Fidonet - History
Two separate accounts of Fidonet's history follow. The first is by its creator, Tom Jennings, and the other is taken from the distribution archive of TrapDoor. A more concise account can be found at the Fidonet History Project
FidoNet History and Operation 8 Feb 85
Tom Jennings and many authors
Part 1 of 3
This is a long and convoluted document; it has been
sorely needed for months now, and it finally got done.
FidoNet is growing at a tremendous rate, and newer sysops
don't have the information that us oldies (pre Sept 84
sysops) assume everyone knows; hence the history section
here. There is a lot of extremely important material covered
here that was assumed to be known by all; we are finding out
otherwise.
This also covers some of the dark mysterious secrets
about the magical node numbers, and how the magical node
lists appear from nowhere. Those of you that have been
FidoNet nodes since way back when, spring and summer of
1984, and watched all this develop (such as it was) in full
Technicolor, will know most of this; if you are a relatively
new sysop, much of this may come as a suprise. Everyone
should read this, experienced sysops, new sysops, and all
Fido and FidoNet users.
FidoNet is no longer just a piece of software; it
has become complex organism. There are about 160 Fidos in
FidoNet right now; this does not include Fidos being run as
Bulletin Board only systems, just ones that you can converse
with over the net. If the average number of users on each
system is 300 people, you can start to guess at the scale of
things today.
HISTORY:
When FidoNet was first tested, there were two nodes:
myself here at Fido #1 in San Francisco, and John Madill at
Fido #2 in Baltimore. John and I did all of the testing and
development for the first pass at FidoNet. Its purpose: to
see if it could be done, merely for the fun of it, like ham
radio. It quickly became useful; instead of trying to call
each others' boards up to leave messages, or expensive voice
phone calls, Fidonet messages became more or less routine.
This was version 7 of Fido sometime in June 84 or
so; it did not have routing, file attach, retry control,
error handling, cost accounting, log files, or any of the
niceties since added. A packet was made, a call placed, the
packet transferred, that was it. This was adequate for a
month or two, when there were less than 20 nodes.
In August of 84, the number of nodes was approaching
30; the net was becoming clogged, believe it or not. FidoNet
wasn't too smart about making calls then. With 30 systems,
coordination became difficult; instead of a simple voice
phone call to the (very few!) sysops to straighten out
problems like modems not answering, wrong numbers, clock
problems, etc, it took days to get the slightest problem
repaired. There were by now six nodes in St. Louis, and Fido
#1 was making seperate phone calls for each, when obviously
one could be made. Enter the beginnings of routing.
The "original" FidoNet was very simple and friendly;
you told me at Fido #1 that you had a FidoNet node ready, I
put you in the list, with your phone number, and people
called up and downloaded the list; done!
Well ... at first, "everyone knew each other"; we
were in more or less constant contact. However, when the
node numbers got into the twenties, there were people
bringing up FidoNodes who none of us knew. This was good,
but it meant we were not in close contact anymore.
The Net started to deteriorate; every single week
without fail there was at least one wrong number, usually
two. To impress on you the seriousness of wrong numbers in
the node list, imagine you are a poor old lady, who every
single night is getting phone calls EVERY TWO MINUTES AT
4:00AM, no one says anything, then hangs up. This actually
happened; I would sit up and watch when there was mail that
didn't go out for a week or two, and I'd pick up the phone
after dialing, and was left in the embarrasing position of
having to explain bulletin boards to an extremely tired,
extremely annoyed person.
There were also cases where the new node really
wasn't up yet, and the number given was a home phone to be
used temporarily, but I'd forget that, and include it in the
list anyways. Or the new node wasn't really up yet, and we'd
all make calls to it and it would not answer, or worse, the
modem would answer but the software wasn't running, and we'd
get charged for the call.
This obviously could not go on. We had to have some
way to make sure that at least the phone numbers were
correct! I started a new policy; before giving out a node
number and putting it in the list, I had to receive a
FidoNet message from the new node, directly. This verified
that at least the new Fido was half way running. At the
time, Fido had a provision whereby Fido #1 could set the
node number remotely; I'd send a message back, and presto! a
new node was up.
Well, this didn't work properly either; at the same
time, the Fido software was changing so rapidly, to
accomodate all the changes (literally a version a day for a
few weeks there) that I was losing new node requests, wrong
numbers caused by illegible handwriting, all sorts of
problems. Out of laziness I would still assign nodes "word
of mouth", and got in the same trouble as before.
The people in St. Louis (Tony Clark, Ben Baker, Ken
Kaplan, Jon Wichman, Mike Mellinger) had their local Fidos
going strong, and understood what FidoNet did, how it
worked, and what it was about. They volunteered to take over
the node list, handle new node requests, and leave me with
the software. They tightened up on the FidoNet message
requirement, and in a few months, had the "error rate"
(wrong numbers, etc) down to practically zero, where it is
today.
Though I did the programming, Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker,
and the crowd in St. Louis did much of the design and most
of the testing of routing, forwarding, and local nets. They
still remain the experts on the intricacies of routing, and
help sysops set up local nets.
Please keep in mind the entire process, from two
nodes to over 50, took only three months! Fifty nodes is
more than it sounds; at that level it becomes a large scale
project. FidoNet went from about 50 nodes in Sept 84 or so,
to the current 160+ in Jan/Feb of 85.
FidoNet today is a network quickly approaching the
levels of complexity of commercial networks, and has many
more capabilities than many "mini" networks, such as USENET,
which has no routing or hosts. Only ARPAnet has some of the
features of FidoNet. The southern California local network
is three levels deep, with hosts in Orange, LA, Ventura, San
Berdino and San Diego counties.
FidoNet is just too large today to run as an
informal club. The potential for error is just too high to
include numbers at random within the node list. I imagine we
are in a predicament today what the radio ameteur operators
had a number of years ago.
The requirements for new FidoNet nodes are pretty
minimal, and they appear to be arbitrary and harsh if you
aren't aware of what's going on. This is to spell them out
in detail, so everyone will understand the process.
FidoNet'S PURPOSE:
Very simple; it is a hobby, a non-commercial network
of computer hobbiests ("hackers", in the older, original
meaning) who want to play with, and find uses for, packet
switch networking. It is not a commercial venture in any
way; FidoNet is totally supported by it's users and sysops,
and in many ways is similar to ham radio, in that other than
a few "stiff" rules, each sysop runs their system in any way
they please, for any reason they want.
Actually, not as bad as it sounds; basically,
politeness as a rule:
1. New nodes, see below.
2. If your system is going to be down for a week or
more, please let Fido 51 know. They can take you
out of the list while you are gone, so other FidoNet
sysops won't be wasting phone calls.
3. If you change your phone number, or decide to stop
running Fido, let them know, so other FidoNet sysops
won't be wasting phone calls.
The thing to keep in mind is that FidoNet's
telephone calls to send mail are costing someone money; if
you are down just for a night or so, don't worry about it,
just make sure your modem doesn't answer.
THE NODE LIST
Obviously (if you are a FidoNet sysop that is) the
node list is a text file containing all the names, phone
numbers and other things on each node, and as distributed by
Fido 51, routing information for the many local networks. It
is a very compact list, and so there is no clue as to how
that list is made.
Here is the current process for new nodes to obtain
a node number, and get into the node list. This assumes you
want to run a public access Fido; specialized systems are
covered seperately, below.
SET UP FIDO
Of course, you should get your Fido running first;
no sense in trying to run mail if your Fido doesn't run! In
your FidoNet area, enter a message for Fido #51, and include
the following information:
1. Your boards name
2. City and state
3. Sysops name
4. Board phone number
5. Maximum baud rate; 1200 assumed otherwise
6. Hours of operation; 24 hrs assumed otherwise
7. Way to contact the sysop during the day. This is
not absolutely necessary, but it makes it easier
if there is some problem.
Most of this is pretty obvious. The sysops voice
phone number will be kept secret; it will not be given out.
It is only used if there is some problem, and a FidoNet
message can't be sent for some reason.
For Fidos that want to run with an unlisted phone
number, a few other things are needed:
8. A public FidoNet to act as mail host
9. The systems actual phone number
A host is required for an unlisted number, so that
you can receive mail. (If you don't want to receive mail,
then there is no reason for you to be part of FidoNet!) The
host system will have to have the unlisted phone number, of
course.
