Hello ALL!

I am running a WINXP box with Argus set up as my mailer and VFIDO is my tosser which is part of the VADV BBS package. VFIDO is tossing my outbound packets to my C:\Argus\OUT\ directory and they just sit there. I have been unable to figure out how to get Argus to send the packets. Any suggestions and help would
be appreciated.

Later,
Bill

Internet: wabusa.com Telnet: bbs.wabusa.com Fidonet POTS: 330-548-2566
---
* Origin: INA:fidonet.wabusa.com, IBN (1:2215/15)

I am running a WINXP box with Argus set up as my mailer and VFIDO
is my tosser which is part of the VADV BBS package. VFIDO is
tossing my outbound packets to my C:\Argus\OUT\ directory and they
just sit there. I have been unable to figure out how to get Argus
to send the packets. Any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

is VADV configured for binkleyterm style outbound or file attach like frontdoor?

are those mail files in your OUT PKTs and/or mail bundles like MO1?

are they accompanied by a ?LO file? without a ?LO file, they can't won't go anywhere is argus is a pure BSO mailer...

)\/(ark

... The Argus family of FTN mailers is pure ART (Argus, Radius, Taurus).
---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.42)

mark lewis wrote in a message to Bill Burton:

I am running a WINXP box with Argus set up as my mailer and VFIDO
is my tosser which is part of the VADV BBS package. VFIDO is
tossing my outbound packets to my C:\Argus\OUT\ directory and they
just sit there. I have been unable to figure out how to get Argus
to send the packets. Any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

is VADV configured for binkleyterm style outbound or file attach
like frontdoor?

are those mail files in your OUT PKTs and/or mail bundles like MO1?

I have both PKTs and Bundles waiting to send.

are they accompanied by a ?LO file? without a ?LO file, they can't
won't go anywhere

There are not any ?LO or other files for sending that I can find.

is argus is a pure BSO mailer...

Below is an excerpt from the Argus help file that may assist in trouble shooting.

I am receiving MSGs and Files in Argus via a BinkP connect from D'Bridge and they are tossing to the BBS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------


What is Argus?
Argus is a comprehensive FTN Mailer designed to work as a multi-line system using two widely used data exchange transports - Dial-up networking and TCP/IP - simultaneously.

Major benefits by using Argus are:

True multitasking using Win32 API
True multi-line mailing system
Extended TCP/IP support
This chapter also describes FTN standards, supported by Argus.


FTN Standards Supported
Argus interacts with remote systems using protocols and technology standards described in this chapter. Because Argus is built on FTN Technology (FidoNet Technology Network), it supports standards and proposals developed by FTN committee, common standards of FTN mail system functions are also supported by Argus.

This is the list of FTN standards and proposals that Argus is compliant to. Descriptions of those standards can be obtained from ftp://ftp.fidonet.org

FTS-0001 mail session (limited to incoming-only). FSC-0039, FSC-0045 and P2K packet types are also supporting to extract remote information.
YooHoo (FTS-0006) handshake.
Nodelist (FTS-0005). Also, extended TCP/IP flags are supported.
EMSI Handshake (FSC-0056) - full implementation.
WaZOO mail session and file requests (FTS-0006) - full implementation.
Z-modem file transfer protocol - full transport implementation with Skip/Refuse.
Hydra file transfer protocol (FSC-0072) - full transport implementation except of chat ability.
Working Time Nodelist flag (FSC-0062).
Binkley-style Outbound.
BinkP Transfer Protocol - full implementation of v1.0 draft specification, extended to file requests.
Encrypted BinkP session.
CRAM-MD5.
The reason to implement FTS-0001 mail session and FTS-0006 handshake is to be Fidonet-Policy compliant. Fidonet is the greatest FTN-based network worldwide. Here is an extract of chapter 2.1.8 Fidonet Policy v4:

