F I D O N E W S -- Volume 13, Number 38 16 September 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. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE ASCII ARTISTS OUT THERE? Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 How long should FidoNews be? and other musing ............ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Response to Mr. Rice and Mr. Frezberg .................... 2 3. FIDONET HISTORY .......................................... 4 The IFNA Primer had some good info ....................... 4 4. REVIEWS .................................................. 23 Six Mail Processors Reviewed [V] ......................... 23 5. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 26 Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 257 ...... 26 6. ECHOING .................................................. 27 Backbone Echo Changes [Jul-Aug] .......................... 27 7. WE GET EMAIL ............................................. 29 ZCs rated by Nodelist performance ........................ 29 8. NET HUMOR ................................................ 31 Let it C? ................................................ 31 9. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 33 Cownt on George for ASCII Art ............................ 33 10. QUESTION OF THE WEEK .................................... 35 Pictures in FidoNews? .................................... 35 11. NOTICES ................................................. 36 Future History ........................................... 36 12. FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................................ 38 Latest Greatest Software Versions ........................ 38 And more! FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 1 16 Sep 1996 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Does it really matter how long FidoNews or any of its component sections becomes? Is there a qualitative difference between a FidoNews of 50K and one of 110K? With today's high speed modems and byte scrunching archivers, is concern about a 150 line Masthead genuine or just that habit of complaint so common in many FidoNet venues? Let's stop picking nits for sport and start making actual contributions to this hobby. Break the habit. Send something positive into FidoNews. We still need ASCII art for the Comix section [even if it adds 10K to the weekly Issue]. [grin] Nearly three months after the change and we still have NO UPDATE to the Zone 3 section of our Nodelist in Zone 1. Who is sitting on their hands in this lack of exchange? Somebody please step up and get us an accurate Nodelist! Would an IC be a good idea? [sheesh] Don't forget that FidoNews goes into ZIP archive format beginning with Issue 1340 on 30 Sep 96. Get those batch file adjustments ready. NOTE: NODELIST.257 shows 1:1/23 and 1:1/113 [FidoNews & OpusHelp] with the NEW phone numbers in Edgewater_FL but they were changed two weeks EARLY so DON'T try to send to them now. Use my primary Node [1:1/374] or put the current number in as an override for 1:1/23 and 1:1/113. The current number is: 1-407-383-1372 in Titusville_FL. The new number [1-904-409-7040] will not be active UNTIL 27 Sep 96! Thanks. C.B. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 2 16 Sep 1996 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= What do we want FidoNet to be? by Fredrik Bennison -- 2:205/300, lomaxx@dalnet.se I'm glad to see that my articles stirred up some response, that at least shows that this old Snooze of ours still manages to be interesting enough to read. I'd like to comment on two articles in FidoNews 1337, to clarify my point of view and to perhaps inspire others to write their views as well. Firstly, Mr Fredric Rice (nice name by the way... 8) states that it is better to vote NCs that doesn't perform certain duties out of office rather than implementing more rules regarding their behaviour in Policy. I agree, if a NC or RC or whatever doesn't perform the duties that can be expected of them, one should try to remove them democratically and replace them with another person that would perhaps perform more satisfactorily. But the question of routed netmail is such a basic service in a mail network like this that it should be clearly stated in Policy that routing netmail is one of the NCs required duties. Besides, if Policy _doesn't_ require this, who is to say that an NC isn't performing his duties? Next, a reply to Mr Zorch Frezberg who asked where in P4 it says that message content is grounds for excommunication. The answer to that is simple;, nowhere. P4 hardly mentions EchoMail at all, except for the part which was quoted in FidoNews 1337 and which I won't repeat here. What P4 _does_ state however is "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." (Section 4.3) In other parts it mentions that echomail cannot be allowed to degrade the performance of the network and that bombing runs are considered annoying. But annoying behaviour does not in itself constitute grounds for Excessively annoying behaviour. It is only when such annoying behaviour persists that it can be deemed XAB. I would also like to point out that I am not primarily talking about message _content_, but more specifically of the impact of the messages in question. If a sysop (or user) persists in sending obscene material in a family echo despite repeated warnings from the moderator, he is excessively annoying. The same goes for a sysop who repeatedly spams several echoes with nonsense messages, or messages that is clearly off-topic. I'm not talking first time offences, but offences repeated over a period of time and which persists after they have been pointed out to the sysop. FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 3 16 Sep 1996 I want no more than Mr Frezberg a Fidonet where the freedom of speech is impaired by a holier-than-thou *C-structure, but what I don't want is a Fidonet which disintegrates into a hopeless state of disarray much like the UseNet newsgroups are today with spammers and a impossibly low S/N-ratio. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 4 16 Sep 1996 ================================================================= FIDONET HISTORY ================================================================= [IFNA was the first and only attempt to make FidoNet a legal entity- part of the continuing series of FidoNet histories. IFNA no longer exists so don't try to contact it.] Ed. __ The World's First / \ New-Sysop BBS Network /|oo \ Orientation * FidoNet * (_| /_) Information _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ published by IFNA | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// (International FidoNet / Fido \ _//|| _\ / Association) (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Steve Bonine (115/777) editor Version 1.1 2/22/88 Copyright (c) 1987, International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. May be freely copied and distributed for noncommercial purposes. Fido(tm) is a trademark of Tom Jennings. FidoNet(R) is a registered trademark of Tom Jennings. The ASCII dog-with-diskette is a trademark of IFNA. The purpose of this little treatise is to provide introductory information for persons who are interested in starting a computer bulletin board system or connecting an existing system with FidoNet. In this one document you will find an introduction to many different aspects of running a bulletin board and information on where to go for more information in those cases where the introduction sounds interesting. This document is distributed under the auspices of IFNA, the International FidoNet Association. IFNA's chief responsibility is the maintenance and administration of the network which forms the backbone of this collection of diverse bulletin board systems. Part of this job involves orientation of new members of the network. The growth and health of FidoNet speaks well of the ability of the systems and the operators of those systems to work together, and you can't work together if you don't know the ground rules. Introduction to FidoNet ------------ -- ------- The network is a loose coalition of many different bulletin board systems. "FidoNet" and "Fido" are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings; a formal agreement allows IFNA to use these in the name of the organization. The network is by no means limited to the Fido FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 5 16 Sep 1996 software; there are several "FidoNet compatible" systems which interface with the network. By joining, you as a sysop can take advantage of the expertise of thousands of other users. A short history lesson will help in understanding FidoNet. Tom Jennings was in San Francisco, and John Madill was in Baltimore, both working on the Fido BBS software. In the spirit of finding out if it could be done, they decided to add code to the system to support a dialup connection with no human intervention during the wee hours when the sysops were sleeping and the systems were free. This quickly became a useful function, since both systems and both sysops were busy and it was a convenient method of exchanging information. From this chance beginning in May 1984, growth was phenomenal. By August 1984, there were 30 nodes; by September there were 50. By February 1985, there were 160 systems, and a group of sysops in St. Louis had taken over the administration of the list of systems. In June 1985 the network converted to the currently-used two-part addressing scheme to support the growth. As this is written in late 1987, the size of the network has passed 2000 nodes and change continues with a zone-based nodelist to facilitate communication with systems overseas. But we get ahead of the story . . . Network Organization ------- ------------ Today's network is organized into geographical divisions of zones, regions, networks, individual systems, and points. A zone is a very large division; zone 1 is North America, zone 2 is Europe, and zone 3 is Australia, New Zealand, etc. Of more interest are regions, networks, and points. North America is divided into regions. For example, the central region, region 11, includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Regions are assigned 2-digit numbers to differentiate them from networks. Regions are further broken down into networks. A network usually covers a rather small geographic area, such as a metropolitan area. Chicagoland is network 115. Individual systems are assigned a node number within the appropriate network or directly within the region if no network covers that specific location. A point is a usually a one-person BBS. There is an analogy with telephone numbers. Think of the zone as the country code, the network as the area code, the node number as the telephone number, and the point as an extension for the individual. This is written as zone:network/node.point. For example, Chicago is covered by network 115, and is in zone 1. The specific BBS which has been assigned node 100 in the Chicago network would be 1:115/100. If there were point systems served by this BBS, they would be 1:115/100.1, 1:115/100.2, and so on. FIDONEWS 13-38 Page 6 16 Sep 1996 The purposes of this organization are twofold. First, decentralization means that no one person has the task of administering the entire network. Since it is a volunteer and amateur operation and such an assignment would be a big job, it became obvious early in the life of FidoNet that decentralization was necessary to support growth of the network. The second reason for such a hierarchy is to improve the flow of mail. One system in each network takes on the responsibility of Network Co- ordinator, and that BBS becomes node zero in the network. One of the tasks of the Network Coordinator is to forward incoming mail. Thus, if I have ten messages for different systems in the Chicagoland network, I need to make not ten telephone calls but only one -- to s