Fido 51 needs to have the phone number also, but it
will be kept secret. This is so that they can contact you
directly if there is any problem, such as a known bug or a
question, or if your host drops out of the network, so there
is some way to contact the local nodes.
GETTING A NODE NUMBER
This is the part that seems so arbitrary if you
aren't aware of what's happening. What happens is: you send
Fido 51 the message described above. When they receive it,
they put the stuff into the node list and fido list, pick
you a node number, and mail a copy of it to you the next
weekend.
This tests your system at the same time; you have to
be able to sucessfully send and receive mail in order to get
the node number. Out of it, you get a copy of the latest
lists.
NOTE: Fido 51 does not mail out copies of the lists to
everyone on a regular basis; it would mean too many phone
calls ($$$ ...). You can get the new node list Friday
evening at Fidos 10 and 51, or Fidos 1 and 2 later that
weekend or early the next week, and usually most any other
busy Fido.
If it all works, then 1) you know your system is
working 2) Fido 51, the node list keepers, knows it's
working 3) the other 160 or so Fido sysops know that your
system was working at least as recently as the last node
list. Print out the last few weeks nodelists; compare all
the changes, not just the additions.
This is why node numbers aren't given out "word of
mouth", or at other sysops request. It has to be done
directly, as a test.
WHAT FIDO 51 REALLY DOES
Making the node list is more than just typing in the
information; they make sure that the information in the list
is accurate as possible. This frequently means voice phone
calls to double check, or calls to the new system to see
what the problem is; sometimes it is as simple as the wrong
baud rate, the time wrong on the new system, so that it is
not running FidoNet at the right time.
Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker do the node list work when
they have "spare time"; please be patient! As the number of
new nodes increases every week, response time goes up.
Currently, the node list is done once a week; new node
requests must be received in Wednesday nights mail (by
Thursday morning) so that they can work on it Thursday
night, and send it out on Friday night, so that you will
have it over the weekend. The volume of mail is such that it
may take a few days to get out.
(Please note that Fido 51 is an unattended node;
there is no one there to answer Y)ells unless someone
happens to walk by. The machine is located at Data Research
Associates, who kindly donated the phone line, and runs on a
DEC Rainbow 100+, donated by Digital Equipment Corp.)
Fido 51 is an extremely busy system; they receive
125 messages a week through FidoNet alone, so please be
patient.
CHANGES, MISTAKES AND UPDATES
If you ever find wrong information in the node list,
please send the information to Fido 51; they will include it
in the next list.
If you become part of a local net, ie. you have an
incoming host, notify them, and it will be included in the
node list also. Other changes might be baud rate (got a new
modem!) hours of operation, board name or sysop, etc.
SOME OTHER THINGS ...
If you have questions or problems with any part of
Fido or FidoNet, please ask. Here's where to go for
problems:
HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, PERFORMANCE OR INSTALLATION TROUBLES
Call or FidoNet to Fido #1, me, Tom Jennings.
FidoNet is best, if possible; that way, I have your "address
and phone" handy. If not, then call Fido #1 and leave a
message. If you leave it at G)oodbye, when you call back
looking for a reply, remember to check in the ANSWERS area;
Fido will NOT tell you if there is mail for you, you have to
search for it.
Fido #1 always has the latest versions of Fido for
all hardware supported, available for download. Fido #1
ALWAYS runs one revision later than the released version; it
is used to test new features or bug fixes, so that when
released they will be working. Check the FIDO download area
for the current Fido version.
I have nothing to do anymore with maintaining the
node list, nor do I hand out node numbers.
ROUTING, NODE LIST, LOCAL NET QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS
Fido 51. Since they keep the list, they're the ones
to contact for node list problems. If you want advice on how
to set up a local net in your area, they can offer help and
advice.
SPECIALIZED SYSTEMS
If you are setting up a private network, and it is
to be truly private, what you do with it is your own
business. If, however, there is any possiblility that
members of your private network may wish to communicate with
any members of the public network, you should contact Fido
51 for the allocation of a block of node numbers to be
assigned by you to the nodes in your network. This is to
avoid node number conflicts upon receipt of FidoNet mail in
the public network.
