FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1.
Copyright (C) 1987, by the International FidoNet Association.
All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted
for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES
What is the Story on 9600 Baud Modems?
The First Echomail Conference List
IFNA Board Nominations
SEAdog Offer for IFNA Members
Public Key Encryption Revisited
2. COLUMNS
Irregular column
Technical Topics Column
3. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
What is the Story on 9600 Baud Modems
by
Bob Hartman, Sysop 132/101
So, you've heard all of the stories about 9600 baud modems,
and you've seen all the ads, now you want to buy one, but the
problem is which one to buy? Before you make the leap, there are
some things which you should know:
First of all, the International FidoNet Association (IFNA),
has created a special committee to study the different 9600 baud
(and even higher speed) modems to find out which ones are best
suited for our uses with Fido/Opus/SEAdog/etc. The reason for
this is simple - there is no standard (that is affordable) for
having 9600 baud modems work over standard voice grade phone
lines. At 2400 baud there was a well defined standard (V.22bis),
but at 9600 baud the only standard is V.32, and modems using that
technology tend to cost $3000 or more! This price tag is out of
reach for most consumers, so modem manufacturers have taken it
upon themselves to try and manufacture modems that work over
voice grade lines, and then try to get their technology
recognized as the new standard. With over 1000 Sysops world
wide, and a user base many hundreds of times that size, the
FidoNet community is in a position which is fairly unique - we
can help a standard along by deciding that a certain modem is one
that does the job for us. In fact, we MUST do this because if we
do not, we will all end up with different 9600 baud modems that
will not communicate with each other. Yes, it is true, two
modems from two different manufacturers will not talk to each
other at 9600 baud. Think about it - if you go out and buy right
now, and the rest of the network decides on a different modem,
then you will not be able to communicate at 9600 baud. Is it
worth taking that chance?
The second thing you should know about is that all of the
manufacturers of high speed modems are working with our committee
to try and make us choose their modem. They are all offering
discounts of 50% or more to Fido Sysops (they all learned from
what USRobotics did at 2400 baud). They are all working very
closely with me personally, trying to get my standard SEAdog/Opus
system to run on their modems. This obviously is important to us
as Sysops, since if it doesn't work with our software, then we
can't use the modem no matter how fast it runs. I must say that
all three companies involved right now - USRobotics (USR Courier
HST), Microcom (Microcom AX9624c), and Telebit (Telebit
TrailBlazer) have been EXTREMELY helpful (although as you will
see later, not necessarily successful).
The final thing you should know before I get on to the
results of my testing, is that this report is VERY PRELIMINARY,
and should be taken as such. My testing is by no means complete,
and as you will see, many technical problems still need to be
Fidonews Page 3 9 Mar 1987
overcome.
Some Preliminary Results:
This section contains my thoughts about each modem so far,
and do not represent anything except my own views based upon my
exposure to each of the modems.
Let me start off with Microcom, since they are the easiest.
They have so far shipped me three modems, of which two have
arrived DOA. Without two working modems it is impossible to do
any 9600 baud testing, so only 2400 baud testing was done. At
the lower baud rates this modem will not work properly with
SEAdog 4.0. The modem does not react quickly enough to toggling
DTR, and as a result there are many times when SEAdog will send a
command to the modem which will not be executed. SEAdog will
then print an error message and try again - this time the command
will generally work properly. SEAdog 4.0 also will not properly
"fall back" to a lower baud rate when making a call out. For
example, you attempt to call a system at 2400 baud, but he is
actually running a 1200 baud modem - SEAdog will connect, but
will attempt to communicate at 2400 baud rather than 1200 baud.
This is due to the timing the Microcom modem uses in first
raising the DCD (carrier detect) signal, and then outputting the
CONNECT 1200 message. Hayes compatible modems first output the
CONNECT 1200 message, and then raise the DCD signal (which is
what SEAdog expects). This modem also only accepts upper case
'AT' commands, while most Hayes compatible modems will accept
either 'at' or 'AT'. Having been manufactured by Microcom, this
modem obviously supports MNP protocol in hardware. It also
supports the Microcom SX command set as well as the Hayes AT
command set. The modem is quite confusing to configure due to it
not being just a Hayes clone. The modem also has two sets of dip
switches, one on the front, and one on the back of the modem -
making for even more problems. It is also a half-duplex 9600
baud modem - meaning that data can only be sent in one direction
at a time.
I guess that I will talk about the USRobotics Courier HST
next. As some of you (anybody that reads SYSOP echomail) know, I
have been unable to get two USR HST modems to talk to each other
over a local phone company connection. I have been able to send
two long distance messages to the USR Opus system (115/500 Sit
UBU Sit), but those two messages took several hundred attempts -
not because of busy signals, but because of ARQ (MNP) disconnects
(read on). First some technical information about the modem. It
is VERY Hayes/Courier 2400 compatible. In fact, in the 2400 baud
testing (and below) it behaves exactly like a Courier 2400 baud
modem. I have found no differences between the two when I run
the modem in non-ARQ mode. The modem also has MNP (which
USRobotics calls ARQ) protocol that can be enabled. It is
necessary at 9600 baud to use this option. The modem works as a
sort-of full-duplex modem. What does this mean? Well, the
modems that are connected determine which side is sending more
data (don't ask me how), and that side gets the 9600 baud
channel. The other side then has a 300 baud channel for sending
Fidonews Page 4 9 Mar 1987
data the other direction. This is a very nice feature to have
for interactive operation since the modems do not have to
constantly turn the line around for each character that is typed.
Unfortunately, this method takes up all of the available
bandwidth of the telephone connection, and therefore requires a
reasonable signal to noise ratio over the entire bandwidth. On
local connections this should be no problem, but on long distance
connections with the many games that AT&T plays on long distance,
it could be a problem a lot more often. I saw this happen myself
when connecting to 115/500 when every time I connected (except
for twice), I got disconnected almost immediately because the ARQ
(MNP) retry count was too high. In other words, the connection
was so bad that the two systems took more than 5 tries to send
one packet of data, and therefore they disconnected. Since I can
call 115/500 and send mail perfectly at 2400 baud (no errors, or
very rare), it seems that the USR HST modem may be trying to push
the outer limits of the bandwidth a bit too far. What are the
advantages of the USR HST? It will work with my SEAdog/Opus
setup without any software changes (other than my modem init
string). It is also very Hayes compatible, and as simple to set
up as the Courier 2400 baud modem.
