kingsley@hpwrce.HP.COM (Kingsley Morse) (04/27/91)
I'd like to learn more about Fidonet. I've seen internet email addresses from fidonet, and I've seen it mentioned on electronic bulletin boards that I call from my PC via a modem. Does this mean my PC can become an internet email node if I download fidonet communication software from a bulletin board?
jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (04/29/91)
In article <2370012@hpwrce.HP.COM>, kingsley@hpwrce.HP.COM (Kingsley Morse) writes: |> I'd like to learn more about Fidonet. I've seen internet email addresses from |> fidonet, and I've seen it mentioned on electronic bulletin boards that I call |> from my PC via a modem. Does this mean my PC can become an internet email node |> if I download fidonet communication software from a bulletin board? I think there is some confusion here about the meaning of the term "Internet." In general, the word "Internet" is used to refer to the real-time network make up of subnets such as the NSFnet, NEARnet, and others (I mention those not because of any favoritism, but because they're the ones I thought if first :-). It started as the DARPA Internet, or ARPAnet. See the book "The Matrix" (by John Quarterman) for more information about it. Fidonet is a modem network of PC BBSs. Well, that's what it is for the most part. There may be some Unix boxes and/or network capable boxes on Fidonet, but I don't know about that, and I'm talking in generalities here. "The Matrix" also talks quite a bit about Fidonet. Anyway, there are some machines that act as gateways between the much of the rest of the E-mail world and Fidonet. This means that someone on a UUCP host or on an Internet host can send mail to a user on a Fidonet node, or vice versa. If, when you asked if your PC could become an "internet email node," you were asking if you could make it possible to exchange mail with people on the Internet through your PC, the answer is yes -- you can do it by becoming a Fidonet node. However, unless you intend to run a BBS on your PC, it's probably easier just to buy a modem (if you don't already have one) and get an account on a Fidonet machine near you. If all you want is to be able to exchange mail with the Internet, you don't need to turn your PC into a Fidonet node just to do that. By the way, Fidonet also gateways some Usenet newsgroups between itself and the Usenet, which means that if you find a Fidonet machine that carries the gatewayed newsgroups, you can have limited Usenet access without getting a public-access Usenet account. Personally, however, I think you'd be better off doing that (i.e. getting a public-access account, such as one of the ones listed on the Nixpub postings) than getting an ID on a Fidonet node, unless you can't find a public-access site near you. Especially if the public-access site gives you shell access. What can I say, I'm just a Unix junkie :-). -- Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710