On Tue, 20 Oct 2009, Johnny Billquist wrote:
I don't know about you guys, but for me, the fact that the connectivity even exists is a fun thing. Even if noone normally use it.
... what Johnny said. :)
"because we can ..."
In fact, I've been using that phrase a lot lately - with simple VPN's, some Asterisk VoIP stuff, and some plans I have for my VMS systems. Someone asks me "Why would you want to do that?"
"Because I can."
Fred
----
Lets call it for what it is - "legacy" is a term that people use in a
polite but derogatory manner to imply that the future direction they
prefer is not that which they view as the current direction.
I've got a business class Internet connection (FiOS), so I'm also glad to help out by providing e-mail gatewaying through PMDF. I don't yet have PMAS (anti-spam) installed, but I can put that on easily enough as well.
We could even set up a wildcard MX record so that any HECnet system would be addressable directly as user at hecnet-node.hecnet.eu.
--Marc
On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 04:45:36PM +0100, Sampsa Laine wrote:
I agree with Johnny, "Because it can be done" is a perfectly valid
motivation
"Because it can be done" is how HECnet got its start in the first place. :)
-brian
--
"Coding in C is like sending a 3 year old to do groceries. You gotta
tell them exactly what you want or you'll end up with a cupboard full of
pop tarts and pancake mix." -- IRC User (http://www.bash.org/?841435)
Ok, in response to popular demand I have restored the original
MAIL11<->SMTP gateway that used to be on LEGATO.
To send SMTP mail out from HECnet, just address it to
CODA::SMTP%"some-user at some-internet-domain.com".
To send SMTP mail into HECnet, address it to "user at node.mail11.jfcl.com"
where "user" and "node" are your DECnet node name and the user name on your
local machine.
If everything is working correctly, the return addresses should be written
such that it's possible to reply in either direction to a message originated
on either side.
As before, I've exempted all DECnet mail from any SPAM filtering, so try
not to put this address on any web pages or sign up for any mailing lists
with it. If you do, I'm just going to start forwarding all my SPAM to you
:-)
Bob
Bob,
Good info! I will take a look at this over the weekend.
I wish I had extra parts for the AXP 2000 series. One of mine has bad memory and it has been a real pain to deal with. The working ones have 256MB and for those machine that's a lot. They need those panels for not only dust but because the fans expect them in place for proper cooling. I'm still looking for AHA-1742 rev G2 controllers so I can expand the disk space. Max drive size is 8.0GB due to a limit in the controller firmware. These were the first Alpha's produced so they are probably the slowest.
-Steve
________________________________
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE on behalf of Bob Armstrong
Sent: Tue 10/20/2009 11:49
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: RE: [HECnet] SMTP gateways to HECnet?
I could probably do this with NetBSD as a front end to deal with spam and
then Multinet as the actual gateway.
I use PMAS for SPAM filtering my mail, but when I was doing it before I
explicitly opted out all the DECnet mail from PMAS processing. The thing
is, if you're going to start SPAM filtering for people's DECnet mail, then
they need a way to get to their quarantined messages, configure their
white/black lists, etc. That's not really a problem (PMAS has a web
interface for just this purpose and I'm sure all the other SPAM filters do
too) but then people need a browser and a TCP/IP interface to receive their
DECnet mail. At some point it all becomes kind of silly.
That's why I opted out the DECnet mail from SPAM filtering. Hopefully
people don't publish their DECnet addresses on web pages or mailing lists.
Like I said, the gateway was hardly ever used so SPAM never became a
problem.
How much of a load is Multinet on an Alpha (Jensen)?
Not much, I would imagine. A Jensen is the slowest Alpha (or does that
honor go to the Multia? Can't remember...) but still, Multinet runs just
fine on a VAX - even the slowest Alpha ought to be blazingly fast in
comparison :-)
BTW, do you have any extra Jensen sheet metal parts? I've got a beautiful
AXP2000 in the garage, but it's missing its side panel. Gets pretty dusty
inside.
Bob
About Fidonet
=============
Fidonet was started by Tom Jennings in 1984 to enable system operators of
dial up bulletin boards to exchange mail between their boards and respective
users.
The network quickly expanded beyond simple mail exchange ("netmail") to deliver
both newsgroup style discussion forums ("echos") as well file transfer
and distribution via various mechanisms, and by the 1990s had grown to tens of
thousands of hosts with hundreds of thousands of users. By the end of the 1990s,
however, the network was rapidly shrinking as both sysops and users moved to the
Internet and BBSs were wound down. More on this rather sad story can be found
at:
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
The BBS scene isn't entirely dead in 2009 and shows some signs of revival -
old sysops are returning to set up boards (mostly accessed by telnet) and users
are starting to return in a slow trickle. The glory days of the 90s will probably
never return, but BBSing is still a fun hobby for any retrotechnology oriented
geek.
It works on a store-and-forward basis, with hierarchical organisation divided
into Zones, the top level Fidonet org, somewhat analogous to a DNS TLD,
Nets, second level org, perhaps a little like a DNS domain, however a Fidonet
host always has a Node number, which is the lowest form of publicly reachable
Fidonet hosts. Finally, a Node may have private sub-nodes called Points - the
node itself is Point 0.
The address is expressed as follows:
2:250/7.0 (Zone 2 = Europe, Net 250 = UK, Node/Point 7 = B4BBS)
There is no standard syntax for expressing a username + node address, typically
the node was entered separately in software.
