Re: Nodelist Flags
  By: Paul Hayton to All on Sat May 30 2020 12:29:28


 PH> If I wanted to signal a BBS accepts users on a non standard port for
 PH> Telnet or SSH or... what is the best way to show this in a FTN
 PH> nodelist?

quite simply, you don't... the nodelist is for mailers to communicate with
other mailers...

granted, back in the day, the nodelist was used like a dialing directory but
that was easily done since there was only one "port/line" to connect via... at
that time, when these dialing directories were being used/generated, the MO
(Mail Only) flag was used to filter out systems without a BBS... the CM flag
was use to show systems with 24x7 access and the limited online flags were used
to show time limited access systems... but since FTN has embraced the 'net,
this has all gone out the window...

othernets can, though, make their own flags for things like this... it isn't
really proper for what the nodelist is designed for but it is able to be
done... i wouldn't expect fidonet to do this, though... if it were to be done,
i'd expect to see a U[ser] flag used... U flags are not supposed to be
regulated but some nets do do that... anyway, possibly something like this
could be used...

  CM,INA:blah,U,BBS:2300

where BBS is the U flag and if followed by ":xxxxx" where the 'x' are numbers,
they would be the port on the already determined domain... the existance of the
BBS user flag could be used to indicate several things... a BBS exists there,
or a BBS exists there and accepts unsolicited BBS callers... lack of the BBS U
flag could be used to indicate no BBS at all or simply a BBS that doesn't
accept unsolicited callers... either way, be sure to read up on how the U
flag(s) are to be listed...

in any case, other FTNs can do what they like for the most part... that's one
of the reasons they came into existance in the first place ;)


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux