******************************************************************************* TriBBS Sysop Help File #1 by Patrick J. Driscoll Sysop of Pat's Place BBS (803) 821-8689 ******************************************************************************* Hello to all new sysops, First, I want to thank you for downloading this file. I hope it helps you setup and run your bbs. This is primarily for the TriBBS bulletin board system, by Mark Goodwin, but may help with other bbs systems too. This is the first in a continuing series of help files and I hop to compile them into a large "electronic book" when I have covered all the aspects of a TriBBS system. Second, this series of help files will NOT cover how to unzip and install the TriBBS bbs program. Mark Goodwin has made the program simple to setup and get running, with an install program that works very well. I will cover how to use TriBBS with; Frontdoor, door games, callback verifiers, master file list generators, between batch file programs, upload & download batch file programs, Fossil Drivers, Modems, Fax doors, message networks and anything else that could be of help to a new sysop. No more B.S., on to the first help area.... TriBBS and Door Games. TriBBS has the ability to generate almost any kind of drop file. A drop file is a short text file that gives name of user, comm port being used, time left for this call, time left for this day, ANSI or Monochrome display and other facts about the current user. TriBBS makes this file automaticlly, and requires no help from the sysop. Door games use these drop files to "collect" the information needed to run for a particular user. TriBBS creates these files when a user logs on. Get the game you want to setup for your bbs. Make a directory for it on your hard drive and unzip the file in that directory. Find the doc's for the game and, if possible, print them off. If not, read them and keep them handy for future reference. What you want to look for is what type of drop file it needs, and how it needs to be called from the batch file to run. I suggest that if the game can be run with a DOOR.SYS drop file (or GAP), that you use this drop file. DOOR.SYS is one of the few drop files that is standard, on whatever system you run. Ok, you have an idea how it works. Modify the Config. file if needed, and most doors will need this step completed. Remember to refer to the doc's often, as this is the only way you are going to set it up. With over 7000 doors available, I can't list how all are setup on an individual basis. After you have edited the .cfg file, move to you main TriBBS directory. Here you will have to make a batch file to run the door. This is the file TriBBS calls up to run the door, and return from the door when the user is done. Here is an example of a door batch file; CD C:\TRIBBS\DOORS\HANG (This changes the directory to where the door is located) NECKTIE NECKTIE.CFG (This calls up the door as per the docs) CD\TRIBBS (This switches back to the main TriBBS directory) BOARD (This calls the board back up) Line 3 & 4 will almost always be the same for all doors. Some doors require a .cfg file to be called from the batch file, some don't and some ask for other parimeters. Thats the reason for keeping the doc's handy. Next, change to your NWORK directory. Go to the DOORS.MNU and add a line for the new door. Heres an example; D,Hangman,HMAN,10 D-stands for DOOR.SYS, the drop file type. Hangman-is the name of the game as will appear on the menu. HMAN-is the name of the batch file to call. 10-is the minimum security level allowed to access the door. Thats all there is to doors. A couple of things to remember. First, read the doc's. Second, read the doc's again. Third, don't name the batch file the same thing as the executable for the door, this causes problems. Also, a quirk in MSDOS can cause problems if the batch file name and the directory holding the game is named the same. Avoid doing this. And last, have someone log on your bbs and try out the door to see if it works from the remote side. A door game can work fine in local mode, and not work at all or lock up your system, from the remote side. TriBBS and Front Door. First, setup FrontDoor. There are a bunch of "How to" files out there on what you need to do to get it running. All I will cover is how to interface TriBBS with FrontDoor. You will also need TriDog and a mail tosser. Second, set up TriDog as per doc's. Follow the doc's and you will have no problems. Then we get to the batch files needed. Here is an example of your RUNFD.BAT. This is the batch file that FrontDoor is called from, and that Frontdoor will access when it recieves an