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F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 13 (30 March 1992)
The newsletter of the |
FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
_ |
/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
/|oo \ | (415)-863-2739
(_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1
_`@/_ \ _ | Internet:
| | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
| (*) | \ )) |
|__U__| / \// | Editors:
_//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings
(_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar
(jm) |
----------------------------+---------------------------------------
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews.
Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00US
Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free!
For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1
Editorial: Excuses, and me, me, me ............................ 1
2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 3
More Thoughts on Aliases ...................................... 3
A Point of View ............................................... 4
EFF Announces Pioneer Award Winners ........................... 7
Adventures in BBSing: OS/2 Conversion ......................... 8
So this is goodbye ............................................ 11
International FTN Registry .................................... 12
The PDN changes hands ......................................... 14
CAPNet -- The Civil Air Patrol Network ........................ 15
GUITAR Echo Conference ........................................ 16
3. LATEST VERSIONS ............................................... 18
Software List ................................................. 18
4. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 24
FidoNews 9-13 Page 1 30 Mar 1992
======================================================================
EDITORIAL
======================================================================
Editorial: Excuses, and me, me, me.
by Tom Jennings (1:1/1)
-- Sheesh. I have a really good excuse. I'm working a (contract) job
that works me AM to PM every day. Building radio station studios. On
Friday we worked from 1030AM til 2AM. Station went on the air in the
new location 1:05AM Friday night with the briefest >CLICK< as the
audio was flipped from dedicated telco to microwave at the new site.
It's now Sunday, 0230AM. I've been at this miserable TV set thing
reading blurry files.
-- I only outed Wynn Wagner III because he threatened to out me if I
didn't. OK, that's fine. However I called him Wymm or something, and
forgot to tell you he's the original author of OPUS. (Some sort of BBS
program, I'm told. Ever heard of it? :-) (Same excuse as this week.)
(BTW, OPUS has generated over $50,000 in donations to Shanti, the AIDS
caregiving organization here in San Francisco. Not too shabby...)
-- My aforementioned little excursion last editorial has generated
some fun messages. Since it's off in a tangential direction, you'll
have to filerequest "GAYNOISE" from 1:1/1 (or manual download from my
BBS, +1-415-863-2739/HST).
-- I seem to have won a terribly flattering award. I feel funny
writing about my own award (seems a bit self-serving, no?!) but no one
else has! I've included the EFF's announcement in this issue. It
includes all the details. Suffice to say it's because of this
troublemaking network of ours.
I really, truly am moved by getting this award. Really. How can I
explain from here? See, most of my electronic communications is quite
well removed from my daily life. I have some rather specific views on
communications, not surprisingly I suppose, and this electronic stuff
is of below-par human-type bandwidth. Not even as good as a telephone
in ways that matter. Yet I see it as important. Worth an essay or two
by itself. Partly, it's simply out of the question for most people,
including the ones I want to talk with, to spend $1000 on any one
thing. Besides the cultural aspect to access to technology. Etc.
So I don't see a lot of what goes on (probably just as well). I don't
have a regular job, never mind a Silicon Valley type job, nor do I
want one. I have serious issues around even what's considered normal.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 2 30 Mar 1992
So not only do I get caught off guard, my personal life/context
doesn't translate to a line of ASCII encoded text. I *can* explain it
(though I usually don't need to) to the people I live with, so I know
I'm not crazy (the non-functional kind anyways).
So when talking to John Barlow about the award itself (a beautiful
octagonal lucite tower with black base and small plaque), he said,
half jokingly, it was thought I wouldn't like it or something, since
when I received the plaque at FIDOCON'91 I was kinda grimacing or
something.
Just in case I really did give that impression -- my most sincere
apologies to my hosts, both FIDOCON'91 and CFPC! Most likely my
nervousness with the whole public event thing leaked out. Oh well.
Maybe later, when this job is over, I'll write about the Computers,
Freedom and Privacy Conference (which is where the awards were
presented). The next CFPC will be in San Francisco. I believe I've
volunteered to be on the Steering Committee or something. Hmm.
Anyways, it will probably be as great as this last one. Mark your
calendar for March 93...
-- Could the person who sent FIDOCONX.ART please try again. The file
you sent me was some odd word-processor format, WORD or MULTIMATE or
something. Plain ASCII only please...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-13 Page 3 30 Mar 1992
======================================================================
ARTICLES
======================================================================
When is a Alias Not an Alias? Can YOU Tell?
by Donna.
1:114/113.11
With the alias feeding frenzy that's happening around FidoNet and the
Snooze lately, I'm finally fired up enough to say something about the
subject myself!
