Last update 06-Jan-2003

MBSE BBS Setup - Global Setup

In this setup you can edit all global settings for MBSE BBS. All sections will be discussed below.

1.1. Fidonet Aka's.

Here you can enter 40 fidonet addresses. These are 5d addresses. Make sure you group the different zone's together, strange things will happen if you don't group them.

1.2. Edit Registration Info.

System name       The name of your BBS
Domain name       Your internet mail domain name (or system host.domain.com 
                 if you don't have a maildomain).
Sysop uid         The Unix name of your Sysop account
Sysop Fido        The Fidonet name of your Sysop account
Location          The Location of your BBS
QWK/Bluewave      The packet name for Offline mail downloads.
Omed id.          Not in use
Comment           A comment line for your BBS
Origin line       The default origin line for echomail
Startup uid       The default username "bbs"

1.3. Edit Global Filenames.

System logfile    The name of the main logfile
Error logfile     The name of the errors logfile
Mgr logfile       The name of the area-/filemgr logfile
Default menu      The name of the default main menu
Default language  The name of the default language
Chat logfile      The name of the logfile for chatting
Welcome logo      The name of the BBS logo ANSI file

1.4. Edit Global Paths

BBS Menus         The path to the default menus
Txtfiles          The path to the default ANSI and ASCII textfiles
Home dirs         The path to the users home directories
Nodelists         The path to the nodelist directory
Inbound           The unprotected fidonet inbound
Prot inb.         The (password) protected fidonet inbound
Outbound          The outbound for the main aka
Out queue         The outbound queue for temporary files
*.msgs            A netmail directory from where *.msg mails are tossed
                  These are *.msg files can be created by several doors. (Not in use yet)
Bad TIC's         Where bad TIC files are saved
TIC queue         Where TIC files for downlinks are kept
Magic's           Where the magic filerequests are kept
DOS path          The DOS drive and path
Unix path         The Translated DOS path in real
LeaveCase         Leave outbound .flo filenames as is, No forces to uppercase
FTP base          The FTP base path, ie. /opt/mbse/ftp/pub
Arealists         The path where area lists and filebone lists are stored
Ext. edit         The full path and filename to the external editor.
If you fill in the DOS path then the DOS path and Unix path are translated to DOS paths in the flo files for outbound mail sessions. You only need this if another mailer uses the outbound that doesn't understand Unix paths. The DOS path is a fake, but it must match the other mailer. Note that the TIC queue must be somewere in the Unix path, otherwise it is impossible to create a DOS path from the path to the TIC files in that directory. To set this up correctly is also important if you use other mailers as well, for example binkd, or even a DOS binkly-style mailer running from a network. All those mailer must "see" the same file attaches in the .flo files.

1.5. Edit BBS Configuration

Private system    Set to true when only pre-registered users are allowed
Exclude Sysop     True is Sysop will be invisible
Show connect      Show connection info at logon
Ask protocols     Ask protocol before each up/download
Sysop level       The Sysop security level
Password Length   The minimum password length, should be 6.
Password Char.    The password hiding character
Idle timeout      The idle timeout in minutes
Login Enters      Maximum times for only enter 
Login Attempts    Maximum login attempts
Homedir Quota     Maximum size in MBytes for each user
Location length   The minimum length of the location (3 in Holland!)
Show new msgarea  Show new available message areas at logon (for OLR users)
OLR Max. msgs.    Maximum messages to download, 0 is no limit.
OLR Newfile days  The maximum age for newfiles in the OLR packet
OLR Max Filereq   Maximum filerequests allowed for OLR users
BBS Log Level     What will be logged or not the BBS program
Utils Log Level   What will be logged or not for utilities
Utils slowly      Should utilities release timeslices
CrashMail level   Minimum level to allow sending netmail crash
FileAttach level  Minimum level to allow attach files to netmail
Min diskspace MB  At which low diskspace level utilities should stop working.
The minimum diskspace setting is to prevent that files get corrupted if your filesystem is full. All drives are checked except CD-roms and floppies and the /boot directory if that one is on a separate filesystem. Ext2, reiserfs, msdos and vfat partitions are checked. The lowest free diskspace found counts. Default is 10 MB.

