F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 28 12 July 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | +27-41-581-5913 [5:5/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | hwolsink@catpe.alt.za | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ | | please refer to the end of this file. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 FTSC biannual report ..................................... 2 FTSC Frequently Asked Questions .......................... 4 FTSC Mirror Sites ........................................ 5 Censorship of FidoNet in Russia? ......................... 7 3. NOTICES .................................................. 9 Future History ........................................... 9 4. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 10 5. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 14 FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 1 12 Jul 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greetings, This is a short very short note from, as I'm not feeling well today. Flu is the cause. Did the Z1C election take place? Happy reading. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 2 12 Jul 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= FTSC biannual report By Colin Turner, 2:2/20, ct@ftsc.org At the end of June my term as FTSC Administrator had been running for six months. I have therefore chosen this time to write an article into FidoNews reporting FTSC business. For those of you that don't know what the FTSC is, it is the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. It is our job to attempt to document current technical practice within FidoNet (and also in the wider context of FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs)). A more detailed explanation of our responsibilities can be found in our charter, document FTA-1000. Details on how to retrieve this and other FTSC documents can be found in another article below. First of all I'd like to discuss some of what we've done in the last few months. * We have constructed a new FTSC website which provides access to the whole family of current FTSC documents. This is to be found at the domain name of www.ftsc.org, which was newly purchased for the committee. Considerable further enhancements are planned for this site, but other tasks are taking precedence. * Similarly, an anonymous ftp server for FTSC documents can be found at ftp.ftsc.org. * Similarly, every FTSC member has been given an email address in the ftsc.org domain, in order to make members more accessible. * A list of mirror sites (for FidoNet) from which FTSC documents can be obtained as been created. Please contact me if you would like to be added. * A "Road Map" for the technical documents has been created. We understand that many proposals are de facto standards, and we hope to correct that problem soon. In the meantime, it's essential that new developers can determine which documents they should consult. To facilitate this, a Road Map document has been produced, listing the most important documents in each of several fields. * Several new product codes have been allocated and published. * Some new FSP documents have been released, specifically FSP-1010 - Via control line; FSP-1011 - BinkP protocol; FSP-1012 - InterNet nodelist flags. * The FTS documents are under review, with the production of FTS-5000 - Main Nodelist format; FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 3 12 Jul 1999 FTS-5001 - Nodelist flags, which obsolete FTS-0005. Additionally a discussion document detailing the various Type 2 Packet formats has been produced which will eventually spawn the new standard documents for these. * We have reviewed two existing FSP documents and found that we cannot recommend them for promotion to FTS documents. These have been placed in the FRL (Reference Library) sequence. We have also included detailed adjudications of why these decisions were taken. * Further work and discussion has occured on fields such as Document Submission Requirements, and how "kludge" or "control lines" should be documented in future. Even the structure of the committee and how it might be streamlined has been discussed. It's quite possible that the public (in FTSC_PUBLIC) will be asked to vote on several of these issues in the near future. The public feedback in the FTSC_PUBLIC conference has been both gratifying and helpful, and I would invite other nodes to consider reading and contributing to this conference. Next, I'd like to deal with what I anticipate will take place in the next few months. * Further review of the existing FTS documents. * Discussion of several FSP documents with decisions made to elevate them to standards, or relegate them to the Reference Library. * Year 2000 tests of "critical" FTN subsystems, such as nodelist generation. Unfortunately, although many nodes and developers downloaded the FTSC Year 2000 test set, feedback has been almost non existant. The committee itself has limited time with which to run tests and so we will limit ourselves to what we regard as the most critical programs. I hope to make a full report on this by the end of August. * The elected terms of many members will expire at the end of September this year. Therefore election procedures will be put in place in time so that those members being reelected can do so without interruption of work. Of course we will also be looking for applications from new members. If you feel you would like to join the committee, and could contribute positively to its work, then please contact me for details now so you will be well informed when the election comes around. I would personally like to thank the members of the committee for their hard work, good debates and support. I would also like to thank all those nodes, points and others who have taken the time to provide input in FTSC_PUBLIC or otherwise. FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 4 12 Jul 1999 If you'd like to contact the FTSC, please feel free to direct any queries to Colin Turner at 2:2/20 or admin@ftsc.org. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FTSC Frequently Asked Questions by Colin Turner, 2:2/20, ct@ftsc.org Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) concerning the FTSC. * How do I join the FTSC? The FTSC is an elected body, and you can only be appointed in this way. Elections are held periodically. You can ask in FTSC_PUBLIC when the next election is likely to be. Keep watching FTSC_PUBLIC and FidoNews for announcements. * How do I suggest my own new standard? Any point or node can suggest a new standard. You should read FTA-1002 and to a lesser extent FTA-1001, FTA-1006 and FTA-1007. After that you should know all you need to, but you can always contact the FTSC administrator to clarify any problems. * Where do I find the development information I need? Experienced developers can find the information they require on the FTSC Archive site: WWW http://www.ftsc.org FTP ftp://ftp.ftsc.org FidoNet 2:443/13.0 and 2:443/14.0 A list of mirrors is also available. Beginners might find it useful to look at the RoadMap project to help them find the documents of interest. * How can I contact the FTSC? The FTSC can be contacted in a variety of ways. FidoNet Contact the Administrator, Colin Turner, at 2:2/20 FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 5 12 Jul 1999 InterNet email Contact admin@ftsc.org Snail mail FTSC PO Box 443 Bangor Northern Ireland BT20 3BF UK ----------------------------------------------------------------- FTSC Mirror Sites By Colin Turner, 2:2/20, ct@ftsc.org This is a list of sites which provide an archive of some or all FTSC material. If you run a similar site, on FidoNet, the InterNet or otherwise, and would like to see your site included, please contact Colin Turner, 2:2/20 With information about how the files are available, File Request, BBS downloads, FTP, HTTP etc. and the star rating you feel appropriate (see below). Mirror Sites on FidoNet ======================= Denmark ------- Bruno Olsen, 2:236/42 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Yes Star Rating : ** Germany ------- Lothar Behet, 2:446/301 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Unknown Star Rating : * Italy ----- Mario Mure', 2:335/533 FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 6 12 Jul 1999 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Unknown Star Rating : ** Holland ------- Jan Vermeulen, 2:280/100 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Yes Star Rating : ** United Kingdom -------------- Colin Turner, 2:443/13 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Yes Star Rating : *** United States of America ------------------------ California ---------- David Hallford, 1:208/103 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Unknown Star Rating : * Louisiana --------- John Souvestre, 1:396/1 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Unknown Star Rating : *** Texas ----- Lawrence Garvin, 1:106/6018 File Request : Yes BBS Access : Yes Star Rating : *** Mirror Sites on the Internet ============================ FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 7 12 Jul 1999 Primary Archive WWW : http://www.ftsc.org FTP : ftp://ftp.ftsc.org Other Archives FTP : ftp://ftp.eforest.net/e/filearea/fido/ftsc * One Star This sort of site has a collection of all current FTA, FTS and FSC, FSP documents. (That is, administrative documents, standards and proposals). ** Two Star This sort of site also has all FRL documents. *** Three Star This sort of site also has documents and files related to specific working groups. (For example, there are a number of relevant files for working group Y (Year 2000 issues) which have not been released by the FTSC channel itself). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Censorship of FidoNet in Russia? My suspicion has been aroused that Soviet-era-type censorship may still be continuing in Russia. The following gave rise to this suspicion. In 1996 I carried on extensive netmail correspondence with a person in Moscow. At some point he made critical remarks about Russian politicians. Soon after this our correspondence stopped. I heard no more from him, and my netmail to him went unanswered. Until recently we carried on a fairly active correspondence with people in Russia via the ENGLISH_TUTOR echo. Then some critical comments were made about Russia's role in the Kosovo crisis, and all of our Russian correspondents suddenly fell silent. I've since received netmail from one of them, complaining that no more messages are showing up in ENGLISH_TUTOR over there. This despite the fact that there are messages in this echo from North America and Europe. The above is insufficient to establish that the spiritual heirs of the former Soviet KGB are monitoring and censoring FidoNet in Russia, but it is enough to arouse such a suspicion. To help me settle this question, I'm writing this to ask the other users of FidoNet whether they have had similar experiences in communicating with Russians. If so, I would like to receive FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 8 12 Jul 1999 documentation of such experiences by netmail or e-mail along with suggestions on how to combat such odious Russian censorship. I think it's worth the effort to settle this question one way or another. Andy Manninger Moderator, ENGLISH_TUTOR Netmail: 1:153/831 E-mail: andym@lightspeed.bc.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 9 12 Jul 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 10 Sep 1999 10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations. 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 10 12 Jul 1999 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end. FidoNet: Homepage http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII] WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/ FTSC page http://www.ftsc.org/ Echomail [pending] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti List servers: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Net 264: http://www.net264.org/ Region 14: Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://members.home.net/hbh3/r19 Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ Not sure where the following should be placed: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/ Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 11 12 Jul 1999 Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German) Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/ 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) 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://pobox.com/~chr 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 Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl 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 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian) Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian) ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) ============ Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/ ============ FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 12 12 Jul 1999 Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) ============ Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor, and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages should list access points to all Networks within the Region. TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone. -----------oOo------------- Fidonet Via Internet Hubs Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ 1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | BinkP, FTP | 128k | n/c 1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | 64k | $5/mo. 1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c 1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20 1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo. 1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr. 1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c 1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo. 1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr. 1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo. 1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr. 1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo. 2:335/535 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c 2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c 2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c 4:902/18 | Javier Tejedor | UUE | 33,6 | n/c 4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers [I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet. Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed. FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 13 12 Jul 1999 Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have available.] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 14 12 Jul 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Henk Wolsink Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 5:5/23 BBS +27-41-581-5913, 2400/9600/V34 more addresses: Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 12325 Port Elizabeth, 6006 South Africa ------------------------------------------------------ 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 and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink. 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 FidoNet and the 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 [FNEWSGnn.ZIP] for a particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the current year [9], i.e., FNWSJAN9.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 99. FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 15 12 Jul 1999 Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number 1 - 16 for 1984 - 1999, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in size from 48K to 1.4M. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org ** http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm ** ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: ** http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian) http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) ** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to: jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no message to the same address above. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on www.fidonews.org. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org and http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm and in the FIDONEWS echo. FIDONEWS 16-28 Page 16 12 Jul 1999 STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request - Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. =*=*=*= The current week's FidoNews are now also available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide Web at: http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html 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. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 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 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it. "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. "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 -----------------------------------------------------------------