DG> I am having some trouble reconciling this objective with the
 DG> way I know FrontDoor 2.12 operates. I know you are not
 DG> suggesting that absolutely no software changes should be
 DG> required to achieve this, but some are suggesting that it is
 DG> possible.. Mats Wallin suggests using a virtual modem, but
 DG> that requires software with multi-line capability, or else two
 DG> different configurations of single-line software.

my thinking is that the virtual modem mats is talking about is really
nothing more than software. that's exactly how i'm doing it over here.
absolutely no changes to =ANY= of my existing comm based software has been
necessary... i did have to configure some port addresses but that's not the
same...

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

if it wasn't for everyone wanting to not break old software, we could get
around this in the nodelist quite simply by prefixing the IP or DOMAIN
numbers with a symbol (or two if one wants to specify a protocol)...

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

my thoughts on this (for two years or so) have been that the above would
handle the two protocols, telnet and vmodem, and also allow for EITHER IP
or DOMAIN names to be used. guess what? systems that are only landline can
tell the difference ('cause of the leading symbol) and not even try to call
IP or DOMAIN based sites. ;-)

as an example, my system calls bob juge's system over the internet by
"dialing" #juge.com ... the internet handles looking up juge.com
for the IP address. i forget whether the # is for telnet or vmodem but
whichever it is, my virtual modem software automatically handles whichever
one.

i will say that this is one time that i really really really wish that we
could put a timelimit on the support of legacy software. it would be really
great to say, "on blah blah, we will be putting the new nodelist
format online for network use. if you haven't upgraded or replaced your
software by that time, sorry." of course, in this type of situation,
we can also provide "converters" to drop the format back to the
old style for those older machines. we have had to do that for
RemoteAccess' EXITINFO.BBS file two times that i'm aware of. i even wrote
one of the three or four programs that do that for RA. yeah, ok, it adds
another step to legacy machines processing of (in this case) the nodelist
but them's the breaks. then i stop and think about it from a legacy
software point of view and i know i'd likely be upset or hurt that this was
being done to me.

 Md>> Anyway, I think cable providers like {at}home dynamically
 Md>> assign IPs with DHCP, even if the connection is permanent.

 DG> True, as I have later found out.. to prevent BBSs and websites
 DG> from being run off home systems.

greedy phreaks...

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

YES!!! the ml.org site i listed above is my bbs. my web server is on
www.wplace..... and my ftp server will be on ftp.wplace..... you get the
picture, eh? i've got *5* nodes running over that link at this time.

  [ok ok guys! don't all of you jump on it at once! >]

)\/(ark