F I D O N E W S Volume 17, Number 46 06 Nov 2000

F I D O N E W S Volume 17, Number 46 06 Nov 2000
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-714-639-0377 1:1/23 |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: Warren Bonner |
| | (*) | \ )) | [email protected] |
| |__U__| / \// | [email protected] |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+

Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
Editorial ................................................ 1
2. CORRECTIONS .............................................. 3
CORRECTIONS .............................................. 3
3. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 4
Letters on the Ed's Desk ................................. 4
4. ARTICLES ................................................. 10
ARTICLES ................................................. 10
5. COLUMNS .................................................. 12
Column.col ............................................... 12
6. FIDONET BIOGRAPHIES ...................................... 14
Biographies of Fido ...................................... 14
7. GETTING TECHNICAL ........................................ 15
-=*TECHNICAL*=- .......................................... 15
8. NET HUMOR ................................................ 24
*HUMOR* .................................................. 24
9. QUESTION OF THE WEEK ..................................... 27
QUESTION ................................................. 27
10. FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................................ 28
Software List ............................................ 28
11. FIDONET BY INTERNET ..................................... 30
12. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 35
FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 35
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 1 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================

[email protected]
Saturday morning November 4, 2000.
Good morning to all of you! Great morning lots of sunshine here!
Grab a cup of your favorite brew and bear with Ol'wdb a couple of
moments while I refresh your memory as to why this is a great day.

It is the day before national election day in the United States. And
just in time to make those monumental decisions of who to trust to
guide your country's powerful engines of economy, environment, and
safe well being of all citizens. To know the issues and be prepared
before you cast your ballot, be it absentee or at your local
designated voting place. To vote `helter skelter' is a waste of your
voting privilege. So take a few and read the issues in your voting
packet; then make a list to shorten your time in the booth.

Many men and women have given their lives so you can have that
privilege, (thousands and thousands); and millions more have fought
beside them. Freedom is not easily won, don't waste it in total
disregard because your plate is full now... To do so may cause an
empty belly later. The rights we enjoy did not come on a silver
platter, rather by the most devastating destruction free men could
devise to stay free. Look forward to your privilege in casting your
vote, it is the one that counts!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from Darrell's requested submission in Letters to Editor

"Uhm, Warren, a friendly bit of advice for you, you might want to
reconsider publishing "supermarket tabloid" articles like the one Mr.
Grant sent you. It really makes Fidonet look cheap and sleazy, and
heaven knows, Fidonet is in enough trouble as it is.

That's it Ol' WDB! Have a great day and keep up the good work!

Signed: The Region12 Nodelist Clerk!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editors note: Accepting your "friendly bit of advice", Darrell, and it
is taken with reciprocal friendly feelings. However, how can I
`accept' your article for publication and not put my other foot into
the same sand box? Letters to the editor are just that, and if
requested, this editor-pro-tem will print them as long as they are
civil in language, and meet the MakeNews.exe's parameters.

My personal opinion has no place politically on ANYONE's message. I
will not "tamper" with the content of a request, whether I like it or
not. The content is the author's and not mine to change, if I find
reason to believe it likely to be disruptive to the harmony of Fido, I
will return it to sender for modification.

Also, in my opinion, contrary to your belief that it diminishes Fido
to publish submitted letters of opinion; I think it gives voice to
those who otherwise have no voice. That may be good for Fido... And it
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 2 6 Nov 2000

may bring many back to the table. To limit freedom of speech would be
the death knell of fidonews.

JMHO
Ed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 3 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
CORRECTIONS
=================================================================

====================================================
From: "SYSOP" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject:
Re Fidonews Date: Sunday, October 29, 2000 10:48 AM

Editor,

2 weeks ago I sent you this Email and asked you to post the links in
the Fidonews section of the snooze. You graciously published my Email
in the snooze but forgot to add the links to the news section. Would
you mind terribly adding the links to the news portion?

Thank you Shannon Talley

Letter to the editor,

Fidotel has been offline for quite some time..... However, I have
recently purchased new computers, upgraded software, and have acquired
a very reliable xDSL line.

Would you please post the following links to the FidoTel Fidonews
resource in future issues of the Fidonews?

web: http://www.fidotel.com/public/fidonews FTP: ftp.fidotel.com
(comprehensive archive of every Fidonews ever published)

Thank you, Shannon Talley 1:275/311 [email protected]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 4 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
=================================================================

=============================================================
From: "Ardith Hinton" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: FidoNews Poem
Date: Sunday, October 29, 2000 10:18 AM

Hi Warren:

You perhaps didn't receive my resend of my submission? I'll try
it this way:

*Ed:(Sorry this is the first time I've received this request).

Surf(ac)ing

London, Frankfurt, and New York
Are very faraway...
But lots of people that
I know Access them every day.

With all these far-flung places,
They've great libraries there...
And one can go and visit them
Without moving from one's chair.

Special equipment for Her Nibs??
That's on a web page, too.
There are so many things to see...
So many things to do!

But while you're busy surfing,
We beg you... don't forget
The good times that you've had with us,
Your friends in Fidonet.

A.H. 2000
Ardith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ENGLISH
Centuries ago, English was mostly spoken by a few million people in
the British Isles, and there were a few local dialects such as Irish
English. But in the last century, the language has exploded across
the world and diversified, picking up many words and pronunciation
styles from local tongues.

Measured by the number of people for whom English is their first
language, 72% speak American English and 16% use British English. 6%
use Canadian English, 5% use Australian English and 1% use New Zealand
English. There are also dozens of minor dialects, including
Caribbean, South African, (Asian) Indian, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 5 6 Nov 2000

Even within American English there are significant regional
differences. Boston English is different from the language spoken in
Atlanta, and Chicago English is different from both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~

81) Sun 29 Oct 00 8:21p
By: michael kleerbaum
To: Warren
Re: FidoNews [03/03] Internet info
St:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Warren,

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:140/1, or 1:396/1 |
| ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ |
| ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ |
| http://www.fidonews.org |
| email subscription: [email protected] |
| (subject: help body: list) |
| ftp mail: [email protected] (subject: help) |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

All issues from 1984 to 2000 are also available at www.was-ist-fido.de
You can get them, without speaking a word german. :)
Just klick on the FidoNews-Button.

