F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 38 20 Sept 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | 1-717-732-6820 1:270/720 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720 | | | (*) | \ )) | DougM@paonline.com | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ For personal reasons, Henk Wolsink has retired as Fidonews Editor and has appointed me to replace him. I'd like to thank Henk for a job well done: though we disagreed on some issues, I was always free to speak my mind here. Doug Myers - new Editor, still wet behind the ears. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Fidonews Direction ....................................... 1 2. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 3 Lisa Gronk explains mesh connections ..................... 3 Alec Grynspan disputes facts ............................. 4 John Souvestre notes increased publicity ................. 5 Dallas Hinton debunks Email Surcharges ................... 5 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 6 What's Not Happening ..................................... 6 4. NET HUMOR ................................................ 7 Mergers .................................................. 7 5. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 8 Famous Cows .............................................. 8 6. NOTICES .................................................. 9 Future History ........................................... 9 7. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 10 Fidonet via Internet Hubs ................................ 10 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 11 8. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 15 Masthead and Contact information ......................... 15 FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 1 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Fidonews Direction I didn't get an operator's manual when Henk turned Fidonews over to me, so cut me some slack if I make a mistake or two along the way. For the moment, I have no "admin" address (though I did communicate with Bob Satti about the change and got a response). Nor am I sure if the "editor@fidonews.org" address is pointed in my direction yet or not. Please use one of the addresses in the above banner for your letters or article submissions for now. I'm expecting TIC distribution of Fidonews to be working for this issue. Though untested until this release, George Peace has changed his configuration so that I may hatch into the FIDONEWS file area. From George, distribution should be the same as it's been, since Henk was releasing to George also. I'm not sure if the HTML page at fidonet.org will be working right away or not. Both Henk and I posted to Jim Barchuk telling him of the editor change, but I haven't seen a response from him as of Sunday morning. I'll be sending Jim a copy via internet email and hoping for the best :) But those are present concerns, and this is supposed to be about direction, which concerns the future. In general, I'm pleased with the tradition of Fidonews as a free press and plan to continue that tradition. This means that there is no official Fidonews position on issues, only the position of the individuals who editorialize on those issues. It further means that I won't be rejecting any contributions because I may disagree with the writer. For a free press to work, it requires input from many so that it doesn't degrade into a mere soapbox for the editor. This seems intuitive for political commentary, but it's even true for objective reporting - the decision as to what news to present shouldn't rest with just the editor. To this end, I'd like to encourage contributions from the folks reading Fidonews (I know there's a bunch of you)... these contributions might be in the form of article submissions or in the form of feedback. Watch the FIDONEWS echo for a discussion on direction. I'll be asking for feedback on some of my ideas, and hoping that YOU will have some ideas to contribute. Here's an initial list of ideas I'll be posting for feedback: * Add a section to the masthead listing the Fidonews Staff. This is somewhat complicated right now because there is no staff (though Joe Jared has taken upon himself to keep up some of the internet information and should be in there). The Staff would be a list of frequent contributors with node numbers and email addresses as well as a descriptive title. Staff members could identify their work with a simple byline, confident that their contact information is already listed. FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 2 20 Sep 1999 * Solicit a Bureau Chief from each zone to report on happenings in that zone. * Encourage Zone Coordinators to publish "state of the Zone" articles for all readers. * Publish internet listings only when updated rather than every issue. * Further reduce masthead clutter. * Solicit someone from the FTSC to write a series on "FTSC for the Complete Idiot"... something that even *I* can understand. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 3 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= (---- Echomail, Zone 1 Backbone, by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/40 ----) In last week's FidoNews, you wrote.... > The current issue rocking the tranquility of echomail distribution > seems to be an ongoing argument between John Souvestre and Alec > Grynspan. John has, in the recent past, disconnected from all NAB > Star systems except George Peace in an effort to prevent the > generation of duplicates. Alec has recently expanded his echomail > connections to span both the Z1B distribution and the NAB > distribution, effectively establishing a mesh which can lead to > duplicates. There seems to be some confusion about the meaning of the word "mesh." I view "mesh" as a synonym for "fully connected polygon," a topology that uses standard FidoNet SEEN-BY technology and does not lose messages or create dupes. It is true that a "fully connected polygon" which is broken (i.e. not fully connected) will generate dupes. The solution to that is to either repair the broken connection or change the topology to hub-and-spoke (incidentally, a "broken triangle" IS hub-and-spoke). Alec, on the other hand, is trying to implement redundancy (i.e. receiving more than one copy of each and every echomail message) with software that was specifically designed to avoid redundancy. NNTP, for example, is designed for redundancy. server: I've got news article 12345678@psg.com client: gimme server: here it comes server: I've got news article 23456789@agora.rdrop.com client: don't send, already have it etc. Using NNTP, a client can connect to as many news servers as he wishes (until the gimme ratio becomes zero). Alec wants to receive two or more copies of each echomail message, sending the first one he receives to his downlinks and throwing the second, third etc. copy away. One problem he has is that "duplicate" messages from different uplinks are not really identical (they have different