DOVE-Net for Mystic Sysops

Instructions for joining the DOVE-Net message network from a Mystic BBS using QWK packet technology. Corrections and clarifications are welcome.

These instructions were originally provided by Mystic sysop, Ratz:

From: Ratz (21:2/114)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2020 07:38 am UTC-4:00 (2.3 years ago)

In order to set up a QWK network within Mystic is not very difficult, and it does work. Trust me.

This information is using the most current version of Mystic BBS at the time of this writing,
which is 1.12 A 31.

Keep in mind, Mystic 1.12 A 31 does have a known issue which affects QWK networking.
If multiple messages are entered at the same time, Mystic will give them the same MSGID.
This can be a problem when Mystic is gathering messages to put into a REP packet to send
to your uplink or hub. When these messages get to your hub, if they have the same MSGID,
could be considered duplicate messages, and not get imported.

My work-around for this, is to have Mystic export the messages as soon as they are saved.
Mystic will then pick up on the semaphore file and send them out soon after. As I am pretty
much the only one on my board who is active in the message bases, I can keep an eye on the
status of the outgoing progress of one message, before I enter another.

• Connect to Vertrauen via Telnet
• Login as New to create a new QWK networking account

Enter User Name or Number or 'New' or 'Guest'
Login: New
Starting new user registration ...
[√] HIT your BACKSPACE or DELETE-LEFT key: Character 8 (08h) received.
[√] Does your terminal support mouse reporting? No
[√] Does your terminal support IBM extended ASCII (CP437)? Yes
[√] Enter your full name or alias:                               

• Enter your system's QWK BBS ID as the new user ID (name / alias)
• Answer Yes to both of the following prompts:

[√] Is this account to be used for QWK Networking ("DOVE-Net")? [No] Yes
[√] ARE YOU POSITIVE (If you're unsure, press 'N')? [No] Yes

┌───────────────────────────┐
│  QWK Offline Reader Menu  │
└─                          ┘
  C Change Packet Configuration
  S Select Message Areas to Scan
  P Modify New-message Pointers
  U Upload REP reply packet
  D Download QWK message packet

QWK:

• Once you completed the new user registration process and are logged-into a QWK: prompt, select the DOVE-Net Conferences (message areas) you want to include in QWK packets
• Optionally set/change your New-message scan pointers (e.g. to include ancient/all DOVE-Net messages in your initial QWK packets)

1. Open Mystic with “mystic -cfg” (or ./mystic -cfg in Linux).
2. Under Configuration, select “QWK Networking”
3. If nothing is listed in this menu, select “/” on your keyboard, and chose “Insert”
4. Hit enter on the newly created network connection and the per the following table:

Hit ESC twice to get back to the main menu, and move over and select “Editors”.

