Alrighty. It's been ages since I've used FastEcho, and though I'm not personally using it, instead trying to help someone else whom already has it use it, whom is not very savvy with it all.

Here's the situation. One of my downlinks wants to setup their IRex and FastEcho on thheir system to receive mail, one from me, one from another link.

They run multiple BBS systems at the same time using some telnet2bbs link tool of some kind, I'm not entirely sure about that, but their BBS's support includes JAM message bases so..

Can anyone help me come up with a reasonably logical idea of how to set up this link to receive mail from me and internally relay it to several point point nodes for their multiple BBS systems they have running?

)))[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Linux
* Origin: Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com (1:135/371)

16 Sep 15 10:21, you wrote to All:

Alrighty. It's been ages since I've used FastEcho, and though I'm not personally using it, instead trying to help someone else whom already
has it use it, whom is not very savvy with it all.

ok...

Here's the situation. One of my downlinks wants to setup their IRex
and FastEcho on thheir system to receive mail, one from me, one from another link.

should be a pretty standard setup...

They run multiple BBS systems at the same time using some telnet2bbs
link tool of some kind, I'm not entirely sure about that, but their
BBS's support includes JAM message bases so..

ok... hummm... are they sharing the same JAM bases between those BBSes?? do they all use the same FTN address? if not then they will need a FE setup for each BBS instance... even if they are all on the same machine... that means either copying packets destined for the others to their inbounds or using some mailer to send to them as normal... i have 4 or 5 systems here all using their own mailers for this but they all also have their own FTN addresses as required...

Can anyone help me come up with a reasonably logical idea of how to
set up this link to receive mail from me and internally relay it to several point point nodes for their multiple BBS systems they have running?

other than the above ""hints"" for multiple BBSes behind one IP, the setup should be no different than any other distribution hub system... the specific points being that each system has its own FTN address (full node or points) and
that there is a proper entry in the nodelist pointing to each domain and/or IP address...

)\/(ark

... We have no need for ancient ways, our world is doing fine.: Rush
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* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

Re: One entry point, multiple destination points.
By: mark lewis to Eric Renfro on Wed Sep 16 2015 09:04 pm

16 Sep 15 10:21, you wrote to All:

Alrighty. It's been ages since I've used FastEcho, and though I'm
not personally using it, instead trying to help someone else whom
already has it use it, whom is not very savvy with it all.

ok...

Here's the situation. One of my downlinks wants to setup their IRex
and FastEcho on thheir system to receive mail, one from me, one from
another link.

should be a pretty standard setup...

They run multiple BBS systems at the same time using some telnet2bbs
link tool of some kind, I'm not entirely sure about that, but their
BBS's support includes JAM message bases so..

ok... hummm... are they sharing the same JAM bases between those BBSes?? do they all use the same FTN address? if not then they will need a FE setup for each BBS instance... even if they are all on the same machine... that means either copying packets destined for the others to their inbounds or using some mailer to send to them as normal... i have 4 or 5 systems here all using their own mailers for this but they all also have their own FTN addresses as required...

No sharing or JAM message bases, all completely independant of each other. Ideally, not sharing the same FTN address, but if that is possible, then it could be viable, though I'd think a point node would be better personally. Have one BinkD server act as the primary node for the whole list of internal BBS's, and then serve out to each point from there acting as the gateway. That reduces my redundant load, and puts them in proper control as a point-node should be, since he only runs a mailer on one system and one mailer, IRex, and all on Windows, which I haven't touched much for years. :)

So, here's the question of all questions then. How do you determine which PKT is for which address, or can you easily? If that's reasonably plausible then, hmmm.. I know sort of the concept, but I've never done this setup myself, always had many different systems to work with, or these days, multiple systems and multiple virtual machines. :)

Can anyone help me come up with a reasonably logical idea of how to
set up this link to receive mail from me and internally relay it to
several point point nodes for their multiple BBS systems they have
running?

other than the above ""hints"" for multiple BBSes behind one IP, the setup should be no different than any other distribution hub system... the specific points being that each system has its own FTN address (full node or points) and that there is a proper entry in the nodelist pointing to each domain and/or IP address...

Hmmm. Definitely a bit more difficult than I imagined. I keep wanting to utilize his linux system, but he's not so keen on that. But, with it, I could make it handle most everything fairly well, up until it has to still handle mail tossing to the various Windows system's BBS systems, then that situation comes right back to a system with multiple point nodes and BBSs to toss to. heh.