1.6. User flag Descriptions.

In this menu you can give the 32 users flags a meaningfull description.

1.7. New users defaults.

Access level      The access level and flags after registration
Cap. Username     Capitalize the username
Ask ANSI          Ask for ANSI screen (default is yes)
Ask Sex           Ask for Male/Female
Ask Voicephone    Ask for voice phonenumber
Ask Dataphone     Ask for data phonenumber
Telephone scan    Scan for duplicate numbers
Ask Handle        Ask for handle (nickname)
Ask Birth date    Ask for birthdate (needed for checks)
Ask Location      Ask for users location
Ask Hot-Keys      Ask for hot-keyed menus (default is yes)
One word names    Allow one word names
Ask address       Not implemented
Give email        Give new users email access (default is yes)

1.8. Text Colors.

Several prompts use different colors. They can be changed with the following menu.

1.9. Next User Door.

This is a "message to nextuser" door I found in RapidBBS. It allows a user to write a message to the next BBS user.

Text file         The textfile to display
Quote             The prompt to show

1.10. Safe cracker door.

This is a door I found in RapidBBS, it is a simple number guessing game.

Digit 1           The first digit to guess
Digit 2           The second digit to guess
Digit 3           The third digit to guess
Max trys          The maximum number of trys per day
Max numb          The highest number to guess
Num gen           Automatic number generation
Prize             The prize to win
Welcome           The welcome file to display
Opened            The file to display to the winner

1.11. Time Bank Door.

This is the timebank door I found in RapidBBS. It allows a user to deposit time or download kilobytes on his bank account so when he needs it for big downloads he can use his savings for extra large downloads. Anyway, I haven't figured this one out completly for myself, so the meaning of all these settings are not well explained right now.

Time balance      Maximum time balance
Max time withdraw Maximum time to withdraw
Max time deposit  Maximum time to deposit
Kb. balance       Maximum Kilobytes balance
Max Kb. withdraw  Maximum Kilobytes to withdraw
Max Kb. deposit   Maximum Kilobytes to deposit
Users time ratio  Time ratio
Users Kb. ratio   Kilobytes ratio

1.12. Sysop paging

For sysop chat we use a program that will connect to the users tty. This is not a nice solution because it will not work over a network, but at least it works.

Ext. chat         External chat program, not in use!
Chat device       The device where the sysop is called (beeped)
Call script       For future use
Page length       The length of a page in seconds
Page times        Maximum number of times a user may page the sysop
Sysop area        Message from user to Sysop area number
Ask reason        Ask reason for chat, this will be logged
Use Extern        Use external chat 
Log Chat          Log the chat conversation
Prompt Chk.       Check at menu prompts for Sysop breaking in
Freeze Time       Freeze users time during chat
Sunday..Saturday  The times the Sysop is normal available

1.13. Fileecho Processing.

A note, when you change the number of Systems or Groups, the databases affected will be updated automatic.

Keep days         How long TIC files should be kept on hold
Hatch pwd         The internal hatch password. Make this weird.
Drv space         The minimal free space on your disk in kilobytes
Systems           The maximum number of connected nodes
Groups            The maximum number of fileecho groups
Max. dupes        The maximum number of entries in dupe database
Keep date         Keep original filedate
Keep netm         Keep sent netmails
Loc resp          Respond to local created filefind messages
Plus all          Allow filemgr +all command
Notify            Allow filemgr notify=on/off command
Passwd            Allow filemgr/areamgr passwd command
Message           Allow filemgr message=on/off command
Tic on/off        Allow filemgr tic=on/off command
Pause             Allow filemgr pause/resume commands

When you change one of the Allow filemgr settings, you also need to edit the file /opt/mbse/english/macro/filemgr.help to reflect the new settings. Default all these switches are set to Yes.

