When you have enabled subscription mode, you can control the security level and conference access of each user based expiration date entered in the user record. When a user logs into the system on or after their expiration date, they are considered to be expired. PCBoard will then assign the user the security level entered in the expired security level of their record. This security change will be in effect until the user is no longer expired. In addition, the user will be denied access to any conference that they do not have the X conference registration flag set in.
By selecting Subscription from the Main Menu of PCBSetup you can choose to enable subscription mode. If subscription mode is enabled, you can also modify some of the parameters that control how subscription mode will be handled.
Subscription mode will make PCBoard look at the expiration date of each user to determine if their subscription has expired or not. When the user's subscription is current, they are given their normal security level and are able to join any conference they are registered in. When a user is expired, they are assigned their expired security level and may also have their conference access restricted.
This setting will determine whether or not subscription mode will be enabled.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | Subscription mode is disabled. The user's expiration date is ignored even if the user would normally be expired. |
| Y | Subscription mode is enabled meaning that PCBoard will check the expiration date of all users when they logon. The security level and conference access of the user will be set according to the user record (Expired Security Level and X conference flags). |
This field controls what the expiration date of new users will be.
The number of days entered in this field will be added to the current date to determine the expiration date of the new user. If you enter a default length of 0, the expiration date of new users will be 00-00-00 which is a date that will never occur and therefore they will never expire. In other words, a setting of 0 disables subscription mode for new users.
Just as you can set a default expiration date for new users, you can also choose the default expired security level for new users as well. Simply enter the security level that you wish to assign to the new user when they expire. Remember that a security level of 0 locks the user out of the system.
The value that you enter in this field will determine how many days a user will be warned before their subscription expires. PCBoard will display the WARNING file at login specified in PCBSetup > File Locations > Display Files during the warning period.