The Shelter Family is a set of powerful and easily configurable WPL-based Mailers. WPL is a language designed for the development of network communications applications. Each Shelter Mailer has a subset of the features of the powerful Roof Mailer, which has served as the development testbed for ALL wpl mailers, for certain XPR's and utilities and for the WPL language itself. The Roof Mailer itself is not distributed separately as it is an intregal part of the HUGE Roof System and requires the ROOFLOG and FLOWMGR function hosts for proper operation. Three independant mailers are available in the Shelter Family of Mailers: Umbrella, Gazebo and Porticus. Each can be configured and compiled with the included GenMailer program. If you are looking for a Point Mailer, and find that Umbrella is more than you need, I recommend either one of the Melody Mailers, POP or JAZ. These Point-Only mailers are the smallest and fastest available. They are available on AmiNet or by FREQ using the magic names, POP and JAZ from: fidonet#1:167/104.0 and fidonet#1:167/151.0. The Uncommon Features of Shelter Mailers ---------------------------------------- All Shelter Mailers feature a Mailer Status Display, scrolling log and progress windows as well as an XPR progress window. In addition, individual windows can display the progress of each poll. All these windows, except for the Display, may be enabled or disabled during mailer generation. All Shelter Mailers feature SeaLink (inbound), DietIFNA, ZedZap, ZedZip and DirectZap protocols with crash-resistant RESUME and support for both 2d and 4d outgoing file requests. XPR protocols are used thoughout. Shelter mailers provide a high level of security, both when dealing with other mailers and with human callers. Unlike other mailers, when a Shelter Mailer is properly configured, if is very unlikely that files can be stolen, or your HD formatted. Multiple AFTERSESSION and WHENRECD commands allow automatic req, mail and tic processing. Unlike any other mailer, Shelter Mailers provide separate commands per file type to be executed either when a file of a certain type is received/sent or after the session or BOTH. The Cache also allows Site-specific AFTERSESSION commands to override the GLOBAL ones. Example aftersession command scripts include utilties to set the filenote of a received file from the description comment in the sent REQ file, or from the short description in an AmiNet .README file. Shelter Mailers also permit both PREDIAL and PRESESS commands if one's application requires even more control. All Shelter Mailers are multi-FTN and feature both EMSI and AUTOAKA WAZOO. AutoAKA causes the mailer's primary address to be set depending upon the address of the site being called or who is calling. The domain is automatically set if the remote site does not provide it. When USEAKAS is set for FTN site, all files for all AKAs configured for the site will be sent in the same session both under WAZOO and EMSI. The Shelter EMSI implemenation is the most through available on the Amiga and has been proposed as the basis for extensions to the EMSI specification. All Shelter Mailers feature a Site Cache, which allows setting a remote site's session password, sitename, sysopname, phone number, alternate phone number. The remote site may be an FTN node, a UUCP site, an Atomic Clock site or a BBS, FTP or Online Service ( in which case the configured term program will be spawned upon connect). Other parameters specific to the type of site may also be set. If your tosser is not domain-aware and the site sends archives containing bundles for multiple FTNs, the site may be configured so that these bundles will be sorted by domain for tossing. One may also configure a particular site so that all mail is sent to configured AKAs of a site either on inbound, outbound or both. On can also set handshake (FTS1,WAZOO,EMSI) to use when calling and what addresses to present under EMSI when dialing a site. The Cache allows Site-specific AFTERSESSION commands to override the GLOBAL ones. In addition to the Site Cache, the Gazebo and Porticus Mailers also support either nodelist.library or traplist.library for FTN sessions and the uucp Passwd and L.sys configs for uucp sessions. The Shelter Mailer Manager program allows Cache and Manual dialing as well as an AUTO feature which allows auto-startup and poll of one's BOSS or echo hub. With Manual dialing, one just specifies site and phone number and/or line to use. Also included is a POLL feature which will asyncronously poll all sites with pending mail. POLLs will continue until a connection is made, with the number of seconds between dial attempts and the duration of a poll window both being configurable. Remote addresses can be simply specified, with address expansion being done based upon your AKA in the domain being called. For example, if one wanted to call fidonet#1:167/104.0, and one's own address is fidonet#1:167/151.0, one would simply do: Shelter CALL 104 One can enable individual windows