Any system which wishes to be a part of FidoNet must be able to receive mail during this time using the protocol defined in the current FidoNet Technical Standards Committee publication (FTS-0001 at this writing). It is permissible to have greater capability (for example, to support additional protocols or extended mail hours), but the minimum requirement is FTS-0001 capability during
this one hour of the day.
Note, that there are some limitations in Argus implementation of FTS-0001:

Outgoing FTS-0001 calls are not supported.
Argus receives only and does not send out files during FTS-0001 session.
The password length is limited by FTS-0001 to 8 characters. Links with more than 8 characters in a password would be unable to initiate a password-protected FTS-0001 session.
Skip File and Reject File operations are disabled (as well as refuse/delay). No file re-gets.
Some FTS-0001 mailers do not provide valid file time.
FTS-0001 protocol may not be fully Year2000 compliant in some implementations. CRAM-MD5 is not suported.


Binkley-Style Outbound
This chapter explains the general principles of the Binkley-style Outbound structure, used by Argus mailing system.

Binkley-style Outbound was introduced in BinkleyTerm mailing system by Bit Bucket Software, soon it became a standard for the outbound section of mailing systems.

Explained briefly, The Binkley-style Outbound is a directory structure containing outgoing packets. The outbound directory for Default outbound zone is the directory specified in the Outbound entry field of the Directories Configuration dialogue. Outbound directories for other zones are created as directories with the same name as default outbound zone directory, but the name
extension of such directory is hexadecimal representation of 12-bit number of the zone. (This is the reason to limit maximal zone number with 4095, which is FFF hex).

OUTBOUND
The outbound directory for Default outbound zone)
OUTBOUND.001
The outbound directory for Zone number 1 (North America)
OUTBOUND.03F
The outbound directory for Zone number 63 (3F hex)


All outbound packets are divided into two groups: Mail bundles and Attachment lists. Each group has four (actually three, because Direct is equal either to Crash or to Normal - it is determined in the terms of a particular mailing system) subtypes determining the urgency of a packet:

Subtype Initiates a poll Packet contents is transferred during outgoing connection Mail bundle extension Attachment list extension
Crash yes yes .CUT
.CLO

Direct yes yes .DUT
.DLO

Normal no yes .OUT
.FLO

Hold no depends on setup .HUT
.HLO



A Mail bundle is a standard FTS-0001 or P2K message packet, so before sending it, the system changes its name to XXXXXXXX.PKT, where each X represents a random hexadecimal digit (usually that hexadecimal combination is actually the time of a packet creation in UNIX format, but it is not relevant in modern mailing systems).

The Attachment list is a text file containing text lines, each of these lines contains the full path name of an outbound file. The very first character in a line may also determine the action after the target file is sent: '^' character
placed in the beginning of a line means that the target file must be deleted, '#' means that the target file shall be truncated after its transfer.

The name of each outbound packet for a node has a format NNNNFFFF.EXT, where NNNN is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Net number, FFFF is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Node number and EXT is the extension determining the group and subtype of the packet (see the table above). Thus, all outbound packets for node with address 469/38.0 will have names 01D50026.EXT

Outbound packets for points are stored in sub-directories of an Outbound directory. Those directories have names of format NNNNFFFF.PNT, NNNN and FFFF have the same meanings as for a node's outbound packet, .PNT is the extension symbolising that it is a point outbound. Outbound packets for points are names as 0000PPPP.EXT, PPPP is the hexadecimal representation of 16-bit Point number and EXT is the extension determining the group and subtype of the packet (see the table above). Thus, point 25 of node 469/38 (469/38.25) will have outbound packets named 00000019.EXT placed in the sub-directory 01D50026.PNT\ of an appropriate outbound directory.

There are some additional Binkley-style extensions, supported by Argus:

.BSY
Indicates that the node is busy
.REQ
List of file to request from remote
.HRQ
List of files, requested by remote


Argus has an ability to open .BSY-files without DELETE_ON_CLOSE mode. Files will be deleting using DeleteFile command. This may be useful on some network file system which don't support DELETE_ON_CLOSE mode. To turn this option on, add the following registry value:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RIT\ARGUS\CurrentVersion\IniFile.ini] "SimpleBSY"=dword:00000001
Outbound SmartMenu is a powerful tool provided for Binkley-style Outbound operation.


