F I D O N E W S -- Volume 14, Number 1 6 January 1997 +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | 1-904-409-7040 [1:1/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Christopher Baker 1:18/14 | | |__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. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ WHAT AWAITS FIDONET IN 1997? Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Volume 14 of FidoNews begins 1997! Volume E! ............. 1 2. CORRECTIONS .............................................. 2 Oopsies in the FidoNet by Internet section last week! .... 2 3. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 Where does FIDO Fit? ..................................... 3 4. COLUMNS .................................................. 5 Fidonet In Europe ........................................ 5 5. GETTING TECHNICAL ........................................ 6 FSC-0009 - Nodelist Flag Changes draft ................... 6 FSC-0010 - RESYNC SEALink protocol enhancement ........... 9 FSC-0011 - Corrections to FTS-0001 ....................... 16 6. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 27 Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 003 ...... 27 7. NET HUMOR ................................................ 28 Need a new report form for the New Year? ................. 28 8. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 31 Happy Gnu Year? .......................................... 31 9. ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT ........................ 32 Announcing the CRICKET_ECHO .............................. 32 Announcing the WRESTLING_CHAT Echo ....................... 32 10. FOR SALE ................................................ 33 US Robotics Courier v.everything upgrade ................. 33 11. NOTICES ................................................. 34 And more! FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 1 6 Jan 1997 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= We have a full Issue for the new year including republishing the ARTicle SPECifications for FidoNews submissions in the NOTICES section. The only change was the addition of the .INT filetype for listing Internet addresses where FidoNet info/ops may be found. I discovered quite a few more Internet addresses for FidoNet in my surfing last week and got a couple of email contributions to the list. Send the info to me anyway you wish [see Masthead] if you want your listing in the new section. There were also a couple errors in last week's listings. They have been corrected in this Issue. There are also some new Canadian contributions to the calendar [Future History] section. If you have something for the calendar, send it in. The ice has been broken on the .BIO submissions but nothing came in for this week's Issue. YooHoo? My continued thanks to jim barchuk for running the FidoNews HTML site; to Mike Riddle for the flow of .JOK material; Dave Aronson et al for the .CMX art in ASCII; and to the ftp sites for carrying the FidoNews around the world. Let's hope that 1997 will bring us a new International Coordinator, a new FidoNet Policy that makes sense for the 21st century, a continued spirit of hobby and fun instead of commercial and antagonism, and a complete distribution of FidoNews by ALL ZCs/RCs/NCs to their Nodes! Anybody know when Chinese New Year begins the Year of the Ox? Also be sure to adjust your batch files for the NEW Volume letter of E instead of last year's letter of D! [Did you get caught? {grin}] C.B. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 2 6 Jan 1997 ================================================================= CORRECTIONS ================================================================= The errors were corrected in today's Issue but they were: portal.com instead of portal.ca in the R17 homepage; and missing www. for the WWW Resources page. Sorry about that. [sheepish grin] Ed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 3 6 Jan 1997 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Where Does FIDO Fit? by Michael Wilson (1:143/370) There has been much talk of the shrinking nodelist. Many commentators believe this is a sign of a shirking FIDOnet. Many also say that FIDO is in cometition with the Internet. With all these tales of woe, we must ask where does FIDO fit in the over scheme of world-wide communication. FIDO is a hobby. It consists of a loose federation of sysops, many who have BBS systems. It is apparent that the heyday of independant BBS systems located in people's garages, bedrooms and basements is gone. I started my first BBS in 1985. I have been running this current incarnation of THE VILLAGE since 1991. I used to boast 75-90 callers per day. I was forced to get a second phone line to minimize busy signals. I was able to charge for access, and people glady paid. Today, however, I am lucky to get fifteen calls per day, and no one will charge for access. This drop in BBS callers is directly related to the rise of the internet. As more and more people get WEB access, the ANSI world of a BBS looses its appeal. It is difficult to complete against thirty-two million color jpegs of Cindy Crawford, and Pamela Lee. I believe the shirnking of the nodelist is directly related to the decreasing number of BBS systems. We must understand that for someone to maintain a line in the nodelist, they must dedicate a computer system and phone line. If this "hobby" gets too expensive, then the BBS goes away, and the nodelisting goes away. Perhaps the nodelist is not the place to look to determine the size of FIDO. When America On-line publishes their numbers, they do not publish the quantity of access numbers. Instead, they publish the number of people who regularly interface (through memberships). We really have no idea how large FIDO is from a user stand point, we just know how large it is based on access points. Also, accessing FIDO is much more