Kirk's Comm Disc 1995 December/Kirk's Comm Disc - Version 2.iso/dos/fido/gateways.fid

Text File | 1990-12-02 | 19KB | 389 lines

        How to use the UUCP <===> Fido-Net<tm> Gateway
                     Version 2.3 as of 09 DEC 88
                       by Lee Damon of 105/302
                            and Dale Weber
                   Assisted by Lisa Gronke on 105/6

  I) To send mail FROM a Fido-Net <==> UUCP Gateway TO some one on a UUCP
     (or Internet) site.

     A) What you must know

        1) The site name of the UUCP node the user is on.

        2) The login name or mail alias (the mailbox name) that the
           user you want to send to uses there.

        3) The path to the system the recipient is on *if that machine
           is not in the UUCP maps.* It is assumed that the UFGATE site
           is sending mail to a "smart" UUCP node which knows how to
           get mail to all other registered UUCP nodes. Or the domain
           ("at style") name of the recepient's system.

        4) Which Fido-Net node forwards mail to UUCP nodes for your
           local network. When the new nodelist flags are in place and
           widely used, you won't even need to know this. If your
           FidoNode is using the new flags, don't worry about this
           step.

         You should get the first two pieces of information from the
        person that you want to send mail to and the third one should
        be given to you either by the Sysop of the Gateway you are
        using OR by the person you are sending mail to. In this
        documentation we will use Net 105's Gateway of Busker's Opus
        (105/14), also known as busker.FIDONET.ORG.

          As an example, let's say you want to send mail to Lisa
        Gronke. She has an account on percival and her login there is
        gronke. Let's also say that you want to send this mail from
        Busker's Opus (Fido-Net 105/14). Busker's UUCP/USENET Hosts are
        reed and oresoft.

     B) With these bits of information do the following steps

        1) Go to the Net-Mail area on Busker's Opus

        2) Enter a message to node 105/14 (that's Busker's Fido-Net
           address).

        3) If the system asks you if you want the message to be killed
           after sending, PLEASE say yes.

        4) Address the message to UUCP.

        5) As the very FIRST line of your message you must enter a
           special line that will tell the gateway software how to send
           the message.  This is the To: line and for the example above
           it would look like this: "To: reed!percival!gronke" (without
           the quotes). The actual path is "reed!percival!gronke" and
           "To: " is a keyword that MUST be there as shown or the
           Gateway won't process the message. You could also use the
           path "percival!gronke" (with out the reed) if you are on a
           system that handles smart paths. If you are not sure, try
           the short path first, and if that fails try again with the
           entire path.

        6) Enter the rest of your message as you normally would. When
           you're finished, save it and it will be sent to your friend
           automagically.

        7) If you are NOT on Busker's Opus (105/14), you can still send
           mail to UUCP nodes by following the same steps 1 through 6
           above from any other Fido-Net node's Net-Mail area. The
           message will be sent from the node you are on to 105/14 and
           then on to the UUCP site.

        An example mail sending session, based on the previous examples,
        follows:

  >     MATRIX area  9 ... Scribes Corner. (FidoNet Matrix and UUCP mail)
  >     Select: e
  >      Scribes Corner. (FidoNet Matrix and UUCP mail)
  >     This will be a message in area #9.
  >     Private  [y,N,?=help]? y
  >     To a #CM system [y,N]? n
  >     Attach a file [y,N]? n
  >     Matrix address: 105/14
  >
  >     Busker's Boneyard (105/14) Portland OR
  >          To: uucp
  >     Subject: sample message
  >
  >      1: To: reed!bucket!percival!lisag
        (could also be [e-mail])
  >      2:
  >      3:  Hi Lisa, this is just a sample message to be used as an example in
  >      4: ufgate.how.
  >      5:
  >      6: Lee
  >      7:
  >     Editor Options:
  >     Select: s
  >     Saving your message (#16)...

 II) To send mail from a UUCP Site TO a user that calls a Fido-Net
     system.