BinkP is a new transfer protocol designed especially for using IP connections for FTN developed in 1996 by Dima Maloff. This protocol does not imitate a Dial-up connection, so it allows to use maximum performance because the absence
of irrelevant data transferred within Dial-up connections (such as checksums for example) and using of two-way data flow. The default IP port number for BinkP is 24554. BinkP could be used over Dial-up as well. In that case Niagara algorithms would be used on Transport Layer. BinkP allows flow encryption and CRAM-MD5.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later,
Bill

Internet: wabusa.com Telnet: bbs.wabusa.com Fidonet POTS: 330-548-2566
---
* Origin: INA:fidonet.wabusa.com, IBN (1:2215/15)

I am running a WINXP box with Argus set up as my mailer and VFIDO
is my tosser which is part of the VADV BBS package. VFIDO is
tossing my outbound packets to my C:\Argus\OUT\ directory and they
just sit there. I have been unable to figure out how to get Argus
to send the packets. Any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

is VADV configured for binkleyterm style outbound or file attach
like frontdoor?

are those mail files in your OUT PKTs and/or mail bundles like MO1?

I have both PKTs and Bundles waiting to send.

ok...

are they accompanied by a ?LO file? without a ?LO file, they can't
won't go anywhere

There are not any ?LO or other files for sending that I can find.

that would seem to be your problem then... is VADV configured to use BSO or fileattach? (first question above)

VADV may not have this option... i don't know... generally one sees it as a request to define which mailer they are using... does VADV have a section asking what mailer you are using??

is argus is a pure BSO mailer...

Below is an excerpt from the Argus help file that may assist in
trouble shooting.

it reads like it is pure BSO... the reason i asked about this is because Taurus
is the third generation of the Argus mailer family... i /know/ that Taurus can scan the netmail folder and pack netmail like my frontdoor setup does... it also works in BSO with ?LO files being generated by my fmail installation... fmail is configured for binkleyterm as the mailer... yes, i've been playing with this these last few days... i'm sure that paul quinn can confirm this if he wants to considering the quantity of netmail i've been tossing at his system
during the testing of the routing of the dynamic functions ;)

the version of Taurus i'm running is a beta and it definitely has problems... currently i can crash it any time by trying to browse the nodelist... i know of
no fix for this at this time... this is, IIRC, the last version that was released before the author stopped work on Taurus... i will have to do some deep digging to locate the archive for this version...

)\/(ark

--- FMail/Win32 1.60
* Origin: (1:3634/12.71)

Hi! Bill,

In a message to Mark Lewis you wrote:

I have both PKTs and Bundles waiting to send.

are they accompanied by a ?LO file? without a ?LO file, they
can't won't go anywhere

There are not any ?LO or other files for sending that I can find.

If there ain't no ?LO files then Argus won't even be aware that there's mail to
go. It sounds like VFIDO isn't doing the whole job...

is argus is a pure BSO mailer...

Yes, but there's another way of doing business. Use a 'file-box' for each link. Create some now... I use a path like "[drive]:\fileboxs\outbound\point_1". You could have a whole swag of other outbound file boxes, one for each link. They also work for BinkD; it likes file boxes just as much as Argus does.

Use Config/File-Boxes dialogue box (Ctrl+B) to set up file-boxes for each node that you exchange mail & files with, even local to your D'Bridge system. I've got 'em everywhere here, organised into a *Stargate* system between my main node, a point system and two virtual nodes.

File boxes are most excellent to deal with. Just drop files (mail) into them and off they go! Whoosh! White man's magic! Any files can even be junk; they
work for everything and anything.

Most important: Do _not_ ever set a file box for your zone's outbound directory, or any other outbound directory for that matter. Not ever.

Cheers,
Paul.