Some very good points have already been made by the previous authors
of Snooze articles on the topic of handles (Mahatma Kane Jeeves and
David Lescohier on general privacy, Brad Meyers on recovery-type
privacy, Donald Tees on female privacy). In that latter article,
Donald Tees entered a sentence which I'd like to expand on here: "Why
on earth does the die-hard anti-alias person assume that John Smith is
not really Janet Smith."
I've been "with" FidoNet since the days when Fido was the only BBS
package around for connection to the net, since the days when most BBS
software required two names of its users. The software is more
flexible now, though, so I can just be me, and I've been more active
in the past few years. Only in the middle of this alias paranoia,
that's getting harder and harder to do.
I've already voluntarily chosen to leave a local echo when the
moderator requested me to just make up a last name to appease the
locals who used ridiculing my name as a way to avoid debate. There's
the possibility that I might soon be asked to leave a backbone echo
because the moderators' rules insist on more names than I have.
Yet for all the people who are willing to lump me in with the group of
Evil Alias/Handle Users, NOT ONCE has anyone ever deigned to merely
ASK if I am using an alias! It is generally assumed that, since I do
not conform to the conventional naming standard, I must be using an
alias.
It's the lack of "benefit of the doubt" which suggests to me that
what's happening to people with "aliases" is simply the FidoNet
version of McCarthy's days of communist hunting. It seems that,
increasingly, the FidoNet community is less willing to judge a user on
what the user says and more willing to judge the user by the user's
name. In recent months I've seen Native Americans (Indians) harassed
simply because their names don't conform to Columbus's White America's
naming convention. About a year ago, my husband was descended upon by
nearly an entire echo simply because his name was similar enough to
the names thought to be used by a certain "undesireable"; our REC was
ordered to cut our links to the echo, and the
then-soon-to-be-moderator threatened the FCC on us, all for the
(wrong) assumption made over a name!
FidoNews 9-13 Page 4 30 Mar 1992
No doubt some readers are thinking of a moderator's right to limit the
names of the users participating in that moderator's echo. I agree
with this right, BTW, even though "vote with your feet" is more of a
joke than an option when the backbone's a virtual monopoly. I just
wonder if some people ever sit back and think about how silly such
presumptions over names really are. As Donald Tees said, "Why on
earth does the die-hard anti-alias person assume that John Smith is
not really Janet Smith." Why, indeed? I could, I suppose, call
myself "Donna Smith" and get by these name restrictions, but I'm not
sure I care to be dishonest like that. At best, I find it highly
ironic that a system which is designed to *keep* people honest is
insisting that I lie in order to be a member of the system!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
My experience as being a point
by Charles Buchanan 1:3812/10.6
I've seen a few things in messages back and forth about the Fidonet
nodelist, the size of it, who should be in it, etc. I've also seen a
few comments about who should be able to FREQ from systems and who
should not be able to FREQ from systems. So since I'm a point, I
would like to tell you a few things from my 'point of view'.
Being a point for me seems to have just about all of the advantages
of being a sysop without all of the headaches associated with it. My
setup is Frontdoor 2.02, Fastecho 1.00, and Golded 2.31. Now with
this setup, I've been asked by a few people "Why do you have all of
that if you are just a point ?". Well actually I guess all I 'need'
is Frontdoor. With Frontdoor I can call my bossnode, get my mail,
read it, reply to it, and send it back. But I still need a mail
tosser. The FM message reader in Frontdoor is good but sometimes I
need a little more flexability on the flags and Golded gives me these
extra features.
I used to call in to my local BBS as a regular user with Qmodem,
download a mailbag in the XRS door, read/reply offline, and then
upload it back to BBS in the XRS door. After a while, the sysop gave
me my own point address and suggested that I use Frontdoor, Binkley,
or someting else as a mailer. So I setup Frontdoor since everybody in
my area uses it except for one BBS. So I got plenty of help setting
it up. But after I got it setup, I then found out that I needed a
mail tosser. Since again most of the sysops in my area were using
Imail, that is what I setup. Then I started looking around at
readers. I liked the way that XRS showed me all of my mail first
before it went to other mail. I used XRS and XCS and FDRC for awhile
but it was still a bit of a headache going through all the
conversions and all the different programs I needed. So I looked at
Golded as my reader and I liked it very much.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 5 30 Mar 1992
But back to why I like being setup as a point. As a point, I can send
and write netmail to people all over the world and it just tags along
with the echomail. Most of the time my messages are quite small and I
don't use netmail all of the time. My boss node was extremely
supportive in this aspect.
My boss node also passes echos through to me that he doesn't carry on
his BBS. I only get a few that he doesn't carry and they are mainly
of interest to me rather than the general public. One of them that I
get is called POINTS. This is an echo where people who are setup as
points like myself can discuss setups, problems, programs, and other
things associated with being a point. If I called into the BBS as a
regular user, I would not see this echo (or need it) since I would
not be a point. So my boss node set it up for me to get this echo and
I'm very appreciative of this.
