How to Use QSO
The QWK Support Option for TBBS
INTRODUCTION
QSO allows you to use any offline reader which supports the QWK
packet format to interact with TBBS. When used in conjunction
with a QWK compatible offline reader, QSO allows you to do the
following:
- Mail bulk downloading. Download mail from selected conferences
(either all mail or only mail which is addressed to you) for
reading offline.
- Mail reply bulk uploading. Reply offline using any reader which
supports the QWK format and use QSO to bulk upload your replies
and have them integrated into the message base as though you had
made those replies online. All reply linkages, private/public
flags, etc. are maintained, just as though you entered the
message(s) online.
- Automated services. Automatically receive sysop-defined
"services" such as USA Today, Boardwatch Magazine, Newsbytes, or
frequently updated files such as software patches, etc.
- Full customization. QSO allows each user to customize its
operation so that only desired actions take place.
QSO and its feature provide many benefits. When you use a QWK-
compatible offline mail reader with QSO, you can enjoy the
following:
- Reduced connect time. Instead of staying online to read and
reply to messages, you can do this offline. If you're calling
long distance, this can result in a drastically reduced phone
bill.
- Convenience. You can read and reply to messages at your
leisure. Once you download a bundle of mail, you can read
messages in that bundle anytime you want. Upload the replies back
to the system whenever you wish.
THE QSO MAIN MENU
You will need to obtain a QWK-compatible offline mail reader
package before you can use QSO. Since most are released as
shareware, this BBS probably has several different QWK-compatible
readers for you to choose from. (Ask the sysop for more
information on where to find a QWK-compatible offline mail reader
if you don't have one already.) Remember, if your reader is
shareware, you should register your copy with its author.
When you first select the TBBS menu item that enters QSO you will
see an opening screen with the following options:
Configure User Parameters
Download Messages
Upload Messages
Keyword File Upload
Goodbye (Hangup)
Quit to TBBS
Configure User Parameters
If you have never used QSO before, you must first press "C" to
select the "Configure User Parameters" menu. There you will
select the message conferences you wish to have QSO provide you,
and you will also be able to configure several options as
described below. You must at least select some message areas
before QSO will do anything else useful.
Download Messages
This is one of the two QSO commands you will use most heavily. By
pressing "D" to select this option, you cause QSO to scan all of
the conferences you have selected for new messages and package
them into a QWK packet for transmission to your offline reader.
QSO will also add any other files you have selected to this
packet. After the packet has been assembled, it is then
downloaded to you. You download a QWK packet just as you would
any other file.
Upload Messages
This is the other most heavily used QSO main menu command. When
you select this command, QSO will prompt you to upload the id.REP
file ("id" is the 1-8 character ID of this BBS) that your offline
reader produced when you entered replies to messages you
previously obtained with the "Download Messages" command.
After you have uploaded this file to QSO, it will unZIP it and
enter your replies into the message base.
Keyword File Upload
This command will prompt you to upload an ASCII file which
contains keywords that you wish to use to qualify the message
download command's actions for this session with QSO. Up to 25
keywords may be in this file. The format of a keyword file is
discussed in detail below.
Goodbye (Hangup)
This command will cause an immediate log off from the system.
Quit to TBBS
This command exits QSO and returns to the TBBS menu from which you
entered QSO.
USER CONFIGURATION
The first time you use QSO, you MUST do two things:
- Select the "Configure User Parameters" option.
- Select one or more message conferences.
NOTE: Many QWK interfaces allow you to select which archive
format is used. QSO only uses the PKZIP 1.x implode archiving
format and this cannot be selected. You must set your offline
reader up to use PKZIP with QSO. Other archivers cannot be used!
When you enter the configuration menu of QSO you will see the
following status screen:
1. Include Enclosed Files ...... NO
2. Download Your Replies ....... NO
3. Send Welcome Screen ......... NO
4. Send News Screen ............ NO
5. Send Logoff Screen .......... NO
6. BBS Time Stamp on Replies ... NO
7. Logoff after U/L Replies .... NO
8. Logoff after D/L Msgs ....... NO
9. Suppress NDX File Creation .. NO
10. Scan for New Bulletins ...... NO
11. D/L Packet w/o Messages ..... NO
12. D/L New Files Listing ....... NO
13. Only selection confs in DAT . NO
14. Send Session Log ............ NO
15. Omit Download Verify Prompt . NO
You will also see command choices as follows:
Conference Selection
Reset Last Msg Read Pointers
Protocol Selection
Services Selection
Option Change
Limits Configuration
Quit to Main Menu
Let's examine what each of these mean to you in detail.