... Happiness: A warm modem and a high CPS count.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
* Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)

Hi! mark,

In a message to Bill Burton you wrote:

last few days... i'm sure that paul quinn can confirm this if he
wants to considering the quantity of netmail i've been tossing at his system during the testing of the routing of the dynamic functions ;)

The head-spin is gone but I'm still having trouble with the crossed-eyes. Darned eyes won't focus properly. ;-)

Cheers,
Paul.

... I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
* Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)

On Tue, 14 May 2013, Paul Quinn wrote to Mark Lewis:

i just wish i could figure out how to delay Taurus from sending
normal netmails as soon as it sees them... "normal" as in not
CRAsh or IMMediate... normal mail bundles wait until poll time
before they are sent but netmails don't :?

I'd say 'quit using the netmail routing table thing', and rely on
the Cron/Outbound managers. :)

the cron/outbound managers don't automatically pack netmail... that requires another tool and i'd rather not go that way... frontdoor and db don't need them
and i'd rather not be stuck with blackhole routing if i don't have to be... binkleyterm and most mailers that use BSO require that netmail be packed externally... Taurus seems to be the first of the ART family that doesn't ;)

I have two mail bundles holding at present: one to a
cron-configured node; the other depends on outbound mail. One is
a direct-flavoured bundle to the cron-ed node and the other is
crash but the node is limited to ",U,THv"(!), which Radius
respects (clue: there can be multiple Tyz periods set for a node).

i understand... if we can locate the source code for radius, that 'U' requirement can easily be removed... if it is how i think it is, it would only take commenting out two items in the code... a variable and the boolean operator tying it to the Txy flag ;)

Check your Config->Polls->Options(tab) dialogue. Look for the two tick-box options, particularly the "Prevent 'Direct' from
initiating a poll" option (it only has effect on the
cron-configured node). Both options are ticked here. You may
find more in Taurus[shrug].

other than the connection attempts counters and stand-off minutes for each, the
only other options are

Transmit hold on outgoing (unchecked)
Prevent 'Direct' from initiating a poll (unchecked)
Force 'Normal' to initiate a poll (unchecked)

what i need is a way to schedule "events" as in mailer events which qualify mail to be sent during that event... then a way to qualify that mail... what i have right now is no way to specify that 'Normal' is held until a specific mailer event... here is what the roughly google translated from russian to english help section says about events...

[/quote]
Events

The event serves to change the line of the mail system. Such parameters may be,
for example, command-line modems, access file requests, minimum allowed speed of the connection, etc.

In contrast to the periodic run applications and periodic calls, events in themselves do not perform in a global system, and only affect the parameters of
the lines to which they are attached.

After the creation of the event do not forget to tie him to the lines (modem or
TCP / IP), for which it is intended!

Events tied to the line in the configuration dialog line Config / Dialup / Line
on the page Events.

The event has a periodicity, described in the format of cron, the duration of exposure to the line, and a list of atoms. Duration of the event or can be specified in days, hours and minutes, or event is determined by permanent. Periodicity (ie the start of the event action) is given by either local time (default) or in UTC.

Atom - a particle events affecting a particular line of argument, to which the event is attached to.

For example, an event that changes the modem initialization string and a string
of necessary conditions continuity, contains two atoms - atom replacement modem
initialization string and replace the string atom conditions necessary continuity.

See also:

Description of the format Cron,

A flag indicating whether the work site,

List of atoms.
[/quote]

i really do wish that i could find the taurusen hlp or chm file that was available... translation from decompiled chm is extremely slow and cumbersome as one has to translate each text section in the html code and then save the page for viewing in a browser...

