Carol...

 CS{at}> Could you flesh out what ones you mean by 'netmail programs'?

  First, I apologize for the length of the reply.

  GT Power has a different message system than what you see with FIDONet style
BBS Networks...more on the FIDONet end of it later in this message.

  The GT Netmail programs were given out only after registration of the GT
ower
BBS package, and not distributed as part of the shareware offering. Through its
last release, GT had a built-in delay of 1/20 of a second, each time the
rogram
was run, up to 2 minutes, until the program was registered...and that was the
only
restriction. Once registered, the purchaser got a special key that allowed them
to
enter the program faster. Otherwise, the program was fully functional...in both
use
as a terminal program for dial-up BBS's, and as a host mode for Sysops. I
ecall
that some shareware BBS packages were very limited on features until
egistered.

  As noted, GT will become freeware, but NOT "open source"...as
per the wishes
of 
GT Power's original author, Paul Meiners. The netmail programs will still only
be 
available to "registered sysops"...I'm not sure how the new owner
of GT, Tom
Watt, 
will handle this.

  Netmail was sent to a special GT Power address, such as 035/005 (that was my
ID);
GT Net 035, Node 005, through the netmail program. Its nodelist was also in a 
different format than FIDONet style nodelists.

  I'm not sure how the netmail and echomail will work, network wise, with the
new
releases. To my knowledge, the only BBS left running GT Power is Capitol City
Online 
in Frankfort, Kentucky...but it's run under OS/2, which is the only way one can
get 
telnet with GT at the moment. Tom is working to get it to also do Windows under

telnet...but I have run GT as dial-up under DOS, DESQview, Windows 95, 98, and
XP.

  Echomail was a bit different than FIDOnet, as it wasn't in the typical .MSG,
Squish, 
etc. format. Instead, it had its own structure, and the Echomail conferences
were set 
up on a "sponsoring system". 

  What this meant is that any system in the GT network could pick up that echo
with
special commands to add it to their "G-Bag", and with the routing
file that was
manually created (as were the GT control files...a simple text editor would
ork
just fine), all messages for that echo would route to the sponsoring system
FIRST,
for "moderator approval".

  Inside the G-Bags (in .ZIP format) were files that were in .ARC
format...which were 
the messages themselves, with the appropriate data. I will put the PKARC and
PKXARC 
programs in one of my file areas shortly, for this purpose. I don't know the 
registration status of PKARC and PKXARC, but I know that Phil Katz, who
invented PKZIP, 
has been dead for a awhile now...I don't recall what he died of.

  Concerning the FIDONet related echoes, the way GT is currently set up (this
may
change in subsequent releases), you have to basically use a "second
tosser",
such
as GEcho, along with a special utility called FIDOGate. The message areas are
accessed through GT's message base, and not through the FIDO Tosser. 

  If the moderator approved of the message, it would then be allowed to echo
out over 
the rest of the network. However, if the moderator noted the echo was spam, had
vulgar
language, or was otherwise inappropriate, he could kill the offending
message...and the 
only place it showed up was on the BBS where it originated!! In my opinion,
that was 
BETTER than the "feed cuts" seen in FIDONet.

  Also, the exchange of netmail and echomail was originally done over the
dial-up phone 
line, similar to the old POTS network setups in FIDO. However, most packets
nowadays 
are sent via the Internet, using a program such as Internet Rex.

  Tom is hoping to create a configuration program with subsequent releases,
where one
didn't have to manually create the textfiles that GT uses as "control
files".
Once
one knows the format/syntax of the setup, it's easy to do...but it can be
ather
tedious if one has a lot of message areas, file areas, bulletin areas, and
doorgames.

  GT also had a "System Password" that the new caller had to
enter BEFORE being
allowed
to continue with the new user logon process. Tom said he plans to have that
DISABLED by
default in the new releases. However, with the initial releases, except for the
freeware
change noted earlier, there won't be much change from the last released version
(GT 19),
in the matter of control files, etc. That will probably change with GT 20 and
beyond,
however.

  But as noted, I ran GT for 13 years, and was extremely pleased with it...and
I'm
looking forward to running it again, this time under telnet. I'm still working
on
the control files and directories as well.

Daryl

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