The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door User Documentation, v3.00
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 by Cutting Edge Computing
All Rights Reserved.
Reference Manual for the Use and Operation
of The Blue Wave Mail Doors
Written by George Hatchew
Cutting Edge Computing
PO Box 90476
Burton, Michigan 48509 USA
BBS Support Number: 810-743-8464 (ONLINE CREDIT CARD REGISTRATIONS)
FAX Support Number: 810-743-5910 (CREDIT CARD REGISTRATIONS, TOO)
Voice Tech Support: 810-743-9283 (REGISTERED USERS ONLY)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENTATION ................................ 3
THE CONCEPT OF OFFLINE MAIL SYSTEMS ..................... 4
How it All Got Started .............................. 4
Why Bother to Read Mail? ............................ 5
What Will The Blue Wave Offline Mail System Do For Me? 5
USING THE MAIL SYSTEM FOR THE FIRST TIME ................ 6
CHOOSING MESSAGE AREAS FOR DOWNLOAD ..................... 7
THE CONFIGURATION MENU .................................. 9
Reset Lastread Pointers ............................. 10
Bundle Messages From You ............................ 10
Graphics (Color) On/Off ............................. 10
Hotkey Menu Selections .............................. 11
Extended Message Information ........................ 11
Xpert Menu Mode ..................................... 11
Use Numeric Packet Extensions ....................... 12
New File Listings In Packets ........................ 13
Protocol ............................................ 13
Archiver ............................................ 13
Keyword Selection ................................... 14
Filter Selection .................................... 14
Macro Definitions ................................... 15
Limit D/L Packet Size ............................... 15
Set Password Options ................................ 16
Configuration Help .................................. 16
Quit to Main Menu ................................... 16
THE MAIN MENU ........................................... 17
Download New Mail ................................... 17
Upload New Replies .................................. 17
Configuration Menu .................................. 17
Quit Back to BBS .................................... 17
Goodbye ............................................. 17
Xpert Mode .......................................... 17
DOWNLOADING THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ............. 18
Abort Download Session .............................. 21
Instant Logoff After Transfer ....................... 21
Countdown Logoff .................................... 22
Protocol Change ..................................... 22
[ENTER] to Begin Normal Download .................... 22
UPLOADING THROUGH THE MAIL DOOR ......................... 23
File Requests ....................................... 24
THE BLUE WAVE BUNDLING COMMANDS ......................... 25
The 'B' Bundling Command ............................ 27
The 'L' Bundling Command ............................ 27
The '*' Modifier .................................... 28
The '!' Modifier .................................... 28
Bundling Command Considerations ..................... 28
IN CONCLUSION ........................................... 30
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ABOUT THIS DOCUMENTATION
------------------------
The documentation presented in this file is designed for end users and
clients of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. For specific
installation, maintenance, and execution instructions for The Blue
Wave Offline Mail Door, please consult BWMAIL.DOC, which should have
been enclosed with your copy of the door archive.
If you are an end user or client of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door,
you will also need a copy of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. The
Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader should be available on the same BBS you
received this file from. The file name as distributed is BWAVEnnn.ZIP
where 'nnn' is the current version number. The latest version as of
this writing (15 July 93) is v2.12. Any version of the reader
claiming to be "v3.00" are hacked copies of the reader and should be
avoided.
This documentation is formatted with Form Feeds for printing on all
Personal Computer printers. This documentation file contains no IBM
Extended ASCII characters, so it should print fine on all printer
models - even non IBM ProPrinter compatibles.
To print this documentation in hard copy, simply execute the following
command from DOS:
COPY BWDOOR.USE PRN
If you would like to print this documentation using the PRINT.COM
spooler enclosed with most versions of DOS, simply execute this
command at the DOS prompt:
PRINT BWDOOR.USE
The documentation is formatted to 60 lines per page so that printing
on laser printers should also work with no problems.
The documentation was written by George Hatchew and is Copyright (C)
1993 by Cutting Edge Computing. It may be distributed freely, so long
as it is not modified.
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THE CONCEPT OF OFFLINE MAIL SYSTEMS
-----------------------------------
Before we begin the details of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door
operations, let's take a moment to look at the history of offline mail
systems.
How it All Got Started
----------------------
Back in the early to mid 1980's, many people were beginning to get
home computers and modems. People began communicating in several ways
through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's). BBS systems began offering
message bases where people of similar interests could communicate with
each other through electronic means. As the technology grew people
started sharing message bases between different BBS system across the
city, across the country, and eventually across the world. Mail
conferencing was born, and nothing was going to stop it.
As time went on, commercial online services began offering E-Mail
which could be transmitted to the message recipient several thousands
of miles away in a matter of hours, minutes, or even seconds.
Eventually many people became hooked, many others DEPENDANT, on E-
Mail.
While the commercial companies were developing new and better ways to
transmit e-mail across the world, so were the amateur BBS operators.
Several amateur e-mail networks and technologies were formed. One of
the largest amateur e-mail networks still popular today is FidoNet.
(Don't let the term 'amateur' fool you. Many of the people that are
responsible for keeping FidoNet up and running may be classified as
amateurs, but several years of experience and knowledge, and usually
thousands of dollars worth of equipment, have earned them a very
respectable title).
Today, FidoNet is over 15,000 nodes strong and still growing! As the
networks and the number of home computer users has grown, the need for
reading and replying to e-mail offline has become more and more
essential. When BBSing was young, there was plenty of time to read
and reply to messages on-line. Today, with more users than ever and
more e-mail flowing than ever, there just is not enough time for every
user to spend a half hour, an hour, or even two hours on-line to their
local BBS. Long distance phone rates can also get to be outrageously
expensive after just a few of these sessions per month.
This is where offline mail reading comes into play. With today's
innovations in offline mail processing, you can spend just a very few
minutes per day on-line to your favorite BBS system and do all of your
work offline, where there is no time limit to run up against, and
where the phone company's meter is not running.
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Best of all, you can read your mail at any time you like. Today's
communications software allows you to build script files, which in
turn allows you to retrieve your mail automatically at even the oddest
times of the day or night (especially when long distance phone rates
are low). When you're ready to read your mail, all you need to do is
fire up your favorite offline mail system, and you are on your way!
