Customizing EleBBS
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Forward
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In this text, I'll go over some of the key aspects of customizing an
EleBBS installation.

My setup:
  Operating System: Windows 95
  Modem:            33.6 modem on COM2
  Fossil Driver:    X00
  EleBBS Version:   EleBBS/DOS v0.05g1 (I got it this morning from www.elebbs.com)
  
I'm going to assume your setup is just like mine. I'm pretty sure its not,
but you shouldn't have too many problems changing whatever is necessary.
I'm also going to assume you've just installed EleBBS and haven't done anything
with it. In other words, I'm going to go over some basic type stuff..

Note: There are a hundred and one ways a person could customize their bbs.
I'm just going to go over some of the *key* aspects like installing doors,
adult only file and message areas, staff only menus, and the like. It's
beyond the scope of this text to cover each and every way you could setup
your board.

Hope you can get some use out of this text. Took me 5 hours to actually
do these things, and write them down, step by step. ;> I know, I have
no life. 

Forward #2
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There are a couple of other pieces of software you'll need to complete
this text.  For the most part, you can get them from another bbs, or
a bbs file archives on the web (such as http://www.darktech.org or
http://www.pcmicro.com/bbs/).

A CBV .. a "call back verifier".. Automatically updates a new user's
         access level by calling his data number, and confirming the caller
         is who they say they are. I'm using IceCBV version 1.00

Legend of the Red Dragon - It's a doorgame. I'll cover installing doors.

An upload scanner - whenever someone uploads a file to the bbs, this will
         scan the file for any viruses, grab the file_id.diz from the file
         and put it in the file database, and other misc things. I'm using
         THDPro version 10..

Call Back Verifier
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First things first, lets get a CBV installed. Keep in mind I'm using
IceCBV version 1.0 so you may not see exactly what I see.

Configuring ICE CBV version 1.00
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1) Make a directory.. c:\ele\cbv .. and unzip the IceCBV there.

2) The IceCBV docs are _very_ self explanatory, and already go over how to
   install it, but I'll go over them again anyways. ;>

3) Run cbvcfg.exe .. From the "system" menu, go to "site info"..
   BBS Name     : (your bbs name)
   Sysop Name   : (your sysop name)
   Message name : The System
   Location     : (your location)

4) Hit ESC to exit that, and now go to "system paths".. change all the
   "c:\ra" to "c:\ele"..

5) Now hit ESC and then move over to the "manager" menu.. go down to
   "sysop messages" .. change "wrong format" and "no auto verify" to yes.

6) Hit esc, and then move over to the "modem" menu. enter the "command
   strings" section.. Check to make sure the init string will work with
   your modem. If you're not sure, dont change it.

7) Hit esc, and move down to "values" .. set "board number" to 2..

8) Hit esc, and move over to "access".. go to "user settings". "new
   security level" for all 3 should be set to 10. "hangup after upgrade"
   for "ld caller verified" should be set to yes.

9) Hit esc, and go to "access toggles".. the answers should be:
   n,n,n,y,y,y,y,n,y,y in that order. hit ESC twice and save changes.

Installing the CBV into EleBBS
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1) Go into elconfig.exe .. go to the "manager" menu.. and down to the "menus"
   menu. From here, I'm going to assume you're using the default menus that
   came with EleBBS. Choose "english" and then "main".. Go to the bottom,
   and hit INS, and then ENTER.. You should be editing a blank menu item.

2) Make the action a type 7 (thatd be: external -> execute sub-program)..
3) Set display to a semi-colon.. nothing else..
4) Set optional data to: c:\ele\cbv\icecbv.exe -d:c:\ele\ *m
5) make the hotkey B
6) Set the minsec to 0 and the maxsec to 5
7) Edit the lightbar info..
   position: 2 / 15
   low item: K[09[K[07BK[09] K[07CK[0FBV
   high item: K[19[K[17BK[19] K[17CK[1FBV
   enabled: yes

   Note: Theres a bit of color codes in the low and high items. A K[09
   means "go to the colour map and pick background black (the 0) with a
   foreground of royal blue (the 9)".. The easier way: Where you see a
   "K[" and 2 numbers, go to the color map, and make the 2 numbers at the
   bottom of that box match whats listed here.

