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Volume 3, Number 24 23 June 1986
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
| (_| /_) |
| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
| Users Group | | \ \\ |
| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
| ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (C) Copyright 1986 by IFNA (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES
Silicon Mountain Fido Conference
Uncooperative Fujitsu 85m
What Happens When Sysops Meet
EchoMail, Host Routing, and Topology
Who Reads FidoNews Anyway?
2. COLUMNS
FIDO's BUGS - (or how do we kill the Fleas?)
3. FOR SALE
Entertainment Software for your PC!
Public Domain Software Library Sale!!
4. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
CARTOON: Gruesome George, by Bruce White
Fidonews Page 2 23 Jun 1986
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
SILICON MOUNTAIN FIDO CONFERENCE
Colorado Spring, Colorado
August 14 through August 17
Lots of things are going on with the Silicon Mountain Fido
Conference. We are now working on a road race, probably about 5
K in length, "See Fido Run." This would be set for Sunday
morning, early enough to get a shower afterwards and still check
out. A couple of days here in Colorado Springs should be enough
to acclimate your bodies for this strenuous event. Those persons
who are not into running can cheer the others on.
The Fido standards committee will be meeting at some time during
the conference. The standards committee may present a symposium
and also meet privately.
The program is still being worked on. A tentative schedule is as
follows:
Thursday afternoon:
Arrival.
Thursday evening:
7:00 to 8:30 Meeting of Colorado Springs PC User's
Group (COSUG) and International Fido Net.
8:30 to ?? Party (Cash bar)
Friday morning:
9:00 to Noon Meetings and discussions
Noon to 2:00 Lunch on your own
2:00 to 5:00 Meetings and discussions
6:00 to 7:00 Reception (cash bar)
7:00 to 9:00 Banquet
Saturday morning:
9:00 to Noon More meetings and discussions
Noon to 2:00 Luncheon meeting
2:00 to 5:00 Net and region meetings
Saturday evening:
6:30 to 9:00 Dinner at Flying "W" Ranch
Sunday morning:
8:30 to 9:00 See Fido Run (5k road race)
Departure and checkout
Alternate functions:
Little Britches Rodeo,
Trip to top of Pike's Peak on Cog Wheel Railroad,
Visit Garden of Gods,
Fidonews Page 3 23 Jun 1986
Climb Pikes Peak,
Swim, Sunbathe,
Explore job opportunities in the Pike's Peak Region,
Whatever
Present plans are to hold the conference at the Colorado Springs
Hilton Inn. A single or double room (either single or double
occupancy) is $60.00 per night up to maximum occupancy of two
persons. You can bring a spouse and share a single room or
travel with a friend and share a double for the same $60.00 per
night, or $30.00 each per night. If occupancy exceeds two (you
might want to bring your children), there will be an increased
rate.
Travel arrangements are being made through the Globe Travel
Agency, which will be coordinating travel schedules and obtaining
discount travel rates. We are also trying to talk Globe Travel
into setting up a special Fido node for handling travel
arrangements. Contact Globe travel at the following number:
Jack Armit
Globe Travel Service, 102 S. Tejon Ave.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903 303-473-4151
United, TWA, Continental, Frontier, American and other airlines
serve Colorado Springs with direct flights from cities such as
Chicago, Dallas, New York, Newark, St. Louis, Washington, D.C.,
Los Angeles, Phoenix, and other cities. Service through Denver
is available from almost anywhere that has an airport. If you
are traveling from outside the United States, you will probably
be routed through New York or San Francisco/Oakland. There are
direct flights to Denver from Toronto, Montreal and other
Canadian cities. As the conference center is some distance from
the airport, we need to know when you are coming in to get the
hotel to provide ground transportation.
Those of you who prefer to drive can take Interstate routes most
of the way. The conference center is right off I-25. Major
routes from the West are US 50 and US 24. If coming from the
Southwest, you can follow the interstates East to I-25 and then
north, or go through the mountains. The drive through the
Colorado Mountains is a stunning experience, but it does require
you to take extra time. If you are camping, the US Forest
Service campgrounds are cheap and usually have space if you stop
early (but you may have to carry your own drinking water). From
San Francisco, route yourself across on US 40, 50, or I-70 or
I-80. From the Pacific Northwest, stop off at Yellowstone
National Park on the way or go south and pick up I-80. From the
East, follow I-80 to Denver and then South, or I-70 to Limon,
Colorado and then East on Colorado 94. From Texas, stop off in
Santa Fe, New Mexico (reservations a must) or Albuquerque and
then come North on I-25.