Now another area of concern is the ability to get files which I can't
find locally. As a BBS user, you really don't have too many choices.
If your local BBS doesn't have the file, you really have about 4
choices :
1) Ask in one of the echos if someone knows where it is.
2) Call the BBS that has it and download it.
3) Ask your sysop to get it for you.
4) Do without the file.
With Frontdoor setup, I'm able to do a FREQ from another system and
not bother my local sysop by begging him to get it. Some systems
don't allow FREQ from someone who is not in the nodelist. So then I
need to ask my local sysop to get the file. I'm still not real sure
about why a system won't allow a FREQ from someone who is not in the
nodelist. I understand that some sysops feel that FREQ should be only
from one sysop to another and not be used by the general public. From
my 'point of view', a FREQ saves time, money, and diskspace for all
concerned. Now suppose I find a file that I want but the system won't
let me FREQ from him. Then I have to call with my comm program, go
through the log-on, register as a new user, and hope I still have
enough time to get the file. Also, I might have to wait for a call back
verifier which is more time wasted. Now I've been on his BBS for
around 5 minutes already and haven't accomplished anything. I've also
been calling long distance so there is a bit of money involved. If he
calls back, then I have to make sure I'm waiting for the call which
might not come until the wee hours of the morning since it is long
distance.
But now I'm registered on his BBS. I probably will not call
it again and he has me listed as a user. This now wastes his
diskspace with all of my background info. If I was able to do the
FREQ to start with, I would have tied up his BBS for just the time it
takes to get the file and then I would be off. He also would not have
me listed as a user and would not need to use a call back verifier.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 6 30 Mar 1992
Now if systems want to allow people who are only in the nodelist to
be able to FREQ, then it is asking that the nodelist will contain
alot more nodes in it just so people will have the ability to FREQ. I
see this as very impractical. This is just asking for the nodelist to
grow to an even greater proportion which is really not needed. I
don't need to be listed in the nodelist as I do not operate a BBS and
nobody needs to call me.
The sysops in my area are extremely helpful and I understand that
this an exception rather than the rule.
Mike Ernst at 1:3812/215 set me as a point off of his system to begin
with and I thank him very much for all of the help he has given me.
He introduced me to the world of echomail and BBSing in general. He
has given me the latitude to send and receive netmail and echos
through his system. His BBS is geared towards mail so he showed me
all about how to use the message readers and such. I switched from
1:3812/215 to 1:3812/10 to relieve some of the burdon from Mike
Ernst. He never asked me to switch and told me that I was welcome to
point off of him. Mike is the feed to our area as well as to other
areas. He has quite a bit of traffic going in and out of his system.
So since I'm 2400, I switched over to another boss node so I would
not tie up his system when I really did not need to.
My new boss node is Bob Henderson at 1:3812/10. Bob has two lines --
USR DS 14.4k and a ZOOM 2400 line. So he and Mike can transmit mail
back and forth at 14.4k and then I can get my mail at 2400 from him.
Bob is extremely helpful in finding files and helping me setup
everything. He gives me the same latitude that Mike did and I'm very
thankful for that. If I can't get something to work or if I want to
try something new, Bob helps me out.
James Kennemer at 1:3812/20 I owe a special thanks. My monitor went
out on me but the company said that they would fix it for free if I
sent it to them. It would take at least 1 week to get to them, 1 week
back to me, and then possibly two weeks to repair it. James loaned me
another monitor he had for the entire month that mine was gone. I had
only chatted with him on his BBS prior to this. I thought that this
was absolutely extraordinary. James also goes into some message areas
and manually fixes the origin address for one of his users pointing
off of him. His point has a problem with the software he uses at
getting the correct address in some echos. So James makes sure that
it shows the correct address before it leaves his system rather than
telling the point not to write in that echo.
I've pointed off of all of the above systems in the past and all of
the sysops were extremely helpful so I wanted to share with you my
experiences of being a point and what it means to me.
So there is my 'point of view' from Charles Buchanan at 1:3812/10.6
FidoNews 9-13 Page 7 30 Mar 1992
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENGELBART, KAHN, WARREN, JENNINGS AND SMERECZYNSKI
NAMED AS FIRST WINNERS OF THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION'S PIONEER
AWARDS
Cambridge, March 16,1992
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today announced the five
winners of the first annual EFF Pioneer Awards for substantial
contributions to the field of computer based communications. The
winners are: Douglas C. Engelbart of Fremont, California; Robert Kahn
of Reston, Virginia; Jim Warren of Woodside, California; Tom Jennings
of San Francisco, California; and Andrzej Smereczynski of Warsaw,
Poland.
