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Volume 3, Number 24 23 June 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (C) Copyright 1986 by IFNA (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings 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 FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES Silicon Mountain Fido Conference Uncooperative Fujitsu 85m What Happens When Sysops Meet EchoMail, Host Routing, and Topology Who Reads FidoNews Anyway? 2. COLUMNS FIDO's BUGS - (or how do we kill the Fleas?) 3. FOR SALE Entertainment Software for your PC! Public Domain Software Library Sale!! 4. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack CARTOON: Gruesome George, by Bruce White Fidonews Page 2 23 Jun 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= SILICON MOUNTAIN FIDO CONFERENCE Colorado Spring, Colorado August 14 through August 17 Lots of things are going on with the Silicon Mountain Fido Conference. We are now working on a road race, probably about 5 K in length, "See Fido Run." This would be set for Sunday morning, early enough to get a shower afterwards and still check out. A couple of days here in Colorado Springs should be enough to acclimate your bodies for this strenuous event. Those persons who are not into running can cheer the others on. The Fido standards committee will be meeting at some time during the conference. The standards committee may present a symposium and also meet privately. The program is still being worked on. A tentative schedule is as follows: Thursday afternoon: Arrival. Thursday evening: 7:00 to 8:30 Meeting of Colorado Springs PC User's Group (COSUG) and International Fido Net. 8:30 to ?? Party (Cash bar) Friday morning: 9:00 to Noon Meetings and discussions Noon to 2:00 Lunch on your own 2:00 to 5:00 Meetings and discussions 6:00 to 7:00 Reception (cash bar) 7:00 to 9:00 Banquet Saturday morning: 9:00 to Noon More meetings and discussions Noon to 2:00 Luncheon meeting 2:00 to 5:00 Net and region meetings Saturday evening: 6:30 to 9:00 Dinner at Flying "W" Ranch Sunday morning: 8:30 to 9:00 See Fido Run (5k road race) Departure and checkout Alternate functions: Little Britches Rodeo, Trip to top of Pike's Peak on Cog Wheel Railroad, Visit Garden of Gods, Fidonews Page 3 23 Jun 1986 Climb Pikes Peak, Swim, Sunbathe, Explore job opportunities in the Pike's Peak Region, Whatever Present plans are to hold the conference at the Colorado Springs Hilton Inn. A single or double room (either single or double occupancy) is $60.00 per night up to maximum occupancy of two persons. You can bring a spouse and share a single room or travel with a friend and share a double for the same $60.00 per night, or $30.00 each per night. If occupancy exceeds two (you might want to bring your children), there will be an increased rate. Travel arrangements are being made through the Globe Travel Agency, which will be coordinating travel schedules and obtaining discount travel rates. We are also trying to talk Globe Travel into setting up a special Fido node for handling travel arrangements. Contact Globe travel at the following number: Jack Armit Globe Travel Service, 102 S. Tejon Ave. Colorado Springs, CO 80903 303-473-4151 United, TWA, Continental, Frontier, American and other airlines serve Colorado Springs with direct flights from cities such as Chicago, Dallas, New York, Newark, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Phoenix, and other cities. Service through Denver is available from almost anywhere that has an airport. If you are traveling from outside the United States, you will probably be routed through New York or San Francisco/Oakland. There are direct flights to Denver from Toronto, Montreal and other Canadian cities. As the conference center is some distance from the airport, we need to know when you are coming in to get the hotel to provide ground transportation. Those of you who prefer to drive can take Interstate routes most of the way. The conference center is right off I-25. Major routes from the West are US 50 and US 24. If coming from the Southwest, you can follow the interstates East to I-25 and then north, or go through the mountains. The drive through the Colorado Mountains is a stunning experience, but it does require you to take extra time. If you are camping, the US Forest Service campgrounds are cheap and usually have space if you stop early (but you may have to carry your own drinking water). From San Francisco, route yourself across on US 40, 50, or I-70 or I-80. From the Pacific Northwest, stop off at Yellowstone National Park on the way or go south and pick up I-80. From the East, follow I-80 to Denver and then South, or I-70 to Limon, Colorado and then East on Colorado 94. From Texas, stop off in Santa Fe, New Mexico (reservations a must) or Albuquerque and then come North on I-25. If you come early or stay late and have four wheel drive vehicles, you might want to go over some of the high mountain Fidonews Page 4 23 Jun 