date) Valid date in mmddyy format (no spaces!). (A) Scans all file directory listings. (D) Download all new files found. (S) Scan for new files since your last directory scan. (U) Scans only upload file directory listings. (NS) Displays output in non-stop mode. Description: Displays file listings based on a date scan of when the file was placed on the system. Matching files are those found which have a date equal to or later than that requested. Entering an (S) indicates that the last DATE scan or the DATE of the most recent files found on your last scan should be used as the scan date. Entering a (D) on the command line will cause all files found to be queued up for download on your next (D)ownload command. Examples N A S - Scan for all new files since last scan. N U S - Scan for new files in the upload directory. N U 1 D S - Scan for and download new files in directory 1. (NEWS) File - Redisplay Subcommands None Description: Redisplays the NEWS file for the message base you are in. (O)perator Page (NOT AVAILABLE ON CRS) Subcommands NONE Description: Allows paging of the system operator to come to the host keyboard and enter an inter-active typing mode with you. If the system operator is not available, a message will be displayed and you will be returned to the main menu. You can abort the page in advance of the 30 second timeout period if desired by pressing (Ctrl-K). (OPEN) a (DOOR) Subcommands (#) or (Name) (#) Number of the DOOR to open (Name) Name of the DOOR to open Description: A DOOR is an extension to the system. A part of the system which is not built directly into the PCBoard Bulletin Board Software. (P)age Length Subcommands (#) (#) Valid number between 0 and 50. Description: Allows setting the number of display lines you want sent to you before the displaying a "(H)elp, More?" prompt. If you select 0 as your page length, you will never pause during any screen display. The default value for this command is 23 lines per page. (Q)uick Message Scan Subcommands (#) (F) (Y) (S) (NS) (+) (-) (TS) (#) Any number from 1 to 9999999. (F) Scans for message headers from you. (Y) Scans for message headers to you. (S) Scans for headers above those you have already read. (NS) Displays text in non-stop mode. (+) or (-) appended to the end of a numbers forces the display to be shown in forward or reverse order respectively. (TS) Search message headers for specific text. (USER) Selects only those message to or from a specified user. Description: Allows viewing a quick description of the message header information available. The display includes the message number, the message reference number (if any), who the message is to, who the message is from, and the subject matter of the message. Due to screen width constraints, some fields are shortened for display purposes. Messages which are protected from reading will not be displayed to you. (R)ead Messages Subcommands (#) Message number between 1 and 9999999. (F) Selects only messages from you. (Y) Selects only messages for you. (YA) Selects only messages for you or addressed to "ALL". (S) Selects messages above the last one you have read. (A) Read messages in all (SELECT)ed conferences. (ALL) Read messages in all conferences in which you are registered. (L) Read in backwards order from the last message to the first. (C) Capture the messages to a file for download. (D) Implies a (C)apture and immediately downloads. (Z) Implies a (D)ownload but compresses the file before. (G) Goodbye - Logoff. (J) Join another conference. (Q) Display only message headers (see (Q)uick message scan function). (NS) Displays text in non-stop mode. (RM) Re-read previously "memorized" message. (RM+) Re-read "memorized" message plus forward read. (RM-) Re-read "memorized" message plus backwards read. (+) Alone reads messages forward from present position or when appended to a number causes forward reading from that message number. (-) Alone reads messages backwards from present position or when appended to a number causes backward reading from that message number. (TS) Searches messages for the specified search criteria. (SET) Sets the number of the last message read. (EDIT) Puts the current message into the editor for re-editing. (NEXT) Reads next higher message number available. (PREV) Reads next lower message number available. (JUMP) Skips to the next conference on a (R)ead (A)ll command. (SKIP) Sets the last message read pointer, skips to next conference. (USER) Selects only those message to or from the specified user. (SELECT) Selects the current conference for future scans. (DESELECT) Deselects the current conference for future scans. Description: Allows reading messages left on the system. All public messages will be displayed, along with private messages left either by you or for you. If a message has more display lines than what your (P)age Length is set for, a "(H)elp, More?" prompt will appear asking for your input. Multiple message numbers to read can be entered on the same command line if desired. Additionally, combinations of the above commands can be entered on the same command line if desired. Examples: * R S The above command will read all mail that is new since you last read mail in this message base. * R Y S The above command will read all mail that is addressed to you that is new since you last read mail in this message base. * R 1+ The above command will read all messages from #1 to the end. * R 1 5 10 20 The above command will read messages 1, 5, 10 and 20 and then stop. * R L The above command will read all mail in reverse order from beginning to end. * TS A 1+ PCBoard & LANtastic The above commands will search through every available message in ALL conference areas you are set to scan for any message that has both the word "PCBoard" AND the word "LANtastic" in it. * TS A 1+ PCBoard & (LANtastic | DESQview) The above commands will search through every available message in