Whilst pondering the meaning of life Barry, saw Jefferson Whitehead post 
this...
 JW> Thank you very much Barry, for the explanation. I will have to say that 
Your welcome.
 JW> when I saw the message posted on another board, it scared the
 JW> "bejeebers" out of me; but I credit that to my being a neophyte when it 
Same thing happened to me also.
 JW> comes to computers and 'echo mail'. In fact, I am befuddled every time
 JW> I turn-on the 'puter. :) I had no idea I was in 'echo mail' whatever 
 JW> that is. I realize it must "echo" through-out some system, but why, I 
Let me see if I can put it another way.... Hmmmm. Ok I think I've got it.
Lets say you you write something down on a piece of paper. Let's say for
the sake of argument it's the word "yellow" (yellow becomes a message).
You give it to a friend (your local bbs). However your friend (the bbs)
then gives it to his/her friend who just happens to be a loud mouth (a
hub).
Now this loud mouth can't just keep this message to him/her-self and blabs
it to other friends (more local bbs's and a r-hub {regional hub}). This
goes on till it hits what we call the 'backbone'. There are 3 backbone
systems who's job is to collect _all_ messages in all the messages areas
(echoes) and kinda mush them all and the ones that did get your message
(yellow) now gets it. Then the process goes on backwards to every bbs
that is carrying that echo.
So say you live in my state NJ. Calling into a bbs here you would see this
message. In maybe a day or so you could call a bbs in Europe and if it
carries this echo you would see the same message again. So the message is
kinda like yelling into a canyon where it echoes all over the place. :)
 JW> just do not know. Would not that be a dangerous thing?
Nope as you can see from what I just said. It's gotta get to all the bbs's
that want it. :>
 JW> Again, thank you for taking the time to educate me:)
Not a problem. The echo kinda needs the traffic and I'm willing to bend (is
some one going to say rules?! :>) rules from time to time. It's a pretty
easy echo to moderate so... not a problem.
Barry.
From Barry Blaes, on Stardate 9804.28.
E-mail: btblaes@bigfoot.com. Http://wwp.mirabilis.com/3657746
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... We are all prisoners here of our own device!
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