If you come early or stay late and have four wheel drive
vehicles, you might want to go over some of the high mountain
Fidonews Page 4 23 Jun 1986
passes in the back country. The snow will have melted enough to
get through, and the weather should be good at that time of year.
At higher elevations, the wild flowers may still be in bloom.
The Fido net is at a crossroads in its development. It is
expanding at an extraordinary rate. Only your support of the
Administrators will keep the Fido Net going over the long haul.
The achievement of Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Ken Kaplan and
Ben Baker and others in developing the Fido software and the Fido
Net is amazing to us all. It could not happen in a totalitarian
society. Although most of the nodes are in Europe and North
America, Indonesia, which is primarily an Islamic nation, also
has a net. Fido, like the micro-computer on which it is based,
is a vehicle of personal freedom, regulated by the good sense and
restraint of its users, and it should be kept that way. The
primary responsibilities for keeping Fido free and unleashed lie
with the Fido Net Administrators, Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker, its
author, Tom Jennings, and its editor, Thom Henderson. To keep
Fido free and unleashed, it is up to us to support them in their
efforts.
The Colorado Springs PC Users' Group (COSUG) is sponsoring this
conference because it is a conference which should be held, and
it should be held now. The Fido Administrators need help,
including financial support. The conference will give you all a
chance to participate in structuring the Fido Net in the way you
want and in determining the future of the network. Please put
the conference on your calendar and make your reservations now.
The Hilton Inn has requested that room reservations be provided
it no later than August 1, 1986, to obtain the conference rate.
Reservations will be held until 6:00 P.M. of the arrival date.
To guarantee a room past that time, you must give them a deposit
or a guaranteed reservation on your credit card number. The
address and phone number is on the reservation form, which will
be available in Fidonews. You should send me the reservation
form, either by U.S. Mail or Fidomail. Follow up with a
guaranteed reservation direct with the Hilton Inn. Also we need
a head count for the banquet, luncheon, and the Flying "W" ranch
at least 48 hours in advance. If you bring family members along,
they will be welcome. Thom Henderson and Ken Kaplan will be
bringing their wives, and many others will have their spouses and
friends. Some will have their children along also.
Conferences and seminars used to promote professional education
are tax deductible under U. S. income tax regulations, which may
help some with the expenses. Your employer may also be willing
to sponsor your trip.
If you are coming from outside the U.S., check with the U. S.
embassey or consulate nearest you concering a tourist visa. For
Canandians, this is no problem, but others will need to arrange a
visa in advance.
Please send us a message as soon as possible to let us know that
you intend to come. We need to have a tentative count by the end
Fidonews Page 5 23 Jun 1986
of June. This is the height of the tourist season in Colorado,
and we need to make sure the arrangements are in order for the
conference.
George Wing, Conference Coordinator,
Silicon Mountain Fido Conference, 1/10
Address: Suite 507, Mining Exchange Bldg.
8 South Nevada Ave.,
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA 80903
Tel: 303-635-4716 (work)
COSUG BBS: 303-635-5468, 1/10
300/1200/2400 baud
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 6 23 Jun 1986
Don Kulha, 125/7
Uncooperative Fujitsu 85m
In Search Of....
Wisdom. What we have here folks is one extremely
frustrated sysop with a broken (?) toy. About 3 months ago I
purchased a 85 meg Fujitsu drive (M2243AS) for my system and have
had no luck getting it online. I am trying to use it with a
WD1002SWX HDC with the auto-config BIOS. It works fine if I
jumper the card to use default setting, but that only gets it up
as a 20 meg. If I try to key in config info (754 cyl, 11 heads,
etc) it asks for, I get an immediate seek error upon trying to
low level format. When configured as a 20 meg. using the
defaults it will run HDSPEED and other tests with no problems,
warm-reboot, etc. Curious huh?
Well, we're not licked yet. I hope to get this beast up and
configured as a couple 30+ Mb. drives one of these days with your
help. If you have any experience with this combination please
give us a holler via the net or direct to the system at
707-545-0746. Western Digital swears it will work and I believe
'em. Do you know how?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 7 23 Jun 1986
Minutes of the Third Net 109 Fido Sysops' Meeting
Compiled by
Michael Klein
Sysop of YAFIP (109/610)
On May 31, 1986, the Net 109 Fido Sysops had their Third
meeting, which turned out to be the most productive and
informative yet. The meeting was held at Woodlake Towers in
Falls Church, Virginia. This article is an edited version of the
file MINUTES.TXT, which I sent out to all the net 109 Sysops.