1986 passes in the back country. The snow will have melted enough to get through, and the weather should be good at that time of year. At higher elevations, the wild flowers may still be in bloom. The Fido net is at a crossroads in its development. It is expanding at an extraordinary rate. Only your support of the Administrators will keep the Fido Net going over the long haul. The achievement of Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker and others in developing the Fido software and the Fido Net is amazing to us all. It could not happen in a totalitarian society. Although most of the nodes are in Europe and North America, Indonesia, which is primarily an Islamic nation, also has a net. Fido, like the micro-computer on which it is based, is a vehicle of personal freedom, regulated by the good sense and restraint of its users, and it should be kept that way. The primary responsibilities for keeping Fido free and unleashed lie with the Fido Net Administrators, Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker, its author, Tom Jennings, and its editor, Thom Henderson. To keep Fido free and unleashed, it is up to us to support them in their efforts. The Colorado Springs PC Users' Group (COSUG) is sponsoring this conference because it is a conference which should be held, and it should be held now. The Fido Administrators need help, including financial support. The conference will give you all a chance to participate in structuring the Fido Net in the way you want and in determining the future of the network. Please put the conference on your calendar and make your reservations now. The Hilton Inn has requested that room reservations be provided it no later than August 1, 1986, to obtain the conference rate. Reservations will be held until 6:00 P.M. of the arrival date. To guarantee a room past that time, you must give them a deposit or a guaranteed reservation on your credit card number. The address and phone number is on the reservation form, which will be available in Fidonews. You should send me the reservation form, either by U.S. Mail or Fidomail. Follow up with a guaranteed reservation direct with the Hilton Inn. Also we need a head count for the banquet, luncheon, and the Flying "W" ranch at least 48 hours in advance. If you bring family members along, they will be welcome. Thom Henderson and Ken Kaplan will be bringing their wives, and many others will have their spouses and friends. Some will have their children along also. Conferences and seminars used to promote professional education are tax deductible under U. S. income tax regulations, which may help some with the expenses. Your employer may also be willing to sponsor your trip. If you are coming from outside the U.S., check with the U. S. embassey or consulate nearest you concering a tourist visa. For Canandians, this is no problem, but others will need to arrange a visa in advance. Please send us a message as soon as possible to let us know that you intend to come. We need to have a tentative count by the end Fidonews Page 5 23 Jun 1986 of June. This is the height of the tourist season in Colorado, and we need to make sure the arrangements are in order for the conference. George Wing, Conference Coordinator, Silicon Mountain Fido Conference, 1/10 Address: Suite 507, Mining Exchange Bldg. 8 South Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA 80903 Tel: 303-635-4716 (work) COSUG BBS: 303-635-5468, 1/10 300/1200/2400 baud ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 6 23 Jun 1986 Don Kulha, 125/7 Uncooperative Fujitsu 85m In Search Of.... Wisdom. What we have here folks is one extremely frustrated sysop with a broken (?) toy. About 3 months ago I purchased a 85 meg Fujitsu drive (M2243AS) for my system and have had no luck getting it online. I am trying to use it with a WD1002SWX HDC with the auto-config BIOS. It works fine if I jumper the card to use default setting, but that only gets it up as a 20 meg. If I try to key in config info (754 cyl, 11 heads, etc) it asks for, I get an immediate seek error upon trying to low level format. When configured as a 20 meg. using the defaults it will run HDSPEED and other tests with no problems, warm-reboot, etc. Curious huh? Well, we're not licked yet. I hope to get this beast up and configured as a couple 30+ Mb. drives one of these days with your help. If you have any experience with this combination please give us a holler via the net or direct to the system at 707-545-0746. Western Digital swears it will work and I believe 'em. Do you know how? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 7 23 Jun 1986 Minutes of the Third Net 109 Fido Sysops' Meeting Compiled by Michael Klein Sysop of YAFIP (109/610) On May 31, 1986, the Net 109 Fido Sysops had their Third meeting, which turned out to be the most productive and informative yet. The meeting was held at Woodlake Towers in Falls Church, Virginia. This article is an edited version of the file MINUTES.TXT, which I sent out to all the net 109 Sysops. Someone suggested that I submit it to the FidoNews, so here it is. The meeting more or less got underway around 1310 (1:10 PM), with a few more people filtering in as time went on. After a brief welcome from Kurt, we went around the room with introductions. If my memory serves me correctly, we had me (610), Chris Rowley (631), Mike Wyrick and David Ross (449), Tim McArdle (122), Joseph Collins (623), Kurt (74 and 483), Jack Liebsch (468 and 605), Cliff Cummings and David Purks (603), Alexander Wall (606), Andrew Bilski (611), Jim Kay (612), John Raum (601 and 632), Steven Ranger (621), Chris Magyar (615), and Bob Catt (625), and Steve Fox (613 and 618), who also brought two new gentlemen who are planning to join the net in the near future. Anyway, let's move on to more important matters. Our first topic of discussion was Fido Bugs (as usual). Two main Bugs were brought up: 1) When in the files section, the command "A 1" successfully changes to file area 1. However, when any user EXCEPT those with Sysop access attempt to go there from the "File Area or Quit:" prompt (as displayed when the A command is used on its own), it does not allow access. This is only true of file area 1; all others work correctly. 2) Andrew Bilski of The Main Frame (611) mentioned that he was having problems with Fido's T)ype command in conjunction with DoubleDOS. He said that using a comport (COM1: or COM2:) with the T)ype command caused problems with his system. Other sysops present stated that this used to be a problem, but had been fixed somewhere along the lines. It was dismissed as an individual fluke. After the Bug session was over, we moved on to the area of Fido "Extras" such as SEAdog, OUTSIDE, EVENT, POLECAT, ECHOMAIL, and SERVER. Jim Kay (612) reported that he had purchased SEAdog, used it for awhile, was not satisfied, and sent it back for the offered refund. His problems with it were: 1) If a user hung up in Fido BEFORE logging on completely, Fido would reset without returning control to SEAdog. Fidonews Page 8 23 Jun 1986 2) Sometimes when Fido returned control to SEAdog, the latter would reset itself, give the "Waiting for Call or Event" message, and then hang the system until a boot was performed. Joseph Collins (623), who also runs SEAdog, said that SEAdog had never given him this (or any other) problem, and that he was going to continue to use it. After the short-lived but very informative SEAdog discussion, the topic area turned to that of ECHOMAIL. We discussed this one at length (read: "beat the topic to death"), with some very enlightening and helpful results. We talked about the existing ECHOMAIL setups that we have, and worked out the major bugs in the linkup between 449, 610, 325, 622, 630, 615, 631, and 606. We also discussed the possibility of setting up a Net-wide Sysops' conference, one of which already exists between the aforementioned 8 systems. It would simply be a message base for Sysops to pool their ideas and thoughts without having to send individual messages to all the sysops separately. More info on that as it develops. When that was over and done with, we moved on to OUTSIDE. We discussed the many ways that OUTSIDE is being used, including a way to check for messages in bulk, list files, play games, and even take the infamous Purity Test online (which can be done on The Game Room, 109/449, for those who care to check on it). It was mainly a discussion of the various utilities that are available for use Outside of Fido. From there, we moved to EVENT. EVENT is a nice little utility that allows the sysop to update/edit the Fido scheduler using a standard text editor. It can also be used to shift events forward/backward, which helps with the switch in Daylight Savings Time. You can also use it to add remarks to each event to keep track of what's what. All in all, very handy. The conversation soon turned to SERVER, which is an external utility to allow certain users on other boards (with valid accounts on the home board) to request files during FidoNet time. It has it's potential uses, but more for systems that deal with mass amounts of file requests and transfers between Fido systems than anything else. A very short topic that was brought up at the end of the Fido Utility discussion was that of POLECAT. There is a bug in the Anonymous feature of POLECAT that makes the messages in question public (as it's supposed to), but doesn't change the TO: field of the message to "Anonymous," which is it's main feature. However, it is still a very handy utility to detect and reroute undeliverable private messages. I have attempted to contact the P.O.L.E. board in Dallas about the bug, but I've gotten no answer. That about wraps it up for the talk we had about the various popular and not-so-popular utilities and extras to go along with Fido. We then went on to things that relate more to the net Fidonews Page 9 23 Jun 1986 itself, such as finding an Outbound Host, Renumbering the Net, and adding Hubs