The Major BBS Forums (Archive)

Hello All:

As I have been working with my installation of WorldGroup 2 today, I have a few issues I need to resolve:

1: I need to get the SMTP server working. I have the ICO and AIO for WG and the ICO I think is already installed with WG2 (I could be wrong, so I welcome correction on this).. so I did not install the ICO v 2 yet.

I want to send and receive email from the Internet using the IN:email@theinternetaddress.com format from within WG2 and of course get email from the Internet as well. Right now, the audit trail states that the SMTP sending has failed.

2: I need to setup a mailtosser for fidonet at some point and I know how to do this on RemoteAccess, but no idea on MBBS/WG.

3: Trying to understand the class of users that are setup by default. As I understand it:

DEMO would be the very lowest level user and SYSOP of course the highest level. I found a middle level called BILLED and I know that PAYING, MONTHLY, WEEKLY also exist, but I am trying to find what level my standard users should be at. PAYING seems to leave them at DEMO.

Some light on what the normal user level should be would be much appreciated.


Anyhow, I need to fix the SMTP deal before I really advertise the board. I need to have the full connectivity before I fix my ANSI graphics and all.

4: Looking for advice on a replacement CHAT program other than the default Teleconference one... looking for a split window one like "ice chat", in fact, if ICE is compatible with the WG 2, I may install and use it -- could use advice on this. And what doors to install as well -- other than of course, tradewars.

Hope someone has a lot of experience setting up the Internet Connection part. I have ICO v2, AIO v2, Galacticomm Gateway v.1 and not sure if i missed something in the SMTP config. That as I say, is top importance to me.

Help is VERY appreciated.

Again FYI, this is WG 2 we are talking about.

No BBS Door programs (ice chat for instance) are compatible directly with worldgroup. Worldgroup did have one of those chat programs where you can see eachothers' typing, but I don't think it was split screen. It was like: you take a turn typing, and then they take a turn typing.. it may have been called chat on demand or something like that.

Now, there are ways of making a bbs door work with worldgroup, by using an external server, like synchronet, but you still couldn't force a chat upon your visitors. they'd have to willingly go into chat.

The problem with making synchronet say "here's a caller, let's put them in to chat" is that you wouldn't be able to use more than 1 door on that server. For example:

1: Visitor presses T for teleconference.
2: Synchronet checks for the account via rlogin, to see if there is an account made, and then either makes it or lets the visitor pass through.
3: Synchronet automatically set to push visitor X in bbs door Y.

In order for it to look somewhat professional, you have to make most, if not all, of that stuff go on in the background and not let the visitors see it, but it can be done. You can manipulate synchronet enough to fool most people into thinking you're running a stand-alone trade wars game server too.

I'm not going to go into details about how it's done, because I don't remember most of it, but in between 2000 and 2001, I hacked up synchronet to do most of that. The source code is freely available, as it's open source. So, it's not illegal to hack it up as much as you want. Fortunately, you probably wouldn't have to use the source code for most of what I said anyway.

@malakai

Thanks for that advice, but I as you may have already guessed, I did not wish to run Syncronet, the the whole idea is to run an old school system.

Anyhow, the chat idea is secondary to getting the Internet email to BBS email system working!

@everyone

Gary Martin, who used to run "MEtropolis/Club Met" BBS here in Kansas City said that he recalled there being an add on chat system (I thought so since I remember Met having a system like that) but he can not remember what it is called or if it is available. Any help in this direction would be appreciated!

Obviously, still need to get my number 1 question above answered.

Thanks to all for the help

nitromike2006 wrote:@malakai

Thanks for that advice, but I as you may have already guessed, I did not wish to run Syncronet, the the whole idea is to run an old school system.

Anyhow, the chat idea is secondary to getting the Internet email to BBS email system working!

@everyone

Gary Martin, who used to run "MEtropolis/Club Met" BBS here in Kansas City said that he recalled there being an add on chat system (I thought so since I remember Met having a system like that) but he can not remember what it is called or if it is available. Any help in this direction would be appreciated!

Obviously, still need to get my number 1 question above answered.

Thanks to all for the help

Ok you want to know how to get smtp email working.

Here is what you need to do.

1) You need a domain name for your system. ie: mybbs.com
you can then add a host name to the domain if you want. ie: bbs.mybbs.com but you do not have to.

2) You need to have the DNS servers for your domain point the A and MX records for your domain to the computer that will be getting the mail. Your ISP should be able to help you here. If not I can help.
A satic IP Address is a must!

3) You need to configure your BBS to accept mail at your domain. Then you will have to make sure your user classes have the keys required to send and receive mail.

For the most part that is all you need to do. It's not hard but some times getting it all to run right is a pain.

Let me know if you need more help.