Finally, let me discuss the Telebit TrailBlazer modem. This
modem does not use any sort of conventional technology to get its
high speed. It uses what they call PEP transmission mode, and
basically what it does is break down the entire phone line
bandwidth (0Hz-4000Hz) into 512 channels each 7.8 Hz apart. When
the two modems sync up to start, they each do analysis of the
line quality on each of the 512 frequencies. Then only the best
frequencies are used for the actual data transmission. They
modulate each carrier at 7.5 baud (that is the actual speed of
the modem -7.5 baud), and encode 2, 4, or 6 (almost always 6)
bits of data on each frequency. This can give throughputs of
18,000 bps and up! In a normal phone line, the usable bandwidth
is something like 300Hz-3000Hz which would give about 350 usable
channels, which corresponds to 15750 bps. On my system I was
constantly seeing throughputs of 15000-16500 bps. The advantage
of this method is that it should work on ANY phone line,
regardless of how bad it is. Even if only 100 channels are
usable (which seems silly since that is only a usable bandwidth
of 780 Hz, and voice grade really requires at least 2000 Hz),
then you would have a rate of 4500 bps, which is still twice as
fast as our current 2400 bps modems. In addition, the
TrailBlazer does automatic error correction when in PEP mode, and
because they choose the best frequencies to start with, there are
almost never any retransmissions. In my testing I was seeing
about 1 retransmitted packet in every 5000 packets sent. Well,
how did this modem stack up? First of all, it was the only modem
that so far has been able to transmit data at 9600 baud or higher
on my local phone connections. This in itself is a major feat
which neither USR or Microcom has been able to achieve. It also
acts as a normal 2400 baud modem, with a few minor
incompatibilities with the normal Hayes way of doing things.
Everything (and I mean everything except the on/off switch) is
controlled by AT commands in this modem. There are no external
sliders for volume, no dip switches, nothing. It is all done
Fidonews Page 5 9 Mar 1987
with AT commands (once you get used to it, it is rather nice).
Setup with this modem (for that reason) is a pain in the rear
end, but once done, the settings can be stored and never have to
be worried about again. Unfortunately, this modem raises DCD,
and outputs the connect message just like the Microcom modem
does, so it does not work for making outgoing calls with SEAdog.
I have spoken to the technical support department at Telebit, and
they are going to change this so that it will work with the
current software available for FidoNet sysops. The modem is also
half duplex, and typing a character and waiting for the echo from
the BBS can be time consuming, but again, the technical support
department has a fix for this which I will supposedly be allowed
to try out under a beta test arrangement.
Well, now that I have said all of this, what does it mean?
First of all, it means that going out within the next month and
buying a 9600 baud modem is probably not a good idea. While
Microcom and Telebit have been selling their modems for over a
year, they are currently not quite compatible with the software
that we have available to us, and USR simply has not worked the
kinks out of their modem yet (after all, it just started shipping
out last week). It also is not clear to me that the USR modem
will work on most phone lines. They have not been able to get
their modem working on my phone lines, and they have been working
with me since day one. In being fair to Microcom, they simply
have not been able to get me two modems that work properly, but
they also seem the least interested in getting our business.
Now on to some specific questions:
If I HAD TO buy a modem today, and it had to work with
Fido/Opus/SEAdog, which one would I buy? The answer to that is
simple - the USR modem is the only one that works with SEAdog/etc
right now. Unfortunately, their modem is very new, still has
problems working on my phone system, and has not proven itself in
the field.
What are the prices going to be? From what I know right
now, the USR modem lists for $995, and they will sell it to Fido
Sysops for $495. The Microcom price has not been set yet. The
Telebit TrailBlazer lists for $1345, and they will give us 50%
off for a price of $675. Included for no extra charge is the
2400 baud option which normally would add $100 to their price.
Which modem do other people seem to like? This is a hard
one. I have seen many people choose Microcom, because until
recently Telebit did not agressively market their modem, and it
was also marketed under the name FastLink by another company.
That is all changing now, and Telebit is committed to being more
competetive (hence their offer for FidoNet Sysops). The
TrailBlazer has recently been named the PC Magazine Product of
the year, and has been reviewed very favorably by Digital Review,
Mini-Micro Systems, Popular Science, Network World, PC-Week, and
Infoworld. Both USR and Telebit have applied to CCITT to have
their technology recognized as the standard for 9600 baud data
transmission over voice grade phone lines.
Fidonews Page 6 9 Mar 1987
If I was going to buy a 9600 baud modem for high speed file
transfers, rather than BBS use, which would it be? In this case
I would undoubtedly choose the Telebit TrailBlazer. It was
designed for that purpose, and it is the only modem that can send
data at baud rates exceeding 9600 baud. Actually, the Microcom
can do some data compression to get up above 9600 baud, but I
have yet to see two of them work, so I can't really comment on
that. The TrailBlazer will only be faster than the USR (again,
assuming the USR will work on the phone lines in question) when
using a transfer protocol that does not require full-duplex
transmissions. This rules out XMODEM, but Ymodem-g, and Zmodem
both work nicely, and SEAlink with large window sizes (20 or more
blocks) also performs admirably.
If I was going to buy a modem today, which would it be,
given no other restrictions? I would not buy any of these modems
today!!! USR has not proven their technology, Microcom has not
proven to me that their modems work either, and the TrailBlazer
does not currently work with Fido/Opus/SEAdog.
If I was going to buy a modem in six months, which would I
buy? At that point a lot could have changed, but I would
probably go with the Telebit TrailBlazer. By then, the small
incompatibilities with our software will have been fixed, the
modem is definitely going to work on any phone lines, and it is
the fastest of the group. The price is $180 higher than USR, but
right now I would think that paying the extra $180 to get a modem
which will definitely work is worth the higher price. Who knows,
perhaps six months from now USR will have improved their modem to
the point that it too will work on any phone lines, and at that
point, the 300 baud reverse channel becomes a factor in their
favor. With that 300 baud channel, file transfer protocols like
XMODEM, and more importantly SEAlink will work just fine.
