FiERCE Productions Presents:


                             How to setup nets with
                       
                          
                               
                              
                       
                        v1.02+

                  
                   Written by Lord Soth, FiERCE Senior Member
                               December 17, 1994
                  

          GEcho is Copyright (c) 1991-1994 by Gerard J. van der Land
                             All Rights Reserved

Introduction
------------

I have found, in my own personal experience, that GEcho is one of the best mail
tossers/scanners on the market available.  But, it is a little difficult to
understand for the novice.  But then again, so is any mail tosser, whether it
be F-Mail or Alexi Mail or any other.  I was asked for help on setting up GEcho
for nets, both to hub and just to plain old receive mail in a net, by a friend,
and decided to write a text file, just so that I wouldn't have to explain it to
him over and over again, and also so that anyone who was in need of this
information could easily get it, and not have to switch to an easier to
understand, more commonly used, shittier software.


How to setup GEcho to receive echomail
--------------------------------------

The process is simple.  First of all, GEcho belongs in your main FrontDoor
directory (C:\FD in most cases).  All the files that come with the GEcho
archive belong in there.  If you don't have the documentation for it, better go
looking for it.  I'm not gonna go into absolute depth with GEcho here, simply
for the setup of nets.  For anything else, you have to figure it out yourself
or refer to the manual.

Type GSETUP at the DOS command prompt.  This will take you into the GEcho
configuration.  The main menu branches to the following menus:

      Main ͸
       System Data    
       Miscellaneous  
       Area manager   
       Node manager   
       Pack manager   
       Export data    
       Information    
       Exit to DOS    
     ;

Choose System Data.  Go to the submenu NETWORK ADDRESSES.  It will give you a
little screen that lists Main to AKA 10.  Put your node addresses in here in
order of priority.  Try to make sure that it's in the same order as it is in
FrontDoor or whatever other Front End Mail program you are using.

Then choose AREA GROUP NAMES.  In this menu, put in the names of the nets you
are receiving (ie FidoNet, PellariaNet, AdventureNet, etc.).  This will assign
the net to a certain letter (A-Z).  This is necessary when setting up the
areas.

Now choose AREAMGR UPLINK MANAGER.  This is easy to fill out and I'll let you
deal with it.  All you have to do is fill in the information for every single
net.  Basically, you're telling GEcho who you get your mail from for any given
net.  Piece of cake.

Choose AKA MATCHING next.  In this menu, you must assign the zone:net to your
aka.  For example, if your aka was 85:8585/4, you must match it to the zone:net
of 85:8585.  Easy.  Do this with every aka you have.

Go back to the main menu.  Choose AREA MANAGER.  In this menu, you will be
prompted to enter information concerning the echomail areas you want to take
from any net.  This is a full page menu, and each screen is a different area.
This should be self explanatory.  If you can't figure it out, either find the
proper docs or ask someone who knows.  I'm not gonna hold your hand through all
of this.


How to setup GEcho to export echomail (hubbing)
-----------------------------------------------

Ok, it seems like these days everyone wants to setup a net.  If you want to set
one up with GEcho, the process is a little tedious, but well worth it.  From
the main menu, select AREA MANAGER.  In this menu, fill out all the info for
every echomail area your net will carry.  If you are going to be the "main
supplier" or "Host" for this net, you have to carry all areas, so that all your
downlinks can get them.

Go to the NODE MANAGER from the main menu.  This menu simply tells GEcho who
you supply mail to, whether this is long distance or local.  Fill it in as is
required (in case some of you haven't figured it out yet, there's a line at the
bottom of GEcho that gives you hints in terms of what commands are assigned to
each option (take a look at it!)).  You must do this for *every* node that you
supply to.  The nodes that *they* supply to, don't worry about.  But if you
supply to them, worry about it.


As far as I know this is all that is necessary to begin running a net.  I'm
sure there's more you can do to make things run a little smoother, and when I
find it, I may release another text file on how to advance your basic set up,
which this is.  This is all I have done for PellariaNet, and it runs perfectly.
Of course, you need to put in all other pertinent information for your specific
board, but that isn't covered in this text file.  Do it yourself.

This text file was primarily written for The Nucking Futso and Death, as they
needed it the most.  Hope it helps everyone else.

                 (:*- Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose -*:)