You can email me at my bbs. sysop@bbs.retrobbsgames.net
I run WG2.0 with MajorTCP and I run a DMA server as well.

Joe

Don't forget that many ISPs actually block your smtp ports so that you can't use internet email. The easiest way to check this would be to try out a stand-alone email server or synchronet with the email server on-line, on a windows 9x-2k-xp PC. If you're able to send/receive mail to outside sources (say a gmail address, for instance) then you can run email. If not, then you're SOL with out paying for an external service to do email forwarding.

that again was a question, is there not an SMTP server inside WG 2... I have been wondering.

I now have incoming mail working, but external is still not working.

My Audit Trail shows an error 76 on the failed attempts.

I think it may be a configuration item, but I could be wrong

nitromike2006 wrote:that again was a question, is there not an SMTP server inside WG 2... I have been wondering.

I now have incoming mail working, but external is still not working.

My Audit Trail shows an error 76 on the failed attempts.

I think it may be a configuration item, but I could be wrong

nope, the built in servers didn't come stock untill 3.2, I think. I tryed ICO 1 and 2 on my wg2 and can't get email working, vircoms tcpip works fine thou.

@frcorey:

That doesn't make much sense. Because the system is accepting incoming SMTP emails now as I stated?

If I can get the stuff working without using Vircom TCP, I would prefer that because WG2 did have a TCP stack installed since it asked for the info during install.



@everyone

Not sure what I am missing. I have not yet installed the ICO 2 because the WG2 already appears to connect to the Internet, if this is the problem, I would like to know that for sure.

I suppose I could try to install the ICO and see if that solves the issue, but my concern is overwriting files that already exist if it is already built in.

I will wait to hear back on this before the installation, I really don't want to reconfigure the BBS again if I can avoild it.

nitromike2006 wrote:@frcorey:

That doesn't make much sense. Because the system is accepting incoming SMTP emails now as I stated?

If I can get the stuff working without using Vircom TCP, I would prefer that because WG2 did have a TCP stack installed since it asked for the info during install.



@everyone

Not sure what I am missing. I have not yet installed the ICO 2 because the WG2 already appears to connect to the Internet, if this is the problem, I would like to know that for sure.

I suppose I could try to install the ICO and see if that solves the issue, but my concern is overwriting files that already exist if it is already built in.

I will wait to hear back on this before the installation, I really don't want to reconfigure the BBS again if I can avoild it.

Your isp should have a smtp server that you can point the bbs to. (smart host). This server is the one your email client would use to send mail.

Joe

Thanks CCS for the help.

Now we have a little problem. My ISP is Earthlink and the SMTP server requires authentication to use, since I did not see a way for WG2 to use this "feature" of the server, I am trying a free SMTP server on my other windows box to be the smartserver for the bbs. But I am wondering if there is a good windows (XP) SMTP relay server to go between the bbs and Earthlink.

If the free one works, I suppose it is okay, but since it does not hang out in the system tray, I am not fond of it

But this does alleviate the error and WG2 is trying to send the mail through the server...

So that is the answer I guess, if it gets sent successfully anyhow... I am waiting until the BBS tries to send the SMTP stuff out again.

But, like I have been saying, With ICO I can't get email working on wg2, With TCP/IP I have email working fine, in and out. and I have a dynamic address. I have a Netgear router and it resolves my DNS thru Dyndns.org so, I think it's something with the Gcomm ICO packages. What is TCP/IP doing that ICO is not? So, TCP/IP adds a email server to Wg2.

Well the news is that we definitely have this one figured out. It is not working yet, but we know why it is not working!

So this thread is solved.

nitromike2006 wrote:Thanks CCS for the help.

Now we have a little problem. My ISP is Earthlink and the SMTP server requires authentication to use, since I did not see a way for WG2 to use this "feature" of the server, I am trying a free SMTP server on my other windows box to be the smartserver for the bbs. But I am wondering if there is a good windows (XP) SMTP relay server to go between the bbs and Earthlink.

If the free one works, I suppose it is okay, but since it does not hang out in the system tray, I am not fond of it

But this does alleviate the error and WG2 is trying to send the mail through the server...

So that is the answer I guess, if it gets sent successfully anyhow... I am waiting until the BBS tries to send the SMTP stuff out again.

Argosoft Mail Server by Argo Soft Software Design at www.argosoft.com has 3 different mail servers, a free basic one, a 49.00 mid size and a Profession version. It's under 200.00 and has worked well for me for several years. You could try the free one to see if you like it. It's easy to set up.

TD

@toyduck

Thanks for the lead. SO far it appears to be working.

nitromike2006 wrote:@toyduck

Thanks for the lead. SO far it appears to be working.

If you end up liking the program, it worth getting the professional version, which has some anti-spam features that work quite well and are not in the other two versions.

TD