Which standard - USR or Telebit - will the CCITT approve?
Your guess is as good as mine - yet another good reason to wait
before buying a 9600 baud modem.
Which modem has the best error correction? Well, consider
that the Telebit TrailBlazer can continue a file transfer even if
you are talking on the same line. It won't just retransmit the
data that is in error, it will actually send a large number of
packets that won't have any errors in them anyway! Call it the
"whistle test" if you will, but imaging seeing your file transfer
continue at about 50% of its normal speed while you are whistling
into the phone. Enough said?
Anything else I should know about these modems? Well, there
is a lot more to know, but I just can't provide the answers right
now. Some things I do know that might be important are:
1. USR is giving a 30 day money back guarantee to Sysops who
purchase the modem - please, make sure that if your modem (if
you have already ordered one) arrives and does not seem to
work, be sure to return it for a full refund! Don't be
bashful about this, because it is your money. The IFNA Board
Fidonews Page 7 9 Mar 1987
of Directors, and Ken Kaplan in particular argued long and
hard for this provision, because of the problems that I have
been having with the modems that USR sent to me for testing.
3. USR and Telebit will both be advertising heavily in the coming
months. Try to read the ads, and note important figures. Ask
questions. I will answer any questions sent to my board, and
if I don't know the answer, then I will find out from someone
who does know the answer.
Well, that about covers it for this issue of Fidonews. As I
said at the start of this article, this is by no means a final
evaluation, just a first step. It was prompted by the fact that
people were blindly buying 9600 baud modems without having all of
the facts (not that you do now, but you hopefully are at least a
little bit more informed).
- Bob Hartman -
Sysop, the UN*X Gateway
SEAdog/Opus Node 132/101
Echomail Conference List, Issue 1, Number 1 (1/13/87) Copyright
(c) 1986, Thomas Kenny. All rights reserved Duplication and/or
distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only.
===================
ATTENTION ECHOMAIL COORDINATORS AND CONTACTS! PLEASE send
updates to IFNA node 107/316 Deadline for the next issue is
3/1/87
====================
A special condensed FidoNews Edition of Echomail Conference list
will be released monthly. The format is still a bit
experimental. For now it's just a list of conference titles
followed by the name or node of who to contact if you want to
connect.
The more complete format showing approximate traffic levels,
all Nets carrying each conference, and the date of the last
update is available as an ARCed file from 107/316 as a SEAdog
File Request or by logon.
If you are interested in helping to distribute updates to
ECHOnnn, contact:
Echo Conference Scribe
Thomas Kenny 107/316.
We are HOPING for utilities to be written which will update the
list without anyone having to do any work at all .. and with
noone paying any phone bill whatsoever to distribute it
But, until BIGMAGIC.EXE gets written, we will be asking Echo
Conference Coordinators to send Netmail to 107/316 letting us
know the Name of the Conference, who carries it, the
"AREA:????????" name, and any information helpful to potential
participants. Then we'll type up the list. It's a crude and
inelegant method ... but it gets the job done.
===========================
When the "contact" is listed in parentheses it means that the
conference is NOT currently active but the person listed is
interested in STARTING a conference on the topic.
CONFERENCE CONTACT
---------- -------
Abled Echo David Dodell 114/15
Handicapped issues
Fidonews Page 9 9 Mar 1987
ADAM Discussion Bill Freads 11/700
ADAM Technical Bill Freads 11/700
ADS Tracy Graves 138/39
Ads from SYSOPS that support their Fido by the work they
do. Commercial ads from SYSOPS only.
Adults (John Penberthy 129/28)
AI Richard Clark 107/222
Artificial Intelligence
Amateur Radio John Dashner 133/10
Amiga Grey Mist 124/206
Amiga Prog Richard Clark 107/222
Amiga programmers technical information
APL Chris Lincoln 107/103
Appl Bob Abbot 157/511
Applications James Deibele 105/3)
Asian-American Arnold Chu 107/16
Asian-American Community happenings
ASM Barry Dobyns 102/140
Astronomy Don Epand 114/18
AT&T Bob Morris 141/333
Poll/Pickup from Host (138/39, 0150-0225 PDT)
Atari (James Deibele 105/3)
Atlgate ?
Autocad (Jim Quiesner 104/18)
Aviation Net (Mark Stappenbeck 14/609)
Basic (James Deibele 105/3)
Beyond War Andy Kanter 101/301
Bible Efraim West 136/203
Bitch Jim Bacon 103/507
Bloom Net Sysops Bob Stubbings 127/60
Books, Great Jim Bacon 103/507
Business & Economics Randall Kobetich 150/130
Buy & Sell Jim Deibele 105/3
Bylaws Bob Hartman 132/101
Only for Bylaws committee members?
Bylfedbk Tom Marshall 107/324
Bylaws feedback/forum for Region 13 Bylaws
representative
C Language Ed Rauh 141/215
C_PROG merged into the C_ECHO conference in (Sept '86).
Chatter *NONE*
Chicago General ?
Chicago Sysop ?
Christian Debate ?
Cincinnati Chatter *NONE*
Cincy Jesse Armontrout 108/64
Local sysop conference
COCO Echo Brian Bream 112/3
Commodore Marv Shelton 107/311
Consulting ?
Business of consulting.
Cosmopolitan Hal Duprie 101/107
Boston Metro Area: Books, Food & Good Things of Life
CP/M (John Penberthy 129/28)
dBASE Alex Hartley 100/500
DC Metro Mensa Jim Kay 109/612
Fidonews Page 10 9 Mar 1987
Metro Washington DC Mensa
Debate *NONE*
Detroit, Chicago, Colorado. There may be two separate
conferences!?
DEC Rainbow Dave Rene 101/27
Host is 101/27 who polls all the nodes
Divers (Rod Lamping 104/610)
Doggies Tracy Graves 138/39
Fido clones & compatibles (SEAdog, Collie, Guardian,etc.)
