DG> Replying to a message of mark lewis to Darryl Gregorash:

 ml>> my thinking is that the virtual modem mats is talking about
 ml>> is really nothing more than software.

 DG> Of course it is; it is virtual, an emulation :)

exactly... that's the beauty of it...

 ml>> i'm doing it over here. absolutely no changes to =ANY= of
 ml>> my existing comm based software has been necessary... i did
 ml>> have to configure some port addresses but that's not the
 ml>> same...

 DG> You are also running a rather more powerul mailer than I am,
 DG> Mark :)

 DG> Let us not even begin to try pretending that the virtual modem
 DG> is any kind of workable solution for the sysop running
 DG> shareware Frodo, or Binkley, or anything like that.. because
 DG> it is not.

it's not?? i'm running frontdoor... i can just as easily setup fd 2.02nc on
one of the virtual ports... i even used the old DOS version of telix
earlier today to telnet into a system a get some files ;-)

 DG>>> That is workable, I suppose, but the way they are talking,
 DG>>> a  static IP must be present in the phone field.

 ml>> if it wasn't for everyone wanting to not break old software,

 DG> Do not include me in that "everyone" :).. but I am also _for_
 DG> the notion of whoever breaks something being responsible to
 DG> provide a fix for the users of the now-broken stuff :)

i wasn't including you... 'twas a general statement...

 ml>> we could get around this in the nodelist quite simply by
 ml>> prefixing the IP or DOMAIN numbers with a symbol (or two if
 ml>> one wants to specify a protocol)...

 ml>>    ie:  #bbs.wplace.dyn.ml.org
 ml>>         $bbs.wplace.dyn.ml.org

 DG> Agreed, this would be an excellent way to do things.
 DG> Unfortunately, it is said, it breaks current nodelist
 DG> compilers, as well as the nodelist update software used by
 DG> *Cs.. oh well, someone could write up a nodelist translator to
 DG> get back to St Louis format for anyone who can't handle the
 DG> domains and the dollar signs, and someone could always hack
 DG> David Nugent's MakeNL-clone code :)

the symbols # and $ were for example only... others could be used as long
as the software was able to translate them to the appropraite needs...

 ml>> my thoughts on this (for two years or so) have been that the
 ml>> above would handle the two protocols, telnet and vmodem,

 DG> Umm, why only telnet and vmodem? Why not ftp too? (We are
 DG> speaking of mailers here, of course.. if we were speaking of
 DG> BBS software, I would include http in the list of why-not's)

telnet and vmodem 'cause that's what the virtual modems do... they don't do
FTP or HTTP... there is other software for that... besides, FTP is akin to
xmodem and only recently acquired the ability to do resume of partial
downloads...

i rather like doing zmodem over a telnet or vmodem connection... think of
them like v.34 or v.90...

as fot FTP and HTTP, those are other protocols and are "outside"
the virtual modem implementations currently available... it's easy enough
to set up a script, on those machines/os' that can, to do FTP... indeed, FD
has this capability but the one's i've seen use a dialup to a *nix prompt
and do a double transfer... FTP to the *nix machine and then zmodem to the
FD machine...

 DG> [on DHCP problems]

DHCP??? i don't remember that in this discussion... DHCP is a method of the
provider assigning address and in some cases, dns addresses for lookups...

 DG>>> But I think places like ml.org can take care of that
 DG>>> problem, yes?

 ml>> YES!!! the ml.org site i listed above is my bbs. my web
 ml>> server is on www.wplace.....

 DG> I don't even pretend to understand how it all works, but if it
 DG> does.. I suppose the domain with the dynamic IP has to let
 DG> these places know when its IP changes?

yep, they run a script or a program to do it... it's so pretty quick that
by the time my script has finished letting ml.org know my new IP and i can
get another window open (some few seconds), i can ping my system using my
domain name...

 DG> (Could I register my system with them too, even if it is only
 DG> up for a short time every 2 hours? If I could, then I could
 DG> fire up an ftp server instead of just an ftp client, and
 DG> systems with mail to send to this net could send it when I
 DG> pick up my regular mail runs.. this could add a brand new
 DG> dimension to the meaning of "host-routed netmail" :))

yep! sure could... so in that case, the "time online" flags aould
maybe come in handy for you... the Txx flags i believe...

mind you, though... i believe a plain DOS box would be playing a very
troublesome game to try to do this... the GUI environments lends themselves
to this type of stuff much easier and the tools are already there for
them...

)\/(ark