From: facilitybbs@gmail.com

On Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at 6:27:54 PM UTC-4, g00r00 wrote:

Below is the documentation for setting up NetFoss and LORD under Windows 32-bit in a new installation. I just followed these steps in a Windows XP fresh install and it works just fine.

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ABOUT DOS DOORS AND WINDOWS BBSES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This guide provides an example of how to perform an installation of a DOS

door

game with Mystic BBS for Windows.

Before we begin, there are a few things that need to be understood about

doors

and Windows:

The first thing to understand is that newer 64-bit versions of Windows cannot execute DOS doors (or any DOS software) and therefore, the Windows operating system must be 32-bit in order to run DOS doors. This is a Windows restriction, not a BBS restriction and holds true for all BBS software.

The second thing to understand is that a layer between the DOS door and the modern BBS is required in order to translate input and output from the game to your BBS. This is true for all BBS softwares, including others that may appear to be "transparent"; they are using one too.

In the case of Mystic, it does not currently package itself with a driver to translate DOS serial and fossil I/O but fear not there are many free drivers available to download.

CHOOSING A DRIVER FOR DOS I/O REDIRECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are several drivers available some are better than others, some are still supported, some are not, etc. In this case we are going to use one called NetFoss.

NetFoss is chosen because it is still supported, its is free, and it claims to be the most efficient driver available. Its written entirely in Assembler which makes it lightning fast, and it uses a tiny 16KB footprint while running (according to it's documentation)!

NetFoss can be downloaded from http://pcmicro.com/NetFoss

DIRECTORY STRUCTRURE FOR THIS EXAMPLE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this example, we have Mystic BBS installed to C:\MYSTIC and the doors
will be installed in a subdirectory C:\MYSTIC\DOORS, so that all doors
and related files are all tucked away neatly in their own subdirectory.

We will install NetFoss in C:\MYSTIC\NETFOSS

SOFTWARE REQUIRED/USED FOR THIS TUTORIAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NetFoss v1.16 (I/O driver)
Legend of the Red Dragon v4.07 (DOS door)

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - NETFOSS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First lets set up NETFOSS. This is a relatively quick and painless setup and it only has to be done one time ever. Once this is done, we can run all

doors

without having to change anything.

1. First extract the contents of NETF116.ZIP into its own directory. In our
tutorial we are using C:\MYSTIC\NETFOSS

2. Move NETFOSS.DLL from your C:\MYSTIC\NETFOSS directory to your
C:\windows\system32 directory. This is VERY important!

*IF YOU HEAR A BEEP WHEN YOU TEST YOUR DOOR LATER OR YOU GET A "Can't

find

netfoss.dll" message when you run the door, its because this step was not
done correctly! You may even need to restart your Windows machine
depending on the Windows version.

3. Open NF.BAT. We need to change a few things here because it has some
directories inside that we need to change. Rather than typing line by

line

instructions lets just do this: Basically we need to make NF.BAT look

like

this:

@echo off
c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com %1
if errorlevel 1 goto end
c:\mystic\netfoss\netcom.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /u
:end

In other words, we are adding in the %1 as instructed in the

documentation

and we are changing the paths to reflect where we really have NETFOSS
installed which is c:\mystic\netfoss (not c:\netfoss). DO NOT OMIT THIS
STEP!

4. Once that is saved you are done. You'll never have to touch NetFoss

again

for any other doors, and it can be left alone to do what it does!

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - LORD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lets install the DOS door Legend of the Red Dragon. We start this by

unzipping

LORD407.ZIP into its own directory. The 4.07 version comes annoyingly

"double

zipped" meaning inside of LORD407.ZIP there is another LORD.ZIP.

Unzip the contents of LORD.ZIP into the C:\MYSTIC\DOORS\LORD directory

Now the setup of every door is going to be completely different, because it

is

dependant on the door itself. LORD could be considered one of the

"difficult"

doors to setup. Lets look at the steps to setup LORD as shown from the

INSTALL

text file that comes with the door:

1. Edit C:\MYSTIC\DOORS\LORD\START.BAT and notice at the top it says this:

REM cd \LORD
REM ^ Set this to your LORD path

Now change those REM lines so they look like this:

cd c:\mystic\doors\lord

It should look something like this at the top of the file:

cd c:\mystic\doors\lord
@echo off
<a bunch of other crap here>

Save the file and exit out of your text editor

2. Run LORDCFG. Now it says we need to setup each node that we want to use.
In our case we have a 3 node BBS setup using Mystic, so we'll setup 3

nodes

A. Press (A) to "Create a new LORD.DAT file with defaults"
B. Under "Main" select "Configured Nodes"
C. Answer yes to the "Node 1 doesn't exist" question to config node 1

Now there are many settings here such as things like BBS Name. These

things

should be self-explained so lets only focus on what is required to get

this

thing setup:

A. Set "(3) BBS Software" to DOORSYS. This is telling LORD that our

BBS

will create a DOOR.SYS file containing information about the user.