Echomail Coordinators Jon Sabol 124/210
For Echomail coordinators only
ECPROG ?
Programmers conference
EQUUS (Mark Indictor 104/606)
Equestrian related topics.
Feminism Kim Storment 100/523
Fido Developers (Jim Ryan 141/9)
Share source code for FidoNet Compatible systems
Fire Net Woody Wood 128/16
Fire/Rescue/EMS news and information exchange.
Flamers Ken Shackelford 133/1
For Sale ?
Alias Buy & Sell
Bob Hartman 132/101
Bill Schreiber 151/301
Forth (George Clayton 103/602)
Fortran Barry Dobyns 102/140
Freemess Barry Dobyns 102/140
Los Angeles Chatter
Fun Stuff (John Bekas 115/212)
Music, concerts, misc...
Gaming Robert Plamondon 143/12
Role playing games
Gay Net Sysop Rick ?
Gay News Sysop Rick ?
Genealogy Ken Whitaker 143/26
HACK, PC Kurt Reisler 109/483
PC HACK Q&A and war stories
Health David Page 109/604
Health related issues (MDs participating)
There is also a larger group that exchanges files only.
Heath/Zenith Joe Rock 128/15
Heath/Zenith series 89, 90, 100-120 (not for Zenith 150
& up series)
Help Wanted Eunhee Hunter 109/626
HOWSWA Bill Bertholf 107/102
How's the weather in WA state!
HP3000TALK Tracy Graves 138/39
HP3000 conversations.
(Bob Kohl 102/611)
(Steve Butler 138/3)
Hunger Chris Irwin 108/68
IEEE (Bill Wilkes 107/211)
IFNA Conference *NONE*
No longer in existence
IFNA Policy & Politics Mike Hamilton 103/501
Fidonews Page 11 9 Mar 1987
*NATIONAL*
International Fido Net Association. Restricted to
Sysops only.
IPR Randall Kobetich 150/130
InterPersonal Relationships plus moral, ethical, social
issues.
Jobs Tracy Graves 138/39
Computer-related Employment Echo (Job Listings, etc.)
(Jim Ryan 141/9)
(James Deibele 105/3)
(Chris Michael 115/429)
Jokes (Bill Jones 105/10)
(Chuma Agbodike 102/641)
JR-MSG Phil Kaiser 104/904
PC jr conference
Judaica * TECHNET *
Lap-Tops Ej McKernan 15/20
(James Deibele 105/3)
Lifestyle Alternatives (Adam Selene 107/269)
Polyfidelity, Family Synergy, Celibacy, Feminism,
Communalism, Single Parenthood, Foster Parenting,
... For anyone whose life's path is not "mainstream".
Lotus Randy Van de Loo 124/110
(John Penberthy 129/28)
(Randy Bush 105/6)
MacIntosh Leo LaPorte 125/2
All about the MacIntosh computer (developers & users)
Magick Brad Hicks 100/523
Merged with Alternative Religion conference
Mensa Jim Kay 109/612
National conference of Mensa run board or where there is
substantial membership interest.
Metronet Don Daniels 107/210
Net 107 Sysop Conference
MIDI Bruce Oblander 161/594
Mindset PC *NONE*
Conference was dissolved since 16/635 (James Pallack)
went down.
MOD1000 Neal Curtin 138/14
Tandy Model 1000
Modula-2 Randy Bush 122/6
Modula-2 programming language
Nature (Richard Clark 107/222)
Net 102 For Sale Barry Dobyns 102/140
Net 104 Sysop ?
alias Fidosysp
Net 104 Tech NET_104*
alias Techline
Net 108 Chatter 108/68
Net 108 Forsale Steve Sullivan 108/75
Net 108 Programmer Jesse Armontrout 108/64
Net 109 Classifieds Alexander Wall 109/606
Net 109 advertising (for sale)
Net 109 General Steven Ranger 109/621
General user chatter
Net 109 Reviews Kurt Reisler 109/74
Fidonews Page 12 9 Mar 1987
Arts and restaurant reviews
Net 109 Sysop Steven Ranger 109/621
Local SYSOPs only
Net 109 Technical Help Jim Kay 109/612
Net 124 Sysop Jon Sabol 124/210
Net 125 Sysop ?
Net 133 Sysop John Dashner 133/10
Net 137 gossip *NONE*
Net 150 Sysop & users ?
Net 161 Sysop Butch Walker 161/2
Networking Dave Oshea 107/35
Ohio Phil Ardussi 157/502
Opus Chuck Lawson 124/105
For beta & gamma test sites only
Packet Amateur Radio Dan Taylor 102/3121
Park Richard Clark 107/222
US National Park Service only
Pascal ?
(Randy Bush 122/6)
(John Penberthy 129/28)
Philosophy *NONE*
Photography (Bill Thomas 132/225)
PIB Bob Klahn 150/1
(Harvey Nehgila 161/77)
Politics Bill Bertholf 107/102
Politics and public policy
(Phil Ardussi 157/502)
(Allen Miller 108/10)
(Jim Kay 109/612)
Portables (John Penberthy 129/28)
Programming Butch Walker 161/2
Prolog Barry Dobyns 102/140
Rbase (John Penberthy 129/28)
Real Estate Al Arango 107/323
Real Estate and finance
Records Roger Smith 18/14
Record collecting and music in general
Region 17 Chatter Tracy Graves 138/39
Region 17 General Chatter Echo
Region 17 For Sale Tracy Graves 138/39
Region 17 Classified Ads
Region 19 (David Drexler 147/1)
Religious debate Chris Irwin 108/68
Born again vs secular humanists
RGN17 Rob Barker 138/34
Region 17 Privileged Echo Area
Rights Steve Butler 138/3
Shareware author rights, information exchange.
S&M Adam Selene 107/269
Consensual Power Exchange
Sailors ?
Sci-Fi Authors Brad Hicks 100/523
Science Fiction and Fandom. Discussion of science
fiction movies, television, book, comics, and all other
media. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy, Zelazny, Moorcock, Asimov, Danger Mouse,
Fidonews Page 13 9 Mar 1987
Battlestar Galactica, etc!