ALL conferences areas you are set to scan for any message that has both the word "PCBoard" AND either the word "LANtastic" OR the word "DESQview" in it. The parenthesis tell PCBoard how you want to group your criteria if you have a complex search request such as the one above. It will allow for nearly any number of parens and any combination of AND's (using the "&" character) and OR's (ing the "|" character). * TS A 1+ USER JOHN DOE PCBoard & Help The above command (similar to examples above) adds the keyword USER to the command line specifying that only messages that are either TO or FROM John Doe should be displayed if they are found to have both the words PCBoard and Help in them. * R A Z The above command will capture all messages in all conferences since the last message read, compress the capture file and then begin the download procedure. * R SET 100 Sets the last message read for that conference to 100. End of Message Command Commands Available to All (Enter) Continues on with message read function. (N) Stop reading messages. (NS) Continue reading messages in non-stop format. (T) Thread read (forward) (or T+). (T-) Thread read (backwards). (#) A specific message number between 1 and 9999999. (+) Alone reads messages forward from present position or when appended to a number causes forward reading from that message number. (-) Alone reads messages backwards from present position or when appended to a number causes backward reading from that message number. (F) Selects only messages left by you. (Y) Selects only messages for you. (YA) Selects only messages for you or addressed to "ALL". (S) Selects messages above the last one you have read. (A) Read messages in all (SELECT)ed conferences. (ALL) Read messages in all conferences in which you are registered. (L) Read in backwards order from the last message to the first. (C) Capture the messages to a file for download. (D) Implies a (C)apture and immediately downloads. (Z) Implies a (D)ownload but compresses the file before. (G) Goodbye. (J) Join another conference. (Q) Display only message headers (quick scan mode). (/) Redisplays the current message. (RE) Enter a reply to the message just read. (RR) Read the referenced message. (M) Memorize that message number for later return. (RM) Return to a previously (M)emorized message number. (TS) Searches messages for specified search criteria. (SET) Sets the number of the last message read. (NEXT) Reads next higher message number available. (PREV) Reads next lower message number available. (USER) Search for messages to/from a specific user. Additional Commands Available if Message is To/From You (K) Kill the message. (E) Edit the "To:" and "Subj:" of the message header and 'Echo' flag if applicable. (REPLY) To Messages Subcommands (#) (#) A message number between 1 and 9999999. Description: Allows replying directly to another message from the main command line. Message numbers can be stacked together if desired. (RM) Read Marked Message Subcommands None While there are no subcommands the RM function can take any of three separate forms: RM Read the marked message and stop. RM+ Read the marked message then continue going forward. RM- Read the marked message then continue going backward. Description: When reading messages you can use the (M)ark Message command to tell the system to remember that number for you so that you can easily go back to it. To return to that Marked Message you simply issue one of the above three RM commands. Tips: To redisplay and possibly capture the message you are currently reading you could issue a command such as this: M RM NS It first marks the message you are reading, then it re-reads that message in NON-STOP mode. Another form of the same thing if you wanted to re-read that message and then keep going would be: M RM+ Note, You must be in the conference where you marked the message in order for the system to properly locate it. (S)cript Questionnaire - Function Help Subcommands NONE Description: A script questionnaire is a set of questions that the system operator has set up where the answers that you provide will be recorded in a file for later analysis or processing. If no questionnaires have been defined, you will be told such and returned to the main command line. If scripts are present, you will be displayed a menu of them, including a number of the choices available. To complete a script, enter the number indicated. After selecting a valid number, you will be displayed a brief description of the what the questionnaire is for and asked whether or not you wish to continue. If you indicate (Y)es, the script will begin execution. During execution, you will be displayed a prompt of one or more lines which will ask you a question, followed by an input field in which you can enter your response. You are limited to a one line response for each question asked. Responses can not be longer than the brackets shown above the input line. Attempting to exceed the input length will cause the host to send you a BEEP and will pause awaiting either the shortening of your response or the pressing of your (Enter) key. (SELECT) Conferences to Scan Subcommands (S) (D) (#) (#-#) (S) Selects ALL conferences. (D) Deselects ALL conferences. (#) Toggles a specific conference on or off. (#-#) Toggles a range of conferences on or off. Description: The SELECT function is used to tell the system which conferences you are interested in (or not interested in). It affects the scanning of conferences when reading or searching for mail. The command can also be used to reset the Last Message Read pointers in each of the conferences selected. Examples: * SELECT S The above command would select ALL conferences to be scanned or read. (Not recommended for CRS. This can take up to an hour to execute). * SELECT 1 If conference #1 was already selected then it is turned off. If it was not already selected then it will be turned