

                       Lora Bulletin Board System and
                         Electronic Mail Interface

                          Version 2.40 (DOS-OS/2)

                Copyright (c) 1989-1995 by Marco Maccaferri
                            All rights reserved


       Main features
       ---------------------------------------------------------------------

       - Support for up to five different message bases at the same time
         (transparent to the users). Presently Lora supports the standard
         Fido-Base (*.MSG), the QuickBBS message base (also known as Hudson
         message base), GoldBase (a derivative of QuickBBS base), the
         PIP-Base and the Squish format made by Scott J. Dudley.

       - Supporting an unlimited number of message/file areas.

       - Hyper-Scan function for fast user and message/file areas search.

       - Compatible built-in Front-End Fidonet Mailer, FTSC-0001, WaZOO and
         full EMSI capable.

       - Supporting three and four dimension points at the same time.

       - Supporting Aka's and ZoneGates.

       - Supporting Janus bidirectional protocol for mail transfer.

       - Supporting multitaskers, leaving unused time to the active task,
         and local networks.

       - Support for multiple tasks from one directory and one
         configuration file only.

       - Integrated multiline chat.

       - Support for up to twenty different languages, for a full
         international system.

       - Memory swap in EMS, XMS or disk during the execution of external
         doors (leaving in memory only 1.6K for the recovery code).

       - Supporting AVATAR/0+ protocol in alternative to ANSI-BBS

       - User security features 12 access levels and 32 configurable flags.

       - Support for RemoteAccess 1.11, Maximus CBCS 2.00 and SuperBBS 1.16
         compatible Embedded Commands.

       - Built-in TimeBank, FileBank, BBS List and UserVote doors.

       - Support for off-line mail readers compatible with the QWK packet
         format, as well as human readable ASCII format.

       - Remote clock synchronization in WaZOO and EMSI sessions.

       - Automatic clock synchronization with an Atomic Clock, compatible
         with the Galileo Ferraris Institute of Torino, Italy.

       - User limits (such as on-line time, download limits, etc.)
         overrides in a single user basis.

       - Exclusive ZModem auto-upload feature, your users can upload files
         at any menu prompt.

       - Support for 16800, 19200, 21600 (V32terbo), 28800 (V.fast)
         connection speeds and fax modems.

       - Supporting ISDN connection speeds (32000, 48000 and 64000 baud).

       - Integrated ANSI/VT100 and Avatar terminal emulation, awareness of
         downloading and uploading files using all the protocols, including
         Puma and HS/Link.

       - IEMSI (Interactive EMSI) for user's automatic login and parameter
         settings.

       If you register Lora you will have the following additional features:

       - Keyboard lock by password. The local use of the keyboard will be
         possible, but all functions like Alt-x, Dos Shell, etc. will be
         disabled.

       - Possibility of disabling the internal front-end mailer to use Lora
         with other programs (FrontDoor, D'Bridge, BinkleyTerm, etc.).

       - Multitasking allowed. Without registration it's  possible to use
         only task 1.

       - Possibility of using the internal Areafix function for the
         automatic management of echomail links.

       - Possibility of including key sequences in the internal keyboard
         buffer during the execution of BBS commands.

       - Possibility of using file-semaphores for certain operations in
         multitasking environments.


       Installation
       =====================================================================
       To install Lora you need a PC/XT/AT computer with at least 512K of
       free RAM, DOS 3.30 or later versions, at least one free serial port
       and 3 Mbytes of Hard disk space.

       The OS/2 release needs OS/2 2.x or later installed, one free serial
       port and at least 3 Mbytes of Hard disk space.

       Here is the procedure to install Lora in your system:

       1. Create a directory called \LORA and uncompress inside it the
          original archives, LORA240D.ZIP (LORA240S.ZIP for OS/2).

       2. Run LORA240D.EXE (LORA240S.EXE for OS/2).

       The program will create all the necessary directories and copy all
       executable, overlays and files to the appropriate locations.

       If you have installed Lora in \LORA, you can begin using it with the
       sample message and file areas configuration; if not, you have to
       change all the references for \LORA using the configuration program
       LSETUP.

       Lora (DOS version) needs a FOSSIL driver for serial communications
       in order to work. If you do not have one, you need to locate a
       FOSSIL driver on the nearest BBS top you (on node 2:332/402 you can
       find the newest versions of the available FOSSIL drivers). versions
       of available FOSSIL drivers).

       Lora has been successfully tested with the BNU 1.70 FOSSIL driver
       Dr.Comm 0.4 and X00, but it can work also with different kind of
       drivers.

       With the operating system OS/2, Lora has been tested with Ray
       Gwinn's SIO drivers (version 1.11) using the VX00.SYS driver in the
       DOS window.

       The OS/2 release doesn't need a FOSSIL driver. It has been tested
       with the standard serial port drivers and with Ray Gwinn's SIO
       drivers (version 1.11).


       Upgrade
       =====================================================================
       Here is the right procedure to upgrade Lora in your system:

           WARNING: Make sure you back up your current \LORA directory and
           corresponding directories.  Specifically, the language files are
           replaced by the LORA240 archive:

                \LORA\LANG\*.LNG   and   \LORA\LANG\*.TXT

           If you have edited the *.TXT language files, you will need to
           either rename these *.TXT and *.LNG files, then add these files
           back to the original names after the following upgrade, or
           re-edit these files after the upgrade.  Note: If you rename with
           the intent of writing them back, you need to compare the
           original text file with the upgrade because the *.TXT files are
           a fixed length file and must be exact.  If you compare the two
           files (your original and the new upgrade), you will see the
           length and reference to the length inside the text.


       1. Copy then uncompress the original archives, LORA240D.ZIP
          (LORA240S.ZIP for OS/2) in your current \LORA working directory.

       2. Run LORA240D.EXE (LORA240S.EXE for OS/2).

       3. If you are upgrading from a version prior to 2.34, run
          UPDATE.EXE with the name of your configuration file (normally
          CONFIG.DAT) as argument, or without arguments to get help.
          For example: UPDATE config.dat

       The program will upgrade the files that are changed with this
       release. If you are using two or more configuration files (for two
       or more lines), you can specify the name of those configuration
       files on the command line. For example: UPDATE config1.dat
       config2.dat

       The upgrade can be made even from a DOS installation to an OS/2
       installation and vice versa. If you have already installed the DOS
       version, you can upgrade to the OS/2 version by simply get the OS/2
       package and follow the upgrade procedure.

       If you are upgrading a Lora version older than 2.30, part of the
       configuration must be made again. Use LSETUP to insert the
       configurations you put in the LORA.CFG file.

       Regardless, to update the binary files, the LSETUP program must be
       run following the new format.

       From Version 2.30 you don't need to keep the LORA.CFG, SYSTEM.CFG,
       SCHED.CFG and NODES.CFG files, as well as LORACOMP.EXE.

       Each configuration can be done using the LSETUP program.


