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• Z-snips: the Legacy of Star Wars

Collin County Station's Netmail Information Service

Welcome to "InfoMail"

Useing this program/service is very simple.

1. Enter a Netmail message to "InfoMail" without the quotes. (capitalization isn't important) Fidonet address, 1:124/6308 You can send this "Routed" or "Crash". _ALL_ replies will be "Routed"
2. For a subject, put the document that you want to receive If you don't know, or just want to search for a word in the list, send the Netmail to "InfoMail Search" <sans quote> and put the word you are looking for in the Subject area.
3. In the text area, put anything you like. This is ignored but required for many mailers to handle the message.

Upon receiving the message, my system will search the document list for a match and send the response back to you via a Netmail message.

Please let me know if there are errors. I'm only human and make mistakes like anyone else. :-)

Here is a list of the documents we have available here;

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List of documents available

ARTSPEC

FidoNews Article Submission Guidelines

BackBone

North America BackBone Echolist

Backbone1

List of active echos, Zone 1 Backbone

Backboneww

List of Echos carried on the World Wide Backbone

BackStat

North American Backbone - Status and Changes

Backstat1

Change Status, Zone 1 Backbone

Backstatww

World Wide Backbone Status and Changes

Big_Dummy

** THE BIG DUMMY'S GUIDE TO FIDONET **

DFWLIST

The DFW BBs List

Fido_Ben_Baker

Fidonet History according to Ben Baker

Fido_History_Pt1

FidoNet History and Operation (8 Feb 85) Tom Jennings

Fido_History_Pt2

FidoNet History and Operation Part 2 (Tom Jennings)

Fidonet?

What is Fidonet

Fidonews

The Weekly Fido News

HUBGUIDE

Net 124 HUB GUIDELINES

Internet_Point

How to use your Point System with the Internet

Internet_to_Fido

How gate E-Mail to and from Fidonet

Net106

BBs list for Net 106 (Houston, Tx. Area)

Net112

BBs list for Florida's_First_Coast_Net, Jacksonville_FL

Net116

BBs list for Middle_Tennessee_Net,Nashville_TN

Net117

BBs list for Net 117 (Brazos Valley Area, Tx.)

Net123

BBs list for Mid-South_Net,Memphis_TN

Net124

BBs list for Net 124 (Dallas, Tx.)

Net130

BBs list for Net 130 (Ft. Worth, Tx.)

Net133

BBs list for Atlanta_Net_NC,Tucker_GA

Net135

BBs list for South_Florida_Net,Miami_FL

Net137

BBs list for Florida_Suncoast_Net,Bradenton_FL

Net147

BBs list for Net 147 (OKC MetroNET, Ok.)

Net151

BBs list for NC_Net,Raleigh_NC

Net170

Bbs list for Net 170 (Tulsa Area, Ok.)

Net340

BBs list for South_Vancouver_Island,BC_Canada

Net342

BBs list for Central_Alberta,Edmonton_AB

Net343

BBs list for Lesser_Seattle_Opera,Seattle_WA

Net346

BBs list for Inland_Northwest_Fidonet,Spokane_WA

Net360

BBs list for Augusta_Net,Augusta_GA

Net3601

BBs list for Florida_Gator_Net,Gainesville_FL

Net3602

BBs list for Birmingham_Net,Birmingham_AL

Net3603

BBs list for PinellasNET_3603_Host,Pinellas_Park_FL

Net3607

BBs list for North_Alabama_Net,Cullman_AL

Net3608

BBs list for Panama_City_Net,Lynn_Haven_FL

Net3609

BBs list for Gator_Net,West_Palm_Beach_FL

Net361

BBs list for Florida_Independents_Net,Wausau_FL

Net3612

BBs list for Net_3612_Pensacola_FL,Pensacola_FL

Net3613

BBs list for Georgia-Alabama_Consolidated_Net, Cusseta_Ga

Net3614

BBs list for Jacksonville_NC_Net,Jacksonville_NC

Net3615

BBs list for TN_Valley_Net,Knoxville_TN

Net3618

BBs list for West_Volusia_Fl_Net,Deltona_Fl

Net3619

BBs list for West_Pasco_Net,New_Port_Richey_FL

Net362

BBs list for Chatta-NET_METRO,Chattanooga_TN

Net3621

BBs list for Clarksville_Net,Woodlawn_TN

Net363

BBs list for Orlando_Data_Information_Network, Orlando_FL

Net3632

BBs list for Jackson_Metro,Clinton_MS

Net3634

BBs list for Fayetteville_Net,Sanford_NC

Net3639

BBs list for Upstate_SC_Net,Greenville_SC

Net3648

BBs list for The_Central_Carolina_Network, Asheboro_NC

Net365

BBs list for North_Central_Fla_Net,Ocala_FL

Net3651

BBs list for Pee_Dee_NET,Hartsville_SC

Net366

BBs list for NW_Florida,Ft_Walton_Beach_FL

Net3660

BBs list for Wayne_County_Net,Freemont_NC

Net3661

BBs list for Winston-Salem_NET,Winston-Salem_NC

Net3666

BBs list for NW_NC_NET,Hickory_NC

Net3667

BBs list for NC_Independents_NET3667_NC,Shelby_NC

Net369

BBs list for Treasure_Coast_Net,Coconut_Creek_FL

Net371

BBs list for SW_Florida_Coast_Net,Fort_Myers_FL

Net372

BBs list for Charleston_SC_Net,Charleston_SC

Net374

BBs list for Space_Coast_Net,Melbourne_FL

Net375

BBs list for Central_Alabama_Net,Montgomery_AL

Net376

BBs list for Cola_Net,Columbia_SC

Net377

BBs list for Tampa_Bay_Net,Tampa_Fl

Net379

BBs list for CHARLOTTE_AREA_NET,Pine_Harbor_NC

Net380

BBs list for Net 380 (S'port/Bossier Net, La.)

