TIPS AND TRICKS FROM T&J SOFTWARE
Revised: 08/07/1994
WILDCAT! 4.x
============
* Problems may develop using the DOOR.SYS drop file if you have
a LARGE number of conferences. I would suggest picking up a copy
of a file called FDOORSYS.ZIP written by Tim Rider (Tim can be
reached on The Source BBS at 310-371-3737). Here is what Tim's
documentation states:
"WildCat! v4.0 allows up to 32,000 conference areas. Due to the
specifications of DOOR.SYS, all the conferences that a user is
joined to are written to line #23 of DOOR.SYS. 32,000 conferences
takes up a lot of room, and some SysOps have a DOOR.SYS file that may
end up to be over 100k. Some doors have been choking on the large
DOOR.SYS, so I wrote this small utility to remove that line."
from FDOORSYS.DOC by Tim Rider
RENEGADE BBS
============
* If you are using BNU fossil driver and having problems with the
doors, try using X00 v1.50+. Several Renegade systems have reported
problems using BNU with the doors.
* If you are getting out of memory errors. Go into the System Config
section, [E] System Toggles, then [U] to turn the SWAP FILE 'ON'.
TRIBBS v5.02+
=============
* Color ANSI checking will not work if you use TRIBBS.SYS drop file.
Set the doors up using the PCBOARD.SYS drop file.
* If you use DOOR.SYS, TriBBS reloads this file and will deduct twice
the amount of time that was actually used. Try using another drop
file, or copying the DOOR.SYS to a seperate directory and then
telling the door to look there for it.
* NOTE: This only applies to doors that you adjust the users time in
the door such as Bordello, Studs, and Studette.
T&J Raffle
==========
* An ILLEGAL FUNCTION CALL will result if you enter a "closing
date" that is not valid. If you want the door to lock at the
end of the month, then put in the first of the month.
Remote Access v2.0
==================
* Using DOOR.SYS may result in an OVERFLOW error -- try using a
different caller drop file such as DORINFO1.DEF. This is currently
being examined!
Keyboard Timeouts
=================
* If you are operating on a 486 computer and getting a "keyboard
timeout", you will need to set the following environmental variable
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
SET NO87=ON
This will turn off your co-processor and allow the door to function
properly
Overflow Errors
===============
* Overflows can occur if you are running under DESQview and your tick
counts are set too low -- try raising the tick counts.
* If you're running Wildcat! v3.9+ and are getting OVERFLOW errors,
make sure NONE of your security level definitions have the MAXIMUM
DAILY DOWNLOADS set to more than 32,000 -- anything over that will
cause an OVERFLOW ERROR in ANY door using DOORFRAME.
Garbled Information on Remote
=============================
* If the door seems to operate fine on the BBS end but the remote
cannot receive or receives garbled information, check and make sure
you are passing the correct IRQ to the door (if you are running a
non standard IRQ).
Graphic Cards (general)
=======================
* ATI Graphics Ultra Pro card - do not use the ANSI.SYS driver that
came with the card. Use the normal DOS ANSI.SYS for the screens
to show correctly.
* Trident SVGA Cards - You should have a utility disk with a file
called TANSI.SYS, use this ansi driver instead of the standard
ANSI.SYS.
DESQview/X
==========
* Make sure you have the MATH COPROCESSOR flagged ON even if you don't
have a math coprocessor.
Lockups on certain COM PORTS
============================
* If you're running on a non-standard IRQ, be sure you are passing the
IRQ on the command line!! Example: STUDS! STUDS!.CFG /5
Studs! will now run on IRQ 5.
Upgrading to New Versions
=========================
* When you purchase a KEY from T&J Software, that KEY is valid for
all upgrades also!
Wildcat! 3.x
============
* If you are running Studs!, Studette!, or Bordello!, you must use the
caller drop file DOOR.SYS to make sure the callers remaining time is
passed back to Wildcat!
* Wildcat! IM Version Setup using DigiFossil v1.3:
All of our doors will run on the Wildcat! IM version using DigiFos
v1.3. I have received TWO different setup routines concerning the
IM version, here's an example:
DF LOCK%WCNODEID% -OR- DF ON
CD\WC30\DOOR\STUDS CD\WC30\DOOR\STUDS
STUDS! STUDS!.CFG /FD STUDS! STUDS!.CFG
CD\WC30 CD\WC30
DF OFF DF OFF
Comments on either setup would be greatly appreciated!
Spitfire BBS's
==============
* If you're having trouble with the doors dropping carrier on exiting
back to the BBS, switch to using DOOR.SYS instead of SFDOORS.DAT.
On some Spitfire configurations this will happen when using
SFDOORS.DAT.
Using DESQview
==============
* If you're running the doors under DV and you're getting ANSI
character codes on the local monitor, be sure to load the file
DVANSI.COM in the main batch file that starts your BBS!
Bulletin PATHS and FILENAMES
============================
* When specifying the bulletin path, be sure to also select a name
for the bulletin! This could cause lockups when using Bordello,
Strip Poker, and Video Poker. If you don't want bulletins created,
simply enter the word NONE for the path and filename.
REGISTERED KEYS
===============
* Distribution of a registered key is against copyright laws, which
carries significant penalties. If a registered key is found being
distributed, all keys purchased from us (by the person distributing
the keys) will be invalidated and the matter will be turned over to
our attorney's. We do share this information with other shareware
authors.
ERROR Codes (general)
=====================
* ERROR #53 - This error means a file was not found. If this occurs
right when the door is opened, please check the PATH to the caller
drop file (i.e. DOOR.SYS), or make sure the caller drop file is
being created properly!
QuickBasic Error codes
DoorFrame uses the QB error codes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Syntax Error 61 Disk full
5 Ilegal Function Call 62 Input past end of File
6 Overflow 63 Bad record number
7 Out of memory 64 Bad filename
11 Division by Zero 67 Too many files
13 type mismatch 68 Device unavailable
24 Device Timeout 69 Comm-buffer overflow
25 Device fault 70 Permission denied
52 Bad filename or number 71 Disk not ready
53 File Not Found 72 Disk media error
55 File Already open 74 Rename across disk
57 Device I/O error 75 Path/File access error
58 File already exists 76 Path not found
59 Bad Record length
The most common error that you will see is #62. This is usually caused
by the CFG file not having enough lines. I have included this list so
that you may be able to fix a problem that occurs with a T&J Software
door.
Error #75 is usually an incorrect path and/or filename in the CFG
file.