I sent this message to everyone below today...

Hello to everyone who has sent me mail recently regarding the new
UUCP-based network.

I have finally got my Linux system set up and now have people dialling
me using UUCP and sending and receiving news (no email at the moment).

To make things clearer, here is how I view current network technology:

1. Fidonet using FTN
2. Othernets using FTN (e.g. adultnet, zyxelnet etc etc).
3. The internet using RFC technology (aka internet technology)
4. This new network using basic RFC technology

Given that nodes in this new network are NOT necessarily internet-contactable,
you have to be prepared for a whole lot of fake names.  Although it's not how
I set up my system, would it make sense that whenever we have a fake address,
we make it end in "dial"?  E.g. freddy{at}castle.dial.  Like I said,
this isn't
how I have set my system up so far.  What I did to get started was this...

Since my normal tty dialup account on the internet is 
avon{at}rosebay.matra.com.au, I decided to create a fake internet address of
scorpio.rosebay.matra.com.au, and then everyone who dials me using UUCP get
an account name of "Ubobl", for a user called "Bob
Lawrence" etc.  In my
"newsfeeds" file I specified an address ("exclude") as 
Ubobl.scorpio.rosebay.matra.com.au, but I don't know whether this is a good
idea yet.  Anyway, my system is far from the ideal fake-internet setup, but
it is currently working.  

Oh, and just because we are using fake-internet addresses in some places, 
does not mean that EVERY node in the new network uses a fake internet 
address.  I envisaged that real ones would be used whenever the node also 
had a real internet address.  Basically the equivalent of a 69:xxxx node 
transferring mail using their fidonet 3:xxxx address, if the 69 network 
allowed it.  I would expect that something like 40% of the nodes would 
have a real internet addressable system (I don't), and another 50% had a 
real internet addressable userid (I do).  So in my case, messages that 
I post would come from avon{at}rosebay.matra.com.au, but anyone dialling my 
system would consider it to be the non-internet system known as
scorpio.rosebay.matra.com.au, which I may rename to scorpio.dial or similar
instead.

I have defined the following newsgroups on my system:

dial.sysop - general area for sysops of the new network
dial.test - general area for posting test messages
dial.avtech - a gated fidonet echo (AUST_AVTECH)
dial.tml.locsysop - an area local to my system for messages to sysop
dial.tml.locuser - an area local to my system for messages between users

I prefixed them all with "dial" so as to not interfere with the
"alt" and
"comp" as used by the real internet.

So anyway, as of RIGHT NOW, the new network DOES exist, although it's got
a lot of work left to do yet!  The network exists as far as I and others
are nodes in the network, exchanging UUCP mail.  Anyone who wants to join
immediately can send mail to avon{at}rosebay.matra.com.au.  Specify a userid
(that starts with "U", and preferably that has your name in it, e.g.
"bobl" for "Bob Lawrence"), plus a password (yes, I
know it will not be
totally secure on the internet, but I'm not expecting a deluge of mad
hackers from the internet, trying to hook into dial.sysop) and I'll create
the account.  You will then get all the above echos, if you dial
+61 2 9436 1785 between the hours of 8pm-9pm AEST (10:00-11:00 UTC) and 
log on with your account name using the UUCP protocol.

Obviously this setup leaves a lot to be desired, especially the international
phone calls, and everyone in the entire world having to call me!  So we need:

1. Nodes in other countries that can provide a UUCP feed.
2. A method of transferring newsgroups in our network, over the internet,
probably via a mail message or FTP or something.
3. I need to set my Linux system up better and for extended hours!
4. Suggested software for UUCP hosts that runs on non-unix systems.
5. Lots of other technology, like a nodelist.

Ok, ignore 3, that's my problem, I have a 24-hour system, but it's
23-hours fidonet (non-nodelisted 3:711/934), and 1 hour UUCP, and it will go
the other way around in the coming days as the last of the people still
dialling me fidonet confirm that they are able to restrict their calls to
8-9pm.

Number 4 just needs someone to pipe in with the answer, or maybe the answer
is "there isn't any", e.g. on MSDOS.

Number 2 I am open to suggestion on.  I am running Linux on an 80x86 and
have a TTY dialup account on the internet, and have the program to do PPP,
and under that, I successfully use sendmail to send mail, fetchmail to fetch
mail, and suck to suck newsgroups from an NNTP server (which I was planning
on gating to the new network, but I won't for the time being).

Number 1 + 5 are a matter of people sending me details of their system, and
also some suggestion of what fields are required.  Here is my suggestion to
get the ball rolling:

"scorpio.rosebay.matra.com.au","Paul
Edwards","Wollstonecraft,NSW,Australia",
"61 2 9436
1785","scorpio","U,D","avon{at}rosebay.matra.com.au","10-11"

(except all on one line).

Ok, that format is:

1. My internet-style address (fake or real)
2. My name
3. My geographical location
4. My international phone number (can be empty if node is private)
5. System name that is used by the UUCP protocol
6. Flags:
   U = support UUCP protocol (as a host, not just as a user).
   D = can be dialled into (e.g. a private node may or may not be dialable).
   R = The system name given is a real internet address
7. Sysop's internet address (if he has one)
8. Hours the system is online

Note that additional fields may be added in due course.

Also there is other things that needed to be sorted out, like routing paths.
No-one is required to route mail (or do anything in fact!), so we need to
specify who is willing to do what, separately.

By the way, a number of people have said that this new network is nothing
new, it's already covered by Usenet or UUCPnet or something else.  If that
is the case, all these issues should be a doddle to solve, we'll just copy
off what they are using.  :-)

Ok, there's no real-internet mailing list that I have set up (I don't have the
technology even, although I do have the technology to send mail to someone),
so if someone would like to volunteer to set one up, we could use that in
the absence of dial.sysop having a wider audience.  I will post a list of
people who have sent me mail below, if that's of any help.  There were quite
a lot of users on my system who were happy to collect their mail via UUCP
instead of FTS-*, so I expect if the rest of you put your systems into
UUCP mode, the new network will expand.

Oh, another thing is that EVERY user in this system can be put into the
"nodelist" in it's current form, since there is no requirement on them to
do anything to qualify.  This will also be useful in the initial stages,
maybe if you know someone in your city is pulling in newsgroups, you can
negotiate with them to see if there is some way for them to provide you
with mail, even though they don't have dial-in capability (maybe they can
call you).

Paul Edwards, 1997-05-25.

amouat{at}ozemail.com.au
blchupin{at}pcug.org.au
boby{at}pixi.com
camstock{at}ozemail.com.au
chrism{at}softtech.brisnet.org.au
davidd{at}lmc.edu.au
dbarnes{at}majik.net
fadam{at}ozemail.com.au
David.Chord{at}hn.planet.gen.nz
nick{at}linux.daa.de
johns{at}sstar.com
jonas{at}coyote.org
mikebw{at}bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net
moffatt{at}yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au
Simon_Richter{at}sesom.de
pmarkham{at}world.net
pp{at}55-174.hy.cgocable.ca
pp{at}dilu.ml.org
pp{at}gulliver.qc.ca
randy{at}zws.com
rojones{at}viper.net.au
rowan{at}velvet.sensation.net.au
srtxg{at}linux.chanae.stben.be
szarka{at}brazerko.com
uucp{at}mail.microserve.net
yowie{at}geocities.com

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