Hello opendos{at}delorie.com!

15 Jan 04 08:19, Gary Welles wrote to OpenDos:

 >> Since that's already in place, including being connected as part
 >> of the internet;  I'm not sure what your point is...

 GW> A network having a gateway to the Internet, as Fidonet does, does
 GW> not make it part of the Internet.  I assume Fidonet users can
 GW> exchange messages without those messages traversing the Internet,
 GW> or at least not as Internet mail (SMTP).

The classic networking definition of a "gateway" =does= require
being a member of the multiple networks involved, so those gateway systems
are "part of the Internet" or they can't technically
"gate".

With the advent of IP mailers for Fidonet, the majority of IP nodes in Fido
are tunneling Fido protocols within Internet protocols...not utilizing the
translation services provided by a gateway to convert one to the other. 
That =does= (necessarily) make them a "part of the Internet"
=and= "part of Fidonet" simultaneously, during a single
connection.

With some IP mailers, it is also possible to transfer Fido data files
(including messages) using only Internet protocols, and none of the Fidonet
handshake/transfer protocols.

.\\ike

--- GoldED 2.50+