 
 Under the HoodOpen Sesame!by Michael Hahn
 

        Welcome to the wonderful world of offline mail.  The first 
    step is acquiring something to read.  For that you'll need to 
    visit the mail door on your favorite BBS.
        The job of a mail door is to bundle up all the messages you 
    select into a packet, and allow you to download it.  There are 
    many types of mail doors, but they all share this basic function.  
    I'll deal with the doors which create QWK packets (files of 
    compressed messages with a filename referring to the BBS you 
    called, and an extension of .QWK) in my examples.  Some of the 
    door programs that create QWK packets are (in alphabetical order) 
    CAM-Mail, KingMail, Kmail, MarkMail, and Qmail.  Most of these 
    programs have a common set of commands, with only minor 
    variations.
        Let's call Pen and Brush BBS, home of "Smoke and Mirrors"--the 
    magazine you're currently enjoying.  Once I get past the login 
    procedure, I'm confronted with the main menu.  P&B is particularly 
    friendly to offline mail enthusiasts--selections for two mail 
    doors, MarkMail and Qmail4, are listed on the main menu.  They can 
    also be accessed by OPENing a Door from the main menu.
        Let's use MarkMail--Qmail asks you to go to a separate 
    configuration menu, while MarkMail has all the available commands 
    on its main screen.  The configuration menu for MarkMail looks 
    like this:
                                                  
                       Ŀ
                         B - Bulletin Selections 
                         C - Compression Methods 
                         F - File Scan Selection 
                         H - Help With Commands  
                         S - Select Conferences  
                         T - Transfer Protocols  
                         V - View Your Settings  
                         W - Write Your Settings 
                       

        The selections B and F are toggles; they allow you to download 
    the new bulletins and a listing of new files on the BBS.  
    Selecting B will turn on or off the addition of bulletins to your 
    mail packet.
        "Compression Methods" is for selecting the archive format for 
    the QWK packet.  Most boards default to PKZip, but some offer ARJ,      
    LHA, or even ARC.  Be sure in selecting a format you have the 
    correct packing and unpacking programs available on your computer.
        "Transfer Protocols" allows you to select the protocol you'll 
    use to download the packet and upload the replies.  The usual 
    choices are Xmodem, Ymodem, Ymodem-G, and Zmodem.  The protocol 
    selection can be different than the one you used as your default 
    selection when you first signed on to the BBS.  As an example, I 
    use HSLink to download files from P&B, but I use the DSZ version 
    of Zmodem to download my mail.
        The other setting you must configure is "Select Conferences".  
    This will display a list of the message areas available, and allow 
    you to select the ones you wish to read.  You'll also be given the 
    opportunity to select only messages addressed to (Y)ou, those 
    addressed to you and to All (YA), and and all available messages 
    in the conference (A).  You'll then be asked to set the pointer in 
    the conference.  Depending on the conference and the BBS, there 
    may be several thousand messages available for download!  I find 
    it's usually convenient to set the pointer at about 10-25 messages 
    less than the current total when I first enter a conference--this 
    allows me to get a feel for what has gone on in the previous 
    postings to that conference.  The pointers, BTW, are reset each 
    time you download a packet, so this needs only be done once per 
    conference.
        After selecting the archiver, protocol, and conferences, the 
    next step is to download the messages.  The command menu for 
    MarkMail looks like this:
                       Ŀ
                         D - Download QWK Packet 
                        DG - Download & Goodbye  
                         G - Goodbye (Logoff)    
                         M - Mode Graphix Toggle 
                         O - Operator Page       
                         Q - Quit Back to System 
                         U - Upload REP Packet   
                        UG - Upload REP & Logoff 
                         X - eXpert Mode Toggle  
                       

    I usually make my mail download the last thing I do in a session, 
    so I use `DG' most of the time.  This will pull the most recent 
    mail (anything newer than the pointers you set) from each 
    conference, bundle it into a QWK packet (Pen and Brush's mail 
    comes in a PB.QWK) using the archiver you selected, and ask you  
    to begin a download using the selected protocol.  After the 
    download finishes, the mail door will disconnect you from the BBS.
        Okay, so now you have a QWK packet.  In the next installment, 
    I'll tell you how to read it.

                                  -end-
                     Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Hahn
