Last update 08-Jun-2001
MBSE BBS Setup - Mail Setup -> Mail Areas.
Introduction.
Mail areas have fixed area numbers, just like file areas. But if you want you can move areas. Some offline readers don't like changing the area numbers. All areas can be of the following types: local, netmail, echomail and news. If you gate news and echomail in the same area, then select echomail if this area is a Fidonet area, select news if this area is a Usenet news area.
There is a global setup tool, if you are in the main message area setup screen then you can choose the Global command. This will allow you to do bulk changes on areas selected by the mail groups. Options are delete connection, add new connection, replace connection, change connection status, change days old for purge, change maximum messages for purge, change user security, change aka to use, change origin line, change netmail reply board and delete message area.
Message Area Setup.
Area Name The description of the area. Area Tag The echomail area tag. Newsgroup The newsgroup name if you are gating this area. Moderator Leave this blank for now! JAM base The path and name of the JAM message base without extension. Origin The origin line to add to echomail messages. Fido Aka The Fidonet aka for this area. QWK name The name of the area for OffLine Readers. Group The name of the echomail group. Distrib. Leave this blank for now! Area Type Local, Netmail, Echomail or News. Msg Kinds Private/Public, Private, Public, Read Only, FTN moderated, Usenet Moderated FTN chars FTN characterset, not in use yet, defaults to IBMPC 2 RFC chars RFC characterset, not in use yet, defaults tp LATIN-1 2 Days Old The maximum age of the messages before purging. Max. Msgs The maximum messages in this area. Netreply Netmail reply area if this is echomail. Active If this area is active. User Del. Users may delete their own messages. Read Sec. The security level to read messages. Write Sec. The security level to write messages. Sysop Sec. The security level to do sysop actions. Aliases Allow the use of an Alias. Random org Create random origin lines (Oneliner database). Quotes Add a random quote under new messages (Oneliner database). Mandatory If this area is mandatory for downlinks. UnSecure Don't check link address during toss (Dangerous!). OLR Default Switch area default on for OLR users. OLR Forced Area is always on for OLR users. Connections This will take you to the screen to edit up and downlinks.
Edit connection
Aka The network address. Send to Export mail to this node. Recv from Import mail form this node. Pause The node is temporary disconnected. Excluded The node is disconnected by the sysop. Delete Delete this connection.A note about the excluded switch. This can be used to disconnect a node from the area by moderator request. AreaMgr requests from that node for this area are not processed anymore, he cannot disconnect this area and reconnect. If you want to prevent a node to connect the area while he is not connected, you should manually connect the node and then set the Excluded flag to yes. However, the status of this flag is reported to the node in the notify messages, so this action is not invisible.
Global Commands.
From menu 9.2 you can enter the global commands menu. In this menu you can:
After you have selected the action you want and added the items to do, you will see a screen were you can select message area groups. You can then tag one or more groups and press enter when you are done. Then you have one chance to perform the actions or to bail out. All areas matching in that group are affected by your changes. If you are not happy with the result, don't save the database and no harm is done. The file mbsetup.log shows all affected areas.
- Delete connection
- Add new connection
- Replace connection
- Change connection status
- Change days old
- Change max. messages
- Change security
- Change aka to use
- Change origin line
- Change netmail reply
- Delete message area
Automatic area creation.
If you want to use the automatic area creation you have to define a fictitious area tagged 'DEFAULT' with the options you want for new areas like this:
1. Area Name Area autocreada: 2. FTN area DEFAULT 3. Newsgroup 4. Moderator 5. JAM base /var/spool/mbse/mail/ 6. Origin Parolas BBX. Por fin. 7. Fido Aka 0:0/0@ 22. Sysop Sec. 100 8. QWK name 15. Days Old 40 23. Aliases No 9. Group AUTOCREADAS 16. Max. Msgs 1000 24. Quotes No 10. Distrib. 17. Netreply 0 25. Mandatory No 11. Area Type Echomail 18. Active Yes 26. UnSecure No 12. Msg Kinds Public 19. User Del. Yes 27. OLR Default No 13. FTN chars IBMPC 2 20. Read Sec. 5 28. OLR Forced No 14. RFC chars LATIN-1 2 21. Write Sec. 5 29. ConnectionsThe FTN area's Tag must be 'DEFAULT' exactly. Connections will be left blank. Fill the remaining options with your defaults for the new areas. If Fido AKA has not been filled in, the best fitting AKA according to the origin of the message will be used from the configuration.
Areas will be created as is laid out in this template, the tag of a new area will be added to the name and base path, the new tag will be placed in the tag and qwk name (truncating it if needed). Only the node from which the new area is received will be added in connections.
You will need to change the setup, menu 18, item 2, to change the command 'mbfido tic toss'. Add the -a parameter if you want the automatic creation of areas to work when importing received mail. So the commandline would be like /opt/mbse/bin/mbfido tic toss web -a -quiet.