Getting Technical

For technical information about FidoNet please see www.ftsc.org

By: David Hallford
To: Carol Shenkenberger
Re: My Questions for Candidates

> *** Quoting Foxy Ferguson from a message to Mark
> Lewis ***

FF> currently used tossers would have to be re-worked by the authors.
FF> And some of those authors are long gone from Fidonet, as you
FF> know. And the odds of everybody switchin' to some new tosser just
FF> to take advantage of a new flag, well, you figger 'em....

> True, but what if it was in the comment ,U, area?
> Might be useful to know the exact feed the site
> uses if it was considered 'optional' but could be
> used if a net went 'blinkers' on the node? If
> added that way, would be useful for ION's as well
> as POTS sites?

> Tracking the feed of an ION if their net goes
> down and they feed outside of it, can be very
> awkward indeed.

> David, repost the RIVA here? I'd like to take a
> closer look. I'm thinking as an end node
> listing, could be very useful here in R13 if a
> HOST goes down.

> It doesn't have to be implemented by mailers to be
> useful as text.

xxcarol

The are from my working notes, Carol. Please ignore all misspellings. The file is dated 12/1/99 which is the last time I played with the software.

USE OF MRVIA and RVIA FLAGS

1. MRVIA flag
   1. This flag should be used by the Network/Region Coordinator,Host, or Network/Region Echomail Coordinator to indicate the primary path for echomail routed netmail into the net/region.
   2. In a flag field of the nodelist the MRVIA flag would be used indicating the three dimensional node number of that node which will route the netmail to the network/region listed in the node number field for the nodelist on that line. There can be only one MRVIA flag for a network and only one for the region level. This flag is normally on the NEC or REC's nodelist entry.
2. RVIA Flag
   1. This flag should not be used by nodes whose routing path is covered by either Host routing or an Echo-Routed netmail path list maintained as each zone decides. It should, however, be used if no true routing data is available for a node.
   2. In a flag field of the nodelist the RVIA flag would be used indicating the three dimensional node number of that node which will route the netmail to the node listed in the node number field for the nodelist on that line.

As an example: An IP only node is in a network where the NC and mail hub cannot directly communicate with him/her. This means that both Host routed and echo-routed netmail would not reach that node. In this case the RVIA flag would indicate the best place to route the nodes netmail.

PROGRAM

1. PARSE DATA FROM NODELIST
   Already written. Use FLAGLIST for RVIA and MRVIA. Outputs are RVIA.TXT and MRVIA.TXT. These are raw nodelist entries with the node number in 3D format.
2. INPUT DATA INTO DATABASE
   Already written. Import the TXT files into a database only 3 fields needed NODE NUMBER, FEED, and TYPE (RVIA or MRVIA)
3. OUTPUTS a. RAW
   (low level). This is an actual list of each node's feed. One line per entry (already written) b. Intermediate level. Take the RAW data and combine it into a list of feeds and the nodes they feed.

FEED NODE, NODE, NODE, ETC C. High level. Chase the feed paths and combine them. As an example if 1:208/103 got a feed from 1:202/800 and 1:202/800 got a feed from 1:12/12 the output would be: RAW 1:208/103 1:202/800 1:202/800 1:12/12 High Level 1:12/12 1:202/800 1:208/103

If the feed marker were MRVIA for 1:202/800 the output would be: 1:12/12 1:202/* 1:208/103 d. Difference list. A difference list should be generated from the RAW data so folks would only have to look at what changed.

NOTE: If the flag is MRVIA then the node become /*

* Origin: The Psychotic Submarine (1:211/103)