Category : Information about the Internet from the early 1990's
Archive : USEGATE.ZIP
Filename : USEGATE.HOW
Output of file : USEGATE.HOW contained in archive : USEGATE.ZIP
o Go to the FidoNet (Matrix) Mail area on your usual FidoNet system.
o Send a message to 'uucp' at the UFgate node that serves your NET.
o The Subject: field can be anything you wish.
o On the first line of the body of the message, enter the address of
your correspondent using the syntax:
To: user@domain
or
To: machine!user
Follow with a blank line and then your message text.
o Unlike FidoNet, uucp/BITNET/Internet systems expect line oriented
text. Enter a hard
that the BBS or editor you are using preserves "soft CRs" (see below).
Here is an example, entered on a Opus BBS
+--------------------------------------+
| MATRIX area 3 ... Fidonet Mail Area
|
| Select: e
|
|
| Fidonet Mail Area
| This will be a message in area #3.
|
| Private [y,N,?=help]? y
|
| Matrix address: 105/14
|
|
| Busker's Boneyard (105/14) Portland OR
| To: uucp
| Subject: Test Message
| Create msg from file [y,N]?
|
| 1: To: [email protected]
| 2:
| 3: This is a test message from FidoNet to uucp in response to your
| 4: question in the UFGATE Echo. I'm just capturing an example so that I
| 5: can answer your question.
| 6:
| 7: Do I detect an Apple user? pro-lep looks like a ProLine system
| 8: running on Apple II hardware.
| 9:
| 10: Lisa Gronke
| 11: can be reached here, but a better address is:
| 12: [email protected]
| 13:
|
| Editor Options:
| Select: s
| Saving your message (#1)...
+--------------------------------------+
Caveats and finer points.
o UFgates sites (some of them) are flagged in the nodelist with the
'GUucp' flag. A list is published once a month in the UFGATE Echo.
o The 'T' of the To: user@domain line MUST be the first character on the
first line of the body of the message. Anything which prepends lines
onto a gateway message will cause the message to orphan at the gate
(for example, the U)pdate function in Fido prepends a line).
o The address must be the only thing on the line.
o These Internet style (user@domain) addresses have the correct syntax:
|To: [email protected]
|To: [email protected]
|To: [email protected]
These Internet style (user@domain) addresses will NOT work:
|To: lisa@m2xenix
| [you MUST specify the domain or pseudo-domain]
|To: [email protected] (Lisa Gronke)
| [UFGATE software can't handle this legal RFC822 syntax yet]
|To: [email protected]
| [use FidoNet, not UFgate to reach another FidoNet system]
|To: [email protected], [email protected]
| [multiple addresses require a separate To line for each]
o You can also use "bang path" syntax. Constructing a valid bang path
for a de novo message is difficult unless you are an experienced
uucp user. For replies, you may be able to copy it from the first
line of the inner header. Bang paths are the native adressing mode of
the uucp/usenet network, and a well constructed bang path can be
faster, particularly for local messages. Anyone who uses them is likely
to develop a love/hate relationship with MAILER-DAEMONS.
|To: link.system!next.link!....!destination.system!user
For example, 1:105/14 (uucp: busker) has a uucp link to 'reed'. This
bang path is a way (in point of fact, not the best way) to get from
the NET 105 UFgate to my account on m2xenix.
|Send FidoNet (Matrix) Mail to uucp on 1:105/14 and use...
|To: reed!qiclab!m2xenix!lisa
o Uucp/usenet and the other networks connected to them expect "line
oriented" text. BITNET, in particular, will truncate longer lines
at 70+ characters. Unix systems usually get them intact, but some
utilities don't handle them gracefully. If you are sure that your messages
are reaching the gateway with embedded soft CRs, you can enter traditional
FidoNet "paragraph formatted" text. Otherwise, you should type a hard
CR at the end of each line.
These BBS and editors _DO_ insert soft CRs in the byte stream:
Opus v1.03b, QuickBBS v2.04, MSGED (configuration option).
These BBS and editors DO NOT insert soft CRs in the byte stream:
Fido v12, Lynx II.