to the system. MDS (122) has had problems in its ability to serve as an Outbound Host, due to a non-functioning WATS line and a very bad data connection when using their long distance service. Chris Rowley offered the use of 631 as an Outbound Host, but we all decided it would be in everyone's best interest to wait until 122 could get everything straightened out. The idea of Renumbering the Net based on Geographic location (northern nodes, DC local nodes, and southern nodes) was mentioned, as was the possibility of renumbering based on type of system (i.e. IBM, DEC Rainbow, etc.). This idea was shot down after 5 minutes of discussion, and we decided to leave it just the way it is. Thus is progress. As for hubs, we decided that they would be unnecessary, as we already use them. We just don't call them Hubs. Noting the Hubs in the nodelist would take more trouble than it's worth, and not accomplish anything of real value to the net, so this idea, too, was abandoned, or rather, as we say in the land of Fidomail, (ORPHANED). We also discussed the way in which the net is growing. Net 109 currently has 37 active nodes (probably even more this week), and if the entire net keeps growing at this rate, it may not be long before we reach LISTGEN's current limit of 1400 nodes. If this happens, says Kurt, we'll all have to switch to XLATRGEN, another nodelist generator that can handle more nodes. Watch for it. The final discussion topic was that of the Second International FidoNet Conference, to be held sometime in August in Colorado Springs, Colorado. No major details were given on that, but the idea was tossed out for anyone interested. Contrary to how it may appear, this turned out to be (in my opinion) the most informative and productive Sysops' meeting so far, despite John Raum's narrow escape from the claws of death with aid from Bob Catt (actually, he was locked in the bathroom, but we'll not go into that any further). We concluded at about 1535 (3:35 PM, for those on 12 hour schedules) and decided to hold the next meeting sometime in September at the same location. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 10 23 Jun 1986 J. Brad Hicks, 100/523 ECHOMAIL, HOST-ROUTING, AND TOPOLOGY EchoMail is a utility that was developed on Rising Star Fido to perform a similar function to FidoNet news groups. Remember my proposal, quite a few issues ago, that something be done to let several Fidos share the same message area? It turns out that EchoMail was ALREADY in beta test at that time. Since then, the first GOOD working version (1.30) has been released to the public. EchoMail uses two programs (Scanmail and Tossmail), and one parameter file called AREAS.BBS. For the sake of having an example, the AREAS.BBS on WeirdBase (Fido 100/523) looks something like this: +---------------------------------------------+ | WeirdBase: St. Louis, MO - (314) 389-WYRD | | - | | 1 GENERAL | | 1 PRIVATE | | 2 SF 12/4 | | 4 MAGICK 12/4 101/27 107/316 | | 5 GAMING 16/635 | | 6 POLITICS 100/500 | | 10 SYSOP 10/620 | +---------------------------------------------+ Before the evening mail, I run Scanmail, which looks at every new entry into any of the numbered message areas that is followed by one or more Fido net/node numbers, and checks to see who hasn't gotten that message yet. If it finds one (or more), it copies the message(s) into the netmail area and addresses them to that (those) board(s). Examples: I enter a new message in area 4 on 100/523. It hasn't been seen by ANYBODY, so Scanmail makes 3 copies of it, and addresses them to 12/4, 101/27, and 107/316. In addition, it adds the line "AREA:MAGICK" in front of the message text, and the following two lines ... +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | * Origin: WeirdBase: St. Louis, MO - (314) 389-WYRD (100/523)| | SEEN-BY: 12/4 100/523 101/27 107/316 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ ... at the end of the message body, so that nobody will forward copies of THIS message to 12/4, 101/27, 107/316, or back to me. After the evening mail, I run Tossmail, which checks every new message in the netmail area looking on line one for the word "AREA:" followed by one of my area names (from AREAS.BBS). Each one it finds, it moves to that area (stripping off the AREA: line). Note that if an AREA:MAGICK message originates on 107/316 and he Fidonews Page 11 23 Jun 1986 DOESN'T send a copy to 12/4, my board will forward a copy (adding 12/4 to the SEEN-BY line) to 12/4, but NOT back to 107/316. The effect is that every message in an EchoMail area gets forwarded to every other board, creating a multi-board shared message area. This is what we mean by an EchoMail conference. WHAT IS TOPOLOGY? Topology is a mathematical term meaning the study of surfaces. It has been usurped in computerese to mean the study of networks and network linkages. Everybody knows the standard FidoNet topology (simplified here to only 4 nets): +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | net A