errorlevel. @Echo off :loop ': denotes a label. Need to know how to write D: batch files' CD D:\FD fd if errorlevel 200 goto CALLBBS \ if errorlevel 68 goto DOTRIDOG \ if errorlevel 41 goto dogwme \ Errorlevels passed by Front if errorlevel 40 goto delall \ door to the batch file. if errorlevel 39 goto MAIL_PACKUP / if ERRORLEVEL 31 goto Mail_Received / if errorlevel 10 goto USRBRK / if errorlevel 1 goto FDERROR / :CALLBBS CALL DOBBS d: CD\FD GOTO LOOP :dotridog cd d:\tridog tridog CD d:\FD goto loop :dogwme cd d:\trid2 tridog cd d:\fd goto loop :delall CD D:\GECHO GECHO TOSS CD D:\TRIDOG TRIDOG CD D:\TRID2 TRIDOG CD D:\GECHO GECHO SCAN CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\1 'All this DEL *.MSG is used to delete the DEL *.MSG FrontDoor message base, which is not CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\2 needed after importing.' DEL *.MSG CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\3 DEL *.MSG CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\4 DEL *.MSG CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\5 DEL *.MSG CD D:\FD\MSGBASE\6 DEL *.MSG CD D:\FD GOTO LOOP :Mail_Received CD d:\GECHO 'Mail tosser. Again, read the doc's' GECHO TOSS CD d:\FD Goto Loop :Mail_Packup CD d:\GECHO GECHO SCAN 'More mail tosser stuff' CD D:\FD GOTO LOOP :userbrk 'What FD does when you hit ALT+Q' cls @User Break goto Loop :fderror @echo Mailer Returned An Error (1 - 9) cd d:\fd goto loop :done :fatal cls @echo Front Door Down :end @echo Bye Bye Make sure this batch file is in your Front Door directory, and use it to call up FD and run the whole show. This next batch file is your EXEBBS.BAT file. This file is called by FD using DOBBS.BAT, a file it creates. EXEBBS.BAT is fairly straight forward. c: {What drive is TriBBS on} cd tribbs2\nwork {Change to TriBBS's NWORK directory} del doors.tmp {delete the DOORS.TMP file, just incase someone drops carrier on you, the next person will not start up where the last person left off.} cd\tribbs2 {Change to the main TriBBS directory} call board2.bat /f%1%5 /C%2 /T%3 /h {Call board.bat with the following parimeters from DOBBS.BAT. Use /f%1%5 for FD ver 2.11+ and /f%1%4 for FD ver 2.02NC. /f is the baud rate, /C is the comm port, /T is the time til the next event and /h tells tribbs to hangup after caller logs off} This is your DOBBS.BAT. Front door creates it when it recieves an errorlevel 200 call. it contains the perimeters that are passed to the EXEBBS.BAT file and ultimitly, Board.Bat and TriBBS. EXEBBS 38400 2 412 0 /NONE N/A | | | | | | %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 (not used) This is you board.bat file. You only have to modify the line that starts BBS.EXE. echo off cd \tribbs if exist door.bat del door.bat if exist event.bat del event.bat if exist endbbs del endbbs bbs.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 --------------NEEDED!!!!!!!!!! if exist door.bat door if exist event.bat event if exist endbbs goto end board :end That about covers it. Like I said, I expect you to have FD setup before you start. A couple things to remember. 1) Make sure you use the DOBBS.BAT and EXEBBS.BAT files. And that you have FD make batch file set to YES. This will take care of all the problems that you may have with doors dropping users back to the FD Waiting for caller screen. DO NOT try to incorparate BOARD.BAT into RUNFD.BAT. Let the other batch files call up the board. 2) Read the doc's that come with TriBBS. This will help with most of the problems. 3) Ask questions of fellow sysops in how to setup FD. That takes care of the FD problems. TriBBS and FOSSIL's If you plan to run FrontDoor, or a door game that requires a fossil Driver, I highly recommend BNU. It can be found on many local bbs systems, and is highly configuable. Unzip the archive and put the BNU.SYS file in your DOS directory. Add the following line to you CONFIG.SYS: DEVICE=C:\DOS\BNU.SYS /P1 /L0:38000 /F This loads bnu for 1 port (/P1), locks the port at 38000 (L0:38000) and forces the port (/F). If you have 2 ports that need the fossil driver try /P2. The first port is L0 and the second port is L1 and than L2 for port 3 and so on. Why load it in your CONFIG.SYS? Because if you are short on memory, it would still be a problem if you loaded and unloaded it after use. And if it is loaded via the CONFIG.SYS, you can use MEMMAKER or QEMM to load it into high memory, and it would be out of the way. If you are running FrontDoor, you need it on all the time anyhow, so why not? With more and more systems having at least 1 meg of RAM, the memory usage is minimal (Less than 16k under QEMM 7.02) and the benefits are well worth it.