difficult than using the Internet. If someone wants to use America On-line, MSN, a web browser, or some other online service, they simply start the application and dial a single number. No matter where they are, or where they want to go, a single access number is all they need to dial. In FIDO, a user will need to dial up systems all over the U.S. or world to get various applications, or obtain support for various products. This is too time consuming for the computer user of today. I believe FIDO offers a service and has a place today. The file distribution and message distribution are quick and painless. However, the Internal, and most email programs are quicker. Therefore, I make the following suggestion. FIDO needs a downloadable front-end with address book and look-up capabilities. FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 4 6 Jan 1997 We need a program that callers can download, and use to dial into a FIDO system to get mail and/or files. If the callers want the normal BBS with its doors and such, they can use any comm program. However, if they want quick, easy and painless FIDO access, they can use the FIDO front-end. This front-end will need to auto-update the nodelist on the callers local machine, and allow them to maintain an address book of favorite sites. If we want the FIDOnet to only be sysops, then the nodelist will shrink. However, you will see your nodelist grow if we came up with a way to increase callers based on the nodelist. Give people with modems a reason to call FIDO boards, and a quick and easy (maybe even Windows!) front-end, and FIDO will grow. FIDO is not dead, it just needs a prettier front door. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 5 6 Jan 1997 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= FIdonet In Europe ----------------- by Dave Meikle (2:259/25.105) Hope you had a Merry Christmas , I did. Lets get down to the Biz :-) I have had a Request from Jean Parrot , If I had a list of Fido nodes in Germany specificallyaround Lorrach in the Black Forrest because he/she would like to talk to a Friend in Blansingen , Can anyone help by sending me a Nodelist or sending Jean Parrot it at Jean Parrot@1:167/722 . Dave --- TerminateMail ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 6 6 Jan 1997 ================================================================= GETTING TECHNICAL ================================================================= [This is part of our continuing series of FidoNet Technical Standards and Proposals. This Issue contains the next three in numerical order. They have been reformatted to the 70 column limit where required and are also part of the FidoNet History series.] Ed. FSC-0009 *Nodelist Flag Changes Draft Document The following is a proposed change to the nodelist. Please send your comments to either Ken Kaplan at 100/22, Ray Gwinn at 109/634, or David Dodell at 114/15. We will not be replying to all comments but wish to get a general feeling from the network about this proposed change. Nodelist Flag Draft Document Primary Author: Ray Gwinn Secondary Author: David Dodell Contact 114/15 or 1/0 with comments Version 1 (11-15-87) I proposed that the Nodelist (comment) Flags be replaced with a capabilities identifier. After all, the bottom line is that we want to know the capabilities of the remote node before it is contacted. If the remote is not capable of performing the desired function, then there is no need to contact it. The problem(s) with the existing method is that it originally started as a comment field and was not planed. At the time SEAdog was the only "extended protocol" program around. But, along came Opus with a different "extended protocol". I think that additional flags like WZ, BR, WR, etc is only extending the previously unplanned system and will lead to problems in the future. For example, XP today includes file update requests, but XP a year ago did not. So, a node using SEAdog V3.xx will have an XP flag but it is not capable of doing update requests (I think). Thus, XP does not really tell you what the remote node is capable of doing. The capabilities identifier that I propose will do nothing more than define the program(s) that the remote node is using to accept incoming calls/mail/requests. Some may say that this is nothing more than the product code that already exists in the mail packet. The primary difference is that the capabilities identifier will exist in the nodelist. This means it is available without contacting the remote node, while the product FIDONEWS 14-01 Page 7 6 Jan 1997 code is not. Also the product code is limited to 256 possibilities. I assume that it is desired that the nodelist flags field be two non-control characters. If so, then I propose that the capabilities identifier be a two digit, base 36 number. The digits being 0 through 9 and A through Z and are assigned sequentially. For example, Fido may be 01 and Dutchie may be 02. Also note that as defined, XP and WZ are valid. However, I think they should be done away with, and identifiers be assigned starting with 00 (00 meaning generic FTSC net mail protocol). This number, once converted to binary, can be used by programmers as an index into application specific data bases or tables. One example is a simple program that will tell a user the capabilities of a remote node. Given the node's address and the nodelist, the program could search the nodelist to get the capabilities identifier. Then the program could use that identifier as an index into a data base to obtain the capabilities of the remote node and display them to the user. Another example is a program that can use the identifier as an index into a capabilities table that allows determination in advance that the remote is capable of the desired session prior to contacting it. Implementation ---------- First, all nodes in the network are assigned a capabilities identifier of 00. This is the capa