      
            === RemoteAccess - Shareware and RA/Pro ===
                       === What's New ===
                      == April 17, 2000 ==

This text file describes ALL the changes made in RemoteAccess since
Version 2.50 & 2.52.  Many of the items listed apply to "Registered
Only" or "RA/Pro" features and, hopefully, are identified as such.  
All features and updates also apply to RA/Pro.

Some are bug fixes and some are Suggestions from various Sysops.
 
 - To avoid further confusion, the upgrade program has been renamed
   from 20xTo260.exe to 2xxTo260.  This is because it needs to be 
   run when upgrading from any version between 2.00 and 2.60.
  
 - It looks like I found and most importantly FIXED the "no 
   new Hudson Mail" bug. If it rears its nasty head again,  
   let me know.
  
 - New users selecting date format #4 or #8 and are now able to
   properly enter their date of birth but uses a different date
   prompt than they selected (but only for entering the DOB).

 - Fixed the case of the disappearing "LastDate" for the sysop.
  
 - ** New Feature - Registered only! **
   As has been requested by several sysops, you now have language
   prompts to select the "hot key" for the logoff countdown.  If
   the chosen character is not punctuation, it MUST be uppercase 
   or the feature will NOT work.

                Old/Default
      Prompt#   Chararacter     Function
       674          S           Stop Countdown and stay on-line
       675          !           Logoff Immediately

 - ** NEW FEATURE **  (RA/Pro version only)
   Now you can insert a new entry into the limits file copied
   from an existing area!  To do this, follow the these 
   steps: 
        1) Enter RACONFIG -> MANAGER -> LIMITS
        2) Highlight the selection to copy FROM
        3) Press <ENTER> to bring up the details
        4) Change the SECURITY setting to the NEW value
           you are copying TO
        5) Make the desired changes
        6) Press <ESC>
        7) Exit RACONFIG

   Steps 2 thru 6 may be repeated for as many selections as
   you wish to add.  MAKE SURE you enter the security setting
   for each new entry, otherwise you will create unexpected 
   results.

 - ** NEW FEATURE **  (Registered only)
   Added the ability to specify "y2kdropfile" boolean as true 
   when doing a type-7 exit.  To do this add the parameter "*K" 
   to the optional parameters line to set Y2kDropFile = true. 
   For a Type-15 exit, be sure and put the error-level exiting
   with FIRST in the Optional Parameters line!
   The DEFAULT value is FALSE and is reset to FALSE each time
   when returning to RemoteAccess.

                    ///// CAUTION \\\\\
   If the 3rd party utility is not prepared for the Y2K date
   formats, undesirable and/or unpredictable results may occur.

 - When expecting long uploads and the "Freeze System Timer" 
   ( *! ) has been selected for use with the External Upload 
   protocols:  The time for crediting of the uploads is taken as 
   the difference between the creation time of the EXITINFO1.DEF 
   file and the current time when returning from the External 
   Upload function.

 -    UPDATE LANGUAGE PROMPTS  -  REMINDER! 
   When running RACONFIG after upgrading to version 2.60, you will
   need to edit _ALL_ the language files you have (or add later) 
   to add the DEFAULT prompts for the following: #673 - 677 and
   681 - 684 (added for y2k compliance).
   (Hint: look for blank prompts on the screen where the default
   prompt is NOT blank for most of them and update prompt #60.)

 - Added "maximum value" information to the screen prompt as an
   aid when entering download LIMITS by sysop.

 - Removed extra spaces at end of displayed dates (found
   display of "^FF" too long during the 2.60 beta cycle). So
   now all date formats (there are now 8) will display properly.

 - Made some slight modifications to the upgrade program.  If you 
   have double Y's and N's at the end of some of the prompts in your
   language files, the upgrade utility should make those disappear.  

 - Modified the 2.60 UPGRADE program to allow editing only the 
   subscription dates.  The User Name, Handle, All 3 address lines, 
   comment line and old subscription date are displayed on the screen 
   to allow you immediately identify each user - and use any comment
   you may have left for yourself for their new "subscription date".
   For those who have selected this option in error, or who have 
   completed all corrections, the <esc> key (if pressed) will abort 
   the subscription date editing but continue to update the users' 
   files.

 - Revised the "Search for New files" routine to not only 
   consider the date of the last login but also the time.  When 
   selecting another date for "new files" the search routine will 
   still use the user's LAST TIME LOGGED ON. The time of "00:00" 
   (previously used for file searches), is the default time option 
   for the "new users'" "New Files" search.

 - Since I have been unable to determine where the "last time
   run" field in the EVENTS.BBS file is even used in RA, that
   file structure will NOT be changed by any RA program.
   However, should I finally locate where it IS used, a 25 year
   rolling window will be used until the structure is updated.
   Also, if IS used, the date structure will automatically be
   changed from "MM-DD-YY" to "MMKDDCYY" as previously 
   announced.

 - Fixed Logic in presenting various dates in "user selected"
   date formats.

 - Fixed logic in "String to Unix" date/time routine.

 - Now that an separate variable has been defined for each of
   the former 4 separate date fields, User's First Date, User's
   Last Date, User's Birth Date and User's Subscription Date.
   The internal format is MM-DD-KCYY as is used on ALL internal
   date formats by RemoteAccess.