Is it unreasonable to assign multiple nodelist entries to someone running multiple BBS's even if they're behind a single IP/mailer, and just have my side route all their IP's to their respective mailers? Coming from an NC perspective on that question. hehe

)))[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Linux
* Origin: Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com (1:135/371)

19 Sep 15 13:40, you wrote to me:

Here's the situation. One of my downlinks wants to setup their IRex
and FastEcho on thheir system to receive mail, one from me, one from
another link.

should be a pretty standard setup...

They run multiple BBS systems at the same time using some telnet2bbs
link tool of some kind, I'm not entirely sure about that, but their
BBS's support includes JAM message bases so..

ok... hummm... are they sharing the same JAM bases between those
BBSes?? do they all use the same FTN address? if not then they will
need a FE setup for each BBS instance... even if they are all on the
same machine... that means either copying packets destined for the
others to their inbounds or using some mailer to send to them as
normal... i have 4 or 5 systems here all using their own mailers for
this but they all also have their own FTN addresses as required...

No sharing or JAM message bases, all completely independant of each
other.

so effectively completely separate installations...

Ideally, not sharing the same FTN address, but if that is possible,
then it could be viable, though I'd think a point node would be better personally. Have one BinkD server act as the primary node for the
whole list of internal BBS's, and then serve out to each point from
there acting as the gateway. That reduces my redundant load, and puts
them in proper control as a point-node should be, since he only runs a mailer on one system and one mailer, IRex, and all on Windows, which I haven't touched much for years. :)

you could do that but some folks tend to frown on points being bbses with multiple users... ignorance at its best since nothing prevents it other than opinion...

So, here's the question of all questions then. How do you determine
which PKT is for which address, or can you easily? If that's
reasonably plausible then, hmmm.. I know sort of the concept, but I've never done this setup myself, always had many different systems to
work with, or these days, multiple systems and multiple virtual
machines. :)

if you're talking about my manually of packets, it depends on the mailer format... for example, with fastecho and frontdoor, fastecho calculates a bundle name used for each remote system... i forget the formula, though... on my main system, i have a script that uses the 4DOS "describe" command to place the destination system's address and system operator name in the file's description as would be seen on a bbs... but with raw pkts, this cannot be done
so easily... pkts contain the destination address in their header so something would have to peek into the header to see which system it is destined to... in a BSO environment, there's the XXXXYYYY.pkt format which might be used but if one's tosser uses different pkt names all the time, then one might analyze the ?lo files to see what pkts are included in the XXXXYYYY.?lo file... XXXX being the hex net with leading zeros and YYYY being the hex node with leading zeros...

but with all of this, it is much easier to simply use different mailers for each individual system and let the sending mailer deal with which system mail is destined for... they're built for this task ;) so, like i have here, this particular system has three separate instllations on it... there are three separate mailers each running on their own port... i have another system here that has another three separate systems running on it... they also have their own individual ports and they're different than the ones on this system and certainly different that the ports used on my main system... yeah, seven complete and separate systems behind one IP... four bbses and three points...

for example only:
main system: all services on standard ports
system 1: telnet on 40023, binkd on 24555
system 2: telnet on 41023, binkd on 24556
system 3: telnet on 42023, binkd on 24557
system 4: telnet on 43023, binkd on 24558
system 5: telnet on 44023, binkd on 24559
system 6: telnet on 45023, binkd on 24560
system 7: telnet on 46023, binkd on 24561

with the above, say that system 1 is running SBBS with all services... all would be using non-standard ports in the 40xxx range... web on 40080, ftp on 40020 and 40021, ssh on 40022, rlogin on 40513.

if system 2 is also running SBBS, then all of their services would be on non-standard ports in the 41xxx range just like system 1's...

the ugly part is getting the domain stuff right and being able to pass to the proper ports as well as ensuring that the firewall is port forwarding properly AND that any connection tracking helpers the firewall may use are also configured to recognise the additional ports (eg: iptables and tracking ftp connections for established connections)...

once everything is set up, then you can easily send to their different systems as easily as they can have their main system be a hub for their internal systems... whether they are flying full node addresses or point addresses...

Can anyone help me come up with a reasonably logical idea of how to
set up this link to receive mail from me and internally relay it to
several point point nodes for their multiple BBS systems they have
running?

other than the above ""hints"" for multiple BBSes behind one IP, the
setup should be no different than any other distribution hub system...
the specific points being that each system has its own FTN address
(full node or points) and that there is a proper entry in the nodelist
pointing to each domain and/or IP address...