Michael

--- CrossPoint v3.20 R
* Origin: www.was-ist-fido.de: Sag's weiter! (2:2432/203)

~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~

(9056) Mon 30 Oct 00 11:22a
By: Winston Smith
To: All
Re: [--- Tick And Hatch ---]
St:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I would just like to take this opportunity to say, "Thank you,
FidoNews!" for your article on "Tick" and "Hatch". For a while now, I
thought that all of this talk about "Tick" referred to the SMTP ".TIC"
protocol handshaking. I was not aware that there was actually a
separate program for FidoNET file propagation that was literally
called "Tick", or for that matter, that "Hatch" was more than just a
metaphor. Thank you for your excellent article!

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v3.0pr3 * Origin: Lost in the
SuperMarket - Peabody, MA - 978-531-8416 (1:101/101)

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 6 6 Nov 2000

~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: [email protected]
Full-name: HDBrass
Subject: God's answering machine
To: [email protected]
Hope you enjoy!
=======================================================
Thought you might enjoy this one.
It's for those who have tried to get service or help via the phone. We
have all learned to live with voice mail as a necessary part of modern
life. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if God decided
to install voice mail? Imagine praying and hearing this:

Thank you for calling My Father's House. Please select one of the
following options: Press 1 for Requests. Press 2 for Thanksgiving.
Press 3 for Complaints. Press 4 for All Other Inquiries.

I am sorry, all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right
now. However, your prayer is important to us and will be answered in
the order in which it was received, so please stay on the line.

If you would like to speak to:
God - press 1.
Jesus - press 2.
The Holy Spirit - press 3.
If you would like to hear King David sing a Psalm while you are
holding, please press 4.
To find out if a loved one has been assigned to Heaven, press 5.
Enter his or her Social Security number, then press the pound key.
If you get a negative response, try area code 666.

For reservations at My Father's House, please enter:
JOHN followed by 3-16.
For nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth and where
Noah's Ark is, please wait until you arrive here.

Our computers show that you have already prayed once today. Please
hang up and try again tomorrow.

If you need emergency assistance dial 1(900) GOD-WHYME (This is a toll
call.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: [email protected]
Subject:Pass this on
To: <[email protected]>
=========================================================
Glass of Milk
One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his
way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was
hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house.
However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.

Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked
hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He Drank it slowly, and
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 7 6 Nov 2000

then asked, "How much do I owe you?" "You don't owe me anything," she
replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness."

He said..... "Then I thank you from my heart." As Howard Kelly left
that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God
and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and Quit school.

Year's later that young woman became critically ill. The local
doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where
they called in specialists to study her rare disease.

Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard
the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes.
Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her
room.

Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her
at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his
best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the
case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the
business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked
at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent it to
her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the
rest of her life to pay for it all.

Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of
the bill. She read these words..... "Paid in full with one glass of
milk".

(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You,
God, that Your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands."

~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~

From: "darrell" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: An article for you
Date: Saturday, November 04, 2000 6:51 AM

Here is my submitted article.

Hello Warren! Seems a rather confused sysop submitted an article to
you last week. In my usual hospitable manner, I would like to help him
out and introduce him to the concept of reality. Hence I submit this
to you for publishing in next week's 'Snooze.

First of all, nobody here in Region 12 seems to know what Mr. Grant is
talking about. Now while that doesn't surprise me, it may surprise
some of our readers, who may have mistakenly thought that Mr. Grant
knows what he is talking about. Fortunately I am here to set the
record straight. :)
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 8 6 Nov 2000

As best as I can figure, someone from Region 12 became disgruntled
with the R12EC and moved away. It seems he found an ear with Mr. Grant
and told a rather unbelievable tale of woe regarding his time here.
Either that or Mr. Grant made it all up. Either way, it's the stuff
fairy tales are made of. :)

We in Region 12 allow sysops to come and go from here as they please,
so if one chooses to go somewhere else, this is not particularly
shocking to us in any way, especially considering the fact that
certain sysops don't get along too well with some of the other kids in
the sandbox. As you know, Warren, we in Region 12 have long been
advocates of free geographical movement of sysops.

On to Mr. Grant's fantasies ...

- He alleges that if a sysop in Region 12 doesn't agree with the way
things are done here he is looked down upon.

What does this mean? Sysops here have differing opinions all the time,
nothing shocking or newsworthy there.

- Mr. Grant alleges that if a sysop in Region 12 chooses not to vote
in the annual elections, he's apparently casted as an "outsider", and
his nodelisting may even get pulled for "inactivity in the R12 echos,
or some other foolishness.

This is very strange, Warren, and not surprisingly, apparently nobody
here knows anything about this either. The R12C certainly didn't pull
any node numbers, and I don't know of any Region 12 NCs that have done
this either. I'd have to say Mr. Grant is again delusional on this
one.

- Mr. Grant alleges that "It seems the elfishness even extends to the
holy and anointed mail mover and "defender of the dogma" of Region 12,
to whom someone apparently forgot to mention that the moving of
echomail should not involve politics. Heaven forbid that an R12 node
might try to crash route a netmail; the Fido "free region" is internet
aware, don't you know; and has perfect routed netmail lines that never
lose mail. Why bother with a silly little thing like POTS
connectivity? Who still uses modems these days anyhow?"

Hmm ... more delusions apparently, Warren, and just who is Mr. Grant
quoting? Himself? ROTFL! Many of us have modems here and we route
netmail all the time. Poor Mr. Grant.

- Mr. Grant further alleges that "the elfin antics of the top banana
in the R12 bunch; it seems recently this "nodelist clerk" took a
dislike to the sudden appearance of a certain node number of which he
did not approve, in the path lines of a certain member of his region's
echomail. Now this little detail perturbed this nodelist clerk so much
that he just felt he had to fire off an immediate netmail to the
offending node in order to voice his displeasure.

