FidoNews · Vol 13, No 35 · 26 August 1996
F I D O N E W S -- Volume 13, Number 35 26 August 1996
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-407-383-1372 [1:1/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Christopher Baker 1:374/14 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=> cbaker84@digital.net |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
DOES ANYBODY READ THESE HEADLINES?
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
FidoNews is more accessible than ever, et al ............. 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 3
Does Fido have an Echomail problem? ...................... 3
The Internet as an extension of Fido ..................... 4
What's new in FidoNet Panama ............................. 4
Two Choices: UPGRADE or DIE .............................. 6
3. FIDONET HISTORY .......................................... 9
FidoNet's first formal Policy document ................... 9
4. REVIEWS .................................................. 23
Six Mail Processors Reviewed [II] ........................ 23
5. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 26
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 236 ...... 26
6. ECHOING .................................................. 27
Candidates for the REC 17 election ....................... 27
7. NET HUMOR ................................................ 29
Ask Dr. Internet? ........................................ 29
8. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 32
Comic relief for FN_SYSOP? ............................... 32
9. QUESTION OF THE WEEK ..................................... 33
Old Nodelist sources? .................................... 33
10. NOTICES ................................................. 34
Future History ........................................... 34
11. FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................................ 36
And more!
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 1 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
First, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who works for FidoNet and
FidoNews by making their personal resources available to everyone at
no charge and just for fun. Several people have contributed assistance
to FidoNews this week and they should be lauded by one and all.
jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews reading and archive page on the Internet
is now operating 24 hours a day. If you'd like to wander over and read
FidoNews in HTML format, go to:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/6894
and you can sift through the weekly Issue by individual articles in
the comfort of your web browser. Thanks, jim!
Ross Cassell has produced a nifty little utility called STRIPFF that
will remove the formfeeds from FidoNews [or any other text file] for
those of you who want to put FidoNews up for online reading without
having to manually edit out all those paging formfeeds inserted by the
MAKENEWS program during FidoNews creation. His program is freeware and
is available on his system, on this system, on the new FidoNews
Homepage [more on that later], and was hatched into SDS area SOFTDIST.
thanks, Ross!
ALL of the FidoNews archives are always available on the Southern Star
ftp site at:
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fidonews
if you're ever in need of an old issue. See the listing at the end of
every FidoNews Issue in the Masthead. Thanks, John!
Thanks, too, to ALL the FidoNet Coordinators who take their
responsibilities seriously and get FidoNews out to all their Nodes
every week without fail! It is appreciated.
FLASHNOTE:
FidoNews now has its own Official Homepage on the Internet.
This site contains the latest Issue in .ZIP format for
download and text format for online reading or ASCII
download. I operate and maintain this site from my personal
webpages. FidoNews will be available world-wide mere
minutes after it is compiled here on this Homepage. Also
available there is the FidoNews PGP public-key, the
calendar of Future History, and the STRPFF10.ZIP archive
containing Ross' formfeed stripper for FidoNews. To reach
the new Official FidoNews Homepage, go to:
http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker/fidonews.html
and check it out! This space is provided courtesy of my
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 2 26 Aug 1996
ISP, FLorida Online at Digital Decisions. Thanks, Jerry!
FidoNews goes onto this site immediately after compilation
and while FidoNews is being sent to ZC1 for distribution.
It is the fastest source of the current FidoNews Issue in
the world! [grin]
Please be sure to sign the Guestbook so we'll know you were
there. You can also leave suggestions in your comments for
additions to the FidoNews Homepage. You'll be able to view
the Guestbook and even send mail to the other signers. The
Guestbook is provided courtesy of Lpage.com. Thanks,
Lpage.com!
That should do it for this week. The compilation is already behind due
to these extra notes being added. [grin]
C.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 3 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Does Fido have an Echomail problem?
I've been a member of FidoNet for many years. I can
remember a time when there was no cost recovery. A time when there
was less than twenty members in my net. (look at it now) I can
remember when most people didn't have a clue what a BBS was.
In the old days it wasn't unusual for mail polls to be
infrequent. But modem speeds have improved dramatically, cost
recovery plans enacted, satellite systems built and the Internet
has been harnessed. It's not that expensive to have multiple
polls a day. So why do I go for whole weekends with no new,
non-local mail? And during the week I generally see one good
mail bundle a day. Let me back up a minute and discuss my
echomail situation. I have spent most of my FidoNet career in
net280 in Kansas City, Missouri. Net280 also has one of the North
American Backbone star systems. Recently I moved about 45 miles
east to the little college town of Warrensburg and I became a PVT
system. I pull my mail feed via the Internet from 1:280/169.
Does that seem strange to anyone? I'm one hop off of
one of the largest mail movers in North America and mail flow
is inconsistent? I'm not pointing fingers, Roy (/1) has given
a lot to this net in the past. Both as a previous NEC and as
a star system. But I have had many conversations with Brian
(/169) and he swears that there is just no mail waiting when
he polls. This concerns me since it could indicate a problem
in the future.
So I wonder if we don't depend on Roy, John, and George
just a little too much. We have allowed mail distribution duties
to grow beyond the capabilities of the average Fido hobbyist. The
last thing I would want to do is belittle what these guys have
done for us in the past. But what happened to the FidoNet of old
where things were done in the most efficient, cost effective manner?
It seems we could tackle a couple problems at the same time,
inter-zone communication and alternative, free mail distribution,
by getting a few volunteers to start hubbing mail through Internet
Telnet and FTP sessions. If you have an Internet account, the
whole world is a local call.
Comments anyone? You've got my addresses. Or better yet,
write an article of your own.
Lee Lefler
1:280/5
infinityll@juno.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 4 26 Aug 1996
The Internet as an extension of Fido
I know some of you will think that should be the other way
around. Especially if you are aware of the fact that the Internet
is really just a group of smaller networks. FidoNet has really
been a part of the Internet for several years, we just choose to
ignore it. There have been Fido echos distributed as part of
Usenet. There are Fido nodes that you can Telnet into. We try
so hard to stay away from the Internet that we ignore what it
has to offer. An inexpensive means of bringing Fido's zones
closer together.
Many of you have heard me ramble about this before. As
a matter of fact, there is even another article from me in this
issue of FidoNews. But this time I want to make a proposal. I
would like to find some volunteers to work with me to put
together a free mailer that would establish FidoNet mail sessions
across TCP/IP via Telnet.
I'm looking for programmers from various platforms that
would be willing to contribute code to the project. Once complete,
the mailer would be released on several platforms with full source,
similar to Binkley or GNU.
Here's what I have to offer to the project. I am a
programmer. But I'm just now getting around to learning C. And
since C is probably the only language that would allow real
portability, that seems like the ideal development environment.
Possibly something along the lines of GCC, since it is readily
available on numerous platforms and can be used for free. I have
been a member of Fido for many years and know how a mailer
functions. I also have a great deal of code that I put together
over the years for things such as; EMSI sessions, MSG and PKT
formats, as well as a healthy protocol library. Unfortunately,
it's all in Pascal. I have also been picking up my mail over
the Internet using my normal mailer and VModem. And that
experience alone is enough to tell me that the project _could_
be scaled down a little by just supporting EMSI with FTP
transfers and leaving the rest out. ZModem is just not real
efficient over TCP.
So, if you want more details or want to volunteer, you
know how to get ahold of me.
Lee Lefler
1:280/5
infinityll@juno.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From Zone 4, Net 920, Node 65, Net Coordinator, Republic of Panama
Hello from way down in Panama!! We are here! Really!!
A current events brief of FidoNet in Panama:
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 5 26 Aug 1996
Hello FidoNet community! Long before I was a SYSOP of a FidoNet BBS,
I was a user. I used to log onto FidoNet BBS's back in Dallas Texas
in the mid to late '80's for programming conversations. I now work for
the U.S. Navy and moved to Panama in '92. Living on a U.S. military
base overseas really has it's drawbacks. One is that you give up what
little you have of a life. In order to keep in touch with my family
and friends, and have some intelligent conversation I began calling
BBS's again. In '93 there were only a few FidoNet BBS's in Panama,
and they could only afford to carry a couple of echos because they
were pulling them via AT&T from Louis Oaken (Kudos Louis!) Florida!.
I went ahead and built a BBS using Remote Access and Fmail and
contributed my little bit to help out. Later I discovered there were
other software packages out there and purchased a good one, bought a
mail tosser and began the slow process of registering all (well...
most of my shareware).
The history of FidoNet in Panama (we call it PanamaNet) is pretty
short -and really pretty sparse. We know that some guy started it
back in the late '80's (I'd like to know who he was.. If you know
please email me) and carried it over to Dave Dillard, who turned it
over to Neil Armani, who turned it over to Jim Murphy and myself.
The BBS users here in Panama are an unusual crowd. I mean - some
don't read or write English - so building bilingual menus is very
important, and difficult if you don't know another language. For the
most part, the local users are either wealthy, students using school
computers, or "gringos" (U.S. military). Many of the user questions
are in Spanish, so I had to invest in a translator. Since there
aren't many BBS's here, anything I did to better the BBS was viewed
with awe. The users raved and cheered when I purchased Searchlight
BBS and created RIP graphics! Pop up menus, etc. all in RIP. They
thought that was the cat's meow. Now with graphical www in Panama,
people aren't easily amused by lights, bells and whistles.
