🚀 go-pugleaf

From: crompton@NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL (D. Crompton)
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 11:16:21 EDT
Subject: USING POP


It seems that some group members missed an earlier message I sent out
on POP. I am repeating it here for there benefit. Hope this answers
most questions on the usage of POP.



                      How to use POP in NOS
                      ---------------------

The HOST should establish a 'POPUSERS.'  file in root with the following
format:

username:password:
username:password:
etc.

There should be an entry for each user of your POP system. We generally
use call letters for both entries.  I.E.   wa3dsp:wa3dsp:

The HOST must also start the pop server  'start pop' which should go in
your NOS autoexec.


Each USER must add the following lines to there autoexec:

'pop mailbox CALL'  

                      Where CALL is the name of the mailbox on the host
                      to retrieve mail from. The /spool/mail/CALL.txt file.
                      Usually the users call.
 
'pop mailhost hostname'
                     
                      This specifies what host to pop from. 
                      I.E. 'pop mailhost wa3dsp.ampr.org'

'pop userdata user password'

                      This data should match the data in the
                      hosts /popuser file.  
                      I.E. 'pop userdata wa3dsp wa3dsp'

'pop timer 3600'     

                      For stations that are on for extended periods
                      and receive there mail via pop from a mailhost
                      this timer must be set to interrogate the host
                      on a regular basis. Alternatively they could
                      do a 'pop kick' to check for mail. Time should
                      be set to probably no less than 1/2 hour on a
                      radio circuit. 

'pop kick'

                      This should be entered at the end of your
                      autoexec to check for mail from your mailhost
                      at startup.

So the autoexec entries would look like this for USER w3iwi...

pop mailbox w3iwi
pop mailhost wa3dsp.ampr.org
pop userdata w3iwi w3iwi
pop timer 3600
pop kick

and HOST wa3dsp's autoexec...

start pop

HOST wa3dsp's popusers. in root....

w3iwi:w3iwi:


A few other points...

If a pop users wants mail to be delivered to the host for them to pick
up via POP they should enter a 'reply to' field in BM.RC to direct
mail to the host and not back to them.

POP is a very good service for Amateur Radio. It is especially good
when a flood of messages are sent out to all users. This is a condition
that often causes crashes on memory marginal systems using SMTP. Also
alot of unnecessary traffic is sent out to stations that are not on the
air. With POP the user asks for and gets mail. This is naturally a random
operation. Lowering channel congestion and NOS memory usage.

Mail that is POP'ed from the host is deleted from the /spool/mail
directory upon successful transfer. The USER is notified that new
mail has arrived at the completion of the entire transfer.

One drawback that I notice with POP is that the messages (many could
build up) for a user are sent as a group. If the circuit fails with
a hard error halfway thru a POP xfer of a message group, no messages
are saved at the user end, even though some got thru. It is an all
or none with POP. This reminds me of the stupidity of BBS's in this
regard. Hopefully users will not let messages build up. I have some
users who let the mail build up to 30 or 40K over a few weeks.

 
Doug
 


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From: crompton@NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL (D. Crompton)
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 11:33:06 EDT
Subject: RE: Stabilizing NOS


I agree with Mike about picking a version and sticking with it. If it 
works and it is not giving you problems then maybe you should stick
with it. I do not follow my own advice in this regard though. I am
always looking for the latest. I also make the latest code available
to the TCP/IP group in my network via FTP. This is the Philadelphia,
Eastern PA, New Jersey areas. 

I usually compile a version tailored to MOST users and my needs. I
can always compile a custom version based on an individual users
needs if requested.

Doug


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From: "James C Walker(Cap'n)" <70007.4651@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 16 Jul 91 15:25:06 EDT
Subject: Mobile domains & rf

 
Has anyone considered how much alike mobile domain types and shifting rf
paths are alike ? If I'm understanding this correctly, mobile nos systems
need a 'flexible' routing system. The same thing happens when using RSPF and
a band opening occurs.
 
Cap



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From: wkt@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (Warren Toomey)
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 91 16:06:15 EST
Subject: Ideas, pointers for help in porting NOS

Can anybody suggest docs, files, people etc. which would help me grok all
the levels of the NOS code (& variants), so that I could try porting NOS
to the Minix system.

