Echomail nodes are the the external systems your Mystic BBS communicates with in order to send and/or receive echomail, netmail and other files.

This section of the Mystic BBS Configuration System allows you to add/remove Echomail nodes and configure how they are set up.

From the opening screen you can see EchoMail Node that have already been created.

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ EchoMail Nodes ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
 ID   Act  Description               SysOp                           Network
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 1    Yes  fsxNet HUB (NET 1)        Paul Hayton                    21:1/100
 2    Yes  Agency HUB (FidoNet)      Paul Hayton                     3:770/1









 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                          Press / for command list

The / key reveals a command list menu.

                             I Insert
                             C Copy
                             D Delete
                             E EchoMail Exports
                             F FileBone Exports
                             R Reset Stats
                             1 Send AreaFix
                             2 Send FileFix
                             3 Netmail SysOp
                            

This menu allows you to add or remove EchoMail Nodes from the system.

You can copy an existing EchoMail Node and paste (or move) the copied nodes to elsewhere on the list.

The 'Echomail Exports' option allows you to define which Echomail message bases you want to link to the EchoMail Node.

The 'Filebone Exports' option allows you to define which file bases you want to link to the EchoMail Node.

The 'Reset Stats' option lets you reset the Echomail Node stats that Mystic tracks when traffic is sent to / received from the node.

The next three options allow you to quickly and easily contact an EchoMail node to communicate with the SysOp or to add/remove message and file bases or anything else the Area/Filefix commands allow without having to fumble around with addresses and passwords!

• 'Send Areafix' option sends a Areafix request via Netmail to the selected EchoMail node.
• 'Send Filefix' option sends a Filefix request via Netmail to the selected EchoMail node.
• 'Netmail SysOp' option sends Netmail to the Sysop of the selected EchoMail node.

If you want these options to work correctly for you it pays to set up the next section with the correct information and ensure you complete all the fields you need to.

Pressing the Enter key on an existing EchoMail Node (or a new EchoMail node) reveals the following screen. In this example an EchoMail Node has been set up for the fsxNet HUB (21:1/100) to send/receive EchoMail and Netmail to/from.

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Node ID 1 (21:1/100@fsxnet) ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
 Active         │ Yes                                       1:GENERAL
 Description    │ fsxNet HUB (NET 1)                        2:Security
 SysOp Name     │ Paul Hayton                               3:Groups
 Address        │ 21:1/100                                  4:BinkP
 Domain         │ fsxnet                                    5:FTP
 Session Type   │ BinkP                                     6:Dir Toss
 Archive Type   │ ZIP
 Export Type    │ Crash
 Route Info     │ 21:*
 Uplink         │ No
 Max PKT Size   │ 512
 Max ARC Size   │ 2048
 Use Filebox    │ No
 Filebox Dir    │
 Crash Limiter  │ 0
                │                                          Page 1 of 6

There are a number options you can set on page 1.

A simple yes/now setting - unless you set this to 'Yes' it will be ignored by Mystic, MIS POLL and MUTIL when various processes are run.

Define the name of the system you are connecting with.

Define the name of the system operator running this system. You can set an alias s/he uses or their real name.

Set the Network Zone, Net, Node and Point (not often used) of this EchoMail Node. e.g. 21:1/100

Set the Domain Name of Network. It's best to keep it lowercase and check you spell it correctly. e.g. fsxnet

There are three options to choose from:

• Binkp - Fidpoll will send/receive bundles with this EchoMail Node using the BinkP protocol.
• FTP - MIS POLL will send/receive bundles with this EchoMail Node using the FTP protocol.
• Directory - MIS POLL will send bundles to/from locally configured inbound and outbound directories instead of using BINKP or FTP.

Depending on the option you choose here, pages 4, 5, or 6 of the configuration settings will need to be configured also.

Leave this blank if you wish to send raw uncompressed message packets (.PKT) files. Otherwise define the compression archive type you would like Mystic to use when creating bundles of message packets in your outbound directory. The common archive type to use is ZIP but you can define others here if you wish.

There are several options you can set here. These determine how Mystic will treat the messages it is creating to send to this EchoMail Node. Should it send them as soon as it can, wait for the EchoMail Node to poll your system to collect Echomail and/or Netmail etc.

The options are:

• Crash - High priority. Send messages to echonode ASAP next outbound / inbound connection occurs
• Direct - Messages can only be sent direct to this echonode and not routed elsewhere
• Hold - Hold all messages for echonode to collect when they next poll your Mystic BBS
• Normal - Regular priority traffic

Routing info is defined in the format of addresses separated by spaces and uses an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. In addition to an address, a “NOT” can be applied to each address by appending a ! and another address mask to it which will then be excluded.

