
   ===============================================================
    Taken from the NEW Official Renegade World Wide Web Home Page 
      http://www.interlog.com/matrixsoft/renegade/renegade.html
  
                       Edited by Mike Fergione
     For Distribution In The RGSNet RGS_TEXT File Echo Via The
         US Robotics IFDC Filegate Project<tm> On 8/24/95
   ===============================================================

alt.bbs.renegade FAQ

Authored by Robert "BUNGEE" Basil - sysop@azgate.com 
Copyright by the author, all rights reserved. 

Copies may be made of this file in its entirety as long as this copyright 
and acknowledgements are preserved. 

[The following has been stolen from the C-FAQ-list of comp.lang.c] 

Certain topics come up again and again on this newsgroup. They are good 
questions, and the answers may not be immediately obvious, but each time 
they recur, much net bandwidth and reader time is wasted on repetitive 
responses, and on tedious corrections to the incorrect answers which are 
inevitably posted. 

[end stealing] 

On to the questions.... 

Where can I ftp the latest version of Renegade?

Where can I get some utilities for Renegade? 

I've heard of RGSNet - what is it?

How can I join Renegade Support Network?

Can I become a Renegade Beta site? 

How do I toss mail safely with Renemail?

I notice that Renemail sometimes garbles messages on me and then it 
purges messages - did I lose any? 

Could someone give me a batch file for running Renegade? 

Renegade doesn't come with any documentation - how can I ... ? 

How do I get Renegade to work under OS/2?

I'm using OS/2, does Renegade work under this? 

I'd like to set up some usenet groups on my BBS. How do I do this? 

What are the backdoors to Renegade?

I just heard about a Renegade system being hacked - how can I protect 
my system? 

How do I run Renegade under Windows (any version)?

I keep getting a 'COMPort in use' error from Windows when using Renegade. 
How can I get rid of this?


Q1. Where can I ftp the latest version of Renegade? 

Where can I get some utilities for Renegade? 

A. The most popular ftp site is ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca. 

For Renegade itself, ftp to ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/renegade/bbs.  For the 
utilities, ftp to ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca:/renegade/utils To upload, send 
the files to ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/renegade/incoming and send e-mail with 
the file names to umgoerz0@cc.umanitoba.ca or, preferably, to Jordan
Firth<Firth@MBnet.MB.CA> as he does not have access to remove files from 
the incoming directory and "it has become a real mess". 

Another site is ftp.uoknor.edu. Someone please email me with a directory 
structure... thanks. 

There are other sites, but they are currently unknown. Please send any 
additions to the author. 


Q2. I've heard of RGSNet - what is it? 

How can I join Renegade Support Networks? 

Can I become a Renegade Beta site? 

A. Renegade is still in Beta, so by using this software you are a beta 
site for Cott. Usually what is being asked is for an Alpha site, and 
Patrick Spence has said that the Alpha program has been discontinued. 

But the next best thing is being a Beta site... and to report the bugs? 
Renegade Support Net, or RGSNet. If you have Fidonet Technologies Networking 
compatable software (i.e., Front Door, D'Bridge, BinkleyTerm, MainDoor, and 
a whole host of others), you can join RGSNet. 

Since RGSNet is basically beyond the scope of this document, the reader 
is encouraged to ftp ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/renegade/utils/p-z.zip/rgsapp.zip 
to get the application form. Inside here is all the information on RGSNet. 

Note: Patrick Spence has nothing to do with RGSNet. Do not mail him about 
it. (In fact, he dislikes RGSnet.) 

   ================================================================
   [Editor's Note:  Do not confuse RGSAPP.ZIP with the RGSNxxxx.ZIP 
   Application Packet.  THEY ARE TWO SEPARATE NETS!!  Applications 
   for the RGSNet that this document was hatched under can ALWAYS
   be obtained from Scott Freeman (50:50/0),  Don Cranford (50:57/0)  
   Richard Plantz (50:53/0), or Mike Fergione (50:610/0) using the 
   "Magic Name" of RGSNET.]
   ================================================================

Q3. How do I toss mail safely with Renemail? 