Sci-Fi Fandom Mike Jacobs 150/900
For fans of Sci-Fi
Scuba Rod Lamping 104/610
SEAdog *NONE*
Shortwave Listening Larry DiGioia 129/17
Sirius Bob Klahn 150/1
Sirius test sites only
SMART Neal Curtin 138/14
SMART Software System package from Innovative Software
SOCAL Barry Dobyns 102/140
Software Careers Lee Johnson 125/612
Star Trek Trivia Steve Sullivan 108/75
Sysop Jon Sabol 124/210
THE National Sysop conference.
Fido bugs/fixes, news and sysop chatter. Restricted to
Sysop's ONLY!
T1K (Tandy) (Bill Schreiber 151/301)
(Neal Curtin 138/14)
Tandy ?
Tech Butch Walker 161/2
*NATIONAL* *TECHNET*
Techline 104 *TECHNET*
Telecomm Hal Duprie 101/107
TRS80 (Bill Schreiber 151/301)
(John Penberthy 129/28)
Turbo Pascal (Bob Klahn 150/1)
get ECPROG for this topic
(Bill Thomas 132/225)
UNIX Mike Johnson 170/329
USA Wide Rick Ward 109/635
Small national general conference
VAX Barry Dobyns 102/140
Vietnam Vets Todd Looney 143/27
Wildlife Richard Clark 107/222
Discussion of nature, outdoors, hunting, fishing,
conservation.
Women's Space (Gillian Boardman 107/269)
By and for women only.
Bob Morris, 141/333
ChairPerson, Nominations and Elections Committee
Fellow IFNA Members, this is intended to clear the air concerning
the procedures which will be followed for the
Nomination/Endorsement phase of the Election of the Board of
Directors.
A person who desires to have their name placed on the ballot for
the position of director, either Regional or Director at Large,
must:
1. Submit a SHORT message addressed to me stating their desire to
run.
2. Obtain a SHORT endorsement message, addressed to me, which
supports their running for the position, by ten (10) other
IFNA Members(not necessarily from the same region).
3. Must send such messages to me via network mail. This must all
be done so that the packets reach me by the National Mail Hour
on April 1st.
IFNA Members who endorse other members for the position will be
checked against the IFNA Membership List and against any new
memberships which have not yet been entered, but have been
received as of April 1st.
Please be advised that some regions did not have people who
marked something about working for IFNA on the membership
application. It is hoped that the regional coordinators will
poll their respective regions and draft someone to fill the two
positions available for each region.
A file, which is file requestable from 141/333 and 141/301,
called IFNAMEMB.ARC contains all known IFNA members as of this
date. This file will be updated as the data becomes available.
Remember, this is our organization, and you make the difference.
Don't forget that the last date that you can submit nominations
to 141/333 and the endorsements from ANY IFNA member is the close
of National Mail Hour on 4/1/87.
Ballots will be printed in the FidoNews which is transmitted on
April 13, 1987. Voting will be done upto and including the
registration for the National Conference during the week of
August 17, 1987.
Any questions or comments should be entered in the IFNA echomail
conference.
P.S. IFNA membership cards will be distributed during March to
all paid members via US Mail.
SEAdog Offer for IFNA Members
by Ben Baker -- IFNA Techincal Coordinator
IFNA is proud to announce that it will make SEAdog version 4.00
available to its members (limit one per member) for only $60.00.
As you may already know, Thom Henderson of System Enhancement
Associates (SEA) had announced that SEA would withdraw the
special Sysop price for SEAdog version 4. The reason is that SEA
has expended a large engineering investment in this major
revision to SEAdog without raising the list price. Since
engineering costs must be recovered from sales, the "fixed costs"
of the product, which include engineering, now leave them very
little margin. Add to this the cost of servicing an order, which
is about the same for one copy or a thousand and it becomes
apparent that single quantity orders are barely profitable
without discounts.
In a phone conversation with Thom, I posed the question "If IFNA
were to process and ship orders, and remove that cost item from
SEA, could SEA make us a price." He discussed the question with
his partners and the answer came back "Yes -- but with
restrictions. . ."
So here are the restrictions. IFNA must not compete for sales
with SEA or its authorized distributers. This means that we may
offer SEAdog only to IFNA members, and only one copy to each
registered member.
Members must understand and agree that SEA is NOT prepared to
offer technical support to IFNA purchasers. This is not a
serious constraint. More than adaquate support is available from
current users and from the SEAdog echo conference.
To order, send $60 (Missouri residents add $3.43 sales tax,
overseas members please make payment in US dollars, and include
an additional $5 for shipping and handling) to:
IFNA
PO Box 41143
St. Louis, MO 63141
Sorry, we are not prepared to handle credit card or COD orders.
Only pre-paid orders will be accepted. Orders received by Friday
of each week will be shipped pre-paid via UPS-ground the
following Monday (provided, of course, that I have them to ship;
at the moment I have a limited stock).
If you are not an IFNA member yet, but would like to participate
in this offer, fill out the membership application at the end of
this newsletter and include it and an additional $25.00.
Above all, remember this is a strictly volunteer operation, so
please have patience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 16 9 Mar 1987
Public Key Encryption Revisited
PART One.
If you know what "Public Key Encryption" is then feel free to
skip to part two.
Public Key Encryption is a special form of encryption which
uses different keys for encryption (or scrambling) of a message
and decryption (unscrambling, the reverse operation).
The separate keys for each operation have several advantages.
The first is that the encryption key can be distributed much more
easily by less secure means without compromizing the security of
future encrypted messages. Simple knoledge of the encryption key
does not enable decrption of encrypted messages. The decryption
key is reqired to recreate the original message. For this reason
the encryption key is commonly called the "public key" and the
decryption key is the "private key".
In operation, everyone who wants to recieve secret messages
creates their own pair of keys, one private and one public. The
public key is them communicated to everyone who may want to send
them a secret message. Perhaps a central key distribution center
would be established. The private key is kept secret and never
told to anyone.
