🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is an update on sending mail from internet to fidonet and vice versa. I 
filerequested it from David Nugent the other night (david nugent manages 
csource.oz.au, the gateway).

Anyway:

     ----------------------------------------------------------
     Introduction to the csource.oz.au FidoNet/InterNet Gateway
     ----------------------------------------------------------
Last Update: 10th June 1992
INTRODUCTION & GATEWAY POLICY
-----------------------------
This document  describes  how  FidoNet  users  can  use the InterNet
gateway at 3:632/400@fidonet.    It  describes  the  procedures  and
format  of messages to be gatewayed into the Internet and some basic
guidelines of use.   If you  are  unsure  as  to the meaning of some
terms used,  refer to the definitions section at the  foot  of  this
document.
csource.oz.au is a privately run gateway for use of FidoNet users to
exchange  mail  with  users  in  networks  connected,   directly  or
indirectly  with  AARNET,   the  Australian  Academic  and  Research
Network,   which  is  in  turn  connected  to the US based InterNet.
Please use these facilities with  due consideration of others - that
use is not a right,  and the  operators  of  this  gateway  and  the
machines  on which it runs reserve the right to revoke the privilege
of use to individuals who do not demonstrate that consideration.
The "rules" are relatively simple;   the  gateway  is set up for the
purposes of PERSONAL COMMUNICATION between members of  the  InterNet
and FidoNet sysops and their users and points.   Avoid large volumes
of  mail  travelling via the FidoNet routed netmail channels - these
links are privately funded,  and  under current FidoNet POLICY it is
considered annoying to send large amounts of mail,  thus costing the
carriers of that mail - sometimes at STD rates -  undue  amounts  of
money.    All  conditions  of  use of FidoNet netmail in the current
FidoNet POLICY apply unless consent is specifically granted.
In particular,  do not subscribe to mailing lists or other automated
mail  distribution  systems  without  consulting  and  obtaining the
agreement of not only the gateway operator,  but all the carriers of
netmail between your system and the gateway.   Consent is  certainly
granted  in particular cases;  but please note that mailing lists of
general interest may be best served by a gateway to echomail so that
more people can benefit from  the  information that is circulated in
the list and it is gated,  carried between  and  made  available  to
systems  in  a  far more efficient manner.   If you request consent,
then you will also need to provide the list server address so we can
turn the mailing list  off  should  your  system or it's "boss node"
become unexpectedly delisted from the FidoNet  or  otherwise  become
unreachable via netmail.
Secondly, this gateway should not be used for file transmission.  Do
not  send  requests  to "ftp servers" or other file->mail conversion
systems.   These cause quite a deal  of overhead in handling via the
gateway and again,  often  cost  FidoNet  operators  a  considerable
amount of money along routed netmail channels.   If you are prepared
to collect these yourself at your own expense,  then simply ask;  we
may be able to accommodate in particular circumstances.
The  gateway  process  is intended to be as transparent as possible.
However, since the addressing techniques are somewhat different from
a standard FidoNet  netmail  message  you  will  need  to follow the
guidelines below in order to have a message successfully  delivered.
The  mail  forwarding  software  run  at  3:632/348  (on  behalf  of
3:632/400) checks most things about the form and content of messages
for  the  gateway  and  will  return  the  message  if  it finds any
problems.
csource.oz.au serves nodes spanning all of region 50,  in zone 3. We
certainly handle mail TO  the  internet  from any FidoNet node,  but
routing for other regions is currently  handled  by  other  systems,
some  not  in  Australia.    Do  not  assume that because you sent a
message via this gateway that  the  reply will necessarily come back
the same way unless you are in region 50.    The  complete  list  of
networks serviced and contained within region 50 are:
    Victoria      nets 632, 633, 634, 635 and 636
    South Aust    nets 680 and 681
    Tasmania      net  670
HOW DOES MAIL GET TO FIDONET FROM THE INTERNET?