I notice the Renemail sometimes garbles messages on me and then it purges 
messages - did I lose any? 

A. Yes, you likely did lose some messages unless you run Renemail multiple 
times. Renemail returns errorlevels depending on its success or failure. If 
the return is 2, Renemail died. Using this knowledge, we can write in our 
batch file the following excerpt: 

  C:  [the drive the tosser is on]
  CD \TOSSER [the directory the tosser is in]
  TOSS -options [the tosser with any options, i.e. GECHO TOSS]
  C:  [the drive with Renegade on it]
  CD \RENEGADE [the directory with Renegade in it]

:RENEMAILLOOP
  RENEMAIL -T
  IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO RENEMAILLOOP
  RENEMAIL -P

At this point the assumption is that you know how to use your mail tosser. 


Q4. Could someone give me a batch file for running Renegade? 

A. Sure - here's one (From William John Moore <ummoor38@cc.umanitoba.ca>) 
for Intermail (very similar to Front Door) with GEcho. Watch out that some 
of this may not be of use to you, and other stuff may be in different 
directories. 

@Echo Off
set im=d:\im
d:\dv\dvansi
x00 2=3e8,irq5 b,2,38400 DV

:Start
echo In Start Module
d:
Cd \im
cls
im

If ERRORLEVEL==180 Goto nightly
If ERRORLEVEL==170 Goto PackBase
If ERRORLEVEL==160 Goto UnpackMail
If ERRORLEVEL==150 Goto EchoMail
IF ERRORLEVEL==113 GOTO Terminate
If ERRORLEVEL==101 Goto LocBBS
If ERRORLEVEL==73 Goto 14400
If ERRORLEVEL==72 Goto 9600
If ERRORLEVEL==71 Goto 4800
If ERRORLEVEL==70 Goto 2400
If ERRORLEVEL==10 Goto End
If ERRORLEVEL==6 Goto Fossil
If ERRORLEVEL==5 Goto ModemInit
If ERRORLEVEL==4 Goto ModemResp
If ERRORLEVEL==3 Goto FullDisk
If ERRORLEVEL==2 Goto External
If ERRORLEVEL==1 Goto Internal
Goto START

:2400
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -n1 -b2400 -Q
        Goto After_Start

:4800
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -n1 -b4800 -Q
        Goto After_Start

:9600
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -n1 -b9600 -Q
        Goto After_Start

:14400
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -n1 -b14400 -Q
        Goto After_Start

:LocBBS
        echo ath1 > COM3
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -n1 -L
        Goto After_Start

:After_Start
        rem if ERRORLEVEL 2 goto Echomail
        Goto Start

:Fossil
        Echo Wrong Fossil Version Error
        Goto End

:ModemInit
        Echo Unable To Initialize Modem
        Goto End

:ModemResp
        Echo Modem Not Responding
        Goto End

:FullDisk
        Echo Insufficient Disc Space To Continue
        Goto End

:External
        Echo External Error - System File Missing
        Goto End

:Internal
        Echo Internal Error
        Goto End

:EchoMail
        echo ath1 > COM3     <--- Use your COM port
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renemail -S
        cd \im
        copy setup.fd fd.sys >NUL
        cd gecho
        gecho scan
        cd \renegade
        Renemail -P
        goto start

:PackBase
        echo ath1 > COM3     <--- Use your COM port
        d:
        cd \renegade
        Renegade -P
        Goto Start

:unpackmail
        echo ath1 > COM3     <--- Use your COM port
        d:
        cd \im
        copy setup.fd fd.sys >NUL
        cd gecho
        gecho toss
        cd \renegade
        Renemail -T -N
        goto start

:nightly

        ECHO.
        ECHO ^[[0;1;34m ^[[31mBBS Nightly Events ^[[34m^[[0m
        ECHO.
        ECHO |12[-*-] Executed Nightly Events... >> D:\RENEGADE\LOGS\SYSOP.LOG
        CD\RENEGADE
        @oldmail.exe
        @RGMAINT.EXE
        @RENEBACK.EXE
        @renemail.exe -s
        @cd\im\gecho
        @gecho scan
        @cd\im
        GOTO START

