CLChatSystem 3.3 for AmiTCP --------------------------- (1) Copyrights The CLChatServer, the CLChatD, CLChatLink and the CLChatGUI are Copyright (C) 1994-1995 Oliver Wagner (o.wagner@pluribus.wupper.de) All Rights Reserved. The files are freely distributable as long as no modifications are made to any part of the package and all files are distributed in a single archive, accompanied by this documentation file. CLChatGUI is a MUI application. MUI is (C) 1993-1995 Stefan Stuntz. AmiTCP is (C) 1994-95 NSDI Inc. (2) Overview This is a multi-user multi-channel chat system somewhat based on IRC. It features: o unlimited number of users o unlimited number of channels o private messaging o automatic user identification o flood protection o NEW: user banning o NEW: multiple server capability with loop protection o channel operator privileges for setting channel topics and removing users from a channel o chat operator privilege for global channel operator status and removing users from chat completely The user frontend for the chat is a comfortable GUI client providing o easy user & channel operations o input history o automatic notifications of certain events via Deiconification or beep o builtin ARexx-Port o NEW: direct file transfers to remote users via IP (3) Origin The Chatsystem is originally part of the Connectline/Amiga BBS package which features an ANSI text client for online usage and the possibility to login to the chat during Hydra file transfers. The standlone ChatServer and the GUI client are only a subset of the whole package. Write to Connectline@pluribus.wupper.de for more information about Connectline. (4) Server Installation Copy the CLChatServer to AmiTCP:bin Copy the CLChatLink to AmiTCP:bin Copy the CLChatD to AmiTCP:serv Add the following line to AmiTCP:db/services: clchat/5555 Add the following line to AmiTCP:db/InetD.conf: clchat stream tcp nowait root amitcp:serv/clchatd Add the following line to AmiTCP:bin/startnet: run >NIL: AmiTCP:bin/CLChatServer Optionally create a file named AmiTCP:db/ChatServer.MOTD containing a text file which will be display to each new user logging into the chat. Optionally create a file named AmiTCP:db/ChatServer.OPList containing a list of users which have the "Chat Operator" privilege. These users automatically receive channel operator status for every channel they join and can use the hidden server command "/KILL" to remove other users from the chat server. They may also the "/NETINFO" command to inquiry chat network information, and use the BAN commands to list, add or remove user bans. This file contains entries of the following form: Nickname Netaddress For example: Olli olli@lsd.wupper.de Optionally create a file named AmiTCP:db/ChatServer.Servers containing a list of remote servers allowed to connect to your server. This file contains a list of FQDN addresses or a standard AmigaDOS wildcard matching FQDN addresses. If this file is missing, all servers are allowed to connect. If you want to ban a single server only, you can add a exclusive pattern. For example, to ban server "lsd.wupper.de" only, add the line ~(lsd.wupper.de) The first line of the file may contain a number specifying the maximum number of servers to connect. This defaults to 8. You can make CLChatD and CLChatLink resident to increase startup speed and reduce memory usage; this might proof useful if you run or accept several connections. (5) Client installation No installation required, simply run the Client from either Shell or Workbench. It will prompt for your user information and the server to connect to. See the Client guide for more information about using it. (6) Using the server Using the server should be quite self-explainatory. Use the command "/?" to obtain a list of available commands. Channels are created automatically when a users joins and removed when the last user leaves. There is a persistant default channel called MAIN on which every new users starts. The first user entering a channel will obtain channel operator status. He may change the topic, kick other users, give or remove channel operator status from them. Specifc users may be banned from a server using the /BANADD command which is available to chat operators only. Bans are stored in the file "AmiTCP:DB/ChatServer.UserBans" and contain FQDN addresses or a AmigaDOS wildcard matching FQDN addresses. You may want to use wildcards of the form "#?@machine" because the user part of addresses is generally the same as the nickname which may be set by the user. For example, to ban users from lsd.wupper.de, use the entry #?@lsd.wupper.de Note that adding a line "#?" will make you quite lonely on your server. The server respons to three shell signals. CTRL^C will cause it to terminate instantly, CTRL^E will cause a restart (with reloading the executable) and CTRL^F will cause the server to output diagnostic stats into the shell window. (7) Connecting several servers After running your local server, use the command "CLChatLink" to connect to a different server. Usage is CLChatLink [retrycount] The retrycount is optional; if specified, CLChatLink will retry a connection until the count runs out. If a already successfully established connection break, retries start back from 1. Note that the server-server protocol is quite bandwidth expensive, so you should *NOT* create a server for single users only. Note that nicknames must be unique on all servers; if servers connect and a nick collision occurs, both users are removed from their correspondending servers and a nick collision message is broadcasted. Server loops may be created; every server message carries a unique messageid which will be checked by every server it passes; dupes are filtered out. Server loops may raise broadcast speed esspecially on slow network connections. The server uses some kind of smart routing for private messages: if the destination of a private message is on a directly linked server, the message is send to this server only. If not, it is broadcasted, so no routing tables are necessary. (8) History: See the CLChatGUI.(doc|guide) for more specific GUI client revision information. Release 3.0 ----------- - the server now uses smart routing for private messages; if the destination server is a direct link, no broadcast is produced - added user banning capabilities - added /NETINFO server inquiry broadcast - added chat operator command output on /HELP if the use is a chat operator. - made /SERVERS command available to normal chat users - updated CLChatLink to correctly fill in the remote server name. - extended server msgs with a message id tag to filter message dupes produced by server loops. Release 3.1 ----------- - everything is now compiled with SAS/C 6.55. Also added server version directly compiled for 68030 CPUs. - added more detailed NETINFO output. - added /STAT command for chat operators. Also "/STAT *" broadcasts /STAT requests via net. - extended /USERS command with "S" option to display users with the servers they're on. - added /RESTART command for chat operators to have the server restart itself. Also CTRL^E will cause a restart. - added CTRL^F response displaying server stats to the shell. - fixed CLChatLink and CLChatD to fill in the IP address of remote servers for the /SERVERS command output. - fixed smart privmsg routing. - fixed user removement for flood protection and /KILL commands. - fixed may GUI client bugs & quirks. - GUI client now has IP file transfer option similar to DCC - GUI client now has a PING option to test links from user to user directly - fixed bug in the server which caused a stack overwrite on privmsgs > 230 bytes - both CLChatD and CLChatLink are now "pure" code and can be made resident for more efficient memory usage Release 3.2 ----------- - fixed local /STAT output to report only local users - fixed server validation bug; checked IP addresse instead of FQDN - fixed server reject error message - cleaned up GUI client scroller handling - added PLUBOT sample code Release 3.3 ----------- - CLChatLink was seriously broken; retry didn't worked and broken active links causes server crashes due to illegal messages. - increased stacksizes or reduced stack usage in all parts of the package due to frequent crashes on some setups. - some GUI client cleanup. (9) ARCnet There is already a public Internet chat network based on CLChat called the "ARCnet" (Amiga Relay Chat Network). See the client documentation for up-to-date information about this network and servers you can connect to. (10) Thanks must go to: Roy Millican - for encouragement and running the first public CLChat server on the InterNet ;-) James Atwill, `Mephisto' - for their help during multi server testing Jeremiah S. Junken - for the CLChatGUI icon