The winners will be presented with their awards at a ceremony open to
the public this Thursday, March 19, at L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in
Washington, DC, beginning at 5:15 PM. Most winners are expected to be
present to accept the awards in person. The ceremony is part of this
week's Second Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy that is
taking place at L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in D.C.
Mitchell Kapor, President of the EFF, said today that: "We've created
the Pioneer Awards in order to recognize and honor individuals who
have made ground-breaking contributions to the technology and culture
of digital networks and communities."
Nominations for the Pioneer Awards were carried out over national and
international computer-communication systems from November, 1991 to
February 1992. Several hundred nominations were received by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the final winners were selected by
a panel of six judges.
The criteria for the Pioneer Awards was that the person or
organization nominated had to have made a substantial contribution to
the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based
communications.
The Pioneer Winners
Douglas Engelbart is one of the original moving forces in the personal
computer revolution who is responsible for many ubiquitous features of
today's computers such as the mouse, the technique of windowing,
display editing, hypermedia, groupware and many other inventions and
innovations. He holds more than 20 patents and is widely-recognized in
his field as one of our era's true visionaries.
Robert Kahn was an early advocate and prime mover in the creation of
ARPANET which was the precursor of today's Internet. Since the late
60's and early 70's Mr. Kahn has constantly promoted and tirelessly
pursued innovation and heightened connectivity in the world's computer
networks.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 8 30 Mar 1992
Tom Jennings started the Fidonet international network. Today it is a
linked network of amateur electronic bulletin board systems (BBSs)
with more than 10,000 nodes worldwide and it is still growing. He
contributed to the technical backbone of this system by writing the
FIDO BBS program as well as to the culture of the net by pushing for
development and expansion since the early days of BBSing. He is
currently editor of FidoNews, the network's electronic newsletter.
Jim Warren has been active in electronic networking for many years.
Most recently he has organized the First Computers, Freedom and
Privacy Conference, set-up the first online public dialogue link with
the California legislature, and has been instrumental is assuring that
rights common to older mediums and technologies are extended to
computer networking.
Andrzej Smereczynski is the Administrator of the PLEARN node of the
Internet and responsible for the extension of the Internet into Poland
and other east European countries. He is the person directly
responsible for setting up the first connection to the West in post-
Communist Middle Europe. A network "guru", Mr. Smereczynski has
worked selflessly and tirelessly to extend the technology of
networking as well as its implicit freedoms to Poland and neighboring
countries.
This year's judges for the Pioneer Awards were: Dave Farber of the
University of Pennsylvania Computer Science Department; Howard
Rheingold, editor of The Whole Earth Review; Vint Cerf, head of CNRI;
Professor Dorothy Denning Chair of George Washington University's
Computer Science Department; Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0,
Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, and John Gilmore of Cygnus Support.
For more information contact:
Gerard Van der Leun
Director of Communications
Electronic Frontier Foundation
155 Second Street Cambridge, MA 02141
(617) 864-0665 Internet: van@eff.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Adventures in BBSing: OS/2 Conversion
By Randy Edwards, Sysop, 1:128/105.0
Well, I've had an interesting time the last month or so. For years
I've run my BBS on an old 8mhz XT clone. Worked fine, too. I had
that ol' XT rigged up for just about every speed addition you could
think of -- 1 meg RAM cache, V20, fast hard drives, etc., etc. Like
I said, it worked fine and still pushed my HST to speeds over 170%.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 9 30 Mar 1992
Finally though, I found too many users were complaining about the
obscene amounts of time it took for the ol' XT to pack up their
offline mail. I knew it was slow, as I knew how much faster my
personal machine was at making archives, but I figured they could live
with it. Nope, no way. After watching one long distance caller
twiddle his thumbs while the XT packed his mail, I decided it was time
to upgrade.
Fine, upgrade. But upgrade to what? The machine I had in mind was
plain enough -- I figured I'd step into the 90s and put a 386/33
online. That'd be more than enough power to pack archives up quickly.
The thing I was puzzled about was what software to run. No, not BBS
or mailer software, but something to multi-task so I could use the
computer too. Having used DESQview for years, I seriously considered
that. I figured with DV I could perhaps run more than one line, and
still do maintenance on the side. But like I said, I've used DV for
years and have seen more than my fair share of QEMM errors, DV lockups
and hangs, etc., etc. Yeah, I could use DV, but I still thought I
could do better.
I then went through the sequence of examining other multi-taskers.
PC-MOS and the usual group, with the exception of Microsoft Windows
(I don't want to grow old waiting for a file transfer to finish with
Windows :-), were all considered. Still, I didn't find any that
thrilled me.
While talking with a friend he mentioned OS/2. Gee, never really
considered that one. The last I heard about OS/2 was that it was
expensive and not that well supported. Since my friend was running
multiple HST/DS lines and was quite happy with it, I decided to
investigate it further. Surprise! I found quite a few people running
OS/2 for BBSing and all very happy with it.