For example ... Art wants to send Beth a secret message. He
would look up Beth's public key or ask her to send him one (in
the clear). He would then use Beth's public key to encrypt his
message and send her the encrypted message. Beth recieves the
message and decodes it with her private key. No one else can
decrypt the message even if they get a copy of the encrypted
message AND the public key. They need the private key.
In 1978 the CACM journal published a way of doing this on
computers. The system they described has come to be known as the
"RSA" crypto system named after the authors of the article, R. L.
Rivest, A. Shamir, and L. Aldeman.
The RSA system has an additional property beyond the general
Public Key Encryption system described so far. With the RSA
system the keys are interchangeable so you can use a private key
to encrypt a message and then only the coresponding public key
will unscramble the message. This is in effect a "digital
signature" which "signs" a message showing that the encrypted
message could only have been created with knowlege of the private
key.
Messages can also be ecrypted more than once. For example you
can sign a message with your private key and then encrypt the
result again with the intended receiver's public key to make a
signed, secret message. The receiver would then need to do the
reverse two steps in the reverse order to get the original
message back.
Fidonews Page 17 9 Mar 1987
Even more complex interaction can be used for special
purposes. Articles have appeared on how to play poker over the
phone and how to hold a secret ballot election over the phone and
others.
PART Two.
I have implemented a Public Key Encryption system based on
the RSA system. It runs on MS-DOS using files for keys and
messages. I am distributing the system as freeware/shareware.
There may be some legal or political considerations in this.
I have heard roumors that this sort of stuff comes under
certain restritions for export of high tech (or something) from
the USA. I don't think this quite applies to me because I am
exporting the system TO the USA. (I live in Canada).
I have also heard roumors that some intelligence organization
(unnamed) is discouraging public discusion (let alone
utilization) of these systems. I have trouble believing this
because I had no trouble finding all the inforamtion I could ever
desire on the subject. There was even a articles in Scientific
American and Byte magazine and a couple follow-up letters.
Anyone who has any solid info on this, I would like to hear
from you. I especially would like to hear directly from any
government organization(s) (in any country) who may think they
are involved.
PART Three
The preceding article was published about a year ago in
FidoNews (twice actually due to some confusion) esentially in the
same form you see it now.
I have received some interesting correspondence as a result.
Some relevant, some not. (No spies came to my door though.)
Of the people who tried out the software I wrote, most wanted
to know if it could be speeded up. It is quite slow compared to
ordinary encryption. The speed depends on the size of the keys
used but even with extensive tuning I cannot get it do encrypt
faster than about 200 bytes per minute on a regular 4.77 MHz
8088. (I would estmate the SEA ARC /g option to be 1000 times
faster). This does admitedly limit the value of the system
severly. On the other hand, it is the only PUBLIC KEY encryption
system I am aware of for MS-DOS PCs. By the way, addition of an
8087 would have no effect on the speed. One way to speed it up
is faster proccessors. (Will someone give me an 80386 please?)
Even a 386 won't solve the speed problem though. To solve it
completly would require a completly new algorithm. I don't know
of any and anyway the RSA algorithm I use has proven to be quite
secure when used properly (so far).
Fidonews Page 18 9 Mar 1987
Another interesting point which has come up is the possibility
of using public key encryption for IFNA voting. It would be nice
to have some security on the voting process while using our
network for voting (instead of the primitive paper system used
for the ratification of the constitution). The digital signature
feature would be used to sign your vote. This would involve some
extra administration of keys for every one and a CPA with a Fdio
node I expect.
Using encryption on the net does bring up another point. Some
sysops like to know what messages are going through their system.
They like to know if their system is being used for illegal
activities primarily (and some are just nosey :-) ). Also there
is a tendancy to follow the HAM radio policy which prohibits
encryption of any form. Personally I don't think the HAM radio
policy applies to Fidonet for this. We pay for our communication
"bandwidth" in real money to the phone companies. They use the
public resource radio spectrum.
Some people asked to have the files encrypted into an ASCII
form which could be used in regular electronic mail including but
not limited to Fido. The original version would only produce
(unprintable) binary. The latest versions include an option to
produce ASCII files. (Version 0.1 and 0.2)
Interested parties may contact me via Fido node 134/1.
Well, here goes the second of my irregularly appearing
columns. This time around I've got some more comments on the
Microsoft C compiler (I've had a little more time to play around
with it), and some comments on OPUS among other things. It
occurred to me that some of you may be curious as to what type of
equipment I have so I'll mention it now to get it out of the way.
I am currently using an XT clone (Beltron) with a 30 meg hard
drive (Seagate ST238 with Western Digital RLL controller).
Attached to it is a Panasonic 1091 printer, and I use a Tecmar
Phonegate modem (2400 baud internal). There will hopefully be a
second 30 meg hard drive coming in a week or two as I act as an
echomail hub inside my net and would like to keep more than a few
days of echomail on it at any one time. Now, on to the column.
I've had some more time to play with the Microsoft C
compiler and feel I should warn some of you who are considering C
over BASIC. Most C compiler's have absolutely no direct control
over the screen, even to a clear screen (as a side note Computer
Innovations C86 is one of the exceptions). If you want to
position the cursor or clear the screen, you have to write a
function to do it. This isn't as bad as it seems as you can
create a whole slew of basic screen functions in an afternoon's
work (if you have the right reference book and know how to do
it). If you don't feel like writing them yourself, there are
several "function libraries" available from various companies. As
to where you can find the information on writing these functions,
there are 3 choices: 1) IBM Technical Reference on the XT, 2) A
PC-DOS version 2.0 manual or 3) Advanced MS-DOS which will be
mentioned toward the end of the column. Overall, I just want to
make everyone aware that this is NOT the type of thing for a
beginner to try on their own.