SEEN-BY lines). (-------------------------------------------------------------) I figured that any multipath connection is a mesh of sorts, whether seen-by's control the dupes or not. However, you're the term-meister... I'll find another word in the future. How about "mess?" FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 4 20 Sep 1999 Isn't what Alec is doing somewhat the same as the sequence you describe with the NNTP server, except that he's using CRC calculations for the message identifier (or MSGID supplied), and he's discarding the mail he doesn't want rather than telling the server not to send it: server: Here's message 83923 client: got it for the first time, I'll pass it on. server: Here's message 69364 client: got it for the third time... in the trash! You raise a good point that Alec will receive different SEEN-BY lines depending on which path gives him a particular message first. But isn't this somewhat analogous to the ZHUB practice (past if not current) of stripping all SEEN-BY's except for their immediate downlinks (Tiny SEEN-BY's)? How was that controlled? To be honest, I don't see why duplicates aren't a bigger problem than they appear to be. With everyone able to tunnel through the internet and get echomail anywhere they want, there can't really be a pure implementation of a fully connected polygon... someone's going to open it up somewhere. And most tossers don't store CRC codes long enough to detect duplicates which are received more than a few days apart. Doug Myers ----------------------------------------------------------------- (---- Echomail from Zone 1 Backbone, Alec Grynspan, 1:341/11 ----) >> generation of duplicates. Alec has recently expanded his echomail >> connections to span both the Z1B distribution and the NAB >> distribution, effectively establishing a mesh which can lead to >> duplicates. Doug, please don't play reporter when you don't have the facts. 1. I've been connecting to both backbones since day 1. The only problem until recently was that I used a single outbound. No dupes in over a year. 2. I am not intending to establish a mesh. I am ensuring the most complete feed - for reasons that go beyond FIDO. Consider what's been happening with your Email feed. The mail moves thru here fast enough - and goes nowhere because of bottlenecks in ERN. To sites more directly connected, the speed is in minutes. Also - John did not disconnect from the nodes to ensure no dupes. That came after he had already disconnected from 104/1. (----------------------------------------------------------------) FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 5 20 Sep 1999 Alec, I appreciate your efforts to provide facts where you feel they are missing, but I don't need your demeaning advice about my play time. We're all playing here - that's the nature of a hobby. I don't plan on criticizing you for playing mail mover :) Doug Myers ----------------------------------------------------------------- (----------- Netmail from John Souvestre, 1:396-1 -----------} > 2) There are more problems with echomail distribution > than there were when the structure was more monolithic. Wrong. They are just more public now since multiple distribution systems are involved. (------------------------------------------------------------) ----------------------------------------------------------------- (------------ Netmail from Dallas Hinton, 1:153/715 -----------) Your article about email surcharges is, I'm glad to say, a hoax. It's been reported and debunked several times over the past 2 or 3 years. There is a web site (I've forgotten the address) which tracks such hoaxes -- you might want to check it out.... Cheers... Dallas (--------------------------------------------------------------) I kinda figured it was a hoax. It sounded like one of those urban legends which finds a life of it's own, not impeded by reality. I wasn't really trying to alert anyone... it just made a good lead in to the rest of the editorial's caustic remarks :) Doug Myers ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 6 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= .-- -- -- -- -- -- WHAT'S NOT HAPPENING -- -- -- -- -- --. | There isn't always something happening on Fidonet, but | | there's always something which isn't happening. This | | column is dedicated to the lost causes which make Fido | | what it isn't today. Published semi-occasionally... | `-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --' - Doug Myers History has proven the detractors of Bob Satti wrong. They thought that Bob could never hold on as Zone 1 Coordinator if there were ever to be a participatory election... Well, it's been two and a half months, and Bob is still at the top of the nodelist. Of course, we elected David Moufarrege... ... by a landslide, actually. David was full of good ideas which captured the imagination of those who held hope for a better zone 1. It's not as if Fido is in dire straits with the experienced hand of Bob Satti at the helm... but it's been two and a half months. To be fair, David delayed assuming his elected position citing family problems which had priority. Now it's tough to criticize a man who puts family ahead of his hobby... but it's been two and a half months. David, our hearts are with you in your time of difficulty. You don't deserve to be the top story in the What's Not Happening column... but it's been two and a half months. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 7 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= NET HUMOR ================================================================= The last few years have seen many mergers, and anticipating new mergers can mean excellent market gains. Here are some likely mergers to watch for in the year 2000. - Xerox and Wurlitzer: They're going to make reproductive organs. - Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers: New company will be called Fairwell Honeychild. - Polygram Records, Warner Brothers and Keebler: New company will be called Poly-Warner-Cracker. - W. R. Grace Co., Fuller Brush Co., Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Hale Business Systems: New company will be called Hale Mary Fuller Grace. - 3M & Goodyear: mmmGood - John Deere & Abitibi-Price: Deere Abi - Honeywell, Imasco, and Home Oil: Honey, I'm Home - Denison Mines, Alliance, and Metal Mining: Mine, All Mine - 3M, J.C. Penney, Metropolitan Opera Company: 3 Penney Opera - Grey Poupon & Dockers Pants: Poupon Pants - Knott's Berry Farm & National Organization of Women: Knott NOW! - Zippo Manufacturing, Audi, Dofasco, Dakota Mining: Zip Audi Do-Da - And finally, with Rex Harrison in permanent retirement, Eddie Murphy will be the new CEO of the merger of Dr. Pepper Soft Drinks, E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. and management consultants Arthur D. Little, Inc. The new entity to be called Dr. DuLittle. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 8 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= COMIX IN ASCII ================================================================= -'`- "Here's ( oo ^ mooing /\_|-- at you, | \ \__ _ kid!" Famous | \___[' Cows | || |____|- | | ~ ~ humphrey cow-gurt ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 9 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 10 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= Last Updated: 9/11/1999 Fidonet Via Internet Hubs Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ Zone 1 | 10/3 | Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | T1? | $??/$10 12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 103/301 | Joe Jared | BinkP | aDSL | n/c 105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c 106/1 | Matt Bedynek | BinkP, FTP | 128k | n/c 106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | 64k | $5/mo 107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c 140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20 167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c 211/417 | Korombos | BinkD,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 270/101 | George Peace | FTP | 6mbps | $20mo. 271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 342/3 | Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c 345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $10/mo 396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr 2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c 2424/101 | Kari Suomela | FTP,VMoT,BinkP,UUE| T1 | n/c 2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo 2613/404 | David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+ | n/c 2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | 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 23/999 | Michael Kaaber | BinkP | ??? | n/c 31/1 | Gabriel Plutzar | BinkP | ??? | n/c 203/600 | Mikael Karlsson | UUE | 64k | n/c 221/360 | Tommi Koivula | BinkP | ??? | n/c 246/2098 | Volker Imre | BinkP | ??? | n/c 254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c 284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 292/626 | Filip Ruymen | Binkp, UUE | 128K+ | n/c 292/2003 | Eric Vaneberck | BinkP | 768k | n/c 301/1 | Peter Witschi | BinkP | ??? | n/c 332/807 | Roberto Mascolo | BinkP | ??? | n/c 335/535 | Mario Mure | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k | n/c 335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 11 20 Sep 1999 382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | 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 Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to Joe Jared, 1:103/301, joejared@osirusoft.com, and complaints to jarhead@osirusoft.com . ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the FidoNews Editor in the past. Joe Jared has recently tested links to these sites, with results as noted. * Represents dead links, marked for deletion. ? Entries Are not verifiable from here. (No Route) FidoNet: Homepage http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] * http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII] ftp://sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/ FTSC page http://www.ftsc.org/ Echomail [pending] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 12 20 Sep 1999 * http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti List servers: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html http://www.tnl-online.com/andy/rgn10.htm Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/ Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Net 264: http://www.net264.org/ Region 14: Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://members.home.net/hbh3/r19 * Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ Autoforwards to next link below. Zone 1 Elist http://members.xoom.com/echolist/ * Not sure where the following should be placed: * http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: * Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/ 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) * Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) Forwards to link below Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/fido/ (English/German) Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/ FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 13 20 Sep 1999 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) 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://pobox.com/~chr (Forwards to link below) 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 * Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl 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 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) * Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian) Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian) (No netscape) ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: * Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet * Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio 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) FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 14 20 Sep 1999 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 15 20 Sep 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, DougM@paonline.com Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink ------------------------------------------------------ FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of FidoNews and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright (C) 1999 Douglas Myers. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the Editor. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor by file-request, or from various sites in FidoNet and the Internet. STAR SOURCE for all past issues: Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org ** http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm ** ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: ** http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian) http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 16 20 Sep 1999 ** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to: jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no message to the same address above. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on www.fidonews.org. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org and http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm and in the FIDONEWS echo. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. In general, send your articles in ASCII (text) format via netmail or email to the addresses listed above for the editor. The exact article submission requirements for the Fidonews software are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from most Fidonet hubs. However, you should concentrate on what you wish to say, as the editor will normally take care of the technical requirements. "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. "Disagreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or something to amuse ourselves and create the requisite chaos." FIDONEWS 16-38 Page 17 20 Sep 1999 -Tom Jennings -----------------------------------------------------------------