Manual
The program
is quite easy to use. I’ll show you an example how you can get it to work:
Forwarding your mail to an FBB Exportfile.
First of
all you need to forward to a file. Adding these lines to your FBB BBS
config-file can do this:
P @
C C:\FBB\NL3RSD.OUT
For more
info, check your F6FBB-manual.
Install FBB Gate.
Create a
DIR on your Internet PC. e.g. C:\FBBGATE and put all the FBB Gate files in it.
Run FBBGATE.EXE
Then you
must set & save your configuration. I’ve created several TAB-pages.
Status
TAB:
Before every action a small message is
displayed in the Status-window. If for some reason something goes wrong check
the status-window first.
GO button:
This is the main button. It will start the send/receive routine
Hide button:
will hide the FBB Gate button. Only a small icon is visible in the Windows
taskbar. Click on the icon to see the FBB Gate window again.
LOG button:
will display the total log-file.
BACKUP
button: Will show the backup-dir. FBB Gate will always make backups of files.
For every GO a new backup-dir is created. Also the backup-dir name contains the
date.
Settings
TAB:
The
settings window contains the most essential parameters.
SMTP
server: Your ISP server for receiving email
Port: use 25 (default)
POP server: Your ISP server for sending email Port: use 110 (default)
UserID:
Your login name to use the POP-server
Password:
Your login password to use the POP/SMTP server.
Username:
Your real name.
FBB
Exportdir: Directory where FBB puts your exportfile(s)
FBB
Importdir: Directory where FBB expects your MAIL.IN-file.
Export
TAB:
This is
where you enter the name of the exportfile and also the email-address where you
want to send the export-file to. If you want to send 1 exportfile to multiple
email-addresses you must use a Group-file.
GROUPFILES & HOW TO USE THEM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most people
send exportfiles to one email-address, but if you want so send an exportfile
to multiple
email-adresses you can create a GROUPFILE.
CREATING
A GROUPFILE
--------------------
Start FBB
Gate, Go to 'EXPORT' and click on 'New'
Enter a
name for your groupfile, for example 'group1'
EDITING A
GROUPFILE
-------------------
Start FBB Gate,
Go to 'EXPORT' and click on 'Edit'
Notepad is
now started.
Now enter
an emailaddress on every line.
For
example, if you want to send a certain exportfile to nl1rsd@worldonline.nl AND
to erwink@usa.net
your
groupfile should look like this:
nl1rsd@worldonline.nl
erwink@usa.net
Now save
your groupfile: 'File' / 'Save'
USING YOU
GROUPFILE
-------------------
Start FBB
Gate, go to 'EXPORT'
In the
field 'Export Filename' you enter the name of your FBB exportfile.
In the
field 'To Email-Address / Group' you enter the name of your groupfile.
In this
example it should be 'group1'
DELETING A GROUPFILE
--------------------
Start FBB
Gate, Go to 'EXPORT' and click on 'Delete'
Select the
groupfile, in this example 'group1'
ACTIVE
You can
active or de-active sending exportfiles temporarily by making the ACTIVE-field in
front of every exportfile green or red. This is handy when a user is on
vacation or offline for a few days. Please note that the exportfile is NOT
deleted and will grow every day in size.
MULTIPART
– WHAT IS IT?
Well instead
of sending one BIG email with a large attachment you can now send
multipe
messages of smaller attachments.
For
example:
Instead of
sending a BIG email with a 800Kb attachment, you can now send
4 messages of
200Kb attachment. FBB Gate will split the original exportfile and
create
multiple smaller exportfiles that will be send to selected users.
How
does it work?
Run FBB
Gate. Go to EXTRA-tab and enter the multipart size. Please note that this
is the size
of each exportfile BEFORE compressing it with ZIP. You can see the
expected
ZIP-size on the right. Please note that this is the expected size
(ZIP
compression about 62%). In real life the size of the ZIP-file can be smaller
or bigger.
After
entering & saving the mp-size go to EXPORT-tab and enable or disable
multipart
for each exportfile and save your new settings.