For example if you have are a FidoNet node in zone 1 and you want to route all netmail posted to zones 1 through 5 to a specific downlink, you'd configure the following Routing Info for that echomail node:

Routing Info | 1:* 2:* 3:* 4:* 5:*

For most cases that will do. For networks that only have one zone you'd simply route just that zone. e.g. fsxNet Zone 21 would just have

Routing Info | 21:*

and you are done. But…

If for example, you had two FidoNet uplinks one at (1:123/1) and you wanted to route all Netmail to your first uplink EXCEPT for Netmail specifically addressed to your second uplink's NET you'd do this for your primary uplink:

Routing Info | 1:*!1:123/* 2:* 3:* 4:* 5:*

This will cause ALL zone 1-5 netmail to be routed to that uplink EXCEPT for netmail with a destination to 1:123/*. And then you'd configure your second uplink to route ONLY net 123:

Routing Info | 1:123/*

As usual with routing it can be confusing when you have very specific routing needs but if you have only single uplinks then it can be pretty straight forward.

Netmail messages do not export from MUTIL if their destination address is one of your configured AKA addresses.

NetMail message bases do not need to be linked to any Echomail nodes in order for Mystic to attempt exporting.

Netmail will first always try to route using the Route strings defined for each node.

If no route is found from the Route string then Mystic will now attempt to automatically route Netmail based on some basic address logic:

• First it will look for a direct address match in Echomail Nodes and if one is found it will route directly to the node.

• If there is no direct match then Mystic will perform some logic to select the best node that it can find. If your system gets a Netmail for 1:123/123.1 and there is no direct match, Mystic will look for a 1:123/123 node. If there isn't one, then it will look for a 1:123 node with priority given to the 1:123/1 if exists.

• If a node is still not found then Mystic will look for a zone match, and finally if no zone match is found then the Netmail will fail to route.

To further expand on the automatic Netmail routing logic, Mystic will now perform a FidoNet fuzzy zone match when auto routing Netmail. If a zone is between 1 and 6 they will find a match to a hub which is also part of a zone 1 through 6 if no other (better) routing match could be found.

To reiterate: For almost everyone, there is never a need touch the Route field in your Echomail node editor. If you ever want to test where a Netmail will route you can type “mis poll route <address>” and it will tell you where Mystic will route a message to that address based on your current configuration.

This system allows for Netmail to work automatically without any knowledge of routing being required for most people while still allowing full control for power users.

This flag can either be set to Yes or No for each Echomail Node. It works in tandem with MIS POLL UPLINK and is similar to the MIS POLL FORCED command, but instead will only force a poll of Echomail Nodes with the Uplink flag set to Yes.

Define the maximum file size (KB) of each packet Mystic creates. Set this to 0 is you do not want to set any limit.

Define the maximum bundle/arcmail file size being created for this EchoMail Node. Set this to 0 if you do not want to set any limit.

A Filebox is a directory you can place any file in to that will be sent to your EchoMail Node when you next poll it using MIS POLL or it polls your Mystic BBS.

There are three options for this setting

• No - Don't enable this feature
• Yes- Send files to EchoMail Node if you MIS POLL it or if it polls your Mystic BBS
• Hold - Only send files to the EchoMail Node if it polls your Mystic BBS

Note: When you first select Yes as an option Mystic will prompt you if you wish to generate a default filebox. Do not do this until after entering your Zone, Net, Node, Point and Domain details first.

If you say YES to this question Mystic pops up with a dialogue box similar to this:

              █▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Info ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄
              █                                                    █
              █ Create: c:\mystic\filebox\fsxnet_z21n1n100\?       █
              █                                                    █
              █                      YES  NO                       █
              ▀▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█
        

You can override this suggestion by answering NO and filling out our preferred file path in the next input field below. Or answer YES to have Mystic auto create the directory for you.

Be sure to check the Filebox status is set to what you want it to be once doing this.

Defines the drive and directory pathway that is associated with the Filebox to be used with this EchoMail Node. If the directory does not exist then Mystic will offer to create it.

This feature is still being developed. The idea is that when MIS POLL sends files via BINKP it will skip queueing any files for sending larger than this value. It forces EchoMail nodes to poll and collect these files vs a HUB system spending time transferring large files to them. The value is defined in kilobytes.

At present there is no logic built in to this feature. That means if you set say a value of 1000 Mystic will send .TIC files that accompany a hatched file to an EchoMail node but if the actual hatched file is larger than 1000kb it will not send at the same time. This can cause issues for the receiving EchoMail node.

Keep an eye on this section of the Wiki and we'll update it as the feature evolves

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Node ID 1 (21:1/100@fsxnet) ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
 PKT Password   │                                           1:General
 FIX Password   │ *****                                     2:SECURITY
 TIC Password   │ *****                                     3:Groups
 Encryption Key │ *****                                     4:BinkP
 Security Level │ 0                                         5:FTP
 Access Flags   │ --------------------------                6:Dir Toss
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │                                          Page 2 of 6

This is an optional password you can set so that messages sent to/from this EchoMail Node contain an additional layer of security when transferring them between your Mystic system and this EchoMail Node.

