Configuration Options
From the Configuration Options menu selection you can control the way PCBoard behaves in various circumstances. There are options in fields that control file transfers, messages, and many other things.
Messages
Number of Highest Conference Desired
In this field enter the highest conference number you want to be able to define on your system. PCBSetup will use the number entered in this field to determine the highest conference number you can define from the Conferences Main Menu Option in PCBSetup.
If you enter a value higher than 39 in this field, you may have to update your conference allocations from System Manager > Users Info File Maintenance. Whenever you change the value in this field, you should load System Manager and see if you need to update your conference allocations.
If you are running multiple nodes make sure all nodes have the exact same value for this field. If all nodes do not have the same value for this field, then it is quite possible one or more of your nodes will not load because the conference allocations would not be in sync for all nodes.
Maximum Lines in the Message Editor
This field gives you the ability to limit the total number of lines that a user may enter if they use PCBoard to enter their message. This means that the limit you enter in this field will be enforced when a user uploads a REP packet using the QWK command or even if they upload the message into the message editor. You can enter any value between 17 and 400.
The value that you enter in this field can help control the length of messages that are entered by your users. If your users are leaving excessively long messages then you may want to lower the maximum number of lines to help encourage your users to be more brief in their messages.
NOTE: Any messages that are posted by software other than PCBoard (such as an off-line mail reading door) may not honor this limit. Anytime that third party software adds a message to a message base it is up to the author of the program to honor the settings you have defined.
Message Capture - Maximum Messages
This setting allows you to control the maximum number of messages that can be captured into a message capture file or a QWK packet.
The reason for setting this value to something other than a maximum number would be to either, limit the length of time it takes the caller to download a set of messages, or to keep a message capture from filling up the disk (especially if a ram disk is specified for the location of temporary files).
Message Capture - Max Per Conference
This setting allows you to control the maximum number of messages in each conference that can be captured into a message capture file or a QWK packet.
The reason for setting this value to something other than a maximum number would be to either, limit the length of time it takes the caller to download a set of messages, or to keep a message capture from filling up the disk (especially if a ram disk is specified for the location of temporary files).
Name of Capture File (blank=caller#)
The name you enter is this field will be the file that is created for message captures. A user can create a message capture file using the C, D, and Z subcommands of the R user command. If you leave this field blank, the caller number will be used as the filename instead. The capture file PCBoard creates, is stored in the Location of Temporary Work Files specified in PCBSetup > File Locations > System Files.
It is quite conceivable that a user could exceed the limits you have set for maximum messages per capture or conference. In a situation where this occurs, they may decide to perform another capture. To prevent this new packet from overwriting the packet they just barely downloaded, PCBoard will rename the capture file using the following conventions:
If the filename field was left blank or if the capture filename is 7 characters or less, PCBoard will increment the filename by adding the letter A to the end of the caller number after the first packet is downloaded. If yet another packet is downloaded, PCBoard will add a B to the caller number and so on.
If you specified a capture filename that has 8 characters in it, PCBoard cannot add a new character to the filename and still have a valid DOS filename. Therefore, it will increment the last letter in the capture filename until it reaches the letter Z.
Name of QWK Packet (blank=capture name)
In this field, enter the name that will be used when creating QWK mail packets for users to download. If you leave this field blank, then PCBoard will use the filename that you entered as your capture filename (in the previous field).
Be forewarned, however, that if you leave the capture filename blank as well, that your QWK packets will not be created. The reason that no packet will be created is that the QWK mail standard expects to have a consistent base filename to work on. Of course, the caller number varies with each call so that cannot be used as a QWK packet name.
Usually, the best thing to do is to summarize your board name in 7 characters or less, use that abbreviation as the capture filename, and then leave your QWK packet filename blank.
As with capture files, if a user attempts to download more than one packet during a call, PCBoard is going to increment the filename so that the recently downloaded packet does not get overwritten. QWK files are handled a little differently. PCBoard will give the first QWK packet an extension of QWK. If another packet is downloaded, PCBoard will give it an extension of QW0 and so on.
Stop Clock for Capture File Download
During the download of a message capture or QWK packet file, you can determine if you want to charge the user time for downloading the file or not.
The valid options are:
| N | Any time spent downloading a capture file or QWK packet will be counted against the user's daily/session time limit. If the user had 30 minutes available before the transfer began and it takes them 5 minutes to download, they will have 25 minutes of time left. |
| Y | No time will be deducted from the daily/session time limit when the user is downloading a capture file or QWK mail packet. You may choose to set this option to give your users extra incentive to download messages and read them offline. |
Disable Message Scan Prompt
Normally when you login to PCBoard it will ask you if you wish to scan for messages. This option controls whether or not that question is asked.
Valid responses are:
| N | With this setting, PCBoard will ask if the message base should be scanned each time a user logs into the system. In addition, any conference that you join and did not scan at login will also ask if you wish to scan the new mail. The difference is that at login, PCBoard will scan all conferences you have selected for new mail. It will show you how many messages are new and if any are addressed to you. If you join a conference which you have not selected for scanning and are prompted to scan for new mail, only the current conference will be scanned. |
| Y | The prompt which asks the user if they wish to scan for messages will be disabled. This means that the user will not be asked at login or even when they join conferences. |
Allow ESC Codes in Messages
ESC (escape) codes are generally used to transmit ANSI sequences across the modem. These codes could define color changes, cursor movements, etc. To enter the ESC character into the message editor the ASCII 029 character should be used instead of ASCII 027. This will avoid any conflicts with the full-screen editor and its use of ESC. From the keyboard, the ASCII 029 character can be entered by holding down A while typing 029 on the numeric keypad (a double sided arrow will be printed). This option controls whether or not you want to allow users to enter the ESC character in the message editor.