for each poll in progress to keep abreast of the current status. A poll can be aborted via a Shelter command, or a Ctl-C in the poll's window. Parameters such as duration of poll attempt, redial and busy delays are settable on the fly. Shelter mailers do not use the obsolete and non-secure FLO file format, but rather the very secure Xferq.library outbound management. However, all Shelter Mailers do provide functions to convert 4D .FLO files to 5D XferQ queues and to add any type of file to a site queue. In addition, a very comprehensive set of Queue management tools is available as XPack170.LHA. Shelter Mailers also provide for multiple inbound directories for Tossers which are not domain aware, as well as a NONSECURE inbound for sites not in Site Cache or nodelist. A separate inbound is provided for HUMAN callers with Porticus. The Mailer generator uses standard AmigaDos command line templates. Both command line switches and internal options provide extra control in special situations. Due to the multiple module format, one can reconfigure and reload parts of the mailer, such as the site cache, menus or config. Porticus and Gazebo have been successfully used with the following BBS's: DLG, Excelsior, Cnet, TransAmiga, Falcon, Contact! Umbrella Point Mailer (MAGIC NAME: UMBRELLA) -------------------------------------------- The Umbrella Point Mailer is a single line, multi-FTN mailer. It can be setup to answer the phone, BBS spawning is not supported however. If set to noanswer, the answer code is not generated. This mailer does not require a nodelist, as it features both the Site Cache and manual dialing. It does not support UUCP, CLOCK, FAX or BBS dialing, nor spawning of file request handlers or BBSs. It can be set to no do flo convert but to queue flo files only when connected, thereby reducing memory usgae. Gazebo - The Standard Node Mailer (MAGIC NAME: GAZEBO) ------------------------------------------------------ In addition to the standard Shelter FTN features, Gazebo allows single BBS spawning, UUCP inbound and outbound calls and setting the system clock via calls to any Atomic Clock Site with XPRclock.library. It also features XfreqSH, which allows the use of ANY File Request Handler. Porticus - Full Service FrontEnd (MAGIC NAME: PORTICUS) --------------------------------------------------- Porticus has all the features of the Umbrella and Gazebo Mailers, as well as all the non-ROOF System dependant features of the ROOF Mailer. Porticus uses the RFS File Request Handler (included) which provides file requests, both standard and HRF format update requests, response handling and accounts for both mailers and human callers. In addition to the extensive mailer capabilities described above, Porticus has a full-featured remote user interface for Human callers. This interface provides: System Bulletins Multiple level Menus Multiple BBSs and/or Remote Shell selections Remote on-line help Text Information displays Doors including games and utilities Auto-Download of Magic Names Auto-Uploads with file description prompt Chat with sysop Messages to/from sysop File Requests with CallBack Verification (with reward) Automatic FileRequests Forwarded File requests (to/from OTHER systems) Passworded Remote CLI Amiga Empire Game support User Accounts Boot a human caller All these utilities are included in the PORTICUS distribution. XPACK Outbound Management (MAGIC NAME: XPACK) ---------------------------------------------- A collection of useful tools for XfreQ management by Robert Williamson. Xpack - 5D echomail archiver/router/queuer/scheduler * XList - lists queue for a site, a pattern or all sites * Xkill - remove a filepattern from a sitepattern * Xrmv - remove a file from a site queue AddWork - add a file to a site queue, aware of filetypes SendFile - a simple version of AddWork Xq - FLO convert, scan outs, Xpack front-end Xflo - online flo conversion Please note that tools marked with a * require RexxDosSupport.library. Distribution: Both full release archives and diff updates archives are posted on AmiNet at regular intervals. Full release archives have file names in the format .lha, while diff archives are .lha. Due to filename contrictions on AmiNet these are the filenames to expect in Shelter Mailers and releated utilities: AmiNet FTN/HUMAN AmiNet FTN/HUMAN release magic diff updates magic --------------- -------- ----------------- ------- porticus170.lha PORTICUS porticuYYMMDD.lha POR_UPD gazebo170.lha GAZEBO gazeboYYMMDD.lha GAZ_UPD umbrella170.lha UMBRELLA umbrellYYMMDD.lha UMB_UPD xpack170.lha XPACK xpackYYMMDD.lha XPA_UPD rfs170.lha RFS rfsYYMMDD.lha RFS_UPD Any of the above can be FREQed using the Magic names from: 14400bps: fidonet#1:167/104.0 amiganet#40:600/104.0 mtlnet#17:514/300.0 Full releases are also available from: Zyxel: fidonet#1:167/151.0 amiganet#40:600/151.0 14400bps: fidonet#1:167/207.0 Distribution of merged or modified archives via the SAN fileecho network is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.