Someone suggested that I submit it to the FidoNews, so here it
is.
The meeting more or less got underway around 1310 (1:10 PM),
with a few more people filtering in as time went on. After a
brief welcome from Kurt, we went around the room with
introductions. If my memory serves me correctly, we had me
(610), Chris Rowley (631), Mike Wyrick and David Ross (449), Tim
McArdle (122), Joseph Collins (623), Kurt (74 and 483), Jack
Liebsch (468 and 605), Cliff Cummings and David Purks (603),
Alexander Wall (606), Andrew Bilski (611), Jim Kay (612), John
Raum (601 and 632), Steven Ranger (621), Chris Magyar (615), and
Bob Catt (625), and Steve Fox (613 and 618), who also brought two
new gentlemen who are planning to join the net in the near
future.
Anyway, let's move on to more important matters. Our first
topic of discussion was Fido Bugs (as usual). Two main Bugs were
brought up:
1) When in the files section, the command "A 1" successfully
changes to file area 1. However, when any user EXCEPT those
with Sysop access attempt to go there from the "File Area or
Quit:" prompt (as displayed when the A command is used on its
own), it does not allow access. This is only true of file
area 1; all others work correctly.
2) Andrew Bilski of The Main Frame (611) mentioned that he was
having problems with Fido's T)ype command in conjunction with
DoubleDOS. He said that using a comport (COM1: or COM2:) with
the T)ype command caused problems with his system. Other
sysops present stated that this used to be a problem, but had
been fixed somewhere along the lines. It was dismissed as an
individual fluke.
After the Bug session was over, we moved on to the area of
Fido "Extras" such as SEAdog, OUTSIDE, EVENT, POLECAT, ECHOMAIL,
and SERVER.
Jim Kay (612) reported that he had purchased SEAdog, used it
for awhile, was not satisfied, and sent it back for the offered
refund. His problems with it were:
1) If a user hung up in Fido BEFORE logging on completely, Fido
would reset without returning control to SEAdog.
Fidonews Page 8 23 Jun 1986
2) Sometimes when Fido returned control to SEAdog, the latter
would reset itself, give the "Waiting for Call or Event"
message, and then hang the system until a boot was performed.
Joseph Collins (623), who also runs SEAdog, said that SEAdog
had never given him this (or any other) problem, and that he was
going to continue to use it.
After the short-lived but very informative SEAdog discussion,
the topic area turned to that of ECHOMAIL. We discussed this one
at length (read: "beat the topic to death"), with some very
enlightening and helpful results. We talked about the existing
ECHOMAIL setups that we have, and worked out the major bugs in
the linkup between 449, 610, 325, 622, 630, 615, 631, and 606.
We also discussed the possibility of setting up a Net-wide
Sysops' conference, one of which already exists between the
aforementioned 8 systems. It would simply be a message base for
Sysops to pool their ideas and thoughts without having to send
individual messages to all the sysops separately. More info on
that as it develops.
When that was over and done with, we moved on to OUTSIDE. We
discussed the many ways that OUTSIDE is being used, including a
way to check for messages in bulk, list files, play games, and
even take the infamous Purity Test online (which can be done on
The Game Room, 109/449, for those who care to check on it). It
was mainly a discussion of the various utilities that are
available for use Outside of Fido.
From there, we moved to EVENT. EVENT is a nice little
utility that allows the sysop to update/edit the Fido scheduler
using a standard text editor. It can also be used to shift
events forward/backward, which helps with the switch in Daylight
Savings Time. You can also use it to add remarks to each event
to keep track of what's what. All in all, very handy.
The conversation soon turned to SERVER, which is an external
utility to allow certain users on other boards (with valid
accounts on the home board) to request files during FidoNet time.
It has it's potential uses, but more for systems that deal with
mass amounts of file requests and transfers between Fido systems
than anything else.
A very short topic that was brought up at the end of the
Fido Utility discussion was that of POLECAT. There is a bug in
the Anonymous feature of POLECAT that makes the messages in
question public (as it's supposed to), but doesn't change the TO:
field of the message to "Anonymous," which is it's main feature.
However, it is still a very handy utility to detect and reroute
undeliverable private messages. I have attempted to contact the
P.O.L.E. board in Dallas about the bug, but I've gotten no
answer.
