This is Part Two in the history of FidoNet. It¨ turned out that the original FIDOHIST.DOC (now called¨ FIDOHIST.DC1, or just "Part One") was useful, and many¨ people read it. Unfortunately, by the time everyone read it,¨ it became totally obsolete. Oh well. Here is Part Two. FIDOHIST.DOC covered the early history of FidoNet,¨ why it was done, how it was done, and the reasons for the¨ organization and obscure rituals surrounding node numbers.¨ If you havent read it yet, I suggest you do now, because¨ I'll probably refer to things that won't make any sense¨ otherwise. The original FidoNet was organized very simply; each¨ FidoNet system (each node) had a number that served like a¨ phone number, uniquely identifying it. The NODELIST,¨ generated by the folks in St. Louis that had all FidoNet¨ nodes in it, contains information on all known FidoNet¨ systems. Every system in FidoNet had a current copy of the¨ NODELIST, which served as the directory of systems. (In the interests of brevity I'm leaving out huge¨ amounts of information; I hope you have read FIODHIST.DOC by¨ now ...) FidoNet has been growing steadily since it started¨ by accident in May 84 or so. The node list continued to get¨ out of hand; the original FIDOHIST.DOC was written to try¨ and help smooth things out. It is impossible to¨ overemphasize the amount of work involved in keeping the¨ node list accurate. Basically, the guys in St. Louis were¨ keeping track of hundreds of FidoNet systems in Boston, Los¨ Angeles, London, Stockholm and Sweden, and publishing the¨ results weekly. There has never been such a comprehensive¨ and accurate list of bulletin board systems generated. We talked for many months as to how we could¨ possibly find a solution to the many problems; it was at the¨ point where if a solution was not found in a few months (by¨ Aug. 85 or so) that FidoNet would collapse due to the sheer¨ weight of it's node list. The newsletter, FidoNews, was, and still is, an¨ integral part of the process of FidoNet. FidoNews is the¨ only thing that unites all FidoNet sysops consistently;¨ please keep up to date on it, and stock it for your users if¨ you have the disk space. And contribute if you can! There were many constraints on the kind of things we¨ could do; we had no money, so it had to be done for zero¨ cost. Centralization was out, so obviously localization was¨ in; just how to do it was a total unknown. We thought of¨ going back to having people in different areas handle new¨ node requests in their area, but that always generated¨ confusion as to who a person should go to, how to avoide¨ having someone requesting a node number from different¨ people simultaneously, etc etc. The old method of routing was very different than¨ the current method, and much more complex; instead of Fido¨ automatically routing to hosts, each sysop had to specify¨ (via the ROUTE.BBS file) how all routing was done in the¨ system. The was done originally by hand, later by John¨ Warren's (102/31) NODELIST program. Then of course there was the problem that no matter¨ what we did, it would not be done overnight. (ha ha.) It¨ would take many weeks at the least, possibly months, so that¨ whatever we did had to be compatible with the old method as¨ well. We went through probably hundreds of ideas in the¨ next few months, some possibly useful, some insane.¨ Eventually the insanity boiled down to a pretty workable¨ system. We chatted by FidoNet and by voice telephone.¨ Eventually, we settled on the two part number scheme, like¨ the phone company does with area codes and exchanges. It¨ accomodated backwards compatibility (you can keep your¨ present node number) and the new "area code" (net number)¨ could be added into an existing field that had been set to¨ zero. (This is why everyone was originally part of net #1). When a fortunate set of circumstances was to bring¨ Ezra Shapiro and me to St. Louis to speak to the McDonnell¨ Douglas Recreational Computer Club on XXXX 11th, we planned¨ ahead for a national FidoNet sysops meeting that weekend.¨ Ken and Sally Kaplan were kind enough to tolerate having all¨ of us in their living room. The people who showed up were (need that list) The¨ meeting lasted ten continuous hours; it was the most¨ productive meeting I (and most others) had attended. When we¨ were done, we had basically the whole thing layed out in¨ every detail. We stuck with the area code business (now known as¨ net and region numbers) and worked out how to break things¨ up into regions and nets. It was just one of those rare but¨ fortunate events; during the morning things went "normally",¨ but in the afternoon solutions fell into place one by one,¨ so that by late afternoon we had the entire picture laid out¨ in black and white. Two or three months of brainstorming¨ just flowed smoothly into place in one afternoon ... What we had done was exactly what we have now,¨ though we changed the name of "Admin" to "Region", and added¨ the "alternate" node and net numbers. (We still seem to be¨ stuck with that terrible and inaccurate word, "manager". Any¨ ideas?) I previously had a buggy test hack running using¨ area codes, and the week after the meeting it was made to¨ conform to what we had talked about that Saturday. When version 10C was done, it accomplished more or¨ less everything we wanted, but it sure did take a long time.¨ 10C was probably the single largest change ever made to¨ Fido/FidoNet, and the most thoroughly tested version. At¨ 10M, there are STILL bugs left from that early version, in¨ spite of the testing. Once the testing got serious, and it looked like we¨ had a shippable version, St. Louis froze the node list, and¨ started slicing it into pieces, to give to the soon-to-be¨ net and region managers. (That word again.) This caused a¨ tremendous amount of trouble for would-be sysops; not only¨ was it difficult enough to figure out how on earth to get a¨ node number, once they did they were told node numbers¨ weren't being given out just yet. Explaining why was even¨ harder, since FIDOHIST.DC2 (ahem) wasn't written yet. (I¨ have to agree, this thing is a little bit late) It was a¨ typical case of those who already knew were informaed¨ constantly of updates, but thse in the dark had a hard time.