This utility will encrypt your user file to prevent any unauthorized persons
who get hold of your user file from obtaining useful information from it.
PCBoard and System Manager will automatically unencrypt the file when they
open the file. The following fields are encrypted:
To encrypt the user file, you must first encrypt your user file using the ENCRYPT program using the following syntax:
ENCRYPT [location of user file]
If your user file is stored in C:\PCB\MAIN\USERS, you would enter the following:
ENCRYPT C:\PCB\MAIN\USERS
Once the user file has been encrypted, you must inform PCBoard that the user file is encrypted. If you skip this step, these fields will appear to be filled with garbage and you can damage your user file. To update PCBoard, answer Y to the Encrypt Users File question in PCBSetup > Configuration Options > System Control.
The USERS.SYS and DOOR.SYS files that are created by PCBoard will have decrypted values so that doors which read these files will continue to operate properly. Any third-party programs which read the user file directory most likely will not work with the encrypted file and may end up damaging your user file.
WARNING: You must enable encryption on all nodes that will be accessing an encrypted user file. If you do not, you may damage your user file.
If you would like to decrypt the user file, use the ENCRYPT program with this syntax:
ENCRYPT /D [location of user file]
For example, if your user file is stored in H:\PCB\MAIN\USERS, you would enter the following:
ENCRYPT /D H:\PCB\MAIN\USERS
Encrypting the user file is most useful when you operate in a large network environment where users may be able to directly access the user file. By encrypting the user file, you can protect the accounts on the system because they cannot be viewed using a file viewing program.
The main PCBoard executable file is overlaid. This means that only a portion of the executable is in memory at any given time. How much of the executable can be held in memory depends on two factors: 1) How much of it is resident (not in the overlay) and 2) How big the overlay buffer is. You can determine how big of an overlay buffer you want to set for each executable using this utility.
A setting of 16 sets up a 64K overlay buffer. This setting allows PCBoard to swap pieces of the executable file in and out of memory keeping up to 64K of it in the overlay buffer.
OVLSIZE [filename] [buffer size]
| [filename] | This is the filename you want to update the overlay buffers on. Enter the location of your PCBOARD.EXE or PCBSM.EXE. If OVLSIZE cannot find the file you specify, it will print unable to open file specified. |
| [buffer] | This parameter represents the new buffer size. See Buffer Sizes for a list of valid buffer values. If you do not specify a buffer size, the current overlay buffer size will be printed to the screen. |
The following chart in this section will show you the valid buffer sizes that you may select:
| Value | Size | Value | Size | Value | Size | Value | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4K | 9 | 36K | 17 | 68K | 25 | 100K |
| 2 | 8K | 10 | 40K | 18 | 72K | 26 | 104K |
| 3 | 12K | 11 | 44K | 19 | 76K | 27 | 108K |
| 4 | 16K | 12 | 48K | 20 | 80K | 28 | 112K |
| 5 | 20K | 13 | 52K | 21 | 84K | 29 | 116K |
| 6 | 24K | 14 | 56K | 22 | 88K | 30 | 120K |
| 7 | 28K | 15 | 60K | 23 | 92K | 31 | 124K |
| 8 | 32K | 16 | 64K | 24 | 96K | 32 | 128K |
A higher value allows more of the executable file to be held in memory. The highest possible value, of course, would simply load the entire executable file into memory and would never access the hard disk. An overlay buffer of this size would be wasteful of memory.
Lower values may hurt performance by causing PCBoard to continually swap code in from disk - creating more disk activity than would otherwise be necessary.
You may want to use a smaller value such as 16. This lets PCBoard pull in the code that is running, when it is needed, and leave the rest of the code on disk until it is needed.
Allowing you to pick the buffer size allows you to tune your system to meet your memory and performance needs. If you need more memory, go for a lower overlay buffer size. If you need more performance, go for a higher buffer size.
NOTE: The minimum value that you should select is 14 for PCBoard to operate properly. If you plan to execute any PPE files, the minimum value you should select is 16.