Letters to the Editor

• Comments on the 1452 Snooze Editorial
• FidoNews also available here
• Announcing ARGUS FidoNet to Internet software
• FidoNet explained for Internet folks
• Needs MajorBBS info
• Comments to News Vol.14, No 52

Comments on the 1452 Snooze Editorial
by Gordon Malone 1:261/1195, g.malone@ix.netcom.com

Season Greets Chris!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to comment on your editorial from the 1452 edition of the snooze;

"Where are we a year later?"

If no one wants to get the required vote together, I'll be the International Coordinator... :) There NEEDS to be a leader. We've been going nowhere fast for far too long.

The Nodelist... You've got to be kidding. Why not? There are tens of folks who could do that job right here in Net261. We need to get rid of the "dead wood", don't we.

Why hang on??? All of the above offerings listed in your commentary and then some. ;)

Continued credit and KUDO's go deservedly out to Mr. Barchuk for attempting to re-invent Fido into what "it could be" if we all gave half a hoot and put our though, inventiveness and heart where our mouths are.

Balance... Naaa. Too many folks complain and not enough folks give enough of a damn to do anything. Sad, ain't it. Imagine what we could be if everyone who joined, contributed and participated... Really sad.

If folks aren't going to participate, why get involved? If you're not part of the solution...

Cheers!

Gordo

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Fidonews

Reply-To: <mbelcke@ws02.irvbbs.com>
From: MBelcke@ws02.irvbbs.com (Martin Belcke)
To: "Chris Baker" <cbaker84@digital.net>
Subject: Fidonews
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 17:07:16 -0600

Chris,

I have made available every single issue of Fidonews, since the beginning issue, as well as yearly archives, all via FTP. They are organized as follows:

FIDO1.ZIP (All of the issues for Volume 1) Replace the number with the number or letter of the volume as it appears in the FNEWSxxx.ZIP format. Current would be FIDOE.ZIP

Each issue is also available, so if someone only needs a specific issue, they can get that issue as well. There is an index file called 00_index.txt that is a complete list of all issues by name, volume and issue, and date of issue.

All of this is available via anonymous ftp at ftp.irvbbs.com

The name of the directory is fidonews (can't figure out why I thought of using that name - grin )

If you would like to add a link to the Fidonews web page, feel free to do so.

--Martin--

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Mailed From FidoNews Homepage

Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 08:39:01 -0800
To: cbaker84@digital.net
From: "Damien Sam" <webmaster@mindsedge.com>
Subject: Mailed From FidoNews Homepage

As I read the FidoNews articles, I am constantly reminded of the fact by other submitted articles that Fidonet is a dying breed due to the inception of the Internet.

There have been kudos granted out to systems such as ours that offer Fidonet Backbone and Filebone feeds to the rest of the world using usually FTP server access and sometimes e-mail file attaches, although the latter would not be efficient due to the size of mail packets and/or files that are passed down the links.

What had occurred was a sort of hybrid mating of Fidonet to the Internet, however, this form of mail transport still required some main system that operated servers, and then would have to configure various "secure" ftp sessions to allow the attainment of mail and files.

Although efficient, this still seemed to be much work for the individuals who offered this service. What was required was a more efficient method of transport and a better "marriage" of Fidonet to the Internet.

One specific individual/company (Max Masyutin/Ritlabs) http://www.ritlabs.com/argus/, has produced a piece of software that seems to have made the mark! The program is a front end mailer called ARGUS which has built in TCP/IP support! Although at this moment in time, it is only available in Win95 and NT flavors! (Please no tossing of cookies).

Zone 2, and more specifically Russia, has jumped the gun in implementing new flags to facilitate this new form of technology. The flags in question are and have been listed in previous editions of the Fidonews; RAW,IFC,BND,TEL,VMP and a few other variants, but more importantly, "BND" being as the focal point for this new wave of technology. On the outset, ARGUS is just another Binkley type mailer, but within it's inner workings lies some new form of technology. Specifically, the ability to use a TCP/IP connection and allow the "Re-mapping" of a normal Fidonet Node Number to an Internet IP address.

