81 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
81 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
"What is FidoNet?"
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Tim Pozar's view
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This is a quicky file that describes the FidoNet computer network.
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FidoNet is a public, worldwide network of Bulletin Board Systems.
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The network spans over countries in North & South America, all parts
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of the pacific rim including the Orient, Australia, and New Zealand,
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Western and parts of eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
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The Service provided is primarily message handling. Protocols are
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defined within the network to provide a limited amount of file transfer over
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the network topology. Users, however, are often free to connect to a
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particular node on FidoNet directly by dial-up telephone lines to perform
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message and file transfer.
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Private "NetMail" exits as well as open conference message areas
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spanning hundreds of topics called "EchoMail." It is very similiar to
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newsgroups or usergroups on other networks, except the overall etiquette is
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somewhat different since access is open to anyone of the general public with
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suitable computer and modem equipment.
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Active gateways currently exist between INTERNET, USENET, BITNET and
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other networks for NetMail. There are also many EchoMail conferences
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currently cross-link with newsgroups/usergroups of INTERNET and USENET.
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There are several layers to the topology or addressing of FidoNet.
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The world is divided into "Zones." A Zone often spans a continent. A Zone
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is further divided into "Regions." In North America (Zone 1), a Region
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often spans several U.S. states or Canadian provinces. In Europe (Zone 2),
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a Region often identifies one country. Further, a Region is divided into
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"Nets." A net is comprises a particular local population or metropolitan
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area. Within a net, are individual Bulletin Board systems called "nodes."
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A node is comprised of a collection of individual users, who access the node
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via dial-up lines.
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A node is uniquely identified by it's FidoNet address. A particular
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person is typically addressed by both their name and the address of the
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system they locally use, similar to methods used on INTERNET. More
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recently, a node has been further divided into a "point," which merely
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provides a unique address to one person who has installed the Fido
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compatible network driver software on their own computer.
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The general form of a mail address is:
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FirstName LastName@Zone:Net/Node.Point
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The name, Net, and Node are mandatory. The Zone number is required only for
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addressing outside of one's zone. The Point designator is required only for
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someone not using their own network drivers.
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Each node will have a file that list all of the nodes in FidoNet.
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This database is called the "NodeList". It is simliar to the UUCP map
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project, but is slighty more limited in the information contained in the
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database. A copy of the Nodelist may be availible from a local FidoNet
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site.
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Finding a local FidoNet site may be a "Catch-22" in that you may not
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know where one is. If you can find any BBS in your area, you can leave
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messages asking. You should be pointed to some BBS "in the know". If all
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else fails, try emailing to deitch@gisalt.fidonet.org. David Deitch is
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kind enough to volunteer to help out with questions regarding FidoNet. If
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you have questions regarding the Internet/FidoNet gateway, send mail to
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hostmaster@fidonet.fidonet.org.
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There are two methods of connection to the network. First, by a manual
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dial-up to a BBS system. Second, there also exists software which permits
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automatic access to a node which handles the logon/logoff procedure as well
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as the message/file packet transfer process. In addition to simplfied BBS
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access, this carries an added advantage of minimum telephone on-line time.
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This software is commonly known as "Point Software".
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If you are interested in getting infomation on how to join FidoNet,
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drop me mail asking for the "joinfido.txt" file.
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Tim Pozar - pozar@kumr.lns.com
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[Thanks to Brian Crawford (crawford@enuxha.eas.asu.edu) for a good
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percentage of the text. -- Tim Pozar (pozar@kumr.lns.com)]
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