:Terminate

        ECHO.
        ECHO ^[[0;1;34m ^[[31mRunning Terminate v1.50... ^[[34m^[[0m
        ECHO.
        ECHO Executed Terminate v1.50... >> D:\RENEGADE\LOGS\SYSOP.LOG
        d:
        cd \termin15
        D:\TERMIN15\TERMINAT
        cd \im
        goto start

:End
        echo ath1m0 > COM3
        Echo WE ARE NOW DOWN !
        echo.

There she be, the error codes you setup in Front Door mainly, the others 
are sent out by Renegade. This batch file if you configure your function 
keys in FD will allow you to load up you communications program rather than 
to exit it and then load it up. 


Q5. Renegade doesn't come with any documentation - how can I ...? 

A. Simple, get the documentation. Read through that - actually that 
should be done before you read the FAQ, but seeing as you likely 
couldn't find the documentation, it's too late for that, isn't it. 

Try ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/renegade/utils/p-z.zip - look for a file by the 
name of "rgd####.zip" where #### is the release it was written for. 

(Note: Cott Lang does not write the documentation so it will not always be 
up-to-date documentation here. Expect to get documentation for the release 
before the one you're using, and then also read the WHATDONE file in the 
Renegade upgrade package to get any changes since the documentation.) 


Q6. How do I get Renegade to work under OS/2? 

I'm using OS/2, does Renegade work under this? 

A. Yes, Renegade works extremely well under OS/2. In fact, the author, 
Cott Lang, uses OS/2 for his 3-line BBS. 

Step 1: get an OS/2 fossil driver. I usually recommend doing this before 
installing OS/2. An excellent one is VX00.SYS found in the package SIO by 
Ray Gwinn (the author of X00). SIO will also replace the built-in COM 
drivers from OS/2. SIO can be found on ftp.cdrom.com:/pub/os2/drivers. As 
of this writing, sio145a.zip is the latest version. 

Step 2: Install the fossil driver - doing this is beyond the scope of this 
documentation, however SIO has excellent documentation for installing SIO. 

Step 3: Run Renegade the same as if you were running it under DOS. 
Of course, in the icon that you create, there is a lot of information that 
is present. One recommendation is to run Renegade from a batch file, so the 
"Path and Filename" should contain the fully qualified path to the batch 
file being run, whether it is runfd.bat or bbs.bat or renegade.bat, or 
whatever you use. 

For DOS settings, make sure that DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION is ON, DOS_DEVICE 
includes VX00.SYS from your SIO directory, DOS_HIGH should probably be 
turned off unless you really need the extra room, as should DOS_UMB (only 
turn DOS_UMB ON if you have other drivers being loaded, such as OS2SPEED 
or similar, and turn down EMS_HIGH_OS_MAP_REGION to as low as possible).  
IDLE_SECONDS should likely be turned to 0, and IDLE_SENSITIVITY to 75% 
(fiddle with this value if some doors work only sporadically or users 
complain that doors don't respond very nicely).  Many people recommend 
INT_DURING_IO should be on - but mine works great with it off (ON uses 
more CPU processing). 

As for the SIO settings, ensure that the DOS session has access to the 
COM port it is looking for - preferably no other COM ports, either. Fiddle 
with SIO_Idle_sensitivity - starting with 75% and work down until your 
users start to notice. Then pump it up by about 5% and leave it there. 
(The idle sensitivity will depend on your clock speed, your CPU, and your 
motherboard and is thus beyond the scope of this documentation.) 

Also, using Renegade in Full Screen mode is best - again, to lessen your 
CPU loading while you're working on something else. (Remember that Alt-Home 
will switch a DOS session between full screen and windowed modes). 


Q7. I'd like to set up some usenet groups on my BBS. How do I do this? 

