Articles

• NAB & Z1B Echo Diff
• The Fido/IP project:
• InterMail/InterEcho Has a New Owner!
• North American Backbone Echo Changes [Jan-Feb]
• Another sad article?
• Z1 Backbone Echo Changes [Jan-Feb]

NAB & Z1B Echo Diff
by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/9
lisa@psg.com

The old NAB (North American Backbone) split into two parts at the end of February, 1999. The divorce created two distribution systems, the (new) NAB with about 58% of the topology, and the Z1B (Z1_Backbone) with about 42% of the topology.

The (new) NAB echo list is backbone.na. ELISTed echos will be added to backbone.na by the NAB at the moderator's request (no REC requests needed). Echos are removed from backbone.na at the moderator's request. Echo removal by the NAB for other reasons (low traffic or expired ELIST entry) is not currently implemented, but is being discussed.

The Z1B list of echos is called backbone.z1b. Echo addition and deletion procedures are similar to those used by the NAB in the past, and are described in the document SLA9903.Z1B. Briefly, the moderator of a wannabe echo needs to request addition to the Z1B and two Hubs or RECs need to request that the echo be added. Echos are removed from backbone.z1b at the moderators request. Echos may also be removed from backbone.z1b by the Z1B because of low traffic or no current ELIST entry.

diff backbone.na (07-Mar-99) backbone.z1b (07-Mar-99) [edited]

Echos on the NAB but not on the Z1B

EQUUS

HORSE DISCUSSION ECHO

INET_NODELIST

FidoNet Nodelisting of Internet Sites

OJ_SIMPSON

O.J. Simpson discussion

PARROTS

PARROTS CONFERENCE

WIN2000

Discussions of potential convergence of Win95

WIN99

Echo for the discussion of Windows 99 software

Echos on the Z1B but not on the NAB

• None

The NAB list, backbone.na (07-Mar-99) has 749 echos.

The Z1B list, backbone.z1b (07-Mar-99) has 743 echos.

The Fido/IP project
By David Moufarrege, 1:2613/404.0

Over the past few years I have come accustomed to reading the snooze each week as it finds itself into my mailbox. It seems that a gloom and doom article are appearing in the snooze at least monthly. Usually it is a departing node or a former node trying to get in a parting shot, telling the rest of us how bad it is.

Well, I have some news... It's not that bad!

Fidonet is going through changes, just as every other aspect of Information Technology.

Why would we be any different? Why would we expect not to have to change along with the currents of technology? We cannot expect to hold onto the past without embracing the future. A future that has unlimited opportunities if we approach it with the same sense of camaraderie and pioneering that this network was founded on in the first place - a future that seeks out new frontiers.

The new frontier these days is Fido/IP integration, making Fidonet systems available on the Internet. It's the only way to let new generations of computer users experience what we already know. It is also a way of reaching those that have "migrated".

Meet the Fido/IP project:

The Fido/IP project is based on the premise that Fidonet has to embrace new technologies and philosophies while continuing to support its traditional membership. The goal is to create a coherent network that contains both POTS and IP nodes alike.

The notion to use the Internet as a transport medium is not new. George Peace was the pioneer in utilizing FTP as a means to inexpensively and quickly move mail and files over great distances. Then came VModem and the idea to use Telnet as a "carrier" for standard protocols to connect via the Internet. Now we have BinkP - a protocol designed to work directly over the Internet, socket to socket. As a matter of fact, BinkP is the first protocol that was designed as a Fido/IP protocol, and it is the first protocol to then be adapted to a Fido POTS protocol in its Niagara incarnation.

To make a long story short: Today there is a growing number of Fido/IP systems. Zone 1 and Zone 2 have implemented the I-suite of flags proposed by Lothar Behet. Zone 3 is reportedly close to doing the same. More and more mailer programs and bbs systems are natively IP-capable.

Fidonet's structures and ways of interacting are changing as a result of it. New nodes are joining Fidonet and former nodes are coming back. It's a slow process, but it is a growing trend. We will see more of it as time goes on.

