F I D O N E W S Volume 17, Number 19 08 May 2000 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | 1-717-732-6820 1:270/720 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720 | | | (*) | \ )) | DougM@paonline.com | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Undead of Fidonet ........................................ 1 2. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 2 I Wonder ................................................. 2 3. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 5 It's Time to Act ......................................... 5 Thanks for Taking the Hard Edge .......................... 7 Had Fido Excluded Teenagers .............................. 8 4. ARTICLES ................................................. 10 ECHO TALK - Creator of PKZip Dies at 37 .................. 10 5. COLUMNS .................................................. 11 Ol'WDB: Thank you note ................................... 11 This Weeks Web Page ...................................... 12 6. NET HUMOR ................................................ 14 Short Books .............................................. 14 7. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 15 The Bard's Barnyard Inspirations ......................... 15 8. INTERNET INFO ............................................ 16 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 16 9. FIDONEWS INFO ............................................ 20 Masthead ................................................. 20 FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 1 8 May 2000 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Undead of Fidonet Doug Myers A lot of you responded to last week's editorial; here's what I've been hearing: We, the undead sysops of Fidonet, have decided against all common sense and advice to the contrary, to continue to practice our hobby. We know that the demand for the amateur system we created has largely subsided as technology has advanced and commercialization has created "Your Internet." But we've decided to continue anyway. It's not so much that we want to return to the way it was - to the days when PC to PC communication was only possible to the public due to the efforts of amateur system operators. In a sense, it was inevitable that computer manufacturers would someday develop systems sufficiently powerful and inexpensive that you could participate in the internet, and commercial interests would ultimately find it profitable enough to make it easy. But before all this happened and it fell to us amateurs to provide communications, we found we enjoyed working together. It was an imperfect community we forged back then, but perhaps better because of the imperfections. We didn't have any idea how to check out a credit card, so the folks then were worth what they could communicate. Some were rich beyond compare, though they could barely afford the equipment they were working with. We didn't have digital cameras online then, so all we could see was what a person wrote; perhaps the most beautiful would have only cast a plain picture image. We understand there are other communities on the Web, and that we have no franchise on this. But what we had was good, and still is, so we're not giving it up. We're not repudiating progress. Some of us are already active on the Internet; indeed even pioneering there. Some of us will hang onto the old technology until the last possible minute, perhaps ultimately dropping out of sight rather than switch. Most of us, though, will step into both arenas... perhaps forging a new place for Fido on the Web, perhaps preferring the old technology forever. We don't know... we're just not giving it up :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 2 8 May 2000 ================================================================= GUEST EDITORIAL ================================================================= I Wonder.... A reply to "Where Are We Going?" Frank Vest ---Cut--- Where Are We Going? Doug Myers Perhaps this week's editorial is in the same vein as last week's, but with a touch of yellow journalism. I'm about to utter blasphemies which, perhaps, will bring the Fidonet Elders from their chambers tearing their robes from their chest. ---Cut--- Blasphemy, Blasphemy! Crucify him! :) Do I sound like an elder?? :-)) ---Cut--- The BBS as we know it is a dying animal - it's not coming back in the old form we grew to know and love. Why not? Simply because we'll attract no users again - they'll log onto their ISP and play on the Internet even if they know about BBSes. Why not? The graphics are better than we ever dreamed about at the height of BBSing, the variety of activity is greater than we individual sysops could ever supply, and some areas such as e-business - which can transform lifestyle - were never even possible with BBSes. ---Cut--- I wonder... Is Fidonet and BBS dying? Maybe in the sense that there are fewer Nodes and BBS out there and the Nodelist is shrinking. In other ways, I wonder.... CB (Citizens Band Radio) was big when I was in my teens and early 20's. It was the rage. CB shops were everywhere! Time went on and this "rage" died out. Did CB radio die? No. It is still here. Not as big as it used to be, but alive. AM radio was once the "thing"!... Now it is a small part of the industry due to FM radio. Is it dead? No. Still here, but smaller and more specialized. Fidonet is smaller