A. I have been kind enough to give the following answer :-) 

I have seen a lot of questions on what programs SysOp's need to setup 
Usenet Newsgroups and Internet E-Mail on their BBS.  Well ask no more. 
Here is what you will need and where to get it all in one place!  Hope 
this helps everybody.  Once you get the programs please read the docs 
and set them up. I cannot offer any help on Installation, I am to busy 
with my own gateway. Just to warn you though, plan on spending a lot of 
time getting everything set up. 

To get Usnet message this is what you will need..... 

1. A UUCP account with your provider. NOT a shell or slipp/ppp account. 
Those are something different altogether. 

2. A Program to call your provider and pick up the packets. I use FXUUCICO 

3. A archiver to uncompress the packets if your provider packs them before 
sending them to you. I use compress.exe and uncompress.exe 

4. A Gateway program to transfer the UUCP style packets to Fido style 
packets. I use Gigo. 

5. And then all you need is a working Front End Mailer and BBS software. 
I use Renegade 10-05 (Of course!).  Everything you will need to set up UUCP 
on your BBS is availible at: gigo.com. Or you can check out the service I 
run The Arizona Internet Gateway. (Shameless Plug!) 

Another popular way to answer this question is to set up Waffle BBS as a 
door from Renegade. Just create a command that uses command keys 'D-' and 
an option of "waffle online %A limit %T" and have waffle's exe in the path 
(required by that BBS). For further information on setting up Waffle, see 
comp.bbs.waffle.


Q8. What are the backdoors to Renegade?

I just heard about a Renegade system being hacked - how can I protect my 
system?

A. There are NO backdoors to Renegade.

This doesn't mean it is unhackable, only that there are no internal 
backdoors to Renegade. The only way 'into' a Renegade BBS is to upload a 
'trojan' file that will alter the menus to allow someone to download the 
USERS.DAT and thus get passwords. In other words, after installing
something new, check your menu system. 

Or, better yet, don't install anything that you didn't get from a reliable 
source. 

A popular misconception was the 'bug' that allowed anyone who accessed 
the archive commands to 'add' your USERS.DAT to their archive. This has 
been fixed as of 05-21-94. 

Another popular one was the 'bug' that allowed the use of %dffilename.ext% 
to see a file anywhere on the harddrive, thus allowing 
                   %dfc:\bbs\data\users.dat% 
to read all your passwords. This was only present in 10-04-94. The fix is 
to upgrade to 10-05-94, which will only allow %dffilename.ext% to grab 
files from your misc directory. 


Q9. How do I run Renegade under Windows (any version)?

I keep getting a 'COMPort in use' error from Windows when using Renegade. 
How can I get rid of this? 

A. Well, my first recommendation is to not use Windows as it has an 
inefficient multitasking algorithm (Win95 & WinNT are better for this), but 
the overhead in any version of Windows is prohibitive. Saying that you 
either must use Windows or cannot use OS/2, the first problem encountered 
with any DOS communications program under Windows is usually the COMPort 
in use problem as above. 

The COMPort is in use, but nothing else is running. The problem is that 
Windows itself is using the COMPort. 

Even though it isn't doing anything, it thinks it is using it. You must 
then go into your settings and find your setup for your COMPorts. Double 
click on the one that your BBS is using and set to "Never Warn". Bingo, 
problem solved.  Unfortunately, you now will never know if another 
application tries to use your modem until it crashes Windows. Unfortunately 
the only 'safe' way to use Windows while communicating via modem is to 
use Windows-based communications programs which means no Renegade. 

At this point we are assuming that you are running in enhanced mode since 
you cannot multitask in standard mode. As for your PIF settings, these 
depend on your CPU. I had mine set to 1000 for both foreground and 
background and my 2400 baud users still complained. 


Other links:

The Renegade WWW pagePatrick Spence's (Co-Author of Renegade) home page 


Special thanks to D. McBride. (The original author of this FAQ)

The latest version of this Renegade FAQ can be requested through Email
automaticly. Just send Email to: rgfaq@azgate.com

This FAQ is posted weekly in the alt.bbs.renegade newsgroup.

Send mail to the author.

Last modified Monday, July 8, 1995 at 07:49 GMT