Why Bother to Read Mail?
------------------------
At this point you may be asking yourself, "Why even bother with it
all?". Some people unfamiliar with mail networks and e-mail sometimes
cannot understand the enjoyment and knowledge that can come out of
being an active participant on an e-mail network. Not only can you
communicate with people from all corners of the world, but you can
learn more about your favorite computer software, share recipes with
others, learn how to repair your leaking roof, get advice from others
on product quality ratings, or just join in a chat between long
distance friends.
As a matter of fact, FidoNet offers well over 300 e-mail topics
ranging from Aardvarks to Zymurgy.
What Will The Blue Wave Offline Mail System Do For Me?
------------------------------------------------------
The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader will allow you to actively
participate in this fun and fascinating hobby to any extent you like.
You can retrieve mail from your favorite BBS system to your own
computer, where you are free to take your time and enjoy yourself.
You aren't forced against the BBS system's time limits or the long
distance charges. You are also doing your part to allow more people
on your favorite BBS system so there are less busy signals, and more
productive on-line sessions. It is a complete mail manager, which
allows you to reply to messages, save messages to disk in a text file,
print messages to your printer, and help you search out only the
messages that you are interested in through the use of keyword
searching. But most of all, to enjoy yourself!
In order to be the most productive with your offline mail sessions, it
is essential that you have a thorough understanding of the use of The
Blue Wave Offline Mail Door. The Blue Wave reader and door
combination work together to provide you with the most efficient use
of your time.
This documentation file is dedicated to helping you understand how to
use the ONLINE portion of the mail system; The Blue Wave Offline Mail
Door. For instructions on using The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader,
please consult the documentation for the reader, titled BWAVE.DOC.
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USING THE MAIL SYSTEM FOR THE FIRST TIME
----------------------------------------
Before you begin using The Blue Wave Offline Mail System, you will
need to download the latest version of The Blue Wave Offline Mail
Reader (or a Blue Wave door-compatible reader such as Q-Blue or
WaveRider). Please ask your sysop for the latest version, or scan the
BBS file system for BWAVE???.ZIP, where ??? is the version number of
the reader.
The first time you enter The Blue Wave Mail Door, you will be
presented with a few "welcome" and help screens. The sysop or
administrator of the online service you are using has the ability to
set several system defaults for new users.
You will be presented with the ARCHIVER (compression system), PROTOCOL
(file transfer system), and possibly a few message areas that the
sysop has selected as default settings. Most of the time the default
settings the sysop has chosen are the best options to use. However,
you can change these default settings once you reach the door's
CONFIGURATION menu.
After the mail door has shown you the default settings used by the
particular host system you are using, you are immediately taken to the
configuration menu of the door, where you can set several options.
All of the options on the configuration menu of the door are described
in the section titled "THE CONFIGURATION MENU", found later in this
documentation.
The first thing you must do is to select the message areas that you
would like to download (receive) from the host system. You do this by
selecting "C)hoose Message Areas to Download". The procedure for
selecting message areas is detailed in the next section.
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CHOOSING MESSAGE AREAS FOR DOWNLOAD
-----------------------------------
Selecting the message areas that you would like to receive or download
from the host system is done by selecting "C)hoose Areas to Download"
from the CONFIGURATION MENU. Immediately after selecting this option
from the menu, you are presented with a listing of message areas that
are available to you.
In the left-most column you will find the AREA NUMBER (or on some
systems, the "area number" could actually be a word of up to 9
characters), followed by the current STATUS of the message area. The
right-most side of the screen contains the area's full name or
description. The display on all Blue Wave Mail Doors that have a
version number of 3.00 or higher looks similar to the following:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Area # | Status | Area Description |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 All Local Message Base - User Chatter
2 Forced Comments to and from the Sysop
3 Role Playing Games
4 Persnl FidoNet Netmail Messages
5 P+All FidoNet FOR-SALE Echo
The "Status" column tells you how the mail door is going to handle
that message area when you instruct the mail door to download your
messages. Areas with no status displayed are not active and will not
be included in your downloaded mail bundles.
There are 4 different types of "Status" displayed.
All - Indicates that you have told the mail door to download ALL
NEW messages in the area each time you perform a mail
download.
Persnl - Indicates that you have told the mail door to download ONLY
"Personal" messages in that area each time you perform a
mail download. Personal messages are those messages that
someone has entered with your name in the TO: field.
P+All - Indicates that you have instructed the mail door to download
ONLY messages in this area that are addressed to you, or
messages that have been addressed to "All".
Forced - Indicates that the sysop has FORCED this message area on.
You will not be able to turn this area off through the mail
door. Sysops and administrators usually use FORCED message
areas for important system announcements and bulletins.
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At the end of each screenful of message areas you are presented with a
prompt: Area#(s) or More [Y,n]?
If you would like to change the status of any message areas on the
screen, you simply type in the area number (or name) listed in the
"Area #" column of the display. HINT: You can type more than one
area number or name at this prompt. Simply separate the areas with
<Space> characters and the mail door will process all of the areas
listed at one time.
If you do not want to change the status of any of the areas on the
screen, either enter "Y" to see more message areas, or "N" to stop the
area listing.
If you have chosen to change the status of any of the areas on the
screen, the door will present you with the following prompt:
Area 1: P)ersonal msgs only, +)Personal+"All", [ENTER]All Msgs:
If you want the mail door to only bundle personal messages in the
message area shown, enter a "P" here. If you want to receive your
personal messages, and messages addressed to "ALL", enter a "+" here.
The default action of pressing [ENTER] will download all new messages
that have been received into the message base since your last
successful mail download.
Simply repeat this process until you have selected all of the message
areas that you would like to receive in your mail packet downloads.
You can turn message areas OFF in the same way that you activate them.
Enter the number of the message area that you would like to turn off,
and the door will present you with a prompt similar to the one shown
above. The default action of pressing [ENTER] will then turn the
message base off, and you will no longer receive them in your mail
downloads.
After all message areas have been listed, you are given an opportunity
to QUIT the area selection system, to relist all of the available
message areas, or to list ONLY those areas that you have activated.
When you are done choosing your message areas, press ENTER at this
prompt, or "!" and then the ENTER key. You will then be taken back to
the door's CONFIGURATION menu where you can make other changes to your
online configuration profile.