than it was... It is shrinking in Nodes... Is it dead? No. Smaller? yes. The traffic is less, but we are still here. Let's look... We are down to half or a third of our largest size. I understand that it's hard to justify a BBS when no one calls it. Not a bad reason to quit. We don't have the graphics, we don't have the chat areas, we don't have the mass of information at the "click of a mouse". Well, that's life. We can either complain or live with it. I'll live, thank you. :) FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 3 8 May 2000 Points before I go on... Interesting thing about Points. With the Internet as a tool, a former Sysop that just can't justify keeping a BBS up and running can use the Internet to become a Point. Yes, we lose a BBS, Node and Sysop, but still have a person that is "in" Fidonet. I note that the FTSC is doing something about putting Points in the Nodelist. I wonder how this will affect the size of the Nodelist? Could we see the old 30,000+ listing of the past? I wonder... What about the Internet? Well... What about it?!? It's there. We can't change that. We can and do use it for Fidonet. We have Telnet, Web BBS, Packet Tunneling and other things we use the Internet for. I'm not a big fan of the Internet and I have concerns that Fidonet could become another Internet if we aren't careful.... But let's look on the other side of this. What if we didn't have the Internet as a tool for Fidonet? We are smaller now... what if there wasn't a way to access Fidonet, send Echomail and Netmail and Files and ??? via the Internet? Could we do it via POTS lines like we did in the past? Probably, but at what cost? Yes, I do mean dollars. As with any "new rage" or "in thing", Fidonet went big and then dropped off. Could we keep going if there had been no Internet to help us with the cost? I wonder... Compete with the Internet? Could we?? Sure we could. Look at the Internet. When you boil all the stuff down, is it so much different? What does the Internet do that Fidonet doesn't do? Transfer files? Nope... Both of us do that. The web pages that you look at are nothing but files transferred via modem to a program that displays them. In fact, since BBS graphics are sent "on the fly" instead of being downloaded and then displayed by some fancy program, I see us at an advantage there. Maybe not as fancy, but faster. Send and receive information? Nope again. We both do that. Fidonet is a little slower in some ways, but in other ways, just as fast. Fidonet just can't reach the audience that the Internet can. Messages? Nope, we both do that as well. As above, not as fast at times and faster at other times. Not as big an audience either. Games? Well, gee. See above. :) Ok... So why can't we compete with the Internet? MONEY!! Take a look at this. Let's take Fidonet technology, ad money and commercialize it. What do you have? Sell services to customers. We _CAN_ deliver. You need a file from point A to point B? We'll get it there now!! Promote the Fidonet "Business". Get Fidonet Zones, Regions, Hubs, Nodes, Points in all places with software that sets itself up and makes the connection. Build a Point package that works like the "Web Browser". A business pays for the service, gets the software, installs it and starts sending information to where it's needed. The Point software is "mouseable" and "point and click". The software sets up a connection to a Node, Hub, Region, or Zone automatically and there you are. The people FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 4 8 May 2000 above the Point address are the "ISPs" of Fidonet. We charge for the service and deliver the goods. Crash mail direct. For the right money, we can get it there fast! In fact, the "heyday" of Fidonet saw many pay BBS systems that did things very similar to this. With something like this, I'd bet that for transferring of information, Fidonet technology could beat the pants off the Internet and its "site to site" relay system. The real question is.... Do we want to do this?!?!? Not Me!! That would be like the Ham Radio operators trying to compete with the Commercial Radio stations. Where does the hobby end and the business begin? Improve Fidonet.. of course! We've done that for years. Look at the original Fidonet BBS software and tell me otherwise. :) All I say is, let's improve the hobby, not compete with the others. Tread softly least we become our own worst enemy. Pardon my rambling here. I know I've been long winded, but it feels good to get it off my brain. :) I see Fidonet shrinking down to a hobby again, but not dying. We'll still be here. Last one out, please turn off the lights! :-)) Best regards, Frank - 1:124/6308(.1) - flv@texoma.