The valid choices are:
| N | Users will not be allowed to enter the ESC character in their messages. In effect this would disable users from entering ANSI color screens in their messages. This in itself is not a bad idea, because not all of your callers would be capable of ANSI color graphics. Colors can still be used in messages using PCBoard's @X color codes. PCBoard can interpret the @X codes to determine if the caller is capable of color and change the color if they are. |
| Y | Users may enter ESC characters in their messages. This would allow users to enter ANSI screens inside of message. Remember that not all of your callers will be capable of ANSI so the ESC codes may appear to be garbage if a user is not capable of ANSI. |
Allow Carbon-Copy Messages
When a group of people are targeted for a particular message, one of the most practical methods for getting the message across is to carbon copy the message to several users. This can be done by typing SC while at the message editor command prompt. Instead of simply saving the message, the user will be prompted for additional names the message should be carbon copied to. Each of the users specified in the list will be sent a copy of the message that is saved.
The valid options for this field are:
| N | The ability to save carbon copies of a message will not be available to any user on the system. |
| Y | Users may save carbon copies of messages to other users on the system. The maximum number of carbon copies can be adjusted for each conference from the conference options screen. |
Validate TO: Name in Messages
To insure mail gets properly addressed to users on the system, you can enable this option to verify names entered in the TO: field of messages. When a name is validated, PCBoard checks to see if the user name entered exists in the user file. If no validation were done, a user could enter a message to a user who does not exist and wonder why a response was never received.
The valid options are:
| N | No validation of the name that messages are addressed to will be performed. This means that it is up to the user to properly enter the name of the user. |
| Y | PCBoard will make sure that the name to whom the message is being addressed, exists on the system. If the name does not exist, the user is warned that the user name could not be found and given three options. The user can choose to re-enter the name, continue with a name which does not exist, or perform a Soundex search to see if a similar sounding name could be found. |
NOTE: Regardless of how you answer this question, no name validation will be done in a conference which has been configured as an echo conference.
Force COMMENTS-to-the-Sysop into Main
When you have several conferences on your system, you might find it very desirable to consolidate all of the messages that are entered using the C user command into the Main Board. This will make it easy to read all of your comments without having to join all of the conferences on your system to see if you have mail waiting.
The valid options are:
| N | Leave the comment to the SysOp in the conference that the user was in at the time the message was written. The advantage to selecting this option is that if the user mentions something about the conference configuration but does not reference the number or name you will know what conference they are referring to. The disadvantage is that you may find comments in any conference on your system. |
| Y | Any comments to the SysOp (using the C user command) will be moved transparently to the Main Board conference. The advantage to selecting this option is that all of your comments will be in one single location. An additional benefit would come into play if your have netmail conferences and do not want the comments to the SysOp to get transferred to the other systems in the network. |
Double-Byte Characters (Foreign Systems)
PCBoard supports double byte (DB) characters by allowing changing line delimiters in the message base. If you enable this feature you will be able to use DB characters in your messages, however, it is important to realize that the format of messages stored in this format are not compatible with systems or third party software that do not have DB characters enabled. Do not enable DBCS unless you need it.
The valid options are:
| N | When you select this menu option, PCBoard stores message in the standard message base format. |
| Y | Using this option will cause PCBoard to use a different line delimiter in the message base. This may very well render any third party software for the message bases useless (unless they also recognize DB characters). |
NOTE: If you change this setting, you will need to delete all of your message bases because they are stored in a different format based on this setting. If you do not delete the message bases, your users may see message headers with no body.
Create MSGS File if Missing
If the message file is missing when a user joins a conference, PCBoard will normally create the file. In certain situations though, it may be desirable to let PCBSetup create any missing message files for you. In particular, if your system has a lot of nodes (e.g., more than 75), it would be quite possible that some other process could be accessing the message base (such as PCBPack) and for PCBoard to not find the message base. PCBoard would create the message base which could destroy the pre-existing message base.
The valid options are:
| N | PCBoard will not create the message base file if it does not exist when a user joins a conference. This will disable all of the message functions if the message base does not exist, but it will still allow the user to join the conference without the risk of interfering with other processes. The only way to create the message base would be to exit and save from within PCBSetup having your entire system checked. If PCBSetup finds a missing message base file it will create it for you. |
| Y | For most systems, this will be the desired setting. This way you do not have to worry about creating the message base file. Instead, PCBoard will do all of the work for you. |
Default to (Q)uick on Personal Mail Scan
There are two formats that can be used for scanning for personal mail - the long and quick formats. The quick format uses one line per conference and lists the number of messages scanned and how many were addressed to you. The long format displays more information and consequently takes more than one line for each conference. This option allows you to determine if the quick format will be the default for message scans.
Valid options are:
| N | All mail scans will default to the long format. If the short format is desired, the Q subcommand can be used on those commands which involve mail scans. |
| Y | When you select this menu option, all mail scans will default to quick mode. If long mode is desired, the L subcommand can be used on those commands that involve mail scans. |
Default to Scan ALL Conferences at Login
When you login and just after PCBoard scans for new bulletins, you are asked if you wish to scan the message base since the last message you have read. This option will decide if only the current conference will be scanned or if all selected conferences will be scanned.
Valid options are:
| N | When this option is used, only the current message base will be scanned for new messages. Normally this would refer to the Main Board, but you could define auto-rejoin conferences so that users rejoin the conference they logged off in. |
| Y | All conferences that have been selected for scanning will be searched for new mail. Remember that conferences are usually selected for scanning using the SELECT user command. |
Prompt to Read Mail when Mail Waiting
When a new message has been left for a caller, that caller will be informed of the new message with a pop-up message that indicates which conferences have new mail. You can control whether the user is asked to read the mail right now or if only the pop-up message is displayed.
Valid options are:
| N | Display the pop-up message only. The user will not be asked if they wish to read the new mail. |
| Y | As soon as the pop-up message is displayed, the user will be asked if they wish to read the mail that is waiting for them. |
NOTE: Not all messages that are left on the system will set the mail waiting flags. For example, some third party software will not update the flags nor will any generic messages you enter in PCBoard (e.g., @USER@, @##@)
File Transfers
Disallow BATCH Uploads
Normally you will want to encourage uploads to your system any way possible, and disabling batch uploads can hinder rather than promote uploads.
However, for systems that accept uploads from foreign computing environments, such as a Macintosh, where the file naming conventions do not translate straight across to the DOS environment, it can sometimes be necessary to disallow batch uploads. This avoids the problem that occurs when the batch protocol tries to convert the filenames.