I'm pretty familiar with straight BSD4.3 networking code, but my attempt at
porting it to Minix (a Unix clone BTW) was difficult due to the huge
intertwining of socket/file code.

My basic goals are:

	+ TCP/UDP/IP & sockets in one Minix process.

	+ All clients, servers in their own process.

	+ Interfaces as device drivers.

	+ No connection between sockets & Minix file descriptors.

I'd like to start with the socket layer first, get a couple of simple
clients/servers going with that, & work my way down thru TCP, IP & the
interfaces.

However, I'm just soliciting information at the moment!! Don't rush me :-)o

Thanx in advance,

		Warren vk1xwt.


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From: Peter Fassberg <pf@leissner.se>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 91 3:11:50 SNT
Subject: NET maildoc

In the NET User Reference Manual there is a reference to a document
called maildoc, "which should be found at the same location as this
file".

That file, ka9qnos.ps.Z, is in the ka9q/docs directory at ucsd.edu.

Where is maildoc ?

Btw, the file ka9qnos.ps.Z is trunkated.  Thanks to Roger K. Sanderson,
VE3RKS, i found a correct one in pub/radio at sunee.uwaterloo.ca.


--  Peter Fassberg, SM6RPC        Internet: pf@leissner.se
    Leissner Data AB
    P.O. Box 912
    S-461 29  TROLLHATTAN
    SWEDEN


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From: 15.14@UCSD.EDU@39
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 22:11:45 -0400
Subject: 

I never get invalid pointer errors from PA0GRI NOS unless memory has been
exhausted and garbage collects have been forced.  You might try putting
"memory efficient on" as the first line of your AUTOEXEC.NOS file to prevent
this from happening.  -- Mike


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From: uunet!samsung!swlvx2.msd.ray.com!anomaly.sbs.com!idsvax!mikebw mikebw@idsvax.ids.com <mikebw@idsvax.ids.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 14:21:52 EST
Subject: RE: TC++ V1.0 and NOS

My mail to wd0efl is generally returned to me with a message of the sort
"Cannot send mail for 4 days."  Here is the summary of what I sent him:

I have since switched off of G1EMM NOS in favor of PA0GRI.  This code
has very minimal problems with the new Borland C++ 2.0 compiler, which is
what I have been using.  All of the actual inconsistencies relate to the
tmpnam() and __MKNAME() replacements in PC.C for the library functions;
I have published a fix on this.

Kelvin Hill has advised that his releases are no longer supported by him
due to other commitments.

I have not been working actively with the KA9Q sources.  I have not tried
to compile one in several months, and not since I have upgraded to BC++ 2.0,
so I am in no position to comment.

-- Mike Bilow, mikebw@idsvax.ids.com


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From: brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor)
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 18:29:57 -0700
Subject: NOS as a full-service packet BBS?

>From all the discussions going on here about mailbox services in NOS,
I get the impression that a lot of people are using (or attempting to
use) NOS as a full-service BBS along the lines of W0RLI, AA4RE, etc.

I've not paid a lot of attention to this since my interests are
primarily in the area of the network itself, but someone locally has
asked me about using NOS for a BBS, and I'd really like to help him out
and keep him from using MSYS instead.

So, if you're running a NOS-based BBS, please let me know your
experiences, how well it worked, what you have to do to set it up,
etc.  I'll collect all those into a file and put them out for FTP
so we can all share.

Thanks!
	- Brian


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From: uunet!samsung!swlvx2.msd.ray.com!anomaly.sbs.com!idsvax!mikebw mikebw@idsvax.ids.com <mikebw@idsvax.ids.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 14:09:29 EST
Subject: RE: Stabilizing NOS!

John,
Sorry about my address not being liked by your mailer.  We have been working
on fixing this for some time now; it is a good address when it leaves idsvax,
but is being messed with somewhere down the line.

Maybe you are right.  I don't think that there is opposition to NOS because
it is seen as experimental.  Rather, there are a lot of people who would
like to use it but are concerned about the documentation and support.  I get
regular questions in the nature of "Is there any way to do x?" or "What is
the y command for?"  I often have to answer these based on tracing through
the source code.

