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                    Copyright 2007 by Nick J. Andre, Ltd.
                             www.nickandre.com
                                 1:229/426
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Below are the changes, updates and/or features added to this release
of D'Bridge. If you are upgrading D'Bridge, PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND
THIS DOCUMENT ENTIRELY. Failure to read the release notes is the number one
cause of "problems".

Version 2.94 - December 1st 2007
--------------------------------

WARNING: Although careful testing was done to ensure a stable release,
         please back up your D'Bridge directory before installing.

This is a major release of D'Bridge which "rolls up" all of the dozens of
bug fixes and corrections done in 2.93 with several improvements done to
the support for dialup modems and Internet Rex by Charles Cruden.

In case you missed it, 2.93 removed a lot of limitations with the Echomail
processor. D'Bridge can now process up to 32,000 Echomail areas and
error 202 and 203 problems are gone. As fellow Church of Andre member
Ward likes to point out, new features mean new bugs... and 2.93 was no
exception. Roger also pointed out a serious problem with DBUTIL. So, a lot
things happened as a result of removing the limits. Thankfully, most of it
was caught in time during testing, and 2.94 should be a very stable release
to "tide you over" while I now focus on the major feature I want to write.

Yes, the BINKD subsystem is being rewritten from scratch, and I've already
began work on a much more simplier approach for BINKD, Internet EMAIL
and Usenet groups. And Echofile/TIC processing is almost ready for testing.

- Dialup modem performance under Windows 2000, XP and Vista should be
  improved and there should be no more of this "The NTVDM session is
  attempting to access COM1" nonsense when running DB SETUP.

- The serious bug where if there is no dialup modem and D'Bridge tries to
  call a system anyway (thus causing a "freeze") has been fixed. When there
  is no dialup modem, all Queue entries will be marked as HOLD/UNLISTED.

  Please note that the recommended way to run BINKD is in "server" mode -
  ie. D'Bridge in one window and BINKD in another. Do NOT run it
  in "client" mode despite what the help file says - it doesn't work
  correctly.

- D'Bridge has been tested with the BlackBerry 7100 and 8000 series cell
  phones and the later revision Palm TRIO connected to a PC as a USB
  modem for placing outbound Fido calls using cellular technology,
  if such a need arises. The USB modem driver must be configured to
  operate on COM1 or COM2 usually under ADVANCED PROPERTIES.

- D'Bridge and DBUTIL now create a dummy file/semaphore called DBRIDGE.QSD
  (short for "Queue Scan is Done"). When Internet Rex sees this file, it
  will rescan its own Queue - when properly configured. Internet Rex works
  very well with this new improvement - though the use of DBUTIL MOVE
  and Mailbox directories in Rex's NODE MANAGER is still recommended.

  To configure support for the new DBRIDGE.QSD file in Internet Rex:

          - Fire up Rex Configuration (ie. REXWCFG or REXCFG)
          - FILES, PATHS and PROGRAMS.
          - MAILER TYPE should obviously be set to D'Bridge.
          - SEMAPHORE directory should be your D'Bridge directory, ie C:\DB
          - Set the RESCAN SEMAPHORE to DBRIDGE.QSD.
          - Set RESCAN FREQUENCY to "Use Semaphore files"
          - Save and Exit.

  To ensure proper operation of D'Bridge with Internet Rex altogether,
  follow these steps. We'll use my Fido address, 1:229/426 as an example,
  so lets pretend for arguements sake that you exchange mail with me...

  - Configure the new QSD file support mentioned above.
  - Lets say D'Bridge is installed in C:\DB and you've got me all set up.
  - Make a directory called C:\DB\NANDRE
  - Create a DOS event in D'Bridge which runs DBUTIL MOVE 1:229/426 NANDRE
  - Fire up the Internet Rex configuration program, ie REXWCFG.EXE
  - Go to GENERAL INFORMATION and be sure User Level is set to ADVANCED.
  - Then go to the NODE MANAGER screen.
  - Add a system, 1:229/426 with the MAILBOX DIRECTORY set to C:\DB\NANDRE
  - You would then configure all the other info, ie. BINKD, passwords, etc.
  - Thats it!

- The use of DBUTIL MOVE is recommended because Internet Rex does not
  properly read all of the Queue data in D'Bridge. Contrary to popular
  belief, this is a problem with Internet Rex itself - NOT with D'Bridge,
  and anyone who needs this proven simply has to watch the way that NETmail
  and Areafix requests are blatently ignored by the Rex scanner. So
  what you're doing in the above steps is essentially move things out of
  the Queue into another directory and tell Rex to look in there for mail.
  Note that for each system defined in the NODE MANAGER of Internet Rex you
  must have a seperate mailbox directory - don't just move everyone's mail
  into one directory. :)

  Please note that it is not my intention to provide any more workarounds
  or support for Internet Rex as that product has several serious and
  fundimental flaws in it which would require the authors intervention...

- The serious bug with purging obsolete entries in the ECHOMAIL HISTORY
  screen and the DBRIDGE.DL3 file growing out of hand has been fixed.

- A serious bug during the display of Echomail history with weird bizarre
  nonsense on the top of the first record in the list has been fixed.

- Minor bugs with the RESCAN feature of Areafix have been fixed.

- A serious bug in the Delete Empty Passthrus feature during the Auto-
  Update midnight event has been fixed.

- A serious bug in DBUTIL PURGE has been fixed with regards to date-purging
  as per Roger. DBUTIL PURGE now works correctly as it did prior.

- DBUTIL SORT AREAS has been rewritten from scratch and sorts areas much
  faster than before, especially on systems with lots of Echomail areas. It
  is a little more disk-intensive but much better.

  A system with over 10,000 Echomail areas (like mine) now sorts in less
  than a few minutes, instead of over a half hour.

- A serious bug with BBS callers being rejected regardless if the SCHEDULER
  and BBS CONFIGURATION was set to "Yes" has been fixed.

- A new feature, DBUTIL REMOVEDUPEDATABASES has been added, which will
  remove the DBRIDGE.DUP databases from each *.MSG directory. This has been
  added for debugging/testing purposes. Under normal circumstances this
  should NOT be used.

- Dozens of other minor corrections have been done as the mailer is being
  prepared for new features in progress.

Nick Andre
www.nickandre.com