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 5 8 May 2000 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= Fidonet is Dying - It's Time to Act Email from Derrick, info@soluware.nl Dear Doug, I just finished reading the most recent Fidonet newsletter. Yes, Fidonet is dying unless we find a way to bring it back to life, and I think I have a solution for this. You said the reader should write if anything came up. In fact something came up months ago. I don't know about the country where you come from, but I suppose you might have heard from cable-modem. It's basically the death- penalty for Fido because it makes people stop using their FrontDoor, FMail, GoldED, or whatever package they use to dial in at their fido- provider (proFIDOr? :) ). Anyway, since the Internet is practically unstopable, we'd better use it's popularity. None of the services Internet is providing the community with has ever exceeded the warm, personal fidomail. I personally recently hooked up with Fido again, now I have contacted our national host (Jan Vermeulen, the Netherlands, 2:280/0). I wasn't able to use Fido because several hosts were dropping like flies. What we need is something similar to Fido. Newsgroups are nothing, they usually have no moderator and are so general that no one will feel at home. Plus, no e-mail editor can support multiple areas. So I thought of myself (you still guess, what the hell have cable- modems got to do anything with what you are saying?) ... What's e-mail. It's nothing but a simple host supporting the POP3/SMTP protocol. What we simply need to do is set up one or more mailservers, develop a new protocol and a mailclient to support the new protocol. A cable-modem can make it possible to set up a mailserver with several gigabytes for mail and file-storage without paying much. Such a server can be accessed from anywhere, because due to the cablemodem it is in the air for 24 hours a day, affordable for the common user. I was thinking about such a mailsystem, and I definitely am going to develop the software for it (the server will definitely be Linux, the client can be both Linux, Windows, DOS (for those that still want to pick up the mail with something similar to FrontDoor/Intermail or such a system). We can later extend it with short-message-services, voice-mail, videoconferencing and such. With one or more commercial mail- areas with interestgroups that people can connect to. This way we could even get the system sponsored so a bigger server can be put up which allows faster and better access. FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 6 8 May 2000 Through webadvertising we could get people's attention and create a new rage that has Fidonet's looks and feels, the graphical user- interface people want, and all the gadgets they get from other servers like ICQ / mIRC / Powwow and all that stuff. We're talking an offline mailclient here. One that picks up the mail like any simple POP3/SMTP client, but with the fidonet advantages. I'd propose the oldfassioned look and feel, as we know it with the DOS editors, and a more advanced version that gives the possibility to create messages that have an HTML look, but that's something for the future. Furthermore, I want to be include hotlinks so people can refer to webpages, ftp sites, but even files that can be downloaded directly from the mailserver. For these files can then be generated a filerequest that will be picked up next time the user picks up the mail. The mailclient should be able to be setup with a scheduler to pick up the mail at preprogrammed times, unlike those 'dumb' clients like MS Exchange. This really can become something, I have had several years (something like 6 or 7) experience in Fidonet like networks, including DigitalNet, ( )lympic, Contactnet, Quazienet and several others, I know the messaging- services like ICQ, mIRC, Powwow and know their (dis)advantages. With the help of those people that have supported fidonet for the past decade, I am certain that we can create something the internetworld is ready for. Normal 'fido-standards' can apply, such as moderators, a committee that handles incoming suggestions, solve conflicts and such. I want a system that is controlable but is free for users. I personally want to invest my time and money in it to create a system that will become popular among old fido-mailers that are now internetting and will think "hey, this looks familiar" and new users that can pick up just as easily. How? Well, that's one of the things that users currently break their neck over. Many people (especially people NEW to computers) are used to a simple click-click graphical interface and find DOS applications disgusting and hard to use. For someone new to computers it's practically IMPOSSIBLE to set up a system like FrontDoor/Fmail/Golded because they have no knowledge whatsoever about the system. The mailclient I want to develop must be simple to setup and use. I want to make it modular so people can easily plug in new technology. The basics must be a downloadable version from the internetsite that is hosted from the same server. This package contains all needed information to connect to the server. Installing the rest will be easy. A simple guide "What interests do you have" and click-click. Download the setup-information, setup the program, wait for authorisation from the host (ofcourse they should be able to receive general areas and write in areas with for example the attribute "guests allowed") and MAIL! :) FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 7 8 May 2000 People that want to host their own network can do the same thing, get a copy of the server software and we can have several networks in no time at all, they could co-exist like before, and a user would only need one mailcient to access them all in an orderly fashion. Let me know what you think, can we get a committee on it's feet and start designing standards, protocols, looks and feels? Are we ready for something like that and can we pull it off? I think we are, I think we can. I just hope that I can count on your cooperation. If I sent this to