LOCAL NETS
Neither I nor Ken Kaplan nor Ben Baker "run"
FidoNet; local networks such as the one in Southern
California and Massachusetts are entirely the responsibility
of the sysops in the area; the only thing we ask is that the
designated "incoming host" for that area be somewhat
reliable, for the obvious reason that it will be receiving
lots of phone calls from across the country.
As a matter of fact, you are encouraged to form
local networks, or join one that exists locally. IT makes it
cheaper for other systems to send you mail, and generally
streamlines FidoNet operation.
Other than that, local nets are totally standalone;
that is what they are for! For instance, SoCal can run their
net anyway they please; it is their hardware, their phone
lines, and their phone bills. It is their investment in
work, and they should reap the benefits. If there is a
"FidoNet policy", this is it.
AND SO ON ...
I hope FidoNet is a bit clearer now; if you have any
suggestions, or want to volunteer to help, please let us
know. Our only interest is in keeping the node list correct
and up to date; this simple list is what ties the entire net
together.
Ken Kaplan Fido #51 314/432-4129
Tom Jennings Fido #1 415/864-1418
Ben Baker Fido #10 314/234-1462
FidoNet History 20 Aug 85
by Tom Jennings and others
This is Part Two in the history of FidoNet. It turned out that
the original FIDOHIST.DOC (now called FIDOHIST.DC1, or just "Part
One") was useful, and many people read it. Unfortunately, by the time
everyone read it, it became totally obsolete. Oh well. Here is Part
Two.
FIDOHIST.DOC covered the early history of FidoNet, why it was
done, how it was done, and the reasons for the organization and
obscure rituals surrounding node numbers. If you haven't read it yet,
I suggest you do now, because I'll probably refer to things that won't
make any sense otherwise.
The original FidoNet was organized very simply; each FidoNet
system (each node) had a number that served like a phone number,
uniquely identifying it. The NODELIST, generated by the folks in St.
Louis that had all FidoNet nodes in it, contains information on all
known FidoNet systems. Every system in FidoNet had a current copy of
the NODELIST, which served as the directory of systems.
(In the interests of brevity I'm leaving out huge amounts of
information; I hope you have read FIODHIST.DOC by now ...)
FidoNet has been growing steadily since it started by accident
in May 84 or so. The node list continued to get out of hand; the
original FIDOHIST.DOC was written to try and help smooth things out.
It is impossible to overemphasize the amount of work involved in
keeping the node list accurate. Basically, the guys in St. Louis were
keeping track of hundreds of FidoNet systems in Boston, Los Angeles,
London, Stockholm and Sweden, and publishing the results weekly. There
has never been such a comprehensive and accurate list of bulletin
board systems generated.
We talked for many months as to how we could possibly find a
solution to the many problems; it was at the point where if a solution
was not found in a few months (by Aug. 85 or so) that FidoNet would
collapse due to the sheer weight of it's node list.
The newsletter, FidoNews, was, and still is, an integral part
of the process of FidoNet. FidoNews is the only thing that unites all
FidoNet sysops consistently; please keep up to date on it, and stock
it for your users if you have the disk space. And contribute if you
can!
There were many constraints on the kind of things we could do;
we had no money, so it had to be done for zero cost. Centralization
was out, so obviously localization was in; just how to do it was a
total unknown. We thought of going back to having people in different
areas handle new node requests in their area, but that always
generated confusion as to who a person should go to, how to avoided
having someone requesting a node number from different people
simultaneously, etc., etc.
The old method of routing was very different than the current
method, and much more complex; instead of Fido automatically routing
to hosts, each sysop had to specify (via the ROUTE.BBS file) how all
routing was done in the system. The was done originally by hand, later
by John Warren's (102/31) NODELIST program.
Then of course there was the problem that no matter what we
did, it would not be done overnight. (ha ha.) It would take many weeks
at the least, possibly months, so that whatever we did had to be
compatible with the old method as well.
We went through probably hundreds of ideas in the next few
months, some possibly useful, some insane. Eventually the insanity
boiled down to a pretty workable system. We chatted by FidoNet and by
voice telephone. Eventually, we settled on the two part number scheme,
like the phone company does with area codes and exchanges. It
accommodated backwards compatibility (you can keep your present node
number) and the new "area code" (net number) could be added into an
existing field that had been set to zero. (This is why everyone was
originally part of net #1).
