ZipLab Plus - RemoteAccess Interface


ZipLab Plus is a great way to scan uploads for virus, bad-crc errors,
outdated files, and to remove unwanted BBS ad files and comments.
Unfortanuatly it was only written to work with PCBoard and Prodoor.

I prefer the QuickBBS style of board, such as RemoteAccess and SuperBBS.
Instant hotkeys, Sysop defined menus and commands mean alot to me .
Chances are that if you run one of these boards you also run a door to
handle your file transfers, such as FileDoor or EFT. Others include
TDoor, ACFiles, and RAFM. Most of these File Doors allow you to exit
to a batch file to test the uploads before credit is given.
ZipLab Plus can be run from such a door, and I will now show you how!

The author of ZipLab Plus now also has a generic version which will not
try to find any BBS files, but unfortnutaly he does not update this version
very often, nor does it support a users name, or non-standard com ports.
It's much better to use the latest PCBoard version with a door converter.

I will assume you are already running a BBS using RemoteAccess, QuickBBS,
SuperBBS, ProBoard, or a simular clone, along with a file transfer door
such as Enhanced File Transfer (EFT), FileDoor (XFD) or something simular.

You will also need a door converter program that can read the DORINFO1.DEF
and create the PCBOARD.DAT and PCBOARD.SYS and USER files, which ZipLab
expects to find. I use QKDOOR2G.ZIP (52k) which is very fast yet small.

**** IMPORTANT ****
Starting with version 1.9C of ZipLab Plus, it expects to find a 198 line
long version of PCBOARD.DAT, rather then the standard 152 line long version
which most door converters create. Starting with PCBoard 14.5, their is
extra information at the end of the PCBOARD.DAT, which among other things
defines the com port address and IRQ. ZipLab reads this now in order to be
compatible with non-standard com ports. Line 158 is the IRQ and line 159
is the port address.

After creating a 152 line PCBOARD.DAT file with a door converter, you must
tack on lines 153-198 to the end of it by using the DOS copy command.
Since the addon file will be differnt for each line, depending on the
com port address and irq, you will need 1 addon file for each node.
This is done for you in the bat files included here for EFT and XFD.
There is 3 sample ADDON files included here, which should be copyed to
your \RA\ZIPLAB directory.

ADDON.1 is currently set for COM1, 3F8, IRQ4
ADDON.2 is currently set for COM2, 2F8, IRQ3
ADDON.3 is currently set for COM3, 3E8, IRQ5

You may edit these and make additional copys for more nodes of cource.

You will need to set an enviornment variable as follows:
Set PCBDOOR=PRODOOR
This will tell ZipLab plus that PCBoard is not actually running. If you
are running DesqView you will have to define this in your Autoexec.bat,
so that you don't run out of enviornment space in your DV windows.
If you don't do this ZipLab Plus will immediatly exit with an error code!


heres how my directorys are set:

C:\RA RA main directory
C:\RA\LINE1 Node 1 RA files
C:\RA\LINE2 Node 2 RA files
C:\RA\LINE3 Node 3 RA files
C:\RA\ZIPLAB Ziplab directory
C:\SYSTEM where my pkunzip,arj,lha,giftest files are
C:\HOLD where i have ZIPLAB stick bad/outdated uploads

First unzip Ziplab Plus into the \ra\ziplab directory.
Run the Setup.exe program to create a cfg file for each node.
Name the first nodes cfg file ptest1.cfg, and the second ptest2.cfg
and so on. One of the paths setup will want for each node is the
path\name of PCBOARD.DAT. Make this C:\RA\LINE1\PCBOARD.DAT and so on
for each node, so that each door file will have its own directory.
Copy the ADD files to the ZipLab directory as well.

If you use FileDoor then copy ZLAB-XFD.BAT to the Ziplab directory,
and edit your FILEDOOR.CFG as follows:
Exitafterupload1 C:\COMMAND.COM /c c:\ra\ziplab\zlap-xfd.bat $U

If you use EFT, then copy the ZLAB-EFT.BAT to the ZipLab directory,
and edit your EFT.CFG as follows:
ArchiveExtension ZIP *C /c c:\ra\ziplab\zlab-eft.bat $1
ArchiveExtension ARJ *C /c c:\ra\ziplab\zlab-eft.bat $1
ArchiveExtension LZH *C /c c:\ra\ziplab\zlab-eft.bat $1

If you use one of those other File Transfer doors for RA/QBBS/SBBS,
such as ACFiles, TDoor, etc. then you are on your own, but if you
look at the two examples for FileDoor and EFT you should be able to
figure it out, as long as the Door allows a method to exit after an
upload to validate the files(s).

The FileDoor and EFT batch files are both well documented by me.
They differ somewhat because FileDoor has only 1 exit for
all files uploaded, and EFT exits once for each file uploaded.

I have run ZipLab Plus with the both FileDoor 2.0x and EFT 1.2x, and it
works perfect.
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History of this this document.

6-22-91 Quick and Dirty docs, for the original ZipLab and XFD.
originally named XFD-ZIP.ZIP

8-03-91 Updated for ZipLab Plus, both for XFD and also EFT.
re-named ZPL-RA.ZIP

2-08-91 Updated for ZipLab Plus 1.9C, which now requires a longer PCBOARD.DAT
in order to support non standard com ports. re-named ZLAB-RA.ZIP
Sorry to keep renaming this file, but this should be my final release.
Hopefully Jeffrey Morley, the ZipLab Author, will provide direct
DORINFO1.DEF support in future versions so that this information
will no longer be needed.

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In case you need a file you can file request any of these from me:

RA Latest version of RemoteAccess
EFT Latest Version of EFT
XFD Latest version of FileDoor
ZIPLAB Latest version of ZipLab Plus
QKDOOR Latest version of QuickDoor

You are welcome to use my batch files at no charge of cource.
If you are running a differnt configuration, need help, or wish to add
suggestions, you are welcome to netmail me or drop me a note on:

Mike Ehlert
PACIFIC COAST MICRO BBS
FidoNet 1:102/1001
(805) 494-9386 HST/V.32b (805) 497-3456 HST (805) 496-7320 CSP