How to Set Up Tribbs to Access Fidonet

Here’s another how-to from zharvek over at Archaic Binary. The original post can be found at the link. Tribbs was the second BBS software I ran way back in the early ’90s. I probably used it for about a year or so before moving on to something I could modify a bit more.

Ah what an adventure this is getting to be. As you may know I’m setting up my old Telnet BBS again, not just the door games, but the full system including File Areas, Message Bases, and yes the Door Games.

I have all the games working so far, and file transfers are fine when you use a good client (mTelnet or SyncTerm).

The message bases are taking a little more time as I am trying to get connected to Fidonet for netmail and echomail.

TriBBS is pretty old software honestly, and I am probably making this really difficult on myself by choosing to use TriBBS instead of a newer BBS package. Honestly I do like TriBBS, I have it registered since way-back when I was hosting it on a 14400 baud dialup connection.

So I contacted Janis Kracht who helps new comers setup their systems for Fidonet. You can find her site here: http://www.filegate.net/

You can signup using this form: http://fidonet.ca/bnbform.html.

Apply for Fidonet here: http://www.fidonet4u.info/

We have been talking for a few days over email trying to get everything I need setup, and I’m sure it’s been a long time since she has setup such an old system on Fidonet. We finally got netmail working as I am writing this we are able to send each other messages, and when I get a real node number, I should be able to send netmail to anyone else.

Here is what I used/did/configured on my side with TriBBS to receive netmail and echomail so far.

Utilities:
TriDOG 11
TriTOSS 11
BinkD
CFRoute

Files:
BACKBONE.NA

1. Load up Triman for your master node. Probably Node 1.
2. Go to Data Files -> Networks
3. Press F2 to Add Net, Name it ‘Fidonet’.
4. Go to Data Files -> Message Conferences.
5. Press F2 to Add Conf. I did the following:

Conference Description: Fidonet – Network Mail
Read Message Sec: 10
Post Message Sec: 10
Private Conference: No
Alias Conference: No
Allow Private Posts: Yes
Allow Public Posts: No
Networked Conference: Yes
Network: (Choose Fidonet)
Fido-Style NetMail Conf: Yes
User Message Deletion: Allowed
Purge Msgs Older Than: 120
Msg Pack Backup File: No

1. Extract TriDOG into it’s own folder. I did D:TRIBBSTRIDOG
2. Edit the TRIDOG.CFG file.
3. You should read the TRIDOG.DOC file to see what the lines mean.
4. I did the following:

tribbs=D:TRIBBSNODE1
address=fido:net/addresshere
fakeaddress=optional:fido:net/styleaddress
tagline=Archaic Binary
conf=2,D:TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE

1. Extract TriTOSS into it’s own folder. I did D:TRIBBSTRITOSS
2. Run the CONFIG.EXE program.
3. Go through each section and change, update, modify what the defaults are.

System:
Main Address: your.fido:net/address
Mailer Type: BinkleyTerm
Sysop Name: Your Name
Origin Line: Your BBS Name
AKAs: (Nothing Yet)

Paths:
Node 1 Path: D:TRIBBSNODE1
NetMail Directory: D:TRIBBSMAILINCOMING
InEcho Directory: D:TRIBBSMAILINCOMING
OutEcho Directory: D:TRIBBSMAILOUTGOING
BadEcho Directory: D:TRIBBSMAILUNKNOWN
EchoList Filename:
LogFile Filename: D:TRIBBSTRITOSSTRITOSS.LOG

Archivers:
Just make sure you have all those archiver programs in your path. I place all mine in D:TRIBBSUTILS

Echos:
Add the echos you want to get from echomail here.
The name MUST MATCH that in the ECHOLIST file.

Mine:
Echo Name: BBS_INTERNET
Conf Number: 3 – Fidonet – BBS_INTERNET
Group Sec.: A
Origin Line: Archaic Binary
SeenBy Address: 1:18/9999.0
Nodes: fido:net/nodeforecho
The conference above, was created before hand in Triman and setup as such:

Conf Desc: Fidonet – BBS_INTERNET
Read/Post Security: 10
Private Conf: No
Alias Conf: No
Allow Private: No
Allow Public: Yes
Networked Conf: Yes
Network: Fidonet
Fido-Style NetMail Conf: No
User Message Del: No
Purge Msgs Older Than: 0
Msg Pack Backup File: No

Nodes:
Press INS to insert a new node number, type in your Fidonet address.

Not much to do in here, I set my Origin Address to myself and typed in my fido:net/address.

Uplinks:
Press INS to insert your Fidonet uplink node address. I don’t know if I will need this after we are done, but I may have to change it to my new uplink node once we are done testing.

Not much in here. I changed the Echo List path to the BACKBONE.NA file as used before.

The Origin Address I used my own.

1. This is the batch file I use, which is ran after a user logs off the system, and a few other triggered times as well.

Batch:
Code
@ECHO OFF
CLS
D:
CD TRIBBSTRIDOG
TRIDOG.EXE
CD TRIBBSUTILS
CFR-WIN.EXE CROUTE.CFG
CD TRIBBSTRITOSS
TRITOSS.EXE
CD TRIBBSMAILINCOMING
MOVE *.MSG TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE
CD TRIBBSTRIDOG
TRIDOG.EXE
CD TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE
DEL *.MSG
This batch file runs TRIDOG.EXE first, which takes any messages ready to go out and makes them into .MSG files (BBS -> MSG File).

CFR-WIN (CFRoute) takes the .MSG files from TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE and packages them up, and then moves them to TRIBBSMAILOUTBOUND where BinkD is waiting for files to show up.

TRITOSS.EXE then runs to check the TRIBBSMAILINCOMING folder for new mail from BinkD. If it finds netmail waiting it convers it into a .MSG file if it finds echomail it plugs that message into the BBS Conf Area defined in the config.

We then move any .MSG files into TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE that TriTOSS made.

We run TRIDOG.EXE again, to find those new netmail messages in TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE and insert them into the BBS.

We then remove any left over .MSG files in the TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE folder.

CFRoute Config File:

LOG D:TRIBBSUTILSCFROUTE.LOG
NETMAIL D:TRIBBSMAILINCOMINGCOMPLETE
OUTBOUND D:TRIBBSMAILOUTGOING
MAIN your:fidonet/address@fidonet.org
NODELIST D:TRIBBSUTILSNODELIST

ROUTE-TO fido:uplink/address 1:* 2:* 3:* 4:* 5:* 6:*

NODELIST above in the CFRoute config file is a text file containing the Nodes.

Filename only, not including the extension. Usually a .### file.

Update: Echomail was working correctly after a config change. Updated the stuff above to reflect. I need to add my CFRoute config here as well.

This might seem odd, and if you ARE a TriBBS sysop or WERE a TriBBS sysop and do have experience with this process please, please contact me if I am doing something wrong. I would love to discuss the correct procedure for getting NetMail and EchoMail into TriBBS correctly.