In fact, I learned quite a lot about OS/2, and more about IBM than I
really cared to. I found IBM has somewhat developed a new attitude
towards its non-corporate customers. Toll-free 800-lines aimed mainly
at end-users, BBS support -- gee, this doesn't sound like the giant
computer monopoly we all love to hate. But what really got me was
OS/2 itself. A $99 deal selling OS/2 1.3 with a free upgrade to the
far-superior 32-bit OS/2 2.0. Hmm, not a bad price for a full
multi-tasking operating system. Of course the upgrade policy was
something I only dreamed of having with my Borland compilers!
So I get OS/2. Fine, now to install it. The installation was pretty
smooth and I decided to format my drives with HPFS -- OS/2's High
Performance File System. HPFS allows you to do things like have long
(<255 chars) filenames, and it's much, much faster than a normal "FAT"
file system. In fact, the disk speed was so much better than DOS'
that it was downright shocking! Impressive, to say the least.
The conversion of the BBS and mailer was somewhat easy. I had used
BinkleyTerm and the Maximus BBS under DOS, so all I had to do was to
get their equivalent OS/2 versions. Fine. Setting up the COM ports
for high speed use was a bit more difficult. Fortunately, a friend
Chris Regan let me have a copy of his OS/2 setup and that went
smoothly. Though the COM port handling of OS/2 is much, much improved
FidoNews 9-13 Page 10 30 Mar 1992
over DOS', we're still forced to use third-party device drivers for
rock-solid high-speed communications. But hey, these companies will
get high-speed comm right ONE of these years (sure! :-).
So with my mailer and BBS installed, I went about converting my batch
files over to OS/2. Simple enough, as most batch files can be
converted by simply renaming *.BAT to *.CMD. Then I discovered the
REXX procedure (batch) language. Backup and regroup -- rewrite all of
the batch files into REXX. For those of you using third-party kludges
to get more power out of DOS' batch file language, or those that use
4DOS' improved batch language, you'll simply love REXX. True
variables, subroutine calls, numeric operations, IF THEN ELSE loops,
DO WHILE, DO FOREVER loops, and much, much, much more. It's a real
language, and its power exceeds DOS' batch files by so much it's
unfair to compare them. Great, after a few hours I rewrote the
system's batch files into REXX.
And so now, I'm running fully in OS/2. The system still amazes me.
No jerky screen-scrolling like under DESQview. With 4 or 5 other OS/2
windows open and running various programs BinkleyTerm still pushes the
HST to over 170% -- the multi-tasking is truly the best I've seen.
When incoming mail hits the system BinkleyTerm goes down for about 3
seconds and pops right back up -- all the mail processing is done by
a REXX queue in the background in another session. Things like
convincing SHARE.EXE to work right, worrying about how much free RAM I
have, and all the other problems of DOS-based products we're used to,
are all a thing of the past.
In short, I'm very impressed with OS/2 and can't for the life of me
figure out why we haven't heard more about it. It seems like it's the
*ideal* operating system for running a BBS with. What's even better
is that OS/2 2.0 is due to be released at the end of this month or
early April. OS/2 2.0 is radically improved. OS/2 version 1.3 has a
limited amount of DOS support -- you can run only 1 DOS program in the
foreground. With OS/2 2.0 you can run as many DOS or Windows 3.0
programs as you'd like (within reason; <255) -- and run them in the
foreground or background. I expect to see a big future for OS/2 2.0.
Of course, running OS/2 does have some quirks. Not really quirks in
the operating system -- it's rock solid and crashes and hang-ups are
a thing of the past. What I mean is, OS/2 needs more utility
programs of various types -- both "normal" utilities and FidoNet
utilities. While there are programs to do most everything you want
to do, it's not the wide variety you get with DOS. With DOS utils,
you can pick and choose from dozens. With OS/2, you're often
looking at a choice between only 2 or 3.
Hopefully though, OS/2 2.0 will add many new programs to OS/2 -- more
programs than the DOS, Windows 3.0 and existing OS/2 programs that it
can already run. With cheap compilers being available or in the
works for OS/2, and given the tremendous untapped potential of the
32-bit OS/2 2.0, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from it.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 11 30 Mar 1992
Well, I've babbled on long enough. Time to close this file up and
send it off as I've got a game of NetHack waiting for me in another
task of OS/2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Erik VanRiper
1:107/230
Well everyone, it has been fun. I just wanted to put down in
words a few parting thoughts to a few people who have influenced my
life in FidoNet (Yes, it may be a hobby to some, but to me it has been
a great trip). So, to get on with it:
To Rory Starkweather (1:3614/103): Way back when in Japan, we decided
to buy computers. See what you got me into? <grin> Remember when we
first got Binkley to work? We didn't have to hike back and forth with
disks anymore. Enjoy, and don't let the U.S.M.C. get you in trouble.