)\/(ark

--- FMail/Win32 1.60
* Origin: (1:3634/12.71)

Hi! mark,

On Tue, 14 May 13, you wrote to me:

is crash but the node is limited to ",U,THv"(!), which Radius
respects (clue: there can be multiple Tyz periods set for a node).

i understand... if we can locate the source code for radius, that 'U' requirement can easily be removed... if it is how i think it is, it
would only take commenting out two items in the code... a variable
and the boolean operator tying it to the Txy flag ;)

That doesn't really concern me at present. I could check out the code but I haven't dabbled in things of a 'C' flavour or Pascal in over a decade. I don't
do anything that requires a so-called "high level" language and compiler these days.

what i need is a way to schedule "events" as in mailer events which qualify mail to be sent during that event... then a way to qualify
that mail... what i have right now is no way to specify that 'Normal'
is held until a specific mailer event...

Ahmm... the clue is in my 'clue' above, me thinks. :)

i really do wish that i could find the taurusen hlp or chm file that
was available...

None of the old websites quoted in the Taurus echo would work for me yesterday.
Bummer. :(

Cheers,
Paul.

... Users: Keep them dry and don't feed them after midnight.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
* Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)

* Originally by: Paul Quinn (3:640/384), 17 May 13 09:25.

Hello Mark!

17 May 13 09:25, Paul Quinn wrote to Mark Lewis:

i really do wish that i could find the taurusen hlp or chm file that
was available...

None of the old websites quoted in the Taurus echo would work for me yesterday. Bummer. :(

Mark,

I have "taurus v.5.000 25.03.2006.zip" and "Taurus v.5.001 12.06.2006.zip" here. Both archives have the taurusen.chm file in them. You can try a F'Req, but I don't know what will happen with the long file names and spaces. Want to
give it a try or would you like me to rename (your choice) one and send it your
way?


Regards,
Fred

--- Msged/NT 6.0.1
* Origin: Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains (1:132/174)

On Fri, 17 May 2013, Paul Quinn wrote to Mark Lewis:

is crash but the node is limited to ",U,THv"(!), which Radius
respects (clue: there can be multiple Tyz periods set for a node).

i understand... if we can locate the source code for radius, that
'U' requirement can easily be removed... if it is how i think it
is, it would only take commenting out two items in the code... a
variable and the boolean operator tying it to the Txy flag ;)

That doesn't really concern me at present. I could check out the
code but I haven't dabbled in things of a 'C' flavour or Pascal in
over a decade. I don't do anything that requires a so-called
"high level" language and compiler these days.

i hear ya... argus, radius and taurus are written in delphi... so that's pascal
really... we might be able to patch the binary to knock out that 'U' requirement... the thing would be to find it in the hex... i suspect forcing the 'U' check to true all the time would do it and shoule fit in the existing bytes of the check... sadly, though, my years of binary hacking are pretty far back...

what i need is a way to schedule "events" as in mailer events
which qualify mail to be sent during that event... then a way to
qualify that mail... what i have right now is no way to specify
that 'Normal' is held until a specific mailer event...

Ahmm... the clue is in my 'clue' above, me thinks. :)

possibly but i'm not going to override with Txy flags for every node and every mailer schedule event i want to have ;)

i really do wish that i could find the taurusen hlp or chm file
that was available...

None of the old websites quoted in the Taurus echo would work for
me yesterday. Bummer. :(

yeah, i've spent a few hours numerous times over the years hunting and searching... i suspect i'm going to have to locate a ftp search tool or similar
and see if they can turn up anything... some of similar tools i find are hosted
in the .ru top level domain... i don't use them because they want me to use their downloader shit and i'm not going to do that... too much like cnet's mess
where they were shoving unwanted software along with the desired stuff and trying to install it... thanks but no thanks... there's too many other sites that carry the same file(s) that don't play shitty games like that ;)

)\/(ark

--- FMail/Win32 1.60
* Origin: (1:3634/12.71)

On Thu, 16 May 2013, Fred Riccio wrote to Mark Lewis:

i really do wish that i could find the taurusen hlp or chm file
that was available...

