P I M P Personal Internet Mail Processor Option Module for The Bread Board System BBS software by eSoft, Inc. The Personal Internet Mail Processor is a 100% assembly language add-on product for TBBS bulletin board systems. PIMP is technically known as an "option module" as it uses eSoft, Inc.'s option module interface to very closely integrate operation with TBBS itself. It loads as part of the BBS software, and is active while the BBS is up and running. PIMP is designed to connect a TBBS bulletin board systems to the global Internet domain name e-mail system by simulating the UNIX-to-UNIX COPY PROGRAM (UUCP) commonly used by UNIX systems to provide dial-up connections to pass electronic mail. In this way, PIMP makes a TBBS system LOOK like a UNIX communicator, when talking to other UNIX systems. UUCP has become something of a standard means of connecting to the Internet on an intermittent basis to exchange mail and files. Many Internet sites offer low cost UUCP dial-up accounts. Using PIMP and a UUCP dial-up account, you can link your TBBS system to the Internet - allowing your callers to send and receive electronic mail to callers on CompuServe, GEnie, America Online, Delphi, BIX, The Well, other bulletin boards, and thousands of companies, Universities, and other domain name e-mail sites now available in over 100 countries worldwide. And when properly configured, the e-mail message will be delivered within a few minutes of when it was entered locally on the TBBS system. PIMP scans the message base for outbound mail on a configurable increment of time varying from once each minute, to once each 255 minutes. If any caller has entered a message, PIMP scans this message out to files in the proper format for delivery over the Internet. It then dials your host, and exchanges mail using the UUCP g protocol. It picks up any mail that may be waiting for your system, and downloads it. Finally, it processes this mail and adds incoming messages to your regular TBBS message base. One of the main design tenets of PIMP was that Internet mail should work no differently than local TBBS mail. Given the vagaries of the Internet, it probably falls short of that. But it comes quite close. Callers receiving Internet mail will receive the usual notification at logon that they have mail waiting. The TO information is in the proper TO field, the FROM info is in the proper FROM field, the SUBJECT information is in the proper SUBJECT field. Rather than tediously re-entering a domain address, they can in most cases simply press R for reply - just as they would for any TBBS local message. They can search messages by subject, to, or from, just as they can local mail. PIMP even allows them to attach files as enclosures, just like local mail. The Internet is not actually very good at passing files in this format, and the convention is to convert binary files to text files for transports using rocess termed UUENCODING. PIMP automatically UUENCODES binary file attachments for transmission, and detects incoming UUENCODED files and converts THEM back into binary file attachments in the TBBS message base. In this way, callers can send and receive file attachments without doing any of the uuencoding/decoding themselves. MAILING LISTS One of the more popular things that global Internet mail opens up is a concept called "mailing lists." Mailing lists are simply mail "reflectors," usually termed a List Server, that "bounce" messages to a list of recipients. If everyone on the list receives every message to the list, and if in reply, they themselves send the replies to the list, this forms, in effect, a very informal bulletin board. And this BBS is not dependent on where you are actually calling. Some list members will be on CompuServe, others on your BBS, others at a University - all using different host systems, different operating systems, different mail programs, but all bound by a common discussion group - the mailing list. PIMP obviously allows your callers to belong to mailing lists. But it also allows you to use your TBBS system as a List Server, and actually HOST mailing lists. Operating a mailing list does consume significant resource, but PIMP allows you to maintain a list as large as you like. And you don't have to do the maintenance. Following the Internet conventions, correspondents from anywhere in the world can add themselves by simply addressing e-mail to listname-REQUEST@YOURDOMAIN.COM. and specifying ADD or JOIN or SUBSCRIBE in the message body to join the list, and DELETE or REMOVE or UNSUBSCRIBE to unsubscribe to the list. FTPMAIL REQUESTS One of the more popular features on the Internet is a program called File Transfer Protocol or FTP. FTP allows you to logon to a remote system, and retrieve files that may be made available there. Increasingly, a trend is developing towrd FTPMAIL servers. These systems allow you to simply send an electronic mail request for a file, and the system sends a reply with an