If you want to embrace this new era, check out the following programs:

Argus

A Win/32 native GUI POTS & Fido/IP mailer. Supports BinkP, IFCICO, Telnet, VModem - http://www.ritlabs.com/argus/

BinkD

The original BinkP mailer. Compiled for *NIX, WinNT, Win9x, OS/2, and others

BeeMail

16 and 32bit POTS & Fido/IP mailer. Win 3.1, Win9x and WinNT http://www.beemail.com

BBBS

BBS system which includes "BackDoor", a telnet capable Fidonet mailer for many platforms - http://www.bbbs.net

EleBBS

A Remote Access compatible BBS which includes a native Telnet server. Various platforms. - http://www.pcmicro.com [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]] Update: http://www.elebbs.com

NetModem

Win95 Telnet server for DOS based BBS systems. http://www.concentric.net/~Drip [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]] Update: http://www.allensoftware.com/

WC!5

WildCat!5 AKA WinServer. - http://www.santronics.com

VModem

Part of SIO, a driver for OS/2. - http://www.gwinn.com

Also, subscribe to the INODELST and I-OTHER file echos for the latest nodelist extracts of IP capable Fidonet nodes and Fido/IP utilities. Available from all FileGate systems.

For more information about Fido/IP contact David Moufarrege, 1:2613/404.0, in Zone 1. In Zone 2 contact Lothar Behet, 2:2446/301.0

InterMail Products Sold
by Dale Barnes, dbarnes@ifido.com

In the Month of February, Further Development, Inc., sold its products InterMail, InterEcho and InterPCB to Majik.Net, Inc. of Sugar Land, TX.

Majik.Net, Inc., a Internet Service Provider and developer of custom Delphi applications purchased InterMail to use for special needs of some if its customers and to keep the product advancing for the current install base of InterMail customers.

Majik.Net, Inc. has already started working on the next version of InterMail to add new features and make sure it is Y2K compliant. In the works now are a Win9x/NT version with a OS/2 version is a real possibility.

If you would like to have some input on the direction that InterMail and InterEcho takes in the future and to stay up to date with InterMail and InterEcho. Visit the new web site at http://www.ifido.com or send email to sales@ifido.com.

North American Backbone
Echo Changes [Jan-Feb]
by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/9
lisa@psg.com

Summary of NAB echo changes during Jan & Feb.

Brought to you courtesy of (unix) diff.

The old NAB (North American Backbone) split into two parts at the end of February, 1999. The divorce created two distribution systems, the (new) NAB with about 58% of the topology, and the Z1B (Z1_Backbone) with about 42% of the topology.

The (new) NAB adds echos at the moderator's request. The wannabe echo must have an ELIST entry, but there are no other requirements. Echos are removed from the NAB at the moderator's request. The NAB is still discussing how they will handle echos with an expired ELIST entry.

diff backbone.na 03-Jan-99 backbone.na 07-Mar-99 [edited].

Added to the NAB list of echos

ALABAMA

GENERAL CHAT FOR ALABAMA

EMS-FR

Emergency Medical Services -First Responder

FIDO2000

FidoNet 2000 Conference

FIDOWEB

FidoNet Web Page Conference

FILEGATE

IFDC FileGate Project(sm) International Echo

F_I_D_O_E_R_R_O_R_S

fIDO ERRORS

HCW_ECHO

Fantasy Wrestling Echo

LS_ARRL

Bulletins from the ARRL

MICHIGAN

GENERAL CHAT FOR MICHIGAN

OJ_SIMPSON

O.J. Simpson discussion

PEN_PALS

Where Friends Meet!

ROLLER_JAM

ROLLER JAM Discussion Conference

TEXAS

GENERAL CHAT FOR TEXAS

WIN2000

Discussions of potential convergence of Win95

WIN99

Echo for the discussion of Windows 99 software

XENA:WP

Gathering place for fans of the hit show Xena

Z1BACKBONE

Z1B discussion

Removed from the NAB list of echos

• None

o There are 749 echos in backbone.na [07-Mar-98] (up 17)

Another sad article?

After reading Rob Echlers Fidonet obituary (Volume 16, #10), I have decided to pen my own.

I bought my first 300 baud modem in 1981 and started my first BBS a few years later, joining Fidonet in 1984. Many thousands of hours of my life was spent in echomail and netmail, and most of my lifelong friends were met through Fidonet or BBSing. I have no regrets about this time spent in my youth, as I learnt much about sociology and human relationships from this time.

Now I'm a I.T. consultant and Project Manager, and owe much of my success to my experience in Fidonet.

In fact, I suspect that many people now in their 30s who got into Fidonet in their teens have had much success in their lives due to the unique experiences that Fidonet offered. What better way to learn how to manage people than to become a echomail moderator, or to gain technical proess by running Multiple BBS and mail sessions concurrently under desqview!

