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Introduction
This document provides information on
how I setup Synchronet as my Telnet server
for my BBS, Moon Base Alpha. This was based
from the RENEGADE BBS version of this setup.
Advantages:
Far more stable setup and than using
NetModem/32 and COM/IP. It will not crash
on a daily basis. I have gone a couple of
weeks without rebooting.
VADV nodes are only started up as needed,
freeing system resources.
Disadvantages:
See Known issues.
Requirements
Synchronet v3.00c (later versions usually
don't work right with VADV)
Virtual Advanced BBS Software v2.10
VADVSync package
A 300bps or greater modem on Channel 1
This document assumes you have working
knowledge on the setup and operation of
Virtual Advanced BBS Software (VADV)
Known Issues With This Setup - VADV
VADV is called as a door program under
Synchronet in a DOS box per node. Synchronet
will close the DOS session if the connection
times out or the DOS session closes for any
reason.
When a user is inside a door program
(i.e. LORD) and in the event the door crashes
or the user disconnects, and if the door program
doesn’t close and return to VADV before
Synchronet closes the DOS box, it prevents
the return to VADV. VADV doesn’t get a chance
to clear out the user in the CONTROL.DAT file.
When another user connects to that node, they
resume the previous users session in progress.
This is Very Bad.
You can delete the CONTROL.DAT file when this
happens, however if this is done while a user is
in a door program and they exit it, they will
find themselves at a login prompt. So I’ve
attempted to minimize all of this by using
flag files, additional setup in Synchronet,
batch files, startup.v modification and a
logoff.v script.
The logoff option in the QWK menu won’t
log off the user, it takes them back to the
main menu. Remove option from the VQWK.MNU
file.
Since all VADV nodes are running only when
a User connects to a node and node one handles
all networking and event scheduling, it needs
to be run separately outside of Synchronet
and node one in Synchronet needs to be disabled.
Otherwise networking tasks and events won’t
run correctly.
Known Issues With This Setup - Synchronet v3.00c
Synchronet V3.00c aborts the shutdown
process for Win95/98. Shutdown Synchronet
before shutting down or rebooting your PC.
If you have an automatic reboot event going,
you may wish to try the next release of Synchronet,
currently in BETA at the time of this writing.
There is a performance issue with multiple
users. Synchronet loads its DOS box in windows
foreground mode. If a second DOS box is created,
the first is placed in background mode and the
new DOS box gets placed in the foreground.
So for example, if a user is on node 1 and
another user connects to node 2, the new
users DOS box gets placed in the foreground
and the other user’s DOS box is placed in the
background. The original user notices a very
noticeable slowdown in performance and typing.
The only way I’ve found is to lessen the impact
is to go to Win98, which does multitasking better
and throw faster hardware at it. The next version
of Synchronet is supposed to be an improvement
in this area.
Installation and Setup - Synchronet
Install Synchronet as a Typical Installation.
Don’t install it into the same directory as VADV.
The default directory is C:\SBBS. I will use
this default reference in the rest of this doc.
Substitute for your own if different.
Copy the enclosed BBS.BAT, BBSLO.BAT,
LOGIN.SRC and LOGIN.BIN into your C:\SBBS\EXEC
directory (over-writing the ones currently
there)
Copy the enclosed BBS.BAT & BBSLO.BAT to
the VADV BBS directory.
Startup Synchronet, if it asks where to
find your MAIN.CNF file, tell its located
in the C:\SBBS\CTRL
Synchronet should automatically open the
Configuration Utility, if not it can be open
from the menu, BBS, Configure.
By default Synchronet is configured for
four telnet nodes, if you want more than that
simply select NODES and then press the INSERT
key. You will NOT need to mess with any of
the node settings. I suggest adding at least
one more as node one will not be used by
Synchronet.
You may wish to change a few settings
in SYSTEM as well. The BBS Name, BBS Location
and Sysop (operator) can be set here. This is
displayed in the connect messages. Leave the
rest of the settings as is.
Moving on, go ahead and jump into the
NETWORKS | QWK PACKET NETWORKS | NETWORK
HUBS and press DELETE.
Move on down to MESSAGE AREAS and delete
the DOVE-NET stuff sitting in there.
Now that you have that out of the way move
on down to EXTERNAL PROGRAMS | ONLINE PROGRAMS
go ahead and delete everything but MAIN.
Move on into MAIN and then cursor down to
AVAILABLE ONLINE PROGRAMS, delete everything
here as well and then Press your INSERT Key to
add a new one. Synchronet will now prompt you
for an "Online Program Name". Enter VADV and
press enter. Synchronet will now prompt you
for an "Internal Code" to which, you must use
the value of VADV and press enter.
A new entry called VADV should now be in the
list of Main Online Programs. Select it and
press enter. Set it up as follows.
+[¦][?]---------------------------------------------------+
¦ VADV ¦
¦---------------------------------------------------------¦
¦ ¦Name VADV ¦
¦ ¦Internal Code VADV ¦
¦ ¦Start-up Directory V:\VADV ¦
¦ ¦Command Line bbs.bat %# /ac /b115200 ¦
¦ ¦Clean-up Command Line bbslo.bat %# ¦
¦ ¦Execution Cost None ¦
¦ ¦Access Requirements ¦
¦ ¦Execution Requirements ¦
¦ ¦Multiple Concurrent Users Yes ¦
¦ ¦Intercept I/O Interrupts No ¦
¦ ¦Swap BBS out of Memory No ¦
¦ ¦Modify User Data No ¦
¦ ¦Execute on Event No ¦
¦ ¦BBS Drop File Type None ¦
¦ ¦Place Drop File In Node Directory ¦
¦ ¦Time Options... ¦
+---------------------------------------------------------+
If your copy of VADV is not installed
in V:\VADV you will need to adjust this
to match your system.