 - Contrary to other usages of the y2k date, the Event record
   "Last run" date keeps the same field size (as well as record
   size) and uses the format of MMKDDCYY - where MM is 2-digit
   month, K is the digit corresponding to the 1000 year place,
   DD is the 2-digit day and CYY is the last three digits of
   the year.  Example for February 3, 1998: MM = 02, K = 1,
   DD = 03 and CYY = 998 -- in its formatted form 02103998.

 - Had a Network Failure in the BBS/development system that put 
   the y2k program task "on hold" until it was resolved.  It turned
   out to be a defective network card on the primary server.

 - EXITINFO.BBS file structure changed (but not the size) for 
   y2k compatible programs. The original file structure was 
   maintained for programs not yet made y2k compatible. 
   The effected date formats that have not already been 
   addressed are split using the MM-DD-KCYY technique - that
   is, the MM-DD-YY are stored as before (in the same locations 
   and the same format) but the 'KC' data is stored elsewhere 
   in that record in a previously unused area of the file and 
   is documented in the Structures File.

 - Added Flag for Y2K compatibility for menu type 7 and type 15
   exits.  The default value is "false" - this will continue to
   displaying the DOOR.SYS drop file dates in MM-DD-YY.  The
   Option for changing the default is by the use of a commnd 
   option option in the "optional parameters" line is a "Registered
   Only" feature and see above for details.

 - Repositioned information in the Sysop Information Bar at the 
   bottom of the screen for proper display of the Y2k formatted dates.

 - Added the ability to select default areas and groups for new
   Users.  In particular "New Users' Default File area, New Users'
   Default File Group and New Users' Default Message Area.
  
 - Added code to not only check for files since the date of the
   user's last logon, but from the TIME of their last logon as well.

 - Investigated, without success, the possible source of "private"
   Netmail messages being improperly available to other users. It
   looks more of a 3rd party problem than one with RA. However,
   I will keep my eyes open for anything I might have missed.
   It looks like a problem with the "off-line reader" not coding 
   the message correctly as "private."

 - Updated internal handling of all date functions to MM-DD-YYYY.
   Users still have the option of choosing and displaying dates 
   with a two digit year, as in the previous versions.
  
 - The ShareWare version will start at 4 (four) lines plus a 
   "local" line starting with this version - a new key will be 
   required to enable this feature.  If an old key is used, the 
   old default (2 callers + 1 local) will prevail.  The initial
   shareware y2k release will use the old defaults and continue
   to use the old key.

 - Found and fixed the source of the error 100 problem. 
    
 - The new user's last log-in date now defaults to "today"
   and forces them, regardless of the RACONFIG setting, to ask
   them for the date to check for files.  The new default is now
   "today" instead of 1-1-1980.
  
 - Now when you enter chat mode the system will blindly set "snoop"
   mode to "true" regardless as to what the previous status was.
   Then upon exit, "snoop" mode will be returned to the status it
   was before entering.

 - Added feature for REGISTERED systems to display additional
   welcome screens after WELCOME2.  Their names would be
   WELCOME2, WELCOME3, WELCOME4 & WELCOME5 (ASCII OR ANS) and
   would be displayed in that sequence.

 - Modified the code to refresh the User status (menu item 52)
   to "browsing" anytime a menu item #1 (GOTO menu) is executed.
   Which should solve the problem of browsing/downloading mystery.  
   KEEP IN MIND that this will create additional updates to the 
   USERON file - used in multiline operation.

 - If a new user enters the same name as an existing (but 
   different) user they can enter "NEW" as their password.  
   The system would again ask them for their name and if not 
   a duplicate, the system would then process the remainder 
   of the logon sequence as if they were a new user.  
   Language prompt number 60 needs to be edited to reflect 
   that change by importing the revised default prompt 
   -AND- the number of password attempts should be set 
   to at least three or four.

 - The problem of double user entries when using the NEWUSER.Q-A 
   has been taken care of.  
  
 - There were reports of some of the Questionnaire functions
   not working correctly.  Researched that problem and applied
   fixed that problem.

 - Did some research on errors 2 and 103 - If no Message Group 
   has been defined, it will cause those errors. Only one group 
   needs to be defined.

 - Added ability to create a "canned" message to sysop when user
   uploads a file using the slash character in the first location
   of the description.  Message is addressed to "sysop" and is  
   from the user who made the upload and uses same message board 
   as the Failed Password Attempt message.  Text is as created 
   in a *NEW* SYSFILE.MSG text file.  REGISTERED ONLY feature 
   and the file "SYSFILE.MSG" must exist for this feature to work.

 - Double Checked coding for *.Q-A files to execute Menu Commands
   Correct usage should be "MenuCmnd <number>" - notice the spelling
   of the abbreviation for "MenuCommand" - it is unusual and tricky.
  
 - The bug in JAM message search routines that caused problems, now
   properly skips deleted messages.
 
 - Added code to check for known problem of deleting files in root
   directory.  Should now exit from the deletion procedure after
   entering a configuration message in the log file without deleting
   any files in either the c:\ or d:\ directories.  

 - Due to the source code not provided by Andrew Milner, I was unable 
   to modify it to be compatible the current version of RemoteAccess,
   RAMSG.exe (as it was written by another) is not included with 
   this package.  Work is in process to rewrite that program.

Bruce Morse
RemoteAccess Central