A complete description of the other options available on the door's
configuration menu follows in the next section.
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THE CONFIGURATION MENU
----------------------
When viewing the door's CONFIGURATION menu, it may seem a bit
overwhelming to novice users. Please do not let the menu intimidate
you, as most of the options available here are nothing more than
preferences that you can turn ON and OFF.
Here is what the CONFIGURATION menu in The Blue Wave Mail Doors looks
like. Please note that a couple of the options are unique to mail
doors with a version number of 3.00 or higher. (The version number of
the mail door you are using is displayed above the door's MAIN menu.)
+------- The Blue Wave Mail Door Configuration Menu -------+
| |
| C)hoose Message Areas P)rotocol (Zmodem) |
| for Download A)rchiver (ZIP) |
| |
| R)eset Lastread Pointers K)eyword Selection |
| * B)undle Messages From You F)ilter Selection |
| * G)raphics (Color) On/Off M)acro Definitions |
| * H)otkey Menu Selections S)et Password Options |
| E)xtended Msg Information L)imit D/L Packet Size |
| X)pert Menu Mode |
| * U)se Numeric Pkt Extensions ?)Configuration Help |
| * N)ew File Listing in Packets Q)uit to Main Menu |
| |
| * Indicates Option is ON |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
You will notice that next to the "P)rotocol" and "A)rchiver" menu
items that there are words in parentheses. The door shows you which
Protocol and which Archiver are active here.
The left-hand column of menu items beginning with "B)undle Messages
From You" are all switches... you can turn them either ON or OFF. If
the option is on, you will see a symbol next to the item. If the
option is off, no symbol is shown.
We have already discussed the first item on the menu, "C)hoose Message
Areas for Download", in the previous section. We will now go through
the entire configuration menu and explain each item individually so
that you have a good understanding of what each menu item does.
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Reset Lastread Pointers
-----------------------
Selecting this menu item will allow you to alter the records that both
the BBS and the mail door record to disk. These records are updated
each time the mail door is used to perform a successful download. The
"lastread" records store information which tells the software what
message # was the LAST one that you have read in each message base.
Once in a while it is possible for these records to be corrupted.
Sometimes, after a successful mail download, you may accidentally
delete the downloaded mail packet or the mail packet gets corrupted
during transmission. In any case, if you ever have a need to change
your message read pointers, this is where you should do it.
Because each BBS system stores messages and lastread pointers in
different ways, the procedure to use this option also varies from one
door version to another. Explicit instructions are given on the
screen when using this option, so it should be self explanatory. As
long as you understand the concept of what this menu item does, you
should be able to navigate the "Reset Lastread Pointers" prompts with
little or no difficulty.
Bundle Messages From You
------------------------
This menu item has two different states; it is either ON or OFF.
When "Bundle Messages From You" is turned OFF, the mail door will not
pack messages with your name in the FROM: field into your downloaded
mail bundles. If you are a very active participant in the BBS message
bases, it is very possible that turning this option off will
substancially decrease the size of the mail packets that you download.
When this option is turned ON, all messages that you have entered into
the BBS's message base will be downloaded and placed into your mail
bundles. When this option is on you will be able to read the messages
you have entered through the reader. This could also serve as a
"Confirmation" tool. If you receive your own messages on your next
mail download, you are assured that you mail upload was successful.
Graphics (Color) On/Off
-----------------------
The Blue Wave Mail Door is capable of sending your terminal program
ANSI and AVATAR escape sequences in order for you to view The Blue
Wave Mail Door in full, living color. If your communications program
does not support these escape sequences, you will want to turn this
option OFF.
When this option is turned off, only text will be sent to your
terminal program, resulting in a "monochrome" display.
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Hotkey Menu Selections
----------------------
If "Hotkey Menu Selections" is turned on, the door will accept menu
input from you without having to press [ENTER] after each command.
When this is off, you must enter your command followed by the [ENTER]
key.
Even when hotkeys are turned on, there are some prompts in the mail
door that will still require you to press enter. If the door needs
more than one character of input at any prompt, you will need to press
[ENTER] in order to get the door to process your input.
Extended Message Information
----------------------------
NOTE: This menu option may or may not be available to you. The sysop
or system administrator has the option of turning this menu item off.
Under normal circumstances, you will probably NOT want to enable this
option, even if it is available to you. Many of the e-mail networks
(FidoNet especially) use certain "Control" information which is
embedded into the message text. This control information is useless
to most people (humans in general). Leaving this option off, even if
it is available to you, will greatly reduce the size of the mail
packets that are generated by the door, because all of this control
information will be stripped from the message before it is bundled
into your mail packet.
If you are a sysop or system administrator, you are probably familiar
with what are called "Control-A" or "Kludge" Lines in network
messages. When this option is on, the mail door will not strip this
control information (including SEEN-BY lines), and you can then view
it when reading messages through the reader.
If you are a general user of the mail door, and you are seeing lines
that start with "Happy Face Characters" (ASCII 01), you probably have
this option turned on unintentionally. Turning off extended message
information will remove this unwanted text from your downloaded mail
packets.
Xpert Menu Mode
---------------
The Blue Wave Mail Door has two menu modes: Full Help Menus and Xpert
Mode Menus. When Xpert menus are enabled, you will receive a very
short menu prompt listing the valid keys that may be pressed while the
mail door is processing the MAIN or the CONFIGURATION menu.
Unless you are very familiar with the operation of The Blue Wave Mail
Door, it is suggested that you leave the Xpert menus turned off.
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Use Numeric Packet Extensions
-----------------------------
When your sysop or system administrator installs The Blue Wave Mail
Door, they have the ability to specify (up to) an eight character
"Mail Packet Name". This mail packet name normally corresponds to the
name of the BBS System. For example, the name of the Cutting Edge
Computing support BBS is "Wild! Blue". Our mail door is configured to
generate mail packets beginning with the root name "WILDBLUE".
All mail packets downloaded through The Blue Wave Mail Door use this
root name as a basis for generating file names for the mail packets
that you download. Each time you download a mail packet, the root
name will remain constant, but the file extension will vary.