FIDOGW:: - The HECnet - Fidonet Netmail Gateway
===============================================
The HECnet gateway uses the following addressing format for mails going out to
Fidonet:
FIDOGW::"FIDONET ADDRESS "!" GIVENNAME_SURNAME"
Example:
FIDOGW::"2:250/7.0!Sampsa_Laine"
NOTE: You MUST include the full Fidonet address including the zone and point -
otherwise the message will be dropped.
The quotes are necessary as VMS MAIL does not appreciate this rather complex
notation otherwise.
Inbound mail from Fidonet should be addressed to the node 2:250/88.0, the recipient
name should be set to the full HECnet MAIL 11 address, e.g. CHIMPY::SAMPSA.
The HECnet gateway only supports netmail for now, echos support might be added in
the future should people show interest in this. For now, a user desiring access
to echos should obtain an account on B4BBS, this is accessible either by logging
in as B4BBS on CHIMPY::, telnet to b4bbs.sampsa.com or via the Flash client at
http://sampsa.com/b4bbs.
Finding other hosts on Fidonet can be done either via downloading and compiling
a nodelist (not possible on VMS/RSX) or a web based nodelist search tool, such
as my feeble attempt at http://rhesus.sampsa.com/cgi-bin/fidonodes/findnode.com
One thing to keep in mind about Fidonet netmail are the very unpredictable message
delivery times. The message may take days to be delivered as it travels up and
down between nodes and mailhubs, some of which might only make a connection
over dial up once a day.
Final note: Fidonet is a community of amateurs with certain community standards
that members adhere to. More details of these (suggested reading for all gateway
users) can be found in the Fidonet POLICY4 document accessible at:
http://www.fidonet.us/policy4.html
More info can be found on the Wikipedia Fidonet entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidonet
or these sites:
http://www.fidonet.org/http://www.fidonet.us/http://www.fidonews.info/public/fidonews/default.htm
I hope you enjoy this facility!
Regards,
Sampsa
I could probably do this with NetBSD as a front end to deal with spam and
then Multinet as the actual gateway.
I use PMAS for SPAM filtering my mail, but when I was doing it before I
explicitly opted out all the DECnet mail from PMAS processing. The thing
is, if you're going to start SPAM filtering for people's DECnet mail, then
they need a way to get to their quarantined messages, configure their
white/black lists, etc. That's not really a problem (PMAS has a web
interface for just this purpose and I'm sure all the other SPAM filters do
too) but then people need a browser and a TCP/IP interface to receive their
DECnet mail. At some point it all becomes kind of silly.
That's why I opted out the DECnet mail from SPAM filtering. Hopefully
people don't publish their DECnet addresses on web pages or mailing lists.
Like I said, the gateway was hardly ever used so SPAM never became a
problem.
How much of a load is Multinet on an Alpha (Jensen)?
Not much, I would imagine. A Jensen is the slowest Alpha (or does that
honor go to the Multia? Can't remember...) but still, Multinet runs just
fine on a VAX - even the slowest Alpha ought to be blazingly fast in
comparison :-)
BTW, do you have any extra Jensen sheet metal parts? I've got a beautiful
AXP2000 in the garage, but it's missing its side panel. Gets pretty dusty
inside.
Bob
I agree with Johnny, "Because it can be done" is a perfectly valid motivation - speaking of mail gateways, I have set up a Fidonet netmail gateway on the aptly named FIDOGW box. I'll be posting more about this soon.
Sampsa
On 20 Oct 2009, at 16:41, Johnny Billquist wrote:
I don't know about you guys, but for me, the fact that the connectivity even exists is a fun thing. Even if noone normally use it.
Johnny
Bob Armstrong wrote:
If you guys want to do direct incoming SMTP for some reason, I'm not sure I'll be able to help, I think my ISP blocks inbound SMTP.
FWIW, I used to run an SMTP<->MAIL11 gateway on LEGATO, but I quit when I
transferred to CODA. I have no objection to doing it again, but frankly no
one used it much. I think that the HECnet machines that people actually
used from day-to-day are already all connected directly to the Internet
anyway and the MAIL11 gateway is superfluous.
Bob
I don't know about you guys, but for me, the fact that the connectivity even exists is a fun thing. Even if noone normally use it.
Johnny
Bob Armstrong wrote:
If you guys want to do direct incoming SMTP for some reason, I'm not sure I'll be able to help, I think my ISP blocks inbound SMTP.
FWIW, I used to run an SMTP<->MAIL11 gateway on LEGATO, but I quit when I
transferred to CODA. I have no objection to doing it again, but frankly no
one used it much. I think that the HECnet machines that people actually
used from day-to-day are already all connected directly to the Internet
anyway and the MAIL11 gateway is superfluous.
Bob
I could probably do this with NetBSD as a front end to deal with spam and then Multinet as the actual gateway. I even have domains that would be kind of nice to use in this context - (vmsnet.org, declab.(net,org), and even pdp-11.net).
How much of a load is Multinet on an Alpha (Jensen)?
-Steve
________________________________
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE on behalf of Bob Armstrong
Sent: Tue 10/20/2009 11:16
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: RE: [HECnet] SMTP gateways to HECnet?
What software did you run for the MAIL11 gateway?
Multinet can do this.
Outgoing (DECnet->SMTP) is trivial. Incoming (SMTP->DECnet) requires some
DNS futzing and Multinet configuration.
Bob
