BGRUN 1.0 BETA 03 SAT 08 MAY 93 -------------------------------- Remember, please test this on local phone calls before attempting long distance connects. Please report all problems/suggestions to E02/758. 1. THIS IS BGRUN-002! BGRUN-001 (Beta 1 and Beta 2) are not compatible with Beta 3. If a Beta 1/2 copy tries talking to a Beta 3 copy, they will immediately hang up. 2. Made BGRUN <-> BGRUN connections a little more reliable. Every now and then, BGRUN would think the other end wasn't running BGRUN and would disconnect. Now, only the MDRIVER "I'm ready" character (^F, "") will cause BGRUN to assume the other end isn't running BGRUN. 3. Protocol improved somewhat. If both ends have nothing to deliver, HS/LINK will not be run, saving about 4-5 seconds of connect time. Maybe in the future we may want to switch to the MCI fax plan, i.e., where long distance connects are based on 6-second intervals rather than 1-minute intervals. 4. Beta 2 was doing something very nasty. C-files and F-files were being sent along with g-bags and b-bags. WHOOPS! Fixed. 5. Protocol now reports number of kilobytes awaiting to be sent before the actual transfer begins. While not supported now, IN THE FUTURE, I will probably make an option so that if the number of kilobytes to be delivered exceeds the disk space left on the remote end, that the transfer will abort before it begins, so that mail isn't lost by accident with MDIST. 6. More protocol changes. Now, both system's dates and times are sent to one another for curiosities sake. Again, while not supported now, IN THE FUTURE, I may make it possible for systems to "sync" their clocks off other systems (much in the same way PC-LANs can do it). Also, I plan on checking to see if the other system's clock is equal to 1-1-80 and if so, reject the remote so we don't get mail corruption. (Maybe in beta 4). 7. The number of connectable systems via the BGRUN.CNF file has been increased from 10 to 100. I don't think anyone will need any more than that, but if you do for some reason, let me know. 8. MBAGGERed file requests ARE NOW SUPPORTED!!! I forgot to mention before, BGRUN has been compiled under Turbo Pascal 7.0. BGRUN 1.0 BETA 02 THU 06 MAY 93 -------------------------------- I was informed shortly after the release of Beta 1, some MDRIVER calls were not able to correctly pass through BGRUN /H in the GTCRASH.BAT file. Had something to do with a "{crash}" string, which I have seen before somewhere in the past, but I have been unable to duplicate it with MDRIVER-38, MDRIVER-48 or MDRIVER-50. I don't know if their is a MDRIVER in between that does crash calls differently or what. Anyway, when BGRUN is now run in Host mode, it will timeout if it receives no MDRIVER (^V) or BGRUN sync character within 1.5 seconds, which will then exit with an errorlevel 1, which should run MDRIVER in your GTCRASH.BAT file. I forgot to mention last time, I'm trying out some new com routines I found that allow 16550A FIFO mode. Also, as promised, the config format has changed slightly to allow for more digits in the phone number. Remember the pipes are fixed, so a maximum of 14 characters is allowed in the phone number (and 20 characters in the password, I don't think I mentioned that last time). See the included sample CNF file. PLEASE though, test BGRUN on local systems before attempting long distance phone calls. I want to make sure everything is stable first Let me know how BGRUN is working, and whether its something people want, or if I should drop it before I get too carried away. BGRUN 1.0 BETA 01 WED 05 MAY 93 -------------------------------- A new program to beta test for GT Network sysops. Taking a break from BGQWK and finals for a while, I needed to do something to relieve some stress. So, I decided to write a faster "MDRIVER". The name of this may change, as, just a few hours ago was known as "BGQCQ". The name originally assigned to the program when I first came up with the idea in April 1990. MOVE 100K OF G-BAGS IN LESS THAN ONE MINUTE OF CONNECT TIME!!! First, you need to make sure you have a copy of HSLINK.EXE. The latest version is HS120.ZIP. DSZ is not supported. This program is NOT a replacement for MDRIVER and it is NOT directly compatible with MDRIVER. This program is used for making "crash" calls. Your