Letters to the Editor

By: Janis Kracht
To: Frank Robbins
Re: HeadsUp - FidoNet.Org DNS Expires 26-Feb-2001

Hi Frank,

I got a hold of George and he so kindly forwarded this to me :)
From: thedotcompeople@netsol.com
To: george@paonline.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 4:56 PM
Subject: Confirmation of fidonet.org renewal order

Dear Customer, Congratulations! Your Web address (domain name) is renewed for an extended period. We will be processing your order within the next 24-48 hours. Renewal of your domain name is effective when your current registration period expires.

Here is a summary of your order:
* Domain Name*: fidonet.org
* Total: $35.00

Take care,
Janis

FR> Hi Janis.

FR> Did anyone tell you that you do good work?

JK> Thanks, I appeciate the comment <smile>. I agree with you that this could be a little unsettling for those in Zone 1 until we knew it was taken care of.

FR> Thanks for your effort as always.

JK> Most welcome,
Janis

BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag-2
* Origin: Prism bbs (1:2320/38)

By: Lee Ayrton
To: Philip Lozier
Re: Points

Hello Philip!

PL> * In a message originally to Jim White, Lee Ayrton said:

LA>> This brings up something I've been mulling for a while. Perhaps it is time to give the franchise to points. with the demise of BBSing there's little reason for most of us to maintain full-time uptime. Make points full members, allow more participation.

PL> This is something that over the past few weeks has crossed my mind as well.

LA> On my part, it was part of a grander scheme that I'm still coddling. The half-baked version is below.

PL> For all intents and purposes, a point that feeds over any kind of internet method of distribution is of no difference than an ION node when you look at it... and having a BBS was never a requirement to be a FidoNet node.

LA> I still do things dial-up, from a DOS machine, so I don't know if what I'm mulling is already in use. Roughly, I'm thinking that we need software that, to an end user, will work like their favorite browser -- fire it up and it goes to his/her ISP, links to an ION hub, exchanges mail (net and echos), logs off and tosses the mail up onto the local screen. FidoNews and nodediffs would be background processes, unseen by the casual user.

Points are subject to the same rules as nodes, so the problems that folks feared about linking the echos to the chaos of Usenet is side-stepped. Become a nusance and your number gets yanked.

This does several things: It gives us many more potential members, it puts Fido where the users are, it doesn't break the nodelist or create a seperate Fido system, so we've got backwards compatability.

Traditional, low-tech nodes won't try to dial up an ION point, the node would automagically know to send it to the bossnode. Bossnodes would be the firewall against spam and would be responsible for quickly cancelling any malignant points, making Fido attractive to ordinary humans as a "cleaner" source of mail. ISPs would view it as another mailing list, one that they wouldn't have to store their user's mail for (Space would be a problem for the bossnodes, though. Dunno how to address that). And we could add bells-n-whistles to the ION side, graphics, what have you. They would be filtered out at the gateways leaving clean ANSI texts.

But the really, really important thing is putting Fido where the people are. They aren't dialing up BBSi ever again, so we can just lock that fantasy away in our toyboxes. Private mailing lists exist all over the Internet, we could promote this is a meta-mailing list.

Of course, this is just noodling. I'm not a programmer, I don't know how to write such stuff. But some people in FidoLand do and we can stand around wringing our hands, or try to pretty Fido up, or we can actually do something -- if we still have the critical mass of tech-savvy folks needed.

Regards, Lee

* Origin: OPUS CBCS v1.79 LIVES! (1:320/455)

By: Frank Vest
To: Lee Ayrton
Re: Points

Hello Lee,

LA> I still do things dial-up, from a DOS machine, so I don't know if what I'm mulling is already in use. Roughly, I'm thinking that we need software that, to an end user, will work like their favorite browser -- fire it up and it goes to his/her ISP, links to an ION hub, exchanges mail (net and echos), logs off and tosses the mail up onto the local screen. FidoNews and nodediffs would be background processes, unseen by the casual user.

FV> Ok, I'm gonna take a stab at this. Please forgive me if I'm off the deep end here. :)

Some of what you are wanting is already being done in some ways. There is a program called "Internet Rex" (IRex) that will transfer Fidonet mail via the Internet E-Mail. One can feed a Node, Point, Hub, Net or ??? in this manner. IRex will do the mail runs via E-Mail and the Point package will do the tossing and such.

I'm not a guru on this, but I will tell you this much... I run Dos with Desqview on a 486 and I feed a Net in my area via Irex on this Dos machine. Once I get Irex registered, I'll be able to feed up to 1000 systems (Nodes, points, Nets or ??). I gather newsgroups via the Internet and gate them to my BBS and any systems under me that want them via IRex. I can gate E-Mail to and from the Internet via IRex and much more.

Some of what you are wanting can be done now. It would be a matter of putting together a package that is pre-setup with the programs, batch files and whatever is needed in it. The user plugs it in and goes.

I'm probably off base here, but is this close to what you are wanting??

Regards,

Frank

http://texoma.net/~flv [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]]
http://home.texoma.net/~flv/
http://bise.tzo.com/r19

--- PPoint 3.01 * Origin: Holy Cow! I'm A Point!! (1:124/6308.1)

By: Philip Lozier
To: Lee Ayrton
Re: Points

* In a message originally to Philip Lozier, Lee Ayrton said:

LA> I still do things dial-up, from a DOS machine, so I don't know if what I'm mulling is already in use. Roughly, I'm thinking that we need software that, to an end user, will work like their favorite browser -- fire it up and it goes to his/her ISP, links to an ION hub, exchanges mail (net and echos), logs off and tosses the mail up onto the local screen. FidoNews and nodediffs would be background processes, unseen by the casual user.

PL>Amazing... this is quite close to what has been floating around in my brain... not being a programmer in any shape or form however, seems all I can do is think about it...

LA> But the really, really important thing is putting Fido where the people are. They aren't dialing up BBSi ever again, so we can just lock that fantasy away in our toyboxes. Private mailing lists exist all over the Internet, we could promote this is a meta-mailing list.

PL> I agree that Fido needs to be brought where the people are, but totaly disagree that people will never BBS again. Even if it's just a small circle of folks still calling various dial-up boards in their areas, people still are calling... it is the "lazy SysOp" who will have no users, not BBSs as a whole... there are also quite a few telnet boards that brag high usage, and even a "PAY for access" telnet system (not in FidoNet) that is based in my local area that has no less than 10 to 12 people online at any given time, 24 hours a day. Go figure that one out.

PL> I feel that making FidoNet available in a neet package to those NOT interested in BBS themselves however would be a fantastic breath of life... I have seen a couple of point packages out there that with a little modification would be ideal for this purpose.

PL> Maybe some programming genius will stumble across this idea we've tossed around and make it a working reality :)

* Origin: AFcom BBS! http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/afcombbs (1:267/169)