If you are a TeleFinder sysop running Tabby, you’ll be glad to know that WinterBird will solve some of your problems dealing with the routing of local and network mail.
The most common need for WinterBird is with systems supporting Fido Points. (A user running Copernicus, MacWoof, or COUNTERPoint). When a TeleFinder user sends mail to a user running point software, the mail normally just sits in their mailbox. The point user actually needs to call the BBS in order to read the local mail.
The same is true for incoming netmail. Often it will be sent to that user at the BBS address, and not the “point” address.
Here’s the good part. When WinterBird is run, (normally as part of your Tabby-event chain) any mail found in a user’s mailbox will be automatically forwarded to the point address. Optionally, you can also forward any files that are placed in a mailbox.
Installation
Installation of WinterBird is a snap. Follow these three steps:
(1) Put WinterBird in your BBS folder.
(2) Insert “WinterBird” in your Tabby events just before TFMailExport. (You may also wish to include it in your crashmail strings. See your Tabby docs).
(3) Modify the sample “ff List” file and put it in your Tabby folder.
And you’re done. The next section explains how the “ff List” file works.
How it works
When WinterBird runs, it looks for a file called “ff List” located in your Tabby folder. This file contains a list of names and node addresses. For example:
( List of addresses to be remapped. )
( Addresses are in this form: )
( )
( Name <tab> NodeID <tab> SaveMsg <tab> FileForward <ret> )
( )
( SaveMsg 1=Yes, 0=No FileForward 1=Yes, 0=No )
( Lines beginning with an open parenthesis are ignored. )
( Use the local net ID, not a point: )
( 30743/1 rather than 322/115.1 )
Chris Silverberg 30743/1 0 1
Matt Mollica 30743/2 1 1
Andy Shulman 30743/4 1 0
Sysop 30743/1 0 0
UUCP 16/390 0 0
WinterBird doesn’t care where the messages are being sent. They can be sent to a point address or some other BBS. It works either way.
After the destination address, there are two flags:
SaveMsg - If this flag is set to 1, the original message will NOT be deleted from the user’s mailbox. This could be helpful for testing purposes, but normally you’ll want it to be 0.
FileForward - If this flag is set to 1, any FILES in the user’s mailbox will be forwarded to the point. Otherwise, they will remain in the user’s mailbox. See “About File Forwarding” for more info on this feature.
If you forget to add the flags to an entry, both flags will default to 0.
As you can see from the sample, I have set up our BBS to recognize some “fake” accounts such as UUCP and Sysop. All you have to do is add these to the “Other Mail” file to allow your users to write to that Mailbox. (See your TeleFinder manual.)
About File Forwarding...
WinterBird will send the user a netmail message listing the files that have been placed in their mailbox. If the ff List is setup to forward files to the user, WinterBird will tell Tabby to send the file the next time the user calls. (WinterBird never touches that file). And in addition to forwarding files to the address, WinterBird will also send a Netmail message listing what files were sent.
Tabby does not delete files after it sends them. WinterBird will look at the date of the file to determine whether it should send the file to the user.
Some notes...
WinterBird comes preconfigured to run on most systems without any setup changes besides making modifications to the “ff List”. However, I made every effort to make WinterBird customizable so it suits your needs. Using Resedit, there are several resources in WinterBird that you can edit:
402 CINT Write notification message to user with list of files. 1=Yes 0=No.
400 LONG Maximum message length to forward.
401 LONG Last Date WinterBird was run.
400 STR Pathname of “ff List” file.
401 STR Name of the “FidoMailBoxes” file.
402 STR Name of the “Netmail” mailbox.
403 STR Message name prefix for files placed in the Netmail box.
404 STR Tag line - line that appears on the bottom of messages.
405 STR ‘From’ name used on WinterBird messages.
406 STR Subject for message on held files
407 STR Beginning of message on held files
408 STR Ending of message on held files
409 STR Subject on message of forwarded files.
410 STR Beginning on message of forwarded files.
411 STR Ending on messages of forwarded files.
The configuration file is called “ff List” to maintain compatibility with Pete Johnson’s “ff”. The only significant difference is that I have the “ff List” file in the Tabby folder, and Pete’s “ff” looks for it in the BBS folder.
WinterBird is quite a simple program. It simply moves the correct messages from your users’ mailboxes to the Netmail mailbox. Then it is up to TFMailExport to do the REAL work. This method works very well, however it creates one small problem. Incoming Netmail will be forwarded to the user with the wrong node address. Instead of having the sender’s node address, the message will be sent with the BBS’s address. To get around this, WinterBird will tell the receiver what the sender’s node is on the first line. For instance, it might say “Node: 101/450.” If a user replies to this message and doesn’t change the Node address to match, it will go directly to the BBS, and received as undeliverable. This shouldn’t be a big deal though, the import thing is that the messages are being forwarded correctly.
Some future thoughts...
This may not be the final word on WinterBird. Version 2.0 may write directly to the Generic Export file. That will give me a greater degree of flexibility than I have now. But with school and work, I won’t have the time to work any future versions till May. But bugs are important, so let me know if something isn’t working right.
Finis...
WinterBird is freeware and can be given to anyone. If you have any comments or questions about any of my products, please contact me.
Some portions of this code is copyright by Michael Connick.
Chris Silverberg / 60 Bryn Mawr Ave. / Auburn, MA 01501