Zone 4 has *not* *provided* *any* *support* to speak of since I've
been here. Gamey recently resigned, however the *only* time we EVER
heard from him was during the elections <grin>. If it weren't for
Louis Oakin@sunshine.com we never would have been able to carry on
FidoNet down here. This last year the Republic of Panama has allowed
some ISP's to move in. This gave us a REAL opportunity to advance.
Now we FTP our FidoNet Echo mail from SSTAR in Louisiana! Since this
wonderful advancement we have picked up about 40 echos ++ !!! It's
been a godsend. Using AT&T to get the mail really took a toll on us
this last year. The biggest problem that we have here in Panama is
that most of the phone lines were built back in the 40's and 50's. We
get better connections calling a BBS in the U.S. then we do calling
next door! So now that our packets are getting larger, it's getting
difficult to distribute them. And - to compound things -those of us
who work for the military are only allowed one phone in our quarters
(house). We end up using phone switch boxes which makes users add
,,22,22,22 to the end of the phone numbers. That is very difficult,
because (inevitably) users don't get the string right and wake us up
at 0300am.
The BBS's here are mostly either American Military or Spanish Locals.
The locals are mostly interested in Mexican Link - while the Americans
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 6 26 Aug 1996
are interested in all the echos. For the most part, we all enjoy the
conversations and connectivity. The U.S. Military presence is leaving
Panama as per the Treaty of the Panama Canal signed by Carter in the
'70's. We will all be out by the year 2000. Once we are gone it will
be up to the local BBS population to maintain a FidoNet presence in
Panama.
As for me, I'm leaving Panama in November. I will be moving to
Virginia Beach, Virginia. I will revert back to being a BBS user and
begin a new life as a Net Surfer. Additionally I hope to work on some
new FidoNet programming projects that I haven't had time for.
I've been watching the BBS's close down as the Internet really picks
up steam, and I really hope that FidoNet will adapt to the Internet.
It would be nice to have a Front Door that could connect through
internet service providers to other Front Doors on the net and pass
mail back and forth. It's really getting to the point where there is
an internet connection almost anywhere. I mean if we have it here in
Panama......
FidoNet Sysops: Never give up - if you build it - they will call
Shannon.talley@f65.abcd.fidonet.org
clutch.sinfo.net
dudemaster@hotmail.com
*************************************
[- SYSOP at Fido 4:920/65 -]
[-TeleServe BBS, Republic of Panama-]
*************************************
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Two Choices: UPGRADE or DIE
by Jon M. Craig <pazuzu@amphigory.com>, 1:201/0
With all the talk in recent FidoNews issues about the impending death
of FidoNet, I thought I should add my $.02 on the whole thing.
As the title of this article suggests, we have two choices: UPGRADE
or DIE. What do I mean by this? Well, quite simply, we need to move
ourselves into the 90's as far as technology and ease-of-use goes.
We need to be progressive, up-to-the-minute with technology.
BinkleyTerm and Maximus just don't cut it in '96. Today's users (and
sysops) want advanced graphics, and easy-to-setup software. And we
need to make it easy for people to GET NODE NUMBERS! Stop being
elitist scum (and this is a generalization, but my experience, and
that of most people I've talked bears it out).
Using mail and news on the Internet is dirt simple with all the new
graphical-based software available. In contrast, the average BBS
package used by a FidoNet sysop is quite clumsy and hard to figure
out by comparison. This is not necessary. Sysops want to hold onto
the BBS package they were running back in '85. This is ridiculous -
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 7 26 Aug 1996
you don't still use the computer you used in '85, do you? Then why
use its software? Even up-to-the-microsecond graphical BBS packages
like Excalibur for Windows now have Fidonet capability. There's even
a fully Windows-based mailer that's NOT simply an old MS-DOS mailer
with a Windows shell wrapped around it. And how many such systems
are in FidoNet? To my knowledge, ONE -- Myself. Why? Yeah,
BinkleyTerm works great. So did my '286 back in '87, but... This is
1996.
Even from a Sysop standpoint, joining FidoNet is difficult. You've
got to first figure out how the whole thing works, and there's NOT
ONE SINGLE CREDIBLE DOCUMENT ON IT ANYWHERE! And don't talk about
the standards docs, either! No human can decipher those. Then
you've got to assemble the eight million different programs you'll
need to make it all happen. Then you've got to find someone to give
you a node number. This should be easy. It doesn't need to take any
longer than 24 hours. But it doesn't work that way. Sometimes your
NC won't get back to you within a week. Sometimes he'll NEVER get
back to you. Sometimes you'll be told your BBS doesn't qualify for
their "local standards of behavior", whatever that means. We can't
exclude people from FidoNet based on their personal beliefs, no
matter how much we might disagree with them.
The average person has this "hard-to-use-straight-ugly-ASCII-based"
view of what FidoNet is, even if they've never used a FidoNet system.
This has to be changed. It doesn't suit people's tastes anymore.
Even if you refuse to run Windows & a graphical BBS system, at least
ditch your 5 year old copy of RBBS for something a little more
up-to-date. There's plenty of DOS-based ANSI system which use
lightbar menus and such, which is light years ahead of where 95% of
Fidonet systems are right now.
The Internet is reaching critical mass. The InterNic is running out
of net numbers to give out. Pretty soon, it'll be tricky to get your
domain name registered, because it'll be already taken. Usenet has
become SPAM Central. MLM's, Pyramid Schemes, 1-900 Sex Lines, that's
all you see anymore.
People won't put up with it for long. Eventually, the only thing
the SPAMmers will be able to SPAM to are OTHER SPAMMERS! People will
need somewhere else to talk. Will it be FidoNet? It could be.
We've got a lot going for us. We have message control. Someone
posts off-topic messages, *BAM* they get a warning. Do it again,
*BAM*, they're banned from the Echo. Their Sysop doesn't comply,
*BAM*, no mas node number. You think AOL's gonna ban Mr. Joe
Spamboy? Hell no, he pays his bill!
If we want to survive, though, we'll need to provide people with
attractive, easy to use BBS's, and we need to make it DIRT SIMPLE for
Sysops to get into the net. All that's required is some
documentation.
In conclusion, as my title states, we've got two choices: UPGRADE or
DIE. Upgrade our software, upgrade our documentation, upgrade our
technology, upgrade our acceptance procedures, or just shut the damn
net down right now.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 8 26 Aug 1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 9 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
FIDONET HISTORY
=================================================================
Part of the continuing History of FidoNet series...
F I D O N E T
Policy and Procedures Guide
Version 2
26 June 1986
_______ ____
Section Page
1 Overview ...................................................... 1
1.1 The Levels of FidoNet ..................................... 1
2 Sysop Procedures .............................................. 3
2.1 How to get a node number .................................. 3
2.2 If you are going down ..................................... 4
2.3 How to join a network ..................................... 5
2.4 How to form a network ..................................... 5
3 Network Coordinator Procedures ................................ 7
3.1 Routing inbound mail ...................................... 7
3.2 Assigning node numbers .................................... 8
3.3 Maintaining the node list ................................. 8
3.4 Passing along node lists and FidoNews ..................... 8
3.5 Forwarding newsletter submissions ......................... 9
4 Regional Coordinator Procedures ............................... 10
4.1 Assigning node numbers .................................... 10
4.2 Maintaining the node list ................................. 10
4.3 Encouraging the formation and growth of networks .......... 11
4.4 Passing along node lists and Fidonews ..................... 11
4.5 Forwarding newsletter submissions ......................... 11
5 International Coordinator Procedures .......................... 12
6 Resolution of Disputes ........................................ 13
6.1 Problems with another node ................................ 13
6.2 Problems with a network coordinator ....................... 13
6.3 Problems with a regional coordinator ...................... 13
6.4 Problems with the international coordinator ............... 14
6.5 Appeals to the international coordinator .................. 14
6.6 Case Hostories ............................................ 14
6.6.1 The Case of the Crooked Node ........................ 14
6.6.2 The Case of the Hacker Mailer ....................... 15
6.6.3 The Case of the Network Mutiny ...................... 15
6.6.4 The Case of the Bothered Barker ..................... 15
6.6.5 The Case of the Busy Beaver ......................... 16
6.6.6 The Mark of the Devil ............................... 16
6.6.7 The Case of the Sysop Twit .......................... 16
6.6.8 The Case of the EchoMail Junkey key key ............. 16
7 International Business Meetings ............................... 17
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 10 26 Aug 1996
Chapter 1
OVERVIEW
FidoNet is an amateur electronic mail system. As such, all of its
participants and operators are non-paid volunteers. From its early
beginnings as a few friends swapping messages back and forth, it has
now grown to (June 1986) over 1000 different systems on four
continents.
FidoNet is large enough that it would quickly fall apart of its own
weight unless some sort of structure and control were imposed on it.
Multinet operation provides the structure. Decentralized management
provides the control. This document is an attempt to describe the
procedures which have been developed to manage the network.