-----------------------------------------------
If  you  have a friend who wishes to send you mail from the Internet
or any connected network,  they need your FidoNet address.   This is
invariably in the form:
    zone:net/node.point    (eg. 3:632/348.2)
To send to you, the following format is used:
    firstname.lastname@pPOINT.fNODE.nNET.zZONE.fidonet.org
where POINT,  NODE,  NET and ZONE correspond to the appropriate part
of the FidoNet address.  Taking the example above, you end up with:
    david.nugent@p2.f348.n632.z3.fidonet.org
If you are a nodelisted system, your point number will be zero.   In
that case, simply remove the "pPOINT." part of the address:
    david.nugent@f348.n632.z3.fidonet.org
"Forwarding" accounts on csource  may  also  be requested (this will
provide you with a name@csource.oz.au address),  but usually granted
only in specific circumstances;  for  example,   if  you  have  been
granted  permission  to subscribe to a mailing list via the gateway.
Enquiries are welcome.
csource polls (using uucp)  approximately  eight  times to two sites
connected directly to AARNET,  receives and processes  approximately
18-20  megabytes  of  mail  and  usenet news per day.   Once sent to
either of  those  AARNET  sites,   mail  is  delivered  more or less
"instantly" to the site closest to it's destination as determined by
the distributed name servers which determine routing of mail on  the
InterNet.    If  the  site to which a message is addressed is itself
directly connected to the InterNet, delivery will be extremely fast.
HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO THE INTERNET?
-----------------------------------
Sending a message via  the  gateway  is  fairly simple.   Format the
message as you normally would (same "From" name,   same  address  as
usual), address it to the user name "acsnet", "uucp" or "internet" -
case is not important - at 3:632/400 or 3:632/348,  and place at the
top  of  the message the word "To:" (that's capital 'T',  little 'o'
followed by a colon with NO SPACES), one space, then the InterNet or
Uucp address you  which  to  reach.    You  can optionally leave one
additional blank line and start your message below that.
Please note that to "To:" line _MUST_ be  in  the  first  non-hidden
text   line  of  any  message.    Some  message  editors  may  place
information above this  which  causes  problems  (for example,  when
using FrontDoor's FM editor and replying to a message in an echomail
conference it will place some information  above  any  message  text
which  you  may  enter.    In  that case you will have to reedit the
message and remove this  text  or  the message will bounce!).   Some
message editors  (eg.    MaltEd,   SEAdog's  MAIL  and  MsgEd)  have
uucp/internet  handling  built  in,   so  if  you define the area as
"uucp/news",  define  the  uucp  gateway  address  according  to the
documentation and enter the destination address into the "To"  field
when entering the message, all other details are automatically taken
care of for you.
To  accommodate  those  with a name lookup facility in their message
editors,  the nodelisted sysop name of 3:632/400 is set to "Acsnet",
making it easy to use the  gateway directly and not have to remember
to adjust all the parameters locally every time you send a message.
So,  in summary, a typical FidoNet message address from "Joe Bloggs"
at 3:632/777 going to "steve@mach.com.au" (please do  not  try  this
address - it does not exist!) would look as follows:
  MESSAGE HEADER -------------------------------------------------
    From: Joe Bloggs 3:632/777@fidonet, Fictious Address
      To: ACSNet     3:632/400@fidonet, csource.OZ.AU
    Subj: This is my first message via the gateway!
  MESSAGE TEXT ---------------------------------------------------
  To: steve@mach.com.au
  
  This is my first message being sent via the acsnet gateway.
  
  Regards,
  
   Joe (joe.bloggs@f777.n632.z3.fidonet.org)
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------
The  mail  forwarder  running  at  the  gateway translates this into
"RFC822" format,  and the  message  will  appear  to be address from
"joe.bloggs@f777.n632.z3.fidonet.org".     Those   with   forwarding
accounts on csource will assume name@csource.oz.au addresses and the
message will appear to be sent from a local user of this system.
When you receive a message from the  gateway,   it  will  contain  a
"From:" line at the top.  When sending your reply, simply change the
"From:"  to  "To:" and it should get addressed to the correct party.
Note that the address in any  "From:" line may be transformed into a
different - but usually compatible - format during it's transport to
csource, so that an address you normally use may look different when
you receive it back in a reply.   Don't be alarmed - but if you find
that an address you receive doesn't work,  you may have to resort to
the original which does.   (some mailers can be poorly configured at
certain sites, thereby losing addressing information from messages).
