268 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
268 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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WWIVNEWS Volume 1, Issue 4
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April 1991
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Table of Contents
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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WWIVNews Intro Contest Submissions..............................Various
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Stop the Hack Attack...........................Bethnal the Black 2@5465
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FidoNet from a WWIVnet Perspective..................East Bay Ray 1@9964
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The Pending File.........................................WWIVNEWS Staff
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The Editor's Corner.................................East Bay Ray 1@9964
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Acknowledgements.........................................WWIVNEWS Staff
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=======================================================================
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WWIVNews Intro Contest Submissions
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Xavier 1@9409
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-------------
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/\ /\
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\W\ /\ /W/
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\W\/W/\ /W/
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\W / \/W/
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\/ \/ /\ /\
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\W\ /\ /W/
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\W\/W/\ /W/
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\W / \/W/ ___________
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\/ \/ [IIIIIIIIII]
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/I/
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/I/
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/I/ /\ /\
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___ /I/____ \V\ /V/
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[IIIIIIIIII] \V\ /V/
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\V\/V/
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\V /
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\/ NEWS!
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Agent Steel 1@6556
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------------------
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_________ __ __
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_____ / / __ __ / / __ __ __ __ __ ____ ______________________
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_____ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / // / ____ ______________________
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_____ / /_/ /_/ / / /_/ /_/ / / / / // / ____ ______________________
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/_________/ /_________/ /_/ \___/ ____ ______________________
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___________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________ __________ _____________
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___________________ ____ / __ \ ______ / __ __ ______
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___________________ ____ / / / / / ____/ / / / / / / /___ / _____
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___________________ ____ / / / / / /___ / /_/ /_/ /_____/ / _____
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___________________ ____ /_/ /_/ /_____/ /_________/_______/ _____
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Bro John 1@4701
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---------------
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------===* \ / \ / : \ / *===---------
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------=====: \/\/ \/\/ _:_ \/ :=====---------
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------=======: __ __ :=======---------
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-------=========: :\ : :__ \ / :_ :=========---------
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-------===========: : \: :__ \/\/ __: :===========---------
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-------=========: :=========---------
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------=======: Volume: Issue: :=======---------
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------=====*_ (Date) _*=====---------
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=======================================================================
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Stop the Hack Attack
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by Bethnal the Black 2@5465
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A recent rash of WWIV Hacking in the Montreal area has shown me
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that there are too many SysOps who are not taking the right precautions
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to make their systems safe and secure.
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Simple things, like backups, seem foreign to most SysOps, but
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this is the first line of defense against a crash, hacked or otherwise.
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Regular backups need not be a time consuming activity. Once the
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initial system backup has been done, incremental backups of the disk
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may take as little as 10 minutes. Backing up to disk may not be the
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most enjoyable task, but it isn't life threatening either. It may save
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you quite a bit of time and trouble later.
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Once you have the backup situation covered, you can start doing
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things that will ensure that you will never have to use those disks.
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The first step is to protect yourself from yourself! Ever
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accidentally erase a file? Not too difficult to do, really, but quite
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easy to prevent. DOS has provided a command called ATTRIB that allows
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you to set the Read-Only flag on any DOS file. Start with COMMAND.COM,
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AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, BBS.COM, BBS.EXE and anything else that you
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can think of. If these files are set as Read-Only they cannot be
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deleted accidentally or clobbered by some vicious hacker. Protecting
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COMMAND.COM also has the added benefit of stopping a large number of
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virii from infecting your system.
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If we look specifically at the most recent Hack making the rounds
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(the PKUNZIP extraction hack), we can use a feature of the INIT.EXE
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program. Simply restrict all Uploads to SysOp and check everything
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that comes into your board before making it available for download
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(and, therefore, Extractable-to-TEMP). This is not always easy,
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especially if you get a lot of uploads, but it is the best way to
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insure safety from this particular hack. Another good stopper for this
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one is Wayne Bell's UNZIP program. Better yet, just remove the extract
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option all together, has anyone ever used it?