Huh? Is he talking about me, Warren? I've read quite a few
nose-stretchers in my time in this hobby, and while I certainly do
consider Michael Grant to be a few bricks short of a full load, I
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 9 6 Nov 2000

could care less who chooses to exchange mail with him. I fear Mr.
Grant needs help. I sincerely hope he finds it.

As for firing off a netmail to the offending node, poor Mr. Grant has
completely lost it here, since I have sent no such netmail and would
challenge Mr. Grant to produce this netmail. He can't of course,
unless he fabricates one, something he seems quite good at,
fabrication that is. :)

- Mr. Grant wonders "Now is it just me, or does anyone else out there
wonder just what business it is for a "nodelist clerk" where one of
his regions sysops pulls his echomail from?

To answer his question, this nodelist clerk could not care less where
a sysop pulls their mail, but he knew that.

- Mr. Grant further wonders aloud "The last time I checked, getting an
echomail feed from a different source than the "approved" one was not
a Fido crime, and not even against any policy that a region might
choose not to recognize.

Mr. Grant is delusional yet again, Warren, as we have no "approved"
source. Our sysops freely get their mail anywhere they please. One
need only check the routing charts for evidence of that. Perhaps Mr.
Grant can produce proof of this bit of imagination as well. :)

- Here Mr. Grant identifies himself and makes another rather dubious
statement, "Yes, Ol' WDB, you guessed right; the node number which the
R12 ElfLo-* err, "nodelist clerk" objected to so much to was none
other than 1:134/11; my own happy Fido home on the range.

Again, Warren, I have made no such objection, and challenge Mr. Grant
to provide proof of this. Oh dear, if he cannot, we'll be forced to
believe he is a liar, or extremely delusional, or both. Too bad, so
sad.

Uhm, Warren, a friendly bit of advice for you, you might want to
reconsider publishing "supermarket tabloid" articles like the one Mr.
Grant sent you. It really makes Fidonet look cheap and sleazy, and
heaven knows, Fidonet is in enough trouble as it is.

That's it Ol' WDB! Have a great day and keep up the good work!

Signed: The Region12 Nodelist Clerk!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 10 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================

===============================================================
"Information Please"

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in
our neighborhood. I remember well the polished, old case fastened to
the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too
little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination
when my mother used to talk to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an
amazing person her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing
she did not know. "Information Please" could supply anybody's number
and the correct time.

My first personal experience with this genie-in-the-bottle came one
day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the
tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The
pain was terrible, but there didn't seem to be any reason in crying
because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the
house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway.

The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the foot stool in the parlor and
dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in
the parlor and held it to my ear. "Information Please," I said into
the mouthpiece just above my head. A click or two and a small clear
voice spoke into my ear.

"Information." "I hurt my finger..." I wailed into the phone. The
tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

Isn't your mother home?" came the question. "Nobody's home but me," I
blubbered. "Are you bleeding?" the voice asked. "No," I replied. "I
hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts." "Can you open your
icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off a little piece of
ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. I asked her
for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. She
helped me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk, that I had
caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.
Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary died. I called
"Information Please" and told her the sad story.

She listened, then said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a
child. But I was inconsolable. I asked her,"Why is it that birds
should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end
up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?" She must have
sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Paul, always remember
that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better. Another day I was on the telephone.
"Information Please." "Information," said the now familiar voice.
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 11 6 Nov 2000

"How do you spell fix?" I asked. All this took place in a small town
in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across
the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. "Information
Please" belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never
thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on the table in
the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood
conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene
sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient,
understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little
boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in
Seattle. I had about half-an-hour or so between planes. I spent 15
minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then,
without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and
said, said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.
"Information." I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying,
"Could you please tell me how to spell fix?" There was a long pause.
Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have
healed by now." I laughed, "So it's really still you, " I said. "I
wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time.
"I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me. I
never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked
if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister. Please
do," she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered,
"Information." I asked for Sally. "Are you a friend?" she asked.
"Yes, a very old friend," I answered. "I'm sorry to have to tell you
this," she said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years
because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute. Did you say your
name was Paul?" "Yes, Ireplied." "Well, Sally left a message for you.
She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you. The
note said, "Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in.
He'll know what I mean."

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant. Never
underestimate the impression you may make on others. Whose life have
you touched today?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 12 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================

Ol'Codger's Column
[email protected]

RULES OF THE AIR

1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull
the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the
stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.

3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.

4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than
up there wishing you were down here.

5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep
the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start
sweating.

7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided
with the sky.

8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great'
landing is one after which they can use the plane again.

9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to
make all of them yourself.

10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power
to taxi to the ramp.

11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle
of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and
vice versa.

12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to
five minutes earlier.

13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable
sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in
clouds.

14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the
number of take offs you've made.

15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing.
Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 13 6 Nov 2000

16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience.
The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of
luck.

17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.

18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round
and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger
compartment, things are not at all as they should be.

19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going
hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour,
the ground has yet to lose.

20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgment.

21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as
much as possible.

22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.

23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's
not subject to repeal. Avoid "Mile High Club" and Turtles.

24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above
you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.

25. Lastly, ALWAYS check the runway number, then double check!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 14 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
FIDONET BIOGRAPHIES
=================================================================

======================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 15 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
GETTING TECHNICAL
=================================================================

========================================================
*LINUX OS*
By Janis Kracht
1:2320/38 ([email protected])

Though many of us have converted our Operating Systems, bbs software,
echomail tossers, and mailers to new ones many times, changing one's
setup to run under Linux can be perhaps more challenging than anything
else ever experienced <smile>.

Hopefully this article will be of some help if you have just switched
to Linux, or if you are about to do so. I'll show you some comparisons
between DOS and Linux so that you can see that Linux isn't as foreign
as it might at first seem, and then I'll provide some scripts that
I've written to perform various functions on my bbs system. Lastly,
I'll also include a few notes regarding some things you should _make
sure_ do when you install linux. Security under Linux is a very large
topic however, so I will cover that in more detail in a later article.

First off, let's look at some commands that you might commonly use
under DOS, and their Linux counterparts. As you'll see, there are
some commands that do not have an equivalent under DOS (i.e., I'm not
counting DOS GNU utilities, etc. since these are not generally part of
the standard DOS distribution.)

