Subj : Re: can someone help ple To : Rob Strover From : Jimmy Day Date : Sun Sep 29 2002 01:37 pm -=> Jimmy Day wrote to All <=- JD> 1) What is the difference between QWK and BW mail packets? RS> In a nutshell - almost everything :-) RS> Seriously, the differences are too great to document here. Look at RS> the URL http://www.wotsit.org/search.asp?s=internet and download the RS> Bluewave 3.00 document file on that page. Then go to the third page of RS> internet-related stuff and download the QWK format document file. Wellll, good evening, Rob! Or rather , good morning! I did get these files, and boy you weren't kidding! Some of it IS over my head (a tad); I printed it out, got out the trusty rusty 3-hole punch and put them in a book for some relaxing bedtime reading. Sheez, am I getting too much BBSing? JD> 2) The BBS has a Blue Wave mail door, it downloads in ZIP format - so JD> what happened to QWK and BW files? RS> The QWK and BW files are contained in the downloaded mail packets. RS> Even though the files have non-ZIP extensions they can be open with a RS> program such as WinZip or even (via command line) PKZip. So, from what I gather, both BW and QWK are not compressed files? No, wait a minute, i answered my own question, yes they must be, since they contain multiple files within them. SO here is the gray fuzz settling around my brain, Rob - if they are already compressed files, why do we need the ZIP archive? No, wait another minute, I am thinking aloud, which I often do to help me figure something out, so please bear with me...a BW mail packet contains numerous files, as does a QWK packet; however, the BW packet is different because BW has additional features; so the mail door "assembles" the needed files depending on whether I request BW or QWK format, and ZIPS them up. This makes sense to me, because the BBS I use (Nerve Center) has a "message" area that assembles, zips, and downloads QWK packets, and also a separate Blue Wave Door, that obviously assembles, zips, and downloads BW packets. The mail reader used (in my case, Blue Wave), can open, read, and create replies for either format (which I know it does), and for a BW mail packet, generates a corresponding NEW packet of replies; for the QWK packet, a corresponding REP reply packet. Forgive this long rant, but wanted you to see my thought process here, because my 40w bulb is now glowing. And I did once *try* to upload a NEW reply packet to the BBS's message area, and it did not work, as it was *looking* for a REP packet. Hmmm, it makes sense. I just hope i'm correct... 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? Maybe someone could point me to an explanation of JD> the structure of these various file types? RS> Not sure, but IIRC the control.dat file has something to do with the RS> QWK format, so the doco at the URL mentioned above may address this RS> issue. Now that I have this sort of figured out, I can do the PKUNZIP -t on them and look at the contents. As I remember, the "mis ing control.dat" problem occured only with CMPqwk, which obviously cannot read BW packets, so maybe the BW packets don't use the control.dat file? more sleuthing is in order on my end. JD> 4) Some packets also give unpack errors, CRC errors. What's that JD>mean? RS> I can only speculate that the programs which "zipped" the various RS> reader files into the file packet format did not operate correctly. RS> That's just a thought, but I could be wrong! I think that's right. I just downloaded several files from Chowdanet BBS, and one had this same error, and WinZip gave a similar message, saying that the zip file was corrupted, most likely need to download again. JD> Please bear with me, as I guess I've been spoiled by Microsoft! Guess that was the *wrong* thing to say here! but brings up the logical question - did Microsoft ever produce an OLR for Blue Wave or QWK? And what does QWK stand for, anyway? RS> Happy BBSing, and I hope this info makes things a bit simpler. Yes it did, and once again I am grateful to the friendly atmosphere I have always found here and in the on-line tech support world in general. .... Never trust a skinny cook. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR] --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Nerve Center - Where the spine is misaligned! (1:261/1000) .