1.1 The Levels of FidoNet
With the introduction of multinet Fido in early 1985, FidoNet has
developed a hierarchical structure, with the following levels:
o The international coordinator; The international coordinator
compiles all of the node lists from all of the regions and
networks and creates the master node list, which is then
distributed over the net.
o The country coordinator; In some cases the International
coordinator will appoint a country coordinator to oversee network
operations in a given country. The exact duties and
responsibilities of any given country coordinator are assigned by
the international coordinator, and will not be discussed here.
o The regional coordinator; The regional coordinator maintains the
list of independent nodes in his region, and encourages
independents to join existing nets or to form new nets. A
regional coordinator does not perform routing services for the
nodes in his region.
o The network coordinator; The network coordinator is responsible
for maintaining the list of nodes for his net, and for receiving
and forwarding any mail coming to the net from outside.
o The network routing hub; Network routing hubs exist only in three-
tiered regional nets. They generally share some or all of the
duties of the host, in order to ease the management of a large
regional net. The exact duties and procedures are a matter for
the network coordinator and his hubs to settle, and will not be
discussed here. The network coordinator is still responsible for
the maintenance of the net.
o The system operator (sysop); The sysop formulates his own policy
for running his board and dealing with his users, so that will not
be discussed in this document. However, the sysop must also mesh
with the rest of the FidoNet system if he is to send and receive
____
mail, and that will be discussed here.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 11 26 Aug 1996
o The user; Policy and procedures for the individual user on any
given board is determined by the system operator of that board,
and will not be considered in this document.
Chapter 2
SYSOP PROCEDURES
A sysop of an individual node can pretty much do as he pleases, as
long as he observes the mail events, is not excessively annoying to
other nodes on the net, and does not promote the distribution of
pirated copyrighted software.
National Mail Hour is the heart of FidoNet, as this is when network
mail is passed between systems. Any system which wishes to be a part
____
of FidoNet must be able to receive mail at this time. A system which
is a member of a regional network may also be required to observe
additional mail events, as defined by his network coordinator.
Failure to observe the proper mail events is sufficient grounds for
any node to be dropped from the net without notice (since notice is
generally given by FidoNet mail).
A system which has been dropped from the network is said to be
______________
excommunicated (i.e. unable to communicate). A node which has been
excommunicated may or may not be listed for a time in the "dog house",
which is included in the comments at the end of the node list. If you
find that you have been excommunicated without warning, then that
means that your coordinator is unable to contact you. You should
rectify the problem and report back.
National Mail Hour is observed from 0900 to 1000 GMT every day,
weekends included. In each of the United States time zones, this
would be as follows:
Eastern Standard Time 4 AM to 5 AM
Central Standard Time 3 AM to 4 AM
Mountain Standard Time 2 AM to 3 AM
Pacific Standard Time 1 AM to 2 AM
Hawaii Standard Time 11 PM to Midnight
___
FidoNet does not observe daylight savings time. In areas which
observe daylight savings time the FidoNet mail schedules must be
adjusted in the same direction as the clock change. Alternatively,
you can simply leave your system on standard time.
2.1 How to get a node number
You must first obtain a current node list, so that you can send mail.
You do not need a node number to send mail, but you must have one in
order for others to send mail to you.
The first step in obtaining a current node list is to locate a Fido
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 12 26 Aug 1996
bulletin board. No help there; you're on your own. Most bulletin
board lists include at least a few Fido systems, and usually identify
them as such, so this shouldn't be too hard.
If the sysop of any Fido system does not have a node list available
for downloading, then he can probably tell you where to get one.
Once you have a node list, you must determine which network or region
covers your area. Networks always have a three digit number.
Networks are more restricted in area than regions, but are generally
preferred since they provide more services to their members.
If you cannot find a network which covers your area, then pick the
region which does. Regions always have a two digit number. The
United States is divided into ten regions, so that you are certainly
in a region even if you are not near a network.
Once you have located the network or region in your area, send a
request for a node number to node zero of that network or region. The
____ ____
request must be sent by FidoNet mail, and must include at least the
following:
1) Your name.
2) Your current mailing address.
3) Your telephone number (voice).
4) The name of your system.
5) The city and state where your system is located.
6) The phone number to be used when calling your system.
7) Your hours of operation.
8) The maximum baud rate you can support.
Your coordinator may want additional information. If so, he will
contact you.
Please allow at least two weeks for a node number request to be
processed. If you send your request to a regional coordinator, then
he may forward your request to the network coordinator who covers your
area (if any), which may take longer.
2.2 If you are going down
If your node will be down for an extended period (more than a day or
___________________
two), then you should inform your coordinator as soon as possible. If
you do not do this, then other systems will still try to reach you
__ ___ _____
while you are down, much to the annoyance of everyone. Do not under
___ _____________
any circumstances put an answering machine or similar device on your
phone line while you are down. If you do, then calling systems will
get the machine repeatedly, racking up large phone bills, which is
____
very annoying. See the section on Resolution of Disputes for details
on what happens to annoying people.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 13 26 Aug 1996
If your system goes down without warning, then you may be placed in
the dog house, or even removed from the node list completely.
2.3 How to join a network
If you are an independent node and would like to join a network in
your area, you must contact the network coordinator. He can be
reached by sending FidoNet mail to node zero of the network. He will
inform you of any special mail schedules and/or routing required by
the network. Your regional coordinator will contact you to confirm
that you wish to join the network. Once you have been placed in the
network, you will be informed by the network coordinator.
There are many advantages to being in a regional network. First and
foremost is that it helps reduce congestion of FidoNet during National
Mail Hour. Also, many nets are "outbound" as well as "inbound", which
can substantially reduce your phone bills. In addition, network
members receive regular updates of the node list and Fidonews, while
an independent node may not.
2.4 How to form a network
If there are several nodes in your area, but no regional network, then
you may wish to form your own. Again, this has several advantages as
outlined above.
Your first step is to contact the other sysops in your area. You must
decide which nodes will comprise the network, and which of those nodes
is going to be the network coordinator. Your next step is to inform
your regional coordinator. You must send him a FidoNet message with
the following information:
1) The region number(s), or network number(s) if a network is
splitting up, that are affected by the formation of your network.
The regional coordinator will inform the national coordinator and
the coordinators of any affected networks that a new network is in
formation.
2) The name that you wish to call your network. Please try to select
a name that relates to your grouping. For example, SoCalNet for
nodes in the Southern California Area and MassNet for
Massachusettes Area. Remember if you call yourself DOGNET it
doesn't help others know what area of the country (or even what
country) your group is in.
3) A copy of the proposed network's nodelist. The nodelist file
should be named Frrr-nnn.NET where rrr is the proposed host's
current region or network number and nnn is his current node
number. For example, if the proposed host is currently listed as
node 5 in region 13, then you would name the file F013-005.NET.
This file should be sent attached to the message of application for
a Network Number.
SAMPLE FORMAT OF A Frrr-nnn.NET FILE
Host,xxx,St_Louis_Area, St_Louis_MO,Ken_Kaplan, 1-314-432-4129,2400
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 14 26 Aug 1996
Pvt ,076,Ben's_Bakery, Godfrey_IL, Ben_Baker, -Unpublished-, 1200
Down,482,Dirty_Ole_Man, Wood_Riv_IL,Ervin_Cole, 1-618-254-2763,1200
Down,004,Bulldog, St_Louis_MO,Tony_Clark, 1-314-441-9297,2400
,010,MDC_RCC, St_Louis_MO,Terry_Mueller, 1-314-232-6881,2400
,016,Mikes_Board, St_Louis_MO,Mike_Mellinger,1-314-726-3448,2400
Down,017,DCA_BBS, St_Louis_MO,Jon_Wichman, 1-314-962-2751,1200
Hold,022,PCLUG, St_Louis_MO,Ken_Kaplan, 1-314-576-2743,2400
,051,DECUS_Central, St_Louis_MO,Ken_Kaplan, 1-314-432-4129,2400
,339,Midnight_Cnct, St_Louis_MO,Ray_Weil, 1-314-961-1585,1200
Pvt ,492,Neu's_Node, Omaha_NB, Paul_Neu, -Unpublished-, 2400
Pvt ,500,Alex'_Fido, St_Louis_MO,Alex_Hartley, -Unpublished-, 1200
,501,ZIGGY's_Castle,Fenton_MO, Mike_Cravens, 1-314-225-9684,1200
,502,ALADINs_Castle,St_Louis_MO,Bob_Russ, 1-314-741-3050,1200
When the international coordinator receives the above items from the
regional coordinator, the information received will be verified and a
network number assigned. The regional coordinator will send a FidoNet
mail message to all affected telling them the assigned network number.
______
Do not send a network number request to the international coordinator.
____
All network number requests must be processed by the regional
coordinator first.
Chapter 3
NETWORK COORDINATOR PROCEDURES
A network coordinator has the following responsibilities:
1) To receive incoming mail for nodes in his network, and to deliver
it to its recipients.
2) To assign node numbers to nodes in his network.
3) To maintain the node list for his network, and to send a copy of it
to the international coordinator whenever it changes.
4) To pass along to his nodes new national node lists and new issues
of FidoNews as they are received.
5) To forward newsletter submissions to the FidoNews publisher.
3.1 Routing inbound mail
It is your responsibility as network coordinator to receive all
inbound mail for nodes in your network and to forward it to its
recipients. You are left to your own discretion as to how best to
accomplish this.
There are certain exceptions to this, however. If a node in your
network is sending and receiving inordinately large volumes of mail
you can request that he cease and desist. If he refuses to do so,
then you can request your regional coordinator to assign the node a
number as an independent and drop him from your node list.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 15 26 Aug 1996
There are two main reasons why a node might generate exceptionally
large volumes of mail. Once in awhile a node will try to make a
"bombing run" (sending one message to a great many nodes). If these
are being routed through your outbound host, then you can request that
he cease and desist, on pain of excommunication. If a node in another
network is making bombing runs on your nodes and routing them through
your inbound host, then you can complain to the network and/or
regional coordinator of the offending node. Bombing runs are
considered to be annoying, and may be dealt with accordingly.