The default behaviour of the mail door is to generate a mail packet
extension that begins with the first two letters of the day of the
week (the day the mail packet was created). For example, "MO" is used
for Monday, and "FR" is used for Friday. The third character of the
file extension is the number of the mail packet downloaded that day.
These numbers range from 1 to 9.
If today was Thursday and you were downloading the second mail packet
of the day from the Wild Blue BBS, your mail packet would be named
WILDBLUE.TH2.
When "Use Numeric Packet Extensions" is turned ON, the mail door will
create a unique 3-digit extension for your mail packet. Each time you
successfully download a mail packet, this number will be increased by
1. The first mail packet you download with this option turned on
would be called WILDBLUE.001, the second mail packet (even if
downloaded on a different day) would be named WILDBLUE.002. If you
reach the point where you download a packet called WILDBLUE.999, the
next mail packet created would be called WILDBLUE.001 again.
Enabling this option has many advantages. The first is that you will
never encounter a problem with duplicate file names being download
(which causes many protocols to go into convulsions). Another
advantage is that you will be able to look at a listing of mail
packets and immediately know which was the first and the last one that
you have downloaded.
The sysop or admistrator of the host system has the ability to edit
the current download extension number through the door's USER FILE
editor. If, for some reason, you need to change the number that is
currently stored in your user record, you may be able to ask the sysop
(very nicely!) to alter the current extension number.
Please note that some Blue Wave-compatible mail readers may not be
able to digest the purely numerical packet extensions. If your mail
reader will not load the file properly turn this option off.
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New File Listings In Packets
----------------------------
NOTE: The sysop or administrator of your host system has the ability
to turn this menu item OFF. Therefore, this menu item may not be
available on some systems. Additionally, this feature was added to
mail doors with a version number of 3.00 and higher. If the mail door
you are using is less than v3.00, this option will not be available.
The "New File Listings in Packets" option has 3 possible settings:
You can choose NOT to receive new file listing announcements in your
mail packet, or you can have 2 different types of listings.
The two possible types of listings are "COLOR" and "TEXT". Some mail
readers may not be able to display color file listings properly (any
version of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader above v2.10 will display
them properly). When you choose to receive color file listings, ANSI
escape sequences will be placed into the newfiles list, resulting in a
nice color display on systems that have a proper viewer. If your mail
reader cannot handle ANSI file listings, you can turn this item ON,
but do not tell the door to create color lists.
This option is very useful when combined with The Blue Wave Offline
Mail System's "file request" capabilities. The Blue Wave Offline Mail
Reader (v2.11 and higher) will allow you to simultaneously display the
new file listing and enter file requests to the host BBS. You can use
this powerful feature to keep updated on all of the latest utilities
uploaded to the host BBS.
Protocol
--------
Selecting this menu item will allow you to change the transfer
protocol used to send mail packets to your system and to receive
uploaded mail packets from your system. You will be presented a list
of available protocols on the system. Simply press the letter that
corresponds to the transfer protocol you would like to use, and the
door will use that protocol in all file transfers performed.
Archiver
--------
Selecting this menu item will allow you to change the compression
system that is used to build your mail packets and to decompress the
mail packets that you upload. You will be presented a listing of all
available archivers on the system. Simply press the letter that
corresponds to the compression system you would like to use.
Please note that you must have a copy of this compression system on
your system, and your reader must be properly configured to use this
archiver. Consult your reader documentation for more information.
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Keyword Selection
-----------------
The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 different
Keyword definitions. These keywords will be used during the mail
scanning process to inform you of mail in an area which contains any
one of the keyword definitions. To get the full use out of keywords,
you must use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands, described later in the
documentation. The Blue Wave Mail Door does nothing with the keywords
unless you issue a bundling command instructing it how to handle
keywords in certain areas.
The best way to describe the use of keywords is with an example.
Let's suppose that you are looking for Apple computer equipment to buy
in the National For-Sale FidoNet Echo. Sometimes the FOR-SALE echo
generates more than 200 messages per day. Instead of downloading all
200 messages, of which (possibly) 199 of them are of no interest to
you, you may define the keyword APPLE.
You would then be informed during the SCANNING process of all mail
containing the keyword APPLE. By using the Blue Wave Bundling
Commands, it is possible to ONLY bundle messages with the Keyword
APPLE in them. This, of course, saves on-line time, and time you
would have to spend paging through the numerous (UNWANTED) messages
offline when using the reader. Naturally, there are many other uses
to the Keywords option. The idea behind keywords is to let The Blue
Wave Mail Door do the work for you!
Filter Selection
----------------
Like Keywords, The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10
FILTERS. Filters essentially work just the opposite of Keywords.
During the door's SCANNING process, you are informed of messages that
contain any of the Filters that you have defined. After the mail scan
is complete, you can use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands to FILTER the
messages that you do not want to receive.
Again, the best way to describe the usefulness of Filters is with an
example. Let's suppose that Joe Blow in the FidoNet C Programming
Echo is consistently entering messages which contain false
information, is constantly flaming others, and is being an all around
nuisance. Although you really enjoy reading the C_ECHO, you get tired
of seeing messages entered either from Joe Blow or to Joe Blow. By
defining the Filter of JOE BLOW, you will be flagged if there are any
messages containing the Filter. By using The Blue Wave Bundling
Commands, you can then instruct The Blue Wave Mail Door NOT to bundle
messages containing the Filter JOE BLOW.
Please see the section titled "THE BLUE WAVE BUNDLING COMMANDS" for
information on how to use your keyword and filter definitions.
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Macro Definitions
-----------------
The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 3 macros that can
be used in the place of manually entering your bundling commands
during each mail download session. The Blue Wave Bundling commands
are described later in the documentation.
For each macro that you define, you can tell the door whether or not
it should automatically be executed after a mail scan. If you do NOT
set the macro to auto-execute, you must enter "M1", "M2", or "M3" at
the bundling command prompt for the macro to execute.
If the macro is set to auto-execute, the door will execute the macro
for you at the end of a mail scan. If your macro contains the
bundling command "!", it will force the door to not prompt you for any
bundling commands, but rather to immediately start packaging your
mail.