When a fortunate set of circumstances was to bring Ezra
Shapiro and me to St. Louis to speak to the McDonnell Douglas
Recreational Computer Club on XXXX 11th, we planned ahead for a
national FidoNet sysops meeting that weekend. Ken and Sally Kaplan
were kind enough to tolerate having all of us in their living room.
The people who showed up were (need that list) The meeting
lasted ten continuous hours; it was the most productive meeting I (and
most others) had attended. When we were done, we had basically the
whole thing laid out in every detail.
We stuck with the area code business (now known as net and
region numbers) and worked out how to break things up into regions and
nets. It was just one of those rare but fortunate events; during the
morning things went "normally", but in the afternoon solutions fell
into place one by one, so that by late afternoon we had the entire
picture laid out in black and white. Two or three months of
brainstorming just flowed smoothly into place in one afternoon ...
What we had done was exactly what we have now, though we
changed the name of "Admin" to "Region", and added the "alternate"
node and net numbers. (We still seem to be stuck with that terrible
and inaccurate word, "manager". Any ideas?) I previously had a buggy
test hack running using area codes, and the week after the meeting it
was made to conform to what we had talked about that Saturday.
When version 10C was done, it accomplished more or less
everything we wanted, but it sure did take a long time. 10C was
probably the single largest change ever made to Fido/FidoNet, and the
most thoroughly tested version. At 10M, there are STILL bugs left from
that early version, in spite of the testing.
Once the testing got serious, and it looked like we had a
shippable version, St. Louis froze the node list, and started slicing
it into pieces, to give to the soon-to-be net and region managers.
(That word again.) This caused a tremendous amount of trouble for
would-be sysops; not only was it difficult enough to figure out how on
earth to get a node number, once they did they were told node numbers
weren't being given out just yet. Explaining why was even harder,
since FIDOHIST.DC2 (ahem) wasn't written yet. (I have to agree, this
thing is a little bit late) It was a typical case of those who already
knew were informed constantly of updates, but those in the dark had a
hard time. Things were published fairly regularly (am I remembering
"conveniently" or "accurately" on this part?)
Eventually, 10C was released, and seemed to work fairly well,
ignoring all the small scale disasters due to bugs, etc. We couldn't
just swap over to the new area code business until very close to 100%
of all Fidos were using the new version. This was (for me) an
excruciating period, basically a "hurry up and wait" situation. There
had not been a node list release for a month or two, and for all
practical purposes it looked like FidoNet had halted ...
Finally, on June 12th, we all swapped over to the new system;
that afternoon, sysops were to set their net number (it had been "1"
for backwards compatibility), copy in the new node list issued just
for this occasion, and go. I assumed the result was going to be
perpetual chaos, bringing about the collapse of FidoNet. Almost the
exact opposite was true; things went very smoothly (yes, there were
problems, but when you consider that FidoNet consists of
microcomputers owned by almost 300 people who had never even talked to
each other ...)
Within a month or so, just about every Fido had swapped over
to the area code, or net/node architecture. With a few exceptions,
things went very smoothly. No one was more surprised than pessimistic
I. At this time, August, I don't think there is a single system still
using the old node number method.
This is all well and fine as far as the software goes, but it
made a mess for new sysops. For us sysops who have been around for a
while, there was no great problem, as we saw the changes happen one by
one. However, new sysops frequently came out of the blue; armed with a
diskette full of code, they attempted to set up a FidoNet node.
Actually, I don't understand how anyone does it. The
information needed is not recorded in any place that a non sysop could
find. On top of that, most of it is now totally wrong! If you follow
the original instructions, it said "call Fido #1 ..." if you found a
real antique, or "call Fido #51 ..." if it is more current. Of course
now it tells you to find your region manager. "Region manager???"
Well, a list of region managers was published in FidoNews, but unless
you read FidoNews, how does anyone ever find out? I'll probably never
know.
ANYWAYS ... the original reason for all the changes was to
DECENTRALIZE FidoNet. It just wasn't possible for Ken Kaplan to keep
accurate, up to date information on every Fido in the US and Europe.
The decentralization has been more or less a total success. The number
of problems introduced were negligible compared to the problems
solved, and even most new problems are by this time solved.
