mcr@julie.UUCP (Michael Richardson) (03/07/89)
I am in the process of writing a "Front Door/Sea Dog/Binkley"-like
program (for the Amiga of course) that sits in front of a bbs and does mail
transfer sessions with non-human callers. In Unix terms we are talking
about a getty(8) with built in X and Z modem.
My "vision" is of a local dialup network of computers that would be connected
together, making everyone a "point" (none of that dial/budy/autodial stuff)
and also to have connections to the outside world. (The problems of what
this would do to net bandwidth has not been overlooked. I can imagine
subscribing to a group and then subscribing to individual threads --- like
a glorified kill file. Also, Distribution: would be a hard and fast
rule!!!)
I've done enough uucp connection configuring (but never with HDB uucp,
only BSD or mickey mouse micro uucp stuff.) to realise that most
system administrators already know how to do "ogin:" <name> "sword:" <password>"
stuff, but is there any real reason that this has to be done?
Under Fidonet, a (horrible kludge) _special_ character (0xAE I think) is
sent to start the base level protocol. (No security) When someone came
up with the idea of doing protocol negotiation, a new _special_
sync character was defined (of course that is extendible---but only with
a sixteen bit mask.)
I don't want to put up a "login:" prompt and then look for sync's
or login names, confusing the heck out of human callers when they have to
enter "bbs" or they enter their name and then I pull the bbs (or whatever---
I'm not specific) up. I don't to have anything to do with "user logs" or
passwd files.
I suspect that it would simply make sense to put up---
"UUCP?" and if I receive a "Y" then print a "login:" otherwise
drop into the bbs (after checking for the fidonet [yuck---Zmodem excepted]
protocols)
Does anyone know if this is going to present any big problems to any
known sites that I might care about? (i.e. IBM 360 running a uucp written
in JCL... :-))
Thanks!
--
:!mcr!:
Michael Richardson Amiga
v--------+
UUCP: uunet!attcan!lsuc!nrcaer!julie!mcr | INTERNET mcr@doe.carleton.ca
Fido: Michael Richardson @ 1:163/109.10<--+ Alter @ 7:483/109.10les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (03/13/89)
In article <0724.AA0724@julie> mcr@julie.UUCP (Michael Richardson) writes: > I am in the process of writing a "Front Door/Sea Dog/Binkley"-like >program (for the Amiga of course) that sits in front of a bbs and does mail [..] > I've done enough uucp connection configuring (but never with HDB uucp, >only BSD or mickey mouse micro uucp stuff.) to realise that most >system administrators already know how to do "ogin:" <name> "sword:" <password>" >stuff, but is there any real reason that this has to be done? The uucp login script is really in the form of: expect send expect send with the variation that: expect1-senda-expect2 means that if the expect1 sequence is not received within the timeout interval, then send "senda" with an implicit carriage return and then wait for the expect2 sequence. The alternate sequences can be nested and a null expect "" may be used if the caller should send something before expecting anything back. > I don't want to put up a "login:" prompt and then look for sync's >or login names, confusing the heck out of human callers when they have to >enter "bbs" or they enter their name and then I pull the bbs (or whatever--- >I'm not specific) up. I don't to have anything to do with "user logs" or >passwd files. The point of this is that you should output whetever you want your human callers to see (as does unix with the "login:" prompt) and make the script look for that. You are obviously going to have to keep track of the system names somewhere in order to know which files to send so you might as well do it based on the login name and use a password if you want security. That way you can also use alternate protocols for different sites. Les Mikesell
wcf@psuecl.bitnet (Bill Fenner) (03/13/89)
In article <0724.AA0724@julie>, mcr@julie.UUCP (Michael Richardson) writes: > I am in the process of writing a "Front Door/Sea Dog/Binkley"-like > program (for the Amiga of course) that sits in front of a bbs and does mail > transfer sessions with non-human callers. In Unix terms we are talking > about a getty(8) with built in X and Z modem. > I suspect that it would simply make sense to put up--- > "UUCP?" and if I receive a "Y" then print a "login:" otherwise > drop into the bbs (after checking for the fidonet [yuck---Zmodem excepted] > protocols) > > Does anyone know if this is going to present any big problems to any > known sites that I might care about? (i.e. IBM 360 running a uucp written > in JCL... :-)) > > > My "vision" is of a local dialup network of computers that would be connected > together, making everyone a "point" (none of that dial/budy/autodial stuff) > and also to have connections to the outside world. (The problems of what > this would do to net bandwidth has not been overlooked. I can imagine > subscribing to a group and then subscribing to individual threads --- like > a glorified kill file. Also, Distribution: would be a hard and fast > rule!!!) > > I've done enough uucp connection configuring (but never with HDB uucp, > only BSD or mickey mouse micro uucp stuff.) to realise that most > system administrators already know how to do "ogin:" <name> "sword:" <password>" > stuff, but is there any real reason that this has to be done? > > Under Fidonet, a (horrible kludge) _special_ character (0xAE I think) is > sent to start the base level protocol. (No security) When someone came > up with the idea of doing protocol negotiation, a new _special_ > sync character was defined (of course that is extendible---but only with > a sixteen bit mask.) > > I don't want to put up a "login:" prompt and then look for sync's > or login names, confusing the heck out of human callers when they have to > enter "bbs" or they enter their name and then I pull the bbs (or whatever--- > I'm not specific) up. I don't to have anything to do with "user logs" or > passwd files. Why not do it the way Binkley does it -- wait for an escape or some other key from the user to load the BBS, wait for the Fido sync characters, or wait for some other string, specified by the user. Mine is UUCPPLEASE. My L.sys entry is hogbbs Any ACU 2400 8142389633 econds--econds UUCPPLEASE UUCP-UUCPPLEASE-UUCP The bbs says something like Press your escape key now, or wait 25 seconds that's where the econds comes from. Then when it gets a UUCPPLEASE, it says Loading UUCP, please wait... thus the UUCP-UUCPPLEASE-UUCP. It's worked well for several months. Good luck! Bill Fenner