Date: Fri Oct 09 1992 11:17:36 From: Glen Gilbert To: Steve Ungvary Subj: Comment from Steve Ungvary Attr: privileged PRIVATE - BBS ------------------------------- Regarding the message from Steve Ungvary of 1:157/534 writing to Gilhooly of 1:157/534 on .. SU> I downloaded ESC154 from Treasure Island 1:141/730 and I had some SU> questions. First it worked!!!! in less than 10 mins I was up. I have SU> Bink and Maximus hooked up and working but I have never been able to SU> join FidoNet because I couldn't figure out how to get/send mail.My BBS SU> is called The 12th Step BBS (203)852-1986 and if it ever gets finished SU> it will be devoted to Recovery issues. Can ESC call a BBS? If so where SU> would I put the errorlevels in mail.bat? Again it's a great program SU> that works!! Thanks SU> ===>steve Hi Steve, I'm glad it works for you. :) Here's what I would do to the MAIL.BAT to call your BBS from the UNATTENDED Binkley mode. Realizing that the fossil initialization, drive, subdirectory and the name of the batch file which loads your BBS software is subject to individual applications. First, Tell Esc that you want Binkley to Answer your phone. This is done by using the Esc editor and toggling the Auto Answer option in the BOSSNODE section to YES. Be certain to have Esc write your Binkley config out to disk afterwards. Or you may make the simple modifcation with a text editor and save your change to disk. Next, find the label :drc in the MAIL.BAT and make modifications similar to those which I have marked below. You need to understand that Binkley will exit with an errorlevel when you get a human (BBS) caller if you uncomment the ;BBS Batch line in the Binkley.Cfg. Just remove the semicolon and save your changed binkley.cfg to disk. The errorlevel will be the caller's bps rate divided by 100 except in the case of 38,400. Errorlevels cannot exceed 256, therefore 384 - 256 = 128. Binkley creates a file named BBSBATCH.BAT when it exits with a BBS call. This little batch file calls another batch file named SPAWNBBS.BAT. Which YOU must create. This file must catch the parameters which the BBSBATCH.BAT provides and then process them to start your BBS. This aspect is explained and is expanded upon in the BT_USER.DOC under the topic "BBS batch". The documentation which comes with your BBS software will tell you what it expects for command line parameters in order to invoke your BBS. Because we both use Maximus, the examples below will for the most part, apply directly. My latest BBSBATCH.BAT written by Binkley looks like this; SPAWNBBS 9600 9600 2 1023 /Arq/V32/Lapm/V42Bis The SPAWNBBS.BAT will be different for different BBS software. You need to examine the BBSBATCH.BAT after you've had a BBS caller to understand what is being passed to the SPAWNBBS.BAT. Then you must pick the parameters and process them in the proper order within your SPAWNBBS.BAT Here is my SPAWNBBS.BAT; max max -b%2 -p%3 -t%4 -s%1 As you can see, the parameters are parsed in the order of 2,3,4 and 1. In this case (for MAXIMUS 2.01wb) the command line is executed thusly. 1. Call MAX.EXE 2. Tell MAX.EXE to use the control file MAX.CTL (default if left out) 3. Accept the 2nd parameter from the spawnbbs.bat which is 9600 (bps) 4. Accept the 3rd parameter from the spawnbbs.bat which is comport 2 5. Accept the 4th parameter from the spawnbbs.bat which is time left until the next scheduled forced event (1440 if none). 6. Accept the 1st parameter from the spawnbbs.bat which is your locked port speed. The remaining /Arq/V32 etc. (extended modem response) which would be -?%5 is ignored and discarded in this case. SPAWNBBS.BAT returns control to the MAIL.BAT once the caller logs off of the BBS. Mail.bat will then bring Binkley back up in the unattended mode just as it was before the BBS call. This procedure is tough to comprehend but makes good sense once you see it in operation. _ _ _ O / _ _ s_n_i_p _h_e_r_e_ _ _ _ O \ Rem * MAIL.BAT CHANGES FOR A BBS APPLICATION :drc cls C: CD \BT BNU /L1,19200 /R=4096 /T=2048 ;port locking VFOS_IBM ;for color Binkley screen REM ******* MODIFICATIONS ******** :FRONT_END ;Label for recycling after a BBS call BT UNATTENDED if errorlevel 192 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;19,200 if you've got a locked port if errorlevel 128 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;38,400 if you've got a locked port if errorlevel 96 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;9600 bps caller (BBS) if errorlevel 72 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;7200 bps caller (BBS) if errorlevel 48 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;4800 bps caller (BBS) if errorlevel 24 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;2400 bps caller (BBS) if errorlevel 12 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;1200 bps caller (BBS) if errorlevel 3 goto DROP_TO_BBS ;300 bps caller (BBS) goto OUT_OF_BINK ;If you are simply exiting Binkley :DROP_TO_BBS call BBSBATCH ;Or whatever you call you batch file which runs your bbs goto FRONT_END ;To restart Binkley after a BBS caller logs off :OUT_OF_BINK ;Label to exit Binkley and return to the MAIL Menu REM ******** END OF MODIFICATIONS ******* VFOS_DEL ;Color systems BNU /U ;Remove Com Fossil goto top ;Restart MAIL menu _ _ _ O / _ _ s_n_i_p _h_e_r_e_ _ _ _ O \ If your BBS resides in a separate directory, you will have to insure that drive paths are defined properly in your modifications. Also, you must coordinate your BBS message area directory and filenames with that of your mailer setup. I have tested this on my system and it works. By following these instructions and making similar modifications it should work for you as well. I hope this helps. Glen