If your sysop has set up the system to allow "automatic downloads",
the auto-execute function is also very handy. During an automatic
download, you are never prompted for input by the door. The door
performs a mail scan, bundles your mail, executes the download
protocol, and exits back to the BBS system. Because of this, you do
not have a chance to enter any bundling commands, unless they are
defined in a macro that is set to auto-execute.
Limit D/L Packet Size
---------------------
If you are running with limited drive space, this option is extremely
useful. If you define a maximum packet size of 100K, the door will
stop bundling messages once the requested maximum packet size has been
reached. The maximum packet size is the size of the UNCOMPRESSED mail
bundle that the door is building. If you enable this option, you can
ensure that the downloaded mail packet will fit onto the disk space
you have available after the mail packet has been decompressed.
When this option is enabled, the door will perform all of its
functions as usual, until it gets to the mail packing stage. As the
door gathers the mail and places it into your download packet, it
monitors the packet's size to be sure that it does not exceed your
specified size limit.
When (if) the packet limit size is reached, the mail door sends a
message to the screen indicating this fact, and then compresses the
partial mail bundle for you to download.
You can then immediately download another mail packet to gather the
messages that were not packed during the previous mail bundling
session.
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Page 15
Set Password Options
--------------------
The password or Secure option is unique to The Blue Wave Mail System.
Although some may question its usefulness, there are several
situations where you may wish to enable this feature. There are 4
levels of security offered:
* Password prompting in the DOOR only.
* Password prompting in the READER only.
* Password prompting in the READER and DOOR.
* No password prompting (Default).
In a situation where you download sensitive areas from the BBS, and
use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader on a machine that is shared by
several other users, you may wish to add the secure option to the
READER only. Each mail packet will be encrypted with a password. If
a user tries to read a packet encrypted with a password, they will be
prompted to enter it. If the user does not get the correct password
after three tries, the reader will NOT allow them to read the mail
packet.
Another situation may occur where Father downloads sensitive mail, and
does not wish for Daughter, Son, or Wife to read it. It may be useful
to set the secure option in both the READER and DOOR, since it is
possible that the family knows Father's BBS password. By prompting
for a password when entering the door (obviously one that is different
from the BBS password), he has another layer of security.
Configuration Help
------------------
Displays a help screen which contains very abbreviated portions of
this documentation so that you have a quick reference to the mail
door's functions while you are online with the BBS.
Quit to Main Menu
-----------------
Selecting this option will leave the door's CONFIGURATION menu, and
return you to the door's MAIN menu.
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Page 16
THE MAIN MENU
-------------
Each time you enter The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, the first menu
you encounter will be the door's MAIN menu. From here you can
navigate to every part of the online mail system.
Download New Mail
-----------------
Selecting this menu option will cause the door to enter "Download
Mode", and immediately begin a new mail scan. Documentation for
performing mail downloads can be found in the section titled
"DOWNLOADING THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR".
Upload New Replies
------------------
Selecting this menu option will cause the door to enter "Upload Mode",
and immediately request that you begin uploading the message reply
packet created by The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or another Blue
Wave-compatible mail reader.
Configuration Menu
------------------
Takes you to the mail door's online configuration menu, which was
described in detail in the previous section of the documentation.
Quit Back to BBS
----------------
Selecting this menu item will cause you to leave The Blue Wave Mail
Door and return you to the BBS.
Goodbye
-------
NOTE: This item may or may not be available to you. The sysop or
administrator has the ability to disable this menu item.
Selecting this menu item will cause the mail door to disconnect you
from the host BBS. You will no longer be connected to the BBS, and
you can begin reading the mail you downloaded with your offline mail
reader.
Xpert Mode
----------
Offers a quick way to change the help level you receive through the
menu system of the door without entering the door CONFIGURATION menu.
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Page 17
DOWNLOADING THROUGH THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR
-------------------------------------------
After you have configured the mail door to your liking and you have
chosen the message areas that you would like to recieve, it is time to
actually download the mail packet.
Immediately after you select D)ownload New Mail from the door's MAIN
menu, the door begins to gather information about the BBS's message
base and presents the information in tabular form. Below is a sample
screen:
Logon Name: Joe Blow Keyword Scan: ON
Alias Name: Little Joey Filters Scan: OFF
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Status Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 GENERAL Pers 100 7 0 0 0 0
2 PRIVATE Pers 257 1 0 0 1 1
3 NETMAIL New 129 0 0 0 0 0
4 FLINT P+All 98 17 4 0 0 17
23 CFORSALE P+All 200 199 19 0 0 86
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand 784 224 23 0 1 104
Totals Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please enter your Blue Wave bundling commands, R to Relist Scan Table,
Q to abort, ? Command List, D)etailed Help or [ENTER] for ALL NEW mail
:
As you can see from this example, there is quite a bit of information
presented during the mail scan. In this example, we are downloading 5
message areas. The first 2 message areas are being downloaded for
PERSONAL messages only (notice the "Pers" under the "Status" column).
The NETMAIL message area is being scanned for ALL new messages, and
the last 2 message areas are being scanned for personal messages +
messages addressed to "All".
The "Total" column in the scan table refers to the TOTAL number of
messages that the host system has stored in those particular message
areas. Since this is a total count of the number of messages, there
are most likely messages here that you have already read (if you have
performed a mail download before). More often than not, the TOTAL
column will not contain the same number of messages as listed in the
NEW column. If the TOTAL and the NEW column contain the same number,
it means that you have not read any of the messages in that particular
message area.
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The numbers in the KEYWORDS and FILTERS column inform you of the
number of messages that contained your defined set of words in each
category. Note that the number in the KEYWORDS or the FILTERS column
will never exceed the number in the NEW column. The number in the
KEYWORDS and FILTERS column is the number of messages that were found
within the new messages on the system.
The number in the PERSONAL column tells you how many messages in each
message area were addressed directly to you. Again, this number
represents the number of personal messages within the new messages on
the system.
And finally, the # DL'ING column tells you how many messages the door
has "queued" for download in each message area. In our example, you
can see that the CFORSALE area (#23) contained 200 new messages, but
the door has only queued 86 of them for download. This is because
when the user turned the CFORSALE area on through the configuration
menu, they chose to only download messages in the area that contained
the word "All" in the TO: field, and his personal messages. Since the
number in the "Personal" column is 0, we can safely assume that all 86
messages queued for download have been addressed to "All".