Tip: It would probably be a good idea to type 'man command', or 'info
command', or 'command --help' without the quotes to see all the
options of these Linux commands.
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
command.com sh Simplistic command interpreter
n/a bash Advanced command interpreter
n/a perl Interpreter for perl scripts
n/a awk Interpreter for awk scripts
n/a chsh Change shell

Directory Management
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
dir ls -l Long format directory
dir dir Long format directory
dir /w ls Wide format directory
cd cd Change directory
rm rmdir Remove a directory
md mkdir Make a directory
deltree /Y rm -rf Recursively delete a directory tree
n/a pwd Dispay the current working directory
path

Some Linux examples:
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 16 6 Nov 2000

ls -d .* Show only "." directories. (these are often
configuration files, etc. for various
programs). The -d indicates that only the
directory name should be shown, not the
contents.
ls -ltr Sort by date, reverse order.
ls --color=auto Turn on color for file types in directory
list.
ls -1 -1 (one) shows file names in column list
with no other info

[janis@filegate]$ ls -1
absHOWTO.zip
games.zip
Mail/
newfiles/
[janis@filegate]$ _

File Management
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
copy cp Copy a file
move mv Move a file
touch touch Set the timestamp on a file
del rm -f Delete a file
type cat Print a file to the screen
n/a chown Change ownership of a file
n/a chgrp Change group ownership of a
file attrib chmod Change access permissions of a
file
rawrite dd Write directly to a device
subst? ln Create a link to a file

Some Linux examples:
mv firstdoc.txt seconddoc.txt rename firstdoc.txt
mv /janis/*.txt /afiles move *.txt to directory afiles.

Tip: When moving groups of files with the same filename, such as
mv *.tic *.bad, you must specify a different directory. To move
files such as *.bad to *.tic, you can use the script in this
article, mvbad2tic.

====================================================================
Aliases
====================================================================
You can tell the system to use aliases of the commands you use.

Enter these in your /etc/profile to make them global or
~/.bash_profile to make them local.

alias del='rm'
alias copy='cp'
alias move='mv'
alias ren='mv'
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 17 6 Nov 2000

alias type='cat'
alias rd='rmdir'
alias md='mkdir'
alias help='man'

You can also enter them on the command line, just for that session. If
you type: alias md='mkdir' you can then use md instead of mkdir.

Searching and Sorting
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
find grep Search for a string in a text file
dir /s find Search for a file
n/a locate Search for a file via a database
n/a updatedb Create searchable database of files
sort sort Sort a file
n/a tr Translate, squeeze, and/or delete
characters from standard input.

Some Linux examples:

Tip: ctime option in the find command will show status of a file that
was last changed n*24 hours ago. daystart measure times (for -ctime,
and other options for find) from the beginning of today rather than
from 24 hours ago.

[bbs@filegate /home/bbs]$ find /home/ftp/pub -daystart -ctime 00
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/descript.ion
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/CC0CPC10.ZIP
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/C19WKWK7.ZIP
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/C50STR14.ZIP
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/CABPRT20.ZIP
/home/ftp/pub/gamesnet/g_cons/CBCGRB02.ZIP
[bbs@filegate /home/bbs]$ _

Disk Management
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
fdisk fdisk Modify the partition table
format mke2fs Create a filesystem on a partition
format fdformat Format a floppy disk
chkdsk e2fsck Test a filesystem for errors
n/a swapon Turn on a swap partition
n/a swapoff Turn off a swap partition
n/a mount Attach a filesystem to the root
filesystem
n/a umount Detach a filesystem from the root
filesystem
chkdsk df View amount of disk space available
dir/s du View amount of disk space used by a
directory recursively

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 18 6 Nov 2000

Some examples of Linux commands: The mount command with no parameters
specified shows you the devices currently mounted.

[bbs@filegate ~]$ mount
/dev/hda1 on / type ext2 (rw) none on /proc
type proc (rw) /dev/hdb1 on /export type ext2 (rw) none on /dev/pts
type devpts (rw,mode=0622)
[bbs@filegate ~]$_

Getting Help with Commands:
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
help man Get help on a command
n/a apropos Get help on a general topic
n/a whatis Search the whatis database
n/a makewhatis Make the whatis database
n/a file Classify a file

Editing and Printing
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
edit pico Editor for novices
n/a vi Editor for advanced users
print lpr Print a file
n/a sed Stream editor
n/a joe Wordstar compatible editor
n/a emacs Programming environment and editor
edlin ed non-visual
editor

Backup, Compression, and Archival
====================================================================
DOS Linux Description
====================================================================
n/a bzip2 A block-sorting file compressor, using
Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text
compression algorithm, and Huffman
coding
bzcat Decompresses files to stdout
bunzip2 A block-sorting file compressor,
bzip2recover recovers data from damaged bzip2 files
pkzip zip Create a zip file
pkunzip unzip Extract files from a zip file
n/a gzip Compress or decompress files via GNU
zip.
n/a tar Tape archiver
n/a compress Lempel-Ziv compression program

====================================================================
Archivers: What's available:
====================================================================
Archivers which you may have used under DOS are available:

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 19 6 Nov 2000

name: date of last update for Linux:
====================================================================
zip 10/13/98
unzip 11/30/98
lha 6/28/99
unarj 6/22/99
pkzip251 4/15/99
arc 5/29/99
rar 6/21/00
====================================================================
Viewing multiple Archives:
====================================================================
As you probably know, under DOS unzip -v filename.zip will list the
contents of one archive. To list the contents of multiple zip or rar
archives, enclose the argument in quotes:

unzip -v "*.zip"

ex.: [bbs@filegate bbbs]$ unzip -v "*.zip"

Archive: nodelist.zip
Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
------ ------ ------- ----- ---- ---- ------- ------
1706292 Defl:N 560625 67% 09-14-99 15:57 a18214bc NODELIST.253
------- ----- --- ------------
1706292 560625 67% 1 file

Archive: ppphowto.zip
Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
-------- ------ ------- ----- ---- ---- ------ ----
158718 Defl:N 48642 69% 10-16-99 20:32 b4ad98a9 PPP-HOWTO
-------- ----- --- -------
158718 48642 69% 1 file

2 archives were successfully processed.

