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FD-FAQ.001 - September 24th, 1991
Frequently asked questions about FrontDoor, TosScan, and related utilities.
Copyright 1991 Advanced Engineering sarl; All rights reserved.
Published by Advanced Engineering sarl with assistance from the users of
FrontDoor, TosScan, and related utilities, as well as the FrontDoor Help
nodes. This document may be freely distributed for noncommercial and
informational purposes. This document may not, under any circumstance, be
traded, sold, or otherwise used for commercial gain or purposes without the
prior written consent of Advanced Engineering sarl.
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These questions and answers do not appear in any specific order.
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FD=FrontDoor Mailer FM=FrontDoor Editor TS=TosScan
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Q: In FD version 2.01, and later, occasionally various indicators will
appear in the lower right hand corner. Amongst these are MAIL and
NU. What are they?
A: Four possible symbols might pop up there in the lower right:
NU: No Users. Event configured to not allow users, or is toggled
off at the FD screen with ALT-Y, Human callers "NO". Also
displayed when FD detects the semaphore file FDNOUSER.NOW in
its SYSTEM or SEMAPHORE (commercial versions only) directory.
UD: One or more nodes have been marked as undialable, since your
system has called them, got a connect, but then failed when
attempting to establish a mail session. When this has occured
the number of "Resend retries" you've defined in FDSETUP, FD
will set one check mark for this node. When the node has got
three check marks, FD will not call this node again, until
you've removed the check marks.
Press ALT-V to review the list of undialable nodes, and edit
the check marks.
NE: No exit. The flag FDNOEXIT.NOW is present in the FD SYSTEM
directory. When present FD will not exit (event if event is
configured to exit) when mail arrives.
MAIL: Unread mail for your system has arrived (if this is configured
to be displayed in FDSETUP).
---
Q: On my point system I always get an error "Unable to open INBOUND.HIS:
File not found". What does this error mean and what can I do to prevent
it?
A: The message means that FD was looking for the file which records all
inbound calls to your system. FD tries to reorganize the two activity
files (INBOUND.HIS and OUTBOUND.HIS) on a daily basis, as defined in
FDSETUP. If you haven't had any inbound calls yet (or if you don't ever
have inbound calls) then obviously no file with inbound history exists.
The message itself does cause any harm. Nevertheless, if you want to
avoid the error message then create a zero byte INBOUND.HIS on your
disk with the DOS command "ECHO > INBOUND.HIS" and FD will no longer
report the error.
---
Q: Since I have installed FrontDoor 2.01 the system doesn't seem to accept
file/update requests anymore from certain system of which it previously
did accept and honour them.
A: Check your logfile whether you can find a report "remote refused
pickup". One of the changes between FrontDoor 1.99c and 2.01 is that
FrontDoor 2.01 will also honour this flag for file requests. That means
that if the requesting node has setup his system in such a manner that
it should not pick up traffic then your FD will honour that request and
will not attempt to send anything to that system.
---
Q: In the FrontDoor Technical Note on using HST Dual Standard modems (FDTN-
001) there is a mention that I should use "CONNECT 1200/" as the connect
string for 1200 bps connects. Must I also include the slash in the other
connect messages?
A: No. The reason why you must include the slash for 1200 BPS connects is
that there is also a possibility that your modem reports a "CONNECT
12000". If you don't include the slash on the 1200 BPS connect message
then the CONNECT 12000 will be interpreted as a 1200 BPS connect and
time calculations for transfers and file requests will be wrong.
---
Q: The FrontDoor manual states that FrontDoor 2.01 supports the new connect
messages for the new US Robotics high speed modems. However, when I
review the connect messages in FDSETUP, I can not find the connect
messages for the 7200, 12000 and 14400 BPS speeds. How do I configure
FrontDoor for my modem?
A: For compatibility reasons the connect messages for these three speeds
have been hardcoded in the FrontDoor software. This means that FD will
always recognize these connect messages and use the appropriate speed
and time calculations for the session. However, they are not
configurable and thus can not be changed.
Note that if you wish to enable human callers at that speed then you
must set the appropriate errorlevels in FDSETUP-> Mailer > Errorlevels.
---
Q: If I poll my boss, 2:512/1 (for example), for mail, then FD logs a
message "Unexpected password, XXXXXXXX, from 2:512/1011". What does this
mean and is this a security bug in FrontDoor? I don't even have a
password for 2:512/1011!
A: That is exactly what the message means. It tells you that you have had
a session with a system which presented an unexpected password for one
or more AKAs. The password was unexpected because you haven't configured
a session password for that particular AKA. The message is part of
FD's security system. If the message is not important to you then you
might want to consider to disable the (#) logentry in FDSETUP > Mailer >
Loglevels. However, please read on to the next question.
---
Q: One of my downlinks has 8 different AKAs on his system and it seems as
if he changes them more often than his underwear. Must I really enter
all his AKAs in the security manager? He only receives echomail for his
primary address from me. Does it help if I just disable the "Present all
AKAs.." option?
A: It's not a matter of *YOUR SYSTEM* presenting all AKAs, but the other
side. If you feel that some node has so many AKAs that you don't want to
include all his passwords in your security manager then make sure that
you route mail for his AKAs to ONE of his addresses. If you do that, you
only need to password protect that particular address.
Otherwise, you will either have to accept that mail for his AKAs is not
password protected (and can thus be picked up by anyone who puts that
address in his AKA list) or you will have to set passwords for his
entire AKA list.
---
Q: All the message that I or my BBS users write are displayed as having the
'Local' status when I read them in FM. Does this mean that FD will not
send these messages?
A: The 'Local' status of any message on your system simply means that the
message apparently originates from your system. FD checks the 'Local'
flag before honouring any special flags within the message, such as
'Direct' or 'Immediate'. If these message don't have the 'Local' bit
set then FD will refuse to send these messages. This is part of FD's
security systems and its goal is to prevent people from forcing your
system to call to places at times where or when you don't want the
calls to happen (e.g. for cost reasons).
---
Q: FM doesn't generate a tearline anymore. I have configured my echomail
folders with "Echo Info" enabled but FM still does put any text behind
the three dashes (---) under each message.
A: It is our belief that we should disturb the readers of echomail messages
as little as possible with unnecessary and uncalled for advertisements.
Therefor we support the thought that program information should be
hidden for the user. If you press ALT-X when reading one of your
messages you will see a notice "PID FM <version>". Thus, you are still
able to see which software people have used to enter a message, but only
when you want to see it. This is compliant with the desire of many
people to clean up the echomail from unwanted commercials as much as
possible.
---
Q: I can't do anything in the Terminal. Not even leave it with ALT-Q.
A: You have the <Scroll Lock> key on. When it is active, the Terminal is in
'Raw mode', which transmits ALL keystrokes to the remote side. Just
press <Scroll Lock>, to turn it off, then you can use the Terminal as
you're used to.
/* end of file "fd-faq.001" */