59 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
59 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
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About BBS Message Headers.
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There seems to be a general mis-understanding of the function
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of the message headers. Here is a little history, and some
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information on new work in progress that may clear things up.
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Orignally there were no message headers.
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This caused some problems: it was very hard to diagnose
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network failures without the audit trail of the path the mesage
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took though the network. So, very early on, I added the header.
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In 1985, the ARRL gave a demonstration of automatic message forwarding
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to the FCC. One of the main points presented was that the message
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headers allowed for FULL TRACING of who handled the message, and
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when it was transmitted by each station. This automatic audit trail
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was one of the major arguments in favor of automatic control of packet
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BBS stations, and helped to result in Docket 85-105, and eventually
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the HF STA, and thus packet radio as we know it today.
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As time went on, many people discovered that they could learn a
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great deal about the functioning of the network by looking at
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the message headers. Some wrote software to do this automatically.
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The WP server is one example. It uses the information contained
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in the message headers to help build and maintain it's distributed
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database system.
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People are now working on software that will automatically determine
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the entire network map from the information contained in message
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headers. Some day, this will allow us to build our BBS routing
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tables AUTOMATICALLY. As we all know, maintaining routing tables
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is one of the nasty chores for a BBS sysop!
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Two things must happen for this all to work:
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1. It is MOST important that the message header not be altered
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as it passes through the various BBS on it's path.
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2. The header must be in a standard format, so that the software
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that decodes it can operate correctly.
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The format of these headers has evolved through many changes.
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In 1987, NK6K proposed a standard to be used by all BBS authors.
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Most followed this standard, or followed a slightly different
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standard used originally by WA7MBL.
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Please folks ... do NOT alter message headers.
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If you are writing BBS code, please follow one or the other
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of the existing standards.
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... Hank
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