===============================================================
tar/gzip:
===============================================================
Tar and gzip are used commonly on Linux. Often you'll see archives
with tgz extensions, .gz, or no extension at all. You can use the
file command to see how the file is archived/stored if there is no
extension or if you are just curious:

[bbs@filegate bbbs]$ file ZPMF025D.TGZ
ZPMF025D.TGZ: gzip compressed data, deflated, last modified: Thu
Jun 8 04:55:16 1995, max compression, os: Unix

So you'd need to un-gzip this file first, then un-tar it.

gzip -d ZPMF025D.TGZ

This results in the file ZPMF025.tar

To list the contents of the tar file, type tar tf filename.tar To
extract the tar, type tar xf filename.tar
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 20 6 Nov 2000

There are options to "keep old files" with both gzip and tar which you
may also want to include on the command line. The default action is
to remove the original tar. See tar --help, and gzip --h for more
info.

This shortcut extract both the tar and gzip files in one command:

tar xvzf filename.tar.gz

The "z" flag says "un-gzip before un-tarring". The same flag works in
reverse when tarring.

===============================================================
Some BASH Scripts
===============================================================

One of the neatest things about *nix systems is that any file can be
made executible by simply changing the attributes of the file. Of
course, if the text file doesn't have any useful commands in it, it
won't "do" anything <smile>.

Here are some scripts I've written for my bbs - none of these contain
any startling ideas, and I don't doubt a number of them could be done
better, but you can feel free to modify them as you like or need. info
bash will show you the system's man pages for these scripting
keywords. To use these scripts, save them to a file and then make them
executible with 'chmod a+x filename' without the quotes. To call them
you can type 'sh filename' without the quotes, where filename is the
name of the script. Again, scripting is a very broad subject ... looks
like I will be writing yet another article concerning that subject
later :)

=============mvbad2tic====================
#!/bin/sh
# the above must be the first line in the script.
# the # symbol specifies a comment line
list="`ls -1 *.bad`"
for file in $list
do
f=`basename $file .bad`.tic
mv $file $f
done
============end mvbad2tic===============================

=============make_zic==================================
#!/bin/sh
# make_zik takes a file and it's accompanying
# tic and puts them both in one zip archive aka
# Allfix's zic option
dir -1 -I*.tic -I*.sh -Iticlist-Iarchives >> archives
dir -1 *.tic >> /home/bbbs/binkd/work/ticlist
for file in `cat archives`
do
for tics in `cat ticlist`
do
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 21 6 Nov 2000

if test=`grep $file $tics`
then
f=`basename $tics .tic`
zip -jm0 $f.zic $file $tics
fi
done
done
mv *.zic /home/bbs/binkd/barry
chown bbs.bbs /home/bbbs/binkd/barry/*
chmod 775 /home/bbbs/binkd/barry/*
============end make_zic===================

Next, mvfile2in.sh move files from a users inbound.
It uses another file you must create named dirlist.
dirlist contains the names of your users' home directories which will
most likely be the same as the username.

You can create this file with the command: dir /home/* -1 > dirlist
Edit it to remove other entries you don't want, like ftp, etc. which
may be in the /home directory.

=======mvfile2in.sh======================
#!/bin/sh
cd /home/bbbs
# move files from a users' inbound to the bbs' inbound
# tests to see if user is online before moving anything.
cd /home/bbbs
for f in `cat /home/bbbs/dirlist`
do
if ps aux | grep ^$f
then
echo "===user $f online==="
elif test -e /home/$f/*/*.bsy
then
echo "$f bsy-flag exists"
else
echo "===safe to move files from $f==="
mv /home/$f/in/* /home/bbbs/inbound
fi
done
=================end mvfile2in.sh==================

get_desc can be used to import file descriptions to a files.bbs or
descript.ion type file list.

=======================get_desc==================
#!/bin/sh
# import file_id.diz to files.bbs or descript.ion type file
dir -1 *.zip > dirlist
for f in `cat dirlist`
do
unzip -pC $f file_id.diz >> FILE_ID.DIZ
if [ -f FILE_ID.DIZ ] ;
# this script uses an abbreviation for the the test command, [ and ].
# I believe Pertti Heikkinen posted this in the bbbs.english echo.
then
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 22 6 Nov 2000

tr '\n\r' ' ' <FILE_ID.DIZ >tmp.ff
echo $f `cat tmp.ff` >> descript.txt
rm -f FILE_ID.DIZ tmp.ff
fi
done
====================end get_desc=======================

==============================================================
Some Install Concerns for the SysOp Installing Linux
===============================================================
The first concern is pretty simple. When you log into your system it
will be very tempting to login as root, or the superuser, because user
root has no limitations, can run any program, read/write any file..
and ...also can delete every single file on your system <g>. Issuing a
command like rm -r from the / directory as user root will surely go
through the entire directory tree and do just what you told it to do
(rm -r deletes recursively... <ouch>. )

Of course there will be times when you must log on as root to do
things such as install your apache web server, configure your ppp
connection, etc., but that is really the only time you should log in
as root. Likewise, you should never log in as root in XWindows as user
root, except as above. XWindows can destroy your data if you are user
root and are playing with commands.

_Big_ Tip: Use the adduser command to create other users on your
system which you can use on a daily basis. To add a user, as root,
type:

adduser username

where username is the name you have selected, 8 characters or less.
Linux will let you use longer names for the users, but will truncate
them. The adduser command adds the user to the passwd file in
/etc/passwd, and unless you specify otherwise, creates a directory off
/home which is that user's 'home' directory. These limited-access
users can only harm the files they own in their home directory. Next
you assign that user a password with the passwd command by typing:

passwd username

The passwd command prompts you for this users' password, 8 characters
or less since again it will be truncated if it's over 8 characters.
The password you choose should be a combination of upper and lower
case alpha characters and numbers.

Tip: Try to make the password something that means something to you,
then use the letters of the words to make up your password. Here's an
example of what I mean ...