That about wraps it up for the talk we had about the various
popular and not-so-popular utilities and extras to go along with
Fido. We then went on to things that relate more to the net
Fidonews Page 9 23 Jun 1986
itself, such as finding an Outbound Host, Renumbering the Net,
and adding Hubs to the system.
MDS (122) has had problems in its ability to serve as an
Outbound Host, due to a non-functioning WATS line and a very bad
data connection when using their long distance service. Chris
Rowley offered the use of 631 as an Outbound Host, but we all
decided it would be in everyone's best interest to wait until 122
could get everything straightened out.
The idea of Renumbering the Net based on Geographic location
(northern nodes, DC local nodes, and southern nodes) was
mentioned, as was the possibility of renumbering based on type of
system (i.e. IBM, DEC Rainbow, etc.). This idea was shot down
after 5 minutes of discussion, and we decided to leave it just
the way it is. Thus is progress.
As for hubs, we decided that they would be unnecessary, as we
already use them. We just don't call them Hubs. Noting the Hubs
in the nodelist would take more trouble than it's worth, and not
accomplish anything of real value to the net, so this idea, too,
was abandoned, or rather, as we say in the land of Fidomail,
(ORPHANED).
We also discussed the way in which the net is growing. Net
109 currently has 37 active nodes (probably even more this week),
and if the entire net keeps growing at this rate, it may not be
long before we reach LISTGEN's current limit of 1400 nodes. If
this happens, says Kurt, we'll all have to switch to XLATRGEN,
another nodelist generator that can handle more nodes. Watch for
it.
The final discussion topic was that of the Second
International FidoNet Conference, to be held sometime in August
in Colorado Springs, Colorado. No major details were given on
that, but the idea was tossed out for anyone interested.
Contrary to how it may appear, this turned out to be (in my
opinion) the most informative and productive Sysops' meeting so
far, despite John Raum's narrow escape from the claws of death
with aid from Bob Catt (actually, he was locked in the bathroom,
but we'll not go into that any further). We concluded at about
1535 (3:35 PM, for those on 12 hour schedules) and decided to
hold the next meeting sometime in September at the same location.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 10 23 Jun 1986
J. Brad Hicks, 100/523
ECHOMAIL, HOST-ROUTING, AND TOPOLOGY
EchoMail is a utility that was developed on Rising Star Fido to
perform a similar function to FidoNet news groups. Remember my
proposal, quite a few issues ago, that something be done to let
several Fidos share the same message area? It turns out that
EchoMail was ALREADY in beta test at that time. Since then, the
first GOOD working version (1.30) has been released to the
public.
EchoMail uses two programs (Scanmail and Tossmail), and one
parameter file called AREAS.BBS. For the sake of having an
example, the AREAS.BBS on WeirdBase (Fido 100/523) looks
something like this:
+---------------------------------------------+
| WeirdBase: St. Louis, MO - (314) 389-WYRD |
| - |
| 1 GENERAL |
| 1 PRIVATE |
| 2 SF 12/4 |
| 4 MAGICK 12/4 101/27 107/316 |
| 5 GAMING 16/635 |
| 6 POLITICS 100/500 |
| 10 SYSOP 10/620 |
+---------------------------------------------+
Before the evening mail, I run Scanmail, which looks at every new
entry into any of the numbered message areas that is followed by
one or more Fido net/node numbers, and checks to see who hasn't
gotten that message yet. If it finds one (or more), it copies
the message(s) into the netmail area and addresses them to that
(those) board(s). Examples: I enter a new message in area 4 on
100/523. It hasn't been seen by ANYBODY, so Scanmail makes 3
copies of it, and addresses them to 12/4, 101/27, and 107/316.
In addition, it adds the line "AREA:MAGICK" in front of the
message text, and the following two lines ...
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| * Origin: WeirdBase: St. Louis, MO - (314) 389-WYRD (100/523)|
| SEEN-BY: 12/4 100/523 101/27 107/316 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
... at the end of the message body, so that nobody will forward
copies of THIS message to 12/4, 101/27, 107/316, or back to me.
After the evening mail, I run Tossmail, which checks every new
message in the netmail area looking on line one for the word
"AREA:" followed by one of my area names (from AREAS.BBS). Each
one it finds, it moves to that area (stripping off the AREA:
line).
Note that if an AREA:MAGICK message originates on 107/316 and he
Fidonews Page 11 23 Jun 1986
DOESN'T send a copy to 12/4, my board will forward a copy (adding
12/4 to the SEEN-BY line) to 12/4, but NOT back to 107/316. The
effect is that every message in an EchoMail area gets forwarded
to every other board, creating a multi-board shared message area.