nodes | | \ / | | net A hosts | | / | \ | | / | \ | | net B nodes > net B hosts ------- net C hosts < net C nodes | | \ | / | | \ | / | | net D hosts | | / \ | | net D nodes | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ In topological terms, we would say that the individual nets had a "star" topology - one node at the center, that everybody gets mail from (and often, sends mail through). However, the hosts form an "amorphous" (meaning "blob-like") topology - everybody sends to everybody. Well, the bigger echomail conferences have demonstrated that EchoMail can bring this topology to its knees. The inter-Sysop conference has 40+ nodes on it, averaging (at least) a message per night per node. With the standard FidoNet topology, every host would be routing copies of these 40+ messages all over the net. To speed things up, they have by-passed the "official" IFNA topology and created several "stars-on-a-string": +----------------------------------------------------+ | ... node - node - node - node - node - node ... | | | | | | | | | | ... nodes nodes nodes nodes nodes nodes ... | +----------------------------------------------------+ Where a half-dozen or more nodes send mail to each other (in mail slots as small as 10 minutes) to pass it all the way up and down the line. At any given time, only a FEW of the nodes are sending mail - few or no collisions. Further, the messages for the other points of each node's "star" are created AT THE LOCAL ECHO HUB, reducing the amount of traffic considerably. (In other words, instead of sending 5 copies of a message to net 125, you send one copy to A SINGLE BOARD in net 125, which does a Toss/Scan to Fidonews Page 12 23 Jun 1986 create the copies for the other four.) This also has it's disadvantages. For one thing, even with streamlining deluxe, it's slow - 2 to 3 days to get mail from one end of the chain to another, a speed that barely rivals 1st Class mail. (I have joked on occasion that we could do better and almost as cheaply to copy the mail onto diskettes and mail them.) For another thing, it is indescribably complex. In both of the largish conferences I participate in (one of which I coordinate, the MAGICK conference), up to half of the mail, at times, is dedicated just to negotiating a new topology. By the way, despite what Josh said in his article, this job IS best done by a central coordinator. A camel is a horse designed by a committee - except that it seems unlikely to me as a systems analyst that any committee could design something as functional as a camel. No, the coordinator doesn't run rough-shod over people. He merely prevents duplication of effort, insures that there are no loops in the conference, and takes full advantage of existing links to keep EVERYBODY'S costs as low as possible. THE WHYS AND WHENS OF HOST-ROUTING Caveat Number One: I do not pretend to speak for the IFNA, nor for any network host. What you are about to see is one man's opinion. It is, however, an educated and thought-out opinion, which I am not sure can be said for the argument in issue 322. Nobody who knows anything about EchoMail would begin to pretend that host-routing is a good idea for large conferences. When a conference is creating 40, 50 or more messages a night to a half- dozen or more nights, EVERYONE (including the Echomailers) would be better off by-passing any hosts that aren't part of the conference. But what about smaller conferences? Tom Kenney (107/316), who is collecting a list of EchoMail conferences, says he has a list of almost 70 different EchoMail conferences. I'll wager LONG odds that the average number of cities per conference is just a tiny fraction over 1.0, and that the average number of boards per conference isn't much higher than 3. And further, I'll also bet that for all of those conferences that only have two or so boards involved, most of them generate LESS than 5 messages per night. Is there any net host, anywhere in the FidoNet, who is going to crash his disk and/or miss mail slots (in a one-hour range, mind you) because of a packet containing 3 messages? Even several such packets? This seems especially true to me since in many such cases, including BOTH of the complaints that I have personally received, I am sure that most of those nights there was AT LEAST that much non-EchoMail traffic between St. Louis and those two cities! Why is there such irrational fear of EchoMail in general? Why should very small, low-volume conferences have to forgo the advantages of message routing? Fidonews Page 13 23 Jun 1986 There is at least one good reason why they shouldn't! When Tom Jennings created the current two-layer network topology, the net was getting choked by the huge number of small mail packages that were travelling back and forth. Host-routing decreases not just mail COSTS, but also message packeting and phone-dialing time, for EVERYONE. I think that one of the big issues that needs to be discussed at the FidoNet conference in Colorado is just what level of service the network hubs are committed to providing. Here in St. Louis, we were able to resolve the potential problem quite easily - when my inbound and outbound volume got too large, I discussed the matter with the relevant sysops, and we settled on a reasonable volume of mail that they would accept for routing - beyond that, I'm on my own, and quite understandably! I think that it may be time to establish a NATIONAL service level: you may route x number of messages from your board to any one net; you may receive y number of messages from other nets; and if your traffic exceeds these limits, you get dropped from the net into the region (or even dropped from the net altogether). POST-SCRIPTUM Since this is (unless somebody beats me into FidoNews) the most detailed description of EchoMail to date, I think I should mention a few basic rules of courtesy: 1) If you want to join a conference, send a netmail message to its coordinator or contact-person. NEVER NEVER NEVER send EchoMail without permission! If you don't know the topology, you could end up cascading your message(s) all over the network. I broke this rule, and I found out the hard way what would happen. Don't you learn the hard way, too. 2) Until this mess is straightened out, don't route EchoMail through your out-bound hub, or even through somebody else's in-bound hub, unless you have personally checked with both hubs to make sure that the increase in volume is all right. Apparently, you need to follow this rule even if your message volume is only one or two messages per night. Until a service level is established, you break this rule at your own risk. 3) An EchoMail conference is a lousy place for private mail. If you have something private to say, send it via netmail. For one thing, "private" mail can be read by EVERY sysop along the chain. For another, why should a private message for one person be routed to 6, 7, or even 40 boards? For your convenience? How about OUR convenience, tovarisch? 4) EchoMail is the greatest thing to hit Fido in it's history. EchoMail gives us better messaging capabilities than many larger networks, such as UseNet. EchoMail is brand new - and neither bug-free, nor well-integrated into the FidoNet. Next year, things will be different. In the mean time, we're Fidonews Page 14 23 Jun 1986 still learning just how nice (and occasionally, just how dangerous) our new toy can be. Be patient and be reasonable, and consider the present to be (what it is, namely) a Grand Experiment. J. Brad Hicks, Sysop WeirdBase, Fido 100/523 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 15 23 Jun 1986 Bill Jones, 105/10 WHO READS FIDONEWS ANYWAY? There have been a lot of comments made about the 600 billion readers of FidoNews, and being a sysop of large traffic Fido I have come to the conclusion that this number is slightly exaggerated. I would say that if you subtracted the sysops the number would be a bit closer to 2. Now, I don't mean to sound like FidoNews is a waste. Far from it! I just don't think many users are getting the benefit they should be. What I started doing way back with issue 310 was editing out the articles and editorials that I thought the average user might enjoy or benefit from. I didn't extract the ads or basic sysop orientated articles. Then using WRITEMSG I entered the articles into my new message area FIDO_NEWS, complete with authors name as sender and All as recipient. Now I have a well-read message area of interest to everyone, and feel that I'm finally passing on others hard work and insight. To carry this a step further, NET 105 and 146 has started using EchoMail to share some of our areas and I'm pleased that most of the nodes also wished to have a FIDO_NEWS area, of which I'm currently the moderator so we don't create massive duplication of the same articles. On the topic of EchoMail, it is now possible to echo messages up to 200 lines long with version 1.30. With version 1.1 the limit was 100 lines, and I had to create parts 1 and 2 for some of the messages. Bill Jones 105/10 OSWEGO FIDO - Lake Oswego, OR ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 16 23 Jun 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= David Dodell, Fido Bugs West, 1/98 Marvin Shelton, Fido Bugs East, 1/99 Well the bug reports have been coming in fast and furious. Please remember to direct all suspected bugs to either Bugs West or East, do not send them to the help nodes or to 1/0. This just delays things since they are then forwarded to us. Here are the bugs and Tom Jenning's response for the week. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sysop on 120/24, Fido Detroit of Michigan Net, Detroit MI I uploaded a very short basic program to the Fido with both Kermit and Xmodem. I then downloaded both versions with both Kermit and Xmodem. To my surprise, everything ran ok. The only thing peculiar is some garbage you get after the command to download: KERMIT transfer Ready to send easter.bas 14 blocks, 00:13 transfer time Start now, or Control-C to abort S~H @-#N1~2 I then downloaded the program (axelf.bas) we tested the other day with both Xmodem and Kermit. The Xmodem version ran. The Kermit version returned an error message "Direct Statement in File" and would not run. Tom's Response: The "garbage" is the initial Kermit NAK packet. Ignore it. Fido should delay 5 - 10 secs before outputting, but the problem is merely cosmetic. The Kermit vs. Xmodem thing: after repairing the "good" kermit source from Columbia, I no longer trust any Kermit except mine. The one I had had a bug in the repeat count prefixing code. The string "~~" in the file got converted into 96 "~" instead, or something like that. Try disabling REPEAT COUNT PREFIXING if possible in Xtalk. In any case, I can't debug from "direct statement in file" error msgs, I need binary file comparisons reports, etc. This is one to watch, rather than worry about I think. There may be a problem remaining in Fido Kermit. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sysop on 120/24, Fido Detroit of Michigan Net, Detroit MI Problem: Fidonet message problem I was trying to reply to a message sent to me by name. The original message came from 125/509 and was addressed to me as Jim Brooker rather than Sysop. The message was from Sysop at Fidonews Page 17 23 Jun 1986 125/509. When I entered the (r) command to reply, the message showed that the message was going TO Jim Brooker at Fido node 125/509. ?? Tom's Response: Its not a bug. Fido tries to avoid the case: From: Joe Shmoe To: Joe Shmoe Subj: ... Normally, Fido tries to reply to the person who sent you the msg. For example, if you are MIKE, and you got a msg from JOE, it would look like: From: JOE To: MIKE Subj: ... As Mike, you want the msg to go to JOE. No sweat. The problem is when the to and from names are the same; its almost always "SYSOP". I wish I had never set "SYSOP" as the default name in the user list. A serious mistake. For example: From: SYSOP To: MIKE If you are MIKE, the reply works as above. Again, no sweat. However, if you are also SYSOP, and you reply to this msg (even if it isn't you) Fido would generate a msg from SYSOP to SYSOP. Not good. In this case, Fido uses, blindly, the To: field. The problem is usually two things: (1) the same-name problem, above, and (2) confusion over Fido "knowing" who people are. All Fido knows about is the result of a string compare; it has no idea what anything is, never mind human identity. Humans even have trouble with that. The solution: stop using SYSOP as a name! ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Randy Bush on 122/6, PSG Coos Bay of SW Oregon Are, Coos Bay OR Here is an example of the false disk full error. It is always proceeded by an aborted message. After this I logged off and dialed in again and sent the message without error. ie.: DISK FULL: Cannot save your message! Delete some old msgs to make room and start again Error saving message to Fido 107/414 Tom's Response: Fidonews Page 18 23 Jun 1986 This appears to be a genuine bug. Some file left open or some such rubbish. It may depend on lots of things, too. I know I've aborted msgs and immediately reentered them without trouble. Make sure that there are FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS, for starters. If doubleDOS, etc is running, all bets are off. I'll wait for further details. Ill try this myself, see what I can do. It will probably be "interesting" ... ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sysop on 115/100, Illini Data R of Chicago Area, Bolingbrook IL Subj: Fido bug Fido 11w and under all predict the correct Kermit file transfer time and then multiply it by THREE TIMES. Whenever ending an XMODEM file transfer, Fido says "Timeout" which usually indicates an error not an EOF. When "file transfer information" is enabled you cannot tell how large the entire transfer is - it has scrolled off the screen. When disabled, there is no way to see how far along it is. Command stacking the "Sysop | Y Password" still does not work. Fido only checks daily time limits at logon. If Daily is 40 and per call is 40, user can login for 39, hangup, and get another 40. TJ should check this as often as he checks time of the current call. Same problem with download limits. For the USRobotics Courier Fido should send "M3" (sound on after dialing before connection) rather than "M0" (always off). The Courier has a nice volume knob - let the users decide how loud (if at all) they want the modem to be. Tom's Response: Kermit time: its not on purpose, I assure you. I do try to "lie" on the slow side, but not 300%! More like 20%. Its very difficult to judge Kermit times, as there is no 1:1 relationship to file size and bytes transferred. I will look at it, I probably have a fudge factor in there I can adjust. Xmodem Timeout: it doesn't always happen, it doesn't here ... it is a problem w/ the d/l program. There is supposed to be an ACK/NAK sequence on the final EOT. The EOT (from the sender) means "no more data, you got it all", which the receiver is supposed to ACK or NAK. Many communication programs don't do this. The file xfer works fine. The other possibility is that the receiver is taking a long time to close up the file just received, and is ACKing, but after Fido stops waiting. (Fido doesn't wait too long, cuz many programs don't do this sequence, as mentioned above, and it would take too long to time out!) Fidonews Page 19 23 Jun 1986 In other words: don't worry about it. Or, set more BUFFERS = on the receivers end (if its a floppy.) The file transfer stuff on the local console is for debug, etc. Its not Fido status, so its not broke. Its a long story ... Fido is so tight for space (8086 segmentation) that I had to remove stuff ... Will check out command stacking: "SYSOP | Y password" should work. Yes, on daily and download limits. I give the user the benefit of the doubt. It wont be changed, too many ramifications for testing etc at this late date. I think this is in the manual, but it may not be. USR Courier: let the user do stuff like that. Put ATM3 in FIDOMDM.BBS. Most people just don't want to hear modems screaming and dialing. Or at least, get sick of it after a night or two. This is all documented in the manual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chris Goodman on 153/101, Datanet of BCNet, Delta BC I think I have discovered a bug in Fido version 11w. When one attempts to download a file that isn't ASCII using the ASCII download it reports back : C:\????????\????????.COM is NOT a text file! Sent 1 files OK One or more files not sent Tom's Response: Yep ... it's a bug! Its supposed to say: PROGRAM.COM is not a text file! One or more files not sent Not the pathname (!) nor the "1 files sent OK". I will fix this, if I remember to! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 23 Jun 1986 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC! SUPERDOTS! KALAH! Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both exciting games! Please specify version and disk format. These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80, CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but minor customization may be required. BSS Software P.O. Box 3827 Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review. Questions and comments can be sent to: Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17 (609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 21 23 Jun 1986 Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!! Public Domain collection - 550+ "ARC" archives - 20+ megs of software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When unpacked, you get approximately 28 megabytes worth of all kinds of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... Over 55 DS/DD diskettes!! This collection is the result of more than 15 months of intensive downloads from just about 150 or more BBS's and other sources, all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This is the answer!!! To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check, postal money order or company purchase order) to: Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511 Post Office Box 4296 200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296 Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order. Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines, running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting, cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what we charge for the service... Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be prepared on. The following choices are available: - IBM PC-DOS Backup utility - Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility - DSBackup - Fastback - ACS INTRCPT 720k format - Plain ol' files (add $50) Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges. California residents add 6% tax. For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 22 23 Jun 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 20 Jul 1986 St. Louis Area Sysops Meeting, to be held at Baker's Acre. Net 100 sysops please contact Ben Baker at 100/76 for details and directions. 14 Aug 1986 Start of the International FidoNet Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Contact George Wing at node 1/10 for details. Get your reservations in NOW! We'll see you there! 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Gruesome George by Bruce White, 109/612 +-------------------------------------------------+ |\ Prepare to attack! | | \ All systems deployed-- | | Can Daddy play Awaiting command, sir. | | with me now? / | |\ / | | \ / ____\__ | | No, don't bother him. / |_| \ | | He said he has some __/__ |\ | | important work to do. | _ | | | | ______ | |_| | | | | __(______)_|_____|___ | | | ||-----------------|| | | | ______ || || | | | \ {} / || || | | |(c) 1986 bw \__/ ||-----------------||__|__| +-------------------------------------------------+ -----------------------------------------------------------------