Option Change
Selecting this command allows you to enter the number of one of
the options listed on the status portion of the screen to toggle
it from NO to YES (or vice versa). You may also enter just the
number directly if you wish and QSO will assume the "O" selection
for you automatically.
These options configure the operation of QSO for you in several
detailed ways. Let's examine what each one does:
1. Include Enclosed Files
If this option is set to YES, QSO will include any files which are
enclosed in messages you retrieve in your QWK packet
automatically. NOTE: If there is more than one enclosed file with
the same name, you may have trouble retrieving the files from the
QWK packet. If this option is set to NO, then only the message
text will be in your QWK packet.
2. Download Your Replies
If you set this option to YES, your QWK packet will include any
messages you have previously posted (either online or by uploading
them as replies using QSO). If this option is set to NO, the
messages you have originated will not be enclosed in your QWK
packet.
3. Send Welcome Screen
If this option is set to YES, then QSO will include the initial
"welcome" file you see when you log onto this BBS in your QWK
packet.
4. Send News Screen
If this option is set to YES, then QSO will include the system
NEWS file for this BBS in your QWK packet. NOTE: The sysop has
the option to set QSO to include this "news" file in every packet,
or only to include it when the file has changed.
5. Send Logoff Screen
If this option is set to YES, QSO will include the "goodbye" file
you see when you log off this BBS in your QWK packet.
6. BBS Time Stamp on Replies
If this option is set to NO, QSO will post your replies with the
time and date your offline reader put in them. If you set this
option to YES, then QSO will post your replies with the time and
date it enters them into the BBS message base.
7. Logoff after U/L Replies
Normally QSO will return to its main menu after you upload your
reply packet and QSO processes it. If this option is set to YES,
then QSO will automatically log you off after your uploaded packet
is processed. NOTE: If set to YES, you should do your upload as
the last part of your QSO session, or you'll have to dial back
into the system to carry-on with your session!
8. Logoff after D/L Msgs
Normally QSO will return to its main menu after you download your
QWK packet. If this option is set to YES, then QSO will
automatically log you off after your QWK packet is successfully
downloaded. NOTE: This means you should do your download last!
9. Suppress NDX File Creation
This option should normally be set to NO. For some reader
applications, however, the NDX files are not necessary. If you
have such an application then you can set this option to YES then
no NDX files will be included in your QWK packets.
10. Scan for New Bulletins
If this option is set to YES, then QSO will send you any of the
bulletin files from this BBS that have been updated since your
last call. If this option is set to NO, then no bulletin files
will be included in your QWK packet.
11. D/L Packet w/o Messages
Sometimes you may scan for new messages and find that no message
are found since your last QSO session. If this option is set to
NO then no packet will be downloaded until some messages are
available. If you set this option to YES, however, then QSO will
still package any new bulletins, service files, or other non-
message data and transmit it to you in a QWK packet that has no
messages.
12. D/L New Files Listing
If this option is set to YES, then QSO will include a listing of
any new files which have been posted since your last call. NOTE:
THIS OPTION IS VERY TIME CONSUMING!! You should not select it on
a regular basis unless you are willing to wait the time it takes
to scan all file areas for new files!
13. Only selected confs in DAT
If this option is set to NO, then QSO will include the names and
numbers of all conferences this BBS provides to you in your QWK
packet's CONTROL.DAT file. This allows you to use the remote
configuration ADD and DROP options. However, when a system
provides many conferences, it can be annoying to see all of the
conferences listed on your offline reader screen. You can set
this option to YES to limit the list to only those conferences you
have selected.
14. Send Session Log
If this option is set to YES, then QSO will include the file
SESSION.TXT in your QWK packet. This file is a transcript of your
online session and includes all QSO screens and your input as it
occurred. If this option is set to NO, then SESSION.TXT is not
included in your QWK packet.
15. Omit Download Verify Prompt
If this option is set to NO, then QSO will prompt you after the
message scan to begin the download. If you set this option to
YES, then QSO will immediately begin the download process when the
message scan completes.
Services Selection
If the sysop of this BBS has installed any "services" (files or
electronic magazines to be included in your QWK packet
automatically if they have changed) then you may select to receive
them or not in the services menu. When you select the services
menu you will see a screen like this:
* 1. USA Today Decisionline
2. Latest Software Driver
Select Service, (HELP or QUIT)?
Selecting a service number toggles an available service on or off.
The asterisk before the service number indicates you are currently
selected to automatically receive the service file.