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I think it is also important to remember one of the basic rules
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of computer security: change your passwords (your's and the System's)
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regularly. This practice applies to all your users and should be
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enforced for your high access accounts. Also, don't give your system
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password to anybody that you don't know (or can't kill), and, even
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then, only if ABSOLUTELY necessary. If you never log onto your BBS
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remotely, make your password totally random, so that even you wouldn't
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know it.
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Voice validation is another way of ensuring that your users act
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responsibly (you have their phone number and they know it). It doesn't
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have to be a 20 minute conversation, either. Just a quick chat to let
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him know what the BBS is all about and what you expect from him, as a
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user. It gives the user the feeling of being wanted, and it gives you
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the chance to size him up and decide if he is someone who needs to be
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watched, or maybe even restricted.
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I realize that you have probably heard most of this stuff before,
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and some of you probably know more ways to protect your BBS from
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damage, but for the rest of you, I hope this has given you some insight
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into how you can protect that investment of time and effort that we all
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call "The Board".
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I invite, and appreciate, your comments.
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=======================================================================
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FidoNet from a WWIVnet Perspective
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East Bay Ray 1@9964
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The popularity of being a FidoNet gate to WWIVnet is growing
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rapidly these days. Just check out a //NET listing and see how many
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node numbers are in the @600-@699 range. However, many sysops are
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confused when they first plunge into FidoNet, because the two networks
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are indeed vastly different. In this article I will address some of
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the major differences between FidoNet and WWIVnet, from a fundamental
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point of view. It would take at least a book to do the same from a
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software point of view.
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First of all, you are not dealing with a single type of BBS
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software. You are not even dealing with a single type of operating
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system, or computer. There are FidoNet systems being run on DEC
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Rainbows, Ataris, Apples, as well as PCs running (other than MS-DOS)
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OS/2, UNIX, and PC-MOS. You must realize this, because unlike WWIVnet,
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everybody doesn't run the same software, and most people will have
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different problems than you will. Some FidoNet software is even
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commercial!
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Second, there are several different pieces of networking software
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available. You don't just have one author and one set of programs to
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use, you have a diverse number of choices. The software is mainly
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divided up into two categories: mailers and messaging software.
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A mailer, also called a front-end, is a program that you run that
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connects you with other FidoNet systems. With this mailer you can dial
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out and send FidoNet packets and files to other FidoNet systems, and
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receive them as well. These mailers are also the driving force behind
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FREQing, or "File REQuesting". Sysops that have heard of Snarf have an
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idea of what this is. A mailer can call another mailer, and request a
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file. It can also call that system and request a file. All this is
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done in the same program.
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The second major portion of FidoNet software is the messaging
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software. These programs are the ones that unARC or unZIP the packets
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received from the mailers, and put them into message directories.
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Surprised? Yes, FidoNet got wise a long time ago and started sending
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compressed mail between systems. Most FidoNet-compatible BBS systems
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can directly read the messages output by the messaging software. WWIV
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sysop, however, must take an extra step to get the FidoNet mail to
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their boards. This program is called NetSEX, and it will be explained
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in detail a little bit later in this article.
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The third major difference between FidoNet and WWIVnet is that
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mail is not as structured in FidoNet. If you want to, and the other
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guy is not too excessively annoyed, you can connect to anyone you want
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to pretty much. This practice isn't very smart, but it is a
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possibility. Another, more realistic example is if you really want to
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get a piece of mail to someone across the country, then you can simply
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"Crash Mail" him. This is a practice where, after you write the
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letter, you call his system directly and send him your letter. It
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really speeds things up sometimes.
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Before I go any further, I wish to introduce some new terms.
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These are basically synonyms, but FidoNet terms nevertheless.