This is what we mean by an EchoMail conference.
WHAT IS TOPOLOGY?
Topology is a mathematical term meaning the study of surfaces.
It has been usurped in computerese to mean the study of networks
and network linkages. Everybody knows the standard FidoNet
topology (simplified here to only 4 nets):
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| net A nodes |
| \ / |
| net A hosts |
| / | \ |
| / | \ |
| net B nodes > net B hosts ------- net C hosts < net C nodes |
| \ | / |
| \ | / |
| net D hosts |
| / \ |
| net D nodes |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
In topological terms, we would say that the individual nets had a
"star" topology - one node at the center, that everybody gets
mail from (and often, sends mail through). However, the hosts
form an "amorphous" (meaning "blob-like") topology - everybody
sends to everybody.
Well, the bigger echomail conferences have demonstrated that
EchoMail can bring this topology to its knees. The inter-Sysop
conference has 40+ nodes on it, averaging (at least) a message
per night per node. With the standard FidoNet topology, every
host would be routing copies of these 40+ messages all over the
net. To speed things up, they have by-passed the "official" IFNA
topology and created several "stars-on-a-string":
+----------------------------------------------------+
| ... node - node - node - node - node - node ... |
| | | | | | | |
| ... nodes nodes nodes nodes nodes nodes ... |
+----------------------------------------------------+
Where a half-dozen or more nodes send mail to each other (in mail
slots as small as 10 minutes) to pass it all the way up and down
the line. At any given time, only a FEW of the nodes are sending
mail - few or no collisions. Further, the messages for the other
points of each node's "star" are created AT THE LOCAL ECHO HUB,
reducing the amount of traffic considerably. (In other words,
instead of sending 5 copies of a message to net 125, you send one
copy to A SINGLE BOARD in net 125, which does a Toss/Scan to
Fidonews Page 12 23 Jun 1986
create the copies for the other four.)
This also has it's disadvantages. For one thing, even with
streamlining deluxe, it's slow - 2 to 3 days to get mail from one
end of the chain to another, a speed that barely rivals 1st Class
mail. (I have joked on occasion that we could do better and
almost as cheaply to copy the mail onto diskettes and mail them.)
For another thing, it is indescribably complex. In both of the
largish conferences I participate in (one of which I coordinate,
the MAGICK conference), up to half of the mail, at times, is
dedicated just to negotiating a new topology.
By the way, despite what Josh said in his article, this job IS
best done by a central coordinator. A camel is a horse designed
by a committee - except that it seems unlikely to me as a systems
analyst that any committee could design something as functional
as a camel. No, the coordinator doesn't run rough-shod over
people. He merely prevents duplication of effort, insures that
there are no loops in the conference, and takes full advantage of
existing links to keep EVERYBODY'S costs as low as possible.
THE WHYS AND WHENS OF HOST-ROUTING
Caveat Number One: I do not pretend to speak for the IFNA, nor
for any network host. What you are about to see is one man's
opinion. It is, however, an educated and thought-out opinion,
which I am not sure can be said for the argument in issue 322.
Nobody who knows anything about EchoMail would begin to pretend
that host-routing is a good idea for large conferences. When a
conference is creating 40, 50 or more messages a night to a half-
dozen or more nights, EVERYONE (including the Echomailers) would
be better off by-passing any hosts that aren't part of the
conference.
But what about smaller conferences? Tom Kenney (107/316), who is
collecting a list of EchoMail conferences, says he has a list of
almost 70 different EchoMail conferences. I'll wager LONG odds
that the average number of cities per conference is just a tiny
fraction over 1.0, and that the average number of boards per
conference isn't much higher than 3. And further, I'll also bet
that for all of those conferences that only have two or so boards
involved, most of them generate LESS than 5 messages per night.
Is there any net host, anywhere in the FidoNet, who is going to
crash his disk and/or miss mail slots (in a one-hour range, mind
you) because of a packet containing 3 messages? Even several
such packets? This seems especially true to me since in many
such cases, including BOTH of the complaints that I have
personally received, I am sure that most of those nights there
was AT LEAST that much non-EchoMail traffic between St. Louis and
those two cities! Why is there such irrational fear of EchoMail
in general? Why should very small, low-volume conferences have
to forgo the advantages of message routing?