I recently found some time to look over OPUS, which is a new
bulletin board program that is compatible with FidoNet. I can sum
up my comments on OPUS with two words, VERY impressive. I
thought about writing a bulletin board program many months ago
and can appreciate the effort that has gone into bringing OPUS to
life. For the user's there are several new protocols for
uploading and downloading, and the capability of adding new ones
almost as quickly as they're devised. Included in the files I've
got is the superquick SEAlink (C) and WXMODEM, If you have the
latest version of Procomm you can try the WXMODEM as quickly as
you can find an OPUS board (and I've seen them sprout quickly in
the nodelist). I've got a program that is supposed to include
SEAlink (C) called TELIX, but haven't gotten around to playing
with it at this time. From what I've heard on the net the
protocol is supposed to be very quick. User's can also peek into
an ARChive file to see what's in it online. It also has ANSI
graphics capabilities without forcing everyone to use them. For
message base people, you can now "read" everything in a message
Fidonews Page 20 9 Mar 1987
base without having to hit return between each one, great if
you've been away for awhile, just turn on a capture buffer and
read 'em after you sign off.
On the sysop side there's only one downbeat note, OPUS
cannot yet send netmail. It's only capable of receiving mail (at
ANY time), although it will allow you to enter netmail. For the
time being you have to use either FIDO or SEAdog to send your
mail. This shouldn't be too much of a problem as OPUS can use
most of your FIDO files (USER.BBS, SCHED.BBS, etc). Otherwise
you have a much greater control over how the BBS should look,
unbelievable control capabilities in any displayed text file,
much greater control over what can be done in any message area
(OPUS "knows" about echomail among other things), and the
capability of not seeing all the SEEN-BY lines in an echomail
conference. You also have quite a bit of control over time
allowed, minimum baud rates for certain things. Overall it is a
very impressive program and I'd advise everyone out there to take
a look at it. I'd also like to thank Wynn Wagner for taking the
time to write and debug it.
I've had a chance to play with Reflex from Borland the past
few days and am already somewhat impressed with it. It a general
purpose database manager as far as I'm concerned with a few nice
features. I don't particularly care for their method of switching
between records, but you may not mind it. It's very easy to
create and modify the structure of a database within in the
program and you can design your own input form (make it look like
you want). The nice feature in it that caught my eye was it's
ability to generate graphs from the database. I remember trying
to teach someone (at that time my boss) how to generate a graph
in Lotus and this would be a breeze by comparison. If you've got
a graphics card (hercules or color) you can view the graph as you
play with it, kind of like watching everything as you put it
together. I wish I had something like this when I took physics,
it would have saved at least an hour a week on the lab reports
and I might have understood things a little better. Reflex also
allows you to view your data several different ways at the same
time, thus if you were putting together that lab report, you
could see immediately which points were off and fudge the data a
little (I know, I shouldn't encourage this but didn't we all tend
to fudge data on lab reports occasionally).
I think it would be a very good first database program for most
people. It teaches you the basics without getting everyone
confused with a lot of other things at the same time, and since
you can import and export data from many other programs you won't
have to reenter a lot of data if you're switching from something
else now, or decide to go with a different program at some future
date.
The best computer book I've seen recently is Advanced MS-DOS
by Ray Duncan. The reference section in the back is a must for
someone who is programming in C or Assembler. It lists all of the
DOS and BIOS interrupts and how to use them in your programs. I
used it myself to write some video functions this past week. I
Fidonews Page 21 9 Mar 1987
found out about this book from Ray Duncan's column in Dr. Dobbs
Journal and intend on making it a permanent part of my library.
It's available from Microsoft Press for $22.95
My time on Leather Goddesses of Phobos has started
decreasing as I start playing StarFlight from Electronic Arts
more and more each day. StarFlight is not quite an adventure,
yet more than the standard mindless shoot 'em up type game. You
start off with some money and use it to train and equip a ship.
As you explore the galaxy, you can land on planet's where you can
find minerals and artifacts which can be sold back at the base.
You will also run across several different species, some more
warlike than others. So far I've managed to do an initial survey
of about 50 systems and am thoroughly enjoying the game. I
haven't lost my ship yet although I've come close a few times due
to either damage or running out of energy. Electronic Arts claim
that there are over 800 planets including Earth, which I haven't
been able to find it yet (If you find it, please drop me a line
on where it is for my own curiosity). List price on the game is
$50.00.
That about ties it up for this column, If you have any
comments on something I've written about, or something you think
I should look at (and write about), let me know and I'll get back
to you as soon as possible. If I think it's important enough,
I'll stick it at the end of my next column. If you're a user of a
BBS, please mention to your sysop that mail to me should be
routed through 157/0, 157/502, or 157/1. If you're a sysop,
please note the last sentence. All those nodes are running SEAdog
and will forward the message to me within 24 hours.
Dale Lovell
3266 Vezber Drive
Seven Hills, OH 44131
This is the first in what I hope will become a continuing series
of columns on various technical topics of concern to the BBS
sysop and user. Almost any topic of a technical nature will be
discussed. No, I DON'T want to get into the censorship thing
here. That's a topic best left for discussion in other areas.
We'll deal with hardware and software here.
"What gives this bozo the right to write this thing", I heard
somebody ask. Simple. I've been involved with microcomputers
since the days of the early TRS-80 Model 1. Anybody remember the
huge (for then) 4 K of dynamic RAM and a barely useable BASIC in
ROM? I thought when I upgraded to 16K and Level 2 BASIC that I
had EVERYTHING anybody ever wanted in a "personal" computer. Hoo
boy was I WRONG! The XT system that runs my BBS has over 160
times more RAM and at least a thousand times more storage space.
In case you got out the calculator that's 640K ram plus a 2 Meg
Ram drive and a 60 Meg Hard Drive.
I've since gone thru an Apple II+, an Atari 400, an Atari 800XL
with 1050 drive, an Apple //e, a TRS-80 Model 100, and a highly
modified Kaypro 2/83 in addition to the XT compatible I built
myself. The Apple II+ has found a new home with another owner as
has the Model 1 but the rest still reside in the Random Access
computer lab doing more or less usefull work as needed.
Some of that work is as a freelance writer of a weekly computer
column for the Syracuse Herald-American Sunday issue. It reaches
a quarter of a million homes in upstate NY and I'm told they
figure almost a half million people have access to the paper as a
whole.
That column, like this one, is done entirely on computers until
it reaches the newsprint at the printing press. There's a story
there but I'll save it for another time.