<grin>
To Eric Lotgerink (2:283/1): My overseas friend. Thank you for
supporting the efforts of the PDN in Zone 2 for all these years, it is
certainly appreciated by hundreds of sysops, and thousands of users.
To Jerry Seward (1:260/222): Enjoy the snow, we hardly got any down
here this year. See you on the Internet!
To PhilJohn (1:260/0/1): I still cannot believe that you renamed your
BBS to "sluts and nuts". You two are the most unreal people I have
ever met! Don't change. :-)
To the File_Movers crew: You guys (and gals too!) are fantastic. You
took any idea of mine and made it work. Hang in there, it will get
better once the political types get off their soapbox. <grin>
To the SERVICES crew: Get it together. Your already a month late
with the newsletter. 2.5 years, and only 2 newsletters? Come on...
To J.S. and D.J. : Keep that mail moving, no matter what they say,
what you two do is probably the most under appreciated thing in
FidoNet. I know I have not thanked you enough.
To George Peace: You have been there to help when I needed it, and I
certainly appreciate it. Your system has been through some tough
times (both your computer and your nervous system <grin>). Hang in
there, it'll only get worse as FidoNet grows. :-)
To Bill Andrus (1:13/0): Take care of these guys out here on Long
Island. They need the help, and cannot do it without your help. Also
do R13 a favor and stick with decisions that you have made in the past
that set precedence, and not do things on a whim. It will do you some
good in the long run.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 12 30 Mar 1992
To John Schrieber (1:274/13): You get that thing working yet? :-)
To FidoNet:
FidoNet is growing fast. It is great to encourage growth, but
changes need to be made sometime, or it will collapse under its own
weight. I cannot think of a single person in FidoNet who I did not
get along with, which means there must be thousands of decent people
out there. Keep up the good work, and above all, remember it is only
a hobby.
Enjoy.
/* Erik */
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamie Penner
1:153/1025@fidonet.org
Announcing the International FTN Registry
There's no doubt in my mind that someone is probably already
keeping track of which zone numbers go where - as a matter of
fact, I'd be surprised if there weren't 100 people doing this and
they're probably doing a might fine job of it too!
The job, however, doesn't stop there. It is abundantly clear
that the so-called "OtherNets" are DEFINTELY here to stay.
There is some good quality to these networks and there are a good
number of them that just simply supplement FidoNet and enhance
the world of amateur communications as we know it.
This causes a few problems. First, I'll outline the problems as
they appear and then try and help with a solution...
Problem #1: Lack of Communication
With no proper method of gating and people collecting
aka's left, right and center, it can get a little hairy.
In addition, the way that FTN specs are designed, there
is little and no chance of a message seemingly finding
its way to where you want it to go unless you already
have the nodelist for the network you want the mail to
get to.
Problem #2: Refuge from Excommunication
Too many networks very simply have no idea that a
potential member has been excommunicated from a network
FidoNews 9-13 Page 13 30 Mar 1992
for whatever reason. It is this very point that can
give a network a bad reputation. Let's face it, FidoNet
is a REALLY BIG network and it is toooooo easy for
someone to get the boot and move in somewhere else and
still get access to gated mail. All that does is stir
up to ol pot even more.
Problem #3: Misunderstandings
More than a few times, I have found myself looking up the
barrel of a vigilante FidoNet purist explaining my reason
for this "OtherNet"'s existance. Well, quite frankly,
OtherNet's can provide a valuable service to this
community and give people a fresh breath. But, how do
we find out about these other networks?
The answer is the International FTN Registry. The registry is
not associated with FidoNet in any way. It is simply a place to
register your network. It will consist of a body of people who
are responsible for their networks working towards a common goal
of internetwork communication with the least amount of barriers
and problems.
The membership will be open to ICs, ZCs, and RCs of the FTN
registered networks. The membership, in a number cases, may opt
to carry a TICK echo which will be available for network
policies, nodelists and other pertinent information for the
registry. It will also formulate general guidelines for
internetwork gateways and provide a common forum for internetwork
concerns and problems.
Overall, the goal is to open the information for sysops in
general and provide some sort of common medium for all networks
to express concerns without the concerns of this network being
better than that network. Every network serves its purpose and
every sysop has the right to choose his or her affiliations.