The number displayed in the "# DL'ing" column will change as you issue
bundling commands to the door to change the number of messages that
will be sent from that particular message area.
While we are discussing the mail scan screen, it would probably be
helpful to know all of the possible phrases that appear in the
"STATUS" column, along with an explanation of each.
STATUS DESCRIPTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
New - Indicates that the door is going to send ALL NEW messages in
the message area.
Pers - Indicates that the door will send only PERSONAL messages in
the message area.
P+All - Indicates that the door will send PERSONAL and messages TO:
"All" in the message area.
Kwds - Indicates that you issued a K<area> bundling command for the
message area, and that only KEYWORD messages will be sent.
Filt - Indicates that you issued a F<area> bundling command for the
message area, and the door will not send FILTERed messages.
L 20 - Indicates that you issued an <area#>L<#msgs> command for the
message area, and only the last 20 messages will be sent.
B 100 - Indicates that you issued an <area#>B<#msgs> command for the
message area, and only the first 100 new msgs will be sent.
Force - The message area has been FORCED by the sysop and you cannot
issue any bundling commands for this area.
None - The message area has been deselected from downloading by the
use of a -<area#> bundling command. No msgs will be sent.
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Page 19
After the mail scan has completed, the door is stopped at a command
prompt, waiting for you to give it further instructions. The door is
waiting for either a bundling command to be issued, or for one of the
following selections:
R - Pressing "R[ENTER]" will cause the door to redisplay the
scan table in the case that some information has scrolled
off of your screen.
Q - Pressing "Q[ENTER]" will abort the mail download. The door
will prompt you with an "Are you sure" question. If you
choose to abort the mail download, you will be taken back to
the door's MAIN menu.
? - Pressing "?[ENTER]" will cause the door to display a list of
all of the bundling commands available to you. This is a
very short display with a one-line description of the
bundling commands.
D - Pressing "D[ENTER]" will force the door to display a help
screen containing a list of all bundling commands, and an
example of each. This help screen contains much more detail
than the previous help screen, and is several pages long.
[ENTER] - Simply pressing [ENTER] will cause the door to begin
a mail packet. The number of messages displayed in the
"# DL'ing" column will be packed for each message area.
After you have issued any bundling commands or have instructed the
door to begin bundling by simply pressing the [ENTER] key, the mail
system will immediately start packing your mail for download. You
will see a status bar appear on the screen, much like a bar graph,
that indicates the mail door's progress in the packing.
When the mail door has finished packing your mail bundle, it will then
scan the host BBS's file base for new files since your last mail
download (if your sysop allows it, and you have told the door to do
so). After a few seconds you will see the message:
Mashing your mail with <YOUR SELECTED ARCHIVER>. One moment...
At this point in time, the host system is compressing your mail packet
into a compressed mail file for faster transmission. On some slower
host systems, this process could take anywhere from a few seconds to
several minutes. On faster systems, this process will probably take
less than a minute, even on large download packets.
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Page 20
When the mail system is done compressing your mail packet, you will be
presented with a screen similar to the following:
Your mail packet is ready for download!
File Name: WILDBLUE.001
File Size: 106080 bytes
Est. Time: 1:20 mins
A)bort Download Session
I)nstant logoff after transfer
C)ountdown before logoff
P)rotocol Change (YOUR PROTOCOL)
[ENTER] to begin normal download
Select:
As you can see, the information at the top of the screen tells you the
name of the mail packet you will be downloading, the size of the mail
packet that was created, and an estimated transfer time of the mail
packet. The five menu selections will be described below.
Abort Download Session
----------------------
Selecting this option will cause the door to give you an "Are you
sure" prompt. If you answer NO to the question, you will be given the
same screen/menu again, and you can make another selection.
If you answer YES (you want to abort the download session), the door
will ask you the question "Mark the scanned messages as READ?". If
you answer YES to this question, the door will update your lastread
pointers, indicating that you have already read all of the messages
that were packed for download. If you were to immediately begin
another download session, the door would find 0 new messages for you.
Answering NO to this question will not update your message pointers,
and will return you to the door's MAIN menu.
Instant Logoff After Transfer
-----------------------------
NOTE: This option may not be available on all systems. Sysops and
administrators can disable this menu option if they wish.
Selecting this menu option will cause the door to immediately begin
sending you the mail packet with the protocol that you have
configured. If the download was successful, the door will then update
your lastread message pointers and then log you off of the system.
This is good for unattended download sessions.
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Page 21
Countdown Logoff
----------------
NOTE: This option may not be available on all systems. Sysops and
administrators can disable this menu option if they wish.
Selecting this menu option will cause the door to immediately begin
sending you the mail packet with the protocol that you have
configured. If the download was successful, the door will then update
yoru lastread message pointes and then give you a "Countdown before
Logoff" screen. The door will count down for 10 seconds - if you
press a key, the countdown will be aborted and you will not be logged
off. If you do not press a key within 10 seconds, the door will
assume that you do not wish to stay connected to the BBS, and log you
off of the system.
Protocol Change
---------------
If you decide at the last minute that you cannot or do not wish to use
the protocol that is displayed in parentheses, you can select this
menu item. You will be presented with a list of all available
protocols on the system. Simply choose a new protocol, and you will
be returned to the menu shown above so that you can make another
selection.
[ENTER] to Begin Normal Download
--------------------------------
To begin the download of your mail packet, just press the [ENTER] key.
After a successful mail download, your message lastread pointers will
be updated and you will be returned to the door's MAIN menu.
At this point in time, you have completed a mail download session.
That's all there is to it! In the following session we will go
through the steps to upload reply packets, offline configurations, and
file requests to The Blue Wave Mail Door.
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Page 22
UPLOADING THROUGH THE MAIL DOOR
-------------------------------
Uploading reply packets through The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door is
even easier than performing a mail download. Immediately after
selecting "Upload New Replies" from the mail door's MAIN menu, you
will be prompted to begin the upload of your reply packet (which has
been created by The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or another Blue
Wave-compatible mail system). You will use the same file transfer
protocol that you have configured for downloading mail packets.
