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).