The other common source of routing overload is EchoMail. EchoMail is
a nice invention, and offers great benefits, but it cannot be allowed
to degrade the ability of the network hosts to handle normal message
traffic. If a node in your network is routing large volumes of
EchoMail, you can ask him to either limit the amount of EchoMail, or
even to stop routing his EchoMail completely. The design of EchoMail
is such that it is a simple matter to do either of these.
3.2 Assigning node numbers
It is your responsibility to assign node numbers to new nodes in your
network. You may also change the numbers of existing nodes in your
network, though you should check with your member nodes before doing
so. You may assign any numbers you wish, so long as each node has a
unique number within your network.
You should not assign a node number to any system unless and until you
have received a formal request from that system by FidoNet mail. This
will ensure that the system is at least minimally operational. The
strict maintenance of this policy has been one of the great strengths
of FidoNet.
3.3 Maintaining the node list
You should attempt to implement name changes, phone number changes,
etc. in your node list as soon as possible, and to forward the revised
node list to the international coordinator whenever a change occurs.
You should also on occasion send a "broadcast message" to every node
in your network to ensure that they are still operational. If a node
turns out to be "off the air" with no prior warning given to you, then
you can either mark the node as down, place it in the dog house, or
remove it from the node list completely, at your own discretion.
If a node in your network is acting in a sufficiently annoying manner,
then you can take whatever action you deem fit, according to the
circumstances of the case.
3.4 Passing along node lists and FidoNews
As a network coordinator you should from time to time receive a new
issue of FidoNews or an updated node list. The node list is posted
weekly on Friday, and FidoNews is published weekly on Monday.
You should pass both of these along to your member nodes as soon as is
practical after you receive them. It is also desirable that you make
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 16 26 Aug 1996
them both available for downloading by the general user, but this is
not required.
FidoNews and the node lists are the glue that holds us together.
Without them, we cease to be a community, and become just another
bunch of bulletin boards.
3.5 Forwarding newsletter submissions
The node list gives us our structure, but FidoNews gives us our
character. FidoNews is the primary medium by which sysops hear from
each other. It is FidoNews which gives us the sense of being a
community of people with common interests.
Accordingly, you should encourage sysops and users in your network to
contribute to FidoNews. If you receive any submissions, you should
forward them to the FidoNews publisher. Think of yourself as being a
regional bureau chief on the FidoNews editorial staff.
Chapter 4
REGIONAL COORDINATOR PROCEDURES
A regional coordinator has the following responsibilities:
1) To assign node numbers to independent nodes in his region.
2) To maintain the node list for his region, and to send a copy of it
to the international coordinator whenever it changes.
3) To encourage independent nodes in his region to join existing
networks, or to form new networks.
4) To pass along to inbound hosts in his region new international node
lists and new issues of FidoNews as they are received.
5) To forward newsletter submissions to the FidoNews publisher.
4.1 Assigning node numbers
It is your responsibility to assign node numbers to new nodes in your
region. You may also change the numbers of existing nodes in your
region, though you should check with the respective nodes before doing
so. You may assign any numbers you wish, so long as each node has a
unique number within your region.
You should not assign a node number to any system unless and until you
have received a formal request from that system by FidoNet mail. This
will ensure that the system is at least minimally operational. The
strict maintenance of this policy has been one of the great strengths
of FidoNet.
If you receive a node number request from a new node that is in an
area covered by an existing regional network, then you should forward
the request to the network host instead of assigning a number
yourself.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 17 26 Aug 1996
4.2 Maintaining the node list
You should attempt to implement name changes, phone number changes,
and so forth in your node list as soon as possible, and to forward the
revised node list to the international coordinator whenever a change
occurs.
You should also on occasion send a "broadcast message" to every node
in your region to ensure that they are still operational. If a node
turns out to be "off the air" with no prior warning given to you, then
you can either mark the node as down, place it in the dog house, or
remove it from the node list completely, at your own discretion.
If a node in your region is acting in a sufficiently annoying manner,
then you can take whatever action you deem fit, according to the
circumstances of the case.
4.3 Encouraging the formation and growth of networks
One of your main duties as a regional coordinator is to promote the
growth of networks in your region.
You should try to avoid having independent nodes in your region which
are within the coverage area of a regional network. There are,
___
however, certain cases where a node should not be a member of a
network, such as a commercial system with a large volume of traffic
which would clog the network. The resolution of such special cases is
left to your own discretion.
If several independent nodes in your region are in a "clump", then you
should encourage them to form a regional network. Refer to the sysop
procedure on forming a regional network for details of what
information you should get.
Note that this does not mean to encourage the formation of trivial
networks. Obviously, one node does not make a network. The exact
number of nodes required for an effective network must be judged
according to the circumstances of the situation, and is left to your
own discretion.
4.4 Passing along node lists and Fidonews
As a regional coordinator, you should from time to time receive a new
issue of FidoNews or an updated node list. The node list is posted
weekly on Friday, and FidoNews is published weekly on Monday.
You should pass both of these along to any network hosts in your
___
region as soon as is practical after you receive them. You are not
required to mail them to any independent nodes in your region, though
you may if you wish. It is also desirable that you make them both
available for downloading by the general user, but this is not
required.
4.5 Forwarding newsletter submissions
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 18 26 Aug 1996
You should encourage sysops and users in your region to contribute to
FidoNews. If you receive any submissions, you should forward them to
the FidoNews publisher. Think of yourself as being a regional bureau
chief on the FidoNews editorial staff.
Chapter 5
INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR PROCEDURES
The international coordinator for FidoNet has the primary task of
maintaining the master node list, as well as the node list for
region 1. From this are derived several additional responsibilities
and powers. However, these powers are rarely (if ever) used. The
___
international coordinator is very much King Log, not King Stork.
The international coordinator, if he acts at all, will normally
restrict himself to negotiating with the parties involved in an
attempt to achieve a peaceful resolution.
If a system has been dropped from the node list, and can present a
sufficiently convincing case to the international coordinator, then he
can be granted status as an "independent at large" in region 1.
In an extreme case, the international coordinator can order the
disbanding of a regional net, or can assign a new coordinator for a
region, but this is highly unlikely. The international coordinator
____
will only take such action in an extreme situation which threatens the
existence and integrity of FidoNet.
___________________
The international coordinator will take no action at all unless all
other means of settlement have already been tried. His first step in
resolving any dispute will be to contact the regional coordinators and
network coordinators involved. If they have not been consulted by the
injured party or otherwise made aware of the situation, then the
complaint will be dismissed out of hand.
________________
He will also take no action unless in his opinion the matter is
serious enough to warrant his attention.
If all means of recourse have been tried to no avail, and if the
international coordinator feels that the situation is grave enough to
____
warrant his intervention, then and only then he will intercede and
take whatever action he feels is appropriate, at his own discretion.
Chapter 6
RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES
The world not being perfect, sometimes troubles crop up. Any
organization larger than a cub scout pack needs some sort of grievance
procedure, and FidoNet is no exception.
The FidoNet judicial philosophy can be summed up in two rules:
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 19 26 Aug 1996
1) Thou shalt not excessively annoy others.
2) Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
In other words, there are no hard and fast rules of conduct, but
____
reasonably polite behavior is expected. Also, in any dispute both
sides are examined, and action could be taken against either or both
parties. ("Judge not, lest ye be judged!")
6.1 Problems with another node
If you are having problems with another node, you should complain to
your network coordinator and/or his network coordinator. If one or
both of you is not in a network, then complain to the appropriate
regional coordinator.
6.2 Problems with a network coordinator
If you are having problems with your network coordinator and feel that
you are not being treated properly, there are a few things you can do.
The first step is to contact your regional coordinator. If he feels
that your case has merit, and cannot resolve it in any other way, then
he may grant you independent status. You will then no longer be a
part of the regional network, and will probably no longer receive
FidoNews and node list updates, so don't ask unless you are sure you
want out.
If you fail to obtain relief from your regional coordinator, then you
can appeal to the international coordinator.
6.3 Problems with a regional coordinator
If you are having problems with your regional coordinator, then you
should first try to join or form a regional network in your area. If
this fails, you can appeal to the international coordinator.
6.4 Problems with the international coordinator
If you are having problems with the international coordinator, then
you are out of luck. You can either live with it, drop out and forget
it, or join with some friends and start another mail system of your
own.
6.5 Appeals to the international coordinator
If you are unable to obtain relief from your regional coordinator,
then you can appeal to the international coordinator. If your case is
sufficiently extreme and meritorious, then you may be granted status
as an "independent at large" (that is, an independent in region 1, not
a part of any network or region).
This is an extreme case, and has never actually come to pass thus far.
The international coordinator has broad and sweeping powers which he
almost never uses. You should be very, very sure of the strength of
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 20 26 Aug 1996
your case before going this far.
Also, the first step taken by the international coordinator in
investigating any dispute is to contact any regional coordinators and
network coordinators concerned. If you have not followed the proper
channels, then your case will be dismissed out of hand. In other
words, don't go to the international coordinator until you have tried
__________
everything else.
6.6 Case Histories
A few actual case histories of past disputes may be instructive to
show general procedures and methods. Names have been left out to
protect the guilty.
6.6.1 The Case of the Crooked Node
A sysop of a local node was using network mail to engage in unethical
business practices. His network coordinator became very annoyed at
this, and dropped the local from his node list.