1. Move down to “Message Group Editor” and hit “Enter”
2. Hit the “/” key on your keyboard and insert a new group. If your board doesn't use message groups, you can skip to step 20
3. Hit “Enter” on the “Name” field, and type in DOVE-Net and hit “Enter”. Make a note of the ID number of the group, as you will need this information later.
4. The other fields are optional, so you can now hit ESC twice
5. Move up to the “Message Base Editor” and hit “Enter”
6. Move down to where you would like to insert the new message bases, or you can hit the “End” key to move to the bottom.
7. Hit the “/” key and insert a new message bases
8. Hit “Enter” on the new message base you created.
9. Hit “Enter” on the “Name” field, and type in the full description of the message base. I would suggest starting with something to indicate the network in this field as well. For example, instead of just “General”, I would put in “Dove General”. This makes it easier to tell what message base, from what network you're in while reading messages. Once finished typing, hit “Enter”
10. Move down to “QWK Name” and enter the QWK ID, which is provided in the network information. For example, “DOVE-Net” is the ID for the General message base within Dovenet. Hit “Enter” when finished
11. Move down to “File Name” and type in a unique file name for this message base. I like to use the QWK ID for this field, as it will typically be unique. Hit “Enter” when finished.
12. Move down to the “QWK Network” field and hit “Enter”. This will bring up a list of the QWK networks currently set up within Mystic. Scroll down to the current network, and hit “Enter”
13. Move down one, to the “QWK Base ID” field. This is where you type in the conference ID number supplied by the network information. In our example of “Dove General”, it is “2001”. Hit “Enter” when finished
14. Hit ESC, and repeat steps 21 - 28, until you have all of the message bases created and filled in.
15. Move up to the first base you created. Press the “TAB” key on your keyboard, and select all of the bases you just created.
16. Press the “/” key and this time chose “Global”
17. On the screen that comes up, move down to “List ACS”. This field defines the users access needed to see this message base. Change the “No” in front of it, to “Yes”. Then move over to the right, and hit “Enter”. Enter the access you would like, and hit “Enter” to save. I have mine set to “s10g13”, which is security level 10 and message group 13. The group number is the ID from when you set up the group in step 18 (For more information on this, check out YouTube's “Mystic Guy” videos. He shows in great detail how this works. Thanks Avon)
18. Move down to “Read ACS”, and enter in the access you would like to read the messages in this base. Mine is set for “s10g13”. Make sure you set the “Yes” in front of it
19. Move down to “Post ACS”, and enter in the access you would like for users to post messages in this bases. Mine is “s20g13”. Set the “Yes”
20. Move down to “Sysop ACS”, and enter in the access you have for Sysop access. Mine is “s255g13”. Set the “Yes”
21. Move over to the “Max Msgs” and change that to how many messages you would like in each base. Set the “Yes” if you change the field.
22. Move down to the “Max Msg Age” and change that if needed. Set the “Yes” if you do.
23. Change the rest of the options, as needed. Setting the “Yes” for each one you change.
24. Once all the options are set correctly, hit “CTRL-U” to save the information to all of the bases. Mystic will ask you if you would like to “Update XX settings per base?”. Chose “Yes”
25. Hit ESC, and go back to “Configuration” and chose QWK Networking“.
26. Hit “Enter” on the network you just set up. and change the “Active Poll” to “Yes”
27. ESC out of Mystic, and back to a command prompt
28. Type in “qwkpoll all”, or you can type in “qwkpoll 1”, if this is your first QWK network.
29. If everything was set up properly, Mystic will connect with your hub, and download new messages for your bases.
30. Set up an event to poll your hub at specific intervals. There is an example event in Mystic which can be used as a reference.

Important (Avoiding FidoNet Conflicts)

If your BBS also carries FidoNet echomail, there is one more field you need to pay attention to: the Echo Tag. Mystic has two separate name fields for each message base that can be easy to confuse:

1. QWK Name - Used by QWK networking (DOVE-Net). This is what identifies the conference in QWK/REP packets exchanged with Vertrauen. Leave this set to the conference name provided in the network information (e.g., “SyncData”, “Ads”, “DOVE-Net”).
2. Echo Tag - Used by mutil's ImportEchoMail for FidoNet echomail processing. This is how mutil decides which message base to put an inbound FidoNet message into. It matches the area tag from the FidoNet packet to this field (case-insensitive).

The problem: some DOVE-Net conference names are identical to FidoNet echo area names. For example, FidoNet carries echoes called SYNCDATA, ADS, DEBATE, TECHNICAL, INTERNET, and others. If your Echo Tag for a DOVE-Net base is set to “SyncData” and you also receive a FidoNet echo called SYNCDATA, mutil will import FidoNet messages into your DOVE-Net base. The next time qwkpoll runs, those FidoNet messages get exported to Vertrauen as DOVE-Net traffic. This is considered as unauthorized gating and you might get your node's posting privileges suspended till the issue is resolved.

To prevent this, give all your DOVE-Net message bases an Echo Tag with a unique prefix. For example:

The “DOVE_” prefix ensures that no FidoNet echo will ever match your DOVE-Net bases. QWK networking is not affected, since it uses the QWK Name and QWK Base ID, not the Echo Tag.

If your BBS does not carry FidoNet echomail at all, this is not a concern, but it is still good practice to set distinctive Echo Tags in case you add FidoNet in the future.

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