Fidonews Page 13 23 Jun 1986
There is at least one good reason why they shouldn't! When Tom
Jennings created the current two-layer network topology, the net
was getting choked by the huge number of small mail packages that
were travelling back and forth. Host-routing decreases not just
mail COSTS, but also message packeting and phone-dialing time,
for EVERYONE.
I think that one of the big issues that needs to be discussed at
the FidoNet conference in Colorado is just what level of service
the network hubs are committed to providing. Here in St. Louis,
we were able to resolve the potential problem quite easily - when
my inbound and outbound volume got too large, I discussed the
matter with the relevant sysops, and we settled on a reasonable
volume of mail that they would accept for routing - beyond that,
I'm on my own, and quite understandably! I think that it may be
time to establish a NATIONAL service level: you may route x
number of messages from your board to any one net; you may
receive y number of messages from other nets; and if your traffic
exceeds these limits, you get dropped from the net into the
region (or even dropped from the net altogether).
POST-SCRIPTUM
Since this is (unless somebody beats me into FidoNews) the most
detailed description of EchoMail to date, I think I should
mention a few basic rules of courtesy:
1) If you want to join a conference, send a netmail message to
its coordinator or contact-person. NEVER NEVER NEVER send
EchoMail without permission! If you don't know the topology,
you could end up cascading your message(s) all over the
network. I broke this rule, and I found out the hard way
what would happen. Don't you learn the hard way, too.
2) Until this mess is straightened out, don't route EchoMail
through your out-bound hub, or even through somebody else's
in-bound hub, unless you have personally checked with both
hubs to make sure that the increase in volume is all right.
Apparently, you need to follow this rule even if your message
volume is only one or two messages per night. Until a
service level is established, you break this rule at your own
risk.
3) An EchoMail conference is a lousy place for private mail. If
you have something private to say, send it via netmail. For
one thing, "private" mail can be read by EVERY sysop along
the chain. For another, why should a private message for one
person be routed to 6, 7, or even 40 boards? For your
convenience? How about OUR convenience, tovarisch?
4) EchoMail is the greatest thing to hit Fido in it's history.
EchoMail gives us better messaging capabilities than many
larger networks, such as UseNet. EchoMail is brand new - and
neither bug-free, nor well-integrated into the FidoNet. Next
year, things will be different. In the mean time, we're
Fidonews Page 14 23 Jun 1986
still learning just how nice (and occasionally, just how
dangerous) our new toy can be. Be patient and be reasonable,
and consider the present to be (what it is, namely) a Grand
Experiment.
J. Brad Hicks, Sysop
WeirdBase, Fido 100/523
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 15 23 Jun 1986
Bill Jones, 105/10
WHO READS FIDONEWS ANYWAY?
There have been a lot of comments made about the 600 billion
readers of FidoNews, and being a sysop of large traffic Fido I
have come to the conclusion that this number is slightly
exaggerated. I would say that if you subtracted the sysops the
number would be a bit closer to 2.
Now, I don't mean to sound like FidoNews is a waste. Far from
it! I just don't think many users are getting the benefit they
should be.
What I started doing way back with issue 310 was editing out the
articles and editorials that I thought the average user might
enjoy or benefit from. I didn't extract the ads or basic sysop
orientated articles. Then using WRITEMSG I entered the articles
into my new message area FIDO_NEWS, complete with authors name as
sender and All as recipient.
Now I have a well-read message area of interest to everyone, and
feel that I'm finally passing on others hard work and insight.
To carry this a step further, NET 105 and 146 has started using
EchoMail to share some of our areas and I'm pleased that most of
the nodes also wished to have a FIDO_NEWS area, of which I'm
currently the moderator so we don't create massive duplication of
the same articles.
On the topic of EchoMail, it is now possible to echo messages up
to 200 lines long with version 1.30. With version 1.1 the limit
was 100 lines, and I had to create parts 1 and 2 for some of the
messages.
Bill Jones 105/10
OSWEGO FIDO - Lake Oswego, OR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 16 23 Jun 1986
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
David Dodell, Fido Bugs West, 1/98
Marvin Shelton, Fido Bugs East, 1/99
Well the bug reports have been coming in fast and furious.
Please remember to direct all suspected bugs to either Bugs West
or East, do not send them to the help nodes or to 1/0. This just
delays things since they are then forwarded to us.