The local appealed to his regional coordinator for assignment as an
independent node. The regional coordinator, on checking with the
network coordinator, decided that the network coordinator was within
his rights to be annoyed. Independent status was denied.
The international coordinator did not intervene.
6.6.2 The Case of the Hacker Mailer
A sysop of a local node made use of file attaches for extra users to
mail himself the USER.BBS file from several local boards. The sysops
of these boards felt annoyed at this, and appealed to their network
coordinator, who agreed and dropped the offending node from the node
list.
The regional coordinator was not consulted.
The international coordinator did not intervene.
6.6.3 The Case of the Network Mutiny
Several local nodes became annoyed with their network coordinator for
failing to provide services. They complained to him, but nothing was
done.
They appealed to their regional coordinator, who decided that they
were justified in their annoyance and accepted their application for a
new network number.
The international coordinator assigned the network number, based on
the regional coordinator's recommendation.
6.6.4 The Case of the Bothered Barker
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 21 26 Aug 1996
A local node became annoyed with his network coordinator for failing
to provide services. Repeated complaints to his network coordinator
did not satisfy him, so he appealed to the international coordinator.
The international coordinator, on seeing that the regional coordinator
had not been consulted, dismissed the complaint out of hand.
The local node submitted his complaint to his regional coordinator,
who investigated the case and discovered that there was some justice
to the complaint. He advised and assisted the network coordinator in
configuring his system to provide an improved level of service to the
local nodes.
The regional coordinator also decided that the local node was being
too easily annoyed, in that he was expecting services not normally
required of a network coordinator. The local node was informed as to
the true duties of a network coordinator, and was advised to lower his
expectations.
6.6.5 The Case of the Busy Beaver
A local node which was operated by a retail establishment was engaged
in making "bombing runs" to mail advertisements over FidoNet. His
network coordinator felt annoyed and handling the outgoing traffic for
a commercial operation, and asked the local node to leave the network.
The local node applied to the regional coordinator, and was granted
status as an independent node in his region.
6.6.6 The Mark of the Devil
A local sysop whose board was used in conjunction with voodoo rites,
hacking, phreaking, and obscene material applied to a network
coordinator for a node number. The network coordinator deemed that
this board was exceptionally annoying, and denied the request.
The regional coordinator was not consulted.
The national coordinator dismissed the case out of hand.
6.6.7 The Case of the Sysop Twit
A patron of various local nodes had been roundly recognized by all
sysops as a twit. The user obtained his own system, became a sysop,
and applied for a node number. The network coordinator denied the
request. No appeals were made.
6.6.8 The Case of the EchoMail Junkey key key
A local node became enamored with EchoMail and joined several
conferences, routing his outbound mail through his regional network.
He then started an EchoMail conference of his own and began relaying
EchoMail between several systems, again routing it all through his
regional network.
His network coordinator observed that network performance was becoming
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 22 26 Aug 1996
seriously impaired. The offending node was told to hold it down. A
compromise was reached whereby much of the EchoMail traffic was no
longer routed through the regional network, and routed EchoMail was
limited to twenty messages per night. No appeals were made.
Chapter 7
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MEETINGS
The International FidoNet Association (IFNA) is a non-profit
corporation. As such, it must from time to time hold a business
meeting for the election of officers and for general network business.
These meetings will be held at approximately yearly intervals, as
scheduled by the international coordinator.
Every FidoNet system is considered to be a member of IFNA. Members
are grouped according to their network or region, with each network
and region receiving one vote.
Every network and region coordinator should attempt to attend each
business meeting. If it is not possible for a coordinator to attend,
then he should designate a member of his network or region to go and
vote on behalf of the network or region. Any network or region that
does not have a designated representative present at the meeting will
lose its vote.
Each coordinator should send a message by FidoNet mail to the
international coordinator stating who (if anyone) will be voting on
behalf of the region or network at the meeting.
Any IFNA member who has anything he would like discussed at the
business meeting should send a message by FidoNet mail to the
international coordinator, who will schedule topics for discussion and
motions to be voted on.
[end of Policy 2 document]
[notice the much less uptight and less restrictive language of this
version compared to many parts of the current Policy document. Where
did we go wrong?] Ed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 23 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
REVIEWS
=================================================================
Six Mail Processors Reviewed [II]
Damian Walker, 2:2502/666
This is the second of my six-part series of articles which looks at
six mail processors. Last week's article looked at FastEcho, and this
week's article is about GEcho. A full feature table for all six mail
processors will be produced in the sixth article.
GECHO
GEcho is a popular mail processor written by Gerard van der Land.
The version I have here is 1.00 which, to my knowledge, is the latest
evaluation version despite its 1992 release date. Later versions
include 1.11+ (registered users only) and 1.20/Pro (commercial
version).
First Impressions
The first thing which strikes me as I unpack GEcho is the age of
the evaluation version. While GEcho 1.00 is a fully working piece of
software (with the traditional shareware messages and some shareware
limitations), the fact that it hasn't been updated with the shareware
versions means that it probably doesn't give a good idea of the
registered program's capabilities.
The main thing which strikes first time sysops of modern systems
is the lack of support for any of the more advanced message bases such
as JAM or Squish which are common in Fidonet systems today. You're
limited to Hudson or *.MSG.
This is fine for points, but it is of little use for sysops who
want to evaluate the package on large systems with a busy message
base. For this reason, such sysops may pass GEcho over entirely, even
though later versions are far more versatile in message base support.
Another feature conspicuous by its absence is automatic creation
of unknown areas when mail is received in them. Although GEcho is
very easy to set up, the fact that new areas have to be added manually
may put points off using the software.
These gripes can be put into perspective when you consider that
this is the evaluation version of GEcho. However, it would have been
useful to have a more up to date evaluation version available, even if
all features over and above those in 1.00 were disabled; this would
allow sysops to see the potential of the registered package.
Now that the advanced age of the package has been discussed at
length, let's not dwell on it further, but instead, see what the
package is capable of.
On Further Examination...
Upon loading and using the setup program, one thing which I found
pleasing was the clean interface. Although rather spartan in
comparison with the other packages, the GEcho interface is consistent
and very easy to use.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 24 26 Aug 1996
What is slightly disappointing is the lack of 'hot keys' in the
menu interface. Each option must be selected using the cursor keys
and ENTER; there are no single-letter keypresses to choose options in
a menu.
In common with most other Fidonet-related software, fields in a
data entry screen are amended by highlighting their field names and
pressing ENTER before typing or selecting a new value for the field.
This contrasts to the method FastEcho uses, where the cursor always
sits in a field, and the up/down/enter/tab keys are used to navigate
from one field to another, rather like a standard GUI interface.
The method GEcho uses, whilst a little more cumbersome, is
slightly more consistent. Merely moving past a multiple choice field
does not invoke its menu, as with FastEcho; this allows easier
navigation of a screen when only one or two fields need to be changed;
you can move up and down through the fields using the cursor keys
without inadvertently changing them.
There is a help system with GEcho, which is context sensetive, but
it is not a hypertext system like those used by FastEcho and IMail.
Instead, it merely allows you to view the relevant part of the manual
in a window, which is not quite as helpful. However, full text search
facilities are present, and you can scroll the window to view any part
of the manual.
Speaking of documentation... The manual for GEcho is quite clear
and comprehensive. It is rather slim, but this is to be expected with
the age of the evaluation package and the lack of advanced features.
Only the addition of an index would serve to improve it.
One feature present in GEcho, which of the packages reviewed here
only FastEcho shares, is a description import feature. Having
imported an AREAS.BBS (as I often do), you find your area database
lacking descriptions. GCONVERT, a bundled utility, comes to the
rescue, with a feature which takes a standard echo list and imports a
descriptions for every echo entry currently lacking one (ie. entries
which already have a description are left alone).
People are occasionally in doubt about this feature's usefulness,
so a little example by way of explanation might be in order. The
region 25 backbone currently has around 550-600 echoes, which I have
access to. My downlinks and I only take around 150 of these, but I
still like to have all 550-600 echoes in my echo database so that
downlinks get a complete list of available echoes when they issue a
%LIST to AreaFix (most packages only list echoes in your echo
database, even if requests for other areas can be forwarded). The
ability to import areas from an AREAS.BBS, then import descriptions
from an echolist, is therefore invaluable for those wishing to provide
a complete %LIST to their points and downlinks.
Another feature important to many sysops is the ability to import
personal netmail which has been read or sent, into special message
areas. This differs from the normal netmail import feature in that it
imports netmails with the Sent flag into a 'Sent Netmail' area, and
netmails with the Rcvd flag into a 'Received Netmail' area. This is
useful if you (as the sysop of your node or point) want to keep your
netmail correspondence for future reference without having to manually
forward messages into a certain area once you've read (or posted)
them.
GEcho has a good AreaFix system. In keeping with the rest of the
package, it is short on the advanced features of more modern
evaluation packages, but it contains all the necessary features for a
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 25 26 Aug 1996
full node, such as echo grouping (with the ability to restrict access
to special groups such as sysop areas), forwarding requests to
uplinks, and a full set of areafix commands. Read-only access is not
present, however; a node or point either has full access to an echo
group or none at all.
One impressive aspect of the package is its speed. The evaluation
package is only an 8086 executable (ie. no fancy DPMI or 386
instructions), yet in the Hudson message toss test it was second only
to FMailX, itself a 386 executable. This is surprising for a package
which was released in 1992, and the later versions of the program are
reputed to be even faster.
