Subj : Re: can someone help please?
To   : Jimmy Day
From : William McBrine
Date : Sun Sep 29 2002 04:40 am

-=> Jimmy Day wrote to All <=-

 JD> 1)  What is the difference between QWK and BW mail packets?

Internally they're very different, but functionally they're almost the 
same. The Blue Wave format has some advantages: longer subject lines, more 
detailed information about each message area, direct handling of Fidonet 
addressing, etc. The QWK format has the advantage of being more widely 
implemented.

 JD> 2)  The BBS has a Blue Wave mail door, it downloads in ZIP format - so
 JD> what happened to QWK and BW files?

Nothing. The name of a file and its type really have nothing to do with one 
another. Each QWK or BW packet is, in fact, a ZIP file (or a compressed 
archive in another format), but is named with a different extension than 
the default ".zip".

 JD> 3)  Some packets give the error "control.dat not found" - tried on 4
 JD> different OLRs, and PKUNZIP -t shows that there is indeed NO
 JD> control.dat file. Looks like all the other files are there.  So why no
 JD> control.dat file?

Since you asked about the difference between QWK and BW, I'm guessing it's 
because you're looking at Blue Wave packets. They don't have a CONTROL.DAT, 
and they can't be opened by readers that only understand QWK.

If they ARE QWK packets, then they're broken.

 JD> 4)  Some packets also give unpack errors, CRC errors.  What's that
 JD> mean?

Very broken. You shouldn't be seeing that. Probably your file transfer had 
errors.

 JD> 5)  As for reply packets - what's the difference between *.NEW and
 JD> *.REP? Maybe one goes with QWK and the other with BW?

Yes (.NEW -> BW, .REP -> QWK). Incidentally, these are also ZIP files (or 
archives compressed in a comparable format).

.... Software Independent: Won't work with ANY software.
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