I love Chocolate cake I'll take two thanks = IlccIt2t

The last section of this article is pretty important. With the number
of systems online 24/7, these issues cannot be ignored. If you think
your system is safe from those who would test and probe your system
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 23 6 Nov 2000

for ways of gaining illegal entry, think again.

Tip: After installing linux, the very first thing you should do is
pull up your favorite text editor, and edit the inetd.conf file which
lives in /etc (/etc/inetd.conf). _Comment out_ every single line in
that file except for the one that refers to ftp if you figure to use
ftp. If you think this sounds drastic, well, it is. And it's
necessary. If you leave the file as is, you are leaving an incredible
number of ports and services open to trouble-makers who will (most
likely) be port-scanning your system over and over again looking for
weak points. You probably won't need any of the services you are
commenting out - and some of them, like rlogin, are incredibly famous
for having holes where hackers can gain access to your system.

Tip: Use ssh, (Secure Shell) instead of telnet. Comment telnet out
from inetd.conf. If you think are going to need telnet so that you can
telnet into your system remotely, DON'T. Use Secure Shell instead. If
Secure Shell isn't already on your system, go to http://rpmfind.net/
and download and install it.

Tip: If your distribution of linux installs wu-ftpd, install a
different ftp daemon, such as Bero-ftpd, or Proftpd. Why the switch?
Well, Wu-ftpd has been known over the years to have holes where creeps
can gain illegal access to your system. Technically speaking these
holes are plugged with new releases, but ... in general it is a good
idea to install one of the other daemon's mentioned.

Tip: All of the above is good, but don't rest easy yet.. Another thing
you must do is contantly stay aware of upgrades to the software you
use. If, for example, a new version of bero-ftpd is released, install
it. Upgrades under linux are not always done to make the software
prettier or sexy <g>. The site that maintains the software you use
will always post what type of upgrade the software is and whether it
is a security upgrade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 24 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================

======================================================

Smart NFL Quarterbacks
Barry Switzer, clearly upset about the Dallas
Cowboys' losing record, decides to find out from
Steve Mariucci what his secret is. So Switzer
travels up to a 49er practice and asks Mariucci,
"Coach, how is it that your team is so good?
What's your secret?"

Mariucci responds by calling Steve Young over.
"Steve, who's your father's brother's nephew?"
Young answers, "Why coach, that's easy: it's me."
Mariucci turns to Switzer and says, "That's the
secret, Barry: a smart quarterback. You've got
to have a smart quarterback."

Thinking he's finally got all the tools he needs,
Switzer returns to Texas and the Cowboys workout.
He promptly calls over Troy Aikman. "Aikman!
Who's your father's brother's nephew?"
Troy looks perplexed, thinks a minute, then asks,
"Coach, can I get back to you on that?"
Switzer, disgusted, says, "O.K."

During practice, Aikman calls over Deion Sanders.
"Deion, coach just asked me the weirdest question".
Deion asked, "What was that?"
"who's your father's brother's nephew?"
Sanders replies, "Duh! That's easy. It's me!"
After practice, Aikman catches up with Switzer.
"Coach, I think I've got it. My father's
brother's nephew is Deion Sanders."
Switzer, angry, reprimands, "NO, NO, NO! You
idiot! It's Steve Young!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hot Air
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude
and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted,
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend an hour ago I would
meet him, but I don't know where I am."

The woman replied, "You are in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet
above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees North latitude and
between 79 and 80 degrees West longitude."

"You must be a Republican," said the balloonist.

"I am," said the woman, "but how did you know?"

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 25 6 Nov 2000

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is
technically correct, but I still have no idea what to make of your
information, = and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not
been much help."

The woman below responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are
going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot
air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you
expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in exactly the
same position you were before we met, but now, somehow, it's my
fault."
~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~

Voice Mail
We have all learned to live with voice mail as a necessary part of
modern life. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if God
decided to install voice mail? Imagine praying and hearing this:

Thank you for calling My Father's House. Please select one of the
following options: Press 1 for Requests. Press 2 for Thanksgiving.
Press 3 for Complaints. Press 4 for All Other Inquiries.

I am sorry, all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right
now. However, your prayer is important to us and will be answered in
the order in which it was received, so please stay on the line.

If you would like to speak to: God - press 1. Jesus - press 2. The
Holy Spirit - press 3. If you would like to hear King David sing a
Psalm while you are holding, please press 4. To find out if a loved
one has been assigned to Heaven, press 5. Enter his or her Social
Security number, then press the pound key. If you get a negative
response, try area code 666.

For reservations at My Father's House, please enter JOHN followed by
3-16. For nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth and
where Noah's Ark is, please wait until you arrive here.

Our computers show that you have already prayed once today. Please
hang up and try again tomorrow.

This office is closed for the weekend to observe a religious holiday.
Please pray again Monday after 9:30 a.m.

If you need emergency assistance dial 1(900) GOD-WHYME (This is a
toll call.)

Note: This is only a spoof on Voice Mail operated companies, and has
no religious connotation what-so-ever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Snicker From: donotreply <[email protected]>via Dave Cobel
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 26 6 Nov 2000

George loves the race track. One day he was there betting on the
ponies and nearly losing his shirt when he noticed this priest who
stepped out onto the track and blessed the forehead of one of the
horses lining up for the 4th race. Lo and behold, this horse - a very
long shot - won the race. George was most interested to see what the
priest did the next race. Sure enough, he watched the priest step out
onto the track as the 5th race horses lined up, and placed his
blessing on the forehead of one of the horses. George made a beeline
for the window and placed a small bet on the horse. Again, even
though another long shot, the horse the priest had blessed won the
race. George collected his winnings and anxiously waited to see which
horse the priest bestowed his blessing on for the 6th race. The priest
showed, blessed a horse, George bet on it, and won! George was
elated. As the day went on, the priest continued blessing one of the
horses, and it always came in first. George began to pull in some
serious money, and by the last race, he knew his wildest dreams were
going to come true. He made a quick stop at the ATM and withdrew
every penny he owned, and awaited the priest's blessing that would
tell him which horse to place the bet on. True to his pattern, the
priest stepped out onto the track before the last race and blessed the
forehead, eyes, ears and hooves of one of the horses. George placed
his bet - every cent he owned and watched the horse come in dead last.
George was dumbfounded. He made his way to the track, and when he
found the priest, he demanded, "What happened, Father? All day you
blessed horses and they won. The last race, you bless a horse and he
loses. Now I've lost my life savings, thanks to you!!" The priest
nodded wisely and said, "That's the problem with you Protestants ...
you can't tell the difference between a simple blessing and the Last
Rites!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 27 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
=================================================================

=======================================================
Question, How does God communicate?
Brenda Sez...:)

"The Lord has a way of revealing those of us who really know Him and
those that don't!! Think about it!"