  IIa) The "simple" system, or ! (bang) paths. (Not recommended as an
       addressing system because of the ambiguity of the
       !number!number, left in for compatibility with an older system.)

     A) What you must know:
        1) The node number of the Fido-Net system that your friend calls.

        2) The path to use to get from the UUCP Site to the Fido-Net
           forwarder.

        3) Does that UFGATE site have a UUCP map entry? If so, skip to
           the next section.

     B) With these bits of information do the following (assuming that
        you are sending a NEW message and NOT just replying to a
        message you received)

        1) The path that you will send the message to will be in the
           form of UFGATE_site!Zone!Net!Node!First.Last. As an example,
           let's say you want to send a message to me (Dale Weber) at
           105/55 from an account on percival (I'll use Lisa Gronke in
           this example). The UFGATE site here is busker (Busker's Opus
           - 105/14) and I am found on 105/55.

        2) So the path would look like reed!busker!1!105!55!Dale.Weber
           and here is what it means:

           a) The UFGATE site is busker (Busker's Opus) and one of
              busker's UUCP hosts is reed and in this example you are
              sending mail from site percival. Since this you are
              sending mail locally only, you can shorten the path to
              reed!busker!55!Dale.Weber and it will work fine. You MUST
              enter the user's name as shown with the "." between the
              first and last names of the user.

           b) If you are replying to a message that you received then
              just use your mailer's normal reply function and
              everything will be taken care of automagically.

  IIb) The "smart" way, or RFC822 @ style.

        If the gateway site has a registered map entry, and you send
        mail from or to a "smart" mail site, use these steps instead.
        They are also the steps to use for sending mail from the
        Internet to FidoNet. Note that this is the "smart" way because
        you don't have to provide routing information - how to get the
        mail to its intended recipient is figured out by the system.
        *You should never mix ! and @ addressing, unpredictable results
        _will_ occur!!!!*

     A) The address of a FidoNode looks like this: 1:105/302.0. Usually
        the 1: and .0 are left off, but they are there by default. (In
        Europe it is 2: and in the Pacific Basin it is 3:.) That
        address can be translated as "Zone 1, Net 105, FidoNode 302,
        Point 0." or p0.f302.n105.z1. Add the FidoNet domain of
        .fidonet.org to the end of that, chop off the p0 (it is again,
        a default) and you have f302.n105.z1.fidonet.org - the "Fully
        Qualified Domain Name" of a FidoNode. Another example is
        1:105/4.3 which would be written as p3.f4.n105.z1.fidonet.org
        (since there is a point number other than 0, we have to specify
        it). Note also that we are only using zone 1.  This will also
        work for zones 2 and 3, just use z2 or z3 as appropriate.


     B) So, lets say you wanted to send mail to Dale Weber at
        1:105/55.0, you would address your letter to
        [e-mail] and you shouldn't have to
        worry about it from there. Note that this address will most
        likely work on the Internet. This address will be automaticly
        interpreted and routed via the correct gateway, so you won't
        have to specify any paths. All you need to know is the FidoNet
        address and logonid of the person you are trying to reach.

     C) If that address doesn't work, you can add a routing command.
        Since busker is the UFGATE site for net 105, the routed address
        would be:
                [e-mail]
        Note that the @ between weber and f55 has been changed to a %.
        (I know, it is kind of long, but once all of the smart mailers
        get the new maps, and all the nets are covered, it shouldn't be
        necessary any more.) Note that the % character can be used
        differently on different systems, so don't go overboard in
        using it.

     D) If you are using a system that just insists on ! paths only,
        you can use the address f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org!dale.weber *if*
        you have your mail routed via a "smart" mail site. If you
        don't, you will have to give enough path to get from where you
        are to busker, then ! on from there. As the entire UUCP net is
        in a state of transition from the ! paths to the @ paths, this
        will be a problem for a while. Again I state: *You should never
        mix ! and @ addressing, unpredictable results _will_ occur!!!!*
        An example of routing using the ! notation is:
            tektronix!reed!busker!f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org!dale.weber


III) Other features of the UUCP Gateway software (UFGATE)

     A) User Alias
        If you are sending and/or receiving a large volume of mail
        to/from UUCP sites then you may want to ask your UFGATE site
        Sysop to set up a UUCP alias for you. This is especially
        helpful if you have a long and/or difficult to spell name.
        It's easier to remember a six or seven letter name (this is
        what UUCP people are used to also) than a full name which may
        NOT be easy to remember. The UFGATE software on the UFGATE site
        node will handle all the translations automatically.