Many offline readers directly support service files and allow you
to export them directly from the QWK packet to their proper
position on your computer. If your reader does not have such
support, then you will have to manually extract the from the QWK
packet.
Quit to Main Menu
This option saves all configuration changes made and exits the
configuration menu back to the QSO main menu.
Conference Selection
This command will display all of the message conferences which are
available to you through QSO. NOTE: Conference numbers may be
missing either because the sysop has not used them, or because you
have not been given access to a particular message conference.
You will see one or more screens of conference names that will
look much like this (a leading asterisk indicates the conference
is selected):
Available Conferences
* 0 Main Board 102 ForSale 119 Legal
1 Jail 103 Debate 120 Mac
3 GameRoom * 104 Common 121 dBase
4 Digital * 105 PCBHints 122 Aviation
5 Vinyl 106 Technical 123 USRobotics
6 Critics 107 DTP 124 ChitChat
7 Dance * 108 Sports * 125 RelayAdmin
8 Jazz * 109 Comm 126 Graphics
9 Metal 110 Program 127 SpreadSheets
10 Country 111 Medical 128 RBBS
11 Oldies 112 Soft_Review 129 Laptops
12 The-Edge 113 Photo 130 Science-Fict
13 Classical 114 HardDisk * 131 Music
18 Offline 115 Ham * 132 Broadcast
23 Lib-Beta * 116 Enter 133 Financial
24 CAPS 117 LAN 134 Games
* 101 Guest-DJ 118 Amiga 135 Car-Racing
Select Conference, (HELP or QUIT)?
At this prompt you may use the commands SELECT, DESELECT or RESET
to select conferences and/or reset the high message pointers. You
may also simply enter conference numbers to toggle the selected
status.
Conference numbers may be stated individually, as a range
(specified by lowest number-highest number) like this:
23-47
You may also select all conferences with the keyword ALL.
The high message pointer indicates which messages will be scanned
and placed in your QWK packet. You may set the high message
pointer explicitly using the RESET command, or you may include a
pointer reset command as part of a SELECT command.
The syntax of the SELECT command is:
SELECT <conf [conf] [conf] ...> [<pointer setting>]
<conf> specifies one or more conferences and may have the form:
# A single conference number in decimal
L-H A range specifying all conferences from L to H
inclusive.
ALL Specifies all conferences.
<pointer setting> specifies the new value of the high message
pointer and may have the form:
# Explicit message number
LOW+n Specifies "n" above the lowest message in this
conference.
HIGH-n Specifies "n" below the highest message in this
conference.
Examples:
SELECT ALL HIGH-50
Selects all listed conferences and resets all high pointers to 50
below the highest message in the conference.
SELECT 1
Selects conference 1, does not affect the high message pointer.
High message pointers default to the high message pointer you had
on the conference before entering QSO.
SELECT 10-15 HIGH-10
Selects conferences 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 and sets the high
message pointer to 10 below the last message in each conference.
The DESELECT command has the same syntax as the SELECT command
except that it doesn't allow resetting of the high message
pointer.
Example:
DESELECT 5-11
This delesects any selected conferences in the range 5 through 11.
The RESET command has the same syntax as the select command,
however it will not select any deselected message conferences. It
allows you to reset high message pointers without affecting the
select status.
Examples:
RESET 10-15 HIGH-10
This command sets the high message pointers of any selected
conferences between 10 and 15 to 10 less than the highest message
in the conference.
Protocol Selection
This command allows you to select your preferred file transfer
protocol for use when uploading and downloading QWK packets to and
from QSO. You can either be asked each time for your protocol
selection, or pick a default which will be used automatically.
Limits Configuration
This command allows you to set your own limits for QWK packet
creation. When selected, you will be prompted for the maximum
number of messages QSO will be allowed to place in one packet, as
well as the maximum number of messages which will be allowed per
conference.
Some offline mail readers have internal limits on the number of
messages they can handle per packet and per conference. If your
reader has such limits, you should configure QSO not to exceed
those limits.
When you download new messages, QSO will not exceed these limits.
If there are more messages to be processed than will fit within
the limits you defined, you will have to download new messages
multiple times until no new messages are found, either during one
call, or by calling back again later.
The limit on enclosed files sets the size of the largest file
which QSO will automatically include in your packet. Attached
files larger than this size must be explicitly requested. Note
that a size of 0 means all files are included regardless of size.