Here are the bugs and Tom Jenning's response for the week.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sysop on 120/24, Fido Detroit of Michigan Net, Detroit MI
I uploaded a very short basic program to the Fido with both
Kermit and Xmodem. I then downloaded both versions with both
Kermit and Xmodem. To my surprise, everything ran ok. The only
thing peculiar is some garbage you get after the command to
download:
KERMIT transfer
Ready to send easter.bas
14 blocks, 00:13 transfer time
Start now, or Control-C to abort
S~H @-#N1~2
I then downloaded the program (axelf.bas) we tested the other day
with both Xmodem and Kermit. The Xmodem version ran. The Kermit
version returned an error message "Direct Statement in File" and
would not run.
Tom's Response:
The "garbage" is the initial Kermit NAK packet. Ignore it. Fido
should delay 5 - 10 secs before outputting, but the problem is
merely cosmetic.
The Kermit vs. Xmodem thing: after repairing the "good" kermit
source from Columbia, I no longer trust any Kermit except mine.
The one I had had a bug in the repeat count prefixing code. The
string "~~" in the file got converted into 96 "~" instead, or
something like that. Try disabling REPEAT COUNT PREFIXING if
possible in Xtalk. In any case, I can't debug from "direct
statement in file" error msgs, I need binary file comparisons
reports, etc. This is one to watch, rather than worry about I
think. There may be a problem remaining in Fido Kermit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sysop on 120/24, Fido Detroit of Michigan Net, Detroit MI
Problem: Fidonet message problem
I was trying to reply to a message sent to me by name. The
original message came from 125/509 and was addressed to me as Jim
Brooker rather than Sysop. The message was from Sysop at
Fidonews Page 17 23 Jun 1986
125/509. When I entered the (r) command to reply, the message
showed that the message was going TO Jim Brooker at Fido node
125/509. ??
Tom's Response:
Its not a bug. Fido tries to avoid the case:
From: Joe Shmoe
To: Joe Shmoe
Subj: ...
Normally, Fido tries to reply to the person who sent you the msg.
For example, if you are MIKE, and you got a msg from JOE, it
would look like:
From: JOE
To: MIKE
Subj: ...
As Mike, you want the msg to go to JOE. No sweat.
The problem is when the to and from names are the same; its
almost always "SYSOP". I wish I had never set "SYSOP" as the
default name in the user list. A serious mistake. For example:
From: SYSOP
To: MIKE
If you are MIKE, the reply works as above. Again, no sweat.
However, if you are also SYSOP, and you reply to this msg (even
if it isn't you) Fido would generate a msg from SYSOP to SYSOP.
Not good. In this case, Fido uses, blindly, the To: field.
The problem is usually two things: (1) the same-name problem,
above, and (2) confusion over Fido "knowing" who people are. All
Fido knows about is the result of a string compare; it has no
idea what anything is, never mind human identity. Humans even
have trouble with that.
The solution: stop using SYSOP as a name!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Randy Bush on 122/6, PSG Coos Bay of SW Oregon Are, Coos
Bay OR
Here is an example of the false disk full error. It is always
proceeded by an aborted message. After this I logged off and
dialed in again and sent the message without error.
ie.:
DISK FULL: Cannot save your message! Delete some old msgs to
make room and start again Error saving message to Fido 107/414
Tom's Response:
Fidonews Page 18 23 Jun 1986
This appears to be a genuine bug. Some file left open or some
such rubbish. It may depend on lots of things, too. I know I've
aborted msgs and immediately reentered them without trouble.
Make sure that there are FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS, for starters.
If doubleDOS, etc is running, all bets are off.
I'll wait for further details. Ill try this myself, see what I
can do. It will probably be "interesting" ...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sysop on 115/100, Illini Data R of Chicago Area,
Bolingbrook IL Subj: Fido bug
Fido 11w and under all predict the correct Kermit file transfer
time and then multiply it by THREE TIMES.
Whenever ending an XMODEM file transfer, Fido says "Timeout"
which usually indicates an error not an EOF.
When "file transfer information" is enabled you cannot tell how
large the entire transfer is - it has scrolled off the screen.
When disabled, there is no way to see how far along it is.
Command stacking the "Sysop | Y Password" still does not work.
Fido only checks daily time limits at logon. If Daily is 40 and
per call is 40, user can login for 39, hangup, and get another
40. TJ should check this as often as he checks time of the
current call. Same problem with download limits.
For the USRobotics Courier Fido should send "M3" (sound on after
dialing before connection) rather than "M0" (always off). The
Courier has a nice volume knob - let the users decide how loud
(if at all) they want the modem to be.