If set, MUTIL will not toss (import) messages in to your Mystic BBS that do not have a matching password contained in the message packets it has received from this system. Likewise any messages you send to this EchoMail Node will also be sent with this password added to every message packet.

Set if you need to, but otherwise leave blank. It's usually enough to just set a session password in your 'Session Options' section of the EchoMail Node configuration.

This is the password you would set if the EchoMail Node system you are setting up, was to send your Mystic BBS a Allfix or Filefix netmail. Mystic would check the password sent in the netmail addressed to it from this system matched the password set here before acting on the inbound netmail request.

This is the password that your Mystic BBS will use to check against .TIC files that are sent to it from this EchoMail Node.

.TIC files usually accompany files sent to your Mystic BBS by another system. They contain instructions for your Mystic BBS to import the file accompanying the .TIC in to your file areas.

Without this password set your Mystic BBS will ignore the files it receives and/or move them in to the BAD directory defined in the [FileToss] stanza of your MUTIL .ini file

Echomail nodes now have an “Encryption Key” option. When this option is set to a non-blank value, Mystic will encrypt all of the contents of Netmail messages to this node with an AES-256 encryption. This completes a fully encrypted echomail solution as both transport and private messages are secured.

This is done in a way that is completely transparent to unsupporting systems, meaning that you can still route netmail through systems and they will not harm the encrypted netmails! The encryption also hides the message subject, so when combined with Area/Filefix passwords will no longer be readable. You must have Cryptlib installed for this to work.

The other echomail node must of course have the same key configured for your node in order to decrypt the netmail when it arrives. This works the same way as any other password setting in echomail nodes.

When routing Netmail, Mystic will intelligently re-encrypt the message between routing points when possible. In other words if you have a point system who sends from 555:1/2.1 to 555:1/1 but is routed through 555:1/2, Mystic at 555:1/2 will know that it has an encryption agreement between both 555:1/2.1 and 555:1/1 so it will decrypt the message from 555:1/2.1 and then re-encrypt it for 555:1/1 before routing it.

You can set ACS rules for this EchoMail node. Refer to discussion info in the Echomail Node Security section below.

You can set access flags for this EchoMail Node. Refer to discussion info in the Echomail Node Security section below.

Echomail node security is here! The easiest way to think about how this system works is to relate an Echomail node to the way security works for a user in your BBS. Each node will have a security level, access flags, and can be a member of many Echomail groups (up to 65000 echomail groups can be defined).

Different functions throughout the echomail system will eventually have “Echo ACS” strings which work just like the user ACS strings that we're familiar with. For example, you might have “Hatch File EACS” in a file base where you could say that you wanted only echomail nodes within a particular group to be able to hatch files, or a particular security level or access flag(s), or even by static echomail node ID. For example:

   Hatch File EACS: g2|s255|fH|u10

The above would say that any echomail node that is a member of Echomail group 2, OR any node that has a security level of 255 OR any Echomail node that has flag H can hatch files to that file base. The Echomail node with the ID of #10 can also hatch.

The following commands are available within EACS:

    s<level>  : Echomail node must have a Security Level greater than or
                equal to <level>
    g<number> : Echomail node must be a member of Echomail group ID equal
                to <number>
    f<flag>   : Echomail node must have flag <flag> which is a letter
                between A to Z.
    u<number> : Echomail node must have a unique ID of <number>.  This
                allows security to be applied to specific nodes (ID is
                shown in echomail node editor).

Just like user ACS, Echomail ACS can also use parenthesis and boolean evaulation.

Echomail ACS has been activated for message base subscribing/reading. A new field in each Message base configuration called “List EACS” defines the ACS requires for an echommail node to be able to see, subscribe, or unsubscribe to the area via AreaFix.

Hubs can still manually link a base to a node regardless of security, so for example if you wanted to force nodes to always carry a specific echo area, you would give them the base and then set the “List EACS” to an access they do not have (or even use % which is “never” in ACS terms). With this setup in place, the node cannot add or remove the area, they can only perform rescans.

This is a very powerful system for managing an Echomail network, and EACS strings will be added to various functions in the future as seen fit.

 Echo Group 01  │ fsxNet                                    1:General
 Echo Group 02  │ None                                      2:Security
 Echo Group 03  │ None                                      3:GROUPS
 Echo Group 04  │ None                                      4:BinkP
 Echo Group 05  │ None                                      5:FTP
 Echo Group 06  │ None                                      6:Dir Toss
 Echo Group 07  │ None
 Echo Group 08  │ None
 Echo Group 09  │ None
 Echo Group 10  │ None
 Echo Group 11  │ None
 Echo Group 12  │ None
 Echo Group 13  │ None
 Echo Group 14  │ None
 Echo Group 15  │ None                                     Page 3 of 6

Define which EchoMail groups this EchoMail node is a member of.

