On 09-22-18 20:48, ALAN BECK wrote to ALL <=-
How does it connect so I can set up in the right direction.
Do I just up the BBS without the paths needed by my mailer?
Or do I setup the mailer first and then the BBS
Or, do I do both at the same time?
You will need to do some planning. First, a little terminology in the 1990s style:
BBS - the software that interacts with users and provides access to messages, files, doors abd other services. In the dialup days, the BBS normally doesn't answer the phone, but has control passed to it by the mailer, once the mailer has worked out it's a human caller. Today, BBSs directly accept one or more of telnet, rlogin and SSH connections.
Doors - external programs used to provide extra features for the BBS. These days, most commonly games. The BBS passes control to the door when the corresponding menu entry is selected.
Tosser - Program used to scan for new echomail and netmail and export it for sending. Outgoing mail is placed in the outbound directory. Incoming mail is read from the inbound directory and imported ("tossed") into the messagebase.
Mailer - Exchanges mail between BBSs. The mailer looks up the destination for each link, makes the connection according to its schedule, and once the session is authenticated, exchanges mail with the peer. On dialup lines, the mailer usually answers the call and starts a mail session if the caller is another mail, otherwise it passes control to the BBS. On the Internet, mailers usually listen on their own port for connections.
FOSSIL - Provides a uniform set of serial communication routines for software to use. FOSSILs traditional went between BBS software, mailers, doors and a serial port. Today, a FOSSIL may provide an interface to a telnet session or other Internet connected protocol Software that uses a FOSSIL still sees a virtual serial port and modem, but the actual session is over the Internet. Technically, modern BBS software doesn't use a FOSSIL, but a FOSSIL interface is required for many old DOS doors.
TIC processor - used to automatically distribute files in file echos
Binkley escapes me but the Front Door did not until I tried to make it
use the internet, then it all fell apart.
I used to use Binkleyterm, which was a popular mailer back in the dialup days. Frontdoor was another popular mailer, it still has a following today, it seems.
I have heard of FOSSIL drivers as well.
So, I have been all over the map. Checkout lots of software.
I guess what I am asking is what is the first thing I should set up and then I work from there.
Do you know what BBS software you want to run? That will certainly direct the choice of tosser, and may influence the choice of mailer, especially as some BBS software (e.g. Mystic and Synchronet) come with a mailer you can choose to use (or not).
If you use an all in one solution, much of the layout is done for you. With separate software, you have to make sure the directories that the tosser places mail is the same that the mailer looks for outbound mail in. Same for the inbound. The tosser needs to look for the inbound mail in the same place that the mailer puts it. Similarly for the TIC processor, it needs to look for files in the mailer's inbound directory, and place outbound TIC files into the mailer's outbound directories.
That's the overview. The details depend on the exact software used.
Now, as we're in the Synchronet echo, I'll assume you're going to use Synchronet. There, you're in luck, as there's some very good documentation on the wiki at
https://wiki.synchro.net . Synchronet has all of the components of a working system, capable of transferring mail and files via QWK and FTN. Have a read of the wiki to see how to install and configure Synchronet, then come back with your next round of questions.
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Linux
* Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)