USERNET for PCBoard v14.5a September 9, 1992 Copyright (C) 1992 Clark Development Company, Inc. WHAT IS USERNET.EXE? ==================== USERNET.EXE (USERNET) is a utility which allows you to modify the contents of your USERNET.DAT file. What is your USERNET.DAT file you ask? The USERNET.DAT file is where information is stored about who is online, where they are from, and what they are currently doing. The USERNET.DAT file is also the file that is used to determine if users are available for chat and to display who is online via the WHO command. An example WHO command looks like this: 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � (#) Status User � � --- --------------------- ----------------------------- � � 1 Unavailable for CHAT SYSOP (ANYTOWN, ANYWHERE) � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� As you can see it shows that the sysop is on node 1 and unavailable for node chat. This display also shows that the sysop is from ANYTOWN, ANYWHERE. WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH USERNET? ============================= You can do all sorts of things with USERNET. Below are some sample uses: * Change the name of someone in USERNET.DAT * Change the city of someone in USERNET.DAT * Immediately drop everyone off of the BBS if they are in PCBoard * Delete names out of USERNET.DAT that are "stuck" * Add nodes and users that do not really exist (up to your node limit) * Show that a node is currently running an event As you can see there are quite a few things you can do with USERNET. If you use your imagination you could probably dream up several other uses. USERNET SYNTAX ============== Usage: USERNET filename nodenum [status [name [city [text]]]] where: filename = the full name and path of USERNET.XXX nodenum = the node number to modify (or ALL for all nodes) status = the status of the node (see below) name = * for no change, or the caller's name (max 25 bytes) city = * for no change, or the caller's city (max 24 bytes) text = * for no change, or any text (max 48 bytes) NOTE: if multiple words are entered for name or city you must enclose them within quotation marks (e.g. "JOHN DOE" "NOWHERE, USA"). Status values: -------------- Letter As shown in PCBMoni As shown in PCBoard ------ ----------------------- ---------------------- A Available for CHAT Available for CHAT B Out to DOS Out of Code in DOOR C Chatting with Sysop Entering a Message D Inside a DOOR Out of Code in DOOR E Entering a Message Entering a Message G CHATTING with Group CHATTING with Group L Auto Logoff Pending Auto Logoff Pending M Message * No Display * N Chatting w/ Node # CHATTING with NODE # O Logging Into System Logging into System P Paging the Sysop Paging the Sysop R CHAT Request Sent CHAT Request Sent S Answering Script Entering a Message T Transferring a File Transferring a File U Unavailable for CHAT Unavailable for CHAT W Waiting for Node # Waiting for Node X Drop to DOS Pending Drop to DOS Pending Y No Caller this Node No Caller this Node Z (Inactive Node) * No Display * With 'Y' and 'Z' - no name or city parameters are needed With 'D' - any text given is automatically combined with the user name You should have noticed by now that in some cases their are different displays in PCBMoni and PCBoard. This are no PCBTEXT records to accommodate some of the display values. Rather than break the PCBTEXT file the nearest PCBTEXT record was used instead. Note: ----- Most setups have USERNET.DAT specified in PCBSetup instead of USERNET.XXX. This is perfectly normal and desirable because PCBoard will make sure that it writes to the proper file. For the purpose of USERNET just remember that the file has an extension of .XXX instead of .DAT. EXAMPLES ======== 1) Sometimes as a sysop you may want to list your name in the USERNET.DAT even when you are not online. Your display might look like this: 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � (#) Status User � � --- --------------------- ----------------------------- � � 1 Unavailable for CHAT JOE USER (ANYTOWN, ANYWHERE) � � 2 Available for CHAT JIM USER (ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE) � � 3 No Caller Online SYSOP - NOT CURRENTLY ONLINE � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� To accomplish a similar display you would do the following: USERNET C:\PCB\MAIN\USERNET.XXX 3 Y N3 N3 "SYSOP - GONE FISHING" The two N3's in the above example are simply placeholders for the username and city. When there is no caller online the "text" field is displayed instead of the username and city. If you normally log into a node other than 3 then you can of course replace the 3s in the above example. 2) When an event is running you may want to notify your users that one or more of your nodes are running an event. For this example let's assume that node 2 is running an event while others are online. To reflect this in your USERNET.DAT file you would use the following command line in your EVENT.SYS. USERNET C:\PCB\MAIN\USERNET.XXX 2 B "RUNNING EVENT" "DAILY EVENT" * This would show that the node is currently at DOS and that the daily event is now running. When the board returns to the call waiting screen from the event PCBoard will automatically show that the node is waiting for a call. 3) If you wanted to broadcast all of your nodes from a DOS prompt you could do that with USERNET as well. For the example let's say that one of your nodes crashed and you need to take the whole system down. Rather than sysop chatting with all of your nodes you can run a batch file which looked like this: USERNET C:\PCB\MAIN\USERNET.XXX ALL M "PLEASE LOG OFF ASAP" This would use the "M" status command to send a message. This is quite similar to the BRoadcast command in PCBoard. One thing that is distinctly different in this example is that you will notice that instead of a node number there is the word ALL. The word ALL tells USERNET to send this message to ALL active nodes. NOTE: If the user is not in PCBoard (i.e., they are in a DOOR) then the message will not be displayed to the user even when they come back from the door. Therefore, you may want to just pay special attention to who is in a door when you broadcast a message like that. 4) You may run into circumstances when a user name is stuck in the USERNET.DAT file. This type of scenario is most likely to happen when your bulletin board system involves local nodes, the /FLOAT parameter and users reboot their system while online. To clear the user's name out of node 11 on the system you could issue the following commandline: USERNET C:\PCB\MAIN\USERNET.XXX 11 Z This will make it so that node 11 will not even show up on the WHO or CHAT listings when you are online with PCBoard. 5) And finally in the last example we will show you how to immediately log off all nodes that are currently in PCBoard. To do this you just change all of the node's status to X. This will drop the node to DOS as soon as possible. If the user is currently a DOOR or some other application then when they return from the utility or DOOR they will be logged off promptly. To do this for all nodes you would use the following command line: USERNET C:\PCB\MAIN\USERNET.XXX ALL X When PCBoard reads the USERNET.DAT file again it will see the X status and will log the user off. Before the user is logged of though, the "Automatic Logoff Completed" message is displayed.