1.14. Edit Fidonet mail and echomail processing.

Note that the first 2 mailboards must also exist in the normal mail areas if you want to see what is in them. Here they are defined for quick access of the tosser. For the Max. systems and groups see 1.12. If you use MBSE BBS together with a DOS based BBS (using DOSEMU or mars netware emulator), you can set the behaviour of the outbound to 4d. addressing instead of 5d. This option may dissapear in the future.
Another option is present, this is the pktdate option. This is the full path and filename to an external program that can inspect and correct the mail .pkt files. Originally I put this in to run pktname of Tobias Ernst of 2:2476/418 to fix y2k problems in the incoming mail. At this time most y2k fixes are build in, but in case you need it it's there. To make it clear; the y2ktools written by Tobias are static compiled for Linux and they should run on all Linux i386 versions. Until now, I still use pktdate because it is necessary.

Badboard          The path and filename of the bad messages
Dupeboard         The path and filename of the duplicate messages
Pktdate           Full path and filename of a .pkt preprocessor
Max pkts.         Maximum Kb. of mail packets before a new one is created.
Max arcs.         Maximum size in Kilobytes of an arcmail file
Keep days         How many day should we keep ARCmail on hold
Echo dupes        Maximum number of entries in the echomail dupe database
Reject old        Reject echomail messages older then n days
Max msgs          Default maximum number of messages in each area
Days old          Default number of days old to keep messages
Max systems       Maximum number of nodes to connect to echomail
Max groups        Maximum number of echomail groups
4d address        Use 4d. addressing (not needed you only use MBSE BBS)
Split at          Gently split messages after n KBytes (12..60)
Force at          Force split of messages after n KBytes (16..63)
Plus all          Allow areamgr +all command 
Notify            Allow areamgr notify=on/off command
Passwd            Allow areamgr/filemgr passwd command
Pause             Allow areamgr pause/resume commands

When you change one of the Allow areamgr settings, you also need to edit the file /opt/mbse/english/macro/areamgr.help to reflect the new settings. Default all these switches are set to Yes.

A note about the splitting of messages. Some tossers can't handle messages greater than 16 KBytes, these tossers are rare these days. Most tossers can handle messages of 32 KBytes. To set these values on the safe side set "Split at" to 27 and "Force at" to 31. This means that a long newfile report will be split after 27 KBytes when a new group of files should start in the report. If it can't find that point because a large number of files is in the group that is just being processed, the message split will be forced right after the file that passes the 31 KBytes limit. I use values of 1 KBytes below maximum for overhead such as SEEN-BY and PATH lines. Values larger then 32 KBytes is not a good idea, recent tests in May 1999 have shown that your messages will not reach all systems if they are larger then 32 KBytes. Splitting is used for newfiles reports and gated news articles to Fidonet.

1.15. Edit Internet mail and news processing.

Email and news is setup here. There are three possible configurations which you can set with 1.15.11:

A word of wisdom from my side, configuration of the internet, ppp, sendmail etc. is not discussed here, see the HOWTO's and other documentation that exists at www.linuxdoc.org, it's all there.
POP3 node         The POP3 node to use, should be localhost
SMTP node         The SMTP node to use, should be localhost
NNTP node         The NNTP node to use, should be localhost
NNTP m.r.         If the NNTP server needs the Mode Reader command
NNTP user         The username for the NNTP server if needed
NNTP pass         The password for the NNTP server if needed
News dupes        The number of entries for the news dupes database.
Email aka         The Fidonet aka to use for the fidonet.org UUCP gate
UUCP aka          The default Fidonet UUCP gate, 2:292/875@fidonet
Emailmode         The email mode, discussed above
News mode         Newsfeed mode, INN, rnews or UUCP.
Articles          The default maximum newsarticles to fetch per group.
Split at          Gently split newfiles reports after n KBytes (12..60)
Force at          Force split of newfiles reports after n KBytes (16..63)
Control ok        Allow news control messages to be gated
No regate         Don't regate already gated messages

In rnews mode the NNTP entries are replaced by:

Path rnews        The full path and filename to the rnews binary.

