[comp.mail.misc] Is it time for comp.mail.gateways yet?

fitz@wang.UUCP (Tom Fitzgerald) (11/11/89)

>In article <645@wang.UUCP>, fitz@wang.UUCP (Tom Fitzgerald) writes:
>|  Now that about 10% of the traffic in comp.mail.misc is of the form
>|  "Is there any way to send mail to *@&#%^-Net?", it might be time to
>|  set up a new group for this stuff.  By now I can recite the rules
>|  for swapping mail with MCI-mail, Fido and Compuserve in my sleep.

davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) writes:
>   Now *this* is a good idea. It would keep the traffic down, is not
> controversial, public service and all that. We need someone to write and
> post the techniques... someone who can recite the rules in his sleep...
> how about Tom Fitzgerald?

I'd be delighted to, except for one small logistical problem - I'm not on
the Internet.  Since the vast majority of the postings are about gateways
between the Internet and other nets, I'd be compiling info that I
couldn't verify, which is probably a bad thing.

This is probably irrelevant given John Chew's compilation, which Kjartan
Stefansson just reposted.  More detail would be useful, but there's
no point in arguing this on the net.

---
Tom Fitzgerald   fitz@wang.com          No matter where you go....
Wang Labs        ...!uunet!wang!fitz    But where am I?
Lowell MA, USA   1-508-967-5278

jamesd@qiclab.UUCP (James Deibele) (11/13/89)

In article <645@wang.UUCP> fitz@wang.UUCP (Tom Fitzgerald) writes:
>Now that about 10% of the traffic in comp.mail.misc is of the form
>"Is there any way to send mail to *@&#%^-Net?", it might be time to
>set up a new group for this stuff.  By now I can recite the rules
>for swapping mail with MCI-mail, Fido and Compuserve in my sleep.

It sounds like an excellent idea to me.  That kind of information is not
obvious, and it's something that more and more people will be interested in.

There have been two books published on the metanetwork that we use, O'Reilly
& Associates' _@!%:: An Electronic Mail Directory_ (or something like that, 
don't have it nearby) and John Quarterman's _The Matrix: Computer Networks and
Conferencing Systems Worldwide_.  These are probably a bit esoteric for most
bookstores, but I'm sure most technical and college bookstores will start
carrying at least one of them. ($26.95 & $50.00 respectively, the O'Reilly
book was available last month, the Quarterman book this week.)

I have to admit that I'm a bit old-fashioned, and much prefer to browse through
a book (with maps, even if they're not what you'd call high-res) than man 
pages.  If you're into reference books, Quarterman is a real kick: I was 
relieved to learn that while North Korea isn't accessible (so far as is 
publicly known), Mongolia is.

The well-known problem with books is that they're often outdated, and I think
a monthly list, or a list posted as changes are made, would be of real value.

Now, if we can just find a sucker ^H^H^H^H^H^H, errrr, volunteer ...

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