the wrong person, I'm sure you know where this e-mail should go. Please forward it to everyone you think is interested (and I mean qualified people that know the (dis)advantages as well) so we can come up with something. I really hope you will write me back. I'm going to prepare the work I've been thinking about for the last several months. I hope that I will get the support I need. Thanks Doug, Derrick * Origin: Time for a comeback (2:280/33, 2:280/1044, 2:280/1045) --------------- Editor's Reply: Derrick, I don't know whether you sent this to the wrong person or not. In a sense, I may be wrong because I'm a poor innovator. Oh, I've made my contributions to BBSing; I'm a decent conversationalist and a competent administrator. But it's always been people like you who have moved and shaken and brought about change. For my part, I'll post this excellent visionary comment on my editorial in hopes that your fellow visionaries see it and help you shape the future of Fido. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for Taking the Hard Edge Email from Chris R. Evans Thanks man for taking the hard edge and saying it like it is ! BUT one thing BBSes have that the internet doesnt seem to have readily available to all is FREE access.. Yes, there are/were bbses that charged for access but even then they had non paying time limited accounts which ISPs no not have. We as a Network have to reinvent BBSing to attact the masses, but with the cost of ISP administration and setup so sky high (eg $33K minimum) its is really impossible for the hobbist sysop to do that. Also, another things that doesnt help our plight, is that local computer 'zines (like CCN) dropped the BBS list, in favor of the ISP directory (which is really small and lame), if they allow the BBS FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 8 8 May 2000 list to come back eg published so ppl know of our bbses, then we'd get more callers. .. comments welcome --------------- Editor: I don't really know if I said it like it is. My prognostication has always been weakest where the future is concerned... We've got to seperate two factors here... what the "user" pays and what the "provider" pays. Someone just using the web in the US usually pays $20 or less a month for the access, and most think no more of it than the basic charges for their telephone. Once the ISP fee is discounted, the whole internet is essentially free. Certainly someone wishing to be an ISP is in for substantial expenses... but that's not the only way to establish a web presence. Peple are putting up home pages for practically nothing... and the home pages are technically more sophisticated than the early BBSes. Live sysop chat is tough to manage with a home page, but what other BBS function can't be managed? There may be some tactics beyond my ken right now which would attract users to bbses, but I don't think it's simply a matter of letting them know we're out there. Six years ago, everyone knew we were out there, and they still chose to migrate to the web. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Had Fido Excluded Teenagers Echomail from FIDONEWS Echo Winston Smith, 1:101/101 -> But over in the Z1C echo, Stewart Hornsberger comes to our rescue, -> fending off several of Fido's more "experienced" sysops in an -> argument over maturity. Though I haven't examined all the messages -> related to the string, it appears that Stewart revealed his age of -> 19 on his web page, and was subsequently called down for -> "immaturity" in some of his subsequent posting. Hmm... if a rule excluding nineteen-year-old's had been in effect in the 1980's, then there would have been no Fido boards in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. . At the time of the release of the IBM PC, the Boston Computer Society was running Ward Christensen's RBBS package. It was a nineteen year old M.I.T. freshman named Buzz Moschetti who got FidoNET off the ground in Boston by running The Buzz Board Fido. When the Boston Computer Society was told about message networking, they replied that their members came to them, calling their boards, and that they didn't need to send their messages out to their members. It took almost a year of arguing before they finally saw any advantage to echomail (such as linking FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 9 8 May 2000 their Pioneer Valley Computer Club UMASS University club and their New Hampshire and Rhode Island chapters to their Boston boards). One of the top Macintosh sysops of Boston -- Zeff Wheelock -- started as a sysop when he was tweleve years old, and many of the famous early TBBS TRS-80 boards, such as Milliways TBBS of Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.A., were started by fourteen year old high school freshmen. If you took away the teenage sysop, fully two-thirds of the B.B.S.es founded in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1980's would have never been started! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 10 8 May 2000 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= . -- -- -- -- -- ECHO TALK -- -- -- -- -- . | Food for thought from Fido's echomail. | | Purloined without permission by D Myers | ` -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- ' Creator of PKZip Dies at 37 From ZDNet News as posted by Steven Horn (1:17/67) in Z1C Creator of PKZip dies at 37 Phillip W. Katz led an apparently troubled life -- but invented one of the most used utility programs in computing. Robert Lemos 04/24/00 Phillip W. Katz, creator of the popular PKZip compression utility, has died. He was 37. A PKWare Inc. representative confirmed an AP report, but declined further comment. Katz, who died of complications from chronic alcoholism, was found dead April 14 in a Milwaukee, Wis. motel room with several bottles of alcohol, said the article, quoting a county medical examiner's report on Monday. While leading a problematic personal life, Katz created one of the most used utilities on the Web. The compression utility PKZip enjoyed enormous popularity, with the latest two versions racking up more than 600,000 downloads on ZDNet. PKZip shrinks files by more than half, allowing data transmission speeds to be doubled. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 11 8 May 2000 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Ol'WDB's Column Found: Thank you note to all. WDBonner@pacbell.net I AM THANKFUL... FOR THE TEENAGER WHO IS NOT DOING DISHES BUT WATCHING T.V., BECAUSE THAT MEANS HE IS AT HOME NOT ON THE STREETS FOR THE TAXES THAT I PAY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I AM EMPLOYED. FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS. FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT. FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK, BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE. FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME. FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT, BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND THAT I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION. FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL, BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM. FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH THAT SINGS OFF KEY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I CAN HEAR. FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR. FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD. FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I AM ALIVE. AND FINALLY....... FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME. :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 12 8 May 2000 This Weeks Web Page by Frank Vest 1:124/6308(.1) What: SkyNET BBS Where: http://www.multimania.com/skynetbbs I really don't know where to begin! I stumbled onto this page and to say I'm humbled would be an understatement. Let's start at the top. When you first hit this page, look in the upper right hand corner. You'll see options for [Netherlands ] [English ] [ Francais ] [ Deutsch ]. Choose the language of your choice. The default language seems to be Netherlands. I, of course, choose English. This site uses "frames". I'm not overly fond of frames, but for the information available here it seems to work very well. The main page (frame) tells about the page and gives information on the BBS. I'm not going to "cut & paste" any of it because there are too many other points of interest to talk about. Steven Leeman is the Sysop of SkyNET. To say he spent "some" time on this site might not be true. To say he spent his life on this site might be closer. :) I'm really lost on this page. On the left side is a menu. it reads as follows: --- Cut --- Screenshots Points & Photo's Technical Info Statistics Fidonet??? Fido via IP Downloads Setup: FD/APX F.I.P.S. Terminate WinPoint 95 Messageboard Distributed.net Belgian BBS List Mail SkyNET --- Cut --- This is but a small part of what is here. Start at the top of this menu and go through it all. Be warned, you'll need some time. The one thing, if there is such, that I liked is what appears to be a FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 13 8 May 2000 meeting of the Point Systems that Steven supports. It looks like a Net meeting of sorts where they get together, talk and have a good time. I like that idea. :) I also like the support for Point that is given here. The "How to" of setting it up and such is great!. Ok... I'm gonna stop here. To tell all that is on this site would take all of the average Fidonews article size and still be lacking. Drop by this page and see what it's about. Lots of time and effort have been put in here. Regards, Frank flv@texoma.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 14 8 May 2000 ================================================================= NET HUMOR ================================================================= A List of Very Short Books Thanks to Roy Reed 1) A Guide to Arab Democracies 2) A Journey through the Mind of Dennis Rodman 3) Amelia Earhart's Guide to the Pacific Ocean 4) Career Opportunities for History Majors 5) Contraception by Pope John Paul II 6) Detroit - A Travel Guide 7) Different Ways to Spell "Bob" 8) Dr. Kevorkian's Collection of Motivational Speeches 9) Easy UNIX 10) Ethiopian Tips on World Dominance 11) Everything Men Know About Women 12) French Hospitality 13) Bob Dole: The Wild Years 14) How to Sustain a Musical Career by Art Garfunkel 15) Mike Tyson's Guide to Dating Etiquette 17) Spotted Owl Recipes by the EPA 18) Popular Lawyers 19) Staple Your Way to Success 20) The Amish Phone Book ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 15 8 May 2000 ================================================================= COMIX IN ASCII ================================================================= The Bard's Barnyard Inspirations (___) (__) (0 0) (oo) /-------\_O---moo *-\/-------\ / | || / || | \ * ||,---|| * ||-----|| * ^^ ^^ \/|(/)(/\(,,/ Romie mooed... while Julie ate. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 16 8 May 2000 ================================================================= INTERNET INFO ================================================================= ! = New entries this week ? = not responding ?? = unknown content, doesn't look like fidonet . -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- . | FIDONET-RELATED SITES | ` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- ' Last update: April 30, 2000 FidoNet Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Echolist: http://www.baltimoremd.com/echolist/ Echomail links: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidonet/fidoip.html SDS Files: http://fidobbs.dk/download (Web Access to SDS) FTSC page: http://www.ftsc.org/ General: http://www.writebynight.com/fidonet.html List server: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html http://www.tnl-online.com/andy/rgn10.htm Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/ Net 203: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8687/net203index.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Net 2410: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/net2410/ Region 12: http://sparkys.dyndns.org Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Net 264: http://www.net264.org/ Net 275: http://www.homershut.net/~mahoover/net275/ Region 14: http://www.ouijabrd.com/region14 Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ Region 15: Region 16: Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://bise.tzo.com/r19 Net 124: http://www.startext.net/np/net124 http://texoma.net/~flv Net 130: http://www.startext.net/homes/net130 Net 393: http://www.chatter.com/~wb/ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/zone2 (Z2 nodelists etc.) Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 17 8 May 2000 Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German) Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/fido/ (English/German) Region 25: http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/ Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French) http://Welcome.to/skynetbbs/ Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German) ? Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian) Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish) REC34: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4552/ Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/ Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English) Region 42: http://www.fido.cz ! Net422: http://www.fido.sk (Slovak/English) Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian) Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian) Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian) Net 5028: http://5028.yaroslavl.ru/ Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) Net 5049: http://www.n5049.z2.fidonet.org (English/Russian) ?? Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian) Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org Zone 4: Region 80: http://fidobrasil.8m.com (Portuguese) Region 90: Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) Fidonet Via Internet Hubs See also: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html a @ preceding an individual's name implies a virtual email address. The email is translated as follows firstlast@osirusoft.com will automatically route to the appropriate individual's email. Anyone in this list will also receive routed notice of this feature. In my case, it would still be joejared@osirusoft.com, but you get the idea. Also, as information is provided to me, I will be adding a latency field to each node, which is defined as the maximum time between when the message is received, and when it is sent on to other nodes, or available to be sent onward, defined in minutes. A latency of ! implies that there is an immediate response, and an attempt to deliver immediately FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 18 8 May 2000 after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were. v-email flag firstnamelastname@osirusoft.com | email address or Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed,| Basic Rate | | |latency| -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ Zone 1 | | | | 10/3 @ Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | 384K,30| n/c 10/345 @ Todd Cochrane | FTP,BinkP,VMOT | T1,! | n/c 12/12 @ Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 103/5 @ Mark Luetger | BinkP | 384k,!| n/c 103/153 @ Michael Box | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c 103/301 @ Joe Jared | BinkP,FTP | 384k,!| n/c 103/401 @ Warren Bonner | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c 105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c 105/72 @ Larry James | FTP, BinkP | aDSL | $50/yr 106/1 @ Matt Bedynek | BinkP, FTP | 128k | n/c 106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | aDSL,60| n/c 107/453 @ Jeffrey Estevez| FTP,BinkP,VMoT,UUE| 56k,60| $10 mo. 140/1 @ Bob Seaborn | FTP,BinkP | T3,30 | $5/$16 167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c 211/417 @ Korombos | BinkP,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 218/109 @ Matt Munson | BinkP,UUE | 33.6k | n/c 244/2 | Kari Suomela | FTP,VMoT,BinkP,UUE| T1,! | $25.00/mo 246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c 271/140 @ Tom Barstow | UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 342/3 @ Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c 395/670 | Arthur Stark | BinkD,FTP | 128k | n/c 396/1 @ John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1,10 | $5/mo 396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr 2604/104 @ Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo 2613/404 @ David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+,!