FidoNet is moving away from embedded soft CRs, and new software is
likely to fall in the second category. At one time (maybe still)
there was a Lynx packer/unpacker that stripped soft CRs; mail entered
on an Opus system but passing through a Lynx system en route to the
UFgate would lose the soft CRs necessary for MAILOUT translation.
o Don't forget that you have to add the uucp address manually to both
de novo messages and REPLIES. Hitting R)eply will give you the correct
FidoNet header for the gate, but you must retype the uucp address.
o For problems, try FidoNet (Matrix) Mail to:
David Dodell at 1:114/15 (default forwarder for ZONE 1)
Randy Bush at 1:105/42 (default forwarder for ZONE 2,3,4,5]
Tim Pozar at 1:125/555 (UFGATE software)
nomad at 1:105/6 (fidonet.org hostmaster)
[forwarded to [email protected]]
Lisa Gronke at 1:105/6 (general questions)
or post a question in the UFGATE Echo.
===========================================================================
Sending Mail from Uucp or Internet to FidoNet
FidoNet addresses are of the form Zone:Net/Fidonode.Point.
If your Uucp mailer can handle Internet style addresses (most can), simply
address mail as follows.
To: First.Last@f
to wit:
To: [email protected]
If you're a point, use:
To: First.Last@p
to wit:
To: [email protected]
Some caveats and finer points:
o If your mailer does not support user@domain addresses, you can use a
bang path to a system with a smart mailer, to wit:
.....!uunet!f7.n382.z1.fidonet.org!Perry.Stokes
.....!rutgers!p10.f7.n382.z1.fidonet.org!Perry.Stokes
Uunet or rutgers are smart enough to figure out the routing to the
gateway for NET 382.
o The fidonet.org domain has distributed gateways. The ultimate goal is
to have a UFgate in each FidoNet NET, although that goal isn't close
to being achieved yet. Smart mailers and Internet sites can figure
out the correct routing for a particular NET. The information comes
from the uucp map entry. For example, this map entry for 'fidogate'
indicates that the system is 1:125/406 and forwards for NET 125 and
NET 161. Internet routers get similar information from the MX record.
+------------------------------------+
| #N fidogate
|
| fidogate= fidogate.fidonet.org, f406.n125.z1.fidonet.org
| fidogate .n125.z1.fidonet.org, .n161.z1.fidonet.org
| fidogate lll-winken(DAILY/2), hoptoad(DAILY/4)
+------------------------------------+
In the unusual event that you need to force mail through a particular
UFgate, you can use this syntax:
.....!
.....!uunet!fidogate.fidonet.org!f7.n382.z1.fidonet.org!Perry.Stokes
o Please remember that the gateway sysops pay any LD phone costs out of
their own pocket. In the above example, fidogate (in SF) would have
to make a LD call to deliver the message to NET 382 (in Texas), and will
probably return the mail to you unless you have made prior arrangements.
o Complete FidoNet coverage is provided through the courtesy of a few
sysops who are acting as temporary forwarders for NETS which do not
yet have a resident UFgate. stjhmc is the default forwarder for ZONE 1
NETS; puddle is the default forwarder for ZONE 2, 3, 4 & 5; several
other sysops are providing temporary forwarding for specific regions
or NETS. Addressing is transparent to uucp users, but be considerate.
If you just want to see how the system works, try to find a correspondent
in a NET with a resident UFgate (Net 105 is a good choice).
o Users on systems actually running the gateway software can be reached
without using the f
UFgate users on such systems often have 'unix-like' mailbox names.
eg: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
will all reach Randy Bush, the sysop of 1:105/42 (uucp name: puddle).
o Mail to FidoNet is reliable _but_ your addressee (even a sysop) may
not know how to reply, or may be unwilling to pay the FidoNet mail
costs if his/her NET does not have a resident UFgate system.
o Novice FidoNet correspondents may send text without EOL chars. CR
at end of paragraph is the FidoNet standard, and the UFGATE software
doesn't always handle this gracefully. Let your correspondent know,
but be kind.
o David Dodell ([email protected]) is the best person to ask if
you are having problems. Or post to comp.mail.misc or alt.bbs.
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/