#

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.

## History of Fidonet by Tom Jennings

### Part 1

         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

### Part 2

         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]

### Part 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]

## History of Fidonet, Taken From TrapDoor Distrubution

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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