     B) Out of area mail forwarding
        If you are on a UUCP system, you may want to arrange for full
        mail forwarding to all of Fido-Net. This will cost you some
        money for the messages to be sent outside your local area, but
        may be worth the cost. Contact your local UFGATE site for
        further details.

IV) Things to consider:

        As with sending mail to any UUCP or Internet site, some or all
        of this may not apply to your site. If you know that it won't
        work you can route mail to another site that you know will use
        the addresses correctly, and hope for the best.

        Mail from a FidoNet node to another FidoNet node can't be sent
        in this way. We (being FidoNet) still have to pay our own way.

        The Domain of FIDONET.ORG only includes those nodes listed in
        the official FidoNet nodelist as published by 1:1/0 or their
        designated deputy. It does not include any other networks
        that may use the FidoNet protocols to communicate.

        The Internet can not be used for profit. Mail sent via this
        system that gets routed to ARPANET, MILNET, NSFnet, etc, can
        not contain advertisements, sales literature, or other
        profit-making "things" unless in a direct reply to a query from
        an ARPANET or MILNET site that is working on a grant from DARPA
        or other authorized government agency.

V) Glossary:

        ARPA style address: an address of the form "user@system" or
        user@domain. It is considered archaic to make the user rather
        than the computer route mail. Many UUCP systems now have "smart
        mailers" that can handle ARPA style addresses in addition to
        the traditional UUCP "bang paths". See the document on Internet
        addressing for a more complete description. This is also called
        "at sign syntax." The latter form, user@domain, is known as
        domain addressing.  The particular kind is ARPA Internet domain
        addressing, or RFC973 domain addressing.  There are others, for
        example that used in JANET, the British national research
        network.

        ARPANET: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
        Network.  A major portion of the Internet. Soon to be replaced
        by the DRI (Defense Research Internet).

        At sign syntax: See "ARPA style address."

        BANG PATH: A UUCP node connects to only a limited number of
        other UUCP nodes. The bang path is the series of nodes the mail
        will pass through to reach the remote user. The node names are
        separated by exclamation marks (nicknamed "bangs"). The first
        node in the path must be a "link" on the local system, the
        second node must be linked to the first, etc. etc. The last
        name in the path is the user name on the remote system. The
        bang path must not contain any spaces and is usually all lower
        case.

        Internet:  The Internet is a set of networks all running the
        TCP/IP protocols, sharing the same underlying network address
        space as well as the same name space, and interconnected into
        an internet.  BITNET, UUCP, and JANET are not part of this
        internet because they don't use the same protocols.  They are
        only interconnected for mail.  This makes the combination of
        their interconnections of that kind what many people call a
        metanetwork.

        internet: (with a little i) is any old internet.  The Internet,
        with definite article and capital I, is a specific Internet,
        usually the one we are referring to above, whose proper name is
        the ARPA Internet.  There are others, such as the XEROX
        Internet.  There are also other TCP/IP internets.

        FidoNet: a network of systems that use the FidoNet protocol to
        transfer FidoNet (Matrix) mail and other things (EchoMail,
        files).  Most of the FidoNet nodes are BBS running
        Fido<tm>/Opus/TBBS/QuickBBS BBS software under MS-DOS. A
        FidoNet address is usually of the form zone:net/fidonode (eg
        1:105/6). FidoNet routing is theoretically direct ... node
        1:105/6 dials up node 1:105/14 and transfers mail addressed to
        users at the destination system. FidoNet (Matrix) mail is
        usually free to the user when sent to a node in the SAME net
        and requires that the user have funds on deposit when sent to a
        node in a DIFFERENT net. FidoNet users mostly use their real
        name (eg Lisa Gronke).