It is interesting to note that with the hundreds of systems
there are today, the national FidoNet hour is less crowded than it was
when there were only 50 nodes.
Please, keep in mind that no one has done anything like this
before, we are all winging it, and learning (hopefully) as we go.
Please be patient with problems, none of us is paid to do this, and it
is more and more work as time goes on. Somehow it seems to all get
done ...
HOW TO GET A NODE NUMBER AND ALL THAT
This is by necessity a very general idea of how it's done, and
you were warned earlier that this may be obsolete this very minute;
with that, here's the "current" process for starting up a new FidoNet
node.
You can of course skip all or part of this if you've done this
before; if you haven't, well, be prepared for a lot of searching and
asking questions.
Of course, you need to have your Fido BBS system running
first. It's probably best that you play with it for a while, and get
some experience with how it all works, and whether you have the
patience to run a BBS. It can get exasperating, and you will never
find time to use the computer ever again.
Obtain the most recent copy of the nodelist possible; this may
take some searching. If you get totally lost, you can always contact
Fido 125/1 or Fido 100/51; though these are very busy systems, they
both usually have the very latest of anything, and can direct you to
the right place.
The big problem here is to find out if you are in a net or
not, and if not, then who your region manager is. If you are in a
large city (Los Angeles, Cincinnati, etc) then there is probably a net
in your area. Look through the node list (use the N)odebook command in
Fido, or a text editor) for the right area code or city.
If there is no net in your area, then you are part of a
region. This is a little harder, because regions are large, and
sometimes cover many states. Look at all the regions in the node list,
you should find a region that fits you.
Once you find this, you have to contact the net or region
manager to get your node number. Exactly how this is done depends on
who the manager is, and how sticky they are for details. A near
universal requirement is that you send your request via FidoNet, not
by manually; this isn't done to make your life difficult, but to
ensure that your system is really working right. IF you manage to get
a FidoNet message to the manager, its usually safe to assume that
you're system is working OK. If you get a reply in return, then you
know both directions work.
It is usually each sysops' responsibility to go get the latest
nodelist and newsletters; they are not distributed to all systems
because of the expense. (Though, I'm trying to get them distributed to
more places than they are now, it's sometimes very difficult to get a
copy of the nodelist!)
Again, read the FidoNews newsletter regularly; it is about the
only way to stay in contact with the rest of the net. Programs,
problems, services, bugs and interesting announcements can always be
found there. FidoNews articles don't come out of thin air; send in
anything you think might be of interest. They don't have to be
lifetime masterpieces, or even well written.
Please remember the entire network is made of the sysops;
there is no central location from which good things come, the net
consists entirely of the sysops and their contributions. If you don't
do it, chances are no one else will!
Tom Jennings
20 Aug 85
Ken Kaplan Fido 100/51 314/432-4129
Tom Jennings Fido 125/1 415/864-1418
Ben Baker Fido 100/10 314/234-1462
[end of Part 2 of 3]
FidoNet History 30 Jul 93 [Part 3 of 3]
Date: 09 Aug 93 20:29:00
From: Bart Mullins
To: All
Subj: FidoNet History
______________________________________________________________________
Hello All!
A few days ago, some folks asked questions about the history of
fidonet. Well John Madill is working with Infinite Technologies and I
got the story straight from him. I re-post it here with his
permission.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date and Time: 07-30-1993 at 15:43:02
Originated By: Scott Paterson (rsvp @ novell)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, John Madill was famous in San Jose about two weeks ago. He made
the front page of our Computing section in the San Jose Mercury News
(it's nice to have a newspaper that has a whole section each week
dedicated to Computing). Anyway, it spoke of the inception of FidoNet
but didn't give any specific information on where you could find out
more. How about it.
-Scott
====================
R. Scott V. Paterson
Novell Messaging
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 7/30/93 Time: 11:21 PM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Mullins,Bart (Bart Mullins @ MWRS.12MWRSS)
From: John Madill (John @ Infinite)
Subject: FidoNet History
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message:
Originated By: John Madill (JOHN @ INFINITE)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, Scott, thanks for that nice intro! If it's the same article
that appeared here (by Steve Snow, Knight Ridder), I could comment
that I only had 1 small mention, and it basically stated that I was a
"co-worker", but thanks for using up my 15 minutes of fame!