The job that pays the bills is as a service technician for a
large independant service center here in the northeast. I prefer
to have it remain nameless. You'll never see the name here or
anywhere else that I write either. My work includes hard drives,
the entire IBM small system line (PC, XT, and AT), and almost
anything else that's compatible.
With that out of the way here goes.
I've seen many messages flying about on the SYSOP echo about hard
drives and heat problems. Since I encounter this quite frequently
I've worked out several solutions.
If you've stacked a pair of hard drives in the same mounting bay
I suggest that you re-mount them side by side on the BOTTOM of
Fidonews Page 23 9 Mar 1987
the mounting bays. There's method to my madness! Heat rises and
one of the most sensitive areas of a hard drive is the frequently
densely packed electronics area on the bottom of the hard drive.
Many clone systems and lately IBM boxes have the metal mounting
bay cut out so that air can flow to the underside of the drive.
Some clone boxes even have a cut-out on the bottom of the chassis
under the bays to mount a small fan (more in a bit on the subject
of fans).
This mounting style helps to spread the heat out over a larger
area and reduce the heat built up in one small area. Just be
carefull when mounting half height floppies. I got "burned" once
when I mounted a pair of floppies over a pair of hard drives.
The problem? Interaction between the floppy drives and the heads
of the hard drives. The floppies were direct drive units of
relatively cheap design and the motors of each drive were poorly
shielded. Whenever one of the floppy drives started up (as in a
copy operation) the hard drive under it experienced read errors.
I got very lucky and realized that the design of the floppy
chassis would support the hard drives mounted above the floppy
drive. Just in case you're wondering, when I mounted the two
floppy drives together in a stack they interacted with each
other! Watch out for extremely cheap floppy drives!
On the subject of adding fans, DON'T. In general they draw or
blow considerable dust into the machine. The hard drive must take
in air thru a built in filter assembly. These are NOT user
replaceable or cleanable. It'll cost you almost as much as a new
drive to have internal maintainance done in a clean room on the
old drive if the filter clogs up. The additional dust acts like a
fine grit and can actually eat away floppy drive heads unless you
methodically clean your floppy drives about every two weeks. I've
seen far too many heads tossed in the trash can because of
excessive wear due to poor cleaning and high dust levels.
The real secret to cooling is to increase air flow by removing
the extra slot covers. I know that the IBM manual says this will
louse up their cooling flow but it WORKS! With the additional
slow speed air flow it's much cooler inside the box and the
increase in dust intake is minimal. The boards tend to collect
the dust which can be easily cleaned off with a can of compressed
air available from most electronic or camera supply houses.
There are several other fatal errors hard drive owners make that
are easily prevented. NEVER move the system while the drive is
still spinning EVEN IF THE HEADS SEEM LOCKED IN PLACE! Despite
the fact that you may have run some type of "PARK" utility
(another thing most users forget to do) the heads may still not
have a mechanical lock to keep them away from the platter
surfaces until the platters have stopped. If the heads contact
the platter surface they'll gouge out the magnetic coating and
damage the drive beyond economical repair. Head damage will also
result from the "crash".
Another has more to do with software and backups. With the
Fidonews Page 24 9 Mar 1987
release of DOS 3.x, many users decided to update their version of
DOS. The problem comes when you restore the data from the old
drive. If the old DOS 2.X COMMAND.COM file winds up back on the
hard drive it will seem to run fine BUT it will eventually crash
making most of your data into a random mess of bits and bytes.
I've rescued at least 20 systems from this awfull fate and it's
no easy task.
Just be sure that you have the right version of the COMMAND.COM
file on the hard drive BEFORE you boot it after a restore or
changing DOS versions. Compare the file size and date from the
DOS master floppy with the one on the hard drive. If they're
different use the SYS utility to put the two hidden files on the
drive and then COPY the COMMAND.COM file to the hard drive.
If the SYS utility won't put the hidden files on the hard drive
DON'T GO ANY FURTHER. Back up the drive and re-format it from the
low level format up through to the standard DOS FORMAT routine to
get the proper cluster size. This applies to changing DOS
versions as well.
The cluster is the basic unit of hard drive storage. With the
older DOS 2.X DOS and a 20 meg drive, the cluster is about 4 k in
size. With a 30 meg drive the cluster takes up 8 K. This is the
minimum ammount of drive space that DOS will allocate. Even if
your file is only 122 bytes long it will still take 4 or 8 K of
space on the hard drive to store it. With the change to DOS 3.X,
the cluster size becomes 2K for a 20 or 30 meg drive. Saves quite
a bit of space huh? It seems that you're still stuck with 4 K
clusters on a 10 meg drive though.
The final fatal error is NOT BACKING UP THE HARD DRIVE! Oh sure,
you think "It'll NEVER happen to ME!". Let me tell ya, it can and
WILL. If you have even an old backup it's much easier to pick up
the pieces that with no backup at all.
I've taken up enough space in this first column. One of the
pluses of publishing here is the ability of you, the reader to
send an "instant" reply with your suggestions or gripes. I fully
intend that this is YOUR column and will try my best to answer
your questions here. I'll know by your response within about a
week after this hits the FIDO News if I should devote additional
time to writing more of these columns. I plan on one about every
two weeks if you ask for more.
Let's hear from you today. The address is The Random Access at
260/320. If you want to call direct the number is (315) 697-3996.
17 May 1987
Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut and Floppy Disk
Throwing Tournament! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited!
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information.
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1.
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications. **
Name _________________________________ Date ________
Address ______________________________
City & State _________________________
Country_______________________________
Phone (Voice) ________________________
Net/Node Number ______________________
Board Name____________________________
Phone (Data) _________________________
Baud Rate Supported___________________
Board Restrictions____________________
Special Interests_____________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Is there some area where you would be
willing to help out in FidoNet?_______
______________________________________
______________________________________
Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
International FidoNet Association
P. O. Box 41143
St Louis, Missouri 63141
USA
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
** Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
in formation and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted
by the membership in January 1987. An Elections Committee has
been established to fill positions outlined in the By-Laws for
the Board of Directors. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Elections Committee. We
welcome your input on this Conference.