If you are interested in participating in the registry, simply
send me a text file or netmail message laid out in the following
format:
# network name
Z: Zone
C: Contact name
V: Voice phone number (held in confidence)
B: System phone number
P: Policy file name (policy manual must be attached)
N: Nodelist name (current nodelist must be attached)
D: Domain signature *
G: Gateway
G: Gateway (add G: lines as needed)
---
FidoNews 9-13 Page 14 30 Mar 1992
* - some networks may opt to use the yet to be published spec for
the BTM-001 domain signature spec. This is a multi-field
signature. Contact me for more details.
here's a completed example:
# ISIG
Z: 40
C: Jamie Penner
V: 604-555-1212
B: 604-873-6625
P: ISIGPL1B.ZIP
N: ISIGNODE.*
D: isig.wescan
G: 1:153/1025@fidonet
G: 25:4604/197@signet
---
You will then be notified of any discrepancies, duplications, or
acceptance into the registry. This information, your current
nodelist and current policy must be sent for acceptance.
This is a new project and will only work if there is
participation. It is generally hoped that this will become the
foundation for a non-partisan international organization for
amateur computer communcations. Let's make it work!
I can be reached at:
Jamie Penner
40:40/0@isig.wescan
1:153/1025@fidonet.org
25:4604/197@signet
8:7501/103@familynet
604-873-6625 14.4HST 24hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Erik VanRiper
1:107/230
The Programmers Distribution Network has changed hands. Janis
Kracht (1:272/38) is the new head of the PDN, effective the first week
in April 1992.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 15 30 Mar 1992
I want to thank Janis for taking on this task, and I am sure
she will do a wonderful job.
I also want to thank all of you PDN'ers out there that have
contributed to the PDN over the years, and made it the kind of success
it is today.
Thanx! :-)
/* Erik */
----------------------------------------------------------------------
by David Boehm, CAPNet News Editor
1:103/234@fidonet.org
55:55/250@capnet
I would like to take this oppurtunity to announce the Civil Air Patrol
network, or CAPNet as we call it.
CAPNet was started about 1 year ago to bring together the people of
Civil Air Patrol who used the computer as a means of communication.
We have found that many people in CAP have hobbies with computers and
modems.
Currently, CAPNet is trying to recruit enough nodes to complete a
national hub network.
Here's a diagram of the planned organization for CAPNet:
=======================================================================
N_East Mddl_East Grt_Lakes S_East N_Central S_West Rcky_Mtn Pacific
Region Region Region Region Region Region Region Region
5001 5002 5003 5004 5005 5006 5007 5008
========================================================================
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
110 210 310 410 510 610 710 810
120 220 320 420 520 620 720 820
130 230 330 430 530 630 730 830
140 240 340 440 540 640 740 840
150 250 350 450 550 650 850
160 260 560
170
180
CAP itself is divided into 8 regions and into 50 "wings". So, we
divided CAPNet into 8 regions and 50 nets. (8 RC's and 50 NC's) One
RC for each region of CAP, and one NC for each wing. On the chart
above, each number below the region represents one wing or net.
CAPNet is a FidoNet Technology Network (FTN) using Zone 55.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 16 30 Mar 1992
Currently, CAPNet is running about 5 active echos including the
popular CAP_NAT echo on the FidoNet backbone. We are even forming
our own file echos for aviation related files and our own newsletter!
We are looking for some nodes that can fill some badly needed RC and
NC positions. Civil Air Patrol is sometimes regarded as America's
best kept secret. Let's hope that CAPNet doesn't turn out the same!
Files to FREQ:
CAPINFO.ZIP -- Current CAPNet Policy, application, and general
info.
CAPLIST.A?? -- Current CAPNet nodelist.
CAPNEWS.??? -- Current CAPNet newsletter.
Where to FREQ:
Matt Valleau, Zone 55 Coordinator
FidoNet 1:141/101
CAPNet 55:55/0
Orland Carter, Zone 55 Echo Coordinator
FidoNet 1:135/72
CAPNet 55:55/2
David Boehm, CAPNet News Editor
FidoNet 1:103/234
CAPNet 55:55/250
Bill Turner, CAPNet SDS Coordinator
FidoNet 1:10/302
CAPNet 55:55/100
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GUITAR conference being formed
by Tom Rieger
1:260/242
GUITAR is a FidoNet echomail conference for people who build,
repair or play guitars. Distribution is private until enough
systems link in to warrant seeking a more official distribution
scheme. Contact Tom Rieger @ 1:260/242 for link-up info.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TAGLINES Update
March 28, 1992
It's Official! Taglines is now a FidoNet BackBone echo!
If you want to join the fun, just ask your regular feed to add it for
you. It may take a couple of days to a week or so to put links in
place but patience and persistence will pay off.
FidoNews 9-13 Page 17 30 Mar 1992
Special thanks go to George Hatchew, Amnon Nissan, Martin Belcke and to
Christopher Baker, Michele Hamilton-Stewart and all participants in the
echo.
Thank you everyone.