Back in the early 80's, I was working at a ComputerLand in Baltimore
(not Boston ... Tom Jennings was living in San Francisco, but he was
working for Phoenix Technologies in Boston.) For those of you that
care to remember, way back then there was a product that was
introduced called the IBM PC ... which everyone wanted, but was in
short supply. As an alternative, we were trying very hard to sell DEC
Rainbows, which weren't exactly IBM compatible.
Since I had purchased a Rainbow myself (really *smart* move ... NOT),
and had an interest in BBSes and telecommunications, I started
searching for a BBS and Telecomm software for the DEC. After visiting
*many* BBSes and asking for help, I was beginning to fear that I'd
have to write the stuff myself. Fortunately, someone recommended that
I call a board in SF called "Fido's BBS".
Trivia: The name Fido came from the mishmash of 68000 hardware that
Tom was using to run the BBS on ... a real mongrel. How many 68000
systems did you ever hear of that had DOS as the operating system?
Since Tom did implementations of DOS for Phoenix, he wrote a version
for that system.
Anyways ... I called Tom, we talked, and I found out that he actually
did the original BIOS and DOS for the DEC Rainbow, and converted his
comm programs (TelLink & MiniTel) to run on the DEC so he could port
stuff over to the Rainbow.
Now, I had a comm program. One of the things that we decided to do
was to convert Fido's BBS to run on the DEC. Only one small problem:
I had the DEC, and Tom didn't. We were stuck ... had to work
together.
As a result of this, we ended up working together to enhance Fido, and
spent a lot of time "Yelling at the Sysop" ... chatting thru the
keyboards back and forth. (This is NOT a recommended means of
communicating via long distance, especially when we could have hung
up, and called via voice.)
After many gigantic telephone bills, we pretty much agreed that there
*might* be a better way. The problem was that I'd call his BBS to
leave a message, and he'd see me there, so we'd chat ... or vice-
versa. Since the key was to deposit e-mail at another BBS, the
solution seemed obvious. Make Fido call the other Fido ... deliver
mail, and hang up.
There were only 2 Fidos at that time, Tom's and Mine, so although we
figured we add in a couple of more, we didn't think we'd need much
sophistication for addressing ... just add in a "FidoNet" message
area, secure it, and assign node numbers. Ask the user for the Node
number, let the FidoNet module look up the phone number, and call off
peak to save $.
Well, word got around pretty fast, and nodes started springing up all
over. That's when we got interested in the routing ... allowing the
creation of centralized hubs, and piggy backing mail to nodes within a
local call to a single node thru that node. We actually started
dreaming one day of linking coast to coast only thru local phone
calls! (I wonder if you can do that today?)
Tom took on the responsibility of dishing out the node numbers - this
was the only way we could eliminate duplicates - an since we only
allocated 3 positions for node numbers (nnn), soon we had a *big*
problem. We had close to 1000 nodes and growing. Now what? We took
the opportunity to alter the Nodelist format so that we had regions
and nodes within regions ... (region-node), divided the USA into
regions, and appointed Sysops as "region leaders" who could give out
node numbers and maintain the nodelist for that region. These lists
were then distributed, and merged together at each site by add-in
nodelist generators.
Another stage in development was when we went international. We
decided to add in Zones (Zone-Region-Node) *before* we ran out of
Regions.
This was pretty cool ... for a while ... and then IFNA got formed.
The International FidoNet Association ... oh boy! Enter politics.
For those of you that have never been there, you really don't know
what missed.
Mandates that the entire structure, protocol, and operation be
documented ... and distributed ... all from people that had nothing to
do with the design, creation or maintenance of the FidoNet software.
Another demand by IFNA was that no changes could be made to the
FidoNet system without approval by the Technical committee. A lot of
really neat things came out of the members (not committees) ... like
Echos, which are similar to Discussion lists (library@infinite and
library@novell) and listservers on the internet. We also saw the
creation of the internet gateway to FidoNet.
People got upset ... alternate nets got created (AlterNet, etc.), and
people left. What started as a grass-roots communications network
grew rapidly out of control due to internal political struggles.
I got disillusioned, and resigned from zone 1, region 2, node number
2.