Valid options are:
| N | This option will make PCBoard operate normally – users may do batch uploads. |
| Y | Users will not be able to do batch uploads when this option is set. Because a user must enter a valid DOS filename to begin an upload, this setting will force any file uploaded to the filename specified by the user. As mentioned previously, this will prevent a problem when uploading a filename from a foreign system which may try to create an invalid DOS filename. |
Promote to Batch Transfers
PCBoard has two commands for uploading files ( U and UB ). The U command is usually recommended if one file is going to be uploaded and the UB command would be used to upload more than one file (a batch upload). Some of your users may find this method complex or easy to forget and therefore, you are given the ability to automatically promote the U command to the UB command.
Valid options are:
| N | The U command will always prompt for file one at a time. Batch transfers could still occur by performing an unannounced upload with a batch protocol. However, the descriptions will not be asked for up front. |
| Y | The U command will automatically be promoted to the UB command if the caller has selected a batch protocol (or no protocol at all). |
Upload Credit for Time
The value that you enter in this value will determine how much of the time spent while uploading files will be refunded to the user if their upload passes your integrity checks. The default is 1.0 which means that by default PCBoard will stop the clock during an upload. That is, for every minute a caller spends uploading, 1 minute of credit will be refunded. Effectively, the caller will have the same amount of time left after the upload terminates as when the upload began.
Setting this value to something higher, such as 2.5, will refund 2.5 minutes of time for every minute spent uploading. This means that if a user uploads for 2 minutes, they will receive a five minute refund. Remember, that they also spent two minutes downloading so this means that a net credit of 3 minutes would be received.. Once disconnected from the system, any time credits are lost.
NOTE: No time credit will be added if the user's time has been adjusted for an upcoming expedited event. This will help prevent your system from missing the expedited event.
Upload Credit for Bytes
This value defines the number of credits given to the caller for each byte uploaded. The default is 0 giving no credits at all. In other words, the user would have the same amount of daily download bytes available as when they began the upload. You can reward the user for uploading by setting this value to any value above 0. A setting of 1 would give the caller a 1 daily download byte credit for every byte uploaded.
The upload byte credit is a credit against the daily download byte limit. Therefore, the credits must be used on the same day in which they are posted or they will be lost.
NOTE: If you are testing your uploads via PCBTEST.BAT then the upload must pass or no credit will be given.
Include 'Uploaded By' in Desc.
When a user uploads a file, this option will control whether or not the user who uploaded the file will be added as the last line in the description.
Enabling this option is useful for quickly determining who uploaded a particular file to the system.
| N | The name of the user who uploaded the file is not added to the description by PCBoard. |
| Y | An additional line to the end of the description entered by the user will be added to each file uploaded. This additional line will say Uploaded by: followed by the user name who uploaded the file. |
Verify Files Uploaded
After a file is uploaded, you can have PCBoard shell out to a batch file called PCBTEST.BAT to perform tests on the file that is uploaded. The filename being tested is passed to the batch file as the first parameter. You can use any program you want in the PCBTEST.BAT file to test any criteria that you desire. Most SysOps are quite content to verify the integrity of compressed files and to check all files for viri. For more information on PCBTEST.BAT please see the Batch Files chapter of this manual.
Valid options are:
| N | No testing will be performed on files that are uploaded. |
| Y | PCBoard will test each file (individually) after the upload is complete. |
Disable Drive Size Check
PCBoard normally checks the size of the hard disk and the amount of free space left before allowing an upload to take place. This information is displayed to the caller when they begin their upload (for informational purposes). You can choose whether or not to enable the drive size check.
Valid options are:
| Y | PCBoard will not check to make sure sufficient space is available before an upload begins. Likewise, the amount of free space on your upload drive will not be printed to your callers. If your system does not properly support the checking of free space or if you simply do not want the information shown to your callers, select this option. |
| N | PCBoard will check to ensure that there is enough free space on the hard drive before beginning an upload. The amount of free space that is checked for is determined by the Stop Uploads when Free Space is less than field on this same configuration screen. |
Upload Buffer Size (4-64)
Enter the size of the upload buffer. This setting can affect the performance of your system during uploads. You should experiment with different values between 4 and 64 for your own system to see what works best.
It is recommended that you set this value to a multiple of the cluster size of your hard drive. For instance, if you have a hard drive partition that is greater than 256 megabytes but less than 512 megabytes then your cluster size is 8 kilobytes. A setting of 8 should be the minimum used for the best performance.
List of Slow Drive Letters
If you have a slow server, a CD-ROM, or even more importantly, a carousel (multi-disk) CD-ROM, it may be beneficial to copy files that are to be transferred off the slow drive down to the temporary directory which could possibly be a faster local hard drive or ram drive.
You can indicate for which drives this copying step should be performed by typing a list of drive letters in this field. For example, if you enter IKX in this field, any file that is downloaded from drive I, K, or X will be copied to the temporary directory before the download begins.
For those who have a device like a carousel CD-ROM (multiple CD-ROMs but only one is read at a time) you can specify a range of drive letters that make up the device. For example, let's assume that you had a CD-ROM carousel that held 6 discs and used drive letters H, I, J, K, L, and M. To make PCBoard treat all 6 drive letters as one device you would enter H-M in the slow drive field. The dash is used to represent a range of drive letters. By entering H-M you are telling PCBoard to treat drives H, I, J, K, L, and M as one device.
When copying files from a drive on your system, PCBoard will lock access to that slow drive so that system performance is not driven into the ground. If the drive is already slow there is no sense to try copying two files at the same time. PCBoard is going to impose a maximum wait period of 90 seconds for a slow drive to finish copying a file. If the slow drive is not free by that time, PCBoard will simply download the file directly from the slow drive.
Now you can see why it is important to be able to specify a range of letters to treat as one device. Without this capability, it would be quite possible for a CD-ROM carousel device to spend most of its time swapping disks rather than exchanging meaningful data so that users could get more done is less time.
NOTE: If there is insufficient space in your temporary directory to hold all files that are requested for download, PCBoard will not copy the file. Instead, it will continue with the download of the file leaving it on the slow drive for the transfer.
