FDcst version 1.14 ------------------ Program developed under Turbo Pascal v5.5 This software is CopyRight 1991 by Santiago Crespo 2:341/24 in FidoNet Europe Special Thanks to: - My beta test team: (in alphabetical order) David Fern ndez 2:341/14.3 Eelco De Graf 2:281/1 Francis De.La.LLera 2:346/4.2 Jan Vroonhof 2:281/1.1 Nicolas Knapp 2:341/10 Orlando Castillo 2:346/4 Oskar Azanza 2:344/3 Peter Janssens 2:512/1 - Joaquim Homrighausen, FrontDoor's author, who gently, helped me technically on certain FDcst's development moments... (well, you know..). Also (for the same reason), thanks to Gerard Van Der Land from the Netherlands.. - Nicolas Knapp for many ideas for the program and a BIG BIG log which was very useful against bugs in FDcst... +====================== LICENSE ======================+ | This program may be used in non-commercial enviro- | | ments, ONLY. If you want to use it on systems whe- | | re you are working, using it for your business,you | | *MUST* get in touch with the author (me ;-) at the | | fidonet address given in the manual | +=====================================================+ Anyway, If you like the program !!!!!! $10 are always welcome... just, NETmail me. - Page 1 - INDEX: ------ - PROGRAM'S HISTORY ...................... 3 - TARIFFS ................................ 4 - CONFIGURING TARIFFS with FDCST ......... 6 - GENERAL CONFIGURATION of FDCST ......... 9 - APPENDIX ............................... 10 - Page 2 - 1 - BRIEF PROGRAM'S HISTORY --------------------------- This program has been written to justify how much I was really spending on phone with the modem and so, put clear that I was not the only guilty of the phone bill. You know, parents who say: "I'll brake that modem and..;-) It's less than one year, by 1989 on September I decided to write the program encouraged by some Fidonet people.. It was then less than six months I had an IBM compatible, so I was not any expert on DOS programming.. However, I knew some pascal from my old computer, so I got Turbo Pascal from Borland and wrote a couple of versions of the program until I now, when I have added to the calls registration, a files IN/OUT per nodes on IN and OUT-bound calls in this, the last version. If you already knew FDcst version 1.07a, you will realize this is quite different about the SETUP and the general presentation. You will also realize it's much faster and that MANY bugs have been erased from the source code... However, we can never take out all the bugs just because we do not know them, so if you discover one, please, report it by NETmail. This version works with a .SYS file which contains the most part of the parameters which FDcst needs to work. That data is kept in binary mode, which is much more compact than the .CFG files (and faster too!) The .CFG file is kept to hold the BBS' information although it will probably be removed in the next version by another binary file. This version works with LOG files generated by FrontDoor versions 1.99b, 1.99c, 2.0 and 2.01. - Page 3 - 2 - HOW DO TARIFFS WORK???? --------------------------- If there is something really important for FDcst, it's the tariffs concept and working way... I will try to explain it on a simple way: Let's say that the telephone company charges ALWAYS a CONSTANT amount of money. This constant amount is called STEP. The step, is actually in Spain 3'9 (+VAT) pesetas. The difference between the cost of a local call and a long distance one is in the TIME to be charged a STEP. This depends on the hour and the distance, Offcourse! ([tm] Peter Janssens ;-) Actually, there are three NATIONAL tariffs in Spain, which are: - Urban: calls made into the same district, or contiguous districts with their urban area. This means, calls into the same city, town or village. In this type of calls, a STEP is charged every 180 seconds on any hour of the day on any day of the week on any week in any month... - Inter-urban of less than 100 kilometres: calls made between two cities which are closer than 100 km. In these calls, the intervals are not the same in the different hours or days of the week. (see table A) - Inter-urban of more than 100 kilometres: these are the calls made into Spain between two cities which are further than 100km. This includes calls to Canarias and Baleares from any place. The intervals are also different depending on the day of the week and the hours of the day... (see table B) TABLE A --------------------------------------------------- Init call charge Tar.1 Tar.2 Tar.3 15,60 pts 13'9s 27'1s 9,8s --------------------------------------------------- TABLE B --------------------------------------------------- Init call charge Tar.1 Tar.2 Tar.3 15,60 pts 7'8s 15'0s 5'5s --------------------------------------------------- - Page 4 - Tariffs 1, 2 and 3 depend of the HOUR and the DAY as it's explained below: - Tariff 1: From Monday to Friday from 17 to 22 hours. - Tariff 2: On Sundays and non-working days, and on Saturdays from 14 hours, and the rest of the week from 22 to 8 hours of the following day. - Tariff 3: From Monday to Friday from 8 to 17 hours and Saturdays from 8 to 14 hours. -------------------------------------------------- Let's have a practical example to make it clear: EXAMPLE 1: A call to a system in the same city: --------- On any time, the cost is the same, we will be charged a STEP every 180 seconds. It means that when we connect, we are charged 3'9 pts until the next 180 seconds, when we will be charged another 3.9 pts (the value of a single STEP). So, if we connect for ONE second, or we connect for TWO minutes, the cost is the same... EXAMPLE 2: A call to a system in another city --------- city, placed less than 100km far from us: Now, it's important the day of the week (if it is Sunday or not) and the hour of the day. Go and see table A. Then you apply the correct interval. And what's more: we are charged an amount of money, just because the other system answered the phone, JUST BECAUSE IT ANSWERED. Then, according to table A, we are charged 15,6 pts. Then, we have to check the HOUR and depending on it, the interval to be charged a single STEP may be from 27'1 seconds to 9'8 seconds. So if we call on Sunday, whenever we call, or on Tuesday after 22 hours and before 8, we will be charged 3'9pts every 27'1 seconds. EXAMPLE 3: A NATIONAL call to another system in --------- a place further than 100km: In this case, also, depending of the day of the week and the hour the price will be different according to table B. And you will also be charged another plus of 15'6 pts just when the other system answers to your call. It works on the same way than example 2 but using the intervals in table B. - Page 5 - TARIFFS IN FDCST v1.14: ----------------------- These, are configured in the SETUP into FDcst, which is the menu at the left of the screen. All the data for this is kept binary form in FDCST.SYS file. When we load the program we'll get the main menu: ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± F D c s t v 1.14 ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± (C) Santiago Crespo 1.990 ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± __________________________________±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± > Configure ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± Results ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± Quit to DOS ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Once here, we press ENTER when we have selected the CONFIGURE option, which is there by default: ±±±±±±±±ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± F D c s t v 1.14 ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± (C) Saßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß±±±±±± ±±±±±±± _________ F D c s t v 1.14 ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± C O N F I G U R A T I O N ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± > ___________________________________±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± > Tariffication ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± System Files ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± Miscellanea ±±±±±± ±±±±±±± Store Configuration ±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Main Menu ±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Then, just choose Tariffication SETUP: ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± > Tarifficatßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß±± System F F D c s t v 1.14 ±± Miscella T A R I F F S setup ±± Store Config ______________________________±± Main Me ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± > Step Price ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Seconds to CONNECT ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Added tax ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Number of Tariffs ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Tariffs Definition ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Return ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± ±±± ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± The Step price is configurable, offcourse!, so we choose that item pressing ENTER over it. Then, we'll write the right amount for our telephone company. (In Spain, the value is 3.9). The seconds to connect is the amount of time (in seconds) which is taken my our modem and the remote one to connect between them. FroDo does only measure the time since it receives the CONNECT message from the modem but the modem itself takes some time from the answer of the remote until it sends carrier and finally connect. I think the time between two v22bis modems it is about seven seconds. Just try a good clock a calculator and... The added tax, means just what it says. In Europe, it is usually the VAT tax. In Spain it's about a 12% added to the result of the bill. The number of tariffs is exactly that: the number of tariffs established by your telephone company. There are three in Spain: the normal, expensive and cheap ones. The Tariffs Definition option creates another window with nine tariffs from T1 to T9. If there are not active tariffs they all will appear on dark grey, and in grey the active ones. We will press the number of the tariff we wanna define. Then it will show another window with all the days in the week. We will select one day after another until we configure all of them like this: - Page 6 - The first window will look like this: ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ Tariffs Definition ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ Tariff Monday Tuesday Friday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ³ ³-------------------------------------------------------------------- ³ ³ T1 û û û û û û û ³ ³ T2 û û û û û û ³ ³ T3 û û û û û ³ ³ T4 ³ ³ T5 ³ ³ T6 ³ ³ T7 ³ ³ T8 ³ ³ T9 ³ ³ Tariff to edit [1..3] (ESC quits) > ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Once here, you select the tariff you'd like to de- fine and the window which will appear will be like this: ³ Tariff Monday Tuesday FÚÄÄÄÄ´ T1 ÃÄÄÄÄ¿ Friday ³----------------------------³ 1-Monday ³--------- ³ T1 û û ³ 2-Tuesday ³ û ³ T2 û û ³ 3-Wednesday ³ û ³ T3 û û ³ 4-Thursday ³ û ³ T4 ³ 5-Friday ³ ³ T5 ³ 6-Saturday ³ ³ T6 ³ 7-Sunday ³ ³ T7 ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ T8 Well, we, now, select the number of the day to be defined and, this will be what we get: Then, a new window which contains numbers from 00 to 24 (hours) is opened. You will select with the UP and DOWN arrow keys and ENTER the hour-status. If there is a "*" below the hour, it means that FOR THAT TARIFF and THAT DAY, that hour is included in it. So, any call made at that hour on the day of the week we are configuring, will be processed using the tariff which we are defining now too!! And that window is like: ³Tariff Monday Tuesday FÚÄÄÄÄ´ T1 ÃÄÄÄÄ¿ Friday Saturday Su ³----ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ 1 ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ T1³ 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 ³ ³ T2³ * * * * * * * * ³ ³ T3³ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ³ ³ T4³ * * ³ ³ T5³ ³ ³ T6³ SAVE ESCAPE ³ ³ T7³ ³ ³ T8ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ T9 ³ Tariff to edit [1..3] (ESC quits) > - Page 7 - GENERAL CONFIGURATION of FDCST v1.14 ------------------------------------ When you run the program for a very first time, a window will appear on the screen asking for the FDcst's control file (FDCST.SYS). If there is not anyone, it asks to create a new one. The data in this file is kept in binary mode. Answering Y or S it will create a new FDCST.SYS file. Then, the main menu will be shown. Then press C to configure. You will start configuring the tariffs as it is explained before asking to your local telephone company as I don't know all the tariffs in the world.. ;-) Once you have configured the taruffs you will choose MISCELLANEOUS, where you will select the LANGUAJE, video access (BIOS or DIRECT), and the name of your system. The last thing you can configure are the names of the output files: from printer to the text report files. --------------------------------------------------- When we execute the RESULTS option, the program will read FD's LOG file, and when it finds a SYSTEM which is not defined for FDCST, it will ask us to define it. If we do not press any key in 15 seconds, FDCST will suppose we do not want to define it. This is very useful when you run FDCST in batch mode using the "-A" or "/A" switches. If we agree to configure it, we will be asked the amount of money we are charged just when CONNECTING with the modem (explained in tariffs). If this is a local call, it may be 0 or whatever it is in your case. COMMAND LINE' SWITCHES: It is possible to run FDcst --------------------------------- using command line switches. They will alter in some way, the way FDcst will work: BATCH MODE: [/A] o [-A]: You can run FDcst from your BBS's batch file in case you want to delete your LOG daily or whenever. In this case, there will be no menus. It will process the LOG and generate the report files. MONOCHROME CARD: [-M] o [/M]: It is supposed that FDcst will detect what card your computer has but in some cases, it can fail or just, we have got a colour card being used with a monochrome monitor, so we'd rather to use the mono colours to be able of reading what the program says.. This is what the switch is for. - Page 8 - BIOS VIDEO: [-B] o [/B]: It means that we want FDcst to write to screen using the ROM BIOS routines. These routines DO WORK ON ANY graphic card. It is also necessary for some multitasking systems. (SEE DESQview below). It is much slower than direct screen access but, it may be neccessary on some machines. DIRECT VIDEO: [-D] o [/D]: This method is much faster on almost avery case. I have checked it works on CGA, EGA, MDA, MCGA, VGA and Hercules graphics cards. It MAY work on others or may not. In that case, use the BIOS VIDEO option. *** DESQview *** There are no problems if you use FDcst under DESQview with DIRECT VIDEO enabled. FDcst will detect where the new screen frame is. -------------------------------------------------- HISTORIAL --------- The Historial section is just a switch which makes FDcst not to scan the files sent/received until the last time it processed the log file. All of that information is stored in FDCSTO.HIS and FDCSTI.HIS files,for out and inbound calls each one. If you are to process a new log, or something which is not linked to the previous proce- ssed log, just go into FDCST HISTORIAL and say: "repro- cess log: YES" and it will work ok. Another way to do it is to call fdcst with the "/R" switch like this: FDCST /r. - Page 9 - APPENDIX: --------- If this program is useful for you, do please, send me a NETMAIL message. Santiago Crespo - FidoNet: 2:341/24