Almost done with the CBV
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There's one other thing you'll need to get your CBV up and running. In
CBVCFG, on the "manager" menu, youll find "local call manager".. You'll
need to go into this, and enter all the local prefix's for your area. A
phone book will come in very handy for this. An entry will look something
like:

      Match               Replace with
      901-475-            475-

After you get all of these entered, you're done, and your CBV will be ready!
You could enter your area code and prefix into CBVCFG's local call manager,
and test it out locally. It'll work without any problems..

Installing a Doorgame
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Since I'm the developer of Legend of the Red Dragon, what better game to
use as an example, eh? I'll use LORD version 4.02 for this example..

1) Make a directory.. c:\doors .. all of your doorgames will be installed
   under here. Note: You could actually install the doors anywhere you
   wanted. But I try to keep everything somewhat organized.

2) Make another directory.. c:\doors\lord .. and unzip lord to that direcory.
   then move over to the c:\doors\lord directory, and unzip lord.zip into
   that directory.

3) Edit start.bat .. Youll want to remove the REM from line 1, and line 2.
   and youll want to change line 2 to: cd\doors\lord .. save and exit.

4) Fire up lordcfg.exe .. Itll say "error reading lord.dat".. hit A ..
5) Go into game options, and hit R twice. This will reset the game.
   Now hit Q once to exit back to main..

6) Now, from Lordcfg's main menu, hit "S" to go to the node config.
   You'll be editing node 1. The options you need to change:

   BBS Name: (your bbs name)
   BBS Software: QBBS .. And that'd be using dorinfo1.def for all nodes.
   Path to dropfile: c:\ele\
   Fossil/internal: since I'm using X00, I set it to the x00 driver.
                    if youre not using X00, I suggest "regular fossil".

   Quit to main, and then quit and save.

7) Since we don't have a doors menu yet, we need to create one. Move over to
   c:\ele .. and fire up elconfig.exe ..Go over to "manager" and then down
   to "menus" .. choose english.. Now, hit INS to start a new menu..
   Name it "DOORS"..

8) Hit enter on the empty option.. Now to add Lord on the menu. If you
   added the CBV like I did above, then this should be familiar to you.
   If you didnt do the CBV, you should read over it for notes I made about
   adding things to the menus.

   Action: Type 7
   Display: ;
   optional data: c:\doors\lord\start.bat *N *M
   hotkey: L
   minsec: 10
   lightbar:
      position: 2 / 10
      low item: K[09[K[07LK[09] K[07LK[0FORD
      high item: K[19[K[17LK[19] K[17LK[1FORD
      enabled: yes

9) Now hit ESC enough times (saving changes along the way) to get back to
   the menu selector.. Select "main", and then select the empty menu item
   at the bottom.

10) Edit this new menu item like so:

   Action: Type 2 (menu functions -> gosub another menu)
   Display: ;
   optional data: DOORs
   hotkey: D
   minsec: 10
   lightbar:
      position: 2 / 15
      low item: K[09[K[07DK[09] K[07DK[0Foors
      high item: K[19[K[17DK[19] K[17DK[1Foors
      enabled: yes


11) Hit ESC, save changes, and then hit ESC 4 times.

  **** done. Now Lord is installed on your bbs. Most other doors should
  install about the same way. Just keep in mind that you have to reset
  the game, and the configure each node before it'll run correctly.

  note: In this example, were using the default menus that came with EleBBS.
  Which means, youll only be able to fit a few doors on one menu. Thats
  not a problem.. Just create one major doors menu that leads to other
  doors menus. As in: Main -> doors -> from there, you could go to
  A) RPG doors b) Trivia doors c) vampire doors d) space doors .. You could
  set it up a million different ways.

Installing an upload scanner
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Hopefully, you'll be using file ratios of some sort. Granted, its hard
enough as it is to get a stead stream of callers, and "no ratios" appeal
to them, but building a good file base takes a lot of work. I've known sysops
with, maybe, a 2 meg file base (which is small), but have a lot of file
hounds calling their boards because they had the best files, and not a lot
of junk. These sysops also used ratios to make sure that they got files
from the potential leeches.