        GATEWAY: a system that is a node in two (or more) networks.
        The two networks may use the same protocol or different
        protocols. The gateway has a name/address in EACH network and
        has to be running an implementation of each protocol. A
        gateway, sensu strictu, should forward material received from
        one network to addressees in the other network.

        MAIL: electronic text, typically private, addressed to a
        specific person. FidoNet calls this function "FidoNet (Matrix)
        mail". Not all FidoNet nodes offer the function to users. UUCP
        calls this function "mail". In both FidoNet and UUCP, mail can
        be sent to a user on the same node OR to a user on a remote
        node. Mail is distinguished from "broadcast messages" which are
        called "EchoMail" on FidoNet systems and "USENET News" on UUCP
        systems.

        MILNET: A specific military network within the Internet.

        NETWORK: a group of computers that communicate using the SAME
        protocol. A network is a real entity with a name, history,
        administration, financing and addressing/routing scheme in
        addition to the protocol.

        NODE: a {computer, machine, system, BBS} that is part of a
        network is often called a node or a site.

        NSFnet: National Science Foundation Network. Another part of
        the Internet. An internet in itself.

        PROTOCOL: the set of rules by which two computers communicate.
        Users do not need to know anything but the NAME of the protocol
        but should distinguish between the name of a PROTOCOL and the
        name of NETWORK that uses the protocol. We are concerned here
        with two protocols: the FidoNet protocol and the UUCP (Unix to
        Unix CoPy) protocol. Each protocol is historically associated
        with a certain {computer, operating system} but CAN be
        implemented on just about any hardware.  To complete your
        confusion, the PROGRAM that IMPLEMENTS a specific protocol on a
        particular computer sometimes also has the same name. And to
        make things even more fun, sometimes a network built out of the
        protocol is named after it, as with the UUCP network.

        SMART MAILER: Mailing program(s) that know(s) how to route
        messages to other UUCP/Internet nodes. They use maps compiled
        by the UUCP project to route mail more intelligently, meaning
        the user often doesn't have to provide a route. SMail and
        Sendmail are programs that are smart mailers. Many UUCP sites
        have them, or know how to send mail to a site that runs one.

        UFGATE: A collection of software written by Tim Pozar, Garry
        Paxinos and John Galvin that allow Fido compatible BBSs to
        exchange UUCP mail with other UUCP sites. Also included are
        programs for the processing of Netnews - UUCP's older-brother
        equivalent to EchoMail.

        UFGATE site: A FidoNet node that is running the UFGATE software
        (or any other software that emulates the UFGATE system).

        USENET: The combined group of systems (a network as it were)
        that share Netnews with each other. It uses UUCP and other
        protocols for transmitting news between machines. It is not
        limited only to the UUCP network or the Internet.

        UUCP: Unix-Unix-CoPy. A protocol set for transferring files over
        dialup lines. It is also the name of a network much like
        FidoNet.  (Only much bigger, and older.)

        UUCP Network: the network of systems that use the UUCP protocol
        to transfer mail and other things (USENET news, files). [
        "USENET network" is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym but
        specifically refers to the subset of UUCP, Internet, Bitnet,
        etc. nodes that subscribe to USENET news.] Most of the UUCP
        nodes are unix minicomputers at universities or high-tech
        companies. A UUCP node has a cryptic name (eg bucket). UUCP
        routing is "store and forward" whereby the mail is passed from
        system to system until it reaches its destination. Classic UUCP
        address are "bang paths" from the originating node to the
        destination node (eg reed!percival!bucket!lisag). UUCP mail is
        almost always free to the user. UUCP users use a one word alias
        name (eg lisag).

-----------
UFGATE was written by Tim Pozar, Garry Paxinos, John Gilmore and John
   Galvin.
"Fido" and "FidoNet" are trademarks of Tom Jennings, San Francisco, CA.
   used with permission.