Re: This ifmail stuff

Magic Man (magicman@rarebird.net)
Thu, 29 May 1997 21:31:43 -0700

Larry wrote:

> I have been using Fidonet for years
> and am wondering if ifmail acts
> like a mail frontend such as
> frontdoor?

No, the getty software for the modem deals with that. I use mgetty,
since it is smart enough to detect FIDO calls and will use the modem's
FAX/voice detection for all sorts of incoming calls.

> Does it get the fidonet
> packages in and convert the packets
> to a type of mail that can be read
> by a internet type news reader?

There are several programs included with the package. Yes, there is one
that will toss FIDO-type echomail into newsgroups, as well as FIDO-type
netmail into internet email. I'm not using that part of the package, as
I'm playing around with DayDream BBS and it has a tosser that will toss
the FIDO-type echomail into its own message areas, so I have no need for
a news spool here.

> Do I have to setup C-news or I-news
> to use it?

No, as I just explained... :-)

> Do I have to have a UUCP account or
> can I feed the fidonet packets into
> a spooler and read them with an NNTP
> Spool reader such as SLRN?

Last year, I was playing around with it and had the echomail going into
a local news spool without any problems. No need for UUCP, really.

> How do I connect to my hub to get the
> fidonet packets? Is that a part of the
> ifmail package?

Yup...you can use ifcico for outgoing FIDOnet type calls.

> And why does it do this every time I
> try to build it?

You know, I had that same problem here with the 2.0.29 kernel. It came
down to the -DHAS_NDBM_H option for the compiler. In the main
directory, edit CONFIG in the section that lists all the options (the
uncommented section for Linux is what I used). The last option before
the \ on the first line should read -DHAS_NDBM_H. I removed that
particular option and everything then compiled just fine. That was last
night and today I haven't had a chance to work on the BBS stuff, so I
don't know how well the programs will RUN... <grin> ...but they all
compiled okay. :-)

.\\agic .\\an