On (02 Dec 02) Felipe T. Dorado wrote to Frank Vest...

Hello Felipe,

 FV> In the IP world, as I understand it, Mail is not transfered
 FV> until two
 FV> Nodes connect at a specific address with passwords that match. Until
 FV> that happens there is nothing but a request for a connection... much
 FV> the same as a phone ringing... until something (a modem) answers,
 FV> there is no connection and no transfer.

 FT> Yes, that I understand. But packages have to travel through various
 FT> nodes. And those nodes are not Fido nodelisted but strangers to me. I
 FT> simply don't trust them.
 FT> I know there are things like lists that certain programs use to select
 FT> and keep messages that contain what is in the lists. No idea about how
 FT> it is exactly done so not much confidence in what I'm saying. But no
 FT> confidence whatsoever in my emails not being kept somewhere to be used
 FT> when the need arises :(

When talking about Internet e-mail, yes, the mail goes through many
nodes and could be intercepted. When talking about Fidonet mail, there
may be "hops" in the path.... IE: sbcglobal.net connects me to att.net
that connects me to some other isp that connects me to your isp, but
that is not the same as mail packets being transfered. It is only
connections. Like linking one phone number to another.

In the old POTS terms it would be like you dialing your feed who then
determines that the call is to me and dials my POTS line from his/her
second POTS line.

Your feed may connect to me, but there is no mail transfer until my
mailer accepts the mail from your mailer. :)

In another way to see it:

My mailer connects to the Z1C who then dials the IC on another pots
line while holding the connection to me. The IC then dials your mailer
number while holding the connection to the Z1C. When your mailer
answers, the connection between the "relays" is complete and we
exchange mail. If one fails to connect to the next in line (IE: bad
phone number), there is no connection and no mail transfered.

In the POTS world, this could be done, but would be difficult. In the
IP world, it isn't so hard. :-)

Disclaimer: I may be full of bull here. :-)

Regards,

Frank

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/flv
http://biseonline.com/r19

--- PPoint 3.01