Tom's Response:
Kermit time: its not on purpose, I assure you. I do try to "lie"
on the slow side, but not 300%! More like 20%. Its very
difficult to judge Kermit times, as there is no 1:1 relationship
to file size and bytes transferred. I will look at it, I probably
have a fudge factor in there I can adjust.
Xmodem Timeout: it doesn't always happen, it doesn't here ... it
is a problem w/ the d/l program. There is supposed to be an
ACK/NAK sequence on the final EOT. The EOT (from the sender)
means "no more data, you got it all", which the receiver is
supposed to ACK or NAK. Many communication programs don't do
this. The file xfer works fine.
The other possibility is that the receiver is taking a long time
to close up the file just received, and is ACKing, but after Fido
stops waiting. (Fido doesn't wait too long, cuz many programs
don't do this sequence, as mentioned above, and it would take too
long to time out!)
Fidonews Page 19 23 Jun 1986
In other words: don't worry about it. Or, set more BUFFERS = on
the receivers end (if its a floppy.)
The file transfer stuff on the local console is for debug, etc.
Its not Fido status, so its not broke. Its a long story ... Fido
is so tight for space (8086 segmentation) that I had to remove
stuff ...
Will check out command stacking: "SYSOP | Y password" should
work.
Yes, on daily and download limits. I give the user the benefit of
the doubt. It wont be changed, too many ramifications for testing
etc at this late date. I think this is in the manual, but it may
not be.
USR Courier: let the user do stuff like that. Put ATM3 in
FIDOMDM.BBS. Most people just don't want to hear modems
screaming and dialing. Or at least, get sick of it after a night
or two. This is all documented in the manual.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Goodman on 153/101, Datanet of BCNet, Delta BC
I think I have discovered a bug in Fido version 11w. When one
attempts to download a file that isn't ASCII using the ASCII
download it reports back :
C:\????????\????????.COM is NOT a text file!
Sent 1 files OK
One or more files not sent
Tom's Response:
Yep ... it's a bug! Its supposed to say:
PROGRAM.COM is not a text file!
One or more files not sent
Not the pathname (!) nor the "1 files sent OK". I
will fix this, if I remember to!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 20 23 Jun 1986
=================================================================
FOR SALE
=================================================================
ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC!
SUPERDOTS! KALAH!
Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the
author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the
popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT
options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring
skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games
use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS
device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on
the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both
exciting games! Please specify version and disk format.
These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and
run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80,
CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but
minor customization may be required.
BSS Software
P.O. Box 3827
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido
coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH
and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also
be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE
CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also
appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review.
Questions and comments can be sent to:
Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17
(609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 21 23 Jun 1986
Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!!
Public Domain collection - 550+ "ARC" archives - 20+ megs of
software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When
unpacked, you get approximately 28 megabytes worth of all kinds
of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes
to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... Over
55 DS/DD diskettes!!
This collection is the result of more than 15 months of intensive
downloads from just about 150 or more BBS's and other sources,
all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your
convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on
to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This
is the answer!!!
To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check,
postal money order or company purchase order) to:
Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511
Post Office Box 4296
200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard
Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296
Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order.
Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain
software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to
the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines,
running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting,
cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this
software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem
using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what
we charge for the service...
Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be
prepared on. The following choices are available:
- IBM PC-DOS Backup utility
- Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility
- DSBackup
- Fastback
- ACS INTRCPT 720k format
- Plain ol' files (add $50)
Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more
expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges.
California residents add 6% tax.
For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 22 23 Jun 1986
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
20 Jul 1986
St. Louis Area Sysops Meeting, to be held at Baker's Acre.
Net 100 sysops please contact Ben Baker at 100/76 for details
and directions.
14 Aug 1986
Start of the International FidoNet Conference, Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Contact George Wing at node 1/10 for
details. Get your reservations in NOW! We'll see you there!
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gruesome George by Bruce White, 109/612
+-------------------------------------------------+
|\ Prepare to attack! |
| \ All systems deployed-- |
| Can Daddy play Awaiting command, sir. |
| with me now? / |
|\ / |
| \ / ____\__ |
| No, don't bother him. / |_| \ |
| He said he has some __/__ |\ |
| important work to do. | _ | | |
| ______ | |_| | | |
| __(______)_|_____|___ | |
| ||-----------------|| | |
| ______ || || | |
| \ {} / || || | |
|(c) 1986 bw \__/ ||-----------------||__|__|
+-------------------------------------------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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