Slow Drive Batch File
If you have designated some drives as slow drives, you can optionally have PCBoard execute a batch file once the file has been copied. PCBoard will run the batch file that is specified in this field and pass the filename as the first parameter to the batch file. Inside of the batch file, you can run a program to set the comment in a compressed file or whatever your needs dictate.
Stop Uploads when Free Space is less than
The value that you enter in this field is multiplied by 1024 to determine the number of bytes that should be free on your upload drive before allowing an upload to occur. For example, if you enter 100 here, you will need to have 100 kilobytes of free disk space or PCBoard will not allow the user to upload any files.
The fact is, you do not know how big an upload is going to be and you want to make sure that you do not run out of storage space on your drive or it may present a problem for other users. The most detrimental situation would be if you store your users file and your uploads on the same drive.. If you allow that drive to fill-up, your user file could not be increased in size. If the user file cannot grow, new users will not be allowed to log into your system.
If you store system files on the same drive as your upload drive, you should set this value to something in excess of 3000 to give yourself some safe breathing room. The best alternative may be to use separate drives for your system files and files that get uploaded to your system.
System Control
Disable NS Logon Feature
If a user adds NS to their response at the Do you want graphics prompt at login, PCBoard will not display the news file. The will enable the user to login to the system faster than they would if they had to view the news file.
You may find that some users will use this option without ever manually checking the news. This would not present a good situation if you use the news file to display important information.
Valid options are:
| N | Allow users to skip the news file at login. |
| Y | Do not allow users to skip the news file at login. |
Disable Password Check (DOS)
If you have your modem configured to automatically answer the phone (instead of PCBoard), you run the risk of a security breach when returning back from a non-shelled door application. What could happen is that the user could drop carrier after they exit door but before PCBoard reloads. If it takes a while for PCBoard to reload, a user could conceivably establish carrier before PCBoard reloads. Of course, if there is carrier when PCBoard resumes, it must assume that the user is still on-line. In a situation like this it might be desirable to verify the password of the user when returning from a door.
Valid options are:
| N | When returning from any door application, PCBoard will not ask for any passwords. This is the desired setting for most systems since they will be configured to let PCBoard answer the phone. This eliminates the possibility of having someone connect while PCBoard is reloading. |
| Y | The option gives you the ability to verify the password of the user that PCBoard thinks is on-line upon returning from a non-shelled door application. The disadvantage to this is that your callers may become easily annoyed especially if they open several doors. You should only enable this if you must force your modem to answer the phone instead of PCBoard which is not recommended. |
Multi-Lingual Operation
In PCBSetup > File Locations > Configuration Files the filename for the multi-lingual data file is specified. PCBoard uses this file to determine which operational languages can be selected at login. You may want to be able to quickly enable or disable multi-lingual operation.
Valid options are:
| N | Multi-lingual operation is disabled. Even if you have defined the languages in your mult-lingual data file, the user will not be prompted to select a language. |
| Y | Select this option if you have defined your languages in the multi-lingual data file and if you want to prompt your users to select a language at login. |
Disable Full Record Updating
You may want to protect certain user information that a user is normally allowed to edit with the W user command. This option will determine if the user can edit their city, phone numbers, comment #1 field of their user record using the previously mentioned user command.
The valid options are:
| N | All fields that can be edited using the W user command can be modified. |
| Y | All fields with the exception of the city, passwords, and comment #1 fields can be edited by the user. |
Allow Alias Change after Chosen
After a caller has selected an alias it may not be desirable to allow the caller to change the alias without SysOp intervention. Preventing the caller from changing his alias avoids problems where one caller tries to leave messages (or do other things) using various names to create confusion.
| N | Once the alias is entered the first time (using the W user command), the user may not change their alias. Instead, they must request that the SysOp change their name. |
| Y | The user may change their alias at any time by using the W command. |
NOTE: For aliases to be active you must install the Alias PSA from within System Manager.
Run System as a Closed Board
Normally PCBoard will allow new callers to call in and log into the system creating a new user record in your users file as they log into the system. However, you may wish to restrict new users from logging into your system.
Valid options are:
| N | New users may login to your system without being restricted. |
| Y | New users will not be allowed to login to your system unless a NEWASK questionnaire exists. If the NEWASK questionnaire exists, the user will be allowed to login, and answer the questions. However, no user record will be created for this user. The intention here is that you can use the NEWASK questionnaire to screen your callers and then manually enter a user account for them. |
Enforce Daily Time Limit
Depending on the nature of your system, you may want to restrict your users to an absolute daily time limit, or simply a session limit. With a session limit, your users can call back as many times as desired during the day but they are only allocated a certain amount of time for each call or session.
| N | With either this option set or if the Enforce Time Limit field in the PWRD file is set to N for the security level of the user, the time limit defined in the PWRD file will be considered a session time limit. |
| Y | When this option and the Enforce Time Limit field in the PWRD file is set to Y, the time limits defined are daily time limits. |
Allow One Name Users
Normally PCBoard requires that two or more names be used when logging into the system. There are some people that have only one name (believe it or not) and some SysOps like to run alias systems where real names are not used and these sometimes are only a single name. An additional possibility for a one name user would be when you assign all of your users a number or unique ID for their name.
Valid options are:
| N | Users will be forced to enter at least two names to login (e.g., first name and last name). If they attempt to login with one name, PCBoard will inform them that they must enter a first and last name to login. |
| Y | Users may enter one name to login to the system. If the majority of your users will have one name, you may want to modify the Enter your first name prompt in PCBTEXT to say something like Enter your user name instead. |
Allow Password Failure Comment
When logging into the system, the user is given four attempts to enter the correct password. This field controls what happens if the user does not enter the proper password after four attempts.
Valid options are:
| N | The user will be informed that the password is incorrect and that they are being logged off for excessive password failures. |
| Y | The user will be asked if they wish to leave a comment to the SysOp. This option would be useful because the caller could give you a voice number or some other type of identification so that they may login to the system again. Otherwise, they would have to create a new user account to get your attention. |
Warning on Logoff Command
If you have users that accidentally log off of your system quite often, you may want to use this option to ask the user if they really wish to log off of your system.