What we need is a comprehensive but brief index to the commands and what they
do, and a few local "experts" in each area who can answer questions.  This is
not, in my view, a problem in any way specific to NOS or C or even computers.
This same problem and solution existed in the days of spark and vacuum tubes.

A number of user manuals are out there which will get a new user started and
configured.  As a practical matter, I don't even mind going out to some ham's
house and writing his AUTOEXEC.NET files and such; probably everyone on TCP/IP
in Rhode Island has had a personal visit of this kind from either Chas W1CG or
me, and that's not too bad.  Where we start having problems is with special
features, like NET/ROM, or with new features, like POP.  There is no easy way
to advance once you get NOS running, other than to informally kibitz with the
people who have the source code.

-- Mike Bilow, N1BEE @ KA1RCI.RI.USA.NA  (AX.25)
               mikebw@idsvax.ids.com  (Internet)

P.S.  Sorry for not replying for some time.  I've been at the beach, and am
going back this afternoon!  I had 56 mail messages on logging in today.


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From: uunet!samsung!swlvx2.msd.ray.com!anomaly.sbs.com!idsvax!mikebw mikebw@idsvax.ids.com <mikebw@idsvax.ids.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 15:52:27 EST
Subject: RE: The LAST of the TMP Puzzle

Doug,
I'm glad you got my fix working.  The fix I published is good for v1.7a,
and will probably work OK on v1.7b and v1.7c.  As of v1.7d, Gerard tried
to implement the fix you suggested to him per Kelvin Hill, which I strongly
advise against using for reasons discussed interminably earlier.  You are
perfectly right in that ALL of the temporary file related functions in PC.C
must be taken out for my fix to work.  I have not yet seen v1.7e, but Gerard
said that he essentially implemented my fix directly in it.

As for your disk thrashing, that is a DOS problem.  If you do not specify
any TMP environment variable before running NOS, then temporary files will
be default be created in the root directory.  If you issue a command such
as "dir" then DOS must read the current directory into a pipe, write it
out to another file in the TMP directory, and then switch back and forth
lots of times.

There are a few solutions:

1.  Use the current directory or a subdirectory of the current directory
as the TMP area.  That is, if you spend most of your time in /nos, then
use that ot /nos/tmp.

2.  If you have an AT or '386 machine, and a little bit of extended memory,
load SMARTDRV.SYS as a disk cache.  I have had no problems under DOS 4.01
or 5.00 running all sorts of stuff with NOS, including HIMEM.SYS, QEMM,
SMARTDRV.SYS, and so on.

3.  If you don't have extended or expanded memory, you can increase the
BUFFERS argument in CONFIG.SYS at the cost of some memory.  Under DOS 5.00,
you can even add a second argument to BUFFERS that will serve as a prefetch
or mini-cache.

4.  Mount a RAMDRIVE if the thrashing REALLY bothers you.

5.  Put up with the thrashing.  It will hurt nothing other than performance.

-- Mike Bilow, N1BEE @ KA1RCI.RI.USA.NA  (AX.25)
               mikebw@idsvax.ids.com  (Internet)

P.S.  Sorry about the delay in replying.  I have been at the beach and am
still going back this afternoon, even if it is 4:00 pm...


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From: wkt@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (Warren Toomey)
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 91 14:41:53 EST
Subject: Re: RE: PA0GRI warning: invalid pointer

> I never get invalid pointer errors from PA0GRI NOS unless memory has been
> exhausted and garbage collects have been forced.  You might try putting
> "memory efficient on" as the first line of your AUTOEXEC.NOS file to prevent
> this from happening.  -- Mike

Thanks for the tip!!!

	Warren


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From: pa2aga@pa2aga.ampr.org (432.675 MHz., Adam van Gaalen)
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 91 14:37:27 MET
Subject: Re: New(er) NOS 0618 (time to compile NOS)

Hello Doug,

Must admit, that I don't have NOS, but wanted to let you know, that it takes
about 4.5 minutes to compile NET/Mac on a Macintosh SE/30, which has a 16 MHz
68030 CPU, using the Think C compiler. I expect NOS to be (more or less)
about the same size as NET, so I think it should be possible to do it in far
less than 18 minutes!

73 de Adam PA2AGA.




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