SGMail Information v2.0 Written by Sean Dennis (sean@outpostbbs.net -- 1:18/200@Fidonet) Last updated 17 October 2007 ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: I use SGMail as my front-end mailer on my own BBS. I will update this FAQ from time to time with new stuff I figure out or old stuff I remember as it comes along. SGMail has to be one of the best ARCMail-style front-end mailers ever written. Sadly though, as with a lot of BBS software, the author has abandoned the software because of lack of interest and lack of money to be made in BBS software. SGMail was written by Brent Shellenberg (Shotgun Professional BBS author) in the late 90s. It's an excellent mailer with only a few small problems (which can be worked around). Here's a partial description: Easy to setup and use FTN style mailer. Has everything you need to handle your echomail transfers. Includes mailer, debug terminal, windowed setup, automatic nodelist updating tools and netmail editor. Unique method of spawning external tasks. I recommend using SGMail version 3.00 since SGMail version 4.00 was designed more with the then-upcoming version of Shotgun in mind. Version 3.00 doesn't have all of the extra goodies version 4.00 does, but there is one major problem with the two DOS versions (16-bit and DPMI)-at idle, SGMail uses 100% CPU usage. You can correct that very easily using the excellent TAME program (yes, this is the very same one from the DOS days, but there is now a Win32 version that works very nicely-still $20 to register!). I'm not aware of any problems like that under OS/2 though using the OS/2-native version of SGMail. Here's the files you'll need (note that I have put all files into a ZIP file so they can pass through antivirus programs. When you unzip the archive, there will be a self-extracting EXE that you'll run that will extract the files into the current directory). All of these files are available on my website (http://outpostbbs.net): SGM300_D.ZIP SGMail v3.00 DOS "real mode": 16-bit, slower, but works with all DOS systems. SGM300_P.ZIP SGMail v3.00 DOS "i386 mode": 32-bit DPMI, recommended. SGM300_2.ZIP SGMail v3.00 OS/2: 32-bit OS/2-native version. SGM400_D.ZIP SGMail v4.00 DOS "real mode": 16-bit, slower, but works with all DOS systems. SGM400_P.ZIP SGMail v4.00 DOS "i386 mode": 32-bit DPMI, recommended. SGMDOCS.ZIP SGMail's online documentation. You'll need to unzip this in SGMail's main directory. This is the F1 online help from inside SGMail. The official freeware registration key that was released by SGMail's author, Brent Shellenberg, before he abandoned development of SGMail is available on my website. This is a text file that you can print out and enter the information into SGMail's registration screen. You'll want to read my notes below about SGMail concerning installation and batch files. Unfortunately, Brent never got around to writing a real user's manual for SGMail, although the online documentation built into SGMail is very good. It just doesn't talk about the batch files SGMail uses. There is extremely scant documentation about SGMail, but I remember enough about SGMail (I was a beta tester at one point) to get your SGMail install up and running in no time. Configuring SGMAIL ------------------ To configure SGMail, use the following command line: sgmail -n1 -config SGMail will expect an answer from COM1, so make sure that you have either a real modem or a virtual modem answering that port (I've tried adding -local onto that line, but it doesn't seem to work). Any time you call up the configuration screen, SGMail will take that particular node off-hook. The actual configuration should be fairly self-explainatory if you've installed the online docs into \SGMAIL. Using a FOSSIL driver with SGMail --------------------------------- I highly recommend using a FOSSIL driver with SGMail. Here's some tips: DOS/Windows: If you're running this under DOS/Windows, I recommend using AnDen Software's freeware ADF FOSSIL driver. It works well under NT, 2000 and XP (although it will run under Win9x too). Call the FOSSIL driver before SGMail starts. There's more information on how to do that in the ADF archive. OS/2: If you're using the OS/2-native version using SIO/VMODEM, nothing more is needed. If you're using the DOS version under OS/2, you might have problems with the CPU usage getting sucked up. I recommend using the OS/2-native version. If you have to run the DOS version with SIO/VMODEM, make sure the following line is in your CONFIG.SYS: DEVICE=X:\SIO\XV00.SYS (put it under the other SIO lines). Make absolutely sure you manually do this as SIO doesn't do that with the default install. Calling your BBS from SGMail (Remote/Local) ------------------------------------------- NOTE: For the DOS version use *.BAT and for the OS/2 version, use *.CMD. You can call your BBS from a batch file called BBS.BAT/BBS.CMD in the \SGMAIL main directory. Here's mine (to call Telegard): @echo off d: cd\tgtg2 -n%1 -b%3 -q -x%5 d: cd\sgmail I figured this out by playing with SGMail and noticing the following line in SGMAIL.2 (node 2's log under \SGMAIL\LOGS): Command line: 2 2 57600 57600 1440 (The last entry being the next event time in minutes) If you want to call the BBS up locally (through F1->Utilities->Local Logon or ALT-L), you'll need to create LOCAL.BAT/LOCAL.CMD in \SGMAIL calling your board locally. I don't know why SGMail duplicates the ports and speed (I think one of the speeds is DCE and the other is DTE). The last number is the number of minutes until the next event. So you can set up a basic setup for SGMail this way. SGMail works great for dialup and telnet both. Tossing incoming mail --------------------- In order to toss incoming mail, you'll need to create a batch file called MAILIN.BAT/MAILIN.CMD. Here's a shortened version of my MAILIN.CMD: @echo off d: cd\squish sq386 in sq386p out squash cd\sgmail Running a local node of your BBS -------------------------------- To call up a local node of your BBS, you'll need to create a batch file called LOCAL.BAT/LOCAL.CMD. In it, just call your BBS as you would normally from a command prompt for a local node. For my BBS, I use this as my LOCAL.CMD: @echo off d: cd\tg tg2 -n1 -l (that's a letter L, not a number 1) cd\sgmail Editing SGMail's Netmail Editor Signature ----------------------------------------- SGMail uses a file to create your signature in its netmail editor (which I love the editor). The file can be found in \SGMAIL\SGMAIL and is called SIG.TXT. All of the other text files SGMail uses can be found in this directory (but you can edit them inside SGMail, unlike SIG.TXT). It looks like that you can use %1 as the name of the sender of the message and %3 is the date. I'm thinking that %2 is your name... The Line Monitor ---------------- SGMail includes LM.EXE, which is a simple line monitor. It will tell you who's on with up to three instances of SGMail running concurrently. Just type LM from a command (DOS or OS/2) prompt. SGMail Mail Routing ------------------- When you're setting up SGMail's mail routing tree, use this pattern: :*/*.* (i.e. 1:*/*.*) to do the routing correctly, even if you're not doing points. Something in my memory is telling me that Brent told me to do this way back when. I'd do it just to be safe and make sure it all works. SGMail and Nodelist/Nodediffs ----------------------------- SGMail uses its own proprietary nodelist/nodediff compiler. All you have to do is set up each nodelist/nodediff in SGMail's configuration and then just toss the nodelist/nodediff archive into \SGMAIL\SGMAIL\NODELIST. It should auto-compile on the next message scan, but if not, hit F1 from the main screen, go over to "Nodelist" and select "Nodelist Compile" or "Nodediff Compile".