B. Set "(4) Path to dropfile" to "C:\MYSTIC\TEMP1".

Mystic creates door drop files in a temporary directory used by

each

node for example C:\MYSTIC\TEMP1 would be node 1. C:\MYSTIC\TEMP2
would contain the door drop files for node 2, and so on.

Since we are currently configuring LORD node 1, we want to tell it
where to find the DOOR.SYS for node 1 which is C:\MYSTIC\TEMP1.

C. Set "(5) Fossil / Internal" to Fossil. This is telling the door to
use an old DOS "fossil" driver for I/O which is exactly what

NetFoss

is used for! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Thats it. But since we have 3 nodes, we need to do this same thing for

all

three nodes. Here's how:

A. Press ] to "Go forward a node"
B. When asked to "Create node 2 data" say Yes.

LORD will copy over the settings you've already created for node 1, so

there

is really only one thing that needs to change. You guessed it (I hope)

its

the "Path to the drop file":

C. Set "(4) Path to the dropfile" to "C:\MYSTIC\TEMP2". Remember we
said Mystic creates the DOOR.SYS file for each node in its temp
directory, and since we are configuring Node 2 in LORD we must tell
it what that directory is: C:\MYSTIC\TEMP2

Now repeat the same steps above to create the configuration for Node 3 and
exit out of LORDCFG. We are done configuring LORD for all 3 nodes.

CREATING A MENU COMMAND IN MYSTIC TO EXECUTE LORD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now we put it all together by creating a menu command in Mystic! The first thing to do is load into Mystic's configuration and open the Menu Editor,

then

select whatever menu it is that you want to add the option to run the door.

To do this: run mystic -cfg from the commandline in C:\MYSTIC to start the configuration.

Once inside the menu editor, select the menu you want to add the option to

and

press / to bring up the list of commands. Select I to insert a new command whereever you want it. Then press ENTER on the new command to edit it:

A. Set the display text to whatever you want. Lets use (L) LORD and

we'll

make the L key what executes the door.

B. Set "Hot key" to L

C. Now press TAB to switch to menu commands. This changes the editor

mode

to allow you to configure what Mystic actually does when this letter

is

pressed.

D. By default Mystic creates a "Goto new menu -> main" command so just
press enter on that.

E. Press ENTER on Command and Mystic will bring up a list of menu command
options. You can just start typing "external" and Mystic will
automatically figure out what you want, and move you to the "DD" menu
command. Select "DD Exec external program"

F. The data field when using the DD command defines the command line that
Mystic will execute. Lets set this up to call NETFOSS and tell it we
want it to run LORD. This is the command line we need to use:

c:\mystic\netfoss\nf.bat /N%3 /H%0 c:\mystic\doors\lord\start.bat

%3

Now lets discuss what this means. %0 passes the telnet socket handle
which is a requirement by NetFoss, and %3 translates to the node

number

which is required to pass to both NETFOSS and LORD's "start.bat".

All doors in the future will be configured in the following format:

c:\mystic\netfoss\nf.bat /N%3 /H%0 <DOOR COMMAND LINE>

After you have this working, to create a new door configuration you

can

simply copy and paste the LORD menu command, then change the hot key,
description and the <DOOR COMMAND LINE> for whatever the door is your
are configuring. It takes literally only seconds to add a new door!

G. Now that you've set the DATA field to run the correct command line you
can exit out and save the menu.

CONCLUSION, TESTING AND TROUBLESHOOTING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now keep in mind you only ever have to configure NetFoss once and then you it never has to be done again. And also keep in mind that LORD is one of the more annoying doors to configure (IMO).

As mentioned above, the only thing that needs to be done for additional doors is to prefix their command line in the DATA portion of the menu command with the NETFOSS stuff:

c:\mystic\netfoss\nf.bat /N%3 /H%0 <DOOR COMMAND LINE>

Remember to configure all of your doors to use a FOSSIL if they have the

option

to use serial or fossil.

If you get a "Netfoss not found" error, did you remember to add the %1 into

the

NF.BAT as instructed? Make sure it looks just like the example above! Did

you

remember to set your doors to use FOSSIL communications?

yeah setup Lord using these great instructions but damn thing won't run. It shows loading of netfoss but then goes back to the menu. All the commands are correct in the config and batch files. I don't even see it try to load lord when I'm watching on the
server. It's weird.

cheers,

themadtux

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