[Note that the reply facility in MaltEd automatically  uses  "From:"
and  "Reply-To:"  lines and you need never have to consciously think
about making the reply in the correct form.]
THINGS NOT TO DO:
-----------------
    o   Don't forget to use a "To:" line.
    o   Don't place spaces between the "To" and the ":".  Formatting
        of the "To:" line is otherwise quite flexible;  with leading
        spaces tolerated and case ignored etc.
    o   Don't Place other bogus header lines  in your message,  such
        as "From:" and "Date:" lines etc.  These are not used by the
        gateway software when converting to RFC822 format.
    o   Don't use a different FidoNet origin address than those  you
        nominated when registering at the gateway.   If  you  change
        addresses,   you'll  have to let us know.   This is done for
        your security,  so  that  you  can  at  least ensure that no
        unauthorised use can be made of your account - at least  not
        easily!
    o   Remember  to  address  the  message  to  "acsnet",   "uucp",
        "internet"  or  some other authorised gateway keyword (there
        are several general purpose ones used for mailing lists).
NEWSGROUP GATEWAY
-----------------
As of the date this document was written,  452 usenet newsgroups are
being gatewayed into FidoNet in "native" echomail format.  These are
being distributed to systems throughout Victoria and Tasmania,  some
to Perth  and  a  few  to  New  South  Wales.   Hierachies currently
available to the gateway include almost the  full  range  of  usenet
newsgroups available to Australia sites.  This includes:
    alt.*           Alternative newsgroups
    aus.*           Australian native groups
    comp.*          Computer related
    soc.*           Society, humanities
    sci.*           Science and acedemia
    rec.*           Sports, hobbies, recreational activies
    news.*          News and mail systems, administrivia
    gnu.*           Free Software Foundation's hierachy
    talk.*          'Chat' newsgroups
SO WHO PAYS FOR THIS?
---------------------
Well,   basically,   we  as  gateway operators do,  with the help of
donations.  The costs incurred in running csource are not small, but
there are a large number  of  users  of the gateway and it's various
facilities and 'spinoffs' that donations received  usually  cover  a
substantial  part  of the connection costs,  and a small part of the
on-going running costs.
Costs involved,  above and beyond  the blood,  sweat and tears being
devoted to the project here, are:
    Annual AARNET connection charge             $ 1,000.00
    Call charge (conservative estimate)         $   850.00 per annum
csource does not currently incur any time or volume based connection
charge from either of its host,  who are currently munnari.oz.au and
jabaru.cec.edu.au.   This may well change in the very  near  future,
however.
The  charge from AARNET covers the registration of the csource.oz.au
"MX".   csource is visible in  the  internet  as a result of the MX,
since it is the element which defines  where  mail  for  csource  is
ultimately routed.
Donations  towards  the  running costs and/or annual MX registration
charge will be gleefully accepted.   Cheques, money orders etc.  may
be made out to "Unique Computing Pty Ltd" and sent to:
    PO Box 260
    Endeavour Hills,
    Victoria,  3802.
DEFINITIONS
-----------
The following are some  common  terms  that  are either used in this
document or that you're likely to meet when dealing with people  and
systems on the Internet.
    FTP
        Stands  for  File  Transfer  Protocol.    It  is an protocol
        designed for interactive  use  over  TCP/IP specifically for
        file transfer.   Many machines on the Internet provide  what
        is known as "anonymous" ftp, which usually means you can log
        into  their  machine  using  ftp as "anonymous" and download
        from some directories which the system administrator has set
        up as publically accessible.  There are similarities between
        this facility and  public  access  dialup  BBS systems which
        offer files for download.   FTP is designed for  interactive
        use.
    RFC822
        Request For Comment,  document 822.   This is one of several
        hundred  documents  which  describe  protocols and practices
        used in  the  uucp/usenet/internet.    RFC822  describes the
        format of messages  transported  across  the  Internet  mail
        system and is the base message standard.
    USENET
        This  can  be  described  as  a  collection  of  systems and
        networks of  systems  who  share  information  via  means of
        "news".   USENET has no central administration or authority.
        Unlike AARNET or the Internet, it is purely a conglomeration
        of systems which participate.
    Domain
        In Internet use, it refers to the domain part of a domain or
        Internet format address.  Refer to "InterNet".