Now, select TIME OPTIONS and change
'Suspended (Free) Time' to Yes.
Press Escape several times (Answering
Yes) to "Do you wish to save your changes?"
and finally Exit the Synchronet Configuration
Utility (SCFG).
To Change the Telnet Server settings,
Under the Synchronet Control Panel, click
on the Telnet Tab, then configure button,
the toothed wheel.
On the General Tab, Change the First Node
to 2 and the Last Node to the highest number
of nodes you have, like 5. Turn On Auto Startup.
Hostname Lookup is optional. Do NOT click
Minimized Externals. This causes a performance
plenty for a single user. The rest of the tabs
can be left as is. RLOGIN is not used for this
setup.
On the Nodes Pane, right click on node 1
and select down node. This will take if offline
and prevent channel one of VADV from being used.
Close the Synchronet BBS Control Panel, and then
Start it up again (this is done so that your
changes in SCFG will take effect). If you
want, REBOOT.
Installation and Setup - VADV
Logoff Modifications
Modify logoff.v to suit your needs and
drop it into the V directory.
Change all menus that have 1 logoffyn to
2 logoff.
Modify all your menu’s FB files and
change the logoff option to this: G 001
2 logoff
This will call the logoff.v script instead
of using the internal logoff mechanism.
Channels
Under the channels setup in Vconfig, I’ve
left my settings intact from when I was on
COM/IP. I am not sure if these are used when
VADV is loaded as a door. But its probably
good idea to set channels 2 and up to use
a fossil driver. Use Fossil Device 4 for
channel two, Fossil Device 5 for channel
3 and so on.
Setup your modem on channel one. The
modem doesn’t need to be hooked up to a
phone line. It just needs to be there for
sending and responses. Otherwise the channel
will hang and no net processing or events
will occur. Do not use Netmodem/32 or Com/IP
in place of a modem. It will conflict with
Synchronet. A separate Fossil driver can be
used on this port if needed.
START.V
Added the following lines to your start.v
file. This creates a flag file for user
crash detection.
LET A0 = "V:\VBBS\temp\n" % !12 % "\node." % !12
OPEN A0, "O"
WRITE A0
CLOSE
Files Used - BBS.BAT
This is called by Synchronet which
starts a node of VADV. It also checks for
the node flag file and if found replaces
the control.dat with a fresh one. In this
case its copying my empty one out of my BBS
directory and putting in my RAM Drive, my
working area. This is check is a redundancy
for BBSLO.BAT should it fail.
if not exist v:\vbbs\temp\n%1\node.%1 goto bypass
copy v:\vbbs\data\control.dat w:\data
:bypass
CD \VBBS
bbs %1 %2 %3
Files Used - BBSLO.BAT
Synchronet calls this after the user
session is closed. If it detects a user
has bombed out, it basically starts VADV
for that node and gives VADV a chance to
clear the entry in CONTROL.DAT. VADV will
close right away due to no user. This also
resets the flags. Attempts to head off having
to reset the control.dat file when a user logs
in. This also prevents a user from getting a
login prompt exiting a door after the
control.dat file has been reset.
if not exist v:\vbbs\temp\n%1\node.%1 goto bypass
CD \VBBS
copy v:\vbbs\temp\n%1\node.%1 v:\vbbs\temp\n%1\node.A
delete v:\vbbs\temp\n%1\node.%
bbs.exe %1 /ac /b115200
:bypass
Files Used - LOGOFF.V
This script prompts the user the logoff
question and deletes the flag file. You can
add other things like messages or broadcast
logoff notices.
GETYN R1, "You wish to Log Off?"
IF R1 = "n" GOTO hopback
LET K1 = "V:\vbbs\temp\n" % !12 % "\node." % !12
kill K1
logoff
hopback:
Some Other Items to Note
Synchronet comes with its own FTP and
email server. The FTP server is tied into
Synchronet’s file section. It’s useless in
this setup. The email server is not a
multi-user drop system. It’s tied into
Synchronet’s user file. It cannot be used
with the VISK program, except for sending
out to the Internet. It can be used on its
own.
The LOGIN.SRC is Synchronet source code
file written in its own BAJA script language.
Documentation is provided with Synchronet to
work with the language. A compiler is provided
which creates the .BIN files that Synchronet
executes. The login.src that I provided was
modified from the original RENEGADE version
I obtained.
Synchronet’s Connection Messages can be
change to suit your needs. Some Sysops like
to remove it entirely to hide Synchronet’s
visibility to the user. This is setup in a
file. To access it, from Synchronet Control
Panel Menu, BBS | Edit | Answer Screen. See
the help on what all this means and how to
change the content, colors, etc.
If all the Synchronet nodes are in use a
message will display to the user saying all
nodes are busy. You can down all nodes to
work on the BBS if desired by right clicking
on each node in the nodes tab in the Control
Panel and selecting Down Node. Right click
down node again to restart them.
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