¨ Things were published fairly regularly (am I remembering¨ "conveniently" or "accurately" on this part?) Eventually, 10C was released, and seemed to work¨ fairly well, ignoring all the small scale disasters due to¨ bugs, etc. We couldn't just swap over to the new area code¨ business until very close to 100% of all Fidos were using¨ the new version. This was (for me) an excruciating period,¨ basically a "hurry up and wait" situation. There had not¨ been a node list release for a month or two, and for all¨ practical purposes it looked like FidoNet had halted ... Finally, on June 12th, we all swapped over to the¨ new system; that afternoon, sysops were to set their net¨ number (it had been "1" for backwards compatibility), copy¨ in the new node list issued just for this occasion, and go.¨ I assumed the result was going to be perpetual chaos,¨ bringing about the collapse of FidoNet. Almost the exact¨ opposite was true; things went very smoothly (yes, there¨ were problems, but when you consider that FidoNet consists¨ of microcomputers owned by almost 300 people who had never¨ even talked to each other ...) Within a month or so,just about every Fido had¨ swapped over to the area code, or net/node architecture.¨ With a few exceptions, things went very smoothly. No one was¨ more suprised than pessimistic I. At this time, August, I¨ don't think there is a single system still using the old¨ node number method. This is all well and fine as far as the software¨ goes, but it made a mess for new sysops. For us sysops who¨ have been around for a while, there was no great problem, as¨ we saw the changes happen one by one. However, new sysops¨ frequently came out of the blue; armed with a diskette full¨ of code, they attempted to set up a FidoNet node. Actually, I don't understand how anyone does it. The¨ information needed is not recorded in any place that a non¨ sysop could find. On top of that, most of it is now totally¨ wrong! If you follow the original instructions, it said¨ "call Fido #1 ..." if you found a real antique, or "call¨ Fido #51 ..." if it is more current. Of course now it tells¨ you to find your region manager. "Region manager???" Well, a¨ list of region managers was published in FidoNews, but¨ unless you read FidoNews, how does anyone ever find out?¨ I'll probably never know. ANYWAYS ... the original reason for all the changes¨ was to DECENTRALIZE FidoNet. It just wasn't possible for Ken¨ Kaplan to keep accurate, up to date information on every¨ Fido in the US and Europe. The decentralization has been¨ more or less a total success. The number of problem¨ sintroduced were negligable compared to the problems solved,¨ and even most new problems are by this time solved. It is interesting to note that with the hundreds of¨ systems there are today, the national FidoNet hour is less¨ crowded than it was when there were only 50 nodes. Please, keep in mind that no one has done anything¨ like this before, we are all winging it, and learning¨ (hopefully) as we go. Please be patient with problems, none¨ of us is paid to do this, and it is more and more work as¨ time goes on. Somehow it seems to all get done ... HOW TO GET A NODE NUMBER AND ALL THAT 20 August 1985 This is by necessity a very general idea of how it's¨ done, and you were warned earlier that this may be obsolete¨ this very minute; with that, here's the "current" process¨ for starting up a new FidoNet node. You can of course skip all or part of this if you've¨ done this before; if you haven't, well, be prepared for a¨ lot of searching and asking questions. Of course, you need to have your Fido BBS system¨ running first. It's probably best that you play with it for¨ a while, and get some experience with how it all works, and¨ whether you have the patience to run a BBS. It can get¨ exasperating, and you will never find time to use the¨ computer ever again. Obtain the most recent copy of the nodelist¨ possible; thi may take some searching. If you get totally¨ lost, you can always contact Fido 125/1 or Fido 100/51;¨ though these are very busy systems, they both usually have¨ the very latest of anything, and can direct you to the right¨ place. The big problem here is to find out if oyu are in a¨ net or not, and if not, then who your region manager is. If¨ you are in a lrge city (Los Angeles, Cincinnati, etc) then¨ there is probably a net in your area. Look through the node¨ list (use the N)odebook command in Fido, or a text editor)¨ for the right area code or city. If there is no net in your area, then you are part¨ of a region. This is a little harder, because regions are¨ large, and sometomes cover many states. Look at all the¨ regions in the node list, you should find a region that fits¨ you. Once you find this, you have to contact the net or¨ region manager to get your node number. Exactly how this is¨ done depends on who the manager is, and how sticky they are¨ fir details. A near universal requirement is that you send¨ your request via FidoNet, not by manully; this isn't done to¨ make you life difficult, but to ensure that your system is¨ really working right. IF you manage to get a FidoNet message¨ to the manager, its usually safe to assume that you're¨ system is working OK. If you get a reply in return, then you¨ know both directions work. It is usually each sysops' responsibility to go get¨ the latest nodelist and newsletters; they are not¨ distributed to all systems because of the expense. (Though,¨ I'm trying to get them distributed to more places than they¨ are now, it's sometimes very difficult to get a copy of the¨ nodelist!) Again, read the FidoNew newsletter regularly; it is¨ about the only way to stay in contact with the rest of the¨ net. Programs, problems, services, bugs and interesting¨ announcements can always be found there. FidoNews articles¨ don't come out of thin air; send in anythnig you think might¨ be of interest. They don't have to be lifetime masterpieces,¨ or even well written. Please remember the entire network is made of the¨ sysops; there is no central location from which good things¨ come, the net consists entirely of the sysops and their¨ contributions. If you don't do it, chances are no one else¨ will! Tom Jennings 20 Aug 85 Ken Kaplan Fido 100/51 314/432-4129 Tom Jennings Fido 125/1 415/864-1418 Ben Baker Fido 100/10 314/234-1462