* Originally in ic
* Crossposted in fn_sysop
* Crossposted in fido_sysop
Hello All!

There's been some discussion of fidonet.net around for the last week or two and
i've noticed that most of the docs about fidonet.net are in russian, so
here is a short summary in english for anybody interested in joining.

Note that i'm not responsible for anything written in here, i've just
compiled and translated some public-aviable info. Do you think i should
submit it to Bjorn for the next snooze?

Anyway, here it is:

What is fidonet.net?
====================

Fidonet.net is a domain inteneded for BINKP nodes, the idea is that any
listed node can be contacted using
f.n.z.fidonet.net Some pupular binkp
mailers already support that, for example in binkd, you can use:

root-domain fidonet.net
node 2:400/567 * password

To contact me. As you can see, no need to specify an FQDN or IP adress
manually this way.

How to join?
============

First of all, you should check whether your net already has a listing in
fidonet.net for example for 2:400 under windows do:

nslookup n400.z2.fidonet.net

If you get: "Name:    n400.z2.fidonet.net" - your net is listed.
If you get: ": can't find n40.z2.fidonet.net:
Non-existent domain" - your net is not.

Under linux, you should do "host -t any n400.z2.fidonet.net"

If it's listed, you'll get something like:

n400.z2.fidonet.net SOA ns.aha.ru. fido.aha.ru. 10104068 7200 3600 604800 3600
n400.z2.fidonet.net name server ns.fidonet.net.

If it's not:

Host n400.z2.fidonet.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

If your net is already listed contact you NC for information on joining.

Getting your net listed
=======================

If your network (zone,reion) is not already listed in fidonet.net, you can
send a request to hostmaster{at}fidonet.net containing:

1. A letter from your NC with agreement to delegate the administration of
the zone to you. (or anybody else)
2. Contacts (fido and email) for the maintainer of the zone.
3. Adresses of the nameserver(s) handling the zone.
4. Confirmation of allowing ZONE-XFER from ns.fidonet.net on the nameserver.
    (e.g. allow-transfer in BIND)

Hosting the zone
================

You can either host the zone on your own nameserver or ask somebody to do
it for you. The setup of the zone should be trivial to somebody familiar
with nameservers, so i'll not elaborate on this.

Currently 2 sysops i know agreed to host subzones on their servers, if you
contact them you should probably attach something like paragraph 1 and 2
from the above list:

Matt Bedynek, 1:106/1, fido /at/ thunderdome /dot/ ws
Peter Didenko, 2:5020/52, fido /at/ aha /dot/ ru

Both will provide a web interface for making changes.

Note that Peter (as published on his site) requres ALL nodes in the subzone
to be CM-BINKP and checks conectivity daily, removing any nodes that can't
be contacted in 30 days. Also any node listed in a subzone he hosts, which
have a fidonet (secure) link with his system can use a web interface to
modify the listing directly.

Best Regards, Viktor (aka BlackDew)

--- np: Nightwish - Once - 08 - Romanticide