 BINKP Hostname │ net1.fsxnet.nz                            1:General
 IP Type        │ IPV4                                      2:Security
 Server Type    │ Normal                                    3:Groups
 Password       │ ********                                  4:BINKP
 Time Out       │ 30                                        5:FTP
 Block Size     │ 16384                                     6:Dir Toss
 CRAM-MD5       │ Yes
 Hide AKAs      │ Yes
 Escape Mode    │ Auto
 Upload Limit   │ 0
 Download Limit │ 0
                │
                │
                │
                │                                          Page 4 of 6
   

A Binkp section has the following options you should look at and in most cases set up:

Set the DNS hostname (and port if required) for the EchoMail Node you will poll using MIS POLL.

Do you wish to use IPV4 or IPV6 when using MIS POLL to connect to this system? Or do you wish to set a preferred connection type and then a fallback type? e.g. IPV6 + IPV4 or IPV4 + IPV6

There are four possible options for this setting:

• Normal : Do not use SSL at all
• Direct SSL : Connect with a direct SSL connection
• StartTLS (If Available) : Use TLS when available
• StartTLS (Required) : Always require SSL connection to remote

The StartTLS Required option will refuse to authenticate with any server that does not offer the opportunistic TLS upgrading. These features require that CryptLib is present and detected by Mystic.

Set the session password your Mystic BBS will send to this EchoMail Node when you poll it using MIS POLL or it connects to your Mystic BinkP server and attempts to send your system Echomail, Netmail and/or other files.

This password is case sensitive. Be warned some non-Mystic systems have issues with this. Best advice keep everything UPPERCASE and limited to no more than 8 characters to avoid hassles.

Inactivity timeout time in seconds before a BinkP session is halted. Leave as default unless you know what you are doing.

Data blocksize in bytes. Leave as default unless you know what you are doing.

Use MD5 hashing when connecting as a client? This hides session passwords so they are not sent in plain text. It's a good idea to use this.

Hide alternative network addresses during a BinkP handshake. When your system polls this EchoMail Node will it only show the network address you have set up for the same Zone this EchoMail Node has in common with or it will show all your defined EchoMail addresses?

Mystic's BINKP server now has a default “Escape mode” option which will apply to any unknown connections that do not have a configuration in the Echomail nodes. Echomail nodes have their own individual setting for this in the node editor.

This setting determines how Mystic will escape special characters in filenames and defaults to the Auto setting.

When set to Auto, Mystic will automatically try to determine the escape mode by using the VERSION frame sent by the mailer. If no version frame is found, Mystic will use FTS standard modern \x## escape mode.

When set to Legacy, Mystic will use the \## format of file escaping which is used in some legacy mailers such as Argus, Internet Rex, and older versions of Mystic.

When set to Modern, Mystic will use the \x## format which is preferred or even required by some newer mailers such as BinkD, Radius, and BinkIT.

It is highly recommended to always keep these set to AUTO unless there is a very specific reason not to. The escape mode will be logged after authentication if the loglevel is set to Verbose or higher.

Set the upload speed limit: (Used when you send files to this node)

BINKP has the ability to limit the bandwidth used when sending or receiving files. Setting any of these values to 0 disables the limit and causes them to operate at full speed. Any non-zero value sets the maximum rate in Kilobytes (KB) to use for the connection. This setting overrides MIS POLL/BINKP settings if enabled.

Set the download speed limit: (Used when you receive files from this node). This setting overrides MIS POLL/BINKP settings if enabled.

 FTP Hostname   │                                           1:General
 Login          │                                           2:Security
 Password       │                                           3:Groups
 Passive        │ Yes                                       4:BinkP
 Out Directory  │                                           5:FTP
 In Directory   │                                           6:Dir Toss
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │                                          Page 5 of 6
 

A FTP session has the following options you should set:

Set the DNS hostname (and port if required) for the EchoMail Node you will poll using Fidopoll.

Set the username to pass to the FTP server when connecting to it.

Set the password to pass to the FTP server when connecting to it

Is this to be an active or passive FTP session?

Set the directory you wish Mystic to send message packets / files from.

Set the directory you wish Mystic to look for incoming message packets / files it receives.

 Outbound Dir   │                                           1:General
 Inbound Dir    │                                           2:Security
                │                                           3:Groups
                │                                           4:BinkP
                │                                           5:FTP
                │                                           6:DIR TOSS
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │
                │                                          Page 6 of 6

A Directory session has the following options you should set:

Set the directory you wish Mystic to place message packets / files in to that will be in turn processed by another system that is receiving them.

Set the directory you wish Mystic to look for inbound message packets / files from another system that has sent them to your BBS.