attached UUENCODED file i et form. PIMP allows you todo thi on your TBBS system. You can make any file available for FTPMAIL and anyone can send a message to FTPMAIL@YOURDOMAIN.COM with the statement GET FILENAME in the message body. PIMP will automatically check your public directories for a matching file, and if found, e-mail the file in UUENCODED format in reply - to anywhere in the world. You "publish" directories either using existing PICKUP statements in an existing TIMS.CTL file, or using another file of any name you specify. Only files found in these published directories can be requested. If no file match is found, PIMP sends a note of apology instead. BOUNCE MESSAGES Another convention in the Internet is that of the bounce message. If you send e-mail to a site, and no one is actually active at the address you specify, the system will normally send you a reply containing your original message and noting that no such user is registered at this site. PIMP checks each incoming message against your TBBS userlog to see if the message has a matching user. If not, PIMP returns the message to the original sender, with a note that no such user is registered at this site. ALIASES Also common in the Internet are universal users. Every Internet site should have a "postmaster" for example, and it is also common to receive mail addressed to "sysadmin", "root", etc. PIMP allows you to enter a series of ALIASES in a special file titled ALIASIN.LST These aliases are of the form: postmaster=thomas.jefferson@your.site.com All mail addressed to POSTMASTER@YOUR.SITE.COM will instead be routed to the userlog entry for THOMAS JEFFERSON. NEWSGROUPS One of the more popular features on the Internet is a system of shared message conferences termed Usenet News Groups. News groups operate very much like FidoNet echomail. The difference is that there are nearly 5000 of them and they generate something on the order of 50 MB of traffic per day. PIMP will allow you to handle as many of these newsgroups as you like, and it will automatically toss incoming newsgroups into topical message boards on your TBBS system, and scan any replies out as newsgroup files to send to your host. In this way, your callers can participate in newsgroups just as they would in Fidonet Echomail conferences. There are a few limitations to keep in mind with Newsgroups. First, PIMP only tosses newsgroups to bi-level topical style message boards. TBBS allows up to 250,000 of these topics per message board, so there is plenty of room for ALL newsgroups there. The TBBS message base is limited to 65,000 messages, and PIMP cannot expand that at all. So you can quickly fill your entire message base with newsgroup traffic. Finally, PIMP must receive newsgroups in uncompressed form. On the internet, a program titled COMPRESS is commonly used to compress newsgroups. This is like PKZIP but it doesn't do nearly as good a job of compressing data. In fact, if you are using V.42/V.42bis modems to do your UUCP connection, COMPRESS won't save you anything. The modems are actually better at compressing text data than COMPRESS is. And almost all hosts will provide newsgroups in either compressed or uncompressed form at your request. SPAWNING OTHER TASKS Despite PIMP's very close integration with TBBS, it is actually a fairly "open" structure program. THe files it creates and uses for mail are completely compatible with the files created by Thomas Dell's Waffle program, and this file format in turn has become the defacto standard on DOS machines for UUCP files. Further, PIMP has a very flexible input/output directory structure, and the unique ability to actually spawn any program written in eSoft's The Data Base System (TDBS) development language. It can spawn one TDBS application on receipt of mai incoming, and a completely different one whenever it creates outbound mail. In this way, PIMP is quite "open" and you can add TDBS applications to do virtually anything with Internet mail. PRICING CONTACT INFORMATION PIMP was written by Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch Magazine Boardwatch Magazine 8500 West Bowles Avenue, Littleton, CO 80123 Voice: (303)973-6038 Fax (303)973-3731 Data (303)973-4222 FidoNet: 1:104/555 Internet: jack.rickard@boardwatch.com Support for PIMP is provided on the Advanced Systems BBS and by Advanced Systems Research or you may call for direct programmer support. PIMP is available on the Advanced System BBS for 230.00 U.S. and all Major Credit cards are accepted for immediate purchase on Download. Advanced Systems Research, Inc. 1280 Terminal Way Bldg 39 Reno, Nevada 89502 (702) 334-3304 (voice) Fidonet - 1:213/900 Internet - alan.mcnamee@asr.com The Advanced System BBS (702) 334-3308 If you are not already registered on the Advanced System BBS you can gain access with the 1 time logon of: TBBS SYSOP password: SYSMON This will create a realname account with unlimited access and access to the SYSOP areas and demo areas.