DOWNLOADING A PACKET
Once you have configured QSO, you are ready to download a QWK
packet. You do this by selecting the Download Messages command
from the main QSO menu. Once selected, you will see a display
that looks similar to this:
Total Messages per Conference: 200
Total Messages per Download: 1000
High Number Last Msgs To
Conference Network Msg of Msgs Read Found You
------------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ------- -----
2 LOUNGE 31379 207 31346 1 0
7 GENERAL 31396 896 31345 6 0
10 EMAIL 31361 197 31349 1 1
117 COMM FIDONET 31399 1954 31351 29 5
119 MODEMS FIDONET 31401 3211 31299 102 13
Do you wish to download these messages (Y/N)?
If you have many messages to scan, this process can take awhile.
If you wish to abort the scan you may do so by pressing either S
to stop, or ^C or Esc to abort. The scanning will abort
immediately and you will return to the main QSO menu. All
pointers will be reset to their status prior to the scan (i.e.,
there will be no effects from the partial scan you aborted).
You begin the download process by answering Y to the prompt at the
end of the message scan. QSO will next prepare the message
portion of the QWK packet and then add in any non-message files
(bulletins, services, etc.) that your configuration demands. All
of these files are combined into a file named id.QWK (where "id"
is the identifier the sysop has established for this system) as a
PKZIP format archive.
NOTE: If you have already downloaded a packet earlier in the day,
QSO will change the last letter of the packet name to prevent
overwriting your previous packet. The change creates files named
.QW1, .QW2, etc., then .QWA through .QWJ for a total of 21 unique
packet names in a 24 hour period.
If you have selected a default protocol the download will begin
immediately. If you have not established a session protocol, then
QSO will ask you to select the download protocol you want before
beginning the download.
NOTE: If the download is aborted, all pointers are restored to
the condition they were prior to this scan. That means that if
you re-enter QSO and do another scan, you will re-build the same
packet that aborted (plus any newer info that has been added since
then).
UPLOADING A KEY FILE TO DO A SELECTIVE RETRIEVE
You may condition a message scan to only select certain messages
by uploading a key file prior to doing the Download Messages
command. To upload a keyword file you must select the Keyword
File Upload command from the main QSO menu. You will be prompted
to upload the file and QSO will receive it. This file is stored
in your temporary directory for use during the next Download
Messages command.
A keyword file is an ASCII file which allows you to select which
messages you want to receive. Each line of the file is a one key
selection filter, and you may have a maximum of 20 keys in a
single key file.
The keys are NOT case sensitive (i.e., they will match either
upper or lower case strings in the message).
The format of a key line is as follows:
[/] [+|-] [(<conf>)] keytext
If the line begins with the / character, then this key applies
only to the FROM: and TO: name fields in the message. If there is
no leading / character then the key applies to the message
SUBJECT: field and the body of the message text.
The + or - characters are used to indicate if you want only
messages that contain this key (+) or only messages that don't
contain this key (-). If neither + or - is specified, then + is
assumed.
If a conference number IN PARENTHESES preceedes the key, then this
key only applies to the specified conference. If there is no
conference number given, then this key applies to all conferences.
The remainder of the line (beginning with the first non-blank
character) is the text key to use for selection.
Examples:
/Phil Becker Selects only messages TO: or FROM: Phil
Becker.
/-Phil Becker Selects only messages which are NOT TO: or
FROM: Phil Becker.
/(10)Phil Becker For only conference 10 select only messages
which are TO: or FROM: Phil Becker.
-Politics For all conferences do not select any
messages which have the key "politics" in
either the subject or text body.
(15) TDBS 1.2 For conference 15 select only messages which
have the key "TDBS 1.2" in either the subject
or text body.
A keyword file is deleted after a scan is done, so you may do
multiple scans with different keyword files by uploading a new
keyword file between each scan.
UPLOADING RESPONSES
As you read messages offline (using your QWK compatible offline
reader program) you may reply to messages. If so, your reader
program will generate a file named id.REP (where "id" is the
system identifier the sysop has given this system) which contains
those replies. To post those messages on this BBS you need to
select the Upload Messages command from the main QSO menu.
You will be prompted to select a protocol (if you haven't set a
default) and then you can upload the .REP file. Once the file is
uploaded QSO will de-compress it and post your reply messages into
the TBBS message base. After this process completes you will
return to the main QSO menu (unless you have set your
configuration to log off after uploading replies).
NOTE: QSO supports ONLY PKZIP 1.x .ZIP compressed files. If your
replies are uploaded in any other format, QSO will report an
invalid format error, and will discard your replies! Make sure
you have your offline reader software configured for .ZIP format.