Valid options are:
| N | The connection will be terminated without confirmation. |
| Y | PCBoard will ask that the user confirm that they really wish to log off. This confirmation can be skipped even when enabled if the BYE user command is used instead of the G user command. |
Allow Local SHELL to DOS
You may want to disable the ability for users who are logged in locally to shell to DOS using the F5 key.
Valid options are:
| N | Do not allow local shells to DOS. That means that whenever a user is logged in locally, they cannot press F5 to shell to DOS. This would be useful if you have a lot of users who log in locally and you want to refuse their access to DOS. |
| Y | While logged in locally, F5 will shell the user to DOS allowing them to enter DOS commands. |
Use NEWASK+Standard Questions
When a new user calls in PCBoard will normally ask either the built-in new user questions, the ones required to set up a user record in the users file, or it will ask the questions in the NEWASK file and not register the user (if you are running your system as a closed board).
Valid options are:
| N | New users will be asked only the standard questions. |
| Y | The built-in questions (phone numbers, protocol, etc.) will be asked in addition to the NEWASK questionnaire. This gives you the ability to get more information out of your new users. |
Read PWRD on Conference Join
Normally PCBoard does not re-read the PWRD file after the caller joins a conference. If, however, you have a security level increase (or decrease) in a particular conference you may want to reread the PWRD file to determine new limits for the user.
Valid options are:
| N | When the user joins a conference, PCBoard uses the values stored in memory when it initially read the PWRD file. |
| Y | Each time a user joins a conference, PCBoard will re-read the PWRD file to update the user's time limit, ratio, etc. |
Confirm Caller Name / Address
If you have a large number of users, it is quite possible that you may have people that attempt to login using common names. For example, you may already have a BOB SMITH on the system (from Tulsa, Oklahoma). A few months later, a new user attempts to login as BOB SMITH and is greeted for a password prompt. Obviously, there is a name conflict, and the new user will have to pick a new name. This field allows you to confirm the city name of the user before asking for the password.
Valid options are
| N | Do not confirm the city name after the user name is entered. this setting is recommended if you do not have a large user base (5000+ users) |
| Y | This setting is recommended if you have a large user base. After the user name is entered, PCBoard will confirm the city/location information. |
Auto-Reg in Public Conf
When a new user calls in, PCBoard will automatically register the caller in public conferences where the security level required to join is set to 0. It does this by scanning all existing conferences and setting the R, X, and S conference flags in the user's record. This process can take a long time if you have a large number of conferences.
Valid options are:
| N | Do not automatically register users in public conferences. Users will not have any conference flags set in the public conferences aforementioned. |
| Y | Users will have the R, X, and S conference flags set in public conferences which require a security level of 0 to join. |
Encrypt Users File
For some installations of PCBoard, the ability to encrypt key information in the user file is critical. For example, when PCBoard is used for local access across a network it would not be unlikely for one of your users to copy your USERS file from the network. However, if your file is encrypted, they will not be able to easily obtain the critical information of the user file.
The following field in each user file will be encrypted:
- password
- city
- phone numbers (data and voice)
- the two comment fields
If you do plan on encrypting your user file, then you need to run ENCRYPT.EXE on your user file. This is the utility that will actually encrypt the user file. This field, is used only to tell PCBoard if your user file has been encrypted.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | Your user file has not been encrypted. This will force PCBoard to access the user file as if it has not been encrypted. This will be the setting for the majority of PCBoard systems. |
| Y | If you have already run ENCRYPT.EXE on your user file then this will force PCBoard to work in encryption mode. Your user's file will be encrypted on disk, but PCBoard will properly translate the encrypted data as it reads the data from disk. It is critical that this setting be the same on all nodes. Otherwise, PCBoard encrypted data could be mistaken as unmodified data (or vice versa) and end up corrupting information in the user file. |
Configuration Switches
Disable 3-minute Screen Clear
At the call waiting screen, PCBoard will automatically clear the screen after three minutes of inactivity. In essence, PCBoard is enabling a screen-saving feature.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | PCBoard will enable the screen-saving feature after three minutes of inactivity. This is especially useful if you leave you monitor(s) on for extended lengths of time. |
| Y | Do not clear the screen if the system has been inactive for more than three minutes. |
Disable Registration Edits
Normally, PCBoard attempts to control what the user can enter at certain prompts when a user is logging into your system as a new user.
The prompts that are effected by the setting of this switch are:
- first and last name prompts (high ASCII characters are normally disabled)
- new user questions (phone numbers, city/location, etc.)
For example, when PCBoard asks for the phone number of the user, it is expecting that only numbers and certain punctuation characters be entered in this field. If you use MKPCBTXT to ask a question other than the user's phone number you most likely do not want to restrict entry of that field to numbers.
Valid options are:
| N | PCBoard will operate in normal mode. This means that certain fields will have restricted output. |
| Y | Any data can be entered in the affected fields. In essence, these fields become free-form edit fields where no checking is performed. |
Disable High-ASCII Filter
With non-error correcting modems line noise could come in the form of any characters including high ASCII characters. Since most users do not enter these characters at the keyboard, this switch is used to control if high ASCII characters can be entered at various prompts and in the message editor. Of course if you want to allow your users to enter high-ASCII characters or if you are using a foreign language which makes use of the high-ASCII then you may want to disable the filter.
Valid options are:
| N | PCBoard will continue to filter high ASCII characters. If you are doing this to prevent line noise from being input you may want to reconsider because error-correcting modems are gaining in popularity which will prevent line noise from being mistaken for valid input. |
| Y | The high ASCII filter is disabled allowing users to enter these characters at most prompts and also inside of the message editor. This would be the ideal setting if you use languages that make use of these characters or if your users upload a lot of graphics screens. |
Default to Graphics At Login
Throughout the operation of PCBoard, the default choice is usually the safest choice. In certain circumstances, however, you may not want this. For example, if the majority of your users have ANSI capabilities but regularly press ENTER at the Do you want graphics prompt then they will default to no graphics. You can make it so that the default selection at that prompt is to select ANSI graphics based on the answer you enter in this field.
