Importing FastEcho and Internet Rex settings

If your board exchanges FidoNet-style mail with FastEcho (the tosser) or Internet Rex (the mailer), you do not need to type your links and passwords again. PBMigrate reads their configuration and adds the equivalent entries to PBToss, PBMailer and your AKA list.

PBMigrate adds; it never edits or deletes what is already there. Every file it changes is first copied to a backup beside it. It can be run again safely, because a second run finds nothing left to add.

It does not migrate routing, the FastEcho outbound queue, Rex's waiting packets or its duplicate database. Send or clear everything that is waiting before you switch over. The report tells you how many packets are on hold.

Internet Rex hides session passwords unless you give it the Rex password. If PBMigrate cannot read one, it marks that node for review so you can type the password in PBMailer yourself.

FastEcho is a DOS program, so its text export has to be made on the old system. PBMigHelper, a small 32-bit program, does this.

1. Copy PBMigHelper.exe to the old computer. It is in the Tools folder of your ProBoard install, and PBInstall has a button to copy it to a USB stick or other folder.
2. Run it. It looks for FastEcho (FASTECHO.CFG) and Internet Rex (nodes.rex) on your fixed drives and ticks what it finds. Use Browse if they are somewhere else.
3. If you use Internet Rex, type the Rex password in the masked box. Without it, Rex session passwords stay hidden.
4. Click Export. It makes C:\TEMP\PBEXPORT.ZIP containing copies of the configuration files and a text export of the FastEcho setup. Show the zip file opens the folder.
5. Copy the zip to your new computer.

The zip contains passwords in plain text. Delete it from the old computer, the USB stick and the new computer as soon as you have imported it.

If you run FastEcho and Rex on the same machine as the new ProBoard, PBMigrate can read the live folders directly and you can skip this step.

There are two ways.

During an update. When you update an existing system with PBInstall, it offers a migration window. It finds PBEXPORT.ZIP next to PBInstall.exe or in the root of a drive, or you can choose the folders yourself. PBInstall first copies your FastEcho and Rex files into its backup folder, then shows you a preview report. If you approve it, it applies the changes and shows the report again. Skipping the window loses nothing: you can run PBMigrate later.

By hand. Run PBMigrate from a command prompt in your install folder. Without -apply it only writes a preview report:

PBMigrate -dest C:\ProBoard -pbexport C:\Temp\PBEXPORT.ZIP
PBMigrate -dest C:\ProBoard -pbexport C:\Temp\PBEXPORT.ZIP -apply

Use -fe and -rex with a folder name instead of -pbexport to read the programs' folders directly. -passwords takes a text file of address password lines for any password PBMigrate cannot read.

PBMigrate writes MIGRATION-REPORT.TXT. Read the section “what you need to check” before you go live. It lists:

• passwords marked for review,
• addresses it could not match to a link,
• echoes that are not in your ProBoard message areas, and so were not created,
• links with no host, so PBMailer cannot call them,
• warnings about files that disagree with each other.

It also writes MIGRATED-PATHS.TXT, a reference list of the old program's folders and the ProBoard setting that does the same job.

PBMigrate only adds an echo to PBToss when a matching message area already exists. To create message areas for the FastEcho echoes you want, use Import from FastEcho… on the toolbar of the Message Areas screen in PBConfig. PBMigrate leaves a candidate list (Configs\FE-ECHOES.TXT) for it.

In the import window you:

1. choose an existing message area to copy settings from (the window will not import until you do);
2. choose whether new areas are hidden or visible (hidden is the default, so callers do not see them until you are ready);
3. set the group, origin line and AKA for each network;
4. tick the echoes to import. A filter box helps with long lists.

PBConfig shows a preview, makes a dated backup of MESSAGES.PB, MGROUPS.PB and PBTOSS.CFG, and then writes the new areas. It does not move your JAM message base files. If an echo lives in a different folder from the one it will now use, move the files yourself.

1. Turn off FastEcho and Internet Rex on the old system, or two tossers will fight over the same links.
2. Send or clear every waiting packet.
3. Test a poll to one hub before you move them all.
4. Tell your uplinks if your address or host changes.