The exact timing for a message toss of 91 echomail messages into
a newly created Hudson message base is 9 seconds, including the time
it took to unarchive the messages. The same archive took only 11
seconds to be tossed into previously empty *.MSG areas.
(For readers in doubt as to the impressiveness of such speeds,
take note of the humble hardware the tests have been performed on--
this is more fully detailed in the first article in this series).
Summary
Despite the age of the evaluation package, GEcho has some
impressive attributes. If the cleanliness and consistency of its
interface are not enough, then its speed will impress. However, the
age of the evaluation version, and its lack of general features,
detract from its attractiveness.
Unless you know someone running the registered version of GEcho,
you can't be sure of what features the current registered version
possesses, and how well they work. A more up to date evaluation
package is sorely needed, even if it only displays the more advanced
features of the modern package in registered-user-only form.
In next week's Fidonews you should see the third part of this
series, in which I poke and prod Folkert J Wijnstra's FMail echomail
processor software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 26 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
COORDINATORS CORNER
=================================================================
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 236
By Ward Dossche, 2:292/854
ZC/2
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|Zone|Nl-208|Nodelist-215|Nodelist-222|Nodelist-229|Nodelist-236|%%|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 1 | 12786|12691 -95 |12622 -69 |12530 -92 |12435 -95 |39|
| 2 | 16462|16462 0 |16426 -36 |16408 -18 |16391 -17 |52|
| 3 | 1023| 1023 0 | 1023 0 | 1023 0 | 969 -54 | 3|
| 4 | 636| 637 1 | 637 0 | 637 0 | 638 1 | 2|
| 5 | 99| 99 0 | 99 0 | 99 0 | 99 0 | 0|
| 6 | 1018| 1018 0 | 1020 2 | 1020 0 | 1020 0 | 3|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 32024|31930 -94 |31827 -103 |31717 -110 |31552 -165 |
+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 27 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
ECHOING
=================================================================
--- Following message extracted from FN_SYSOP @ 1:374/14 ---
By Christopher Baker on Sun Aug 25 19:33:45 1996
From: Lisa Gronke
To: All
Date: 22 Aug 96 10:47:38
Subj: REC 17 Election
* Forwarded (from: RGN17-ADMIN) by Lisa Gronke
* Originally from Dallas Hinton (1:17/0) to All.
* Original dated: Thu Aug 15, 22:11
Hi All!
List of Candidates for REC 17 position (in alphabetical order):
1) John Mudge (352/0, 352/111)
2) Bob Seaborn (140/1, 140/12)
===================
As previously stated, voting may now begin. Bob and John may, if they
wish, post a message (each) describing their qualifications,
experience, etc. If you wish to ask questions of either gentleman,
you're welcome to do so in RGN17-ADMIN. Please remember that there
may be a considerable time lag since both John and Bob are LD from me
and don't call for mail every day.
I would like to see netmail ballots from each NC, each NEC, and each
RHUB containing the name of their candidate of choice from the above
list. All ballots received at either 153/715 or 17/0 before 00:01 PST
on Thursday August 29th, 1996 will be counted.
Ballots should contain a password which I will use for confirmation
when I post results. Only the first received ballot per person will
be accepted.
Results
=======
The winning candidate will be selected by a simple majority of votes.
The results of the vote will be announced no later than September 5th,
1996. If a majority of votes clearly favor one candidate before this
date, then that candidate may be declared the REC without waiting for
the close of voting.
If a runoff is needed, I'll post the guidelines at that time.
My thanks to both Bob and John for letting their names stand -- good
luck to you both!
Region 17 -- working together to make FidoNet better!
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 28 26 Aug 1996
Cheers... Dallas
RC17
Origin: EastSide Data Services (1:105/61)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 29 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================
Who is Dr. Internet?
From: "Mike Riddle" <mriddle@monarch.papillion.ne.us>
To: "Baker, Christopher" <cbaker84@digital.net (Christopher Baker)>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 96 09:01:32 -0500
Reply-To: "Mike Riddle" <mriddle@monarch.papillion.ne.us>
Subject: Re: [Fwd: The New Dr. Internet]
On Wed, 24 Jul 1996 19:30:56 -0500, jenniferrose wrote:
From: Humor Net <rustin@prolog.net>
X-Sender: rustin@ns1.ptd.net
Subject: The New Dr. Internet
I have been alerted to the presence of a "Dr. Internet" column which
claims to be authoritative, but in fact contains several errors. This
alternate version obviates this difficulty by making no such claim,
but does try to project the aura of quiet wisdom found in the original
"Ask Dr. Science." It was apparently written by our overnight janitor
one evening when I forgot to logoff. (Yeah, that's the ticket.)
1. How big is the Internet? When did it start? How did it grow?
The Internet is actually much smaller than most people think. It
is primarily composed of fiber optic cables no thicker than a
human hair, which can be conveniently rolled up and stored in a
foot locker. Janitors at the National Science Foundation do this
on the third Tuesday of every month when they wax the floors.
Since fiber optics are the size of human hairs, they also make
attractive wigs. The next time you watch a Sprint commercial,
you'll see that Candice Bergen's alleged hair is really the T4
backbone.
The earliest origins of the Internet can be traced to Ancient
Greece, where a loosely connected set of networks was used to
discuss exploration in the Black Sea. The Argonets, as they were
then called, were entirely subsidized by the government, and won
one of William Proxmire's first Golden Fleece awards.
The Internet grows hyperbolically, but is usually described
elliptically.
2. Who owns the Internet?
There is no one person or agency that owns the Internet. Instead,
parts of it are owned by the Illuminati and parts are owned by
Free Masons.
3. What do the Internet addresses mean?
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 30 26 Aug 1996
Precise meanings are often hard to determine. The address
baker.lib.washington.edu--which is sometimes written
baker@lib.washington.edu--seems to refer to a computer either
owned by a baker or by someone named Baker. This can be deceiving
however; names like this actually refer to where a computer is
located. This one is on top of Mt. Baker.
In addition to names, computers on the Internet also have numbers.
This is part of the whole right brain/left brain thing.
4. Tell me how to get on and off various lists and discussion groups.
Getting off on various lists is currently the subject of pending
legislation.
5. What is "Netiquette?"
"Netiquette" is one of many cutesy neologisms created by combining
two other words. In this case, "network" and "tourniquette"
combine to describe a program that shuts down a computer if it
starts transmitting information too fast.
6. What is "Flaming?"
Along with an improvisational approach to floating point
arithmetic, early Pentium chips were noted for generating heat.
While some hackers speak fondly of roasting marshmallows over
their first P60s, others found themselves badly singed as the
chips caught fire. This "flaming" sometimes occurred while the
user was composing e-mail, resulting in poorly chosen or
excessively vitriolic verbiage.
7. What is "Bandwidth?"
As capacity on the Internet has increased, people have begun to
transmit material other than simple text. One notable example is
audio recordings of rock concerts. These audio files are much
larger than even very long books, so they have become a standard
unit of network usage. One Rolling Stone song equals one "band"
width, and so on.
8. Why can't I FTP to some places?
There are two main reasons for this. The first is that the site
you want to ftp files from is exercising a certain degree of
control over its network resources; in network parlance, this is
called "fascism."
The second reason is that the remote site may be dabbling with
such network fads as gopher or the World Wide Web. This is called
"keeping up with the times."
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 31 26 Aug 1996
9. What is the World Wide Web, Gopherspace, etc?
The World Wide Web, or WWW, is an experiment in generating
acronyms that are much more difficult to pronounce than the words
they replace.
Gopherspace is an older network term. In response to the Soviet
space program's early use of dogs in space, NASA mounted a program
to orbit a number of different rodents. The programmers involved
in this project adopted the motto "Gophers in space!" which has
since been shortened. The only actual gopher to go into orbit had
been digging up the carrots in Werner Von Braun's garden, and was
named Veronica after his daughter.
10. Why can't I get some WWW stuff via FTP?
It can be hard to say this, but some users of the Internet are
unable to do things because they are stupid. The comparatively
trivial task of getting an ftp client to do every single thing a
WWW browser can do is beneath this column's attention.
Tune in next time for Ask Dr. Internet--
"I have a master's degree....in Internet!"
Dr. Internet, Master of All Knowledge
Benedictine On the Rocks With a Twist
No official connection to Dr. Science
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
* Courtesy of: 'Here Comes Treble' *
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
/~\ /~\ Compliments of: "WEIRD THINGS" /~\ /~\
/~~~\ /~~~\ `````````````````````````````````` /~~~\ /~~~\
_/~~~~~\_/~~~~~\___Yet Another HUMOR NET Mailing!___/~~~~~\_/~~~~~\_
| ~~~~~~~ A Time Wasting Service of Rustin Kreider ~~~~~~~ |
Direct SUBSCRIPTION and other /~~\ HUMOR NET is a daily humor service
\ information requests to: / Ho \ Your comments and submissions /
\ rustin@prolog.net / Hooo \ of HUMOR are very welcome. /
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 32 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
COMIX IN ASCII
=================================================================
Date: 03 Mar 94 22:14:36
From: Bob Madden
To: All
Subj: Comedy Relief
_____________________________________________________________________
[the Meadow replaced with FN_SYSOP] Ed.
Hello All!
.------.. _------__--___.__.