    InterNet
        1. Describes a protocol,  called the "Internet Protocol"  or
        IP  (it's  the  "IP" part of TCP/IP).   This is a networking
        protocol.
        2. The "InterNet" refers  to a specific network,  originally
        based in the US but now covers most of the globe,  and  many
        thousands  of machines.   All are connected via the InterNet
        protocol over a variety of hardware platforms, and run on an
        equally large number of operating systems.
        3. Describes a  format  of  address,   also called a "domain
        address".  It takes the form:
            user@site.domain
        The 'domain' part may be complex  and  consist  of  multiple
        levels   of  subdomains;   ie.    username@mysite.this.that.
        Domains are used as the basis of routing on the Internet via
        a  "distributed  name  server".    To  be  delivered,   mail
        travelling on the Internet must be covered via an MX-record,
        which describes which machine is the Internet host which has
        knowledge to deliver it.
    AARNet
        This is a subnetwork  of  the  InterNet  and covers the vast
        majority of Internet connected sites in  Australia  and  New
        Zealand.    AARNET  stands for Academic And Reseach Network,
        which is essentially  comprised  of Australasian government,
        research  and  educational  facilities.     However,    some
        commercial enterprises are also AARNET affiliates,  and this
        is becoming more and more common all the time.
    ACSNet
        This  is  the  network from which AARNet was originally born
        (well,  sort of...).    ACSNet  still exists,  although it's
        structure has changed much and is is largely overshadowed by
        AARNET since it's operation began in 1989.  ACSNet's primary
        transfer and communications protocol is MHSNet and  Sun  III
        (both  form  the  original  "ACSNet  protocol",   which is a
        locally   derived   multi-channel   unix-to-unix   transport
        mechanism).
    TCP/IP
        Describes a protocol used  for networking,  usually (but not
        always) on opt of ethernet.
    UUCP
        1. Means Unix-to-Unix-CoPy.    This  usually  describes  the
        transfer  protocol used for news and mail transport,  but is
        by no means the only protocol,  or even a common one here in
        Australia.   Most  "internet"  sites  use  smtp (Simple Mail
        Transfer Protocol) across a TCP/IP  Network  connection  for
        mail  and  news transport.   Uucp is generally used only for
        dialup lines,  sometimes for direct serial connections,  and
        less often over remote TCP/IP links.
        2. Refers to the  program  which  is  invoked to send a file
        from one Unix system to another.
        3. Refers to a format of addresses (ie.  uucp address), also
        called "bang paths".  Uucp addresses have the format:
            site[!site...]!user
        and describe the  actual  machine-to-machine  route  that  a
        message  sent  via uucp must take to reach it's destination.
        These are mostly outmoded  when  used  on the Internet,  and
        domain  format  addresses  (see  InterNet)  are   preferred.
        However,  some sites may only be indirectly connected to the
        Internet,   and in thoses cases - if the site in question is
        not published in the "uucp maps"  - it might be necessary to
        actually  specify  the  bang  path   to   ensure   delivery.
        Sometimes  bang  paths  can  get  quite long,  which was the
        reason why it was  necessary  to change to something simpler
        and more adaptive to routing/connection changes.
    MX
        Or "MX-record".  This is the description of the entry in the
        Internet's  routing  tables  which   almost   all   Internet
        connected sites refer to when they need to find out where to
        route  messages to specific destinations.   For a site to be
        "visible"  on  the  Internet,   there  needs  to  be  an  MX
        registration covering that site or naming it explicitly.
Further references and information  about  USENET  in general can be
obtained from the news.newusers and news.announce newsgroups.  There
is a monthly posting which explains a good deal about USENET,   it's
history,  definition,  structure, software used, ettiquette and many
other  things are explained extremely well.   If you are interested,
reasonably recent versions of  these  are available for Fidonet file
request from 3:632/348 as the magic name "USENET".

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Christian Wilson            (Fidonet - 3:635/550.2) | Goodness Knows Why
BCSE (Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering) | I Posted This Message,
MONASH University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  | Perhaps You Can
Internet Address : wally@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au OR   | Enlighten Me????  :-)
Internet Address : 11458747@eng2.eng.monash.edu.au  | Maybe I need help!!!
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