Hmmm. Definitely a bit more difficult than I imagined. I keep wanting to utilize his linux system, but he's not so keen on that. But, with it, I could make it handle most everything fairly well, up until it has to still handle mail tossing to the various Windows system's BBS systems, then that situation comes right back to a system with multiple point nodes and BBSs to toss to. heh.

yep and the same thing even if the linux box was also used... one might run virtual machines for each separate system but the same port assignment problem is in place and running virtual machines means a virtual network and all that additional setup mishmash rigamarole... yeah, i've got that here... one system with a node and two points is running windows (vista) with no VMs and this system is linux with numerous VMs and two of the separate systems here are bbses in their own VMs complete with their own firewalls also running in VMs...

Is it unreasonable to assign multiple nodelist entries to someone
running multiple BBS's even if they're behind a single IP/mailer, and
just have my side route all their IP's to their respective mailers?
Coming from an NC perspective on that question. hehe

no, it is not unreasonable to assign multiple node numbers to one IP fronting multiple systems... but don't think of one IP fronting one mailer unless that mailer is going to be hubbing the mail for all the other systems... then you've
got to look at netmail routing, too, whereas with individual node numbers, the routing is a cinch and there's not a lot to be done because it is no different than any other routing...

is that all confusing enough for ya? ;)

)\/(ark

... That wasn't a bit nice.
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* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

Re: One entry point, multiple destination points.
By: mark lewis to Eric Renfro on Sat Sep 19 2015 02:40 pm

19 Sep 15 13:40, you wrote to me:

Here's the situation. One of my downlinks wants to setup their
IRex and FastEcho on thheir system to receive mail, one from me,
one from another link.

should be a pretty standard setup...

the ugly part is getting the domain stuff right and being able to pass to the proper ports as well as ensuring that the firewall is port forwarding properly AND that any connection tracking helpers the firewall may use are also configured to recognise the additional ports (eg: iptables and tracking ftp connections for established connections)...

once everything is set up, then you can easily send to their different systems as easily as they can have their main system be a hub for their internal systems... whether they are flying full node addresses or point addresses...

[snip]

Is it unreasonable to assign multiple nodelist entries to someone
running multiple BBS's even if they're behind a single IP/mailer,
and just have my side route all their IP's to their respective
mailers? Coming from an NC perspective on that question. hehe

no, it is not unreasonable to assign multiple node numbers to one IP fronting multiple systems... but don't think of one IP fronting one mailer unless that mailer is going to be hubbing the mail for all the other systems... then you've got to look at netmail routing, too, whereas with individual node numbers, the routing is a cinch and there's not a lot to be done because it is no different than any other routing...

is that all confusing enough for ya? ;)

Hmmm... So in short, what you're saying is... The guy should be running a single mailer, and that mailer should contain every AKA for every BBS system running, and when it receives mail, *.PKT and *.MU* (Etc DOY), to multiple "inbound" directories, one for each installation of FastEcho to use, and it will toss what's validly destined to the address of that configured fastecho, badmailing the rest or deleting it, then deleting each of those inbound directories after tossing is complete. Running this for each BBS system installed.

That seems the most likely ideal setup I can think of, to be honest. And since I'm routing their netmail already anyway.. that should be relatively... Well, pretty much the same.

This seems like the least complicated and likely most effective way to handle it, but what pitfalls might this have? ;)

)))[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

... Screw up your courage! You've screwed up everything else.
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Linux
* Origin: Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com (1:135/371)

19 Sep 15 22:57, you wrote to me:

is that all confusing enough for ya? ;)

Hmmm... So in short, what you're saying is... The guy should be running a single mailer, [...]

nonononononono... there should be a mailer and tosser for each separate BBS system... "BBS system" meaning each bbs installation... if he has five BBSes installed on one machine, then there should be five mailers and five tossers, too...

and that mailer should contain every AKA for every BBS system running,

each mailer would have its own address and its own entry in a nodelist or pointlist (if one is used)...

and when it receives mail, *.PKT and *.MU* (Etc DOY), to multiple "inbound" directories, one for each installation of FastEcho to use,
and it will toss what's validly destined to the address of that
configured fastecho, badmailing the rest or deleting it, then deleting each of those inbound directories after tossing is complete. Running
this for each BBS system installed.

nonono... keep it simple... each bbs is its own entity... each has its own mailer, it own tosser, its own door games, it own message bases, it own file areas...

[snip]

)\/(ark

... Restaurants where black cardamoms have little legs give me the sweats!
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* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)