Valid options are:
| N | This will provide the safest choice. If a user presses ENTER when asked if they wish to have graphics, PCBoard will default to non-graphics mode. This way a user does not see meaningless ANSI escape sequences if they are not capable of ANSI. |
| Y | If the user presses ENTER when asked if they want graphics, PCBoard will default to ANSI graphics mode. If the user is not capable of ANSI graphics, their screen will appear to filled with garbage characters. You may only want to use this if a majority of your callers are capable of ANSI. |
Use Non-Graphics Mode Only
If you do not want to have ANSI graphics mode available to your callers, you may want to enable this option. When this option is enabled, PCBoard will not even ask the user if they want graphics. Instead, it will assume that the user does not want graphics. PCBoard will still send the ANSI detection sequence to see if the user is capable of ANSI so that screen displays can be drawn faster, etc. Users can still change their display mode by using the M user command.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | Operate if a normal fashion by letting the user determine if they want graphics or not. This means that the question about wanting graphics will be asked at login. |
| Y | The user is not asked if they want to use graphics. Instead, PCBoard is going to default to no graphics. |
Exclude Local Logins from Stats
On the call-waiting screen, PCBoard keeps track of how many calls, messages that have been entered, and files that have been transferred since the last time you reset the stats. This option will control whether or not the actions that take place on local logins (Sysop or user logging in from the call-waiting screen) will affect the stats on the call-waiting screen.
Valid options are:
| N | All calls, whether remote or local will affect the call-waiting stats. |
| Y | Do not increment the statistics on the call waiting screen when yourself or another user logs into the system locally. |
Exit to DOS After Each Call
Normally PCBoard recycles after each call by closing all files and restarting itself. However, you may need to perform some task between the time PCBoard disconnects the caller and returns to the call waiting screen. An additional possibility is that you may need to load another application which answers the phone instead of PCBoard. If either of these situations fit into your configuration, you will need to exit to DOS after each call.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | Recycle using the normal sequence (return directly to the call-waiting screen). |
| Y | Exit to DOS after each call. In the structure of the default BOARD.BAT file, PCBoard is going to branch to the :END label. Therefore, you should place any DOS commands that you want executed after each call after the :END label in your BOARD.BAT file. |
Eliminate Screen Snow in PCB
When PCBoard updates the screen, it does so by writing directly to the video buffer which can, on some CGA-based systems, cause snow to appear on the screen while it's being updated. Your callers will not see this but it could be distracting to you.
| N | Operate normally in respect to writing data directly to the screen buffer. If you have a CGA adapter, you may need to select Y instead. |
| Y | Disables the screen snow that is possible with certain CGA adapters. Selecting this option will slow down screen updates slightly. |
Display NEWS Only if Changed
This field has one purpose – to control when the news file will be displayed to the caller.
Valid options for this field are:
| A | Display the news file every time a conference is joined. If this is what you desire, you may find that the conference INTRO (defined in the configuration for each conference) may be better suited for this purpose. |
| N | Display the news file for each conference once per day. Once the news file has been displayed that day, it will not be shown again. |
| Y | Display the news file only if the data of the news file is the same as or more recent than the caller's last logon date. |
This field controls whether or not you wish to display some user statistics at login. Information such as the last call date, the number of calls made to the system, expert mode status, and similar information is displayed.
Valid options are:
| N | Do not display user information at login. Nearly all the information PCBoard displays can be accessed using @ macros. Therefore, you can incorporate the user statistics into one of your display screens if you wish. |
| Y | The user statistics will be displayed just before the conference command prompt when a user is logging in. In addition, when a user joins a conference, they will be shown the last message they have read, the high message number, and the number of active messages in the conference. This will only be displayed once per conference. |
Pre-load PCBTEXT File
All of the prompts and other messages that PCBoard displays come out of the PCBTEXT file. You can speed up some of PCBoard's displays by having PCBoard load this file into memory. This is called pre-loading.
Valid options are:
| N | When needed, read the information required from the PCBTEXT file on disk. This may slow down performance, but it saves the memory that would otherwise be taken by pre-loading the file. |
| Y | The PCBTEXT file will be loaded into memory. This will reduce the amount of time that it takes to display information from the PCBTEXT file. In addition, if you store the PCBTEXT file on a network server this option will reduce the network traffic on your system. The disadvantage to selecting this option is that additional memory will be used by pre-loading it into memory. |
Pre-load CNAMES File
Whenever a caller joins a conference or scans for mail in different conferences PCBoard must get the conference information from the CNAMES.@@@ and CNAMES.ADD files. This can put on a lot of wear on your hard disk and it can be relatively slow depending on how fast your hard drive or network connection is. You can choose to pre-load the CNAMES information into memory to speed-up access to that information. However, you do so at the expense of memory.
Valid options are:
| N | The CNAMES information will not be pre-loaded. Instead, the information will be obtained directly by accessing the disk as needed. |
| Y | The CNAMES information will be loaded into memory. This will allow PCBoard to access the information quicker and also increase the memory requirements of PCBoard. Approximately 650 bytes of memory will be used for each conference in your system. |
Scan for New Bulletins
This question determines if PCBoard should scan for new bulletins during every login. Normally, the scan for new bulletins will occur around the time that NEWS file is displayed (when it displays). You may not want to scan for new bulletins if you have a large number of bulletins on-line.
| N | Do not scan for new bulletins. This setting would reduce the amount of time it takes to login if you have a large number of bulletins on-line. |
| Y | Scan for new bulletins. PCBoard is able to scan hundreds of bulletins in a very brief amount of time. If you have a lot of bulletins on-line, you may not want to scan for new bulletins to reduce the login time for your users. |
Swap Out During Shell
Normally the PCBoard executable, and all of the data it is currently working on, remains in memory while it is operating. This information remains in memory even when shelling out to DOS thereby reducing the amount of free memory by the amount that PCBoard, and its data, are occupying.