/ \_ / ` ` \
/ \ |. \
/ \ \ |
/ .--._ .---. | \ |
| / -__- \ | ~-/--`-`-`-\ |
| | | | | \ |
|| || | | |
|| ,_ _. || Heh heh heh.. | | |
|| e e || Hey Beavis, | _-- | |
|| _ |_ || Ain't FN_SYSOP _| =-. |.-. |
@| (o\_/o) |@ gettin a little o|/o/ _. |
| _____ | too serious? / ~ \ |
\ ( /uuuuu\ ) / (/___@) ___~ |
\ `=====' / Heh huh |_===~~~.` |
\ -___- / Fer sur... _______.--~ |
| | Dill Hole \________ |
/-_____-\ \ |
/ \ __/-___-- -__
/ \ / __\
/__| AC / DC |__\ -| Metallica|| |
| || || | || || |
| || || | || || |
| || || | / | / /
Origin: Bob's BBS * San Diego * 619-222-1202 * (1:202/921)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 33 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
=================================================================
We've found the source of all the old FidoNews Issues. I now have a
request to find the source of all the old Nodelists.
The Question of the Week is:
Do you have old Nodelists and where and how do we get them?
As always, send your answers in Netmail, the FIDONEWS Echo, email, or
as articles to FidoNews. See the Masthead for contact info.
Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 34 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
Future History
2 Sep 1996
Jo Ann KING Hodgens receives greetings from husband Rick on the
occasion of her birthday.
12 Oct 1996
General Elections, New Zealand.
29 Oct 1996
Republic Day, Turkey.
5 Nov 1996
Election day, U.S.A.
5 Nov 1996
Guy Fawkes Day, England.
1 Dec 1996
Twelfth Anniversary of FidoNews Volume 1, Issue 1.
12 Dec 1996
Constitution Day, Russia
26 Jan 1997
Australia Day, Australia.
6 Feb 1997
Waitangi Day, New Zealand.
16 Feb 1997
Eleventh Anniversary of invention of Echomail by Jeff Rush.
29 Feb 1997
Nothing will happen on this day.
11 Jun 1997
Independence Day, Russia
26 Jul 1997
FidoNews Editor turns 48.
6 Dec 1997
Gallileo takes close-ups of Europa to resolution
of 11 meters at the north pole.
1 Dec 1998
Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by
Tom Jennings.
15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 35 26 Aug 1996
-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 36 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING
=================================================================
Latest Greatest Software Versions
by Peter E. Popovich, 1:363/264
Not much to say this week.
Phase-out highlights:
This week: Aurora 1.32b. Deadline for info: 6 Sep 1996.
Last week: ADTBBS 1.50. Deadline for info: 30 Aug 1996.
-=- Snip -=-
Submission form for the Latest Greatest Software Versions column
OS Platform :
Software package name :
Version :
Function(s) - BBS, Mailer, Tosser, etc. :
Freeware / Shareware / Commercial? :
Author / Support staff contact name :
Author / Support staff contact node :
Magic name (at the above-listed node) :
Please include a sentence describing what the package does.
Please send updates and suggestions to: Peter Popovich, 1:363/264
-=- Snip -=-
MS-DOS:
Program Name Version F S Contact Name Node Magic Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoBBS (tm) 12u B S Ray Brown 1:1/117 FILES
FrontDoor 2.12 M S Joaquim Homrighausen
2:201/330 FD
FrontDoor 2.20c M C Joaquim Homrighausen
2:201/330 FDINFO
GIGO 07-14-96 G S Jason Fesler 1:1/141 GIGO
Imail 1.75 T S Michael McCabe 1:297/11 IMAIL
InfoMail 1.11 O F Damian Walker 2:2502/666 INFOMAIL
InterEcho 1.19 T C Peter Stewart 1:369/35 IEDEMO
InterMail 2.29k M C Peter Stewart 1:369/35 IMDEMO
InterPCB 1.52 O S Peter Stewart 1:369/35 INTERPCB
IPNet 1.11 O S Michele Stewart 1:369/21 IPNET
McMail g5 M S Michael McCabe 1:1/148 MCMAIL
Opus CBCS 1.73a B P Christopher Baker 1:374/14 OPUS
PlatinumXpress 1.1 M C Gary Petersen 1:290/111 PX11TD.ZIP
Silver Xpress
Door 5.4 O S Gary Petersen 1:290/111 FILES
Reader 4.3 O S Gary Petersen 1:290/111 SXR43.ZIP
Windows (32-bit apps):
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 37 26 Aug 1996
Program Name Version F S Contact Name Node Magic Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PlatinumXpress 2.00 M C Gary Petersen 1:290/111 PXW-INFO
Unix:
Program Name Version F S Contact Name Node Magic Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ifmail 2.8e M G Pablo Saratxaga 2:293/2219 IFMAIL
ifmail-tx 2.8e-tx7.6 M G Pablo Saratxaga 2:293/2219 IFMAILTX
F: B-BBS, M-Mailer, N-Nodelist, G-Gateway, T-Tosser, C-Compression,
O-Other. Note: Multifunction will be listed by the first match.
S: P-Free for personal use, F-Freeware, S-Shareware, C-Commercial,
X-Crippleware, G-Source
Other info (pending verification or other work on my end):
MS-DOS:
Remove Tritel 2.0; Add TriBBS 10.0, TriToss 10.0, and TriDog 10.0
by Mark Goodwin 1:328/104, shareware
Update: D-Bridge 1.58, BinkleyTerm 2.60, ARJ 2.50,
ARC 6.02 (7.12 commercial), PKZIP 2.04g
Investigate: Xlax 2.54 (need clarification, XlaxDiff is up to 2.57)
Add: Announcer by Peter Karlsson, 2:204/145.42
MORON and QRATIO by Melle Koning, 2:281/731.29
Old info from: 01/27/92
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MS-DOS Systems
--------------
BBS Software NodeList Utilities Compression
Name Version Name Version Utilities
-------------------- -------------------- Name Version
ADTBBS 1.50@ EditNL 4.00 --------------------
Aurora 1.32b FDND 1.10 ARC 7.12
DMG 2.93 MakeNL 2.31 ARJ 2.20
DreamBBS 1.05 Parselst 1.33 LHA 2.13
Genesis Deluxe 3.2 Prune 1.40 PAK 2.51
GSBBS 3.02 SysNL 3.14 PKPak 3.61
Kitten 1.01 XlatList 2.90 PKZip 1.10
Lynx 1.30 XlaxNode/Diff 2.53
Maximus-CBCS 2.00
Merlin 1.39n
Oracomm 5.M.6P@ Other Utilities(A-M) Other Utilities(N-Z)
Oracomm Plus 6.E@ Name Version Name Version
PCBoard 14.5a -------------------- --------------------
Phoenix 1.07* 2DAPoint 1.50* Netsex 2.00b
ProBoard 1.20* 4Dog/4DMatrix 1.18 OFFLINE 1.35
QuickBBS 2.75 ARCAsim 2.31 Oliver 1.0a
RBBS 17.3b ARCmail 3.00* OSIRIS CBIS 3.02
RemoteAccess 1.11* Areafix 1.20 PKInsert 7.10
SimplexBBS 1.05 ConfMail 4.00 PolyXarc 2.1a
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 38 26 Aug 1996
SLBBS 2.15C* Crossnet 1.5 QM 1.00a
Socrates 1.11 DOMAIN 1.42 QSort 4.04
SuperBBS 1.12* DEMM 1.06 RAD Plus 2.11
SuperComm 0.99 DGMM 1.06 Raid 1.00
TAG 2.5g DOMAIN 1.42 RBBSMail 18.0
TBBS 2.1 EEngine 0.32 ScanToss 1.28
TComm/TCommNet 3.4 EMM 2.11* ScMail 1.00
Telegard 2.7* EZPoint 2.1 ScEdit 1.12
TPBoard 6.1 FGroup 1.00 Sirius 1.0x
TriTel 2.0* FidoPCB 1.0s@ SLMail 2.15C
WildCat! 3.02* FNPGate 2.70 SquishMail 1.00
WWIV 4.20 GateWorks 3.06e StarLink 1.01
XBBS 1.77 GMail 2.05 TagMail 2.41
GMD 3.10 TCOMMail 2.2
GMM 1.21 Telemail 1.5*
Network Mailers GoldEd 2.31p TGroup 1.13
Name Version GROUP 2.23 TIRES 3.11
-------------------- GUS 1.40 TMail 1.21
BinkleyTerm 2.50 Harvey's Robot 4.10 TosScan 1.00
D'Bridge 1.30 HeadEdit 1.18 UFGATE 1.03
Dreamer 1.06 HLIST 1.09 VPurge 4.09e
Dutchie 2.90c ISIS 5.12@ WEdit 2.0@
Milqtoast 1.00 Lola 1.01d WildMail 2.00
PreNM 1.48 Mosaic 1.00b WMail 2.2
SEAdog 4.60 MailBase 4.11a@ WNode 2.1
SEAmail 1.01 MSG 4.5* XRS 4.99
TIMS 1.0(mod8) MSGED 2.06 XST 2.3e
MsgLnk 1.0c YUPPIE! 2.00
MsgMstr 2.03a ZmailH 1.25
MsgNum 4.16d ZSX 2.40
MSGTOSS 1.3
OS/2 Systems
------------
BBS Software Other Utilities(A-M Other Utilities(N-Z)
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Kitten 1.01 ARC 7.12 oMMM 1.52
Maximus-CBCS 2.00 ARC2 6.01 Omail 3.1
SimplexBBS 1.04.02+ ConfMail 4.00 Parselst 1.33
EchoStat 6.0 PKZip 1.02
EZPoint 2.1 PMSnoop 1.30
Network Mailers FGroup 1.00 PolyXOS2 2.1a
Name Version GROUP 2.23 QSort 2.1
-------------------- LH2 2.11 Raid 1.0
BinkleyTerm 2.50 MSG 4.2 Remapper 1.2
BinkleyTerm(S) 2.50 MsgEd 2.06c SquishMail 1.00
BinkleyTerm/2-MT MsgLink 1.0c Tick 2.0
1.40.02 MsgNum 4.16d VPurge 4.09e
SEAmail 1.01
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 39 26 Aug 1996
Xenix/Unix 386
--------------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
ARC 5.21
C-LHARC 1.00
MsgEd 2.06
|Contact: Willy Paine 1:343/15,| MSGLINK 1.01
|or Eddy van Loo 2:285/406 | oMMM 1.42
Omail 1.00
ParseLst 1.32
Unzip 3.10
VPurge 4.08
Zoo 2.01
QNX
---
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
QTach2 1.09 QMM 0.50s Kermit 2.03
QCP 1.02
NodeList Utilities Archive Utilities QSave 3.6
Name Version Name Version QTTSysop 1.07.1
-------------------- -------------------- SeaLink 1.05
QNode 2.09 Arc 6.02 XModem 1.00
LH 1.00.2 YModem 1.01
Unzip 2.01 ZModem 0.02f
Zoo 2.01
Apple II
--------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
DDBBS + 8.0* Fruity Dog 2.0 deARC2e 2.1
GBBS Pro 2.1 ProSel 8.70*
ShrinkIt 3.30*
|Contact: Dennis McClain-Furmanski 1:275/42| ShrinkIt GS 1.04
Apple CP/M
----------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Daisy 2j Daisy Mailer 0.38 Filer 2-D
MsgUtil 2.5
Nodecomp 0.37
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 40 26 Aug 1996
PackUser 4
UNARC.Com 1.20
Macintosh
---------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Software
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
FBBS 0.91 Copernicus 1.0 ArcMac 1.3
Hermes 1.6.1 Tabby 2.2 AreaFix 1.6
Mansion 7.15 Compact Pro 1.30
Precision Sys. 0.95b EventMeister 1.0
Red Ryder Host 2.1 Export 3.21
Telefinder Host Import 3.2
2.12T10 LHARC 0.41
MacArd 0.04
Mantissa 3.21
Point System Mehitable 2.0
Software OriginatorII 2.0
Name Version PreStamp 3.2
-------------------- StuffIt Classic 1.6
Copernicus 1.00 SunDial 3.2
CounterPoint 1.09 TExport 1.92
MacWoof 1.1 TimeStamp 1.6
TImport 1.92
Tset 1.3
TSort 1.0
UNZIP 1.02c
Zenith 1.5
Zip Extract 0.10
Amiga
-----
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Software
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
4D-BBS 1.65 BinkleyTerm 1.00 Areafix 1.48
DLG Pro. 0.96b TrapDoor 1.80 AReceipt 1.5
Falcon CBCS 1.00 WelMat 0.44 ChameleonEdit 0.11
Starnet 1.0q@ ConfMail 1.12
TransAmiga 1.07 ElectricHerald 1.66
XenoLink 1.0 Compression FFRS 1.0@
Utilities FileMgr 2.08
Name Version Fozzle 1.0@
NodeList Utilities -------------------- Login 0.18
Name Version AmigArc 0.23 MessageFilter 1.52
-------------------- booz 1.01 Message View 1.12
ParseLst 1.66 LHARC 1.30 oMMM 1.50
Skyparse 2.30 LhA 1.10 PolyXAmy 2.02
TrapList 1.40 LZ 1.92 RMB 1.30
PkAX 1.00 Roof 46.15
UnZip 4.1 RoboWriter 1.02
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 41 26 Aug 1996
Zippy (Unzip) 1.25 Rsh 4.07a
Zoo 2.01 Tick 0.75
TrapToss 1.20
|Contact: Maximilian Hantsch 2:310/6| Yuck! 2.02
Atari ST/TT
-----------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
FIDOdoor/ST 2.5.1 BinkleyTerm 2.40n9 ApplyList 1.00@
FiFo 2.1v The Box 1.95* Burep 1.1
LED ST 1.00 ComScan 1.04
MSGED 1.99 ConfMail 4.10
QuickBBS/ST 1.06* NodeList Utilities Echoscan 1.10
Name Version FDrenum 2.5.2
-------------------- FastPack 1.20
Compression ParseList 1.30 Import 1.14
Utilities EchoFix 1.20 oMMM 1.40
Name Version sTICK/Hatch 5.50 Pack 1.00
-------------------- Trenum 0.10
ARC 6.02
LHARC 2.01i
PackConvert
STZip 1.1*
UnJARST 2.00
WhatArc 2.02
Archimedes
----------
BBS Software Network Mailers Other Utilities
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
ARCbbs 1.61 BinkleyTerm ARC 1.20
Odyssey 0.37 2.06f-wimp !AskFor 1.01
RiscBBS 0.9.85m BatchPacker 1.00
DeLZ 0.01
MailED 0.95
NetFile 1.00
ParseLst 1.30
Raul 1.01
!Spark 2.16
!SparkMail 2.08
!SparkPlug 2.14
UnArj 2.21
UnZip 3.00
Zip 1.00
Tandy Color Computer 3 (OS-9 Level II)
--------------------------------------
BBS Software Compression Utility Other Utilities
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 42 26 Aug 1996
Name Version Name Version Name Version
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
RiBBS 2.02+ Ar 1.3 Ascan 1.2
DeArc 5.12 AutoFRL 2.0
OS9Arc 1.0 Bundle 2.2
UnZip 3.10 CKARC 1.1
UnLZH 3.0 EchoCheck 1.01
FReq 2.5a
LookNode 2.00
ParseLST
PReq 2.2
RList 1.03
RTick 2.00
UnBundle 1.4
UnSeen 1.1
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Key to old info:
+ - Netmail Capable (Doesn't Require Additional Mailer Software)
* - Recently Updated Version
@ - New Addition
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Please send updates and suggestions to: Peter Popovich, 1:363/264
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 43 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY
=================================================================
[this must be copied out to a file starting at column 1 or
it won't process under PGP as a valid public-key]
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2
Comment: Clear-signing is Electronic Digital Authenticity!
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Pending a formal decision about including 'encrypted' material inside
FidoNews from the Zone Coordinator Council, the guts of the FidoNews
public-key have been removed from this listing.
File-request FNEWSKEY from 1:1/23 [1:374/14] or download it from the
Rights On! BBS at 1-407-383-1372 anytime except 0100-0130 ET and Zone
1 ZMH at 1200-9600+ HST/V32B.
This section will contain only this disclaimer and instructions until
a ZCC decision is forwarded to the Editor.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 44 26 Aug 1996
=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editor: Christopher Baker
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar,
Tom Jennings, Sylvia Maxwell,
Donald Tees
"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS 1-407-383-1372, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(ds)
more addresses:
Christopher Baker -- 1:374/14, cbaker84@digital.net
cbak.rights@opus.global.org
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 5921
Titusville, FL 32783-5921
U.S.A.
voice: 1-407-264-2994 [1400-2100 ET only, please]
[1800-0100 UTC/GMT]
------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
FidoNews.
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright 1996 Christopher Baker. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the Editor.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSDnn.LZH] for a
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 45 26 Aug 1996
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [6], i.e., FNWSMAY6.ZIP for all the Issues from May 96.
Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 12 for 1984 - 1995, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.2M.
INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/6894
STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request:
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from ftp.sstar.com
in the FIDONET\FNEWS directory:
FNEWSTOC.ZIP FidoNews, Table of Contents, all issues (1984 - 1995)
FNEWS1.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 1, all issues (1984)
FNEWS2.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 2, all issues (1985)
FNEWS3.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 3, all issues (1986)
FNEWS4.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 4, all issues (1987)
FNEWS5.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 5, all issues (1988)
FNEWS6.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 6, all issues (1989)
FNEWS7.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 7, all issues (1990)
FNEWS8.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 8, all issues (1991)
FNEWS9.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 9, all issues (1992)
FNEWSA.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 10, all issues (1993)
FNEWSB.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 11, all issues (1994)
FNEWSC.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 12, all issues (1995)
FNEWSD01.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 13, Nr. 01 (January 1, 1996)
FNEWSD02.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 13, Nr. 02 (January 8, 1996)
(etc)
FNEWSD34.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 13, Nr. 31 (August 19, 1996)
FNEWSD35.ZIP FidoNews, Vol. 13, Nr. 32 (August 26, 1996)
(etc)
Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 11 Megs.
=*=*=*=
The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also
available almost immediately after publication on the Editor's new
homepage on the World Wide Web at:
http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fidonews.html
FIDONEWS 13-35 Page 46 26 Aug 1996
There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email
link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
A PGP generated public-key is available for the FidoNews Editor from
1:1/23 [1:374/14] by file-request for FNEWSKEY or by download from
Rights On! BBS at 1-407-383-1372 as FIDONEWS.ASC in File Area 18. It
is also posted twice a month into the PKEY_DROP Echo available on the
Zone 1 Echomail Backbone.
*=*=*=*=*
Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may
file-request GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message
to fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is
necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated
response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch
should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the
previously listed address.
*=*=*=*=*
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators also have
copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings
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