FrontDoor was one of the most popular mailers in the
FidoNet-compatible networks in the 1990s, acting as the physical representation of the written network node connection and mail handling standards. It was an
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
-based product (also available as
shareware) written by
Joaquim Homrighausen (alias ''JoHo''). The FrontDoor system contained a ''Mailer'', an ''Editor'', a ''Terminal'', a
serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. ...
device driver and configuration utilities. FrontDoor was first released in 1986.
[FrontDoor as product](_blank)
/ref>
The task of mailers, the main task of the first FrontDoor release, was to accept a phone call for a BBS / FidoNet node system; differentiating between human and machine calls (sending the humans to the BBS
BBS may refer to:
Ammunition
* BBs, BB gun metal bullets
* BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets
Computing and gaming
* Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet
* BIOS Boot Specificat ...
while handling all other cases) and if the other end supported the same protocol started a conversation about handling whatever packets had to be exchanged, and calling external programs to handle the traffic.
Originally FrontDoor was a small utility to handle incoming calls, written in 1986. Peter Adenauer of AMS Applied Micro Systems, Inc. of Miami, Florida asked Homrighausen in 1987 to leave his job at Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
and come to the USA and start developing a commercial product based on FrontDoor with Peter Stewart.[{{Cite web , url=http://winramturbo.com/fidochron/annoy/fddevhis.txt , title=Development history of FrontDoor, 1993 , access-date=2011-08-31 , archive-date=2011-10-06 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006002526/http://winramturbo.com/fidochron/annoy/fddevhis.txt , url-status=dead ] After several adventurous clashes between the programmers and the company and realising that there wasn't a useful product even after a long development the people parted: Homrighausen went to Australia with the version 1.99c source code while Stewart got the same code which has been used as the basis of InterMail software.[re-booted FrontDoor](_blank)
/ref> FrontDoor project will run on.
Technical aspects
FrontDoor runs under DOS and OS/2
OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 r ...
as well as under most DOS-based multi-tasking environment (like Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
, DESQview
DESQview (DV) is a text mode multitasking operating environment developed by Quarterdeck Office Systems which enjoyed modest popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Running on top of DOS, it allows users to run multiple programs concurren ...
, DoubleDOS, and more).
File transfer protocols supported by FrontDoor are Zmodem
ZMODEM is an inline file transfer protocol developed by Chuck Forsberg in 1986, in a project funded by Telenet in order to improve file transfers on their X.25 network. In addition to dramatically improved performance compared to older protocol ...
, Zmodem/CRC32, Telink, SEAlink
Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland.
Ports served by the company included: Dover, Folkesto ...
, SEAlink Overdrive, and Xmodem/CRC.
Technical specifications
FrontDoor consists of:DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
-based multitasking environments (DR Multiuser DOS, Novell NetWare, LANtastic, POWERLan, MS LAN Manager, DESQview
DESQview (DV) is a text mode multitasking operating environment developed by Quarterdeck Office Systems which enjoyed modest popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Running on top of DOS, it allows users to run multiple programs concurren ...
, PC/MOS-386, DoubleDOS, OS/2, Windows 3.xx, Windows 95/98/ME, Windows XP)
* The ability to handle a virtually unlimited amount of destinations, names and phone numbers (theoretically 1.2 x 1020 entries)
* The file transfer protocols ZModem/CRC32, ZModem, Telink, SEAlink Overdrive, SEAlink, and XModem/CRC with no size limit (apart from DOS limits)
* Comprehensive mail management and editing, including filtering functions
* Support for a temporary DOS shell in nearly every point in the program (which swaps itself out)
* Enhanced keyboard layouts in the editor and a huge number of macro key sets
* Printer handling for mail
* A flexible scheduler for the mailer component
* Destination-based modem reconfiguration
* Dynamic and flexible mail routing
* FAX handling
Hardware requirements
It is interesting to compare its system requirements
References
Bulletin board system software
DOS software
FidoNet