| n/c 2624/306 @ David Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | n/c 3613/2 @ jyates@bsdi.ldl.net | UUE | 28.8 | n/c 3632/84 | Robert Todd |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | n/c 3639/93 @ Ross Cassell | FTP, BinkP |128K+,!| n/c 3651/9 @ Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 2 | 20/11 | Henrik Lindhe | BinkP | ??? | n/c 31/1 | Gabriel Plutzar | BinkP | T1+ | n/c 203/600 | Mikael Karlsson | UUE | 64k | n/c 221/360 @ Tommi Koivula | BinkP,UUE | ??? | n/c 236/205 @ Michael Kaaber | BinkP | ??? | n/c 246/2098 | Volker Imre | BinkP | ??? | n/c 284/800 @ Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 292/620 | Eddy Missoul | VMoT, UUE | 64k |N/C 292/624 | Steven Leeman | UUE | 64k | N/C 292/2003 | Eric Vaneberck | BinkP | 768k | n/c 301/1 | Peter Witschi | BinkP | 768k | n/c 332/807 | Roberto Mascolo | BinkP | ??? | n/c 335/535 @ Mario Mure | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k | n/c 335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 19 8 May 2000 344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c 346/3 @ Carlos Navarro | UUE | ??? | n/c 382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c 423/81 | Milos Bajer | BinkP | ??? | n/c 464/4077 | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE | 19.2 | n/c 465/204 | Va Milushnikov | BinkP | 33.6k | n/c 469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 480/112 | Adam Sarapata| FTP, VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 128k | n/c 2411/413 @ Dennis Dittrich | UUE,BinkP | 64k | n/c 2446/301 | Lothar Behet | BinkP,VMoT,UUE,FTP | 64K | n/c 2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 5030/115 | Andrey Podkolzin | BinkP | ??? | n/c 5100/8 | Egons Bush | BinkP | ??? | n/c 5020/1159 | Gennady Kudryashoff | UUE | 33.6 | n/c -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 3 633/260 @ Malcolm Miles | FTP,BinkP | 64K | n/c 640/954 | Rick Van Ruth | FTP,VMot,UUE,BinkP| 56K| n/c 774/605 @ Barry Blackford|BinkP,VMoT:10023,ifcico,FTP |33.6| n/c -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 4 905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 128k | n/c 902/18 | Javier Tejedor | UUE | 33,6 | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers * BinkP = front end mailer for TCPIP networks ---------------------------------------------- Fidonet oriented news servers news.osirusoft.com news.tardis.net Fidonet oriented chat rooms. room #fidonet 5PM (PDT 11AM GMT) Sundays irc.osirusoft.com (Peers wanted) ---------------------------------------------- Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to Joe Jared, 1:103/301, joejared@osirusoft.com. All email addresses here for purpose of corresponding with fidonet members about obtaining a feed. Improper use of the virtual email addresses, and most especially, email addressed to blockme@relays.osirusoft.com will be considered a request to be blocked by my open relay spam stopper at http://relays.osirusoft.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 20 8 May 2000 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFO ================================================================= Masthead + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, DougM@paonline.com | | Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, jb@fidonews.org | | Columnist: Joe Jared, 1:103/0, jarhead@osirusoft.com | | (Fido Via Internet Hubs column) | | Columnist: Warren D. Bonner, 1:103/401, wdbonner@pacbell.net | | (Warren uses the pen name "Ol'WDB") | | Humor: Roy Reed, rcreedv@juno.com | | Features: Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1 | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince | | Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, | | Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141, and are used with permission. Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet. Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2000 by Douglas Myers, though authors retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinion expressed by the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to Douglas Myers at one of his addresses above. The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS. These sources are normally available through your Network Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from the following sources: + -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:270/720, 1:140/1, or 1:396/1 | | ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ | | ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ | | http://www.fidonews.org | | email subscription: majordomo@fidonews.org | | (subject: help body: list) | | ftp mail: ftpmail@fidonews.org (subject: help) | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + FIDONEWS 17-19 Page 21 8 May 2000 -----------------------------------------------------------------