(I still love e-mail, though! )
P.S. Anyone out there know where Tom Jennings is? Perhaps we need to
get his expertise involved with MHS!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well that's it folks. Hope it answers some questions.
Cheers,
Bart
* Origin: The Unofficial BBS (1:387/615)
-30-
[end of Part 3 of 3]
Back in 1984, the sysop of a private bulletin board system in the United States of America, Tom Jennings, had an idea: He felt it would be nice if users of his system could send messages not only to each other, but also to users of a friend's bbs. With this in mind, he sat down and started programming... After a short while, the first FidoNet mailer and bbs, "Fido", was born. At night, "Fido" would pack all the messages destined for other systems, call them and deliver the mail. There, another "Fido" would happily accept the mail packets, unpack them and pass the messages on to the individual users of that system.
The idea received massive feedback, and more and more sysops wanted to take part in the big mail exchange. In just three months about 50 other systems joined in, and in the beginning of 1985 there already were 150 "FidoNet nodes". FidoNet was born.
The initial software was not comfortable enough for a number of programmers, and so countless utilities and tools arose, to make mail transfer more efficient and thus, cheaper. Nowadays, we find lots of different FidoNet programs for various computers and operating systems, with sonorous names like BinkleyTerm, FrontDoor, D'Bridge, Dutchie, TrapDoor, Opus, Confmail, QMail, TosScan, Chameleon, GoldED, to mention a few.
In the beginning, it was easy to know who operated what system, and what telephone number to call to reach a particular node. As the number of systems in FidoNet grew, it was becoming harder and harder to stay up-to-date. The routing of messages was getting more complicated as well. A new numbering scheme was developed, and therefore today's FidoNet addresses consist of four parts: Zone, Net, Node and (optionally) Point.
The data for all FidoNet systems is kept in a single database, the "nodelist". It lists all the details of every node, such as the bbs name, the sysop's name, the telephone number, modem flags, and more. And it lists the FidoNet address (the node-number) for each node. Every week, the nodelist is updated; closed systems are removed, new participants added, telephone numbers get updated. All this is done with more tools and utilities.
Today, FidoNet consists of almost 10000 nodes with an uncountable number of users. There is private mail between users (Netmail), and there are public conferences (Echomail areas), some of which are distributed over the globe. There are conferences about cooking, about politics, sports, and much more. And about computers, of course, and programming and telecommunications. There are local conferences in the language of that particular region, and there are international areas (mostly in English).
Programs and other files are also distributed via FidoNet, especially if they are Public Domain, Freeware or Shareware. There are excellent distribution systems, where a programmer of a utility just has to pack it into a compressed archive (together with the documentation), send it to the next coordinator, and the file will be moved around the world within a few days. And what's more, the software that allows you to run a FidoNet node is distributed via exactly this method -- it is usually available for free.
There is another nice point about FidoNet, which allows normal bbs users to save telephone charges: when reading or writing messages, you usually have to stay online (connected to the other modem) all the time, and during all this time, your telephone company is happily cashing away... Because of that, FidoNet offers the option of "Points". With a point system, you can pick up all waiting mail in compressed form when calling your "boss system". After that, you can read and write messages offline, without your money ticking away. The ones you write are later packed and sent to your "boss" at the next call. From there, the mail travels out into the rest of FidoNet. As a bonus, you will obtain your own FidoNet-address, which is the node number of your boss, plus a dot (".") and your point-number appended, i.e., Point 24 of node 2:310/3 becomes 2:310/3.24. That's also the reason for the name "point" - because of the separating dot.
An additional feature available to point systems (compared to normal bbs users) is "file requests". With file requests, new programs and files that are available at the boss system can be "requested" and will be sent automatically during the next call.
A last word on the organization of FidoNet: The sysops of FidoNet nodes are usually individuals, who run their node just for fun. It is their hobby, and they pay for their usually high telephone bills out of their own pocket and partially from donations from users and points. None of the FidoNet coordinators receives a reward/payment for his work or his expenses.
Still, FidoNet works, and it works well. Sure, once in a while, the other node will quit working, just because a sysop went for a holiday and his machine decided to crash as soon as he closed the door, but overall, the network runs fine.
(This history text was taken from the documentation of TrapDoor, thanks Max)
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings
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