Al Gore gave a big speech this past week about how his
faith is so "important" to him. In this attempt to convince the
American people that we should consider him for President,
he announced that his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3.

Of course the speech writer meant John 3:16, but nobody in the
Gore camp was familiar enough with scripture to catch the error.
And do you know what John 16:3 says?

John 16:3 says,"AND THEY WILL DO THIS BECAUSE THEY HAVE
NOT KNOWN THE FATHER NOR ME."

"The Holy Spirit works in strange ways and has a
great sense of humor!!!"

TNL Online! Web Hosting & Site Management. FrontPage extensions Email:
[email protected] - WWW: http://www.tnl-online.com/ FTPHub -
Echomail via the Internet -- San Diego, CA USA My ICQ info:
http://wwp.mirabilis.com/2652200.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question by Joe Jared:

What is the difference between a Dictatorship, and a poorly managed
Democracy???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 28 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING
=================================================================

================================================= On Mon, 30 Oct 2000,
Warren Bonner wrote:

Hello Jim, Joe suggested that you have a software list for Fido
readers who may want to become more active with their own BBS.

I think it would be very valuable for you to make such software list
available in a Section named "Fido Software List" by Jim Barchuck,
along with instructions for novices on what it is, what it does, and
how to install and test to get a BBS up and running... What do you
think?

Ol'wdb
~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~
From: "jim barchuk" <[email protected]> To: "Warren Bonner"
<[email protected]> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 3:24 PM Subject:
Re: Fido Softeare list

Hello Warren!

Hibackatcha ol'pal,

As far as 'tutorial', I am not the right person to write that. I only
ever used one mailer, one bbs, and pretty much one of everything else.
So that's all I know about, and even that is years out of familiarity.

For software that I have web links to I assume that the site has some
sort of support. Any software by name and version with a brief
description of its abilities that may be used to develop more BBSes
was my original con cern from emails asking me questions I don't know
how to answer as Imail, RA and Elebbs & Binkd is all I have.

If anyone suggests another 'useful site' about software, insallation,
running, I can certainly add that link somewhere. Hey, good deal...

Regarding 'list', I don't quite understand what you mean. I was
thinking along the lines pf a master list of all that is availible
with a description to include in the Snooze for many looking for such.

If you mean a mailing list, that might be a good idea. There was a
onelist list that faded out of use. But if this is a
software-support-specific list it might attract attention. Shareware
or commercial, just to get the information out to would be newbbies
and others that would be inspired to upgrade.

If there are other fido related mailing lists out there I'd link to
them. Perhaps this letter entered into the next issue will draw some
links for you! <G>

If you mean a kind of 'list of other interesting sites', there are
already plenty of lists like that already out there. But a cool idea
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 29 6 Nov 2000

might be a user-submitted links list, CGI driven. Take me a while to
work that out but I'll think about it. It's a good database project
and I need practice with that. Now that's a winning ticket! Lets run
this up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes.

Have a :) day!

jb You too Jim, you give a lot to Fido being the Webmaster, and html
mailer. Don't know if anyone pauses to say Thank you, Jim, but I do!