Import
TAB:
Here you
can select what to download en what to do with it. I recommend using a special
POP-account for sending & receiving exportfiles. There are several places
on the Internet where you can get a free POP-account.
You can
avoid problems by using a separate account for FBB Gate but if you only have
one email account you can use: ‘Download only FBB Gate email from POP server’
by using this, only FBB Gate mail is downloaded & deleted from your
POP-server but the sysop that sends you the exportfile must use FBB Gate to
send them
-OR-
send them
manually by creating a ZIP-file that contains the exportfile and put ‘FBB Gate’
in the subject-field of the message that contains the attachment.
AutoDial
TAB
If you
don’t want to run FBB Gate manually you can use AutoDial. AutoDial will Dial-in
to your ISP, send the exportfile(s), receive exportfiles en finally disconnect
the connection from your ISP.
You must
first create a working Dialup-networking connection config in Windows and place
a checkmark in ‘Save password’
If you have
a permanent Internet connection you can automatically run FBB Gate every X
minutes or use the dialup time settings.
Report
TAB
If you want
to receive a status report via packet (mail) you can place checkmarks here for
what you want to receive.
Extra
TAB
BACKUP
Config: Create a backup of your config/user files on floppy.
Restore
Config: Load the backup from floppy.
Number of
days to backup: FBB Gate will make backups of several files when you run it.
You can access the backups by pressing the BACKUP-button. Via this parameter
you can set the maximum days to backup. Backups that are older will be deleted
after every ‘GO’.
Connect
LOG: Displays the connection logfile (connect.log) This option only works when
you have a dialup modem connection. It shows connection/disconnection times.
Multipart
Size: Size of exportfile in eacht multipart email message. See also Export-Tab.
Runnings
FBB Gate ….. onm startup-button: You can let FBB Gate run minimized (hidden)
when starting FBB Gate by pressing this button. Press it again to change to
normal. This feature was implemented for people who run run FBB gate
automaticly when they start Windows.
FBB Gate & Scheduling
I've
implemented AutoDial so you can schedule your Internet connections but there
are some people who want to have more control for running FBB Gate. For
example: Downloading mail every day at 18:00 and Sending mail once a week at
21:00 hour.
I've
created 3 command parameters for running FBB GATE (Build #273 or higher) :
1
'FBBGATE.EXE GO'
2
'FBBGATE.EXE SEND'
3
'FBBGATE.EXE RECEIVE'
Using these
parameters you can use 3rd party Task Schedulers for running FBB Gate.
'FBBGATE.EXE
GO'
FBBGate
will send & receive mail. After completion FBB GATE will shut down
Use SEND
& RECEIVE for only sending and receiving mail.
WHAT
SCHEDULING PROGRAMS CAN I USE?
-----------------------------------
If you are
running Windows'98 you can use Microsoft Task Scheduler. Running Windows'95 you
can use Intel InstantON Scheduler Applet. Go to http://www.intel.com/IAL/inston
for more info. InstantOn is also available on
this website.
Ofcourse there are many other scheduling programs (often shareware)
FBB Gate & BATCH-files
Just like
FBB software, FBB Gate supports 2 special batchfiles that are executed before
and after running FBB GATE. They are BEFORE.BAT and AFTER.BAT If a 'BEFORE.BAT'
exists it is executed before running FBB GATE.
If an
'AFTER.BAT' exists it is executed after running FBB GATE.
Please
note: You must place a checkmark in 'Close on exit' on the batchfile-properties
otherwise FBB GATE won't continue. You can also add 'EXIT' at the end of your
batchfile so the window will close.
Important notice
Some
internet providers have protected their mail-server. For example when using
GMX-net (www.gmx.net) you must receive email
before you can send email. Normally FBB Gate will send mail before receiving
but when you use GMX-net FBB Gate will automaticly receive email before sending
it.
If you have
an other provider that is also protected this way you can force FBB Gate to
receive email before sending it by creating an empty file called: ‘sap’ and
place it in the directory where FBBGATE.EXE is located.
(sap = SMTP-after-POP
authentication).