A few weeks ago, I found an old 80MB Hard Drive lying around and plugged it in to discover my BBS, Front Door, Fmail and echo areas that I thought had been long lost. I had a great laugh reading all the OS/2 will destroy Windows flames, (where are all the OS/2 bigots now?), and wondered if there was anything resembling a shell of Fidonet left. In a sudden burst of nostalgia, I tried to get everything running again and maybe even join Fidonet again to see out its last, but alas I was too late. I compiled my ancient nodelist (it makes you realise how fast computer have become when it took 10 seconds instead of 2-3 minutes!) and tried to File Request an up to date nodelist, but not one system was left to poll from, and I couldn't even find a single BBS to connect to. In the end I gave up, so this message will have to do as my goodbye.

It is a very slow and painful death that Fidonet is going through, and I believe it would be a great idea to go out on a high note and pull the plug formally at the end of this year - to mark Fidonet as a 20th Icon as a precursor to the Internet. However, the reality is that the threads of cohesion are too weak now for any cohesive decisions to be reached at any level within Fidonet.

So for a time the ghosts will continue to haunt what once was Fidonet. These are the outsiders, most of them running linux or OS/2, but never Windows with outlook for e-mail and newsreader. People who once dreamed and begged to become a "hub", can now become their own NCs and even ZCs if they wish!

One request - Please keep any old echomail (esp Sysop areas) archives that you have stored. I know that one day soon, Fidonet will be preserved and remembered in much the same way as my TRS-80 model 1, with a virtual emulator. On the Internet you will be able to connect to a virtual BBS and browse through the past with records of echomail, doors and games from a bygone era. I can imagine a Java nodelist compiler emulator, and emulated copies of everything from Opus to Frontdoor, allowing you to install a virtual BBS on the Net and even emulate the connections to other virtual systems to enable Netmail to flow again, but this time, just for the sake of fun and remembering the good old days. I look forward to this new project kicking off, and hope that there are many ex Sysops out there with an archive of their systems that can contribute to the virtual Fidonet archives.

So on this positive note, I bid goodbye and farwell.

Tim Epstein ex 3:635/526, ex3:634/304,

Z1 Backbone
Echo Changes
by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/9
lisa@psg.com

Summary of Z1B echo changes during Jan & Feb.

Brought to you courtesy of (unix) diff.

The old NAB (North American Backbone) split into two parts at the end of February, 1999. The divorce created two distribution systems, the (new) NAB with about 58% of the topology, and the Z1B (Z1_Backbone) with about 42% of the topology.

The Z1B "grandfathered" existing NAB echos as of 28-Feb-99, but sent mail to all moderators advising them that they could remove their echos from the Z1B. Unlike the (new) NAB, the Z1B requires two Hub or REC requests before a new Z1B wannabe echo will be added to the list of Z1B echos (backbone.z1b). Also unlike the (new) NAB, the Z1B is expected to purge echos that do not meet minimum traffic requirements or whose ELIST entry expires. For these reasons, the Z1B list (backbone.z1b) is expected to diverge from the NAB list (backbone.na) over time, and may be temporarily out-of-sync for a week or two on new echos that are requesting addition to both backbones.

What I have done here is a "two month diff" between the last NAB list that I reported and the current Z1B list. This means that most of the echos in the "Added to the Z1B list of echos" were actually added to the NAB before the divorce.

diff backbone.na 03-Jan-99 backbone.z1b 07-Mar-99 [edited].

Added to the Z1B list of echos

ALABAMA

GENERAL CHAT FOR ALABAMA

EMS-FR

Emergency Medical Services -First Responder

FIDO2000

FidoNet 2000 Conference

FIDOWEB

FidoNet Web Page Conference

FILEGATE

IFDC FileGate Project(sm) International Echo

F_I_D_O_E_R_R_O_R_S

fIDO ERRORS

HCW_ECHO

Fantasy Wrestling Echo

LS_ARRL

Bulletins from the ARRL

MICHIGAN

GENERAL CHAT FOR MICHIGAN

PEN_PALS

Where Friends Meet!

ROLLER_JAM

ROLLER JAM Discussion Conference

TEXAS

GENERAL CHAT FOR TEXAS

XENA:WP

Gathering place for fans of the hit show Xena

Z1BACKBONE

Z1B discussion

Removed from the Z1B list of echos

EQUUS

HORSE DISCUSSION ECHO

INET_NODELIST

FidoNet Nodelisting of Internet Sites

PARROTS

PARROTS CONFERENCE

o There are 743 echos in backbone.z1b [07-Mar-98]