ol'wdb
~~~~~~~~~~~END~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 30 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================

------------------------------------------------------
*Fidonet-related sites

. -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- .
| FIDONET-RELATED SITES |
` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- '
Last update: November 4, 2000

FidoNet
Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
Echolist: http://www.baltimoremd.com/echolist/
Echomail links: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidonet/fidoip.html
SDS Files: http://fidobbs.dk/download (Web Access to SDS)
FTSC page: http://www.ftsc.org/
General: http://www.writebynight.com/fidonet.html

Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org
Region 10: http://www.r10.org
http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html
Net 102 http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/net102.htm
Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/
Net 203: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8687/net203index.html
Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
Net 2410: http://www.earforce.dyndns.org/net2410/
Region 12: http://sparkys.dyndns.org
Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm
Net 264: http://www.net264.org/
Net 275: http://www.homershut.net/~mahoover/net275/
Region 14: http://www.ouijabrd.com/region14
Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/
Region 15: <vacant>
Region 16: <vacant>
Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/
Net 140: http://www.nwstar.com/~net140
Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/

Region 19: http://bise.tzo.com/r19
Net 124: http://www.startext.net/np/net124
http://texoma.net/~flv
Net 130: http://www.startext.net/homes/net130
Net 393: http://www.chatter.com/~wb/

Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/zone2 (Z2 nodelists etc.)
Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)

Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
http://www.was-ist-fido.de/
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 31 6 Nov 2000

Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/fido/ (English/German)
Region 25: http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/
Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb
Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm
Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French)
http://Welcome.to/skynetbbs/
Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German)
? Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian)
Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish)
REC34: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4552/
Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/
Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html
Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)
Region 42: http://www.fido.cz
! Net422: http://www.fido.sk (Slovak/English)
Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian)
Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5028: http://5028.yaroslavl.ru/
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5049: http://www.n5049.z2.fidonet.org (English/Russian)
Net 5074: http://www.z2.n5074.fidonet.net
?? Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian)

Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org

Zone 4:
Region 80: http://fidobrasil.8m.com (Portuguese)
Region 90:
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/

Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org
Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html
(Chinese)

Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

See also: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html

a @ preceding an individual's name implies a virtual email
address. The email is translated as follows
[email protected] will automatically route to the
appropriate individual's email. Anyone in this list will
also receive routed notice of this feature. In my case, it
would still be [email protected], but you get the idea.

Also, as information is provided to me, I will be adding a
latency field to each node, which is defined as the maximum
time between when the message is received, and when it is
sent on to other nodes, or available to be sent onward,
defined in minutes. A latency of ! implies that there is an
immediate response, and an attempt to deliver immediately
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 32 6 Nov 2000

after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were.

v-email flag [email protected]
| email address or
Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed,| Basic Rate
| | |latency|
-----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
Zone 1 | | | |
10/3 | Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | 384K,30| n/c
10/345 @ Todd Cochrane | FTP,BinkP,VMOT | T1,! | n/c
12/12 @ Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo.
13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
103/5 @ Mark Luetger | BinkP | 384k,!| n/c
103/153 @ Michael Box | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c
103/301 @ Joe Jared | BinkP,FTP,NFS | 384k,!| n/c
103/401 @ Warren Bonner | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c
105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c
105/72 @ Larry James | FTP, BinkP | aDSL | $50/yr
106/1 @ Steve Loupe | BinkP, FTP | 128k | ???
106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | aDSL,60| n/c
107/453 @ Jeffrey Estevez| FTP,BinkP,VMoT,UUE| 56k,60| $10 mo.
140/1 @ Bob Seaborn | FTP,BinkP | T3,30 | $5/$16
167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c
211/417 @ Korombos | BinkP,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c
218/109 @ Matt Munson | BinkP,UUE | 33.6k | n/c
246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c
249/116 | Carl Austin Bennett | FTP, UUE |ADSL,60 | n/c
280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo.
342/3 @ Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c
395/670 | Arthur Stark | BinkD,FTP | 128k | n/c
379/1 @ Dale Ross | FTP, BinkP,UUE | 256K+,! n/c
396/1 @ John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1,10 | $5/mo
396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr
2604/104 @ Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo
2613/404 @ David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+,!| n/c
2624/306 | David Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | n/c
3613/2 @ [email protected] | UUE | 28.8 | n/c
3632/84 | Robert Todd |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | n/c
3639/93 @ Ross Cassell | FTP, BinkP |128K+,!| n/c
3651/9 @ Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6
--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 2 |
20/11 | Henrik Lindhe | BinkP | ??? | n/c
31/1 | Gabriel Plutzar | BinkP | T1+ | n/c
203/600 | Mikael Karlsson | UUE | 64k | n/c
221/360 @ Tommi Koivula | BinkP,UUE | ??? | n/c
236/205 @ Michael Kaaber | BinkP | ??? | n/c
246/2098 | Volker Imre | BinkP | ??? | n/c
280/1601 @ Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c
292/620 | Eddy Missoul | VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 64k |N/C
292/624 | Steven Leeman | UUE | 64k | N/C
292/907 | Bart Verhaeghe | BinkP,VMoT,UUE | 64K | n/c
292/2003 | Eric Vaneberck | BinkP | 768k | n/c
301/1 | Peter Witschi | BinkP | 768k | n/c
332/807 | Roberto Mascolo | BinkP | ??? | n/c
335/535 @ Mario Mure | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k | n/c
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 33 6 Nov 2000

335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c
346/3 @ Carlos Navarro | UUE | ??? | n/c
382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c
423/81 | Milos Bajer | BinkP | ??? | n/c
464/4077 | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE | 19.2 | n/c
465/204 | Va Milushnikov | BinkP | 33.6k | n/c
469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c
480/112 | Adam Sarapata| FTP, VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 128k | n/c
2411/413 @ Dennis Dittrich | UUE,BinkP | 64k | n/c
2446/301 @ Lothar Behet | BinkP,VMoT,UUE,FTP | 64K | n/c
2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn
5030/115 | Andrey Podkolzin | BinkP | ??? | n/c
5100/8 | Egons Bush | BinkP | ??? | n/c
5020/1159 | Gennady Kudryashoff | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 3
633/260 @ Malcolm Miles | FTP,BinkP | 64K | n/c
640/954 | Rick Van Ruth | FTP,VMot,UUE,BinkP| 56K| n/c
774/605 @ Barry Blackford|BinkP,VMoT:10023,ifcico,FTP |33.6| n/c

--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 4
905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 128k | n/c
902/18 | Javier Tejedor | UUE | 33,6 | n/c

--
* FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol
* VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
* UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers
* BinkP = front end mailer for TCPIP networks
* NFS = Linux Networking
----------------------------------------------
Fidonet oriented news servers

news.osirusoft.com
news.tardis.net

Fidonet oriented chat rooms.

room #fidonet 5PM (PDT 11AM GMT) Sundays
irc.osirusoft.com (Peers wanted)

----------------------------------------------

Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to
Joe Jared, 1:103/301, [email protected]. All email addresses
here for purpose of corresponding with fidonet members about
obtaining a feed. Improper use of the virtual email addresses, and
most especially, email addressed to [email protected]
will be considered a request to be blocked by my open relay spam
stopper at http://relays.osirusoft.com

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 34 6 Nov 2000

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 35 6 Nov 2000

=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Editor: Warren D. Bonner, 1:1/23, [email protected] |
| Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, [email protected] |
| Columnist: Joe Jared, 1:103/0, [email protected] |
| (Fido Via Internet Hubs column) |
| Columnist: Ol' WDB, 1:103/401, [email protected] |
| Humor: Roy Reed, [email protected] |
| Features: Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1 |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince |
| Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, |
| Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink, |
| Doug Meyers* |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

* deceased

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA
94141, and are used with permission.

Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet.
Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2000 by Warren Bonner, though authors
retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinions expressed by
the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication and
distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are encouraged
to send their articles in ASCII text to Warren Bonner at one of his
addresses above.

The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file area
FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS. These
sources are normally available through your Network Coordinator.
The current and past issues are also available from the following
sources:

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:140/1, or 1:396/1 |
| ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ |
| ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ |
| http://www.fidonews.org |
| email subscription: [email protected] |
| (subject: help body: list) |
| ftp mail: [email protected] (subject: help) |
| |
FIDONEWS 17-46 Page 36 6 Nov 2000

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

-----------------------------------------------------------------