SDN INTERNATIONAL(sm) The Shareware Distribution Network SDN Shareware User Kit - Revision #12 Guidelines for User Participation Published from The SDN Project, January 23rd 1996 (c)Copyright 1996 Ray Kaliss - The SDN Project This document is Copyright The SDN Project 1996 and the property of Ray L. Kaliss as The SDN Project. This document in not public domain. It is intended as an informational document for Shareware author's considering distribution via SDN International. This document may be copied whole and unmodified for that intent only. Official SDN International Policy is formulated by The SDN Project and published at The SDN Project Bulletin Board in Meriden, CT, U.S.A. 203-634-0370. Policy posted online at The SDN Project supersedes policy in circulation or of earlier date. -= Copyright =- SDN, The SDN Project, the service mark of SDN International (sm) and SDNews! as used by The SDN Project are Copyright 1989 - 1996 by Ray L. Kaliss and can not be used with out express written permission. 1. SDN INTERNATIONAL(sm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SDN International is The Shareware Distribution Network since January 1989. The trusted and respected pipeline to hundreds of bulletin boards among Fidonet's 30,000 and growing participating boards. Beyond that - SDN distributes through satellites, Internet and major online services. SDN is always open to other avenues of distribution. SDN reaches all of North America and into Europe such as Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and further. SDN is imported into the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Puerto Rico and many other countries. Software distributed by SDN is Shareware for DOS, Windows, and OS/2 operating systems. United States Copyright laws defines shareware as 'Try before you buy'. When you obtain files by SDN distribution you should read the copyright and license of the program you have obtained to learn the author's terms of your trial use of the product. Shareware is a distribution method and you are expected to use the product for a limited time, set by the authors terms, and pay the authors asking registration price if you decide you would like to use the product longer. 2. WHAT ARE SDN FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SDN files are shareware author's programs that authors have been sent to SDN International for processing and distribution. Each file is a compression of individual program files into one archive for easy downloading. As an example, you might see this type of listing on the BBS or online service that you log into. FILES SIZE DATE DESCRIPTION --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3MENU10.ZIP 112987 02/15/93 Three-Menu 1.0 easy DOS menu system MYED410.ZIP 648833 02/15/93 My Editor 4.10 programmers editor OLCOM51.ZIP 1290000 02/19/93 ONLine COM 5.1 full featured terminal Each archive file contains an author's complete program in compressed form. When you download that file, you have the complete program ready to be un-packaged. The file is named to reflect the program and version number it contains. SDN files are compressed using PKWare's pkzip, pkunzip.exe should be used to decompress, or unpackage them. 3. WHAT ARE SDN.ID FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inside every SDN there is a pure ASCII text file that you can read to get a description of the program. The files name is SDN.ID. It lets you know you have a program that was distributed via SDN. If the secruity seals are not broken, you can be assured you have recieved the authors program, complete and in the form and condition the author released it in. Nothing has been extracted, nothing added, and nothing changed. XMENU EXE 60123 12-11-93 7:44p XMENU DOC 123564 12-13-93 12:00p MENUAPP1 DAT 2345 10-01-93 10:00a --> SDN ID 1200 10-12-93 1:00p UTILONE EXE 47567 2-04-93 2:00p On most BBS'es where you can find SDN files you may also find a message area in the message base where copies of each program's SDN.ID are posted. This makes for easy browsing of all the SDN programs posted at the BBS. 4. TESTING AUTHENTICATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each file distributed via SDN is enclosed in a two security seals. The Zip Authentication Verification or -AV, will be tested unpon decompression. The other security is the SDNSeal(c) security and may be tested using SDNTest(c). If you can not find SDNTest, you can download it from The SDN Project BBS at 203-634-0370 as sdntestd.zip for DOS and sdntestp.zip for OS/2. Put SDNTEST.EXE on path, then, to test the SDNSeal on any file SDN has distributed, enter... C:>sdntest filename.zip If the results are good, the file has indeed been distributed via SDN International, it is not corrupt and had not been tampered with. Any failure means either the file was not distributed via SDN, the file has been tampered with, or the compression has become corrupt. In any failure case, use the program only at your own risk. 5. DECOMPRESSION OR UNPACKING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unpackage an SDN file, you need the program pkunzip.exe from PKWare's zip program version 2.04g or later. It is best to place this program 'on path' which means to place it in a directory given in the "PATH=" statement of your config.sys. Since the /DOS directory is usually on path, you can place it there. Now you will be able to use it no matter what your currant directory may be. Change to the directory in which you have placed the SDN Zip file. For the sake of example, let us say that the name of the file you wish to decompress is "xword110.zip".. you would unpackage it this way. C:>pkunzip xword110 During decompression, each file is tested for Zip security and you should see an -AV beside each file as it decompresses. /eof