Now that you have mastered Tabby as a TeleFinder sysop, you may be asking yourself.... “Okay, what do I do now?” Well, after 2 years as a Fidonet sysop, I have lots of ideas for TeleFinder sysops to expand the capabilities of Tabby and their BBS’s.
All the utilities described in this article are Tabby compatible. This means that you run them in an event. In most cases, after you set them up, they run by themselves and they are put to work for YOU... to make your life as a sysop easier. By no means is this comprehensive, but these are the utilities that either I use, or have at least caught my attention. If there are more that I should know about, let me know so I can add them.
FRAG FIGHTER - If you find that you are having memory fragmentation problems, (this results in a lot of -108 errors), then Frag Fighter might help you. Simply put, it’s a very small program that calls WaitNextEvent for a few seconds, long enough to let the previous program exit your memory. Then it will launch the next program in line, giving it as much memory as possible. Written by Michael Connick, freeware.
TSORT - This utility runs immediately before Delivermail. After Tabbynet collects mail from one of your hosts, TSort will take the messages and sort them first by area and then by date. The end result is that you know that your messages will be placed in the exact order they were written. By sorting by area, it also seems to speed TFImport up just a bit. Written by Kirk Crawford, freeware.
ZIP EXTRACT - Tabby comes with Arcmail Compress and Arcmail Extract to deal with ARC format files, however most IBM based systems are now using the ZIP compression method which is faster and more compact. With ZIP Extract, your IBM friends can send you mail packets compressed with ZIP and Zip Extract will take care of them. If you’re calling long distance to get echomail, this might save you some money. Written by Massimo Senna, $10 shareware.
AREATRIX - If you have BBS’s or Point users who get their echomail from your system, you’ll probably want this utility. With AreaTrix running, these users can automatically turn OFF and ON echomail areas by sending special messages to your BBS. These users can also access a File Forwarding feature so they can send files to other systems. On top of that, AreaTrix gives you screening capabilities so restricted echos are not available to certain nodes. Written by Pete Johnson, $25.
MARKUP - If Tabby calls a system that is having problems, it may be automatically marked “down” by Tabby so you won’t lose long distance money. However, many times this feature goes unnoticed until many days later when you notice that echomail hasn’t been coming in. Markup solves this problem for up to 12 systems you call most often. For your specified nodes, Markup will automatically mark them “up” for the next day if Tabby marks them down. Written by Pete Johnson, free for registered AreaFix users.
LOG-O-MATIC - This is a full featured program designed for Second Sight sysops... but it does have one feature that I really like, and I couldn’t find it duplicated in any other utility. First, it will remove all lines in the Tabby log PRIOR to the current date and put them in a file called “Tabby Log.Arch”. This results in a Tabby log that only contains 1 day at a time. Then it will take a look at the Tabby Log.Arch file and will limit it to any specified value in Kbytes that you specify. There is one warning with this utility. It requires a Second Sight “Config” file in order to work. So if you need one of these, just send me mail and I can send you one. It’s a small file. Written by Pete Johnson, free to registered AreaTrix users.
FLIP - This utility will automatically forward a list of 1-10 “magic” file names to a list of 1-10 nodes. It maintains a record of the last 40 files sent to avoid duplicates. This can be useful if you need to send files such as NODEDIFFs or newsletters to certain nodes on a regular basis. Written by Pete Johnson, free for AreaTrix users.
FILETRIX - FileTrix is a utility similar in function to Flip. It allows you to have files matching certain criteria (such as “NODEDIFF.A??”) to other systems that feed off of you. I myself haven’t used either Flip of FileTrix yet, so I don’t know which one does the job better. I do know that Flip SEEMS a little easier to setup, but you may want to get both and check them out. Written by John Sinteur, requested shareware $20.
MACTICK - MacTick does for files what echomail does for messages. Using MacTick, you can post a file in a special area where the description of the file will go in as a message, and the file itself will be “attached” to that message. When Tabby runs, these files will go out to all other systems that are carrying these files. This is an excellent way to keep your file libraries active and it is also a way for authors to rapidly distribute their programs. MacTick is a brand new program, so new that I haven’t seen it yet. But keep an eye out for this program as Macintosh file distribution becomes a reality. Written by John Sinteur, $35.
AUTONODES - For over a year I had to go through the Update Nodelist ritual every week each time my local HUB sent me the new NODEDIFF files. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a utility that could take these NODEDIFF files and automatically update the nodelist each week? Well, your prayers have been answered with Autonodes. Once it has been setup, it runs whenever a new Nodediff file comes in with no intervention at all. Written by Chriss Koch, $10.
INFORMANT - This utility program will take a text file and automatically put it into an echomail message area containing the To, From, and Subject fields you specify. It also can optionally delete the text file that it inserts, insert specified Header & Footers, and can run only on specified days. Written by Chriss Koch, $5.
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This concludes my article. As a disclaimer, you may want to verify the prices and addresses I have listed down below for ordering one of these commercial items. I did my best to be accurate, but let me know if I have any mistakes. Just as a side note, there are more of these useful utilities coming down the road... in fact, I am in the process of writing one myself. Good luck in your quest to become a Tabby-guru!
Chris Silverberg
WMUG BBS Sysop, 322/115.1
AOL: TfChris
Where to find these utilities:
TSort, Zip Extract, Frag Fighter, and FileTrix can all be found on BBS’s and online services.
AreaTrix can be ordered from Pete Johnson directly. His many utilities can be downloaded directly from his BBS, (after you are registered with AreaTrix).
Pete Johnson (102/863)
Post Office Box 65074
Los Angeles, CA 90065
BBS: 213-254-4133
MacTick can be ordered from Michael Bean through the MacWizard’s program, or directly from John Sinteur:
John Sinteur, 2:512/114
Strawinskypad 82
2324 DB Leiden
The Netherlands
AutoNodes and Informant can be ordered directly from Chriss Koch.