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The first is netmail, which e-mail, or net e-mail in WWIVnet. In
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FidoNet, some regions have routed netmail, where you can send a piece
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of netmail to any place in the country, and it will go the longer, but
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cheaper route (much like WWIVnet). In other regions, netmail must go
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directly to the destination system, or it goes not at all.
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The second term is echomail. Echomail is synonymous with a
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WWIVnet post. However, echomail "conferences" (net subs) are vastly
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different than WWIVnet ones. FidoNet echomail conferences are, by
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WWIVnet standards, free-for-alls. Although there are appointed
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moderators, these moderators have little knowledge of who is picking up
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their conference, and have little control over who it goes to.
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Another FidoNet concept that cannot be used currently in WWIVnet
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is message threading, or reply-chaining. This technique employed by
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most BBS systems to some degree allows all the posts relating to the
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same topic to be read at the same time, regardless of when they were
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posted. This makes reading messages infinitely easier on the reader.
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NODELIST. This file is a huge file that contains a listing of
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all the FidoNet systems currently in the network, yet it IS NOT
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distributed on any basis, regular or irregular. Since it is close to a
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megabyte (around 9500 systems in FidoNet so far), it would be highly
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impractical to send this file out. Those poor 300 (yes, there are a
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couple) and 1200 baud systems would spent their entire weeks just
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downloading the NODELIST. Instead, weekly NODEDIFFs are distributed in
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compressed format (ARC, ZIP, LZH, etc.). A NODEDIFF file contains the
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difference between last weeks NODELIST and this week's.
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That is about all I can think of at the present time. Besides
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NetSEX (the utility required to interface WWIV and FidoNet, available
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as NETS100.ZIP), I have pretty much left FidoNet software untouched.
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Hopefully in some future issues some of the people in WWIVnet who know
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more about FidoNet software will write some reviews. Heavy 7, Benny
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Hill, Pierre Tremblay, Darkster, Otto (grin)...
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=======================================================================
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The Pending File
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(Tips, Tricks, and News)
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by WWIVNEWS Staff
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Wayne Bell, due to the recent upsurge of hack paranoia, has released a
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PKUNZIP front end called UNZIP. This program scans all the files in a
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ZIP before extraction, and if there is a suspicious file present, it
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will bar extraction from that ZIP completely. It looks for directory
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denotations ("\" and "/"), PKZIP and PKUNZIP, UNZIP, and a couple other
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strings.
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Black Dragon 1@2380 has released a new version of his Network Editor
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(NETEDIT). Here are the release notes from the v1.28 READ.ME file:
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The search command now allows more than just a BBS name
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match. This command has been expanded to search similiarly
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to WWIV v4.07's //UEDIT search command. In addition, for the
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registered version, the network may now analyze around any
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temporarily disabled node. The analyze routine was fixed
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with respect to CALLOUT.NET entries which were listed as
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receive only. Lastly, some menus were redone.
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-I- have released a Windows 3.0 PIF and icon (along with a short doc
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file detailing running WWIV and Windows) as WW4WNDWS.ZIP. I am sorry
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to say, however, that Wayne -hates- Windows with a passion, so I doubt
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there is much hope of a Windows-aware WWIV anytime.
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=======================================================================
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The Editor's Corner
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by East Bay Ray 1@9964
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Hello again, cowboys, cowgirls, and cowneuters. This is another
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fun-filled issue of WWIVNews. This month's editor's corner is devoted
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to begging. I am begging for some submissions. Even human interest
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stories are OK, as long as the relate to WWIV or the BBS industry
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somehow. For example, if you consider your dog or cat as a co-sysop,
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write it up! If you have an opinion on the "I've fallen and I can't
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get up!" commercial, and it relates to WWIV, write it up! We need some
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submissions!
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=======================================================================
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Acknowledgements
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WWIV (c) 1988 by Wayne Bell.
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All other products mentioned are either registered trademarks or
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copyrighted by their respectives manufacturers.
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=======================================================================
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The End
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