on and you will be prompted for a new Last Message Read number for that conference. * SELECT D 1-3 6 The above command starts out by deselecting all conferences after which it reselects conferences 1 through 3 followed by 6. It will then prompt the caller for any last message read changes in each of the newly selected conferences. (T)ransfer Protocol - Function Help Subcommands (A-Z) (A-Z) is a valid protocol defined to that system Description: Allows setting of a default transfer protocol. The choices of protocols available will vary from system to system based on the protocols which the system operator has enabled. A default of (N)one can also be entered, in which case you will be asked to specify the protocol type each time you begin either an upload or download from the system. If you specify a value here, it will be used as the default each time you request a file transfer. However, this default can be over-ridden at the time of a file transfer request by including the protocol desired as a separate entry on the same line as the filename is entered. (i.e. (filename) (F) would over-ride any default here as specifying 1K-Xmodem Full-Flow protocol.) (TEST) Files Subcommands (filename) (filename) Name of the file you want to test. Like the download function it will append the default extension to the filename if one is not specified. Description: Allows you to test a file's integrity prior to downloading the file. The system operator must specify the kinds of tests that will be performed if this option is available. It could, for example, perform a CRC check on the file as well as scan for a virus and then inform you prior to downloading if the file passes the tests that were executed on it. (TS) Message Text Search Subcommands : (F) Selects only messages left by you. (Y) Selects only messages left for you. (S) Selects messages above the last one you have read. (A) Scan messages in all (SELECT)ed conferences. (ALL) Scan messages in all conferences in which you are registered. (L) Read in backwards order from the last message to the first. (C) Capture the messages found to a file for download (D) Implies a (C)apture and immediately downloads (Z) Implies a (D)ownload but compresses the file before (NS) Displays text in non-stop mode (RM+) Re-read "memorized" message plus forward read. (RM-) Re-read "memorized" message plus backwards read. (##+) Scan messages from a selected number forward. (##-) Scan messages from a selected number backward. (USER) Selects only those message to or from the specified user. Description: Allows searching the messages on the system to find messages that match the search criteria that you provide. Examples: * TS A 1+ PCBoard & LANtastic The above commands will search through every available message in ALL conferences areas you are set to scan for any message that has both the word "PCBoard" AND the word "LANtastic" in it. * TS A 1+ PCBoard & (LANtastic | DESQview) The above commands will search through every available message in ALL conferences areas you are set to scan for any message that has both the word "PCBoard" AND either the word "LANtastic" OR the word "DESQview" in it. The parenthesis tell PCBoard how you want to group your criteria if you have a complex search request such as the one above. It will allow for nearly any number of parens and any combination of AND's (using the "&" character) and OR's (using the "|" character). * TS A 1+ USER JOHN DOE PCBoard & Help The above command (similar to examples above) adds the keyword USER to the command line specifying that only messages that are either TO or FROM John Doe should be displayed if they are found to have both the words PCBoard and Help in them. (U)pload a File - Function Help Subcommands (filename 1) (filename 2) (etc) (protocol) (gb or bye) (filename) Any valid DOS filename may be used and more than one filename may be entered if you choose to use a BATCH protocol for the file transfer. (protocol) Letter from A-Z of the protocol desired based on the protocols available. (gb) Either (gb) or (bye) may be entered on the (bye) command line to indicate that you want the system to hang up after it finishes the file transfer. Description: Allows transferring a file from your machine to the host system. There can be up to 26 different types of protocols available. If you have not previously set a default protocol, you will be asked for the protocol type each time you request a download. Ascii protocol transfers are only available on non-binary text files. Filenames which have extensions of .EXE, .ARC, .COM, .WKS, etc. can not be downloaded using Ascii protocol. Selecting Files: Unlike downloading a filename must be specified exactly as you intend to send it. In other words, if you type the word "TEST" then the name of the file when posted will be called "TEST" with no other extension added to it. After giving the system one or more filenames to be uploaded it will ask you for a description of each file. If you wish to make a particular file PRIVATE so that it is not posted in the public upload directory you simply place a "/" at the beginning of the first line of text in your description. Batch Uploads When uploading a batch of files you must enter at least ONE filename even if it is a dummy filename. Then on your end you simply tell your software to send all of the desired files. Any files that are received which you did not specify originally will then be brought up on the screen with the system asking you to describe each of them. Examples U TEST - uploads TEST using the default protocol U TEST X - uploads TEST using the Xmodem protocol U TEST1 TEST2 Y - uploads both TEST1 & TEST2 using Ymodem/BATCH (USERS) Display Users (NOT AVAILABLE ON CRS) Subcommands (search text) (search text) Any text that you want to search for. You could for example, search for a name or a part of a name or a city or state. Description: Displays