So rather than say dialling up a Long Distance node via standard phone lines, the mailer in effect calls up the TCP/IP address and in normal fashion, transfers all mail packets and files to the remote node, only via the Internet, thereby saving the cost of Long Distance charges...

This has definitely made our lives here much easier, as we are now connected up to the UK, and Russia, and a few nodes across ZONE 1 and a pending node in Indonesia, and we are transferring mail and files with ease using this mailer. No need to setup the secured ftp site, and all that must go with this task, just the usual setup under the mail tosser and the mailer itself...and the seemingly greatest benefit of all this technology, is that our TCP/IP lines are "NEVER BUSY"! We may be holding files and a node may connect up via TCP/IP, but that does not tie up our phones lines, so a busy signal is never reached, another IP node can connect up just as easily and receive their mail and so on. In fact, other than bandwidth, the TCP/IP connections are almost limitless!

This is not an advertisement for this company that produces this mailer, as another company is on the forefront of using this as well, (BEEMAIL), however, this is more of an informative session to all those FIDOnet nodes out there that are not aware that this technology exists right now, and further more, for those *Cs that render the decisions, and perhaps enlighten them on this technology, so that they may as well "Push for FLAG CHANGES".

Yes, we offer Fidonet mail and files over the internet, and yes, we offer it via FTP as well, however, with this new mailer, it has made life that less complicated for sending and receiving of mail long distances without costing anyone a single dime in long distance charges, and to be able to offer the mail to those nodes that may not be able to currently poll long distance, yet still have an internet connection.

Yours Truly,

Damien Sam webmaster@mindsedge.com

1:153/750@fidonet http://www.mindsedge.com/knightmare.html [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]]
1:153/950@fidonet http://www.mindsedge.com/fidonet.html [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]]

FidoNet pages

--- Following message extracted from NETMAIL @ 1:18/14 ---
By Christopher Baker on Wed Dec 31 21:11:20 1997

From: Jerry Schwartz @ 1:142/928
To: Editor @ 1:1/23
Date: 29 Dec 97 20:32:10
Subj:
FidoNet pages

I have an "Intro to Fidonet" type page at http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.writebynight.com/fidonet.html [URL moved [jb 4/24/01]]

Jerry Schwartz

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Fido

Return-Path: jvo@eagle.net
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 17:45:08 -0500
From: "John D. Vo" <jvo@eagle.net>
Reply-To: jvo@eagle.net
Organization: Eagle Communication
To: cbaker84@digital.net
Subject: Fido

Damn, you guys are still around? do you know anything about MajorBBS? I have one user (yes, one) that really interested in getting Fido- news/mail....can you help?

John Vo
jvo@eagle.net

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Comments to News
Vol.14, No 52

--- Following message extracted from NETMAIL @ 1:18/14 ---
By Christopher Baker on Sun Jan 04 19:07:36 1998

From: Felix Mueller @ 2:2480/903
To: Christopher Baker @ 1:18/14
Date: 01 Jan 98 20:08:03
Subj: Comments to News Vol.14, No 52

Hi Christopher,

I just received the latest newsletter and read it. There are two things, I like to say.

The easier: In the FidoSoft part, there are stated two old versions. BGFax version is 1.70 since a few month. And RAR is 2.02.

Now the second one. I saw Ward's statistics on the Fidonet and was frightened. Zone 1 is growing down with a 21% step in only 6 month. Where does Fido in Zone 1 go? I know, that there are a lot of people are going to use more the Internet, but I have the feeling, that this isn't the right way. This will loose the privacy and personality, which we have in Fidonet. So I hope people will find back to Fido.

regards,

--------------/  ******************************
(----- -    - )           Felix Mueller
( |--  | \/ | )     email: felix@allfix.com
( |    |    | )  PGP public key via magic F-PGP
/--------------- ******************************

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