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FidoNet

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This article is on the message transport system. For other articles with a similar name, see FSC (disambiguation)

FidoNet is an inter-connecting file and message transport system used by BBSes before the explosion of the Internet. It was originally founded in 1984 by Tom Jennings of San Francisco, California as a means to network the "Fido" BBS software he developed.

Later other BBS software that supported the same protocol was added to the net.

The original Fido BBS software is now no longer in use due to severe problems created by the Y2K bug, which also affected many other FidoNet-related programs such as the BlueWave offline message reader. In many cases, the original authors have left the BBS or shareware community, rendering their products abandonware. Plenty of third-party software had been designed to be interoperable with these programs by conforming to the same message packet standards and is in most cases still usable.

Overview

The FidoNet is (usually) a dialup based system, where the nodes connect to each other and exchange files according to a set protocol. Since the connections are using the same telephone lines that are used for the normal users of the BBS, the FidoNet transfers originally only happened at special times of the day ("Zone Mail Hour", typically 1:00 or 4:00 in the morning, depending on time zone).

Most modern FidoNet-compatible mailer software now provides autodetection of mailer calls. This "continuous mail" capability operated using software in which "Press <esc> to enter BBS" is displayed to users, if the caller is another BBS mailer a special response string such as "*EMSI_REQ..." would be used to request the FidoNet-compatible mailer session. Zone Mail Hour still exists, but primarily as a minimum standard of availability for FidoNet systems which are not online twenty-four hours a day.

Today FidoNet supports its own standards for netmail (similar to Internet e-mail), echomail (Usenet-like news), and file transfers. Recent standards describe ways of transferring FidoNet messages and files by TCP/IP so it's possible to run FidoNet over the Internet.

Some of FidoNet's echomail conferences are available in the Usenet news hierarchy and there are mail gates for exchanging messages between Internet and FidoNet. Widespread net abuse and spam e-mail on the Internet side has caused some gateways (such as the former 1:1/31 IEEE fidonet.org gateway) to become unusable or cease operation entirely.

FidoNet is operated by computer amateurs (many of them also hackers and radio amateurs) and is free.

A typical software suite includes a mailer (a program that handles the physical transfer of files and messages between systems), a tosser (which packages messages to be transferred, performs basic routing sometimes acting as a compatibility layer for end user's software) and various other utilities (eg. file-compressor, mail-editor).

An end user's software includes a (message) reader in addition to the list above.

FidoNet usage has dropped a lot, but it is still particularly popular in Russia.

Organization

Fidonet is organized in a tree structure, with fully automated software suites as branches and additional end users' software as leaves.

The Fidonet hierarchy consists of Zones,Regions,Networks,Nodes and Points broken down more-or-less geographically. The highest level is the Zone which is largely continent based: Zone 1 is North America, Zone 2 is Europe, Zone 3 is Australia, Zone 4 is South America, Zone 5 is Africa and Zone 6 is Asia (excluding Russia, which is listed in Zone 2). Zones 7-4095 were used for "othernets"; groupings of BBSes which used Fido-compatible software to carry their own independent message areas without being in any way controlled by FidoNet's political structure.

Each zone is broken down into regions, which are broken down into nets, which consist of individual nodes. A node may also support points, i.e. users who operate their own mail software but do not operate BBSes, and thus fall somewhere between a BBS user and a Sysop.

Unlike the internet, each system maintains a nodelist of all member systems. Information on each node includes: name of the BBS, name of the Sysop, geographic location, telephone number, and software capabilities. This nodelist would be updated weekly (to avoid unwanted calls to 'phone numbers that'd been reassigned for voice use) and a list of changes (nodediff) would be automatically distributed to all nodes in the network.

As an example, consider a node located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA whose assigned node number is 918: This is located in Zone 1 (North America), Region 19, Network 170. The full Fidonet address would be 1:170/918. Note, the region is for administrative purposes, not part of the address. Such a system may also support points: for a point assigned number 42 (by the Sysop of this node) the address would be 1:170/918.42.

Netmail and Echomail flow along the same structure. A user (or point) enters a message, which the node sends to a hub. A hub acts as a distribution/reception point for mail. The hub then typically send the message to the Net Coordinator. From there it may be sent through a Regional Coordinator, or to some other system specifically set up for the function. Mail to other zones is sent through a Zone Gate. Using the example above, a message might follow the path:

  • 1:170/918.42 (point) to 1:170/918 (node) to 1:170/900 (hub) to 1:170/0 (net coordinator) to 1:19/0 (region coordinator) to 1:1/0 (zone coordinator). From there, it gets distributed 'down stream' to the destination node(s).

Part of the objective behind the formation of local nets was to implement cost reduction plans by which all messages would be sent to one or more hubs or hosts in compressed form (ARC was nominally standard, PKZIP was also very widely used); one toll call could then be made during off-peak hours to exchange entire message-filled archives with an out-of-town uplink for further redistribution.

As the system was best adapted to an environment in which local telephone service was inexpensive and long-distance calls (or intercity data transfer via packet-switched networks) artificially costly, it has fared somewhat poorly in countries such as Japan (where local lines are expensive) and only been moderately successful in countries such as France where tolls on local calls and competition with Minitel or other data networks have traditionally limited its growth.

Technical specifications

Fidonet contains a number of technical specifications for compatibility across systems. The most basic of all is FTS-0001 which defines:

  • Handshaking
  • Transfer protocol (XMODEM)
  • Message format
  • protocol

Other specifications provide for echomail, different transfer protocols and handshake methods (e.g.: Yoohoo/Yoohoo2u2, EMSI), file compression, nodelist format and other aspects. Traditionally, every system must comply with FTS-0001 in order to become a Fidonet member.

External links

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