In UUCP mode the NNTP entries are replaced by:

UUCP path         The full path to the uucppublic directory.
UUCP node         The UUCP nodename of your ISP.

1.16. Allfiles and Newfiles lists.

These are the settings that affect the generation of newfiles and allfiles reports.

New days          The number of days old files are "newfiles"
Security          The highest security level to include files in the reports
Groups            The number of newfile groups the newfiles database can hold

1.17. Mailer Setup.

Note that you can't disable FTS-0001 sessions as that is a mandatory session protocol in Fidonet. There are 40 phonenumber translations present, this is for countries with lots of telephone operators with all kind of prefixes for carrier select functions. The setting of TCP/IP flags is important too, this gives the information what this system will do. If you only enter IBN as TCP/IP flags then the system will only call IBN nodes (binkp). The default is XX,CM and TCP/IP systems (internet) should use the XX,CM,IBN,IFC flags.

Mailer logl.      The logging level for mailer sessions
Default phone     The default phonenumber for EMSI sessions
TCP/IP flags      The TCP/IP capability flags for TCP/IP sessions
Default speed     The default speed for EMSI sessions
Timeout reset     The timout for normal modem commands
Timeout connect   The timeout for waiting for connect
Dial delay        The maximum delay between calls, minimum is 10 seconds.
No Filerquests    Disable filerequests
No callout        Disable callout
No EMSI session   Disable EMSI
No YooHoo/2U2     Disable FTS-0006 sessions
No Zmodem         Disable zmodem protocol
No Zedzap         Disable zedzap protocol
No Hydra          Disable Hydra protocol
Phonetrans 1..40  Maximum 40 phone number translations
Max. files        Maximum files to request, 0 is unlimited 
Max. MBytes       Maximum MBytes to request, 0 is unlimited

1.18. FTPD Settings.

A new program is mbftpd. This is a replacement for the normal ftp server for Linux with special futures for MBSE BBS. This is not working yet and is not included in the distribution. Setting it up is adviced.

Upload pth        Incoming files (ie. /opt/mbse/ftp/incoming).
Banner msg        The banner file to display before login.
Path filter       The legal character in upload filenames.
Path msg          Message to display if illegal characters in upload.
Email addr        Your email address.
Shutdown          Shutdown message if FTP server is closed.
Readme login      Readme to display after login.
Readme cwd*       Readme to display after chdir.
Msg login         Welcome message after login.
Msg cwd*          Message to display in directory.
Userslimit        Maximum FTP users allowed.
Loginfails        Maximum login failures.
Compress          If compress command is allowed.
Tar               If tar command is allowed.
Mkdir ok          If users may create directories.
Log commands      Log user commands.
Anonymous         If anonymous login is allowed.
User mbse         If user mbse is allowed. Dangerous!

1.19. Edit HTML pages setup.

Here you setup the HTML pages that can be created with the mbfile web command. These are HTML pages of your download areas and indexes of all areas. If there are pictures in these areas thumbnails are created if you have the convert command available. The document root is the same as defined in your web server. The link to ftp must be created from that directory to your ftp base directory. To do that become root, cd to the document root and type ln -s /var/spool/mbse/ftp files In this case the link is called files. Note that all download areas are accesible, there is no user authentication yet available.

Docs root         The path to the httpd documents root.
Link to ftp       The link to the ftp directory.
URL name          The URL of your webserver.
Charset           The default character set, ISO-8859-1.
Table color       The tables background color.
Header color      The tables header background color.
Author name       The author name you want in the HTTP headers.
Convert command   The graphics convert command. (ImageMagick needed).
Files/page        The number of files to display per web page.
Icon Home         The name of the Home icon file.
Text Home         The text to display for Home.
Icon Back         The name of the Back icon file.
Text Back         The text to display for Back.
Icon Prev.        The name of the Previous page icon file.
Text Prev.        The text to display for Previous page.
Icon Next         The name of the Next page icon file.
Text Next         The text to display for Next page.

1.20. Manager flag Descriptions.

In this menu you can give the 32 area-/filemgr flags a meaningfull description.

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