Simply start your communications (terminal) program to upload the
packet created by the reader (the reply packet will have the BBS's ID
as the root name, and a .NEW file extension). If your upload is
unsuccessful, the mail door will report "Unsuccessful Upload. Please
try again." You can then press U from the main menu again to retry
your upload.
If your upload was successful, the door will immediately begin
unpacking the reply bundle. Each message that you have entered
through the reader will be placed into the appropriate message area on
the BBS.
For each message that is found in your reply packet, a status display
will be generated on the screen. The display will include the
information found in the FROM: field, the TO: field, the SUBJECT:
field, and the network address (if it is a netmail message). The door
will tell you which message number the message was saved as, and move
on to the next message.
It is possible that some kind of error will occur while processing
your uploaded replies. The most common "error" will be the report of
a "Duplicate Message". If you upload the same message(s) more than
one time, you will see this reported to the screen. This is nothing
to worry about, as the door will not import the duplicated message
into the BBS's message base.
After all of the uploaded messages have been processed, the door will
then look to see if you performed an OFFLINE CONFIGURATION while in
the reader. If there is an offline configuration to be performed, the
door will do it for you at this time.
Finally, the door will look for any files that you may have requested
through your offline mail reader. If you did not request any files,
you will be returned to the door's MAIN menu, and you can then
continue with your online BBS session.
If you have performed a file request through your offline mail reader,
the door will begin processing your request at this point. The next
section will describe the file request function in the door.
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Page 23
File Requests
-------------
If the door has received a file request in your mail upload packet, it
will attempt to process it immediately after processing the rest of
your reply packet. For each file you requested, a display will be
shown indicating the file name, the file size, and the estimated
transfer time of the file. After all of the files have been listed,
the door will generate a total number of files requested, the total
size of all files requested, and an estimated transfer time for all of
the files requested. You will then be presented with the following
prompt:
Do you want to perform the download NOW?
Answering 'Y' will transfer the files now,
Answering 'N' will transfer the files with your mail download,
Answering 'Q' will abort this file request session.
Select:
Answering 'Y' or 'Q' at this prompt will perform the desired function.
Answering 'N' at this prompt will "queue" the files for download
during your mail download session. In order for this to be
successful, you MUST perform a mail download during the same mail
session. You cannot exit the door, return later, and still download
the requested files. Once you leave the door, the files are no longer
queued for you.
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Page 24
THE BLUE WAVE BUNDLING COMMANDS
-------------------------------
Probably the single-most powerful feature of The Blue Wave Mail Door
is the ability to dynamically select messages for download using The
Blue Wave Bundling Commands. New users to the mail door often get
confused and do not understand the use or concept of using these
commands. This is unfortunate, as this ability is very powerful,
convenient, and can save you massive amounts of online time. And,
after you understand the concept of the bundling commands (and how
they can be used effectively), they really are very simple to use.
With the exception of the "B" bundling command and the "L" bundling
command, all of the bundling commands take the same form. The first
part of the bundling command is the ACTION to take on a certain
message area, and the second part of the command is the area in which
to perform the desired action. Let's take it one step at a time and
list each of the bundling command letters, and the action that they
perform.
SYMBOL ACTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Deselects a message area from the scan list. When this
command is used on an area, NO messages in the area will be
packed for download.
+ Reselects a message area from the scan list. When this
command is used on an area, ALL NEW messages in the area
will be packed for download.
A Tells the door that you only want to download PERSONAL msgs,
and those messages that are addressed to "All". This action
is the same as defining an area as P+ALL at the config menu.
B Tells the door that you only want the BEGINNING 'n' number
of messages to be downloaded from a particular message area.
E Tells the door to "clean the slate" or ERASE all previous
bundling commands for the area. The area is returned to its
original state before any bundling commands were issued.
F Tells the door that you want to FILTER the messages in a
particular message area. Any message that contains one of
your defined FILTERS will not be packed in your mail packet.
K Forces the door to only send PERSONAL messages, and those
messages containing any of your defined KEYWORDS.
L Instructs the door to bundle only the last 'n' number of
messages in a particular message area.
M Instructs the door to execute Macro #'n'. You can define
bundling command macros from the door's CONFIGURATION menu.
P Tells the door that you only want to get PERSONAL messages
in a particular message area.
N Instructs the door to NOT update lastread pointers in a
particular message area.
U Forces an update of the lastreads in an area (DEFAULT).
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Page 25
Each of the symbols described on the previous page requires the
"second part" of the command to be used properly. The "second part"
of the command, as described on the previous page, is simply the area
number to perform the action on.
For instance, let's take the example mail scan screen that we used
earlier:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Status Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 GENERAL Pers 100 7 0 0 0 0
2 PRIVATE Pers 257 1 0 0 1 1
3 NETMAIL New 129 0 0 0 0 0
4 FLINT P+All 98 17 4 0 0 17
23 CFORSALE P+All 200 199 19 0 0 86
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand 784 224 23 0 1 104
Totals Total New Keywords Filter Personal # DL'ing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's suppose that we are looking for a particular item through the
CFORSALE echo. Let's say we're looking for FAX machines or FAX
modems. Therefore, we have gone to the configuration menu earlier and
defined the keyword of "FAX". We will also assume this is the only
keyword that we have defined. We can see from the above table that
the CFORSALE echo contains 19 messages that have the word FAX in them.
Since we are running short on time today, we only want to download
those 19 messages that contain the word FAX in them in the CFORSALE
echo, plus the 17 messages in FLINT and the 1 message in PRIVATE.
Therefore, I could issue the door the following bundling command:
K23
The "K" part looks familiar. It simply tells the door to perform
keyword-only bundling on area #23.
More than one bundling command can be issued at one time, too.
Suppose we wanted the same KEYWORD messages in area #23, but we also
wanted ALL NEW messages in area #4, instead of just Personal+All
messages. We could enter the following bundling command:
K23 +4
The + tells the door to remove the "P+All" status for the area, and
instead download ALL NEW messages in the area. The K23 has the same
effect as before. As you can see, you can enter as many bundling
commands at the prompt as will fit. With the flexibility of the mail
bundling commands, you can easily build custom mail packets.
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Page 26
As mentioned before, all of the mail bundling commands take the same
form except for the "L" and the "B" commands. These commands need an
additional parameter given to them, since they tell the door
explicitly HOW MANY messages you want to receive.