Either way, when a user goes to upload a file to you, it's a possiblity
that it could have a virus in it. These things do happen, and you've got
to protect yourself. Not to mention, who's going to add the file descriptions
into the file base? An upload scanner can do that for you as well.

Installing THDPro version 10.0
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For this example, I'm going to use THDPro. It's considered by some to be one
of the best upload scanners available. And it is compatible with EleBBS.

1) Make the directory: c:\ele\thd .. and unzip THD there. and then move
   to the directory..

2) Run "thdinstl.exe /nomove" .. (without the quotes)..
3) During the THD installtion procedure, you'll be prompted to answer a
   few questions.. Heres how I've answered them, and in the order I was
   asked..

   * max log file size: 5,000
   * reboot after viral detection: no
   * test files larger than: test all files
   * drop carrier on virus uploaders: yes
   * comport number: 0
   * local comport: none
   * bbs name:
   * log directory: c:\ele
   * what bbs type: 1) remoteaccess
   * update file databases: yes
   * ra directory: c:\ele
   * limit files: no limit
   * vendinfo info: #4 450 chars
   * it asks for McAfee's Scan info.. if you have it, give it, if you dont,
     skip it..
   * use heuristic testers: no
   * now it asks whether to test different archive types. Ive said yes to
     the ones I had the programs for.. i.e. for zip, you need pkzip and
     pkunzip..
   * add file comment: no
   * what drives to test on: only c:
   * remove files from archives: yes .. method 1.. *.nfo
   * loaders: none
   * directory to put bad files: c:\ele\temp
   * hacklist files: none
   * default options: left as is
   * level options: left as is

   Now it goes over all of the options.. If you made a mistake somewhere,
   here's your chance to change it.

4) Now to install THD into EleBBS.. Fire up elconfig.exe .. go over to
   "options" and then down to "files" .. once there, move down to "upload
   scan".. Set these options to:

   scan online: yes
   failed scan: unlisted/unavailable
   scan utility: c:\ele\thd\thdpro.exe @ *P *M

   *** Done. Note: this only works for remote callers. This wont test any
   files uploaded locally. To test any files locally, I suggest getting
   McAffee's SCAN, and using it.

Limited Access message and file areas
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Maybe you want to have an adults only file area.. or maybe a message area
for a few staffers on your bbs. There's a way to do that.. Heres how..

Adult file areas
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Say you've got a collection of adult type files, and you'd like to offer them
in an adults only file area. First things first, you have to know that the
person youre giving access to it is legally allowed to have access to it.
In other words, they have to be 18 years old or older, and you have to have
proof of their age (and keep it!). These laws vary from state to state, so
be sure to check with other sysops local to you about the laws.

For now, I'm just going to assume yo'uve got everything squared away, and
are ready to get the adult only file area setup. I'm also assuming you dont
have any file areas or groups setup.

1) Fire up elconfig.exe .. go over to "manager" and then down to "file areas"
   right under that, youve got "groups".. select "groups". Then select the
   "unused" group.. Make the settings:

   Name: General
   Security: 10

   Now, hit ESC to exit, and save changes. Move the lightbar down one, and
   hit INS to add one. Highlight it, and go into it.

   Name: Adult
   A flag: X-------

   Hit ESC .. save changes.. ESC.. then up one to File areas.

3) Highlight the first one, "unused" and hit enter.

   name: All System Uploads
   path: c:\files\uploads
   Dl security: 100
   list security: 100
   UL security: 10
   Dupes: yes
   UL scan: yes
   all groups: yes

   If its not listed, leave it as is. Hit ESC, and save changes.

4) Move the lightbar down one, and hit INS to add a file area. hit ENTER.

   Name: Adult
   Dl security: 10
   A flag: X-------
   list security: 10
   A flag: X-------
   UL security: 100
   New: yes
   Dupes: yes
   UL scan: yes
   min age: 18
   group: 2

   Hit ESC, save changes.. This "adult" file area. Someone sends in a copy
   of their driver's license.. You go into ELEMGR, then to "users".. Find
   the user, and change the 1st A flag to X. Now he can list and download
   files from that area. However, he can only upload files to "uploads".

  ** Done. Theres your Adult file area. Message areas are basically done
  the same way.. through the use of the user's flags.