This option will control whether or not PCBoard will swap itself out of memory during various shell to DOS operations (executing PCBTEST.BAT, PCBVIEW.BAT, etc.). Valid options for this field are:
| N | When shelling out, do not swap any data out of memory. You will have less memory available when shelling to DOS (usually under 300 kilobytes). |
| Y | PCBoard will swap itself out of memory (leaving about 25K of memory behind to re-load) during a shell to DOS operation. It will swap this information out to whichever storage medium is available (EMS, XMS, and finally disk). This will generally increase the amount of memory by about 200 kilobytes or more. |
Swap Out During $$LOGON/LOGOFF.BAT
Due to the need to speed up the processing of $$LOGON.BAT and $$LOGOFF.BAT, PCBoard normally does not swap itself out when running these batch files - regardless of the previous setting (Swap Out During Shell).
If you are running software that requires more memory than is available during a non-swap shell to $$LOGON or $$LOGOFF, you may want to swap out when these batch files are run. Valid options are:
| N | The swap during shell setting will be ignored and a normal DOS shell will be performed to execute the $$LOGON.BAT and $$LOGOFF.BAT files. |
| Y | PCBoard will swap memory out leaving approximately 25 kilobytes to reload whenever the logon and logoff batch files are executed. |
Create USERS.SYS for $$LOGON.BAT
In order to keep $$LOGON.BAT processing quick, PCBoard will not normally take the time required to create a USERS.SYS file since most programs that you would run in your $$LOGON.BAT file will not require it.
| N | This is the default setting. No USERS.SYS file will be created when the logon batch file is executed. |
| Y | If you have an application that needs USERS.SYS while running in your logon batch file, you should choose this setting. |
Capture GROUP CHAT Session to Disk
Normally PCBoard will not capture information that is typed in by callers during group chat due to the disk intensive nature of group chat. If you would like to keep a record of what users type while in group chat, enable this option.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | Do not capture what is said during group chat. This willsave you disk space and will not burden group chat with any more disk-intensive operations. |
| Y | PCBoard will record the what is written but only after a user presses ENTER. The capture file will contain the date, time, user name, node number, and what was typed. Their will be a capture file for each channel (up to 255) in group chat. The location of the chat capture files are determined by PCBSetup > File Locations > System Files. |
Allow Handles in GROUP CHAT
In group chat, PCBoard will normally allow the user to select a handle to be known as while in chat. For some systems the ability for the user to hide their identity might be very undesirable. Because of this, PCBoard will give you the choice to allow users to use a handle while in chat.
Valid options are:
| N | Users may not choose a handle while in group chat. Instead, their first name will be used while in group chat. |
| Y | When entering group chat, users will be asked to enter a handle they wish to use to identify themselves while in group chat. If the user wants to change their handle while in group chat, they can type HANDLE at the chat command prompt. |
Logging Options
Log Caller Number to Disk
PCBoard stores the vital information about each call in what is termed the caller logs. These provide a call-by-call history of each node on your system. You may want to record the caller number of each user for reference purposes. Valid options are:
| N | PCBoard will not write the caller number to the caller logs. |
| Y | The caller number of each caller will be written to the log file. The format will be: Caller Number: 9,999,999 |
Log Connect String to Disk
With all of the various connection types and possibilities of today's modems, it might be useful for you to be able to see what type connect a particular user established for their session. For example, if you get a user that complains about slow transfer rates, it could be that the modem did not connect at full-speed initially due to poor phone lines. By logging this information to disk, this information will be available to you. In addition, any CallerID information will be written to disk as well.
| N | The connect string that the modem gave PCBoard will not be written to the caller logs. |
| Y | The connect string and any CallerID information will be written to the caller logs. |
NOTE: In order for CallerID information to be written to the caller logs, you must set PCBoard to answer after at least 2 rings and have this option enabled.
Log Security Level to Disk
Sometimes it is useful to know the security level of the user at login written to the caller logs. This option will control whether or not the security level at login will be written to the caller logs.
Valid options for this field are:
| N | The security level of the caller will not be written to the caller logs. |
| Y | The security level of the caller at login will be written to the caller logs. Remember that the security level of a user can be reduced or increased when joining a conference. |
Limits
Keyboard Timeout (in min, 0=disable)
Sometimes users will have to walk away from their system or may forget they were on-line. To prevent the connection from being active until the user's time limit expires or they finally remember, PCBoard allows you to set a keyboard time-out value.
If no activity is detected from the caller in the number of minutes that you specify in this field, PCBoard will automatically disconnect the caller for inactivity. This will free up the node for other callers to get in and may also save money for those callers that are calling in long distance.
In this field, enter the number of minutes of inactivity a user can have before they will be logged off of the system. As a general rule, a value between 3 and 5 would be good for most callers. If you enter a value of 0, the keyboard time-out will be inactive which will enable the caller to stay on-line until their daily/session time limit expires.
No warning is given to the user about keyboard inactivity until the final minute before they are disconnected. During this final minute, PCBoard will send a beep every 10 seconds to alert the caller. After this minute expires, PCBoard will disconnect the caller.
Max Number of Upload Description Lines
This field controls how many lines the user is given to enter descriptions for their uploads. You may enter any value between 1 and 60. Each description line may contain 45 characters of text to describe the uploaded file. In general a limit of 8 to 10 is sufficient for most systems.
Maximum Number of Lines in Scrollback
While logged on locally, PCBoard maintains a scrollback buffer which you can use to review information that has already scrolled off the screen. The scrollback buffer can be viewed by pressing the o key.
The maximum lines that you can specify is about 400 which will use up approximately 64 kilobytes of memory. Setting a lower number will save some memory and a setting of 0 will totally disable the scrollback buffer.
NOTE: A minimum of 30 lines is required unless you disable the scroll back buffer completely. In other words, if you set your scrollback buffer to any value between one and 30 lines, the value of 30 will be forced regardless of your setting.
DOS Environment Size When Shelled Out
When PCBoard shells out to DOS via COMMAND.COM it is possible to request (of COMMAND.COM) a larger environment size. The value you set here will be passed to COMMAND.COM as a command line parameter such as /E:768 (where 768 would be the value that you have chosen).
Increasing the environment size may be required if you have a large number of environment variables. In general, a value of 1024 or higher is not recommended.
