Based on original by Jerry Schwartz 1995-97 Used without permission under claim of fair use Heavily modified by Philip Lozier 2001 for purposes of updating information NO CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT OR RESTRICTIONS ARE CLAIMED OR OTHERWISE IMPLIED What Is FidoNet? ---------------- FidoNet is an amateur electronic mail network consisting of tens of thousands of mail nodes world wide. FidoNet can be viwed as primarily what most people in this age of the world wide web would consider newsgroups or mailing lists, however, it functions on a much more organized method of distribution and access, saving the end user much of the headaches associated with other forms of messaging such as SPAM, scams, and unacountable abusive participants. FidoNet is the first, and oldest, non-commercial, non-governmental, and non-institutional world wide messaging system in existance. It has survived to the present date since 1984, when invented and founded by Tom Jennings, despite the onslaught of, and mass media attention given to, the world wide web (or as some in FidoNet circles refer to it, "The World Wide Mall"). Many of the FidoNet members are devoted to keeping this form of networking thriving for many years to come. While origionaly designed as a point to point networking system where individual nodes connected to other nodes for the circulation and distribution of mail and files over direct POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), the internet has provided a wider variety of distribution methods to be employed such as automated FTP, E-mail attach packets, and direct connections between TCP/IP mailers, however, the original method of POTS delivery still plays a vital role in many of the local networks. Most mail nodes are publicly accessible Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), allowing non-nodelisted individuals to freely access FidoNet services, and can be reached via a direct dial-up connection using terminal emulation software, or, as is becoming an ever increasing trend, via an internet telnet connection or web based interface. FidoNet BBS systems are often personal computers in somebody's living room, bedroom, basement or attic. They are run by a person known as the SysOp (System Oprator) who may be a young child, retired granfather, corporate executive, or grocery store stockboy. Before the internet explosion, BBS's were -THE- form of online communications for the general public, in fact, AOL and CompuServe started out as nothing more than a gigantic network of BBS's. While the commercial world has migrated to the WEB, and all it's flashy bells and wistles, there are still tens of thousands of active BBS's worldwide, with additional tens of thousands of users who utilize them. The vast majority of these systems, as FidoNet is, are offered free of charge out of pure dedication to and love of the hobby. One does not need to operate a BBS to be a FidoNet node however. All a potential node needs to do is be able to operate mailing software, and have the ability to send and recieve netmail. Public access nodes, known as CM (Continuous Mail) are required to observe the ZMH (Zone Mail Hour), however, a single user mail system could be exempt from this requirement by finding a net that is willing to list them as a Private Node. Single user node systems are very easy to set up, and could have a person participating within FidoNet in a matter of a fraction of an hour. FidoNet offers three basic types of service: -------------------------------------------- Netmail: -------- Netmail the very foundation of FidoNet. It is the FidoNet equivalent of internet E-Mail. A SysOp, user of a FidoNet BBS, or single user node can send a direct netmail to any other person with access to FidoNet. The adressing is a little different however, and one must address the message to the exact system the recieving party is on, or they won't recieve it. For example, to send me a netmail message, it would be addressed as follows: TO: Philip Lozier 1:267/169 For a user on my BBS it would be: TO: John Doe 1:267/169 It is relatively the same, just a little different addressing format than most people these days are accustomed to as the zone:net/node structure is used instead of the johndoe@domain.com structure, and the person has to actually be on another FidoNet system. Another difference is that the messages are strictly text based with no html or graphics ability, but it is a very effective way of communicating with other Fidonet members without being commercially tracked, risking virii, or having your addressed picked for inclusion for SPAM mailers and such. The most important aspect of FidoNet Netmail is that nothing in the network works without it. It is the very core of message and file distribution. In order for echomail and files to be delivered through the various hubs, they must be attached to a netmail message to the various systems along the route, which will cause the mailer software to process them accordingly and set them for further distribution. Echomail: --------- Echomail is a broadcast medium: every message that anyone enters, anywhere in FidoNet, gets distributed automatically to every other person who has subscribed to a particular conference (or echo ). These are the FidoNet equivelant of newsgroups or mailing lists. What kinds of conferences does FidoNet carry? There is something for everyone: genealogy, Star Trek, quilting, polotics, various software and hardware products, polotics, religion, sports, entertainment, just plain "chat" echoes, and much, much more. There are hundreds upon hundreds of echoes that a person can choose from. Each conference has one or more moderators, whose job it is to ensure the smooth flow of conversation and to keep people more or less on topic and within the bounds of common politeness. However, unlike some other conference schemes which allow each message to be examined before it is distributed, Echomail is wide open. A moderator cannot remove a message nor prevent others from reading it. For this reason, the moderator has only one power, and it is considered absolute: the moderator can insist that anyone's access to the conference be severed. Although most moderators are very liberal in their rule impositions, and it is very rare that somebody's feed will be cut to an echo, this does allow for the participants to have a certain level of protection from abusive and annoying posters. All echoes, except for the ones specificly designed for it, prohibit the posting of commercial advertisement, and SPAM is non existant. Just like netmail, due to the structure of echoes, you will not risk any sort of virii from utilizing them, and your address is not "free pickins" for commercial SPAMmers. All in all, it is a very unique setup in todays world, and nothing like it can be found in any of the internet based message systems. File Distributions: ------------------- In addition to electronic mail, FidoNet can (and does) distribute programs, pictures, and text files. This is similar to Echomail, although somewhat more centralized: a system subscribes to a File Distribution and then receives all files that are placed into distribution at one or more points of origin. These File Distributions are as varied as Echomail: they include shareware programs (try before you buy) of all kinds, works of literature published by Project Gutenburg (dedicated to making all public domain and copyright expired literature available in machine readable form at no charge), pictures of missing children and adults (no milk carton required), and the Tibetan Electronic Resource Guide. In addition to netmail, echomail, and file distribution, another important part of FidoNet is the "FidoNews". FidoNews was started very nearly in the beginning of FidoNet itself as a way for all the nodes to communcate openly and publicly about items of concern in the operations of FidoNet itself. The echo "FIDONEWS" is a public echo available to all FidoNet sysops to openly discuss issues of importance. Messages posted there, and responses to them, are often published in the weekly edition of the FidoNews (aka The Snooze) and issues are available for reading either in the echo itself, via the file distribution network, or can most likely be downloaded from or requested from any R or NC system, as well as many of the FidoNet BBS's. If you want to know what's going on in FidoNet, this is the place to do it. Any FidoNet node can also submit their own articles for publication direclty to the editor, and any article with issues of relevance or interest to the FidoNet members will often apear there.