Well, well, well... Look what the cat dragged in! We'll set up some file echos now. Should be fairly simple since we set up all those groups the other day. Probably the most common file echo is the nodediff echo on the FidoNet File Distribution Network (FDN). This gets the weekly Nodediff to your system with a minimum of fuss and distributes it to your downlinks. With the magic names (which we'll set up later) you can even run a batch file to update and compile the new nodelist for you so that you don't have to even mess with it at all. Pull up the ASETUP | fileecho System | Fileecho Manager screen and press the INSERT key. This brings up the picklist of the groups that you've set up. Choose the one for Fido and press enter. This Screen should pop up. Õ Adding new entry 1/1 ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Fileecho manager¸ ³ ³ ³ Tag ³ ³ Desc ³ ³ Dest C:\PCB\DL06 ³ ³ Use FDB Yes, FidoNet Utilities ³ ³ Group 3 - fido ³ ³ Keep # -1 Use aka 1:3825/21 ³ ³ Template REPORTS LongDesc FILE_ID.DIZ/LDESC ³ ³ Banner REPORTS Cost ³ ³ Options Convert NONE Virus scan No Security No ³ ³ Convert all No Dupe check No Send original Yes ³ ³ Pass through No Visible Yes Add GIF specs No ³ ³ Allow replace Yes Tiny SB No Update magic No ³ ³ Announce No No Touch No ³ ³ Systems ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; As you can see, most of the information is already there. We just have to fill in a few specifics. Harald did good when he came up with the idea of groups, huh? Fill it in to look something like this. Õ 11/26 ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Fileecho manager¸ ³ ³ ³ Tag NODEDIFF ³ ³ Desc FidoNet: Weekly NodeList Updates ³ ³ Dest C:\PCB\DL06\ ³ ³ Use FDB Yes, FidoNet Utilities ³ ³ Group 4 - fido ³ ³ Keep # -1 Use aka 1:3825/21 ³ ³ Template REPORTS LongDesc FILE_ID.DIZ/LDESC ³ ³ Banner BANNER Cost ³ ³ Options Convert NONE Virus scan No Security Yes ³ ³ Convert all No Dupe check No Send original Yes ³ ³ Pass through No Visible Yes Add GIF specs No ³ ³ Allow replace Yes Tiny SB No Update magic No ³ ³ Announce No No Touch No ³ ³ Systems 1:3825/24 25 ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Tag is the file echo tag found in the BACKBONE.NA file. In this case is NODEDIFF. Desc can be anything that you want. It will be added to the file reports (if you set any up) that are sent out. All the other entries should be OK as they are. except for the systems entry. When you press enter on the systems line you'll get a screen that looks like this: ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Systems list ¸ ³ # Status Node address ³ ³ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄij ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Press the INSERT key and You'll get this screen: ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Edit Address 1 ¸ ³ ³ ³ Node Address ³ ³ SysOp ³ ³ Send files No ³ ³ ÀÄPause No ³ ³ Receive files No ³ ³ PreRelease No ³ ³ Mandatory No ³ ³ Msg status Setup ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Put the address of the UPLINK in the node address line and if you've already put this system into the node manager it will fill in the Sysop line for you. Since this is an Uplink and a file echo that you won't be sending any files upstream in, you should set the rest of the lines like this Send files No ;you'll not be hatching any nodelists into this ;echo Pause No ;You probably never want to set this to yes ;unless you anticipate your board being down for ;for a while Receive filesYes ;Obviously you want to get files from this node ; since it is your uplink PreRelease No ;since you won't be hatching any files to this ; echo you certainly won't be pre-releasing any. Mandatory NO or YES ;In this case it doesn't matter since this node ;is an uplink he'll probably not be sending you ;AREAMGR requests to turn this echo off. If it ;was a downlink and you wanted to make it where ;he could not turn off the echo then you would ;set this to Yes. Message Status Setup ; the options here are none, hold, crash or ;setup. Setup will tell allfix to use the ;message status that you defined in the node ;manager for this node. Now press escape to save this info. Next we'll add any downlinks for this echo the same way as we added the uplink. Press the Insert key and type in the address of the downlink. This time though, set the send file to yes and the receive file to no. Continue in this fashion for all downlinks for this file echo. That's how you set up a file echo. Some other file echos that you might want to set up in this group are FIDONEWS, FILEBONE and BACKBONE. This should get you to the point where you can send an AREAMGR request to your uplink. Contact him (her) and set up an ALLFIX (or RAID if that's what they are using) password, if you haven't already done so. When you get one put it in the System Data | Uplink Manager entry for this node and in the Node Manager entry for this node. Once you have a password you can send the AREAMGR request. To do this enter a netmail message in PCBoard addressed like this: To: ALLFIX@theiraddress ( or RAID if they use that AREAMGR program) Subject: yourpassword and in line 1 column 1 type this command: +NODEDIFF You can add other commands also like %LIST to get a list of all file echos that are available to you. If the command is used for AREAFIX if can also be used with ALLFIX. Next time we'll talk about reports and announcements. later, Mark