Possibilities - Realities 4/92

Contact:   eSoft, Inc. (Makers of TBBS)
           15200 E. Girard Ave., Suite 3000
           Aurora, CO  80014
           (303) 699-6565      Voice
           (303) 699-6872      Fax
           (303) 699-8222      BBS
           support@esoft.com   E-Mail

REALITIES 4/92
--------------

*** From April 1992 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1992 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

REALITIES...how to make it work
by eSoft Technical Support Staff

From the moment you first install TBBS, it's easy to see the possibilities are 
almost endless.  Turning those possibilities into realities can bring up 
questions.  For this reason, quality customer support is at least half the 
overall value of any software package. 

We recommend you call the eSoft Support BBS (303-699-8222) and read through 
the messages in each of the various support areas.  You could find answers to 
your questions, even before you've asked them!  You'll definitely get some 
useful tips and ideas for bringing possibilities to life with TBBS.  In this 
section of the newsletter, we will answer some of the more commonly asked 
questions we receive. 

Archiver Melange...

Q. I located a utility on your Support BBS that I'd like to use.  It has an 
extension of .ARJ.  I ran PKUNZIP on this file, but it says "unknown archive 
method" or something like that.  How do I get this file unpacked?! 

A. You're a victim of archiving confusion.  Don't worry - you're in good 
company.  Several years ago, System Enhancement Associates' ARC program was 
the only the archive program used by a BBS.  Software compressed with ARC used 
a .ARC file extension.  Then along came Phil Katz, introducing an enhanced 
ARC-compatible program called PKARC.  In addition to ARC compatibility, Katz 
added a new compression method which made smaller files but was not 
compatible.  This, along with the fact that PKARC ran faster than ARC launched 
"the great compressor wars". 

Several other authors entered the archiving scene, and with each incremental 
improvement in compres- sion and/or speed these alternatives found popularity.  
These included ZOO, PAK, DWC, LZH, and others.  More have come since, such as 
the ARJ you mentioned. 

Katz finally created PKZIP, which has become the most widely used archive and 
compression utility today, but the war for better compression technology is 
still going on.  As a BBS user or Sysop, you need several archiving programs 
in your arsenal.  Here is a table of common file extensions and the programs 
you need to unpack them.  Also listed is the name of the program(s) as they 
are stored on the eSoft Support BBS so you can easily locate them: 

Extension       Type            Archive Program

ZIP             PKUNZIP         PKZ110.EXE
ARC/AR7         ARC/ARC Plus    XARC-DOS.EXE
LZH             LHARC           LHA212.EXE
ARJ             ARJ             ARJ210.EXE
PAK             PAK             PAK251.EXE
ZOO             ZOO             ZOO201.EXE

These archive programs apply primarily to DOS machines.  In some cases, there 
are equivalent utilities for Mac and other non-DOS systems, but most non-DOS 
machines have their own archiving programs.  On the Mac popular archiving 
programs are Stuff-It (.SIT), Disk Doubler (.DD) and Compact Pro (.CPT). 

Enclosing a Local File Remotely... 

Q. I'd like to be able to enclose a file in a message when I'm calling in from 
a remote site, but the file resides on the TBBS hard disk.  How can I do that? 

A. If you have the SYSOM option for TBBS, you can creatively handle this 
situation as follows. 

Compose your message normally.  Before saving it, upload a dummy file as a 
place holder (any file will do). Save the message.  When you perform the 
upload, TBBS will ask for the name of the file...use the name of the file you 
will want to send to the user - not the name of the dummy file you'll be 
uploading! 

Next, determine the message number of the message you entered and go into 
SYSOM's DOS emulator.  CD to your enclosure directory, usually C:\TBBS\ENCL.  
(This path is configured in CEDIT on the Message Board Options screen, as the 
very last option on that screen.)  Copy the file you wanted to enclose to a 
file named: 

EMxxxxx

Where "xxxxx" is the message number you determined previously.  For example, 
if your message number was 35144, you'd issue this command from the SYSOM "DOS 
prompt": 

COPY F:\FILES\MYFILE.ZIP EM35144

If the message number is less than 5 digits, "zero pad" the number to a full 5 
digits.  When the user reads their message and downloads the attached file, 
they'll get the one you intended for them (your dummy file was overwritten 
when you copied to the EMxxxxx file). 

File Corruption...

Q. My message base has become corrupted.  When I view it with MFSQZ, most of 
the messages are okay.  But about 300 messages into the base, all of it turns 
to "garbage" then MFSQZ eventually locks up.  I think this was caused by a 
"bad spot" developing on my hard disk.  What can I do to fix this? 

A. The unfortunate answer is almost nothing.  For speed of operation, TBBS 
stores its message (and userlog) files as a database.  The side-effect of this 
method, however, is that recovering from catastrophic file damage is virtually 
impossible. 

Your only option is to restore your message base files from a recent backup.  
You will need to restore your userlog files at the same time to assure that 
last read pointers and waiting chains are properly synchronized with the 
message base.  

It is for this reason that eSoft highly encourages all TBBS users to implement 
a daily backup program.  This is most easily and conveniently implemented 
through a tape backup system.  Most tape backup software can be run 
unattended, so you can schedule it to occur as a TBBS external event so you 
don't even have to take the time to do it yourself.  Even if you manually 
backup to floppy disks, however, we highly encourage you to do so regularly. 

As for that bad spot on your hard disk, we'd also recommend using one of the 
many good quality disk utilities to scan your disk media for defects 
regularly. 

- END - 
PS0492-1
Rev. 4/92

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
to distribute this file in its entirety, without modification, to any
interested party.  Any other use requires the written permission of
eSoft, Inc.

IMPORTANT:  The information herein is subject to change without notice.
Please call or write to confirm factual information of importance to you
or your organization.