GTCRASH.BAT should look something like this: @echo off bgrun /h if errorlevel 2 goto dist if errorlevel 1 goto paul goto end :paul mdriver xxxx-yyyy etc.... :dist mdist etc.... :end What's that do? Well, if a person calls you with MDRIVER, BGRUN will notice the MDRIVER-sync control (^V) and exit with an errorlevel 1. Then, MDRIVER will take the crash call as normal. Now, if BGRUN notices the BGRUN-sync control, it will take the call. It will verify the remote CRC, password, and then immediately shell to HSLINK so that G-bags are sent and received AT THE SAME TIME! You can get anywhere from 2600-2800 cps on a standard v.32bis modem! (Note: You do not want to make calls in any kind of HST-moduation. Use only CCITT protocol!) BGRUN is designed only to run on v.32 and v.32bis modems (or 2400 modems that offer some kind of port locking, but not your average 2400 modem.) Before you can do anything though, you need to make a BGRUN.CNF file. Here is a sample file that I use: (Put this in your GTPATH directory!) 2 19200 AT ATDT H: 001/040 xxxx-yyyy 001/070 | 774-7877 | SHINTOM 001/940 | 893-9124 | CaseSensitive The first six lines must be in that order. 1st line: Com port 2nd line: Locked DTE rate 3rd line: Modem init string (for outbound calls) 4th line: Modem dial string 5th line: Netmail drive letter and "colon" 6th line: Net/node in xxx/yyy format (padded with zeros!) 7th line: GT Netmail CRC in xxxx-yyyy format For now, you can only list ten systems. I have two above. The pipes must remain fixed. That only gives you eight characters for the phone number, so you can't make long-distance crash calls with BGRUN yet. I want to make sure everything is stable for local calls first before expanding the width of the field. Remeber net/nodes must be in expanded format, padded with zeros. 1/56 is must be noted as 001/056 in the file. After the second pipe, we have the passwords for that node. They are case sensitive. A password must be used, it can not be omitted. Both systems (remote and host must have an entry for each other in their BGRUN.CNF files). Well, the only other thing is this: To make a crash call with BGRUN, put the net/node (in full format, padded with zeros) as the first thing on the command line. BGRUN 001/070 will cause BGRUN to crash 001/070. BGRUN /H means this copy of BGRUN is acting as the "host" and should only appear in the GTCRASH.BAT. How fast is BGRUN? Here is a sample log file (BGRUN.LOG in your GTPATH): 05-05-93 17:13:31 INCOMING BGRUN CALL 05-05-93 17:13:31 REMOTE 001/070 BGRUN-001 SN 01993 05-05-93 17:13:38 DISCONNECT 05-05-93 17:13:38 NO FILE TRANSFER 05-05-93 17:13:38 END SESSION In the above sample, 001/070 called 001/940 (me, the host). BGRUN took the call at 5:13:31 and, no files to deliver, ended at 5:13:38 seconds. That was only 7 seconds! Please note BGRUN-host only started counting after all the CQs were received, etc. So, you can add about 7 more seconds to it, so, the call lasted only 15 seconds, more or less. 05-05-93 16:27:55 001/070 CONNECT 14400/ARQ [B=000 T=001] 05-05-93 16:28:03 HOST 001/070 BGRUN-001 SN 01993 05-05-93 16:28:46 DISCONNECT 05-05-93 16:28:46 UL: Z0001070.001 h 466 38400 bps 79 cps 0 errors 0 466 H:\MAILOUT\Z0001070.001 0 05-05-93 16:28:47 DL: G0006940.001 H 48539 38400 bps 1609 cps 0 errors 0 3483 H:\MAILWORK\G0001940.001 0 05-05-93 16:28:47 UL: G0001070.001 h 48498 38400 bps 1471 cps 0 errors 15434 3442 H:\MAILOUT\G0001070.001 0 05-05-93 16:28:47 END SESSION Now, this example shows some stuff happening. Here, I called 001/070 from my machine. The CONNECT came at 4:27:55. BGRUN had successfully identified me at 4:28:03 (this means it took about 8 seconds for GT to receive all the CQs and run BGRUN, then, handshake, compare CRCs, password, IDs, etc.) Now, I sent two files to 001/070 (about 50K worth) and 001/070 sent me another 48K worth (at the same time with HS/Link). And the line was disconnected at 4:28:46. SO, we moved about 100K of G-Bags from 4:27:55 to 4:28:46. THAT'S LESS THAN ONE MINUTE!!! It probably made it at right about exactly 1 minute when you take into account the v.32bis mating tones that CCITT protocol makes before "CONNECT"ing. After Beta 1 is tested for a while and assumed stable for local connects, I will allow it to use long distance connects in Beta 2.