Number Days Before FORCED Password Change
When you have installed the Password Changing PSA, it gives you the ability to force the caller to change their password after a certain amount of days. By forcing your users to regularly change their password, you can be help increase the overall security of your system, because a user's password may not be as easy to hack.
This particular field allows you to determine after how many days the user will be forced to change their password. A setting of 0 will disable the automatic renewal of forced password changes and, instead, the only way to force a password change is to manually edit the user record (via PCBSM) and change the expiration date on the password.
A setting such as 90 will cause the caller's password to expire every 90 days. This will cause PCBoard to automatically require a new password, for continued access, every 90 days.
NOTE: For this field to have any effect, the Password Changing PSA must be installed.
Number Days to Warn Prior to FORCED Change
If the user's password is set to expire, either from manually setting the expiration date, or from the automatic setting caused by the Number of Days Before FORCED Password Change, PCBoard will give the caller a warning of the upcoming expiration during the login process.
In this field, specify the number of days prior to expiration that this warning should be displayed to the caller.
NOTE: For this field to have any effect, the Password Changing PSA must be installed.
Minimum Password Length
When the Password Changing PSA is installed, PCBoard will automatically force a minimum length for a password. The minimum password length is determined by the number that you enter in this field. If you enter a value of 0, there will be no password length restriction enforced.
NOTE: For this field to have any effect, the Password Changing PSA must be installed.
Allow Sysop Page Start Time
When the page bell is toggled on from the call-waiting screen or by pressing F4 while logged in, this field defines the time at which you will begin allowing callers to page the SysOp. If the user attempts to page the SysOp during off-hours, they will be informed the SysOp is not available for chat and asked if they wish to leave a comment instead.
For example, you might want to be available for chat between the hours of 8:00am to 5:00 pm. If this is what you desire, enter 08:00 in this field.
Allow Sysop Page Stop Time
When the page bell is toggled on from the call-waiting screen or by pressing F4 while logged in, this field defines the end time at which callers will no longer be able to page the SysOp. If the user attempts to page the SysOp during off-hours, they will be informed that the SysOp is not available for chat and asked if they wish to leave a comment instead.
For example, you might want to be available for chat between the hours of 8:00am to 5:00 pm. If this is what you desire, enter 17:00 in this field.
Colors
Default Color (@X code format)
In certain areas of your system, PCBoard uses a default color for displaying text. The color of the text used in the body of a message is just one example. In this field, enter the @X color you want to use as your default color.
For example, if you want your default to be light gray on a black background, enter 07 in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header DATE Line
The color code entered in this field will control the color used for the first line of the message header. This is the line that will display the date, message number, etc.
For example, if you want the color to be white text on a cyan background, enter 3F in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header TO Line
The color code entered in this field, will control the color used for the second line of the message header. This is the line that will display the user who the message is addressed to.
For example, if you want the color to be white text on a blue background, enter 1F in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header FROM Line
The color code entered in this field will determine the color for the third line of the message header. This is the line that displays who the message is from.
For example, if you want the color to be white text on a blue background, enter 1F in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header SUBJ Line
The color code entered in this field will determine the color used for the forth line of the message header. This line in the header displays the subject of the message.
For example, if you want the color to be white text on a blue background, enter 1F in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header READ Line
The color code entered in this field will control the color displayed on the fifth line of the message header. This line is only displayed when the long style message header is being used by the caller. On this line PCBoard will display whether or not the message has been read by the recipient and what type of security is in use for the message.
For example, if you want the color to be cyan text on a blue background, enter 13 in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Color for Message Header CONF Line
The color code entered in this field will control the color displayed on the sixth line of the message header. This line is only displayed when the long style message header is being used by the caller. On this line PCBoard will display the conference number and the type of read that is currently in use.
For example, if you want your default to be cyan on a blue background, enter 13 in this field. For more information on @X codes and the various colors you can select, please see the Display Files section in the Customizing Your BBS chapter of this manual.
Function Keys
Pre-defined function keys allow you to send text by holding down SHIFT and pressing the function key listed to the left of each field on this screen. For example, if you regularly add a signature to the bottom of your messages, you may want to define a function key to do it for you. In other words, when you execute the function key, your signature will be typed in for you instead of you having to type it in.
Sending Text
You are given 60 characters to enter text you want sent when you execute a function key. The text that you enter in this field will be sent directly to PCBoard with one exception. If you enter ^M anywhere in a function key field, it will be treated as if you pressed ENTER.
Sending The Contents Of A File
If you need more than 60 characters to be sent by a function key, you can tell PCBoard to send the contents of an entire file. To do this, begin the line with a % followed by the filename that you want to send to PCBoard.
Executing A PPE File
Another action you can define is to run a PPE file when a particular function key is executed. To run a PPE from a function key, begin the line with an ! followed by the filename of the PPE (including the .PPE extension) you want to execute.
Examples
Let's assume that you have entered the following information for your function keys:
The following describes each action that would occur for the function keys defined in the previous screen capture are executed:
| SHIFT-F1 | This particular example might be used as a signature when leaving messages on your system. Instead of repetitively typing your name you could press SHIFT-F1 to have PCBoard enter all of this text for you. |
| SHIFT-F2 | When PCBoard detects file access errors it will write an entry to the caller logs. This entry will usually contain either the word FAIL or ERROR. This particular example would be quite useful if you wished to regularly scan your caller logs to see if your system may have a configuration error or problems accessing certain files. Instead of typing the command in every day, you could use a function key to do all of the work for you. |
| SHIFT-F3 | This example demonstrates how to have PCBoard stuff the contents of a file into the keyboard. When you press SHIFT-3, PCBoard will enter the contents of C:\PCB\GEN\NEW-WELC just as if you had typed it yourself. Remember, when you want to have the contents of a file stuffed, you need to begin the function key definition with a % character. |
| SHIFT-F4 | The simple fact that you may run a PPE opens up numerous possibilities. The example shown in the previous screen capture would execute C:\PCB\PPE\TAGLINES.PPE. Remember, to specify that a PPE file should be used for a function key definition, you need to enter an ! as the first character of the definition field. In addition, you must also specify the filename extension of .PPE on your file you wish to execute. |