None of the old websites quoted in the Taurus echo would work for
me yesterday. Bummer. :(

I have "taurus v.5.000 25.03.2006.zip" and "Taurus v.5.001
12.06.2006.zip" here. Both archives have the taurusen.chm file in
them. You can try a F'Req, but I don't know what will happen with
the long file names and spaces. Want to give it a try or would you
like me to rename (your choice) one and send it your way?

thanks fred! that file might be the one i do already have... i'm not sure... most of it is still in russian if it is... but yes, i'd like to get those files
from you... i'll try to FREQ them from this Taurus point and see what happens... otherwise, maybe you can send them to me via email or are they available on a web site?

EDIT: well, i tried to FREQ them without the double quotes and that failed... it seemed to hang the connection so i forcibly terminated it from my end after about a minute of nothing happening (see below)... i redid the FREQ with the double quotes around the names but my Taurus can't connect to your mailer now... i hope i didn't crash it on ya :?

16-May-2013 23:39:39 Establishing BinkP transfer protocol
= 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Station : The Computer Lab
= 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Address : 1:132/174 1:132/0
: 16-May-2013 23:39:39 SysOp : Fred Riccio from Lincoln, NH
: 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Number : "asok.dtdns.net"
: 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Flags : IBN,CM,XW
: 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Mailer : BinkP-Experimental/1.0.53 binkp/1.1
16-May-2013 23:39:39 Non-password session
@ 16-May-2013 23:39:39 Dbg: Blank M_OK message
16-May-2013 23:39:39 Handshake time - 0 seconds
16-May-2013 23:39:39 Nothing for them
16-May-2013 23:39:39 Sending 'C:\FIDO\OUT\008400AE.REQ' (74b)
16-May-2013 23:39:40 Sent deleted '008400AE.REQ'
16-May-2013 23:39:40 SEND: End of batch
16-May-2013 23:39:40 M_NUL : OPM Requested File (taurus\x20v.5.000\x2025.03.2006.zip) Not Found
16-May-2013 23:39:40 M_NUL : OPM Requested File (Taurus\x20v.5.001\x2012.06.2006.zip) Not Found
16-May-2013 23:40:40 Transfer aborted
* 16-May-2013 23:40:40 Session aborted
16-May-2013 23:40:40 Session traf: in: 0 (0b) out: 1 (74b) [354b/423b]
16-May-2013 23:40:40 Session time: 00:01:01
16-May-2013 23:40:40 End


i will place the FREQ on hold for now until i hear back from you ;)

)\/(ark

--- FMail/Win32 1.60
* Origin: (1:3634/12.71)

last few days... i'm sure that paul quinn can confirm this if he
wants to considering the quantity of netmail i've been tossing at
his system during the testing of the routing of the dynamic
functions ;)

The head-spin is gone but I'm still having trouble with the
crossed-eyes. Darned eyes won't focus properly. ;-)

i hear ya :lol:

this is one of the few cases where sorting mail by date and time might be handy

but that depends on them all getting there and being sorted before one goes to read them...

but i seem to have a handle on it... i just wish i could figure out how to delay Taurus from sending normal netmails as soon as it sees them... "normal" as in not CRAsh or IMMediate... normal mail bundles wait until poll time before

they are sent but netmails don't :?

)\/(ark

---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.42)
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Hi! mark,

On Mon, 13 May 13, you wrote to me:

i just wish i could figure out how to delay Taurus from sending normal netmails as soon as it sees them... "normal" as in not CRAsh or IMMediate... normal mail bundles wait until poll time before they are
sent but netmails don't :?

I'd say 'quit using the netmail routing table thing', and rely on the Cron/Outbound managers. :)

I have two mail bundles holding at present: one to a cron-configured node; the other depends on outbound mail. One is a direct-flavoured bundle to the cron-ed node and the other is crash but the node is limited to ",U,THv"(!), which Radius respects (clue: there can be multiple Tyz periods set for a node).

Check your Config->Polls->Options(tab) dialogue. Look for the two tick-box options, particularly the "Prevent 'Direct' from initiating a poll" option (it only has effect on the cron-configured node). Both options are ticked here. You may find more in Taurus[shrug].

Cheers,
Paul.

... You're actually going to do something. Can I watch?
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
* Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)