The 'B' Bundling Command
------------------------
The 'B' bundling command takes the first 'n' number of messages in the
message area AFTER your lastread pointer. Therefore, when you use
this command, you will always receive the first 'n' messages in the
area that you have not yet read.
Let's examine the bundling command "23B100". This command instructs
the door to bundle the BEGINNING 100 messages in area #23. Or, to
rephrase it, "In area #23, I want the beginning 100 messages". As you
can see, the 'B' bundling command takes the form <area#>B<#of msgs>.
When the door updates your lastread pointers for an area that was
issued a 'B' bundling command, it only marks the last message that was
downloaded as being read. Any messages that you did not receive
because of this command are left as "unread", and you can download
them on a subsequent mail download.
The 'L' Bundling Command
------------------------
The 'L' bundling command is very similar to the 'B' command described
above. The 'L' command instructs the door to bundle the LAST 'n'
number of messages in the message area.
The bundling command "17L50" would take the LAST 50 messages in area
#17 and pack them into your mail download. It tells the door, "In
area #17, I want only the last 50 messages".
The 'L' bundling command does not care what your lastread message
pointer is in the area. If the door only displays to you that there
are 50 NEW messages in area #77, but there are 500 TOTAL messages in
area #77, a bundling command of "77L500" would take all of the
messages in the area and place them into your packet for downloading.
With the special modifier, the '*' symbol, you can download ALL
messages in an area, regardless of lastread pointer. For example,
"56L*" would download all messages in area #56. Using the command
"*L*", you would be able to download ALL messages that have been
scanned in EVERY message area. More information regarding the '*'
modifier is given on the next page.
Whenever the 'L' bundling command is used, the door updates your
lastread pointer in the affected areas to the LAST message in the
message base.
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Page 27
The '*' Modifier
----------------
The '*' modifier tells the mail door to perform the desired action on
ALL areas that are listed on the scan table. For instance, a bundling
command of "F*" would filter messages in ALL areas. A command of "K*"
would download only KEYWORDS in all message areas.
The '*' modifier is supplied to make global changes to your scan list
quickly and easily. But, what if you want to perform an action on all
areas EXCEPT area #23? In area #23 you want to download ALL messages,
but in all of the other areas you simply want only personal messages,
and those messages addressed to "All". The bundling command you would
issue is:
A* +23
For all areas, the P+All status will be set, and then for area number
23, you want the default action of ALL NEW messages. If you keep and
open mind and do not let the bundling commands confuse you, they can
be a very powerful tool.
The '!' Modifier
----------------
Normally, after you issue a bundling command, the door will process
the command, compute a new download message total, and return you to
the prompt for you to enter more bundling commands. The '!' command
tells the door that you have finished entering your commands, and you
are ready to begin downloading your mail. If you entered the
following command at the prompt:
A* +23 !
The door would not stop to ask you for more input. It understands
that those are the only bundling commands you want to issue, and it
begins packing the messages immediately.
Bundling Command Considerations
-------------------------------
There are a few things to keep in mind about how the bundling commands
operate. Understanding certain things about the bundling commands
will make them easier to work with.
Bundling commands are evaluated from LEFT to RIGHT. If you entered
the command "-23 A17 +23", you would find that the door saw the -23
command first, evaluated the A17, and then performed the +23 command.
Therefore, you WOULD have received all new messages in area number 23.
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Page 28
The next thing to keep in mind regarding the bundling commands is that
you can only have one 'action' being performed on an area at any one
time. Unfortunately, due to a limitation of The Blue Wave Mail Door,
a command of "K* F*" would only FILTER messages in all areas. You
cannot yet have KEYWORDS and FILTERS performed on the same message
area.
In a similar way, you cannot only download "P+All" messages, and still
have them FILTERED. There are some commands that just do not make
sense when used together. For example, it doesn't make sense to ask
the door for KEYWORD and PERSONAL messages only in an area. (A
P<area> and a K<area> command). Because the behaviour of the KEYWORD
action includes bundling PERSONAL messages, this is not a real
concern.
WARNING: If you are already thoroughly confused, reading the next two
paragraphs will do nothing to extend your life expectancy. If your
head is already spinning, please skip reading the rest of this
section. [Seriously.] We cannot be held responsible for medical
bills resulting from exposure to the following material.
Of course, to every rule there must be an exception. The "strange"
bundling command 'N' will cause the door NOT to update message
pointers for a particular message area. Offhand I can think of very
few uses for this action, but there have been instances where creative
people have used it. Since the sign on my desk reads "Creativeness
stops here", I can't for the life of me think of why they needed this
bundling command. Anyway, on to the exception to the rule. You can
issue the bundling command "P23 N23" to get only PERSONAL messages in
a message area, *and* to NOT UPDATE the message read pointers. The
'N' command can be used in combination with *any* of the bundling
commands, except for the 'U' bundling command (which FORCES an update
of the message pointers). [Can you say "Viscious Circle"?]
If you've *really* mucked up your scan list with a bunch of bundling
commands, you do not have to go to the extreme of quitting the mail
scan and starting over. Simply issue an "E*" bundling command, which
clears ALL previous modifications and lets you get a good night's
sleep. Another way is to press the <Alt-H> key in your terminal
program, lay back, turn on that soothing "Ocean Sounds" CD you've
never been daring enough to open, and try again tomorrow. The Blue
Wave Mail Door will recognize that fact that you have dropped carrier
and exit back to the BBS so the next fool can try his or her fate.
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Page 29
IN CONCLUSION
-------------
If you have actually read this far into the documentation without
falling asleep, not only do you deserve one heck of a long nap, but
you are also eligible to receive "The Blue Wave Medal of Honour". You
can receive your special award by sending $19.95 plus $29.95 shipping
and handling to the address shown on your screen. You will be the
envy of all your neighbors, friends, and colleagues.
On a more serious note, it is hoped that this documentation will help
you understand the full potential of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door,
and help you to use the mail door effectively. Cutting Edge Computing
is always interested in hearing your suggestions for improvement.
Most of the features of the mail system have come directly from user
suggestions. We hope to hear your suggestions, too.
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The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door User Documentation, v3.00
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