the user name, location and last date on for all users that have access to the current conference. Alternatively, you can enter search criteria to limit your search to only those users or locations that match the criteria. Examples: * USERS Display all users that are registered in the current conference. * USERS David Display all users that have the name "David" in their record. * USERS Utah Display all users that have "Utah" in their record. * USERS David & Utah Display all users that have the name "David" who are in "Utah". (V)iew User Settings Subcommands NONE Description: Allows viewing your current user settings. Included in the listing are: The number of system caller you are. Your Default Page Length. Your System Expiration Date (or NONE). Your Security Level. Your Last Date On. The last message number you read. The current high message number. Number of Active Messages. Available download bytes available for that day. Default Transfer Protocol Selected. (W)rite User Data Base Information Subcommands NONE Description: Allows changing some of your data base information stored on that system, including: Password desired. Location you are calling from. Your Business/Data Phone Number. Your Home/Voice Phone Number. A Comment Field of 30 characters. Choice of having the screen cleared before reading a message. The Message base areas you want to scan with the "Y A" command. If the system operator has restricted you to only password changes instead of all of the above, you will only be allowed to change it and not the other items listed. (WHO) is Online Subcommands None Description: On multinode systems this command displays the name and location of users that are currently online on all of the nodes in the system. (X) Expert/Novice Mode Toggle Subcommands NONE Description: The (X) command lets you toggle between Expert and Novice mode. When the Expert mode is active, the main menu is never displayed, and most command line prompts are considerably abbreviated. In Novice mode, all menus are displayed and all command line prompts give a more descriptive definition of the commands available. (Y)our Mail Check Subcommands (A) (S) (NS) (+) (-) (C) (A) Scans all message bases. (S) Scans only for mail left since the last message read. (C) Limits scan to current message base only. (+) or (-) forces the direction of the scan. (Q) Display in Quick Scan format. (L) Display in Long Scan format. (NS) Displays text output in non-stop mode. Description: Allows checking for mail left to you or from you in a message base. The above commands can be entered in combination on the same line to limit the scan function as desired. The default for the (Y) command is to scan the current message base only, in reverse direction, checking for mail left by you as well as for mail addressed to you and to scan the complete message base, from the end of the file to the beginning. You can select which areas you want to be scanned when using the (A) subcommand by typing (SELECT) or by using the (W)rite User Info command. (Z)ippy Directory Listing Scan Subcommands (text) (#) (A) (D) (N) (U) (NS) (text) Text you wish to search for. (#) Valid directory number. (A) Scans all directory listings for the text input. (D) Download all files found. (N) Combines the search with a date scan. (S) With (N) indicates new files since last date scanned. (U) Scans only the upload directory(s) for the text. (NS) Displays screen output in non-stop mode. Description: Allows you to search the download directories for words or phrases either in the filename itself or in the description of the files. See examples below. (D) will cause all files found to be flagged for later download the next time you issue a (D)ownload command. (N) combines a new files search with the text search. Examples: * Z A PCBoard The above command will search all of the file directories for the word "PCBoard" (anywhere - the filename, the description or even the extended description lines). * Z A PCBoard & DESQview The above commands will search all of the file directories for any file that has both the word "PCBoard" and the word "DESQview" in the description. * Z PCBoard A N 120189 The above command combines a text search for the word PCBoard with a date search of 12/01/89 or later in search all of the download directories. * Z DESQview A S D The above command combines the Zippy Search of the file directories with a "new files since" search and then flags all files found for later downloading. Examples of using boolean (and / or) searching There are numerous places where PCBoard will ask you for some kind of search criteria for the text you want to scan. In those areas you can simply type in a word or phrase or you may create much more complex searches by using boolean logic symbols in your request. The symbols "&" and "|" can be used to mean AND and OR respectively. In addition you can combine criteria using parentheses to denote the grouping of the search. The rules below apply at any prompt given where PCBoard wants you to tell it what to scan for and the following rules can be used whether you are scanning through the message base, the download directories, the users file or the caller logs. Multiple words making up a sentence or phrase PCBoard version 14.5 Searches for the words "PCBoard version 14.5" all together in a line. Multiple words searching for each word separately PCBoard | Qmodem | Procomm Searches for any text having either PCBoard OR Qmodem OR Procomm anywhere in the text. Multiple words searching for each word separately requiring ALL to match PCBoard & Qmodem & Procomm Searches for any text having ALL THREE words but not necessarily in any order or even next to each other. Using parentheses for grouping DESQview & (PCBoard | Qmodem) Searches for any text having DESQview in it AND having either PCBoard OR Qmodem also in the same text in any order and not necessarily together.