Net3800

BBs list for Net 3800 (Baton Rouge La)

Net3802

BBs list for Net 3802 (Victoria TX)

Net3803

BBs list for Net 3803 (Lafayette LA)

Net3804

BBs list for Net 3804 (Lubbock TX)

Net3807

BBs List for Net 3807 (LakeArea Net,Westlake LA.)

Net381

BBs list for Net 381 (West Texas Net)

Net3812

BBs list for Net 3812 (Brazoria County Net, Richwood TX)

Net382

BBs list for Net 382 (Capitol of Texas)

Net3821

BBs list for Net 3821 (Little Rock Metro, Little Rock AR)

Net3828

BBs list for Net 3828 (Causeway North Net,Bush LA)

Net387

BBs list for Net 387 (San Antonio, Tx.)

Net388

BBs list for Net 388 (Heart of Texas, Waco)

Net393

BBs list for Net 393 (Denton, Tx.)

Net395

BBs list for Net 395 (Central Texas & Fort Hood)

Net396

BBs list for Net 396 (New Orleans Area, La.)

Net397

BBS list for Net 397 (South TX/Rio Grande Valley)

Net_info

Net 124 Node Information File

Netstats

Statistics from the Fidonet Nodelist

Satti

Decisions made by Bob Satti as Z1C

StartBBs

So you want to start a BBS?

End of Document

Z-snips: the Legacy of Star Wars
Douglas Myers 1:270/720

A while back, when the North American Backbone (NAB) was the undisputed prime mover of mail in Zone 1, I reported and commented on the upheavals of the Star systems of the NAB. Though the Star Systems of that time are still prominent, new players on the scene tend to call themselves Z-hubs now. The major storms which led to the splintering of the NAB are still around, but they're spread thinner among new players now. The Fidonews Weather Service has downgraded these storms from "Star Wars" to "Z-snips."

Why are the Z-hubs snipping at each other these days? The answer is most likely two-fold. 1) Fidonet is aptly nicknamed Fight-o-net in that old hostilities never seem to die and new ones are constantly discovered. 2) There are more problems with echomail distribution than there were when the structure was more monolithic.

Leaving number 1 alone above, let's look at number 2: why are there more problems? Mostly it's a matter of increased complexity in the top level of distribution (Star distribution or Z-hub distribution). The Star distribution until very recently was relatively simple:

     A
   /   \
  B --- C

Three star systems polled each other frequently throughout the day, and all other echomail feeds were derived from one of these systems (at least ideally). The system had the advantage of rapid mail delivery and no inherent problem with duplicates.

Towards the end of 1998, however, a fourth star system was added to the structure:

      A
    / | \
  B - + - C
    \ | /
      D

This seemed like a good idea at the time, as it incorporated the Fidospine distribution system under the NAB system... it seemed just recognition of a situation which already existed. However, it did increase the complexity of the structure to the extent that all four systems had to cooperate even more than before to ensure the smooth flow of mail - and unwillingness to cooperate ultimately splintered the NAB.

This system was susceptible to duplicate message generation if one system decided to stop polling another system. To visualize this, imagine that system A decides to disconnect system D. Before the cut, system A would add system D's node number to the "seen-by" control lines of each echomail message it would process for him before sending it to him. The echomail processors at nodes B and C would read the seen-by line before making mail packets, and not include this message for system D. However, once system A cuts system D and stops adding this number to the seen-by line, both systems B and C will pack the message for system D, resulting in duplicate messages at system D.

Though these duplicates were generated during the spats which characterized the period right before the NAB splintered, virtually all of them were detected by a cyclic redundancy check at the systems getting these dupes, and few were passed on. So the problem was more imagined than real, but it fueled the arguments over non-technical issues (such as who was in charge) and ultimately led to the withdrawal of systems from the NAB to start the Z1B.

The current issue rocking the tranquility of echomail distribution seems to be an ongoing argument between John Souvestre and Alec Grynspan. John has, in the recent past, disconnected from all NAB Star systems except George Peace in an effort to prevent the generation of duplicates. Alec has recently expanded his echomail connections to span both the Z1B distribution and the NAB distribution, effectively establishing a mesh which can lead to duplicates. John has shown a portion of his logs which indicate that at least one duplicate flowed through Alec's system. How extensive the problem is truly is unknown to me, but the argument itself has the potential for destabilization. It's reminiscent of the arguments between John and Bob Seaborn before the splintering of the NAB.