Ronnie Toth
Moderator: Taglines
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-13 Page 18 30 Mar 1992
======================================================================
LATEST VERSIONS
======================================================================
Latest Greatest SoftWare Versions
Latest Update: 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
Fido/FidoNet 12.21 Prune 1.40 PAK 2.51
Genesis Deluxe 3.2 SysNL 3.14 PKPak 3.61
GSBBS 3.02 XlatList 2.90 PKZip 1.10
Kitten 1.01 XlaxNode/Diff 2.53
Lynx 1.30
Maximus-CBCS 2.00
Merlin 1.39n Other Utilities(A-M) Other Utilities(N-Z)
Opus 1.73a* Name Version Name Version
Oracomm 5.M.6P@ -------------------- --------------------
Oracomm Plus 6.E@ 2DAPoint 1.50* Netsex 2.00b
PCBoard 14.5a 4Dog/4DMatrix 1.18 OFFLINE 1.35
Phoenix 1.07* ARCAsim 2.31 Oliver 1.0a
ProBoard 1.20* ARCmail 3.00* OSIRIS CBIS 3.02
QuickBBS 2.75 Areafix 1.20 PKInsert 7.10
RBBS 17.3b ConfMail 4.00 PolyXarc 2.1a
RemoteAccess 1.11* Crossnet 1.5 QM 1.00a
SimplexBBS 1.05 DOMAIN 1.42 QSort 4.04
SLBBS 2.15C* DEMM 1.06 RAD Plus 2.11
Socrates 1.11 DGMM 1.06 Raid 1.00
SuperBBS 1.12* DOMAIN 1.42 RBBSMail 18.0
SuperComm 0.99 EEngine 0.32 ScanToss 1.28
TAG 2.5g EMM 2.11* ScMail 1.00
TBBS 2.1 EZPoint 2.1 ScEdit 1.12
TComm/TCommNet 3.4 FGroup 1.00 Sirius 1.0x
Telegard 2.7* FidoPCB 1.0s@ SLMail 2.15C
TPBoard 6.1 FNPGate 2.70 SquishMail 1.00
TriTel 2.0* GateWorks 3.06e StarLink 1.01
WildCat! 3.02* GMail 2.05 TagMail 2.41
WWIV 4.20 GMD 3.10 TCOMMail 2.2
XBBS 1.77 GMM 1.21 Telemail 1.5*
GoldEd 2.31p TGroup 1.13
GROUP 2.23 TIRES 3.11
Network Mailers GUS 1.40 TMail 1.21
Name Version Harvey's Robot 4.10 TosScan 1.00
-------------------- HeadEdit 1.18 UFGATE 1.03
BinkleyTerm 2.50 HLIST 1.09 VPurge 4.09e
D'Bridge 1.30 IMAIL 1.20 WEdit 2.0@
Dreamer 1.06 InterPCB 1.31 WildMail 2.00
FidoNews 9-13 Page 19 30 Mar 1992
Dutchie 2.90c ISIS 5.12@ WMail 2.2
FrontDoor 2.02 Lola 1.01d WNode 2.1
InterMail 2.01 Mosaic 1.00b XRS 4.99
Milqtoast 1.00 MailBase 4.11a@ XST 2.3e
PreNM 1.48 MSG 4.5* YUPPIE! 2.00
SEAdog 4.60 MSGED 2.06 ZmailH 1.25
SEAmail 1.01 MsgLnk 1.0c ZSX 2.40
TIMS 1.0(mod8) MsgMstr 2.03a
MsgNum 4.16d
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
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
FidoNews 9-13 Page 20 30 Mar 1992
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
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
FidoNews 9-13 Page 21 30 Mar 1992
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
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
FidoNews 9-13 Page 22 30 Mar 1992
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
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
FidoNews 9-13 Page 23 30 Mar 1992
RList 1.03
RTick 2.00
UnBundle 1.4
UnSeen 1.1
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Key: + - Netmail Capable (Doesn't Require Additional Mailer Software)
* - Recently Updated Version
@ - New Addition
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
NOTE: 8 Mar 92
FidoNews versions list update process is about to change, once again.
It will be taken over by someone else. In the mean time hold onto
your hats (and programs).
Watch for an announcement within a week or two.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-13 Page 24 30 Mar 1992
======================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
======================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/1
Internet fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
BBS (415)-863-2739 (9600 HST/V32)
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews
Box 77731
San Francisco
CA 94107 USA
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.
FidoNews is copyright 1992 Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews (we're
easy).
OBTAINING COPIES: FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from
the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from
various sites in the FidoNet and via uucp. PRINTED COPIES mailed
may be obtained from Fido Software for $5.00US each PostPaid First
Class within North America, or $7.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail.
(US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)
Periodic subscriptions are not available at this time; if enough
people request it I will implement it.
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 BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
from 1:1/1 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC".
FidoNews 9-13 Page 25 30 Mar 1992
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco
CA 94107, USA and are used with permission.
-- END
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference in New Issue Copy Permalink