Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwvax!zazen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!spool.mu.edu!uunet!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!herald.usask.ca!lowey
From: lowey@herald.usask.ca (Kevin Lowey,159 Physics,(306) 966-4826,(306) 249-3232)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Someone to upload OS/2 software from Fernwood wanted...
Message-ID: <1991Jun19.054009.20076@herald.usask.ca>
Date: 19 Jun 91 05:40:09 GMT
References: <1991Jun18.221308.4648@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE>
Sender: lowey@herald.usask.ca (Kevin Lowey)
Reply-To: lowey@herald.usask.ca
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Lines: 62

From Kai-Uwe Rommel:

> BTW, the list said, that the BBS is a Fidonet node. What exactly does
> that mean? Is it reachable by e-mail from internet (which address?) and
> does it have a mail server?

> Kai Uwe Rommel

Fidonet is a hobbiest network which runs mainly on personal computers.  It's
similar in some way to uucp/usenet.  Both provide private e-mail, public
special interest newsgroups (echomail). etc.  The main difference is that
Usenet runs mostly on multi-user minicomputers, where as Fidonet runs mainly
on one-caller at-a-time microcomputer systems.  Usenet is also carried more
on TCP/IP / leased lines now.  Fidonet still depends on normal telephone lines
or occasionally packet-switching networks.

Fidonet systems are identified by their Fidonet node number.  For example,
the BBS I run is Fidonet node 1:140/43.  1: is the Zone, which in this case
stands for North America.  140 is the net number, which in this case stands
for Saskatchewan.  43 is the node number, which in this case stands for
the University of Saskatchewan Fidonet BBS.  Occasionally you may also see a
"point" number, as in 1:140/43.5.  A point is basically a "smart" user who
uses specialized software to copy the mail onto his own computer so he
can read it off-line.

You CAN sent mail to fidonet through numerous Internet gateways.  For example,
to send mail to Kevin Lowey at 1:140/43.5, you would send to the internet
address

  kevin_lowey@p5.f43.n140.z1.Fidonet.Org

Usually points are not used, so you would leave off the "p5." in the example
above.

Most usenet nodes allow you to send mail to "Postmaster" as a generic person
in charge of the node.  In Fidonet, there is a similar convention of sending
mail to the user "Sysop".

Fidonet has a regulation that you do not route binaries through the mail.
The reason for this is that each sysop between the source and the destination
has to pay the long-distance costs themselves (it is a HOBBY network).  These
costs get way out of hand when you have to uuencode the files, etc.  Instead,
people are expected to have their BBS systems call other systems and do a
"File Request".  This is a special type of mail message that asks the other
system to send the files (sort of a similar idea to Anonymous FTP, but
not the same thing).  The difference here is that the user who wants the file
is the only one who pays any long-distance to get the file.

I know of no way to request a file be sent to an address on the Internet.

I've got most of the files available on Fernwood on my BBS (306) 966-4857,
14400 HST-Dual Standard modem.  I'm going to try and find some time to
send the files in my collection to the OS2 binaries moderator.  However,
with the slowpitch leagues, and taking 2 days each week off as holidays, I
may not get time for a while to sort through it all and find what has and has
not already been posted.

I currently have about 90M of MS-DOS, OS/2 and OS/2 family mode applications
available.  I think about 20M of that is OS/2 specific, and 10M is OS/2
Family mode applications.  These are all stored in PKZIP format.

- Kevin Lowey